Every year on this day, the traditional beginning of the Yuletide season in the US, I remind my readers that the real spirit of the season involves giving to others rather than literally fighting to get more for yourself. Children and whores are St. Nick’s two favorite groups of people; you can help the latter by donating to a sex worker charity such as SWOP Behind Bars, or you can help both by booking a session with a sex worker you know has kids. And if you don’t know any, you can help by participating in my annual toy drive! Regular readers know how it works: from today until Tuesday, December 17th, I’m collecting donations with which to buy toys, which I then donate to Toys for Tots. Send your donation via PayPal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net, and please put “Toys for Tots” in the subject line so I’ll know it’s not a regular blog donation; I can also accept donations via Zelle if you prefer not to use PayPal. If you’re not hurting economically yourself, please consider donating (either to my drive or to one near you); rising inflation has taken a bite out of many people’s income, so there will be less money for more-expensive toys this year. And while we adults can understand that, it can be heartbreaking for very young children to think Santa Claus has forgotten them or bypassed them because they were naughty. Please help if you can!
Posts Tagged ‘activism’
Yuletide 2024
Posted in Holidays, Miscellaneous, tagged activism, games, holidays, Presents, Toys for Tots on November 29, 2024| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1492)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, advertising, Backpage, California, Censor Chic, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, disease, domestic violence, drugs, end demand, fascism, Florida, Georgia, I Saw My Brain, internet, prisons, rape, Robocops, scams, Stop faking!, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Mob Rules, The Vultures Descend, Torture Chamber, violence vs. sex workers on November 23, 2024| 1 Comment »
This is clearly a bill unburdened by thoughts of constitutionality. – Elizabeth N. Brown
Another reminder that Grady Judd is an utterly loathsome excuse for a human:
…between 2018 and 2022, Polk County’s [pogroms against sex workers which the psychopathic Grady Judd labels “]human trafficking stings[“] led to the arrest of 751 individuals. Of these, 346 were clients, 23 were officially identified and “rescued” as trafficking victims, and the remaining 382 were adult consensual sex workers who ended up in jail…and [saddled with] criminal records…Grady Judd doesn’t abide any notions of adult consensual sex work in his mind numbingly foolish and uninformed public narratives but he is quick to be “The Decider” of who is – or is not – a victim of trafficking, with the very simplistic logic that “prostitution is Illegal” and therefore the harbinger to crime outbreaks…
Torture Chamber (Chamber of Horrors)
Your “leaders” want you to pay for more such hell-holes to torture even more people in:
Two years after a mentally ill man died malnourished and covered in insects in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, a Justice Department investigation has found that man’s death was only one of a string of fatalities due to pervasive unconstitutional conditions at the jail…which [is used to warehouse legally-innocent people cops decided to accuse of something]…investigators reported widespread infestations of mice, roaches, bedbugs, lice, and scabies…the jail’s [filthy] kitchen also fails to adequately feed [its legally-innocent victims]…90 percent of the…mental[ly ill people are held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods and]…”significantly malnourished with obvious muscle wasting”…[deranged state-employed thugs] use Tasers and pepper spray against [the] mentally ill…and minors [because they think it’s fun, and they intentionally]…create [conditions leading to frequent]…rape…[of] minor[s]…
Unless people begin to have respect for free speech again, this will only get worse:
Jawboning…is when the government pressures a third party to…[censor] the speech of another…which is why there should be concern about Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how it operates to force intermediaries to act against users and their speech, whether they would want to or not, and whether the targeted speech is wrongful or not. Because when resisting a takedown notice can…potentially expose them to crippling liability, then the choice to acquiesce to the…demand is really no choice at all. Instead it’s jawboning: using law to force the third party to act against speech in order to avoid the constitutional protections the speech should have enjoyed…
…My decades-long friend and business partner, Jim Larkin, the most upright of men, also guilty of naught, did not want to go in…He instead drove a chair to the botanical gardens created by a mining baron outside of Superior, Arizona…He removed the chair from his vehicle and sat himself. He was . . . resolved. He took out his pistol. He pulled the trigger…He left six grown children and a spouse. God help all of them…A lesser man than Larkin, prosecutor Austin Berry, implored the judge: Please, your honor, sentence the remaining 3 defendants to prison, so there is no more “flight by suicide.” Flight by suicide? In my 40 years of covering courts, I have not heard a lower comment…
Eight weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference. Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $2700. So that now leaves only a $300 shortfall! If you can spare some or all of that remainder right now, I’d really appreciate it; that would get this done in the next few days, so it doesn’t interfere with my annual toy drive!
This insanity will keep getting worse until these maniacs are forcibly stopped:
A bonkers new Texas bill would ban a bunch of activities related to abortion, including taking abortion pills in other states and facilitating or hosting online speech about procuring abortions. It would also hold all abortion pill manufacturers liable for violations when a specific manufacturer could not be ascertained…the legislation…[bears the Orwellian moniker “]Women and Child Safety Act[” and]…create[s] new offenses of “paying for or reimbursing abortion costs” and “destroying evidence of an abortion,” both felonies…Other parts of the bill would be enforced by [encouraging and rewarding nuisance lawsuits]…
That’s just a taste; this bill is such a giant clusterfuck of unconstitutional stupidity and over-the-top evil that I don’t have room here to list all its atrocities, so go read Liz Brown’s article for all of the details, in which she has to state not once but several times, “This is not how U.S. law works.”
…The Supreme Court [has] declined…to take up a petition for writ of certiorari filed in August by Desiree Martinez…[who] filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2015 against several [cop]s in Clovis, California, who [intentionally] ignor[ed] multiple attempts to report her abusive [cop]….boyfriend, Kyle Pennington…the 9th Circuit ruled that [since it is well-known that cops are moral imbeciles, they could not be expected to grasp that]…tipp[ing] off her boyfriend [so he would take revenge for her reporting him was wrong, and therefore they] are immune from Martinez’s lawsuit under qualified immunity…[after] Martinez…filed a…report against Pennington..[he] called [his crony]…Channon High…on speakerphone and…High [told him about the]…report…Pennington [then] hung up the phone and [beat and raped her, yet]…was [merely] convicted of violating a restraining order…
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 (#1490)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, Apple, Australia, blogging, cell phones, censorship, Censorship Ascendant, cops, drugs, Enablers, fascism, I Spy, internet, law, Missouri, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The Cop Myth, Wyoming, You Were Warned on November 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Government officials are eager to turn public fears into blank checks for expanding their own intrusive power. – J.D. Tuccille
Grayshift is constantly in a cat-and-mouse game with Apple:
Apple quietly introduced code into iOS 18.1 which reboots the device if it has not been unlocked for a period of time, reverting it to a state which…[makes] it harder for police to break in…an inactivity timer….will cause devices in an AFU state to reboot…AFU refers to After First Unlock, which is when somebody, presumably the phone’s owner, has unlocked the device at least once since being powered on, and which generally can make it easier for [pigs to root in]. BFU, or Before First Unlock, is when a user has not unlocked the phone since it was turned on, and is typically a harder state for forensic tools to crack…Magnet Forensics recently acquired Grayshift, the company that makes the phone unlocking tool GrayKey…
The government says only government-owned libraries are legal:
In September, a federal appeals court dealt a major blow to the Internet Archive…[by upholding] a lower court ruling that [claimed] the Internet Archive’s huge, digitized lending library of copyrighted books was not covered by the “fair use” doctrine and infringed on the rights of publishers…The Internet Archive [has]…an online collection of 44 million books and texts [and]…operates a digital lending library called the Open Library. The Archive owns a physical copy of every book in the Open Library, and it scans and uploads them. Except for a period during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Archive has allowed only one digital copy of a book to be checked out at a time—a one-to-one owned-to-loaned ratio, just like a brick-and-mortar library. In 2020, four publishers—Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, John Wiley & Sons, and Penguin Random House—sued the Archive, alleging copyright infringements…”It’s absurd that the Internet Archive is allowed to mail me a physical book it owns. The physical publishers can’t stop that. But [the Archive] can’t give me the same content in digital form,” [said] Cara Gagliano, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which is representing the Archive in court…
Cops believe all women’s bodies are for their sexual use:
A [typical and representative] Missouri [cop] is [being sued for]…pull[ing women over and using]…traffic stops a[s a pretext to steal] nude photos [from their] cell phone[s]…at least [eight times in all]…Julian Alcala…[used the pretext of] a broken taillight on two separate occasions…for [the woman who filed the suit. Her] proof of insurance….was on her cell phone, [so] he took her phone back to his car, where he searched her phone for nude photos…took photos of them with his own cell phone and later distributed these photos to others…this isn’t [even close to] the first time…a [cop] has stolen intimate photos off women’s phones. In 2014, a group of California [cops made]…a “game” of stealing nude photos from arrested women’s phones…
Civil liberties violations only start with people the government has demonized:
…early in the first Trump administration…the incoming president…call[ed] for “extreme vetting”…of…migrants…and visitors…the U.S. government wanted access to people’s online lives, especially their social media accounts, to continuously monitor their statements and opinions…[via] media, blogs, public hearings, conferences, academic websites, social media websites…radio, television, press, geospatial sources, internet sites, and specialized publications…The monitoring soon applied to millions of people entering legally…Biden…kept the program in place…The Knight First Amendment Institute assisted two documentary filmmakers’ associations who [have] sued to end the program. The plaintiffs feared government officials peering through their correspondence with colleagues visiting from overseas and scrutinizing the opinions expressed in their communications and their work (arguments are scheduled for December)—and, maybe, sharing the results with partner agencies in other countries…
Australia’s rulers seem even more eager to destroy the internet than US rulers:
Australia’s government says it will introduce…legislation to ban [people] under 16 from social media. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese [belched out magic words like]…”harm”…and…”safety”…to [justify a plan that could only be enforced by forcing everyone to produce ID in order to use the internet]…the government said the ban will not apply to young people already on social media…[politicians and puritans claim] that social media platforms can harm the mental health of adolescents, [but in actuality these problems are caused by government-encouraged intrusive surveillance and infantilization of young adults]…
Seven weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference. Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $2500. So that now leaves only a $500 shortfall! If you can spare some or all of that remainder right now, I’d really appreciate it; that would get this done before Thanksgiving, so it doesn’t interfere with my annual toy drive!
Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?
…in August…a [typical and representative Wyoming cop named]…Michael Hughes [got drunk and] wa…ved his [gun around]…at his…apartment [complex. Responding cops]…evacuat[ed]…some o[f his neighbors after]…he put two bullets…into the apartment above him and “threatened to shoot anyone who comes through the door”…hi[lariously,]…when the S[WAT] Team flew a drone through a broken window [to spy on him] Hughes snatched it out of the air, bent the propellers and threw it back out the window…[yet they continued to play footsie with him for 17 hours instead of attacking with overwhelming force as they would’ve done had there been children, minorities, or old people in the apartment]…
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 (#1486)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, advertising, blogging, cops, Czechia, dirty, disease, marriage, Michigan, Ohio, Oregon, Panopticon, politicians, psychology, rape, scams, Schadenfreude, Served Cold, sex work is work, surveillance, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Last Shall Be First, The Vultures Descend, transgender, Utah, Virginia on November 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
THE ANTI-TRAFFICKERS ARE THE TRAFFICKERS. – Borys vs Ballard
Can you imagine this even being in question for any other form of work?
The Prague High Court has ruled that two women forced into [work] in the United Kingdom are entitled to keep the CZK 1.8 million they earned during their exploitation…The women were part of a larger group of Czechs lured to Great Britain with the promise of lucrative work. Once there, they were forced into sex work, with their earnings and identification documents seized by the traffickers. For months, the gang exploited them, taking all the money they made while the women lived in slave-like conditions. Last year, the Prague High Court convicted five members of the gang…[bu]t declined to award financial compensation to the [victims because the judges were bluenosed sociopaths who]…argued that [it was just]…to [deprive] the women…[of their] earnings [because they didn’t like their form of work. But]…the women [appeal]ed to the Constitutional Court.[which] ruled in their favor, stating that the [means by which they earned] the money was irrelevant. What mattered, the court said, was that the women had been unlawfully deprived of their earnings…
The Last Shall Be First (#1413) 
How defective does an adult need to be to think doing this to teenagers is OK?
An Oregon school district [has] asked [Texas politician] Ted Cruz’s…campaign to take down two ads targeting transgender athletes because they include a photograph of two minor girls who are not transgender and whose parents did not give the Cruz campaign permission to use the photo…[the] ads…[target Cruz’s] opponent…Colin Allred…[because he] support[s]…trans-inclusive policies, [and] feature photographs of high-profile transgender athletes…Lia Thomas and CeCé Telfer…and…also…of two teenage [athletes from]…Western Oregon. Neither of the [Oregon] girls…are transgender, though the Cruz ads imply otherwise…
Lawsuits are the only way to hinder a government that won’t control itself:
[The Institute for Justice has] filed a federal lawsuit…suing Norfolk [Virginia] for [its] use of Flock…license plate readers [to] track…vehicle[s’] movements through the city and beyond. Norfolk installed 172 of the cameras last year, and the[re are]…over 450 of them in the region. Police and prosecutors [belch out puffery about “]crimes[” and try to dismiss]…privacy concerns…“Norfolk has created a dragnet that allows the government to monitor everyone’s day-to-day movements without a warrant or probable cause,” [said attorney] Michael Soyfer…The case could potentially make it to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that a similar surveillance system in Baltimore was an unconstitutional search…Flock camera capabilities go beyond the documentation of license plates. They photograph every vehicle that passes and upload the images into a database where they are stored for [at least] 30 days. The machine-learning in the system does not necessarily need a license plate to track a vehicle: the make, model, color and other distinguishing features, like damage or a bike rack, are also documented…The Flock database also allows subscribers to share and access data…nationwide…
It’s so satisfying to see this sleazebag hoist with his own petard:
Tim Ballard, the [“rescue” fetishist and profiteer] whose wildly exaggerated [schemes] were the basis of the hi[ghly fictionalized] 2023 film Sound of Freedom, is facing a new legal action from six women who last year sued him for sexual exploitation — leading Ballard to sue them for defamation earlier this month. The latest complaint is the first federal suit targeting Ballard; it comes from accusers Celeste Borys, Mary Hall, Sasha Hightower, Krista Kacey, Kira Lynch, and Bree Righter. The filing [also] names Ballard associates Matthew Cooper and Michael Porenta, as well as Ballard’s former organization, Operation Underground Railroad…as defendants….the plaintiffs…seek relief under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2003…
Five weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference. Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $2400. So now I’m only facing a $600 shortfall; if you aren’t yet a subscriber, won’t you please consider becoming one? A $1/day subscription would take $90 off of that total, and other levels would help in proportion. Or if you’re already a subscriber but can spare some extra right now, I’d really appreciate it; I really hope to get this done by Thanksgiving, so it doesn’t interfere with my annual toy drive!
This judge was constrained by law to make this ruling, but it’s still welcome:
[An Ohio court] issued a permanent injunction blocking Ohio’s 2019 six-week abortion ban from taking effect, marking the first permanent injunction stemming from Ohio’s Reproductive Freedom Amendment, which took effect in December…This is also the first permanent injunction throughout the country of an abortion ban following the passage of a pro-abortion rights ballot amendment. The case, Preterm v. Yost, was originally filed…on September 2, 2022, and enforcement of the ban has been blocked since [twelve days after that]…
Cops think violence is the solution to every problem, including caretaker stress:
[An 80-year-old] retired [Michigan cop named]…William…Kitzmiller [murdered] his wife, Donna, b[ecause]…he [couldn’t handle the stress of taking care of her after she developed] Alzheimer’s disease…[he called 911 to make the excuse] “I’ve given my wife a merciful ending from her Alzheimer’s disease” [then turned the gun on himself]…Caregivers report higher levels of stress than the general population [but people who aren’t sociopaths don’t murder those they care for because of it]…
Long-time readers will recall that for a year and a half I was the primary caretaker for a dear friend with a brain injury, and I am now caring for my disabled friend Grace. I therefore know whereof I speak.
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 (#1484)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, advertising, blogging, brothels, censorship, cops, Creepy Coppers, domestic violence, Droit du Seigneur, Florida, law, Michigan, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, New York, Oklahoma, Out of Control, pimps, politicians, porn, surveillance, Texas, The Cop Myth, The Last Shall Be First, The Vultures Descend, transgender, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals on October 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »
To keep it simple for the State of Florida: it’s the First Amendment, stupid. – Judge Mark E. Walker
A…cop…[named] George Trimiliozzi…[was part of] a group that [apparently ran several massage parlors on Long Island. Officials used high-sounding hogwash and ridiculously convoluted Copese to make the business sound like an international crime cartel, when in actuality the problem was that they extorted so much money from migrant women that some of them started robbing customers, which is how]…Trimigliozzi…got [caught]…
Polls have shown 75% of Floridians oppose its politicians’ attempts to ban abortion:
Floridians…will [soon] vote on a constitutional “Amendment to Limit Government Interference with Abortion.” So authorities decided to interfere with free speech in an attempt to thwart voters…The state threatened TV stations with criminal penalties for running an ad supporting the abortion initiative…[but] U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker…[has] enjoined Florida from attempting to censor the ad…Florida has been pulling out all the stops to try and stop Amendment 4 from passing…[including] using taxpayer money to run ads in opposition to the amendment while trying to prohibit people from seeing an ad in support of it…
The Last Shall Be First (#1410)
If this is a “crime”, why is Paxton suing rather than prosecuting?
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [has] sued a Dallas doctor…accusing her of [refus]ing [to forcibly de]transition…nearly two dozen minors [as demanded by] state law. Paxton alleged that Dr. May Chi Lau, who specializes in adolescent medicine, [continued to] provide…hormone replacement therapy to [her patients] between October 2023 and August…“[Being elected gives me a license to practice medicine in] Texas [despite my]…dangerous [lack of] medical [educa]tion…” Paxton said…“Doctors who continue to [disagree with me] will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law”…Paxton…alleged that Lau used “false diagnoses and billing codes” in order to mask “unlawful prescriptions”…If [Paxton’s witch hunt is successful], Lau could have her medical license revoked and face a financial penalty of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Paxton’s suit is the first in the nation by an attorney general against an individual doctor[, but it is far from his first “culture war” nuisance lawsuit]…
What is wrong with doctors who do this?
[Michigan] pathologist Charles Yee was accused numerous times of exposing his genitals to women in public places…[yet] he never lost his medical license and he was never disciplined by the Michigan Board of Medicine…until…he re[cently]…pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of indecent exposure…He also is currently facing indecent exposure and lewd conduct charges in Riverside, California, and spent six weeks [last] summer in a [“]sex-addiction[“] program in Idaho…he al[so] followed minor girls around [town] for hours at a time and secretly took photos of them with his cellphone…Yee faces up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine when he is sentenced in November…
Had he not been caught, this would’ve soon escalated:
The city manager of Waurika, Oklahoma, [who is also a cop,] has been arrested…[for making child porn] and l[urk]ing around [other people’s houses to leer at their kids. Charles Kyote Dunn was first reported]…in January…a search…[of his] electronic devices…discovered [numerous child porn images]…
Four weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference. Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $1600. So now I’m only facing a $1400 shortfall; if you aren’t yet a subscriber, won’t you please consider becoming one? A $1/day subscription would take $90 off of that total, and other levels would help in proportion. Or if you’re already a subscriber but can spare some extra right now, I’d really appreciate it; it would be great if I can catch up by my birthday!
“Cop murders wife or girlfriend and claims it was suicide” is a recurring theme in this tag:
A [Florida cop named Eloilda Shea was murdered by] her estranged husband[, typical and representative cop Anthony Shea, who tried]…to [make it] look like a suicide attempt…
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 (#1482)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, adolescence, advertising, agency denial, Alabama, blogging, censorship, China, cops, Delaware, Eavesdropping, fascism, I Spy, If Men Were Angels, libraries, License To Rape, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, rape, robots, scams, surveillance, violence vs. sex workers on October 19, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Any alternate channel devoted to access by one party will undoubtedly be discovered, accessed, and abused by another. – David Ruiz
This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:
…an [Oklahoma] pastor…[named] Roy Shoop was…[found guilty of molest]ing several girls during horse riding lessons at Shoop’s ranch, or while the girls stayed at the family’s home…
If a system lets “authorized” busybodies spy on you, “unauthorized” ones can do the same:
…A recent Chinese incursion into U.S. internet providers using infrastructure created to allow police easy wiretap access offers [more] evidence…that weakening security for anybody weakens it for everybody…Among the companies breached by the [Chinese government–supported] hacker group, dubbed “Salt Typhoon” by investigators, are Verizon, AT&T, and Lumen Technologies…Joe Mullin and Cindy Cohn of the…EFF…believe the wiretap-ready systems penetrated by the Chinese hackers were “likely created to facilitate smooth compliance with wrong-headed laws like CALEA”…[which] dates back to 1994 and “forced telephone companies to redesign their network architectures to make it easier for [cop shops and spook houses] to wiretap digital telephone calls”…This isn’t the first time that CALEA-mandated wiretapping backdoors have been exploited by hackers…[because] “virtually every phone switch sold worldwide contains ‘lawful intercept’ functionality”…[such as] was subverted by hackers targeting Vodafone Greece…in…2004…
Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape:
A [young] Delaware man…[named] Jemeire Perry…was [arrested and] charged with se[veral crimes]…after he threatened a woman with arrest unless she [submitted] to [rape]…Perry [pretend]ed to [be a client, but when she showed up]…he…identifying himself as a “Confidential Informant”…[and] threatened to have the woman arrested…The woman…fle[d] and reported the incident to police…
Why does a vacuum cleaner need either a speaker or a wifi connection?
Robot vacuums made by Ecovacs have been reported roving around people’s homes, yelling profanities at them through the onboard speakers after the company’s software was found to be vulnerable to intrusion…The most common issue people have with so-called “smart” home devices is that they often require a software subscription…and if the manufacturer goes under or stops supporting the device, it simply becomes a paperweight…Remote access is [pointless and unnecessary, and]…every couple of years we hear about something egregious, like intruders accessing a baby monitor and whispering through it at night…
This is only going to get worse:
A Massachusetts woman used an online platform to schedule an appointment seeking abortion medication from a local clinic in May. Two minutes after she uploaded her insurance information to finalize the appointment, a representative from a nearby “pregnancy crisis center”…called the woman and, purporting to be the clinic, told her she needed to come in for an ultrasound prior to obtaining the medication. The crisis center…[called] AWHC…had intercepted the electronic communications between the abortion clinic and the woman, according to a lawsuit filed by the clinic, Four Women Health Services…the federal judge presiding over the case [has] ordered AWHC to stop [eavesdropping] and refrain from contacting [Four Women’s] patients…AWHC has long sought to confuse Four Women patients and has…deceived them when they have inadvertently come into its offices…[after it] moved directly next door to Four Women years ago…AWHC workers [regular]ly patrol a shared parking lot, giving Four Women patients anti-abortion literature…
Anyone with a functional brain could’ve predicted this outcome:
[Under] new [censorship] rules enacted by the Alabama Public Library Service in July…libraries can lose their state funding if [a politician points at any book]…in the children or teens section of the library [and belches the magic word “obscene”, “sexually explicit”, or “inappropriate”. So the] Cullman County Public Library…[has] gotten rid of their entire young adult section…[and] moved everything [in it] to the adult fiction section…over 2,000 books [in all. The library director]…said they d[id this] because the new rules from the state are [intentionally vague and] confusing…Minors who want to check something out from the library must get…their parents…[to] sign a waiver, saying that they understand exactly what their child is checking out…
Three weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference. Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $1100. So now I’m only facing a $1900 shortfall; if you aren’t yet a subscriber, won’t you please consider becoming one? A $1/day subscription would take $90 off of that total, and other levels would help in proportion. Or if you’re already a subscriber but can spare some extra right now, I’d really appreciate it; it would be great if I can catch up by my birthday!
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!
Paying the Bills
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged activism, advertising, ethics, language on September 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I know how the folks at Wikipedia feel; I, too, am sorry to ask again so soon after my last time, but I’m facing about a $3000 shortfall for my budget this year. When they use the eye-rollingly precious phrase “Wikipedia is not for sale” or similar, what they mean is that Wikipedia, like Mad magazine before it, does not carry ads. I share their philosophy: ads pay the bills, but they are distracting and annoying, and readers have good reason to suspect that any publication which carries them will be biased against offending those advertisers. And that’s anathema for any publication (including the aforementioned and this blog) whose foundational ethics would be undermined by the perception of such bias. Every week I get plenty of spam for “guest post” scammers offering to pay me for cluttering up this blog with God-only-knows what kind of stupid garbage, and there are plenty of services which will pay for me to embed garish blinking, flashing, jumping rubbish of the sort I block when it’s on other sites. But I don’t want to pollute this resource with that kind of trash, so that means I need to occasionally ask my readers for money. I’m not sure what fraction of my readers donate, but I doubt it’s any higher than Wikipedia’s 2%. And though the number of readers per day varies and is much smaller than it used to be (largely thanks to the enshittification of Google), I see 500 or so most days. So to ape Wikipedia’s pitch, if everyone reading this donated just $6, I’d hit my goal today. Of course, everyone won’t, so if you can spare a bit of cash (either once or every month by subscription), I’d appreciate it; the less often I have to mooch like a public TV station, the happier I am.
Friday, September 13th, 2024
Posted in Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, Friday the Thirteenth, holidays on September 13, 2024| 2 Comments »
Regular readers know that every Friday the Thirteenth, I ask those who aren’t sex workers to stand up for us. If you’re one of them, you already know the sorts of things I’m going to say; if you aren’t, you can simply go back and read the essay for the August 2021 occurence, which contained quotes and links for every occurence of this particular day and date combination. And if you value all the work I’ve done fighting for sex workers over the past 14 years, a concrete sign of that (via continuing subscription or one-time donation) would not only be deeply appreciated, but also provide vital resources for the continuance of that work.
In the News (#1462)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, agency denial, Arizona, Broken Record, California, censorship, comics, cops, fascism, hysteria, Kansas, law, libraries, Michigan, Missouri, politicians, prisons, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, sporting events, surveillance, teachers, The Last Shall Be First, The Punitive Mindset, The Vultures Descend, Thought Control, Torture Chamber, transgender, Utah on August 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Making money is not an excuse to separate families. – Maggie McDonald
All 32 NFL stadiums will start using [facial recognition] technology this season, after the league signed a contract with a company that uses facial scans to verify the identity of people entering event venues and other secure spaces. The [surveillance company called Wicket], which counts the Cleveland Browns’ owners as investors, will be used to “streamline and secure” entry for thousands of credentialed media, officials, staff and guests so they can easily access restricted areas such as press boxes and locker rooms…Some teams also have extended their use of the technology to scan the faces of ticket holders. The Cleveland Browns, Atlanta Falcons and New York Mets all have used the company’s…software to authenticate fans with tickets…The Browns also use Wicket to verify the ages of fans purchasing alcohol at concession stands…Soccer stadiums worldwide are…[also us]ing facial recognition technology to surveil fans…
Book banning is never, ever well-regarded in retrospect, but they keep doing it:
The Utah state school board [has] ordered the removal of 13 book titles from every public school in the state, in accordance with a new [mob-rule censorship] law passed earlier this year…schools must now dispose of the following titles[: Blankets by Craig Thompson; A Court of Frost and Starlight, A Court of Mist and Fury, A Court of Silver Flames, A Court of Thorns and Roses, A Court of Wings and Ruin, and Empire of Storms, all by Sarah J. Maas; Fallout and Tilt by Ellen Hopkins; Forever by Judy Blume; Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur; Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood; and What Girls Are Made Of by Elana K. Arnold]…The books on this list had already been banned by [three] school districts [each], but because of the new law…they will now be banned statewide [by mob rule, even in school districts where officials have more sense and better moral grounding]…
The Last Shall Be First (#1361)
This kind of behavior from a public employee should be grounds for impeachment:
A transgender woman’s use of the women’s locker room at a…[Missouri] fitness center has [been used by a politician to drum up] an outcry [among his supporters]…Eris Montano…has [not] violated any laws or the polices of Life Time fitness center. But [politician] Justin Sparks…[sees an opportunity to stir up shit by demanding “]investigations[” into people he dislikes having civil rights]…Montano has…[followed] the center’s policies regarding transgender members…and has…largely had positive interactions with other gym members…Many people have gone out of their way to make her feel welcome, she said…[with] the lone exception…[of] a woman in the center’s sauna [who]…“kept telling me that I was a man, that I didn’t belong there,” Montano recalled…Life Time’s members are assigned to locker rooms based on the gender listed on their state-issued photo ID…[on which] she…is now listed as female…[but] Sparks [apparently] wants the Missouri…[policy on] driver’s license [gender to be] changed…
Most major cities have quietly backed away from “sex trafficking” hysteria, but not San Diego, long a hotbed of this ugly, misogynistic wanking fantasy. So it’s not especially surprising to see these sociopathic clowns using Comic-Con as an excuse to ruin people’s lives while publicly sharing their fantasies and making furtive movements in their pants. But what is pleasantly surprising was to see the public response to this tired copaganda; I guess we weren’t just shouting into the void for all those years, after all.
My dad has been in the St. Clair County Jail in Port Huron, Michigan, since October, and I’m not allowed to see him. So, other kids and I sued the county and others for the right to hug our parents, as part of a larger Right 2 Hug project that aims to restore family visits and stop companies from making money off family separation…In America, around 5 million children like me have experienced a parent being incarcerated at some point in their life…The jail my dad is in got rid of in-person visits in 2018 and replaced them with phone and video calls only…This is happening all over the country, meaning lots of kids like me can’t spend any time together with their parents…Now I just message my dad on the app that the jail uses, but it’s not at all like actually talking to him. It’s not like DMs or texting; it’s more like email, and it’s really clunky to use…Plus, I think it’s really creepy that someone can read all the messages between me and my dad. All communication between us is recorded — the video calls, phone calls, messages. Talk about a major invasion of privacy…in response to a similar lawsuit from the Right 2 Hug campaign in Genesee County, Michigan…the sheriff admitted in an interview with NBC that they had eliminated in-person visitation to make more money…My dad’s release date is soon, and I’m excited to see him again. But I won’t stop fighting in this lawsuit, because I’m also fighting for all the other families who can’t visit their loved ones…
Forced-birth politicians want to encourage lawsuits, but not this kind:
[After] Mylissa Farmer was denied an emergency abortion…while experiencing a miscarriage…she filed a lawsuit against…The University of Kansas Health System…[because] it violated a federal law [named EMTALA which requires] doctors [to] treat patients who come into the emergency room…doctors told Farmer that she was at risk of infection, severe blood loss, the loss of her uterus and death. But they…refused to perform an abortion…because it would be too “risky” in Kansas’ “heated” political environment to do so…the hospital refused to even perform routine checks such as taking her temperature and assessing her pain. She was turned away without so much as Tylenol or antibiotics to ward off potential infection despite…being at high risk for infection and experiencing heavy bleeding, mental fog and acute pain…Farmer eventually traveled several hours to Hope Clinic in Granite City, Illinois, for an abortion…The damage to Farmer’s health and wellbeing was long-term…she was hospitalized several times after the miscarriage…was unable to work for months…[and] eventually lost her home…The federal lawsuit comes in the wake of an Idaho EMTALA case recently argued before the U.S. Supreme Court…Unlike the Idaho case, which was brought by the government, Farmer’s is the first high profile EMTALA lawsuit brought by an individual denied their federal rights while pregnant…
Your “leaders” call this “correction”:
Forty-three people are known to have died in the Maricopa County jail system [in 2022]. More than one-quarter of those deaths were suicides. Forty-three more people died in the jails in 2023…the death rate was among the highest of major jail systems in the country. Scholars who study in-c[age] deaths in U.S. jails and prisons said those numbers are incredibly high when compared with similarly sized jail systems and even jails with much larger populations…Drug overdoses, drug withdrawals and suicides were among the leading causes of death…[but] one-third of the deaths…are [the] natural [result of keeping]…old…and sick…[people locked in cages as though they posed a danger to anyone]…the current and former Sheriff’s Office administrations…hindered operations and challenged efforts to maintain safe conditions…
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!
And Now For a Word…
Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged activism, advertising, blogging, psychology on August 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »
While a lot of sites use paywalls, nag screens, or annoying popups that say “Wikipedia is not for sale!”, I find all that kind of vulgar, so I restrict myself to a small “PS” on my news and links columns:
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 probably should change the wording of that one of these days, but I really hate advertising. I hate watching it, I hate advertisers trying to irritate me to get my attention, and back when I used to watch a lot of PBS (’70s to ’90s) I hated those damned pledge drives. Some of y’all may even remember that one of the reasons I semi-retired is because I had it up to here {puts hand as far above head as I can reach} with dealing with buying, keeping up with, writing, and jumping through the stupid censor-demanded hoops of escort advertising. So obviously I don’t want to subject y’all to it, either; that’s why I keep these reminder columns to a minimum (looks like this is only the third one this year, so yay me). The only reason I’m doing this one is that I noticed I’m just a teensy bit behind where I should be on income, so before it gets more than a teensy bit I figured I’d best tap the sign reminding y’all that support from readers is a major part of what keeps me afloat financially and lets me keep grinding this blog out. So if you’re a regular reader but not a subscriber yet, would you please consider changing that? The regular levels are in the right-hand column, and the superstar levels are here. Give it a thought, would you? Thank you!
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