“Protest in front of Trump International Hotel this morning.”

Columns

by Prince Of Petworth September 12, 2016 at 10:45 am 62 Comments

Trump

Thanks to Phil for sending from the new Trump Hotel at the old post office pavilion.

trump1
1100 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW

And in other Trump demonstrations – DCbmyers captures the scene from the VA suburbs:

trump couch

wdc

Wouldn’t it be more powerful if no one showed up? Just… nothing?
jphammer78

Yes, lets ruin the thousands of jobs this new hotel will create. That’s what I call “Progressive”.
- west_egg
  
  We should also ramp up cigarette manufacturing, because jobs.
  .
  We should also increase logging in rainforests, because jobs.
  .
  While we’re at it we should also remove airbags from cars. All they do is prevent injuries and deaths. You know what hospital visits and funerals mean, right? Jobs!
  - Pleasanter
    
    +1
  - Truxton Thomas
    
    I won’t spend a dime in that place. I apologize in advance for contributing to the jobless rate in the market for luxury hotel properties owned by megalomaniacal demagogues.
    - LittleBluePenguin
      
      +1000!
  - jphammer78
    
    So, you’re equating Trump’s hotel to harmful, cancer causing products, deforestation, and removal of safety features in cars. This is fearmongering at it’s best. Thats really Progressive of you.
    - madmonk28
      
      Who let the Virginian in?
      - Anonymous Coward
        
        What does Virginia have to do with this?
    - Anon
      
      Oh, hey there Charlie bro! Meet you over at Smith Point for drinks tonight? Maybe we could link for a couple of cold ones to brag about our latest conquests? Sooooo many ho’s this weekend – am I right or what? What says you, old chap?
- Duponter
  
  Actually, that sounds less progressive and a great deal more like the free market.
- lizcolleena
  
  Hasn’t Trump been repeatedly called out for not paying the people he hires? So you want to ensure we don’t protest / complain about someone who’s willing to offer work but not pay for it?
  - jphammer78
    
    You’re confusing him not paying an unfulfilled contract vs employee pay. He pays his employees. Like every other business in America, he doesn’t pay for contract work that isn’t completed or unfulfilled.
    - anon
      
      … yeah, that’s not accurate.
      
      http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/06/09/donald-trump-unpaid-bills-republican-president-laswuits/85297274/
      - jphammer78
        
        It most certainly is. Those are contract employees being paid by a 3rd party, not by Trump directly. The 3rd party failed to live up to its end of the bargain, they breached the contract and they don’t get paid. Them not being paid is on their company, not Donald Trump. I work in contract management, I actually know how this works.
    - wdc
      
      He wants to represent this country the way he represents his companies. He wants to be CEO of the USA. So we have to look at his record as a businessperson. Multiple bankruptcies. Endless lawsuits (and no, not just from contractors). Actual criminal investigations. Fraudulent tax returns. Ties to organized crime. Adjusted for inflation and the market, an actual overall LOSS of net worth. (He’s worth quite a lot less today than he would be if he had invested his inheritance in index funds and never made a single entrepreneurial venture.)
      If all you want for the US is a gaudy gold sign and a bunch of bluster, you might be happy. I want a diplomat, a strategist, and someone who leaves things better than she found them. Not the author of a bunch of failed projects, broken promises, and the biggest resurgence of the white supremacist movement since the 1950s.
      - LittleBluePenguin
        
        +1000000!
- jsauri
  
  It’s more progressive than ignoring your own values to support an enterprise that reflects everything you stand against.
  
  I don’t understand how some people (not saying jphammer78 is one of them), say corporations are people and are entitled to their own beliefs. But then when someone says they will boycott that corporation because of those beliefs, then it’s suddenly un-American. As if all consumers are somehow obligated to patronize all businesses regardless of belief. Sorry, but if you want to let the market decide, then you don’t get to complain when it does.
I Dont Get It

II read in WAPO today that the crystal chandelier lobby bar serves wine in spoons. WF? I’d go to protest that alone!
- I Dont Get It
  
  https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/inside-the-opulent-trump-international-hotel-in-washington/2016/09/10/c63d179c-7509-11e6-8149-b8d05321db62_story.html
  - Brightwoodian
    
    I just read the article. So he spent 42 million of his money, received a tax credit for 40 million and a bank fronted 170 million of the costs. Damn… It must be nice to be rich. I wish I could make investments that big with so little capital and risk tied up in the investment.
- MsSunshine
  
  +1 — does that mean the super-rich can’t pick up their own wine glasses and must be spoon-fed?
justinbc

That’s got to be the smallest TRUMP logo on one of his hotels I’ve ever seen. At least DC got something right in all this mess.
- saf
  
  It’s not DC. This is ALL federal. They own the property, they control that part of PA Ave (through NPS)… all fed.
  - justinbc
    
    Interesting, well that explains the competence.
  - lizcolleena
    
    Nope. NPS doesn’t manage the Old Post Office Pavilion, though they do manage some small “triangle parks” along Penn. In 2013, the GSA leased the building to Trump. NPS had nothing to do with that.
    - saf
      
      NPS controls the street, not the building, yes. That is what I was trying to say.
Docv

So glad he rehabbed this building. Glad to see more jobs in the District.
- Duponter
  
  This is really a nonsense argument. There were other hotel companies that bid on this agreement from the GSA, so ti would have been rehabbed either way. Stop pretending this was Donald’s idea to salvage a beautiful building. It was the federal government’s idea. And Eleanor Holmes Norton who has been trying to get this done for over a decade.
  - Docv
    
    Glad Donald won the bid and rehabbed the building. Glad to see more jobs coming to the District. Looking forward to a Donald Presidency…because that’s coming.
- justinbc
  
  Can’t wait to see how many visa exemptions he requests to staff it.
Petworth Dweller

Although not a Trump fan, I’m not convinced that reasserting control of our borders and immigration procedures = “racism and bigotry”
- anon
  
  You haven’t read much or turned on a television in the last six months, have you?
- ET
  
  Depends on the messenger and the context it is delivered doesn’t it?
- justinbc
  
  How about specifically not renting out properties to black families?
- wdc
  
  How about depicting all immigrants from a certain country as “murderers and rapists”?
  That was to support his “policy” (I’m putting that in sarcastiquotes out of respect for policymakers) on border and immigration control.
anon

Glad the Donald will have a place to stay for Hillary’s inauguration.
- Duponter
  
  I can’t wait for the tradition where she will exit the motorcade at the FBI Building and walk down to the White House. I hope she points and laughs as she passes the hotel.
  - jack
    
    Living in Truxton I doubt you could afford to spend anything at a Trump Hotel. Don’ worry I and thousands more “deplorables” will make up for your boycott.
    - Anonymous Coward
      
      Your man Trump will love taking chumps’ money!
- Anon
  
  +100
- skj84
  
  I honestly hope that if Hillary gets it, some progressive group rents the place out for the inauguration. I mean on the one hand money does go back to Trump, but on the other it would be awesome if a woman’s group or immigration group throws down on his turf.
- jphammer78
  
  Will Hillary be alive in January?
  - wdc
    
    More likely than Trump, who is older, and a man, and admits to heart issues, and couldn’t even forge a convincing letter from a doctor.
    “All test results were positive.” Ooohh… that’s NOT good…
    - justinbc
      
      Not just positive, the most impressive ever.
  - B
    
    Please go put your inane comments on Breitbart.
  - skj84
    
    Of course, once her antibiotics kick in she’ll be good as new. Maybe we should send her some Chicken Noodle soup from the new delivery service.
Anon

That neighborhood in the second picture just looks so incredibly depressing. That’s probably the only place where an ugly discarded couch actually makes the area look a bit better.
- stacksp
  
  What is depressing about a neighborhood with a manicured lawn and probably no crime?
- jsauri
  
  Wow, Anon must live in an amazing neighborhood. Because that looks a hell of a lot nicer than most neighborhoods I’ve seen in DC.
  - Anon
    
    I guess Capitol Hill is pretty amazing. And yes, manicured lawns and no people make me want to kill myself.
    - west_egg
      
      You should maybe talk to someone about the way landscaping seems to affect your emotional stability. Does a sensibly-trimmed hedge send you on a murderous rampage?
      - Anon
        
        It’s not just me. The correlation between emotional well being and surroundings has been extensively studied and is widely accepted. That’s why neighborhoods with a lot of tree cover are more expensive, for example. There’s not a strong rationale argument for living amongst trees but they make people a lot happier.
    - madmonk28
      
      Me too. All those neighborhoods have a creepy, stepford wife vibe; like everyone’s watching each other from behind the curtains. I grew up somewhere like that and fled.
  - Anon
    
    I guess it’s a good reminder that we shouldn’t take our urban neighborhood for granted, because most of the rest of the country lives in places like the second picture.
- Colhi
  
  Agree. I would rather live in a neighborhood with people, life and at the very least sidewalks. This neighborhood looks sterile and awful.
  - textdoc
    
    It looks awful because of the McMansion architecture, not because of the neatly mowed lawn and treebox strip.
    - Anon
      
      I’d rather see yards that are more environmentally friendly (bonus if they have some character) than neatly maintained, but I guess that’s just me.
Anon

The first 100 guests will receive a commemorative gift basket of deplorables.
jeslett

I’ve never been able to find info about the tower operations, will NPS still run the tower?
I’ve always enjoyed the tower of its views, easy access, and relative anonymity. I guess the days of walking up to the elevator and not encountering a line are over.
I will likely wander through the building at some point as I’ve always liked it and want to see how it turned out. I’ll just make sure not to spend any money.
BurnOut

Not a fan of either candidate, but I have to admit I’m tiring of the endless, omnipresent anti-Trumpism in the world around me and worn down with being told how to think.
- Anon
  
  Oh cool, personally I’m tired of hearing vile attacks from a major party’s presidential candidate against my ethnicity and gender and terrified for the physical safety of my fellow minorities if he wins (and even if he loses, as a result of the hatred he’s unleashed and magnified), but I’m sorry to hear that you’re tired of hearing people repeatedly talk about how bad Trump is. That must be really upsetting.

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