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In the News (#1355)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged abortion, Ashley Madison, California, Canada, censorship, cops, Disaster, Full of Themselves, internet, law, libraries, massage, masturbation, Mexico, Mississippi, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, Panopticon, porn, robots, scams, serial killers, Surplus Women, surveillance, The Puritan Recrudescence, Thought Control, To Molest and Rape, violence vs. sex workers on July 15, 2023| Leave a Comment »

We don’t even think about [masturbation] as relapsing, because…it’s not an addiction. – Nicole Prause

Show and Tell

Was this unfortunate person the one who sent me the proof of Ashley Madison’s con game?

Will Harrison was terminated as an Ashley Madison employee in November 2011, and by early 2012 he’d turned his considerable harassment skills squarely against the company. Ashley Madison’s long-suspected army of fake female accounts came to the fore in August 2012 after the former sex worker turned activist and blogger Maggie McNeill published screenshots apparently taken from Ashley Madison’s internal systems suggesting that a large percentage of the female accounts on the service were computer-operated bots. Ashley Madison’s executives understood that only a handful of employees at the time would have had access to the systems needed to produce the screenshots McNeill published online…on Mar. 5, 2014, Harrison committed suicide by shooting himself in the head…This fact was apparently unknown to Biderman and other Ashley Madison executives more than a year later when their July 2015 hack was first revealed…

To Molest and Rape

A cop posing as a masseur is still a cop:

A [typical and representative Ontario cop] who admitted to sexually abusing 11 women at his side massage business [has escaped with a slap on the wrist, namely] an 18-month sentence at home. David Kukoly…was not a registered massage therapist but still operated his “Massage by Dave” business from his…home using a different last name. Under the pre[text] of providing massages, he [molest]ed 11 women…between 2016 and 2018…[but] Justice Richard Blouin…decided against the Crown’s request for a four-year prison sentence…[and gave the budding rapist a mere] year and a half of house arrest [because cop]…

The reporter inserts “was not a registered massage therapist” as though a piece of paper could magically control sexual predators despite considerable evidence to the contrary.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1124)

There’s a reason I’ve repeatedly called this cult “dangerous”:

…NoFap ideology tends to breed much bigger problems…suicidal feelings [are associated with] more engagement in the NoFap subreddit and related communities, and the more involved a participant [i]s with NoFap and other groups like PornFree, the more suicidal they report…feeling in response to their last relapse. One problem with this—beyond the obvious— is that their “relapses” aren’t…real to begin with…because…people who masturbate to porn…aren’t actually “addicted” to it at all…there’s no objective basis for pornography addiction, an opinion supported by numerous peer-reviewed studies and experts in the field. That isn’t to say that people can’t use pornography compulsively…but that it doesn’t fit in with the very clearly defined scientific idea of addiction, which involves a physiological withdrawal and a loss of pleasure in other activities…

Disaster (#1276)

Unfortunately, this is all we could expect right now:

The District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals…upheld the district court’s judgment against the Woodhull Freedom Foundation in its four-year legal battle to have FOSTA-SESTA declared unconstitutional, and rejected the strict scrutiny challenge proposed by free speech advocates. Woodhull…was joined in the appeal by Human Rights Watch, the Internet Archive, Alex Andrews and Eric Koszyk…in January…legal observers…deemed the judges’ line of questioning as leaning toward the possibility of at least part of FOSTA-SESTA being struck down [but]…their new ruling…[declare]s that “neither Section 2421A of FOSTA nor FOSTA’s amendments to the Trafficking Act are overbroad or unconstitutionally vague,” [and] that “FOSTA’s c[ensorship]…comports with the First Amendment [because “sex trafficking”]…

Surplus Women (#1294)

Mexican cops are more concerned about sex workers’ lives than their US counterparts are:

A…suspected serial killer who targeted sex workers in Mexico has been arrested in Southern California…Mexican authorities are working to extradite…Bryan Rivera…of Downey, California who is believed to be responsible for the deaths of three sex workers in Tijuana…in 2022…

Thought Control (#1343)

Politicians are avid devotees of cutting off their noses to spite their faces:

Mississippi has a new law on the books [which effectively bans]…use of digital resources…for those under the age of 18…Even if granted parental permission, minors may not have materials available to them, if vendors do not ensure every item within their offerings meets the new, wide-reaching [political] definition of “obscenity”…[which states] any vendor is out of compliance by simply having materials available in their system which depict sexual reproduction or queerness in any capacity. Images of nude female breasts…[even in] biology and anatomy books…would be out of compliance with the law. Platforms like Hoopla and Overdrive are not set up to create systems which change access based on [politicians’ whims]. Library staff are also unable to preview and rate every item available within such platforms, leading to a position [where libraries must completely] shut down access [in order to protect librarians from legal persecution]…

Panopticon (#1344)

Cops will continue to do this until there are criminal penalties for it:

…The Electronic Frontier Foundation…has sent [Sacramento County Sheriff] Cooper a letter requesting that [his] Office cease sharing ALPR data with out-of-state agencies that could use it to prosecute someone for seeking an abortion…the…office…has shared license plate reader data with [cop shops] in states that have passed laws banning abortion, including Alabama, Oklahoma and Texas. Adam Schwartz, EFF senior staff attorney, called automated license plate readers “a growing threat to everyone’s privacy”…and…a sheriff in Texas, Idaho or any other state with an abortion ban on the books could use that data to track people’s movements around California, knowing where they live, where they work and where they seek…medical care…71 [cop shops] in 22 California counties…[a]re sharing such data…in [direct] violation of a 2015 law [banning the practice]…

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 (#1322)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, adolescence, Arkansas, Capricious Lusts, censorship, consensual crime, drugs, Full of Themselves, Illinois, internet, law, lawheads, Maryland, Massachusetts, massage, New Mexico, politicians, prisons, rape, statistics, The Last Shall Be First, The Mob Rules, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, transgender on March 18, 2023| 1 Comment »

The Nordic model has a stronger effect on increasing rape than criminalization does. – Huasheng Gao and Vanya Petrova

Full of Themselves (#755)

How pompously puritanical need one be to believe that consensual sex constitutes “a dangerous criminal record”?

…in Illinois, a dangerous criminal record may not stop people from becoming licensed massage therapists…A conviction of sexual misconduct, prostitution, rape, or any other offense requiring registration as a sex offender automatically bars an applicant from obtaining a massage therapist license. But this is not the case for first-degree murder, armed robbery, aggravated battery…assault, stalking…and kidnapping…so [politicians want even more]…regulations for massage therapy license applicants…

Capricious Lusts (#788)

Another study shows what’s already been shown over & over again:

Liberalizing prostitution laws “leads to a significant decrease in rape rates,” according to a study published in The Journal of Law and Economics, “while prohibiting it leads to a significant increase”…researchers Huasheng Gao and Vanya Petrova of China’s Fudan University looked at data from 31 European countries, spanning a period between 1990 and 2017. During this time period, eight countries (Spain, Denmark, Hungary, the Netherlands, Germany, Slovenia, Latvia, and Romania) liberalized their prostitution laws while six countries (Sweden, Croatia, Norway, Iceland, France, and Ireland) cracked down on prostitution…liberalizing…was linked to a significant decrease in rape rates, while prohibition was linked to a significant increase—but…”the magnitude of prohibiting commercial sex is about four times as large as that of liberalizing it”…The average rape rate in the sample countries was nine rapes per 100,000 people. Countries that liberalized prostitution laws saw a decrease of approximately three rapes per 100,000…[while] countries that…further criminalized…saw an increase of around 11 rapes per 100,000…

A Moral Cancer (#991)

Prohibitionists always claim surprise when the predicted effects of one of their bans appear:

[Since] Massachusetts became the first state…to ban the sale of all flavored tobacco and nicotine products…four additional states have…imposed…similar policies…but the latest data from Massachusetts highlight the ban’s [predict]ed consequences [coming to pass]…As opponents of the flavor ban predicted, the law has incentivized black market sales of menthol cigarettes and flavored e-cigarettes…Revenue officials are s[teal]ing so many [smuggled] products, in fact, that they are running out of room to store them…tobacco tax revenue has fallen by approximately 22.6 percent over three years…[and] the decline in cigarette sales in Massachusetts coincided with substantial increases in sales in counties bordering the state…

To Molest and Rape (#1225)

This is a cop’s idea of “friendship”:

New Mexico [cop] Kevin Keiner [was rewarded with a paid vacation for]…raping a…woman [who foolishly believed he was her friend]…the woman…called…Keiner…to pick her up…after she’d gotten into a…[drunken] argument with her brother and another woman…Keiner [was wearing his magical clown costume when]…he picked the woman up [in his pigmobile] and took her to his home…The woman…blacked out….[and] the next thing she remembers is that Keiner was on top of her….Keiner [is of course claiming she wanted it and came onto him]…

Torture Chamber (#1287)

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

[Young people] detained [without having been convicted of any crime] at the Baltimore County Detention Center are locked up for 23 hours a day in rat-infested cells that sometimes flood with sewage water…The jail is [refusing to] comply…with federal laws governing juvenile detention, said Deborah St. Jean, director of the public defender’s Juvenile Protection Division. She asked for the “immediate transfer” of detained youth to the Department of Juvenile Services…

The Mob Rules (#1311)

The primary principle governing politicians’ behavior is “monkey see, monkey do”:

…a bill that would require Arkansans to provide identification to use social media sites…is [being] sponsored by [a politician named] Tyler Dees…who [also] has another bill that…would require pornography websites to provide age verification…Th[e first] bill, seemingly modeled on one that recently passed in Utah, would open up the social media companies to civil and criminal penalties…

The Last Shall Be First (#1317)

“Bathroom bills” are back after blessedly vanishing for over three years:

A bill that would criminalize transgender people using restrooms that match their gender identity won initial approval in the Arkansas Legislature…The bill…would allow someone to be charged with misdemeanor sexual indecency with a child if they use a public restroom or changing room “of the opposite sex while knowing a minor of the opposite sex is present”…The legislation goes even further than a North Carolina bathroom law that was enacted in 2016 and later repealed following widespread boycotts and protests. That law did not include any criminal penalties…

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In the News (#1238)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, agency denial, All-Purpose Excuse, asset seizure, Blunt Instrument, California, Canada, censorship, cops, Feminists and Other Puritans, hotels, law, left-right myth, massage, masturbation, neofeminism, North Carolina, Oklahoma, politicians, porn, prisons, racism, social purity, South Carolina, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The Puritan Recrudescence, Torture Chamber on May 21, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Here I stand, I can do no other. – Rikki de la Vega

A Broker in Pillage

Unlike other government departments, the IRS doesn’t even bother to accuse people of actual crimes before robbing them blind:

…Institute for Justice client Lyndon McLellan saw the…IRS…reach…into his bank account [to steal] his life savings without warning or cause in 2014. McLellan [owned] a small convenience store…in Fairmont, North Carolina…he…worked long hours and rarely took vacations…Yet federal agents accused him of violating so-called structuring laws because his business frequently made bank deposits in amounts under $10,000…the[y stole] more than $107,000…”It took me 13 years to save that much money,” he says. “And it took fewer than 13 seconds for the government to take it away”…

All-Purpose Excuse

“Sex trafficking” is a convenient excuse for any tyranny:

The Manitoba government is tabling a bill…[which] would require hotels and people operating on online accommodation platforms, such as Airbnb, to keep a record of guests’ information, including their names and addresses…and…to hand over that information to police…on…demand…without a warrant…[politician Rochelle Squires tried to justify this incredible violation of civil rights by vomiting out the words] “human trafficking”…and “children”…

Feminists and Other Puritans

It’s nice to see someone whose name isn’t Maggie McNeill writing about this:

…the worst form of prudery and repression is that which comes from those who also claim to be feminists…Women’s rights activists have been divided about sex from the beginning. In the nineteenth century, the “free love” movement, which promoted birth control and sought to replace traditional male-dominated marriage with consensual unions of equal partners, butted heads with the “social purity” movement obsessed with controlling men’s lust as a way of eradicating such “evils” of prostitution and venereal disease…Those leaning towards the equality pole welcomed and worked with men who agreed with their goals, like Frederick Douglass and John Stuart Mill. Those on the protectionist side, however, viewed men with skepticism, and demanded that they prove their worth by swearing to be chaste and “chivalrous” towards women…Not far off from contemporary pledges to not use porn or “end demand for sex trafficking”! If the women who worked for social purity back then sounded like religious zealots, it’s because they were…

The Puritan Recrudescence

Politicians are increasingly convinced that they’re allowed to redefine legal concepts as they wish:

A strange new bill introduced by Oklahoma [politician] Rob Standridge would make it illegal to knowingly give “obscene material” to a “vulnerable person,” explicitly including unhoused people…SB 1522 [also includes] an unconstitutional redefinition of…“obscene material” as “any description, exhibition, presentation or representation, in whatever form, of nudity, sexual conduct, sexual excitement or sadomasochistic abuse”…Such supposedly obscene materials would include “book, magazine, newspaper, pamphlet, poster, print, picture, figure, image, description, motion picture film, record, recording tape, CD-ROM disk, magnetic disk memory [sic], magnetic tape memory, videotape, computer software, video game,” and other unspecified media to be determined by the authorities. Despite his seeming concern for the moral hygiene of the unhoused, Standridge recently opposed a new homeless shelter, making statements conflating Oklahoma’s unhoused population with “sex offenders” and calling them “a public safety risk”…

Stalkers in Blue (#987)

Another cop demonstrates what he is:

A Bay Area [cop] has been charged with masturbating in front of a family that called police during a fraught domestic violence call…Matthew Dominguez…“milled around the home…keep[ing] the daughter in view of his Body Worn Camera”…Dominguez [later]…unzipped his pants and began rubbing his crotch…[in full view of the mother and] daughter…Dominguez [kept] follow[ing the daughter]…around…The mother and daughter then went to find…the father…who…[also] “saw…Dominguez…with his erect penis in his left hand”…

Blunt Instrument (#1012)

This would be a much better article if it didn’t pretend that prohibitionism is a solely a phenomenon of the “right wing”:

For the past year, low-income Asian women in Newmarket [Ontario] have been engaged in a fierce battle with [politicians]…working to close down their massage businesses by claiming that the workers are both disreputable criminals and sex trafficking victims…in January…the town council imposed a set of regulations requiring massage businesses to get a new type of licence…[under] threat…[of] fines of $4,000 to $5,000 per day…the town…[is] using a fake anti-trafficking campaign…with zealous support from [the usual suspects]…thanks to centuries of racism and employment segregation in North America, body rubs are associated with crime, sex work, and people of colour…Newmarket town council declared their intention to create new rules that would drive out the businesses that they defined as “appeal[ing] to sexual appetites,” and the “brothels” that town councillors claimed were “hosts for human trafficking.” Their…plan was to get rid of suspected sex work by tightening the rules so that only businesses whose workers have formal educational certifications from Canada could get the newly [inven]ted Personal Wellness Establishment Licence…[such] certifications can take years…and tuition can cost thousands of dollars…

Repeatedly claiming that prohibition in Canada is “right wing” when Trudeau and his party eagerly promote it is tantamount to pissing on the readers’ legs and telling them it’s raining.

Torture Chamber (#1182)

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

[Young men] at a South Carolina…[prison are locked in cages] with feces on the floor, mold on the walls, and cockroaches in their food, according to a new lawsuit…the kids — who range in age from 13 to 19 – are [also] subjected to routine violence by [screws and] other [prisoners]…[screws also] use solitary confinement — in cells with no natural light — as a way to “protect” them from violence…some[times for]…months [at a stretch], and there [are] no meaningful educational or mental health services for the[m]…the…[prisoners] are disproportionately Black and from families that live below the federal poverty line…

Once again: it does not help young victims of governmental brutality to infantilize them as “children”.

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In the News (#1221)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Whore in Church, agency denial, Blunt Instrument, California, cops, Do As I Say, drugs, fantasy, Germany, law, massage, New York, Oregon, Pimps Ahoy, pragmatism, prisons, racism, rescue industry, scams, Science!, Texas, The Cop Myth, Ukraine, Virginia, Washington DC, Winding Down on March 19, 2022| 1 Comment »

We have been arrested simply for the fact we practice massage. – Charlotte

A Whore in Church

Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me:

I am a sex worker and a nude model. I post nude pictures of myself and sell masturbation videos for a subscription fee on my OnlyFans website…I married young and had my first child at 19. My priority was being a mom, and it’s still my priority today. When I was 31, my husband became sick with an illness that eventually took his life…A widowed mom becoming a sex worker is somewhat of a unique story, but my story is even more unusual because I am an active member of the Mormon Church…I believe that God wants us to be proud of our bodies and comfortable with sexuality. I believe that church leaders have decided this is wrong ― not God ― and I do not believe I need to choose between doing something I love and continuing as a member of the Mormon Church…Still, while I don’t worry or care about people looking down on me for my work, I do fear excommunication…

Actually, divorced or widowed moms doing sex work isn’t remotely unique; in fact, it’s probably closer to typical.

Science!

I’ll bet you knew this was coming:

…in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…women and children [are] seen as “fair game” for exploitative pimps and traffickers looking to capitalise on the destruction and deprivation that so often results from war…Ukraine’s geography — namely the country’s proximity to the regime of legalised prostitution in Germany — exacerbates the threat of pimps and traffickers looking to exploit a vulnerable population…

Tom Farr, whom I’m sure imagines himself a “feminist”, is disgusting not only in his denial of women’s agency and his bizarre claim that legal businessmen need to resort to kidnapping to get employees, but also by the almost-audible sound of fapping accompanying his one-hand-typed misogynist fantasy.

Pimps Ahoy

Exploitation is, sadly, more common than not in the “rescue” industry:

Employees of a Texas-contracted [profiting from housing] female [minors consigned to the] foster c[are system using the profitable excuse of “]sex trafficking[” have been caught exploit]ing the [girls]…Seven [girls], ages 11 to 17, were victimized by nine [people who claimed to be “sex trafficking experts”]…they…were sexually and physically abused and suffered from neglectful supervision and medical neglect while at The Refuge…in Bastrop…a current…employee reported…that…a[nother]…staff member sold nude photos of two [of the girls and]…us[ed] the proceeds to purchase…drugs and alcohol [for]…the [girls]…

Blunt Instrument (#1064)

An attempt to take one weapon of racist persecution away from cops:

New York…specifically directs local authorities to enforce licensing requirements for massage therapy — the only profession singled out. As a result, police across the state and particularly in New York City routinely raid massage parlors…sexually assaulting those they arrest in these raids, or taking cash and other valuables and never returning them…Asian immigrant women have disproportionately been subjected to these raids…Newly introduced New York State Assembly Bill A8281 aims to change that. The bill does not change licensing requirements for massage therapy or get rid of penalties for violations, but it does decriminalize unlicensed massage work and remove local police and district attorney enforcement…Red Canary Song…worked with lawyers at the New York Civil Liberties Union, immigration rights organizations and other legal aid groups to draft A8281. State Assemblymember Jessica González-Rojas, whose district includes several Queens neighborhoods close to Flushing, sponsored the bill…

Winding Down (#1195)

Your “leaders” know what’s best, so shut up and obey:

The Harris Rider, a provision barring the legalization of recreational marijuana sales in the nation’s capital…sailed through the Senate…a day after passing the House, as part of a larger $1.5 trillion spending omnibus package…Congressional Democrats had pushed to do away with the…rider…But [lacked the spine to stand up to]…Republicans “[Whine whine, simper simper” mewled one Democratic politician. “It’s not our fault” pouted another one]…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1199)

It’s good when they feed on each other:

A [typical and representative] Loudoun County [Virginia cop] pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor over the internet. Ryan Amos…used an internet application called “Whisper” to “engage in sexually charged conversations with an[other pervert cop fantasy role-play]ing as a 15-year-old girl”…Prosecutors [were most concerned about his desecrating his sacred clown costume by sending a picture of it to the role-playing wanker]…He will be required to register as a sex offender after being released from prison…

The Cop Myth (#1217)

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

A California [screw] was arrested…after he [murder]ed his girlfriend…Luis Antonio Pulido-Esparza…called…911…[and claimed] his girlfriend had shot herself…[cops] found three children in the home…and arrested Pulido-Esparza…

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Predictable Consequences

Posted in Current Events, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged brothels, cops, dirty, Georgia, hysteria, massage, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, politicians, Predictable Consequences, propaganda, psychology, racism, stereotypes, video, violence vs. sex workers, yellow journalism on March 25, 2021| 2 Comments »

All too often, human tragedies are wholly predictable. Busybodies, control freaks, and social engineers, in and out of government, create an elaborate propaganda narrative around people and things they want to control, and then some weak-brained individual or gang (usually young, male, and maladjusted), with or without magic government costumes, go out and inflict violence on strangers (usually minorities of one kind or another and often female) using that propanda narrative as an excuse and framework. Then those with blood on their hands start victim-blaming or otherwise pointing fingers at others, while politicians use the tragedy as an excuse to increase state power and violence, and the hopelessly clueless wring their hands and cry, “How did this happen?” This formula, with few variations, has repeated itself throughout history on a smaller or larger scale. Sometimes the tragedy is so awful the instigators are hoist with their own petard and public opinion turns against them and in favor of the people they’ve worked so hard to demonize, but more often the dimwits continue to believe the opportunists’ lies and the violence simply grows more deadly and general.

The tragedy at hand exploded on Tuesday of last week at three Asian massage parlors in greater Atlanta:

[Robert Aaron Long] targeted th[ree massage] businesses because he had “issues” with sexual addiction and had been planning to commit more shootings before he was captured…Long…targeted businesses that he had been to before…A total of eight people were killed and another was injured…The shooting began just before 5 p.m…at Young’s Asian Massage…Two Asian women, one white woman and one white man were killed inside the spa. Another man…was walking out of the store next door when he was hit by a bullet. He was rushed to the hospital…[Long] then drove into the city of Atlanta, where he…killed [three people] at Gold Spa and one…at Aromatherapy…all four [of those] were Asian women…Long was on his way to Florida to carry out more shootings [presumably at other parlors he had previously patronized, but his]…family [recognized him from publicized surveillance images]…and [gave cops his phone number so they]…were able to track his phone…and…[stop him by ramming his] car…Long [has already] confessed to the shootings…[saying] he blames the massage parlors for providing an outlet for his [imagined] addiction to sex…[he] said…he wanted to “eliminate the temptation”…

Of course, politicians, cops, and others who have promoted hysteria around sexuality in general and paid sex in particular for this entire century so far don’t want you to think too hard about their role in spreading the manure that this evil took root in, so they’re trying to frame the attacks as based in race-hatred rather than the obvious (he didn’t shoot up nail parlors & Asian restaurants) and self-admitted motive of whore-hatred. Lest you are tempted to give that narrative even a particle of credence:

Robert Long…had attended rehab for sex addiction and felt extreme guilt about his sexual urges, two former roommates said…Long has…[admitted] he committed the shootings because he [imagines he] has a “sex addiction” and wanted to eliminate his temptation…Tyler Bayless…spent months living with Long in an Atlanta halfway house named Maverick Recovery [a year ago]…He said Long was being treated for [so-called] sex addiction and felt an overwhelming sense of guilt over visiting massage parlors “for explicitly sexual activity…[which] he…[called] ‘relapses’…He would have a deep feeling of remorse and shame and say he needed to return to prayer and to return to God”…Bronson Lillemon, a second former housemate of Long’s, echoed Bayless’ account…Both housemates [said] that they never heard Long use racist language and had no knowledge that he ever visited racist message boards online…

Some media outlets appear to understand that this is about sex work rather than broad racism or misogyny, but want to shift the blame for creating Long’s sick weltanschauung from their aggressively-promoted mythology to the victims; this strategy is so utterly vile I’m not even going to quote it, but here are three examples, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the Washington Post, and the arch-prohibitionist New York Times. Instead, here are quotes from three articles by people who actually know what they’re talking about:

Cathy Reisenwitz:

…By perpetuating the myth of sex addiction and conflating sex work with sex trafficking the anti…sex worker movement has convinced men that they’re not responsible for their behavior and that sex workers…aren’t deserving of basic human dignity…“The modern sex addiction dialogue doesn’t encourage people to understand, accept and manage their sexual desires,” Dr. David Ley said of the attack. “Instead, it teaches people to hate”…By pushing the sex addiction myth, anti-sex worker, Evangelical groups like ExodusCry, [Morality in Media], and Polaris teach men that they aren’t in control of their sexuality. Rather…the[y]…teach people, especially men, to feel ashamed of and hate both their own sexuality and the people and media they find sexually arousing. They teach men to blame sex workers for their own feelings and behavior…Polaris, for example, spends millions pushing racist stereotypes. Their express purpose is to use state violence to deprive Asian massage owners and workers of their businesses and jobs…

Tracy Quan:

…Despite my Asian background, I find [Long’s] disavowal of racism strangely credible. Like a lot of people, I’ve experienced bias and ethnic profiling, but I’ve also been a sex worker, and I have encountered more prejudice, more name-calling, more fear, anger and hostility in connection with my sex work than regarding my race…Mainstream Americans, including many Asian Americans, are quick to blame racism yet unready to discuss an older hatred — what my French friends call “la putophobie” (a term more pleasing to the eye than the clunky compound “whorephobia”). It’s the last acceptable form of hate speech…Speculation about the spas…is fed by prejudice. Amplified by so-called antitrafficking voices, this prejudice is dangerously toxic. Fueled by religious fanaticism and illiberal forms of feminism, by punitive laws and tabloid headlines, this bias breeds self-loathing in young men who should be learning how to nurture, not extinguish, the varieties of human connection…

Religion writer Chissy Stroop:

…The moment I read that [Long] was the son of a youth pastor who told police he had a “sex addiction”…According to [psychologist Joshua] Grubbs…“conservative religious values are strongly linked to feelings of sex addiction…men…interpret normal sexual urges as pathological and then act on them in ways that they find to be problematic”…In evangelical…churches and…schools, discussions of sex are usually steeped in purity culture…a complex of beliefs and practices associated with an unhealthy fear of sexuality and intense pressure to remain…sexually inexperienced…before marriage…victims of…sexual assault in evangelical communities are often blamed for “tempting” the perpetrators…

I’ll leave the last word for Red Canary Song, the Asian sex worker organization; if you feel moved to donate to help the victims’ families, you can find links to do so at their website. There’s also an NPR interview here, and as usual, further updates will appear in subsequent news columns under this heading.

…We are concerned that many of those calling for action in this moment have and will continue to endorse violence towards Asian sex workers [and] massage workers…We reject the call for increased policing in response to this tragedy…[and] rising anti-Asian violence…Policing has never been an effective response to violence because the police are agents of white supremacy. Policing has never kept sex workers or massage workers or immigrants safe. The criminalization and demonization of sex work has hurt and killed countless people — many at the hands of the police both directly and indirectly…Asian massage workers are harmed by the criminalization of sex work, regardless of whether they engage in it themselves. Decriminalization of sex work is the only way that…anyone criminalized for their survival and/or livelihood will ever be safe…

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In the News (#986)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged activism, agency denial, Between the Ears, Blunt Instrument, brothels, censorship, Checklist, Connecticut, cops, dehumanization, Denmark, Disaster, Eavesdropping, Florida, France, hysteria, internet, law, Maryland, massage, neofeminism, New York, Panopticon, propaganda, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, rape, rescue industry, Rotting Fruit, surveillance, The Course of a Disease, The Public Eye, To Molest and Rape on November 6, 2019| 1 Comment »

The truth is, what affects sex workers eventually affects everyone. – Cora Harrington

The Public Eye

The more sex workers write and speak in public, the harder it will be to ignore us:

…Thierry Schaffauser…[is a] French social activist, sex worker, adult actor, and writer advocating for sex workers’ rights and the destigmatization of the industry. As a stigmatized industry, sex work is still misunderstood today, especially within politics…sex workers are still being exploited, while the government contributes to this exploitation instead of alleviating it. As a key figure in the sex worker rights movement, Schaffauser is constantly working towards dismantling these issues—in nearly two decades, he has co-founded Les Putes, a Paris-based organisation defending sex workers rights…founded Hackney Pride, wrote and published a series of articles educating the general public on sex workers rights, and is now working with STRASS, the French sex workers’ union…

Checklist (#811)

Ladies, please stop using Uber. They are training drivers to spy on us and rat us out to the pigs:

A number of Uber drivers in Baltimore took part in a[n indoctrination] designed to [brainwash them into seeing sex workers as criminals and victims]…The [propaganda was written by]…the Polaris Project, a [corporation which]…profit[s from] human trafficking [hysteria]…Among the [pretended] red flags [were] a customer asking to be dropped off at a [side] entrance…[or] trying to pay with cash…

Who the fuck tries to pay a rideshare with cash? You can’t even start an account without linking a credit card.

The Course of a Disease (#905)

A sleazebag prohibitionist has wormed her slimy way into the Danish government:

A parliamentary focus group appointed by the previous government to assess possible reform of rights for sex workers has been disbanded…by…new Minister of Social Affairs Astrid Krag…[who] said that sex workers should not be seen as [fully human]…but…a social problem that must be [oppressed]…“We don’t want [facts] telling us how we can make [life better for sex workers]” the minister [said]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#923)

When it comes to mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

The New Civil Liberties Alliance…sued the city of Coral Gables [Florida] on behalf Raul Mas Canosa, a motorist who was tracked by the city’s cameras…Miami-Dade County Circuit Court Judge Abby Cynamon rejected the city’s attempt to have the…lawsuit thrown out on the grounds that motorists have no expectation of privacy. The city also argued that because Canosa [has not yet been thrown in a cage or gunned down in the street by government thugs]…he has not been harmed. “This court finds that there is…nothing abstract, conjectural or ephemeral about the claim since the city has and continues to collect such information about the plaintiff’s vehicle.” Coral Gables [brags that it is] the “statewide leader” in the use of [universal surveillance]…having taken 30 million license plate photos last year alone. Those photos are converted into searchable database entries that track the time, date, identity and location for all vehicles passing through one of the city’s thirty camera-equipped roads and intersections — including Interstate 95. This movement history is then made available to eighty different state, federal and local agencies. Coral Gables began using the cameras in 2015 after [politicians] cut a [fascist] deal with Safeware and Vigilant Solutions…

Blunt Instrument (#930)

It’s great to see Asian sex workers fighting back against the racist “sex trafficking” narrative:

…the idea that…Asian massage parlors are bastions of sex trafficking has come not only from [pigs and politicians]…but also some of the hundreds of [highly] profit[able] organizations devoted to combatting [sex work]…but…[representatives from Red Canary Song]…said…”No one’s locked in…People can leave these establishments. They…can just not come back to work the next day, you know?…We’re not sex slaves and nobody I’ve talked or worked with is a sex slave by any means…they’re in it for the money and they make more money doing this than working in a restaurant washing dishes or in a dry cleaners folding laundry”…

Disaster (#940)

Does any media outlet other than local news fail to recognize what a disaster FOSTA is?

…Many digital platforms…have altered their terms of service…to fall in line with FOSTA/SESTA…[which was] marketed to voters as anti-trafficking…this…has resulted in companies…feeling pressured to censor content and remove sex workers from their platforms… putting…[them] in further danger by limiting online resources, and [also] pos[ing] a threat to the freedom of expression online…Sex workers are most at risk of having their livelihood and lives threatened, but anyone having any conversations related to sex and sexuality, or perceived as being related to sex and sexuality, are likely to be marginalized and excluded from platforms that are necessary to modern-day marketing and advertising…

To Molest and Rape (#941)

Your government calls this “border protection”:

An immigration agent threatened a Honduran woman living in Connecticut with deportation if she didn’t [submit to rape]…then raped her as often as four times a week for seven years, impregnating her three times…The woman, identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe, sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and [typical and representative] ICE agent Wilfredo Rodriguez…seeking $10 million in damages…Rodriguez…also…constantly…threaten[ed] to kill her and her family…

As usual, the government is hiding pictures of the rapist so other women can’t protect themselves against him. So until I get a picture of the actual rapist, I’m using this picture of the man officially responsible for his actions: his boss, the head of ICE.

Between the Ears (#966)

Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you:

…if you have any of a variety of “smart beds,” mattress pads or sleep apps, it knows when you go to sleep. It knows when you toss and turn. It may even be able to tell when you’re having sex…The Sleep Number bed is one of the most heavily marketed of such products…The company [pretends] it goes to great lengths to protect its customers’ data…[but] the company’s privacy notice, which clearly states that personal information — potentially including biometric data — “may” be shared with marketing companies or business partners [or pigs, if they demand it]…The policy also says personal information could be given to partners for “research, analysis or administering surveys”…

The Rest is Silence

The coroner knows full well there’s only one likely cause for a broken hyoid bone:

A forensic pathologist hired by Jeffrey Epstein’s brother said…evidence suggested that Mr. Epstein did not die by suicide, but may have been strangled…Dr. Michael Baden…said…Epstein…experienced a number of injuries — among them a broken hyoid bone — that “are extremely unusual in suicidal hangings and could occur much more commonly in homicidal strangulation…the evidence points to homicide rather than suicide…I’ve not seen in 50 years where that occurred in a suicidal hanging case.” The findings by Dr. Baden were [conveniently] disputed by the city’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Barbara Sampson, who previously ruled that…Epstein’s death…was a suicide…

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In the News (#978)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Moral Cancer, agency denial, Alabama, All-Purpose Excuse, asset seizure, bogus studies, California, cops, crypto-moralism, dating, Disaster, end demand, Full of Themselves, hysteria, language, Life Imitates Artifice, Maryland, massage, Michigan, Negative Secondary Effects, pimps, politicians, porn, pragmatism, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, rape, Safe Targets, sex work is work, shame, Singapore, statistics, streetwalkers, stripping, They Still Don't Get It, To Molest and Rape, transgender, United Kingdom, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), Washington DC, Watershed on October 9, 2019| Leave a Comment »

Everything cool gets co-opted, and whores have always been the coolest people in the room. – Jacq the Stripper

Life Imitates Artifice

It was inevitable that a real pimp would eventually ape prohibitionist wanking fantasies:

A convicted [armed robber] from Detroit faces new charges for allegedly running a prostitution ring that required the prostitutes — one underage — to brand themselves with his name. Tory Michael Anderson was [also] charged…[with] possession…of child pornography….one [woman] had his first name…tattooed on her neck while a second…had [it]…on her forehead. A third woman, only 17, had [it]…tattooed on the side of her face…

The origin of the “branding” myth is the common and very old practice of people getting the names of romantic partners tattooed on their bodies; since prohibitionists deny that most actual pimps really are a kind of partner, they had to characterize this practice as somehow different, leading to the embellishment that the “brand” is tattooed on the face, lip, eyelid, etc. Presumably this dude heard the tales and assumed that’s how he should behave to be a “real pimp”.

They Still Don’t Get It

I wonder if they realize what they’re admitting here?

The Stanislaus County [California] Sheriff’s Office conducted a sting Sept. 20 that resulted in the arrest of 12 men and several [women the pigs labeled] potential human trafficking victims. Although the sheriff’s office called it a human trafficking sting in their press release, [spokespig] Joshua Clayton said that the operation was better described as a prostitution sting…[because the terms] prostitution and human trafficking…are…used interchangeably…Paul Durenberger, deputy district attorney for Sacramento County, [fantasized] that…human trafficking could not exist without prostitution and vice versa…

Watershed

We’re way past the watershed now:

Since the passage of FOSTA…conversations about sex workers’ rights and decriminalization have entered into mainstream consciousness…Sex work is becoming more than just acceptable—the rising popularity of sex worker-inspired fashion, aesthetics, and philosophy among millennial women, including those who aren’t sex workers themselves, is sparking a complex dialogue…Like “lesbian chic” in the ’90s, some non-sex working millennial women are adopting sex work as an edgy aesthetic, because being a sex worker—or rather, looking like one—is cool…

For Love

One of Dan Savage’s readers demonstrates why it’s a bad idea to quit sex work for “love”:

…A few months in, I…made the amateur mistake of moving him from customer to boyfriend. Things went well for a bit but he progressively got less generous. (This is common, I’ve since heard.) Six months after we met he bought me a car and considered any financial obligations to me “complete”. We had a discussion about how I was going to get a “regular” job and be in a monogamous relationship with him. The only problem was, no regular job was enough to support my family. I struggled and hinted that I needed some help, but he [gave none, so]…I reached out to a former client and he happily started paying me for regular visits again…My boyfriend found out…and insisted I “dump” [my good client]…And I was so dumb and in love that I did…until my older kid needed braces and my younger kid needed glasses and my bills were out of control…[while] my boyfriend was making six figures…After months of going back and forth, he dumped me for good and took back his car…

A Moral Cancer (#583)

Nutritionists aren’t “scientists”, because nutritionism is pseudoscience:

[Busybody bureaucrats] for years have urged Americans to limit consumption of red meat and processed meats because of [crypto-moralism]…but…an international collaboration of researchers produced a series of analyses concluding that the advice…is not…scientific…If there are health benefits from eating less beef and pork, they are…so faint that they can be discerned only when looking at large populations…and are not sufficient to tell individuals to change their meat-eating habits…Already they have been met with fierce criticism by [nutritionists]…

That last line is equivalent to saying that a report in an astronomical journal was “met with fierce criticism by astrologers”.

Full of Themselves (#831)

Alabama’s “licensed massage therapists” want to be as pompous as California’s:

Massage therapies are a common front for human trafficking, but in Alabama the Massage Therapy Board is very active in fighting back. “We are probably one of the very few states out of the fifty that have the authority to go and inspect an establishment…So we are pretty much the lead in the nation when it comes to dealing with these kinds of complaints.” Those fighting traffickers know the best way to stop the process is to take away their means of carrying out their practice…Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office came up with a new law that is designed to fight traffickers…“It’s not too far akin to [sic] what we see in the fortitude [sic] side for criminal cases,” he said…

Presumably, “asset fortitude” is something like the “poignant” smell of marijuana.

Disaster (#873)

The predictable result of non-binding “policies” that leave oppressive laws in place:

Seattle police…this summer returned to routinely arresting and booking sex workers on Aurora Avenue in North Seattle. While the city has publicly and p[ompous]ly pursued the “demand” side of the sex trade — [except for Asian sex workers, whom they have continued to persecute using racist “sex trafficking” tropes] — the City Attorney’s Office and the Seattle Police Department since 2012 have mostly shied away from [formally] booking [native-born] sex workers themselves, [forc]ing them instead [in]to [useless “diversion” programs that make bourgeois white Seattlites feel good]…But in the face of a sharp spike in the amount of street-based sex work [due to clownish government interference in sex workers’ advertising venues]…and [the discontinuance of payoffs from Swanee Hunt’s “Demand Abolition” scam]…the Seattle Police Department began [persecuting street workers again despite repeated assurances from “officials” that they wouldn’t]…Since July, SPD has made about 120 arrests via sting operations, said [boss pig Mike] Edwards…

The rest is the usual “crime” and “doing something” bullshit and propaganda about the worse-than-useless LEAD “conversion therapy” program.

To Molest and Rape (#890)

Prince George’s County, Maryland is known for rapist cops; this may give you some inkling why:

…Ian G Lucas from the Prince George’s County Police Department and an unnamed [cop] from…Washington DC…[repeatedly] target[ed] transgender [sex workers] and threaten to to [cage] them…unless they [sucked the pig’s dicks]…One woman went to DC’s FOX station with her story, providing…video proof…Multiple women [then] testified in front a grand jury…after being granted immunity. But…both police forces and the federal prosecutor…shrugged their shoulders…Lucas was [rewarded for the rapes with a paid vacation and given a plea bargain for “solicitation of a prostitute” which wil]…be withdrawn after six months [when] he completes 48 hours of community service. The charges w[ill] be dismissed [and he will be immunized from further prosecution] and…not be required to register as a sex offender…

All-Purpose Excuse (#923)

Trumpists and anti-Trumpists continue to fight for control of the “sex trafficking” narrative:

The Trump administration abruptly delayed a $13.5 million grant to house human trafficking victims just five days after saying that “non-citizens” could be served by the program. The program’s funds, which were approved two years ago by multiple federal agencies, are now in limbo with no indication when money will be distributed…The grants were to be dispersed by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in collaboration with the Department of Justice and Health and Human Services…On September 4, the funding announcement was updated to “allow recipients [of the funds] to serve non-citizens,” including lawful permanent residents and foreign national victims…Five days later, the grant solicitation was cancelled…DOJ has…asked for the funds back from HUD and…will now run the program itself…

Negative Secondary Effects (#933)

UK judge says only “good” women should be protected by anti-“revenge porn” laws:

Nine strip club performers in the United Kingdom are fighting to stop the publication of an undercover video shot by Not Buying It, a self-described “feminist” anti-sex work organization. The performers argue that the footage, shot by hired [ex-pigs]…“could infringe their human right to…priva[cy]”…Already, this seems to be proving true…A judge ruled that, against the performers’ wishes, their names will be revealed in court records. These women…will…be outed as sex workers…because a feminist organization is ostensibly concerned, as the Guardian puts it, “about the exploitation of women.” Guess it’s OK when self-described feminists are the ones doing the exploiting…

Safe Targets (#953)

Please tell us more about how legalization “protects” sex workers:

A [Singaporean mired in gambling debts named]…Tan Shi Feng…targetted [a] sex worker [for robbery by impersonating a cop], believing that the victim would not report to the police as she…provided [what the state idiotically labels] illegal sexual services…Tan [and two confederates tricked their way into their victim’s flat]…by pretending [Tan was] a genuine customer…They [stole]…$15,000 in cash and an Apple iPhone worth $600 from [her]…

No, he didn’t “cheat” her; he robbed her. Armed robbery, to be precise, backed up by the threat of state violence.

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Loose Cannons

Posted in Current Events, Tyranny, tagged asset seizure, brothels, cops, end demand, Florida, Loose Cannons, massage, propaganda, racism, shame, violence vs. sex workers on May 2, 2019| 5 Comments »

Cops and prosecutors have become so used to courts sucking their dicks and reporters licking their boots that they seem to have developed a pathological level of overconfidence in their own lies and depredations. Any wholly-sane person with a particle of common sense would realize that it’s going to be harder to pin any kind of crime, much less a consensual one, on a billionaire, and yet nobody involved in the massage-parlor raids which ensnared Robert Kraft seems to have considered what a bad idea it was to try to pretend that a well-liked 77-year-old man with no criminal record was some kind of violent psycho because he paid for a hand job from a middle-aged woman. Instead, we were treated to the spectacle of a pompous sheriff strutting about for the cameras, vomiting out racist sex fantasies and bizarre nonsense about “zombie sex slaves” while prosecutors demanded that Kraft and literally hundreds of other victims of the pogroms perjure themselves by swearing under oath that the cops’ sexual fantasies were true and submitting to a humiliating combination of brainwashing and slavery (“john school” and “community service”). As any non-megalomaniac could’ve predicted, Kraft and most of the others turned them down flat and demanded jury trials while the whole “sex trafficking” narrative unraveled in record time and the Martin County sheriff’s office was revealed in the press as a hotbed of corruption, including many bogus arrests. But sociopathic manbabies used to getting their way don’t back down when confronted by opposition that would cause the wise to think twice; instead they doubled down, attempting to get back at people who dared assert their Constitutional right to a trial by threatening to release the illegally-obtained surveillance videos:

The Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office has announced its intention to make the surveillance videos of Kraft, and all other suspects, available to the public. Kraft’s lawyers have strenuously opposed the release of this material, but media companies and prosecutors have pushed back, contending that since the investigation is over, the Florida Sunshine Law guarantees the public access to these records…Kraft’s legal team has filed a pair of motions seeking to suppress the video. One motion holds that the videos should remain private because “the Jupiter Police Department deems the masseuses who are alleged to have performed the sex acts to be victims of a sexual offense”…

The government quickly countered by basically admitting that it lied, and the women were just plain old dirty whores:

“All of the masseuses who engaged in acts of prostitution in the Orchids of Asia Spa and who have been identified are being charged with felonies and misdemeanors,” [state attorney Greg] Kridos wrote in response to that motion. [But] the second defense motion seeks to get the video thrown out out on the grounds that [pig] Andrew Sharp…[intentionally] lied about suspected human trafficking in order to get a warrant for cameras at the spa…

The attorneys for the other charged men quickly followed suit, and a judge responded accordingly:

…Florida Judge Leonard Hanser agreed to temporarily seal the footage of [patrons at]…Orchids of Asia spa…Kraft…[is] fighting the disclosure…And…lawyers for other solicitation defendants…filed a joint motion seeking to prevent the public release of imagery from the hidden cameras…

A third lawsuit, this one a federal class-action suit, was filed by the cops’ victims who weren’t charged:

Nearly three dozen men and women have filed a federal class-action lawsuit accusing Florida authorities of unlawfully videotaping them as they received legal massages…The lawsuit by 31 John and Jane Does alleges that Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aronberg, the Jupiter Police Department and the case’s lead detective violated their rights to privacy…None of the 31 has been charged with a crime…It seeks unspecified monetary and punitive damages and to have the video recordings blocked from public release and ultimately destroyed. “It is horrific when you think about the scenario,” said [lead attorney] Joseph Tacopina…“It is akin to going to a bathroom. You are in a state of undress and you are being surreptitiously recorded and that recording is now subject to disclosure and being disseminated around the internet. It is an abomination of any form of privacy rights and constitutional rights”…

And how did the cops react to all this? By arresting another of the women they called “victims” and robbing her blind:

A woman accused of performing an illegal sex act on…Robert Kraft…is now under arrest. 58-year-old Shen Mingbi was booked…and…[cops stole her] safety deposit box at Bank of America [that] contained approximately $43,800…a judge set her bond at $5,000…[with the condition that she] can’t [support herself by] work[ing] in [her own profession]…and also must surrender her passport and any travel documents…

Oh, and make that four lawsuits:

…attorneys for [arrested sex workers] Lei Wang and…Hua Zhang…asked a judge to hold the Jupiter Police Department and Palm Beach County State Attorney’s Office responsible for…trying to leak the Kraft surveillance video to TheBlast.com…

Yes, in an act of petulance that’s hard to fathom even by the abysmal ethics of prosecutors, they tried to disobey a judge and release the videos anyhow:

…when the police admitted months later that no human trafficking had occurred, it was too late. They had tied Kraft to the despicable crime of sex trafficking and then simply moved on. No corrections were issued on any of these stories. Having spread this vicious lie…the state attorney moved on to other methods of torment…Kneel and confess guilt, or we will release embarrassing footage of you…Kraft’s attorneys have, so far, successfully blocked the release. But on [Good] Friday, those attorneys said that the video had been leaked and was now being shopped around to various websites…

The reporter who wrote the foregoing, Karol Markowicz, has been a dependable supporter of sex worker rights for years, added this sharp observation, and since I couldn’t say it any better I’ll let her close this column:

…the Kraft case should appall even [prohibitionists]. This is now a story about how the justice system has moved to humiliate and harm Kraft because he refuses to bow to their demands that he proclaim his guilt. What is being done to Kraft should sound an alarm for us all…Many are enjoying the whole debacle. Kraft is a very rich man. He’s a friend of President Trump. Who cares if he gets abused by the justice system? But that’s exactly backward. If this is happening to this rich, prominent man, with access to the best lawyers and p.r., what happens to the rest of us?

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In the News (#906)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, bogus studies, brothels, cops, Counterfeit Comfort, Fair-Weather Friends, fantasy, fascism, Georgia, Gingerbread House, Hollywood, hysteria, Ireland, language, LGBT rights, massage, Michigan, Monsters, Moving Pictures, Ohio, Philippines, prisons, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, rescue industry, Russia, sex offender registry, stripping, surveillance, Traffic Jam, violence vs. sex workers, Where Are the Victims?, Whimsical Notions on January 23, 2019| 2 Comments »

I am here of my own free will and no one has threatened me. – Irish sex worker to cops, during a raid

Counterfeit Comfort

Facts have absolutely nothing to do with US sex laws:

…in…2002’s McKune v. Lile…Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in a plurality opinion that there was a “frightening and high risk of recidivism” for [sex offenders]…and that “the rate of recidivism of untreated offenders has been estimated to be as high as 80 percent.” That statement has since been used in numerous legal verdicts as well as to support countless pieces of state and local legislation aimed at curbing the rights of those found guilty of [sex] crimes…[but] the sole piece of evidence that led Justice Kennedy to make such a bold claim came from a 1986 Psychology Today article written by Ronald Longo, a counselor…in an Oregon prison—and there was absolutely no statistical basis for his “80 percent” assertion. Moreover, Longo himself has since rejected that figure…actual sex-offender recidivism rates are low. In three-year studies done by Connecticut, Alaska, Nebraska, Maine, New York and California, recidivism figures are generally less than 4 percent—hardly a “frightening and high” figure. Furthermore, most conclude that there’s no correlation between recidivism rates and geographic proximity, meaning that laws passed to keep registered sex offenders from living close to schools, playgrounds, or other kid-centric areas generally have no impact; if wrongdoers are likely to seek prey nearby, it’s often in their own homes, or in churches or educational settings, where they know their intended targets…

Gingerbread House

Quite possibly the most appalling euphemism for “jail” of the entire moral panic:

Vista Maria plans to break ground this spring on a new human trafficking stabilization center to improve and expand services for young female victims…The new Aaron and Helen L. DeRoy Stabilization Treatment Center will provide residential treatment housing for up to 16 girls, doubling Vista Maria’s current capacity, and a first-of-its-kind emergency intake wing to provide services for up to three rescued adolescent girls…with best practices gleaned from [prohibitionists and cops]…

Whimsical Notions

Based on my experience, this is like demoting a captain for eating at local restaurants:

Capt. Travis Zettel…commander of the USS Bremerton was removed from his post and demoted last summer…the Navy did not elaborate on his dismissal, only saying that there were “questions of inappropriate personal conduct” and that his superior officers had lost confidence in his ability to lead his crew…The Kitsap Sun filed a Freedom of Information request…and discovered that Capt. Travis Zettel was relieved from command because he had hired prostitutes while in the Philippines. A [snitch] called the inspector general’s office and said that Zettel had requested ten local women to come to his hotel room in Subic Bay…

It’s like watching an entire culture lobotomizing itself.

Where Are the Victims? (#631)

There weren’t any actual victims, but we just have to harass and threaten people, because SEEWEEUSS UFFENSE!

A woman running massage parlours in Dublin who…thought the offering of “manual relief” was legal has received a suspended prison sentence. Nan Wu…[was] sentenced…to two years imprisonment, but [the judge] suspended the entirety of the sentence…[the cops] admitted…that there was no evidence of coercion and that one of the woman working at the parlour had told gardaí “I am here of my own free will and no one has threatened me”…there was no sexual intercourse taking place at the massage parlours and…Wu had not directed her employees to engage in sex acts…her employees kept the money they earned from [providing a normal, healthy service to clients]…Wu had believed what her employees were doing was legal. She had once sacked an employee for [intercourse] with a client…The judge said the [only] aggravating factor in the case was the seriousness of the offence…

Traffic Jam (#656)

If you thought “pimp” classification schemes were stupid, how about “human trafficking typologies”?

Human trafficking claims some 25 million victims worldwide, but analysts are hard at work uncovering these illegal operations through state of the art methods and typologies, combining AI with human detective work. The human trafficking epidemic is so widespread that [cops have been caught raping underage girls]…[invent]ing human trafficking rings is one of the many [profitable] issues [promoted] by UK-based [fascist collaborator] Quantexa…Typologies are compiled by analyzing many factors that make up a profile that is indicative of human trafficking behavior…“we were looking for things like lots of airline purchases to Eastern Europe [because the only] circumstances [when a woman would come from]…over here [to the UK is] to be sex trafficked…we see stuff on things like craigslist and back pages and massage parlors and this kind of stuff”…

Obviously if cops (specifically, UN “peacekeepers” in this case) rape vulnerable young women as cops have always done in every place they’ve existed, it’s part of a “human trafficking epidemic” so we should give these con artists more money. Because women are mindless cows who only travel if “pimps” herd us, plus “craigslist and back pages and massage parlors and this kind of stuff”. SO SCIENTIFIC!

Monsters (#730)

US media condemns violent persecution of one sexual minority, while justifying violent persecution of another:

The Russian republic of Chechnya has launched a new crackdown on gays in which at least two people have died and about 40 people have been detained…media outlets have interviewed some of the victims, who spoke about torture at the hands of Chechen [pigs]…Chechen authorities have denied those accusations, and federal authorities [covered for them, as police states always cover up police brutality]…

Moving Pictures (#835)

Looks like Theresa Flores has competition for the most ludicrous, exaggerated conglomeration of “sex trafficking” masturbatory fantasies intended to profit from moral panic:

Perhaps the low point of Toni Rivera’s life as a sex slave happened when she was forced to have intercourse with 23 men back-to-back to pay off her pimp’s Super Bowl bet. Perhaps her breaking point happened when she begged a Miami cop to free her from violent bondage, only to have that police officer say that he’d love to take her home and have sex with her himself. Or maybe Rivera’s low point came when she became a sex pimp herself and she began recruiting young girls out of churches every week. Or maybe it was the time when a known national sex trafficker tried to grab Rivera’s 6-year-old daughter off the famously crowded 6 Train in New York City, and no one would step in to help her…Toni Rivera Presents Silent Screams on the Frontlines…is a captivating but heart-wrenching recap of how Rivera went from being a naive, small-town South Carolina teen with big dreams of being a singer who wound up being a piece of property that was bought and sold with impunity on the streets of Atlanta…the critically acclaimed film Traffik…is based partially on Rivera’s tortured existence in the sex trafficking business…

I literally LOLed at “sex pimp”, but there’s SO MUCH hilarity here…23 clients back to back! The Super Bowl! Violent bondage! Hero cops! “Recruiting” out of churches every week! A “nationally known sex trafficker”! And a movie that was supposedly based on this wanking fantasy, despite the filmmaker’s previous claim that it was based on “real life sex trafficking incidents near his home in Northern California“…

Pyrrhic Victory (#851)

I’m afraid it’s far too late to put this evil djinni back into its bottle:

…A group of Amazon shareholders are looking to force a vote at the upcoming annual meeting to prevent the company from selling its facial recognition technology to the government until the company’s board of directors has a chance to look at the societal impacts…The resolution was submitted by lead filer Sisters of St. Joseph of Brentwood and four co-filers: The Sisters of St. Francis Charitable Trust (Dubuque), Sisters of St Francis of Philadelphia, Maryknoll Sisters and Azzad Asset Management…one of three things could happen next: Amazon principals could address the shareholders’ concerns, prompting the group to withdraw the resolution; the company could take no action, which would bring the resolution to a vote at the annual meeting; or the company could fight the filing at the Securities and Exchange Commission…

Fair-Weather Friends (#881)

Every sex worker arrested in a “sting” should sue the cops if at all possible:

Stormy Daniels is suing the Columbus Division of Police and several [vice pigs for] her July 2018 arrest…her arrest was planned days before [the] July 11, 2018 performance…as part of an attempt by [cops] to disparage her character and credibility due to her criticism of President Donald Trump. Prosecutors dropped charges against [her] hours later, saying the law cited in her arrest applied only to those who regularly performed at the club. The city prosecutor later said the law was “glaringly inequitable” and should no longer be enforced. The lawsuit seeks more than two million dollars in damages…

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In the News (#874)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, activism, agency denial, An Example to the West, Arizona, asset seizure, BDSM, Belgium, Blunt Instrument, California, clowns, Comfort Zone, cops, drugs, Europe, Facebook, fantasy, Florida, halfway whores, hysteria, If It Were Legal, illegal aliens, Jordan, law, libraries, massage, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, pragmatism, prisons, racism, Send In the Clowns, Storyville, Texas, Thailand, The Widening Gyre, Torture Chamber, Under Every Bed on September 26, 2018| Leave a Comment »

To many people, what we do is more important than who we are. – Empower Foundation

Storyville

An interesting collection of 19th-century brothel photos:

…Working Girls, an exhibition of remarkable archival photos…has just opened at Ricco/ Maresca Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea district (where it will remain on view through October 13). These photographs, which are also featured in a new book of the same name…are intriguing documents…of “an American brothel, circa 1892”…

If It Were Legal

I know several ladies who would’ve gladly handled this job:

An Arizona man has been charged with multiple counts of sex abuse and fraudulent schemes after he allegedly faked having Down syndrome and hired female caregivers to bathe him and change his diapers. Three women have accused Paul Menchaca…[who] would become aroused during baths and diaper changes…Menchaca…hired the women using an online service, where he posed as his mother…making arrangements for them to pick him up at various locations…Several…times he insisted that his genitals were not cleaned enough…The caregivers became suspicious, and one…visited Menchaca’s home…Menchaca’s parents…said he is capable of taking care of himself and does not have Down syndrome…

Even if sex work were legal and unstigmatized, Menchaca (and others like him) might still choose not to hire dommes willing to cater to infantilists, either because they’re too cheap or they get off on tricking women. And certainly, most infantilists do contract with dommes to get their needs met despite the stigma. But the possibility cannot be discounted that some, perhaps even many, men with this kink are too ignorant to know that there are professionals skilled in dealing with their needs or too afraid to hire them.

Bad Fantasy, Good Reality

Hostess bars in the Near East aren’t very different from those in the Far East:

…are the “Russian bars” [in Jordan] really hotbeds of prostitution and trafficking? “Russian bars” aren’t necessarily Russian. The women who work there…[often] hail from other post-Soviet and central Asian countries, including Ukraine, Estonia, Romania, Uzbekistan and Moldova. “Russian” women work in bars in many other Middle Eastern countries, including Lebanon, and are often assumed to be sex workers…[but] the bar owners and managers either prohibited or strongly discouraged the women from sleeping with their…clients…The women make their money by getting the clients to buy drinks at the bar…and…work on commission…Bar managers…ensure that the women are sent home in cabs booked by the bar, so there is no chance they are going to a client’s home. But rules get broken, or at least worked around. What is good for the bar manager isn’t necessarily what’s good for the women working there. Whilst all of the women interviewed for the study on “Russian bars” denied ever having sex with a client, everyone knew another girl who had…

A Broker in Pillage

Let’s hope this is merely the first of many such settlements:

Philadelphia’s civil forfeiture program, which critics have long assailed for allowing prosecutors to [steal] the cash and property of [innocent people]…will be overhauled as part of a court settlement…the city…agreed to place new limits on its seizures, more quickly hold hearings for defendants to challenge the seizures, and include judicial oversight earlier in the process…”Philadelphia treated its citizens like ATMs, ensnaring thousands…in a system designed to strip people of their property and their rights,” [said] Darpana Sheth…[of the] Institute for Justice…the settlement would also create a $3 million fund to compensate some of those whose property was seized…Scott Bullock, president of the Institute for Justice…said that other jurisdictions should proactively seek to reform their civil forfeiture practices in order to avoid litigating them as Philadelphia was forced to do…

Blunt Instrument

“Sex trafficking” is such a convenient weapon to use against adult businesses:

San Diego massage parlors have become hotspots of human trafficking thanks to the high concentration of U.S. military personnel in the area, claim local [prohibition]ists…If San Diego has a human trafficking problem because of U.S. troops, I’d say that’s an issue for the U.S. military and federal law enforcement. Instead, the San Diego City Council is considering a measure to require special police-issued permits for massage businesses, in addition to the general business permits owners must have and the state certification required of massage therapists…These new licenses could be yanked if any illicit activity takes place at the business…a business fronting for illegal activity can already be shut down if law enforcement goes through the typical legal channels: bringing criminal charges, proving guilt, etc., etc…But those avenues require due process, which is costly and time-consuming for cops and prosecutors. The new measure would allow the city to yank a business’ license if any of its individual employees were found guilty of any number of minor offenses…excessive occupational and business licensing has come under intense fire from progressives…So…bureaucrat[s]..pretend the regulations are about protecting people, rather than depriving them of their liberty and property…

Under Every Bed

Population 13,665:

…a recently-formed group in York County [Nebraska] wants to…erase the faces of sex trafficking from the York area…and…educate York County residents on what they can do to disrupt the sex trafficking plague…Local schools are being trained on how to identify human trafficking, as well as the hospitality industry…Hospitality employees are crucial to disrupting sex trafficking, as many victims are sold in hotels…

This is one of the tiniest little podunk towns I’ve ever featured in this subtitle; even the rural county I lived in when I was in Oklahoma had almost twice as many people, and I was the only escort there (plus a couple of girls who worked the bars, I believe). One wonders where they think all those “sex traffickers” are hiding; I grew up in a town of 6000 and everybody knew everybody else’s business.

Torture Chamber

“Correcting” people to death:

A Texas prison guard has been charged in the aggravated assault of an inmate who…died [as a result of the attack]…[screw] D’Andre Glasper [slammed] Gary Ryan[‘s] head [into a concrete floor, resulting in]…brain injuries…[Ryan] died nearly two weeks later…Ryan was less than three months away from completing a five-year sentence for [contempt of cop]…

An Example To the West (#659)

The Thai sex worker organization EMPOWER has now opened an online library to supplement its physical sex work museum in Chiang Mai. I have said many times before that Asian sex worker activists, most especially Thai and Indian activists, are among my heroines; they regularly accomplish amazing activism far beyond what we in the West ever manage, under oppression and social stigma as bad as that in the US. These women’s courage is an inspiration to all their sisters in every land.

Send In the Clowns

A sad epilogue to the Great Clown Panic of 2016:

A Reading [Pennsylvania] man was sentenced…to 22 months to five years in state prison for firing a shotgun while drunk at his apartment in December 2016 because he believed there were clowns inside it…Nathan A. Matthias…will receive credit for the 490 days he’s spent in prison since June 2017 and was ordered to complete drug and alcohol treatment…[cops] found Matthias standing next to the house holding a shotgun and ordered him to put the gun on the ground. Matthias told police that two small clowns were running around his apartment and he had shot at them…While being questioned outside, Matthias pointed next door and said he still saw clowns on the neighbor’s roof, but [the cops] did not see any…

Comfort Zone (#847)

Europe’s attempts to hide its racism behind the “human trafficking” hysteria are crumbling:

Eleven people who had been arrested and charged with human trafficking in October 2017 appeared in court in Brussels on September 6, the first hearing of a trial that activists say is yet another case of “criminalization of solidarity” in Europe. The defendants have allegedly assisted 95 undocumented migrants, including 12 minors, to travel from Belgium to the United Kingdom last year, either by hosting them in their homes, by lending them phones and thereby indirectly helping them cross the channel. On the day of the trial, three hundred people protested in front of the courthouse. Demonstrators say this is a political trial, aimed at dissuading people from helping migrants by establishing an intimidating judicial precedent…Belgian law states that there must be a monetary transaction involved for an act to be framed as human trafficking, something the defendants deny ever happening…[advocates point out] that the law’s scope is…being expanded to target activists…

The Widening Gyre (#872)

The more cops are forced to deny “sex trafficking” scary tales, the harder it will be for them to spread such tales themselves:

The woman behind a now viral Facebook Live video says she regrets using the term “human trafficking” to describe what [didn’t] happen…at a local grocery store but does not regret [spreading hysteria about] the [fantasy]. Lynne Knowles went live on Facebook Sunday and it has since been viewed more than 3 million times. Knowles described a suspicious man following her through several aisles of a [Florida] grocery store, recording her on his cell phone…While the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office says they are seeing more women report[ing] being followed by strangers in public places, what happened to Knowles doesn’t sound like a precursor to human trafficking…[spokespig] Spencer Gross…says [they haven’t] investigated a human trafficking case in more than 18 months…[but oink oink “If you see something say something” squeal grunt]…

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Frank commentary from a semi-retired call girl

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