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Posts Tagged ‘Georgia’

They’re letting police do just about anything.  –  Randall Kallinen

When Dolly Parton died a few weeks ago, I seemed to be the only one who remembered this 1976 guest appearance on Captain Kangaroo; the video was clearly taken from the edited reruns of old shows aired on PBS in the late ’80s.  Of particular note: Dolly reading a children’s book aloud, almost 20 years before starting her Imagination Library charity.  The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel; Radley Balko; Lucy Steigerwald; Mistress Matisse & Dan Savage; C.J. Ciaramella; IncarcerNation; and Radley Balko again, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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I don’t like reading anymore.  –  child subjected to “Amira”

To Molest and Rape

They usually try to make this sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor:

…In the early morning hours of September 20, 2024, a…[typical and representative] Giddings, Texas [cop named]…Cory James Williams…pulled over…a [young woman and threatened]…to…arrest…[her and] take her to jail [unless she submitted to rape]…he…[had already] shut…off his body-worn camera and dash camera…and…when [she] refused, Williams…[wrote her several expensive tickets and threatened to continue harassing her every time he saw her, saying] he “wouldn’t be able to miss a pretty face like hers”…She [immediately] reported [him and later filed a]…lawsuit…investigation of Williams’ records and body camera footage…[dis]covered that Williams turned off his cameras during nine traffic stops, a[nd]…in at least three of those…Williams [tried the same thing]…the lawsuit [was filed after the city let him off with a slap on the wrist]…

Panopticon (#1611)

Cops will invariably use warrantless surveillance to harass people:

While standing in a private parking lot in Sussex, Wisconsin, on May 4, 2025, Napoleon Jones witnessed a[n illegal] traffic stop…So…[he] walked over and recorded it…before Jones could exit the parking lot, [power-mad pig Brandon] Shayhorn…initiated a second [illegal] stop, claiming Jones’ temporary license plate…was unreadable…[and] demand[ing] to see Jones’ driver’s license, but Jones refused…[because they were both] on private property…[Shayhorn then brutalized and illegally] arrested [Jones]…but after being held in custody for five hours, he was released with no citations or criminal charges…[because] Shayhorn’s supervisor informed him…that…[his] illegal…stop…[was indeed illegal].  The next day, Jones filed a…complaint…and…then [a lawsuit]…While litigating those claims, Jones’ attorney, Nate Cade, found…over 100 Flock searches for a white BMW in the weeks following Jones’ unlawful arrest…by Shayhorn himself…and [several of his cronies]…In July 2026, Jones amended his complaint to include the additional [rooting pigs]…who searched for his vehicle…”in retaliation for exercising his First Amendment right of recording a traffic stop”…

I Spy (#1619)

Safetyism makes the whole world less safe:

A new identity theft service [which recently] launched on the dark web…is selling digital scans of more than 153 million drivers licenses from people in the United States and Canada…The service, dubbed Nexus…includes…not only drivers licenses but also marijuana dispensary cards…the license images are coming from an active breach at “a major identity verification company”…[which appears to be] the New Orleans-based…idscan.net…[which] provides identity verification services for numerous big brands, including Hertz, Target, Fedex, Motorola…and Caesars [Casinos]…

Choke Point (#1626) 

“Renewed attention to a problem our industry has faced for years“:

…Adult workers and businesses routinely face account closures, denied applications and restrictions on financial services, often without warning or a clear explanation…[despite recent] federal [demands that banks stop doing what the government has repeatedly demanded they do]…the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released preliminary findings from its review of the nation’s nine largest national banks…f[inding] that all nine had maintained policies or practices that [complied with federal demands that they]…subject…certain customers to heightened review because of their lawful business activities…If you’ve been denied an account, had one suddenly closed or experienced another form of banking discrimination, share your story with FSC…You may also be able to file a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency…FSC is also working to establish Opportunity Credit Union, a financial institution designed to serve people and businesses that traditional banks have too often shut out…

Welcome to the Future (#1659)

Note that it isn’t the wealthy consigning their kids to this travesty:

In New Mexico, Facebook and Instagram are considered a “public nuisance,” but letting [computer progra]ms record and store young kids’ voices and score their reading prowess is…required [by the state for] all public schools…Amira [is a progra]m designed…for mandatory literacy assessments, dyslexia screenings, and weekly tutoring sessions in kindergarten through second grade…some parents and school districts [have complained so much]…the state’s Public Education Department…[is] granting school districts the right to opt out of Amira this year…Amira is [also mandatory] in…Idaho—and…authorized for state use in California, Georgia, Massachusetts, Michigan, Oklahoma, and Texas…schools are…not…in charge of the [collected] data…and…New Mexico does not currently have…student data privacy requirements…Amira is [also] incorrectly scoring student reading [and] causing anxiety in young learners…who…are [be]ing [used] as guinea pigs…

Welcome to the Future (#1662)

This is like something from a dystopian sci-fi novel:

The Texas sheriff’s office that [ab]used Flock to search more than 80,000 cameras nationwide for a woman who had a self-administered abortion used Axon’s Draft One…to [shit out] a police report about the incident…which…has since become a [prime example of how easily]…ALPR…cameras [are abused]. Flock’s CEO, Garrett Langley, [is still repeating the 15-month-old copaganda]…that the search was done only for the woman’s safety because her [“]family[” –  a euphemism for]…her…abusive partner…[wanted] to charge her with a crime…Concern from her [actual] family is never mentioned in…the [chatbot-shat] police report…

Panopticon (#1669)

Alas, many of these are simply switching to less-radioactive surveillance brands:

New data compiled by a Bay Area anti-surveillance advocacy group shows that not only are American localities dropping [Flock] cameras…but they are doing it at an accelerating rate.  Communities from Lansing, Michigan, to Pflugerville, Texas, are ending their relationship with Flock, largely over [bad publicity] regarding out-of-control surveillance, unwanted data sharing, high expenses, and…[cops predictably] abusing the tool…During the last 30 days, an average of three localities per day have halted contracts with Flock…[which claims it isn’t worried because new useful idiots have replaced those backing away] by approximately 10 to one…[but in reality,] Flock [is so nervous about the threat to its fascist revenue stream that it is now demanding a “compromise” between basic civil rights and unconstitutional warrantless surveillance, absurdly claiming that it isn’t the unconstitutional warrantless surveillance company‘s fault if cops predictably use its unconstitutional warrantless surveillance cameras for unconstitutional warrantless surveillance]…

And it isn’t just cities:

Florida is revoking permits for Flock cameras and similar license-plate readers on state roads, de[spite spokespigs oinking]…the…[word “]crime[” at politicians.  The]…Florida Department of Transportation…gave [cop shops] 30 days to remove the cameras from state roads, or FDOT will remove them itself…[Florida governor “Two-Face”] DeSantis said the use of such cameras is “out of control”…but…has also [thrown] money [at cop shops] to purchase hundreds of…[such] cameras in…the…[name of “]immigration enforcement[“]…

 

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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Fuck everything about this.  –  anonymous BMW owner

Policing for Profit

There are many ways for cops to enrich themselves at others’ expense:

[Cops typically] use…their authority to line their own pockets…[but] members of Georgia State Patrol…[came up with a new scam:  they] filed or attempted to file insurance claims against drivers they…in[tentionally rammed with malicious intent to cause a wreck]…a…tactic…[euphemized as the “]PIT maneuver[“.  They were caught when a superior over]hear[d them teaching others about this new scam]…to receive a “check”…[the cops] sent crash reports to [shyster] Tina Maddox, who then issued demand letters to insurance companies seeking payouts for alleged injuries such as stress, soreness and anxiety…despite not reporting injuries at the time of the incidents…[the scammers] received…settlements of $25,000 each, [of which the shyster skimmed off a third.  When interrogated, Hunter Waters admitted to getting three settlements]…Tyler Byrd…admitted to submitting more than a dozen crash reports…and receiving two [payou]ts…Isaiah Francois…expected a settlement but [had] not rec[eived it yet]…The…demand letters…never identified the claimants as [cops, n]or [admitted] that the[y had intentionally caused] the [accidents]…Joseph Curlee [is] a supervisor who was aware of the practice, took no action to stop it and even consulted Maddox about filing a claim of his own…In…an…“extremely unusual” [outcome]…all four [conspirato]rs have been fired…

Welcome to the Future (#1473)

Is a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and harassed?

BMW…suddenly started pushing ads for Spider-Man: Brand New Day onto [its] dashboards…and some drivers who forked up to $160,000 for a [status symbol] aren’t very happy about being spammed when they start their cars…BMW has been pushing increasingly intrusive videos onto its dashboard…[one owner explained] “They started off with mostly just celebratory videos, which slowly became ads about their own products, and now…third-party ads…with the screen controlling almost every feature of the car, you’re essentially forced to watch the ad before you can interact with your own property.”  Several commenters compared the…ad to Apple’s famously backfired 2014 stunt of putting a U2 album into the iTunes libraries of more than half a billion customers.  BMW’s press release branded the [intrusive, unwanted commercial] “a special surprise”…[even though the] company previously [lied] it wouldn’t sell ads on its dashboards…

Served Cold (#1512)

Thanks to the Trump regime, Tim Ballard’s partners in profiteering have salvaged their scam:

A…[rescue industry] profit[eer] in Utah whose [disgraced] founder [became notorious for]…sexual abuse [of his marks] has [been corruptly handed] a federal contract to provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children in [concentration camps, netting the con-men]…$244,034,658…seven times…[their total assets] in 2025…Our Rescue conducts [grotesque theatrical “]operations[“] to [frame people as “]sex traffickers[” in foreign countries where officials can easily be paid off to look the other way while their citizens’ lives are destroyed for the self-aggrandizement of soi-disant “heroes”, because US officials recognized his “operations”]…as stunts to lure donations…[while callously discarding its minor] victims…[by condemning them] to…an orphanage in Haiti where…[they] are raped and subjected to forced abortions…the [current] CEO is Derek Benner…a [veteran] of [Father]land Security…[who] set up a fake university in Michigan to lure foreign nationals…[so they could be robbed of millions, then deported for] obtaining student visas [to attend]…the school…the [government had tricked them into thinking was real]…

Panopticon (#1574)

Some readers implied I was a crank when I predicted this exact development 13 years ago:

…hundreds of [US cop shops are now]…deploy[ing] autonomous…surveillance drones…capable of following a single vehicle across an entire city, capturing footage through apartment windows, and generally [spy]ing [on people] from the sky without [a warrant.  These]…surveillance [programs are euphemized] as…”drone-as-first-responder“(DFR) programs…[using] fire departments and other [actual] first responders [as cover for the fact that] the vast majority are [spying for] law enforcement [purposes]…The automated drone push comes as…residents are packing city council meetings across the country to demand restrictions on…mass surveillance…as new surveillance tech empowers the state to violate privacy in entirely fresh ways…Flock…boasts that its automated “first responder” drones…can read license plates from above up to 2,000 feet away…

See also “Panopticon” below.

Pyrrhic Victory (#1639)

Women should assume any man wearing pervert glasses is up to no good:

A woman who accompanied a friend to a post-op [breast lift] appointment [strenuously objected] when she saw…the doctor was wearing…[pervert] glasses…“Why, why, why are you wearing [those] in this room with a patient’s titties out?”…The doctor[‘s idiotic defense was]…that he likes to see his text messages coming in…“There’s no reason for you to be worried about texts when you’re in here,” she said…he…then f[ollowed that with a series of disingenuous excuses culminating with]…“[I have] a nine-year-old and a wife,” [to] which…she [replied] “Am I supposed to believe that every man with a wife and kids is a saint?”…

Panopticon (#1643)

Fascists will destroy society to make a few more bucks:

Flock S[surveillance]…cameras…are…stationary, [so]…to track where a vehicle travels…Flock would need mobile ALPR coverage.  That is why it planned [a collaboration] with Nexar, a dashcam company, [to]…expand…its network to around 350,000 Uber, Lyft, and…delivery…vehicles…turn[ing] their vehicles into mobile surveillance platforms…the [scheming corporations were not able to agree on the division of loot, but that is only a temporary reprieve]…Uber [and] Lyft drivers would [not] have been [asked for their consent to be part of the fascist panopticon.  Rival copsucking corporation]…Axon…al[ready] supplies ALPR cameras to [cop shops] for use in p[igmobiles]…and…two ALPR companies now owned by Motorola, Vigilant…and…DRN…install…[ALPRs] in [repo men’s] vehicles…

The Cop Myth (#1656)

Being kin to a cop is no protection from his violence:

A…[typical and representative] Philadelphia [cop named]…Kenroy Cummings…[murdered his uncle] and fle[d his fellow cops]…on Friday, July 24…[the victim,] Shakair Moncrieffe, began to threaten hi[s son]…the boy [ran away and told] other family members, including…Cummings, [who decided]…he [was justified in shooting] Moncrieffe in the head multiple times…[which he] later [absurdly claimed]…was in self-defense…Cummings [then] fled the scene in a…[car]…at…over 100 mph and weaving in and out of traffic…[as fellow cops pursued.  The boss hog thought the most important fact] was [that Cummings was not wearing his magical clown costume when he callously murdered another man]…

 

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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This is about trying…to make a dollar on people who only have a dollar.  –  Jamieson Webster

Out of Control (#1173)

Spooge-based sexual assaults are growing worse:

…masturbating in front of [or even onto] female customers at branches of Dollar Tree [is]…a disturbing new form of sexual assault that [incels a]re documenting and bragging about in dark corners of the internet…surreptitiously ejaculating on random women [is called] “tagging” or “sharking”…[and] online forums praise…perpetrators for being “low inhibition” or “low inhib”…Dollar Tree crop[s] up again and again as a favored location for such attacks, a[pparently because of]…the same problems that…have led, over the years, to…millions of dollars in fines: inadequate safety and security, understaffing on the premises, and disorganized aisles filled with unopened boxes that offer…criminals ample opportunity to skulk…

Secret Squirrel (#1403)

“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpty-eleven:

The term gaslighting [has] become overused in social and political contexts, but its physical deployment in the home is evolving with [so-called “]smart[“] technology…From…a different neighbourhood, city or even country, settings on household tech can be changed to unsettle and disturb the person living there.  Timings on the clock are altered so school pick-ups and appointments are missed, making that person appear unreliable…Electricity controls can be tweaked so household appliances and lights turn off.  The television can be switched on at full blast to disrupt sleep…the…heating [can be turned up or off to make] the space…unlivable even.  An[d of course there’s]…eavesdropping…Emma Pickering…of…the domestic abuse charity [Refuge] said referrals to her team in the year to March 2026 rose by 78 per cent compared with the previous year…

If Men Were Angels (ROTW #18)

Teacher and politician should have been a red flag:

[West Virginia politician] Elliott Pritt…[sexually abused] a [15-year-old] girl [after grooming her] through Roblox and Snapchat.  Pritt…is [also] a public school teacher…and [tried to entice his victim by telling her]…that he loved her…he…sent [her dick pics] and [begged for her to] send nude photos of herself through Snapchat…he [then molested her] in his classroom…at least five to ten times…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1617)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

As facial recognition technology [metastasizes] across [the world], a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend.  Companies have started incorporating “adversarial patterns” in their garments – carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems…the effectiveness of the patterns depends on the surveillance system and the conditions in which it is used…

The Cop Myth (#1655)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

[A] Seattle [cop named] Marlon Williams-Booth was arrested in late May for…[attack]ing his wife…[After she escaped]…he…called [one of his cronies] at the [cop shop] and [lied] that his wife pulled a gun on him…[when] Thurston County deputies [arrived they found him] hostile…drunk…and [only marginally coherent, so they] left and took a statement from [his] wife at a hotel…[she explained]…that she was leaving him. At [his] insistence, she always carried her firearm when she left the house…when he…blocked [her] exit…he asked…if she was carrying, and she patted [her] holster…he [then] lunged at her…pinned her…against the wall…[took] the gun from the holster, grabbed her by the hair…[threw] her to the ground…[and put] the gun…[to] her [head]…she double-kicked him in the chest and escaped out the window…[all] the evidence was consistent with [the] wife’s account…On the way to jail, he…continued ranting, claiming to be “one of the elite heroes of downtown Seattle”…[and bragging about] how many people [he had murdered; in reality]…SPD records [showed] Williams-Booth has never fired his weapon on duty or been fired upon…

Panopticon (Nosey Parkers)

Do you feel safe yet?

[Cop shop]s around the country [are routinely using] Flock cameras…to search for specific people, not cars, using searches [as vague] as “heavy-set male”…“person on skateboard”…[or] “backpack”…while most people associate Flock cameras with…tracking vehicles, some of the cameras are also capable of following the movements of particular people…These are called “FreeForm” searches, and allow cops to use Flock’s system as though they would use a search engine…“giant oceans of video data can now be searched the same way big text files can be, including for…t-shirts, tattoos, and bumper stickers.  Even without face recognition, that’s a significant increase in surveillance capability,” [said] Jay Stanley…[of] ACLU…The searches sometimes stretch across dozens or even nearly a hundred networks of Flock cameras at once…[and routinely] pull up images of innocent or unrelated people…

Stalkers in Blue (Nosey Parkers)

With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:

A [Georgia cop named]…Kabiru Salawu was [fired and criminally] charged [after being caught]…misus[ing the Flock] license plate [reader network to stalk women]…He’s currently in jail, being held without bond.  His arrest is the latest in a [long but predictable] string of incidents in which Georgia [cops] have been [caught] misusing this technology…CBS Atlanta [reports] at least 10 other[s]….

 

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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They were having a pancake and sushi luncheon.

I was not familiar with Ibrahim’s work, but I quite liked this piece Jesse Walker selected to accompany his obituary.  The other links above the video were provided by IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, Mike Siegel, T. Greg Doucette, Radley Balko, Missy Mariposa, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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Approving a project that will consume water and energy at this scale is irresponsible and dangerous.  –  Franque Bains

This week’s video is a recently-discovered shellac master pressing of “Cross Road Blues” by Robert John­son, who died mysteriously in 1938 before his career even got properly started, yet still influenced the young blues-inspired guitarists of the Sixties.  The video was provided by Brooke Magnanti, and the links above it by Mike Siegel, Shiv Ramdas, Kevin Wilson, Reason, IncarcerNation, and Nun Ya (x2), in that order.

From the Archives

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

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[Chatbot “journalism” is] nothing but a race to the bottom.
–  The Washington State News Guild

A Moral Cancer (#1535)

The absurd belief that “ultraprocessed foods” are essentially magical is increasingly popular with crypto-moralists:

[Eating] a small bag of potato chips…may raise your risk of dementia even if you normally eat a [pious] plant-rich diet, according to a new study…[which] only show[s] an association, not a direct cause and effect.  However…this [does]…not [stop “nutritionists” from making outlandish claims about the magically-harmful powers of the vaguely-defined fad concept called]…ultraprocessed foods…The…[authors admitted that they think eating should be a counting ordeal requiring] a…[years-long] commit[ment] to…[pseudoscientific dogmas bizarrely described as “]award-winning[“]…and…[“]highly respected[” and encumbered with ungainly labels like]…the DASH diet and the MIND diet…[while foods people enjoy are described with the unappetizing adjective] “predigested”…

The incoherence of the “ultraprocessed” concept is demonstrated by the fact that potato chips – i.e. slices of potato fried in vegetable oil – are included despite requiring no more “processing” than is needed to make any other raw vegetable palatable, which can be done in any ordinary kitchen.

Welcome to the Future (#1576)

Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you, and that goes double for so-called “AI” devices:

Samsung is rolling out a new wave of [so-called “]AI[“] features that can recognize your voice, update your shopping list, and [report on what’s in your refrigerator to your health insurance company so your premiums can be raised if you eat anything they deem “unhealthy”]…Many of its…features are powered by Google Gemini…the [artificially-stupid]…oven comes with a camera that can recognize the dishes you place inside and recommend cooking time [for those too illiterate to read a cookbook]…Competitors like LG are also bringing [surveillance] into their appliances…by learning your habits and [sharing them with the corporation and its “partners”]…Samsung also has its own virtual assistant, Bixby, that it’s infusing into appliances…to provide a companion [to people whose lives are so pathetic they have nobody to talk to other than a refrigerator]…The goal is to create technology that f[osters dependence so as to be able to encumber marks with ever-more subscription services]…

Walled Garden (#1590)

The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:

[Utah politicians imagine their] new age-verification law…[can stop] minors [from] using VPNs to access [web]sites [politicians don’t want them to see]…by barring [targeted web]sites [across the entire internet] from recommending VPNs…[or] posting instructions on how to access them…the law [absurdly demands] age verification [of all Utah] users, “regardless of whether the individual is using a virtual private network, proxy server, or other means”…[despite the fact that] there’s no surefire way for a website to determine whether a…user is masking their location with a VPN.  The…[only way] a [web]site could…[obey] the law [would be] to…mandate age verification for every visitor globally…

Mad Libs (#1614)

Corporations can’t see that their stupidity, gullibility, and greed will wreck their business:

McClatchy, the newspaper chain behind publications including The Sacramento Bee, The Miami Herald and The Idaho Statesman, [is using a chatbot] to…summarize [re]al articles and spit out [enshittified] versions for different audiences…Journalists in many of the company’s newsrooms are now withholding their bylines from articles created by the [chatbot], meaning that those articles will run with a generic credit rather than a reporter’s name…Related [attempts to exploit people] are playing out in newsrooms across the country, as [greedy own]ers experiment with [trying to replace humans entirely] …McClatchy…[is owned by a] hedge fund [rather than a genuine publisher, as is evident in the buzzwords]…executives have [vomi]ted [in the faces of reporters whom they describe as]…“defiant”…for…[pointing out that] the tool’s use…[violates] their union contracts…reporters are a[lso being ordered] to edit…the [chatbot vomit, taking]…time away from serious journalism…

Panopticon (#1614)

This will continue unless forcibly shut down due to public outcry:

[Naifs in] an Atlanta suburb have been [sh]ocked by the [highly predictable news] that sales employees at Flock have been…demonstrat[ing] the company’s surveillance technology to [cop shops] around the country…[by spying on] a children’s gymnastics room, a playground, a school, a Jewish community center, and a pool…Flock has [absurdly justified this abuse by belching]…”demo partner program”…“well-intentioned”…”safety”…[and] “cutting-edge”…at…residents [who] universally explained to [fascist politician]s that they did not want their tax money funding surveillance technology that has been used to collaborate with [ICE], to [persecute]…abortion [seekers]…to stalk women and [to] surveil protests…

The Vultures Descend (#1622)

Prohibition can never succeed, regardless of which substance is prohibited:

[The ever-deranged Fifth Circuit is attempting to] restrict…access to one of the most common means of abortion in the U.S. by [attempting to] block…mailing of prescriptions of mifepristone…[and demanding] that the abortion pill be distributed only in person at clinics…[on the grounds that] Louisiana…and [other forced-birth states own]…every [citizen]…and [can use them as brood mares if it sees fit]…the Supreme Court…[has temporarily block]ed enforcement of [that] ban…

Even if SCOTUS changes its collective mind and allows the ban to go into effect, there is no practical way for the Post Office to consistently intercept discreetly-packaged pills sent from overseas by telehealth services like Women Help Women.

Walled Garden (#1631)

The only way to ensure data is not abused is not to collect it:

A teenage hacker is suspected of breaching a French government agency responsible for identity documents and attempting to sell millions of citizens’ personal data…the National Agency for Secure Documents (ANTS)…processes applications for passports, national identity cards, residence permits and driver’s licenses.  French authorities did not…[even know about] the…intrusion [until] the data appeared on underground marketplaces…The agency also oversees a new government age-verification app [politicians imagine can] prevent [young people of the hacker’s age] from accessing social networks…

 

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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Unserious leaders are unsafe.  –  Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai

Under Review (#779)

The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:

An escort website [based in Spain]…“makes a mockery” of Ireland’s law criminalising the purchase of sex, [babbled politician]…Sharon Keogan[, adding nonsense about “]direct defiance[” even though Spanish businesses are not subject to] Ireland’s [puritanic]al law…[she also barfed out the word “]trafficking[” in order to infantilize] migrant women…[and demanded] the law [be made into]…a “ma[gic]al operation[” so as to “]take action against such sites[” despite their being based in other sovereign nations]…She [further slandered]…independent escorts [by claiming they are] often controlled by organised crime groups that dominate the sex trade [in the sick fantasies of prohibitionists, and vomited out the word “]pimping[” before admitting that]…the business…[is] a Spanish-registered company[.  She appeared surprised to learn that] multimillion euro [businesses are]…organised…

License to Rape (#1327)

“Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”:

Black [minors] across England and Wales are almost eight times more likely to be [molested under guise of a “]search[“]…by police than their white counterparts…The findings…come more than five years after the case of…a Black 15-year-old schoolgirl who was [molested by cops] while menstruating b[ecause a teacher claimed she had touched a plant.  Surprisingly]…a disciplinary panel [later sacked the] two [molesters for] gross misconduct…[Such sexual assaults are] usually [justified by belching “]drugs[” in the victim’s face]…from July 2023 to June 2024…there were a total of 362 [“]search[” branded molestations] of under-18s…Half were white, 31% were Black, 11% Asian, 1.7% of mixed ethnicity and 12% other…[at least] 30% [of the victims had been assaulted by cops]…at least once before…[in the case of] Black [victims the assaults] were almost five times as likely to [be violent]…than [if the victims were] white…

Thou Shalt Not (#1381)

Because this kind of prohibition will surely be different!

[British subjects] aged 17 or younger will face…lifelong [criminalization of] buying cigarettes…Parliament….[has] settled on a final draft of the “[monkey see, monkey do]” legislation that aims to [magically] stop anyone born after 1 January 2009 from [getting cigarettes from the black market] to [magically] create a smoke-free generation [with a wave of politicians’ wands.  The government is also giving itself]…new powers to regulate tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, including their flavours and packaging.  It is part of a series of measures aimed at [creating a dangerous new front in the drug war]…one of the [world]’s leading causes of preventable death, [state violence,] and [human misery.  Cops will also be given new powers to spy on]…cars…playgrounds…schools and…hospitals…

Quiet Genocide (#1495)

Apparently white people can only care about one group of Muslims at a time:

…hundreds of thousands…since 2016 have suffered the Chinese government’s grave human rights violations in…Xinjiang…[where] authorities have subjected Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims to mass arbitrary detention, unjust imprisonments, intrusive surveillance and forced labor.  The UN Office of…Human Rights concluded in a landmark 2022 report that the Chinese government may have committed crimes against humanity in Xinjiang….Yet…efforts by…countries who tried to place Xinjiang on the formal agenda of the UN Human Rights Council were narrowly defeated after heavy pressure from Beijing…Yet China’s success in shifting the narrative is not solely the result of repression.  It also reflects…an increasingly unpredictable US foreign policy…[because] as governments line up to meet [Emperor] Xi Jinping as a hedge against [mad Emperor] Trump…human rights concerns…are routinely sidelined…allowing Beijing to effectively whitewash its crimes and recast China as a reliable…alternative to the United States…

Panopticon (#1515)

Cops are nothing more than state-sponsored terrorists:

…the Atlanta…“Cop City” [scheme] is at the center of a much larger experiment…[to replace an] urban forest…[with] the most expansive surveillance network of any city in the U.S…supercharg[ing] a pattern of digital tracking in Black neighborhoods…Georgia-based surveillance companies [are already] market[ing] this model nationwide…[despite] its ties to immigration [pogroms] and protest policing…A 2025 mapping project estimated that Atlanta now has about 124 surveillance cameras for every 1,000 residents…higher than any city in the world outside of a handful in China…The network…metastasized through the city’s Connect Atlanta program, which lets [useful idiots give pigs] live access to their private feeds…​

The Last Shall Be First (#1600)

Judges need to start presenting a united front against monarchical diktats:

A federal judge…issued a written opinion blasting [Trump henchman] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for…wanton disregard…for the rule of law in restricting federal funding for gender-affirming care for minors…The judge made it clear he was throwing out the Kennedy declaration…[and] granted an injunction prohibiting the federal government from trying to supersede professionally-recognized standards [again because]…the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services lack[s] the authority to unilaterally establish standards of medical care…[government] lawyers [backpedaled, claiming]…that Kennedy’s declaration reflected his personal opinion…and was not binding…[but] the judge found it was “strikingly apparent” that the…federal government’s arguments are based on [a] “bald-faced lie”…[saying] he was not persuaded by the federal government’s “attempts to gaslight” the court…

Mad Libs (#1631)

Politicians want to “regulate” consensual sex, but not this dangerous toy:

When researcher Nicholas Tiller began to feed health questions into chatbots as a test, he [did not] expect…this level of failure.  Five [chatbot]s, 250 questions and a total score of just over 50 percent correct responses.  And 1 in 5 of the…wrong [answers] were…dangerous[ly wrong]…A separate…study…in JAMA Network Open…gave 21 [chatbots all]…failing grades…[Another] recent experiment [show]ed how easily…chatbots [can be made to spout complete nonsense]…the problem is not an isolated quirk [but is intrinsic to the way chatbots function]…

 

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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Hawley is…trying to substitute…politicians for…scientists and health professionals.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Available Weapon

When mere accusation is sufficient, anyone can wield the state’s weapons:

[Actress] Rebel Wilson‘s…public relations team discussed plans to create anonymous websites that [libel]ed the producer of The Deb [by accusing her] of [“]sex trafficking[“]…In a recording obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, digital fixer Jed Wallace instructed…publicist Melissa Nathan to assert without evidence that the producer, Amanda Ghost, is a “madame” whose work involves procuring young women for wealthy and powerful men…Nathan’s The Agency Group…deployed websites featuring character-assassinating claims about Ghost…on [order of]…Wilson’s production company…The now-deleted site…[says] “she turned full pimp”…[and] refers to Ghost as the “Indian Ghislaine Maxwell”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1470) 

Governments are asserting ever-greater control over people’s medical care:

The…4th Circuit…upheld West Virginia’s ban on Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming surgeries in a unanimous ruling on…10 March…arguing with little evidence that gender-affirming care for trans adults was [a] “dangerous…experimental procedure”…[and bizarrely] claim[ing] that trans people had become “disdainful of their sex” and [should therefore be forced to]…“appreciate their sex” [by government diktat]…The…ruling is the first time a federal court…[has upheld] a restriction on healthcare for trans adults…human genomics academic Dr Jey McCreight branded the ruling “complete nonsense scientifically,” saying it was based on “fascist eugenics, not biology”…

Enshittification (#1557)  

May the same happen to every company which does this:

In January 2023, BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti announced…that the company was making a hard pivot to…[computer-generated] slop…neither insiders nor the public were particularly compelled by the move…[but] Peretti doubled down…shuttting down its Pulitzer Prize-winning BuzzFeed News division…[in favor of computer-generated] quizzes…and…sloppy…repetitive [chatbot-generated articles]…the company’s stock [predictably] took a massive beating…[and it] reported a net loss of $57.3 million in 2025…an official statement [said]…“there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern”…Peretti [is so delusional he is]…now…hoping to bring “new AI apps to the market”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1586)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

A claimant giving evidence in the High Court [of the UK] was fed answers through [perve]rt glasses he was wearing that were connected to his mobile phone…Laimonas Jakstys…[then lied about] the…glasses [when confronted]…Jakstys gave his evidence through an interpreter…After several questions, [Sarah Walker, counsel for the defendants, told the judge]…she could hear an interference coming from around Mr Jakstys and [him to remove] his glasses…After a few further questions…Jakstys’ mobile phone started broadcasting [his coach’s voice] out loud…The following day, the judge directed that the [glasses and phone be held by his solicitor]…

The Vultures Descend (#1600)

Prohibition can never succeed, regardless of which substance is prohibited:

A new bill introduced by [prohibitionist lunatic] Josh Hawley…would [criminalize] medication abortion across the country.  To support this [scheme], Hawley is relying on a…highly deceptive report that purportedly shows abortion-inducing drugs are unsafe…[to force the] FDA…[to rescind] approval of the drug mifepristone…and [also encourage prohibitionist grifters and opportunists]…to sue abortion pill manufacturers…women can still (fairly easily, it seems) have abortion-inducing medications shipped to them, [render]ing [Hawley’s scheme unfit for its stated purpose from square one]…

The Vultures Descend (#1604)

Under a totalitarian regime, medical personnel cannot be trusted with personal information:

…in December…Alexia Moore took 200mg of Misoprostol…[in] Southeast Georgia…[then went to a] hospital…and…[delivered a] premature [girl which doctors kept alive for about an hour]…Moore was arrested [in early March] and charged with murder…Georgia [law]…essentially deems a [fetus] alive once [fetal cardiac myocyte activity can be measured]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1607)

Government thugs don’t care how many lives are destroyed by their evil:

…Angela Lipps…spent nearly six months in jail after Fargo [North Dakota cops carelessly accused her of]…bank fraud [based on nothing more than error-prone] facial recognition software…Lipps told [cops] she had never been to North Dakota [nor]…ever been on an airplane until [the pigs abducted] her to North Dakota…She r[otted away] in a Tennessee jail for nearly four months…awaiting extradition….Her attorney, Jay Greenwood…obtained her bank records and pr[oved]…Lipps was more than 1,200 miles away in Tennessee at the time [cops lied that she was]…in Fargo…[the pigs refused to] pay for her trip home, leaving her stranded [in North Dakota].  Local defense attorneys helped cover a hotel room and food on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and a local non-profit, the F5 Project, was able to help her return to Tennessee…While jailed and unable to pay bills, Lipps lost her home, her car and her 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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A clumsy attempt…to put a cuddly face on a rather dystopian reality.  –  Chris Gilliard

The Vultures Descend (Bragging Rights)

No evil is too sleazy for forced-birth fanatics:

An anti-choice group called “Voices for Life” is trying a new strategy to put a target on the backs of abortion providers and recipients in [Indiana by] seeking to make…identifying details about them publicly available…Eleven abortion providers have been murdered in the U.S. since 1993, and abortion clinics continue to experience arson attacks and invasions.  From 2023 to 2024, there were 37 reported cases of stalking and 38 reported cases of assault…against abortion providers…Indiana’s abortion ban was passed almost immediately…after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade…It permits abortions in certain cases…but…bans abortion clinics…[so there are] very few abortions…Yet that isn’t enough for [fanatics]…

The Last Shall Be First (#1412) 

The time, money, and energy our society is flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

In Kansas, more than a bathroom bill is at stake for transgender residents as [psychopathic politicians] jam through a bill to mass-invalidate the driver’s licenses of every trans person in the state…HB246…declares that all driver’s licenses out of step with the state’s definition of man and woman are invalid, and instructs [bureaucrats] to identify every license issued to a trans person and send written notice that the license must be surrendered and reissued…The bill institutes an extreme and novel punishment of transgender residents for continuing to live their lives as normal, and the legality of stripping people of legal ID in this way is questionable.  However, there has been little coverage of the measure because the legislature paired it with one of the most extreme bans on trans people using public restrooms in the entire country.  The bathroom ban has been covered in local news stories and by the Erin in the Morning newsletter, which mentioned but did not focus on the driver’s license changes…

Thought Control (#1527)

These psychopaths won’t be satisfied until they can actually start arresting and caging librarians:

…a bill…in…Georgia…[would criminalize] librarians [who refuse] to…censor…books about LGBTQ people or issues.  Senate Bill 74, sponsored by [censorious politician] Max Burns…[would allow prosecu]tion…of [librarians for working in a library containing books that a politician chooses to point at while spastically barfing out the magic formula “]harmful…to minors[” if]…the…libraries [don’t] ban…people under 18 [from the premises]…Burns told reporters…“At the end of the day, the objective is to…[demand] that…professional…librarians [act as mindless facilitators of the whims of politicians, in violation of all decency and professional ethics]”…

Walled Garden (#1533)

“A disaster waiting to happen”:

Discord [has] announced…that it’s [impos]ing…[user surveillance] on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” [censorship level] unless they [convince an algorithm] that they’re adults.  Users who [refuse to submit to facial recognition or recording of their government ID] will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see c[ensorship black screens] for any content Discord [algorithms declare “]graphic[” or “]sensitive[“]…users w[ill even] be [banned from]…age-restricted server[s]…they were part of before [the surveillance regime was imposed]…Discord [mouthpieces pooh-poohed]…concerns around data privacy, [despite a recent] data breach that exposed users’ age verification data, including images of government IDs…

Panopticon (#1584) 

One couldn’t ask for a better example of useful idiocy:

At Sunday’s Super Bowl, Ring advertised “Search Party,” a cute, horrifyingly dystopian feature…designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses [recognition algorithms] to look for a lost dog…[with] one [simple] post…in the Ring app…It does not take an imagination of any sort to envision this being tweaked to work against [people the state has declared “]criminals[“, including] undocumented immigrants, or [else] other…[passersby] deemed “suspicious” by people…on its dystopian “Neighbors” app…Ring rose to prominence…by forming [fascist] partnerships with local police around the country, asking them to shill their doorbell cameras to people…in return for a system that allowed police to [demand] footage from individual users without a warrant [or the consent of the camera “owner”]…

This is only a temporary retreat:

Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock S[urveillance]…Ring has announced it is [temporarily backpedaling from] the integration [until the furor dies down]…Over the last few weeks, the company has faced significant public anger over its connection to Flock, with Ring users being encouraged to smash their cameras, and some announcing on social media that they are throwing away their Ring devices…

Ring has a history of claiming to retreat from fascist police-statery, then quietly resuming the supposedly-renounced behavior once things quiet down.

Torture Chamber (#1607)

This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed:

…a handwritten note…wrapped around a lotion bottle…was thrown by a man held captive inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center…on [February 1st]…“It’s cold here all the time and the food is poor…For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh.  We are all in one big room with no doors or windows.  We can’t see any grass or trees.  We are all constantly sick.”  The bottle needed to be tossed with enough strength to make it across a cement wall, two barbed wire fences each around twelve-feet high and separated by about five feet of gravel, and ten additional feet of road…Two lotion bottles with the same note were tossed over…[because if screws see messages being thrown out] they rush…to grab them…so…[nobody can find out which] hostages…[are imprisoned in which] facilities…[but activists] have collected 14 lotion bottles, two deodorant bottles, and one AA Battery that [hostag]es have thrown over the fences with notes attached to them.  These items have included a total of 102 names and A-Numbers…[which] are…numbers assigned by the Department of [Father]land Security to [victims]…Organizers use this information to add…funds [to hostages’]…commissary…[and] phone call…[accounts]…

Mad Libs (#1612)

What an opportunity for ambulance-chasers to cash in:

This study evaluated whether the customized ECG Reader-GPT model could serve as a supportive tool—rather than a substitute for expert judgment—during ECG interpretation in the emergency department…Ten emergency medicine specialists (EMSs) interpreted each ECG…The same ECG set was assessed by a customized [chatbot]…Two cardiologists, blinded to group assignments, scored all responses using a predefined key.  EMSs demonstrated markedly higher diagnostic accuracy…correctly interpret[ing] 77% of ECGs, whereas ECG Reader-GPT achieved 24%…indicating that the model is…insufficient for real-world ECG interpretation…

But when actual physicians merely used the software for “assistance”, the results were even worse:

In 2021…Johnson & Johnson [pompously] announced a “leap forward”:  it [crammed a chatbot in]to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis…the software…would [supposedly]…assist ear, nose, and throat specialists in surgeries.  The device had already been on the market for three years [prior to insertion of the parasitic chatbot, during which time the FDA] received [seven] unconfirmed reports of…device malfunction…Since [the chatbot was crammed in, there have been]…at least 100 malfunctions and adverse events…

 

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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