Most of y’all probably now by now about Bluesky, Jack Dorsey’s still-fairly-new Twitter clone, which is supposed to have been designed to make it more difficult for one delusional billionaire to buy up and intentionally wreck. I’ve been there for a few months now, and I like it; the flavor is similar to that of Twitter when I first joined twelve years ago. In fact, the only reason I’m still on Twitter is that Bluesky simply isn’t big enough yet to provide all the content I need to keep this blog going. That’s partly by design; Bluesky management apparently felt that it needed to grow slowly until all the bugs are ironed out. The chief way they limited growth is by requiring new users to be invited by existing users; each user receives new invite codes at irregular intervals and can share those with others. At first, I offered mine to people I follow on Twitter, but it seems now that most of the ones who want to be there already are, so my codes started to pile up; once I had five to share I decided to write this essay offering them to readers. But the very next day after I wrote the above, Bluesky announced invite codes are no longer necessary, and anyone can join. So once again, I was fashionably late to the party, but at least this time I already have my seat before the crowd surges in.
Archive for February, 2024
Nothing But Blue Skies
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged blogging, Bluesky, internet, Twitter on February 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Lady Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, tagged blogging, consensual crime, cops, dating, dehumanization, hysteria, Madonna/whore, Out of Their Tree, pragmatism, streetwalkers, surveillance on February 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »
What I see is that you don’t have a problem with my profession, as long as it’s practiced by other, lesser women you can pay; you’re just upset because a woman you clearly still have proprietary feelings about might want to make a career of fucking other men beside you. – “Not Your Place”
If their victims were anyone other than sex workers and clients, these Stasi wannabes could be arrested and charged under stalking laws.
– “Out of Their Tree”
Reality is reality, and it doesn’t change just because one person…is unhappy with the results. – “Beyond the Pale”
Immature men who want to be “heroes” without putting in the work and brainpower necessary to become, say, defense lawyers or medical researchers, instead console their pathetic fee-fees by becoming cops or by calling the cops on women who dare to try to make a living outside of kitchens, sweatshops, elementary schools or secretarial pools. – “Wannabe Heroes“
In the News (#1411)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Alabama, Blunt Instrument, censorship, Colombia, consensual crime, cops, Creepy Coppers, Don't Call It Trafficking, end demand, Eternal Vigilance, fascism, Indiana, internet, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, politicians, porn, prisons, racism, scams, Signs, slavery, Swedish model, The Course of a Disease, The Last Shall Be First, The Puritan Recrudescence, transgender, Utah, Venezuela on February 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Cops face little recourse, even when…cases…were based on little more than writing some sort of Asian sex-slave fanfic. – Elizabeth N. Brown
The Course of a Disease (#909)
[Massachusetts politicians, one of them ironically from] Salem, are p[ushing]…a bill t[o infantilize sex workers and attempt to starve them into submission by persecuting clients]…The bill was created with support from…a Boston-based [prohibitionist] organization that [exploits marginalized]…sex [workers. Meanwhile, a crony of those same politicians]…has…filed a bill…that would require…hotel workers in the state [to be indoctrinated in the asinine “]signs of sex trafficking[” which encourage businesses to harass unescorted women and engage in racial profiling]…
Everyone harmed by these evil “stings” and raids needs to keep suing the agencies which conduct them:
A Utah man is suing after being [falsely] implicated in a[n imaginary] human trafficking ring for driving his wife to and from her job at Asian massage businesses…Police raided the places in early 2021 and arrested Joseph Ferreri, his wife Juying Wang, and several other women associated with the businesses where Wang worked. A police document justifying Ferreri’s arrest relies heavily on generalizations about Asian massage businesses and race-based stereotypes. It’s also peppered with misrepresentations—like describing Wang as a “girl” even though she’s in her 50s and two years older than Ferreri…[cop] Shawn Lott…”embellished, omitted, and made up facts to paint Joe Ferreri as an international sex trafficker…the sole basis for targeting Joe was the race/ethnicity of his wife and her occupation”…all charges…were eventually dropped. But by then…his name and picture were published in news outlets that described him as part of a human trafficking ring. He and his wife were temporarily barred from seeing each other. He lost his job, and with it any chance of a pension he was more than halfway to qualifying for. The only work Ferreri could find following the arrest was a temp gig in a coal mine…
Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1097)
It’s never called “trafficking” when the government and crony corporations do it:
…Intricate, invisible webs…link some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide…If they refuse to work, some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to solitary confinement. They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job. The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products…from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice. They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. And some goods are exported, including to countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced or prison labor. Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating their own policies against the use of such labor. But it’s…enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, [which states that] slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime. That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year…
Randy Hames, owner of…an…[Alabama] RV Park…was arrested in 2018…[and] charged with…human trafficking, soliciting prostitution, and attempted sexual extortion…Hames had been [previously] arrested twice on similar charges…after at least 10 female tenants reported Hames making unwanted advances in exchange for lowered rent…A federal trial [is now underway as] prosecutors…allege…Hames violated the Fair Housing Act by creating a hostile home environment for his tenants…he…also…evicted a few…after they refused his advances…
The Last Shall Be First (#1403)
It’s never really about “protecting children”:
Several [politicians] from Michigan and Ohio were recorded in an online forum planning to try to ban trans health care for everyone, regardless of age…“In terms of endgame, why are we allowing these practices for anyone?” said [Michigan politician Josh] Schriver…“I think…we have to take sometimes small bites,” said [Ohio politician Gary] Click, who then lauded restrictions [recently] placed on…adult clinics by Ohio’s [governor]…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1408)
This tells you everything you need to know about politicians’ motivations:
Rather than defend a clearly unconstitutional measure passed to “protect” kids from social media, the government of Utah [claims it] intends to repeal the law…[which] kicked off a [“monkey see, monkey do” parade] of similar measures…Now that it faces a pair of challenges in federal court, the state has a new stance: “Psych! We didn’t actually mean it!”…“They know it’s unconstitutional. They know it’s pure grandstanding and culture warrioring,” writes Techdirt editor Mike Masnick. “And they don’t want to face the music for abusing the rights of the citizens who elected them to support the Constitution, not undermine it”…
One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:
[NYPD cop] Angad Beharry…[has been] arrested…[for paying a Venezuelan woman living in Indiana] to take sexually explicit photographs and videos of [her nine-year-old girl], and to transmit them over the Internet to [him]…Beharry…possessed [numerous other] sexually explicit video[s] and images of…prepubescent minors…[he was caught because he also paid a woman in] Colombia…[to take similar pictures of her] one-year-old [daughter, and when she was caught she snitched on him to the cops]…and…also [snitched on her “]friend[” from] Venezuela…
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!
Diary #710
Posted in Diary, tagged carnival, psychology, Sunset on February 6, 2024| Leave a Comment »
You’d think after doing this blog for more than 13 years that I would remember to take pictures of noteworthy things for my diary columns, but noooope. It’s not that I’m getting forgetful in my old age; I’ve always been bad about taking pictures. Well, not bad exactly; it’s just that when I’m doing stuff I generally think about what I’m doing rather than about documenting what I’m doing. So even though I made gumbo and potato salad and king cake on Friday (because I need to do it at least once in a carnival season), nary a photo did I take. The cake was gone by Sunday night, and while there’s still leftover gumbo (because my sister’s recipe makes a big pot), cold leftover gumbo in a covered bowl in the fridge does not make a very good picture. Nor does leftover potato salad, king cake crumbs, or an empty pot. And it would just be silly to put a picture of something completely unrelated here. So I’m going to re-use this picture of the last of the gumbo I made two years ago at this time, when I also forgot to take pictures until it was basically too late. Well, at least I’m consistent.
O.B.I.T.
Posted in Fiction, History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged ethics, imaginative fiction, nostalgia, Panopticon, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, Reviews, surveillance, Welcome to the Future on February 5, 2024| 1 Comment »
People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from O.B.I.T.
– Byron Lomax (Jeff Corey)
Generally speaking, The Outer Limits was not as devoted to social commentary as its contemporary The Twilight Zone. This is not a knock; the flavor of the featured tales reminds me very much of Silver Age sci-fi comics like Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures, more thrilling than cerebral, and though the technobabble nearly always has holes one could pilot a flying saucer through, the same could be said of The Twilight Zone. The episodes were for the most part skillfully directed and shot in an elegant film noir-inspired style, enhanced with superbly creepy music and performed by some of the top small-screen talent of the day such as Martin Landau, Robert Culp, David McCallum, Sally Kellerman, Vera Miles, Robert Duvall, William Shatner and many others. But while the stories rarely fail to entertain (though modern viewers used to CGI may find the clever-but-cheap special effects wanting), they’re generally short monster movies or unchallenging morality plays rather than incisive examinations of the issues of their day. Of course, there are exceptions, and one of them is O.B.I.T., one of those rare teleplays which are more relevant today than when they were filmed.
The Outer Band Individuated Teletracer (O.B.I.T.) is a top-secret surveillance device which is able to tune in on any individual’s unique biometric signature in order to spy on that person regardless of walls or distance. It is used to monitor the staff at a vital Defense research installation, and when one of its operators is brutally murdered the U.S. Senate subcommittee which oversees the facility sends one of its members to investigate. What he discovers is a base plagued by tension, discord, and serious mental health issues, all driven by the administration’s incessant prying into every private life; though the existence of the machine is a closely-guarded secret, it is obvious – and terrifying – to all that the government clearly has some means of surveillance unimpeded by locks or whispers. Of course, this being The Outer Limits, the machines (which the investigation soon reveals are both numerous and not solely restricted to US government usage) are an alien device surreptitiously introduced into human society as a tool of conquest. In the climactic scene, when the disguised alien is revealed, this is what he has to say:
The machines are everywhere! Oh you’ll find them all, you’re a zealous people. And you’ll make a great show of smashing a few of them. But for every one you destroy, hundreds of others will be built. And they will demoralize you, break your spirits, create such rifts and tensions in your society that no one will be able to repair them! Oh, you’re a savage, despairing planet, and when we come here to live, you friendless, demoralized flotsam will fall without even a single shot being fired. Senator, enjoy the few years left you. There is no answer. You’re all of the same dark persuasion! You demand – insist – on knowing every private thought and hunger of everyone: Your families, your neighbors, everyone — but yourselves.
When O.B.I.T. was first broadcast in November 1963, the security state was a mere toddler; its tools were largely limited to hidden cameras and microphones, and eminently-corruptible human snitches and busybodies. I hardly need to point out that this is no longer the case; using biometrics to identify individuals is no longer science fiction, and the number of means the government and large corporations have to track, trace, watch, eavesdrop on, and judge every last one of us would’ve been unbelievable to a TV audience of the Kennedy era. Millions of people in the developed world, acting individually or collectively, feel completely justified in digging into the affairs of those who have different beliefs from them, in hope of discovering some transgression or mistake that can be used to destroy the victim’s life with the help of faceless, merciless corporations and institutions. The irreparable rifts and tensions which are the inevitable product of a panopticon are already here, and growing more dangerously-intrusive all the time. And we didn’t even need malevolent aliens to do it to us.
Links #709
Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged adolescence, artificial stupidity, California, Connecticut, cops, Florida, Georgia, I’m Sure You Feel Safer Now, illegal aliens, Massachusetts, nanny state, Rhode Island, surveillance, Things We Choose To Do Together, video, Washington (state) on February 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Contrary to popular belief, [civil rights] also protect undocumented immigrants. – Phillip Arroyo
There’s only one real choice to mark the passing of Shangri-Las lead singer Mary Weiss, so here it is in the form of a rather silly TV performance from 1964. The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel; Phoenix Calida; David Ley; Jesse Walker and Mike Siegel again; IncarcerNation; Nun Ya; and Walter Olson, in that order.
- Prohibition in action.
- This cannot be reformed.
- I’m sure you feel safer now.
- R.I.P. Mary Weiss and Carl Weathers.
- Armed robbery would be far more typical.
- {Insert Ben Franklin quote about safety and liberty}
- Goverment is just a word for the things we choose to do together.
From the Archives
- Better cops escape consequences than this ugly trope be reinforced again.
- This piece is so restrained it doesn’t even use the term “super gonorrhea”.
- Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do.
- This histrionic has-been has made a rotting moral panic her whole career.
- Laws enabling nuisance lawsuits will multiply until ruled unconstitutional.
- The way local media parrots clearly-foolish copaganda is utterly pathetic.
- I wonder how many more fakeumentaries we’ll see before the implosion?
- Woman paid to cause non-consensual harm thinks sex work is shameful.
- A man has been convicted of “crimes” against people who do not exist.
- Trans people have become another canary in the civil rights coal mine.
- “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time“.
- The Dutch scheme to Disnify De Wallen is no longer merely a scheme.
- Oh noes, they contaminated public places with their eeeevul sex rays!
- This’d be a real improvement if the release conditions were objective.
- Dr. David Ley schools his fellow therapists on the reality of sex work.
- Another cop scam to shore up the dying “sex trafficking” mythology.
- Just as we said would happen before this terrible law was imposed.
- Virginia screws sexually assault women like this on a regular basis.
- Give aggressive thugs power over teen girls; what could go wrong?
- Even I’m impressed with the speed this is happening in New York.
- Pathetic public promotions of misogynistic masturbatory material.
- CGI women are replacing “sex robots” in prohibitionist fantasies.
- Take a guess why this woman hates sex workers. Go on, guess.
- We haven’t seen a case of white van hysteria in almost a year.
- Cops, satire, Cloris Leachman, Cicely Tyson, and much more.
- Judge denies prosecutors’ wish to keep nonconsensual porn.
- Retrospectives of my blogging from January 2012 and 2013.
- Notice how often predatory cops’ victims are underage?
- Cops, Gina Lollobrigida, David Crosby, and much more.
- One of the greatest legal abominations ever conceived.
- Another obituary of Margo St. James from 48 Hills.
- Are most cops even capable of telling the truth?
- Cops, headlines, Don Wilson, and much more.
- There is nothing as contagious as a bad idea.
- The US has regularly done this for decades.
- Until SCOTUS acts, this will only get worse.
- Caring for our elderly cat in her last days.
- There is nothing contradictory about this.
- Part 2 of my six-part review of Blake’s 7.
- It looks like Florida is aping Texas again.
- This is why we can’t have nice things.
- My two previous columns for Imbolc.
- The arrival of our standby generator.
- The second leaf of my atrium roof.
- Job opportunities with Prostasia.
- Beginning the annex decor.
- Rapist cops of the week.
- The right kind of snow.
- The Omega Factor.
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!
In the News (#1410)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, censorship, Connecticut, cops, Creepy Coppers, Georgia, internet, law, New York, Ohio, politicians, propaganda, scams, Shame Shame, surveillance, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Face of Trafficking, The Last Shall Be First, The Puritan Recrudescence, transgender, Utah, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals on February 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Being calm and reasonable doesn’t get headlines. – Mike Masnick
Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths:
A [Utah politician] is facing a felony charge of human trafficking…[due to] disturbing mistreatment of one of his [ranch] workers, a Mexican national. Dusty “Hootie” Roche…treated A.S. abusively, housed him in a dirty, dilapidated…trailer without running water and didn’t provide him with timely deliveries of food…Prosecutors also describe the Roche Ranches operators as dismissive of A.S.’s complaints after he was bucked from a horse and stepped on several times while working, suffering a fractured orbital socket…The trailer…sat on a remote part of the ranch and had “rat excrement on the floors,” a bathtub containing “animal parts and animal excrement,” a leaking roof and no working refrigerator or water system…A.S…was not paid regularly and…was treated poorly once he reported the issue to the staffing agency he had obtained his job through…he lived in “constant fear” after he was hit, kicked, yelled at and called names…
The Last Shall Be First (#1349)
This will keep happening, because too many people want it to keep happening:
The father of a junior varsity girl’s basketball player confronted the principals of both his daughter’s school and the opposing school…demanding one of the girls not be allowed to play because he [imagin]ed she was transgender…Both principals assured the parent…that the girl, like her teammates, had uploaded the required birth certificate documenting her age and gender and that “every player on both teams was 100% eligible to be on the court”…The angry parent wasn’t satisfied…he [demanded his fantasies be given veto power over reality, saying]…“I wasn’t born yesterday, I know that’s a boy and you better be able to prove yourself because I am going to the top.” He became belligerent enough that they asked him to leave the building…[and he will] not [be] allow[ed]…to return to any other games…
They only start with relatively minor offenses:
Columbus [cop] Adam Nguyen [was rewarded with a paid vacation]…for…taking upskirt video of a young woman at an anime convention near Chicago last year…[he] was sentenced to two years of probation, ordered to complete 100 hours of community service…pay more than $870 in court costs and fees…[and] undergo evaluation and treatment for…sex…offen[ders]…
The Last Shall Be First (#1401)
Texas seems completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians:
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [has demanded] medical records of Texas youth who have received gender-affirming care from a Georgia telehealth clinic, marking at least the second time he’s sought such records from providers in another state…QueerMed said it stopped servicing youth in Texas after the state banned transition-related care last year…[but the demand want]ed information about patients dating back to Jan. 1, 2022…and…nearly mirrors one…sent to Seattle Children’s Hospital…in response to [which]…Seattle Children’s [has] sued…Karen Loewy, a lawyer with Lambda Legal representing organizations…trying to block [Texas’ anti-trans law]…said there is “zero authorization” in the law for Paxton’s [demand]s to clinics outside of Texas…Loewy said that “a handful” of other organizations have received [similar demands]…from Paxton…A QueerMed official could not immediately comment on how the clinic will respond…
Cop deals with disagreement in typical cop fashion, and the press is shocked:
Police have arrested a [screw] in Connecti[cut for]…fatal[ly] shooting…a [stranger] in what is believed to be a road rage incident…William Lucky, Jr…murder[ed]…Scott Kracke…[after Lucky] cut [Kracke] off and Kracke [responded by] pass[ing Lucky] and brak[ing] suddenly. The[y both] got out of their vehicles after stopping at the side of the road…then [Lucky] shot Kracke…several [times before fleeing]…in his car…A short time later, Lucky…turn[ed] himself in [at the instigation of his child’s mother]…
In which natural stupidity masquerades as artificial stupidity:
The estate of…George Carlin sued the makers of a podcast…[who] claimed to use [a computer program] to impersonate Carlin for a comedy s[how]…Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen, hosts of the podcast Dudesy…infringed on the estate’s copyrights…for “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead,” which [has apparently been made “private”] on the podcast’s YouTube channel…The lawsuit calls for a judge to prevent Dudesy…from using Carlin’s copyrighted works in the future and to require the podcast to destroy the episode…Danielle Del, a spokeswoman for Sasso, [admitted that] Dudesy is not actually a…[computer, but rather] “a fictional podcast character created by…Will Sasso and Chad Kultgen…the…video…was completely written by Chad Kultgen”…
The Puritan Recrudescence (#1408)
NYC Mayor Eric Adams is facing a pretty big list of crises, some of his own making…But…[he’s] zeroed in on…the real problem in New York City…the evidence free declaration that social media is “toxic”…This is ridiculous on multiple levels. First off, last year we had a big post detailing why any comparison between social media and “toxins” like lead paint or tobacco is inherently stupid. Those are things that are known to cause real harm. With social media, that’s just not true…the actual science simply does not support the claim that social media is inherently harmful to kids…recent research suggests that the real cause of the teen mental health crisis is the lack of spaces for teens to be teens without parents hovering over them…
Other cities are attempting to bleed social media companies using this asinine propaganda; I won’t be surprised if New York soon attempts to cash in as well.
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!
Imbolc 2024
Posted in Holidays, tagged holidays, paganism on February 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
May the reawakening of the world bring with it the reawakening of good things you thought gone forever. Blessed Be!
The Horror of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, blogging, dating, ethics, Never Call the Cops, politicians, racism, streetwalkers on February 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »
There is no moral difference between a sex worker taking out a loan to emigrate to a wealthier country and a student taking out tens of thousands of dollars in loans – except that the former has a guaranteed job and the latter doesn’t.
– “Happy Endings”
The moral authority of ANY politician…is exactly as legitimate as the moral authority of a tiger pissing on trees to mark its territory.
– “Tiger, Tiger”
When I was young and living in a small town, most people had little respect for the kind of whiny tattletale who calls the cops on other people instead of trying to handle disagreements themselves; however, that kind of attitude has gone the way of party lines and black-and-white television sets. – “In the Street”
Except when the subject is sex, “You should probably hire a pro to do that” is usually considered good and wholly uncontroversial advice for any compex task that requires greater skill and experience than the average amateur is likely to have. – “Tripod“
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