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In the News (#1626)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A book that unexpectedly explodes upon opening it would be good grounds for a product liability claim; a book whose content inspires someone to act recklessly should not.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Choke Point (#1388) 

The government is now demanding banks not do what it has repeatedly demanded they do:

Federal Trade Commission…sent letters…to the CEOs of PayPal, Stripe, Visa and Mastercard, warning them against debanking practices — including denying access to services due to a customer’s…“political affiliations, religious beliefs, or lawful business activities”…last year…the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a report on debanking…in which it named adult entertainment as one of several sectors facing discrimination for engaging in activities contrary to banks’ “values”…[and threatening] an FTC investigation…but those rules will not stop banks from making decisions regarding their customers in a way deemed “consistent with safety and soundness.”  This leaves broad leeway for banks to continue discriminatory or exclusionary practices toward adult industry creators and businesses…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1450)

Politicians increasingly use nuisance lawsuits to circumvent the Constitution:

[Facebook] has been ordered to pay New Mexico [politicians] $375 million, in a verdict that paves the way for more states to [rob] social media companies under the guise of child protection—and demand changes that will compromise everyone’s online speech and privacy…the lawsuit [misused]…the state’s Unfair Practices Act…States [ab]using…consumer protection laws [to achieve unconstitutional tyranny they could not otherwise accomplish] have been a big trend lately.  This ruling all but ensures it will intensify…Section 230…is supposed to protect against this sort of thing.  If someone uses Facebook to engage in illegal activity, it’s that person…who may be criminally liable…[but] state attorneys general have been fighting against this…for nearly two decades…[because] they’re stuck prosecuting individual criminals…not [deep-pocketed corporations they can pillage]…The verdict in this case…”will be terrible for the open internet,” said Techdirt[‘s]…Mike Masnick…

The Cop Myth (#1566)

It’s too bad they don’t inflict all of their violence on each other:

…two [North Carolina pigs who lived together got in a fight which ended with a sow shooting her pig boyfriend]…Adam Bean [dead.  Because the murderer is also a cop, the pig herd is attempting to hide as much]…information [as possible]…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1586)

The only way to rein in chatbot pushers is to threaten their cash flow:

OpenAI won’t be rolling out an erotic version of ChatGPT any time soon…the controversial plan has been shelved “indefinitely”…as even its own advisors warned that ChatGPT users could form unhealthy attachments, which might harm their mental health.  One advisor chillingly suggested that the tweak risked turning ChatGPT into a “sexy suicide coach”…[and lawyers warned] it [would be] hard to keep illegal behavior out of outputs, like bestiality and incest…investors questioned why OpenAI would risk its reputation on a product with “relatively small upside” for…[a company regularly] linked to mental health harms in both kids and adults [which have led to] lawsuits…

Mad Libs (#1595)

“LLMs…train the brain to disengage…[leading] to passivity…and low integration of concepts“:

…chatbots have become a common part of many [fools’] daily lives, even though they…[give] wrong answers…45 percent of the time.  But [stupid people] don’t understand that reality…and…tend…to take…chat[bot vomit] at face value, even when it [gives] them the incorrect answer…experiment…participants were asked to answer a variety of reasoning and knowledge-based questions.  Despite making the use of ChatGPT optional, over 50 percent…chose to use the chatbot to answer the questions…researchers…[found almost 80% of chatbot] users w[ere] willing to believe what[ever nonsense it barfed up] regardless of accuracy, in what [researchers] termed a “cognitive surrender” that effectively overrode their intuition and deliberation process…“to outsource thinking itself”…[and] give up their own agency…further cementing [their dependency] on [machines]…

“Once men turned their thinking over to machines in the hope that this would set them free.  But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.”  –  Frank Herbert, Dune

Shame, Shame (#1612)

To Musk, this is pocket change:

Elon Musk’s [pet] chatbot [MechaHitler has] been banned from [gener]ating non-consensual…[sexual] images…by a Dutch court…the…order [applies to all of]…Europe…and…[includes] a [token] penalty of 100,000 euros ($115,000) for every day it [refuses] to comply…with a maximum fine of 10 million euros…Numerous lawsuits have [also] been filed…[including one from] Baltimore [abusing] the city’s consumer protection laws and…[an]other…[from] three teenagers in Tennessee [who were actually victimized by MechaHitler]…

Compared to Musk’s net worth, this is like me being fined 6¢ a day, maximum $6.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1621)

Another broadside against the dangerous “semen retention” cult:

Regular ejaculation — for example, by masturbation — produces higher quality sperm…according to a comprehensive new…meta-analysis of more than 115 studies…that cumulatively involved nearly 55,000 men, as well as 56 studies of 30 non-human species…The results revealed that stored sperm deteriorates over time, resulting in DNA damage, reduced motility, and other defects that can affect fertilization and embryo outcomes…The study…sheds light on the possible evolutionary origins of masturbation, which has been observed in…dozens of [nonhuman] species including dolphins, elephants, lions, and many primates.  Masturbation may have emerged as a way to avoid leaving sperm in the tank for too long.  Indeed, even species that don’t masturbate in the traditional sense of self-stimulation have still been observed offloading sperm in a practice called “sperm dumping”…

 

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 Search of Boole

Posted in Biography, History, Miscellaneous, tagged , , , , , on April 3, 2026| 1 Comment »

The search bar replaced the reference desk without replacing the skills behind it.  –  Hana Lee Goldin

When I was in library school in the early ’90s, the internet was very young and largely accessed by libraries, universities, and research corporations via several companies such as Dialog which charged by the minute for access.  Because of this, it was considered important for librarians to learn how to formulate effective Boolean searches which would return roughly half a dozen good, solid articles on the topic.  It was recognized that a search delivering dozens or hundreds of results was a poor one because it would take too much (expensive) time and (professional) effort to sift through all that to find what one was actually looking for.  And I was really good at it; I excelled at crafting “Goldilocks” searches which would return a manageable number of relevant articles, neither too many nor too few, usually on the first try.  Then two things happened: AOL started offering unlimited connection time, and Google came up with its non-Boolean search engine which delighted non-librarians by returning thousands of items in the pretense that more is better.  And so an entire generation of people has grown up with absolutely no idea how to craft an effective search, leaving them helpless in the face of Google’s rapid enshittification, and therefore easy prey for its predatory and typically-wrong chatbot.  As Google has rapidly decayed I’ve tried several other search engines, but none of them are remotely as good as classic Google was.

That’s why I was so excited to discover this article by reference librarian Hana Lee Goldin, explaining not only how to get around Google’s loathsome practice of dishing up swill instead of what you ordered, but also how to use Boolean operators which have apparently always been hidden in the system.  Goldin explains the reason for her article concisely:

Google…constantly…swaps in synonyms, personalizes results based on your history, and decides what you probably meant rather than returning what you typed. Most of the time that interpretation is invisible. These tools are how you override it.

Beyond that, I’m not going to quote her excellent article because you should read it all.  The link above is to her Substack blog, but to head off the possibility of link rot I’ve also backed it up.  And if Hana happens to read this: from a retired reference librarian, thank you!

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In the News (#1625)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 1, 2026| Leave a Comment »

I will not comply.  –  Luanne James

To Molest and Rape (#1177)

Sows are just as disgusting and predatory as their male counterparts:

A [Massachusetts cop] was [rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual abuse [of a minor]…Samantha Pelrine…and her…husband, Daniel Forand, repeatedly sexually and physically assaulted the…[victim for] several years…[after wheedling control from] the victim’s aunt and grandmother[, who had] raised them until they were 12 years old…about one year later, Pelrine and Forand became the…victim’s legal guardians…and…began sexually assaulting the victim a short time after[ward]…continu[ing] until 2025…

No Difference (#1359)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Senegalese proponents of a tougher anti-LGBT law [got advice from] a U.S.-based [anti-sex] group that ​calls homosexuality a public health threat…MassResistance…has advised like-minded African [prohibition]ists for years…but now…is trying to take advantage of …[the] Trump…[regimes]’s [mass destruc]tion…of [US-funded health programs in Africa]…the ⁠new law…doubles the maximum prison term for same-sex sexual acts to 10 years and criminalizes so-called promotion of homosexuality…

Shame, Shame (#1494)

This sleaze is bottomless:

WebinarTV, a company that bills itself as “a search engine for the best webinars,” is secretly scanning the internet for Zoom meeting links, recording the calls, and turning them into [computer]-generated podcasts [without the consent of the participants]…in an attempt to promote WebinarTV’s services…in some cases the [creators of the] stolen videos…[are informed by computer-generated emails “signed” by imaginary corporate officers that their]…webinar is “featured on the Phil & Amy Show”, [which is a make-believe]…talk…show…[featuring] two [cartoon characters synchronized to chatbots outputting nonsensical “commentary” on]…the [stolen Zoom] call…WebinarTV accesses meetings using links that have been shared publicly, then records the sessions [without any] participant’s [knowledge or consent]…in…violat[ion of] Zoom’s terms of service…

A Woman’s Point of View (#1506)

As with cannabis legalization, if enough of these are thrown at the wall one may eventually stick:

…[If] a [new] bill…[is] passed, Colorado would become the first state to fully decriminalize sex work state-wide…This is not [the Swedish model, but rather] a decisive shift away from criminalization and toward safety…to [placate the very stupid]…the bill draws a firm line between consensual sex work and exploitation…and…would repeal statutes related to solicitation and patronizing…[and] update outdated escort service regulations…Nick Hinrichson…Lisa Cutter…Lorena Garcia and Rebekah Stewart…[are the sponsoring politicians.  A similar]…bill…in…Illinois [is still languishing undiscussed]…

Thought Control (#1600)

This is the library whose board chair wanted a snitch list of those who read books he wanted censored:

In a message…to the Rutherford County Library…board, Director Luanne James said she would not comply with an order to move…LGBT…titles from youth sections to the adult area…[saying] “Restricting access…through subjective relocation or removal constitutes a violation of the community’s right to information”…[which] would violate both the First Amendment and her professional obligations…The…Board [had] voted…to relocate more than 190 books…following a [“]review[” by non-librarians on order of]…Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett…Board Chair [and wannabe Big Brother] Cody York [defended his censorship attempt by bizarrely vomiting out]…“dismembering…healthy sex organs”…during [a] debate…[and threatened to sack] James…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1602)

Sanders has announced he next plans to interview a TV set:

[Perennially-clueless politician] Bernie Sanders has a viral video making the rounds in which he “interviews” Anthropic’s Claude chatbot about the dangers of AI and privacy…and it might be one of the most unintentionally revealing demonstrations of…actual problems [with LLMs] that a politician has ever produced — just not in the way Sanders thinks…When you “interview” a large language model you are talking to a very sophisticated text prediction system that is specifically designed to give you responses that are (possibly) helpful, (hopefully) relevant, and (obsequiously) agreeable — shaped entirely by how you framed the question.  It’s not there to help you uncover hidden truths.  It’s not a whistleblower.  It’s not a witness in a congressional hearing, which is exactly what Sanders’ staging is designed to imply.  Ask it scary questions, get scary answers.  Ask it reassuring questions, get reassuring answers.  It is a mirror, not a source.  And Sanders’ video demonstrates this…

Walled Garden (#1611)

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

Ofcom, the U.K.’s [censorship bureau, is trying to] fine…4chan £520,000 for [refus]ing to implement [user surveillance] procedures and other measures [demand]ed by the U.K.’s Online Safety Act.  The [shakedown demand] includes “£450,000 for not having age checks in place”…[and the rest] for [refus]ing to provide Ofcom with [busywork it demands] and for not [submitting to posting compelled speech] in its terms of service…4chan[‘s lawyer, Preston Byrne,] responded to Ofcom with a…[computer]-generated picture of a giant hamster [hold]ing a [giant] peanut…attached to a truly excellent email response [stating]…”As has been explained to your agency, ad nauseam, the United Kingdom lost the American Revolutionary War…We are not in the mood to discuss the matter further, and have not been in the mood for 250 years…[4chan] reserves all rights and waives none…[including] the right to sue you again and/or to respond to future correspondence with an even larger rodent, such as a marmot.”  This is exactly the attitude U.S. companies should be taking with foreign authorities intent on forcing their online [censorship] on the rest of us…Ofcom [responded by absurdly claiming that the internet is a bar]…

 

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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Blues for a Bird

Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged , , , on March 27, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A few months after I started using Bluesky, I wrote: “…the only reason I’m still on Twitter is that Bluesky simply isn’t big enough yet to provide all the content I need to keep this blog going.”  But it was difficult to figure out exactly how I’d know when the time had come, because it’s actually rather difficult to compare the sites.  Because Twitter uses algorithms to hide a lot of my posts, artificially boost the reach of garbage and advertisements, and freeze the follower counts of people it wants to silence, there’s no real apples-to-apples comparison with Bluesky, which does none of those things.  When Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022, my follower count there had been frozen at roughly 18,500 for several years; since then it has slowly dwindled to about 16,500 as people abandon the declining platform.  But even when my follower count at Bluesky was a small fraction of that, I routinely noticed that most posts on Bluesky would get double or triple-digit levels of engagement while the exact same post on Twitter got single-digit levels.  And that’s not the only indicator; in November of 2024 Twitter changed some kind of code so it was no longer possible to embed tweets on my website, so at that time my monthly selection switched entirely over to Bluesky.

About two years ago I decided that when my Bluesky follower count reached half of my Twitter follower count, it would probably be time to leave Twitter for good.  As of this writing my count is 7900, and by the time you read this it will likely have hit 8000; judging by past performance I’m likely to hit my trigger-point of 8200 by the beginning of summer.  My posts there routinely get more reach than they’ve had on Twitter in the past decade, and the average quality of the responses is dramatically higher; furthermore, most of the people I used to be interested in reading on Twitter have now moved to Bluesky, so I no longer need to sift through Twitter for content.  Accordingly, once I hit 8200 I’ll be largely stepping away from Twitter.  I plan to mute everyone there who is also on Bluesky because like me, most of those folks cross-post everything, and while I will still check my account so as to reply to messages, I’ll no longer make original posts there.  All good things must come to an end, and Twitter has been dying for years now.  But at least we have a decent replacement.

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In the News (#1623)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Privacy and security on social media apps can’t be “optional”—they are life-saving necessities.  –  Leila Nashashibi

Stalkers in Blue

Cops are a constant menace to all women:

[A London cop named] Samson Akinnawo[, who was] featured in [a recruiting poster] in July 2024 d[emonstrated that]…he was a [typical and representative cop by]…stalking and harassing Melieka Daley between June and August last year through repeatedly calling and messaging her, [lurk]ing [around] her home…follow[ing] her from work and [harassing a] friend [of hers who had been] arrest[ed]…Akinnawo…[started out as a screw] and…is currently [enjoying a paid vacation]…

Rough Trade (#881)

Yes, this is absolutely rape.  No, I don’t want to “discuss” it:

In Belgium, a man was convicted of rape [for fak]ing…payment receipts for a sex worker, a scheme deemed by the court to be equivalent to a lack of consent…Belgium is [the only] European countr[y] where sex work is [decriminalized]…but this is the first time that a refusal to pay, or “a ruse” such as the production of a false receipt, has been considered in a trial as a lack of consent…and therefore rape…the Belgian Penal Code [specifically] stipulates that…”there is no consent if the sexual act results from deception”…the man had deliberately deceived his victim by pretending to make a payment via his banking application when…in reality, he was showing her his phone displaying…a screenshot of a previous successful payment…He was sentenced to three years in prison, suspended, with the obligation to undergo psychotherapy and submit to regular checks proving that he no longer uses drugs…

I Spy (#1195)

Four years ago I wrote, “I’ll believe Facebook is going to use encryption when it actually does it”:

[Facebook] is backtracking on [yet another] of its…[emp]ty promises…to implement default end-to-end encryption for direct messages on Instagram…End-to-end encrypted messages are more important than ever…in the face of a…[regime] that will do anything and everything to silence and punish its critics…No better case illustrates the risk…than when [Facebook] handed over private messages…that were…used to prosecute [a] young woman for having an abortion.  If Messenger were default end-to-end encrypted at that time, [Facebook] would never had access to the messages in the first place…But now [Zuckerberg]…is looking for some bogus reason to cancel…[supposed] plans for default E2EE…so that [Facebook] can 1) tap your DMs to train its [chatbots] and 2) curry political favor…by opening up…your private messages for spying and surveillance by the government…

Property of the State (#1245)

Most tyranny starts with governments claiming they want to “protect” people:

Ohio [politici]ans have introduced a bill that would allow the government to track every pregnancy, beginning to end…[the] registry…[would] requir[e] healthcare providers to file a “certificate of life” with the Ohio Department of Health within ten days of examining a pregnant patient and detecting [fetal cardiac myocyte activity].  The bill also mandates that “fetal deaths” be registered with the state, and…requires a “cause of death” to be certified within 48 hours—and if a fetus is deemed to have died in a “violent, suspicious, unusual, or sudden” manner, a coroner or medical examiner would be brought in…Let’s be clear about what this really is: an attempt to build an infrastructure for pregnancy surveillance…and…a pathway for scrutiny if the state decides something looks “off”…

Enshittification

If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:

…It is now possible to use live translation to communicate in another language in real time…but [the technology is already being abused]…to…rephras[e] profanity…in chat [programs]…Roblox…is [defending the decision to implement this dystopian thought control by spewing out buzzwords such as] “civility”…”leveraging AI”…”respectful”…and…”multilayered safety system”…it creates a dangerous proof of concept that others may build on…It’s easy to imagine situations where Chinese…systems…rephrase people’s language on social media in real time to promote “social harmony”.  Not only the style but even the content’s details could be subtly changed away from controversy towards conformity.  It would be possible for rephrasing to be visible only to others, so the person making a comment might not even be aware that their words were being subverted in this way…

And it gets worse from there:

…Google is beginning to replace news headlines in its search results with ones that are [LLM]-generated.  After doing something similar in its Google Discover news feed, it’s starting to mess with headlines in the traditional “10 blue links,” too.  We’ve found multiple examples where Google replaced headlines we wrote with ones we did not, sometimes changing [or even reversing] their meaning in the process.  For example, Google reduced our headline “I used the ‘cheat on everything’ AI tool and it didn’t help me cheat on anything” to just five words: “‘Cheat on everything’ AI tool.”  It almost sounds like we’re endorsing a product we do not recommend at all…And Google says it’s tweaking how other websites show up in search, too, not just news…this is like a bookstore ripping the covers off the books it puts on display and changing their titles…but Google seems to believe we don’t have an inherent right to market our own work…

The War Goes On (#1585)

This started as a scheme to keep sex workers off of Tinder:

Tinder plans to let machine vision algorithms loose on your camera roll.  Instead of building a profile on their own, [Tinder] will scan users’ locally-stored photos—everything from gym selfies to pictures of their family, sensitive documents and dick pics—to [let a machine] construct profiles by [mahine-guess]ing what users’ interests and values are.  Dating apps are [quickly becoming enshittified]…thanks to [toy]s like ChatGPT…[which allow unscrupulous] users…[to] offload get-to-know-you conversations to [machines]…Although Tinder [spokesgeek Mark Kantor vomits out platitudes about choice, sane]…users may still be concerned with [unaccountable black-box algorithms rooting through] their entire [phone memory, and since]…users can’t pick individual photos they want analyzed or ignored…Tinder’s [so-called “]safeguards[“] are [hardly reassuring, especially given dating apps’ terrible security track record]… Kantor [brushed off valid security concerns by belching “]science[!” in a reporter’s face]…

Shame, Shame (#1612)

Much, much, much more of this, please:

…a group of Tennessee teenagers [are suing Elon Musk’s chatbot company because its MechaHitler chatbot was]…used to create nude images of them by editing photos in which they were clothed.  The edited photos spread across Discord and Telegram in recent months, and some were bartered for [child porn] in online chatrooms…a single perpetrator compiled images and videos of more than 18 girls, many of whom attended the same school, and digitally altered…them using [MechaHitler]…The three plaintiffs, including two minors, seek damages for each [altered photo] and aim to prevent the company from allowing [other such] image editing…Musk [predictably lied]…that [the number]…of…naked underage images generated by [MechaHitler was] “Literally zero”…and…[claimed] the…estimated 23,000 [altered] photos…[of naked legal minors was the result of “adversarial hacking”]…

 

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

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In the News (#1622)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

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

Available Weapon

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

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

The Last Shall Be First (#1470) 

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

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

Enshittification (#1557)  

May the same happen to every company which does this:

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

Pyrrhic Victory (#1586)

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

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

The Vultures Descend (#1600)

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

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

The Vultures Descend (#1604)

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

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

Pyrrhic Victory (#1607)

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

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

 

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

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In the News (#1620)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

There is no reason for the pervert glasses to exist.  –  Jesse L. Taylor

To Molest and Rape

It’s not safe for anyone to be anywhere near a cop:

A Hennepin County [Minnesota cop was rewarded with a paid vacation for]…sexual[ly assaulting a woman while drunk]…Jared Sprunk…[was out drinking] on March 1…when the…[victim foolishly] invited him [along with a group] to a friend’s house…he [started acting up]…but [was too drunk] to drive…[so] she and her friends helped Sprunk into a bedroom downstairs so he could “sleep it off”…[he repaid her kindness by] clos[ing] the bedroom door while [she] was still inside…and…tried to [rape her.  The friends responded to her]…screaming for help while pounding the door….they…escorted Sprunk upstairs and pushed him [outside]…after Sprunk a[ttacked one of them]…Sprunk…denied…[every]thing [to cops], despite [also] saying he [was too drunk to remember]…

For a different unhinged Hennepin County cop, see “The Cop Myth” below.

Torture Chamber (#1313) 

This mindless evil will continue as long as useful idiots allow it to:

…Walker County, Alabama…Sheriff Nick Smith…[presides over a chamber of horrors].  About 100 feet from [his office, screws]…jeered as [Anthony] Mitchell shivered in his own waste…A short walk from that cell…a g[ang] of [screw]s beat a man until one of their uniforms was soaked with his blood…In the infirmary down the hall, [screw]s pummeled a man so hard they broke bones…none of it has come back on Smith…despite…20 of his employees — nearly half the jail staff at the time of Mitchell’s death — [being] indicted in a sweeping federal investigation…13 [have already] pleaded guilty…One of the [thug]s who a[bduc]ted Mitchell [after his cousin Steve Mitchell foolishly called 911 on him] stomped on his groin as he lay handcuffed on the ground, telling him, “This is how we treat seizures in Walker County.”  A [screw] tased Mitchell as he shivered in his cell…they [intentional]ly [denied] him [water and refused to allow him]…medical care…for two weeks.  When they finally took him to the hospital, he was unconscious in]…the final stage of hypothermia…On Facebook…[Smith crowed that his thugs torturing a severely mentally ill man w]as a brave win….wh[ile] the…office [staff]…lied…to…his mother and sister [that] Mitchell was safely detoxing…

Enshittification (#1468)

How long before Google becomes completely useless?

Google’s gluttonous [“]AI Overviews[” have wrought havoc on]…online media publications…[whose] web traffic…has dropped off significantly …At their peak, the media companies brought in 112 million site visits per month from Google users in the US.  By January of this year, that number was down to a little under 50 million…Mashable fared the best, losing a grim 30 percent of its web traffic…Wired…lost 62 percent…[and] HowToGeek, The Verge, and ZDNet…each lost over 85 percent…[worst hit] is…Digital Trends, which went from 8.5 million clicks a month in March 2024 to a heartbreaking 264,861 in January 2026…a drop-off of 97 percent of US web traffic from Google…

You may remember that this started with “adult” and “mature” websites (such as this blog) being “downranked”, but as I repeatedly say, such attacks only start with those the Establishment demonizes.

Walled Garden (#1594)

Politicians love infantilizing people and then using that as a excuse for oppression:

Indonesia is [attempting] to block teenagers from social media apps, [try]ing [to] prevent anyone under 16 from having accounts on YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, X, Bigo Live, and Roblox…Dozens of other countries around the world — including…Canada, Germany and Brazil — have either banned or are considering bans on social media for [young adults using spurious]…reasoning [supported by buzzwords such as “]pornography[“]…and…[“]addictive algorithms[“]…Spain said it would ban anyone under 16 from using messaging apps…France also wants to ban [people] under 15 from social media, with President Emmanuel Macron blaming it for youth violence, and the United Kingdom is also mulling a…ban…in the US…Florida has a partial ban for [people] under 14, and California and New York are trying to regulate “addictive feeds.” Utah, Texas, and Arkansas have tried to require parental consent for minors to have social media accounts.

The Cop Myth (#1618)

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

A Hennepin County [Minnesota cop ran amok]…in…a hospital [maternity ward]…in February.  Dillon Field…was [estranged from]…his wife [due to prior abuse, but she foolishly allowed him to visit while she] was preparing to give birth…He started yelling at [her, so she]…asked that he leave, and his mother-in-law went to get a nurse…Field shoved her and tried to lock himself in the bathroom with his wife.  [When] nurses responded…Field [fled]…and…the hospital…[was put] into lockdown.  He…[was] charged with…domestic assault [but also rewarded with a paid vacation]…

Torture Chamber (#1618)

Regular readers know this kind of evil is endemic to US jails and prisons:

A diabetic Norwegian woman [married to a US citizen] who was a[bducted from her green card interview on November 17 by ICE thugs nearly died in a filthy cage because]…her requests for insulin were repeatedly ignored.  Hanne Daguman…was advised by multiple immigration attorneys that [her visa expiring] “would not be an issue” due to [her marriage, but thugs ambushed her at her] green card interview…[dragged her away in chains and stole] her Continuous Glucose Monitor…she…could not safely eat without insulin…yet [was denied both insulin and contact with] a doctor until November 20…[at which point a] glucose test…[showed her blood sugar] was 508…[but was still given] insulin in [incorrect] dosages [and in]consistently…[despite becoming] severely ill…the available food was carbohydrate-heavy (such as rice, pasta and oats), which requires careful insulin dosing before and after.  As that was not provided, Hanne lost 10 pounds in just nine days…she was [finally]…released on November 25 and was required to wear an ankle monitor until her court hearing on January 26.  The case was [then immediately] terminated [because there were no grounds to arrest her in the first place]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1619)

I’ve been calling these “spy” or “surveillance” glasses, but this is much better:

…Many have quickly embraced a term for [Facebook surveillance] devices that’s presumably sending…Mark Zuckerberg into paroxysms of fury: “pervert glasses”.  “I’m taking a brave stance that may get me canceled: there is no reason for the pervert glasses to exist,” one user wrote.  “Glad people are settling on the term ‘pervert glasses,’” another agreed. “Bonus points if you also say it while posting a picture of Mark Zuckerberg or call them Mark Zuckerberg’s pervert glasses”…Yet another [wrote]…“I would prefer technology to make it more difficult to skeez, creep or perv on the world.  I would like tech to protect me from creeps, not smooth the runway for them”…

 

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

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In the News (#1619)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 11, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Young people still have human rights.  –  David Greene

No Escape

The predictable result of sociopaths being given total power over women:

…Prison counselor Richard MacLeod…repeatedly [raped] Andrea Nielsen…at Illinois’ Logan C[age Stack]…But…when her cellmate reported the abuse to prison investigator Todd Sexton and Warden Margaret Burke, the pair “formulated an outrageous plan to use her as unwitting ‘bait’ to try to catch MacLeod in the act…Sexton [would] stay late a few times, crawl around in the ceiling above the room MacLeod used to sexually assault Nielsen, and wait to jump down and intervene”…The plan [required]…MacLeod [to attack when Sexton was in his voyeur position, so of course it failed]…A jury found [Burke, Sexton, and MacLeod] all…liable and ordered them to pay Nielsen $19.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages…[but] the 7th Circuit…partially reversed the lower court’s ruling and ordered a new trial on damages…for Sexton and Burke…to [reset the amount of damages]…MacLeod [coerced] Nielsen…[by threaten]ing [to deny] her calls with her 6-year-old daughter…he…[would] subject her to…[unprotected] vaginal and oral [rape when she came to his]…office [for the calls]…he [also]…threatened [to destroy her mail] and [put her in solitary confinement]…if she reported [him]…

Welcome to the Future (#1428)

Indiscriminate murder is so much easier when blamed on machines:

In order to [ma]ke a b[ig social media show]…of its attack on Iran, the U.S. military [used a chatbot combined with]…Maven Smart System…built by…Palantir…to [pick victims] in Iran…Embedded into the system is Anthropic’s AI tool Claude, a technology that was banned by the Pentagon [on orders of the lunatic Secretary of Defense] last week…As planning for a potential strike in Iran was underway, Maven, powered by Claude, suggested hundreds of targets, issued precise location coordinates, and prioritized those targets according to importance…Claude has also been used in [inventing imaginary] terror plots and in the raid that captured Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro.  But this is the first time it has been used in major war operations…Hours before the bombing in Iran began, [the mad emperor belch]ed he was banning government agencies from further using Anthropic’s tools…be[cause] the company [didn’t want]…the tools [used for] mass domestic surveillance and [murder robots]…The military will continue using its technology as it waits for a replacement to be phased in…

Shame, Shame (#1580)

Apparently these fools didn’t learn from Zuckerberg’s flushing $77 billion:

…the “Tillyverse” [is a cartoon] world [imagined for cartoon character]…Tilly Norwood…to [exist in with other cartoon characters who will “]build artificial acting careers[“]…Particle6…the [software company behind]…Tilly Norwood and its universe…has…recruited Amazon Executive Mark Whelan from Prime Video…and [the delusional nitwit cabal already imagines their cartoon as]…“a future global superstar”…[with “]humour[“, a “]daily life[“, “]career choices[“, and “]fans”…[in response to] SAG-AFTRA…[correctly pointing out] that Norwood is…“a character generated by a computer program”…Particle6…[developed an unnerving tic, spastically belching out nonsense buzzwords including] “rapid acceleration”…“AI talent”…and…“cultural spark”…

Thought Control (#1593)

The mad emperor’s reign of terror continues:

H.R. 7661 t[ies]…federal education funding to restrictions on certain books and educational materials…[in order to] pressure…schools to remove titles that discuss identity, history, and lived experiences…politicians [dislike]…This is…about whether the federal government can use its power to narrow the range of…perspectives available to students…It is about whether educators and school librarians will feel forced to self-censor to protect their budgets.  And it is about whether young people will grow up in classrooms shaped by political fear instead of free expression…Once the government begins deciding which viewpoints are acceptable, every reader’s freedom is at risk…as we’ve already seen in [individual] states…

Walled Garden (#1595)

Western nations are competing to out-China China:

…The bipartisan effort to censor and deanonymize the internet for everyone…[is behind] a dozen “child online safety” bills…[intended to] force social media companies to enact invasive identity verification measures…[which would permanently link every] user’s offline identity…with their online behavior…constitut[ing] one of the most sweeping rollbacks of civil rights in recent history.  It would allow for unprecedented levels of mass surveillance and censorship, endangering the most marginalized members of society.  Whistleblowers exposing corporate wrongdoing…[or] government employees speaking out about illegal behavior or bad policies could face [retalia]tion, and activists organizing protests could be identified and surveilled before ever setting foot on the street…Already, the U.S. government is flooding social media platforms with subpoenas seeking to unmask hundreds of anonymously run anti-ICE social media accounts.  These laws would make it all the more easier for the government to target and prosecute those who dissent…and [the Quisling party has]…become integral to advancing these proposals, falsely claiming that surveillance laws will crack down on Big Tech or curb [nonexistent] social media addiction…The laws would create a massive new market for third-party identification vendors, [which is why psychopaths]…such as Peter Thiel…Elon Musk…and…Mark Zuckerberg [support these and even worse laws]…

Vulture Watching (#1608)

Forced-birth fanatics really do want more women to die:

…crisis pregnancy centers [are] organizations that advertise free pregnancy tests and ultrasounds but dissuade women from pursuing abortions and contraceptive options.  Since the [rogue SCOTUS] ended national abortion access in June 2022, the centers have seen an infusion of taxpayer dollars in many Republican-led states….[even though they] endanger public health by “causing delays in accessing legitimate health care”…Twenty-one states funneled…$491 million…to [these scams] between fiscal years 2022 and 2025…not includ[ing] millions some states diverted from federal programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families…Yet that largesse hasn’t been matched by corresponding regulation…[even though the centers regularly lie]…about their services…[and] promote [dangerous pseudo-]treatments like abortion pill reversal… the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists…[says] “they operate outside of ethical principles and best care practices”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1617)

In which glassholes are hoist with their own petard:

[Facebook has been forced to admit that] subcontracted workers [can]…view…films and images…captured by its…[perve]rt glasses for the purpose of improving the “experience”…[the privacy violations were discovered] by Swedish newspapers Svenska Dagbladet…and Goteborgs-Posten…[a Facebook mouthpiece] said…”[Our] glasses help you…to [violate the privacy of anyone in]…the world around you”…

 

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

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In the News (#1617)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 4, 2026| Leave a Comment »

People [can] just tell them politely to fuck off.  –  Yves Jeanrenaud

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

A[n assistant politician in Alaska named]…Craig Scott Valdez…[has been] indicted by a federal grand jury…[for] production of child pornography…he [regularly]…used Snapchat to “groom and entice juvenile [girls]”…The indictment references a specific…15-year-old girl in Anchorage last October, though the FBI has identified at least 11 other…victims…

If Men Were Angels

“Having a sexual relationship” is such a nice way to say “molesting”:

A [typical and representative] pastor at a Western Kentucky church has been arrested for [repeat]edly [molest]ing…a minor [for four to five years, starting when she was 12 or 13]…David Rodgers…was immediately fired and prohibited from participating in church-sponsored functions…he…admitted to the [crime and then killed himself]…after posting a $75,000 bond…

No Difference (#1443)

History will remember the early 21st century as a time of worldwide repression:

Two young women in their early 20s were arrested in Northwestern Uganda…after neighbors r[att]ed [on] them [to cops for] kissing in public and hosting other women in their one-room apartment…Wendy Faith…and Alesa Diana Denise…[had only been] in…the…apartment [for a] week…[when evil monsters sicced the cops on them] on February 18…Human rights activists…condemned the arrests…[explain]ing the “Kill the Gays” law fuels blackmail and extortion against…LGBT…[people.  Earlier in the month] a…court rejected the first case brought under the [law because]…the [victim’s health had deteriorated so badly] due to his extended detention in [a filthy cage] between arrest and trial…[and politicians] associated with the [unpopular law, pushed and bankrolled by US evangelical groups including Morality in Media and Family Watch International, have been]…defeated in [recent] reelection bids…

Eavesdropping (#1482)

“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen thousand:

A software engineer’s earnest effort to steer his new DJI robot vacuum [cleaner] with a video game controller inadvertently granted him a sneak peak into thousands of people’s homes…Sammy Azdoufal…reverse-engineer[ed] how the robot communicated with DJI’s remote cloud servers…[and] discovered that the same credentials that allowed him to see and control his own device also provided access to live camera feeds, microphone audio, maps, and status data from nearly 7,000 other vacuums across 24 countries…[which] could have [allowed cops or spooks]…to [use them as] surveillance tools…without their owners ever knowing…DJI [claim]s…the issue has been “resolved”…[but] experts who have long warned that internet-connected…devices present attractive [opportunities] for [surveillance]…

Mad Libs (#1595)

This was 100% predictable:

Anthropic, the wildly successful [“]AI[” scam outfit] that has cast itself as the most safety-conscious of the top [chatbot makers], is dropping the central pledge of its flagship safety policy…In 2023, Anthropic committed to never train a…[chatbot] unless it could guarantee in advance that the company’s safety measures were adequate…But in recent months the company decided to radically overhaul the [policy by] scrapping the promise to not release [chatbots] if Anthropic can’t guarantee proper risk mitigations in advance…Anthropic’s c[o-found]er Jared Kaplan…[said] “We didn’t really feel, with the rapid [inflation] of [the “]AI[” bubble], that it made sense for us to make unilateral commitments…if competitors are [making more money than us]”…When Anthropic introduced the [policy] in 2023, Kaplan…hoped it would encourage rivals to adopt similar measures…But [since they didn’t]…the company [realized that]…“If one [chatbot maker] paused development to implement safety measures while others moved forward [recklessly]…that could result in a world [where we make less money than them]”…

Panopticon (#1614)

A good idea that needs to increase by several orders of magnitude:

…in La Mesa, a small city just east of San Diego, California, observers happened upon a pair of destroyed Flock cameras…just weeks after the city decided, in [spite] of public protest, to continue its contracts with the surveillance company…In recent months, people have been smashing and dismantling the surveillance devices, in incidents reported in at least five states, from coast to coast…reflect[ing] growing anger…over the surveillance technology…Flock…readers…gather not just license plate images, but other identifying data used to ‘fingerprint’ vehicles, their owners, and their movements.  This data can be collected, stored, and accessed without a warrant, making it…popular w[ith cop shops, spook houses, and goon squads]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1615)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

A new…app warns if people nearby may be wearing s[urveillance] glasses…which stalkers and harassers have repeatedly used to film people without their knowledge or consent.  The app scans for smart glasses’ distinctive Bluetooth signatures and sends a push alert if it detects [one]…in the local area…“I consider it to be a tiny part of resistance against surveillance tech,” [said] Yves Jeanrenaud, the…sociologist who made the app…[which] works by looking for Bluetooth “advertising frames”, which are small bits of data devices regularly broadcast as part of their normal operation.  Jeanrenaud…decided to make the app after reading [about men]…filming [sex workers and ICE goons wearing them during pogroms.  He said]…after identifying a device, a user “may act accordingly”…

 

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

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In the News (#1615)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Face recognition technology…poses a uniquely dire threat to the practical anonymity we all rely on.  –  Nathan Freed Wessler

Bait and Switch (#662)

Whenever you see claims that a sting “caught pedophiles” or is “fighting the demand for child sex trafficking”, refer back to the original article in this heading:

A [Department of Defense contractor assigned to] do…background checks for [ICE]…was arrested in a Bloomington, Minnesota, sex sting.  But the story is being twisted—by people employing the same sort of despicable smear tactics we see from ICE…[boss hog] Booker Hodges [strutted around, pompously belching up the typical “child sex trafficking” rhetoric cops use to justify these scams, while]…news media and countless folks on social media have been [parrot]ing [that]…narrative…but—as is so often the case—it…[was] just a vice operation aimed at adults looking to find other adults for sexual activity…Bloomington Police’s press conference and post about [the sophomorically-dubbed] “Operation Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places” are truly bizarre.  The YouTube video of the conference opens with an elaborate skit, acted out by Bloomington cops…[and boss hog] Hodges…spends part of the press conference singing “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” and [mocking his victims]…as he shows their mugshots…

As I’ve said before, cops pretending to be entertainers should be a summary firing offense.

A Broker in Pillage (#1235)

This kind of evil will never stop until there are criminal charges for the cop and politician perpetrators:

The hamlet of Brookside, Alabama, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit three years after local news investigations revealed that it was running a predatory speed trap.  The Institute for Justice…sued Brookside in 2022 on behalf of motorists who…were framed and swindled by the town…[whose] unusually large police force was bankrolling the city budget by fining people traveling through and towing their cars under [bullshit]…charges…Brookside, a place with no traffic lights and one commercial property…”collected $487 in fines and forfeitures for every man, woman and child“…and…income from [the robberies] comprised 49 percent of the town’s budget…Brookside’s racket was so outrageous that the Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in support of the…lawsuit…and…the Alabama state legislature [has now] passed a bill capping the revenue municipalities can keep from fines to just 10 percent of their general operating budgets…and [Brookside in particular faces] 30 years of strict caps on how much revenue [it can make]…from policing…

Guinea Pigs (#1362) 

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

An underground site uses facial recognition to reveal the site a camgirl streams on…present[ing] a serious privacy risk to sex workers…who may not want stalkers, harassers, or employers to discover their profiles…Camgirlfinder has been running for several years, with most adult streaming platforms being added in 2021…[and] contains faces from a wide variety of adult streaming platforms, including Chaturbate, MyFreeCams, and LiveJasmin…The database appears to include sex workers who may not have streamed for years, creating the risk that someone may use the site to find them even if they decided to not stream anymore.  The site then sells all images it has of a particular person for $1 per model…

Nor does this stop with specialized sites and online locations:

Porn performer Siri Dahl’s personal information, including her full legal name and birthday, was publicly exposed earlier this month by [MechaHitler]…Almost instantly, harassers started opening Facebook accounts in her name and posting stolen porn clips with her real name on sites for leaking OnlyFans content.  Dahl has used the name…since the beginning of her career in the adult industry in 2012…[MechaHitler] provided her personal information unprompted; the user likely only wanted information on what performer appeared in the clip.  This is the latest in a series of abuses inflicted by [the chatbot] and its users…

Enshittification

News publishers are working to hasten the coming of the new dark age:

Now major news publishers are actively blocking the Internet Archive—one of the most important cultural preservation projects on the internet—because they’re worried [machine learning] companies might use it as a sneaky “backdoor” to access their content.  This is a mistake we’re going to regret for generations…blocking the Internet Archive isn’t going to stop [chatbot] training.  What it will do is ensure that significant chunks of our journalistic record and historical cultural context simply…disappear…When websites disappear—and they disappear constantly—the Wayback Machine is often the only place that content still exists…the Internet Archive’s efforts to permanently preserve our digital culture are essential infrastructure for anyone who cares about historical memory…Future historians trying to understand 2025 will have access to archived versions of random blogs, sketchy content farms, and conspiracy sites—but not The New York Times.  Not The Guardian…We’re creating a historical record that’s systematically biased against quality journalism…

Thought Control (#1557) 

Woman convicted for “abuse” of an imaginary person fictionally pretending to be a child:

Lauren Ashley Mastrosa…wrote [a book named] Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods and published it…in March.  The book is about an 18-year-old woman named Lucy who roleplays as a toddler with Arthur, an older man who is her father’s best friend.  Mastrosa was charged [with child porn offenses in Australia] after the book sparked outrage [among people who cannot tell fantasy from reality]…a…magistrate [and a cop both repeatedly declared that]…the female protagonist[, a fictional character invented by Mastrosa from her imagination who was]…repeated[ly declared]…to…be…18…[was]…”similar to a young child”…[which] invited the reader to imagine…thing[s] that [the government] prohibited…[despite the fact] that [the depicted] role play w[ould be completely] legal [if the characters were real people and not figments of a woman’s imagination]…

Note that the magistrate is talking here about literal thoughtcrime, declaring that it is criminal to invite readers to imagine things the government dislikes.

The Cop Myth (#1566)

This report of a murderous cop tried to hide that the victim was his wife:

A Buffalo [New York cop named Lance Woods] has been arrested [for the execution-style] murder…[of his wife] Alexis Skoczylas…[by] a single gunshot wound to the head…there were no calls in the past for domestic violence…[and their] two children…are [safe and] in the care of relatives…[the apparent motive was] Skoczylas fil[ing] for a contested divorce in September…Woods…was [paid to lurk in schools in order to spy on, intimidate, and harass students, but has no known history of molestation]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1614)

Facebook is the most antisocial corporation other than those who actually run prisons:

Five years ago, Facebook shut down the facial recognition system for tagging people in photos [after it was forced to settle several class-action lawsuits]…Now it wants to [use Trump’s massive pogroms as cover to]…add the feature to its s[py] glasses…[so its chatbot can fully doxx anyone in public without their consent]…“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to [an internal memo]…

 

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