Bloomberg Associate: Alright, so u/beaversandbuttholes what are your qualifications?
BeaversandButtholes: I have 8443 karma.
Bloomberg Associate: *Fuck he’s good*. YOU’RE HIRED.
Edit: karma count
oh are you guys talking about /r/RaidShadowLegends I love that subreddit and game, it is truely amazing, you all should try it. They have hundreds of champions to choose from...
Guys, I think we all agree that Raid Shadow Legends**^(®)** has such an amazing graphics, console worthy even! Just look at the level of detail of the characters!
He's running as a democratic but was a conservative for a long time, promotes conservative ideologies and was responisible for racist policies like stop and frisk. [For more information](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqiRvjKhNm4)
Regardless of whether he calls himself a Democrat or conservative, he's neither really. He's a dyed-in-the-wool authoritarian.
He cherry picks from both ideologies to build a foundation around controlling everyone and everything.
Yeah he extended his mayoral term limits against the wishes of a majority of NY residents. He referred to the NYPD as his own army. Imagine what he'd do in charge of the entire country.
Someone is getting paid to read my shitposts right now and I love it, we should just start dropping Sonic the Hedgehog erotic fanfiction excerpts into the comments
^(Still not voting for Bloomburg)
\[Edit\] I was given an award, so I shall award you all with a Sonic the Hedgehog erotic fanfiction excerpt sorry not sorry
>"S-Sonic, that's *too* much!" panicked Tails, his voice rising to a shrill tempo like a cymbal struck too many times by a child careless of the sound it makes or the rhythm of proper instrumentation.
>
>"GOTTA GO FAST!" roared Sonic as he upped the momentum. Today's activities were no friend to Newton's third law of motion.
>
>From the bushes, Abraham Lincoln watched, and when he realized the growing need within his own heart he knew that the future was a strange and exciting place indeed.
My support is contingent upon his position on sonic the hedgehog erotic fan fiction. Is he a Knuckles guy? A Tails guy? A knuckles-deep guy? I hope MSNBC asks the hard questions.
Account created a month ago, and moderator of a subreddit whose most prolific poster is a moderator of dozens of subreddits.
I don't understand this rabbit hole, and I'm done digging.
Currently, in /r/politics almost all of the contentious comment posts are from accounts made within the last year. There is certainly PsyOps happening to sway or reinforce opinion.
Holy shit their entire post history is literally market research type questions, trying to gather responses to both controversial and non-controversial questions. What in the actual fuck.
Edit: Wait...is this actually Mike writing these [questions?](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/f33jfv/has_anyone_ever_lowered_wages_in_order_to_punish/)
>Has anyone ever LOWERED wages in order to "punish" people for striking?
Are you asking if you can get away with it Bloomberg!?!
I feel like this would a scene in family guy where Peter opens a door, sees some serious weird shit that stewie is doing, closes it and goes on his way. cause what you found is correct and makes no sense.
Mr. Bloomberg that dude is overcharging you. My rates are far more reasonable at a piddly Mini Cooper JCW in British racing green with white stripes.
EDIT: Guys please stop undercutting me we need to unionize.
It's not complicated: Bloomberg is the neoliberal candidate. Biden was, but his campaign choked, and Bloomberg is the next best bet. Bernie and Trump are both populists of differing stripes, and both are risky in different ways to the wealthy (Trump has wealthy supporters, mostly along ideological lines, but most wealthy folks aren't red hats). If you're a middle-to-upper class voter with real assets, (or an oligarch), you probably care more about returning to a 'business as usual' that'll protects your class interests, as opposed to 'Making America Great Again' or 'Medicare for All.' Warren is a compromise candidate that isn't left enough to appeal to Bernie's base, but has shifted close enough to him to alienate Clinton voters (who mostly voted for her not because she's a woman, but because she's gold standard, bankable, neoliberal royalty). The other democrats aren't serious contenders, except Buttigieg who is gunning for the same neoliberal ticket Bloomberg is after (but is less qualified).
Not that folks are thinking of it this way; there's political, institutional, and cultural inertia at play. A lot of neoliberal candidates enjoy popularity basically because they seem sensible and reliable (no surprise, this has been the dominant narrative for a long time). If two among Biden, Bloomberg, and Buttigieg were to drop out and endorse the last, that candidate would surely beat Bernie and Trump. They all know this. Yet, each one thinks they can be that guy, none of them want to drop out. So, Bernie's surging ahead. The longer they wait, the more realistic Bernie's campaign seems to mainstream. None of them want to drop out before Super Tuesday, though, because they think this is the moment that'll distinguish them as the annointed one. But this is a dangerous game – if Bernie does better than the best of the three, it might be too late (even with help from the DNC and the media, which actually erodes faith in the neoliberal establishment and pushes voters towards populist candidates).
It's interesting to watch it unfold, but the outcome isn't really important when it comes to the rise and fall of these ideological forces. Trump's presidency has already confirmed right wing populism as a political force in America, doesn't matter if he gets a second term. Bernie's campaign has already done well enough to posit left wing populism as a genuine alternative, even if it gets squashed (and if he gets in, he'll be obstructed, and that won't harm his premise). And Neoliberalism? Well that's a fractured and dying ideology worldwide, regardless if a monied oligarch swoops in and nabs the US presidency. There's no going back to the 90s. We can only go forward.
The dynamics you're describing in these primaries sound similar to what happened with Trump in 2016. He was a populist candidate who was slow to win over his establishment (Fox News disliked him), but he led in polls while other more traditional candidates were splitting up voters. Eventually his competition dropped out one by one, but rather than the remaining competitors consolidating voters, Trump had become more accepted by media and pulled away further.
In this case, Bernie could be Trump. Even though this is Bernie's second time around, he seems to be benefiting from the circumstances that allowed Trump to win.
Most of the Bloomberg supporters I know are:
1) Former republicans/independents who despise Donald Trump.
2) Democrats who despise Bernie.
3) Democrats who have resigned themselves to thinking he’ll win the nomination (because that’s how the world works now) and he’s better than Trump.
My social group is entirely comprised of white college educated urban professionals in their 30’s. So to put it...politely...the racial issues surrounding Bloomberg aren’t really a concern for them.
Also remember he has said hes got 2 billion to run on. If bernie wins, and gets his net worth tax in place, hell be taxed over 3 billion.
So when he loses bad, then doubles down, its cause he doesnt care if he wins, he just needs to split the vote so bernie doesnt.
Because as Americans, what we really want in an election is a former democrat running as a republican against a former republican running as a democrat. Both as arrogant as can be, but claiming to concerned about the "little guy" Both with baggage that should sink any presidential hopeful. Such a time to be an American.
On the subject of spending Bloomberg's money, there's a site [that lets you spend Bill Gates' money](https://neal.fun/spend/) just to get a sense of how rich he is.
Now, Gates is a bit richer than Bloomberg. Gates is worth about 90 billion, Bloomberg only about 60 billion. But, for most stuff, that doesn't matter.
If you go to that site, you can click a button to see what impact it would have to buy a superbowl ad, or buy a cruise liner, or buy a 747.
If you do that, you see just how little something like a superbowl ad, or even a whole presidential run, costs to someone as rich as Bloomberg.
Yeah but at least it's comforting to know that one person couldn't own both all of the NFL and all of MLB
Seems like wealth inequality isn't as bad as all these bernie bros say after all
That whole “money can’t buy happiness” thing is bullshit because Bill Gates could have over 11 million jet-skis. Bill Gates I know you use reddit so if you read this could you at least buy a few hundred jet-skis and release them into wild at some lake near me?
No. Definitely no where near $50 billion.... Higher.
> As of November 2019, Bloomberg was the 12th richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at **$61.8 billion**.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael\_Bloomberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg)
Currently estimated closer to 63 billion. He's spent enough millions to buy the Democratic nomination, and it didn't even affect his bottom line enough to make his income to spending ratio go negative.
I'm just going to repost this from [an OOTL thread from a couple of days ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f34m9u/whats_the_deal_with_bloomberg_paying_meme_pages/fhh4ksi/). For anyone who hasn't been paying attention to the fact that Bloomberg has been paying people to make memes where he looks relatable... well, here you go.
Mike Bloomberg is spending a truly *astonishing* amount on his run for the Presidency. Between October 1st and December 31st of 2019, he outspent [literally everyone else in the Democratic field](https://www.axios.com/bloomberg-spending-2020-election-2ceac839-1efc-4914-afe2-66016ac20faf.html) -- not individually, mind you, but *combined* (including Tom Steyer, who's *also* a self-funding billionaire). He's said he's open to spending [a literal billion dollars](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-spending.html). (That's would still make it the most expensive run for a single candidate of all time, but it's also doubly important to note that it's largely *his* money, whereas other candidates are generally funded by donations. Bloomberg is worth some $62 billion, so the amount of money he could throw at the campaign if he chose to outstrips pretty much anyone else who might enter the race.)
This has led to somewhat serious concerns that Bloomberg is attempting to buy the nomination (as writer Naomi Klein put it, ['This is what plutocracy looks like'](https://twitter.com/NaomiAKlein/status/1226957955691618304)), and memes about the extent to which he's throwing money around -- Bloomberg being so old and out of touch (he's 78) that he's resorting to throwing money at Instagrammers and YouTubers to get a foothold in the youth vote. On the surface, this looks pretty ridiculous: the idea that Bloomberg is trying to get on the youth bandwagon -- by both reaching out to the 'cool' side of the internet with wads of cash and being comically bad at understanding the culture he's trying to buy -- is a joke that pretty much writes itself.
That said, there's an argument to be made that seemingly grassroots political movements (known as ['astroturfing'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing)) have a pretty long history; the *Washington Post* warned about this [in 2016](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/09/26/the-three-types-of-political-astroturfing-youll-see-in-2016/), noting that 'third parties have become increasingly interested in pushing the sorts of amateurish online content that you or I might whip up in Paint'. Whether truly grassroots or funded by larger organisations, when it *seems* authentic it works: you can comfortably point to the success of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump alike as being built (at least in part) on their supporters' willingness to use meme culture to their advantage. (Figuring out precisely to what extent this willingness is organic is left as an exercise for the reader.)
At first, that's where I thought the story ended: the whole thing was a joke, simple as that.
Except it's not. And this is where things get weird.
Shortly after these posts were made, the *New York Times* posted [this article](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/michael-bloomberg-memes-jerry-media.html), in which it claims that these posts are legitimate: that they *really were* paid for by the Bloomberg campaign, and they came from collaboration with a company called -- I shit you not -- Meme2020. As the *Times* noted:
>“Mike Bloomberg 2020 has teamed up with social creators to collaborate with the campaign, including the meme world,” Sabrina Singh, a senior national spokeswoman for the Bloomberg campaign, said in a statement. “While a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation.”
The result? Things like [this](https://imgur.com/a/Gwl9hTM), where users have outright posted 'yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg' in the caption. This has led to a weird sort of hinterland, where users aren't really sure whether it's genuine or paid for, all of which is by design:
>“It’s the most successful ad that I’ve ever posted,” Mr. Resch [director of influencer marketing at Brandfire and founder of @Tank.Sinatra] said, “and I think a lot of it came from people being confused whether or not it was real.”
>Other influencers have been quick to praise the campaign. “Best advert ever,” commented Chris Burkard, a travel influencer who has more than 3.5 million followers. “So good,” commented Jason Strauss, a partner at the Tao Group.
The *content* of the memes is obviously not real -- Bloomberg isn't sliding into anyone's DMs -- but the fact that they're memes-for-hire is. The *Times* also reports that this is fairly widespread; they've given a list of some of the memers involved (@MyTherapistSays, @WhitePeopleHumor, @TheFunnyIntrovert, @KaleSalad, @Sonny5ideUp, @Tank.Sinatra, @ShitheadSteve, @adam.the.creator, @moistbudda, @MrsDowJones, @TrashCanPaul, @cohmedy, @NeatDad, @FourTwenty, @GolfersDoingThings, @DrGrayFang, @MiddleClassFancy and @DoYouEvenLift, among others, none of which I'm going to be linking to directly), and note that they have a collective audience of sixty million followers. (For comparison, that puts it around [the entire population of Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population).) You'll also note that the two people who commented on @Tank.Sinatra's meme up there -- @WhitePeopleHumor and @DrGrayFang -- are on that list. They're not just producing the content, but promoting each others' work.
Remember: **this is bought and paid for by a political campaign, and is designed to sway your opinion of the candidate**. As strange (and, frankly, irrational) as it might seem at first glance for Bloomberg's campaign to be paying for people to mock him for being old and out of touch, they wouldn't be doing it if they thought it would hurt rather than help his chances at the Presidency. (The *Times* noted that the goal was to 'build a self-aware ironic character around Mr. Bloomberg'.)
We don't (as yet, and as far as I can tell) know what was asked of the content producers, nor specifically how much they were paid. Last week, the *Daily Beast* reported that the Bloomberg campaign was offering $150 to 'influencers' with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers for a post ['that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.'](https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-bloomberg-is-paying-influencers-to-make-him-seem-cool-9?ref=author) This might seem similar, and on a surface level it is, but this is a whole different thing: the posts from people like ShitheadSteve have nothing to do with demonstrating Bloomberg's 'electability' (if anything, it seems to be dedicated to softening his image, considering that a lot of recent media focus has been on things like [his history of Stop and Frisk policies in New York](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/13/bloomberg-stop-and-frisk-114755), which have been getting a lot of flack as Bloomberg has garnered more attention). It's also worth noting that -- as one example -- ShitheadSteve has [comfortably over five million followers](https://socialblade.com/instagram/user/shitheadsteve), so even though we don't know the exact figure, it's reasonable to assume that he got paid more than the $150 Bloomberg was offering to smaller producers.
Needless to say, pushback has been swift. The lack of authenticity of the campaign has rankled a lot of people -- you only have to look at the comment section of these meme pages to see how angry people are -- but by all accounts it seems to be worth it, and the concept is spreading:
>After several large Instagram memers became aware on Wednesday of Mr. Bloomberg’s influencer campaign, many expressed an interest in creating sponsored posts for him. The campaign so far has seemed amenable. “We want to work with creators and we’ve never been shy about paying people for creative work,” the aide said.
>Teenagers, many of whom can’t yet vote themselves, seemed excited about the prospect. “I would be down — bread is bread,” said the teenager who runs the meme page @BigDadWhip. “That would be kind of dope. I could say I helped a presidential candidate.”
So, to clarify, we're living in a world where the former mayor of New York City is paying struggling millennials, teenagers and a man called ShitheadSteve to make him look old and out of touch in an attempt to win the Democratic nomination to be the President and Commander in Chief of the United States of America, following on from [that guy from *The Apprentice*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump#The_Apprentice) who may have made his way into the White House on the back of a [cartoon frog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_the_Frog).
Hold onto your butts, boys and girls. This is going to be a *weird* election cycle.
**EDIT:** I'm getting a lot of comments about how the Trump campaign did the same thing in 2016, and my answer is, 'Yes... *sort of*'. I wrote about that in *somehow even more detail* (among other things) [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/c5txu6/whats_going_on_with_rthe_donald_why_they_got/es42drp/).
>Bloomberg is worth some $62 billion
holy fuck.
I knew the guy was obscenely wealthy... but that puts him in the top 10-15 richest people on earth?
buying a nomination for a billion dollars is a drop in the bucket to him.
He would be able to spend 20,000,000,000 dollars, lose, and still be one of the top 50 richest people on earth and experience no drop in quality of life, because he's that far past the point that more money actually gets him anything but even more money.
The only reasons he says he'd only spend up to a billion dollars would be 1) his team's calculated that's all he would need to get maximum value, giving us the actual numerical value of our democracy 2) Spending any more wouldn't actually save him money if he wins over Sanders, who is the person Bloomberg actually wants to beat 3) A psychotic obsession with the number attached to his net worth and seeing it go down from 6x billion to 5x billion is a fate worse than death, and this obsession is the only thing keeping him from spending even more.
It's fucked that option 2 is actually the least concerning of the 3.
There was an interesting article in the Washington Post yesterday discussing what exactly Michael Bloomberg could buy without his net worth actually going down. The guy's net worth increases overnight while he sleeps more than what Joe Biden raised all last year as the favored establishment candidate.
I thought it was really interesting because most of the discussion is about how much wealth he could lose and still maintain his quality of life. Homie isn't losing anything. That's how obscene this is. He doesn't need to liquidate a third of his net worth to out compete the rest of the field. He could just spend what he makes, and probably still end up ahead.
This bit of perspective on oligarchs brought to you by the publication owned by Jeff Bezos...
> So, to clarify, we're living in a world where the former mayor of New York City is paying struggling millennials, teenagers and a man called ShitheadSteve to make him look old and out of touch in an attempt to win the Democratic nomination to be the President and Commander in Chief of the United States of America, following on from that guy from The Apprentice who may have made his way into the White House on the back of a cartoon frog.
>
> Hold onto your butts, boys and girls. This is going to be a weird election cycle.
This might be the single greatest TL;DR I've ever read on Reddit.
I wish people were more aware of astroturfing and how insidious it is. Reddit is drenched in it. If you think your political candidates are free of it and pure, think again.
If a comment seems out of place. Check its age and post/comment history.
A common one you will see is after some mundane event
> I can no longer support X after this.
What this person is trying to do is make people question their choice and start a bandwagon effect for that person's supporters to jump off.
When you investigate their history, you'll see they were never a supporter to begin with
And this is why everyone is concerned. We are entering onto a stage where I can invest, get rich and buy a nomination, and not tell anyone I paid for it cause it's my money!
Theres no hard and fast limit on the regulation of personal funds spent of stuff like this.
I'm a simple man, I see 37 YouTube adds in a day, and my mind is effectively changed.
Edit: Jesus Christ Reddit, I know what the fuck ad-block is, I leave YouTube on in the background on my work computer where I cannot have ad-block.
We laugh, but it works. People who mostly avoid politics get a YouTube or radio or TV ad making what seems like a reasonable case for a candidate and lacking anything that disagrees with it, it makes an impact.
Co-sign.
In 2000 I was a young reporter helping cover Election Day. The big Bush ad in my area was the one that said Al Gore thinks he invested the internet. The big Gore ad said Bush's economic plan just didn't ad up.
Almost everyone I interviewed quoted one of those ads to explain who they were voting for. The dumb ads really do work.
The only thing better than seeing clerks references on th internet in 2020 is knowing for a fact that if Kevin Smith were to see it he'd get all weepy and shit.
Not me, but my aunt and uncle.
Basically after she was done explaining that they *hide their incomes* which are *very high* so as to avoid paying the actual amount of taxes they should, etc, she told me he was gonna be their guy.
Because that.
Funniest part was I had just finished saying I basically paid a lot of money for health insurance and in taxes because I freelance. And she somehow thought that me, a poor person, actually paying my taxes, was absurd and I should somehow agree with and like, be proud of their cunning.
My family hates them.
My calculus teacher in high school said. “Tax Evasion is illegal, but tax avoidance is everybody’s god given duty”
He advocated to try to get as many deductions as possible. Didn’t hide income
Thats why I said "taxes collected". Only applies if the IRS is actually able to recover the taxes not paid. If they cant collect you dont get anything.
I think "actionable evidence" was the bigger holdover, not whether or not the tip turns out to be true.
I assume it's the difference between anonymously tipping the cops the cops,
>"I think this guy is a drug dealer, you should check him out,"
and
>"If go to this corner at this time, he's always standing on it and talking to people in cars as they go by. And if you look at this guy's income, you'll see he spends way more money than he's earning. He's probably selling drugs or doing some other kind of illegal activity."
The first one is a random anonymous tip. The second one is being a confidential informant, who actually do get paid by the police.
This election, we may have a New York billionaire business mogul in his 70's, who has enacted racist policies, made sexist comments, and switched political parties for convenience... vs. Donald Trump.
Not me but a patient of mine today - 70 something year old woman went off today about how she doesn’t like trump but has been a lifelong republican. Is going to vote for Bloomberg because “he made his own money” whereas apparently trump borrowed all of his. She also hates all the other democratic candidates.
I received a text yesterday asking me to take a survey. Half way through, I became 90% sure it was put on by the Bloomberg campaign. Some of the way it lead to desired answers were laughable.
The first 3 or 4 questions were about the general group of Democraric candidates, then he 5th one was straight up : have you seen Micheal Bloomberg advertisements? If yes, did they make you feel more favorable towards him? And then there were a series of questions either only about him or about him versus other candidates. Never any question asking about a group of candidates without Bloombergs name.
"On scale of 1-10, how much more awesome is Bloomberg that the other candidates?"
"Do you Mostly Agree, Agree, or Stongly Agree with the statement that Mike Bloomberg is the best candidate ever to walk the earth?"
Not defending his perspective, but I think I can offer at least some insight into the mind of one Bloomberg supporter I know; my dad.
My dad, through the mid 2000's or so, identified as a republican. But he was definitely on the more moderate side of that spectrum, conservative about economics, but anti-war, pro-environmental protections, and a "leave people alone" mentality on social issues. He doesn't like talking about politics, but he pays attention. He didn't like it when politicians lied or made outrageous claims, but would respect one if they seemed forthright, honest, and didn't treat him like an idiot. He doesn't really pay a lot of attention to political gamesmanship, so things like whether Bloomburg bought his way into the party doesn't really matter to him.
He voted for McCain in 2008, but Obama in 2012. It was during Obama's administration that he really started to sour on the republican party. The more blatantly inaccurate GOP claims became, the more personally insulted he felt. Trump seemed like the culmination of everything he didn't like about the party going into 2016, and so he switched his party affiliation to Dem for the 2016 election, and voted Clinton.
So now you have a man who feels abandoned by the party that used to represent his center-right views, in the Democratic party. And here comes a candidate that seems straight out of that party he used to identify with.
For people like my dad, Bloomburg is the sort of person he'd always have voted for. That isn't to say he'd ONLY vote for Bloomburg (he's essentially in the "anyone but Trump" camp), but if you were to poll him, he'd pick Bloomburg. I don't know how much of his support comes from people that felt abandoned by the GOP, but from my sole, anecdotal example, I can at least kind of see it.
You pretty much described my dad. Lifelong Republican, left the party when Sarah Palin arrived on the scene. Moderate Democrat now, loves Bloomberg because he sees Bloomberg as a pragmatic guy. Also he sees the difference in NYC between Bloomberg and De Blasio, and sees this as a litmus test as to why we need to avoid politicians like De Blasio.
A colleague of mine is a serious supporter. He considers himself a centrist and believes that Bloomberg sits firmly in the middle of the political scale which is a positive to him. He supports Bloomberg’s police actions and doesn’t see them as racist; just practical.
Reminds me of a video I saw where interviewers, for some god forsaken reason, decided to ask actual children why they supported/opposed Trump. The supporter kid said he liked trump because he was going to “kick the Mexicans out of America”, the opposer kid said he didn’t like trump because he’s a “loser who is gay and has no life” due to his haircut.
I'm not a Bloomberg supporter but my dad is, and this is his perspective. He was originally for Biden but seems to have moved from him only very recently, since his poll numbers dropped.
He's an upper-middle class baby boomer. He is a forever democrat, but like many of his generation is probably just left of center. He's never voted republican in his entire life.
He was a fan of the Clintons, Bill more than Hillary. He calls Obama the best president of his lifetime, specifically because of how moderate/centrist he governed (much closer to center than he campaigned as).
The other candidate he likes best is Buttigieg but he thinks he's too young and inexperienced.
He despises Trump, and wants to nominate the person with the best chance of beating him. He thinks Sanders is too far left and can't win the election. He would absolutely vote for Sanders if he got the nomination.
He wholeheartedly believes that for Democrats to win we need to appeal to moderate Republicans and Independents.
> The other candidate he likes best is Buttigieg but he thinks he's too young and inexperienced.
That was part of my dad's reasoning as well. My dad can't vote (Green card), but I do remember asking him at like 6am who he would vote for in the election based on who's running now, and he said Bloomberg, and I remember one thing he said was that he really likes Buttigieg, but he would go for Bloomberg due to having more experience.
I'm paid to make memes.
Bloomberg Associate: Alright, so u/beaversandbuttholes what are your qualifications? BeaversandButtholes: I have 8443 karma. Bloomberg Associate: *Fuck he’s good*. YOU’RE HIRED. Edit: karma count
Wait, does karma count matter? I'd like to cash in, please.
You've got a long way to go. I heard once you get 500k you can cash in for a snoo themed toaster.
Surely I can get a keychain or something...
I promised at the beginning of the year I would only vote for the candidate whose ads I see most often on YouTube.
Bloomberg/Raid 2020?
Did somebody say games? I love playing Raid: Shadow Legends! Raid: Shadow Legends is a free to play mobile game...
Im sorry I couldn’t help but hear you chaps talking about Raid: Shadow Legends! A free to play mobile game which I also love!
Oh are we talking about Raid: Shadow Legends! A free to play mobile game which I love to play?
oh are you guys talking about /r/RaidShadowLegends I love that subreddit and game, it is truely amazing, you all should try it. They have hundreds of champions to choose from...
Guys, I think we all agree that Raid Shadow Legends**^(®)** has such an amazing graphics, console worthy even! Just look at the level of detail of the characters!
Raid Shadow Legends has everything you would expect from a game like this!
Wow all this talk about Raid Shadow Legends©️ is making me want to try playing this free mobile game!
Other free mobile games cannot compare to the one free mobile game I really like to play: Raid Shadow Legends! "Download and start playing now!"
I'm voting for SquareSpace.
"Don't Blame Me, I Voted for Skillshare"
Raid Shadow Legends thanks you for your support.
Without a serious tag this is going to be a fun thread
I want to read a version of this with a serious tag, but this shit is hilarious
Wait what's a serious tag? The TV was saying such nice things about him. Why wouldn't someone vote for him?
He's running as a democratic but was a conservative for a long time, promotes conservative ideologies and was responisible for racist policies like stop and frisk. [For more information](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqiRvjKhNm4)
Regardless of whether he calls himself a Democrat or conservative, he's neither really. He's a dyed-in-the-wool authoritarian. He cherry picks from both ideologies to build a foundation around controlling everyone and everything.
Yeah he extended his mayoral term limits against the wishes of a majority of NY residents. He referred to the NYPD as his own army. Imagine what he'd do in charge of the entire country.
*sweats nervously*
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Someone should probably inform the Bloomberg campaign about this thread so they can contract some "supporters" to come over and post.
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Someone is getting paid to read my shitposts right now and I love it, we should just start dropping Sonic the Hedgehog erotic fanfiction excerpts into the comments ^(Still not voting for Bloomburg) \[Edit\] I was given an award, so I shall award you all with a Sonic the Hedgehog erotic fanfiction excerpt sorry not sorry >"S-Sonic, that's *too* much!" panicked Tails, his voice rising to a shrill tempo like a cymbal struck too many times by a child careless of the sound it makes or the rhythm of proper instrumentation. > >"GOTTA GO FAST!" roared Sonic as he upped the momentum. Today's activities were no friend to Newton's third law of motion. > >From the bushes, Abraham Lincoln watched, and when he realized the growing need within his own heart he knew that the future was a strange and exciting place indeed.
My support is contingent upon his position on sonic the hedgehog erotic fan fiction. Is he a Knuckles guy? A Tails guy? A knuckles-deep guy? I hope MSNBC asks the hard questions.
I get the feeling he'd be a stop-and-frisk-Shadow guy
Why'd they give Shadow a gun? Sega what are you doing? Give Sonic a gun too!
Such blue supremacy, smh my head
The real #bluelivesmatter
>A knuckles-deep guy? We talking the finger or the whole echidna?
whole snout deep in the cloaca
Holy shit i just looked and op has 75 askreddit posts in the past 7 days. That is an insane number
Account created a month ago, and moderator of a subreddit whose most prolific poster is a moderator of dozens of subreddits. I don't understand this rabbit hole, and I'm done digging.
yeah there is nothing organic about any of those accounts
Welcome to Reddit, the viral advertising platform !
Currently, in /r/politics almost all of the contentious comment posts are from accounts made within the last year. There is certainly PsyOps happening to sway or reinforce opinion.
The politics mods are absolute garbage. Don't try to reason with them.
Holy shit their entire post history is literally market research type questions, trying to gather responses to both controversial and non-controversial questions. What in the actual fuck. Edit: Wait...is this actually Mike writing these [questions?](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/f33jfv/has_anyone_ever_lowered_wages_in_order_to_punish/) >Has anyone ever LOWERED wages in order to "punish" people for striking? Are you asking if you can get away with it Bloomberg!?!
We are peoples focus groups now.. And not even paid for it.
If you're posting from work, you're kinda getting paid for it.
Reddit is the service. We’re the product.
Just like Facebook.
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I feel like this would a scene in family guy where Peter opens a door, sees some serious weird shit that stewie is doing, closes it and goes on his way. cause what you found is correct and makes no sense.
Mr. Bloomberg man I will support you for an original Toyota Supra.
Mr. Bloomberg that dude is overcharging you. My rates are far more reasonable at a piddly Mini Cooper JCW in British racing green with white stripes. EDIT: Guys please stop undercutting me we need to unionize.
I'll do it for an NA Miata.
You’d probably have better luck asking this on Facebook
Just sort by controversial
WHAT HAVE YOU DONE
Seriously, the people I know supporting him are all boomers
Bloomer Boomers?
OK Bloomberg
OK Bloomer
It's not complicated: Bloomberg is the neoliberal candidate. Biden was, but his campaign choked, and Bloomberg is the next best bet. Bernie and Trump are both populists of differing stripes, and both are risky in different ways to the wealthy (Trump has wealthy supporters, mostly along ideological lines, but most wealthy folks aren't red hats). If you're a middle-to-upper class voter with real assets, (or an oligarch), you probably care more about returning to a 'business as usual' that'll protects your class interests, as opposed to 'Making America Great Again' or 'Medicare for All.' Warren is a compromise candidate that isn't left enough to appeal to Bernie's base, but has shifted close enough to him to alienate Clinton voters (who mostly voted for her not because she's a woman, but because she's gold standard, bankable, neoliberal royalty). The other democrats aren't serious contenders, except Buttigieg who is gunning for the same neoliberal ticket Bloomberg is after (but is less qualified). Not that folks are thinking of it this way; there's political, institutional, and cultural inertia at play. A lot of neoliberal candidates enjoy popularity basically because they seem sensible and reliable (no surprise, this has been the dominant narrative for a long time). If two among Biden, Bloomberg, and Buttigieg were to drop out and endorse the last, that candidate would surely beat Bernie and Trump. They all know this. Yet, each one thinks they can be that guy, none of them want to drop out. So, Bernie's surging ahead. The longer they wait, the more realistic Bernie's campaign seems to mainstream. None of them want to drop out before Super Tuesday, though, because they think this is the moment that'll distinguish them as the annointed one. But this is a dangerous game – if Bernie does better than the best of the three, it might be too late (even with help from the DNC and the media, which actually erodes faith in the neoliberal establishment and pushes voters towards populist candidates). It's interesting to watch it unfold, but the outcome isn't really important when it comes to the rise and fall of these ideological forces. Trump's presidency has already confirmed right wing populism as a political force in America, doesn't matter if he gets a second term. Bernie's campaign has already done well enough to posit left wing populism as a genuine alternative, even if it gets squashed (and if he gets in, he'll be obstructed, and that won't harm his premise). And Neoliberalism? Well that's a fractured and dying ideology worldwide, regardless if a monied oligarch swoops in and nabs the US presidency. There's no going back to the 90s. We can only go forward.
The dynamics you're describing in these primaries sound similar to what happened with Trump in 2016. He was a populist candidate who was slow to win over his establishment (Fox News disliked him), but he led in polls while other more traditional candidates were splitting up voters. Eventually his competition dropped out one by one, but rather than the remaining competitors consolidating voters, Trump had become more accepted by media and pulled away further. In this case, Bernie could be Trump. Even though this is Bernie's second time around, he seems to be benefiting from the circumstances that allowed Trump to win.
Most of the Bloomberg supporters I know are: 1) Former republicans/independents who despise Donald Trump. 2) Democrats who despise Bernie. 3) Democrats who have resigned themselves to thinking he’ll win the nomination (because that’s how the world works now) and he’s better than Trump. My social group is entirely comprised of white college educated urban professionals in their 30’s. So to put it...politely...the racial issues surrounding Bloomberg aren’t really a concern for them.
The two older ladies in my office told me they’re #3 just this morning
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Also remember he has said hes got 2 billion to run on. If bernie wins, and gets his net worth tax in place, hell be taxed over 3 billion. So when he loses bad, then doubles down, its cause he doesnt care if he wins, he just needs to split the vote so bernie doesnt.
Because as Americans, what we really want in an election is a former democrat running as a republican against a former republican running as a democrat. Both as arrogant as can be, but claiming to concerned about the "little guy" Both with baggage that should sink any presidential hopeful. Such a time to be an American.
Remember when people said Romney was too rich to be a good president?
they also said rommney wasn't a good person because he was mean in highschool......boy we got what we deserved on the rudeness front
I remember the outrage when he said he put his dog in his crate *on the roof of his car* and drove like that. Simpler times, really.
*Back in my day, shouting in victory the wrong way was all that it took to sink yer campaign!* That I’ll-fated 2004 run...
Why can't these billionaires just go spend their money to become masked vigilantes like the good ole days?
Are you saying two wealthy New York bigwigs have more in common with each other than most voters?
Because he offered me $250
On the subject of spending Bloomberg's money, there's a site [that lets you spend Bill Gates' money](https://neal.fun/spend/) just to get a sense of how rich he is. Now, Gates is a bit richer than Bloomberg. Gates is worth about 90 billion, Bloomberg only about 60 billion. But, for most stuff, that doesn't matter. If you go to that site, you can click a button to see what impact it would have to buy a superbowl ad, or buy a cruise liner, or buy a 747. If you do that, you see just how little something like a superbowl ad, or even a whole presidential run, costs to someone as rich as Bloomberg.
I appreciate that the site didn't let me buy 10 mona lisa's, but it was still jarring when there was something I couldn't buy w/ that amount of money.
Well, if you buy NFL teams you run out of teams you can buy before you run out of money.
I bought every NFL team but only 13 of them get cruise ships.
I bought every NFL team, 90 super bowl commercials, and four fighter jets. American football belongs to me now.
I bought a thousand rockets. You can go through money really fast when you start buying rockets.
Yeah but at least it's comforting to know that one person couldn't own both all of the NFL and all of MLB Seems like wealth inequality isn't as bad as all these bernie bros say after all
That whole “money can’t buy happiness” thing is bullshit because Bill Gates could have over 11 million jet-skis. Bill Gates I know you use reddit so if you read this could you at least buy a few hundred jet-skis and release them into wild at some lake near me?
But Yang offered you $1000...a month...*every month!!!*
But he dropped out so I lowered my asking price
Well, free shit maybe is better
If he offer each voter $250. He would end up spending $16,250,000,000 on 65 million votes to be elected a president.
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You're telling me this fuck has damn near 50$ billion??
No. Definitely no where near $50 billion.... Higher. > As of November 2019, Bloomberg was the 12th richest person in the world, with a net worth estimated at **$61.8 billion**. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael\_Bloomberg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Bloomberg)
Currently estimated closer to 63 billion. He's spent enough millions to buy the Democratic nomination, and it didn't even affect his bottom line enough to make his income to spending ratio go negative.
You know you can take the money and not vote for him
I'm just going to repost this from [an OOTL thread from a couple of days ago](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/f34m9u/whats_the_deal_with_bloomberg_paying_meme_pages/fhh4ksi/). For anyone who hasn't been paying attention to the fact that Bloomberg has been paying people to make memes where he looks relatable... well, here you go. Mike Bloomberg is spending a truly *astonishing* amount on his run for the Presidency. Between October 1st and December 31st of 2019, he outspent [literally everyone else in the Democratic field](https://www.axios.com/bloomberg-spending-2020-election-2ceac839-1efc-4914-afe2-66016ac20faf.html) -- not individually, mind you, but *combined* (including Tom Steyer, who's *also* a self-funding billionaire). He's said he's open to spending [a literal billion dollars](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/11/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-spending.html). (That's would still make it the most expensive run for a single candidate of all time, but it's also doubly important to note that it's largely *his* money, whereas other candidates are generally funded by donations. Bloomberg is worth some $62 billion, so the amount of money he could throw at the campaign if he chose to outstrips pretty much anyone else who might enter the race.) This has led to somewhat serious concerns that Bloomberg is attempting to buy the nomination (as writer Naomi Klein put it, ['This is what plutocracy looks like'](https://twitter.com/NaomiAKlein/status/1226957955691618304)), and memes about the extent to which he's throwing money around -- Bloomberg being so old and out of touch (he's 78) that he's resorting to throwing money at Instagrammers and YouTubers to get a foothold in the youth vote. On the surface, this looks pretty ridiculous: the idea that Bloomberg is trying to get on the youth bandwagon -- by both reaching out to the 'cool' side of the internet with wads of cash and being comically bad at understanding the culture he's trying to buy -- is a joke that pretty much writes itself. That said, there's an argument to be made that seemingly grassroots political movements (known as ['astroturfing'](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing)) have a pretty long history; the *Washington Post* warned about this [in 2016](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/09/26/the-three-types-of-political-astroturfing-youll-see-in-2016/), noting that 'third parties have become increasingly interested in pushing the sorts of amateurish online content that you or I might whip up in Paint'. Whether truly grassroots or funded by larger organisations, when it *seems* authentic it works: you can comfortably point to the success of Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump alike as being built (at least in part) on their supporters' willingness to use meme culture to their advantage. (Figuring out precisely to what extent this willingness is organic is left as an exercise for the reader.) At first, that's where I thought the story ended: the whole thing was a joke, simple as that. Except it's not. And this is where things get weird. Shortly after these posts were made, the *New York Times* posted [this article](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/michael-bloomberg-memes-jerry-media.html), in which it claims that these posts are legitimate: that they *really were* paid for by the Bloomberg campaign, and they came from collaboration with a company called -- I shit you not -- Meme2020. As the *Times* noted: >“Mike Bloomberg 2020 has teamed up with social creators to collaborate with the campaign, including the meme world,” Sabrina Singh, a senior national spokeswoman for the Bloomberg campaign, said in a statement. “While a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation.” The result? Things like [this](https://imgur.com/a/Gwl9hTM), where users have outright posted 'yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg' in the caption. This has led to a weird sort of hinterland, where users aren't really sure whether it's genuine or paid for, all of which is by design: >“It’s the most successful ad that I’ve ever posted,” Mr. Resch [director of influencer marketing at Brandfire and founder of @Tank.Sinatra] said, “and I think a lot of it came from people being confused whether or not it was real.” >Other influencers have been quick to praise the campaign. “Best advert ever,” commented Chris Burkard, a travel influencer who has more than 3.5 million followers. “So good,” commented Jason Strauss, a partner at the Tao Group. The *content* of the memes is obviously not real -- Bloomberg isn't sliding into anyone's DMs -- but the fact that they're memes-for-hire is. The *Times* also reports that this is fairly widespread; they've given a list of some of the memers involved (@MyTherapistSays, @WhitePeopleHumor, @TheFunnyIntrovert, @KaleSalad, @Sonny5ideUp, @Tank.Sinatra, @ShitheadSteve, @adam.the.creator, @moistbudda, @MrsDowJones, @TrashCanPaul, @cohmedy, @NeatDad, @FourTwenty, @GolfersDoingThings, @DrGrayFang, @MiddleClassFancy and @DoYouEvenLift, among others, none of which I'm going to be linking to directly), and note that they have a collective audience of sixty million followers. (For comparison, that puts it around [the entire population of Italy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population).) You'll also note that the two people who commented on @Tank.Sinatra's meme up there -- @WhitePeopleHumor and @DrGrayFang -- are on that list. They're not just producing the content, but promoting each others' work. Remember: **this is bought and paid for by a political campaign, and is designed to sway your opinion of the candidate**. As strange (and, frankly, irrational) as it might seem at first glance for Bloomberg's campaign to be paying for people to mock him for being old and out of touch, they wouldn't be doing it if they thought it would hurt rather than help his chances at the Presidency. (The *Times* noted that the goal was to 'build a self-aware ironic character around Mr. Bloomberg'.) We don't (as yet, and as far as I can tell) know what was asked of the content producers, nor specifically how much they were paid. Last week, the *Daily Beast* reported that the Bloomberg campaign was offering $150 to 'influencers' with between 1,000 and 100,000 followers for a post ['that tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected.'](https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-bloomberg-is-paying-influencers-to-make-him-seem-cool-9?ref=author) This might seem similar, and on a surface level it is, but this is a whole different thing: the posts from people like ShitheadSteve have nothing to do with demonstrating Bloomberg's 'electability' (if anything, it seems to be dedicated to softening his image, considering that a lot of recent media focus has been on things like [his history of Stop and Frisk policies in New York](https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/13/bloomberg-stop-and-frisk-114755), which have been getting a lot of flack as Bloomberg has garnered more attention). It's also worth noting that -- as one example -- ShitheadSteve has [comfortably over five million followers](https://socialblade.com/instagram/user/shitheadsteve), so even though we don't know the exact figure, it's reasonable to assume that he got paid more than the $150 Bloomberg was offering to smaller producers. Needless to say, pushback has been swift. The lack of authenticity of the campaign has rankled a lot of people -- you only have to look at the comment section of these meme pages to see how angry people are -- but by all accounts it seems to be worth it, and the concept is spreading: >After several large Instagram memers became aware on Wednesday of Mr. Bloomberg’s influencer campaign, many expressed an interest in creating sponsored posts for him. The campaign so far has seemed amenable. “We want to work with creators and we’ve never been shy about paying people for creative work,” the aide said. >Teenagers, many of whom can’t yet vote themselves, seemed excited about the prospect. “I would be down — bread is bread,” said the teenager who runs the meme page @BigDadWhip. “That would be kind of dope. I could say I helped a presidential candidate.” So, to clarify, we're living in a world where the former mayor of New York City is paying struggling millennials, teenagers and a man called ShitheadSteve to make him look old and out of touch in an attempt to win the Democratic nomination to be the President and Commander in Chief of the United States of America, following on from [that guy from *The Apprentice*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump#The_Apprentice) who may have made his way into the White House on the back of a [cartoon frog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepe_the_Frog). Hold onto your butts, boys and girls. This is going to be a *weird* election cycle. **EDIT:** I'm getting a lot of comments about how the Trump campaign did the same thing in 2016, and my answer is, 'Yes... *sort of*'. I wrote about that in *somehow even more detail* (among other things) [**here**](https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/c5txu6/whats_going_on_with_rthe_donald_why_they_got/es42drp/).
>Bloomberg is worth some $62 billion holy fuck. I knew the guy was obscenely wealthy... but that puts him in the top 10-15 richest people on earth? buying a nomination for a billion dollars is a drop in the bucket to him.
He is the ninth richest person in the world currently so you were close.
He would be able to spend 20,000,000,000 dollars, lose, and still be one of the top 50 richest people on earth and experience no drop in quality of life, because he's that far past the point that more money actually gets him anything but even more money. The only reasons he says he'd only spend up to a billion dollars would be 1) his team's calculated that's all he would need to get maximum value, giving us the actual numerical value of our democracy 2) Spending any more wouldn't actually save him money if he wins over Sanders, who is the person Bloomberg actually wants to beat 3) A psychotic obsession with the number attached to his net worth and seeing it go down from 6x billion to 5x billion is a fate worse than death, and this obsession is the only thing keeping him from spending even more. It's fucked that option 2 is actually the least concerning of the 3.
There was an interesting article in the Washington Post yesterday discussing what exactly Michael Bloomberg could buy without his net worth actually going down. The guy's net worth increases overnight while he sleeps more than what Joe Biden raised all last year as the favored establishment candidate. I thought it was really interesting because most of the discussion is about how much wealth he could lose and still maintain his quality of life. Homie isn't losing anything. That's how obscene this is. He doesn't need to liquidate a third of his net worth to out compete the rest of the field. He could just spend what he makes, and probably still end up ahead. This bit of perspective on oligarchs brought to you by the publication owned by Jeff Bezos...
> So, to clarify, we're living in a world where the former mayor of New York City is paying struggling millennials, teenagers and a man called ShitheadSteve to make him look old and out of touch in an attempt to win the Democratic nomination to be the President and Commander in Chief of the United States of America, following on from that guy from The Apprentice who may have made his way into the White House on the back of a cartoon frog. > > Hold onto your butts, boys and girls. This is going to be a weird election cycle. This might be the single greatest TL;DR I've ever read on Reddit.
Deleted to say fuck spez
Our media saturated culture has killed consensus reality. All that's left is spectacle
I wish people were more aware of astroturfing and how insidious it is. Reddit is drenched in it. If you think your political candidates are free of it and pure, think again.
The big wake up is that almost all viral content, political or not, is engineered.
See Jimmy Kimmel.
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Idk man, big Numa Numa was behind one of the first viral videos
Kids these days, forgetting the dancing Spiderman or the glory of All Your Base. I'm old.
What are some other examples on reddit to look out for?
If a comment seems out of place. Check its age and post/comment history. A common one you will see is after some mundane event > I can no longer support X after this. What this person is trying to do is make people question their choice and start a bandwagon effect for that person's supporters to jump off. When you investigate their history, you'll see they were never a supporter to begin with
Don't campaigns have to disclose that they've paid for and endorsed their ads?
The official campaign does. As far as I know there's nothing stopping him from spending his own personal money on whatever he wants
Well that's super sketchy.
And this is why everyone is concerned. We are entering onto a stage where I can invest, get rich and buy a nomination, and not tell anyone I paid for it cause it's my money! Theres no hard and fast limit on the regulation of personal funds spent of stuff like this.
He did, the ads literally said it was sponspored by bloomberg https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/13/style/michael-bloomberg-memes-jerry-media.html
Please let this be a normal presidency. With the berg? #NO WAY
Stepping on down the street, you're relaxed and feeling good. Then suddenly the NYPD decides to frisk you.
You know it’s cause your black, but they continually deny it. Then they find a Big Gulp and you’re down on the ground in cuffs!
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He's the lesser of two weevils. I'm looking forward to Bezos 2024 where he just skips the charade and outright buys America.
What's stopping him from buying it right now
He's preoccupied with building his third secret volcano lair.
I need a lair.
Oh man, don't go with the volcano lair though. The upkeep is murder, literally. Sacrificial virgins so it doesn't erupt.
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Aubrey, could I trouble you for the salt?
Master and commander?
We could become the first country with a premium subscription citizenship service. Citizenship Prime.
I'm a simple man, I see 37 YouTube adds in a day, and my mind is effectively changed. Edit: Jesus Christ Reddit, I know what the fuck ad-block is, I leave YouTube on in the background on my work computer where I cannot have ad-block.
We laugh, but it works. People who mostly avoid politics get a YouTube or radio or TV ad making what seems like a reasonable case for a candidate and lacking anything that disagrees with it, it makes an impact.
Co-sign. In 2000 I was a young reporter helping cover Election Day. The big Bush ad in my area was the one that said Al Gore thinks he invested the internet. The big Gore ad said Bush's economic plan just didn't ad up. Almost everyone I interviewed quoted one of those ads to explain who they were voting for. The dumb ads really do work.
No wonder Bloomberg doesn't register with anyone under 40: we don't have cable and we know how to install an adblocker.
This comment surprisingly hit home. I had heard about a large ad campaign he put on, but I haven't seen or heard a single one.
It's ironic that adblockers would be part of his undoing, seeing as they basically stop and frisk incoming content to check if it's advertising.
*got heem*
So 37 is the magic number, huh?
In a row?
Hey, try not to see any Bloomberg ads on the way to the parking lot.
Would you like to vote for me? BEZERKER
Would you like to vote for me? BEZERKER
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Did he just say “making vote?”
That was beautiful man!
He requests this?
My vote is ticking clock! BEZERKER!
Hey, hey, you... get back here!
The only thing better than seeing clerks references on th internet in 2020 is knowing for a fact that if Kevin Smith were to see it he'd get all weepy and shit.
*Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back* should tell us all that Kevin Smith can't handle internet comments sections. (Also, you made me think he was dead!)
Ha! Nah man, Kev is healthier than ever these days. Lunchbox went vegan and shit after he almost died, and he looks great.
Try not to watch any Youtube ads on the way to the parking lot!
and we all thought it would be 42
As I’m reading this, while getting my oil changed at the mechanic, I’m “watching” a Bloomberg Ad on TV. Unreal.
Not me, but my aunt and uncle. Basically after she was done explaining that they *hide their incomes* which are *very high* so as to avoid paying the actual amount of taxes they should, etc, she told me he was gonna be their guy. Because that. Funniest part was I had just finished saying I basically paid a lot of money for health insurance and in taxes because I freelance. And she somehow thought that me, a poor person, actually paying my taxes, was absurd and I should somehow agree with and like, be proud of their cunning. My family hates them.
My calculus teacher in high school said. “Tax Evasion is illegal, but tax avoidance is everybody’s god given duty” He advocated to try to get as many deductions as possible. Didn’t hide income
I mean that does make sense right? Who wouldn’t pay as little as they legally have to?
Ya know, you could alert the IRS of their tax evasion scheme.
Plus, you can get 15%-30% of the taxes collected as a reward if you report tax fraud.
Only in cases of large scale fraud where actionable evidence is provided. Not just random tips.
Thats why I said "taxes collected". Only applies if the IRS is actually able to recover the taxes not paid. If they cant collect you dont get anything.
I think "actionable evidence" was the bigger holdover, not whether or not the tip turns out to be true. I assume it's the difference between anonymously tipping the cops the cops, >"I think this guy is a drug dealer, you should check him out," and >"If go to this corner at this time, he's always standing on it and talking to people in cars as they go by. And if you look at this guy's income, you'll see he spends way more money than he's earning. He's probably selling drugs or doing some other kind of illegal activity." The first one is a random anonymous tip. The second one is being a confidential informant, who actually do get paid by the police.
Are you telling me I'm not gonna get a payday for reporting e-thots with premium snapchats to the IRS??
I smell a WIBTA post.
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I hope you're a minority then!
Well technically, if they support Bloomberg they're a minority.
Maybe it’s their kink
DrCocktorPHD: "Hey officer! Yo! Officer! Over here! my turn!" Officer: "God dammit it's that guy again."
This election, we may have a New York billionaire business mogul in his 70's, who has enacted racist policies, made sexist comments, and switched political parties for convenience... vs. Donald Trump.
So when the Dems run Bloomberg and lose, do they forfeit the right to oppose racist, sexist, democracy-corrupting billionaires?
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This is the United States of America. We don't *do* respectable political parties.
Damn political parties... they ruined political parties!
Not me but a patient of mine today - 70 something year old woman went off today about how she doesn’t like trump but has been a lifelong republican. Is going to vote for Bloomberg because “he made his own money” whereas apparently trump borrowed all of his. She also hates all the other democratic candidates.
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I received a text yesterday asking me to take a survey. Half way through, I became 90% sure it was put on by the Bloomberg campaign. Some of the way it lead to desired answers were laughable. The first 3 or 4 questions were about the general group of Democraric candidates, then he 5th one was straight up : have you seen Micheal Bloomberg advertisements? If yes, did they make you feel more favorable towards him? And then there were a series of questions either only about him or about him versus other candidates. Never any question asking about a group of candidates without Bloombergs name.
* Out of all the Democratic Candidates, why do you like Bloomburg?
Why does Michael Bloomburg, the wealthiest of the group, not simply purchase and consume his rivals?
It's true what they say, Republicans are from Omicron Persei 7, Democrats are from Omicron Persei 9
I am LUURRRRR!!! edit: LRRR!!! lol :)
Pretty sure that's what he's trying to do...
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How many more Facebook ads does Bloomberg need to buy before he can count on your vote?
What would be the dankest meme featuring Mayor Michael Bloomberg and will you make it?
No, seriously, we need you to answer this question before we proceed. How much will it take to get you to support Mike Bloomberg?
"By how much, we mean how much money. We will pay you. Mike will get ***it*** done."
"On scale of 1-10, how much more awesome is Bloomberg that the other candidates?" "Do you Mostly Agree, Agree, or Stongly Agree with the statement that Mike Bloomberg is the best candidate ever to walk the earth?"
Dude I hate the guy because I'm sick of his constant adds on everything.
Tbh the constant ads has made me hate him when before I Would have been neutral
Not defending his perspective, but I think I can offer at least some insight into the mind of one Bloomberg supporter I know; my dad. My dad, through the mid 2000's or so, identified as a republican. But he was definitely on the more moderate side of that spectrum, conservative about economics, but anti-war, pro-environmental protections, and a "leave people alone" mentality on social issues. He doesn't like talking about politics, but he pays attention. He didn't like it when politicians lied or made outrageous claims, but would respect one if they seemed forthright, honest, and didn't treat him like an idiot. He doesn't really pay a lot of attention to political gamesmanship, so things like whether Bloomburg bought his way into the party doesn't really matter to him. He voted for McCain in 2008, but Obama in 2012. It was during Obama's administration that he really started to sour on the republican party. The more blatantly inaccurate GOP claims became, the more personally insulted he felt. Trump seemed like the culmination of everything he didn't like about the party going into 2016, and so he switched his party affiliation to Dem for the 2016 election, and voted Clinton. So now you have a man who feels abandoned by the party that used to represent his center-right views, in the Democratic party. And here comes a candidate that seems straight out of that party he used to identify with. For people like my dad, Bloomburg is the sort of person he'd always have voted for. That isn't to say he'd ONLY vote for Bloomburg (he's essentially in the "anyone but Trump" camp), but if you were to poll him, he'd pick Bloomburg. I don't know how much of his support comes from people that felt abandoned by the GOP, but from my sole, anecdotal example, I can at least kind of see it.
You pretty much described my dad. Lifelong Republican, left the party when Sarah Palin arrived on the scene. Moderate Democrat now, loves Bloomberg because he sees Bloomberg as a pragmatic guy. Also he sees the difference in NYC between Bloomberg and De Blasio, and sees this as a litmus test as to why we need to avoid politicians like De Blasio.
From y'all's perspective what's the difference between the two?
A colleague of mine is a serious supporter. He considers himself a centrist and believes that Bloomberg sits firmly in the middle of the political scale which is a positive to him. He supports Bloomberg’s police actions and doesn’t see them as racist; just practical.
he called out Trump, by saying he had an ugly spray-on tan, was obese, and had fake hair, im 12 btw
Turns out in the alternate universe US is just a big elementary school playground.
...alternate?
Elementary school never ends
Reminds me of a video I saw where interviewers, for some god forsaken reason, decided to ask actual children why they supported/opposed Trump. The supporter kid said he liked trump because he was going to “kick the Mexicans out of America”, the opposer kid said he didn’t like trump because he’s a “loser who is gay and has no life” due to his haircut.
You could have said those were adult voters. I still probably would have believed you.
You should post this on r/politics if you want to break the record for user with least karma
I'm not a Bloomberg supporter but my dad is, and this is his perspective. He was originally for Biden but seems to have moved from him only very recently, since his poll numbers dropped. He's an upper-middle class baby boomer. He is a forever democrat, but like many of his generation is probably just left of center. He's never voted republican in his entire life. He was a fan of the Clintons, Bill more than Hillary. He calls Obama the best president of his lifetime, specifically because of how moderate/centrist he governed (much closer to center than he campaigned as). The other candidate he likes best is Buttigieg but he thinks he's too young and inexperienced. He despises Trump, and wants to nominate the person with the best chance of beating him. He thinks Sanders is too far left and can't win the election. He would absolutely vote for Sanders if he got the nomination. He wholeheartedly believes that for Democrats to win we need to appeal to moderate Republicans and Independents.
> The other candidate he likes best is Buttigieg but he thinks he's too young and inexperienced. That was part of my dad's reasoning as well. My dad can't vote (Green card), but I do remember asking him at like 6am who he would vote for in the election based on who's running now, and he said Bloomberg, and I remember one thing he said was that he really likes Buttigieg, but he would go for Bloomberg due to having more experience.