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#146

Here’s an excellent article from the Miami Herald detailing Yang’s longterm ownership of shady day spas in Florida.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article227186429.html

BTW, the Miami Herald’s Julie Brown recently won the prestigious George Polk Award for her reporting on the Epstein/Acosta scandal. The paper is applying the same high standards and attention to detail with this new report on Yang. I’m glad these dedicated reporters are on the case because I have feeling we are just hearing the beginning of this story.

The woman who snapped the blurry Super Bowl selfie with the president was Li Yang [aka Cindy 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. …

Yang’s family still owns several South Florida spas. The family’s Tokyo Day Spa branches have attracted the attention of at least two local police agencies over allegations of prostitution, and are discussed online as places where men can pay for sexual extras. …

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. …

In February 2018, Yang was invited by the White House to participate in an event hosted by the Asian American and Pacific Islander Initiative, an advisory commission Trump established by executive order the year before. …

In 2007, Yang started what would become a large chain of Tokyo Day Spas.

The first to open was her flagship, which is still in business and run by her husband, Zubin Gong, in Palm Beach Gardens.

The next was a Tokyo Day Spa in Jupiter that would later become Orchids of Asia after Yang sold it to another businesswoman, Hua Zhang, around 2013. Zhang, who was charged in February with racketeering and running a house of prostitution and has pleaded not guilty, declined to comment when contacted at her Martin County home.

Online reviews from prior to 2013 suggest sex was for sale at the Tokyo Day Spa Jupiter location even before it became Orchids of Asia. Although the name and ownership of the location have changed, the decor has not. A photo from a Tokyo Day Spa Yelp review shows the same couch, the same wall hanging and the same faux plant as now.

“Used to be known as Tokyo Day Spa and Massage — most of the same girls still work there,” a Yelp reviewer wrote of Orchids of Asia in 2013.

Over the past decade, Yang and her family members have opened at least six locations across Palm Beach and Broward counties, including a massage school established in 2011 and several nail salons. …

Organized networks of massage parlors offering sex are common, according to Bradley Myles, CEO of Polaris Project, a nonprofit dedicated to ending human trafficking in the sex work industry. …

Six spas within the Tokyo Day Spas chain show up on online forums … which are crowd-sourced review sites where users point each other to spas where sex is offered. …

Her Super Bowl selfie with Trump was captioned: “We love our president.”

It’s not clear exactly what level of scrutiny she was subjected to in order to get that close to Trump.

Anyone “expected to be within close proximity to the president for a planned purpose” at Mar-a-Lago must go through an “enhanced background check” by the Secret Service and other federal agencies, according to a January report by the Government Accountability Office.

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Day 781
#147

Ahhh yes, all good buddies, this group. Reminds me of the parting words from DAG Rod Rosenstein ‘Judge a man by the company he keeps.’ I keep coming up with a bunch of zeros.

Lawrence O’Donnell’s show last night showed a clip from a speech (his last official one maybe)

Thx for all the links to Cindy Yang, a latter day ‘comfort woman.,’ and all the company they keep. :exploding_head:

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#148

Good for the people of Maine! Imagery of survivors of Genocide should never have been used as mascots.

Once, there were more than 30 Maine schoolswith Indian mascots and nicknames. Now, there are none after a vote Thursday night by the Skowhegan area school board to drop their high school’s Indians nickname.

(…)

These concerns were straightforward: Indian team names and mascots are not respectful. Instead, they are offensive and hurtful to many members of Maine’s Native American tribes. Put another way, when a group of people, or your neighbor or a relative, tells you that something you are doing is offensive or hurtful, you should stop doing it. Trying to convince them you mean no harm is beside the point. So is citing a long history of using the mascot and nickname.

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#149

These brick-and-mortar stores…done. Wow.

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#150

In Leaked Chats, Nebraska GOP Gov’s Field Director Pushed White Nationalism.

“In other posts, Bressman says the only downside of running down a Black Lives Matter supporter is that he has ‘a nice car and it’s white.’”

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#151

Tucker Carlson and Jeanine Pirro should never have been allowed to spew their disgusting bigoted views on any national platform. This story is not surprising, these Fox News characters say this shit on purpose to garner attention from the media, so they can play their first amendment victim cards to their fans. :roll_eyes:

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Day 781
#152

Some twitter chatter, that Trump gave Breitbart a 40 minute interview today. So we have that to look forward to this week as well. :roll_eyes:

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#153

30 years today - The WWW was born. Significant to our lives in so many ways…for good or for ill. It is amazing to realize that this phenomenal pathway was created to help scientists/institutions/universities inform and educate one another. Today, it has created another level of culture, online which 30 years ago would have made no sense.

Not T news…fortunately. Important because it was built by inquiring minds, to advance our knowledge base.

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#154

Ummmm…because why? The bottom line maybe.

Grrrrr

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#155

3 posts were merged into an existing topic: :mag: All things Mueller - What we know he has on Trump 'n Co

#156

Oh, the irony

Facebook’s effort to establish a service that provides its users with local news and information is being hindered by the lack of outlets where the company’s technicians can find original reporting.

The service, launched last year, is currently available in some 400 cities in the United States. But the social media giant said it has found that 40 percent of Americans live in places where there weren’t enough local news stories to support it.

(…)

Some 1,800 newspapers have closed in the United States over the last 15 years, according to the University of North Carolina. Newsroom employment has declined by 45 percent as the industry struggles with a broken business model partly caused by the success of companies on the Internet, including Facebook.

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#157

Cindy McCain strikes back…(not for the faint of heart):cry:

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#158

War of words – Conway v. T

#SeeTeleMundoLineUp

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#159

Barack Obama steps in as healer-in-chief, shows concern and puts out a message on how to help with the floods.

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#160

Breaking:

New Zealand will ban all types of semi-automatic weapons used in the Christchurch attacks, says PM Jacinda Ardern.

The country’s gun laws have been in the spotlight since a gunman killed 50 people at two mosques last Friday.

Ms Ardern said she expected the new legislation to be in place by 11 April.

She said a buy-back scheme would be set up for banned weapons.

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#161

Just a backgrounder on this decision by Simon Louisson. Simon Louisson reported for The Wall street Journal, AP Dow Jones Newswires, New Zealand Press Association and Reuters and briefly was a political and media adviser to the Green Party. This is an article on “The Standard” my favourite NZ political blog. :slight_smile:
You can see that there has been considerable debate over the years on ways and means to strengthen our gun laws. This past tragedy has given our politicians the mandate to act.

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#162

Re: https://thestandard.org.nz/banning-rambo-weapons-not-a-knee-jerk/

This is impressive! Thanks for sharing! I have world leader envy so bad right now.

So what should this latest gun law reform include? At the very least it should include all the 13 recommendations of the 2017 Law & Order committee that were not passed. It should at its heart included:

  • A total ban on the sale of military-style semi automatic weapons
  • A government-backed compulsory buy-back program for the existing 15,000 MSSA weapons
  • Extreme restrictions on pistols to such things as Olympic-games style range shooting
  • The establishment of an independent Firearms Authority as proposed by the Thorp Inquiry to oversee licencing
  • The licencing of every individual gun as happens in all countries except Aotearoa, Canada and the US
  • Licence renewal every three years and make it the licence holder’s responsibility to inform the authority of any change of address within days of it happening
  • Ban sale of guns over the internet
  • Restrict gun advertising
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#163

I agree! Thx for posting this very comprehensive proposal - makes gun ownership way more regulated and each person accountable for that gun.

The entrenched powerful who consider guns a right makes me feel so cynical about US gun ownership ever really changing.

Wow!

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#164

Here is what has actually happened and how it is going to be implemented from the Radio NZ website:

This afternoon, she announced that every semi-automatic weapon used in the terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch last Friday would be banned under more stringent gun laws.

As of 3pm today an order in council took effect. The changes to the regulations would mean the firearms were now catergorised as needing an E-class licence endorsement.

This means no one will be able to buy the weapons without police approval. Ms Ardern said there was no point in applying for one.

For those who are already in possession of these weapons, Ms Ardern said the firearms would be tightly regulated, while for everyone else, the weapons would now be effectively out of reach.

She also said the government would be establishing a buyback scheme to take the firearms out of circulation.

After a reasonable period for returns, those who continue to possess these firearms will be in contravention of the law.

Anyone in breach of the law would be liable to a $4000 fine or up to three years imprisonment.

“We’re looking to increase the penalty when the ban is in full force and the opportunities of buyback are over,” Ms Ardern said.

Ms Ardern said the buyback scheme was designed to prevent the creation of a black market for banned weapons.

She said people who held weapons illegally would be protected by a police amnesty.

“We’re in the dark as to how many of these are in circulation,” Ms Ardern said, referring to the number of weapons the government might have to buy back.

“We haven’t had specific conversations about where the funding for the buyback will come from.”

She said she was confident that the majority of New Zealanders would support the gun law changes.

Minister of Police Stuart Nash said the decisive move was an interim step until legislation could be passed. That legislation is likely to be in place by 11 April.

He said this measure would enable New Zealand to become a safer place.

He said police were currently preparing to take these weapons out of circulation.

Cabinet - including the Green Party - decided in principle on reforms on Monday, with the National Party saying it supports change.

Ms Ardern said on Wednesday that gun laws in New Zealand were “a blueprint of what not to do” and there was a “large number of loopholes” in the law.


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#165

:clap::clap::clap: this is excellent!

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