Remember when Republicans had an ear-splitting hissy fit about alleged influence peddling at the Clinton Foundation? I’m sure they’ll be even more outraged to learn that wealthy members of Trump’s tacky-ass, for-profit South Florida resort have been openly selling access to Trump and the “Minister of Commerce” to foreigners. (Haha, no they won’t!) Via Mother Jones:
The latest Trump political donor to draw controversy is Li Yang, a 45-year-old Florida entrepreneur from China who founded a chain of spas and massage parlors that included the one where New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft was recently busted for soliciting prostitution. She made the news this week when the Miami Herald reported that last month she had attended a Super Bowl viewing party at Donald Trump’s West Palm Beach golf club and had snapped a selfie with the president during the event. Though Yang no longer owns the spa Kraft allegedly visited, the newspaper noted that other massage parlors her family runs have “gained a reputation for offering sexual services.” (She told the newspaper she has never violated the law.) Beyond this sordid tale, there is another angle to the strange story of Yang: She runs an investment business that has offered to sell Chinese clients access to Trump and his family. And a website for the business—which includes numerous photos of Yang and her purported clients hobnobbing at Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s private club in Palm Beach—suggests she had some success in doing so.
Yang, who goes by Cindy, and her husband, Zubin Gong, started GY US Investments LLC in 2017. The company describes itself on its website, which is mostly in Chinese, as an “international business consulting firm that provides public relations services to assist businesses in America to establish and expand their brand image in the modern Chinese marketplace.” But the firm notes that its services also address clients looking to make high-level connections in the United States. On a page displaying a photo of Mar-a-Lago, Yang’s company says its “activities for clients” have included providing them “the opportunity to interact with the president, the [American] Minister of Commerce and other political figures.” The company boasts it has “arranged taking photos with the President” and suggests it can set up a “White House and Capitol Hill Dinner.” (The same day the Herald story about Yang broke, the website stopped functioning.)
I wonder if Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is the “Minister of Commerce” mentioned on the defunct site? Did he get a “happy ending” at one of the massage parlors? It would be irresponsible not to speculate, as gross as it is.
It’s almost disappointing in a way, that this scandal-ridden, corrupt administration is associated with such petty and garish grift operations. Better a pack of greedy, dumb buffoons than a cabal of smart and sinister villains, I suppose. But I can’t help but think the tawdriness of it all reflects poorly on America’s oligarch class.
Baud
God I hope there’s a security camera outside her place and that the video is saved somewhere.
Brachiator
This is like the longest running episode of the Twilight Zone. Trump does evil shit all day, every day, and some of his henchmen even end up going to jail, and then Fox News or even the mainstream media regurgitate some crap about the Clinton Foundation or Hillary Clinton supposedly being some arch villain or master criminal, and we are all supposed to jump.
It’s freaking insane.
Part of it, perhaps, is that the oligarchs know that they will get something from Trump, but never felt that the Clintons played the game in a way that the plutocrats wanted.
plato
Millard Filmore
“The politics of pull.” I don’t know why all you jackals have such a disdain for Ayn Rand. The villains in her Atlas Shrugged have the Republican Party absolutely pegged.
germy
@plato: My guess is they’ll pose with anyone who gives them money, or promises to give them money, or openly agrees with what they say.
FlipYrWhig
@germy: @plato: A mutual interest in the ol’ “grip and grin.” ;)
terraformer
I can safely say that one of the most annoying/maddening conditions of our current politics is how the Republicans are never called to account for the things they do, and especially how they successfully translate their pants-shitting outrage into wall-to-wall coverage and endless commentary whenever Democrats do it (or, more correctly, something passingly related to it).
Immanentize
That place did seem to favor the more mature clientele.
Amir Khalid
Should someone go check on the bloglord? He seems to have misidentified Thurston as the late Tunch in one of his recent tweets. I just hope everything’s okay at Balloon Juice World HQ.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
There’s no bottom to these people. Every day, you think they’ve sunk as low as they can, and every day, they find a way to go deeper.
JaySinWA
@Brachiator:
More like Groundhog Day. Rinse, lather, repeat. Always the same result.
SFAW
Obama was worse.
Hitlary would have been worse
JaySinWA
@SFAW: Oh the scandals they would have to had manufactured.
Baud
@JaySinWA: They were up to the task.
Mike in NC
At some point we may see Cindy Wang called to testify before one of the House committees investigating the Trump Crime Cartel and its sleazy associates, like Kraft.
SFAW
@JaySinWA:
“Manufactured”? Bullshit. Just connect the dots, libtard.
If you connect the dots using REAL evidence — it’s out there, folks — you’ll find that not only did Hitlary murder her “lover” Vince Foster with her bare hands, but she also cannot account for her whereabouts when Judge Crater disappeared, nor when the Lindbergh baby was kidnapped.
Checkmate, libtards.
bemused
The grift and graft has permeated every tentacle of Trumpco, WH, GOP and beyond. Makes my head spin.
Funny. The Dems have the donkey, R’s have the elephant. When Howard Schultz was asked what “spirit animal” he is, he asked for suggestions from the audience. Someone yelled out “unicorn”.
MattF
@Baud: I’d be willing to bet that there’s a camera. More than one, when you include the ones inside. And microphones. And an alphabetized catalogue, probably an Excel spreadsheet.
SFAW
@Mike in NC:
As I and others have commented: when the Traitor-in-Chief made his “human trafficking” non sequitur statement a few weeks ago, the projection was not obvious. Now it is.
Someone — maybe here? — also pointed out that his “modeling agency” business was probably not dissimilar to various human trafficking operations.
Thank FSM that Traitor Turtle is here to rein him in.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@SFAW: You left out the murders they committed to hide their cocaine snuggling operation out of that small airport in Arkansas.
SiubhanDuinne
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Aww … that’s sweet.
scav
Clearly, there’s just some numinous splendor of the unique “American Moral Business Leader”— God-Given! after the previous administration — that we’re failing to get.
The Psalms of David have been replaced by the Tweets of Donald and the bells of the cash register of the flesh pots sounded sweet to the ears of The Lord.
mrmoshpotato
@bemused: That’s good. I personally think his spirit animal is a horse’s ass.
Aleta
This reminds me of many things.
paraglider makes a safe landing only to then be attacked by a kangaroo
Chyron HR
@SFAW:
And that’s just what the Justice Sunshine Squad thinks.
donnah
Hackwhackers blog has a great post with lots of selfies…these assholes are fearless when it comes to documenting their own atrocities.
https://hackwhackers.blogspot.com/2019/03/florida-massage-parlors-linked-to-trump.html
WaterGirl
@Amir Khalid: Freudian slip. I saw that, too, and figured that Tunch used to do the same thing. We’re going on 6 years since we lost Tunch, the Magnificent.
SFAW
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I wanted to leave something for you to mention, so you wouldn’t feel left out.
Yeah, that’s the ticket.
mrmoshpotato
@donnah: More self-incriminating power to them! But only the power to incriminate themselves, nothing else.
:)
patrick II
Really? There second to be no grift, large or small, garish or…, well nohe has no tasteful grifts I can think of. Not to mention his own Trump “Modelling Agency”.
Seanly
Maybe the Minister of Commerce is that dentist who wrote a note calling Trump “King”
Bobby Thomson
Wealth correlates poorly with intelligence and honor.
Bobby Thomson
@donnah: in this particular instance, hackwhackers has a distinctly different meaning.
Jonas
The MSM treats Republican corruption like a dog-bites-man story whereas any whiff of Democratic impropriety is a “Stop the presses!!” full on front page screaming headline. Repubs always graded on a curve.
chris
@SFAW: I’m gonna need a bigger wall at the Canadian border, shit’s leaking through. Pizzagate, the Clinton Foundation and our glorious Conservative leader. Fucking mole people.
PaulWartenberg
This revelation spells out as simply as it can how damaging and illegal trump’s violations of the Emoluments Clause are.
This report requires immediate investigation by both Congress and the FBI. There are serious breaches of national security here.
and, on a lighter note, it would be ironic if the entire Republican Party collapsed on this scandal all because a rich white dude (the owner of the Patriots) got a blowjob.
PaulWartenberg
@SFAW:
Hillary also sabotaged Flight 19.
WaterGirl
@PaulWartenberg:
I just wanted to see that again.
Jonas
@PaulWartenberg: people actually have to be shocked and outraged for anything to happen. Trumps evil genius has been to be so corrupt so flagrantly and so often that it defies clear or sustainable reporting. Consequently it ends up as background noise nobody really notices or takes seriously.
scav
@Jonas: Well then, they’ll just have to get used to the low-grade constant giggling, if not outright guffaws, when they announce themselves as devout Christian Real Americans.
germy
@FlipYrWhig:
Nowadays “tug and mug”
mrmoshpotato
@PaulWartenberg: Don’t forget about her crashing the Hindenburg too.
WhatsMyNym
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I could never figure that one out. That airport is pretty far from the coast, you have to fly near major airports to get inland, and it was a long, long way from interstate highways. Hadn’t everybody switched to high speed boats collecting from passing ships by then?
MomSense
@Baud:
Lordy, I hope there are tapes.
SFAW
@PaulWartenberg:
I wonder if Kraft’s “masseuse” was wearing (or not, I guess) a blue dress.
SFAW
@MomSense:
FSM does not love me or you that much.
But I’ll still make a burnt offering to it, in hopes that it hears our prayer.
Eric U.
I’m old enough to remember the Clinton body bag list being published in (even the liberal) New Republic. The (FU)NYT would be NY phone book sized every day if Trump got that level of scrutiny, and it wouldn’t be made up nonsense
@WhatsMyNym: the Clinton crime stuff never had to make sense. Mena being the most ridiculous one back in the day, not sure anyone took that seriously
germy
Disgraceland.
They really can’t help themselves:
https://www.theroot.com/racist-maine-mayor-steps-down-after-calling-old-black-p-1833170138
Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
@SiubhanDuinne:
You’re right, and the “aww…” is a nice touch.
It’s great fun. I mean, so people have told me.
FlipYrWhig
@Eric U.: My friend who became a diehard Trumpite lapped up every WorldNetDaily thing throughout the 1990s about the criminality and perfidy of The Clintons, including sending me breathless emails about Mena airport — not because he was trolling me, but because it was important secret knowledge he wanted to share. SMH.
JGabriel
Betty Cracker @ Top:
Then it reflects accurately.
JaySinWA
@FlipYrWhig: I seem to recall an apparently earnest Freeper who kept the Clinton death list updated. I think there was one or two around the Mena airport, because drugs and murder you know.
MagdaInBlack
@FlipYrWhig:
Heres the thing: those trumpies who believe in him, see the reporting that we read and believe to be true, in the same way as we see WorldNetDaily and Alex Jones.
We really are living in different realities, and I don’t know how one deals with that.
ETA I sometimes find the whole thing disorienting….because I spend a lot of time in the world where trump is a great guy, and then I come back to this world, where we know better.
Lately I’m feeling “gaslight effect”
Catherine D.
Could Wilbur Ross stay awake long enough to have a happy ending?
PaulWartenberg
@WhatsMyNym:
it didn’t matter what the logistics were. what mattered was the conspiracy theory that slick willie was a cocaine dealer.
they wanted to paint Clinton with any and all targets they could, and then pray to God something stuck to him. It’s how we went from “criminal land deals” to “impeach him for blowjobs”.
it’s never about the Truth. It’s always about the NARRATIVE (Republicans/Conservatives = Godly and Good saving us from evil Socialist TAXES, Democrats/Libruls = Demonic hellspawn looking to eat our babies and sacrifice all business leaders to Satan).
PaulWartenberg
@donnah:
it’s because 1) they don’t think they’ll get caught and 2) they KNOW if they get caught they can go on Fox Not-News and LIE ABOUT IT. /headdesk
Ladyraxterinok
@scav: ‘Psalms of David replaced by tweets of Donald’–super great!!
Ladyraxterinok
@WhatsMyNym: Wasn’t there also supposedly some weird dtuffabout the airplane that flew in and out of the airport??
And weren’t some kids with info about Clinton corruption killed by a ‘carefully directed’ train??
Where are the videos Pat Robertson et al made about all the killings?
Just One More Canuck
@Aleta: kangaroos are known to be assholes
https://www.buzzfeed.com/simoncrerar/roos-r-jerks
Ruckus
And they were doing such a bang up job without all the shitty grifting that is now being exposed.
Not.
Oligarch – 1. a ruler in an oligarchy.
2. (especially in Russia) a very rich business leader with a
great deal of political influence.
Ruckus
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Once you’ve crawled under the rock with the slime and maggots the world really all looks the same. So you might as well join them.
I believe that’s the code that goes with the secret handshake of the republican insiders club.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
I understood that Howard is a horse’s ass.
Ruckus
@Jonas:
More like not graded at all, they just get a gold star and a free hand job.
lgerard
@Ladyraxterinok:
It was Jerry Falwell who pushed the Clinton Chronicles. Don’t worry though, they are continuously updated
MagdaInBlack
@Ruckus:
” Birds of a feather”
mrmoshpotato
@Ruckus:
I stand corrected. And I take that you mean it literally.
?
debbie
@Baud:
If only life were that good!
I look forward to being told how it’s not at all the same as the Clintons’ nefarious doings.
central texas
Just curious. I’ve seen dozens of references to the trump signing his adoring talibangelical’s bibles but nothing that says HOW he signed them I am picturing something along long the lines of;
Best wishes,
Your Lord and Savior.
or
Make America Great Again,
God
Or do the faithful have to make the leap of faith themselves?
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
The Clintons turned out to be totally honest and above board, and worked hard to improve life for everyone, including people below the median income.
This infuriated the belt-way bandits, all of them. They have spent decades trying to incriminate any of the Clinton family, with no success at any level. Every investigation has shown more criminality by Republicans attempting to incriminate Bill or Hillary including members of congress than by anyone in the Clinton family OR their staff. Not to mention the waste of money and time.
And look at Kenneth Starr’s career since leaving his post as “special prosecutor”! Wholly Cow, look at that scumbag!!!
evodevo
No … he just scrawled that illegible signature of his on the cover (most of them were paperbacks – ??!!)