Part One:

BLOOMBERG? THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY.

We speak with Bob Hennelly, who has reported for Salon.com, the Village Voice, Pacifica Radio, CBS, and other outlets. Bob spent a decade in NY City Hall, documenting Michael Bloomberg’s mayoralty. Several times a week, Bob rode in the press van and questioned the mayor about policies and events. He describes both Bloomberg’s pros and his cons.

Bloomberg is basically a decent person. While mayor of NYC, he cared about his constituents and adopted many policies to serve the general welfare of ordinary New Yorkers. His great wealth gave him an opportunity to take on the fossil fuel giants and the gun manufacturers, without worrying that the vested interest might cut off his donations. Bloomberg banned smoking in places where people eat, which had not previously risen onto anyone’s radar screen but which fairly quickly became a global standard.

On the other hand, Bloomberg doesn’t understand that he himself is part of the problem. His wealth is inextricably intertwined with the growing inequality we’ve been observing for decades. (Amazingly, a mere 26 people in the world own as much wealth as the entire poorest half of humanity, 3.8 billion people, and Bloomberg is one of the privileged few.)

Bloomberg has chosen not to do what’s necessary to compete in the early primaries. He knows he doesn’t have to compete in the upcoming candidate debates in order to enjoy the free publicity. Instead, he will focus on Super Tuesday. Of course, he’ll be spending $500 million – $1 billion of his own money to buy ads before that date.

While he was mayor of NY, Bloomberg imposed a stop & frisk policy, which unconstutionally affected members of minority groups. Even though it became clear that this policy did nothing to reduce actual crime (only 3% of the people arrested were convicted of crimes), Bloomberg wouldn’t end the policy. In fact, it was only a few weeks ago that he acknowledged that stop & frisk was wrong and he apologized for it.

Food for thought: Is it possible that Bloomberg built more wealth from Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy than he is now spending to run for president? I.e., are the American people the ones who have paid for Bloomberg to run?

Part two:

GUNS — YET AGAIN.

We visit with “Dr. Politics,” Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State University. We discuss the latest hate crime in New Jersey where angry people turned their guns on a crowd of people, killing more innocent victims. We vigorously debate whether “sensible” gun-control laws will stop the killing — it won’t — versus whether doing nothing is preferable, so as not to undermine people’s constitutional right to bear arms.

Laws are not going to stop every gun crime. But setting some parameters (and articulating goals) could change the culture and perhaps make a difference.

THE AFGHANISTAN PAPERS:                                                                          REVISITING THE VIETNAM-ERA PENTAGON PAPERS?

We discuss the latest blockbuster leak of secret government documents. They reveal that, since 9/11, our government has been lying to us about our foreign policy, its factual basis, and predictions of its success.