dagblog - Comments for "Bloomberg's Gun-Control Campaign: Right Idea, Wrong Guy"

Thanks! I still have a little

Michael Wolraich — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:05:30 +0000

In reply to Just pre-ordered your book

Thanks! I still have a little work to do on the website, but I plan to have an "unveiling" when it's done.

I can think of a few fertile

Michael Wolraich — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 23:04:36 +0000

In reply to Listened a bit to Tom

I can think of a few fertile avenues off the top of my head:

1) Cigarette strategy: The gun industry kills for profit

2) Mom strategy: Your children are in danger

3) Law & order strategy: Criminals and psychopaths are buying guns

4) Class strategy: The poor are dying so that the rich can play with guns

It was disappointing to read

EmmaZahn — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 15:01:44 +0000

In reply to Bloomberg's Gun-Control Campaign: Right Idea, Wrong Guy

It was disappointing to read that Bloomberg has gone from trying to launch a third political party to dictating to using mothers to guilt people into behaving as he thinks they should. From appealing to reason to appealing to authority to appealing to emotions. Definately a downward spiral.

Just pre-ordered your book

EmmaZahn — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 14:55:32 +0000

In reply to Bloomberg's Gun-Control Campaign: Right Idea, Wrong Guy

Just pre-ordered your book Kindle edition and tweeted it! Looking forward to learning a little more history. Nice website you have for it, too.

And, of course, by

Michael Maiello — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:38:58 +0000

In reply to Via Emptywheel, Obama invited

And, of course, by controlling philanthropy, the wealthy will decide who is worth of help and who is not. The wealthy will decide what they have to do to get that help. The wealthy will decide what causes society should pursue. It's an extension of private power, packaged like a gift.

Listened a bit to Tom

Peter Schwartz — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 02:16:20 +0000

In reply to Bloomberg's Gun-Control Campaign: Right Idea, Wrong Guy

Listened a bit to Tom Ashbrooke's On Point this evening on this very topic.

One of the challenges is that the facts--e.g., do gun laws reduce gun violence, do NRA members want background checks--have been completely muddied.

Unless you sit down and pore through the stats, you just can't cut through it all. Every fact has a plausible-sounding anti-fact. And it just goes on.

Then there are the constitutional issues...and the "common sense" arguments...

I see that Bloomberg is adopting a Tea Party-ish scorched earth policy, but I wonder what sort of messaging strategy he has to move the electorate.

We have people being recalled successfully (see CO) because of how they voted on gun control. All in all, I'm very discouraged on this point and, unlike Momoe, I believe the Democrats will lose the Senate this coming election.

How many people have to die before Americans' love of guns fades? Hard to say.

Via Emptywheel, Obama invited

PeraclesPlease — Mon, 21 Apr 2014 07:26:44 +0000

In reply to Bloomberg's Gun-Control Campaign: Right Idea, Wrong Guy

Via Emptywheel, Obama invited hundreds of the young rich soon-to-be-heirs to trillions of dollars to the White House to discuss philanthropy and the public sector - I guess it's better than Bloomberg building apartments to attract the rich & connected - this way we can form an early formal cartel with the young, beautiful, well-heeled and well-funded to cover the lapses in government services as we cut our tax base - think of it as Social Security 2.0. Every time you dine at T.G.I.F., you can think about how you're supporting America's future.

Marriott, Rockefeller, Johnson & Johnson, Carlson Hotels - rather than Paris Hilton going rogue, it's nice to get the gang on-track and on-message - no bootleg sex tapes from this bunch. And it's not like it wasn't official work - Liesl Pritzker of the Hyatt chain - up-and-coming at only $500 million - can hob-nob with her billionaire cousin Penny Pritzker, Secretary of Commerce, US business and philanthropy and tax write-offs can merge to create a unified vision of public/private wealth - win-win, no?

And with 26-year-old Zac Russell representing Russell Investments with assets of $240 billion (maybe more with their fortuitous timely insurance before last weeks' stock fall), it's almost like having our charity slush fund, the 1% working for *us*! Think of it as America's team! what could go wrong, giving young rich moguls White House access and insider info on all our public infrastructure, legislation and large-scale social programs? It's like we're finally working together - I bet they even have Facebook and Instagram accounts, aside from importantly looking like Justin Bieber - just too cool.

TR's last SOU summed up the

NCD — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 16:08:57 +0000

In reply to Maybe so, but the Kochs have

TR's last SOU summed up the difference between Koch and Bloomberg:

Democracy is in peril wherever the administration of political power is scattered among a variety of men who work in secret, whose very names are unknown to the common people. It is not in peril from any man who derives authority from the people, who exercises it in sight of the people, and who is from time to time compelled to give an account of its exercise to the people.

Oh, definitely the Kochs

Michael Maiello — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 15:55:10 +0000

In reply to Maybe so, but the Kochs have

Oh, definitely the Kochs aren't winning any beauty pageants. But, in a weird way, that also works in their favor. You know, a lot of people don't understand non-political power at all. Heck, some of these people think that mayors are more powerful than billionaires.

It may take gun control

Bruce Levine — Sun, 20 Apr 2014 14:32:57 +0000

In reply to Yes, gun control is a

It may take gun control supporters even longer to deflate it, but that is what must happen.

Agreed and then some.