The Honest Courtesan

[Qatar’s] Preventive Security Department…[are a kind of] unhinged mafia that go arresting people…just on the suspicion of them being gay.  –  Dr. Nasser Mohamed

Rough Trade

What kind of garbage uses attacks on women as an opportunity to belch out slurs against the victims?

[Cops claim they want] to find a man…[who is a] seri[al rapist of]…sex workers in the east Hollywood area…[yet their press release also calls the victims’ work] “human trafficking’…the [rapist pretends to be a client to]…lure…[women] into his vehicle…the[n]…drives to [a secluded] area…and [violently rapes them at gunpoint]…the man…may use the name Mainer or Maynor and has tattoos on both arms. Also, he has sometimes had an “M” shaved on the side of his head…He was described as 25-35 years old, about 5-feet-8 inches tall, with black hair and brown eyes…and…drives a newer-model, four-door sedan, possible a Honda, which is dark in color.  The vehicle may have tinted windows and a…spoiler…

The Punitive Mindset (#829) 

The minds of federal prison bureaucrats are just as narrow and mean as those of state prison bureaucrats, and just as pointlessly cruel as those of screws:

…the federal Bureau of Prisons…bans D&D and other roleplaying games…[just as they] are widely banned in state prison systems under the dubious rationale that they present a security threat or encourage gang behavior…it…illustrate[s] how counterproductive and dumb prison book bans can be.  Of all the things you could be doing in prison, D&D is one of the better and less offensive ways to pass the time.  It’s social, encourages teamwork and empathy, and as one former incarcerated man told me, gives “the vilified an opportunity to be the ‘Good Guy’ that the world in which we live rarely does”…

Presumption of Guilt (#843)

There’s very little point in actually quoting any of this revolting concoction of badge-licking, police-state cheerleading, demonization of privacy, and frantic wanking to “sex trafficking” fantasies and other infantilizing filth.  It is exactly what it appears to be: more propaganda for the Establishment’s wet dream of total financial surveillance.  For decades now, authoritarians have tried to devise a way to sell the hordes of useful idiots on their schemes to completely eliminate cash or other anonymous financial transactions, so governments can monitor, control, and bleed revue from even the smallest exchange of value and even completely cripple the ability of “undesirables” to engage in any financial activity at all.  The only thing of interest here, beside the remarkable depravity of Forbes’ editorial position, is that the magazine has such a low opinion of its readers’ critical faculties that it’s willing to specifically demonize a service whose name clearly reveals what its creators intended it to be an online analog for: Cash.  And in so doing, it “says the quiet part loud”, as the young people put it.

Monsters (#847) 

All around the world, monsters claim the “right” to persecute and torture sexual minorities:

 Qatar’s laws criminalise LGBTQ people…and homosexuality is punishable by imprisonment and lashings under sharia law…LGBT…Qatari[s tell]…of entrapment using dating-apps — cat-fishing gay men and luring them into a honeytrap to arrest them.  Of violence, including torture, and gang rape [by cops].  Of imprisonment, solitary confinement, and deportations.  And of far-reaching online surveillance…that renders LGBT people fearing every connection to someone they do not already know…There is only one publicly out gay Qatari in the world: Dr Nasser Mohamed who…[now lives in] San Francisco…[and works] with Human Rights Watch…“Their biggest targets are feminine gay men and transgender woman,” he says.  “Because it’s visible.”  Even subtle indications of gender identity or sexuality can lead to arrest…[often via] fake dates [like American cops set up with sex workers they wish to entrap]…

The Widening Gyre (#1266)

Even though neither word appears in the article, it’s obvious this woman’s panic attack was rooted in the “fentanyl” and “sex trafficking” hysterias:

A Houston [woman scared herself into a panic attack and]…spent a night in the hospital…because [she believed internet scary tales about] a napkin [she found on] her car door…[because she had read the stories] she grabbed it with the tips of her long fingernails, threw it away and went back inside to wash her hands.  [But she was already obsessed with the idea that the napkin might contain Magic Sex Trafficking Insta-fentanyl, so she imagined]…a tingly sensation in her fingers…She [had an anxiety attack, feeling] like she couldn’t breathe and quickly became light-headed…Hysterical, the couple couldn’t “think straight,” she said, and struggled to find the nearest hospital…where she spent just over six hours as doctors checked her vitals and blood pressure, gave her an IV, took a urine sample and ran a CAT scan to determine if she was having a stroke.  [In typical moral-panicker fashion, she] took to Instagram the next day to warn women to be safe.  Her video went viral…[giv]ing her [the attention she so desperately craved]…and…alarm[ing] many [other] women, who labeled it a kidnapping attempt…

You Were Warned (#1266)

It’s a relief when courts choose to rule that the obviously-true is true:

Reddit cannot be sued for sex trafficking if it didn’t knowingly permit sex trafficking.  That’s the gist of a recent ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.  The case…was brought by [ambulance-chasers who claim that]…Reddit was not quick enough in [removing photos when informed the subjects were underage, and that]…this [somehow] made Reddit complicit in a sex trafficking venture.  In an October 24 decision, 9th Circuit justices disagreed…[due to] Section 230…FOSTA—carved out an exception to Section 230 for claims involving sex trafficking.  But no one was quite sure how wide that exception was…

Above the Law (#1287)

The predictable result of giving violent, aggressive men power over women:

A [typical and representative porcine creature] pleaded guilty…to…a…civil rights [charge for a violent rape]…Rogeric Hankins…was working as a [thug assigned to transport human beings like animals from one cage to another]…when he and a[nother member of his gang]…picked up a[n innocent woman, not convicted of any crime,] in Olympia, Washington, to take her to…St. Paul, Minnesota, where a federal warrant for [enjoying herself in ways the rulers disapprove of] had been issued…[after] picking up and dropping off several male [prisoners] along the way…they stopped at a gas station in Joplin, [Missouri on April 3, 2020]…the woman was the only [prisoner] left…[so] Hankins [used a bath]room…[stop as an opportunity to drag] her into [a filthy] men’s room and [rape her orally and vaginally]…in…[a] stall…

As often happens, the government has chosen to hide this dangerous predator’s picture so other women won’t know what he looks like.

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