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Archive for December, 2019

In the News (#999)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 21, 2019| 8 Comments »

We simply can’t allow government officials to continue raping those in their custody.  –  Lavissa Stannow

Above the Law (#551)

Since the Miami Herald wants to play coy, click on the subtitle link for more on this predator’s behavior:

Hialeah [Florida cop] Jesús Menocal Jr. was arrested by FBI agents…in connection with…sexually assault[ing] and threaten[ing] four girls and women [in 2015]…Menocal…ha[s] been [on paid vacation since September in reward for a years-long “investigation” which naturally cleared him of] sexual battery and false imprisonment charges…federal [prosecutors]…will [probably] charge…[him] with violating the civil rights of [his victims]…

Real People (#665) 

Veteran activist Norma Jean Almodovar on leaving LAPD for sex work:

…Working in law enforcement, even as a traffic officer, exposed me to the worst elements in human beings…When I learned just how corrupt and evil…all too many police officers, judges, district attorneys and politicians were, I really got depressed…(While off work recovering from a car accident) I decided I could no longer tolerate the corruption within the LAPD and the moral hypocrisy…Whenever I was interviewed for a talk show or spoke at colleges/ universities, I was always asked how I liked doing sex work compared to working for the LAPD.  I always say that it was the best job I ever had, and it truly was…[later] I ended up charged with one count of pandering…[because] I tried to help a former friend of mine from the LAPD fulfill her fantasy…in…a conversation in which money and sex were mentioned….the…woman…admitted she set me up because she wanted to stop me from writing an expose on Los Angeles Police…the judge gave me three years probation…[but] I…didn’t shut up…So after a year…the DA’s office decided to appeal my sentence on the grounds that my “crime” was worse than rape or robbery because I was commercially exploiting my law enforcement past…I served 18 months in prison and another 18 months on parole…[during which] I was sexually molested by one of the [screws]…

To Molest and Rape (#670) 

The mother allowed this disgusting pig to be alone with her daughter “to prove that policemen are good”:

A [typical and representative] Lowell [North Carolina cop named]…James Blair is serving 12 years behind bars for statutory rape [of a 14-year-old, but] Blair’s sister has [contacted] her repeatedly on her brother’s behalf and even arranged conference calls.  [Both the rapist and his sister, Kathy Baxter, denied this even though]…there are recordings of some of the calls…Baxter [claimed]…“The minor has called me”…[and] Blair’s attorney claims he plans to [lurk around the result of his rape] when he gets out of prison in 10 years…”I’m not going to allow him to have anything to do with that baby,” the victim’s mother said.  The family now wants a no contact order against Blair’s sister….[and] if the court determines Blair violated his no contact order…he will face a new misdemeanor charge that may add significant time to his sentence…the [victim] is suing the [rapist], the police chief and the town…

I hope she wins and Blair gets at least 6 more years added to his sentence so the child will be an adult when he gets out, and therefore safe from attempts to force him to see the monster who sired him.

Pimps Ahoy

Some rescue industry charlatans pretend to have been pimps, but this guy really was one:

William Foster…[ran] a 15-year enterprise that targeted teenage girls in foster care and vulnerable young women…[though] a nonprofit called Foster’s Care, Inc., that promised “a comprehensive restoration program for victims of Human Sex Trafficking,” and “protection in partnership with police and FBI”…Foster, who faces sex trafficking charges, offered women flashy sports cars and luxury designer clothes while withholding the cash they made performing sex work while under his control…he…used “deceit, manipulation and fear of physical harm to cajole women and minor females to engage in commercial sex”…[he] forced women to go on a “lemon juice diet” to lose weight, and required his “girls” to get breast and buttocks implants and undergo nose jobs, liposuction and even rib removals to shrink their already-tiny waists…he [was undone when a] newly recruited victim phoned the National Human Trafficking Hotline…

All “rescue” profiteers are exploitative, but this is ridiculous.

Torture Chamber (#824)

The PREA is just feel-good nonsense as long as screws have absolute power over their victims:

…15 years after the…Prison Rape Elimination Act….prisons and jails in the United States continue to be sites of widespread sexual…violence….much of it…perpetrated by government employees…Prison rape is a longstanding [abomination] affecting [human beings locked in cages like animals]… incarcerated women are 30 times more likely to be raped than women who are not incarcerated…[and] Bureau of Justice Statistics…put the number of people sexually assaulted in U.S. jails and prisons at over 200,000 [per year]…more than 58 percent [of formal allegations are the result of rapes or assaults by]…prison staff…Seven Days, a Vermont newspaper, published a report on…rape by [screws] at the state’s only women’s prison…some[times]…continu[ing]…long after the…[victims] were released…[embarrassed politicians and bureaucrats have made] several responses…[most of them cosmetic but a few real, such as] a request for a federal investigation…one [single]…prosecutor, Sarah George, [declared] that she would be reviewing the sentences of all 20 people…who were [caged] by her office to determine whether they can be released [without political repercussions to her]…

Laws supposedly intended to control government actors virtually never carry criminal penalties; it’s long past time for that to change.  There need to be criminal penalties for the criminal cops, screws, etc, and their victim needs to go free so the state itself has some punishment for allowing their behavior.

Torture Chamber (#950)

Feds arrest doctors for wanting to help prisoners instead of just yelling “stop faking!” at them:

A group of doctors seeking to provide [caged] migrants with free flu vaccinations…were arrested by federal [pigs]…[after] protesting outside the Border Patrol’s San Diego headquarters…Doctors for Camp Closure…said…”We are licensed medical doctors…with decades of experience…immigration officials…are ignoring us and children’s lives are at risk as a result”…In the last fiscal year, at least three [minors], ages 2, 6 and 16, died of influenza while in federal c[ages]…CBP [defends letting people die in cages of easily-preventable diseases by pretending]…migrants are only meant to be [caged] for a maximum of up to 72 hours [even though in reality they are often held for weeks or months]…the[y also called]…the…doctors…”a random group of radical political activists”…and [vaccines]…”drugs”…

I Saw My Brain (#960)

“Operations that purport to target human trafficking but yield mass arrests for prostitution-related offenses are commonplace in [the domain of the psychopathic Grady Judd]“:

[Pigs caged] more than 100 people in a…[swinish scheme] targeting [men seeking consensual sex.  Polk County fuhrer Grady Judd moronically]…dubbed [the scheme] “Operation Santa’s Naughty List” [and cl]aimed [it was intended] to identify and help victims of human trafficking…“I in my heart believe that every one of these prostitutes at some point in…their life were a victim of human trafficking, if in fact they’re not currently a victim of human trafficking,” [oinked] Judd [while furiously masturbating right in front of reporters]…A total of 124 people were arrested, five of wh[om Judd lied] had the intent to sexually harm a child [even though the victims, some of them autistic or learning-disabled, actually had no such intent and were simply tricked by lying cops]…

Judd especially loves conducting his entrapment schemes near holidays, giving them moronic and childish titles that reference said holiday.  This will continue until the majority of those arrested fight back with lawsuits, or the voters of Polk County get tired of paying the many lawsuits that are already filed against this lunatic every year.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#972)

Next they’ll tell us about fermenting grapes “contaminated” with ethanol and cane “contaminated” with sugar:

…the[se] poppy seeds are different and dangerous.  The labels use code words like unwashed and raw.  They are poppy seeds contaminated by opium that scientists say can have the same dangerous effects as heroin or morphine…the DEA website says that “unwashed poppy seeds are a danger to the user” and are “in violation of the Controlled Substances Act.”  The seeds are now clearly categorized as schedule II controlled substances just like morphine and fentanyl.  “If you sell these products and don’t take steps to make sure they are not contaminated, you can be prosecuted for drug related offenses,” said Sarah Sorcher, from the Center for Science in the Public Interest…

They aren’t “contaminated”; they are the natural source of opium and they aren’t cheap.  Anyone who buys these things knows exactly what he’s buying, or else he’s unbelievably stupid with money; of course this issue wouldn’t exist if it were legal to sell drugs as what they are instead of having to hide it from violent busybodies.  Oh, and CSPI has nothing to do with science; it’s an authoritarian organization dedicated to promoting the latest nutritional pseudoscience, as you may be able to tell from its criticism-free embrace of prohibitionist laws.

Dutch Threat (#981)

No licensing scheme has ever exceeded a 10% compliance rate for reasons obvious to everyone but politicians:

Five major Dutch cities are concerned that a proposed law to regulate sex work nationally could have negative consequences…The mayors of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, The Hague and Groningen have submitted an official reaction to the new law’s online consultation raising their worries.  Although they welcome [more laws because they are politicians], they fear that a national registration scheme for all prostitutes and businesses involved in sex work [will fail miserably as such schemes always do]…the new…law…would criminalise unlicensed sex workers, the customers of unlicensed sex workers as well as their employers…”It could even be counterproductive, making this group further hidden from view, unreachable for care and in an even more vulnerable position”…

Micromanagement (#988)

When you give your sensitive information to strangers, what’s to stop them from selling it to fascists?

…GEDmatch was…an obscure genealogy website…[until] police…used [it] to identify a suspect in the 40-year-old Golden State Killer case…[turning] the site [into] a [surveillance] tool…[without the consent of] users…[rooting by pigs quickly and predictably grew] increasingly invasive; the site’s owners tried to react with changes to its terms of service that ended up backfiring; and [on December 9th]…GEDmatch announced it was being taken over by…the [fascist] genomics firm Verogen…[which offers] DNA testing services…to [cops]…GEDmatch…users…[are] locked out until [they] accept…the new terms…[or] permanently delet[e their right to access their own] data [on] the GEDmatch servers…GEDmatch…users [recently] discovered their privacy settings [don’t mean shit]…when…a Florida [pig] obtained a warrant to search the site’s full database, including individuals who had opted out of [letting pigs root through their underwear]…

The Cold, Grey Light of Dawn (#991)

District attorneys running on platforms of refusing to prosecute consensual “crimes” are like jury nullification on a massive scale:

Audia Jones, a…prosecutor…campaigning to be the next district attorney in Houston, said…she would not prosecute…drug possession and offenses that target poverty.  She later clarified that would include sex work.  “Why are we criminalizing people for making choices with their own bodies?” she said…”I don’t think it’s something for the government to interfere [in]”…Harris County—the nation’s third largest county—is one of the worst when it comes to [persecuting sex workers, but the incumbent, Jones’s former boss Kim]…Ogg…[responded by vomiting out “King of the Hill” propaganda, calling] Houston “ground zero for human trafficking” [and adding violent nonsense about “going after the pimps“]…

Panopticon (#993)

The best news we’ve had yet about Amazon’s Ring:

The NulledCast is a podcast livestreamed to Discord…in which hackers take over people’s Ring and Nest s[urveillance] cameras and use their speakers to…harass their unsuspecting owners…hack[ing]…software churns through previously compromised email addresses and passwords to break into Ring cameras…le[ading] to a recent spate of hacks that…have been covered by local media outlets.  In [Georgia] a hacker shouted at a sleeping woman through her hacked Ring camera to wake-up.  In Texas, a hacker demanded a couple pay a bitcoin ransom.  Hackers targeted a family in DeSoto County, Mississippi, and spoke through the device to one of the young children…

The cops already have at-will access to Ring camera video and can do whatever they like with it, including keep it, masturbate to it and distribute it to their buddies.  This is no different except that the hackers aren’t likely to try to frame the camera’s owners for crimes, and the more often this kind of thing happens, the less eager the hoi-polloi will be to install surveillance equipment controlled from outside their homes.

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I Believe in Father Christmas

Posted in Music, Philosophy, tagged , , , on December 20, 2019| 4 Comments »

I believed in Santa Claus long after my friends had stopped, until about 9.  This may seem strange to those who don’t know me very well, because I’m so intelligent, skeptical and hardheaded.  But looking back on it, I realize that I expended considerable mental effort to make myself believe, long after doubts had become well-established in my mind.  Then about ten years ago, Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather made me realize the probable reason for this:  deep down I knew that once I stopped believing in that one powerful symbol of goodness in the world, the rest of the pretty lies such as “justice”, the goodness of “leaders” and their henchmen, the notion that there’s “someone for everyone”, the silly canard that “following dreams” often results in something other than disaster, etc, would fall as well.  And of course I was right; by 13 I had rejected organized religion and my teachers and parents were criticizing me for being so cynical; by 16 people were saying I was “born adult”; by 18 I was an anarchist.  Once I lost the ability to believe in childish fantasies, all of the childish fantasies – including the ones most adults still cling to –  went down in flames.  But even though I no longer believe in a literal Father Christmas, I still have a very high regard for the symbol, and at this time of year I make sure to do whatever I can to act in a way that would make him happy.

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Diary #494

Posted in Diary, tagged , , , on December 19, 2019| 1 Comment »

I’ve been busy with Christmas preparations lately, not the least of which is preparing as many columns as I can in advance so there’s no pressure on me to do so during the holidays.  Normally I have about ten columns “in the pipe” at any given time, though it often drops a bit lower when I travel; right now I’m at 18, and hope to keep it there until I head to Sunset on Monday.  I plan to stay there until January 2nd, and to be fairly lazy while there except for cooking and helping Grace to build the bookshelves for my living room.  It will be nice to have some time alone with her; we haven’t really had much of that over the past five years.  But Jae left for a vacation with a friend in Australia yesterday, and Chekhov is leaving to visit family on the 27th, so Grace and I will have the days leading up to the New Year for the bookcase project, talking, and getting stoned together.  That may not sound very exciting to you, but as I wrote a few weeks ago, I have learned to appreciate the quiet times in my life.  And time spent with a good and beloved friend has a special joy all its own.

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In the News (#998)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 18, 2019| 1 Comment »

In all sexual matters, the line between legal and illegal…should turn on the willing participation of those involved, not the tastes of whoever shouts the loudest.  –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

License to Rape

Police states define the bodies of all citizens as “crime scenes” which can be violated by “authorities” at will:

A [cop] in Texas was arrested…[for molesting]…at least six women in 11 days [under the pretext of “performing strip-searches”].  Floyd Berry…was re[warded with a paid vacation]…after several [women complained about the sexual assaults]…between Nov. 24 and Dec. 4…

Whimsical Notions

Here’s an interesting article on the official prostitution system developed by the South Korean government to cater to occupying US troops; long-time readers may note its resemblance to the similar “comfort” system Japan organized to deal with the same occupying force a decade earlier.  Before you read the article, you really should click on the subtitle link to read the original column of this name, from six years ago.  And after you read it, consider that this is what the full development of “legalized” prostitution looks like; then perhaps you will understand why every sex worker with an opinion on the subject prefers decriminalization to this nightmare of confinement, control and abuse.

Pimps Ahoy 

Another rescue industry scam intended to exploit sex workers captured by cops:

…Cynthia Luvlee-Austin found herself [a new scam] in 2018: [profiting from hysteria over] human trafficking [with yet another exploitative “training program”] to [force sex workers into after cops destroy] their own businesses and…financial independence…“As long as I can speak, I will [speak over people by claiming they’re] voiceless,” she says…“I’m [practiced in] disrupting [people’s lives to make a profit while pompously promoting myself]…She started Shyne San Diego, an organization that provides [her with income from grants based in] trafficking [hysteria]…

Lack of Evidence (#800)

NSWP on state surveillance and harassment of sex workers who travel:

Sex workers face many barriers to migration and travel, and are often subjected to arbitrary questioning, biased visa refusals and surveillance and discriminatory immigration checks after entering a country.  Sex workers’ movement can also be restricted under measures purporting to be “anti-trafficking”…some…avoid travel altogether because they are afraid of being denied entry, deported or of being identified as a sex worker.  Barriers to sex workers’ mobility also make it harder for them to engage with civil society and political spaces, and impede their right to associate and organise.  This Policy Brief explores the travel restrictions faced by sex workers…

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#889) 

This article in the Daily Dot is a perfect example of how the inane “wing” model, which teaches that all political thought can be neatly divided into two and only two completely different and opposite camps, leads those who embrace it down the road to Moronia.  It starts by talking about the recent surge of porn-censoring zealotry among Republican politicians and pundits, then declares this a disease of the “right wing”, ignoring that the current “porn as public health crisis” rhetoric is rooted in the anti-porn “feminism” of Gail Dines, and the very concept of “public health” as meaning something other than disease control is a staunchly progressive dogma.  But the idiocy doesn’t stop there; author Ana Valens then declares libertarians “right wing”, and attempts to rectify the obvious contradiction by declaring that their opposition to the censorship that both Republicans and Democrats want (though sometimes for somewhat different things) “tore the right-wing into two camps”.  Do yourself a favor; skip this exercise in Procrustean navel-gazing and read Liz Brown’s article on the topic instead; it’s based on facts and won’t make you stupider as Valens’ article seems intended to do.

Signs (#912) 

Most of this article is just the typical rescue industry garbage, with busybody white ladies claiming to have seen “sex trafficking” everywhere they looked; this particular brand of snake oil comes courtesy of Mar Brettman, one of the smelliest turds produced by the collective Seattle anti-whore arsehole.  The only noteworthy aspect is Brettman’s iteration of the dusty old “pimp classification” silliness.  Normally the second type is “gorilla”, because he uses brute force and violence to control a woman.  But in Brettman’s scheme it’s “guerilla”, presumably the kind of “pimp” who stalks women in Ikea or Target and then jumps out of his white van to “sex traffick” them out of the parking lot.

Full of Themselves (#931)

Puritanical language is an intrinsic part of any story about cops raiding massage parlors:

[Pigs collected] dirty tissues…[from the garbage of] a South Carolina massage parlor…[then described their goodies as] “evidence of sexual nature…containing biological samples namely semen, and used female yeast infection medication capsules”…in August, a…[cop was sent to rape one of the masseuses and described the rape as]…illicit sexual services…[at] a house of ill fame…

Normal people do not use words like “illicit” or “house of ill fame”, or go digging through people’s trash for used tissues and medicine.  Cops are deeply twisted and in dire need of professional help, not given power to destroy normal people’s lives.

Blunt Instrument (#942)

The government’s latest sleazy trick: attacking with civil suits rather than criminal charges, because the burden of proof is reversed:

[New York] city is suing to shut down an…Asian mass[age parlor]…after…two [lying] cops made separate visits on July 5 and 13, during which each [sexually assaulted]…a woman…and…[claimed otherwise in reports]…One of the cops returned on July 23 and [raped the masseuse, then called for]…a…raid…The [cop’s victim] was also arrested and charged with prostitution…the city…is also [trying to rob the owners by a court order] seeking [loot] of $1,000 for every day the [spa] was in business…a lawyer for landlord Elias Kalimian said [because of disguise cop threats to prosecute them for “pimping”] eviction proceedings were underway against the tenant who’s been renting the…space for more than eight years…

Torture Chamber (#950)

Your government is trying to increase efficiency by letting screws deport people after beating and raping them:

Florida is poised to deputize [screws] as federal [pigs] at a state…prison as part of a [crusade]…to “[frame and deport migrants by pretending they] pose a risk to public safety in Florida”…the program…is the latest effort by the DeSantis administration to [weaponize racism]…in the state…including a ban on so-called sanctuary cities…Florida would become the fourth state to have its [human-caging] department enter into a…[fascist] agreement with the federal agency.  Arizona, Massachusetts and Georgia are the…other [three]…

Triple Threat

Once in a while the pigs make an example of an unusually-awful rapist cop:

[Rapist cop] Daniel Wilkey has been indicted on 44 criminal charges, including 25 felonies…he [is also the subject of] at least four separate lawsuits involving traffic stops…and…[was rewarded with] paid [vacation] since July.  Charges include six counts of sexual battery, two counts of rape, nine counts of official oppression, extortion, stalking, assault and others…

To Molest and Rape (#992)

Officials love bloviating about a nonexistent “oath” to make rapist cops seem like outliers when they’re actually typical:

A [cop] who [was about to be turned loose in a school to brutalize kids]…rap[ed] a 12-year-old girl [in] Texas [and] has been sentenced to 10 years in prison…Jorge Luis Bastida…met [the girl] online…raped [her] multiple times and filmed it on his cellphone.  “He swore an oath to protect children,” Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg [lied]. “He promised to protect and serve one of our most vulnerable populations”…Bastida…took [the girl]…to a motel…[and] despite her telling him that she is only 12 years old and did not want to have sex…Bastida pushed her down on the bed and held her by the neck [while he raped her].  The following morning, Bastida…th[rew]…money [at her “for candy”] before leaving the motel [to go to] work [with his fellow rapists].  After Bastida left, the girl called her mom from the motel and was [taken] to a hospital…

Crying for Nanny (#997)

The hotel industry is really going to regret having collaborated with fanatics rather than fighting “sex trafficking” hysteria:

A woman who [pretends] she was the victim of sex trafficking in 2012 and 2013 at multiple hotels in Oregon and Washington is suing six major hotel chains in federal court, saying they neglected trafficking happening “openly on hotel properties” and failed to [stick their noses into the guests’ business]…The suit…names Hilton…Wyndham…Marriott…Choice Hotels…Extended Stay America and Red Lion…all…of [whom bloviated, postured and vomited out “sex trafficking” propaganda in response]…

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The Body Count

Posted in Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , on December 17, 2019| 2 Comments »

[The War on Whores] is no more “well-meaning” than the Drug War, alcohol Prohibition, Jim Crow or any other campaign of government violence against individuals and civil rights.  –  “Malice Aforethought”

Every December 17th, sex workers around the world gather together to mourn our dead.  Last year, the list was far longer than I had ever seen it before, and for the first time almost everyone who isn’t a violent prohibitionist fanatic understood and acknowledged that the reason is the criminalization of our work; furthermore, most understood that the reason for the increase was the massive internet censorship law called FOSTA.  Now, it’s true that most outside of the demimonde still choose to believe the contemptible lie that this law, intentionally designed to cripple the internet and to expose sex workers, our clients and our support services to persecution, legal harassment and violence, was somehow intended to “help” us, presumably in the same way that burning down a house constitutes “redecoration”.  Because even in the Trump era most people are far too frightened of reality to admit that their government wantonly enacts laws and procedures whose specific and intentional purpose is to destroy the lives of anyone it has designated an “enemy of the state”, they prefer to pretend that this bloated abomination, passed nigh-unanimously by both houses of Congress, was just a massive “whoopsie” and that politicians weren’t repeatedly warned (by sex workers, academics, human rights experts and even their own Department of “Justice”) that it would do exactly what it has done.  Of course this is utter nonsense:  most of those who supported the law knew exactly what it would do, which is why they supported it in the first place; the ones who didn’t know simply didn’t care because votes bought with blood are still votes.  But the prohibitionists and their political stooges foolishly thought that sex workers would continue to cower like whipped dogs, and that FOSTA would make it even easier for them to continue to speak for us and tell lurid masturbatory fantasies about our lives; in their hubris they did not stop to consider that once whores were pushed into a corner with nowhere to go, that they would be forced to fight.  And fight they have, to a degree I’ve never before seen in the US.  Many journalists have taken note and are siding with us; academics in many fields are joining them in pointing out the hopeless garbage that prohibitionists represent as “facts”.  And possibly most important of all, even a few politicians have come around to recognizing that we represent a valuable constituency.  I do not know what the body count will look like a year from today, but I do know that the times when those slain by the evil policies of the police state were simply left to rot in the shadows are over.  Now when we mourn our dead, others are paying attention, and many of them are at long last pointing fingers at the culprits with titles and costumes.

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Everywhere a Sign

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged , , , , , , , on December 16, 2019| 3 Comments »

Over the four years since I published “Signs“, the number of things claimed to be “signs of sex trafficking” have continued to proliferate to absurd levels; I originally meant to copy the list to a static page, but never quite got around to it.  So now I need to update the list before I do that, and some of the more recent one are even more moronic than the ones claimed since these started to be a feature of the propaganda about ten years ago.  I’ve used symbols to note “signs” which contradict each other (eg, good grooming and poor grooming are both supposedly “signs”, as are both having a cell phone and not having one).

This time I’ll copy the list into a static page for easy updating.  Happy pimp-and-victim-hunting!

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Links #493

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 15, 2019| 4 Comments »

You still might get paid.  –  another Bridezilla

My friend Mark Draughn suggested that sex workers might find this video useful to send to annoying people online, and I can’t say I disagree.  The links above it were provided by Anarras Ansible, Franklin Harris, Mike Siegel, Cop Crisis (x2), Mark Bennett, and Radley Balko, in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#997)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 14, 2019| Leave a Comment »

If [TV] producers were courageous, they would’ve done a show about undercover vice cops…raping and extorting sex workers.  –  Ron Kim

Elephant in the Parlor

The notion that a politician would be “shocked” by the existence of sex workers is absurd even for the UK press:

[Politician] Dave Craker was approached by [a] sex worker while [politicking]…earlier this year [and used the supposed incident to argue for more harassment of them.  He pretended to be]…shocked [because it was] 10.30am on a Saturday [and he apparently thinks Englishmen shouldn’t have sexual urges at that time]…

Torture Chamber

Just in case you thought screws restricted their petty sadism to the prisoners:

An 8-year-old girl was stripped naked and [molested by Virginia screws using the excuse of a] search…after she was [coerced by being told that] refusal would result in not being allowed to see her father…The girl was accompanied by her father’s girlfriend, who is not her legal guardian.  If they refused to [submit to the pretextual molestation], they could have been banned from the prison…Daniel Macallair…of the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice [said]…“this is an act of child abuse”…[a spokespig thinks everthing is excused by claiming] the [screw] who approved the search didn’t have that authority…

To Molest and Rape

It’s good to see the phrase “rapist cop” outside of my oeuvre:

A [cop who] rap[ed] two women and sexually assault[ed] a third…told one of his victims he liked when she fought back…Anthony Westerman…[of] Baltimore…lured one woman to his home after meeting her at a bar by telling her he planned to call her an Uber [because she had passed out drunk]…but instead…he raped [her]…Another…victim…was [foolishly] drinking at Westerman’s home…when she fell asleep in his spare bedroom…Westerman later woke her up and raped her…

Do I really need to say “don’t get drunk with one either”?

Dark Corners (#702)

Funny how nail techs are only “trafficked” in the UK, but not the US:

A police raid on five nail bars in Southwark [arrested] 24 [migrant women, who were labelled] victims of human trafficking and…14 [other] people [who were labelled “traffickers”.  Those who were labeled “victims”]…were taken to a nearby [detainment] centre where they [are being held for deportation, while the others were put in regular jail]…

Keep in mind that despite many huge and expensive raids, the UK has never found more than a single-digit number of cases of genuine exploitation; these are actually just immigration raids cloaked under the pretense of “rescue”.

Shift in the Wind (#764)

Support for decriminalization is becoming the norm among economists:

…When sex work is decriminalized, violence against women declines…pro[hibitionists now tend to support]…the so-called Nordic model [which infantilizes or even institutionalizes]…sex workers…[and] prosecut[es their friends, family members, employees,] managers and customers…[has absolutely no] support from sex workers, who [explain] that it complicates their screening procedures for customers and drives sex work underground.  This jibes with economic theory, which suggests that the costs of any limitation on the market fall on those with the fewest options, whether buyers or sellers…research confirms just how powerful this effect can be.  Economists studied Craigslist…[and found its] expansion…into a market “led to a 10% to 17% reduction in female homicides.”  To be clear, that figure is not homicides among sex workers…but…all women in the area…A 2014 study of…decriminalization of indoor sex work in Rhode Island…found…a 30% drop in rapes.  This isn’t mere correlation:  Both the Rhode Island and Craigslist studies use several methods designed to identify causation…

Against Their Will (#799)

The awful Law & Order: SVU once again uses sex workers to spread copaganda:

It’s been two years since…Yang Song fell four stories to her death from an apartment window [while fleeing] a police raid on [her workplace] in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens…Just before her fatal fall, a [pig] attempted to arrest her [for consensual] sex…Recently, an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit pla[giariz]ed…[the] scen[ario while insulting the victim’s memory to spread]…anti-trafficking rescue [fantasies.  In the Hollywood version]…one woman…attempts to flee by climbing out of a window to a fire escape..and…is saved by [a prosecutor instead of being raped and caged as she wold be in real life]…the show feeds us a white savior fantasy version of the very real [persecution of] Asian-run spas that offer sexual services…across the country.  The same savior narrative fuels the real-life raids and busts, in which Asian migrant massage workers are [pretend]ed to be victims of some massive sex-trafficking ring in need of rescue…

If you’re keeping track, they’ve previously done this to Belle Knox and Suzy Favor Hamilton.

If It Were Legal (#874)

If not for stigma, he could simply have hired a domme:

…Rutledge Deas IV, known as Rory, posted an add on job app UrbanSitter claiming he needed a carer to look after his disabled 18 year-old brother…Cory…But…”Cory” was actually Rory, with the unsuspecting babysitter caring for him 10 times…The carer grew suspicious a[fter] Deas…[became erect when she changed his diaper]…the man who hired her refused to meet, and instead paid her through Apple Pay or…Venmo.  The woman looked up Deas’ publicly-visible payment history on Venmo, and saw a profile with the name Rory Deas featuring a photo of the man she knew as Cory.  She reported the…deception to UrbanSitter, who closed Deas’s account down.  The woman also called police…Deas is believed to have hired at least three other carers…Orleans Parish…charged [Deas] with 10 counts of human trafficking and sexual battery…

“Human trafficking”.  Still wonder why those claimed numbers are so huge?

Torture Chamber (#966) 

Just another state-funded rape camp in Florida; nothing to see here:

For years, male [screws] at…Coleman Federal [cage stack]…sexually harassed and [raped helpless women]…[and] were [intentionally] shielded from any consequences…Fourteen women, ranging in age from 30 to 56…have banded together to sue the United States…over the abuse…seven of the women are still [locked in cages like animals]…women [a]re coerced and threatened…[by screws] to submit [to rape].  The [rapist screws]…would at times display computer screens showing the women the exact location of their families, a pointed [threat] that their relatives could be [raped or murdered] if the women didn’t cooperate.  Some of the women had minor children.  In some cases, [screws thought they could still show up whenever they wanted to rape]…the women after they had [been released from the cages]…[at least] seven [screws belonged to the rapist gang]…some of [whom] had been [supposedly] investigated for sexual abuse in the past, with nothing coming of it…At least one victim…was [forced] to begin birth control to avoid the possibility of becoming pregnant [due to repeated rape]…One reason the women didn’t come forward until now was a prison policy calling for anyone who complained to be sent to the county jail…[under pretense of] maintain[ing] the women’s safety…[but in actuality] as punishment since a county jail is far more restrictive than a federal [rape & torture] camp…

Crying for Nanny (#968)

The hotel industry is really going to regret having collaborated with fanatics rather than fighting “sex trafficking” hysteria:

A western Washington woman who [pretend]s she was forced into a [BDSM fantasy] world of sex trafficking at age 12 is now suing area hotels and Craigslist for being complicit in the crimes.  [She fantasizes] pimps would advertise her on Craigslist under “erotic” or “adult” services categories, drawing in two to 20 men a day to rape her…[blah blah, “signs of trafficking“, blah blah Motel 6, blah blah Mar Brettman snake oil]…

As usual, the claims are sufficiently in the past for all evidence to be gone.  But if this woman had actually done any kind of sex work, she’d know what an absurd claim “20 clients per day” is.

Welcome to the Future (#971)

Do I really need to tell y’all that “don’t talk to cops except to demand your lawyer” also includes written statements?

SCAN (Scientific Content Analysis) is a lie-detecting method invented by Avinoam Sapir, a former Israeli spook turned polygraph examiner that involves picking out small textual details from writing samples to determine when someone is lying…SCAN has no empirical support, and is so outlandish that it has hardly been studied by third parties at all.  However, each time it was studied, it was found to perform no better than chance…Despite this, SCAN is widely deployed in the US and abroad…by police departments and spies…[because it pretends to confirm cops’] “belief…that they can tell when someone is lying to them with a high degree of accuracy”…SCAN has all the hallmarks of a junk-science scam, including claims by the inventor that he has secret and/or nonspecific studies to prove his product’s efficacy, and a website filled with anonymous testimonials…

To Molest and Rape (#987) 

Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?

…[Philadelphia pig trainer] Carl Holmes…[groomed] Patricia Diaz…[so when she] confid[ed] her fears [about being sexually harassed by her boss and other swine] Holmes [molested]…and groped her…tell[ing]…her…no one would believe “some little bitch”…In the 15 years [since] Holmes grew more powerful, rising to the rank of chief inspector, while also [sexual]ly assaulting two other female cops…His [blatant] crimes were well known to officials in the Philadelphia Police Department, the District Attorney’s Office, and City Hall…But in October, District Attorney Larry Krasner [finally] charged Holmes with sexual assault and related offenses…Holmes’ conduct…[went previously unstopped due to] systemic [properties] that [intentionally] shielded him and other top police officials…even as Holmes cost taxpayers more than $1.3 million in lawsuit settlements…

The system isn’t “flawed”; it’s doing exactly what it was designed to do: let politicians and their henchmen get away with whatever they want while destroying the lives of those they choose as victims.

Quiet Genocide (#989)

Just in case you doubted this was about total genocide:

…Chinese scientists are trying to find a way to use a DNA sample to create an image of a person’s face…to…build…a tool that could be used [in]…racial profiling and other state discrimination against Uighurs…In the long term…it may even be possible for the…government to feed images produced from a DNA sample into [its] mass surveillance and facial recognition systems…at least two Chinese scientists working…on the technology have received funding from [racist] institutions in Europe.  International scientific journals have published their findings without examining the…ethical questions raised by [forcibly] collecting such samples in Xinjiang…scientists and human rights activists say the Chinese government is exploiting the [naivety] of the international scientific community to harness research into the human genome for [totalitarian] purposes.  Already, China is exploring using facial recognition technology to sort people by ethnicity…[and] how to use DNA to tell if a person is a Uighur…The Chinese government is building… “technologies used for hunting people,” said [Dr] Mark Munsterhjelm…who tracks Chinese interest in the technology…the Chinese police…have already gathered millions of DNA samples in Xinjiang…

The Monsters Are Due (#996)

We’re getting very close to implosion:

Nazario Garcia was gunned down…in his white work van…in the parking lot of a…[Memphis, Tennessee] Goodwill store…he…was parked…when Favian and Miguel Effinger showed up…[and murdered] Garcia “without provocation”…He tried to get away but lost control…and crashed into a shopping cart, ending up on the curb.  Before the shooting…the brothers’ mother, Gjuandell Effinger, sent a video on social media — [fantasizing] the occupant of a white van with the same tag number as Garcia had tried to abduct her from the parking lot of a nearby Walmart…Effinger’s Facebook page shows post after post she shared from other users [fantasiz]ing about white vans being used for sex trafficking…[and other fantasies] about abducted children and women…Miguel and Favian are charged with first degree murder.  Their mother is charged with solicitation of first degree murder…

“Shit just got real”, all right.  Of course, it didn’t need to end in murder to be more “real” than these silly BDSM sex fantasies.

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Now is the Time

Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , on December 13, 2019| 9 Comments »

Today is Friday the Thirteenth, which as long-time readers know is the day I ask non-sex workers to stand up for our rights.  It hasn’t been long since the last one; September and December are always in sync with one another, with the same days on the same dates.  But as I pointed out in September, it hasn’t been long since the topic of sex worker rights became politically “safe” for the cowards who want to be called “leaders” to bring up in public, and the prohibitionists are sparing no expense, avoiding no ugly lie, and leaving no C- or D-list “celebrity” untapped in their fanatical effort to change that.  So your help is now more important than it has been at any time since I started asking for it over nine years ago; while in the past the prohibitionists didn’t hesitate to accuse any woman who defends sex worker rights of being a whore herself, and any man who defends them of being a client, that simply won’t fly now that even the hang-to-the-rear political crowd is talking about it.  We need y’all to help us keep this issue in the public eye rather than allow the fanatics to push it back into the shadows so they can keep claiming to speak for us.  There are plenty of ideas on how you can help in previous columns for this occasion, and I strongly encourage you to look at those.

But as usual, the best way you can help, better than any other, is money.  As I wrote a year and a half ago, “donate to SWOP-USA, to SWOP Behind Bars, to the EFF or Woodhull Foundation to support their anti-FOSTA lawsuit, to individual activists…or to sex workers who have been harmed by increasing censorship of our ads.”  You might especially consider donating to some of the more marginalized sex workers who have emerged as activists since FOSTA; their voices are critical in shutting down the prohibitionist drivel that all activists are “privileged” and/or “pimps”, but they have less money to spend on going to conferences and meetings and the like.  Your support for them is going to be critically important in the coming year, because election years are always bad for business, and on top of the advertising chaos caused by FOSTA and the wanton destruction of Backpage, and the climate of fear among clients engendered by constant and ever-intensifying pogroms, that could mean one of the worst years for sex workers in the 35 that I’ve been paying attention to it.  As I wrote in “Straight Talk“,

I understand you may be nervous about the political situation; well, we are too.  And if you profess to care about us, you need to step up and be generous.  So, book a session with your ATF.  Book one with a lady you know has kids.  Book one with a lady you like, but haven’t seen in a while.  Book with a male escort you’ve been wanting to see.  Book with a domme or FBSM pro you’ve had your eye on.  Book with me or any of the other sex workers you see me interact with online…If you don’t have time to book but still want to help, most sex workers have PayPal or Patreon or some such you can use to give them a monetary token of appreciation.  Because there isn’t a single one of us who won’t be grateful for it right now.

As I’ve often pointed out, we are winning in the court of public opinion.  But that is a long, slow process, and if our allies get lazy and think we no longer need their help because the politicians are finally giving us lip service, we’re going to lose the ground we’ve worked so hard to win.  Furthermore, as I wrote last time, if the sex workers you care about and the activists you admire are going to make it through to the end, we’re going to need your help in every way you can give it; people who need to use every waking hour for working have neither the resources nor the energy to go to war against well-funded authoritarians on top of that.

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Spot the Loonies

Posted in Current Events, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 12, 2019| 4 Comments »

Alabama was a late starter to the “sex trafficking” idiocy spewing contest, but it’s apparently trying to make up for lost time.  I originally intended to file this one under “Banishment” because of the “sex trafficking free zone” angle, but the more I looked at it the more I realized I really needed to share this kiddie-train wreck in all of its moronic, inbred glory.  Because we’ve all been down this path so many times before, I’ll label the more-recognizable tropes with the appropriate tags.

The 2021 World Games are just around the corner and increased tourism means a possible increase in sex trafficking.

Broken Record!

Vestavia Hills…Mayor Ashley Curry signed a [magical] proclamation…that will require all city staff to be trained on how to spot sex trafficking.  The proclamation makes Vestavia Hills the first city in the state to take an initiative against sex trafficking…

Yes, I’m absolutely sure no other city in Alabama has ever wasted public funds with anti-sex trafficking “proclamations” (except, of course, for the ones that have).  And is “Spot the Trafficker” a new game show?

“But it’s not just a problem in Vestavia Hills, it’s the whole metro Birmingham area,” said Curry. “In fact, I-20 and I-65, that happens to cross at Birmingham, those interstates are known as the superhighway for sex trafficking.”

I think we can count that as a claim for King of the Hill, though I’m rather shocked the “Superhighway for Sex Trafficking” doesn’t go anywhere near the “Harvard of Sex Trafficking“.

…“They have to sign the actually [sic] proclamation proclaiming the city a traffic-free zone similar to a drug free zone…They have to adopt a zero tolerance policy for purchasing sex at work. That goes along with the data that we found that the number one time people purchase sex is 3:00 p.m. at work and we’re looking for ways to curb the demand,” said Jordan Gidden with CTSP…

As if plagiarizing other prohibitionists’ bizarre fantasies about some huge fraction of sex workers’ business happening at one particular hour weren’t bad enough, they can’t even get the claim right (the original fantasy was 2 pm, not 3).  Yet, as I said in my original article on the topic, “idiots lap up this shit like a dog eating its own vomit.”

There are two signs Gidden said someone is being trafficked: “If the person looks confused, doesn’t know where they are or what they are in [sic] or what time it is that is a sign they are being trafficked,” explained Gidden. “A lot of people who are trafficking victims have branded tattoos with their traffickers name in a visible location and that’s a power tool that the trafficker will use to assert their power over the victim.”

So now being confused or losing one’s watch or phone is a sign of “sex trafficking”, and ninja pimps now use magical mind-control tattoos as “power tools”, presumably like a router, a belt sander, or a die grinder.  So when the “trafficking” business gets slow (due to being glutted with all those tens of millions of “slaves”), the “sex trafficker” can use their victims’ tattoos to make money on construction sites.

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