Businesses board up their windows in heavily Democratic cities ahead of Election Day



Heavily Democratic cities are now in the habit of boarding up windows and shuttering businesses ahead of political events that might upset local leftists.

That is certainly the case with Washington, D.C., which erected "Black Lives Matter"-branded plywood boards and fencing outside of stores ahead of the 2020 election and saw businesses brace for chaos again when Roe v. Wade was overturned. Some businesses in the city also took precautions ahead of the January 2017 anti-Trump riots, where all the rioters ultimately got off scot-free, as well as ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, protests, where rioters were held to a different standard.

Possibly anticipating more chaos in the District of Columbia, where 92.1% of the vote in the last presidential election went to Joe Biden, businesses are once again reinforcing their windows and preparing for potentially "fiery but mostly peaceful protests."

Resident Stacy Snyder told WJLA-TV, "Hopefully no riots. Nobody wants to see anyone get hurt or any damage. After what happened last time, I guess, you have to be prepared for anything. So, like I said, better safe than sorry."

Ebony Boger, who works downtown, indicated she recently received an email from building management indicating it was going to fortify the exterior.

"It's not shocking. I'm kind of used to it. I think they should do it," said Boger.

The managers of various buildings confirmed to WJLA that the election was the reason behind the plywood reinforcement.

According to the Washington Post, some business and property owners have also boosted their private security in anticipation of possible riots and looting.

'If people choose to riot, I feel like we need to listen to the people.'

Leon Beresford, executive vice president of Admiral Security Services, indicated that his company, which provides security to 150 commercial office buildings in D.C., is mobilizing around 2,000 guards in time for Election Day.

"People would rather be overprepared and have nothing happen, as opposed to the alternative," said Eric Jones, vice president of government affairs for the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington.

Washington Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela A. Smith said at a press conference last week, "I want to be very clear: We will not tolerate any violence of any kind. We will not tolerate any riots. We will not tolerate the destruction of property. We will not tolerate any unlawful behavior. Offenders will be arrested and will be held accountable."

Smith indicated that well over 3,000 police officers will be working 12-hour shifts through the election.

Storefronts in Portland, Oregon — another heavily Democratic city — have similarly disappeared behind protective boards. While big-name businesses like Chase Bank have reinforced their establishments, some have alternatively chosen to trust the mob.

Katherine Morgan, the owner of the relatively new Grand Gestures Books, told KATU-TV, "When I got the business, the windows were boarded up because of the protest, and they just never came down. For me, if people choose to riot, I feel like we need to listen to the people."

Morgan indicated she won't be boarding up her establishment, noting, "I'm someone who believes in protesting, I'm someone who believes in doing whatever you can for your voice to be heard."

Real estate developer Jordan Schnitzer told the Oregonian he is praying his building will go unscathed.

"If your sports team loses, do you go out and break windows?" said Schnitzer. "In this day and age to see that this type of behavior in America is so commonplace is heartbreaking."

Portland Police Chief Bob Day said last week, "We never can eliminate risk, but the confidence that I have in our community, the confidence I have in our law enforcement response, I'm really hopeful that that's not going to be necessary."

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'They're not going to shut up MAGA!' Federal judge orders former Trump advisor Steve Bannon to prison



A federal judge has ordered former Trump advisor and "War Room" host Stephen K. Bannon to report to jail by July 1.

Bannon told reporters outside the courthouse Thursday that "all of this is about one thing. This is about shutting down the MAGA movement, shutting down grassroots conservatives, shutting down President Trump."

"Merrick Garland, Lisa Monaco, the entire Justice Department — they're not going to shut up Trump. They're not going to shut up Navarro. They're not going to shut up Bannon. And they're certainly not going to shut up MAGA!" added Bannon.

Background

While it is apparently acceptable for Democrats and elements of the Biden Department of Justice to ignore subpoenas by House Republicans, that tolerance is evidently not universal.

Bannon was convicted in July 2022 of two charges of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the Democrat-controlled House Select committee investigating the Jan. 6 protests. He was subsequently sentenced to four months in prison.

'Can I ask you what American justice even means anymore?'

In response to the ruling, Bannon said, "We're gonna win at the Supreme Court," reported the National Pulse. "There's not a jail built, not a prison built that can shut me up."

Around the time of Bannon's sentencing, Blaze Media cofounder and nationally syndicated radio host Glenn Beck said in a special, "Do you recognize your country anymore? We used to be a nation of fundamental rights granted to us by God, and we lived under a system of laws that promised justice. Not social justice, but justice justice. Can I ask you what American justice even means anymore?"

"Was it justice when Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison for contempt of Congress? We've seen people defy Congress for decades, but no one ever goes to jail," continued Beck. "The last time someone went to jail for this was back in 1961. Before that ... 1948! It's rare, even though we've seen people openly defy Congress time after time."

"Selectively deciding whether or not they'll decide to enforce the law isn't justice," added Beck. "[Bannon will do] four months in jail, but in January 2021, the former FBI lawyer that got caught falsifying evidence to spy on a member of President Trump's staff was spared prison and given a minor slap on the wrist."

Bannon was not the only Trump advisor subjected to selective justice.

The following September, Trump's former White House trade adviser Peter Navarro was also convicted of contempt of Congress.

Navarro's lawyers wrote to the Supreme Court saying that the "prosecution of a senior presidential advisor asserting executive privilege conflicts with the constitutional independence required by the doctrine of separation of powers."

"Not once before Dr. Navarro's prosecution has the Department of Justice concluded a senior presidential advisor may be prosecuted for contempt of congress following an assertion of executive privilege," added his lawyers.

Having been unsuccessful in his appeal, Navarro reported to prison in March.

Bannon to prison

Carl Nichols, the Trump-nominated judge overseeing Bannon's case in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, initially paused his sentence while the "War Room" host appealed his conviction, reported CNN.

However, a D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously tossed Bannon's challenges. Partisan prosecutors then asked Nichols to send Bannon packing to prison.

The judge indicated Thursday that he no longer felt there was cause to pause Bannon's sentence "any longer."

'Biden and his aides are taking off the political battlefield two of Trump's top surrogates before the 2024 presidential election.'

Bannon's defense attorneys reportedly argued ahead of Thursday's hearing that the judge lacked the authority to toss him in prison before he exhausted his options to appeal, including to a full panel of the D.C. Court of Appeals or the U.S. Supreme Court as Navarro had attempted.

Outside the court, one of Bannon's attorneys said, "This case raises a dynamic separation of powers issue. We know from years and decades of case law that the president and a former president has the authority to invoke executive privilege. ... It's his prerogative to invoke and it's presumptively valid when invoked. It's not for Congress to determine whether it was an appropriate invocation or otherwise, and Congress cannot be the arbiter of how to respond to that. Only a court can be."

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Reactions

Christopher Bedford, senior editor for politics and Washington correspondent for Blaze Media, said, "It paints a pretty clear picture of the DOJ's priorities that you're seeing Steve Bannon actually go to prison for contempt of Congress while so many others have slipped by."

"I would like to say that it sets a precedent that Republicans ought to use in their own investigations. For example, the Republican leaders of the House Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees referred Hunter Biden for arrest for contempt for lying to Congress. But that's not going to be enforced," said Bedford. "And it's not going to set a precedent because Republicans aren't going to take the same tack that Democrats have, unfortunately."

Mike Davis of the Article III Project noted in a statement, "We have had constitutional executive privilege for 250 years — going back to George Washington — so the President of the United States can receive candid, confidential advice from his advisors without fear their advice will get publicly aired before courts or Congress."

"President Biden and his Attorney General Merrick Garland have shamefully destroyed this, in their partisan quest to politicize and weaponize the Biden Justice Department to go after President Trump and his top aides," said Davis. "Biden and his aides are taking off the political battlefield two of Trump's top surrogates before the 2024 presidential election."

Davis added that this was all part of "a broader criminal conspiracy by Biden, his aides, and his allies to politicize and weaponize law enforcement and intel agencies to violate the constitutional rights of Trump, his aides, and his allies for the purposes of partisan lawfare and election interference."

Jack Posobiec, senior editor at Human Events and frequent guest on Bannon's "War Room," highlighted the nominal Republicans who voted to hold Bannon in contempt and effectively sealed his fate.

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Natalie Winters, cohost of "War Room," tweeted, "F*** Merrick Garland," then "War Room isn't going anywhere."

Former Trump White House official Darren Beattie noted that when the Democrats are no longer "able to force social media companies to censor, they resort to simply jailing their critics. Prison is the second stage of deplatforming."

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Transvestite founder of LGBT group caught 2 years after fleeing country; faces federal fraud charges



The cross-dressing founder of the LGBT activist outfit Casa Ruby fled to El Salvador in 2022 amidst mounting concerns over his alleged fraud, money laundering, and other improprieties. After two years of dodging accountability, the Trump critic who calls himself Ruby Corado may finally have to face the music.

FBI agents arrested Corado at a hotel in Laurel, Maryland, on March 5. The LGBT activist has been charged with bank fraud, wire fraud, laundering of monetary instruments, monetary transactions in criminally derived proceeds, and failure to file a report of a foreign bank account.

If convicted on all counts, he could land up to 70 years in prison.

Blaze News previously reported that amidst a growing scandal concerning misallocation and misappropriation of funds, former D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced in August 2022 that his office would be taking action "to address Casa Ruby's failures in their critical mission to help LGBTQ+ youth."

Casa Ruby is a now-defunct leftist organization based in Washington, D.C., that purportedly aimed "to create success life stories among Transgender, Gender Queer, and Gender Non-conforming Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual people."

WUSA-TV reported that Casa Ruby received nearly $10 million in district grants between 2016 and 2022 and $1.7 million from the D.C. DHS in 2021 alone.

Racine suggested Corado's nonprofit exhibited "clear patterns of mismanagement[;] poor oversight of programs & finances[; and] improper use of District grants & charitable donations."

Racine's initial motion for a restraining order against the LGBT nonprofit claimed that Corado began sucking money out of the organization for personal use by 2021 at the latest, using more than $60,000 to pay his credit bills as well as for meals in and transportation to El Salvador — expenses Casa Ruby's board never approved.

Racine's motion also noted that the D.C. Department of Human Services "authorized the use of $500,000 in Casa Ruby's funds to establish youth housing in El Salvador," but "no Board minutes or any other documentation indicate the Board approved this expense."

Even if the board had approved the foreign housing initiative, the organization's stated charitable purpose would not have supported the use of these funds.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for D.C. said last week that the 53-year-old transvestite also received $1.3 million from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. Corado allegedly "stole at least $150,000 by transferring the money to bank accounts in El Salvador, which [he] hid from the IRS."

An amended complaint filed by Racine in November 2022 suggested Corado had ultimately siphoned over $400,000 from Casa Ruby into his personal accounts, reported WRC-TV.

When Corado's financial irregularities first came to light, Corado sold his house in Prince Georges County for $775,000, allegedly emptied the nonprofit's coffers, then took off to his native country, leaving behind unpaid employees, unpaid vendors, and eviction notices from multiple properties for failure to pay rent.

Three of the nonprofit's landlords brought legal action against the nonprofit, claiming they were owed more than $1 million in back rent.

WUSA reported that Corado, considered a flight risk, was held in a men's jail over the weekend. Judge Robin Meriweather of the Prettyman Federal Courthouse is expected to rule Tuesday on whether the alleged fraudster will remain in jail until his trial.

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Haley scores her first victory of the 2024 GOP presidential nominating contest by winning in DC



After a string of losses to former President Donald Trump during the 2024 Republican presidential nominating contest, Nikki Haley finally snapped her massive losing streak by winning the GOP presidential primary in the District of Columbia.

According to results reported by the Associated Press, Haley received 1,274 votes, while Trump received 676 votes.

The individual who becomes the 2024 Republican presidential nominee likely stands little chance of winning Washington, D.C., during the general election, as the city has gone blue in each presidential contest since 1964, which was the first presidential election that took place after the 23rd Amendment was in place.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who even lost the GOP presidential primary in her home state last month, has declined to drop out of the contest, even as Trump dominates.

"I purposely stayed away from the D.C. Vote because it is the 'Swamp,' with very few delegates, and no upside," Trump claimed in a post on Truth Social. "Birdbrain is a loser, record low performance in virtually every State," he said in another post.

Haley, who served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during a portion of Trump's White House tenure, may be dealt a slew of losses on Super Tuesday.

"Don't complain about what happens in a general election if you don't participate in the primary election," a post on Haley's X account states. A graphic included with the post declares, "VOTE NIKKI HALEY ON SUPER TUESDAY AND SAVE THE COUNTRY."

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DC pilot program gives low-income moms $10,800 to get by. One recipient splurged for the high-life: 'I wanted to have fun'



Washington, D.C., has been experimenting with a new way to be charitable with taxpayers' money. Strong Families, Strong Futures is a $1.5 million pilot program that forked over unconditional payments of $10,800 to 132 low-income women who recently had or were expecting children in Wards 5, 7, and 8.

Martha's Table, which facilitated the pilot in partnership with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, indicated at the outset, "We believe that there is no single roadmap to success and that each one of our neighbors should have agency over their own financial decision-making as they know best what their family needs."

One beneficiary of the program may have put the organization's belief to the test.

Canethia Miller, a 27-year-old mother of three, revealed to the Washington Post she burned through most of the money in hopes of getting a brief taste of the high life.

Prior to the pilot program, Miller was living off welfare in a subsidized two-bedroom apartment in the historic Anacostia neighborhood with her newborn child and other two kids, ages 5 and 8.

Despite missing the application deadline for the pilot program, Miller still managed to get on the waiting list. Like the other mothers ultimately enrolled in the program, Miller was asked whether she wanted 12 monthly payments of $900 or a lump sum payment of nearly $11,000. Like 75% of the other recipients, Miller chose the latter.

Miller temporarily put some of the strings-free taxpayer money aside for essential expenses. The remainder, however, did not last long.

"I wanted to blow it," she told the Post. "I wanted to have fun."

Despite admittedly struggling to make her welfare stretch every month to cover groceries for her family, Miller spent $180 of the Strong Families, Strong Future lump sum on her nails and hair, then took her three kids and their father on a $6,000 trip to Miami.

According to the Post, during her luxury vacation, Miller treated her family to a boat tour of "million-dollar homes and luxury yachts" and as well as to a dinner out at a Japanese steak and sushi restaurant.

Following her own "roadmap to success," Miller also bought "new clothes, shoes, gadgets and toys." She boasted that every outfit her kids wore on the trip was new.

"[My kids] got to experience something I would never have been able to do if I didn't have that money," said Miller.

According to the Post, Miller later opened a savings account with the aim of keeping "at least $50 in it" and bought a used car.

"A lot of communities in my area don’t know the financial gain of credit, saving for your kids; that's why we're broke, that's why we don't have nothing to pass down or no house to give down," continued the mother of three. "I'm trying to get to the level where I'm passing something down that really matters, so I can be set and my kids can be set, and they don't need to push so hard like I'm doing now."

Another beneficiary of the taxpayer-funded lump sum indicated she splurged on herself.

Saleemia Quigley, 41, told the Post, "I ain't going to lie. I went shopping, clothes — stuff I didn't need. It was like, 'I paid my rent, so I can go ahead and do this.'"

Other mothers in the program apparently used the pilot money to pay down their debts and upgrade accommodations.

When Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the direct cash transfer program in January 2022, she emphasized the point of Strong Families, Strong Futures was child care — "whether that care involves more diapers, more visits to doctors, more food on the table, shoes, games, books, adventures, all of those things."

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DC removing over 100,000 ineligible voters from 'dirty voter rolls' following Judicial Watch pressure campaign



The governmental transparency outfit Judicial Watch appears to have executed a successful pressure campaign to rid select voter lists of multitudes of ineligible voters in the District of Columbia.

Judicial Watch notified election officials in D.C., California, and Illinois that they had violated the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 "based on their failure to remove inactive voters from their registration rolls."

While officials in California and Illinois have time left to act before Judicial Watch makes good on its threat of legal action, D.C. has indicated it has already begun taking remedial steps.

The watchdog claimed in a Sept. 22 letter to the Monica Holman Evans, executive of the District of Columbia Board of Elections, that the board was in violation of Section 8 of the NVRA requiring it to "conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters for DC."

The letter cited D.C. data provided to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission indicating zero voter registrations had been removed from November 2020 to November 2022.

According to the watchdog, EAC data showed the number of inactive registrations in the district amounted to nearly one-quarter of the total number of Washington's registrations. Moreover, the notice stated "DC’s total registration rate — its total number of registrations divided by the most recent census estimates of its citizen voting-age population — is over 131%."

Judicial Watch wrote, "In our experience, and as a matter of common sense, there is no possible way that the DC BOE is complying with the NVRA if it remove no registrations pursuant to that provision in a two-year period."

The watchdog threatened to file a federal lawsuit unless the violations were corrected within 90 days.

Evans evidently blinked, telling Judicial Watch in a letter last month that the board had taken "several list maintenance actions," including the removal of 65,544 inactive voters on Oct. 30 who had allegedly voted in neither the 2016 nor 2020 general elections.

Evans further noted that an additional 37,962 "inactive" voters would soon be removed who had not voted in the 2018 general election, responded to address confirmation notices, or participated in the November 2022 general election.

While thousands of inactive voters were moved off the list, 73,522 voters were moved from "active to an inactive status on October 3, 2023 as a result of the 2023 biennial canvass process."

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement, "Dirty voter rolls increase the potential for voter fraud."

"As Washington, DC's, quick cleanup of tens of thousands of names in response to Judicial Watch shows, there are potentially hundreds of thousands of names on the voter rolls that should be removed by California and Illinois," added Fitton.

Although earlier this year, California saw over 1.2 million ineligible voters taken off rolls in Los Angeles County, the watchdog suggested that 46 counties in the state, containing over 14 million voters, "reported removing only a handful, or no registrations under the NVRA's change of address rules, or else failed to report any data at all."

Illinois similarly appears to have trouble dropping ineligible voters from its lists, with 15 counties indicating zero removals from November 2020 to November 2022, according to EAC reports.

Judicial Watch also noted in its letter to Bernadette Matthews, executive director of the Illinois State Board of Elections, that "15 Illinois jurisdictions have more voter registrations than citizens of voting age."

It appears this is a problem for other states as well.

The Republican National Committee demanded Friday that Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson clean up her state's voter rolls, citing a recent analysis showing 55 of Michigan's 83 counties have more registered voters than adults 18 or older, reported the Detroit Free Press.

"More than 50 Michigan counties have a 100% or higher rate of voter registration," said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.

"This is mathematically impossible and means that ineligible voters are on the rolls ahead of the upcoming 2024 election," continued the chairwoman. "The RNC is demanding that Michigan ensure only eligible voters can vote and will take legal action to ensure that outcome if necessary."

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