A number of people I respect seem to be moving towards Bloomberg out of concern that only he will beat Trump. I wished more Republicans had stood up and sounded the alarm over Trump in 2016. I don't plan to sit idly by and do nothing with our version of Trump. #BloombergIsTrump
First, Michael Bloomberg does not share our values. He might agree with us on guns, abortions, etc., but he is a misogynistic and racist billionaire who is using his money to buy the primary. Those things are antithesis of what we believe. I'm happy to provide receipts.
On the charge that Michael Bloomberg is a racist, we have his policy of stop and frisk. There's a lot that people don't know about it. For example, the SDNY held it to be unconstitutional because it 5A and 14A. It illegally targeted people on the basis of their race.
Further, the officers were supposed to have reasonable suspicion for a Terry stop. Instead, they were stopping people with no reason at all. That's patently illegal. And when people asked why they were being stopped, they were mistreated and arrested.
After spending millions to defend the policy in court, Bloomberg lost badly. The judge's opinion tore him and the NYPD to shreds. What did Bloomberg do? He doubled down. He appealed it, got a temporary stay, kept the policy, and vowed to fight for it until the end of his tenure.
It took de Blasio being sworn in for New York to settle the case and end the policy. Bloomberg claimed it would cost New Yorkers their lives. What actually happened is that NY's crime rate continued to drop. How did Bloomberg handle that? He doubled down.
cnn.com/2019/01/22/pol…
cnn.com/2019/01/22/pol…
And Bloomberg's comments about stop and frisk are absolutely disgusting. Here's one of video of him defending it:
Here's another video that should shock the hell out of you:
Why? Because the actual fact of the matter is that WHITE PEOPLE who were stopped were MORE LIKELY to get caught with contraband. What he's saying here is racist. It is at odds with the data.
Why? Because the actual fact of the matter is that WHITE PEOPLE who were stopped were MORE LIKELY to get caught with contraband. What he's saying here is racist. It is at odds with the data.
Why does stop and frisk bother me? Because we already have a President who doesn't care about the Constitution. Bloomberg believes that we should ignore people's constitutional rights when the ends justify the means. That is repugnant to me. I will fight to protect our rights.
Moving away from stop and frisk, y'all remember the Central Park 5? There was a TV series on their circumstances from @ava released in 2019. It gutted me to watch. Those kids were abused by an unjust system. Many of us went after Linda Fairstein, the prosecutor, for her conduct.
We've also torn Trump apart for the awful ad he ran calling for them to be killed and his unwillingness to admit those kids are innocent after they were exonerated. Well, Michael Bloomberg had a chance to compensate those kids. What did he do?
Moving onto Bloomberg's sexism, this is an amazing thread on all of the abhorrent things he has said:
When you are at risk of losing the moral high ground to Trump on the treatment of women, you are a poor reflection of this party's values.
When you are at risk of losing the moral high ground to Trump on the treatment of women, you are a poor reflection of this party's values.
Back to Bloomberg's racist views, he claimed that the elimination of redlining instigated to the Great Recession. That opinion is absolutely ridiculous and completely at odds with what any credible economics expert says about the cause of the crisis.
You might wonder what redlining is. Here's a great thread to show how harmful it was:
It was basically a form of Jim Crow applied to housing and zoning.
It was basically a form of Jim Crow applied to housing and zoning.
Finally, we have Bloomberg's lack of loyalty to this party. The man has spent his career playing both sides of the fence. He endorsed Bush over Kerry in 2004. He donated to Republicans trying to keep the House in 2018 (including the awful Steve Scalise).
Simply put, if Michael Bloomberg wants to spend a billion dollars helping our nominee get Trump out of office. Go for it. I'm not too good to take his money. But he is not an acceptable candidate for President. He does not possess the values to represent this party.
The Republicans should have stood on their principles and rebuked Trump. They failed. Now, they have either abandoned their party or are forced to shill for him as he does one awful thing after another. I will not be forced into either scenario. We can stop Bloomberg now.
We can pick a nominee who can beat Trump without compromising our values. The idea that we need to elect Bloomberg because he's super rich is not what we believe. We believe in campaign finance reform and that money shouldn't buy the Presidency or Congress. We must stand up.
We must fight for what we believe. We cannot sell our souls to beat Trump. We can beat Trump with our integrity intact. I know some of you like Bloomberg. If you want to unfollow me for this thread, that's your choice. But I will not be quiet. I will oppose that man.
And if necessary, I will vote for Bernie over Bloomberg to be our nominee. Many of you know my issues with Bernie and his Bros. You know I think he has electability issues. But I can vote for Bernie without feeling that I betrayed all of my values. To Michael Bloomberg . . .
I also feel terrible for leaving out Bloomberg's awful comments about transgender women. They are absolutely unacceptable. I stand with the transgender community!
D'oh. Looks like my brain was on the fritz. That should say, "For example, the SDNY held it to be unconstitutional because it violated 4A and 14A." They were conducting illegal searches and seizures in violation of the Fourth Amendment.
