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Posts Tagged ‘cops’

I’ve always been dedicated to the idea of this as the time of year for spooky fun.  So every year I collect all the spooky, creepy or scary content from the previous year into one place just before Halloween.  If you’ve come to my blog in the past year, or don’t remember previous editions, they are “Trick or Treat”, “More Trick or Treat“, “Tricks and Treats“, “This Trick’s a Treat”, “Tricky Treats“, “A Trickle of Treats”, “Tricking and Treating“, and “Tricks for the Treat“.  Oddly, though there were enough spooky or Halloweeny links to justify collecting them, the only horror, death or Halloween-themed column of the past year was “Books of the Dead“, and the only creepy or spooky-fun video appeared in Links #591.  Here’s hoping for a better collection next 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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Why?  –  Erik Cantu

I’ve always been fond of this song, and given that the story it references was originally a werewolf tale, it seems seasonally appropriate.  The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel, Cop Crisis, Scott Greenfield, Mike Siegel again, Cop Crisis again, Thaddeus Russell, and Elizabeth N. Brown, in that order.

From the Archives

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 scale of this is beyond what anyone imagines.  –  Anna Arons

Without Let or Hindrance

Some people still believe these sociopaths are motivated by a desire to “protect children”:

Across the nation, child protective services agencies [violate] the home lives of roughly 3.5 million children [and teenagers] every year…only about 5% of them are ultimately [declared] to have been physically or sexually abused.  With rare exceptions, all of these investigations include at least one [raid], and often multiple…Yet in a ProPublica and NBC News survey that drew detailed responses from 40 state child welfare agencies, all said they would only obtain a warrant or court order to search a home — or call the police for [backup] — in rare cases when they are denied entry…It’s a staggering reality — likely millions of warrantless searches a year — and one that has not been reported [adequately] before…

To Molest and Rape

Typical and representative, by their own admission:

Kansas’ 2021 Officer of the Year has been indicted on charges of rape and aggravated sexual battery…Guillermo Gutierrez…[committed the crime] on May 19, 2022, in Dodge City…

Comfort Zone (#873)

The UK finally admits the “human trafficking” narrative is about migration control:

The Home Office has taken the modern slavery brief away from the minister responsible for safeguarding and classed it as an “illegal immigration and asylum” issue…The move is seen as a clear sign that the department is doubling down on Suella Braverman’s suggestion that people are “gaming” the modern slavery system and…“derailing the UK’s policy on illegal migration”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1265) 

Moral imbeciles are almost completely out of control:

A bill introduced in the Michigan Legislature…could mean life in prison for any parent or doctor who “consents to, obtains, or assists with a gender transition procedure for a child”…[where “child” is used to mean “legal minor”]…Gender transition procedures are defined to include not just surgical interventions but also the prescription of puberty blockers and hormones…under the proposed change, prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to a teenager would be equivalent to severely beating a child.  And it would be defined as a more severe form of abuse than starving or abandoning a kid…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1279)

The stupider the belief, the harder it is to debunk:

Florida’s [Propagandist] General continues to…[drum up hysteria about migration, claim]ing that its effects are spilling over into all aspects of life…Ashley Moody [went on] Fox & Friends [to spread tall tales] about how transnational drug gangs are bringing in lethal narcotic cocktails, [imagin]ing that some of these concoctions may take the form of popular candies.  “We’re seeing them put it in candy packaging, like Nerds packaging. And Halloween’s coming up and those of us with young children have to…start learning about the fentanyl crisis and warning our children”…Host Ainsley Earhardt [confused] the topic…[by say]ing…“so many people are sending their children off to college right now. It’s fall…and we worry that they’re going to take one little pill just because it looks like candy”…

Yes, these people are actually conflating young men and women of university age with children so young they’ll put anything that looks like candy in their mouths.  I couldn’t have invented anything so imbecilic, infantilizing, and disconnected from reality even if I had money riding on it.

Choke Point (#1280)

PayPal is becoming a major threat to civil liberties:

PayPay HK has halted services for the League of Social Democrats (LSD) – one of the remaining active pro-democracy groups in Hong Kong – due to unspecified “excessive risks”…[without] explain[ing] what the “excessive risks” are…Chow Ka-fat…of the LSD [sai]d…the group had not been able to accept any new donations via its PayPal account since the day it received the email, but they can still withdraw money from it…

Stalkers in Blue (#1281)

No, this is a different Louisville cop stealing women’s nude pictures:

A [typical and representative] Louisville [cop]…used [cop surveillance] technology as part of a scheme that involved hacking the Snapchat accounts of young women and using sexually explicit photos and videos they had taken to extort them…Bryan Wilson used his…access to Accurint, a powerful data-combing software used by police departments to [snoop in people’s private business without a warrant]…to obtain information about potential victims.  He would then share that information with a hacker, who would hack into private Snapchat accounts to obtain sexually explicit photos and videos….Wilson would then contact the women, threatening to post the photos and videos online and share them with their friends, family, employer and co-workers unless more sexually explicit material was provided to him…Wilson…[has already] pleaded guilty to a cyberstalking charge as well as to a charge related to…[a scheme] in which Wilson and other [pigs] assaulted pedestrians by throwing beverages out of unmarked p[igmobile]s, sometimes filming their exploits…

 

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 very much!

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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 very much!

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You ain’t paralyzed.  –  typical Florida screw

The Public Eye (#789)

It’s always heartening to see a sex worker run for office, especially when she wins:

A transgender politician in Mexico’s ruling MORENA party is under fire for posting pornographic videos of herself on Twitter.  But María Clemente García Moreno—a federal deputy in Mexico City who made history in 2021 when she and another politician became the first trans people elected to the country’s congress—also moonlights as a sex worker and contests that it’s within her rights to post whatever she wants…

Torture Chamber (#1069)

Florida screws love yelling “Stop faking!” at their victims after intentionally breaking their necks:

Craig Ridley…[was] a 62-year-old prisoner in Florida who, after having his neck broken by guards, was left to die in his cell…Ridley…was…tackled…to the ground face first on Sept. 8, 2017…[by brutal screws who th]en manhandled, mocked and ignored [him]…even as he begged for help…as he lay in his cell, unable to walk and starving because he couldn’t reach the food he was being given.  After five days of this paralysis, guards finally took him to a hospital, where…he died on Oct. 12…intubated and unable to communicate…the…story was kept hushed for years…

Winding Down (#1179)

Destigmatization of psychedelics is happening much more quickly than I would’ve expected:

Shroomyz is Toronto’s first magic mushroom dispensary and the second in the province…A Shroomyz in Ottawa opened in May of this year…Shroomyz is akin to any cannabis store you’d find in the city.  Windows are taped off for privacy and customers need to buzz in to enter…The store supplies everything from dried psilocybin and microdose capsules to mushroom chocolates and mushroom tea…

Winding Down (#1243)

It’s great to see anti-prohibitionist views quickly becoming mainstream:

Prohibition is not working—and that can be seen most strikingly with cocaine, not cannabis…Global production hit a record of 1,982 tonnes in 2020, according to the latest data, though that is likely to be an underestimate.  That record high is despite decades of strenuous and costly efforts to cut off the supply.  Between 2000 and 2020 the United States ploughed $10bn into Colombia to suppress production, paying the local armed forces to spray coca plantations with herbicide…or…yank up bushes by hand.  To no avail…murder in Colombia is three times more common than in the United States; in Mexico, four times.  In some areas, drug gangs are so wealthy and well-armed that they rival the state…the cocaine gangs will remain powerful so long as their product is illegal in the rich countries that consume most of it, such as the United States.  Half-measures, such as not prosecuting cocaine users, are not enough.  If producing…is still illegal, it will be criminals who produce it…the real answer is full legalisation, allowing non-criminals to produce a strictly regulated, highly taxed product, just as whisky- and cigarette-makers do…

To Molest and Rape (#1263)

The New Orleans cop who stood by and watched a rape has thought up an excuse:

Earl J. Brown III…resigned a week after The Times-Picayune published audio from a 911 call demonstrating that — though he was just a block away — Brown declined to intervene [in a rape] for more than three minutes.  By that point, the suspect had fled.  Brown later [claimed]…he was working a security detail on a movie set and that he had been trained to wait for backup before responding.  Brown also heard over the radio that New Orleans [cops] had been dispatched…[so he figured they would eventually get there, and called it good]…Scott Seymour…who investigated the incident, rejected Brown’s explanation and concluded he violated several department policies by failing to act.  Seymour recommended firing Brown, but he resigned before…that [happened, which] means Brown maintains a clean record…and [could be rehired as a cop somewhere else]…

See also “To Molest and Rape (#1273)” below.

The Cop Myth (#1271)

You’ve heard of “burying the lede”, but this one just keeps getting worse:

A Louisville [cop sent]…a sexually explicit photo of a woman to more than a dozen people without her consent….Harry Seeders…was arrested…and charged…under the so-called Kentucky “revenge porn” law that went into effect in 2018…Seeders…was on [paid vacation as a reward for] a previous domestic violence incident…in May 2021 [in which he attacked] a woman he was dating…[by] hit[ting her]…in the mouth and then chok[ing] her…those charges[, which] are still pending…[were filed when] Seeders was [already enjoying a paid vacation he received as a reward for murdering]…a [random] man…on Nov. 22, 2020…and [trying to blame his victim]…

To Molest and Rape (#1273)

It’s not only Louisiana cops who prefer to rape by proxy:

A garda is under suspension…[for trying] to hire a man to [rape] a female colleague…the [cop apparently]…contacting a man online, possibly on the Darkweb…[and the scheme] apparently came to light when the man, understood to be in Scotland, began arranging to travel to Ireland…

 

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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[NYPD behavior is] nothing short of an extrajudicial campaign of terror and kidnapping.  –  Paul Phillips et al

It wasn’t easy choosing a song to honor the passing of Loretta Lynn, but I finally settled on this one because it’s representative of a recurring theme in her oeuvre, unwanted pregnancy, which is as timely now as it ever was (other examples include “One’s On the Way” and “Pregnant Again”).  The links above the video were provided by Cop Crisis; Mistress Matisse (x2); Jesse Walker; Mike Siegel and Phoenix Calida; Cop Crisis again; and Scott Greenfield, in that order.

From the Archives

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PayPal…shouldn’t be surprised if people don’t trust it.  –  Robby Soave

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

Funny how many cops who are willing to pay prefer underage girls:

Thomas Peoples…was [fired from his position as] the police chief in Oak Ridge, Texas…[after] he was arrested in Arlington…and charged with solicitation of prostitution from a person under 18…

Not for Everybody

Another ex-sex worker thinks it’s her job to cheat her sisters out of money:

Former porn star Lana Rhoades is hitting out against the industry that made her a worldwide star, saying it should be made “illegal”.  Rhoades…worked in the field for eight months between 2016 and 2017, appearing in more than 250…films…[but she now claims] she was still scarred from the experience…Rhoades…was…19 when she appeared in her first X-rated scene…“For some reason I never comprehended that to do porn you actually have to have sex with people,” she said…

Rhoades is such a naive idiot, it seems unfair to put her in the Hall of Shame for just demonstrating what she is.  But if she goes beyond words to actually work with prohibitionists, I won’t be so lenient.

Part of the Picture (#614)

Why was anyone surprised that something openly advertised as spyware is actually spyware?

Two religious surveillance apps marketed as “porn filters” to churchgoers across America…[have been] ban[ned] by the Google app store…following a recent…report by Wired magazine…[which explained that] Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You spied on churchgoers’ searches and then sent the information to religious leaders [just as they are intended to do.  Yet]…after Wired [told]…Google…[that the apps functioned as advertised], the search giant determined that [the apps] violated its privacy policies…

Fair-Weather Friends (#1028)

About a twelfth of the time his long string of crimes deserves:

A [typical and representative] Columbus [Ohio] vice [pig] was sentenced to [a mere 18 months in] prison for violating the civil rights of a person he [had decided to ruin]…Steven Rosser…[repeatedly harassed] one of the owners of a gentlemen’s club…and…[also] scheme[d] to frame…[h]im for cocaine possession…

You Were Warned (#1218)

Prohibitionists, censors and profiteers will continue to harass businesses thus until FOSTA is overturned:

Roblox and Discord are among the platforms sued for allegedly harming children and teens in a new lawsuit…which also targets…Facebook…and…Snapchat…Filed in California state court, the suit is one of many [attempting to rob] large social media companies.  But comparatively few of these have covered Discord and Roblox, both of which are popular with young users. (Over half of US children were on Roblox as of 2020.)  It comes shortly after California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a law requiring sites to [violate all users’ privacy in the name of “child safety”.  The ambulance-chasers’ poster child is]…a 13-year-old girl…who began using Roblox around age 9…and…[supposedly developed] a “harmful and problematic dependence” on electronic devices that damaged her mental health, [even though it is not possible to become “addicted” to electronic devices]…Like most cases against social networks, the suit seeks to hold the services responsible for defective product design — and in the process, circumvent Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act…

Choke Point (#1278)

PayPal is becoming a major threat to civil liberties:

Last week, PayPal rolled out an updated user agreement…that…prohibits “the sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials” that “present a risk to user safety or wellbeing” or contain “misinformation”…what counts as misinformation is at PayPal’s “sole discretion”…and PayPal [granted itself the “right” to steal] $2,500 from the [targeted] user’s account…[after considerable outcry] PayPal…backtracked…[claiming the threat was]…”an…error that included incorrect information”…

Since PayPal disseminated misinformation, it seems to me it now owes every one of its users $2500.

To Molest and Rape (#1279)

Chicago is hiding the identity of another of its costumed rapists:

A federal grand jury has indicted a [typical and representative] Chicago [cop for]…the…kidnapping and [rape] of an [unidentified] individual [o]n March [5th] 2019.  James Sajdak…also faced a federal civil rights lawsuit filed by Tyshee Featherstone…[whom he also raped] the same day.  Featherstone’s [sui]t was settled in April 2020…Sajdak was [also] accused of harassment in a separate lawsuit filed by Geneva Perry, who[m]…he…[terrorized during a pretextual stop] on Sept. 8, 2016…then masturbated in front of her between their two parked cars…That lawsuit was settled in December 2019…

 

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 very much!

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[Politicians want] a whole community of people [to] just cease to exist.  –  Jenn Clamen

To Molest and Rape

Cops still believe “a woman wanted to be raped by a random cop” is credible:

A Chicago cop…[raped] a woman hours after he responded to a burglary at her home in the spring of 2016.  The woman came forward years later as she struggled with mental health issues and thoughts of suicide…[after] Daniel Otero…returned to her studio apartment, had drinks with her and then [raped] her…C[ops assigned to investigate themselves] ruled there wasn’t enough evidence to prove…her allegations…and Otero…[claimed] that she wa[nted it, but at least]…Chicago Police…agreed he should be fired…Early on April 3, 2016, Otero…responded to a call of a “peeping Tom”…[who apparently stole] her cellphone, wallet and purse [after she fled to her neighbors’ and]…apparently left a door unlocked…Otero…asked for her email address since her phone had been taken…he…Otero emailed a few hours later and came over…they shared a few drinks…[and] she was already feeling drunk when he “guided” her to the bed…[and raped] her…she was left feeling “confused, in disbelief and ashamed,” but it wasn’t until early January 2019 that she…had a “mental breakdown” and was hospitalized…

Rescued To Death (#900)

So much for San Francisco’s pious bullshit about no longer sending cops to assault sex workers:

In response to [complaints from bourgeois women], San Francisco’s [cops]…promised t[o send thugs and rapists to attack sex workers on]…Capp Street…[Boss pig] Gavin McEachern acknowledged…that, for the most part, the police department has [actually left women unmolested]…over the past two years in the Mission District.  “We’re looking forward to changing that” [he gloated.  Another pig then oinked]…”Let the games begin”…

Whither Canada? (#1126)

Sex workers ask the Canadian Supreme Court to uphold its own judgment:

Sex workers are being harmed and exploited, not protected, under the current laws, a coalition of sex workers and sex worker-led groups…argue[d] Monday at a landmark five-day Superior Court hearing — the first step in what they hope will lead to sex work being fully decriminalized in Canada…the 2014 [Canadian version of the misogynistic Swedish model]…is…intended to discourage and ultimately eliminate sex work…The Attorney General of Canada argues that the law should remain in place because it…give police[s] the [power] to…[deceive sex workers and barge into their workplaces to harass and intimidate them.  Th]is [creates] a “culture of fear” for clients who need to avoid detection by police and, as a result, sex workers are forced to operate in unsafe locations, with limited communication and with no ability to work together to improve their working conditions without risking being charged with third-party offences, the coalition argues…with support from organizations including Amnesty International Canada, LEAF and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association…this lawsuit differs from previous constitutional challenges because it does not target just the third-party offences, but the key foundational provision: that purchasing sex is illegal…it is about changing the government’s ideological position that sex work is inherently exploitative…

You Were Warned (#1201)

Given this court’s behavior so far, we might be about to see the end of the open internet:

The Supreme Court…agreed to hear a challenge to…Section 230…[the law which] protect[s] free expression on the internet by shielding internet companies from liability for much of the content their users post on their platforms.  The law also protects the companies from lawsuits for removing content that violates their policies.  But the law has drawn [attacks] from both Democrats and Republicans [because it keeps politicians from exerting the kind of centralized control over the internet they lust for]…

To Molest and Rape (#1233)

In case you’ve ever wondered where the good cops are:

LAPD [cop] Houston Tipping…died during police training [because he] was targeted b[y]…fellow cops for [reporting that they committed] a…gang rape…the…fatal spinal cord injury…[was] ruled…an accident [by the coroner]…but Brad Gage, the attorney for Tipping’s mother Shirley Huffman, [explained] that [Tipping] was a whistleblower in [the gang rape] case that involved four other [cops]…one of the [rapist]s was present when he died…[though] the department…[claimed] Tipping…was injured while “grappling” with another [cop, an independent investigation revealed]…he was “repeatedly struck in the head severely enough that he bled”…[and also] suffered broken ribs…LAPD [also appears to be hiding the]…video taken of the training…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1269)

Cops vomit out the same nonsense in the approach to Halloween every year, this time with “fentanyl” inserted in place of “marijuana” or other drugs:

Despite a lack of evidence, urban legends about drug-laced Halloween candy keep circulating, aided by feckless reporters.  This year, it’s “rainbow fentanyl” that has the press repeating unfounded tales of deadly drugs disguised as candy.  While the narrative around rainbow fentanyl and children…is bunk, journalists just won’t stop peddling the story…[last week], Good Morning America connected the myth to a recent seizure of 15,000 fentanyl pills, which were smuggled in a Lego box…

Thought Control (#1277)

Authoritarians are working to spread support for worldwide criminalization of speech:

…New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is trying out her professional scold routine in front of a world audience, perhaps preparing for a role at some international body.  Key to that shift is her belief that this whole free speech thing is a menace, and something should be done about it, preferably around the globe…she has a whole pro-censorship project ready to go for a career reboot after electoral politics…Ardern…[talks about] the dangers of unregulated speech…[a] category encompass[ing all]…ideas the powers-that-be find threatening…she demands “international rules, norms, and expectations” comparable to those applied in weapons control…

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 very much!

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Are you a girl?…Because you fucking fight like a girl.  –  Matt King

Since I’m not a fan of rap, I decided to commemorate the passing of Coolio with this parody of his most famous release.  He also infamously tried to sue Weird Al over it, but later displayed wisdom and maturity by publicly admitting that he had been wrong and apologizing to Weird Al.  Coincidentally, the other celebrity death listed here was a close friend of Weird Al’s.  The links above the video were provided by Popehat; Emma Evans; Isley and Franklin HarrisCop Crisis; Popehat again; Stephen Lemons; and Cop Crisis again, in that order.

From the Archives

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 very much!

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It’s clear in a lot of places that there is just total denial of reality.  –  Alison Macrina

Torture Chamber 

Your “leaders” refer to this as “correction”:

[Bureaucrats who mismanage New York] city jails [were] recently [forced to] share…photos and videos from Rikers Island with assistant district attorneys in Manhattan, giving…prosecutors…a…look at the squalid and deadly conditions [to] which [they routinely condemn poor people who have not been convicted of any crime]…The…presentation…[included] a man defecating in his shorts due to a lack of toilets in the intake area and then being left in his soiled clothes for 11 hours until another [prisoner]…brought him new clothes; a [prisoner] locked in a cage shower for nearly 24 hours before he injured himself; and [prisoners] dragging sick people to medical care, and even administering chest compressions themselves, because [screws were off fucking around somewhere instead of doing their jobs.  People condemned to this hell-hole by]…prosecutors…face months, and sometimes years, waiting for court hearings…most…have not been convicted of crimes…

You Were Warned (#1119)

Indian politicians use the same high-sounding airy-fairy excuses to censor the internet as those in the West:

The…Indian government has ordered the country’s internet service providers to block 67 adult sites for violating a new IT law passed in 2021…using the…[rather vague excuse] of “tarnishing the image of modesty of women”…Although most mainstream Indian newspapers avoided mentioning which sites were the latest to be subjected to government censorship, India Express has published a spreadsheet that lists the sites, which brings the total number…banned by the Indian government to 857…

Choke Point (#1159)

PayPal is becoming an active threat to civil liberties:

Access to online payment systems is crucial for the innumerable individuals and organizations that rely on financial support for their expressive activity.  It’s essential to content creators’ ability to earn a living, to websites’ and other businesses’ ability to raise revenue, to fundraising by political candidates and nonprofit organizations, and to everyday Americans’ ability to consume content and support causes they believe in.  When payment processing services act as political hall monitors or moral arbiters…they present a grave threat to free expression.  A small number of companies dominate the space, allowing them to wield significant control over the speech environment by denying service to users who express disfavored views or wade into controversial subject matter…When consumer choice borders on illusory, any argument that those dissatisfied…should simply seek other payment methods is not particularly convincing — or realistic…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1164) 

It’s always a pleasure to watch experts trash harmful sex myths:

Treatment for “sex addiction” is booming, even though it frequently destroys marriages and the individuals it “treats”.  It’s expensive, moralistic, and is obsessed with sex while understanding very little about it…most professionals offering sex addiction treatment (including the movement’s 1985 founder, Patrick Carnes) have no training in human sexuality.  Very few sex therapists—the country’s clinical experts in human sexuality—offer such treatment, because they don’t believe in the so-called disease.  But…the “sex addiction” concept provides the dignity of something that sounds like a medical diagnosis, which gratifies both betrayer and betrayed.  Sex addiction treatment simultaneously trivializes sex, and sees everything involving a penis as sexual.  The treatment typically ignores a couple’s power dynamics; how painful it can be to lose not just sex but touching and affection; the huge range of normal sexual desire and expression; and the simple fact that for most people, sex is about more than sex…

Thought Control (#1253)

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

In the last [few] weeks, at least a dozen public libraries across the U.S. received threats that resulted in canceled events and systemwide closures…bomb and active shooter threats [were sent] to public library systems in Nashville, Fort Worth, Denver, Salt Lake City, Boston, and other cities…some…[were] directed at LGBTQ events…[while] other[s]…seemed to have no obvious motive but come at a time when libraries and library workers have increasingly become targets of [political] harassment.  Public libraries were also closed statewide in Hawaii over [a recent] weekend due to an “unspecified threat”…[many of] the threats were received via digital reference points that allow patrons to communicate with library workers…through direct chat, email, or SMS functions…

The Next Target (#1272)

Most Americans still believe France is a sex-positive society:

A French Senate committee has issued a virulently anti-porn report comparing the adult industry with “hell” and recommending state regulation and censorship…The report is the result of six months of hearings about the adult industry…[dominated by] a group of feminist associations aiming to abolish all sex work…Le Mouvement du nid, Osez le féminisme and les Effronté·es…The…report recommends the [inven]tion of a new crime, “Encouraging a Criminal Act in Case of Sexual Violence in the Context of Pornography”…making it a criminal offense to even write or speak, without explicit condemnation, about porn that someone else or the state considers “sexual violence”…

To Molest and Rape (#1273)

Most rapist cops have multiple underage victims:

A [typical and representative] Philadelphia [cop]…sexually abus[ed] young girls and threaten[ed] witnesses…Patrick Heron…faces more than one dozen counts related to [rape, molestation and child porn]…”This is not only about terrible conduct, it’s about a…terrible effort at cover-up, intimidation and abuse of pretty much every process you can imagine,” [reformist DA Larry] Krasner said…

 

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