Why Is Bloomberg's Long History of Egregious Sexism Getting a Pass?

[WhiskeyGrinder]

https://www.gq.com/story/bloomberg-sexism

In December 2015, employees at Everytown for Gun Safety, the gun control organization funded by Mike Bloomberg, arrived at work to find a holiday gift on their desks from their employer: the former mayor’s 1997 autobiography, Bloomberg by Bloomberg. Flipping through the book, staffers found themselves uncomfortably reading their billionaire founder’s boasts about keeping “a girlfriend in every city” and other womanizing exploits as a Wall Street up-and-comer.

“A few people started immediately going through it and sending the cringe-iest parts around on email chains,” one former Everytown employee told me. “Hardly the most controversial things he’s said, but it’s still a bad look.”

Indeed, Bloomberg’s casual boasts about his sex life in his own autobiography are now some of the least problematic parts of the his candidacy for president. In recent days, the former New York City mayor’s track record on race is undergoing renewed scrutiny: Bloomberg oversaw and expanded the racist and unconstitutional “stop and frisk” program, and a newly unearthed video shows him blaming the end of a racially discriminatory housing practice known as “redlining” for the 2008 economic recession. But it takes a telling amount of gall and cluelessness to gift a book with anecdotes about your own womanizing to employees at your gun safety non-profit in the year 2015, especially for a politician with presidential ambitions who has been vigorously denying allegations of misogyny throughout his entire career—including some 40 sex discrimination and sexual harassment lawsuits brought against him and his organizations by 64 women over the past several decades.

(snip)

All this, despite what’s already been reported and alleged for decades about Bloomberg’s behavior. As a recap, here are some examples: Sekiko Sakai Garrison, a former sales representative at Bloomberg LP, alleged in a 1997 lawsuit (one of four separate lawsuits in a two-year period) that when then-CEO Mike Bloomberg found out she was pregnant, he told her, “Kill it!” and “Great! Number 16!”—an apparent reference to the number of pregnant women or women on maternity leave at his company. She also alleged that when Bloomberg saw her engagement ring, he commented, “What is the guy dumb and blind? What the hell is he marrying you for?” and that he once pointed to another female employee and told Garrison, “If you looked like that, I’d do you in a second.” Bloomberg denied having said most of those things, but reportedly left Garrison a voicemail saying that if he did say them, he “didn’t mean it.”

(snip)

Bloomberg’s campaign, in reckoning with his long history of toxic frat-boy behavior, is essentially asking voters to try and focus on his political values instead. "Mike Bloomberg has supported and empowered women throughout his career—from appointing women to the very top positions in his mayoral administration to supporting women candidates for higher office to an industry-leading 26-weeks of paid family leave at his company," Julie Wood, a Bloomberg campaign spokesperson, told ABC News in October. "At the same time, Mike has come to see that some of what he has said is disrespectful and wrong. He believes his words have not always aligned with his values and the way he has led his life." Of course, at least through 2015, he was leading his life in such a way that he proudly passed out a narrative of his sexual exploits to the young people he hired to combat gun violence.

[Voltaire2]

1. 60 billion reasons why.

[at140]

9. Bingo! nt

[BusyBeingBest]

2. I think everyone already knows or suspects he's kind of a tool.

Being a tool maybe isn't a disqualifier right now.

[apcalc]

3. Mainly because he isn't Trump, imo.

And the MSM is basically sexist.

[totodeinhere]

12. But a ham sandwich isn't Trump either.

But do we want to elect a ham sandwich?

[W_HAMILTON]

13. Getting that traitorous criminal out of the White House is the #1 priority.

[totodeinhere]

16. Yes but I don't think that Bloomberg is the one most likely to do that.

H will not get enthusiastic support from the left. Only grudging support will not be enough to motivate turnout.

[W_HAMILTON]

17. If people are not "enthusiastic" to remove the biggest threat to our democracy...

...there is no hope for them. They also are probably the types that talk a lot on social media and then don't even bother to vote and probably also one of the reasons we have Trump to begin with.

If you need to be motivated to vote for the Democrat -- the only person that will result in Trump being removed from office -- in November, you need to be paying more attention to what is happening to our country.

[Red Oak]

4. Money

$60B worth of money will buy one a lot of"justice".

[oldsoftie]

5. Well, this is about the 8th story i've seen, so I guess he isnt.

I made my pick from the start of our poll here. But if Bloomberg has the best chance i will happily pull the lever for Mike. NO reservations. Easily.

[TwilightZone]

6. Considering the deluge of posts like this...

and articles on the subject, it would seem he's not.

[Nikki28]

7. four words

Trump is still worst.

[evertonfc]

8. yawn.

Old news. We WANT to beat Trump. 2020 is different.

[rzemanfl]

10. Did any of those girlfriends claim they were physically assaulted?

Last edited Thu Feb 13, 2020, 07:43 PM - Edit history (1)

Did any of them sign NDAs?

[rzemanfl]

19. Just comparing him to Drumpf. I was responding to the multiple girlfriends part.

This administration is an existential threat. Bloomberg knows how to fight, we aren't going to win by being nice.

I will edit my post to make it clear I was talking about girlfriends.

[sarisataka]

20. Thank you for clarifying nt

[rzemanfl]

21. I am on edge about the DOJ stuff and three plus years of being pissed off

24/7 got me to switch from Biden to Bloomberg earlier today. All our institutions are under attack. Sex between consenting adults during the last century doesn't seem very important. Harassment is bad, but pussy grabbing is worse.

This election is going to be all out war.

[Bradshaw3]

22. Many of his female employees had to sign NDAs

Some of them regarded his behavior, but most weren't from what I've read. But there are a large number of them, perhaps not as many as drumpf. So I guess that's something in his favor.

[rzemanfl]

23. Source? n/t

[Blue_true]

27. I agree, if it all was consensual, who cares if he bedded 10,000 women.

I am certainly not going to hold that against Bloomberg with a monster like Trump threatening every thing that is decent.

[rzemanfl]

29. That would be one a night for around 27 years. n/t

[Blue_true]

30. Or two a day for 14 years. Who cares if it all was consensual? nt

[rzemanfl]

31. I don't but found the math interesting. n/t

[Blue_true]

32. My math overshot, but I got my point across. nt

[Skya Rhen]

11. Because he's rich and promises to solve everything for us Dems - only he can fix it.

[essme]

14. How low can the bar be? Really really low these days.

The current occupant of the WH has made people that would have never had a shot 20-50 years ago potential front runners today.

Experience doesn't matter, racist/sexist actions mean nothing, hypocrisy doesn't matter, wayyyy past SS age doesn't matter, women's rights, nothing matters anymore.

There is no limbo with the bar on the ground.

[Nanjeanne]

15. Well let's see...

CNN - owned by AT&T
ABC - owned by Disney
NBC - owned by Comcast

They all pay less taxes than the 1% and want to keep it that way

Also

BernieSanders wants 1) New taxes on big corporations like Comcast 2) new limits on $ in campaigns (the networks/stations will fight that to the death.) 3) Breakup of media/distribution monopolies.

Also

MSNBC's parent company used Trump's tax cut to spend $2.9 billion on stock buy-backs, redirecting its surplus cash to investors. The company also hired lobbyists to ask the Trump admin to repeal Obama net neutrality regs & limits on ISPs monetizing browsing history for ads.

The talking heads do the bidding of their corporate owners - or lose their jobs. Right now the goal is maintain status quo. Bloomberg will ensure that for them.

[Bradshaw3]

24. He gets a pass because he is the only one who can beat dump - so we're told

The polls don't reflect that, but he's got a lot of ads on tv attacking drumpf so all is forgiven - by some on here anyway.

[Blue_true]

25. A non issue for me.

As a young engineer I would sit with men at work and check out the bodies of attractive females, I was a early twenties heterosexual male and the social mores of that time didn't call me to account. Even in my thirties I checked out hot fellow female employees, my world was totally male dominated and that was what men did. It was not until the mid 90's when I started to get female coworker peers that I began to see the senselessness of my behavior. I grew as a person.

I am amazed by those here that openly or indirectly imply that no one but Bernie can grow and change. Some of the stuff that Bernie wrote about women and how he treated some women in his life was horrible, but the people panning Bloomberg for accurately accounting what he was like as a young man gladly give Bernie a pass, even as he implied that women love to be group raped and treated violently (a short story that he wrote in his thirties).

[MH1]

33. Wow, Bernie wrote that crap in his THIRTIES?

I knew he had written it and I find that distasteful, but I hadn't realized he was that old at the time.

Ugh.

[choie]

26. Unfortunately because

he's not Trump or Sanders..

[jmg257]

34. Yeesh - He sounds like another rich ass hole. And a predatory one at that. nt