WHAT'S NEXT FOR BLOOMBERG?

Mayor Michael Bloomberg  has done a lot for New York City, and a lot for many, many charities, and causes. I summed him up last year in a blog, "Bloomberrg--Why Do I Like Him?

Skim-read it -- he is a do-everything mayor, who has created an efficient, reliable, knowledgeable team with whom he runs the city. He runs it well. And the causes he supports -- especially Gun Control, Immigration, more and better jobs in our city, are important to me.

What touches me is his thereness -- he magically appears when things happen.  His connection with the large and small but all important areas of life in my city, the biggest of big cities, is astounding.

Hearing him explain what will happen next, how long it will take to fix or change whatever crisis that local TV channels call "breaking news," makes me feel as if I'm being watched over, protected by a strong, fatherly man. I'm calmed down, and reassured.  

For me, liking (or disliking) someone in politics, is instinctive. The person's bearing, the way the person speaks -- the phrasing, pauses, focus -- I sense whether or not this person is communicating with me, and wants ME to understand the reasons for his/her actions.

The stop-and-frisk New York City Police policy bothers me. Nevertheless, though I don't agree with every single thing Bloomberg supports, I trust his judgment -- trust the reasons he stacked up that are the basis for him supporting something that others say is bad or wrong. 

So where is Michael Bloomberg heading next? I wondered if he'd run for President in 2012, and now I'm wondering about 2016? 

I  say NO, he won't run -- his Jewish background, his age -- he'll be 74 in 2016, 78 in 2020.  President Reagan was 74 when he started his second term.

In the "Ticker"-- Mayor Bloomberg's online news magazine in which his views on economics, policy, and politics are expressed -- there are references to Hillary "looking less good." Her fall and that blood clot have been mentioned a few times. These things suggest that he is not supporting her emergence as a presidential candidate.

Okay -- Bloomberg has proved himself to me. But if I had to choose between him and Hillary, I'd chose her. I don't think he will run and compete with her. He's a realistic, practical man. He has a very large organization that keeps him armed with the facts.

Here is Bloomberg talking with CBS commentator, Scott Pelly, about what's next for him, and Bloomberg's cagey answer to the will you run for president question.

As you listen to this video, remember --  Bloomberg has ignored traditions. He has done things that no one else ever tried to do, like running for a third term as mayor, and winning it. What do YOU feel, what do you sense as you hear him avoid a yes or no? 

TALL BUILDINGS

Oh my goodness, good heavens -- why in the world are we building tall, taller, tallest buildings?

For tourists -- to  get them flocking into the area?    This is the Nina Tower in Hong Kong, that Hong-Kongers brag about to the tourists.

Or maybe the tall buildings are built so that hugely important corporations can promote their names, and prove they are the most powerful guys in the world?

What thoughts, what ambitions -- what inspires the guys who give us these needles?  Is there a Freudian, symbolical significance to these massively  marvelous structures that penetrate, poke into, and impregnate the sky?


Would you want to stay at the only seven star-hotel in the world on the left? (It's the Burj al, in Dubai.)

Hey, maybe it would be fun to have your Dubai office in one of the EmiratesTwin towers on the right.

I can't help wondering what it costs to rent space in one of these sky pokers?  Or get your thrills at the top of one of these other sky poker-peckers?   

  Doesn't anybody worry about huger than ever hurricanes and enormous earthquakes in this day and age of weird, woefully unpredictable weather?

China, in July, started building the "highest building in the world," but temporarily stopped because of concerns with safety, and the need for government approval. The Kingdom tower in Jaddah, Saudia Arabia -- "higher than a mile high" -- is currently (for a few years now) under construction, but when or if it's ever finished, you can bet your bottom dollar someone's going to announce the next taller, tallest record breaker.

Golly, remember what it took, how long it took, and what it meant to rebuild just one wonderful new World Trade Center?  For me, here in New York City, it's high enough.  It tells us, shows us, that mankind's greatest power is to affirm life, and survive.   

WEEPY BOEHNER

Candid photo of John Boehner.

It was taken very recently at the Congressional ceremony honoring British prime minster, hero to many, Winston Churchill.

Lawmakers of both parties spoke at the ceremony that was dedicating a bust of Churchill in the U.S. Capitol, while listening to audio of Churchill addressing Congress weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

As Boehner wiped his eyes, many of the others in the distinguished gathering wept as "The Who’s" Roger Daltrey, sang his band’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” as well as Ben E. King’s “Stand By Me.”


Boehner wept before his predecessor, Nancy Pelosi handed him the gavel, the day he became speaker of the house.



He wept as he was congratulated. 




Gavel in hand, he wept; and he was weeping as he addressed Congress for the first time as Speaker of the House.

I will never, never forget his ugly, angry tone, and the approving echoes from the Congress, in March, 2010, the day the Health Care bill was passed.

I know from observation, and from what I've learned from my husband, actor John Cullum, that actors who weep too often during a performance, are self-indulgent -- overly concerned with feeling their own feelings. They're thrilled by their own surge of emotion.

When you are moved, you don't need tears to prove it.

Weepy Boehner has aged over the past few years. As he and the Republicans stall, delay, argue, filibuster, hold onto tax breaks  for the rich, attack any and all legislation  that the Obama administration has  managed to pass -- and is attempting to pass -- they're doing what they got together and resolved to do -- stop health care; stop anything and everything that the President is trying to do.

I shy aware from politics. You have your own political ideas based on many things that have to do with your life experiences. The same thing is true for me.

But I am so deeply bothered -- horrified, upset, depressed by what's happened to our country since the health care bill was passed -- stunned that Boehner and the House of Representatives are, by not passing bills, changing the way our government functions -- no longer does Congress -- Senate, House of Representatives and the President whom we elected, run the country.

The House of Representatives is running the country.

Yes, Boehner tears up every other day, as nothing happens, nothing is solved, and the country continues to be stuck. John Boehner's eyes seem to fill with tears but I am weeping for what we seem to have lost.