Sean Combs was sued on Monday by a music producer who accused the hip-hop mogul of making unwanted sexual contact and of forcing him to hire prostitutes and participate in sex acts with them.
The latest misconduct allegation against Mr. Combs was filed in Federal District Court in Manhattan by Rodney Jones Jr., also known as Lil Rod. In 2022 and 2023, Mr. Jones says in his suit, he worked on what became “The Love Album: Off the Grid,” the latest album by Mr. Combs, the hip-hop and R&B impresario who has variously been known as Puff Daddy and P. Diddy. Mr. Jones says he served as a producer on nine of the album’s tracks and lived with Mr. Combs for months at a time.
While working on “The Love Album,” Mr. Jones says in his complaint that Mr. Combs grabbed his genitals without consent, and that he also tried to “groom” Mr. Jones into having sex with another man, telling him it was “a normal practice in the music industry.”
In a statement, Shawn Holley, a lawyer for Mr. Combs, said: “Lil Rod is nothing more than a liar who filed a $30 million lawsuit shamelessly looking for an undeserved payday. His reckless name-dropping about events that are pure fiction and simply did not happen is nothing more than a transparent attempt to garner headlines. We have overwhelming, indisputable proof that his claims are complete lies.”
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When the suit was filed, the court’s system originally said that Mr. Jones’s demand was for $30 billion. His lawyer, Tyrone A. Blackburn, said that was an error, and that it would be corrected to reflect a demand of $30 million. Ms. Holley’s statement originally reflected a response to $30 billion.

According to Mr. Jones’s complaint, at a listening party in July 2023 at Mr. Combs’s home in California, he was forced to drink shots of tequila laced with drugs, though the legal papers do not specify who offered him the shots or how he was forced. In the suit, Mr. Jones says that after he had the drink, he passed out and awoke “at 4 a.m. the following morning naked with a sex worker sleeping next to him.”
According to the suit, Mr. Combs also forced Mr. Jones to “solicit sex workers and perform sex acts to the pleasure of Mr. Combs.” To induce him, Mr. Jones says, Mr. Combs offered him money and also threatened him with violence.
The 73-page lawsuit is filled with graphic details and photographs, and in addition to Mr. Combs, names as defendants the Universal Music Group — the giant music company that Mr. Combs briefly partnered with before releasing “The Love Album” — as well as some of its top executives. The lawsuit said Mr. Combs maintained control over Mr. Jones by dangling promises of accolades and access to high-level record executives.
A representative of Universal Music did not immediately have a comment.
In his suit, Mr. Jones says he was not properly paid for his work as a producer on “The Love Album,” and earlier this month he began a crowdfunding campaign online with a statement reading, “Help Me Sue Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs.” (As of Monday, it had raised less than $1,500 of a stated goal of $50,000.)

The suit by Mr. Jones is the latest in a series of explosive allegations against Mr. Combs, one of the primary figures who transformed hip-hop into a major global pop movement in the 1990s, working with stars like Mary J. Blige and the Notorious B.I.G.
In November, Casandra Ventura, who was Mr. Combs’s longtime girlfriend, and was signed to his Bad Boy label under the name Cassie, accused him of rape and years of physical and sexual abuse in a detailed lawsuit that made headlines around the world. That suit was settled in just one day, with both parties saying it had been resolved “amicably,” and a lawyer for Mr. Combs saying he denied the accusations.
Three other cases followed in quick succession, each alleging sexual assault. Mr. Combs has denied those, saying: “Sickening allegations have been made against me by individuals looking for a quick payday. Let me be absolutely clear: I did not do any of the awful things being alleged. I will fight for my name, my family and for the truth.”
Lawyers for Mr. Combs have been fighting the remaining lawsuits in court, arguing in a filing last week that a claim from a woman who says that Mr. Combs gang-raped her in 2003, when she was 17, is too old to bring in court despite the plaintiff’s argument that it was revived by an amendment to a New York City law that established a window for expired claims to be filed. The lawyers said the claim “irreparably damaged” Mr. Combs’s reputation based on “rank, uncorroborated allegations.”

Anyone have any insight on the interview process? I see it generally lasts for 2 hours.


Thank you

Apparently Apple+ and Taika Waititi think so. I am 100% sure this is going to be a disaster. They're already getting sued by a cast member.

well, you know the rest....

A tourist on a popular Mexican beach was attacked by a bull — and it was all caught on camera. But rather than flee from the bull, the oblivious woman opted to feed it from a bowl despite horrified onlookers pleading with her to get away from the beast.
The tourist, wearing a black sundress and straw hat, eventually gathers her belongings, but the bull, having now been fed, begins to follow her.


Entertaining video at the link...

On ESPN2 pre draft games, Sandfort on Love team, start of 2nd quarter

While on vacation in Hawaii. Daughter no pics. Fainted and had a concussion. She had to ride ambulance and go to ER. Anyway the Hawaii a Department of health is now appealing to our insurance company about the payment of the bill. They need our authorization to appeal it and of course it’s voluntary. Assume the insurance company isn’t paying much or little at all. Doesn’t appear to affect me at all from a financial stand point. Should I just ignore it.

Few years late on this but the first season was fun. Lots of banging and smart funny.

Received a text overnight that my mother was admitted to the hospital last night after having a heart attack. She is in relatively good health, so this is a major surprise to the family.

Angiogram showed multiple near full blockages, one being the widowmaker at 95%. Sounds like she will be going in for open heart surgery later this week.

Will keep you all posted on how things go. I'll be heading up to Iowa to be with her / my family soon.

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Yeesh. Indentured servitude.

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Column on Payton Sandfort's upcoming decision. Based on what we saw during the five-on-five portion of the combine and his overall performance thus far, he should return to Iowa for his senior season.

STORY:

The relatives playing high level sports got me thinking about famous people? Know any or have friends of friends... I'll go first.

My dentist for 28 years is Scott Stapp of Creed's dad. He still sends me (long) handwritten Christmas Cards each year and has hooked me up with some back-stage, autograph stuff, etc. over the years.

My HS girlfriend's sister was Jimmy Buffett's nanny for years. Got to hear some fun stories.

My other HS girlfriend was the great great granddaughter of Thomas Paine, the author of Common Sense (may have missed a great in there).

That's all I got.

What a POS, but we already knew that:

Far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) invoked Donald Trump’s 2020 debate-stage words to a right-wing extremist group called the Proud Boys on Thursday as Gaetz and other lawmakers attended court with Trump.
“Standing back and standing by, Mr. President,” Gaetz wrote on X above a photo of himself standing with Trump in the Manhattan courthouse.


Trump famously declined to condemn the Proud Boys at a 2020 presidential debate with then-challenger Joe Biden, instead telling them to “stand back and stand by” and criticizing the far-left network antifa. Several Proud Boys members, including former leader Enrique Tarrio, were eventually convicted of seditious conspiracy for their roles in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

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Democrats condemned Gaetz’s comments Thursday.
“Donald Trump is surrounding himself today with disgraced MAGA extremists like Matt Gaetz, who is shamelessly invoking Trump’s infamous call for the Proud Boys to ‘stand back and stand by’ before they violently attacked our democracy on January 6,” Alex Floyd, the Democratic National Committee’s rapid response director, said in a statement.

1 rep max.

Edit: Stop guys, I mean it, this is not about poop!

Last October, an Israeli settler in the West Bank set a Palestinian home on fire. In January, a mob of settlers chased a truck driver and two of his workers, sending all three to the hospital. And last fall, a settler shot a Palestinian in the stomach in front of an Israeli soldier. Yet the authorities have not charged any of these settlers — or others who have attacked West Bank residents — with crimes.
These stories come from a multiyear investigation that my colleagues Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti have just published in The Times Magazine. In it, they document how violent factions within the settler movement have repeatedly received protection from the Israeli government despite attacks against Palestinians — and even against Israeli officials who tried to challenge the settlers.
“A long history of crime without punishment,” Ronen and Mark write, “threatens not only Palestinians living in the occupied territories but also the State of Israel itself.” Their story, they explain, “is an account of a sometimes criminal nationalistic movement that has been allowed to operate with impunity and gradually move from the fringes to the mainstream of Israeli society.”
The government has accepted settler violence for decades, leaving many West Bank Palestinians feeling frightened and helpless. An Israeli government report in 1982 documented the problem, to no effect. So did later reports in 2005 and 2012.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister for most of the past three decades, has played a central role. He regained power in 2022 by inviting the radical parts of the settler movement into his government. One of these radicals is Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, who in 1995 vaguely threatened the life of Yitzhak Rabin, then the prime minister, who was trying to restrain the settlers. Weeks later, a right-wing nationalist murdered Rabin.
In today’s newsletter, I want to tell about some of the key points from Ronen and Mark’s story and also put it the larger context of the war in Gaza.

Two states?​

A major impediment to a truce in Gaza today is Netanyahu’s unwillingness to develop a long-term plan for the territory. (Some geographical background: Mark and Ronen’s story focuses on the West Bank, which, like Gaza, is a Palestinian territory that Israel occupies.) The U.S. and Arab countries both say that any such plan must take steps toward a two-state solution that would include the creation of a Palestinian state.

​

Netanyahu opposes a Palestinian state, calling it a threat to Israel’s security. As prime minister, he has repeatedly tried to undermine a two-state solution. Netanyahu has sidelined more moderate Palestinian leaders who recognize Israel’s right to exist. He instead preferred to leave Hamas in power in Gaza (until the Oct. 7 attacks, that is).
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Israel’s endorsement of settler lawlessness is part of this pattern. By abetting the violent takeover of parts of the West Bank, Netanyahu has made an Israeli withdrawal from that territory — a necessary part of a two-state solution — much harder.
As is often the case with this conflict, both sides deserve blame. Palestinian leaders have repeatedly undermined a two-state solution, as well. They rejected a U.N. proposal in 1947 that would have created a Palestinian state, calling it unacceptable. They rejected another offer during talks led by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Instead, Palestinian militants launched a series of terrorist attacks known as the Second Intifada.
More recently, Palestinian activists have increasingly called for a single state, stretching from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, which would mean the end of the world’s only Jewish state — one place Jews could flee for safety if antisemitism took hold elsewhere.
Still, as remote as it may now seem, the prospect of a two-state solution is not dead. Arab and U.S. leaders, as well as many Israelis and Palestinians, continue to believe it is the best hope for lasting peace.

The article by Mark and Ronen is important partly because it highlights how much Israel’s government will need to change in order for a Palestinian state to become a reality. As they write:

How did a young nation turn so quickly on its own democratic ideals, and at what price? Any meaningful answer to these questions has to take into account how a half-century of lawless behavior that went largely unpunished propelled a radical form of ultranationalism to the center of Israeli politics.

Click to expand...

You can read the main takeaways from their story in this short article. But I recommend making time for the full version today or this weekend. It contains three parts that you can read in pieces.
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The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted Palestinians as well as Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explains how this movement gained control of the state itself. You can read it all here.

Anyone held accountable for this crap yet

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Deplorables:

The House was in session at the Capitol on Thursday, but thanks to the latest procession of Republicans reporting for duty in front of a Manhattan criminal courthouse to show support for former President Donald J. Trump at his trial, the party risked ceding its control of the floor.
Almost a dozen House Republicans showed up at the courthouse on Thursday, including hard-right rabble rousers like Representatives Matt Gaetz of Florida; Anna Paulina Luna of Florida; Lauren Boebert of Colorado; and Bob Good of Virginia. They said they were there to speak on behalf of Mr. Trump because a gag order had barred him from speaking for himself.
“We are here of our own volition, because there are things we can say that President Trump is unjustly not allowed to say,” Mr. Gaetz said at a news conference outside the courthouse. He said the former president was on trial for a “made-up crime” that he called “the Mr. Potato Head of crimes” — composed of unrelated elements awkwardly stuck together.
Mr. Good said the trial was an example of Democrats trying to “rig” the presidential election against Mr. Trump. After Ms. Luna sat in the courtroom, she came out to report that: “The president is doing well. He’s in good spirits.”
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Republicans control the House by such a slim margin, 217-213, that just two defections can sink legislation if all members are present and voting — and just a few absences can erase their majority altogether. The show of support for Mr. Trump from such a large group of members meant that for much of Thursday, the G.O.P. may have handed the floor over to Democrats, leaving themselves exposed.

House Republicans had a vote scheduled for Thursday afternoon to rebuke President Biden for his decision to pause an arms shipment to Israel and compel his administration to quickly deliver weapons.
The bill was designed to divide Democrats and embarrass Mr. Biden, and had no chance of passing the Senate or becoming law. But with so many Republicans off campus demonstrating their fealty to Mr. Trump, they left open the possibility that the party’s own messaging bill could be defeated. Democratic leaders in the House had advised their members to vote “no,” calling the measure “another partisan stunt by Extreme MAGA Republicans who are determined to hurt President Biden politically.”
The group that showed up in Manhattan on Thursday was composed of lawmakers who rarely shy from disrupting legislative business in the Capitol or embarrassing the party on the House floor. It included many of the same rebels from the House Freedom Caucus who have frozen the chamber for days on end, voting down their party’s own rules as an act of protest.
Paul Kane, a reporter for The Washington Post, posted on social media that the large number of Republican absences could allow Democrats to “pull some hijinks,” such as calling a motion to adjourn and shutting down the chamber all together.

Editors’ Picks​

Gayle King Ate a Burger Before Her Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Shoot​

Sherman Turned the Tide of the Civil War. His Sword and Bible Are Now for Sale.​

‘Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’ Review: A Lonely Avenger​

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House Democrats have worked to present themselves to voters as the “adults in the room” dedicated to governing, and as of midday on Thursday, no such stunt had been pulled, nor were there any plans for one. But Mr. Kane’s post was making the rounds among Democratic staff aides, who admitted the idea was tempting.
Top congressional Republicans for days have been making the pilgrimage to Mr. Trump’s criminal trial: Senator J.D. Vance, Republican of Ohio and a potential Trump running mate, was the first to debut the new audition strategy. Other lawmakers who want to tie themselves to Mr. Trump for their own political survival or advancement have followed.
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House, was there on Tuesday. Senator Tommy Tuberville, Republican of Alabama, made an appearance Monday.
On Thursday, top Republicans had already changed at least one element of the House schedule to accommodate the G.O.P. field trip. The Oversight Committee postponed a meeting scheduled for Thursday morning to vote on holding Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general, in contempt of Congress, rescheduling it for 8 p.m.
With five of the panel’s members — Representatives Andy Biggs of Arizona, Michael Cloud of Texas, Mike Waltz of Florida, Ms. Boebert and Ms. Luna — in Manhattan, the G.O.P. had to delay the vote until it had enough members back in Washington to prevail.

Will it sustain? Seems like media folks just going with the hot story.

(I don’t care much for basketball, especially pro basketball so genuinely curious)

I know there is still a lot of time before next season but next school year starts in 3-4 months. What weight are you most concerned about? For me without question it is 141. Is Ryder block going to be healthy? Is he going to be able to wrestle at a high level down at 141? Could Estrada make 141 for some depth? Other than those 2 who else do we have at 141? 133 would be my 2nd most concerned weight but I have a feeling Petersen is going to jump levels. If CS can stay healthy he is a blood rd type guy. I know, I know, blood round type guys are not going to win championships but if its one of your 2 weakest weights that's not such a bad thing.

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Good lord wtf is this?? How can anyone possibly defend this behavior?

Meanwhile in MA they are arresting roughly 5 illegal aliens per day for the crime of raping children. Democrat policy in action I suppose.

Any supporters on this? Huey??