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Posts Tagged ‘Choke Point’

In the News (#1569)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

There is no historical context for this.  –  Scott Robinson

Counterfeit Comfort (#1254) 

When a headline asks a question, the answer is nearly always “no”:

The Queensland government will…table legislation creating Australia’s first public [“]child[“] sex offender register.  The Queensland legislation, [like so much bad legislation], was named [for a dead kid]…The government [lied]…that safeguards will be put in place to prevent…vigilantism…a lot of evidence about…[such] schemes…shows all forms of registries are highly unlikely to fulfil the outcomes [politicians pretend]…registration scheme[s] make…no difference to rates of sexual offending…[because] most sex offences are committed by those who have not previously been convicted of a sex offence…Most sex offenders are known to their victims…Perpetrators are unlikely to ever fit back into public life if they have been the targets of harassment, victimisation, exclusion and eviction…shaming specific people can extend to their family members as well…and…ineffective solutions to serious problems distracts poli[tician]s from searching for more effective ways to reduce victimisation…

Choke Point (#1286)

PayPal is becoming a major threat to civil liberties:

…PayPal has frozen all of [a game programmer’s] funds…to…the…[tune] of…£80,000 GBP [using the excuse that]…the programmer…[is] involve[d]…in the development of adult games [even though]…the game…does not contain any elements that could potentially violate UK laws…[and] the actual sales of the game are not being processed through PayPal, which means none of the programmer’s assets come directly from customers buying the adult content…

People, please do not keep any appreciable amount of money in PayPal!  I transfer any funds on the site to my bank account every morning, even if it’s under $10, and I advise everyone else to do the same.

See No Evil (#1386)

The Japanese are the only people left on Earth who can tell fantasy from reality:

A young [English]man travelling to a comic book convention in the United States was stopped by [Irish spooks] at Dublin Airport and [subjected to a warrantless search of his phone which found Japanese cartoons]…Finley Bowd…was arrested…[and] charged with [having copies of cartoons featuring wholly fictional characters which resemble children to Western eyes despite all Japanese animation characters looking like that.  The spooks also stole]…his phone…[and vomited the magic formula “]category-three child pornography[” in his face]…

Panopticon (#1449)

Much more of this, please:

The City of Evanston [Illinois] has shut down its network of automated license plate readers…and will end its contract with vendor Flock Safety early after a state audit found the company was illegally sharing Illinois data with federal agencies…all 19 cameras operated by the city are “deactivated,” and…the…notice to terminate its contract [will be] effective Sept. 26.  The decision [wa]s attributed to…a system audit…which…[was] ordered…in late June after…404 Media reported that out-of-state police had searched cameras in Illinois cities for use in…[persecution of] migra[nts, including those in]…Evanston…

Unchristian Nation (#1502)

Government thugs continue their crusade against Christian charity:

The Department of [Father]land Security is now barring states and volunteer groups that receive government funds from helping undocumented immigrants…[and demands such] groups…co[llabo]rate with [goons to help them inflict violence on people]…FEMA employees and emergency management experts said the new requirements…would make it harder for nonprofits to help the most vulnerable Americans in the aftermath of a disaster…the new requirements are [un]constitutional and…violate some local and state laws that prevent asking about a person’s immigration status…The bulk of disaster-volunteer groups…are…faith-based organizations…so…[the order is a violation of their] First Amendment rights…

I Spy (#1547)

Elon Musk’s “DOGE” didn’t “fail”; it accomplished exactly what he intended:

[Elon Musk’s “DOGE” goons] uploaded a copy of a crucial Social Security database in June to a vulnerable cloud server, putting the personal information of hundreds of millions of Americans at risk of being leaked or hacked…The database contains records of all Social Security numbers issued by the federal government…includ[ing] individuals’ full names, addresses and birth dates, among other details that could be used to steal their identities…Charles Borges, [the Social Security official who reported the security breach]…said DOGE [goons illegally] copied the data to an internal agency server that only DOGE could access, forgoing the…“independent security monitoring” [leg]ally required under agency policy…his complaint cites an official…assessment that…warned of “catastrophic impact” to Social Security beneficiaries and programs if the database were to be compromised…and the government may be responsible for reissuing every American a new Social Security number at great cost…the…[apparent motive for the crime] was to [enable mad emperor Trump’s desire for an illegal fusion of all] government [data into a single, searchable database to make every American easier to target with government violence]…


The Cop Myth (#1560)

Good riddance to bad rubbish:

A…Border Patrol [goon] who was recently charged with assaulting a Long Beach [California cop] and resisting arrest has died…Isaiah Anthony Hodgson…[also drunkenly barged] in[to] a women’s restroom at a restaurant…and th[reatened a woman there with a gun]…

Nothing was said about the cause of death, but given that this dangerous pile of shit was only 29, it seems likely it was suicide.

 

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 Throwback Thursday That Wasn’t

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Essentially, prostitution law punishes women for not being men.  –  “Mecca”

The sick minds of police are compelled to project their own internal ugliness onto the external world.  –  “The Clueless Leading the Hysterical”

Sammy Cahn was right; love and marriage do go together exactly like a horse and carriage:  traditionally associated, but not the only conceivable arrangement, and perhaps not even the best one.  –  “Like a Horse and Carriage”

Paradoxically, we all tend to hold on to the things that hold us back.  –  “Inexperience”

Governments can define actual actions as “crimes” and threaten dire consequences for those actions, but the intangible contents of the human mind are forever out of their reach.  –  “The Next Target“

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In the News (#1494)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Our police have lost control of our streets, and now their bosses have lost control of their minds.  –  Lee Anderson

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

It’s too bad they don’t spend all of their time preying on each other:

A [typical and representative] Portland [Oregon cop named]…Christopher Kenagy…was arrested November 15 for [attempting to fairly negotiate sex with a woman instead of raping her as police procedure demands]…In 2002, Kenagy [murdered] a 29-year-old man who…[had] an air gun…[and] was later awarded a police medal [for the crime]…

I Spy (#923)

Local politicians’ virtue-signaling is powerless against the fascist panopticon:

…a new report from…the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project…details the ways that…“fusion centers” al[low ICE to circumvent]…sanctuary-city law enforcement.  Run by the US Department of Homeland Security, of which ICE is a part, fusion centers [were justified to useful idiots] in the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks [by vomiting the word “]terrorism[” into their wide-open mouths]…Fusion centers spent $400 million in 2021…and, as STOP researchers point out…have never [been any good against]…terrorism in the US….[but] ICE agents have [exploited them] for years to get everything from photos of [target]s to license plate location data and more…[including] from [cop shops] in [so-called] sanctuary cities…In addition to undermining the entire purpose and premise of sanctuary city laws, STOP researchers point out, such erosion of guardrails around data sharing broadly could easily become a national security issue…And domestically, the free-wheeling environment within fusion centers means that [they are ripe for abuse by cops]…

Choke Point (#1096)

“Operation Choke Point” was indirect; this goes straight for the throat:

…the U.S. House of Representatives [has] passed a bill that…lets [politicians point at] nonprofit groups [they dislike while barfing the magic words “]supporters of terrorism[“]…and [thereby] strip them of their tax-exempt status…The language provides for a 90-day window during which time supposed “terrorist supporting organizations” can appeal the designation, but the burden is on them to [somehow] prove that they’re not guilty…loss of [tax-exempt] status is essentially a death penalty for most non-profit organizations…

A Broker in Pillage (#1384)

It’s rare that government departments stop their own depredations:

The Justice Department has ordered the…DEA…to suspend most searches of passengers at airports and other mass transit hubs after an independent investigation found DEA [goon]s were…[violating the] constitution…[so egregiously, they were drawing too many] lawsuits.  The deputy attorney general directed the DEA on November 12 to halt what are [absurdly called] “consensual encounter” searches at airports…after seeing the draft of a…memorandum that outlined a decade’s worth of “significant concerns” about how the DEA uses paid airline informants and [bogus] criteria to [target] passengers…for [robbery]…

Dangerous Speech (#1479)

Apparently, the government isn’t yet done torturing Spear into madness:

…the Ninth…Circuit…[has] granted journalist Michael Lacey’s release from prison pending the outcome of his appeal in the Backpage case, while denying a similar request from Lacey’s co-defendants Scott Spear and John Brunst.  The court sent the case back to U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa…who quickly ordered Lacey set free on the same $1 million bond that secured his release after his 2018 arrest…The key issue in determining release was whether an appeal raised a substantial issue that could lead to all convictions against a defendant being overturned.  In the case of Lacey…the court agreed that there was…

Censorship Ascendant (#1491)

Cops are now being dispatched to intimidate people for “bad” thoughts:

Police forces have been blasted for investigating “hate crimes” that include calling someone a Rottweiler or being called a “Leonard” over a row about a hedge.  NCHIs are meant to be recorded for incidents “clearly motivated by intentional hostility” and where there is a genuine risk of significant escalation, government guidance says.  But the police have been…wasting “valuable time” on investigating so-called hate crimes such as an “aggressively-administered haircut”…police were…[even sent to intimidate] two schoolgirls who said another student smelled “like fish”…Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philip said: “This nonsense undermines confidence in policing”…


Shame, Shame (#1493)

At least they weren’t trying to make porn:

James and Rose, the bizarre [video-image] bots who were recently installed as news broadcasters at local Hawaii paper The Garden Island, have been terminated…after a two-month run…The pair were designed by Caledo, an Israeli firm that turns articles into videos where a [computer announces] the news [via two video images it generates, but programmers]…were never able to figure out how to present the news…in a manner that wasn’t deeply off-putting for viewers.  The [computer announced all news]…in the same distant, matter-of-fact tone of [a] being…incapable of comprehending human emotions.  In one particularly stilted exchange…[the computer] asked [via the “Rose” character], “And how have these free pumpkins impacted the community?” to which [it responded to itself via the] James [character], “The free pumpkins have brought joy to many.”  [It] consistently butchered difficult Hawaiian names and even had [un]surprising struggles with much simpler words…the [imaginary] pair managed to inspire visceral, bipartisan contempt.  Comments under the videos were nearly universally negative…

 

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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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!

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In the News (#1388)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 12, 2023| 2 Comments »

Technology doesn’t make better people.  –  Vera, from Aqkol, Kazakhstan

Creepy Coppers

Police departments attract predatory garbage even to positions that don’t involve directly inflicting violence on citizens:  “[Typical and representative Tennessee cop employee] John Herring was arrested and charged…[with] possession of child pornography…”

Pyrrhic Victory (#1291)

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

…Smart Aqkol [is] a pilot study in digitized urban infrastructure for Kazakhstan…[using] Chinese surveillance [technology to establish a]…Chinese-style public surveillance system…The government…[sells the system with the usual rhetoric about] public safety…But the hardware came through…China’s…Silk Road initiative…and…uses surveillance cameras made by Chinese firms Dahua and Hikvision, which in China have been used — and touted, even — for their ability to track “suspicious” people and groups.  Both companies are sanctioned by the U.S. due to their involvement in surveilling and aiding in the repression of ethnic Uyghurs in Xinjiang…Kazakhstan…is home to a large Uyghur diaspora of more than 300,000 people, many of whom have deep ties to Xinjiang…Hikvision announced in December 2022 that its software is used by Chinese police to set up “alarms” that are triggered when cameras detect “unlawful gatherings” in public…its cameras can detect ethnic minorities based on their unique facial features…

I Spy (#1340)

It’s good to see sane people speaking up about this:

…the European Union…have bent themselves towards breaking up “monopolistic” (i.e., huge and non-European) services on the Internet, in the name of benefitting…user choice…this effort is at least equally motivated by a desire to delay adoption of end-to-end secure messaging solutions that lack…means to passively “backdoor” them…the latest draft of Section 45 of the EU’s eIDAS proposal contains phenomenally dangerous propositions that will clearly undermine the security and privacy of millions, even billions (because Europeans also speak with non-Europeans) of people.  They are a replay of the widely derided ChatControl proposal…and they too deserve to be roundly and loudly rejected by the privacy-loving European public …“Browsers” are not somehow conspiring to exclude European innovation.  It’s simply safer and clearer and more transparent to have just one agreed, well-oiled, open, global, standard website trust mechanism, especially where it’s proposed to be regionally usurped by something that is so clearly undermining trust and enabling surveillance…

Choke Point (#1354) 

It always starts with a politically-unpopular group like sex workers or gun owners, but never stops there:

The [pretexts] vary, but the scene that plays out is almost always the same.  Bank customers get a letter…saying their institution is closing all of their checking and savings accounts.  Their debit and credit cards are shuttered, too.  The explanation, if there is one, usually lacks any useful detail.  Or…instead, they discover that their accounts no longer work while they’re at the grocery store, rental car counter or A.T.M.  When they call their bank, frantic, representatives show concern at first…then comes the telltale pause and shift in tone.  “Per your account agreement, we can close your account for any reason at any time,” the script often goes…This isn’t your standard boot for people who have bounced too many checks.  Instead, a vast security apparatus has kicked into gear, starting with [bureaucrats] in Washington and [imposed on] bank security managers…The [pretext used] is to crack down on fraud, terrorism, [and invented political “crimes” such as sex work and “]money laundering[“…]

The Widening Gyre (#1368)

Apparently, as “sex trafficking” hysteria has shrink in popularity, imaginary “sex traffickers” have been forced to give up their ambitious schemes to abduct women and children from big-box stores such as Target and Ikea, and instead to stalk them at gas stations.  And while they could once afford to lure them with roses, honey, or $100 bills, or to mark cars with various objects such as zip ties or litter, they’ve now been reduced to rather pathetically begging for help.  I’m a bit disappointed that Sara didn’t describe her fantasy stalker’s vehicle as a windowless white van, though.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1370)

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

A…Sonoma County [California cop had a panic attack]…after a c[opsuck]er reported finding what [he imagined was] fentanyl.  The [suggestion was strong enough for the weak-minded cop to have psychosomatic symptoms, feeling]…lightheaded and dizzy, and experienc[ing] rapid tunnel vision, [none of which are] symptoms of…fentanyl…a[nother cop]…quickly administered naloxone, which [calmed the crybaby cop due to the placebo effect]…

A Moral Cancer (#1379)

Anyone whose brain isn’t rotted by prohibitionism could’ve predicted this:

The Biden administration’s flavored cigarettes and cigars ban, currently under final review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will soon make it illegal to buy or sell menthol and flavored tobacco products in the United States…its [claimed] intention [is] to prevent people, especially [imaginary] children, from becoming addicted to cigarettes…[but] a similar ban in Brazil gives us a window into the probable outcome of [this new theater in the Drug War]…In 2012…Brazil became one of the first countries in the world to fully ban flavored cigarettes…But…demand for…flavored cigarettes…only increased.  Illegal actors quickly entered the market, leading the Brazilian government to conduct dangerous raids…[which have often resulted] in bystanders being killed in the crossfire.  The Brazilian government has lost billions of dollars in enforcement and tax revenues…[and] Brazil now has one of the largest cigarette markets in the world, [because]…of…prohibition…the illegal cigarette market now represents about half of the entire cigarette market…

 

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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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.

 

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Tweetledee

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

 

 

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In the News (#1370)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 6, 2023| 1 Comment »

There’s seemingly no policy turd that lawmakers are unwilling to polish in the name of “the children”.  –  J.D. Tuccille

Saint Death 

Apparently, popular and social media have played a large part in the global expansion of her worship:

…one Latin American New Religious Movement has reached Kyiv that perhaps few would expect: The cult of Santa Muerte – Holy Death…Dr. Andrew Chesnut of Virginia Commonwealth University, probably the foremost expert on Santa Muerte, says that the Mexican folk saint depicted as a female skeleton, from whom her devotees seek protection and favors, is the fastest-growing new religious movement in the world.  The skeleton saint went off the historical grid until the 1940s when American anthropologists “re-discovered her,” in Mexico. [The religion] became known to the larger American audience due to the television series Breaking Bad, as an object of devotion for Mexican drug cartels…the professor…[says] Santa Muerte “made her way to Europe via social media, especially Facebook and Instagram”…

If Men Were Angels

“Pastor and sex offender” is a large and ever-expanding group:

…Allan Kyle Jones…pastor at Lifeway Community Church in Loxley, [Alabama,] was [arrested and charged with possession of child pornography]…

Choke Point (#993) 

It always starts with a politically-unpopular group like sex workers or gun owners, but never stops there:

The House Judiciary Committee is investigating banks for sharing Americans’ financial information with the FBI without regard for privacy concerns…there’s no doubt about the threat to civil liberties posed by the government’s leverage over the financial industry; that’s long established.  At question in this investigation is whether…that cozy relationship is being wielded in political warfare between the country’s political factions…financial institutions have long operated as surveillance arms of the state, tracking transactions and movements, making assumptions about what they might mean, then turning that information over to government officials under regulatory pressure…based on idiosyncratic interpretations of vague laws and regulations…such power creates incentives to over-interpret activity as “suspicious” and to snitch on customers to stay on the good side of federal agencies…

Robocops

It’s rare that a court rules that some violent hooliganism is so stupid even a cop should’ve known better:

In the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, Waylon Bailey…of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, made a joke on Facebook that alluded to the 2013 Brad Pitt zombie movie World War Z.  “RAPIDES PARISH SHERIFFS OFFICE HAVE ISSUED THE ORDER,” he wrote, that “IF DEPUTIES COME INTO CONTACT WITH ‘THE INFECTED,'” they should “SHOOT ON SIGHT.”  He added: “Lord have mercy on us all. #Covid9teen #weneedyoubradpitt.”  That post went up on March 20, 2020…that same day, about a dozen deputies wearing bulletproof vests descended upon Bailey’s home with their guns drawn…[screaming obscenities] and arrested him for violating a state law against “terrorizing,” a felony punishable by up to 15 years in prison…the Rapides Parish District Attorney’s Office [wisely] declined to prosecute Bailey.  But when [he] sued…[a] judge…dismissed his claims with prejudice, concluding that his joke was not covered by the First Amendment, that the arrest was based on probable cause, and that [the pigs were] protected by qualified immunity…the 5th Circuit [has now] ruled that…was wrong on all three counts…

The Mob Rules (#1303)

Stupid people want you to believe that anti-sex authoritarians “do not agree on much”, because red and blue pap:

[Maine politician] Lois Reckitt…intends to submit a proposal for consideration in the 2024 legislative session modeled after a porn age-verification law in Louisiana …[joining six other] states — Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, Texas, Virginia and Utah — [in the monkey see, monkey do parade]…with unanimous or near-unanimous support from…[censorious imbeciles with the social sense of lemmings.  Unsurprisingly, the puritanical] Reckitt…[was also behind the scheme which recently imposed the dangerous, misogynistic Swedish model on] Maine…

You Were Warned (#1359)

Some politicians apparently believe that KOSA doesn’t destroy the internet thoroughly enough:

…the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act…borrows bad proposals from another federal bill and combines them with legislative idiocy enacted at the state level.  The resulting concoction could destroy internet privacy, subjecting all our online activity to government scrutiny in the name of shielding wee ones from harm…the Protecting Kids on Social Media Act generates the sort of cross-aisle consensus that generally only accompanies terrible ideas.  The bill “contains elements of the dangerous Kids Online Safety Act“…and…doubles down on bureaucratic control and surveillance of internet activity…its authors find substituting restrictive laws for parental responsibility…a convenient excuse for imposing controls that people would be unlikely to tolerate under any other circumstance…the digital ID pilot program is the real warhead in this particular legislative weapon, since…[politicians hate] online anonymity.  The bill provides a clear path towards linking internet activity to identities so that, for example, politicians could identify their critics…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1366)

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

…Milwaukee co[p]…Adriean Williams had an unexpected [panic attack after touching a scary]…blue sweater…”It’s terrifying” [he whimpered, remembering the scary, scary fuzziness.  Then another cop wasted]…Narcan, a nasal spray that counteracts the effects of opiates [and can act as a placebo for hysterical cops who imagine they’ve touched magic insta-fentanyl.  Actual doctors have explained time and again that]…incidental fentanyl exposure [has no such] immediate and profound reactions, but [cops are superstitious children who imagine they know better.  This mass hysteria affected another of]…Williams[‘ cronies]…the very next day…[when he] believe[d] cocaine….[was] fentanyl [and had a panic attack]…

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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In the News (#1365)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 19, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Where are all the good people to put a stop to this?  –  Joann Meyer

To Molest and Rape

If only there were a concise term for “forcing a woman into a sexual relationship”:

A judge has approved a 10-year [toothless “]protection order[“] against…Glen Trejo…[a cop in Granger, Washington] who [was rewarded with a]…paid…[vac]ation…[for] repeatedly [rap]ing a…woman…often while [wearing his magical clown costume]…Trejo admits…the [rapes], but says [she wanted it]…The woman [fell victim to Trejo after] she went to the police department last year to report a vehicle that had been following her, and Trejo took her report…he…[sometimes ga]ve her money…because…he [knew it would damage her credibility if ]…it [came to light]…

Dangerous Speech

This raid was not “unprecedented”; the precedent was set by the federal campaign of persecution against Michael Lacey & Jim Larkin, which mainstream journalists have pointedly ignored for 6 years:

In an unprecedented raid [on August 11th], local [cops stole] computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the Marion County Record office, the newspaper’s reporters, and the publisher’s home. Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the newspaper, said…the message was clear: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”  The city’s entire five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies took “everything we have,” Meyer said…

The parallels with the Backpage case didn’t stop there:

Joann Meyer, who spent nearly 60 years as a reporter, columnist, editor and associate publisher at The Marion County Record in Kansas, died…a day after the police [illegally raid]ed [her home and] the newspaper’s offices.  She was 98…the coroner…concluded that the stress of the [raid caused her death]…

Mainstream media are claiming the raid was instigated by a well-connected restaurateur, but freelance journalist Marisa Kabas has a better explanation:

What has remained unreported until now is that, prior to the raids, the newspaper had been actively investigating Gideon Cody, Chief of Police for the city of Marion.  They’d received multiple tips alleging he’d retired from his previous job to avoid demotion and punishment over alleged sexual misconduct charges…

A Tale That Grew in the Telling (#975) 

Given that the term “human trafficking” means whatever busybodies (with or without government powers) want it to mean, it can always be claimed to be “growing”.  In this credulous regurgitation of prohibitionist propaganda, it seems to mostly mean “coerced prostitution”, though the article also pretty clearly states that the so-called “victims” did sex work because they were refugees the Northern Irish government does not allow to work in their chosen professions, and have children to support.  However, this contradiction and confusion is unsurprising given that the rescue industry group in the article also infantilizes adult women with Phds, asserts that 6 = 230, repeats an urban legend as fact, and ignores the fact that sex work advocates and human rights experts told them exploitation would increase under the Swedish Model, but they ignored us and are now apparently trying to use the dying moral panic to get a big cash infusion from the government.

Decentralization (#1212) 

Once bitcoin exchanges got in bed with the government, this was inevitable:

…[Roughly]…two-thirds of sex workers have lost access to either a bank account or financial service, while 40 percent have had an account closed within the past year.  Faced with this [discrimination], sex workers have gone in search of an alternative means of both storing wealth and accepting payment.  In cryptocurrency, for a time, it appeared they had found…[a way for] clients to pay discreetly…[and] sex workers a way to bypass the banking system…But…though sending and receiving crypto payments is relatively simple, converting it into dollars is sometimes not.  The typical method is to transfer crypto to an exchange, where earnings are converted into regular money, which is then withdrawn to a bank account…But sex workers are sometimes banned from crypto exchanges too…leaving them st[uck] with [valueless data] they cannot use to pay rent or buy goods…

I smelled this coming when I read Coinbase’s TOS, which is one reason I’ve never used cryptocurrency; it was clear there would never be a dependable, government-proof way to turn it into actual money.

Surplus Women (#1355)

What kind of garbage “journalist” uses women’s murders as an opportunity to moralize via scare quotes?

Baja California’s State Attorney’s Office says…[serial killer] Bryan Rivera is responsible for a fourth murder that occurred in Tijuana while he was in the city last year.  Rivera…is now the subject of extradition proceedings in federal court in Los Angeles.  The Mexican government wants Rivera returned to Tijuana to face murder charges [for]…the deaths of three other…sex workers….[and] they have evidence showing Rivera was in Tijuana when the murder of the fourth woman occurred, and that she was killed in the same way as the other three…

Vulture Watching (#1364)

Texas wants to have its blood and drink it as well:

Salia Issa had just begun her shift as a…[pregnant Texas screw] when she felt the intense pain of what she believed was a contraction…but…prison policy wouldn’t allow her to leave her post until someone could replace her.  No one came for hours.  Issa kept calling for relief, but her supervisor [unsurprisingly claimed]…she was lying…two and a half hours [later]…she was allowed to leave…[and] drove to a nearby hospital, where doctors rushed her into emergency surgery…The baby was delivered stillborn.  If Issa had gotten to the hospital sooner, medical personnel told her, the baby would have survived…the prison agency and the Texas attorney general’s office, which has staked its reputation on “defending the unborn” all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court, are arguing the agency shouldn’t be held responsible for the stillbirth because…it’s not clear that Issa’s fetus had rights as a person…

Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?

To Molest and Rape (#1364)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

[Tennessee cop] Tommie Lee House [was arrested for molesting a teenager while wearing his magical clown costume; other cops rooted in his phone and found a nude photo of the same teen taken]…earlier this year…

 

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

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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!

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