Our cell service has never been very good at Sunset; in order to make a conventional cell call (rather than via internet by Signal) I’ve always had to stand in my office window upstairs, and even then it’s liable to drop several times an hour. Then a few weeks ago, the display of my phone broke, and the new phone had no signal at all at Sunset. So even though my old phone is finally repaired and I’m picking it up today, I decided something finally had to be done about the poor reception. Well, one of my gentlemen did the research for me and Grace went over his findings, and they agreed on a specific model of repeater. It took over a week to arrive, but finally came in Saturday, and during a lull in the rain I went out onto the roof and installed this antenna outside my office window, pointed SSE in the general direction of the nearest cell tower. It took us awhile to find the best place to put the internal antenna so as to avoid feedback, but we eventually found a spot in the hall which seems to give pretty good reception in every part of the house. So now I can actually make and receive phone calls from every part of the house like a civilized person, even (thanks to our now fully-operational standby generator) during power outages.
Archive for September, 2021
Diary #586
Posted in Diary, tagged cell phones, Sunset on September 20, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Links #585
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged Aphrodite, Arizona, bel, Believe Them, cops, domestic violence, genitalia, I can't breathe, License To Rape, Missouri, New York, Texas, United Kingdom, video on September 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I can’t breathe. – Darren Boykin
I’ve always been fond of this song, and even though I’m not all that fond of Bananarama, I do like this video (in a sort of over-the-top cheesy ’80s kind of way). The links above it were provided by Mike Siegel, Conner Habib, Nun Ya, and Cop Crisis (x3).
- As one does.
- R.I.P. John Shelby Spong.
- One down, roughly 18,000 to go.
- “Died in custody” = “murdered by cops”.
- Cops pretend this kind of assault isn’t sexual.
- Just another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
From the Archives
- Another church using a fake “shelter” scam to exploit marginalized people.
- If your rulers have their way, phone privacy will soon be gone completely.
- People just keep pretending “politician hires hooker” is more than a yawn.
- Prohibition turns bodies into “crime scenes” which cops can violate at will.
- Another airline employee following government racial profiling guidelines.
- Cops will never stop this as long as the state keeps giving them pretexts.
- Nobody will be safe until this odious practice is declared unconstitutional.
- Clownish cops pratfall over fentanyl hysteria, despite doctors’ debunking.
- Same thing the Democrats want, but please tell me more about “wings”.
- They didn’t even try to wedge their scam into the “trafficking” narrative.
- Beauty magazines recognizing they owe their very existence to whores.
- “Detention center” = “prison”, and this is a more extreme form of rape.
- Anti-whore stigma also harms sex workers who aspire to be therapists.
- Another explosion of mathematical imbecility from “One Hand” Kristof.
- Alabama’s late but bat-shit-crazy campaign of “sex trafficking” lunacy.
- Dr. David Ley dares to tell the truth about hysteria over “pedophilia”.
- Putting kids too young to consent into the police biometric database.
- Deaths from a black market product? Just expand the black market!
- We don’t see as many dumb “anti-trafficking” stunts as we used to.
- Just as we said would happen before this terrible law was imposed.
- This rapist cop must’ve somehow crossed someone very important.
- Funny how many cops who are willing to pay prefer underage girls.
- The government has announced its new post-Backpage bogeymen.
- The pandemic was a useful excuse for expanding the police state.
- I reckon someone else noticed Arpaio’s obsession with this topic.
- Funny how the rescue industry isn’t afraid of “sex rayed” money.
- Mar Brettmann will say anything to sell her anti-whore snake oil.
- Power corrupts, no matter what the race, sex, etc of its wielder.
- Ever notice how often predatory cops’ targets are underage?
- What “predictive policing” actually looks like on the ground.
- Florida politicians are obsessed with child-shaped toasters.
- Trying to avoid screening is just another form of haggling.
- Why are you trying to avoid talking about Jeffrey Epstein?
- Ohio moves to punish sex workers for outing rapist cops.
- “I support sex workers, just not those dirty whores“.
- When moral panic and yellow journalism intersect.
- Recipe for a good week in the Seattle demimonde.
- Cops, metaphors, Ric Ocasek, and much more.
- Time spent with Dr. Quest is always lovely.
- Cops, Diana Rigg, and much more.
- Dissecting a tissue of lies.
- Shingling my rooves.
In the News (#1172)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Australia, Backpage, California, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, Facebook, Feminists and Other Puritans, Florida, hysteria, I Spy, neofeminism, porn, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, surveillance, Tennessee, The Implosion Begins, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, You Were Warned on September 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Catherine MacKinnon lives in a small world…where there can be no woman who gets to make decisions about her own life. – Scott Greenfield
Feminists and Other Puritans (#671)
“MacKinnon has come out from under her rock to explain why OnlyFans isn’t really a woman’s choice“:
[Catharine MacKinnon believes that] if you don’t see the evil [of sex work], it’s only because the evil has blinded you to the evil…the idea that [women can] choose [it] is anathema. It can’t be true because no one would make such an undignified choice…Maggie McNeill would disagree with this characterization, rather vehemently I would guess. As would many others, including those who have taken advantage of the opportunity presented by OnlyFans…But to the MacKinnons wielding their axes as they destroy barrels of demon rum, save us from reefer madness, and prevent helpless oppressed women from doing as they choose with their bodies, there are only exploited victims because no women would ever choose to live in a way that fails to meet MacKinnon’s approval…
The glassholes are back, only worse:
Facebook’s new camera glasses…are not called Facebook Glasses — they are called Ray-Ban Stories..because they are made in partnership with Ray-Ban…Knowing that Facebook is discussing building facial recognition into these things curdles the stomach…The privacy features for the glasses wearer are decent; privacy features for the rest of the world? Not so much…Your data and images may be safe from the prying eyes of Mark Zuckerberg, sure, but the real danger here is…the fact that you’re walking around wearing barely perceptible spy glasses, taking videos and photos of anyone you want, likely without them noticing…The sleek Wayfarer frame design means that unlike Google Glass or the flashy bright yellow Snapchat Spectacles, these look very much like regular sunglasses…
Australia’s rulers seem even more eager to destroy the internet than US rulers:
Australia’s High Court…has ruled that Facebook users are responsible for the content of complete strangers who post defamatory comments on their posts…the…ruling…is just a small part of a larger case brought against Australian news outlets, including the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, and The Australian, among others, by a man who said he was defamed in the Facebook comments of the newspapers’ stories in 2016…Dylan Voller…was [tortured by screws]…at a [prison for legal minors] in 2015 when undercover video of kids being…abused [by screws] was captured and…[bootlickers on Facebook] fabricate[d] stories about [Voller]…to imply that…he…somehow deserved the treatment…Voller’s full case against the media companies can now go forward…The High Court ruling is arguably one of Australia’s dumbest in recent memory…
Pigs want to root around in people’s social media in order to destroy their lives:
LAPD…has directed its [thugs] to [demand] the social media information of every [person] they interview, including individuals who are not arrested or accused of a crime…the “field interview cards”…reveal that LAPD [thugs] are [demanding]…Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other social media accounts, alongside basic biographical information…the Brennan Center for Justice…conducted a review of 40 other…US [cop shops] and was unable to find another…that [admitted to] social media collection on interview cards…LAPD…us[ed] the cards to falsely label [victims] as gang members…and prosecutors have previously used Facebook photos and “likes” to make dubious…allegations of criminal gang activity…LAPD also shares data with federal [cop shops and spook houses via] “fusion centers”, and [also feeds the data into] “predictive policing” [scams]…
Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this atrocity:
…a former Marine beset by delusions of child sex trafficking [based on propaganda spread by the government and anti-sex groups for two decades]…massacre[d]…a Florida family…Bryan Riley…[happened to see] Justice Gleason mowing his lawn with his 11-year-old daughter in the yard…an[d cast the girl as a character in his delusion] named Amber who was suicidal and being held by a supposed sex trafficking ring that God had told him to confront. In fact, no one named Amber lived at the home and Gleason repeatedly told Riley that before asking him to leave their initial encounter…Riley left angrily…[then] left his home around 1 a.m. Sunday and went to the Gleason home…because, Riley later told detectives, “God told me to kill everyone and save Amber cause she’s a victim of sex trafficking”…The 11-year-old girl survived the attack despite being shot multiple times…her family huddled in a bathroom after Riley shot his way into the home, killed their dog and then attacked everyone hiding there…The victims are Gleason…his…girlfriend, Theresa Lanham; their baby boy, Jody…and…Lanham’s mother [Catherine Delgado]…
It seems likely that even the imaginary “trafficking victim’s” name was derived from government-backed hysteria: “Amber”, as in “Amber alert”. Also: the sheriff in the story, Grady Judd, has for years eagerly promoted the same ugly propaganda which shaped Riley’s delusions to justify his pocket police state.
This is little more than a delay in a case the government cannot win fairly:
Judge Susan Brnovich has granted the [Backpage] defense’s motion for a mistrial. “I, at the beginning of this, gave the government some leeway…Yet, in the [government’s] opening and with every witness thereafter, it seems, the government has abused that leeway”…The opening statement from federal prosecutor Reggie Jones “was close to causing mistrial,” she said. Then, despite agreeing “to minimize the focus on child sex trafficking” from then on out, the government continued to harp on it. And despite being told that witnesses could only talk about Backpage’s general reputation if it was tied to communication with specific defendants in this case, government witnesses like Sharon Cooper “talked about the reputation of Backpage untethered from communications with the defendants,…I will call the jury in to dismiss them
and then we will set a date a couple weeks out to talk about when we can reconvene”…
“Having inappropriate behavior” is a really awkward way to say “molesting”:
A [typical and representative] Ashland [Tennessee cop] has been arrested for [molesting] a minor [girl]…Benjamin Moore…was…[also] charged with…official misconduct…and…tampering with evidence…
Annex 44
Posted in Diary, tagged Sunset on September 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Grace has finished fabricating the three beams which will form the framework of the western section of the bathhouse roof, but a combination of rainy weather, other necessary work, and lack of manpower (Chekhov was unavailable most of this week) kept us from getting them in place; it’s times like this I wish I had Wonder Woman’s strength and could simply lift them into place by myself. But once these are up and welded, the cee purlins are next and then the roof panels, so one section of the roof at least will be done by the time the real rainy season starts in October. And since we finally got the hot tub panel wired up this week, it won’t be that much longer before we can finally use the damned thing after preparing for it since May of last year!
Under the Table
Posted in Current Events, History, Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, censorship, Choke Point, Divided We Fall, ethics, fascism, internet, left-right myth, LGBT rights, Sold Out on September 16, 2021| 1 Comment »
Oh look, picket-fence queers from groups like GLAAD are beginning to notice that deliberately ignoring sex workers after they reached the Big Table (and in some cases, actually joining the crusade against us) wasn’t such a good idea. And I must add again: stop your fucking partisan bullshit. This wasn’t “Trump’s crusade” or “the GOP’s crusade”; Democrats were equal drivers at every step of the process under the usual banners (“The Children!!!” and “exploitation of women“), so you don’t get to smugly point your fingers at other people and pretend you had nothing to do with it. This was done by people you elected, in fascist collaboration with companies you support (and who pay for your multi-million dollar “Pride” parades). You stood by while other sexual minorities were persecuted, and you were fine with it because it wasn’t you. Well, now those pigeons are coming home to roost, just as sex workers told you they would. Just as you should’ve known they would, but were too wrapped up in partisan bullshit to notice. “Operation Choke Point“, the government’s program telling big businesses that it was not only OK but encouraged to discriminate against sexual minorities, was an Obama program, not a Trump one. And don’t try whitewashing your direct involvement in the anti-whore crusades, ’cause Maggie has the receipts. (See all those embedded links? There are plenty more like them.) So sit the fuck down unless you’re going to own it and help fix the mess you helped make.
In the News (#1171)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, Apple, Arizona, asset seizure, Backpage, California, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, fascism, I Spy, law, Panopticon, porn, rape, surveillance, Switzerland, Texas, To Molest and Rape on September 15, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Prosecutors are not allowed to just randomly tie defendants to heinous crimes they’re not on trial for…and yet here we are. – Elizabeth N. Brown
Rapist cop is still a rapist cop:
A Border Patrol [cop named Steven Holmes] who was released from jail after being charged in multiple [violent rapes]…two years ago is…now being held without bond in [Tucson]…He is being [protected] from other inmates due to his [being a cop]…Holmes was p[reviously…released [on bond]…with a GPS tracking device…[but a woman he has been fucking] for the past 3 months…[reported that] on Aug. 26, they were having sex [when]…”something changed” and…Holmes…[suddenly started strangling her until she] los[t]…consciousness…Holmes [then] continued [raping]…her after she had asked him to stop…She managed to leave and…called the [local] police…the[y now admit the]re may be more potential victims out there…
Cops will continue to do this until there are criminal penalties for it:
…the Oakland Privacy Advisory Commission has [sued]…the Oakland Police Department…[for] violat[ing] the city’s surveillance technology vetting ordinance, the city charter and multiple state laws…[by] retaining data for two years [when they’re allowed only 6 months, and by]…giving the FBI “unfettered access” to the license plate data…the police department [has] fail[ed] to audit the use of its surveillance technology…and [refused to] provid[e] information…requested under the state’s public records act…the police department has [also] used surveillance technology such as drones without a search warrant or prior approval…
Encryption won’t protect you if providers are willing to hand metadata to the cops:
ProtonMail is a well-known and well-regarded mail service…[which] was recently forced to cooperate with Swiss authorities in providing user data (date of account creation), which was subsequently handed over to American security authorities…That ProtonMail made its home in Switzerland has previously been a point of praise for the mail service. However…the country is by no means a bastion of digital privacy…due in no small part to new laws passed in response to the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris…
US “authorities” keep pretending “because sex” is an excuse for any tyranny:
[In] the federal trial of Backpage.com’s founders and former executives…prosecutor Reggie Jones misrepresented Backpage ads and the law, while harping on specific crimes of which the defendants aren’t even accused. Defense lawyers are already calling for a mistrial…the…motion [states]…”The opening…consisted of inflammatory, unproven, and unprovable assertions that fail in any event to address what the government must prove to convict any defendant”…
Apple has delayed plans to roll out its [new surveillance]…technology …citing [criticism] from customers and policy groups…The Electronic Frontier Foundation…amassed more than 25,000 signatures…[and] close to 100 policy and rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, also called on Apple to abandon plans to roll out the technology. In…[reply], Apple [bloviated about how allowing governments to spy on everyone is]…”critically important”…Apple’s so-called NeuralHash technology…could [easily] be abused by…governments…to implicate innocent victims or [enforce criminalization of thought]…researchers…were [even] able to…trick…the system into thinking two entirely different images were the same…
Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations:
Ameal Woods was driving near Houston in May 2019 when he was pulled over by a Harris County [cop using the common pretext that he was suppos]edly…driving too close to a semi-truck. The [cop used this an excuse to rob]…Woods’ and his wife’s life savings…$43,200 in cash…that Woods and Davis say they planned on using to…purchase a tractor-trailer for Woods’ trucking business…Now Woods and his wife, Jordan Davis, are the lead plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit…against Harris County…by the Institute for Justice…Harris County prosecutors have a pattern of seeking civil forfeitures based on boilerplate [fantasies] written by [cops] who were not…the[re]…at least 113 forfeiture petitions since 2016…used stock language and identical phrases…[which] led to errors…such as contradictory dates and incorrectly stating what property was s[tolen by the cops]…Harris County’s forfeiture practices fail to provide owners with prompt hearings to challenge property seizures, require owners to prove their own innocence, and create perverse profit incentives for law enforcement, all of which violates the Texas constitution…
Notice how often predatory cops’ victims are underage?
A Mohave County (Arizona) [cop] is facing a felony charge of s[tatutory rape]…after he was arrested on…Aug[ust 31]…when Kingman police…[discovered] Andrew Jacob Sundberg…[had intentionally gotten] a 15-year-old girl [drunk so as to seduce her]…
Diary #585
Posted in Diary, tagged animals, recipes, Sunset on September 14, 2021| 1 Comment »
It’s harvest time again, and that means processing fruit! The heat wave stunted our blackberries and plums, so I only got enough of the former for a few bowls of berries with cream, and enough of the latter to make a plum cobbler and two jars of jam. But the fruit we did get of both was wonderfully juicy and sweet. The apples, on the other hand, appear to have done quite well; last week Chekhov gathered a whole cart full of them, and after I culled out the bad ones I still had enough that, after coring, filled the three big bowls you see here plus one of my extra-large stock pots. After pulping it all fit into the three bowls, and I was able to press about 6 liters of juice from all that. So I’ve got a carboy fermenting into cider in the dark, cool, under-stair cupboard, and two mason jars of fresh juice in the fridge (well, one now, because the fresh stuff is so much better than store-bought apple juice it’s almost like a different thing). There are still plenty of apples on the trees, so I plan to keep gathering and pressing until there aren’t, and I hope to get at least two more carboys of cider plus enough to make four to six jars of apple butter; I hadn’t made it before last year, and it came out so well I kicked myself for only doing two jars. After pressing, we mix the resulting pomace into the feed for Shiloh and Jonathan, but as you can see, Cicero prefers his fresh (and seems quite happy with cores).
Always Alternatives
Posted in Current Events, Guest Columns, tagged censorship, Choke Point, internet, porn, sex work is work on September 13, 2021| 2 Comments »
Even though OnlyFans reversed its recent decision to banish sex workers, any company who turns on us so quickly can be counted on to do so again at the slightest provocation. I’ve never gone the porn route myself, so I know very little about the ecosystem; however, I recently saw a Twitter account called “Dream Girls Fan Club” post this on Twitter. I asked what name the creators would like me to credit and received no answer, but I’m not going to fail to share it because it seems to me they did a very thorough job, and if there’s anything here that can help sex workers to find a more stable work environment, I’d be remiss if I didn’t pass it on.
Links #584
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged Believe Them, Catholicism, Colorado, cops, genitalia, I can't breathe, lawheads, Missouri, politicians, Spain, Tennessee, Vermont, video on September 12, 2021| Leave a Comment »
You’re killing me. – Kyle Maurice Vinson
A few weeks ago Twitter reader Slow Barney called my attention to this video from a British impressionist who prank-called Tom Baker and got back as good as he gave! The links above it were provided by Dan Savage, Cop Crisis, Eric Sprankle, Radley Balko, Rick Horowitz, and Cop Crisis again, in that order.
- As one does.
- Birds of a feather…
- Headline of the week.
- What psychopathy looks like.
- Just another cop demonstrating exactly what he is.
- Sometimes, murder by asphyxiation is a bit too obvious to get away with.
From the Archives
- The rescue industry provides opportunities for the wealthy to play cowboy.
- Crypto-moralists always claim the lust to ban is about “health” or “safety”.
- The reek from the dying rescue industry is now wafting over from Europe.
- Will porn companies be next to face the music for exploiting sex workers?
- She’s on the wrong side of an imaginary line; we have to destroy her life!
- When hiding migration control behind “trafficking” is especially apparent.
- Canadians join Americans in filling kids’ heads with anti-sex propaganda.
- Is it just me, or does this sound like an attempt at reverse psychology?
- Fascists think nobody should have privacy, even in their own thoughts.
- Racist airline employee fantasizes an international criminal conspiracy.
- Vultures will continue to harass businesses until FOSTA is overturned.
- Swedish model regimes would’ve targeted the victim for surveillance.
- A good argument for refusing to roll over and let yourself be robbed.
- I think we have enough evidence to start calling this “McNeill’s Law”.
- Maltese prohibitionists are strikingly loony, even for prohibitionists.
- The 1st amendment isn’t subject to veto by slacktivist busybodies.
- Moral panics make it so easy for pathetic twits to feel important.
- Cops, goats, the Moon, time mismanagement, and much more.
- Cops, whales, words, waffles, Terrance Dicks, and much more.
- Facebook doesn’t try to stop cops from making fake accounts.
- You didn’t really think these would stay separate, did you?
- It’s good to see that the media is beginning to grasp this.
- Anything that helps demystify sex work is a good thing.
- Unsurprising for entities in the disinformation business.
- A typical and representative “law enforcement hero”.
- Florida “officials” must enjoy getting sued over this.
- Possibly the silliest “King of the Hill” claimant ever.
- Weird prohibitionist sex fantasies about bouncers.
- The 17th murder of a trans person in 2019.
- The last special edition Ladies of the Night.
- The FOSTA challenge is proceeding again.
- Your government calls this “correction”.
- Amber DiPietra on the DASANetwork.
- I only hope this turns out to be true.
- Crypto-moralism in the news again.
- Why is “attractive” in scare quotes?
- A trial run of my semi-retirement.
- My new books in my own store.
- My first batch of jam in years.
- Skirting around the cottages.
- Sex workers need your help.
- I guess it runs in the family.
- A week full of parties.
In the News (#1170)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, Arkansas, Australia, California, censorship, cops, disease, drugs, hysteria, If Men Were Angels, law, Nevada, New York, No Moss, Oklahoma, rape, rescue industry, Social Distancing, Something Done Right, Stalkers in Blue, To Molest and Rape, Twitter, yellow journalism, You Were Warned on September 11, 2021| Leave a Comment »
This is an inherently abusive power that [cops] should not have. – Wesley Hottot
“Youth pastors” are as bad as cops:
A woman is suing the Grace Baptist Church in Lansingburgh, [New York, because] its leadership ignored her daily sexual abuse as a [teen from 15-17] at the hands of a youth pastor – then claimed that she had “led him on”…Larry Hallock…sexually abused the victim “on a daily basis” between 2000 and 2002 in the church…Hallock’s wife sent the [victim] several letters acknowledging…the abuse…
This time Rolling Stone wasn’t alone in gulping down a load of codswallop:
KFOR, an Oklahoma news channel, reported last week that rural hospitals throughout the state were in danger of becoming overwhelmed by…overdoses of ivermectin, an anti-parasite drug promoted by [anti-]vaccine [cranks] as a possible treatment for COVID-19. The story went viral…under the headline: “Patients overdosing on ivermectin backing up rural Oklahoma hospitals”…[and] was quickly picked up by…Rolling Stone, Newsweek, and the New York Daily News…in fact, [there’s] little reason to believe a purported strain on Oklahoma hospitals is caused by ivermectin overdoses; one hospital served by the doctor quoted in the KFOR article released a statement saying it has not treated any ivermectin overdoses, nor has it been forced to turn away patients…but…at no point did [the interviewed doctor, Jason] McElyea actually come out and say that ivermectin overdoses were straining hospitals…It was the journalist, Katelyn Ogle, who added that framing…This means, of course, that if the national media outlets had called the doctor or the hospitals, they would have easily uncovered the error. Instead, they [careless]ly spread it…
Another cop demonstrating what he is:
A [typical and representative] Arkansas [cop] will spend ten years in prison for stalking a…woman for more than three years…In 2016, Skylar Galloway was working at a family-owned gas station…The owner’s brother was [typical and representative cop] Mark Holland…Galloway eventually moved and switched jobs. A month later, anonymous emails came [demanding] nude photos…[along with threats] like “If I have to come over there, I’ll take my own pics. I’m going to get what I want.” Another read, “You are going to scream and moan, but you probably won’t really like it.” She started filing police reports…but was turned away [because birds of a feather]…So she decided to…start…investigating…[and] after three years of digging. she realized it was Holland in December 2019. Within five days, he was arrested by his own department and charged with 20 felonies…
Once a government takes more power, it never really relinquishes it again:
[Using the excuse of] coronavirus…Australia’s federal and state governments imposed draconian restrictions on its citizens [that even the] Prime Minister…[admits are far] too heavy…Before 2020, the idea of Australia all but forbidding its citizens from leaving the country, a restriction associated with Communist regimes, was unthinkable. Today, it is…policy…Intrastate travel within Australia is also severely restricted…The state of Victoria announced a curfew and suspended its Parliament for key parts of the pandemic…In New South Wales…the…military [was deployed] to enforce lockdowns…anti-lockdown protests were banned, and when dissenters gathered anyway, hundreds were arrested and fined…Enduring rules of th[is] sort would certainly render a country a police state…with COVID-19 now thought to be endemic, rather than a temporary emergency the nation could avoid, how much time must pass before we must regard Australia as illiberal and unfree?…
A good argument for refusing to roll over and let yourself be robbed:
Stephen Lara [was pulled over in Nevada by a cop using the common pretext]…that he’d been…following a…truck too closely…the [pigs rooted through]…his…vehicle, [steal]ing nearly $87,000 in a zip-top bag from Lara’s trunk and [pretend]ing a drug-sniffing dog had detected something on the cash…Lara…was charged with no crime. But [cops]…call[ed] a [DEA spook] to [engineer] an “adoption,” [a scam] which allows [local cops to circumvent state laws curtailing such robbery by enlisting] federal authorities to [pretend that they were the ones who] seize[d] cash or property the[n give most of it back to the local pigs]…It was only after Lara got a lawyer, sued and talked with The Washington Post about his ordeal that the government said it would return his money [due to the bad publicity]…Justice Department [mouthpiece] Joshua Stueve [oinked that] the government “is reviewing existing policy on adoptive forfeitures”…
A federal lawsuit accusing Twitter of sex trafficking can move forward, says District Judge Joseph C. Spero, in a decision that could portend a dangerous expansion of how courts define “sex trafficking”…[under] FOSTA…The case…was brought by…Morality in Media, [the Kennedy-era pro-censorship group] that also opposes Netflix, Amazon, and Cosmopolitan magazine [and now wants to be called “The National Center on Sexual Exploitation”. MiM wants the court to rule]…that soliciting a sex video from someone under age 18 amounts to sex trafficking…[and that] unwittingly providing a platform for a third party to post or link to that video makes one part of a sex trafficking enterprise…the teens—who were 13 or 14 years old at the time—recorded themselves engaging in sexual activity and used Snapchat to share these videos with a third party [the]y believed to be a peer. The recipient turned out to be an adult, who allegedly blackmailed one of the teens…into providing additional sexual content…The perpetrator could have been held individually responsible, since blackmail and soliciting obscenity from minors are both crimes. Instead, [MiM] is going after a bigger, richer, and much more high-profile target…
Notice how often predatory cops’ victims are underage?
A Los Angeles Co[p]…has been arrested for…molesting a 16-year-old girl in Rancho Cucamonga. Antonio Heriberto Galindo…coached girls’ softball teams…[as a means of finding and grooming] victims…
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