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Jail erodes every aspect of a person’s agency.  –  Lindsey Krinks

I recently watched all the Charlie Chan movies Chekhov had in his collection.  The low-budget Monogram Chan pictures of the 1940s weren’t as good as the 20th Century Fox ones of the 1930s, but though Mantan Moreland, who played Chan’s chauffeur in the ’40s pictures, was typically paired with Benson Fong as “Number Three son” for comic relief, a couple of the films included guest appearances by Moreland’s former vaudeville partner Ben Carter, allowing the two to show off the very funny ‘indefinite talk” routine which made them famous.  The links above the video were provided by Jesse Walker, Anarres Ansible, Mistress Matisse, IncarcerNation, Nun Ya, T. Greg Doucette, and IncarcerNation again, in that order.

From the Archives

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This technology is not safe to be deployed in communities.  –  Max Isaacs

Policing for Profit

Cops usually make up some pretext, however flimsy, for their robbery schemes:

The Massachusetts police oversight board suspended a state trooper’s…certification after he…[stole] a Bobcat bucket-loader…from a contractor he hired to remove fallen trees from his property…Joseph W. Franklin…[claimed] he was in the process of suing the contractor…for failing to complete the work and his attorney advised him to hold on to the Bobcat as “collateral”…[despite] not hav[ing] a lien or court order allowing him to keep [it, and]…court records do not list any civil actions involving Franklin or the contractor…[who] told police that…Franklin [had lied to]…him[, claiming another] contractor had [stolen] it…demand[ing] $5,000 [ransom]…

The Prudish Giant (#946)

It usually starts with sex workers, but it never stops with us:

YouTube [has] banned a[nother] wave of ASMR artists…for [supposedly] violating the platforms’ rules against “sexually gratifying” content…creators affected by the…bans who’ve spoken publicly about [the censorship] include ItsBunniiASMR, Slight Sounds, Nananightray, Roseasmr, Simoneasmr, and Janina Wilhelmsen, all of whom had significant followings on the platform.  There are still many ASMR creators on YouTube, making the bans even more confusing [to people who don’t understand that all censorship is a game of arbitrary whack-a-mole]…

The Red Umbrella (#1441)

When amateurs and violently-entitled idiots try to reinvent the wheel:

[Florida man] David Allen O’Brien…was arrested…[for a violent assault on] four [people]…on July 12 [he messaged a woman on Tinder and told her] he was looking for a “sugar baby.”  Over the next week, the two [negotiated] an arrangement [wherein] O’Brien [would] give her “$1,000 each visit,” treat her to dinner, and take her shopping…on [July 21 she] had three friends drive her to the date, wh[ich proceeded as arranged until]…they…went back to O’Brien’s residence…[where] she began to feel uncomfortable and texted her friends to come pick her up.  When O’Brien realized she was leaving, he demanded his money back…the woman refused…and jumped into her friends’ waiting car to flee…O’Brien [pursu]ed in…his…pickup truck and…when…he…[caught up he] violently rammed the back of their vehicle, sending it crashing into a pole…he…[then] rammed the car a second time, completely disabling [it]…Three of them managed to run away, but O’Brien cornered one of the male friends…pointed [a pistol] at…him…[and threatened to murder] him…[but]…the…victim…[escaped while] O’Brien [was distracted and]…the [cops caught him]…

Panopticon (#1449)

Flock and its cop customers need to be buried under a deluge of lawsuits:

…when combined with a network of…ALPRs…[license plates] become tracking devices that can provide a comprehensive history of a driver’s movements, potentially revealing sensitive information about his habits, health, relationships, political affiliations, and religious beliefs.  Police departments across the country nevertheless…routinely search the information they collect without reasonable suspicion, probable cause, a warrant, or any sort of judicial supervision…[and] it is nearly impossible for the average driver to avoid surveillance as he goes about his daily life.  That…violates the Kansas Constitution’s privacy protections, according to a lawsuit [from] the Kansas Justice Institute…Sam MacRoberts, KJI’s litigation director…[said] “If Wichita wants to track its citizens, it needs to go to a judge and get a warrant”…

To Molest and Rape (#1649)

It’s unusual for the official cop grooming program to be mentioned so prominently:

A [typical and representative] Southern California [cop] has been charged with [repeated molestation of] a 16-year-old [victim of the “]police Explorer[” grooming] program…Roberto Machuca…faces up to five years in state prison and [condemnation to the “]sex offender[” registry] for 10 years…

To Molest and Rape (#1656)

Cops just keep behaving like cops:

A [typical and representative Arkansas cop named]…Jeremy Boyd Grammer…[raped a girl under] 14…around…Aug. 30…[of last year], onl[y four years after getting paroled out of a 13-year prison sentence for child porn which began]…on July 31, 2008…

Panopticon (Nosey Parkers)

Surprising no one who has ever worked with optical character readers:

Flock [lie]s that in optimal conditions, its cameras accurately read more than 96% of license plate characters.  Hundreds of pages of records from the Roseville [California cop shop] show a different picture. In 2023 and 2024, Flock sent 1,427 alerts to Roseville police, flagging vehicles as stolen or used in a felony…in 71% of those alerts, Flock’s machine-learning software incorrectly read the license plates…The cameras regularly missed vehicles, captured blurry images, misread license plate characters and states, and sent delayed alerts…Flock [blame]ed…[Roseville’s “]atypical setup[“]…

 

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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Early last week I reached 8200 followers on Bluesky.  I set that number as a goal because it’s half of what my follower number on Twitter has eroded down to after years of shadowbanning, follower capping, and other sleazy tactics intended to surreptitiously reduce the reach of dissidents.  And even at half, Bluesky is so much less throttled by algorithms and outright blocks that making exactly the same post on both sites will routinely garner triple-digit engagement on Bluesky and single-digit engagement on Twitter.  So as of today, I’m no longer going to make new posts on Twitter.  I’ll still check it twice every day to reply to any messages, and I’ll occasionally retweet old posts; I’m going to mute everyone I follow there who is also on Bluesky, so I’ll also be retweeting items of interest from the few people I consider worth following on Twitter who obstinately refuse to make the switch to Bluesky.  One day, I hope to drop it altogether, but it’s not that time just yet.  So if you’re one of the single-digit number of people who will read this after arriving from Twitter, please consider moving; it’s only a matter of time before there’s no reason for me to be there at all.

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“Company destroys two million books” is not a headline that generates sympathy.  –  ISBNdb

Welcome to the Future (#1351)

Minority Report meets 1984:

The FBI office in charge of maintaining the terrorist watch list is seeking an a[lgorithmic] system for pre-crime policing…just as [the Trump regime shifts] its focus…from Islamist terrorism to domestic dissent…

Business Opportunity (#1527)

Politicians are increasingly brazen in their attempts to circumvent the Constitution:

A federal court has slapped down an attempt by the town of Johnston, Rhode Island, to [keep the poors out by stealing] a vacant lot slated for affordable housing development…[After] a [federal] judge [previously returned the deed to its owners and blocked politicians from taking any action to steal the property again]…the town passed a resolution creating its own…eminent domain [process that it declared superseded state and federal law]…but the district court was having none of it.   “A municipality is not in and of itself a sovereign,” wrote [Judge Melissa] DuBose…

Mad Libs (#1636)

Cockroaches flee from light:

Following 404 Media’s reporting that book database company ISBNdb claimed to source printed books to then sell to [chatbot pushers] for [LLM] training, the company deleted the part of its website offering the service…[tried to spin its scheme to feed millions of books to the shoggoths as] “a test of market interest”…[and barfed the buzzword] “pivot” [in reporters’ faces]…In one now-removed article on its site, ISBNdb said that printed books published before 2022 are ideal for [LLM] training…because they [are slop-free], and ingesting these books could prevent model collapse…In January, book authors filed a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic, revealing internal documents that showed Anthropic planned to obtain and scan millions of printed books and destroy them in the process

Enshittification (#1645)  

Scenes from the early days of a dark age:

Since October…Trump c[rony] Brad Parscale has been quietly overseeing an operation posting hundreds of [propaganda items] on behalf of Israel…The key intended audience of these sites is not…humans…Parscale and his firm, Clock Tower [Psycho], created them as part of a $46.5 million contract with the Israeli government to…[poison] chatbots…Parscale has made his…LLM poisoning…explicit…And it is working, according to disinformation experts…meaning tens of millions of [intellectually-lazy] Americans…are increasingly likely to receive…Israeli [propaganda]…

Walled Garden (#1646)

This was all predicted eight years ago; politicians simply didn’t care:

The UK’s Online Safety Act [i]s a problem…it has enrolled millions of British adults in mandatory identity-check systems run by third-party vendors with documented histories of data breaches…[now] Parliament is asking…[how to “]fix[“]…an…in[nate feature]…of…the kind of [universal surveillance] the Act was designed to produce…[while] fail[ing] to [achieve total censorship of anything politicians dislike while magically allowing things that would embarrass them when inevitably censored]…The consequence that those drafting the Act [intentionally ignored to shove their evil through]: the vendors…used to perform these checks [routinely] suffer…data breaches….[which] are not incidental to the law’s compliance mechanism — they are its structural risk…Ofcom [wants] zero-knowledge proofs…[a] cryptographic method…to confirm that a user is over 18 without learning who the user is…[but that will not happen] because the vendors who provide [age verification] have an economic interest in…[selling people’s] data…

Stalkers in Blue (#1658)

Cops will abuse warrantless surveillance until it no longer exists:

A [North Carolina cop named]…Seth Elliot [has been charged for using] the Flock S[urveillance network to stalk women, but he was also rewarded with a]…paid [vacation]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1659)

These antisocial things need to be banned entirely:

M[ark Zuckerberg]’s [pervert] glasses have quickly [been embraced]…by all kinds of charlatans and brutes to harass strangers, from pickup artist “manfluencers” filming themselves [harass]ing [women] to juvenile pranksters recording [people]…without their consent.  Consequently, the backlash…has reached a fever pitch, with owners choosing to leave them at home to avoid embarrassment.  Sensing a threat to its bottom line, [Facebook] has slowly started treating the issue with [a minuscule] degree of seriousness.  Now it’s vowing to crack down on creeps…using [the] glasses…as…the[y were designed to be used]…two large pickup artist accounts on Instagram have been…banned for posting harassing content filmed with the glasses…yet [Facebook still believes it can] control the narrative about…its fashy glasses…

 

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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[Zuckerberg]’s vision of the future may be antisocial and bleak, but we have the power to reject that reality.  –  Amanda Silberling

Welcome to the Future (#1500)

Surveillance, propaganda-spouting, and thought-crippling in a repurposed sex doll:

A [repurposed sex doll] is being [synchronized with a chatbot and fobbed off on American Indian students]…at Salamanca high school in…New York…The robot, [call]ed Sally, was…[built by] Realbotix, formerly Tokens.com, [which]…purchased [sex-doll manufacturer] Simulacra…in April 2024…Realbotix [l]ied [that it did not buy] the sex doll company [despite the acquisition being public record], and denied…that the dolls – [which are obviously repurposed sex dolls to anyone with eyes] – are re[purposed sex dolls]…Melinda Pearson…of the New York State United Teachers…said…“The answer to the challenges in education is not more screens, it’s not more algorithms, not more robots. What we need in our schools right now are more caring adults and more human connection”…

Note they aren’t trying this in a school for white kids.  See also “Mad Libs” below.

Welcome to the Future (#1551)

Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:

A trove of chat logs and projects created with Anthropic’s Claude [chatbot]…have been left exposed to Google, making them searchable to anyone on the web…when Claude users opt…to distribute a given chat or project to colleagues or associates using the chatbot’s “share” feature…[the program] notes that sharing will create a “public” link, and “anyone with the link can view.”  The warning, though, doesn’t alert users that shared content could wind up being indexed by a search engine…Such artifacts…include…a detailed medical report of a real patient, clinical trial results that include…patient names, documents sharing the names and phone numbers of primary school-aged children…and employee reviews that include…personal information…This isn’t the first time this has happened at Anthropic…and…[both] ChatGPT and [Mechahitler] chat logs…have [been] discover[ed] in Google…

Thought Control (#1565)

The logical endpoint to Florida’s censorship jihad:

Florida has been ground zero for book bans in the United States…under…[censorship] laws…[which demand banning] any book [even] a single [Froot Loop points at, even if they aren’t a] resident…of [the] district…[now the lunatics who run Clay County are] considering…eliminating school libraries altogether…[because although it] has removed more books than…any [other] district in the state…[that still isn’t enough to satisfy their crazed lust for thought control.  These people are so stupid they actually can’t grasp that the reason]…the circulation rates [of their libraries] are less than in most schools—less than one checkout a day…[is because there aren’t enough books left to check out.  And yet local politicians]…are frustrated by the inefficiency of [the censorship process]…their discussion centered not on whether to ban books but on how to do it faster…when asked what might replace the library space…[politicians absurdly suggested “]school stores[“]…and [“]computer labs[“]…

Not To Be Taken Internally (#1641)

Apparently this nitwit never heard of heavy metal poisoning:

[Online idiot] Connor Murphy [poisoned himself by] injecting gold into his body [because he imagined he would] gain “superhuman” powers…he…also [believed he was]…increas[ing] his attractiveness [by deforming his head into a distorted parallelepiped] as…[part of “]looksmaxxing[“.  One of his disciples described the cognitive damage done by toxic metal injection as]…“tapp[ing] into a level of consciousness that most people never will”…Police in Thailand were…called to [his] rental…after complaints of a man screaming inside, where they…found him in an “agitated” state.  He…fle[d] the [cops and then jumped in]…a…[nearby] lake [and drowned himself]…

Is there some reason this dude wanted to look like Sinestro?  And what are those neck lumps?  Was he carrying acorns in there?

Mad Libs (#1650)

Training kids not to think from an early age:

[Facebook] is working on a…storytelling [chatbot] called StoryKit, which creates [autocomplete]-generated children’s stories with custom characters, settings, lessons, and music.  As the App Store listing assures parents, “You don’t need to write a single word.”  At last, a tech company has found a way to outsource humanity’s oldest pastime: using our imaginations…To generate a story in the app, [nitwits] first select a character…by “[snapping] a photo of their favorite toy or person”…then…choose a lesson…it could be a lot worse.  [Facebook] regularly ships boneheaded ideas like Instagram deepfake generators…“pervert glasses”…[and] virtual reality work meetings…but it has always been possible to survive bedtime without using an inherently uncreative technology that calculates the most predictable response to a prompt…Perhaps the moral of the story here is that we can choose not to live in a world where children are raised on bedtime stories written by large language models…

Pyrrhic Victory (Nosey Parkers)

These things need to be banned entirely:

The promoter behind some of the biggest comic and entertainment conventions in the UK has banned [pervert] glasses from its events to stop…secret filming…of guests and attendees.  Monopoly Events said a number of guests had told the company they would be reluctant to appear at Comic-Con shows again after cases of recordings taking place without their knowledge.  The ban is [also] applicable to…any other “wearable recording devices”.  Attendees caught using the devices will be asked to leave the convention…Earlier this week the ferry operator CalMac paused bridge visits on its vessels after a passenger used [perve]rt glasses…without permission…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1658)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

A growing number of eyewear brands are developing glasses designed to interfere with facial recognition systems and surveillance cameras,…Solir Optics…sells “anti-facial recognition” sunglasses priced between $70 and $100…[which] are designed to block a broader range of light, including infrared and blue light…[so as to] interfere with retinal scans…Zenni Optical is also offering a lens coating called “ID Guard,” which…adds a pink tint to the surface of the lenses that reflects infrared light used by some facial recognition cameras…[and designer] Kerin Rose Gold…created Handle With Care, a[n overpriced] line…[which] use[s] black-and-white patterns intended to disrupt the sensors used by some facial recognition systems…

 

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

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

Out of Control (#1173)

Spooge-based sexual assaults are growing worse:

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

Secret Squirrel (#1403)

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

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

If Men Were Angels (ROTW #18)

Teacher and politician should have been a red flag:

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

Pyrrhic Victory (#1617)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

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

The Cop Myth (#1655)

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

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

Panopticon (Nosey Parkers)

Do you feel safe yet?

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

Stalkers in Blue (Nosey Parkers)

With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:

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

 

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

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Welcome to the future.  –  Joel Feder

Pyrrhic Victory (#1620)

The backlash isn’t nearly severe enough yet:

[Pervert] Glasses…are so [morally repugnant] that [even] some [who were sociopathic enough to buy them] are now leaving their expensive [gewgaw]s at home…men…have been using the glasses to…non-consensually…capture footage of…women [they] attempt…to hit on…then post[ing them] online…Some…have even attempted to extort victims of covert recordings for cash.  That’s on top of serious…privacy breaches by [Facebook]…and…the simple fact that [normal] people just really don’t like the idea of the world’s largest [psychopath collective]…facilitating abuse and surveillance in this way…[fortunately] the intensity of the [online] response [has] made [even moral imbeciles] think twice…[about being publicly recognized as] a predator or a creep…

Panopticon (#1643)

Here’s hoping Flock backlash will snowball:

The Los Angeles Police Department is ending its agreement with Flock…surveillance…”This contract is not being renewed because of serious concerns around civil liberties and civil rights issues, particularly around privacy and the data that is being collected from these cameras,” [oinked a spokespig, but in reality cops]…are continuing discussions with Flock…[in order to] revis[e the contact to give]…LAPD…[more control of the] data…

Panopticon (#1646)

If this guy had brown skin, he’d probably be dead now:

…On an otherwise normal Sunday afternoon in late June, I’d decided to take the…Range Rover I was testing that week out to run some errands…and [ended up] surrounded by police…in a Kohl’s parking lot in suburban Minnesota…after a tense hour…the [cops finally admitted they] had been tracking me for days using Flock…cameras…because they thought I’d stolen the Range Rover…[due to] a simple data error made 2,000 miles away in California…that Flock’s [cop-siccing chatbot] was unable to handle…

Panopticon (#1648)

In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

Cops across [California] accessed the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s…Flock S[urveillance]…ALPR…system at least 145 times to track protesters within the span of a year and seven months…Eleven [cop shops]…as far as…400 miles away, searched for protesters…on or around dates when protests against ICE were held…Cops are required by state law to list the reason for [warrantless] searching…but the[y]…have been [trained to “be as vague as permissible” so most “reasons” are]…vague one-word responses…A Flock [mouthpiece absurdly barfed]…“leverage”…[and] “crimes” [at reporters]…and…OCSD…[idiotically denied the word “protest” means] Flock is…used to track protesters…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1651) 

This is only the beginning:

An internal Madison Square Garden database…a[ssigns]…“risk [scores” to]…roughly 400 celebrities…[out of] 39,539 entries in the so-called “talent” database…which…is part of a much larger trove of documents published last month by ShinyHunters, a[n anti-fascist] hacker collective…a celebrity…marked with a risk score…means “you’ve done something [on]…social media…that has caught the attention of the wrong people”…People…are ranked on a scale…“Flag” is the lowest…next is “low risk” [including] Falco, [Tracy] Morgan, and Ben Stiller…After that is “medium risk” [including] Lily Allen, her ex David Harbour, and…country singer Morgan Wallen) and “high risk” (the hip-hop stars Freddie Gibbs, Lil Jon, DaBaby, and A Boogie Wit da Hoodie).  The rapper Lil Tjay…is “BANNED FROM MSG”…The…database also tracks some celebrities’ race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; 93 entries are marked as “LGBTQIA”…

Mad Libs (#1654)

Which is greater, Zuckerberg’s greed or his psychopathy?

[Facebook] quietly announced that [its pervert] glasses’ Conversation Focus feature will soon be limited to three hours of use per month, unless [owner is willing to] pay for a $19.99 M[onthly] subscription…The Conversation Focus feature, which amplifies the voice of [nearby people so as to facilitate eavesdropping]…runs on-device, using the chips inside the glasses…[which don’t] require an internet connection …[the feature] isn’t as [morally repugnant]…as…facial recognition [but Zuckerberg is apparently banking on the moral imbeciles who buy these surveillance tools wanting to hear while they leer]…

Stalkers in Blue (#1656)

With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:

A [Florida cop named Lamar Roman sped] 70 MPH down a two-lane highway…over a bridge in the Florida Keys…passe[d two] dump truck[s] in a no-passing zone…[and] nearly caus[ed] a head-on collision…[while stal]king and chasing a woman that he met and harassed on the set of the…TV…show Bad Monkey, [for] which he had worked a security detail shift…After…catcalling her and harassing her for her full name and Instagram details, the [dangerous sleazebag] illegally looked up her vehicle information on DAVID, a Florida Department of Motor Vehicles database for [cops]…He then put her license plate details on a surveillance “hotlist,” meaning he would get a notification in real time anytime she drove by an A[LPR]…Roman…was caught and arrested in March…[his victim] told investigators that she tried to be “standoffish” to deter him…[but] Roman would not leave [her] alone….[and threatened] to pull [her] over…in the [future]…

 

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 a few short years, the entire Western world might finally end the age of the open internet.  –  Kelsey Piper

Torture Chamber (#1445)

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

State p[igs] and [screwlords] are conducting a “potential criminal misconduct” investigation into…a Western Maryland prison after the latest in a rash of [murder]s of prisoners…on…May 20 [screws found] the body of Colin Wolf…[decomposing] inside his cell in the Roxbury [Dungeon]…Roxbury’s warden and chief of security are out…[and] 19 [screws have been given demerits, while]…eight medical staffers [have been banned] from facilities statewide…officials [are trying] to [figure out how to cover up the] homicides…[but] Wolf was the ninth [victim] this year…and the 33rd…since 2023.  [Politician] Carolyn Scruggs…wrote that…the [screws]…had violated “basic human decency”…to…[a greater] extent [than the ordinary violations of basic human decency inherent in locking human beings up in cages]…Just two weeks before Wolf’s death…Kelvin Hite…was also killed at Roxbury…

To Molest and Rape (#1577)

When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?

A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in]…New Jersey [schools in order to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been arrested for] sexually assaulting an underage girl.  [Louis J.] Baselice…[groomed and enticed the girl by buying her] an electric scooter…a…cell phone…and…food.  [He was reported by her friends]…

Sexcrime (#1590)

Because this worked so well when it was tried next door in the UK:

[Irish politicians] seek…to [invent crim]es relating to the possession, production or distribution of extreme or violent pornography, and acts of necrophilia…Minister Jim O’Callaghan [promied the scheme by absurdly barfing]…”contributes to perpetuating misogynistic attitudes” [in a government know for misogynistic laws against abortion, sex work, etc]…

Feudalism Redux (#1605)

Most federal courts below the SCOTUS level are still doing their jobs:

…Mayday Health runs a website with information about where people can obtain abortion pills…[but] doesn’t provide abortion pill prescriptions itself…Nonetheless, South Dakota has been engaged in a monthslong First Amendment battle with the group, [absurdly claim]ing…the [First Amendment doesn’t apply to speech about]…abortion…Mayday sued…[over the] unconstitutional [censorship attempt and] U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler seems poised to agree…[as she has] issued a preliminary injunction against South Dakota enforcing the law against Mayday or against…[politician] Nancy Turbak Berry….[for] wearing a Mayday sweatshirt…with…the…[same] message…[as] on Mayday’s gas station placards…South Dakota’s abortion advertising law is a[n illegal] content-based restriction on speech…Commercial speech is generally held to receive less First Amendment protection than non-commercial speech.  But Mayday’s website is not commercial speech, as…”there is no evidence that Mayday holds an economic motivation for its advertisements…Rather, [it]…is a nonprofit organization expressing a moral belief and providing information for free”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1622)

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

[Perve]rt glasses might seem like a great way of cheating on exams, [if you]…are [a moral imbecile], but…[it may result in legal] consequences …A…South Korea[n] man is facing criminal charges…after using [perve]rt glasses to cheat on a state-run fire engineer test in May.  [When] he was…[caught by the test] administrator…he…pretty much copped to the entire thing…This isn’t the first instance where [perve]rt glasses have been at the center of an academic cheating scandal, but it’s a particularly [serious] one given the context of the exam…it’s fair to say that someone’s competency could be a contributing factor in whether people live or die…

Walled Garden (#1651)

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

Senator Ed Markey…rolled out what he [advertises as] an “AI Accountability Agenda”…[but in reality] he wants to [put] unchecked power [to spy on and censor the internet]…into the hands of the American [government]…Two bills in the s[cheme]…move the internet toward a place where you prove your age before you read a page or say anything on it…[one is] brand[ed] COPPA 2.0…[and] lifts the age of a [restri]cted user from under 13 to under 17, then rewrites the rule that decides when a company is liable…[so] an ordinary website…has to judge whether some hypothetical reasonable person would have figured out that a visitor was under 17.  If you guess wrong, the Federal [Government] can [destroy your business].  The cheapest way to stop guessing is to card everyone at the door…Age gates…stand between a reader and everyone else’s expression, and they turn speaking up into a chore rather than a reflex…

Walled Garden (#1652)

Politicians love aping each other’s schemes while also ignoring their failure:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled that a European Union–wide identity verification scheme for social media users may be coming soon…[saying] “It is up to [the government] to decide when children…can join social media”…[and] touting the European Commission’s [failed] age-verification app…In truly Orwellian fashion, von der Leyen claimed that “this is about putting power back into the hands of parents”…despite report after report suggesting that Australia’s ban is a flop…politicians in the U.S. and in the U.K. are rushing to emulate Australia.  Now, it looks like the whole of the European Union could be next…

 

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

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I’m not sure why Amazon decided people who send gifts from others’ wishlists don’t need to be thanked, but that’s exactly what it has done.  It used to be possible to send a sender a “Thank You” email, which may be superfluous if the sender and recipient know each other in real life, but is very important to those of us who receive gifts from those who admire our work online.  For several years now, though, I had noticed that though it was still possible to send such a message, the gift sender rarely received it.  Then some months ago I realized it was no longer possible to even send one; when I got three anniversary gifts recently, I decided to dig through the “wishlist help” to see if they’d merely hidden the function in some submenu somewhere.  But no; I soon found a clear statement that it was not possible to send it at all.  So I really hope the readers who sent me a DVD of Sinners, a collection of four Kurt Vonnegut novels, and The Lensman Anthology, all see this and accept my thanks for your generosity; I never want anyone to think I take such gifts for granted, even if Amazon believes such respect for one’s audience is somehow outmoded.

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