Donald Trump's new DC hotel turns a profit in excess of 2 million dollars. Who says crime doesn't pay?

Courtesy of WaPo: 

Donald Trump’s company turned a $1.97 million profit at its opulent Trump International Hotel so far in 2017, dramatically beating its expectations and giving the first hard numbers to critics who charge that Trump is profiting from his presidency. 

The Trump Organization had projected that it would lose $2.1 million during the first four months of 2017 as it established a new hotel and convention business in the nation’s capital, according to newly released federal documents. 

Instead the hotel, with its namesake in the White House down the street, is already turning a hefty profit and charging more for its rooms than most or all of the city’s other hotels. 

The $4.1 million swing from projected losses to profitability represents a 192 percent improvement over what the Trump family planned to make when the company opened the hotel in the fall. 

Driving the profits are the extraordinary prices guests have been willing to pay for rooms, including members of Trump’s Cabinet who have stayed or lived there, as well as big spending on food and beverages in the meeting areas, bar and restaurant — spots frequented by members of Trump’s inner circle and other Republican leaders. 

This year, guests have paid an average of $652.98 a night to stay there, beating the company’s expectations by 57 percent, according to documents posted online recently by the General Services Administration.

Those documents by the way have apparently now been removed.

Late last night the government took down the documents this story is based upon https://t.co/MF1p7BuZUT

— Jonathan O'Connell (@OConnellPostbiz) August 11, 2017

Trump did not run for president to help this country. Donald Trump ran for president to line his pockets.

Melania Trump files lawsuit against news outlet for alleging she was an escort because...get this...it prevented her from profiting off being the First Lady.

"Allo, do you like this outfit? It can be yours. Do you like me? Make me an offer."

Courtesy of the WaPo: 

An attorney for first lady Melania Trump argued in a lawsuit filed Monday that an article falsely alleging that she once worked for an escort service hurt her chance to establish “multimillion dollar business relationships” during the years in which she would be “one of the most photographed women in the world.” 

The suit — filed Monday in New York Supreme Court, a state trial court, in Manhattan — against Mail Media, the owner of the Daily Mail, said the article published by the Daily Mail and its online division last August caused Trump’s brand, Melania, to lose “significant value” as well as “major business opportunities that were otherwise available to her.” The suit said the article had damaged her “unique, once in a lifetime opportunity” to “launch a broad-based commercial brand.” 

“These product categories would have included, among other things, apparel accessories, shoes, jewelry, cosmetics, hair care, skin care and fragrance,” according to the lawsuit, which was filed on Trump’s behalf by California attorney Charles Harder. 

Neither Harder nor the White House responded to requests for comment late Monday. Harder has represented several high-profile clients, including wrestler Hulk Hogan, who won a $140 million invasion of privacy verdict against Gawker last year.

So she is not suing because she feels she was personally defamed, and that her image as First Lady has been unduly tarnished, but instead because she cannot turn a profit while serving her country?

So to be clear Melania Trump is upset that allegations that she was once a prostitute are preventing her from continuing to prostitute her name and image for money?

Do these people even hear themselves?

GOP backed for profit school caught deleting "failing grades."

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

A for-profit school that was hyped by Republican lawmakers as a solution to Tennessee’s education problems recently admitted deleting bad grades to “more accurately recognize students’ current progress.” 

A December email obtained by WTVF showed that Tennessee Virtual Academy’s vice principal instructed middle school teachers to delete “failing grades” from October and September. 

“After … looking at so many failing grades, we need to make some changes before the holidays,” the email says, adding that each teacher needed to “take out the October and September progress [reports]; delete it so that all that is showing is November progress.” 

“If you have given an assignment and most of your students failed that assignment, then you need to take that grade out.” 

Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson said she was horrified because the school’s instructions amounted to cheating. 

“Does it talk about we need to make changes in curriculum? Does it talk about we need to make changes in our teaching strategy? No,” Johnson told WTVF. “Those changes we need to make are deleting grades from the computer system.” 

“To come in and say ‘everybody who made failing grades the first two months, we need to delete those grades,’ to me that’s a huge issue,” she explained. “To me, this appears like it’s grade fixing.” 

The problem with for profit schools is that if their product, student's grades, is not good enough there will be less profit. So if you cannot delver the goods, you take shortcuts.

Just another reason why capitalism and education shouldn't mix.

There is more on this situation to be found here.

Bristol Palin sells Arizona home. Unsurprisingly it appears she got screwed. Update!

Courtesy of Maricopa.com:

Bristol Palin, daughter of former Alaska governor and TV personality Sarah Palin, is no longer a homeowner in Maricopa. 

The third-place finisher on the popular reality TV show “Dancing with the Stars” sold her nearly 4,000-square-foot house in Cobblestone Farms for $175,000, the Pinal County Recorder’s Office has confirmed. 

The house in the 4,400 block of West Sedona Trail was sold to Michael and Carrie Lipp on April 10. Calls to Michael Lipp were not immediately returned. 

Nate Martinez, the real estate agent who closed the sale, is with Remax in Glendale. His office said the Lipps moved into the house shortly after it was sold. 

The 3,929-square-foot home has five bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms and a three-car garage. Palin bought the house from Mike and Cindy Smith, farmers from Minot, N.D., in December 2010 for $172,000.

Okay well on the face of it it would appear that Bristol made a small profit which of course is always a good thing in real estate.  But a measly $3,000 is NOT anything to crow about, and it looks as if she should have made substantially more.


A 2,112-square-foot, three bedroom, two bathroom house on the same block as Palin’s former house recently sold for $148,000, according to REALTOR.com, the official website of the National Association of Realtors. 

Suzie Rotter, broker with Clear Skies Realty in Maricopa, said the new homeowners made a good buy because home prices in Maricopa are going up, and anything less than $50 a square foot is a good deal. The Palin house sold for $45 a square foot.

So according to real estate broker Suzie Rotter, Bristol should have been able to sell this house for about $200,000, which would have made her a profit of about $28,000. 

So in other words, if these numbers are accurate, she got screwed. (Seriously, again?)

So I have two questions about this:

"What is going on in her life which compelled her to sell this home now?"

And, "If she did NOT buy this home to make a profit in real estate, then WHY did she buy it, and then spend all of those months hiding out there?"

Or do we, perhaps, already know the answer to that last one?

Hmm, something certainly smells fishy.

BTW, on the same general topic, it appears that Bristol is NOT taking this news of Levi's new relationship and pending fatherhood very well, as evidence by this recently released picture (For no other understandable reason than to rub it in the father's face) of little Tripp Johnston.

Cute kid.  Too bad he is doomed to live his life as a blunt instrument used to punish his daddy.

Update: Yes, as many of you pointed out, after paying closing costs there is definitely a strong possibility that Bristol actually LOST money on this real estate deal.

Who the hell is advising this young woman? And wasn't Gino supposed to be involved with real estate in Arizona?

That fishy smell just got fishier.

Update 2: for those who need further proof of Bristol's anger over Levi's relationship with Sunny:

While Palin has blasted him in the press as a dead-beat dad, Johnston maintains that Palin is responsible for his lack of contact with Tripp. 

The host asked Oglesby if she was "angered" by the Palins' portrayal of her boyfriend. 

"Yes, it bothers me a lot," Oglesby said. She says she has spoken to Palin a "couple times" since discovering she was pregnant, but cut off communication after "she tried to turn me against Levi."

Now THAT'S ugly!

Sarah Palin and the "Will campaign for cash" crowd.

THIS is why I believe that, despite her horrible poll numbers, Sarah Palin will run for President.

There are sheep to shear and running for office provides a very effective set of clippers to use.

Taking advantage of the ignorance and fear drummed into the average conservative voter by Fox News for profit may be one of the most hateful ways to make a buck in this country that I have ever seen. But Sarah Palin has shown them the way.

Selfishness in place of civil service, the needs of the candidate taking precedence over the needs of the voter, and the focus on the campaign and not on the job they are campaigning for, welcome to Sarah Palin brand politics in 2010.