PrairiePundit

 Washington Free Beacon: Never in the field of political conflict has so much been spent by one man to gain so little in return. Democratic oligarch Michael Bloomberg poured more than a billion dollars into the 2020 election and accomplished next to nothing. Most of that money funded losing campaigns as well as pro-Biden advertising in states won by Donald Trump. Even if Joe Biden ends up winning, Bloomberg has made a strong case for himself as the election's biggest loser. After spending more than $1 billion on his failed primary campaign, Bloomberg threw his support behind Joe Biden. He targeted three states Trump won in 2016—Florida, Ohio, and Texas—spending $115 million in an effort to boost Biden's chances of turning them blue. It didn't work. Trump won all three states by several percentage points and expanded his 2016 margin in Florida, which is where Bloomberg spent the most money, including $36 million in the final two months of the campaign. In a move that might ...

  Washington Examiner: Bloomberg spends big to tip Arizona utility commission to Democrats This would be a bad move if Arizona adopted his scheme . It would likely at least double the cost of electricity and have the same unreliability as California has.

Daily Wire: Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody reportedly sent a letter to the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement requesting a criminal investigation into a recent report that failed Democrat presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire, has raised more than $16 million to help convicted felons pay off their debts in an attempt to boost Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden in the state. “The letter said that Moody’s office had reviewed Bloomberg’s pledge and referred the matter to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI for a criminal investigation,” CBS 12 reported. “Moody’s letter references Florida’s statute against paying for votes, referencing a Florida Department of State finding that said ‘even an otherwise innocuous offering of an incentive simply to vote can run afoul’ of state election law.” The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that Bloomberg and his team had raised the money “to pay the court fines and fees of nearly 32,000 ...

The Hill: Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 race on Wednesday after a disappointing performance on Super Tuesday despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars in advertisements. "Three months ago, I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump. Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump — because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult," Bloomberg said in a statement. He also endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, saying it was clear from the Super Tuesday results that Biden was the best candidate to defeat Trump in November. “I’ve always believed that defeating Donald Trump starts with uniting behind the candidate with the best shot to do it. After yesterday’s vote, it is clear that candidate is my friend and a great American, Joe Biden," he said. As of Wednesday morning, Bloomberg had secured 44 pledged delegates in the race for the Democrat...

Washington Post: Did Mike Bloomberg waste $500 million running for president? We’re about to find out. The former New York mayor spent a small fortune on “mike,” his 2020 alter-ego. Today, we’ll see what it bought him. I think he probably did.  There is no question that he spent a lot on ads, but I have not seen any groundswell of support.  I do not think I have seen one yard sign for him.  My take on his ad campaign is "meh." And, this is despite a really weak field of candidates put forward by Democrats. Biden appears to be suffering from borderline dementia.  He can't remember what state he is in and has become a gaffe machine.  Sanders is an authoritarian goofball pushing a discredited economic system that has been a disaster wherever it has been tried.  Warren has a bunch of scary plans for spending other people's money. About the only thing, they seem to have in common is an irrational hatred of President Trump.  They do seem to sha...

Silvio Cantu, Jr.: On Super Tuesday, Michael Bloomberg will probably come in third in the Texas primary.  He will lose to Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden. Bloomberg is doing something else in Texas:  spending money on gun control . Everytown for Gun Safety, a Michael Bloomberg-backed group that pushes for expanded background checks, red flag laws and other measures, is plotting what its political director calls an "unprecedented financial and grassroots effort" to flip the Texas House, defend vulnerable freshmen Democrats in Congress and help Democrats take congressional seats in the suburbs. A memo detailing the plan, the group's biggest state investment to date, was shared exclusively with Hearst Newspapers. "We believe that Texas, as it becomes younger and increasingly diverse, can be the next emerging battleground state with gun safety as the tipping point," Chris Carr, the group's political director wrote in the memo.  "We believe there ar...

Legal Insurrection: ... In the meantime, the few solid blows Michael Bloomberg landed against frontrunner Bernie Sanders during the Democratic debate were practically tailor-made for the Trump campaign to use in future ads against Sanders. Here are three of them: 1) After Sanders bemoaned the so-called “grotesque level of income and wealth inequality,” he claims exists in America and said in so many words that billionaires like Bloomberg should be more on board with sharing more of their wealth, Bloomberg hit back hard. Bloomberg told the moderators he would “absolutely not” support what Sanders was proposing. “I can’t think of a way that would make it easier for Donald Trump to get reelected than listening to this conversation. This is ridiculous. We’re not going to throw out capitalism. We tried that. Other countries tried that. It was called communism, and it just didn’t work.” As Bloomberg said that, both Sanders and Sen. Warren audibly groaned and raised their hands to re...

NY Times: Sanders, Attacking Bloomberg, Says Trump Would ‘Chew Him Up and Spit Him Out’ In an interview to be broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” Bernie Sanders said he was surprised by how unprepared Michael R. Bloomberg seemed for the Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Sanders would be even more vulnerable against Trump.  Sanders is loaded with bad ideas and is supported by a bunch of thugs who physically threaten those who oppose their weird ideas.  One Bernie supporter tried to kill Republican congressmen and severely wounded Rep. Steve Scalise.  Others have been recorded making Stalinistic threats against opponents. One of the questions I would want to ask Sanders is how many people he would be willing to incarcerate or kill to impose his control freak policies?

Washington Examiner: Michael Bloomberg’s rivals for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination honed in on his political vulnerabilities during his inaugural debate appearance in Nevada, forcing the billionaire former New York City mayor on the defensive for much of the evening. Confidential agreements over sexual harassment claims at Bloomberg’s financial information and news company, the New York City Police Department’s stop-and-frisk policy during his tenure as mayor, his past comments on the discriminatory housing practice known as “redlining,” and his immense wealth were all fodder for attacks by his five opponents onstage Wednesday, each seeking the right to challenge President Trump in the fall. Even before the broadcast, the body language of the top Democratic candidates as they gathered in Las Vegas to pose for a photograph revealed Bloomberg was the outsider and that he was their target. During the opening question, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders dredged up Bloomberg’s...

Mollie Hemingway: ... Let’s first note that some analysts are comparing him to Trump himself, apparently on account of them both being brash New York billionaires. Bloomberg is, to be sure, far wealthier than nearly every other human being on the planet. But Trump has charisma, a base of support built around his brand, and an actual agenda that is coherent and easy to understand. He took on the establishment wing of his own party and legitimately excited a base that was sick of not getting its way on illegal immigration, endless interventionism, and trade agreements they deemed unfair. Trump hits on issues GOP voters love. He won most of the votes in 2016, most of the delegates, and has extremely strong support in his party. Bloomberg lacks charisma, has no base of support, and his campaign message is “Mike Will Get It Done,” a narcissistic claim that says nothing of substance. In fact, it is evocative of Hillary Clinton’s similarly self-focused “I’m With Her” slogan. When Blo...

It takes knowledge and skill to be a successful farmer.  My dad was always good at growing things.  I did not inherit that trait.  I now live on several acres of land and when I first got here I thought I would grow some vegetables.  About the only thing I could grow in abundance was Jalenpena peppers.  As much as I like them, I certainly could not live on them alone.

Washington Post: Bloomberg qualifies for Wednesday’s Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas Mike Bloomberg’s Democratic rivals, who have been publicly critical of the former New York mayor, are eager for a chance to counter hundreds of millions in television advertising he has already aired He has to stand up to the anti-capitalist opposition to distinguish himself.  He really has no choice.  Capitalism is what made him a billionaire.  His machines became the ultimate capitalist tool. 

NY Times: Past Remarks Are Troublesome for Bloomberg, and Fair Game for Rivals For two months, Michael Bloomberg’s campaign has been preparing for a moment it knew would come: when decades of impolitic and insensitive remarks would face renewed scrutiny. It took longer for the media to dig out impolitic remarks by Trump in 2016.  Bloomberg has enough of them to publish a book.   It will be interesting to see if they start showing up in the ads of rivals.  So far the media is not as antagonistic with Bloomberg as it was with Trump. What I would really like to see is Bloomberg square off with Bernie Sanders of the benefits of capitalism over socialism.  So far, Bloomberg has been running mainly defensive ads about his past policies as mayor.

Washington Post: Mike Bloomberg for years has battled women’s allegations of profane, sexist comments A review by The Post of thousands of pages of court documents, depositions obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and interviews with witnesses underscores how Bloomberg and his company, Bloomberg LP, have fought the claims. While much of the publicity has focused on the former head of Fox News, media titans at other networks and news organizations have also found themselves in trouble because of their "profane, sexist comments" and actions.  Bloomberg may not have Harvey Weinstein's reputation but his alleged actions do suggest arrogance and a lack of respect.

BizPacReview: Bless his heart. Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg was roasted on Twitter for his failed attempt at slinging Texas slang while pandering to voters in Houston. At the time, Bloomberg unconvincingly bragged that President Trump is scared of running against him. “Mini-Mike”– who looked so nervous that he’d worry the warts off a frog — made the claims while speaking to the Harris County Democratic Party. Bloomberg awkwardly stammered as he read off the teleprompter: “Now if I were from Texas, I might say Donald Trump is scared as a cat at the dog pound. But since I’m from New York, I’ll put it this way: We’re scaring the living hell out of him! And we’re just starting.” ... Texas Monthly magazine polled its newsroom and concluded that “none of us could recall ever having heard this aphorism before.” In Bloomberg’s defense, the phrase was included in a past Texas Monthly article about “Texas sayings.” Whether the adage is authentic or not, the incide...

Thomas Lifson: Right before our eyes, a mega-billionaire is buying the presidential nomination of a political party, and oddly enough, it is the party that decries inequality of wealth and whose leading lights debate  taxing billionaires out of existence .   This will not end well for the Democrats.  Bloomberg is luring the party’s elites into visibly betraying the principles most of its rank-and-file hold dear and identifying themselves as sellouts who can be bought by sheer force of lucre. A bitter split will be hard to avoid. Holman Jenkins of the  Wall Street Journal  gets right to the point in his headline” “Bloomberg buys the Democratic elite.” It is not the rank and file getting rich off of Bloomberg, but rather the ostensible leadership class, and therein lie the seeds of destruction for the party that purports to be about the common man, woman, and nonbinary individual.   He’s distorting the incentives of activists, officials and campaign ...

NY Times: Bloomberg Once Linked 2008 Crisis to End of Redlining Bias in Home Loans The billionaire drew condemnation for his newly surfaced comments on redlining, in which banks discriminated against people of color seeking to borrow money to afford homes. Redling was unfair, but so was the Democrats push to give loans to people who could not afford to pay.  The push to make loans to people who could not afford them was even crueler and more disastrous than the redlining.  It wound up having a cascading effect on people who could afford their loans as their houses lost value because of so many foreclosures.  The inability to sell a home for what was owed had a devasting impact on the economy in certain areas of the country. Redling wound up being a thoughtless way of dealing with people struggling in a poor neighborhood.  The people applying for credit should be judged on their own ability to pay.  Doing away with redlining, should not have led to ign...

Hot Air: We’re approaching rodeo season in Texas and it looks like Democrat candidate Michael Bloomberg is taking his best shot at lassoing the support of moderate-leaning voters in the state. Can he take advantage of Joe Biden’s less than stellar performance in Iowa by striking while the iron is hot? Yes, of course, he can. Michael Bloomberg has already pledged to spend whatever amount of money is needed to win the Democrat primary and then go on to do the same running against President Trump. His campaign playbook is a non-traditional one – he’s skipping the early state contests and targeting the states who vote on Super Tuesday. The two big prizes in the delegate count on that day will come from Texas and California. It looks like Bernie is poised to win big in California if everything holds as it is now, so it’s sensible that Bloomberg is focusing on Texas. Texas is a better fit for Bloomberg anyway, with more moderate Democrats than in California. Bloomberg makes Texas a reg...

Washington Post: Bloomberg seizes on chaos in Democratic presidential race to escalate his campaign The billionaire former New York mayor is financing a massive political machinery across the country and has rolled out multiple endorsements in preparation for Super Tuesday in early March. Bloomberg became a billionaire by developing a significant tool of capitalism.  In the early days, brokers would fight to get one of his machines on their desks.  The machines and their content made him rich, but they also made investors smarter about their investments and brokers loved them as a sales tool.  I once acted as an arbitrator in a case between a broker and his firm where they were fighting over supplying the Bloomberg service. Sanders seems to hate or at least distrust capitalism.  He appears to be socialist to his core.  Having the two of them go toe to toe on capitalism vs. socialism would be entertaining and educational for many of the Bernie supporters. ...

Silvio Cantu, Jr.: Over the weekend, I saw a ton of "Bloomberg for president" TV ads.  They were good and probably very expensive. On the ground in Texas, Mr. Bloomberg got off to an unimpressive start.  In fact, 45 people showed up to hear the New Yorker,  according to news reports : Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg claims he is ready to spend more than $1 billion in an effort to oust President Trump, but money may not be bringing supporters to his campaign. Just 45 people showed up to Bloomberg's latest rally with TV star Judge Judy Sheindlin in Texas on Saturday, according to the New York Post. "Unlike everyone else in this race, I think what's important is beating Donald Trump," Bloomberg told the sparse crowd of fewer than 50 people in San Antonio. Bloomberg, 77, has eschewed tradition by entering the race late, forgoing attempts to make the debate stage, spending big out of his personal account, and focusing on the later states in ...