Mike Klonsky explains why he in not excited about the prospect of Michael Bloomberg’s candidacy for president.
He writes:
Why is this billionaire Republicrat media tycoon and former New York mayor even considering jumping into a crowded Democratic primary as a 14-to-1 longshot? He knows the odds as well as anyone. One, because he can afford to, and two, he wants to be a hedge against the progressive insurgents like Warren and Sanders.
If either of them won the primary, I could even imagine Bloomberg running as an independent or third-party candidate in key battleground or swing states to draw away votes. Bloomberg is worried much more about the progressive ascendency than about his off-and-on frenemy Trump (who calls Bloomberg “Little Michael”).
Known as the stop-and-frisk mayor in New York, Bloomberg once claimed that the biggest problem was his cops “over-stopping whites”, and that he was just evening the score.
During his time in office, Bloomberg wielded his personal power against New York’s communities of color and their public schools. He imposed a tidal wave of privatization on the city, including a big swing towards privately-run charter schools. What pissed me off most was how he used our “small schools” rhetoric to promote charters.
He was an advocate of using standardized testing results as the main vehicle for evaluating school and teacher performance.
If you open the link, you will see a photo of Mike and Eva Moskowitz. He gave her whatever she wanted for her “no excuses” empire.
Bloomberg as mayor was an avid proponent of the main tenets of George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind law: high-stakes testing; closing schools with low scores; opening charter schools; opening scores of small schools and allowing them a “grace period” during which they were not required to admit students with disabilities or English learners. Bloomberg’s Leadership Academy (now closed) tried to lure non-educators into the role of principal and accelerated the careers of teachers into the principalship without the necessity of spending time as an assistant principal.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dems’ circular firing squad in action….All helping Trump’s re-election efforts.
Baloney. The primary is the time to get the best candidate. Trial by fire. If Bloomberg or any other candidate can’t stand the heat now, how do they think they can stand up to Trump?
If by ‘best’ you mean the most ideologically pure/ unblemished candidate, then you’re playing right into Trump’s game.
If you think Bloomberg (or Biden or Booker or Buttigieg or any of the neoliberals) can beat Trump, you’re the one playing into his hands. Enjoy four more years of the Orange Monster.
Ed Steinberg,
First of all, Bloomberg is not a Democrat – he has made it clear he doesn’t like party labels and proudly embraced being a Republican Mayor of NYC. Secondly, there is a difference between “circular firing squad” and talking about a candidate’s policies.
The “circular firing squad” is when you use dishonest right wing talking points and dishonest right wing character attacks and insist that they are true and worrisome and a sign of a candidate’s untrustworthiness to scare people into believing that the policies the candidate DOES embrace are all phony and that candidate will sell you out in a minute because he or she is secretly a corporate tool.
No one is posting that Bloomberg is lying about supporting environmental policies and no one is saying “if Bloomberg wins, he will be encouraging polluting and working hard to lift regulations and encourage corporations to dump dangerous chemicals in the oceans and water supply — don’t believe it when Bloomberg says he is an environmentalist because he is just lying about that to get your vote and secretly plans to destroy the environment as soon as he is elected.”
What they are saying is that the polices that Bloomberg DOES support — charter schools, low taxes on the rich, privatizing, etc. — are wrong.
Bloomberg, like most billionaires, wants low taxes so he can decide where to give his money.
He is great on public health and the environment.
But he is a zealous supporter of charters, even vouchers. He gave teachers a big raise when he started, but then spent 12 years dismantling the public school system and disrupting everything.
Bloomberg’s policies will do nothing to help working families and our public schools.
Former Gov of Mass Deval Patrick is considering entering the Dem field at the urging of Wall St. They are scared of Warren.
Why is it that when billionaires choose to “help” society it ends up making them even more money?
Race in America-
A group of Trump voters live in glass houses.
Today, Huffpo posted a summary of Steven Miller’s e-mails to Breitbart (an organization with ties to Steve Bannon and Robert and Rebekah Mercer). As background for understanding the e-mails, Hitler approved of a Calvin Coolidge immigration law that targeted people from Eastern and Southern Europe. Hitler viewed Coolidge’s law as a model for his plans. Huffpo’s summary states, “Miller made repeated references to Pres. Coolidge’s immigration law.” Italians and Eastern Europeans viewed Coolidge’s law as racist. Critics view Bloomberg’s stop and frisk policy as racist. And, Jewish people knew Hitler was racist.
So, is Bloomberg’s announced candidacy a bluff, a real threat to anti-Trump forces, or neither?
It doesn’t make any sense for Bloomberg to enter the Democratic primaries at this late stage — unless he’s positioning himself for a run as an independent candidate in the general election. His goal is and has always been to enrich himself and subjugate the working class, especially African American people. What makes sense is that he’s entering the Democratic primaries to position himself as a quote-unquote left leaning independent to rob votes from the Democratic candidate if it turns out to be Sanders or Warren. If Warren or Sanders is the Democratic candidate, Bloomberg will run to help Trump win. To help Trump win. Trump. That’s messed up. Stop and Frisk Soda-Nazi Bloomberg is the pits.