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In the News (#1615)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Face recognition technology…poses a uniquely dire threat to the practical anonymity we all rely on.  –  Nathan Freed Wessler

Bait and Switch (#662)

Whenever you see claims that a sting “caught pedophiles” or is “fighting the demand for child sex trafficking”, refer back to the original article in this heading:

A [Department of Defense contractor assigned to] do…background checks for [ICE]…was arrested in a Bloomington, Minnesota, sex sting.  But the story is being twisted—by people employing the same sort of despicable smear tactics we see from ICE…[boss hog] Booker Hodges [strutted around, pompously belching up the typical “child sex trafficking” rhetoric cops use to justify these scams, while]…news media and countless folks on social media have been [parrot]ing [that]…narrative…but—as is so often the case—it…[was] just a vice operation aimed at adults looking to find other adults for sexual activity…Bloomington Police’s press conference and post about [the sophomorically-dubbed] “Operation Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places” are truly bizarre.  The YouTube video of the conference opens with an elaborate skit, acted out by Bloomington cops…[and boss hog] Hodges…spends part of the press conference singing “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” and [mocking his victims]…as he shows their mugshots…

As I’ve said before, cops pretending to be entertainers should be a summary firing offense.

A Broker in Pillage (#1235)

This kind of evil will never stop until there are criminal charges for the cop and politician perpetrators:

The hamlet of Brookside, Alabama, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit three years after local news investigations revealed that it was running a predatory speed trap.  The Institute for Justice…sued Brookside in 2022 on behalf of motorists who…were framed and swindled by the town…[whose] unusually large police force was bankrolling the city budget by fining people traveling through and towing their cars under [bullshit]…charges…Brookside, a place with no traffic lights and one commercial property…”collected $487 in fines and forfeitures for every man, woman and child“…and…income from [the robberies] comprised 49 percent of the town’s budget…Brookside’s racket was so outrageous that the Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in support of the…lawsuit…and…the Alabama state legislature [has now] passed a bill capping the revenue municipalities can keep from fines to just 10 percent of their general operating budgets…and [Brookside in particular faces] 30 years of strict caps on how much revenue [it can make]…from policing…

Guinea Pigs (#1362) 

New tools for tyranny are often tested first on whores, but never stop with us:

An underground site uses facial recognition to reveal the site a camgirl streams on…present[ing] a serious privacy risk to sex workers…who may not want stalkers, harassers, or employers to discover their profiles…Camgirlfinder has been running for several years, with most adult streaming platforms being added in 2021…[and] contains faces from a wide variety of adult streaming platforms, including Chaturbate, MyFreeCams, and LiveJasmin…The database appears to include sex workers who may not have streamed for years, creating the risk that someone may use the site to find them even if they decided to not stream anymore.  The site then sells all images it has of a particular person for $1 per model…

Nor does this stop with specialized sites and online locations:

Porn performer Siri Dahl’s personal information, including her full legal name and birthday, was publicly exposed earlier this month by [MechaHitler]…Almost instantly, harassers started opening Facebook accounts in her name and posting stolen porn clips with her real name on sites for leaking OnlyFans content.  Dahl has used the name…since the beginning of her career in the adult industry in 2012…[MechaHitler] provided her personal information unprompted; the user likely only wanted information on what performer appeared in the clip.  This is the latest in a series of abuses inflicted by [the chatbot] and its users…

Enshittification

News publishers are working to hasten the coming of the new dark age:

Now major news publishers are actively blocking the Internet Archive—one of the most important cultural preservation projects on the internet—because they’re worried [machine learning] companies might use it as a sneaky “backdoor” to access their content.  This is a mistake we’re going to regret for generations…blocking the Internet Archive isn’t going to stop [chatbot] training.  What it will do is ensure that significant chunks of our journalistic record and historical cultural context simply…disappear…When websites disappear—and they disappear constantly—the Wayback Machine is often the only place that content still exists…the Internet Archive’s efforts to permanently preserve our digital culture are essential infrastructure for anyone who cares about historical memory…Future historians trying to understand 2025 will have access to archived versions of random blogs, sketchy content farms, and conspiracy sites—but not The New York Times.  Not The Guardian…We’re creating a historical record that’s systematically biased against quality journalism…

Thought Control (#1557) 

Woman convicted for “abuse” of an imaginary person fictionally pretending to be a child:

Lauren Ashley Mastrosa…wrote [a book named] Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods and published it…in March.  The book is about an 18-year-old woman named Lucy who roleplays as a toddler with Arthur, an older man who is her father’s best friend.  Mastrosa was charged [with child porn offenses in Australia] after the book sparked outrage [among people who cannot tell fantasy from reality]…a…magistrate [and a cop both repeatedly declared that]…the female protagonist[, a fictional character invented by Mastrosa from her imagination who was]…repeated[ly declared]…to…be…18…[was]…”similar to a young child”…[which] invited the reader to imagine…thing[s] that [the government] prohibited…[despite the fact] that [the depicted] role play w[ould be completely] legal [if the characters were real people and not figments of a woman’s imagination]…

Note that the magistrate is talking here about literal thoughtcrime, declaring that it is criminal to invite readers to imagine things the government dislikes.

The Cop Myth (#1566)

This report of a murderous cop tried to hide that the victim was his wife:

A Buffalo [New York cop named Lance Woods] has been arrested [for the execution-style] murder…[of his wife] Alexis Skoczylas…[by] a single gunshot wound to the head…there were no calls in the past for domestic violence…[and their] two children…are [safe and] in the care of relatives…[the apparent motive was] Skoczylas fil[ing] for a contested divorce in September…Woods…was [paid to lurk in schools in order to spy on, intimidate, and harass students, but has no known history of molestation]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1614)

Facebook is the most antisocial corporation other than those who actually run prisons:

Five years ago, Facebook shut down the facial recognition system for tagging people in photos [after it was forced to settle several class-action lawsuits]…Now it wants to [use Trump’s massive pogroms as cover to]…add the feature to its s[py] glasses…[so its chatbot can fully doxx anyone in public without their consent]…“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to [an internal memo]…

 

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!

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In the News (#1614)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[The US] constitution…cannot be overwritten by a state legislature.  –  Jeffrey Sandman

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1051)

It’s not surprising this started at the most oppressive of the Nevada brothels:

Sex workers at one of Nevada’s legal brothels are unionizing with the Communications Workers of America …If successful, it would be [a] first [for]…the U.S.  The effort came after [Sheri’s Ranch in Pahrump attemp]ted t[o impose] a new contract that would give the business perpetual control over workers’ intellectual property rights…A majority of the brothel’s 74…workers…have agreed to join the union.  Managers …have [retaliated by] fir[ing] at least three of the workers…and…threaten[ing] other[s]…To unionize, the workers must first prove to federal labor authorities that they are employees rather than independent contractors…Sheri’s Ranch…is owned by [typical and representative] Chicago [pig] Chuck Lee, [and is so notorious for its infantilizing repression of its] workers [it is widely derided in the industry as “Pussy Prison”.  The abuses include confiscating their laptops and medications, spying on email and negotiation with clients, and random room searches, and]…beginning in late December…it [started] demanding [workers] grant Sheri’s Ranch “irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual” rights to any content they produce while staying at the brothel…[including] the ability to sell videos or photos…without their permission…[to] create [computer]-generated c[artoons] featuring their images…[even] after [their] death…and…to…[grant] the brothel…power of attorney [over all such content]…

It’s about time US sex workers started unionizing like their European sisters.

I Spy (#1425)

Remember when Google’s motto was, “Don’t be evil”?

Google [obey]ed an [ICE] subpoena that demanded a wide array of personal data on a student activist and journalist, including his credit card and bank account numbers…Amandla Thomas-Johnson had attended a protest targeting companies that supplied weapons to Israel at a Cornell University job fair in 2024 for all of five minutes, but the action got him banned from campus.  When [the] Trump [regime]…issued a series of [diktats] targeting student…proteste[rs], Thomas-Johnson and his friend Momodou Taal went into hiding…Thomas-Johnson, who is British, believes that ICE [intended to use] that information to track and eventually [abduct] him — but he had already fled to Geneva, Switzerland…The Electronic Frontier Foundation…and the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to Google, Amazon, Apple, Discord, [Facebook], Microsoft, and Reddit…calling on tech companies to resist similar subpoenas in the future…without [actual warrants]…to give [intended victims] the opportunity to fight [such extrajudicial demands], and to resist gag orders…

The Mob Rules (#1539)

Don’t let the “private” language fool you; these nuisance lawsuits were instigated and bankrolled by Morality in Media:

A federal judge in Kansas has dismissed two of the four private age verification lawsuits filed…by an unnamed plaintiff [using] her teenage son [as a prop]…the judge granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss…ruling that…simply operating a website accessible in Kansas – even one that Kansas residents could view – is not enough to establish liability.  Under the U.S. Constitution, courts may only exercise power over defendants that have deliberately targeted or conducted activities in the state.  Allowing lawsuits based solely on website accessibility…would mean any website could be sued anywhere, a result long rejected by federal courts…

Mad Libs (#1571)

These algorithms are not only unintelligent; they are making those who believe in them stupid as well:

[The ignoramuses running] many companies are [foolishly trying] to get more employees to use [chatbots so they don’t have to pay]…workers [their full]…value…But…they…may not see what [imaginary] gains are costing them until it’s too late…[because chatbot]s d[o]n’t reduce work, they consistently intensif[y] it.  In an eight-month study…we found that employees [regularly] worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day…because [the hype] made “doing more” feel possible…[but] once the excitement of experimenting fades, workers can find that their workload has quietly grown and feel stretched from juggling everything that’s suddenly on their plate…lead[ing] to cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making…[in addition] to lower quality work…and other problems…

Panopticon (#1591)

Safetyism is destroying society:

[Cop shop]s across the US are quietly [abus]ing school district security cameras to assist Donald Trump’s mass [pogroms]…The a[buse] originate[s] from Texas school districts that contract with Flock S[urveillance to target teachers]…parents and students as young as five…[demonstrating how] campus surveillance technology [justified by barfing out the formula “]student safety[“] is being repurposed to support [the police state]…Flock devices have been installed by more than 100 public school systems nationally…and audit logs from six Texas school districts show campus camera feeds are captured in a national database that [cop shops, spook houses, and goon squad]s across the country can access…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1597)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

…Social media is awash with videos of men…approaching women in public spaces and attempting to flirt with them or ask for their numbers..the videos are filmed and uploaded to platforms like TikTok and Instagram without the permission or knowledge of the [woman] being filmed…[and] rack up thousands…[or] millions of views…While the concept of the pick-up artist is nothing new…so-called “manfluencers”…are covertly filming women to create misogynistic content…

Censor Chic (#1610)

Civil suits are society’s best weapon against jawboning:

…[FIRE] is suing…[Trumpist henchwomen] Pam Bondi and…Kristi Noem on behalf of Kae Rosado and Mark Hodges, who respectively created a Facebook group and an app that hosted video footage of ICE operations to inform the public and hold our government accountable…Mark runs Kreisau Group, which aims to preserve evidence of governmental abuses of power.  On his Eyes Up app, users can upload videos, record new videos, or access uploaded videos, which Eyes Up arranges on a map of the United States after Mark and his moderators review and approve each video.  Kae…started a Facebook group in January 2025…about the impact of ICE raids on daily life in Chicago…The group remained small until Sept[ember]…when ICE commenced…a…[massive pogrom sophomorically] dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz”…[after which the] group grew to…nearly 100,000 members…it is unconstitutional for the government to coerce private companies like Apple and Facebook into censoring content on their behalf.  However…Bondi and Noem [not only did this, but openly]…boasted [about it]…

 

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!

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In the News (#1613)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A clumsy attempt…to put a cuddly face on a rather dystopian reality.  –  Chris Gilliard

The Vultures Descend (Bragging Rights)

No evil is too sleazy for forced-birth fanatics:

An anti-choice group called “Voices for Life” is trying a new strategy to put a target on the backs of abortion providers and recipients in [Indiana by] seeking to make…identifying details about them publicly available…Eleven abortion providers have been murdered in the U.S. since 1993, and abortion clinics continue to experience arson attacks and invasions.  From 2023 to 2024, there were 37 reported cases of stalking and 38 reported cases of assault…against abortion providers…Indiana’s abortion ban was passed almost immediately…after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade…It permits abortions in certain cases…but…bans abortion clinics…[so there are] very few abortions…Yet that isn’t enough for [fanatics]…

The Last Shall Be First (#1412) 

The time, money, and energy our society is flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

In Kansas, more than a bathroom bill is at stake for transgender residents as [psychopathic politicians] jam through a bill to mass-invalidate the driver’s licenses of every trans person in the state…HB246…declares that all driver’s licenses out of step with the state’s definition of man and woman are invalid, and instructs [bureaucrats] to identify every license issued to a trans person and send written notice that the license must be surrendered and reissued…The bill institutes an extreme and novel punishment of transgender residents for continuing to live their lives as normal, and the legality of stripping people of legal ID in this way is questionable.  However, there has been little coverage of the measure because the legislature paired it with one of the most extreme bans on trans people using public restrooms in the entire country.  The bathroom ban has been covered in local news stories and by the Erin in the Morning newsletter, which mentioned but did not focus on the driver’s license changes…

Thought Control (#1527)

These psychopaths won’t be satisfied until they can actually start arresting and caging librarians:

…a bill…in…Georgia…[would criminalize] librarians [who refuse] to…censor…books about LGBTQ people or issues.  Senate Bill 74, sponsored by [censorious politician] Max Burns…[would allow prosecu]tion…of [librarians for working in a library containing books that a politician chooses to point at while spastically barfing out the magic formula “]harmful…to minors[” if]…the…libraries [don’t] ban…people under 18 [from the premises]…Burns told reporters…“At the end of the day, the objective is to…[demand] that…professional…librarians [act as mindless facilitators of the whims of politicians, in violation of all decency and professional ethics]”…

Walled Garden (#1533)

“A disaster waiting to happen”:

Discord [has] announced…that it’s [impos]ing…[user surveillance] on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” [censorship level] unless they [convince an algorithm] that they’re adults.  Users who [refuse to submit to facial recognition or recording of their government ID] will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see c[ensorship black screens] for any content Discord [algorithms declare “]graphic[” or “]sensitive[“]…users w[ill even] be [banned from]…age-restricted server[s]…they were part of before [the surveillance regime was imposed]…Discord [mouthpieces pooh-poohed]…concerns around data privacy, [despite a recent] data breach that exposed users’ age verification data, including images of government IDs…

Panopticon (#1584) 

One couldn’t ask for a better example of useful idiocy:

At Sunday’s Super Bowl, Ring advertised “Search Party,” a cute, horrifyingly dystopian feature…designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses [recognition algorithms] to look for a lost dog…[with] one [simple] post…in the Ring app…It does not take an imagination of any sort to envision this being tweaked to work against [people the state has declared “]criminals[“, including] undocumented immigrants, or [else] other…[passersby] deemed “suspicious” by people…on its dystopian “Neighbors” app…Ring rose to prominence…by forming [fascist] partnerships with local police around the country, asking them to shill their doorbell cameras to people…in return for a system that allowed police to [demand] footage from individual users without a warrant [or the consent of the camera “owner”]…

This is only a temporary retreat:

Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock S[urveillance]…Ring has announced it is [temporarily backpedaling from] the integration [until the furor dies down]…Over the last few weeks, the company has faced significant public anger over its connection to Flock, with Ring users being encouraged to smash their cameras, and some announcing on social media that they are throwing away their Ring devices…

Ring has a history of claiming to retreat from fascist police-statery, then quietly resuming the supposedly-renounced behavior once things quiet down.

Torture Chamber (#1607)

This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed:

…a handwritten note…wrapped around a lotion bottle…was thrown by a man held captive inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center…on [February 1st]…“It’s cold here all the time and the food is poor…For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh.  We are all in one big room with no doors or windows.  We can’t see any grass or trees.  We are all constantly sick.”  The bottle needed to be tossed with enough strength to make it across a cement wall, two barbed wire fences each around twelve-feet high and separated by about five feet of gravel, and ten additional feet of road…Two lotion bottles with the same note were tossed over…[because if screws see messages being thrown out] they rush…to grab them…so…[nobody can find out which] hostages…[are imprisoned in which] facilities…[but activists] have collected 14 lotion bottles, two deodorant bottles, and one AA Battery that [hostag]es have thrown over the fences with notes attached to them.  These items have included a total of 102 names and A-Numbers…[which] are…numbers assigned by the Department of [Father]land Security to [victims]…Organizers use this information to add…funds [to hostages’]…commissary…[and] phone call…[accounts]…

Mad Libs (#1612)

What an opportunity for ambulance-chasers to cash in:

This study evaluated whether the customized ECG Reader-GPT model could serve as a supportive tool—rather than a substitute for expert judgment—during ECG interpretation in the emergency department…Ten emergency medicine specialists (EMSs) interpreted each ECG…The same ECG set was assessed by a customized [chatbot]…Two cardiologists, blinded to group assignments, scored all responses using a predefined key.  EMSs demonstrated markedly higher diagnostic accuracy…correctly interpret[ing] 77% of ECGs, whereas ECG Reader-GPT achieved 24%…indicating that the model is…insufficient for real-world ECG interpretation…

But when actual physicians merely used the software for “assistance”, the results were even worse:

In 2021…Johnson & Johnson [pompously] announced a “leap forward”:  it [crammed a chatbot in]to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis…the software…would [supposedly]…assist ear, nose, and throat specialists in surgeries.  The device had already been on the market for three years [prior to insertion of the parasitic chatbot, during which time the FDA] received [seven] unconfirmed reports of…device malfunction…Since [the chatbot was crammed in, there have been]…at least 100 malfunctions and adverse events…

 

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!

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In the News (#1612)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Federal authorities should not be able to turn civil commitment into a life sentence for anyone the government deems inconvenient.  –  Matt Cavedon

Schadenfreude

It’s heartening to see so many rescue industry profiteers exposed as the sociopaths they are:

A multimillionaire British businessman [on the board of a rescue industry outfit was cozy with]…Jeffrey Epstein [for years] after [Epstein was a] convicted sex offender…Lyndon Lea…visited Epstein in Palm Beach and attended [at least one of Epstein’s wild] part[ies]…Lea…[is on] the board of Not For Sale, which aims to [profit from the 2010s era hysteria over]…commercial sex…the men…spoke regularly in 2010, had contact in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014 and were last in touch in April 2016…

If Men Were Angels

You’d think “youth pastor” would be a big red flag by now:

A[n Idaho] youth pastor [named Isaiah Teague has been] sentenced to life in prison for…sexually abusi[ng a]…14-year-old…for over a year…he [gained her compliance by repeatedly]…threaten[ing to]…make her “disappear” if she told anyone…the victim’s mother…found messages on her daughter’s phone discussing the assaults with a friend…Teague [pretended to be] a close friend of the victim’s family and…[often molested her] while his wife and child were sleeping nearby…The court also imposed a 50-year no-contact order between Teague and all minors…

Banishment (#1587)

It only starts with people the government has demonized:

[The] Trump [regime wants to]…involuntarily commit…more Americans with mental illnesses [by barfing] “restore public order” [at useful idiots]…The government argues that it can seek to involuntarily commit anyone within its physical custody, even after losing any legal basis for holding them…Why bother going through the hassle of due process when the government could just arrest someone, identify a mental illness, dismiss the charges, and then seek commitment?  After all…nearly half of all jail inmates have mental health problems…replacing the constitutional rights of accused Americans with a shadow system of federal involuntary commitment is a haunting prospect when so many people are diagnosable as mentally ill and so many federal crimes exist to detain them for…

The Last Shall Be First (#1588) 

These lunatics will not stop until they are forced to stop:

…[an] Arizona [politician wants to invent]…a…new criminal offense [called] “unlawful exposure to drag show performances”…a…felony…[equal to] robbery, forgery…and…aggravated assault…[sponsor Michael] Way’s bill would define…[this so loosely a parent could be convicted for lett]ing a 16-year-old [watch old Bosom Buddies reruns]…or…a show that merely featured a transgender person…

Perhaps we need to make it a felony to propose a bill that is facially unconstitutional.

No Escape (#1598)

An unusually-blatant case of extremely typical screw behavior:

In leaked videos from California’s largest women’s prison, guards stand in a line facing dozens of [helpless, many disabled] women gathered around cafeteria tables.  Suddenly, a guard fires [pepper] spray from a long red canister.  Other guards join in, [also]…throwing…smoke grenades…[at] women [who] had been rounded up…in retaliation for [report]ing s[screws who raped and otherwise sexually assaulted them]…The leaked videos were posted by [a former screw named] Hector Ferrel, [not because he cares about the women but rather in furtherance of his own]…lawsuit…A…federal lawsuit seeking class-action status was filed on behalf of the nearly 160 [victims]…the [attack]…came in retaliation against the women of Delta Yard cell block…[after a screw named] Isidro Arroyo, [who]…is the leader of the “Delta Dogs,” a gang…of…[rapist screws, tried to intimidate the victims into withdrawing their complaints by steal]ing [and destroying] their property..a means of…control [commonly used by abusive men]…

Mad Libs (#1604)

Tech journalists are complicit in selling this dangerous fantasy to fools:

A growing number of [fools] are asking…chatbots [medical advice, thanks to sleazy tech companies lying that they can “]provide remarkably useful medical insights[“]…Lotus Health AI…[wants] to facilitate actual medical care, including diagnosis, prescriptions, and specialist referrals…Since [the company knows full well that LLM] models are…prone to [what are being called “]hallucinations[“, it plans to cover its butt by having] board-certified human doctors…review the final diagnoses, lab orders, and medical prescriptions…

Shame, Shame (#1605)

It’s good to see politicians attacking an actual evil for a change:

T[witter’s] French offices…have been raided by the Paris prosecutor’s cyber-crime unit, as part of an investigation into…child pornography…both [Elon] Musk and former [Twitter boss] Linda Yaccarino ha[ve] been su[bpoenaed] to appear at hearings in April…French prosecutors say they are [also] investigating…[Musk’s] infringement of people’s image rights [by allowing MechaHitler to create] sexual deepfakes…Meanwhile, UK authorities… [at the censorship bureau] Ofcom [have] launched [their own] investigations…[in]to…the creation of illegal images by [MechaHitler]…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1611)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

George Orwell told us about thought crime as a cautionary fable…this…seems like an attempt to put it into action.  –  Micah Kubic

Chauvinism (#1421)

The Olympics always provide an excuse for governments to “clean things up” in the host cities before the guests arrive:

LA County…plans to remove…thousands of unhoused people from areas around sports venues ahead of the Olympic games in 2028.  [Bureaucrats] issued a strategy report last week advising local governments on how to [abduct] people from encampments…and [force] them into temporary housing.  However, the same report notes that…there [are not] enough beds and there’s no new funding for such an effort…

Eavesdropping (#1503)

Google still claims this doesn’t happen:

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit [over its] voice assistant…illegally record[ing] users and…shar[ing] their private conversations with advertisers…Google [pretends] that its voice assistant w[ill] only register people’s speech when [they] utter…an activation phrase, such as “Hey Google,” [but this is a lie and]…the Google devices [have] recorded private conversations about financial issues, personal decisions and employment…[Victims] will be able to submit claims for up to three Google devices, although…individuals [will] receive…[a paltry] $8 to $40 per person…

Walled Garden (#1570)

The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:

The Online Safety Act grants the U.K.’s online [cens]or, Ofcom, sweeping authority to…censor online content under the guise of protecting children.  The results have been disastrous…and…Ofcom…[has] quietly been pressuring U.S. companies to comply with their orders…lawyer Preston Byrne…represents four U.S. websites targeted by Ofcom: 4chan, Gab…Kiwi Farms, and Personal Autonomy LLC (the provider of the forum Sanctioned Suicide)…In one email response to Ofcom, he [wrote that] their demands on 4chan were “legally void” and would make “excellent bedding” for his “pet hamster”…but…if Ofcom keeps pressuring people…the risk is that…people will…comply because the letters are scary…The Guaranteeing Rights Against Novel International Tyranny & Extortion (GRANITE) Act, which was originally proposed on Byrne’s blog, would allow U.S. companies and individuals to sue foreign governments that attempt to censor Americans.  If the U.S. successfully sued a foreign government in a U.S. court, the foreign country’s assets could be forfeited…Wyoming has become the first to formally introduce the legislation…but Byrne thinks federal legislation would be more effective…

Panopticon (#1587)

Cops are trying to hide their 4th Amendment violations:

[Cop]s are being told to “be as vague as permissible” about why they are using the Flock surveillance system in order to not le[t the public discover illegal snooping] via public records requests…police [incompetent]ly leak[ed] the details of millions of surveillance targets nationwide due to public records redaction errors…[and] rather than looking at this…as a huge operational security failure associated with…a [fascist]…surveillance system, police [fantasize] that [they rather than their victims are in danger]…highlight[ing] how [cops irrationally and pathologically imagine] themselves as being consistently and universally under threat from the people [they want to dominate]…

Panopticon (#1594)

Cops will invariably use warrantless surveillance to harass people:

On Oct. 21 the entire Lenexa, Kansas [cop shop] was hunting Canyen Ashworth…[because a pig decided without evidence that he must be the guy who put up]…posters on city property…[since he wrote] a guest column critical of Lenexa Police…for the Kansas City Star…The [anti-ICE] poster [infuriated the pig herd so bureaucrats claimed they were]…“in violation of Lenexa city ordinances”…[even though] posters about lost pets and community events were generally not removed.  The [cops didn’t know who posted them, but boss hog Dawn] Layman [was pissed off about the column, so]…Ashworth…was [targeted for police violence by]…tracking [hi]s movement around Lenexa using the city’s license plate reader system.  [Pigs were told he]…was…“MYOC”…shorthand for “make your own case.”  [In other words, cops were being ordered to frame] Ashworth…for [whatever] reason [they could dream up]…

I Spy (#1604)

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

ICE has vastly expanded its tech tools over the last year after an [obscene] influx of cash…[from the] Trump [regime.  Father]land Security…awarded Palantir a nearly $30 million contract to build a system backed by artificial [stupidity to target]…individuals for [violence.  Another]…tool…built by Paragon…lets [goons] take control of phones or remotely hack into them…The others were built by Penlink…[to exploit]…data scraped from the web and information from data brokers…ICE…[also] use[s a facial recognition app called]…Mobile Fortify…[when it was pointed out to Father]land Security officials [that these tools flagrantly violate Constitutional rights, they moronically babbled]…“lawful law…lawfully…legal authorities”…

I Spy (#1610)

The rise of prosocial surveillance:

In recent weeks, efforts to track ICE [goon]s’ movements and identities have exploded online, including sites to report ICE raid locations.  Even prolific cybercriminal collectives — better known for their ransomware attacks on luxury carmakers — are joining the fray by releasing the names and personal information of hundreds of ICE [goons] and [DFS spooks] online…“Even when the government pushes to block high-profile apps or webpages, people will continue to share information with their community to keep each other safe,” said Mario Trujilo [of EFF]…Residents in communities targeted by the [regime for pogroms]…have also built tools to…map Flock…cameras and detect [porcine] surveillance devices…through Bluetooth signals…

 

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!

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In the News (#1610)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Nuance doesn’t make for good headlines or popular books.  –  Mike Masnick

To Molest and Rape (#1335)

The UK is just as dedicated to protecting rapist cops as the US is:

When Ruth walked into a police station to [report her cop ex-boyfriend for] rape…she did not think that she…would later be accused by [his fellow gang members] of making a false rape allegation, charged and put on trial.  It led to a years-long struggle to clear her name, before she was eventually acquitted…her…ex-partner[‘s “defense”]…was…an audio file he had secretly recorded on his mobile phone [without her consent] during the sex, which he [pretended] proved Ruth was lying…[the pig herd] agreed with him that they could hear her “laughing and consenting”…but [when her defense] chose…to play the audio to the jury…[she] could be heard saying she was in pain and telling her [rapist] “no” and “get it out”.  The sounds of laughter and enjoyment…had in fact been made by actors in a porn film that was playing in the background…The [rapist] is currently s[till enjoying a paid vacation but]…faces a misconduct hearing later this year into whether making the audio recording of the sexual act without her knowledge breached the police code of ethics…The jury took just over an hour to find Ruth not guilty of perverting the course of justice…

Part of the Picture (#1349)

Puritanware has a long history of security issues:

An app that purports to help people stop [looking at] pornography has exposed highly sensitive data, including its users’ masturbation habits…We’re not naming the app because the developer has not fixed the issue, which was discovered by an independent security researcher who asked to remain anonymous…The issue is a misconfiguration in the app’s usage of the mobile app development platform Google Firebase…the creator of the app…[called the issue “]fake[” and]…“a joke”…[but when 404 Media] created an account on the app…the researcher was able to see [it] appear in the misconfigured Google Firebase, showing that user information is still exposed.  This…Firebase misconfiguration issue has been known and discussed by security researchers for years…

Panopticon (#1471)

As surveillance technology becomes ubiquitous along the U.S.-Mexico border, the equipment is still sometimes unknown or invisible to even the activists, humanitarians, researchers, and journalists working everyday in the borderlands.  Based on public records research, open source intelligence, and fact-finding trips, EFF has compiled this zine to serve as an illustrated guide to border security technology…

Censor Chic (#1598)

Civil rights mean nothing if fascist corporations eagerly dance to the government’s tune:

M[ark Zuckerberg] has started blocking [his subject]s from sharing links to ICE List, a website that has compiled the names of…Department of [Father]land Security employees…[in an effort] to hold th[em] accountable.  Dominick Skinner, the creator of ICE List [says] links to the website have been shared without issue on [Zuckerberg]’s platforms for more than six months [but that changed on January 26th].  “I think it’s no surprise that a…man who sat behind Trump at his inauguration …[is helping] ICE [goons] retain anonymity”…posting links to the site [is now] blocked on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads…[but] can still be sent on WhatsApp…[the excuse is Facebook’s go-to for all of its censorship,] “Community Standards”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1603)

More studies prove censorious politicians are full of shit:

For years now, we’ve been repeatedly pointing out that the “social media is destroying kids” narrative…has been built on a foundation of shaky, often contradictory research…and that policy responses built on that panic might end up causing more harm than they prevent.  Well, here come two massive new studies—one from Australia, one from the UK—that land like a sledgehammer on…social media ban[s]…The Australian study…followed over 100,000…adolescents across three years and found…the relationship between social media use and well-being isn’t linear.  It’s U-shaped…kids who use social media moderately have the best outcomes. Kids who use it excessively…[or] don’t use it at all…have worse outcomes…Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Manchester just published a separate study that followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years.  Their conclusion?  Screen time spent on social media or gaming does not cause mental health problems in teenagers.  At all…Zero.  Not “small.”  Not “modest.”  Zero…

Other studies have demonstrated that soaring rates of depression and mental disorders are actually caused by pervasive infantilization and surveillance of young adults, including laws banning them from social media.

Shame, Shame (#1605)

It’s good to see ambulance-chasing politicians attacking an actual evil for a change:

At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are t[hreaten]ing action against [Elon Musk] after people used [hi]s chatbot, [MechaHitler], to generate a flood of sexualized images earlier this year…during an 11-day period starting on December 29, [the MechaHitler Twitter] account…generated around 3 million photorealistic sexualized images, including around 23,000 sexualized images of [legal minors]…people were [also] generating far more explicit videos using the…Imagine model available on the [dedicated MechaHitler] website…[without] any sort of age verification…[though Musk] claims [MechaHitler] has [been] stopped…from undressing people, th[at is a lie]…the [politicians threatened Musk with a]…non[existent]…federal law…[and demanded Musk] remove [MechaHitler]’s ability to depict people in revealing clothing or suggestive poses [entirely, plus act as a fascist collaborator by]…report[ing anyone who even tries] to [pigs]…

Mad Libs (#1609)

A perfect storm of stupidity, gullibility, and greed:

…the [Irish] Department of Justice [is using chatbots]  programmed to answer asylum and citizenship queries.  And [predictably,] its bots sometimes got it wrong, throwing up misleading or inaccurate responses. It has since retired its asylum chatbot, Erin, but has [“]upgraded[“] its citizenship chatbot, Tara, with [equally-error prone but more expensive software.  Politician]…Gary Gannon…said he has immense concerns about the use of chatbots…in serving up legal counselling to people seeking sanctuary…It all feels “dystopian”, he said…[but] the Minister for Justice…Jim O’Callaghan…continues to stay vague on what legal counselling is and how it’s going to be offered…

 

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!

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In the News (#1609)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 31, 2026| Leave a Comment »

New Zealand…pinpricks the campaign of fear-mongering and moral outrage…propagated by the quit-or-die crowd.  –  Nancy Loucas

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

A [typical and representative British politician named]…Philip Young…[has] pleaded guilty…to [repeatedly drugging and raping]…his [ex-wife] Joanne…between 2010 and 2024. [He also pled guilty to possession of child porn and to allowing at least] five other men [to rape her while she was unconscious; the men are]…Connor Sanderson-Doyle…Norman Macksoni…Richard Wilkins…Mohammed Hassan…[and] Dean Hamilton…

Policing for Profit

There are many ways for cops to enrich themselves at others’ expense:

For three decades, Albuquerque defense attorney Thomas Clear bribed [corrupt cops] to make drunk driving cases against his clients disappear…by deliberately failing to show up at…hearings…or [other] judicial proceedings, allowing Clear to move for dismissal…Sometimes Clear’s paralegal, Rick Mendez, or his associates would “orchestrate” DWI arrests by getting people drunk and arranging for a corrupt cop to nab them after they hit the road…[Albuquerque pig] Justin Hunt…is one of two dozen people—including [fellow] Albuquerque [pigs], Bernalillo County [pigs], and a New Mexico State P[ig who]…was featured in a state ad campaign against drunk driving—who have been implicated in the bribery scheme so far.  Half of them have pleaded guilty, including Clear and Mendez…

The Face of Trafficking

Cases of actual coercion never look much like the myths:

…a mother and daughter from…Oregon…Marie Gertrude Jean Valmont …and Yolandita Marie Andre…coerced…three victims, including a minor…to work for little or no pay in an adult foster care home…[by steal]ing the[ir] documents…the[ir company]…Velida’s Home Care…recruited the three victims…from Haiti…with promises of a nice place to live, and steady and reliable work…[but] all three were compelled to work long, difficult hours for little to no pay…Valmont…controlled practically every aspect of their daily living…until the minor [got fed up and] disclosed their situation to a medical professional in the summer of 2024…[the exploiters also]…received payments from the Oregon Department of Human Services (ODHS) and Medicaid by falsely claiming they needed to pay…for more hours…[but] kept th[at] money [themselves]…

A Moral Cancer (#1449)

Prohibition never works, but prohibitionists don’t care:

…youth vaping has again and again been used to attack…vape access.  [Its] extent…has often been exaggerated, and it [is absurd] to argue it’s a problem comparable to millions of smoking-related deaths.  Such arguments are nonetheless po[pular with prohibitionists].  That’s why it’s so significant that youth vaping in New Zealand…has…halved in recent years…refut[ing] any narrative that broad vape access [for] adults…inevitably means mass youth use…And the proportion of teens who have never smoked continues to rise, hitting a record 89.4 percent…

Walled Garden (#1567)

There is nothing as worthless as a politician’s promise:

…UK…[politicians barfed out the phrase “]safety for children[” to justify]…potential restrictions on VPNs.  [They]…will also consider banning social media for under-16s [and otherwise micromanaging their internet usage]…the House of Lords…backed an amendment that would ban VPNs for [people] under 18 and force providers to implement [the same kind of “]age check[” surveillance which is driving an increase in VPN usage in the first place]…

Mad Libs (#1586)

The Constitution gave only Congress the power to make laws; the modern administrative state extended the power to agency employees.  And now:

The Trump [regime] is planning to [let a chatbot] write federal transportation regulations…agency attorney Daniel Cohen[, who is extremely stupid, characterized this extremely stupid idea as]…“exciting[” and “doing] our job better and faster”…[the mad emperor] is “very excited about this [extremely stupid idea]”…[Agency lawyer Gregory] Zerzan appeared interested mainly in the quantity of regulations [chatbots] could [vomit out], not their quality. “We don’t need…very good rule[s, just] good enough [for very stupid people, thus]…flooding the zone [with extremely stupid rules].”  These developments have alarmed [sane people] at DOT.  The agency’s rules touch virtually every facet of transportation safety, including regulations that keep airplanes in the sky, prevent gas pipelines from exploding and stop freight trains carrying toxic chemicals from skidding off the rails.  Why…would the federal government outsource the writing of such critical standards to a…technology notorious for making mistakes?…

Shame, Shame (#1605)

Financial companies are usually better at hiding their hypocrisy:

For many years, credit card companies and other payment [processors] were aggressive about policing…sexual [content].  Then, Elon Musk’s [MechaHitler] started undressing [legal minors] on [Twitter]…Though Musk has claimed that new guardrails prevent [MechaHitler] from undressing people, our testing showed that is…[a lie.  Twitter]…does seem to have…partially restricted [MechaHitler]’s image editing features to paid subscribers…[who] can [pay via]…Stripe or through the Apple and Google app stores using [a] credit card…at times financial institutions have [even] threatened [or cut off sex workers] and platforms [for non-sexual content or even medical fundraisers]…But Musk’s boutique revenge porn and CSAM generator is, apparently, just fine…

 

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!

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In the News (#1608)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[Letting] pregnant women [die]…is consistent with accepted standards of care in our region.  –  mouthpiece for Cone Health in North Carolina

Gorged With Meaning (#408) 

You know puritanism has run amok when a college student is forced to apologize for going to one of her school team’s football games:

Former adult film star Abella Danger found herself at the center of unexpected attention this week after a televised crowd shot during the NCAA final sparked online chatter and attention she…never wanted…she is…currently a [law] student at the University of Miami, a[nd when she attended]…the [game]…at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium…[an ESPN] camera[man made the questionable decision to] linger…on [her]…during a pivotal moment late in the game…[hypocritical porn] viewers [who] recognized [her apparently blamed her sex rays for jinxing the team or something].  “I am so deeply sorry to anyone I offended with my attendance at the game,” she told [TMZ]…

Something Rotten in Sweden (#750)

Washington state politicians are still ignoring advocates’ advice in favor of puritanical virtue-signaling:

[Politicians] are moving fast to [worsen] Washington’s laws on [adults having consensual sex]…before international travelers come to town for the 2026 FIFA World Cup…the King County Prosecut[or’s office vomited decades-old prohibitionist propaganda at them to]…bump up…paying for sex from a simple misdemeanor to a…felony [because prosecutors aren’t ruining enough lives yet]…

Sex Rays (#1367)

When there’s no censorious payment processor in the way, sex businesses can be powerful helpers:

…the folks at Minneapolis sex shop Smitten Kitten…have mobilized to support neighbors amid a violent and unrelenting [pogrom] by the Trump [regime]…inside the shop, volunteers are organizing canned foods, diapers, clothes, and other essentials to be distributed to…“families that are stuck at home because they’re scared of…ICE [attacks]”…the shop’s Instagram page has been leveraging its platform to boost donation opportunities for community members in the area, sharing GoFundMe, Venmo, and Cash App campaigns…The shop is also partnering with neighboring businesses…to make sure people are being fed.  And volunteers are standing outside of the shop to protect anyone coming in or out from [attack by goons] in the immediate area…

Welcome to the Future (#1414)

Anything connected to a computer can be used to spy on you:

…It’s standard for workplace printers to log certain information, such as the names of files they print and the users who printed them.  In an apparent attempt to avoid detection, [a whistleblower]…took screenshots of [government] materials, cropped the screenshots, and pasted them into a Microsoft Word document…[but his fascist contractor] employer could see not only the typical metadata stored by printers, such as file names, file sizes, and time of printing, but…also…the actual contents of the printed materials — in this case…the screenshots themselves…Whenever someone presses print in a network outfitted with this printer monitoring software, the program creates a clandestine copy of the file and generates an image of page…printed…users might be entirely unaware that the contents of printed files are archived…

Torture Chamber (#1437)

New York supposedly bans long-term solitary confinement:

Teenagers as young as 12…in New York [dungeons] are held for prolonged periods in solitary confinement cells without plumbing…A federal class action lawsuit [was] filed by the Legal Aid Society and the law firm Jenner and Block [because]…New York…”routinely and unlawfully imposes solitary confinement”…in filthy, dehumanizing…cells for 23 to 24 hours a day—in some cases for weeks or even months at a time…”Almost none of the cells…have toilets or sinks.  As a result, [victims] must [beg] to be released from their cells to use the bathroom or be forced to use garbage pails, water bottles, food containers, or buckets to relieve themselves…The smell of urine and feces can permeate these [cell blocks]”…

Vulture Watching (#1534)

Another look at the totally-predictable results of bad laws:

…dangerous miscarriages…are relatively rare events.  What are far more common…are high-risk pregnancies…Each year, hundreds of thousands of women enter pregnancy with chronic conditions that put them at an elevated risk of long-term complications and, in some cases, death…[bu]t abortion bans generally don’t include exceptions that cover these kinds of health concerns…instead, the exceptions are for the “life of the mother.”  In practice, this often means doctors won’t act without strong evidence that their patients are very likely to die.  Where there have been efforts to create…exceptions to cover a range of medical risks women can face in pregnancy, [forced-birth fanatic]s have fought against them…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1566)

Every so often the areas of my reporting beat converge:

…In posts on ManyVids, the porn platform’s official account holds imaginary conversations with aliens, alongside [computer]-generated videos of UFOs, fractal images, “angel numbers,” and a video of its founder and CEO Bella French in a space suit shooting lasers from her eyes.  French launched the site in 2014 as a former cam model herself, and the platform has millions of members and tens of thousands of creators…[yet she] recently changed her personal website to state her new goal is to “transition one million people out of the adult industry and do everything we can to ensure no one new enters it.”  The statement follows posts…about new strategies to pivot the site toward safe-for-work, non-sexual content.  This sudden shift away from years of messaging about being a compatriot with sex workers, combined with bizarre [chatbot]-generated text and images…has made some creators worry for their livelihoods, and caused others to leave the site completely…When faced with backlash, MV removed the ability to comment on posts…[which] appear to be ramblings and images generated by a person in active psychosis…

 

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!

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In the News (#1607)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The willful use of such an error-prone technology suggests that the appearance of a process is more important than accuracy.  –  Chris Gilliard

If Men Were Angels

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity, or even religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority:

…a Roman Catholic priest…[named] Korey LaVergne was jailed…on [January 16th for child molestation]…the…arrest comes at a relatively fragile time for the Lafayette diocese, which…[has] disclosed its “total range of potential loss on [pending child molestation] claims…is $88,187,500 to $162,450,000”…A Lafayette diocese priest named Gilbert Gauthe effectively brought the decades-old, worldwide Catholic clergy abuse crisis to the US by pleading guilty in 1985 to molesting several boys…

A Moral Cancer (#1030)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

…Arizona [politicians want to make]…amyl nitrates — commonly known as “poppers” — illegal in the state, [criminalizing mere possession of] a substance long sold in a legal gray area and closely associated with LGBT…nightlife and sexual culture.  House Bill 2191…would also ban the sale of nitrous oxide, often called “laughing gas”…The proposal [appears to be a spinoff of increased] federal scrutiny of poppers…[including raids on] several manufacturers…[by] the FDA…[because the psychopathic] Robert F. Kennedy Jr…has repeatedly promoted the scientifically disproven claim that poppers — rather than HIV — caused AIDS…

If Men Were Angels (#1477)

Cop and preacher is like the molester equivalent of a full house:

A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in schools in order to spy on, persecute, and intimidate students in] Colorado was [also a preacher]…Rubel “Tim” Martinez…was arrested [for repeatedly molesting a student]…from 2014 to 2016…and [has now been convicted]…Martinez [also]…ran an after-school clown club…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1571)

Government thugs don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out:

When…ICE…[goons subjected one of their victims to their] facial recognition app [without her consent], it returned two different and incorrect names, [demonstrating that]…the[ir] app…called Mobile Fortify, [is just as error-prone as all facial recognition software]…de[spite utterly ridiculous claims that it]…should be trusted over a birth certificate…“ICE has treated Mobile Fortify like it’s a 100% accurate record retrieval system of everybody’s immigration status for the entire population of the U.S. when this is obviously not true, and could never be true from a technical perspective,” [said] Cooper Quintin…[of] the Electronic Frontier Foundation…The [victim,] a 45-year-old woman who court records call MJMA…is now suing ICE and being represented by attorneys from the Innovation Law Lab…

Shame, Shame (#1597)

Zuckerberg flushed $77 billion down a “virtual” toilet:

After years of failing to produce a profitable [virtual] reality platform, [Facebook] is pounding one of the final nails into the coffin of its metaverse efforts — the ones that were once so central to its vision that it renamed the entire company after them…[it is] laying off some 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division…[and] three VR game studios were shuttered, though [its]…online VR game platform…is still running…in a diminished capacity…

Torture Chamber (#1601)

A convenient way to cover up wanton murder:

Under the law, ICE is required to provide necessary medical care for [its victims]…While [it] employs some of its own medical staff, it often uses third-party providers…ICE, however, has not paid any third-party providers for medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025…[and has] announc[ed] it will not begin processing such claims until at least April 30, 2026…[this] has [understandably] caused…medical providers to deny services to ICE [victims]…ICE [told inquiring reporters to fuck off]…

Torture Chamber (#1606)

Government violence claims another victim:

A Nicaraguan immigrant [captur]ed by ICE [goons] in Minneapolis has become the third [victim] to die at [Concentration] Camp East Montana in El Paso…Victor Manuel Diaz…was…[supposedly found] dead on Wednesday, Jan. 14…ICE…[is calling it a] suicide…[but the same thing was claimed about] Geraldo Lunas Campos…[when goons murdered him] on Jan. 3…At least six migrants have died…in [US concentration camps]…since Jan. 1…

 

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!

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In the News (#1606)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

No puedo respirar.  –  Geraldo Lunas Campos

Policing for Profit

There are many ways for cops to enrich themselves at others’ expense:

…[a typical and representative Jacksonville, Florida cop named Nicholas Hicks has been] arrested…for felony grand theft…[because he was paid] thousands of dollars for working a [detail] at a local hospital, but…re[peatedly left] hospital property…[to the tune of] more than 52 hours…[out of 40 shifts, amounting to theft] of…more than $2600 for the “work”…Upon arrest, Hicks immediately resigned…

This actually appeared in the same article as  “To Molest and Rape” below, but they are two separate incidents except for both being products of the same cop shop.  Since the sheriff is hiding the identity of BOTH criminal pigs, I’ll feature his picture here instead until he changes his mind.

Stupor Bowl (#914)

It’s almost sad to see cops still making the occasional pathetic bid for attention based in nonsense even useful idiots stopped believing in over a decade ago.  The only things noteworthy about this one, from Atlanta, are 1) it attempts to hang the “gypsy whore magnet” albatross around the neck of the FIFA World Cup; and 2)  Officer Chicken Licken claims that “[sex trafficking] has now gone into a trillion-dollar business worldwide.”

Creepy Coppers

It’s really too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:

A Cleveland [Ohio cop] is facing federal child porn charges after being arrested at Miami International Airport…[when] Rafael Rodriguez arrived at the airport on a flight from Bogota, Colombia…[he was racially profiled by] CBP [goons who rooted in] his iPhone and [found the] files…

To Molest and Rape (#1542)

Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?

A…[typical and representative] Jacksonville [Florida screw named] Taaron Clayton…was arrested…for [taking out his dick and rubbing it against a female screw’s butt] on Dec. 30…Because he…[had not yet been granted his invulnerability to consequences he was] fired…

Eavesdropping (#1573)

Another privacy-invading gadget from the usual antisocial assholes:

[Sociopathic tech companies are still trying] to make [wear]able [chatbot “]assistants[“] a “thing”…At least a dozen tech brands, most notably Lenovo, [are] push[ing]…small wearable gadgets that [surreptitiously] record and transcribe everything around you, [without the consent of anyone being spied on.  Sociopaths and useful idiots]…have [embraced computerized] wearables like [surveillance] glasses…[though normal, decent people have not].  But tech brands still think they can sell people [who are not moral imbeciles] on an indispensable, specialized [surveillance chatbot] that [gullible nitwits] wear everywhere…the endgame is to record and analyze everything in [public society], and that’s not hyperbole…

The Cop Myth (#1603)

They never stop demonstrating exactly what they are:

A court filing…reveal[ed] the identity of the [typical and representative ICE goon] who [wantonly murdered a neighbor] on New Year’s Eve and [reveals] that…he…h[as a long history of domestic violence] and [overt public] racis[m]…Brian Palacios [murdered] Keith Porter Jr….[and was caught out] in a custody dispute between [his] girlfriend and her ex-husband…Palacios [at first absurdly claimed he could fly so murdering a man shooting into the air was “self-defense”, but later] ICE [slandered the victim as] “an active shooter”…Jamal Tooson, an attorney for Porter Jr.’s family, said…“It is unimaginable that any human being with a conscience on this earth could regard [Palacios] as a hero”…

Torture Chamber (#1605)

A few government doctors are now refusing to provide excuses for murder:

When [ICE] announced the Jan. 3 death of [one of their victims,] Geraldo Lunas Campos[,] at a Texas [concentra]tion camp, the[y pretended he had mysteriously dropped dead of]…no [apparent] cause…[but the] El Paso County…Medical Examiner…[will] classify the death as a homicide…due to [strangulation by screws.  In response]…the Department of [Father]land Security [absurdly claimed] that Lunas Campos [had strangled himself despite witnesses reported that] guards [choked him to death while he was] heard…repeatedly saying, “No puedo respirar”…

 

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