KC fucked themselves in that game.
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He got a massive pass in the article I referenced. Basically, this guy gives millions to causes we see as good, so it’s cool that he’s a John.
Edited for “millions”
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Somewhere in there is a joke about deflated balls.
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I don’t think anyone is giving him a pass on this…have you seen the news coverage?
I do think many folks are asking “Why is this such a big deal…who cares?!”
The NFL has a host of other far more serious issues on its hands including and not limited to players who have have serious domestic abuse incidents on their hands…one of the owners soliciting a sex act has got to be the least important thing on anyone’s list.
Edit…and then there is this bullshit:
Comparing Kraft’s crime to that of R Kelly or Epstein is utterly ludicrous. There is something very VERY different between an old guy going to a massage parlor for what he believes to be “of age” prostitution and the other two who willfully and knowingly abused under age girls.
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I’m talking about one article that came up on my google news feed from forward.com. I only read it because I wanted to see the “religious” perspective.
Other than that I’m not aware of the coverage. I stopped paying attention to the NFL a few years ago.
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I’m struggling with understanding the outrage associated with this story, and in struggling am starting to worry that I’m a bit of a monster.
When it comes to preventing slavery, we usually expect the state to keep track of things – for example, when it came out that taco bell’s tomatoes were grown with slave labor[0], no one went to jail for eating their tacos – indeed, I never even heard anyone criticized for eating there. And if you’d asked me about it ten years ago I would’ve said – yeah, the slavers should go to jail but it’s unrealistic to expect me to know the source of every tomato that I eat – I don’t want the responsiblity of enforceing the laws against slavery myself via individual acts of consumer choice.
So, now we come to Kraft. If (as seems likely) he didn’t know that the workers at the massage parlor were coerced, is he more of a villain than I was for eating at taco bell in 2002? I am assuming here that it is at least /possible/ for sex work to be consensual and moral. Obviously for those who don’t believe that, the source of outrage is obvious.
[0] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2003/mar/17/usa.duncancampbell
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Equity firm owner John Childs, 77, is also among the 173 men charged by prosecutors as part of the months-long sting operation.
Mr Childs, the owner of JW Childs Associates in Massachusetts, has been a prominent Republican donor, and has given over $4m to Republican candidates and organisations in the last several years alone, according to federal records.
From:
Robert Kraft: No ‘special justice’ for accused NFL owner Robert Kraft: No 'special justice' for accused NFL owner - BBC News
There is NO WAY Kraft was unaware of the coercive nature of the massage parlor. In 2015, he gave $100k to an anti trafficking organization!
I guess we know what it takes for Kraft to buy a clear conscience. (Sounds like a lot, but it’s like us dropping a buck in the salvation army jar). He should plead Alzheimer’s, turn over the team to his son, and get out of our sight.
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There were cameras in place in the presumably private massage rooms? Were the workers aware of this? Was this business established by law enforcement? The linked article does not address these questions.
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So every time you have frequented ANY establishment of ANY kind you know exactly whats what in the books of the business and what the staff an owners are up to at all times?
Interesting clairvoyance and know more than anyone else that is on your part. Congrats on being such an evolved person. You join BB a month ago just to post stuff like this I bet.
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Have you ever given a blowjob? 10 minutes is long enough.
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I don’t even receive blowjobs anymore…I’m married.
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so that first picture is him craftily slipping the 100 to the Tramp?
I think there’s an appreciable difference, to say the least, between prostitution and other forms of commerce where the “commodity” being “traded” isn’t women’s bodies. Labor and exploitation issues are much more stark, urgent and intersectional. Slave-grown tomatoes on a taco is a lot more abstract than having an indentured servant service your body. Say what you will about Eliot Spitzer, at least he frequented well-compensated prostitutes in what seemed to be a relatively sophistocated organization. If what @Zod says about Kraft’s familiarity with anti-trafficking campaigns is true, that’s seems pretty relevant to me. This may not be a terribly unique or especially outrage-worthy occurance, but also it only takes internet headshakes if the reactions number in the millions to add up to something that sounds like outrage.
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They are exchanging their White Male Privilege Challenge Coins. Trumps is gold.
Me for one. I care about slavery. I care about people forced against their will to have sex with people. I also care when people of influence and power escape the consequences of their illegal and immoral actions by paying off the right people.
The question is, what is going on with you that you don’t care about any of this?
I am absolutely aghast at your position that it’s no big deal to engage is sex with a slave against their will.
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I think it’s akin to buying weed. Lots of people buy it, they don’t feel they are evil for doing so, but as long as it’s illegal the supply may well come through a chain of murderers. Deciding not to use the service of prostitutes at all is the easiest way to stay out of it, but unless I’m going to equate my friends who smoke weed with murderers, I find it hard to equate people who use massage parlours as sex shops for human trafficking.
That said, I can see a couple of differences. One is that if you are buying sex from people who are being held as slaves, you are looking into they eyes of the victim. It makes me concerned that people can do this and not see the humanity of that person. Another is my bias against having sex with people who aren’t enthusiastic about it. I genuinely don’t understand the appeal and so it feel a bit judgy towards people who do it. Lastly, it’s hard to have sympathy for someone as rich as Kraft who could have availed themself of any number of options for sex, rather than engaging in one of the dodgiest and highest-risk-of-exploitation ways of buying it.
We ought to be outraged that prostitution is illegal at all, given the obvious harm of making it illegal. The sex industry would be much better controlled by local zoning bylaws and a self-regulating professional college than be criminal law.
There’s the ticket.
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I find it bizarre that you keep calling masseuses “slaves”.
Have you ever paid for a service, such as a massage, a pedicure, or a haircut? Are those people also “slaves”?
By no means do I support human trafficking or slavery and think it’s sick and insulting that you’re putting words in my mouth to imply that I do.
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First off Krafts foundation gave 100k to an anti trafficking group. I highly doubt Kraft is “familiar” with it in any way. He’s a billionaire and most likely has very little knowledge of where his foundation sends money so long as it fits certain criteria. A board of directors makes those decisions and they follow the stipulations set down by The late Martha Kraft who ran the foundation before her cancer struggles.
Secondarily we cannot have it both ways. On one post here in BB there was a woman who was shunned from NYC restaurants for being a sex worker and we championed treating sex workers with respect and dignity. Then here a 77 yr old man solicits sex work and now he’s shunned and made out to be a pariah?
I am all for waiting for the evidence to come out that he knowingly solicited a minor or was involved with sex trafficking and THEN I will condemn him as much as anyone. But with what we KNOW right now he simply solicited a prostitute. And over paid for those services as well. Not something I’m going to clutch my pearls on or try to bury the guy prior to hearing more.
And anyone speculating on more is absolutely full of shit.
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From what I’ve read so far in this case the women involved may have held against their will. It was not clear to me at first, so I thought the issue was being blown up simply because of who Kraft is (if he had gone to the Bunny Ranch there would be some raised eyebrows and thats it.)
There is a dichotomy in the prostitution debate: we can be in favor of legalized and protected sex work but still opposed to sexual slavery (as we’d be opposed to any slavery), so my first impression was maybe the masseuses were trying to make some extra cash, but I’ve seen reports that they were brought to the US with promises of legal work then forced into sex work. Maybe this is also inaccurate, it’s the nature of the press to hype the more sinister parts of a story for ratings, so we’ll have to wait and see. Kraft himself probably didn’t know about the slavery aspect of the spa, and his politics aside I kind of look at him as a sad old man, as I’d look at anyone who resorts to paying for a hand job.
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