It\u2019s sort of like one of those old \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d episodes. What if you had a billion dollars, but you couldn\u2019t use it to buy what you wanted?<\/p>\n
With a net worth of about $34 billion, former Wall Street banker Michael Bloomberg is reportedly the sixteenth-wealthiest person in the world. He spent about $74 million each time he got himself elected Mayor of New York, an office he then tried to use to make all New Yorkers healthier by banning sugary soft drinks in large containers — stuff like that.<\/p>\n
Mind you, New Yorkers could still buy all the smaller<\/em> sugary soft drinks they wanted. But in the world of the left-liberals, it\u2019s your intention<\/em> that counts.<\/p>\n (The soda ban was overturned by a New York State Supreme Court Judge last year because it arbitrarily applied to some businesses while inexplicably exempting others, like 7-Eleven \u2013 \u201capparently those businesses with the political prowess to lobby for exemptions,\u201d commented Karen Harned of the NFIB Small Business Center.)<\/p>\n Mr. Bloomberg clearly feels \u201cthe law\u201d is meant to be used by wiser souls (him) to impose their preferences on others. But what happened when the law threatened to limit his own ambitions?<\/p>\n When he ran for mayor, Bloomberg knew the law allowed him to serve only two terms. So he went to wheeling and dealing, got the law changed, and ended up serving three terms.<\/p>\n Now he\u2019d like to change another law: The Second Amendment.<\/p>\n Upon leaving office, right after being appointed by U.N. chief kleptocrat Ban Ki-moon as \u201cUnited Nations special envoy for cities and climate change\u201d to \u201cpress for action on global warming\u201d (despite the fact there\u2019s been no global warming for 14 years), Bloomberg decided his victim disarmament fund-raising outfit, \u201cMayors Against Illegal Guns,\u201d should be re-named \u201cEverytown for Gun Safety.\u201d<\/p>\n Don\u2019t think this just means he wants us to carry our hammers down on an empty chamber, though. Bloomberg is a big time gun-grabber. People who thought their records of seeking psychiatric help decades ago were sealed and who were thus advised they could mark the \u201cNo\u201d box on those \u201cbackground-check\u201d forms have gone to prison in this country. They can never own guns again.<\/p>\n But here\u2019s the weird part: Bloomberg wants to finance candidates who\u2019ll come out for more gun control, and he\u2019s having trouble finding them! You\u2019ve got to read that carefully, of course. Bloomberg\u2019s outfit can find plenty of Democrats (and even a few New England \u201cRepublicans\u201d — see Sen. Susan Collins of Maine) in safe seats who\u2019ll accept gun-ban money. Oregon Gov. John A Kitzhaber welcomes the victim-disarmament funding, as do Rep. Robin L. Kelly of Illinois and Northern Virginia Democrat Don Beyer. But these races are so lopsided Democrats could probably call for nationalizing the factories, jailing the owners, and erecting big statues of Joe Stalin — and still coast to victory.<\/p>\n ATTACKING THE SUPERMARKETS?<\/strong><\/p>\n Throwing money away on \u201csure things\u201d isn\u2019t going to change the political lineup in Washington. Bloomberg can only do that by funding gun-grabbers in close races. And Democrats in tight races, already in line to get hosed for Obama\u2019s no-recovery economy, seem to be saying \u201cNo thanks.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cMore than half of the U.S. House candidates with endorsements are in districts that political analysts deem to be safely in Democrats\u2019 hands, suggesting trouble finding high-profile candidates who could stand to benefit from Mr. Bloomberg\u2019s help,\u201d The Times reports.<\/p>\n Instead, Bloomberg\u2019s victim disarmament group launched a six-figure ad campaign \u201cprotesting supermarket chain Kroger\u2019s policies permitting open carry of loaded firearms while prohibiting items such as skateboards.\u201d<\/p>\n Really? Is there some constitutional right to keep and bear skateboards? Are they \u201cnecessary to the security of a free state\u201d? Is the presence of teen-agers on skateboards, knocking down old ladies in the dairy aisle, likely to discourage would-be armed robbers?<\/p>\n \u201cLess than two years after the Newtown school shooting spree, the lack of focus on guns in the election campaigns is stark,\u201d the Times reports.<\/p>\n One competitive race where \u201cEverytown\u201d is getting involved is for Colorado\u2019s Senate seat, where Sen. Mark Udall, a Democrat, faces challenger Rep. Cory Gardner. That one should prove interesting, after two state-level Colorado Democrats lost recall elections as a result of their support of Gov. John Hickenlooper\u2019s push for more unconstitutional gun control in the wake of the 2012 Newtown school shootings.<\/p>\n Bloomberg helped push for the Colorado law and flushed more than $300,000 in a doomed effort to save his pet lawmakers. In a July interview with Rolling Stone, Bloomberg described the recalled senators as coming from a part of Colorado so rural “I don’t think there’s roads.”<\/p>\n \u201cColoradans have repeatedly rejected Michael Bloomberg\u2019s radical gun control agenda and they will reject Sen. Udall in November,\u201d predicted Gardner spokesman Alex Siciliano.<\/p>\n Short on Democrats who want to flame out their careers pushing for more gun control in competitive races, Everytown \u201chas devoted much of its resources this year to state-level initiatives,\u201d The Times reports. The group gave $1 million to push a ballot initiative to tighten background checks in Washington state, and contributed more than $130,000 to an unsuccessful campaign against a ballot initiative in Missouri to reaffirm state residents\u2019 Second Amendment rights.<\/p>\n Meantime, the NRA has decided not to take all this Bloomberg activism lying down. In late August the group launched a multimillion-dollar TV campaign against Bloomberg\u2019s \u201canti-freedom agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n The first ad, which ran nationally on cable television and over the air in Colorado, was titled “Insult,” and sought to tie Bloomberg’s gun control plans to such nanny-state initiatives as his effort to ban jumbo-sized sugary sodas.<\/p>\n I\u2019d say the NRA is going pretty easy on Mr. Bloomberg, who didn\u2019t limit his anti-choice agenda to soda pop. Bloomberg was instrumental in banning smoking in commercial establishments like bars and restaurants in New York in 2003, smoking in public places (\u201coutdoors\u201d) in 2011, and raising the smoking age to 21. He proposed banning the smoking of e-cigarettes in public places. He tried to regulate salt. He regulated trans-fats in restaurants and banned cell phones in schools in 2006. He banned styrofoam packaging for single-serving food items. He banned \u201cnon-fuel-efficient\u201d cabs in 2007 and any new cab that wasn\u2019t a Nissan NV200s in 2013 (also overturned by the courts, a no-brainer.)<\/p>\n BODYGUARDS HIT THE JACKPOT<\/strong><\/p>\n But none of this gets to the heart of Bloomberg\u2019s hypocrisy. If Michael Bloomberg really believes unconstitutional tactics like random \u201cstop-and-frisk\u201d searches designed to disarm the populace can \u201csave a lot of lives,\u201d as he\u2019s said, the fastest place he could make a start would be to have his driver stop the car the next time he\u2019s crossing a bridge, and order his 17 bodyguards to toss all their hardware in the river.<\/p>\n Just do an Internet search for \u201cBloomberg bodyguards.\u201d You\u2019ll quickly encounter photos of the mayor moving from place to place surrounded by a beefy cadre of armed, gray-suited goons bearing a strong resemblance to the offensive line of the New York Giants.<\/p>\n Why does Mr. Bloomberg (like so many of his ilk) figure HE deserves this kind of armed protection, but everyday Americans who can\u2019t afford a dozen armed strongmen shouldn\u2019t be allowed to carry a single self-defense weapon with them when they run down to the corner for a pizza?<\/p>\n What\u2019s that? The bodyguards just came with the mayor\u2019s job; he really didn\u2019t have any choice? Bull.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s buying their silence,\u201d The New York Post reported on Nov. 13, 2013.<\/p>\n \u201cMayor Bloomberg is taking his most trusted NYPD bodyguards with him to the private sector next year — to ensure they don\u2019t spill any of his secrets, law-enforcement sources told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019He wants them to go with him because they\u2019ve been with him so long and know him personally,\u2019 one source said. \u2018So, he gives them plum jobs to keep their mouths shut.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Previous mayors had police bodyguards who stayed overnight inside Gracie Mansion, but because Bloomberg passed up living there in favor of his plush Upper East Side town house, the NYPD built \u201ca special security booth outside that East 79th Street pad.<\/p>\n \u201cBloomberg, who also owns a sprawling, waterfront estate in Bermuda, takes members of his security team with him on his frequent, private-jet jaunts to the island getaway,\u201d the Post reported. \u201cWhile the city pays the cops\u2019 wages, Bloomberg has forked over up to $400-a-night for their lodging in a nearby hotel. He also often treats them to meals with him at his favorite restaurants, including the Port O Call, Rustico and Tom Moore\u2019s Tavern, where a grilled, 16-ounce Porterhouse steak goes for $43 and the catch of the day is $37.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBloomberg\u2019s new security team will comprise a current lieutenant and several detectives, all with more than 20 years on the force,\u201d The Post reported. \u201cThey will file for retirement immediately after mayor-elect Bill de Blasio is sworn in on Jan. 1, sources said. With public salaries of at least $120,000 each, they\u2019ll all get pensions that amount to at least half that much — on top of their pay to keep working for Bloomberg. . . . \u2018They\u2019re all getting six-figure salaries,\u2019 one source said.\u201d<\/p>\n To guard the ex-mayor. With guns.<\/p>\n Vin Suprynowicz is the author of \u201cSend in the Waco Killers\u201d and \u201cThe Ballad of Carl Drega.\u201d His next novel, \u201cThe Testament of James\u201d is due out later this year.<\/p>\n A version of this column appears in the Nov. 10 edition of “Shotgun News.”<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s sort of like one of those old \u201cTwilight Zone\u201d episodes. What if you had a billion dollars, but you couldn\u2019t use it to buy what you wanted? With a net worth of about $34 billion, former Wall Street banker Michael Bloomberg is reportedly the sixteenth-wealthiest person in the world. He spent about $74 million […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48,8,17,5,46,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2014-election","category-2nd-amendment","category-big-brother","category-elections","category-law-enforcement","category-media"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pWqFl-xT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2101"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2174,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2101\/revisions\/2174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vinsuprynowicz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\u201cFormer New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg\u2019s gun control group announced a round of candidate endorsements this week,\u201d reported David Sherfinski in The Washington Times, Sept. 25, \u201cbut his plan to pour $50 million into gun control efforts appears to be struggling to find campaigns to back in nationally watched races.\u201d<\/p>\n