YouTube pushes videos based on some kind of algorithm involving what you’ve watched before, so I reckon it isn’t surprising I was dealt this one. Like all of these pop-culture docuvideos it’s at least twice as long as it should be, but it’s still interesting. The links above it were provided by Thaddeus Russell, Mama Tush, Grace, Kevin Wilson, Dave Krueger, and Elizabeth N. Brown, in that order.
…federal [documents]…suggest…a years-long trail of bribery between City Councilmember Jose Huizar and a Chinese development firm with a megaproject slated for downtown Los Angeles…[real estate broker] George Chiang…started a real estate consulting company in 2014…that directed money, consulting fees, casino chips, flights on private jets, luxury hotel stays, prostitutes and escort services between developers…[politicians] and [bureaucrats]…in exchange for approval of an 80,000-square foot commercial project and other downtown developments…
A fiery motion to dismiss filed in the Lacey/Larkin case on May 1…accuses the U.S. Department of Justice of “outrageous government misconduct,” claiming federal pettifoggers and government agents repeatedly trampled upon the defendants’ attorney-client privileges…despite repeated warnings from defense counsel…and two [court] orders…the government continued to question former Backpage CEO and owner Carl Ferrer concerning confidential legal advice that was subject to joint defense and representation agreements with other defendants…the government grilled Ferrer repeatedly through “seven successive interviews” over the course of 13 months, beginning the day of his plea deal…In doing so…the government engaged in “outrageous” and “unconstitutional” misconduct. Prosecutors “willfully invaded” Lacey and Larkin’s attorney-client privileges in order to “gain a tactical advantage in the case,” thereby violating the defendants’ Fifth Amendment right to due process of law and their Sixth Amendment right to counsel…Barring outright dismissal, the motion asks for an evidentiary hearing to determine the extent of the harm done to the defendants and possible sanctions against the government, such as the exclusion of Ferrer as a witness, the suppression of other evidence, or the disqualification of the entire prosecution team…
In March 2019 my life was turned upside down…by feminist groups who said I needed saving…Becoming a dancer at Sheffield’s Spearmint Rhino was the best thing I’d ever done. It gave me the confidence I desperately lacked…[but then] Not Buying It sent private [dicks] into our club to buy lap dances and secretly film the women dancing. They did this to “prove” to Sheffield Council that Spearmint Rhino was in breach of its own code of conduct and should have its licence revoked. They filmed women naked and without their consent, and this was only the beginning…it traumatised the women …[and] hurt their families, their friends and their children…the ensuing campaign to close our club left me extremely anxious and scared to go to work…I was paranoid that every person who came into the club was another undercover investigator trying to take my job away. I was always on edge, watching people, checking buttons for cameras, looking in people’s ears to see if they were wearing earpieces. I was hyper-aware of customers who used their mobile phones and frightened that they were secretly recording me. It was torture. Work went from being the place I felt safest to a place I felt judged and under attack…
Agents with…DHS…in Arizona have been “fighting” human trafficking by sending federal immigration agents to [rape women they claim to be]…victims…[then] seizing their assets, and telling the press it was these women who were the real predators. Federal agents [raped] at least 17…”Asian females” working in massage parlors around Mohave County, Arizona, over a five-month period in 2018…the years-long operation yielded three misdemeanor charges…[the] scenario…is farfromanisolatedincident…national and mainstream media have been discovering and disapproving of “Operation Asian Touch.” This is great—so long as nobody mistakes what happened in Mohave County for an atypical investigation. If you track initial claims about massage parlor-based human trafficking through to their actual conclusions, you’ll almost always find law enforcement simply targeting sex workers, small-business owners, immigrants, and the people who patronize them with harassment, assault, arrest, property seizure, prosecution, detainment, and deportation. And the “victims” they allegedly set out to save frequently wind up facing criminal charges. There are only two roles women can play in this Homeland Security-led charade: helpless sex slave or conniving human trafficker. (Both types…are invited to stroke ICE agent penises)…
The U.S. Senate comfortably approved a 2-1/2-year extension of parts of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)…by 80-16, far more than the 60 votes needed for passage. The measure must be approved…by the House of Representatives before it can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to veto or sign into law…
In India, the COVID-19 crisis is turning out to be the perfect excuse for the government to consolidate its pre-pandemic surveillance ambitions. Since May 4, as restrictions began to ease, the government has mandated the installation of its contact-tracing smartphone app for anyone who works…or uses public transport. Failing to do so is criminal…Unsurprisingly, digital rights and civil society organizations are pushing back on the new di[ktat]…
Alameda County [bureaucrats] backed down in their conflict with Elon Musk, reversing their shutdown order and granting provisional approval for Tesla’s Fremont, California plant to reopen. Musk had already reopened the plant for business in defiance of the lockdown order, tweeting …”If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me“…Musk’s civil disobedience against the COVID lockdown regime is a high-profile instance of a wider trend…
…as Australia eases itself out of COVID-19 restrictions…in [a] three-stage framework…strip clubs and brothels were specifically listed “to remain closed” even in stage three…other businesses with…skin-to-skin contact – like waxing, massages, tattoos, bathhouses and saunas – are allowed to open in stage three. Scarlet Alliance CEO Jules Kim [said]…”We hoped this…outbreak wouldn’t be used as an excuse to turn back…gains made in sex worker legislation, but it’s hard to see this as anything but discrimination, considering similar businesses are allowed”…federal [bureaucrats] recommended brothels and strip club venues should stay shut [indefinitely]…sole operator sex workers…are banned after being classed as “non-essential”…
The national lift to COVID-19 alert level 2 means it’s business as usual for many Kiwis, including sex workers…The New Zealand Prostitute’s Collective (NZPC) released guidelines for sex workers on their website…with a checklist of hygiene practices and safety measures workers, brothels and massage parlours should be implementing…
In the vast majority of the world’s overcrowded and underfunded prisons…physical distancing is simply not an option. In situations where close confinement, shared facilities and spaces and poor hygiene are commonplace…prison[ers]…are living in constant fear of the ticking COVID-19 time bomb…UNAIDS, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, the World Health Organization and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime are calling on leaders to make detention a last resort, to close drug rehabilitation detention centres and to decriminalize sex work, same-sex sexual relations and drug use. They are urging countries to release the people who can be released…The Government of Ethiopia…has released more than 30,000 prisoners and has heightened sanitation measures. Indonesia is releasing more than 50,000…Iran is releasing 40% of its total prison population, 100,000 people, while Chile is set to release around 50,000 people…
Michigan has agreed to [steal] $80 million [from taxpayers] to settle a lawsuit on behalf of currently and formerly [caged] teens who [were raped or] sexual[ly] assault[ed by screws or prisoners]…while [caged] in adult jails and prisons…The lawsuit, representing more than 500 currently and formerly incarcerated youth…was filed in 2013…
An art exhibition aimed at destigmatizing sex work open[ed] in Manhattan [last] Tuesday. The Sex Workers’ Pop-Up features artwork across 10 different countries and aims to elevate sex workers’ voices and drive the narrative around how their work is viewed. More than half of the 22 artists have a history with sex work themselves…The pop-up gives viewers the ability to “actually listen to the voices of sex workers and hear what they have to say”…curat[ors were]…led by an advisory committee from groups based in the U.S., Australia, France, Scotland, and South Africa, and supported by the Open Society Foundation…
Sex addiction treatment forces people into a kind of re-education program, which tries to convince them that perfectly normal consensual sexual behavior is the sign of a serious problem…These programs tell supposed sex addicts that they can reprogram themselves through behavioral modifications to become ideal sexual citizens: monogamous, non-porn-using people who rarely masturbate or fantasize about anyone other than their main partners…some of the same centers that treat sex addiction also offer gay conversion therapy…illuminat[ing] the ugly truth behind the sex addiction industry: it’s based on a moralistic judgment on what sexual behaviors are socially acceptable, yet it’s cloaked in a scientific sheen that gives it legitimacy…
…Jana Kuner, customer services manager for [Huntsville, Alabama] airport [is the only person actually named or quoted in what appears to be a “sex trafficking rescue” fantasy borrowed from TV cop glorification shows]….Kuner [claims she]…struck up a conversation [with a nameless] woman [who] shared how excited she was for her daughter who had answered an ad for a modeling job in Phoenix…Kuner has been [indoctrinated in all the usual fantasies, and claims she talked]…the [nameless] young woman…[into letting a complete stranger talk on the phone to] the [nameless] modeling agency…to [threaten to] have [cops come with]…the young woman [to snoop into their business, after which]…the young woman [supposedly] received texts from the agency saying they’d canceled her flights…[Nameless and unquoted] authorities are now [supposedly] certain [via magic that] she was walking into a human trafficking trap and…had already been sold [to some nameless buyer even though that doesn’t actually happen outside of movies]…
Given that this is pure hearsay with neither names of people or the supposed agency, nor quotes from the supposed victim, one can only conclude that these local news reporters are either gullible idiots or else have a very poor understanding of the meaning of the word “confirmed”.
[After] Geraldine Rodriguez Olivares…a [professional] twerk dancer [from Chile] on an international tour…landed in the Dominican Republic on a flight from Puerto Rico…U.S. Customs agents…[took] her to a private room where they forced her to twerk, while…five [pigs] threw dollar bills at her and slapped her butt. She was then stripped naked and [raped]…Rodriguez’s public cries for help sparked an international investigation involving U.S. and Chilean diplomats, prosecutors and immigration officials…
…The 9/11 commission and language in the Muslim ban directs Customs and Border Protection…to complete “a biometric entry and exit data system as expeditiously as possible” for non-citizens, and they’ve already worked with…SeaTac to buy face-scanning stuff for the gates at the new International Arrivals Facility that’s opening in July…SeaTac is already using biometrics in some capacities…[and] surveillance watchdogs…agree that airports across the country…will eventually expand this face-scanning infrastructure to snap photos of passengers arriving and departing on domestic flights, too…
A cabal of unsavory U.S. senators have introduced a…measure that would pressure tech companies to weaken protections for communications privacy in the guise of a measure aimed at child porn. While the…bill…never mentions the word “encryption,” it makes online companies liable for information exchanged by their users unless they adopt practices approved by the government…[which] means leaving people’s messages open to snoopy officials…In particular, they’ve scrutinized the bill’s reservation of Section 230 protections…to…compan[ies] that [dance to whatever tune]…the [current] Attorney General [feels like playing at the moment]…Riana Pfefferkorn, associate director of surveillance and cybersecurity at Stanford Law School [warns] “The AG could single-handedly rewrite the ‘best practices’ to state that any provider that offers end-to-end encryption is categorically excluded”…[like FOSTA, the] EARN IT Act…[would allow ambulance-chasers to file] civil [suits against] companies [that]…offer…end-to-end encryption. They’ll have to weaken or abandon such offerings to escape liability for users’ communications, but without ever explicitly being told to do so…
Michele Leuthauser was traveling from Las Vegas…Airport last June wearing yoga pants that should have made it quite easy to determine that she was concealing nothing on the lower half of her body. But…TSA…flagged [her] for…a pat-down of her “groin area”…in a private room…the [operative] told Michele to spread her legs far wider than the mat — an order that seems common for TSA screeners about to inflict abuse. She then proceeded to rub her hand on Michele’s vulva, pressing firmly enough to penetrate her labia with her finger through her leggings, and then continuing to rub her vulva until Michele, in shock, finally recoiled and told the screener to stop…Michele [filed suit] after TSA supervisors, local police, and TSA’s Office of the Chief Counsel refused to do anything about this incident…
A [retired] New Orleans [cop]…who led the NOPD’s pedophile investigations unit for years before he was unmasked as a child molester himself admitted in federal court…that he abused a boy who had turned to him for protection after the boy was preyed upon by his Boy Scout leader. Stanley Burkhardt’s admission in a Feb. 24 hearing in North Carolina came after years of denying the sex abuse claims leveled against him by Richard Windmann…
If you suspect you are going to become the subject of a Title IX investigation, the optimal strategy may very well be to file the first complaint. – Robby Soave
A [judge ignored the conditions of a plea bargain to]…re-sentence…[a man who] pleaded guilty to a violation of the Mann Act…Judge Robert Pitman…[sentenced] Emmanuel Emil Bailey…[to] 84-months in [a cage and]…3-years on supervised release…[pigs called] an escort service ad and [fraudulently booked a session]…at a Waco [Texas] motel and when she arrived…[they] arrested her. [and her driver, Bailey]…
The University of Cincinnati suspended a female student for allegedly engaging in nonconsensual sex with a male student who claimed he was too drunk at the time to approve the encounter. The fact that this case involves a male accuser (“John Doe”) and a female aggressor (“Jane Roe”) makes it unusual among Title IX complaints…But the female student’s lawsuit against Cincinnati…reveals…Roe had previously filed a sexual misconduct complaint against one of Doe’s friends. Roe’s lawsuit…suggests that Doe filed the complaint against Roe as a kind of revenge for getting his friend in trouble…Here’s an alternative theory: Doe woke up, realized they had engaged in sexual activity while they were both drunk, and feared that she would file a complaint against him, as she had done to his friend. Panic-stricken, he felt he had no choice but to beat her to the punch…[because] Title IX administrators often appear biased in favor of the initial complainant, and presume the other party is the wrongdoer…
Police are investigating the former Modesto [California] youth pastor who is accused of sexual acts with teenage girls who attended his churches in California and Arizona…Les Hughey…was a youth pastor at First Baptist Church in Modesto in the 1970s. Women recently came forward to accuse Hughey of coercing them into having sex when they were teenagers and he was a young married man…
Sylvester Stallone…is returning for a [Rambo] sequel that’s scheduled to begin shooting September 1st. In this installment, our hero is living in Arizona and burdened with PTSD. He is forced to come out of mass killing retirement when his friend’s granddaughter goes missing in Mexico, which leads him to battle a vicious crime lord and his sex trafficking ring…
A lawsuit seeking to legalize prostitution in Utah got shot down by a federal magistrate judge…The case was brought by Russell Greer, a 25-year-old Utah resident who sought to open a brothel in Salt Lake City. State authorities initially granted Greer a license for the establishment, then revoked it. Greer sued, claiming his constitutional rights were being violated by Utah’s criminalization of prostitution…
Australia’s Liberal Party government has announced that it will soon be illegal to purchase anything over $10,000 AU ($7,500 US) with cash. The government says it’s, “encouraging the transition to a digital society,” and cracking down on tax evasion. But…anyone with their eyes open can see where this is going…
Thousands of migrants from Haiti and the Dominican Republic seeking a better life in more prosperous Chile are at high risk of labour exploitation and trafficking as migration to the South American nation soars…At least 100,000 migrants arrived in Chile last year from Haiti, the poorest nation in the Americas…Chilean authorities charged five people with smuggling dozens of Haitians into the country with false promises of jobs and work visas…Wadner Maignan [of] the Jesuit Service for Migrants…says Haitian men often end up working on construction sites and in factories where they are victims of labour exploitation and abuse…Chile [recently] tightened its rules on migration for Haitians and other nationals, citing a need to stem rising illegal immigration…
…a lengthy and significant investigation involving International Human Trafficking suspects operating in and throughout the Midwest…focused on the use of Internet based websites such as Backpage and City Vibe, which offered erotic massage and escort services of Asian females. The ads were determined to serve as covers for prostitution services offered in dozens of U.S cities…Federal and local law enforcement choreograph[ed] the simultaneous service of multiple search warrants…The “Omaha Model” was advanced to all branches participating in the effort as the template for success…The communal efforts were successful in identifying and arresting fifteen Asian females…
The Trump administration…rolled back rules that allowed transgender inmates to use facilities that match their gender identity, including cell blocks and bathrooms, thereby reversing course on an Obama administration effort to protect transgender prisoners from sexual abuse and assault. The Bureau of Prisons now “will use biological sex” to make initial determinations in the type of housing transgender inmates are assigned…The policy…gives federal officials…more leeway to place transgender women in cells alongside men…[leaving them] vulnerable to violence and rape…
Victory Outreach…Pentecostal church is…trying to bring sex workers and sexually exploited youth in off the streets. Their main tool is prayer. But in a city where police and prosecutors have tried to turn the tide of sex trafficking for more than a decade, can appeals to God really make a difference?…Ebony Salazar is driving down International Boulevard in Oakland…“We’re looking for girls that are out there, selling their bodies,” she explains…Salazar jumps out of the car. The young women walk away, and a man drives up close next to them, swearing. Salazar says he’s probably their pimp, and she calls after them: “Jesus loves you!”…
Because interfering with poor women trying to make a living is a show of “love”.
…mothers working within the sex industry are often heavily stigmatized. As a mother to a precocious four-year-old, and a former sex worker, I know this stigma all too well. Even though I command a certain degree of social capital…I nevertheless experience the stigma of my former work more often than most might think. Even after earning my PhD, countless lawyers advised me that my former sex work would likely result in me losing full custody after my child’s father and I split…My experience is not an anomaly…
A new Kansas law makes it a crime for police to [rape] people they [arrest or] pull over for traffic violations…the new law [was] passed in a bundled bill…[after] multiple [women spoke out against rapist cop]…Roger Golubski…[who] had a long history of coercing sex from women in Kansas City’s black community by threatening to arrest them or their relatives if they didn’t comply…
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