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Posts Tagged ‘Pyrrhic Victory’

In the News (#1616)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 28, 2026| Leave a Comment »

We should not expect maintenance staff to report people for having too much lube.   –  Elizabeth Nolan Brown

A Broker in Pillage

This will continue until recognized as unconstitutional:

Oklahoma City’s…former city attorney Orval Jones blew the whistle…[on] the city[‘s]…”nefarious scheme” to divert [money stolen by cops under color of law] into police coffers instead of returning property to owners or using it to reimburse victims and the courts…Jones compiled a list of seizures spanning over 20 years that totaled over $400,000 in misappropriated funds…many [cops]…labeled [“unclaimed property”] owners as unknown even though their information appeared in police reports….[and] when the owner sued, he was reimbursed with taxpayer funds while police kept the cash…Jones was [forced to resign because the boss hog demanded it]…

If Men Were Angels

They’re not even all “youth pastors”:

[The] pastor [of] a Miami-Dade church was arrested [for repeatedly molesting] a 15-year-old [girl since she was 13]…Elco Vallier…[repeatedly groped] her and “attempted to kiss her”…[in addition to sending her sleazy] text messages…

Above the Law (#1012)

Your “leaders” at work:

Butler [Ohio] Mayor Wesley [the] Dingus…has been charged with…misdemeanor …voyeurism after…an underage…female [relative grew]…suspicious that Dingus was entering her room and purchased a small camera to document it…she received a motion alert on her phone approximately 15 minutes after leaving for school and later reviewed footage showing Dingus entering her room and sniffing her [dirty] underwear.  The following day, she received a second alert…[and] again [saw him] entering her room, smelling her worn underwear, and [this time starting to masturbate]…Dingus [is] out on bond awaiting trial on separate felony charges…[for] a [hit-and-run on] July 11, 2025…

Welcome to the Future (#1351)

They’re disappointed it didn’t help them arrest more people:

Dutch police haven’t used the[ir magic] Crime[-predicting computer] since mid-December…[because despite] the [hype] with which the police launched the system [it does not actually work]…Dutch police…were e[ager to create their own dystopia]…like Minority Report…in[spired by] American [abus]es of “predictive policing”…[but] it soon becomes clear that the promises cannot be fulfilled…[and civil liberties advocates pointed out] that systems like [these]…reinforce inequalities…The result, all in all, is a black box full of biases and without proven results…

Crying for Nanny (#1564)

Surely you didn’t think this ambulance-chasing would stop at hotels?

…in…California…a woman is suing two high-end apartment buildings for failing to stop prostitution…in their units…A.V. alleges that she was coerced into prostitution in San Francisco…and…[her pimp] rented an expensive apartment at the Avalon…and…complain[s]…that…the doormen or security…[should have harassed] the…visitors…and…residents of this $5,000- to $10,000-a-month building…[because] “she was dressed provocatively” and…was only 17…for [the first] few months of her time there…Are [staff] supposed to [harass any]…woman dressed provocatively?…Should they check the IDs of any female who looks young?  And then what?  There’s no law against teen girls visiting apartment buildings on their own…We need more and better services for people looking to leave…abusive partners, not a surveillance network of hotel maids and apartment-building doormen ready to call the cops on women in short skirts…

Walled Garden (#1613)

Last week I called this “a disaster waiting to happen”.  It didn’t have to wait long:

[After] the social chat app Discord [demand]ed…all new and existing users worldwide…[submit to face-]scan[ning as a condition for full]…platform…[access]…security…researchers…set out to look into Persona, the [fascist Thiel company]…used by Discord for biometric [surveillance]…and found [2,456 files] exposed to the open internet on a US government…server…the code revealed…that…Persona…compares your selfie to watchlist photos using facial recognition, screens you against 14 [government lists] from…terrorism to espionage…the software performs 269 distinct verification checks and scours the internet and government sources for potential matches…[then retains the results] for up to three years…[If] the software “flags you as a ‘suspicious entity’ based on your face alone”…[which is not unlikely given] Persona’s software has rep[ea]tedly made significant mistakes…[merely attempting to use a social media site] can quickly lead to the unjust termination of bank accounts…[which is] exactly what Persona was built to do…

Panopticon (#1613)

No, really?  Who could ever have guessed?

…Ring’s…founder, Jamie Siminoff, [admitted] to…Ring employees…[that “]Search Party[“, its]…automated surveillance system…[is not really] “for finding dogs”, but…[rather] to “zero out crime in neighborhoods”…[sane people recognized the system] as dystopian…[even before] Ring…launched a feature called “Familiar Faces,” which uses facial recognition to identify…friends and family members..[but] Siminoff [bizarrely tried] to [confuse the company’s useful idiot clientele by randomly belching “]Charlie Kirk[” at them]…

 

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 (#1615)

Posted in Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Face recognition technology…poses a uniquely dire threat to the practical anonymity we all rely on.  –  Nathan Freed Wessler

Bait and Switch (#662)

Whenever you see claims that a sting “caught pedophiles” or is “fighting the demand for child sex trafficking”, refer back to the original article in this heading:

A [Department of Defense contractor assigned to] do…background checks for [ICE]…was arrested in a Bloomington, Minnesota, sex sting.  But the story is being twisted—by people employing the same sort of despicable smear tactics we see from ICE…[boss hog] Booker Hodges [strutted around, pompously belching up the typical “child sex trafficking” rhetoric cops use to justify these scams, while]…news media and countless folks on social media have been [parrot]ing [that]…narrative…but—as is so often the case—it…[was] just a vice operation aimed at adults looking to find other adults for sexual activity…Bloomington Police’s press conference and post about [the sophomorically-dubbed] “Operation Lookin’ for Love in All the Wrong Places” are truly bizarre.  The YouTube video of the conference opens with an elaborate skit, acted out by Bloomington cops…[and boss hog] Hodges…spends part of the press conference singing “Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places” and [mocking his victims]…as he shows their mugshots…

As I’ve said before, cops pretending to be entertainers should be a summary firing offense.

A Broker in Pillage (#1235)

This kind of evil will never stop until there are criminal charges for the cop and politician perpetrators:

The hamlet of Brookside, Alabama, has agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle a civil rights lawsuit three years after local news investigations revealed that it was running a predatory speed trap.  The Institute for Justice…sued Brookside in 2022 on behalf of motorists who…were framed and swindled by the town…[whose] unusually large police force was bankrolling the city budget by fining people traveling through and towing their cars under [bullshit]…charges…Brookside, a place with no traffic lights and one commercial property…”collected $487 in fines and forfeitures for every man, woman and child“…and…income from [the robberies] comprised 49 percent of the town’s budget…Brookside’s racket was so outrageous that the Justice Department filed a “statement of interest” in support of the…lawsuit…and…the Alabama state legislature [has now] passed a bill capping the revenue municipalities can keep from fines to just 10 percent of their general operating budgets…and [Brookside in particular faces] 30 years of strict caps on how much revenue [it can make]…from policing…

Guinea Pigs (#1362) 

New tools for tyranny are often tested first on whores, but never stop with us:

An underground site uses facial recognition to reveal the site a camgirl streams on…present[ing] a serious privacy risk to sex workers…who may not want stalkers, harassers, or employers to discover their profiles…Camgirlfinder has been running for several years, with most adult streaming platforms being added in 2021…[and] contains faces from a wide variety of adult streaming platforms, including Chaturbate, MyFreeCams, and LiveJasmin…The database appears to include sex workers who may not have streamed for years, creating the risk that someone may use the site to find them even if they decided to not stream anymore.  The site then sells all images it has of a particular person for $1 per model…

Nor does this stop with specialized sites and online locations:

Porn performer Siri Dahl’s personal information, including her full legal name and birthday, was publicly exposed earlier this month by [MechaHitler]…Almost instantly, harassers started opening Facebook accounts in her name and posting stolen porn clips with her real name on sites for leaking OnlyFans content.  Dahl has used the name…since the beginning of her career in the adult industry in 2012…[MechaHitler] provided her personal information unprompted; the user likely only wanted information on what performer appeared in the clip.  This is the latest in a series of abuses inflicted by [the chatbot] and its users…

Enshittification

News publishers are working to hasten the coming of the new dark age:

Now major news publishers are actively blocking the Internet Archive—one of the most important cultural preservation projects on the internet—because they’re worried [machine learning] companies might use it as a sneaky “backdoor” to access their content.  This is a mistake we’re going to regret for generations…blocking the Internet Archive isn’t going to stop [chatbot] training.  What it will do is ensure that significant chunks of our journalistic record and historical cultural context simply…disappear…When websites disappear—and they disappear constantly—the Wayback Machine is often the only place that content still exists…the Internet Archive’s efforts to permanently preserve our digital culture are essential infrastructure for anyone who cares about historical memory…Future historians trying to understand 2025 will have access to archived versions of random blogs, sketchy content farms, and conspiracy sites—but not The New York Times.  Not The Guardian…We’re creating a historical record that’s systematically biased against quality journalism…

Thought Control (#1557) 

Woman convicted for “abuse” of an imaginary person fictionally pretending to be a child:

Lauren Ashley Mastrosa…wrote [a book named] Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods and published it…in March.  The book is about an 18-year-old woman named Lucy who roleplays as a toddler with Arthur, an older man who is her father’s best friend.  Mastrosa was charged [with child porn offenses in Australia] after the book sparked outrage [among people who cannot tell fantasy from reality]…a…magistrate [and a cop both repeatedly declared that]…the female protagonist[, a fictional character invented by Mastrosa from her imagination who was]…repeated[ly declared]…to…be…18…[was]…”similar to a young child”…[which] invited the reader to imagine…thing[s] that [the government] prohibited…[despite the fact] that [the depicted] role play w[ould be completely] legal [if the characters were real people and not figments of a woman’s imagination]…

Note that the magistrate is talking here about literal thoughtcrime, declaring that it is criminal to invite readers to imagine things the government dislikes.

The Cop Myth (#1566)

This report of a murderous cop tried to hide that the victim was his wife:

A Buffalo [New York cop named Lance Woods] has been arrested [for the execution-style] murder…[of his wife] Alexis Skoczylas…[by] a single gunshot wound to the head…there were no calls in the past for domestic violence…[and their] two children…are [safe and] in the care of relatives…[the apparent motive was] Skoczylas fil[ing] for a contested divorce in September…Woods…was [paid to lurk in schools in order to spy on, intimidate, and harass students, but has no known history of molestation]…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1614)

Facebook is the most antisocial corporation other than those who actually run prisons:

Five years ago, Facebook shut down the facial recognition system for tagging people in photos [after it was forced to settle several class-action lawsuits]…Now it wants to [use Trump’s massive pogroms as cover to]…add the feature to its s[py] glasses…[so its chatbot can fully doxx anyone in public without their consent]…“We will launch during a dynamic political environment where many civil society groups that we would expect to attack us would have their resources focused on other concerns,” according to [an internal memo]…

 

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 (#1614)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[The US] constitution…cannot be overwritten by a state legislature.  –  Jeffrey Sandman

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1051)

It’s not surprising this started at the most oppressive of the Nevada brothels:

Sex workers at one of Nevada’s legal brothels are unionizing with the Communications Workers of America …If successful, it would be [a] first [for]…the U.S.  The effort came after [Sheri’s Ranch in Pahrump attemp]ted t[o impose] a new contract that would give the business perpetual control over workers’ intellectual property rights…A majority of the brothel’s 74…workers…have agreed to join the union.  Managers …have [retaliated by] fir[ing] at least three of the workers…and…threaten[ing] other[s]…To unionize, the workers must first prove to federal labor authorities that they are employees rather than independent contractors…Sheri’s Ranch…is owned by [typical and representative] Chicago [pig] Chuck Lee, [and is so notorious for its infantilizing repression of its] workers [it is widely derided in the industry as “Pussy Prison”.  The abuses include confiscating their laptops and medications, spying on email and negotiation with clients, and random room searches, and]…beginning in late December…it [started] demanding [workers] grant Sheri’s Ranch “irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual” rights to any content they produce while staying at the brothel…[including] the ability to sell videos or photos…without their permission…[to] create [computer]-generated c[artoons] featuring their images…[even] after [their] death…and…to…[grant] the brothel…power of attorney [over all such content]…

It’s about time US sex workers started unionizing like their European sisters.

I Spy (#1425)

Remember when Google’s motto was, “Don’t be evil”?

Google [obey]ed an [ICE] subpoena that demanded a wide array of personal data on a student activist and journalist, including his credit card and bank account numbers…Amandla Thomas-Johnson had attended a protest targeting companies that supplied weapons to Israel at a Cornell University job fair in 2024 for all of five minutes, but the action got him banned from campus.  When [the] Trump [regime]…issued a series of [diktats] targeting student…proteste[rs], Thomas-Johnson and his friend Momodou Taal went into hiding…Thomas-Johnson, who is British, believes that ICE [intended to use] that information to track and eventually [abduct] him — but he had already fled to Geneva, Switzerland…The Electronic Frontier Foundation…and the ACLU of Northern California sent a letter to Google, Amazon, Apple, Discord, [Facebook], Microsoft, and Reddit…calling on tech companies to resist similar subpoenas in the future…without [actual warrants]…to give [intended victims] the opportunity to fight [such extrajudicial demands], and to resist gag orders…

The Mob Rules (#1539)

Don’t let the “private” language fool you; these nuisance lawsuits were instigated and bankrolled by Morality in Media:

A federal judge in Kansas has dismissed two of the four private age verification lawsuits filed…by an unnamed plaintiff [using] her teenage son [as a prop]…the judge granted the defendants’ motions to dismiss…ruling that…simply operating a website accessible in Kansas – even one that Kansas residents could view – is not enough to establish liability.  Under the U.S. Constitution, courts may only exercise power over defendants that have deliberately targeted or conducted activities in the state.  Allowing lawsuits based solely on website accessibility…would mean any website could be sued anywhere, a result long rejected by federal courts…

Mad Libs (#1571)

These algorithms are not only unintelligent; they are making those who believe in them stupid as well:

[The ignoramuses running] many companies are [foolishly trying] to get more employees to use [chatbots so they don’t have to pay]…workers [their full]…value…But…they…may not see what [imaginary] gains are costing them until it’s too late…[because chatbot]s d[o]n’t reduce work, they consistently intensif[y] it.  In an eight-month study…we found that employees [regularly] worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks, and extended work into more hours of the day…because [the hype] made “doing more” feel possible…[but] once the excitement of experimenting fades, workers can find that their workload has quietly grown and feel stretched from juggling everything that’s suddenly on their plate…lead[ing] to cognitive fatigue, burnout, and weakened decision-making…[in addition] to lower quality work…and other problems…

Panopticon (#1591)

Safetyism is destroying society:

[Cop shop]s across the US are quietly [abus]ing school district security cameras to assist Donald Trump’s mass [pogroms]…The a[buse] originate[s] from Texas school districts that contract with Flock S[urveillance to target teachers]…parents and students as young as five…[demonstrating how] campus surveillance technology [justified by barfing out the formula “]student safety[“] is being repurposed to support [the police state]…Flock devices have been installed by more than 100 public school systems nationally…and audit logs from six Texas school districts show campus camera feeds are captured in a national database that [cop shops, spook houses, and goon squad]s across the country can access…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1597)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

…Social media is awash with videos of men…approaching women in public spaces and attempting to flirt with them or ask for their numbers..the videos are filmed and uploaded to platforms like TikTok and Instagram without the permission or knowledge of the [woman] being filmed…[and] rack up thousands…[or] millions of views…While the concept of the pick-up artist is nothing new…so-called “manfluencers”…are covertly filming women to create misogynistic content…

Censor Chic (#1610)

Civil suits are society’s best weapon against jawboning:

…[FIRE] is suing…[Trumpist henchwomen] Pam Bondi and…Kristi Noem on behalf of Kae Rosado and Mark Hodges, who respectively created a Facebook group and an app that hosted video footage of ICE operations to inform the public and hold our government accountable…Mark runs Kreisau Group, which aims to preserve evidence of governmental abuses of power.  On his Eyes Up app, users can upload videos, record new videos, or access uploaded videos, which Eyes Up arranges on a map of the United States after Mark and his moderators review and approve each video.  Kae…started a Facebook group in January 2025…about the impact of ICE raids on daily life in Chicago…The group remained small until Sept[ember]…when ICE commenced…a…[massive pogrom sophomorically] dubbed “Operation Midway Blitz”…[after which the] group grew to…nearly 100,000 members…it is unconstitutional for the government to coerce private companies like Apple and Facebook into censoring content on their behalf.  However…Bondi and Noem [not only did this, but openly]…boasted [about it]…

 

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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Tweet Moss

Posted in Biography, Current Events, History, Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 20, 2026| Leave a Comment »

These guys really need to watch more film noir.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-15T18:12:23.909Z

You have to sleep sometime, guys.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-17T19:01:24.980Z

Four of these look WORSE in the "after" pictures. Middle right is DRAMATICALLY worse.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-19T02:53:53.205Z

They really do believe Heaven is clouds where people walk around in a semblance of life forever. It's remarkably stupid, childish, Bronze-Age thinking.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-20T08:26:34.100Z

The International Board of Kakistocracy

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-23T18:25:56.755Z

American flag lapel pins are virtue signaling. The FBI saying how much they loved MLK is virtue signaling. Laws named after dead kids are virtue signaling. State-sponsored "prayer breakfasts" are virtue signaling. Etc, etc. Any sincerely moral person can see the difference without effort.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-25T09:01:06.051Z

If I were Canadian, right now I would feel like one of the guys in this scene:

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-26T03:22:24.145Z

"Dismantled" in the same sense as the Hindenburg was "dismantled".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-26T18:37:28.791Z

Treasury Secretary Meisterburger has some advice for parents.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-28T16:56:31.831Z

Modern journalists:Talking about a guy who has been out of political office for decades: "President So-and-So", "Senator So-and-So"Talking about a cop sent to prison for using his position to murder or rape somebody last year: "Former officer So-and-So"

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-29T19:23:12.888Z

I hereby declare the word "pivot" officially hackneyed. Find a different verb to beat to death by overuse.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-30T08:52:51.698Z

The "We need new Democrats" whine triggers off the Mom region of my brain: "You haven't done anything with the Democrats I already gave you."

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-01-31T18:05:24.186Z

Raise your hand if you're old enough to remember when it was the DEMOCRATS pretending "unified government" was a good thing.Extra points if you remember that the Clintonian slur for "checks and balances" was "gridlock".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-01T18:02:15.967Z

Oh look, it's another of those things us cranks have been warning all y'all Very Smart Futurist People about for years.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-02T17:20:55.791Z

What is this thing supposed to be? An Easter Island statue?

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-03T03:38:50.271Z

If only there were some simple way to kill the bacteria so the milk would be safe to drink. If some genius were to invent such a process, we could even name it after him.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T03:20:03.432Z

Actual economists disagree.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-04T19:49:45.952Z

How can anyone who has ever read Asimov's nonfiction not know this? He used to BRAG about it. I knew Asimov was a sex pest before entering HIGH SCHOOL because when I was in 8th grade I got on a kick of reading all of his essay collections, and he talks about it more than a little.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-06T03:08:49.403Z

I was used to sex workers being the most *ethical* people on the internet, but in the past 15 years they've proven themselves to be among the most intelligent and literate as well.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-07T18:29:51.990Z

"Facts undermine his testimony" is such a weird, nerf-bat way of saying "He lied".

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-08T17:46:14.535Z

I was taught in catechism that God is all-forgiving, so from a Christian perspective the answer to this would be "yes".That having been said, I am neither a god nor a Christian, so I am under no obligation to forgive those who enabled the current police state over the past ≈ 150 years.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-09T19:09:35.536Z

They make ME think of the campfire scene in "Stand By Me" where the boys seriously discuss, "Who is stronger, Superman or Mighty Mouse?"

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-10T18:20:24.645Z

They really do think "But he gave them candy after molesting them" is a defense.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-11T08:51:42.315Z

It has dawned on me that most young people don't understand that political parties are about as fixed as sand dunes, and drift all over with the political and social winds over time. Which is just a more extreme example of the common inability to recognize that the same is true for species.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-12T18:25:49.074Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-13T19:18:32.880Z

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-15T08:58:03.773Z

Your regular reminder that Eisenhower warned us about all this in January 1961, but everyone just basically ignored him until it was much too late.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-16T18:10:17.125Z

You've gotta admire a man who trusts his friends' understanding of physics enough to attempt this.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-17T19:04:26.838Z

Given that the statement "This power will be abused" is always 100% accurate over the long term, you'd think the Pollyannas would've learned by now. But I reckon that's against their dopey natures.

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-18T18:21:26.639Z

I just noticed this:

— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-02-19T19:01:26.364Z

 

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In the News (#1613)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »

A clumsy attempt…to put a cuddly face on a rather dystopian reality.  –  Chris Gilliard

The Vultures Descend (Bragging Rights)

No evil is too sleazy for forced-birth fanatics:

An anti-choice group called “Voices for Life” is trying a new strategy to put a target on the backs of abortion providers and recipients in [Indiana by] seeking to make…identifying details about them publicly available…Eleven abortion providers have been murdered in the U.S. since 1993, and abortion clinics continue to experience arson attacks and invasions.  From 2023 to 2024, there were 37 reported cases of stalking and 38 reported cases of assault…against abortion providers…Indiana’s abortion ban was passed almost immediately…after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade…It permits abortions in certain cases…but…bans abortion clinics…[so there are] very few abortions…Yet that isn’t enough for [fanatics]…

The Last Shall Be First (#1412) 

The time, money, and energy our society is flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

In Kansas, more than a bathroom bill is at stake for transgender residents as [psychopathic politicians] jam through a bill to mass-invalidate the driver’s licenses of every trans person in the state…HB246…declares that all driver’s licenses out of step with the state’s definition of man and woman are invalid, and instructs [bureaucrats] to identify every license issued to a trans person and send written notice that the license must be surrendered and reissued…The bill institutes an extreme and novel punishment of transgender residents for continuing to live their lives as normal, and the legality of stripping people of legal ID in this way is questionable.  However, there has been little coverage of the measure because the legislature paired it with one of the most extreme bans on trans people using public restrooms in the entire country.  The bathroom ban has been covered in local news stories and by the Erin in the Morning newsletter, which mentioned but did not focus on the driver’s license changes…

Thought Control (#1527)

These psychopaths won’t be satisfied until they can actually start arresting and caging librarians:

…a bill…in…Georgia…[would criminalize] librarians [who refuse] to…censor…books about LGBTQ people or issues.  Senate Bill 74, sponsored by [censorious politician] Max Burns…[would allow prosecu]tion…of [librarians for working in a library containing books that a politician chooses to point at while spastically barfing out the magic formula “]harmful…to minors[” if]…the…libraries [don’t] ban…people under 18 [from the premises]…Burns told reporters…“At the end of the day, the objective is to…[demand] that…professional…librarians [act as mindless facilitators of the whims of politicians, in violation of all decency and professional ethics]”…

Walled Garden (#1533)

“A disaster waiting to happen”:

Discord [has] announced…that it’s [impos]ing…[user surveillance] on its platform globally starting next month, when it will automatically set all users’ accounts to a “teen-appropriate” [censorship level] unless they [convince an algorithm] that they’re adults.  Users who [refuse to submit to facial recognition or recording of their government ID] will not be able to access age-restricted servers and channels, won’t be able to speak in Discord’s livestream-like “stage” channels, and will see c[ensorship black screens] for any content Discord [algorithms declare “]graphic[” or “]sensitive[“]…users w[ill even] be [banned from]…age-restricted server[s]…they were part of before [the surveillance regime was imposed]…Discord [mouthpieces pooh-poohed]…concerns around data privacy, [despite a recent] data breach that exposed users’ age verification data, including images of government IDs…

Panopticon (#1584) 

One couldn’t ask for a better example of useful idiocy:

At Sunday’s Super Bowl, Ring advertised “Search Party,” a cute, horrifyingly dystopian feature…designed to turn all of the Ring cameras in a neighborhood into a dragnet that uses [recognition algorithms] to look for a lost dog…[with] one [simple] post…in the Ring app…It does not take an imagination of any sort to envision this being tweaked to work against [people the state has declared “]criminals[“, including] undocumented immigrants, or [else] other…[passersby] deemed “suspicious” by people…on its dystopian “Neighbors” app…Ring rose to prominence…by forming [fascist] partnerships with local police around the country, asking them to shill their doorbell cameras to people…in return for a system that allowed police to [demand] footage from individual users without a warrant [or the consent of the camera “owner”]…

This is only a temporary retreat:

Following intense backlash to its partnership with Flock S[urveillance]…Ring has announced it is [temporarily backpedaling from] the integration [until the furor dies down]…Over the last few weeks, the company has faced significant public anger over its connection to Flock, with Ring users being encouraged to smash their cameras, and some announcing on social media that they are throwing away their Ring devices…

Ring has a history of claiming to retreat from fascist police-statery, then quietly resuming the supposedly-renounced behavior once things quiet down.

Torture Chamber (#1607)

This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed:

…a handwritten note…wrapped around a lotion bottle…was thrown by a man held captive inside the Otay Mesa Detention Center…on [February 1st]…“It’s cold here all the time and the food is poor…For 280 days we haven’t eaten a single piece of fruit, banana, apple, orange, or anything fresh.  We are all in one big room with no doors or windows.  We can’t see any grass or trees.  We are all constantly sick.”  The bottle needed to be tossed with enough strength to make it across a cement wall, two barbed wire fences each around twelve-feet high and separated by about five feet of gravel, and ten additional feet of road…Two lotion bottles with the same note were tossed over…[because if screws see messages being thrown out] they rush…to grab them…so…[nobody can find out which] hostages…[are imprisoned in which] facilities…[but activists] have collected 14 lotion bottles, two deodorant bottles, and one AA Battery that [hostag]es have thrown over the fences with notes attached to them.  These items have included a total of 102 names and A-Numbers…[which] are…numbers assigned by the Department of [Father]land Security to [victims]…Organizers use this information to add…funds [to hostages’]…commissary…[and] phone call…[accounts]…

Mad Libs (#1612)

What an opportunity for ambulance-chasers to cash in:

This study evaluated whether the customized ECG Reader-GPT model could serve as a supportive tool—rather than a substitute for expert judgment—during ECG interpretation in the emergency department…Ten emergency medicine specialists (EMSs) interpreted each ECG…The same ECG set was assessed by a customized [chatbot]…Two cardiologists, blinded to group assignments, scored all responses using a predefined key.  EMSs demonstrated markedly higher diagnostic accuracy…correctly interpret[ing] 77% of ECGs, whereas ECG Reader-GPT achieved 24%…indicating that the model is…insufficient for real-world ECG interpretation…

But when actual physicians merely used the software for “assistance”, the results were even worse:

In 2021…Johnson & Johnson [pompously] announced a “leap forward”:  it [crammed a chatbot in]to a medical device used to treat chronic sinusitis…the software…would [supposedly]…assist ear, nose, and throat specialists in surgeries.  The device had already been on the market for three years [prior to insertion of the parasitic chatbot, during which time the FDA] received [seven] unconfirmed reports of…device malfunction…Since [the chatbot was crammed in, there have been]…at least 100 malfunctions and adverse events…

 

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 (#1611)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

George Orwell told us about thought crime as a cautionary fable…this…seems like an attempt to put it into action.  –  Micah Kubic

Chauvinism (#1421)

The Olympics always provide an excuse for governments to “clean things up” in the host cities before the guests arrive:

LA County…plans to remove…thousands of unhoused people from areas around sports venues ahead of the Olympic games in 2028.  [Bureaucrats] issued a strategy report last week advising local governments on how to [abduct] people from encampments…and [force] them into temporary housing.  However, the same report notes that…there [are not] enough beds and there’s no new funding for such an effort…

Eavesdropping (#1503)

Google still claims this doesn’t happen:

Google has agreed to pay $68 million to settle a class-action lawsuit [over its] voice assistant…illegally record[ing] users and…shar[ing] their private conversations with advertisers…Google [pretends] that its voice assistant w[ill] only register people’s speech when [they] utter…an activation phrase, such as “Hey Google,” [but this is a lie and]…the Google devices [have] recorded private conversations about financial issues, personal decisions and employment…[Victims] will be able to submit claims for up to three Google devices, although…individuals [will] receive…[a paltry] $8 to $40 per person…

Walled Garden (#1570)

The internet’s global scope is the main reason politicians hate it and want to destroy it:

The Online Safety Act grants the U.K.’s online [cens]or, Ofcom, sweeping authority to…censor online content under the guise of protecting children.  The results have been disastrous…and…Ofcom…[has] quietly been pressuring U.S. companies to comply with their orders…lawyer Preston Byrne…represents four U.S. websites targeted by Ofcom: 4chan, Gab…Kiwi Farms, and Personal Autonomy LLC (the provider of the forum Sanctioned Suicide)…In one email response to Ofcom, he [wrote that] their demands on 4chan were “legally void” and would make “excellent bedding” for his “pet hamster”…but…if Ofcom keeps pressuring people…the risk is that…people will…comply because the letters are scary…The Guaranteeing Rights Against Novel International Tyranny & Extortion (GRANITE) Act, which was originally proposed on Byrne’s blog, would allow U.S. companies and individuals to sue foreign governments that attempt to censor Americans.  If the U.S. successfully sued a foreign government in a U.S. court, the foreign country’s assets could be forfeited…Wyoming has become the first to formally introduce the legislation…but Byrne thinks federal legislation would be more effective…

Panopticon (#1587)

Cops are trying to hide their 4th Amendment violations:

[Cop]s are being told to “be as vague as permissible” about why they are using the Flock surveillance system in order to not le[t the public discover illegal snooping] via public records requests…police [incompetent]ly leak[ed] the details of millions of surveillance targets nationwide due to public records redaction errors…[and] rather than looking at this…as a huge operational security failure associated with…a [fascist]…surveillance system, police [fantasize] that [they rather than their victims are in danger]…highlight[ing] how [cops irrationally and pathologically imagine] themselves as being consistently and universally under threat from the people [they want to dominate]…

Panopticon (#1594)

Cops will invariably use warrantless surveillance to harass people:

On Oct. 21 the entire Lenexa, Kansas [cop shop] was hunting Canyen Ashworth…[because a pig decided without evidence that he must be the guy who put up]…posters on city property…[since he wrote] a guest column critical of Lenexa Police…for the Kansas City Star…The [anti-ICE] poster [infuriated the pig herd so bureaucrats claimed they were]…“in violation of Lenexa city ordinances”…[even though] posters about lost pets and community events were generally not removed.  The [cops didn’t know who posted them, but boss hog Dawn] Layman [was pissed off about the column, so]…Ashworth…was [targeted for police violence by]…tracking [hi]s movement around Lenexa using the city’s license plate reader system.  [Pigs were told he]…was…“MYOC”…shorthand for “make your own case.”  [In other words, cops were being ordered to frame] Ashworth…for [whatever] reason [they could dream up]…

I Spy (#1604)

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

ICE has vastly expanded its tech tools over the last year after an [obscene] influx of cash…[from the] Trump [regime.  Father]land Security…awarded Palantir a nearly $30 million contract to build a system backed by artificial [stupidity to target]…individuals for [violence.  Another]…tool…built by Paragon…lets [goons] take control of phones or remotely hack into them…The others were built by Penlink…[to exploit]…data scraped from the web and information from data brokers…ICE…[also] use[s a facial recognition app called]…Mobile Fortify…[when it was pointed out to Father]land Security officials [that these tools flagrantly violate Constitutional rights, they moronically babbled]…“lawful law…lawfully…legal authorities”…

I Spy (#1610)

The rise of prosocial surveillance:

In recent weeks, efforts to track ICE [goon]s’ movements and identities have exploded online, including sites to report ICE raid locations.  Even prolific cybercriminal collectives — better known for their ransomware attacks on luxury carmakers — are joining the fray by releasing the names and personal information of hundreds of ICE [goons] and [DFS spooks] online…“Even when the government pushes to block high-profile apps or webpages, people will continue to share information with their community to keep each other safe,” said Mario Trujilo [of EFF]…Residents in communities targeted by the [regime for pogroms]…have also built tools to…map Flock…cameras and detect [porcine] surveillance devices…through Bluetooth signals…

 

I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one.  Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful.  But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer.  So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets.  Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements.  Thanks so much!

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The Crypt of Throwback Thursday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2026| Leave a Comment »


The self-appointed TV watchdogs who were so common in the late ’70s and early ’80s…raised a huge public stink about any show that might be too intense for a timid 6-year-old with a nervous disorder.
–  “Diary #605”

 

It’s sad to see how many people still want to believe that actual sex workers with individual human personalities could be replaced by plastic dolls or computer-generated images without minds.  –  “The Pygmalion Fallacy (#1310)”

 

Millions of people in the developed world, acting individually or collectively, feel completely justified in digging into the affairs of those who have different beliefs from them, in hope of discovering some transgression or mistake that can be used to destroy the victim’s life with the help of faceless, merciless corporations and institutions.  –  “O.B.I.T.”

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In the News (#1607)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

The willful use of such an error-prone technology suggests that the appearance of a process is more important than accuracy.  –  Chris Gilliard

If Men Were Angels

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity, or even religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority:

…a Roman Catholic priest…[named] Korey LaVergne was jailed…on [January 16th for child molestation]…the…arrest comes at a relatively fragile time for the Lafayette diocese, which…[has] disclosed its “total range of potential loss on [pending child molestation] claims…is $88,187,500 to $162,450,000”…A Lafayette diocese priest named Gilbert Gauthe effectively brought the decades-old, worldwide Catholic clergy abuse crisis to the US by pleading guilty in 1985 to molesting several boys…

A Moral Cancer (#1030)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

…Arizona [politicians want to make]…amyl nitrates — commonly known as “poppers” — illegal in the state, [criminalizing mere possession of] a substance long sold in a legal gray area and closely associated with LGBT…nightlife and sexual culture.  House Bill 2191…would also ban the sale of nitrous oxide, often called “laughing gas”…The proposal [appears to be a spinoff of increased] federal scrutiny of poppers…[including raids on] several manufacturers…[by] the FDA…[because the psychopathic] Robert F. Kennedy Jr…has repeatedly promoted the scientifically disproven claim that poppers — rather than HIV — caused AIDS…

If Men Were Angels (#1477)

Cop and preacher is like the molester equivalent of a full house:

A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in schools in order to spy on, persecute, and intimidate students in] Colorado was [also a preacher]…Rubel “Tim” Martinez…was arrested [for repeatedly molesting a student]…from 2014 to 2016…and [has now been convicted]…Martinez [also]…ran an after-school clown club…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1571)

Government thugs don’t care how many false positives these systems shit out:

When…ICE…[goons subjected one of their victims to their] facial recognition app [without her consent], it returned two different and incorrect names, [demonstrating that]…the[ir] app…called Mobile Fortify, [is just as error-prone as all facial recognition software]…de[spite utterly ridiculous claims that it]…should be trusted over a birth certificate…“ICE has treated Mobile Fortify like it’s a 100% accurate record retrieval system of everybody’s immigration status for the entire population of the U.S. when this is obviously not true, and could never be true from a technical perspective,” [said] Cooper Quintin…[of] the Electronic Frontier Foundation…The [victim,] a 45-year-old woman who court records call MJMA…is now suing ICE and being represented by attorneys from the Innovation Law Lab…

Shame, Shame (#1597)

Zuckerberg flushed $77 billion down a “virtual” toilet:

After years of failing to produce a profitable [virtual] reality platform, [Facebook] is pounding one of the final nails into the coffin of its metaverse efforts — the ones that were once so central to its vision that it renamed the entire company after them…[it is] laying off some 1,500 employees from its Reality Labs division…[and] three VR game studios were shuttered, though [its]…online VR game platform…is still running…in a diminished capacity…

Torture Chamber (#1601)

A convenient way to cover up wanton murder:

Under the law, ICE is required to provide necessary medical care for [its victims]…While [it] employs some of its own medical staff, it often uses third-party providers…ICE, however, has not paid any third-party providers for medical care for detainees since October 3, 2025…[and has] announc[ed] it will not begin processing such claims until at least April 30, 2026…[this] has [understandably] caused…medical providers to deny services to ICE [victims]…ICE [told inquiring reporters to fuck off]…

Torture Chamber (#1606)

Government violence claims another victim:

A Nicaraguan immigrant [captur]ed by ICE [goons] in Minneapolis has become the third [victim] to die at [Concentration] Camp East Montana in El Paso…Victor Manuel Diaz…was…[supposedly found] dead on Wednesday, Jan. 14…ICE…[is calling it a] suicide…[but the same thing was claimed about] Geraldo Lunas Campos…[when goons murdered him] on Jan. 3…At least six migrants have died…in [US concentration camps]…since Jan. 1…

 

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 (#1604)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 14, 2026| Leave a Comment »

It’s Soviet-style education.  –  Martin Peterson

Thought Control (#1480)

The ghost of Kurt Vonnegut vs. Utah censors:

On behalf of the Kurt Vonnegut Estate, authors Elana K. Arnold, Ellen Hopkins, and Amy Reed, and two anonymous high school student[s] with the ACLU of Utah filed a complaint on January 6 to challenge…the…[state book banning] law…which [allows any politician or other busybody to ban any book statewide merely by pointing at it and barfing the formula]…“harmful to minors” [into the face of anyone who wants to read the book]…Slaughterhouse-Five…remains [high] on the [ALA]…list of most-banned classics, decades after its 1969 publication…and…Nanette Vonnegut, the late author’s daughter, [said]…“Utah’s…determination to ban books like Slaughterhouse-Five…is antithetical to what my father fought for during World War II”…

Crippling Thought (#1513)

Surely you didn’t think they’d stop with libraries and primary schools?

Martin Peterson, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M…[has been] told…that he needed to [censor]…Plato from his syllabus…[to] comply with new policies [demanding political control of all education]…the A&M system [is rushing to obey moral illiterates]…Course sections are being canceled or potentially reclassified, threatening students’ schedules.  And professors are…losing [tenure and with it] academic freedom…“A philosophy professor who is not allowed to teach Plato?” Dr. Peterson said…“Is that really what they want?”…

One would think Texas politicians would be fans of a philosopher who taught that there are “inferior” people who are only fit to be slaves.

Mad Libs (#1554)

It’s not really a doctor, it just plays one in the fantasies of tech cultists:

…[Open]AI’s [latest irresponsible advertising claim is that its chatbot can be] a “healthcare ally”…ChatGPT Health is…designed for users to ask their health-related questions in what it [pretend]s [i]s a more secure…environment…and…is [irresponsibly] encouraging [its naive] users to connect their personal medical records and [health surveillance] apps…[it even claims] that ChatGPT can analyze lab results…the [disclaimer fine print claims] that ChatGPT Health is “not intended for diagnosis or treatment,” but it [knows] full…[well that’s exactly] how people [will] us[e it]…In August, physicians published a report…of a man being hospitalized for weeks with an 18th-century medical condition after taking ChatGPT’s…dangerous health advice[, and other chatbots cause similar harm]…

I Spy (#1579)

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

A social media and phone surveillance system ICE bought access to is designed to monitor a city neighborhood or block for mobile phones, track the movements of those devices and their owners over time, and follow them from their places of work to home or other locations…the…data…is…acquired from hundreds of millions of phones via a company called Penlink, [and] can be queried without a warrant…the technology…consist[s] of two Penlink products called Tangles and Webloc…Users can perform a single perimeter analysis to search a specific area for mobile phones across a certain time period…then select…[any] particular phone, and, by extension, its owner…seeing where else it has travelled both locally and across the country…

Micromanagement (#1589)

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

…the Department of [Father]land Security…[wants] its [goon]s to gather and store more biometric data [including DNA] on anybody associated with applications for “benefits” including family visas, Permanent Resident (green) Cards, and work permits…[for] “identity management”…the new rule would affect not just immigrants but “U.S. citizens, nationals, and lawful permanent residents, regardless of age”…Institute for Justice…attorney Tahmineh Dehbozorgi [writes]…”this…is creating a vast genetic dragnet that endangers the Fourth Amendment rights of everyone, all without Congress’ approval”…

The Vultures Descend (#1602)

When a prosecutor can’t destroy a life through legal means, they use the complicit media instead:

[When] Kentucky police arrested a woman [for taking] abortion pills…and bur[ying] fetal remains in her backyard…prosecutors [knew they didn’t have a “]fetal homicide[” case, so]…police [simply lied, claiming]…she buried “a developed male infant”…[so] local news outlets…[would run] with the story, splashing the woman’s name and mugshot across the internet…[for] national outlets…[to] pick…up…the state’s attorney [has already] filed to dismiss the fetal homicide charge, [leaving] only [harassment]…charges…[such as] tampering with physical evidence…and…concealing the birth of an infant…so…Whatever the outcome of the case…a woman sits in jail, and Google results for her name may always pull her mugshot and references to a supposed capital crime…

Shame, Shame (#1602)

MechaHitler is the most antisocial chatbot, and it’s not even close:

[MechaHitler] is generating nonconsensual pornographic images of women with their clothes removed and wearing bikinis with swastikas on them…including [legal] minors…Several targets are Jewish, including…Holocaust survivor[s]…Other requests add additional neo-Nazi content such as “put her in a swastika bikini and [a MAGA hat]”…

 

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 (#1603)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2026| Leave a Comment »

If stings worked we wouldn’t still be doing them.  –  Alex Andrews

Theatrics (#510)

The “sex trafficking” moral panic is over, but the rescue industry isn’t:

Let’s talk about the American tradition of the human trafficking sting  – part press conference, part moral panic, part budget sinkhole.  Across the country, these branded operations promise to crack down on exploitation and rescue victims…Since agencies don’t release itemized budgets, we built conservative cost models using…Local news reporting, booking data…court records…Known staffing levels and standardized pay/benefits rates…Publicly documented tactics (decoy operations, press briefings, multi-agency involvement)[, etc]…All told, these efforts can run $10,000 to $30,000+ per arrest  – whether or not a trafficking charge ever materializes…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1489)

Customers need to teach these nosy creeps a lesson by shopping elsewhere:

Wegmans in New York City has begun collecting biometric data from anyone who enters its supermarkets…their face, eyes and voice[-prints will be] collected and stored…the [management vomited the word] “safety” a[s a ludicrous justification for fascist collaboration with cops, spooks, and goons]…Legislation aiming to block businesses from using such systems was introduced in the City Council in 2023…But [of course it went nowhere], and other supermarket chains like Fairway already use biometric collection systems…

The Vultures Descend (#1493)

Another judge doing what judges should do more often: nullify tyrannical laws:

Abortion will remain legal in Wyoming after the state Supreme Court struck down laws including the country’s first explicit ban on abortion pills…[because] they violate the state constitution…[which clearly states] that competent adults have the right to make their own health care decisions…the state…[absurdly] argued that a…[medical procedure] is not health care…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1554)

The psychopaths who market chatbots as “intelligent” need to be sued into bankruptcy:

…Sam Nelson…routinely turned to ChatGPT to…ask for help with…drugs…ChatGPT started coaching Sam on how to take drugs, recover from them and plan further binges.  It gave him specific doses of illegal substances, and…consistent encouragement…Then, last May…the 19-year-old…died from an overdose, just hours after [more bad advice from]…ChatGPT…Nelson’s death…joins a growing list of tragedies connected to ChatGPT and other…chatbots.  In November, seven lawsuits were filed against OpenAI in one day [because] ChatGPT gave awful responses to vulnerable people who ended up…co[mmitting] suicide…[or] other[wise spiraling into] mental health crises…OpenAI [is directly responsible because it falsely advertises] ChatGPT as a trustworthy source for health information…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1555)

Burble burble BLUE STATE burble drool:

New York Governor Kathy Hochul just signed a law that’s going to get expensive fast…[it] forces websites to slap unscientific warnings on their services [falsely] claiming that features like algorithmic feeds and push notifications cause [“]addiction[“]…compelled speech…[is] blatantly unconstitutional, and courts have already rejected nearly identical schemes.  But Hochul and [other busybody politicians] either don’t care or don’t understand First Amendment basics, so New York taxpayers are about to fund a losing legal battle whose only real purpose is generating headlines for those politicians pretending to care about “protecting the children”…

The Cop Myth (#1597)

What would cops do if you shot someone dead in the street?

A…[Father]land Security [goon murdered] a neighbor [because he] fired gunshots into the air [to celebrate the]…New Year…in…Los Angeles…The [murderer claimed he could fly, therefore shots]…fired [into the air were in reality] at [him, therefore it was self-defense even though he] was in his apartment when he heard…[the] shots…he [also claimed he was a super crack shot who was firing]…to disarm hi[s victim yet killed him instead.  LAPD is hiding the deranged goon’s identity]…

The Last Shall Be First (#1600)

This is why some of us are wary of demands for “regulation”:

Passional Boutique & Sexploratorium…of Philadelphia…is now [being harassed] by [the] Trump…[regime] for selling an undergarment…the [FDA] sent a [threat] letter to Passional stating it was illegally selling breast binders…[which] the FDA [absurdly] classifies…as a medical device.  Businesses that distribute them in the [US] must be registered with the FDA or [else]…Passional was one of only 12 businesses…including companies in Singapore and the Netherlands, that [were thus threatened]…They included Seattle-based Tomboyx…and Manhattan-based For Them…During a Dec. 18 news conference, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary [vomited the moronic phrase]…“transgender ideology” [in reporters’ faces]…

 

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