Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Iraq’

The authorities…seek to punish a preschool for being a place where there are preschoolers.  –  Lenore Skenazy

Droit du Seigneur

Note that the dysphemism “sex trafficking” is conspicuously absent here:

A [typical and representative] San Diego [cop] who used his badge and his knowledge to run a string of massage…parlors in California and Arizona pleaded guilty…to federal charges.  Peter Griffin and three other defendants entered pleas…to racketeering-related conspiracy, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and other crimes…The wire fraud charge carries a sentence of up to 30 years in prison and a $1-million fine…

Moloch 

Is this idiotic enough yet?  Can we stop now?

Two Colorado child care workers will go on trial this June for presiding over a day care center where a 5-year-old pulled down a 3-year-old’s pants.  Amy Lovato and Roberta Rodriguez…face criminal charges for not reporting this incident to the authorities quickly enough…Jason Flores-Williams, Lovato’s attorney…ask[ed the judge] to dismiss…charges….[which] “criminalize preschool behavior by turning a 5-year-old into a deviant and a 3-year-old into a victim for acts that are neither sexual, abusive, criminal, negligent, or against any reasonable person or community standard.”  Judge [Brian] Green denied the…motion…on January 16…one of the kids wet their pants, [so] Lovato left the classroom for between 3 and 5 minutes to clean the kid and deposit the wet clothes in the laundry.  When she returned, she saw the 5-year-old “crouched over” a 3-year-old who later told Lovato that the boy had tried to pull her pants down and touch her butt…The school did not ignore this misbehavior.  It called the parents involved…[and] reported the touching incidents to the child welfare department …[but the prosecutor claims they did] not report…the incidents immediately enough…three days later…[though] the question of how quickly a school must report an incident of abuse is vague.  So, it seems, is the definition of abuse.  And so is whether leaving the room to clean off a pee-soaked kid constitutes neglect…

I Can’t Breathe

It’s about time professionals stopped allowing themselves to be used to hide police violence:

A leading group of medical experts says the term “excited delirium” should not be listed as a cause of death…[because it is only] used to justify excessive force by police.  The National Association of Medical Examiners had been one of the last to take a stand against the commonly used but [unscientific] term…The statement has no legal weight, but will be influential among medical examiners…the term…[i]s unscientific, rooted in racism — and a way to hide police officers’ culpability in deaths.  The American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association do not recognize excited delirium as a diagnosis.  Yet…police training materials [think they have a right to invent convenient medical diagnoses that fly in the face of medical science]…Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., who chairs the pathology department at Howard University…[says] “It’s not a real explanation for the death”…

Quiet Genocide (#1075)

There was a time when the West might’ve taken a stand against this, but no more:

…the Kutadgu Bilik bookshop [in Istanbul] is a trove of Uyghur culture…[which has been repeatedly] raided by the Turkish police…[stealing] hundreds of books…[each] time…Uyghur literature has…been a prime target [of the Chinese genocide], with dozens of renowned writers, poets, publishers and academics disappeared into the labyrinthine system of [concentration] camps.  This has all but destroyed the small trickle of books coming out of the region, severing a critical link between those who escaped and those still trapped inside…Abdulla Turkistanli, the bookshop owner…said…there are usually only two to four copies of any given title in [his] shop.  The Turkish police, when they raid the shop, [use the pretext] that Turkistanli does not have the copyrights necessary to reprint [them, but]…acquiring the copyrights…is impossible without the cooperation of Chinese authorities.  Even contacting the authors…is impossible…[because] around 90% of the books in his shop were written by people who have been swallowed up by the prisons and re-education camps.  He believes that the Turkish police are acting under pressure from the Chinese state when they raid Uyghur bookshops…

Dangerous Speech (#1276)

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’.

…Lacey and Larkin’s attorneys…argue…that the DOJ’s indictment and prosecution…of [their clients] and four others…is fatally flawed and should be dismissed…The motion points to the government’s stance…in…the Woodhull Freedom Foundation’s constitutional challenge to…FOSTA…which…[claims] the verbs “promote” and “facilitate”…are legal “terms of art” and do not have the same meanings as in everyday speech…[they] assert that the phrase “promote or facilitate” is the same as “aid and abet,” which requires proof that the defendant intended to facilitate the commission of a specific underlying criminal act — in this case, prostitution.  Meanwhile…in Arizona…prosecutors have consistently fought such an interpretation, arguing that “promote” and “facilitate” are much broader and open to various meanings…The defense…argues that the government should not be allowed to railroad Lacey and Larkin, using a broader legal standard…since the DOJ is simultaneously attempting to thwart a constitutional challenge on the other side of the country by insisting that the Travel Act should adhere to a far more stringent standard…

Monsters (#1288) 

All around the world, monsters claim the “right” to persecute and torture sexual minorities:

Human Rights Watch…accused Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Grindr of not doing enough to prevent violence against LGBTQ+ users by [cops] in…Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Tunisia…[the cops] sometimes publish…[their victims’] personal information on social media, leaving them subject to familial violence or homelessness.  Other [times they trick them]…in [order to]…unlawfully search…their personal devices, often under threat of violence…[in order to] collect…private information that’ll enable them to prosecute the [victim] and their [friends]…“When police…could not find [incriminating] information…they [simply]…fabricated chats to justify…detention”…detainees are jailed under vague, trumped-up “morality,” “debauchery,” “prostitution,” and “cybercrime” charges…they’re interrogated; denied access to lawyers, visitors, or medical care; verbally abused; subjected to forced anal examinations…sexually assaulted; tortured; and forced to sign confessions…

To Molest and Rape (#1326)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:  “A Chicago [cop named David Deleon]…sexually abused a minor…[he was] report[ed to other cops by his victim]…

 

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

Read Full Post »

(There’s) little [government] interest in the importance of consent and choice.  –  Martin Drago

Dirty Whores (#44)

Here’s an interesting article about how the UK’s horrible Contagious Disease Acts – laws which infringed on human rights so severely they actually inspired English church ladies to fight on the side of whores for a while – affected the landscape of sex work in India, with special attention to Calcutta.  While the article does get some things wrong (as is nigh-universal among articles about sex work written by amateurs), most of the errors are minor and the author appears pretty solidly on the side of the whores, even to the point of describing how 19th-century whore stigma is still alive and harming Indian sex workers to this day via other vestiges of British colonial law.

The Truth About “The Truth About…”

Another of those nonexistent false sexual assault accusations:

Shannon Maley [of Airdrie, Scotland] had a…vendetta against a 20-year-old man with learning disabilities who was dating her sister.  She barely knew him, yet claimed he sexually assaulted her and her friends.  Maley then created multiple social media accounts under the young man’s name and sent herself disturbing and threatening messages in order to frame him.  She has since pleaded guilty to “perverting the course of justice and also to harassing witnesses”…Maley’s messages to herself included threats “to set you on fire and watch you burn alive”…Maley had apparently intimidated her friends into making accusations against [the young man] as well.  One of those friends eventually admitted that…he…had not sexually assaulted her and that Maley had harassed her and tried to influence their testimony…Maley’s story unraveled after she accused [her victim] of sending a threatening message while he was in prison without access to the Internet…

A Modest Proposal (#527)

Women make pragmatic decisions to survive!  Other cultures have different sexual and marital traditions than white Europeans do!  The age of consent varies from country to country!  Clergymen often believe religious law trumps civil law!  Islamic laws are usually pretty shitty toward women!  Lots of men are exploitative fuckwads who take advantage of naive young women!  Laws don’t stop people from exploiting each other!  Opportunists will use unpopular laws as excuses to make money!  And the BBC is on it!

The Widening Gyre (#735)

Nigerian sex trafficking juju mafia terrorists.  I am not making this up:

Stockholm police [are trying to spread hysteria about]…the “Black Ax”, [which they claim is] a Nigerian criminal gang connected to drug trafficking and prostitution involving illegal migrants…The Nigerian mafia is…[fantasized by racist Europeans] to use juju, a Nigerian equivalent of voodoo, to force migrants to become drug traffickers or prostitutes. This [racist fantasy] has been [claimed]…in…Italy…where…earlier this year…police [fantasized]…that the influence of terrorist groups like Boko Haram was spreading among mafia members…

I especially love that the Swedish police are clearly right at home on Breitbart.

Check Your Premises (#809)

Yes, this really is as stupid and evil as it seems at first glance:

[Pigs oinked that] many of the women arrested…in a [prostitution sting] in [Houston] are likely victims.  Many are asking why they were arrested if they are victims themselves.  “They’ve been brainwashed, they’ve been threatened, they’ve been physically abused,” [oinked spokespig] John Wall [while making furtive movements in his pants pockets]…“Certainly we know there are women who choose a life of prostitution, but more often than not…women are prostituted,” s[lurped copsucker] Rania Mankarious…[who] said it’s up to a district attorney to decide if a prostitution suspect is actually a sex-trafficking victim [because women are much too stupid to know that for ourselves]…Trafficking [fetishists] said many times the victims are unwilling to cooperate with [disguised predators who hunt, rape and cage them]…“’It’s going to be better,’ ‘You won’t have to do this much longer,’” are things pi[g]s tell their victims…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#817) 

Another slap on the wrist for a sexually-entitled cop:

A [typical and representative] NYPD cop [who hired] a 15-year-old prostitute [on at least ten occasions] and record[ed] their [sessions, plea-bargained]…felony rape and sex abuse charges [down to]…official misconduct and witness tampering…Raul Olmeda…refused to admit that he knew his victim…in…photos…found on his computer and cellphone.  Nor would he identify his bedroom and living room furniture, which were in the photos [and because he’s a cop, his self-evidently false denials were enough]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#899)

You know how wannabe “civil liberties advocates” keep bleating that the main problem with facial recognition systems are that they’re less acurate on dark-skinned people?  Yeah, about that:

In July, Google admitted it has employees pounding the pavement in a variety of US cities, looking for people willing to sell their facial data for a $5 gift certificate…But…a Google contractor may be using some questionable methods to get those facial scans, including targeting groups of homeless people and tricking college students who didn’t know they were being recorded…a contracting agency named Randstad sent teams to Atlanta explicitly to target homeless people and those with dark skin, often without saying they were working for Google, and without letting on that they were actually recording people’s faces…

Subtle Pimping (#903)

Yet another “virtual reality” game based on lies about us, this one intended to teach pigs racist fantasies about Asian sex workers:

A team of Cal Poly students is using virtual reality to [lick cop boots and endanger sex workers]…”We’re building a…[racist fantasy of an Asian] massage parlor in virtual reality to [indoctrinate pigs into misinterpreting even the most innocuous]…things [as ‘evidence’ of ‘crime’]” said Marco Zuniga…he researched [prohibitionist propaganda]…as he developed the VR [game instead of talking to sex workers]…“What do massage parlors even look like?”…he asked himself [moronically, instead of actually going to find out]…The [game] has other object[s] for its [players to find, just like players of other video games can] find [magic potions, creatures to enlave, and other fantasy treatures]…

The Crumbling Dam (#917)

Those who gain power from opioid hysteria aren’t going to like this:

A judge has ruled that a Philadelphia nonprofit group’s plan to open the first [public] site in the U.S. where people can use…opioids under medical supervision does not violate federal drug laws, delivering a major setback to Justice Department lawyers who launched a legal challenge to block the [life-saving] facility.  U.S. District Judge Gerald McHugh ruled…that…”The ultimate goal of Safehouse’s proposed operation is to reduce drug use, not facilitate it,” McHugh wrote in…the first legal decision about whether supervised injection sites can be legally permissible under U.S. law…”The Department of Justice remains committed to preventing…drug [users] from [accessing basic harm reduction],” said Bill McSwain, U.S. Attorney for the eastern district of Pennsylvania…

A Broker in Pillage (#935)

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

The city of Chicago says retired grandmother Allie Nelson owes it $6,000 in fines and fees after [it stole] her car…in 2017, even though the criminal case that led to [the seizure]…was dismissed, and even though she wasn’t driving her car, or even in the state…Nelson was in fact…in Houston, recuperating from cancer treatment, when she got a call from a family member saying [cops had stolen] her car…[when they] found her granddaughter’s boyfriend driving [it], allegedly along with some marijuana…Nelson is also one of two named plaintiffs added this week to a class-action lawsuit challenging Chicago’s [extortion scam, which]…violates residents’ guarantee of due process, as well as protections against excessive fines and unreasonable seizures, under both the Illinois and U.S. constitutions…

Pyrrhic Victory (#946)

As I keep saying, it’s already far too late to stop this tyranny:

France is poised to become the first European country to use facial recognition technology to give citizens a [supposedly] secure digital identity — whether they want it or not.  Saying it wants to make the state more efficient [like Communist China, the]…government is pushing through plans to roll out an ID program, dubbed Alicem, in November…the program breaches the European rule of consent and a privacy group is challenging it in France’s highest administrative court…France [lies that] the ID system won’t be used to keep tabs on residents…[and pretends] the facial recognition data collected will be deleted when the enrollment process is over…the app [clearly] violates Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, which makes free choice mandatory…Authorities say the security of Alicem is at the “highest, state level”.  Yet in April, Robert Baptiste, a hacker who goes by Elliot Alderson on Twitter, was able to access one of the government’s “highly secure” apps within 75 minutes…

Pyrrhic Victory (#961)

Where “public safety” is used to mean “accessibility to government snooping”:

Attorney General Bill Barr, along with officials from the United Kingdom and Australia, is set to publish an open letter to…Mark Zuckerberg asking [Facebook] to delay plans for end-to-end encryption across its messaging services until it can guarantee the added privacy does not reduce [what the politicians absurdly label] public safety…the letter raises concerns that…encryption i[s a mathematical process which]…will prevent [government busybod]ies from [spying on people in the same way it prevents other malware]…The letter calls on Facebook to prioritize [government snooping even though that will also enable non-government snooping]…

Little Boxes (#975)

The puritans are already arguing a federal court ruling doesn’t apply to them:

Tilli Buchanan and her husband had been installing insulation in their garage, and had stripped off their clothes just inside their home to get the itchy materials off their skin.  She was topless when her stepchildren bounded down the stairs…but Buchanan told them they shouldn’t treat her differently because she was a woman…But [the children’s biological mother found out and reported her to pigs, who]…filed criminal charges…of lewdness involving a child…If convicted, Buchanan could…[be condemned to] the sex offender registry for the next 10 years…her attorney Randy Richards plans to ask a judge to find that Utah’s lewdness statute is unconstitutional because it discriminates against women…her husband was also in the same state of undress and is not charged…the…10th Circuit Court…which includes Utah [recently made the incredibly-obvious ruling that laws which single women out for]…condemn[ation]…as…child sex offender[s discriminate]…on the basis of sex…But…prosecutors argued…that…Utah’s lewdness statute [prohibiting only female toplessness somehow] does not discriminate on the basis of gender [and that even if it did that would be a good thing]…

Grown adults are trying to destroy a woman’s life for getting undressed to shower in her own home, and using public funds to argue that a clearly-discriminatory law isn’t discriminatory, but the US isn’t a police state, no sirree.

Read Full Post »