But maybe NY has some sort of notice rule for this sort of thing.
Sure, that could have happened even without a letter, but ignoring it is daring them to do it.
Schumer's ban requests include powdered caffeine [0], certain flavors of e-cigarettes [1] to Bitcoin [2].
Schniederman strikes me as someone more interested in extorting companies. His most recent subpoena Exxon for not speaking out about climate change to their investors (??) is his most recent campaign [3]. I'm guessing he wants to buy more iPads for the police department [4]
DeBlasio has an axe to grind against Uber [5] and costumed characters in Time Square [6] .
What a joke that this qualifies as progress.
Sorry, rant over.
[0] http://www.schumer.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/follow...
[1] http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Schumer-Calls-for-FDA-B...
[2] http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2014/02/26/senator...
[3] http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-11-10/schneiderma...
[4] http://blogs.wsj.com/metropolis/2015/05/01/french-bank-settl...
[5] http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/23/nyregion/de-blasio-adminis...
[6] http://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/570-15/mayor-de...
Bill Thomson spent the time between the 09 and 13 election working for an investment firm, and given the attitude towards politicians owned by banks, failed to gain the nomination.
Christine Quinne worked with Bloomberg to overturn 2-year term limits on elected officials, and ran a secret slush fund while she was on the city council.
Anthony Weiner, well. Was Anthony Weiner.
Randy Credico ran a very lackluster campaign.
While John Liu had a solid platform, his campaign became embroiled in financial scandal.
On the other side of the aisle, we had John Catsimatidis and Joe Lhota (George MacDonald ran a campaign as well, but was barely known).
Catsimatidis unabashedly supported the wildly unpopular stop & frisk tactics, which were (and still are) wildly unpopular.
Lhota was in favor of charter schools instead of fixing our crumbling public schools (DeBlasio's plans for public schools end up actually working, unlike charter schools); his mixture of fiscal conservativeness and socially liberal policies like choice & equal rights turned off the Republican vote - he only garnered a little more than 20% of the vote.
So it was between DeBlasio and Lhota. DeBlasio spoke to his base and Democrats actually liked him. Lhota alienated his base and Republicans hated him (and so did Democrats).
We get crap politicians because crap candidates run. Just like every fucking where else. Why do we get crap candidates? Because money.
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Yeah, the e-cig stuff is stupid. Yeah, the campaign against topless panhandlers in times square is pretty stupid. The campaign against uber makes sense, if you're not a proponent of neo-feudalism.
Schneiderman's v. Exxon stuff is actually kind of interesting. It's not that he's alleging that they failed to disclose climate change to their investors - you're mincing words, and it's pretty fucking obvious. They failed to inform their investors of studies that could pose change to their future profits. Shaky, sure, but not entirely insane. He's not anti-business, he's anti business that's fucking us over. Keep in mind that Exxon (formerly Standard Oil) was responsible for one of the largest oil spills on US soil - right here in Brooklyn.
You can sue for oil spills. You can put in a gas tax. But what's Schniderman is doing is a shake-down, led by populism. I get it, no one likes Exxon (me included) and my opinions may not be popular. But these lawsuits are a new form of hidden tax paid by shareholders, not some mythical corporate entity. He even went after an English bank (Barclays) for something to do with their dark pool. It doesn't go to those harmed by the actions. You can read about where the money goes. It goes to government agencies, and yes, iPads for the police. It's fine if politicians think there are worthy programs they want to fund, but this isn't rule of law.
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2013/11/20/where-does-jpmorgans-...
Doing something on the internet shouldn't be carte Blanche for breaking any law deemed inconvenient.
Also, big corporate entity doesn't use violence.
I hope you aren't being serious.
It's also ironic that you deride a moral argument for sports betting, considering that the only legitimate argument AGAINST sports betting (and gambling in general) is the moral one.
But don't pretend that playing a fantasy football pool is some sort of act of civil disobedience. It's just another impulsive act that happens to be illegal.
There are many arguments against sports betting. It corrupts the sport and is fundamentally exploitive of those who lack the ability to control their impulses. As I said before, it's illegal in New York, and the owners of these sites should be prosecuted criminally, just as any other pool organizer who attracted police attention would. We're all supposed to be equal under the law.
I mean, I hope you're also in favor harsh penalties for recreational drug use, for consistency's sake.
Again you're absolutely right about equality under the law. But as with many things in our spectator society, the Fantasy sports betting thing is just a proxy war. The true war is freedom to piss away time and money online betting on a stupid football game. It's unfortunate that so many lives are ruined by gambling and also unfortunate that I have to endure hearing my coworkers and friends blabber about QB ratings and stupid shit like that.
But allowing the government to curb yet another aspect of our online life is setting a bad precedent (go ahead, say "b-but what about pedophilia?").
But who cares about that? Just as long as you can make a snide remark about an activity that may not affect you.
This function of the office was perfected by Spitzer but it's been cheerfully carried on by his successors.