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Posts Tagged ‘Censor Chic’

[The US] constitution…cannot be overwritten by a state legislature.  –  Jeffrey Sandman

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1051)

It’s not surprising this started at the most oppressive of the Nevada brothels:

Sex workers at one of Nevada’s legal brothels are unionizing with the Communications Workers of America …If successful, it would be [a] first [for]…the U.S.  The effort came after [Sheri’s Ranch in Pahrump attemp]ted t[o impose] a new contract that would give the business perpetual control over workers’ intellectual property rights…A majority of the brothel’s 74…workers…have agreed to join the union.  Managers …have [retaliated by] fir[ing] at least three of the workers…and…threaten[ing] other[s]…To unionize, the workers must first prove to federal labor authorities that they are employees rather than independent contractors…Sheri’s Ranch…is owned by [typical and representative] Chicago [pig] Chuck Lee, [and is so notorious for its infantilizing repression of its] workers [it is widely derided in the industry as “Pussy Prison”.  The abuses include confiscating their laptops and medications, spying on email and negotiation with clients, and random room searches, and]…beginning in late December…it [started] demanding [workers] grant Sheri’s Ranch “irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual” rights to any content they produce while staying at the brothel…[including] the ability to sell videos or photos…without their permission…[to] create [computer]-generated c[artoons] featuring their images[even] after [their] death…and…to…[grant] the brothel…power of attorney [over all such content]…

It’s about time US sex workers started unionizing like their European sisters.

I Spy (#1425)

Remember when Google’s motto was, “Don’t be evil”?

Google [obey]ed an [ICE] subpoena that demanded a wide array of personal data on a student activist and journalist, including his credit card and bank account numbers…Amandla Thomas-Johnson had attended a protest targeting companies that supplied weapons to Israel at a Cornell University job fair in 2024 for all of five minutes, but the action got him banned from campus.  When [the] Trump [regime]…issued a series of [diktats] targeting student…proteste[rs], Thomas-Johnson and his friend Momodou Taal went into hiding…Thomas-Johnson, who is British, believes that ICE [intended to use] that information to track and eventually [abduct] him — but he had already fled to Geneva, Switzerland…The Electronic Frontier Foundation…and the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to Google, Amazon, Apple, Discord, [Facebook], Microsoft, and Reddit…calling on tech companies to resist similar subpoenas in the future…without [actual warrants]…to give [intended victims] the opportunity to fight [such extrajudicial demands], and to resist gag orders…

The Mob Rules (#1539)

Don’t let the “private” language fool you; these nuisance lawsuits were instigated and bankrolled by Morality in Media:

A federal judge in Kansas has dismissed two of the four private age verification lawsuits filed…by an unnamed plaintiff [using] her teenage son [as a prop]…the judge granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss…ruling that…simply operating a website accessible in Kansas – even one that Kansas residents could view – is not enough to establish liability.  Under the U.S. Constitution, courts may only exercise power over defendants that have deliberately targeted or conducted activities in the state.  Allowing lawsuits based solely on website accessibility…would mean any website could be sued anywhere, a result long rejected by federal courts…

Mad Libs (#1571)

These algorithms are not only unintelligent; they are making those who believe in them stupid as well:

[The ignoramuses running] many companies are [foolishly trying] to get more employees to use [chatbots so they don’t have to pay]…workers [their full]…value…But…they…may not see what [imaginary] gains are costing them until it’s too late…[because chatbot]s d[o]n’t reduce work, they consistently intensif[y] it.  In an eight-month study…we found that employees [regularly] worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day…because [the hype] made “doing more” feel possible…[but] once the excitement of experimenting fades, workers can find that their workload has quietly grown and feel stretched from juggling everything that’s suddenly on their plate…lead[ing] to cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making…[in addition] to lower quality work…and other problems

Panopticon (#1591)

Safetyism is destroying society:

[Cop shop]s across the US are quietly [abus]ing school district security cameras to assist Donald Trump’s mass [pogroms]…The a[buse] originate[s] from Texas school districts that contract with Flock S[urveillance to target teachers]…parents and students as young as five…[demonstrating how] campus surveillance technology [justified by barfing out the formula “]student safety[“] is being repurposed to support [the police state]…Flock devices have been installed by more than 100 public school systems nationally…and audit logs from six Texas school districts show campus camera feeds are captured in a national database that [cop shops, spook houses, and goon squad]s across the country can access…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1597)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

…Social media is awash with videos of men…approaching women in public spaces and attempting to flirt with them or ask for their numbers..the videos are filmed and uploaded to platforms like TikTok and Instagram without the permission or knowledge of the [woman] being filmed…[and] rack up thousands…[or] millions of views…While the concept of the pick-up artist is nothing new…so-called “manfluencers”…are covertly filming women to create misogynistic content…

Censor Chic (#1610)

Civil suits are society’s best weapon against jawboning:

…[FIRE] is suing…[Trumpist henchwomen] Pam Bondi and…Kristi Noem on behalf of Kae Rosado and Mark Hodges, who respectively created a Facebook group and an app that hosted video footage of ICE operations to inform the public and hold our government accountable…Mark runs Kreisau Group, which aims to preserve evidence of governmental abuses of power.  On his Eyes Up app, users can upload videos, record new videos, or access uploaded videos, which Eyes Up arranges on a map of the United States after Mark and his moderators review and approve each video.  Kae…started a Facebook group in January 2025…about the impact of ICE raids on daily life in Chicago…The group remained small until Sept[ember]…when ICE commenced…a…[massive pogrom sophomorically] dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz”…[after which the] group grew to…nearly 100,000 members…it is unconstitutional for the government to coerce private companies like Apple and Facebook into censoring content on their behalf.  However…Bondi and Noem [not only did this, but openly]…boasted [about it]…

 

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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Nuance doesn’t make for good headlines or popular books.  –  Mike Masnick

To Molest and Rape (#1335)

The UK is just as dedicated to protecting rapist cops as the US is:

When Ruth walked into a police station to [report her cop ex-boyfriend for] rape…she did not think that she…would later be accused by [his fellow gang members] of making a false rape allegation, charged and put on trial.  It led to a years-long struggle to clear her name, before she was eventually acquitted…her…ex-partner[‘s “defense”]…was…an audio file he had secretly recorded on his mobile phone [without her consent] during the sex, which he [pretended] proved Ruth was lying…[the pig herd] agreed with him that they could hear her “laughing and consenting”…but [when her defense] chose…to play the audio to the jury…[she] could be heard saying she was in pain and telling her [rapist] “no” and “get it out”.  The sounds of laughter and enjoyment…had in fact been made by actors in a porn film that was playing in the background…The [rapist] is currently s[till enjoying a paid vacation but]…faces a misconduct hearing later this year into whether making the audio recording of the sexual act without her knowledge breached the police code of ethics…The jury took just over an hour to find Ruth not guilty of perverting the course of justice…

Part of the Picture (#1349)

Puritanware has a long history of security issues:

An app that purports to help people stop [looking at] pornography has exposed highly sensitive data, including its users’ masturbation habits…We’re not naming the app because the developer has not fixed the issue, which was discovered by an independent security researcher who asked to remain anonymous…The issue is a misconfiguration in the app’s usage of the mobile app development platform Google Firebase…the creator of the app…[called the issue “]fake[” and]…“a joke”…[but when 404 Media] created an account on the app…the researcher was able to see [it] appear in the misconfigured Google Firebase, showing that user information is still exposed.  This…Firebase misconfiguration issue has been known and discussed by security researchers for years…

Panopticon (#1471)

As surveillance technology becomes ubiquitous along the U.S.-Mexico border, the equipment is still sometimes unknown or invisible to even the activists, humanitarians, researchers, and journalists working everyday in the borderlands.  Based on public records research, open source intelligence, and fact-finding trips, EFF has compiled this zine to serve as an illustrated guide to border security technology

Censor Chic (#1598)

Civil rights mean nothing if fascist corporations eagerly dance to the government’s tune:

M[ark Zuckerberg] has started blocking [his subject]s from sharing links to ICE List, a website that has compiled the names of…Department of [Father]land Security employees…[in an effort] to hold th[em] accountable.  Dominick Skinner, the creator of ICE List [says] links to the website have been shared without issue on [Zuckerberg]’s platforms for more than six months [but that changed on January 26th].  “I think it’s no surprise that a…man who sat behind Trump at his inauguration …[is helping] ICE [goons] retain anonymity”…posting links to the site [is now] blocked on Instagram, Facebook, and Threads…[but] can still be sent on WhatsApp…[the excuse is Facebook’s go-to for all of its censorship,] “Community Standards”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1603)

More studies prove censorious politicians are full of shit:

For years now, we’ve been repeatedly pointing out that the “social media is destroying kids” narrative…has been built on a foundation of shaky, often contradictory research…and that policy responses built on that panic might end up causing more harm than they prevent.  Well, here come two massive new studies—one from Australia, one from the UK—that land like a sledgehammer on…social media ban[s]…The Australian study…followed over 100,000…adolescents across three years and found…the relationship between social media use and well-being isn’t linear.  It’s U-shaped…kids who use social media moderately have the best outcomes. Kids who use it excessively…[or] don’t use it at all…have worse outcomes…Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Manchester just published a separate study that followed 25,000 11- to 14-year-olds over three school years.  Their conclusion?  Screen time spent on social media or gaming does not cause mental health problems in teenagers.  At all…Zero.  Not “small.”  Not “modest.”  Zero…

Other studies have demonstrated that soaring rates of depression and mental disorders are actually caused by pervasive infantilization and surveillance of young adults, including laws banning them from social media.

Shame, Shame (#1605)

It’s good to see ambulance-chasing politicians attacking an actual evil for a change:

At least 37 attorneys general for US states and territories are t[hreaten]ing action against [Elon Musk] after people used [hi]s chatbot, [MechaHitler], to generate a flood of sexualized images earlier this year…during an 11-day period starting on December 29, [the MechaHitler Twitter] account…generated around 3 million photorealistic sexualized images, including around 23,000 sexualized images of [legal minors]…people were [also] generating far more explicit videos using the…Imagine model available on the [dedicated MechaHitler] website…[without] any sort of age verification…[though Musk] claims [MechaHitler] has [been] stopped…from undressing people, th[at is a lie]…the [politicians threatened Musk with a]…non[existent]…federal law…[and demanded Musk] remove [MechaHitler]’s ability to depict people in revealing clothing or suggestive poses [entirely, plus act as a fascist collaborator by]…report[ing anyone who even tries] to [pigs]…

Mad Libs (#1609)

A perfect storm of stupidity, gullibility, and greed:

…the [Irish] Department of Justice [is using chatbots]  programmed to answer asylum and citizenship queries.  And [predictably,] its bots sometimes got it wrong, throwing up misleading or inaccurate responses. It has since retired its asylum chatbot, Erin, but has [“]upgraded[“] its citizenship chatbot, Tara, with [equally-error prone but more expensive software.  Politician]…Gary Gannon…said he has immense concerns about the use of chatbots…in serving up legal counselling to people seeking sanctuary…It all feels “dystopian”, he said…[but] the Minister for Justice…Jim O’Callaghan…continues to stay vague on what legal counselling is and how it’s going to be offered…

 

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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We’ve known for years that Tim Ballard is a shameless, lying, actual predator.  –  Aracely Yates

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

A[n Ohio politician]…facing serious sex charges dating back nearly 30 years was released on his own recognizance…less than 24 hours after his initial arrest…Gerald Dixon [has a history of molesting boys, including some that are cognitively impaired.  The cops have known about]…Dixon…[since 2020, before he first ran for office, and] there are at least eight…victims, [including] some from…Michigan and New York…[going] back [to] 1996…

Bait and Switch (#1070)

Here’s reporter Kevin Light-Roth writing for The Appeal with a long, thorough deep dive on the “Operation Net Nanny” scams which were specifically designed to entrap normal young men seeking consensual sex with adult age-peer women on adults-only dating sites, so as to destroy their lives via prison and permanent “sex offender” registration by claiming that the adult women they arranged to meet were actually pigs pretending in their minds to be minors.  I know that sounds completely Kafkaesque, but if you explore this tag you’ll realize it’s not only an accurate description, but a common entrapment scheme for the past decade.  The article also explores the scam’s deep connections to disgraced “sex trafficking” profiteer Tim Ballard, and the attempts by the families of the victims to use Ballard’s downfall as a crowbar to pry open the refusal of the Washington state carceral establishment to do anything about these blatantly-illegal pogroms.

Virtual Imperialism (#1292)

Greedy, amoral corporations enable Beijing’s campaign to silence Chinese people:

The Chinese telecoms giant Tencent is trying to muzzle a service that offers an uncensored view of what users of [its] social media platform WeChat…are posting…FreeWeChat…is operated by…anti-censorship organisation GreatFire.org…and…works by identifying WeChat posts that contain certain “sensitive” keywords and archives and monitors them all to see whether they are subsequently deleted from the social platform.  Typical [censored] words…include the so-called three Ts: Tiananmen, Taiwan and Tibet.  If a monitored post subsequently disappears, FreeWeChat marks it as “censored”…FreeWeChat has…allowed more than 700,000 censored WeChat posts to remain available for both Chinese users and others…[but] Tencent…[has made a legal claim] to Vultr, the USA-based…host…of…FreeWeChat…claim[ing] that FreeWeChat was infringing intellectual property rights…[so] Vultr suspended the [site]…

Thought Control (#1499)

Politicians really do believe they can control people’s thoughts via censorship:

The Randolph County [North Carolina] Library Board [was fired en masse] by the county commissioners…[for refusing] to [ban] a children’s book titled Call Me Max…[which one wannabe censor demanded banned]…Of the 40 speakers [at the meeting], 21 w[ere violently-censorious nitwits who “arguments” were made up of threats and unsupported opinions]…while 19 [wanted to allow] librarians [to do the jobs they were hired to do]…

No Escape (#1584)

The inevitable result of giving sexually-aggressive thugs total power over women:

Eleven women [locked up in] a federal prison in Texas…have filed fresh lawsuits [over the endemic rapes and]…sexual…assault[s]…by prison staff…including a doctor, chaplain and three [screws]…sexual assault is [especially] common at FMC Carswell…the most of any federal women’s prison…[because it is used to warehouse] women with severe mental health and physical ailments…

If Men Were Angels (#1585)

The main difference between cops and “pastors” appears to be that the latter aren’t typically armed:

…[Illinois] pastor…Douglas R. Overmyer…[was arrested and] charg[ed for sharing]…a video of an…adult male [rap]ing [an underage girl]…“on or about May 20, 2025”…Overmyer [was immediately fired from] Zion Hill [Methodist] Church…he…was…was formerly the Executive Director of CHI RHO Outdoors, a group which “provides boys and young men with engaging outdoor experiences…while instilling valuable life lessons”…

Censor Chic (#1591)

Civil rights mean nothing if fascist corporations eagerly dance to the government’s tune:

The developer of ICEBlock, an app used to track local sightings of [goons, spooks, and pigs, has] sued the U.S. government…for [unconstitutional]ly infringing his free speech rights…Apple removed the app from its store in October [after] the Trump [regime threatened the company]…Apple [absurdly justified its bootlicking by claiming heavily-armed thugs with broad immunity to law constitute a vulnerable group]…In 2019, the company [similarly] removed an app that Hong Kong protesters used to track police movements…[and] Apple [justified the collaboration by barfing the word “]criminals[” at the protesters]…Google…also agreed to [collaborate with fascist tyranny]…

 

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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This is clearly a bill unburdened by thoughts of constitutionality.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

I Saw My Brain (#1316)

Another reminder that Grady Judd is an utterly loathsome excuse for a human:

…between 2018 and 2022, Polk County’s [pogroms against sex workers which the psychopathic Grady Judd labels “]human trafficking stings[“] led to the arrest of 751 individuals.  Of these, 346 were clients, 23 were officially identified and “rescued” as trafficking victims, and the remaining 382 were adult consensual sex workers who ended up in jail…and [saddled with] criminal records…Grady Judd doesn’t abide any notions of adult consensual sex work in his mind numbingly foolish and uninformed public narratives but he is quick to be “The Decider” of who is – or is not – a victim of trafficking, with the very simplistic logic that “prostitution is Illegal” and therefore the harbinger to crime outbreaks…

Torture Chamber (Chamber of Horrors)

Your “leaders” want you to pay for more such hell-holes to torture even more people in:

Two years after a mentally ill man died malnourished and covered in insects in Atlanta’s Fulton County Jail, a Justice Department investigation has found that man’s death was only one of a string of fatalities due to pervasive unconstitutional conditions at the jail…which [is used to warehouse legally-innocent people cops decided to accuse of something]…investigators reported widespread infestations of mice, roaches, bedbugs, lice, and scabies…the jail’s [filthy] kitchen also fails to adequately feed [its legally-innocent victims]…90 percent of the…mental[ly ill people are held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods and]…”significantly malnourished with obvious muscle wasting”…[deranged state-employed thugs] use Tasers and pepper spray against [the] mentally ill…and minors [because they think it’s fun, and they intentionally]…create [conditions leading to frequent]…rape…[of] minor[s]…

Censor Chic (#1438)

Unless people begin to have respect for free speech again, this will only get worse:

Jawboning…is when the government pressures a third party to…[censor] the speech of another…which is why there should be concern about Section 512 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and how it operates to force intermediaries to act against users and their speech, whether they would want to or not, and whether the targeted speech is wrongful or not.  Because when resisting a takedown notice can…potentially expose them to crippling liability, then the choice to acquiesce to the…demand is really no choice at all.  Instead it’s jawboning: using law to force the third party to act against speech in order to avoid the constitutional protections the speech should have enjoyed…

Dangerous Speech (#1467)

The first of a series of columns Michael Lacey will write from the cage where the government has thrown him for daring to publish speech it dislikes:

…My decades-long friend and business partner, Jim Larkin, the most upright of men, also guilty of naught, did not want to go in…He instead drove a chair to the botanical gardens created by a mining baron outside of Superior, Arizona…He removed the chair from his vehicle and sat himself. He was . . . resolved.  He took out his pistol. He pulled the trigger…He left six grown children and a spouse. God help all of them…A lesser man than Larkin, prosecutor Austin Berry, implored the judge: Please, your honor, sentence the remaining 3 defendants to prison, so there is no more “flight by suicide.”  Flight by suicide?  In my 40 years of covering courts, I have not heard a lower comment…

Paying the Bills

Eight weeks ago, I told y’all that I’m facing a projected $3000 shortfall for my annual operating budget, and asked for help making up that difference.  Well, several of my loyal readers have already stepped up, generously helping me to the tune of $2700.  So that now leaves only a $300 shortfall!  If you can spare some or all of that remainder right now, I’d really appreciate it; that would get this done in the next few days, so it doesn’t interfere with my annual toy drive!

The Vultures Descend (#1483)

This insanity will keep getting worse until these maniacs are forcibly stopped:

A bonkers new Texas bill would ban a bunch of activities related to abortion, including taking abortion pills in other states and facilitating or hosting online speech about procuring abortions.  It would also hold all abortion pill manufacturers liable for violations when a specific manufacturer could not be ascertained…the legislation…[bears the Orwellian moniker “]Women and Child Safety Act[” and]…create[s] new offenses of “paying for or reimbursing abortion costs” and “destroying evidence of an abortion,” both felonies…Other parts of the bill would be enforced by [encouraging and rewarding nuisance lawsuits]

That’s just a taste; this bill is such a giant clusterfuck of unconstitutional stupidity and over-the-top evil that I don’t have room here to list all its atrocities, so go read Liz Brown’s article for all of the details, in which she has to state not once but several times, “This is not how U.S. law works.”

The Cop Myth (#1489)

All promoters of state violence, from cops to judges to politicians, work together to ensure cops get away with their crimes:

…The Supreme Court [has] declined…to take up a petition for writ of certiorari filed in August by Desiree Martinez…[who] filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2015 against several [cop]s in Clovis, California, who [intentionally] ignor[ed] multiple attempts to report her abusive [cop]….boyfriend, Kyle Pennington…the 9th Circuit ruled that [since it is well-known that cops are moral imbeciles, they could not be expected to grasp that]…tipp[ing] off her boyfriend [so he would take revenge for her reporting him was wrong, and therefore they] are immune from Martinez’s lawsuit under qualified immunity…[after] Martinez…filed a…report against Pennington..[he] called [his crony]…Channon High…on speakerphone and…High [told him about the]…report…Pennington [then] hung up the phone and [beat and raped her, yet]…was [merely] convicted of violating a restraining order…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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All ethical people need to resist the book-burners and website-wreckers, loudly and defiantly, in the hopes that at least some of our fellow-humans will come back to their senses before it’s too late.  –  “Banned Books Week 2023

Censorship, correctly viewed in the more enlightened times of the 20th century as the province of tyrants, bluenoses, humorless scolds, and other closed-minded nitwits, has in the 21st achieved a level of  worldwide popularity unseen since the Index Librorum Prohibitorum went out of fashion.  Governments around the globe threaten individuals and groups with violence for daring to speak or write words, or share images, that the rulers of those countries have declared off-limits, often for the most childish, disgusting, or even absurd reasons.  And while in the past the educated could be counted upon to oppose such repression, nowadays they are more often at the forefront of censorship efforts, demanding harsh penalties for wrongthink and groveling in the most grotesque manner before idiots who, unsatisfied with merely being subjected to such thought control by their masters, demand the power to lobotomize themselves and everyone else within their reach.

In the year since the last Banned Books Week, we’ve seen innumerable efforts to sterilize libraries of anything offensive to the State or the most rigid and tiny-minded fundamentalist, complete with siccing the cops on librarians; the imprisonment of a respected journalist for disagreeing with the government; a “monkey see, monkey do” parade of attempts to either directly censor the internet, or to intimidate websites into censoring themselves; and many people harassed or even arrested by cops and spooks merely for expressing opinions the government dislikes, and that’s just in the so-called “liberal democracies” of the West.  Where will it stop?  There’s no way of knowing, unfortunately; censorship is extremely popular in dark ages, which of course is a large part of what makes them dark ages in the first place.  When belief trumps facts, feelings trump reason, and violent psychopaths declare themselves the only legitimate arbiters of Truth, darkness can be the only result.  The only variables are how widespread the Night will be, and how long it will be before Enlightenment comes again.

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AHF…is just the…newest slumlord in a long line of slumlords.

If Men Were Angels

I’m honestly unsure why this doesn’t happen more often:

…a [Tennessee] pastor [named David Baker]…molest[ed a] relative… under the age of 12…He was…charged with aggravated sexual battery…and [after he bailed himself out] went into [a] restroom [at a nearby hospital] and shot himself twice in the chest…

Tyranny By Consensus (#690)

Longtime readers may remember that AHF has a history of financial shenanigans:

…The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development…says its $10 million Tenant Education and Outreach…grant…will be jointly awarded to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation…and the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants.  Over the next two years, these two groups will distribute this money to 30 tenant advocacy organizations to help them in their own efforts to…”hold management accountable for property conditions”…Beginning in 2017, [AHF] started buying up residential hotels in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, with the goal of [fix]ing them and renting them out at low, unsubsidized rates.  [AHF head] Michael Weinstein…argued this was a cheaper, faster way of housing people than building new…units.  But…AHF has been the subject of numerous lawsuits from tenants, and…A detailed Los Angeles Times investigation published in November 2023 reported…apartments infested with cockroaches, exploding radiators, water shut-offs so regular that tenants had to defecate in wastebaskets…and months-long elevator shut-offs that left disabled tenants stuck on upper floors or forced to sleep in the lobby…A former AHF employee described the living conditions at foundation properties as “inhumane”…

Undead Powers

I’ve long held that all laws should sunset after 10 years unless specific action is taken to renew them:

A coalition of advocacy organizations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer…urging him to hold a vote on a proposal aimed at guarding against a future Trump administration from reviving [the] long-dormant…Comstock Act…The Stop Comstock Act, which was introduced by Sen. Tina Smith…seeks to repeal the…provisions of the 1873 federal law that ban…abortion-related materials from being sent through the mail…Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas…have signaled a willingness to revive the statute…

Eavesdropping (#1399)

Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and harassed?

Ford Motor Company is seeking a patent for technology that would allow it to tailor in-car advertising by [eavesdropping on] conversations among vehicle occupants, as well as by analyzing a car’s historical location and other data…“in-vehicle advertisement presentation”…will determine where a car is located, how fast it is traveling, what type of road it is driving on and whether it is in traffic.  It also will predict routes, speeds and destinations to customize ads…the ad controller system can determine when to [butt in with] audio versus visual ads, [subject]ing…drivers [to intrusive, unwanted commercials]…“through a human-machine interface”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1411)

Never forget that “filter” used thus is merely a euphemism for “censor”:

A federal judge in Utah has blocked the state’s…[latest attempt] to enact sweeping online censorship…under the justification of “protecting minors”…[b]y granting a preliminary injunction sought by…NetChoice…the…law…targets social media platforms…by…[demanding they] “enable the maximum default privacy settings on Utah [legal minors’] accounts…[which] would have [required intrusive]…age…[verification”.  Laws like]…this…driv[e] platforms to overmoderate to the point of effectively becoming corporate censors…The law was previously challenged in court [so politicians]…redrafted it…to avoid [public scrutiny]…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)

They’ll blame anybody but the real culprit: invasive surveillance and onerous infantilization of teenagers:

A [gang] of 42 state and territory attorneys general is calling on Congress to pass regulation [absurdly] requiring warning labels on social media platforms…US [Charlatan] General Dr. Vivek Murthy first proposed the warning labels in June as part of a plan to [di]vert [blame for] the “mental health crisis” affecting young people [from its actual cause, young adults being constantly spied on and treated like children]…The letter [ignores] research linking [infantilization] of [young adults] to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation in [favor of blaming] social platforms…in…[order]…to [use this narrative as an excuse to subject them to government control, in defiance of the First Amendment]…these labels would [be unconstitutional compelled speech, similar to court-overturned]…state-level rules demanding adult sites add [specious] health notices about pornography…Over the past year or so, [politicians] across the US have ramped up efforts to [censor the internet via the timeworn pretext of “]protect[ing] children[“, such as]…the Senate[‘s horrific]…KOSA

Remember what happened the last time a gang of state attorneys general went on a fact-free crusade against websites.

Banishment (#1470)

Politicians will never let go of prohibitionism until they’re forced to:

[Starting] in 1990…Seattle [politicians repeatedly defined and redefined]…banishment zones…across the city, [pretending they could magically]…reduce…drug use…[and] prostitution…[by threatening] drug users and sex workers [with arrest for merely existing]…Research has shown that the orders did not reduce drug use or sex work, but they did make the lives of drug users and sex workers harder, by physically banning them from areas…they used to access services and by turning them into hunted people who could be, and were, jailed when they were caught simply being inside the areas from which they were banished…some 25 years [lat]er the…city largely abandoned the experiment, concluding on the basis of decades of evidence that it hadn’t worked…[now] the Seattle City Council [has] voted to start the cycle over again, by…creating six new banishment zones for drug offenders and one for…sex workers…The new…legislation that will also reinstate a repealed “prostitution loitering” law that will…make it significantly easier for police to arrest [people they decide to accuse of being] sex workers [or clients without any evidence at all]…

 

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 state cannot pick and choose which categories of protected speech it wishes to block teenagers from discussing online.  –  Judge Robert Pitman

Creepy Coppers

Seems like a significant fraction of child porn is spread by cops:

A [California cop named]…Allen Charles was arrested…[for] distribut[ing] child pornography multiple times between 2019 and 2023…[fellow cops toss]ed his residence and found [lots of child porn, so]…Butte College[, which paid him to spy on and harass students, rewarded him with a paid vacation]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1237)

Another toothless “judgment” against Clearview which will compensate nobody but lawyers:

The Dutch [government has] issued…Clearview AI with a fine of 30.5 million euros ($33.7 million) over its creation of…an “illegal database” of billion of photos of faces….[and] warned Dutch companies that using Clearview’s services is…banned…But…Clearview’s chief legal officer, Jack Mulcaire, said that the decision is “unlawful, devoid of due process and…unenforceable”…[because] Clearview doesn’t fall under EU data protection regulations.  “Clearview AI does not have a place of business in the Netherlands or the EU, it does not have any customers in the Netherlands or the EU, and does not undertake any activities that would otherwise mean it is subject to the GDPR”…

Panopticon (#1327)

I tried to edit out as much of the nauseating bootlicking as I could:

The Department of Homeland Security is shutting down a program that used surveillance blimps at the [US-Mexico] border [despite] objections from [politicians] and [other xenophobic sociopaths because]…funding has dried up.  More than two dozen p[arasites] are out of a job thanks to the program’s end…[pigs oinked dehumanizing rhetoric about people seeking a better life, including obligatory references to] fentanyl…[“]trafficking[“] and…terrorists…

Censor Chic (#1452)

When will this censorship fad end?

A federal judge issued a last-minute partial block on a Texas law that would require some large web services to [spy on users to] identify minors and [censor] what they see online…the…SCOPE…Act…was set to take effect…on September 1st…and…requires…social networks, to [infantilize] users whose registered age is under 18….[by censoring anything and everything any politician points at while belching out words such as] “harmful”…“glorifies”…“grooming”…and…[“]obscene[“, with some services] (as defined by [dubious politically-defined formulae]) [being forced to] implement a “commercially reasonable age verification method.”  Tech industry groups NetChoice and the CCIA sued…[as did] the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression…the injunction…makes HB 18 the latest state-level internet regulation to be at least partially blocked by courts, alongside California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code Act and other statutes in Arkansas, Ohio and Mississippi…the federal…censorship [law called KOSA has also still not been completely buried yet]

The Implosion Begins (#1456)

This just keeps getting more entertaining:

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents [raided] the Millersville Police Department as [part of a] criminal investigation into the [nest of deranged psychopaths led by]…the department’s [dangerously-unhing]ed assistant police chief Shawn Taylor…

Reporter Phil Williams has gone all-out in this investigation; it’s already grown to 13 parts, linked in the article I linked & quoted above.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1459)

Cops won’t drop this fantasy until “news” media stop obediently parroting it:

Two [Arkansas cops] were taken to the hospital and later released after [having panic attacks due to copaganda over] fentanyl [while harassing citizens over] an expired license plate…[the panicky pig, Hunter] Mealer[, lied, claiming]…he got permission from the driver…to [root through] the vehicle…[even though there were drug] pipes [within containing] white residue…[when whiny-baby] Mealer [saw this he] became disoriented and lightheaded and began sweating profusely[, which are not symptoms of opiates]. He [then fainted]…and…[when a fellow pig wasted] Narcan…[on him] another [cop], Danny Kenward, [became jealous of the attention]…and [faked the same panic-attack symptoms]…

Panopticon (#1464)

A high-powered rifle should still be able to take this out from a safe distance:

A [surveillance robot]…known as a Knightscope K5…patrols [an Atlanta] apartment com[plex]…and [can] report anything [it is programmed to alert on] to the [cops]…the devices…feature 360-degree, high-definition cameras, microphones and thermal sensors…and…[have] both license plate…[readers] and…facial recognition, [plus the ability] to identify mobile devices…Jay Stanley, senior policy analyst for the ACLU, said…“I don’t know that Americans want to live in a world where there’s one of these on every block, but if there were, they could trace everywhere you are all the time”…

 

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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Reviewing…a person’s cell phone is the best approximation government officials have for mindreading.  –  Judge Nina Morrison

All-Purpose Excuse (#990)

It’s rare these days for a US court to uphold the Constitution against the government:

The Fourth Amendment still applies at the border, despite the feds’ insistence that it doesn’t.  For years, courts have ruled that the government has the right to conduct routine, warrantless searches for contraband at the border…CBP…has [wrongfully interpreted] that…to force travelers to hand over data from their phones and laptops.  But…Judge Nina Morrison…ruled that cellphone searches are…more akin to a strip search than scanning a suitcase…Therefore, the court ruled, a cellphone search at the border requires both probable cause and a warrant.  Morrison did not distinguish between scanning a phone’s contents with…software and manually flipping through it…

Thought Control (#1325)

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

[A busybody pig] spent months methodically [rooting]…through [books Christian fundamentalists dislike] and highlight[ing] key passages amid reams and reams of paper.  He wore his body camera to record his interactions with [people whose lives he wanted to ruin] and…photographed…books [the lunatic fringe deemed “pornography”, including]…The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison…an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News…shows how, for two years, [self-appointed censor Scott] London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in…Granbury [Texas]…London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and, after a year, wrote draft criminal complaints…The [rooting and harassment finally] came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London’s request to indict the librarians, citing a [total] lack of…evidence [sufficient] to charge them with felonies…

Creepy Coppers (#1414)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

A Massachusetts [cop named]…Matthew B. Marshall…was arrested…[for] possession…[and] dissemination of child pornography…and [other crimes stemming from]…”videos depicting [Marshall] entering…a Dunkin Donuts and urinating all over the inside of the bathroom…on the sink, on the handles, on the door”…

If Men Were Angels (#1436)

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity or even religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority:

Omaha’s Archbishop is among the clergy members named in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Louis…by 27 anonymous plaintiffs.  It accuses the defendants of often transferring the perpetrators to different locations within the Archdiocese or Catholic Church or sending them away for treatment before returning them to unsupervised access to children…One of the plaintiffs, a former altar boy, alleged Omaha Archbishop George Lucas sexually assaulted [him] when [he was] a junior in high school at the Saint Louis Preparatory Seminary…[where] Lucas was…Dean of Education at the…time. “The church is not a democracy, so that gives a seminary head…extraordinary power over very vulnerable and devout teenagers,” [sexual abuse activist David] Clohessy said…

Censor Chic (#1438)

Judge rules that a spade is actually a spade:

…a prominent “disinformation expert” once hired to head a government board to [censor speech the government declared] untruths but unceremoniously dumped from the position when the board was dissolved amidst public outcry…sue[d Fox News] for defamation [because it correctly described her function as]…censorship…Nina Jankowicz[‘s]…”Disinformation Governance Board was formed precisely to examine citizens’ speech and, in coordination with the private sector, identify ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,” and ‘malinformation’…That objective is…a form of censorship”…concluded [U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly, who]…dismissed Jankowicz’s claim “in its entirety”…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #12)

Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?

A [typical and representative Florida cop paid to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been]…found…guilty of child sex abuse…Joshua Robert Herren…was arrested Nov. 28, after a victim [reported that]…Herren [had seduced and repeatedly molested her] from the time she was 15…[but] had [already been stalking her]…prior to her turning 15…Herren…want[ed] her to dress up as a young girl and…call him “Daddy”…[after she] blocked his phone number and…social media accounts…he began [send]ing [her threatening] letters…He…is set to be sentenced on Aug. 26…[and] faces up to life in prison…

The Cop Myth (#1453)

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

A [typical and representative English cop was given a slap on the wrist] for repeatedly attacking his ex-girlfriend, including punching her and throwing her across a room…Paul Whitehurst…also [abused] two other women [in the past], but…was not charged…[and this time he was given a mere 9 weeks] in prison….[and] released the same day, because of the time he had already served…Whitehurst [also threatened to rape the woman and repeatedly]…tried to “gaslight” her…She…said she was selling her house and car as she did not feel safe there any more and did not want Whitehurst to know where she lived[, but luckily she has learned her lesson about trusting cops]…

 

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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The First Amendment…does not go on leave when social media are involved.  –  SCOTUS

Surplus Women

Your “leaders” work hard to ensure this happens more often:

A man [named Jason Kendall turned himself in to Las Vegas police after]…he murder[ed] an escort…[by] strang[ulation while raping her at]…the Palms Casino Resort…The [attack was on June 12th, but the] woman…died [of her injuries several days later] at the hospital…

Censor Chic (#1046)

Instead of making life harder for censors, Microsoft makes censorship easier:

…new research by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab…found that Microsoft censors its Bing translation results more than top Chinese services, including Baidu Translate and Tencent Machine Translation.  Bing became the only major foreign translation and search engine service available in China after Google withdrew from the Chinese market in 2010. “If you try to translate five paragraphs of text, and two sentences contain a mention of Xi, Bing’s competitors in China would delete those two sentences and translate the rest. In [contrast], Bing always censors the entire output. You get a blank”…[said] Jeffrey Knockel…[of] Citizen Lab…Bing’s…China-based search engine also censors more extensively than Chinese firms’ services do.  The studies challenge the [ludicrous] popular belief that U.S. tech giants might resist Chinese censorship demands more strongly than their Chinese counterparts…

Creepy Coppers

Cops are not known for intelligence and good judgment:

A [Florida screw] resigned after being arrested for watching and sharing child porn videos [at] work…Trevor Scott Willis…was [caught watching]…videos…of children between…five and fifteen…[including one] showing a child engaging in sexual activities with a dog…Willis used his personal cellphone…and was logged into the [cop shop] Wi-Fi while watching the videos…

I Spy (#1213) 

Cops will continue to ignore the Constitution until there are criminal penalties for violating it:

Cellebrite is a dream come true for police surveillance.  Plug in any cellphone, even a locked one, and get a full report of every file on its hard drive.  Cellebrite, along with its main competitor, Grayshift, is one of the few companies offering this service.  No wonder…6,900 [cop shops and spook houses] bought a subscription…In September 2022…[a court] in Maryland ruled that police must stop using “general and overbroad warrants” to scrape the entire content of people’s cellphones…Baltimore police announced that they would suspend their use of Cellebrite and work with lawyers “to ensure the current search warrant template is in line with all requirements”…[of course they were lying, and have] re-upped their Cellebrite subscription…[through] September…Cellebrite…market[s]…its…s[no]oping [tools by repeatedly belching out “The] children[!!!”, but it]…provide[s]…services to police states like China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Belarus, Bahrain, and Myanmar

Censor Chic (#1438)

SCOTUS isn’t quite ready to allow full-on government censorship just yet:

The Supreme Court [has] ruled…in two cases that could have a major impact on how social media platforms operate…NetChoice v. Paxton and Moody v. NetChoice…opposed social media moderation laws in Florida and Texas.  The Court unanimously agreed to vacate decisions by the 11th Circuit and the 5th Circuit—which upheld a preliminary injunction on the Florida law (finding it likely did violate the First Amendment) and reversed a preliminary injunction on the Texas law (finding it did not likely violate the First Amendment), respectively—and to remand both cases for further review…It’s not quite the total blow to these laws that many free speech advocates…were hoping for.  But the court did admonish the 5th Circuit for its flawed interpretation of the First Amendment.  And the Supreme Court’s own analysis here backs the tech groups’ position that social media platforms are engaged in protected expression when they decide what content to allow and how to present it…

The Cop Myth (#1440)

Cop violence is never limited to members of the public, nor to male cops:

An…NYPD cop was arrested [on June 30th] after she and her husband…broke down the door of her sister-in-law’s…home [in the middle of the night] and [beat and] choked [her]…Maria and Robert Villalta…[broke in] around 2:15 a.m…and [started attacking both] her…and [her boyfriend]…Both victims [were throttled so viciously they had] trouble breathing a[afterward]…The cop’s sister-in-law also had marks on her face, neck and arm, as well as a bloody nose…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #12)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

A [cop named Simon Short] who [molested] a “vulnerable” 16-year-old…has been dismissed without notice…[from] West Yorkshire Police…Short…was granted anonymity while the proceedings took place…[officials] lifted this at the conclusion of the hearing, [but only because] the…restriction was challenged by [journalists]…

 

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 feels like our home is not ours anymore.  –  Norell Martínez

Dirty Amateurs

Amateurs could learn so much about safer sex from professionals:

Health experts are warning of new and highly contagious fungal strains after an NYC man in his 30s developed a sexually transmitted form of ringworm — the first reported case in the US…[cases of] Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII…have been on the rise in Europe, especially in men who have sex with men.  The man in the new case study had visited England, Greece and California.  He reported having sex with men during his travels, none of whom disclosed similar skin issues….infections caused by TMVII seem to respond to standard antifungal therapies…but…can take months to clear up.  They also may be confused with…eczema, which may delay treatment…

Signs (#813)

Americans disapprove of teaching kids about sex, but they’re all for filling their heads with stupid anti-sex propaganda from a decade ago:

…A new [Utah] law requires the board to find a company that can [indoctrinate kids in the moribund]…human trafficking [hysteria in hopes of reviving it.  “Rescue industry” groups who]…exploit…[the hysteria are still vomiting out the usual agency-denying nonsense about how “]the majority of victims don’t realize they’re being trafficked[” and claiming that…ordinary adolescent problems constitute “]signs teachers could look for[“]…

Elephant in the Parlor (#825)

A HuffPost reporter asked several well-known sex workers what they thought about the outcome of the Trump trial:

Last week, Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial after a jury unanimously agreed he had falsified business records to cover up allegations of an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.  Daniels’ credibility on the witness stand became a linchpin in the prosecution’s case…[but] despite Trump’s lawyers’ best efforts to slut-shame Daniels and portray her as someone trying to shake down a powerful man by selling a fabricated, salacious story, in the end, the jury found Daniels’ testimony convincing.  That felt especially gratifying ― even vindicating ― to fellow porn actors and sex workers…“I wish I could believe that we’ve seen the last of Donald Trump, but I’m not that optimistic.  But one thing I am pleased about is that despite the attempts at character assassination, the jury still clearly considered Daniels, a credible witness,” said Maggie McNeill, a retired sex worker and the author of the blog The Honest Courtesan …“Back in the ’90s ― before ‘sex trafficking’ hysteria was heavily promoted by politicians and other propagandists…the U.S. public was largely turning against sex work criminalization,” she said. “Perhaps this is a small sign that we’re going back that way again”…

Panopticon (#1096)

Life now for the subjects of a surveillance state:

As [cop shops] expand their use of [drones], no agency has embraced the technology quite like the…Chula Vista [California] Police Department…In October 2018, the city became the first in the nation to start a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program…now those devices criss-cross the skies of Chula Vista daily…with poorer residents [predictably] experiencing far more exposure to the drones’ cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts…drones…are…routinely deployed for minor issues such as…loud music.  Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the city even used drones to [harass]…homeless encampments…residents…are afraid to spend time in their backyards; they fear that the machines are following them down the street, spying on them while they use the public pool or change their clothes…drones, equipped with cameras and zoom lenses powerful enough to capture faces clearly and constantly recording while in flight, have amassed hundreds of hours of video footage of the city’s residents…Department secrecy around the recordings remains the subject of ongoing litigation…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:

In a new report…The Future of Free Speech…points out that online regulation changed in 2017 with Germany’s adoption of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), “which…inspired [politician]s around the world…But…[Europe’s version of NetzDG,] the DSA “gives way too much power to government agencies to…remove…content and to…out anonymous speakers,” cautioned the Electronic Frontier Foundation… “The Digital Services Act will essentially oblige Big Tech to act as a privatized censor on behalf of governments”…[warned] Jacob Mchangama, now executive director of The Future of Free Speech… “Legal online speech made up most of the removed content from posts on Facebook and YouTube in France, Germany, and Sweden…The highest proportion…was…in Germany, where 99.7% and 98.9% of deleted comments were found to be legal on Facebook and YouTube, respectively”…most of the content being removed from social media is permissible even under local laws…

Shifting the Blame (#1406)

There’s psychopathy and there’s pure evil, and then there’s this:

…Rex Heuermann…[has] be[en] arraigned in the deaths of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla…He had previously been charged with murdering four other women…Taylor disappeared in 2003.  Costilla was killed 30 years ago, in 1993, and her inclusion…indicates that prosecutors now believe Heuermann was killing women for much longer than previously thought…Additionally, prosecutors say they recovered a file on a hard drive in his basement used to “methodically blueprint” his killings.  The all-caps document features a series of checklists with tasks to complete before, during and after the killings, as well as practical lessons for “next time.”  Among the dozens of entries written are reminders to clean the bodies and destroy evidence, to “get sleep before hunt” and to “have story set”.  One section, titled “things to remember,” appears to highlight lessons from previous killings, prosecutors said, such as using heavier rope and limiting noise in order to maximize “play time”.  A “body prep” checklist includes, among other items, a note to “remove head and hands”…that entry may connect Heuermann to yet another victim, Valerie Mack, whose partial skeletal remains were discovered near the body of Taylor after her disappearance in 2000…

Torture Chamber (#1441)

For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this:

The warden of a maximum-security Wisconsin prison and eight [screws have been] charged…following investigations into the deaths of four [of their prisoners]…over the past year…warden…Randall Hepp…is charged with misconduct…The other eight face charges of inmate abuse…The first of the[ir] four [victims], Dean Hoffman, killed himself in solitary confinement last June…Tyshun Lemons and Cameron Williams were both found dead…in October…and…Donald Maier was found dead…in February…

 

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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