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Posts Tagged ‘streetwalkers’

Regular readers need no introduction to Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist, whose groundbreaking book Sex At the Margins introduced the term “rescue industry” and set the bar for conversations about sex work and migration for two decades.  When she told me of her new project, I invited her to write about it; I think you’ll find the result as interesting as I do!

What do you do when you get pretty old and have no pension but do have your health?  I had to confront this during a couple of years of lockdowns, living in someone else’s house because I was trapped by airports closing.  But for some years before that I had wanted something new to happen.  I wrote a crime-novel, The Three-Headed Dog, and would have been glad to write its sequels, but it seemed impossible to get the book seen by more than a small number of readers, and anyway I didn’t want to sit in front of screens all the time.  So after enormous amounts of walking and exploring during lockdowns, I thought about becoming an on-the-street guide.  Not to take tourists to the bucket-list sights but to lead the kind of walking tours I like, with guides who take you to places far from the obvious, such as weird industrial areas, backwaters, and neighbourhoods no one ever tells you to visit.  I’ve been a house- and cat-sitter for many years so was always doing this on my own, but here were guides who could tell me histories of these places.  So I thought I might run walks where I could give my own kind of history, ignoring mainstream events and personages – monarchs, prime ministers, wars, celebrations of capitalism – and instead talk about ordinary working stiffs, especially women, who usually get left out.  It would just be me having my own point of view as always, only on the street, talking with anyone who wants to sign up – no institutions or classrooms involved, even virtual ones.

Is it possible to include sex work in guided tours without being a jackass?  Ever since I began talking in public about the sex industry, I’ve dealt with the problem of language; always someone is offended, if not by the topic itself then by the words used.  I wondered if I would ever discover the perfect vocabulary that would enlighten without someone in the audience looking hacked-off.  Then I realised it was a hopeless goal.  My PhD thesis-proposal was called The Production of “Prostitution”, a term impossibly fraught and divisive and yet it’s the one everyone knows.  “The Sex Industry”, “Commercial Sex”, “Sex Work”: all require explanation and endless quibbling about which phenomena are to be included.  Spin-offs like “the Sex Trade” and “Survival Sex” and absurd inventions like “the Sex Work Industry” add to the chaos.  On top of that, many sex workers use and affirm the word “Prostitute”.

For my own label, I’m keeping the “Naked Anthropologist” handle because it continues to describe my point of view.  “London Walks with Gender, Sex and Class” tells what my commentary focuses on, and I’m still the same person thinking about sex work and other ways women choose to get by, make ends meet or make more money than they would in the usual jobs available to them.  Remember, I got started in the Caribbean 25 years ago listening to poor women planning to migrate to work in Spain, where they had two job-options: live-in maid or sex worker.  Conversations went like this:

Woman 1:  I’m going to be a prostitute, I’d rather die than be someone’s maid.
Woman 2:  I’m going to be a maid, I’d rather die than be a prostitute.

My walks will always include people who sell sex.  For my walk in September’s Totally Thames Festival, “Scratching Out a Living”, I created six characters whose jobs were common amongst the poor in 14th-century London.  One is a laundress who can’t make ends meet unless she also sells sex part-time.  Another prefers picking pockets to selling sex.  The language of the time called these two women “common”; being without a husband was grounds enough to assume the worst.  A third woman is a migrant who manages a regulated brothel with her husband and is on the house’s roster of prostitutes: married but fully professional.  Historical language shows us how women who deviated from the norm were stigmatised. In another walk, “The Backside of Knightsbridge Barracks”, a woman from the country comes to London to work as a maid; she meets a dashing horseguard in the park and becomes his dolly-mop: This term for an unmarried woman having sex with a soldier indicated to listeners of the time that she was “an amateur prostitute”.  She gets pregnant, he helps her out from his paltry pay, and after a couple of years they get permission to marry.  Their daughter grows up, marries and leaves home, but that doesn’t work out and her life ends when Jack the Ripper finds her sleeping in an East End courtyard.  There’s no evidence she ever sold sex, but police and newsmen of the time said she did.  In this same walk Harriette Wilson is an author and demi-rep: this term, composed of “demi” meaning shady or doubtful and “rep” for reputation, indicated Wilson was a certain type of prostitute, who tries to blackmail the Duke of Wellington.  Catherine Walters, courtesan on horseback in Rotten Row, sometimes got the label horsebreaker (another term for prostitute); she lives a long life discreetly listening to old men’s stories and persuading them to contribute to her maintenance.  I’m creating other walks all the time, full of ideas about the women omitted from histories.  And I suppose I’ll never offer a walk that doesn’t have paid sex in it because it wouldn’t be real life.  Sometimes the women are called mistresses, and sometimes they may have managed to preserve their technical virtue by sticking to hand-jobs, but the language always marks them out.

Luttrell Psalter, Add. 42130, British Library

If you come to London and are interested in Plain Talk on the subject of sex work, come on a walk with me.  Selling sex isn’t going to be a special emphasis, but it’s always going to be there, the way food, drink and politics always are.  To know the dates of scheduled walks, follow my blog and see the Walks Calendar tab on the top menu of my website.  Or follow me on Eventbrite: The Naked Anthropologist.  You can also contact me for a private tour, either on the platform ToursByLocals or via the contact-form on my website.  For private tours I’ll do the research required to come up with history of a particular area or person that I can recount on a series of pauses in a walking tour of a few hours.  I like research, and I’m good at it; I do it in the British Library, where during lockdown-years I focused on the late Middle Ages because I was annoyed at the superficiality of commentary on the medieval regulated brothels of Southwark.  When the dearth of references to the existence of working women was a yawning crevasse I took to perusing illuminated manuscripts in a special room, because for a short period illustrators in East Anglia decorated the margins of religious texts with figures: mostly antic, often grotesque, occasionally realistic.  Just above is an example: a detail from the early 14th-century Luttrell Psalter described as “A Lady at her Toilet with her maid”.  Some interpreters of these marginalia go further, however, to say the lady is obviously a prostitute.  You know what they mean by prostitute?  A woman looking at herself in a mirror.  Go figure.

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Once you get the scarlet letter, nobody wants you anymore.
–  Kristen DiAngelo

If Men Were Angels

Oh look, another “youth pastor”, what a surprise:

A [typical and representative] youth pastor at a Twin Falls [Idaho] church faces sexual battery charges after…[molesting] a girl in 2021 when she was 16 years old.  Dakota Austin Kennemer…was charged…after…the pastor [reported him to cops]…

This one, on the other hand, is a bit surprising:

Amanda Buchanan Justice…of [North Carolina]…was charged with sexually assaulting a child…She…was a youth leader at New Life Family Worship Center in Kings Mountain…her…husband…is still serving as a pastor…[but] stepped down from his role as a youth minister following…his wife [admitting the molestation to him]…

Torture Chamber (#690)

US officials already know prisons exacerbate crime; they simply don’t care:

In 1999 Connecticut had so many people in prison that it paid to send 500 of them to be [cag]ed in Virginia.  Nearly 25 years later, the state has not only sliced its number of imprisoned people in half, but been able to close more than 10 prisons while keeping its crime rate at its lowest level in more than 40 years…Connecticut currently runs 13 prisons, which [cag]e about 10,000 people.  Two-thirds of these are serving sentences; the other third are those who have yet to be sentenced…The state’s rate of 155 people imprisoned per 100,000 residents is now the ninth lowest in the country and well below the national average of 350 people per 100,000…

Guinea Pigs (#1307) 

Another bunch of vigilante bigots playing games with people’s lives:

Victor Marx…is…a [jarhead and] self-proclaimed exorcist…[who] helped launch the Skull Games, a privatized intelligence outfit that purports to hunt pedophiles, sex traffickers, and other “demonic activity” using a blend of sock-puppet social media accounts and commercial surveillance tools — including face recognition software…Recent games have been [sponsored] by the [Israeli] surveillance firm Cobwebs, and an upcoming competition…[by] Anomaly Six…Marx has savvily ridden recent popular attention to the [propaganda] film Sound of Freedom…and conservative “groomer” panic…to [sell harassment of sex workers as somehow]…Christ[ian]…Skull Games…is…a sort of hackathon for would-be Christian saviors…play[ers win] points based on their sleuthing.  Finding a [sex worker]’s high school diploma…nets 15 points, while finding [a common] tattoo on multiple women would earn…300…as they prepare intelligence dossiers on women before turning them over to p[igs]…what sets Skull Games apart from other amateur predator-hunting efforts is its reliance on “open-source intelligence”…a military euphemism…[for] surveilling the public internet and purchasing sensitive information from commercial data brokers…one [recent participant was]…able to use PimEyes to find a sex worker’s driver’s license…Clearview [and Amazon’s Rekognition were]…heavily used in the January 2023 Skull Games…

Lack of Evidence (#1312) 

Courts are still more dependable sources of relief from bad laws than politicians:

…The Dallas County Criminal Court of Appeals has struck down a law against “manifesting the purpose of engaging in prostitution.”  The law…”trespasses on the constitutional rights of Dallas citizens,” wrote Judge Kristin Wade…The Dallas law…[basically] prohibits looking like [a whore, and can bring]a fine of up to $500…there’s been a growing movement against these laws, which make it easy for police to hassle and arrest people without cause…The case that led to the law being struck down involved the arrest of Iqbal Jivani, who “was in a known prostitution area and stopped to engage passers-by in conversation,” per a police complaint…

Thought Control (#1343)

It seems I was destined to be threatened with state violence regardless of my career path:

A federal lawsuit…challenges an Arkansas law that would subject librarians and booksellers to criminal charges if they provide…materials [politicians have pointed at while belching out “harmful”] to minors.  A coalition that includes the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock filed the challenge to the law, which [took] effect Aug. 1.  The law also creates a new process [for any busybody] to [demand] library materials…be [censored]…The number of attempts to ban or [censor] books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts…at least 121 proposals introduced in state legislatures this year target…libraries, librarians, educators and access to materials…39 of those…would allow for criminal prosecution…

Creepy Coppers (#1348)

The people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

A Vevay, Indiana [cop named]…Kyle Davis…was arrested…[for] attempt[ing] to video record an underage [girl]…while she was using the bathroom…on May 30, 2020, she was at his home when she wanted to use the bathroom…Davis went in…before her…and she noticed an iPhone pointed toward the toilet set to record video…[when later questioned] Davis…[tried to blame] his teenage son…[but] Davis’ phone…[held a nude photo] of two pre-pubescent girls about 8 years old…[and] searches related to “voyeurism” [and] “spy cams”…

I Spy (#1352)

This totalitarian nonsense is a danger to the entire internet, worldwide:

…the privacy of people around the world…[will be undermined by] the Online Safety Bill, now at the final stage before passage…which will destroy end-to-end encryption.  No amendments have been accepted that would mitigate the bill’s most dangerous elements…If the Online Safety Bill becomes British law, the damage it causes won’t stop at the borders of the U.K…because…undermining encryption, whether by banning it, pressuring companies away from it, or requiring client side scanning, will be a boon to bad actors and authoritarian states…That’s [why]…U.K. civil society groups have condemned the bill, as have technical experts and human rights groups around the world…In response to this outpouring of resistance, the U.K. government’s response has been to wave its hands and deny reality…

 

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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When a film claims to be “based on a true story,” it can still be 99% fiction.  –  Robert Gehrke

If Men Were Angels

He wasn’t a “former pastor” when he murdered a little girl:

…83-year-old David Zandstra [has confessed to the]…murder of…[8-year-old] Gretchen Harrington…on August 15, 1975.  Zandstra was a pastor at…Trinity Church Chapel Christian Reform Church [in Media, Pennsylvania], where Harrington was going to [Bible] camp…[when Harrington’s] skeletal remains were found…[Zanstra was questioned but claimed he hadn’t seen her that day.  Then]…earlier this year, investigators learned Zandstra [had] groped a girl, who was best friends with his daughter, years ago…In [her] diary from 1975, she noted that she thought Zandstra kidnapped Harrington…[when confronted] in Marietta, Georgia, where he [now] lives…Zandstra admitted…he [had] offered Harrington a ride and took her to a wooded area…[where] he [tried to molest her, then fatally]…struck [her] in the head with a fist when she refused…he…[then] cover[ed her] body and [fled] the scene…

The Face of Trafficking (#585)

Another case of what really happens when a wannabe “pimp” abducts a girl:

Terrique Devon Milam, 19, [and an unnamed 17-year-old were] charged with…promotion of prostitution…[after being] arrested Thursday, July 20, by…Seattle Police…[when a] father…reported that his daughter was being held against her will…his daughter had told him she could not leave, shared her location and abruptly hung up the call…The victim told police she met a woman in her home state of Texas who…[had shared an especially-silly version of the “gypsy whore” myth with] her…she [was abducted by]…several [wannabe] pimps…[who for] two weeks [took her] to and from Aurora Avenue…[by] two men [who stole] the money she earned…

Note the lack of actual “sex trafficking” charges, despite the attempt to invoke the “sex trafficking at sporting events” myth.

I Spy (#1213) 

The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever:

…From the bluntly named World War II-era Director of Censorship’s power to restrict mail, to the 1873 Comstock Act fueling the power of the post to [censor] contraception information…to the PATRIOT Act’s many tentacles, the Post Office hides nasty habits under its all-American exterior…Mail covers involve the USPS recording any information displayed on the outside, then giving that information to [cop shops and spook houses].  It is…a kind of metadata for the analog realm that gives a…picture of who the suspect knows, what they are interested in, and sometimes where they have gone…The USPS has also not released data about mail covers since 2014…[but] “no higher authority, judge or otherwise, needs to endorse the process”…A legal concept called the third party doctrine…broadly says that if you willingly give your information over to a phone company, an internet service provider, or the post office…you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy…

Torture Chamber (#1346)

Fascism in action, profiting from human misery:

The price of bottled water [has gone] up 50% in prison commissaries across Texas…as [humans locked in the filthy cages] struggle to endure an entrenched and deadly heatwave in facilities without air conditioning.  The state raised the price from $4.80 per case (24 bottles) to $7.20 per case [after]…vendor Royal Pacific Tea Company requested to raise the prices in March even though it contract was incomplete.  The price…[gouging was obtained via kickbacks to] the state comptroller’s office and…Texas Department of Criminal Justice…the men have access to tap water.  But…the water quality [in] the aging prisons [is far below acceptable standards]…the smell…resembl[es] sewage…[and] has [been] described…as “rancid” smelling…

Shifting the Blame (#1357)

Will we ever know the connection between this guy and disgraced former Police Chief James Burke?

…authorities [have begun] digging up the Long Island…home of Rex Heuermann, the man suspected of killing at least three women found at Gilgo Beach, and reportedly found a soundproof room in Heuermann’s basement that they think at least one woman may have died in…[they] are excavating his backyard, and…brought cadaver dogs and radar tools to the property…Heuermann’s wife, Asa Ellerup…has since filed for divorce…and…Heuermann is a “prime suspect” in the death of a fourth woman, Marueen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in July 2007…

The Widening Gyre (#1358) 

At least this one confessed quickly:

[Carlee Russell] has confessed to fabricating a story that she was kidnapped after stopping to check on a toddler she saw walking on the side of the interstate…there was no kidnapping…she did not leave the city, and acted alone…it is possible that Russell could face charges.  [Cops] are trying to determine where she was in the two days she was gone…

Served Cold (#1359)

The schadenfreude of watching Tim Ballard’s reputation go down in flames is so very sweet:

Ballard’s [highly-exaggerated] version of the story [he claims inspired him to profit from “sex trafficking” hysteria] provides the basis for the new film, Sound of Freedom, which has [not] done [as] well at the box office [as its promoters pretend]…But in the movie, even more liberties are taken…there are obvious discrepancies between the story Ballard tells and the narrative in court documents…When embellished or exaggerated or untrue statements are used to raise money, it becomes…problematic…much of Ballard’s origin story is flatly, provably false, and the people who have donated tens of millions of dollars to Ballard’s organizations deserve to know how much of what he has told them is true and how much has been concocted to fuel his celebrity status and ego.

 

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 government’s request…is ballsy, bonkers, and an egregious overreach.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Surplus Women

Your “leaders” want this to happen more often:

80-year-old…John Apelgren…[has been] accused of murdering Eileen Cotter in Highbury in 1974 when he was 31.  Advances in DNA profiling led to a breakthrough in the cold case as Apelgren’s DNA was found to match samples from Eileen’s mouth and anus…22-year-old Eileen was a sex worker who was found lying face down half naked in front of some garages…on June 1, 1974.  Apelgren is alleged to have had sex with Eileen, then attacked and strangled her…

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

A…[typical and representative politician named Matthew R. Reilly] in Rhode Island who was arrested earlier this month after a…[cop] found him asleep in his car with a crack pipe and a lighter in his hand is behind bars again…for…sexually assaulting and molesting a child…

Creepy Coppers (#1109)

The people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

…42 women, including 10 minors, plan to file lawsuits against the West Virginia State Police…[because] hidden…cameras were placed and operated inside the female locker room at the State Police Academy…female [molestation grooming] program attendees accessed and used the…locker room…during the time the…cameras were in use….taping of [women at] the Academy did not end until 2020, the same time the [grooming] Program was discontinued…

Hey, female cops; how’s that collaboration with the police state working out?

Like Houses (#1129)

Government can always be counted on to use any excuse to expand tyranny:

…censorship during the pandemic…became a popular pastime among functionaries convinced they are the embodiment of science—or, at least, the arbiters of truth…the state and social media companies [conspired] to muzzle voices not just in the U.S., but also…in the U.K.  “A secretive government unit worked with social media companies…to curtail discussion of controversial lockdown policies during the pandemic,” The Telegraph reported June 2.  “The Counter-Disinformation Unit (CDU) was set up by ministers to tackle supposed domestic ‘threats’, and was used to target those critical of lockdown…[who] had posts removed from social media…[or] stop[ped from] being promoted, circulated or widely shared after being flagged by the CDU”…Among those [censored]…were prominent epidemiologists and medical researchers who challenged official data and restrictive policies.  Activists who opposed lockdowns were also targeted.  The Telegraph, a prominent newspaper which has run articles skeptical of pandemic authoritarianism, was itself singled out.  Implicated in monitoring content and penalizing dissent at the behest of government officials were companies including Facebook, Google, Twitter (under the old management), and the BBC…

Eggs and Bacon

Kansas politicians want to circumvent the will of the voters:

Abortion providers [have] sued Kansas…over a law enacted this year and…a decades-old requirement that patients wait 24 hours after first seeing a provider to terminate their pregnancies…the…[new] law…will require providers to [lie, claiming] a medication abortion can be stopped using a regimen that major medical groups have called unproven and potentially dangerous.  The lawsuit…argues that Kansas has created a “Biased Counseling Scheme” designed to discourage patients from getting abortions and to stigmatize patients who [do, pointing out]…that the requirements have become “increasingly absurd and invasive” over time and spread medical misinformation…in August [Kansas voters] decisively affirmed abortion rights, refusing to overturn a state Supreme Court decision three years earlier that declared access to abortion a matter of bodily autonomy and a fundamental right under the state constitution…[thus preventing] Kansas [politicians from] greatly restrict[ing] or ban[ning] abortion…

Dangerous Speech (#1345)

Just when you thought the wildly-incompetent, shockingly-illegal, and wholly tyrannical prosecution of the former owners of Backpage couldn’t sink any lower:

In a series of motions…the government seeks to prevent the Backpage defendants’ legal team from making basically any reasonable attempt to defend against the charges against them.  Most egregiously, prosecutors want to bar them from mentioning the First Amendment…and “free speech” at any time in the presence of the jury…they [also] want to legally prohibit the Backpage team’s lawyers from arguing that the ads [they hosted] were not illegal…[from] referenc[ing] Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act…[from] defend[ing] themselves against accusations that they knew they were breaking the law by pointing out that Backpage lawyers repeatedly assured them they were not breaking the law…[from] point[ing] out that…the [government demanded they]…charge for ads because this would create a financial paper trailfrom commenting on the legitimacy of the prosecution and or any tactics employed by prosecutors; from referencing the 2021 trial that was declared a mistrial because of the government’s conduct; or from mentioning previous legal cases where courts ruled in Backpage’s favor…it [also wants to ban] references to…the defendants’ families, to the defendants’ personal lives, [or] to Lacey and Larkin’s extensive history in the journalism industry…in other words, the defendants may not attempt to humanize themselves…

Torture Chamber (#1347) 

New York prison bureaucrats are determined that as little information as possible get out about the conditions in their cages:

…the agency that runs New York’s prisons is set to block…incarcerated writers, artists, and poets from getting their work outside prison walls.  Last month, the agency quietly handed down new rules severely curtailing what incarcerated writers and artists can publish — and forbidding them from getting paid for it.  The…directive, which went into effect on May 11, establishes a stringent, months-long approval process for people in its c[ages] to publish creative work, including books, art, music, poetry, film scripts, and other writing.  It gives prison superintendents the power to block work from publication if it violates any of a number of [vague] rules — including bans on mentioning the artist or author’s crime and portraying [prisons, screws and bureaucrats honestly]…

 

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 SAFE TECH Act] takes nearly every single idea that people who want there to be less speech online have had, and dumped it all into one bill.  –  Mike Masnick

If Men Were Angels

One would think by now that the title “youth pastor” would be a big red flag:

Gary Buckaloo…[has been] charged with…[repeated] sex[ual] abuse of a child…under 14…Buckaloo is listed as [something called] a Life Skills teacher [in] Buffalo [Texas]…and…is…also…the Youth Pastor and Worship Leader for First Baptist Church Normangee…

Choke Point (#629) 

“Abortion…will be vulnerable…if a different administration adopts this same thuggish approach toward the businesses that it dislikes”:

…Texas [politician]…Drew Spring [has] proposed a bill…that would make it a felony for credit card companies to “process a transaction” for abortion pills sales…[and] allow any citizen to sue a credit card company for allowing that sale to happen…[meanwhile, politician] Steve Toth introduced a bill that [demands] internet service providers [illegally censor]…”information…intended to assist or facilitate efforts to obtain an elective abortion or an abortion-inducing drug”…

You Were Warned (#1131)

You can’t keep a bad bill down:

…This year’s SAFE TECH Act is a redux of a bill first introduced in 2021.  That version—which Techdirt Editor in Chief Mike Masnick called “a dumpster fire of cluelessness” — failed to go anywhere (thank goodness).  But now the SAFE TECH Act is back…[for] yet another stab at undermining Section 230…The first change [it]…would make is to…open up a huge range of tech companies to more liability.  Blogging platforms like WordPress and newsletter and podcast distributors like Substack would be vulnerable, as would any social media platform that provides a paid tier level…[and] all sorts of web hosting services—creating huge incentives for providers to cut off…access to any person or group even slightly controversial…the bill [also encourages lawsuits against] content likely to cause “irreparable harm”…a vague phrase that could open a floodgate of lawsuits over anything…objectionable on social media…particularly speech that is unflattering to the rich and powerful…this…is a dangerous bill that would have far-reaching consequences for content creators, activists, people exposing police violence, whistleblowers, citizen journalists, and basically anyone who uses the internet…

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#1285)

It was only a matter of time before cops tried to combine their fentanyl hysteria with panicmongering over edibles:

Three days after the Montgomery County District Attorney stood behind a podium and held up packages of THC gummies that he [claimed] contained heroin and fentanyl, his office [had to admit that] lab tests [proved that to be a flagrant lie]…DA Kevin Steele announced an investigation into THC gummies after two people purportedly overdosed after eating them…Steele [was forced to admit]…that his [publicity stunt]…was based on testing done with a [notoriously unreliable] portable device [of the sort typically used by cops to generate false “probable cause” in order to arrest people]…The gummies in question contain legal byproducts of hemp that are increasingly popular for recreational use…[despite] low…potency…[cops and other prohibitionists keep babbling about overdoses and “children” despite there being no known LD50 for THC]…Around Halloween, officials [tried to drum up panic] about so-called rainbow fentanyl, colorful fentanyl pills purportedly marketed to children, that [were of course proven completely bogus]…

To Molest and Rape (#1303)

In the UK, “disciplinary action” can mean telling rapists to “think about what they did wrong”:

Nearly 80 [cops] in 22 [cop shops] in England and Wales have faced disciplinary action for [raping, sexually assaulting, molesting] or s[talking]…victims, witnesses and suspects since 2018…the majority of those facing disciplinary action…resigned before they were [sack]ed.  However, 10…remained in their jobs, facing lesser sanctions such as [stern words from superiors.  Only]…two faced criminal proceedings.  Nearly all of the offending officers were men, and all but two of the victims female…

To Molest and Rape (#1312)

The lengths to which spokespigs and their media lackeys will go to imply that rapist cops aren’t typical and representative specimens of their predatory breed are increasingly absurd.  This story from Puyallup, WA (not far south of Seattle) contains almost no actual information, such as the name or picture of the rapist; it does, however, include at least four distancing maneuvers.  The rapist “was still in training and had never worked alone as a police officer”; he was “off duty”; the rape was only “third degree”, implying less serious; and roughly half of the sketchy story is taken up with pompous oinking by the boss pig about how the rapists’ actions are “not representative” of cops, when it should be clear by now (to anyone whose mind isn’t completely rotted by copaganda) that such actions are most certainly representative.

The Widening Gyre (#1313)

It’s nice to see a journalist getting it for once:

[Disguised San Francisco cop] have recently been [fantasy role-play]ing as sex workers and [claim] they’ve busted 30 “johns” in a pointless exercise on Capp Street, in an ongoing effort to crack down on solicitation on that Mission District alley.  One sex worker already told a local TV station what would likely happen if SF police continued cracking down on the sex trade on Capp Street, which dates back decades: The sex workers will just shift over to another nearby street…

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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Those people aren’t hurting anyone.  –  Aaron Wojack

Torture Chamber 

It’s amazing how often people die mysteriously when cops are around:

…[An] internal surveillance recording…shows…Anthony “Tony” Mitchell, being carried into the loading area of the Walker County [Alabama] Jail.  Mitchell is limp, his head and feet dangling as uniformed personnel — “Sheriff” emblazoned on one of their vests…work to put him into [a] police vehicle.  The video contradicts an earlier statement from the Walker County Sheriff’s Office claiming Mitchell was “alert and conscious” when he left the jail for transport to a local hospital…the…[cops are “]investigating[” themselves]…

Update, four days later:

The mother of Anthony…Mitchell…has filed a federal lawsuit against multiple jail officials, including Sheriff Nick Smith, a[fter cops murdered him]…by leaving him in the jail’s walk-in freezer “or similar frigid environment” for hours…while…[strapped naked] in a restraint chair…[Mitchell’s ordeal began] when family members [stupidly thought their reason for calling the cops was an exception]…

The Widening Gyre (#420)

Lawheads still believe that barricades can magically eliminate the need for money:

[San Francisco bureaucrats] plan to install barriers…along a strip of Capp between 18th and 22nd streets where [street workers] appear most concentrated…the barriers are meant to put an end to the “cruising zone”.  [But San Francisco being what is is,] residents and [politicians claim to be]…worried about the [sex workers they want persecuted by police and denied an income, while at the same time vomiting a steady stream of copaganda and dysphemisms out of the other side of their faces]…

To Molest and Rape

No female motorist is safe while the state continues to pay sexual predators to harass us:

A [typical and representative] Arizona…[cop named Tremaine Jackson w]as…sentenced to [a mere] five years in prison after he pleaded guilty to [a few minor] sex-related charges…[to escape the full consequences of the] actions…[that led to] 61 [felony charges including]…sex[ual assault], kidnapping and fraud…Jackson was also placed on lifetime probation…Jackson was [first] arrested…on Sept. 10, 2019…in…[response to] complaints from…eight [of his] victims…[Typically,] Jackson would…pull over women between midnight and 4:30 a.m. and detain them for around two hours…[while pressing] the woman [for various kinds of sexual contact and asking what she] was “willing to do” to avoid arrest.  The [harassment and molestation] misconduct ranged from forced touching to asking for cellphone numbers and nude pictures…He [once]…pressur[ed] a woman to [give him a blow job] and follow[ed] her to a friend’s house…[but she outwitted him by running] inside and lock[ing] the door…

Rooted in Racism (#935)

The racism of European “anti-trafficking” schemes is getting harder to disguise:

Police claim they have dismantled an international sex trafficking ring that allegedly lured hundreds of women from China to Europe and forced them into sex work…Europol [claime]d the action represents the largest Chinese human trafficking bust in European history.  The gang’s accused ringleaders are [claim]ed to have forced hundreds of women in debt bondage into sex work in slave-like conditions in hotels across Europe…

Now that the public has largely lost interest in “sex trafficking” fantasies, expect the claims of cops and politicians to grow more grandiose until they hit on a new anti-migration paradigm.

Opting Out (#1268)

Most Americans still believe France is a sex-positive society:

France will become the first country to introduce a “digital certificate” for anyone seeking to view online pornography to prove they are not under age.  People wanting to visit pornography websites [who are too ignorant to install a VPN, and gullible enough to]…install a government application on their mobile phones [will open themselves up to totalitarian spying in order to] prov[e]…they are at least 18 years old…Websites that do not comply with the order risk being banned from France…[politicians paved the way for the mass surveillance scheme with propaganda melodramatically] entitled Hell Behind the Scenes, which [was heavily influenced by a cabal of prohibitionist associations aiming to abolish all sex work]

Stalkers in Blue (#1300)

Even seemingly-consensual sex with a cop may be something else:

As part of a plea deal [to drop separate domestic violence charges], a Pinole [California cop]…has pleaded no contest to a felony charge for secretly recording sex with a woman…The deal allows…Anthony Luciano Vasquez to…serve 120 days of house arrest and two years probation…Vasquez was charged in 2021 after his own cousin [snitched]…that Vasquez “sent out secretly recorded sex videos and pictures” to a text message group called “The Mafia” that included 17 people.  He was charged with secretly filming two women, one of whom has filed a lawsuit against him and the city of Pinole…[yet] his attorney [claimed] in a September 2021 interview that [the victim wanted it]…

Law of the Instrument (Another Rapist Roundup)

I guess they figure describing rape as “sex trafficking” will net a larger payout:

Three former members of the U.S. Ski & Snowboard team are suing their former coach, a national federation and its CEO and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee for sex trafficking, harassment and enabling and covering up multiple acts of sexual assault and misconduct…Olympians Rosey Fletcher and Callan Chythlook-Sifsof, along with Erin O’Malley, alleged in their lawsuit that Peter Foley…used his position of trust to “coerce sexual acts through force, manipulation, emotional abuse, intimidation and retaliation”…

 

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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Pay sex workers to educate you so you’re not reiterating harmful stereotypes out of ignorance.  –  Mahx Capacity

The Notorious Badge 

Hollywood follows rather than leads, so this is a good sign of a cultural shift:

…sex worker character[s] in…movie[s] or TV show[s]…are [typically] nameless, background-less, and function as nothing more than victims to be killed in a violent manner…but…a handful of [recent]…shows have represented sex work as ordinary work, and sex workers as complex characters, not singularly defined by the way they make money…What’s more, sex workers are becoming some of the most beloved characters — no longer the victims, but the heroes of their own stories.  In recent releases like the second season of The White Lotus, and movies like The MenuGood Luck to You, Leo Grande and Pleasure, sex workers are…among the most likeable (or, in the case of The White Lotus and The Menu arguably the only likeable) characters …and their choices are front and centre in the narratives…

Creepy Coppers

The people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

…a [typical and representative Michigan cop named]…Todd Barraco…was arrested on Wednesday for possession of…over 230,000 images and over 9,000 videos…of boys between the ages of 3 and 12 being sexually abused by adults…Barraco was initially arrested on March 17, 2022…when he went to a house…with the intent of having sexual relations with a[nother cop fantasy role-playing as a] minor…

Lack of Evidence (#1249) 

Useful idiots can always be counted on to eagerly lick up whatever toxic sludge cops vomit all over their upturned faces as they kneel in obeisance before the police state.  Here’s an example; it’s mostly just the usual wildly-exaggerated demonization of streetwalkers which yellow journalists parrot every time a stroll shifts due to police harassment.  But in this case, cops fed the ninnies the lie that the problem is due to the fact that they can no longer point their filthy fingers at any woman they want and oink out the word “prostitute” in order to justify assault, rape, and abduction (revoltingly euphemized as “rescuing women they believe to be human trafficked”).  Even by the abysmally-low standards of local news copaganda, this one is repellent in the extreme.

Torture Chamber (#1291)

Rather than solving this problem by convicting fewer people and giving screws less power over them, politicians say the solution is MOAR PRISON:

Wash[ington politicians are considering]…legislation that would lead to more prison time for [screw]s who sexually abuse [people locked in cages by the state and put completely under the power of those screws]…the bill…[is a response to the case of typical and representative] Forks jail guard John Gray…who…served [only] 13 months of his 20-month sentence…[after] Kimberly Bender…died by suicide in [the] Forks [cage stack] in 2019 after [her] report…to [bureaucrats] that Gray sexually [abu]sed her [was completely ignored until she was dead]…

Winding Down (#1302)

Destigmatization of psychedelics is happening much more quickly than I would’ve expected:

Australia…announced that…MDMA and psilocybin…will soon be used in the treatment of depression and post-traumatic stress.  Psychiatrists will be able to prescribe the two substances from July…[due to] “sufficient evidence for potential benefits in certain patients”.  The two drugs are…“relatively safe”…and provide…an “altered state of consciousness” that could help patients…

No Escape

The government is beginning to grudgingly admit what everyone already knew:

…the…Bureau of Justice Statistics…released detailed data…on more than 2,500 substantiated incidents of sexual assault in U.S. prisons and jails between 2016 and 2018.  The data starkly show how federal, state, and local officials have ignored their constitutional duty to protect incarcerated people from sexual assault, despite federal laws [pre]tended to create zero-tolerance policies for prison rape…the report found that perpetrators of staff sexual misconduct were…convicted, sentenced, fined, or pleaded guilty in [a mere] 20 percent of incidents in jails, and only a minuscule 6 percent…in prisons.  And less than half of those staff lost their jobs…The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) of 2003 was supposed to create zero-tolerance policies for sexual abuse in U.S. prisons.  However, PREA is largely toothless and, in many prisons, it’s a bad joke…

To Molest and Rape (#1310)

This time, they’re trying to pretend he isn’t typical and representative by stating his continuous molestation of at least one kid started before he became a cop:

An El Paso [cop] was arrested [for]…aggravated sexual assault of child over a period of at least three years…Eric Bernardino Ramirez…[started] the repeated…molestation…[in 2014] before Ramirez joined the El Paso Police Department six years ago…

 

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 quite used to the prison making all these decisions for us, because we are still state property.  –  Desiree Romero

The Course of a Disease (#1084)

You’ll have to forgive me for finding this terribly amusing:

The number of [incalls, labeled “]illegal brothels[” by French police]…has tripled in the past two years…[because the “Swedish model” exposes]…street prostitution [to debilitating police harassment]…With hotels and the concierges of apartment blocks now extremely vigilant about rooms [rented by sex workers out of fear they will be]…pros[ecuted as “]pimps[“, sex workers] are increasingly opting for detached houses in…the [suburbs of Paris]…police…[of course vomited out bizarre fantasies about “sex trafficking”, but this outcome was predicted by those warning about the consequences of the so-called “]Nordic model[“] of [asymmetric criminalization]…

Torture Chamber (#1102)

Your “leaders” refer to this atrocity as “correction”:

Arizona [prisons are]…inducing the labor of pregnant prisoners against their will, according to three women [violated thus]…all three…were induced before their due dates…and…all three…were told…they were being induced because it was a policy…they believe it is being implemented to reduce liability for the prison system…two of the women said they were receiving medical bills…a common [indignity inflicted upon]…people [condemned to]…Arizona prisons

To Molest and Rape (#1181)

Expecting sociopaths to “think about what they did wrong” amounts to criminal negligence:

[UK cop]s who preyed upon women and posted homemade pornography to social media are among hundreds allowed to keep their jobs…[as] the c[itizenry]…continues to be plagued by [violent, sociopathic cops]…Most received little more than a slap on the wrist after their behaviour came to light, with some facing no repercussions whatsoever…one former chief constable [admitted that these hundreds of cases are just] “the tip of the iceberg”…at least 921 [cops were] investigated for [online] conduct…[and] texts…since the start of 2017.  Yet only six per cent…led to…dismiss[al, though]…many [involved rape]…sexual [coercion] and [harassment.  Cops who saw any consequences at all]…routinely escaped with…“reflective practice” – thinking about what they have done – or “management action”, which amounts to [stern words from] a superior…in…many cases [cops]…faced “no action” at all for predatory…behaviour…[including the] target[ing of] vulnerable women…and stalk[ing]

The Mob Rules (#1231)

Most commentary on this censorship law ignores its dangerous enforcement mechanism:

Laurie Schlegel is…a…[“]sex addiction[” profiteer turned pro-censorship]…Louisiana [politician who succeeded in]…pass[ing a law demand]ing age verification for any website that contains 33.3% or more pornographic material…[Even though the law adequately defines neither “pornography” nor how this percentage is supposed to be measured, that doesn’t matter because it is to be enforced by nuisance lawsuit like the Texas abortion statute SCOTUS has chosen to ignore]…Louisiana [residents can seek to cash in by claiming in a lawsuit that] “children are getting access to pornography”…

The Vultures Descend (#1253)

An important step toward ending this front in the ruinous culture war:

For the first time, retail pharmacies…will be allowed to offer abortion pills in the United States under a regulatory change made [on January 3rd] by the Food and Drug Administration…Until now, mifepristone…could be dispensed only by a few mail-order pharmacies or by specially certified doctors or clinics.  Under the new…rules…patients will still need a prescription…but any pharmacy that agrees to accept those prescriptions…can dispense the pills in its stores and by mail order…the F.D.A. [also] removed the in-person requirement…The second drug in the regimen, misoprostol, has never been as tightly restricted as mifepristone and is used for many different medical conditions; it is easily obtained at pharmacies through a typical prescription process…

The Cop Myth (#1292)

Cop deals with disagreement exactly as he normally does, and the press is shocked:

[A] Glasgow [Kentucky]…co[p was arrested] on New Year’s Day…Joseph Ramey…rep[ea]tedly assaulted h[is girlfriend, then]…handcuffed her…and held her against her will…

Without Let or Hindrance (#1298)

These abuses are for some reason finally getting the attention they’ve needed for a generation:

Once considered a last resort reserved for parents who abandon their children, the involuntary and permanent termination of parental rights [by the State] now hangs over every mother and father accused of any[thing the State chooses to call] abuse or neglect…No state terminates parental rights more frequently or [quickly] than West Virginia, [where]…one in 50 children [w]ere [violently and non-consensually abducted from]…both of their parents from 2015 to 2019…most…within 11 months of [the state abducting them] from their home for the first time…Nationally, the parents of about 327,000 children [had] their rights [ripped from them by the State] from 2015 to 2019…one-fifth…in less than a year.  Over the past 25 years, [the State has]…increasingly turned to this ultimate consequence, partly in response to Clinton-era federal policies that…[financially incentivize these abduc]tions.  According to a recent study, the [number of children permanently abducted by the State]…doubled from 2000 to 2016.  One in 100 U.S. children — disproportionately Black and Native American — [are thus abducted]…through the [pretext of] child welfare…before they turn 18…Most of those [cases were justified by]…allegations of neglect, [largely] a [dysphemism for]…poverty…Just 15% of [these cases were based in]…concerns about physical or sexual abuse…

 

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 don’t think it’s controversial (it certainly shouldn’t be) to say that street workers suffer far more violence than sex workers with higher screening barriers.  It’s not like every damned study ever done on the subject hasn’t said the same thing.  If this is in any way controversial to some people, I’d say it derives from the modern infatuation with Manicheanism.  Far too many moderns want to believe that all of society can be neatly divided into sheep and goats, “workers” and “capitalists”, renters and landlords, oppressors and oppressed, white and POC, old and young, straight and queer, etc, etc, ad nauseam.  So when people laboring under that grievous cognitive error see a statement like “x is safer than y”, they read it as “X is completely safe and Y unrelentingly dangerous”.  But of course, that’s no more true than any of the others; we don’t live in a Hollywood black hat/white hat world.  The first time I was ever raped on the job, it was by a businessman in a 5-star hotel, but that doesn’t change the fact that on average, I was safer from violence by clients, cops, and criminals than my sisters on the streets.  The chance of a suburban kid being killed by cops firing wildly into her parents’ house is dramatically less than that of an inner-city kid suffering that fate, but it still isn’t zero.  And of course the same can be said for all those other imaginary dualities.  Sex workers who should certainly understand the wrongness of Madonna vs whore will nonetheless subscribe to the equally absurd renters vs landlords or labor vs management dichotomies if they find it politically convenient to do so, even while simultaneously condemning the state’s pretense that sex workers can be cleanly divided by a bright, clear line from “pimps” (despite the fact that this notion is a littermate of the Marxist labor vs management divide).

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[KOSA] is the ultimate “let’s just blame the internet for anything bad” bill.  –  Mike Masnick

What the Hell Were You Thinking?

While prohibitionists get big bucks to harass sex workers, spread anti-whore propaganda and work with cops to target women for state violence, organizations which work to actually support sex workers get by on little more than volunteer hours and good wishes.  There’s nothing in this article about Street Safe New Mexico and the bad date list it maintains for street workers which will surprise sex workers or regular readers, but perhaps if articles like this keep appearing some big moneybag like Bezos or Gates, trying to make a name for himself as a philanthropist, will recognize this as an area where he really can make a difference for hundreds of thousands of women in the US alone.  And the fact that it appears in Cosmopolitan is another sign that feminism is slowly, falteringly, moving away from its misogynistic demands that the state violently police women’s sexual behavior.

No Friend of Ours

Those laboring under the delusion that Nevada is even remotely whore-friendly need look no further than this collection of dysphemisms, infantilization, racism, copaganda, bizarrely-stilted Copese, lurid fetishization of police victims, puritanism, distortion, and outright lies vomited out by “journalist” parrots after fellating their “law enforcement sources”.  The persecution of a very ordinary business is made to seem something like the adventure of a TV hero breaking up a terrorist plot to kill millions, rather than a simple-minded scheme for a gang of thugs to molest women and harass migrants in order to justify their pathologically-bloated budget while getting themselves off.

Torture Chamber (#1198)

Authoritarians want you to pay for more such hell-holes to torture even more people in:

…A new…report from the the [Fulton County Georgia] jail’s medical provider reveals that…the jail’s most vulnerable…[prisoners a]re wasting away in squalid conditions…more than 90 percent…were so malnourished that they had developed cachexia, a wasting syndrome that typically affects people with advanced-stage cancer…the men were detained in filthy cells and…over 90 percent…had not been “receiving essential medications” or completing their…activities of daily living…such as showering, dressing, using the toilet, and eating…every person in the unit had lice or scabies—in some cases both—a[bout which nothing was done until one prisoner died from the neglect]…on…Sept. 13…

Virtual Imperialism (#1202)

Beijing’s campaign to silence Chinese people outside China is becoming more aggressive:

…Criticism of the CCP has been rising in the ranks of censored topics on American campuses.  Whether it’s among professors adapting their classrooms to skirt Hong Kong’s oppressive national security law, administrators fearful of alienating lucrative funding or partnership opportunities, or international students worried that basic academic discussions will cause legal trouble at home, there is a growing problem in higher education….[which] comes with global implications: It’s getting a lot harder to talk critically about Xi Jinping, the CCP, and the human rights violations taking place in China.  This shift was on full display at GWU in February when [Chinese] students launched [an] anonymous protest…[by] post[ing] artwork from Australia-based Chinese artist Badiucao satirizing China’s human rights record and the ethical issues raised by its hosting of the Olympics…it took less than 24 hours before the…[Beijing-backed] Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) [demanded the protest be censored], calling for the responsible students to be “punished severely”…

You Were Warned (#1228)

These attempts to destroy the internet are just going to keep getting worse:

…a [gang of censorious politician]s is attempting to include the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) in a year-end “must pass” omnibus bill, ramping up the bill’s chance of passage.  While KOSA has been touted as a bill that would provide [so-called] accountability for tech companies by regulating their interactions with [legal minors], the bill would…instead…enact confusing, vague regulations upon tech companies that would encourage even more surveillance of users, and it would [allow]…parents [to file nuisance lawsuits] upon tech companies [on the same kinds of flimsy pretexts allowed by laws like FOSTA]…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1264)

It’s always lovely to see them feeding on each other:

A…[typical and representative cop] has been jailed after he…arrang[ed] to meet a[nother cop fantasy role-playing online as a] 15-year-old girl…Alex John Foster…was [arrested by the fantasy role-player and his cronies] in a [KFC parking lot] with condoms and lube [the other cop had asked him to bring.  Foster is clearly not very bright even by cop standards, because]…he…told the [fantasy role-playing cop]…“she could be an undercover police officer” [yet went anyway]…

The Cop Myth (#1285)

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

Madison [Wisconsin cop] Cary House was arrested and charged with…strangulation…of [his girlfriend.  The victim]…said House had been drinking all day when he entered her room where she was lying in bed with her young daughter; House started yelling at her and choking her…This isn’t the first time…House has…[been arrested for violent drunkenness]. In 2013…he was suspended without pay after…[firing] a gun while under the influence during a social gathering at his home…three [other Madison cops]…have been arrested within the last two weeks in separate, unrelated incidents…

 

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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