"The performance turned out to be a string of gags about Bankman-Fried’s and Diddy’s sins that largely spared Mangione of the worst ridicule."

"It instead featured running jokes about how parts of the internet find him attractive, while the titular character is gifted love ballads, literally and metaphorically. His cast members call him a 'prodigy' and a 'legend.' His response: 'I’m not a celebrity. I’m just a normal, exceedingly handsome guy. To make matters worse, they all sing...."

From "'Luigi: The Musical' is a fever dream from hell/The show isn’t meant to 'glorify violence,' but it does. The protesters outside, meanwhile, think it doesn’t go far enough" (WaPo)(gift link).

"The musical has a bare-bones plot, practically no choreography and nothing in the way of a set apart from a couple of chairs and one prop, a gun. All that could be forgiven in a staged reading, but what is glaringly absent is any serious mention of [Brian] Thompson’s name or the wife and two sons he left behind. It’s clear the show’s creators think they have tapped into some profound observation of the nihilistic trends running through today’s culture: our numb responses to mass violence, the disintegration of societal trust. 'What kind of sick f---- would buy tickets to something like that?,' the characters lament onstage about the musical, in what’s meant to be a self-critical, meta moment...."

"Donald Trump is considering commuting Diddy's sentence as early as this week, according to a high-ranking White House official."

"According to our source, the President is 'vacillating' on a commutation. We're told some of the W.H. staff are urging Trump not to commute the sentence. But, our source states the obvious -- 'Trump will do what he wants,' and we're told Trump could set Diddy free as early as this week."

TMZ reports.

I hope Trump does commute this sentence. Sean Combs was acquitted on the charges that embodied the evil things they said he did, and the sentence feels like an effort to punish him for those things anyway. He's already been in custody for over a year. 

"The judge ruled that the hired male escorts involved in freak-offs can be considered victims in the context of sentencing."

"And he ruled that Mr. Combs does not get the benefit of having accepted responsibility for his crimes. The judge said the defense’s narrative of freak-offs as nothing more than voluntary sex between consenting adults was 'flatly inconsistent with both reality and any acceptance of responsibility.'... [T]he judge’s explanations do not bode well for the defendant."

From the NYT coverage of the sentencing hearing for Sean Combs, happening now.

UPDATE, 11:34: The prosecution has argued, and now it's the defense. This is interesting:

"Mr. Combs’s lawyers acknowledged that their client had assaulted women in his life, but they argued those actions did not suit the crimes he was charged with."

"Given the jury’s verdict, they have asserted that testimony about violence should play no role in the judge’s decision. 'The court cannot use acquitted conduct in any way to enhance Mr. Combs’s sentence,' they wrote in a recent filing, saying that referring to that conduct in determining the sentence would raise serious constitutional issues. Prosecutors have argued just the opposite. They asked the judge to consider the full evidence at trial when determining Mr. Combs’s sentence. 'Even with the conviction on just these two charges, there is serious, serious, relevant conduct here that will merit a lengthy period of incarceration,' Maurene Comey, one of the prosecutors, told Judge Subramanian during a bail hearing after the verdict was announced. (Ms. Comey was later fired from the Justice Department without explanation and has sued the Trump administration over her termination.)"

From "What to Know Before Sean Combs’s Sentencing/The music mogul will be in court on Friday when a judge is scheduled to announce Mr. Combs’s penalty for convictions on two prostitution-related offenses" (NYT).

The prosecution wants at least 11 years and 3 months in prison, though the probation officials say the guidelines put the upper limit at 7 years and 3 months. The defense — which says that the crimes he was convicted of involved only consensual sex — is asking for 14 months at the most. He's already been in the detention center for a year.

"And so this judge just now denied him bail — on what ground? This guy's not going to run anywhere. It's absurd."

"[Sean Combs] has one of the nicest houses. I pass it by all the time. It's right near, not far from my little tiny condo in in Miami, Florida. He lives on Star Island. His  property is probably worth 40 or 50 million. I think he has two properties on the most expensive island, one of the most expensive islands in in the world. He's one of the most recognizable people. This decision by this judge was just vindictive. He didn't like the verdict. He thought there should be a conviction. And so, he's going to probably sentence him to a little bit of time in prison. He can't sentence him to a lot of time, but he'll probably sentence him to a little bit of time in prison in excess of the year he's already spent for having had bail denied.... He's going to come up with some pretense...."

Said Alan Dershowitz, on his podcast last night. 

"[Combs] was acquitted of anything involving violence, anything involving racketeering, anything involving, you know, sexual trafficking, all of that. He was acquitted!...  People don't go to jail for transactional sex for voluntary consensual sex based on the hope of getting an advantage. There is no such law.... Adult women should not be treated like children.

"The jury has found Sean Combs guilty of two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution but acquitted him on the most serious charges of sex trafficking and racketeering."

"Combs covered his eyes and appeared to exhale in relief as the not-guilty announcement came in. After the verdict was read, he quickly touched hands with his lawyers and turned and smiled at his family...."

WaPo reports.

Defense counsel Marc Agnifilo has asked the court to release Sean Combs back to his home in the millionaire enclave of Star Island in Miami. “This is his first conviction, and it’s a prostitution offense,” Agnifilo said. The attorney noted that the charge he was found guilty of was significantly less serious than the ones that kept him detained in a Brooklyn jail for the past nine months....

ADDED: From the NYT reporting: "Sean Combs is on his knees, his elbows on the chair where he was sitting, his head buried. He appeared to be praying. He started a round of applause, which was echoed by his family, who are jubilant." 

AND: "With a touch of levity, the judge said he assumed that Sean Combs would not want to return to the Brooklyn jail where he has been held. Mr. Combs shook his head vigorously and put his hands together in prayer." It's hard to believe, then, that the judge would send Combs back to the jail. He should go free today. 

"'You may have heard of him as Puff Daddy, as P Diddy. Standing in this courtroom at 55 years old, in the same place he was born and raised, he’s going by the same name he was born with...'"

"'...Sean Combs.' He was a self-made man, [his lawyer] said. 'He is charismatic and magnetic, a larger-than-life figure.' He was a man people wanted to know. But he was also flawed, she said. 'I’m telling you that he is physical, that he is a drug user, and I’m telling you that he has a bit of a different sex life. You may know about his love of baby oil. Is that a federal crime? No.... We take full responsibility that there was domestic violence in this case. [But] domestic violence is not sex trafficking. Had he been charged with domestic violence, had he been charged with assault, we would not be here.' The case, she said, was 'about Sean Combs’ private, personal sex life.... [The alleged victim] 'did it for the affection, for the love, for the cuddle, and because she knew that it would make him happy,' [the lawyer] said...."

From "Diddy’s defence: I’m a domestic abuser but my sex life is not a crime/On the first day of his trial for racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and prostitution, a grey-haired Sean Combs watched the prosecution begin to describe '20 years of criminal activity'" (London Times).

"When you say things on a podcast like 'six women, all white, my understanding is you've got a six-pack of white women.'"

"Like that's not — that's something that you shouldn't — that no one should be saying as an officer of the Court and a member of the bar, right?"

Said US District Judge Arun Subramanian to lawyer Mark Geragos, quoted in "Diddy trial judge snaps at lawyer for calling prosecutors a 'six-pack of white women'" (Business Insider).

Festivities of whiteness.

Diddy White Party pic.twitter.com/pXfsutl3Jl

— Donna Marie (@sabback) March 22, 2025

Contemplating the meaning of whiteness, I reread Chapter 42 of "Moby Dick," "The Whiteness of the Whale." Help me answer the question as asked by Herman Melville: Why does whiteness symbolize "spiritual things" and also work as an "intensifying agent in things the most appalling to mankind"?

Is it that by its indefiniteness it shadows forth the heartless voids and immensities of the universe, and thus stabs us from behind with the thought of annihilation, when beholding the white depths of the milky way? Or is it, that as in essence whiteness is not so much a colour as the visible absence of colour; and at the same time the concrete of all colours; is it for these reasons that there is such a dumb blankness, full of meaning, in a wide landscape of snows—a colourless, all-colour of atheism from which we shrink? 

"There are grates in one of the rooms of 4 North. They have little holes. If you lay down, you can look through the holes and talk to the women one floor down and see them."

Said Gene Borrello, "a former mob enforcer who spent time in the unit," quoted in "Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs housed in low-security jail dorm alongside Sam Bankman-Fried — where inmates can spy on female convicts: sources" (NY Post).

"The media is doing its best to play down Joe Biden’s casual insult of half of America as 'garbage'.... Why on earth would anyone assume Mr. Biden would..."

"... again show derision for voters he’s labeled 'semi-fascists,' 'MAGA extremists' and proponents of 'Jim Crow 2.0'? Of course it wasn’t a gaffe. It’s the latest injection of toxic Democratic arrogance—and it explains the party’s electoral struggles. It’s of a piece with the open dismissal by the media and elites of critics as idiots, yokels, deplorables. The men accused of 'toxic masculinity.' The women written off as 'handmaids.' The religious 'fanatics.' The millions the left scorn with a long list of 'ist' and 'phobe' words. If you don’t bow to progressive dogma, you are a fascist. Sexist. Racist. Nationalist. Insurrectionist. Domestic terrorist. Extremist. 'Far' rightist. And a homophobe. And a Nazi. Who is bitter. And clinging to a gun and a religion...."

Writes Kimberley A. Strassel, in "Democrats Trash-Talk the Voters/From ‘deplorables’ to ‘garbage,’ contempt doesn’t seem to be a winning message" (Wall Street Journal)(no subscription needed).

And thanks to Strassel for giving me the push I needed to actually watch the ad they got Julia Roberts to do the voice-over for. I laughed a lot:

You can really see how stupid they think the ordinary men and women of America are. I guess it's possible that they meant to exaggerate their low opinion in an ironic way that could make everybody laugh. 

Maybe somewhere in America women have been under men's thumb. I think of P. Diddy parties, things like that.

But also, why would you insult the people you want to influence?

And another thing: I don't believe many men are bullying their wives about voting the "right" way. I think it's a lot more likely that a woman might see how important the election is to her husband and simply choose not to cast a vote that effectively cancels his vote.

Elite media reacts to Trump's MSG extravaganza by zeroing in on Tony Hinchcliffe (Kill Tony).

I never take the bait anymore when headlines say things like...

• "As Trump courts their vote, comedian at his rally makes racist jokes about Latinos and Puerto Rico Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe made crude jokes about Latinos having babies and called Puerto Rico a 'floating island of garbage,' drawing a rebuke from several Republicans" (NBC News) 

• "Trump’s New York homecoming sparks backlash over racist and vulgar remarks/A pro-Trump comedian’s racist diatribe drew widespread condemnation" (Politico)

• "Anti-Puerto Rico comments at Trump rally spur outrage as Bad Bunny supports Harris/The artist’s gesture of support came as a number of speakers at a Trump event in New York made racist and disparaging comments about Puerto Ricans and other Latinos" (WaPo) 

• "A Trump Rally Speaker Trashed Puerto Ricans. Harris Reached Out to Them. Her campaign moved swiftly to highlight that even as a speaker at Donald Trump’s rally in New York made offensive remarks about Puerto Rico and Latinos, she was visiting Puerto Rican voters in Philadelphia" (NYT)

I started watching the rally at 4 Central Time — when I put up a post — so I hadn't seen the Hinchcliffe routine in real time. My first instinct was to watch the entire 12 minutes of his routine. Here. You can use the Althouse method of determining what somebody said. Listen to him, in context:

It seems to me that Hinchcliffe made some deliberately offensive jokes:

• "There's literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. Yeah. I think it's called Puerto Rico."

• "I think that Travis Kelce might be the next OJ Simpson."

• Purporting to see a black friend in the audience: "He had a Halloween party last night. We had fun. We carved watermelons together."

• "Wars. It is unbelievable what's happening right now. It is incredible. Ukraine versus Russia. Israel/Palestine. It's like bad soccer games. Who even cares?"

It was as though he was challenging the crowd to guffaw and give Trump opponents the opportunity to accuse them of racism or whatever. He just went ahead and told those jokes.

He had 2 defenses ready to insert where needed. One was the conventional comedian's ploy of openly talking about how his jokes are failing. The crowd is tough. Or: This is the wrong crowd for this kind of material (which ought to absolve the Trumpers of agreeing with whatever racism inheres in those jokes (but won't)).

The other defense is to follow the offense with a sharp shift to a declaration about the importance of freedom of speech. This is the old Lenny Bruce move that takes risks. It was very hip and cool when Lenny Bruce did it, but it's hard to bring the whole world along with you if you try that. Ask Michael Richards. And Lenny Bruce paid for it in his own time. 

It isn't really fair to deploy this comedic approach at somebody else's event, especially when it's really important and you know that person has antagonists who are standing by waiting to pounce on any material they can use to call him a racist. But maybe Trump wanted this kind of attention-getting edginess. Hinchcliffe has his fans. I bet Barron Trump is one of them. I've heard Trump say, more than once, that he takes advice from Barron about which comedians young people love.

Hinchcliffe had another comic move. With a foundation of failed jokes before the tough crowd, he was in position to comment when the crowd finally, genuinely responded with real spontaneous laughter at one of them. Here's that joke:

"It feels good in here. The other side's got a lot of crazy endorsements. Swift, Eminem, Leo DiCaprio, Beyonce. Every day the Democratic party looks more and more like a P Diddy party."

He said: "Oh oh okay okay — that's what you guys want all right. Heck yeah...."

"Do you think it’s at all reasonable for the mother of a teenage boy to worry about a false accusation of sexual assault? Or is that just like, a normal maternal anxiety?"

Asks Ross Douthat of Tressie McMillan Cottom, who answers: "I think it is about as normal as worrying that you’re going to be sex trafficked at the shopping center if you are a Middle America mom. That is to say, is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? No. And is there a much bigger threat out there that might be a better use of your maternal anxiety?... The feminist philosopher Kate Mann calls it 'himpathy; — this default sympathy for men and for the male condition and that it is so deeply embedded in our culture."

That's part of a conversation at "Diddy and Our Culture’s 'Himpathy' for Powerful Men/How the allegations against/Sean Combs change the way we talk about #MeToo, rumors and powerful men" (NYT)(and that's my last gift link of the month, which should tell you there's a lot more to read there).

"Sean Combs was able to stay relevant for many years, in part because he used his power to intimidate people in the industry, particularly women, who might say no to him."

"In an article for The New York Times Magazine in July, Danyel Smith, who was the editor of Vibe Magazine in the late 1990s, wrote about the 'menacing encounters' she had with Diddy. He threatened he would see her 'dead in the trunk of a car' if she didn’t show him a cover before publication. Smith describes the ethos of the music industry at the time: 'To report sexual misconduct — whether it was to attorneys or law enforcement or even your supervisor — often meant losing your job. Being ostracized. Or being a girl that just didn’t "get it," or didn’t know how to fend for herself.'"

Writes Jessica Grose in "Sean Combs and the Limits of the 'Family Man' Defense" (NYT).

I didn't excerpt the references to the "family man" defense. I don't think that's necessary, but I would like to quote the last sentence of the column so you can click on the link it contains, which will get you to a high-impact photograph: "There are limits to the ‘family man’ defense no matter how many photos you take with your kids wearing matching pajamas."

I'm less interested in Combs's groping to defend himself now than I am in how so many people supported and protected him for so long.

"The racketeering conspiracy charge, which accuses [Sean Combs] of carrying out crimes as part of an 'enterprise,' carries up to life in prison."

"But defense lawyers... have argued that the federal laws are being deployed to charge less serious conduct than was envisioned when they were adopted.... In a bail hearing on Tuesday, Mr. Combs’s lead lawyer, Marc Agnifilo, objected to the government painting the encounters as sex trafficking, arguing that with Cassie... it was consensual — 'part of the way that these two adults wanted to be intimate together.'... Julie A. Dahlstrom, a legal scholar who has studied trends in American sex trafficking law, said she believed that the broader application of sex trafficking law by prosecutors had been driven, in part, by a more expansive use of the statute to bring civil claims during the #MeToo movement. 'We saw victims' rights attorneys try to use the tools that they had,' she said, citing as an example a lawsuit against Harvey Weinstein that led a judge to acknowledge that a promise of possible career advancement in exchange for sex could help bolster a sex trafficking claim...."

From "In the Sean Combs Case, Echoes of the Tack Taken Against Other Powerful Men/Federal authorities are prosecuting Mr. Combs under sex trafficking and racketeering laws, which were used to successfully prosecute R. Kelly and Keith Raniere in earlier abuse cases" (NYT).

"So you can have people who attempt to gesticulate. Again, modern politicians, you’ll see this sometime where they feel like, 'I’m supposed to be making hand gestures'..."

"... and they’re terrible at it. And it undercuts it. Cicero and Quintilian give some very amusing examples from ancient Rome. He says, there was this one guy who when he spoke, looked like he was trying to swat away flies because there were just these awkward gestures. Or another who looked like he was trying balancing a boat in choppy seas. And my favorite is there was one orator who supposedly was prone to making, I guess, languid supple motions. They actually named a dance after this guy, and his name was Titius. And so Romans could do the Titius, which is this dance that was imitating this orator who had these comically bad gesticulation...."

From "Transcript for Gregory Aldrete: The Roman Empire – Rise and Fall of Ancient Rome | Lex Fridman Podcast #443"

The segment on gestures begins here. Or watch the video:

How does this go on for 16 years?

I'm reading "Charges against Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs allege 16 years of abuse and crimes/The music mogul was arrested on charges of racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking. He is being held without bail" (WaPo).

The crimes Combs and his associates are accused of committing and covering up include sex trafficking, narcotics distribution, arson and kidnapping. Many of these alleged crimes took place at illegal sex parties that Combs referred to as “freak offs.” During these parties, Combs allegedly threw objects at the victims and dragged them by their hair.

"Sean 'Diddy' Combs aggressively marketed himself to the ultra-rich as he turned his edgy rap glamor into a billion-dollar fortune."

"Billionaires told The Post he would cold email with business proposals, while other Wall Streeters acclaimed him as a 'genius' and one CEO of the New York Stock Exchange called him an 'inspiration' on a par with the Founding Fathers.... [H]e partnered with billionaire investor Ron Burkle; was 'mentored' by hedge fund guru Ray Dalio; had his fashion line sold in Macy’s and Dillards; went into business with alcohol giant Diageo; opened the New York Stock Exchange with Estée Lauder heir William Lauder; struck deals with Zac Posen and Liz Claiborne; 50% owned his own TV channel Revolt; launched a water range with Mark Wahlberg; and teamed up with Salesforce’s Marc Benioff to launch a black business marketplace.... 'He was a master entrepreneur,' one music business insider... told The Post. 'He was a super intelligent hardworking guy and a genius at brands… he turned Cîroc into a billion dollar business.'"

From "Secrets of Diddy’s billionaire boys club: Rapper wooed Wall Street elite — who praised him as ‘genius’ before sex trafficking probe" (NY Post).

The article touts what it calls his "cache": "Diddy also used his own cache — the promise of entry into a world of celebrity — to attract investment for his projects.... [One] move gave him instant social cache. It let him rub shoulders, lucratively, with a New York social dynasty and in turn gave their decades-old brand a fresh, contemporary glamor...."

A "cache" is a hidden store of goods or ammo. Pronounced, some may be surprised to learn, "kash."

"The rule was interpreted correctly, but the rule is bad."

"There are plenty of problems with the NFL right now, but many of them are either intractable or downright unfixable. The catch rule is not one of them. The NFL has to fix it, and that might require a totally radical sort of solution. Let's make arguments for three very different types of changes to the much-hated catch rule...."

From "Three options to fix the NFL's catch rule" (ESPN), about this play in last nights Patriots/Steelers game.

ADDED: I guess if I've got a post with the words "There are plenty of problems with the NFL right now," I need to drop a link to "Sources: Jerry Richardson, Panthers Have Made Multiple Confidential Payouts for Workplace Misconduct, Including Sexual Harassment and Use of a Racial Slur" (Sports Illustrated) and "Diddy wants to buy the Panthers and sign Colin Kaepernick" (WaPo).

We can infer that Kanye West, Russell Simmons, and Sean Combs declined to talk to the NYT about Donald Trump.

I'm reading "Circling the Square of President Trump’s Relationship With Race" in today's NYT.

First, let me get this out of the way. What's with "Circling the Square"? The standard expression, referring to an ancient geometry problem, is "squaring the circle." That's a used as a metaphor for something you just can't do. I'm seeing "Circling the Square" as a book title, referring to the Egyptian Revolution, where there were demonstrations in a square — Tahrir Square. The title seems to be a play on the the old expression "squaring the circle." In this NYT article, however, there's no square to form the basis of a play on the old expression. I think it's just a weird mistake.

Now, let's get to the meat of this article. It seems apparent that the NYT set out to find out if there's any evidence that Trump is a racist. Read the article. They found strong evidence that he is absolutely not any sort of a racist. The headline ought to come out and celebrate his excellent record.

The article begins with Kara Young, a "biracial" model who went out with Trump for 2 years and says “I never heard him say a disparaging comment towards any race of people." (Young, like Barack Obama, had one black parent and one white parent.) The only seemingly negative thing the NYT got out of her was that he noticed the high number of black people in the crowd at the U.S. Open when Venus and Serena Williams were playing.

But this is what really struck me:

Beyond dating a biracial woman, [Trump] made outsize efforts to hang out publicly with African-American celebrities: the boxing promoter Don King, the hip-hop impresarios Kanye West, Russell Simmons and Sean Combs, and celebrities as big as Muhammad Ali, James Brown and Michael Jackson.

Kanye West, Russell Simmons, and Sean Combs are all still alive. Do they not take phone calls from the New York Times? I've got to assume they were called and they all refused to talk. I'm going to guess that they all would give a good report but won't speak because they'd be savaged economically if they spoke well of Trump. But they don't have to speak. The inference is so strong that the silence is enough.

But let's see what these men may have said about Trump elsewhere. Here's something from 2 days ago: "Kanye West deletes all tweets defending Trump meeting." The tweets were from last December, and the deletions happened this past Sunday or Monday.

Russell Simmons has an open letter to Trump, published just this afternoon in The Daily News (perhaps in response to his name coming up in the NYT article). He talks about "the Donald I called friend... the Donald I know," who had great relationships with black and Jewish people, and asks "Where is he now? I have to believe he is still in there, somewhere." He implores Trump to change and "begin to feed the light":

The racist, bigoted movements you are feeding now are gaining power by your words, actions and refusal to hold people accountable for the destruction they are causing in your name....

Scripture tells us the Donald I knew — or an even greater Donald — is still there inside you, sleeping. It is time to wake him the f--- up.

As for Sean Combs, it seems that the last relevant thing we've heard from him was back in June, when he said that black people "don’t really give a fuck about Trump, because we're in the same fucked-up position... The tomfoolery that’s going on in D.C., that’s just regular everyday business to black folks."

“We’re turning CNN and all that shit off because we’re trying to get ourselves together,” he said. “That’s what I’m about. I’m like, ‘Turn that shit off, let them deal with all that shit. We gotta start dealing with us.’ So my thing is, I gotta keep showing the dream. I gotta keep magnifying that and keep it focused on that self-love that we need to give our race.”