The Vermont Department for Children and Families went to extraordinary and illegal lengths to [abduct a newborn] from its mother…aided by a…[secret surveillance] program that monitors the pregnancies of multiple Vermonters, [provoking] a new lawsuit…[from] the…ACLU…[centering] the case of one mother, identified only as A.V., in which [bureaucratic busybodies]…used confidential medical information to [get a judge to grant permission to abduct] her daughter before she had even given birth…[including] a court order for the hospital to [violate her body by] perform[ing] a caesarean section [against her will]…DCF [abducted] the infant…immediately after she was born…only to have the child returned by court order months later…the [ordeal began when] A.V. temporarily moved from her…apartment to…a homeless shelter…[whose] executive director…[took it up on herself to report “]concerns about her mental health[” to]…DCF…[which] conducted an “assessment” of A.V…[including snooping into her] confidential [medical] records…without A.V.’s knowledge or participation…“Tragically, A.V.’s experience is not unique,” the suit reads. “She is only one of many expectant Vermonters who have been ensnared in DCF’s speculative surveillance and brazen intervention into their pregnancy and birthing plans”…
These wanking fantasies are so 2012, I checked the date on the story several times. Perhaps it fell down behind a file cabinet and when it was recently found, somebody decided to just print it anyway?
…the Biden administration [recently] proposed a rule that would effectively ban cigarettes by requiring a drastic reduction in nicotine content…to 0.7 milligrams of nicotine per gram of tobacco. That cap technically complies with a federal law that bars the FDA from banning tobacco products or “requiring the reduction of nicotine yields…to zero.” But the negligible amount of nicotine allowed under the rule would amount to both in practice…current smokers would be apt to inhale more deeply, take more or bigger puffs, or consume more cigarettes to get the nicotine dose to which they are accustomed, which would increase their exposure to the toxins and carcinogens in tobacco smoke…If “NNC cigarettes” are added to the list of proscribed drugs, we can expect many more examples of people entangled in the criminal justice system…it is unclear wh[at] Trump’s pick to run the FDA, Marty Makary…thinks about the nicotine cap…
As [forced-birth fanatic]s launch legal efforts to stop abortion pills from reaching women in states with bans, they are increasingly turning to one group with uniquely intimate and specific informationto help them find cases: [abusive] male sex partners of women who decided to end their pregnancies. The strategy [has] propelled a…lawsuit filed last month by [serial legal system abuser] Ken Paxton that cited first-hand information from an [abusive partner] to accuse a New York doctor of illegally providingabortion pills to a woman in the Dallas area…Paxton’s office…[i]s…searching for potential plaintiffs [for similar opportunistic lawsuits, and]…next month…Texas’s largest [forced-birth] organization [will] launch…an advertising campaign on Facebook and [Twitter] to reach the [abusive] husbands, boyfriends and sex partners of women who [want revenge on]…those who assisted the women in ending their pregnancies…The effort is the latest indication that, nearly three years after the fall of Roe v. Wade…[sociopath]s have remained largely stymied in their quest to [force women to give birth whether they like it or not so as to create more tax cattle for the State]…
Websites that host porn…or other…content [bureaucrats choose to point at while belching out the word “harmful”] must have “robust” age verification in place for UK users by July at the latest, Ofcom has [proclaimed]…services which host their own pornographic content “must begin taking steps immediately” to bring in age checks. Other “user-to-user” services, such as social media, which allow porn…and…other…content [politicians dislike], will have to enforce the age checks by July…the new [demands are] “the next step” in implementing the Online Safety Act, [but will not remotely be the last]…
A Black [cop is suing American airlines because] he was falsely accused of trafficking his wife, who is White…while on their way to…their honeymoon…Anthony Williams…and his wife…Katsiaryna Shasholka…were on a flight from Phoenix to Miami in September 2022 when…a [busybody] passenger accused Williams of human trafficking and reported him to airline employees…wh[o]…upon landing…falsely imprisoned…the [couple]…[who are also suing] the [busybody] passenger…and two airline employees [who enacted their creepy sexual fantasies against the plaintiffs]…
General Motors…and its subsidiary OnStar agreed not to disclose sensitive vehicle geolocation and driver behavior data to consumer reporting agencies for five years…[after it got out that GM] collected, used, and sold…[the] information from millions of vehicles…without notifying consumers and obtaining consent…agencies used the data to compile reports that insurance companies then…used to deny insurance and…raise rates…[as part of the settlement,] the company must [henceforth] obtain driver consent to collect data, and allow [car owners] to delete or limit data…
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!
It’s always weird to me to watch amateur women freak out whenever some famous man is caught using his power, wealth, or influence to obtain the kind of sex he craves, despite the fact that men in such positions always, virtually without exception, use their power, wealth, or influence that way. Yet somehow, amateurs seem committed to the irrational and dubious belief that some individual man they find attractive or admirable will be an exception to the rule. The problem is that women who have never done sex work really never stop being naive about male sexuality. Sex work teaches you that male politicians, teachers, doctors, scientists, engineers, clergymen, writers, artists, sportsmen, musicians, accountants, etc, etc, are all rather uncivilized where sex is concerned. But there’s little point in our trying to explain it to them, because most amateur women absolutely refuse to admit that whoring might actually grant some desirable skills that it’s difficult or impossible to gain otherwise. Suggest that other female-dominated professions such as nursing or teaching might grant unique perspective, and they’re good with that view. But say it about dirty-bad-icky harlotry, and they won’t have it, because it would interfere with their ability to look down on us regardless of their own education or situation. And so they’ll keep failing to be on guard around men with power, and keep being surprised when they abuse that power in the way powerful men always do.
The most disgusting aspect of witch-hunts is the way that everyone from the village idiot to the pillar of the community jumps on the bandwagon; the most horrifying aspect is the way in which anyone who refuses to participate in the hunt is implicated as a target, and the saddest aspect is the way in which innocents whom the hunters pretend to defend are actually victimized by them.
– “A Manufactured War”
The trafficking paradigm is an ugly fantasy which flies in the face of both reality and human nature. “Rhinoceros”
If “authorities” don’t like a woman’s choices they simply deny her agency and brand her a “victim”, then go looking for a “victimizer”. – “Profession of Faith”
I have come to the conclusion that statism rots the brain. – “Imagine the Sky”
As usual, politicians and the mainstream media are pretending that a disaster they helped create, born from an evil they planted…and have lovingly tended and fed…has absolutely nothing to do with them. – “Reap the Whirlwind“
[Two politicians] plan to introduce legislation…that would make Illinois the first state to fully decriminalize sex work. Equality Illinois and the Sex Worker Advisory Group…have spent more than three years advocating for this bill, which…is…sponsored by [politicians] Will Guzzardi…and…Celina Villanueva…[the law] would remove criminal penalties for adults engaging in consensual sex work, remove arrest and conviction records for sex workers and establish a sex workers’ bill of rights…When discussing possible opposition to the bill, Guzzardi said those who believe people should be punished and criminalized for engaging in sex work have a “downright nasty point of view…that we should [not] be endorsing as the General Assembly”…
A Texas man has been granted the ability to pursue a retaliatory discharge claim against his former employer, Sewell Lexus of Dallas…[in] a federal wrongful termination suit…the former sales manager was reportedly terminated after pornographic images of his wife were posted to Twitter, Instagram, PornHub, and Only Fans. These images were circulated among dealership employees and…he…was [supposedly] terminated because…”people don’t want to work with him”…
A[n] appeals court [has] ruled that a [Florida punishment] for [people] convicted [of some] sexual [crimes] to have the words “SEXUAL PREDATOR” on their driver’s licenses violates First Amendment rights…[because it] is compelled speech that is not narrowly tailored to meet the state’s goals of [enlist]ing the public [in persecution] of [these individuals]…Judge Scott Makar, in a 16-page majority opinion joined by Judge F. Rand Wallis, cited rulings that rejected Louisiana and Alabama laws similar to…Florida’s…
…a…wide range of U.S. [federal and state] government websites inadvertently direct…visitors to hardcore porn content…In some cases, the content…[makes fools] of the governments whose sites they have taken over. Pages…on the State of Louisiana’s official government site that now redirect to porn, for instance, don’t require visitors to provide proof-of-age…Spammers have in the past exploited the redirection functionalities of government websites to steer traffic to pornographic content — [unlike] government sites…[which actually] host…[such] content. But this recent wave of porn spam appears to be using a more complex technique: uploading to government pages rogue content that transports website visitors to malicious sites…
The U.S. Department of Labor has filed a federal lawsuit against [a Kansas strip club named] Pleasures…after an investigation…uncovered illegal wage practices…including unpaid wages, unauthorized deductions from tips, and an unusual clause forcing workers to reimburse the employer if litigation or investigations led to the recovery of lost wages…The lawsuit seeks back wages and an equal amount of liquidated damages for the 80 dancers…
A Utah…teacher [named Ricardo Prins] has fled the country after being charged with the rape of two teen students…[one of his victims] reported…[him and the principal responded by]…suspend[ing] her…[and restricting her to] online schooling…for three months[, dismissing the accusation as a “rumor”. But the cops felt differently]…and on December 15, the Utah County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation [and] the teacher…fled to Brazil…
…an Ohio woman [who was] wrongfully arrested and prosecuted for her pregnancy loss is [su]ing her nurses [for] conspiring with police to fabricate evidence against her…Brittany Watts…was…charged with “abuse of a corpse” [due to] miscarrying at home…[and] was put through absolute hell by prosecutors, police, local media and the hospital…while…in the midst of a life-threatening medical crisis…She was interrogated…while “tethered to her hospital bed with IVs”…[after] two nurses [named Connie Moschell and Jordan Carrino, who already knew Watts’ 21-week pregnancy was non-viable,] and a…[cop named Nicholas Carney invented a wild story, claiming]…that Watts had given birth to a viable baby and left it “in a bucket”…Using only police reports and prosecutor’s version of what happened, [local news sources then] claimed that a woman had killed a newborn by shoving it down a toilet…
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!
So we’re finally coming down to the end of Grace’s cancer treatment, and that’s a very good thing because it has really beat her up. She did quite well for the first few weeks, with far fewer side-effects than I expected, and even the lack of teeth gave her less trouble than I imagined it would. But we were warned it would get much worse in the second half, and boy was that true; on Saturday the 11th her throat started hurting very badly (before it hadn’t been nearly as serious), and she spent most of the next day in bed. Last week her appetite dropped off to practically nothing, partly because her throat hurts and partly because her taste buds are so damaged from the radiation that nearly everything tastes bad. The only exceptions seem to be milk/ice cream, chicken soup, and carbonated water (which she says soothes her throat), so I’m making her a lot of root beer floats. Last Tuesday her chemotherapy was cancelled because her platelet count had dropped below what is considered a safe level; it was not really a big surprise, because the oncologist told her at our initial meeting that might happen, and that it wasn’t cause for alarm. Today is her last scheduled chemo session, but of course it might also be called off if her body hasn’t yet bounced back. And one way or another, her last radiation treatment will be on the 30th. Then it’s more tests to see if the treatments were successful; I certainly hope so, because it’s going to take her time to recover from all this and get back to the point where she has to mind she doesn’t eat too much rather than too little.
Since the mad emperor is being re-crowned today, he commissioned a new official portrait which looks like this. He seems to believe it makes him look “tough” and “stern”, as evidenced by the creepy Freudian homoeroticism which suffuses his lackeys’ praise for the picture. Now, I’m not going to opine on what that asymmetric squint may betoken about his brain function; instead I’m going to share a number of pictures that I feel more accurately capture Trump’s real personality, rather than the image he wants to project.
For example, there’s this one,which displays both his weird proportions and his goofy awkwardness, and shows his mouth in its typical position: wide open and emitting a stream of noxious hot air. That vaguely-obscene flytrap is even more horrifyingly agape in the shot below, which also showcases his impeccable sartorial taste and the way his henchmen worship him; it’s followed by another shot in which he appears to be enjoying some unlucky insect which wandered in, and also really illustrates the healthy color and virile countenance of which his followers are so enamored. The third arrangement is a juxtaposition which, I think, effectively illustrates his unmistakable animal magnetism.
Then there’s this GIF, which I think truly captures his self-control, organizational skills, and vision for the US. And obviously, no collection of Trump pictures could be complete without one in which he appears with the people who helped put him on the throne with their “Pied Piper strategy“.
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!
Houston [cop] Ricardo Corral [has been found] not legally liable for crashing his p[igmobile] into an…[innocent bystander’s car because] he was in hot pursuit of someone apparently considered a dangerous villain: an adult man who sought to pay a consenting adult woman for sex…[The victim,] Ruben Rodriguez…sued, [because] both he and his passenger suffered injuries for which Corral should be held liable. [But] the Texas Supreme Court has dismissed the case, saying Corral is protected by [the magic spell of] “official immunity”…Because of this, and because bad driving is part of police chases, he is not legally liable for the accident he caused [because an adult man was] offering to pay a…[sow cosplay]ing as an adult sex worker. Police put in danger the lives of countless people in order to arrest someone for trying to have consensual but non-state-sanctioned sex…
A church leader in…Florida has been arrested…[for] possession of child pornography after…Microsoft [reported it]…being uploaded…by a Bing Image Search user…Frank Gough II…was [raid]ed on Thursday, January 9…and [cops stole] multiple computer storage devices found…to hold more than 100 files of child porn…[some] of…[kids as young as] three..
A [typical and representative Pennsylvania vice cop named]…Jason Krasley…[has been] arrested…[for aggravated] rape and involuntary sexual servitude for crimes [he] committed…between 2011 and 2015…[his accomplice, fellow vice cop] Kevin Weaver…also was charged with the same crimes [but] was rewarded with a paid vacation]…in 2021 [Krasley] went to work for the SafeSport Center, which fired him in November shortly after learning he was charged in a separate case for…stealing $5,500 from a drug bust…The new arrest [demonstrates that]…a [“]robust vetting process[” is anything but that when the subject is a cop. Safesport]…was established in 2017 to deal with sex-abuse cases in Olympic sports [at all]…level[s, but…since its “]investigation team[” is recruited from cop shops, they predictably cover for each other]…Krasley [also] faces [charges for]…kidnapping…[anal rape] and intimidation of a witness…
Four pieces of art were removed from the walls of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth…after [politicians beshat themselves while vomiting the words “]child pornography[” in chorus with]…The Dallas [Yellow P]ress…the [non-sexual photos] are part of an exhibition called “Diaries of Home”…by Virginia-born photographer Sally Mann…[only] a handful [of the 21 photos] featured her naked children…[they were taken] more than 30 years [ago and have been exhibited]…across the country and around the world…the [current brouhaha was intentionally stirred up by The Yellow P]ress, which is owned by billionaire Monty Bennett, a…Republican mega donor. The…website…[also] published [disgusting] comments…[from] Tarrant County Judge Tim O’Hare[, who apparently found the images sexy]…
A case that came before the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week involves a[n entrapment scheme] conducted by Massachusetts state cops in 2021. The [cops, fantasy role-play]ing as adult sex workers, posted [fraudulent] ads online and arrested people who responded…the[n]…indicted th[em]…on sex trafficking charges…punishable by at least 5 years in prison (without eligibility for probation, parole, or work release) and a possible 20 years, plus a potential fine of up to $25,000. The five defendants in [Commonwealth v.] Garafalo…pushed back against the charges, filing a motion to dismiss them in 2022. State Judge Maynard Kirpalani agreed…[saying,] “the woman in the advertisements was a fictitious individual created by law enforcement, and there was…evidence that any of the Defendants knowingly enabled or caused…another person to engage in commercial sexual activity.” The state appealed [and lost]…so [it] appealed again…
…a [Nevada] judge has ruled that [cops] cannot [abuse] a federal program to circumvent state laws designed to protect property owners. The ruling effectively closes what the Nevada Highway Patrol…argued was a legal loophole, allowing [cops] to s[teal] property…and [give] it [to the feds, who then refund] 80% of [it to the criminal cops]…The case stemmed from the 2021 [robbery] of retired Marine Stephen Lara’s life savings…[because cops claimed] Lara was following a semi-truck too closely…Lara fought for [year]s to reclaim his money…[until] the court [finally]…concluded that Nevada’s civil forfeiture laws are mandatory, leaving no room for federal workarounds…IJ Attorney Brian Morris [said] “This decision is a wake-up call to other states that have allowed police to skirt their laws by pretending that the federal government’s ‘equitable sharing program’ is a legal loophole”…
Chen Jinping…of New York [City has]…pleaded guilty…to conspiring to act as an illegal agent of the [Chinese] government…[by] operating an undeclared [Chinese] police station…in lower Manhattan…[an act which constituted] “a clear affront to American sovereignty”…said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen…
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!
Not to mention that being restricted to idiotic, simplistic 18th-century notions of "right" and "left" reduces all political thought and commentary to a second-grade level.
Finding "trending topics" in my margin this morning was like finding a big cat turd on the kitchen floor. Luckily, a "sweep this shit away" button was included.
"As Attorney General, I will not permit steroidal Oklahoma thugs to face criminal prosecution for conduct adhering the state principle of violence toward all minorities who fail to abase themselves and unquestioningly obey state actors."
I sometimes wonder what kind of abuse it takes to reduce a human mind to a collectivist one. In darker moods, I assume it's a disease of the soul itself.
In real life, I was 25 from the time I was about 15 until the time I was about 35. Professionally, I was 28 from 33 to 40, then aged about 1 year for every 2 until 2015, when I turned 49.
The real reason for this is not "AI", but that most teachers are lazy thinkers who predictably reward certain statements and conclusions which can be tracked and tabulated by machine learning algorithms, rather than rewarding actual thinking ML systems cannot parrot.
Some of us warned y'all about allowing chief executives to govern by monarchical diktat by declaring "emergencies".Y'all were all for it when the executives were on "your" schoolyard team.
Reporters: please stop saying a law is "meant to" do such-and-such when it's obvious it was never ACTUALLY intended to do any such thing, but rather to convince the gullible that it was.The phrase you're looking for is, "the law was PRETENDED to do such-and-such".
He "looked like" a hypocrite for the simple reason that he *is* a hypocrite; it kinda goes with the territory. Republics are like cesspools: the biggest chunks float to the top.
Human beings are not perfectible, and attempts to threaten and beat vice out of them do vastly more harm than good. – “Harm Reduction”
The easiest and most subtle means of social control is simply to establish so many complex, broad, vague, mutually contradictory and intrusive laws that every single person is in violation of at least some of them at any given time.
– “Universal Criminality”
There is nothing “shocking”, weird or even terribly unusual about an educated, accomplished woman doing sex work. – “Pearls Firmly Clutched”
Advertisers are sneaky, unscrupulous creatures, and though their techniques have improved dramatically since the days when hucksters hawked snake oil, wonder soaps, and electric corsets their adherence to factuality has not.
– “Caveat Emptor“
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