Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘If Men Were Angels’

In the News (#1474)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2024| 1 Comment »

A poppy seed bagel should never be the impetus of a child welfare investigation.  –  Emma Camp

Against Their Will (#321)

Authoritarians, like leopards, cannot change their spots:

As he seeks to become Oregon’s…attorney general…Will Lathrop has touted his five years leading a…[rescue industry group]’s efforts to e[nslave women in sweatshops] and [abduct their children] in Ghana…his…campaign ad[s burble the usual nonsense about] “rescu[ing] children from human trafficking and protect[ing] women from violence”…But a BBC documentary from 2023 tells [the truth]: that a single-minded focus on setting and meeting targets resulted in Lathrop’s team [conspir]ing with police to…kidnap…children…from their families under false pretenses…The International Justice Mission…[is one of the most notorious rescue industry profiteers]…and…reporter Kyenkyehene Boateng…[working with] an undercover journalist…[made] “The Night They Came For Our Children”…[which] highlighted two [atrociti]es during [Lathrop’s] tenure…[including one where] armed [cops raided] a…remote…village…in the dead of night to [abduct] four children…[from] the[ir] grandmother…[at] gun[point]…They were [imprisoned]…for four months…[while] two of the[ir] uncles were arrested and charged with child trafficking and child labor law violations, charges that were ultimately dropped…

If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

Police [have] arrested a [California] pastor…[named] Juan Barrios, [after a man reported in May that Barrios] had [sexually] assaulted him [and his younger brother] for years, beginning when he was just nine years old…[in] 2009 and [continuing until] 2015, when their family was living with the pastor at his Riverside home…because of his position and the nature of the accusations, [cops] believe there may be other victims who haven’t come forward yet…

Devil’s Advocate (#667)

How long will society accept cops arresting men for fictitious “crimes” against imaginary people?

Cops are now using [computers] to generate images of fake kids, [then using] them [to entrap people] online, [bragging about the scheme in] a lawsuit filed by the state of New Mexico against Snapchat…because its “algorithm serves up children to adult predators”…[fantasy-roleplay]ing as “Sexy14Heather,” [a pervert cop] swapped messages with adult accounts…and…attempted to coerce the[m] into sharing [child porn]…a lawyer specializing in sex crimes, Carrie Goldberg, [said]…using [computer-generated images] could complicate investigations and carry its own ethical concerns…[but of course] ethical concerns [are never considered by]…cops…

Pretext

The “cops bearing gifts” PR scam is not limited to adults:

[The cop shop] in Chicopee, Massachusetts [bought] a used truck…in 2022…using money s[tolen from legally-innocent citizens]…and…then [extorted more money] from local businesses to wrap the truck and…provide ice cream for kids in the community for free…to [trick] children who might otherwise [correctly] associate the department with [armed state violence]…

So, a fancy windowless white van with “free candy” scrawled on the side.

Property of the State (#1353) 

How long will society accept its medical system being used as a tool of state violence?

Hospitals around the nation are administering unreliable drug tests to pregnant women, and siccing child welfare authorities upon them based on the results…federal data examined by The Marshall Project reporter Shoshana Walter…indicates that tens of thousands of babies are reported to authorities…[even though] it’s been long known that these drug tests are unreliable…[with] false positive rates as high as 50 percent…While more than half of U.S. states require hospitals to [snitch to] child welfare agencies if they suspect a mother used drugs during pregnancy, none require hospitals to confirm that those results are correct.  This means that when a mother has a false positive, she often lacks the ability to demand a more reliable drug test…[leaving] her…to…face humiliating, terrifying ordeals…

Vulture Watching (#1464)

The totally-predictable results of bad laws are happening just as sane people said they would:

In her final hours, Amber Nicole Thurman suffered from a grave infection…She’d taken abortion pills and…had not expelled all of the fetal tissue from her body.  She showed up at [an Atlanta] hospital in need of a routine procedure to clear it from her uterus, called a dilation and curettage, or D&C.  But just that summer, [Georgia] had made performing the procedure a felony…Any doctor who violated the new…law could…face up to a decade in prison….It took 20 hours for doctors to finally operate.  By then, it was too late…an official state committee recently…deemed her…[death] “preventable” and said the hospital’s delay…had a “large” impact on her fatal outcome…at least two [other] women have already died after they couldn’t access legal abortions…in their state…[but] Thurman’s case marks the first time an abortion-related death, officially deemed “preventable,” is coming to public light…

The Cop Myth (#1469)

This phrasing strongly implies strangling a woman while on duty is A-OK:

A Eugene [Oregon cop] was arraigned…[for] strangling a woman while off duty on Sept. 7…Joshua West…[attacked his girlfriend, but is at large anyway because he pinky-swore he’d be a good boy]…a spokes[cop bragged]…that West was “immediately” [rewarded with a paid vacation.  No surprise, given that when reported]…for [drunk driving and bizarre behavior] in 2016…he was not arrested or given a Breathalyzer test…

 

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 (#1473)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 17, 2024| 2 Comments »

AHF…is just the…newest slumlord in a long line of slumlords.

If Men Were Angels

I’m honestly unsure why this doesn’t happen more often:

…a [Tennessee] pastor [named David Baker]…molest[ed a] relative… under the age of 12…He was…charged with aggravated sexual battery…and [after he bailed himself out] went into [a] restroom [at a nearby hospital] and shot himself twice in the chest…

Tyranny By Consensus (#690)

Longtime readers may remember that AHF has a history of financial shenanigans:

…The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development…says its $10 million Tenant Education and Outreach…grant…will be jointly awarded to the AIDS Healthcare Foundation…and the Massachusetts Alliance of HUD Tenants.  Over the next two years, these two groups will distribute this money to 30 tenant advocacy organizations to help them in their own efforts to…”hold management accountable for property conditions”…Beginning in 2017, [AHF] started buying up residential hotels in Los Angeles’ Skid Row, with the goal of [fix]ing them and renting them out at low, unsubsidized rates.  [AHF head] Michael Weinstein…argued this was a cheaper, faster way of housing people than building new…units.  But…AHF has been the subject of numerous lawsuits from tenants, and…A detailed Los Angeles Times investigation published in November 2023 reported…apartments infested with cockroaches, exploding radiators, water shut-offs so regular that tenants had to defecate in wastebaskets…and months-long elevator shut-offs that left disabled tenants stuck on upper floors or forced to sleep in the lobby…A former AHF employee described the living conditions at foundation properties as “inhumane”…

Undead Powers

I’ve long held that all laws should sunset after 10 years unless specific action is taken to renew them:

A coalition of advocacy organizations sent a letter to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer…urging him to hold a vote on a proposal aimed at guarding against a future Trump administration from reviving [the] long-dormant…Comstock Act…The Stop Comstock Act, which was introduced by Sen. Tina Smith…seeks to repeal the…provisions of the 1873 federal law that ban…abortion-related materials from being sent through the mail…Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas…have signaled a willingness to revive the statute…

Eavesdropping (#1399)

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

Ford Motor Company is seeking a patent for technology that would allow it to tailor in-car advertising by [eavesdropping on] conversations among vehicle occupants, as well as by analyzing a car’s historical location and other data…“in-vehicle advertisement presentation”…will determine where a car is located, how fast it is traveling, what type of road it is driving on and whether it is in traffic.  It also will predict routes, speeds and destinations to customize ads…the ad controller system can determine when to [butt in with] audio versus visual ads, [subject]ing…drivers [to intrusive, unwanted commercials]…“through a human-machine interface”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1411)

Never forget that “filter” used thus is merely a euphemism for “censor”:

A federal judge in Utah has blocked the state’s…[latest attempt] to enact sweeping online censorship…under the justification of “protecting minors”…[b]y granting a preliminary injunction sought by…NetChoice…the…law…targets social media platforms…by…[demanding they] “enable the maximum default privacy settings on Utah [legal minors’] accounts…[which] would have [required intrusive]…age…[verification”.  Laws like]…this…driv[e] platforms to overmoderate to the point of effectively becoming corporate censors…The law was previously challenged in court [so politicians]…redrafted it…to avoid [public scrutiny]…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)

They’ll blame anybody but the real culprit: invasive surveillance and onerous infantilization of teenagers:

A [gang] of 42 state and territory attorneys general is calling on Congress to pass regulation [absurdly] requiring warning labels on social media platforms…US [Charlatan] General Dr. Vivek Murthy first proposed the warning labels in June as part of a plan to [di]vert [blame for] the “mental health crisis” affecting young people [from its actual cause, young adults being constantly spied on and treated like children]…The letter [ignores] research linking [infantilization] of [young adults] to anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation in [favor of blaming] social platforms…in…[order]…to [use this narrative as an excuse to subject them to government control, in defiance of the First Amendment]…these labels would [be unconstitutional compelled speech, similar to court-overturned]…state-level rules demanding adult sites add [specious] health notices about pornography…Over the past year or so, [politicians] across the US have ramped up efforts to [censor the internet via the timeworn pretext of “]protect[ing] children[“, such as]…the Senate[‘s horrific]…KOSA…

Remember what happened the last time a gang of state attorneys general went on a fact-free crusade against websites.

Banishment (#1470)

Politicians will never let go of prohibitionism until they’re forced to:

[Starting] in 1990…Seattle [politicians repeatedly defined and redefined]…banishment zones…across the city, [pretending they could magically]…reduce…drug use…[and] prostitution…[by threatening] drug users and sex workers [with arrest for merely existing]…Research has shown that the orders did not reduce drug use or sex work, but they did make the lives of drug users and sex workers harder, by physically banning them from areas…they used to access services and by turning them into hunted people who could be, and were, jailed when they were caught simply being inside the areas from which they were banished…some 25 years [lat]er the…city largely abandoned the experiment, concluding on the basis of decades of evidence that it hadn’t worked…[now] the Seattle City Council [has] voted to start the cycle over again, by…creating six new banishment zones for drug offenders and one for…sex workers…The new…legislation that will also reinstate a repealed “prostitution loitering” law that will…make it significantly easier for police to arrest [people they decide to accuse of being] sex workers [or clients without any evidence at all]…

 

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 (#1465)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Just because [a surveillance experiment] happens at the border doesn’t mean that that’s where it’s going to stay.  –  Petra Molnar

If Men Were Angels

Apparently this preacher wasn’t the molester, but is covering for him:

A [North Carolina] pastor [named Kenny Parker] is facing charges [because] he failed to report…a string of sexual assault[s of legal] minors that spanned…several years…Parker is also the chief administrator of the church’s school…

Creepy Coppers

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

A[n Illinois cop named]…William Griswold…[has been arrested] for [possession and distribution of] child pornography…and…was immediately placed on unpaid leave…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1235)

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

…DHS…plans to collect and analyze photos of the faces of migrant children at the border in a bid to improve facial recognition technology…This includes children “down to the infant”…Facial recognition…has traditionally not been applied to children, largely because training data sets of real children’s faces…consist of either low-quality images drawn from the internet or small sample sizes with little diversity…[due to] the significant [ethical issues] regarding privacy and consent when it comes to minors…[but] DHS [doesn’t give a damn about the consent of migrants and]…339,234 children arrived at the US-Mexico border in 2022…if the face prints of even 1% of those children had been [scanned], the resulting data set would dwarf nearly all existing data sets of real children’s faces…and [all obtained]…from a population that has little recourse…Petra Molnar, author of The Walls Have Eyes: Surviving Migration in the Age of AI [said]…“if…you are faced with the impossible choice of either: get into a country if you give us your biometrics, or you don’t…That completely vitiates informed consent”…This question becomes even more challenging when it comes to children…

A Broker in Pillage (#1289)

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

A new class action lawsuit [was filed because] Indiana [cop shops steal]…millions of dollars a year in cash from FedEx packages without eve[n] in[vent]ing…a…crime [to accuse the owners of].  Henry and Minh Cheng, who run a small California jewelry wholesaler business, [explain] in [the]…suit…that [cops stole] over $42,000 in cash from a FedEx package en route to them from a client in Virginia…[but] they’re not the only victims…Indiana [cops] “exploit Indianapolis’s location at the Crossroads of America to [steal] millions of dollars in currency being shipped from one side of the nation to the other.”  The Chengs’ countersuit against the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office and the State of Indiana was filed on their behalf by the Institute for Justice…Marion County [alone] has s[tolen] $2.5 million…from at least 130 FedEx parcels in transit from one non-Indiana state to another over the past two years…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1301)

Sometimes I just can’t force myself to take cops’ sophomoric pomposity seriously:

[Michigan] Sheriff Chris Swanson [dressed up in a sheet with two holes cut in it and jumped out, yelling “BOO!” at a typical and representative Florida cop named]…Jeffrey Morningstar…Swanson [bragged about how spooky he and his cronies were, pretending to be a (presumably deceased)]…trafficker selling a 15-year-old…Morningstar…want[ed] to…have sex with [for a thrift-store price]…“W[oooooooo, aren’t you scared?”]…Swanson [demanded, claiming] that [he plans to keep running around, startling]…anyone…he [can]…find…

Thou Shalt Not (#1353)

Only a prohibitionist could imagine that examining 10 people constitutes a “study”:

Consuming a drink with erythritol — an artificial sweetener used to add bulk to stevia and monk fruit [sweeteners] and to sweeten low-carb keto products — more than doubled the risk of blood clotting in 10 healthy people…Previous research has linked erythritol to a higher risk of stroke, heart attack and death…Consuming a drink with an equal amount of glucose, or sugar, did not affect blood platelet activity in another group of 10 people…

Dangerous Speech (#1368)

Much more of this, please:

A [typical and representative] Kansas police chief who led a raid last year on a weekly newspaper has been charged with felony obstruction of justice…Gideon Cody…[led] the raid [in retaliation for] the Marion County Record [investigating the fact that he was hired despite resigning in disgrace from his previous job due to incompetence and shitty behavior]…Publisher Eric Meyer’s mother, who co-owned the newspaper and lived with him, died the next day of a heart attack…[due] the stress of [armed pigs invading her home].  Meyer said…authorities appear to be making Cody the “fall guy” for the raid when numerous officials were involved…The Record…and [some of its] staffers have filed four federal lawsuits against Cody and [his gang]…includ[ing] a wrongful death claim [for] total damages exceed[ing] $10 million.  The city’s current annual budget is about $9.5 million…

 

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 (#1460)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Reviewing…a person’s cell phone is the best approximation government officials have for mindreading.  –  Judge Nina Morrison

All-Purpose Excuse (#990)

It’s rare these days for a US court to uphold the Constitution against the government:

The Fourth Amendment still applies at the border, despite the feds’ insistence that it doesn’t.  For years, courts have ruled that the government has the right to conduct routine, warrantless searches for contraband at the border…CBP…has [wrongfully interpreted] that…to force travelers to hand over data from their phones and laptops.  But…Judge Nina Morrison…ruled that cellphone searches are…more akin to a strip search than scanning a suitcase…Therefore, the court ruled, a cellphone search at the border requires both probable cause and a warrant.  Morrison did not distinguish between scanning a phone’s contents with…software and manually flipping through it…

Thought Control (#1325)

I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of career path:

[A busybody pig] spent months methodically [rooting]…through [books Christian fundamentalists dislike] and highlight[ing] key passages amid reams and reams of paper.  He wore his body camera to record his interactions with [people whose lives he wanted to ruin] and…photographed…books [the lunatic fringe deemed “pornography”, including]…The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison…an 824-page investigative file obtained by NBC News…shows how, for two years, [self-appointed censor Scott] London vigorously pursued felony charges against librarians in…Granbury [Texas]…London secured subpoenas, filed public records requests, received names of students who’d checked out certain books and, after a year, wrote draft criminal complaints…The [rooting and harassment finally] came to an end in June after Hood County District Attorney Ryan Sinclair turned down London’s request to indict the librarians, citing a [total] lack of…evidence [sufficient] to charge them with felonies…

Creepy Coppers (#1414)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

A Massachusetts [cop named]…Matthew B. Marshall…was arrested…[for] possession…[and] dissemination of child pornography…and [other crimes stemming from]…”videos depicting [Marshall] entering…a Dunkin Donuts and urinating all over the inside of the bathroom…on the sink, on the handles, on the door”…

If Men Were Angels (#1436)

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity or even religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority:

Omaha’s Archbishop is among the clergy members named in a lawsuit filed against the Archdiocese of St. Louis…by 27 anonymous plaintiffs.  It accuses the defendants of often transferring the perpetrators to different locations within the Archdiocese or Catholic Church or sending them away for treatment before returning them to unsupervised access to children…One of the plaintiffs, a former altar boy, alleged Omaha Archbishop George Lucas sexually assaulted [him] when [he was] a junior in high school at the Saint Louis Preparatory Seminary…[where] Lucas was…Dean of Education at the…time. “The church is not a democracy, so that gives a seminary head…extraordinary power over very vulnerable and devout teenagers,” [sexual abuse activist David] Clohessy said…

Censor Chic (#1438)

Judge rules that a spade is actually a spade:

…a prominent “disinformation expert” once hired to head a government board to [censor speech the government declared] untruths but unceremoniously dumped from the position when the board was dissolved amidst public outcry…sue[d Fox News] for defamation [because it correctly described her function as]…censorship…Nina Jankowicz[‘s]…”Disinformation Governance Board was formed precisely to examine citizens’ speech and, in coordination with the private sector, identify ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,” and ‘malinformation’…That objective is…a form of censorship”…concluded [U.S. District Judge Colm F. Connolly, who]…dismissed Jankowicz’s claim “in its entirety”…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #12)

Give sexually-aggressive thugs power over kids; what could possibly go wrong?

A [typical and representative Florida cop paid to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been]…found…guilty of child sex abuse…Joshua Robert Herren…was arrested Nov. 28, after a victim [reported that]…Herren [had seduced and repeatedly molested her] from the time she was 15…[but] had [already been stalking her]…prior to her turning 15…Herren…want[ed] her to dress up as a young girl and…call him “Daddy”…[after she] blocked his phone number and…social media accounts…he began [send]ing [her threatening] letters…He…is set to be sentenced on Aug. 26…[and] faces up to life in prison…

The Cop Myth (#1453)

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

A [typical and representative English cop was given a slap on the wrist] for repeatedly attacking his ex-girlfriend, including punching her and throwing her across a room…Paul Whitehurst…also [abused] two other women [in the past], but…was not charged…[and this time he was given a mere 9 weeks] in prison….[and] released the same day, because of the time he had already served…Whitehurst [also threatened to rape the woman and repeatedly]…tried to “gaslight” her…She…said she was selling her house and car as she did not feel safe there any more and did not want Whitehurst to know where she lived[, but luckily she has learned her lesson about trusting cops]…

 

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 (#1457)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[Libraries are at risk from] anybody wanting to make a quick buck.  –  Cindy Erickson

Schadenfreude

It’s heartening to see so many rescue industry profiteers exposed as the sociopaths they are:

An ex-[cop] who [pretend]s to save children from human traffickers has[, like all rescue industry profiteers,] faked stories to raise money for his charity…Adam Whittington, founder of Project Rescue Children (PRC) [lies that] he has helped more than 700 children in countries including Uganda, Kenya and The Gambia.  But…these children have never been trafficked, and…[most of the] funds raised – sometimes with the help of celebrity supporters – have [gone into his own pockets rather than to] children in need…Whittington…has misled donors in a variety of ways – including by raising funds for a baby supposedly rescued from people traffickers, who has actually been with her mother all along.  The mother, who lives in poverty, says she and her daughter have never received any money from PRC…a [“]rescue centre[“]…fundraising drive [ended with]…less than half of the money…sent to PRC’s Ugandan partner organisation, Make a Child Smile…the rest…[was] “eaten by Adam Whittington and PRC”…

If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A[n Ohio preacher named]…Michael Ronald Goble…[has been arrested and charged with molesting a child under] 13…in November, 2021…more charges are likely forthcoming…and [cops believe there are] more victims…not yet…identified…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1422)

Pornhub has repeatedly taken the principled stand of refusing to spy on its users for the State:

Aylo began blocking access to Pornhub [for] Nebraska [residents without VPNs, due to]…the state’s new age verification law…As it had already done in Texas, Kentucky, Arkansas, Mississippi, Montana, North Carolina, Virginia and Utah, Aylo replaced its landing page for Nebraska IP addresses with an SFW video in which Cherie DeVille explains the reasons for the content restriction…

The Punitive Mindset (#1428) 

Next, the practice of preventing prisoners from receiving mail and books needs to be banned:

…”The Federal Communications Commission [has] voted to end exorbitant phone and video call rates that have burdened incarcerated people and their families for decades…The new call rates will be $0.06 per minute for prisons and large jails, $0.07 for medium jails, $0.09 for small jails, and $0.12 for very small jails, and as low as $0.11/minute for video calls—with a requirement that per-minute rates be offered…the cost of a 15-minute phone call will drop to $0.90 from as much as $11.35 in large jails and, in small jails, to $1.35 from $12.10″…In January 2023, President Joe Biden signed…a…law…clarif[ying] the FCC’s authority to regulate the rates of in-state calls from prisons…

Thought Control (#1441)

That anyone thinks this is OK demonstrates that the urge to censor is a mental illness:

…in response to a new Idaho law that took effect July 1, the [Donnelly Public] Library is transitioning to adults-only…library staff won’t let kids in unless a parent is present with them at all times, a parent signs paperwork allowing their child to enter only for programming, or a parent waives their [“]rights[“] under the new law and lets their child check out materials without a parent present…House Bill 710…requires Idaho public and school libraries to move materials [politicians have pointed at while belching “]harmful to children[“], or face [nuisance] lawsuits…Libraries across Idaho are reworking policies to comply with the…[deliberately-]vague [law,]…but many are waiting to see if there’d be a formal challenge to books in their collections…small and rural libraries…[many of them] one-room…do…not have enough room to separate the material…[and so can only protect themselves from harassment by barring legal minors from] coming into the library…So where will the children go if they can’t go inside the building?  In the two teepees outside where there are no books…

To Molest and Rape (#1452)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

…a [Mississippi cop named]…Rodney Jernigan was arrested on July 15 [for statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl.  His bosses used the occasion to swagger, brag, and belch out copaganda]…

Torture Chamber (#1454)

I’m sure they didn’t actually ignore her; they almost certainly yelled “Stop faking!” at her several times a day:

A [human being locked in a cage at the filthy] Rikers Island d[ungeon] has died after jail staff “repeatedly ignored” her requests for medical help, culminating in a medical episode severe enough to land her in a hospital…Charizma Jones…died [July 14th while]…awaiting prosecution [for defending herself from a violent screw]…in April…prosecutors consented to her release…without bail on July 10, after she was hospitalized, [but by then it was too late]…Jones…[was] the fourth [person to die in New York City dungeons]…in 2024…Nine people died [there] in 2023, 19 in 2022 and 16 in 2021…

 

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 (#1455)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Help us, we can’t breathe.  –  Elizabeth Nomura

Shame, Shame (#516)

Some of y’all may recall that when all the “police reform” types started touting body cameras as the solution to surging police brutality, I was skeptical:

McNeill points out that the camera records the public, not the officer. She adds, “As long as the cops have the power to turn the cameras off or decide whether footage is released, it’s difficult to see what is to be accomplished here.”

That was February of 2015, and over 9 years later civil rights lawyer Alec Karakatsanis has published a law journal article demonstrating that, as usual, I was correct: the cops wanted the cameras as a surveillance tool, and useful idiots who imagine violent thugs can be “reformed” obligingly gave them exactly what they wanted:

By situating the rise of the police body camera within its actual legal, political, and economic contexts, I suggest that the body camera is one of the most important Trojan horses in contemporary U.S. history.  What follows is a case study of how the police bureaucracy used its own violence as the perfect alibi to get well-meaning people who lacked sufficient information to support greater police procurement budgets, more advanced and efficient technologies of control and incarceration, an explosion of profit for a small group of companies, and an expansion of the capacity of the government to surveil us. And most remarkably: All of it happened under the guise of making the police bureaucracy more “accountable” and “transparent”…

To Molest and Rape

Cops are a menace to women of all ages:

An Orange County woman [has] filed a federal lawsuit…against an Anaheim [cop who]…raped her after seeing her at an In-N-Out Burger and getting her name by running her license plate number…[typical and representative cop] Carlos Romero [was rewarded by] the city of Anaheim…[with a] paid [vacation for raping her] in 2023 after [she reported his stalking, harassing]…and [threatening her until he got tired of her refusing him]…sex…and [raped]…her [vaginally and orally despite her]…repeatedly t[elling] him “no”…His gun was…in full view [and]…she “was terrified and fearful for her life” and just wanted Romero to leave…

Panopticon (#1308)

“Safety” has become the #1 excuse for Orwellian levels of surveillance:

North Carolina [politician] Michele Morrow has made [a fetish of subjecting students to police-state measures that her own children would not have to endure, since she]…home-school[s them.  Like many authoritarians, she is obsessed with incredibly-exaggerated fears of] pedophiles and…gun violence [which she wants to use as an excuse to give dangerous thugs even more power to harass, spy on, persecute, and molest students.  Paradoxically, she wants to give these pervert thugs access to]…video surveillance in classrooms, hallways and bathrooms…

Torture Chamber (#1371)

Americans’ sick lust for torture turns ordinary prison sentences into death sentences:

A…[woman locked up in] California’s largest women’s prison [at Chowchilla] has died amid a brutal heatwave that has left residents without air conditioning begging for relief…temperatures in the region climbed above 110F (43.3C)…[but mouthpieces for the State pretend that had nothing to do with her] death…There have been reports of potentially fatal conditions inside jails and prisons during heatwaves across California and in Nevada, Illinois, Texas, Florida and other states this year.  The Chowchilla fatality has escalated fear and panic throughout the…overcrowded [dungeon, in] which…more than 2,000 people [are locked in cages without] air conditioning…[while screws refuse] to provide enough cold water and other supplies that would alleviate their suffering and reduce heatstroke risks…[many prisoners are] struggling with nausea and headaches…[while officials refuse to maintain or repair] swamp coolers meant to lower temperatures…[for] prison[ers]…locked in these death chambers [while bureaucrats deny the crisis and pretend their facilities are humane]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1423)

The currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade has escaped the US and is careening all over Europe:

The Senate of the Republic of Ireland…[will] debate the country’s proposed…[“monkey see, monkey do”] Online Age Verification…Bill…[whose] sponsor…hailed as a victory the fact that the…imprecise language…[of the US laws his bill apes] has already had a chilling effect on free speech, [namely] “porn suppliers such as Pornhub to cease providing services [to people who don’t know what VPNs are]” in those states…The bill makes platforms and app stores liable for any failure to implement [government-mandated surveillance, and they are specifically required]…to store the…data they collect [at their own expense] for five years, and [make it available for pigs to root through at will]…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #11)

I just can’t feel sorry for cops sexually abused by other cops:

A [Virginia cop named Michael Rusk] is suing his former department and local…[politicians] for $5 million for…sexual harassment a[fter]…he…shot and severely injured his superior…Christopher Gibson [for sexually assaulting him]…police leadership not only knew about the continued harassment but purposefully disregarded it because Rusk is a man…[for years] Gibson made…sexual advances toward [Rusk] including hand-holding, touching, slapping, stalking, and grooming…the[n]…in January 2023, after a night of drinking…Gibson…sexually assault[ed] Rusk…and…Rusk…[responded by shooting] Gibson several times before calling 911…

If Men Were Angels (#1449)

If I followed up on every rapist cop or preacher, I wouldn’t have room for anything else.  But sometimes I have to make an exception:

In 1982, [21-year old married] pastor Robert Morris…[seduced and molested 12-year-old] Cindy Clemishire…while he was staying at her parents’ home in Oklahoma…But 25 years later, when Clemishire hired an attorney and threatened to sue Morris…hi[s]…lawyer…responded by blaming Clemishire for what happened to her…The Feb. 6, 2007, letter was one in a series of exchanges that year between Sharpe and [Clemishire’s lawyer] Gentner Drummond…Clemishire…had been seeking $50,000 in restitution from Morris to cover the cost of counseling.  Morris…offered to pay $25,000, but the talks fell apart…because [Clemishire] was not willing to sign a nondisclosure agreement…

 

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 (#1453)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The way stalkerware companies are run just doesn’t include giving a shit about vulnerabilities.  –  Maia Arson Crimew

If Men Were Angels

Even the distancing “former” is the same as for rapist cops:

A [typical and representative Texas] youth pastor…[named] Luke Cunningham…was indicted on [charges of child molestation and various related crimes.  Several]…Lubbock [churches kept employing him despite numerous local accusations dating]…back [to] January of 2016…and [others]…dating back to 2013…

Guinea Pigs (#1307) 

New tools for tyranny are often tested first on whores, but never stop with us:

…Sweeping calls to collect data on marginalized populations and automate decisions about what constitutes a human trafficking pattern are dangerous.  Women…migrants, [people of color,] and queer people face profiling and persecution under surveillance regimes that [intentionally conflate] consensual adult sex work and human trafficking…language models [will] be built on discriminatory stereotypes which have [been used to] plague…[sex workers] for decades…Such tropes cause disproportionate surveillance of poor, racialized, and transgender sex workers, and in[tentional]ly categorize standard safety tactics as trafficking indicators.  Studies show that digital tools and policies which take a…similarly broad approach to collecting evidence of alleged exploitation online are dangerous and counterproductive…A 2022 study into technology which scraped and analyzed advertisements for sexual services found “misalignment between developers, users of the platform, and sex industry workers they are [pretend]ing to assist,” concluding that these approaches are “ineffective” and “exacerbate harm”…

Secret Squirrel (#1332)

Please enjoy the spectacle of nosy authoritarians hoist with their own petard:

…hacktivists [have] published the customer support database for Brainstack, a Ukrainian company that runs a phone tracking service called mSpy.  (It was the third mSpy security breach in a decade.)  The database includes messages from…ICE…agents…a U.S. circuit court judge…Employees at the U.S. State Department…and…many more…officials…in the…[US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel, Thailand, and Vietnam.  The hacktivist said]…”From all the past stalkerware leaks, usually what leaks is victim data”…But this leak was about mSpy’s clients—essentially turning the surveillance back against the surveilers…Unlike other intelligence-for-hire services, mSpy requires users to have intimate access to the target already.  The software must be installed directly on the target’s phone, iCloud account, or WiFi network. Afterwards, it provides the user with the target’s call logs, messages, and location data.  Brainstack [sani]tises mSpy as a parental guidance tool, but others [more accurate]ely [describe] the service [as] “stalkerware“.  Indeed, a few of the [hacked] messages came from [cop shops] and [spook houses] looking for a way to send mSpy a subpoena or warrant because [it allows spying by people who aren’t them]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1400)

Tech-savvy teens know what VPNs are, so this surveillance will only be “mandatory” for clueless adults:

Spain’s [increasingly-unpopular] anti-sex-work…Socialist Party (PSOE) government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has unveiled a new age verification app that will become mandatory for [clueless] adult[s]…in the country starting in September.  The Cartera Digital app and its age verification protocols…were announced…by…Minister of Digital Transformation and Civil Service José Luis Escrivá Belmonte …[who] described the existence of [speech socialists dislike] as “a problem,” and [conflated]…“the great majority of young people between 18 and 26 years old” [with legal minors]…

Still a Child (#1422) 

An attempt to push back the swelling tide of adult infantilization:

Strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments in Florida are challenging the state’s [new] law that prevents them from employing adults…under 21…lawyers filed suit against the state…in the name of 19-year-old Serenity Michelle Bushey, a nude dancer at…a [Florida] strip club…[because] the law’s arbitrary raising of the age requirement “not only made her lose her job but also violated her constitutional rights”…The plaintiffs also include Café Risque, strip club chain Sinsations and Jacksonville pleasure products store Exotic Fantasies…Bushey and at least eight [other] Café Risque dancers have lost their jobs, and [the suit] argues that the law also violates their First Amendment right[s]…

The Cop Myth (#1440)

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

An Oklahoma City [cop named]…Ryan Stark…brought [his girlfriend] to his house and tried to take her phone…she tried to escape…[his pigmobile], but…he…accelerated the car, breaking her foot on the garage door…he [then]…held [her] against her will…put a gun to her head…[and] threat[ened] to kill her…[then raped her].  Stark was arrested [on June 29th and]…charged with domestic assault and battery…rape…and [associated crimes]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1447)

There are still a few judges willing to block “monkey see, monkey do” parades:

Two laws requiring age verification online have been paused by federal courts…as legal challenges to them play out.  [Laws like] the [ones from] Indiana [and]…Mississippi…have been [parad]ing [through] U.S. states this year and last, and represent a growing threat to privacy, anonymity, and free speech online.  Federal courts have largely ruled against them when they are challenged, but this has not been universal.  So, it’s probably good that the Supreme Court has agreed to take up…Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Ken Paxton…involving…[the] Texas [version of the] law…

 

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 (#1451)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Th[e Assange] precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press.  –  Stella Assange

If Men Were Angels

Anyone “shocked” by this must live in a cave:

[Jonathan Elwing, a Florida pastor caught using cryptocurrency to buy child porn of children as young as 4] is now facing more charges…[after] a…search of [hi]s cell phone revealed…at least 14 pictures of him [rap]ing a 2-year-old…

The Face of Trafficking

Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths:

A [West Virginia] couple [who]…lock[ed two of their adopted] children up in a barn and forc[ed] them to work are back behind bars…on a bond that’s more than double what they had already been given– now set at $500,000 each.  Donald Ray Lantz…and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather…[pled] not guilty to over a dozen new charges against them…the adopted children, who were black, were specifically targeted by the couple and forced to work because of their race…the couple was able to acquire the $400,000 bond money for their release from jail in February…[despite claiming] that they had no income or assets, bringing into question where they had acquired the money…from…the couple [say they] sold an 80-acre ranch in Tonasket, Washington [that they claimed not to own] for $725,000 on Feb. 2…the[n]…on March 28…they…sold the…home [that they also did not own]…for $295,000…their bond money…still remains in the custody of the…Court Clerk’s office. [But in a rare moment of normal human decency, the prosecutor said he] believes it should be transferred over to a trust fund for the children…

To Molest and Rape

Good grief, don’t volunteer to be around them either:

A Riverside County [California cop is at large] after [somehow] posting $1 million bail following his…arrest…[for] kidnapping…rape…and…oral [rape] of a sheriff’s office volunteer…Alexander Ravy Vanny…was… [arrested on June 22nd and out the next day after his victim]…told [another cop] about the [rape]…

Joey the Player (#1382)

At least these shitty laws were used against an actual violent criminal for a change:

On Wednesday, June 26th, 2026 “Joey The Player”, [AKA] José Olivio Torres was sentenced to 30 years in prison for 4 counts of Sex Trafficking related charges…The FBI interviewed more than 30 victims, [but]…the court was aware of likely hundreds more victims who were too afraid to come forward.  A search of Torres’ home and office revealed more than 400 phone numbers and hundreds of email addresses he used to evade identification…he sent out between 60 and 150 texts and emails daily, trying to lure new victims to New [Jersey]…Torres had written nearly a million dollars in bad checks to sex workers…He sued the prosecutor, the victims’ attorney’s firm, and even the judge…filed hundreds of self-written motions with the court and fired at least four attorneys…most motions were denied, and the lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice…Torres…repeatedly stated that his “real crime” was theft of services…However, [neither] the judge…no[r anyone else involved]…was…convinced by Torres’ attempts to minimize his actions.  The court never once referred to the survivors as anything but sex workers and treated them with the utmost dignity and respect…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1421)

“Simply claiming that the ‘age verification preserves online anonymity’ does not make it so“:

A company that verifies the identities of TikTok, Uber, and [Twitter] users…by processing photographs of their faces and pictures of their drivers’ licenses, exposed a set of administrative credentials online for more than a year potentially allowing hackers to access that sensitive data…The Israel-based company, called AU10TIX, offers what it describes [using buzzwords] as “full-service identity verification solutions”…The news comes as more social networks and pornography sites [have been forced by politicians to] move towards an identity or age verification model…[and] highlights that identity services could themselves become a target for hackers…

Vulture Watching (#1434)

Mutually-contradictory laws are an inevitable result of rampant authoritarianism:

The Supreme Court will allow emergency abortions in Idaho…while a lawsuit over the state’s controversial abortion law [goes] forward…the state…[even] prohibits abortions required to protect a pregnant woman’s physical health…[in] violat[ion of]…EMTALA…a federal law that requires many hospitals to provide stabilizing care to patients who show up to emergency rooms…An Idaho federal district court judge placed a preliminary injunction on [the] law in August 2022…but…Idaho appealed, and the Supreme Court reversed the block in January…[resulting in] “the State’s largest provider of emergency services ha[ving] to airlift pregnant women out of Idaho roughly every other week, compared to once in all of the prior year”…With Thursday’s decision, the Supreme Court has dismissed Idaho’s appeals, allowing doctors to provide health-preserving abortions in the state while the case continues…

Bits and Pieces (#1450)

A short EN Brown piece on the legacy of the Assange persecution:

…it’s hard to exactly call this a win for the WikiLeaks founder.  But on the surface, it is a loss for the U.S. government, which wanted to put Assange away for a much, much longer period of time.  And yet, on some level, authorities got exactly what it seems they wanted: a warning to anyone who would dare to publish information that makes the government look bad.  It provides a clear view of what happens when you actively try to expose government secrets.  Shots have already been fired against future renegade journalists…Assange’s prosecution almost certainly serves as a deterrent for journalists who would encourage whistleblowers…or any outlet that would aim to function, like WikiLeaks, as a source for unredacted publications of government information…

 

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 (#1449)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 26, 2024| 1 Comment »

Illegal drugs are cheaper, more readily available, more potent, [and] more widely used than they were 20 years ago.  –  James Martin

If Men Were Angels

“Inappropriate sexual behavior with a young lady” is a helluva way to say “molesting a 12-year-old”:

Robert Morris, founding pastor of Gateway [mega]Church in Southlake, Texas…has confessed to…sexually abusing [Cindy Clemishire] over multiple years beginning when she was 12…Morris [burbled a lot of evangelical buzzwords like]…repented…walked in purity and accountability…blessing…and…forgiveness…[but] Clemishire [explained]…that…when Morris began abusing her…he…was a 20-year-old traveling evangelist…[already] married…[with a young] son…Morris…[betrayed] her family[‘s]…friends[hip after being] invited into their home and…repeatedly abused her in Texas and Oklahoma…[while telling] his wife that he was merely “counseling” her…For years…she has been warning churches…about Morris because she doesn’t believe she’s the only one who suffered his abuse…

Long Hidden

Cops aren’t the only violent profession whose members feel sexually entitled:

…hundreds of Kenyan women [have] filed complaints with the UK military over the years, a[fter being raped by British soldiers]…in the remote villages where the British Army trains its soldiers in Kenya. The British Army Training Unit, Kenya (BATUK), is headquartered in the town of Nanyuki…[and] Britain pays Kenya about $400,000 a year to allow its soldiers to train…mostly in the expansive wildlife conservancies in Laikipia and Samburu counties.  Kenya renewed the defense pact in 2021 despite strong local opposition…[due to numerous] allegations of rape and other crimes, including murder, by British soldiers deployed there [since] the 1950s…hundreds of women from the mostly pastoralist Maasai and Samburu communities who accused the British Army of rapes in the 1970s and 80s…were represented by the British lawyer Martyn Day in a landmark civil case in London in the early 2000s…[but] in 2007, Britain’s Ministry of Defense dismissed claims…brought by 2,187 women…[claiming] the…evidence appeared to have been fabricated…[and refusing to] conduct DNA tests on any of the 69 mixed-race children…born from rape by British soldiers…[but as they] can now be sued in Kenyan courts…as part of a new addition to the 2021 defense pact…lawyer Kelvin Kubai has signed up more than 300 of the women who previously brought rape claims and is working to reintroduce the case in Kenyan courts…

Rooted in Racism (#1305)

Never forget that this barbarity began using the excuse of “fighting human trafficking”:

The Greek coastguard has caused the deaths of dozens of migrants in the Mediterranean over a three-year period…including nine who were deliberately thrown into the water.  The [others]…died as a result of being forced out of Greek territorial waters, or taken back out to sea after reaching Greek islands…The Greek government has long…forced returns – pushing people back towards Turkey, where they have crossed from, which is illegal under international law.  But this is the first time the…number of…fatalities…[due directly to] the Greek coastguard’s actions [has been calculated]…

Panopticon (#1316)

This is too useful a tool of state control for the rulers to give it up:

A new lawsuit says that Illinois’ widespread use of…automatic license plate readers…violates the Fourth Amendment…because it breaches citizens’ reasonable expectations of privacy…”Defendants are tracking anyone who drives to work in Cook County—or to school, or a grocery store, or a doctor’s office, or a pharmacy, or a political rally, or a romantic encounter, or family gathering—every day…without any reason to suspect anyone of anything, and are holding onto those whereabouts just in case they decide in the future that some citizen might be an appropriate target”…Illinois’ highway [panopticon] began in 2019 [as so many civil liberties abominations do,] with the passage of [a law bearing a crime victim’s name]…Illinois State Police [started with] a $12.5 million state grant in 2021…which was more than doubled in June 2022…[so far] Illinois…has purchased 652 license plate cameras, of which 340 are installed in Cook County…

Permanent Record (#1380)

I can’t feel sorry for someone whose job is ruining lives for violating arbitrary diktats when they get in trouble due to a similar diktat:

Nashville [cop] Sean Herman was recently arrested…weeks after it was revealed that he appeared in a viral OnlyFans clip in [his magical clown costume].  He faces two felony official misconduct charges for [using the clown suit for something other than terrorizing people]…If found guilty, Herman could face prison…[cop shop busybodies] reportedly “discovered the video and identified him as the person in [the magical clown costume], seen in the video from the chest down, who took part in a mock traffic stop in an OnlyFans skit during which he groped the exposed breast of the female driver”…

A Moral Cancer (#1396)

Australia expands the Drug War, and prohibitionists pretend the wholly-predictable consequences are somehow surprising:

Since March of last year, the Australian state of Victoria has been rocked by a series of [murders,] arsons and firebombings…in an escalating turf war between rival gangs…the drug at the center of this conflict: nicotine…[prohibitionists prai]se…Australia…for its graphic warnings on cigarette packs, extremely high cigarette taxes, and strict prohibitions on e-cigarettes…[which together constitute] a form of “de facto prohibition”…[so] predictably…the share of tobacco sold illegally…has…doubled [in recent years] to…nearly a quarter of Australian sales…There are 1.8 million vapers in Australia and about nine out of 10 of them source their vapes illegally…[either by buying] e-cigarette components and…nicotine liquid from abroad…or [by getting] disposable vapes manufactured cheaply in China…Australia’s…response…is to crack down even harder…in…contrast…New Zealand, which has similarly high cigarette taxes but embraces a much more liberal approach to vaping…now boasts one of the world’s lowest rates of smoking…

Eavesdropping (#1417)

Even cops are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle:

New York City [has wasted tens of millions] on gunshot detection technology that rarely works…ShotSpotter…uses microphones and…software in an attempt to detect the sound of gunshots…When a sound triggers the system, ShotSpotter alerts the police department, and officers are dispatched to the scene…[but] an analysis…found that 87% of the time [cop]s were dispatched to a scene where there was no evidence of a shooting…“The evidence shows that NYPD is wasting precious time and money on this technology and needs to do a better job managing its resources,” [said City Comptroller Brad] Lander… “Chasing down car backfires and construction noise does not make us safer”…It marks the latest report calling the technology’s efficacy into question.  A 2021 audit by Chicago’s Office of Inspector General found that of more than 50,000 alerts there, only 9.1% resulted in evidence of a gun-related offense…Houston Mayor John Whitmire also said he would cancel the city’s contract with the company, telling the Houston Chronicle that it is a “gimmick”…

 

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 (#1448)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Ron…[DeSantis’] obsession with [LGBT people] has always been about politics and power, not policy or medical facts.  –  Nikki Fried

Surplus Women

Your “leaders” work hard to ensure this happens more often:

A man who murdered a woman and attempted to cover his tracks by burning her body has been jailed for at least 20 years.  Robert Brown…killed [a sex worker named] Victoria Greenwood…[after luring her to] his flat in the early hours of Friday, 10 November [under pretense of hiring her for outcall].  CCTV footage showed her on the ground outside trying to escape, but being pulled back inside the property…A pathologist found that Ms Greenwood had suffered skull fractures suggesting she had been hit by a heavy, blunt object.  There was no evidence she had inhaled fire fumes, which indicated she was dead at the time her body was set on fire…

Panopticon (#1150)

Too few states have held this, because the spying is too convenient for cops:

In March, the Alaska Supreme Court held in State v. McKelvey that the Alaska Constitution required [cops] to obtain a warrant before photographing a private backyard from an aircraft…the government…[absurdly argued that] the surveillance [was OK because it was undetected].  In response…the Court observed that…“if the surveillance technique cannot be detected, then one can never fully protect against being surveilled”…the Court added pointedly, “the rise of drones has the potential to…[make such surveillance far more comm]on“…With this decision, Alaska joins California, Hawaii, and Vermont in finding that warrantless aerial surveillance violates the…constitutional prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure…

Creepy Coppers

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:  “A [typical and representative Georgia screw named Steven Bunte] has been arrested…[by the] fed[s]…for…[child] pornography…”

The Vultures Descend (#1333)

Ruling thus on standing doesn’t actually mean a great deal:

 The Supreme Court…unanimously preserved access to [mifepristone because]…opponents lacked [standing] to sue over the…[FDA]’s approval of the medication…But the high court is separately considering another abortion case, about whether a federal law on emergency treatment at hospitals overrides state abortion bans in…emergency cases [where] a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk…

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

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

Florida’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors and restrictions for adults are both unconstitutional…U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle…sided with the plaintiffs in the class action…because [the law] solely targeted transgender people…[receiving] “medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity”…

If Men Were Angels (#1439)

Religion is often used an excuse for molestation, even when the molesters aren’t actual preachers:

A…high school coach in Texas…told [cop]s that it’s “God’s divine plan” for him to continue [molesting] a 15-year-old student [he seduced]…Cole Underwood [was reported by the school]…superintendent…[after] surveillance video showed Underwood meeting the [girl] alone after hours despite being told not to be alone…with her[.  She told cops he molested her] in his office more than 10 times between February and May…

Shifting the Blame (#1445)

And yet, they’re still not implicating cops that we know were Heuermann’s buddies:

John Ray, an attorney who represents the families of some of the Gilgo Beach murder victims, spoke to reporters on ‘evidence’ he says could implicate family members of Rex Heuermann including his 27-year-old daughter, Victoria.  Ray accused the alleged serial killer’s daughter of posting disturbing images to social media.  “This appears to be the remains of a human being that looks half-eaten,” Ray said, pointing to photographs…found on her Tumblr blog via a link from her LinkedIn page…it “appears that she [has] erased all of her [other] sites…We can infer from this…that this girl was made over the course of years, somehow, to become accustomed to liking what you see here”…

 

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 »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »