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Back Issue #113

November 28, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

The world is full of people who really cannot understand the difference between weed-smoking and assault or between prostitution and rape, and are willing to say so in courtrooms and legislatures.
–  “O Tempora! O Mores!”

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Links #647

November 27, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

I can’t even breathe.  –  Neal Saunders

This seemed like the right song to memorialize composer Ned Rorem, especially since it’s also seasonally appropriate.  The links above it were provided by Mike Siegel; Dave Crisp; Jesse Walker, Franklin Harris, & Dan Savage; Cop Crisis (x2); and Carol Fenton, in that order.

From the Archives

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 (#1292)

November 26, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

[KOSA] is the ultimate “let’s just blame the internet for anything bad” bill.  –  Mike Masnick

What the Hell Were You Thinking?

While prohibitionists get big bucks to harass sex workers, spread anti-whore propaganda and work with cops to target women for state violence, organizations which work to actually support sex workers get by on little more than volunteer hours and good wishes.  There’s nothing in this article about Street Safe New Mexico and the bad date list it maintains for street workers which will surprise sex workers or regular readers, but perhaps if articles like this keep appearing some big moneybag like Bezos or Gates, trying to make a name for himself as a philanthropist, will recognize this as an area where he really can make a difference for hundreds of thousands of women in the US alone.  And the fact that it appears in Cosmopolitan is another sign that feminism is slowly, falteringly, moving away from its misogynistic demands that the state violently police women’s sexual behavior.

No Friend of Ours

Those laboring under the delusion that Nevada is even remotely whore-friendly need look no further than this collection of dysphemisms, infantilization, racism, copaganda, bizarrely-stilted Copese, lurid fetishization of police victims, puritanism, distortion, and outright lies vomited out by “journalist” parrots after fellating their “law enforcement sources”.  The persecution of a very ordinary business is made to seem something like the adventure of a TV hero breaking up a terrorist plot to kill millions, rather than a simple-minded scheme for a gang of thugs to molest women and harass migrants in order to justify their pathologically-bloated budget while getting themselves off.

Torture Chamber (#1198)

Authoritarians want you to pay for more such hell-holes to torture even more people in:

…A new…report from the the [Fulton County Georgia] jail’s medical provider reveals that…the jail’s most vulnerable…[prisoners a]re wasting away in squalid conditions…more than 90 percent…were so malnourished that they had developed cachexia, a wasting syndrome that typically affects people with advanced-stage cancer…the men were detained in filthy cells and…over 90 percent…had not been “receiving essential medications” or completing their…activities of daily living…such as showering, dressing, using the toilet, and eating…every person in the unit had lice or scabies—in some cases both—a[bout which nothing was done until one prisoner died from the neglect]…on…Sept. 13…

Virtual Imperialism (#1202)

Beijing’s campaign to silence Chinese people outside China is becoming more aggressive:

…Criticism of the CCP has been rising in the ranks of censored topics on American campuses.  Whether it’s among professors adapting their classrooms to skirt Hong Kong’s oppressive national security law, administrators fearful of alienating lucrative funding or partnership opportunities, or international students worried that basic academic discussions will cause legal trouble at home, there is a growing problem in higher education….[which] comes with global implications: It’s getting a lot harder to talk critically about Xi Jinping, the CCP, and the human rights violations taking place in China.  This shift was on full display at GWU in February when [Chinese] students launched [an] anonymous protest…[by] post[ing] artwork from Australia-based Chinese artist Badiucao satirizing China’s human rights record and the ethical issues raised by its hosting of the Olympics…it took less than 24 hours before the…[Beijing-backed] Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) [demanded the protest be censored], calling for the responsible students to be “punished severely”…

You Were Warned (#1228)

These attempts to destroy the internet are just going to keep getting worse:

…a [gang of censorious politician]s is attempting to include the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in a year-end “must pass” omnibus bill, ramping up the bill’s chance of passage.  While KOSA has been touted as a bill that would provide [so-called] accountability for tech companies by regulating their interactions with [legal minors], the bill would…instead…enact confusing, vague regulations upon tech companies that would encourage even more surveillance of users, and it would [allow]…parents [to file nuisance lawsuits] upon tech companies [on the same kinds of flimsy pretexts allowed by laws like FOSTA]…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1264)

It’s always lovely to see them feeding on each other:

A…[typical and representative cop] has been jailed after he…arrang[ed] to meet a[nother cop fantasy role-playing online as a] 15-year-old girl…Alex John Foster…was [arrested by the fantasy role-player and his cronies] in a [KFC parking lot] with condoms and lube [the other cop had asked him to bring.  Foster is clearly not very bright even by cop standards, because]…he…told the [fantasy role-playing cop]…“she could be an undercover police officer” [yet went anyway]…

The Cop Myth (#1285)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

Madison [Wisconsin cop] Cary House was arrested and charged with…strangulation…of [his girlfriend.  The victim]…said House had been drinking all day when he entered her room where she was lying in bed with her young daughter; House started yelling at her and choking her…This isn’t the first time…House has…[been arrested for violent drunkenness]. In 2013…he was suspended without pay after…[firing] a gun while under the influence during a social gathering at his home…three [other Madison cops]…have been arrested within the last two weeks in separate, unrelated incidents…

 

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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Yuletide 2022

November 25, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

Every year on this day, the traditional beginning of the Yuletide season in the US, I remind my readers that the real spirit of the season involves giving to others rather than literally fighting to get more for yourself.  Children and whores are St. Nick’s two favorite groups of people; you can help the latter by donating to a sex worker charity such as SWOP Behind Bars, or you can help both by booking a session with a sex worker you know has kids.  If you don’t know any, you can help by participating in my annual toy drive!  From now until Monday, December 12th, I’m collecting donations with which to buy toys, which I then donate to Toys for Tots.  In the past I tied session-time to the donations, but since I’m semi-retired that’s not really a workable deal any more; besides, my readers have always been so generous I’ve only had a few collect on the bargain!  If you’re in the Seattle area, we may be able to meet in person; otherwise you can send it via PayPal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net.  Since I’m also working on my own blog’s funding right now (see that thermometer in the right-hand margin?), make sure you put “Toys for Tots” in the memo so I’ll know where you intend the donation to go.  And if you can afford only one, please make it to the toy drive!

As you can see from the pictures, my readers have always risen to the occasion to help provide some simple joy to needy children who might otherwise have nothing on Christmas morning.  If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating (either to my drive or to one near you); rising inflation is taking a bite out of many people’s income, so there will be less money for toys this year.  And while we adults can understand that, it can be heartbreaking for very young children to think Santa Claus has forgotten them or bypassed them because they were naughty.  Please help if you can!

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Thanksgiving 2022

November 24, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

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In the News (#1291)

November 23, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

You can’t win an unwinnable war.  –  José Irizarry

R.I.P. Carol Leigh

Carol Leigh, one of the leading figures of the US sex worker movement (she was the person who actually coined the term “sex work”) has died at 71 after a 7-year battle with uterine cancer.  Carol became involved in activism just a year after she became a sex worker in 1977, and was involved in nearly every aspect  of the movement throughout the ’80s, ’90s, and Oughts; even later she was always happy to give advice and guidance to younger activists like me.  She was so well-known that even the mainstream media (including the AP, the NewYork Times and the San Francisco Chronicle) published obituaries, but the title links to one by a sex-work-friendly reporter (albeit in a publication which can’t seem to make up its mind); I’ll also be linking memorial essays from those who knew her as they appear.

Perquisites

Are statists really so delusional they can’t grasp that this is inevitable when men are given this kind of power and privilege?

José Irizarry accepts that he’s known as the most corrupt agent in U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration history…[for] conspiring with Colombian cartels to build a lavish lifestyle of expensive sportscars, Tiffany jewels and [women] around the world.  But…Irizarry says he won’t go down for this alone, accusing some long-trusted DEA colleagues of joining him in skimming millions of dollars from drug money laundering stings to fund a decade’s worth of luxury overseas travel, fine dining, top seats at sporting events and frat house-style debauchery…federal agents, prosecutors, informants and in some cases cartel smugglers themselves were all in on the three-continent joyride known as “Team America” that chose cities for money laundering pick-ups mostly for party purposes or to coincide with Real Madrid soccer or Rafael Nadal tennis matches.  That included stops along the way in VIP rooms of Caribbean strip joints, Amsterdam’s red-light district and aboard a Colombian yacht that launched with plenty of booze and more than a dozen prostitutes…All this revelry was rooted, Irizarry said, in a…reali[stic assessment] among DEA agents…that there’s nothing they can do to make a dent in the drug war anyway…“We know we’re not making a difference…The drug war is…a very fun game that we were playing”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1104)

Useful idiots destroying any possibility that the facial recognition djinni can ever be rebottled:

…public anxiety about crime seems to be peaking. Determined to [capitalize on hysteria in order to win]…votes), major cities including San Francisco, Chicago, and New Orleans are turning to…surveillance as a [pretend] solution.  This marks a big shift, especially for a city like San Francisco, which in 2019 became the first U.S. city to ban the use of facial recognition technology by…police.  Boston, Portland, Oakland, and Jackson, Mississippi, have since followed…But…the [public is fickle and fearful]…“We went from a long-term view to an extremely short-term view,” explained Tracy Rosenberg…[of] Oakland Privacy…“[concerns about] the end of public anonymity…ha[ve] largely been replaced by a narrative that [says]…the short-term implications on your life right now are more important than any sort of future surveillance state”…San Francisco’s…passed a policy that will allow [cops]…to [root through]…footage of private security cameras [without a warrant]…Cities…expanding the use of surveillance technology…risk entrenching a permanent surveillance infrastructure that may be difficult to dismantle down the road.  “The history of surveillance suggests that it’s not easy to put the genie back in the bottle,” argues Rosenberg.  One of the most high-profile examples of this dynamic comes out of New Orleans, where [politicians] are poised to expand police surveillance less than two years after passing a sweeping facial recognition ban…

Torture Chamber (#1186)

It’d be great if US cities could flush their toxic waste before somebody dies:

…Forks, Washington, will pay $1 million to settle a lawsuit…filed by the family of a young…woman who committed suicide in jail after being harassed by a guard with a long history of misconduct…John Gray…would later be convicted of sexually assaulting four other [helpless caged] women.  But when Kimberly Bender—a 23-year-old Quileute tribal member struggling with drug addiction and depression—tried to report Gray’s misconduct, the Forks jail [blew her off while Gray]…sexually torment[ed] her…[until] she…hanged herself in her cell…

Torture Chamber (#1189)

I’m sure they helpfully yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he died:

…Thousands die while locked [in cages by the State] each year…a third of [them]…are younger than 55, many suffering from untreated or poorly treated illnesses, with the prison healthcare system frequently deciding that treatments for common and debilitating ailments are not “medically necessary”…“If it’s not life-threatening in that moment…they put it off and tell you to…take ibuprofen,” said Tonya Wilson…an advocate with Freedom Project…[Clifford] Farrar, [a type I diabetic] who required four insulin shots a day, was initially given access to needles, test strips and a glucometer…But…prison…[bureaucrats in Washington state soon started refusing to pay] for…insulin supplies…and…on 27 December [of last year], Farrar…was found lying on the ground…with blood coming from his mouth…he…was declared dead 20 minutes later…the prison had repeatedly neglected his health, including by denying him supplies that could have prevented his seizures, failing to check on him when he did not arrive to get his insulin shot, and responding too slowly to his final emergency…

Creepy Coppers

Just another typical and representative cop:

A Chesapeake [Virginia cop named]…Timothy M. Newton…was charged with more than 20 felony child pornography offenses [after an unknown party snitched on him]…

To Molest and Rape (#1275)

This just keeps getting worse:

[Typical and representative] Kansas City [cop]…Roger Golubski…[faces charges of conspiring with] Cecil Brooks, LeMark Roberson and Richard Robinson…[to run a violent pimping scheme] from 1996 to 1998…Brooks, Roberson and Robinson all…used physical beatings, sexual assault and threats to compel the young women to provide sexual services to men…Golubski…accepted [bribes] from Brooks, provided protection from law enforcement, and forcibly raped a[t least one] young woman…

 

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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Diary #647

November 22, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

One of the ways in which long, bright days are bad for my mental health is that they disrupt my sleep.  After a long day of anxiety, the last thing I want is for the sun to set so damned late that it’s been dark less than 3 hours when it’s time to go to bed.  My brain takes a while to wind down, and that’s even more true on very sunny days than on ordinary or overcast ones.  What that means is, before I started using cannabis to sleep, it might be 2 AM before I could get to sleep, and then I’d awaken about once an hour until maybe 7, after which I could forget sleeping any more.  Even with cannabis, my brain tends to race for a while after my head meets the pillow, and I wake up more often than is typical.  I consider it satisfactory if I wake up three times in a night, but in the summer, even with cannabis, it’s more often five or six times.  In autumn and winter, on the other hand, my brain feels calmer all day, and I don’t even start cooking dinner until all the chores are done and the sun is set.  Sometimes I even manage to fit my shower in before dinner, so I can sit down to eat nice and clean and relaxed, with no harsh sunlight streaming in the windows.  When bedtime comes, it’s already been dark for almost 8 hours; we turn off the heat before retiring, so I can wrap up in blankets to stay warm while breathing cool air.  It’s not unusual for me to wake up only twice, and on a few blessed occasions only once.  The sleep itself feels deeper and more restful, and I usually awaken about an hour after dawn feeling relatively content and ready to face the day.  Given what I’ve written here, and that I’ve often described sleep as the greatest of earthly pleasures, I think you can see why autumn would still be my favorite season absent all my other reasons for loving 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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Tweets for Long Nights

November 21, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

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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Links #646

November 20, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

This appears…to be another incident of senseless police violence.
–  Joel Sansone

This week’s video is something extremely unusual: a brand-new official video for a song released in 1966.  It was provided by Matt Welch, and the links above it by Dan Savage and Franklin Harris; Cop Crisis (x3); Popehat; and Lucy Steigerwald, in that order.  I stumbled onto the last one myself while reading another item.

From the Archives

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 (#1290)

November 19, 2022 by Maggie McNeill

Venereal disease was primarily an excuse to police women and reduce sexual opportunities for soldiers.  –  Eric Rogers

Bad Girls

Did they really think they’d get away with this?

An ex-Playboy model…has reportedly reached a plea deal despite maintaining her innocence in the [bludgeoning death of her sugar daddy]…California psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Burchard…[was] paying numerous bills [for]…Kelsey Turner…[to the tune of] over…$300,000…[yet] Judy Earp – the [victim’s conventional] girlfriend…[is in deep denial about] that…In March 2019, Burchard drove to Turner’s Las Vegas apartment – for which he had been paying the rent…[with the] inten[t] to break off the relationship…[then] on March 7, 2019, Burchard’s bludgeoned body was found stuffed in the trunk of [Turner’s Mercedes] near Lake Mead…Turner and her…boyfriend Jon “Logan” Kennison…[lived in the apartment with] Diana Pena…who pleaded guilty to being an accessory to murder in 2019…[and] testified that she witnessed Kennison viciously beat Burchard to death with a baseball bat…In June, Kennison pleaded guilty to second-degree murder with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit murder.  He was sentenced to between 18 and 45 years in prison…

License to Rape

“Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”:

Two Georgia women…were exposed to strangers…[during sexual molestation under the pretext of “]strip searches[“]…Dee Dee Estes [molested one]…woman…on the night of July 23, 2020…in plain view of the public after deputies [decid]ed [it would be fun to belch out the word]…drugs during a traffic stop.  “And she’s putting her fingers like inside me in the front, and then like up the backside of me”[besides penetrating the victim]’s private areas [without her consent, the rapist cop also forced] her [to] expose her breasts in front of male [pig]s and onlookers at a truck stop…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Extra-amusing given that Northern Ireland lives under the Swedish model:

A [cop was] arrested on suspicion of paying for sexual services [after his fellow cops ratted him out for] using his PSNI computer to contact escorts…His…identity is [being hidden by his superiors, unlike the identities of non-cops arrested for the same “crime”]…

The Face of Trafficking

Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths:

Three [Louisiana] children were forced to bake and sell brownies by their stepfather[,] who…[also] sexually abus[ed] them and us[ed] violence, including waterboarding, to keep them working seven days a week…instead of going to school…for three years…Darnell Fulton…also…sexually abus[ed] the children and [apparently pimped] them to other[s]…Fulton…agreed to a 35-year prison term and to pay more than $700,000 to his victims…the…younge[st of whom]…was [under]…12…at…the…[time]…He…us[ed] “violence, sexual abuse, withholding of food, degradation and intimidation” to [forc]e the children…[to] keep up with his daily sales quotas…the [abuse]…included…[forcing] them “get on their hands and knees on rice and stay in a push up or plank position for hours”…and…[beating] them with a belt [when they could no longer hold the position]…

Red Lamp

Modern military leaders like to pretend soldiers can be ordered to be asexual; those of a century ago tried to exploit soldiers’ frustrated libido:

The United States Government sought to sexually stimulate then frustrate its soldiers to prepare them for an unpopular conflict in Europe [by]…recruiting attractive canteen staff; inviting female civilians to closely supervised dances; disseminating alluring propaganda; pressurising troops to write to women back home; and detaining allegedly promiscuous women to prevent soldiers [“]wasting[“] energy…At the heart of this experiment was the Commission on Training Camp Activities (CTCA), a War Department-directed umbrella agency…[which] sought to control soldiers’ and women’s sex lives to prevent venereal infection and protect social morality in the US.  The CTCA has been portrayed as one of the last stands of an older generation of moral reformers against the onrush of a liberalizing sexual culture.  But Cambridge historian Eric Wycoff Rogers shows that the agency was far more interested in sexuality as a weapon…

The Cop Myth (#1052)

Cop cultists continue to deny reality no matter how much police violence and corruption is revealed:

…in 2020, Ricky Jones, a [typical and representative cop], jumped to his death from the Prince of Wales Bridge spanning the River Severn…He spent 26 years as a [violent thug for hire, so it’s no surprise]…he subjected his family to decades of domestic abuse.  After his death, Jones’s eldest daughter looked through his iPhone, hoping to get some insight into her father’s cruelty…WhatsApp and Facebook messages show Gwent police officers openly discussing the sexual harassment of junior female colleagues; racist, homophobic and misogynistic abuse; the leaking of sensitive police material; and corruption…Jones shared regular messages with his friend Clarke Joslyn, who [has a]…26 year…[history] of domineering, controlling and physically abusive behaviour…

The End of the Beginning (#1139) 

Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed:

…the state of Idaho [has] settled Doe v. Wasden, an ACLU lawsuit challenging enforcement of the state’s “Crime Against Nature” law.  The state required three men to register as sex offenders in Idaho for engaging in consensual oral and anal sex…The settlement…requires the state to remove the three men from the Idaho Sex Offender Registry and to create a policy for removing other individuals who may have similar claims…

 

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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