Michael Moore slams Bloomberg, here’s why
In tonight’s Episode 39: “Bloomberg and His Own ‘Kids in Cages,'” Academy Award winning documentary film-maker Michael Moore slams Democratic presidential candidate billionaire Mike Bloomberg. This takes audacity, and we have to have some hope, now that Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Peter Buttigieg, and Andrew Yang have all conceded. Why is former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg hanging on? As observers have noted, he wants to skew the perspective as far to the right as possible.
Bloomberg’s faux left articles have not deceived AGN one bit. We developed our own list of why billionaires cannot represent and may indeed view the 99% as something how an anteater views ants. Crooks and Liars gives a small hint on the proletariat bite-back on Twitter. But the man has unlimited means which in itself indicates, as Moore points out in his podcast, an autocratic streak only a shade different from Donald Trump. According to Daily Mail, Mike Bloomberg has poured more than $463 million into his campaign since November, with $220 million spent in January alone. Bloomberg is not worried about Twitter critics either. According to Mic.com, Mike can afford a small army of tweeters to say good things about him–although Twitter has cracked down on a few of them.
If it were just the spending of money blown on a campaign in which he has few chances of winning that causes poor people to shake their heads in disbelief, there are other indications that the technically brilliant entrepreneur is out of touch with reality. He is, of course, good friends with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, and is invited to conferences including Bilderberg Summit (his Editor-in-Chief attends), and the Council on Foreign Relations. His outlook on women is very much reflective of the playboy of the stock market; according to Moore, he has had no less than 60 women file suits against him involving harassment. Nevertheless, he is totally confident that he has already earned his place in heaven because of all the millions he has given away as a philanthropist.
Ep 39 Michael Moore lays out the truth of Bloomberg’s record and how support for Bloomberg is an endorsement of the Trumpian values we claim to have been resisting.
A rich man’s eccentricities may be forgiven, but atrocious behaviour toward the poor, especially women and minorities are not easily forgotten. According to Dannielle Balbi in “Life in Limbo” while serving as Mayor of New York City, Bloomberg led the reform of New York City Public Schools by forcing the shut down of “failing” schools and encouraging the effective firing of long-time teachers through the creation of the Absent Teacher Reserve pool. Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy of preemptive police control measures resulted in racial profiling for many youths of color, but especially African-American and Latino males. Insofar as profiteering goes, the billionaire has invested in gentrification developments that include cutting corners such as hiring and underpaying undocumented workers, and allowing rent increases to force middle to lower income residents out of New York City—or to become homeless squatters. His close alliance with former Senator Hillary Clinton speaks volumes.
The bottom line is that a mega-capitalist is not going to feel compelled to enact the type of socioeconomic and eco-justice changes which benefit human-centered survival. The super-rich view savings in taxes as more important than addressing climate change from the trickle-up angle of grassroots community reinvestment. Bloomberg free-market democracy will basically be more of the same: austerity for the poor, welfare for the rich, more wars over oil rather than rapid diversification from fossil fuels, privatization of government agencies, suppression of independent media, accelerating surveillance, and artificial intelligence used to create robots which kill jobs and people more efficiently. Like Trump, a Bloomberg presidency will tend towards reliance upon a bevvy of sycophants, flatterers, and courtesans disguised as experts, diplomats, and financiers.
Anyway, Episode 39 touches on Michael Moore’s personal experiences with Mr. Bloomberg as Moore owns an apartment in NYC and spends part-year in the Big Apple. He recalls the Mayor’s stop-and-frisk impact, the mayor allowing himself a third-term to remedy the crash, yet afterwards, chastising homeowners for being irresponsible in their purchases (rather than the banks or the hedge funds). According to the episode description, “Michael Bloomberg’s commandeering of the 2020 Democratic party nomination campaign is a dangerous moment for the party and the country. If Democrats give in, it will have horrific consequences.” Check out the rest of the Rumbles while you are at it at mmflint’s channel.
Screen image from Rumble