P-Diddy AKA the Diddler (allegdely) - From a Libertarian

 By now everyone with any level of internet access has at least heard of the allegations against Sean "Puff Daddy" Combs aka Puffy, aka Puff-Daddy aka P-Diddy aka Diddy aka The Diddler (allegedly). 

Summary time - Combs was arrested September 2024 on a slew of charges including racketeering, sex trafficing by force, and transportation for purposes of prostitution. After being denied bail three times he currently remains incarcerated in New York City. 

There has been a number of lawsuits filed against Combs starting in 2017 but he is facing (or has faced) allegations from as far back as 1991. Following his arrest a number of alleged victims have come forward and joined civil actions seeking punitive damages. He is facing allegations from both female and male individuals that allege he coerced performance of sexual activities. 

Raids on Combs residences have produced many meme inspiring items most notably 1,000 bottles of "baby oil and lubricant." Authorities also found illegally modified firearms and drugs including ketamine, ecstasy and GHB.

Now the question, What does a Libertarian think about all this? 

This is not easy. As a libertarian I fully support a person's right to lead the life that they choose to lead, including partaking of mind altering substances, and even engaging in prostitution. So if Combs had done those things on his own with consenting adults then frankly I have no problem with it. 

But that isn't what happened "allegedly". For brevity everything I am writing in this post are allegations and while some suits have been settled and dropped that doesn't prove the underlying allegations are true or that they would have been found true by a jury. Everyone deserves their day in court, even Combs. 

Allegedly Combs used various forms of coercion to get others to engage in sexual activities and either paid or promised to pay a number of the victims. Many of the victims claim they were given various drugs which impaired their judgement and resulted in them engaging in activities they otherwise would not have done.

Consent. For me consent is a big issue with all this. With literally the same series of events but all the individuals are fully consenting, you do you. Remove that consent or impair a person's ability to give consent and I have a big problem.

Personal responsibility is another crowing hallmark of Libertarians. While I don't think having and personally using ketamine, ecstasy and GHB should be a crime, if you have those with the intent to force another person to use them it should be a crime, 100%. If you get those drugs and someone gets access to them through you, and that person then rapes or sexually assaults someone using those drugs, you are responsible. 

Protecting the vulnerable. Everyone reading this should know what is meant by "vulnerable." There are further allegations that different people within Combs' sphere knew what was happening but did nothing to stop or prevent it. Criminally this becomes difficult to pursue because you have to prove ability, knowledge on and on. Civilly, those that knew what was happening and did nothing should live the rest of their life penniless, begging for socks. 

Ironically consent is going to be the only thing that Combs will be able to argue in court. "She consented to being given GHB (the date rape drug) and letting people have sex with her while she was unconscious." 

If Combs is guilty of these charges he deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison and his victims should be given every bit of his wealth, AND he shouldn't be allowed to spend every penny he has on lawyers to fight his victims. Further, if you knew about what was happening, if you participated in any degree, you deserve the same fate. 

Tiffany Henyard - A lesson in unbridled power

  A small(ish) town on the outskirts of Chicago has been the center of growing controversy since 2021 when Tiffany Henyard ascended to Mayor. To be brief, she won a four way election to become the Democratic candidate and in April 2021 won the general election to become Mayor. She used a successful slate of three well liked board members that she promoted as "the dream team." About a year later she become Supervisor of Thornton Township, a role she would presumptively receive because of her influence on the Board (several members of the Board were a part of her Mayoral campaign). Throughout this first year she talked nonstop about making Dalton a better place to live and raise families and began calling herself the "Super Mayor." But she says it with a bit of a Chicago accent so it sounds more like "Soo-pa Ma-ya." Things were off to a great start, especially for Henyard who was now receiving an annual salary of $270,000 ($224,000 for the supervisor position and $46,000 for the mayoral position). You might say "that seems like a generous salary for an elected position of a township on the outskirts of Chicago." and to that I would say that the large population of 157,000 people in no way justifies that salary. That's right, she is making almost $2 for every citizen of Dalton Township which has a per capita income of $23,853. A full 20% of Thorton Township is below the poverty line.

Needless to say issues started fast and furious. Even before being appointed to the Supervisor position a rift was developing with board members that had been... critical of her plans, or rather they had supported other individuals in the bid for mayor. This would become a recurring pattern where people that are not openly supporting every policy move she makes would be targeted. It started small, moving trustees offices or changing the lock so trustees couldn't access their office, but things escalated quickly. She then started removing access to accounting systems for key personnel even cutting off access to all members of the board making it impossible for them to see the financial information for the Township.

Things didn't stop there. Several business owners have come forward claiming their business permits have been denied or delayed after declining to support the Super Mayor. 

In 2022 a recall movement successfully passed general election and established a mechanism to recall but was ultimately overturned when Illinois Appellate court ruled that both resolutions were improperly drafted and issued a permanent stay in certifying the results. She lost the recall attempt with 56% voting to enact the resolution and recall the mayor.

Sadly that was just the start and things continued to get worse with a now emboldened Tiffany Henyard at the helm. Spending accelerated and bills started going unpaid. Tiffany was often seen with a noticeable security detail of Dalton/Thornton Police officers, costing well into the hundreds of thousands, one report stating that just the security detail alone had cost over $1m. One officer in particular had booked 303 hours on the clock in a two week period - meaning just 33 hours in a two week period had NOT been "on the clock." It has also come out that Tiffany faced charges of criminal trespass to vehicles in 2016 - in general terms those charges are brought when someone has entered a vehicle without permission. While details are not fully available, that would be a lesser charge someone could potentially face for stealing from a vehicle when that person has no prior record. Its a slap on the wrist, but again no details as to the specifics for why Tiffany faced those charges are readily available 

I could honestly write a long long story about everything that has happened, some accused some closer to rumor. Numerous lawsuits are pending including at least one by the Thornton Township Board of Trustees. The FBI currently has an open investigation into everything that has happened. 

There are lessons to be learned that should be applied to every election at every level,

1. Beware of "Supers." The most prominent example is the first super, Superman. All powerful and thankfully altruistic. Comic books have delved into the carnage that spreads like a plague when that power goes unchecked and instead of the altruistic Clark Kent we get the selfish Tiffany Henyard. Even Superman had his Kryptonite and when the people of Dalton tried to give Tiffany her own it was struck down leaving her free to cause chaos. 

2. If someone promises the world, they have to get it from somewhere. As citizens of Dalton/Thornton have found, that means taking it from the future in the form of deficits. Specifics on the Township finances are sparse but some trustees have revealed that prior to Tiffany taking office they had a budgetary surplus, and a significant cash reserve (in excess of $4m) but are now facing a budget deficit of several million and have depleted the reserve.

3. People in power rarely if ever willingly surrender that power. The only check is to limit the amount of power a single person can wield. Luckily in Thornton hiring to several key positions required approval of the Board so when Tiffany tried to hire insiders to those positions and even had them start working. The Board was able to bring a case in Illinois court to block the hiring and even had the judge put in an order barring the individuals from entering employee portions of township buildings and doing work. All this was fought using tax payer funds. Wrap your head around that for a moment, Tiffany hires someone, the Board declines to ratify the hiring, Tiffany tells them to start working anyway, the Board files suit (tax payer funded lawyers) and Tiffany fights the suit (with taxpayer funded lawyers). She is literally bleeding it dry trying to stay in power. 

The most recent development is good news however. With the election for Thornton Township coming up in February the Democratic party in Thornton needed to set the delegates for the upcoming ballot. Tiffany was excluded by default because she was unable to complete a full slate (apparently requiring the named delegate and three board members). While this doesn't mean she has lost her seat it does mean that she no longer has the support of the dominant Democrat Party in the upcoming election and must instead attempt to get on the ballot as an independent. 

It will takes months, possibly years before the full extent of the damage from Tiffany's tenure will be known. I just hope the people of Thornton and Dalton have learned a lesson and vote accordingly. 

Why Democrats should like Elon More and Republicans Should Like Him Less

 Elon Musk has been a popular and divisive figure for the last few years. Once a darling of the green energy movement he is now the reigning pariah of the Left. Naturally once you become ostracized by the Left you will have to turn in the keys to your San Francisco penthouse. Not to worry, there is a fully furnished single family ranch style home ready for you north of Austin (just minutes from the JRE Studio!), pick up the keys at republican headquarters.

They are both getting it wrong. At best Elon is a chaotic neutral at worst he becomes a lawful evil. Either way Elon does what Elon does.

And therein lies the problem with identifying and associating a person or figure with an ideology, you become almost bound by the whims of that individual. Suddenly when tides shift they are not just an associate they are the old guy living in your semi-detached bungalow a block away from the painted ladies. 

Tesla.

The left loved him because he brought "cool" to a space that was really really boring. In the early days of Tesla your choices for an electric vehicle were... sparse. You basically had the choice of the Nissan Leaf or one of the almost indistinguishable offerings from Toyota and Chevy. They all lacked character. When someone buys a new car they like to list off the things and reasons they bought it, they want to show it off to their friends - 'check out the stereo,' 'the ventilated seats are awesome.' What do you say when you get a Leaf? "Check it out - I drove to work and now I have to plug it in overnight before I can use it again." or "Yeah my wife wanted something better for the environment." The Tesla Roadster and Model S changed that. Now you had something to brag about. People talked about getting a bonus from work and using it to buy a Model S.

And the Left ate it up, at least until Twitter happened.

Summary: Mr. Musk gets upset that some of the people he follows on Twitter are getting banned he goes to war saying that the platform should be a bastion of free speech and while obvious hate speech should be moderated, outright banning someone because they express opposing viewpoints is wrong. He flippantly (I think) says if they don't stop it maybe I will just buy it and make it stop. That gets all manner of media attention and his flippant remark becomes more serious when everyone realizes that he actually could full on buy out every share of Twitter stock and become the sole owner in full control. After some back and forth he seals the deal for $44 Billion. 

And suddenly our darling Elon is behind on his rent for his SF Penthouse so its time to shuffle ol' Elon down to the uptown bungalow. But even then he gets behind on his payments to the Left and before long he is out on the streets. Now according to "the Left" Tesla is washed up and nothing they make is worth the rubber it rolls on. Ask any liberal pundit and you will get an earful about how bad the quality control is and how bad their engineers screw things up (oh the Model Y - in 2023 it was the best selling vehicle of any kind - globally) "They are a technology company pretending to sell cars."

Conservatives are right there with open arms. "We love conservative free speech," "Tesla cars are so cool oh AND they are electric so I am cool and supporting a greener environment at the same time!"

Conservatives should learn from Liberal mistakes and keep some distance, eventually Musk will take aim at a cornerstone of that single family ranch style home. 

Liberals should acknowledge that silencing critics validates their stance and emboldens their base (i.e. Trump).