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Posts Tagged ‘Europe’

In the News (#1098)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 19, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Analysing the content of all [electronic] correspondence….[is] as if the post office opened all letters in search of illegal content.  –  Patrick Breyer

Unreal Princesses

Pretending to be a sex worker gets attention, without the stigma of really being one:

If you spend a lot of time on TikTok…you’ve probably come across ItsImperial…an 18-year-old with high cheekbones, a septum piercing, and intense, dark eyebrows…[who] has racked up an impressive 1.9 million followers in less than a year, typically posting…wild stories about her [supposed] stripping career…[but] many on StripperTok don’t believe Imperial’s stories are actually true…Jessica Kind…who…has been in the industry for 11 years, says that Imperial’s florid accounts of life as a sex worker facing a litany of abusive or lascivious clients do real harm to an already-stigmatized community…One of the most glaring red flags, says Kind, was the fact that on her TikToks Imperial rarely makes references to the presence of security or a bouncer, which is standard to prevent dancers from being mistreated. (One exception is the TikTok where she discusses having a gun pulled on her, and she says security intervened)…The presence of a bouncer…would theoretically prevent many of the incidents Imperial describes in her videos, such as being pelted with feces or being attacked by a jealous wife who smells her perfume…Imperial [claims]…that she works private parties, not at clubs…[but] most privates are booked through connections made at clubs. Imperial’s website also doesn’t allow potential patrons to book her, and her Instagram, where she has 181,000 followers, doesn’t promote upcoming appearances…She also doesn’t appear to follow the local clubs in her area, nor do they follow her, as is common in the industry. “I don’t see how it would be possible for her to advertise and make money off private parties during a pandemic,” says Bebe Gunn…

Above the Law  

FBI thugs are just federal cops, and behave accordingly:

An assistant FBI director…drunkenly grop[ed] a female subordinate in a stairwell.  Another…sexually harassed eight employees.  Yet another…blackmail[ed] a young employee into s[ubmitting to rape]…An Associated Press investigation has identified at least six s[uch cases]…over the past five years, including two new claims brought this week by women who…were sexually assaulted by ranking agents.  [As is typical for rapist cops,] each of the…officials…avoided…[any meaningful consequences], and several were quietly transferred or retired, keeping their full pensions and benefits…Beyond that, federal [rapist] officials are afforded anonymity even after the disciplinary process runs its course, allowing them to land on their feet in the private sector or even remain in law enforcement…

Pretext

More cops using non-consenting people as props in a propaganda show:

…Instead of writing tickets, some deputies with the Richland County [South Carolina] Sheriff’s Department [played a sick practical joke and called it] spread[ing] Christmas cheer.  [Cops] patrolled the Eastover and Gadsden areas, pulling over [people on various pretexts and giving them] gift cards…

As usual, reporters obediently parrot the pigs’ press release without any counterpoint from a lawyer or civil rights advocate.

Torture Chamber (#928) 

Your government refers to this as “correction”:

After more than a year of warnings that Alabama’s gore-soaked prison system violates the Constitution, the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the state…for its failure to prevent violence and sexual assault against…men [it keeps locked in cages]…Alabama’s prison system…is overcrowded, unsanitary, and…deliberately indifferent to the frequent and often deadly assaults against inmates, violating the Eighth Amendment and the 14th Amendment of the Constitution…

I Spy (#1000)

Anyone who doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs should be following this:

…the European Parliament’s Civil liberties Committee voted to restrict the ePrivacy Directive…[in order to] generally and indiscriminately…screen and monitor all private electronic communications in the absence of any suspicion in order to search for [supposed] child pornographic content and “child grooming”.  On 10 September 2020, it presented a draft law to this effect.  Providers of e-mail, chat and messenger services would be…[forced to] search…the content of all private messages.  Looking for as yet unknown material would mean that even intimate photographs of adults will frequently be exposed.  In addition, error-prone algorithms are to search text messages for “solicitation of sexual contact” with minors.  Supposed hits are reported to the police.  A second law planned for next year will make this mass surveillance procedure compulsory, even where secure end-to-end encryption is [currently] used to protect private messages…

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1096)

Prohibition never eradicates the prohibited thing; it just helps shady participants:

…the DOJ helped shut down law-abiding American porn producers, paved the way for Pornhub to dominate the market for online porn, and made the problem of illegal pornography worse…The Bush-era Obscenity Task Force started shutting down American porn companies right and left in 2005.  Pornhub launched in 2006.  The DOJ jailed Pornhub’s competition (and those who didn’t get arrested shut down their sites in fear by the hundreds) while allowing Pornhub to flout copyright and 2257 requirements (which establish that porn performers are citizens and of age)…By doing this, the DOJ helped move the adult industry away from a thriving competitive marketplace of independent American porn producers who were legally required to prove their performers were consenting adults toward three or four offshore tax-evading secretive companies with zero requirements to prove the porn they host is created by consenting adults.  Does anyone seriously think this made the porn industry safer or better in any way, shape, or form?…

To Molest and Rape (#1096)

Notice how often rapist cops’ victims are underage?

…Mike Wilson, a [typical and representative cop] with the Trenton [Missouri] police department, was arrested…and [charged with] statutory rape…[he is also being investigated for trying to talk a different underage girl into bed]…

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In the News (#1091)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 25, 2020| Leave a Comment »

Criminalizing fiction is thoughtcrime.  –  Prostasia

Thought Control 

Imagine your home being fired upon and a heavily armed SWAT team busting through your front door, all so that the government can stop people from reading fiction.  It sounds like a scenario from a dystopian novel, but this really happened on November 7, 2019, when FBI agents raided the home of Thomas Arthur, the administrator of an erotic fiction archive, charging him with obscenity-related crimes.  His trial will be an important test case, which will determine whether the government is entitled to do this.  Prostasia Foundation is assisting in the defense, by arranging for an art censorship expert to testify as a witness. But we need your help to cover their costs…The prosecution of Mr Arthur for hosting text-only stories is outrageous, and it cannot be allowed to succeed…

Under Every Bed 

This regurgitation of debunked nonsense is pathetic even by cop standards:

A girl sitting…in a car…might be a sign of human trafficking…[cops & prosecutors stroking themselves]…100,000 and 300,000 children in the United States are victims of…sex trafficking each year…[the Shahada]…[more cops & prosecutors stroking themselves]…proactive …underage girls or boys prostituted in the illegal commercial sex industry…The handlers of these [inanimate] victims move them around a lot…brainwashed, emotionally controlled…conditioned to protect that pimp…”they don’t know they need rescued [sic]”…the victim runs away from that safe place…Children…18 or older…One in six runaways are sex trafficking victims…the average age of death is 34…”we’re on I-65″…100 percent genuine victims…

Guinea Pigs

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

…Salt Lake City…District Attorney Sim Gill [pre]tends that, because…he [chose to charge] protesters…[as] a group…their…charges are subject to a “gang” enhancement.  One of those protesters, Madalena McNeil, is accused of buying red paint that was splashed on the outside of Gill’s office building…police…subpoenaed McNeil’s Venmo account and filed an affidavit targeting state [politician] Derek Kitchen—who did not attend the protest in question—over a $10 Venmo payment with the caption “paint” the previous month…experts suggest…this…saga [h]as [become] a caricature of law-enforcement overkill…

The original story was included in Links #528.

Rooted in Racism (#966)

The racism of European “anti-trafficking” schemes is getting harder to disguise:

…[In the first weeks of November] more than 100 people [died] at sea in four separate shipwrecks within less than 72 hours [while]…six NGO rescue ships remain blocked in port by…European authorities…Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, [Medecins Sans Frontieres’] Humanitarian Affairs Advisor [said]…“For European governments…to say they are saddened by this horrendous loss of life is hypocritical at best,…They need to stop with the double-speak and admit their responsibility:  shipwrecks like this are the direct outcome of their approach to migration.”  Nearly 700 people have died in their attempt to escape Libya across the central Mediterranean during 2020, and…rather than meeting their international and maritime obligations to assist those in distress at sea, European states have chosen to further decimate search and rescue capacity…European states must stop blaming this loss of life…on [so-called] traffickers.  They must instead accept that the mass loss of life in these incidents are the human collateral of their own calculated and political decision-making…

A Broker in Pillage (#1062)

A good argument for refusing to roll over and let yourself be robbed:

The…DEA…will return more than $43,000 it seized from a Tampa woman at an airport after she joined a class-action lawsuit challenging the agency’s practice of [robbing people] using civil asset forfeiture…The DEA seized $43,167 from Stacy Jones last May as she was trying to fly home to Tampa, Florida, from Wilmington, North Carolina…the cash was from the sale of a used car, as well as money she and her husband intended to take to a casino.  Jones is now a named plaintiff in a class-action civil rights lawsuit filed in January by the Institute for Justice…Although it is legal to fly domestically with large amounts of undeclared cash, the…DEA and…TSA…have a practice or policy of s[teal]ing currency from travelers at U.S. airports without probable cause simply if the dollar amount is greater than $5,000…

The Implosion Begins (#1069)

The moral panic continues to spin wildly out of control:

An Oklahoma man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 10-month-old infant has repeatedly made Facebook posts in support of the…QAnon [variant of “sex trafficking” hysteria]…Joshua Jennings…was arrested…on charges of first-degree murder…

Tissue of Lies (#1087)

Cops all over the US are trying to shore up the dying “sex trafficking” mythology by combining arrests of sex workers and clients and pretending they’re related:

Tallahassee police wrapped…two-year[s worth of small]-scale…prostitution a[rrests together and called it a]…human trafficking…investigation…[cops claim they] saw images of a child posted on a [sex work ad] website…[and yet only adults were] arrest[ed]…106 were charged with felonies [such as “pimping”] and 72…were charged with misdemeanors…

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In the News (#1047)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 13, 2020| Leave a Comment »

It’s not just that the police want to arrest somebody…they want to mete out punishment.  –  Michael German

Moloch 

Every school district in the country needs to rid itself of evil thugs who stalk and attack students:

Portland Public Schools will no longer have [cops stalking students in] its nine high schools, nor will the other two school districts inside Portland city limits…Superintendent Guadalupe Guerrero…said the district…intends to increase spending on social workers, counselors and culturally specific supports for students…[a politician] announced she plans to introduce a resolution to…bar [uniformed pigs] from…school sporting events and other occasions…

In addition to brutalizing small children for childish behavior and terrorizing them for ordinary play, school pigs also frequently rape teenagers and even little girls.  They are a menace and should be abolished.

Rooted in Racism (#883)

Europeans would rather believe outlandish fantasies about ninja pimps than simply admit black women have adult agency:

Almost 1,000 Nigerian refugees [magically] disappeared from Dutch [concentration camps] last year, and [bureaucrats] are [fantasizing] many of them have been trafficked…The disappearances coincide with…the Netherlands…[trying to] sen[d them] back to Nigeria or Italy, [but the Dutch won’t admit their racism and so prefer to bloviate nonsense about]…Nigerian drugs and prostitution gangs…gain[ing] a foothold in Europe…”The women absolutely don’t want to go back to Italy,” one [camp] worker is quoted as saying….Warner ten Kate, who [uses the] human trafficking [narrative to] prosecut[e black people, pretends]…he is particularly concerned about the pregnant women, whose babies may be victims of illegal adoptions…

Out of Control (#944)

Fortunately, most “incels” are more of a danger to themselves than to others:

A southwest Virginia man who blew off his hand in an… explosives accident has been charged in federal court after [cops] say they found evidence he was making a bomb and wanted to target “hot cheerleaders” because of his sexual frustrations…Cole Carini of Richlands showed up at a hospital…with one hand blown off, fingers blown off his second and other shrapnel wounds.  He [claimed]…he’d been in a lawnmower accident.  But [cops] searched his property, and found explosives materials, rusty nails, pipes…pieces of flesh…[and] parts of a scorched letter that referenced tension “as he now approached the stage of hot cheerleaders” and “I will not be afraid of the consequences no matter what I will be heroic I will make a statement like Elliott Rodgers [sic]”…

Quiet Genocide

Like the US, China tortures people until they plead guilty to crimes they didn’t commit just to escape the cage:

In the Chinese government’s vast network of re-education camps in Xinjiang province, the daily horror of internment [i]s infused with monotony and boredom.  [Prisoners a]re forced to endure countless hours of indoctrination and language classes, perched on small stools.  In some facilities, they ha[ve] to watch TV propaganda broadcasts praising President Xi Jinping for hours on end.  The slightest infraction, such as a whispered conversation, was met with swift and harsh punishment.  But among the many months spent locked up, some former detainees report that one day was different: The day when they were forced to pick one or several infractions from a list they were handed.  In essence, the [prisoners] had to retroactively choose the crimes for which they had been imprisoned…without being told why they had been detained in the first place.  After picking a crime from the list came a sham trial, in which the detainees had no legal representation and were convicted without evidence or due process of any kind…

Across the Pond (#1013)

Redbridge has a long history of harassing sex workers, but this kind of infantilization is a new low:

Loxford Service Station asked…for permission to sell alcohol 24 hours a day, with the condition that night-time sales would only be through a third-party delivery service…[but busybodies claimed the presence of booze] would [magically] contribute to crime in the area…[one politician masturbated furiously while bleating “sex trafficking” fantasies and the deeply stupid statement that]…“The availability of alcohol on Ilford Lane would…allow…”punters”‘, sex workers and their pimps access to alcohol”…

To Molest and Rape (#1014)

Rapists are attracted to police work for obvious reasons:

A Fontana [California cop was rewarded with a]…paid [vacation]…for…raping a 16-year-old girl four years ago…Nicholas Shawn Stark…drugged [the girl in order to rape her]…when [he] was 24 years old, before [he joined the cops, but they cannot]…fire [him] due to [pig protection] laws [of the kind that have precipitated the current national crisis]…

The Cop Myth (#1045)

Cops are responsible for more violence than any other social group in the US:

The “thin blue line” flag is the…centerpiece in a world of merchandise and policing philosophy, all built around the idea that the police are an embattled tribe of warriors, maligned and reviled by a nation that fails to appreciate their unique importance.  The blue line is a reminder that much of the policing community sees itself as separate from the rest of society — and…this well-armed population, imbued with the power to deprive citizens of life and liberty, does not take kindly to those who challenge its authority…“What we’re talking about here is a worldview that says that police are the only force capable of holding society together,” [said] Alex Vitale, a professor of sociology…and author of The End of Policing…The view turns on the notion that “without the constant threat of violent coercive intervention, society will unravel into a war of all against all”…Seen through this lens, “authoritarian solutions are not just necessary, they’re almost preferable.”  In the wake of [George] Floyd’s [murder]…the country is now witnessing what years of militarized conditioning, training, and culture have wrought:  a nationwide protest movement running up against a nationwide police riot…

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In the News (#1008)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 29, 2020| 1 Comment »

Drawing a line between “sexual exploitation” and “labour exploitation” in itself suggests that sex work is not work.  –  Borislav Gerasimov

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

The utter vileness of a pig talking dirty to another pig who’s pretending to be a kid cannot be overstated:

A…[DEA pig]…spent his time trying to arrange sex and soliciting naked pictures from [another pig fantasy role-playing as] a 14-year-old boy…Frederick Scheinin…of…Queens…faces charges…of attempting to…produce child pornography.  “As a [thug] at the DEA, Frederick Scheinin’s foremost responsibility was to [persecute minorities for enjoying themselves in a way their rulers don’t like],” said Geoffery Berman, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York…

Drawing Lines

Think we should tell these ninnies that actresses & whores were until recently considered the same profession?

…[minor actresses]…are being propositioned daily by strangers with offers of [money]…for sex [just as they always have been]…”It’s high-end prostitution – it’s just scary”…[some woman named] Tyne-Lexy Clarson [absurdly whined]…after starring in series two of Love Island, an agency emailed, offering her £50,000 for five nights in Dubai…Tyne-Lexy says she refused the offer, but fears that [other less-prudish women might not, and thereby make more than her]…Rosie Williams, who starred in series three of [the same show]…says she was offered £100,000 a year [ie, roughly Maggie McNeill’s rate for a 19-week gig] plus all her clothes and bags, to become a companion to a man in Dubai…she says it is not spoken about in [ninny] circles… “We’re too ashamed”…

To Molest and Rape

Just another typical and representative cop predating on vulnerable women:

A Denver [cop raped]…a woman he first met when he responded to [a domestic violence] call last month…Johnny Leon-Alvarez…[then began to stalk] the victim…[who foolishly agreed to] go…on a date…with [him]…she “tried to say goodnight at the door” [but]…he [pushed his way] into the house…[where] the victim…”was trying to push him off of her”…she also stated “no” and “please stop”…[fortunately her]…roommate…was home…and…heard [the victim] say “no and please stop several times” [so the cop won’t be able to pull the usual cop trick of pretending it was consensual]…

Soap Opera (#735)

The “barcode tattoo” trope isn’t as popular as it was a few years ago, but it’s still often mentioned in cop wanking fantasies about tattoos in general:

[Gullible local news reporters are still parroting ludicrous cop masturbatory fantasies like “]Human trafficking victims are being branded and sold for sex in the Tampa Bay area[” even though the really imaginative prohibitionists have moved on to fantasies about microchips].  “It’s like branding cattle,” [bloviated pig fabulist] Alan Wilkett…[who masturbates while fantasizing about women with cheap tattoos he sees in public]…In some trafficking cases, the tattoo could be a barcode…“written in such a way…that if you scan that with your smart phone it’ll tell you she’s $25 or she’s $30″…[profiteer] Natasha Nascimento…[claimed] she’s seen children branded..”The youngest…I’ve seen…around 11-years-old…had dollar signs…tattooed onto both of her eyelids”…

In reality (as opposed to the weird world of cop masturbatory fantasies), barcodes are so finicky they won’t even work properly if scanned and reprinted.  But this ignoramus thinks a tattoo artist could apply one precisely enough to be read accurately from human skin.  And why the hell would anyone go to all that trouble?  These ugly fantasies of passive, vegetable-like women say a lot more about the prohibitionist who invents them than about any sex workers.

Sex Workers Against Trafficking (#822)

How GAATW became the only “anti-trafficking” organization actually concerned with fighting exploitation:

The Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women (GAATW) was founded in 1994 by a group of feminists and women’s rights advocates from, mostly, the Global South…[who] had witnessed the struggles of their compatriots with much less privilege than their own…and…heard the stories of working-class migrant women who had undertaken journeys in search of better livelihoods…Their stories…testified to the women’s courage, enterprise, and determination and challenged the stereotype of “the victim of trafficking”…In the beginning, some were uncomfortable with the idea that “sex work is work”.  However, their repeated interactions with individual sex workers and fledgling collectives forced them to question their middle-class mores…

Pyrrhic Victory (#846) 

This dangerous mass surveillance tool won’t long be restricted to persecuting sex workers:

Beaumont, Texas [prosecutors have]…a new software that’s allows them to track ad’s [sic] [by] exploiting [the] human trafficking [hysteria to justify violating civil liberties].  The software is called Traffic Jam…[prosecutor] Kim Duchamp [bragged]…”We can use all kinds of different search parameters for phone number, email, key word searches, location certain date ranges, and…facial recognition”…Duchamp [also shared her sexual fantasies about]…Interstate 10 [and demonized]…”workers here from out of town”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#917) 

Many more people die from scalpels than from meat cleavers:

The EU’s proposal for a temporary ban on facial-recognition technology won backing from Alphabet Chief Executive Sundar Pichai…but got a cool response from Microsoft President Brad Smith…Pichai [admit]ted…that the technology [will] be used for nefarious purposes…but…Smith…[vomited out “the] children[! and called giving pigs and spooks the power to keep all people in a perpetual electronic pig lineup]…“a reasonable alternative that will enable us to…address this problem with a scalpel instead of a meat cleaver”…Smith said it was important to first [wait until governments have established a total surveillance state before trying to] craft rules to [take it away from them]…

Morality Lessons (#953)

Just another typical and representative government thug:

A [typical and representative cop] was convicted on multiple counts for being a distributor and possessing over 4,000 images of…child pornography.  Matthew Laver…was sentenced to [only] 12 years in prison…Even though Laver had quit the police force in [Pennsylvania] three years before being arrested…his [stash of] kiddie porn dated back to his time in the Army and throughout his [career] as a [government thug, during which]…Laver spent 10 years online disseminating…porn which depicted…rape of children as young as infants…the problem of government agents viewing…child pornography on official Department of Defense computers has gotten so out of hand that [politicians can’t even cover it up any more]…an investigation called “Project Flicker”…identified over 5,000 individuals…with DOD…essentially running a child porn network on a government system…

Pyrrhic Victory (#992) 

Still think those toothless facial recognition bans will rebottle the djinni?

…Clearview AI, devised a groundbreaking facial recognition app.  You take a picture of a person, upload it and get to see public photos of that person, along with links to where those photos appeared.  The system — whose backbone is a database of more than three billion images that Clearview claims to have scraped from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and millions of other websites — goes far beyond anything ever constructed by the United States government or Silicon Valley giants…more than 600 [cop shops] have started using Clearview in the past year…[and] the computer code underlying its app…includes programming language to pair it with augmented-reality glasses; users would potentially be able to identify every person they saw…revealing not just their names but where they lived, what they did and whom they knew…“The weaponization possibilities of this are endless,” said Eric Goldman…of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University.  “Imagine a [typical and representative cop] who wants to stalk potential r[ape]…or… blackmail [victims] or [marginalized people to] throw…in jail”…

Torture Chamber (#999)

This will never change as long as screws have absolute power over their victims:

[A typical and representative screw at] Oregon’s only women’s prison…[named] Richard S. Alberts II…faces trial in February on federal drug trafficking charges…[but] Alberts [has a long history of raping and otherwise abusing women while his bosses punish his victims]…Sex abuse and misconduct cases, including about 10 active lawsuits against the state, have plagued the…prison since it opened in 2001 and through seven superintendent changes…convictions have ranged from rape and sexual assault to drug smuggling and [more rape]…prison officials…block…[caged women] from contacting attorneys unless they had existing cases.  After sending the [head screw bureaucrats] a letter threatening to involve the attorney general and governor, lawyer Michelle Burrows was able to contact her clients.  She described the prison as a “cesspool” where victims are punished and abusers are enabled…[rape victims are locked in dark holes] with no windows or clocks for 170 days, and denied meals and showers for days at a time…[they are also] threatened [with being] move[d] to an out-of-state prison away from…family and children if she d[o] not [deny the abuse]…

Disaster (#1000)

In a recent study of sex workers completed by the grassroots sex worker advocacy organization Hacking//Hustling…40% of participants reported experiencing increased violence after FOSTA became law…

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Links #496

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 5, 2020| 4 Comments »

I will fucking shoot you!  –  “Officer” Keith Sweeney

You don’t need to understand Farsi to appreciate this very short film by a very young filmmaker (20) which won an award at the Luxor Film Festival.  It was contributed by Mama Tush, and the links above it are from Scott Greenfield, Cop Crisis (x3), Melanie Moore, Radley Balko, and Lenore Skenazy (in that order).

From the Archives

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Memory Hole

Posted in Philosophy, Q & A, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , on October 3, 2019| 2 Comments »

I think regular readers already understand my views on government, and I don’t believe anyone who has read more than a few scattered columns would be so foolish as to attempt to get me to do something by vomiting “It’s the law!” all over my mailbox.  Alas, not everyone is a regular reader of this blog, and many who aren’t are such hopeless moral imbeciles that they truly believe some agreement made between fascists whom I neither know nor respect establishes some kind of “legitimate” authority over me that I’m bound to obey, even if it runs contrary to my own moral precepts.  And so three times already this year I’ve been emailed by people requesting, arguing for or even demanding the censorship of their names from some news item on this blog, due to the European Union’s imaginary “right to be forgotten“.  One of these individuals was such a complete arsehole, removing his name would’ve constituted collaboration with evil; one I had no opinion about, and the most recent I was actually sympathetic to.  But when I cover a news story, I already make a decision whether the names should be shared or not, and “it’s the law” is, if anything, an argument against complying with a demand for censorship.  But it’s more than just that; years ago in “A Look at the Works” I wrote…

…I take an extremely dim view of websites who shove posts down the memory hole just because some readers didn’t like them; I have the philosophy that “you can’t unring a bell”, so once a post is up I will not remove it no matter who finds it offensive.  Besides the ethical problem that would create, removing the index entries and hyperlinks would be like pulling one gear out of a clock…and if you think I’m going to leave an ugly and conspicuous hole in a four-year-long perfect record just because it hurt your feelings, I respectfully suggest you reconsider your place in the universe…

Since then I’ve made exactly one exception to that rule (about which the less said, the better) at the request of a person I love very much, because for me loyalty trumps everything else.  But if you aren’t such a person I suggest you reread the above block quote while remembering that “four-year-long perfect record” has since grown to ten, then ask yourself whether you really think I’ll make an exception for you because some especially-pompous politicians a third of the way around the planet ordered me to.

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In the News (#966)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 28, 2019| 1 Comment »

Politicians are going to act like they’re supporting us, and learn to mouth the right rhetoric.  –  Kristen DiAngelo

Real People

Why are amateurs so obsessed with sex workers’ taxes?

Kirie Redfield…runs her own limited company and…pays VAT every quarter.  Every week she sends her books to her accountant to make sure all her tax affairs are in order…she’s a[n]…escort…plying her trade from a motor home in which she travels all over the country…Kirie…was unwittingly caught up in a blackmail scam when a [disgusting pig]…attempted to extort money from one of the punters who had visited her van…in Luton.  The first Kirie knew of it was when a [different pig tried to pin it on]…her…

Sex Work is Work

One day, simply listing a job on a job list will not be controversial:

Universal Credit chiefs have made a humiliating U-turn after [correctly including]…“dances in adult entertainment establishments” as one option for jobseekers with “no formal academic” skills…it has since been taken offline, hours after [a chorus of puritans bleated idiocy about a lucrative, flexible job being]…“inappropriate”…”unacceptable” …”insecure” [etc]…

Against Their Will (#831)

Journalists never question why women are willing to risk death to escape “rescue” by cops:

A woman is expected to survive after she was hit by two vehicles on the Gulf Freeway service road in southeast Houston…[while fleeing rape and brutalization by disguised pigs who deceived her]…the woman unknowingly got into a [pigmobile, but when she realized she was going to be raped and abducted]…she decided to run away…

Safe Position (#851)

If the Democratic Party were run by people who care about human rights, this would be its official position:

…sex workers and their allies are feeling left behind by…Bernie Sanders and…Elizabeth Warren, who have both unveiled wide-reaching policy platforms on criminal justice reform…that don’t include a single mention of decriminalizing sex work…

The article quotes several sex worker rights activists, but like so many stories of this ilk incorrectly states that arch-prohibitionist Kamala Harris is in favor of decriminalization, which she absolutely is not; she supports the misogynistic, authoritarian, agency-negating Swedish model.

Torture Chamber (#866) 

The State wants us to call this a “correctional institution” and the torturers “correctional officers”:

A Florida prison guard on [August 21st] [intentionally] broke the neck of a female inmate who suffered from both mental and physical disabilities…Cheryl A. Weimar…was unable to clean a toilet due to a pre-existing hip condition.  A [screw tried to force her to do it anyway while shouting “Stop faking!” at her, triggering]…Weimar to…[have a panic attack]…the guard became angry and…slammed [his helpless victim] to the ground…then dragged to a wheelchair, “with her head bouncing along the ground.”  She was eventually taken to the hospital where she was placed in intensive care…[with] a…broken neck…

Here are a few more choice tidbits from the past year at Lowell:

Florida officials [initially tried to cover up an incident in which a crazed screw intentionally broke a woman’s neck]…at [the notorious] Lowell [Cage Stack]…A year ago, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division met with…victims [of rape by screws and their] families and loved ones…to [pretend something would be done, but]…the next month, Nicholas Seaborn Jefferson, a [rookie screw], was arrested [for raping]…an inmate…Five months later, Adrian Victor Matthew Puckett was charged with [beating the living shit out of a woman] and falsifying records [to cover it up], and Kurtis Kyle Mitchell was charged [as his accomplice]…Puckett [beat her so severely]…that her two upper central incisors and one upper lateral incisor were knocked out at the root….her lower lip [was sliced] in half…The injuries caused permanent disfigurement…

Rooted in Racism (#953)

The racism of European “anti-trafficking” schemes is getting harder to disguise:

…many European countries and the EU itself are trying to restrict [rescue of human beings from sinking vessels], even as the death toll in the Mediterranean rises.  The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, appears to have come up with an ingenious solution: use drones.  The legal obligation to aid a vessel in distress does not apply to an unmanned aerial vehicle…You can avoid the politically fraught argument about who should take care of rescued migrants if you never rescue them in the first place…If we are obliged to rescue those who ask us for help, the solution seems to be to ensure we cannot hear their request…in the self-serving morality of European border policy if there were no traffickers there would be no migrants.  But traffickers do not manufacture migrants in their garages.  If the official routes are blocked, people will seek out unofficial routes.  The demand for smugglers is increased, not stopped, by making migration more difficult.  Rather than breaking their business model, these policies create it…The obsession with border security is running up against some of the oldest obligations western societies have.  Look after the vulnerable, do unto others as we would have them do unto us, help those we can…But our governments have decided it is not what Europeans do.  In perverse defiance of ingrained moral instincts thousands of years old, in modern Europe a sailor who rescues a drowning refugee must be punished…

Between the Ears (#959)

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

Contractors working for Microsoft have listened to audio of Xbox users speaking in their homes…human contractors [also] listen…to…Skype calls as well as audio recorded by Cortana, Microsoft’s Siri-like virtual assistant…The purpose of contractors [eavesdropping]…was [supposedly]…to improve the products…Apple, Google, and Facebook suspended their own use of contractors after swelling media coverage around the widespread practice; Amazon said it will let users opt-out…Microsoft [merely] updated its privacy documents to…say that humans may [listen to users without their consent]…

All-Purpose Excuse (#959)

Hey prohibitionists, are you proud of your accomplishments?

The Trump Administration…will now seek to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, a [compromise authoritarians call a] loophole that results in most alien families being released into the country after 20 days…The Flores loophole essentially gives a free pass into the interior of the United States to many aliens who arrive at the border with a minor…Smugglers have even fraudulently presented aliens arriving at the border as fake families to take advantage of the Flores loophole…[which] acts as a [giant cartoon] magnet, [magically] drawing more and more alien families to make the dangerous journey to our border…

To Molest and Rape (#961)

Cops show you what they are every day; why don’t you believe them?

A [typical and representative] Cleveland [cop]…attempt[ed] to kidnap [and rape] a 12-year-old girl who was waiting for a school bus in Euclid…Solomon Nhiwatiwa…asked the girl if she wanted a ride to school and after she [wisely] refused, he…[whipped out his dick] and urinated on her while filming the incident with his cell phone.  Afterwards, he got back in his car and drove away…He has been [arrested and] charged with [numerous offenses]…

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In the News (#951)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 6, 2019| 5 Comments »

[A “sex trafficking” propagandist] told me to say negative things so that there would be more funding.  –  Keo Malai

Yellow Fever

A “sponsored” article is one that the paper was PAID to print; in other words, it’s an ad disguised as a news story so as to trick the public into accepting it as credible.  This one is an ad for the Dolan law firm, whose owner, Christopher Dolan, is an ambulance-chaser attempting to capitalize on “sex trafficking” hysteria by recruiting professional “victims” for lucrative FOSTA-enabled lawsuits against websites, hotels, truck stops and anyone else he thinks he can rob.  It would be bad enough if this tissue of ludicrous lies ($150 billion a year!  $650,000 a year for every “pimp”! 14% of all US minors are “sexually enslaved” every year, which means 210% of all US minors since the hysteria began!) were labeled as an ad, but the only clue – which virtually no non-proofreader will catch – is that little word “sponsored” hidden in the url.  So much for “journalistic ethics”.

Property of the State (#724) 

Yet another abomination from Alabama:

Marshae Jones [of] Birmingham…was indicted…on a manslaughter charge…Jones didn’t fire the shots that killed her unborn baby girl…Ebony Jemison [did that]…but the charge against Jemison was dismissed after…she…shot [Jones] in the stomach…[pigs encouraged the grand jury to blame the victim rather than the assailant because] “It was the mother of the child who initiated and continued the fight which resulted in the death of her own unborn baby”…

Sexual Predators (#759) 

Pigs squeal gleefully about how their creepy entrapment & surveillance game ruins men’s lives and chokes off women’s income:

Pomona…California [sow]…Angela Torres [role-]plays a sex worker…She has [done it] nearly 1,000 times and says she does it [because she gets off on destroying the lives of unsuspecting men]…“a lot of those dating sites have shut down,  a lot of the girls who worked online and worked in hotels have now been forced out into the streets,” [oinked pig] Jesse Hedrick…“if we deter these Johns, then prostitutes…won’t be making a lot of money,” [gloated] Torres. “It will deter them from [paying their rent and buying food for their children, which will make them more desperate.  We hope they’re raped and murdered so we don’t need to see them any more]”…

Bad Fantasy, Good Reality (#762)

It’s good to see Cambodia shutting down these propaganda factories:

A Cambodian court jailed a [fraudster] for two years…for his role in making a [propaganda film] about sex trafficking…Rath Rott Mony[‘s propaganda film], titled “My Mother Sold Me”, included a…[sexual fantasy] of a poor Cambodian girl who was sold into sex work, prompting authorities to question those involved…the girl and her mother [admitted they] were paid $200 to lie in the documentary…Judge Koy Sao…ordered Mony to pay $17,500 compensation to two of the mothers, Keo Malai and Tep Sreylin, who appeared in the film.  The two [revealed] Mony had promised to help solve a land dispute and open a shop for them if they made up the story about their daughters…the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh expressed concern over [its ability to spread “sex trafficking” propaganda if Cambodia keeps prosecuting rescue industry lies]…Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch said [the imprisonment of one propagandist is a bigger human rights issue than vicious fraud which drives a hysteria impacting millions of women, including those condemed to] Cambodia[‘s notorious Prey Speu “re-education” camp in order to satisfy US prohibitionists]…

Shame, Shame (#798)

The fact that realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology these bird-brains can conceive of is a sign of a culture overdue for collapse:

A programmer created an app…that…remove[s] clothing from the images of women, making them look realistically nude…DeepNude…uses a photo of a clothed person and…swaps clothes for naked breasts and a vulva…DeepNude…appears to work best on images where the person is already showing a lot of skin…Since [whitebread feminists] discovered deepfakes in late 2017, [most of] the media and politicians focused on the dangers they pose as a disinformation tool.  But [clueless prudes still think] the most devastating use of deepfakes has…been in how they’re used [on pictures of] women…

The solution to this problem isn’t increasing the censorship powers of the already-bloated police state as carceral feminists are demanding; it’s fighting the idea that a woman’s body is something to be ashamed of.

Election Day (#840) 

Marijuana prohibition will soon be a thing of the past:

Illinois’ new governor delivered on a top campaign promise…by signing legislation legalizing small amounts of marijuana for recreational use, the 11th state to do so and the first to implement a comprehensive statewide cannabis marketplace designed by [politicians].  Legalization in Illinois also means that nearly 800,000 people with criminal records for purchasing or possessing 30 grams of marijuana or less may have those records expunged, a provision minority lawmakers and interest groups demanded…

I don’t know about you, but I find the reporter’s writing “the first to implement a comprehensive statewide cannabis marketplace designed by [politicians]” as though it were a good thing is extremely funny.

Rooted in Racism (#913)

The result of European “humanitarianism” to “fight human trafficking”:

More than 80 per cent of refugees…locked up in one Libyan [concentration camp] have tuberculosis due to overcrowding and poor conditions…at least 22 have died…the bodies of Christians who died in [the EU-funded] Zintan [concentration camp] were not being buried, partly because the local community insists the cemetery is only for Muslims….some [migrants] hav[e] been [locked up] for two years…roughly 6,000 people [are] currently locked up indefinitely in detention centres run by the Libyan Department for Combatting Illegal Migration (DCIM)…[which is funded and trained by] the EU…

Pyrrhic Victory (#930) 

I’m afraid it’s far too late to put this evil djinni back into its bottle:

Technology…already [used] in authoritarian China…[is] also gaining a foothold…in [authoritarian] America…police departments…are turning body cameras]…into a means of constant surveillance.  Evolving software applications will let police record every encounter and match up a citizen’s face with a database…California [politicians are] consider[ing] Assembly Bill 1215, which would ban police agencies from using facial and biometric tracking devices as part of their body cameras…the next step…[is] tying facial-recognition software into security cameras that are practically everywhere…Police admit that they want to use these cameras as part of wholesale dragnets, by scanning everyone at public events and not only those that they suspect of having committed a crime…This is far more intrusive than those checkpoints in totalitarian countries where people must constantly show their papers.  In this emerging Robocop world, every American will always be identifiable to the authorities simply by walking around in public…

Worse Than I Thought (#934)

The hotel industry is really going to regret having collaborated with fanatics rather than fighting “sex trafficking” hysteria:

The [American Hotel & Lodging Association] vowed…to [harass and persecute] sex [workers using] its properties, in part by training every employee on [incredibly vague] warning signs for [sex work] and how to [rat them out to the pigs]…The announcement…comes after two women who [claim] they were forced into prostitution as teenagers filed a lawsuit against three Philadelphia hotels, alleging the businesses ignored and profited from the sexual slavery happening on their premises…

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Western Illiberalism

Posted in Current Events, History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on July 4, 2019| Leave a Comment »

People call me heroic, but I don’t feel heroic; I usually feel as though what I’m doing is the only possible choice, or at least the only moral one.  –  “Divided We Stand”

For as long as I’ve written this blog, I’ve been pointing out several times a year (especially on July 4th and November 5th) that the US “was born with an ugly birth defect which doomed it from the start, and the monstrous doppelganger which grew like some loathsome fungus inside of its carcass would not be worthy of saving even if that were possible.  Nor are the majority of modern Western nations any better.”  European nations, including the US, grew and enriched themselves by invasion, land theft, pillage and enslavement of less-advanced peoples, and even after they disavowed that racist, colonialist history they have continued to be every bit as shitty to those formerly-subject peoples, albeit obliquely and under the guise of beneficence.  It’s absolutely true that up until recently virtually all peoples, regardless of skin color, religion, time period or level of advancement, grew and enriched themselves by exactly those same means, but only the Western ones developed an intellectual tradition, generally known as “Western liberalism”, which allowed free and open discussion of ideas and paid lip service to basic human rights while continuing to allow their rulers to behave in the same abominable manner as rulers always have and always will behave.  If anything, the tradition has encouraged rulers to behave even more abominably than in the past by simply thinking up some bullshit excuse for the evil and then feigning offense when called on it.  For example, less-advanced peoples could be conquered by labeling them “savages” and pretending that more-advanced (i.e. white) people were only trying to “help” them by enslaving them.  Europeans proclaimed they had a “right” to steal the land of non-Europeans by a pettifogging bit of legalistic chicanery called the “Doctrine of Discovery“, and that it was OK to exterminate them when they resisted conquest (in much the same way that modern cops charge their victims with “assault on a police officer” and “resisting arrest” for daring to defend themselves when they’re beaten, raped or tased).  Modern rulers claim “legitimacy” by a long series of Byzantine pretenses and procedures no more moral, just or rational than “Divine Right of Kings” was, then claim that their subjects somehow agreed to obey due to something called a “social contract” by virtue of being born within a particular set of imaginary lines the rulers drew on a map; the fact that nobody can “choose” when, how or where to be born is pretended to be irrelevant, and the rulers claim the “right” to inflict violence – including assault, maiming, robbery, rape, child-abduction, locking them in a cage for decades and even murder – if the subject violates any of a vast, confusing, vague, broad, and ever-increasing body of arbitrary rules called “laws” which are invented by the rulers as excuses to expand their own power, destroy their enemies (especially rebellious subjects) and suppress everyone who isn’t a member of the ruling class.

This edifice of bullshit has achieved its highest development in the fascist semi-republics which are incorrectly labeled “democracies”; most people believe that they’ve acted freely as long as they’re given a “choice”, even if that choice is between two equally-awful representatives of entrenched political parties who agree on every important issue and make a huge and dramatic show of opposing each other on a few cosmetic ones.  Similarly, the lie of “choice” is used to brutalize, cage and banish refugees from countries ruined by centuries of European exploitation and decades of proxy warfare (yes, that includes the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Terrorism”), as if “stay in your native country and watch your children starve while you’re being raped” is some kind of valid choice.  We’re told that Africans trying to reach Europe and Latin Americans trying to reach the US in search of a better life (you know, the same reason Europeans came to North America) are “illegals” who deserve to be caged in brutal conditions until they die of preventable diseases; that those who assist them are “criminals” (usually “human traffickers”); and that deporting them is “rescue” and “helping them get home to their families”.  If you want to participate in this vast charade on the off-chance of sparking some kind of butterfly effect which will eventually make things marginally better, please do so with my blessing.  I, however, prefer not to get into the mud with the pigs; all I can do is follow my moral compass so that even if things don’t get better, at least I know that I had no part in making them worse or excusing the multitudinous sins of the powerful.

 

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In the News (#926)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 6, 2019| 4 Comments »

I find it interesting that everyone who left the massage parlor, within a matter of miles, committed a traffic infraction.  –  Eric Schwartzreich

Feminine Pragmatism 

Wherever there are men making money, there will be enterprising women working to get some of it:

The “gold rush” in Crucitas, in northern Costa Rica…has also attracted sex workers to the area to offer their services [so naturally the pigs are trying to spread anti-whore propaganda and defining them as a “problem”]…

Blunt Instrument 

It’s great to see Asian sex workers fighting back against racist harassment by cops:

Dozens of sex workers and their allies gathered just outside police barricades…with cardboard signs that read “Solidarity with massage workers” and “Rights not raids.”  Steps away, in the basement auditorium of the Flushing Library, local City Councilmember Peter Koo was co-hosting a packed community meeting with the NYPD intended to [spread propaganda] about [sex work]…protesters said they hoped to dispel misinformation about…human trafficking in…massage establishments, and honor the life of 36-year-old Yang Song, an immigrant massage worker who fell to her death [while trying to escape] an NYPD Vice Unit raid in 2017…while…Koo [tried to whip up hysteria against sex work]…advocates warned that this conflation of massage work with human trafficking…is inaccurate, racist and dangerous…“Not only has policing never been the answer, it actively harms all of those people that we serve,” said Aya Tasaki of Womankind…Events like Koo’s “recruit the public to be accomplices in racially targeted state violence under the benevolent delusion of rescue,” added Kate Z., a former massage worker and organizer with the newly formed grassroots coalition Red Canary Song…Nina Luo, of the DecrimNY campaign, confronted Koo about [Yang] Song…“You know that Song was killed by NYPD and here you are today advocating for more policing,” she shouted…

Monsters 

Reporter quotes bigot who talks about a murdered woman as though she were a disease:

A transgender woman was shot and killed [last] Saturday morning near the D.C. line in Prince George’s County [Maryland]…The victim has been identified as 27-year-old Ashanti Carmon…One resident who said she heard the shots fired and later saw the victim’s body said police seem to be unable to stop the transgender prostitution…in the area.  “They park on our side streets…and…have sex with people,” said Akiaba Steward, who added that she believes the prostitution issue will only get worse now with the warmer weather…

The Missing Word 

I’m unsure why the modern term was eschewed here in favor of its 20th century counterpart:

…Alisa Mitrova, 21, was originally wrongly diagnosed with chickenpox when she collapsed unconscious on a gruelling seven-month catwalk assignment.  This follows the case of…Vlada Dzyuba who died 18 months ago after she became seriously ill with “acute meningitis compounded by anorexia” during a three month assignment on tiny pay in China…Like 14-year-old Vlada and reportedly many Russian models in China, Miss Mitrova had no medical insurance when she was struck down…Concern has been expressed in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus over young women – some of school age – lured to work in China as models or in “seedy clubs”…critics have warned of such cases being the “tip of an iceberg” of a “white slave trade” with girls and women from poor families in the former USSR being exploited…

To Molest and Rape

Yet another typical and representative cop:

A small-town Pennsylvania police chief and his friend…[repeatedly raped] a child over a seven year period starting when [s]he…was 4 years old…Brent Getz, the 27-year-old Chief of the Weissport Police Department, and friend Gregory Wagner…were arrested [on March 26th]…the investigation “began in May 2012 when the victim, then 12-years-old, reported to a substitute teacher that Gregory Wagner”…had [raped] her…[nothing productive was done until] “2015, [when] the case was reassigned and police prepared a criminal complaint…[which] was dismissed by the Magisterial District Judge due to a paperwork error…[and] never refiled.”  But then, in August 2018, “[cops finally remembered]…the case and asked the victim to come back in for an interview.  At this time, the victim also disclosed that Brent Getz…had [raped] her too”…

Elephant in the Parlor (#724) 

In other news, bear shits in woods:

An Arizona [politician]…resigned this week [after an ethics investigation discovered he paid]…two boys under the age of 15 for sex in the 1980s.  David Stringer…was arrested in 1983…and…accepted a plea deal [for]…five years of supervised probation.  The case was expunged by a Baltimore judge in 1990…Stringer resigned from his position in the state legislature…after he refused to cooperate with [the]…investigation…

Moloch (#742)

Literally scaring a teen to death for normal behavior is “just doing their jobs”:

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Naperville…filed by the family of…[a] High School student who [was driven to] suicide…The judge ruled school and police officials were doing their jobs when they [literally scared Corey Walgren to death by threatening him with lifetime damnation on the “sex offender” registry for consensensual sex with his girlfriend]…the 16-year-old junior slipped out of the school and jumped from the top of a downtown Naperville municipal parking deck…the [judge denied that pervert administrators] Stephen Madden and James Konrad and [pervert pig] Brett Heun…[inflicted] “extreme, intolerable and excessive emotional and psychological distress” and [broke] the law by interrogating Walgren without first notifying his parents, Douglas and Maureen Walgren…[Judge Andrea Wood claimed that the] reckless and alarming accusations against the teen…“were…ordinary police interrogation tactics”…

Is this enough blood yet?  Can we stop now?

Good News, Bad News (#857)

Australia’s Northern Territory is moving toward decriminalization, and prohibitionists aren’t happy:

It’s long been an open secret, tucked away in the alleyways of the tropical Northern Territory capital…Now, the veil has been lifted on the illicit industry, with the NT Government releasing a new discussion paper which reveals the extent of the illegal sexual activities operating in plain sight within the Darwin CBD…a 2015 crackdown saw NT Police and Australian Border Protection Force officers raid 19 parlours across Darwin and Palmerston and…three people were deported…While prostitution itself is not against the law…brothels…are…The discussion paper…has been pegged as a move towards the eventual decriminalisation of the industry, a shift which has long been welcomed by industry advocates…

Fever Dream (#901)

Mathematical illiteracy is no bar to becoming a cop:

People wanting to buy and sell sex online are going after [other consenting adults who want to sell or buy sex]…The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says…The average age range of buyers…is between 18 and 80…

Do they not teach the concept of an “average” in fourth grade anymore?

An Avalanche of Bullshit

The way an individual or agency treats sex workers is a good indication of how they feel about people in general:

…11 people [have been] freed from jail following revelations that [a cop]…falsified narcotics arrests…the…bogus…arrests aren’t the only instances of misconduct in the Martin County Sheriff’s Office, the same agency that spearheaded the Orchids of Asia Day Spa bust…Since 2000…Martin County…has spent more than $1.33 million settling lawsuits…[over cop violence, murders and lies]…Snyder and his deputies have portrayed themselves as rescuers of trafficked women…But the[ir pretended] concern…is at odds with [their] own troubling treatment of women…[including slurs against] female employee[s]…and…illegal [surveillance]…Sandipkumar Patel was arrested…and [publicly shamed]…after [pigs] claimed that he patronized one of the massage parlors that were raided…Patel…[is] su[ing] the sheriff…an attorney for one Orchids of Asia defendant filed a motion arguing that video the Sheriff’s Office…recorded inside the massage parlor is “violative of the accused’s privacy rights” and therefore should be inadmissible in court.  Another attorney filed a motion to suppress the video [because]…a court order did not grant the Sheriff’s Office authority to record video…

Opting Out (#923) 

Any non-politician would have given this up as a bad idea by now:

The [UK] government’s much heralded porn “block” has been delayed once again.  Under the [censorship] plans, people will have to verify their age to access UK commercial pornographic websites…the [government] said a [new] date has not been set for the roll-out…Jim Killock from the Open Rights Group says the delays are due to serious concerns about privacy and data collection.  “When they consulted about the shape of age verification last summer they were surprised to find that…everyone who [isn’t a politician understood that]…this was a privacy disaster…


You Were Warned

European politicians are just as invested in demolishing the internet as US ones:

…Europe is imposing a “link tax” online that will fundamentally change the relationships between media, search engines, and social platforms…[politicians are pretending the cash & control grab is about] “copyright protection”…In the U.S., meanwhile, the assault on Section 230…continues…Were [it not for this law]…a small handful of bad actors could topple every social community and app we know…[yet] the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals….dismissed an Airbnb and Homeway challenge to a Santa Monica law that would hold those companies legally liable if users listed Santa Monica rental properties…

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