Like a pincushion The Wesley Chapel 22-year-old who likes modeling but not being a target talks about being ousted from America’s Next Top Model. Gina Choe thought that America’s Next Top Model would be more about modeling and less about drama. “I was really naive,” she said. The theatrics of spending 24 hours a day with women she was competing against to win one of TV’s top reality shows was her downfall. Getting too caught up in them to do anything well, the 22-year-old Wesley Chapel resident got the boot by the show’s five judges in this week’s episode. “I know it was a reality TV show,” Choe said in a phone interview Thursday. “And it was about modeling and stuff. I just think some of (the drama) was really not necessary. . . . I just wish I would have focused on modeling instead of getting involved with fighting and having arguments with other girls and stuff.” Choe made the final round of 13 contestants after surviving a casting process that began with an open call at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tampa. Her strength was her face. But from the start of the season, she was portrayed as someone with no confidence who became an easy target for one other contestant in particular: Jade, an obnoxious 26-year-old from Philadelphia who can’t understand why she isn’t a famous model already. Jade (Top Model’s network, UPN, won’t give last names until the contestants’ fates are determined) was shown tormenting Choe almost constantly. She told Choe that she didn’t have any sense of who she was. She belittled her at meals and in exchanges at the house the contestants lived in. She tried to intimidate her with long stares during the modeling challenges the contestants had to do. But she wasn’t the only one who made Choe’s confidence an issue. Other contestants were shown talking about how she lacked it. The show’s judges, led by series creator-supermodel Tyra Banks, brought that up when reviewing her challenge results. And many of her scenes portrayed her as weak, though she didn’t help herself. In previous episodes she was shown getting drunk at a dinner and having a long, loud meltdown over modeling an outfit on a runway while a roach was attached to her. “For the longest time,” Choe said, “I’m sure everyone watching thought “Gina is the weak one, she doesn’t know who she is, she doesn’t know anything about anything.’ ” Choe said she is confident, but the show was just too much pressure for her to handle. (Apart from getting on national TV, the contestants, of which nine are left, are competing for a $100,000 Cover Girl cosmetics contract, a fashion spread in Elle magazine and the chance to be managed by Ford Models.) She said she doesn’t blame anyone, including herself. Or Jade. “I’m just not used to people not liking me,” Choe said. “I think if we met again, I would definitely be a little bit more tough, not mean, but not be as weak as (Jade) saw me. She’s not a big bully or anything, just very strong-minded, very opinionated. There’s really nothing wrong with that. I’m just not used to it.” But still, Choe’s favorite episode was her elimination one. Because when Jade pushed her to a breaking point (by sitting on Choe’s bed when Choe got out of the shower; okay, not a big deal, but it was at the end of a long, hard day), Choe finally stood up to her. “At least . . . I confronted the girl who was picking on me. I felt like justice was served, and I showed I was not as weak as I was perceived,” she said. Back home, the bay area native is studying fashion design at Tampa’s International Academy of Design & Technology. She still would like to model, too. She has been asked to model in the school’s annual student fashion show in May. “I don’t know if I should do it,” Choe said. “I’m just kind of thinking about it.”

America’s Next Top Model 6: Interview With Gina, 4/1/06 The latest to join the ranks of Top Model discards is Gina, who had a combination of qualities that must have had the producers drooling – and I’m not talking about her killer cheekbones. Gina seemed to be always in a flustered state; gasping with shock at the show’s surprises, brought down by a giggle from across the room, frozen by nerves when asked to pose on the fly. And throughout all the petty drama and grammar-school mind games, her every emotion played out on her face. Yes, Gina was a Top Model producer’s dream, and she emerges a little wiser from her trial by fire in the land of model meanies. Make that a very little bit wiser. Hello Gina, thanks for speaking with me today. No problem, you’re welcome! So…you were involved in quite a few controversial moments on the show! Does it surprise you to know you are the most talked-about Cycle 6 contestant on our website? Oh, wow, really? Yeah, it does surprise me a lot. Do you see yourself as someone who stirs up controversy? No, I’m really not that way. I guess just being on the show, I was kind of out of my comfort space and I felt like I was kind of thrown into the show. Not being able to have my family around or my sister around to support me, I think, I just kind of acted out. It was always in the back of my mind that this is going to be on national television and I was just so nervous about so many things, and the whole drama between me and Jade kind of made everything worse. I don’t try to stir up any controversy at all, it just happens! So the first time viewers raised their eyebrows was when you said you proud to represent Asian models, but then later said you don’t date Asian men. Can I ask you about that moment? Yeah, we can talk about it – that’s a good thing. I think before I even went into the room with Tyra and the Jays, I went in thinking maybe if I show them that I’m really strong about being Asian, they will think it’s something they can use on the show. I thought that would be an advantage of mine. But then when I went in there, I just kind of froze up because I was scared. When I get nervous I tend to just blurt out the most dumbest, randomest things ever, I swear! At the same time I was just trying to digest the whole thing – you know, me being there, the whole thing’s going to be on national television, and that’s Tyra Banks sitting right in front of me. I think it just all caught up with me and it messed up the way I was thinking. If I could start over, I wouldn’t say that I would want to represent all of the Asian community because that’s definitely not my intentions, and when I said that I didn’t know what would come along with saying that. I definitely would want to take that back. If I could say that, I would have to be a perfect Asian person who knows everything about their culture, everything about being an Asian person. I really don’t know everything and I definitely would want to take that comment back. I feel horrible because I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who watched the show who are so ashamed of how I acted. And I don’t blame them. I just feel really bad and dumb for saying that. It sounds like you really regret saying that. I feel that way because even after I came out of the room and I was all done, I felt so horrible. I actually cried because I didn’t know exactly what I had said, but I knew none of it had made sense. I know I said some things I shouldn’t have, so I cried when I went back to my hotel room because I knew I couldn’t take it back. I think I was just so nervous that I said the most randomest things. I messed up and felt bad. When you watched it on TV, what did you think of how it came out after being edited? I didn’t watch it when it first came on, I watched it after someone recorded it for me. From that point in the tape on I just didn’t want to watch it anymore because I knew people would be thinking, “Okay, she’s not my favorite girl anymore,” or, “That girl’s confused; she doesn’t know who she is, she said the most dumbest randomest things ever and she contradicted herself, and then she’s going to say she wants to represent all Asians? That’s horrible.” So I felt like that was the lowest point in my life because it wasn’t just in front of Tyra, the Jays, and whoever else was there, it was all of America – and there’s a lot of Asian people in America! I felt like I let a lot of them down by my actions then. What do you think of your makeover? Were you expecting something more dramatic? Oh, yeah, definitely. I’ve always had flat, straw hair. I don’t mind it, a lot of people tell me they love my hair, but after having that for 22 years, I just kind of wanted something big, something poofier, something different. They just gave me a blunt cut with blunt angles. It grew out to be basically the same haircut I had before the makeover. What was your favorite photoshoot? My favorite photoshoot was the bald one because not everyone gets the chance to be bald and then get their hair back. Plus, the crystals and makeup – it was very beautiful. Not just mine, I think all the girls looked beautiful with no hair, and the way that whole thing worked was great. You think that you need hair to be beautiful, and it’s definitely not true. We realized it and people who watched the episode realized it too, so it was my favorite photoshoot. Did you think you would really have to shave your head? (Laughs) Yes! Couldn’t you tell, did you watch? Yeah, the camera really zoomed in on your face at that moment. There was no one else there, there was no scissors, there was no bottles of hairspray or anything, so we just figured, oh my gosh, they’re serious, they’re going to shave our heads! At that point, I was just thinking, what am I going to do what am I going to do. I was wondering how long it would take to grow my hair back. But I was willing to do it! Whether you believe it or not, I was willing to do it. I definitely would have done it. You were the perfect audience for Tyra’s little misleading rhymes; meaning, it looked like you really thought you were going to have to shave your head, and you were surprised by the cockroaches (weren’t we all)? Did you find the little hints and word games fun or just annoying? I love how you bring these things up because yeah, that’s true. I just felt – ugh. I just felt like I was under attack in a way. I don’t know how to say it exactly, but I just felt like, “Oh, another surprise,” and then another, and I was just so tired of it. I wasn’t getting enough sleep, and not being able to talk to anyone about it, it really made me feel alone. I really thought about it a lot. I thought, “Are they really doing this on purpose?” Of course they were. That’s what I would say, at least. But in the beginning I didn’t realize it, it wasn’t until a little afterwards that I thought that. And then it was my time to get eliminated, and by then I thought that maybe they did do all that on purpose. It’s fine, because I can’t turn back time. I wish I had known because that way I could be a little more prepared for it. I definitely feel like I was just thrown into it. I was so naive and I didn’t know what to expect. You say that you didn’t know what to expect – had you not seen the show before? I didn’t really watch a lot beforehand. I had heard about the show and I watched a little of the previous shows. My mom used to work at this building here in downtown Tampa, and a lot of customers would tell her that her daughter was pretty and should try modeling. We would constantly hear these remarks. My mom said that maybe I should pursue it. Then a woman came in that told us there was a casting in Tampa at the Hard Rock Casino, and told me to try out. My mom said I would have nothing to lose, so why not at least try out? I got accepted, so I was like, yay! Is modeling something you want to go on and pursue? Yeah, if I have the opportunity I would definitely do it. I don’t want to be bitter about what happened on the show. It’s just a show. There are so many aspects to modeling, and if you have the opportunity, why not take it? If I have the chance I definitely want to do it. What did you think of Janice Dickenson? (Laughs for about fifteen seconds) Well. Okay, when I first saw her, I thought she was very outspoken. I didn’t really know much about her. But when we were at the restuarant, she was being very loud and stuff like that, but I thought she was pretty cool. Then that whole thing that happened, I felt like I didn’t understand what I did wrong because she asked me to point out someone. I was like, “I don’t want to say.” I didn’t want to point anyone out. She really pushed you, at least it seemed that way. Yeah, she did, actually. I didn’t know what to do because I felt like if I didn’t say anything, she’d bite my head off, and if I did say something she would bite my head off, and she kept on asking so I figured she really wanted an answer. That’s when I pointed Jade out, and she just went ballistic on me. I was like, “But you asked me!” and she just didn’t want to hear any explanation. But it just wasn’t fair because she had just asked me plenty of times to point out someone, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who would have pointed out someone, it’s just that with her being so persistent. It was weird. I don’t know what to think about Janice, but that whole thing was weird. Did she do that with anyone else – ask them to point out someone causing them problems – and they just didn’t show it? No, that was it. They didn’t do anything else, and she didn’t talk to me after that. I think that was definitely one of the things that I don’t want to look back on. Let’s talk about Jade for a moment. Where did all the animosity start? They didn’t really show this. The first thing was before the press junket. Someone asked her if she was Asian, or had some Asian in her, and it was just her and me alone in the room. Her answer was, “HELL no.” I thought that was kind of rude, but I didn’t say anything at that point because I didn’t’ want her to jump down my throat about it. I never had the opportunity to just be with her alone again to talk aobut it. But later we were at the table eating and all the girls were there, and I thought that it really bothered me what she had said about me, so I decided I was just going to approach her about it, you know, just pull her to the side and talk to her about it. When I did that, everyone else was saying, “Oooh, what’s going to happen?” And Jade said that if I wanted to talk about something everyone should know. I told her that wasn’t true, not everyone should know about what happened. She said I should just bring it up to the table since I already pointed her out. I said I didn’t point her out, but she said, “Just do it.” But before I could say anything, she said, “I know what this is about.” She didn’t even let me explain, and it just went from there. All the other girls chimed in and I guess all the negativity started from there. How much did she affect your confidence? I really hate to admit it, but…a lot. I’m just so used to being friendly with everyone, just being polite and nice to everyone. I’ve never really come across anyone who doesn’t like me or who just hates or even dislikes me. From that point on, she would just be negative towards me. I didn’t know how to handle that, and I didn’t’ have anyone to talk to about it. If I did, I’m sure they would talk about it with their friends, and Jade would chime in, and it would just turn into a group ordeal, and I didn’t want that. Would she actually make comments about you while you were doing your photoshoots? Yes, she would. I definitely think she thought that I was a threat, and that she thought by doing that she could hinder my performance. And it worked. I’m sure she saw it working, and that’s why she was persistent with it. After all, it is a competition, and I’m sure a lot of the girls will do anything to win. To us it looked like the more you questioned yourself and seemed shaken, the more Jade seemed to be gaining in confidence. Yeah, exactly. The funny thing is that I didn’t realize it until after I got home. When you’re there, and the stress is so high, you’re so high strung, and you only get a few hours of sleep every night, and it’s after hours and hours of makeup and photoshoots, you’re just physically and mentally tired. Everything just piles up on you and you don’t realize a lot of the things that you would unless you’re out of the whole competition. When I got home, that’s when I realized that maybe she thought I was a threat, and the more she saw me being vulnerable, or me being weak in her eyes, she thought it was a bigger opportunity to gang up on me and make me not do well. And when she saw me not do well, it just made her even more confident and strong. I definitely see that now. I wish that I could have seen that earlier. I wish I could have just built up my self esteem and not let the little things get to me. In the end, I’m never going to see Jade again. Unless I run into her or something. I’m sure that will never happen. What was going on with those poses in the judging panel? Oh, gosh. With the fire suit thing? They didn’t really show me doing much, and that’s because I really didn’t know what to do. When people ask me to do things, and I’m caught off guard, and I didn’t prepare for it, I do the most dumbest things ever. (Laughs) I just didn’t know how to pose and I froze because I was so scared. By that time I knew it was my time to go, so I tried my best but I knew it wouldn’t help my position much. The whole fire suit thing really caught us off-guard. They didn’t give us any information, just told us to do three editorial poses with it. It’s not something that’s real light, it was this big heavy suit and these boots. I didn’t know, was I supposed to wear these? (Laughs) I just wish they would have told me what to do because that way I would have known, but they just gave it to me and told me, “Three editorial poses.” How did you feel when you got eliminated? Because it almost seemed like you were relieved. (Laughs) You’re so funny. I was. As bad as it sounds, I was really prepared to go home because I kind of dug myself in a really deep hole from the beginning. I feel like if I could start things over I would do things differently and I think I would have stayed a little bit longer. I felt that it just wasn’t my chance to shine, and it’s okay, and I accepted it and was prepared for it. I definitely was relieved to go home. It was a really bad environment for me because I wasn’t prepared, and I was just looking forward to seeing my friends and family back home. FORT would like to thank UPN for granting the interviews, and we wish Gina all the best in her career – as well as in dealing with any “mean girls” in her future.

General things anywhere (tourist friendly):

• Flanigan’s
• Horseback riding
• Parasailing
• Scuba Diving
• Snorkeling
• Banana boating
• Kayaking
• Take a cruise
• Take a ferry to the Bahamas
• Rent a sailboat
• So a sunset cruise
• Sea turtle Release
• Go to a park and throw a boomerang or something
• Go to an archery range and fire off some arrows
• Go to the everglades
• Go ice skating
• Skydive Miami
• Go Golfing
• Go Fishing
• Go kite surfing
• Go to a carnival
• Go camping
• Go to Flanigan’s
• I don’t know bro, just go do something you like

MIAMI:

South Beach/Miami Beaches/Key Biscayne:

-SoBe (not touristy):

• Food/Bars:
  • Lost weekend
    • good pool tables
  • Ramen.Baby.Burger.
    • -Best ramen (outside my homemade) in Miami
    • -Cool atmosphere (if you like japan and anime)
    • -Rooftop Bar on the roof
  • Playwright Irish Pub
  • Sylvano's
    • Legit italian ITALIAN restaurant
    • Cannot stress enough that this is not Olive garden and is in fact authentic Italian
  • Joes' Stone Crab
    • Historic Seafood restaurant
    • Very famous
  • Pubbelly
    • Good gastropub
  • Giotto Maestro Della Pizza
    • Great authentic neapolitan style pizza
  • Cleo
    • Fancy Mediterranean place
  • Byblos
    • Expensive Greek food
    • Very good though
  • Time Out Market
    • -Good new food hall
  • Lincoln eatery
    • -Similar food hall, but small
    • -Kosher options
  • News Cafe
    • A favorite spot of Gianni Versace
    • Good breakfast and drinks
  • Under the mango tree
    • -Hippie Acai bowl place
  • Paul’s Bakery
  • Chotto Matte
    • -Peruvian/Japanese fusion
    • -Cool atmosphere
  • La Sandwicherie
    • -Classic

• Things to Do:
  • Ocean Drive
  • Lincoln Road Mall
  • South Pointe Park Pier
  • New World Symphony
  • Jewish Museum/Holocause Memorial
  • Espanola Way
  • Nikki Beach
  • Monthly Nerd Night events
  • Culture Crawl
  • Sunday Farmers market
  • Colony Theater
    • -Historical theater
    • -See a show there

-North Beach:

• Food/Bars:
  • Flanigan’s
  • Blue Beer Garden
  • Broken Shaker
    • Real chill outdoor bar
    • Miami vibe
  • Shucker’s
    • -Waterfront bar and grill
    • Marky’s Gourmet Supermarket
  • Josh’s Deli
    • -Good Ass Sandwiches
  • Tap 79
    • -small gastropub
    • -Has a piano
  • Tacaria
    • -Cool street taco place
  • Makoto
    • Upscale (expensive) Japanese restaurant in the Bal Harbour Shops
  • Taquiza Tacos
    • Also in SoBe
  • 27 Restaurant
    • Good waterfront food
    • Good portions

• Things to do:
  • North Beach Band Shell (ampitheater)
  • Haulover Park
    • -Great Surfing
    • -Skatepark
    • -PumpTrack
    • -Fishing
    • -Dog beach
    • -Nude Beach (if you want)
    • -Food truck event every Tuesday
    • -Sandbar parties
    • North Shore Open Space Park
    • -Skatepark
    • -Active on weekends with barbecues
    • -Dog Park
  • Full Moon Drum Circle Party
    • -Giant hippie drum circle/Music/Dance Fest
    • -Every full moon at 79th street/North Shore Open Space Park
    • -A lot of fun
  • O-Cinema
    • -Indie Movie theater
  • Bal Harbour Shops
    • Luxury Mall
    • Good place to walk around if you want to feel poor
    • People dressed like Cruella Deville

-Biscayne/Virginia Key:

• Things to do:
  • Bill Baggs State Park
  • Miami Seaquarium
  • Stiltsville
  • Jungle Island
  • -Parrot jungle
    • -Indoor “skydiving”

-Wynwood/Midtown/Downtown:

• Chill Bars:
  • Lagniappe
    • -wine and food bar. Very chill. Good music. Lots of jazz.
  • Le Chat Noir
    • -Good Jazz
  • Churchill’s
    • -Total dive bar
    • -Jazz jams on Monday night
    • -Other music and performances
  • The Corner
    • -Great small bar and gastropub
    • -Real quaint and cool
    • -Jazz on Tuesdays
  • American Social
  • Sugarcane
    • -good mojitos
  • Syndicate Kava Bar
    • -apparently had Dungeons & Dragons
  • Go check out some breweries

• Dancing/Music:
  • La Victoria (Latin)
  • Ball & Chain (Latin)
  • Coyo taco - (Mostly great food, but has a speakeasy in the back)
  • 1-800-Luck (food hall/badancing)
  • El Patio
  • Wood Tavern
  • Gramps
  • Racket
  • Shots
  • Electric Pickle
  • Blackbird Ordinary
  • Someone better versed in this world probably knows more places

• Mostly Just Food and Drink:
  • St. Roch Market - food hall
  • The Wharf - food hall
  • The Citadel - food hall
  • La Centrale - food hall
    • Italian food hall in Brickell City Center
  • The Butcher Shop
  • KUSH (burgers and beer)
  • Zak the Baker
  • Mandolin Aegean Bistro
    • -Greek food
    • -Great atmosphere
    • -outdoor seating
  • Soya & Pomodoro (cool decor)
  • Area 31
    • Rooftoop restaurant with panoramic view of downtown
    • Expensive
  • Fooq's
    • Persian/Mediterranean
    • Good lamb
  • Flagler street food court
    • -Old food court stuck in the 80’s
    • -a weird and poignant place
    • -Interesting though if you like old Miami
  • Azucar (ice cream)
  • Cafe Versailles
  • Chotu/Maska
    • Maska is fancy Indian food from first Indian with Michelin Star
    • Chotu is from same owner, but is Indian street food

• Things to Do:
  • Lot 11 skatepark
    • -First legit skatepark in Miami
    • -Opens September 2019
  • Frost Science Museum
    • -Planetarium
  • Arsht Center for performing Arts
  • Perez art Museum
  • Olympia Theater
  • Miami Marlins Game
  • Villain Theater Comedy Show (if you like improv comedy……...)
  • Monthly Nerd Nite Events
  • History Miami
  • Bookleggers Library
  • Bayside
    • -Restaurants and shops and stuff
  • Design District
    • -Food
    • -Shopping
    • -La Victoria (Latin Dance Spot)
  • Wynwood walls

North Miami:

• Food/Bars:
  • Flanigan’s
  • Captain Jim's Seafood
    • Very fresh seafood
  • Pita plus
    • -best falafel
  • Bo Leggz BBQ
    • -One of the best BBQ places
  • Cafe Creme
    • -French Cafe with good quiche
  • Doral CityPlace
    • -promenade for restaurants and bars in Doral
    • -Miami improv Comedy Club
  • Gulfstream
    • -Casino
    • -Restaurants
    • -Horse Track
  • Steve’s Pizza
    • -Famous pizza joint
    • -They make their sauce with apple sauce in it (don’t ask why)

• Things to Do:
  • Ancient Spanish Monastery
    • -Historical monastery moved from Spain to here. Cool place.
  • Top Golf
  • Museum of Contemporary Art
  • LOFTVR
    • VR arcade
    • Pretty awesome

• Nature:
  • Oleta State Park
    • -Kayaking
    • -Mangroves
    • -Other nature stuff
  • Greynolds Park
  • Amelia Earhart Park
    • -Cable water skiing/wakeboarding
    • -Mountain Bike trails?
    • -Some other stuff

Gables area/Key Biscayne (I’m not too familiar):

• Food:
  • Daily Bread Mediterranean market
  • Cassola's
    • Giant pizza slices
  • Swenson's Ice Cream
    • Old fashion ice cream place
  • Bomabay Darbar
    • Good Indian food

• Things to do:
  • Miracle Mile
    • -food
    • -shopping
  • Venetian pool
  • Fairchild Botanical gardnes
  • Vizcaya Museum/Botanical Gardens
  • UM game
  • Deering Estates
    • -Historical House
    • -Environmental Preserve

South Miami/Homestead:

• Food/Drink:
  • Schnebly Winery
  • Coopertown restaurant
    • -Froglegs/Alligator
  • Robert is here
    • -Best fruit stand in South Florida
  • Knaussberry farms

• Things to Do:
  • Zoo Miami
  • Schnebly Winery
  • Fruit and Spice Park
    • -awesome place for exotic fruits
  • Coopertown Restaurant
    • -Airboating
  • Robert is here
    • -Best fruit stand in South Florida
  • Monkey Jungle
  • Arcade Odyssey
  • Coral Castle
  • Homestead Miami Speedway

BROWARD:

• Food/Bars:
  • Stache Bar
    • -Hipster Bar
  • 26 degrees brewery
  • Funky Buddha Brewery
  • Tenth Level Tavern
    • -Videogame bar
    • -Retro games
  • Glitch bar
    • -also a videogame bar
  • Le Tub
    • -Burgers

• Pop's Fish Market
  • Fresh fish market in Deerfield
• Cap's Place
  • Very unique restaurant on it's own island
  • Free ferry to the restaurant
  • Historic - Since 1920's
• The Rustic Inn Crabhouse
  • Best crab in Broward
• Bimini Boatyard
  • I actually don't like this place but it's the only place to get Bimini bread, now that Ernie's has closed down
  • Bimini bread is amazing
• The Floridian
  • -historic breakfast place in Las Olas
• La Bonne Crepe
• Cypress Nook
  • -Amazing German Breakfast place
• Bagel Snack
  • Best bagels in South Florida (Jewish grandmother approved)
• Jaxson’s Ice Cream Parlour
• Mai-Kai Polynesian restaurant
• Charm City Hamburgers
• Jack’s hamburgers
• Catfish Dewey’s
  • -Weird southern food, so if you want crawfish and frog legs…
• New River Groves
  • -Fruit Market
  • -Great Key Lime Pie
• J & J Farms
  • -Good seasonal fruit stand in Deerfield
  • -Hidden fruit and Spice Park Behind it, growing many exotic fruits
  • -small

• Nature:
  • Deerfield Island Park
  • Quiet Waters Park
    • -Lakes and fields
    • -Ski Rixen (cable water skiing/wakeboarding)
  • Tradewinds park
    • -Horses
    • -Christmas Light show
    • -Butterfly world
    • -Great for picnics and the like
  • Billy Swamp Safari
  • Everglades Holiday Park
    • -Airboating
    • -Gator Wrestling
  • Markham Park
    • -Great foraging trails
    • -Saturday night has Astronomy Society/ set up telescopes for visitors
  • Fern Forest Nature Center
  • Anne Kolb Nature Center
  • South Florida Wildlife Center
  • Hugh Taylor Birch State Park Park
  • Dr. Von D. Mizell-Eula Johnson State Park
  • Shark Valley
  • Fakahatchee Strand (West Florida)
    • -Best place to see wild Panthers
  • Big Cypress National Preserve

• Things to Do:
  • Las Olas
    • -Restaurants
    • -Night Life
  • Jazz brunch
    • -First Sunday of every month on Las Olas
  • Museum of Art
  • Museum of Discovery and Science
  • Ft. Lauderdale Boardwalk/Promenade/beachwalk/whatever it’s called
    • -Nightlife/Bars/Restaurants/Beach
  • Bonnet House
    • -Historical House and Garden
    • -Has a few wild monkeys
  • Broward College Buehler Planetarium
  • Butterfly world
  • Swap Shop
    • -A bunch of cheap garbage
    • -Go early on the weekends and it’s like a giant garage sale
    • -Good fruit market
    • -Drive in movie theater
    • -Terrifying children’s theme park that will kill your children
    • -They used to have a fucking circus in here…
  • iFly - Indoor skydiving
  • Festival Flea market
    • -Buy a bunch of cheap garbage from old Jews and eat a pickle
  • Tates Comic Book Shop
  • Panther’s game
  • Dania Jai-Alai/Casino
  • Hollywood Beach
    • -Great Boardwalk
    • -Lots of restaurants
    • -Very fun day
  • Hard Rock
    • -Casino
    • -Nightlife
    • -Restaurants
    • -Lots of other shit
  • Gateway theater
    • -Historical movie theater in Ft. Lauderdale
    • -Often have people doing Rocky Horror Picture Show
  • Wilton Manors
    • -gay city
    • -gay pride festival
    • -great restaurants
  • Pompano Harness track
  • The Isle Casino
  • Xtreme Action park
    • -Go karting and an arcade. Good for kids.
  • IGFA Hall of Fame - International Game Fishing Association
  • Bass Pro Shops/Outdoor World
  • Sawgrass Mall
  • Flight Simulator
  • Water Taxi tour of Ft. Lauderdale
  • Ah-Tah-Thi-Ki Seminole Museum

• Deerfield Renaissance Festival
  • -Seasonal around February/March
  • -One of the US largest and most well known Renaissance festivals

PALM BEACH/BOCA:

• Food/Bars:
  • Funky Buddha - teahouse and brewery (lots of jam sessions and live performances)
  • -Blue Anchor Pub
    • -Old historical English pub moved piece by piece from England to Florida

• Nature:
  • Gumbo Limbo Nature Center
    • -Sea turtle rehab and releases
  • Morikami Japanese Gardens and Museum
    • -restaurant too
    • -Great events calendar
  • South Inlet/Red Reef Park
  • Green Cay Wetlands Nature Center
  • Blowing Rocks Nature preserve
    • -Coastal Nature Preserve

• Things to Do:
  • Rapids Waterpark
  • Mizner Park
    • -Restaurants, shitty art museum, ampitheater with some good acts
  • Funky Biscuit
    • -live music venue
  • Sugarsand Park
    • -Greatest playground in South Florida
    • -Great for kids
    • -Small Science Museum
  • Lion Country Safari
  • Boomers arcade
  • Palm Beach Zoo
    • -Very good zoo
  • Atlantic Avenue - Delray
    • -Great Nightlife
    • -Bars
    • -Restaurants
    • -Silverball Pinball Museum
    • -Blue Anchor Pub
    • -Old English pub moved piece by piece from England to here
  • Pumphouse/Reef road
    • -Used to be best surfing in all of south florida

THE KEYS:

• Key Largo:
  • Fish house restaurant
    • -key lime pie
  • John Pennekamp State Park
    • -Best Snorkeling/Diving
    • -Glass bottom boats
    • - Bioluminescent Plankton
  • Jules Undersea Lodge
  • Dolphin Cove

• Key West:
  • Key Lime Pies
    • -Best key lime pie is Key West Key Lime Pie Company
    • -Blue heaven
    • -Kermit’s
    • -Blonde Giraffe
  • Sunset on Mallory Square
  • Ghost tour
  • Mel Fisher Museum
  • Aquarium
  • Fort Zachary
  • Hemingway House

ORLANDO/CENTRAL FLORIDA:

• Food:
  • Pom Pom’s
    • -Best sandwiches in Orlando (Mama Ling Ling’s Thanksgiving day Sandwich)
  • Lazy Moon
    • GIANT Pizza slices
  • Junior Colombian Burger
    • Great cheap burgers
    • The sauces make it awesome
  • Gringo Loco
    • Best taco joint around orlando
  • 4 Rivers Barbecue
    • -Great BBQ
  • Old Spanish Sugar Mill
    • -Great Pancake house

• Nature:
  • Harry P. Leu Botanical gardens
  • Blanchard Park
  • Wekiwa Springs
  • Blue Springs
  • UCF observatory
  • Center for Great Apes: Great Ape Sanctuary
    • -Volunteer only
  • Bok Tower Gardens
    • -Beauitful historical Gardens with large tower in Lake Wales
    • -has Carilon (piano type instrument that uses massive bells instead of strings)
  • Little Big Econ State Park
    • -One of my favorite parks there
    • -Great Sunsets
    • -Rivers running through it

• Things to do:
  • Universal
  • Disney
  • Legoland
  • Wonderworks
  • International Drive
  • SAK Comedy Lab
  • Magic Game
  • Solar Bears Game
  • Winter Park
    • -Park Avenue
    • -Central Park
  • Orlando Main Library
  • UCF sports games
  • Top Golf
  • Solomon Castle
    • -Weird place
    • -Just...it’s there. It’s just not that interesting…
  • Melbourne Zoo
  • Kennedy Space Center
    • -Go watch a rocket launch
  • New Smyrna Beach
    • -Shark bite Capital of the World
    • - Best surfing in Florida
  • Lakeridge winery

NORTH FLORIDA:

• Ichetucknee springs
  • -Blue hole dive
• Ginnie Springs
  • -tubing and getting drunk
• Camping in Ocala
• UF game
• Florida Caverns
  • -Cave system in North Florida
• I don’t know anything about Tallahassee, sorry
  • -FSU game

TAMPA/ELSEWHERE:

• Tampa:
  • Eat an inferior cuban sandwich
  • Ybor City
  • Yankees Spring training
  • Rays Game
  • Lightning Game
  • Busch Gardens

• Elsewhere:
  • Tarpon Springs (Town) - big Greek Community and lots of Sponges
  • Three Sisters Springs
    • -Great Kayaking
  • Clearwater
  • St. Augustine
    • -St. George Street
    • -That fucking fort that everyone goes to in middle school
  • Naples
  • Cocoa beach
  • Daytona

SCUBA DIVING SPOTS :

• South Florida
  • Neptune Memorial Reef
  • Emerald Reef
  • Blue Heron Bridge
  • Pompano Drop-off
  • Vista Park Reef
  • John Pennekamp State Park
  • Biscayne Maritime Heritage trail
  • Half Moon Preserve
  • Molasses Reef
  • Tenneco Towers
  • The Jax (erojack)
  • The Spiegel Grove wreck
  • The Vandenberg wreck
  • SS Copenhagen Wrecl
  • Rapa Nui wreck
  • Ancient Mariner wreck
  • Captain Dan wreck
  • Jay Scutti, Mercy Jesus, Tracy wrecks (all doable in one dive)

• North:
  • Devil’s Den
  • Blue Grotto
  • The Oriscany wreck

"The Franklin child prostitution ring allegations began in June 1988 in Omaha, Nebraska and attracted significant public and political interest until late 1990, when separate state and federal grand juries concluded that the allegations were unfounded and the ring was a "carefully crafted hoax."[1][2].

In the Executive Board's public session Monday, Mr. Chambers said the activities of Lawrence E. King Jr., the credit union's manager for the last 18 years and the central figure in its collapse, were ''just the tip of an iceberg, and he's not in it by himself.'' But Mr. Chambers added nothing that would shed light on his cryptic assertion....Mr. King is a 44-year-old Omaha resident who wholly or partly owns several small businesses here and lives with his wife and school-age son in a large house in one of the city's better neighborhoods. He is a tall, expansive figure well known for his costly style of dressing, lavish celebrations and extensive travel, sometimes in chartered jets and often with an entourage of young men.In 1972 he headed a national political organization, Black Democrats for George McGovern. But he gained greater prominence after he had switched parties a while later, serving for a time as vice chairman of the National Black Republican Council, an official affiliate of the Republican Party, and becoming a familiar figure on the Republican social scene.Mr. King has maintained a $5,000-a-month residence off Embassy Row in Washington and has also entertained generously at Republican National Conventions. At the 1984 gathering, in Dallas, where he sang the national anthem on the convention floor, he rented the ranch where the television series ''Dallas'' is filmed and organized a party there for black Republicans....Mr. King's trouble with the authorities came to the surface early last month when officials of the Government's National Credit Union Administration, acting on information from the F.B.I. and the Internal Revenue Service, arrived at the offices of the Franklin Community Federal Credit Union and shut it down. Then, on Nov. 14, the agency, which oversees the nation's federally chartered credit unions and insures their deposits, filed the Government suit against Mr. King, whose salary as Franklin Community's manager had been less than $17,000 a year.

Craig J. Spence (1941 – November 10, 1989) was a Republican) lobbyist who was found dead in a Ritz-Carlton hotel room in 1989.[1][2] ...Spence was implicated in a gay call-boy ring scandal, that arranged after-hours visits to the White House, the Washington Times and other papers reported in June 1989. Afterward, Spence committed suicide in a Boston hotel....Spence's name came to national prominence in the aftermath of a June 28, 1989 article in the Washington Timesidentifying Spence as a customer of a homosexual escort service being investigated by the Secret Service, the District of Columbia Police and the United States Attorney's Office for suspected credit card fraud. The newspaper said he spent as much as $20,000 a month on the service. He had also been linked to a White House guard who has said he accepted an expensive watch from Mr. Spence and allowed him and friends to take late-night White House tours.[4]Spence entered a downward spiral in the wake of the Washington Times exposé, increasingly involving himself with call boys and crack,[5] and culminating in his July 31, 1989 arrest at the Barbizon Hotel on East 63rd St in Manhattan for criminal possession of a firearm and criminal possession of cocaine.[6]Months after the scandal had died down, and a few weeks before Spence was found in a room of the Boston Ritz-Carlton Hotel, he was asked who had given him the "key" to the White House. Michael Hedges and Jerry Seper of The Washington Times reported that "Mr. Spence hinted the tours were arranged by 'top level' persons", including Donald Gregg, national security adviser to Vice President George H. W. Bush at the time the tours were given.[5]When pressed to identify who it was who got him inside the White House, Spence asked "Who was it who got [long-term CIA operative] Félix Rodríguez) in to see Bush?", agreeing that he was alluding to Mr. Gregg.[5]Gregg himself dismissed the allegation as "absolute bull", according to Hedges and Seper. "It disturbs me that he can reach a slimy hand out of the sewer to grab me by the ankle like this," he told the reporters. "The allegations are totally false."[5]

In summer 1987, Donald and Ivana Trump visited Moscow and Leningrad, following a personal invitation from the Soviet ambassador in Washington, Yuri Dubinin. The trip was arranged by Intourist, a travel agency that was also an undercover KGB outfit. Soon after returning from Moscow, Trump announced he was thinking of running for president. That presidential bid failed to materialise.In October 1988, on the eve of the US election, Ivana Trump visited her parents in Zlín, known at the time as Gottwaldov. According to the files she “confidently” predicted Bush’s victory to her father, who in turn passed the tip to local StB officers.“The outcome of the election confirmed the veracity of this information,” StB field agent Lt Peter Surý wrote, in a document dated 23 January 1989 and marked “secret”.The prediction came “from the highest echelons of power in the US”. Ivana was “not only a well-heeled US citizen” but moved in “very top political circles”, Surý stated....It is unclear when the KGB began a file on the future president. In Prague about 60,000 StB documents were declassified in the mid-1990s, after the collapse of communism. The StB destroyed most records.However, secret memos written by the KGB chief, Vladimir Kryuchkov, in the mid-1980s reveal that he berated his officers for their failure to cultivate top-level Americans. Kryuchkov circulated a confidential personality questionnaire to KGB heads of station abroad, setting out the qualities wanted from a potential asset.According to instructions leaked to British intelligence by the KGB defector Oleg Gordievsky, they included corruption, vanity, narcissism, marital infidelity and poor analytical skills. The KGB should focus on personalities who were upwardly mobile in business and politics, especially Americans, the document said.

A year before the 1989 collapse of communism in many parts of Europe, details about Ivana Trump's 1988 visit back to her homeland were recorded in a classified police report. The Oct. 22, 1988 report claimed that Trump refused to run for president in 1988 — despite alleged pressure to do so — because he felt, at 42, he was too young. But the secret report said he intended to run in the 1996 U.S. presidential race as an independent, when he would be 50."Even though it looks like a utopia, D. TRUMP is confident he will succeed," the police report said, based on information from an unspecified source who talked to Ivana Trump's father, Milos Zelnicek, about her visit.It was unclear where the alleged "pressure" was coming from. [Note: In "Get Me Roger Stone", Stone claims he was the one who convinced Trump to run.]...Trump's first wife was born Ivana Zelnickova in 1949 in the Czechoslovak city of Gottwaldov, the former city of Zlin that just had been renamed by the Communists, who took over the country in 1948. She married Trump, her second husband, in 1977. As she kept traveling home across the Iron Curtain on a regular basis, Ivana became a tempting target for the powerful, deeply feared Czechoslovak secret police agency known as the StB.

“Everybody, but everybody at the party aboard British media mogul Robert Maxwell’s yacht Wednesday night had to doff their shoes before boarding the plush-carpeted “Lady Ghislaine.” Maxwell insisted, and his guests cooperated, including Donald Trump (minus Ivana), who has a much bigger yacht and was happy to compare notes with Maxwell. [Note: This is in reference to the Kingdom 5KR, originally owned by Adnan Khashoggi, international arms dealer and uncle of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi.] There were John Tower [Republican Senator in charge of the Tower Commission, which investigated Iran Contra]; ex-Navy secretary John Lehman [Reagan appointee 1981-1987], now with Paine Webber; lawyer Tom Bolan [law partner of Roy Cohn]; literary agent Mort Janklow [clients include both Nancy and Ronald Reagan for their memoirs]; UN envoy Thomas Pickering [currently a board member at the world’s biggest pipe company, OAO TMK, in Moscow and Chairman of the Rostropovich-Vishnevskaya Foundation, “a non-profit organization based in Washington, DC that supports programs to improve the health of children worldwide”]; and Peter Kalikow, owner of the New York Post [awarded the Israel Peace Medal in 1982; created a super PAC for Herman Cain that was later revealed to be entirely financed by his donations]; Maxwell’s daughter, Ghislaine, and his niece, Helene Atkin of Macmillan, the publishing house Maxwell recently took over."[Note: This sentence wasn't in the Daily News article but shows up in a St Louis Dispatch piece a week later]: “Maxwell, who weighs about 300 pounds, went over the guest list personally.""No one could tell who didn’t make the final list, but we do know that Martha Smilgis of Time was disinvited by David Adler, public relations chief at Macmillan. She wrote the profile of Maxwell which he apparently did not like.”

Ian Robert Maxwell "MC (10 June 1923 – 5 November 1991), born Ján Ludvík Hyman Binyamin Hoch, was a British media proprietor and Member of Parliament (MP). Originally from Czechoslovakia, Maxwell rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire….Maxwell had a flamboyant lifestyle, living in Headington Hill Hall in Oxford, from which he often flew in his helicopter, and sailing in his luxury yacht, the Lady Ghislaine. He was notably litigious and often embroiled in controversy, including about his support for Israel at the time of the 1948 Palestine war. In 1989, he had to sell successful businesses, including Pergamon Press, to cover some of his debts. In 1991, his body was discovered floating in the Atlantic Ocean, having fallen overboard from his yacht. He was buried in Jerusalem. Maxwell's death triggered the collapse of his publishing empire as banks called in loans. His sons briefly attempted to keep the business together, but failed as the news emerged that the elder Maxwell had stolen hundreds of millions of pounds from his own companies' pension funds. The Maxwell companies applied for bankruptcy protection in 1992....Shortly before Maxwell's death, a former employee of Israel's Military Intelligence Directorate, Ari Ben-Menashe, approached a number of news organisations in Britain and the U.S. with the allegation that Maxwell and the Daily Mirror's foreign editor, Nicholas Davies, were both long-time agents for Mossad. Ben-Menashe also claimed that in 1986, Maxwell had told the Israeli Embassy in London that Mordechai Vanunu had given information about Israel's nuclear capability to The Sunday Times, then to the Daily Mirror. Vanunu was subsequently kidnapped by Mossad and smuggled to Israel, convicted of treason and imprisoned for eighteen years.Ben-Menashe's story was ignored at first, but eventually The New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh repeated some of the allegations during a press conference in London held to publicise The Samson Option, Hersh's book about Israel's nuclear weapons. On 21 October 1991, two MPs, Labour's George Galloway and the Conservative's Rupert Allason (also known as espionage author Nigel West), agreed to raise the issue in the House of Commons under Parliamentary Privilege protection, which in turn allowed British newspapers to report events without fear of libel suits. Maxwell called the claims "ludicrous, a total invention" and sacked Davies.[44] A year later, in Galloway's libel settlement against Mirror Group Newspapers (in which he received "substantial" damages), Galloway's counsel announced that the MP accepted that the group's staff had not been involved in Vanunu's abduction. Galloway himself, however, referred to Maxwell as "one of the worst criminals of the century....The Maxwell companies filed for bankruptcy protection in 1992. Kevin Maxwell was declared bankrupt with debts of £400 million. In 1995, Kevin and Ian and two other former directors went on trial for conspiracy to defraud, but were unanimously acquitted by a twelve-man jury in 1996.”

He taught calculus and physics at the prestigious Dalton School, a prep school in Manhattan, from 1973 to 1975, despite not having a college degree. Attorney General William Barr's father, Donald Barr, was headmaster at the time...Epstein left Dalton in the mid-1970s for a job at Bear Stearns at the urging of a student's father who arranged a meeting with the chairman of the investment bank, according to published reports. He later began his own money-management business, J. Epstein & Co....Epstein has long obscured the source of his wealth. Even after his arrest, he refused to provide authorities with even basic information about his income and assets. His attorney said Epstein's lawyers intend to provide the information but want to make sure it is correct first.This much is clear: "He is a man of nearly infinite means," federal prosecutor Alex Rossmiller said in court....Epstein also forged a relationship with Leslie Wexner, the retail titan behind Victoria's Secret, The Limited and other store chains. He started managing Wexner's money in the late 1980s and helped straighten out the finances for a real estate development Wexner was backing in a wealthy Columbus, Ohio, suburb.It was through Wexner that [in1996] Epstein acquired his Manhattan mansion, a seven-story, 21,000-square-foot former prep school less than a block from Central Park. It has been valued at about $77 million.

Donald Trump, for his part, was becoming increasingly restless, and reckless. Despite fathering 3 children and having a devoted wife, by all accounts he didn’t spend much time with any of them, preferring work and play to the routines of domestic life. In the 80’s he made at least two life changing decisions-to step out on his wife publicly, and to expand his negligible empire into Atlantic City casinos. He built Harrah’s at Trump Plaza in 1984, and a partially completed building that became Trump Castle in 1985-a property that would be managed by his first wife, Ivana. He also scooped up the Taj Mahal in 1988, which at a cost of $1.1 billion made it the most expensive casino ever built at the time.

Resorts International, which opened the city's first gambling hall 5 1/2 years ago, broke ground yesterday for a second casino-hotel that will cost $250 million to build and will contain 1,000 hotel rooms and the world's second-largest casino.

Resorts International was a hotel and casino company. From its origins as a paint company, it moved into the resort business in the 1960s with the development of Paradise Island in the Bahamas, and then expanded to Atlantic City, New Jersey with the opening of Resorts Casino Hotel in 1978.

Resorts International was largely a family affair that grew out of a company called the Mary Carter Paint Company."Mary Carter (she never existed) was pretty much a family affair controlled by Jim Crosby, two of his brothers, and his in-laws. Based in Tampa, Florida, the firm included in its directorate James Crosby, John Crosby (a plastic surgeon in Mobile, Alabama), William Crosby (a Tampa realtor), and the Murphy brothers, Henry and Tom, who'd married the Crosby daughters. Henry owned a funeral home in Trenton, New Jersey, while Tom was board chairman of Capital Cities Communications, a successful broadcasting business founded by explorer Lowell Thomas. The explorer too was an early shareholder in Mary Carter Paint, as was Republican Thomas Dewey." (Spooks, Jim Hougan, pg. 381)Acclaimed researchers Sally Denton and Roger Morris note: "... the Mary Carter Paint Company, which was widely considered to be a CIA front that laundered payments to the Cuban exile army in the early sixties..." (The Money and the Power, pg. 284).This is certainly quite plausible considering Mary Carter was then based out of Tampa, a hub for joint CIA-Syndicate efforts to assassinate Castro. As was noted before here, Tampa don Santo Trafficante, Jr. was one of the gangsters initially tapped by the CIA's notorious Office of Security to arrange for Castro's untimely demise. Trafficante, a close associate of Meyer Lansky (whom we shall return to again), had been deeply involved in Cuba's gambling operations prior to the revolution and would later become even more deeply immersed in the world heroin trade. As was noted before here, he was very close to the emerging Cuban Mafia, which provided ample recruits to the CIA during the early 1960s despite much suspicion that Trafficante was a double agent for Castro.Certainly the Mary Carter Paint Company would have been well positioned to assist Trafficante in these endeavors in Tampa. And such a connection would also explain why the corporation, in the mid-1960s (as CIA Cuban operations were winding down), abruptly sold off its paint business and boldly delved into gambling. By the end of the decade it was managing one of the most profitable casinos in the world on the Bahama's Paradise Island.What it amounts to is that by the late period James Crosby emerged as not only the CEO of Mary CarteResorts International, but as an extremely well connected figure within the GOP and beyond."... Crosby was himself uniquely situated in Republican circles: a sometime guest at the White House, he'd donated $100,000 to Nixon's 1968 campaign. He was also a friend of, and frequent host two, Bebe Rebozo (with whom he banked). Moreover, Crosby's private intelligence agency, Intertel, was even then working with White House aides and ITT executives to discredit Jack Anderson's revelations anent ITT and Chile. At the same time, Intertel was the de factocustodian of the demented billionaire Howard Hughes (his own $100,000 donation would later result in two volumes of Senate testimony in the Watergate affair). Indeed, the ties between Paradise Island and Richard Nixon's administration were of the sort that bind: Allan Butler, owner of the failing bank that was his namesake, claims the Nixon was a silent partner of Crosby's in his Bahamian ventures, sharing a healthy chunk of Paradise Island bridge revenues with yet another secret partner, Bebe Rebozo. And by by no means finally, James O. Golden, Resorts' vice-president and one of Intertel's founding spooks, had formerly served as Nixon's Secret Service shield, later taking charge of security for the Nixon forces at the GOP's 1968 convention in Miami Beach. That Paradise Island is a special place, and had a special place in the heart (or what passed for a heart) of the Nixon regime, is abundantly clear... (Spooks, Jim Hougan, pg. 180) ...And that brings us to possibly the most curious aspects of Resorts, namely its ownership of its own vast private intelligence network.It was known as Intertel, short for International Intelligence, Inc. Intertel was incorporated in 1970 as an almost wholly-owned subsidiary of Resorts International and hit the ground running. During its heyday, Intertel had an impressive roster and an international reach. It would turn up in host of intrigues throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Curiously, it had its origins with Robert Kennedy's "Get Hoffa" squad."... Intertel, known especially and remarkably for its composition of former organized crime strike force attorneys from Robert Kennedy's Justice Department... The IRS considered Intertel... 'an organized crime enterprise of some type aimed at the Bahamas,' as one account summed up the agency's view. Roberts Peloquin and William Hundley, Kennedy's top crime fighters, had joined the firm and recruited operatives from the CIA, FBI, IRS, Secret Service, and other intelligence agencies. Staffed exclusively by what one author called 'Get Hoffa agents,' it was likened into a corporate CIA.' (The Money and the Power, Sally Denton & Roger Morris, pg. 284)...Intertel's other ventures include spying of muckraker Jack Anderson) for ITT, investigating the Chicago Tylenol murders and the Bhopal disaster. Even more ominous, however, were its dealings with a shady Belgium-based private detective agency known as Agence de Recherche et d'Information (ARI). As was noted before here, ARI was linked to members of the neo-fascist terror organization known as the Westland New Post, a few of whom had also been implicated in drug trafficking and pedophile rings. Intertel reportedly hired ARI to do some work for them during the 1980s....What is of great interest to us here is Trump's third Atlantic City casino: the Taj Mahal. While now widely associated with Trump, thanks in no small part to it leading to his first bankruptcy, it was not in fact Trump who started the casino. That dubious distinction lies with Resorts International.The company had begun construction on the Taj Mahal in 1983, but had run into persistent difficulties in finishing construction in the following years. Then, in April 1986, James Crosby died suddenly. This left Resorts in turmoil (allegedly) and Trump stepped in. Trump bought a controlling stake in the company in 1987 and was promptly named its chairman of the board.Let that sink in for a moment: Donald J. Trump, the current President of the United States, was briefly the chairman of a corporation long suspected of being a CIA front, that had decades-spanning involvement with the Syndicate, numerous "rogue" financiers, various drug and arms traffickers and which owned a vast private intelligence network...."

Developer Donald Trump took control of Resorts International Inc. yesterday in a $79 million deal that gives him his third Atlantic City casino, including what will be the largest gaming hall in the city.Trump sealed the deal in New York with those connected to the estate of the late founder of Resorts International, James M. Crosby.Trump paid a cash price of $135 a share for 585,068 shares of Class B stock, which has 100 times the voting power of Class A stock.He is expected to make a formal tender offer for the remaining 167,230 shares of Class B stock within the next several weeks at the same $135-a-share price. Owning all the Class B stock would give him 93 percent of the company's voting power.At a board meeting immediately after the transaction with the Crosby estate, Trump was elected chairman of the board of Resorts International, replacing Henry B. Murphy, Crosby's brother-in-law, who resigned.

After a painful scalp reduction surgery to remove a bald spot, Donald Trump confronted his then-wife, who had previously used the same plastic surgeon.“Your fucking doctor has ruined me!” Trump cried.What followed was a “violent assault,” according to Lost Tycoon. Donald held back Ivana’s arms and began to pull out fistfuls of hair from her scalp, as if to mirror the pain he felt from his own operation. He tore off her clothes and unzipped his pants.“Then he jams his penis inside her for the first time in more than sixteen months. Ivana is terrified… It is a violent assault,” Hurt writes. “According to versions she repeats to some of her closest confidantes, ‘he raped me.’”Following the incident, Ivana ran upstairs, hid behind a locked door, and remained there “crying for the rest of night.” When she returned to the master bedroom in the morning, he was there.“As she looks in horror at the ripped-out hair scattered all over the bed, he glares at her and asks with menacing casualness: ‘Does it hurt?’” Hurt writes.

Part of a “calendar girl” competition organized at Trump’s request, the party was put together by a businessman named George Houraney, who spoke with the New York Times for a story published Tuesday.Houraney was also one of many to accuse Trump of sexual harassment, this time toward his former girlfriend and business partner, Jill Harth, who described an incident in 1997 as an attempted rape by Trump.“I arranged to have some contestants fly in,” Houraney told the Times. “At the very first party, I said, ‘Who’s coming tonight? I have 28 girls coming.’ It was him and Epstein.”...Before the “calendar girl” event, Houraney warned Trump about Epstein once again.“Look, Donald, I know Jeff really well, I can’t have him going after younger girls,” Houraney recalled telling Trump in the Times interview. “He said: ‘Look I’m putting my name on this. I wouldn’t put my name on it and have a scandal.’”

It was a snowy night in Manhattan, December 1992, and the festive group was embarking on a circuit of exclusive clubs after a sumptuous dinner at the Plaza Hotel’s Oak Room.As the limo wove through the city, Trump discussed his views on dating, according to one of the women riding along. The billionaire casino mogul declared that “all women are bimbos” and said most were “gold diggers” who would be smart to go after men with money. Like him.Rhonda Noggle, the model who relayed the story to the Globe in an interview, said that, at that point, she had had enough. Speaking sharply to Trump, she said, she asked him to stop the limo. The car grew silent.

1989-1995 just so happens to be the same time period in which Donald Trumps world and empire was falling apart at the seams. In the beginning of the decade he was facing the end of his first marriage and a looming court battle. Despite his purportedly active dating life, by many accounts Trump was being rejected by many, if not most, of the women he pursued-including Carla Bruni and Jill Hearth. Marla Maples, after years of being the secret mistress and repeated rounds of being dumped and publicly humiliated by Trump, was starting to lose her patience. And the big gamble he took in Atlantic City was, by all accounts, failing miserably-a direct result of his jaw droppingly awful business practices and general incompetence. In 1991, his Taj Mahal Casino filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy. In 1992, he again filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy again, this time on his Trump Plaza Hotel (also in Atlantic City), at the time owing $550 million dollars. Recall that he would report an almost 1 billion dollar loss on his 1995 tax returns, according to the copies obtained by the New York Times. Indeed, the early 90’s were not a very good era for Donald Trump. In light of this fact, it’s worth noting that the sexual assault allegations against him are all clustered within this very time frame. [Note: This article was written in 2016, prior to more allegations]...By the time “New York Magazine” did a front page profile of him in 1988, Casablancas reputation for bedding young models was established and begrudgingly accepted (a price to pay in exchange for his “genius”) within the New York social scene, but the expose came as a shock to many outside the bubble. John Casablancas would soon find out that he was not as untouchable as he thought he was. In the article-which ran under the title “Girl Crazy”-Casablancas was portrayed as a champagne guzzling pervert, singularly dedicated to the “new look” department of Elite where he spent his days ogling the scantily clad, sometimes naked bodies of teenage girls. In light of Donald Trump’s more alarming comments and decisions around his daughter Ivanka, this quote stands out:"Casablancas talked about his seventeen year old daughter, Cecile. He said Cecile had been solicited by a photographer last summer on a beach in Ibiza. The photographer asked her to pose in a bikini, and Casablancas raced over to try to get a $2,000 fee for the shot. “She’s got a great little body” he told his models."Another quote that brings a chuckle and a nod of recognition in this story is Casablancas’s bizarre pride over never having changed a diaper. Donald Trump would make similar boasts in a Howard Stern interview a few years later. Compelling proof this is not, but I do believe it’s a hint at the kind of Don Juan persona that Don, far from a Juan, actually a dejected, balding husband with a crumbling empire....But the scandal did not end there, nor did it begin. Less than a month earlier 60 minutes aired a prime-time special on the abuses of underage girls in the modeling industry. Investigative reporter Craig Pyes portrayed the modeling industry as infested with agents who were notorious hustlers and playboys. His report revealed that both Claude Haddad- the head of European scouting for Ford- and Ford’s Paris-based agent Jean-Luc Brunel had been accused of horrific sexual misconduct by many models. [Note: Brunel's name appears multiple times on Epstein's flight manifests.] The special aired the interviews of dozens of women who accused both Brunel and Haddad of a litany of crimes, ranging from racist invective towards black models to violent rape. And in fact the hidden camera footage captured in filming the special caught it all- from Xavier lamenting about n**er models, to Haddad chuckling about drugging and raping 13 year old girls. According to Model At a retreat soon after the one-two punch delivered by the coverage, Haddad, Jean Luc Brunel and Casablancas were once again overheard (albeit not taped this time around) laughing about their crimes. Alternatively they were angry when confronted by interim scouting manager Trudi Tapscott - ”I’m a man and I have needs, I will not apologize for that!” Casablancas is said to have declared....Over time Donald Trump would emerge from the ruins of his empire with a new approach to business, and a new source of income-in 1996 he bought the rights to the Miss Universe franchise, and became the central figure in the running of these pageants. And in 1999 he started a modeling agency - T models, later changed to Trump Model Management. The correlation of interests is quite clear-for a man awkward around women but dependent on his public image saying otherwise, a stable of women under his employ was a way to boost his image-and even better, he was able to lock all of these women into non disclosure agreements, ensuring that his behavior with them had little chance of becoming public knowledge. It also appeared to have served as a useful tool regarding his business transactions-which, in the aftermath of his bankruptcy, were increasingly dependent on some less than savory characters. How he did this, and the breadth of this activity, will be explored in the next installment. But for the time being, there is one final aspect of this story that is breathtaking, and speaks more to the character of Donald Trump than anything else.