One of my regular readers emailed this morning to say that “Surely the rat population of American cities needs to be graphically represented!” Obviously he’s got my number, but rats? Where the hell am I going to find data about rat infestation?

Well, bizarrely enough, this is a question on the American Housing Survey. Here are the top 15 cities plus Baltimore:

Sadly, intellectual honesty forces me to publish this chart even though it confirms Baltimore as one of the rattiest cities in America. However, I’d add that two of the top five are New York, where Donald Trump lived in the past, and Washington DC, the city where he lives now. I guess rats only count if they live somewhere that a TEOC (Trump enemy of color) lives.

UPDATE: The AHS also asks about cockroaches. Oddly enough, Baltimore does much better on this measure. I suppose it must all be weather related or something.

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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