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Posts Tagged ‘Little Boxes’

“I’ve never done that before” is an argument for trying something rather than an argument against it.  –  “Green Eggs and Ham

I’m not sure what’s stupider, the idea that there could ever be such a thing as a visible-tit emergency, or the one that a gland specifically activated during motherhood is somehow anti-family.
–  “Little Boxes (#748)

People who define sex work as the selling of a body, or who say sex isn’t work, are telling you a lot about their own sex lives.  –  “Starfish

Please, keep telling me how society can’t survive without roving gangs of deranged thugs wandering around looking for excuses to summarily execute people who pose no danger to anyone.  –  “I Can’t Breathe

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The new [Belgian] scheme seems…to grant government too much say in the employer-employee relationship.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

German…politician…Martin Neumaier…was [featured] in…several videos and photos…performing…fetishistic acts [which] began to circulate this week…the media was verified as authentic…[and Neumaier] said he had filmed them “voluntarily and with pleasure,” adding that all viewers…“had the right to…publish it wherever they see fit.”  In one of the videos, Neumaier could be seen naked while reciting the first verse of Nazi-era German national anthem and using an anal dildo…in another, Neumaier inserted a feces-covered dildo into his rectum before smearing it on a Quran.  In other videos, Neumaier was heard expressing his desire to “rape to death” one of the 12 wives of the Prophet Mohammed, smearing feces on his face and body, and licking public toilet seats…[now another] politician…[named Rene Dierkes claims] he ha[s] evidence [of] Neumaier…procuring young boys for sexual abuse…Neumaier [has in response] filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons alleging blackmail…

Business As Usual

As long as sex work is criminalized, rapist cops will target sex workers:

A [typical and representative Florida cop named]…Stephen Corbin [h]as…be[en]…arrested…[for attem]ting [to] sexual[ly] assault…at…[least two sex workers in Daytona Beach].  Sheriff Mike Chitwood [used the occasion to bloviate a lot of pompous nonsense one could barely believe was spewed by a grown adult]…Corbin…threaten[ed] the women [with arrest]…and [has apparently] picked…up [sex workers] in [the past] and [properly] paid for sex…

The Face of Trafficking 

Oh look, she managed to call for help without “hotlines” and magic bathroom stickers:

A 17-year-old girl was able to save herself from [an abductor] by texting 911…with “pleas for help” around 3 a.m. on May 9…[in] Ventura County [California.  She]…began texting landmarks and other “identifiable information” she was seeing, which helped the agency quickly dispatch deputies to the correct area…Investigators…believe…[she] was [brought] to Ventura County roughly two months ago from Mexico.  She has been placed with the county’s Children & Family Services until authorities can locate her family…[cops] arrested Gerardo Cruz…his bail is set at half a million dollars…

The story repeatedly uses the words “trafficking” and “trafficked”, but in the absence of information about the purpose and manner of the abduction, more neutral words are called for to avoid making the girl the unwilling subject of prohibitionist wanking fantasies.

Little Boxes (#837)

The shittiest-paying sex work ever:

…many of OnlyFans’ top earners…hire…a management agency to help keep up with…customers’ demands for personal attention…they…provide…a team of contractors whose sole job is to masquerade as the creator while swapping DMs with her subscribers…agencies tend to favor contractors who reside in lower-wage countries…like the Philippines and Venezuela…these workers are relatively well-educated, with university-level English and ace typing skills that some developed in high-pressure call centers…Even for positions with a starting hourly wage of just $2, agencies often demand…evidence that applicants ha[ve] not only chatted on OnlyFans before but had also cajoled subscribers into purchasing thousands of dollars’ worth of so-called exclusive content…

Welcome to the Future (#1052)

Cop excuses produced by human bootlickers are bad enough:

…giant [fascist corporation] Axon [has] announced Draft One, a new product that uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo to automatically generate police reports from…bodycam audio.  The product promises to make police…reports…[more] helpful in…prosecution [rather than more factually accurate]…the user [has] to select what…[level of] severity [they want] the [report spin to justify], be that no charge, an infraction, a misdemeanor, or a felony…[cops are supposed] to proofread the draft, make any corrections, and sign off on its accuracy….Matthew Guariglia…at…the Electronic Frontier Foundation [said]…“Policing, with its legal power to kill, detain, or ultimately deny people’s freedom, is too powerful an institution to outsource its official narratives to technologies in a way that makes officers immune to critique, transparency, or accountability because they have…plausible deniability that they…were not aware of mistakes the [algorithm] made”…

The Cop Myth (#1432)

Cop violence is never limited to members of the public:

A Prince George’s County [cop] has been suspended and placed on house arrest fo[r attacking his wife on May 14th]…Robert Harvin III smash[ed] his wife’s iPhone and assault[ed] her after she…caught him on the phone with his mistress…Harvin…pushed her, dragged her to the floor and…choke[d her]…once she was able to break free, she grabbed Harvin’s…police radio and called for help.  Harvin [absurdly] claims the [violence] was “mutual, like Matrix”…[but his own] Google Nest kitchen camera revealed…Harvin’s wife “yelling and screaming for him to get away from her.”  Their doorbell camera footage also shows him “actively assaulting [his wife] by dragging and punching her”…

Nor is it limited to male cops:

Two [married] Detroit [cops have been] suspended [and] charged with child abuse….Jared…and Liana Shaw…are…[typical] and…representative…and…both…[aggressively choked] Liana’s two children…a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl….[because the] son…tried to intervene when the pair had been fighting…[the boy’s] grandmother…called the cops when she saw what was happening.  The two children are staying with her while this case works its way through the courts.  Three of Jared’s children have also been placed with relatives.  The Shaws…bond[ed out and are currently at large]…

Leaving the 20th Century (#1438)

Looks like I was wrong about Belgian decrim:

…Belgium…is trying to bring sex workers into “social protection” programs and employee benefits…The decriminalization law was a first step to making sex workers eligible for such things.  The second step was the law…that The Publica makes sound like a horrifying, dystopian mess…Under the decriminalized system, sex workers could be self-employed, and they could hire third parties to help them in various ways.  They could also be freelance workers in an establishment run by someone else.  But sex workers could not themselves be employees.  Under the new law, “sex workers will also be able to work under an employment contract, thus gaining access to social security: pension, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual vacation, maternity leave,” according to UTSOPI…the law imposes obligations on both businesses that employ sex workers and on sex workers who work for those businesses…we’re not talking individual “pimps” (a one-person sex work business cannot legally hire employees) but registered businesses that have contracted as a sex work employer and taken on all the responsibilities that entails…

In my defense, I must point out that the scheme grants government so much say in business relationships I confused it for legalization until Liz Brown broke it down for me.

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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Nature is…a bitch goddess and She often makes us want things that clearheaded consideration would declare absolutely terrible ideas.  –  “It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

Anyone who would be “alarmed” at the sight of a nipple needs to just stay home with a coloring book.
–  “Little Boxes (#602)

Death and I are old friends; he was gracious enough not to interrupt my work before it was done, and it’s the least I can do to return that favor when the time comes.  –
Die Young, Stay Pretty

Our culture worships “mutuality” in sex as though it were a cultic totem, even though it’s as undependable and ultimately meaningless as “love at first sight”.  –  “Tit for Tat

The secret to balancing realism and idealism is understanding that morality is independent of results or even recognition.
–  “Its Own Reward

Prohibitionists…wouldn’t know a moral compass if one were driven into their faces with an impact wrench.  –  “The Elephant and the Mouse

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[Tit censorship laws] sexually objectify women rather than treating them as people in their own right.  –  Judge Roger Gregory

To Molest and Rape

Cops constantly demonstrate exactly what they are:

A [typical and representative Pennsylavania cop]…was [riding around] in his p[igmobile] on Aug. 1, 2019, when he signaled to a woman he knew and when she walked over, he exposed himself to her and then grabbed her arm and put her hand on his penis…after the 22-year-old woman pulled away from [him] in [disgust and shock]…he told her, “You better not fucking tell anyone”…[but unfortunately for molester cop William Lance] there was a witness in the victim’s car…[the complaint was buried until June, when a social media post entitled “Officer Lance is a PERV” asked other victims to come forward]…Lance…[w]as [then rewarded with a paid vacation and]…charge[d with]…official misconduct…

Little Boxes (#748)

Puritans claim a law that only applies to women is “non-discriminatory”:

A federal appeals court…refused to strike down an ordinance banning women but not men from going topless on public beaches in Ocean City, Maryland, [prete]nding that the law does not violate the Equal Protections Clause of the Constitution [by belching out the magic words]…“protection of public sensibilities” [and claiming that a gland specifically activated during motherhood is somehow anti-family]…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw a man house-shopping”?

[Out-of-control cops assaulted] a Black man, his teen son and his real estate agent as they were touring a home for sale in a Michigan neighborhood after a white resident falsely accused them of breaking into the house.  Roy Thorne…and his 15-year-old son, Samuel…[were] with Eric Brown, a Realtor who is also Black…Samuel was the first to notice…[cops playing soldier a]round…the ho[use with guns drawn]…Thorne, an Army veteran, told his son and Brown to get down and stay away from the windows…the [cops threatened the]…three…with [loaded weapons and demanded they perform acts of obeisance.  Fortunately]…the [cops weren’t as paranoid as many are]…and…subsequently released [their victims after] about 10 minutes…The [Cop Excuse-making] Department [claimed it was perfectly reasonable for armed thugs to go around threatening to murder ordinary people doing mundane things] and [absurdly claimed] race “played no role” in their [deranged] response…

Panopticon (#1078)

Tell me again how my work is degrading?

…As many workers have shifted to performing their duties at home, some companies are pushing for increasing levels of…staff [surveillance] in an effort to [magnify] the oversight of the office at home…[law professor] Veena Dubal [said]…“the reality is that it’s much more intrusive than surveillance conducted by a boss.”  [Customer service company] Teleperformance spokesman Mark Pfeiffer said…“We are committed to [excusing our dehumanizing practices with a lot of buzzwords]”…However…in March, members of Teleperformance’s global workforce…were sent an eight-page addendum to their existing employment contracts that asked them to agree to new home surveillance rules…[which include] having video cameras installed in their home…pointing at their workspace, to record and monitor [them] in real time…They must also agree to sharing data and images related to any children they have…and to sharing biometric data including fingerprints and photos…Pfeiffer…said that cameras were used for spot checks of the company’s clean desk policy and [belched out the word “]security[” multiple times]…

“Clean desk policy” sounds like the kind of rule nuns imposed on us in grammar school.

End Demand (#1122)

Another good argument against criminalization from my friend Savannah Sly:

…criminalization efforts are like when you’re going after sharks:  You’re going to catch a lot of dolphins in your net…we are the dolphins, and we don’t want to suffer from the laws that should punish only the sharks…We want to stop all traffickers, but we want people who freely choose this work to be treated with respect and not criminalized.  Likewise, we don’t think our clients should be criminalized, because we as sex workers are adults who consent to seeing them.  Criminalizing our clients puts us under economic stress…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1141)

Cops want everyone to share their hysteria:

San Diego [cop]…David Faiivae [had a panic attack]…seconds after [another cop] finished testing a white powder he’d [found while rooting in someone else’s property] was…fentanyl.  The [hysterical cop’s panic attack]…was the subject of a 4-minute video…th[at]…became part of the latest [copaganda campaign against] fentanyl, a [life-saving] drug [that is not an aerosol and is so difficult to absorb through the skin that fentanyl patches for pain treatment rely on patented technology that took years to develop, but]…which [cops keep pretending can] kill [by casual exposure]…the body camera video [of Faiivae’s hysterical reaction] prompted internal discussions about…how [the video] could be used in a p[ropaganda] campaign to [spread] d[isinformation about] fentanyl…

The Next Target (#1142)

Pro-censorship sleazebags are embracing nuisance lawsuits as their latest weapon:

Leading [pro-censorship] crusader Laila Mickelwait — until last year a mouthpiece for the religious ministry Exodus Cry — has completed her rebranding with the full launch of a website called “Justice Defense Fund,” promoting “civil litigation and legislation” against adult content websites…late last year she incorporated herself as “Justice Defense Fund” through a PO Box in a Colorado strip mall…Mickelwait [is] us[ing] her personal Twitter account to direct people who have had issues with online billing to the new website for information on a class action suit…

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[Pandemic] measures [seem to] constitute the fulfillment of preexisting authoritarian tendencies.  –  J.D. Tuccille

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

I hope this makes Swedish criminalization fans extremely uncomfortable:

A…[typical and representative] Toronto [cop]…solicit[ed] a sex…worker…[Travis Houston implicitly threatened her with a gun] and told her that he was a [cop, but instead of submitting she]…demanded that he leave…He was charged with weapons dangerous [sic], obtaining sexual services and mischief [but also rewarded with a paid vacation]…

The More the Better 

Even lurid gawking by creeps at the New York Times can serve the greater purpose of demystifying sex work to squares:

…financial domination [is] a form of B.D.S.M. [sic] that has flourished during the pandemic, when many sex workers and their customers have migrated online because of social distancing..The concept is simple, even if the allure is not immediately self-evident: “finsubs” (short for “financial submissives”) send monetary “tributes” to a financial dominatrix…in exchange for being humiliated and degraded…

Rough Trade (#448) 

Can we not all agree something is wrong without giving the state another excuse for violence?

…antics now considered merely caddish or immoral—like lying to a prospective sex partner about one’s relationship status, social standing, or future intentions—would count as criminal sexual misconduct…[under a] bill…sponsored by [a gaggle of]…New York [politicians which would criminalize sex]…”obtained with…the use of…deception, fraud, concealment or artifice”…Women could be guilty for lying about contraceptive use or menstrual cycles, and men for lying about having a vasectomy.  Trying to win over a date by saying you have a better job than you actually do, live in a nicer place, or went to a better school could become a crime if that date sleeps with you…Someone might try to sue or press charges based on the idea that makeup, Botox, boob jobs, and similar measures to enhance one’s appearance should count as illegal artifice that negates consent.  It also seems likely that people could attempt to use the law against transgender…people…

As I pointed out in the subtitle-linked article, this would make prostitution stings legally rape, but no cop would ever actually be prosecuted for it.  Overbroad laws, no matter how good they may sound to some, are only ever used to increase the power of those who already have it at the expense of those who don’t.

Little Boxes (#865)

Forced sexual contact with strangers is “trust building”, but voluntary sexual contact with strangers is a “crime”:

A former employee of…Panda Express…was required to strip down to her underwear and hug a partially clad co-worker during a “cult-like ritual” at a 2019 training seminar sponsored by the company as a prerequisite to promotion…At the start, attendees were told to sit down and not talk, and were left in isolation for a full hour before a man stormed in, yelling in Spanish and berating them for sitting there and doing nothing…participants were prohibited from using their cellphones, there was no clock in the room and the doors and windows were all covered with black cloth…the woman…was forced to strip down to her underwear under the guise of trust building…while, Alive Seminars staff were openly ogling the women in their state of undress…Attendees…were confined in an atmosphere of fear and intimidation…[and not even allowed] to use the restroom…[even] to throw up…

HIV Cure (#920)

Another silver lining for the COVID pandemic:

new HIV vaccine, based on the Moderna COVID-19 inoculation, has shown a 97% antibody response rate in Phase I clinical trials…If approved, this vaccine could become the first stage of a multi-step strategy to combat HIV and other viral diseases.  The vaccine successfully stimulated the production of rare immune cells needed to generate antibodies against HIV…

Like Houses (#1031)

Government can always be counted on to use any excuse to expand tyranny:

…the…world that is more-policed and less-free than it was a year ago…Protests continued across the U.K. over…a proposed law that would increase police powers…[after a cop] murder[ed] Sarah Everard…[in] France…[t]ens of thousands…protest[ed] legislation that would restrict people from publishing identifiable images of [cops]…police have [brutalized] demonstrators in countries including Belgium, France (again), Greece, Germany, Italy, and elsewhere.  Mounted police in Brussels trampled a woman at an anti-lockdown party, before opening up with water cannon.  In Athens, [a cops beat]…a man…to enforce a…lockdown…”Across the world in 2020, citizens experienced the biggest rollback of individual freedoms ever undertaken by governments during peacetime (and perhaps even in wartime),” [wrote] The Economist…and…at least some countries want to permanently increase the status and power of police…

To Molest and Rape (#1127)

Notice how often rapist cops’ victims are underage?

A [typical and representative New Jersey cop] and [known lecher has been] sexually assaulting a [girl] for five years, starting when she was 15…Tyrone Rolls…was charged…with sexual assault [but also rewarded with a paid vacation.  As usual, “authorities” are weirdly fixated on whether]…he was [wearing his magical clown costume while committing the rapes]…The [victim finally gathered the courage to] report…Rolls [after he slapped her]…and knocked her to the ground…

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Be careful who you treat like shit.  –  Nicole Gililland

First They Came for the Hookers… 

Just in case you think being a “legal” sex worker protects you:

Seven people were arrested and charged…[with] prostitution…at a gentleman’s club in Myrtle Beach, [South Carolina]…[after] a shooting at Derriere’s Gentleman’s Club on New Year’s Day, police [decided to charge dancers who would not submit to rape]…and [moronically oinked that the club is]…a “hotbed of criminal activity”…

Uncharted Seas

A very interesting development:

The Utah state senate voted unanimously…to effectively decriminalize polygamy among consenting adults…The bill, which would treat the offense of plural marriage as a simple infraction on par with a parking ticket, now moves to the Utah house of representatives, where it is likely to face greater resistance…Under current law, polygamy…is classified as a third-degree felony, punishable by up to five years in prison.  If the senate bill becomes law, punishments for plural marriage would be limited to fines of up to $750 and community service…

Worse Than I Thought (#895)

Virginia excels in inventing truly awful anti-whore laws:

…the State Crime Commission…recommended [politicians] expand the definition of prostitution to aid prosecutors…in…[destroying the lives of] massage parlor…[employees]…The move has…activists [explaining to politicians that so-called]…anti-trafficking initiatives and laws are punishing consenting adults and doing more harm than good…Even still, prosecutors…[pretend] authorities are…helping…sex [workers by]…criminalizing [and deporting] them…

Permanent Record (#936)

Sex workers need to bury all prohibitionists of every kind in lawsuits:

…Nicole…Gililland’s…suit…marks what is likely the first time a student has invoked Title IX to fight discrimination they faced due to their status as a sex worker.  It’s a significant step to take, one that stands to protect other sex workers facing unequal treatment.  “Stigma tells sex workers that they’re not worth anything, and I want my lawsuit to be a wake-up call,” Gililland said…Derek Demeri, a third-year law student and co-founder of New Jersey Red Umbrella Alliance…has written an article set to be published in Rutgers University Law Review this spring which asserts that discrimination against sex workers qualifies as sex discrimination under Title VII…Demeri’s article is the first legal document in the country to make this argument…“getting a court to recognize that discrimination against sex workers is sex discrimination could bring a sweeping movement across the country,” Demeri said of Gililland’s lawsuit…

I met Nicole at Woodhull last year, and this story doesn’t even cover half of the abuse she had to endure from these pearl-clutching tyrants and their busybody followers.  I hope she ends up owning that fucking school.

To Molest and Rape (#947)

Rapist boss-cops are the most dangerous rapists of all:

Colleton County [South Carolina] Sheriff Robert Strickland Jr….[has been indicted] on more than a dozen charges including [rape], misconduct in office…election [tampering, drug dealing]…and embezzlement…[victims and] witnesses in the case [a]re living in fear of retaliation by Strickland…[yet] his…attorney…argued that [a murderous thug who has repeadly used his political power to victimize people somehow] posed no danger…Strickland…force[d] an…employee [to submit to rape under threat of losing her]…job and [worse.  He also raped another]…employee, who was under 21, [after incapacitating her with] alcohol and Ambien…

Oh, by the by: this violent rapist thug who “poses no danger” to the public was previously arrested in November for repeatedly punching his girlfriend in the face and stealing her phone so she couldn’t call for help.

The Crumbling Dam (#979)

Deranged prohibitionist vows to violate court order in order to kill people:

An indoor space where [drug] users…may inject under medical supervision and without fear of arrest may be opening in just a week in South Philadelphia, making it the first of its kind to operate openly in the United States…[after] a federal judge [gave]…the nonprofit group Safehouse…explicit permission…to open a safe injection facility…While Safehouse is moving forward, the fight is not over.  U.S. Attorney William McSwain…is appealing and is warning the city not to open a facility…[using] threat[s of] everything from arrests to drug seizures to asset forfeiture in order to stop Safehouse…

Little Boxes (#979)

Threats of life-destroying consequences often cause people to surrender even with circuit court rulings on their side:

A Utah woman who fought criminal charges after her stepchildren saw her topless in her own home took a plea deal…to avoid the risk of having to register as a sex offender if convicted…Tilli Buchanan’s decision brought an end to the [test] case…[after] the judge [openly] sided with prosecutors who argued that [tits are evil and have gorgonic powers over children who aren’t actually sucking on them at the moment]…Buchanan pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of lewdness as part of the agreement that dropped two other charges…[which] would have [condemned her to] the sex offender registry for 10 years if she had been found guilty…[lying cops lied that] Buchanan removed her shirt and bra in front of the children while “under the influence of alcohol”…

Micromanagement (#988)

Cops lie, constantly. They are almost never not lying:

On an October morning in 2018, Eleanor Holmes and her husband…found two men inside their front gate.  They introduced themselves as detectives from Orlando, Florida, and said…they were trying to identify someone who’d been found dead many years earlier…using DNA and genealogical records to stitch together a family tree that they hoped would lead them to a name.  [Duplicitous] and [sociopathic]…they’d already got DNA samples from Eleanor Holmes’ sister and an aunt [by the same deception]…a few days later…she got a frantic phone call from the girlfriend of…her son…Benjamin…[who] had just [been] arrested…for a…[17-year-old murder they were trying to]…use…DNA…to tie him to…Police have said that the arrest of Benjamin Holmes Jr…shows their commitment “to [violate the public trust and every individual’s rights to make themselves look like big heroes]”…

How many times must we say, “Never talk to cops without your lawyer present”?

Guinea Pigs (#990) 

Another toiletful of myths, lies, dehumanization, agency denial, eager and sloppy copsucking and bootlicking, wildly-exaggerated numbers, masturbatory fantasies, fascist cheerleading and other assorted sociopathy from Deliverfund, a gang of former CIA, NSA, special forces, and other assorted pigs and spooks who collaborate with vice cops to destroy the lives of US sex workers while representing themselves as heroes and giving yellow journalist fantasy tales full of bragging, strutting, and other vile dehumanization of sex workers, our clients, and our friends, families and associates.  In my previous entry on this gang of psychos, I pointed out that their admitted behavior resembles putting human heads on a wall as hunting trophies; this one profiles a sociopath called “Kara the Huntress” who wears a T-shirt bragging that she hunts sex workers.  I can smell these monsters from across the country by the reek of their own verbal vomit.

The Monsters Are Due (#996)

Another case of white van hysteria:

A Springfield, Ohio, man spotted a white van—and it’s always a white van—that he [fantasized] was trying to kidnap a girl.  This man, Kevin Johnson, screamed at the girl that the driver was “trying to take her,” and chased the vehicle away while filming the incident…the video went viral on Facebook…[a spokespig admitted] that the cops had received not a single complaint [but that similar stories had come in periodically for]…about a year…[but] “We have never had a complaint saying somebody tried to pick [the caller themselves] up…it’s always…’oh, well it happened to a friend’ or ‘I heard this from a friend'”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1008) 

Too bad nobody listened to me when I wanted this banned in 2012:

Clearview AI…lost its entire client list to hackers.  The company [blew off concerns with]…”unfortunately, data breaches are a part of life”…[and claims none of]…the…3 billion photos [the company stole] from the internet [without permission of their owners so as to non-consensually include them in a permanent electronic police lineup]…

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Any gun-rights advocate or pro-choice voter understands that making something illegal doesn’t make it go away, only more dangerous.  –  Kaytlin Bailey

License to Rape

Police states define the bodies of all citizens as “crime scenes” which can be violated by “authorities” at will:

…Mbalaminwe Mwimanzi was watching sports at a friend’s apartment on the evening of January 15, 2019…[when pigs] stormed the apartment with a warrant allowing them to search [the location but not the people] for drugs…[cops] searched Mwimanzi three separate times [anyhow]…[when the first two pigs] found no[thing]…Joshua Wilson, who is being sued by Mwimanzi and the ACLU-DC…[forced] Mwimanzi, who was still handcuffed, to spread his legs…[so he could grope] Mwimanzi’s backside and…[violate his] anus…the[n]…he…fondled [Mwimanzi’s testicles]…Mwimanzi told [the other cops] that Wilson had sexually assaulted him….[and] asked to be taken to a hospital as he was experiencing pain…ACLU-DC has already filed three previous lawsuits over similar [sexual assaults]…

Paint By Numbers

Silly “awareness raising” stunts by crowds of idiots are mostly a thing of the past; now they’re usually marketing gimmicks:

The Greater Dallas Restaurant Association’s 24Hour Dallas initiative introduced an anti-human trafficking program…[which purports to] give…businesses a way to help trafficked persons…“realize they are not free [because they’re very stupid and restaurateurs who have never done sex work know more about their lives than they do] and give them steps to take to escape their captors”…[magic] signs will be placed in public restrooms…on the sex…trafficking superhighway

This is the first time I’ve seen the ludicrous “sex trafficking superhighway” term for I-20 outside of Alabama.

Choke Point (#665) 

Fascism in action:

Following the US government’s assassination of top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, PayPal has delayed and blocked numerous small donations to The Grayzone that mentioned this website’s news coverage of Iran.  At the same time…Facebook has censored a The Grayzone video reporting on the US government’s escalation against Iran and its ally Hezbollah.  In 2010, PayPal froze donations to WikiLeaks…Now independent journalism websites…are suffering from blockages imposed by PayPal that appear directly linked to Washington’s aggressive actions in the Middle East…

A Moral Cancer (#972)

Anti-vaping lunacy is quickly reaching “sex trafficking” levels of disinformation:

This is not simply wrong, it’s unbelievably wrong…For starters, the death rate of jumping out of airplanes without parachutes is 100 percent (the odd Vesna Vulović story notwithstanding).  For vaping, not so much…even New Jersey’s official site for anti-vaping propaganda admits that there is only a single confirmed case of a Garden State vaper—out of what must be hundreds of thousands if not millions of users—dying from illness related to electronic cigarettes…also…neither of the vaping devices pictured…are the sort that use the black-market THC cartridges that have been most plausibly linked to most serious illnesses, let alone deaths.  But when you’re dealing with propaganda, it’s best not to get too lost in the weeds (perhaps especially when the propaganda is somehow related to weed)…

See also “Unsafe for Human Consumption” for more unbelievably-exaggerated lies about drugs.

Rotting Fruit (#973)

An account of Epstein’s crimes that doesn’t devolve into torture porn:

A lawsuit filed…by the…U.S. Virgin Islands alleges that…Jeffrey Epstein sexually trafficked hundreds of young women and girls on his private island as recently as 2018 by using a web of shell companies to carry out and conceal his crimes…The allegations…shed new light on the tactics Epstein used to hide his illicit activities.  Epstein…brought girls as young as 11 to his private island, known as Little St. James, and maintained a database to track their availability and movements…Most of the companies were created in 2011 and 2012, soon after Epstein registered as a sex offender in the Virgin Islands following his 2008 guilty plea…[in return for] a…non-prosecution agreement from then-U.S. Attorney Alexander Acosta…[which] shelved a federal sex trafficking indictment that could have put Epstein away for life…The lawsuit…is the first…to allege that Epstein continued to commit crimes after 2005…

Little Boxes (#975)

SCOTUS leaves the conflict between the 7th and 10th Circuits unresolved:

The U.S. Supreme Court…will not consider an appeal by three women who were arrested for exposing their breasts at a New Hampshire beach more than three years ago.  The women — who are now part of a global campaign called Free the Nipple — were arrested in 2016…Heidi Lilley, Kia Sinclair and Ginger Pierro argued in their appeal that the local ordinance that resulted in their arrests and convictions violates their 14th Amendment rights because it applies to women but not men.  The New Hampshire Supreme Court upheld their convictions…ruling that…laws that…criminalize…women but not men [for the same actions somehow don’t discriminate on the basis of gender, because tits]…

Shift in the Wind (#983)

A pro-decrim article by a former sex worker in a conservative-leaning newspaper:

…Time and money spent hunting grown-ups for doing consensual adult things with each other could be used to test rape kits, investigate reports of sexual violence and provide emergency support to victims.  But politicians…throughout the country are trying to increase raids on massage parlors, increase surveillance at hotels and make men like Robert Kraft register as a sex offenders…cracking down on consensual adults in the sex industry won’t make any of us safer…prohibition…creates black markets where career criminals thrive…

I Spy (#1000)

Anyone who doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs should be following this:

Attorney General William P. Barr declared…that a [single] shooting [incident outweighs the privacy interests of every single Apple customer because]…terrorism, and he asked Apple…to [break encryption it developed to be unbreakable so the government can snoop in]…two phones used by the gunman…Barr…call[ed] on Apple and other technology companies to find a solution [to the laws of mathematics.  Spooks pretend]…they need access to [Mohammed Saeed] Alshamrani’s phones to see messages from encrypted apps like Signal or WhatsApp [because he is Muslim]…

With Friends Like These… (#1003)

So helping!  Many respectful!

…Louis Theroux[‘s] documentary, Selling Sex, [exploited three sex workers named] Caroline, Victoria and Ashleigh…Ashleigh and [her best friend] Georgina…published an open letter to the show’s creators and the BBC, describing their disappointment and mistreatment…[by] Theroux and his collaborators…[who] set out to tell a certain narrative on sex work[ers as]…victim[s]…Theroux[‘s]…faux-naive narration…constantly referred to unspecified people finding sex work unsavoury and “unhealthy”..[though] no evidence of this was presented in the programme…Theroux…ask[ed] every woman he interviewed about the…“damage” [he assumed caused them to begin sex work]…There was…no mention of the closure of Backpage…which forced thousands of sex workers further into the fringes…Selling Sex felt lazy and uncontentious, challenging its subjects rather than its viewers…

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The only way for an individual to ensure he or she is not subject to collection of biometric information when traveling…is to refrain from traveling.  –  US DHS

License to Rape

Police states define the bodies of all citizens as “crime scenes” which can be violated by “authorities” at will:

A North Carolina [pig molested a young woman using the pretext of]…a body search…K.E Van Althius [groped]…the unidentified woman’s breasts [and vulva]…“[any] normal person, especially a woman, would not want to be touched [that way] by a man,” [said] the woman’s lawyer, Karen Griffin…

They Still Don’t Get It

It’s fascinating to watch fanatics parroting nonsense they clearly neither understand nor believe:

In the shadow of [Kansas] city, there lies a seedy underbelly [of cops predating on people suffering from] addiction [or] mental illness [or using bizarre and meaningless phrases like] moral degradation [to justify police violence, public shaming and even rape]…For the past 18 years [the same sociopath]…has been the top cop of the group.  During that time, he [has been responsible for the destruction of thousands of lives by scheming to victimize them]…with…fierce [perverts]…target[ing human beings, in recent years using the excuse of] human trafficking [hysteria.  Sows get off on roleplaying porcine fantasies of sex workers, arresting any man who gets near or even]…just driv[es by]…The Vice [gang] also targets [women for the “crime” of trying to make a living.  Sometimes for a change of pace they]…raid…adult book store and pornographic movie theater[s and accuse men of having sexual urges]…which is against the law…[the pigs also vomited up a lot of “broken windows” propaganda, which the reporters got on their knees and eagerly lapped up]…

The Missing Word

Only ten years for this horror, while people renting rooms to sex workers get life sentences:

A South Carolina restauranteur was sentenced to [a short term in] prison after admitting he used violence, threats, and intimidation to force a black man to work more than 100 hours a week with no pay…Judge R. Bryan Harwell sentenced…Bobby Paul Edwards to [a mere] 10 years in federal prison after he…[admitted to enslaving] Chris Smith, an intellectually disabled black man…In 1996, when Smith was only 12 years old, he accepted a job at J&J Cafeteria…Six years later, Edwards took over as manager and stopped paying Smith.  Over the next 17 years, Edwards would torture, imprison and withhold pay from Smith, claiming that his pay was kept in an “account” that was inaccessible to Smith…[who was forced to] work…18 hours a day, six days a week.  On Sundays, he only had to work 11 hours…he never had a work break or a day off [and was] forced to live in a “cockroach-infested” apartment behind the business, Smith [said] that Edwards’ family never tried to intervene…When Smith’s family would try to check on him, Edwards would lock Smith in the kitchen or even in the freezer.  On the rare occasion that Smith indicated displeasure or tried to escape, he was [verbaly abused,] hit in the head with a frying pan, burned with hot tongs, [and] beaten with belt-buckles…Customers reported that they sometimes heard Smith being beaten and screaming for his life [but none of them could be bothered to do anything until]…Geneane Caines, who was friends with the Edwards family, was [told by]…her daughter, who worked at the eatery…how Edwards abused Smith…Edwards was sentenced to 10 years…[and] ordered to pay [a mere] $272,952.96 in restitution [for 17 years of slavery]…

The judge actually believes $3.08/hour, no overtime or punitive damages, was sufficient compensation to Edwards’ victim.  Smith should fucking own that place.

Property of the State 

Pregnant women are uniquely vulnerable to state coercion:

A 25-year-old woman named Chelsea Cheyenne Becker was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Hanford, California, after delivering a stillborn baby in September.  [Prosecutors claim] the stillborn had toxic levels of methamphetamine in its body…cases like this are part of a burgeoning, disturbing pattern, in which the rights of pregnant women are directly pitted against those of the “unborn child,” a term that encompasses fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses.  It’s a direct result of the so-called “fetal personhood” movement, which seeks to legally redefine a fetus as a person as a means of overturning Roe v. Wade…there have been cases, already, of women being charged for taking prescription medication while pregnant — one woman was reportedly charged for taking a Valium

Harm Reduction (#627)

Alas, politicians, being exceptionally stupid creatures, cannot understand that the same principles hold true for all prohibition:

With more than 5,500 people dying as a result of drug use across the United Kingdom last year…activists, health professionals and law enforcement agencies agree that change…in the nation’s drugs policies [is vital]…a…cross-party group of MPs want the possession of drugs for personal use to be decriminalised across the whole of the UK to tackle the drug-death crisis.  They are also calling on Westminster to support safe consumption rooms in Scotland…the committee’s…report highlights the example of Portugal, where decriminalisation was introduced in 2001…[and] death rates and HIV incidences have…plummeted…

Stalkers in Blue

Another sexual predator selects a traumatized woman as his prey:

A Calgary [cop] has been fired after he tried to start an unwanted and “predatory” relationship with a young woman who had just tried to kill herself, sending her up to a hundred text messages in four days while she lay recovering in hospital and dropping by her home uninvited…Dave Pizzolato…is only the third [cop] in more than two decades to be terminated from CPS…”Ms. M”…is [emotionally immature]…and was victimized for most of her childhood…she…showed [Pizzolato’s texts] to hospital staff who were so concerned that they contacted the police…Yet, Pizzolato continued to message…and then…turned up at her home…on the day she was released from hospital…she later told investigators she felt pressured…and “scared about what he might do to her” if she [refused his advances]…Pizzolato [had a history of doing] the same thing with other women…and [had been warned to stop] just two weeks earlier…

The Pygmalion Fallacy (#824) 

SAVE THE TOASTERS!!!!

…[James Issac Short] claimed he was trying to prevent sex trafficking when he tried to “rescue” mannequins in the window of an adult store [in Lake Ozark, Missouri].  “He said that the mannequins were telling him that they needed to be let out or something,” explains Mont Hardcastle…manager of [a bar]…across the street…Mi Dream Angels…has several displays in its windows, including mannequins wearing different styles of lingerie.  Hardcastle says he watched Short try the door several times before Short jumped onto a bench and kicked the glass window until it shattered…Hardcastle says Short was halfway into the store when he pulled him out…Two women then came over and sat on Short’s legs until police arrived…Short caused well over $1,000 in damage, destroying a window, lighting, and a security camera…

The Prudish Giant (#896) 

Siouxsie Q on Facebook, censorship and new sex-worker-friendly social media:

Facebook has gone so far as to explicitly outline its supremely staunch position on the use of “suggestive emojis” to solicit sexual communication…cartoon eggplants and peaches…are [now banned when]…“used alongside an implicit or indirect ask for nude imagery, sex or sexual partners, or sex chat conversations”…[for] sex workers…remaining visible has been a challenge due to a massive chilling of online speech related to all forms of sex, sexuality, and sexual health…In response, the adult industry has focused on creating and investing in its own platforms that allow users to share content and build community.  Adult Video News…recently launched a social network that has similar functionality to Twitter, but also provides a way for performers to charge money for access to their explicit content.  Similar sites like FanCentro and OnlyFans are thriving, and even the tube site monolith, PornHub, is now primarily a social interface…We may be entering an era where the Internet is no longer an interconnected web of information, but rather a landscape of private fiefdoms empowered to exclude those they deem unworthy, or worse, a law enforcement mechanism used to deter and punish — definitely not the 1996-vision of the internet’s potential…

It’s good to at least some mainstream publications buying articles from sex workers.

Pyrrhic Victory (#897)

While naive civil libertarians celebrate toothless local laws, DHS is building a giant biometric database:

The US Department of Homeland Security…expects to have face, fingerprint, and iris scans of at least 259 million people in its biometrics database by 2022, according to a recent presentation from the agency’s Office of Procurement Operations…The agency is transitioning from a legacy system called IDENT to a cloud-based system (hosted by Amazon Web Services) known as Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology, or HART.  The biometrics collection maintained by DHS is the world’s second-largest, behind only India’s…data kept by DHS is shared with other US agencies, state and local law enforcement, as well as foreign governments…Biometrics “make it possible to confirm the identity of travelers at any point in their travel,” Kevin McAleenan, US president Donald Trump’s recently-departed acting DHS secretary, told congress last year.  The criteria used by US Customs and Border Protection…to screen out specific travelers as suspicious…was determined in conjunction with Palantir…and…could be tracking travelers “from the moment they begin their internet travel research”…

Stupor Bowl (#940)

Virtually the only people who still profess to believe this nonsense are cops and politicians…and, apparently, the Associated Press:

Major events…such as the Super Bowl have become hubs for sex trafficking [in the sexual fantasies of] Miami officials…[blah blah] children as young as 12 [blah blah]…”sexual exploitation of our children”…[blah blah] a “creepy guy” poster bearing the words: “Buy Sex. Be Exposed”…[blah blah] phone number…[blah blah] Florida…ranks third in the nation.  About 40% of victims are children and most of the rest are young adults between 18 and 23 years old…[blah blah] sold for sex up to 20 times a day.  A trafficker can make between $150,000 and $200,000 a year for each person they sell for sex…

One would think they’d be tired of wanking to this same fantasy for over a decade, but I guess child rape on an impossible scale is a deep-rooted fetish for busybodies.

Quiet Genocide

Just in case you doubted this was about total genocide:

The Chinese government assigns [male Communist Party members] men as “relatives” to monitor the families of [caged] Muslim Uighur men…in order to “promote ethnic unity”…the [program, sold with the Orwellian slogan] “Pair up and Become Family”…involves Uighurs [being forced to quarter] Communist officials, who [subject the family to weeks of propaganda and force the wives]…to [submit to rape by] their paired male “relatives”…Roughly one million Uighurs are [caged] in [concentration] camps that the government calls “free hospital treatment for the masses with sick thinking,” from which accounts of…political indoctrination and torture have emerged…[while the] U.S. [fascist establishment has] been mostly silent…

Little Boxes (#979)

The puritans are learning that they are indeed subject to federal courts:

A Colorado woman was awarded a $50,000 settlement after she was [illegally] charged with indecent exposure for playing frisbee topless.  Efrosini “Effie” Krokos [was victimized by a neighborhood busybody who called the pigs]…on September 26…[fortunately for them, Krokos and her fiance are white, so] Greg Harris of the Loveland Police Department [did not murder or tase either of them, but he is so stupid and poorly-trained he imagined]…Loveland [was not subject to federal courts]…Attorney David Lane…wrote a letter to the city…proposing a settlement instead of…a federal lawsuit.  The city [wisely] agreed and paid Krokos…making it the first damages claim to a woman wrongfully charged for being topless in the country…

To Molest and Rape (#985)

Cops show you what they are every day; why don’t you believe them?

…police moved [child-raping cop] Dennis Perkins to a state prison [to protect him from being lynched after bureaucrats]…informed parents…[that his accomplice wife, who is an elementary school teacher, may have intentionally fed] more than 50 children…small cakes that possibly contained [Perkins’] semen…he…has been tested and showed no signs of having any STDs…someone getting an STD in this manner would be rare, but not impossible…Perkins…was booked with [69 crimes ranging from rape to child porn]…

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(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.

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We’re not going to sit around and wait to be prosecuted before we fight this law.  –  Skye Wheeler

Real People 

Even shitty and somewhat exploitative sex work doesn’t really resemble prohibitionist fantasies:

Elke Margarete Lehrenkrauss’ poignant documentary Lovemobil observes the Nigerian Rita and the Bulgarian Milena as they perform sex work in caravans (trailers) along a German country road.  The young women have escaped difficult economic circumstances in their home countries and are looking to earn money; they feel obligated to send Euros back to their families…they work for Uschi, a tough older woman who keeps them in line and advises them about pricing their services, but also appears to care for them, even as she chides Rita for trying to cheat her out of payments…Lovemobil deliberately keeps the sex acts off camera to focus on the larger issues of globalization, feminism and economic inequality that are part of this fascinating subculture of sex work…

Where Are the Victims?

Note the bizarre, stilted language used to describe a very ordinary-sounding escort service:

Jessica Nesbitt [of Chicago was]…charged with [various pompously-named]…prostitution [“crimes”]…for…own[ing] and operat[ing] a company called Kink Extraordinaires, which employed several individuals who engaged in prostitution…Nesbitt advertised prostitution services on multiple websites…and…also emailed her clients invitations to paid sex and fetish parties…In addition to activity in Chicago, Nesbitt arranged for herself and her employees to perform acts of prostitution in California, Washington, D.C., Florida, Indiana, Nevada, and Wisconsin…

Dirty Laundry (#452)

At least this judge gave the stolen money to someone other than Ruhama:

Money [stolen] by Laois gardai from [two sex workers was]…donated to two local charities by the court…the two [sensibly fled] and have not returned…Judge Catherine Staines directed that €3,410 got to the Laois Domestic Abuse Service, and around €1300 go to the Garda Youth Diversion Projects…

To Molest and Rape

Just another typical, representative cop:

A Miami-Dade [screw]…has been charged with raping a woman he was supposed to be supervising while she was on house arrest.  Yulian Gonzalez…paid regular visits to the alleged victim’s home during the course of his work as a case manager…Gonzalez threatened to issue a violation of her house arrest and send her back to jail if she did not [submit to rape]…Gonzalez rented a room at the Nexx Motel…and drove the woman there in his [pigmobile]…so as not to set off any alarms, Gonzalez tampered with the woman’s ankle monitor…

A Tale That Grew in the Telling (#754) 

I love seeing prohibitionists hoist with their own petard:

report compiled by the Department of Justice has revealed that the [Swedish model]…in Northern Ireland is not fit for purpose…“This report…shows that there has not been a decrease in demand for sex work since the introduction of client criminalisation…in 2015,” [said] Kate McGrew…”Instead, we have seen an increase in sex trafficking by 26%…In the north, it led to massive increase in advertising (on one site alone over 1700 new ads) and demand (in one jurisdiction by 134%) and a 200% increase threatening behaviour in clients.  In the south, it led to an increase in violent crime against sex workers by 92%“…

Once the government started defining all third parties as “sex traffickers” and then passed a law whose natural consequence would be increased reliance on such parties, naturally “sex trafficking” by their definition increased.  And since prohibitionists pretended the intent of their anti-whore law was to “fight sex trafficking”, they now have no choice but to admit the law was a “failure”.  Oops.

Little Boxes (#792)

A federal court finally recognizes what should’ve been obvious years ago:

Fort Collins, Colorado, decided not to continue its challenge to a federal court’s decision that a ban on going topless in the city amounts to unconstitutional discrimination…The city decided not to appeal the decision…after [wast]ing hundreds of thousands of [public] dollars on the legal battle already…[this] effectively legalizes [female toplessness] in the six states covered by the 10th Circuit court…Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming…

Given that the 7th Circuit ruled exactly the opposite two years ago (see subtitle link), a SCOTUS showdown is now inevitable.

The Mote and the Beam (#900)

This is much worse than the typical government propaganda such as “DARE”:

…the FBI is launching its #StopSextortion [propaganda] campaign to [convince parents] and schools [that teenage sexting is a]…growing problem [called] sextortion…[affecting] kids…as young as seven or eight…The [FBI wants parents to believe that peer “sexting” is actually the product of an adult] extortionist [who] finds children and teens on social media [to]…convince…to send a naked photo—and…the[n]…telling the child that he will send the photo to friends and family or post online…the extortionist continues to threaten while escalating demands, which can include…sex acts…

The FBI is intentionally representing a rare crime as the norm so as to give the federal government power over teen sexting.  If you thought FOSTA and the drug war were great, you’re going to love the “war on sextortion”.

Disaster (#935)

News about the FOSTA challenge:

Human Rights Watch and four other plaintiffs…present[ed] arguments on September 20 against the dismissal of their challenge to a…law that imposes criminal liability for online speech about sex work…FOSTA…’s language is [so] broad and vague, it could prevent sex workers and others from writing about sex work and posting about critically important health and safety issues, and it would restrict organisations like Human Rights Watch from effectively reporting on and advocating for the decriminalisation of sex work…FOSTA has [already] endangered [sex workers because]…websites that made it easier for sex workers to screen clients and to sell sex in safer locations have stopped sex workers from posting.  The co-plaintiffs in the case with Human Rights Watch are the Woodhull Freedom Foundation, the Internet Archive, and individuals Alex Andrews and Eric Koszyk.  The lower court [incorrectly] dismissed the case [a year ago]…without addressing the substantive claims, on the [pretense] that plaintiffs faced no imminent risk of prosecution…[but] in cases involving free expression, the appropriate lens is whether speech will be unconstitutionally burdened or chilled…

A Moral Cancer (#972)

Authoritarian idiots respond to deaths from a black market product by dramatically expanding the black market:

Walmart said…that it would stop selling e-cigarettes at its stores in the United States, dealing a new blow to the vaping industry as [hysteria] mount[s] over the health risks of [black market] products [which have nothing to do with the banned e-cigarettes]…The decision…comes amid a [dumpster fire full] of new [moral panic] about the potential health risks of [black market THC cartridges] that has [inspired prohibitionists to]…increas[e the danger by banning completely different currently-legal] products…

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