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Posts Tagged ‘Arkansas’

The Nordic model has a stronger effect on increasing rape than criminalization does.  –  Huasheng Gao and Vanya Petrova

Full of Themselves (#755)

How pompously puritanical need one be to believe that consensual sex constitutes “a dangerous criminal record”?

…in Illinois, a dangerous criminal record may not stop people from becoming licensed massage therapists…A conviction of sexual misconduct, prostitution, rape, or any other offense requiring registration as a sex offender automatically bars an applicant from obtaining a massage therapist license.  But this is not the case for first-degree murder, armed robbery, aggravated battery…assault, stalking…and kidnapping…so [politicians want even more]…regulations for massage therapy license applicants…

Capricious Lusts (#788)

Another study shows what’s already been shown over & over again:

Liberalizing prostitution laws “leads to a significant decrease in rape rates,” according to a study published in The Journal of Law and Economics, “while prohibiting it leads to a significant increase”…researchers Huasheng Gao and Vanya Petrova of China’s Fudan University looked at data from 31 European countries, spanning a period between 1990 and 2017.  During this time period, eight countries (Spain, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, Latvia, and Romania) liberalized their prostitution laws while six countries (Sweden, Croatia, Norway, Iceland, France, and Ireland) cracked down on prostitution…liberalizing…was linked to a significant decrease in rape rates, while prohibition was linked to a significant increase—but…”the magnitude of prohibiting commercial sex is about four times as large as that of liberalizing it”…The average rape rate in the sample countries was nine rapes per 100,000 people.  Countries that liberalized prostitution laws saw a decrease of approximately three rapes per 100,000…[while] countries that…further criminalized…saw an increase of around 11 rapes per 100,000…

A Moral Cancer (#991)

Prohibitionists always claim surprise when the predicted effects of one of their bans appear:

[Since] Massachusetts became the first state…to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco and nicotine products…four additional states have…imposed…similar policies…but the latest data from Massachusetts highlight the ban’s [predict]ed consequences [coming to pass]…As opponents of the flavor ban predicted, the law has incentivized black market sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes…Revenue officials are s[teal]ing so many [smuggled] products, in fact, that they are running out of room to store them…tobacco tax revenue has fallen by approximately 22.6 percent over three years…[and] the decline in cigarette sales in Massachusetts coincided with substantial increases in sales in counties bordering the state…

To Molest and Rape (#1225)

This is a cop’s idea of “friendship”:

New Mexico [cop] Kevin Keiner [was rewarded with a paid vacation for]…raping a…woman [who foolishly believed he was her friend]…the woman…called…Keiner…to pick her up…after she’d gotten into a…[drunken] argument with her brother and another woman…Keiner [was wearing his magical clown costume when]…he picked the woman up [in his pigmobile] and took her to his home…The woman…blacked out….[and] the next thing she remembers is that Keiner was on top of her….Keiner [is of course claiming she wanted it and came onto him]…

Torture Chamber (#1287)

The government needs to be buried in lawsuits before this will stop:

[Young people] detained [without having been convicted of any crime] at the Baltimore County Detention Center are locked up for 23 hours a day in rat-infested cells that sometimes flood with sewage water…The jail is [refusing to] comply…with federal laws governing juvenile detention, said Deborah St. Jean, director of the public defender’s Juvenile Protection Division.  She asked for the “immediate transfer” of detained youth to the Department of Juvenile Services…

The Mob Rules (#1311)

The primary principle governing politicians’ behavior is “monkey see, monkey do”:

a bill that would require Arkansans to provide identification to use social media sites…is [being] sponsored by [a politician named] Tyler Dees…who [also] has another bill that…would require pornography websites to provide age verification…Th[e first] bill, seemingly modeled on one that recently passed in Utah, would open up the social media companies to civil and criminal penalties…

The Last Shall Be First (#1317) 

“Bathroom bills” are back after blessedly vanishing for over three years:

A bill that would criminalize transgender people using restrooms that match their gender identity won initial approval in the Arkansas Legislature…The bill…would allow someone to be charged with misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they use a public restroom or changing room “of the opposite sex while knowing a minor of the opposite sex is present”…The legislation goes even further than a North Carolina bathroom law that was enacted in 2016 and later repealed following widespread boycotts and protests.  That law did not include any criminal penalties…

 

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!

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They’re trying to George Floyd me!  –  Keenan Anderson

This week’s video, provided by Stephen Lemons, was made by a hip-hop musician called Afroman to mock the cops who raided his home on bogus pretexts; like the taqueria I featured back in January of ’16, he used surveillance footage in the video to have the last laugh on the thugs who violated his property.  The links above the video were contributed by Mirriam Zary; Franklin Harris and Dan Savage; N. Colby; and Cop Crisis (x4), 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!

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Silicon Valley lobbyists are…trying to avoid the real debate: whether technology this dangerous should even exist.  –  Fight for the Future

Cooties

Anti-sexworker bigotry harms all women:

An Airbnb host was caught on camera threatening to “smack” a woman in the face and calling her a “prostitute” before telling her no one would believe her if she complained…Yet despite complaints to Airbnb and local police, the man has faced no sanction more than four months on…Airbnb claimed it had suspended the listing, but several others from the same landlord – including one in the same building – are still available to book as of 6 January.  The woman and her cousin…were staying at the flat in Somerset…[when] at the end of August they say they received a phone call from the landlord threatening to physically attack them unless they left…he…the[n]…let himself into the flat…threatened them again, made racist remarks and pinned one of them against the wall…He told them…“You are prostitutes operating from this apartment”…Both women deny…that they were doing sex work on the premises, saying they only had a few friends to visit during their stay…

Fallen Idol (#1052)

Probably not the outcome prosecutors expected:

Former adult film star Ron Jeremy is suffering from “severe dementia” and will be declared incompetent to stand trial on multiple charges of rape later this month…weeks before Jeremy’s trial was slated to begin last year, his defense attorney, Stuart Goldfarb, [report]ed…his client did not recognize him…mental health experts called on by both prosecutors and…defense…have determined…there is no evidence he is faking his symptoms…dementia is a progressive and degenerative illness from which Jeremy is unlikely to recover…the experts reached their conclusion based on a review of medical documents and interviews with Jeremy, his relatives and several…[screw]s who interacted with him while in [jail].  Some of Jeremy’s relatives apparently suspected he suffered from dementia before his 2020 arrest…Jeremy is likely to be placed in a state-run hospital…

Torture Chamber (#1098) 

Perhaps Alabama’s state bird should be the ostrich:

The Alabama Department of C[ramming Human Beings into Filthy Cage]s will no longer track the number of…deaths [in its cages] by month…the department ended [2022]…with 225 deaths…[Chris] England, a member of the prison oversight committee, says now is not the time for less transparency…He wants to…require them to report more often..the Governor’s Office…[claims less frequent reporting is actually “]more accurate[“]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1135)

Cops really don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out:

Instead of enjoying a late Thanksgiving meal with his mother in Georgia, Randal Reid spent nearly a week in jail in November after he was falsely [accused of grand larceny] by Louisiana [cops on the basis of] facial recognition technology…Reid…[was] misidentified as one of three people who allegedly stole over $10,000 in Chanel and Louis Vuitton purses from a pair of shops via bogus credit card purchases…[and arrested] by…Georgia…[cops during a traffic stop]…“They told me I had a warrant out of Jefferson Parish. I said, ‘What is Jefferson Parish?,’” Reid recalled. “I have never been to Louisiana a day in my life…”

Rooted in Racism (#1151)

In Europe as in the US, the real humanitarians are fighting against racist “anti-trafficking” schemes:

Greek prosecutors…[are putting] humanitarians on trial for search-and-rescue efforts that are protected under international human rights law and Greek law…The [latest] trial is…against…Sarah Mardini…Sean Binder [ans 22 others]…is riddled with procedural flaws that undermine their rights to due process and a fair trial…“Greek authorities…are going after people for saving lives the authorities didn’t want them to save,” said Bill Van Esveld…[of] Human Rights Watch…prosecutors…split the misdemeanor charges from felony charges in the case so the misdemeanors could be tried before expiring under Greece’s five-year statute of limitations…The misdemeanor charges…include espionage and forgery…based on humanitarians’ efforts to identify migrant boats in distress…[while] the…felony case misrepresents…search-and-rescue…operations as human smuggling by a criminal organization…

The Last Shall Be First (#1246) 

The war on trans people has expanded to include drag queens:

Arkansas [politician] Gary Stubblefield…[has] filed a bill…that would classify drag performances as…”adult-oriented business,” along with escort agencies…adult book…or video store[s]… massage establishment[s, etc.  The bill would also restrict all]…adult-oriented business[es from] be[ing] located on public property or anywhere where a minor could [possibly] view [them]…

It would be remiss of me to fail to point out that this wouldn’t be a big deal if sex work weren’t so stigmatized; maybe the queer community should’ve supported sex worker rights as we’ve been urging them to do for the past 20 years.

Panopticon (#1295)

Why bother with license plate readers when fools will pay to be tracked?

A team of security researchers managed to gain “super administrative access” into Reviver, the company behind California’s new digital license plates which launched last [October].  That access allowed them to track the physical GPS location of all Reviver customers and change a section of text at the bottom of the license plate designed for personalized messages to whatever they wished…“An actual attacker could remotely update, track, or delete anyone’s REVIVER plate,” Sam Curry, a bug bounty hunter, wrote…Reviver is the sole provider of these plates, [which] are legal to drive nationwide, and…[cost] between $20 and $25 a month…Users can digitally update the lower section of their license plate to display different messages…[such as] “Go Team!”  An accompanying app can also update a user if their car moves when it is supposed to be parked…the license plate will then display the text “stolen.” Reviver promises “continuous rollout of new features,” including automatic toll payment, parking payment, roadside assistance, and vehicle diagnostics…Reviver [calls this tracking device]…“security” [which] offers “true peace of mind”…

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!

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I feel like a huge weight is off my mind now that I have told them what to do with their job.  –  Kirsty Buchan

If Men Were Angels

It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:

A [typical and representative] youth pastor at a Southern Baptist church in southwest Missouri pleaded guilty…to six child sex abuse-related charges…Jeff Taylor…was sentenced to nine years in state prison…after a 19-year-old told a sheriff’s deputy that the youth pastor at her church had been sexually abusing her since she was 11…Taylor…did not deny the…allegations [but] claimed what he did “was based in love”…He was fired in 2020 [when he]…sex[ually] abuse[d a different girl]…

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#903) 

The old strip club business model is a dead duck:

A federal judge has signed off on a $6.5 million settlement in a wage-and-hour dispute between exotic dancers and strip clubs in San Francisco and San Diego.  A class of 8,402 exotic dancers sued SFBSC Management in San Francisco and Déjà Vu Services in San Diego in 2014 for allegedly misclassifying them as independent contractors and engaging in unlawful tip sharing…Judge Laurel Beeler found the $6.5 million settlement to be fair and reasonable, as it recovers about 14% of the “claimed best-case damages scenario of $45.8 million” and…since nightclubs were [denied relief under the] CARES Act…and forced to close during the pandemic — one defendant recently declared bankruptcy while five other clubs even closed permanently — the nightclubs’ ability to absorb a larger judgment was questionable…

Banishment (#990)

It usually starts with “vice criminals”, but it never stops with us:

The neighborhood order of protection…is [a form of banishment allowing its victims to]…be arrested if [they] so much as set foot inside a 1.2-square-mile area — more than 100 city blocks — that is home to many of the organizations that provide shelter, meals and care to St. Louis’ homeless people…Other American cities order people to stay away from specific individuals or places, and some have set up defined areas that are off-limits to people convicted of drug or prostitution charges.  But few have taken the practice to St. Louis’ extreme, particularly as a response to petty incidents…Seattle and some of its suburbs, including Everett, have blocked off certain areas…as “exclusion zones” where people who have been convicted of drug or prostitution offenses can be arrested.  The practice has long been criticized by civil rights advocates, but…[politicians do it anyway and vomit the magic word “]crime[” at critics].  Cincinnati once barred people convicted of drug offenses from its own “exclusion zones.”  But a court struck down the practice as…[un]constitutional…in 2003…

Blunt Instrument (#1206)

I wish news outlets had the good taste to stop publishing cops’ and politicians’ lurid, racist wanking fantasies:

Louisiana [politicians want]…new laws [with which to destroy migrants’ businesses using the ever-popular pretext of]…“human trafficking”…[the politicians equated Asian workers to raw sewage, claiming that “]massage parlors often are cesspools for human trafficking…I can tell you right now in the state of Louisiana, there’s three or four thousand, as far as immigrants, that are trafficked from China that are brought here from flights to New York, brought on busses, all the way down to Louisiana.  And there’s a minimum of two to three girls in every one of those massage parlors that are being trafficked,” [oinke]d Benjamin White…[of] the Louisiana Sheriff’s Association…[while panting and making furtive movements in his pants.  The politicians]…say…they’ll be exploring new ways to have more incentives [other than permission to terrorize, rape, and rob women] for [cop shops] to have more sting operations.  The[y]…also [want] ways to [profit from] landlords who lease to massage parlors…

Permanent Record (#1276)

If prohibitionists really want to “rescue” sex workers, why do they keep trying to shut us out of other jobs?

A Scottish teacher [w]as…forced to resign after pupils spotted her OnlyFans account.  Kirsty Buchan left her position at Bannerman High School in Glasgow after parents fumed at the images – but says she had no choice but to launch the sideline…as the school refused to pay her wages while she cared for her sick son.  Parents complained about the physics teacher…but she resigned before disciplinary procedures began at the school…”I feel like a huge weight is off my mind now that I have told them what to do with their job”…

R.I.P. Carol Leigh

Tracy Quan remembers Carol Leigh:

To Molest and Rape (#1294)

Another version of referring to a rapist cop as a “former” cop:

…an Arkansas [cop named Justin Davis was] charged with…sexual[ly] assault[ing]…a 15-year-old…only six days [after joining the Forrest City Police Department]…Davis had previously been a [cop] in [nearby] Marianna, Arkansas…Forrest City Police Chief Ronald Broussard…[thought the most important thing was to distance himself from the crime by saying] “At the time of the incident he WAS NOT an officer of Forrest City”…

 

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!

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No one wins in this.  –  Connor Cook

If Men Were Angels

It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:  “A pastor [named Fredy Gonzalez]…in Wildomar [California] has been arrested for [molesting] a child…

A Broker in Pillage (#1118)

Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations:

Vera and Apollonia Ward…were just getting a dog-breeding business off the ground…when…[cops attempted to rob]…them…the…sisters…had…tried to send $17,500 in cash through FedEx to a…California…dog broker…to scout and purchase two new animals for them…[like most people, they did not know] FedEx [has a] fa[scist pact with cops which allows them to root through parcels at FedEx sorting centers if they claim a dog gave them permission.  The cops first vomited out the phrase]…drug proceeds…[and claimed their Sooper Cop noses] smelled marijuana on the money…[but] the sisters…had receipts to [show they had withdrawn the cash from their bank]…When the sisters refused to cave and say the money was drug proceeds, the…[cops] threatened to go after them for money laundering…[but] after the Wards connected with the Goldwater Institute, prosecutors relented and returned the…money…six months [later]…

The Cop Myth (#1191)

Well, this is certainly novel:

A Miami [cop was]…shot in the head by his estranged…girlfriend…Yessenia Sanchez…a[nother cop paid to lurk in]…school[s in order to spy on and harass students]…Sanchez went to [Damian] Colon’s [home]…around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 4…to argue [with him], a[fter] which [she]…shot [him]…then fled…in a red pick up truck, [which she almost immediately wrecked into]…an oncoming car.  She [then]…los[t] control, hit two parked cars…and continued for another block until her [truck died, after which she]…fled on foot…[and] was later arrested at her home…

Stalkers in Blue (#1240)

This kind of behavior is just another sexual power trip:

A [typical and representative Mountie] convicted of multiple sex offences has been sentenced to 18 months in jail…Andrew Seangio…will [also] be placed on a sex offender registry for 10 years…[because] between 2018 and February 2019…he exposed himself to four girls, one of whom was just 14 years old, as well as [disguised cops]…Seangio would drive…past York House School and Little Flower Academy, both all-girls K-12 private schools, until he spotted an isolated victim.  He would then roll down his window, expose himself and drive away…

Thought Control (#1261)

Just keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually:

[When] the Patmos Library millage failed in…August…it lost 84% of its operating budget because its staff refused to remove its LGBTQ books.  The board put it on the ballot again [last week]…hoping that with more residents aware of the measure, it would pass.  It failed, again.  Without taxpayer funds, the library will close.  Exactly when that will happen is not yet known.  A GoFundMe for the library raised about $265,000, with the help of author Nora Roberts, but it won’t be enough to sustain it long-term…

Imaginary Victims (#1274) 

The state is far too concerned with “punishing” this girl to actually help her:

…On November 4, [Pieper] Lewis cut off her GPS tracker and [escaped] from [a gingerbread house named] Fresh Start…[cops] issued a warrant for her arrest…and [she was captured 5 days later]…Judge David Porter sentenced Lewis in September to probation for five years to be served at the [gingerbread house].  He also gave her a deferred judgment, which meant her conviction would be expunged from her record if she [successfully jumped through all the] probation [hoops].  Porter warned Lewis at her sentencing hearing that by affording her an opportunity to avoid prison he was giving her a second chance.  “You don’t get a third,” he said…[because of her escape, pigs want] the court to…revoke her probation and deferred judgment and send her to prison…

Winding Down (#1286)

When will the federal government finally read the writing on the wall?

Voters…approved the legalization of recreational marijuana in Maryland and Missouri while rejecting similar measures in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Meanwhile, voters in five Texas cities passed ballot measures that bar local police from issuing citations or making arrests for low-level marijuana possession.  But the most striking election result for drug policy reformers looking beyond the ongoing collapse of marijuana prohibition happened in Colorado, where a broad psychedelic decriminalization measure [squeaked by despite clucking from puritans that not sending cops to destroy people’s lives over possession of plants]…is bad, because people might use psychedelics for fun…

 

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!

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It’s very frustrating to be a gynecologist in Texas.  –  Dr. Lauren Swords

Bad Girls

It’s an extremely bad idea to try to do the work of a professional, whether dominatrix or lawyer, without any training in the field:

After three days of often graphic evidence, sex worker Madeleine Joan Lewin offered no explanation about what happened…the night Brisbane businessman Anthony Brady died…the 34-year-old, representing herself at her manslaughter trial…sat…silently throughout the proceedings…she did not cross examine any witnesses and did not give evidence or make a closing statement to the jury.  It took the 12 jurors less than an hour to return a unanimous guilty verdict…Brady…[died] during a consensual bondage activity on the evening of August 12, 2020…[apparently from positional asphyxia as he] was found face down on the bed with a hood over his head, and handcuffs and bindings around his wrists and legs…Some of the bindings were difficult for police to remove…[and] Lewin had [fled the scene]…in a hurry…

Property of the State (#1149)

Women of childbearing age should avoid Alabama entirely if at all possible:

…Several pregnant women and new moms accused of exposing their fetuses to drugs have been [caged] for weeks or months in…Etowah County [Alabama]…under special bond conditions that require rehab and $10,000 cash…As a result…Etowah County…often [cages] several pregnant and postpartum women [at a time], against the advice of experts on maternal and fetal health…“The stress and conditions in jail and prisons, including lack of consistent access to standard prenatal care and mental health care, poor diets, poor sanitation, infestations with bugs and vermin, poor ventilation, tension, noise, lack of privacy, lack of family and community contact, can be detrimental to physical and mental health which can result in poor pregnancy outcomes for both the mother and the baby,” [said prominent OB-GYN Dr. Carolyn] Sufrin…It’s difficult to know how many…women…Etowah County [victimizes in this way.  Reporters]…found seven pregnant or postpartum women in a recent investigation of the jail log…National Advocates for Pregnant Women…have tracked more than 150 chemical endangerment cases involving women in Etowah County since 2010…

Legislators Gone Wild (#1198) 

The fanatical, unhinged Guinasso and his pet fantasist are at it again, now with the financial backing of Morality in Media:

…one of Las Vegas’ premier strip clubs, Sapphire Las Vegas…[and] the Chicken Ranch, an unrelated…[Nevada brothel, have been targeted by a nuisance law]suit [filed by]…Morality in Media…and [fanatical anti-sex lawyer] Jason Guinasso…[with the help of two professional “survivors” who hope to profit from the dying “sex trafficking” hysteria by pretending they were] “sex trafficked in Nevada through legal strip clubs, including the Sapphire Gentleman’s Club”…Conflating all legal sex work with “sex trafficking” has been one of the key strategies used by [Morality in Media] in its ambitious quest to outlaw all consensual sex work, one of the group’s core goals…the organization…also planned to sue Steve Sisolak, the governor of Nevada; Aaron Ford, the state’s attorney general; the city of Las Vegas; and Nevada’s Clark County and Nye County.  However, the court ruled that the plaintiffs did not have standing to sue those parties…

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1199) 

The latest chapter in this nasty, twisted saga:

The FBI announced…that it had placed GirlsDoPorn owner Michael Pratt on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, and doubled the reward for information leading to his arrest from $50,000 to $100,000…On July 26, Matthew Wolfe, Pratt’s second in command for the shuttered GirlsDoPorn website, pleaded guilty…to a single count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking…Pratt, a New Zealand national, escaped the U.S. before federal charges against the company and its employees were unsealed in 2019…

The Cop Myth (#1236)

Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?

A…[typical and representative] California [cop] has been charged [for] murder[ing]…a married couple…Devin Williams…was allegedly dating the female victim…Maria Tran and [murdered] her [and her] husband…Benison Tran [when he discovered she was married]…the pair’s 14-year-old-son…walked in on the crime in progress…Williams fled…but…turned himself in nearly 11 hours later…

Property of the State (#1259)

“Hard cases” are more common than forced-birth proponents want you to believe:

Kristina Cruickshank…lost her unborn baby…in her 15th week of pregnancy…[she] was frail, vomiting and in pain when she and her husband, John, arrived at Houston Methodist Sugar Land on…June 3.  She needed an abortion…but…it…was not clear whether Kristina was exempt from Texas abortion laws, which threaten providers with felonies and lawsuits for performing abortions except to treat a miscarriage or a loosely defined “medical emergency.”  Her fetus still had a heartbeat, and she did not yet need life-saving care…So over the next three days, a sick and distraught Kristina was stuck in limbo, waiting…while an ethics committee reviewed the case…

Winding Down (#1265)

Your “leaders” know what’s best, so shut up and obey:

Arkansas is one of a handful of states, and the only Southern state, that allows voters to directly pass laws and amend the state constitution by ballot referendum.  Placing an initiative on the ballot requires collecting signatures from registered voters equal to 8 percent of the total votes for governor in the most recent election.  Currently, that number is 89,151.  In July, Responsible Growth Arkansas…submitted a [legalization] measure with over 190,000 signatures, more than twice the necessary number…[but] the State Board of Election Commissioners…denied the measure’s title and, therefore, its ballot eligibility…Responsible Growth Arkansas sued Secretary of State John Thurston…The Arkansas Supreme Court preliminarily ordered Thurston to certify the measure for November’s general election ballot but noted that it would not ultimately be able to hear arguments on the case until September…

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If there’s one thing law enforcement agents are not, it’s modest.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

To Molest and Rape

Cops covered up these crimes for six years:

A [typical and representative] Hutchinson [Kansas cop] was arrested…[for] more than a dozen sexual assault cases…between 2012 to 2018…Todd Allen…was arrested…on…multiple charges including rape, kidnapping, aggravated sexual battery and…child…[molestation.  When current police chief Jeff] Hooper…took over the…department in 2018…[he discovered that there had been] a series of sexual assaults that had not been reported to the public…After…he [held a] press conference [on the subject]…the sexual assaults stopped happening…[and] Allen resigned from the department shortly after[ward.  Then]…in 2022, the…department…received multiple “prowler” and “peeping tom” calls…and [arrested Allen while answering one of them]…Allen’s arrest closed 17 active sexual assault cases, including 12 cases between 2012 and 2018 and five since…

Between the Lines (#964)

Liz Brown tries to assess the damage from this year’s “Operation Cross Country” pogroms:

Operation Cross Country, the FBI’s annual vice squad bonanza disguised as a human-trafficking rescue mission, is back.  This year’s operation…involv[ed] more than 200 [cop shops and spook houses and claims to have]…located 37 missing minors, identified “more than 200 victims,” and led to the “identification or arrest” of 85 suspects.  But it gives us little information beyond these broad statistics…the FBI press release mentions only three federal cases, none involving sex trafficking…

The Implosion Begins

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

Accusations involving ritual sex abuse and the sexualization of children have surged into the mainstream of American politics over the past year…We ran a nationwide poll in cooperation with Qualtrics from May 26 to June 30 to gauge Americans’ views toward these topics…Twenty-six percent of Republicans and 29 percent of Democrats strongly agreed or agreed that Satanic ritual sex abuse is widespread; 36 percent of Republicans and 34 percent of Democrats strongly agreed or agreed that members of Satanic cults are secretly abusing thousands of children, and 32 percent of both Republicans and Democrats strongly agreed or agreed that government and Hollywood elites are running a massive child sex trafficking scheme.  Sixty-three percent of Republicans and 61 percent of Democrats believed the debunked claim that 300,000 or more children are currently victims of sex trafficking in the US.  These numbers suggest that these types of beliefs transcend typical partisan divisions…

Remember this when the New York Times or another media outlet who profited from this panic for two decades tells you it’s a “far-right conspiracy theory”.

Welcome to the Future (#1125)

Everything I read about modern corporate work makes me happier I became a whore:

In lower-paying jobs, the monitoring is already ubiquitous: not just at Amazon…but also for Kroger cashiers, UPS drivers and millions of others…Now [so-called] productivity monitoring is also spreading among white-collar [and professional] jobs…Many employees, whether working remotely or in person, are subject to trackers, scores, “idle” buttons, or just quiet, constantly accumulating records.  Pauses can lead to penalties, from lost pay to lost jobs…Architects, academic administrators, doctors, nursing home workers and lawyers described growing electronic surveillance over every minute of their workday.  They echoed complaints that employees in many lower-paid positions have voiced for years: that their jobs are relentless, that they don’t have control…[or] even…enough time to use the bathroom…[they] describe…being tracked as “demoralizing,” “humiliating” and “toxic”…But the most urgent complaint, spanning industries and incomes, is that the [surveillance systems]…are…inept at capturing offline activity, unreliable at assessing hard-to-quantify tasks and prone to undermining the work itself…

The Last Shall Be First (#1132) 

What kind of mind thinks it’s OK to protest by threatening health care providers?

Boston Children’s Hospital has warned employees about mounting threats…after [anti-trans] activists on social media began targeting the hospital with false claims about its treatment of young transgender people…One allegation said that the hospital offered gender-affirming hysterectomies to [legal minors]…fact-checking organizations debunked the claims…but many of the same accounts continued to spread the false allegations…and…also targeted…individual doctors…leaving vulgar and harassing comments on their social media accounts and flooding their online pages with negative reviews.  Some hospital staff have since made their social media profiles private…

Thought Control (#1224)

Texas just won’t stop plunging that ice pick into its frontal lobes:

A day before kids return to class, Keller [Texas bureaucrats ordered] school [librarians to remove]…any book that was challenged last year from library shelves…among the titles…[are] Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, Anne Frank’s Diary (The Graphic Adaptation) and The Bible…Keller [politicians]…kept its book c[ensorship] committee deliberations secret in part because of fear of retribution from Gov. Greg Abbott…Also this week, [politician] Jared Patterson…[of] Frisco…[demanded censorship of] nearly two dozen books…and…[complained that] Frisco…[politicians are]…not banning as many books as other local districts

Winding Down (#1241)

Over half of Americans now live in states with legal cannabis:

Voters in at least five states will decide whether to legalize recreational marijuana this fall, and a similar measure may yet qualify for the ballot in one more state.  If all six initiatives are successful, recreational use will be legal in half of the states, underlining the untenability of continuing federal prohibition.  In Arkansas, where medical use was legalized in 2016, voters will consider a ballot initiative that would allow…recreational use [despite strong opposition from politicians]…In Maryland, where legislators authorized medical use in 2013, voters will consider a [similar] ballot initiative…In Missouriwhere voters approved medical marijuana in 2018, this year’s ballot initiative would amend the state constitution to…remove state prohibition…North Dakota [is trying to legalize recreational use for the second time after a loss in 2018]…and…South Dakota…[is trying to circumvent] Gov. Kristi Noem[‘s]…overturn [of the will of the people using a legal technicality]…In Oklahoma, where voters approved medical marijuana…in 2018, they could have a chance to…legalize recreational use…Oklahoma has become an improbable model for marijuana reformers troubled by the problems that states like California have encountered in trying to displace the black market.  Medical marijuana in Oklahoma is strikingly cheap and accessible, thanks largely to fast application approvals, light regulation, and modest taxes…

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After the government does something especially awful, there is usually an avalanche of horror stories illustrating exactly what reasonable people warned would happen after the awful government act.  The overturn of Roe v Wade is no exception; if I had included these stories in my normal news columns, they would’ve completely dominated most of the late July installments.  So instead, I opted to collect them all together here; future updates to these stories will appear in regular news columns under the appropriate tags.

One of the strongest reasons to oppose authoritarian laws of any kind is that they inevitably harm people the politicians insist they weren’t trying to target:

A sexual assault survivor chooses sterilization so that if she is ever attacked again, she won’t be forced to give birth to a rapist’s baby.  An obstetrician delays inducing a miscarriage until a woman with severe pregnancy complications seems “sick enough.”  A lupus patient must stop taking medication that controls her illness because it can also cause miscarriages.  Abortion restrictions in a number of states and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade are having profound repercussions in reproductive medicine as well as in other areas of medical care…Even in medical emergencies, doctors are sometimes declining immediate treatment. In the past week, an Ohio abortion clinic received calls from two women with ectopic pregnancies…who[se] doctors wouldn’t treat them…

More about the aforementioned lupus drug many women are now being denied:

Methotrexate is a cheap, common drug prescribed to millions of Americans…[for] rheumatic illnesses…inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis or cancer…[but because] it is used off-label to end ectopic pregnancies…it could be restricted by doctors or pharmacists even in states…that do not ban abortion…in low doses, it has proved to be one of the safest, least expensive and most effective treatments for roughly a dozen autoimmune conditions, from juvenile idiopathic arthritis to Crohn’s disease…“I have gotten some reports where children have been denied methotrexate for their juvenile arthritis until they’ve proven they’re not pregnant,” said Dr. Cuoghi Edens…a rheumatology expert…“The majority of rheumatic diseases affect females at substantially higher rates than males…The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in women to men is 3 to 1.  For lupus it’s 10 to 1.  And so rheumatology is a very female-predominant patient population”…some doctors have already stopped prescribing methotrexate rather than risk [persecution]…Many pharmacists have likewise refused to fill methotrexate prescriptions, or have demanded additional proof before dispensing the medication to patients they believe could get pregnant…

And it’s not just a few fundamentalist asshat pharmacists, either:

…the largest pharmacy chain in the country sent explicit instructions to its pharmacists informing them that new checks would be implemented to confirm the reason a doctor prescribes a drug before filling routine medications for patients…CVS headquarters sent a memo to pharmacies in [Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas]…review[ing] diagnosis codes that are deemed acceptable for dispensation, which include miscarriage…If they find abortion is the intended use, they “must refuse to fill the prescription”…

Some of the tyrannies forced-birth fetishists are trying to impose are blatantly unconstitutional:

South Carolina [politician]s introduced legislation that would make it illegal to “aid, abet or conspire with someone” to obtain an abortion…Provisions would outlaw providing information over the internet or phone about how to obtain an abortion.  It would also make it illegal to host a website or “[provide] an internet service” with information that is “reasonably likely to be used for an abortion”…the proposal is…modeled off a blueprint created by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), an antiabortion group, and designed to be replicated by [politician]s across the country…

Other FOSTA-inspired laws which encourage nuisance lawsuits have unfortunately not yet been declared unconstitutional:

Nearly four years after a woman ended an unwanted pregnancy with abortion pills obtained at a Phoenix clinic, she finds herself mired in an ongoing lawsuit [after]…A judge allowed the woman’s ex-husband to establish an estate for the embryo, which had been aborted in its seventh week of development.  The ex-husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the clinic and its doctors in 2020, alleging that…[he has the right to make decisions for his ex-wife]…

Naturally, this new extension of the police state will be enabled by the same fascist surveillance tactics as the War on Whores:

Many of the states rushing to ban abortion are also the biggest users of a surveillance tool that [cops] could use to track women ending their pregnancies — the location data from people’s phones…states across the country are already using this kind of data for other [surveillance and harassment].  And a POLITICO analysis found that many of the states that have criminalized abortion have relied increasingly on location data in recent years…Figures from Google…show that the company received 5,764 “geofence” warrants between 2018 and 2020 from police in the 10 states that have banned abortion as of July 5…

Of course, sex workers know all about most of these oppressions, because they’re tested on us first before being extended to amateurs:

Madolline Gourley, a Brisbane resident…was treated like a criminal during her transit through Los Angeles on 30 June, where she was detained at the border due to suspicions about her intention to house- and cat-sit in exchange for accommodation while holidaying in Canada.  Gourley was held in a detention room, interrogated twice, patted down, fingerprinted and photographed…At one point a US b[ureaucrat] asked Gourley, who was wearing a loose-fitting dress, whether she was pregnant.  The same question was repeated as she was moved between rooms.  When she again [replied that]…she was not pregnant, Gourley was asked whether she had had an abortion…

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Prostitution is a profession and sex workers are entitled to dignity and equal protection under the law.  –  The Supreme Court of India

Follow Your Bliss

The naive believe that “child predators” are creepy dudes who hang out at playgrounds; in reality, they are largely people in positions of authority over their preferred targets:

A [Missouri] man [named Scott F. Burow]…who spent more than 30 years working as a deputy juvenile officer in Missouri state court has been indicted in United States District Court on a felony charge of sex trafficking of a minor…[for paying a] 15 year…old…ward of the state of Illinois…[for sex] and…secretly videotaping her…

Policing for Profit

Cops will never stop doing this as long as the state keeps giving them pretexts:

A [gang] of [cops] conducted illegal searches and arrests in New Jersey as a pretext to rob residents out of cash…On May 26, a federal jury convicted Michael Cheff on…conspiracy…and…falsification of a police report…Cheff supervised a [gang] of [thugs who] worked together…between 2016 and 2018, [the gang regularly]…conducted illegal stops and searches of individuals in their vehicles, on the streets or in their homes and [robbed] them…Cheff…[got] a cut [in exchange for]…approving false reports…that…lied about…the…[armed robber]ies…

If Men Were Angels

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity or even religion; it’s blind submission to authority:

A community rabbi from Jerusalem w[as]…indicted…for repeated sexual crimes against newly religious women.  Rabbi Moshe Yazdi…rap[ed], sexually assault[ed] and sodomiz[ed]…women while fraudulently obtaining their “consent” by telling them these were religious acts and therefore they had to submit to his demands.  He is also suspected of exploiting them financially.  So far, 10 women…have filed complaints against him…[revealing that] he presented himself to them as one of the 36 righteous people who, according to Jewish tradition, ensure the world’s continued existence at any given moment…Some of the crimes were committed against brides on their wedding day…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#568)

Looks like the judge didn’t buy his “porn addiction” excuse:

Josh Duggar, former director of the lobbying arm of the…anti-porn Family Research Council, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for downloading child sexual abuse material…Duggar was known as a reality TV figure for his role on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, a show highlighting his extended family…[which] TLC canceled…in 2015 after it was revealed that Duggar had molested members of his family and a babysitter…The Arkansas trial also exposed the failure of…”porn filter” Covenant Eyes, a business highly ballyhooed by anti-porn crusaders…federal investigators found that Covenant Eyes had been installed on Duggar’s computer so that it could monitor and report his internet use to his wife, Anna…however, an investigator reported that “Covenant Eyes was unable to detect Duggar’s internet usage after a password-protected network was installed on his computer”…

For Those Who Think Legalization is a Good Idea (#737)

Indian sex workers have awaited this ruling for years:

The Supreme Court…told police that they should refrain from interfering and taking criminal action against…sex workers…[who] should not be arrested, penalised, harassed, or victimised through raids on brothels because…sex work is not illegal and only running the brothel is unlawful.  A sex worker’s child should not be deprived of her mother’s care “on the ground that she is in the sex trade”…The court also instructed cops not to discriminate against sex workers who lodge a complaint, if the offence against them is of sexual nature…The bench observed that use of condoms “should not be construed by the police as evidence of offence by sex workers”…[but unfortunately will still allow cops to abduct] sex workers [under the pretext of “]rescue[“] and [lock them in cages] “for not less than two-three years”…The apex court also ad[monished media to take] “utmost care not to reveal the identities of sex workers, during arrest, raid and rescue operations, whether as victims or accused and not to publish or telecast any photos that would result in disclosure of such identities”…[pointing out that] voyeurism is a criminal offence…

The Last Shall Be First (#1151) 

Laws like this have already been declared unconstitutional by the 4th Circuit:

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt…signed into law a bill that requires students at public schools…[including] charter schools to use restrooms and locker rooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates…Transgender students who decline to use the restroom required under the measure would have to use “a single-occupancy restroom or changing room” provided by the school.  The measure, which cleared the state Legislature last week, will take effect immediately because it was passed with an emergency clause.  School districts that [refuse] to comply…could be sued by school parents

The Next Target (#1151)

Prohibitionists’ real goal is to completely ban online sex work:

[Tobias Schmid, ] the local official behind the crusade for Germany to require age verification for viewing sexual content…is now seeking to expand to all of Europe the use of his new [surveillance] tool, KIVI, which automatically scans all online content to determine which images are not compliant with the law…KIVI was developed by Berlin-based Condat under…Schmid’s supervision and is now reportedly being used by all 14 state media authorities in Germany…to detect [images in] categories like “extremism, hate speech, swastikas or the glorification of drugs,” Schmid also included “pornography” as a target for the new surveillance engine

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Once-lawful whip-possessing citizens have now been made criminals.  –  Christian Britschgi

Universal Criminality

Politicians will criminalize virtually anything that can be defined:

…the Reno City Council [has] passed an ordinance that prohibits people from using or possessing whips in the city’s downtown without first obtaining a city permit.  The policy is in response to an increasing number of 911 calls by [aggressive busybodies imagining that] the periodic snaps and cracks of whips [are] gunshots.  Reno City Attorney Karl Hall said that the new restrictions were commonsense whip control…Council Member Jenny Brekhus voted against the ordinance because it didn’t apply citywide, thus leaving whips dangerously unregulated in most of Reno.  Meanwhile, a representative for the state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union argued that banning the possession of whips without a permit…contributes to the criminalization of [Reno’s] homeless…[who] are known for using whips for self-defense…

So does Reno also plan to criminalize cars backfiring and transformers exploding?

Nothing New

Do the chattering classes seriously believe unprotected sex is something new?

“Fluid bonding” — the act of intentionally sharing bodily juices with a sexual partner — is purportedly becoming a popular practice in bedrooms across the nation…a variety of publications are now reporting on the randy activity, which refers to far more than simply forgoing a condom during sex…fluid bonding is done with the goal of being “more connected, [or to] have more sensation, intimacy or commitment”…it…“is an active, conscious choice” that revolves around consent and intent…

And yet amateurs pretend that sex workers are the one who spread STIs.

Against Their Will (#831)

Prohibitionists call this “rescue”:

A woman who had overstayed in Singapore since 2013 was trying to escape [police violence] by climbing through her room window when she fell to her death last year…Gong Xiuxian…worked as a private masseuse from her home and sold apparel at market stalls…Her death on 2 November last year was pronounced an unfortunate misadventure by Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam…[so as to absolve cops from responsibility for terrorizing women by showing up with a gang] of eight [thugs to bang on their doors and shine lights into their]…bedroom [windows] at about 5.15am…

Feet of Clay (#839)

Nicholas Kristof is a vile excuse for a human being, so naturally he’s going into politics:

[Recently-retired] New York Times [hack column]ist Nicholas Kristof announced his candidacy…for Oregon governor, saying the state needs a political newbie to solve problems like homelessness and rural despair.  “I’ve never run for political office in my life,” Kristof said in a campaign video, expressing it as an asset.  He said he felt compelled to run for governor because, after [supporting state violence] around the world, he was heartbroken to see [what he considers insufficient in]flicti[on of it on] his home state…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1022)

All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency:

Delta Air Lines…is testing new facial recognition technology [using the pretext of] reduc[ing] the time it takes between arriving at the airport and getting passengers in their seats…Delta wants to be the first [airline] to offer full curb-to-gate security centered around facial recognition…the pilot program…will soon be available to [marks who already belong to] Delta’s Loyalty Program…[and] have also uploaded passport details and have TSA Pre-check…

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#1087)

Nobody is going to give expensive cannabis edibles to your spawn for free:

As Halloween approache[d]…several state attorneys general [vomited out stupid copaganda about]…marijuana edibles that [a moron might mistake for] regular candies and snacks.  Attorneys general in Ohio, New York, Illinois, Connecticut and Arkansas all released statements [last week], a part of a coordinated effort to [continue the dying drug war at least until they leave office]…THC is the main compound found in marijuana, and [has no known LD50 despite inane squawking about]…overdose…In Ohio, Attorney General Dave Yost…[claim]ed the levels of THC could have “real and devastating” consequences for children [who manage to consume 1/3 of their body weight in edibles]…

I find it amusing that so many people are surprised that NPR so often parrots copaganda; apparently they’re unfamiliar with the adage, “He who pays the piper, calls the tune.”

Acting and Activism (#1113)

“Vagina Egg” Paltrow joins the prohibitionist trash who once called stripping a “gateway to slavery”:

[Noted sex scammer] Gwyneth Paltrow [joined noted bigot] Jada Pinkett Smith…in…[vomiting out ignorant, censorious nonsense about] “how pornography is harmful to women” on the latest episode of Pinkett Smith’s chat show, Red Table Talk…Neither [“celebrity” airhead] has any training on health issues or sexuality studies…Pinkett Smith, who on a [filmed but unaired] prior episode [verbally attacked and slut-shamed a sugar baby]…discussed having had what she [claimed was] “an unhealthy relationship with porn”…

Neither actress specified what kind of sexual content could be broadly classified as “pornography.”

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