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Posts Tagged ‘Denmark’

These guys really need to watch more film noir.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-15T18:12:23.909Z

You have to sleep sometime, guys.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-17T19:01:24.980Z

Four of these look WORSE in the "after" pictures. Middle right is DRAMATICALLY worse.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-19T02:53:53.205Z

They really do believe Heaven is clouds where people walk around in a semblance of life forever. It's remarkably stupid, childish, Bronze-Age thinking.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T08:26:34.100Z

The International Board of Kakistocracy

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-23T18:25:56.755Z

American flag lapel pins are virtue signaling. The FBI saying how much they loved MLK is virtue signaling. Laws named after dead kids are virtue signaling. State-sponsored "prayer breakfasts" are virtue signaling. Etc, etc. Any sincerely moral person can see the difference without effort.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-25T09:01:06.051Z

If I were Canadian, right now I would feel like one of the guys in this scene:

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-26T03:22:24.145Z

"Dismantled" in the same sense as the Hindenburg was "dismantled".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-26T18:37:28.791Z

Treasury Secretary Meisterburger has some advice for parents.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T16:56:31.831Z

Modern journalists:Talking about a guy who has been out of political office for decades: "President So-and-So", "Senator So-and-So"Talking about a cop sent to prison for using his position to murder or rape somebody last year: "Former officer So-and-So"

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T19:23:12.888Z

I hereby declare the word "pivot" officially hackneyed. Find a different verb to beat to death by overuse.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T08:52:51.698Z

The "We need new Democrats" whine triggers off the Mom region of my brain: "You haven't done anything with the Democrats I already gave you."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-31T18:05:24.186Z

Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember when it was the DEMOCRATS pretending "unified government" was a good thing.Extra points if you remember that the Clintonian slur for "checks and balances" was "gridlock".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T18:02:15.967Z

Oh look, it's another of those things us cranks have been warning all y'all Very Smart Futurist People about for years.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T17:20:55.791Z

What is this thing supposed to be? An Easter Island statue?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-03T03:38:50.271Z

If only there were some simple way to kill the bacteria so the milk would be safe to drink. If some genius were to invent such a process, we could even name it after him.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T03:20:03.432Z

Actual economists disagree.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T19:49:45.952Z

How can anyone who has ever read Asimov's nonfiction not know this? He used to BRAG about it. I knew Asimov was a sex pest before entering HIGH SCHOOL because when I was in 8th grade I got on a kick of reading all of his essay collections, and he talks about it more than a little.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T03:08:49.403Z

I was used to sex workers being the most *ethical* people on the internet, but in the past 15 years they've proven themselves to be among the most intelligent and literate as well.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-07T18:29:51.990Z

"Facts undermine his testimony" is such a weird, nerf-bat way of saying "He lied".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-08T17:46:14.535Z

I was taught in catechism that God is all-forgiving, so from a Christian perspective the answer to this would be "yes".That having been said, I am neither a god nor a Christian, so I am under no obligation to forgive those who enabled the current police state over the past ≈ 150 years.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T19:09:35.536Z

They make ME think of the campfire scene in "Stand By Me" where the boys seriously discuss, "Who is stronger, Superman or Mighty Mouse?"

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T18:20:24.645Z

They really do think "But he gave them candy after molesting them" is a defense.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-11T08:51:42.315Z

It has dawned on me that most young people don't understand that political parties are about as fixed as sand dunes, and drift all over with the political and social winds over time. Which is just a more extreme example of the common inability to recognize that the same is true for species.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-12T18:25:49.074Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-13T19:18:32.880Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-15T08:58:03.773Z

Your regular reminder that Eisenhower warned us about all this in January 1961, but everyone just basically ignored him until it was much too late.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-16T18:10:17.125Z

You've gotta admire a man who trusts his friends' understanding of physics enough to attempt this.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T19:04:26.838Z

Given that the statement "This power will be abused" is always 100% accurate over the long term, you'd think the Pollyannas would've learned by now. But I reckon that's against their dopey natures.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T18:21:26.639Z

I just noticed this:

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:01:26.364Z

 

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The happy ending here is that despite all their ridiculous mumbo-jumbo and frantic posturing, Death will win as it always does.Ave Mortis, Imperator Mundi.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T18:51:08.690Z

Lost Generation: 1890-1910 (roughly)"Greatest" Generation: 1911-1928Beat generation: 1929-1945Baby Boom: 1946-1963Generation X: 1964-1981Millennials: 1982-2000Generation Z: 2001-2018Generation Alpha: 2019-2036 (end subject to change, depending)

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-13T21:00:54.989Z

Given the corrupting effect of power, the most powerful person on the planet will INEVITABLY become the worst person on the planet, even if he wasn't to start with.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-15T18:12:36.252Z

"What if flapping your arms very hard will enable you to fly?"

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-16T18:08:56.505Z

A *big* step up from letting politicians decide.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-18T18:06:59.349Z

A one predisposed to disobedience since childhood, who has suffered social censure for that inclination since the early 1970s, I've always viewed the American self-image as "rebellious" as a crock of self-aggrandizing bullshit.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-19T19:42:19.764Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T02:48:07.776Z

My paternal line did not emigrate to America; America bought our home from Napoleon. IOW America chose *us* rather than vice-versa.My late friend Grace's ancestors were here long before the 1st Europeans.And both of us would tell you that people sworn in this morning are just as American as us.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-20T18:19:01.037Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-22T03:55:50.740Z

My X's anniversary is also MY anniversary, though I would nor more expect a computer to grasp that than I would trust it to compose a post on the topic, presuming I was such a narcissist that I would request such a childish thing.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-23T18:10:08.836Z

On the First Day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-25T17:28:38.681Z

The process of obtaining a literature degree taught me that "literary" fiction is rarely better than genre fiction, and frequently worse.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-26T18:03:49.571Z

I have often said that modern US "conservatives" long for an imaginary past, while modern US "progressives" long for an imaginary future.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-27T18:28:49.015Z

The very fact that there is no murderer registry tells you everything you need to know about the "sex offender" registry.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-29T18:15:33.474Z

So basically, the entire movie is a Rickroll.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-30T08:08:05.987Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-12-31T17:50:42.716Z

What book is sacred enough to you to get sworn in on?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-02T18:45:41.673Z

Slopmaker who makes money from slop wants you to move beyond wanting quality and embrace his slop.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-03T08:33:17.438Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-04T02:41:43.416Z

Axolotls always make me smile. I mean, look at this cute little booger! See its happy little face? How could you not smile?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-04T08:10:14.387Z

How many branches of the Vichy government did General de Gaulle control?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-05T18:17:30.100Z

Psychosis is a reason, just not a sane one.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-06T07:57:18.251Z

Collectivism is a mental illness.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-08T18:07:26.157Z

Mammon. The Biblical name for this deity is Mammon. As in, "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-09T17:59:08.165Z

Mrs. Boudreaux, please get off the line; we really need to make a call. I promise we'll be off in five minutes.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-10T18:01:58.758Z

My turn! It just dawned on me that if the ICE agent were a circus clown, and the woman the ghost of Anne Boleyn, and the roles were reversed, but the ghost threw her head at the clown instead of shooting him, he could juggle it and The Coulrophobia Lobby would be fully on the side of the ghost.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-11T03:59:55.538Z

That is such a cute little piggy though, definitely MUCH cuter than any cop deserves.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-12T19:58:14.596Z

Good grief, my Barbie was a scientist despite having come in an ordinary Barbie box rather than a "scientist" box with a lab coat.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-13T18:48:52.787Z

"Sorry, neither."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-14T08:56:39.781Z

Perhaps if you'd stop calling politicians "leaders", they'd stop treating y'all like followers.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-15T08:27:31.066Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-16T19:00:03.300Z

A national treasure.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-17T18:58:44.504Z

Mu.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-18T18:25:47.300Z

 

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I wanted them to die.  –  Marco Evaristti

As I so often do for non-superstar musicians, I’m sending Roy Ayers off with his best-known performance.  The links above the video were provided by Brooke Magnanti; Kevin Wilson and Aaron Ross PowellC.J. Ciaramella; Stephen Lemons; and T. Greg Doucette, in that order (I don’t recall who contributed the last one).

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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Meménto, homo, quia pulvis es, et in púlverem revertéris.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-17T18:28:25.457Z

Looks like the main reason I virtually never see targeted ads is that I've never installed any Facebook product on my phone or had an account with any of them.Hope this information proves useful to you.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-18T18:45:41.677Z

Collectivism is a serious mental illness and the most dangerous of evils.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-19T18:04:50.766Z

"And you, poor creatures, who conjured *you* out of the clay? Is God in show business too?"

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-20T18:53:29.644Z

You know, it's possible to criticize Trump without sounding like a collectivist copsucker. Please do try.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-21T16:26:34.431Z

Same energy as, "the impact of Daleks on young people's mental health", "the impact of witchcraft on young people's mental health", or "the impact of Teletubbies on young people's mental health".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-22T18:25:19.920Z

Belief in the magical protective powers of "restraining orders" gets people killed, and by SCOTUS precedent no cop will ever be held liable for failing to "protect" someone.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-23T18:12:27.098Z

Mel Gibson sharing his sexual fantasies is way far into TMI territory.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-25T04:11:45.760Z

Google should adopt the motto, "Don't be stupid".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-28T06:20:22.877Z

It is only wrong to lie to individual human beings. Lying to collectives (including governments) and their functionaries (including cops) is often moral, especially when those collectives are engaged in evil.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-29T05:11:21.026Z

That there is no justice (as human conceive it) in the world is evidenced by the fact that I'm here grieving the death of a 66-year-old woman who never hurt anyone while Xi Jinping (71), Vladimir Putin (72), and Donald Trump (78) are still alive and aggressively destroying others' lives.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-29T18:11:50.883Z

More like watching a slug try to stand upright.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-30T18:11:31.142Z

When retailers need to raise prices due to Trump's tariff's, they need to clearly display the math on their label, eg:"OUR PRICE: $10 FEDERAL TARIFF: $2.50YOU PAY: $12.50" Like a lot of grocery stores did with municipal "soda taxes" a few years ago. Let people know EXACTLY whose fault it is.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-01-31T19:10:28.969Z

Pay attention to who uses the phrase "Gulf of America". Anyone who would pander to such absurdity is a dangerous opportunist, regardless of who sits on the imperial throne.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-01T19:13:04.863Z

Half of all people are stupid.More than half of the remaining half are fools.More than half of the remainder of THAT division are ignoramuses.More than half of what's left after that are self-deluded.And a healthy fraction of the last 5% are moral imbeciles.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-02T18:47:15.777Z

People talk about "representation", IOW that people like seeing others who are somehow like them in prominent positions. Well, lots of Americans are stupid, bigoted ignoramuses.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-03T19:02:18.083Z

Disconnecting it with sledgehammers would be MUCH quicker and far more effective.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-04T19:08:33.634Z

THIS RIGHT HERE. I'm all for reducing bloated government and eliminating the fat. But liposuction is a careful, sanitary medical procedure, not attacking an obese person in the street with a chainsaw.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-06T19:29:43.249Z

Ever wonder what happened to scripts that were rejected by "The X Files" for being too farfetched?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-08T20:07:04.998Z

The so-called "right" has never actually been in favor of limited government; they have ALWAYS been in favor of more cops, more prisons, more criminalization, and more military, the most violent arms of government.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-09T18:07:09.916Z

There is no bottom to Trumpist stupidity.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-11T17:49:21.038Z

There's already an established term for this kind of "minder"; the term is "political officer" or "political commissar".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-12T18:34:34.987Z

THIS. Trump is masculine in the same exact way that Divine was feminine.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-13T18:29:11.263Z

I've been disobeying "authorities" since before puberty, and living as an actual outlaw for 25 years. It's not instantly fatal, I assure you.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-14T18:37:03.051Z

The price we pay for the gift of having wonderful people in our lives is the pain we have to endure when they are no longer there.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-15T20:07:31.933Z

When I see the word "illegal" used as the primary adjective in a description of why the speaker hates a person or thing, it's strong evidence that the opinion can safely be disregarded.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-02-16T18:40:05.692Z

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They want to put someone away, so they can say the case is solved.  –  Sandra Hemme

This week’s video was suggested by one of my generous gentlemen, who correctly surmised that I would enjoy it.  The links above it were provided by Stephen Lemons; Mike Siegel; Dan Savage and Genya; Popehat, IncarcerNation (x2), and J.D. Tuccille, 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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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“.  Horror, death or Halloween-themed columns of the past year include “Dead on Arrival“, “The Mysteries“, “Could It Be…Satan?“, “The Sparkle of a Star“, and “The October Country“; there are creepy or spooky-fun videos in Links #541#553#566, and #590, and here’s a collection of spooky or Halloweeny links:

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She was yelling orders at the squirrels and telling them to attack me.  –  James Robinson

Through a series of connections too complicated to describe without an entire paragraph, I recently realized that I have never posted the video of Brak singing “I Love Beans”.  I am not sure how that happened, but it is past time to rectify the situation.  The links above it were provided by Franklin Harris, Walter Olson, Melanie Moore, I Am Curious Blue, Mike Siegel, and Jesse Walker, in that order.

From the Archives

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The law punishes sex workers…and…turns us into criminals.  –  Mai Junta

The Immunity Syndrome (#318)

Don’t try to imagine this in the US; you’ll overload your brain:

On a stage…in Copenhagen stood five adults in bathrobes…Facing [an audience of] children…they stood completely naked, like statues, with their hands and arms folded behind their backs.  And so began a recording of the latest episode of an award-winning Danish children’s program, Ultra Strips Down, which is shown on…the…children’s channel…the program is meant as an educational tool to fight body shaming and encourage body positivity…The program is now in its second season, and…is highly popular in Denmark…[except for the usual puritan minority.  Most] Danes believe children should not be shielded from the realities of life…

Dysphemisms Galore 

When the topic is sex, Philippine reporters seem even less able than most to write in normal adult sane-person language:

With nightclubs closed to prevent the spread of coronavirus…there has been a dearth of customers for commercial sex workers, according to [Iloilo City’s] Task Force on Morals and Values Formation.  Suffering a heavy economic beating from the pandemic, this city’s prostituted women and men…have left, said task force chief Nestor Canong…Workers in the flesh trade were suddenly faced an awful choice between livelihood and health…[blah blah] sex workers…spread…[disease]…

What kind of mind thinks a busybody brigade called “Task Force on Morals and Values” would have anything worthwhile to say about people whose lives are so alien to them they need to make up silly fantasies about them?

Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#1017)

Thai sex worker activists are made of awesome:

Sex workers in Thailand have launched a petition calling for prostitution to be decriminalised and urging authorities to remove all penalties for selling sex.  Empower Foundation…said it hoped to collect 10,000 signatures and present the petition to parliament…More than 1,000 people had signed the petition [in its first three days]…activists say the current law, which made prostitution illegal in 1960, [harms]…sex workers…w[ith] repeated arrests and fines [that]…drive…them further into poverty.  The women’s affairs department at Thailand’s Ministry of Social Development and Human Security said it was in the process of amending the prostitution law and would launch an online public hearing next year, without giving further details…

Disqualified

A report by Hacking/Hustling on shadowbans and similar policies:

Content moderation, censorship, and shadowbanning facilitate sex worker erasure and normalize the digital and physical oppression of sex working and [activist] communities.  Sex workers are disproportionately losing access to social media platforms, having bank accounts seized, being banned from major payment processors, and being used as test subjects for facial recognition databases…This research shows how communities are negatively impacted by content moderation practices, and how surveillance technologies disrupt their ability to both earn an income and organize…

All-Purpose Excuse (#1063)

Trumpists are completely taking control of the “sex trafficking” narrative:

…the federal government is awarding more than $100 million in grants to target [migrants and sex workers for increased persecution using the same old excuse of] human trafficking.  The money will [mostly] go to [vice cops]…and…[prisons.  Attorney General William] Barr made the announcement…with pr[ohibitionist] Ivanka Trump and [infantilized sex workers as] “boys and girls”…

Loose Cannons (#1068)

Of course, the non-wealthy victims of this illegal surveillance still had their lives ruined:

After nearly two years, Florida prosecutors are finally giving up on prosecuting…Robert Kraft for [consensual sex]…Florida cops had pretended to be hunting a “human trafficking” ring in order to get a warrant for the secret surveillance cameras…authorities went forward with the “trafficking” lie…and…a…local sheriff called the [arrest of adult women]…”a rescue operation”…now, those “rescued” women may be the only ones still in legal trouble…Hua Zhang, the 59-year-old owner of Orchids of Asia…41-year-old Lei Wang…and…60-year-old Shen Mingbi…[are still] charged with…[various] prostitution[-rated “crimes”]…Zhang and Wang [were] also [robbed by cops using “asset forfeiture” laws]…

Tissue of Lies

Looks like Michael Hobbes has joined the debunkers’ club:

The biggest problem, I’ve found, is the definition of “child sex trafficking” itself. Under the law, anyone under 18 who trades sex for money, drugs, a place to stay or anything else of value is a victim of trafficking.  They don’t have to be recruited by a pimp, moved across state lines or forced into prostitution.  A homeless runaway having sex with some sleazeball in exchange for a warm bed is a tragedy, but it’s a less salacious one than the Taken myths that trafficking memes circulating on social media imply…The internet is awash in exaggerated, misleading and downright fabricated numbers about how many children are forced into the sex trade every year.  This is my attempt to debunk all the false trafficking numbers…

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The truth is, what affects sex workers eventually affects everyone.  –  Cora Harrington

The Public Eye

The more sex workers write and speak in public, the harder it will be to ignore us:

…Thierry Schaffauser…[is a] French social activist, sex worker, adult actor, and writer advocating for sex workers’ rights and the destigmatization of the industry.  As a stigmatized industry, sex work is still misunderstood today, especially within politics…sex workers are still being exploited, while the government contributes to this exploitation instead of alleviating it.  As a key figure in the sex worker rights movement, Schaffauser is constantly working towards dismantling these issues—in nearly two decades, he has co-founded Les Putes, a Paris-based organisation defending sex workers rights…founded Hackney Pride, wrote and published a series of articles educating the general public on sex workers rights, and is now working with STRASS, the French sex workers’ union…

Checklist (#811)

Ladies, please stop using Uber.  They are training drivers to spy on us and rat us out to the pigs:

A number of Uber drivers in Baltimore took part in a[n indoctrination] designed to [brainwash them into seeing sex workers as criminals and victims]…The [propaganda was written by]…the Polaris Project, a [corporation which]…profit[s from] human trafficking [hysteria]…Among the [pretended] red flags [were] a customer asking to be dropped off at a [side] entrance…[or] trying to pay with cash…

Who the fuck tries to pay a rideshare with cash? You can’t even start an account without linking a credit card.

The Course of a Disease (#905) 

A sleazebag prohibitionist has wormed her slimy way into the Danish government:

A parliamentary focus group appointed by the previous government to assess possible reform of rights for sex workers has been disbanded…by…new Minister of Social Affairs Astrid Krag…[who] said that sex workers should not be seen as [fully human]…but…a social problem that must be [oppressed]…“We don’t want [facts] telling us how we can make [life better for sex workers]” the minister [said]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#923)

When it comes to mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

The New Civil Liberties Alliance…sued the city of Coral Gables [Florida] on behalf Raul Mas Canosa, a motorist who was tracked by the city’s cameras…Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Abby Cynamon rejected the city’s attempt to have the…lawsuit thrown out on the grounds that motorists have no expectation of privacy.  The city also argued that because Canosa [has not yet been thrown in a cage or gunned down in the street by government thugs]…he has not been harmed.  “This court finds that there is…nothing abstract, conjectural or ephemeral about the claim since the city has and continues to collect such information about the plaintiff’s vehicle.”  Coral Gables [brags that it is] the “statewide leader” in the use of [universal surveillance]…having taken 30 million license plate photos last year alone.  Those photos are converted into searchable database entries that track the time, date, identity and location for all vehicles passing through one of the city’s thirty camera-equipped roads and intersections — including Interstate 95.  This movement history is then made available to eighty different state, federal and local agencies.  Coral Gables began using the cameras in 2015 after [politicians] cut a [fascist] deal with Safeware and Vigilant Solutions…

Blunt Instrument (#930)

It’s great to see Asian sex workers fighting back against the racist “sex trafficking” narrative:

…the idea that…Asian massage parlors are bastions of sex trafficking has come not only from [pigs and politicians]…but also some of the hundreds of [highly] profit[able] organizations devoted to combatting [sex work]…but…[representatives from Red Canary Song]…said…”No one’s locked in…People can leave these establishments.  They…can just not come back to work the next day, you know?…We’re not sex slaves and nobody I’ve talked or worked with is a sex slave by any means…they’re in it for the money and they make more money doing this than working in a restaurant washing dishes or in a dry cleaners folding laundry”…

Disaster (#940)

Does any media outlet other than local news fail to recognize what a disaster FOSTA is?

…Many digital platforms…have altered their terms of service…to fall in line with FOSTA/SESTA…[which was] marketed to voters as anti-trafficking…this…has resulted in companies…feeling pressured to censor content and remove sex workers from their platforms… putting…[them] in further danger by limiting online resources, and [also] pos[ing] a threat to the freedom of expression online…Sex workers are most at risk of having their livelihood and lives threatened, but anyone having any conversations related to sex and sexuality, or perceived as being related to sex and sexuality, are likely to be marginalized and excluded from platforms that are necessary to modern-day marketing and advertising…

To Molest and Rape (#941)

Your government calls this “border protection”:

An immigration agent threatened a Honduran woman living in Connecticut with deportation if she didn’t [submit to rape]…then raped her as often as four times a week for seven years, impregnating her three times…The woman, identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe, sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and [typical and representative] ICE agent Wilfredo Rodriguez…seeking $10 million in damages…Rodriguez…also…constantly…threaten[ed] to kill her and her family…

As usual, the government is hiding pictures of the rapist so other women can’t protect themselves against him.  So until I get a picture of the actual rapist, I’m using this picture of the man officially responsible for his actions: his boss, the head of ICE.

Between the Ears (#966)

Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you:

…if you have any of a variety of “smart beds,” mattress pads or sleep apps, it knows when you go to sleep.  It knows when you toss and turn.  It may even be able to tell when you’re having sex…The Sleep Number bed is one of the most heavily marketed of such products…The company [pretends] it goes to great lengths to protect its customers’ data…[but] the company’s privacy notice, which clearly states that personal information — potentially including biometric data — “may” be shared with marketing companies or business partners [or pigs, if they demand it]…The policy also says personal information could be given to partners for “research, analysis or administering surveys”…

The Rest is Silence

The coroner knows full well there’s only one likely cause for a broken hyoid bone:

A forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein’s brother said…evidence suggested that Mr. Epstein did not die by suicide, but may have been strangled…Dr. Michael Baden…said…Epstein…experienced a number of injuries — among them a broken hyoid bone — that “are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation…the evidence points to homicide rather than suicide…I’ve not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case.”  The findings by Dr. Baden were [conveniently] disputed by the city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson, who previously ruled that…Epstein’s death…was a suicide…

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We don’t know what we’re doing. –  rare true prohibitionist statement

Real People 

Stories like this need to be heard in order to fight the racist “sex trafficking” and “illegal alien” narratives:

…My mother came to Denmark as a marriage migrant.  She received a tourist visa in Thailand, came to Denmark, and put an ad in the local newspaper with the headline “Thai Woman Seeking”.  The man who became my stepfather answered.  They got married, and shortly thereafter I came to Denmark to live with them…People have always looked down on my mom or pitied her.  They have condemned my stepfather.  And they have felt misplaced sympathy for me…If my mother had not migrated from Thailand, I would probably still be in Isaan today.  I would have two or three children and work in my family’s rice paddies, at a factory, or have some other kind of low paying job.  Maybe I would have to migrate to Bangkok to work an unskilled job at a factory, leaving my children in the care of their grandparents in those months where there is no work to be done in the fields.  Maybe I would have to work in the sex industry in Pattaya and send home money to my children and my mother, because sex work is the field where you earn the most as an unskilled female labourer…Why are the women who change their lives by selling sex or by getting married scorned?…Why do we look down on women who simply use the opportunities they have been given?  There is no right or wrong way to migrate.  There are just women trying to create better lives for themselves and their children with whatever cards they have been dealt…

One Size Fits All

Marriage brokering, migrant sex work, forced prostitution and organ harvesting are all the same thing?

Pakistan…arrested eight Chinese nationals [and accused them of] trafficking Pakistani girls to China and forcing them into prostitution…and organ trade…Pakistani…[cops also] raided a wedding ceremony…and arrested the Chinese groom…after…[calling the] marriage [false]…

If this keeps up, soon we’ll just be able to abolish nearly all laws and call everything cops choose to accuse anyone of “human trafficking”.  Think of the time and labor savings!  Threaten everyone with life in prison, let them plead down to one of a few minor and equally-vague offenses like “money laundering”, “conspiracy”, “racketeering” or “hate”, then put them on ankle monitors for a decade or two.  International Utopia!

Cops and Robbers

Another bunch of racist vigilantes playing games with people’s lives:

This is the story of a group of [busybodies] so agitated by news of [women of] other [races running lucrative businesses instead of doing menial labor for whites]…that they launched a vigilante response…[like all busybodies] the women weren’t affected by the massage parlors personally.  They’d been driving right by them for [their whole lives] without noticing them at all…But the spas loomed large for the women after they learned [how much money migrant]…women…from China [could make]…as prostitutes [without having to kowtow to bourgeois white Boston puritans]…“We decided as a group we want to [harass] the women”…

First they tried to spy on them, then sic the pigs on them; when the cops told them luggage and TV sets were not evidence of “sex slavery” they decided to start a new NIMBY club called “Operation Rescue”.  Go ahead and read the whole thing if you want a deep dive into the tiny, ugly, racist minds of women who aren’t satisfied with merely keeping the brown folks in line by occasionally calling the cops on them for existing in public spaces.

Property of the State

Government is just a word for the things we choose to do together:

Juan Leon-Gomez…was arrested…after a mother reported that her daughter was missing…the [now-pregnant] 11-year-old was found in [Leon-Gomez’s] bedroom closet…[he] was already the subject of an ongoing sexual assault investigation involving the girl…Ohio’s new “heartbeat bill”, which is slated to take effect in mid-July, means that the 11-year-old girl could be forced to carry the child to birth, regardless of the fact that she was raped…

Saint Death (#428) 

The…notion [of] ‘narco-saints’ borders on incomprehensible…But give it a cool name…and it suddenly turns religion into proof of guilt“:

“Narco saints,” or patron saints of the drug cartels, are making the criminals even bolder…[according to racist propaganda the] Drug Enforcement Administration…has [been trying to push for over a decade]…with…li[ttle success except among bootlickers and deeply credulous cops]…Atlanta DEA [pig]…Robert Murphy…[imagines] shrines of “narco saints”…are [magically] facilitating the flooding of Georgia streets with illegal drugs including heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and fentanyl…[via their magic powers] to recruit and embolden the…[drug dealers this pig tellingly refers to as] soldiers…[illiterate redneck] District Attorney Tracy Graham Lawson says she was so alarmed by the “narco saints”…she [went to church and then] used [stolen] money to bring an expert [propagandist] from Texas to [indoctrinate] local [cops so they’d have another convenient excuse to murder Hispanic men on sight]…“Why it’s so dangerous…is they believe they’re [bulletproof warriors] and they’re not afraid of death,” Lawson said…

Think of the Children! (#565)

Obviously this sex-ray contaminated money would have “sexualized” the childen!

Robert Kraft tried to donate $100,000 to a charity that educates children in Haiti—but it rejected the money because of allegations he [had consensual] sexual [contact with an adult woman]…“The last thing I wanted was a donation from Robert Kraft,” [said] Patrick Moynihan of The Haitian Project…“I could not be [sensible]. I had to [be a prudish moron who cares more about virtue signaling than the education of children in poverty]”…

Permanent Record

Sex workers need to bury all prohibitionists of every kind in lawsuits:

Nicole Gililland…had been doing well as a nursing student at Southwestern Oregon Community College…She was making the dean’s list and was about a year away from graduating…when…the college decided to run her out of school after it found out she used to perform in porn.  This February, she filed a federal lawsuit against the school and some of its personnel, charging them with breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and subjecting her to a hostile educational environment.  Experts say this…could be the first time a plaintiff has used Title IX to make an accusation of discrimination based on a person’s status as a current or former sex worker…

Guinea Pigs (#719) 

Just a reminder that one of Palantir’s first contracts was helping cops spy on sex workers:

Palantir, the CIA-funded data analysis company founded by billionaire Trump adviser Peter Thiel, provided software at the center of a 2017 operation targeting unaccompanied children and their families…newly released Homeland Security documents show….[that] Palantir…spokespe[ople were lying when they claimed]…that Palantir software is strictly involved in criminal investigations as opposed to deportations…Far from detached support in “cross-border criminal investigations,” the materials released this week confirm the role Palantir technology played in facilitating hundreds of arrests, only a small fraction of which led to criminal prosecutions…

A Woman’s Point of View (#805) 

The push for decrim in Hawaii isn’t dead yet:

…Harm Reduction Hawaii…sponsor[ed] presentations by Dame Catherine Healy…on May 9 and 10.  She is a former sex worker and advocate for sex worker rights.  In 1986 she was a cofounder of the New Zealand Prostitutes Collective.  She was made a Dame of the British Empire due to her long time work aimed at…decriminalization of prostitution in 2003.  Recent reports from the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women indicate there is no evidence of sex trafficking there.  This is in a country with four times the population of Hawaii…We believe evidence-based approaches need to supplant the sorts of hysteria that has often taken over the public press in discussions over sex work…

Disaster (#881)

Facebook has the money to protect itself from the monster it helped unleash on the internet:

Under FOSTA/SESTA…Section 230 no longer protects platforms from liability in cases where third-party content is [claimed by a prosecutor or ambulance-chaser to be] somehow connected to sex trafficking…Facebook support[ed this censorship] effort…But now [it] has been forced to send lawyers to defend itself from two lawsuits brought in Houston, Texas, under the same FOSTA/SESTA law that [it] backed…and it…is…argue[ing] that Section 230 of the CDA protects the firm from being held liable for the activities of users, no matter what those activities may be…[even though] thanks to [Facebook’s own support of] FOSTA/SESTA, that protection no longer exists…

A Procrustean Bed (#921)

The idea that sex workers might be neither criminals nor victims is too much for the tiny, narrow minds of “authorities”:

A lawsuit filed by Harris County seeks to [rob and harass] sex workers in the Bissonnet Track, a Houston [stroll]…The lawsuit, which targets 86 “nuisance” individuals, is [intended to bleed marginalized people with] fines in addition to…criminal charges. [SWERFs are angry that] the measure ignores the[ir preferred narrative] that most sex workers are victims [because they want sex workers starved, evicted and enslaved in sweatshops rather than openly criminalized]…

Worse Than I Thought (#925)

Florida prohibitionists are now tripling down on their awful anti-whore laws:

Florida lawmakers just voted to create a public registry of people [accused by cops of] attempting to pay for sex.  After an initial defeat…the registry—arguably the worst part of a new Florida crime bill capitalizing on human-trafficking propaganda—was revived and reinserted before the measure’s passage…The final version…creates a database of [adults caught in cop sting operations]…targets strip clubs, and mandates that a slew of state workers and businesses jump through new hoops to accommodate a few politicians’ latest attempt to get their names in the press…The Soliciting for Prostitution Public Database will list anyone who has been convicted of, or plead guilty, to “soliciting, inducing, enticing, or procuring another to commit prostitution, lewdness, or assignation” [which of course includes sex workers arranging duos or giving references or other help to other sex workers]…The new measure also classifies strip clubs as “adult theaters”—then makes it a first-degree misdemeanor criminal offense for the operator of any adult theater to fail to keep proper records.  The law also creates wide new categories of workers and businesses that are [forced to endure]…anti-prostitution and pro-surveillance propaganda disguised as tips for teaching bystanders how to prevent human trafficking…

Top Cop (#931)

Just in case you needed another reason to be disgusted by this power-mad sociopath:

Kamala Harris is making the potential punishment of social media platforms that don’t censor what she [represents] as hateful speech a focal point of her presidential campaign…[she] wants social media to do more to stop…ideas [she disapproves of, such as sex worker rights] from being expressed and spread online.  It’s not clear what she thinks the companies should specifically do, but she’s definitely laying the blame on Facebook and Twitter and YouTube for the existence and proliferation of angry people online…what she wants with her prosecutor background is to force compliance with whatever rules she puts into place and use the threat of punishment to shut down resistance…just [like] California parents who were threatened with jail time because of her support for criminal truancy laws…or [her repeated and illegal]…attempt[s] to bring pimping charges against the publishers of Backpage…

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