Free Republic

The gun-control group founded by former New York mayor Michael R. Bloomberg (I) will begin surveying all federal candidates in the 2014 midterm elections on gun issues Monday as it tries to become a political counterweight to the National Rifle Association.This is the first big step by Bloomberg — who has committed to spending $50 million of his personal fortune this year to build a national grass-roots movement that will pressure lawmakers to pass more restrictive gun laws — to devise a political strategy heading into the November elections. Bloomberg’s group, Everytown for Gun Safety, is asking all Senate and...

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s press office announced this morning a dinner he is hosting at Gracie Mansion tonight for Muslims will be closed press, despite initially being listed as open. The Ramadan Iftar dinner, according to de Blasio spokesman Phil Walzak, “was always designed to be closed but was erroneously listed as open” on the mayor’s schedule last night “due to an internal miscommunication.” Walzak also said, "Tonight's event is closed press because it is a sit-down dinner and there also is a praying portion. Last year and the year before this event was closed press — it historically has...

Speaking in New York City last week, Wall Street billionaire Tom Steyer laid clear his vision for penalizing people whose actions may contribute to climate change.“We need to reward people whose behavior reduces climate risk and penalize people who add to it,” said Steyer “If we can get this right, I think there’s no doubt that our economy is going to continue to do very well.”He was joined by several wealthy businessmen — such as Michael Bloomberg and former bankers and government officials Hank Paulson and Robert Reich— to unveil a report from Risky Business, an economic analysis of the...

Hey Mississippi. You know Michael Bloomberg right? He’s the guy who wants to take your guns away. He’s the guy who created a non-profit group to agitate against the second amendment. He’s the guy spreading lies about the number of school shootings in the country. Michael Bloomberg is also the guy who just gave a pro-Thad Cochran Super PAC $250,000.00. Gun grabbing Michael Bloomberg is trying to buy Thad Cochran’s re-election. Who do you think Thad Cochran will stand with the next six years if he gets re-elected. You people or the man who bought his re-election? That’s 250,000 reasons...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an outspoken advocate for gun control, recently gave $250,000 to help re-elect a Mississippi Republican with an A+ rating from the NRA. According to the latest campaign finance filings, Bloomberg gave $250,000 to Mississippi Conservatives PAC, a group aiming to re-elect veteran Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran, who is in the fight of his political life against his primary rival, Chris McDaniel. Bloomberg, a billionaire, has contributed heavily to groups pushing for more firearm regulations. In April, Bloomberg launched a $50-million campaign to counter the NRA. As a result, Bloomberg's political brand has become...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donated $250,000 to the pro-Thad Cochran super PAC “Mississippi Conservatives” in late May, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings the organization provided show. Bloomberg’s donation to the Super PAC supporting Cochran could end up becoming a kiss of death for Cochran in the heated runoff against conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who bested Cochran in the popular vote in the primary a little over a week ago, forcing a runoff a week from Tuesday.

Hundreds of demonstrators are expected to march across the Brooklyn Bridge to call for tougher gun control laws. Saturday's demonstration, which comes after a wave of mass shootings across the US, is being underwritten by former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, one of the nation's most visible gun control advocates. The marchers — who will include relatives of some of those slain in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting — will gather in downtown Brooklyn and then march across the bridge to City Hall. They will then hold a demonstration outside the building's gates and chant "Not one more,"...

The adage that politics makes for strange bedfellows may have few better examples than the Senate race in Mississippi, where Senator Thad Cochran faces Chris McDaniel, a state senator, in a June 24 runoff. The conservative Mitch McConnell, the moderate Michael Bloomberg and Sean Parker, a tech investor who usually backs Democrats, all agree on one thing: Mr. Cochran is their guy. SNIP Mr. Bloomberg, the moderate former New York City mayor, has given millions of dollars to a super PAC focused on promoting candidates who support his positions on same-sex marriage and tougher gun laws and $2.5 million to...

On Tuesday morning a 15-year-old killer murdered fellow student Emilio Hoffman, age 14, and wounded a teacher at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon. The killer brought an AR-15 type rifle, a semi-automatic pistol and enough ammunition to do far more harm – but he was stopped before he could by police. The police were aided by a brave teacher and by a well-practiced school lockdown. After being confronted and exchanging gunfire with police, the killer committed suicide. Police also found the killer had brought a large knife. Within hours, politicians were already attempting to exploit the tragedy – including...

BELLEVUE, Wash., June 12, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today congratulated CNN for helping to expose what now appears to be a deliberate deception by Michael Bloomberg's "Everytown for Gun Safety" that claims there have been 74 school shootings since the December 2012 Sandy Hook tragedy. That figure is also being questioned by other news outlets after one curious journalist looked at the list of shootings released by the Everytown group, along with a map, and discovered that many didn't happen on school campuses, and others were gang-related events after school...

After Tuesday’s shooting at an Oregon high school, many media outlets, including CNN, reported that there have been 74 school shootings in the past 18 months. That’s the time period since the December 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were shot to death. The statistic came from a group called Everytown for Gun Safety, an umbrella group started by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a passionate and public advocate of gun control. Without a doubt, that number is startling. So on Wednesday, CNN took a closer look at the...

Within hours of Tuesday's shooting at Reynolds High School, a startling statistic began circulating on Twitter and other social media sites: The incident was the 74th school shooting in the U.S. since the December 2012 shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. That works out to nearly one school shooting a week since Newtown, when 20 students and six staff members were gunned down at Sandy Hook Elementary School. But is it true? A lot, it turns out, depends on how "school shooting" is defined. The statistic comes from Everytown for Gun Safety, a group based in New York and started by former...

The NRA’s strong statement reprimanding a few people for carrying long guns into restaurants was bound to get media attention. Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action and much of the media quickly jumped in and described various restaurants as “asking customers to leave their guns at home.” But their assertions couldn’t be more misleading. The headline at USA Today saying “No Guns Inside” or at MSNBC and Huffington Post saying “No-Gun Policies” are simply wrong. A big deal has been made of Starbucks, Jack in the Box, Chipotle, Wendy's, Applebee's, Chili’s and Sonic’s supposed bans on guns, with Bloomberg’s groups declaring “victory.”...

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg used his commencement address at Harvard University on Thursday to bash a U.S. academic culture that he described as increasingly intolerant of ideas from outside a narrow liberal spectrum. Citing the campus protests that caused luminaries including former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde to back out of planned speeches, Bloomberg criticized students and faculty for being hostile to ideas that clashed with their own ideologies. Standing amid the centuries-old stone buildings of Harvard Yard, he compared the atmosphere in U.S. academia to that which prevailed during Senator...

First he said "OMG" to get the kids on his side. Then former NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg (Harvard MBA '66) did his Bloomberg thing in a commencement speech today, calling for bipartisanship and civility and all that. "There is an idea floating around college campuses — including here at Harvard — that scholars should be funded only if their work conforms to a particular view of justice," he said. "There's a word for that idea: censorship. And it is just a modern-day form of McCarthyism." An edited version of the speech was then posted, fittingly, on Bloomberg's centrist pet project...

Given the Santa Barbara killers’ hatred of women (though 4 of the 6 people killed were men), it is understandable that the topic of violence against women would be discussed. Not too surprisingly, despite the fact that half of those killed were killed by being stabbed, gun control organizations have been pushing for more gun control. In particular, Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action makes this claim about female victims of firearm homicides. . . . It seems doubtful that Bloomberg’s Moms Demand Action could even make this comparison across all countries. The UNODC data allows you to break down murders by...

Bloomberg: Attacks On Clinton About Benghazi Are ‘Cheap Politics’ WASHINGTON (CBSDC) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is coming to the defense of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by dismissing the criticism she has received over the 2012 Benghazi attacks. In an interview with Politico, Bloomberg said the criticism is nothing more than “cheap politics.” “Hillary, you know, I’ve worked with [when she was a] senator and just as a friend, that sort of thing,” Bloomberg told Politico. “I think most of the criticisms of Hillary are totally unfounded — you can maybe disagree with her policies,...

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says people who are criticizing Hillary Clinton over her handling of the Benghazi attacks are engaging in “cheap politics,” and that both she and Jeb Bush would be “quality” presidential choices.

Liberal website entrepreneur Arianna Huffington is emailing mothers, asking them to join an anti-gun group for Mother’s Day. In an email promoting Everytown for Gun Safety, Huffington encourages mothers to join the Bloomberg-funded group. "'Wow. Just wow.' That's all I can think as I watch this movement grow and organize and fight for stronger gun laws in every corner of the country," Huffington writes. "It's simply amazing. And as a mom, I'm so incredibly proud to call myself a member. Moms are on the move! Can you help us expand the size of our movement so that we reach even...

Senator Tim Scott is a product of Republican reverse racism and low expectations, according to a Bloomberg News editorial board member. In a racially charged screed entitled “Do Republicans Lower the Bar for Blacks?” Francis Wilkinson dismisses South Carolina Republican Scott, the first African-American to represent a southern state since the Republican senators of the Reconstruction era, as a “thing most rare and precious” who offers the GOP “both an absolution for the past and a shield for the present and future.” Wilkinson offers little evidence for his thesis, and at least one claim — that Scott has achieved...