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Posts Tagged ‘Spain’

I don’t find it funny anymore.  –  Randol White

I guess YouTube threw this at me because I’ve looked at quite a few Doctor Who-related videos there over the years, including one by Jon Pertwee; this, however, is quite a different animal.  The links above it were provided by Jesse Walker, Nun Ya (x2), Rick Horowitz, IncarcerNation (x2), and The Onion, in that order.

From the Archives

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 way stalkerware companies are run just doesn’t include giving a shit about vulnerabilities.  –  Maia Arson Crimew

If Men Were Angels

Even the distancing “former” is the same as for rapist cops:

A [typical and representative Texas] youth pastor…[named] Luke Cunningham…was indicted on [charges of child molestation and various related crimes.  Several]…Lubbock [churches kept employing him despite numerous local accusations dating]…back [to] January of 2016…and [others]…dating back to 2013…

Guinea Pigs (#1307) 

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

…Sweeping calls to collect data on marginalized populations and automate decisions about what constitutes a human trafficking pattern are dangerous.  Women…migrants, [people of color,] and queer people face profiling and persecution under surveillance regimes that [intentionally conflate] consensual adult sex work and human trafficking…language models [will] be built on discriminatory stereotypes which have [been used to] plague…[sex workers] for decades…Such tropes cause disproportionate surveillance of poor, racialized, and transgender sex workers, and in[tentional]ly categorize standard safety tactics as trafficking indicators.  Studies show that digital tools and policies which take a…similarly broad approach to collecting evidence of alleged exploitation online are dangerous and counterproductive…A 2022 study into technology which scraped and analyzed advertisements for sexual services found “misalignment between developers, users of the platform, and sex industry workers they are [pretend]ing to assist,” concluding that these approaches are “ineffective” and “exacerbate harm”…

Secret Squirrel (#1332)

Please enjoy the spectacle of nosy authoritarians hoist with their own petard:

…hacktivists [have] published the customer support database for Brainstack, a Ukrainian company that runs a phone tracking service called mSpy.  (It was the third mSpy security breach in a decade.)  The database includes messages from…ICE…agents…a U.S. circuit court judge…Employees at the U.S. State Department…and…many more…officials…in the…[US, Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Turkey, Israel, Thailand, and Vietnam.  The hacktivist said]…”From all the past stalkerware leaks, usually what leaks is victim data”…But this leak was about mSpy’s clients—essentially turning the surveillance back against the surveilers…Unlike other intelligence-for-hire services, mSpy requires users to have intimate access to the target already.  The software must be installed directly on the target’s phone, iCloud account, or WiFi network. Afterwards, it provides the user with the target’s call logs, messages, and location data.  Brainstack [sani]tises mSpy as a parental guidance tool, but others [more accurate]ely [describe] the service [as] “stalkerware“.  Indeed, a few of the [hacked] messages came from [cop shops] and [spook houses] looking for a way to send mSpy a subpoena or warrant because [it allows spying by people who aren’t them]

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1400)

Tech-savvy teens know what VPNs are, so this surveillance will only be “mandatory” for clueless adults:

Spain’s [increasingly-unpopular] anti-sex-work…Socialist Party (PSOE) government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has unveiled a new age verification app that will become mandatory for [clueless] adult[s]…in the country starting in September.  The Cartera Digital app and its age verification protocols…were announced…by…Minister of Digital Transformation and Civil Service José Luis Escrivá Belmonte …[who] described the existence of [speech socialists dislike] as “a problem,” and [conflated]…“the great majority of young people between 18 and 26 years old” [with legal minors]…

Still a Child (#1422) 

An attempt to push back the swelling tide of adult infantilization:

Strip clubs and other adult entertainment establishments in Florida are challenging the state’s [new] law that prevents them from employing adults…under 21…lawyers filed suit against the state…in the name of 19-year-old Serenity Michelle Bushey, a nude dancer at…a [Florida] strip club…[because] the law’s arbitrary raising of the age requirement “not only made her lose her job but also violated her constitutional rights”…The plaintiffs also include Café Risque, strip club chain Sinsations and Jacksonville pleasure products store Exotic Fantasies…Bushey and at least eight [other] Café Risque dancers have lost their jobs, and [the suit] argues that the law also violates their First Amendment right[s]…

The Cop Myth (#1440)

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

An Oklahoma City [cop named]…Ryan Stark…brought [his girlfriend] to his house and tried to take her phone…she tried to escape…[his pigmobile], but…he…accelerated the car, breaking her foot on the garage door…he [then]…held [her] against her will…put a gun to her head…[and] threat[ened] to kill her…[then raped her].  Stark was arrested [on June 29th and]…charged with domestic assault and battery…rape…and [associated crimes]…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1447)

There are still a few judges willing to block “monkey see, monkey do” parades:

Two laws requiring age verification online have been paused by federal courts…as legal challenges to them play out.  [Laws like] the [ones from] Indiana [and]…Mississippihave been [parad]ing [through] U.S. states this year and last, and represent a growing threat to privacy, anonymity, and free speech online.  Federal courts have largely ruled against them when they are challenged, but this has not been universal.  So, it’s probably good that the Supreme Court has agreed to take up…Free Speech Coalition et al. v. Ken Paxton…involving…[the] Texas [version of the] law…

 

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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What is presented as an effort to stop…violence…ends up being the main source of violence.  –  Erika Lust

The Red Umbrella 

If he truly had trouble before, why did he call the same agency again?

Varinder Singh Deo…was celebrating with a friend…in Deo’s detached garage, drinking alcohol and consuming cocaine, while Deo’s wife and child slept…Deo arranged for a sex worker to come over…[but] didn’t think she looked like her online photograph. Deo [and]…the woman, referred to as B.K…argued over a cancellation fee…Deo [brandished]…a handgun…later [claiming to] police…he’d had a traumatic experience with the same escort service a few years earlier when he was supposed to meet up with a sex worker but was instead robbed by multiple men at knife point…B.K. and [her duo partner] M.C. started retreating back to their vehicle…[and] Deo fired two shots at them.  One…struck the back of M.C.’s left shoulder…[she] spent three days in hospital and suffered nerve damage…and…scarring…and…also had to pay a more than $7,000 bill for blood stain removal from the rental car…[the British Columbia judge] chose to sentence Deo to four years in prison…[and] ordered [him] to reimburse B.K. for the blood stain removal bill…

Link Rot

It’s good to see someone actually studying this problem:

A new Pew Research Center analysis shows just how fleeting online content actually is:  A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible…For older content, this trend is even starker.  Some 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are not available today, compared with 8% of pages that existed in 2023…23% of news webpages contain at least one broken link, as do 21% of webpages from government sites…54% of Wikipedia pages contain at least one link in their “References” section that points to a page that no longer exists…Nearly one-in-five tweets are no longer publicly visible on the site just months after being posted…

The Course of a Disease (#1244)

The Spanish case of the Swedish rot has been especially virulent, so this is encouraging:

Spain’s Socialist Party…[has] suffered a sound defeat…in its attempt to recriminalize sex work…[after] the party’s ruling coalition allies…withdrew their backing from the widely reviled “Abolition of Prostitution” law…PSOE’s…Laura Berja, unequivocally stated last year, “We must abolish [women’s sexual freedom] because it is incompatible with human rights.”  El Mundo [said the]…defeat holds “symbolic weight” and sends the abolition law “right to the trash bin.”  It is the first time, the newspaper noted, that the PSOE has failed to rally its coalition allies in support of an important piece of legislation, which may indicate a “crack” in the coalition that could further endanger its chances to remain in power…

Thought Control (#1379)

The censors got what they wanted in this case:

A public library in Boise is transitioning to an “adult only” library.  The Donnelly Public Library s[tated]…that the change is due to the passage of HB710…that en[courages] anyone to sue the library if [they claim] children are exposed to…adult material…due to its small size and the…ambiguous…language of the bill, the change is the only way the…[library] can assure compliance with the law, which goes into effect on July 1…The bill…was signed into law by Governor Brad Little earlier this year, [despite his veto of an earlier version]…

Torture Chamber (#1415)

The inevitable result of locking mentally ill people in filthy cages and entrusting sociopathic thugs to mind them:

…in April 2021, Georgia Baldwin…was clearly in the throes of a severe mental health episode…[but] she was arrested…[on a trumped-up] felony charge [anyway] and sent to jail in Tarrant County, Texas.  Six weeks later, in June, a psychiatrist determined Baldwin was “incompetent and thus unable to stand trial”…[but instead of sending her to] a state hospital…”Tarrant County chose to [keep] Ms. Baldwin [locked] in a small cell, where she could not see through a window or view other human beings,” remaining there from July 27 until her death on September 14…from…”severe hypernatremia” —high levels of sodium in the blood typically resulting from dehydration… [two other prisoners] with severe mental illness [also died] of dehydration in Tarrant County’s c[ages] over a two-year period…Abdullahi Mohamed [was arrested] in June 2020 for…[a violent] manic…bipolar [episode]…Nine days later, jailers…found him unresponsive in his cell, and he died soon after.  And in December 2021, Edgar Villatoro Alvarez was [caged]…after having been hospitalized for a bipolar episode the previous month…he died [the following] February…

Dangerous Speech (#1435)

The government doesn’t care about all those charges, as long as Lacey dies in a filthy cage:

Government attorneys in the Backpage case…want…Lacey and two co-defendants to be sentenced on their respective guilty verdicts so the three men can appeal to the Ninth Circuit…[before] the government will decide if it will retry Lacey…Judge…Humetewa vacated Lacey’s previously scheduled Aug. 6 retrial date and set sentencing for July 9 for Lacey…Scott Spear and Jed Brunst…Humetewa [refused to consider]…the possibility that Lacey be allowed to remain out on bond pending the outcome of any appeal…The one thing the judge and the parties agreed on was that there are weighty matters to be decided by the Ninth, including [multiple kinds of] prosecutorial misconduct…It could take anywhere from eight months to two or three years before the Ninth issues a decision.  Which means there is no immediate end in sight for this vindictive prosecution, now in its seventh year…

The Cop Myth (#1438)

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

A [typical and representative Kentucky cop] has been found guilty of murder[ing the husband of his girlfriend, Lena North]…Jeremy Lewis…murder[ed]…Tyler North…[in 2018, but it took the Kounty Kops] two…year[s to find the remains]

 

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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Humans are so afraid of the void that we can’t let what has fallen into it stay there.  –  Kelly Carlin

Comfort Zone (#1005)

Behold the fruit of the “human trafficking” narrative:

An estimated 18 people a day died or disappeared while trying to reach the shores of Spain last year…The 6,618 people who died included 384 children…The figure is nearly triple that of the previous year, making 2023 the deadliest year on record since [human rights] organisation [Caminando Fronteras] began keeping track in 2007…The report, which combines reports from the relatives of people who died or went missing with official rescue statistics, linked the steep rise in deaths to efforts to curb migration.  As border control is tightened across the Mediterranean and along the coasts of countries such as Senegal and Mauritania, people have increasingly set their sights on reaching the Canary Islands, setting off on one of the world’s deadliest migration routes in unstable vessels that are often unfit to face the fierce currents of the Atlantic…

Cops and Robbers (#1287)

If these fanatics concentrated on cops and preachers, they’d be a help rather than a menace:

A [typical and representative] San Diego Co[p] who was arrested after an online video surfaced claiming he was trying to meet with minors for sex was sentenced…to two years of probation. The…[vid of] Luis Rios…[was made by a club calling themselves] People V. Preds…[who fantasy role-play] as minors [online], then attempt to meet with adults who arrange for sexual encounters and [make]…video [of them to get pageviews and “likes” online].  Group members [claim] Rios engaged in sexually explicit conversations with a…[club member fantasy role-playing as a 15-year-old] and then attempted to meet with [the member] in public…

Served Cold (#1375)

Tim Ballard’s partners in profiteering are trying to salvage as much of the scam as possible:

[For the past few months] OUR has promoted a clear and consistent message: Its ties to Ballard—by now a named defendant in a number of civil lawsuits accusing him of sexual misconduct and the subject of at least one criminal inquiry—are in the past…[but] Jeff Frazier, the man currently tasked with rebuilding OUR—which commands tens of millions of dollars and still enjoys a strong reputation with [gullible] donors despite its many scandals—is a longtime associate of Ballard’s who still refers to him as a friend…and…OUR’s board is, at least for now, still entirely composed of relatives and close friends of Ballard’s…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1383)

Maybe politicians should check with bureaucrats before putting words in their mouths:

Last year, Texas governor Greg Abbott signed an age verification law that makes broad, specious claims about porn as a public health crisis…sites must display a warning, in at least 14 point font, from Texas Health and Human Services claiming that pornography is addictive and weakens brain function, among a list of other catastrophic physical and social harms…These claims aren’t just unscientific and unproven.  Texas Health and Human Services Commission…has nothing to do with them…in response to a public records request from 404 Media, the agency [reported] that it has no records of communicating [with politicians] about the warning or about this law in any official capacity…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1391)

I’m surprised Florida took so long to join the nitwit parade:

Florida could join the [currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade us]ing…children…[as a pretext to spy on adults’ use of] pornography online under…[the cloak of] age verification…With this move, Florida is following the [parade] of Virginia, Louisiana, Utah, Montana, Texas, North Carolina, Arkansas and Mississippi

Thought Control (#1397)

Just keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually:

The Escambia County School District…in…Florida…has [purg]ed several dictionaries from its library shelves over concerns that…the[y]…violate Florida law.  The American Heritage Children’s Dictionary, Webster’s Dictionary for Students, and Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary are among more than 2800 books that have been pu[rg]ed from Escambia County school libraries and [hidden]…the [purged] books…[also] include eight different encyclopedias, two thesauruses, and five editions of The Guinness Book of World Records…most of these [were purged due to demands by] Vicki Baggett, a [religious fanatic who teaches] high school English…in the county [and] is responsible for hundreds of [Florida] challenges…She also…was involved in a scheme t[o sic the pigs on]…a librarian in a neighboring county

Shame, Shame (#1398)

The word “ghoulish” leaps immediately to mind:

More than 15 years after his death, stand-up comedian George Carlin has been [ripped off] in a…[computer]-generated special called George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead.  The hour-long [show] comes from Dudesy, a comedy AI that hosts a podcast and YouTube show with Mad TV alum Will Sasso and podcaster Chad Kultgen….Kelly Carlin, the late stand-up comedian’s daughter, posted a statement on…Twitter [last week, writing]…“Here’s an idea, how about we give some actual living human comedians a listen to? But if you want to listen to the genuine George Carlin, he has 14 specials that you can find anywhere.”

 

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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These warrants…turn innocent people into suspects.  –  Jennifer Lynch

If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

An Independence [Missouri] pastor…[named] Virgil L. Marsh [has confessed to repeatedly] …molest…ing two girls under the age of 14 who attended his church between 2011 and 2018…Virgil [burbled to] police [about]…“forgiveness from God”…the second…victim…[was only] eight and nine years old…[when] Marsh [was molesting her]…

Creepy Coppers

This is the kind of garbage the state pays to spy on and harass your kids:

A [typical and representative Missouri cop named Darrin Skinner] who [was paid to surveil, intimidate, and harass high] school [students has been] charged with 14 felony counts [for collecting and sharing] child [porn on a social media network called]…MeWe…

I Spy (#1220)

If more companies did this, the fascist surveillance state would be severely hobbled:

Google [has] announced it would soon change the way it would store and access users’ opt-in “Location History” in Google Maps, making the data retention period shorter, and making it impossible for the company to access it.  That means it will no longer respond to “geofence warrants,” a [civil-right violating] co[p]…tool used…to force Google to hand over information about all users within a given location during a specific timeframe…Google’s decision…is a major win for privacy advocates and criminal defense attorneys who have long decried these [unconstitutional] warrants…

A Broker in Pillage (#1250)

There are many ways for governments to steal things that don’t belong to them:

In June of 2022, [cops]…threw dozens of tear gas grenades into [a woman’s South Bend, Indiana] house…smashed windows, destroyed the security cameras, punched holes in the walls, ripped a panel and fan from the bathroom wall and ceiling, ransacked and tossed furniture, snatched curtains down, and broke a mirror and various storage containers…a litany of personal belongings…were ruined.  [Cops were after] a man named John Parnell Thomas…who…did not own the home, did not have any relationship with its owners, and had never been there.  The actual owner, Amy Hadley…told [cops] that Thomas was not inside and that her security cameras…would have alerted her if a stranger had forced his way in [but of course they didn’t care and proceeded to destroy her house like a mob of deranged hooligans, and have refused to pay for the damages]…Her home insurance helped her in part but declined to pay the full amount, which totaled at least $16,000…

Civil rights advocates often joke that the Third Amendment is the only one that hasn’t been undermined, but I fail to see any important difference between the government forcibly taking people’s homes to quarter troops and forcibly taking them to serve as props for cops and robbers games.

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1391)

The currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade has escaped the US:

The [authoritarian] government of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez intends to implement age verification to access adult content on the internet…Spain’s data regulator Agencia Española de Protección de Datos (AEPD) is developing a process to require web users to utilize a digital ID…[similar to the one in Louisiana that suffered] a data breach [months after the state started the “age verification” parade]…

The Cop Myth (#1397)

This one really was an ex-cop, but still just as dangerous:

A former…Tennessee [cop named]…Lawrence Goodine…[has been] charged with murder, kidnapping and tampering with evidence…[after murdering his girlfriend] Kara Akins…[by] strangulation and blunt force trauma to the head…Goodine [absurdly claimed] he had woken up at 3 a.m. and found the victim dead…[of an] overdose…Goodine…was fired [from the pig herd] in 2007…

To Molest and Rape (#1399)

Sometimes molester cops helpfully provide photographic evidence of their crimes:

Hidden cameras captured hundreds of hours of…footage inside a bathroom and bedroom at the home of a [typical and representative] California [cop who]…sexually abus[ed] an underage boy…One camera [was] placed in a light fixture above a toilet…another [was] concealed in a bedroom smoke detector…The [typical and representative cop], James Plas Grider, is seen in one video masturbating while wearing his [magical clown costume]…

Other cops’ fixation on the magical clown costumes of rapist cops is a common element of these stories:

New Mexico State Police arrested Joe Lucero Gonzales last month…for sending nude photos to four teen…[girl]s through social media and [raping] one of them in his [pigmobile] while [wearing his magical clown costume]…The teens range in age from 15 to 17…

 

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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I’m on a mission I have to complete by year’s end.  –  Scott Allen Schultz

The Kroffts dominated Saturday morning TV for most of the ’70s; it seems appropriate to commemorate the passing of Marty Krofft with their first hit show.  For those of y’all too young to remember this: yes, psychedelic counterculture leaked into mainstream culture in many ways back then.  The links above it were provided by Desiree Alliance, Stephen Lemons, Franklin Harris, Phoenix Calida, Lucy Steigerwald, Radley Balko, and Popehat, in that order.

From the Archives

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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Reliance on [police] to enforce Covid-19 restrictions has created…human rights violations.  –  Amnesty International

If Men Were Angels

Like father, like son:

A father and son pair of former church pastors were charged…with multiple counts of sexual assault of a child.  Scott Huse, 64…and…Travis Huse, 42…[were] involved with the Apostolic Worship Center and former Evergreen Christian Academy in Elton [Wisconsin]…

A Broker in Pillage (#1065)

Michigan is among the greediest, most unscrupulous states in this regard:

Michigan…[politicians have] open[ed] a dangerous loophole by authorizing [cops to rob]…travelers at Michigan airports [by pointing at them and oinking out the magic word “drugs”]…That change represents a substantial reversal of reforms that Michigan enacted in response to complaints…[bill sponsor Graham] Filler [paused from fellating cops to belch out a host of idiocies such as]…”ill-gotten gains”…”secure”…and…”reform”…

The Course of a Disease (#1093)

The Spanish case of the Swedish rot is especially virulent:

Spanish…politicians [are]…aiming to outlaw all forms of…sex work…including…audiovisual productions, magazines or internet content deemed “pornographic”…politicians within [socialist ruling party] PSOE, which took power in 2019…have taken up the abolition of sex work as their personal cause…the party’s General Vice-Secretary Adriana Lastra…last month took to the press to promote a change in the Spanish penal code to mandate up to three years of jail time for anyone paying for sex…

The Last Shall Be First (#1115)

Another perverse genital inspection law:

…the “Save Women’s Sports Act,” bans schools and colleges in Ohio from permitting “individuals of the male sex” from participating in women’s sports…The bill does not explain what the “male sex” or “female sex” is.  It does not say “trans” or “transgender” anywhere in the bill.  It doesn’t talk about birth or biological sex.  What it does instead is give people the power to dispute the sex of an individual athlete.  Then it falls upon that athlete to prove their sex by going to a physician and getting a signed statement confirming the athlete’s sex based on only…”The participant’s internal and external reproductive anatomy…normal endogenously produced levels of testosterone…[or] analysis of the participant’s genetic makeup.”  The bill…[also] authorize[s] individuals or schools…to sue the school, school district, or conference who allowed the trans woman to play and be awarded damages…The bill’s wording is similar to one passed in Idaho in 2020 that is currently being challenged in federal court

In the authoritarian mind,  for students to voluntarily allow other people to examine their genitalia for the purpose of pleasure is a “crime”, but for the same students to be forced by law to allow strangers to examine their genitalia for the purpose of bigotry is “protection”.

Social Distancing (#1197)

Oh look, it’s what I was saying TWO FUCKING YEARS AGO:

“Widespread reliance on punitive approaches to enforcing public health” harms marginalized groups, says Amnesty International.  A new report…suggests quarantine rules and other COVID-19 restrictions were especially damaging for groups already more likely to face discrimination, police harassment, and unjust criminalization.  Amnesty International calls on governments to reject using criminal sanctions to implement public health goals and “refrain from implementing repressive policies” in the name of protecting pubic health…”Contrary to the often-voiced claim by governments that ‘we were all in this together’, the truth is that their responses to Covid-19 have been experienced unequally…[especially by] people who are homeless, engage in sex work, or use drugs, as well as people “targeted because of their sexual orientation or gender identity and expression”…


To Molest and Rape (#1225)

Rapist cops don’t only target women:

A [typical and representative] Philadelphia [cop who raped and]…sexually assault[ed men]…over the course of more than a decade was found guilty…of multiple crimes, including rape…Philip Nordo…often targeted [men] who were already handcuffed or shackled…

Thought Control (#1240)

There is nothing as contagious as a bad idea:

CatholicVote, which calls itself “America’s top Catholic advocacy organization,” has launched a “parent-led movement” called Hide the Pride to “empty libraries of LGBTQ content aimed at kids.”  It encourages members of the public to first collect signatures protesting library Pride displays containing children’s books, then to check out all of the books on display…After the titles are checked out, they then advise to “place the Pride books on a shelf out of reach of children” and email or mail the signatures to the library…a…school board candidate in Maryland did the same thing, though she didn’t stop at kids’ books.  Heather Fletcher checked out all the LGBTQ books on the library Pride display in the Brunswick Public Library…she [bloviat]ed, “This has…to do with the preservation of innocence”…

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It feels good to know that I played a small part in paralyzing a cho, LMAO.  –  Garrett Osbon

When the name Casino Royale was re-used for one of the James Bond franchise movies in 2006, those of us who remember the David Niven/Woody Allen parody from 1967 couldn’t help being amused, but apparently someone decided to juxtapose the two in a more direct way.  The video was provided by Franklin Harris, and the links above it by Clarissa (x2), Jesse Walker, Billy Binion, and Cop Crisis (x2), in that order.

From the Archives

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I’m not entirely sure why society collectively agreed that sex traffickers operate in a similar fashion to Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner.  –  Jessica Dean

Droit du Seigneur

It’s good to see this lurid narrative turned against cops for a change:

A woman who…filed a lawsuit in…Virginia…alleges that in 2010…[when] she travel[led] to the U.S. to work as an…escort…she was…[somehow unaware that the job involved] sex…and…[that] her new boss, Hazel Marie Sanchez Cerdas…[used threats to force her into unsafe and exploitative situations, and stole] all of [her income]…local [cops]…protect[ed] the [abusive pimps] in exchange for sexual services [for which the escorts were not compensated]…In April 2015, the plaintiff [got fed up with the exploitative arrangment]…and went to [the cops].  In 2019, Sanchez was charged with—and eventually pleaded guilty to—felony charges related to sex trafficking and was sentenced to 30 months in prison…

Unfortunately, the reporter is a “sex trafficking” fetishist who credulously parrots lots of copaganda in the article, but I’ve extracted what appears to be the important information from amongst the dysphemized descriptions, agency denial, and outright fantasies.

Big Dick Energy

“Even reasonably intelligent, sophisticated men seem to believe deep down that their phalluses…have the ability to damage women’s bodies and destroy our souls.”  Just in case some of you thought that was an exaggeration, please allow me to present this recent screenshot from Twitter, which also illustrates the concept of “science worship” as diagrammed here.  Compare to the bizarre claims of “sex trafficking” fetishists and other prohibitionists, and I think you’ll admit my point that both feminists and denizens of the “manosphere” are part of the same continuum of wackadoo.

The Prudish Giant (#895) 

Anything that demonstrates the absurdity of internet censorship is good:

Vienna’s tourism board has started an account on OnlyFans – the only social network that permits depictions of nudity – in protest against [other] platforms’ ongoing censorship of its art museums and galleries.  In July, the Albertina Museum’s new TikTok account was suspended and then blocked for showing works by the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki…This followed a similar incident in 2019, when Instagram [censored] a painting by Peter Paul Rubens…In 2018, the Natural History Museum’s photograph of the 25,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf figurine was deemed pornographic by Facebook and [censored]…The Leopold Museum has likewise struggled to promote its collection of nudes by the expressionist Egon Schiele, with [its ads censored by bureaucrats] in Germany, the UK and US…A short video featuring the painting Liebespaar by Koloman Moser, made to mark the Leopold Museum’s 20th anniversary this year, was rejected by Facebook and Instagram as “potentially pornographic”…the Albertina’s current exhibition, by the Italian portrait artist Amedeo Modigliani, [is also terrifying to puritans]…

See the city’s YouTube ad below.

Checklist (#927)

A whore-snitching app that skips the middlerat:

Police Scotland [has] adopt[ed] a simple [way to criminalize more sex workers]…by using the Unseen App.  The app, which is hosted by the [government]…has been downloaded to [cop]s’ mobile devices to …[give them various excuses they can claim are] signs of…exploitation [so as to arrest sex workers while calling it “rescue”]…the app will provide [cops] with [legally-admissible excuses for the harassment]…Assistant Chief Constable Judi Heaton [shared some of her favorite BDSM masturbatory fantasies about passive, doll-like sex workers]…

Eavesdropping (#1069)

Remember, Amazon eagerly hands data from internet-connected devices to cops:

A woman…requested all the information Amazon has on her through her two Amazon Dot devices and one Amazon Echo device as well as smart phones.  Several Zip files came through and when she clicked on the audio file she says she discovered…3,534 audio files in a single Zip file alone…Amazon [also] has a copy of all her phone contacts…

The Widening Gyre (#1116)

The “things on cars” branch of “sex trafficking” scarelore has expanded to include things near cars:

“So have you ever seen this type of car seat just out of nowhere?” the woman in the TikTok video asks…pointing to a photo of an abandoned baby car seat in a parking lot…“that’s not an ordinary car seat…[it’s a] sex trafficking car seat”…placed as bait by sex traffickers to kidnap and enslave unsuspecting victims…The woman who posted the video is…a TikTok creator with 122,000 followers who bills herself as a “spiritual gardener” who offers Tarot intuitive readings on social media.  [She has the typical] lack of credentials [of those billing themselves] sex trafficking expert[s, so as usual] her video has gone massively viral…the Wilkesboro [North Carolina] Police Department…[has so much spare time it actually] investigated this incident and…deemed…[it non-]criminal…but…Parker appears to be doubling down…[saying] “I still feel that there is something going on in our society”…

Uncommon Sense (#1143) 

Politicians the world over promise the same evil, impossible things, and stupid people just keep believing them:

[Spanish] Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez…pledged [once again] to “abolish” prostitution in the country, [even though no such prohibitionist campaign has ever done anything but increase]…violence a[gainst]…women…Sanchez took office [again] in January 2020 as head of a minority coalition government after his Socialist Party won two inconclusive national elections in 2019…

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I’ve always been dedicated to the idea of this as the time of year for spooky fun.  So every year I collect all the spooky, creepy or scary content from the previous year into one place just before Halloween.  If you’ve come to my blog in the past year, or don’t remember previous editions, they are “Trick or Treat”, “More Trick or Treat“, “Tricks and Treats“, “This Trick’s a Treat”, “Tricky Treats“, “A Trickle of Treats”, “Tricking and Treating“, and “Tricks for the Treat“.  Horror, death or Halloween-themed columns of the past year include “Dead on Arrival“, “The Mysteries“, “Could It Be…Satan?“, “The Sparkle of a Star“, and “The October Country“; there are creepy or spooky-fun videos in Links #541#553#566, and #590, and here’s a collection of spooky or Halloweeny links:

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