California AG Rob Bontas political bid has put the Paramount merger on hold

Paramount allegedly leaks stuff about antitrust talks ­regarding its purchase of Warner Bros.Discovery — never mind that it’s stuff that people already know — and this guy talks like it’s a criminal offense.Actor Mark Ruffalo unleashes nonsensical and arguably bigoted attacks against Paramount’s owners, the Ellison family, in a show of rabble rousing to derail the deal — and this guy talks like it’s a nothingburger.Welcome to the not-so-wonderful but definitely wacky world of California Attorney General Rob Bonta.Mind you, Bonta is a guy no one ever heard of until lightning struck and he got the bright idea to lead a coterie of lefty AGs and sue to break up Paramount’s $81 billion purchase of Warner Bros.

Discovery on antitrust grounds.He’s the state’s chief legal officer, and you would think that his plate is full given the copious maladies faced by Californians: homelessness, wildfires, taxes that are driving away middle-class residents and small businesses — not to mention the billionaires they’re trying to tax even more.There’s also the matter of real and actual crime, which makes vast swaths of the state unlivable.Yet it gets worse.

Aside from 1) his highfalutin notion that a state AG should stop a deal that was approved by the world (the US, EU and UK antitrust cops among the regulatory bodies); and 2) the lighter-than-air legal case he’s mounting that two middling companies combined would have more pricing power than Big Tech expanding into media; there’s 3) Bonta’s contemptuous double standards and public posturing.I know he’s running for governor someday and wants to make a name for himself, but that doesn’t excuse his hypocrisy.Let’s start with his palling around with Ruffalo, a capable actor with some odd political views and demonstrated ignorance when it comes to the business of his chosen profession.Ruffalo has cast himself as a point man for Hollywood opposition to the deal.He has circulated petitions and prodd...