Washington, D.C., Dropped $270K to Repaint BLM Street Mural

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Washington, D.C., Dropped $270K to Repaint BLM Street Mural

(Headline USA) Washington, D.C., spent more than $270,000 to repaint the “Black Lives Matter Plaza” in front of the White House, according to Judicial Watch.

The two-block plaza features the phrase “Black Lives Matter” in 50-foot, yellow letters. It was installed shortly after the 2020 riots that left several D.C. businesses destroyed.

The move to refresh the yellow paint will cost D.C. taxpayers $271,231, including $217,680 in labor costs and $53,551 in paint supplies, according to documents obtained from D.C.’s Department of Transportation.

The documents show the city contracted with D.C.-based Equus Striping on the project. 

“As a black- and women-owned D.C. business, we couldn’t be prouder of our crew,” the vendor wrote in a Facebook post.

“A lot of elbow grease went into this project and we are incredibly happy with how it turned out,” it continued. “Thanks for Helping us Change the World, One Line at a Time.”

The new paint job comes after D.C. slashed its police budget by millions in 2020. The city council’s 2023 budget continued the significant reduction in law enforcement resources, cutting millions more from the Criminal Investigations Division and Narcotics and Special Investigations.

Meanwhile, violent crime has increasing by 40% over the last year and robberies have increased by 68%.

“D.C. crime is out of contro, but local leaders continue to waste $270,000 in tax money promoting the extremist Black Lives Matter movement in the heart of Washington D.C. that is racist, anti-police, anti-American, and often violent,” Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said in a statement.

Zack Smith, a crime and justice expert at the Heritage Foundation, said D.C.’s priorities send a clear message that “violent crime will be tolerated” in the nation’s capital.

“The city is prioritizing performative gestures that really don’t have an impact on combating violent crime,” he told the Washington Examiner. “If the city council and the mayor’s office are serious about combating violent crime, protecting the lives hopefully of all citizens, but particularly black lives, then they would pour more money into public safety—particularly putting more police officers on the street.”

GOP Sens. Push Back on Biden’s Secretive Executive Order for ‘Voter Mobilization’

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GOP Sens. Push Back on Biden’s Secretive Executive Order for ‘Voter Mobilization’

(Headline USA) Republican senators grilled the Biden administration this week over a controversial and highly secretive executive order aimed at “mobilizing” voters ahead of the 2024 election.

Critics have said the order likely violates the Hatch Act at best—and, at worst, is part of a cynical and deliberate scheme by the  Biden administration to systematically weaponize the federal government as a partisan tool for Democrats’ political advantage.

In a letter to President Joe Biden, Sen. Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn.; Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.; and 21 other Republicans accused the administration of deliberately preventing them from exercising congressional oversight over Executive Order 14019.

The group said they submitted questions to administration officials more than six months ago, but have been ignored repeatedly.

“This policy directive merits congressional oversight both as a general matter and under the Antideficiency Act,” the senators wrote, according to Fox News.

The executive order “outlines various activities in which agencies are to engage, including promoting mail-in voting and partnering with third-party organizations to register voters,” the senators noted.

However, “[f]ederal agencies should be focused on their defined missions in a nonpartisan manner, not using taxpayer funds for voter mobilization efforts with potentially partisan impacts,” they added.

It is “doubtful” that Congress approved the use of taxpayer funds that these agencies will inevitably use to advance “voter mobilization,” they added.

“It’s not the job of the federal government to drive voter turnout,” the senators said. “Reviewing these agency plans is crucial to determining whether this order has or may lead to the improper use of federal resources.”

House Republicans have also pushed back against the order. Last year, then-Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C. (now a U.S. senator) introduced a bill to prevent Biden from using executive authority to “fortify” the 2024 election on behalf of the Democratic Party.

“President Biden’s executive order empowering every federal agency to engage in electioneering on the taxpayers’ dime raises serious ethical and legal concerns,” Budd said in a statement at the time. “This sweeping directive is inherently partisan and directed primarily at groups expected to vote for one party over another.”

N.Y. Vet Blasts State for Evicting Him from Senior Center to House Illegals

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N.Y. Vet Blasts State for Evicting Him from Senior Center to House Illegals

(Headline USA) An elderly veteran who was kicked out of his senior center earlier this year to accommodate illegal immigrants blasted New York officials, saying he had struggled to find suitable alternative living arrangements.

Frank Tammaro, an Army veteran in his 90s, said he was informed in September 2022 that he and the other residents of the Island Shores Senior Residence would need to pack up and leave by March.

Officials reportedly claimed the facility would be shutting down and gave the 53 senior citizens just weeks to find a new place to live, Tammaro said.

“It was scary,” he told Fox News. “Very scary. Especially when I don’t get around like I used to. I didn’t know where I was going.”

Tammaro was forced to move twice after being kicked out and sustained an injury that left him in the hospital. He is now living with his daughter, Barbara Annunziata, who said she reached out to the facility’s management to find out why the senior center was being shut down.

“We knew something was going to go in there,” Annunziata said. “They kept saying, ‘oh, they’re going to sell it. They’re going to sell it.’ That’s what they kept telling me.”

Months later, Tammaro and his daughter learned that Island Shores was one of 200 buildings that New York officials converted into emergency shelters to house the thousands of illegal immigrants that arrived in the city. As of September, there were 15 illegal families living in the facility.

“I don’t understand it at all. It’s not fair to anybody,” Annunziata said. “These migrants, they’re getting everything. They’re getting everything and I can’t get nothing for [Tammaro]. It angers me.”

Annunziata said it was frustrating to see how little New York officials cared for the veterans who served their country.

“They’re worried about the migrants more than they’re worried about the U.S. citizens,” she said.

Whitmer Kidnap Inmate Attempted Suicide At Least 6 Times

Ken Silva
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Whitmer Kidnap Inmate Attempted Suicide At Least 6 Times

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Brian Higgins, one of the minor players caught in the FBI-driven conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, attempted to kill himself at least six times in jail.

Prosecutors disclosed this disturbing fact Tuesday in a sentencing memorandum, in which they recommended that Higgins receive zero to 11-months imprisonment and undergo mental-health treatment for providing material support for terrorism.

“While pending trial, the prosecution learned from Antrim County Sheriff Daniel Bean that Defendant Higgins had attempted suicide at least six times while he was incarcerated in Antrim County by trying to drown himself in the toilet and by wrapping a towel around his neck to strangle himself,” Michigan prosecutors said in their Nov. 28 filing.

Higgins’s “crime” was participating in a “night-time surveillance” car ride to Whitmer’s home on Sept. 12, 2020.

Higgins, for his part, said he didn’t know the car ride was to surveil Whitmer’s home. According to Higgins, his “friend”—Stephen Robeson, who turned out to be an FBI informant—told him that the car ride was to surveil suspected human traffickers.

But facing an uphill legal battle, Higgins pled guilty in March, while his co-defendants who went to trial were all exonerated in September.

By all accounts, Higgins was a broken man by the time he caved in and pled guilty.

Headline USA understands that Higgins was severely abused while in jail. Out of respect for his privacy, the details of that abuse are being withheld.

Suffice it to say, Higgins was a staunch Christian who had never thought of committing suicide before he was sent to jail, said his friend, pro-liberty activist Thomas Leager.

“He’s not the type of guy to have any kind of suicidal ideation, so he must have been suffering some kind of trauma,” Leager told Headline USA.

Leager added that Higgins “seems to be doing better.”

“He’s just very paranoid—and rightfully so,” Leager said, referencing how some of Higgins’s “friends” turned out to be undercover federal agents bent on destroying his life.

Another one of Higgins’s friends, Colleen Kuester, said she thinks much of the abuse took place in a Wisconsin county jail. Kuester said Higgins had undergone an operation on his kidneys shortly before his arrest in 2020, and that he didn’t receive the necessary medical treatment while incarcerated.

Michigan county jail nurses were “appalled” at his condition when he was transferred there, Kuester said.

“He was so skinny,” she said.

Higgins served 217 days in jail and was released after pleading guilty earlier this year.

He’s far from the only man in the Whitmer conspiracy to suffer in the prison system.

As Headline USA previously reported, two of the men convicted in the federal case, Adam Fox and Barry Croft, were transferred to supermax facilities.

Meanwhile, three men convicted on state charges have been transferred to federal facilities outside of Michigan, where they’re unable to communicate with their lawyers or families.

A hearing is set for this Friday for the state to explain to a judge why those inmates were transferred out of state.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Biden Seeks to Repurpose Public Lands as Migrant Camps

Jacob Bruns
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Biden Seeks to Repurpose Public Lands as Migrant Camps

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) Not only has President Joe Biden willfuly refused to secure the border, thereby undermining U.S. sovereignty through his de-facto open-border policy, but he’s now actively seeking to grant illegal immigrants the exclusive use of land belonging to the American public.

Biden issued a statement on Monday opposing an attempt by Republicans in Congress to stop illegals from camping and living on public lands, Breitbart reported.

In August, New York Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-N.Y., introduced H.R. 5283—the Protecting our Communities from Failure to Secure the Border Act—in an attempt to block the federal government from housing illegal immigrants on public land, which is supposed to be shared equally by all American citizens.

But the Biden administration signaled its opposition to the legislation, writing that “it would significantly restrict the ability of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture to make decisions regarding the appropriate uses of their lands and resources,” even in emergencies or “other situations.”

Malliotakis had initially introduced the legislation in an attempt to block New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams from housing illegal immigrants at the publicly-held Floyd Bennett Airfield.

Unfortunately for the Biden administration, the legislation does have some momentum in Congress, as it passed through the House Committee on Natural Resources late last month.

Still, the legislation will face an uphill battle with the will of the Executive Branch bent against it.

Meanwhile, Biden is continuing to confiscate more and more private property through archaic federal laws that allow him to throttle private energy, agricultural and industrial development.

For instance, the administration engaged in a land grab last August, inventing a new monument near the Grand Canyon in order to stop proposed uranium mining in the area.

Biden justified the move as a part of the Left’s larger reparations project.

“Help right the wrongs of the past and conserve this land,” Biden said, alluding to Native American tribes from the southwest.

The Bureau of Land Management has also done its part, including a July attempt to seize private property from ranchers in Montana.

“This rule is just another example of the Biden Administration weaponizing the government to appease radical environmentalists at the expense of the people of Montana,” said Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., at the time.

Chicago Mayor Blames City’s Nonexistent ‘Right-Wing Extremism’ for His Failures

Jacob Bruns
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Chicago Mayor Blames City’s Nonexistent ‘Right-Wing Extremism’ for His Failures

(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In a rhetorical gambit that he appeared to borrow from disgraced actor Jussie Smollett, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson conspiratorily accused “right-wing” extremists of creating the immigration crisis that has plagued the city since roughly the start of the Biden administration, the Daily Mail reported.

Before blaming the Right, however Johnson first noted at his Tuesday press conference that he had “inherited” the mess of crime and illegal immigration from a fellow Democrat, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot.

“The international crisis that I inherited six months ago, I’ve made it very clear we are going to move people out of police districts, women and children who are living on floors and sleeping outside that we’re going to create spaces that provide more dignity,” he told reporters.

Johnson initially sought to lean into the immigration crisis, even floating the idea of allowing illegals to vote in city elections shortly after winning his own race. But he quickly has been confronted with the realities of leading in the real world versus the abstract world of socialist campaign promises.

Chicago has seen a spike of over 20,000 illegal immigrants in the past 14 months, the vast majority recently having crossed America’s southern border with Mexico.

Though Johnson initially cited Lightfoot and her administration, the primary problem with Chicago, he noted, is the prevalence of “right wing extremism” and racism.

“What we’ve seen is a very raggedy form of right-wing extremism,” Johnson told reporters.

“Everyone knows that the right-wing extremism in this country has targeted democratically run cities and… they have been quite intentional about going after democratically ran cities that are led by people of color,” he claimed.

According to the woke mayor, the extremists intend “to create division and chaos” among their opponents, though he did not elaborate on how they had achieved this end.

Johnson did, however, clarify what he meant by “right wing extremism,” suggesting that his description characterizes anyone who supported or supports former President Donald Trump.

“It’s the same Republican right-wing extremism that stormed the Capitol,” he noted, alluding to Jan. 6 and continuing on to call the party “mean spirited” and “an affront for everything that is good about this country.”

According to Johnson, the Republican Party–which was created as an abolitionist party on the eve of the Civil War–is full of people angry about the emancipation of slaves.

“They’re still mad that a black man is free in this country,” he concluded.

Johnson’s belief that the MAGA boogeyman was targeting the Windy City called to mind Smollett’s January 2019 race hoax, which took place in the city’s Streeterville neighborhood, a posh area just north of the Chicago River and east of Lake Michigan.

Smollett, who is black and gay, claimed to have been assailed by two men who hung a noose around his neck and shouted “This is MAGA country!” despite the fact that Hillary Clinton had garnered more than 83% of the Chicago vote in the previous presidential election.

The struggling Empire actor’s assailants were later proven to be two dark-skinned African acquaintances of his that he had paid to pretend to confront him, presumably to help his career.

Exorcist Warns that Taylor Swift Fans ‘Could Be Attacked by Demonic Forces’

Molly Bruns
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Exorcist Warns that Taylor Swift Fans ‘Could Be Attacked by Demonic Forces’

(Molly Bruns, Headline USA) Father Dan Reehil, exorcist of the Diocese of Nashville, has posted a viral social media video that warns fans of musical artist Taylor Swift to avoid her Eras Tour concerts after reports of possible witchcraft taking place on stage.

When performing the song “Willow” from her “Evermore” album, Swift and several other dancers dress in black capes and dance with orbs, according to ChurchPOP.

Elements of earth and fire are also featured in the performance. Father Reehil’s video explained how the practice of witchcraft, or “wicca”, focused on harnessing energy based on the elements of water, fire, earth and air.

In occult religions, witches believe that they can harness energy to achieve supernatural ends.

“The problem with the concert is that whether Taylor was trying to imitate witches or in fact was doing some kind of occult ceremony during the show is sort of irrelevant to the demons,” he explained.

He admitted Swift’s talent and influence, and warned her against using them for nefarious means.

“The demons will take deep note of what she’s doing and how she’s doing it and who she’s influencing,” he continued. “Even if her intent was not to practice any witchcraft or doing any of the incantations, she is probably attracting a lot of demons to her concerts.”

Reehil also noted that lots of young girls really admire Swift, and they could be spiritually compromised at her concerts.

He further indicated that being put in “spiritual danger” is different from possession.

The responses on social media were mixed. Several users accused Reehil of excess superstition, despite his fairly relaxed take on the matter.

Others posted clips of videos from Swift’s concert, where she encouraged fans to “summon the demons.”

“When a fan posted a video of him screaming, ‘Yes, summon the demons, b—-,’ during that song, she responded on Instagram by suggesting that all her fans chant this from now on. Kinda weird,” one user said.

Disney CEO Says He Wants to Rebuild, but Gives Few Details on Approach

Eli Pacheco
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Disney CEO Says He Wants to Rebuild, but Gives Few Details on Approach

(Eli Pacheco, Headline USA) Disney CEO Bob Iger vowed during a Tuesday night corporate “town hall” to make Disney “modern,” but he failed to offer direction on how the entertainment giant could rise from the woke-incurred damage.

“I feel that we’ve just emerged from a period of a lot of fixing to one of building again, and I can tell you building is a lot more fun than fixing,” Iger said.

Executives Josh D’Amaro, Alan Bergman, Jimmy Pitaro, and Dana Walden joined Iger onstage during the meeting at New York’s Amsterdam Theater. Although widely reported on, the event, which was moderated by ABC News’s David Muir, does not appear to have been broadcast publicly.

A recent financial report exposed the company’s pain points after experiencing widespread backlash to its woke agenda—including its public support for LGBT-centered child-grooming and its insufferable racial pandering.

Yet, the company has thus far refused to disavow its controversial stances, according to Newsmax.

In 2023, Disney cut 7,000 jobs and made many unflattering headlines. It says spending rollbacks will save $7.5 billion this year but gave no indication it would diverge from social issues that divide consumers.

The Securities and Exchange Commission’s annual report warned investors of risks, citing a “key human capital management objective” as the threat.

“Making the workplace more engaging and exclusive” hurts Disney’s “reputation and brands,” it said, noting Disney’s insistence on creating a “diverse workforce.” That may have been a reference to the company’s decision to allow drag queens to perform in the traditionally female roles at its theme parks, puting some parents ill at ease.

In the employee town hall, Iger said theme-park expansion ($60 billion in 10 years) would play a key role in the company’s long-term plans.

He also planned to launch an ESPN direct-to-consumer platform by 2025. He also said Disney’s movie studios needed a rebuild after a glut of films produced in recent years.

Iger failed to acknowledge the backlash from a woke relaunch of “Snow White” that got snagged in production delays.

Disney’s The Marvels, also rife with leftist concepts, crashed at the box office. However, Iger blamed “hero fatigue” and not “woke fatigue,” which repels conservative consumers and triggers boycotts.

Rapper Who Sang about Killing Biden Targeted by FBI

Ken Silva
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Rapper Who Sang about Killing Biden Targeted by FBI

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) From NWA to Rick Ross and beyond, rap music has a long history of songs about committing violence against law enforcement, the U.S. President and other government officials—so much so that Vice published an article about the subject in 2017.

But now, apparently President Joe Biden is off limits.

Arkansas rapper Reese Alexander Sullivan, 20, was arrested on Nov. 7 for making terroristic threats in his songs.

According to a heavily redacted affidavit from the case, the FBI first received a tip about him in August. The tip included links to Sullivan’s rap songs, which included lyrics about shooting up a school, bombing a public event and killing numerous people.

“Threats … included racial statements about specific groups of people and killing them, bombing churches associated with a specific race, killing kids, raping children, bringing his gun to school and killing people of a specific ethnic group, shooting up his school because he was bullied, details of a plan about committing a school shooting, killing his grandmother, bombing a specific public event, killing the President and bombing the Senate,” the affidavit stated.

But when the FBI executed a search warrant on Sullivan’s home in October, agents found no weapons or explosives.

Sullivan told law enforcement that his violent lyrics were made under his “character or persona” used in the rap songs.

“He stated his rap songs are meant to be funny and he does not believe the statements he makes in his songs. Sullivan said he does not hate the groups identified in the songs, he has not sexually abused children, he has no intent of committing a shooting at his school, a bombing, or killing the president, and he does not possess any firearms, explosives, or components,” the affidavit stated.

“Sullivan provided historical information about his family and school, and there were no disclosures of abuse or trauma.”

The heavily redacted affidavit blacks out Sullivan’s rap name, and Headline USA could not find his music online.

Sullivan is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 11 in Benton County, Arkansas.

Law enforcement has reportedly ordered him to refrain from using social media or make internet posts of a written, audio, or video nature.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

Jeffrey Epstein’s Banker Endorses Presidential Hopeful Nikki Haley

Ken Silva
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Jeffrey Epstein’s Banker Endorses Presidential Hopeful Nikki Haley

(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The CEO of JPMorgan Chase, which recently agreed to pay $290 million to the victims of Jeffrey Epstein for banking the sex trafficker’s criminal enterprise, has endorsed GOP presidential hopeful and virulent neocon Nikki Haley.

“Even if you’re a very liberal Democrat, I urge you, help Nikki Haley, too. Get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump,” JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly said Wednesday at a conference hosted by the New York Times’ DealBook franchise.

According to CNBC, Dimon stopped short of saying the Republican presidential nominee should be anyone but Trump.

“I would never say that, you know, because he might be the president and I have to deal with him, too,” Dimon reportedly said at the conference, whose audience included hedge fund veteran Bill Ackman, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, media titan David Zaslav and Disney CEO Bob Iger.

Dimon joins a host of other powerbrokers to endorse Haley, who has presented herself as the GOP’s anti-populist candidate. On Tuesday, she received an endorsement from the political network financed largely by billionaire Charles Koch.

Among other positions, Haley has endorsed escalating U.S. involvement in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, removing caps on American corporations hiring foreign workers, and removing anonymity from the internet.

Unfortunately, Haley’s big-money backing reportedly has her rising in the polls, her globalist anti-liberty policy positions notwithstanding. A recent CNN poll put Haley showed that about 20% of the voters supported her in New Hampsire, putting her in second place behind Trump in that state.

Meanwhile, Dimon has disavowed any connections to Epstein.

“Our CEO reaffirmed after his deposition that, as he has previously said, that he never met with him, never emailed him, does not recall ever discussing his accounts internally, and was not involved in any decisions about his account,” JP Morgan said in a statement earlier this year.

“There are millions and millions of emails and other documents that have been produced in this case and not one comes close to even suggesting that he had any role in decisions about Epstein’s accounts.”

However, it was revealed in April that Epstein worked closely with Mary Erdoes, a senior lieutenant to Dimon.

A court approved the $290 million settlement between JP Morgan and Epstein’s victims earlier this month, despite objections from one of the survivors.

Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.

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