Guy Who Created Obama’s ‘Hope’ Poster: ‘Americans Are Ignorant And Lazy

Shepard Fairey, the artist who designed Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster that symbolized his 2008 campaign, said that he thinks Americans are largely “ignorant, lazy, uneducated and complacent.”

In an interview with Esquire, the 45-year-old said Obama hadn’t even come close to living up to his expectations, but he thinks the American people are to blame for that.

“We also need a public that isn’t so uneducated and complacent,” Fairey said. “I hate to say Americans are ignorant and lazy, but a lot of them are ignorant and lazy.” (RELATED: Shepard Fairey Is A Fraud)

“Obama has had a really tough time, but there have been a lot of things that he’s compromised on that I never would have expected. I mean, drones and domestic spying are the last things I would have thought [he’d support].”

But Fairey, who was a “big supporter” of Occupy Wall Street, thinks Obama’s goals were thwarted because things were out of his control.

“I’ve met Obama a few times, and I think Obama’s a quality human being, but I think that he finds himself in a position where your actions are largely dictated by things out of your control.”

“What frustrates me to no end are people who want to blame Obama or blame anything that is something that if they were actually doing anything as simple as voting, it might not be as bad as it is.”

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

U.S. No Longer Considers Cuba State Sponsor of Terrorism

Five months after President Obama‘s announcement that the United States and Cuba would move to normalize diplomatic relations, the State Department has officially removed the island nation from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

According to Bloomberg Business and multiple other outlets, Cuba’s removal from the list was officially announced via an emailed statement on Friday morning.

“While the United States has significant concerns and disagreements with a wide range of Cuba’s policies and actions,” cautions department spokesperson Jeff Rathke, “these fall outside the criteria relevant to the rescission of a State Sponsor of Terrorism designation.”

President Ronald Reagan added Cuba to the State Department’s list back in 1982. In order for the announced removal to occur, Congress either had to approve (or not block) the the action during the 45-day period following Obama’s April 14th announcement of a massive “four-month interagency review.” No prominent steps were taken to block the removal, hence Friday’s announcement.

However, this has no effect on the trade embargo the U.S. first placed on Cuba back in 1960 during Dwight D. Eisenhower‘s presidency. It remains in place until both countries have had adequate time to normalize diplomatic relations.

Via: Mediaite

Continue Reading....

Ben & Jerry's Doesn't Let Facts Get In Way of 'Climate Justice'

ONE MORE REASON NOT TO BUY THERE PRODUCT!!!

In a recently published info-graphic, entitled “Climate Change By The Numbers”, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream serves up a seamy confection of poor analysis, misleading truths, and downright falsehoods.  The bright and breezy assemblage (one in a series promoting “Climate Justice”) approaches the topic with such childlike simplicity it practically spoon-feeds us its ‘factual’ memes.  In the very first sentence, we’re told that the science of climate change is a “story” that is “told with numbers”.  Thus, it seems only fair to count the errors in this shoddy work.

Predictably enough, the graphic begins with a frightening pronouncement:

To support the claim, they tell us that “9 of the 10 warmest years on record have occurred since 2000”.  At best, the assertion is cavalier; at worst, it is untrue.  In order to believe it, we must first forget that the temperature records in question are a brief 160 years old (a relative eye-blink compared to the 4.5 billion years of earth’s total existence).  We must then play ignorant to a host of recent studies that have suggested the Medieval Warm Period was global in scope.  Thirdly, we have to ignore the fact that earth’s temperatures have NOT risen, hand-in-glove, with CO2 emissions.  Indeed, even reliable Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) alarmists like Michael Mann have felt obligated to try to explain the seventeen-year hiatus in global warming.  And lastly, in order to swallow the fear inspired by the headline, we must pay no attention to the scientific evidence that CO2 levels have historically lagged behind corresponding changes in temperature.

Via American Thinker

Continue Reading...

California: How not to Handle a Water Crisis

Californians have a love affair with water. It’s used for pools, irrigation, green grasses, and washing cars. Yet, because of the drought the grass is turning brown, cars are staying dirty, and pools might be a thing of the past. American Thinker interviewed people who have some knowledge about this crisis. 

There have been about four years of drought. The water supply has been severely depleted largely due to the all time low level of the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which usually provides about one-third of the state’s water. Governor Jerry Brown in an executive order directed the State Water Resources Control Board to implement a twenty-five percent mandatory reduction. Cuts will vary from community to community, based upon per capita water use. 

Russell Lefevre, the Torrance Director of the Metropolitan Water District, told American Thinker that to deal with the crisis they went to their twenty-six customers, totalling about nineteen million residents, and imposed a fifteen percent cutback. He also explained that the governor’s plan has nine tiers and the cutback he issued by executive order differs by community, ranging from 8% to 36%. For example, Beverly Hills and Palos Verdes must cut back by 36% while Los Angeles and San Diego’s cutback is 16%. Why is the governor requiring more of a cutback than the MWD?

Via: American Thinker

Continue Reading....

TEAM OBAMA BLAMES ‘HARSH WINTER WEATHER’ FOR GDP REVISION; RECOMMENDS TPP TRADE BILL

The Obama administration reacted to news that broke this morning about the economy shrinking 0.7 percent in the first quarter of 2015. The number was lower even than the bad economic news first reported, as the Commerce Department’s first estimate showed 0.2 percent growth in the first quarter.

But Jason Furman, the Chairman of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, cautioned Americans from over reacting to the news.

“The first-quarter slowdown was the result of harsh winter weather, tepid foreign demand, and consumers saving the windfall from lower oil prices,” he wrote in a statement.

Furman pointed out Obama’s efforts to pass a Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bill might help improve the economy, by increasing national exports.

“The President is committed to further strengthening these positive trends by opening our exports to new markets with new high-standards free trade agreements that create opportunities for the middle class,” he wrote.

He also pointed to Obama’s commitment to infrastructure spending and his attempt to block sequestration in the upcoming budget as another positive step for the economy and cautioned Americans from not focusing too much on one report.

“As the Administration stresses every quarter, GDP figures can be volatile and are subject to substantial revision,” he concluded. “Therefore, it is important not to read too much into any one single report, and it is informative to consider each report in the context of other data that are becoming available.”

Via: Breitbart

Continue Reading....

Judge Roy Moore: Impeach Ginsburg for Marrying Two Men Ahead of SCOTUS Ruling on Gay Marriage

(CNSNews.com) – On May 17, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg officiated the marriage of two men and used the occasion to cite her constitutional right to do so. In June, the high court – including Ginsburg’s vote - will announce its decision on whether homosexual marriage is guaranteed by the Constitution.

That’s grounds for impeachment, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore told CNSNews.com in an exclusive interview.

“She’s basically thumbing her nose in front of the other justices that she’s going to say what she wants to say and do what she wants to do, and she’s going to ignore the rules of ethics,” Moore said, adding that judges are bound by those rules.

“I think there’s grounds for the legislature of the United States and Congress to act,” Moore said. “They could act to impeach her; they could remove her for bad behavior, because judges serve for good behavior under Article 3 (of the Constitution).

Moore said the fact that Ginsburg made a public statement that she had a right under the Constitution to perform a same-sex wedding, under the ethics rules, is bad behavior given her role in deciding the Obergefell v. Hodges case.

“They could find that’s bad behavior and subject to impeachment and removal,” Moore said.

“Wearing her black robe with her signature white lace collar, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg presided over the marriage on Sunday afternoon of Michael Kahn, the longtime artistic director of the Shakespeare Theater Company in Washington, and Charles Mitchem, who works at an architecture firm in New York,” Dowd wrote.

“The gilded setting was elegant: Anderson House in the Embassy Row neighborhood, the headquarters in Washington of the Society of the Cincinnati, a club for the descendants of the French and American soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War,” Dowd wrote. “During the ceremony, the couple slipped black and gold Harry Winston rings onto each other’s fingers.

“But the most glittering moment for the crowd came during the ceremony," Dowd wrote. “With a sly look and special emphasis on the word ‘Constitution,’ Justice Ginsburg said that she was pronouncing the two men married by the powers vested in her by the Constitution of the United States.

“No one was sure if she was emphasizing her own beliefs or giving a hint to the outcome of the case the Supreme Court is considering whether to decide if same-sex marriage is constitutional,” Dowd wrote.

Via: CNS News

Continue Reading....

IRS Hires $1,000-An-Hour Lawyers And It Might Have Violated Federal Law

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is paying a Washington law firm $1,000 an hour in taxpayer money to perform a corporate audit, despite its claim of being severely underfunded.

The IRS’ $2.2 million contract with big-money firm Quinn Emanuel has sparked a Senate Finance Committee investigation, with the committee’s chairman saying that the IRS “appears to violate federal law.”

Senate Finance Committee chairman Sen. Orrin Hatch wrote a letter this month to IRS commissioner John Koskinen stating his concerns relating to the contact, which pays Quinn Emanuel $1,000 an hour to perform an audit of Microsoft.

Hatch said that the contract appears to violate laws against the IRS sharing confidential taxpayer information with third parties. (RELATED: Lois Lerner Sent The White House Confidential Taxpayer Info).

“Despite these statutory prohibitions against the outsourcing of certain revenue functions or sharing of confidential taxpayer information, in May of last year the IRS hired a litigation law firm to assist in the income tax audit and investigation of a corporate taxpayer, including the conduct of sworn interviews,” Hatch’s letter stated.

“The IRS’s hiring of a private contractor to conduct an examination of a taxpayer raises concerns because the action: 1) appears to violate federal law and the express will of the Congress; 2) removes taxpayer protections by allowing the performance of inherently governmental functions by private contractors; and 3) calls into question the IRS’s use of its limited resources.”

But the Obama administration quickly re-wrote the rules shortly after hiring Quinn Emanuel.

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading....

Most Democrats Think Illegal Immigrants Should Vote

Are voters ready to let illegal immigrants vote? A sizable number, including most Democrats, are.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that one-out-of-three Likely U.S. Voters (35%) now believes that illegal immigrants should be allowed to vote if they can prove they live in this country and pay taxes. Sixty percent (60%) disagree, while five percent (5%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Fifty-three percent (53%) of Democrats think tax-paying illegal immigrants should have the right to vote. Twenty-one percent (21%) of Republicans and 30% of voters not affiliated with either major political party agree.

The U.S. Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case challenging how Texas sets up state legislative districts. Texas currently counts everyone in the state, including illegal immigrants, before carving up districts of proportional population size, but the challenge argues that only eligible voters should be counted because the current system creates some districts with much larger numbers of eligible voters than others.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters agree with the legal challenge and say states should only count eligible voters when setting the size of legislative districts for voting purposes. Just 23% favor the current system in Texas that counts all residents including illegal immigrants. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 952 Likely Voters was conducted on May 27-28, 2015 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters think the United States is already more democratic than most other nations, but 17% say it is less democratic. Slightly more (19%) feel America is about equally as democratic as most other nations.

Women are more supportive than men of letting tax-paying illegal immigrants vote, but the two are in general agreement that the size of voting districts should be determined by counting only the number of eligible voters.

Via: Rasmussen Reports

Continue Reading....

The Freddie Gray Effect? Police Wonder If They'll Be Arrested for Doing Their Job as Baltimore Gets Bloodier

BALTIMORE — A 31-year-old woman and a young boy were shot in the head Thursday, becoming Baltimore’s 37th and 38th homicide victims so far this month, the city’s deadliest in 15 years.

Meanwhile, arrests have plunged: Police are booking fewer than half the number of people they pulled off the streets last year.

Arrests were already declining before Freddie Gray died on April 19 of injuries he suffered in police custody, but they dropped sharply thereafter, as his death unleashed protests, riots, the criminal indictment of six officers and a full-on civil rights investigation by the U.S. Justice Department that has officers working under close scrutiny.

“I’m afraid to go outside,” said Antoinette Perrine, whose brother was shot down three weeks ago on a basketball court near her home in the Harlem Park neighborhood of West Baltimore. Ever since, she has barricaded her door and added metal slabs inside her windows to deflect gunfire.

“It’s so bad, people are afraid to let their kids outside,” Perrine said. “People wake up with shots through their windows. Police used to sit on every corner, on the top of the block. These days? They’re nowhere.”

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

Jailhouse Crock: Unfinished prison costs Detroit area taxpayers $1.2M per month

Four years after breaking ground and with construction costs totaling $151 million, the Wayne County Jail sits empty in downtown Detroit. The empty structure is costing taxpayers upwards of $1.2 million in upkeep per month. (AP)

A prison in downtown Detroit that was deemed too expensive to complete is now a construction site frozen in time that still costs cash-strapped local taxpayers more than $1 million a month.

It was supposed to be a state-of-art lockup in the heart of the Motor City, but four years after breaking ground, with construction costs totaling $150 million and no end in sight, the city pulled the plug on the project four years ago.

Now, the Wayne County Jail sits empty among the ruins of a bankrupt city, costing taxpayers upwards of $1.2 million in debt service and monthly upkeep costs for electricity, security, sump pumps - and even off-site storage for pre-fabricated jail cells that will never be used.

“The Wayne County Jail was a mess since it was created,” Rose Bogaert, head of the Wayne County Taxpayers Association and chair of the Michigan Taxpayer Alliance, told FoxNews.com. “At this point, the only thing we should do is cut our losses. If someone is willing to purchase it, we should sell it.

“Everyone knows that these projects never stay within budget, and this one was in a bad location to begin with," she added. "It never made sense. There needs to be more thought put into these projects before they start building.”

County officials have yet to make a decision as to what to do with the facility. But while they dither, the monthly meter is running. According to figures compiled by the Detroit Free Press some of the monthly costs include:

• Security: $10,849
• Sump pump maintenance: $12,852-
• Warehouse space to store pre-cast jail cells: $15,000
• Electricity: $4,000
• Debt service: $1.1 million

Despite the hefty costs of the jail, and the county teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, Wayne County Executive Warren Evans does not appear to be any closer to making a decision on the building site.

Via: Fox News

Continue Reading....

Inside One More Sketchy Sharpton-Family Nonprofit

Al Sharpton’s daughter Dominique has recently grabbed headlines for her $5 million lawsuit against the City of New York over a sprained ankle — but the shakedown may not stop there. New records reviewed by National Review show Sharpton’s daughter and her boyfriend, 

Marcus Bright, together run a shadowy nonprofit that shares corporate donors, board members, and office space with Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, and they won’t answer any questions about it.

In tax filings, Education for a Better America (EBA) states that its mission is “to build a bridge between policy makers and the classroom by supporting innovations in the delivery of education and disseminating information and findings that impact our schools.” The nonprofit’s publications show the group hosting or participating in education-focused assemblies, speeches, summits, and events in New York City, Miami, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., among other cities.

“It’s all a scam,” says one source close to the Sharpton family. “It’s a cover for money, basically, to subsidize [Dominique] Sharpton and Bright to do what they do. . . . They put it all on their Instagram and their Facebook. Most of the time, it’s like they’re on vacation. . . . One could argue, being totally objective, that some of what [Al] Sharpton has done in terms of advocacy has helped black people and civil rights. Tell me one thing that Education for a Better America has done to help education.”

Via National Review

Continue Reading....

Study Predicts Decades Of Global Cooling Ahead

A new study out of the United Kingdom predicts the Earth is about to go through a major climatic shift that could mean decades of cooler temperatures and fewer hurricanes hitting the United States.

Scientists at the University of Southampton predict that a cooling of the Atlantic Ocean could cool global temperatures a half a degree Celsius and may offer a “brief respite from the persistent rise of global temperatures,” according to their study.

This cooling phase in the Atlantic will influence “temperature, rainfall, drought and even the frequency of hurricanes in many regions of the world,” says Dr. Gerard McCarthy. The study’s authors based their results on ocean sensor arrays and 100 years of sea-level data.

“Sea-surface temperatures in the Atlantic vary between warm and cold over time-scales of many decades,” said McCarthy, the study’s lead author. “This decadal variability, called the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO), is a notable feature of the Atlantic Ocean and the climate of the regions it influences.”

Via: Daily Caller

Continue Reading.....

Members Living in Their Offices Rent-Free Adds Up

Rep. Joaquin Castro knows a little about real estate, in part because his twin, Julian, is secretary of Housing and Urban Development. So after winning a safely Democratic seat three years ago, he decided buying a condo on the Hill was a smart investment.

He soon started noticing, when walking home at night, how many windows in the darkened House office buildings emanated a distinctive bluish light. Castro guesses the number of his colleagues inside, watching TV while falling asleep, has only grown and easily tops 50 these days.

“I’ve been joking with my brother,” the San Antonio congressman says with a broad grin, “that he should have HUD designate this place a public housing project.”

Humor aside, there’s a strong argument to be made for the conclusion. The dozens of members who sleep in their offices are, in effect, spending their weekdays in 100 percent federally subsidized apartments.

They are not charged any rent. They receive no utility bills. They don’t pay for the daily cleaning services. Microwaves and refrigerators have been installed in most suites. There’s a half bathroom connected to each personal office, and the showers at the members’ gym open at 5:30 a.m.

In short, lawmakers who choose their offices as their crash pads are getting a valuable government freebie — worth 10 percent or more of their $174,000 annual salary.

Zillow, the real estate search engine, on Wednesday listed 50 studio or one-bedroom apartments for lease on Capitol Hill, a solid majority for between $18,000 and $23,000 a year. (The cheapest, 447 square feet on 15th Street Southeast, was $1,100 a month.) Airbnb was offering more than 300 spots in the neighborhood for shorter-term rent, at an average of $152 a night. Even with that arrangement, House members would need to budget $17,000 for lodging on the 110 or so weeknights their schedule says they can expect to be in D.C. this year.

The fact that members are free to freeload off Congress is back in the news this week, as the House voted to maintain the congressional pay freeze for a seventh year. The few lawmakers willing to advocate for a raise inevitably lamented the expense of maintaining places to live in both their districts and high-cost Washington. Those complaints, in turn, revived chatter about the growing numbers who have figured out how to avoid the problem.

No Capitol administrative office claims to keep track of which members bunk next to their desks, but news stories and anecdotal reports suggest the number is at least 45 and may be 70 or higher. No senators appear to be doing so, and the House contingent seems to be exclusively male — and lopsidedly Republican.

Via: Roll Call

Continue Reading....

U.S. judge grills lawyer defending Obama's healthcare law changes

Thomson ReutersObama delivers remarks on the fifth anniversary of the Affordable Care Act on the White House campus in Washington

 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Thursday blasted the Obama administration's motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives over the implementation of the Democratic president's signature healthcare law.

Republicans in the House filed a lawsuit in November, saying administration officials unlawfully bypassed Congress.

At issue are executive changes authorizing Treasury payments to healthcare insurers without the funding being agreed by Congress and delaying implementation of the law's employer mandate, which required employers with more than 50 employees to provide healthcare coverage.

U.S. District Judge Rosemary Collyer, appointed by Obama's predecessor, Republican George W. Bush, repeatedly interrupted U.S. Justice Department lawyer Joel McElvain during the hearing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Justice Department lawyers argue that the House lacks standing to sue, citing a section of U.S. law that means the House would have to prove it has been directly harmed.

"So it is your position that if the House of Representatives affirmatively voted not to fund something ... then that vote can be ignored by the administration, because after all, no one can sue them?" she asked.

McElvain argued that the merits of the case were not being discussed at the hearing, and that any perceived injury was "abstract."

"I'm not asking you to give me your brief. I want you to explain ... why it's not an insult to the Constitution?" Collyer said.

Via: Business Insider

Continue Reading....

EXCLUSIVE: 'Don't let Bill back in the White House, he abused women and he'll do it again.' Paula Jones warns against voting for Hillary - because she also lied about sex case which almost cost him presidency

She was the woman who almost brought down the president, with her allegations of sexual harassment.

But 21 years after Paula Jones accused Bill Clinton of lurid behavior, she is speaking out against Hillary and insisting that his wife is not fit to be President either - because of her husband's history of bad behavior.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Online Jones delivers her own verdict on Hillary's bid to become president, saying that her husband's attitude towards women disqualifies Bill from re-entering the White House - while what she calls Hillary's 'lies' disqualify her from the Oval Office.

'There is no way that she did not know what was going on, that women were being abused and accosted by her husband,' she says. 'They have both lied.'

Jones, 48, became a national figure when in 1994 she sued President Clinton for sexual harassment after an incident in an Arkansas hotel room three years earlier.

Her lawsuit led to Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky being uncovered and led to Clinton being impeached, accused of lying about the nature of his relationship with the White House intern.

Via: Daily Mail UK

Continue Reading

Chairman Priebus Op-Ed: With Florida Visit, Clinton Shows She’s Out-of-Touch

Since declaring her candidacy for president more than a month ago, Hillary Clinton has spent very little time with “everyday Americans”—the people she claims she’s fighting for.

None of her campaign events have been open to the general public. That is probably for the same reason she avoids reporters: She doesn’t want to answer questions about her email scandal, about her record, or about her positions on controversial issues. (In the first month of her campaign, she only answered nine questions from the press.)

Her time has been spent in closed-door fundraisers and carefully choreographed campaign events. The “average” Americans at her “roundtable” discussions are pre-selected by her campaign, and they are often former Clinton or Obama campaign volunteers. Her trip to Florida this week is no exception.

It’s remarkable that Clinton continues to avoid the public because she desperately needs to earn the public’s trust. Polls show a majority of Americans do not believe she is honest or trustworthy. And more and more Americans see the Clintons for what they are: hopelessly out-of-touch with the middle class.

Via: GOP.com

Continue Reading....

Nancy Pelosi Has Her Pick In Coveted FL Congressional Race

While the growing Republican field of congressional candidates continues to grow in Florida’s 18th congressional district-setting up what could be a very contentious primary race in 201-  the Democrat king-makers in Washington, D.C., who  seem hell-bent to avoid a potentially bloody primary race, may have already decided on a candidate to throw their support behind, Palm Beach County Commissioner Melissa McKinlay.

The Democrat establishment has already embraced Rep. Patrick Murphy, who announced he would not running for re-election in CD 18, as their Senate candidate to replace Senator Marco Rubio.

Now House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D) has settled on McKinlay, as have Florida Democrat state legislators, State Sens. Joe Abruzzo and Jeff Clemens.

McKinlay has just become the newest target for Republicans. I can only imagine the Pelosi-clone attack ads against her.

The Democrats may have decided on McKinlay perhaps because they feel that the young mother of three, who just won her county commission seat race in November 2014, could become the next Rep. Gwen Graham (D).

Graham won her 2014 congressional race against incumbent Rep. Steve Southerland by the closest of margins by running as moderate, when in fact she was significantly more liberal.

Can a woman like McKinlay bring on a second congressional lightning strike for Democrats in another one of Florida’s Republican-leaning congressional district?

If someone like McKinlay becomes the Democrat Party’s nominee in this congressional district, which some believe is almost assured with local and national Democrats backing her candidacy, which Republican from the ever-growing field of D.C. insiders, carpet-baggers, local no-name elected officials, and disabled military veterans will make it out of the Republican primary to challenge McKinlay?

Unlike Democrats, Republicans, for the most part, stay out of contested primary races like this one and allow the political process to run its course.

This has not always been the case. Anyone remember when the establishment Republicans in Tallahassee and Washington, D.C. tried to crown then-Republican Governor Charlie Crist as the Republican nominee in the open Florida U.S. Senate seat in 2010?

The result of that ill-advised move by the Republican poobahs was then candidate-Marco Rubio eating both their lunch and dinner.

Via: Shark Tank

Continue Reading....

Baltimore Riots Will Cost Taxpayers at Least $20M

According to the Baltimore Sun, estimates put the cost of the city's riots around $20M...so far.

The $20 million figure includes expenses for police and firefighter overtime, damage to city-owned property and payment to other jurisdictions that assisted with policing duties.

Baltimore’s finance director, Henry J. Raymond, said that the city can cover the costs from its rainy day fund, but that it is only a temporary solution and that they are planning on requesting up to 75 percent reimbursement from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

That's right, Baltimore wants 75% of the costs of the rioting to fall on the backs of the American taxpayer.

"The city remains on strong financial footing,” Raymond told the newspaper. “Hopefully with the FEMA reimbursement, it will reduce the financial stress that we’re under. In terms of the city’s overall revenue structure, we’re on firm footing and we’ll move forward.”

Both the Mayor of Baltimore, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and Governor Larry Hogan have asked for federal aid.

The $20 million estimate includes the purchasing of equipment, like riot gear and tear gas and for public works crews to clean neighborhood streets affected by the rioting. Not included is the cost to businesses that were damaged.

So included in the $20M figure are the costs submitted by various city agencies but not other costs like economic impact and lost tax revenue. Other lost revenue include "the loss of conventions, tourism, leisure spending, and revenue from Orioles games that were closed to the public, canceled, or moved to other cities."

Via: Truth Revolt

Continue Reading....