Fight Night: Mike Bloomberg showed up for his first Democratic debate last night in Las Vegas and became everyone else’s target. He took a beating. 

  They got on him about his tax returns, buying his position in the polls, his performance as mayor of New York, and his history of sexual harassment complaints.

  Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “Democrats take a huge risk if we just substitute one arrogant billionaire for another.”

  She wasn’t done. “I’d like to talk about who we’re running against, a billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians. I’m not talking about Donald Trump. I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”

  “Mayor Pete” Buttigieg said, “We shouldn’t have to choose between one candidate who wants to burn this party down and another candidate who wants to buy this party out.”

  Amy Klobuchar: “I don’t think you’d look at Donald Trump and say we need someone richer in the White House.”

   Amidst raised voices among the other candidates, Bloomberg remained eerily implacable, although he hit back at Bernie Sanders saying, “The best-known socialist in the country happens to be a millionaire with three houses. What did I miss here?”

  Warren was tough. She pressed Bloomberg about how many sexual harassment complaints and non-disclosure agreements he’d made, and whether he would release the complainants from the pledge of silence. He called them “consensual” agreements and said he wouldn’t break them.

  Warren said, “We are not going to beat Donald Trump with a man who has who knows how many nondisclosure agreements and the drip, drip, drip of stories of women saying they have been harassed and discriminated against.”

 The Intel: President Trump has appointed Richard Grenell, a loyalist with no direct experience in intelligence or running a large bureaucracy to be the “acting” director of national intelligence overseeing the nation’s 17 spy agencies.

  Grenell is a longtime Republican operative who is ambassador to Germany and the former spokesman at the United Nations for then ambassador John Bolton.

  Grenell will be “acting director,” which allows him to serve without congressional approval, which he might not be able to get. He would also be the first openly gay cabinet member.

  By choosing Grenell, Trump is installing a man to control the intelligence agencies he doesn’t trust. Intelligence directors are supposed to be neutral conduits of the facts, choosing which reports and analyses are sent to the White House and which urgent threats need to be brought to the attention of  the President and Congress.

Housecleaning: President Trump’s purge of people seen as disloyal to him during his impeachment continues. He demanded and got the resignation of  John Rood, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, who had pushed back at the President’s decision to withhold military aide from Ukraine in exchange for an investigation of Joe and Hunter Biden.

The Digital Campaign: If you can’t surf the internet without running into an ad for Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg, there’s a reason.

  Bloomberg has spent $233 million on digital advertising. Compare that to, $49 billion for Democratic billionaire Tom Steyer and $19 million for Donald Trump.

  Google and Facebook have pushed up to 2 billion Bloomberg ads, about 30,000 a minute.

   Bloomberg is entirely self-financed. The joke going around is that he’s only spending the money he saved with Trump’s tax cuts for the rich.

The Making of a Trumpocrat: Former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appeared before reporters in Chicago yesterday morning “coatless, tieless and remorseless,” according to the description by The NY Times.

  Pardoned by President Trump, Blagojevich identified himself as a “freed political prisoner.” He entered prison with jet black hair and exited 62 and silver.

  In his first hours of freedom after eight years in prison, Blagojevich confessed to nothing except that he will need a job. He said, “I’m returning home today from a long exile a freed political prisoner”. He went on, “I want to say again to the people of Illinois who twice elected me governor: I didn’t let you down. I would have let you down if I gave into this. But resistance to tyrants is obedience to God.”

  He’s not the first scoundrel to claim godliness. The governor was charged with conspiring to sell the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama, as well as shaking down a children’s hospital and suburban racetrack. He was convicted of wire fraud, attempted extortion, and conspiracy to solicit bribes.

  Celebrating the release, president Trump tweeted, “Rod Blagojevich did not sell the Senate seat.” Well then, that makes the whole thing OK.

  Under Illinois law Blagojevich still has the right to vote.  “I’m a Trumpocrat,” he said to cheers from supporters. “If I have the ability to vote, I’m gonna vote for him.”

The Bulletin Board: At least 10 people were killed in shootings at two cafes last night in western Germany. The gunman, identified as a right-wing extremist, also died. — Apple sold 31 million watches last year, outselling the entire Swiss watch industry. 

Big Mike: In one of his attacks on former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, President Trump tweeted, “Is corrupt Bloomberg News going to say what a pathetic debater Mini Mike is, that he doesn’t respect our great farmers, or that he has violated campaign finance laws at the highest and most sinister level with ‘payoffs’ all over the place?”

  Bloomberg responded with, “Impeached president says what?”

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