Our second election-themed crossover panel of the season: We team up with Mel from Protean Magazine and Dwight and Shane from Eat the Rich to break down the two billionaires running in the 2020 Democratic primary: Tom Steyer and Mike Bloomberg. Who are these men? What do we know about their records? What could we expect if they somehow became President? And what does it say about our political system that they've been able to buy their way into viability? 

 

Additional links/info below...

• Mel's Twitter page; Protean Twitter page and Patreon 
• Shane's Twitter page; Dwight's Twitter page; Eat the Rich Twitter page and Patreon 

 

Reading List ...

• John Surico, Brooklyn Rail, "Mike's Labor Legacy"
• Libby Watson, Splinter News, "Former Staffers at Tom Steyer's Political Action Group Say It's Hell to Work For"
• Nathan Robinson, Current Affairs, "A Republican Plutocrat Tries To Buy The Democratic Nomination"
• Alan Singer, Huffington Post, "Union-Busting, Bloomberg-Style"
• Al Baker, The New York Times, "School Bus Drivers End Strike, in Win for New York Mayor"
• Melissa Petro, Business Insider, "10 years ago, Michael Bloomberg called for my removal as a teacher because of my past in sex work"
• Craig Frazer, Amsterdam News, "Union Official Protests Cuts in Child Care"
• Joe Maniscalco, Labor Press, "Child Care Workers Press Bloomberg for Back Pay"
• Michael Howard Saul, The Wall Street Journal, "Mayor Pledges Tough Stance on Unions"
• Al Baker, The New York Times, "Teachers Irate as Bloomberg Likens Union to the N.R.A."
• Dana Rubinstein, Politico, "'Living Sage' Reminds Bloomberg of Soviet Communism; He Says He'll Stop It in Court If He Has To"
• Color Lines, "How Does It Feel to Be Stopped and Frisked?"
• Steven Malanga, City Journal, "Hudson Yards and New York’s Union (or Non-Union) Future"
• Janaki Chadha, Joe Anuta, & Sally Goldenberg, Politico, "Related and Construction Unions Call Truce in Bitter Hudson Yards Fight"
• Kim Kelly, The Nation, "This Is a Horror Story: How Private Equity Vampires Are Killing Everything"

 

Featured Music (all songs sourced from the Free Music Archive: freemusicarchive.org)

• Lobo Loco, "Malte Junior - Hall"
• Carroll, "Billionaire"