Unlimited money, elite intelligence & Machiavellian ethics

Blake Zeff has worked against Michael Bloomberg, covered him as a journalist, and worked with his top aides. Zeff tweeted a thread about how Bloomberg uses his billions to manipulate politics. Things Zeff mentions:

* Donate heavily to non-profits and community groups to get endorsements from their leaders.

* Donate big bucks to other politicians, especially new ones, to get endorsements.

* Even as Bloomberg switched from the GOP to independent, he gave the GOP $1M so they wouldn’t attack him.

* Offer free catered food and wine at his campaign events.

* Poach talent from other campaigns with offers of high salaries, catered meals, and a smart phone. He can also hire more staff than all his opponents combined.

* Ask his rich friends to not donate to other candidates so his rivals can’t raise cash (though I’m suspicious of candidates who accept checks from the rich).

* Hire Instagram influencers (who don’t need to be paid much).

* Air non-stop ads. Added benefit of not actually submitting to interview scrutiny. Misleading statements in the ads don’t need to be corrected. For example, he can portray himself as a best bud of President Obama even though Bloomberg didn’t back him on ‘08 and barely in ‘12. He can shape the story however he wants. Who’s going to find out?

* Run against the nasty guy rather than against fellow Dem candidates.

Wrote Zeff:

One reason it all works so well is that Mike & the team he was able to acquire, are smart. Other rich candidates have failed. But Mike's team has a combo that's rare - maybe even unprecedented - in U.S. politics: unlimited money, elite intelligence & Machiavellian ethics.

After this long list Zeff concludes:

And this is just the stuff we know about.

In a tweet Bloomberg mentioned:

My plan will invest $70 billion in Black neighborhoods, create 100,000 new Black owned businesses, and create one million new Black homeowners.

My goal is to create generational wealth for Black Americans.

Which brought a couple tweeted replies from Liza Sabater

IN NYC:

1. you looked away during the mortgage crisis

2. encouraged gentrification of & mass evictions in black neighborhoods

3. killed small business leasing by encouraging predatory MONTHLY commercial leases

4. campaigned against rent-controlled housing

5. HURRICANE SANDY

BTW

Streeters don’t want you to know how Bloomberg was complicit in decimating NYC’s Black & Latino home owning class during the subprime crisis; because that’s tied to how Bloomberg used EMINENT DOMAIN across the city, and his biggest get & flip, Putin-backed Barclay’s Center.

And that brought comments from Sarah Kendzior (host of Gaslit Nation) tying Bloomberg to Rudy Giuliani and his swamp of ethics.

I didn’t like Bloomberg because he is a billionaire and my annoyance with billionaires is well documented. The more I hear about Bloomberg the more I see he isn’t the change from the nasty guy we need.