To hear the cops tell it, they’re the “thin blue line” that stands between civilization and a species of chaos resembling Mad Max meets Lord of the Flies in the midst of an immense drunken free-for-all in Somalia. – “Bait and Switch”
Do you really want to live in a world where everyone must suffer the consequences of every mistake, act of desperation, bad decision, foolish choice and even false accusation forever, without any hope of escape no matter how blameless his life is after that? – “Permanent Record”
Fuck your patronizing picket-fence queer bullshit. Fuck your attempt to pretend that sex workers…are asking for “legalization and regulation” because women (though obviously not men) are too fucking weak and stupid to protect ourselves from “exploitation”. Fuck your trying to co-opt our movement, which was already going on for forty fucking years before you deigned to fucking notice it. Stonewall was the fucking Stonewall of sex workers, you asshole; the riot that started the avalanche that gave gay amateurs their rights was started by professionals. And I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to remain silent while sleazy douchebags like you call for my body and my choices to be “regulated” by the same kind of fucking pigs those rioters were fighting against, just so middle-class vanilla fucks like you don’t have to feel threatened by my unregulated sexuality. – “Now They Notice (#567)”
Lying to sociopaths who work to destroy people’s lives for violations of arbitrary laws made up by privileged douchebags completely disconnected from those whose lives they presume to micromanage is not a wrong; in fact, it is both a right and a sacred duty. – “What Is Truth?”
A Texas woman whose case received [attention from opportunists]…after her family alleged she was a victim of [“]sex trafficking[“] has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in a fatal robbery…Zephaniah “Zephi” Trevino…was charged in connection with the death of Carlos Arajeni-Arriaza Murillo…Trevino was among three people charged…Philip Aguilera Baldenegro and Jesse Martinez…were each charged with capital murder and aggravated robbery and are awaiting trial…Trevino’s attorney and family [claim she]…was [blameless because] Aguilera, her co-defendant, [was her pimp]…But Aguilera’s attorney, David Finn, says…it was Trevino who organized the robbery…
…several high-profile [police collaborators]…exploited a loophole in a commercial database called GEDmatch, allowing them to search the DNA of individuals who explicitly opted out of sharing their genetic information with police. The loophole…allows genealogists [collaborat]ing with police to manipulate search fields within a DNA comparison tool to trick the system into showing opted-out profiles…[this is only one] disturbing example of how genetic genealogists and their [cop cronies], in their zeal to [destroy strangers’ lives], skirt [paper-thin] privacy rules put in place by DNA database companies to [give] their customers [a false sense of security]. How common these practices are remains unknown, in part because police and prosecutors have fought to keep details of genetic investigations from being turned over to [legally-innocent people the prosecutors wish to lock in cages]. As commercial DNA databases grow…the genetic privacy of millions of Americans is in jeopardy…
[A Facebook] post claims that a friend’s husband brought his kids to Walmart and his daughter wandered to another aisle…and when he reached her, he saw a man in a trench coat picking up the young girl and leaving…Walmart employees tackled him and police were called…a group of men who have “come out here from Mexico to sex traffic kids in all of [Idaho]” and lists local places such as Pocatello, Rexburg, and Rigby. The post has been shared countless times on social media and many [gullible nitwit]s have contacted EastIdahoNews.com asking us to investigate. We found that no police departments in eastern Idaho have received any reports of kidnappings or sex trafficking in Walmart or any other stores…
“Mexicans in trench coats ‘sex trafficking’ children from Idaho Walmarts” is the most ridiculous non-Q “sex trafficking” tall tale we’ve heard in quite a while.
Four people are dead and six more are in the hospital after a [typical and representative cop] opened fire at a historic biker bar in Trabuco Canyon, [California]…deputies shot the [violently-deranged cop, yet somehow cops claim]…it is unclear how the [murdering cop] died…the [senseless attack] started [when the cop attacked] his wife…[then decided to start shooting at random until] at least nine people were shot…
Virginia [politicians demanded adult sites spy on their users, but]…the majority of these websites are [simply ignoring the stupid]…law…[and] an increasing number of Virginians are using [VPNs to] easily g[ain] access to these websites…[the stupid law] also [encourages profiteers] to sue pornographic websites [which ignore it]…some…websites — most notably Pornhub — have opted to block…access…[to] their platforms [from non-VPN using] Virginia [users in order to] prote[ct themselves from predatory lawsuits enabled by] the new law, [but] residents can still easily access adult content through a plethora of…lesser-known websites…only one website, xHamster, is [spy]ing [on users as demanded]…by [censorious politicians]. Ten websites…block…[access as Pornhub does], and 54 remain entirely unrestricted…because their companies are not based in the United States, which makes [them less vulnerable to publicity-seeking US politicians and ambulance-chasing US lawyers]…
…a secret weapon criminals are selling access to online…appears to tap into an especially powerful set of data: the target’s credit header. This is personal information that the credit bureaus Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion have on most adults in America via their credit cards. Through a complex web of agreements and purchases, that data trickles down from the credit bureaus to other companies who offer it to debt collectors, insurance companies, and [cop shops]…criminals [who don’t belong to state-sponsored gangs] have managed to tap into that data supply chain, in some cases by stealing…identities [of members of state-sponsored criminal gangs], and are selling unfettered access to their criminal cohorts online…communities where this tool is advertised include chat rooms focused on swatting…SIM swapping, in which hackers take over a victim’s phone number to then receive login codes and break into their online accounts; and physical violence, where criminals [not sponsored by the State] hire one another to rob, shoot, or assault their enemies and vandalize the target’s home [without state permission]. Overall, the tool offers exceptional power and requires little to no technical sophistication to obtain a victim’s sensitive data…even for people who have otherwise been careful with distributing their personal information, and who have taken steps to have their details scrubbed from other data brokers…
Marion County Record co-owner Joan Meyer leaned into her walker and stood up to at least six [pigs rooting]…her living room during a bizarre series of [il]legal…raids of her residence, the newspaper’s office and a city council member’s home. Meyer, 98, died of cardiac arrest the day after [cops invaded and robbed]…her house despite her protests…the [rooting herd] included Marion Police Chief Gideon Cody [who had been hired despite resigning in disgrace from his previous job due to incompetence and shitty behavior]…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
So far, this year has been the best one for fruit since I bought Sunset. I have never seen so many plums; we have a big bowl of them in the kitchen. I’ve made jam and cobbler and Chinese plum sauce, and I’m putting the ones too bruised for human consumption into Cicero’s dinner. And that’s only the plum trees on the west side of the house; the one in the north paddock is dropping them there for the animals to eat as well. Then there are the blackberries, which are nearly always abundant, and though the apples aren’t yet ripe I can see there are plenty of them. If I had to guess why we’ve had such a good season, I’d have to say it’s probably a combination of the weather (which was both seasonally and regionally appropriate this year) and the fact that one of our neighbors started keeping bees, so we probably had better pollination than usual. If that’s the case, this may betoken more good years to come. And if that’s the case, I should probably think of more ways to make use of all this fruit!
To refer to decent, respectful treatment as a “privilege” is to imply that nobody actually deserves it, when in reality everybody does.
– “The Privilege Paradigm”
So you guys made a guy pee himself? – laughing sow
Yeah. – smiling pig
Choosing an anti-war song for last week’s links column reminded me of this, probably the most powerful anti-war song I’ve ever heard; I cannot ever listen to it without being reduced to tears by the end. The links above the video were provided by Angela Keaton; Popehat; Franklin Harris and Brooke Magnanti; Popehat again; and Christian Britschgi, in that order.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
St. James Infirmary…[i]s shutting down….[after] years…[of] mismanagement…Money was squandered, benefits went unpaid, and at one point the health clinic’s license allegedly lapsed, leaving medical providers in limbo…in the middle of the pandemic, staff on the ground saw problems spiral out of control. Directors of the site quit or were pushed out…Shifts went severely understaffed…Brianna Singleton, a former nurse practitioner with St. James, [sai]d…the decision to take on housing programs dealt the organization a fatal blow. “We were out of our depth…It felt like a magician pulling red flags out of their hat — they just kept coming”…
Between 2012 and 2016, the [East Baton Rouge Parish Prison] had a death rate more than twice the national average…Since 2012, there have been 59 fatalities in custody. Jail staff have long…neglect[ed sick prisoners, leading to]…deadly lapses in medical treatment, and in 2016, the brutal treatment of people arrested and jailed for protesting the Baton Rouge police [murder] of Alton Sterling sparked a movement for jail reform. The man who has overseen the jail for 15-plus years…Sheriff Sid Gautreaux, has often blamed the deaths on the building…[because he wants] a new, even larger facility, but voters have shot down requests for funding to build a new one. The sheriff, [like most of his diseased ilk]…has…profit[ed from] his office, raking in significant campaign contributions from contractors during elections where he has…lacked a significant challenger. This includes thousands of dollars in donations from a law firm that has represented Gautreaux and his co-defendants against plaintiffs whose loved ones have died in his jail…
The OnlyFans model using her nude photos to raise money for Maui wildfire relief efforts can no longer crowdfund on GoFundMe…because the platform shut down her efforts. Mariah Casillas, who goes by Lavagrll on social media, was sending nudes to folks who donated $10 to victims of the deadly Maui wildfires…The model raised over $7,400 in just a few days, but…GoFundMe [clutched its pearls, clucked about]…”prohibited conduct”…[and] refunded [all the money so the would-be donors got] her nudes for free [which I’m sure made the bluenoses at GoFundMe feel better]. She’s now taking her nude fundraiser over to OnlyFans…
[Louisiana politician] Liz Murrill…mixed two classic Republican strawmen — the drug war and abortion — into a single, unexpected and wholly unsubstantiated talking point: Nefarious drug pushers are lacing online abortion pills with fentanyl…In a…[radio interview] Murrill…[started by bloviating standard prohibitionist talking points, including the bogus] claim that cannabis is a gateway drug, [then declared that] the smell of marijuana is ruining American communities…“everywhere we go, we see these communities that are just being destroyed by the smell and…people are sleeping on the streets. One thing leads to the other”…she [then]…claimed cannabis legalization has somehow been a boon for illegal fentanyl sales…and…then…pivoted to…abortion pills…Of course, there is no evidence that abortion pills are being mixed with fentanyl and they remain perfectly safe — and legal in most states…Ironically, Republicans have created a de facto gray market for abortion pills…if Murrill’s random musings about fentanyl and abortion pills were true, it would mean th[ey]…are responsible…since they made the pills illegal in the first place…
TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance has spent years negotiating a national security agreement with the Biden Administration that would avoid a ban on the short video app in the United States…that agreement…would give [the US] government…the authority to: examine TikTok’s U.S. facilities, records, equipment and servers with minimal or no notice; block changes to the app’s U.S. terms of service, moderation policies and privacy policy; veto the hiring of any executive involved in leading TikTok’s U.S. Data Security org; order TikTok and ByteDance to pay for and subject themselves to various audits, assessments and other reports on the security of TikTok’s U.S. functions; and, in some circumstances, require ByteDance to temporarily stop TikTok from functioning in the United States. The draft agreement would make TikTok’s U.S. operations subject to extensive supervision by an array of independent investigative bodies…and…force TikTok U.S. to exclude ByteDance leaders from certain security-related decision making, and instead rely on an executive security committee that would operate in secrecy from ByteDance…
…federal Judge Diane Humetewa…shot down a defense suggestion that the prosecution not use the terms “sex trafficking” and “child sex trafficking” during the Aug. 29 trial of award-winning journalist Michael Lacey and four others, calling the position a “non-starter”. Humetewa also overruled a defense objection to her proposed jury instruction on the First Amendment, despite the defense’s claim that the instruction’s wording does not comport with precedents set by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Most of the two-hour hearing dealt with establishing a jury pool of 110 persons, out of which 16 will be plucked to serve as 12 jurors and four alternates. Humetewa said she added questions to the jury questionnaire aimed at finding out if potential jurors knew of the recent, tragic death of veteran newspaperman Jim Larkin and if it would affect their ability to be impartial…
The junior Marine charged with sexually assaulting a [14-year-old girl]…met [her] on a dating app where she told him she was 22…Pfc. Avery Rosario…is currently…charged with…sexual assault of a child over age 12…Rosario’s defense team argued that the Marine and two friends who witnessed his interactions with the girl all believed she was 22…[her] Tinder profile…said she was 21…In screenshots of direct message exchanges on Tinder and Instagram shown in court…she told him she was actually 22…The girl’s aunt posted a series of videos on TikTok saying the girl had been the victim of sex trafficking and was sold to the Marine [presumably by “traffickers”] for sex…But [after] she [was] seen in the hallway of the barracks…She made several contradicting statements to investigators…first giving them a false birthday. She later told them she’d lied to the Marine about her age…she [later claimed she] had been sex trafficked and had come to the base to be rescued…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
Jae has been working on other aspects of the decor for the past few months, and I was beginning to wonder if she’d ever get around to doing the cupboard doors. Then finally this week she got the last odds and ends finished, so finally the bathroom is done! As I mentioned before, we’ve been taking showers there since the beginning of spring, and as you can see the sink and toilet are being used as well. But until this week, she hadn’t yet painted the cupboard doors or added the knobs, so I didn’t really want to take a picture until those steps were done. But now they are, so voilà! It shouldn’t be a lot longer before we’re down to the last minor touches, and the project will at long last be done.
Anywhere there are humans there will be sex work, and it only becomes a “problem” when officials define it as such. – “Making It Up As They Go”
For the past century or so the development of individual rights has been impeded by the cancer known as Progressivism, the belief that “experts” have more right to determine what is “good” for any individual than that individual has to determine that for himself, and that said “experts” have the right to dispatch armed thugs to use violence to punish those who dare to violate the arbitrary pronouncements of those experts, in order to terrorize the greater population into meek obedience. – “What Were You All Waiting For?“
“Safe harbor” laws are nothing but Potemkin villages, empty legal husks designed to please the ignorant while actually sparing nobody from the injustice system. – “In the News (#666)”
The inability of naive people to understand the power of legal precedent is one of the greatest forces for evil in the world. – “Like Houses”
Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin[‘s]…long, strange trip from student antiwar activists to props in the government’s manufactured “sex trafficking” hysteria. – “Dangerous Speech”
Most humans are born with the inclination toward mindless submission to authority; they not only let it rule them and ruin their lives, but also foist that violent authority upon the virtuous others who are not inclined to that sin, ruining their lives as well. – “The Science of Sin”
…a [typical and representative] Savanna [Oklahoma cop named]…Jeffery Scott Smith Jr…[us]ed a traffic stop [as a pretext]…to [violently rape a passenger in the car]…and…deactivat[ed] his…body…camera and…dashboard camera…with the intent to [get away with violent aggravated rape]…
[Without presenting any evidence,] Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen…accused [Planned Parenthood]…of falsifying records…about sexual assault against minors and statutory rape, suggesting th[is]… “could be happening with human trafficking victims.” The…comments in a July 31 radio interview echo a decade-old…[evangelical trope from the popular “sex trafficking” mythology claim]ing that the national Planned Parenthood organization abets human trafficking…
Florida’s…”Don’t Say Gay” law…was expanded on 31 March, to prohibit instruction on gender and sexuality up until the eighth grade, and on reproductive health until the 12th grade. The legislation also…[censors] material that [politicians or bureaucrats choose to arbitrarily label] “pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct”…[in order to protect teachers from persecution by the State,] the Hillsborough County schools district announced it will now only teach excerpts from some of Shakespeare’s most-famous works…On 3 August…Florida’s Department of Education…ruled that AP psychology classes were a violation of the law due to LGBTQ+ content…
A deputy’s first-person perspective during a [panic attack] was captured on his body camera, along with a[dministration of a placebo]…by a fellow deputy that [helped him calm down despite having no actual medical effect]…Nick Huzior, who is now [enjoying a vacation at taxpayer expense, claimed]…he felt extremely lightheaded, shaky and [numb, none of which are symptoms of]…fentanyl…Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly [used the panic attack as an excuse to claim a cop panicking like a little girl over wholly imaginary terrors is somehow heroic]…
Texas law will now require all drivers of Transportation Network Companies…to receive [even more of the same absurd and overbroad “signs of human trafficking“ indoctrination they’ve been forced to endure for almost a decade now]…The bill comes after [rescue industry corporations recognized they are losing an]…easy…[way to milk] their victims [for donations]…and [enlisted politicians in fear of losing a powerful excuse for police-statery]…
I know that’s a huge edit, but there really is nothing new to see in this asinine regurgitation of tired old tropes, including “King of the Hill“.
…Florida prison officials and medical staff allowed an incarcerated man’s prostate cancer to spread untreated until he was left paralyzed, terminally ill, and afflicted with infected bed sores that rotted to the bone. When he wrote desperate pleas for help, one official concluded, “This is not an emergency.” In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last year…Elmer Williams [explain]s that [screws] and nursing staff denied and delayed medical treatment for months after he filed a grievance against them. The…delays were not just bureaucratic incompetence but retaliation…medical records…reveal [that] staff were aware of his extremely high indicators for prostate cancer, aware of a long-overdue “urgent” referral to a urologist, and aware of his rapidly deteriorating condition…
Federal judges hammered fresh nails into the coffin of the Biden censorship regime…[in] the Justice Department’s appeal of a July 4 decision in Missouri v. Biden…[where] Federal Judge Terry Doughty…delivered 155 pages of damning details of federal browbeating, jawboning and coercion of social-media companies…The Biden administration…then sought to redefine all its closed-door shenanigans as public service…[claiming that] since federal SWAT teams did not assail the headquarters of social-media firms, the feds are blameless…[and pretending] it’s irrelevant that…Biden publicly accused social-media companies of murder for not censoring far more material and that Biden appointees publicly threatened to destroy the companies via legislation or prosecution…
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
I’m not sure what inspired it, but two of my most generous readers sent me gifts last week! Robin Aguilar, who has read my work nearly since the beginning, sent me an electric edger (Grace wants one because they’re lighter than the gasoline-powered models) and a copy of Carl Sandburg’s Rootabaga Stories, a collection of delightfully-weird stories featuring creampuff villages, corn fairies, and moon toboggans that I loved as a child. And another reader who prefers to remain anonymous sent me The Flintstones and a new collection of remastered Looney Tunes, the first Warner Brothers has released in years (the fact that it’s labeled “Volume I” provides cause for hope). I’m especially looking forward to viewing The Flintstones because although the series was intended for family viewing, I haven’t seen it since I was a teenager and I’m sure that, like many other series I’ve rewatched in the past decade, I’ll see things in it I missed before because my brain was much too fast and much too noisy to take it all in. Anyhow, thank y’all both so much!
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To hear the cops tell it, they’re the “thin blue line” that stands between civilization and a species of chaos resembling Mad Max meets Lord of the Flies in the midst of an immense drunken free-for-all in Somalia. – “Bait and Switch”
