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In the News (#1662)

August 12, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

The freedom to read is fundamental to a free society.  –  John Adams*

To Molest and Rape

When will amateur women learn cops are dangerous sex predators?

An Illinois [cop named]…Douglas Lee…was stripped of his [magic] powers and [arrested for]…drugging a woman while she was out with friends, taking her to a hotel…[rap]ing her…[then dump]ing her in her car [and leaving her in a parking lot] overnight…Lee…frequently visited the bar where [his victim] worked as a bartender [so she foolishly believed she knew him and drank]…a shot [he gave her]…the [next] thing she remembered…was [waking]…up in her car around 10:45 AM the next day [with]…her pants…inside out, her bra…on the passenger seat and her shirt…tucked into the pocket of her jacket…One [of her] friend[s told her] she had seen [her]…dancing [with Lee]…video footage…showed Lee [taking] the woman [out of] the bar [and when confronted he said she wanted it]…

Micromanagement (#965)

I’d really like to be wrong once in a while:

For more than a decade, New York City has been amassing…DNA samples…without…consent or any court involvement as a routine matter, specifically for inclusion in its “Suspect Index,” a rogue database not authorized by law…includ[ing] samples from people who…have been expressly excluded as suspects in a crime, [people] who have never been charged with a crime…and exonerated or acquitted individuals.  The Suspect Index currently contains 34,872 profiles…routinely collect[ed]…in an orchestrated, surreptitious manner through ruses involving straws, bottles, or even cigarettes, without…a court order…….from those who are merely brought in for questioning and even from children it tricks…

If Men Were Angels (#1406)

Psychopath Grady Judd never misses an opportunity for self-aggrandizement:

A [Florida] preacher…had sex with at least one underage boy and an adult man without telling them he was HIV-positive…Timothy Chaneyfield…[met] the…14-year-old boy…on a dating app before…[taking] their chats to Instagram, which [reported him] to [NCMEC]…Sheriff Grady Judd[, in his typical fashion, made the incident all about himself, using the opportunity to call someone far less dangerous than he is]…“a menace to society”…[and pretending] he [did not understand why]…authorities in Baltimore[, where Chaneyfield was when the arrest warrant was issued, did not want to play stupid cop games instead of simply letting Judd arrest him when he got back to Florida]…

Thought Control (#1501)

A Trumpist stooge declares that the First Amendment does not apply to Arkansas:

Arkansas Act 372 amends state laws by including librarians and booksellers among those who can be criminally charged [if any authoritarian Froot Loop anywhere in the world points at any book in their stock while barfing the magic words]…“harmful to minors”…Librarians and booksellers could face up to a year in prison if they’re [declared] to have “distributed” [magically abjured] material to those under the age of 18…[which] includes simply having the book sitting on a shelf…The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas…[permanently enjoined the law] in January 2025, [but wannabe censors appealed to the]…Eighth Circuit [and Trumpist henchman] L. Steven Grasz…[singlehandedly] overturn[ed] that court’s decision…[thus forcing] librarians and booksellers [to censor their entire collections or risk state violence]…

*Not the Founding Father, but an Arkansas attorney.

Welcome to the Future (#1572)

Giant fascist corporation makes it even easier for cops to lie:

Axon…has cornered the body cam market and is now…pitching products…that use [chatbots] to automate [cop] report writing…Draft One has been pitched as a time-saver…[that can] “potentially free up 25% of an officer’s time.”  Considering a lot of [cops] spend most of their time engaged in pretextual stops, this…just means [cops] will be able to violate rights more frequently with no perceivable benefit to public safety.  Then there’s the problem…[of chatbot] hallucinations…[such as the chatbot-generated] report…[that] claimed a Heber City [Utah cop] had shape-shifted into a frog…The other problem..is that [chatbot-generated reports also] generat[e] a new layer of plausible deniability.  If errors are found, cops can blame it on the algorithm…[and] if cops aren’t writing their own reports, they can’t [honest]ly claim these statements are their own under oath…

Panopticon (#1658)

There are good reasons warrantless surveillance is unconstitutional:

…in Wapello County, Iowa, the…usage policy…tells police…“DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE IN YOUR REPORT OR COMPLAINT UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY”…It is not just local police in small communities who are creating policies designed to obfuscate Flock usage…police in multiple states [are] told to “be as vague as permissible” about…Flock because their searches c[an] be obtained using public records requests…The [illegal] guidance…is reminiscent…[of] tha[t] on some other secretive police technologies.  For years, police tried to hide the existence of cell site simulators (popularly known as Stingrays), going as far as to drop criminal cases where it was likely that a judge would expose information about them…

The cop euphemism for lying in reports and courts about use of illegal surveillance is “parallel construction“.

Enshittification (#1660)  

Scenes from the early days of a dark age:

In January, [the mad emperor] posted two clips from a popular YouTube account [falsely claim]ing…[that] Walmart was closing hundreds of California stores…Gavin Newsom’s communications team [debunked] the posts on [Twitter, but]…the YouTube channel…[Trump parroted i]s mostly populated by sensational [computer]-generated videos that purport…to show various companies leaving California, grocery stores running out of food, and school teachers quitting en masse.  The…videos…look decent enough t[o fool chatbot-addled idiots, who don’t]…realize or care that they [are slop]…Newsom’s office…worked with YouTube to identify more than 700 accounts since January that were subsequently removed for violating the company’s terms of service through its…new support system for public figures, creators, and journalists that flags when someone’s face is used without their permission in deepfakes…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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Diary #841

August 11, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

Chekhov and Yellowbird gave me this cool egg rack last Christmas.  Typically, I use it to hold regular “large” size eggs (and put the extra-large and jumbo ones in the basket at the bottom).  But right from the start I realized that it would be an excellent way to hold undersized pullet eggs once the young hens started laying.  And as you can see, they have!  When I first started keeping chickens 20 years ago, I realized that when a recipe calls for x number of eggs, that meant large-grade eggs, so if I wanted to use pullet eggs in a recipe more would be required.  So while I still had my last carton of store-bought eggs around, I measured the volume of a typical egg and discovered it to be 1/4 cup.  So if a recipe calls for 3 eggs, that really means 3/4 cup of eggs, and if I want to use pullet eggs I just crack them into a measuring cup until I get to the right amount.  If I’m cooking something less finicky (for example, just regular scrambled eggs) I just use 2 for 1 at this stage, then later when they are just small rather than tiny I move to roughly 3 for 2.  And if I want to use normal-sized eggs for whatever reason (or give them to friends), the eggs from the mature chickens are still stored in the cupboard like usual.

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Heroes of Song and Story

August 10, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

A classicist recently pointed out on social media that the ancient Greek notion of heroism is so different from the modern idea that mythological heroes like Odysseus must either be adapted for modern audiences, or else they end up looking at least somewhat villainous.  It’s especially apparent when moderns try to adapt Hercules into what we would call a hero, and end up with a character who only barely resembles the one in the myths, because the ancient Greek word which is generally translated as “hero” has nothing to do with morality, self-sacrifice, etc.  As a kid who loved both mythology and comic books, it was always a little jarring to see how differently mythic characters like Hercules were portrayed in the one vs the other.  The most accurate depiction of Hercules on the big screen that I can recall was in Jason and the Argonauts, where he is clearly shown to be a bully, braggart, and delinquent who gets his friends killed and nearly wrecks the entire mission.  Of course, the same movie elides Jason’s awfulness, and ends abruptly to avoid having to deal with the whole ugly business of Jason and Medea, which only goes to demonstrate our initial premise once again.

Posted in Current Events, Music, Philosophy, Words | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Links #840

August 9, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

I’ve always believed that music, like space, is about exploration.  –  William Shatner

Though this Irving Berlin song (provided by Rick Horowitz) is about Hitler, it has taken on a new meaning in our day.  The links above it were provided by Anarres Ansible, Jesse Walker, Ryan Marino, Kevin Wilson, Mike Stabile, Nun Ya, and Savannah Sly, in that order.

From the Archives

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

In the News (#1661)

August 8, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

This technology is not safe to be deployed in communities.  –  Max Isaacs

Policing for Profit

Cops usually make up some pretext, however flimsy, for their robbery schemes:

The Massachusetts police oversight board suspended a state trooper’s…certification after he…[stole] a Bobcat bucket-loader…from a contractor he hired to remove fallen trees from his property…Joseph W. Franklin…[claimed] he was in the process of suing the contractor…for failing to complete the work and his attorney advised him to hold on to the Bobcat as “collateral”…[despite] not hav[ing] a lien or court order allowing him to keep [it, and]…court records do not list any civil actions involving Franklin or the contractor…[who] told police that…Franklin [had lied to]…him[, claiming another] contractor had [stolen] it…demand[ing] $5,000 [ransom]…

The Prudish Giant (#946)

It usually starts with sex workers, but it never stops with us:

YouTube [has] banned a[nother] wave of ASMR artists…for [supposedly] violating the platforms’ rules against “sexually gratifying” content…creators affected by the…bans who’ve spoken publicly about [the censorship] include ItsBunniiASMR, Slight Sounds, Nananightray, Roseasmr, Simoneasmr, and Janina Wilhelmsen, all of whom had significant followings on the platform.  There are still many ASMR creators on YouTube, making the bans even more confusing [to people who don’t understand that all censorship is a game of arbitrary whack-a-mole]…

The Red Umbrella (#1441)

When amateurs and violently-entitled idiots try to reinvent the wheel:

[Florida man] David Allen O’Brien…was arrested…[for a violent assault on] four [people]…on July 12 [he messaged a woman on Tinder and told her] he was looking for a “sugar baby.”  Over the next week, the two [negotiated] an arrangement [wherein] O’Brien [would] give her “$1,000 each visit,” treat her to dinner, and take her shopping…on [July 21 she] had three friends drive her to the date, wh[ich proceeded as arranged until]…they…went back to O’Brien’s residence…[where] she began to feel uncomfortable and texted her friends to come pick her up.  When O’Brien realized she was leaving, he demanded his money back…the woman refused…and jumped into her friends’ waiting car to flee…O’Brien [pursu]ed in…his…pickup truck and…when…he…[caught up he] violently rammed the back of their vehicle, sending it crashing into a pole…he…[then] rammed the car a second time, completely disabling [it]…Three of them managed to run away, but O’Brien cornered one of the male friends…pointed [a pistol] at…him…[and threatened to murder] him…[but]…the…victim…[escaped while] O’Brien [was distracted and]…the [cops caught him]…

Panopticon (#1449)

Flock and its cop customers need to be buried under a deluge of lawsuits:

…when combined with a network of…ALPRs…[license plates] become tracking devices that can provide a comprehensive history of a driver’s movements, potentially revealing sensitive information about his habits, health, relationships, political affiliations, and religious beliefs.  Police departments across the country nevertheless…routinely search the information they collect without reasonable suspicion, probable cause, a warrant, or any sort of judicial supervision…[and] it is nearly impossible for the average driver to avoid surveillance as he goes about his daily life.  That…violates the Kansas Constitution’s privacy protections, according to a lawsuit [from] the Kansas Justice Institute…Sam MacRoberts, KJI’s litigation director…[said] “If Wichita wants to track its citizens, it needs to go to a judge and get a warrant”…

To Molest and Rape (#1649)

It’s unusual for the official cop grooming program to be mentioned so prominently:

A [typical and representative] Southern California [cop] has been charged with [repeated molestation of] a 16-year-old [victim of the “]police Explorer[” grooming] program…Roberto Machuca…faces up to five years in state prison and [condemnation to the “]sex offender[” registry] for 10 years…

To Molest and Rape (#1656)

Cops just keep behaving like cops:

A [typical and representative Arkansas cop named]…Jeremy Boyd Grammer…[raped a girl under] 14…around…Aug. 30…[of last year], onl[y four years after getting paroled out of a 13-year prison sentence for child porn which began]…on July 31, 2008…

Panopticon (Nosey Parkers)

Surprising no one who has ever worked with optical character readers:

Flock [lie]s that in optimal conditions, its cameras accurately read more than 96% of license plate characters.  Hundreds of pages of records from the Roseville [California cop shop] show a different picture. In 2023 and 2024, Flock sent 1,427 alerts to Roseville police, flagging vehicles as stolen or used in a felony…in 71% of those alerts, Flock’s machine-learning software incorrectly read the license plates…The cameras regularly missed vehicles, captured blurry images, misread license plate characters and states, and sent delayed alerts…Flock [blame]ed…[Roseville’s “]atypical setup[“]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Bye Bye Birdie

August 7, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

Early last week I reached 8200 followers on Bluesky.  I set that number as a goal because it’s half of what my follower number on Twitter has eroded down to after years of shadowbanning, follower capping, and other sleazy tactics intended to surreptitiously reduce the reach of dissidents.  And even at half, Bluesky is so much less throttled by algorithms and outright blocks that making exactly the same post on both sites will routinely garner triple-digit engagement on Bluesky and single-digit engagement on Twitter.  So as of today, I’m no longer going to make new posts on Twitter.  I’ll still check it twice every day to reply to any messages, and I’ll occasionally retweet old posts; I’m going to mute everyone I follow there who is also on Bluesky, so I’ll also be retweeting items of interest from the few people I consider worth following on Twitter who obstinately refuse to make the switch to Bluesky.  One day, I hope to drop it altogether, but it’s not that time just yet.  So if you’re one of the single-digit number of people who will read this after arriving from Twitter, please consider moving; it’s only a matter of time before there’s no reason for me to be there at all.

Posted in Miscellaneous, Music | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment »

Cave of Throwback Thursday

August 6, 2026 by Maggie McNeill






Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

In the News (#1660)

August 5, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

“Company destroys two million books” is not a headline that generates sympathy.  –  ISBNdb

Welcome to the Future (#1351)

Minority Report meets 1984:

The FBI office in charge of maintaining the terrorist watch list is seeking an a[lgorithmic] system for pre-crime policing…just as [the Trump regime shifts] its focus…from Islamist terrorism to domestic dissent…

Business Opportunity (#1527)

Politicians are increasingly brazen in their attempts to circumvent the Constitution:

A federal court has slapped down an attempt by the town of Johnston, Rhode Island, to [keep the poors out by stealing] a vacant lot slated for affordable housing development…[After] a [federal] judge [previously returned the deed to its owners and blocked politicians from taking any action to steal the property again]…the town passed a resolution creating its own…eminent domain [process that it declared superseded state and federal law]…but the district court was having none of it.   “A municipality is not in and of itself a sovereign,” wrote [Judge Melissa] DuBose…

Mad Libs (#1636)

Cockroaches flee from light:

Following 404 Media’s reporting that book database company ISBNdb claimed to source printed books to then sell to [chatbot pushers] for [LLM] training, the company deleted the part of its website offering the service…[tried to spin its scheme to feed millions of books to the shoggoths as] “a test of market interest”…[and barfed the buzzword] “pivot” [in reporters’ faces]…In one now-removed article on its site, ISBNdb said that printed books published before 2022 are ideal for [LLM] training…because they [are slop-free], and ingesting these books could prevent model collapse…In January, book authors filed a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic, revealing internal documents that showed Anthropic planned to obtain and scan millions of printed books and destroy them in the process…

Enshittification (#1645)  

Scenes from the early days of a dark age:

Since October…Trump c[rony] Brad Parscale has been quietly overseeing an operation posting hundreds of [propaganda items] on behalf of Israel…The key intended audience of these sites is not…humans…Parscale and his firm, Clock Tower [Psycho], created them as part of a $46.5 million contract with the Israeli government to…[poison] chatbots…Parscale has made his…LLM poisoning…explicit…And it is working, according to disinformation experts…meaning tens of millions of [intellectually-lazy] Americans…are increasingly likely to receive…Israeli [propaganda]…

Walled Garden (#1646)

This was all predicted eight years ago; politicians simply didn’t care:

The UK’s Online Safety Act [i]s a problem…it has enrolled millions of British adults in mandatory identity-check systems run by third-party vendors with documented histories of data breaches…[now] Parliament is asking…[how to “]fix[“]…an…in[nate feature]…of…the kind of [universal surveillance] the Act was designed to produce…[while] fail[ing] to [achieve total censorship of anything politicians dislike while magically allowing things that would embarrass them when inevitably censored]…The consequence that those drafting the Act [intentionally ignored to shove their evil through]: the vendors…used to perform these checks [routinely] suffer…data breaches….[which] are not incidental to the law’s compliance mechanism — they are its structural risk…Ofcom [wants] zero-knowledge proofs…[a] cryptographic method…to confirm that a user is over 18 without learning who the user is…[but that will not happen] because the vendors who provide [age verification] have an economic interest in…[selling people’s] data…

Stalkers in Blue (#1658)

Cops will abuse warrantless surveillance until it no longer exists:

A [North Carolina cop named]…Seth Elliot [has been charged for using] the Flock S[urveillance network to stalk women, but he was also rewarded with a]…paid [vacation]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1659)

These antisocial things need to be banned entirely:

M[ark Zuckerberg]’s [pervert] glasses have quickly [been embraced]…by all kinds of charlatans and brutes to harass strangers, from pickup artist “manfluencers” filming themselves [harass]ing [women] to juvenile pranksters recording [people]…without their consent.  Consequently, the backlash…has reached a fever pitch, with owners choosing to leave them at home to avoid embarrassment.  Sensing a threat to its bottom line, [Facebook] has slowly started treating the issue with [a minuscule] degree of seriousness.  Now it’s vowing to crack down on creeps…using [the] glasses…as…the[y were designed to be used]…two large pickup artist accounts on Instagram have been…banned for posting harassing content filmed with the glasses…yet [Facebook still believes it can] control the narrative about…its fashy glasses…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Diary #840

August 4, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

I reckon it’s a good sign that one of the buds of my magnolia has already opened, considering that I only planted it two weeks ago.  Though it has been unusually cool this summer, it has also been sunny, with an unusual number of rainy days; even though I’m not much of a gardener, I would think that’s a good combination for young plants.  It certainly seems to be good for the tomatoes, too; by the end of the month I should be able to make fried green tomatoes, a treat I missed out on last summer due to weird weather killing the plants early.  I also couldn’t make much salsa last year, and in June I used up the last of the batch Grace and I made together two years ago, so I’m hoping this year I can make at least enough to last a whole year.  I don’t know about the other fruit yet, but I should be able to tell in a few weeks; the return of autumn feels even better to me when I have enough fruit to make the autumn recipes I enjoy.

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Links #839

August 3, 2026 by Maggie McNeill

It’s ridiculous to spend more than $100,000 so they can chase after cats.  –  Matt Leif

Though I’ve always loved The Pink Panther theme, I’ve never featured it, so here’s the title sequence from the movie in memorial to the saxophonist who provided its slinky magic.  The links above it were provided by T. Greg Doucette (x2), Jesse Walker, Mike Stabile, Nun Ya, Ryan Marino, and IncarcerNation, in that order.

From the Archives

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