Free Republic

My column last week was written in response to what has become the typical claim of the political class during election season: Increasing numbers of Americans are helpless victims whose problems can only be solved by government. Using homelessness as an example, I compared the expensive failures of government in cities like Los Angeles and Austin, Texas, with the success of Community First Village, a privately funded initiative in Austin. Starting small and focusing on the needs of a few, Community First has grown in just three years to the point where it is preparing to house and help 500...

Yesterday Jazz wrote about the Baltimore cleanup effort put together by Trump supporter Scott Presler. After the public spat between Trump and Rep. Elijah Cummings, Presler wanted to genuinely do something positive. So he gathered somewhere between 200-300 people to clean up trash, cut lawns, and make things look better. He posted before and after photos of the effort on Twitter. That led to a snarky editorial for the Baltimore Sun which veered between admitting the cleanup was needed and blaming Presler for sending the wrong message. snip Update: Well, here’s one reason things don’t get cleaned up in Baltimore....

Last week, Townhall covered MAGA supporter Scott Presler's call to action in Baltimore by inviting "Americans to help Americans" and go clean up neighborhoods in Charm City. Presler at first kept secret when the event would occur for fear of retaliation from the far-left like Antifa. But, on Saturday, Presler and 100 other citizens from all over the country traveled to West Baltimore for the massive trash clean up. By all measures, it was hugely successful. However, on Monday, the Baltimore Sun's editorial board ran an op-ed, trashing Presler and his group saying they only did the event to embarrass Baltimore...

President Donald Trump called one of the top-ranking Congressional Democrats a “brutal bully” early July 27 before lamenting the conditions in the representative’s home district.

Theo Anthony, the director and writer of the new documentary Rat Film, bookends the narrative with the following quote: “Before the world became the world, it was an egg. Inside the egg was dark. A rat nibbled the egg and let the light in. And the world began.” The quote may not quite make sense until the end when it resurfaces and can be placed in context with the rest of the film. Rat Film tells the story of bureaucratic oppression on Baltimore’s lower-class and minority citizens, but it does so through the Norway rat. Anthony doesn’t use the rat...

Baltimore’s rat problem is so bad that it is causing roads in the city to collapse, proving President Trump right when he said the city was a “rodent infested mess.” After being labeled “racist” for calling Elijah Cummings’ Baltimore district a “rat and rodent infested mess,” Trump doubled down earlier today by drawing attention to the city’s crime problem. “Baltimore, under the leadership of Elijah Cummings, has the worst Crime Statistics in the Nation. 25 years of all talk, no action! So tired of listening to the same old Bull…Next, Reverend Al will show up to complain & protest. Nothing...

Maryland Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings declined an offer to tour a Baltimore Housing and Urban Development (HUD) facility with HUD secretary Ben Carson on Wednesday. HUD invited Cummings to tour the facility with Carson on Tuesday, however Cummings rejected the invitation, the Daily Caller has learned. When asked about Cummings’ absence at a press conference, Carson said that he did not know why Cummings did not attend the tour but guessed there may have been a scheduling issue. The Daily Caller reported exclusively on Tuesday that Carson would visit Baltimore in the wake of President Donald Trump’s tweets calling the...

When President Trump referred to Baltimore as a "disgusting rat and rodent infested mess", he could have just as easily been talking about its two-legged Democrat rats as its four-legged Norwegian rats. Charm City's Norwegian rats (rattus norvegicus) usually only come out at night and munch on trash in the shadows of housing projects, while its Democrat rats (rattus democratus) sashay around in the light of day and munch on taxpayer goodies in the marble houses of government. If you want to see a good example of rattus democratus in its native Baltimorean habitat, draw the curtains, send the kiddies...

BALTIMORE (WBFF) - A rat was seen running through a FOX45 reporter’s live shot during a story on President Trump’s tweet Baltimore is rat-infested. Maxine Streicher was in west Baltimore's Sandtown-Winchester neighborhood today to report on conditions. The neighborhood is part of U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings' Congressional District 7. Trump blasted Cummings' handling of the district this weekend.

The reported rat rate increased from fewer than 10 rats per 1,000 residents in 2002 to 60 per 1,000 in 2009, according to Baltimore CitiStat. A Baltimore City Health Department report that year noted that “the rodent infestation rate in Baltimore is six times the national average.” More recently, 19,869 residents called the city’s 311 number to complain about rats between Jan. 1, 2010, and April 4, 2013, with a slight bump from 7,579 in 2011 to 8,436 in 2012. (This compares to the District’s 311 calls regarding rodents, which rose from 2,820 in 2011 to 3,010 in 2012.) Personally,...

FULL TITLE: Trump slams ‘brutal bully’ Elijah Cummings, claims Baltimore district is ‘more dangerous’ than border President Trump on Saturday branded Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., a “brutal bully” for his treatment of border patrol officials at committee hearings -- and described Cumming’s district as “far worse and more dangerous” than the southern border. “Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous,” he tweeted Saturday morning.

It is so sad to see @VictorBlackwell & @CNN turn the light currently shining on #WestBaltimore into a race issue. This could result in a positive change. @RepCummings could help get his district in order. Listen to one of his constituents explain the "rats & rodents" problem.

On Saturday President Trump took to twitter to demand an investigation of Rep. Elijah Cummings and his corrupt and “rat infested” Maryland district. Earlier today Republican Kimberly Klacik was on FOX and Friends to talk about her video of rat-infested neighborhoods in Baltimore. Trump was watching — And tweeted this out. Democrats were outraged with Trump’s tweets but TRUMP WAS RIGHT! Baltimore looks like most innercities run by Democrats.

Hoping to reach African-American voters nationally in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Tuesday toured the West Baltimore neighborhood where Freddie Gray was arrested — and likened the poverty he observed to that of the Third World. The independent senator, who describes himself as a democratic socialist, walked the streets of Sandtown-Winchester for about 20 minutes, joined by community leaders and a swarm of cameras that mostly blocked his view of boarded rowhomes and crumbling marble steps. A handful of residents joined the spectacle, and occasionally broke out in chants of Gray's name.

Washington (AFP) - US President Donald Trump was hit with new accusations of racism Saturday after he attacked a prominent African-American lawmaker and branded the majority black city of Baltimore an "infested mess." Trump's outburst came in a series of sharply worded tweets aimed at Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings -- a high-profile critic of Trump's administration whose district covers much of Baltimore. "Cumming (sic) District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess," the president wrote, calling it "the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States." "No human being would want to live there," he said --...

A CNN anchor got choked up on air Saturday after President Trump ripped Rep. Elijah Cummings and the city, calling it “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” “Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times. He’s insulted thousands of people, many different types of people. But when he tweets about infestation, it’s about black and brown people,” Victor Blackwell said. “The president says about Congressman Cummings’ district that no human would want to live there,” Blackwell continued. “You know who did, Mr. President? I did, from the day I was brought home from the hospital to the day I...

Baltimore officials and national Democratic officeholders fired back at President Trump Saturday after he tweeted criticism of Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who has represented parts of the city in Congress for more than 20 years. "There is no greater champion for Baltimore and cities like Baltimore than Congressman Elijah Cummings. He has undoubtedly been and continues to be a hero across Baltimore and across our great country," Baltimore City Council President Brandon Scott said on Saturday. Scott joined the mounting criticism of Trump over a morning tweet in which the president described Cummings' district as "a rat and rodent infested...

A “#WeAreBaltimore” hashtag surged to the top of Twitter’s trending items of Saturday in response to President Trump's comments attacking Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) as a “brutal bully” and his majority-black Baltimore district as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.” As of Saturday night, the hashtag was used over 17,700 times. The viral item came off the heels of a series of tweets Trump shared on Saturday, in which he railed against the congressman, who also chairs the House Oversight Committee, and his district, which includes downtown Baltimore. “Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming...

Former Vice President Joe Biden jumped to defend Rep. Elijah Cummings, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee after President Donald Trump criticized the congressman as a “brutal bully” on Saturday. “Rep Cummings is one of the finest people I’ve ever served with,” Biden wrote on social media. “It is despicable for you to attack him and the people of Baltimore this way. Once again you have proved yourself unfit to hold the office. A President is supposed to lift this nation up. Not tear it down”: The former vice president’s tweet came shortly after Trump, himself,...

BALTIMORE, MD – Charm City is once again among America's "Rattiest Cities," according to a new report from pest control company Orkin, although it has shown progress in each of the past two years. Baltimore comes in at No. 9 on the company's 2018 rankings released Monday. This is the fourth year that Orkin has compiled the rankings, which are based on the number of rodent treatments the company performed from Sept. 15, 2017 to Sept. 15, 2018. It includes both residential and commercial treatments. Baltimore dropped one slot from last year, when it was ranked eighth; two years ago...