As regular readers know, I’m planning to semi-retire at the end of this year; I stopped creating traditional ads over a year ago, and as of January 1st I will no longer take new clients unless they come recommended by someone I know personally. The pandemic and civil unrest of this year have given me a glimpse of what that’s going to look like: for the past six months I’ve been living at Sunset, returning to Seattle a couple of times a month for a few days at a time. For example, I just came back to Seattle on Tuesday for an appointment, then tonight I’ll be flying out to see one of my favorite clients for a weekend; on Monday I’ll be heading back to Sunset for a couple of weeks. And though this year I’ve been incredibly busy with the remodel, the big things should mostly be done about the same time I semi-retire, and the details by next summer. And then I’ll just be able to settle into a comfortable routine of writing, publishing books, going back to town or traveling elsewhere to work or make public appearances, cooking, relaxing, puttering around the farm, visiting with friends, and maybe even getting a long-delayed D&D game running. After half a century of sturm und drang, I have finally (mostly) learned to relax, and even my inner nun is beginning to grudgingly admit that I’ve earned it.
Archive for September, 2020
Taking Shape
Posted in Diary, Philosophy, tagged psychology, Sunset on September 10, 2020| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1071)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged acting, censorship, cops, Cops and Robbers, Creepy Coppers, drugs, FBI, Follow Your Bliss, Hollywood, hysteria, internet, McNeill's Law, New Mexico, Panopticon, porn, rescue industry, scams, surveillance, The Pro-Rape Coalition, Unsafe for Human Consumption, You Were Warned on September 9, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Exodus Cry[‘s]…history of hateful rhetoric toward women and…those who don’t abide by their vision of purity…is extremely disturbing. – Pornhub
A typical and representative “law enforcement hero”:
Christopher Bryant…of Ruidoso, New Mexico [was arrested]…on charges of transportation of child pornography…[because] he…[searched for] child pornography on the internet and took screenshots of three [porn] images of children…[then] sent the images to himself by email. Bryant was recognized in 2019 as a “Law Enforcement Hero of Child Protection” by a state agency…
The rescue industry provides many opportunities for wealthy white folks to play cowboy:
Over the past few years, Marisol Nichols has been juggling the demands of being an [television] act[ress]…with a side gig as a…[scam artist making money from hysteria over] sex trafficking. The latter is now being turned into a television series after Sony Pictures Television optioned rights to her story…She has been [lying to people targeted by] the FBI, [sociopathic fascists] Operation Underground Railroad and [common pigs] to serve as the “bait” for sting operations domestically and internationally…Nichols…has participated in numerous [examples of cop glorification propaganda]…such as CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Law & Order: SVU, more than once playing a cop…she began to work in the [rescue industry] after her career slowed down around 2012…
She’s not really a pig, but she played one on TV. And in life-destroying scams.
Unsafe for Human Consumption (#972)
Unsurprising for entities in the disinformation business:
Fentanyl…has taken on mythical properties [among cops. Many]…have claimed to have nearly died from accidental exposure, based on the scientifically inaccurate idea that a deadly amount of fentanyl can pass through human skin or even poison the air around it. That myth has spread through…fusion centers…[which] have circulated fentanyl myths, causing [cops] to panic [like little girls]…Out of 121 fentanyl-related bulletins in the BlueLeaks trove reviewed by Reason, at least 36 claimed that fentanyl could be absorbed through the skin and at least 41 discussed the alleged danger of airborne fentanyl…
It’s nice to see them harming each others’ mental health for a change.
[An ambulance-chaser] sued [the messaging app] Kik [in hopes of getting a lot of loot courtesy of]…FOSTA…[which] Congress enacted…to [encourage exactly this kind of nuisance] lawsuit…against Internet services. The question is exactly what FOSTA did–a difficult question to answer because of FOSTA’s terrible drafting. Court opinions trying to navigate the FOSTA/Section 230 interplay are extremely complex and technical in nature, and thus hard to understand…The plaintiff trie[d] to show that Kik violated [the law by]…“participat[ing] in a venture” with [imaginary] sex traffickers…The court grant[ed] Kik’s motion to dismiss…[because] the facts don’t seem to indicate any actual or attempted sex trafficking…Perhaps the court might have approached the opinion differently if the[re had actually been any behavior remotely resembling] sex trafficking…
Is it just me, or does this sound like an attempt at reverse psychology?
[FBI] documents warned that owners of Amazon’s Ring and similar video doorbells can use the systems…to watch police..leak[ed documents]…describe…numerous ways police and the FBI could use Ring surveillance footage, but it also cites “new challenges” involving sensor- and camera-equipped smart home devices….[which] can offer an early warning when [pigs] are approaching a house to [root around, destroy it, or brutalize and murder]…the owner…[In actuality,] this isn’t [an]y more information than a security camera would capture…and…Ring…[collaborates] with hundreds of [cop shops]…to hand over footage [without the owners’ permission]…
The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1023)
Laila Mickelwait’s…”TraffickingHub” campaign to [censor] Pornhub…has nearly two million signatures…There are many legitimate reasons for revenge porn victims and adult content owners to be critical of Pornhub…But what people who sign the TraffickingHub petition might not understand is that the campaign…comes from the world of anti sex [work] activism—and specifically, from a large Christian organization, Exodus Cry, which…[promotes police violence against] sex work[ers] and wants to abolish porn altogether…it…[also] has a history of homophobia and bigotry, and…peddl[es] a victim narrative to “save” sex workers while harming them with pushes for [pro-rape] legislation…
The reek from the dying rescue industry is now wafting over from Europe:
…the European Freedom Network (EFN) [is a conspiracy between] 250 [evangelical] groups that [harass and persecute sex workers]…Leanne Rhodes…who lives in Portugal, is the Executive Director of the EFN…[and provides exampls of how “sex trafficking” propaganda] has changed substantially after the Covid-19 crisis…“organisations could no longer [harass sex workers in person, so] they lost [track of easy targets]…a lot of our partners have [invented new masturbbatory fantasies about]pimps…dump[ing “victims”]…mafias have moved from street prostitution to online prostitution. There is a massive increase in video sex, chat rooms…pornography and so on, all over the place and very early on as lockdowns started…you can sell people over the internet over and over…
Except for the new “pimps dumping slaves” trope, this is the same filth they’ve been peddling for over a decade. Did they think nobody would notice?
Diary #532
Posted in Diary, tagged Oklahoma, recipes, Sunset, Washington (state) on September 8, 2020| Leave a Comment »
It’s been years since I made jam; I believe the last time was in 2013, because the year after that I was on tour all summer, then in 2015 I moved to Seattle. But we had a bumper crop of plums and blackberries, and the apples are almost ripe as well; Jae picked a big basket of plums last week, and even after making two huge plum cobblers I had plenty left. So on Thursday I made plum jam, then on Friday blackberry, and both came out perfectly! I have to admit I was a bit daunted; I like making jam, but it’s a lot of work, and, as I said, it has been a while. But it was a lot easier this time than it was in Oklahoma, for several reasons. First, Jae picked and pitted the plums for me, and she and a visiting friend picked the blackberries. Second, I have an electronic cooking thermometer now, which makes monitoring the jam mixture’s temperature much less of a hassle. And speaking of heat, the Washington coast in September is dramatically cooler than southeast Oklahoma in June, so I wasn’t stuck in a sweltering kitchen while working. Today I’m going back to Seattle and I’m going to visit the gent I call Dr. Quest this weekend. But on Monday I’ll be back at Sunset, and soon I’ll be using our apples to make apple cider, apple jelly, apple butter, mince meat, and other lovely treats.
In the Store
Posted in Miscellaneous, Q & A, tagged advertising, Ask Maggie on September 7, 2020| 1 Comment »
It used to be that when I ordered a box of my own books, it arrived just as quickly as anything else I purchased from Amazon. But the pandemic seems to have dramatically slowed the process; it now takes weeks after ordering for the books to show up. I ordered a box of Ask Maggie, Volume I almost a week before I announced the book was available, and it was finally delivered on Saturday! Since I didn’t want to have to sit on a number of orders until the books arrived, I didn’t start offering autographed copies until that date was at least closer. But now I believe and hope it’s close enough; if you’d like an autographed copy of it or any of my other books, please visit my store by clicking on the picture at the top of the right-hand column. I’d also like to ask a favor; once you buy and read the book (whether from me or directly from Amazon), would you please take the time to review it? Since I now have a number of products available there (five books, two short stories and a documentary), I only lack a sufficient number of reviews to trigger Amazon’s algorthms to start suggesting it to browsers in the greater Amazon ecosystem. And given how economically difficult this year has been, that would be a great help to me.
Links #531
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged animals, censorship, cops, disease, fantasy, Louisiana, New Jersey, Oregon, video on September 6, 2020| 1 Comment »
Zoiks! – Norville Rogers
One of this week’s deaths was Joe Ruby, who with his partner Ken Spears created Scooby Doo, Where Are You? during their time at Hanna-Barbera. Years later, they started their own studio, which produced this cartoon I was very fond of (though I did often make fun of the fact that, due to broadcast standards & practices in 1980, Thundarr never killed anything with his “fabulous Sun Sword”). The links above the video were provided by Grace, Mike Siegel, Yasmin Nair, Jesse Walker, Elizabeth N. Brown, and Anarras Ansible, in that order.
- Instant karma.
- R.I.P. Joe Ruby.
- R.I.P. Chadwick Boseman.
- Extra-stupid megalomania.
- Another cop function: revenue generation.
- Just another gang of cops shooting a man in the back.
From the Archives
- Amateurs: a public health menace who should be licensed and regulated.
- How many abductions does it take to make a furniture store a “hot spot”?
- We were warned Israeli whore-censorship was only “part of a wider plan”.
- Hysteria never stops until it starts harming the wealthy & well-connected.
- Put your daughter in a gang-recruitment program! What could go wrong?
- “Sex trafficking” hysteria is employed to mask the stench of xenophobia.
- One day, reporters will learn “People Work To Make Money” is not news.
- Those uncomfortable with their own sexuality want nobody to have sex.
- Guess why an accomplished adult man is portrayed as a passive victim.
- I’ve never seen anything galvanize support for sex workers like FOSTA.
- When this is happenening in Utah, you know we’re past the watershed.
- The BBC opines pragmatic dating is bad because it’s “driven by vanity”.
- More on the rapist cop who murdered a sex worker in Columbus, Ohio.
- What an actual attempt at abduction into forced prostitution looks like.
- “Rescuers” want to push whores into traditional feminine menial labor.
- Cops, fraud, Florida, ghosts, amateurs, obvious signs and much more.
- Every proper sex work study shoots prohibitionist lies down in flames.
- It’s about time Playboy started covering this topic more aggressively.
- Debunking absurd numbers behind “campus rape crisis” propaganda.
- Too bad more politicians don’t hire the women cops hunt most often.
- “Human trafficking” has become merely a dysphemism for sex work.
- If this is a “brothel”, then a room with a foosball table is a “stadium”.
- Another entry in the “sex trafficking” scare story invasion of Twitter.
- Do I have to add, “Not because a 30-year-friend touched your butt”?
- Beware of male “feminists” who try to stop women from organizing.
- Cops, horror, stupidity, Douglas Adams, recursion, and much more.
- Prohibitionists hate harm reduction; they want harm magnification.
- Reporters, please learn the difference between “size” and “length”.
- Amazon’s fascist collaboration with cops just keeps getting worse.
- Serial numbers tattooed on every cell of every political prisoner.
- The pigs are starting their annual fearmongering early this year.
- Banks are still actively looking for whores to rat out to the pigs.
- Liz Brown on this year’s Swanee Hunt psychodrama pogroms.
- “Abatement”. A term used for things, especially nuisances.
- A rare moment of calm in this stormy, difficult incarnation.
- A good example of why “legalized” sex work is a bad idea.
- Clownish cops continue to pratfall over fentanyl hysteria.
- The man behind much of Swanee Hunt’s propaganda.
- They were “safeguarded”, no doubt at a “safe house”.
- “Criminals using massage as a front for sex crimes”.
- The ugliest part of a peak moral panic: lynch mobs.
- Judge slaps down two out-of-control politicians.
- More on child abuse by nuns at US orphanages.
- Why let facts get in the way of a witch hunt?
- The “inspiring work of Dan Satterberg”.
- It’s not a good time to begin sex work.
- My own favorites of my own stories.
- Return of the Killer Sex Robots.
- Progress on projects at Sunset.
- Instant karma’s gonna get you…
- “Correcting” people to death.
- We fucking told you so.
- Rapist cop of the week.
In the News (#1070)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Bait and Switch, cops, fantasy, Finding What Isn’t There, Georgia, hysteria, Paint By Numbers, porn, propaganda, rescue industry, scams, sporting events, The Implosion Begins, The Widening Gyre, Washington (state), Working From Home on September 5, 2020| 1 Comment »
This is not a game…This is our…livelihood. – Cris Sardina
This steaming turd is even more worthless than is typical of NPR’s bluenosed imitation of “journalism”, starting with the headline: the “sex offender” registry wasn’t “designed to protect” anyone; it was and is intended to inflict unconstitutional and extrajudicial punishment on an arbitrarily-defined group of people after the end of their sentences. Even if the registry were limited to the sort of violent criminals the story luridly cherry-picks in order to uphold its false premise, it would still make no sense; there is no registry for murderers, those who permanently maimed their victims, and many other criminals far more dangerous than the majority of those condemned to permanent pariah status for such heinous “crimes” as public urination, taking selfies, or having consensual sex before the Sacred Moment of Shazam. If, as the story postulates, there is a problem with these people taking back their lives from illegal state control, maybe the solution is to stop condemning so goddamned many people – a disproportionate number of whom are poor and black, and 25% of whom were first “registered” when they were under 18 – to unpersonhood in the first goddamned place, often by evil scams such as those described in the item below.
Cops don’t care how many lives they destroy with their sick fantasies:
Since 2015, nearly 300 men in…Washington State have been arrested [by male cops fantasy-role playing online as young teen girls] in…a…[scam revoltingly labeled] Operation Net Nanny…[as is typical in such scams, many] are 25 or younger [and seeking consensual sex with age-peers, though cops manipulate them so as to be able to argue that they committed] …attempted rape of a child…even though no actual children were involved. The emails and texts offering sex are written [one-handed] by [pervert cops]…The “girls” in the photos are [clearly] not 13. They are [adult sows]…At least five of the men [entrapped by this evil sex game] have committed suicide…most of the [victims] have no felony record…and 92 percent have no history of violent crime. They are nonetheless sentenced, on average, to more than six years in prison with no chance of parole…[then condemned to] the…sex-offender registry for at least 10 years — and often for life…The[se victims] can wind up serving more time than men who are convicted of sexually assaulting and raping actual children…
Make sure you read down to the part about how these ugly scams are enabled in part by “sex trafficking” profiteers “Operation Underground Railroad”, best known for their cowboy raids victimizing brown people in the developing world.
Finding What Isn’t There (#880)
The easiest way to increase “sex trafficking” numbers is to invent imaginary “victims”:
…“Operation Not Forgotten” [is what Georgia cops melodramatically called a scam in which they arrested]…26 [legal minors, mostly teen runaways] and…found [13 kids who were with parents other than those assigned custody by courts. Spokespigs oinked out fantasies about]…potential victims of sex trafficking…
Nine adults were arrested during the raids, mostly for probation violations, custody order violations, or merely continuing to exist while condemned to the “sex offender” registry. Despite the claims of “authorities” that this was a “sex trafficking bust”, only one person was charged under Georgia’s incredibly-broad “sex trafficking” law.
Words cannot express the extent of my delight at seeing the arch-mythmonger Polaris forced to debunk some of the hysteria it has disseminated (and profited handsomely from) for most of this century. In the past few years, local cop shops have often been forced to deny stupid rumors that they aren’t in control of which are clogging their phone lines, but this is the first time I’ve seen Polaris put in this position, and the schadenfreude is so sweet. Incidentally, the reason I took a screenshot of this press release rather than linking it is that Polaris counts clicks on their site as “sex trafficking reports”, and they even block the Internet Archive from archiving their pages so as to force those wanting to disseminate the information to cick directly on their site, thus unwittingly giving them ammo for their campaign of lies.
Have you noticed dumb “anti-trafficking” stunts are now mostly ads for sports?
Renée Brinkerhoff…started Project 356…to…“use [auto rally] racing as a platform to do something about child trafficking worldwide”…[after] she saw a man on an airport bus viewing a…[porn] image of a young child on his phone…Ms. Brinkerhoff…also “participated in [anti-whore stings]”…She once spent two weeks in Southeast Asia working with…Exodus Road, a…profit[able anti-sex work] organization…that [provides opprtunities for weathy white entertainers to play cowboy using brown people in developing countries as unwlling props]…
So much for the idea that celebrities cosplaying as sex workers would fight stigma:
Bella Thorne…[is a] former Disney star [who] made $1 million…during her first 24 hours on OnlyFans…[by] engaging in fraudulent behavior…[thus] triggering OnlyFans policy changes that harm sex workers…Thorne had charged $200 for nudes that she failed to deliver, and which reportedly led to numerous refund requests…[as a result] OnlyFans introduced…policy change[s] that…add[ed] a 30-day wait period for payouts and restrict[ed] pay-per-view prices to $50. The company [claim]s the policy change wasn’t based on a single user, but many saw it as a response to the [huge number of] chargebacks…Thorne…[issued a mealy-mouthed “apology” in which she claimed her scam was somehow well-intended]…
Evangelical churches get what they deserve for embracing “sex trafficking” mythology:
Some Christian leaders, including a couple of prominent conservative evangelicals, have denounced…QAnon…and…its…growing support among…evangelical churchgoers and other mostly conservative communities…Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler Jr…compared QAnon…to the early church heresy of Gnosticism …“Christians don’t have secret beliefs we hide from the world”…Tyler Huckabee, senior editor at Relevant Magazine…that QAnon’s claims are “farfetched”…and fueled by “confirmation bias”…Author and pastor Joe Carter denounced QAnon in a column…label[ing] QAnon a “political cult” and “satanic movement…QAnon…often traffics in lies, which Jesus says are associated with Satan”…
For evangelicals to refer to dealing in lies as “Satanic” when they have embraced that strategy in their attacks on science, human sexuality, and sexual minorities for over four decades is pretty fucking rich. And for evangelicals to call others’ beliefs “farfetched” is laugh-out-loud funny.
Annex 15
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on September 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »
As I explained last week, we were able to hire a friend of of my usual hired man for a few days thanks to a generous donation from one of my gentlemen. Having two experienced construction workers in addition to Chekhov and me made the job go much more quickly and smoothly than last time, and we were able to do in three days what I expected to take four. This picture was taken last Friday, and as you can see the only major thing left to do at that time was the roof shingles. We’ve done that since then, and though I had to go to Seattle for a few days earlier this week, I’m back now and working on the skirting. Grace has figured out what we need to start the roof, so as soon as I figure out how I’m going to pay for it, that will be underway!
Life with a Fast Brain
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, tagged cell phones, drugs, psychology on September 3, 2020| 1 Comment »
I’ve written before about the dark side of characteristics usually viewed as positive, pointing out that every deviation from balance has a cost. The candle that burns twice as bright burns twice as quickly; of course that means it lasts half as long, but it also means that other candles burn at half speed relative to it. My thoughts race constantly; I’m usually well ahead of everyone else in figuring things out, and my reflexes are abnormally fast. But have you ever considered what the world looks like when viewed from within such a nervous system? Take traffic, for example; many people say I drive too fast, but from my vantage point most other people are driving much too slowly. Anything slower than freeway speeds seems like crawling to me, and being trapped in a clump of people going below the speed limit makes me feel like I’m having one of those nightmares where you are moving in slow motion, and I get so nervous I can’t endure it for long without trying to find some way out of it. When I’m doing physical work with other people, they often seem to me to be taking much too long, and with far too many breaks in which they sit still in a way I can’t manage without being sedated. And then there are automated telephone systems, which to me seem something like this:
Thank. You. For. Calling. The. Blank. Ety. Blank. Office. Lo. Cated. At. The. Inter. Section. Of. Main. Street. And. First. Ave. Nue. In. Snail. Ville. Wa. Shing. Ton.”
{long pause}
If. This. Is. An. E. Mer. Gen. Cy. Please. Hang. Up. And. Call. Nine. One. One.
This. Line. Does. Not. Handle. E. Mer. Gen. Cies.
{very long pause}
If. This. Is. Some. Other. Thing. Please. Call. Our. Other. Line. At. Eight. Zero. Zero. Five. Five. Five. One. Two. Three. Four. Exten. Sion. Six. Seven. Nine.
{pause so long I start saying “Hello? Hello?”}
For. The. Least. Con. Ceive. Ab. Ly. Use. Ful. Sel. Ec. Tion. Press. One.
For. The. Least. Con. Ceive. Ab. Ly. Use. Ful. Sel. Ec. Tion. Save. The. Pre. Cee. Ding. Press. Two.
For. Some. Depart. Ment. You. Never. Heard. Of. Press. Three.
As you might expect, by this part I’m about to scream and/or jump out of my skin, and I start repeatedly pressing zero, hoping it isn’t one of those systems where the operator is actually reached by pressing five or eight or whatever. If I know or suspect it’s a voice-actuated system instead, I’m liable to start repeating “Agent. Agent. Agent. Agent.” every time the system starts to say anything, in hopes of getting to talk to someone before my phone runs out of power or I die of boredom, starvation, or old age, whichever comes first.
Anyhow, I think you probably get the picture. And it may help you to comprehend why navigating bureaucratic systems is like some kind of exotic torture for me, and why it’s best for all involved if I work for myself.
In the News (#1069)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged All-Purpose Excuse, child "protective" services, cops, Eavesdropping, Elephant in the Parlor, Florida, hysteria, I Spy, Kentucky, License To Rape, politicians, prisons, rape, Russia, surveillance, Texas, The Implosion Begins, The Widening Gyre, Torture Chamber on September 2, 2020| Leave a Comment »
America’s founding generation…knew their fair share of unwelcome constables. – Judge Justin Walker
A California Superior Court judge has ordered President Donald Trump to pay $44,100 to…Stormy Daniels, to reimburse her attorneys’ fees in the legal battle surrounding her nondisclosure agreement…[the suit ended when] Trump and his legal team agreed outside of court not to sue or otherwise enforce the NDA. The…claim…[was] ruled moot, as the NDA had been rendered unenforceable…Judge Robert Broadbelt III ruled that [Daniels] was entitled to legal fees, finding her the “prevailing party” under California law…
Holly Curry sued [a] cop and [a busybody bureaucrat who threatened their way into her home without a warrant and molested her children under the pretext of] investigat[ing her] for child abuse…[she argued] their behavior was so egregious, they had to take responsibility for it. The judge agreed…and…[denied] them…[qualified] immunity.[because]… it was clear the government used an improper threat to enter the home, lacked any evidence that might have justified a strip search, and violated the children’s rights to bodily integrity…The investigator in the case testified that they “automatically strip search every child when they go into a home”…
Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you:
Amazon…received more than 3,000 requests for smart speaker user data from police…this year…[and] complied with…more than 2,000 occasions, forking over recordings and data that [let pigs eavesdrop on private conversations]…This number marks a 72% increase in these types of requests from the same period in 2016…Google’s Nest unit has also seen a similar spike in police demands for data from its [microphones]…Voice clips are…only the beginning…Police can also [ob]tain time-stamped logs of user activity…
This isn’t nearly enough, unless it’s drawn from the screws’ pension fund:
The [citizens] of Florida will [be forced by the state to] pay…$4.65 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit filed by Cheryl Weimar, a…prison[er] who was paralyzed from the neck down after a brutal beating by [screws] last September…the payout…[is slightly] large[r]…[than] the…$4.5 million [given] to the family of Darren Rainey…who[m sadistic screws intentionally and maliciously] boiled to death in a rigged shower [in 2012]…Keith Turner, one of the [screws who maimed her]…was later arrested [for] molesting two minors and fired from the FDOC…[his accomplice Ryan Dionne was arrested in 2013 for domestic battery, yet] remains employed at the department…
Trumpists and anti-Trumpists continue to fight for control of the “sex trafficking” narrative:
A new report from the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence offers a damning portrait of the people Donald Trump chose as his partners for potential projects in Russia. They include…Tevfik Arif…[whom] the…committee…accus[ed of being…“involved in Russian…human trafficking…[because] he…brought ‘thousands’ of women into the United States, primarily from Ukraine”…and…Russian billionaire Aras Agalarov and his pop-singer son, Emin…who…“have been closely affiliated with individuals involved in…prostitution…and other significant criminal enterprises”…
This is getting sweeter by the day:
Supporters of the QAnon conspiracy theory…marched in downtown Miami on [August 22nd] as part of a series of rallies stretching across Florida…some demonstrators held vague signs asking to “save our children,” [and] others hinted [th]at…the…underground human trafficking ring [of the myths so beloved by yellow journalists and anti-sex profiteers is actually] run by the country’s elite class…
Moral panics never end until they start harming those who weren’t their intended targets:
A Waco, Texas, woman [named Cecilia Fulbright]…motivated by the QAnon [branch of the popular “sex trafficking” delusion]…got behind the wheel of her car just after 9 a.m. [on August 19th] with the intent to “[save] a child” from “pedophiles”. Fulbright…chased two strangers’ vehicles in an apparent attempt to hit them…the first vehicle was a catering truck driven by a woman with her minor daughter in the passenger’s seat. They successfully evaded Fulbright…[who] then targeted a second unrelated vehicle, a Dodge Caravan driven by a 19-year-old college student. Fulbright chased the student into a parking lot where she cornered and repeatedly rammed the..van…[cops] found Fulbright “crying hysterically” and yelling that the driver of the vehicle she attacked “was a pedophile and had kidnapped a girl for human trafficking”…her blood alcohol content was recorded as 0.21 percent…
Diary #531
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on September 1, 2020| 1 Comment »
I spent the better part of my Saturday and Sunday under Chekhov’s cottage, connecting the cables that will supply electricity to the outlets. As you can see, it’s still pretty tight down there, but at least I can sit up without hitting my head very often; a few weeks ago someone asked why the deck was so high off the ground, and one of the reasons I gave him was, “I’ve never been in a crawlspace and said, ‘There’s too much room in here’.” So, voila. When I took this picture, I was in the middle of chasing down a short; it turned out that while cutting the conduit, I managed to cut into the insulation of one of the three cables in three separate places (I’m competent to do basic wiring, but at first I wasn’t really using the best tool for that particular job). But eventually I got it all fixed, and now that I’ve done all the crawling around below the floor, Grace can wire the outlets themselves. I’m in Seattle today, but I’ll be back at Sunset tomorrow, and in the next few days I’ll do the same for the second cottage. And you can bet I’m going to be much more careful with sharp objects this time.
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