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Posts Tagged ‘LGBT rights’

The Throwback Thursday That Wasn’t

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Essentially, prostitution law punishes women for not being men.  –  “Mecca”

The sick minds of police are compelled to project their own internal ugliness onto the external world.  –  “The Clueless Leading the Hysterical”

Sammy Cahn was right; love and marriage do go together exactly like a horse and carriage:  traditionally associated, but not the only conceivable arrangement, and perhaps not even the best one.  –  “Like a Horse and Carriage”

Paradoxically, we all tend to hold on to the things that hold us back.  –  “Inexperience”

Governments can define actual actions as “crimes” and threaten dire consequences for those actions, but the intangible contents of the human mind are forever out of their reach.  –  “The Next Target“

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In the News (#1495)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[Rescue industry] organizations…perpetuate stereotypes, myths, and lies that end up hurting victims more than helping them.  – Natasha Helfer

The Last Shall Be First (#1078)

Politicians’ obsession with citizens’ genitalia has gone federal:

U.S. Sen. Roger Marshall…has introduced a bill to…codify legal definitions of male [and] female…[as] sex…at…birth…in [all] case[s, and to ban changing that in documentation]…In 2023, [Marshall] introduced a bill to ban gender-affirming care for trans minors nationwide and one to ban federal funding for such care for trans people of all ages.  Neither bill passed.  He put out similar, equally unsuccessful, bills in 2021…

Quiet Genocide (#1329)

There’s been virtually nothing about the Uyghur genocide in Western media for over a year; apparently white people can only care about one group of Muslims at a time.  But this long, highly-detailed account of one man’s escape from China, an ordeal which took from 2012 to 2018 and carried him across China and through Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand (where he spent three years in prison for “illegal entry”), Malaysia and finally Turkey, is a rare exception.  It is well worth your time; unless more Westerners start paying attention, China’s campaign to slowly crush an entire culture into oblivion is bound to succeed.

Served Cold (#1405)

Let’s hope every last one of Ballard’s partners in profiteering go down with him:

Pornography [viewing] has become pathologized by a class of [soi-disant] experts fighting “porn addiction,” who rely on [bogus] evidence [and] conflate the legal adult entertainment industry with…human trafficking…Utah is at the center of a[n]…industry…built around such beliefs…many [members] of…which…are linked directly or indirectly to each other…Fight the New Drug and the Malouf Foundation [are] both…connect[ed] to Tim Ballard…[and his] Operation Underground Railroad…and both participated in [“]anti-trafficking[” schemes] tied to the office of Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes.  It was t[o hide] connections like these…that…both organizations recently reorganized into a new combined [pro-censorship] group—with the Elizabeth Smart Foundation—called the Phase Alliance…[allied with] the Rockford, Illinois-based International Organization for the Family…[which was] caught advocating for anti-LGBTQ+ laws in countries such as the Russian Federation…

The Last Shall Be First (#1487) 

“Bathroom bills” are a political fad that neither court rulings nor public protest have deterred:

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has signed a bill…banning transgender students from using school bathrooms and locker rooms that match up with their gender identity…It also bans students from sharing overnight accommodations with people [not] of the[ir birth] sex…A lawsuit is expected to be filed against this [which]…Ohio…[taxpayers will be robbed to defend in court]…The bathroom ban…was added to a [completely unrelated] bill…in the eleventh hour of a House Session at the end of June before the [politicians] went on an extended break…

Vulture Watching (#1488)

Texas doesn’t care how many women die because of its terrible laws:

Over the course of six hours on June 11, 2023, Porsha Ngumezi had bled so much in the emergency department…that she’d needed two transfusions.  She was…“passing large clots the size of grapefruit”…[and her] mother[-in-law], a [retired] physician…[told her] “You need a D&C”…But when Dr. Andrew Ryan Davis, the obstetrician on duty, finally arrived, he said it was the hospital’s “routine” to give…misoprostol to help the body pass the tissue…Three hours later, her heart stopped…more than a dozen doctors who reviewed a detailed summary of her case…said it raises serious questions about how abortion bans are pressuring doctors to diverge from the standard of care and reach for less-effective options that could expose their patients to more risks…It was clear Porsha needed an emergency D&C…But because D&Cs are also used to end pregnancies, the procedure has become tangled up in state legislation that [almost completely bans] abortions…

Stalkers in Blue (#1490)

“Deprivation of rights” is the feds’ catchall charge to use against cops who embarrass politicians:

Federal charges have been filed against two [typical and representative] Missouri [cops who perpetrated] plots to steal nude photos from women’s phones during traffic stops…Julian Alcala…illegally search[ed] 20 women’s phones…between Feb. 6, 2024, and May 18, 2024…Alcala [was caught after he] text[ed] himself a video from one woman’s phone, then tr[ied] to delete a record of this text…The woman reached out to the FBI after this…[David] McKnight [did the same sort of thing]…between Sept. 1, 2023, and August 19, 2024…[to] nine different women…

Torture Chamber (#1491)

A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:

Twelve Black [prisoners locked up] in…Red Onion…Virginia’s first super-maximum security prison, have…set themselves on fire since September in a bid to get transferred away from abusive guards…The first reported [case was]…Demetrius Wallace…who told [reporters] he set his leg on fire on Aug. 23 because he knew he would have to be transported out of the prison for treatment.  Since guards waited three days before taking Wallace to the nearest burn unit seven hours away, he had to have a skin graft and spent 14 days in the hospital.  When he returned…guards harassed him, denied access to his email, and [locked] him in [solitary confinement]…Over the [following] two weeks…a dozen [others] had set themselves on fire to escape “intolerable racism, abuse, and inhumane conditions”…Red Onion…has been riddled with…abuse since opening in 1998…More than two-thirds of its [prisoners] are held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, ranging from two weeks to 14 years…[because they are often] served food covered in maggots…prisoners have…[also] gone on months-long hunger strikes…

 

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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The Return of Fridaystein

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , on July 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The safeguards installed by the Founders [have been] undermined, abrogated, annulled, ignored and repealed to make way for laws and practices based upon the real beliefs of the majority of Americans: fear, hate, superstition, intolerance, greed, violence, control-freakishness, lust for power, and, above all, prudishness.  –  “Successor”

I see history as a continuously-unfolding process stretching into the far future rather than as a collection of moldering facts about the dead past.
–  “Divided We Stand”

Queer bigots are the most revolting bigots because theoretically they should know better.
–  “These Kids Today”

Nations and empires are as mortal as the humans who build them, if somewhat longer-lived; and despite the childish beliefs of many Americans, the US is not an exception.  –  “Post-Imperial“

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Throwback Thursday’s Bloody Nightmare

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Most men, and many women, don’t need to “connect with a soul” to be interested in sex with someone.
–  “Purely Sexual”

It’s just not ethical to dump your garbage in someone else’s yard without her permission.  –  “Amateur Night”

There are just as many control freaks dressed up as therapists as there are dressed up as teachers, doctors, clergymen, judges or any other “authority” figure you can name.
–  “The Real World”

Some people are completely unable to comprehend why I don’t see a cake-baker in Colorado as the Second Coming of Hitler.  –  “Blind Spot”

Here’s my message for Big Gay:  Fuck You.  Fuck your respectability politics and your abandonment of “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” in favor of  “We’re just like you straight folks, right down to getting married, living in the suburbs & sucking the dick of power”…Fuck your licking the arseholes of huge fascist corporations who betray every principle the LGBT movement used to stand for because they pay for your fancy Pride parades with money that would’ve been better spent helping queer & trans youth driven out of their homes and into survival sex work; and fuck your eager rimming of politicians who absolve those young people’s families of blame by pretending the reason they’re doing the work is because they were forced into it by imaginary “pimps”.  Fuck your whole picket-fence, big table, might-as-well-be-straight-except-for-where-you-stick-your-dick mentality.  –  “Nothing To Be Proud Of”

If “feminists” had spent more time listening to sex workers and less gazing into their own navels, they’d have understood that [armed rapists are dangerous] 50 years ago instead of conspiring with [them] against other women.  –  “Zeitgeist“

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In the News (#1443)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 5, 2024| Leave a Comment »

My own state does not seem to care if I live or die.  –  Lauren Hall

Good Riddance to Bad Rubbish

Vancouver police let this maniac run wild for years because “NHI”:

Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, who took female victims to his pig farm during a crime spree [in] Vancouver in the late 1990s and early 2000s, has died after being assaulted [by another] prison[er on]…May 19…Pickton was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison in 2007…after being charged with the murders of 26 women…The remains or DNA of 33 women were found on the farm.  Pickton once bragged…that he killed a total of 49 women…Pickton…strangled his victims and fed their remains to his pigs…Vancouver police…[did] not tak[e] the cases seriously because many of the missing were sex workers or users of drugs…

The Course of a Disease (#932)

“Support women’s right to autonomy” ≠ “back paying for sex”:

…more Scots back sex work than are against it despite [the] Government [attempting yet again] to [impose] the so-called “Nordic model” [on] Scotland…a YouGov poll of 1,088 Scottish adults…shows there is little public support for the agenda…47% thought it should be legal to pay [for] sex…compared with 32% who thought it should be an offence.  In a massive rejection of the core principle of SNP policy, just 13% agreed that…[women are men’s moral inferiors and need to be “protected” from their own choices by government] violence…79% think the Scottish Government should consult sex workers and sex worker-led groups when considering new laws…Just 1% of those polled think sex work should be a priority for the Scottish Government [at all]…

No Difference (#1334)

US evangelical prohibitionists are a worldwide menace:

A long-standing US [pro-censorship] group has advised, promoted and endorsed anti-LGBTQ+ activists and politicians in Uganda, including a governing party member who…[has said] gays “should be castrated”, and a virulently homophobic founder of a “militaristic” Christian boys camp.  The revelations about [Morality in Media, now DBA under the authoritative-sounding alias “]National Center on Sexual Exploitation[“,] and its spin-offs and affiliates…[clearly demonstrate] its recent disavowals of its history of anti-LGBTQ+ positions [to be lies], and [expose] its [previously hidden] role in Uganda’s passage…of laws on homosexuality which are among the most punitive and restrictive in the world.  It also [exposes as li]es NCOSE’s efforts to play down its religious associations…in order to exercise a more authoritative influence on poli[tician]s in the US and around the world…

Vulture Watching (#1395)

Texas’ ruling psychopaths say doctors should just use their medical judgment and hope an aggressive prosecutor doesn’t choose to make an example of them:

The Texas Supreme Court has unanimously rejected the most significant challenge to Texas’ new abortion laws yet, ruling…that the medical exceptions in the law [a]re broad enough…[while simultaneously deeming that a] doctor[‘s]…“good faith judgment” [is insufficient]…While the opinion was unanimous, Justice Brett Busby issued a concurring opinion that left the door open to a broader challenge to the law.  Zurawski v. Texas was…the first challenge to a state’s abortion bans on behalf of women with complicated pregnancies.  At least three other states have followed suit…the court…ruling [basically requires] an abortion…perform[ing physician to be both a]…legal [expert and a seer]…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1410)

Texas seems completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians:

…in the past two years, [Texas attorney general Ken] Paxton has [ab]used consumer protection law more than a dozen times to [harass] a range of entities for activities like offering shelter to immigrants, providing health care to transgender teens or trying to foster a diverse workplace.  Not a single one of the investigations was prompted by a consumer complaint…[and] the analysis is possibly an undercount…[because hi]s office…has…fought the release of certain records requested under Texas’ Public Information Act…Paxton…[has] launched the[se specious “]investigations[“] simply to harass [political oppon]ents and to cause a chilling effect among organizations doing similar work…the attorney general’s demands violate the First…and…Fourth Amendment[s, and]…the political weaponization of consumer protection divisions by Paxton and other attorneys general [is] “a core violation” of constitutional laws that runs counter to what these divisions were established to do…when Paxton doesn’t get speedy access to the documents he wants, he often publicizes these typically confidential cases, putting out news releases that draw headlines and build support among his base of [authoritarian sociopaths]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1423)

Useful idiots never see where their idiocy will lead, even when it’s spelled out for them:

Canada’s privacy c[ommissioner is]…warning that a [“monkey see, monkey do” age verification] bill…could apply to streaming services such as Netflix…law professor Michael Geist, who specializes in internet and e-commerce law, say age verification technology is simply not there yet, and the “fundamentally flawed” bill raises major privacy concerns.  Proponents of the bill argue its purpose, which is to [give politicians control over the internet], is important enough that it should be passed [regardless of what civil liberties advocates think]…But Geist said policies on how to handle technology should be created based on known capabilities, not on “technological fairy dust.”  Privacy lawyer David Fraser agrees…saying “sexually explicit material” as defined could mean it applies to search engines, social-media…e-book publishers and even streaming services…During committee testimony [politician Owen] Ripley confirmed…that as written, the proposed law would make it a rule for services like Netflix to verify the age of their users…Fraser added…it’s likely that companies will…just block Canadian access to the content rather than risk liability…[as] Pornhub [has done in] Texas…“[The bill is] not designed to keep kids safe. It’s not designed to keep adults safe,” said Solomon Friedman…of…Ethical Capital Partners…“It’s designed to impose the morality of a select few ideologically motivated legislators on the rest of Canadians”…

Thought Control (#1430)

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

Ohio [politicians have joined yet another faddish “monkey see, monkey do” parade by concoct]ing a new bill that would charge teachers and librarians with felonies for handing out books and materials [politicians later decide to point at while belching out the magic word] “obscene”…Ohio Education Association President Scott DiMauro…argues teachers will…abandon their careers rather than face the potential of criminal prosecution under…“This deliberately vague law…which flies in the face of the First Amendment while inviting inconsistent enforcement”…

 

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 (#1426)

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

[San Jose’s] approach…is to treat unhoused people as blight consistent with trash or graffiti.  –  Tristia Bauman

Negative Secondary Effects

I held off on sharing the news about Washington’s passing a “strippers’ bill of rights” until the governor signed it last week; I still haven’t seen any proper articles about what it actually contains, though the most important part is the clubs will no longer be bound by puritanical “sin density” laws which allow clubs to either serve alcohol or have fully-nude strippers, but not both (thus severely curtailing the money Washington strippers could make).  I’ll link an update when some publishes an article about everything the new law does & doesn’t do.

Permanent Record

In the US she’d have no recourse, but prohibitionists want you to believe decriminalization is a “failure”:

Chelsea Sirolli was two days into a new job…at a real estate agency in regional Victoria…[when] she was…sacked, after a new colleague complained…after learning she’d worked in the sex industry…10 years ago…[because] “pornographic images of [Sirolli] existed online”…it was the third time she had been fired after an employer had found out about her past.  But this time, the law was on her side…[Thanks to decriminalization] it’s now illegal to discriminate against individuals in Victoria based on their current or prior involvement in the sex industry…Ms Sirroli has lodged a case in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal…and said while she was risking exposing herself further by doing so, she wanted to help others in a similar position stand up for themselves…the company directors [had the colossal gall to pretend]…she was being fired for her “welfare”…

The Vultures Descend (#1333)

As empires age, they rot from the inside out and from the top down:

…the Texas [judge] James Ho [of] the fifth circuit court of appeals…served on the three-judge panel last summer that ruled to restrict access to mifepristone.  The legal group behind the mifepristone case, Alliance Defending Freedom, made at least six payments from 2018 through 2022 to his wife, Allyson, a powerhouse federal appellate lawyer who has argued in front of the supreme court and has deep connections to the conservative legal movement that has led the attack on the right to abortion in the US.  The payments don’t [technically] violate the court’s code of conduct…but…Ho’s failure to recuse himself from the case illustrates why public trust in the judiciary is eroding…

I Spy (#1341)

Twitter has always claimed that this surveillance isn’t surveillance:

Ten years ago…Twitter…filed a lawsuit against the government it hoped would force transparency around abuse-prone surveillance of social media users…Elon Musk…continued the litigation, until its defeat in January.  The suit was aimed at overturning a governmental ban on disclosing the receipt of [demands]…that compel companies to turn over everything from user metadata to private direct messages…However, [Twitter]…is in an awkward position, profiting from the sale of user data for government surveillance purposes at the same time as it was fighting secrecy around another flavor of state surveillance in court…Although Dataminr defends…its governmental surveillance platform…as a public safety tool that helps first responders react quickly to sudden crises…[in reality it is] used by police to monitor…online political speech and real-world protests…Dataminr pays for privileged access to…the [Twitter] “firehose”: a direct, unfiltered feed of every single piece of user content ever shared publicly to the platform…While it was unclear whether, under Musk, [Twitter] would continue…[selling] its users [out] to Dataminr — and by extension, the government…emails from the Secret Service confirm that, as of last summer, the social media platform was still very much in the government surveillance business…

The Punitive Mindset (#1401) 

This fascist evil needs to be eradicated, root and branch:

Two lawsuits [have been] filed [against]…Michigan sheriff’s offices [because they are] colluding with large prison telecom companies to end face-to-face jail visitations and then price gouge families who are forced to rely on expensive phone calls and video chats, in return for major kickbacks.  Civil Rights Corps…filed the two class-actions…one in Genesee County and the other in St. Clair County, on behalf of multiple residents…[after] Securus Technologies and Global Tel*Link (GTL)—dangled significant financial incentives in front of [corrupt] officials to install video chat kiosks in jails…In addition to damages, the lawsuit is seeking immediate injunctions ending the bans on in-person jail visits…jails and prison systems across the country started curtailing things like in-person visits, book donations, and physical mail over the last decade, replacing them with [costly, substandard] video services and electronic tablets.  These changes were [usually] made [under the pretext] of security and reducing contraband, a…problem [defined into existence by the mindlessly-punitive policies of] American prisons and jails…

Panopticon (#1408)

Homeless people are another group new evils are tested on:

For the last several months, [San Jose, California] has been training [machine learning algorithms] to recognize tents and cars with people living inside in…the first experiment of its kind in the United States…the areas…targeted…are places where unhoused people congregate, sometimes with the city’s encouragement…the goal of the pilot…[is] to build algorithmic models that c[an] detect…lived-in RVs [and cars] with between 70 and 75% accuracy…City [bureaucrats predictably pretend]…that “the data is intended for [the city’s housing and parks departments] to provide services”…[yet cops]  may [demand] access to…footage….[and] the…system include[s] optical character recognition of…vehicles’ license plate numbers…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1409)

Censorious politicians aren’t just copying each other; they’re vying to see who can make their new laws the most unconstitutional:

The Kansas state legislature has passed a law that will require age-verification on websites that host content deemed “harmful to minors”…defined in part as “acts of masturbation, homosexuality, or sexual intercourse”…This means that the state can “require age verification to access LGBTQ content,” according to attorney Alejandra Caraballo…This could theoretically apply to [mainstream] media with queer characters, LGBTQ+ charities and community resources, or even medical websites that include information on gender and sexuality…

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 (#1422)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 19, 2024| 1 Comment »

Infantilization of young adults is all the rage these days.  –  E.N. Brown

Winding Down (#1087)

Politicians are terrified of losing ways to destroy peaceful citizens’ lives:

Oregon [politicians have] overwhelmingly [signaled their disdain for the will of their constituents by voting for] recriminalization of low-level drug possession , reversing a landmark reform that voters endorsed when they passed Measure 110 in 2020.  Gov. Tina Kotek has indicated that she is inclined to sign the bill, ratifying a regression driven by unrealistic expectations and unproven assertions…[boss politician] Kate Lieber…claims, “we are…mak[ing] sure Oregonians have access to the treatment and care that they need.”  But Oregon is not merely making sure that people “have access” to treatment; it is foisting “help” on people who do not want it by threatening them with incarceration…

Still a Child (#1154) 

The 5th Circuit sucked Louisiana politicians’ dicks on this in 2018; will the 11th imitate them?

Florida [politicians have]…approved a bill banning 18- to 20-year-olds from being strippers or from working in any other capacity at an adult entertainment venue.  Like a similar bill passed in Texas in 2021, the Florida bill [was justified by vomiting out the phrase “]human trafficking[“, with the usual]…potential to…make abuse and exploitation worse.  It’s also part of a growing movement across the U.S. to push up the boundaries of childhood, [criminaliz]ing all sorts of things once legal for 18- to 20-year-olds…[if] Ron DeSantis…signs it, the law will take effect July 1.  Young adult strippers…would not themselves be subject to penalty.  Rather, the bill would make it a crime to…employ…someone under age 21…in these businesses…[even] if an establishment is tricked by a fake ID…It also says the employment must be done “knowingly,” so it’s unclear exactly how these two standards can coexist…

Thought Control (#1250)

Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:

Hundreds of new books featuring characters of color and LGBTQ+ themes were found [in] the trash at a Staten Island elementary school…sparking an education department investigation…Some had sticky notes on them…A note on My Two Border Towns, about a boy’s life on the United States-Mexico border, read “Our country has no room and it’s not fair.”  A note on The Derby Daredevils…read…“Discusses dad being transgender.  Teenage girls having a crush on another girl”…a note on We Are Still Here! Native American Truths Everyone Should Know read “negative slant on white people”…A note on Julian Is A Mermaid…read “Boy questions gender”…Notes on pages of Black Panther: The Young Prince read “Witchcraft? Human skulls” and “Pact with Devil. Burned in fire”…[the person who discovered the books said] “this [censorship] feels like censorship…It feels like book banning”…

I Spy (#1372)

Is having a shiny new status symbol really worth being spied on and price-gouged?

LexisNexis is a…global data broker with a “Risk Solutions” division that caters to the auto insurance industry and has traditionally kept tabs on car accidents and tickets…[but] General Motors [and other automakers are now surreptitiously providing data to]…LexisNexis…to create a risk score…for insurers to use as [an excuse for raising people’s]…insurance [rates]…In recent years, insurance companies have offered incentives to people who [foolishly] install dongles in their cars or download smartphone apps that monitor their driving, including how much they drive, how fast they take corners, how hard they hit the brakes and whether they speed.  But “drivers are historically reluctant to participate in these programs,” as Ford Motor put it…[so] car companies are collecting information directly from internet-connected vehicles for use by the insurance industry…[without] a driver’s awareness [or] consent…

Thought Control (#1405)

I’m unsure of how this affects Florida’s more widespread censorship problem:

…Equality Florida and Family Equality, [along with individual plaintiffs, have] reached a…settlement agreement with the…Florida Department of Education, and school districts that resolves their facial challenge to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law… The agreement effectively nullifies the most dangerous and discriminatory impacts of…the law…The settlement restores the ability of students, teachers, and others in Florida schools to speak and write freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in class participation and schoolwork.  It also…reinstates Gay-Straight Alliances…[and] requires the State Board of Education to…make clear that the settlement reflects the considered position of the State of Florida on the scope and meaning of this law…

The Cop Myth (#1420)

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

[A typical and representative] South Carolina [screw named]…Joshua Bradford..[h]as [been] charged with [aggravated] domestic violence…and [other felonies for]…shooting…[his wife] while she was holding a child in a [car] seat…

Note the attempt to obscure that this psycho is a cop by referring to him as a “sheriff’s office employee”; we’ve seen this weasel-trick before.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1421)

Texas residents, like those of several other states, now need VPNs to watch porn:

Aylo has blocked access to Pornhub in Texas…following the decision by the…5th Circuit upholding the state’s controversial age verification law [while a challenge filed by Aylo and others proceeds].  The company posted a message explaining its decision, which can be read by those attempting to reach the platform in Texas…Aylo is also calling on all adult sites to comply [in this way]…

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

 

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 (#1419)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 9, 2024| 1 Comment »

You can’t censor what isn’t said in the first place.  –  Sarah McLaughlin

Surplus Women

A classic case of “NHI”:

The family of a murdered sex worker have said police “have blood on their hands” after a man was finally brought to justice despite earlier major investigation failings..Iain Packer…was found guilty of…the “execution” of Emma Caldwell…after…[Packer] lured [her] from Glasgow’s red-light district, dr[ove] to remote woods 40 miles away, strangled [her] and dumped [her body] naked in a ditch…Packer [frequently hired] sex workers…and admitted to police in the initial 2005 investigation that he had previously [hired] Emma…[but] he was not arrested or charged for 17 years as [cops preferred to persecute] a group of Turkish men [despite other sex workers telling cops that Packer was sexually violent years before Caldwell was killed].  Packer…was convicted of 11 charges of rape against nine women among dozens of other offences…the family solicitor said: “A toxic culture of misogyny and corruption meant the police failed so many women and girls who came forward to speak up against Packer – instead of receiving justice and compassion, they were humiliated, dismissed and in some instances arrested, while the police gifted freedom to an evil predator to rape and rape again”…

Censorship Ascendant

In our increasingly-connected world governments are increasingly able to cause trouble for people who say things they dislike far beyond their own borders:

On Nov. 16, 2023, Reuters published a deeply-reported investigation about an Indian company named Appin, which…act[s] as a “premier provider of cyberespionage services for private investigators working on behalf of big business, law firms and wealthy clients.” But…Reuters has removed their reporting, and some other outlets have followed suit…[due to] a court order against Reuters…secured in India by a group operating under the Appin name…Globally, even in the United States, people are unable to read reports about Appin because a court order from half a world away limits everyone’s access to online news and information.  This…may hint at what’s increasingly the future of censorship online…authors of stories about the reporting, or even about the removals of it, face pressure now, too…Readers…can find it at Distributed Denial of Secrets…and…on Archive.Today.  But…[even] Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine [chickened out]…

Virtual Imperialism (#1202)

Governments worldwide are emulating China’s evil:

…”transnational repression” [is] a form of authoritarianism that…has becoming disturbingly common in recent years…”More than 20 percent of the world’s national governments have reached beyond their borders since 2014 to forcibly silence exiled political activists, journalists, former regime insiders, and members of ethnic or religious minorities,” finds a Freedom House report released in February…”25 countries’ governments were responsible for 125 incidents of physical transnational repression in 2023 alone, including assassinations, abductions, assaults, detentions, and unlawful deportations.”  Last year enjoyed the dubious distinction…of featuring the first documented cases of transnational repression by Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, El Salvador…Sierra Leone, and Yemen…[though] the year’s main culprits [were] Russia, Cambodia, Myanmar, Turkmenistan, and China…

If Men Were Angels (#1256)

Female “youth ministers” aren’t safe either, at least if they’re married:

[The husband of a Louisiana youth minister] has been arrested [for molesting]…children…Daniel Steven Parker [has been committing] …similar…crimes…at [least since]…2020…and [probably much longer]…

No Escape

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

A woman [locked in a cage by the state of] Georgia…has filed a federal lawsuit [because] she was [so brut]ally [rap]ed by a[n out-of-control screw she] had to undergo surgery…for partial uterus removal…

No Difference (#1359)

Another victory for US evangelical prohibitionists:

Ghana’s parliament has passed a [horrifying] new bill that imposes a prison sentence of up to three years for anyone convicted of [merely] identifying as LGBT…[and] a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBT…groups.  [Politicians] heckled down attempts to replace prison sentences with community service and counselling…The bill, which had the backing of Ghana’s two major political parties, will come into effect only if President Nana Akufo-Addo signs it into law…[but] he previously said…he would do so if the majority of Ghanaians want him to.  Gay sex is already against the law in Ghana – it carries a three-year prison sentence…[but] activists fear there will now be witch-hunts…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #6)

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

…[A Nebraska cop named] Juan Casado Moya [has been charged] for [repeatedly molesting]…a 16-year-old [girl]…at…the…school…[where]…he [was assigned to spy on, harass, and intimidate]…student[s.  He has been rewarded with a paid vacation]…

 

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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Fallback Friday

Posted in Miscellaneous, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 1, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Every generation thinks it invented sex, or at least non-vanilla sex.  –  “Nothing New”

Had the LGBT “community” devoted its energies to securing the basic rights of all sexual minorities instead of wasting them in trying to force Christian fundamentalists to bake fucking overpriced cakes for their fucking bourgeois weddings, we’d be well on the way to decriminalization by now.  –  “The Big Table”

I’m heading into the dreadful days where my pineal gland starts engaging in the neurochemical equivalent of running around the house, turning on all the lights and cranking up the stereo full-blast while screaming obscenities, scattering its clothes all over the floor, losing the car keys, making an unholy mess in the kitchen and refusing to do its homework.  –  “Diary #347”

No wonder fantasies of whores “enslaved” by exploitative bosses who spy on their every move are so popular; it’s just amateurs projecting their work conditions onto us.  –  “Secret Squirrel (#916)”

To authoritarians, loyalty to friends and family over the diktats of megalomaniacal racist sociopaths is “misplaced”.  –  “Rooted in Racism (#1015)“

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In the News (#1416)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2024| 2 Comments »

Over and over and over again…the system itself harms children and families.  –  Wendy Bach

Monsters

Nex Benedict, a gender-nonconforming 16-year-old in Owasso, Oklahoma, died on February 8th after what school officials are calling “a fight” in the girls’ bathroom involving three older girls.  Of course, they always call it a “fight” even when three kids beat one kid’s head against a tile floor hard enough to send them to the hospital.  News coverage of Nex’s death is all over the place, though much of it quotes the absurd claim that the death was pure koinkydink, unrelated to the beating; or claims Nex started it; or uses their birth name.  The only things that are certain is that Oklahoma politicians have stoked a climate of fear and hate against kids like Nex, who was forced to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex despite the obvious danger, and is now dead as a result.  I’ll publish a follow-up when there seems to be some consensus about facts instead of conflicting masses of self-serving political bullshit, butt-covering by school officials, and speculation by outsiders.  But for now the important thing to keep in mind is that this idiotic culture war is not only an unforgiveable waste of time and resources, but has an actual body count.

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#594)

There’s never a shortage of useful idiots who think the leopards will never eat their faces:

San Francisco [idio]ts living along Capp Street in the Mission District spent much of last year pushing for [magic bill-elimination] barriers to…[“abate” the “]prostitution problem[“.  Of course, as sensible people predicted, the stroll merely moved] a few blocks down [to] the Shotwell Street area…[now useful idiots]…have drafted a petition, calling on the city to install 16 of its new license plate reader cameras in the neighborhood…Mayor London Breed..is also pushing for Proposition E to pass, which would allow the city to use facial recognition cameras for surveillance…

To Molest and Rape

Just another typical and representative cop:

[The Washington DC cop shop is hiding the identity of a pig who raped a woman in his pigmobile] in [Montgomery County] Maryland…he has been [rewarded for the crime with a] paid [vacation]…the woman [was apparently lured into the car]…on Feb. 1…[under the pretext of a “date”]…

Property of the State (#1182)

Oklahoma is another state which seems to simply hate women:

Amanda Aguilar’s…baby tested positive for marijuana…[because] Aguilar had been taking the drug to treat severe morning sickness…Medical marijuana is legal in Oklahoma, and she had a doctor-approved state license to use it.  Her son was healthy at birth.  But the hospital r[at]ted her [out] to child welfare workers, who handed over her baby’s drug test results to police…In June, a judge in Kay County tossed out the charges against Aguilar…she [had not] broke[n] state law…But the [sociopathic] local prosecutor…filed an appeal to reinstate the charges, [moronically] arguing that…the fetus…did not have its own, separate license to use medical marijuana.  The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to hear the arguments later this year…potentially opening the door for more criminal cases…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1327)

There is absolutely no legitimate reason for a vending machine to have this capability:

A set of [computerized] vending machines at the University of Waterloo is expected to be removed from campus after…a student noticed an error message on one of the[m which]…appeared to indicate there was a problem with a facial recognition application…A picture of the error message was posted online and students quickly started sharing it..Since then, many have tried to cover a small hole on the machine that they believe houses a camera…the manufacturer…Invenda…[claims] the…machines can detect the presence of a person, their estimated age and gender…”without storing such data on permanent memory mediums [sic] or transmitting it over the Internet”…

This certainly casts a different light on another, similar story:

Amazon is in the process of replacing a breakroom coffee machine in its Maple Grove [Minnesota] warehouse after an employee inadvertently discovered a camera inside the machine that took pictures of the breakroom…[the] East African workers…who comprise a sizable [fraction] of Amazon’s Minnesota workforce…have a history of protesting the company’s wages and workplace conditions…a labor organization…said the situation is concerning because of previous incidents where the retail giant used tech to track workers’ productivity in excessive and illegal ways…

Any information which exists can be misused by corporations or demanded by cops; the only way to stop that privacy invasion is not to collect the information in the first place.

The Cop Myth (#1395)

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

A Vallejo [California cop] was arrested…on Valentine’s Day after his ex-girlfriend reported to Oakland police that he’d threatened and harassed her for months…Ronald Dupree…[had previously been] reported…to Vallejo police [but they did nothing except tell Dupree she had reported him]…Dupree started texting or calling her dozens of times per day, often from a blocked number…he al[so]…threatened her, adding that he knew how to dispose of a body, and that he would file a missing person’s report to locate her if she ever tried to hide…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #6)

Your “leaders” say this trash is fit to “correct” others:

A [typical and representative Pennsylvania screw]…sexually abused a [14-year-old] teenage girl…John Mollica…[seduced] the girl, [telling her] “I’m obsessed with you and I’m willing to kill for you”…[and giving] her cash…and [gifts]…when [cops] questioned Mollica…he…denied having a “relationship” with the teen and further stated that he thought she was only 11 years old…

 

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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