…sexual abuse [is a pattern among typical and representative]…members of Trinity Church in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho…John “Beau” Summerlin…a founding member and former deacon…has been charged with [molesting teen girls]…between 2012 and 2015…the victim first disclosed the abuse to her mother in 2015 [but] pastor…Stuart Bryan [swept it under the rug]…Summerlin [fled to] Mississippi and [was later arrested there]…Josiah Bryan, son of [the] pastor…[raped] multiple siblings…rep[ea]tedly…between 2005 and 2010…and…was [recently] arrested…in Texas…
For researchers…data [from surreptitious auto surveillance] is a “game changer”…Unlike…data sold to the insurance industry [without the victims’ permission], the data that researchers see is [supposedly] anonymized…But…Even if the data is [claimed by busybodies to] be…used for the public good, [consumer advocate Jen] Caltrider [points out the obvious fact that] drivers should know it is being collected and have an easy way to stop it from happening, because…“Anonymized data is never anonymous, especially when location is included…people aren’t used to getting in their car and thinking they need to play with the settings to protect their privacy”…
Some Motorola automated license plate reader surveillance cameras are live-streaming video and car data to the unsecured internet where anyone can watch and scrape them…a privacy advocate then developed a tool that automatically scans the exposed footage for license plates, and dumps that information into a spreadsheet, allowing someone to track the movements of others in real time…these ALPRs are deployed all over the United States by cities and police departments…and…many of them are misconfigured to stream to the open internet rather than a private network…the[ir]…IP addresses can be found using the Internet of [Shit] search engine Censys…So far, roughly 170 unencrypted ALPR streams have been found…
Each time you see a targeted ad, your personal information is exposed to thousands of advertisers and data brokers through a process called “real-time bidding”…the most privacy-invasive surveillance system that you’ve never heard of…The ads you see are the winners of milliseconds-long auctions that expose your personal information to thousands of companies a day…Bid requests containing more personal data attract higher bids, so websites and apps are financially motivated to harvest as much of your data as possible…As a result, entire businesses have emerged to harvest and sell data from online advertising auctions…RTB is [also] regularly exploited for [illegal, warrantless] government surveillance…For example, the data broker Near Intelligence collected data about more than a billion devices from RTB auctions and sold it to the U.S. Defense Department. Mobilewalla sold bidstream data to another data broker, Gravy Analytics, whose subsidiary, Venntell, likewise has sold location data to the FBI, ICE, CBP, and other government agencies…Patternz, another surveillance tool built on bidstream data, was advertised to security agencies worldwide as a way to track people’s locations…
An Ohio [cop] has [su]ed a sheriff’s office [for abduct]ing her young child…and then spreading…explicit images of her from her cellphone…Miranda Brothers…[was harassed starting] on January 1, 2024…using the [excuse that she had supposedly left] the child alone with a registered sex offender…The child was [abducted by cops] and Brothers was charged with child endangerment…the[n cops stole]…her phone and…shared [her nudes] with…the [rest of the herd] and “potentially further”…
Instagram has begun testing a feature in which [Facebook computers] will automatically generate images of users in various situations and put them into that user’s feed. One Redditor…told 404 Media that at one point he had uploaded selfies of himself into Instagram’s “Imagine” feature, which is [Facebook’s] image generation feature…“Once you access that feature and upload a selfie to edit, you’ll start seeing these ads pop up with auto-generated images with your likeness”…A [Facebook mouthpiece said] the images are not “ads,” but are a new feature…[Facebook] has begun testing live…“You may see images…created just for you (based on your interests or current trends),” an announcement post from September read…The Reddit post…came on the same weekend that [Facebook’s computer]-generated profiles went viral and were ultimately deleted from the platform. [Zuckerberg and his henchgeeks have convinced themselves] that people want to be shown more and more [computer]-generated content and [are] finding new ways to [cram] people’s feeds [full of electronic masturbation]…
Five…Massachusetts…[students lured] a man to the Assumption University campus in a plot [to attack him] that…was inspired by the television show To Catch a Predator and a fad on TikTok. The students were part of a [mob] that chased the man from a campus building after he was invited there by a student on the dating app Tinder…[members of the mob fantasized that] the man [was] a sexual predator..[even though] the woman who invited him to the campus, Kelsy Brainard…[truthfully] said on her Tinder profile that she was 18…The [mob]…grabbed him and blocked him from leaving the room…[but] he escaped, and…[fled in] his car…[instigators] Easton Randall…Isabella Trudeau…Joaquin Smith..[Kelsey] Brainard…and Kevin Carroll [have been charged with crimes including kidnapping, conspiracy, and assault]…
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!
Once the holidays were over, the adjuster got back in touch with me; Grace had found a body shop that would do the work (apparently some don’t like working on older cars), so I called them and we triangulated with the claims agent to be sure everything was lined up. The shop carried rental cars, so unlike last time I was simply able to drop my car off and drive away in a rental. Now all I need to worry about is if the total costs exceed the book value of my car, because the insurance company won’t go higher than that, so then I’d need to figure out what could be done for what they were willing to pay. I hope it won’t come to that; its book value is still fairly high, but I have no idea how much body work costs these days (even though the damage is purely cosmetic). And I’d like to be back in my own car at the earliest possible opportunity; driving this thing feels like trying to walk on numb feet, in that I feel kinda out of touch with the car and the road (I hope that makes sense; I can’t think of better words to describe the feeling). And all these gizmos beeping at me and fighting me for control make me feel more like a passenger in an amusement ride rather than the driver of an auto.
A suburban New York [cop shop sexually] violated residents…[routinely] making illegal arrests [in order to commit sexual assaults it called] strip and cavity searches…a new…[DoJ] report on…[the] misconduct…in Mount Vernon, just north of New York City, is one of 12 investigations opened by the DOJ into local policing agencies since 2021…No single [sexual assault] prompted the investigation…but the [sexual violation] of two [elderly] women…[was a typical and representative example, excused by rapist cops barfing the word “]drugs[” at]…the women…After an internal investigation found that the [rapist cops] had lied [to justify the assault, they were not charged for their crime but instead merely]…docked a few vacation days…Until at least the fall of 2022, it was the Mount Vernon [rape gang]’s practice to [molest and violate] every person it arrested…[sometimes] also s[exually assaulting] people they did not [even bother to falsely accuse of crimes]…
The NYPD’s [biggest costumed pig has] abruptly resigned…after…[it was dis]covered…that he demanded sexual favors from a subordinate in exchange for massive amounts of overtime…Jeffrey Maddrey[, a close friend of rapist Mayor Eric Adams,] stepped down soon after…Quathisha Epps…[reported] that he routinely preyed upon her…in a [deal for her scamming]…roughly $204,000 in overtime…last year…Epps…worked for Maddrey as he moved up in the NYPD from Chief of Housing to Chief of Patrol, but…his sexual demands didn’t start until June 2023 when he landed as Chief of Department…When she started to try to get away from Maddrey recently, Epps was outed on a list…in retaliation…and is being investigated over the excessive overtime…Maddrey [previously preyed upon another sow named]…Tabitha Foster [who] filed an unsuccessful 2016 civil suit…
A [California screw named]…Anthony Michael Russo…died by suicide at his home…[after he propositioned and sent porn to another cop fantasy role-playing]…as a 15-year-old [on the internet. His boss then made a big show of crocodile tears over the predictable result of his entrapment scheme]…
A [typical and representative]…Wyoming [cop] is facing two felony sex charges [for] sexually abus[ing] multiple children [as young as 6]. Myron Chatwin could face up to 40 years in prison and $20,000 in fines if convicted…
The people of Maypearl [Texas] trusted Police Chief Kevin Coffey. Few were aware that Maypearl was the eighth [cop shop] that Coffey had worked at in 11 years. Fewer knew that there was a trail of accusations and secrets in his past. And none could have predicted the destruction he would wreak in their town. The kids would eventually call him The Creeper. The adults would denounce him as a monster. The prosecutors who put him away for child sexual abuse would describe him as a master manipulator “who groomed the community”…
A [typical and representative] Scranton [Pennsylvania cop named]…Stephen Carroll sexually assaulted multiple students while he was [paid to lurk in schools in order to spy on, harass, and intimidate students]…four of [his victims] were underage…[and] Carroll…drugg[ed] some of the[m in order to rape them more easily]…
The US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) has agreed to pay $115m to more than 100 [victims] of [serial rape by screws and other staff]…at FCI Dublin…[AKA] the “rape club”…Victims who came forward to report the abuse have been fighting for years for protections and accountability. Seven former Dublin employees, including the warden…and…chaplain, have been criminally convicted of sexual crimes, and more than 20 other employees were [rewarded with paid vacations]…The settlement appears to be the largest single payout in BoP history…and…includes a proposed consent decree…[which] covers nearly 500 class members who are…now [cag]ed in other prisons. The consent decree stipulates that the the bureau will be subject to continued outside monitoring and will…limit the use of solitary confinement…and release eligible plaintiffs to home confinement and community programs “as soon as practicable”. Survivors of the Dublin [atrocities] shipped to other prisons [like cattle] have reported continued…retaliation and…[denial of] access [to] trauma recovery services…some of the victims were targeted because they were not US citizens and…face ongoing deportation risks…
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 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!
Last November…Nebraska voters overwhelmingly approved a pair of medical marijuana initiatives…a [cour]t ruling [has now] rejected [a legal] challenge [from a prohibitionist politician], allowing authorized patients to possess up to five ounces of marijuana…[and] clear[ing] the way for state licensing of medical marijuana dispensaries…Initiative 437…passed by a whopping 42-point margin…[but typical and representative politician] John Kuehn…tried to block the initiatives by [similar legalistic chicanery to that used in South Dakota]…
Almost two years ago, Louisiana passed a law that started a [“monkey see, monkey do” parade]…across the entire U.S. South, and has changed the way people there can access adult content. As of today, Florida, Tennessee, and South Carolina join the list of 17 states that can’t access some of the most popular porn sites on the internet [without a VPN]…To remain compliant with the law while protecting users’ privacy…Pornhub is currently blocked in Virginia, Montana, North Carolina, Arkansas, Utah, Mississippi, Texas, Nebraska, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Indiana, Alabama, Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, [and] South Carolina…Georgia’s age verification bill…is set to go into effect in July…visitors [in the affected states typically] go to sites with worse moderation practices and no requirements on identity verification for uploaders…[but] if someone wanted to visit Pornhub [specifically], they could easily get around any age verification barriers with a VPN, which we consistently see searches for spike when these laws go into effect…
A Nebraska man whose house title was s[tolen by the county] over a modest property tax debt has finally gotten it back, ending a yearslong legal battle…In 2014, Kevin Fair was unable to pay his $588 property tax bill after quitting his job to care for his dying wife, Terry…the Scotts Bluff County government quietly sold that debt to a private investor, Continental Resources, which continued to satisfy the Fairs’ property taxes—until 2018, when the company sent the couple a bill for $5,268…[payable] within 90 days, or lose their house…[and] all of their equity…That was business as usual in Nebraska…one of many states engaging in legalized home equity theft…The U.S. Supreme Court considered the issue in 2023…and…With that ruling in mind, Nebraska’s top court reconsidered its previous decision and ruled that Fair would not have to sacrifice..his title…Despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision…some states are still trying to find creative ways to get around…the law…[with] Illinois and DC a[s] the most blatant continuing offenders…
Apple has agreed to pay $95 million to settle a lawsuit [over the fact] that its voice assistant Siri routinely recorded private conversations that were then sold to third parties for targeted ads. In the proposed class-action settlement…Apple…[gets to pretend the recording was] “unintentional”…the settlement…lets Apple off the hook pretty cheaply. If…Apple users had won, Apple could’ve been fined more than $1.5 billion under the Wiretap Act alone…the [eavesdropping was]…initially exposed by The Guardian in 2019…Google faces a similar lawsuit [which]…likely won’t be settled until this fall…
An Oregon…[screw named Nicholas T. Alexander murder]ed his 16-year-old daughter…Larissa [and then shot himself because he was about to be criminally charged with something his boss hogs are now covering up]…
11 teens [in Illinois were] arrested for beating two men they had lured using a gay dating app…in two different incidents on the evening of July 8, 2024…and [also] vandaliz[ing] their cars. Both victims were able to escape and report the attacks to police. The attacks are…part of a[n ugly internet fa]d where teens use gay dating apps to target adult gay men they [pretend] are attempting to hook up with underage males…
Video footage and other data collected by Tesla helped [cops] quickly piece together how a Cybertruck came to explode outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day…the investigation …highlights how car companies vacuum up reams of data that can…be…[handed] to third parties without drivers’ knowledge [or consent] …“These are panopticons on wheels,” said Albert Fox Cahn…[of] the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project…abusive spouses track…partners’ locations…insurers raise…rates based on [secretly-recorded] driving behavior data…[and cop shops seeking surveillance] video from Tesla cars…have…obtained warrants to [steal] vehicles to secure such footage…
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!
Two Australian mathematicians have called into question an old adage, that if given an infinite amount of time, a monkey pressing keys on a typewriter would eventually write the complete works of William Shakespeare…However…Stephen Woodcock and Jay Falletta…found that the time it would take for a typing monkey to replicate Shakespeare’s plays, sonnets and poems would be longer than the lifespan of our universe…the study also did a series of calculations based on the current global population of chimpanzees, which is roughly 200,000. The results indicated that even if every chimp in the world was enlisted and able to type at a pace of one key per second until the end of the universe, they wouldn’t even come close to typing out the Bard’s works…
It’s easy to “disprove” anything if you’re allowed to change the conditions. The original concept does not call for “a monkey” or “the current global population of chimpanzees” (which are not monkeys); it calls for an infinite number of monkeys. It also does not constrain the allowed time to “the age of the universe”, but to an infinite amount of time. I knew this “study” was BS when the article didn’t mention transfinite mathematics; these clowns don’t even seem to recognize that 13.7 billion is exactly as far from infinity as zero is. In short: don’t talk about fucking infinity if you are not prepared to intellectually struggle with Cantor, or at least with imaginary polar monoliths and immortal birds.
It’s time for modern people to leave their state-run, police-guarded nurseries and grow the hell up.
– “Grow the Hell Up!”
Whenever a tragedy involving children is publicized, the vultures are never long in arriving.
– “For the Children”
The line between justice and something very nasty indeed is not whose hand the sword is in, but the motivation behind bringing it down. – “Cops and Robbers”
“Healthy” is one of the modern signifiers of moral purity, and “unhealthy” = “sinful” (as openly proclaimed on the packaging of both “decadent” and “guilt-free” desserts). – “Sin in Disguise“
Annunciation House [is] a nonprofit that shelters and aids migrants…. in…El Paso…Its mission is “to provide hospitality and accompaniment for the poor in migration”…and…it has helped “hundreds of thousands of refugees” since its founding…[but psychopathic] Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton…launched a…[harassment campaign against] Annunciation House…and demanded the nonprofit turn over huge amounts of documentation about its immigrant clients…then…sought an injunction to stop what it [claims is]…”systemic criminal conduct”…[by] “a criminal enterprise”…In July, a state district court judge strongly rebuked that argument, calling Paxton’s actions “outrageous and intolerable”…But that hasn’t stopped Paxton, who hasn’t just continued his pursuit of Annunciation House but is targeting other nonprofits that assist immigrants…
Accused Gilgo Beach serial killer Rex Heuermann is being charged with a seventh murder: the November 2000 death of Valerie Mack…a…New Jersey…sex work[er]….based on evidence…found on an electronic device seized from Heuermann’s home…Heuermann kept detailed notes about serial killings, body disposal and torture pornography…
For months, the location information of around 800,000 electric Volkswagen vehicles was available online due to…the software running inside Volkswagen vehicles [which] could’ve allowed a bad actor [such as cops or spooks] to trace a driver’s exact movements…the vulnerability…also affects EVs from Volkswagen-owned car brands…including Audi, Seat, and Skoda…Cariad, the Volkswagen subsidiary behind the automaker’s software, made it possible for an[y busybody] to find and access driver data housed in Amazon’s cloud storage service…includ[ing] details about when [vehicles] were switched on and off, along with the emails, phone numbers, and addresses of drivers in some cases. It included the “precise” locations of about 460,000 vehicles…“accurate to within ten centimeters” for Volkswagen and Seats vehicles, and within 10km…for Audi and Skoda models…
A quarter century ago, prompted by a spate of abandoned babies in Houston, [Texas] became the first [state] in the [US] to pass a safe haven law allowing parents to relinquish newborns at designated places — [supposedly] without questions or risk of prosecution. Yet [such] surrenders remain rare [because Texas’ psychopathic politicians regularly demonstrate that they cannot be trusted in any matter involving pregnancy]…Statewide…at least 18 babies have been abandoned this year…A decade ago, the number was seven…
[Facebook has deluded itself into believ]ing that characters generated by [computers] will fill its social media platforms in the next few years]…“in the same way that accounts do,” said Connor Hayes, [Computer Cartoon Czar] at [Facebook]. “They’ll have [invented] bios and [fake] profile pictures and be able to [make up the same kind of bizarre nonsense we’ve come to expect from ML systems]…that’s where we see all of this going”…He said hundreds of thousands of [such] characters have already been created…but most users have kept them private so far…social media companies have been racing to [cram] the latest generative [algorithms] into products as a way of [enabling the wealthy to access creativity while denying to the actually creative the means to access wealth]…Snapchat rolled out…[computer cartoon] characters…[and] TikTok is piloting a suite of products called Symphony, which enables brands and creators to use [computer-generated] advertising [schlock]…
The Canyon Independent School District in Texas…pulled the Bible from school library shelves [last] month…[because] House Bill 900…”prohibits books that have one instance of sexual content”…[but politician] Jared Patterson…who sponsored the bill…[says vulgar sex scenes are OK if they’re in] the Bible, and…cited a [contradictory] part of the Texas education code that requires schools to carry “religious literature”…Of course, that [does not actually] preclude…the Bible from meeting Texas standards for “sexually explicit” material. It just means that Texas authorities make exceptions for certain texts…[and] illustrates further how involved the state government is in micromanaging exactly what can and can’t be available in schools…And it’s kind of funny how the only “religious literature” explicitly named in the code is the Christian Bible…
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!
A couple of years ago, our TV set developed a sort of shadow on the right side of the screen; the picture in that area seemed a bit darker than on the left. At first it wasn’t really striking, but over time it slowly got more noticeable, especially to visitors (because Grace and I got used to it). Then last summer, Chekhov bought a new set for Yellowbird’s house which immediately developed some kind of screen problem; since it was under warranty the company sent out a technician to fix it. But after he was done, the technician felt the problem wasn’t fully solved, so he had the company send them a new TV and Chekhov gave us the repaired one. Ever cautious when it comes to such things, I put our old one in the hall because I was pretty sure the technician knew whereof he spoke. He and I were right; the new TV displayed a series of transitory glitches all summer and autumn, none of them all that annoying or persistent. Finally, in late November, it suddenly went black and we knew it was well and truly dead.
So I put the shadowy one back into service, and used an Amazon gift card from one of my gentlemen to halve the cost of a new one. The website said it would arrive the first week of February, and that suited us fine; the old one was (and is) still serviceable, so I was in no rush. But it arrived early, on Christmas Eve, and sat in the living room until Chekhov and I had free time to install it (getting them on & off the wall mount is a two-person job) on New Year’s Day. We installed it and tested it and everything looked good, so I turned it off for a couple of hours until Grace and I were ready for our shows. Lo and behold, it now absolutely refused to respond to the DVD player remote, despite functioning perfectly only two hours before. I tried all the usual tricks (turning everything off, unplugging and replugging, etc), but nothing availed; it was pretty clear to me that while the screen was off, the machine had been busy installing dozens of “updates” (I had already seen it doing so while we were setting up the system). So I set the old TV up on some chairs and switched the cables to watch our shows, and the next day spent over an hour on the phone with customer service before they finally admitted what I had already surmised: one of the “updates” had downgraded the system so it was no longer compatible with “old” (2018) DVD players, and there was no way to revert the system to un-downgrade it. The technician of course tried to talk me into “streaming hundreds of new shows” instead of watching what I actually wanted to watch; I’m sure you can guess how that went. So the defective unit is now on its way back to Amazon, and once the credit is applied to my account I’ll be buying a refurbished Samsung TV that their customer service assures me will work with my all-region Samsung DVD player. We’ll see; in the meantime our old reliable is back in place, shadow and all. And worse come to worst, I’m sure I can buy a used set that is compatible from some pawnshop.
If you don’t understand why this witch is carrying a sackful of toys, I suggest you consult my column from this day in 2015, which also (not by coincidence) contains links to the columns for the previous four years. That should give you all the information you need to understand why I’m wishing some of my readers a Merry Christmas, some a Good Epiphany and others a Happy King Day, and welcoming all of you to the Carnival season!
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…Stuart Bryan [swept it under the rug]…Summerlin [fled to] Mississippi and [was later arrested there]…Josiah Bryan, son of [the] pastor…[raped] multiple siblings…rep[ea]tedly…between 2005 and 2010…and…was [recently] arrested…in Texas…
