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Posts Tagged ‘Not for Any Reason Whatsoever’

Links #539

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 2, 2020| 2 Comments »

James Randi, AKA, “The Amazing Randi”, died last week at the age of 92.  If you don’t know who he was, watch this short video for an introduction; there’s also a full-length documentary on his life’s work, An Honest Liar.  The links above the video were provided by Mistress Matisse, Nun Ya, Franklin Harris, Radley Balko, Cop Crisis, Walter Olson, and Mike Siegel, in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#1049)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 21, 2020| Leave a Comment »

American policing is a thick blue tumor strangling the life from our communities.  –  A  Cab

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

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

A San Francisco woman who questioned a man writing “Black Lives Matter” on his own home has apologised for…[trying to get him beaten, abducted or murdered by] calling the police on him…In the video, shot by James Juanillo on his phone, [Lisa] Alexander is seen asking Mr Juanillo, who is Filipino, whether he lives in the house, saying that he is defacing private property as he uses chalk to write words on his wall…[luckily for] Juanillo…the [cop who came]…recogni[zed him and declined to brutalize him]…

Monsters (#949)

In which yelling “stop faking!” is described as “trying to wake her”:

New footage outside the Rikers Island [solitary confinement] cell…where transgender woman Layleen…Polanco died last June reveals that guards tried to wake her for approximately an hour and a half before calling for…medical care that could have saved her life…after an epileptic seizure…

Fallen Idol (#976)

I suspect this isn’t going to end well:

Ginger Banks…who co-starred in the 2018 Evil Angel documentary-style feature Cam Girls, has filed a police report for “sexual battery” with the West Hollywood Police Department against company owner and director John Stagliano for an incident while they were shooting a scene for that project in February 2018…Banks [also] posted a series of videos on social media describing her frustration with “the lack of accountability” she felt the adult industry dispensed to powerful stakeholders like Stagliano…Banks [said] that the recent decision to file charges now stems from a realization that what had happened to her and her co-star, cam model Jenny Blighe, was indeed a reportable offense under California law…

Choke Point (#1013) 

More fascism in action; don’t say sex workers didn’t warn you:

Covid Bail Out NYC, a group raising funds to get people out of jails during the…pandemic, has a list of hundreds of people waiting to be bailed out.  But because of constant security freezes and transfer limits imposed by PayPal and its mobile payment service Venmo, the group is only able to bail out around five people— $20,000 worth of cash bail—per week…In response to the pandemic, several grassroots bail out organizations popped up, using community outreach, social media, and payment processing platforms like PayPal, Venmo, and Cash App to raise funds quickly.  The crisis became even more urgent during the Black Lives Matter protests, as police a[bduc]ted and [cag]ed thousands of [citizens exercising their First Amendment rights] across the U.S…the…process starts to break down because of payment platform’s transfer limits…PayPal…users can transfer up to $60,000 a week, but may be limited to $10,000 in a single transaction …But unusual activity—like a mutual aid fund going viral on Twitter and having its account flooded with donations, for example—could trip PayPal’s fraud monitoring service.  Those holds can stay…for weeks…[while] PayPal [continues to collect interest on the balance]…

Social Distancing (#1042)

At their core, the Netherlands are still prohibitionist:

…Like other freelancers [Jeanet] applied for emergency government funding but…has not…received a penny,  [so she] works illegally as an escort…from home, usually with clients she has known for a long time. “I do not take too many customers, for safety reasons,” she says. But, even with the infectious disease spreading, there are still plenty of customers who are willing to pay for her services…Sex workers in the Netherlands have been hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic…[because] the government has [declared them “nonessential“, so many must]…work…illegally…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1048)

Oh look, Microsoft also wants to have its cake and eat it too:

Microsoft CEO Brad Smith declared during an online Washington Post event…that his company “will not sell facial-recognition technology to police departments in the United States until we have a national law in place…that will [allow us to pretend we aren’t evil for developing] this technology.”  This follows Amazon’s announcement…that it is implementing a one-year moratorium on police use of the company’s …facial recognition platform…These moves follow IBM CEO Arvind Krishna’s letter to Congress announcing that his company is getting out the facial recognition business…The digital rights group Fight for the Future has issued a statement calling Amazon and Microsoft’s moves “essentially a public relations stunt.”  The companies’ researchers will “spend the next year ‘improving’ the accuracy of their facial recognition algorithms, making it even more effective as an Orwellian surveillance tool…The reality is that facial recognition technology is too dangerous to be used at all…Congress should act immediately to ban facial recognition for all surveillance purposes”…

The Cop Myth (#1048)

Will you believe that there’s no such thing as a good cop if a cop tells you so?

I was a police officer for nearly ten years and I was a bastard.  We all were…It’s a time in my life I’m ashamed of.  It’s a time that I hurt people and, through inaction, allowed others to be hurt…Under the guise of public safety, I personally ruined people’s lives but in so doing, made the public no safer…so did the family members and close friends of mine who also bore the badge alongside me.  But enough is enough.  The reforms aren’t working. Incrementalism isn’t happening.  Unarmed Black, indigenous, and people of color are being killed by cops in the streets and the police are savagely attacking the people protesting these murders…

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Links #515

Posted in Current Events, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 17, 2020| 1 Comment »

Tutti frutti, good booty
If it don’t fit, don’t force it
You can grease it, take it easy
Tutti frutti, good booty.

Rock and roll pioneer Little Richard died last week; I was at a loss to decide which of his songs to feature until I read a tribute to him by Thaddeus Russell, which included the information that the original lyrics to “Tutti Frutti”, which Richard performed as a drag queen, were about anal sex.  The links above the video were provided by Nun Ya, Wendy Lyon, Lenore Skenazy, Stephen Lemons, and Nun Ya again, in that order.

From the Archives

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In the News (#1039)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2020| 3 Comments »

Backpage and small sex-work ad sites were the test case. Censoring the rest of the internet is the goal.  –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

License to Rape

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

…the American Civil Liberties Union [filed suit against] two southern Minnesota sheriff’s deputies [who sexually assaulted] a woman on the side of the road in below-freezing temperatures [using the excuse of a “search”], ignoring her pleas to be taken to the hospital or police station and searched the “the right way”.  During the 2018 incident, Kelli Jo Torres…asked the [rapists] to stop trying to reach into her vagina 25 times…[while] the[y]…kept her outside without a coat in 9 degree weather, along an interstate on-ramp, for a half-hour before [finally] taking her to a hospital to [justify the assault]…

Since Sheriff Evan Verbrugge prefers to hide the identity of rapists, he gets his picture here until and unless someone can provide me with a picture of rapists Dallas Hamm and Shelley Douty.

The Widening Gyre (#923)

Fact:  woman thinks stranger “looks sad”.  Conclusion: sex trafficking!

At 7:40 p.m. April 30, a woman…returned to her apartment [in Cleveland] after being out of state for the past month.  In her apartment’s parking lot, she noticed two cars that were unfamiliar.  She [harassed] the cars’ drivers…and was not satisfied [that they didn’t simply tell her to fuck off]…The woman then [peeked] through a window into an[other person’s] apartment…and saw a female who appeared to be sad.  [Fantasiz]ing that what she had witnessed may have something to do with human trafficking, the woman called police…After [cops] knock[ed] on the unit’s door to try to [harass, rape, rob, abduct or murder]…the female…[the occupants wisely] denied [them] entry…

Do I really need to say, “don’t call the fucking pigs on a stranger because you thought they looked sad“?

Micromanagement (#969)

It only starts with people the state wants you to hate and distrust:

The Trump administration has started forcibly collecting DNA samples from immigrants in detention and sending that information to an FBI criminal database called the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) for permanent storage…The Supreme Court approved this gross invasion of individual privacy in Maryland v. King (2013), ruling 5–4 that the law did not violate constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures because the original arrest had required probable cause…[but] the vast majority of [immigrants] are detained not because they have committed serious crimes with actual victims but because a harsh Clinton-era enforcement law vastly increased detentions for nonviolent immigration-related offenses…the Justice Department…insist[s] that even if immigration detainees have committed no crimes at the time they are booked, having a permanent DNA record makes it easier to track them if they do so…later.  By this logic…DNA testing could be forced on all American citizens.  Anyone, after all, could commit a crime at some point in the future…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1030)

I’m sure you feel safer now:

Clearview AI…said it is ending its relationships with…entities and private companies [that do not claim the “right” to inflict violence upon people they dislike] amid…several potential class action lawsuits…[including one] which argues Clearview violated an Illinois statute regarding the use of biometric data for commercial purposes…Despite public assurances from Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That that its software was meant for law enforcement, internal documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News showed numerous private companies had used the service including Macy’s, Walmart, Bank of America, and Target…

So they’re now promising to only sell their Super Snooper to violent racist gangs whose entire purpose is to destroy the lives of as many people as possible.  That’s obviously much better.

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1033) 

Another censorship attempt from the same old authoritarian playbook:

Taking a page from their crusades against Craigslist and Backpage, [prohibitionists] are calling for credit card companies to stop doing business with porn websites…[by] throw[ing] around phrases like sex trafficking and child abuse while p[retend]ing their request [i]s a common-sense plea to stop exploitation…The[y claim]…it is impossible to “judge or verify consent” in online porn content…[which] is “not only factually wrong but also intentionally misleading”…When Craigslist and later Backpage were the moral panic’s big targets…Illinois sheriff Tom Dart [demanded] companies to stop doing business with these websites—even though government officials and [other prohibitionists] had earlier [forc]ed Craigslist and Backpage to accept credit card payments because they thought it would make [surveill]ing customers easier.  Dart went so far as to threaten credit card companies that did business with Backpage, prompting Visa and Mastercard to temporarily suspend their services. (This was later ruled unconstitutional)…

Social Distancing (#1034)

Sex workers must help each other, because few others will:

The…pandemic has closed down Poland’s strip clubs and massage parlours, leaving many sex workers struggling to make ends meet but also inspiring solidarity via an online fundraising campaign.  Similar ventures have also appeared elsewhere in the West…

Torture Chamber (#1037)

Your regular reminder that rapist screws are not confined to the US:

Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies (CAEFS)…have learned that a[n unnamed rapist screw in]…Nova [Scotia]…was arrested and charged with [several rape-related crimes, yet they’re still trying to hide his identity]…The…women [who] reported the abuse to authorities…were ignored, transferred and [humiliated by being forced] to apologize [to the rapist]…by their very nature, prisons are violent and oppressive institutions…[which] make those held inside incredibly vulnerable to [rape and other sexual] abuse [such as]…routine strip searches [by screws]…

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In the News (#1032)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 22, 2020| 2 Comments »

Rarely have entitled scolds been so empowered to tattle on people doing stuff of which they disapprove.  –  J.D. Tuccille

Rooted in Racism (#928)

Sex workers are always among the first targeted for deportation:

The COVID-19 pandemic has shut down strip clubs around the country, leaving workers without employment.  Many strippers have migrated to online sex work, but this type of visibility puts undocumented and migrant sex workers at a higher risk of being deported, getting their green card application denied, or being refused entry into the United States.  Without documentation…sex work is often the highest paid job available, and some clubs allow dancers to work without it.  Stripping has provided Ruby…with a comfortable lifestyle in South Florida, something she would not have been able to accomplish working the other jobs, such as dishwashing, available to undocumented people…Since her club shuttered as a result of the pandemic, Ruby said she considered camming but is afraid that online sex work could hurt her chances of obtaining a green card…

Working From Home

Another example of sex worker ingenuity:

…unionised strippers in the UK…host[ed] a first-of-its-kind virtual strip club on Saturday, April 11th called CYBERTEASE…as a workers’ co-op, in response to the closure of strip clubs due to Covid-19…Dancers will be performing on Zoom, where the event will be DJed by Queer House Party…

Meanwhile, on Instagram:

…Justin LaBoy, 28, a former professional basketball player and a social media personality…ha[s] been hosting virtual pop-up strip clubs on Instagram Live…Many bars and strip clubs were forced to close nearly overnight around much of the world.  Thousands of bartenders, bottle service girls and dancers have been left with no income…strip clubs have…sought to recreate the experience digitally…But Mr. LaBoy’s events have attracted a unique and fervent fandom.  Music artists…top N.F.L. and N.B.A. players and [other celebrities]…have…joined the stream as special guests…LaBoy…pin[s] the dancer’s Cash App user names to the top of the feed, so that followers could send them money…[and] the “Respectfully Justin Show” was born.  Several hours before the show, Mr. LaBoy begins hyping up the event on social media using the hashtag #respectfully.  Because Instagram prohibits explicit content, Mr. LaBoy creates a new Instagram handle for each event.  He announces this page’s name through Twitter, along with the date and time of the show…LaBoy brings in [P. Diddy’s son Justin Dior] Combs, then kicks back and begins streaming a glass of red wine, which has become a meme of its own…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever (#1027)

Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw your neighbors outdoors”?

In the time of the pandemic the world’s snitches are in their glory, pointing fingers at “non-essential” businesses struggling to keep the lights on and at neighbors brazenly standing too closely together…Lockdown commandments hand them the opportunity not just to publicly shame violators…but to inform to the authorities, with all that entails…snitching seems to be competing with the virus itself in its spread…As always, informers are encouraged in their excess by many government officials.  Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti promised that “snitches get rewards,” and his sentiments are shared by [authoritarians] elsewhere.  A certain segment of the public has eagerly embraced the role of social-distancing Stasi, recording perceived violations of safe practices and not just reprimanding the supposed violators for exercising independent judgment, but handing their details off to the [pigs]…

Like Houses (#1027)

Abrogating freedom of religion and freedom of assembly at once:

As Maryville Baptist Church moved forward with its in-person Easter service Sunday morning, Kentucky State [pigs] were recording the license plates and placing notices on the roughly 50 cars parked outside…[after] Gov. Andy Beshear [issued a diktat] as part of ongoing efforts to keep Kentuckians [locked up and isolated.  A spokespig oinked that]…most of the state’s [cop shops]…have responded to between two and five complaints about church services…but…found no violations of CDC guidelines…with Maryville apparently the exception.  Most calls have been in reference to [drive-in] services…[which] “were specifically mentioned by the governor as being allowed”…

Like Houses (#1029)

And guess who gets to declare that an “emergency” exists?

…New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio…really does want to [use state violence to] drag doctors and nurses from their jobs elsewhere to assigned positions in New York City [without their consent]…de Blasio isn’t alone as a government official who sees in the crisis an opportunity to go full commissar.  New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is stealing ventilators from upstate hospitals to give to facilities downstate.  New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is similarly snatching medical supplies from private firms and facilities to use as he sees fit.  And President Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to force medical equipment manufacturers to abandon customers beyond the borders — and even to sell to only the federal government.  In context, de Blasio’s insistence that medical providers are playing pieces to be pushed around a game board at his whim is the next logical step down the path the political class has already chosen…

Working From Home (#1030)

Cam work isn’t just a stopgap measure; it’s a specialization:

Many people who find themselves suddenly unemployed need cash quickly, and some might be considering a side gig in online sex work…However…even for experienced, full-time sex workers, “just making an OnlyFans” doesn’t always pay the bills.  Online sex work requires an entirely different skill set than in-person work like escorting and stripping, and it can pose greater risks to privacy and anonymity…top-earning performers ha[ve] one thing in common: production value.  If I wanted to earn anything close to sustainable income, I would at least need a webcam ($70 for a basic model, $250 for ultra HD), professional studio lights (at least $50), and a faster Wi-Fi connection (high-speed routers start around $150).  If I was really serious, I would need more dildos, bigger dildos (body-safe silicone sex toys can range from $20 to almost $200), better lingerie ($100), and a teledildonic sex toy that allowed viewers to interact with me via Bluetooth ($125).  Just being a sex worker costs much more than many people realize…it was months before I actually broke even…building a loyal, reliable one can take years.  It was a full year before I started making a somewhat steady income, and despite working full-time hours some weeks, the money I make is only supplemental to my freelance writing work…

Social Distancing (#1031)

Sex work businesses are ineligible for loans; individuals still get the check.  But Stormy’s points are still right on in a larger sense:

…the Fourteenth Amendment…states that all citizens…have equal protection and rights…no…part…states “unless you work in the adult entertainment industry” and yet that is precisely what is happening right now….disaster relief loan…[applications] specifically list…adult entertainment businesses…as a disqualification in receiving economic assistance…[sex workers a]re still required to pay taxes, thus contributing to the resources we are banned from receiving…The language in the application…lumps strippers in the same category as criminals and deadbeat parents.  Ironically, without that assistance, a lot of [sex] workers…could become exactly that by being unable to support their families…

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In the News (#1027)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 4, 2020| 1 Comment »

Crises lead to a permanently bigger state with many more powers and responsibilities and the taxes to pay for them.

The Maze of Consent

Consent is neither as simple nor as static as puritans pretend:

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo represents one key node in a global network of adult-oriented entertainment expos that attract fans and industry personnel…Every January the…largely LA-based adult entertainment industry relocates to Las Vegas for about a week, bringing with it performers, producers, directors and videographers.  The porn community is in town for business-to-business events, to shoot porn, celebrate industry achievements at the AVN Awards…A “mix of physical, social and institutional boundaries and formal and informal rules of engagement” prevails within…Attendees…must sign a “code of conduct”.  Signage…reminds patrons of the AVN’s policy of zero tolerance of anyone found and/or reported to have engaged in assault, non-consensual physical contact, violations of privacy, and verbal or physical harassment.  While this code isn’t perfect, our research found it…help[s] keep non-consensual contact to a minimum and empower the performers to negotiate their own boundaries…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw your neighbors outdoors”?

A [cop shop] has had a surge in calls from people reporting their neighbours for “going out for a second run”.  Government lockdown rules allow [subjects] to leave their [cells] to take one form of exercise a day…In the coming days, police will be given the powers to fine anyone [accused of controlling their own lives.  One pig oinked]…”We are getting calls from [bootlicking snitches] who say ‘I think my neighbour is going out on a second run – I want you to come and arrest them’…We have had dozens and dozens of these calls”…

The Spiral of Absurdity (#865) 

“Sex trafficking” fetishists are absolutely losing their shit because people aren’t listening to their wanking fantasies during the pandemic:

…the 79,000 victims in Texas born and raised in America are not protected against COVID-19, nor are their clients…spread of the virus will be curbed by prosecution of sex traffickers…[who] snag some 200,000 young people born and raised in the U.S…Traffickers lure vulnerable youth at bus stops, outside schoolyards…and even within foster homes…

The Dallas Morning News is so filled with scribbling from these compulsive masturbators, it’s an embarrassment to the entire state of Texas.

O, Canada! (#943)

Prohibitionists want Ontario to be more like the US:

On March 6, the Ontario government announced an investment of $307 million over five years in an alleged strategy to “combat human trafficking and end sexual exploitation”…The unprecedented scale of the financial investment…coincides with some of the most comprehensive budget cuts and privatization of services in Ontario…To receive funding, approved agencies must maintain practice and policy that aligns with the Ford government’s blatant anti-sex work position, which is based on biased and false information about sex workers and their trade…such as the rampant and false claims that 13 is the average age of entry into sex work, or that the majority of sex workers do not “choose” to participate in sex work.  These myths not only promote disempowering stereotypes…but [also] embolden police and other institutions to criminalize sex workers and…contribute to moral panic…

Panopticon (#1010)

Fascists scheme to make the horrifying UK surveillance network even worse:

Police are creating the UK’s first database of homes with doorbell cameras and CCTVs to help [increase the surveillance network]…Wiltshire Police are asking residents with the devices to register them with police so that they can be [accessed even if owners deny permission]…The scheme is backed by [politicians] in Swindon where it is being initially launched.  “This isn’t about surveillance”…[lied politician] Rahul Tarar…

Watershed (#1011)

We’re likely to start seeing more articles like this as “sex trafficking” hysteria dies:

When consensual sex work is considered a form of violence, it’s hard to look ahead at the possibilities of decriminalization…when most of the space is used wrangling an ideological debate about whether sex work is inherently demeaning, any discussion of how decrim would take shape gets lost in the crossfire.  But as Vermont recently followed New York and became the second state…to introduce legislation to remove criminal penalties, the reality of a decriminalized future is inching closer…more than half of the population supports decrim…[but] what would [that]…look like in the United States?…

Like Houses (#1025)

Once the state takes a power for itself, it never surrenders that power voluntarily:

In just a few weeks a virus a ten-thousandth of a millimetre in diameter has transformed Western democracies.  States have [forcibly] shut down businesses and sealed people indoors.  They have promised trillions of dollars to keep the economy on life support.  If South Korea and Singapore are a guide, medical and electronic privacy are about to be cast aside.  It is the most dramatic extension of state power since the second world war.  One taboo after another has been broken.  Not just in the threat of fines or prison for ordinary people doing ordinary things, but also in the size and scope of the government’s role in the economy…history suggests that after crises the state does not give up all the ground it has taken.  Today that has implications not just for the economy, but also for the surveillance of individuals…

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In the News (#995)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 7, 2019| Leave a Comment »

A [cop who] use[s] his power and position to rape women…is the very definition of a predator.  –  Theron J. Solomon

Welcome To Our World

People’s lives are just stakes in a game to these sociopaths:

…about 250 students have now been arrested since January on immigration violations by…ICE…as part of a s[cam] by federal agents who enticed foreign-born students, mostly from India, to attend [a fake] school that marketed itself as offering graduate programs in technology and computer studies…The students had arrived legally in the U.S. on student visas, but since the University of Farmington was later revealed to be a creation of federal agents, they lost their immigration status after it was shut down in January…Attorneys for the students arrested said they were [en]trapped by the U.S. government since [both] the Department of Homeland Security…[and] an accreditation agency that was [paid by the feds to lie]…listed the university as legitimate…more than 600 students…[paid the government] about $12,000…in tuition and fees…[adding up to] millions of dollars [stolen] from the unsuspecting students…

Above the Law 

I guess only real cops are allowed to rape women; rent-a-cops can only assist:

A woman was recently [raped] in an alley in [Chicago] while two security guards [kept watch to protect the rapist]…she…had won a weekend getaway trip to Chicago…on Oct. 18, [she] visited El Hefe, a popular restaurant and bar…when she…[was] drugged…Surveillance video from the alley behind the bar shows El Hefe’s security guards opening the back door…for…a man in red shoes [to] walk…the woman outside, holding her up by the neck.  The guards [watched and laughed while their buddy]…pushe[d] her against a dumpster and [raped] her…the[n left her]…there…unconscious until someone called 911.  She was taken to Northwestern Memorial where doctors determined she had been raped.  The bar[‘s]…video surveillance system was [taken] down [by either the rapist or his rent-a-cop accomplices] at the time of the attack…

Torture Chamber 

Your government calls this “correction”:

Steven Davis’s death was a homicide, caused by [being beaten to death in a cage by armed screws]…Davis’s mother, Sandy Ray, said …“They beat him so badly his head was misshapen.  He looked like an alien, or a monster”…[the perpetrators have not been charged] though…it’s been over six weeks since Steven Davis [was brutally murdered]…on October 5…the…[screws] beat Steven inside a…“hot bay” [ie, a solitary confinement cage] at the William E. Donaldson C[age stack]…Davis was [locked] in [a cage for amusing himself in a way authoritarians dislike]…

To Molest and Rape

Cops who start with mere stalking often escalate to molestation and then rape:

A Spokane [cop] accused of…rape…[tried to groom] at least two other women…Nathan Nash…showed up to [the] apartment…of a domestic violence [victim on October 23rd]…“under the guise of examining bruises as evidence…He directed [the victim] to lower her pants and underwear and she submitted to his authority.”  Nash…then…[shoved] his fingers [into her vagina until]…she [recovered from her initial] panic…to [demand he stop]…after the [assault], Nash gave her what he said was his personal cellphone number, then left.  She said she contacted her parents and then went to Holy Family Hospital for a sexual assault examination kit…another woman came forward with her story, which…occurred in May 2019…Nash [used]…a domestic violence dispute between herself and her ex-boyfriend…[to stalk] her…over the…next few weeks, Nash found and friended her on Facebook, “liking” photos of her in lingerie…Nash’s messages became “creepy” and “needy” and she felt he “had a hidden agenda”…A third woman came forward at the end of October, also after seeing…the [news about] Nash…[under police questioning] Nash did admit to touching [the most recent victim], but…[claimed] she…was coming on to him…

How delusional does any man have to be to believe that “she wanted it” is a valid excuse for rape?

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#642) 

A deep dive on Morality in Media and its dangerous activities since rebranding:

In 2015, the…anti-pornography organization Morality in Media changed their name to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.  Since their rebranding, with no discernible change to their background, membership, funding sources or mission, they’ve become go-to experts for the mainstream press on a variety of subjects such as sex trafficking, child sex exploitation and the dangers of decriminalizing prostitution…“National Center on Sexual Exploitation” sounds like a name designed so that no one could possibly be against it — who, after all, would want to be seen as “pro-sexual exploitation”?…stories…published by mainstream news organizations [never] go into NCOSE’s background or credentials.  Aside from the Washington Post calling them “conservative,” and a sole mention by USA Today of their former incarnation as Morality in Media, there isn’t a hint anywhere of their history or their religiously motivated political agenda.  And nowhere…is there any justification as to why they’d be quoted or referenced as “experts” on the issues being discussed, besides the fact that they call themselves “the National Center on Sexual Exploitation”…NCOSE was born as “Operation Yorkville” in 1962, formed by a group of clergymen in New York City…[it] soon changed to…“Morality in Media”, the first instance of the group’s rebranding to more effectively mainstream their fringe message…

Legal Is as Legal Does (#846) 

As long as any part of sex work is criminalized, cops will have power over sex workers:

Street prostitution has declined so dramatically in Victoria that police [were] only [able to victimize] five…sex workers last year – down from almost 500…14 years ago…even though street prostitution is still illegal…[most] sex workers have turned to the internet or mobile phone…apps to [connect with] clients, significantly [reducing] the[ir vulnerabilty to predatory cops]…but…Victoria Police [prefer to pretend their violence and harassment of sex workers made their need for income go away]…the arrest rates have emerged just as the…government has announced a long-awaited review [of] Victoria’s [oppressive] sex industry laws, which [allow cops to harass and victimize sex workers.  But]…escorts working for themselves [rather than brothels allows them to avoid]…the hoops of Victoria’s legal framework, [especially the] require[ment that their government names be recorded]…on a register run by the government…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw a man delivering packages”?

In this video posted to instagram, a woman calls the cops on a UPS driver because “I don’t understand why you’re walking around with a bunch of packages”…She looms up on him, variously keeps her hands in her pockets or waves them around in his face, rolls up her sleeves, grins, tells him where she lives, and says: you’re making me nervous. The excuse that police use to justify killing people, cued up by a belligerent bigot who, when she realizes he’s not going to react negatively to her provocations, calls the police…

To Molest and Rape (#924)

Meanwhile, non-cops are condemned to the registry for taking nude pics of themselves:

[Typical and representative Pennsylvania cop] Mark Icker pleaded guilty…to federal deprivation of rights charges…[after] he used his [dick] to [rape] five…women [after abducting them]…he will not have to register as a sex offender…The plea agreement…calls for [federal & state prosecutors] to jointly recommend a 12-year prison sentence…Attorney Theron J. Solomon, who represents four of the five victims in pending civil litigation, blasted state prosecutors’ decision to drop [rape] charges…against Icker…

Safe Position (#944)

Prohibitionists are terrified at the speed with which decriminalization has become a safe position:

[Prohibitionists conspired]…to…launch…a new [misogynist gang] and l[obbying] campaign t[o oppress]…sex [workers by surveillance, harassment]…and [cutting off their income]…New Yorkers for the Equality Model, featured late-night television host Seth Meyers and [has-been] actress Ashley Judd — who has been confronted by sex workers for describing sex work as “paid rape” — and was strictly managed…[the prohibitionist circle-jerk] formed as an answer to Decrim NY — a grassroots coalition of…[actual] sex [workers] who began organizing earlier this year…

“Equality model” is prohibitionists’ new 1984-esque doublespeak for Swedish criminalization, in which the buyer & seller are treated unequally under the assumption that men are morally superior to women in exactly the same way as adults are to adolescents.  Because they know nobody sane will accept their carceral witch-hunt if described accurately, they go though considerable contortions to disguise it.

Follow Your Bliss (#958) 

Prohibitionists supported the fantasist cop who enabled this hoax:

[Former UK politician] Harvey Proctor is to receive £500,000 compensation from Scotland Yard over its disastrous VIP child sex abuse [witch hunt]…the[y]…also agreed to pay nearly £400,000 towards the[ir victim’s] legal bills.  The £900,000 settlement represents a humiliating [slap]-down by…[the pigs, who] spent 18 months fighting Mr Proctor’s claim…The deal is one of the biggest compensation payouts ever made by the Met and dwarfs the £100,000 compensation paid to both ex-Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall and the widow of former home secretary Leon Brittan, whose homes were raided by [cops] during the [witch hunt]…A key part of his legal action concerned [cop Jonathan Wedger’s claims]…that [fantasist Carl] Beech’s [Satanic Panic-like] allegations were “credible and true”….a…police…inquiry…cleared five [cops involved in the raids] of misconduct, without even interviewing four of them…

Panopticon (#970)

Still think toothless laws against facial recognition will keep cops from using it?

Ring, Amazon’s…surveillance camera division, has crafted plans to use facial recognition software and its ever-expanding network of home security cameras to create AI-enabled neighborhood “watch lists”…whereby a Ring owner would be automatically alerted when an individual deemed “suspicious” was captured in their camera’s frame…the lists would be available [to cop and other busybodies] in Ring’s Neighbors app…In its p[ropaganda], Ring [pretends] that only thieves and would-be criminals need to worry about…[widespread] surveillance…Ring promises a [dystopian] future in which “suspicious” people up to “suspicious” things can be safely monitored and deterred from afar…it’s easy to imagine a system in which individuals are arbitrarily profiled, tracked, and silently reported upon based on a system owned and operated solely by Amazon, without legal recourse or any semblance of due process…

The Cop Myth (#991)

41% of cops admit to beating their wives. Some don’t stop with mere beating:

A Texas [border pig murdered]…his [fellow border pig] wife [on Thanksgiving in]…League City…[neighbors reported] “multiple gunshots”…[and] Dudley Bernard was in the front yard…[while] Chauntelle Bernard was dead at the front door…[probably because the victim was also a cop] Bernard was charged…with murder [instead of being given a paid vacation while the rest of the gang figure out how to cover it up]…

Top Cop (#991)

This psychopath is still far too close to power for comfort:

Kamala Harris is ending her presidential campaign after months of failing to lift her candidacy from the bottom of the [toilet] — a [welcome] departure for a [career prosecutor] heralded as a top-tier [incarcerator and unapologetic slaver]…Harris told aides of her intentions in an all-staff call…and a person familiar with the conversation said she sounded distraught…[but] she…[still has plenty of] cash [for her next Senate campaign]…

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No Protection, No Service

Posted in Philosophy, Q & A, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , on December 5, 2019| 11 Comments »

You often say “Never call the cops for any reason whatsoever”, but what’s the alternative when I’ve been burgled, robbed, or assaulted?  Vigilantism?  I’m sincerely asking.

The cops do not exist to “help” you.  That is not their purpose, and the great majority of crimes are never “solved”; most of the time the cops don’t even investigate them.  On top of that, there are thousands and thousands of cases of cops showing up and either inflicting violence on the caller or their family, or accusing THEM of a crime, or both.  We hear a lot about how rape cases often result in the victim being treated like a criminal, but in reality that’s true for all crimes.  If a cop takes a dislike to a complainant, he may decide that it would be both easier and better for him to accuse the complainant of a “crime” (usually a criminalized consensual act) instead.  In the US, most prostitution charges result not from “stings”, but from cops charging victims of some crime (rape, robbery, assault, etc) with “prostitution”; in this recent example, cops ignored a violent serial killer to try to charge his intended victim.  Examples of cops hurling drug or DV charges at crime victims abound.  You honestly think it’s worth it to risk all that so you can have the faint hope that the state will inflict vicarious revenge on the one who harmed you?  “Closure” is bullshit; people who expect to gain it by seeing the one who harmed them imprisoned often fall into depression when they realize it does nothing of the kind.  Nor is it a valid argument to claim that in seeking vicarious vengeance through state-sponsored violence, you are helping other potential victims; cops generally charge whoever is handy and pressure the victim to agree with their choice instead of actually seeking the true malefactor.  More simply put, when cops act to “solve” a crime at all, they generally do so by picking someone to frame for it and torturing the “evidence” to support their choice; your misfortune may be used to feed an innocent person into the carceral machine.  In short, there are very few good possible outcomes to calling the cops, and lots of extremely bad, even life-destroying, ones; before dialing “9-1-1” or its equivalent, you might at least consider asking yourself whether you’re feeling lucky that day.

(Have a question of your own?  Please consult this page to see if I’ve answered it in a previous column, and if not just click here to ask me via email.)

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In the News (#989)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 16, 2019| 2 Comments »

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

License to Rape

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

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

They Still Don’t Get It

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

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

The Missing Word

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

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

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

Property of the State 

Pregnant women are uniquely vulnerable to state coercion:

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

Harm Reduction (#627)

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

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

Stalkers in Blue

Another sexual predator selects a traumatized woman as his prey:

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

The Pygmalion Fallacy (#824) 

SAVE THE TOASTERS!!!!

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

The Prudish Giant (#896) 

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

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

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

Pyrrhic Victory (#897)

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

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

Stupor Bowl (#940)

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

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

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

Quiet Genocide

Just in case you doubted this was about total genocide:

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

Little Boxes (#979)

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

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

To Molest and Rape (#985)

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

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

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In the News (#974)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 25, 2019| 2 Comments »

The investigator cannot just tread through the bloody crime scene in street shoes and pick up the murder weapon with an ungloved hand.  –  Tami Loehrs

A Tale That Grew in the Telling (#699)

Americans disapprove of teaching kids about sex, but they’re all for filling their heads with stupid anti-sex propaganda:

…Edina [Minnesota] Rotary member Renee Harberts [recited the “sex trafficking” Shahada]…and [then publicly described her disgusting sexual fantasies about]…kids as young as five…[prohibitionists fantasize]…one in seven kids are sexually abused and later in life they’re more likely to fall victim to sex trafficking.  93% of adult sex trafficking victims were sexually abused in their elementary years and never tell anyone about it….Harberts and a few members convinced the rest of the rotary to…raise…$10,000 to [indoctrinate] 3rd graders in Edina schools [in ’80s-era “Stranger Danger” propaganda, updated with a modern version of 19th century “white slavery” propaganda]…The group invited a panel of three experts to [publicly fantasize] about human trafficking…”We know that 0.02% of trafficking victims find freedom,” [moaned] Carla Marroquin of Protect Me Project [with her hand in her pants]…“The recidivism rate is between nine and eleven times that they will go back to the life of human trafficking”…

Bottleneck (#746) 

Yet another example of why sex worker licensing is a terrible idea:

…in Senegal…sex workers must register with police, attend mandatory monthly sexual health screenings, test negative for STIs and carry a valid ID card confirming their health status…But…sex work is still criminalized…for those who are unregistered, which effectively creates a two-tiered system…sex workers face enormous social stigma and discrimination…the…[estimated] level of registration [is extremely high at] 20% [which is twice the highest fraction recorded anywhere else in the world, probably because of the high rate of HIV in Senegalese sex workers]…the registration law was first introduced in 1969 — inherited from French colonial legislation that stuck around even after Senegal declared independence…Women who are registered live in fear that family members will discover their identification cards, or…see their name on a registration database …”When you are registered, you are registered for life,” said [Professor Cheikh Tidiane] Ndour [of the Ministry of Health]…”Even if you stop pursuing this profession, your great-grandchildren can find your name somewhere, and that is a problem”…If registered sex workers miss their monthly appointments they can face up to six months in jail…[and of course] registered sex workers [are] more likely than unregistered…to experience [rape, robbery, extortion and other] violence at the hands of [cops]…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw a picture of a Nerf gun”?

[Cops] in…Phoenix, Arizona, [interrogated] a teenager and his parents and searched their home and the kid’s school after the teen posted to a group chat a jokey message…[about] going to school the next day posted alongside a photo of a Nerf gun…one of the…chat participants narced on the exchange and set the wheels of officialdom in motion…As red flag laws and other reporting systems proliferate around the country, we’re likely to see even more incidents in which cops…are [summoned] into innocuous situations by people who refuse to ask simple questions or to believe that we’re living in a remarkably safe age…in the Phoenix incident, school officials proactively assured parents that the incident was “not a credible threat”…but…Justine and Nathan Myers were similar victims…after 16-year-old Nathan documented a shooting outing with his mother on Snapchat….somebody contacted Colorado’s Safe2Tell, a[n]…anonymous…[snitch line]…Nathan was banned from school until public outrage forced officials to reverse their decision…

Disaster (#931)

I’m sure you amateurs are happy to be censored “for THE CHILDREN™!”:

…Twitch suspended a streamer named Quqco for wearing a cosplay of Street Fighter heroine Chun-Li on stream, deeming her outfit “sexually suggestive”…[even though it] was not…streamer Bridgett Devoue was given a three-day suspension for [unexplained]… “sexually suggestive content or activities”…Overwatch streamer Fareeha got hit with a warning (and a 90-day probationary period) after wearing a sports bra and baggy shorts at the gym…Saruei [got]…a warning for drawing “nudes,” despite the fact that her characters…are clothed…

Pyrrhic Victory (#937) 

As long as cops suffer no consequences for disobedience, laws like this are mere political grandstanding:

San Francisco has already banned the use of facial recognition tech by local [cops].  Oakland did the same thing a couple of months later.  Pretty soon, it’s not going to matter where you are in California.  If you’re a law enforcement agency, facial recognition tech is off-limits…for three years…The bill…also targets other biometric surveillance methods…It forbids direct use by California law enforcement agencies, as well as prevents them from asking agencies outside the state (including federal agencies) from deploying this tech on their behalf.  It also blocks state agencies from using cameras (body, dash, stationary) that utilize this tech.  If this bill is signed into law, California will become the first state [with such a] ban…

You may have noticed that laws claiming to restrict government powers never carry a criminal penalty, despite the fact that every law intended to control subjects of the government always do.  Also note that unlike laws intended to control the people, this has a conveniently-short sunset clause so the legislature needn’t do anything to quietly get rid of it once the frogs get used to the new temperature of their water.

Negative Secondary Effects (#937)

Politicians are gradually coming to realize that their constituency includes sex workers and clients:

A strip club will stay open despite [prohibitionist efforts to put scores of women out of work]…Sheffield council’s licensing committee met for eight hours to discuss whether Spearmint Rhino should have its sexual entertainment licence renewed.  [Industrial spies] employed by [misogynistic censors] had [filmed] dancers [against their consent in an attempt to shame the committee into wrongfully revoking the license, but]…dancers from the club…campaigned to save [it]…

Law of the Instrument (#954)

If his victims hadn’t been sex workers, would “authorities” have let him rack up three before bothering to act?

Ed Buck, who has been subject to protests and calls for prosecution in the overdose deaths of two men at his West Hollywood home, was arrested [last week] in connection with a third overdose…the Los Angeles district attorney’s office [seems to have finally realized]…that Buck is “a violent, dangerous sexual predator”…[who] personally administered “dangerously large doses of narcotics to his victims”…Activists have been calling for Buck’s arrest…for the deaths of Gemmel Moore…and Timothy Dean…both black gay men were found in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment less than two years apart…[due to] methamphetamine overdoses…Buck…has now been charged with operating a drug house and providing meth to a…who overdosed last week…but survived…

Business As Usual (#956)

Even by nauseatingly-low local news standards, the sound of bootlicking in this is deafening:

Several months after Columbus police disbanded its vice [gang, badge-lickers] in a south Columbus neighborhood [whine] they feel it every day.  “When you have the prostitutes, it just breeds the drugs, all kinds of stuff. There are children seeing that it’s ok and it’s not ok,” said [pompous busybody Ima Copsucker]…a block watch coordinator [who] spends hours every day [minding other people’s business]…She was hoping…[her beloved pigs] could help [root out] the human trafficking problem in the area…Columbus [pigs oink that what they absurdly call]…the human trafficking problem…has gotten worse since the vice [herd] has been disbanded…

What’s that you say, Ima? “There are all these black people out in public since they ended Jim Crow.  Something needs to be done to keep them in their place, preferably with violence.”  Yep, that’s what I thought you said.

Dangerous Speech (#968)

The government keeps trying to hide information in the Backpage case:

…prosecutors sought to continue stonewalling defense counsel on access to data on more than 100 servers that once kept…Backpage…in operation…But U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich denied the government’s request that she reject a defense motion to examine the material on those servers in the same condition as when the government seized the website on April 6, 2018.  Instead, Brnovich scheduled a day-long evidentiary hearing for October 3, during which [pigs] and expert witnesses are expected to testify…As explained in the defense’s motion to compel evidence, the 106 servers seized by the government contained historical data about Backpage’s ads that can refute the feds’ allegations, show that Backpage’s moderation efforts “blocked or removed approximately one million ads per month,” and reveal extensive cooperation with [cops] and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC)…In fact…Backpage referred so many ads to NCMEC  that the government-backed non-profit complained about the number of referrals, since [most] of those ads were later found not to involve minors…

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