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Posts Tagged ‘Blunt Instrument’

Technologies funded to police sex work now monitor everyone.
–  Kate Zen & Chanelle Gallant

See How Well It Works?

Years after the end of the hysteria, fanatics still pretend their dissemination of fantasies is the reason those fantasies never materialize:

A [scam outfit belatedly set up to profit from hysteria over “]sex trafficking[” tried to drum up “gypsy whore” panic over] the NFL Draft in Green Bay[, Wisconsin]…HER Alliance, formerly known as Awaken…says they didn’t see a large uptick [of “victims”] during the draft thanks to [their propaganda about “]the signs of trafficking[“]…

Without Let or Hindrance

Everyone victimized by “child protection” agencies needs to sue:

A Georgia couple whose children were [abducted by the state] for two years following a [malicious accusation] of child abuse have filed a lawsuit…in 2023…Matt and Tuckey Hernandez took their youngest daughter, 3-month-old Emma, to the doctor after noticing some swelling on one of her legs…X-rays found that Emma’s leg and ribs were fractured in several places…[pediatrician] Stephen Messner…[immediate]ly diagnosed Emma with “non-accidental trauma”…[despite] no evidence of abuse on the couple’s 3-year-old…Messner never reviewed any of Baby Emma’s…medical history…the state [immediately abducted both]…daughters…placed the[m]…in a series of foster homes…[and] charged [the parents] with child abuse…DFCS…refus[ed] to place the girls with relatives or family friends…Emma had very low vitamin D, which…had caused her to develop neonatal rickets, weakening her bones…Genetic testing also indicated that Emma had defects in her collagen genes, possibly causing conditions associated with fractures in infants.  But these [facts] were…ignored by the DFCS, which continued to attempt to sever Matt and Tuckey’s parental rights [to sell] the girls…[to] another family…Last month, Matt and Tuckey were acquitted of all charges, and their daughters were finally returned to them…

Rotting Fruit (#894)

The first interesting development in this whole affair since ever:

QAnon didn’t start in a vacuum; it followed two decades of mainstream media and politicians…using the flimsiest evidence and most distorted data to falsely claim that America was in the midst of a sex trafficking epidemic.  And then along came Jeffrey Epstein…[whose] well-documented crimes involving teenage girls, and his roster of rich and powerful friends, could be read by motivated audiences as backing up QAnon claims…Trump…[and his henchmen] began to actively encourage the idea that Epstein’s client list was being deliberately withheld by Democrats with something to hide…But…now, Trump is telling people to forget about Jeffrey Epstein entirely…so…the whole “release the files” business seems slightly less preposterous now that Trump and his lackeys seem desperate to draw attention away from them…The theoretical files were useful as a tool to raise suspicion about Trump’s opponents.  But the actual files…could be a liability or an embarrassment…in that they don’t actually prove anything nefarious about any Democrats…As a political tool, the Epstein files are much more useful if they remain hidden…

Thought Control (#1109) 

Western countries have criminalized fiction the government dislikes for years:

Pingping Anan Yongfu…is among at least eight [writers] in recent months wh[o] have shared accounts on Chinese social media platform Weibo of being arrested for publishing gay erotic fiction…At least 30 writers, nearly all of them women in their 20s, have been arrested…since February…some are still [locked] in c[ages, and]…many more…[including some readers,] were summoned for [interrogation]…Haitang Literature City, a Taiwan-hosted platform known for its “danmei”, the genre of so-called boys’ love and erotic fiction…has cultivated a fiercely devoted following, especially among young Chinese women.  These authors are being accused of breaking China’s pornography law for “producing and distributing obscene material”.  Writers who earn a profit could be jailed for more than 10 years…Although authors of heterosexual erotica have been jailed in China…Gay erotica…seems to bother authorities more…

Enshittification (#1524)  

Another factor in the coming dark age: computer-generated garbage making records of this period unreliable:

…the [CGI] slop endgame, for social media companies, is creating a hyper personalized feed full of highly specific [fiction] about anything one could possibly imagine.  Because [CGI] slop is so easy to make and because social media algorithms are so personalized, this means that Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube can feed you anything they…want…Case in point: Facebook…slop…shows [LSU] football coach Brian Kelly assisting in the Texas floods…[on] a Facebook page called LSU Gridiron Glory…[which] is [also] churning out slop that includes Brian Kelly…reacti[ng] to last month’s tragic Air India crash…getting his lost wallet returned to him, donating to the homeless…in the hospital with a rare illness…being deported by Trump, talking to Apple CEO Tim Cook, and…secretly “paying off the debt owed by a struggling gardener”…fans of the NBC show The Voice…[are being fed] slop of judge Blake Shelton saving dogs in the Texas flood…carrying a girl out of a medical clinic…donating to an animal rescue shelter, etc…many of these bizarre images link out to [LLM]-generated “news” websites…overloaded with ads…

Blunt Instrument (#1543)

“Sex trafficking” hysteria laid the groundwork for Trump’s anti-migrant pogroms:

Since January…raids on massage parlors have intensified, targeting immigrant women suspected of sex work…[yet] these workers — among ICE’s most systematically targeted — are largely excluded from community defense…On June 11, ICE and local police in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, raided nine massage parlors, d[isappear]ing 10 Chinese women…into ICE’s sprawling detention system…yet not a single organization called for their release…nearly 1,000 arrests in Queens, New York, targeted immigrant sex workers and street vendors.  In Arizona, over 200 arrests were made.  In Texas, 11 parlors were closed in February and May under emergency powers that bypass criminal charges…In other labor sectors, worksite raids sparked massive outpourings of solidarity and creative resistance..but sex workers are left to fend for themselves…the…immigrant rights movement calibrates its messaging to appeal to moderate respectability — complying with lines drawn between the “deserving” and the disposable…To some, the…[current anti-migrant pogrom]s appear unprecedented.  But for those organizing with sex workers, they’re all too familiar.  For years, ICE has used migrant sex workers as testing grounds for its most aggressive tactics

I Spy (#1543)

Wave bye-bye to the last remaining shreds of your privacy:

…ICE…is now using data from the Insurance Services Office’s ClaimSearch, a private industry service for detecting car and health insurance fraud…ClaimSearch includes 1.8 billion insurance claims and 58 million medical bills—along with the personal data attached to them, including addresses, tax identification numbers, and license plates.  ClaimSearch…[openly admits]…that it grants full access to [any cop shop or spook house which wants it, yet]…Verisk, the company that runs ClaimSearch, [l]ied [by claiming]…ICE…is [somehow an exception, probably because]…ICE has access…through another government agency…[given that] the Trump [regime issued] an [illegal diktat] to tear down “information silos” between federal agencies, and…Palantir…has a contract with ICE to…target [human beings for abduction]…

 

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 hard to imagine a situation where a 4-year-old was involved in criminal activity.  –  Stevie Glaberson

To Molest and Rape

If “there is no reason to believe anyone aided him,” the screws were criminally negligent:

A [typical and representative] Arkansas police chief serving a 30-year sentence for murder and rape has escaped from prison and remains at large…Grant Hardin…has been in prison since 2017 for first-degree murder and rape [committed while]…he…was the…police chief of Gateway, Arkansas…[in] a makeshift [disguise that wouldn’t have fooled and competent guard]…Stone County Sheriff Brandon Long [claimed he]…did not have any knowledge of how Hardin was able to escape…[and] has “a lot of questions”…Nathan Smith, the former…prosecutor [on his case said]…Hardin…”He has no moral core or center”…Hardin pleaded guilty in October 2017 to first-degree murder…of…James Appleton…[and] is also serving 50 years in prison for the 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher…that was [depicted] in the 2023 television show Devil in the Ozarks

Micromanagement (#1039)

It only starts with people the state wants you to hate and distrust:

The [US] government has collected DNA samples from upwards of 133,000 migrant children and teenagers—including at least one 4-year-old—and uploaded their genetic data into [CODIS,] a national criminal database used by [cop shops] and [spook houses, which was]…originally built for convicted sex offenders and violent criminals…Experts say…the DNA dragnet [will soon] be used for more extensive profiling…CBP [demanded DNA samples from as many as]…2.8 million people [altogether]…a sweeping expansion of biometric surveillance…that explicitly targets migrant populations…

Torture Chamber (#1332)

Any civilized country would be deeply ashamed of this:

Unfortunately for…the estimated 55,000 pregnant women who [are violently hurled into US] jails every year, little data exists on the impact [being confined in filthy cages] has on pregnancy…A 2024 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office…found that “comprehensive data on pregnant women incarcerated in state prisons and local jails do not exist…[despite the US having] one of the highest maternal mortality rates” and “incarcerat[ing] women at the highest rate in the world”…between 1980 and 2022, the female prison population in the U.S. grew by more than 585 percent, more than twice the growth rate of the male prison population.  Much of this increase has been attributed to [the government’s pro-carceral jihad of the early ’90s]…Women have seen drug-related arrests increase by 317 percent since 1980, while men have seen a 69 percent jump.  Today, more than half of [caged] women are [locked up] for drug and property offenses…

Blunt Instrument (#1408)

“Sex trafficking” is no longer a magic brain-pause spell, but that hardly matters under the racist, anti-migrant MAGA regime:

A…[racist] Louisiana [politician named]…Beth Mizell [has proposed a new bill targeting Asian massage parlors]…Mizell[‘s head spun around wildly as she projectile-vomited racist “sex trafficking” myths for other politicians to masturbate to, drawing heavily on the wanking fantasy of the submissive Asian woman and peppering her rant with puritan-pleasing dysphemism like]…“illicit”…[while panting about] “6-10 men a day, seven days a week”…The bill also would prohibit keeping bunk beds inside massage parlors [so as to cut into massage workers’ income]…

The Vultures Descend (#1489)

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

One might have thought that last November, when Missourians voted to enshrine “reproductive freedom,” including abortion, in the state constitution, that would be the end of the conversation…But local Planned Parenthood affiliates are still fighting in court to overturn the web of restrictions, known as TRAP laws, that made providing abortions virtually impossible in the state…These include a 72-hour waiting period…and a rule that providers must have admitting privileges at a hospital 15 minutes away, to name just a few.  In a pair of decisions in December and February, Jackson County Judge Jerri Zhang agreed to temporarily suspend enough of those old laws to allow abortions to resume in Missouri while the court case heads to a January 2026 trial.  But…the state supreme court overturned Zhang’s rulings, ordering her to [change her mind.  Politicians have also]…voted to put yet another constitutional amendment on the ballot—this one repealing the reproductive freedom amendment and banning virtually all abortions…

Panopticon (#1540)

“Safety” has become the State’s universal excuse for violation of civil rights:

…Texas [cops] performed a nationwide search of more than 83,000 automatic license plate reader (ALPR) cameras while [hunt]ing…a woman who…had a self-administered abortion, including cameras in states where abortion is legal…Sheriff Adam King of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office [blatantly lied] that…“her family was worried that she was going to bleed to death, and we were trying to find her to get her to a hospital…it was about her safety”…Elizabeth Ling, senior counsel for If/When/How…[said about 26% of abortion] criminal[ization] cases…originate after [a busybody foolishly trusted by] the person getting an abortion [snitches] to police…

I Spy (#1542)

Wave bye-bye to the last remaining shreds of your privacy:

In March, President Trump [issued] an [illegal imperial edict demanding] the federal government to share data across agencies, [violating the Privacy Act of 1974 and paving the way for] a master list of personal information on Americans that [w]ould give him untold surveillance power…[his henchmen] have…turned to…Palantir, the [cop-enabling surveillance firm which started out by spying on sex workers, by forcibly cramming]…a key Palantir product called Foundry into at least four federal agencies, including D.H.S. and…Health and Human Services…pav[ing] the way for…Trump [and his creatures] to easily merge information from different agencies…creating detailed portraits of Americans…including their bank account numbers…[and] medical [records]…[in order] to advance his political agenda by policing immigrants and punishing critics…Privacy advocates…and others] have filed lawsuits to block data access…[even] Palantir employees have been unnerved by the [scheme]…and [are trying to claim it’s not their fault if a tool they created specifically to destroy lives is used to destroy lives]…

 

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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Real babies and real animals are often unpredictable, and unlike the cute little cartoon critters of FarmVille cannot merely be stacked up in neat little rows without any concern for what they might want.  –  “FarmVille

Hammers, baseball bats, two by fours, crowbars, monkey wrenches, pipes, walking sticks and frozen legs of lamb might all be intended for different uses, but when applied with sufficient force to the human skull they will each accomplish more or less the same thing.  –  “Blunt Instrument

The modern university campus is not only inhospitable, but actively hostile to free speech and rational thought.  –  “Teamwork

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Cops face little recourse, even when…cases…were based on little more than writing some sort of Asian sex-slave fanfic.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

The Course of a Disease (#909)

Prohibitionist scum know decriminalization is the only moral framework for sex work; that’s why they keep trying to trick people into thinking the Swedish model is decrim:

[Massachusetts politicians, one of them ironically from] Salem, are p[ushing]…a bill t[o infantilize sex workers and attempt to starve them into submission by persecuting clients]…The bill was created with support from…a Boston-based [prohibitionist] organization that [exploits marginalized]…sex [workers.  Meanwhile, a crony of those same politicians]…has…filed a bill…that would require…hotel workers in the state [to be indoctrinated in the asinine “]signs of sex trafficking[” which encourage businesses to harass unescorted women and engage in racial profiling]…

Blunt Instrument (#1064)

Everyone harmed by these evil “stings” and raids needs to keep suing the agencies which conduct them:

A Utah man is suing after being [falsely] implicated in a[n imaginary] human trafficking ring for driving his wife to and from her job at Asian massage businesses…Police raided the places in early 2021 and arrested Joseph Ferreri, his wife Juying Wang, and several other women associated with the businesses where Wang worked.  A police document justifying Ferreri’s arrest relies heavily on generalizations about Asian massage businesses and race-based stereotypes.  It’s also peppered with misrepresentations—like describing Wang as a “girl” even though she’s in her 50s and two years older than Ferreri…[cop] Shawn Lott…”embellished, omitted, and made up facts to paint Joe Ferreri as an international sex trafficker…the sole basis for targeting Joe was the race/ethnicity of his wife and her occupation”…all charges…were eventually dropped. But by then…his name and picture were published in news outlets that described him as part of a human trafficking ring.  He and his wife were temporarily barred from seeing each other.  He lost his job, and with it any chance of a pension he was more than halfway to qualifying for.   The only work Ferreri could find following the arrest was a temp gig in a coal mine…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1097) 

It’s never called “trafficking” when the government and crony corporations do it:

…Intricate, invisible webs…link some of the world’s largest food companies and most popular brands to jobs performed by U.S. prisoners nationwide…If they refuse to work, some can jeopardize their chances of parole or face punishment like being sent to solitary confinement.  They also are often excluded from protections guaranteed to almost all other full-time workers, even when they are seriously injured or killed on the job.  The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products…from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice.  They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods.  And some goods are exported, including to countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced or prison labor.  Many of the companies buying directly from prisons are violating their own policies against the use of such labor.  But it’s…enshrined in the Constitution by the 13th Amendment, [which states that] slavery and involuntary servitude are banned – except as punishment for a crime.  That clause is currently being challenged on the federal level, and efforts to remove similar language from state constitutions are expected to reach the ballot in about a dozen states this year…

Eternal Vigilance (#1264)

Why is it so difficult for amateurs to grasp the difference between a renter offering sex as payment and a landlord demanding it?

Randy Hames, owner of…an…[Alabama] RV Park…was arrested in 2018…[and] charged with…human trafficking, soliciting prostitution, and attempted sexual extortion…Hames had been [previously] arrested twice on similar charges…after at least 10 female tenants reported Hames making unwanted advances in exchange for lowered rent…A federal trial [is now underway as] prosecutors…allege…Hames violated the Fair Housing Act by creating a hostile home environment for his tenants…he…also…evicted a few…after they refused his advances…

The Last Shall Be First (#1403) 

It’s never really about “protecting children”:

Several [politicians] from Michigan and Ohio were recorded in an online forum planning to try to ban trans health care for everyone, regardless of age…“In terms of endgame, why are we allowing these practices for anyone?” said [Michigan politician Josh] Schriver…“I think…we have to take sometimes small bites,” said [Ohio politician Gary] Click, who then lauded restrictions [recently] placed on…adult clinics by Ohio’s [governor]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1408)

This tells you everything you need to know about politicians’ motivations:

Rather than defend a clearly unconstitutional measure passed to “protect” kids from social media, the government of Utah [claims it] intends to repeal the law…[which] kicked off a [“monkey see, monkey do” parade] of similar measures…Now that it faces a pair of challenges in federal court, the state has a new stance: “Psych! We didn’t actually mean it!”…“They know it’s unconstitutional.  They know it’s pure grandstanding and culture warrioring,” writes Techdirt editor Mike Masnick. “And they don’t want to face the music for abusing the rights of the citizens who elected them to support the Constitution, not undermine it”…

Creepy Coppers (#1410)

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

[NYPD cop] Angad Beharry…[has been] arrested…[for paying a Venezuelan woman living in Indiana] to take sexually explicit photographs and videos of [her nine-year-old girl], and to transmit them over the Internet to [him]…Beharry…possessed [numerous other] sexually explicit video[s] and images of…prepubescent minors…[he was caught because he also paid a woman in] Colombia…[to take similar pictures of her] one-year-old [daughter, and when she was caught she snitched on him to the cops]…and…also [snitched on her “]friend[” from] Venezuela…

 

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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[Jail medical services] provid[e] levels of medical care that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.  –  Ty Clarke

Pyrrhic Victory (#1251)

Clearview is so proud of its ability to identify the homeless, they even patented it:

Miami police used facial recognition technology to identify a homeless man who refused to give his name to a…[nosy pig].  That man was arrested, but prosecutors quickly dropped the case after determining the [cop] lacked probable cause…Lisa Femia…[of] EFF…[said] “facial recognition…[is] advertised as a way for law enforcement to solve…the worst crimes…instead we have [them]…using it to harass the homeless”…

Stalkers in Blue (#1252)

Anyone “shocked” by typical cop behavior has no business calling himself a journalist:

CNN anchor Jim Acosta was stunned when Uvalde parent Miguel Cerrillo revealed local cops are…harassing…families of children who were affected by the massacre…[the interview was conducted now because] the Justice Department [has just] released its report on the [criminally pathetic] police response to the May 2022 massacre…Cerrillo [said]…”these officers…[are] harassing us every day…They just pull us over for no reason telling us to leave Uvalde…because they know that the truth was going to come out, and they didn’t want us here”…

Panopticon (#1342)

Building a dystopian panopticon, one useful idiot at a time:

More than a hundred [cop shops]…have set up [computer-enhanced] camera system[s], with nearly 200,000 connected cameras belonging to residents and businesses around the country able to provide “direct access” to [rooting pigs]…the data provides the clearest picture yet of the growing popularity of Fusus, a company…that…turns [private] cameras into [police state] ones, with object recognition capabilities for items, people, and specific vehicles…404 Media is now publishing an interactive map based on the newly obtained data, letting readers see if their own local [cop shop]…has a Fusus system…Beryl Lipton, investigative researcher at…EFF…[said] “This dataset…makes clear that these systems are using hundreds of thousands of public and private cameras to blanket huge swaths of our cities, particularly those in the Southeast, with the capacity for constant surveillance”…

How long before these systems learn to invent imaginary weapons out of bulgy clothes and “furtive movements”, just like real cops?

The Last Shall Be First (#1342) 

Utah has the latest “monkey see, monkey do” bathroom bill:

Utah [politicians are]…targeting transgender people with a statewide, criminal law severely restricting the use of gender identity-appropriate restrooms and changing rooms in many public spaces…the ban…contains a disgustingly invasive “show me your papers and proof of surgery” scenario as the only exception for when a trans person would be allowed to use the appropriate restroom…and…admits that even cisgender people are inevitably going to be targeted for prosecution…Additionally, the bill would authorize the state’s attorney general to take action against any local government not enforcing the ban…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1371)

Politicians don’t even try to make their new laws Constitutional any more:

Florida [politicians want to]…kick [US citizens] under 16 off social media no matter what their parents think.  The bill…[demands that] any [US citizens] under 16 who have an account…delete them…[and] require social media companies…use a third-party age verification system to…[exclude young] people [who are not] using [a VPN]…one of the bill’s sponsors…[pretends] “soaring rates of depression [and] mental disorders…[that are caused by pervasive infantilization and surveillance of young adults, including laws like this one, are instead somehow magically caused by] social media usage”…the…dangerous and unconstitutional…[bill is similar to one] Arkansas passed…last year [which] a federal judge [has blocked with] a temporary injunction. Meanwhile, [California politicians want a similar bill with a mob rule enforcement mechanism, and] Utah’s [is being challenged by a lawsuit from FIRE]…

Blunt Instrument (#1394)

“Sex trafficking” is no longer a magic brain-pause spell, but Florida politicians haven’t noticed yet:

Florida aims to crack down on massage parlors as a way to stop sex work and [harass Asian migrants, using the racist] human trafficking [paradigm]…and nail salons might be next…A [new] bill…would [further micromanage] massage parlor[s], including [the masseuses’ wardrobe and] how dark they are allowed to tint their windows…bill sponsor Vicki Lopez…[vomited out a lot of decade-old wanking fantasies, while shouting “King of the Hill!” and spouting violent propaganda about how she wants cops to] “beat” [Asian women and destroy their livelihoods, bragging that she is “coming after” them]…The bill would [also] allow state health officials to suspend the licenses of [any Asian-owned] establishment [on a mere bureaucratic say-so]…Furthermore, if a massage therapist isn’t able to produce valid government identification, they will be [handed over to ICE for deportation]…

Torture Chamber (#1403)

I’m sure they occasionally yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he wasted away:

A…[legally innocent] HIV-positive [man locked in a cage by the state of California for missing a court date] devolved into AIDS [and] died because…[screws] denied him lifesaving medication even though they had his prescription and were told he needed it to survive…Nicholas Overfield…could..[no longer] stand or speak and was [confined to] a wheelchair when his mother visited him…on April 22, 2022.  He died months later after being transferred out of the jail and then to two hospitals and a hospice.  The lawsuit…names El Dorado County and Wellpath Community Care, LLC, the jail’s health care contractor…“In California alone there are several other documented incidents of Wellpath failing to provide HIV positive individuals with their prescribed medication while in jail,” [Attorney Ty] Clarke said…the immediate cause of death [w]as encephalitis…

 

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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She looked like she was mummified.  –  Melinda Bettencourt

Business Opportunity

It’s not like it’s their money, after all:

…in…Wilmington, North Carolina, where the New Hanover County government…is trying to seize the neighboring Cheetah Premier Gentlemen’s Club to build what it [pretend]s is much-needed parking…The county commission voted to authorize eminent domain of the Cheetah Club…on November 6.  The resolution authorized the county to spend $2.36 million acquiring the club…the seizure…wasn’t on the commission’s agenda, and was only introduced in the final minutes of the meeting by [the “county manager”, who] referred to the property only by its tax ID number…The sudden, seemingly surreptitious effort to seize the club has [Michael] Barber[, a lawyer for the owners,] speculating that the eminent domain effort has more to do with public appearances than public facilities…[the property owner] has offered to let the county use the 74 parking spaces on his property…[because] the Cheetah Club doesn’t even open till 6 p.m…

The Scarlet Letter (#520)

“Presumption of innocence” doesn’t apply to whores:

Unlike “simple” police cautions, prostitute cautions don’t require evidence…sex workers don’t have to admit guilt, and there is no right to appeal them.  Without any say, someone can be branded as a criminal, their life forever impacted by her decision of how they provides for themselves and their families…prostitute cautions, and wider criminalisation of sex work, are deliberately used to keep women in poverty by penalising them for using sex work to escape it…In 2009, under the Police and Crime Act, the right of appeal against prostitutes cautions was abolished…and…the caution will stay on a sex worker’s record for life, or until the age of 100…

Blunt Instrument (#728)

Have you noticed that “sex trafficking” is no longer the magic brain-pause spell it was for over a decade?

One Richmond [BC politician] would like to see massage parlours…be denied business licences and…shut down…Kash Heed [tried to justify his puritanical bigotry by barfing the phrases “]human trafficking[“…and “]scantily clad[” at other city politicians, but]…Mayor Malcolm Brodie…[timidly broached the subject of harm reduction, and] Mark Corrado, director of bylaws and licencing…said Richmond is [already] known for having the most “restrictive” licence requirements in the province.  This includes [micromanag]ing clothing, age, locks, insurance bonds, lighting and criminal record checks…

Where Are the Protests? (#945)

Americans are only concerned about how others have sex; they don’t really want to know where their overpriced coffee comes from:

Starbucks…is unable to guarantee that the coffee sold at its stores is not associated with serious labour and human rights crimes such as low wages, harvest workers eating cold meals, inadequate accommodation and even child and slave labour…The cases are portrayed in the report “Behind Starbucks coffee,” published by Repórter Brasil (available in Portuguese and English)…coffee farms…where…inspectors found violations hold…the C.A.F.E. Practices seal, which…is the certification programme that…[supposedly] evaluates suppliers according to more than 200 indicators…It is yet another situation that exposes the limits of the certification market…Labour irregularities in the industry are not limited to Starbucks’ supply chain.  Repórter Brasil has already exposed similar problems among suppliers of Nestlé, McDonald’s and other…major…buyers

Vulture Watching (#1268)

Idaho apparently wants to chase away as many physicians as possible:

Idaho asked the Supreme Court…to allow its [near-total] abortion ban that imposes [criminal] penalties on doctors who perform abortions to take full effect despite [the fact that it conflicts with]…the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA)…a…federal law [which] requires hospitals to provide stabilizing care to emergency room patients regardless of their ability to pay…

Torture Chamber (#1386)

Your “leaders” call this “correction”:

Melinda Bettencourt…knew her youngest daughter, Amanda Bews, had been struggling [with severe alcoholism and heroin addiction] for years…But…no one could explain what had happened to the rotting body Bettencourt saw at the funeral home.  “She looked like she was mummified,” Bettencourt [said]…describing the “horrible” shock of watching bugs hover around her dead daughter’s face as a foul stench emanated across the room…Bews got arrested…[on] Sept. 7, 2022…for allegedly shoplifting at a BevMo…Before booking, the deputies took her to a nearby hospital, where…she was prescribed medications for anxiety, blood pressure and alcohol withdrawal…But [screws]…decided…not [to give her the] require[d] medications…[and] a little over four hours later, Bews…”died of untreated…effects of withdrawal from alcohol and drugs”…

Dangerous Speech (#1391)

I’ve linked to many of Mark Draughn’s well-researched, well-considered essays over the years; this one is on the aftermath of the Backpage persecution & show trial, and here’s a taste:

The Iron Law of Prohibition says that making something illegal will make it stronger and more dangerous.  Nobody drank bathtub gin in America until the Prohibition laws of 1920 criminalized alcoholic beverages.  Almost nobody smoked crack until law enforcement started a war on cocaine, and we didn’t have much of a fentanyl problem until the government started cracking down on opioids.  Legal alcohol and tobacco distributors didn’t shoot each other in the streets the way drug-smuggling gangsters do.  Criminalizing a good or service necessarily drives it underground.  The need to hide makes it harder to build a good reputation, which makes it less rewarding to have good business practices.  Customer service and attention to product quality fall by the wayside…Thus bad actors enter and thrive in the market, engaging in fraud, theft, and violence, which can often only be countered with more violence…With the success of the Backpage prosecutions, it seems likely that more such prosecutions will follow…

 

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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A right does not, as a practical matter, exist without any remedy for its enforcement.  –  Justice Elissa Cadish

The End of the Beginning (#1197) 

It’s horrifying that a court order was required to stop the government from trying to punish people for being unable to do the literally impossible:

A rule that Attorney General Merrick Garland issued in 2021…requires people to do things that are plainly impossible.  If they have been convicted of a sex offense, they must register with their state, even when the state neither requires nor allows them to do so.  They also must supply the state with all the information required by federal law, even when the state does not collect that information…someone [unable] to meet those requirements…who travels outside his state can be charged with a federal crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison.  At trial, the defendant has the burden of proving that he was unable to register “as required”…That Kafkaesque situation, a federal judge in California [has] ruled…violates the constitutional right to due process…The case, John Doe v. Department of Justice, illustrates the perverse consequences of the federal government’s attempt to identify and track sex offenders through detailed registration requirements that often conflict with state law…

Panopticon (#1212)

Useful idiots keep providing government with excuses for Orwellian levels of surveillance:

A bill…in the Mississippi Legislature would require public schools and postsecondary institutions to install video surveillance cameras all over their campuses.  The bill would require that the cameras also record audio and that they be installed in classrooms, auditoriums, cafeterias, gyms, hallways, recreational areas, and along each facility’s perimeter.  Further, it would permit [even adult] students’ parents to view live feeds of classroom instruction…the bill’s sponsor…Stacey Hobgood…[belched out the catchphrases] “critical race theory”…and…”accountable”…[to justify creating a stifling] atmosphere of suspicion and distrust [across every school in the state]…

Robocops (#1249)

Since SCOTUS refuses to slay this monster of its own creation, state courts will need to do the job for it:

…the Nevada Supreme Court [has] unanimously ruled that victims of wrongful searches and seizures have the right to sue the responsible government officials.  Just as critically, the court firmly rejected qualified immunity as a potential defense against those lawsuits.  The court’s twin holdings will better ensure that government officials can actually be held accountable for their misconduct…

Thought Control (#1268)

I never would’ve thought my first profession would become as much a target for authoritarians as my second:

Books containing [what politicians vaguely term] “sexually explicit” content…would be banned from North Dakota public libraries under [newly-proposed] legislation…the measure…proposes up to 30 days imprisonment for librarians who refuse to remove the [censored] books…In addition to banning depictions of “sexual identity” and “gender identity,” the measure specifies 10 other things that library books cannot visually depict, including “sexual intercourse,” “sexual preference” and “sexual perversion,” — though it does not define any of those terms.  The proposal does not apply to books that have “serious artistic significance” or “materials used in science courses,” among other exceptions…

Presumably, the “serious artistic significance” would be determined by politicians, which is a bit like asking a panel of tone-deaf 11-year-olds to discuss the relative merits of Bach cantatas.

The Vultures Descend (#1273)

Calling politicians on their hypocrisy is an interesting strategy:

A group of religious leaders who support abortion rights [has] filed a lawsuit…challenging Missouri’s abortion ban, saying [politicians] openly invoked their religious beliefs while drafting the measure and thereby imposed those beliefs on others who don’t share them.  The lawsuit…is…among nearly three dozen post-Roe lawsuits that have been filed against 19 states’ abortion bans…and…was…filed on behalf of the faith leaders by Americans United for Separation of Church & State and the National Women’s Law Center…Lawsuits in several other states take similar approaches.  In Indiana, lawyers for five anonymous women…and…Hoosier Jews for Choice have argued that state’s ban infringes on…Jewish teaching that a fetus becomes a living person at birth and…Jewish law prioritizes the mother’s life and health…In Kentucky, three Jewish women sued, claiming the state’s ban violates their religious rights under the state’s constitution and religious freedom law…

Presumption of Guilt (#1288)

Another step toward total financial surveillance:

…if you’ve sent money across American borders…Big Brother is likely watching.  In what began as an Arizona-led effort before going nationwide, a not-so-independent nonprofit organization has been indiscriminately compiling sensitive financial information and making it available to [cop shops and spook houses] across the country…ACLU…has published more than 200 documents revealing details of the program which fed a vast database of sensitive data…run by an organization called the Transaction Record Analysis Center…The surveillance dates to 2006, when Arizona’s attorney general sought details from Western Union about money transfers to and from the Mexican state of Sonora…[the ensuing] legal battle [was] settled in 2010…and…TRAC was established in 2014 as a nominally independent repository for intercepted financial records…in 2019…DHS took over funding TRAC and…[began] compel[ling] financial disclosures with…a type of subpoena…

Blunt Instrument (#1296)

This will continue for as long as the voters allow it to:

Attorney General Daniel Cameron has announced [a scheme]…to [use “]human trafficking[” as an excuse to carry out violent pogroms] in Kentucky by targeting “illicit massage businesses”…[Cameron plans to threaten] landlords and [spread racist propaganda] to [encourage useful idiots to snitch on migrant-owned] businesses that Cameron [wanks to pedophilic fantasies about]…Cameron is…running for governor this year…

 

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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Here I stand, I can do no other.  –  Rikki de la Vega

A Broker in Pillage

Unlike other government departments, the IRS doesn’t even bother to accuse people of actual crimes before robbing them blind:

…Institute for Justice client Lyndon McLellan saw the…IRS…reach…into his bank account [to steal] his life savings without warning or cause in 2014.  McLellan [owned] a small convenience store…in Fairmont, North Carolina…he…worked long hours and rarely took vacations…Yet federal agents accused him of violating so-called structuring laws because his business frequently made bank deposits in amounts under $10,000…the[y stole] more than $107,000…”It took me 13 years to save that much money,” he says.  “And it took fewer than 13 seconds for the government to take it away”…

All-Purpose Excuse

“Sex trafficking” is a convenient excuse for any tyranny:

The Manitoba government is tabling a bill…[which] would require hotels and people operating on online accommodation platforms, such as Airbnb, to keep a record of guests’ information, including their names and addresses…and…to hand over that information to police…on…demand…without a warrant…[politician Rochelle Squires tried to justify this incredible violation of civil rights by vomiting out the words] “human trafficking”…and “children”…

Feminists and Other Puritans

It’s nice to see someone whose name isn’t Maggie McNeill writing about this:

…the worst form of prudery and repression is that which comes from those who also claim to be feminists…Women’s rights activists have been divided about sex from the beginning.  In the nineteenth century, the “free love” movement, which promoted birth control and sought to replace traditional male-dominated marriage with consensual unions of equal partners, butted heads with the “social purity” movement obsessed with controlling men’s lust as a way of eradicating such “evils” of prostitution and venereal disease…Those leaning towards the equality pole welcomed and worked with men who agreed with their goals, like Frederick Douglass and John Stuart Mill.  Those on the protectionist side, however, viewed men with skepticism, and demanded that they prove their worth by swearing to be chaste and “chivalrous” towards women…Not far off from contemporary pledges to not use porn or “end demand for sex trafficking”!  If the women who worked for social purity back then sounded like religious zealots, it’s because they were…

The Puritan Recrudescence

Politicians are increasingly convinced that they’re allowed to redefine legal concepts as they wish:

A strange new bill introduced by Oklahoma [politician] Rob Standridge would make it illegal to knowingly give “obscene material” to a “vulnerable person,” explicitly including unhoused people…SB 1522 [also includes] an unconstitutional redefinition of…“obscene material” as “any description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse”…Such supposedly obscene materials would include “book, magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, poster, print, picture, figure, image, description, motion picture film, record, recording tape, CD-ROM disk, magnetic disk memory [sic], magnetic tape memory, videotape, computer software, video game,” and other unspecified media to be determined by the authorities.  Despite his seeming concern for the moral hygiene of the unhoused, Standridge recently opposed a new homeless shelter, making statements conflating Oklahoma’s unhoused population with “sex offenders” and calling them “a public safety risk”…

Stalkers in Blue (#987)

Another cop demonstrates what he is:

A Bay Area [cop] has been charged with masturbating in front of a family that called police during a fraught domestic violence call…Matthew Dominguez…“milled around the home…keep[ing] the daughter in view of his Body Worn Camera”…Dominguez [later]…unzipped his pants and began rubbing his crotch…[in full view of the mother and] daughter…Dominguez [kept] follow[ing the daughter]…around…The mother and daughter then went to find…the father…who…[also] “saw…Dominguez…with his erect penis in his left hand”…

Blunt Instrument (#1012)

This would be a much better article if it didn’t pretend that prohibitionism is a solely a phenomenon of the “right wing”:

For the past year, low-income Asian women in Newmarket [Ontario] have been engaged in a fierce battle with [politicians]…working to close down their massage businesses by claiming that the workers are both disreputable criminals and sex trafficking victims…in January…the town council imposed a set of regulations requiring massage businesses to get a new type of licence…[under] threat…[of] fines of $4,000 to $5,000 per day…the town…[is] using a fake anti-trafficking campaign…with zealous support from [the usual suspects]…thanks to centuries of racism and employment segregation in North America, body rubs are associated with crime, sex work, and people of colour…Newmarket town council declared their intention to create new rules that would drive out the businesses that they defined as “appeal[ing] to sexual appetites,” and the “brothels” that town councillors claimed were “hosts for human trafficking.”  Their…plan was to get rid of suspected sex work by tightening the rules so that only businesses whose workers have formal educational certifications from Canada could get the newly [inven]ted Personal Wellness Establishment Licence…[such] certifications can take years…and tuition can cost thousands of dollars…

Repeatedly claiming that prohibition in Canada is “right wing” when Trudeau and his party eagerly promote it is tantamount to pissing on the readers’ legs and telling them it’s raining.

Torture Chamber (#1182)

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

[Young men] at a South Carolina…[prison are locked in cages] with feces on the floor, mold on the walls, and cockroaches in their food, according to a new lawsuit…the kids — who range in age from 13 to 19 – are [also] subjected to routine violence by [screws and] other [prisoners]…[screws also] use solitary confinement — in cells with no natural light — as a way to “protect” them from violence…some[times for]…months [at a stretch], and there [are] no meaningful educational or mental health services for the[m]…the…[prisoners] are disproportionately Black and from families that live below the federal poverty line…

Once again: it does not help young victims of governmental brutality to infantilize them as “children”.

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We have been arrested simply for the fact we practice massage.  –  Charlotte

A Whore in Church

Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me:

I am a sex worker and a nude model.  I post nude pictures of myself and sell masturbation videos for a subscription fee on my OnlyFans website…I married young and had my first child at 19.  My priority was being a mom, and it’s still my priority today.  When I was 31, my husband became sick with an illness that eventually took his life…A widowed mom becoming a sex worker is somewhat of a unique story, but my story is even more unusual because I am an active member of the Mormon Church…I believe that God wants us to be proud of our bodies and comfortable with sexuality.  I believe that church leaders have decided this is wrong ― not God ― and I do not believe I need to choose between doing something I love and continuing as a member of the Mormon Church…Still, while I don’t worry or care about people looking down on me for my work, I do fear excommunication…

Actually, divorced or widowed moms doing sex work isn’t remotely unique; in fact, it’s probably closer to typical.

Science!

I’ll bet you knew this was coming:

…in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…women and children [are] seen as “fair game” for exploitative pimps and traffickers looking to capitalise on the destruction and deprivation that so often results from war…Ukraine’s geography — namely the country’s proximity to the regime of legalised prostitution in Germany — exacerbates the threat of pimps and traffickers looking to exploit a vulnerable population…

Tom Farr, whom I’m sure imagines himself a “feminist”, is disgusting not only in his denial of women’s agency and his bizarre claim that legal businessmen need to resort to kidnapping to get employees, but also by the almost-audible sound of fapping accompanying his one-hand-typed misogynist fantasy.

Pimps Ahoy

Exploitation is, sadly, more common than not in the “rescue” industry:

Employees of a Texas-contracted [profiting from housing] female [minors consigned to the] foster c[are system using the profitable excuse of “]sex trafficking[” have been caught exploit]ing the [girls]…Seven [girls], ages 11 to 17, were victimized by nine [people who claimed to be “sex trafficking experts”]…they…were sexually and physically abused and suffered from neglectful supervision and medical neglect while at The Refuge…in Bastrop…a current…employee reported…that…a[nother]…staff member sold nude photos of two [of the girls and]…us[ed] the proceeds to purchase…drugs and alcohol [for]…the [girls]…

Blunt Instrument (#1064)

An attempt to take one weapon of racist persecution away from cops:

New York…specifically directs local authorities to enforce licensing requirements for massage therapy — the only profession singled out.  As a result, police across the state and particularly in New York City routinely raid massage parlors…sexually assaulting those they arrest in these raids, or taking cash and other valuables and never returning them…Asian immigrant women have disproportionately been subjected to these raids…Newly introduced New York State Assembly Bill A8281 aims to change that.  The bill does not change licensing requirements for massage therapy or get rid of penalties for violations, but it does decriminalize unlicensed massage work and remove local police and district attorney enforcement…Red Canary Song…worked with lawyers at the New York Civil Liberties Union, immigration rights organizations and other legal aid groups to draft A8281.  State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, whose district includes several Queens neighborhoods close to Flushing, sponsored the bill…

Winding Down (#1195)

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

The Harris Rider, a provision barring the legalization of recreational marijuana sales in the nation’s capital…sailed through the Senate…a day after passing the House, as part of a larger $1.5 trillion spending omnibus package…Congressional Democrats had pushed to do away with the…rider…But [lacked the spine to stand up to]…Republicans  “[Whine whine, simper simper” mewled one Democratic politician.  “It’s not our fault” pouted another one]…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1199)

It’s good when they feed on each other:

A [typical and representative] Loudoun County [Virginia cop] pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor over the internet.  Ryan Amos…used an internet application called “Whisper” to “engage in sexually charged conversations with an[other pervert cop fantasy role-play]ing as a 15-year-old girl”…Prosecutors [were most concerned about his desecrating his sacred clown costume by sending a picture of it to the role-playing wanker]…He will be required to register as a sex offender after being released from prison…

The Cop Myth (#1217)

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

A California [screw] was arrested…after he [murder]ed his girlfriend…Luis Antonio Pulido-Esparza…called…911…[and claimed] his girlfriend had shot herself…[cops] found three children in the home…and arrested Pulido-Esparza…

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