By Manifesto Joe
Last night, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg finally had enough sense to cancel the NYC Marathon and use the designated generators, food and water to help hurricane-stricken New Yorkers instead. The decision came pretty late in the day, after a firestorm of criticism.
People were just flat-out calling Bloomberg deranged amid such misplaced priorities, like using generators and supplies for that event while ordinary people were freezing and hungry. More sympathy seemed forthcoming for those unfortunate runners who spent small fortunes to come to New York to do something as crazy as to run 26.2 miles (the guy who first did it died).
It stands as just one more of many examples of how rich Republicans just don't get it. To them, common people are indeed an abstraction. They don't really count in the vast scheme of things, unless the outcry becomes so loud that the plutocrats are forced to listen. For Bloomberg, the athletic event was more important than ordinary slobs until his hand was forced.
An endorsement Obama could have done without
Yes, Bloomberg has endorsed Obama for president, crossing party lines. He cited pro-choice and climate change concerns as his main reasons. But having an insular fool like the mayor in Obama's camp certainly doesn't impress me, or any other people who were supporting Obama back when it wasn't cool.
Bloomberg's father was a real estate agent, and he got his M.B.A. from Harvard Business School. When he was fired from the Salomon Brothers investment bank in 1981, he got a $10 million severance package.
He may not have been born on third base, but it sounds like at least second base to me, and he didn't have to hit a double. His net worth is estimated at $25 billion.
There have been people who have said that money wouldn't ruin them, but it usually did. As an example of how completely full of shit this upper-class twit is, this is from his Wikipedia bio:
Bloomberg says that he frequently rides the New York City Subway, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times asserted that he was often seen chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the Lexington Avenue line.
A real man of the people, this one.
Scumney and FEMA
Republican presidential liar Mitt Scumney is handling inquiries about his calls to abolish FEMA, amid the Hurricane Sandy debacle, by simply declining to answer questions on the subject.
He's very much on record as having said a thing this stupid, even as the deadly hurricane was approaching the Northeast. Several other prominent Republicans, including Scumney's running mate, Paul "Ayn" Ryan, have advocated either eliminating FEMA or cutting its funding severely.
An article in The Huffington Post mentioned Scumney's current stand on climate change and global warming:
In 2011 when Romney was asked to define his position on man-made global warming, he said at the time, "My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet."
Not that this is anything new, but Scumney appears to have changed his position on this issue, to please the Republican right wing and mega-rich backers such as the Koch brothers.
It's just one more example -- rich Republicans are out of touch with reality. They just don't get it. I pray that the American people aren't dumb enough to put yet another one of them in the White House.
Manifesto Joe Is An Underground Writer Living In Texas.
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