Trump watched the Super Bowl with the founder of the spa where Patriots owner Robert Kraft was busted in prostitution sting, the ?@MiamiHerald? reports.
The party was at Trump’s West Palm Beach country club. https://t.co/aPnqN50uEX
— Steve Contorno (@scontorno) March 8, 2019
They hate women and fear immigrants, or maybe it’s the other way around. But money, and the people who possess it — *that* they love & respect…
… The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang, 45, a self-made entrepreneur from China who started a chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. Over the years, these establishments — many of which operate under the name Tokyo Day Spas — have gained a reputation for offering sexual services.
Nineteen days after Trump and Yang posed together while rooting for the Patriots, authorities would charge Kraft with soliciting prostitution at a spa in Jupiter that Yang had founded more than a decade earlier…
In a brief phone interview, Yang said she and her family have never broken the law, but did not answer questions about whether she knew of the allegations that therapists in her spas were offering sex. She added that she was out of the business, would soon be moving to Washington, D.C., and didn’t want any negative press.
Before the 2016 general election, Yang offered no evidence of political engagement. She hadn’t voted in 10 years, records showed. But she has now become a fixture at Republican political events up and down the East Coast. Her Facebook is covered in photos of herself standing with President Trump, his two sons, Eric and Donald Jr., Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Rick Scott, Sarah Palin, the president’s campaign manager and an assortment of other high-level Republican operators she has met at charity events, political fundraisers and galas, many of which require hefty donations to attend. She sometimes carries a rhinestone encrusted MAGA clutch purse.
Yang has shown considerable political largesse. Since 2017, she and her close relatives have contributed more than $42,000 to Trump Victory, a political action committee, and more than $16,000 to the president’s campaign…
Oh. Look at that. What do you know. The whole family took some nice shots with the massage parlor lady. pic.twitter.com/pfHTiX2FnN
— andy lassner (@andylassner) March 8, 2019
Oh look it’s “doctor” pumpkin head with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in south Florida pic.twitter.com/BV2aAG2v57
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
The dumbest member of Congress with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in South Florida. pic.twitter.com/2cANCiMf0m
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
And it’s @mattgaetz with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in south Florida pic.twitter.com/An2KaHOjbN
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
There was also this time when the freshman senator from Florida was photographed with the lady who runs the chain of Asian day spas in south Florida. pic.twitter.com/Me99VhW15I
— Molly Jong-Fast (@MollyJongFast) March 8, 2019
Worth reminding folks that the Trumps recently acquired Chinese Trademarks for Massage Parlors and Social Escort services. https://t.co/32FdCXaUll
— Wrath of Chaka Khan ?????? #BlueWave2020 (@ta2t2o) March 8, 2019
In Jan 2017, human trafficking "spa" founder Cindy Yang attended Trump’s inaugural. Later that year, she was snapped in a photo with Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway. In 2018, Yang attended a Safari Night at Mar-a-Lago hosted by Trump’s sister.#Maddow https://t.co/8M3wHNLu1Y
— Polly Sigh (@dcpoll) March 8, 2019
Mike in NC
Hey, without massage parlors guys like Seb Gorka and Matt Gaetz wouldn’t have a love life.
HypersphericalCow
“Why do all these criminals keep taking selfies with me?”
Gin & Tonic
Would it be crass to say that Li Yang, um, gets around?
MagdaInBlack
Just when you think this bunch can’t get much more sordid, you realize you were way to optimistic .
Keith P.
Well, duhhhh. I live in Houston, land of a million rub-n-tugs….one is even at the entrance to my neighborhood in suburbia. I’ve even got a few friends who do/used to frequent them. There’s an Asian one downtown where my friend told me the have never been busted “because they make sure to pay Johnny on time”…it’s not really hidden, and all that really happens is that every year or so HPD busts a set of them.
Suzanne
Blah. Today has been a hard day. I felt crappy and left work and went to the doctor. Everything is fine with Boog but I was scared. Had to get a glucose test, so had to fast in the morning and then drink a bottle of grossness. Then had to run around town getting Spawn the Elder registered at his new school. I’m feeling the kind of fatigue and weariness that comes from an extended period of frantic activity and stress, and it doesn’t go away with a nap or a night of good sleep. I need a staycation in my house, with no chores to do. Fat-ass chance.
Baud
When I’m president,
brothelsspas will be socialized. Handicare for All.Jay
@Keith P.:
The issue with the Orchids of Asia/Tokyo rub and tugs is not that they exist, but that they exist off of sex slavery and human trafficing.
Doug R
@Mike in NC:
Chinese pimps and Russian
gun rights advocatesspies.JoyceH
Has any government or news organization ever done a really thorough investigation into that Trump modeling agency? Since their business model seemed to be recruiting underage girls from Eastern Europe and bringing them over here away from any family or support structure, it always struck me that trafficking would be a simple add-on.
Another Scott
Charlie Pierce has this story, too. As I noted downstairs, they’re all in on the grift. All of them.
Feel better soon Suzanne!
Cheers,
Scott.
Mnemosyne
For the lawyers among us, a friend of mine discovered a new blog: Lowering the Bar. It’s pretty much what it says on the label:
http://loweringthebar.net/2019/03/succubustic.html
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Anne Laurie is too classy to include this one, but I’m not!
Bongino replies with what may be a threat to blackmail Wilson, or may just be a scream of incoherent rage
Omnes Omnibus
@Mnemosyne: Everyone knows the word is “succubine.”
SP123
Perhaps skip the C.R.E.A.M. tag on this one?
MomSense
@Suzanne:
Oh boy. I remember feeling like that. Hope you can get some rest this weekend. I hope you feel better.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
There’s no fucking bottom to these people [sic]. These are the worst people on Earth.
On another note, are we about due for one of those writers’ threads? I could use some advice.
Ohio Mom
@Suzanne: I remember the glucose test. Yuck is right.
Then I failed by ONE measly point and was put on an extremely strict diet and was hungry all the time. Ah, memories.
SFAW
So, it looks like this “Traitor-in-Chief being pals/business partners with a human trafficking queenpin” story will finally, at last, be the last straw which causes his supporters to turn on him.
I tell ya, I crack myself up sometimes.
Suzanne
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): I was looking up the full list of Nobel Peace Prize laureate yesterday, and I commented to Mr. Suzanne that I have seen four of them speak in person. Then he asked me who is the worst person I’ve ever seen in person, and I replied that it is our fucking POTUS.
Every one of these people are human garbage.
I haven’t really had the emotional wherewithal to deal with it in the past few weeks or so, but I can’t pretend that he doesn’t exist forever.
debbie
Does Melania know?
Suzanne
@Ohio Mom: I failed the glucose test last time and they made me take a more sophisticated test. Made me drink the shit, drew my blood immediately afterward, then drew my blood once an hour for the next three hours. Both arms hurt. I brought a book.
Keith P.
@Jay: I didn’t say they issue is that they exist. The issue is that Asian “massage” parlors are way more common than most people probably thing, and they very often do it with the blessing (via $$$) of the local law enforcement. This kind of story is good because it shines more light on the issue and forces politicians to come down on police to crack down – they just have to sustain it, not just shut a few down and hope everyone’s satisfied.
eemom
@Mnemosyne:
Yep, that pretty much epitomizes the level of “humor” one would expect from a law firm partner. Good thing he’s kept his day job.
eemom
@debbie:
Yeah, Cohen told her. Again.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@debbie: from day one, Melania knew
The “Melania is hurt/furious” stories crack me up, even though I believe they’re more part of a legal strategy than PR.
I just checked google, six years passed between Marla and Melania. I doubt she was the first one he tried to hire, she was the first one who agreed. Will I live long enough to see that pre-nup? Does Tiffany know where it is? She’s gonna be the one to write the book, I’d bet many quatloos on that.
Suzanne
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Melania DGAF. Their marriage is a transaction. Whatever. I don’t care. They just pretend that they love one another and that her feelings are hurt by his bullshit to maintain the fiction for the evangelicals.
HinTN
@Omnes Omnibus: Not until I read to the bitter end, no, I did not. But I am now much enlightened. It’s a delightful adjectival.
zhena gogolia
I posted this on a dead thread downstairs, so repeating: Based on my non-BJ-reading acquaintances and friends, the phrase “otherwise blameless life” has penetrated the NPR-CNN-whatever bubble. Everybody has been quoting it to me all day long with disgusted expressions.
HumboldtBlue
If needed, here is a wonderful and hilarious distraction courtesy of the Castletown Donkey Derby circa 1994.
Millard Filmore
@Doug R:
What are the odds that she is a spy for China, collecting kompromat on the rich and famous that get serviced at her establishment? If not yet, she can be squeezed when her government takes an interest.
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@Suzanne: Feel better. I can’t even imagine what it would be like to feel that way with kids. It’s all I can do to manage a (wonderful and loving) dog. Perhaps I need a vacation, or a staycation, myself, but fat-ass chance for me as well.
Anne Laurie
@Keith P.:
Quoted for truth!
It’s a corollary of Trump’s hiring of undocumented immigrants to work at his various properties. The problem is not that ‘the illegals are stealing our jerbs’, it’s that Trump is making bank by hiring (underpaying) the people he simultaneously uses as boogeymonsters in his speeches. The workers at Trump’s clubs deserve to be treated like people, and so do the workers at the massage parlors.
different-church-lady
Ah, this is starting to make more sense: rather than just wandering into just any old two-bit massage joint, the billionaire sports mogul instead got a rec about a specific place in Florida from his buddies in the conservative asshole circuit.
Who knows — maybe she offered Kraft a comp.
Adam L Silverman
@Millard Filmore: The Chinese rub and tug spas are all Chinese organized crime fronts. The ones from other Asian societies are fronts for their own organized crime groups. Or they’re Chinese organized crime fronts using a non-Chinese reference. Which is why Madame Yang’s current spas are named for Tokyo, which is Japanese.
trollhattan
Somebody please fire the scriptwriter, stat.
Management
different-church-lady
@SP123: PHRASING!
Brickley Paiste
Fucking fantastic.
https://twitter.com/AOC/status/1104069510238269440
Adam L Silverman
I didn’t know that Ben Carson could actually open his eyes this wide. Where exactly is Madame Yang’s other hand?
debbie
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
I wish that the next time Trump or one of his fiends calls Cohen a liar, someone would shoot back, “Because that’s what you paid him to do!”
Adam L Silverman
And here she is with another Chinese organized crime front!
trollhattan
@Suzanne:
You know, I can imagine her saying “Die go a fire!” so well played.
SFAW
“Dems are just as bad”
— Every Rethug-tugging pundit
NotMax
C’mon. After a hard day spent executive timing, one needs stress release. //
Anne Laurie
@Adam L Silverman: Ha, I knew Dr. PumpkinHead’s pic would draw you out!
(Actually considered sending you these tweets… but I couldn’t resist using them myself :})
HumboldtBlue
The Yorkshire accent, ladies and gentleman.
Right good.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@Adam L Silverman: Cocaine Elaine
Jay
@Keith P.:
The only thing anybody cares about up here, in regards to the “rub and tugs” are that the workers are there of their own volition, that health and safety is followed for both the workers and customers health, that the workers are properly paid, that they arn’t drug fronts, and that the books are kept properly.
The key issue with Tokyo Rose/Asian Orchid, is that:
– the women are internationally trafficed sex slaves
– working and living in unsanitary conditions
– unpaid and abused
– some are probably children.
SiubhanDuinne
@Baud:
Baud! H4A! 2020!
hervevillechaizelounge
@Millard Filmore:
That was my first thought when we learned Robert Kraft was on tape; was this law enforcement video or did detectives find preexisting hidden cameras and tapes when they raided?
Either way, LOL as the young folks say!
Jay
@hervevillechaizelounge:
The investigation started as an investigation into sex slavery, not an illegal sex service.
In would guess that the Police set up surveillance .
Adam L Silverman
@Anne Laurie: No worries. I’d already seen them. Honestly, I largely just ignore him. He’s really not worth anyone’s time.
Adam L Silverman
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I guarantee they’re shipping much more than that on behalf of both the PRC and the triads.
Adam L Silverman
@hervevillechaizelounge: It is unclear from the reporting whether law enforcement placed cameras when they went in under cover or if the surveillance was in place by the owners of the spas. Or a combination of the two.
Matt McIrvin
My God! We’ll need a SUPER tall wall to deal with this much trafficking!
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
Fentanyl hubs?
Aleta
Some good news
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: Among other things.
Viva BrisVegas
@JoyceH:
I don’t know what the problem is. It’s just a Trump traditional family business.
If it was good enough for grandpa Trump …
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: Palm Beach…is that what they’re calling it now?
Jay
@Viva BrisVegas:
https://www.thedailybeast.com/inside-donald-trumps-one-stop-parties-attendees-recall-cocaine-and-very-young-models
And Senator Feistein requested ICE to investigate the over 200 improper visa’s in 2017.
Adam L Silverman
@sukabi: Gives a whole new meaning to glad handing politicians.
Adam L Silverman
@Jay: BTW: I saw your question in the earlier thread way late. So I emailed you the answer.
SRW1
Please people, can we remember the wisdom of “pecunia non olet”? Even if it involves a little rubbing action!
Jay
@Adam L Silverman:
Thanks Adam, truely a full service blog.
Suzanne
Thanks for the good wishes, all. Life is really pretty good. Just a hard day. Though it’s been kind of nice not holding any headspace for the Dotard.
Adam L Silverman
@Suzanne: Feel better!
Bobby Thomson
@Viva BrisVegas: it’s amazing how many still don’t know the Trump family fortune was built on Alaskan prostitution.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bobby Thomson: The Fundigelicals have no problem with that, because they worship Mammon.
Chris T.
In case you’re wondering why Trump keeps talking about women with their mouths bound with tape… now you know why.
Jay
@Bobby Thomson:
Not Alaska, Seattle, Washington State and the Yukon, ( Canada),
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Trump
Ivan X
@Baud: I’m voting for Baud
joel hanes
@trollhattan:
The persons responsible for sacking the scriptwriters have been sacked.
Ivan X
@Adam L Silverman: all of them? Every last one in NYC? Because there are approximately a billion Asian (usually Chinese) massage places here, and many are just massage places.
trnc
@Mike in NC:
Or any contact with minors.
Barney
All those photos with Trump and other Republican bigwigs weren’t just for fun – Li Yang’s business is built around getting access to Republicans for Chinese clients – Mother Jones:
We always thought Mar-a-Lago members would be using it to make money through access, just as Trump himself does – he hiked the membership fees when he became president. Here’s the result.
J R in WV
Wow. I am so shocked that billionaires and ‘high-level’ Republican politicians like Congressman Graetz would socialize with and take selfies with Madam Yang. HAHAHAHAHAAHaa, no, I’m not. Not at all.
And the pictures are SO BAD! I’ve taken better pics of my cat stretched out on my chest in bad with my tablet than those photos.
Is there a wide eyed shock emojie? ‘Cause that’s what I needed for this!