T[hree] recent deaths at Michigan’s only women’s prison and the worsening health of a woman [dying from toxic black] mold exposure…are [driv]ing calls for sweeping reforms [of the torture] facility…Rebecca Fackler…died…on May 17, four days after Khaira Howard…died [in] the same [filthy] prison…[Ashley Hoath died June 6,] and…[Krystal] Clark…[is slowly dying from] years of exposure to black mold [which] have left her struggling to breathe, partially paralyzed, and unable to walk without assistance…[due to] Aspergillus…fungus…in her ears and lungs…photos…and…[politicians] who visited the prison…[report] black mold [actually] growing out of both of her ears…the…prison…is [so] infested with mold…[it] eats through bricks and door frames…drips off the ceiling…falls out of air vents…[and] bubbles and bursts through paint…[and] prisoners [a]re forced to clean [it] without basic supplies…
Hunter Demster…and eight other Memphis residents filed declarations [as part of a] federal [lawsuit] that describe being violently arrested, surveilled at their houses, pulled over under false pretenses, boxed in by police cars, and jailed for trying to film [a pig gang with the Orwellian name “Memphis Safe] Task Force[“]. The lawsuit, filed in mid-May by the…ACLU…and [two law firms]…is seeking a preliminary injunction blocking Task Force [cops] from intimidating, assaulting, or arresting people for recording…[and] ban[ning them] from invoking a new state law…that requires [videograph]ers to stay 25 feet away from police. The lawsuit is a major legal challenge to…the…unofficial and unconstitutional Department of [Father]land Security…[scheme to] treat…recording the police like criminal activity…seven federal circuit courts have firmly upheld the right to record and monitor the police…[yet] videos from around the country…have shown federal [goons] arresting or threatening to arrest people for filming them….in Memphis, [this has escalated into] a “campaign of harassment and intimidation” against observers…
A…proposed state constitutional amendment in North Carolina is seeking to make abortion completely illegal, adding in “protections” for people who [justify] murder [by claiming they wanted] to stop a [woman] from obtaining the procedure…The proposed amendment…declares that “[‘personhood’]…begins at the moment of fertilization”…and…includes additional language that would essentially legalize the murder of someone planning or participating in an abortion in the state…[sane people pointed out that the amendment] “would jail or authorize the murder of women due to their…use of birth control, such as an IUD,” [because they] prevent pregnancies by making implantation [of fertilized ova] nearly impossible…[and] is also “a ‘get out of jail free’ card for men who want to murder their partners…All they have to do is [claim] the women intended to use birth control or have an abortion”…
A [Fatherland Security goon] who was knocked unconscious in a Costco parking lot by a…[San Diego pig has amended his lawsuit to include other members of the pig herd who] engaged in a widespread cover-up to prevent a public relations nightmare…Chu Ding was trying to leave a parking spot…when…Jonathan Ferraro [intentionally] parked in his way while he waited for a nearby spot…[after] Ding tapped on…Ferraro[‘s window to signal he needed to pull out, Ferraro flew into a totally unhinged rage]…and slammed [Ding] to the ground…[after] several bystanders called 911 to report Ferraro as the attacker…911 operators…[dispatched a damage control team of] 14 [pigs], including [several boss hogs] and a [propaganda oinker, who conspired to falsify an arrest report and falsely arrest the badly-injured Ding]…instead of taking him to the hospital promptly…he…was held for nearly 24 hours before being released on bail…the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office refused to prosecute the case…[and] Ding was cleared of any wrongdoing by…[Father]land Security…
The [US] is feeding Pentagon propaganda to internet users in Latin American countries using a new [CGI slop] mill…[named] La Tilde…[which spews slop] in both Spanish and English…extolling the value of U.S. military operations in Latin America…[with] Trumpian [hyperbole] …An explanation for its glowing coverage of the U.S. military can be found after clicking a small link tucked at the bottom of the site…This easily missed disclosure…is identical to [that on] two other Pentagon-sponsored propaganda sites recently revealed by The Intercept…La Tilde carries no bylines, masthead, or mention of actual staff of any kind…and…appears to have been [entirely] generated by a large language model…the site plans to launch…versions [specifically targeted at] readers in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, and Peru…
[Facebook] has [suppos]edly made some changes to the controversial project known internally as the Model Capability Initiative…[it] now plans to allow employees to “pause” the tracking for up to 30 minutes in the event they need to “check something personal”…a subset of employees will also be able to [beg] to opt out of the program altogether, though this will be limited to remote workers with bandwidth concerns…[or those who] work in spaces where they can’t easily keep laptops connected to a power source…the vast majority…will still be required to allow their (nearly) every move to be tracked and recorded in the name of improving [Zuck’s imaginary friends]…The company has faced protests from employees over MCI, which was announced…just before the company laid off 8,000 workers and reshuffled thousands of others into [being servants to chatbots]…
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!
This has got to be the most timid brood of pullets I’ve ever had. They’ve been completely out of the nursery for three weeks now, yet every morning when I check on them, they’re still perching in a tight little group on the roost with the turkey. So every day when I come back in the early afternoon to throw out some scratch, top off their water, and collect the eggs, I have to shoo them off the roost and out the door so they can at least start getting used to the adult hens. It isn’t like the hens are being aggressive to them, either; I haven’t seen a single instance of pecking. But within a few hours of my shooing them out, they’re back on the roost. So I reckon I’ll just need to keep on this way until they finally join the flock, which I’m hoping will happen at least by the end of the month.
When the Trading with the Enemy Act, predecessor to the Bank Secrecy Act of 1970, established a $10,000 surveillance threshold in 1945, the sum that would trigger snooping was roughly equivalent to $180,000 today. If the threshold had been adjusted for inflation, few of us would ever have to concern ourselves with it. As a recent Cato Institute article expressed it,
…the Bank Secrecy Act regime is swallowing up more transactions every year as inflation decreases the value of the dollar. No bills are passed; no regulations are open to the public. Yet, the wheel is turning, and financial surveillance increases without any checks or balances. When the Supreme Court effectively signed off on the Bank Secrecy Act, it only did so because $10,000 was considered “abnormally large” in the 1970s…[the] point [at which spying on such small transactions ran afoul of the Fourth Amendment] was crossed a long time ago…and…beyond [that, the government] has dramatically expanded financial surveillance at the southern border through geographic targeting orders by lowering the $10,000 threshold to just $200. One small business estimated that it would likely go from filing nine reports per week to filing 50,000 reports per week…an impossible standard…[which] a Texas court [said]…“defies common sense”…
Nor can the government’s lust to snoop into every financial transaction be easily circumvented by the use of cash, because currency denominations larger than pocket change have been banned. The largest bill you can have in your purse/wallet is a Hundred, which has the buying power of just over what a Five had in 1945. Coupled with bank transaction surveillance, the result is that the vast majority of financial transactions are subject to surveillance. If you watch old shows (’60s and earlier) like I do, you’ll see large cash transactions being made discreetly in envelopes containing $1000 bills; the government hated that, so it banned them, and today a large cash payoff takes suitcases of teeny-tiny Franklins. Imagine a payoff in a Bogart movie being made with a suitcase full of Fives, and you’ll understand just how little financial privacy you have in comparison with your grandparents.
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!
…in November 2023…a joint state and local raid on two northern Indiana massage parlors—Jade Massage…and Relax Spa…inv[olved]…four penis massages for a…[disguised pig before the gang] raided the businesses and s[tole] more than $97,000 in cash, along with a car. Spa owners Guan Yu and Wujiao Liu, a married couple, were [brutalized and thrown in cages]…and their cash is missing…State police are now investigating…[after town marshal] Robert Byrd…tracked some of the [loot] down to a rented storage locker…but…$33,540.51 was missing…
Though cops are given free rein to sexually assault sex workers in every US state, Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Florida are especially notorious and actually defend such assaults as “evidence gathering”.
The Department of [Father]land Security is expanding its capacity to scan irises as part of its mass deportation [pogroms and to add to DFS’ immense] biometric data[base]…a $25 million no-bid contract [awarded] to BI2 Technologies…is more than five times the amount of the company’s last [DFS] contract, awarded last fall…the co[ntract includ]ed more than 1,500 iris scanners, as well as access to the company’s mobile app, including a[n iris scan] database…
Texas’ law requiring app marketplace operators like Google and Apple to verify all users’ ages and seek parental permission before minors can download apps or make in-app purchases can go into effect for now…the [deeply-authoritarian] 5th…Circuit [has unsurprisingly ruled]…block[ing] a temporary injunction issued by a federal district judge…in December [because] the…law [patent]ly violate[s] the First Amendment…[the law’s sponsors barfed “]protect children[” in the faces of those who support]…free speech rights. Louisiana and Utah have passed similar laws that have not yet gone into effect…
Amazon has shut down an internal company…board which ranked employees based on how much they used [chatbot]s at work…because it was easily cheated and…encouraged wasteful and expensive [chatbot] use…some tech company executives [labor under the delusion] that if employees are [actually doing their]…work [instead of training chatbots to replace them] they are not being productive enough…with some [actually] bragging about how they are spending more money on [chatbots]…than actual human employees. This has resulted in a situation where some employees are running scripts that make it seem like they are using [chatbot]s a lot to game metrics and appease their bosses, but the [chatbots]…are [merely] burning money and resources with no benefit to productivity…
An NYPD [pig] pointed a loaded gun in a female subordinate’s face [in the cop shop] in March after subjecting her to incessant sexual harassment [since October 2024], often joined by a supervisor…[deranged pig] Quilbvio Espinal [is being sued by Megan Kwan]…[after he was] arrest[ed on March 26th, then rewarded with a paid vacation]…Espinal was…apparently embarrassed ..whe[n] Kwan…[dared to make a suggestion, which boss hogs characterized as]…provok[ing] him, as if…his [out-of-control behavior] were [somehow her] fault…for some 18 months before…he [threatened to murder her], Espinal and [another pig named] Jayson Valentin…had made her life a living hell…[by] “incessantly” making sexualized comments about Kwan being Asian that “became increasingly explicit” and continued on a near-daily basis throughout 2025 and until his arrest this year…he…also sent [crude texts and] racist and pornographic video content to Kwan…Valentin openly laughed at and participated in Espinal’s abuse…[and] sent her a [dick] pic…on [Snapchat]…
Florida is [su]ing OpenAI and its CEO Sam Altman [to] profit [from traged]y, in the first [of many ambulance-chasing] lawsuit[s] brought by…state [attorneys general] against the ChatGPT maker over the [dangers posed by simpletons and mentally-ill people using] the chatbot. The lawsuit…[is full of the usual grandiose and bombastic claims politicians cram into lawsuits intended to pillage politically-unpopular companies, such as Backpage, Target, and tobacco companies, but Uthmeier]…is also seeking to hold Altman personally liable….”for potentially up to billions of dollars” in [loot for Florida politicians]…
A North Carolina [cop] has been fired after…doorbell camera video showing] him repeatedly punching a [90-pound] woman during an arrest [went viral]…The [cop shop at first rewarded him with a paid vacation until protests started, and the boss hog at first tried to justify the brutal attack by barfing]…”suspicious female” [at protesters. The gang is still hiding his identity]…
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!
Trauma, like everything else, is typically effaced by time. The anniversary of the events of Memorial Day, 1995 still affected me deeply at the 24-year mark, but once I moved to Sunset full-time the following year, those old serpents began to grow quieter; last year they were overshadowed by the death of my best friend, and this year the anniversary was marked by little more than unpleasant memories despite spending it alone, which in the past was a bad idea. The weathering away of the aftereffects of trauma appears to have been mostly the result of a combination of time, therapy, and daily cannabis usage, but I can’t discount the contributions made by age, wisdom, and perspective. Those who fear mortality are fixated on the fact that all good things die, ignoring the fact that bad things do as well. Spiritual immaturity obsesses about the former to the exclusion of the latter, but the insight which comes in the fullness of time, assuming we allow it to, brings the realization that this is not only as it should be, but as it must be. And, if we’re fortunate, the recognition that this is not only good, but beautiful.
The naive believe that “child predators” are creepy dudes who hang out at playgrounds; in reality, they are largely people in positions of authority over their preferred targets. – “Follow Your Bliss (#1242)”
The more fantastical a world, the more important it is that it doesn’t contradict itself if an audience is to accept it. – “The Buffyverse, Part Two”
This is a day for sexual outlaws, not well-behaved “workers”; it is a day to celebrate the triumphs of criminalized human beings against a society that would rather we didn’t exist.
– “Whores’ Day 2024”
Since the massacre…in Uvalde in 2022, school districts across Texas have spent billions of dollars to [cram pigs into] every campus in the state…[despite the obvious fact that cops did nothing] to protect students from [that] traged[y. Predictably]…the constant presence of [armed thugs] has transformed the way many public schools manage discipline, subjecting students to heavy-handed police tactics for behavior that once would have landed them only in the principal’s office…[as in the adult world, cops] display…startling belligerence…grabbing or tackling students a fraction of their size over [ordinary juvenile] misconduct…Children in elementary school…as young as 6…[a]re handcuffed. Teenagers [a]re arrested, charged with crimes and even jailed. In [many] cases, they [need to be taken to] hospitals, bruised or concussed, after [deranged thugs] body-slam…[them] or shock…[them with] Tasers, which are prohibited in the state’s juvenile d[ungeons] but allowed in its public schools…[and these are a mere fraction of the atrocities, because school] districts and [cop shops hide the full scope of the violence from the public]…
[The corpse of] Stan Lee is [be]ing…digital[ly paraded through the streets] through a new [collaboration] between ElevenLabs and Stan Lee Universe…[which] will [synchronize a cartoon of] the Marvel legend…to [a chatbot trained on his]…voice…The [abomination] is part of a growing [moral corruption] in entertainment to use [computers] to [exploit] the [reputation]s and legacies of iconic creators. The [scheme was first tested]…at L.A. Comic Con…and [because they didn’t get lynched] ElevenLabs is now…[cramm]ing [the cartoon and chatbot] into multiple [exploit]ative products…Late last year, Michael Caine [sold his soul to] them as well…
BusPatrol, a company that has installed [computeriz]ed cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., now plans to turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers…capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, and [throwing] that data [in]to [pigsties]…essentially transform[ing] school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles, taking a technology that was originally [sold to useful idiots] to issue tickets to people illegally passing stopped buses and using it for…warrant[less surveillance in partnership with fascist]…giant Axon…BusPatrol [already] has cameras in more than 40,000 buses across 24 states. [Present]ly, those cameras [only photograph]…vehicle[s which]…pass…the school bus while it has its stop signs…extended…[but] the planned changes would…expand that system to scan the license plates of all vehicles the buses pass…and…record the car’s…GPS location…in order to…generate more revenue…[for] BusPatrol [investors]…
The city of Dayton, Ohio has covered its Flock automated license plate reader cameras with black trash bags…because police there are unsure whether the cameras are still active and the city also doesn’t seem to know whether [the devil’s bargain it made with fascists] allowed [it] to take the cameras down. The move comes after months of resident outrage…[over] the city [“accidentally”] sharing Flock camera data for [Trump’s pogroms]…Dayton is not the first city to cover its Flock cameras with trash bags because they can’t figure out how to immediately terminate the use of the cameras. Late last year, the city of Evanston, Illinois also covered its cameras with trash bags while it was waiting for the company to remove them [for the second time, because]…after…Evanston terminated its contract with Flock…and…removed [the cameras]…Flock “reinstalled the cameras without the city’s permission” and [Evanston had to] sen[d it] a cease-and-desist [to get them permanently removed]…
France ha[s] banned “a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches.” Those caught violating the measure could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $436,600…Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa…called the ban…on these pouches, which originated in Sweden, an “attack on the Swedish way of living”…Sweden, Italy, Greece, and four other countries have raised “formal concerns”…that the…ban violates the E.U.’s single market laws…[pointing out that pouch-using] members of the European Parliament…[which meets in] the French city of Strasbourg…risk [police violence by] traveling to France…tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable deaths [in France], and…55 percent of…French smokers…want…to quit…[but] a lack of access to nicotine pouches will keep many people addicted to cigarettes. Meanwhile, Sweden…has the lowest smoking rate in Europe…predominantly thanks to oral nicotine products. Since the 1980s, it has seen its smoking rate fall from 30 percent to less than 5 percent…
Headway, a popular online therapy platform, says it will require clients and providers to undergo biometric scanning, and there’s no way to opt out other than leaving the platform…Headway [justifies the privacy violation by barfing] “safe[ty]”…at…patients…[and] providers…Many mental health providers or the practices they work for use Headway to help them get credentialed with insurance companies and process billing and other administrative tasks. Through Headway, providers can be in-network with a much wider variety of insurance plans…it will use the [Palantir-linked fascist organ] Persona to verify identities, a[d]ding [their data] to…Peter Thiel’s [huge trove of information he happily sells to anyone who can pay, including Trump stooge]…Robert F. Kennedy Jr…
[Three]…Toronto cops [tried to escape consequences for violently sexually assaulting a]…Spanish [escort in Barcelona by announcing that they were fellow pigs] and flash[ing] a Toronto badge…Evan Penner Glennie and Richard Theodore Rand [were caught] just [after attacking the] escort [in a taxi, leaving her] bloodied and shaken. She had…been [both] sexually groped…and physically assaulted inside the vehicle. A third…[culprit named] Caglar Yigit…fled the scene…to [escape] Spanish [cops] who had responded to the woman’s cries for help…[and] was later arrested on the…island of Mallorca…all…three [made bond and]…have since been allowed to return to Canada, [where they] have been [rewar]ded with pa[id vacations]…
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!
Today is International Whores’ Day. It is not “Sex Worker Day”; that is March 3rd. Today is a day to shamelessly celebrate our shameless history, not a day for sanitized words or concepts; it is a day to fight society’s attempts (via law and police violence) to sanitize the wilder, unrulier, more chthonic aspects of sex. This is a day for sexual outlaws, not well-behaved “workers”; it is a day to celebrate the triumphs of criminalized human beings against a society that would rather we didn’t exist. It is a day to oppose censorship, not to engage in self-censorship; a day to honor a means of survival that predates laws and governments by eons; and a day to celebrate a power which will always defeat even the most pernicious attempts to domesticate it.
What you’re looking at here is the ring which joins the plumbing of my hot tub to the heater; the flashlight is necessary because even in broad daylight it’s pretty dark in the basement. As I learned three years ago, when there’s a leak it’s typically because a two-dollar rubber o-ring needs replacement. But my body has aged considerably in the past three years, so it was much more tiring and unpleasant than it was last time, and I experienced nearly as much anxiety around the process as I did last time despite knowing exactly what needed to be done. That’s how it has been with nearly every technical problem since Grace died; even when it was something she could no longer do (like crawling under the floor or climbing up on the roof), I could rely on her technical expertise to guide me, and because I had faith in her ability I wasn’t as reluctant to attempt things I’d never done before (like welding a steel structure together). In contrast, I now experience considerable anxiety every time something technical needs doing; I even put off changing the main water-system filter for the entire last year because I was worried something might go wrong (I finally did it recently and of course it was fine). About 30 years ago my friend Frank said that tragedies are multiplied by the inconveniences they spawn, and I’ve had the truth of that ground into my heart every time I have a technical problem, because every time it does and she’s not there to fix it herself or tell me how to fix it, I am reminded of the huge Grace-shaped hole in my life.
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Aspergillus…fungus…in her ears and lungs…photos…and…[politicians] who visited the prison…[report] black mold [actually] growing out of both of her ears…the…prison…is [so] infested with mold…[it] eats through bricks and door frames…drips off the ceiling…falls out of air vents…[and] bubbles and bursts through paint…[and] prisoners [a]re forced to clean [it] without basic supplies…
