bloomberg, Michael
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">new 3/15 see bloomberg for earlier and magazine</font><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">only dem cand pro charter? stop and frisk old videos; unfair crit on redlining, might have referred to pred loans?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/08/keith-ellison-minnesota-bloomberg-climate-lawsuit/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://dailycaller.com/2020/07/08/keith-ellison-minnesota-bloomberg-climate-lawsuit/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ENERGY</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>AG Keith Ellison Faces Lawsuit Accusing Him Of Coordinating With Bloomberg On Anti-Exxon Crusade</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pixRep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), a candidate for Democratic National Committee Chairman, speaks during a Democratic National Committee forum in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S., February 11, 2017. ]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Daily Caller News <b>Foundation</b> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CHRIS WHITE</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TECH REPORTER</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 08, 2020</font></div><div><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A Virginia-based law firm is suing Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison for access to records revealing his use of attorneys financed by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to engage in a climate crusade targeting oil companies.</b></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The nonprofit Government Accountability & Oversight (GAO)</span> filed a lawsuit Wednesday for records detailing how the Democratic attorney general is allegedly deploying <b>Bloomberg-financed lawyers to advance a lawsuit</b> his office leveled against the fossil fuel industry<b>. The firm’s complaint was filed on behalf of the nonprofit group Energy Policy Advocates.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is the second lawsuit that GAO, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit launched in 2018, has filed against Ellison in the last two years. (RELATED: Emails Reveal Role Michael Bloomberg’s Climate Crusaders Are Playing In Maryland’s AG Office)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The law firm’s complaint also reveals that the Minnesota attorney general entered into confidentiality agreements and so-called common interest agreements requiring his office to obtain the consent of the private attorneys before releasing public information about such climate lawsuits.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[pix NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MARCH 04: Former Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg addresses his staff and the media after announcing that he will be ending his campaign on March 04, 2020 in New York City. Bloomberg, who has endorsed Joe Biden, spent millions of dollars in his short lived campaign for president.] </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">GAO attorney Chris Horner </span>believes such contracts undermine open records laws and violate obligations of attorneys general to taxpayers.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“They likely are void as against public policy including that underlining open records laws, and probably violate obligations of state attorney generals to the people of their states by purporting to contract away the public’s right to access to public information such as is embodied in the MGDPA</span>,” Horner staid in a statement Wednesday.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The agreements cover records related to lawsuits two Special Assistant Attorneys General (SAAGs) inside Ellison’s office leveled against ExxonMobil. <b>Ellison announced lawsuits targeting Exxon, Koch Industries, and the American Petroleum Institute over what he calls “a campaign of deception” on climate change.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">SAAGs are placed in attorney general offices around the country by New York University’s State Energy and Environmental Impact Center (SEEIC), which received $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2018.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The NYU School of Law launched the group in 2017 to “identify and hire NYU Law Fellows who serve as special assistant attorneys general in state attorney general offices, focusing on clean energy, climate and environmental matters,” according to the NYU Law website.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ellison submitted an application for SAAGs in March 201</b>9, according to the GAO lawsuit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He expressed in the application a willingness to do more in certain areas of “known public interest to Bloomberg and his SEEIC,” the complaint stated. Ellison’s application also suggested the attorney general intends on focusing on “multistate initiatives…including…supporting state-led efforts to investigate Exxon Mobil [sic].”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neither Bloomberg nor Ellison’s office have responded to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requestS for comment about the lawsuit.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tags : energy keith ellison michael bloomberg minnesota</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/09/michael-bloomberg-global-warming/"> https://dailycaller.com/2019/09/09/michael-bloomberg-global-warming</a>/</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx many </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>emails Reveal Role Michael Bloomberg’s Climate Crusaders Are Playing In Maryland’s AG Office</b></div><div>Former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg speaks during the Presidential Gun Sense Forum in Des Moines]</div><div>
</div><div>Daily Caller News Foundation l</div><div>
</div><div>CHRIS WHITE</div><div>TECH REPORTER</div><div>September 09, 2019</div><div>
</div><div>Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s legal fellows are likely too closely connected to the billionaire’s climate change crusading group, new emails show.</div><div>Analyst Chris Horner tells the Daily Caller News Foundation that the emails reveal how <b>Maryland is “outsourcing” law enforcement activities to “activist donors.</b>”</div><div>The emails<b> apparently contradict</b> what the Bloomberg-financed climate group has said in the past about the legal fellows it places in state attorneys general offices. </div><div>A climate attorney inside Maryland’s attorney general’s office <b>appears</b> to be working at the direction of a group connected to former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, according to documents published recently by a<b> watchdog</b> group.</div><div>
</div><div>The <b>special assistant attorney </b>move to<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> seek guidance contracts</span> claims from the billionaire-financed group that<b> such attorneys are loyal only to the states where they are placed. </b>The<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> so-called </span>SAAGs are being placed in state AG offices around the country by a group that received $6 million from Bloomberg in 2018.</div><div>
</div><div>“I’m considering moving from my current environmental-focused position to the energy position that the Maryland AG’s Office has open, ” SAAG John Howard said in an email to David Haynes, director of the <b>State Environmental and Energy Impact Center, </b>which works to <b>plant </b>attorneys in various AG offices.</div><div>
</div><div>The memo was published Sept. 3 by Energy Policy Advocates (EPA), a non-profit group founded in Washington state. (RELATED: One Of The Lawyers Targeting Oil Companies Worked In Bloomberg’s Office)</div><div>
</div><div>“Would you have a few minutes this afternoon to call me? I want to get a better sense than I currently have about what the Center envisions for these positions,” Howard added in the email, which is dated March, 13 2019. Haynes responded: “I’d be happy to chat with you about this. Could we talk tomorrow.”</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div><b>Howard has been working at Maryland’s AG office since March 2018.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey (C) speaks at a news conference with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (R) and other U.S. State Attorney's General to announce a state-based effort to combat climate change in the Manhattan borough of New York City, March 29, 2016. ]</div><div>
</div><div><b>Bloomberg’s grant went to the SEEI, which is designed to escalate attacks against President Donald Trump’s regulatory rollbacks<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Daily Caller News Foundation reported in February that Illinois, Maryland, and other states involved in the program hired attorneys with ties to the billionaire.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>The exchange between Howard and Haynes appears to contradict SEEIC’s past claims that such fellows receive orders exclusively from their respective attorney general. The SEEIC operates out of the New York University of Law, media reports show.</b></div><div>
</div><div>The group’s website states: “NYU pays the salaries of the law fellows, but the fellows’ sole duty of loyalty is to the attorney general in whose office he or she serves. All work performed by the fellows is entirely identified and managed by their respective AG offices.”</div><div>
</div><div>Analysts argue Howard knew what was expected of him before he reached out.</div><div>
</div><div><b>“This scheme represents a dangerous outsourcing of law enforcement to an<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> activist </span>donor — and further undermines the AGs’ and Bloomberg Center’s insistence that these are simply more bodies,” Chris Horner, a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, told the DCNF.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Horner is on the board of directors at the Government Accountability & Oversight, which played a role in releasing the emails.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Howard, Haynes, and Maryland AG Brian Frosh have not responded to the DCNF’s request for comment about the nature of the program. Media reports have also raised questions about SEEI’s role in financing state attorneys general attempts to sue oil companies for supposedly contributing to climate change.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Gavin McCabe, a lawyer connected to Bloomberg Philanthropies, for instance, signed an amicus brief in 2018 supporting New York City’s yearlong climate lawsuit against Exxon and Chevron. Bloomberg founded Bloomberg Philanthropies in 2017 to provide AG offices with attorneys to help push green energy.</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>McCabe is one of at least eight attorneys hired by attorneys general across the country to work on environmental litigation</b>.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">McCabe’s involvemen<b>t suggests </b>Bloomberg’s money is playing a role in the anti-Exxon campaign.</span> He made himself a part of the lawsuit demanding energy companies compensate the city for the <b>alleged</b> damages from global warming. <b>U.S. District Judge John Keenan dismissed the case in July after months of arguments.</b></div><div>
</div><div>Bloomberg’s office did not respond to a request for comment.</div><div>
</div><div>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.</div><div>
</div><div>Tags : donald trump energy michael bloomberg</div><div>---</div><div>some lnx</div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: currentcolor; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.56px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I’m considering moving from my current environmental-focused position to the energy position that the Maryland AG’s Office has open, ” SAAG John Howard <a href="https://climatelitigationwatch.org/maryland-attorney-general-has-three-bloomberg-financed-climate-prosecutors/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: currentcolor; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; text-decoration-line: none; --tw-text-opacity: 1;">said in an email </a>to David Haynes, director of the State Environmental and Energy Impact Center, which works to plant attorneys in various AG offices.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: currentcolor; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.56px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The memo was published Sept. 3 by Energy Policy Advocates (EPA), a non-profit group founded in Washington state. <span style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: currentcolor; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; font-weight: bolder;"><a href="https://dailycaller.com/2019/02/04/bloomberg-climate-change-trump/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: currentcolor; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; text-decoration-line: none; --tw-text-opacity: 1;">(RELATED: One Of The Lawyers Targeting Oil Companies Worked In Bloomberg’s Office)</a></span></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; border-width: 0px; border-style: solid; border-color: currentcolor; --tw-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-inset: var(--tw-empty, ); --tw-ring-offset-width: 0px; --tw-ring-offset-color: #fff; --tw-ring-color: rgba(59, 130, 246, 0.5); --tw-ring-offset-shadow: 0 0 #0000; --tw-ring-shadow: 0 0 #0000; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.56px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Would you have a few minutes this afternoon to call me? I want to get a better sense than I currently have about what the Center envisions for these positions,” Howard added in the email, which is dated March, 13 2019. Haynes responded: “I’d be happy to chat with you about this. Could we talk tomorrow.”</p></div></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref 2</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">one Of The Lawyers Targeting Oil Companies Worked In Bloomberg’s Office</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">cHRIS WHITE</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">TECH REPORTER</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">February 04, 2019</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Some of the special assistant attorneys general involved in targeting energy companies have extensive ties to former Mayor Michael Bloomberg.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Documents reveal attorneys behind the project targeting President Donald Trump’s regulatory rollback have deeper ties to Bloomberg than previously reported.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">One of the attorneys hired by a group targeting Trump and energy companies previously worked in former Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s ties to a group pushing to sue energy companies over climate change are a lot deeper than previously noted, according to documents obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Four of the special assistant attorneys general involved in the State Impact Center project have significant connections to the New York City billionaire, the documents show. Past reports fleshing out Bloomberg’s effort focused only on his roughly $6 million donation to the project.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bloomberg’s grant went to the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, which is designed to escalate attacks against President Donald Trump’s decision to eliminate several of his predecessor’s climate regulations. Documents appear to show Illinois, Maryland, the District of Columbia and others involved in the program hired attorneys with ties to the billionaire.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Sarah Kogel-Smucker of Washington D.C., for instance, worked in Bloomberg’s office as one of his top environmental lawyers, and implemented the former mayor’s bike share program [effing commie?!] in 2013. </b>She began her career as an activist in 2004 with Sierra Club’s chapter before representing New York City in a 2017 lawsuit targeting the Trump administration’s regulation rollback.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Her career at the New York City Law Department’s Environmental Division coincided with Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor from Jan. 1, 2002, to Dec. 31, 2013. (RELATED: Judge Tosses Out New York City’s Climate Change Lawsuit)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Kogel-Smucker was also among the attorneys representing New York City in a federal lawsuit against ExxonMobil, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and others seeking to hold the energy companies responsible for present and damage to the city from global warming. A judge tossed out the case in July 2018, arguing the court system is not responsible for addressing climate change.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Other attorneys involved in the State Impact Center have an indirect connection to Bloomberg. Jason James, a special assistant attorney general in Illinois, for instance, was colleagues with Daniel Firger, a former researcher at the<b> Columbia Law School Center for Climate Change Law</b>. Firger chairs the Impact Center and heads Bloomberg Philanthropies’ climate change program.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Oregon special assistant attorney general Steve Novick shares connections to Bloomberg as well. One of Bloomberg’s biggest lobbyists, Jake Weigler, ran the former mayor’s gun control advocacy group, <b>Mayors Against Illegal Guns </b>in 2013. Weigler managed Novick’s campaign for unsuccessful run for U.S. Senate in 2008. He lost to then-House Speaker Jeff Merkley.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, a longtime Democrat,</b> appointed the former Portland city commissioner as a legal fellow to the AG office in 2018. She raised alarms in June 2018 after her office hired Novick.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Are we sure it is correct to refer to him as a ‘volunteer.’ And not an employee,” Rosenblum asked her deputy AG in a June 17, 2018, email. “Can you be an unpaid employee of the State? As a SAAG doesn’t that make one an employee?”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Her email was included in a June 2018 report from the <b>Competitive Enterprise Institute</b> detailing the extent of Bloomberg’s campaign.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Rosenblum added: “I find it strange to call someone who is working under our supervision with the title of SAAG and who is getting paid (by a third-party) the same as he would if he were working for [the Department of Justice] as a regular [assistant attorney general] — a volunteer.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Novick, meanwhile, has a long track record of environmental activism and is responsible for promoting a series of proposals targeting oil companies. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Court Memos Shed Light On Michael Bloomberg’s Role In NYC’s Climate Crusade)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Novick voted to divest Portland from the top 200 fossil fuel companies in 2015</b> during his time as the Portland City commissioner, though he said at the time, “This is obviously just one of the steps we need to take.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">He ultimately lost his re-election in 2016, becoming “the first sitting commissioner to lose re-election in 24 years.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The billionaire environmentalist has since become something of a major liberal financier. Bloomberg, who spent $5 million on a television ad in favor of Democratic candidates two days ahead of the 2018 midterm elections, said in December 2018 he wants to see any plan potential presidential candidates have regarding climate change to make sure the plan could work. He made the demand while still considering a possible White House run in 2020.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Bloomberg has not yet responded to TheDCNF’s request for comment about what role his connections to Kogel-Smucker, Novick, James and Segal played in their current positions at the State Impact Center. The AG offices at Illinois, Maryland and the District of Columbia have not returned request for comment.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Follow Chris White on Facebook and Twitter</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ref</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nyu-law-launches-new-center-to-help-state-ags-fight-environmental-rollbacks/2017/08/16">https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/nyu-law-launches-new-center-to-help-state-ags-fight-environmental-rollbacks/2017/08/16</a></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>NYU Law launches new center to help state AGs fight environmental rollbacks</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg addresses the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Miami Beach in June. His philanthropy is helping to launch a new center that will support state attorneys general in fighting federal efforts to roll back energy and environmental policies. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">By Juliet Eilperin August 16, 2017</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">NYU School of Law will launch a new center, financed by Bloomberg Philanthropies, aimed at helping state attorneys general fight any federal moves to roll back renewable energy, environmental protections and climate policies.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">The grant of nearly $6 million, which will establish the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, marks a new step in the escalating battle between state attorneys general and the Trump administration over the nation’s energy and environmental trajectory. Although the center will provide assistance to states regardless of party, Democratic attorneys general have been particularly aggressive in challenging the administration’s efforts to unravel regulations and policies that aim to curb fossil fuel production in the United States as well as restrict drilling and mining on federal lands and in federal waters.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>“Every day there’s something that goes on that endangers the health and safety of Americans,” Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh (D)</b> said Wednesday. “Attorneys general don’t begin to have the resources to meet these challenges.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Former New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has spent tens of millions of dollars through his charitable group to address climate change, giving $80 million to the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign to shut down coal-fired plants across the country. The new center will provide legal assistance to the attorneys general on renewable energy, climate and environmental issues and will sponsor 10 lawyers on two-year fellowships who will work directly on cases in different attorneys general offices.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">David J. Hayes, who served as the Interior Department’s deputy secretary under both the Obama and Clinton administrations, will serve as the center’s executive director. In an interview Wednesday, Hayes said that although “there’s never enough” funding to support this sort of advocacy, the grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies could support not only litigation against the federal government but also enforcement activities on the state level.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">How Trump is rolling back Obama’s legacy VIEW GRAPHIC ]</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hayes, who has taught at Stanford University Law School since leaving the federal government in 2013, said he thinks that Trump administration officials “are, as a general matter, very vulnerable” when it comes to court challenges.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“They are moving very quickly, and too quickly from a legal point of view,” Hayes said.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">[Interior’s shift on energy advances Trump’s goals-and prompts lawsuits]</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Justice Department spokesman Mark Abueg said the department “is fully prepared and committed to defend the administration’s decisions on energy and environmental matters in federal court.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In many ways, the new initiative reflects the extent to which the parties have switched sides now that President Trump is in the Oval Office. When Barack Obama was president, Republican attorneys general — including Oklahoma’s Scott Pruitt, who now heads the Environmental Protection Agency — challenged federal policies on issues including immigration and water quality.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Now it is Democratic attorneys general such as Frosh, New York’s Eric Schneiderman, California’s Xavier Becerra and New Mexico’s Hector Balderas who have filed multiple suits against the White House.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Schneiderman alone has spearheaded more than half a dozen suits challenging changes to federal energy and environmental policies</span>, including leading a coalition of 23 state and local governments intervening to defend the Obama-era rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions from existing power plants. This month, after 15 states and the District of Columbia sued to implement the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards for smog, the EPA reversed course and announced that it would enforce them.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“There may be no better example of how the Trump administration is quickly and quietly trying to deregulate, defund, and destabilize our basic regulatory infrastructure than environmental policy,” Schneiderman said in a statement Wednesday.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In recent years Republican attorneys general have been able to mobilize substantial resources to support their statewide political campaigns. <b>The Republican Attorneys General Association raised more than $19 million during the 2016 election cycle</b>, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, including nearly $1.4 million from the<b> U.S. Chamber of Commerce’</b>s Institute for Legal Reform and $<b>500,000 from Republican casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson</b>. That total compared with about $6.7 million raised by the Democratic Attorneys General Association.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">It remains unclear whether any Republican state leaders will collaborate with the new center. Frosh said the lawsuits he has filed against the administration have not needed the approval of Gov. Larry Hogan (R). <b>But Maryland officials have informed the EPA that they plan to sue unless the agency ensures that coal-fired plants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia install pollution controls so their output doesn’t harm Maryland’s air quality.</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Juliet Eilperin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at The Washington Post, editing climate and environmental coverage. She has written two books, "Demon Fish: Travels Through the Hidden World of Sharks" and "Fight Club Politics: How Partisanship is Poisoning the House of Representatives." Follow </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">peeling back onion</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/13/michael-bloomberg-climate-exxonmobil-lawyer/">https://dailycaller.com/2018/10/13/michael-bloomberg-climate-exxonmobil-lawyer/</a></font></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/judge-new-york-climate-change-lawsuit/">https://dailycaller.com/2018/07/19/judge-new-york-climate-change-lawsuit/</a></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">ENERGY</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Judge Tosses Out New York City’s Climate Change Lawsuit</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Daily Caller News Foundation </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">MICHAEL BASTASCH</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CONTRIBUTOR</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">July 19, <b>2018</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>A federal judge tossed a lawsuit New York City brought against five major oil companies,</b> demanding compensation for the alleged damages from man-made global warming.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“The Court recognizes that the City, and many other governmental entities around the United States and in other nations, will be forced to grapple with the harmful impacts of climate change in the coming decades,” U.S. District Judge John Keenan ruled on Thursday.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“However, the immense and complicated problem of global warming requires a comprehensive solution that weighs the global benefits of fossil fuel use with the gravity of the impending harms,” Keenan ruled.</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“To litigate such an action for injuries from foreign greenhouse gas emissions in federal court would severely infringe upon the foreign-policy decisions that are squarely within the purview of the political branches of the U.S. Government,” Keenan wrote for the court.</font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s the third such lawsuit brought against oil companies ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Royal Dutch Shell and ConocoPhillips<b>. A U.S. District Court judge in Northern California struck down identical lawsuits in June brought by the cities of San Francisco and Oakland.</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trial lawyers with Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP handled climate lawsuits on behalf of the two California cities and New York City in ex<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">change for a percentage of any winnings, called a contingency fee. (RELATED:</span> <b>Trial Lawyers</b> Handling Cities’ Global Warming Lawsuits Stand To Make Billions)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hagens Berman stood to earn billions of dollars in contingency fees depending on the total winnings, from a favorable judgement against oil companies. The three cities claimed billions of dollars worth of damage from global warming induced by fossil fuels.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cities and trial lawyers argue the alleged effects of global warming, including sea level rise and extreme weather,<b> violate public nuisance laws. Cities want oil companies to pay for past damages and future mitigation projects.</b></font></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>However, two judges have shot down this argument this year. Both judges found the Clean Air Act supplanted common law on global warming nuisance complaints, and ruling otherwise would circumvent elected officials</b>.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“Global warming and solutions thereto must be addressed by the two other branches of government,” Keenan wrote.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">At least a dozen state and local governments have filed suit against fossil fuel companies over global warming since 2017, including six California cities and the state of Rhode Island. (RELATED: <b>Trial Lawyers Are Behind </b>Rhode Island’s Global Warming Lawsuit Against Big Oil)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Those lawsuits are also being handled by trial lawyers in exchange for a percentage of any winnings.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hagens Berman, for example, is also handling a climate lawsuit against oil companies brought by King County, Washington. (RELATED: Washington Joins Growing List Of Locals Suing Oil Companies Over Climate Change)</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“This case is, fundamentally, about shifting the costs of abatement back onto the companies,” reads King County’s complaint. “After all, it is Defendants who have profited and will continue to profit by knowingly contributing to global warming, thereby doing all they can to help create and maintain a profound public nuisance.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Tags : energy new york city u s district court</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">---</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no bio affiliations one of many pp:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Michael Bastasch</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Contributor</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> </font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">OPINION</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">BASTASCH: It's Now Clearer Than Ever Before, Science Bends Itself To Fit Left-Wing Politics</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2020 Democrats Eschew Climate Change For 'Crisis,' 'Chaos' In Debate</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Hickenlooper: 'Socialism Is Not The Solution' To Climate Change</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Democrats Dodged An Important Question: Who Pays For Trillion-Dollar Climate Change Plans?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jay Inslee Says He Can Save Miami From Climate Change By Ending The Filibuster</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Jay Inslee Says McDonald's Employees Are 'Slinging Hash' In Democratic Debate</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Top EPA Official Steps Down After Spearheading Trump's Deregulatory Agenda</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2020 Hopeful Claims Global Warming Made Parts Of Central America 'Uninhabitable'</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2020 Hopeful Proposes Tax Plan That Voters In His Home State Twice Rejected</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">House Democrats Haven't Held Their Latest Climate Change Hearing And A Scientist Is Already Debunking It</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Will The Philadelphia Refinery Explosion Send Gas Prices Skyrocketing? Experts Weigh In</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump's EPA Gets Unexpected Challenge From The Right</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">New York Passes 'Very Expensive' Climate Change Bill To Cut Global CO2 Emissions 0.3% Over 30 Years</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump's EPA Repealed The Centerpiece Of Obama's Climate Agenda</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Here's What Amy Klobuchar Said Her First Act As President Would Be</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Crumbling Roads, Dilapidated Buildings, Sewage Leaks: Iconic National Parks Are Falling Into Disrepair</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Population Bomb? China Expected To Have 400 Million Fewer People By 2100</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Why Is Pope Francis Backing Energy Taxes? Here's A Hint: Big Oil</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">US Reliance On OPEC Oil Hits 30-Year Low</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">West Coast Heat Wave: Experts Say It's Weather, Not Global Warming</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">UN Chief Poses For TIME Cover Off 'Sinking' Pacific Island Nation That's Actually Growing In Size</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump Is Doing What Obama Didn't: Putting Forward New Policies To Stop Catastrophic Wildfires</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">'Climate Change' Isn't Alarming Enough For The Liberal Media. Here's What They Now Call It</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Peak Coal? Not Anytime Soon, Says One Of The World's Biggest Energy Companies</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Why Won't Democrats Talk About The Green New Deal? Republicans Want To Know</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Mike Bloomberg Declared War On Coal, So West Virginia Declared War On Mike Bloomberg</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">'Contempt For Working Families': Miners' Union Blasts Mike Bloomberg's Anti-Coal Push</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Dozens Of Conservative Groups Signed A Stinging Rebuke Of A Policy Mitt Romney Just Said He Was 'Looking At' Supporting</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Gone By 2020? National Park Quietly Changes Its <b>Alarming Imminent Glacial Melt </b>Claim</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Mike Bloomberg Devotes $500 Million To Ending Coal Industry, Influencing 2020 Elections</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">EPA Reassigns Top Bureaucrat Critics See As Key Resistor Of Trump's Agenda</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Did The DNC Reject A Climate Change Debate To 'Protect' Joe Biden?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Allied Weather Forecasters Saved D-Day From Failure. 75 Years Later, We’re Very Grateful</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">We Found Another Serious Gaffe In Biden's Climate Change Plan. It's Embarrassing</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">2020 Hopeful Jay Inslee Has A New Climate Change Plan - More Immigration</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">'He Is Really Into Climate Change': Trump Told Piers Morgan About His Conversation With Prince Charles</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump Says 'Plagiarism Charge' Against Biden's Climate Change Plan 'Is A Big Problem'</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><b>Trump's EPA Chief Fires Back At Reporters Who Spread Fake News About Him</b></font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Liz Warren Pitches Climate Change 'Jobs' Plan. It Costs $2 Million Per Job</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Joe Biden Signals Willingness To Provoke A Trade War With China Over Global Warming</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Tags : donald trump energy exxon mobil michael bloomberg</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">out of race after super tues</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see rule 23 horner AG hit</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2019 AP?!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/38938e39f23c6b8f3a900b221797143e">https://apnews.com/article/38938e39f23c6b8f3a900b221797143e</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WT</font></font></font></font></div><div><b>virginia has become the first state to crack down on billionaire Michael R. Bloomberg’s effort to embed within the attorney general’s office privately funded lawyers dedicated to pursuing climate change litigation.</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Republican-controlled General Assembly inserted an amendment in the 2019 biennial budget requiring those working for the attorney general to be state or federal government employees with certain exceptions and paid solely with public funds.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Last week’s addition to the $100 billion budget bill, which goes to Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, for his signature, would appear to nix any effort by Attorney General Mark Herring to bring on climate lawyers paid for by the Bloomberg-funded State Energy Environmental Impact Center at the New York University School of Law.</div><div><b>Cheering the amendment was Chris Horner, senior fellow at the free market Competitive Enterprise Institute who hailed Virginia as the first state to take action against what he has called “private mercenaries” engaged in “law enforcement for rent.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>“Sunday’s vote is a statement from Virginia’s elected representatives that Bloomberg’s money can’t buy a donor’s way into Virginia law enforcement,” Mr. Horner said in a social media post. “We applaud this vote while wondering what’s wrong with the rest of these legislatures.”</div><div>
</div><div>At least nine states and the District of Columbia have been selected to receive the privately financed special assistant attorneys general since the program began in August 2017, founded with a $6 million grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies.</div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/transparent-political-ploy-florida-attorney-general-asks-fbi-to-investigate-bloombergs-efforts-to-restore-felon-voting-rights/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/transparent-political-ploy-florida-attorney-general-asks-fbi-to-investigate-bloombergs-efforts-to-restore-felon-voting-rights/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">florida <a href="https://www.salon.com/2016/03/21/did_donald_trumps_foundation_break_the_law_with_a_shady_contribution_to_the_florida_attorney_general/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Attorney General</a> Ashley Moody, a Republican, has asked the FBI and the state’s Department of Law Enforcement to investigate former New York Mayor <a href="https://www.salon.com/topic/michael_bloomberg" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Michael Bloomberg</a>‘s efforts <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/22/bloomberg-raises-16m-to-pay-fines-of-32000-former-felons-in-florida-so-they-can-vote-again-report_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">to help felons in the state regain their voting rights</a> by paying their court fees, citing “potential violations of election laws.”</b></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg has over the last week <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/09/22/bloomberg-raises-16m-to-pay-fines-of-32000-former-felons-in-florida-so-they-can-vote-again-report_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">raised more than $16 million from individuals and private organizations</a>, which he said would go towards paying down fines and fees for <a href="https://32%2C000%20black%20and%20latinx%20voters/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">nearly 32,000 Black and Latinx Florida voters with felony records</a>. A controversial Florida law <a href="https://www.salon.com/2019/03/20/florida-republicans-vote-to-strip-most-felons-of-voting-rights-unless-they-pay-poll-tax/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">forbids former felons from voting</a> unless and until they pay off all money they owe the courts or other legal parties. Critics have called it <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/26/florida-breakthrough-ex-felon-voting-rights-restored-modern-day-poll-tax-ruled-illegal_partner/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">a “modern day poll tax.”</a></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Florida attorney general Ashley Moody said in the letter that the office of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis had asked her to look into the issue, CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/23/politics/florida-michael-bloomberg-investigate-felon-voting-rights/index.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reported</a> Wednesday.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“After preliminarily reviewing this limited public information and law, it appears further investigation is warranted,” Moody wrote in a letter to the agencies....</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://billmoyers.com/story/gop-led-legal-inquest-into-bloomberg-helping-florida-felons-vote-condemned-as-attempted-voter-suppression/">https://billmoyers.com/story/gop-led-legal-inquest-into-bloomberg-helping-florida-felons-vote-condemned-as-attempted-voter-suppression/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="entry-content cf" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 1.6em; margin-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody’s call for state and federal investigations into billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s effort to raise millions to pay off court fees to help Florida felons restore their voting rights was a <b>“gross abuse” of power, “voter suppression,” “a fear-mongering tactic used before” and based on a “fundamental misconception” of anti-corruption laws, according to experienced campaign lawyers and former federal election regulators.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s not just that an investigative process and grand jury proceedings would likely extend past Election Day, but also that we’ve seen this fearmongering tactic used before,” said <a href="https://campaignlegal.org/staff/jonathan-diaz" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Jonathan Diaz</a>, legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center in Washington, D.C., founded by <a href="https://campaignlegal.org/staff/trevor-potter" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Trevor Potter</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, a Republican and ex-Federal Election Commission (FEC) chair. “</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There are countless examples of elected officials or law enforcement announcing ‘bombshell’ investigations like this with no evidence of actual wrongdoing (for example, recently</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in </span></b><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2019/02/01/texas-citizenship-voter-roll-review-how-it-turned-boondoggle/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Texas</a> and <a href="https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/georgia-secretary-state-sends-nearly-100-possible-cases-voter-fraud-attorney-general/ZWJWSH5L4FCRPN3Q4W24FHGSPU/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Georgia</a></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">) and indeed, no actual conclusions that any misconduct has taken place.”</span></b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It’s “outrageous and likely an extortionate threat designed to suppress the vote and deny citizens their constitutional right to vote,” said <a href="https://www.floridabar.org/mybarprofile/IronLawyer" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Benedict Kuehne</a>, the Miami attorney whose team recently won a <a href="https://votingbooth.media/floridas-eight-biggest-counties-will-save-digital-ballot-images-if-theres-a-presidential-recount/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">settlement</a> to save digital images of ballots if there’s a presidential election recount. “<b>Not at all unexpected. But still an abuse of power.</b>”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The fray is the latest development in one of the nation’s most important voting rights battles. Two years ago, a majority of Floridians approved <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_4,Voting_Rights_Restoration_for_Felons_Initiative(2018)" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Amendment 4</a>, which restored voting rights for nearly 1.4 million former felons. Florida’s Republican-led state government <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article245954020.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">responded</a> by passing laws and going to court to impede the rights’ restoration, mainly by requiring former felons to pay off all court fees and fines before being eligible to register to vote.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As legal battles are continuing in the courts—where delays mean that these Floridians won’t necessarily be eligible to vote this fall unless they pay fees that typically are <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article245954020.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">between</a> $500 and $5,000—many celebrities and philanthropists have been making donations to the <a href="https://floridarrc.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Florida Rights Restoration Coalition</a> (FRRC), which led the Amendment 4 campaign, to help pay the fees.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The FRRC raised about $6 million in the past year for that effort, the Miami Herald <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/state-politics/article245954020.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>, noting that <b>celebrities like NBA star LeBron James contributed. </b>To date, FRRC has helped about 4,000 people pay off their fines, NPR <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/25/916626848/florida-republicans-take-aim-at-efforts-to-pay-felons-fines-so-they-can-vote?utm_campaign=storyshare&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a>, noting that an estimated 775,000 former felons have unpaid fines.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But a September 22 Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mike-bloomberg-raises-16-million-to-allow-former-felons-to-vote-in-florida/2020/09/21/6dda787e-fc5a-11ea-8d05-9beaaa91c71f_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">report</a> that said Bloomberg had raised $16 million to help about 32,000 people clear those debts</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">prompted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to ask the state Attorney General Ashley Moody</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> (both are Republicans) to launch federal and state anti-corruption investigations into Bloomberg’s effort.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Political Theater</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Beyond the obvious election-year politics, the issue is what constitutes illegal vote-buying.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I sent a <a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article245959025.ece/BINARY/Moody%E2%80%99s%20letter.pdf#storylink=readmore_inline" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">letter</a> to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation into potential violations of election laws,” <a href="https://myfloridalegal.com/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody</a> said via email. “And I have instructed the Statewide Prosecutor to work with law enforcement and<b> any Statewide Grand Jury that the Governor may call.”</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On September 23, Moody asked state and federal authorities to investigate whether Bloomberg’s efforts, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mike-bloomberg-raises-16-million-to-allow-former-felons-to-vote-in-florida/2020/09/21/6dda787e-fc5a-11ea-8d05-9beaaa91c71f_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">reported</a> in the Washington Post, violated state and federal laws that make it illegal to give another person anything of value in exchange for their vote. That Washington Post <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mike-bloomberg-raises-16-million-to-allow-former-felons-to-vote-in-florida/2020/09/21/6dda787e-fc5a-11ea-8d05-9beaaa91c71f_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">report</a> quoted an unnamed Bloomberg adviser who said that paying the fines “immediately activates tens of thousands of voters who are predisposed to vote for Joe Biden.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Governor DeSantis has asked that my office review recent allegations found in the enclosed September 22, 2020 </span><i style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">Washington Post</i><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> article and relevant law,” </span><a href="https://www.miamiherald.com/latest-news/article245959025.ece/BINARY/Moody%E2%80%99s%20letter.pdf#storylink=readmore_inline" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">began</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Moody’s letter to the FBI and Florida Department of Law Enforcement.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The letter cited a 2016 advisory opinion from Maria Matthews, Florida Division of Elections director, to a now-defunct political committee, saying that “[e]ven otherwise innocuous offering of an incentive simply to vote could run afoul” of corruption laws. Moody concluded, “it appears further investigation is warranted.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The preceding paragraph in that 2016 opinion, which was not cited in Moody’s cover letter but was found in attached documents, said that the Division of Elections had concluded in the 1980s that Florida law “does not prohibit a person from giving an elector ‘a gift certificate or other consideration if the consideration is not intended to buy or corruptly influence another’s vote.’”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That <b>advisory opinion identifies a tipping point—whether a gift is tied to an explicit vote. Its ambiguity—“[it] could run afoul”—is the hinge upon which Florida Republicans have launched an investigation into Bloomberg, implying, but not concluding, that he has crossed a line into vote-buying. That peg was all that right-wing media needed <a href="https://video.foxbusiness.com/v/6193568247001/#sp=show-clips" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">to start</a> attacking Bloomberg.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the other hand, the clearer prior precedents in Florida Department of State advisory opinions, and Florida and federal laws that absolve Bloomberg of any wrongdoing, are what has drawn extraordinarily strong denunciations of Moody’s actions by voting rights attorneys, former campaign finance regulators and Florida Democrats.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Let’s not forget that Florida has spent the last year telling federal courts that these legal debts are simply criminal penalties that have nothing to do with voting and are therefore not a poll tax</b>—but as soon as someone like [former New York] Mayor Bloomberg shows up and offers to help pay them, Florida turns around and accuses him of illegally buying votes,” said the Campaign Legal Center’s Diaz. “The state can’t have it both ways: either it’s charging people to vote in violation of the Constitution and this is a poll tax, or it’s not, and Mayor Bloomberg has done nothing wrong by donating funds to help people become eligible [voters].”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another former Federal Election Commissioner, <a href="https://www.fec.gov/about/leadership-and-structure/karl-j-sandstrom/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Karl Sandstrom</a> (appointed by President Bill Clinton), said that Florida Attorney General Moody was misapplying legal standards by citing an ambiguous state agency opinion to launch a federal and state anti-corruption probe.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The Florida attorney general’s reading of the relevant statutes flies in [the] face of the rule of lenity which is [a] well-established principle of criminal statutory interpretation that requires a court to apply any unclear or ambiguous law in the manner that is most favorable to the defendant,” he said. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Under her interpretation, a corporation that gives employees time off to vote would be guilty of a felony if the corporation expected that were likely to prefer one candidate over another.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“This [gambit] raises voter suppression to a whole new level</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">,” said Chris Sautter, an election lawyer specializing in post-election recounts. “What next? Will they start prosecuting voter protection lawyers who advise voters on their rights to cast a ballot?”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; font-weight: 700;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats and Florida Lawyers React</font></span></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Outside of Florida, other seasoned election lawyers said that Bloomberg’s effort was legal.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m not a neutral expert on this,” said Joseph Sandler, one of the Democratic Party’s top campaign lawyers. “But we do advise on this issue all the time, and there’s no doubt in my mind this is legal because payment of the fine is not tied to whether the person agrees or promises to commit to vote at all, let alone to vote for a particular party or candidate. The relevant statutes—which go to corruptly influencing a person to vote a certain way—do not remotely apply. The threats of prosecution for this are indeed a gross abuse [of power].”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Inside Florida, Democrats made the same point. Moody was wrong on the vote-buying law.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“I think the fundamental misconception (whether inadvertent or deliberate) is that enabling people to cast a vote is the same thing as telling them, or demanding of them, to vote in a particular way for a particular candidate.</b> That is just not what is happening here,” said <a href="https://www.myfloridahouse.gov/Sections/Representatives/details.aspx?MemberId=4614&LegislativeTermId=88" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; text-decoration-line: none;">Joseph Geller</a>, a Democratic state legislator and veteran of Florida’s 2000 presidential recount. “These potential voters are being freed to vote, but there is no insistence or requirement as to how they will exercise their discretion as to which candidates they will vote for.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, it is impossible to separate the timing of Moody’s call for state and federal investigations from the 2020 election cycle. Her action’s purpose was to deter voting by the roughly 32,000 former felons for whom Bloomberg was poised to clear the existing court fees.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px; max-width: 80%; margin: 0px auto 1em; position: relative;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Our thoughts are: yes, donors can pay off the fines and fees of Floridians. The Florida AG’s outrageous letter is a blatant voter suppression tactic that has no basis in law,” said Corey Goldstone, a <b>Campaign Legal Center</b> spokesman. “We’re treating it more like a press release than a serious legal filing. None of these people have to vote, no one has been induced to take any particular action. The donors who are contributing to the Florida Rights Restoration Council merely <i style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: 0px;">allows</i> people to be eligible to vote—something that most people enjoy cost-free.”</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/mike-bloomberg-raises-16-million-to-pay-fines-of-32000-former-felons-so-they-can-vote-again-in-florida-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"> Bloomberg raises $16 million to pay fines of 32,000 former felons so they can vote again in Florida: report</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/mike-bloomberg-raises-16-million-to-pay-fines-of-32000-former-felons-so-they-can-vote-again-in-florida-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/mike-bloomberg-raises-16-million-to-pay-fines-of-32000-former-felons-so-they-can-vote-again-in-florida-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alex-henderson/" title="Posts by Alex Henderson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Alex Hend</font></a></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">shill ~ Sierra</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="letter-spacing: 0.83px; line-height: 1.55em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">supports nuke and frack as bridge</font></p><p style="letter-spacing: 0.83px; line-height: 1.55em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/michael-bloomberg-backs-fracking-and-invests-in-fossil-fuels/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://truthout.org/articles/michael-bloomberg-backs-fracking-and-invests-in-fossil-fuels/</font></a></p><p style="letter-spacing: 0.83px; line-height: 1.55em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">11/18</font></p><p style="letter-spacing: 0.83px; line-height: 1.55em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">mic<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">hael Bloomberg is often sold to people as a climate hero. Headlines that tout him as a green visionary adorn the pages of the </span>New Yorker and Vanity Fair<span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. He skips across the globe as the UN’s special envoy for climate action. He co-authored a book – </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Climate of Hope</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, it’s called – with the former longtime head of the Sierra Club. Along with California Governor Jerry Brown, Bloomberg co-chairs </span><a href="https://www.americaspledgeonclimate.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">America’s Pledge</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, dedicated to “helping America reach its Paris climate goals.” He even offered to cut a check to cover the US’s $4.5 million commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement after Trump pulled out.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; clear: both;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Now Bloomberg is adding a new line to his resume: co-chair of Jerry Brown’s upcoming </span><a href="https://globalclimateactionsummit.org/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">climate summit</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. Bloomberg is a key figure driving the event, which is happening this week in San Francisco. The summit was first announced at the 2017 Bloomberg Global Business Forum, and Bloomberg Philanthropies is a </span><a href="https://globalclimateactionsummit.org/sponsors/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">sponsor</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. Bloomberg chairs the board of C40, a summit </span><a href="https://globalclimateactionsummit.org/advisory-committee/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">advisory committee</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> member, and a host of other players tied to the summit partner with or accept funds from Bloomberg’s philanthropic and business empires.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg is worth $</span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/michael-bloomberg/#53fc6a971417" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">53.2 billion</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, which makes him the world’s </span><a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/forbes-2018-list-of-worlds-billionaires/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">11th richest person</a></b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b>. He built his fortune through Bloomberg LP, a financial information and media corporation he founded in 1981, and in which he maintains an 88% stake.</b> In a nation that celebrates Bruce Wayne and Tony Stark as wealthy superheroes who can swoop in to save the day, many hold similar hopes for Bloomberg and the climate – that, through his sheer genius and massive fortune, he can knit together the right policy fixes and enough global influencers to save the planet without disrupting – maybe even helping – global capitalism.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">but celebration and praise of Bloomberg as a climate leader should be met with due caution, if not outright scorn. Bloomberg is an unapologetic advocate of drilling and fracking who almost certainly has large chunks of his billions invested in oil and gas. If we’re looking for big climate leaders, he falls woefully short. While Bloomberg may not be a Trump-supporting coal baron, he pushes a vision that keeps us locked into fossil fuels and celebrates the very market forces that drive the climate crisis.</font></span></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 3rem 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“It Makes Sense to Frack”</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg is a big advocate of fracking and the expansion of natural gas infrastructure. At the beginning of </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Climate of Hope</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, he writes: “</span><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">I don’t want to ban fracking (just do it safely) or stop the Keystone pipeline (the oil is coming here one way or another), and I support nuclear power.” He later goes into write: “Natural gas, when safely and responsibly extracted, has been a godsend for the environment and public health,” and that “fracking allows for the most efficient extraction of natural gas” and that “it makes sense to frack.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">One trick that Bloomberg uses to promote fracking is to frame natural gas as the “good” fossil fuel versus coal, the “bad” fossil fuel. Bloomberg has given tens of millions of dollars to groups to fight the coal industry – for example, he’s donated $80 million to the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. But in 2015, he </span><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/bloomberg-criticizes-new-york-fracking-ban-1428520873" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">criticized </a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York State’s fracking ban, calling it “misguided,” and, as is usual with him, counterposed fracked gas as the alternative to coal.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While coal is a dirty fossil fuel that needs to be stopped, Bloomberg presents a false binary where we must choose natural gas or coal. By using his power and influence to frame this as “the choice” within mainstream discussion, he sidelines another option: rejecting new fossil fuel use and choosing renewable energy sources. Bloomberg’s framing of fracking as the practical, common sense option is an big obstacle to more far-reaching measures needed to curb carbon emissions now.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Moreover, by promoting natural gas as the “good” fossil fuel alternative to coal, Bloomberg contributes to a politics that is enabling the build out of added infrastructure, such as pipelines and compressor stations, that will generate huge carbon emissions for decades to come. Rather than curb new fossil fuel production, Bloomberg is promoting it – and he’s doing all this under the supposed banner of the environmental movement.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Even more, fracking has dire effects for public health and global warming. Its destructive impacts – from heat-trapping </span><a href="https://thinkprogress.org/methane-leaks-erase-climate-benefit-of-fracked-gas-countless-studies-find-8b060b2b395d/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">methane leaks</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to </span><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/fracking-can-contaminate-drinking-water/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">groundwater contamination</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to a </span><a href="https://e360.yale.edu/digest/fracking-linked-to-increase-in-texas-quakes-according-to-new-study" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">rise in earthquakes</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> – are well-documented, not to mention that it’s </span><a href="https://phys.org/news/2018-08-fracking-risen-percent.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">gobbling up</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> dwindling water supplies.</span></font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 3rem 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We Are Natural Gas Bulls”</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg invests his billions through a firm called </span><a href="https://www.willettadvisors.com/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Willett Advisors</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. Indeed, Willett exists solely to manage and invest Bloomberg’s assets. Its chairman and CEO is Steven Rattner, a private equity executive and former head of Obama’s Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry in 2009, which created the agreement to bail out GM and Chrysler.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Willett is an extremely secretive firm – think of it as a black box – so the public doesn’t know what it specifically invests in. We do know, however, that it has major investments in the energy industry, and almost certainly in oil and gas.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For example, a May 2013 article quotes Brad Briner, Willett’s former director of real assets, saying the firm could potentially boost its investments in real assets like oil and gas from 3% to 15%, and that it was “seeking out investments opportunistically.” Here’s an excerpt that quotes Briner:</font></span></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 3rem; border-left: 0.5rem solid rgb(159, 161, 164); line-height: 2;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Natural gas will be an area of focus. “We are natural gas bulls. We think oil is well priced. If we can generate new supplies at a discount to the spot price, we will do it,” he said in an interview with FEI, citing potential opportunities in projects such as drilling. He added that the office is open to speaking to emerging managers and willing to consider being an anchor limited partner for young firms.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(The article, “Willett Advisors Eyes Real Assets For Bloomberg’s Philanthropic Portfolio,” was published by Foundation & Endowment Intelligence and is available through LexisNexis).</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Willett CEO Steven Rattner has also been upfront about his enthusiasm for fossil fuel investments. During a 2015 Bloomberg TV interview, for example, Rattner </span><a href="https://www.nylinvestments.com/dagent_docroot/mainstay/video/transcript/12-03-2015-JerrySwankonBloomberg-Transcript.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">echoed</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> Briner’s “bullish” attitude toward oil and gas:</span></font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 3rem; border-left: 0.5rem solid rgb(159, 161, 164); line-height: 2;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Well, we invest a lot in the energy sector, so we have a dog in this fight, and we have been – we’ve certainly been on the more bullish side of the argument on oil and continue to be for all the reasons you said, that essentially sooner – the lower prices stay for longer, the bigger the increase will be later because of the number of capital projects that will be canceled as prices stay at these low levels.</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Speaking on a </span><a href="https://www.ourenergypolicy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/Abundance-or-Scarcity_12.3.14-panel_Transcript1.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">panel</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> in December 2014, Rattner also said. “[F]or the foreseeable future,” Rattner said, “we are going to be dependent on oil and natural gas as primary sources of fuel” and “that unless we want to substantially alter in a downward way, our economic growth trajectory, we need to embrace that, accept it and nurture it.”</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rattner went on to assert his strong support for more fracking and increased oil and gas exports, and for the removal of regulatory barriers to these. It’s worth quoting him at length:</font></span></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 2rem 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 3rem; border-left: 0.5rem solid rgb(159, 161, 164); line-height: 2;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So that means expediting LNG Exports. Not necessarily just a ribbon cutting, but actually changing the permitting process in a way where we do more of it, that is probably our single biggest way of having influence over the rest of the world, would be to become a supplier of large amounts of natural gas to the rest of the world. It means eliminating the ban on exporting crude, which I think would have zero effect on gasoline prices and would essentially just make the markets more efficient, it’s not going to change the worldwide price of crude, it’s not going to change the price of gasoline, it’s going to take some money away from the refiners who don’t deserve it and have it go into developing production in the US, which is what we want to see have happen and I would certainly continue to think about renewables and nuclear, not so much about coal, but I would have an energy policy that is oriented toward the fact that our demand for the use of energy is going to continue to grow…</font></span></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg’s hypocrisy when it comes to his own investments has been pointed out by others. Author Naomi Klein </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/13/greenwashing-sticky-business-naomi-klein" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">wrote</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> that “while talking a good game about carbon bubbles and stranded assets, Bloomberg has made no discernible attempt to manage his own vast wealth in a manner that reflects these concerns.”</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Klein even hints at a possible connection between Bloomberg’s promotion of natural gas and his personal financial interests. “In fact, he helped set up Willett Advisors, a firm specialising in oil and gas assets, for both his personal and philanthropic holdings,” Klein writes. ”Those gas assets may well have risen in value as a result of his environmental giving – what with, for example, EDF championing natural gas as a replacement for coal. Perhaps there is no connection between his philanthropic priorities and his decision to entrust his fortune to the oil and gas sector. But these investment choices raise uncomfortable questions about his status as a climate hero, as well as his 2014 appointment as a UN special envoy for cities and climate change.”</font></span></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 3rem 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Big Green Cover</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">There are a range of self-professed environmental organizations that provide Bloomberg with cover to pose as a climate hero even as he remains dedicated to investing in and promoting fossil fuels. These groups – sometimes referred to as “Big Green,” who “</span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/20/greenwashing-environmentalism-lies-companies" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">greenwash</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">” for the oil and gas industry – are funded and closely tied to the very same corporate interests that drive the fossil fuel sector. (See our coverage of the </span><a href="https://news.littlesis.org/2018/05/14/andrew-cuomo-headlines-environmental-gala-funded-by-big-oil-companies/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">New York League of Conservation Voters</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> for an example of this).</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) is one such organization that vouches for Bloomberg. Last year, for example, EDF executive director Diane Regas wrote a </span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/edfenergyexchange/2017/04/20/bloombergs-news-fighting-climate-change-makes-us-wealthier-healthier-and-stronger/#250192496ae5" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">fawning review</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> of </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Climate of Hope </i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">for </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">Forbes </i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">magazine. It reads like a Bloomberg press release. The review is entirely uncritical, celebrating “Bloomberg’s eloquent call to action” while not even mentioning his enthusiasm for fracking and new oil and gas infrastructure, let alone his fossil fuel investments. This is probably not coincidental, since Regas discloses that Bloomberg Philanthropies supports the EDF (this is putting it lightly – he has given </span><a href="https://www.edf.org/news/edf-announces-key-grant-bloomberg-philanthropies" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">millions</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to the group).</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The EDF has </span><a href="https://littlesis.org/entities/34975-Environmental_Defense_Fund?relationships=donors" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">raked</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> in tens of millions in donations from conservative billionaire families like the Waltons and Wall Street interests like Goldman Sachs and Bloomberg. Its board of trustees includes multi-billionaire Julian Robertson, a housing crisis profiteer and senior advisor to energy investment firm Tiger Infrastructure Partners (which is currently </span><a href="https://public-accountability.org/2018/08/putting-the-scam-in-danskammer-trump-linked-wall-street-billionaires-financing-a-polluting-fracked-gas-plant-and-sticking-new-yorkers-with-the-bill-2/" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">proposing</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> a new fracked-gas plant in New York State), Stanley Druckenmiller, also a multi-billionaire who </span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/stanley-druckenmiller-defends-his-fossil-fuel-investments-2016-4" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">invests</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> in fossil fuels; and Katherine Lorenz, president of the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, which rests upon George Mitchell’s fracking fortune.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">The EDF has a history of using its environmental mask to provide cover for oil and gas interests. For example, as </span><a href="https://public-accountability.org/wp-content/uploads/big_green_fracking_machine.pdf" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">we showed</a></b><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><b> a few years ago, it helped legitimize the Center for Sustainable Shale Development,</b> a pro-fracking body dominated by the fossil fuel industry that issues certifications to fracking companies identifying them as “responsible” gas drillers.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg has also given </span><a href="https://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2015/04/bloomberg-philanthropies-boosts-investment-sierra-club-retire-us-coal-fleet" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">$80 million</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> to the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” campaign, which aims to retire the nation’s coal-fired power plants. Coal plants produce the highest levels of carbon emissions, and everyone should contribute to shutting them down. But it’s unfortunate that Bloomberg can use gestures like this to appear as a climate hero even as he continues to invest in and support fracking and pipeline expansion – also major drivers of climate change.</span></font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 3rem 0px 1.5rem; padding: 0px; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 1.2;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Market Environmentalism</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg is, in his own words, an “unrepentant capitalist” who envisions market forces and private corporations as driving the response to climate change. His well-funded supporters put a positive spin on Bloomberg’s market approach – he is merely being “practical.” The EDF director </span><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/edfenergyexchange/2017/04/20/bloombergs-news-fighting-climate-change-makes-us-wealthier-healthier-and-stronger/#1735e0b6ae5c" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">writes</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> that Bloomberg is “talking about common sense solutions to climate change that spring from the American mainstream.” For Bloomberg, capitalism and building corporate wealth go hand in hand with fighting climate change.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">But there is a fundamental problems with Bloomberg’s vision of a market-driven path towards a carbon-free world. Ultimately, the fight against climate change, and making big progress quickly enough to avoid the worst impacts of global warming, is incompatible with capitalism as it now stands – a point strongly made by Naomi Klein in her </span><a href="https://www.amazon.com/This-Changes-Everything-Capitalism-Climate/dp/1451697392" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">2015 book</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, </span><i style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit;">This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate</i><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">. As long as private fossil fuel corporations hold immense economic and political power, and as long supposed climate advocates like Bloomberg promote new oil and gas infrastructure and production at the expense of renewable energy sources, we will fall short in confronting the climate crisis.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Perhaps, though, Bloomberg has good reason to avoid linking capitalism and the climate crisis, since he’s benefited as much as anyone in the world from the kinds of wealth accumulation that the system offers to its winners.</font></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">Bloomberg lives an incredibly lush life. He owns a slew of luxury properties across the globe: homes in Florida, New York City, Armonk, London, and Colorado, as well estates in Bermuda, North Salem, and the Hamptons. His </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/nyregion/26bermuda.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Bermuda waterfront estate</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> cost $10 million to build – and that was back in 1998. The </span><a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/city-hall/story/2013/05/bloomberg-grows-his-hamptons-estate-reveals-overseas-bank-accounts-000000" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">Hamptons estate</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"> stretches over 40 acres and is worth over $20 million. His </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jul/28/michael-bloomberg-buys-16m-house-in-exclusive-london-street" style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: inherit; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer;">London mansion</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit;">, which cost over $20 million, sits on one of London’s wealthiest streets. Simply put, as a single individual, Bloomberg gobbles up levels of wealth that are incompatible with the attainment of a more just, equal, and sustainable world.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 1rem; padding: 0px; line-height: 2; text-rendering: optimizelegibility;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Billionaires like Bloomberg won’t save us. If we want to get off of fossil fuels and address the global crisis that climate change represents, we’re going to have to look to mass movements that challenge unbridled capitalism and mobilize government power to implement new policies – such as vastly curbing fossil fuel emissions at the point of production – that put people and the planet ahead of profits.</font></span></p><p style="letter-spacing: 0.83px; line-height: 1.55em; margin: 24px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">--</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">320 an</font></div><div><p class="yiv8273541121headline3" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/olmmlcqsqvfdflnndkjqqdqnnkdnswrpmvqfjtckkkqf_wnzldjzjbdgzwdfngjf.html?a=&b=3947&c=21989&d=2" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bloomberg promised to ‘help turn Texas blue.’ Now some former employees and politicians are miffed that he’s fired his staff.</font></a></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding" /><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Bloomberg was promi</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/watch-bloomberg-adviser-previews-scorched-earth-campaign-to-be-aimed-at-trumps-grifter-family/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bloomberg adviser previews ‘scorched-earth’ campaign to be aimed at Trump’s ‘grifter’ family</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/watch-bloomberg-adviser-previews-scorched-earth-campaign-to-be-aimed-at-trumps-grifter-family/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/watch-bloomberg-adviser-previews-scorched-earth-campaign-to-be-aimed-at-trumps-grifter-family/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/matthew-chapman/" title="Posts by Matthew Chapman" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Matthew Chapman</a><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><span style="text-align: right;">/</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story/" title="Posts by Raw Story" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Raw Stor</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the pinata in nevada; ew gets art;l in HIS paper </font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/mike-bloomberg-sees-the-planet-as-a-cash-register-and-thats-tilted-his-politics-towards-authoritarianism/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/mike-bloomberg-sees-the-planet-as-a-cash-register-and-thats-tilted-his-politics-towards-authoritarianism/</font></a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mike Bloomberg sees the planet as a cash register — and that’s tilted his politics towards authoritarianism</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Written by Bob Hennelly / <b>Salon </b>March 1, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">When wealth accumulation is your only guiding ideology, it is easy to overlook inconvenient facts; as it is for former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s long-standing blind spot for China and its authoritarian political system.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For decades, as the bi-partisan neoliberal global free trade imperative took hold, Americans were told by political elites that, with a firehose dose of capitalism, China would lose its authoritarian edge.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ah, free and unfettered enterprise, informed by the logic of the market, would gradually democratize China as the free exchange of goods gave way to the free exchange of ideas.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet, we see in the unfolding coronavirus saga, a Chinese government that punished Dr. Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist for trying to warn local health officials about the coronavirus he had caught while working at the local hospital. He was accused by security officials of “making false comments” and “severely” disturbing the “social order.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When he died, he was hailed as a hero.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">To understand why it has always been essential for Bloomberg to keep the blinders on regarding China, keep in mind his $64-billion-dollar fortune is based on building a global network of Bloomberg terminals that provide real time pricing information for financial assets, commodities and currencies.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can’t dominate the world of financial information technology without the leadership of the world’s second largest economy being on board.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Perhaps, more than any other one individual it has been<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Bloomberg that has been driving the trend of global financialization</span>, via his invention of the finance industry’s nervous system. Reportedly the eponymous billionaire’s trading terminals cost $24,000 a year to subscribe to back in 2013.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Through the Bloomberg Terminal, Bloomberg has wired the world in away that rations out access to financial information based on who will pay the most for it — month after month, year after year.</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, like everything else about the black box that is the closely held Bloomberg LP terminal, the actual pricing of access to the global service is a company secret.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The billionaire, whose core business sells financial services to investors, has led efforts since 2015 to make it easier for U.S. companies to trade in Chinese currency, a move embraced by China’s largest banks,” reported the Washington Post’s Michael Kranish.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Kranish’s reporting, China accounts for one percent of Bloomberg LP’s revenue and neighboring Hong Kong accounts for four percent. Taken together that’s five percent total of the company’s $10 billion in annual revenues.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If elected president, Bloomberg has committed to placing his company in a blind trust. The trustee would then sell it, with the proceeds going to Bloomberg Philanthropies.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But a blue light special sale of his assets won’t undo the damage that Bloomberg worldview’s done.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg sided with the Wall Street robber-barons that pillaged MLK Boulevard and Main Street in 2008. He went out of his way to ingratiate himself with China’s authoritarian President Xi Jinping, even as pro-democracy street protestors put their lives on the line in Hong Kong.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In September he sat down with PBS’s Firing Line and had words of praise for China’s efforts at combating climate change and the responsiveness of the top leadership to the needs of the people.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The communist party wants to stay in power in China and they listen to the public,” he said. “When the public says I can’t breathe the air, Xi Jinping is not a dictator — he has to satisfy his constituents or he’s not going to survive.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, the U.S., indeed the entire world, is entirely reliant on an authoritarian government to provide transparent real time information on how well they are combating a dangerous epidemic they did their best to deny was happening for weeks.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And thanks to the global capitalist imperative that dominates our lives, the U.S. faces the prospect of a pharmaceutical shortage of life saving drugs because of the shutdown of production of them in China.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When the United States was negotiating trade agreements with China we didn’t pay nearly enough attention to issues like human rights, labor rights, health care, transparency, or environmental rights,” said James S. Henry, an international business expert and Global Justice Fellow at Yale. “We were frankly in a big hurry to grab the gold — and, indeed, our companies and banks have made a lot of money investing in China,”.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He continued: “To some extent we are now seeing the long-term consequences of turning a blind eye to these matters. As an authoritarian regime whose GDP has increased nearly 8 times in size since the SARS epidemic of 2002-4, China’s lack of transparency, combined with this growth, may well have contributed to the fact that this epidemic has gotten so out of control. To this date, we cannot really be sure that China’s public health data on how well they are containing this coronavirus are accurate.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And as for just how much we were going to use free trade to “bring the Chinese towards the light of Democracy” — all you have to do is listen to the current occupant of the White House, who also vilifies whistleblowers, to know this is another really big idea the elites got very wrong.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 220</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">b<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/bloomberg-paying-private-citizens-2500-a-month-to-tweet-his-praises-from-their-personal-social-media-accounts/" style="font-family: " open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" color="color" rgb="rgb" transition="transition" all="all" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" display="display" inline="inline" important="important" font-size="font-size" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" line-height="line-height">loomberg paying private citizens $2500 a month to tweet his praises from their personal social media accounts</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: right;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: right;">/</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/wealth-sociopathy-and-presidency-why-corporate-media-is-force-feeding-us-the-premise-of-a-bloomberg-vs-trump-face-off"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/wealth-sociopathy-and-presidency-why-corporate-media-is-force-feeding-us-the-premise-of-a-bloomberg-vs-trump-face-off</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/90464712/michael-bloomberg-wanted-ironic-internet-cred-but-he-wont-like-these-anti-bloomberg-memes"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.fastcompany.com/90464712/michael-bloomberg-wanted-ironic-internet-cred-but-he-wont-like-these-anti-bloomberg-memes</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">[his co does data, hired a wicked smart pol op team, 100's of offices kpfa]</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ref</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/how-mike-bloombergs-meme-blitz-was-engineered-to-go-viral.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/how-mike-bloombergs-meme-blitz-was-engineered-to-go-viral.html</font></a></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign is taking a page out of President Donald Trump’s book</b> and trying to meet voters where they are. In this case, in the Instagram posts of accounts like “TrashCanPaul” or “SheadSteve.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A slew of popular Instagram accounts <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/13/mike-bloomberg-pays-influencers-to-post-memes-for-2020-campaign.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">unleashed a blitz</a> of sponsored Bloomberg posts on Wednesday in the form of satirical messages between the Democratic candidate and the various account holders asking for help promoting his campaign.</b></font></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;" /></font></font><div class="BoxInline-container " style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 300px; margin: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font><div id="BoxInline-ArticleBody-5" class="BoxInline-container" data-module="mps-slot" style="box-sizing: border-box; max-width: 300px; margin: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Can you make a viral meme to let the younger demographic know I’m the cool candidate?” one on the @sonny5ideup account reads. <b>Some of the posts refer to the sponsored nature of the posts (i.e. “yes this is really #sponsored” by the Bloomberg campaign).</b></font></font></p></div><div><div class="group" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.66; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-left: calc((((100% - 180px) / 7) * 1 + 30px) * 1); -webkit-box-flex: 0; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: auto; max-width: 100%;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The stunt drew widespread and immediate attention. A post on one of <b>Jerry Media’</b>s popular accounts, @FJerry, had drawn nearly 384,000 likes by Thursday afternoon, while Mike Bloomberg’s Instagram account had <a href="https://socialblade.com/instagram/user/mikebloomberg" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">drawn more than 47,000 new followers</a> on Thursday -- the first time that daily growth figure had topped 7,000 this month, according to social media analytics site Social Blade.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bloomberg’s campaign has been playing in new spaces to reach younger consumers. The candidate’s <a href="https://socialblade.com/instagram/user/mikebloomberg" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">Twitter</a> account made waves last month during a Democratic debate with a <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/01/14/meatball-mike-bloomberg-has-a-weird-night-on-twitter-during-democratic-debate/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">slew of “weird” posts</a>, like one reading “SPOT THE MEATBALL THAT LOOKS LIKE MIKE” with a photo of Bloomberg’s face transposed onto a meatball</span>. The Daily Beast also recently <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/mike-bloomberg-is-paying-influencers-to-make-him-seem-cool-9?ref=author" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">reported</a> that his campaign had been pitching to “micro-influencers” with between 1,000 to 100,000 followers to create sponsored content.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As traditional TV is losing dominance, it makes sense for candidates to try and reach potential voters where they are. As Trump’s campaign found a receptive audience on <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/quotes/?symbol=TWTR" style="box-sizing: border-box; cursor: pointer;">Facebook</a> in 2016, this is Bloomberg’s way of finding its audiences and trying to speak their language -- in this case on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.</font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div id="MidResponsive-8" class="" data-module="mps-slot" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: sticky; margin: 0px auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></span></font><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“While a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation,” a Bloomberg spokesperson told CNBC.</font></font></p></div><h2 class="ArticleBody-subtitle" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 23px; margin-bottom: 20px; margin-left: 105.703px; -webkit-box-flex: 0; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: auto; max-width: 100%; padding: 0px 0px 0px 3px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How it all came together</font></font></h2><div class="group" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 1.66; margin-bottom: 30px; margin-left: calc((((100% - 180px) / 7) * 1 + 30px) * 1); -webkit-box-flex: 0; flex-grow: 0; flex-shrink: 0; min-width: auto; max-width: 100%;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Bloomberg campaign worked with Meme 2020, a project formed by people running influential accounts.</font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Doing Things Media, an Atlanta-based company that owns and operates 20 viral accounts including @animalsdoingthings, @nochaser and @neatdad, was one of the groups posting the memes. </span><b>The company said it was connected to the effort by Meme 2020 lead strategist Mike Purzycki of Jerry Media,</b> which runs other popular accounts like @FJerry and @Kanye<b>doingthings.</b></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; padding-right: 20px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Doing Things CEO and co-founder Reid Hailey said his company’s accounts now have a combined 50 million followers since starting about three years ago. Hailey had started his own account, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">@SheadSteve, and grew it to a million followers in less than a year, he said. Twelve of the company’s pages ran Bloomberg memes, Reid said....</span></font></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/be-honest-passionate-and-be-yourself-bloomberg-is-paying-social-media-influencers-to-post-fake-messages-to-make-him-look-cool"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/be-honest-passionate-and-be-yourself-bloomberg-is-paying-social-media-influencers-to-post-fake-messages-to-make-him-look-cool</font></a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>‘Be honest, passionate and be yourself!’: Bloomberg is paying social media influencers to post fake messages to make him look ‘cool’</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Igor Derysh February 14, 2020</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg’s campaign is paying social media influencers and a social media firm to flood Instagram with fake messages purportedly sent by the billionaire.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bloomberg’s campaign is offering social media influencers a fixed $150 fee to create content that “tells us why Mike Bloomberg is the electable candidate who can rise above the fray, work across the aisle so ALL Americans feel heard & respected,” The Daily Beast reported last week.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The campaign is using Tribe, a “branded content marketplace” that allows brands to reach “micro-influencers” with 1,000 to 100,000 Instagram followers.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Are you sick of the chaos & infighting overshadowing the issues that matter most to us? Please <b>express your thoughts verbally or for still image posts please overlay text about why you support Mike,” </b>the campaign’s Tribe page said. “<b>Show+Tell why Mike is the candidate who can change our country for the better, state why YOU think he’s a great candidate.”</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Be honest, passionate and be yourself!” the paid listing urges.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Bloomberg has also contracted Meme 2020, a new company that houses some of Instagram’s most-followed accounts, The New York Times reported Thursday. The company is headed by Mick Purzycki, the head of Jerry Media, a social media marketing firm that came under fire last year for reportedly stealing memes without crediting creators.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some accounts affiliated with Purzycki’s companies have already posted memes promoting Bloomberg. All the memes are fake direct message exchanges in which Bloomberg purportedly reached out to influencers to “make me look cool.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>All the posts reviewed by The Times included disclosures that they are ads. “Yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg,” one account said.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">George Resch, a director of influencer marketing at Brandfire who created the popular @Tank.Sinatra account, told The Times that the ads are successful because they fool people into believing they are real.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s the most successful ad that I’ve ever posted and I think a lot of it came from people being confused whether or not it was real,” he said.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg’s campaign acknowledged the arrangement on Thursday.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Mike Bloomberg 2020 has teamed up with social creators to collaborate with the campaign, including the meme world,” spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told The Times. “While a meme strategy may be new to presidential politics, we’re betting it will be an effective component to reach people where they are and compete with President Trump’s powerful digital operation.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report added that the campaign also hired Eric Kuhn, who dubbed himself Hollywood’s first “social media agent,” to help with their outreach efforts.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A campaign aide argued that the strategy could be a foil to Trump’s reach on social media.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“We’re trying to be innovative with how we’re translating the campaign message on social, trying to do it how the internet actually works. Tweeting from @mikebloomberg is a very 2008 strategy,” an aide told The Times. “The way Trump’s campaign is run is extremely social first. We’re trying to break the mold in how the Democratic Party works with marketing, communication and advertising, and do it in a way that’s extremely internet and <b>social native.”</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg’s campaign also tried to steal the thunder during last month’s Democratic debate by posting ironic memes poking fun at the billionaire.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The social media strategy is part of Bloomberg’s plan to try to hijack the Democratic primary by flooding media with ads.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bloomberg has spent $31 million on Facebook and Instagram ads since January 1, according to Facebook data, and has averaged $1 million per day in Facebook ad spending over the last two weeks. Bloomberg also spent $10 million to air an ad during the Super Bowl and has spent more than $350 million total on advertising, according to CNN. Aside from fellow billionaire Tom Steyer, no other candidate has spent more than $37 million on ads.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But while Bloomberg’s attempt to flood the country with television and radio ads appears to be paying off in the polls, the campaign’s social media strategy could backfire.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The paid memes quickly became a point of mockery on social media. Some Twitter users posted parody memes of the Bloomberg direct messages, taking aim at his racist policing policies during his time as mayor and his unbridled ad spending in the Democratic primary.</b></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Fat Jew, a popular Instagram account with more than 11 million followers that has also come under fire for stealing memes, said he was also asked to participate but refused.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They asked me to do it, I said no,” he wrote. “I grew up n New York City so I can tell you firsthand, Bloomberg is a colossal sh*tbag. From the subjugation of minorities through stop and frisk policies to his hardline anti-marijuana stance.”</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><section class="home-featured-cat mag-cat-style-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; width: 779.986px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="home-featured-cat-content style-1" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px -15px 40px; padding: 0px; display: table; width: calc(100% + 30px); vertical-align: top;"><div class="cat-right" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 15px; width: 404.545px; float: left; display: inline-block;"><div class="mag-post-box hentry" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 374.545px; overflow: hidden; display: table; border-bottom: none;"><div class="magcat-detail" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-corporate-media-is-happy-to-take-bloombergs-ad-money-but-theyre-not-holding-him-accountable/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">corporate media is happy to take Bloomberg’s ad money, but they’re not holding him accountable</font></a></font></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/bob-hennelly/" title="Posts by Bob Hennelly" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Bob Hennelly</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon</a></font></span></font></div></div></div></div></div></section></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">120 an moved way up in polls by dint of massive ad spend</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/mike-bloomberg-is-investing-a-fortune-in-a-parallel-campaign-thats-driving-donald-trump-batty/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">How Michael Bloomberg is spending a fortune and driving Trump batty</font></a></font></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/joshuaholalternet-org/" title="Posts by Joshua Holland" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Joshua Holland</font></a></span></font></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let me preface this post by acknowledging that billionaires trying to purchase the Democratic nomination represent an affront to democracy. (According to FiveThirtyEight, Tom Steyer had spent $120 million on TV ads…</font></font></p></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">madrid press conf bloomberg took no questions? amy chased, refused, eventually police slammed against wall?! 12/11/19</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">B<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=2f7900e9cd&e=06876ede6b" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">loomberg Is a Leader on Climate Action. So Why Aren’t Activists Excited about a Presidential Bid?</a><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: inherit;">BY: MARIANNE LAVELLE</font></span></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">He isn't saying he's running yet, but Michael Bloomberg just filed papers with the FEC for a possible candidacy. Why aren't climate advocates more excited?</span></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">14 2017 influencer</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was also a notable influencer of 2017, </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/cop-23-same-canoe-2509377631.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">representing the U.S. at COP23</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> where he, alongside Governors Jerry Brown of California and Jay Inslee of Washington introduced the </span><a href="https://www.wearestillin.com/about" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">We Are Still In</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> coalition, a network of U.S. politicians who support climate action despite Trump's withdrawal from the Paris agreement. In October, Bloomberg also announced that his charity would donate $64 million to the </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/bloomberg-coal-sierra-club-2495882707.html" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">retirement of U.S. coal plants</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, greatly impeding Trump's efforts to revive the American </span><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="self" style="text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">coal industry</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 600; padding-bottom: 10px;">Michael Bloomberg, Founder of Bloomberg LP and Bloomberg Philanthropies, and three-term mayor of New York City</span><br style="margin-bottom: 0px;" />Michael Bloomberg is the founder of Bloomberg LP, a global media and financial services company. He served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013, earning a reputation for independence and innovation.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In 2014, the UN Secretary-General appointed him Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, </span>and he leads the boards of numerous climate-related organizations and is the co-author of “Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet.” He is one of the world’s most prominent philanthropists, and the environment is one of the five main focus areas of his foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bs</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/">
</a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/">http://freebeacon.com/issues/gun-control-activists-pour-another-million-dollars-virginia-state-elections/</a></font></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/mayor-bloomberg-defending-obama-goes-after-state-attorneys-general-protecting-polluters" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://www.alternet.org/environment/mayor-bloomberg-defending-obama-goes-after-state-attorneys-general-protecting-polluters</font></a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Michael Bloomberg has not been shy about using his vast personal wealth (estimated at $40.9 billion) on <a href="http://nypost.com/2015/11/29/mike-bloomberg-has-spent-72m-on-campaigns-won-67-of-races/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">political spending</a> <span class="print-footnote">[3]</span>. Last year the former New York City mayor announced plans to spend $50 million building a national grassroots movement to curb gun violence. It's a significant amount, especially considering the fact that the National Rifle Association spends only <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/16/us/bloomberg-plans-a-50-million-challenge-to-the-nra.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">$20 million</a> <span class="print-footnote">[4]</span> on political activities each year.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now the perennial putative presidential candidate has set his sights on a new target: carbon emissions. Last month, he <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-state-attorneys-general-carbon-emissions.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">announced his plans</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span> to run a series of political television ads attacking the attorneys general of four states — Florida, Michigan, Missouri and Wisconsin — who are suing the Obama administration over new regulations aimed at <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan/clean-power-plan-existing-power-plants" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">reducing emissions</a> <span class="print-footnote">[6]</span> from power plants. The attorneys general claim the rules will drive up energy costs and destroy coal industry jobs. Notably, the four states have been presidential battlegrounds.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Two of the Bloomberg ads describe the attorneys general as bending to special interests and taking donations from “polluters.” The ad airing in Michigan accuses Attorney General Bill Schuette of “putting polluters and his campaign contributors <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-state-attorneys-general-carbon-emissions.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">ahead</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span> of protecting Michigan families.” The Florida ad describes Pam Bondi, a Republican, as “an attorney general for polluters, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-state-attorneys-general-carbon-emissions.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">not for us</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span>.”</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“These four attorneys general are trying to stop the president from doing something that I think is terribly important,” Bloomberg <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-state-attorneys-general-carbon-emissions.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">told</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span> the New York Times. “I want the public to know what they’re doing.”</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The regulations, part of the EPA’s <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/cleanpowerplan" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Clean Power Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[7]</span> (CPP), which was introduced in August, are a central element of Obama’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Climate Action Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span>, which aims to fulfill the president’s 2009 pledge to reduce the nation’s overall greenhouse gas emissions <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/image/president27sclimateactionplan.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">17 percent</a> <span class="print-footnote">[8]</span> below 2005 levels by 2020. To meet that goal, the CPP sets state-by-state targets to cut carbon emissions from the energy sector <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/climate-change" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">32 percent</a> <span class="print-footnote">[9]</span> from 2005 levels by 2030.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The White House asserts that by setting the goals of CPP and allowing states to create tailored plans to meet them, there will be huge benefits for public health, the national economy and savings for average Americans. Specifically, the White House says it will create tens of thousands of jobs, lower the costs of renewable energy and save consumers $155 billion between 2020 and 2030. The CPP will also:</font></font></p><ul style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prevent up to 3,600 premature deaths</font></font></li><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prevent 1,700 non-fatal heart attacks</font></font></li><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prevent 90,000 asthma attacks in children</font></font></li><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Prevent 300,000 missed workdays and school days</font></font></li><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Save Americans nearly $85 a year on energy bills</font></font></li><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Save enough energy to power 30 million homes</font></font></li><li style="margin-left: 0.5in;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Lead to 30 percent more renewable energy generation</font></font></li></ul><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Still, the CPP has met with fierce, primarily Republican opposition, with conservative critics saying it represents an unconstitutional federal overreach, will drive up energy bills and reduce the electric grid’s reliability. The EPA has firmly dismissed these claims. Janet McCabe, acting assistant administrator of the agency’s Office of Air and Radiation, said the plan is “based on a sound legal and technical foundation," adding that it "really puts states in the <a href="http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2015/10/23/mess-of-lawsuits-set-to-challenge-clean-power-plan" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">driver's seat</a> <span class="print-footnote">[10]</span>."</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The four attorneys general who are the targets of Bloomberg's ads are fighting back. According to the New York Times, Wisconsin Attorney General Brad D. Schimel said in an email statement that Bloomberg is an “out-of-touch billionaire.” And in a statement, Florida attorney general Pam Bondi described Bloomberg as a “<a href="http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2015/11/bloomberg-airs-tv-ads-blasting-pam-bondi-for-siding-with-polluters-against-clean-power-plan.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">billionaire bully</a> <span class="print-footnote">[11]</span>”:</font></font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Florida has a great and conscientious track record of improving its air quality and protecting its environment … Now a billionaire bully is attacking Florida, and 26 other states, for having the audacity of defending their citizens against the EPA’s heavy-handed and unlawful regulations. This bully wants to defend the federal government; we want to protect the people we serve.</font></font></p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In her <a href="http://miamiherald.typepad.com/nakedpolitics/2015/10/florida-among-23-states-suing-over-epa-carbon-emissions-rule.html" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">announcement</a> <span class="print-footnote">[12]</span> about the lawsuit, Bondi claimed the EPA rule sets an "unrealistic" timeframe to cut carbon emissions by 2030 and would "require the use of costly and unproven technologies."</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twenty states are challenging the EPA rule in addition to the four targeted by Bloomberg: West Virginia, Texas, Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, the Arizona Corporation Commission, and the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Environmental concerns are not new for Bloomberg. During his tenure as mayor of New York, 2002 to 2013, he became known as one of the most environmentally minded big city mayors in the country, introducing in 2007 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlaNYC" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">PLaNYC</a> <span class="print-footnote">[13]</span>, an aggressive program to overhaul the city’s environmental sustainability by 2030 that tackled 10 specific areas: housing and neighborhoods, parks and public spaces, brownfields, waterways, water supply, transportation, energy, air quality, solid waste, and climate change. According to <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_release&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2011a%2Fpr129-11.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">NYC.gov</a> <span class="print-footnote">[14]</span>, “Over 97% of the 127 initiatives in PlaNYC were launched within one year of its release and almost two-thirds of its 2009 milestones were achieved or mostly achieved.”</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A main benefactor of the Sierra Club's <a href="http://content.sierraclub.org/coal/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Beyond Coal</a> <span class="print-footnote">[15]</span> campaign, Bloomberg has been a longtime opponent of coal, characterizing it as a naturally dying industry. In an August op-ed, he <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-04/obama-didn-t-kill-coal-the-market-did" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">wrote</a> <span class="print-footnote">[16]</span>:</font></font></p><blockquote style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The overblown political rhetoric about the plan tends to obscure the market reality that the coal industry has been in steady decline for a decade, partly as a result of the natural gas boom, but mostly because consumers are demanding cleaner air and action on climate change … King Coal is dying of natural causes: Market forces, technological advances, and public demands for clean air and climate action have combined to make alternative sources of energy more financially attractive. The price of new wind power, for example, is lower than that of coal in most parts of the country.</font></font></p></blockquote><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Maggie Haberman of the New York Times said that Bloomberg’s new ads “amount to a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/07/us/politics/michael-bloomberg-state-attorneys-general-carbon-emissions.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">defense</a> <span class="print-footnote">[5]</span> of the White House over its Clean Power Plan.”</font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whether this defense will work remains to be seen. But one thing is for certain: Coal is on the decline and fewer Americans are dying because of it. “A decade ago, coal pollution was killing 13,000 people a year,” Bloomberg wrote in his op-ed. “Today, the number is down to 7,500, which means that more than 5,000 Americans are living longer, healthier lives each year thanks to <a href="http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-08-04/obama-didn-t-kill-coal-the-market-did" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">cleaner power</a> <span class="print-footnote">[16]</span>.”</font></font></p><div class="bio-new body_environment" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="author-bio"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Reynard Loki is AlterNet's environment and food editor. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/reynardloki" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">@reynardloki</a> <span class="print-footnote">[17]</span>. Email him at <a href="mailto:reynard@alternet.org" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">reynard@alternet.org</a> <span class="print-footnote">[18]</span>.</font></font></p></div></div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></b></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><h2 class="yiv3829180745null" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14444" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 32.5px; letter-spacing: -0.75px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=5f6eade0fd&e=06876ede6b" id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14443" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; font-weight: normal; background: transparent;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Bloomberg Pours $30 Million More Into Fighting Coal</font></a></font></h2><p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14333" style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 22.5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14332" style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is donating $30 million to bolster the Sierra Club’s 13-year-old campaign to end America’s reliance on coal, </font></span></font></p><p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14333" style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 22.5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases. "Coal's days are numbered,” </font></font></p><p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14333" style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 22.5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg said. “It is an outdated technology, it is holding back our economy, and it is hurting our health."</font></font></p><p id="yui_3_16_0_1_1428856628410_14255" style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 22.5px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=e389227235&e=06876ede6b" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; outline: none; word-wrap: break-word; background: transparent;">Read more</a>.</font></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Polling in Berkeley consistently showed about 60 percent of voters backing the tax, even if the</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">revenue wasn’t pegged for any particular purpose. Polling in San Francisco showed that voters</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">were much more likely to back the soda tax if they knew revenue would be spent on kids’</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">programs and not just funneled into the city’s general spending account. Supporters still think</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">they were right to go for the measure requiring twothirds support, but it cost them a lot of</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">money.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That’s because former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg — he of the illfated attempt to ban</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">the Big Gulp — in midOctober gave $85,000 to the campaign to pass Measure D in Berkeley,</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">which paid for cable TV ads during the World Series and is credited in part with pushing the level</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">of support so high.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bloomberg never gave any money to the San Francisco campaign, though supporters of that</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">soda tax effort were expecting it. Howard Wolfson, senior adviser to Bloomberg, said the twothirds</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">requirement made the measure not viable.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I hope that the folks there who were very passionately committed to this issue decide to look at</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">it again and think about putting it on the ballot in a different year and a different form,” Wolfson</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">said.</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Money, or lack thereof, was the hardest part of the campaign, said campaign manager Maureen</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Erwin. Despite a lengthy and impressive list of endorsements, donations just didn’t come</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">through. The campaign raised a total of just $255,000.</font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></div>