From Physics Ph.D. to Pole Dancer | Is This GOP Gold Mine a Bust?

The Gold Coast used to be a gravy train for Republicans, but it could be at risk for the 2020 elections.

Margaret Van Vliet had long known who Donald Trump was. She had seen him at a few well-to-do New York City parties, and often when she was visiting the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan for business. But it wasn’t until they crossed paths at a private Atlanta hangar that they spoke for the first time. Trump was going up a set of stairs: Van Vliet was going down them. As they passed each other, Van Vliet could feel Trump’s eyes scan her body. “Where do you think his eyes rested? Right on my crotch,” she says.

The anger in Van Vliet’s voice is not what you would expect to hear on a quiet Saturday morning at Le Pain Quotidien in downtown Greenwich. But in this Connecticut town best known for its tony privilege, manners and restraint, Trump’s name inspires strong feelings of aversion even among lifelong Republicans like Van Vliet, who voted for every GOP presidential candidate from Ronald Reagan to Mitt Romney and whose grandfather was a GOP state senator.

That sentiment is spreading across wealthy Fairfield County, commonly referred to as the Gold Coast of Connecticut. The concern isn’t just about a Trump-approved tax bill that disproportionately damaged wealthy homeowners in high-tax states like this, although for some, that was damning. No, the criticism is much more elemental. “His whole persona is just so insulting to me, and to the women in this area,” Van Vliet, 61, says. And that’s hurting the Republican Party in a former bastion.

After success in the WNBA, Tamika Catchings is navigating how to build a new career. But why choose just one?

Sitting in her favorite tea shop on Indianapolis’ near north side in late 2016, Tamika Catchings tried to clear her mind and focus on the excitement that life after basketball would bring. After 15 seasons as a star forward for the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, she had retired. A cup of Tea’s Me Cafe’s finest would help with the stress of her new reality.

Then she found out that the shop was being sold.

Months before being named the director of player programs and franchise development for Pacers Sports & Entertainment (PSE) in April 2017, Catchings quietly took on a new business venture away from the hardwood. She bought Tea’s Me Cafe — her “safe haven,” as she calls it — where she’d been a customer for more than a decade. If nothing else, Catchings had her tea. Now, it’s safe to say, her other options are heating up.

India’s film stars are chumming up to the country’s prime minister … after remaining silent on attacks on minorities. Dangerous, but understandable.

It’s a crucial year for India as the world’s largest democracy votes in what could be a tight race between the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the center-left Congress party. Regional parties also are rallying together, mostly in opposition of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. But Modi is finding another, unlikely set of people moving toward him: the icons of Bollywood, the most prolific film industry in the world.

Over the past couple of years, the who’s who of the Hindi film fraternity has hobnobbed with the prime minister. In December 2018, a delegation of veteran producers and actors, including Aamir Khan, Ajay Devgn, Rakesh Roshan, Ronnie Screwvala and Karan Johar, met with Modi to discuss issues plaguing the industry — high taxes, rampant piracy and difficulties in getting clearances for shoots. The government quickly slashed tax rates on movie tickets from 18 to 12 percent. In January, another delegation of actors and producers, including top stars like Ayushmann Khurrana, Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal and Ranveer Singh met Modi, clicked a groupfie with him and posted it online, almost like the politician’s fanboys and fangirls.