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In the News (#1285)

Sex trafficking stings often serve as a general dragnet for petty offenses.  –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Innocence Never Had

To cops, sex workers can only be victims or criminals:

Two 17-year-old girls were arrested as part of a “human trafficking” operation in Volusia County, Florida…18 people [in all] were arrested…[on] charges including prostitution, drug possession, and probation violations…[oddly, the sheriff actually admitt]ed that “what they were doing was prostitution—they were doing it willingly…they both went to great lengths and showed us things that they’re doing this because they want to do it, they’re not doing it because they were forced to do it…One of [the girls] had an outstanding warrant for her arrest” and [so] was…[locked in a cage like a stray dog], while the other “was returned to her father” [whom she had apparently run away from]…It’s rare for police departments to admit that they arrest teenagers for prostitution in the first place…and authorities almost never acknowledge that teenagers may sell sex for myriad reasons, not only because they’ve been abducted and forced into it…So it’s actually somewhat refreshing to see the sheriff in this case be open about what really went down (the teens were arrested) and not try to overplay the heroics by insisting that his office saved children from sex trafficking…


If Men Were Angels

Oh look, it’s another “youth pastor”:

A [typical and representative South Carolina] youth pastor…sexually abus[ed] a teenage boy for more than two years…Michael Paul Keech…[was] charged with…[offenses] stretching from July 2019 to February 2022…[when] a family member of the…victim reported signs of the abuse to [the cops]…

To Molest and Rape

This paper copsucks so hard, it even puts the word “rape” in scare quotes:

A Stockton [California cop raped at least]…three women…Nicholas Bloed [was sacked by]…the Stockton Police Department…[after he enjoyed] about five months…paid [vacation] while [other cops were trying to figure out if they could cover up his crimes]…Bloed…repeated[ly]…pulled [women] over, [sexually] harassed and sexually violated…[them, one of them] for several years…Dan Gilleon, the…attorney representing the three women, has described [the rapes committed by] Bloed…as “rape”…

Morality Lessons (#1133) 

This unconstitutional bill failed in over a dozen states before passing in Utah:

A…Pennsylvania [politician] has introduced a [copycat] bill mandating default “porn filters” on phones and computers sold in the state…Jim…Gregory, whose background as a TV sports journalist does not seem to involve any neuroscience expertise, claims that these unspecified “porn filters” would “shield children from the harmful effects pornographic material can have on developing brains”…

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#1185)

Some reporters still refuse to grasp that nobody is going to give expensive edibles to your spawn for free:

The Pennsylvania state police want parents to [believe the stupid scary tale that]…your child might receive [THC or Psilocybin edibles] while trick-or-treating this Halloween…These products could be confused [by morons] with candy and accidentally distributed to children…PSP is not aware of any incidents where these products were distributed to children but [wants to whip up fear to justify their bloated budget]…

But while Pennsylvania cops admit their stories have no basis in reality, Alabama cops are willing to blatantly lie to whip up hysteria:

Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson said he was six years old when he went to a trick-or-treat fair with his mom…[and] he was forced by a stranger to each [sic] his candy…Brunson recalled his doctor telling his parents the candy he tasted was laced with…LSD.  The sheriff said he was hospitalized and was unconscious for just tasting this candy.  He [also claims]…his department sees drugs that look just like candy and even sweets with razor blades in them…

There has literally never been a case of a kid getting drugs or a razor blade in trick-or-treat, so if his department has “seen” that it was in their own sick imaginations.

The Cop Myth (#1262)

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

A Gonzales [Louisiana cop] who…beat…his [wife also]…bragged that he would get away with [it]…Michael Britt…was arrested…for…domestic abuse…includ[ing]…repeatedly kick[ing] the victim in the groin and…chok[ing] her.  The victim told [cops] that she’s been in a “violent relationship” with Britt for over a decade….[but] felt “stuck in her situation”…because [she knew] “cops [routinely get]…away with domestic violence”…

Thought Control (#1268)

Apparently, I was destined to fight censors regardless of my career path:

In the name of “curriculum transparency,” Florida…has…hastily assembled [a] censorship council…[which will attempt to indoctrinate] public school librarians to abide by new restrictions…the council was…staffed under suspicious circumstances, with the state Education Department ignoring its own call for official candidates from local school districts and instead filling most of the slots with [pro-censorship] activists…in Brevard County…the department went with…Michelle Beavers…[h]ead…[of] the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a [pro-censorship group at the forefront of this year’s book-burning crusade]…Meanwhile, censorship measures that initially targeted school libraries were extended to individual teachers’ classroom collections, which must now “be reviewed by a [functionary of the State to ensure ideological compliance with Party teachings]”…

 

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!

Day of the Dead 2022

Every year on this day for the past 12 years, I have written about the inevitability and goodness of Death, and reminded my readers that “…every single thing in the Cosmos is mortal, and will pass away in its time.  [Organisms and empires alike] rise, thrive, decline, and fall, to be replaced by younger ones which then decline and fall in their time…crumbling into dust and passing first into memory, then legend, and eventually beyond the horizon of sentient knowledge.”  That includes this tradition; I have, I think, already said enough in the past, and you can find an index of those in last year’s post for the day.  I do, however, wish to add one bittersweet thought:  Though all things must pass, none are so ephemeral as those good times with good friends that, in retrospect, seem almost magical.

Halloween 2022


Happy Halloween, dear readers, and Blessed Be!

Links #643

I’m going to blow your fucking brains out.  –  “Deputy” Rodriguez

It’s been a few years since YouTube showed me an interesting Halloween video, so I was quite pleased to be offered this one last week!  The links above it were provided by C.J. Ciaramella, Cop Crisis (x3), Missy Mariposa, and Walter Olson, 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!

In the News (#1284)

One obvious hole in the…[“drug treat” legend] is that drugs tend to cost more than candy.  –  Joel Best

King of the Hill

The first “King of the Hill” claim I’ve seen in almost three years:

 [A rescue industry group called] Reflection Ministries hosted [a propaganda session it labeled a “]human trafficking summit[“, in which professional “]survivors[” claimed] the Permian Basin is in the top five areas for most trafficked individuals throughout the United States…

The Permian Basin is a largely-rural area of West Texas; its only sizeable population cluster is the Midland-Odessa SMSE, with a total population of 320,513 over an area of 2,720 sq mi (118/sq mi, approximately the state average for Texas).  Click on the link for other cities & states claiming to be in the “top five”.

Buried Truth

Not a specific McNeill’s Law case, but adjacent:

A GOP candidate running for an Arizona college district’s governing board was arrested on a charge of public sexual indecency after a…[fellow cop] caught him masturbating in his truck near a preschool. Randy Kaufman was…[a screw] for 27 years…[and claimed] he didn’t know there was a preschool just feet away…In a Facebook post from May, Kaufman said he wanted “our children protected [from] the progressive left”…

Prudesville (#1012) 

Not an especially satisfactory resolution:

…Everett, Washington…passed a law prohibiting quick service food and drink peddlers from showing off certain body parts…The city didn’t even pretend to tie the law to food safety, instead c[laiming that “women who dress like sluts cause rape”]…A group of bikini baristas working suedcalling it a matter of women’s rights…the law…[also invent]ed a new crime of facilitating lewd conduct, to target the owners of bikini barista establishments…Now, a judge has finally ruled…that Everett’s dress code is unconstitutional because it violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.  [Judge Ricardo] Martinez rejected the baristas’ argument that the dress code violated their right to free expression.  And he let stand the city’s expanded definition of lewd conduct and criminalization [thereof, claiming]…that [stopping women from making money in ways politicians dislike]…is…an important government interest…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1248) 

Frogs, meet scorpion:

A China-based team at TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, planned to use the TikTok app to monitor the personal location of some specific American citizens…The team primarily conducts investigations into potential misconduct by current and former ByteDance employees.  But in at least two cases, the Internal Audit team also planned to collect TikTok data about the location of a U.S. citizen who had never had an employment relationship with the company…it is unclear from the [leaked] materials whether data about these Americans was actually collected; however, the plan was for a Beijing-based ByteDance team to obtain location data…in…[order] to surveil individual American citizens, not to target ads or any…other purpose…

To Molest and Rape (Rapist Roundup)

“Police explorer” programs are nothing but grooming schemes for predatory cops:

A 17-year-old in Florida was part of a [grooming] program for [predatory cops, yet somehow everyone was shocked when]…a [cop] sexually abused [her]…Matthew Allen Anderson…is charged with sexual battery…

To Molest and Rape (#1278)

I’m sure if they really “investigate”, they’ll find multiple underage victims:

An investigation is underway [because a typical and representative Houston cop]…sexually assault[ed] a child…Paul Fernandez has not been charged but was terminated from his role…supervising Internal Affairs investigations…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1282)

The stupider the belief, the harder it is to debunk:

…TSA agents [recently] discovered around 12,000 fentanyl pills in a passenger’s carry-on bag…smuggled in boxes and packaging of well-known candy brands, like Whoppers, Skittles, and SweeTarts.  [Cops and bureaucrats] quickly seized this detail as a reason to warn parents to be on the lookout for fentanyl pills in their children’s Halloween candy…Even though the pills seized during this week’s drug bust at the L.A. airport were all light blue, the fact that they were smuggled in candy boxes has allowed government officials and the media to piggyback on recent “rainbow fentanyl” fearmongering… “Stories about contaminated treats are best understood as contemporary legends,” writes Joel Best, a prominent researcher of “Halloween sadism…My data goes back to 1958, and…I can’t find any evidence that any child has ever been killed or seriously injured by a contaminated treat picked up in the course of trick-or-treating”…

 

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 very much!

Annex 87

Gas-powered tankless heaters need to be vented outside the house, so we bought a model which could be entirely installed outside.  And the best place to install it was on the north porch, where it can be outside and yet protected from the elements.  You may notice the gas line hasn’t yet been hooked up; unless something goes wrong, the propane service guy is supposed to be here to hook it up today.  And once everything has been pressure-tested and proven sound, we’re going to wrap the pipes (these are the same lines visible in last week’s photo of the plumbing in the basement); I hope to also get skirting in place along the basement’s northern exposure, because even though it rarely gets cold enough here to actually endanger the pipes, it would be rather stupid to let the water in the pipes lose heat on its way to the shower (or the heater, for that matter).  In the past week we’ve also hooked up the plumbing in the shower, and we’re getting ready to lay the mortar bed pretty soon; I probably bought more bags than I need, but there was nothing on the bags about how much volume of finished mortar each bag yields, so I’d rather have to return some than run out in the middle of the project.

Back Issue #112

No normal person wants to control what other people think, and no sane person could believe that he can control what anyone else thinks.  –  “Thought Control

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

In the News (#1283)

Conflating…sex work with sex trafficking is not only obtuse, but has deeply harmful consequences.  –  Savannah Sly and Diane Goldstein

Change a Few Words

Savannah Sly and Diane Goldstein of LEAP question why sex work is still persecuted while drug restrictions are being loosened:

On October 8, President Biden pardoned thousands of people convicted of simple marijuana possession.  In doing so, he took a step toward undoing the harms of…a notorious era of mass criminalization that has caused untold damage to our communities.  This historic, if limited, moment is worthy of celebration.  But it throws into sharp relief how the tools of criminalized prohibition continue to wreak havoc on marginalized communities, particularly in the realm of sex work…Harmful morality policing punishes drug use and poverty, fosters corruption and promotes the investigation of other victimless “crimes” like sex work, as both of our organizations, New Moon Fund and the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, have recognized…

Monsters

This is some seriously warped behavior:

…Buti Sashi…was armed with a large knife when he went to the homes of [transgender] sex workers…[he had] arranged to meet…at [Dublin] apartments.  In the first attack on the night of May 26, 2017, Sashi began hitting the victim on the face and body before cutting her with the knife.  He demanded sex and [rap]ed her before stealing her mobile phone and laptop…[and leaving her with] a fracture to her left jaw and to an eye socket bone…a month later, on June 28, Sashi and another man forced their way into the flat of another transgender sex worker.  Sashi was again carrying a large knife and both men began beating the victim and [stole] two mobile phones from her.  When a housemate tried to help [her]…the men attacked him, breaking his jaw and cutting him twice with the knife.  They [then robbed him of]…his phone, laptop and €300 in cash…Sashi…has…previous convictions…for…the violent robbery of a taxi driver in August 2014…[and] for assault of a sex worker and theft from sex workers [in 2017]…

Business As Usual

If only there were a concise term for “forced into sex”:

A [typical and representative] Hernando County [Florida cop]…forced a person [to submit to rape] by threatening to arrest them if they refused…Zachary Carter [committed the crime at least twice]…The news release…does not specify a gender of the person Carter [raped]…

Given that this is Florida, my guess is that the reason the cops are playing coy about gender is that the victim was a trans woman.  And given the circumstances, and that he was able to find her twice, she is probably a sex worker (which is why I chose this heading).

To Molest and Rape (#920)

When this monster was first arrested, he was reported to be merely a serial stalker:

A Perth jury that asked for urgent counselling because of the “sickening and confronting” material they were having to view has convicted a [typical and representative West Australian cop]…of drugging, [rap]ing and indecently recording 13 women…Adrian Trevor Moore…was once [convic]ted…of 87 offences…committed over a 12-year period…He met most of the women through online dating sites such as Tinder and RSVP, and he used the police computer system to [pry into their private business]…Moore readily admitted being interested in BDSM and “dominant/submissive” role-playing, and [claim]ed that [the bitches were all lying and they wanted it anyway]…

Surplus Women (#1153)

Cops can’t be bothered to investigate the disappearance of sex workers, especially black sex workers:

…a 22-year old Black woman escaped…after being kidnapped, [rap]ed, and held captive in [a] basement…[i]n Excelsior Springs, Missouri…[by a] man [named] Timothy Haslett Jr…She…[was] kept…in a small room in the basement that [Haslett] had built…restrained in handcuffs on her wrists and ankles…she was able to get free when he left to take his child to school…[but still] had a metal collar around her neck with a padlock, and duct tape around her neck…[she had been held captive since] the beginning of September…Bishop Tony Caldwell [and others]…made reports of numerous murdered and missing Black women…who were missing were being taken from an area on Prospect Avenue in Kansas City…[but] the Kansas City Police Department…called the…[reports] “completely unfounded rumors,” dismissing the concerns.  Local news outlets [obediently] followed suit, [as usual.  The woman who escaped]…said her friends “did not make it out” and were killed by…Haslett…

Micromanagement (#1260)

Any information you give to the State can and will be used against you:

Texas public school systems are set to distribute DNA and fingerprint identification kits for K-8 students to parents [foolish and frightened enough] to participate…The cards are intended to be kept by guardians [and can be subpoenaed by]…law enforcement in order to potentially [connect relatives to crimes, but they’re being sold to the gullible as being used to] help find missing or trafficked children…

Torture Chamber (Rapist Roundup)

The State refuses to call this what it is:

A jury has convicted a [typical and representative Rhode Island screw of two rapes]…Collins Umoh…was found guilty of [a lesser] count…[invented especially for cops, so]…he…face[s a mere]…five years in prison and/or a fine of $10,000 [for multiple rapes]…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

Diary #643

One of the things I like about living on the Olympic peninsula is that the seasons are generally well-behaved and arrive and depart on schedule.  But this year has been an exception; last winter arrived a month early and overstayed its welcome by a month, and now summer has finally departed after hanging around for a month longer than it was supposed to.  On Friday we finally got some proper autumn weather, then on Saturday it turned decidedly cold so I decided it was time to put up the shutters.  Unfortunately, Jae has been recovering from foot surgery and thus has fallen behind on her contributions, one of them being painting the aforementioned shutters.  But she did one side on Sunday and the other yesterday, and I’m going to get them up this week as soon as I have help (it’s a two-person job); that’ll keep the winter winds out until we take them down again in early spring.  The atrium will still be distinctly chilly until we get the wood-burning stove in, but even before then it’ll be a lot better than the ice hazard it turned into last winter.

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

I’ve always been dedicated to the idea of this as the time of year for spooky fun.  So every year I collect all the spooky, creepy or scary content from the previous year into one place just before Halloween.  If you’ve come to my blog in the past year, or don’t remember previous editions, they are “Trick or Treat”, “More Trick or Treat“, “Tricks and Treats“, “This Trick’s a Treat”, “Tricky Treats“, “A Trickle of Treats”, “Tricking and Treating“, and “Tricks for the Treat“.  Oddly, though there were enough spooky or Halloweeny links to justify collecting them, the only horror, death or Halloween-themed column of the past year was “Books of the Dead“, and the only creepy or spooky-fun video appeared in Links #591.  Here’s hoping for a better collection next year!

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!