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Links #713

I can’t breathe.  –  Joseph Lee

I really love this modern trend of various people around the world combining their native musical forms with modern ones; this example from Siberia was called to my attention by Jesse Walker.  The links above the video were provided by Nun Ya, David Ley, Radley Balko, IncarcerNation, Stephen Lemons, and Phoenix Calida (x2), 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!

Happy Sex Worker Rights Day to all my sisters and brothers, and our supporters.  Here’s a linked list of everything I’ve written for the occasion.

This…is a very good example of panic legislation.  –  Mary deYoung

Winding Down (#1106)

Until the concept of prohibition itself is challenged, these measures are just crumbs thrown to the peasants from their masters’ tables:

Germany’s parliament is expected to…make [it] the third country in Europe to legalise the drug for personal use…Adults would be allowed to possess 50g at one time at home, and 25g in public…[prohibitionists burbled the usual pro-police-violence nonsense, including dishonest] doctors…[who vomited lies about] the risk of addiction [even though cannabis is not addictive]…

Eavesdropping (#1167)

Shotspotter is a boondoggle designed to manufacture false evidence for cops:

ShotSpotter…places its microphone sensors primarily in low-income communities of color…the exact locations…have been kept secret from both its [cop shop] clients and the public at large…[but] a leaked document…details the…precise locations and uptime of 25,580 ShotSpotter microphones.  The…surveillance devices…[are] at more than a thousand elementary and high schools…atop dozens of billboards, scores of hospitals, and…more than a hundred public housing complexes…More than 12 million Americans live in neighborhoods with at least one…microphone, [and] sensors can be found in 84 metropolitan areas and 34 states or territories in the United States.  Nine cities have more than 500 sensors installed, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Las Vegas, Nevada…in aggregate, nearly 70 percent of people who live in a [surveilled] neighborhood…[are] either Black or Latin…

The Implosion Begins (#1265)

The hysteria is imploding so hard, it’s falling all the way back to its roots:

Utah [poluticians] are moving forward with a bill that would criminalize so-called ritualistic child sexual abuse [despite the complete lack of evidence that such a thing exists or has ever existed.  A recent]…hearing…[was packed with mentally ill] adult…[fantasists who have been enabled and encouraged to dwell in their delusions for decades]…Utah’s role in the 1980s [Satanic] panic was significant.  Many of the first well-known cases of alleged ritual abuse originated in the state, as did the movement’s central figures, including therapists who used hypnosis and manipulative interview techniques to [create false] memories [in] alleged child victims…Local media promoted the claims…

The Vultures Descend (#1323)

Alabama has at long last got the “fetal personhood” it claimed to want; let’s see how they like it:

The University of Alabama at Birmingham health system is pausing in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment following an Alabama Supreme Court ruling that [absurdly declared] frozen embryos are children…reproductive rights advocates and medical experts have been warning…for days…that the high court’s decision could have devastating consequences for Alabamians seeking infertility treatments…and…could soon have profound impacts far beyond the state’s borders…[the unscientific declaration] will likely not only make the already high costs of infertility treatments substantially higher, but will likely also discourage many providers from offering them at all in the state in fear of being held liable for wrongful death…

And if that worries you, how about this?

Most House Republicans have cosponsored a bill declaring that life begins from the moment of conception…[almost immediatel]y after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos are “unborn children”…the “Life at Conception Act“…states that the term “human being” includes “all stages of life, including the moment of fertilization”…[and] does not include any exception for in vitro fertilization…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1327)

Maybe this will teach fools what a danger biometric identification actually is:

…it’s becoming clear that biometric screens are just as easy to bypass as…other…security…[as demonstrated by a new] banking trojan that steals people’s faces.  Un[wary] users are tricked into giving up personal IDs and phone numbers and…prompted to perform face scans.  These images are then swapped out with AI-generated deepfakes that can easily bypass security checkpoints.  The method — developed by a Chinese…hacking family — is believed to have been used in Vietnam [last] month, when attackers…[used it to] withdr[aw] the equivalent of $40,000 from [a victim’s] bank account…This discovery reveals the alarming, growing threat that biometrics pose…Face swap deepfake attacks increased by 704% between the first and second halves of 2023…The[re was]…also…a 672% increase in the use of deepfake media being used alongside spoofing tools and a 353% increase in the use of emulators (which mimic user devices) and spoofing to launch digital injection attacks…

Remember this the next time some ninny tells you that cartoon porn is the worst possible use for deepfakes.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1405)

Nebraska’s float in the “monkey see, monkey do” parade is notable for its open infantilization of women:

…Nebraska [politicians are considering] a bill t[o use] young people…[as a pretext] to [spy on adults’ viewing of] online porn by [“age verification” of people too ignorant to use a VPN]…Dave Murman…[admits] his goal is to pr[etend]…women a[re equivalent to] children…[and also that] he [wants to join the “monkey see, monkey do” parade because] Utah,  Louisiana, and Arkansas [did]…

Served Cold (#1406)

This just keeps getting better:

A [Colombian] woman is suing for defamation and emotional distress because of the way she was portrayed in the [propaganda] film Sound of Freedom, marking a fifth lawsuit filed against Tim Ballard and [his rescue industry outfit], Operation Underground Railroad…Kely Johana Suarez Moya…“was tragically condemned by the Defendants to the entire world as being a child trafficker without any due process or due diligence by the Defendants,” the lawsuit reads.  Other defendants…include…[the] movie [itself]…the distributor…and…writers…Katherine Ballard, [and]…Janet Russon, a former OUR employee and Tim Ballard’s psychic…Ballard and OUR lied to the public about a “sting operation” in Colombia…where operatives “rescued” children at a “pedophile party” on the Colombian Island of Baru in 2014…In reality…[they lured]…in impoverished…young adults with the promise of money…[and] “None of the young adults…were trafficked in any way (other than by Ballard)”…

 

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!

Fallback Friday

Every generation thinks it invented sex, or at least non-vanilla sex.  –  “Nothing New

Had the LGBT “community” devoted its energies to securing the basic rights of all sexual minorities instead of wasting them in trying to force Christian fundamentalists to bake fucking overpriced cakes for their fucking bourgeois weddings, we’d be well on the way to decriminalization by now.  –  “The Big Table

I’m heading into the dreadful days where my pineal gland starts engaging in the neurochemical equivalent of running around the house, turning on all the lights and cranking up the stereo full-blast while screaming obscenities, scattering its clothes all over the floor, losing the car keys, making an unholy mess in the kitchen and refusing to do its homework.  –  “Diary #347

No wonder fantasies of whores “enslaved” by exploitative bosses who spy on their every move are so popular; it’s just amateurs projecting their work conditions onto us.  –  “Secret Squirrel (#916)

To authoritarians, loyalty to friends and family over the diktats of megalomaniacal racist sociopaths is “misplaced”.  –  “Rooted in Racism (#1015)

Four Times Four

This is the fourth leap year since I’ve started the blog; since it doesn’t come around often, I once again looked back at the last one for guidance and was reminded that in that column, I answered some questions I’d asked in 2016 and wrote, “Will I be around to answer these same questions on February 29th, 2024?  Only time will tell.”  Well, obviously I am around to answer them, so let’s look at them again, shall we?

Will I still be posting every day, or will I have wound down somewhat?  How many new books will I have written?  Will I still be living in Seattle?  What will my income be like?  What new experiences will I have had?  How well-known will I be?  Will the “sex trafficking” hysteria be over, as I predicted just before th[e 2012] Leap Day?  Will I even be alive?

I’m still posting every day, but making it easier to decide what to write by now featuring a much larger number of regular weekly or monthly features than in the past, and by re-using older content which long-time readers may have missed or forgotten, and newer readers haven’t seen.  I’m at six books now; I have several more in the works, but I haven’t had the energy to finish them and get them ready for publication; here’s hoping I can find that energy in the near future.  I’m now living full-time at Sunset, and let my Seattle apatment go last year; it was rather sad, but it was the right thing to do.  My income is much lower than it has been for many years, but so are my bills; thanks to a large donation from a generous reader, earlier this month I was able to eliminate an annoying standing debt incurred from finishing the annex project, so now I’m back to the blissful state of “no standing debt” and will do my best to stay there.  I’m probably less well-known now than I was 8 years ago, partly due to blogs being largely replaced by podcasts and YouTube series and partly because everyone has their 15 minutes and it has to end sometime.  The “sex trafficking” hysteria is at last over, though of course the terrible laws it spawned won’t go away for decades, if ever; though politicians and profiteers still use “sex trafficking” as a handy excuse for tyranny, other excuses have become more fashionable and at least the endless stories about idiots with taped mouths parading around to “raise awareness” of cops’ wanking fantasies have largely dried up.  And as for new experiences, I’ve finally had the best one of all:  after so many years of sturm und drang, I’ve at last found peace and a measure of contentment.  And if I’m still writing this blog in another four years, that will be very difficult to top.

In the News (#1416)

Over and over and over again…the system itself harms children and families.  –  Wendy Bach

Monsters

Nex Benedict, a gender-nonconforming 16-year-old in Owasso, Oklahoma, died on February 8th after what school officials are calling “a fight” in the girls’ bathroom involving three older girls.  Of course, they always call it a “fight” even when three kids beat one kid’s head against a tile floor hard enough to send them to the hospital.  News coverage of Nex’s death is all over the place, though much of it quotes the absurd claim that the death was pure koinkydink, unrelated to the beating; or claims Nex started it; or uses their birth name.  The only things that are certain is that Oklahoma politicians have stoked a climate of fear and hate against kids like Nex, who was forced to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex despite the obvious danger, and is now dead as a result.  I’ll publish a follow-up when there seems to be some consensus about facts instead of conflicting masses of self-serving political bullshit, butt-covering by school officials, and speculation by outsiders.  But for now the important thing to keep in mind is that this idiotic culture war is not only an unforgiveable waste of time and resources, but has an actual body count.

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#594)

There’s never a shortage of useful idiots who think the leopards will never eat their faces:

San Francisco [idio]ts living along Capp Street in the Mission District spent much of last year pushing for [magic bill-elimination] barriers to…[“abate” the “]prostitution problem[“.  Of course, as sensible people predicted, the stroll merely moved] a few blocks down [to] the Shotwell Street area…[now useful idiots]…have drafted a petition, calling on the city to install 16 of its new license plate reader cameras in the neighborhood…Mayor London Breed..is also pushing for Proposition E to pass, which would allow the city to use facial recognition cameras for surveillance

To Molest and Rape

Just another typical and representative cop:

[The Washington DC cop shop is hiding the identity of a pig who raped a woman in his pigmobile] in [Montgomery County] Maryland…he has been [rewarded for the crime with a] paid [vacation]…the woman [was apparently lured into the car]…on Feb. 1…[under the pretext of a “date”]…

Property of the State (#1182)

Oklahoma is another state which seems to simply hate women:

Amanda Aguilar’s…baby tested positive for marijuana…[because] Aguilar had been taking the drug to treat severe morning sickness…Medical marijuana is legal in Oklahoma, and she had a doctor-approved state license to use it.  Her son was healthy at birth.  But the hospital r[at]ted her [out] to child welfare workers, who handed over her baby’s drug test results to police…In June, a judge in Kay County tossed out the charges against Aguilar…she [had not] broke[n] state law…But the [sociopathic] local prosecutor…filed an appeal to reinstate the charges, [moronically] arguing that…the fetus…did not have its own, separate license to use medical marijuana.  The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to hear the arguments later this year…potentially opening the door for more criminal cases…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1327)

There is absolutely no legitimate reason for a vending machine to have this capability:

A set of [computerized] vending machines at the University of Waterloo is expected to be removed from campus after…a student noticed an error message on one of the[m which]…appeared to indicate there was a problem with a facial recognition application…A picture of the error message was posted online and students quickly started sharing it..Since then, many have tried to cover a small hole on the machine that they believe houses a camera…the manufacturer…Invenda…[claims] the…machines can detect the presence of a person, their estimated age and gender…”without storing such data on permanent memory mediums [sic] or transmitting it over the Internet”…

This certainly casts a different light on another, similar story:

Amazon is in the process of replacing a breakroom coffee machine in its Maple Grove [Minnesota] warehouse after an employee inadvertently discovered a camera inside the machine that took pictures of the breakroom…[the] East African workers…who comprise a sizable [fraction] of Amazon’s Minnesota workforce…have a history of protesting the company’s wages and workplace conditions…a labor organization…said the situation is concerning because of previous incidents where the retail giant used tech to track workers’ productivity in excessive and illegal ways

Any information which exists can be misused by corporations or demanded by cops; the only way to stop that privacy invasion is not to collect the information in the first place.

The Cop Myth (#1395)

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

A Vallejo [California cop] was arrested…on Valentine’s Day after his ex-girlfriend reported to Oakland police that he’d threatened and harassed her for months…Ronald Dupree…[had previously been] reported…to Vallejo police [but they did nothing except tell Dupree she had reported him]…Dupree started texting or calling her dozens of times per day, often from a blocked number…he al[so]…threatened her, adding that he knew how to dispose of a body, and that he would file a missing person’s report to locate her if she ever tried to hide…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #6)

Your “leaders” say this trash is fit to “correct” others:

A [typical and representative Pennsylvania screw]…sexually abused a [14-year-old] teenage girl…John Mollica…[seduced] the girl, [telling her] “I’m obsessed with you and I’m willing to kill for you”…[and giving] her cash…and [gifts]…when [cops] questioned Mollica…he…denied having a “relationship” with the teen and further stated that he thought she was only 11 years old…

 

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 #713

Regular readers know that every year, I look forward to the arrival of baby chicks around the end of February.  Last week the manager at the local Tractor Supply told me they would be arriving on Wednesday, so I made plans to buy mine on the following Monday (yesterday).  I got out the chick corral, brought the heat lamp and a fresh bulb in from the henhouse, and started keeping Speck out of the bathroom (where she often likes to hang out because we keep it warm).  But when I got to the store, they’d already sold out!  It’s not really a big deal; they’ll be getting more tomorrow, and I have to go back to town on Thursday anyhow, so I’ll just buy them then.  It isn’t like it really matters if I get them in the first week of March rather than the last week of February; they’ll be inside for three weeks regardless, and as I’ve been keeping chickens for almost 20 years now, I’m not exactly going to plotz from anxiety if I don’t get them quite as early as expected.  Plus, as a middle-aged-heading-rapidly-toward-old woman, one would hardly expect me to get as excited as I do about a box of baby dinosaurs in my lavatory.  And yet I do; I reckon it’s part of my charm.  Or a symptom that I’m actually a bit of a kook where animals are concerned.

Back Issue #128

Orgasm isn’t only about “doing it right”, sexual satisfaction isn’t only about orgasm, and nobody has the right to define the parameters of “good sex” for you, or to tell you why you “should” or “shouldn’t” have sex.  –  “Mind Over Matter

Links #712

The chatbot is a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions.  –  Air Canada

Like Amy Winfrey, I think it’s important we all do our part to poison the artificial stupidity systems currently creeping through every corner of the internet, because it seems to be the only way to stop penny-pinching bastards from attempting to replace humans with them.  The links above the video were provided by Desiree Alliance, Mark Bennett, Jesse Walker, Emma Camp, Mike Siegel, Phoenix Calida, and Radley Balko, 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 (#1415)

It is not the Legislature’s job to parent the parents in how they parent.  –  Shevrin Jones

Broken Record (#743) 

The once-thriving competition for silliest “sex trafficking magnet” tall tale has been reduced to pathetic reruns of years-old fantasies:

As tens of thousands of people make their way to Indianapolis for NBA All-Star weekend…[fetishists are still trying to get you to give them money by chanting the phrase “]sex trafficking[“]…Alisa Bernard [is a professional “survivor” desperately trying to peddle her wares wherever they’ll sell, since they’re no longer lucrative in Seattle]…

Skewed By Taboo (#1009)

At least this one didn’t attempt to lie:

A [73-year-old Australian] man lost part of his penis after shoving three 1cm-wide button batteries into his urethra…[and] waited 24 hours before seeking medical attention.  He confessed…he used the batteries for “self-gratification purposes” and had never had any issues removing objects in the past…the opening of his urethra was stained black, [and] surgery [was necessary to remove both batteries and]…necro[tic tissue inside his penis]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1172)

Besides laughing aloud, I may have also clapped my hands in delight:

For some Apple Vision Pro buyers, the honeymoon is already over…there’s been an uptick…of…owners…returning the…$3,500 headsets…[as] the first wave of Vision Pro buyers [reach the end of Apple’s two-week return window]…People have said the headset gives them headaches and triggers motion sickness.  The weight of the device…has been another complaint…[one user] thought…the device led to a burst blood vessel in his eye…Another common complaint is the Vision Pro doesn’t offer enough productivity relative to the price…

I Spy (#1268)

“Crisis pregnancy centers” for the 21st century:

…The Veritas Society, a [subsidiary of forced-birth group] Wisconsin Right to Life, used a data broker system called Near Intelligence to target people whose cell phone location data showed they had visited any of the 600 Planned Parenthood…clinics across the country…with anti-abortion messaging or abortion misinformation…The…ad campaign ran from late 2019 through the summer of 2022…[haranguing women] over 14 million [times]…“across the women’s social pages, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat”…“If a data broker could…help extremists target misinformation…a…prosecutor could use that same information to put women in jail,” [said Senator Ron] Wyden…[who] is urging the FTC to block any sale of the data…when [the now-bankrupt] Near Intelligence sells off its assets…

Thought Control (#1389)

I was clearly destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path:

…The Alabama Republican Party [has] voted…to encourage the Legislature to…allow for librarians to face criminal charges for [working in libraries that stock books a politician has pointed at while barfing out the formula]…“harmful to minors”…[given that] they also plan to tweak last year’s “Drag Ban” bill…to include LGBTQ content as “sexual conduct”…librarians could soon face up to $10,000 in fines and a year in county jail for shelving an LGBTQ book on a…young adult shelf…

West Virginia politicians couldn’t let Alabama beat them in the Moronolympics:

The West Virginia House of Delegates…passed [a]…Bill…[allowing employees of] schools…libraries and museums [to be prosecuted for “]displaying obscene matter to a minor when the child is not accompanied by a parent/guardian[“.  West Virginia’s bizarrely]…defines obscene matter as [varying by the individual, enabling anyone a wannabe censor decides to target to]…be charged with a felony, fined up to $25,000 and face up to five years in prison if convicted…Supporters of the bill [pretend] it does not ban books…[Sane people point out] that…the bill would…[encourage] challenges to even classic books and attempts to criminally charge librarians over books [that are] not pornographic…but…include descriptions of sex.  They also said it could result in [harassment via spurious] criminal charges against library staff…The lead sponsor of the bill…Brandon Steele [made furtive movements in his pants while sharing his warped sexual fantasies about showing porn to kindergarteners in the school library]…

Torture Chamber (#1408)

I’m sure they helped by occasionally yelling “Stop faking!” at her:

A Mississippi prison denied medical treatment to a…woman with breast cancer, allowing her condition to go undiagnosed for years [as] it [metastasized]…Susie Balfour [developed] cancer as early as May 2018, but [the prison refused to] conduct a biopsy until November 2021, one month before she was released…[in] January 2022..a University of Mississippi Medical Center doctor diagnosed her with stage four breast cancer…Her lawsuit and medical records paint a picture of a prison…system that deliberately delayed life-saving healthcare…that…[its own] contracted clinicians recommended…there are at least 15 others [locked up in the same cage stack]…who have cancer and are not receiving necessary treatment…Balfour said: “They always think everybody is faking”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1410)

A judge attempts to stand athwart one of the currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parades:

An Ohio law requiring that people under age 16 get parental permission to use social media is unconstitutional…federal judge…Algenon Marbley told Ohio’s attorney general…While this…is just a preliminary injunction, Marbley’s opinion leaves little room for doubt that the tech companies will ultimately win here…[the] ruling is the latest in a string of federal court orders against state laws intended to limit minors’ social media or require platforms to follow special rules for users under the age of 18.  Meanwhile, similar measures are still spreading like a bad viral meme throughout U.S. statehouses…

Florida, of course, thinks it doesn’t apply to them:

…Florida [politicians] have incorporated a copycat age verification bill…introduced by a pastor…into a larger bill that aims to prevent anyone under 16 from using certain social media platforms

 

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!