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Posts Tagged ‘Louisiana’

In the News (#1287)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 9, 2022| Leave a Comment »

On [TV], it’s not the family…priests or rabbis or other authority figures who pose a threat to children, it’s this devious stranger.  –  Paul Renfro

Don’t Call It Trafficking

It’s unusual to see the word “trafficking” used for government actions:

…thousands of people [have been] trafficked into labor by private contractors on U.S. military bases…workers have been paid less than promised, charged recruiting fees that leave them deep in debt, and pressured to sign improper contracts and work long hours…In some cases, they even faced physical abuse…From fiscal 2017 to fiscal 2021, the military itself took action in 176 incidents of labor violations by military contractors and subcontractors…and substantiated violations involving more than 900 workers in fiscal 2020 alone…though such information is supposed to be public, the Pentagon would not disclose the names of the contractors with violations, despite multiple inquiries, including Freedom of Information Act requests.  Federal regulations say that the company names and information about violations must be entered in a contracting database…[but] investigators for the Army and the Pentagon’s inspector general were not reporting the results of all their own trafficking investigations, and…for at least six years, military officials haven’t flagged a single firm in the database…at least 10 companies with substantiated trafficking violations since 2007 have received billions in new government contracts…

If Men Were Angels

Not a youth pastor! How unprecedented!

A [typical and representative] youth pastor and parochial school principal…[nam]ed Jonathan Mark Myers…[was arrested for] continued sexual abuse against a [boy] from…[age] 15 until…18…between March 30, 2009, and March 29, 2012…the…victim…[was nominally willing until] Myers threatened [him with a gun] for having a romantic relationship with someone else…On Sept. 12, 2022, Indiana State Police investigators [found]…the…gun the [victim] claimed to have thrown out of Myers’ vehicle in 2012…the serial number…showed that Myers purchased the…gun in 2005…

To Molest and Rape

To cops, the most important factor is whether a rapist crony was wearing his magical clown suit at the time:

A…Maryland [cop named Steven Victor Abreu] was arrested [for]…sexually assault[ing] a woman in a department store parking lot…then [stalking] her…fo[r] days [after the attack]…Abreu…[used the pretext of a “]search[“]…to gr[ope]…the…[victim before]…penetrat[ing] her vagina with his fingers…the victim…lied [in order to escape] Abreu…who [then stalked her for days before inventing another pretext to]…stop…her…She [lied to escape him again, but before he let her go]…“he reached in to the vehicle and grabbed her face”…then [threatened] her…and [implied he would continue stalking her]…

Of course Abreu has a history of rape, and of course his boss is blaming the rapes on people protesting rape and other police brutality two years ago.  Cops just love blaming women for being raped, especially by cops.

Above the Law (#1184)

Approximately 60% of prostitution charges in the US result from a crime being committed against the sex worker:

A woman being transported from a county jail to a court-ordered addiction treatment center…was raped by…Arthur Oister [while he] drove her…Upon arriving at the…center, the woman told employees Oister had…pulled his van over on a dirt path near the river and raped her…But [when Pennsylvania state pigs discovered] that…[she] had…consen…Oister [perform cunnilingus] in [exchange for] $20…[prior] to [the rape], the [victim]…was…charged with prostitution….[and] sent to…prison…

Torture Chamber (#1238)

The government needs to be buried in lawsuits before this will stop:

…For a few days in February 2019…back-to-back suicides flashed across the news cycle around northwest Louisiana.  But inside the walls at Ware, one of the state’s largest [dungeons for legal minors, young people] have been trying to kill themselves with stunning regularity.  There were at least 64 suicide attempts…in 2019 and 2020…[prisoners] have tied socks, towels and sheets around their necks.  They have swallowed baby powder, screws, fluid from an ice pack.  Two tried to drown themselves…At least 91 [prisoners] have tried to flee since the beginning of 2019, a little more than 5 percent…In June 2020, a girl told staff members that she was going to run away in hopes that the police would take her to “the big jail” rather than back to Ware…a second [said]…she would rather be sent to a psychiatric hospital…soon after, she tried to kill herself by leaping from a roof….[the causative] factors…[include] repeated acts of physical violence, sexual assault and psychological torment…state regulators have [n]ever fined or punished Ware…[despite] document[ation of] the same [atrocities] year after year…[a new] investigation…reveals how a place meant to [torture young people accomplished its goals by plunging them into a nightmare] of…chaos and cruelty.  Guards [rape,] beat and choke…their [victims, and]…frequently…brib[e young prisoners] with food to assault other [prisoners]…

Once again: infantilizing young people by repeatedly calling them “children” doe not help them; if anything, it exacerbates the problem.

Cops and Robbers (#1253)

I first wrote about this ugly hobby in November 2013, and a mere 9 years later The New Yorker is ON it:

…Predator-hunter videos take an enduring social-media trend—performing stunts for clout—and add a dash of vigilante justice and participatory true crime.  In the past few years, they have become a minor YouTube phenomenon…They typically follow the formula made famous by the [NBC] TV segment To Catch a Predator” in the early two-thousands, but with a more chaotic, D.I.Y. energy…The most popular examples have hundreds of thousands of views, and have inspired people to bring the trend to their own town.  In 2019, NBC[, the network largely responsible for the ugly phenomenon,] identified about thirty predator-catcher online groups scattered across the country; recently, the Washington Post found more than a hundred and sixty, which have been responsible for nearly a thousand [entrapment scams] this year…

To Molest and Rape (#1284)

D.A.R.E is another grooming scheme for predatory cops:

A [typical and representative Pennsylvania cop who ran the]…Bucks County…D.A.R.E. [program and another to groom] troubled youth [for molestation] pleaded no contest to sexually abusing five teenage boys.  James Carey…sexually assaulted [at least] four boys between 1989 and 2009…and…a month after [his] arrest, a fifth victim came forward, [report]ing [that] Carey…sexually assault[ed] him when he was 13…The victims said most of the assaults occurred while Carey was [wearing his magical clown costume]…

 

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 (#1285)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 2, 2022| 2 Comments »

Sex trafficking stings often serve as a general dragnet for petty offenses.  –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

Innocence Never Had

To cops, sex workers can only be victims or criminals:

Two 17-year-old girls were arrested as part of a “human trafficking” operation in Volusia County, Florida…18 people [in all] were arrested…[on] charges including prostitution, drug possession, and probation violations…[oddly, the sheriff actually admitt]ed that “what they were doing was prostitution—they were doing it willingly…they both went to great lengths and showed us things that they’re doing this because they want to do it, they’re not doing it because they were forced to do it…One of [the girls] had an outstanding warrant for her arrest” and [so] was…[locked in a cage like a stray dog], while the other “was returned to her father” [whom she had apparently run away from]…It’s rare for police departments to admit that they arrest teenagers for prostitution in the first place…and authorities almost never acknowledge that teenagers may sell sex for myriad reasons, not only because they’ve been abducted and forced into it…So it’s actually somewhat refreshing to see the sheriff in this case be open about what really went down (the teens were arrested) and not try to overplay the heroics by insisting that his office saved children from sex trafficking…


If Men Were Angels

Oh look, it’s another “youth pastor”:

A [typical and representative South Carolina] youth pastor…sexually abus[ed] a teenage boy for more than two years…Michael Paul Keech…[was] charged with…[offenses] stretching from July 2019 to February 2022…[when] a family member of the…victim reported signs of the abuse to [the cops]…

To Molest and Rape

This paper copsucks so hard, it even puts the word “rape” in scare quotes:

A Stockton [California cop raped at least]…three women…Nicholas Bloed [was sacked by]…the Stockton Police Department…[after he enjoyed] about five months…paid [vacation] while [other cops were trying to figure out if they could cover up his crimes]…Bloed…repeated[ly]…pulled [women] over, [sexually] harassed and sexually violated…[them, one of them] for several years…Dan Gilleon, the…attorney representing the three women, has described [the rapes committed by] Bloed…as “rape”…

Morality Lessons (#1133) 

This unconstitutional bill failed in over a dozen states before passing in Utah:

A…Pennsylvania [politician] has introduced a [copycat] bill mandating default “porn filters” on phones and computers sold in the state…Jim…Gregory, whose background as a TV sports journalist does not seem to involve any neuroscience expertise, claims that these unspecified “porn filters” would “shield children from the harmful effects pornographic material can have on developing brains”…

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#1185)

Some reporters still refuse to grasp that nobody is going to give expensive edibles to your spawn for free:

The Pennsylvania state police want parents to [believe the stupid scary tale that]…your child might receive [THC or Psilocybin edibles] while trick-or-treating this Halloween…These products could be confused [by morons] with candy and accidentally distributed to children…PSP is not aware of any incidents where these products were distributed to children but [wants to whip up fear to justify their bloated budget]…

But while Pennsylvania cops admit their stories have no basis in reality, Alabama cops are willing to blatantly lie to whip up hysteria:

Macon County Sheriff Andre Brunson said he was six years old when he went to a trick-or-treat fair with his mom…[and] he was forced by a stranger to each [sic] his candy…Brunson recalled his doctor telling his parents the candy he tasted was laced with…LSD.  The sheriff said he was hospitalized and was unconscious for just tasting this candy.  He [also claims]…his department sees drugs that look just like candy and even sweets with razor blades in them…

There has literally never been a case of a kid getting drugs or a razor blade in trick-or-treat, so if his department has “seen” that it was in their own sick imaginations.

The Cop Myth (#1262)

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

A Gonzales [Louisiana cop] who…beat…his [wife also]…bragged that he would get away with [it]…Michael Britt…was arrested…for…domestic abuse…includ[ing]…repeatedly kick[ing] the victim in the groin and…chok[ing] her.  The victim told [cops] that she’s been in a “violent relationship” with Britt for over a decade….[but] felt “stuck in her situation”…because [she knew] “cops [routinely get]…away with domestic violence”…

Thought Control (#1268)

Apparently, I was destined to fight censors regardless of my career path:

In the name of “curriculum transparency,” Florida…has…hastily assembled [a] censorship council…[which will attempt to indoctrinate] public school librarians to abide by new restrictions…the council was…staffed under suspicious circumstances, with the state Education Department ignoring its own call for official candidates from local school districts and instead filling most of the slots with [pro-censorship] activists…in Brevard County…the department went with…Michelle Beavers…[h]ead…[of] the local chapter of Moms for Liberty, a [pro-censorship group at the forefront of this year’s book-burning crusade]…Meanwhile, censorship measures that initially targeted school libraries were extended to individual teachers’ classroom collections, which must now “be reviewed by a [functionary of the State to ensure ideological compliance with Party teachings]”…

 

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 (#1276)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 1, 2022| 1 Comment »

What is it with government agencies & the media teaming up to Streisand some dumb thing…almost no one has ever…heard about…into a thing…everyone knows about?  –  Mike Masnick

Do As I Say, Not As I Do

It’s too bad most arrests aren’t of other cops:

Deputies in South Dakota have arrested a Louisiana state [cop], accusing him of hiring a prostitute while in town for a…conference…Kirk Thibodeaux…has been [rewarded with a paid vacation]…pending the criminal and administrative investigations…

So What Else Is New? (#504)

I’ve never understood why some men are so attached to this notion:

…a[t] orgasm…a “milky fluid” is excreted from the urethra…[but] about 5 percent of women release a clear liquid…studies have determined the milky fluid comes from the Skene glands…[and] scientists in Japan have just published research that [demonstrates] the [clear] fluid comes from the bladder, stating only the “milky fluid”…can be classed as the female ejaculation…Miyabi Inoue…and her colleagues injected blue dye mixed with water into the bladders of five female volunteers w[ith a history of “squirting”]…after a subject was stimulated to the point of climax, a researcher collected the ejected liquid in a sterile cup, and in all five women it was blue…[true] female ejaculation…contains prostate-specific antigen…[and the squirted] liquid from four of the women…was found to contain PSA, suggesting they produced female ejaculate around the same time as they squirted urine, and the two fluids mixed together in the urethra.  Despite the fact previous studies have [produced similar findings]…the[y were] met with skepticism from hordes of men online…Women were quick to mock some of the shocked men and their responses, explaining it was something “women knew all along…Men need scientific study to admit they are being peed on and not actually gods in bed,” one scoffed…

Gullible’s Travels (#977)

Americans will believe basically any scaremongering about teenagers:

…the number of videos…of teens calling people idiots for even daring to think of putting a Tide pod in their mouth far, far outnumbered the extraordinarily few videos of people actually putting a Tide pod in their mouth.  As some people have noted, it’s way more dangerous to talk about teenagers as if they’re all too stupid to know not to put a Tide pod in their mouth.  But the media absolutely can’t resist.  Last…week…the FDA (for whatever reason) released a consumer alert saying that people shouldn’t cook their chicken in NyQuil, calling it “a recent social media challenge”…of course, like all the earlier examples, this…turned out to be a whole lot of…adults freaking out over things that kids weren’t actually doing…the whole thing started as a shitpost on 4chan where someone made a joke about cooking chicken in NyQuil…and some people [making videos] reacting to the joke.  And, then, of course, the FDA Streisanded the whole idea into becoming a thing.  According to…TikTok…there were only five searches for NyQuil chicken…on Sept. 14, one day before the FDA posted its statement.  By Sept. 21, searches on the topic had increased by more than 1,400 times…

A Broker in Pillage (#985)

The South Carolina Supreme Court declares itself illegitimate:

In a major blow against government accountability, the South Carolina Supreme Court…upheld the state’s civil forfeiture laws, which let police [openly steal] cash, cars, and even ho[us]es, without ever filing criminal charges.  By overturning a lower court ruling that declared civil forfeiture unconstitutional, the decision jeopardizes property rights for [every citizen]…in…nearly 40% of all forfeiture cases…the owner was never convicted of a crime.  And under state law, if an owner doesn’t formally file a claim for their seized property, [cops] win a “default judgment” and keep [the stolen property]…Worse, state law provides a powerfully perverse incentive to police for profit.  [When any] property [is stolen by cops], the [robbers’ gang] keeps the first $1,000 and then 75% of the remainder.  Prosecutors receive 20%, while a mere 5% is sent to the general fund. Since 2009, [cops have robbed citizens of]…nearly $97 million…

Disaster (#1234)

An amicus curiae brief was recently filed in the FOSTA challenge by a group of organizations including Decriminalize Sex Work, The Sex Workers Project of the Urban Justice Center, Freedom Network, Brooklyn Defender Services, The Erotic Laborers Alliance of New England, Old Pros, the National Coalition for Sexual Freedom, New York Transgender Advocacy Group, Free Speech Coalition,  SWOP Brooklyn, GLITS, and the St. James Infirmary.  Elizabeth Nolan Brown has an in-depth look at the arguments in the suit and brief, and you can see a PDF of the brief here.  In related news, the Woodhull Foundation (one of the parties to the FOSTA challenge) has recently launched a petition seeking to block the so-called EARN IT Act; I’m not sure if petitions have any effect in such cases, but I suppose they can’t hurt.

Dangerous Speech (#1270)

The government’s evil clown show has been renewed for another season:

The prosecution of Backpage founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin…can continue to drag on, per a new ruling from the…9th Circuit.  The court [is pretending] that trying them again after a mistrial…would not count as double jeopardy.  “No one is the least surprised”…Lacey tells Reason…”We have always believed we must rely upon jurors, not judges, for a fair shake. And so to trial.”  Lacey, Larkin, and the other defendants are likely to face trial again in 2023, though no date has been set.  That would mean a sixth calendar year in which their lives are upended by this…seemingly eternal attempt to put people in prison for running a website where sex workers advertised.

Permanent Record (#1274)

If prohibitionists really want to “rescue” sex workers, why do they keep trying to shut us out of other jobs?

A [teacher] who set up an OnlyFans account to supplement her income was fired from her…job…after her employer found out about the account…[thanks to a self-appointed morality cop who also] posted photos from the OnlyFans account without her consent…Sarah Juree worked full-time as a teacher in South Bend, Indiana…but…was unable to support her family on the modest salary of $55,000 per year…her rent alone cost nearly half of her income and her employer didn’t offer health insurance…Around the time Juree set up her OnlyFans account, she…had a casual conversation with a colleague and their boss about side gigs that fall under the sex work umbrella, including OnlyFans pages.  “My boss got really excited and said, ‘Yeah, you can start a page.  You can make a lot of money’…I was like, ‘Great, I’m not going to have any issues with work because my boss literally told me to sell my panties on OnlyFans”…

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In the News (#1273)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 21, 2022| 3 Comments »

When you become a snitch, [cops] keep your drug problem going and then they arrest you for it.  –  Harold Murry

Torture Chamber (#1116)

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

Throughout this summer, [young adults] in Texas’ youth prison system have repeatedly been trapped in their cells, forced to urinate in water bottles and defecate on the floor…Calls for immediate action by juvenile justice advocates and dozens of [politicians] to address the crisis have largely gone unanswered by Gov. Greg Abbott…In May and June, more than a dozen detained youths at the Giddings [Cage Stack] said [screws] didn’t let them out of their cells to use the bathroom between 4:30 p.m. and 8 a.m. during the week due to short staffing…On the weekends…youths were sometimes kept in their cells 22 hours a day…[so they] had no choice but to use water bottles, milk cartons, lunch trays or pieces of paper as makeshift toilets…

Torture Chamber (#1207)

Just because his victim was gullible doesn’t make this not rape:

The Department [of locking people in cages] quietly canned a Rikers Island guard after…he repeatedly [raped] a [prisoner], provided her with drugs and pressured her to delaying filing a report that she’d [also] been raped by a [different screw]…Leonard McNeill [was] fired for…“exploit[ing] the inmate, pos[ing] a security risk, [and providing an example of the system’s] corruption”…[the other rapist screw,] Jose Cosme…copped a plea with prosecutors, and as part of his deal was fired, forced to register as a sex offender and sentenced to 10 years of probation.  McNeil has so far avoided prosecution…

Micromanagement (#1213)

Any information you give to cops can and will be used against you:

A woman whose rape kit DNA was used to link her to an unrelated property crime has filed a lawsuit against the city of San Francisco over the incident…police…later dropped the charges against her…[after] a backlash from advocates…legal experts and [even a few politicians], many of whom warned the practice could affect victims’ willingness to [report crimes against them]…

The Implosion Begins (#1213)

Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this atrocity:

A Michigan man, who had reportedly been sucked into QAnon…was killed by police after [murder]ing… his wife…Igor Lanis…also [shot and killed his dog and shot] one of [h]is…daughters, Rachel, [but the girl managed to call police]…after being shot in the back and legs…

The Vultures Descend (#1251)

This vulture feeding frenzy is going to get a lot uglier:

After decades of saying abortion’s legality should be left up to individual states, Republicans are wasting no time in exposing that for the convenient lie it was…Sen. Lindsey Graham…is reportedly backing a federal ban on abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy…The bill’s name [“Protecting Pain-Capable Unborn Children from Late-Term Abortions Act”] is…designed to make anyone who votes against it seem to the casual observer like an extremist or even a monster.  (See also: any bill with sex trafficking in the name.)  The phrase late-term abortion is not a medical term.  But in general, it refers to an abortion in the third trimester (which starts at 28 weeks) or, at least, an abortion that takes place after the point of fetal viability (when a fetus could survive outside the womb, around 23 or 24 weeks)…

To Molest and Rape (#1263)

Some Louisiana cops prefer to rape by proxy:

A woman…[whom cops coerced into being a snitch w]as…left…on her own [by the cops who coerced her]…unprotected and unmonitored in real time…Under threat of violence, the dealer…oral[ly raped her]…twice — in an attack so brazen he paused at one point to conduct a separate drug deal…Even as the woman cried and her assailant threatened to put her “in the hospital,” [pigs fucked off]…down the block…[supposedly] unaware of what was going on…because…they [didn’t care whether] such an attack might happen and the devices the woman carried didn’t have the ability to transmit…in real time…it wasn’t until the woman left the area on her own and contacted her handlers that [cops bothered to]…arrest…Antonio D. Jones…And while it’s not clear what kind of deal the woman struck with the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office…Just three weeks after her recorded assault…[s]he…was charged with possession of drug paraphernalia…and she’s been pulled over and booked on possession charges at least twice since then…

To Molest and Rape (#1267)

Most rapist cops have multiple underage victims:

A [typical and representative London cop] has been charged with [raping] an underage girl…child…[porn] and other child sex offences…Hussain Chehab…is accused of a total of 13 crimes…he was arrested in July 2021 [but not] charged [until September 13th 2022]…The offences [were committ]ed between 2019 and 2021…

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In the News (#1269)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 7, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Senator Klobuchar…is deliberately seeking to destroy [the internet].  –  Mike Masnick

Stalkers in Blue

No woman is safe from predatory cops:

A Prairie Village [Kansas cop] was allowed to stay on the job for 19 months after department officials were alerted that he had [pressur]ed a woman for sex after arresting her…Attorney Brandan Davies said he reported to Prairie Village police in March 2020 that…Rolando Swaby had arrested his client in a DUI case and later sent text messages asking her to meet him at a hotel for drinks and sex ahead of a court hearing in her case…Davies…thought the [cop] would be fired…[but he] was allowed to remain on the force for more than a year and a half until he was investigated in an unrelated domestic violence case in October 2021.  He later resigned and lost his Kansas police license…

You Were Warned (#1116)

Monkey see, monkey do:

…a law…[pushed by] Senator Amy Klobuchar and Rep. David Cicilline…[is another] link tax bill, similar to the one written in Australia to appease (and enrich) Rupert Murdoch.  It basically says that publishers can band together, with an antitrust exemption, to demand fees from bigger, more successful internet companies…Klobuchar…is [known for]…pushing bills that fundamentally break the internet…[and her] new version of the JCPA…[does so doubly by] only appl[ying] to smaller news orgs — those with under 1,500 employees …We’re at a time when hedge funds — most notably Alden Capital — have been buying up newspapers and laying off tons of people while trying to squeeze cash out of the remaining husks.  And, this bill basically says “buy up large newspapers and cut them to under 1,500 employees”…here’s Amy Klobuchar saying…“you get free money just as long as you fire enough people first“…But, the much bigger problem is that the bill is trying to break the internet…[by] allow[ing] news orgs to…force internet companies…to pay the journalism organizations for…sending them traffic…This is ludicrous.  News orgs beg these sites for traffic.  They hire SEO people to try to get more traffic.  Now they’re also getting to FORCE the internet companies to PAY them for that traffic too?…

Torture Chamber (#1207)

Give brutal, sexually-aggressive men total power over women, then act surprised when the eminently predictable happens:

A North Carolina [screw]…was fired and arrested for [rap]ing [female prisoners]…Khalim Jovan Battle…[raped at least] two [women powerless to defend themselves from him].  He…anally [raped]…one [and]…oral[ly raped both]…

Opting Out (#1214) 

Authoritarians believe that the people they want to impose their evil upon are either very stupid or very gullible:

…California’s AB 2273, the “Age Appropriate Design Code” bill that the California legislature seems eager to pass…seemed to be getting very little attention, but after a few [Techdirt] posts started to go viral, the backers of the bill ramped up their smear campaigns and lies…and…the “Age Verification Providers Association” decided to show up in the comments to defend themselves and insist that their members can do age verification in a privacy-protective manner.  You just have to let them scan your face with facial recognition technology… they insist it’s not “facial recognition” software because it’s not matching you up to a database of your identity…it’s just using “AI” to guess estimate your age.  What could possibly go wrong?  But, more to the point, they’re basically saying “don’t worry, you’ll just need to scan your face or ID for every website your visit.”  Normalizing facial scans…seems pretty dystopian, frankly…

Thought Control (#1252)

Of course, the politicians have already got what they wanted: positive attention from censorious asshats:

The [obscenity] trial in Virginia Beach, Virginia…of…two books has ended in dismissal.  Neither Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe nor A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas meet the legal definition of obscenity…Two lawsuits…sought to get both books not only removed from schools and libraries, but removed from private sale through bookstores across the state…Th[is] outcome…will help in setting a standard…that books like these…do not meet the legal definition of obscenity [regardless of what pro-censorship fanatics may claim]…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1262)

Fentanyl is being inserted into every popular scare myth:

The…DEA…[is fantasizing about] an “alarming” trend of brightly-colored fentanyl made to look like candy that is being used to attract children…The agency [claims collaborator pigs, in other words the same people who fantasize that casual contact with fentanyl produces instant overdose that exactly mimics the symptoms of a panic attack,] began s[teal]ing brightly colored “rainbow fentanyl” [from its owners last] month…in 18 states so far…“Rainbow fentanyl — fentanyl pills and powder that come in a variety of bright colors, shapes, and sizes — is a deliberate effort by drug traffickers to drive addiction amongst [people who cannot pay for the product, because they’re EEEEEEEEEEVUL!]” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram [bloviated]…

This is, of course, the same old nonsense cops vomit out in the approach to Halloween every year, only with “fentanyl” inserted in place of “marijuana” or other drugs, Mad Libs style.  Given that we’ve also recently seen fentanyl being inserted in place of magic “sex trafficking” drugs in social media scary tales, I’d say it’s safe to declare that fentanyl is now the subject of its own moral panic.

To Molest and Rape (#1268)

“Having inappropriate contact with a minor” is such a nice way of saying “molesting a kid”:

An arrest warrant has been issued for a Denham Springs [cop who molested]…a minor…Joseph Reid Copeland…is believed [to have fled]…the…area…

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In the News (#1268)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 3, 2022| 1 Comment »

If you don’t [sell people’s data to cops], someone else probably will.  –  anonymous data broker

To Molest and Rape

The media are becoming slightly more willing to call cops’ criminal behavior what it is:

A [typical and representative] Kenosha [Wisconsin cop named…Joshua Sylvester…was fired for…sexually assault[ing]…a…woman [who wrecked into] a tree…[while] driving [drunk]…Sylvester sexually assaulted her…while [lurking]…in [her] hospital [room for over two hours.  He]…also went through her phone, found nude photos of her and sent them to himself…

I Spy (The Vultures Descend)

As was predicted when news of abortion recriminalization first broke:

A Gizmodo investigation into some of the nation’s biggest data brokers found more than two dozen promoting access to datasets containing digital information on millions of pregnant and potentially pregnant [women]…at least one of those companies also offered a large catalogue of…[women] using the same sorts of birth control that’s being targeted by more restrictive states right now…Also on the market: data on 478 million customer profiles labeled “interested in pregnancy” or “intending to become pregnant.”  You can see the full list of companies for yourself…

Opting Out (#1241)

This will grow worse until politicians stop giving fanatics a heckler’s veto:

French [pro-censorship] groups claiming to represent “the children”…formally request[ed]…that online government regulator Arcom suspend Twitter in France unless the platform finds, within two weeks, a way to block minors from what the groups [declare] “pornographic” content…The coalition calling for censorship of the international platform is a patchwork of obscure organizations pursuing a self-appointed mission of “child protection” and sex work abolitionism.  Among them…[is] noted…[prohib]itionist lobby Fondation Scelles…

Vulture Watching

The fact that SCOTUS didn’t foresee this is a clear indicator that their overturn of Roe was not based in legal reasoning:

…The Department of Justice…sued to stop [the abortion] ban in Idaho, wh[ich]…goes against provisions of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act…requir[ing] hospitals receiving Medicare funds (i.e., most U.S. hospitals) to provide stabilizing treatment…”Federal law is clear: patients have the right to stabilizing hospital emergency room care no matter where they live,” said…DHS…Secretary Xavier Becerra.  “Women should not have to be near death to get care”…No existing abortion ban lacks an exception for a mother’s life, but some do omit exceptions for women’s health.  And…many pregnancy complications could become life-threatening while not being necessarily or immediately so.  The HHS guidance…stat[es] that regardless of what a state law says, physicians must provide an abortion if one is necessary to address an emergency medical condition…Texas sued over th[is]…and…the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas…granted a preliminary injunction against enforcing the mandate against Texas…A court in Idaho came to [the opposite conclusion]…The discordant rulings could force the issue back before the Supreme Court, if appeals courts in each district concur with the lower courts…

Thought Control (#1264)

I never would’ve thought my first profession would become as much a target for authoritarians as my second:

A new Missouri law [criminalizes stocking] books with [what politicians define as] sexually explicit images from school libraries…it [is now] a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail or a $2,000 fine for librarians…to [allow] students access to such material.  The law does not apply to written descriptions of sex or sexual acts; only photos, drawings, videos, and other visual depictions…“showing human masturbation, deviate [sic] sexual intercourse,…physical stimulation of genitals, sadomasochistic abuse,” or showing human genitals.  There are exceptions for anatomy, biology, sex education, art [politicians decide to tolerate], and other images [declared] educational [by censorious politicians].  Melissa Corey…of the Missouri Association of School Librarians, [believes] the law likely will only [be enforced against art politicians dislike]…Corey said the association advised librarians to work with local school boards to best follow the law, particularly the [incredibly vague and arbitrary] exceptions for art and biology…

Winding Down (#1265)

Alas, the drug war isn’t ending; the government is simply shifting it to nicotine:

For the first time in Gallup polling, more Americans (16%) said they smoke marijuana than had smoked a tobacco cigarette (11%) in the past week…Marjiuana and tobacco usage trends have been going in opposite directions for a few decades now.  By 1985, nearly as many Americans said they had tried marijuana (33%) as had smoked a cigarette in the past week (35%).  Cigarette smoking has been declining ever since. By 2013, just 19% of Americans were smoking cigarettes at least once a week…while…38%…told Gallup they had tried marijuana…

To Molest and Rape (#1267)

Those who consort with cops are often just as awful:

…a [typical and representative] Delcambre [Louisiana cop named]…Christopher Moorehart…[has been arrested for] rap[ing his girlfriend’s five-year-old daughter on multiple occasions]…The mother…Kimberly Healy…was arrested and [charged for letting him do it and]…never report[ing him even]…after [they] broke up…Moorehart [then started fucking an Iberia Parish screw named Shelly Lynn] Friou…[who also kept the child rapes] secret…[until] the two broke up [after which she reported him to their fellow pigs as an act of vengeance]…

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In the News (#1266)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 27, 2022| 1 Comment »

Sex workers are collateral damage in th[e “progressive”] quest to build the perfect internet.  –  Evan Greer

The Missing Word (#570)

Notice what nobody calls this?

For almost seven years, two Pennsylvania judges sent hundreds of [teens and] children—some of them as young as 8 years old—to privately run juvenile detention centers in exchange for financial kickbacks…[now] former Judges Mark A. Ciavarella and Michael T. Conahan [have been ordered] to pay over $200 million in compensatory and punitive damages to their victims.  Starting in 2000, the pair sent children into juvenile detention for offenses as innocuous as jaywalking, petty theft, or truancy.  In what became known as the “kids for cash” scandal, the [victims] were sent to two privately run detention centers whose builder and co-owner paid the men $2.8 million…over the course of the scheme…following the plot’s discovery, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court…thr[ew] out 4,000 juvenile convictions…[but] many of the plaintiffs still suffer from mental health problems.  Several…died by suicide or drug overdose in the years after their detention…Unfortunately, it is unlikely that any of the plaintiffs will [actually] receive [any] financial compensation…[because] Ciavarella and Conahan are now serving lengthy prison sentences.  Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years…and Conahan…17…though he was released to home confinement in 2020…[due to] COVID-19…

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1009)

Another baby step toward recognizing sex work as work:

…a group of former Star Garden [exotic] dancers…filed a petition for a union election with the National Labor Relations Board, through the established actors union Actors’ Equity Assn…If the[y]…succeed, it would be the first time the century-old union that represents actors and stage managers on Broadway and venues such as the Hollywood Pantages Theatre would include strippers in its ranks.  Star Garden would become the first unionized strip club in the U.S. since…the Lusty Lady…closed in 2013…But…most of the strippers seeking representation said they have not worked at Star Garden since mid-March, when they raised safety concerns and were subsequently [fired]…Union lawyers will need to convince the National Labor Relations Board the strippers are Star Garden employees who were unduly terminated in order to be eligible to participate in a union vote and secure a shot at winning…

The Widening Gyre (#1116)

The latest iteration of “sex traffickers are EVERYWHERE!!!” has it all: the roses from the item linked in the subtitle, themselves only one example of the “valuable bait” trope, are loaded with the magic instant-overdose fentanyl of cop fantasies instead of the unidentified magic contact poison of earlier iterations of this myth.  Given that cops have recently started claiming that the magic fentanyl is being intentionally sprinkled onto $1 bills, the convergence is pretty clear; presumably the fentanyl-using “traffickers”, no doubt driving around in white vans, are also dropping the bait bills where cops can find them so as to stop their heroic anti-trafficking pogroms, or something.

A Broker in Pillage (#1147)

Absolutely nothing is “safe” if government actors know where it is:

The FBI [lied] to…a federal magistrate judge…[claiming] that it intended to open hundreds of safe deposit boxes s[tolen] during a March 2021 raid in order to inventory the items inside—but new evidence shows that federal agents were plotting all along to use the operation as an opportunity to [steal] cash and other valuables…the FBI also seems to have ignored limitations imposed by the warrant, including an explicit prohibition against using the…boxes as the basis for further criminal investigations…agents…were instructed to be on the lookout for cash…and to note…anything which [might give the government a pretext to steal it]…Agents [even] arranged to have drug-sniffing dogs present…which doesn’t do anything to help inventory items, of course, but makes more sense if the actual goal is to initiate forfeiture proceedings…

You Were Warned (#1218)

Looks like Reddit is covering its butt as a hedge against more FOSTA-enabled predatory lawsuits:

…adult content creator[s have]…recently found themselves abruptly removed or had their Reddit account limited without warning.  Sex workers have long been subject to deplatforming on most social media platforms…yet even though Reddit has a reputation for being relatively sex-positive compared to other Big Tech sites, sex workers are increasingly finding themselves restricted or even outright permanently banned on the platform, often without notice or…explanation…“The fact that sex workers are reporting an uptick on Reddit is particularly concerning because it has been one of the last places where this type of content is allowed,” says Evan Greer, director of the digital rights organization Fight for the Future, citing Twitter as the only other example of a platform that still continues to allow NSFW content…

The Vultures Descend

You can always count on my native state to out-Herod Herod:

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry…successfully urged the Louisiana Bond Commission…to delay a $39 million future line of credit for the New Orleans Sewerage & Water Board–which the city needs for [a dedicated power station for] its flood response–until city officials agree to enforce the state’s abortion ban.  The move comes right at the start of hurricane season, on the same day New Orleans…issued a flood advisory…Even Republican state senator Bret Allain warned that because the sewerage and water board is a state-created agency, he finds it “problematic” to target New Orleans over their abortion stance…

The Last Shall Be First (#1244)

If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention:

After one competitor “outclassed” the rest of the field in a girls’ state-level competition last year, the parents of the competitors who placed second and third lodged a complaint with the Utah High School Activities Association calling into question the winner’s gender.  David Spatafore, the UHSAA’s legislative representative…said the association…asked the student’s school to…examine…the students’ enrollment records [going]…“back to kindergarten and she’d always been a female”…Spatafore said the association has received other complaints, some that said “that female athlete doesn’t look feminine enough”…

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Links #620

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 22, 2022| 2 Comments »

How did we go from a routine traffic stop to narcotics-sniffing dogs?  –  Pamella Jenkins

The big news this week was the passing of Vangelis, the Greek composer most famous for his soundtrack work, whose albums from the late ’70s and early ’80s in particular formed a large portion of the soundtrack of my life.  I’ve featured many of his compositions over the years, but never the one that first made me a fan, fittingly entitled “Alpha”.  The links above it were provided by Franklin Harris, Cop Crisis (x2), Radley Balko, Popehat, and Nun Ya, in that order.

From the Archives

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The Vultures Descend

Posted in Current Events, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 9, 2022| 2 Comments »

Unless you’ve been incommunicado for the past week, I’m sure you’ve heard the news about the draft SCOTUS opinion which would overturn Roe v Wade, written by the court’s arch-authoritarian, Samuel Alito.  I’m not going to attempt to analyze the opinion myself, because others who are far better at such things than I am have already done so.  I will, however, point out that, given that the government has been undermining civil rights for decades and has repeatedly refused to recognize women’s right to self-ownership in any matter related to sex or reproduction; and given that so-called “feminists” have been fighting against women’s sexual autonomy in every way but abortion since the 1980s; and given the increasingly-barbaric manifestations of Americans’ collective descent into child-cultism; and given the unrelenting efforts to use women’s biology as a means of subjugation; that this is hardly surprising, platitudes about “settled law” notwithstanding.

Predictably, the leak has already spawned a wave of opportunistic authoritarianism, some examples of which didn’t even wait for the annoucement:

The Oklahoma House approved a…bill…that would ban abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.  The law would take effect immediately, cutting off access for patients from Texas who have flooded into Oklahoma since a similar law passed there last fall.  Coming ahead of a highly-anticipated U.S. Supreme Court decision on abortion…the Oklahoma measure shows that states are not waiting for the high court to overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision enshrining abortion rights before acting to restrict the procedure within their own borders…

Naturally, my native state couldn’t allow anyone else to outdo it in totally bat-shit-crazy violent authoritarianism:

…the Louisiana House advanced a bill…that would classify abortion as homicide and [encourage] prosecutors to criminally charge patients…the bill could also restrict in vitro fertilization and emergency contraception because it would grant constitutional rights to a [zygote] “from the moment of fertilization.”  Discussing the legislation less than 48 hours after the leaked Supreme Court draft proposing to overturn the 1973 ruling that has protected abortion rights, [politicians and other authoritarians] who spoke in support of the bill appeared energized by the prospect of a long-sought imminent victory [against women’s bodily autonomy]…

And of course, “sex trafficking” fetishists are attempting to hitch their collapsing fantasy to this dramatic expansion of the police state by reviving a long-moribund myth that never gained much traction:

A Florida [politician fantasized aloud] at a town hall meeting that a ban on abortion can help victims of human trafficking escape their captors…Ileana Garcia…[wa]s seen [making furtive movements in her crotch while] answering a question on why she didn’t support an exception to the state’s new 15-week abortion ban for women who are victims of rape, incest or human trafficking…“When the girl or the woman gets pregnant, and they can’t make her get an abortion or she doesn’t want to get an abortion or they can’t get her to a place to get an abortion, they…release her from the human trafficking ring,” Garcia [pant]ed…

And how could any expansion of the police state succeed without a corresponding expansion of fascist surveillance?

A location data firm is selling information related to visits to [abortion] clinics…including Planned Parenthood facilities, showing where groups of people visiting the locations came from, how long they stayed there, and where they then went afterwards…customers could include [the cops, governments of oppressive states, opportunists looking for people to target with Texas-style lawsuits, and] anti-abortion vigilantes as well…The company selling the data is [called] SafeGraph…[it] obtains location data from [spyware secretly included in ordinary apps installed on peoples’ phones…[among its existing customers is] the CDC, [who] bought $420,000 worth of SafeGraph data for a laundry list of COVID-[excused surveillance schemes]…Google banned SafeGraph from the Google Play Store in June…

Obviously, this is just the beginning; expect a lot more stories under this heading in the next few months.

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Links #617

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on May 2, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Qualified immunity does not protect the officer who orchestrated this outrageous clown show.  –  Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan

The links above this video for my favorite Earth, Wind & Fire song (in honor of the passing of their saxophonist) were provided by Scott Greenfield, Jesse Walker, Cop Crisis, Greg Lukianoff, Popehat, Cop Crisis again, and Billy Binion, in that order.

From the Archives

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