Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words | Tagged blogging, ethics, language, psychology | Leave a Comment »
The apparent path of the sun crosses the celestial equator southbound at 00:05 UTC today, making this the first day of autumn in the Northern Hemisphere and the first of spring in the Southern. This is the time of harvest, when plans come to fruition; it is also the harbinger of the time of rest, especially for Daughters of Darkness like myself who are exhausted and overstimulated by the long days of summer. But even if you’re not a fan of the growing gloom, I hope you can enjoy the cooler days and hold summer in your heart while waiting for its return, just as I wait patiently through the long, bright days for the time that best reflects my inner landscape.
Blessed Be!
Posted in Holidays | Tagged holidays, paganism | Leave a Comment »
We kill people based on metadata. – General Michael Hayden
The only way to stop this evil is to bury politicians in lawsuits:
The family of a woman who died after she could not get an abortion in Texas is suing doctors and [politician]s including [psychopath-] General Ken Paxton. It is the first lawsuit over a death [caused by] an abortion ban…and the…first to directly sue Paxton, who has taken a leading role in…[using nuisance lawsuits to persecute “culture war” opponents. After the 2025 death of] Tierra Walker…Texas [politicians] …passed a [deceptive] law [pretended] to clarify wh[en]…doctors…can [legally]…intervene [to save a woman’s life, but which in actuality revived a 1925 abortion ban that felonized helping someone “procure” an abortion]…Walker died days after being [refused an abortion despite her…[severe] preeclampsia…The plaintiffs, Walker’s family, are seeking a jury trial and pursuing both damages and a judgement finding that Texas’ abortion laws violate the state constitution.
Governments and fanatics encouraged this kind of behavior for a decade:
San Jose [cops] arrested a [deranged] woman…[who] pulled up to [a man] and his 6-year-old daughter multiple times while they were walking…and proceeded to [scream “sex trafficking” accusations at him, burbling]…”I’m making sure that you’re not sex trafficking this poor little girl…That’s a white little girl, and you’re a man of color, so I believe you’re either buying or selling or trafficking this child”…sources have identified [the crazy person] as Lindsay Hansen…[who has a history of] harass[ing] members of the…community, tap[ing] them, and shar[ing] the recordings through social media…in [one video she is seen barging into] the girls’ locker room of a…high school [and] accusing physical education teachers of [molesting students]…she…[fantasiz]es herself as a [“]professional[“] who exposes child sex traffickers and uploads [CGI]…images of [situations she has fantasized. She also frequently posts racist and anti-LGBT propaganda and is known to have]…significant mental health issues…
All through the 2010s, people with similar self-aggrandizing beliefs about “sex trafficking expertise” were approvingly quoted in the mainstream media and even paid to spout their deranged propaganda to schools, clubs, cop assemblies, etc. And until quite recently, airlines encouraged their agents and air hostesses to behave in a similar fashion.
Indiscriminate murder is so much easier when blamed on machines:
Israel…is…us[ing machine-learning systems] to surveil and kill Palestinians in Gaza, including civilians…The Russian and Ukrainian armies have both been rolling out autonomous drones, which use…guidance software to choose targets when…cut off from radio contact with pilots…The U.S. military…used a…[chatbot] to select over 1,000 targets in the opening surprise attack on Iran…[and] the Iranian military and its allies in Yemen used [the same chatbot] to gather intelligence…the…[massacre at] Minab’s elementary school…was…the [result of]…human negligence..[letting deluxe autocomplete] deci[de] to kill those children…without double-checking their findings…Autonomous weapons are a step closer to [an] apocalyptic future that…may look less like Terminator…and more like the 1983 movie WarGames, in which a military [computer] can’t tell the difference between a simulation and reality. The Anthropic hacking incident from earlier this summer had an uncanny resemblance to th[at] plot…[when a] program…told to perform a hacking test within a simulation, was accidentally hooked up to the real internet…
Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:
OpenAI is hiring hundreds of contractors who read a massive stream of real users’ ChatGPT prompts…[often] including sensitive personal information…[submitted by fools who] don’t realize [it] may be read by actual people. The goal of these prompt review teams is to improve the responses ChatGPT gives to its users, with the contractors rating and critiquing the chatbot’s generated replies…[to] train…ChatGPT to not anthropomorphize itself, and to be less sycophantic…[so it stops causing] suicides…The news [unveil]s a major privacy risk for [the fools and idiots who use]…ChatGPT as a therapist, professional assistant, or [imaginary] friend, and providing it with all sorts of intimate details about their lives…
Cops are trained to “be as vague as permissible” about their reasons for Flock searches:
An EFF analysis of ALPR search logs from Flock…shows that [cops] across the country are spying on drivers…without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like “LOL”…”LMAO”…”sexy,” and “idk”…to access sensitive ALPR location data…in some cases, [pigs] are just mashing [their trotters down on the] keyboard buttons…Flock…claims it has improved its system by requiring [pigs] to [root in] a dropdown list of crimes before running a search–but that only makes it easier for [stupid thugs] to hide improper searches behind the veneer of uniformity…With no warrant requirements…guardrails, [or proper] audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone’s location information. This culture of abuse has allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine…
People need to stop a government that won’t stop itself:
Hackers ripped down a Flock camera above a roadway, made a near-complete copy of the data stored inside it, and shared the files with 404 Media…WIRED, [and Distributed Denial of Secrets,] revealing in new detail how exactly Flock…cameras track the movements of both vehicles and people. The hackers…are also publishing details on how they managed to obtain the software, in the hopes that other people may copy them…analysis of the recovered data shows that [device] software…explicitly detects people [despite Flock’s repeated lies to the contrary]…and…sometimes isolated bumper stickers and other graphics…[such as] patch[es or tattoos]…
[The boss hog of] Richmond…[California wants] the city [to] drop its Flock [citizen] surveillance program…and expand its contract with Axon, which already provides the [cop shop] with…body cameras and tasers. Axon would then supply the city with a license plate reader network, [regular surveillance] cameras and a [surveillance] drone program…
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 abortion, activism, artificial stupidity, California, cops, disease, ethics, fantasy, fascism, hysteria, imaginative fiction, Iran, Israel, Panopticon, politicians, psychology, racism, robots, Russia, Signs, surveillance, Texas, The Vultures Descend, Ukraine, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
If you compare this video to the one I took several weeks ago, you can see just how much happier and healthier the turkey is now that he can roam around outside of the coop, safe from literal henpecking. When I took this video on Saturday, I got a good look at the area on his back which was so bad before, and it seems largely healed now. He still spends a lot of his time near the fence, but that seems to be because he’s learned I throw feed corn over the fence when I come out around noon; after that, he wanders all over looking for bugs in the grass. A few days ago I even heard him in the north paddock, under the apple trees, when I opened up the living room window in the morning. I’ve been trying to catch him when he’s making his gobbling noises, but as so often happens with animals doing interesting things, he always stops when I grab the phone! So you’ll just have to be satisfied with watching him strut, unless I happen to catch a better video before this publishes on Monday. At least now I know how to handle larger fowl (I’ve always wanted peacocks) when they start getting too large for the henhouse!
Posted in Diary | Tagged animals, Sunset, video | Leave a Comment »
They’re letting police do just about anything. – Randall Kallinen
When Dolly Parton died a few weeks ago, I seemed to be the only one who remembered this 1976 guest appearance on Captain Kangaroo; the video was clearly taken from the edited reruns of old shows aired on PBS in the late ’80s. Of particular note: Dolly reading a children’s book aloud, almost 20 years before starting her Imagination Library charity. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel; Radley Balko; Lucy Steigerwald; Mistress Matisse & Dan Savage; C.J. Ciaramella; IncarcerNation; and Radley Balko again, in that order.
- Fascism enables idiocracy.
- Polk County, Florida, again.
- Another taste of the new dark age.
- R.I.P. Jay Wiseman and Bob Mackie.
- They keep demonstrating exactly what they are.
- Man murdered for being security guard while black.
- Trump worshipers claim his name is a magical charm against entropy.
From the Archives
- Government thinks it even has the right to leer at the inside of your body.
- “Fentanyl” is now another porcine pretext for harassing & robbing people.
- Humans: a swarm of self-important flies panicking over a rotting cow pie.
- Australian cops bravely protect imaginary children from imaginary abuse.
- This will continue as long as fools teach children obedience to “authority”.
- This “monkey see, monkey do” parade is now parading around the world.
- This phrasing strongly implies strangling a woman while on duty is A-OK.
- Missouri politicians govern by edict, sans tiresome democratic processes.
- If something like “trafficking” propaganda happens, it’s usually a church.
- Keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually.
- Asstoon’s surveillance company will keep outing sex workers to the pigs.
- Why does society allow its medical system to be used for state violence?
- The wholly-predictable results of bad laws, happening just as predicted.
- Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and harassed?
- The real culprit: invasive surveillance & onerous infantilization of teens.
- The Japanese are the only people left who can tell fantasy from reality.
- Never forget that “filter” used thus is merely a euphemism for “censor”.
- Government often attacks with civil suits rather than criminal charges.
- Anyone who’s ever closely known a narcissist will see the truth of this.
- One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality.
- The state enriches itself via unconstitutional warrantless surveillance.
- Curated selections of tweets from September 2023, 2024, and 2025.
- Sleeping with a cop is dangerous even if the woman is a cop herself.
- Don’t infantilize young victims of government brutality as “children”.
- As if rude assholes talking loudly on cell phones wasn’t bad enough.
- Politicians will never let go of prohibitionism until they’re forced to.
- All laws should sunset after 10 years unless intentionally renewed.
- Cops, immigrants, Tom Bombadil, Tito Jackson, and much more.
- “Pastor and sex offender” is a large and ever-expanding group.
- Arresting men for fictitious “crimes” against imaginary people.
- Surprising absolutely no one who understands McNeill’s Law.
- Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet.
- It’s a good thing I don’t get emotionally attached to poultry.
- All those who facilitate cops’ evil are enemies of humanity.
- Cops, artificial stupidity, Robert Redford, and much more.
- A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners.
- I’m honestly unsure why this doesn’t happen more often.
- The “cops bearing gifts” PR scam is not limited to adults.
- Authoritarians, like leopards, cannot change their spots.
- Can a sex worker win an election in the puritanical US?
- Wannabe preachers are often as bad as the real thing.
- “Criminality” is a status defined entirely by the State.
- Cops, “records”, Roger Whittaker, and much more.
- The open internet is becoming a thing of the past.
- AHF has a history of financial shenanigans.
- My first and only guest column by a robot.
- Zuckerberg is completely out of his mind.
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- “Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen.
- My recipe for fried green tomatoes.
- The Curse of Throwback Thursday.
- Modern Throwback Thursday.
- Thursday of Throwbacks.
- Goldilocks blackberries.
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 animals, artificial stupidity, BDSM, Believe Them, Canada, cops, Enshittification, fascism, Florida, Georgia, Google, Hollywood, I Saw My Brain, illegal aliens, Indiana, New York, politicians, racism, Robocops, Texas, video, Washington DC | Leave a Comment »
The suggestion to “be mindful”…[is] going to prevent absolutely no one from recording others. – Chris Hoffman
Cops usually make up some pretext, however flimsy, for their robbery schemes:
A [Las Vegas cop named]…Antonio Chavez…and his wife, Claudia Guzman-Marquez…intentionally used their credit cards to purchase expensive items and gift cards in the tens of thousands of dollars…and…the[n]…dispute[d] the charges with the credit card companies, claiming that their wallets…had been stolen. Chavez even filed a [false] police report…to [back up his scam against]…Capital One…American Express…Citibank and JPMorgan Chase…Chavez admitted…that he conspired with his wife and “a third party in California” in [the] fraud scheme…
People like this are the norm in policing sexual offenses, and always will be:
A [Father]land Security [goon] whose work included child-exploitation cases is now facing nine sex-crime charges [for repeatedly rap]ing a juvenile victim in [Alabama]…Kent Ian Blacklidge is…a [fine example of McNeill’s Law]…“It’s why [his behavior was] so profoundly [predictable]”…said [Maggie McNeill]…
Another privacy-invading gadget from the usual sociopathic assholes:
Siri Recap is a new Apple Watch feature designed to continuously log everyday conversations and generate c[hatbot] summaries…turning one of the world’s most popular [gewgaws] into a…[surreptitious eavesdropping device, thus]…rais[ing] major privacy and social concerns…Siri Recap is technically optional…for the person wearing the watch. If someone decides to record you, there’s little you can do to prevent them, short of running away as fast as possible or smashing their watch…many US states require two-party consent, meaning…this feature [is illegal] in states with such laws…Apple [lie]s that Siri Recap won’t upload audio to the cloud…but…the…watch will send captured audio to your iPhone, where it is transcribed…[and uploaded to] Apple’s…servers, where [a chatbot] will generate the final summary…
A [North Carolina cop named]…Nekime Oxendine…[has finally been] charged with [the] murder…of…[another cop named] Adam Bean…[at the] home…of Tara Whitman…[who apparently] had [such a thing for cops she was fucking] both men…Bean [unexpectedly arrived] and was upset to find Oxendine’s truck parked outside…[so] Oxendine walked out[side] and [murdered]…Bean…Oxendine…remains…behind bars with no bond…
The initial reports were so vague I incorrectly concluded that the murderer-cop was the woman, rather than being another boyfriend. Mea culpa.
This one makes extra effort to pretend the child molester was not typical and representative:
A [typical and representative North Carolina cop named]…Leigh Ann Brooks [repeatedly molested]…an…[unidentified child or stepchild of indeterminate] sex…the [typical and representative cop was only atypical in that she is female]…
Warrantless surveillance makes all women prey for cops, including female cops:
A [New York sow named]…Laurie Moore…conduct[ed] more than 4,000 un[constitutional warrantless Flock] searches…[on] her…[ex-]girlfriend…and…four [other people]…hundreds of times each [over the past two years. Both the sheriff and the DA absurdly bloviated that the epidemic of cops conducting unconstitutional warrantless surveillance cannot be blamed on a surveillance network specifically designed to facilitate unconstitutional warrantless surveillance]…
Anthropic goes from pretending to care about safety to persecuting those who really do:
Job postings and interviews with senior security officials at Anthropic show that the f[ascist “]AI[” pusher] is building…an extensive monitoring system to [spy] on activists who oppose [its schemes]…and…implementing a “pre-crime” approach, attempting to…[harass activists by siccing the pigs on them when they haven’t committed any] crime…the…surveil[lance scheme demonstrates that]…the firm’s efforts to cast itself as the responsible alternative to OpenAI [were and are complete bullshit]…Anthropic has begun…routine [copsucking, siccing cops on innocent people by barfing buzzwords such as “]threats[“]…“concerning behavior”…[and] “escalation patterns”…[at them]. Last month…Anthropic was fast to call the cops on a frustrated Claude user…[but] refused to show police [any] actual…evidence of actual wrongdoing…Anthropic’s effort to build a pre[-crime machine appears to be a step toward worming its way back into the military-industrial complex not only for profits, but also so its]…data centers and power supply…[can be] designat[ed as “critical infrastructure” like]…water, electricity, and broadband…Enshrining [“AI” scam promoters] in the hardened cloak of national security would…embolden these companies to shape how federal agencies view threats to their bottom line…[magically] transform[ing their]…oppo[nents into]…[“]extremists[“] or…even…[“]terrorists[“]…
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, Tyranny | Tagged Alabama, artificial stupidity, cell phones, censorship, cops, Eavesdropping, fascism, Follow Your Bliss, infidelity, internet, McNeill's Law, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Policing for Profit, propaganda, rape, scams, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The Cop Myth, To Molest and Rape, Welcome to the Future | Leave a Comment »
Ugh, this sounds like something he mutters to himself during masturbation.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-15T03:01:51.899Z
I always have mixed feelings about "investigations" or "studies" that "find" things which were always completely bloody obvious. On the one hand, I'm glad more people are admitting the problem. But on the other hand, HOLY SHIT WHY DID IT TAKE Y'ALL OVER 30 YEARS TO FIGURE OUT SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:22:05.418Z
"School resource officer" is a cop euphemism for "sexually-predatory thug paid to lurk in schools so as to spy on, harass, and molest students, and burden them with criminal records for 'offenses' which in more enlightened times were punished with detention and writing lines on the chalkboard."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T18:05:16.858Z
Long ago, I realized that thinking about the money bandits extort from you via threat of burning your farm as still somehow being "yours", and obsessing about what the warlords do with it, is the way to madness.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-20T03:30:11.795Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-21T03:38:05.129Z
This looks like a CGI image of a fake CGI sign. In other words, the sign *itself* is CGI, not just the image *on* the nonexistent sign.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-21T17:38:30.715Z
Yes, "health" obsessives truly are full of shit.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-22T17:07:46.039Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-23T07:24:33.815Z
Any decent car or motorcycle can do it in under 4 seconds once it gets moving.These figures mean less than nothing without context.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-25T03:16:33.048Z
Investors stupid and gullible enough to believe this deserve to lose their money when the bubble bursts.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-25T16:40:36.172Z
Modern policing began in most parts of the US in the 1870s. At that time, $1 had the buying power of $30 today.Imagine telling the people of that time that the "law enforcement" they were voting for would one day be used to persecute people for picking up A DOLLAR someone had dropped.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-26T17:25:54.126Z
N.B.: Cryptocurrency is not an "investment", and anyone who believes it is looks like this:
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-27T17:19:23.344Z
Americans have no "philosophy"; they have religion (including partisan politics and entertainment fandom). The number of exceptions in the whole country could comfortably attend a conference on my farm, with room left over for a convention of ethical cops.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-28T17:46:16.457Z
It's very rare that airports get named after people who gave something to the world rather than taking from it; I can only think of two other examples offhand, New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-29T02:30:21.861Z
"Doctor" Carson thinks hot dogs grow out of the ground like corn.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-30T18:05:12.332Z
We live in a fallen world.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-31T17:24:10.226Z
Reporters: "controversial" should not be used as a euphemism for "evil", "unpopular", "tyrannical", "universally reviled", etc.Words mean things; please be more professional with your vocabulary choices.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-01T17:15:02.453Z
If I'd written a satire in which Goebbels Farms honored a Neo-Nazi, my editor would've said it was too obvious.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-03T03:19:20.912Z
Headline from 1989: "Has our oat bran obsession gone too far?"Same answer.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-03T18:04:13.456Z
"Return hub" is such a nice way to say "concentration camp".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-04T17:05:19.288Z
I remember when we were at least ruled by adults.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-05T17:21:43.608Z
The idea that there could be such a thing as a "true-crime star" is like something out of a dystopian comic book universe.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-06T18:05:23.948Z
Your "leaders" want you to believe that you are a tabula rasa, a mere thing without free will to be acted upon (by media, websites, propaganda, the collective, etc) and shaped in a Skinnerian dystopia.Do not believe them. You can CHOOSE not to be warped in this way, BUT THE CHOICE MUST BE ACTIVE.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-08T17:30:09.952Z
The phrase "trusted ad partners", which appears on many adblocker-blocker popups, is really quite funny. Those "trusted partners" are picked by software in automated auctions; *y'all* may be greedy enough to trust these randos, but I'm not as gullible as you would like me to be.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-10T16:52:28.464Z
I'll just leave this here: archive.is/SGZcS
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-11T18:42:41.516Z
The only thing more infuriating than mansplaining is amateursplaining. Holy shit.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-12T07:47:56.110Z
Take THAT, "Woman of the Year"!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-13T17:25:26.151Z
I blocked him so he won't have to be disappointed that I object to strangers driving by my house and throwing garbage on my lawn.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-14T17:44:05.619Z
It sounds like they're talking about a mad dog. Which, to be fair, isn't completely wrong.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-15T17:21:32.591Z
Dr. Altman of Dr. Altman's Medicine Show says people are right to fear snake oil, but should trust snake oil SALESMEN.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-16T19:24:36.788Z
Comparison for those of my age: just imagine if an official of Jimmy Carter's cabinet had been advocating for a no-fly zone over the "Bermuda Triangle", and other politicians were actually writing laws to ban such flights.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-17T19:19:44.712Z
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words | Tagged activism, advertising, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, cops, crypto-moralism, Decentralization, Denmark, Enshittification, ethics, fantasy, games, Hollywood, illegal aliens, internet, language, masturbation, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, politicians, prisons, propaganda, psychology, racism, restaurants, robots, scams, surveillance, tabula rasa, teachers, Tennessee, Texas, Toys for Tots, vaccines, weaponry | Leave a Comment »
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny | Tagged animals, blogging, cops, domestic violence, infidelity, New York, politicians, psychology, United Kingdom | Leave a Comment »
Surveillance makes all of us less safe. – Evan Greer
Anything that helps demystify sex work is a good thing:
It shouldn’t be surprising that sex workers around the country are boning up on firearms education. There’s a long tradition of both armed self-defense and general firearms enthusiasm…within communities that have historically been targeted for violence and oppression. Organizations like the Socialist Rifle Association, the Sylvia Rivera Gun Club, Yellow Peril Tactical, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, the Pink Pistols, and Black Girls Shoot! take the activist maxim “we protect us” seriously, and offer their communities tools to do so in a world that doesn’t expect them to fight back…the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Chicago…announced their first Intro to Concealed Carry course specifically for sex workers. All 40 spots filled up immediately…
Now that the damage is irreversible, the government can afford to grant him an appeal:
…the Ninth Circuit announced that it will hear oral arguments on Nov. 16 in Phoenix concerning one of the most significant First Amendment cases in recent memory — the vindictive prosecution of award-winning journalist Michael Lacey…Federal and state authorities hounded Lacey, the former executive editor of Village Voice Media, and his business partner, the late Jim Larkin, for more than a decade over their First Amendment-protected publication of speech in Backpage.com, the classified advertising website they co-owned…
“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen:
LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even when offline or on standby mode…The…TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you’re watching from [connected devices like DVD players]…and feeding the information back to LG Ad Solutions…the TVs…[even] record…microphone audio when in standby; this continue[s] even after the TV [i]s disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection [i]s restored…Automatic Content Recognition…is used by almost every [“]smart[“] TV manufacturer to figure out what you watch…In July…LG monitors [started] automatically installing an app that…ran pop-up ads for LG’s other apps and even McAfee antivirus…[but] public pressure…led to LG disabling the pop-up ads…
Cops hate it when people turn the tables on them:
…US [cops] are increasingly concerned about the potential for [perve]rt glasses to be used against them…to secretly record [cops]…in the [act] of [committing] crimes and acts of [violence and] terrorism…[cop]s in the US typically [steal or break] any and all devices that would be capable of recording video footage…[but] some [perve]rt glasses have gone unnoticed…[cops, spooks, and goons] want…the exclusive right to use surveillance technology and cameras to monitor the public without those cameras being turned back on them. “These agencies surveil the public incessantly, but the moment we can watch them back, it’s deemed a security threat,” [said Ryan] Shapiro [of Property of the People]…
The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived:
Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull [innocent] people over…[using bogus excuses in order to attempt to pin manufactured “]crime[s” on them]…The units…are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and [dispatched] local [pigs, who then] stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI…Border Patrol…us[es]…ALPRs…as part of the…program…“genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated,” [said] Jake Laperruque…of the…Center For Democracy & Technology…”Border Patrol [is]…using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops”…
Domestic violence is never a cop’s sole offense:
A Huntsville [Alabama cop named]…John Holliday was…arrested…[on August 17 for slamming] his wife [to] the ground and [repeatedly] kick[ing] her…[then stealing] her…cellphone wh[en] she tried to dial 911…[the cop shop put him on desk duty and that did not change even]…after h[e was] arrest[ed again] on Sept. 3 for DUI…[but after] he was…arrest[ed a third time for waving a gun around while drunk]…he was [reward]ed with…a p[aid vacati]on…[A spokespig described this as] “tak[ing] allegations of misconduct involving its employees seriously”…
Some aspects of the modern dystopia are too odious even for authoritarians:
…the City of Sheboygan…[Wisconsin will]…terminate [its] contract with…Flock S[urveillance after it]…offered to sell the Sheboygan Department of Public Works…five years of data [collected by] the…15 cameras already deployed in the city…in violation of the [contract, which pretends]…the company does not own the data…and [will supposedly] only…retain [it] for 30 days. Since…their [announcement]…other cities have been following suit….[in] both…Fond du Lac County…and…Winnebago County…
But simply cancelling the contract won’t stop Flock:
Flock S[urveillance blamed a computer for illegally ordering]…the reinstallation of license plate cameras that Grass Valley [California] police had already removed after canceling the city’s contract with the company. Residents alerted police…after spotting a utility crew replacing [the] cameras at several locations…Flock [claims] its automated maintenance system interpreted the…[removals] as equipment failures and generated replacement work orders…The [cancellat]ion followed months of pressure from residents and privacy advocates…
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Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny | Tagged activism, advertising, Alabama, artificial stupidity, Backpage, California, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, domestic violence, drugs, Eavesdropping, fascism, Illinois, internet, Panopticon, Pyrrhic Victory, scams, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The More the Better, violence vs. sex workers, weaponry, Welcome to the Future, Wisconsin | Leave a Comment »
Since last year was a poor one for tomatoes, I ran out of homemade salsa early this year, and had to make do with store-bought salsa this summer. But I had both time and tomatoes last week, so I made a 4-pint batch on Thursday; because I try to tweak my recipes to make too much rather than too little, that actually gave me four pints for canning and another which went straight into the refrigerator for immediate use. Those of you who remember how Grace and I developed the recipe together will not be surprised to hear that it was a bittersweet experience for me; on the one hand I’m not going to deprive myself of good salsa, and using a recipe which had more input from her than from me (because she was the Queen of Spicy Food) is almost like getting a little present from her. But on the other hand…well, I don’t think I really need to explain. And assuming I have enough tomatoes for a 2-quart batch of mincemeat (which does not remind me of her because she didn’t like mincemeat), I’ll be going through that same mixture of pleasure and pain again when I make another batch in a few weeks.
Posted in Diary, Miscellaneous | Tagged Grace, psychology, recipes, Sunset | Leave a Comment »
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