Which is why you should never, ever, go along with him...on anything.
For anyone who is unfamiliar with the Mayor of New York City, let me supply you with a short introduction to Hizzonner.
He's a filthy rich man. I mean, phenomenally rich, so rich that he makes other rich people look poor. He sits at the head of a media empire that makes him a shitload of money and gives him the ability to manipulate the news and public information. Even though he technically is not running his company, I have the feeling that somehow, he does. He has his own, built-in propaganda machine. He's bought the office outright, twice (if I recall from this past election, his campaign against a lack-luster-second-stringer dimwit was rumored to have spent something like $20,000 per vote received, and he still barely won).
Mike Bloomberg is so wealthy that things like, oh, I don't know, laws, are for the little people. The man who famously threatened to sue his way into Gracie Mansion when Rudy Guiliani made the suggestion that he should extend his last term as Mayor in the aftermath of 9/11 was all for term limits then. But then he co-opted the City Council in New York City (which wasn't difficult; which democrat wanted to be the Mayor of New York during a recession, when there was no Wall Street money to waste?) to overturn the will of the voters and repeal the term limit laws --so that he could run for an illegal third term as Mayor.
When it comes to things like healthcare, smoking, trash, automobiles, Mike is simply reflecting the views of his Upper East Side friends: cars are slowly being forced out of Manhattan with increased tolls, restrictions on travel, requirements on the taxi fleet to 'go green', and the once-vaunted (but ultimately-defeated) "Congestion Pricing" model which would have charged drivers tolls on the Manhattan Crossings based on time of day and traffic flow. Your $6, 9 a.m. toll could have risen to $10 by 9:05 a.m. and perhaps as much as $12 by 9:15 based on some formula no one was able to explain. The City looks through your garbage with an army of Sanitation Inspectors to ensure that you're recycling properly (like anyone asked for that?), and then hands out exorbitant fines for the smallest of infractions, forcing you to attend Sanitation Court (you can't just mail your check in, you have to appear before a magistrate). You can't smoke in a bar or restaurant, and soon, you won't be able to smoke on the street -- assuming you can afford cigarettes which are now running $10 per pack, in some places.
These policies are not intended to help anyone, improve anyone's quality of life, and they aren't required to run the City more efficiently; they are intended to enforce the vision of a self-appointed, Super-rich and obnoxious elite who don't like working people, and they wish to a) exploit working folks for what little money they DO have, b) keep them out of Manhattan so that it becomes their private preserve, and c) eventually drive all the proles into the Outer Boroughs ... where they belong....Until they're ready to gentrify those neighborhoods, too.
Now, as for guns. Mike is simply doing what New York City has done for decades; New York doesn't actually interfere with your right to own a gun -- it simply makes compliance with the law impossible. In so doing, it causes many law-abiding citizens to simply give up the quixotic attempt to obtain a legal firearm permit, and it makes those who already have one jump through ever-smaller legal hoops to in order keep them.
I'm not one of those Second Amendment types who believes the Constitution gives you the right to own a flamethrower --just because -- but the crusade against personal firearms waged by Mike Bloomberg is a bit too much, especially when you consider that if Mike wanted one (despite his taxpayer-funded security detail), he'd have his 'people' make a few phone calls, and they'd fax the permit over, toot-sweet. I can tell you from personal experience what happens in New York City in an economic downturn; it gets nasty. Crime rises, violent crime rises even faster, and illegal guns proliferate...in the hands of the criminals ... as the law-abiding citizen is left defenseless because some Rich Yuppies find guns offensive.
The NYPD is the best...ever...but the cops may be minutes away when you have but seconds to act.
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