I have to admit that I would expect Bloomberg’s people to be much more thoughtful about the optics of taking the work produced by individuals with far less cash in their bank accounts in this era of economic populism.
Bloomberg was smart enough to realize that after years of his political allies getting arrested – often for gun violence crimes or crimes against women & children – that Illegal Mayors Against Guns wasn’t going to go anywhere. Not to mention, actual grassroots gun owners in many non-urban areas successfully convinced several to very publicly disavow his agenda. He already had a lock on urban leaders, so he rebranded.
He can’t rebrand himself as “not a billionaire.” It is something that has worked against him repeatedly since it automatically paints him as a guy looking to come into states, throw some personal wealth around, and outspend any local voices. Because, well, that is exactly what he does in elections. Regardless, you’d think he’s still want to keep a softer image with it outside of election season so that he can try to build a network of allies to use in the next election season before he pisses them all off.
Nope, Bloomberg’s folks apparently want to promote the image of big, bad jerk billionaire because his partner Shannon Watts decided to take the work of a Houston-based independent photographer. Despite having licensing information clearly stated on his Twitter bio, Shannon swiped his work – how this man in a disaster area supports himself – and posted it to show how much she and her political partners “care.”
In fact, not only did she take it without paying for it, she didn’t even credit him for his work and the fact that he ventured out into the storm to capture the magnitude of the damage. She spent nearly $3 million on a house in the mountains, and her boss is worth about $53 billion, but their online advocacy efforts run through her Twitter page would rather take the (fantastic) work of others without credit or license than pay licensing fees to small business owners. In fact, even though the image is gone from her Twitter account, she refused to acknowledge the wrong and apologize or even wish him & his family well in the ongoing disaster.
Of course, it gets better. This theft of other people’s work goes beyond Twitter and photographs. NSSF’s Larry Keane found that state leaders for Bloomberg & Watts are using local government offices to request Project ChildSafe gun locks and slapping their own branding on them, pretending like they are responsible for the program.
Billionaire Bloomberg funded @MomsDemand tries 2 coop NSSF's @ProjChildSafe Try getting UR own firearms safety program! @NSSF @NRA @NRA-ILA
— Larry Keane (@lkeane) August 27, 2017
Bloomberg the Billionaire only cares enough about gun safety to buy a little paper, send state leaders around to pick up gun locks provided by the firearm industry, and pretend he’s running his own program. Again, it’s a case of Everytown taking the hard work of people with fewer resources and pretending it is his own without any credit or acknowledgement. This is why class warfare rhetoric works with so many people. Outside of the walls of Everytown, this kind of behavior of taking credit for the work of those with less means rubs people the wrong way.
“…taking the hard work of people with fewer resources and pretending it is his own without any credit or acknowledgement…”
Personally, I have observed that to be such a universal human phenomenon that while it makes great propaganda to call out for ones enemies, we shouldn’t delude ourselves that no one in our own camp has ever done it.
I will say that when a zillionaire does it, it is especially grating, independent of what “the cause” is.
Bloomberg is the perfect foil. Since the true nature of the gun-control movement has always been a campaign by the rich and the powerful to disarm the poor and the powerless.
The rich and the powerful will always have guns or armed servitors.
I remember another example of possible theft by another gun control group.
I think this was back in the 1990’s. I discovered the Violence Policy Center looked like they had ripped off cover art from a book published by Desert Publications, which the VPC used as a cover letter for one of their anti-gun papers.
I called the book publisher to investigate further, and he confirmed to me the book art was original work and owned by the publisher. I then told him I suspected the VPC had stolen their book cover art and he thanked me for the tip. A few weeks later I noticed the VPC had replaced the image with some other image I didn’t recognize the source of, though It still didn’t look original to me.
How hard is it to buy locks that they need to steal them? Seriously.
Unfortunately, NRA is asleep, trying to sell people carry guard. They seem to think that its time to kick back and relax.
“They seem to think that its time to kick back and relax.”
They should be preparing for the potential backlash effect when Their Man goes down.
Sorry to keep harping on it, but our gun rights may the baby that gets thrown out with the alt-right bathwater.
Far be it from me to know how to prepare for that, but someone ought to be preparing for it. The scenario we are facing may be a historic testament to short-sightedness, and could replace the fable about the tortoise and the hare.
Trump himself will throw us out when its convenient. Remember, this is a guy who was ok with a rifle ban and waiting period back in the day. We need to be pressing maximum advantage while we can. Not selling “carry guard” at a fashion show, when 25% of the country still cannot carry.
“Trump himself will throw us out when its convenient.”
I’ve been preaching that since the day he became a candidate in the primaries.
But, I have to admit that is only a subset/spinoff from my more frequent message, that gun rights serve as nothing more than a decoy, used to lure votes from a constituency that may be the easiest marks in the history of political scamming.
I know I say it too often — deliberately, so maybe one or two people may someday remember — but all a candidate needs to do is spend fifteen minutes or less learning the rap (often “enforce existing laws” is enough) and the gun rights movement will follow him or her anywhere — even when it’s against all documented evidence.
For example, the evidence you just provided.
“the gun rights movement will follow him or her anywhere”
I do not think that is true. I think people are fully aware of the possibility politicians lie. In fact, voters expect politicians to lie.
I do not think people are “with” Trump so much as: right now, Democrats are much worse.
Where the problem comes is when people (ahem, NRA) get complacent. Change sneaks up on people faster than they realize.
“I do not think that is true. I think people are fully aware of the possibility politicians lie.”
I want to stop short of becoming argumentative, but I’ll just say “not sufficiently, and too subject to ideological/partisan blindness.” And having some trusted entity (ahem, the NRA) provide cover for a gun-grabber will lead 95+ percent of True Believers to forgive and forget almost any transgression, immediately.
A pity the media won’t cover this but it interferes with the narrative.
Who do they think they are? TTAG?