Lmst

#NigelFarage giddy over far right #Reform party sweeps in dozens of rural districts, clipping Conservative and #LabourParty seats alike across swath of rural #England in recent #UK election , worrying new #PM

Virginia Giuffre dies by suicide at 41 in #Australia following a brutal car accident earlier this year that damaged vital organs.

Ms Giuffre made worldwide headlines after her teenage sexual servitude as a "masseuse" to Jeffrey #Epstein and clients like #PrinceAndrew was revealed in court cases and press accounts. The ensuing scandal led to Epstein's apparent #suicide in a federal lockup and the eventual prison sentence for newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell's daughter #Ghislaine.who was a wrangler of girl's pimped in the internationally notorious case.

#WaPo #WashingtonPost #SharedLink #FreeLink https://wapo.st/42PoYYv

VIRGINIA GIUFFRE ONE OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN'S MOST | PROMINENT ABUSE SURVIVORS DIES BY SUICIDE

#WaPo #editorial by Catherine Rampell who is headed to #MSNBC to co-host the evening edition of "The Weekend" details #Drumpf's petty purges of accessible govt #data that " have been faster and more sweeping — picking off not just select #factoids but entire troves of public information." "deleting #taxpayer-funded data — information that Americans use to make sense of the world. In its absence, the president can paint the world as he pleases."

https://wapo.st/3XF0wqH #Gov #FOIA #Opinion #FreeLink #SponLink

In first 50 days #DJT has issued at least 32 exec orders reshaping, if not chopping capabilities and #downsizing the US govt.

The freezing of work, and denying disbursement of billions of dollars of federal funding.to once vital programs has created ripples felt around the world as aid to allies is axed and many programs are perhaps at best, in fraught #legallimbo

[#FreeLink to #WaPo] https://wapo.st/3Donk7t

#TheEnemyWithin

Scion of Wealthy #Saratoga CA family who lived in their $6m mansion msg'd his sex assault victim on Facebook: “So I raped you...” followed by " I’ll pray for you.”

After returning to #SiliconValley , graduating from a "religious" college in #SantaClara & working for Elon's #Tesla, he fled to #France where, from what I've gleaned, #rape is apparently an unofficial national pastime ... this week, only 11 yrs later, the 31 yr old #fugitive was #extradited to USA, and denied bail.

Thankfully #DJT, who likes that sort of activity, is coming into office... anyone wanna bet on Prez #Pardon?

https://wapo.st/3E1ZmyQ #FreeLink #SharedStory #WaPo

Cleary family abode near Montalvo winery in Saratoga CA

Saratoga California Bred Fugitive Rapist Suspect Ian Thomas Cleary

RIP Sugar Pie DeSanto

I'm a little late to the memorial, time having been consumed by holiday travel, and then news of wildfires sweeping areas I just returned from, but just saw notice that at the end of the past year, we lost #SugarPieDeSanto

I was lucky I had the fortunate opportunity to see her perform memorable sets live a couple times earlier in this century in #SanFrancisco , and despite her age, she was still feisty, acrobatically bawdy & hilarious.

A relative of fellow #ChessRecords recording artist Etta James, and part Filipino (born Umpeylia Marsema Balinton ) ... , she was perhaps less renowned, but certainly worth checking out for any fans of authentic old school #RhythmandBlues music.

"I was one of the toughest women you would find, and a big mouth, and I didn’t take anything from no one,” she said in an interview in the 2011 book “Flying Saucers Rock ’n’ Roll: Conversations With Unjustly Obscure Rock ’n’ Soul Eccentrics”

I recall in more recent times, her being burned out in a 2006 fire that swept the apt building where she lived in #Oakland, and killed her husband.

But she was a tough cookie and soldiered on for many more years ...stay safe out there folks...

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/26/arts/music/sugar-pie-desanto-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.pk4.vem5.yVNsGkJu6sLE&smid=url-share #SharedLink #FreeLink #NYTimes #BluesMusic

Ms. DeSanto at the San Francisco Blues Festival in Golden Gate Park in 1974. She stood only 4-foot-11, but she had an outsized stage presence. Pic by Robert Altman, via Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Ms. DeSanto never received the widespread acclaim enjoyed by Ms. James, her friend and collaborator, and other female R&B singers of her day. The power and grit of her music and persona nevertheless anticipated, among other things, the sexual braggadocio and swagger of 1970s soul singers like Millie Jackson and Laura Lee and latter-day hip- hop artists like Lil’ Kim and Foxy Brown.

The total turnaround of the #NFL playoffs level Washington #Football Club since losing for decades under departed toxic owner Dan Snyder is a case study other teams could learn from ...

https://wapo.st/40dlu0x #FreeLink #GiftLink #WaPo

The Commanders are a case study in toxic ownership — and its reverse
How toxic was Daniel Snyder to Washington’s football franchise? Just look what happened after he left town.

During his #GOP Presidential campaign #DJT threatened to withhold #FederalAid from #California unless the state changed how it approached water management.

Sen. John Barrasso of #Wyoming, the No. 2 ranking #Republican in the upper chamber, blamed #CalFire disasters on “policies of the liberal administration out there” adding " I expect that there will be strings attached to money that is ultimately approved"

In bipartisan votes, #Congress recently approved billions of dollars in new disaster funding for #Florida, #Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, #Tennessee and #Virginia with no specific conditions on those states federal assistance.

https://wapo.st/42eedQQ #GiftLink #FreeLink #WAPO

Republicans say they want to put conditions on wildfire aid to California - The Washington Post

Angry Small Town Muricans In Seymour #Indiana Can't Wait For King #DJT's Promised Deportations, Expecting #DayOne As Definite Deadline.

Other residents in the 22k population community seeking to utilize or integrate #SouthOfTheBorder arrivals are clashing with others calling for #migrants to be rooted out and detained.

https://www.wsj.com/us-news/for-many-people-in-this-small-town-deportations-cant-come-soon-enough-fee9a193?st=wXuEib #LinkShare #FreeLink #WSJ

One recent day at Larrison’s Diner, a popular restaurant downtown, Tim Smallwood, 63, said he was all for mass deportations. He thinks the Trump administration should first target unauthorized migrants with criminal records and then pressure other migrants to “self-deport.” “It’s the only way they’ll solve this problem,” Smallwood said. “You’ve got to make it hard enough on them that they don’t want to come here in the first place.”

Write to Arian Campo-Flores at arian.campo-flores@wsj.com

“Trump brought hope,” said Dana Clark, 66, who also spoke at the city council meeting. “Day one is going to see the biggest deportation ever.” Seymour, with a population of about 22,000, is a conservative town an hour’s drive south of Indianapolis, whose surrounding county, Jackson, voted 77% for Trump in the election and has backed Republicans in presidential elections for decades. It 1s the birthplace of singer John Mellencamp, who sang about his experiences growing up here in his 1985 hit “Small Town.”

Incorporated in the 1860s, Seymour sits at the intersection of two major railroads. Jobs are plentiful at large manufacturers such as auto-parts suppliers and agricultural businesses

Tim Smallwood, supports mass deportations of unauthorized migrants, eats at Larrison’s Diner.

Covid For Cows?

A Bad #BirdFlu Outbreak Has Migrated Into California's #Bovine Population And Is Detected In #Unpasteurized #DairyProducts

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/19/us/bird-flu-california-covid-cows.html?unlocked_article_code=1.i04.Q9RK.BOFoRw1q7qFG #SharedLink #FreeLink #NYTimes

#NYPD say they have name of suspect who assassinated United #Healthcare #Insurance #CEO but are not releasing it to public.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/06/nyregion/brian-thompson-gunman-timeline.html?unlocked_article_code=1.fk4.MnLr.4EjTFxkzdMMU&smid=url-share #SharedLink #FreeLink #NYTimes

Unitedhealthcare CEO murder:

On Wednesday, the day of the shooting, the gunman left a hostel at 5:30 a.m. and likely rode a bicycle toward Midtown, Chief Kenny said. Though investigators do not have video of him taking the bike to the scene of the shooting, they are speculating that he did because it took him only 10 minutes to get from the hostel on 103rd Street to West 54th Street. The police are “still looking into” the possibility that he could have stolen the bike, he said.

At 5:41 a.m., he arrived at the Hilton and began wandering the area near the hotel, walking back and forth on West 54th Street, before entering a Starbucks, where he bought a bottle of water and a snack bar. He fatally shot Mr. Thompson at 6:44 a.m. He then got back on the bike and made it into Central Park four minutes later. He left the park at 6:56 a.m., still on the bicycle.

“The rule of the worst.”

TheEconomist word of the year “has the crisp, hard sounds of glass breaking.”

“‘Kakistocracy’ is not found in ancient sources; it seems to have been coined in English as an intentional antonym to aristocracy, originally ‘rule by the best’.”

#USPolitics