Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Censor Chic’

In the News (#1444)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 8, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It would be nice to see more companies [fight censorial, authoritarian governments].  –  Mike Masnick

Grace Bellavue

Grace Bellavue was a…sex worker…activist and modern-day maverick, until suddenly, she died…Award winning artist, and fellow South Australian, Michaela Burger (A Migrant’s Son, Exposing Edith) explores her legacy in this new one-woman show.  Through Grace’s writing – unpublished hip hop lyrics, monologues, and musings – Burger explores her multifaceted life.  Her outrageously funny wit and charm, fearlessness and “fuck it” outlook on life will seduce you into marching with this social justice warrior who was determined to decriminalise the sex industry.  Presenting Grace’s moving story through a mix of spoken word, song and movement, Michaela Burger explores the mind of the woman in the headlines and brings her audience on the fascinating journey…[at] Edinburgh’s [Festival] Fringe audiences this August…

Michaela’s been working on this show for over a year, so I’m happy to see it coming to fruition!

Choke Point (#839) 

A rare good decision from the current SCOTUS:

…all nine Supreme Court justices found in favor of the NRA…because the behavior of New York State, to try to silence the NRA by threatening third parties, was so constitutionally alarming.  If New York could get away with doing what it had done, and threaten a speaker’s business relationships as a means of punishing the speaker, then so could any other state against any other speaker, including those who might be trying to speak out against the NRA…[or] those at odds with…the preferred policies of states like Texas and Florida…This decision is not the first time that courts have said no to this sort of siege warfare state officials have tried to wage against speakers they don’t like, to cut them off from relationships the speakers depend on when they can’t attack the speakers directly…

Choke Point (#1190) 

Can you even imagine this happening in the US?

A Melbourne-based gay sex worker has resolved a discrimination case against two Australian financial service providers, in a “great victory” that he wants to protect others from falling victim to “debanking”…Matthew Roberts…was debanked and denied a…[credit card processing] machine…[after] finance company Mint Payments…switched the institution it used for transactions…and the company asked him to reapply for [the] machine [he had been using for years]…he dealt with company honestly, disclosing his occupation.  But his application was denied…[because] his business was within “a restricted category”…But that…was…after Victoria decriminalised sex work…[making it] illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of their profession, trade or occupation…Matthew took the companies to court in June last year…and…the case was settled out of court confidentially late last year.  Matthew went public [last] week and said he received no money from the legal action…[but] the two [offending] companies agreed to not restrict services offered to people engaged in lawful sex work…

Opting Out (#1268)

Twitter shifts to an opt-in model:

[Twitter] now officially allows pornographic content…but says it will block adult and violent posts from being seen by users who are under 18 or who do not opt-in to see it.  The…new policies…come as [cens]or pressure grows for platforms around the world to…[censor content by shouting “The] children[!!!!!!” at]…social media [companies].  Historically…Twitter…has not prevented people posting adult content…[but] users who [do so]…have now been asked…to adjust media settings so that their images and videos are put behind a content warning…Users under 18 or those who do not put a birthdate in their profile will be unable to view this content…Similar rules have been put in place for violent content…

This appears to be an attempt to head off the nitwit parade led by authoritarians in various US states, Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, and Russia.

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1382)

The claims in these nuisance lawsuits are increasingly absurd:

The state of Utah has filed another lawsuit against…TikTok…[fantasiz]ing the video app “created a virtual strip club” that allowed young people to be sexually exploited in exchange for money that TikTok takes a cut of.  The lawsuit [was] filed…by the Utah Division of Consumer Protection, a[n increasingly-popular angle that allows authoritarian governments to circumvent due process]…the…lawsuit also [imagines]…that TikTok LIVE’s virtual currency could allow criminals to host illegal gambling, sell drugs and fund terrorist activities…The state…is also suing…Facebook…[over imaginary “]harm to the mental health of Utah youth[” and]…has passed bills [attack]ing…social platforms…prompt[ing] a coalition of…companies…[and a group of] content creators [to sue over]…the state’s [egregious 1st Amendment violations]…

Creepy Coppers (#1437)

It’s too bad cops don’t spend all their time policing their own gang:

A [typical and representative Missouri cop named]…David K. Blankenship…and his wife Karlie Blankenship…[have been] charged with…attempt[ing to find] a child [they could use to make child porn after] David Blankenship…uploaded a [similar] video [to] TikTok [and the upload was reported by TikTok]…David and…Karlie…were having “sexually themed conversations” via TikTok direct message, shared videos of young girls they found attractive and discussed their sexual desires involving children under 14 and “how to locate children that are local”…Another search warrant [executed] at Blankenship’s…home found additional evidence…

Free advice: if your sexual fantasies involve anything that would be illegal in real life, don’t share them in writing, especially not electronically.

You Were Warned (#1438)

Wins against censors are increasingly rare these days:

The real fight for free speech…means being willing to stand up to extremist authoritarian bullies, even when the odds are stacked against you.  Challenging regimes where a single satirical post, a meme, or a critical blog can put someone behind bars requires bravery.  But sometimes people have to fight, because it’s the right thing to do…The notoriously thin-skinned authoritarian Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has sued thousands of people for the crime of “insulting” him (or comparing him to Gollum).  He has jailed journalists for criticizing his government and claims that social media…is a “threat to democracy” for allowing his critics to speak…the makers of WordPress, Automattic…fought back…[un]like…Twitter…after a [2015] demand to remove a critical blog…basically a decade later it has prevailed…this is a rare and surprising outcome.  Turkish courts have rejected similar attempts by the company, but the company hasn’t stopped fighting these fights…It’s especially notable that the main law Turkey relies on for this broad censorship was directly modeled on similar “internet regulations” in Europe (especially Germany’s NetzDG law, which partially inspired the DSA across the EU)…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1439)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 22, 2024| 1 Comment »

Sex work…[is] a personal choice from which we don’t need to be rescued.  –  Natalia Lane

South of the Border (#992)

It’s barely even possible to talk about this under criminalization:

…on May 7, a group of sex workers [in Mexico City] launched ‘CLaP!’, a first-of-its-kind coalition that wants the decriminalization of sex work, its formal recognition as a job, and access to social security for those working online and in person…the group is appealing to potential members online and on the streets of the capital, aiming to create enough momentum for sex workers to win long-sought labor rights.  To date, about 42 workers have joined CLaP!…

Panopticon (#1316)

Privacy as we once knew it is a thing of the past:

American police are testing a new technology that can scan moving vehicles for anything that emits a signal, including phones, smartwatches, cat and dog tracking chips and even library books, according to its creator, Rome, Italy-based surveillance…company Leonardo…Elsag EOC Plus…is typically incorporated into one of Leonardo’s Elsag license plate readers…and is designed to help police [states] monitor [citizens by]…warrantlessly track[ing] people across large tranches of the country…by identifying their belongings without their knowledge…the tool can identify specific models of devices…[such as] pet chips, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth devices, wearable tech like fitness trackers, in-car infotainment systems and tire pressure sensors, and…all that data can be linked to a car’s license plate number, becoming a unique “fingerprint.” As a person travels through other license plate scanners, their fingerprint can be followed around a given area, even when the driver or passenger switches vehicles…malls across the U.S. are already equipped…with…car surveillance technologies from Leonardo rival Flock Safety…[whose] cameras similarly create “fingerprints”…[by] look[ing] at identifying features on a car beyond the license plate number, such as color, make, model, bumper stickers or wheel rims…

If Men Were Angels (ROTW #6)

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A [Spokane, Washington high] school paraeducator and…coach admitted to recording himself [molest]ing…underage boys and sending the videos to other [boys]…Dallas M. Shuler…told [cop]s he solicited explicit content from 25 [boys] in the last year because he is “sexually excited by” 11- to 15-year-olds…He al[so] admitted he kept a collection of explicit photos and videos of minors and “traded” them with [other minors]…

You Were Warned (#1428)

Politicians keep openly trying to destroy the internet:

…weakening Section 230 has become a weird political hobby horse for…politicians [because they] loathe communications…outside of their control.  Generally, such designs take the form of content-specific carve-outs…but a new proposal…would simply “sunset” Section 230 after next year…[politicians] Cathy McMorris Rodgers…and…Frank Pallone…”seem to fundamentally misunderstand how the law works and what the consequences of repealing it would be,” writes Mike Masnick at Techdirt, pointing to the pair’s [recent] Wall Street Journal op-ed…[which] manages to get just about everything about Section 230 wrong, including its origins.  Section 230 was part of a panicky “protect the children” law known as the Communications Decency Act, not a measure meant to “help people and businesses connect, innovate and share information,” as the pair so absurdly claims…”These days, one can ask, ‘How do you know when Section 230 is being misunderstood?’ and answer, ‘A politician is talking about it'”…lawyer Robert Corn-Revere aptly wrote in Reason last year…

I Can’t Breathe (#1434)

Articles about misconduct are more effective when journalists don’t make excuses for cops:

In hundreds of deaths where police used force meant to stop someone without killing them, [cops intentionally] violated well-known guidelines for safely restraining and subduing people — not simply once or twice, but multiple times.  Most violations involved [maliciously] pinning people facedown in ways that could restrict their breathing or [sadistically] stunning them repeatedly with Tasers…[some cops are very good at inventing excuses for] break[ing]…safety guidelines…[while] many other[s find it] harder to [make up bullshit.  Some cops plead incompetence, stupidity, or belligerence to] explain…a string of mistakes.  In other cases, they [moronically] kept applying force even after they had people handcuffed and controlled [as though they were rabid animals with no sense at all]…AP catalogued 1,036 [murders committed by cops]…not involving their guns.  In [only] about half, medical officials [admitt]ed that [cops] caused or contributed to the deaths…

The Vultures Descend (#1435)

Prohibition can never succeed, regardless of which substance is prohibited:

According to new research, about 8,000 women per month obtained abortion pills in late 2023, despite living in states that have bans or severe restrictions on telemedicine abortion or abortion access.  The survey also found that the abortion rate in 2023 was slightly higher than in 2022, despite total abortion bans in more than a dozen states…a…press release [says,] “This elevated volume of abortion may be due in part to the expansion of telehealth abortion care, which made up 19% of all abortion care nationwide by December 2023″…

You Were Warned (#1437)

The US government is almost completely out of Constitutional control:

…a bunch of members of Congress both signed an amicus brief in the Murthy case saying…governments should never, ever, interfere with speech and also voted to ban TikTok….th[e] same members of Congress who are so worried about “jawboning” by government officials…[are themselves using] the power of Congress to silence voices trying to defend TikTok…NetChoice has been the main trade group…defending against all the terrible laws being thrust upon the internet over the last few years…[it] has been structured to be independent of its members…which sometimes means their members dislike the causes and cases NetChoice takes on…members of Congress threatened to investigate NetChoice if it didn’t drop TikTok from its [membership] roster…PR agencies and lobbying organizations that work with TikTok…are [also] facing similar threats…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1438)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 18, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Forcing random, innocent individuals to shoulder th[e] cost [of police actions] would be as fair as conducting a lottery to determine who has to pay the police chief’s salary each year.  –  Slaybaugh v. Rutherford County

Leaving the 20th Century (#1223)

This is not “decriminalization” as previously claimed, but rather an overhaul in the existing legalization regime:

A new law in Belgium…is being touted as a win by UTSOPI, the Belgium Union of Sex Workers…the legislation…outlines that prostitutes will receive health insurance, a pension, maternity and holiday leave, and unemployment benefits.  Their pimps will be forced to provide them with a “safety button” to use for emergencies…Prostitutes are to be granted “rights” to refuse sexual acts, stop sexual acts, perform sexual acts in the manner they prefer, and refuse to sit behind Amsterdam-style windows…However, should a prostitute use these “rights” 10 times within six months, their pimp can then call on a government mediator to intervene…

“Pimp” appears to be used here to mean “brothel owner”; the article is silent on what the law says about escorts and other non-brothel sex workers.

Panopticon (#1349)

Rural residents are less affected by state surveillance than urbanites, but they aren’t safe:

In December 2022, Reason reported that both state and federal wildlife agents routinely trespass onto private land and plant cameras.  Two Tennessee homeowners successfully sued the state over the practice…the state appealed…and…the court of appeals [has now] ruled in the homeowners’ favor…In the case of Terry Rainwaters and Hunter Hollingsworth, [agents] not only entered their…properties but also installed trail cameras…without a warrant and ignoring “No Trespassing” signs…

Censor Chic (#1366)

Government censors are growing ever bolder:

…federal agencies such as the FBI and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) [have] restarted [their jawboning attempts] with [social media] platforms…[under the tissue-thin guise of] “removing disinformation on their sites as the November presidential election nears”…these [attempt]s resumed in March, around the same time oral arguments in Murthy v. Missouri — which centers on the feds’ censorship efforts — were heard before the U.S. Supreme Court…Neither agency provided an answer when questioned on how they determine what constitutes “disinformation” or what other federal agencies they are collaborating with in these efforts to have “disinformation” removed from social media…

Opting Out (#1376)

A new censorship regime has been imposed on British subjects:

[The UK censorship agency] Ofcom [wants more censorship power over] Instagram, YouTube and 150,000 other web services [using the popular excuse of “]child safety[“ to push]… tech firms to [deny users anonymity], [censor] and downrank content [the government dislikes], and apply around 40 other steps to [give the government more control over what its]…subjects [can see, hear, and read]…That suggests Brits may need to get accustomed to [us]ing [a VPN if] they [want to] access a range of online content…

A Broker in Pillage (#1400)

There are many ways for governments to steal things that don’t belong to them:

A federal court…heard arguments in an appeal concerning…the…”police powers”…exception to the [Constitution]…Mollie and Michael Slaybaugh…are…on the hook for over $70,000 after a SWAT team destroyed much of their home in Smyrna, Tennessee…in…[pursuit of Mollie’s] adult son, James Jackson Conn—who did not live with her but had recently arrived to visit…she offered to speak to Conn and bring him out of her house, [but the cops prevented]…her [from] re-enter[ing and instead]…broke down the door and launched dozens of tear gas grenades into the Slaybaughs’ home, laying waste to nearly everything…Their insurance [refused] to assist them, as their policy—like many policies—does not cover damage caused by the government…The notion that “police powers” immunize the government from liability is what doomed Leo Lech’s lawsuit, which he filed after a SWAT team did so much damage to his home…that it had to be demolished…Los Angeles refused to compensate Carlos Pena after a SWAT team destroyed his…print shop  in pursuit of a suspect who barricaded himself inside, and…Vicki Baker[‘s]…judgment from a federal jury…was ultimately overturned by the…5th Circuit, which ruled there was a “[fuck you]” exception to the Takings Clause…

Civil rights advocates often joke that the Third Amendment is the only one that hasn’t been undermined, but I fail to see any important difference between the government forcibly taking people’s homes to quarter troops and forcibly taking them to enable cops and robbers games.

The Cop Myth (#1410)

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

A…Memphis [cop in full magic clown regalia] kidnapped a man, shot him in the head and unsuccessfully tried getting rid of his body…Patric J. Ferguson [murdered Robert Howard]…on Jan. 5, 2021, [because Howard was dating Ferguson’s ex-girlfriend.  Ferguson then] dumped his body in the Wolf River in Memphis with the help of another man, Joshua M. Rogers…who [has been]…charged with accessory after the fact…

Sleeping with a cop is not only dangerous to the woman who does so, but to everyone else in her life, especially after she stops sleeping with the cop.

You Were Warned (#1434)

At least there are a few judges willing to restrain other judges’ megalomania:

[Twitter] had a win over the Australian government after the Federal Court overturned a legal block on videos of the Sydney church stabbing.  The [Australian censorship] Commission won a temporary court injunction last month after [Twitter] refused to comply with a…global [censorship order]…Justice Geoffrey Kennett…rejected a bid to extend the injunction until a full trial…The decision does not represent a final legal win…but senior legal sources…said the interim decision…proved the legitimacy of [Twitter’s] case…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

Banned Books Week 2023

Posted in Current Events, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on October 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

I’m honestly unsure where this [new wave of censorship] will end; we’re well into uncharted territory my librarian self would’ve found unbelievable.  –  “The Book Burners”

It may be difficult for my younger readers to believe that when I was a librarian, “Banned Books Week” was little more than an academic exercise.  The first few years of my blog demonstrate just how negligible a threat so-called “book banning” actually was.  In 2010, I didn’t even remember to write about the observance; in 2011 I simply noted a number of frequently-challenged books (because the number was small enough to do that), and in 2012 and 2013 I used the occasion to attack the concept of censorship from a philosophical perspective.  2014’s “Censor Chic” was the first harbinger of things to come, as I discussed the new indirect form of censorship: authoritarians both in and out of government getting risk-averse corporations to do their dirty work for them by issuing threats to either smear those companies’ reputations or attack them with increased government meddling.  The latter tactic has grown from the relatively-veiled threats issued by the Obama administration’s “Operation Choke Point” to the Biden administration’s jawboning so egregiously even federal judges couldn’t be persuaded to give it a pass.  And in the past two years, pro-censorship politicians have crafted terrible laws to empower isolated cranks to censor any books their “thought leaders” tell them are “bad”:

…School book challenges reached historic highs in America in 2021 and 2022, according to the American Library Association.  And just a handful of people are driving those records.  A Washington Post analysis of thousands of challenges nationwide found that 60 percent of all challenges in the 2021-2022 school year came from 11 adults, each of whom objected to dozens — sometimes close to 100 — of books in their districts….

2015’s “Moral Climate” pointed out that most censorship nowadays is neither top-down nor obvious nor based in pearl-clutching about “obscenity” (though in the past two years that has again become a popular excuse among censor-morons who label themselves “conservative”); rather, it is disguised lateral censorship by censor-morons who label themselves “progressive”:

…What if you read different words in your books and never even knew the original language was changed?  That’s where publishers’ growing penchant for revisionism and censorship of written works comes in — often through the use of so-called “sensitivity readers” — to eliminate “problematic” content…From Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming to R.L. Stine and Agatha Christie, this trend of editing and rewriting authors’ books…without their consent…should alarm us all…the publishers who commission it foster a chilling effect on free speech, a sanitization of art, and a corrosion of our larger cultural discourse…

Of course, some “progressive” censorship is just as blatant and top-down as that of “conservatives”:

Peel District School Board…students, parents and community members…are concerned about a [bizarre] approach to a new equity-based book weeding process implemented by the board last spring in response to a provincial directive from the Minister of Education.  They say the new process, intended to ensure library books are inclusive, appears to have led some schools to remove thousands of books solely because they were published in 2008 or earlier…neither Ontario Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s office, nor the Education Ministry, would comment on PDSB’s implementation of Lecce’s directive…But in a [later] statement…the education minister said he has written to the board to immediately end this practice…

By 2017, my “Banned Books Week” essays had pivoted to dealing with the new reality of “adults…not merely accepting, but demanding they be shielded from ideas they find uncomfortable for one reason or another“, and in 2018 top-down censorship enforced by violence returned with a vengeance, starting with the internet.  In 2019 I summarized developments as follows:

…in this century, the sick need to control others’ thoughts grew as the internet made it easier for those thoughts to be shared, and early last year top-down government censorship returned with a vengeance thanks to the Great Unwashed eagerly swallowing racist claims about “human trafficking” and magically baneful effects of anything to do with sex.  The US enacted FOSTA, leading to a wave of internet censorship; the UK is trying to build a massive firewall comparable to China’s; the EU has enacted law after law allowing greedy corporations and finger-pointing Prunellas alike power over others’ web-browsing; and every two-bit dictatorship has recognized that all it needs to do to justify thought control is parrot Western “hate speech” idiocy…

The pandemic gave governments a new excuse, “misinformation” (a euphemism for “disagreeing with the government”), and that year I wrote, “We are watching the advent of a new dark age, and in such times no light is entirely safe from being snuffed out by zealots, speech-cops and bureaucrats whose ideal model for human society is the anthill.”  I was, as usual, not wrong; the following year saw the arrival of a wave of censorship even the mainstream media couldn’t ignore, excuse, or hand-wave away.  My primary tag for filing items about written-word censorship is “Thought Control”; only 7 items appeared there in 2012-2020; then there were 9 in ’21 alone; 27 in ’22; and 14 so far in ’23.  And that does not include the explosion of attempts to shut down large portions of the internet because politicians, useful idiots, and other censor-morons don’t like what other people say or watch.  As I said at the top, I have no idea where this will end, but in the meantime 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.

 

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1366)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 23, 2023| Leave a Comment »

They never actually say, “Go do this or else you’re going to have this consequence.”  But everybody just knows.  –  Judge Jennifer Elrod

To Molest and Rape

If only there were a concise term for “commission of a nonconsensual sexual act”:

…a [typical and representative] Savanna [Oklahoma cop named]…Jeffery Scott Smith Jr…[us]ed a traffic stop [as a pretext]…to [violently rape a passenger in the car]…and…deactivat[ed] his…body…camera and…dashboard camera…with the intent to [get away with violent aggravated rape]…

Life Imitates Artifice (#849)

Every so often the failed “forced sex trafficking abortions” trope bobs up, like a turd that just won’t flush:

[Without presenting any evidence,] Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen…accused [Planned Parenthood]…of falsifying records…about sexual assault against minors and statutory rape, suggesting th[is]… “could be happening with human trafficking victims.”  The…comments in a July 31 radio interview echo a decade-old…[evangelical trope from the popular “sex trafficking” mythology claim]ing that the national Planned Parenthood organization abets human trafficking…

I suspect that the reason the “forced sex trafficking abortions” myth didn’t become more popular is that, despite the considerable overlap between anti-whore and anti-abortion activism, abortion rights constitute a sacred cow among the “progressives” who did much of the heavy lifting promoting the moral panic.  This same discomfort with logical developments of their pet hysteria resulted in organs like The New York Times distancing themselves from their own propaganda once it developed into QAnon.

Thought Control (#1285)

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

Florida’s…”Don’t Say Gay” law…was expanded on 31 March, to prohibit instruction on gender and sexuality up until the eighth grade, and on reproductive health until the 12th grade.  The legislation also…[censors] material that [politicians or bureaucrats choose to arbitrarily label] “pornography or obscene depictions of sexual conduct”…[in order to protect teachers from persecution by the State,] the Hillsborough County schools district announced it will now only teach excerpts from some of Shakespeare’s most-famous works…On 3 August…Florida’s Department of Education…ruled that AP psychology classes were a violation of the law due to LGBTQ+ content…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1309)

The way local media parrots copaganda in the face of clear evidence of its foolishness is utterly pathetic:

A deputy’s first-person perspective during a [panic attack] was captured on his body camera, along with a[dministration of a placebo]…by a fellow deputy that [helped him calm down despite having no actual medical effect]…Nick Huzior, who is now [enjoying a vacation at taxpayer expense, claimed]…he felt extremely lightheaded, shaky and [numb, none of which are symptoms of]…fentanyl…Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly [used the panic attack as an excuse to claim a cop panicking like a little girl over wholly imaginary terrors is somehow heroic]…

Checklist (#1150)

Uber already encourages its drivers to spy on riders and rat sex workers out to the pigs:

Texas law will now require all drivers of Transportation Network Companies…to receive [even more of the same absurd and overbroad “signs of human trafficking“ indoctrination they’ve been forced to endure for almost a decade now]…The bill comes after [rescue industry corporations recognized they are losing an]…easy…[way to milk] their victims [for donations]…and [enlisted politicians in fear of losing a powerful excuse for police-statery]…

I know that’s a huge edit, but there really is nothing new to see in this asinine regurgitation of tired old tropes, including “King of the Hill“.

Torture Chamber (#1359)

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

…Florida prison officials and medical staff allowed an incarcerated man’s prostate cancer to spread untreated until he was left paralyzed, terminally ill, and afflicted with infected bed sores that rotted to the bone.  When he wrote desperate pleas for help, one official concluded, “This is not an emergency.”  In a federal civil rights lawsuit filed last year…Elmer Williams [explain]s that [screws] and nursing staff denied and delayed medical treatment for months after he filed a grievance against them.  The…delays were not just bureaucratic incompetence but retaliation…medical records…reveal [that] staff were aware of his extremely high indicators for prostate cancer, aware of a long-overdue “urgent” referral to a urologist, and aware of his rapidly deteriorating condition…

Censor Chic (#1359)

It’s good to see at least some judges still respect their oath to uphold the Constitution against the government:

Federal judges hammered fresh nails into the coffin of the Biden censorship regime…[in] the Justice Department’s appeal of a July 4 decision in Missouri v. Biden…[where] Federal Judge Terry Doughty…delivered 155 pages of damning details of federal browbeating, jawboning and coercion of social-media companies…The Biden administration…then sought to redefine all its closed-door shenanigans as public service…[claiming that] since federal SWAT teams did not assail the headquarters of social-media firms, the feds are blameless…[and pretending] it’s irrelevant that…Biden publicly accused social-media companies of murder for not censoring far more material and that Biden appointees publicly threatened to destroy the companies via legislation or prosecution…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1359)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[An FBI] suggestion…is not a suggestion. It is in fact effectively an order.  –  Darrell Issa

Surplus Women

Cops love awkward, overcomplicated language:

Three women [have been] found dead near the Trinity River in [Dallas, and]…Oscar Sanchez Garcia…is being charged with th[e]…murder[s].  The body of 60-year-old Limberly Robinson was found in late April.  25-year-old Cherish Gibson was found dead in the same area two months later.  The third woman was found [July 15th and] has not yet been identified.  Police believe at least two of the victims have possible ties to prostitution…

Would it have been too difficult to say, “at least two of the victims may have been sex workers”?

No Difference (#889)

Will this be another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists?

Kenya is…introducing legislation that would criminalise openly identifying with, or supporting, the LGBTQ+ community…including openly identifying as LGBTQ+ or wearing Pride emblems.  Those found in breach of the law would face a minimum of 10 years in jail while those found guilty of performing same-sex acts would face a minimum of 14 years…anyone found guilty under a clause for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as engaging in “homosexual acts with a minor or disabled person and transmitting a terminal disease through sexual means”, could be executed.  The bill heavily mirrors Uganda’s…which was signed into law earlier this year.  Similar bills are also being proposed in Tanzania…South Sudan…[and] Ghana…

You Were Warned (#1344)

“This bill is not about kids’ safety, because it will put their safety at risk”:

With…KOSA…be[ing] debated in…Congress…Joe Biden [has] come out [to] give a full throated endorsement of the horrible, dangerous, bill that will damage privacy and harm children…the Republicans have been quite vocal about how they support KOSA because they know they can use it to suppress LGBTQ voices.  They flat out said that they believe that “keeping trans content away from children is protecting kids”…KOSA….[is] not about “protecting” kids privacy at all.  It’s about giving the government more control over kids.  The nature of the bill will require more data collection…[and] create serious 1st Amendment concerns by holding companies potentially liable if kids face harm that…an [ambulance-chaser can pretend was somehow related]…to anything they found online…

Now would be the time to call your congresscritter to scare it away from being associated with this police-state garbage.

Torture Chamber (#1344)

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

By the time he died alone in his Miami-Dade jail cell in the summer of 2021, (5’10”) Randy Heath weighed just 113 pounds…[because] guards…allowed [him]…to languish [for 9 months] in the jail’s mental health unit…[and] did not properly feed, monitor, or administer…medication…the…Medical Examiner’s Office…[claims] Heath…died from “food asphyxia” after a large piece of orange blocked his airway, with the contributory cause being pica, an eating disorder in which people compulsively eat things that aren’t food…Heath…had been in and out of…jail since 2002 on various charges…[but the most recent arrest] in April 2020 [was on the pretext that he touched] his ankle monitor [in a manner disallowed by The State]…He would remain on the floor of his cell unattended for hours…in his own urine and feces…Although he was regularly prescribed medication for his mental illnesses, his toxicology report detected no medicine in his system at the time of death…

Censor Chic (#1354)

Partisans deny this when it’s their side making “suggestions”:

…based on current evidence, the FBI has not explicitly demanded that social media companies censor any specific posts or news stories.  But…[as] the Supreme Court [said] nearly 60 years ago: Americans “do not lightly disregard public officers’ thinly veiled threats to institute criminal proceedings against them if they do not come around.”  Much is said in our current discourse about…power imbalances…When your boss asks if you can stay late or come in on the weekend, you can say no. But in the back of your mind, you know there may be consequences…It’s…a similar dynamic when the government sends “suggestions” to private individuals or companies over which it exercises…authority…When the FBI floods social media platforms with “alerts” about content it obviously wants taken down, it doesn’t deserve a pass just because it didn’t say out loud: “or else”…The FBI uses the weight and authority of its office to lean on platforms in an attempt to do what the First Amendment forbids it from doing directly: suppress protected speech.  This tactic is called “jawboning,” and is not something we should blithely accept in a society committed to free expression as a fundamental value…

Served Cold (#1357)

Ballard’s increasingly-bizarre antics have apparently upset his partners in profiteering:

Tim Ballard, the celebrity [“sex] trafficking[” profiteer] whose heavily fictionalized exploits served as the inspiration for the [fak]e box-office hit Sound of Freedom, is no longer CEO of the Nazarene Fund, the Glenn Beck-backed [rescue industry] organization…a letter is circulating in Utah’s philanthropic community, which claims that Ballard left OUR following an internal investigation…[after] an employee filed an HR complaint after returning from a mission with Ballard…

Elsewhere, Kaytlin Bailey uses Ballard’s fanciful story as a springboard for discussion of why “rescue” narratives are not only nonsense, but distracting from measures that really help sex workers.

Torture Chamber (#1358)

It does not help young victims of governmental brutality to infantilize them as “children”:

…inside…the…largest juvenile [prison]…in…New Mexico…[young people] between the ages of 12 and 17 are routinely subjected to strip searches, held for weeks in cells without toilets, and left with only a thin plastic sheet to block out the glare of hallway lights that never turn off.  Girls face particularly harsh conditions, often placed in…solitary confinement…chronic understaffing…[is used to excuse holding prisoners] for weeks, in temporary booking cells with no toilets or sinks…[yet somehow there are enough staff for weekly sexual assaults euphemized as “]strip searches[“.  Girls who]…refuse…to [submit are]…locked in…cell[s] until [they “]consent[“]…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1354)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 12, 2023| 1 Comment »

Nobody is abducting 1- and 4-year-old kids into sex trafficking.
–  David Finkelhor

Creating Criminals (July Updates)

It’s not like 2011 is ancient history, or Florida far away from Georgia:

Florida’s agricultural and construction industries…are experiencing a labor shortage because a new immigration [theater] law that took effect July 1 is leading migrant workers to leave the state.  The law…seeks to further criminalize undocumented immigration in the state…Businesses that knowingly employ un[document]ed workers could have their licenses suspended, and those with 25 or more employees that re[fuse] to use the [totalitarian] E-Verify system to check their immigration status can face daily fines…the ranks of laborers in Florida…gr[ew] noticeably thinner…as soon as DeSantis signed the legislation this spring.  Workers at several construction sites in South Florida say a quarter to half of their teams are gone, exacerbating an already challenging labor shortage…

Harm Magnification (#786)

Naturally, because it’s cops’ job to cause harm, not reduce it:

new research…published in the American Journal of Public Health…links drug busts to a spike in overdoses in nearby areas.  The…researchers…found a significant association between “opioid-related law enforcement drug seizures” and an increase in drug overdoses in surrounding areas…[for] three weeks from the drug bust…Stimulant-related drug seizures were also associated with an increase in drug overdoses, albeit to a lesser extent than with opioid-related drug seizures…

Sexcrime (#1180)

It’s only been four years since the UK government lost in court the last time it tried this:

Web pornography could be subject[ed] to [more censorship] in the UK, putting it on a par with films on DVD under government plans to re[-attempt censorship] of the online adult content industry…The British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) is the main regulator of [offline] pornography in the UK but [also wants] online powers and has [whined to politicians] that pornographic content it would refuse to classify is “freely accessible” online…the re[-attempt] would be separate from the [misnamed “]online safety bill[“], which…requires age-checking measures for…social media platforms and not just dedicated adult content providers…

Censor Chic (#1248)

Far too little, far too late:

The federal government’s vast and disconcerting campaign to curb politically disfavored speech on social media has finally encountered a setback…District Court Judge Terry Doughty ruled against the Biden administration in a pivotal free speech case…hundreds of messages sent by employees of the FBI…CDC…DHS…and the White House to moderators at Twitter…Facebook and…Google make clear that the federal government pushed the platforms to suppress dissident viewpoints on a whole host of topics…For instance, the FBI frequently flagged joke tweets about the 2020 election and asked moderators at Twitter to take them down.  The White House itself did the very same thing…Unfortunately, there is reason to doubt that the decision will meaningfully constrain the feds…

Choke Point (#1270) 

After years of banks persecuting sex workers, politicians recognize the problem when it affects their cronies:

Banks are to be told by the [UK] Treasury that they must protect free speech amid an escalating row over the blacklisting of customers who hold controversial views.  Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor…[claims] to be “deeply concerned” that overzealous lenders are closing down accounts because they disagree with customers’ opinions and has asked City minister Andrew Griffith to investigate the issue.  Whitehall sources said that results of a consultation on the subject will be published within weeks, after it was launched earlier this year in the wake of PayPal blocking the accounts of free speech groups…

Permanent Record (#1296)

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

A [Canadian] education assistant…struggling to make ends meet has been fired over her second job: posting…content…on OnlyFans.  Kristin MacDonald…has [worked]…for about a year under the name Ava James [until pearl-clutchers discovered her in April].  The district ordered her to shut down her adult content on social media…or risk being fired…[bloviating nonsense phrases such as] “Your misconduct…is egregious”…[and] “sexualization of the school environment”…

The Widening Gyre (#1337)

Another sign that the moral panic is largely over:

Katie Sorensen—the Petaluma, California, [“sex trafficking” hysteric] who claimed her kids were the victims of an attempted abduction in a Michael’s parking lot—has been sentenced to 90 days of jail time…30 of those days must be served in the jail itself; the rest can be done in a work-release program…She was…also sentenced to 12 months of informal probation.  During this time, she was ordered to have no social media presence, to submit to warrantless search and seizure of her electronic devices and to complete a four-hour implicit bias training program, in addition to paying various fines and fees…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1351)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2023| 1 Comment »

The purpose of this program is mass surveillance at its core.  –  Julie Mao

Welcome to the Future (#1252)

The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived:

The legal research and public records data broker LexisNexis is providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with tools to target people who[m it claims] may potentially commit a crime — before any actual crime takes place…LexisNexis then allows ICE to track the purported pre-criminals’ movements.  Th[is] unredacted contract overview provides a rare look at the [fascist] $16.8 million agreement between LexisNexis and ICE…whose surveillance of and raids against migrant communities are widely [recogn]ized as brutal, unconstitutional, and inhumane…Julie Mao…[is] co-founder of Just Futures Law, which is suing LexisNexis over…it[s] illegal…buy[ing] and sell[ing of] personal data.  Mao…[pointed out that] the ICE contract document…is “an admission and indication that ICE aims to surveil individuals where no crime has been committed and [without] criminal warrant or evidence of probable cause”…

You Were Warned (#1269)

Don’t Canadian politicians pay attention to what happens in other parts of the Commonwealth?

…the…Canadian government…[has] passed [a bullshit link tax bill], effectively saying that Canada is breaking the open web, [so naturally Facebook] announced it was officially pulling news links from Canada…as when this happened in Australia, I’m sure some people are going to get mad at [Facebook], but…even if it’s by accident, or a side-effect, it’s helping to defend the open web, against a ridiculous attack from an astoundingly ignorant and foolish set of Canadian politicians…

The Implosion Begins (#1273)

Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this tragedy:

An Uber driver died days after a passenger…sho[t]…him…[because she imagined] she was being kidnapped…Phoebe Copas, 48, is now charged with murder…[after her victim] Daniel Piedra Garcia…was taken off life support…Copas, of Tompkinsville, Kentucky, was visiting her boyfriend in El Paso and took an Uber to meet him at a casino after he got off work…When Copas saw signs during the drive [giving mileage] for Juarez, Mexico, she b[izarrely conclud]ed Piedra was kidnapping her…and shot [him]…in the back of the head…

Gee, I wonder where she got the idea she might be “kidnapped” in an Uber?

The Last Shall Be First (#1319) 

It’ll take a lot more such rulings before this political fad is buried:

A federal judge has struck down a 2021 Arkansas law banning…medical treatment for trans[gender] young people.  U.S. District Judge James Moody…ruled the law unconstitutional, saying it violated the rights of doctors and discriminated against transgender people….[this] marks the first time a federal court has decided the legality of such bans, which have been taken up by a growing number of state legislatures in recent years.  As of June 20, at least 20 additional states have enacted restrictions or bans on gender-affirming care, according to data compiled by the ACLU.  Florida’s effort to limit such care for trans youth has also severely restricted access to transition-related care for adults…

Censor Chic (#1335)

Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide:

When Facebook took off in Vietnam about a decade ago, it was like a “revolution”…people across the country could communicate directly about current affairs.  Users posted about police abuse and government waste, poking holes in the propaganda of the ruling Communist Party…But as…the government increasingly demanded greater restrictions…Facebook…has been making repeated concessions…routinely censoring dissent…allowing those seen as threats by the government to be forced off the platform…[and] adopt[ing] an internal list of Vietnamese Communist Party officials who [can]not be criticized on Facebook…

The Mob Rules (#1346)

I doubt this is the kind of lawsuit Louisiana politicians wanted to attract:

Free Speech Coalition…has filed a legal challenge in Louisiana over the state’s age-verification law…[which politicians enacted to] give…the state the power to fine sites with adult content up to $5,000 per day, which [FSC] argues is a direct violation of the First Amendment…FSC filed a similar suit against the state of Utah in May…

Meanwhile, porn performer Jessica Stoya points out that this kind of heavy-handed regulation always favors large corporations at the expense of small ones.

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

The time, money, and energy Americans are flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

A federal judge [has] sided with an Orlando restaurant that features weekly “family friendly” drag shows and ordered the state to stop enforcing a new law cracking down on certain “adult live performances”…The Florida law did not specifically mention drag performances, but said the state should revoke the liquor license of any establishment that allows children to attend performances that include [what politicians vaguely term “]lewd exposure[“] to “prosthetic or imitation genitals and breasts”…U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell…[wrote] that the language of the law is vague and “dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement.”  [He] also [pointed out that] the law clashes with another DeSantis priority — the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” — because it allows the state to decide what performances children can attend, rather than leaving that choice up to parents…

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1344)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2023| 2 Comments »

Anti-sex-work rhetoric…continues to dominate mainstream media.  –  Holly Randall

If Men Were Angels

One would think that by now, the title “youth pastor” would be a big red flag:

[A typical and representative] youth pastor [previously] charged with child sexual assault is now facing new charges…Jordan Huffman…jump[ed bail in Wisconsin]…and [fled to]…Florida [where he] was [caught and] extradited to Wisconsin…the [newly-reported] victim said the crimes began in 2017…[at] 12 years old…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#907)

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

The Texas legislature has passed a new age verification law that compels adult websites to post pseudoscientific anti-porn propaganda disclaimers declaring that “pornography is potentially biologically addictive, is proven to harm human brain development, desensitizes brain reward circuits, increases conditioned responses and weakens brain function.”  The measure, HB 1181, is a much-augmented version of Louisiana’s age verification law and its many copycats, and echoes the debunked “porn addiction” language of faith-based anti-porn groups…

Compelled speech is, of course, unconstitutional, but Southern politicians in particular seem determined to negate that inconvenient fact by wishing very hard.

Held Together With Lies (#938)

In case you ever doubted the danger of letting government dictate what constitutes “disinformation”:

YouTube [has] removed…an episode of the Holly Randall Unfiltered industry podcast, featuring an interview with…Elizabeth Nolan Brown debunking myths about sex trafficking spread by anti-sex-work activists, mainstream media and politicians.  YouTube [claims] the content was removed due to a supposed violation of its policies against “harmful conspiracy theories.”  Randall appealed the removal but YouTube [bots automatical]ly dismissed the appeal, [pretending actual humans] had reviewed the content…and [claiming that debunking harmful propaganda]…is [not] “safe”…YouTube consistently platforms…pseudoscientific and religious attacks against sex workers and the adult industry without flagging the frequent lack of factuality in those videos…

Winding Down (#1289)

Occasionally, cops’ lies are too outrageous even for politicians:

As of July 1…Maryland…law will allow adults 21 or older to publicly possess up to 1.5 ounces of marijuana.  In anticipation of that…Maryland [politicians] last month passed H.B. 1071, which will bar police, also effective July 1, from treating the [actual or pretended] smell of cannabis as sufficient grounds for stopping or searching pedestrians or cars.  Virginia enacted a similar law in 2020, and…Missouri and Illinois…have proposed the same basic reform…Any evidence obtained in violation of the new rules is “not admissible in a trial, a hearing, or any other proceeding.”  Notably, that includes “evidence discovered or obtained with consent,” which is little more than a legal fiction when people are waylaid by armed agents of the state with the power to informally punish uncooperative drivers…

Panopticon (#1316)

Cops will continue to do this until there are criminal penalties for it:

[Three civil liberties groups demanded that] seventy-one California [cop shops]…immediately stop sharing automated license plate reader (ALPR) data with [cop shops] in other states because it violates California law and could enable prosecution of abortion seekers and providers elsewhere,  The letters from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU NorCal), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California (ACLU SoCal) gave the agencies a deadline of June 15 to comply and respond…Since 2016, sharing any ALPR data with out-of-state or federal [cop shops or spook houses] is a violation of the California Civil Code…Nevertheless, many agencies continue to use services such as Vigilant Solutions or Flock Safety to make the ALPR data they capture available to out-of-state and federal agencies [because, as is typical of laws pretended to control cops, the law has no criminal penalties for violators].  California…also [passed]…a[nother toothless] law…prohibiting state and local [cop shops] from providing abortion-related information to out-of-state [cop shops]…

You Were Warned (#1337)

The censors are growing bold enough to admit their real goals:

Democrats naively (and incorrectly) believ[e] that because [KOSA is] called the “Kids Online Safety Bill” it will magically protect children, even though tons of experts have made it clear it will actually put them at greater risk.  Meanwhile, Republicans are now freely admitting that they’re going to use KOSA to force websites to censor LGBTQ content.  They’re literally proud of it.  The Heritage Foundation, which at least used to have some principled stances before being taken over by culture warriors without any principles, is bragging about how it will use KOSA in this manner…the enforcement mechanism in the bill is that state Attorneys General get to bring lawsuits against websites for not removing such “harmful” content.  And if you don’t believe that there are GOP state AGs itching to bring exactly these lawsuits, you haven’t been paying attention…

Torture Chamber (#1343)

Denying medication to people locked in cages is just a silent version of yelling “Stop faking!” at them:

Dexter Barry waited 12 years to get a new heart…In 2020, his long wait paid off.  His new heart allowed him to imagine a healthy life…But in 2022, after…[the state unnecessarily locked] him in [a cage] for two days [for arguing with a neighbor, and refused to give him] his life-sustaining medication, his body rejected the heart [and he died]…Barry told [both the pigs and the judge] at least seven times that he needed to take his anti-rejection medications every day to survive…[but they didn’t give a shit]…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1335)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Spin the wheel and see what political expression is next on the chopping block. It might just be your own.  –  Sarah McLaughlin

A Whore in Church

Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me:

A Christian OnlyFans star says she feels more connected to her faith since she…started…seven years ago, and now believes God put her on earth to help “liberate” other women from their sexual shame. Courtney Tillia…previously worked as a high school teacher but found that her life lacked meaning and her spirituality was suffering as a result…[she] initially felt ashamed of her [work]…before she slowly began to realize that her strict Christian upbringing was the cause of her guilt…

Leaving the 20th Century

Another Australian state sees the light:

Queensland will decriminalise sex work after a long-awaited review recommended sweeping changes…including scrapping the Prostitution Licensing Authority, repealing some police powers and allowing services to be advertised on radio and TV…sex work is under a licensing framework in Queensland, [which means] about 90% of sex workers are in the “unlawful sector” privately or at unlicensed businesses.  Sex workers have long rallied against the laws that prohibit them from employing a receptionist, working with others or texting other sex workers before and after a booking to make sure they’re safe…police can currently also pose as clients and entrap workers by pressuring them to offer blacklisted services…

Censor Chic (#1248)

Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide:

…recent moves from some leading names in tech and social media paint a worrying picture…censorship laws are increasingly determining what people…can do online.  You might not live within the borders of China…India, [the US, the UK, or Germany] but that doesn’t mean their censorship laws won’t affect what you write, see, and say—and some [internet] companies are helping them enforce these rules globally…investigative journalist Saurav Das shared the fact that—in response to legal demands—Twitter blocked access to two tweets he had posted about India’s Minister of Home Affairs…Censorship demands…from…India…are nothing new, and Twitter…has thus far agreed to…block…the material from view within India…in line with [Twitter boss Elon] Musk’s faulty understanding of “free speech” as a simple reflection of an individual country’s laws, no matter how oppressive.  But this time, Twitter…blocked the tweets not just within India…but everywhere…[this] may…be part of a deeply troubling trend of tech companies willingly choosing to allow the most authoritarian diktats to guide content moderation…

The Cop Myth (#1254)

41% of cops admit to beating their wives; some don’t stop with mere beating:

A [typical and representative] Idaho [cop named Daniel Charles Howard] is facing charges…for the [2021] murder of his…wife…Kendy Wilkins…In May 2014, he was charged with first-degree stalking, aggravated assault and malicious injury to property…[after] learning his wife had been having an affair with their…neighbor…he rep[ea]tedly…harass[ed and threatened]…the…neighbor…

Winding Down (#1289)

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

Delaware just became the 22nd state to legalize recreational marijuana….Gov. John Carney, a [soft prohibitionist], said he will allow two legalization bills to take effect without his signature, notwithstanding his continued concerns about the consequences of [not sending cops to destroy the lives of people for enjoying something he doesn’t]…Delaware has allowed medical use of marijuana since 2011, and in 2015 legislators decriminalized possession of an ounce or less, making it a civil offense punishable by a $100 fine.  Carney supports both of those policies but…last year he vetoed recreational legalization.  The…[legislature] recently approved essentially the same legislation that Carney blocked last year, this time by larger margins, making it more likely that a veto would be overridden…

I Spy (#1319)

Surely you didn’t believe the pretexts for such surveillance would long remain limited to “child porn” and “terrorism”?

A new U.S. Senate bill would require private messaging services, social media companies, and even cloud providers to report their users to the…DEA…if they find out about certain…drug sales…the Cooper Davis Act…is likely to result in a host of inaccurate reports and in companies sweeping up innocent conversations…[and] incentiv[ize] …dragnet searches of private messages…Most troubling, this bill is a template for [politician]s to try to force internet companies to report their users…for other…speech…[including] the sale or purchase of [sex, adult content, or] abortion pills…

To Molest and Rape (#1320)

In the UK, “disciplinary action” can mean giving rapists early retirement at full pay:

The [London] Police is paying the full salary costs of 145 [cops] who have been [rewarded with paid vacations for] crimes including rape, fatal shootings and paedophilia.  They are made up of 105 [basic thugs] and 40…of a higher undisclosed rank – giving the total combined salary cost…of at least £3.4million over the last six years…[as if that weren’t bad enough] 29 [rapists are still loose with full police powers to stalk more victims]…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »