Michael Bloomberg and the Imperious Presidency

Until we start denuding the Oval Office, we will continue getting the royals we deserve.

Matt Welch and Lex Villena | 2.13.2020 2:44 PM

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If Donald Trump could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it, what brazenness might we expect from his fellow septuagenarian Manhattanite presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg?

Written and narrated by Matt Welch. Motion graphics by Lex Villena.

Based on an article from our March 2020 issue.

Music Credits: In Former Rings by Unheard Music Concepts (Creative Commons License), Lex Villena - Origins, Chad Crouch - Negentropy (Creative Commons License)

Photo Credits: Chris Kleponis/picture alliance/Consolidated/Newscom, Kristin Callahan/ACE Pictures/Newscom, MATTHEW HEALEY/UPI/Newscom, Christy Prosser/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Jeff Topping/Polaris/Newscom, SteveSands/NewYorkNewswire/MEGA / Newscom, ID 146827241 © Oleksandr Kulik | Dreamstime.com, ID 92469508 © Vodickap | Dreamstime.com, Michael Vadon, Pbg/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Christy Prosser/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Stefani Reynolds/CNP/AdMedia/Newscom, Chris Kleponis - Pool via CNP / MEGA / Newscom, Stefani Reynolds/CNP/AdMedia/Newscom, Official White House photos by Tia Dufour, Zahim Mohd/ZUMA Press/Newscom, White House photo by Eric Draper, Kristin Callahan/ACE Pictures / SplashNews, Wikipedia David Shankbone, Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call/Newscom, SplashNews/Newscom, Ben Moffat/ZUMA Press/Newscom, Jesus Rosales/EFE/Newscom, Harshil Shah Flickr

NEXT: Alexander Hamilton's Influence on Free Press Law: Free Speech Rules (Episode 10)

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loveconstitution1789 5 years ago

As we said before, Bloomberg is not going to be president in 2020.

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1. Kevin Smith 5 years ago
  
  Well in any case he wouldn't be president until Jan 20, 2021 lol
  
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2. John 5 years ago
  
  Don't let Welch fool you. Bloomberg is exactly the kind of Progressive power top Welch longs for.
  
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  1. Idle Hands 5 years ago
    
    The only person who remotely seems to understand the value of a Trump like character as a disrupter is Gillespie. Honestly even if you hate his guts and policies you have to acknowledge he's done more to dissuade the notion that only a top man can run this country than anyone in recent memory. Just by the fact nothing's been cratered and the Economy by most metrics is doing good. This drives everyone in the establishment bananas and is my favorite part of the Trump's legacy. Because even if say Trump is a fucking idiot knuckle dragging narcissist(which an my estimation he is) it shows any fucking knuckle dragging narcissist can do the job adequately. Which is hilarious.
    
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    1. John 5 years ago
      
      I said this all through 2016 and it is just as true today as it was then. The establishment was always terrified that Trump would be a success. They didn't care if he failed. They would have loved that. It would have allowed them to tell the country I told you so. What they feared and still do fear is his success. Trump is proving that a real estate hustler and former reality TV star can not only do the "hardest job in the world" but do it better than any politician since Reagan. And that is killing them. And yes it is hilarious.
      
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      1. Idle Hands 5 years ago
        
        I really can't grasp the company line around here. I know Gillispie is way into the hilarity of PT Barnum running circles around these career military, bureaucrats, and political hacks but he has to literally caveat it every time he talks about it for fear people think he's a *gasp supporter of this awesome fucking circus. These people are libertarians and they act horrified by the whole fucking spectacle makes no sense as they have been railing against this current system and calling what it is forever. But now we finally have someone who is literally tweeting how the sausage is made and unveiling to everyone the empire has no clothes and what a grift it all is they fucking clutch their pearls like little establishment bitches.
        
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        Nardz 5 years ago
        
        Because they are little establishment bitches.
        What I don't get is the ridiculous need of some commenters to pretend that the people who write for Reason aren't leftist establishmentarian tools
        
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        JoeJoetheIdiotCircusBoy 5 years ago
        
        I would assume because some of the commenters here actually read Reason. I don't really see how Gillespie, Sullum, or Tuchille are "little establishment bitches" (or leftish establishmentarian tools for that matter) but I'm open to counter points of pattern and practice if you want to provide them. I think cases could definitely be made for some (e.g., Dalmia and Suderman) and potentially for others I'm not as familiar with (e.g., Riggs, Greenhut).
        
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        John 5 years ago
        
        It is a class issue. The reason staff hate Trump's supporters and consider them and he to be beneath their class.
        
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        Quo Usque Tandem 5 years ago
        
        Cue the Rev; I mean the "real" one not the parodies that have popped up recently. Though I much prefer them.
        
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        BigT 5 years ago
        
        Trump is a vulgar bully. And these folks don’t want to be identified with him less they too be seen as such. Trump would be considered a leper in Biblical times.
        
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        Nardz 5 years ago
        
        He is, in every sense, an iconoclast.
        Reason doesn't have the balls for controversy or opposition to the status quo in any but approved realms.
        They are controlled - hmm, "opposition" isn't really the right word for what they offer - a controlled "alternative"
        
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        Naaman Brown 5 years ago
        
        I personally wish The Hunt (originally Red State v Blue State) turns out to be Tucker & Dale vs. Evil Hostel Elite Hunting Club and fires up the deplorables not registered to register and vote for None-of-the-above (Trump) 2020. Middle finger to both established parties.
        
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        Rufus The Monocled 5 years ago
        
        KMW says Trump caused an existential crisis at Reason.
        
        I don't see why. If anything, he should have reinvigorated the top men here at Reason.
        
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        Nardz 5 years ago
        
        There are neither men nor tops at Reason
        
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3. NoVaNick 5 years ago
  
  I agree. Outside the coastal progopolises, he is more despised than Hillary. It will be hilarious to see him lose knowing that he blew over 1 billion on his campaign (which is insignificant for him of course-he probably makes that every time he takes a dump).
  
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  1. John 5 years ago
    
    I want to see him lose the nomination to Bernie and then go third party. Then he can lose after blowing a couple of billion and get blamed by the left for Trump getting a second term.
    
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    1. NoVaNick 5 years ago
      
      I would pay to see Antifa milkshake him.
      
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      1. John 5 years ago
        
        do you have a kickstarter for that, because I am definitely in for a couple of hundred towards that cause.
        
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  2. Idle Hands 5 years ago
    
    It's hilarious a corporate billionaire who made his money on Wall Street and owns a media company is a member of the current democratic party and is the current odds on second favorite to only an out and out communist/socialist. It also tells you everything you need to know about them.
    
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    1. Rufus The Monocled 5 years ago
      
      And his paper is allowed to cover him.
      
      It's not a joke on the level of George Stephanopoulos getting a media gig but it's a conflict of interest I reckon.
      
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4. loveconstitution1789 5 years ago
  
  The Forbes Investigation: How Bloom Energy Blew Through Billions Promising Cheap, Green Tech That Falls Short
  
  Friends in green places: Bloom Energy's Sridhar gives an early factory tour to then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mike Bloomberg in 2006.
  
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5. Hank Phillips 5 years ago
  
  Maybe not. But he can upend dumptruck-loads of cash into the maw of the looter media that are out to put The Don on the spot. A couple of billion dollars would go a long way toward paying the Nixon-subsidized media to ignore/badmouth libertarian candidates to keep us from draining off twelve million spoiler votes. Easier to gorge fake media on cash than to convince folks that banning electricity, adding debt and bombing the other side of the planet are desirable things.
  
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OpenBordersLiberal-tarian 5 years ago

Bloomberg is a billionaire who's spending enormous sums of money to shape American politics according to his preferences. Which is exactly what Koch / Reason libertarianism is all about.

#BillionairesKnowBest

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1. Ryan (formally HTT) 5 years ago
  
  never stop
  
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Ryan (formally HTT) 5 years ago

At least this guys creating jobs and putting otherwise worthless losers to work.

Welch, for example.

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Idle Hands 5 years ago

And you hate the man whose doing the best at decoupling the importance of the executive and top man syndrome since Andrew Jackson.

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TrickyVic (old school) 5 years ago

""If Donald Trump could shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it, what brazenness might we expect from his fellow septuagenarian Manhattanite presidential candidate, Michael Bloomberg?"""

As long as it's De Blazio, either could get away with it.

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1. Naaman Brown 5 years ago
  
  That gets tiresome. Donald Trump joked he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and get away with it. A joke. Bloomberg is serious.
  
  That repetition of 5th Avenue wisecrack gets almost as tiresome as the constant Democrat echo of Trump's unwisecrack about grabbing pussy made among male golfing buddies decades ago, repeated endlessly since 2016 by Democrats in front of the children. He said it once, they repeat constantly. Yet mention that Jack actually cheated on Jackie with a Mafia bimbo, that's beyond the pail or outside the bucket.
  
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JDS1 5 years ago

Reason has gone batshit fucking crazy if you think Bloomberg is more of an authoritarian than Trump. Did Bloomberg suggest a 'Second Amendment solution' if he lost? Did he urge people to beat up protesters at his rallies? Did Bloomberg have his administration disobey court orders? Seriously, fuck Reason. You guys must be on the take, paid by Russian oligarchs. Fucking sellouts.

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1. Nardz 5 years ago
  
  Lol
  
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2. BigT 5 years ago
  
  OBL has competition!
  
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3. Naaman Brown 5 years ago
  
  Did Trump actually suggest a second amendment solution if he lost?
  No.
  Spin doctored bullshit is what the Democrats put out about that, with their usual disdain for factual actual quotes.
  That's in my fake news folder.
  
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  1. JDS1 5 years ago
    
    Thanks losers, for the dispatch from the incel 'community.'
    
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JDS1 5 years ago

Reason are shills for Russian oligarchs. No other way to explain hyperventilating about Bloomberg's 'authoritarianism' after ignoring or apologizing for him stoking violence by his supporters ('just shoot them!' 'Ill pay your legal fees'), pretending concern about Trump's calls for a third term and riding Putin's cock are 'Trump Derangement Syndrom.' Give me a fucking break, Welch. You are garbage

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1. Nardz 5 years ago
  
  ^literally psychotic
  
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  1. Sevo 5 years ago
    
    You're too kind.
    
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Rufus The Monocled 5 years ago

Bloomberg offers a new category in psychiatry where he merges the God and Napoleon to form a toxic complex.

The DNC had three years to try and form a coherent message and rally around a candidate who wasn't crazy. Instead, they chose to drag the country through not one but two bull shit episodes.

Here's the thing that's really troubling and bizarre at the same time: They're gonna double down with the conspiratorial witch hunts. When Trump wins in the fall, what are the gonna do for an encore?

How far are they willing to go?

Will they go even more bat-shit moonbat to the point they won't be able to win the mid-terms in 2022 or even the Presidency in 2024?

I remember when progs were saying a Democrat dynasty had arrived and that the GOP may never win again because they were eating their corn-stuffed shit during the Dim Lightbringer years.

I wonder, and things can shift on a dime in politics as we know, though if the GOP can parlay this into making them the natural governing party for the next couple of election cycles?

And I guarantee you, whatever Trump manages to pass here on in, will become the norm for Democrats. He's doing stuff no one was willing to do because they were either too scared because of polls or just plain disinterested - ie tax and prison reform. He takes on the 'elephants in the room' no establishment politician dared to ever touch.

I want another four years just to see what he can do.

And to see the left just basically melt down to the point of nothingness.

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IceTrey 5 years ago

No, we need to apply the NAP to government. All this talk about the symptoms and not the disease.

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NoVaNick 5 years ago

Bloombots must be spamming this thread. Also my comment about Antifa milkshaking Bloomberg if he runs third party and helps re- elect Trump was flagged yesterday

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tim koss 5 years ago

why do I get the feeling that a substantial portion of Reason readers and libertarians in general voted for Trump?

and what did you expect when you voted for liar of such ginormous appetites for the lie and then make every conceivable excuse for him?
you might have expected we find the one guy who can really yank his chain . for us its take a chance on Bloomberg's progressive record or look down the barrel of a 2nd Trump term where he will be a 12 alarm civil liberties fire

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1. NoVaNick 5 years ago
  
  Yes, there are some Trumpists here but I for one did not vote for him, or Hillary. You can say what you want about him but I have a hard time imagining that a second Clinton administration would have been better for civil liberties given their secrecy and corruption. Trump may be corrupt be he is the opposite of secret-blurting every thing that pops into his head into Twitter.
  As far as Bloomberg is concerned-I do not see how you can call someone who supported stop and frisk specifically targeting people of color and ordered the NYPD to spy on muslims a progressive or civil libertarian.
  
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  1. Hank Phillips 5 years ago
    
    Easy. Go to Faux Nooz and click on the Doughboy whining about Bloomberg's filthy libertarian lucre. I can think of nothing more offensive than being package-dealt into the geriatric kleptocracy.
    
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Michael Bloomberg and the Imperious Presidency

Until we start denuding the Oval Office, we will continue getting the royals we deserve.

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