Hell I’m all for anything hat simply pisses him off at this point. Seeing his Muslim ban go down in flames has been pretty fun.
BTW, since we should probably keep track of the next wave of progressive leaders in this party, let me introduce you all to the Democratic candidate for Lt. Governor here in the Commonwealth. From a single-parent family in a not-so-nice neighborhood to Duke Law and a cum laude graduation: Justin Fairfax.
Think he might be something.
Just don’t go all Timex/Kasich on us.
Have you heard the good news?
I think it’s the other emoluments clause lawsuit taking a different angle – Other Hotels alleging that they can’t fairly compete against the Trump Hotel because everyone is trying to book it for everything to get on Trump’s good side when they meet with his people. Basically Trump is being bribed, and thus making an unfair market.
The new lawsuit argues that D.C. and Maryland, specifically, are being harmed because the Trump International Hotel near the White House may be drawing business away from the taxpayer-owned Walter E. Washington Convention Center in the District and a facility in Maryland subsidized by taxpayers.
The Kuwaiti Embassy held an event at the Trump hotel, the lawsuit notes, switching its initial booking from the Four Seasons. A public-relations firm hired by Saudi Arabia, which Trump visited on his first trip abroad as president, also has spent over $270,000 on rooms, meals and parking at the president’s D.C. hotel in recent months as the kingdom shuttled U.S. veterans to D.C. to lobby against a measure in Congress that could expose the Saudi government to lawsuits. Turkey held a state-sponsored event there last month. And in April, the ambassador of Georgia stayed at the hotel and tweeted his compliments. Trump has appeared at the hotel and greeted guests repeatedly since becoming president.
After the Trump Organization initially said it would not pursue new deals while he was in office, Trump’s sons announced last week that the company would begin building a network of new hotels in mostly Republican-leaning states that he won in last year’s election.
The lawsuit by D.C. and Maryland says the two jurisdictions are faced with an “intolerable dilemma” — to go along with the Trump Organization getting special treatment, including possible lost local revenue, or “deny such requests and be placed at a disadvantage vis-à-vis states and other government entities that have granted or will agree to such concessions.”
The big question isn’t whether Trump violated it- but standing. Most likely it will be ruled a political question and the courts cannot remedy other than saying he did it.
I was hoping Periello would win, but I just want a Dem to win the general.
The WaPo story.
Yesterday was a lot of fun here in Northern Virginia.
I was manning a booth for the local Dem party, basically asking people if they’d like to get involved. The candidates’ reps all grabbed people on the way in, I got them on the way out. It was about 89F with some stupid-percentage humidity. Africa hot.
Lots of enthusiasm from the Blue side. You’d expect people coming to the primaries to be die-hards, but about half the people that I talked to were first-timers to a primary. So was I, for that matter.
By contrast, the folks coming out for the Republicans seemed very furtive. Now part of that was the fact that there were essentially no GOP folks in front of the polling place (an elementary school) – since their state rep (the incumbent) was running unopposed, there was no one there to support him, and the local GOP folks didn’t set up a table like we did. So I have to imagine that it was intimidating walking by my table and then past the three people handing out flyers for the three Democrats vying for the state rep slot. Lots of people in blue, none in red.
Still the GOP voters seemed like they were sneaking into the kitchen to try and pilfer a cookie when Mom wasn’t looking. The Democrats all kind of came to it with a spring in their step… though I guess I could be projecting.
At my local polling place, they say they typically see about 250 voters in a primary (even a presidential primary only goes up to around 300); Yesterday it was about twice that – I think the final count was about 525. Our split between Dems and GOP was about typical for the rest of the state: Of those 525 votes, 368 of them were for the Democrat side.
Although I wasn’t doing an exit poll or anything, the people I talked to yesterday all seemed to be looking at November rather than the primary. Like Trigger, the attitude seemed to be “I voted for X, but if Y wins that’s fine as long as we elect a Democrat.” Ms. Wisdom voter for Perriello, but pretty much shrugged when Northam won. I voted for Northam, but I liked Perriello just fine. The much-vaunted “schism” in the Democrats does not seem to be a big thing here in the Commonwealth.
One thing I found really interesting was the results maps:
Democrats - Blue is Notham, Green is Perriello
Republicans - Red is Gillespie, Yellow is Stewart
So the GOP map is about what you’d expect: the more-populous regions like Norfolk and Northern Virginia, along with college towns like Charlottesville and Blacksburg, went for the moderate GOP candidate and the more rural and mountainous areas went for the guy who described himself as “Mini-Me Trump”.
What surprised me was the Democrat map: I would have expected the population centers to go for the Bernie-backed candidate (Perriello), but it was the rural regions that were more liberal.
or could they be seen as more “anti-establishment.” Other than the pipelines there wasn’t really much difference was there?
Perriello’s congressional district (05 I think) when he was a Representative is in the SW part of the state, so that map makes sense.
BTW, my polling place in Vienna was more crowded yesterday for this primary than it was in November. Enthusiasm gap is real.
… I mean for Northern Virginia that makes perfect sense - DC’s basically a company town. A lot of the voters there are The Establishment (or at least work directly for it.)
Simple, populist messages tend to play well in rural, less educated places.
But also realize that Northam carried 70-75% of the African American vote in the commonwealth (whew, almost typed “state” there, and wrote a check my ass is unwilling to cash…). That’s also NoVA, and Virginia Beach and down through Richmond and Norfolk.
I use to live in that district, it runs thru the central part of the state from down Danville way to C’ville.
I would like to say I appreciated your post. Perhaps, in a past life, a Like would have sufficed.
George special election is tomorrow (there’s another one in SC that hasn’t received any media coverage.) Looks like it’s a complete toss up, with the shooting last week possibly aiding Handel.
Edit:
June 19, 2017 at 8:17 am EDTBy Taegan Goddard6 Comments
“I’ll tell you what: I think the shooting is going to win this election for us. Because moderates and independents in this district are tired of left-wing extremism.”
— Brad Carver, GOP chairman in Georgia’s 11th congressional district, quoted by the Washington Post.
Article in Politico:
It’s the same argument people are using about NATO. Let’s jeopardize a century of national security because Germany isn’t paying the full 2% of GDP to NATO.
I recently got a 2 year degree in IT, and employers have definitely not been impressed. I’ve been told an AAS is basically a glorified high school diploma. So the problem is with employers, too.
Yep. I’ve seen entry level customer service jobs that ask for a 4-year degree, which is just absurd. I’m only 39, but it wasn’t that long ago that those were the jobs people around here worked to help pay for school, not something you were only eligible for once you finished college.
I’m told in the health system I used to work out, one of the hospitals, is now requiring a bachelor’s degree for the front desk registration positions… these are roughly $12/hr high turn over positions that have become an even higher turnover position since anyone with a degree who takes them is taking it temporarily for certain.
I’ve often wondered about these things. Call centers also frequently require such education levels, these days. Seems like a recipe for disaster, where the majority of your workforce feels (rightly or wrongly) overqualified for their positions.