From last month, The absurd conspiracy that Wall Street elites are manipulating American politics:
My Facebook friends like to conjure a bogeyman somewhere in the South or Midwest. He is wearing camo, carrying an AR-15, driving a car with a Trump/Pence bumper sticker, and spouting an absurd conspiracy theory about Wall Streeters manipulating American politics far beyond their coastal elite districts.
Showing just how wrong this conspiracy theory is: “Bloomberg pledges $60M to boost House Democrats” (The Hill). (This will also be great for allaying the concerns of those who believe that rich Jews have too much influence in the U.S.!)
From my inbox today, from MikeBloomberg.com:
Let’s turn Texas and Ohio blue
With four days until Election Day, we’re taking the fight to Donald Trump in two new battleground states.
Earlier this week, Mike announced plans to fund an ad blitz in Ohio and Texas in the closing days of the election. Now, new messages — about the worsening COVID-19 pandemic and Joe Biden’s plans to restore the economy — are hitting the airwaves.
You can help us get the word out. Watch and share the ads we’re running in Texas and Ohio: [links to ads such as this one]
The ads focus on Joe’s plans to “build back better” and Donald Trump’s mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis. In the last two weeks, COVID-19 cases are up 60% in Ohio, 48% in Texas, and 42% nationwide.
These investments follow Mike’s commitment to spending $100 million in another key battleground state: Florida. That investment has helped mobilize voters and strengthened a COVID-19-responsible ground game to increase turnout for Joe Biden.
What if American voters do decide that an innumerate 78-year-old will, starting in January 2021, crack a medical/scientific/technical problem that has eluded all of the science-following European countries (exponential plague in the fully masked Old World right now)? How enraged are the working class folks who supported Trump going to be regarding the political influence of wealthy American Jews?
A 2015 photo of Chabad in Dallas. They might need to make a huge sign reading “We’re not Bloomberg-style Jews”…
The Fort Worth Japanese Garden (masks optional):
Just imagine how many awesome gardens Americans could have enjoyed if Bloomberg had decided to spend his $billions on gardens rather than on Trump hatred.
He promised to do it! First he reversed himself about running, then he spent $500 million trying to buy the Democratic nomination, was chastened, and never changed his tack about Donald Trump – so he’s perfectly consistent.
One thing about Mike – and I know this personally – is that he puts a lot of effort and money into the things he decides to do. People can be angry about that, but I haven’t seen anything from him that’s inconsistent, except his change of heart about running in the first place, which I suppose we have to attribute to a realignment of the stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1vF6M34-ns
I think he does really believe it’s the most important thing he can do. I don’t doubt that for an instant.
It’s hardly a surprise! Everyone who listens to National Public Radio was in on the conspiracy since at least July! As far as Bloomberg’s other motivations for defeating Trump, you don’t have to look much farther than the rest of the things he’s written on his website, which I think are truthful, and represent what he believes.
It’s a little like that old joke on Frazier: “I went to Harvard. When I’m wrong, the world makes a little less sense!”
Bloomberg Vowed To Spend Whatever It Takes To Beat Trump. Democrats Are Still Waiting
https://www.npr.org/2020/07/29/896545732/bloomberg-vowed-to-spend-whatever-it-takes-to-beat-trump-dems-are-still-waiting
I don’t doubt that Bloomberg is sincere in his Trump hatred. Nor am I expressing surprise that he has continued to meddle in American politics. I am pointing out that working class Americans would likely have a higher opinion of coastal elite Jews if said Jews funded parks rather than Democrats. Look at what the McDonald’s founder and his wife enabled: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Salvation_Army_Ray_%26_Joan_Kroc_Corps_Community_Centers
@Philg: Mike Bloomberg has much bigger plans than just parks and he’s doing everything he thinks is going to facilitate those larger initiatives.
https://www.bloomberg.org/program/government-innovation/what-works-cities/#overview
https://www.bloomberglive.com/smart-cities-2-0/
He’s going to fund the parks in the smart cities, too.
He’s super-duper Uber-technocrat. The parks will be funded and immersively monitoring, providing real-time feedback to park users and whoever else needs the data.
This clip doesn’t have the “Went to Harvard” preamble, unfortunately. I thought it was much funnier in the original show:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDsAY9Xn-4
https://twitter.com/frasier_quotes/status/692007381589454849?lang=en
Mike earned his EE degree at Johns Hopkins (ΦΚΨ) but went to Harvard for his MBA, and everyone else is just smarter than him.
Pretty witless remark, Phil, that if Jews did X there would less antisemitism. Antisemitism is not caused by the actions of the Jews. The Jews were not banished from England for 350 years because of their actions. The Jews were not banished from Spain because of their actions. Six million Jews were not murdered in the Shoah because of their actions. Khmelnitsky did not massacre Jews because of their actions. The Crusaders did not massacre the citizens of Worms, Mainze and Speyer because of their actions. You really think that if these people had constructed more parks they would not have been murdered? Wow. Maybe you should learn a bit about your heritage?
Bloomberg might be a 78 year old idiot, but he’s not innumerate. He’s got a BSc EE, a Harvard MBA, and … he pilots his own IFR twin helicopters. Who knew putting TVs on the desks of traders wired to your own cable network devoted to stock prices could be so,profitable?
cue: To the best of my knowledge, Mr. Bloomberg is not on the ballot. The innumerate 78-year-old in whom tens of millions of Americans will have placed their trust will be Joe Biden (currently 77, but he will turn 78 before he can start implementing his scientific plan to shut down the coronavirus).
It was all just fun and games when the Koch brothers and the NRA did it… Republicans will cry foul if Biden wins in 3, 2, 1…
touché.
Senorpablo: I don’t think that there is anything that the Koch family can do to make Americans angry regarding what coastal elite Jews are doing. First, the Koch family was not and is not coastal. Second, the Koch family was not and is not Jewish.
Hmm… maybe this Koch brother is actually coastal, having some ties to Maskachusetts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Koch_(businessman) says “In 1995, he filed a lawsuit against his former lover, Catherine de Castelbajac, to evict her from his $2.5 million condominium at the Four Seasons Hotel in Boston. He said he had allowed her to move in the previous year so she could attend Simmons College, as he seldom used the apartment. When he tried to end the relationship, de Castelbajac refused to move out and claimed he had broken his promises to her. A jury ruled in Koch’s favor after a trial that was noted for its disclosure of torrid letters and faxes between the two.”
@Senorpablo:
The amount of money the NRA has spent in the past couple years is a literal pittance compared to what Bloomberg has done, not just in terms of direct spending in elections but also the establishment of “grassroots” organizations. It’s like Luxembourg declaring war on the United States.
@Senorpablo: And moreover, we know exactly how much Mike Bloomberg thinks the NRA should ever be able to spend in the future: $0.
Politically, there are two types of Jews: those who believe in God and those who do not. There are those who believe in the God of Abraham, who honor the prophets and the laws of Moses. They tend to be Trump supporters. Jews with bronze Buddhas prefer Biden.
If there is one common refrain in the Old Testament, it is that the Jews are a stiff-necked people, who have been abandoning their God since the Golden Calf. That has been the source of *all* their troubles.
I am pretty sure thst Nehemiah, who had the Jews arm themselves as they rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, would be pro-second amendment, very pro-life (child sacrifice was the basic atrocity that condemned the Canaanites). and therefore very pro-Trump.
Orthodox Jews are very conservative. I would imagine among the Orthodox and Haredi (ultraorthodox) communities there will be overwhelming support for Trump. As you note, other parts of the Jewish community are only Jewish because their mother was, the religion passes matrilineally, and don’t really share the beliefs of Judaism or have any real knowledge of their heritage. They pick up on the love of the stranger and the prophets’ pronouncements on the widows and orphans and ignore the rest. Judging people’s behavior because of a respect for human freedom, the freedom, the freedom to make good and bad choices. A world that is not controlled by human beings and is unpredictable, and so on.
Who exactly is the target person who is still mulling over Biden vs. Trump and is convinced one way or another by a billboard, TV/Facebook ad or phone call?
Exactly – he couldn’t convince Democrats to vote for him, now he is going to convince Republicans to vote for Biden?
A Masshole Republican like Mitt Romney probably will vote for Biden.
You guys are raising great points, but I think the goal is to drive turnout. Remember that Democrats are smart and therefore recognize Trump as Hitler v2.0 but at the same time millions of registered Democrats won’t be willing to fill out a form or roll themselves to the nearest school and vote against Hitler v2.0. Millions of Democrats start from the assumption that it is not worth walking to the mailbox or waiting in line for 10 minutes to vote against a Nazi-style dictatorship. The Bloomberg $$ are supposed to remind Democrats how critical it is to stop watching Netflix and head to the polls.
Reaping what they sowed in Citizens United. Sheldon Adelson had his $millions, now it’s Bloomberg. Our role is just watch.
As for who is left to influence, remember Florida was won with 537 votes when they quit counting in 2000.
I expect the new supreme court will reverse citizens united now that Democrats are out raising Republicans.