Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words | Tagged animals, blogging, imaginative fiction, internet, language, politicians, prisons, psychology, Washington DC | 1 Comment »
“Company destroys two million books” is not a headline that generates sympathy. – ISBNdb
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…
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to steal the property again]…the town passed a resolution creating its own…eminent domain [process that it declared superseded state and federal law]…but the district court was having none of it.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…
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…
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]…
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…
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]…
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 artificial stupidity, asset seizure, Business Opportunity, censorship, cops, Enshittification, Facebook, fascism, FBI, internet, Israel, Mad Libs, North Carolina, Opting Out, Panopticon, politicians, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, Rhode Island, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, United Kingdom, Walled Garden, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
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.
Posted in Diary | Tagged Sunset | Leave a Comment »
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.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- Cops are a menace to society.
- R.I.P. Plas Johnson and Freddy Cannon.
- Things sure have changed since my time.
- An example of what America really means.
- Another great moment in artificial stupidity.
- “Crime”: Broken taillight. Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- Everyone abused by cops using this error-prone surveillance needs to sue.
- They make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor.
- I was fated to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path.
- The problem isn’t religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- These evil schemes need to be completely shut down as unconstitutional.
- The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever.
- Erosion of civil liberties starts with “undesirables”, but never stops there.
- The bipartisan war on the internet moves us inexorably toward idiocracy.
- To flush civil rights, just apply a label like “prostitute” or “gang member”.
- Texas stops judges overruling library censorship by eliminating libraries.
- What’s the connection between this guy & disgraced Chief James Burke?
- Politicians no longer care about whether their diktats are Constitutional.
- “Lewd and lascivious conduct” sounds nicer than “raping a 10-year-old”.
- Cops; Cat, I farted; Sinead O’Connor; SunRay Kelley; and much more.
- Blaming bad behavior on imaginary “addiction” ≠ taking responsibility.
- Give aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?
- The State tortures thousands of people for crossing an imaginary line.
- Watching Tim Ballard’s reputation go down in flames is so very sweet.
- A little (fictionalized) taste of Grace’s personality and our chemistry.
- Why are people shocked when men paid to behave violently, do so?
- Low-population states cling desperately to “sex trafficking” myths.
- This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed.
- Cops won’t drop this fantasy until “news” media stop parroting it.
- The latest in the case of the lunatic-infested Millersville cop shop.
- “Collective Shout” believes no women should have lucrative jobs.
- If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention.
- Forced-birth fanatics are now actively empowering abusive men.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from July 2013, 2014, and 2015.
- It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other.
- Calling “child protection” is merely a quieter form of “swatting”.
- Cops, The Onion, the Antichrist, John Mayall, and much more.
- It’s rare these days for a US court to uphold the Constitution.
- What really happens when a wannabe “pimp” abducts a girl.
- I’ve loved The Muppet Show since it first premiered in 1976.
- Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness.
- He wasn’t a “former pastor” when he murdered a little girl.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Tom Lehrer, and much more.
- “Sexual offenses” sounds so much milder than “rape”.
- This situation is not going to get better on its own.
- This will continue until it is federally criminalized.
- Privacy as we once knew it is a thing of the past.
- Fascism in action, profiting from human misery.
- Oh look, sensible people were correct as usual.
- Trying to eliminate small but persistent leaks.
- Judge rules that a spade is actually a spade.
- My three previous columns for Lammas.
- One of the images of my childhood.
- At least this one confessed quickly.
- Just another Throwback Thursday.
- Another example of McNeill’s Law.
- Throwback Thursday and Son.
- The Bride of Fridaystein.
- Your “leaders” at work.
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny | Tagged Alaska, animals, artificial stupidity, cops, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, libraries, Nebraska, propaganda, video | Leave a Comment »
[Zuckerberg]’s vision of the future may be antisocial and bleak, but we have the power to reject that reality. – Amanda Silberling
Surveillance, propaganda-spouting, and thought-crippling in a repurposed sex doll:
A [repurposed sex doll] is being [synchronized with a chatbot and fobbed off on American Indian students]…at Salamanca high school in…New York…The robot, [call]ed Sally, was…[built by] Realbotix, formerly Tokens.com, [which]…purchased [sex-doll manufacturer] Simulacra…in April 2024…Realbotix [l]ied [that it did not buy] the sex doll company [despite the acquisition being public record], and denied…that the dolls – [which are obviously repurposed sex dolls to anyone with eyes] – are re[purposed sex dolls]…Melinda Pearson…of the New York State United Teachers…said…“The answer to the challenges in education is not more screens, it’s not more algorithms, not more robots. What we need in our schools right now are more caring adults and more human connection”…
Note they aren’t trying this in a school for white kids. See also “Mad Libs” below.
Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:
A trove of chat logs and projects created with Anthropic’s Claude [chatbot]…have been left exposed to Google, making them searchable to anyone on the web…when Claude users opt…to distribute a given chat or project to colleagues or associates using the chatbot’s “share” feature…[the program] notes that sharing will create a “public” link, and “anyone with the link can view.” The warning, though, doesn’t alert users that shared content could wind up being indexed by a search engine…Such artifacts…include…a detailed medical report of a real patient, clinical trial results that include…patient names, documents sharing the names and phone numbers of primary school-aged children…and employee reviews that include…personal information…This isn’t the first time this has happened at Anthropic…and…[both] ChatGPT and [Mechahitler] chat logs…have [been] discover[ed] in Google…
The logical endpoint to Florida’s censorship jihad:
Florida has been ground zero for book bans in the United States…under…[censorship] laws…[which demand banning] any book [even] a single [Froot Loop points at, even if they aren’t a] resident…of [the] district…[now the lunatics who run Clay County are] considering…eliminating school libraries altogether…[because although it] has removed more books than…any [other] district in the state…[that still isn’t enough to satisfy their crazed lust for thought control. These people are so stupid they actually can’t grasp that the reason]…the circulation rates [of their libraries] are less than in most schools—less than one checkout a day…[is because there aren’t enough books left to check out. And yet local politicians]…are frustrated by the inefficiency of [the censorship process]…their discussion centered not on whether to ban books but on how to do it faster…when asked what might replace the library space…[politicians absurdly suggested “]school stores[“]…and [“]computer labs[“]…
Not To Be Taken Internally (#1641) 
Apparently this nitwit never heard of heavy metal poisoning:
[Online idiot] Connor Murphy [poisoned himself by] injecting gold into his body [because he imagined he would] gain “superhuman” powers…he…also [believed he was]…increas[ing] his attractiveness [by deforming his head into a distorted parallelepiped] as…[part of “]looksmaxxing[“. One of his disciples described the cognitive damage done by toxic metal injection as]…“tapp[ing] into a level of consciousness that most people never will”…Police in Thailand were…called to [his] rental…after complaints of a man screaming inside, where they…found him in an “agitated” state. He…fle[d] the [cops and then jumped in]…a…[nearby] lake [and drowned himself]…
Is there some reason this dude wanted to look like Sinestro? And what are those neck lumps? Was he carrying acorns in there?
Training kids not to think from an early age:
[Facebook] is working on a…storytelling [chatbot] called StoryKit, which creates [autocomplete]-generated children’s stories with custom characters, settings, lessons, and music. As the App Store listing assures parents, “You don’t need to write a single word.” At last, a tech company has found a way to outsource humanity’s oldest pastime: using our imaginations…To generate a story in the app, [nitwits] first select a character…by “[snapping] a photo of their favorite toy or person”…then…choose a lesson…it could be a lot worse. [Facebook] regularly ships boneheaded ideas like Instagram deepfake generators…“pervert glasses”…[and] virtual reality work meetings…but it has always been possible to survive bedtime without using an inherently uncreative technology that calculates the most predictable response to a prompt…Perhaps the moral of the story here is that we can choose not to live in a world where children are raised on bedtime stories written by large language models…
Pyrrhic Victory (Nosey Parkers)
These things need to be banned entirely:
The promoter behind some of the biggest comic and entertainment conventions in the UK has banned [pervert] glasses from its events to stop…secret filming…of guests and attendees. Monopoly Events said a number of guests had told the company they would be reluctant to appear at Comic-Con shows again after cases of recordings taking place without their knowledge. The ban is [also] applicable to…any other “wearable recording devices”. Attendees caught using the devices will be asked to leave the convention…Earlier this week the ferry operator CalMac paused bridge visits on its vessels after a passenger used [perve]rt glasses…without permission…
Every weapon eventually begets a defense:
A growing number of eyewear brands are developing glasses designed to interfere with facial recognition systems and surveillance cameras,…Solir Optics…sells “anti-facial recognition” sunglasses priced between $70 and $100…[which] are designed to block a broader range of light, including infrared and blue light…[so as to] interfere with retinal scans…Zenni Optical is also offering a lens coating called “ID Guard,” which…adds a pink tint to the surface of the lenses that reflects infrared light used by some facial recognition cameras…[and designer] Kerin Rose Gold…created Handle With Care, a[n overpriced] line…[which] use[s] black-and-white patterns intended to disrupt the sensors used by some facial recognition systems…
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 artificial stupidity, censorship, comics, Crippling Thought, dehumanization, Facebook, Florida, Google, internet, libraries, Mad Libs, New York, Not To Be Taken Internally, politicians, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, robots, surveillance, teachers, Thailand, The Pygmalion Fallacy, Thought Control, Twitter, United Kingdom, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
Happy Lammas, dear readers, and Blessed Be!
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | Leave a Comment »
Sex work isn’t going anywhere, no matter what cops, prosecutors, and morally-retarded billionaires want you to believe. – “Scrupleless in Seattle”
- Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape.
- Bizarre, stilted language is used to describe a very ordinary escort service.
- “Pimp” classification schemes are among the stupidest tropes of the panic.
- The ludicrosity of small-town police chiefs trying to justify sex work stings.
- Sometimes hiding border control behind “sex trafficking” is very apparent.
- A craptastic mixture of the obvious, the pearl-clutching & the dead wrong.
- Media never tire of presenting ordinary sexwork practices as new & novel.
- Prohibition turns bodies into “crime scenes” which cops can violate at will.
- The idea we might be neither is too much for the tiny minds of politicians.
- It’s really gratifying to see sex workers rebel against paternalistic bullshit.
- Sex workers who pretend they aren’t are almost as bad as prohibitionists.
- The “big events” that supposedly attract “sex trafficking” grow ever sillier.
- I wonder if any of them recognize how pathetic their denials sound to us?
- In case you thought cops raping whores to arrest us was just a US thing.
- Aussie reporters lap up noxious idiocy vomited out by “rescue” fetishists.
- Calling a prison an “immigration centre” doesn’t make it less of a prison.
- Cops, Shazam, Pokemon, Sweden, Michigan, bureaucracy & much more.
- There aren’t enough real “victims”, so the rescue industry creates fakes.
- They “see it as a business transaction” because that’s exactly what it is.
- Remember, cops: raping whores is OK; it’s paying them fairly that isn’t.
- The gap between what actually happened & what cops claim happened.
- Pro-censorship loon wants parents to panic about “artificial necrophilia”.
- Let’s hope this myth is dead, or at least nearly so, by the next election.
- Why idiocies like “mid-range prostitution is new” infuriate me so much.
- “Religious” guy spends time gawking at, then defacing escort websites.
- More crime victims caged to force participation in a state morality play.
- Hawaii joins other states in recriminalizing acts that are already illegal.
- This is obvious to whores, but it’s nice to see academics discovering it.
- Seoul adopts ever-sleazier tactics to please its masters in Washington.
- Every little bit helps to undermine the “sin and degradation” narrative.
- Calling a prison “Freedom Place” is as Orwellian as one could imagine.
- Migrant women harassed by cops who declare them infantile “victims”.
- The negative reaction to this pogrom must’ve been surprising to cops.
- It’s great to see a sex worker run for office, especially when she wins.
- Portraying whores as depraved monsters rather than pathetic victims.
- It’s only a “shock” to those who live with their heads in their rectums.
- Florida cops claim to “help” marginalized women by brutalizing them.
- Government uses especially nasty crimes to undermine liberty for all.
- A thorough debunking of “sex trafficking” hysteria by Brittany Turner.
- Scaling back claims about Charlotte, NC being a “sex trafficking hub”.
- When will lawheads learn whores can’t be vanished by proclamation?
- Even among “sex trafficking” publicity stunts, this is painfully stupid.
- Note this was accomplished by the usual whorearchical line-drawing.
- How about “calling on police” to stop arresting sex workers, period?
- Pro-censorship morons are still trying to destroy the entire internet.
- Clueless reporter is surprised that most whores’ clients are married.
- No, you fucking filthy liar, it’s not “unique” and you fucking know it.
- Ever wonder where all those supposed “sex trafficking victims” are?
- People need to be frequently reminded of what Ruhama actually is.
- Batman, Sesame Street, socialism, cops, “rescue” and much more.
- Labeling a particular street a “hotbed” of sex work or “trafficking”.
- Anybody we claim is a victim is one, regardless of what she says.
- More mainstream media are debunking “sex trafficking” hysteria.
- Cops, Robin Hardy, robots, laws, TSA, propaganda & much more.
- If interstate highways are so dangerous, why don’t we ban them?
- You know things have changed when this can appear in the VOA.
- Is it OK to ask a sex worker friend if she’d see me professionally?
- Do you want prosecution for acts that weren’t illegal at the time?
- This is pretty typical of the level of “evidence” in sex work trials.
- “Anti-trafficking” publicity stunts are growing ever more bizarre.
- Are clients of sex work as varied as those of other service work?
- The deep connection between the rescue & garment industries.
- A vile collection of prohibitionist lies, mostly from a prosecutor.
- I hope people don’t get the idea that this is unique to Oakland.
- Is the ACLU finally beginning to do the right thing, at long last?
- Marin County isn’t really small, but this is still patently absurd.
- Without full decriminalization, cops will always harass whores.
- Note how closely this resembles “sex trafficking” propaganda.
- This is not “decriminalization” as some sources are reporting.
- Prohibition turns every individual’s body into a “crime scene”.
- This story has far too many lapses to be considered credible.
- Even when Vice isn’t being directly prohibitionist, it’s no ally.
- Yet another surveillance tool for hunting down sex workers.
- Dr. Marty Klein on the recent upsurge in anti-porn hysteria.
- An article so totally ridiculous I felt compelled to vivisect it.
- A guest columnist writes about Dennis Hof & Lamar Odom.
- This is pretty appalling, especially given the disease factor.
- Another in an anti-“sex offender” registry series from Vox.
- It’s impossible to overstate how important this reversal is.
- How “authorities” intentionally spread diseases in prisons.
- Seattle pigs conspire to destroy literally hundreds of lives.
- Judge orders jury to find an “authority” not guilty of rape.
- Germany prepares a horrible new set of anti-whore laws.
- The answer is, “Because it doesn’t actually exist as such”.
- This campaign has Swanee Hunt’s foul stench all over it.
- This jewel of self-contradiction was too good to pass up.
- “Sex trafficking” is a convenient excuse for any tyranny.
- Prohibitionist nuns hunt down American whores as well.
- NPR licks the arsehole of “Truckers Against Trafficking”.
- Another small country stands up to American bullying.
- Hey, kids! Fight “human trafficking” for fun and profit!
- There aren’t many genuine cases of coercion like this.
- Don’t try to get freebies from sex workers. Seriously.
- But picket-fence queers say cops aren’t our enemies.
- Chi Adanna Mgbako on sex worker activism in Africa.
- $60 would’ve been a cheap price to pay for a lesson.
- Another example of what real sex slavery looks like.
- The Philippines’ weird crusade against “cybersex”.
- I’m rather skeptical of the claimed disparity here.
- And her police record is important…why, exactly?
- A nice article on the Desiree Alliance conference.
- Laura Lee braves the hostile waters of Mumsnet.
- Kate Iselin gets it, though four years after I did.
- Notable American proponents of “end demand”.
- A rebuttal to Madison Graham’s guest column.
- Cops, cannabis, short horror and much more.
- Heading to the Desiree Alliance conference.
- More on EMPOWER’s sex work museum.
- Don’t think this is unique to Oakland.
- China aspires to be more like the US.
- The Desiree Alliance in New Orleans.
- An apology for inadvertent offense.
- “The next generation of condom”.
- Don’t say I didn’t tell you before.
- This is what “rescue” looks like.
- It’s enough to make one vomit.
- Good riddance to bad rubbish.
- Many rapist cops of the week.
- More articles like this, please.
- Sweet, sweet schadenfreude.
- Glenn Kessler does it again.
- Writing a column in the air.
- A lovely weekend-long gig.
- Fault Lines interviews me.
- A short trip to Portland.
- Say their names.
Posted in Miscellaneous | Tagged blogging | Leave a Comment »
Posted in Biography, Miscellaneous, Perception | Tagged artificial stupidity, blogging, imaginative fiction, language, libraries, politicians, psychology, sex work is work, surveillance | Leave a Comment »
This is about trying…to make a dollar on people who only have a dollar. – Jamieson Webster
Spooge-based sexual assaults are growing worse:
…masturbating in front of [or even onto] female customers at branches of Dollar Tree [is]…a disturbing new form of sexual assault that [incels a]re documenting and bragging about in dark corners of the internet…surreptitiously ejaculating on random women [is called] “tagging” or “sharking”…[and] online forums praise…perpetrators for being “low inhibition” or “low inhib”…Dollar Tree crop[s] up again and again as a favored location for such attacks, a[pparently because of]…the same problems that…have led, over the years, to…millions of dollars in fines: inadequate safety and security, understaffing on the premises, and disorganized aisles filled with unopened boxes that offer…criminals ample opportunity to skulk…
“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpty-eleven:
The term gaslighting [has] become overused in social and political contexts, but its physical deployment in the home is evolving with [so-called “]smart[“] technology…From…a different neighbourhood, city or even country, settings on household tech can be changed to unsettle and disturb the person living there. Timings on the clock are altered so school pick-ups and appointments are missed, making that person appear unreliable…Electricity controls can be tweaked so household appliances and lights turn off. The television can be switched on at full blast to disrupt sleep…the…heating [can be turned up or off to make] the space…unlivable even. An[d of course there’s]…eavesdropping…Emma Pickering…of…the domestic abuse charity [Refuge] said referrals to her team in the year to March 2026 rose by 78 per cent compared with the previous year…
Teacher and politician should have been a red flag:
[West Virginia politician] Elliott Pritt…[sexually abused] a [15-year-old] girl [after grooming her] through Roblox and Snapchat. Pritt…is [also] a public school teacher…and [tried to entice his victim by telling her]…that he loved her…he…sent [her dick pics] and [begged for her to] send nude photos of herself through Snapchat…he [then molested her] in his classroom…at least five to ten times…
Every weapon eventually begets a defense:
As facial recognition technology [metastasizes] across [the world], a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend. Companies have started incorporating “adversarial patterns” in their garments – carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems…the effectiveness of the patterns depends on the surveillance system and the conditions in which it is used…
Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:
[A] Seattle [cop named] Marlon Williams-Booth was arrested in late May for…[attack]ing his wife…[After she escaped]…he…called [one of his cronies] at the [cop shop] and [lied] that his wife pulled a gun on him…[when] Thurston County deputies [arrived they found him] hostile…drunk…and [only marginally coherent, so they] left and took a statement from [his] wife at a hotel…[she explained]…that she was leaving him. At [his] insistence, she always carried her firearm when she left the house…when he…blocked [her] exit…he asked…if she was carrying, and she patted [her] holster…he [then] lunged at her…pinned her…against the wall…[took] the gun from the holster, grabbed her by the hair…[threw] her to the ground…[and put] the gun…[to] her [head]…she double-kicked him in the chest and escaped out the window…[all] the evidence was consistent with [the] wife’s account…On the way to jail, he…continued ranting, claiming to be “one of the elite heroes of downtown Seattle”…[and bragging about] how many people [he had murdered; in reality]…SPD records [showed] Williams-Booth has never fired his weapon on duty or been fired upon…
[Cop shop]s around the country [are routinely using] Flock cameras…to search for specific people, not cars, using searches [as vague] as “heavy-set male”…“person on skateboard”…[or] “backpack”…while most people associate Flock cameras with…tracking vehicles, some of the cameras are also capable of following the movements of particular people…These are called “FreeForm” searches, and allow cops to use Flock’s system as though they would use a search engine…“giant oceans of video data can now be searched the same way big text files can be, including for…t-shirts, tattoos, and bumper stickers. Even without face recognition, that’s a significant increase in surveillance capability,” [said] Jay Stanley…[of] ACLU…The searches sometimes stretch across dozens or even nearly a hundred networks of Flock cameras at once…[and routinely] pull up images of innocent or unrelated people…
Stalkers in Blue (Nosey Parkers) 
With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:
A [Georgia cop named]…Kabiru Salawu was [fired and criminally] charged [after being caught]…misus[ing the Flock] license plate [reader network to stalk women]…He’s currently in jail, being held without bond. His arrest is the latest in a [long but predictable] string of incidents in which Georgia [cops] have been [caught] misusing this technology…CBS Atlanta [reports] at least 10 other[s]….
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Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny | Tagged cops, domestic violence, drugs, Eavesdropping, fascism, Georgia, If Men Were Angels, internet, masturbation, Out of Control, Panopticon, politicians, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, Secret Squirrel, semen, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, teachers, The Cop Myth, Washington (state), West Virginia | Leave a Comment »
When we buried Jonathan in the pit near the propane tank, I decided to plant a tree over him, but I couldn’t decide what kind of tree I wanted. I really miss the crepe myrtles which are so commonly seen in the New Orleans area, and I’ve seen some beautiful ones in the nearby town of Hoquiam. But when I talked to a nursery about it, they told me it takes about three years for them to get established, and even a single hard winter in that time can stunt or even kill them. The lady told me that if I wanted a southern flowering tree that would grow well here, I should consider a magnolia. Grace liked magnolias very much, and when I mentioned to Chekhov that I was thinking about getting one for the spot, he immediately told me that he had seen them at Home Depot in Aberdeen and offered to buy one for me. So on Sunday the 19th he brought it in his van and we planted it together; it wasn’t difficult because the soil over the grave was still very loose, and it only took a few minutes of fairly light effort to clear a properly-sized hole for the root ball. Yellowbird is an avid gardener and advised me to water it every day without rain until the rainy season starts again in October, but luckily we’ve had several rainy days in the past week (unusual for this time of year) so that took care of the watering on those days. Then on one of the days I was watering it last week, it occurred to me that the area beneath the tree would be a fitting place for most of Grace’s ashes; I’m going to give the tree a few months to be sure it’s taking well, then I’m going to do a little ritual on the Day of the Dead to bury the ashes. And from now on, I will think of her every time I see it bloom.
Posted in Diary, Philosophy | Tagged Day of the Dead, holidays, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
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