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In the News (#1470)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Banishment, Brazil, California, censorship, cops, dehumanization, Disaster, drugs, Florida, Indiana, internet, Oregon, Panopticon, politicians, porn, red-light districts, robots, slavery, Social Autoimmune Disorder, streetwalkers, surveillance, Tennessee, The Face of Trafficking, The Last Shall Be First, The Public Eye, transgender, Twitter, Washington (state), You Were Warned on September 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

These extraordinary restrictions…serve no purpose other than to harm transgender Floridians.

The Face of Trafficking

Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths:

A[n Oregon] man was arrested [and charged with] human trafficking [for] exploitation of a man with developmental disabilities…Jack Hauser [was supposed to be] a caretaker for the 26-year-old man after the victim’s mother passed away…[but] for at least two years, Hauser…forced the man to sell drinks and snacks at the exit of a shopping center in Hillsboro, often having him remain there for several days and nights with no shelter or proper clothing…he was…only allowed to sleep in a car or in a garden shed…Hauser also restricted [hi]s contact with other people, as well as his access to money and healthcare…

Disaster (#978)

Seattle is notorious for cloaking its police-statery in bogus “liberal” cant:

[Seattle] City Attorney Ann Davison and…City Councilmember Cathy Moore [have] proposed [inanely-labeled] SODA and SOAP zones…that would, among other things, ban sex workers from a designated area on Aurora Avenue North, a major corridor of Seattle’s survival sex trade. In a bizarre moment during her presentation, Moore screened a video of sex workers engaging in what she described as “commercial sexual exploitation”…[but was in reality] just [surveillance video of] sex workers walking around on a corner of Aurora…taking videos of sex workers to screen publicly at a recorded meeting that’s also posted online — without giving anyone in that video a voice of their own — is an odd way to try to prove how against exploitation you are. It’s an exploitative act in itself, and a reminder of how out of touch the City Council is…

The Public Eye (#1385)

This childish puritanism is so exhausting:

[MAGA]ists in Indiana are campaigning to remove an elected official after a…blog outed her as an OnlyFans model and published several screen captures from her members-only…account. The moralistic witch hunt against Etna Troy Township Trustee Elaine Western originated with…Real News Michiana, which first outed her as a sex worker in April and is now a[dvertis]ing…“a petition to have her censured, investigated and removed from her post”…In April, Western told the site, “I haven’t tried to keep it a secret. I’m not doing anything illegal”…[and her] attorney w[arned] the a[gitators that their attempts]…”to intimidate Mrs. Western into resigning from office to avoid a public media circus…could constitute a criminal offense of intimidation”…

Panopticon (#1413)

Another “security” system that isn’t:

…the Oakland Police Department…and [other cop shops]…are increasingly looking for…Teslas parked near…[“crime scenes”], hoping their unique outward-facing cameras captured key evidence. And…they’re even resorting to…[stealing] cars to ensure they don’t lose the video…While few cars have camera systems similar to Teslas, that could change rapidly, especially as the [“monkey see, monkey do” habits of marketers] continue…In at least three instances in July and August, Oakland police sought to [steal] a Tesla…to obtain…its stored video…There’s no guarantee that a Tesla will record a crime that occurs near it…But police who view Teslas as rolling surveillance…cameras [do]n’t [give a shit]…Similar issues have come up with self-driving cars [and delivery robots]…in San Francisco and other cities, which are also equipped with sophisticated video capability…But in those cases, police subpoena the tech company…because it owns the cars and the data. Tesla drivers, by contrast, get [violat]ed individually because they control their own camera footage…

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#1416)

Politicians never stop trying to pass off old civil rights violations as new “solutions” to problems they themselves create:

San Francisco [politicians barfed out the asinine phrase “]illegal prostitution[” to justify a raft of civil rights violations], including the mailing of “Dear John” letters to the owners of vehicles [who happen to pass through] the neighborhood. Mayor London Breed a[lso barfed out the magic rights-violation-justifying word] “safer”…to…encourag[e useful idiots to report each other to the pigs, and] the city plans to install [magic bill-elimination] barriers along Shotwell Street…[along with more] license-plate reading [and facial recognition] cameras…set up to [monito]r individuals [long after sensible sex workers have simply moved to a new stroll]…

You Were Warned (#1438)

Governments are growing increasingly bold in their internet censorship:

In the…standoff between Elon Musk and Brazil…neither side comes out of it looking very good…Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes [is] (1) freezing Starlink assets and (2) threatening to ban…Twitter entirely from the country…Brazil has done this in the past with WhatsApp and Telegram. The freezing of Starlink’s assets…suggest[s] how far Moraes would…go in this posturing battle. Apparently, he was willing to go even further, to the point of potentially blocking VPNs entirely…ISPs and app stores have been ordered to block…the [Twitter] app within five days…Moraes seem[s to have walked] back th[e] section of the ruling [blocking VPNs], though perhaps only temporarily…after Moraes hears from “the parties in the proceedings,” the VPN ban could come back…the…order…also threatens to fine anyone who is able to get around the block nearly $9,000 dollars per day…

The Last Shall Be First (#1448)

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

Several transgender youth and adults are being told their care will be terminated following a ruling from the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals…that a 2023 law…can go back into effect after being…blocked in June…The ruling…stated that transgender people…do not receive the same level of…protection under the Constitution as other categories such as race, ethnicity, religion, or sex. This…implies that laws discriminating against transgender people are likely to be considered…constitutional by the 11th Circuit…SB254…banned gender-affirming care for…youth…[and] also restrict[ed] care for…adults…[by] mandat[ing] that [such] care…could only be provided by physicians…the majority of [current] care is provided by nurse practitioners…because the number of transgender adults far exceeds the capacity of physicians [in the field]…If the Supreme Court were to rule [in a pending case stemming from Tennessee’s trans care ban] that transgender people are not entitled to equal protection under the law, many forms of discrimination…could be deemed fully legal…many [in Florida] cannot afford to wait for such a decision, and…have already fled the state…

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 (#1463)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, adolescence, All-Purpose Excuse, artificial stupidity, asset seizure, bogus studies, California, censorship, cops, Do As I Say, Don't Call It Trafficking, end demand, fascism, Georgia, internet, Jamaica, North Dakota, Opting Out, Panopticon, Pathologization, Policing for Profit, politicians, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, sex offender registry, Social Autoimmune Disorder, South Carolina, streetwalkers, surveillance, The Cop Myth, United Kingdom on August 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »

I would rather be dead than ever go back. – victim of ALA

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1136)

Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers:

A [typical and representative] North Dakota [politician] who was one of the most powerful members of the Legislature [will] plead guilty…in federal court to traveling to Europe with the intent to pay for sex with a minor. Ray Holmberg…was indicted in October 2023…and…will…have to register as a sex offender…

A Broker in Pillage (#1276)

South Carolina is one of the most flagrant abusers of this unconstitutional practice:

In Spartanburg County, South Carolina, on Interstate 85, [cop]s stop vehicles for…any infraction, no matter how minor…lead[ing] to a roadside interrogation and warrantless search…the [sophomorically-entitled “Operation Rolling Thunder” has been committed] every year since 2006, yet no one has ever done a systematic audit…It took a lawsuit to finally pry the records loose…Over 72 percent of vehicle searches during [the scheme] in 2022 produced nothing illegal. Officers routinely treated innocent drivers like criminals…[and] currency as contraband. The records describe no single case in which officers found a large amount of cash and did not seize it…[they] pressured property owners to sign roadside abandonment forms, giving up claims to their cash on the spot…Officers focused on vehicles with out-of-state plates, rental cars, and commercial buses. Over 83 percent of the [victims]…lived out of state…and 75 percent…were black…[the armed-robber cops] do not create incident reports for every search. They only document their “wins”…[so there are] no records for 102 of the 144 searches that occurred during [the scheme] in 2022…This leaves government watchdogs in the dark—by design. They cannot inspect public records that do not exist. Victims cannot cite them in litigation…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1387)

The entire “troubled teen” industry needs to be sued out of existence:

There is a highly lucrative, multibillion-dollar market of residential “behaviour modification programmes”…in the US, where an estimated 50,000 children [and teenagers] are [sent] by their parents…against their will every year. All operate in closely guarded secrecy. There are more than a hundred in Utah alone, but some are based offshore in remote, low-regulation, low-cost foreign locations such as Samoa, Costa Rica, Mexico and Caribbean islands…[they are condemned to these camps] for bunking off school, wearing inappropriate clothes, swearing, [or using] cigarettes or alcohol…a sizeable number [are]…adopted by parents who had then changed their minds…many [we]re had been diagnosed [by quacks] with oppositional defiant disorder, whose symptoms…[are] indistinguishable from typical adolescent behaviour…boys aged 14-18 confined in [Atlantis Leadership Academy, or ALA, raided by Jamaican officials in February]…had been starved, waterboarded and brutally beaten with broom handles, rakes, belts and metal water bottles…sleep-deprived and relentlessly insulted…bleach and salt [were] rubbed in their wounds; others…were [brutally assaulted,] threatened with knives and kept in solitary confinement for months on end…

Panopticon (#1429)

“Prostitution” is such a handy excuse for surveillance:

Moral panic about sex work leads to law enforcement practices that reach far beyond anyone engaged in or with erotic labor. The latest example comes from San Diego…where cops are putting up a creepy surveillance tower under the auspice of stopping…prostitution…[by] record[ing] video of anyone who happens to be in the area…even if you think that punishing prostitution customers (or sex workers themselves) is a swell idea, it’s hard to see how the surveillance tower makes any sense…the tower is very visible and local media have been publicizing it. Smart sex workers and their customers will simply move to another, less visible area…It seems clear that th[is]…is…just a way for authorities to look like they’re doing something about sex trafficking while further normalizing the idea of conducting broad, warrantless surveillance of everyone…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1432)

Phrenology for tech worshipers:

Michal Kosinski…has made…plausible[-sounding] claims that machine-learning algorithms…can discern deeply private things about us — our intelligence, our sexual preferences, our political beliefs — using little more than…photographs of our faces…Science has been trying to divine truths about personality and behavior from various tests and images for centuries…Phrenologists used calipers to measure bumps on people’s heads, hoping to diagnose mental incapacities or moral deficiencies…none of these “sciences” worked…[and] every time someone claimed they’d found a way to measure people’s inner traits based on their exterior features, it quickly turned into a tool to discriminate…Yet today…facial recognition continue[s] to be…abused…in everything from marketing and job hiring to college admissions and law enforcement…

Opting Out (#1438)

Politicians refuse to recognize that prohibition of speech, ie censorship, is as doomed to failure as other kinds of prohibition:

As riots rock…Britain, some [politicians] are trying to blame social media…[rather than the] government policy…[causing] the country’s civil unrest…they…want social media companies to ban [any] user accounts [politicians point at, calling this indirect censorship]…”their responsibilities”…Ofcom, the British…[censorship bureau], has already [harass]ed social media companies…about online speech, in…the name of “safety”…Making businesses liable for speech that is not their own is fraught with [wholly]…intended consequences…[by] strongly incentiviz[ing] those businesses to remove any content that could invite legal scrutiny…allowing [government] control over online discourse without the messy optics of jailing citizens for wrongthink…

The Cop Myth (#1446)

Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?

An…Atlanta [cop was]…arrested [for murdering] a man…outside of a…bar during a birthday party…Melvin Potter…[shot] Devon Anderson…to [death after he] tried to de-escalate [an] argument…[between the drunk] Potter…[and another partygoer. Potter]…was [previously] arrested on DUI charges in 2021…but [as is typical for drunk-driving cops escaped without consequences]…

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In the News (#1416)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged California, Canada, child "protective" services, cops, domestic violence, drugs, Enablers, LGBT rights, Minnesota, Monsters, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, politicians, Property of the State, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, Social Autoimmune Disorder, surveillance, The Cop Myth, To Molest and Rape, Washington DC on February 28, 2024| 2 Comments »

Over and over and over again…the system itself harms children and families. – Wendy Bach

Monsters

Nex Benedict, a gender-nonconforming 16-year-old in Owasso, Oklahoma, died on February 8th after what school officials are calling “a fight” in the girls’ bathroom involving three older girls. Of course, they always call it a “fight” even when three kids beat one kid’s head against a tile floor hard enough to send them to the hospital. News coverage of Nex’s death is all over the place, though much of it quotes the absurd claim that the death was pure koinkydink, unrelated to the beating; or claims Nex started it; or uses their birth name. The only things that are certain is that Oklahoma politicians have stoked a climate of fear and hate against kids like Nex, who was forced to use the bathroom corresponding to their biological sex despite the obvious danger, and is now dead as a result. I’ll publish a follow-up when there seems to be some consensus about facts instead of conflicting masses of self-serving political bullshit, butt-covering by school officials, and speculation by outsiders. But for now the important thing to keep in mind is that this idiotic culture war is not only an unforgiveable waste of time and resources, but has an actual body count.

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#594)

There’s never a shortage of useful idiots who think the leopards will never eat their faces:

San Francisco [idio]ts living along Capp Street in the Mission District spent much of last year pushing for [magic bill-elimination] barriers to…[“abate” the “]prostitution problem[“. Of course, as sensible people predicted, the stroll merely moved] a few blocks down [to] the Shotwell Street area…[now useful idiots]…have drafted a petition, calling on the city to install 16 of its new license plate reader cameras in the neighborhood…Mayor London Breed..is also pushing for Proposition E to pass, which would allow the city to use facial recognition cameras for surveillance…

To Molest and Rape

Just another typical and representative cop:

[The Washington DC cop shop is hiding the identity of a pig who raped a woman in his pigmobile] in [Montgomery County] Maryland…he has been [rewarded for the crime with a] paid [vacation]…the woman [was apparently lured into the car]…on Feb. 1…[under the pretext of a “date”]…

Property of the State (#1182)

Oklahoma is another state which seems to simply hate women:

Amanda Aguilar’s…baby tested positive for marijuana…[because] Aguilar had been taking the drug to treat severe morning sickness…Medical marijuana is legal in Oklahoma, and she had a doctor-approved state license to use it. Her son was healthy at birth. But the hospital r[at]ted her [out] to child welfare workers, who handed over her baby’s drug test results to police…In June, a judge in Kay County tossed out the charges against Aguilar…she [had not] broke[n] state law…But the [sociopathic] local prosecutor…filed an appeal to reinstate the charges, [moronically] arguing that…the fetus…did not have its own, separate license to use medical marijuana. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals is expected to hear the arguments later this year…potentially opening the door for more criminal cases…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1327)

There is absolutely no legitimate reason for a vending machine to have this capability:

A set of [computerized] vending machines at the University of Waterloo is expected to be removed from campus after…a student noticed an error message on one of the[m which]…appeared to indicate there was a problem with a facial recognition application…A picture of the error message was posted online and students quickly started sharing it..Since then, many have tried to cover a small hole on the machine that they believe houses a camera…the manufacturer…Invenda…[claims] the…machines can detect the presence of a person, their estimated age and gender…”without storing such data on permanent memory mediums [sic] or transmitting it over the Internet”…

This certainly casts a different light on another, similar story:

Amazon is in the process of replacing a breakroom coffee machine in its Maple Grove [Minnesota] warehouse after an employee inadvertently discovered a camera inside the machine that took pictures of the breakroom…[the] East African workers…who comprise a sizable [fraction] of Amazon’s Minnesota workforce…have a history of protesting the company’s wages and workplace conditions…a labor organization…said the situation is concerning because of previous incidents where the retail giant used tech to track workers’ productivity in excessive and illegal ways…

Any information which exists can be misused by corporations or demanded by cops; the only way to stop that privacy invasion is not to collect the information in the first place.

The Cop Myth (#1395)

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

A Vallejo [California cop] was arrested…on Valentine’s Day after his ex-girlfriend reported to Oakland police that he’d threatened and harassed her for months…Ronald Dupree…[had previously been] reported…to Vallejo police [but they did nothing except tell Dupree she had reported him]…Dupree started texting or calling her dozens of times per day, often from a blocked number…he al[so]…threatened her, adding that he knew how to dispose of a body, and that he would file a missing person’s report to locate her if she ever tried to hide…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #6)

Your “leaders” say this trash is fit to “correct” others:

A [typical and representative Pennsylvania screw]…sexually abused a [14-year-old] teenage girl…John Mollica…[seduced] the girl, [telling her] “I’m obsessed with you and I’m willing to kill for you”…[and giving] her cash…and [gifts]…when [cops] questioned Mollica…he…denied having a “relationship” with the teen and further stated that he thought she was only 11 years old…

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In the News (#1158)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged asset seizure, cell phones, Checklist, cops, end demand, fantasy, fascism, Florida, homosexuality, hysteria, I Spy, If Men Were Angels, India, Israel, Lack of Evidence, LGBT rights, Mary Magdalene, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Policing for Profit, propaganda, racism, rape, Safe Position, scams, sex rays, Social Autoimmune Disorder, streetwalkers, surveillance, Texas, To Molest and Rape on July 31, 2021| Leave a Comment »

I’m 300 percent sure that’s illegal money. – example of typical cop math

If Men Were Angels

“Pastors” are as bad as cops:

Chets Creek…Southern Baptist megachurch in Florida, [distanced itself from]…former Southside campus pastor Jeff Bedwell [when he] was recently arrested for…sexually molesting a young girl from the age of 12 until…17…Senior Pastor Spike Hogan [bloviated a lot of excuses and added some copsucking for good measure]…Bedwell served as a youth pastor…before his [promotion] in…2018…

Policing for Profit (#645)

Cops will never stop doing this as long as the state keeps giving them pretexts:

A New Mexico man [was robbed at gunpoint by] Oklahoma sheriff’s deputies [of] more than $140,000…[using the bogus excuse] of drug trafficking, [but] a local news outlet found the records to [show the cops were lying]…Thai Nang…and a business partner were traveling to buy a piece of land when they were pulled over. Sheriff’s deputies [rooted through] the car and [stole] the money…[claiming moronically], “I’m 300 percent sure that’s illegal money”…but…[reporters] obtained the bill of sale and interviewed the owner from whom Nang was intending to purchase the property…Nang also [reported that] the amount the sheriff’s office reported s[teal]ing is roughly $10,000 short of the actual amount. The Institute for Justice…[says] Canadian County, Oklahoma is [notorious for this kind of]…abuse…

Lack of Evidence (#861)

When will amateurs learn that the War on Whores affects them as well?

A raid on a Maryland adult bookstore in May resulted in…unconstitutional arrests of three men for violating the state’s [unconstitutional] sodomy law…nine people [were arrested, but]…only three…were charged with perverted sexual practice. Another four were charged with indecent exposure…and one…was arrested for solicitation of…a…[sow fantasy role-playing a sex worker]…NIMBY complaints appear to have motivated the…raid…

Checklist (#1059)

Airlines: are you sure you want to keep accepting liability for employees racially profiling passengers due to the government propaganda you keep feeding them?

A Black Colorado woman…[was harass]ed and [interrogated] by [armed government thugs who accused her of “]human trafficking[” her] adoptive four-year-old sister…Olivia, [who is white]…Lakeyjanay Bailey…was [harass]ed by [cops] after their flight touched down at…DFW…[because] Frontier Airlines [air hostesses decided it was OK to sic dangerous thugs on the sisters because a white busybody] on the flight had [sexual fantasies about them]…

To Molest and Rape (#1092)

Rapist cops don’t only target women:

A [typical and representative] Progreso [Texas cop] will spend the next 30 years in federal prison for sexually assaulting two [young men] he arrested in 2019, [one] a minor…Matthew Lee Sepulveda…[arrested both] after minor traffic stops, then [abducted] them back to a jail that otherwise stood empty due to the late hour. Both testified [that] Sepulveda asked them questions regarding their sexual activity and masturbation before…[assaulting] them…The jury also unanimously found that Sepulveda had committed bodily injury, aggravated sexual abuse…and…kidnapp[ing]…

Safe Position (#1111)

Why “policies” not backed up by law reform are worthless:

P[igs deceived and brutalized adults seeking consensual sex] in…Brooklyn…following [recent prohibitionist yellow journalism. Most of the arrests]…targeted men [simply] driving [through a] four-block…stretch…the NYPD [vomited out a lot of disgusting propaganda and bragged about sows spicing up their pathetic sex lives by fantasy-roleplaying as sex workers]…The [pogrom] came [despite]…the office of Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez [claiming it was] moving away from prosecuting prostitution cases…a DA spokesman said the arrests were for solicitation…an[d bragged about how its “]Sex Trafficking Unit[” indirectly victimizes women by]…vigorously prosecut[ing their friends, associates, and family members and trying to deprive them of income so they’ll end up homeless]…

I Spy (#1156)

Amazon only likes fascist surveillance schemes it owns and controls:

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has shut down infrastructure and accounts linked to Israeli surveillance vendor NSO Group that sells spyware Pegasus…[after] Amnesty International…[shamed them by] report[ing on how]…Pegasus spyware…[is used by repressive governments] across the world, including India where around 300 mobile numbers were snooped using the spyware. Pegasus is…installed by sending a malicious link to a target device, and…is [difficult]…to…identif[y] by the person using the targeted device…

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So Much Stupid

Posted in Current Events, Perception, Tyranny, tagged Count the Idiocies, diversion programs, end demand, hysteria, language, Missouri, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, Passive Voice, propaganda, rescue industry, shame, Social Autoimmune Disorder, streetwalkers, surveillance, The Scarlet Letter on May 10, 2021| 4 Comments »

It’s time for another of those articles so packed with idiocies that there was no way to do it justice in a news column. This one, by Charlie Keegan of KSHB in Kansas City, is not only crammed full of prohibitionist nonsense, but also littered with deeply-weird language and jaw-droppingly dopey puritanisms; the result is an article so utterly permeated with the reek of stupidity it should probably be considered hazardous waste.

A new initiative to stop sex trafficking in the historic northeast part of Kansas City, Missouri, encourages residents and business owners to “Report a John,” with John referring to the name given to someone soliciting sex.

Some of these moronathons start slowly, but not this one, oh no; Charlie isn’t merely content to call sex work “trafficking” and a tired, hackneyed scheme pushed by unimaginative busybodies “new”; he also feels compelled to helpfully explain that the state calls everyone accused of “solicitation” by the proper name “John”, regardless of what their actual name might be. At least, that’s what this sentence appears to say, though I suspect by “name given to” he actually means “prohibitionist slang referring to”. And this is just the first sentence.

“What you have to do is focus on the demand because, without the demand, there is no supply. No one is in the sex trafficking trade if there is not a John,” explained Scott Wagner…of [Yet Another Rescue Industry Scam Full Of Slackjawed Yokels (YARISFOY)]…

I’m really trying to keep my editorialization outside of the block quotes, honest I am. But when I’m faced with yet another semi-literate hick whose understanding of economics is roughly as grounded in reality as a Scrooge McDuck comic book, and who uses the bizarre phrase “sex trafficking trade” as though it actually meant something…well, give me a break, I’m only human.

…The new strategy debuted last week when a billboard went up at Independence and Cypress avenues. The billboard says, “This community does not tolerate buying prostitution.”

I reckon it’s no wonder that a billboard which can erect itself can also speak, but is it too much to ask that what it says actually make sense? Given that “prostitution” is the selling of sex, what does “buying prostitution” actually mean? That’s like…”buying selling” or “purchasing vending”. The kindest word I could use to describe the phrase would be “awkward”.

The billboards and multiple smaller signs…encourage people to call 816-234-5220 to “report [the license plate number of] a John.” The…prosecutor’s office will then send a letter to the registered address for that license plate explaining the car has been suspected of soliciting sex.

What I’m encouraging people in Kansas City to do is use blocked or public phones to report the number of every city-owned vehicle they can find, especially pigmobiles. These so-called “Dear John” scams have been going on for years, but never last long in any given place because they can’t survive a lawsuit. However, I’ve never seen one where the actual cars are “suspected of soliciting sex”; I suppose if one can believe in talking billboards that magically appear without human action, a car looking for a blow job isn’t much more of a stretch.

It’s not an accusation or a warrant, simply a warning…The new initiative also calls for publishing mugshots of people arrested for soliciting sex on a new website and in the Northeast News printed newspaper…

Noooooo, it’s not an accusation at all. After all, only the car is “suspected of soliciting sex”. I’m sure all those people (disproportionately young men of color, natch) who are publicly shamed and probably lose their jobs based on some busybody’s mere suspicion will appreciate that distinction.

People found guilty of soliciting prostitution will be offered the chance to attend “John School”…

But of course they will. For a small price, natch. “John schools” are a for-profit scam related to “gay conversion therapy” and “sex addiction therapy“, and…oh, looky look!

“Johns…need some help in getting over what could be an addiction”…

What. A. Surprise. And these clueless reporters don’t even get that they’re giving a profitable scam free advertising.

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In the News (#1097)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, An Example to the West, Backpage, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, Don't Call It Trafficking, drugs, evidence, India, internet, left-right myth, New York, pimps, politicians, porn, pragmatism, propaganda, racism, Rotting Fruit, sex work is work, slavery, Social Autoimmune Disorder, Texas, The Next Target, underage, You Were Warned on December 16, 2020| 1 Comment »

I think the ideal philosophy is to only care about the fact that you do your job with integrity. – Kiran Deshmukh

Social Autoimmune Disorder

Cops think they can never have enough pretexts to harass people:

Dallas [cops]…arrested 88 people in [just the first half of this year for]…driv[ing through a particular neighborhood, claiming they committed the thoughtcrime of]…looking for sex…All but one of those arrested were people of color. [And now] Dallas [politicians want to make it easier for them to dramatically increase the score by]…allow[ing them] to [arrest people for the “crime” of] passing through [that neighborhood three times]…in…two hours…[using the all-purpose excuse of] trafficking women for sex. The penalty is a fine of up to $500…[if pigs claim they] suspect[ed their victims]…of being pimps…

An Example to the West (#329)

An interview with Kiran Deshmukh, president of the National Network of Sex Workers in India:

I still remember Meena Seshu…telling us that we had to band together…to fight back. I still remember that exact day this realization sunk in: A gangster was on the streets making a scene and threatening us with knives. All the women who’d usually shut their doors and sit tight poured out into the streets. One woman undid her saree on the road, and the others used it to tie the gangster to a nearby pole. The women beat him up so much and so badly that not a single gangster has created a scene in our area since then. Once women band together, they become formidable opponents…Sex workers…work put food on the table and feed their children. Society, on the other hand, views the world in a moral–immoral binary…Society will point out how our work is related to our bodies and how many men we “sleep” with…two people having consensual sex is justified but if you attach sex to money, it’s completely immoral. Why? You’re all saying it’s totally fine to have sex for free?…As for tragedy, if a woman enters sex work due to a tragic situation, but eventually decides to continue in the same profession, why would you bother her with the circumstances that influenced her choice 30-40 years ago?…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#934)

Remember, this is not slavery, but lucrative, flexible, voluntary work is:

Most [drug] rehab programs that require work act essentially as temp agencies, farming the [pati]ents out to…third parties, such as tree trimming services, dairies, poultry processing plants or oil refineries. The wages are remitted not to the workers but to the rehab centers…the…workers…receiv[e]…no pay, no Social Security credits, [and] no unemployment insurance payment…Other rehab-affiliated programs, notably the Salvation Army, have their patients perform grossly underpaid work for their commercial enterprises — if they did not have this captive workforce, they would have to seek [fairly-paid] labor from the open market…

You Were Warned (#1007)

But please, tell me more about the “wings”:

It is now broadly recognized that Joe Biden doesn’t like Section 230 and has repeatedly shown he doesn’t understand what it does…[now] his…top tech policy advisor, Bruce Reed, along with Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, have published a bizarre and misleading “but think of the children!” attack on Section 230 that misunderstands the law, misunderstands how it impacts kids, and…suggests incredibly dangerous changes to Section 230..[among] its myriad problems…is…citing FOSTA as a “good example” of how to amend Section 230…

Rotting Fruit (#1015)

Why are men with so much to lose so goddamned stupid about sex?

[Paul Alexander,] the owner of a charter-jet company…has been charged with sex trafficking after [NYPD cops claim he]…offer[ed them] sex with a 12-year-old girl and 14-year-old girl for $300…In March, an underage girl went to the police and told them Alexander…had been…pimping her out…An undercover cop posing as a customer met with Alexander—who showed him nude photos of the girls, charged him $300 for sex with them, and suggested he ply them with drugs and pot so they would be more cooperative…Alexander…has…a 1996 sexual assault conviction…and in 2003 he was convicted of possession of…child [porn]…

Dangerous Speech (#1092)

Backpage case judge claims it’s OK her husband has publicly attacked Backpage because the Backpage case “isn’t about Backpage”. Seriously.

…the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals…[has] ordered federal prosecutors to respond to the defense’s request for a “writ of mandamus,” which would order U.S. District Court Judge Susan Brnovich to remove herself from the case. The order…[comes only days after] a hearing in…[which] Judge Susan Brnovich claimed that inflammatory comments made by her husband, Attorney General Mark Brnovich, about Backpage.com’s alleged guilt in facilitating illegal sex work, were unimportant and did not warrant her recusal. “This case is not about Backpage,” she contended at one point…an assertion that might come as a surprise for anyone familiar with the federal government’s superseding indictment in the case, which mentions Backpage more than 600 times…[it also] seem[s] a startling statement given that the prosecution’s theory of the case from jump has been one of vicarious liability, in which the government seeks to hold Lacey and Larkin responsible for alleged illicit acts supposedly connected to 50 ads cited in the indictment — ads never seen by Lacey and Larkin and posted by persons unknown to them, among the millions that once existed on the site…

The Next Target

Prohibitionists care only about “messages”, not facts:

Pornhub has released…statements about…Visa and Mastercard [announcing] their cards would no longer be accepted on the platform, following…Nicholas Kristof[‘s spurious]…allegations against the company…”These actions…come just two days after Pornhub…[banned] unverified users…from uploading content — a policy no other platform has put in place, including Facebook…Any assertion that we allow CSAM is irresponsible and flagrantly untrue…Pornhub’s safeguards and technologies have proven effective: while…Facebook reported that it removed 84,100,000 incidents of CSAM over two and a half years, Instagram reported that it removed 4,452,000 incidents…over one and a half years, and Twitter reported that it suspended 1,466,398 unique accounts for CSAM over two years, the Internet Watch Foundation…reported [only] 118 incidents of CSAM on Pornhub in a three year period”…

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In the News (#1012)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, Above the Law, advertising, Arizona, asset seizure, BDSM, Blunt Instrument, brothels, California, censorship, cops, Creepy Coppers, crypto-moralism, dehumanization, evidence, FBI, Florida, gangs, Guinea Pigs, hotels, hysteria, Imagination Pinned Down, Michigan, Micromanagement, Morality Lessons, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, Nevada, North Carolina, Not For Everybody, Pennsylvania, porn, prohibitionist myths, propaganda, Prudesville, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, racism, rape, restaurants, sex rays, Social Autoimmune Disorder, sporting events, Stupor Bowl, surveillance, Think of the Children!, To Molest and Rape, Traffic Jam, United Kingdom, Utah, Washington (state), yellow journalism on February 12, 2020| 6 Comments »

Judging from the epic case of [“Super Bowl sex trafficking”] mass psychosis…Floridians could easily give the Flat Earth Society a run for its ducats. – Stephen Lemons

Not for Everybody

Another ex-sex worker thinks it’s her job to cheat her sisters out of money:

…dominatrix Francesca Freeman…has become a sex therapist [of the puritanical, exploitative kind and now claims she can]…straighten out men’s kinks…“thank goodness I had this spiritual awakening or I could have ended up in prison. The things I was doing to these men were becoming increasingly extreme and could’ve easily gone wrong”…[she claims she can “help” men] beat their sex addictions [even though there is no such thing]…“I had an incredible lifestyle as a…dominatrix and thought I was really happy. But after I was dumped [by some dude] I was heartbroken and fell into depression…[she also claims that people are kinky due to] traumatic pasts [though there is no evidence for this, and wrongfully called consensual kink] “a cycle of abuse”…“Leaving the industry was an easy decision and I cried with disgust at the end of my last session”…

Sounds like somebody needs therapy, but it ain’t the clients.

Above the Law

If a non-cop had done this, he’d be facing “sex offender” registration:

A [typical and representative] federal [cop] in Arizona was sentenced to probation…after being caught on video smelling a 3-year-old girl’s underwear. The girl’s unnamed father received a motion alert from the nanny cam in his daughter’s room last May…when he checked the video recording he saw Deputy U.S. Marshal David Timothy Moon digging through the laundry hamper in the girl’s room and pulling out a pair of dirty underwear…[and] sniff[ing it] as he brought it to his face. He returned to the child’s room a second time just minutes later…[and] notice[d] the nanny cam. “Goddamn it,” he can be heard saying while covering his mouth…the U.S. Marshals Service fired him when it heard the allegations…Moon’s girlfriend said “he threw out his computer” [probably to hide evidence of child porn] after learning police were looking for him…[he] was initially charged with two counts of felony trespassing with sexual motivation, but [the judge let him] plead down to misdemeanor trespassing [so he wouldn’t have to endure “sex offender” registration]…Judge Katherine Cooper [also] denied requests from prosecutors that Moon be subject to psychological evaluations and…said [the lenience was specifically because he was a cop]…

Guinea Pigs (#690)

To flush civil rights, just apply a label like “prostitute” or “gang member”:

The [California] Department of Justice [claims it] has been working to fix CalGang for two years…but…state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra signaled last month that he may backtrack…[cops have repeatedly lied about how] additions [are made on mere] rumor[s and cop guesses] without evidence — until [long-hidden paperwork finally became available to public scrutiny]…CalGang…currently [even] allow[s] inclusion of people such as girlfriends or family members. Its precursor began in the 1980s…and [cops]…can use anything from a sports jersey to a casual conversation with a [passerby to claim as supposed]…proof that a person belongs on CalGang…Concerns [were first publicly admitted by bureaucrats during]…a scathing 2016 state audit, which found it lacked oversight, and…could not substantiate the claims. Auditors found records for children as young as 1 year old when their names were uploaded, prompting the Legislature in 2017 to put the database under the purview of the attorney general and demand new rules for its use…[but] thousands more [people] have been added while new rules are debated [by politicians]…

Think of the Children! (#696)

“Community concerns” is a euphemism for “busybodies”:

Because of community concerns, Cary [North Carolina] police… conducted a [pogrom on two] massage businesses and]…arrested [two migrant women]…Both women are charged with practicing massage without a license…Moana Anderson and her husband brought their four daughters to the indoor playground next door…”That’s kind of scary because we wanted our kids to be safe [from sex rays, except for the sex rays generated by our barebacking often enough for me to pop out four brats]” Anderson [said]…”there’s no place for [safe sex] here in Cary”, said Angel Island Fun Park manager Cecilia Soto. “Cary is a nice city…[where consensual sex] has no place [unless it results in spawn]…It has to go”…

Morality Lessons (#783)

Another Utah politician thinks he’s discovered a way to circumvent the First Amendment:

Any pornography distributed in Utah must carry a warning label describing [fantasized] negative impacts to youth, under…House Bill 243, sponsored by…Brady Brammer…The warning label would read: “Exposing minors to pornography is known to the state of Utah to cause negative impacts to brain development, emotional development, and the ability to maintain intimate relationships. Such exposure may lead to harmful and addictive sexual behavior, low self-esteem, and the improper objectification of and sexual violence towards others, among numerous other harms”…the [label is intentionally] similar to California product label requirements…For videos, the [compelled speech] must be up for 15 seconds. On printed publications, it must be prominently displayed…the Free Speech Coalition…[will] oppose the bill [as]…”compelled speech…unconstitutional on its face”…the bill…[is also unconstitutionally over]broad and could cover “basic nudity” and even “non-explicit sexual situations” such as a Kim Kardashian selfie or the TV show Game of Thrones…”It’s a lawsuit bonanza,” [FSC spokesman Mike] Stabile wrote…

Note that the censors are still pursuing the idea of using “public health” rhetoric, supported by nonsensical Gail Dines propaganda about “health effects” of porn, as a model for trumping free speech.

Traffic Jam (#905)

“Sex trafficking” hysteria is just a new excuse for persecuting the same groups as usual (sex workers, racial minorities, migrants, young people, etc), and as I have explained many times its mythology bears a strong resemblance to that of the Satanic Panic. So it’s really fascinating to see prohibitionists comparing “sex trafficking survivors” to cult members; that is actually true, but in the opposite way prohibitionists claim. This group appears to imagine that doing flexible work to earn a living is somehow cultlike, when in actuality it’s the process of stereotypic conformation and “reframing experiences” imposed on “exited” sex workers by prohibitionists which displays cultlike characteristics. Furthermore, take a look at the speaker list: all cops and “rescue” profiteers, authority figures in the “sex trafficking” cult who can be counted on to belch forth the “correct” dogma and shut down independent thought. Moral panics become increasingly extreme until implosion, and this one is from way beyond the Looking Glass.

A Broker in Pillage (#918)

Nobody will be safe until this odious, contemptible practice is recognized as unconstitutional:

For decades, Detroit [cops]…and…prosecutors have systematically abused…drivers by [stealing]…and sell[ing] thousands of cars…from completely innocent owners…the Institute for Justice…has partnered with a group of Detroit drivers to…file a class action lawsuit in federal court seeking to end the cont[emptible] practice once and for all. Melisa Ingram, [one of the] plaintiff[s, had]…her car [stolen]…by [cops] after she lent it to her then-boyfriend…[and cops claimed he] slow[ed] down in an area known for prostitution…he was never charged with a crime [but] police nevertheless [stole] Melisa’s 2017 Ford Fusion…[when] she explained that the car wasn’t his…the clerk explained that Melisa’s only option was to pay the city $1,800…she did not have…plus the cost of towing and storage…she was forced to give up her car and declare personal bankruptcy…

Prudesville (#954)

Baristas are again appealing Everett’s legal claim that it has the right to police their clothes because “women who dress like sluts cause rape”:

…Everett’s bikini baristas and their lawyers [have] petition[ed] the Supreme Court…[to resolve the] issue [of] whether serving coffee wearing a bikini…is…free speech…the city of Everett [has been harassing] espresso kiosks staffed by [bikini-clad] women [for the past ten years. Since November 2017, it has even claimed that the kiosks cause rape to justify]…ordinance[s] impos[ing] a minimum dress code on drive-thru food and drink stands…[and criminalizing the exposure of] specifically-defined parts of the butt or female breast…Two lower courts have…agreed [to pretend that the actual issue is]…the term “bottom one-half of the anal cleft” [rather than women’s ownership of our own bodies]…

Blunt Instrument (#963)

The Unsinkable Liz Brown takes a deep dive into the ongoing racist government campaign against massage parlors:

…law enforcement agencies frequently go on fishing expeditions, searching for needles in a haystack and then arresting anyone in the vicinity of the barn…and…the people most harmed by the attention…are the ones cops…claim they’re out to save…[in this] carceral charade…the twisted “help” offered to “exploited” women includes jail, seized assets, and deportation…Federal law enforcement officials are being enlisted…to [help local cops] round up women for giving unapproved hand jobs or offering ordinary back and foot massages without the right paperwork…these workers—mostly middle-aged Asian immigrant women—are treated as victims long enough to get authorities in the door and then as criminals once law enforcement officials are done playing hero to the press…

Pyrrhic Victory (#984)

They actually admit that part of the point is to normalize constant surveillance:

A campaign to ban facial recognition on college campuses has just been launched by the non-profit organizations Fight for the Future and Students for Sensible Drug Policy. Facial recognition technology is already being deployed in some public school systems…[and] Vendors like FaceFirst and Ellucian are already offering biometric surveillance…Raja Saravanan…of…Ellucian…cheerfully [explain]s that facial recognition software can be configured to check class attendance while also monitoring students’ nonverbal reactions in real-time as they listen to lectures…[and] noted…”Beijing Normal University…[uses] facial recognition system to prevent intruders entering student dorms.” That…is not…reassuring considering that China’s authoritarian government is deploying hundreds of millions of cameras hooked to facial recognition as a mainstay of its social credit surveillance state. In order to “foster a culture of [false] trust around facial tracking,” Saravanan recommends that campus facial recognition be rolled out incrementally [so the frogs don’t simply leap out of the pot]…

Micromanagement (#999)

They didn’t refuse on principle, but because the warrant was “improperly served”:

Ancestry.com, the largest DNA testing company in the world, was served a search warrant to [let pigs root in] its database of some 16 million DNA profiles, but the company did not comply. “Ancestry…challenged the warrant on jurisdictional grounds…[it] was improperly served…and we did not provide any access or customer data”…Ancestry and its main competitor, 23andMe…have publicly vowed to defend their customers’ genetic privacy, and say they will fight efforts to open up their databases to [rooting] by police…Until now, only two [DNA] databases…GEDmatch…now owned by the f[ascist copsucking] company Verogen, and…FamilyTreeDNA — have been open to search requests from police…[but] GEDmatch contains [only] about 1.3 million profiles and Family Tree DNA has around 1.1 million. So if cops were to gain access to the much larger databases operated by Ancestry or 23andMe, it would make s[urveillance of everyone in the US] much easier…

To Molest and Rape (#1007)

Ever notice what a large fraction of rapist cops’ victims are teenagers?

A Las Vegas [cop] has been arrested [for rape]…Christopher Peto [raped]…two girls between the ages of 13-17…at Laughlin…High School. Peto was arrested…on charges [rape]…soliciting a child for prostitution, kidnapping…[raping] a minor under 14 and child abuse…Peto has been [rewarded]…with [a paid vacation] pending official charges…

Stupor Bowl (#1011)

The Miami Herald‘s Chicken Licken act is at the center of this debunking:

Doubling and tripling down on the most debunked and disproven zombie lie of all time, politicians, the press, law enforcement and an array of money-grubbing non-profits plunged Miami, and Florida in general, into a bizarre state of paranoia and panic over the myth that the Super Bowl is “the largest human-trafficking event on the planet”…Alex Andrews…of…SWOP Behind Bars…says Miami-Dade County has been awash with legions of “rabid prayer people”…on the lookout for sex trafficked children, talking to the media, passing out promotional stickers, and in a bizarre, puritanical touch, bars of soap… According to the FBI’s own crime statistics, sex trafficking is a relatively rare phenomenon…but you wouldn’t know that to read or watch Florida’s mainstream media, particularly the daily Miami Herald, which has done its best to ramp up the anti-trafficking hysteria by trading in bogus stats and narratives…

Here’s one especially-horrifying example of this freakshow, in which local news station WPEC pretends to be surprised when prohibitionist rent-a-pig John Rode gets a lot of answers when he calls a bunch of mid-range escort ads (in other words, less-established ladies who don’t screen) pretending to be a client; that the women he slanders as “sex trafficking victims” deny to busybody reporters that “they were being forced to sell their bodies“; and that when the reporter tries to embarass the manager by shoving a camera in his face and demanding to know why he isn’t spying on his guests, “he made us leave the property”.

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In the News (#855)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged acting, Acting and Activism, Backpage, California, Cambodia, Canada, cops, Cops and Robbers, end demand, Florida, Georgia, Gorged With Meaning, halfway whores, Hollywood, hysteria, Indiana, internet, law, Neither Addiction nor Epidemic, pimps, porn, pregnancy, prohibitionist myths, psychology, racism, Saving Them from Themselves, sexting, shame, Social Autoimmune Disorder, Spain, surveillance, Swedish model, Switzerland, teachers, The Monsters Are Due, The Spiral of Absurdity, The War Goes On, Uncommon Sense, Welcome to Our Updates on July 18, 2018| 1 Comment »

Sex work is like any other kind of work and should be treated as such. – Anja Derungs

Acting and Activism

Not an article you’d see in the US:

…Celebrities…[such as] Ashton Kutcher, Ricky Martin, Demi Moore, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Emma Thompson have all been extensively involved in [so-called] anti-trafficking campaigns…Recently, comedians Amy Schumer and Seth Meyers starred in a [propaganda video] in support of…new [censorship] legislation in the US to curtail sex work in the name of preventing sex trafficking…Celebrities…bridge the gap between brand and cause ambassador, between hawker and humanitarian. A clear example of this is Demi Moore’s partnership in 2011 with a jewellery retailer to sell diamond handcuff pendants, with some of the profits going to support the anti-[sex work] foundation established by Moore and her husband at the time, Ashton Kutcher…the presence of movie and television stars at the forefront of awareness campaigns can fuel the expectation that real trafficking victims are just like those we see on television or the big screen…sex slavery…is a popular storyline in entertainment media…Taken…was a smash hit…spawning two sequels and a television show…Stories of sex trafficking have featured in other movies like The Whistleblower and Trade, and numerous television shows including Criminal Minds, CSI…Hawaii Five-O, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, NCIS: Los Angeles, Without a Trace, and The Wire. The broad reach of movies and TV means that we are more likely to hear about human trafficking in a fictional context…The lines between entertainment, infotainment and information become blurred, especially when we are told…stories of trafficking by the very people who might play the heroes on screen...

Saving Them From Themselves

Dr. David Ley can always be counted on to speak good sense:

…prosecution of teen sexting suffers from the same disparities as much of our legal system: teens who are Black [or LGBT] may be more likely to face prosecution…Males are more frequently charged than females, even in cases involving mutual sharing of pictures…it is mostly the US that is having this teen sexting panic. Countries in which social nudity is common and accepted don’t seem to be reacting quite as punitively to these phenomena…Amy Hasinoff, author of Sexting Panic, argues strongly that…child pornography laws need to be updated to be more consistent with age of sexual consent laws: If you can have sex at age 15 or 16, then you should be able to take or share a naked or sexual image (of yourself) as well. But she also says that we need to take a better educational approach with teens, teaching them about healthy sexuality and relationships and giving them support and guidance on how to sext safely, not trying to stop them sexting altogether. In other words, we need to start practicing harm reduction strategies…

Gorged With Meaning

Cracked has fewer pro-sex work articles than it once did, but this one’s excellent:

…”Being alone with a man is being alone with a man,” says Fancy, “and they don’t see a difference between a sugar baby and an escort. In fact, because it’s the first area of sex work many people start with, the risk is higher because the expectation of screening isn’t really there”…Despite sugar sites’ insistence that “entering the sugar bowl” is all about forming lasting romantic bonds of convenience, the turnover rate for arrangements is high — about two months on average, in Fancy’s experience…Both of our sources recently made the decision to quit sugar dating. Julia got a promotion at her day job, while Fancy decided that the profit wasn’t worth it compared to traditional escorting and stripping. “I found the men on the sugaring sites to largely be cheapskates who want to trick young women who are too scared to escort into providing escort services for a fraction of the cost,” she says. “It’s very manipulative, financially”…higher-end escorts tend to charge at least $2,000 for overnight stays. In her experience, that amount is at the upper end of the monthly allowances sugar daddies offer — and for escorts, those overnight stays don’t require the devotion, time, and attention that often accompany a sugar arrangement…”I was taking $300-$600 for overnight (sugar) stays! All just so I could call myself something other than a whore”…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic

Blaming bad behavior on an imaginary “addiction” is the opposite of accepting responsibility:

A…Lethbridge [Alberta] school teacher…Dwayne Schnell…pleaded guilty to charges of making and distributing child pornography…Schnell abused his position of trust by taking pictures of eight students…without their knowledge…a psychiatrist said…Schnell has no concept of the harm caused to the children, parents, or the school where he worked….[and] assertions that he suffers from impulse control and addiction issues were “self-deceptive excuses to justify his behaviour”…Schnell…[claims] he has a pornography addiction…

Uncommon Sense (#545)

How countries with healthy ideas about sex react to the Swedish disease:

A campaign to make prostitution illegal in Switzerland is being met with stiff resistance from human rights group. The Swiss Aids Federation [and] Amnesty International…are among several advocacy groups rallying against the…[crusade, which] was launched by the Women’s Centre in Zurich…and calls for a Swedish-style ban on prostitution…Anja Derungs, spokesperson for the Zurich Equality Office said that “sex work is like any other kind of work and should be treated as such”…Daniel Seiler…of the Swiss AIDS Federation, said that sex work “is the oldest profession in the world” and would not disappear if a ban was in place. This approach had not worked it Sweden either, where the trade still exists, he noted…The Women’s Centre in Bern also expressed its opposition to the campaign launched by its counterpart in Zurich…

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#594)

Shaming clients is an exercise in evil fuckery that just won’t die:

The Catalan town of Gavà wants to stamp out [sex workers]…and snitch on those who [enable sex workers to pay their bills and support their children]…by sending fines to their family addresses…”Up until now, the client used to pay the fine (to police) in cash right there and then so that there was no record of the offence”…[anti-sex] Minister Gemma Badia is quoted as saying…As a result, authorities have decided [cops]…should send the fines to clients’ home addresses…Even if the clients were to insist on paying before the fine was posted, they would still receive a letter informing them, and quite possibly their family members, on the settlement of their prostitution case…

The Monsters Are Due (#742)

The ugliest part of a peak moral panic: lynch mobs:

A 92-year-old man…was thrown to the ground [and] stomped on by strangers on the Fourth of July…in…Los Angeles…Rodolfo Rodriguez [is] a native of Mexico and legal U.S. resident…Laquisha Jones, 30, was arrested…[and] booked for assault with a deadly weapon…Rodriguez had gone out alone for his daily walk, [the victim’s grandson, Erik] Mendoza said…While walking, Rodriguez may have bumped into a small girl, witness Misbel Borjas…said…she [then] saw a woman with the girl push Rodriguez and beat him with a brick. The woman also told Rodriguez to “go back to your country”…Borjas had been driving by, she said, and wanted to stop, but the woman threatened to hit her car with the brick. Borjas instead called 911 and took a picture of the woman, which she shared with police and put on social media. Borjas said a group of men then came down the street, and the woman accused Rodriguez of trying to take the child. That’s when about three of them also began beating him…Rodriguez…suffered two broken ribs and a broken cheekbone…

Cops and Robbers (#823)

No fad spreads faster than a new way to tyrannize innocent people:

Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco announced new initiatives to [harass]…sex [workers]…Deputies will utilize intercept bots to track people who use the Internet to search out [adult consensual sex]…The bots will communicate like a [very stupid and robotic] person, exchanging information such as phone numbers and could even set up meeting locations. [Pigs]…will [creep] in to lock up the buyer and then go after the person in court…

Guys, it’s extremely easy for men to know which ads are real and which are pig swill: women in real ads will have an established online presence. Just Google the name, email address, phone number, etc; if there are no other hits on an escort site, other ad sites, Twitter, etc, you’re probably looking at a pig trap.

The War Goes On (#831)

We told you so:

…promoting prostitution…cases, according to [spokespig] John Daggy [of Indianapolis]…have…dried up…[since] the feds closed police’s [easiest site for stings]…Backpage…“We’ve been a little bit blinded lately because they shut Backpage down,” Daggy said…

The melodramatic telling of the arrest of a wannabe “pimp” is especially hilarious. NB: Every time his name comes up, I remind readers that one of Daggy’s jobs is to make excuses for cops who rape sex workers.

The Spiral of Absurdity (#849)

It’s fascinating in a train-wreck kind of way to watch the lies spiral out of control:

Fulton County Police Chief Darryl Halbert said 100,000 children become sex trafficking victims in Georgia per year and are mostly runaways between the ages of 12 and 14. He said the county police department uses surveillance cameras and sting operations to [pretend they’re fighting] the [imaginary] crime…

Yes, that’s a pig oinking that almost 5% of the entire below-18 population of Georgia (something like 30% of the age group mentioned) become “sex slaves” every year. Even allowing for half “escaping”, that would mean roughly half of the population of Georgia under the age of 30 are now “sex slaves”. One wonders where they’re all stored, and where the clients to support this massive population all come from.

Welcome To Our World (#853)

Locking pregnant women in cages for “trafficking” themselves. Had enough yet?

Phnom Penh Municipal Court…charged 33 women with human trafficking after they were detained following a raid on a surrogacy business…last month…[being pregnant in a way politicians don’t like] is illegal and could carry a jail sentence of up to 20 years…Chou Bun Eng, chair of the National Authority Against Human Trafficking, said…“We cannot tell you the place where the women are [locked in cages] because we want to protect their rights and…keep them safe”…

“Keep them safe” and “protect their rights”. By locking them in cages for 20 years. For being pregnant. Feminism!

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In the News (#774)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged agency denial, Backpage, bogus studies, censorship, Comfort Zone, cops, dirty, evidence, France, Google, hysteria, illegal aliens, imaginative fiction, internet, Italy, law, Law of the Instrument, male prostitutes, Missouri, Monsters, New Mexico, Ohio, Prudesville, rape, restaurants, robots, sexting, Social Autoimmune Disorder, surveillance, The Course of a Disease, The Mote and the Beam, The Pygmalion Fallacy, The Widening Gyre, To Molest and Rape, transgender, Uncommon Sense, United Kingdom, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), yellow journalism on September 16, 2017| 1 Comment »

The trade union movement has to decide whether it’s going to back workers…or…police. – Laura Watson

Monsters

The Swedish model protects sex workers!

Last year, France passed [the Swedish model, under the pretense of]…protecting sex workers from prosecution, but…[as sex worker activists predicted] it is simply driving them further underground and exposing them to far more danger. Transsexual prostitutes who work in Paris’s Bois de Boulogne…are disproportionately affected…

Prudesville

A new twist in Everett, WA’s absurd “bikini barista” melodrama:

Bikini baristas…are suing [Everett] over its ban on serving “quick service” food and drinks with bare shoulders, midriffs, or upper thighs…a group of seven baristas and one coffee stand owner filed a federal lawsuit alleging a violation of their rights to free expression, privacy, due process, and equal protection…Everett isn’t claiming that the regulations serve any food safety or public health purposes…the point of the dress code is to prevent…baristas from giving customers a peep show for extra cash…Employee violations can lead to fines for business owners, along with a requirement to register for a special license (which the city can deny)…if the owners are judged to have “facilitated” the “lewd conduct,” they can be slapped with a $5,000 fine and a year in jail. Essentially, Everett has created a crime similar to promoting prostitution—but for facilitating skimpy clothing…

Law of the Instrument (#560)

Picture what you’d think of as “sex trafficking”, then compare it to this:

A St. Louis man who was employed at a high school is facing child pornography and sex trafficking charges after police said he exchanged illicit texts with a 15-year-old male student at the school. Michael A. West…told the [young man] he could get him an opportunity to make money for performing sexual acts…

Cases are this are why even some not-completely-stupid people believe that “sex trafficking” is increasing; “sex trafficking” charges certainly are.

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#594)

Add Dayton, Ohio to the cities mailing blatantly-unconstitutional “Dear John” letters to the registered addresses of vehicles passing through certain neighborhoods:

So far this year, the Dayton police Vice Unit has mailed 18 [threat letters] to the owners of vehicles that were spotted in areas [police claim to be] known for high levels of prostitution. The letters are supposed to [scare] people [by claiming that wanting sex]…is a “serious offense” that carries potential…deadly disease and other sexually transmitted infections…[often] the recipients are spouses or business owners whose vehicles were in the possession of [others] when [cops decided to stick their noses into others’ business]…

To Molest and Rape

The US government claims it takes reports of cops raping women seriously…as long as they’re not US cops:

…two U.S. students…were raped by Carabinieri policemen who [took] them home in a patrol car from a nightclub…three patrol cars went to a nightclub to investigate a fight. Two cars left after calm was restored, but the third remained. The women…told authorities that the [cops] drove them to their apartment building and raped them…witnesses…confirm[ed] they saw the women enter the patrol car…

Uncommon Sense (#669)

The IWW was the first major union to support sex workers rights, but it won’t be the last:

The GMB and ASLEF have come out in support of the full decriminalisation of sex work in Britain, the first major unions to do so…The unions, which have a combined membership of over 600,000, are calling for the UK to adopt full decriminalisation, similar to the approach adopted by New Zealand, which since 2003 has provided sex workers with legal protections…

The Pygmalion Fallacy (#687)

“Sex robot” hysteria gets ever sillier:

A cybersecurity scientist has issued a bizarre warning that sex robots could one day rise up and kill their owners if hackers can get inside their heads…cybersecurity lecturer Dr. Nick Patterson [fantasized] that the lifelike dolls could end up going all “Terminator” on us…hackers could breach the realistic robots’ inner defenses and catch their owners with their pants down…

Does this idea seem familiar to regular readers?

The Widening Gyre (#735)

They finally realized they could expand the panic by adding male “sex slaves”:

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation [formerly “Morality in Media”], Washington College, and The U.S. Institute Against Human Trafficking held a historic press conference…to kick off the first ever symposium on the sexual exploitation harming boys and men. The government, NGOs, and society at large have overlooked male victims of sexual exploitation, the organizations [pandered]…Haley Halverson…of…the [NCSE fantasized]…that [the] estimated range of male trafficking victims hovers in the hundreds of thousands”…

The NCSE is a fundamentalist Christian anti-porn organization which is also behind the recent tactic of getting conservative states to declare porn a “public health crisis”.

Comfort Zone (#769)

Sometimes the attempt to hide migration control behind the “sex trafficking” narrative is especially apparent:

…”It had been more than 10 years since Gari, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala…had seen his younger brother. So he was surprised earlier this year when he received a call from a federal government agency telling him his teen brother had emigrated alone from the Central American country to the Arizona-Mexico border…the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services…asked Gari to take legal guardianship of his brother….officials [lied]…that it wouldn’t jeopardize his own safety….[but] Gari…was arrested…by federal immigration agents who had used his little brother as bait“…immigration attorney Yazmin Rodriguez…knows at least three other similar cases…ICE [pretends] using children fleeing violence as bait “[is] part of a broader mission to disrupt human trafficking”…

The Mote and the Beam (#773)

The odious Nick Kristof finds it “baffling and perplexing” that internet companies don’t want the internet destroyed by sociopathic politicians on a witch hunt:

Sex traffickers in America have…a…crucial (if secret) ally: Google…organizations it funds have for years been quietly helping Backpage.com, the odious website where most American [passive, vegetable] victims of human trafficking are sold, to battle lawsuits from [ambulance-chasers fantasizing that] children [are] sold there for sex. Now Google is using its enormous lobbying power in Washington to try to kill bipartisan legislation that would [enable profiteers to sue]…websites that [they claim] promote sex trafficking [or virtually any other federal crime]…as Backpage fights off prosecutors and worries about the legislation, the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act, Google has emerged as its behind-the-scenes champion…

What I find “baffling and perplexing” is that so few people recognize “One-hand” Kristof’s BDSM masturbatory fantasies about underage girls for what they are.

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In the News (#674)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged adolescence, Arizona, asset seizure, Bad Fantasy-Good Reality, Between the Ears, California, cops, cult of the child, Eavesdropping, escort review sites, hysteria, internet, marriage, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Nice While It Lasted, Of Course It Is, Policing for Profit, pragmatism, propaganda, rape, shame, Social Autoimmune Disorder, Still a Child, streetwalkers, surveillance, The Widening Gyre, To Molest and Rape, Too Close To Home, Too Young To Know, Turning Point, Vendetta, Vietnam, violence vs. sex workers, Washington (state), yellow journalism on September 21, 2016| 4 Comments »

The courts, instead of keeping our lawmakers honest, have instead opted to craft ostensibly thoughtful and well-reasoned opinions allowing the legislature to do whatever ridiculous and often horrible things pop into their heads. – Matt Brown

Bad Fantasy, Good Reality (#12)

Criminalization always makes sex work conditions shittier:

…the International Labor Organization interviewed…sex workers…and local authorities in Vietnam, and strongly suggested that the country do something about the occupational safety and health risks that come with the industry. Most workers had casual jobs before they chose to enter the sex industry, after considering it a better option. Out of the 73 workers surveyed, only one reported to having been deceived into selling sex, but many workers had their movements controlled by employers and some had their identity papers held…According to the workers, conditions would be better in well-maintained, expensive bars, discotheques, spas, massage parlors and restaurants, while brothels and cheap cafés, restaurants, karaoke bars and parlors are dirty and do not guarantee security and safety. However, no matter where they work, there is always the threat of violence and police raids, especially for women working on the streets…

Too Young To Know

Despite the emphasis on asinine dysphemisms like “resorting to sex work” and “selling their body” [sic], at least this article understands that young people nearly always sell sex out of necessity, and not because they’re abducted by bogeyman “pimps”:

Teenagers in America are resorting to sex work because they cannot afford food, according to a study…by the Urban Institute…Evidence of teenage girls turning to “transactional dating” with older men is likely to cause particular alarm…The consistency of the findings across gender, race and geography was a surprise…Teens would overwhelmingly prefer to earn money through a formal job but prospects for youth employment are extremely limited…

The two red flags I see here are 1) the Urban Institute has produced shoddy sex work studies in the recent past; and 2) the study seems to rely more heavily on anecdotes told by teens about other, unidentified teens, rather than on reports given by teens about their own behavior.

Still a Child

It’s shocking & saddening to see how low the journalistic standards of PBS and the New York Times have dropped:

An exposé on the shocking number of girls who continue to be forced into marriage in the United States will air…as part of a two-part special for PBS NewsHour….“This is a story so few know is happening right down their street,” [Gayle] Lemmon [said]…in an email…Among the stories featured will be that of a New Jersey girl named Jada, whose father brought her with him to live in Saudi Arabia. At the age of 12, her father decided to marry her off…he…forced her to walk on his right side while they were together in public — so other Saudi men would know that she was for sale. Apparently, it’s a cultural signal there. Another woman…is Nina, a 33-year-old Michigan woman, who said she was seeking an annulment because she had been married against her will at the age of 19. The case is perhaps the first of its kind in the U.S., and could shape future legal precedent…Nina…talks about [how] sex with her “husband” came to feel like imprisonment and tantamount to rape…

“Right down their street” sounds like something borrowed from “sex trafficking” hysteria, which this whole story resembles. “Apparently, it’s a cultural signal…” “Apparently“? Didn’t y’all bother to fucking find out, like by consulting an expert on Saudi culture? And as for Nina, last I checked, 19 was not considered a “child” anywhere in the US, at least not yet. I’m certainly sympathetic to women who may feel economically trapped in a bad marriage, or feel unable to leave due to threats of violence, but this seems to be conflating adult women with 12-year-old girls, and that’s an extremely dangerous road for self-respecting women to be allowing our culture & media to follow without speaking up.

Policing for Profit

This excuse is pathetic, even by cop standards:

NYPD brass testified before the…City Council…that it has no idea how much money it [steals] from citizens each year…and an attempt to collect the data would crash its computer systems…NYC councilmember Ritchie Torres introduced legislation this year that would require annual reports from the police department about how much money it [steals], but at Thursday’s hearing, the NYPD said it has no technologically feasible way to track [thefts that were]…not [challenged by the rightful owners in court]…Bronx Defenders…is suing the NYPD for public records on its asset forfeiture program, which rakes in millions in seized cash and property…every year. According to the scant records Bronx Defenders did manage to get back, the NYPD reported more than $6 million in revenue in 2013 from seized cash, forfeitures, and property sold at auction, and it had a balance of more than $68 million in seized currency in any given month of that year…the vast majority of [stolen] assets are simply forfeited…after the…property owner fails to go through the burdensome and Byzantine process of trying to retrieve them by the deadline…

Nice While It Lasted

Now that the precedent’s firmly established, you’re going to see an increasing number of laws that presume guilt:

In Arizona, the legislature…decided to define sexual abuse and molestation of a child in such a way that intentionally or knowingly touching the genitals or anus of a child or the breast of a female younger than fifteen is a felony. That should come as no surprise to anyone who is remotely familiar with Arizona, as the one thing the legislature is good at is passing the broadest and most Draconian criminal laws they can imagine…thanks to the Supreme Court of Arizona’s opinion in State v. Holle, the terms of the statute are to be applied literally…the defense that there was no sexual motivation is one the defendant must prove by a preponderance of the evidence…the court justifies making every parent in Arizona a sex offender tasked with proving his or her innocence should a prosecutor decide to ruin his or her life with charges…

Vendetta (Traffic Updates)

More anti-sex violence and attempted brainwashing funded by the sociopathic Swanee Hunt:

[Boston] is stepping up efforts to shame prostitution customers — including the prospect of sending them off to “john school” to [indoctrinate them in the religion of] human trafficking. It’s all part of a police [fantasy that they can] reduce the online sex trade in the city by 20 percent over the next year…Police are set to receive a $30,000 grant from Demand Abolition…

Between the Ears (#545)

Have a device that connects to the internet? Assume it can be used to spy on you:

…in a class-action lawsuit representing…tens of thousands of users, [an] Illinois woman has…[sued] sex-toy company Standard Innovation. She accuses the company, which is based in Ottawa, Canada, of consumer fraud, unjust enrichment, intrusion upon seclusion, and violating the Federal Wiretap Act and the Illinois Eavesdropping Statute…The woman reportedly bought her We-Vibe Rave for $130 in May and proceeded to use it several times before learning via a Defcon hacking convention talk…that her extremely personal usage was being scrutinized for marketing purposes by its maker…the toy can connect to a smartphone for such activities as adjusting vibration type…and intensity…not to mention allowing someone else to be at the controls from afar…

The Widening Gyre (#545)

I guess that “outside agency” never heard of Snopes:

The Boys and Girls Club in Chico [California] was notified…about a suspicious job flyer…Devon Saul says these flyers are raising some serious questions. “For very minimal work it does through [sic] up a red flag to say okay what’s the catch…It promises great pay. 60, 80, 100 dollars a day. Great trips, great gifts and bonuses and things like that”…His concerns were solidified when an outside agency in Tehama County notified then non-profit that this may be a sex trafficking scam…the club decided education on human trafficking was needed for staff…

Actually, it says $60 to $100 a week, which is about $12-$20 a day; not exactly a fortune. But I guess we can’t expect literacy from a man who mixes metaphors so egregiously and thinks that if two people are both hysterical, that “solidifies” their fantasies. And I guess it’s too much to expect these people to actually call the number to investigate what it’s about instead of jumping at their own shadows.

Social Autoimmune Disorder (#594)

I encourage residents to use public computers to report every police car and other official vehicle they can find:

Oakland is…introducing a website…[where busybodies can report] the license plate numbers of suspected johns’ vehicles and describe the specific activity they witnessed. The sightings are uploaded to the police, who will send a letter to the address where the vehicle is registered…The predecessor…was a program called Dear John, introduced in 2013, which allowed residents to fill out a form that they submitted to the police. That program generated more than 300 “Dear John” letters mailed to the owners of the vehicles spotted by residents…[cops pretend that] there had been no signs of false reporting in [that] program…

The crowning hypocrisy? This is Oakland.

To Molest and Rape

Another woman raped by cops answers headline: “Almost certainly.”

A woman who was…raped by a [cop] said much of which she recalled from that night was “blurry,” but that at one point she woke up and “he was on top of me”…an acquaintance…[drove] her [home from a bar] because she wasn’t in a condition to drive…[Erich] Fritz pulled the man over…and arrested him for operating while intoxicated…Fritz [then] took her to…a hotel room [and raped her]…

Turning Point

Tina Horn uses the New York Times Magazine cover story as a jumping-off point for an article entitled “10 Reasons Decriminalizing Sex Work Is A Feminist Issue“. And though I think there are much better arguments to be made than most of these, every little bit helps and it’s great to see the number of articles like this one ever increasing.

Too Close To Home (#672)

Read Liz Brown’s fantastic expose, then understand that this is talking about the same events through an anti-sex filter:

The men didn’t know that Hillman, the man they had invited into their elite circle, was actually an undercover detective. Law enforcement is beginning to take notice of so-called “John boards” — review sites where customers rate prostitutes. The men busted in this Seattle group earlier this year exposed a secretive world where online sex buyers are treading on a whole new level of criminal behavior…Hillman wrote fake reviews and was invited to join a subgroup that called itself “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”…The League attracted the attention of law enforcement not because its members bought a lot of sex, but because of how they worked together…After six months of undercover surveillance, law enforcement closed in. They busted eight brothels. A dozen Korean women were offered human trafficking victim services and released…

Hillman didn’t write “fake reviews”; he paid and wrote reviews just like the others, which (considering he used the acts to harm us) makes him a serial rapist. And no, those women weren’t “offered” anything, nor were they “released”, because the cops never got their filthy hands on them; they were tipped off and fled. But because that would ruin the narrative of “exploited victims”, this story was invented so the “authorities” could look benevolent to ignoramuses. Also note this story doesn’t bother to mention the ruined lives and the suicide this ham-fisted pogrom left in its ugly wake.

Of Course It Is (#673)

I hope she gets every damned penny:

…a lawsuit was filed against the city of Oakland [by] attorneys for Jasmine Abuslin, formerly known as Celeste Guap…her attorneys expect to file similar suits against other jurisdictions involved in this sex scandal. So far, only two [cops] have been formally charged…

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Posts Tagged ‘Social Autoimmune Disorder’

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Old Posts

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A Few References

Boring but necessary legal stuff