We’ll Drink to
That: Bloomberg Spends (and Loses) Big in the Land of Enchantment
Friday, May 5, 2017
Hobbies are usually a good thing.
One notable exception, however, is when your hobby is
spending huge sums of cash in places you have no connection to in order to
force the local residents to conform to your worldview.
This is not a common hobby and is confined to a few
megalomaniacal billionaires who – rather than spend their money to enjoy life –
spend it to make others’ lives less enjoyable.
Case in point: Michael Bloomberg. We all know the former New
York City mayor wants to bring New York City style gun
control to America at large (think gun bans, discretionary licensing,
prohibitively expensive fees, cronyism, and public corruption).
But he doesn’t stop at that.
Another Bloomberg obsession is soda. Not drinking it,
mind you, but controlling access others have to it.
As mayor, Bloomberg infamously tried to ban large sodas
throughout the Big Apple by executive action. And not just sodas, but any
“sugary beverage” in a cup larger than 16 ounces. The ban was to be enforced by
the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene
(DHMH), with violators subject to fines and possible adverse health grades. The
groups that challenged the rule in court pointed out that it came directly from
the mayor’s office and not from the supposed subject matter experts on the
DHMH’s board. Bloomberg’s justification for this bizarre intrusion into lawful
commerce and personal choice was that some people are overweight, a
circumstance he described as a “public health” crisis. The city also cited
“studies” it claimed showed that sugary drinks are associated with weight gain.
(Both tactics should sound familiar to gun owners.)
Yet that was all too much even for New York’s judiciary,
which rejected Bloomberg’s contention that the DHMH has inherent legislative
authority and that the separation of powers between the executive and
legislative branches did not apply to its actions. The decision by the state’s
intermediate appellate court noted, “To accept the [city’s]
interpretation of the authority granted to the Board by the New York City
Charter would leave its authority to define, create, mandate and enforce
limited only by its own imagination.” This was an outcome the court found “more
troubling than sugar sweetened beverages.” Two years later, New York’s highest court
affirmed that decision, holding that the DHMH “exceeded the scope of
its regulatory authority” and upholding the permanent injunction against the
ban’s enforcement.
Unfortunately, Bloomberg continues to have an unusually
active imagination when it comes to infringing upon the rights and choices of
other people in far-flung places.
Bloomberg trained his sights all the way out to New
Mexico this year, financing a full-on effort to pass “universal” background
check legislation for firearm transfers. That effort failed
on the strength of opposition led by the NRA. Other opponents of the bill
included the New Mexico Sheriff’s Association, which issued a statement
emphasizing the proposal would “make it harder for law-abiding New Mexicans to
exercise their Second Amendment rights” and “do nothing to keep guns out of the
hands of criminals.”
But Bloomberg wasn’t finished with the Land of
Enchantment and poured additional cash into another pet project, an initiative
campaign to impose a “sin tax” on sugary beverages sold in Santa Fe. By late
April, according to a local media report,
the New York billionaire had dumped $1.13 million into the effort.
On Tuesday, however, Santa Fe voters rejected the measure
by a 16-point margin. Underscoring the elitist nature of the campaign, the Albuquerque Journal reported,
“Voters in the city’s middle- and lower-income neighborhoods went against the
tax in huge numbers, while the vote in Santa Fe’s affluent north and east sides
split almost precisely 50-50.”
While Bloomberg’s New Mexico efforts
may have failed, don’t expect him to cut his losses and run.
Inflamed by the failure of his New York City beverage
scheme, Bloomberg has sought vengeance the only way he knows how: by seeking to
spend his opposition into oblivion. His recent expenditures to pass soda taxes
in three other cities, according to Fortune,
amounted to $20 million.
While unimaginable sums to most ordinary people, this is
all chump change to the New York media mogul. With billions of dollars at his
disposal – and more pouring in endlessly from his empire – his ability to stick
his nose into other peoples’ freedoms is for all practical purposes unlimited.
He is the embodiment of a plutocrat, and his
pathological need to control the people he considers his inferiors is
completely unmoored by political or geographic boundaries.
And make no mistake: he’s just as focused on coming for
your guns as he is on coming for your Dr. Pepper.
The good news is that you already have all that is
necessary to defeat his schemes: your awareness, your love of liberty, and your
vote. This combination worked in New Mexico, and it can work anywhere else
where a free people refuse to bow to high-minded elites with an inexhaustible
interest in ruling every detail of their lives.
Rest assured, your NRA looks forward to handing similar
defeats to America’s richest nanny. And we’ll happily join the residents of
Santa Fe in toasting liberty with the soft drink of their choice, whatever its
sugar content might be.
Michael Bloomberg
Michael R.
Bloomberg is a co-chair for the Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, the founder of the Independence USA PAC, the founder of Everytown for Gun Safety, was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, and a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone.
Note: Mayors
Against Illegal Guns is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Independence
USA PAC is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Everytown
for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety,
Gun Control” group for guns.
Americans
for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Harlem Children's Zone, Refugees
International, the Human Rights
First, and the Carnegie Endowment
for International Peace (think tank).
George
Soros was the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, a benefactor for the Harlem Children's Zone, William
D. Zabel was his divorce lawyer, and is a director emeritus at Refugees International.
Bill Richardson
is a director at Refugees International,
and was the New Mexico state government governor.
William D. Zabel
was a trustee at the Foundation to
Promote Open Society, George Soros’s
divorce lawyer, and is the chair for the Human
Rights First.
Mark A. Angelson
was a director at the Human Rights First,
and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.
James D. Zirin was
a director at the Human Rights First,
and a partner at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack
Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin
LLP.
Sidley Austin
LLP is a member of CropLife America.
Dr.
Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. is a member of CropLife America.
Coca-Cola
Company is a member of CropLife America.
PepsiCo, Inc. is
a member of CropLife America.
Dora Hughes is a
senior policy adviser at Sidley Austin
LLP, and was Kathleen Sebelius’s
counselor at the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS).
Kathleen Sebelius’s
counselor at the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS) was Dora
Hughes, and the secretary for the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Substance
Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS).
Margaret A.
Hamburg was an assistant secretary for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and a VP for
the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think
tank).
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think
tank) was a funder for the Nuclear
Threat Initiative (think tank).
Jessica Tuchman Mathews was the president of
the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (think tank), is a
director at the Nuclear Threat
Initiative (think tank), a director at the American Friends of Bilderberg
(think tank), and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Ed Griffin’s interview with
Norman Dodd in 1982
(The investigation into the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace uncovered the plans for population
control by involving the United States in war)
Warren E. Buffett
is an adviser at
the Nuclear Threat Initiative (think
tank), an advisory board member for Everytown
for Gun Safety, and was a director at the Coca-Cola Company.
Coca-Cola
Company is a member of CropLife America.
Dr.
Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. is a member of CropLife America.
Everytown
for Gun Safety is a “Gun Safety,
Gun Control” group for guns.
Michael R.
Bloomberg is the founder of Everytown
for Gun Safety, a co-chair for the Mayors
Against Illegal Guns, the founder of the Independence USA PAC, was a contributor for the Americans for Responsible Solutions, and
a benefactor for the Harlem Children's
Zone.
Mayors
Against Illegal Guns is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” group for guns.
Independence
USA PAC is a “Gun Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
Americans
for Responsible Solutions is a “Gun
Safety, Gun Control” PAC for guns.
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