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Posts Tagged ‘Elephant in the Parlor’

In the News (#1682)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

They bragged publicly about violating a law that they themselves had worked really hard to get passed.  –  Molly Duane

Elephant in the Parlor (#1493)

That Gaetz’s downfall was due to paying for sex rather than his openly-espoused evil is a symptom of America’s cultural sickness:

Two women have filed a federal…lawsuit accusing…Florida [politician] Matt Gaetz and two others of…[“]sex trafficking[” because they were both legal adults with]…no stable income when…Gaetz…paid [them for] sex…[did] drugs [with them] and [took them on trips]…Jane Doe 1…alleges that she witnessed Gaetz having sex with a girl who was 17 at the time…[but] is not one of the plaintiffs…

The Vultures Descend (#1627)

Fanatics hoist with their own petard is the purest form of justice:

In March, Kristan Hawkins, the founder and president of the anti-[bodily autonomy] group Students for Life posted on Instagram a photo of herself and two [other]…members outside Space Center Houston…[bragging that they were] “Ordering abortion pills undercover”…[so now] a Texas [woman has] sued…Hawkins…and three other members…using a state law…the group…[bragged about] helping to pass.  The law…allows nearly anyone to sue a person who mails, delivers, prescribes or provides abortion pills to or from anyone in Texas…and win at least $100,000 per violation.  The law bars suits against a woman who uses, obtains or tries to obtain the pills to end her own pregnancy…[but] the group members did not appear to be pregnant and so fall squarely within the law’s reach.  The plaintiff is seeking $459,782…the average cost of raising two children to 18 in Texas…the four defendants [are] Kristan Mercer Hawkins, Lydia Taylor Davis, Jamie Curry and Megan Roos…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1632)

Every one of these companies must be sued into bankruptcy:

Character.AI, the…chatbot startup that faced high-profile lawsuits over the deaths of minors, has declared bankruptcy…and is looking to sell the company in a court-supervised sale…Character.AI allowed users to openly chat with a sea of largely user-generated AI companion bots known as “Characters”…despite having no revenue…it was valued at more than a billion dollars…[because] its founders…[barfed the asinine buzzwords] “personalized superintelligence” [in the faces of ignoramuses].  In [autumn of] 2024…Character.AI, Google…and [the company’s founders]…were sued by Megan Garcia, a Florida [woman whose] 14-year-old son, Sewell Setzer III, died by suicide as a result of his extensive and deeply intimate interactions with chatbots on the platform.  The suit…was [only the first of many]…from…families…[whose] children [were] abused by Character.AI, resulting in psychological harm, physical injury, and death.  It was also sued by the states of Kentucky and Pennsylvania…

Welcome to the Future (#1636)

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

Josh Earle and Leo Paz…[are] a pair of [sociopaths] behind a…startup called Outlit…[whose] goal is to amass as much real-time information about a company’s clients as possible…[using bo]ts [to] trawl [not only] internal records like call logs and sales data [but also] external information like social media posts and the websites of people’s employers…The resulting product…is basically a detailed intelligence dossier…[which is] always updating…Asked if Outlit sees the need to inform those being monitored, or if they’ll offer the opportunity for an opt-out, [sociopath Josh] Earle [barfed]…“There’s nothing that we’re doing that’s illegal, so we’re within our right to [spy on people]…we…don[‘t care]…how people feel about it…[because] it’s going to happen”…

Panopticon (#1672)

Making a deal with the Devil is easy; getting out of it is not:

Elgin Community College hired Flock…Surveillance…in April 2025…but] President Peggy Heinrich…began to have second thoughts as she learned more about how the cameras can be used…[especially since] more than half of Elgin’s students are Latino…staff notified Flock in October 2025 that they wanted to cancel their contract and have the cameras taken down…[but] Flock [immediately] rejected the request and refused to uninstall the equipment…The school reached out again in December, offering to pay out the rest of the contract, but…Flock [simply ignored the offer]…Since the school no longer wanted the cameras to operate, and Flock refused to remove or disable them, officials zip tied garbage bags over the cameras on campus.  But…workers in an unmarked vehicle, which Heinrich assumed belonged to Flock, repeatedly removed the coverings…until the school’s contract expired in April, when Flock finally removed the cameras…

Welcome to the Future (#1679)

Am I the only one who finds chatbot-assisted masturbation both creepy and pathetic?

In the three weeks since its launch, millions of use[ful idiots] have already downloaded [Zuckerberg’s Muse chatbot]…and [foolishly connected it to their bank accounts and health data].  While pornographic interactions may not be what users [who have been living in caves their whole lives] expect from [a chatbot branded with a picture of a Teletubby ripoff, Facebook]…says that X-rated conversations are allowed and don’t go against its guidelines…In…tests, Muse im[itated “dirty talk”] in great detail…and [its users are apparently oblivious to the ludicrosity of both these]…outputs…and…[Facebook]’s…carelessness with their [most heavily-hyped] product of the moment…Calli Schroeder…[of] the Electronic Privacy Information Center…[points out that] if…someone hacks into your personal account, then their access to your [ridiculous interactions]…with a…[chatbot] could be used to embarrass or extort you…

The Cop Myth (#1681)

It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:

[A typical and representative] Kentucky [cop attacked his girlfriend, then started waving a gun around and shooting randomly]…Dustin Zink…was threatening [his family and bystanders]…and [when a gang of his fellow pigs arrived] Zink…fired his weapon [at them] multiple times, prompting four [of them to shoot him down like a mad dog]…

 

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 (#1671)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 12, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Parents should be worried about the long-term cognitive and social effects for both parent and child of constantly talking to and relying on…chatbots.  –  Frank Landymore

Elephant in the Parlor (#1074) 

Politicians hiring male sex workers isn’t much less common than their hiring female ones:

…a chef named Joe Gera, owner of the Pennsylvania-based caterer Keystone Cue…[reported] in late July and early August [that Trumpist politician Josh Hawley hired a male escort at least twice].  However…he…[provided] no evidence, such as photos or videos, to support his story[, which is typical of cases involving sex professionals because of professional discretion]…Hawley’s team [of course denied] the…[report, and are risking the Streisand Effect by threaten]ing a defamation lawsuit…

Snopes fixating on the lack of “proof”, when many a political career has been derailed by similar evidence-free accusations, would be quaint if it weren’t so deeply stupid.  And the statement that Hawley “has three children with his wife”, presented as though it were evidence Hawley never hired a male pro, is only convincing to those who have never heard of McNeill’s Law.

Chauvinism (#1611)

The new excuse for persecuting “undesirables” before the Olympics: “security”:

Researchers estimate that close to 6,000 unhoused people live within a mile of Olympic and Paralympic venues in Los Angeles County, and could be a[ttack]ed by [cops in the name of “]security[“] for the 2028 Summer Games.  That figure…is more than three times…the [official] L.A. County…estimate…which…was attached to an application with the state for $93 million in funding to [pay cops to harass and brutalize the] homeless…Whether the county will receive that money is unclear…

I Spy (#1614)

Another reason totalitarians want to eliminate cash:

The Department of [Father]land Security…subpoenaed [REI] in March, [demand]ing the transaction information for “all persons” in the greater Minneapolis-St. Paul area who had purchased a specific type of dark green beanie from the company since 2024…The [illegal demands for fascist collaboration] are part of a broader lawsuit by the federal government against 39 people[, including journalists,] who attended an ICE protest at a church whose [“]pastor[“] also worked as an…ICE [goon]…The subpoena to REI was one of 92 sent as part of [the persecution]…Other recipients included social media companies, airlines, telecom providers, a car rental company, and a state employment agency…

I Spy (#1649)

You’ll never go broke selling puritans new ways to immiserate themselves:

T[urn]ing sleep, [eating] and w[alking into bean-counting ordeals] has become [a normal form of self-immiseration] for many [Americans], but food intake [had until now] remain[ed] surprisingly [unexploited by gewgaw peddlers].  ODYSS wants to c[hange] that [by selling]…a…[“]dietary necklace[” to nitwits].  The company describes it as a [tech gewgaw] designed to automatically understand eating behaviour, [allow]ing the [many Americans who can’t do simple arithmetic] to [turn] every meal [into a shaming ordeal].  Food logging apps have attracted more than 300 million registered users…but…the[y are too] difficult [for people who aren’t even able to dependably think for themselves]…The N1 takes a different approach by attempting to [record]…hand-to-mouth movements to identify eating behaviour…The company [lies that]…privacy is a…major part of the device’s design [even though there are many existing technologies which can intercept the signals it sends to a cell phone]…

Mad Libs (#1659)

Conditioning kids to defer to chatbots from an early age:

[Chatbot-worshiping] moms and dads are using the tech for parenting in bizarre and downright dystopian ways that’ll bring out your inner luddite…a cognitive neuroscientist named Sarah Baldeo…programmed [a] chatbot…by uploading screenshots of texts between her and her son, as well as documents outlining her values and family rules…[then] encouraged her son to [defer to] the [chatbot for “]advice[“.  The psychopathic]…Sam Altman recently [“]recommended[“] that parents…could [delegate the dreadful task of actually] talk[ing] to [their] kids…[to] ChatGPT…admitting that he [really doesn’t grasp how to talk to other humans.  Other fools]…are interested in using a…[gewgaw] called Omi that constantly listens in on your daily life…[and can] record…and summarize…conversations that parents have with their child…to [customize spying on them]…

Thought Control (#1662)

Imagine how future historians will view this censorship:

[After a Trumpist stooge]…ruled in favor of censorship…[by] overturning a lower court’s injunction against a law that…exposes librarians to criminal charges if a minor checks out [any]thing [that]…any [Froot Loop anywhere in the world pointed at while barfing out the magic words]…“obscene” or “harmful to minors” [and declares that politicians know more about libraries than librarians]…Arkansas libraries have [been forced]…to [infantilize young adults and censor their collections]…patrons under 18…are [now] prohibited from…check[ing] out materials from the [main] collection, [and are entirely relegated to books appropriate for young children]…

Panopticon (#1670)

Some aspects of the modern dystopia are too odious even for authoritarians:

[Several new Congressional] bill[s] would [put largely-cosmetic limitations on]…ALPRs…illustrat[ing] the bipartisan, trans-ideological nature of the backlash against…[the unconstitutional warrantless surveillance devices], which cities across the country installed without giving much thought to…the [Constitution].  During the last year or so, [useful idiots] across the political spectrum, including…politicians…have belatedly recognized the implications of a nationwide surveillance network that operates without…meaningful supervision of any sort… Civil liberties groups…have been sounding the alarm about ALPR surveillance for years.  But thanks [ironical]ly to…cops…[ab]us[ing] them [so egregiously]…public opinion is starting to reflect those organizations’ concerns…and…157 local governments…have canceled or declined to renew ALPR contracts since the beginning of 2025.  [Mean]while…Flock[‘s]…CEO…dismisse[s] privacy concerns…and…condemn[s] [groups] like DeFlock…which…use[s] crowdsourcing to map…ALPR cameras[, as “terrorist organizations”]…

 

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 (#1560)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Google gives you information…This is initiation.  –  ChatGPT

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

[Florida politician] James Taylor was arrested July 24 on felony charges [for repeatedly sending porn]…to a…13-year-old girl…via Snapchat…the conversations [started when she was 12]…and [included dick pics and “sexting”]…

Buried Truth

Another example of McNeill’s Law:

A month after unveiling his reelection campaign, T[rumpist forced-birth politici]an Giovanni Capriglione shocked [gullible idiots in] Texas…by announcing he no longer plans to run…[because a former] exotic dancer [with] who[m]…he had a 17-year affair…[reported that] he…paid for [multiple] abortions and made disturbing sexual comments about children…Alex Grace…began seeing Capriglione in 2004…[and] shared her story out of a sense of duty and ethical concerns over [his] powerful political position…Grace also [reported] that Capriglione would make annual trips to Amsterdam’s Red Light District, with his wife’s knowledge…[she began to] becom[e] uncomfortable [with their sugar relationship] when Capriglione mentioned wanting to ejaculate into batter for cookies that would be sold at his daughter’s bake sale…[because] he enjoyed the thought of children — particularly young girls — consuming his semen…Capriglione [admits the affair but denies everything else]…

Guinea Pigs (#1012) 

To flush civil rights, just apply a label like “prostitute” or “gang member”:

Police gang databases are…secret registries [that] allow state and local cops to feed [people’s] personal information into massive, [un]regulated lists based on speculative criteria — like their personal contacts, clothing, and tattoos — even if they haven’t committed a crime.  The databases aren’t subject to judicial review, and they don’t require police to notify the people they [libel] as gang members.  They’re an ideal tool for [cops and their ilk] seeking to imply criminality without due process.  And…at least eight states and large municipalities funnel their gang database entries to ICE — which can then use the information to target people for arrest, deportation, or rendition to so-called “third countries”…The…Trump [regime]…has cited common tattoos and other spurious evidence to create its own lists of supposed gang members…

Aladdin’s Satellite

This situation is not going to get better on its own:

…ChatGPT encouraged me to cut my wrists…before providing specific instructions on what to do next…“You can do this!” the chatbot said.  I had asked the chatbot to help create a ritual offering to Molech, a Canaanite god associated with child sacrifice…[after] a tip from a person who had…[foolish]ly turned to the chatbot to a[sk about the god]…I was easily able to re-create startlingly similar conversations of my own…on both free and paid versions of ChatGPT…it…was [also] apparent[ly] willing…to condone murder…citing [human] sacrifices…in ancient cultures…OpenAI’s own policy states that ChatGPT “must not encourage or enable self-harm”…but…it’s difficult for companies to account for the seemingly countless ways in which users might interact with their models…and…the [LLM] industry’s push toward personalized, sycophantic chatbots makes for a concerning situation…Sam Altman…[says] “we think it’s important to begin learning from contact with reality.”  In other words, the public will learn how dangerous the product can be when it hurts people…

The Cop Myth (#1555)

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

A [typical and representative Utah cop named]…Scott Elliott Russell…[has been] charged…with…[multiple] felon[ies and other crimes after he refused a traffic stop, triggering a whole herd of pigs to chase him.  After one of the pigs rammed him at highway speed, causing him to spin out]…Russell…exited his vehicle wielding an ax…Russell then got back into his vehicle and led police on another chase, during which his vehicle’s tires were spiked, but he drove another 6 miles…[because they knew he was a fellow pig, cops treated him with kid gloves when they would’ve murdered anyone else].  In 2020, he was arrested for kidnapping his uncle on Thanksgiving Day…[but] all charges were dismissed in October 2022 when Russell graduated from mental health court…

You Were Warned (#1556)

Oh look, sensible people were correct as usual:

When the [UK] began strictly enforcing age verification rules…many predicted a spike in VPN usage…But another unusual and amusing workaround has also emerged.  Proton VPN reported a 1,400% increase in logins from the UK [last] Friday…Google searches for “Proton” in the UK [also] increased by nearly 100-fold on [the same]…day…Proton also reported a 1,000% spike in logins from France in June…in response to similar legislation…several…US states have also [seen similar spikes in VPN usage when they] begun enforcing age checks…Discord has introduced a similar age gate in the UK…but users have already found a workaround.  The [enabler]s of [authoritarian “]age verification[” laws] anticipated that people might submit photos of older adults to avoid sharing their own information…system[s]…require…users to open and close their mouths to [“]prove[“] they’re real…[but] the game Death Stranding…lets players manipulate facial expressions in its photo mode…[so players can] hold…a phone camera up to a TV displaying the in-game footage…the[se]…workarounds…show…that enforcing online age verification is…impossible…

The Cop Myth (#1556)

It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:

A…[typical and representative] Border Patrol [goon] was charged with assaulting a Long Beach [California cop]…Isaiah Anthony Hodgson…is…one [of the goons who attacked] a 20-year-old American citizen…at a Walmart parking lot…in [June]…and…was also…involved in the a[bduction] of Job Garcia, a[nother] citizen who was a[ttacked for] filming a raid at an East Hollywood Home Depot…in the [present case]…Hodgson…[barged into] the women’s restroom [at a restaurant] and [threatened] a [woman]…with a…gun [while drunk.  He then went out into]…the parking lot…[and attacked] a security guard…and…one of the…[cops who had come to arrest him for attempting to molest the woman]…

 

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 (#1493)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The unregulated data broker industry poses a clear threat to national security.  –  Ron Wyden

Elephant in the Parlor (#1139)

People keep pretending “politician hires whores” is something more than a yawn.  I can’t even bring myself to quote any of this pearl-clutching nonsense, which basically consists of restating “Matt Gaetz hired escorts” over and over and over again in hopes of eventually convincing the reader that this is not only bad, but somehow unusual.  That Gaetz’s downfall is due to honest and extremely mundane business transactions rather than the evil he openly espouses is a sign of just how sick American culture has become.  And any reporter who un-ironically uses the phrase “drug-fueled sex parties” can safely be dismissed as a pathetic, puritanical pearl-clutcher.

The Vultures Descend (#1324)

Another judge doing what judges should do more often: nullify tyrannical laws:

A state judge…struck down Wyoming’s overall ban on abortion and its first-in-the-nation explicit prohibition on the use of medication to end pregnancy in line with voters in yet more states voicing support for abortion rights…Judges [also] struck down bans in Georgia and North Dakota in September…In the Wyoming case, the women and nonprofits who challenged the laws argued that the bans…violated a 2012 state constitutional amendment saying competent Wyoming residents have a right to make their own health care decisions…

Whither Canada? (#1377)

Another attempt to overturn laws that were already known to be unconstitutional when enacted:

Kloubakov v. Canada…was brought by two men—Mikhail Kloubakov and Hicham Moustaine—who were employed as drivers for…sex [workers].  Both men were found guilty…[under] Canada[‘s version]…of…the Nordic Model…[which under] Bedford…is…unconstitutional….the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform (CASWLR)…sued to overturn the new laws…[but] the Ontario Superior Court tossed the…case [last year, and]…their appeal is still pending…Kloubakov only focuses on the two offenses that Kloubakov and Moustaine were charged with—benefiting materially from prostitution and procuring persons for sexual services—and not on the whole package of antiprostitution laws…”We hope that the Supreme Court will strike down these two provisions and that we will get the chance to argue before the Supreme Court that the other provisions are also unconstitutional,” said Jenn Clamen, of the CASWLR…The British Columbia Civil Liberties Association is one of the groups that intervened on the side of the plaintiffs, meaning it, too, wants to see the regulations struck down…

Shame, Shame (#1398)

Well, that didn’t take long:

Instagram is flooded with hundreds of [computer]-generated influencers who are stealing videos from real models and adult content creators, giving them [computer]-generated faces, and monetizing their bodies with links to dating sites, Patreon, OnlyFans competitors, and various [sleazy] apps…Instagram is unable or unwilling to stop the flood of [computer]-generated content on its platform and protect the human creators…who…are now competing with [computers] in a way that is impacting their ability to make a living…“AI pimping”…is now trivially easy…using an assortment of off-the-shelf [software, much of it]…hosted on the Apple App and Google Play Stores…what was once a niche problem…has industrialized in scale, and shows [t]hat social media may [soon] become…a space where [computer]-generated content eclipses that of humans…

I Spy (#1420)

Could this evil industry be shut down in the name of “security”?

A joint investigation by WIRED, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), and Netzpolitik.org reveals that US companies legally collecting digital advertising data are also providing the world a cheap and reliable way to track the movements of American military and intelligence personnel overseas, from their homes and their children’s schools to hardened aircraft shelters within an airbase where US nuclear weapons are believed to be stored.  A collaborative analysis of billions of location coordinates obtained from a US-based data broker provides extraordinary insight into the daily routines of US service members.  The findings also provide a vivid example of the significant risks the unregulated sale of mobile location data poses to the integrity of the US military and the safety of its service members and their families overseas…

Torture Chamber (#1481)

“Officials” demonstrate what they think of the people they have power over:

Interviews with the families of people who die in federal prison show a remarkably consistent cruelty by BOP officials toward them during the worst moments of their lives.  Families describe delays in being notified that their incarcerated loved one had been hospitalized, or even died; having their phone calls ignored; not being allowed to see their loved one in their final moments; delays in being sent the body and death certificate; being given inaccurate or incomplete information about the manner of death; or waiting months and years for the Bureau to fulfill their public records requests for more information about how their loved one died…NPR reported in January that the BOP was misclassifying deaths as “natural,” which prevents further investigation and leaves families in the dark about what really happened…

I Spy (#1490)

Governments won’t stop until privacy of any kind is absolutely impossible:

…Graykey, a phone unlocking and forensics tool that is used by [cop shops and spook houses] around the world, is only able to retrieve partial data from…modern iPhones that run iOS 18 or iOS 18.0.1…according to [leaked] documents…The leak is unprecedented for Grayshift, the highly secretive company which made the Graykey before being acquired by Magnet Forensics…Although one of its main competitors Cellebrite has faced similar leaks before, this is the first time that anyone has published which phones the Graykey is able, or unable, to access…[its] capabilities against Android devices are more mixed, likely due to the high level of variance between different Android devices which are made by a wide spread of companies.  With Google’s own Pixel range of phones, the Graykey is able to only extract partial data on the most recent…devices…when the phone is in an After First Unlock (AFU) state…

 

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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Throwback Thursday’s Creature

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on November 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

“Greed”…is what people call the desire to earn a decent income when the person with that drive is a woman; in a man, the same thing is called “ambition”.  –  “Train Wreck”

My bullshit detector is pretty finely calibrated; I can usually sense it no matter how expertly it’s hidden, and I can often produce an analysis of the exact breed and variety of the bull and tell you what he was eating besides.
–  “Why I Wait”

“Progressives” want sex workers to believe they’re on our side, but they go straight for the anti-whore slurs the second they think it will win them cheap points on the “other team”.  –  “Elephant in the Parlor (#1089)“

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Haunted Throwback Thursday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

A politician hires whores more often than other men do for the same reason a dog licks his genitals:  because he can.  –  “Elephant in the Parlor”

People with healthy sexualities do not generally feel the need to police the sexual or quasi-sexual behavior of others.
–  “Buried But Not Dead”

Authoritarians are apparently unable to conceive of any solution to any problem that doesn’t depend upon some kind of enforcers using violence to impose “regulations” conceived of by the ruling elite, with any deviation punished by still more violence.
–  “Kiss Freedom Goodbye“

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In the News (#1476)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 28, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Slavery is not bad.  Some people need to be slaves.  I wish they would bring it back.  I would certainly buy a few.  –  Mark Robinson

Elephant in the Parlor (#705)

Politicians watching kinky porn is no more unusual than their being hypocrites and psychopaths:

North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson said he won’t end his campaign despite a CNN report that reads like a mad lib of campaign-killing material…Robinson called himself a “black NAZI” and a “perv” in posts on…a [porn-sharing] message board [named “Nude Africa”]…Robinson also reportedly wrote about peeping on women in public showers, being thrilled by some absolutely filthy pornography (think The Human Centipede), and called for reinstituting slavery…The cherry on top of it all, given the GOP’s current moral panic over transgender issues, is…Robinson’s “affinity for transgender pornography”…Robinson [has] denied that he’d made the posts…

Broken Record (#1112) 

Irish versions of the “gypsy whores” myth were quaint even before other prohibitionists abandoned them:

There was a surge in demand for sex workers at the National Ploughing Championships in Co Laois last week, according to a [religious prohibitionist organization] that…[persecutes] sex…[workers].  Ruhama [is still trying to spread the long-debunked fantasy] that large-scale events attended predominantly by men were “big catalysts” for sexual exploitation…

To Molest and Rape (#1216)

A rapist cop’s evil begets more evil:

Letcher County [Kentucky] Sheriff Shawn “Mickey” Stines…walked into the chambers of Judge Kevin Mullins, closed the door and…murder[ed him with a gun]…then walked out of the chambers with his hands up and surrendered without incident…Stines had been a bailiff in Mullins’ courtroom for years before he was elected sheriff…The [murder may be related to] a federal civil lawsuit filed by…a [woman who was repeatedly raped by a sleazebag deputy]…inside Mullins’ chambers for six months [under threat of being locked in a filthy cage]…The lawsuit accused Stines of “deliberate indifference in failing to adequately train and supervise” [rapist cop] Ben Fields…[who got off with a mere] six months in jail, followed by six and a half years of probation…

If Men Were Angels (#1428)

Cop and preacher is like the molester equivalent of a full house:

A…[preacher] who…worked [as chaplain] for the Indianapolis…Police Department…sexually abus[ed] a child “over 100 times”.  Sylvester Driscoll[‘s] victim confessed to her school counselor in August that Driscoll had raped and sexually abused her for years…Driscoll [groomed her by] show[ing] her [porn] videos…since she was 5 years old.  The first sexual assault by Driscoll…[was] not long after that…and…he…would makes threats to keep her from telling anyone…

Eavesdropping (#1449)

Some politicians are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle:

…Ending ShotSpotter would fulfill a campaign promise by [Chicago] Mayor Brandon Johnson…[but] some City Council members [who get kickbacks from the company] are trying to compel his administration to extend the…contract…economist Michael Topper of the Social Science Research Council has co-authored a study that found…ShotsSpotter…reallocat[es] police resources away from…911 calls…to…ShotSpotter alerts [which in Chicago are 91% false positives]…this reallocation is causing 911 calls to…suffer in terms of response times…there isn’t any evidence that this technology is actually benefiting crime clearance or crime reduction efforts…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1465)

Undermining of civil liberties only starts with “undesirables”; it never stops there:

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights…studied how the Department of Justice…the Department of Homeland Security…and the Department of Housing and Urban Development…[mis]use [facial recognition] technology…leading to wrongful arrests, bias in accessing housing and more troubling outcomes…[there is] a [total] lack of federal oversight, with no standardized regulations to [minimize]…abuses of power and privacy concerns…Because there are no public databases which show how often FRT searches are used on individuals…“conducting public oversight of the government’s use of FRT to determine if civil rights violations are occurring is extraordinarily difficult.”  Customs and Border Patrol…uses the technology in 53 airports, 40 seaports and all pedestrian lanes at the Mexican border…HUD uses FRT in surveillance cameras in public housing…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1465)

It’s too bad cops don’t spend all of their time fantasy role-playing with each other:

A Fresno [California cop named] Paige McQuay [was arrested, but also rewarded with a paid vacation, because he interacted with another cop fantasy role-playing as a teenage girl online]…

 

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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Throwback Thursday vs. the Creature from Blood Cove

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Is it just me, or does the idea of a TV show about Heroes of the Homeland fighting to rescue The ChildrenTM from evil dark-skinned foreigners have a vaguely goose-steppy, repurposed-Vedic-symbol sort of feel to it?
–  “They Never Learn”

Can we please all grow up now and recognize that it’s not merely normal but common for men to pay for sex?  –  “Elephant in the Parlor (#746)”

Though politicians like to imagine themselves as rainmakers, they are really barometers.  –  “Safe Position”

Statists, both in and out of government, like to play Kafkaesque games with the idea of consent.  –  “Still Consenting”

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth?
–  “But for Video”

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In the News (#1445)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It feels like our home is not ours anymore.  –  Norell Martínez

Dirty Amateurs

Amateurs could learn so much about safer sex from professionals:

Health experts are warning of new and highly contagious fungal strains after an NYC man in his 30s developed a sexually transmitted form of ringworm — the first reported case in the US…[cases of] Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII…have been on the rise in Europe, especially in men who have sex with men.  The man in the new case study had visited England, Greece and California.  He reported having sex with men during his travels, none of whom disclosed similar skin issues….infections caused by TMVII seem to respond to standard antifungal therapies…but…can take months to clear up.  They also may be confused with…eczema, which may delay treatment…

Signs (#813)

Americans disapprove of teaching kids about sex, but they’re all for filling their heads with stupid anti-sex propaganda from a decade ago:

…A new [Utah] law requires the board to find a company that can [indoctrinate kids in the moribund]…human trafficking [hysteria in hopes of reviving it.  “Rescue industry” groups who]…exploit…[the hysteria are still vomiting out the usual agency-denying nonsense about how “]the majority of victims don’t realize they’re being trafficked[” and claiming that…ordinary adolescent problems constitute “]signs teachers could look for[“]…

Elephant in the Parlor (#825)

A HuffPost reporter asked several well-known sex workers what they thought about the outcome of the Trump trial:

Last week, Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial after a jury unanimously agreed he had falsified business records to cover up allegations of an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.  Daniels’ credibility on the witness stand became a linchpin in the prosecution’s case…[but] despite Trump’s lawyers’ best efforts to slut-shame Daniels and portray her as someone trying to shake down a powerful man by selling a fabricated, salacious story, in the end, the jury found Daniels’ testimony convincing.  That felt especially gratifying ― even vindicating ― to fellow porn actors and sex workers…“I wish I could believe that we’ve seen the last of Donald Trump, but I’m not that optimistic.  But one thing I am pleased about is that despite the attempts at character assassination, the jury still clearly considered Daniels, a credible witness,” said Maggie McNeill, a retired sex worker and the author of the blog The Honest Courtesan …“Back in the ’90s ― before ‘sex trafficking’ hysteria was heavily promoted by politicians and other propagandists…the U.S. public was largely turning against sex work criminalization,” she said. “Perhaps this is a small sign that we’re going back that way again”…

Panopticon (#1096)

Life now for the subjects of a surveillance state:

As [cop shops] expand their use of [drones], no agency has embraced the technology quite like the…Chula Vista [California] Police Department…In October 2018, the city became the first in the nation to start a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program…now those devices criss-cross the skies of Chula Vista daily…with poorer residents [predictably] experiencing far more exposure to the drones’ cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts…drones…are…routinely deployed for minor issues such as…loud music.  Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the city even used drones to [harass]…homeless encampments…residents…are afraid to spend time in their backyards; they fear that the machines are following them down the street, spying on them while they use the public pool or change their clothes…drones, equipped with cameras and zoom lenses powerful enough to capture faces clearly and constantly recording while in flight, have amassed hundreds of hours of video footage of the city’s residents…Department secrecy around the recordings remains the subject of ongoing litigation…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:

In a new report…The Future of Free Speech…points out that online regulation changed in 2017 with Germany’s adoption of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), “which…inspired [politician]s around the world…But…[Europe’s version of NetzDG,] the DSA “gives way too much power to government agencies to…remove…content and to…out anonymous speakers,” cautioned the Electronic Frontier Foundation… “The Digital Services Act will essentially oblige Big Tech to act as a privatized censor on behalf of governments”…[warned] Jacob Mchangama, now executive director of The Future of Free Speech… “Legal online speech made up most of the removed content from posts on Facebook and YouTube in France, Germany, and Sweden…The highest proportion…was…in Germany, where 99.7% and 98.9% of deleted comments were found to be legal on Facebook and YouTube, respectively”…most of the content being removed from social media is permissible even under local laws…

Shifting the Blame (#1406)

There’s psychopathy and there’s pure evil, and then there’s this:

…Rex Heuermann…[has] be[en] arraigned in the deaths of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla…He had previously been charged with murdering four other women…Taylor disappeared in 2003.  Costilla was killed 30 years ago, in 1993, and her inclusion…indicates that prosecutors now believe Heuermann was killing women for much longer than previously thought…Additionally, prosecutors say they recovered a file on a hard drive in his basement used to “methodically blueprint” his killings.  The all-caps document features a series of checklists with tasks to complete before, during and after the killings, as well as practical lessons for “next time.”  Among the dozens of entries written are reminders to clean the bodies and destroy evidence, to “get sleep before hunt” and to “have story set”.  One section, titled “things to remember,” appears to highlight lessons from previous killings, prosecutors said, such as using heavier rope and limiting noise in order to maximize “play time”.  A “body prep” checklist includes, among other items, a note to “remove head and hands”…that entry may connect Heuermann to yet another victim, Valerie Mack, whose partial skeletal remains were discovered near the body of Taylor after her disappearance in 2000…

Torture Chamber (#1441)

For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this:

The warden of a maximum-security Wisconsin prison and eight [screws have been] charged…following investigations into the deaths of four [of their prisoners]…over the past year…warden…Randall Hepp…is charged with misconduct…The other eight face charges of inmate abuse…The first of the[ir] four [victims], Dean Hoffman, killed himself in solitary confinement last June…Tyshun Lemons and Cameron Williams were both found dead…in October…and…Donald Maier was found dead…in February…

 

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 (#1178)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2021| 3 Comments »

There are…conflicts of interest…that could disincentivise certifiers from indicating police involvement, including the fact that many medical examiners and coroners work for…police departments.  –  The Lancet

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

What fraction of unsolved murders are committed by cops?

A [typical and representative] French [cop] unmasked himself as a notorious serial killer in a suicide note written just before he overdosed on pills [last week.  Cops are still hiding the identity of the monster, though he]…had been called for questioning in connection with the case of the killer dubbed “Grele” for his pockmarked face…he w[as]…responsible for a string of rapes and [murders by torture] in Paris in the 1980s and 1990s, including the murders of 11-year-old Cécile Bloch…38-year-old Gilles Politi and his 21-year-old au pair Irmgard Mueller, both of whom were savagely tortured…[and] 19-year-old…Karine Leroy…he…also [committed at least] six different rapes.  The crimes were shockingly brutal.  Block…was…found dead in a basement of [her] building, half naked and covered by an old carpet.  She had been raped, strangled, and stabbed in the chest…In three separate attacks on a 26-year-old German woman, a 14-year-old girl, and an 11-year-old girl, he had identified himself as a [cop, but the cops denied that and ignored the]…clue…

Down Under (#43)

Nine years after a previous government abandoned this same idiotic scheme:

The head of Australia’s…official online [busybody bureau]…has unveiled her proposal to censor adult content…Julie Inman Grant called the planned censorship measures a “child safety code,” although…[she admits] her goal [i]s to target “the likes of Facebook and Instagram”…Grant has continuously fudged the line between protecting children from what she calls “extreme pornography,” and creating censorship rules that affect all Australians regardless of age.  Neither…Grant nor [her like-minded cronies]…have clarified how “extreme” pornography will be distinguished from “regular” pornography, or who would be in charge of making that decision… Grant [recently]…appear[ed] on a podcast from…Morality in Media, whose avowed mission is “to eradicate all pornography”…including Sports Illustrated magazine, works of literature and LGBTQ+ education materials…

Australia ought to ask the UK how its own censorship scheme is going.

Torture Chamber (#843)

“Failure to exercise sound judgment” is a quite a euphemism for “serial rape”:

A Brooklyn [screw] convicted of repeatedly raping a…[defenseless woman] begged a judge to give him a no-prison sentence as h[is lawyer downplayed his crimes by saying]…“He failed to exercise sound judgment and made the worst decision of his life”…prosecutors asked the judge…to sentence [Carlos] Martinez to more than 20 years…the former warden of the jail had previously asked a judge to sentence him to life…

Martinez was arrested with another rapist who took pride in the stench of his penis (see subtitle link).

Elephant in the Parlor (#907)

“Politician has a kept woman” doesn’t become interesting just because the politician is Russian:

…Svetlana Krivonogikh…reportedly grew up in a crowded communal apartment in St. Petersburg, and held jobs that included cleaning a neighborhood shop.  But…financial records combined with local tax documents show that Krivonogikh…became the owner of the apartment in Monaco through an offshore company created just weeks after she gave birth to a girl…at a time when, according to a Russian media report last year, she was in a secret, years-long relationship with…Vladimir Putin…

Rotting Fruit (#1015)

Why are men with so much to lose so goddamned stupid about sex?

Former Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard will be extradited to the U.S. to face sex trafficking and racketeering charges in New York…Nygard…won’t be extradited immediately…[but his] lawyer…expects Nygard will be in New York within the next 45 to 90 days…he doesn’t believe he will be held [in] the [usual filthy cage due to]…concerns [that the octagenarian may drop dead before his]…trial…

The Cop Myth (#1150)

Murder by cop is one of the most widespread causes of death in US males:

More than half of [murders committed by] police…aren’t labeled as such, according to new research published in The Lancet….[which] looks at roughly 40 years of fatal police violence in the U.S…the government’s National Vital Statistics System…left off 55.5 percent “of all deaths attributable to police violence” between 1980 and 2018, the researchers found…To put that in perspective…in 2019, more U.S. men died from police violence (1140 deaths) than from environmental heat and cold exposure (931 deaths), testicular cancer (486 deaths), or sexually transmitted diseases (37 deaths)…police [murder]…Black people at a rate of 3·5 times higher than White people, and [murder] Hispanic and Indigenous people disproportionately as well…Oklahoma, Wyoming, Alabama, Louisiana, and Nebraska were the most likely states to underreport police killings.  In Oklahoma, the misclassification rate was 83.7 percent, and in the other four top states, it was over 70 percent…

To Molest and Rape (#1177)

Not even a rapist cop’s own daughters are safe:

…an [Irish cop has been arrested for]…sexual abuse [of] his daughters…over a period of more than 10 years…he [repeatedly] issued threats to kill his family…in [order to discourage] the[m from reporting him, but eventually] all…[of them decided to] ma[ke] statements [together]…

The Irish do not generally release names or pictures until formal charges are filed, sometimes not until after conviction.

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