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Posts Tagged ‘I Spy’

In the News (#1319)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Encryption is either protecting everyone or it is broken for everyone.  –  Meredith Whittaker

To Molest and Rape

No female motorist is safe while the state continues to pay sexual predators to harass us:

A [typical and representative]…Tennessee [cop named]…Jonathan Kelly…was charged with…aggravated rape a[fter he raped]…a woman during a traffic stop…Kelly t[threatened to arrest] the woman [for a bogus]…crime if she [refused to submit to]…him…

Where Are the Protests? (#945) 

I’m sure the “anti-trafficking” crusaders will be going after this any day now:

Migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country…This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century.  Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee.  Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina.  Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota.  Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic.  This labor force has been slowly growing for almost a decade, but it has exploded since 2021, while the systems meant to protect [them] have [been allowed to break] down [because money is instead going to grow the apparatus of surveillance, censorship, and carceral violence]…

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1117)

Fanatics’ crusade to control all human thought is never-ending:

A…[pack of censorious politicians]…studying [ways to impose harsher censorship] in the United Kingdom [wants people to believe] that not only is porn a major contributor to real-world violence, it is violence…the group echoes old radical feminist tropes about pornography—that there is no such thing as ethical porn, that it’s all “exploitation,” and its mere existence is “a form of violence against women”…All-Party Parliamentary Groups “have no official status within Parliament…[but] can sometimes be influential“…So it’s worrying to see statements like these from Diana Johnson, a [politician with a long history of working to increase violence vs sex workers]…

I Spy (#1207)

Nothing infuriates violent, self-important busybodies more than private affairs that are none of their business:

The head of the messaging app Signal has warned that it will quit the UK if the forthcoming online safety bill [demands the intentional weakening of] end-to-end encryption…Meredith Whittaker said…“we would absolutely 100% walk rather than ever undermine the trust that people place in us to provide a truly private means of communication”…The bill has been criticised by privacy campaigners for a provision allowing Ofcom, [a surveillance agency], to order a platform to use certain technologies to [spy on users] and [censor anything the government demands as long as it belches out “THE CHILDREN!!!” first]…the bill could force encrypted messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage to [spy on] users’ messages and create vulnerabilities in their platforms that could be exploited by rogue actors and governments.  Whittaker told the BBC it was “magical thinking” to believe there can be privacy “but only for the good guys”…Whittaker also criticised a system called client-side scanning, where images are scanned before being encrypted…[because] such a system would turn everyone’s phone into a “mass surveillance device that phones home to tech corporations and governments”…

The Vultures Descend (Vulture Watching)

Medical confidentiality has gone the way of the dodo:

A Greenville [South Carolina] woman was arrested…and charged with performing or soliciting an abortion.  In October 2021…[she] sought medical help at St. Francis Hospital after having labor pains…an[d naively believed she could trust] medical personnel [with the knowledge that] she had taken abortion pills to end a pregnancy…[of course one of them called the cops on her]…

The Cop Myth (#1303)

Cop deals with others exactly as he normally does, and the press is shocked:

An Opa-locka [Florida cop has been] arrested…on…domestic abuse charges [because he regularly beat] and threatened to kill [his wife and children] for almost a decade…The wife of Johane Hendrik Taylor [reported] that [many] times dating back to 2014 her husband hit her with closed fists, once even breaking a rib and trying to drag her outside while she was unconscious.  Another time…he…hit one of h[is]…children over the head with a vacuum cleaner…he…has abused the children since the oldest…was three…she is currently 13…Taylor…is the youngest son of former Opa-locka Mayor Myra Taylor and the brother of the city’s current Mayor John Taylor…[which may partially explain] how he was hired as a…[cop] despite twice failing his police exam and having a criminal past involving domestic battery.  He resigned in 2013 when [reporters] discovered th[is but]…was rehired…about two years later…[and soon] promoted…

The Last Shall Be First (#1309) 

Trans people have become another canary in the civil rights coal mine:

Mississippi [has] bec[o]me the seventh state to enact a restriction on…transition-related health care for minors.  Gov. Tate Reeves…[turned the signing into a political event, babbling culture-war nonsense centered around THE CHILDREN!!!]…the…bill also bans public funding from going to any institution or individual that provides such care to minors.  Health care providers who infringe the law can have their licenses revoked.  The law also allows minors who receive transition-related care to sue providers for 30 years after they receive care…In the last two years…Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and, now, Mississippi…have [enacted] such measures into law, though judges have blocked Arkansas’ and Alabama’s laws…pending the outcome of lawsuits…

 

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

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In the News (#1315)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[Chris] Stewart proposes eliminating anonymous speech and effectively creating a database of dissenters.  –  Ari Cohn

Without Let or Hindrance

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

…after their son Cooper…[was sexually] assault[ed by a cop named Brandon Cook, Tim & Heather]…Hill…[were subjected to] an ever more complicated web of [retaliatory] legal proceedings [by Missouri “child welfare” goons under the direction of a bureaucrat named Spring] Cook…[seven months after a] Review Board…reversed Cook’s finding of neglect…FBI agents knocked on their door…[to interrogate] Cooper’s [sister about his] sex life, much like DSS had.  They left and never came back…but [to head off more retaliatory]…investigations, the…[Hills] filed a federal civil rights lawsuit…claiming Cook’s investigation was conducted in retaliation for the family standing up against Scott County after Deputy Cook “groomed Plaintiffs’ minor son through the Scott County Sheriff’s Explorer program”…In June 2021, a federal judge dismissed most of the Hills’ claims. But in a surprising and rare move, she ruled [Spring] Cook wasn’t shielded from a…suit under [qualified] immunity…a…jury [later] found [Brandon] Cook guilty of [molesting Cooper and he]…was sentenced to two years in prison…

Divided We Fall (#902)

People who said nothing while the Times spread propaganda against sex workers are shocked when it expands to other sexual minorities:

…a group of almost 200 journalists and writers released an open letter addressed to the New York Times, sharing their “serious concerns about editorial bias in the newspaper’s reporting on transgender, non-binary, and gender nonconforming people”…In recent years and months, the Times has decided to play an outsized role in laundering anti-trans narratives and seeding the discourse with those narratives, publishing tens of thousands of handwringing words on trans youth—reporting that is now approvingly cited and lauded…by those who seek to ban and criminalize gender-affirming care…

I Spy (#1136)

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

…personal data [from] using the internet…are collected by website cookies, social media platforms, mobile applications, and myriad other digital information hoovers.  This information is collected, processed, and sold by data brokers….to the government.  The…CDC…for instance, purchased location data to [spy on people using] COVID restrictions [as a pretext]…In 2017–18, the…IRS…paid to access location data to [enable surprise raids]…The Wall Street Journal reported, “In many cases, the data is precise enough to clearly identify the home address of the phone’s user, which can then be cross-checked against public databases showing property ownership records or rental address history.”  Under modern case law, the Fourth Amendment does not constrain the government’s purchasing of [this data], as such transactions require neither search nor seizure…

Torture Chamber (#1148)

Texas has a long history of “correcting” people to death:

The FBI has opened an investigation into…following the deaths of two [prisoners] at the Harris County Jail in Texas…Jaquaree Simmons…died in February 2021 and Jacoby Pillow…died in January 2023…Houston…attorneys Ben Crump and Paul Grinke…request[ed] the…investigation.  “It’s appalling that you would have 32 detainees (die) in the Harris County Jail in a 14-month period,” Crump said…21 [human being]s died [while locked] in [filthy cages in Houston] in 2021, and…at least 28 [last year]…the total number of deaths [so far] in 2023 is “at least four”…”We have credible reason to believe that Jacoby Pillow died from compression asphyxia from being restrained…that [is also] evidence that he was beaten multiple times by [screws]”…

To Molest and Rape (Long Hidden)

The stupidest cop defense after “she wanted to be raped by a random cop”:

A [London cop who sexually assaulted] a woman…claims DNA could have been transferred to her chest after she shook his hand…[in actuality,] Fabian Aguilar-Delgado…followed her upstairs and sexually assaulted her after he was called to a domestic incident at her home in Croydon…most of the DNA found on a swab taken from the woman’s right nipple [belong]ed to Aguilar-Delgado…

Believe it or not, we’ve heard the “magical DNA transfer” rape defense before.

To Molest and Rape (#1215)

He wasn’t an “ex-officer” when he raped and murdered a teenage girl:

A [typical and representative] Atlanta[-area cop] has been arrested in connection with the death of a 16-year-old girl who vanished from Gwinnett County more than six months ago.  Susana Morales…vanished…on July 26, 2022…[she] texted her mother at 9:40 p.m…and was not heard from again…[until her] remains were found [on February 6th], more than 20 miles away…Miles Bryant…has been arrested…[but so far only] charged with concealing the death of another and false report of a crime [even though cops suspect him of raping and murdering her]…

Opting Out (#1269) 

Surely you didn’t think this was just about porn, did you?

Rep. Chris Stewart…introduced a bill that would require social media platforms to verify the age of every registered user and prohibit registering [users] younger than 16…the bill would…require…platforms to verify age using government identification, such as a birth certificate or a driver’s license…[and] would apply to any platform that allows users to make accounts for posting, sharing, or viewing user-generated content…This spacious definition of “social media” could be interpreted by regulators to include messaging, video, and email services, none of which are explicitly excluded from the statute’s provisions.  And unlike many recent proposals to regulate online life, the bill does not…spare smaller platforms from having to collect sensitive information from users—which would be costly to protect and would threaten users’ privacy…

 

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

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In the News (#1313)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Those people aren’t hurting anyone.  –  Aaron Wojack

Torture Chamber 

It’s amazing how often people die mysteriously when cops are around:

…[An] internal surveillance recording…shows…Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, being carried into the loading area of the Walker County [Alabama] Jail.  Mitchell is limp, his head and feet dangling as uniformed personnel — “Sheriff” emblazoned on one of their vests…work to put him into [a] police vehicle.  The video contradicts an earlier statement from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office claiming Mitchell was “alert and conscious” when he left the jail for transport to a local hospital…the…[cops are “]investigating[” themselves]…

Update, four days later:

The mother of Anthony…Mitchell…has filed a federal lawsuit against multiple jail officials, including Sheriff Nick Smith, a[fter cops murdered him]…by leaving him in the jail’s walk-in freezer “or similar frigid environment” for hours…while…[strapped naked] in a restraint chair…[Mitchell’s ordeal began] when family members [stupidly thought their reason for calling the cops was an exception]…

The Widening Gyre (#420)

Lawheads still believe that barricades can magically eliminate the need for money:

[San Francisco bureaucrats] plan to install barriers…along a strip of Capp between 18th and 22nd streets where [street workers] appear most concentrated…the barriers are meant to put an end to the “cruising zone”.  [But San Francisco being what is is,] residents and [politicians claim to be]…worried about the [sex workers they want persecuted by police and denied an income, while at the same time vomiting a steady stream of copaganda and dysphemisms out of the other side of their faces]…

To Molest and Rape

No female motorist is safe while the state continues to pay sexual predators to harass us:

A [typical and representative] Arizona…[cop named Tremaine Jackson w]as…sentenced to [a mere] five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to [a few minor] sex-related charges…[to escape the full consequences of the] actions…[that led to] 61 [felony charges including]…sex[ual assault], kidnapping and fraud…Jackson was also placed on lifetime probation…Jackson was [first] arrested…on Sept. 10, 2019…in…[response to] complaints from…eight [of his] victims…[Typically,] Jackson would…pull over women between midnight and 4:30 a.m. and detain them for around two hours…[while pressing] the woman [for various kinds of sexual contact and asking what she] was “willing to do” to avoid arrest.  The [harassment and molestation] misconduct ranged from forced touching to asking for cellphone numbers and nude pictures…He [once]…pressur[ed] a woman to [give him a blow job] and follow[ed] her to a friend’s house…[but she outwitted him by running] inside and lock[ing] the door…

Rooted in Racism (#935)

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

Police claim they have dismantled an international sex trafficking ring that allegedly lured hundreds of women from China to Europe and forced them into sex work…Europol [claime]d the action represents the largest Chinese human trafficking bust in European history.  The gang’s accused ringleaders are [claim]ed to have forced hundreds of women in debt bondage into sex work in slave-like conditions in hotels across Europe…

Now that the public has largely lost interest in “sex trafficking” fantasies, expect the claims of cops and politicians to grow more grandiose until they hit on a new anti-migration paradigm.

Opting Out (#1268)

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

France will become the first country to introduce a “digital certificate” for anyone seeking to view online pornography to prove they are not under age.  People wanting to visit pornography websites [who are too ignorant to install a VPN, and gullible enough to]…install a government application on their mobile phones [will open themselves up to totalitarian spying in order to] prov[e]…they are at least 18 years old…Websites that do not comply with the order risk being banned from France…[politicians paved the way for the mass surveillance scheme with propaganda melodramatically] entitled Hell Behind the Scenes, which [was heavily influenced by a cabal of prohibitionist associations aiming to abolish all sex work]…

Stalkers in Blue (#1300)

Even seemingly-consensual sex with a cop may be something else:

As part of a plea deal [to drop separate domestic violence charges], a Pinole [California cop]…has pleaded no contest to a felony charge for secretly recording sex with a woman…The deal allows…Anthony Luciano Vasquez to…serve 120 days of house arrest and two years probation…Vasquez was charged in 2021 after his own cousin [snitched]…that Vasquez “sent out secretly recorded sex videos and pictures” to a text message group called “The Mafia” that included 17 people.  He was charged with secretly filming two women, one of whom has filed a lawsuit against him and the city of Pinole…[yet] his attorney [claimed] in a September 2021 interview that [the victim wanted it]…

Law of the Instrument (Another Rapist Roundup)

I guess they figure describing rape as “sex trafficking” will net a larger payout:

Three former members of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team are suing their former coach, a national federation and its CEO and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for sex trafficking, harassment and enabling and covering up multiple acts of sexual assault and misconduct…Olympians Rosey Fletcher and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, along with Erin O’Malley, alleged in their lawsuit that Peter Foley…used his position of trust to “coerce sexual acts through force, manipulation, emotional abuse, intimidation and retaliation”…

 

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

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In the News (#1289)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2022| 2 Comments »

No one wins in this.  –  Connor Cook

If Men Were Angels

It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:  “A pastor [named Fredy Gonzalez]…in Wildomar [California] has been arrested for [molesting] a child…”

A Broker in Pillage (#1118)

Burying government in lawsuits is the only way to slow its depredations:

Vera and Apollonia Ward…were just getting a dog-breeding business off the ground…when…[cops attempted to rob]…them…the…sisters…had…tried to send $17,500 in cash through FedEx to a…California…dog broker…to scout and purchase two new animals for them…[like most people, they did not know] FedEx [has a] fa[scist pact with cops which allows them to root through parcels at FedEx sorting centers if they claim a dog gave them permission.  The cops first vomited out the phrase]…drug proceeds…[and claimed their Sooper Cop noses] smelled marijuana on the money…[but] the sisters…had receipts to [show they had withdrawn the cash from their bank]…When the sisters refused to cave and say the money was drug proceeds, the…[cops] threatened to go after them for money laundering…[but] after the Wards connected with the Goldwater Institute, prosecutors relented and returned the…money…six months [later]…

The Cop Myth (#1191)

Well, this is certainly novel:

A Miami [cop was]…shot in the head by his estranged…girlfriend…Yessenia Sanchez…a[nother cop paid to lurk in]…school[s in order to spy on and harass students]…Sanchez went to [Damian] Colon’s [home]…around 6:30 a.m. on Nov. 4…to argue [with him], a[fter] which [she]…shot [him]…then fled…in a red pick up truck, [which she almost immediately wrecked into]…an oncoming car.  She [then]…los[t] control, hit two parked cars…and continued for another block until her [truck died, after which she]…fled on foot…[and] was later arrested at her home…

Stalkers in Blue (#1240)

This kind of behavior is just another sexual power trip:

A [typical and representative Mountie] convicted of multiple sex offences has been sentenced to 18 months in jail…Andrew Seangio…will [also] be placed on a sex offender registry for 10 years…[because] between 2018 and February 2019…he exposed himself to four girls, one of whom was just 14 years old, as well as [disguised cops]…Seangio would drive…past York House School and Little Flower Academy, both all-girls K-12 private schools, until he spotted an isolated victim.  He would then roll down his window, expose himself and drive away…

Thought Control (#1261)

Just keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually:

[When] the Patmos Library millage failed in…August…it lost 84% of its operating budget because its staff refused to remove its LGBTQ books.  The board put it on the ballot again [last week]…hoping that with more residents aware of the measure, it would pass.  It failed, again.  Without taxpayer funds, the library will close.  Exactly when that will happen is not yet known.  A GoFundMe for the library raised about $265,000, with the help of author Nora Roberts, but it won’t be enough to sustain it long-term…

Imaginary Victims (#1274) 

The state is far too concerned with “punishing” this girl to actually help her:

…On November 4, [Pieper] Lewis cut off her GPS tracker and [escaped] from [a gingerbread house named] Fresh Start…[cops] issued a warrant for her arrest…and [she was captured 5 days later]…Judge David Porter sentenced Lewis in September to probation for five years to be served at the [gingerbread house].  He also gave her a deferred judgment, which meant her conviction would be expunged from her record if she [successfully jumped through all the] probation [hoops].  Porter warned Lewis at her sentencing hearing that by affording her an opportunity to avoid prison he was giving her a second chance.  “You don’t get a third,” he said…[because of her escape, pigs want] the court to…revoke her probation and deferred judgment and send her to prison…

Winding Down (#1286)

When will the federal government finally read the writing on the wall?

Voters…approved the legalization of recreational marijuana in Maryland and Missouri while rejecting similar measures in Arkansas, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Meanwhile, voters in five Texas cities passed ballot measures that bar local police from issuing citations or making arrests for low-level marijuana possession.  But the most striking election result for drug policy reformers looking beyond the ongoing collapse of marijuana prohibition happened in Colorado, where a broad psychedelic decriminalization measure [squeaked by despite clucking from puritans that not sending cops to destroy people’s lives over possession of plants]…is bad, because people might use psychedelics for fun…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

In the News (#1277)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 5, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Americans are increasingly aware that their privacy is evaporating before their eyes.  –  Ed Markey

Torture Chamber

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

A W[est Virginia] man died 19 days [after the state locked him in a cage]…Alvis Shrewsbury…called his family members daily.  But as the days went on, his appearance on video calls began to worry his family members more and more…”After we were talking to him on the 10th (of September), he’d already been beaten.  His face was black,” his daughter Miranda Smith said…”He was telling us about his ribs being broken.  It was hard to breathe. He hadn’t had a bowel movement in over a week and nothing was being done about it”…Shrewsbury was the fifth person who died in the [same dungeon in the] last year…Kyle Robinson…[was the first] in September 2021.  Then a month later, John Lewis Jarrell died after [only] a week…In March, Quantez Burks died less than two days after [being condemned there and]…that [same] month, Richard Wriston…Shrewsbury’s body is in the custody of the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner…[but] the family plans to conduct an independent autopsy of his body…

Thought Control (Censorship Ascendant)

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

…over the past several years, Germany has [chosen to terrorize and]…criminally prosecut[e] people for [saying things politicians dislike] online…German authorities have br[anded]…insults, threats and harassment…[as “hate speech” and sent] police [on predawn] raid[s of people’s] homes…[where they rob their victims of] electronics and [abduct them using the pretext of “]questioning[” in a campaign reminiscent of the country’s dark 20th-century past].  Judges have enforced fines worth thousands of dollars each and, in some cases, [locked victims in cages for wrongthink].  The threat of prosecution, they believe, will [terrorize people into] not e[xpressing disfavored ideas.  They pretend]…that they are encouraging and defending free speech by providing a space where people can share [favored pro-state and majoritarian] opinions without fear of being [challenged by contrary ideas]..:

Stupor Bowl (#1211)

This pathetic public promotion of misogynistic masturbatory material appears to be all that’s left of the once-popular “gypsy whores” myth:

An estimated 5% of men have or will be buyers of sex workers, [said cops making furtive movements in their pants]…“The traffickers will, of course, follow the money to Arizona”…That’s why Glendale police are working with other law enforcement agencies across the Valley to catch traffickers coming to the state…

I’ve written before about the ever-shrinking fraction of men who will admit to having paid for sex, the unreliable methodology that produces these impossibly-low numbers, the ugly and misogynistic fantasy that paying for sex is “buying a woman”, and the weird and self-contradictory inclusion of the term “sex worker” in this kind of agency-negating propaganda.  And that’s before we even get to this myth that even prohibitionists outside of Arizona now admit is deeply stupid.

Panopticon (#1256)

San Francisco pigs are no longer satisfied with waiting for useful idiots’ consent:

San Francisco [politicians rubber-stamped] a new s[urveillance] policy allowing police to access thousands of private cameras in a live feed without a search warrant…the…proposal…will take effect in 30 days and sunset in 15 months…police can monitor the cameras…for any [event that they decide to call] “significant”…or [basically any other time they can think of an excuse]…The Electronic Frontier Foundation …called the new policy a “troubling ordinance” that could have a chilling effect on First Amendment and other rights…“Misdemeanors like vandalism or jaywalking happen on nearly every street of San Francisco on any given day — meaning that this ordinance essentially gives the SFPD the ability to put the entire city under live surveillance indefinitely,” the organization wrote in a press release…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1260)

Cops won’t drop this fantasy until local media stop obediently parroting it:

…two [West Virginia cops] were hit in the face with an unknown substance [thrown by a man they were trying to brutalize and abduct.  Being hysterical whiny-babies, the immediately assumed the substance was the magical black magic version of fentanyl which haunts cop fantasies, and]…one…suddenly [had a panic attack.  Since this kind of hysteria is contagious among those with weak minds]…the second [pig also had a panic attack]…An off-duty nurse helped administer NARCAN, which [acted as a placebo to placate the two cowards]…

Thought Control (#1265)

Surely you didn’t think this would stop with LGBT books?

…at the start of Banned Books Week…Reshma Saujani was awakened by an alert on her phone letting her know that the Girls Who Code book series [she founded] had been banned from classrooms in the Central York School District in Pennsylvania.  On Twitter, she attributed the ban to the [pro-censorship] Moms for Liberty group…Other books banned by the…district include such controversial-sounding titles as A Is for Audra: Broadway’s Leading Ladies from A to Z; Condoleeza Rice: Being The Best; Duke Ellington: The Piano Prince and his Orchestra; Elizabeth Blackwell: The First Woman Doctor; Grace Hopper: Queen of Computer Code; I Love My Hair!; Muffin Wars; The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage; I Am Rosa Parks; Who Was Lucille Ball? and about a hundred others…the…common thread [seems to be books] that…acknowledge that Black people or women of any color exist and do things…There is good news: this ban has already been defeated.  Yay!  The bad news is that it was all very stupid from beginning to end…

I Spy (#1270)

The number of politicians who support such reform is very small:

Civil rights lawyers and [a small minority of politicians] are pushing for legislation that would limit U.S. [cop shop]s’ ability to buy cellphone tracking tools to follow people’s whereabouts, including back years in time…[usually] without a search warrant.  Concerns about police use of the tool known as “Fog Reveal…also surfaced in a Federal Trade Commission hearing three weeks ago.  [Cop]s have been using the platform to search hundreds of billions of records gathered from 250 million mobile devices, and hoover up people’s geolocation data to assemble so-called “patterns of life”…

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

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In the News (#1272)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2022| Leave a Comment »

They knew exactly what these consequences were going to be because we told them.  –  Tani Malhotra

Change a Few Words

All prohibitionism is the same:

They were warned…[politicians]…were warned time and again that their…ban was cruel and…they didn’t care…What is one to make of people who can hear such testimony…and ignore it?  The stridency of ignorance?  The unearned confidence of religious zealotry?  The casual disregard of humanity and human empathy in favor of extremist ideology removed from reality?  The ignoble placating and pleasing of political special interests over compassionate human interests?  All of that?  Yes.  All of that…the world is complex, and human situations are nuanced and complicated.  This sledgehammer of extremist law inflicts grave injustice unbefitting of such sensitive issues…They were warned, and they did it anyway.  If this cruelty and suffering is what they wanted, they’ve certainly created a lot of it.

The only good prohibition ever creates is pushing more people into the proper skepticism about government they should’ve had in the first place.

I Saw My Brain (#999)

Judd loves giving his entrapment schemes sophomoric titles that reference adjacent events:

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office…arrested 160 people in a seven-day [pogrom] focused on [adult consensual sex]…the [only] arrests from “Fall Haul 2” [which are newsworthy]…were…[those of] a deputy police chief from Georgia, Jason DiPrima…[a screw named] Keith Nieves…[spokepigs also oinked out misogynistic fantasies about “sex trafficking”]…

This will continue until the majority of those arrested fight back with lawsuits, or the voters of Polk County get tired of paying the many lawsuits that are already filed against this cretin every year.

You Were Warned (#1122)

A lawsuit like this would never have reached first base had it been filed against mainsream film studios:

All claims made by a Jane Doe plaintiff against several adult studios, in a lawsuit sponsored by…Morality in Media…were dismissed…on Aug. 19…[after] the…plaintiff and defendants Diabolic Video Productions Inc., Black Ice LTD, Zero Tolerance Entertainment Inc. and Third Degree Films filed a joint motion to dismiss all of the claims “with prejudice,” meaning they cannot be refiled.  Typically, these types of joint motions are the result of a deal or settlement having been reached out of court…in March 2021, in an unusual decision, [judge Michael] Anello ruled that, although the contracts signed by a former performer were valid, the arbitration agreements that were part of them should be disregarded and the lawsuit could move forward…

The Next Target (#1219)

These are the countries authoritarians want the US to ape:

…courts in France and Germany moved forward…with proposed mandates to block adult sites over compliance with controversial age verification mandates.  A Paris court will rule next month on whether French media regulator Arcom “has the right to block access to…sites [including Twitter] in France unless…they can prevent minors…from accessing them”…in…Germany, the Higher Administrative Court has dismissed complaints from Cyprus-based platforms, including xHamster, seeking the reversal of a recent ban by the Düsseldorf Administrative Court.  Both developments — along with a recent reversal of policy by the Conservative government in the U.K., which has now vowed to “crack down” on adult sites like Pornhub and xHamster — are being celebrated by [pro-censorship]…crusaders as stepping stones in a strategy that would culminate in the total banning of adult content by open platforms like Twitter and Reddit…

The Vultures Descend (#1249)

Prohibitionists will use any sleazy trick to inflict bans on the people they supposedly represent:

The Michigan Supreme Court ruled…that a petition over whether to add a constitutional amendment expanding abortion rights must be on the ballot this fall…the…court directed an election board to certify a proposed amendment from the group Reproductive Freedom for All, which had submitted more than 750,000 signatures to get the question on the ballot…the…board deadlocked [along schoolyard-team lines] on whether to certify the ballot, throwing the issue into limbo…a coalition of anti-abortion groups…[claimed] to the board of canvassers that the ballot measure had spacing and formatting problems that rendered some of the proposed language unreadable…

This is the second attempt by prohibitionists in as many weeks to use technicalities to block civil rights advocates from enabling people to vote whether to stop politicians’ schemes to control their personal lives.

I Spy (#1268)

Funny how politicians were never interested in protecting people’s privacy until they could make political coin from it:

…the California legislature [has] passed a bill designed to prevent companies in the state from disclosing communications content and metadata in response to out-of-state legal demands for information in abortion-related investigations…Section 9 of the bill would bar companies that provide electronic communications services and are either (i) California corporations, or (ii) corporations whose principal executive offices are located in California, from providing “records, information, facilities or assistance” in California in response to legal process issued in another state that “relates to” an investigation into a violation of a law that prohibits “… providing, facilitating, or obtaining an abortion that is lawful under California law.”  Disclosures in investigations into attempts to provide, facilitate, or obtain such abortions are also blocked.  The legislation also empowers the California Attorney General to [sue]…to compel these companies to comply with this prohibition…The bill also blocks judges and law enforcement from aiding abortion investigations…

To Molest and Rape (#1269)

Since he’s not being charged, there’s nothing to stop this predator from just going to another cop shop:

…New Port Richey [Florida cop]…Bobby Lubrido…is not facing any criminal charges…from [molesting a teenager, even though he was fired]…The girl…[was labeled] a runaway…[and] Lubrido [was assigned to take her to a cage and lock her in]…Lubrido…placed her cellphone on his charger in the front seat at her request…[then] asked for the password…he started looking at her photo gallery and watching videos of her “twerking”…while driving…making sexually explicit comments as he drove…he…was so distracted…that he hit a deer…then…[later] let her eat half of his sandwich…and…when she was done…told her, “That sandwich wasn’t free,” and groped her bottom…and…breasts…[after which he] pulled up her mother’s photo on his [pigmobile] computer and asked if she would be interested in having a “threesome,” to which the girl said no…he [then threatened to] come to her house later to “check up on her”…

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In the News (#1270)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, Music, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

It doesn’t sound as though the case was going very well for the government so far.  –  Judge William Fletcher

If Men Were Angels 

It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:

A former [pastor and] teacher at a [Pennsylvania] evangelical school was convicted [on August 31st] of sexually assaulting a first grader there in 2007.  Randy Lee Boston…denied the allegations, [claim]ing…that he had barely any interaction with the alleged victim while he was enrolled at the school.  But in an interview with police, a recording of which was played in court, Boston admitted to having sexual desires “connected to young boys” and being attracted to their bodies…

Choke Point (#593) 

Wells Fargo has repeatedly shown itself to be among the worst perpetrators of this abuse:

Sex workers…are reporting that the bank Wells Fargo has sent them notices terminating their accounts effective immediately, in what they see as an extension of the crackdown measures banks and other large institutions have been implementing over the past few years.  In the letters, which are dated August 25…Wells Fargo offers zero explanation for the decision…Alana Evans, the president of the Adult Performance Artists’ Guild (APAG), says that she has been a client with Wells Fargo in good standing for nearly 30 years…Spike Irons and Sofie Marie, who run…a porn production company…primarily use[d] the[ir now-closed] account to pay out independent contractors…They have since applied to two other banks and been rejected…Former adult performer Raylene has been out of the industry for a decade, and says she’s had her Wells Fargo account for 22 years.  She, too, received the same notice…despite the only adult industry-related payment on her account being residuals from a lifetime contract with Streammate…In 2014, JP Morgan Chase closed down many adult performers’ accounts without providing any explanation…

See No Evil (#1167)

Legalese for “get out of my courtroom, you opportunist”:

A federal judge…dismissed a lawsuit filed by a man who, as a baby, had graced the cover of Nirvana’s seminal album, Nevermind, and argued 30 years later that the iconic photo of him drifting naked in a pool had been a form of sexual exploitation…Spencer Elden…[even] accused Nirvana…of engaging in child pornography…The judge, Fernando M. Olguin, wrote in his eight-page ruling that because Mr. Elden had learned about the album cover more than 10 years ago, he had waited too long to file his lawsuit, making his claims untimely…

Dangerous Speech (#1186)

The government’s evil clown show continues in a new ring:

Oral arguments in the Lacey/Larkin appeal took place Sept. 2 before a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit, where the defense presented a forceful case that the government didn’t deserve a retrial…[one] issue was the testimony of California cop Brian Fichtner during last year’s…mistrial due to prosecutorial misconduct…the government…repeatedly mentioned or elicited testimony related to sex trafficking or child sex trafficking, though Lacey, Larkin, et al. are not charged with such…[prosecution witness] Fichtner, who investigated Backpage previously for then-Cali AG Kamala Harris’ failed 2016 prosecution of Lacey and Larkin, was…eviscerated on cross-examination by the defense and forced to admit that the content of the ads on Backpage was legal and on its own did not give law enforcement probable cause to arrest anyone for prostitution…this point…is important because the appellate court must find that the government had a reason to sabotage its own case for the U.S. Constitution’s prohibition on double jeopardy to kick in…the prosecution faced certain defeat, and so chose to throw the case, and retool its strategy for a retrial…

A Woman’s Point of View (#1201) 

Another Vermont city achieves de facto decriminalization:

Montpelier has become the second city in Vermont to repeal its antiquated prostitution ordinance in the past year…most municipalities in Vermont do not have ordinances banning prostitution [so]…repealing the language…bring[s] Montpelier in line with the rest of the state.  Though bills proposing to decriminalize prostitution were introduced during the past two legislative sessions, they did not advance and prostitution remains criminalized at the state level…

The Cop Myth (#1232)

How long will America ignore the costs of its sick worship of state-sanctioned violence?

California…[cops murder]ed nearly 1,000 people in six years…[despite] recent legislative attempts to curtail police violence by toughening the rules of engagement for officers, requiring deescalation training and bringing in outside investigators when unarmed civilians are killed [but not actually holding the murderers responsible as ifthey were non-cops]…For the sixth straight year, Los Angeles County was the setting for the largest number (172) and highest rate (27.4 incidents per 100,000 residents) of [police violence too serious to ignore] in the state last year…

I Spy (#1233)

Modern fascism has spun a terrifyingly-extensive surveillance net:

[Cop shop]s from suburban Southern California to rural North Carolina have been using an obscure cellphone tracking tool, [usually] without search warrants, that gives them the power to follow people’s movements months back in time…[cops] have used “Fog Reveal” to search hundreds of billions of records from 250 million mobile devices, and harnessed the data to create location analyses known among [pigs] as “patterns of life”…The tool is rarely, if ever, mentioned in court records, something that defense attorneys say makes it harder for them to properly defend their clients in cases in which the technology was used.  The company was developed by two former high-ranking Department of Homeland Security officials under former President George W. Bush.  It relies on advertising identification numbers…culled from popular cellphone apps such as Waze, Starbucks and hundreds of others that target ads based on a person’s movements and interests…that information is then sold to companies like Fog…

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In the News (#1268)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 3, 2022| 1 Comment »

If you don’t [sell people’s data to cops], someone else probably will.  –  anonymous data broker

To Molest and Rape

The media are becoming slightly more willing to call cops’ criminal behavior what it is:

A [typical and representative] Kenosha [Wisconsin cop named…Joshua Sylvester…was fired for…sexually assault[ing]…a…woman [who wrecked into] a tree…[while] driving [drunk]…Sylvester sexually assaulted her…while [lurking]…in [her] hospital [room for over two hours.  He]…also went through her phone, found nude photos of her and sent them to himself…

I Spy (The Vultures Descend)

As was predicted when news of abortion recriminalization first broke:

A Gizmodo investigation into some of the nation’s biggest data brokers found more than two dozen promoting access to datasets containing digital information on millions of pregnant and potentially pregnant [women]…at least one of those companies also offered a large catalogue of…[women] using the same sorts of birth control that’s being targeted by more restrictive states right now…Also on the market: data on 478 million customer profiles labeled “interested in pregnancy” or “intending to become pregnant.”  You can see the full list of companies for yourself…

Opting Out (#1241)

This will keep getting worse until policians stop giving fanatics a heckler’s veto:

French [pro-censorship] groups claiming to represent “the children”…formally request[ed]…that online government regulator Arcom suspend Twitter in France unless the platform finds, within two weeks, a way to block minors from what the groups [declare] “pornographic” content…The coalition calling for censorship of the international platform is a patchwork of obscure organizations pursuing a self-appointed mission of “child protection” and sex work abolitionism.  Among them…[is] noted…[prohib]itionist lobby Fondation Scelles…

Vulture Watching

The fact that SCOTUS didn’t foresee this is a clear indicator that their overturn of Roe was not based in legal reasoning:

…The Department of Justice…sued to stop [the abortion] ban in Idaho, wh[ich]…goes against provisions of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act…requir[ing] hospitals receiving Medicare funds (i.e., most U.S. hospitals) to provide stabilizing treatment…”Federal law is clear: patients have the right to stabilizing hospital emergency room care no matter where they live,” said…DHS…Secretary Xavier Becerra.  “Women should not have to be near death to get care”…No existing abortion ban lacks an exception for a mother’s life, but some do omit exceptions for women’s health.  And…many pregnancy complications could become life-threatening while not being necessarily or immediately so.  The HHS guidance…stat[es] that regardless of what a state law says, physicians must provide an abortion if one is necessary to address an emergency medical condition…Texas sued over th[is]…and…the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas…granted a preliminary injunction against enforcing the mandate against Texas…A court in Idaho came to [the opposite conclusion]…The discordant rulings could force the issue back before the Supreme Court, if appeals courts in each district concur with the lower courts…

Thought Control (#1264)

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

A new Missouri law [criminalizes stocking] books with [what politicians define as] sexually explicit images from school libraries…it [is now] a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine for librarians…to [allow] students access to such material.  The law does not apply to written descriptions of sex or sexual acts; only photos, drawings, videos, and other visual depictions…“showing human masturbation, deviate [sic] sexual intercourse,…physical stimulation of genitals, sadomasochistic abuse,” or showing human genitals.  There are exceptions for anatomy, biology, sex education, art [politicians decide to tolerate], and other images [declared] educational [by censorious politicians].  Melissa Corey…of the Missouri Association of School Librarians, [believes] the law likely will only [be enforced against art politicians dislike]…Corey said the association advised librarians to work with local school boards to best follow the law, particularly the [incredibly vague and arbitrary] exceptions for art and biology…

Winding Down (#1265)

Alas, the drug war isn’t ending; the government is simply shifting it to nicotine:

For the first time in Gallup polling, more Americans (16%) said they smoke marijuana than had smoked a tobacco cigarette (11%) in the past week…Marjiuana and tobacco usage trends have been going in opposite directions for a few decades now.  By 1985, nearly as many Americans said they had tried marijuana (33%) as had smoked a cigarette in the past week (35%).  Cigarette smoking has been declining ever since. By 2013, just 19% of Americans were smoking cigarettes at least once a week…while…38%…told Gallup they had tried marijuana…

To Molest and Rape (#1267)

Those who consort with cops are often just as awful:

…a [typical and representative] Delcambre [Louisiana cop named]…Christopher Moorehart…[has been arrested for] rap[ing his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter on multiple occasions]…The mother…Kimberly Healy…was arrested and [charged for letting him do it and]…never report[ing him even]…after [they] broke up…Moorehart [then started fucking an Iberia Parish screw named Shelly Lynn] Friou…[who also kept the child rapes] secret…[until] the two broke up [after which she reported him to their fellow pigs as an act of vengeance]…

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In the News (#1267)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 31, 2022| Leave a Comment »

The more eggs you have in one basket, the more likely the basket is to break.  –  “Mark”

If Men Were Angels 

Oh look, it’s another “youth pastor”:

A [Pennsylvania]…youth pastor has been indicted…[for] sexually exploit[ing] underage boys…Sean Higgins…has been in custody since he was arrested in October 2020.  He is accused of victimizing 13 boys ages 12 to 17…in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Alabama, Michigan, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Tennessee…[by] pretend[ing] to be a teenage girl on Instagram and Snapchat and deceiv[ing] boys into trading images with him.  Higgins…would then…blackmail the victim to [masturbate] while he watched and recorded remotely.  The investigation began when [some of the victims]…reported [him]…to Snapchat…

To Molest and Rape

Yet another cop specifically targeting a vulnerable woman:

[A typical and representative] Ottawa [cop] who r[aped]…a [drunk, mentally ill] 19-year-old…plea…[bargained] to breach of trust…[to escape] sexual assault [charges]…He also tendered his resignation from the Ottawa Police Service…[Sundeep] Singh was one of four [cops] dispatched…after [the victim] left a party intoxicated and walked home in early February 2021, not suitably dressed for the cold weather…The[y]…took her to…Hospital…but [after treatment she was behaving irrationally and]…left…[the] hospital [on foot again]…Singh [pursued]…her home, [then took advantage of her intoxication and confused mental state to force himself on her]…

I Spy (#1184)

Your “leaders” want this to happen much more often:

Mark noticed…his toddler…son’s penis looked swollen and was hurting him…in February 2021.  His wife called an advice nurse at their health care provider to schedule an emergency consultation…by video because…pandemic…the nurse [foolishly] said to send photos so the doctor could review them in advance.  Mark’s wife [foolishly] grabbed her husband’s phone and [foolishly] texted a few high-quality close-ups of their son’s groin area to her iPhone so she could upload them to the health care provider’s messaging system…the doctor diagnosed the issue and prescribed antibiotics, which quickly cleared it up.  But the episode left Mark with a…target [painted on his face.  Our fascist system]…pressure[s corporations to do what governments are Constitutionally prohibited from doing, namely rooting through people’s private property without warrant]…Two days after taking the photos of his son, Mark’s…[Google] account [was]…disabled because of “harmful content”…Not only did he lose emails, contact information for friends and former colleagues, and documentation of his son’s first years of life, his Google Fi account shut down, meaning he had to get a new phone number with another carrier.  Without access to his old phone number and email address, he couldn’t get the security codes he needed to sign in to other internet accounts, locking him out of much of his digital life…Mark filed [an] appeal, [but because these corporations allow mindless algorithms control over human beings] Google…would not reinstate the account…[instead it snitched on him to] the San Francisco Police Department…Google [claims] the company scans only when an “affirmative action” is taken by a user…[but doesn’t bother to tell users] that includes when the user’s phone backs up photos to the company’s cloud…

Yet people often ask why I refuse to copy my data to the so-called “cloud”.

Torture Chamber (#1259)

I guarantee you that the number is a lot higher than 70, probably by at least one order of magnitude:

At least 70 girls [concent]rated in Los Angeles County…camps and [cage stacks] were sexually assaulted by [screws over]…more than three decades…a similar lawsuit [was] filed in March [by] 20 women [who]…were sexually assaulted over the course of a dozen years at Camp Joseph Scott, Los Angeles County’s all-girls juvenile detention facility.  Two new lawsuits…replace that case and expand on its accusations.  The [serial] abuse occurred from 1985 to 2019 a[s]…the same [screws assaulted]…different girls [condemned to] the facilities over the years…

The Crumbling Dam (#1262)

The feds don’t need to stop harm reduction programs when an ambitious politician will do it for them:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill legalizing “safe consumption sites” in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Oakland…Where safe consumption sites are legal, they have proved tremendously effective…However, Newsom seems [afraid] that safe consumption sites will help the state’s drug users [at political cost to him personally]…Newsom’s veto of the bill has little to do with the efficacy of safe injection sites and instead is the result of his preparation for a possible presidential run in 2024…Newsom could be eager to present a more anti-drug, even “tough on crime” image…

To Molest and Rape (#1264)

Most rapist cops have multiple underage victims:

A “[typical and representative]” [London cop] has been jailed for 24 years after being found guilty of 13 counts of rape and sexual assault…against three girls between 1993 and 1997…[Anthony] Smith…[was sacked] in 2004 after he was convicted of gross indecency with a child in an unrelated case.  His abuse of the girls [in the current case] emerged in 2020 when one of his victims came forward, [followed by the]…other two…

Thought Control (#1265)

Texas just won’t stop plunging that ice pick into its frontal lobes:

A [cop paid to harass and spy on students in] Katy [Texas censored]…a book [in] a high school library last month…after a woman filed a criminal complaint alleging the district was providing “harmful” material to minors.  The book, Flamer, by Mike Curato, had been formally reviewed by a committee and deemed appropriate for high school students…in March…the woman…was not satisfied with th[at and so took it upon herself to censor it and enlisted the help]…of the [power-drunk cop]…

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Vulture Watching

Posted in Current Events, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 4, 2022| 2 Comments »

After the government does something especially awful, there is usually an avalanche of horror stories illustrating exactly what reasonable people warned would happen after the awful government act.  The overturn of Roe v Wade is no exception; if I had included these stories in my normal news columns, they would’ve completely dominated most of the late July installments.  So instead, I opted to collect them all together here; future updates to these stories will appear in regular news columns under the appropriate tags.

One of the strongest reasons to oppose authoritarian laws of any kind is that they inevitably harm people the politicians insist they weren’t trying to target:

A sexual assault survivor chooses sterilization so that if she is ever attacked again, she won’t be forced to give birth to a rapist’s baby.  An obstetrician delays inducing a miscarriage until a woman with severe pregnancy complications seems “sick enough.”  A lupus patient must stop taking medication that controls her illness because it can also cause miscarriages.  Abortion restrictions in a number of states and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade are having profound repercussions in reproductive medicine as well as in other areas of medical care…Even in medical emergencies, doctors are sometimes declining immediate treatment. In the past week, an Ohio abortion clinic received calls from two women with ectopic pregnancies…who[se] doctors wouldn’t treat them…

More about the aforementioned lupus drug many women are now being denied:

Methotrexate is a cheap, common drug prescribed to millions of Americans…[for] rheumatic illnesses…inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis or cancer…[but because] it is used off-label to end ectopic pregnancies…it could be restricted by doctors or pharmacists even in states…that do not ban abortion…in low doses, it has proved to be one of the safest, least expensive and most effective treatments for roughly a dozen autoimmune conditions, from juvenile idiopathic arthritis to Crohn’s disease…“I have gotten some reports where children have been denied methotrexate for their juvenile arthritis until they’ve proven they’re not pregnant,” said Dr. Cuoghi Edens…a rheumatology expert…“The majority of rheumatic diseases affect females at substantially higher rates than males…The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in women to men is 3 to 1.  For lupus it’s 10 to 1.  And so rheumatology is a very female-predominant patient population”…some doctors have already stopped prescribing methotrexate rather than risk [persecution]…Many pharmacists have likewise refused to fill methotrexate prescriptions, or have demanded additional proof before dispensing the medication to patients they believe could get pregnant…

And it’s not just a few fundamentalist asshat pharmacists, either:

…the largest pharmacy chain in the country sent explicit instructions to its pharmacists informing them that new checks would be implemented to confirm the reason a doctor prescribes a drug before filling routine medications for patients…CVS headquarters sent a memo to pharmacies in [Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas]…review[ing] diagnosis codes that are deemed acceptable for dispensation, which include miscarriage…If they find abortion is the intended use, they “must refuse to fill the prescription”…

Some of the tyrannies forced-birth fetishists are trying to impose are blatantly unconstitutional:

South Carolina [politician]s introduced legislation that would make it illegal to “aid, abet or conspire with someone” to obtain an abortion…Provisions would outlaw providing information over the internet or phone about how to obtain an abortion.  It would also make it illegal to host a website or “[provide] an internet service” with information that is “reasonably likely to be used for an abortion”…the proposal is…modeled off a blueprint created by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), an antiabortion group, and designed to be replicated by [politician]s across the country…

Other FOSTA-inspired laws which encourage nuisance lawsuits have unfortunately not yet been declared unconstitutional:

Nearly four years after a woman ended an unwanted pregnancy with abortion pills obtained at a Phoenix clinic, she finds herself mired in an ongoing lawsuit [after]…A judge allowed the woman’s ex-husband to establish an estate for the embryo, which had been aborted in its seventh week of development.  The ex-husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the clinic and its doctors in 2020, alleging that…[he has the right to make decisions for his ex-wife]…

Naturally, this new extension of the police state will be enabled by the same fascist surveillance tactics as the War on Whores:

Many of the states rushing to ban abortion are also the biggest users of a surveillance tool that [cops] could use to track women ending their pregnancies — the location data from people’s phones…states across the country are already using this kind of data for other [surveillance and harassment].  And a POLITICO analysis found that many of the states that have criminalized abortion have relied increasingly on location data in recent years…Figures from Google…show that the company received 5,764 “geofence” warrants between 2018 and 2020 from police in the 10 states that have banned abortion as of July 5…

Of course, sex workers know all about most of these oppressions, because they’re tested on us first before being extended to amateurs:

Madolline Gourley, a Brisbane resident…was treated like a criminal during her transit through Los Angeles on 30 June, where she was detained at the border due to suspicions about her intention to house- and cat-sit in exchange for accommodation while holidaying in Canada.  Gourley was held in a detention room, interrogated twice, patted down, fingerprinted and photographed…At one point a US b[ureaucrat] asked Gourley, who was wearing a loose-fitting dress, whether she was pregnant.  The same question was repeated as she was moved between rooms.  When she again [replied that]…she was not pregnant, Gourley was asked whether she had had an abortion…

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