New York Times - A Dishonorable Senate
Republican legislators abdicated their duty by refusing to seek the truth.
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A comment I wrote for the liberal crybabies:
Republican legislators refused to waste time about something normal people don't care about.
Not to worry, Democrats, Bloomberg will get the job in November.
Showing posts with label 2020/01 JANUARY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2020/01 JANUARY. Show all posts
Friday, January 31, 2020
This is a Wall Street Journal article about how the Republican Senators were persuaded to end the impeachment thing very quickly.
POLITICS
How Republicans Scotched the Idea of Witnesses in Trump’s Impeachment Trial
White House, Senate GOP leaders swung into a good-cop, bad-cop routine to keep lawmakers in the fold after Bolton book leak.
By Michael C. Bender, Lindsay Wise, Siobhan Hughes, and Rebecca Ballhaus
January 31, 2020
WASHINGTON—At the White House on Sunday evening, as the phones started ringing nonstop and emails flooded in, President Trump took aim at the cause of the alarm: John Bolton, his former national security adviser.
Mr. Bolton’s recollection in his forthcoming book—that Mr. Trump had put a hold on Ukraine aid to press Kyiv to open an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden —had just leaked. The information ran counter to a key Trump defense that he had held up the aid because of broad corruption concerns, and it turned up the heat on some Republicans to extend the trial by calling witnesses.
As White House aides scrambled to figure out how to respond, Mr. Trump recalled that Mr. Bolton once told him he wanted to be national security adviser because he worried he couldn’t win the Senate confirmation required for many other senior jobs.
“I should have seen that as a red flag,” Mr. Trump said, according to an aide in the room. “But instead, I did the guy a favor, took him at his word that this was a good fit, and this is what he did to me?”
Mr. Bolton didn’t respond to a request for comment.
For the first time, Republican plans for a quick Senate impeachment trial were under threat of derailment. The White House and GOP leadership in the Senate swung into a political good-cop, bad-cop routine to keep the trial on track for a fast acquittal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. Ky.), aided by White House liaisons, exercised a behind-the-scenes campaign in the chamber to keep his members from panicking and breaking en masse from Mr. Trump. Mr. McConnell’s office advised the president’s legal team throughout the process on which arguments were important to be made on the floor to resonate with certain undecided senators.
Mr. Trump stayed largely on the sidelines, heeding advice he had received directly from Mr. McConnell to give fence-sitting Republican senators—who were wary both of crossing the president and appearing browbeaten by him—the space to make their own decisions. But he engaged in some political saber-rattling with tweets about the need for a speedy trial resolution and criticism of Mr. Bolton, which was amplified by conservative allies in the media.
“Once he got over being pissed about this whole thing,” an administration official said, “he could see the wisdom of sitting still and letting the Senate come to its conclusions.”
The strategy didn’t prove immediately effective. In a private meeting at lunchtime Monday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) made an impassioned speech to his colleagues about the need to hear from Mr. Bolton.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) floated the possibility of bringing in Mr. Bolton and a witness who would appeal to Mr. Trump.
Mr. McConnell’s message to senators then was to stay calm and be patient. He had framed the handling of the trial as a bigger threat to the party’s Senate majority than to the president, and stressed on Monday that there was plenty of time before senators would have to decide, said people familiar with the matter.
At the White House, Mr. Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. In the Oval Office, when asked about Mr. Bolton’s allegations, Mr. Trump said: “False.” His lawyers, arguing his case in the Senate, made only brief mention of the issue.
That night, the consequences of crossing Mr. Trump started to come into focus for Republicans. On his primetime Fox News show, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Bolton a snake. Lou Dobbs, a host on Fox Business News, referred to Mr. Bolton as a “tool for the radical” Democrats.
By Tuesday, it was clear to Republicans in the White House and the Senate that Mr. Bolton’s account in his draft manuscript, first reported two days earlier by the New York Times, had to be more forcefully addressed, officials said.
White House officials spoke out against Mr. Bolton, as did Trump allies in the Senate. Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), who considers Mr. Bolton a close friend, patrolled the Senate hallways gripping a printout of talking points matching those pushed by the White House. Other Republican senators bristled, however, unwilling to make a call on who might not be telling the truth between the president and Mr. Bolton, a prominent and longtime conservative in Washington.
On Tuesday afternoon, all 53 Republican senators gathered in an ornate room near the Capitol Rotunda. Mr. McConnell was clutching a card—apparently a tally of Republican votes on the witness question—marked with “yeses,” “noes” and “maybes.”
He told them the vote count wasn’t where it needed to be, according to people familiar with the meeting, and struck an ominous tone, saying the future of the country and the Constitution were at stake. People close to Mr. McConnell were struck by his intensity. They felt that he had moved the needle.
Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who face competitive races in the fall, also addressed their colleagues in the meeting. Other GOP senators, including Mike Lee of Utah, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, all lawyers, made the legal case against witnesses.
Reports that the GOP had yet to secure the needed votes to prevent witnesses increased the tension and suggested for the first time that Mr. Trump’s trial could prove much longer—and potentially more volatile—than at any time since it began almost two weeks before.
Mr. McConnell kept up his cajoling on Wednesday, repeating his argument that the trial wasn’t just about the president, but about preserving the GOP Senate majority, and the sooner it ended the better. He also said that adding witnesses would bog down the Senate in battles over executive privilege—the right of the president to prevent advisers from sharing some information—when the outcome of the trial wasn’t in doubt.
There were signs that the strategy was starting to tamp the momentum for witnesses. Mr. McConnell met that morning with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was one of the handful viewed as potentially in favor of calling witnesses. “I’m not going to be discussing the witness situation right now,” she said afterward.
Mr. Toomey, who had earlier floated the idea of calling witnesses for both sides, shifted position, telling reporters he didn’t believe that new witnesses could change the outcome of the trial.
But the vote was “still uncertain” as of Wednesday evening, according to Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the GOP whip.
In the White House, the rapid-response communications team, led by Adam Kennedy, deputy communications director, unearthed video of an interview Mr. Bolton gave to Radio Free Europe in August before he left the national security post in which he described Mr. Trump’s interactions with Ukraine as “very warm and cordial”—suggesting it undermined his book excerpt.
Club for Growth, a conservative group that has aligned itself with Mr. Trump, aired a television ad attacking Mr. Romney for siding with Democrats on the need for more witnesses, and referring to Mr. Bolton as a “spotlight-seeking blowhard.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump strolled the halls of the West Wing. “We’re doing good, I think,” he said in a brief exchange with The Wall Street Journal. When asked about the vote for witnesses, he said: “Whatever it is, it is.”
By Thursday lunchtime, GOP support for witnesses was on a knife edge. With Mr. Romney in favor, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine a likely, two other GOP senators—Ms. Murkowski and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee—became pivotal. With their 53-47 Senate majority, the Republicans could afford three defections, down to a 50-50 Senate vote, figuring Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wouldn’t use his power to intervene to break the tie.
At lunch with his colleagues that day, Mr. McConnell didn’t reveal where the vote tally stood. Mr. Alexander, who is retiring, shook his head when asked afterward if he had made a decision. “There’s been no clear declaration of who’s still stewing on it,” said Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana. “It’s going to be very, very close.”
Mr. McConnell met with Mr. Alexander in the leader’s office at dinnertime on Thursday. He had one tactical advantage in keeping the Tennessee senator onside: a half-century of friendship and Mr. Alexander’s rule of thumb to be upfront with the majority leader about whether he would vote against the party.
In the Senate chamber, Ms. Murkowski asked the White House legal team why the Senate shouldn’t call Mr. Bolton. The lawyers responded that House Democrats could have subpoenaed Mr. Bolton, but chose not to. House Democrats have said that Mr. Trump directed administration officials not to testify before the House.
An hour and a half later, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) had persuaded Ms. Murkowski to reframe the question, in effect asking: Even if Mr. Bolton’s account was accurate, would Mr. Trump’s actions amount to an impeachable offense? Mr. Trump’s lawyers said late Thursday that it wouldn’t be. It was a subtle signal that she might be leaning against the need to hear from Mr. Bolton or other witnesses.
Ms. Collins said Thursday evening that, as expected, she would vote for witnesses. But later Mr. Alexander, while terming Mr. Trump’s actions on Ukraine inappropriate, said he saw no need for witnesses.
On Friday around lunchtime, Ms. Murkowski said she, too, saw no need for witnesses, effectively scotching the prospect. Senators on Friday afternoon narrowly voted 51-49 not to have witnesses, the first impeachment trial in U.S. history to exclude them.
Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com, Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com, Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
How Republicans Scotched the Idea of Witnesses in Trump’s Impeachment Trial
White House, Senate GOP leaders swung into a good-cop, bad-cop routine to keep lawmakers in the fold after Bolton book leak.
By Michael C. Bender, Lindsay Wise, Siobhan Hughes, and Rebecca Ballhaus
January 31, 2020
WASHINGTON—At the White House on Sunday evening, as the phones started ringing nonstop and emails flooded in, President Trump took aim at the cause of the alarm: John Bolton, his former national security adviser.
Mr. Bolton’s recollection in his forthcoming book—that Mr. Trump had put a hold on Ukraine aid to press Kyiv to open an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden —had just leaked. The information ran counter to a key Trump defense that he had held up the aid because of broad corruption concerns, and it turned up the heat on some Republicans to extend the trial by calling witnesses.
As White House aides scrambled to figure out how to respond, Mr. Trump recalled that Mr. Bolton once told him he wanted to be national security adviser because he worried he couldn’t win the Senate confirmation required for many other senior jobs.
“I should have seen that as a red flag,” Mr. Trump said, according to an aide in the room. “But instead, I did the guy a favor, took him at his word that this was a good fit, and this is what he did to me?”
Mr. Bolton didn’t respond to a request for comment.
For the first time, Republican plans for a quick Senate impeachment trial were under threat of derailment. The White House and GOP leadership in the Senate swung into a political good-cop, bad-cop routine to keep the trial on track for a fast acquittal.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R. Ky.), aided by White House liaisons, exercised a behind-the-scenes campaign in the chamber to keep his members from panicking and breaking en masse from Mr. Trump. Mr. McConnell’s office advised the president’s legal team throughout the process on which arguments were important to be made on the floor to resonate with certain undecided senators.
Mr. Trump stayed largely on the sidelines, heeding advice he had received directly from Mr. McConnell to give fence-sitting Republican senators—who were wary both of crossing the president and appearing browbeaten by him—the space to make their own decisions. But he engaged in some political saber-rattling with tweets about the need for a speedy trial resolution and criticism of Mr. Bolton, which was amplified by conservative allies in the media.
“Once he got over being pissed about this whole thing,” an administration official said, “he could see the wisdom of sitting still and letting the Senate come to its conclusions.”
The strategy didn’t prove immediately effective. In a private meeting at lunchtime Monday, Sen. Mitt Romney (R., Utah) made an impassioned speech to his colleagues about the need to hear from Mr. Bolton.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) floated the possibility of bringing in Mr. Bolton and a witness who would appeal to Mr. Trump.
Mr. McConnell’s message to senators then was to stay calm and be patient. He had framed the handling of the trial as a bigger threat to the party’s Senate majority than to the president, and stressed on Monday that there was plenty of time before senators would have to decide, said people familiar with the matter.
At the White House, Mr. Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu. In the Oval Office, when asked about Mr. Bolton’s allegations, Mr. Trump said: “False.” His lawyers, arguing his case in the Senate, made only brief mention of the issue.
That night, the consequences of crossing Mr. Trump started to come into focus for Republicans. On his primetime Fox News show, Tucker Carlson called Mr. Bolton a snake. Lou Dobbs, a host on Fox Business News, referred to Mr. Bolton as a “tool for the radical” Democrats.
By Tuesday, it was clear to Republicans in the White House and the Senate that Mr. Bolton’s account in his draft manuscript, first reported two days earlier by the New York Times, had to be more forcefully addressed, officials said.
White House officials spoke out against Mr. Bolton, as did Trump allies in the Senate. Sen. James Inhofe (R., Okla.), who considers Mr. Bolton a close friend, patrolled the Senate hallways gripping a printout of talking points matching those pushed by the White House. Other Republican senators bristled, however, unwilling to make a call on who might not be telling the truth between the president and Mr. Bolton, a prominent and longtime conservative in Washington.
On Tuesday afternoon, all 53 Republican senators gathered in an ornate room near the Capitol Rotunda. Mr. McConnell was clutching a card—apparently a tally of Republican votes on the witness question—marked with “yeses,” “noes” and “maybes.”
He told them the vote count wasn’t where it needed to be, according to people familiar with the meeting, and struck an ominous tone, saying the future of the country and the Constitution were at stake. People close to Mr. McConnell were struck by his intensity. They felt that he had moved the needle.
Republican Sens. Cory Gardner of Colorado, Martha McSally of Arizona and Thom Tillis of North Carolina, who face competitive races in the fall, also addressed their colleagues in the meeting. Other GOP senators, including Mike Lee of Utah, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Ted Cruz of Texas, all lawyers, made the legal case against witnesses.
Reports that the GOP had yet to secure the needed votes to prevent witnesses increased the tension and suggested for the first time that Mr. Trump’s trial could prove much longer—and potentially more volatile—than at any time since it began almost two weeks before.
Mr. McConnell kept up his cajoling on Wednesday, repeating his argument that the trial wasn’t just about the president, but about preserving the GOP Senate majority, and the sooner it ended the better. He also said that adding witnesses would bog down the Senate in battles over executive privilege—the right of the president to prevent advisers from sharing some information—when the outcome of the trial wasn’t in doubt.
There were signs that the strategy was starting to tamp the momentum for witnesses. Mr. McConnell met that morning with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, who was one of the handful viewed as potentially in favor of calling witnesses. “I’m not going to be discussing the witness situation right now,” she said afterward.
Mr. Toomey, who had earlier floated the idea of calling witnesses for both sides, shifted position, telling reporters he didn’t believe that new witnesses could change the outcome of the trial.
But the vote was “still uncertain” as of Wednesday evening, according to Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the GOP whip.
In the White House, the rapid-response communications team, led by Adam Kennedy, deputy communications director, unearthed video of an interview Mr. Bolton gave to Radio Free Europe in August before he left the national security post in which he described Mr. Trump’s interactions with Ukraine as “very warm and cordial”—suggesting it undermined his book excerpt.
Club for Growth, a conservative group that has aligned itself with Mr. Trump, aired a television ad attacking Mr. Romney for siding with Democrats on the need for more witnesses, and referring to Mr. Bolton as a “spotlight-seeking blowhard.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Trump strolled the halls of the West Wing. “We’re doing good, I think,” he said in a brief exchange with The Wall Street Journal. When asked about the vote for witnesses, he said: “Whatever it is, it is.”
By Thursday lunchtime, GOP support for witnesses was on a knife edge. With Mr. Romney in favor, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine a likely, two other GOP senators—Ms. Murkowski and Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee—became pivotal. With their 53-47 Senate majority, the Republicans could afford three defections, down to a 50-50 Senate vote, figuring Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wouldn’t use his power to intervene to break the tie.
At lunch with his colleagues that day, Mr. McConnell didn’t reveal where the vote tally stood. Mr. Alexander, who is retiring, shook his head when asked afterward if he had made a decision. “There’s been no clear declaration of who’s still stewing on it,” said Sen. Mike Braun of Indiana. “It’s going to be very, very close.”
Mr. McConnell met with Mr. Alexander in the leader’s office at dinnertime on Thursday. He had one tactical advantage in keeping the Tennessee senator onside: a half-century of friendship and Mr. Alexander’s rule of thumb to be upfront with the majority leader about whether he would vote against the party.
In the Senate chamber, Ms. Murkowski asked the White House legal team why the Senate shouldn’t call Mr. Bolton. The lawyers responded that House Democrats could have subpoenaed Mr. Bolton, but chose not to. House Democrats have said that Mr. Trump directed administration officials not to testify before the House.
An hour and a half later, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) had persuaded Ms. Murkowski to reframe the question, in effect asking: Even if Mr. Bolton’s account was accurate, would Mr. Trump’s actions amount to an impeachable offense? Mr. Trump’s lawyers said late Thursday that it wouldn’t be. It was a subtle signal that she might be leaning against the need to hear from Mr. Bolton or other witnesses.
Ms. Collins said Thursday evening that, as expected, she would vote for witnesses. But later Mr. Alexander, while terming Mr. Trump’s actions on Ukraine inappropriate, said he saw no need for witnesses.
On Friday around lunchtime, Ms. Murkowski said she, too, saw no need for witnesses, effectively scotching the prospect. Senators on Friday afternoon narrowly voted 51-49 not to have witnesses, the first impeachment trial in U.S. history to exclude them.
Write to Michael C. Bender at Mike.Bender@wsj.com, Lindsay Wise at lindsay.wise@wsj.com, Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@wsj.com and Rebecca Ballhaus at Rebecca.Ballhaus@wsj.com
BBC News - The impeachment of President Fucktard Trump is not going to happen. What a waste of fucking time. The Democrats accomplished nothing. I hope the Democrats have enough common sense to nominate Mike Bloomberg because nobody else can defeat Trump.
By a thin majority, US senators have agreed not to call witnesses during Donald Trump's impeachment trial.
This paves the way for the swift end of the trial, that is all but certain to end in Mr. Trump's acquittal.
Final vote: 49 - 51
In the end, as expected, the motion for witnesses was denied by 51 to 49. Mitt Romney, and Susan Collins, were the two Republicans who sided with the Democrats.
This paves the way for the swift end of the trial, that is all but certain to end in Mr. Trump's acquittal.
Final vote: 49 - 51
In the end, as expected, the motion for witnesses was denied by 51 to 49. Mitt Romney, and Susan Collins, were the two Republicans who sided with the Democrats.
A very interesting chess game.
I play the Black side of the Sicilian Defence, Najdorf Variation. I usually get killed during the middlegame when my opponent sacrifices pieces to wipe out my king. In the game I just played I tried thinking instead of being afraid, and thinking worked.
Here is the game: https://lichess.org/ctLk0Qo0/black#0
My Lichess.org Profile
Here is the game: https://lichess.org/ctLk0Qo0/black#0
My Lichess.org Profile
This post is about a mental illness. It's called "praying". This ridiculous disease is a big problem in Idiot America.
Christian assholes like to tell atheists (aka normal people) "I will pray for you."
Why do they do this? They like to advertise their stupidity, and they are assholes who like to insult normal people. "I will pray for you" is an insult and they know it.
Why do religious morons pray? And what is praying?
Wikipedia: Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity (a god), or a deified ancestor.
The idea is if god-soaked fucktards want their sky daddy to fix a problem, for example, a disease, the fucktards get down on their knees and put their 2 hands together and then talk to themselves, but they think their Magic Man is listening to the whole thing. They believe the magical creature they worship might help them with their problem. I'm not making any of this stuff up.
Obviously, these people are insane. Here in Idiot America, there are millions of these gullible morons.
Religions sell a lot of bullshit, including a god fairy that loves people who suck up to it. And the praying thing is a big part of the sucking up.
This bullshit is more evidence for the idea that most human apes are just plain fucking stupid.
Why do they do this? They like to advertise their stupidity, and they are assholes who like to insult normal people. "I will pray for you" is an insult and they know it.
Why do religious morons pray? And what is praying?
Wikipedia: Prayer is an invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with an object of worship through deliberate communication. In the narrow sense, the term refers to an act of supplication or intercession directed towards a deity (a god), or a deified ancestor.
The idea is if god-soaked fucktards want their sky daddy to fix a problem, for example, a disease, the fucktards get down on their knees and put their 2 hands together and then talk to themselves, but they think their Magic Man is listening to the whole thing. They believe the magical creature they worship might help them with their problem. I'm not making any of this stuff up.
Obviously, these people are insane. Here in Idiot America, there are millions of these gullible morons.
Religions sell a lot of bullshit, including a god fairy that loves people who suck up to it. And the praying thing is a big part of the sucking up.
This bullshit is more evidence for the idea that most human apes are just plain fucking stupid.
Thursday, January 30, 2020
If the bible god was real we would have to kill it.
"What really is the Bible's message?"
I wrote this: The bible is about god's love for genocide and slavery.
Someone else wrote this: Not to mention rape, infanticide, eternal torture, etc.
I wrote this: The bible is about god's love for genocide and slavery.
Someone else wrote this: Not to mention rape, infanticide, eternal torture, etc.
Mike Bloomberg makes Fucktard Trump cry.
Washington Post
Bloomberg gets under Trump’s skin as he ramps up spending on 2020 ads
By Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer
January 23, 2020
Mike Bloomberg is lagging behind his Democratic competitors in the polls, and he will not appear on the next presidential debate stage or on the ballot in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.
But the former New York mayor has attracted the obsessive attention of President Trump, who is annoyed by Bloomberg’s constant ads targeting him, concerned about the billionaire’s outsize spending, focused on his growing numbers in the polls and seemingly fixated on his TV appearances.
The president has repeatedly attacked Bloomberg on Twitter, calling him “Mini Mike” to insult his small stature, and frequently focused on him in conversations with campaign advisers and White House officials.
“It’s very clear that the ads we are running have gotten under his skin because they are effective,” said Howard Wolfson, a senior Bloomberg aide. “Mike’s poll numbers are improving, the president is screaming. Mike is a data-driven guy. When he sees data is working, he doubles down.”
Wolfson said to expect more blistering ads against the president in coming months. So far, Bloomberg’s spots have targeted Trump over impeachment, his position on vaping, his health-care-policy decisions and his relationship with the military. Many have prompted rapid responses from Trump, sometimes minutes after they air.
Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey debuted a new ad on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that cited a new book by two Washington Post reporters, who chronicle how Trump lashed out at U.S. military leaders, characterizing them as “dopes and babies.” Trump responded shortly after the spot aired.
“Mini Mike Bloomberg is playing poker with his foolhardy and unsuspecting Democrat rivals,” Trump tweeted. “The fact is, when Mini losses [sic], he will be spending very little of his money on these ‘clowns’ because he will consider himself to be the biggest clown of them all — and he will be right!”
Trump’s advisers have repeatedly encouraged the president to focus on other opponents instead. Campaign manager Brad Parscale and senior adviser Jared Kushner have warned against giving Bloomberg more attention and do not see him as the threat that Trump does, aides have said. There is no plan for the campaign to target him with advertisements at this point, advisers said.
Trump has repeatedly brought up Bloomberg — calling him “evil,” in the words of one close adviser — and said that he wants to destroy Trump with unrelenting money, even if the president does not believe Bloomberg can win, according to aides.
He has called Bloomberg’s ads “lies” that are unfair depictions of his record in the White House. Several advisers have said the president also references Bloomberg’s 2016 Democratic convention speech as a sore point and repeatedly asks advisers about his polling numbers, which have hovered below 10 percent in public surveys.
Other advisers have sought to elevate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), hoping that a leftist candidate could give Trump a good foil in the general election.
Parscale said this week that he would only worry about Bloomberg if he surpassed former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the Democratic race.
“It’s a free country, and he can set his money on fire if he wants to. He’s still in a statistical tie with the back of the pack in the Democrat field,” said Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman.
Trolling the president is different from convincing skeptical primary voters and defending his own record on issues such as stop-and-frisk policing in New York City. Bloomberg endorsed George W. Bush, for instance, and welcomed the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004.
But his path to the nomination could become clearer if former vice president Joe Biden stumbles in Iowa and New Hampshire, creating an opening for Bloomberg to use his significant advertising budget to argue that he is the most electable alternative.
In the meantime, the campaign has been using attacks on Trump as a rallying cry, both to recruit staff to his campaign and to convince Democratic primary voters that his campaign is more than the vanity project of another billionaire candidate.
Sheekey said the campaign will either be the “best primary campaign in American history” or the greatest independent spending campaign against an incumbent president that has ever been created.
As it stands, the Bloomberg advertising campaign is squarely focused on states that could help get Bloomberg the nomination, with only about 1 in 4 dollars going to the six swing states that his advisers expect to be competitive in the general election, according to Facebook ad spending data and a source familiar with the television buys, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to share the information publicly.
But that swing-state spending has still been considerable. Through Jan. 11, Bloomberg has spent $198 million on television advertising, including more than $47 million for spots in the projected swing states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On Facebook, he has blasted another $3.6 million to voters in those states.
Before the year is over, he has promised to spend $100 million on a digital effort to defeat Trump in swing states, and he has committed millions more to an effort to register 500,000 new voters in those states. He is also building a data operation that he intends to use to elect a Democratic president whether or not he is the nominee, his advisers say.
Mike Bloomberg shifts presidential ad campaign to focus on impeachment
In an interview, Wolfson said he wanted to draw a contrast with Democrats, who are attacking one another in New Hampshire and Iowa. Bloomberg has not competed in those states, knowing he would be unlikely to fare well, and is focused on Super Tuesday on March 3.
“We’ve chosen a different path. They are in Iowa and New Hampshire attacking one another. We’re making the case against Donald Trump,” Wolfson said. “Voters among all else are looking for a candidate that is best qualified to take on Donald Trump in a general election.”
Many of the ads Bloomberg has run include some mention of Trump, with many of the spots focusing on the president’s perceived weaknesses among swing voters.
“Health care is a huge vulnerability for him,” Wolfson said of Trump. “It’s the issue that won the Democrats won the midterms. It is difficult for him to defend his own record on health care.”
Bloomberg’s aides also plan on using the ground campaign that Bloomberg is building against Trump, whether or not he wins the nomination. Those hired in potential general-election swing states — 60 in Arizona and more than 80 in North Carolina, for example — have been told they will have a job through the summer conventions or the November elections to organize against Trump.
Bloomberg seems to have approached the endeavor as a no-risk proposition, given that he has decided that defeating someone he calls an “existential threat to our country” is one of his top priorities.
“My Plan B is a hell of a lot better than anybody else’s Plan A,” he has told advisers, according to one aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Either Bloomberg wins the nomination and the presidency or he remains the 12th-richest person in the world with a chance of taking credit for defeating Trump.
On the stump, Bloomberg seems to delight in needling Trump, calling him a “real estate promoter” and not a businessman. He will recount the phone call from Trump after the 2016 election, when the president-elect offered his cellphone number. Bloomberg says he didn’t bother to write it down.
Bloomberg also repeats an anecdote about Trump not knowing how to use a New York City subway card when they rode together many years ago. Trump has said this description is untrue, saying the gates were opened for them because they were traveling with a large entourage.
“I never had a MetroCard when I rode the subway with him,” Trump told The Washington Post last year.
Bloomberg gets under Trump’s skin as he ramps up spending on 2020 ads
By Josh Dawsey and Michael Scherer
January 23, 2020
Mike Bloomberg is lagging behind his Democratic competitors in the polls, and he will not appear on the next presidential debate stage or on the ballot in Iowa, New Hampshire or South Carolina.
But the former New York mayor has attracted the obsessive attention of President Trump, who is annoyed by Bloomberg’s constant ads targeting him, concerned about the billionaire’s outsize spending, focused on his growing numbers in the polls and seemingly fixated on his TV appearances.
The president has repeatedly attacked Bloomberg on Twitter, calling him “Mini Mike” to insult his small stature, and frequently focused on him in conversations with campaign advisers and White House officials.
“It’s very clear that the ads we are running have gotten under his skin because they are effective,” said Howard Wolfson, a senior Bloomberg aide. “Mike’s poll numbers are improving, the president is screaming. Mike is a data-driven guy. When he sees data is working, he doubles down.”
Wolfson said to expect more blistering ads against the president in coming months. So far, Bloomberg’s spots have targeted Trump over impeachment, his position on vaping, his health-care-policy decisions and his relationship with the military. Many have prompted rapid responses from Trump, sometimes minutes after they air.
Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey debuted a new ad on “Fox & Friends” on Thursday that cited a new book by two Washington Post reporters, who chronicle how Trump lashed out at U.S. military leaders, characterizing them as “dopes and babies.” Trump responded shortly after the spot aired.
“Mini Mike Bloomberg is playing poker with his foolhardy and unsuspecting Democrat rivals,” Trump tweeted. “The fact is, when Mini losses [sic], he will be spending very little of his money on these ‘clowns’ because he will consider himself to be the biggest clown of them all — and he will be right!”
Trump’s advisers have repeatedly encouraged the president to focus on other opponents instead. Campaign manager Brad Parscale and senior adviser Jared Kushner have warned against giving Bloomberg more attention and do not see him as the threat that Trump does, aides have said. There is no plan for the campaign to target him with advertisements at this point, advisers said.
Trump has repeatedly brought up Bloomberg — calling him “evil,” in the words of one close adviser — and said that he wants to destroy Trump with unrelenting money, even if the president does not believe Bloomberg can win, according to aides.
He has called Bloomberg’s ads “lies” that are unfair depictions of his record in the White House. Several advisers have said the president also references Bloomberg’s 2016 Democratic convention speech as a sore point and repeatedly asks advisers about his polling numbers, which have hovered below 10 percent in public surveys.
Other advisers have sought to elevate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), hoping that a leftist candidate could give Trump a good foil in the general election.
Parscale said this week that he would only worry about Bloomberg if he surpassed former South Bend, Ind., mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in the Democratic race.
“It’s a free country, and he can set his money on fire if he wants to. He’s still in a statistical tie with the back of the pack in the Democrat field,” said Tim Murtaugh, a Trump campaign spokesman.
Trolling the president is different from convincing skeptical primary voters and defending his own record on issues such as stop-and-frisk policing in New York City. Bloomberg endorsed George W. Bush, for instance, and welcomed the Republican National Convention in New York in 2004.
But his path to the nomination could become clearer if former vice president Joe Biden stumbles in Iowa and New Hampshire, creating an opening for Bloomberg to use his significant advertising budget to argue that he is the most electable alternative.
In the meantime, the campaign has been using attacks on Trump as a rallying cry, both to recruit staff to his campaign and to convince Democratic primary voters that his campaign is more than the vanity project of another billionaire candidate.
Sheekey said the campaign will either be the “best primary campaign in American history” or the greatest independent spending campaign against an incumbent president that has ever been created.
As it stands, the Bloomberg advertising campaign is squarely focused on states that could help get Bloomberg the nomination, with only about 1 in 4 dollars going to the six swing states that his advisers expect to be competitive in the general election, according to Facebook ad spending data and a source familiar with the television buys, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because that person was not authorized to share the information publicly.
But that swing-state spending has still been considerable. Through Jan. 11, Bloomberg has spent $198 million on television advertising, including more than $47 million for spots in the projected swing states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. On Facebook, he has blasted another $3.6 million to voters in those states.
Before the year is over, he has promised to spend $100 million on a digital effort to defeat Trump in swing states, and he has committed millions more to an effort to register 500,000 new voters in those states. He is also building a data operation that he intends to use to elect a Democratic president whether or not he is the nominee, his advisers say.
Mike Bloomberg shifts presidential ad campaign to focus on impeachment
In an interview, Wolfson said he wanted to draw a contrast with Democrats, who are attacking one another in New Hampshire and Iowa. Bloomberg has not competed in those states, knowing he would be unlikely to fare well, and is focused on Super Tuesday on March 3.
“We’ve chosen a different path. They are in Iowa and New Hampshire attacking one another. We’re making the case against Donald Trump,” Wolfson said. “Voters among all else are looking for a candidate that is best qualified to take on Donald Trump in a general election.”
Many of the ads Bloomberg has run include some mention of Trump, with many of the spots focusing on the president’s perceived weaknesses among swing voters.
“Health care is a huge vulnerability for him,” Wolfson said of Trump. “It’s the issue that won the Democrats won the midterms. It is difficult for him to defend his own record on health care.”
Bloomberg’s aides also plan on using the ground campaign that Bloomberg is building against Trump, whether or not he wins the nomination. Those hired in potential general-election swing states — 60 in Arizona and more than 80 in North Carolina, for example — have been told they will have a job through the summer conventions or the November elections to organize against Trump.
Bloomberg seems to have approached the endeavor as a no-risk proposition, given that he has decided that defeating someone he calls an “existential threat to our country” is one of his top priorities.
“My Plan B is a hell of a lot better than anybody else’s Plan A,” he has told advisers, according to one aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.
Either Bloomberg wins the nomination and the presidency or he remains the 12th-richest person in the world with a chance of taking credit for defeating Trump.
On the stump, Bloomberg seems to delight in needling Trump, calling him a “real estate promoter” and not a businessman. He will recount the phone call from Trump after the 2016 election, when the president-elect offered his cellphone number. Bloomberg says he didn’t bother to write it down.
Bloomberg also repeats an anecdote about Trump not knowing how to use a New York City subway card when they rode together many years ago. Trump has said this description is untrue, saying the gates were opened for them because they were traveling with a large entourage.
“I never had a MetroCard when I rode the subway with him,” Trump told The Washington Post last year.
Mike Bloomberg: "We cannot have a society where you go out on the street and you get blown away. We just have to say enough is enough."
Washington Post
Bloomberg’s Super Bowl ad focuses on the ‘national crisis’ of gun violence, not Trump
By Katie Zezima
January 30, 2020
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who has flooded the airways with ads attacking President Trump, is trying a different approach with a spot during the Super Bowl: His newest ad will focus on a mother whose son was shot and killed.
Bloomberg, who founded the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, is predominantly relying on ads to propel his presidential candidacy. On Sunday — a day before the Iowa caucuses, where Bloomberg is not on the ballot — he will reach his biggest audience yet. More than 100 million people watched last year’s Super Bowl, according to Nielsen ratings.
Long the domain of high-priced and highly produced commercials hyping cars and beer, this year’s game in Miami will have a dose of politics, with spots from Bloomberg and President Trump’s reelection campaign. Fox Sports executives have said the network is selling 30-second ads during the contest between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs for more than $5 million each.
Bloomberg’s new ad does not mention the president. It features a Texas woman, Calandrian Simpson Kemp, talking about how her son, George H. Kemp Jr., started playing football at age 4, with photos of him holding football gear as a baby and child.
On a Friday morning in September 2013, she learned that her son had been shot overnight.
Her son, a 20-year-old football player who had finished his freshman year at Navarro College, was killed during an altercation in Richmond, Tex.
Kemp calls gun violence a “national crisis.” She starts talking about Bloomberg halfway through the ad, which says that the candidate “started a national gun safety movement.” Kemp does not specifically mention the National Rifle Association, which has long spent money on anti-Bloomberg ads, but she says that the gun lobby is afraid of Bloomberg.
Kemp said she believes the gun control movement has found its candidate in Bloomberg, who, she said, “heard mothers crying. So he started fighting.”
Howard Wolfson, a senior Bloomberg aide, said trying to combat gun violence is a major reason the former New York mayor decided to run for president.
“This is a subject that has animated him,” Wolfson said. “And he did help build this movement of activists all around the country that he stands in solidarity with.”
The advertisement is a significant departure from the spots Bloomberg has run since announcing his candidacy on Nov. 24. Most have focused on slamming Trump on issues including impeachment and health care. Trump has responded to some of them, calling the ads “lies” that are unfair to his White House record.
Bloomberg gets under Trump’s skin as he ramps up spending on 2020 ads
Wolfson said the campaign took a different approach this time, both to highlight Bloomberg’s record on gun control and because Super Bowl ads typically don’t focus on politics.
“My view is that people watching the Super Bowl aren’t interested in attack ads,” he said.
Bloomberg’s campaign filmed videos with people from 12 states whose loved ones were killed in gun violence. They will be posted on the candidate’s website Friday.
In an interview Wednesday, Kemp said she joined Moms Demand Action, which is part of Everytown, in 2014. She met Bloomberg through the group, showing him George’s photo and speaking with him about her son.
Initially a supporter of former congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) in the presidential race because of his gun control plans, Kemp threw her support behind Bloomberg after O’Rourke dropped out of the race.
Kemp said she nearly fell out of bed when Bloomberg’s presidential campaign asked her to appear in a video that would become a Super Bowl ad. Her son always wanted to play in the Super Bowl, and now she hopes others see their loved ones in him.
“So many boys will say . . . that was my brother, too, that happened to my uncle, too,” she said. “They feel like they can identify themselves and feel like they are part of something in this country and not just a negative statistic.”
She talks to her son often, and she has something to say to him on Super Bowl Sunday.
“I’m going to tell George that he made it,” she said. “To know that this was his passion since age four, and to now be able to have the world see my son, to see George Kemp Jr., in the Super Bowl. He made it in a different way and his mama sure is proud of him.”
Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this report.
Bloomberg’s Super Bowl ad focuses on the ‘national crisis’ of gun violence, not Trump
By Katie Zezima
January 30, 2020
Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, who has flooded the airways with ads attacking President Trump, is trying a different approach with a spot during the Super Bowl: His newest ad will focus on a mother whose son was shot and killed.
Bloomberg, who founded the gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety, is predominantly relying on ads to propel his presidential candidacy. On Sunday — a day before the Iowa caucuses, where Bloomberg is not on the ballot — he will reach his biggest audience yet. More than 100 million people watched last year’s Super Bowl, according to Nielsen ratings.
Long the domain of high-priced and highly produced commercials hyping cars and beer, this year’s game in Miami will have a dose of politics, with spots from Bloomberg and President Trump’s reelection campaign. Fox Sports executives have said the network is selling 30-second ads during the contest between the San Francisco 49ers and Kansas City Chiefs for more than $5 million each.
Bloomberg’s new ad does not mention the president. It features a Texas woman, Calandrian Simpson Kemp, talking about how her son, George H. Kemp Jr., started playing football at age 4, with photos of him holding football gear as a baby and child.
On a Friday morning in September 2013, she learned that her son had been shot overnight.
Her son, a 20-year-old football player who had finished his freshman year at Navarro College, was killed during an altercation in Richmond, Tex.
Kemp calls gun violence a “national crisis.” She starts talking about Bloomberg halfway through the ad, which says that the candidate “started a national gun safety movement.” Kemp does not specifically mention the National Rifle Association, which has long spent money on anti-Bloomberg ads, but she says that the gun lobby is afraid of Bloomberg.
Kemp said she believes the gun control movement has found its candidate in Bloomberg, who, she said, “heard mothers crying. So he started fighting.”
Howard Wolfson, a senior Bloomberg aide, said trying to combat gun violence is a major reason the former New York mayor decided to run for president.
“This is a subject that has animated him,” Wolfson said. “And he did help build this movement of activists all around the country that he stands in solidarity with.”
The advertisement is a significant departure from the spots Bloomberg has run since announcing his candidacy on Nov. 24. Most have focused on slamming Trump on issues including impeachment and health care. Trump has responded to some of them, calling the ads “lies” that are unfair to his White House record.
Bloomberg gets under Trump’s skin as he ramps up spending on 2020 ads
Wolfson said the campaign took a different approach this time, both to highlight Bloomberg’s record on gun control and because Super Bowl ads typically don’t focus on politics.
“My view is that people watching the Super Bowl aren’t interested in attack ads,” he said.
Bloomberg’s campaign filmed videos with people from 12 states whose loved ones were killed in gun violence. They will be posted on the candidate’s website Friday.
In an interview Wednesday, Kemp said she joined Moms Demand Action, which is part of Everytown, in 2014. She met Bloomberg through the group, showing him George’s photo and speaking with him about her son.
Initially a supporter of former congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex.) in the presidential race because of his gun control plans, Kemp threw her support behind Bloomberg after O’Rourke dropped out of the race.
Kemp said she nearly fell out of bed when Bloomberg’s presidential campaign asked her to appear in a video that would become a Super Bowl ad. Her son always wanted to play in the Super Bowl, and now she hopes others see their loved ones in him.
“So many boys will say . . . that was my brother, too, that happened to my uncle, too,” she said. “They feel like they can identify themselves and feel like they are part of something in this country and not just a negative statistic.”
She talks to her son often, and she has something to say to him on Super Bowl Sunday.
“I’m going to tell George that he made it,” she said. “To know that this was his passion since age four, and to now be able to have the world see my son, to see George Kemp Jr., in the Super Bowl. He made it in a different way and his mama sure is proud of him.”
Michelle Ye Hee Lee contributed to this report.
Washington Post - Some more stuff about Mike Bloomberg, the next President of the United States.
Election 2020
Mike Bloomberg
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE
Bloomberg was a late entrant into the race, launching his campaign Nov. 24 with a plan to do something no successful presidential candidate has ever done: skip the first four states and spend hundreds of millions of dollars to gain support on Super Tuesday. In addition to trying to win the Democratic Party’s nomination, Bloomberg is also spending big on a general election effort to help ensure President Trump loses in November. He’s hired hundreds of employees to quickly build out campaign operations and get ads in front of voters.
Bloomberg, 77, is one of the world’s richest people and former mayor of New York, where he was elected as a Republican and independent but never a Democrat. Since leaving office, he’s poured money into philanthropic efforts to combat gun violence and climate change. The company Bloomberg founded, which helped make him a billionaire, started out providing real-time financial data to Wall Street firms and has expanded to include a news operation as well.
The Washington Post has an article about Mike Bloomberg, the next President of the United States.
Washington Post
Washingon D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser endorses Mike Bloomberg for president
By Paul Schwartzman and Fenit Nirappil
January 30, 2020
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg Thursday, calling the billionaire former mayor of New York City “the only candidate who will unify the country and defeat Donald Trump.”
Bloomberg came to Washington to deliver a speech outlining his plan to create affordable housing and ease the homeless crisis that is posing challenges for large cities across the country, including the nation’s capital.
Bowser appeared with him at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE, a gentrifying corridor that illustrates the challenges cities face in balancing economic development and the needs of the poor.
She chose Bloomberg, a businessman who served three terms as mayor, from a crowded field of candidates that includes former vice president Joe Biden, who worked closely with the District during the Obama administration and whom she has praised in the past.
“What’s most important to me is we have a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump,” Bowser said at a news conference, praising Bloomberg’s plans for affordable housing and gun control. “I think Mike has demonstrated the commitment to be in this race until the end and put the necessary resources in to get it done.”
The crowd of about 100 people included top D.C. government officials and fixtures of local politics, including Cora Masters Barry, widow of former mayor Marion Barry.
Bloomberg, who entered the race in November, ranked fourth among Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered independent primary voters in a Washington Post-ABC News poll published Sunday, slightly trailing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and far behind Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
He is not on the ballot in next week’s Iowa caucuses or the following week’s New Hampshire primary, but he is pouring tens of millions of dollars into the 14 Super Tuesday states hosting primaries March 3. The District’s Democratic primary is June 2.
Bloomberg has been criticized, especially by African Americans and civil rights leaders, for backing an aggressive “stop-and-frisk” policy as New York mayor, which led to police officers stopping a disproportionate number of minorities. Shortly before launching his presidential bid, Bloomberg said he was “wrong” for supporting the policy.
Bowser, who will be a national campaign co-chair, is among more than two dozen current and former mayors to endorse Bloomberg, a list that also includes former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. Bloomberg praised Bowser last week at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, saying she is “doing a terrific job” and that he hopes that “one day soon we can call her governor” — a reference to his support for D.C. statehood.
Her debut as a Bloomberg campaign surrogate was on “The Russ Parr Morning Show,” a syndicated radio show based in the District. When a host asked her how voters should respond to the “stain” of Bloomberg’s support for stop-and-frisk, Bowser said she accepted Bloomberg’s about-face.
“He regrets very much that he wasn’t looking more closely at the data and recognizing the disproportionate impact on African Americans,” Bowser said.
“All mayors are going to go and talk about public safety and do everything they can to keep their city safe, that’s one of the first jobs of the mayor,” Bowser continued. “But no mayor wants to support a policy that underneath it is harassing innocent people.”
She also praised Bloomberg’s campaign strategy to focus on Super Tuesday states instead of the much less diverse Iowa and New Hampshire.
“Mike is . . . taking an entirely different approach, and he’s going to states all over the country, populous states, diverse states that better reflect America to spread his message,” she said. “He’s laying the groundwork in D.C. for D.C. to be the 51st state, and he wants to make an early investment in our town.”
Washingon D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser endorses Mike Bloomberg for president
By Paul Schwartzman and Fenit Nirappil
January 30, 2020
D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg Thursday, calling the billionaire former mayor of New York City “the only candidate who will unify the country and defeat Donald Trump.”
Bloomberg came to Washington to deliver a speech outlining his plan to create affordable housing and ease the homeless crisis that is posing challenges for large cities across the country, including the nation’s capital.
Bowser appeared with him at the Atlas Performing Arts Center on H Street NE, a gentrifying corridor that illustrates the challenges cities face in balancing economic development and the needs of the poor.
She chose Bloomberg, a businessman who served three terms as mayor, from a crowded field of candidates that includes former vice president Joe Biden, who worked closely with the District during the Obama administration and whom she has praised in the past.
“What’s most important to me is we have a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump,” Bowser said at a news conference, praising Bloomberg’s plans for affordable housing and gun control. “I think Mike has demonstrated the commitment to be in this race until the end and put the necessary resources in to get it done.”
The crowd of about 100 people included top D.C. government officials and fixtures of local politics, including Cora Masters Barry, widow of former mayor Marion Barry.
Bloomberg, who entered the race in November, ranked fourth among Democrats and Democratic-leaning registered independent primary voters in a Washington Post-ABC News poll published Sunday, slightly trailing Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and far behind Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
He is not on the ballot in next week’s Iowa caucuses or the following week’s New Hampshire primary, but he is pouring tens of millions of dollars into the 14 Super Tuesday states hosting primaries March 3. The District’s Democratic primary is June 2.
Bloomberg has been criticized, especially by African Americans and civil rights leaders, for backing an aggressive “stop-and-frisk” policy as New York mayor, which led to police officers stopping a disproportionate number of minorities. Shortly before launching his presidential bid, Bloomberg said he was “wrong” for supporting the policy.
Bowser, who will be a national campaign co-chair, is among more than two dozen current and former mayors to endorse Bloomberg, a list that also includes former Philadelphia mayor Michael Nutter. Bloomberg praised Bowser last week at the U.S. Conference of Mayors, saying she is “doing a terrific job” and that he hopes that “one day soon we can call her governor” — a reference to his support for D.C. statehood.
Her debut as a Bloomberg campaign surrogate was on “The Russ Parr Morning Show,” a syndicated radio show based in the District. When a host asked her how voters should respond to the “stain” of Bloomberg’s support for stop-and-frisk, Bowser said she accepted Bloomberg’s about-face.
“He regrets very much that he wasn’t looking more closely at the data and recognizing the disproportionate impact on African Americans,” Bowser said.
“All mayors are going to go and talk about public safety and do everything they can to keep their city safe, that’s one of the first jobs of the mayor,” Bowser continued. “But no mayor wants to support a policy that underneath it is harassing innocent people.”
She also praised Bloomberg’s campaign strategy to focus on Super Tuesday states instead of the much less diverse Iowa and New Hampshire.
“Mike is . . . taking an entirely different approach, and he’s going to states all over the country, populous states, diverse states that better reflect America to spread his message,” she said. “He’s laying the groundwork in D.C. for D.C. to be the 51st state, and he wants to make an early investment in our town.”
We can resolve our most pressing problems if we have the right leader to turn innovative ideas into reality@MikeBloomberg is a problem-solver with a proven track record of getting things done. He’s a mentor & friend & I’m proud to endorse him for president. #MikeWillGetItDone
Today, January 30, 2020, I bought a subscription to the Washington Post. I also have subscriptions to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. Thank goodness BBC News is free (and better than what I've been paying for).
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Faith is an excuse to believe in bullshit that makes cowardly morons feel good.
"If one must have faith in order to believe something, or believe in something, then the likelihood of that something having any truth or value is considerably diminished."
-- Christopher Hitchens
-- Christopher Hitchens
I wrote this at the Wall Street Journal 4 years ago. A fucktard thinks "the gift of faith" is a good thing.
FUCKTARD: One of the main things to keep in mind is that not a single dogma (established teaching) of the church has been changed once it has been established as dogma. If any were to change it will call into question the very belief that the church is guided by the Holy Spirit and that the Church is infallible. Cardinal Gibbons made this statement shortly after the first Vatican Council in his book Faith of our Fathers and not a single established teaching has been changed that he outlines in the book. It is great that we can trust in God's church and not have to rely on his Bishops.
ME: Sorry about this nitpicking but your "Holy Spirit" is just a fantasy. It's not real. Spirits, whether or not they are holy, do not exist. Leprechauns have the same problem.
FUCKTARD: It is obvious you do not understand who the Holy Spirit is from the Christian perspective and by your comments you have not been granted the gift of faith. You of course are entitled to your opinion. For Catholics, we know the Holy Spirit, guides our Church and ourselves as part of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three Divine Persons of One God. An article of Faith and a cornerstone of our beliefs.
ME: Sir, I endured 8 years of brainwashing in a Catholic school. I know exactly what your holy spook is and I know it's not real. This is reality. Reality is not an opinion. Today we have something called the "21st century". We know things these days. It's not like the Dark Ages the god-soaked live in.
ME: Sorry about this nitpicking but your "Holy Spirit" is just a fantasy. It's not real. Spirits, whether or not they are holy, do not exist. Leprechauns have the same problem.
FUCKTARD: It is obvious you do not understand who the Holy Spirit is from the Christian perspective and by your comments you have not been granted the gift of faith. You of course are entitled to your opinion. For Catholics, we know the Holy Spirit, guides our Church and ourselves as part of the Trinity: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three Divine Persons of One God. An article of Faith and a cornerstone of our beliefs.
ME: Sir, I endured 8 years of brainwashing in a Catholic school. I know exactly what your holy spook is and I know it's not real. This is reality. Reality is not an opinion. Today we have something called the "21st century". We know things these days. It's not like the Dark Ages the god-soaked live in.
I don't like Christians.
"Is it rude to correct people?"
It's OK if you're nice. However, if it's a Christian then ridicule is probably required.
It's OK if you're nice. However, if it's a Christian then ridicule is probably required.
Part of my income is AT&T dividends. I will keep my shares of AT&T until I drop dead. I'm not interested in capital gains. I only care about the dividends.
AT&T: Well, That Was A Surprise
Very safe dividend
Although the dividend has been hiked again and we do fully expect that the dividend will be hiked again in December 2020, it's more than covered by free cash flow. While dividend hikes have a negative impact to the payout ratio in and of itself, if free cash flow comes in at $28 billion for the year, we project the payout ratio will remain comfortably under 55% for the year. This is a massive improvement from years past. The dividend has been raised like clockwork every year and we see this as continuing. At approximately $15 billion in dividends paid out this year, divided by $28 billion in free cash flow, we see a payout ratio of around 53%-54%. This is very safe. Dividend payments will need to grow by 33% at these free cash flow levels for us to be concerned ($20 billion in payouts, which would bring the payout ratio to back over 70%). Keep in mind, we are, of course, projecting another one penny per quarter increase at the end of the year, so that would only bump payouts by about $300 million. There's a lot of wiggle room.
Final thoughts
This was mostly an in-line quarter with our expectations that we laid out. A few more video sub losses than expected, but positive expense management helped boost EPS above our expectation, while the dividend, that juicy 5.3% yield, remains incredibly safe. More debt reduction and plans for growth of the evolving company are expected in 2020. We love the name, you should own it.
Very safe dividend
Although the dividend has been hiked again and we do fully expect that the dividend will be hiked again in December 2020, it's more than covered by free cash flow. While dividend hikes have a negative impact to the payout ratio in and of itself, if free cash flow comes in at $28 billion for the year, we project the payout ratio will remain comfortably under 55% for the year. This is a massive improvement from years past. The dividend has been raised like clockwork every year and we see this as continuing. At approximately $15 billion in dividends paid out this year, divided by $28 billion in free cash flow, we see a payout ratio of around 53%-54%. This is very safe. Dividend payments will need to grow by 33% at these free cash flow levels for us to be concerned ($20 billion in payouts, which would bring the payout ratio to back over 70%). Keep in mind, we are, of course, projecting another one penny per quarter increase at the end of the year, so that would only bump payouts by about $300 million. There's a lot of wiggle room.
Final thoughts
This was mostly an in-line quarter with our expectations that we laid out. A few more video sub losses than expected, but positive expense management helped boost EPS above our expectation, while the dividend, that juicy 5.3% yield, remains incredibly safe. More debt reduction and plans for growth of the evolving company are expected in 2020. We love the name, you should own it.
Something I wrote at a website that's infested with evolution deniers, also known as Christian assholes.
Do you think Christian creationists are wonderful people?
For example, they are constantly trying to suppress the teaching of evolution so that the students learn nothing about it. Isn't that wonderful?
And when necessary they will harass and threaten biology teachers who teach evolution. Isn't that wonderful?
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Some "Idiot America" stuff written by know-nothing Christian assholes who think evolution is wrong:
"Why do the school systems push an un-proven theory about evolution onto students, and teaching as if it's a fact? The theory of evolution has never been 100% proven, so why teach it. Creationism has also not been proven as fact. If the school systems are going to teach a theory they should first tell the students that what they are about to teach is not fact, so you must take it with a grain of salt."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Don't you think you should prove it before you teach it as fact?"
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Anyone who doesn't suck up to this anti-science asshole is a bigot:
"Are you one of those anti-Christian/creationism hate-mongers and bigots?"
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A normal person wrote this. It's a good example of Idiot America's biology teachers who know nothing about biology.
"I had to learn it on my own during high school. It wasn't taught until I reached college. At least, back then, they weren't pushing intelligent design or creation science."
For example, they are constantly trying to suppress the teaching of evolution so that the students learn nothing about it. Isn't that wonderful?
And when necessary they will harass and threaten biology teachers who teach evolution. Isn't that wonderful?
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Some "Idiot America" stuff written by know-nothing Christian assholes who think evolution is wrong:
"Why do the school systems push an un-proven theory about evolution onto students, and teaching as if it's a fact? The theory of evolution has never been 100% proven, so why teach it. Creationism has also not been proven as fact. If the school systems are going to teach a theory they should first tell the students that what they are about to teach is not fact, so you must take it with a grain of salt."
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
"Don't you think you should prove it before you teach it as fact?"
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
Anyone who doesn't suck up to this anti-science asshole is a bigot:
"Are you one of those anti-Christian/creationism hate-mongers and bigots?"
•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
A normal person wrote this. It's a good example of Idiot America's biology teachers who know nothing about biology.
"I had to learn it on my own during high school. It wasn't taught until I reached college. At least, back then, they weren't pushing intelligent design or creation science."
This is Idiot America. I'm not making this stuff up. We have millions of batshit crazy fucktards.
"What proof do the Christians have about the Earth only being 6000 years old?"
They think the entire universe is 6,000 years old. Imagine the breathtaking stupidity required to believe this anti-science anti-reality bullshit. These people are not just stupid, they're totally insane. And there are millions of them in Idiot America.
They think the entire universe is 6,000 years old. Imagine the breathtaking stupidity required to believe this anti-science anti-reality bullshit. These people are not just stupid, they're totally insane. And there are millions of them in Idiot America.
Imagine the stupidity required to believe in a religion in the 21st century.
"Which religion is the right religion?"
All religions have one thing in common: They were invented by morons who made stuff up.
All religions have one thing in common: They were invented by morons who made stuff up.
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