The Pravda Press "Fact Checks" President Trump On D.C. Crime Statistics

August 14, 2025/ Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian

Our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., has a violent crime problem that is, objectively, very serious. Indeed, considering that Washington is the capital of the wealthiest and most important country in the world, its level of violent crime is quite shocking.

And thus a few days ago (August 11), the President decided to address the problem by federalizing law enforcement in the District of Columbia, at least for some period of time. Trump accompanied his action with a press conference and a series of news releases: “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Declares a Crime Emergency to Restore Safety in the District of Columbia”; “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Restores Law and Order in the District of Columbia”; and “RESTORING LAW AND ORDER IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.”

Both orally at the press conference, and in the written news releases, Trump cited various crime statistics from the District to illustrate the seriousness of the problem. Among Trump’s oral statements was this one, quoted in the New York Times on August 11:

“Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs and homeless people,” Mr. Trump said. “And we’re not going to let it happen anymore.”

Here are some examples from the first of the three news releases linked above:

• The surge in violent crime in our Nation’s capital is a national disgrace that threatens public safety and Federal operations, to the detriment of all Americans.
• Washington, D.C. has one of the highest robbery and murder rates among large U.S. cities nationwide, with a homicide rate exceeding 27 per 100,000 residents in 2024.
• Vehicle theft in the District is over three times the national average, at 842.4 thefts per 100,000 residents, ranking it among the most dangerous cities globally.

Now, our Pravda press is not about to allow President Trump to get away with a take down of the most dominantly Democratic city in the country without a strong response. So, call in the fact checkers!

The problem here is that D.C.’s violent crime problem truly is horrific. There is no way really to defend the D.C. local government’s record for law enforcement. And thus we have some of the most humorous examples of the “fact checking” art that I have seen recently — nit-picking the usual Trump exaggerations as a way of diverting attention from the truly bad crime situation in Washington.

It seems that the urge to push back against this Trump initiative was almost irresistible for the Democratic press, such that I find articles taking on Trump’s assertions literally everywhere, from the New York Times to PolitiFact, to PBS, to NBC, to CNN, to Axios, to HuffPost, to the Washington Post, and on and on. But they all seem to take their talking points from this New York Times piece from August 12, so I will use that one as the source of quotes. The headline is “Trump Misstates Washington Crime Data to Justify Takeover.” The sub-headline is “The president cited a number of false and misleading claims about homicides and youth crime in the nation’s capital.”

So OK New York Times, what are the statements that you claim are “false and misleading”? Here’s the first one that sets the tone for the article:

WHAT WAS SAID

“Murders in 2023 reached the highest rate probably ever. They say 25 years, but they don’t know what that means because it just goes back 25 years.”— Mr. Trump in the news conference on Monday

False. There were 274 homicides in Washington in 2023 among a population of about 679,000 people, a rate of about 40.4 per 100,000 people. That was the highest rate in over 20 years, but not “ever.” Moreover, the homicide rate has since declined. The number of homicides declined by about a third in 2024 to 187 while the population grew to over 702,000 people, for a rate of 26.6 per 100,000.

So the “falsity” is that there were still higher rates of murders in D.C. more than 25 years ago, and that the rate has declined from 40.4 per 100,000 in 2023 to only 26.6 in 2024. Neither of those goes to the heart of the assertion, which is that the rate — whether 40.4 or 26.6 — is unacceptably high. Shouldn’t there be some recognition that 40.4, and even 26.6, are quite extraordinarily high murder rates for a major capital city? For comparison, in New York City, there were 377 murders in 2024 in a population of 8.4 million, for a rate of 4.5 per 100,000, less than one-sixth the rate in Washington. In places like London, Paris and Berlin, the murder rates are more like 1 to 1.5 per 100,000.

And then we get to the humorous part. Apparently Trump put up a chart of various third-world capital cities, showing murder rates well below that of Washington: for example, Lima 7/100K; Havana 4/100K: Nairobi 5/100K; Brasilia 13/100K; Mexico City 8/100K. He then said that Washington’s rate was “No.1 that we can find anywhere in the world.” The Times has really got him on that one:

[Washington’s murder] rate is nowhere near the highest “anywhere in the world.” In 2023, according to data compiled by the Igarapé Institute, a Brazilian think tank, capitals with higher homicide rates included Port-au-Prince, Haiti, with a rate of 67.2 per 100,000 people; Cape Town, South Africa, with 66.8; Kingston, Jamaica, with 64.2; Caracas, Venezuela, with 47.9; and Guatemala City at 47.8.

Did you have any idea that Washington’s murder rate was that close to the rates of true hell-holes like Port-au-Prince and Caracas?

And how about in the United States?

Overall, the think tank reported, 47 cities with more than 250,000 people had higher homicide rates than 40.4 . . . including six in the United States: Memphis, New Orleans, St. Louis, Baltimore, Cleveland and Detroit.

Surprise — it’s a list of six of the worst-governed cities in the United States, all of them having had uninterrupted rule by Democrats for decades.

I can’t help thinking that Trump intentionally threw in some exaggerations in order to bait the entire liberal press corps into defending the indefensible of Washington’s violent crime situation.

Washington DC Home Rule is a Farce

By Rich Kozlovich

 No more Mr. Nice Guy, Trump is determined to clean up Washington DC, and sees no reason why the American public should tolerate the crime, violence, filth and degradation the Washington DC elected officials have not only tolerated, but created.   President Trump has declared the Washington D.C. police department is now under federal control, something that needed to be done for years, but such an action takes guts, and he has it. 

Speaking from the White House Monday morning, President Donald Trump announced he is deploying the National Guard to the streets of Washington D.C. to restore law and order against "wild youths," "homeless" and "maniacs." The Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department is now under the command of Attorney General Pam Bondi and Home Rule has been invoked.   

•  Trump Vows to Make D.C. Safer, Clean Out the Homeless, Jail Criminals
• President Trump Deploys 120 FBI Agents to Washington DC Streets to Combat Violent Crime and Carjackings

Trump has never been keen on home rule for Washington DC and for good reason.  As long as I can remember it's been a corrupt mess going back to the scandals involving Mayor Marion Barry and his incompetence causing crime to skyrocket over what in reality would today be called "defund the police" efforts, and his addiction to illegal drugs, which led to a prison sentence.  You would have thought that would have ended his political career, but after being released from prison he ran again, and in spite of his failed three terms, and his prison sentence, the people of Washington DC elected him again, and that level of insanity stands today.  

• Trump: 1 -- Crime, Filth, and Wokeness: 0 
• Trump Vows to Make D.C. Safer, Clean Out the Homeless, Jail Criminals: ‘We Want Our Capital Back’
•  What to know about DC Home Rule Act as Trump puts DC police under federal control 
• Trump's Latest Public Safety Initiative Will Likely Cause Libs to Melt Down

Naturally, the nitwit brigade started spouting off immediately, including the Pravda media, who took a beating over their comments, and this racist who is really trying to hold his temper.  Followed by the deep staters like former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe, who instead of getting a job at CNN should have ended up in prison, says this is detrimental to the safety and security of the nation.  And that makes sense how?

Mayor Muriel Bowser says crime is down and doesn't see why this is necessary, but is that true given they've been caught doctoring the crime figures in the past?   Even the media are skeptical over this claim as they can't run around Washington safely. 

• DC AG Looking for a Fight Over Trump's DC Takeover. He Should Focus on This Investigation Instead

However, Mayor Bowser assures the nation she will "continue to operate our government in a way that makes you proud.”  Proud?  Really?  And of course according to Bowser, the real answer is statehood.  Apparently she wants Washington DC to stop being a failed city and making it a failed state.  I'll tell you what, we'll come back to both those issues. 

And who supports Trump's action?  Believe it or not, the D.C. police union saying:

View on twitter.“We stand with the President in recognizing that Washington, DC, cannot continue on this trajectory. Crime is out of control, and our officers are stretched beyond their limits,” Pemberton said, according to a statement shared by WUSA’s Spencer Allen.

“The federal intervention is a critical stopgap, but the MPD needs proper staffing and support to thrive,” .......... ‘This can only happen by repealing the disastrous policies that have driven out our best officers and hindered recruitment.”

Amazing. The men on the street say crime is out of control and blame the city government's policies.  So, that's what Mayor Bowser thinks makes her citizens proud?  Remarkable!  Let's take a look at the "proud" achievements of Mayor Bowser's administration and her reduction in crime, including all the public officials who are being beaten.

DC crime stats are not good as DC has the fourth highest homicide rate in the US with a rate of 27.3 homicides per 100,000 people. Six times higher than New York City, four time higher that Los Angeles, double of Newark, and higher than Atlanta, Chicago, Compton, and Oakland.  

• Victims of Violent Crime in Washington D.C. Thank President Trump 
• Tom Homan Torches Media Over Lies About D.C. Crime [VIDEO]

Jeanine Pirro put the blame on the D.C. Council's soft-on-crime policies saying “young thugs” are committing “too much violent crime” in the nation’s capital.

"I see too much violent crime being committed by young punks who think that they can get together in gangs and crews and beat the hell out of you or anyone else....they don't care, because the laws are weak. I can’t touch you if you’re 14, 15, 16, 17 years old and you have a gun'.....“I convict someone of shooting another person with an illegal gun on a public bus in the chest, intent to kill–I convict him, and you know what the judge gives him? Probation......“We need to go after the D.C. Council and their absurd laws. We need to get rid of this concept of no cash bail. We need to recognize that the people who matter are the law-abiding citizens,” ..... 

Please take a minute to see Judge Jeanine teach this reporter a lesson.  It's classic Pirro, and worth your time.  And finally, let's address this statehood claptrap.  Washington DC was gifted to the federal government by the state of Maryland, and Daniel Greenfield outlines the answer saying:

Trying to give D.C. a city government and an ability to run its affairs was a disaster even before Mayor Bowser decided to throw in with a mob of rioters back in 2020. Having Congress assume its traditional responsibility for the District would be helpful, but the larger issue, especially as Dems remain obsessed with granting statehood to D.C. and adding two Senate seats (if you think they’re not serious about that, think again) is who should govern much of the city. 

And the answer is Maryland. 

What makes the most sense and always has is to return much of the city to Maryland (and the folks with the No Taxation license plates can start paying taxes to Maryland) and retain key federal areas for security purposes.

That's a good start.  

Update, 1:18 PM: 

• D.C. Cops Only Caught 32% of Armed Robbers - President Trump’s deployment of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies in D.C. has raised a storm of protests from liberals who insist that everything is just fine. It’s not. How much responsibility does D.C.’s Metro force have for things getting worse? And how much can we trust its statistical claims that things are getting better? A key variable to look for is homicide clearance rates. One way to ‘reduce’ murders is not to solve them and file them as an unknown death. Metro’s clearance rates have been steadily sinking according to its own statistics..............
• FACT CHECK: D.C. is a Violent Hellhole Filled with Criminals - D.C has the fourth-highest homicide rate in the country.  Two members of Congress have been personally attacked in D.C. in recent years. Kids are committing armed carjackings. And D.C. just recorded its 100th murder victim served. But the media (of course) is insisting that the District is absolutely safe and there’s no need for intervention...........The media has kept insisting that crime is not a problem because crime is ‘falling’. The problem is that crime is falling from the record highs of the BLM year.  Crime is ‘down’ from 2020 when criminals were told that they could do anything they want with no consequences......

Update, 2:23 PM: Another reason why they claim crime is down. 

•  Wait, What Happened to the D.C. Evidence Lab? -  In 2021 the Department of Forensic Sciences, the lab used by local law enforcement and prosecutors for cases in D.C., lost its accreditation over mishandling of evidence and other failed lab practices. Just this year, it received accreditation for some evidence analysis, including DNA, drugs, other substances and fingerprints, but is still unable to conduct ballistic testing....... "Then U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves said that 66 percent of cases that weren’t prosecuted in 2022 and more than half in 2023 were mostly misdemeanors that required testing that the lab couldn’t do."....... The result? A lack of prosecutions, criminals walking free and a failure to get justice for victims. .............

Update, 10:18 PM:  This is pathetic, they saw the mess Washington DC's government created and never said a word....until now.  Gutless wonders, and nitwit race baiters like Al Sharpton and Jasmine Crockett call it racism. 

• Before Trump Federalized D.C. Police, White House Reporters Complained for Years About Crime - White House correspondents and reporters have complained and cited instances of violent crime taking place in Washington, DC, throughout the past several years.
•  D.C. Police Chief Stumped by Basic Question on Chain of Command - After President Donald Trump announced he would federalize control of Washington, D.C.’s law enforcement to combat the city’s spiraling crime crisis, the lack of leadership within the Democrat-run capital was on full display. In a stunning moment during a press conference, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith appeared baffled when asked a basic question about the chain of command, responding, “What does that mean?” 

 

Anti-Israel Activists Cheer D.C. Murder of Israeli Couple

By Daniel Greenfield @ Sultan Knish Blog

Elias Rodriguez opened fire outside the Capital Jewish Museum, killing two, a soon to be engaged Israeli couple, and wounded two others, but few media outlets reported his political orientation and his background. Or the outpouring of support from the anti-Israel Left.

In 2023, stickers reading “Exterminate Zionists” and the name of the Party for Socialism and Liberation appeared at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Rodriguez had been a member of the affiliated University of Illinois at Chicago and had been a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. According to Rodriguez’s manifesto, he became radicalized 11 years ago and was convinced that killing Israelis, Americans and Jews was the right thing to do. That was the same year that he was being quoted as taking part in protest rallies and speaking on behalf of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.

PSL claims that Elias Rodriguez only had a “brief association” with the Communist group, but even according to their timeline, the terrorist was with the organization for at least 3 years.

And likely more.

Rather than disavowing him, members of the pro-terrorist movement cheered his crimes.

Palestine Action US, which currently uses the Jihadist name ‘Unity of Fields’, distributed an illustrated version of the D.C. killer’s manifesto under his headline of “Escalate for Gaza”. It described the murder of an Israeli couple attending an event at a Jewish museum as “the rightful execution of the two nazi pigs” and hailed “the resistance that Elias will inspire.“

Rep. Rashida Tlaib had previously held an anti-Israel event featuring Palestine Action US, the Campaign for Palestinian Rights, Jewish Voice for Peace and the Islamist group EMGAGE.

The Bronx Anti-War Coalition declared correctly that “what Elias Rodriguez did is the highest expression of anti-Zionism” and “we need more Elias Rodriguez in this world.” Its rallies have featured banners with pictures of Islamic terrorist leaders and calls for joining Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’.

PSL tried to deny its link to the murderer, but did not condemn it. Rodriguez was simply implementing the PSL’s enthusiastic support for the mass murder of Jews, and the Communist terrorist switched from cheering the attacks from the sidelines to actually engaging in them.

The Party for Socialism and Liberation is a Communist party with Trotskyist roots. Its most publicly visible face are the anti-war ANSWER coalition protests after 9/11. After Oct 7, PSL focused heavily on anti-Israel rallies. At a rally after the Hamas Oct 7 attacks, a PSL speaker celebrated that Hamas had “liberated an area that is actually larger than the Gaza Strip.”

He joked about the Nova festival massacre that “there was sort of rave or desert party where they were having a great time, until the resistance came in electrified hang-gliders.”

Participants gleefully chanted “700” in reference to the then reported number of Israeli victims.

One of Rodriguez’s reposts was titled, “Don’t Blame Me, I Voted For Hamas.”

He also reposted speeches by former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah along with Iranian slogans such as “De@th 2 Amerikkka” and “Death to Israel”.

PSL’s official response on Oct 7 described the Hamas atrocities as “a counter-offensive by Palestinian resistance forces” and argued that the “actions of the resistance over the course of the last day is a morally and legally legitimate response.” And it declared that, “resistance to apartheid and fascist-type oppression is not a crime!”

Rodriguez’s manifesto was titled “Escalate for Gaza. Bring the war home.” That’s been the premise of the pro-terrorist rallies, including by his old organization.

While PSL may seem obscure to most Americans, its presidential candidate appeared on the ballots of 7 states, including California, New York and Florida, Its presidential candidate Claudia De La Cruz however works for an organization funded by a Maoist millionaire operating out of Communist China which has been accused of acting as a front of the regime.

Like PSL, the People’s Forum described Oct 7, as an “unprecedented liberation struggle” by “Palestinian resistance factions”.

“We give our heart, we give our life, we give our blood to the Palestinian people,” Manolo De Los Santos, a founding director of The People’s Forum declared at a pro-terrorist rally in Manhattan. “We will use whatever we have in our hands. A rock or something else. We will defend the Palestinian people.”

The anti-Israel Left is rapidly rationalizing and even celebrating the murder of an Israeli couple because that is what they intended all along. They were never going to draw the line at blocking highways while glorifying Hamas. The goal was to get useful idiots like Elias to carry out attacks.

Why did a Latino man travel across the country to murder the couple? Because he had been indoctrinated into believing that it was the right thing to do by a network of terrorist groups pretending to be “pro-palestinian” or concerned about “human rights”, when what they actually wanted was a pretext for street and then terrorist violence and finally a revolutionary takeover.

While America has seen numerous Islamic terrorist attacks, the rate of individual Communist attacks has declined. The red-green alliance between leftists and Islamists is partly a means of revitalizing the terrorist capabilities of the Left. That’s why they’re celebrating Rodriguez’s murders because they’re not an outlier, the murders are where they want America to go.

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine. Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation.  Thank you for reading.

 

 

Advice for DOGE: Curtail Record Welfare Spending in Washington

February 23, 2025 by Dan Mitchell @ International Liberty

At the start of the year, I pointed out how politicians used the pandemic as an excuse to increase the long-run trend line of government spending.

Today, let’s look at how one component of the federal budget has contributed to America’s perilous fiscal state.

Here’s a chart from the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC) showing how the burden of redistribution spending has expanded since the pandemic, as well how much the budget for those programs is projected to increase over the next 10 years.

In large part, the growth of redistribution outlays is associated with inflation, so we have an unsavory combination of bad monetary policy and bad fiscal policy.

But here’s another chart from EPIC that is an even bigger indictment of the welfare state. If you divide total spending on so-called means-tested programs by the number of people in poverty, you get more than $31,000.

That’s nearly twice as much money as the poverty level!

By the way, some people look at these numbers and say it would be more efficient to get rid of the programs and simply give every poor $16,650.

After all that would save money, eliminate poverty, and get rid of bureaucracy.

But that simple analysis overlooks the fact that all l0w-income people in the country would then have an incentive to lose their jobs and become wards of the state.

Heck, that perverse incentive is already there. So the last thing we need is for politicians to make a bad situation even worse.

Guided by the 14th Theorem of Government, there’s several takeaways from the above charts.

• The fiscal burden of welfare spending is enormous.
• The welfare state is grotesquely inefficient.
• Poor people are being trapped in government dependency.

The right solution is to get rid of the Washington welfare state.

Take all the money currently being spending on redistribution, turn it into a block grant, and give the money to the states and let them figure out the best way of dealing with poverty.

But the block grant should shrink over time and eventually disappear. As I wrote two days ago, “states should have full control – and full responsibility – for designing and funding their income redistribution programs.”

D.C. Crime Crisis Touches 5 High-Profile People in 2023

Wendell Husebø 2 Dec 2023 

 The soaring Washington, DC, crime ravaging local taxpayers also impacted five high-profile people in 2023.  District officials defunded the police in 2023 by 1.7 percent, while U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves, who is responsible for prosecuting those D.C. police arrest, decided not to prosecute 56 percent of those arrested in 2023. As a result, criminals inflicted terrifying shocks on five federal officials, employees, and a Secret Service protectee:

1. ) FBI agent’s vehicle carjacked
2. ) Naomi Biden’s Secret Service vehicle attacked
3. ) Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) carjacked
4. ) Sen. Rand Paul’s (R-KY) staffer stabbed
5. ) Rep. Angie Craig (D-MN) attacked

 ...........To Read More.....

Crime in America's Cities: You Just Can't Fix Stupid

By Rich Kozlovich

As we look around the nation we're seeing the consequences of leftist insanity, insanity that was chosen by voters.  In Florida DeSantis suspended another Soros funded pro-criminal prosecutor for refusing to do her job.  In Portland jury intimidation by the defense attorney is believed to have gotten a decision in favor of the violent Antifa monsters: 

After the defendants’ attorney “admitted that the ‘black clad people’ that had physically beaten Ngo were, in fact, ‘terrorists,'” she proudly declared, “I am Antifa” and told the jurors that she would remember each of their faces.....

And apparently the judge was also intimidated by, or in collusion with, the Antifa defense as she allowed this outrage, giving a pass on the violent criminal activity of Antifa.  And so, people are moving out of Portland.  Imagine that.  The disturbing thing is they're probably taking the infection of leftist thinking with them contaminating sane societies.

Now we see the consequences of these leftist lunatic's policies causing crime to escalate everywhere they we're implemented.   In Washington DC one council member is demanding the National Guard be authorized to patrol the city's streets and control crime.  And as it turns out, the Pentagon is considering it. 

What happened to the defund police movement?   Now, they're claiming they didn't defund police, and while that may be true, and while they're claiming public safety is their top priority, that's a flip flop from their positional rhetoric and actions of the past.  "The D.C. Police Union blames the council’s emergency police reforms for today’s staffing shortages and violence."  Here's what they did:

“In 2020, the Council passed the Policing and Justice Reform Act. This was a 26 subtitle bill that made sweeping changes to policing. The bill eliminated due process and disciplinary rights of police officers, created a new ability for investigators to ‘Monday morning quarterback’ all uses of force, prohibited officers from using body-worn camera to complete basic reports, and generally hamstrung police. Council member Nadeau added several amendments to this bill that prohibited officers from protecting themselves and others in a riot. She also openly advocated to ‘defund the police’. The fact that she is now pretending to be ‘pro-public safety’ is laughable. She is absolutely to blame for the violence and mayhem in this city,” wrote D.C. Police Union Chair Gregg Pemberton, “Before we discuss bringing in the National Guard, we should be having serious discussions about repealing the Policing and Justice Reform Act of 2021, which prohibits cops from doing their jobs of keeping communities safe and keeping criminals off the street.”

So, why should the National Guard have to try and solve what is inherently a black societal problem?  Does anyone really think they'll be treated any differently than the city council has treated their police, and remember, the National Guard has no training in police work.  They're good at enforcing martial law, if that's what they want, and we know that's not what they want, so what happens when they rough up thugs and criminals?  They scream racism, and bloody murder if someone is shot, all of a sudden conveniently "forgetting" the untold number of blacks who are killed daily, weekly, monthly, year after year by other blacks. The media, race baiting hustlers, and leftist misfits all share one thing in common.  They have stunningly convenient memories.  Along with a foundationally corrupt system of values. 

Also, will the National Guard be sufficiently diversified to suit them?   It wasn't that long ago when black "leaders" were claiming "the National Guard was part of the White supremacist Trump dictatorship", and now they're all of a sudden loving them?  Get real. 

The people of Washington DC keep choosing racist radicals that are purveyors of chaos and anarchy, so let them stew in the anarchical juices of their own making.   Then maybe, just maybe, they'll chose better "leaders", but I doubt that will happen since they've already embraced stupidity, and you can't fix stupid.

Let's get over this idea the left isn't evil, it's just wrong.  No!  The left is wrong because it really is evil, and we have over 230 years go history to prove it. 

Buckeye Institute Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 13, 2022

Lisa Gates, Vice President of Communications, (614) 224-3255

The Buckeye Institute Sues Washington D.C. Government Over Unconstitutional Emergency Orders Columbus, OH – On Thursday, The Buckeye Institute filed a shiny new lawsuit against the District of Columbia Department of Health challenging the D.C. Council’s and Mayor Muriel Bowser’s unconstitutional emergency acts and orders, which D.C. used to force the closure of The Big Board, a neighborhood bar and grill located in our nation’s capital and owned by Buckeye’s client, Eric Flannery. Flannery v. D.C. Department of Health was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.   “The District of Columbia is unique among American cities. Not only is it our nation’s capital, but its laws are subject to congressional review under the Home Rule Act,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute, and a lead attorney representing Mr. Flannery. “By stacking emergency acts and orders for two years, the District evaded congressional review and closed the courthouse doors to Mr. Flannery and thousands of other D.C. residents. This end run around the Home Rule Act made a mockery of congressional review and simultaneously denied Americans their constitutional rights and due process.”   All told, Mayor Bowser extended her initial public emergency declaration at least 16 times in 90-day increments over the course of two years. D.C. law says that emergency orders cannot be reviewed by a court “until after the expiration date of the emergency executive order.” D.C. also effectively closed the courthouse doors to District residents in clear violation of due process protections afforded by the U.S. Constitution.   “This case is not just about The Big Board,” Alt continued. “It is about ensuring that government abides by the U.S. Constitution even during emergencies including global pandemics—perhaps especially then. We are a nation of laws, not of autocratic mayors, city councils, and government agencies.”   Robert Alt and Mr. Flannery recently sat down with Matt Kibbe, host of the tremendously popular and always edifying Kibbe on Liberty podcast, to discuss Buckeye’s new case—Flannery v. D.C. Department of Health. You can watch this newest episode of the podcast here and hear why we are defending the fundamentally American principles at stake in this case.   And you can also watch more of Mr. Flannery’s story in this new video, released today by our friends at Free the People.  Buckeye’s co-counsel in the case are Patrick Strawbridge, David L. Rosenthal, and Frank H. Chang at Consovoy McCarthy PLLC. # # # Founded in 1989, The Buckeye Institute is an independent research and educational institution – a think tank – whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states. The Buckeye Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit, and tax-exempt organization, as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. As such, it relies on support from individuals, corporations, and foundations that share a commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise, personal responsibility, and limited government. The Buckeye Institute does not seek or accept government funding. Donate Today! Support The Buckeye Institute Support The Buckeye Institute by setting us as your designated charity through AmazonSmile. Every time you make a purchase, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the total to The Buckeye Institute at no extra cost to you! AmazonSmile and the AmazonSmile logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates. The Buckeye Institute | 88 East Broad Street, Suite 1300, Columbus, OH 43215

Washington, DC’s energy colonialism

DC’s climate virtue signaling will hammer DC residents – and neighboring states even more

Paul Driessen

Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser thinks people worldwide have a “human right” to come to the United States, legally or illegally. Our nation’s capital proudly proclaimed itself a “sanctuary city” in 2016. “We celebrate our diversity and respect all DC residents,” the mayor said, “no matter their immigration status.”

But when Arizona and Texas were overwhelmed by a million-plus illegal migrants – and their governors sent a couple thousand of them to Washington – she was outraged.

They have “overwhelmed” our public services, she complained. The sanctuary city faces “an emergency,” a “humanitarian crisis.” DC taxpayers “should not be picking up the tab” for housing and feeding these once-celebrated immigrants. We need National Guard troops to help cope, she pleaded – twice.

Her city of 707,000 people, 10,000 city government employees and a proposed FY2023budget of $19.5 billion cannot cope with a few thousand migrants? But little border towns should happily accommodate the tsunami of illegals Mr. Biden has allowed to cross our southern border?

Chickens coming home to roost can be painful. But the real problem is the (willful) inability of progressive politicians and activists to foresee even easily foreseeable consequences of their decisions – and then demand that scapegoats pay to fix the problems the progressives caused.

The District of Columbia is about to inflict an enormous new set of roosting-chicken realities on its residents – and even more on its neighbors: Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia.

Led by Councilwoman Mary Cheh, DC’s City Council recently passed two laws banning fossil fuels for heating, cooking, and city-owned vehicles. Together, they position their city as a top virtue signaler on manmade climate change, which Ms. Cheh calls “the single most important environmental issue of our time.” Mayor Bowser enthusiastically endorsed the efforts.

The “Clean Energy DC Building Code Amendment Act” prohibits fossil fuels for home and water heating in new commercial buildings (including residential buildings four stories and higher), starting in 2027. It also requires that restaurants and families cook with electricity instead of natural gas. Only buildings deemed “essential to protecting public health and safety” may use gas for backup electricity generation.

The “Climate Commitment Act” forbids fossil fuel heat for new district-owned buildings, including schools, by 2025. It requires that all DC vehicles be “zero-emission” by 2026; all District operations be “carbon-free” by 2040; and the entire city be “carbon-neutral” by 2045.

Every successive fossil fuel reduction will require expanded electricity use – and generation. With DC-based nuclear almost certainly a nonstarter, power generation will presumably be via “renewable energy,” mostly wind and solar. But these technologies are intermittent, unreliable and weather-dependent. They must be backed up by batteries that must be recharged constantly, by more wind and solar power.

Let me say it yet again. Wind and sunshine are renewable and sustainable. However, the materials needed to harness this energy to power modern civilization absolutely are not. This DC Green New Deal alone would require millions of tons of metals, minerals, concrete and plastics; billions of tons of ores, and hundreds of new mines and factories – in the United States, China, Africa, Latin America and elsewhere. 

With China, India and other countries burning more fossil fuels to improve people’s living standards – and supply all those “green energy” needs – global greenhouse gas emissions will continue rising. Even assuming fossil fuel emissions actually do drive climate change, DC’s “historic” laws might therefore reduce average global temperatures by 0.0002 degrees by 2100.

Washington already imports 100% of its electricity from neighboring states. So can virtue-signaling DC government officials answer just a few of many fundamental questions?

Exactly how many wind turbines, solar panels and backup-power battery modules will DC need by 2025, 2026, 2040 and 2045, as your electricity requirements skyrocket? (Please factor in the size and type of “renewable” energy equipment you plan to install each year – and how many hours per day, week and year the sun will shine and wind will blow in the decades after the systems are installed.)

Exactly how many tons of lithium, cobalt, rare earth elements, copper, iron, magnesium, aluminum, concrete, petroleum, fiberglass, and other metals, minerals and materials will be needed to manufacture all these turbines, panels, batteries, transmission lines, transformers, and electric vehicles and appliances?

Exactly how much coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power will be required to operate all those mostly overseas mines, processing facilities and factories? How much carbon dioxide, other greenhouse gases, and toxic air and water pollutants will they emit?

Will DC require “responsible sourcing” for the massive amounts of metals and minerals needed to honor its “climate commitment” – regardless of how this will increase your costs? Will you demand more mines and quarries in the United States – and opening more US onshore and offshore areas to mineral exploration – so that America is not more dependent on China, child and slave labor, and environmental desecration in foreign lands, for your “green energy” raw materials?

Where exactly do you intend to locate the hundreds of wind turbines and millions of solar panels this “transition” will require? On DC city rooftops? In Rock Creek Park and the Potomac River?

Or do you plan to install them in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, and the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean – and connect them to DC with hundreds of miles of new high-voltage transmission lines through your neighbors’ back yards? Don’t their scenic areas, habitats and wildlife have value?

Where do you plan to warehouse your electric vehicles and a half-million half-ton battery modules for just one week of backup power? Those batteries pose significant fire hazards, and therefore must be located far from residences, offices, garages and parking lots. Electric cars and buses must be parked far from buildings and one another, to avoid chemical-fueled infernos. 

Will the federal government also have to get by on this zero-carbon energy? What happens when electricity generation doesn’t meet DC needs, and inevitable blackouts hit? Whose electricity gets cut off first? Ms. Cheh, Mayor Bowser, Greenies, President Biden, Democrats and Deep State bureaucrats? 

We assume you think DC taxpayers should not be expected to “pick up the tab” for trying to “save the planet” from “climate cataclysms.” But why should your neighbors be forced to pick up the tab for your meaningless zero-emission virtue-signaling? Why should the rest of the world do so?

What “say” will residents of these states have in these decisions – especially those who’ll be expected to live next to vast wind and solar “farms,” and suffer the infrasound, light flicker and other tranquility-disrupting and health-impairing effects of your “clean, renewable” energy facilities in their backyards?

How will you respond when Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland vote or sue to reject DC’s energy imperialist facilities – or when some really upset citizens engage in “mostly peaceful” protests in downtown DC, the way Antifa types rejected fracking, pipelines, mining, inequality and police brutality?

One has to wonder whether DC’s real objective is sustainability, sustained moralizing – or energy colonialism and totalitarian control over people’s lives, livelihoods and living standards. Why doesn’t DC just buy carbon credits and pretend it’s becoming a virtuous shade of green, the way Al Gore does?

In any event, not many DC neighbors are excited about becoming energy colonies for our nation’s capital, as it asserts itself as an arbiter of climate, energy, environmental, social and government ethics.

For that matter, we’re definitely not thrilled about Democrat and Biden Administration actions on these issues. Maybe they can start answering these same questions – on statewide and national scales, where the amounts of “clean, green, renewable” energy installations, raw materials, mining, manufacturing, pollution, and slave and child labor are truly monumental and mind-boggling.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow ( www.CFACT.org ) and author of books and articles on energy, environmental and human rights issues. He lives in Virginia.

What Would America's Two Greatest Statesmen Think of NATO?

May 19, 2022 By Francis P. Sempa

As the Cold War wound down in the early 1990s and the threat from the Soviet Union receded, the reason why the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was created disappeared.  But bureaucracies die hard, and bureaucratic and political inertia are often hard to overcome.  An alliance established to contain the Soviet Union needed a new purpose, and like other going concerns and political organisms, NATO would either expand or die.  So it expanded.............

Washington and Adams, as the late Angelo Codevilla reminded us in his recently published book America's Rise and Fall among Nations, believed that the United States should mind its own business unless and until its national security interests were at stake.

Washington counseled Americans to avoid letting sentiment or emotion guide foreign policy, and his neutral stance in the war between Britain and France in the late 18th century likely saved the young republic.  In his Farewell Address to the nation, Washington warned against permanent alliances with any country but acknowledged that temporary alliances based on specific circumstances would sometimes be necessary — but only based on America's interests...........

...........Codevilla further suggested that Adams would "reject the idea that Europe needs the United States to protect it from Putin's Russia, because conquering and occupying even Ukraine, never mind Germany, France, Italy, etc., is beyond Russia's physical as well as political capacity."..............To Read More....

DC's Met Police exonerate their own for beating an unconscious woman to death

February 12, 202 By Andrea Widburg 

 

Last year, without even bothering to interview him, the Capitol Police instantly exonerated Lt. Michael Byrd, the man who shot an unarmed Ashli Babbitt in cold blood.  Now we've learned that the Washington, D.C. police force's Bureau of Internal Affairs has exonerated a police officer who beat an unconscious woman to death.  You know, as I do, that if the two dead women had been Black leftists, instead of White Trump supporters, the outcome of these two investigations would have been very different. ............ To Read More......

Official in D.C. Mayor’s Office: It’s a ‘Necessary Evil’ to Allow ‘Darwinism to Kill off’ the ‘Foolish’ Unvaccinated

Hannah Bleau 4 Feb 2022 

Elliot Tommingo, director of the Washington, DC Mayor’s Office of Veterans Affairs, said it is a “necessary evil” to allow ‘Darwinism to kill off” unvaccinated Americans, blaming them for the city’s coercive mandates, deeming them “foolish,” and accusing them of eating horse dewormer and “their own piss.”

Breitbart News on Thursday obtained screenshots from one of Tommingo’s conversations on a Facebook post. The commenter, Jonathan Lubecky, who on Twitter describes himself as a “Nonpartisan Political Consultant,” remarked that he “may go to anywhere that doesn’t have the stupid mandates DC has.” 

Currently, Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) D.C. requires businesses to discriminate against unvaccinated individuals, forcing indoor venues such as restaurants, gyms, bars, theaters, night clubs, food halls, auditoriums, libraries, museums, and more to turn away guests ages 12 and older who cannot provide proof of vaccination. That policy went into effect January 15. Further, last week, Bowser decided to extend the city’s mask mandate — which applies to vaccinated individuals as well — another month..............To Read More.....

Washington State’s Tax Revolt

Local municipalities balk at a new state levy they fear will hurt their economy.

Steven Malanga August 16, 2021 @ City Journal 

Tax revolts are usually led by citizens, sometimes banding together into taxpayer groups. But in Washington State, the latest tax revolt is being engineered by cities and towns objecting to the Democratic-led state legislature’s attempt to impose a capital gains tax. Local officials fear that the new levy, which faces a court challenge, would be a prelude to a state income tax that could hamper economic growth and opportunity. Right now, the Evergreen State is one of only seven states without an income tax and one of just nine without taxes on capital gains.

Five Washington communities—Spokane, Yakima, Spokane Valley, Granger, and Battle Ground—have passed resolutions in recent weeks pledging to outlaw income taxes at the local level if the state adopts income or capital gains taxes. More jurisdictions are promising to follow suit. Local officials are intent on sending the state a message. “Small businesses are the backbone of our local, regional, state, and national economy and it is imperative that the city not put unnecessary hurdles in the way of their success,” Battle Ground’s resolution declared. “Citizens want good government that is fiscally responsible,” Republican state representative Chris Corry argued at a hearing in Yakima. “Putting an income tax ban locally shows a commitment to being fiscally responsible.”

Washington lacks an income tax thanks to a 1932 state Supreme Court ruling that interpreted the state constitution as prohibiting the levy. Over the years, voters have rejected ten attempts to amend the constitution to institute an income tax. The last vote was in 2010, when nearly 65 percent of voters gave a thumbs-down to a ballot initiative heavily supported by the state’s public-sector unions and Bill Gates Sr. (Then-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos helped lead the opposition.) Undeterred by these failures, Washington Democrats narrowly approved the tax on capital gains in a straight party vote this past May, arguing that it is not an income tax, though capital gains taxes are typically levied as part of an income-tax system. Citizens and groups have already filed lawsuits against the tax; arguments in the case are scheduled to be heard later this month.

The tax, amounting to a 7 percent levy on capital gains from the sale of stocks, bonds, and other types of investments where the profit exceeds $250,000, is projected to raise $415 million annually. Critics argue that it is both unconstitutional and unnecessary. Like many states, Washington’s tax revenues have bounced back robustly from last year’s economic lockdowns, and the state government, as well as localities and school districts, received about $10 billion from the Biden administration’s stimulus bill. Earlier this year, Washington legislators passed a two-year budget that increases spending by 12 percent. “With strong revenue projections and operating budgets already leaping—up to around $59 billion in 2021-23 from $32 billion just a decade ago—it’s difficult to justify a brand-new tax,” the Seattle Times complained in an editorial.

Opponents also say that the lack of an income tax has long given Washington a competitive economic advantage. They point out that the state’s economic-development agency touts the tax-friendly environment in ads to out-of-state businesses. Washington has among the lowest tax bites of states governed entirely by Democrats. A 2018 study by the Federation of Tax Administrators ranked it 26th among states in taxes as a percentage of personal income. “We are an economic powerhouse,” former state treasurer Duane Davidson, a Republican, has observed in arguing against the new levy.

Backers of the capital gains tax, however, argue that wealthy residents have a “moral imperative” to pay more, regardless of the state’s strong fiscal position. “We are asking the wealthiest Washingtonians to share in the responsibility of funding the needs of our communities and putting money back in the pockets of low-income families,” Seattle state representative Noel Frame said. The new levy makes Washington the third Democratic-governed state seeking to raise taxes amid an unexpectedly strong rebound in revenue. Earlier this year, New York raised taxes by $4.3 billion, and Democrats in Massachusetts have put a referendum on the ballot to amend the state constitution so that they can pass a $2 billion tax increase. By contrast, 11 states, mostly Republican-governed, have cut taxes in the wake of the lockdown rebound.

States typically raise taxes most aggressively after economic slowdowns that reduce government revenues. After the 2008 recession, they boosted taxes collectively by $29 billion in 2009, the largest one-year increase in state taxes up to that point. A new generation of progressive Democratic state leaders is now intent on raising taxes during times of plentiful government resources. They’ve framed the debate as a moral crusade, arguing that it’s righteous to require those who have earned more to pay more.

That begs the question: Just how much more will these legislators ask for the next time government revenues take a hit? The sky’s the limit, it seems. Taxpayers beware.

Steven Malanga is the senior editor of City Journal and the George M. Yeager Fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

Buckeye Institute Press Release

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE April 23, 2021 Lisa Gates, Vice President of Communications, (614) 224-3255

Washington State’s Initiative 1501 is a Clear Violation of the U.S. Constitution The Buckeye Institute Files Brief in Boardman v. Inslee with the U.S. Supreme Court Columbus, OH – On Friday, The Buckeye Institute filed its amicus brief in Boardman v. Inslee calling on the United States Supreme Court to overturn a union-backed Washington state law that prohibits access to contact information for public employees to anyone except for unions themselves, a clear violation of the First Amendment.   “Unions in Washington state tried to stop advocacy groups on the other side from contacting public employees to inform them of their constitutional rights not to subsidize union speech,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute. “Washington’s actions are part of a larger pattern of states taking actions that make it more difficult for public employees to learn of and exercise their First Amendment rights. This law effectively allows only one group with a specific viewpoint—the unions—to speak, while simultaneously erecting unconstitutional roadblocks for those with other perspectives in a clear violation of the First Amendment.”   Boardman v. Inslee was filed by Freedom Foundation—challenging Washington’s Initiative 1501, a ballot initiative funded by public-sector labor unions that changed public record laws to restrict access to the contact information of public employees to any groups except for the unions themselves.  # # #

Founded in 1989, The Buckeye Institute is an independent research and educational institution – a think tank – whose mission is to advance free-market public policy in the states.

The Buckeye Institute is a non-partisan, non-profit, and tax-exempt organization, as defined by section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue code. As such, it relies on support from individuals, corporations, and foundations that share a commitment to individual liberty, free enterprise, personal responsibility, and limited government. The Buckeye Institute does not seek or accept government funding.