We spent the past week working on Chekhov’s cottage; yeah, the bathhouse posts are a little behind, because I knew there would be a lot of fiddly bits that wouldn’t really show in photos that well (and they look like they’ll be catching up pretty soon). Anyhow, last week we did the floors and doors, then over the weekend we shingled the roof; as I said last week, I’m not especially fond of roofing, and I was even less fond of this one than of the metal ones I’ve mostly done in the past, both because it was multiple stages (boards, underlayment, shingles) and because the roof, designed for Baltic winters, is much steeper than what I’m used to. So while I usually just use the safety harness as a precaution, this time I could barely move around the roof without it. But we finished yesterday, and my back is mighty glad of it. This isn’t to say it was a total slog; on Saturday I even took a short break to socialize with a tiny visitor to the construction site.
Archive for June, 2020
Diary #522
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, Sunset on June 30, 2020| 2 Comments »
Back Issue #84
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging on June 29, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Many cops are simply not afraid of the consequences of their actions. – “License To Rape”
- Some implied I was a crank when I predicted this development years ago.
- The bizarre & stilted language used in African news articles about whores.
- In 30 years, “sex trafficking” films will be the new “reefer madness” films.
- The most vile, tone-deaf product the rescue industry has yet dreamed up.
- Another rescue industry character claiming to have been a “sex trafficker”.
- Portland’s bizarre attempt to draw “sex trafficking” attention from Seattle.
- Even the MSM begins to see the War on Whores is the new War on Drugs.
- It was only a matter of time before TSA’s surveillance role was expanded.
- Whores are morons whose lives must be micromanaged by governments.
- The question in the headline could be asked of any “rescue” organization.
- May has been pushing internet censorship since she was home secretary.
- NYPD’s newest sleazy tactic in its campaign to strangle whores’ business.
- Future historians will ponder the link between “sex trafficking” and pizza.
- Why are the supposed ordeals of “survivors” always decades in the past?
- I have zero faith in the magical protective powers of “restraining orders”.
- If you don’t want your business choked, you’ll have to fight for mine too.
- Exactly what prohibitionists wanted, despite their claims to the contrary.
- I wonder where she’ll get a real job once “trafficking” hysteria collapses?
- Massage parlor licensing is widely touted as a way to “fight prostitution”.
- Anybody who thinks this is “like a real human” needs a pro immediately.
- Another rape victim caged to force participation in a state morality play.
- Whores prefer not to be registered by politicians & “supervised” by pigs.
- Amateurs: a health menace who should be licensed & heavily regulated.
- Prohibitionists’ lies are never more blatant than when they misquote us.
- “Cuckoo Clock” McCain wants to vomit her poison over the entire world.
- Sex workers should avoid clients who could be called mentally disabled.
- A plan supported by useful idiots who don’t understand legal precedent.
- Who’d throw away valuable merchandise by giving it to penniless brats?
- Cops believe their tin talismans magically grant them omnicompetence.
- The sex ray intensity on these items must be well into the danger zone.
- Pig believes myths about what other pigs may do in entrapment scams.
- IWW was the 1st major union to support sexworkers; won’t be the last.
- Brave women overpower their captors to escape a brainwashing prison.
- We’re seeing ever-more columns like this from self-identified feminists.
- Has this histrionic has-been now made a moral panic her whole career?
- These same methods are used to manufacture “sex trafficking victims”.
- She has to prove she’s the polar opposite of every other cop in the US.
- More on the maltreatment of sex workers in another large police state.
- Quite possibly the most ridiculous excuse any politician has ever used.
- “Cuckoo Clock” McCain has a history of working against human rights.
- Japan’s descent into US-style anti-whore rhetoric is highly distressing.
- Another good, basic article on the success of the New Zealand model.
- Traveling without official permission is now called “human trafficking”.
- “Trafficking in Persons Report” is merely a tool for political blackmail.
- Remember, cops: raping whores is OK; it’s paying us fairly that isn’t.
- Some western states tolerated prostitution long after criminalization.
- Prohibitionists harass streetwalkers so as to scare away their clients.
- The “Super Bowl sex trafficking” myth is becoming a laughing stock.
- Cops no longer pretend that this is about anything other than profit.
- The “Facebook pimps” myth is one of the silliest of the whole panic.
- Seattle politicians’ pompous posturing reveals their deep hypocrisy.
- Good advice to a heavily scarred, sexually traumatized young man.
- It’s disgusting to see so much money wasted on debunked bullshit.
- The ACLU still has a long way to go if it wants to help sex workers.
- Most jokes about sex workers told by amateurs aren’t at all funny.
- Hackney cops carry out an organized effort to harass sex workers.
- A McNeill Rule specimen who’s had a complete mental breakdown.
- More harassment from a “safer neighborhood team” (ie vice pigs).
- Every woman molested or raped by cops should file a federal suit.
- Cops harass sex workers, yet believe we’ll come to them for help.
- Climbing into bed with the police state is nothing to be proud of.
- Sex workers have no interest in having our industry “disrupted”.
- No law caging people for consensual behavior is “well intended”.
- Articles like this are much more common in the Canadian press.
- Despite this popular UK cop fantasy, none has ever been found.
- Inflicting violence consensually vs inflicting it non-consensually.
- Cops pretend they need asset seizure to “go after drug cartels”.
- Cops want to convict people for “crimes” that never happened.
- Because the US cares so very much about “trafficking victims”.
- Small rescue industry profiteers learn the value of slave labor.
- Wisconsin’s try at the most mindlessly-draconian anti-sex law.
- Persecuting the homeless using the excuse of “sex trafficking”.
- Another state requires anti-whore indoctrination for licensing.
- Not a bad article on the benefits of sex work for the disabled.
- Another story credulously touting bullshit “safe harbor” laws.
- Another of those cases whose reported details don’t add up.
- Prohibitionists contort facts so as to support their fantasies.
- Cop calls adolescent sexual development “a police matter”.
- In case you thought I was too paranoid about mentoring.
- Still more infantilization of migrant Nigerian sex workers.
- From respected news organization to propaganda organ.
- Whorearchy from an empty-headed little twit in Nevada.
- An excerpt from Brooke Magnanti’s You Don’t Know Me.
- It’s nice to see the light bulb go on in someone’s head.
- “Sex trafficking” hysteria begins to spin out of control.
- A future serial killer gets more than he bargained for.
- Another country the US should be proud to resemble.
- Can y’all please send a delegation to talk to the ABA?
- “Correctional officer” is a term straight out of Orwell.
- Could you provide me a reference for a referral site?
- So-called journalists bleat out pro-censorship idiocy.
- Is nonconsensual shackling worse for kinky women?
- A couple of short interviews with Australian escorts.
- How the state uses language to shift responsibility.
- Another try at decriminalization in South Australia.
- Fetishists now want pigs spying on women in bars.
- It’s both honorable and moral to lie to busybodies.
- Politicians are totally losing their minds over sex.
- How can I develop a sex worker support system?
- Poor Nebraska; all panicked up & no place to go.
- Will a professional care if I can’t get an erection?
- I’m surprised this has taken so long to catch on.
- Fran & Dan Keller have been exonerated at last.
- ABC’s eager parroting of anti-sex propaganda.
- Stupid people are still afraid of solar eclipses.
- A memorable duo with Lorelei & Ghost Rider.
- San Diego ramps up its anti-whore pogroms.
- An anti-whore video featuring a fake game.
- The Swedish model eliminates prostitution!
- Partisanism is like a form of self-lobotomy.
- How the IRS facilitates “sex trafficking”.
- The first “child sex trafficking” lawsuit.
- I’m glad to see this piece of shit flop.
- How do I draw attention to my blog?
- Dear useful idiots: I did tell you so.
- The outing of a fake escort blogger.
- How to summon me to your city.
- More good news about bad laws.
- Good advice from a newsreader.
- On feminist “choice” hypocrisy.
- Cops already do this to people.
- My first column on rapist cops.
- A testimonial for Velvet Swing.
- When anti-vax meets anti-sex.
- Ten tips for dealing with cops.
- I finally get a passport again.
- It just keeps getting worse.
- The first version of FOSTA.
- Rapist cops of June, 2017.
- Amateurs are dangerous.
- A quick trip to Chicago.
- Weird search terms.
- On wife swapping.
- A visit to Chicago.
- Tit-related laws.
- Don’t panic.
Links #521
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged apes & monkeys, cops, drugs, Florida, I can't breathe, Illinois, India, Lipstick on a Pig, Texas, video, weaponry on June 28, 2020| 1 Comment »
I can’t breathe. – Javier Ambler
Sometimes it’s difficult to choose which of a musician’s songs to use as a memorial, but this time it was a no-brainer. The links above the video were provided by I Am Curious Blue, Mark Draughn, Furrygirl, Popehat and Walter Olson, Kevin Wilson, and Mark Bennett, in that order.
- Headline of the week.
- I hate it when this happens.
- Not a police state, no sirree.
- R.I.P. Ian Holm and Vera Lynn.
- WHO COULD HAVE PREDICTED THIS?
- Crime: failure to dim headlights. Penalty: summary execution.
From the Archives
- It’s almost like these people have never actually been to central Kentucky.
- “Sex trafficking is EVERYWHERE!” articles are starting to sound very tired.
- I’ve never seen anything galvanize support for sex workers as FOSTA has.
- Cops, KFC, ghosts, protest, translation, Justin Raimondo, and much more.
- One day, reporters will get that “People Work To Make Money” isn’t news.
- “Sex trafficking” fetishist fantasizes that emojis are part of a pimp “code”.
- Do the hoi-polloi recognize how “cool” technology expands a police state?
- Maybe we’re about to witness the beginning of the end of these evil laws.
- whores are morons whose lives must be micromanaged by governments.
- It’s rare that political “monkey see, monkey do” actually works for good.
- They won’t let a whore’s body get cold before attacking her community.
- The FBI running a child porn site is called “law enforcement ingenuity”.
- Google is now so big it isn’t even accountable to its own shareholders.
- This eschews the usual puritanical lingo in favor of Copese pomposity.
- Clearing up a few persistent errors I keep seeing from wannabe allies.
- Remember 110 clients in one day? How about 182 a day for 15 years?
- Charity barred from giving to poor because white ladies are offended.
- Surprised how fast mass censorship is taking hold? We did warn you.
- Omaha uses this same tired “sex trafficking” magnet tale every year.
- “Licensing” is one way governments try to surreptitiously ban things.
- It’s appropriate that an article full of lies opens with a misattribution.
- Another shitty drug intended to capitalize on an imaginary “problem”.
- US sex workers: don’t forget, FOSTA harms sex workers worldwide.
- “Mommy whores” are good, but “gramma whores” are even better.
- Your periodic reminder that a child-shaped toaster is still a toaster.
- Prohibitionists attack an article saying everyone has human rights.
- Any non-politician would have given this up as a bad idea by now.
- Cops, chickens, Harlan Ellison, fascism, stupidity and much more.
- How stupid & blatantly illegal cops’ & collaborators’ actions were.
- Another deep dive into the facts of the persecution of Backpage.
- Just another fatality from the state’s sick need to police women.
- Lenore Skenazy reports another absurd “sex trafficking” panic.
- Hysteria is like a disease; it spreads among friend & foe alike.
- Cops at Pride is Gay Inc’s “fuck you” to the rest of queerdom.
- Useful idiots are unable to understand how precedent works.
- I am reminded of the fable, “The Frogs Who Desired a King”.
- Decriminalization has become a safe position for politicians.
- A retrospective of my blogging from June 2015 and 2016.
- How should I interact with ladies who work at soaplands?
- Another small but important victory for sex workers.
- In which bootlickers volunteer to be spied upon.
- It’s always a “gang”, even when it clearly isn’t.
- Fawning praise of a fascist surveillance organ.
- Creating a new sex worker rights document.
- One of the sleaziest legal dodges this year.
- Another casualty of the War on Whores.
- This is called “pulling up the ladder”.
- “Youth pastors” are as bad as cops.
- Jose Torres, AKA “Joey the Player”.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- An air travel collapse.
In the News (#1051)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged advertising, agency denial, Bahrain, Bread and Circuses, brothels, censorship, cops, dehumanization, Drawing Lines, fascism, halfway whores, Having and Eating Cake, Lack of Evidence, language, law, Nevada, pizza!, pragmatism, Pyrrhic Victory, rescue industry, surveillance, Thailand, United Kingdom, Whimsical Notions on June 27, 2020| 2 Comments »
Men…want sex. And I want their money. – Maggie, a sugar baby
It’s difficult to tease out what actually happened in this incident due to all the dysphemisms, racism, agency denial, “American exceptionalism” propaganda, and pretenses that healthy young men can be ordered to be asexual: “While the [NCIS] investigated numerous sailors for crimes involving sex trafficking and prostitutes in Bahrain in recent years, Navy prosecutors have struggled at times to win criminal convictions…due to a recurring problem: the [refusal of] the Thai prostitutes at the center of the cases…[to pretend to be] victimized women…”
Although sex is indeed common in sugaring, not all sugar daddies seek such intimate relations. Similarly, although most sugar babies engage in sugaring in order to meet their expenses, some are hoping for a serious relationship…Self-esteem can be a tricky issue for both sugar babies and daddies. A sugar daddy does not want to feel like he is a john and a sugar baby does not want to feel like she is a prostitute. Accordingly, sugaring aims for mutual respect between the partners. This is reflected in the sugaring terminology of “partner” rather than “worker” and “client”…while people speak about “ordering,” or “going to,” a prostitute, they speak about “meeting” or “dating” a sugar baby. Maren Scull (2020) has identified a range of sugaring types: at one end of the continuum there is sugar prostitution, and at the other end there is sugar friendship and sugar love. Scull further claims that 40% of women who have sugared do not have sex with their benefactors—and that those who do often have genuine connections with the men…
“Ordering”. Like a pizza, presumably. The later parts of the article reveal that this dude seems to have derived most of his “information” about sex work from prohibitionist talking points rather than by consulting sex workers.
A Bay Area man is…awaiting extradition to Texas, where he is set to face federal charges that [describe ordinary escort advertising sites as “]sex trafficking websites on an international scale[” and include federal prosutors’ disgusting wanking fantasies about…“numerous child trafficking victims”…[Wilhan] Martono first purchased a CityXGuide domain in 2004, but in 2018…he…purchased a domain called “New Backpage”…The websites were set up with physical addresses listed in a Hong Kong apartment, and phone numbers that went back to a property management company there…[but the dumbass sent] wire transfers [back to the US, so]…the U.S. Department of Justice is moving to [steal] the contents of 12 bank accounts…[and] an undisclosed amount of silver bullion…
All sex workers victimized by cops should sue if at all possible, especially now:
SWOP Behind Bars…caught up with Donah Sandford regarding her federal case against Missouri law enforcement, where [rapist cop] Leon Pullen eventually pleaded guilty to robbing and sexually assaulting escorts…Previously interviewed by FOX Files investigator Chris Hayes, Donah…shares the full story…of her 2009 experience with…law enforcement in St. Louis…
The word for authoritarian corporate/government “partnerships” is “fascism”:
…all-expenses paid [junkets] for [boss pigs and bureaucrats] is one of the ways Nextdoor has been looking to promote its network of online communities to government agencies. It reflects a trend that’s worrying to civil rights and government accountability experts: that local [cop shops] and other types of government officials are closely collaborating with private companies whose interests don’t…align with the public’s…Nextdoor and the [pigs, bureaucrats and politicians] it [colludes] with say that close ties between the social media platform and the government can help them [build a more pervasive surveillance system]…
On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#943)
It’s good to see a lockdown house getting some well-deserved pushback:
…a…lawsuit claims that Sheri’s Ranch misclassified its [legal prostitutes] as independent contractors, and should have instead classified them as employees and paid them in accordance with the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”). The [petitioners] claim that Sheri’s Ranch owes unpaid minimum wages and overtime compensation to them and…other[s] who join[ed] the case, as well as portions of their tips they were required to give to the Ranch. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, Sheri’s Ranch filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that its business is not covered by the FLSA because it does not operate in interstate commerce. The Court rejected this argument, finding the allegations in the complaint that Sheri’s Ranch’s annual sales exceed $500,000, and that its sports bar sells food and beverage products produced outside of Nevada, sufficient to bring the Ranch within the coverage of the FLSA…
Three addresses in Luton suspected of housing brothels…were [raided] by police…All of the women, who were from Romania, have been [infantilized] as victims of modern slavery and taken to a safety shelter…[pig] Jim Goldsmith, who led the [raid, admitted]: “It can take up to 10 e[pisodes of harassment by] the police…before [women break down and accept the label of] victim…[to make the persecution stop. Cops] lie to, bully and exploit…sex [workers to destroy their livelihoods], all in the name of [“rescue”]…
You’d be traumatized too, if a gang of rapist thugs invaded your place of business, stole your money, and abducted you.
Bathhouse 5
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on June 26, 2020| 1 Comment »
I guess it’s kind of a tease to share this picture of the foundation of Chekhov’s cottage with you today when it was taken two weeks ago and only looked like this for a couple of hours. But I wanted to create a buffer against possible delays in the process, and also chronicle every stage of the process. The cottage kit came with its own foundation joists, and since it’s a European company those boards were of a metric size; we therefore had to set the beams below those joists at the correct height to be flush and level with the framework around it. We had the first course of logs laid down that same day, but that’s a picture and tale for next time. What I will tell you is that by the time this is published we’ll have the cottage basically finished and the next set of posts ready to go in so we can get started on the deck proper.
Zeitgeist
Posted in Current Events, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Business As Usual, cops, domestic violence, License To Rape, rape, Stalkers in Blue, statistics, The Cop Myth, To Molest and Rape, Zeitgeist on June 25, 2020| 3 Comments »
As I’ve repeatedly stated over the past ten years, cops are not only not protectors of women; they are an active menace to women. They regularly stalk and sexually harass women, and that often escalates to rape, a crime for which they only rarely face any consequences even when they don’t claim the rape was “consensual sex“, a “search“, or a “prostitution investigation“. They beat their wives with horrifying regularity, and have apparently no compunctions against violently attacking or restraining women who pose them absolutely no physical threat. And yet prohibitionists want to give these deranged perverts even more power over women’s lives. For four decades I’ve talked about this, only to be repeatedly dismissed as a crank, a political extremist, or simply a whore with an axe to grind (sometimes all three). But thanks to the current zeitgeist, it has now become possible for a woman whose name isn’t Maggie McNeill to publish something like this:
…the notion that abolishing the police will have negative repercussions for women radically misunderstands both American policing and sexual violence. Police abolition need not be considered an abdication of the responsibility to protect women, but rather a way to fulfill it…police…frequently use the privileges and protections of their job to hurt women with impunity. Police households have dramatically higher rates of domestic violence than other homes, with approximately 40% [beating their wives], compared with roughly 10% of the general population. Worse, women beaten by cop partners often have no one to call: the very people they are told to seek help from are the friends and colleagues of their abusive husbands and boyfriends. And if their abuser is a cop, he has a gun, knows the locations of women’s shelters, and knows how to shift the blame to his victim if she seeks help…The police also have a tendency to commit sexual violence on the job…sexual violence is the second most commonly reported kind of police misconduct…A large, unaccountable group of primarily men, empowered to commit violence to maintain existing hierarchies of power, is not going to end the scourge of sexual violence against women. As feminists, we must recognize that the police are more likely to hurt women than to help us…
If “feminists” had spent more time listening to sex workers and less gazing into their own navels, they’d have understood that 50 years ago instead of conspiring with armed rapists against other women. But you know what? I’m not actually bitter. I’m just glad these dumb bunnies are beginning to wake up, albeit decades too late.
In the News (#1050)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged activism, China, cops, disease, domestic violence, hysteria, Islam, Japan, Japanese Prostitution, left-right myth, LGBT rights, Monsters, neofeminism, New York, prisons, propaganda, Quiet Genocide, racism, rescue industry, Silver Lining, Social Distancing, surveillance, The Cop Myth, transgender, video, violence vs. sex workers on June 24, 2020| 2 Comments »
Sex workers are not a thought experiment. – Kai Cheng
Violence against trans people is getting mainstream attention:
The NYPD drone circling over the protest outside the Brooklyn Museum [on June 14th] must have only picked up a sea of white. That’s the color protestors were asked to wear to rally and march silently in the wake of the deaths of Dominique “Rem’mie” Fells, Riah Milton, Tony McDade, and countless other Black trans victims of police brutality and civilian violence. The event featured speakers from the Okra Project, the Marsha P. Johnson Institute, For the Gworls, GLITS, and Black Trans Femmes in the Arts, as well as the family and loved ones of Layleen Polanco…Many of the people gathered had their own stories of police brutality to tell, but that didn’t stop them from showing up for the Black trans community…
More queer sex workers are remembering that Pride commemorates a riot:
Sex work gave me a livelihood and autonomy…and…sex workers taught me resilience and self-worth. Queer “community,” with its endless callouts and purity politics, has never come close to doing that…Maybe you came here expecting a congenial, well-reasoned article patiently defending the virtues of sex work as a profession and politely asking for solidarity. This isn’t that article. That article has already been written, several times, by several different authors. That article should have changed all of your minds already about the fact that sex workers are human beings who deserve basic human rights, but apparently it didn’t, so here we are. Still criminalized, still stigmatized, still by and large ignored by mainstream “LGBT community,” despite the fact that transfeminine sex workers such as Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera are the reason that we have Pride in the first place. People love the idea that sex workers need saving. A lot of money, power, and attention goes into that idea – not to sex workers, but to our would-be saviors…In order to [really help], though, anti-sex work activists and police would have to actually care about sex workers’ actual lives, as opposed to their self-image as Real Life Heroes™ rescuing us from evil human traffickers…
Do Not Tolerate Domestic Violence
Government as domestic abuser is a very useful metaphor:
For ages the Democratic Party and its allies have been actively manipulating leftwardly-inclined Americans away from issues which might inconvenience the powerful — issues like economic justice, anti-imperialism, slashing the military budget, ending government surveillance and police militarization, and actually getting money out of politics…The powerful do not care if you have an abortion. They do not care how many bullets your gun can hold, they do not care if two guys get married or what gender pronouns you use, and they do not care if everyone is a racist or if no one is. They care about maintaining and expanding their ability to exert control over other people…But…[now] people aren’t just out protesting racism, they’re calling for the complete dismantling of the entire police state…And the nice guy abusers are falling all over themselves to manipulate them back into their cage…Liberal narrative managers manipulated the people into understanding that they are only allowed to care about issues like sexism, LGBT rights, and racism. The people responded by saying “Okay, well then we demand that you dismantle the entire police state because it is racist.” Through all the confusion and fog of a lifetime of ingesting establishment propaganda, the people have still managed to find one solid strand of “no” that they know the nice guy abuser can’t actually forbid them from holding onto…
Mainstream Western media are still largely ignoring China’s atrocities in Xinjiang:
…Formally an autonomous region of China, [Xinjiang] is today practically the largest internment camp in the world…Xi [Jinping] instructed the cadres of the Communist Party of China to “show absolutely no mercy” to its Uighur Muslim population. The regime that now decries any allusion to the genesis of the coronavirus as bigoted then proceeded to describe Islam as a “virus”. And its prescription for the eradication of this pathogen…was the swift “hospitalisation” of Muslims in indoctrination camps…up to 20 prisoners are packed into every cell. Heads shaved, hands and feet bound at all times, they are permanently watched by cameras. Their day begins at 6am and ends after midnight. Their meals consist of gruel — except on Friday, the holiest day of the week for Muslims, when they are served pork, forbidden by Islam — and they are granted two minutes a day to relieve themselves in a communal bucket. The remaining hours are devoted to the performance of rituals intended to purge them of their religious and ethnic identity. They must master Mandarin, the language of their overlords; soak themselves in party propaganda; atone for who they are by confessing to their existence as a crime; and endlessly chant slogans pledging subservience to Han supremacy: I love China! Thank you, Communist Party! I love Xi Jinping!…Inmates are made to sit on chairs embedded with metal spikes, starved, and suspended from ceilings and flogged with electric truncheons; their fingernails are prised with pliers, their skin is pierced with needles, and their bodies are pumped with mysterious medicine. “Good” behaviour cannot bring relief from this ordeal because it is impossible for the captives to know what defines “good” behaviour…All that stands between the inmates and the torture chamber is the mood of the prison guards…There is no emancipation even in death from the humiliations…in addition to destroying and disfiguring Muslim places of worship, [China] also razes their graves…
My answer to the titular question: “I certainly hope not”:
…the anti-trafficking community has been largely silent on the blossoming conversation on police brutality…While some organizations have put out blanket statements about Black Lives Matter and racism, these…have not addressed the field’s entrenchment with law enforcement, or the use of anti-trafficking to re-brand abusive police forces/tactics and expand the police state…can a field that relies on carceral penalties and approaches even be saved from its pro-police roots? The history of the anti-trafficking field has revolved around the decision to take social justice problems and apply a criminal justice answer…This decision to…center…law enforcement and criminal justice-based interventions was concretized through legislation which incentivized joint approaches between service providers and law enforcement and primarily defined success as convictions…
The Japanese are much more sensible about sex than Americans:
…nightclubs across Japan are trying to come to terms with in the age of COVID-19, as they roll out a raft of anti-infection measures to shed their newfound notoriety as hotbeds for virus clusters. The industry [was ready]…for the full lifting [last] Friday of Tokyo’s business closure requests, which…pave[d] the way for host clubs and hostess bars…to officially reopen for the first time in months. In reality, a number of nightclubs had already resumed business to protect the livelihoods of employees. But…many parlors [are now] taking a stab at the new safety guidelines issued by the government on how to coexist with the pandemic…
A Reason interview with Reason alumnus Radley Balko:
Diary #521
Posted in Diary, tagged psychology, Sunset on June 23, 2020| 2 Comments »
Last Wednesday we did the roof of Chekhov’s cottage, which is to say he handed the boards up and I screwed them in place with my trusty cordless Hitachi power drill. I’m going to need to go up there again this week to do the shingles (and you’ll see those pictures in the Bathhouse column, eventually). I’m not exactly fond of doing rooves, but since we first moved to Oklahoma I keep getting elected to do them because I’m the smallest and lightest. So, I’m actually kind of an old hand at it now, and I’ll try to get some good pictures when we do the bathhouse roof. But the really good news from last week is that I was able to get my hair and nails done Saturday! My own nails seem to have mostly recovered from the weeks of being unprotected by a layer of acrylic, because they’ve finally stopped hurting and I can use them normally again, without having to worry about breaking them or snagging them in my hair or clothes. And now that we’re in the most anxiety-inducing part of the summer, I need all the help I can get to keep my nerves in order.
Links #520
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged cops, I can't breathe, imaginative fiction, Never Call the Cops, Oklahoma, politicians, racism, Switzerland, video, Virginia on June 22, 2020| Leave a Comment »
I can’t breathe. – Derrick Scott
A Brave New World radio play narrated by Aldous Huxley himself? With a Bernard Herrmann score? Yes please! The video was contributed by Anarras Ansible, and the links above it by Stephen Lemons, Conner Habib, Popehat, Mark Bennett, Mama Tush, Radley Balko, and Amy Alkon, in that order.
- Actually, it’s 42.
- But of course you can.
- Beginning to see a pattern yet?
- The best satire stays close to the truth.
- Cops molest & abduct teen for crossing the street.
- No, your reason for calling them isn’t an exception.
- In case you thought only US cops were this deranged.
From the Archives
- Never underestimate the human capacity to obsess about the nonexistent.
- “Standing up for a child’s welfare” means condemning a man to seizures.
- How many kids need to be sacrificed to this obscenity before it’s enough?
- With Backpage gone, anti-whore pogroms turn back to low-hanging fruit.
- Partisans say “two wrongs don’t make a right”, but don’t really believe it.
- Liberals not only lied about repealing a law; they’re actively defending it.
- Seattle “officials” think harm reduction principles only apply to drug use.
- Prohibitionist tactics are the same no matter what they want to prohibit.
- And yet the Times supports the Magdalene orders’ rebranding, Ruhama.
- If the Democrats were smart, they’d adopt this as their official platform.
- Why do reporters repeat this egregious nonsense without fact-checking?
- Canadian cops love to harass and intimidate sex workers & call it “help”.
- The only sex workers excluded from New Zealand decrim are migrants.
- Rebranding “prostitution-free zones” as “human trafficking-free zones”.
- CBP pretends face pics are “encrypted” and “only kept for a brief time”.
- Ever wondered how bureaucrats came up with over 300,000 “crimes”?
- Florida “authorities” commit atrocities in the name of “sex trafficking”.
- The world’s largest “anti-trafficking” organization is the only real one.
- “…But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”
- Feminists claim the state should own and control all women’s bodies.
- How governments get around the push to reduce prison populations.
- Are amateurs really so sheltered that this sort of thing shocks them?
- A four-hour interrogation by armed thugs is downplayed as “urging”.
- Prudes like to pretend sex work isn’t part of the entertainment field.
- Stigma against sex workers invariably affects other women as well.
- Observation: homeless camp in woods. Conclusion: sex trafficking!
- Some members of the psychiatric community live in the real world.
- Even I’m impressed with the speed this is happening in New York.
- Cops busting kids’ lemonade stands isn’t even news any more.
- Another shitty law specifically designed to harm sex workers.
- It usually starts with sex workers, but it never stops with us.
- Where in the Gospels did Jesus tell people to attack harlots?
- Velvet Swing is the first female sex aid that actually works.
- Yeahno. This still smells like a publicity stunt gone wrong.
- Just in case you thought this particular insanity was over.
- Entrapment so blatant even a judge couldn’t swallow it.
- When a boss cop rapes, the victim is often underage.
- Cops, Koko, hoax studies, tall ducks and much more.
- Alex Vitale on the development of modern policing.
- The tide has definitely turned on sex worker rights.
- Cops, government, “Spanish Flea” and much more.
- My two previous columns for the summer solstice.
- On seeing my name and work all over the place.
- Thai sex worker activists are made of awesome.
- The recrudescence of a public health nightmare.
- Top this one, “sex trafficking event” hysterics.
- Some Louisiana cops prefer to rape by proxy.
- Is this idiotic enough yet? Can we stop now?
- Remember the “nail parlor slavery” myth?
- What is wrong with doctors who do this?
- Back from one trip and off on another.
- Why I have trouble writing at Sunset.
- “Pastors” are almost as bad as cops.
In the News (#1049)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged California, Choke Point, cops, disease, Fallen Idol, fascism, Monsters, Netherlands, Never Call the Cops, New York, Not for Any Reason Whatsoever, porn, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, Social Distancing, Stop faking!, surveillance, transgender on June 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »
American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities. – A Cab
Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw a man painting his house”?
A San Francisco woman who questioned a man writing “Black Lives Matter” on his own home has apologised for…[trying to get him beaten, abducted or murdered by] calling the police on him…In the video, shot by James Juanillo on his phone, [Lisa] Alexander is seen asking Mr Juanillo, who is Filipino, whether he lives in the house, saying that he is defacing private property as he uses chalk to write words on his wall…[luckily for] Juanillo…the [cop who came]…recogni[zed him and declined to brutalize him]…
In which yelling “stop faking!” is described as “trying to wake her”:
New footage outside the Rikers Island [solitary confinement] cell…where transgender woman Layleen…Polanco died last June reveals that guards tried to wake her for approximately an hour and a half before calling for…medical care that could have saved her life…after an epileptic seizure…
I suspect this isn’t going to end well:
Ginger Banks…who co-starred in the 2018 Evil Angel documentary-style feature Cam Girls, has filed a police report for “sexual battery” with the West Hollywood Police Department against company owner and director John Stagliano for an incident while they were shooting a scene for that project in February 2018…Banks [also] posted a series of videos on social media describing her frustration with “the lack of accountability” she felt the adult industry dispensed to powerful stakeholders like Stagliano…Banks [said] that the recent decision to file charges now stems from a realization that what had happened to her and her co-star, cam model Jenny Blighe, was indeed a reportable offense under California law…
More fascism in action; don’t say sex workers didn’t warn you:
Covid Bail Out NYC, a group raising funds to get people out of jails during the…pandemic, has a list of hundreds of people waiting to be bailed out. But because of constant security freezes and transfer limits imposed by PayPal and its mobile payment service Venmo, the group is only able to bail out around five people— $20,000 worth of cash bail—per week…In response to the pandemic, several grassroots bail out organizations popped up, using community outreach, social media, and payment processing platforms like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App to raise funds quickly. The crisis became even more urgent during the Black Lives Matter protests, as police a[bduc]ted and [cag]ed thousands of [citizens exercising their First Amendment rights] across the U.S…the…process starts to break down because of payment platform’s transfer limits…PayPal…users can transfer up to $60,000 a week, but may be limited to $10,000 in a single transaction …But unusual activity—like a mutual aid fund going viral on Twitter and having its account flooded with donations, for example—could trip PayPal’s fraud monitoring service. Those holds can stay…for weeks…[while] PayPal [continues to collect interest on the balance]…
At their core, the Netherlands are still prohibitionist:
…Like other freelancers [Jeanet] applied for emergency government funding but…has not…received a penny, [so she] works illegally as an escort…from home, usually with clients she has known for a long time. “I do not take too many customers, for safety reasons,” she says. But, even with the infectious disease spreading, there are still plenty of customers who are willing to pay for her services…Sex workers in the Netherlands have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic…[because] the government has [declared them “nonessential“, so many must]…work…illegally…
Oh look, Microsoft also wants to have its cake and eat it too:
Microsoft CEO Brad Smith declared during an online Washington Post event…that his company “will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place…that will [allow us to pretend we aren’t evil for developing] this technology.” This follows Amazon’s announcement…that it is implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of the company’s …facial recognition platform…These moves follow IBM CEO Arvind Krishna’s letter to Congress announcing that his company is getting out the facial recognition business…The digital rights group Fight for the Future has issued a statement calling Amazon and Microsoft’s moves “essentially a public relations stunt.” The companies’ researchers will “spend the next year ‘improving’ the accuracy of their facial recognition algorithms, making it even more effective as an Orwellian surveillance tool…The reality is that facial recognition technology is too dangerous to be used at all…Congress should act immediately to ban facial recognition for all surveillance purposes”…
Will you believe that there’s no such thing as a good cop if a cop tells you so?
I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard. We all were…It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of. It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt…Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer…so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me. But enough is enough. The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening. Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders…
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