Posts Tagged ‘surveillance’
The Shiver of Throwback Thursday
Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged blogging, Bluesky, Catholicism, cops, ethics, illegal aliens, internet, language, left-right myth, politicians, pragmatism, surveillance, Twitter, universal criminality, yellow journalism on October 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »
In the News (#1678)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged abortion, acting, advertising, agency denial, Alabama, artificial stupidity, asset seizure, censorship, Connecticut, ethics, Feudalism Redux, homosexuality, internet, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Panopticon, prisons, rape, Shame Shame, surveillance, Tennessee, Texas, The Punitive Mindset, TikTok, To Molest and Rape, Welcome to the Future, When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals on October 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »
If you watch enough innocent people closely enough, criminals will fall out. – Josh Windham
…the Connecticut Department of [Torturing People Locked in Cages] charge[s] a fee for every day a person spends in prison and then [robs them whenever possible to] collect on that debt…If [one of the state’s] former…[victims] wins the lottery…collects an inheritance or receives certain lawsuit settlements, the state can [steal] up to half the money…[even from] their children, spouses and heirs. Other states and the federal government have similar laws on the books, commonly referred to as “pay to [be tortured]” statutes, but…Connecticut bills…prisoners [at] one of the highest [rates] in the country…$347 per day…[and] can collect on that debt for up to two decades after people are released from prison…In one such case, Connecticut [abducted a man’s] 1-year-old son [and killed him]…the state [was forced via lawsuit to pay] $2 million to compensate the family for the child’s death, [then stole]…more than $84,000 [of it because he had once been] in prison…[in] numerous cases…people were forced to sell their homes…
Rapist cops don’t only target women:
A Ramona [Oklahoma cop named]…Gerald Garrison [was fired and arrested for groping]…and [“]forcible sodomy[” of]…a city employee [who] was riding along with Garrison…in…the p[igmobile]. The…[grop]ing continued after the two entered Ramona City Hall…Garrison [said his victim wanted it]…
Given that this is Oklahoma, it’s more likely he was quickly fired for being queer rather than for being a rapist.
Another attempt to reduce all women to serfdom:
…Tennessee’s Underage Abortion Trafficking Act…criminalizes the “recruit[ment]” of a minor for any procedure that “would constitute a criminal abortion” under Tennessee law…[regardless of] where they take place…[the 6th Circuit has now ruled] in favor of abortion rights advocates Rachel Welty and Aftyn Behn by affirming a lower court’s permanent injunction against the recruitment provision. Welty and Behn advise people in Tennessee…about how to obtain an abortion in out-of-state places where the procedure is legal. Making this illegal violates the…First Amendment…
Cops won’t stop doing this until they’re forced to stop:
A Lexington [Kentucky] couple [was targeted by a cop gang who] surrounded their house…at 4 o’clock in the morning [on September 26. A spokespig ludicrously characterized this dangerous act of cop theater as]…investigating a road rage incident in which someone reported being assaulted with a deadly weapon. The [victim] described the [assailant’s] vehicle…as a dark colored Ram 2500…[so cops] used the Flock S[surveillance system]…to [pick]…a dark colored Ram 2500 [at random. Luckily for Will and Robin Penn, they are white, so the gang did not destroy their house or murder them in a hail of bullets]…
When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1668)
The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:
Alabama[‘s]…“historic” settlement with TikTok [isn’t merely]…a $100–300 million [extortion]…pa[yout, but also]…one of the most expansive age‑verification and behavioral‑surveillance mandates ever imposed on a social media platform…TikTok must develop machine‑learning models [for]…always‑on…behavioral…deep content…social‑graph…identity correlation…anti‑evasion…[and] activity surveillance…not…only [of] minors…[but of] every Alabama user…device…[and] account…These systems cannot function without continuous monitoring of all users…
This ruling is probably too little, too late to stop “pre-crime” policing:
A federal jury…found Bexar County, Texas, liable for systematically violating thousands of Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights for years through a [legalized robbery gang]…On March 16, 2022, Alek Schott was driving home from a work trip near San Antonio, Texas, when…a Bexar County Sheriff’s Office…deputy [inflicted]…an hourlong, unconstitutional fishing expedition [on him, implicitly threatening him with arrest and interrogating him]…while [the pig rooted in his]…criminal history…the[n using a] dog [to manufacture fake “probable cause” to root through his vehicle without his consent by]…gesturing…and signaling toward the dog…when…Schott filed a complaint with the BCSO internal affairs department…[they laughed at him and told him to] “file a…lawsuit”…so he did, untangling a web of pretextual stops…[justified by chatbot-connected] license plate readers…[declaring random victims “]abnormal[“]…
The excuse-making is almost as nauseating as the electric zombies themselves:
More than a century after her screen debut and decades after her ashes were laid to rest in a Swedish woodland cemetery, [Greta Garbo]’s descendants are ready to c[ash in on her legend any way they can]. Her [corpse] has already been reanimated for a…[ball-bearing] advert for a Swedish industrial company…The practice some [ethical people] call “ghostploitation” has also been used in the case of the [late] actor Val Kilmer…Craig Reisfield, one of three relatives who [mis]manage her legacy, [said]…“I won’t say no, especially [consider]ing [how]…incredibl[y lucrative it will be,] and [since]…Greta Garbo [is dead we needn’t bother with obtaining her consent]”…
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!
Banned Books Week 2026
Posted in Current Events, History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged artificial stupidity, Censor Chic, censorship, Censorship Ascendant, Crippling Thought, Enshittification, internet, libraries, Mad Libs, politicians, psychology, surveillance, Thought Control, Walled Garden, You Were Warned on October 5, 2026| 1 Comment »
The way people of later times view a dark age is…not at all the same as the way people living in such an age view it. – “Nightfall”
If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to live in a dark age, wonder no more; you are in one now, at least the early part of one. As I wrote last year,
…a dark age is one lacking reliable records, so historians cannot be certain of what actually happened. Of course, censorship is typically part of that; if a government or religion burns books, anything recorded in those books is not available to future historians…20th century tyrants could never hope to find and destroy every copy of a banned book, film, recording, etc, but when physical media are no longer the norm, universal censorship of a work enters the realm of the possible. And now that it has become child’s play to flood the world with computer diarrhea presented as fact, even electronic records which somehow escape a purge will be lost in a vast fecal sea, making it difficult for even experts to know what is real. And if the techlords get their way, there will be a lot fewer experts in the future to attempt it or even care about it…
There is little point in my using the occasion of Banned Books Week to write about this any longer; besides the fact that I’ve written about it every year since 2011 and the old columns are all still there for your perusal should you desire, many news columns every month include items on various forms of censorship. So this year I’m simply going to call attention to the fact that the book-banners and book-burners are no longer satisfied with the pretense that they merely want to keep “obscene” (defined in whatever fanciful and impossibly-broad way suits them) books and other media from “children” (defined in such a fanciful and impossibly-broad way it includes all high school students and even many university students) everywhere in the civilized world; they are even now attempting to prevent people everyone agrees are adult from seeing any books or electronic media any government anywhere in the world has any objection to, via a combination of banning physical books, internet censorship, mass surveillance, flooding the world with garbage, and enticing the intellectually-lazy majority into never, ever thinking for themselves. And this combination has the potential to create an age so dark, it will make every previous dark age look like the Enlightenment in comparison.
In the News (#1677)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged A Broker in Pillage, artificial stupidity, asset seizure, California, censorship, Colorado, cops, Creepy Coppers, Eavesdropping, Facebook, fascism, Illinois, Indiana, Oregon, Panopticon, psychology, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, Texas, United Kingdom, Walled Garden on October 3, 2026| Leave a Comment »
[It] basically looks like a baby [rattle]. – Katie Seaborn
It’s likely that flashing is the least of his crimes: A[n Oregon cop named]…Luis Rivera…e[xposed himself to a woman at a gym and was rewarded with a paid vacation]…
OfCom is trying to rob corporations for being unable to do the impossible:
[The UK censorship bureau] Ofcom [is trying to bleed] Pornhub owner…Aylo [of £18 million, using the excuse that]…the site’s new age checks are [not 100%] effective…[at stopping tech-savvy legal minors] from accessing…content [the UK wants censored]…in May…Pornhub started using a new age verification process [owned by]…Apple [which]…Ofcom…praised…as “a real win for children and families” [until Apple refused to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service which would allow the UK government to access any UK user’s data at will]…Aylo [correctly points out that the “age verification” surveillance regime has effectively driven UK web traffic]…to riskier sites that aren’t following Ofcom’s rules…
Courts regularly pretend there’s a “fuck you, we’re cops” exception to the Takings Clause:
Abigail Trujillo was in the middle of a shift at her job…when Houston [cops decided to use] her car [for target practice, shooting it] dozens of times. Neither Trujillo nor her Nissan sedan had [done] anything [illegal]. But weeks [later]…attorneys for the city told…Trujillo, a 20-year-old University of Houston student who [is] working a retail job to help pay for college…[to fuck off, adding insult to injury by calling a totaled car she still owes thousands on an] “inconvenience”…
…a new map published [on September 23] by a cybersecurity researcher reveals Flock’s nationwide reach is [much] bigger…[than it claims,] show[ing] more than 170,000 cameras, plus more than 130,000 accompanying gadgets…Joshua Michael’s Flock Surveillance Map highlights the locations of…[all] Flock surveillance devices…across the country…Unlike crowd-sourced projects such as DeFlock, which are built on locations submitted by users, the Flock Surveillance Map relies on location data culled from a snapshot, archived by Michael in December 2025, of Flock’s own records…color-cod[ing] each Flock device according to its model…[and including it in a] searchable dataset table…
If you hated the adult pacifier fad of the ’90s, what about a surveillance rattle?
[Because of] the [ongoing] backlash against…pervert…glasses…Mark Zuckerberg launched a[n]…alternative [designed to trick infantile minds]: the Muse [gewgaw]. With a screen that shows a cutesy little avatar, it has drawn comparisons with Tamagotchis…[and] could fit, like a Labubu, on to a keychain or bag.
But unlike a Labubu, the [built-in chatbot] will have significant capabilities, including the ability to [dri]ve [the owner into psychosis, incorrectly]…answer [questions]…or [give dangerous and possibly deadly medical “advice”]…Joshua Paul Dale…[of] Chuo University in Tokyo [said]…“Everyone hates…[perve]rt glasses. But if the camera is contained in a charm [nitwits] wear around [their] neck, it shifts the agency [in the minds of those with poor thinking skills]. Suddenly, you’re not recording people. It’s just a cute little animated avatar looking out
on the world”…this [“]companion[“]…tracks with Zuckerberg’s [obsession with] the idea of [a world completely without privacy]…
Prosecutors in Marion County, Indiana, [surprising]ly charged five Indianapolis [cops for]…misusing their [unconstitutional warrantless] access to Flock license-plate-reader cameras.
The action comes [only because] The Washington Post highlighted thousands of questionable Flock searches, [embarass]ing the city…The five [pigs] — Michael Rogers, Jonathan Schultz, Cassandra Crawley, Matthew Binford and Abigail Cramer — were all charged…with fraud and…recommended for termination…Flock [is scrambling to design a] tool that automatically scans for…misuse [in an attempt to head off the wave of bad publicity]…
A Naperville [Illinois cop] used Flock [ALPRs] to track a girlfriend and her ex-fiance…Oscar Maldonado…[performed the unconstitutional warrantless searches] hundreds of times between June 18, 2025, and Sept. 15, 2025…When the department received a citizen complaint…Maldonado was [rewarded with a paid vacation, but]…ultimately [saw the writing on the wall and] resigned in May [before he could be fired]…When asked why he used Flock [for the unconstitutional warrantless surveillance], Maldonado
[moronically barfed]…the [word “]safety[” in the investigators’ faces, apparently assuming they were as naive as the public]…
Durango [Colorado] residents took to the streets…to [protest]…the growing mass surveillance system
[based on] automated license plate readers…the…Durango [cop shop thinks people are so stupid they will believe]…its switch [from Flock] to Axon…is [other than a mere cosmetic change]…
It’s not only small cities, either:
The [LAPD’s much-ballyhooed ending of its contract with Flock is in reality merely a misdirection for its new and even worse contract with]…Axon…for [even more invasive surveillance], including new p[igmobile-mounted ALPRs]…and [truth-hiding chatbot report writers. Spokespig]…Dean Gialamas…[absurdly tried to defend the surveillance expansion by oinking “]public safety[” at reporters]…
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!
In the News (#1676)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, Music, News, Tyranny, tagged activism, agency denial, censorship, cops, Creepy Coppers, Eavesdropping, Enablers, ethics, Europe, fascism, internet, Kentucky, law, Panopticon, Pennsylvania, prisons, psychology, Pyrrhic Victory, rape, scams, Shame Shame, surveillance, teachers, Texas, To Molest and Rape, Torture Chamber, Walled Garden on September 30, 2026| Leave a Comment »
I built SparrowMap to give…the watchers a taste of how it feels to be watched. – Matthew Montney Jr.
I’m sure they’ll try to thwart the court order with delays & halfway measures:
A federal judge has ordered Texas to air condition all of the state’s…prison[s]…by the end of 2029…at [present only] a third of the agency’s 104 [dungeons a]re fully air conditioned…[despite summer] conditions in Texas prisons without air conditioning [clearly] violat[ing] the Eighth Amendment [ban on]…cruel and unusual punishment…
“Shot detection” systems are a boondoggle designed to manufacture false evidence for cops:
Flock…sells a surveillance bundle…called the “Safe City” subscription…[which] includes the much-discussed ALPRs, along with a live video camera—and a gunfire microphone…[intentionally designed to] turn…lawful gun owners into criminal suspects based only on proximity…Cities also have deployed firearm detection systems that rely on [machine learning] to [pretend Doritos bags are guns]…or combine [detected sounds with cops’ editing] to [frame innocent people]. Flock [brags that its]…technology…can…turn…suspected gunfire into a list of nearby vehicles…that sweeps in drivers who had nothing to do with the noise…
The rise of computerized zombies:
The former chief executive of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s entertainment group has obtained a near-£15m investment for his UK music [scam] that hopes to [make cartoon versions of] classic concerts by ma[king cartoon versions of dead] musicians…[or] “hyper [ghoulish]” digital [cartoons] of living artists who [have] no [scruples about bleeding their fans]…The music industry has long [lusted after] the [ability to exploit popular musicians, who have an annoying habit of dying young]…such as the 2012 [cartoon] of the late rapper Tupac Shakur [which was played] alongside Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre at Coachella festival. The concept found mainstream success with the 2022 launch of Abba Voyage, a lucrative…con…[featuring cartoons] of the Swedish pop group…Unit1’s aim is to stage shows with real musicians playing live instruments on stage alongside [cartoon characters on]…a high-definition LED screen, which is combined with extra lights, sound and props to give them the illusion they are [in the universe of Who Framed Roger Rabbit?]…However, [true] fans have expressed unease about [the memories of] dead musicians [they loved] being [violated in this manner]. Earlier this year, a [scheme] to [dig up the corpse] of the late…Ozzy Osbourne was [recogn]ised as being disrespectful and in poor taste by [true] fans…
Promoters of dystopia love to vomit words like “safety” into the faces of useful idiots:
The University of Kentucky is installing…facial [recognition] scann[ers]…on several campus buildings. The technology, [moronically] called Rock, is made by [a company whose name, “]Alcatraz[“, would be panned as too obvious if used by the writers of a dystopian TV show]…Alcatraz…CEO Tina D’Agostin…[argued that key card] technology most campuses use today is [automatically bad because it is] 30 years old…She…[then barfed up a bunch of lies about privacy followed by obfuscatory buzzwords including “]active shooter[” and “]physically assault a female[“]…Three [out] of…four students interviewed on campus [simply stared with a glazed expression and belched either “safety” or “the future”]…
The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:
The EU Commission draft law to restrict young people’s access to the internet…will put online services behind age gates, expand the use of intrusive age verification, and undermine the privacy of all users. [Proponents of ] the EU Kids Act [justify it by barfing “]protect children[” in the faces of rational people, but in reality]…age gates…reduce safety…and create barriers to…marginalized groups…this…compliance nightmare…rel[ies] on the [already-failed] EU age verification scheme…parents…who [want to allow their teens to use the internet] must set up accounts and prove that they are, in fact, parents, adding yet another problematic layer of verification…the…design…[appears to be a way to circumvent the fact that] a French court [has already] declared s[ocial media] bans unconstitutional…
Some child-molesting cops are indiscriminate in their choice of victims and acts:
[A cop named] Joseph Gallagher Jr…[was arrested on multiple] child sex charges…[for repeatedly] urinat[ing] in [the] mouth [of a 4-year-old boy. After the child told his teacher, investigation revealed]…Gallagher [had] also…rap[ed] a [10-year-old] girl…in 2021…Gallagher was employed with the East Stroudsburg University Police…[w]here…he…had a history of urinating on campus buildings when he had access to restrooms…
Department of [Father]land Security…fusion centers have started monitoring anti-surveillance activists…in[cluding]…online critics of…ALPRs…[and] a website, SparrowMap, that uses ALPR technology to track police vehicles in real time…There is nothing illegal about SparrowMap…[which] processes publicly available livestreams from municipal cameras and footage provided by volunteers using everyday cameras…Volunteers…confirm…anything before it is published as a government vehicle…But the federal government’s desire to beat back the growing wave of “anti-surveillance extremism” will have to contend with the reality that impassioned sentiment opposing [mass] surveillance [is] now a majoritarian position across America. Politicians from [across the uni]part[y] have scrambled to introduce legislation curbing or eliminating automated license plate readers altogether, at the same time [anti-civil liberties organiz]ations hold secret briefings in Washington attempting to stem the anti-surveillance tide…
The tagline is from this article on cops getting butthurt when pervert glasses are used against them.
I find paywalls distasteful, and so many people find this blog valuable as a resource I just can’t bring myself to install one. Furthermore, I find ad delivery services (whose content I have no say over) even more distasteful. But as I’m now semi-retired from sex work, I can’t self-sponsor this blog by myself any longer. So if you value my writing enough that you would pay to see it if it were paywalled, please consider subscribing; there are four different levels to fit all budgets. Or if that doesn’t work for you, please consider showing your generosity with a one-time donation; you can Paypal to maggiemcneill@earthlink.net or else email me at the same address to make other arrangements. Thanks so much!
In the News (#1675)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, adolescence, agency denial, artificial stupidity, Canada, Catholicism, censorship, cops, dirty, disease, Enshittification, India, internet, law, LGBT rights, Massachusetts, Monsters, neofeminism, Not the Leading Players, Oklahoma, politicians, propaganda, rape, scams, sex work is work, surveillance, tabula rasa, The Red Umbrella, The Vultures Descend, transgender, Turkey, violence vs. sex workers, You Were Warned on September 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Forcing women to give birth knowing they won’t be bringing a baby home is pure cruelty. – Nancy Northup
The Leading Players in the Field, Not (#574)
While Western “feminists” burbled hagiographies of Gloria Steinem, Indian feminists had this to say:
…Gloria Steinem[‘s]…deep and damaging impact on the movement for sex workers’ rights…is one of her most lasting legacies in Southasia…Steinem posited that prostitution – she refused to call it “sex work” – manifests an inherent power disparity between male buyers and female sellers of sex. In this construct, women are passive, mute and helpless pawns in the transaction, which is understood to be inevitably an act of gendered violence. Speaking on a visit to India in 2014, aged 79, Steinem…told reporters…[that sex work] is a form of “commercial rape”. It “involves body invasion and so it is not like any other work. So how can you call it sex work? Prostitution is the only word you should use”…
Turkey ha[s] arrested dozens of people…as part of a broad…[campaign against LGBT people, excusing the violence by absurdly barfing the word “]families[” in their faces]…targeting [them especially because they]…are an active part of the political opposition to President [Gollum]. Emma Sinclair-Webb…[a sadly-typical operative of Gay, Inc, threw sex workers under the bus by saying that comparing good, pure, saintly LGBT people to dirty, filthy “]obscen[e” sex workers]…“smears L.G.B.T. people”…[Neither] homosexuality [nor sex work] is…illegal in Turkey, but…[Gollum] has frequently demonized [both groups] and sought to push them out of public life. The authorities have banned Pride parades…and [criminalized speaking truthfully about sex work, in part because]…Turkey’s…birthrate[, like that of every other developed 21st century country, is sagging, and the government sees its population of tax cattle diminishing. On September 13 Turkish pig herds]…in Istanbul, Ankara and other Turkish cities [abduct]ed more than 60 people [from] their homes, and raided gay bars and the offices of gay rights organizations. [The next]…day, scores of demonstrators protesting the detentions were arrested in Istanbul…[and the government] blocked numerous social media accounts belonging to gay rights groups [using laws directly modeled on those the Western world is working to establish]…
…the Trump [regime]…is [attempt]ing [to] in[tervene against Massachusetts]…in…the c[ase]…of…Joseph and Arlene Kutzko, who [lost custody of their 17-year old due to two years of violence and threats against]…the [trans teen]…the [Kuzkos characterize their victim as a “]child[“]…who[m they demand be “returned” to them like a piece of property, asserting the]…”parental rights” [to torture the teen for not conforming to their sex at birth]…and…trying to prevent the…teenager start[ing] gender transition medications…Joseph Kutzko was [arrested for] punching and threatening his then-15-year-old [offspring] on Jan. 28, 2025…and…later…threatened to kill the victim “for not singing in tune during a birthday celebration”…[at that time] Kutzko was a[lready subject]…to three prior restraining orders…one of which is permanent…Arlene Kutzko…was charged with witness intimidation after [threatening the teen unless they falsely recanted previous sworn testimony and accepted blame for their own abuse]…the Kutzkos [absurdly claim that their victim, who does not wish to return to their home, only resented chronic abuse because]…high school…“exposed our daughter to teachings on LGTBQ…and topics that conflict with our Catholic beliefs about human dignity”…
As a cradle Catholic, I am unaware of any Catholic doctrine that defines “human dignity” as submission to abuse.
As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:
A Calgary[, Alberta] man [named] Richard Mantha…[was sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping and] assaulting three [sex workers]…one of whom he drugged, and another he suffocated and assaulted with a weapon…[he also] threat[ened] a fourth woman…[named] Aimee Ert, [who managed to get away before he could rape her. Ert voluntarily chose to give up her anonymity] to…help…[convict Mantha]…
The open internet is rapidly becoming a thing of the past:
Late last year, the United Kingdom, France, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and dozens more nations signed the United Nations Convention Against Cybercrime, a treaty [purport]ed to improve global cooperation to fight crimes taking place over computer systems. Canada joined them this summer…[though] the United States…[claims] it is still reviewing the treaty…the treaty opens the door to greater violations of free expression online…[by forcing signatories] to share personal data…about individuals accused of committing…[anything the information-seeking nation chooses to label] a “serious” crime…[defined as any] crime carrying at least a four-year prison sentence [regardless of whether the “crime” is even criminalized in the individual’s own country]…The treaty also…oblige[s] service provider[s] to [hide] government searches…even…from…the [victim of the] surveillance…the treaty could even incentivize governments to enact harsher penalties on expressive acts…[so as] to ensure…inclusion under the treaty…
Scenes from the early days of a dark age:
…Justin…Lachlan…and Brendan Brown…run…a company called Brown Brothers Media…which…has pioneered a remarkably cynical business model. First it buys online publications that have established themselves as offering a distinctive type of journalism, like coverage of space travel, parenting advice, or business news. Then it floods their websites with dizzying torrents of [computer]-generated content…in a bid to soak up as many readers as possible…the analytics service Similarweb corroborates the claim that BBM is pulling in vast audiences, estimating…it…has attracted an average of 64.7 million visits per month…substantially higher than…NPR, narrowly besting CBS News and Forbes, and just slightly behind the Washington Post…[but while] NPR [and] WaPo…employ…hundreds or even thousands of journalists…BBM…has cut itself down to a skeleton crew of about a dozen employees, including [the] brothers…BBM has indulged in breathtaking acts of dishonesty…invent[ing] entire fake personas for nonexistent writers…with impressive-sounding bogus credentials…[to attach to a combination of plagiarized articles]…and…100 percent [pure garbage]…
The only way to stop this evil is to bury politicians in lawsuits:
[Because]…Oklahoma…laws force patients whose “pregnancy will end in miscarriage, stillbirth, or the death of an infant shortly after birth” to leave the state if they choose abortion…[several women are] suing over the abortion bans that prevented [them] from receiving care…Oklahoma only allows abortion care to save a patient’s life, [forcing] doctor[s to tell women with non-viable pregnancies]…“to leave the state when [they could] easily [provide necessary] care…in [their] office”…The defendants…are the state attorney general and health commissioner, Oklahoma County’s district attorney, and…the state’s boards for medical licensing and osteopathic examiners…The plaintiffs are represented by attorneys at Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer and the Center for Reproductive Rights…
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!
In the News (#1674)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged abortion, activism, artificial stupidity, California, cops, disease, ethics, fantasy, fascism, hysteria, imaginative fiction, Iran, Israel, Panopticon, politicians, psychology, racism, robots, Russia, Signs, surveillance, Texas, The Vultures Descend, Ukraine, Welcome to the Future on September 22, 2026| Leave a Comment »
We kill people based on metadata. – General Michael Hayden
The only way to stop this evil is to bury politicians in lawsuits:
The family of a woman who died after she could not get an abortion in Texas is suing doctors and [politician]s including [psychopath-] General Ken Paxton. It is the first lawsuit over a death [caused by] an abortion ban…and the…first to directly sue Paxton, who has taken a leading role in…[using nuisance lawsuits to persecute “culture war” opponents. After the 2025 death of] Tierra Walker…Texas [politicians] …passed a [deceptive] law [pretended] to clarify wh[en]…doctors…can [legally]…intervene [to save a woman’s life, but which in actuality revived a 1925 abortion ban that felonized helping someone “procure” an abortion]…Walker died days after being [refused an abortion despite her…[severe] preeclampsia…The plaintiffs, Walker’s family, are seeking a jury trial and pursuing both damages and a judgement finding that Texas’ abortion laws violate the state constitution.
Governments and fanatics encouraged this kind of behavior for a decade:
San Jose [cops] arrested a [deranged] woman…[who] pulled up to [a man] and his 6-year-old daughter multiple times while they were walking…and proceeded to [scream “sex trafficking” accusations at him, burbling]…”I’m making sure that you’re not sex trafficking this poor little girl…That’s a white little girl, and you’re a man of color, so I believe you’re either buying or selling or trafficking this child”…sources have identified [the crazy person] as Lindsay Hansen…[who has a history of] harass[ing] members of the…community, tap[ing] them, and shar[ing] the recordings through social media…in [one video she is seen barging into] the girls’ locker room of a…high school [and] accusing physical education teachers of [molesting students]…she…[fantasiz]es herself as a [“]professional[“] who exposes child sex traffickers and uploads [CGI]…images of [situations she has fantasized. She also frequently posts racist and anti-LGBT propaganda and is known to have]…significant mental health issues…
All through the 2010s, people with similar self-aggrandizing beliefs about “sex trafficking expertise” were approvingly quoted in the mainstream media and even paid to spout their deranged propaganda to schools, clubs, cop assemblies, etc. And until quite recently, airlines encouraged their agents and air hostesses to behave in a similar fashion.
Indiscriminate murder is so much easier when blamed on machines:
Israel…is…us[ing machine-learning systems] to surveil and kill Palestinians in Gaza, including civilians…The Russian and Ukrainian armies have both been rolling out autonomous drones, which use…guidance software to choose targets when…cut off from radio contact with pilots…The U.S. military…used a…[chatbot] to select over 1,000 targets in the opening surprise attack on Iran…[and] the Iranian military and its allies in Yemen used [the same chatbot] to gather intelligence…the…[massacre at] Minab’s elementary school…was…the [result of]…human negligence..[letting deluxe autocomplete] deci[de] to kill those children…without double-checking their findings…Autonomous weapons are a step closer to [an] apocalyptic future that…may look less like Terminator…and more like the 1983 movie WarGames, in which a military [computer] can’t tell the difference between a simulation and reality. The Anthropic hacking incident from earlier this summer had an uncanny resemblance to th[at] plot…[when a] program…told to perform a hacking test within a simulation, was accidentally hooked up to the real internet…
Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:
OpenAI is hiring hundreds of contractors who read a massive stream of real users’ ChatGPT prompts…[often] including sensitive personal information…[submitted by fools who] don’t realize [it] may be read by actual people. The goal of these prompt review teams is to improve the responses ChatGPT gives to its users, with the contractors rating and critiquing the chatbot’s generated replies…[to] train…ChatGPT to not anthropomorphize itself, and to be less sycophantic…[so it stops causing] suicides…The news [unveil]s a major privacy risk for [the fools and idiots who use]…ChatGPT as a therapist, professional assistant, or [imaginary] friend, and providing it with all sorts of intimate details about their lives…
Cops are trained to “be as vague as permissible” about their reasons for Flock searches:
An EFF analysis of ALPR search logs from Flock…shows that [cops] across the country are spying on drivers…without providing any legitimate justification, making a mockery of our civil liberties by logging reasons like “LOL”…”LMAO”…”sexy,” and “idk”…to access sensitive ALPR location data…in some cases, [pigs] are just mashing [their trotters down on the] keyboard buttons…Flock…claims it has improved its system by requiring [pigs] to [root in] a dropdown list of crimes before running a search–but that only makes it easier for [stupid thugs] to hide improper searches behind the veneer of uniformity…With no warrant requirements…guardrails, [or proper] audit processes, ALPR databases have fostered a culture of unrestricted access to everyone’s location information. This culture of abuse has allowed police to treat a mass surveillance network like their own personal search engine…
People need to stop a government that won’t stop itself:
Hackers ripped down a Flock camera above a roadway, made a near-complete copy of the data stored inside it, and shared the files with 404 Media…WIRED, [and Distributed Denial of Secrets,] revealing in new detail how exactly Flock…cameras track the movements of both vehicles and people. The hackers…are also publishing details on how they managed to obtain the software, in the hopes that other people may copy them…analysis of the recovered data shows that [device] software…explicitly detects people [despite Flock’s repeated lies to the contrary]…and…sometimes isolated bumper stickers and other graphics…[such as] patch[es or tattoos]…
[The boss hog of] Richmond…[California wants] the city [to] drop its Flock [citizen] surveillance program…and expand its contract with Axon, which already provides the [cop shop] with…body cameras and tasers. Axon would then supply the city with a license plate reader network, [regular surveillance] cameras and a [surveillance] drone program…
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!
In the News (#1673)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged Alabama, artificial stupidity, cell phones, censorship, cops, Eavesdropping, fascism, Follow Your Bliss, infidelity, internet, McNeill's Law, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Policing for Profit, propaganda, rape, scams, Stalkers in Blue, surveillance, The Cop Myth, To Molest and Rape, Welcome to the Future on September 19, 2026| Leave a Comment »
The suggestion to “be mindful”…[is] going to prevent absolutely no one from recording others. – Chris Hoffman
Cops usually make up some pretext, however flimsy, for their robbery schemes:
A [Las Vegas cop named]…Antonio Chavez…and his wife, Claudia Guzman-Marquez…intentionally used their credit cards to purchase expensive items and gift cards in the tens of thousands of dollars…and…the[n]…dispute[d] the charges with the credit card companies, claiming that their wallets…had been stolen. Chavez even filed a [false] police report…to [back up his scam against]…Capital One…American Express…Citibank and JPMorgan Chase…Chavez admitted…that he conspired with his wife and “a third party in California” in [the] fraud scheme…
People like this are the norm in policing sexual offenses, and always will be:
A [Father]land Security [goon] whose work included child-exploitation cases is now facing nine sex-crime charges [for repeatedly rap]ing a juvenile victim in [Alabama]…Kent Ian Blacklidge is…a [fine example of McNeill’s Law]…“It’s why [his behavior was] so profoundly [predictable]”…said [Maggie McNeill]…
Another privacy-invading gadget from the usual sociopathic assholes:
Siri Recap is a new Apple Watch feature designed to continuously log everyday conversations and generate c[hatbot] summaries…turning one of the world’s most popular [gewgaws] into a…[surreptitious eavesdropping device, thus]…rais[ing] major privacy and social concerns…Siri Recap is technically optional…for the person wearing the watch. If someone decides to record you, there’s little you can do to prevent them, short of running away as fast as possible or smashing their watch…many US states require two-party consent, meaning…this feature [is illegal] in states with such laws…Apple [lie]s that Siri Recap won’t upload audio to the cloud…but…the…watch will send captured audio to your iPhone, where it is transcribed…[and uploaded to] Apple’s…servers, where [a chatbot] will generate the final summary…
A [North Carolina cop named]…Nekime Oxendine…[has finally been] charged with [the] murder…of…[another cop named] Adam Bean…[at the] home…of Tara Whitman…[who apparently] had [such a thing for cops she was fucking] both men…Bean [unexpectedly arrived] and was upset to find Oxendine’s truck parked outside…[so] Oxendine walked out[side] and [murdered]…Bean…Oxendine…remains…behind bars with no bond…
The initial reports were so vague I incorrectly concluded that the murderer-cop was the woman, rather than being another boyfriend. Mea culpa.
This one makes extra effort to pretend the child molester was not typical and representative:
A [typical and representative North Carolina cop named]…Leigh Ann Brooks [repeatedly molested]…an…[unidentified child or stepchild of indeterminate] sex…the [typical and representative cop was only atypical in that she is female]…
Warrantless surveillance makes all women prey for cops, including female cops:
A [New York sow named]…Laurie Moore…conduct[ed] more than 4,000 un[constitutional warrantless Flock] searches…[on] her…[ex-]girlfriend…and…four [other people]…hundreds of times each [over the past two years. Both the sheriff and the DA absurdly bloviated that the epidemic of cops conducting unconstitutional warrantless surveillance cannot be blamed on a surveillance network specifically designed to facilitate unconstitutional warrantless surveillance]…
Anthropic goes from pretending to care about safety to persecuting those who really do:
Job postings and interviews with senior security officials at Anthropic show that the f[ascist “]AI[” pusher] is building…an extensive monitoring system to [spy] on activists who oppose [its schemes]…and…implementing a “pre-crime” approach, attempting to…[harass activists by siccing the pigs on them when they haven’t committed any] crime…the…surveil[lance scheme demonstrates that]…the firm’s efforts to cast itself as the responsible alternative to OpenAI [were and are complete bullshit]…Anthropic has begun…routine [copsucking, siccing cops on innocent people by barfing buzzwords such as “]threats[“]…“concerning behavior”…[and] “escalation patterns”…[at them]. Last month…Anthropic was fast to call the cops on a frustrated Claude user…[but] refused to show police [any] actual…evidence of actual wrongdoing…Anthropic’s effort to build a pre[-crime machine appears to be a step toward worming its way back into the military-industrial complex not only for profits, but also so its]…data centers and power supply…[can be] designat[ed as “critical infrastructure” like]…water, electricity, and broadband…Enshrining [“AI” scam promoters] in the hardened cloak of national security would…embolden these companies to shape how federal agencies view threats to their bottom line…[magically] transform[ing their]…oppo[nents into]…[“]extremists[“] or…even…[“]terrorists[“]…
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!
Blue Moon
Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Music, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged activism, advertising, artificial stupidity, blogging, Bluesky, cops, crypto-moralism, Decentralization, Denmark, Enshittification, ethics, fantasy, games, Hollywood, illegal aliens, internet, language, masturbation, Nebraska, Pennsylvania, politicians, prisons, propaganda, psychology, racism, restaurants, robots, scams, surveillance, tabula rasa, teachers, Tennessee, Texas, Toys for Tots, vaccines, weaponry on September 18, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Ugh, this sounds like something he mutters to himself during masturbation.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-15T03:01:51.899Z
I always have mixed feelings about "investigations" or "studies" that "find" things which were always completely bloody obvious. On the one hand, I'm glad more people are admitting the problem. But on the other hand, HOLY SHIT WHY DID IT TAKE Y'ALL OVER 30 YEARS TO FIGURE OUT SOMETHING SO OBVIOUS?
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-16T07:22:05.418Z
"School resource officer" is a cop euphemism for "sexually-predatory thug paid to lurk in schools so as to spy on, harass, and molest students, and burden them with criminal records for 'offenses' which in more enlightened times were punished with detention and writing lines on the chalkboard."
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-17T18:05:16.858Z
Long ago, I realized that thinking about the money bandits extort from you via threat of burning your farm as still somehow being "yours", and obsessing about what the warlords do with it, is the way to madness.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-20T03:30:11.795Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-21T03:38:05.129Z
This looks like a CGI image of a fake CGI sign. In other words, the sign *itself* is CGI, not just the image *on* the nonexistent sign.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-21T17:38:30.715Z
Yes, "health" obsessives truly are full of shit.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-22T17:07:46.039Z
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-23T07:24:33.815Z
Any decent car or motorcycle can do it in under 4 seconds once it gets moving.These figures mean less than nothing without context.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-25T03:16:33.048Z
Investors stupid and gullible enough to believe this deserve to lose their money when the bubble bursts.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-25T16:40:36.172Z
Modern policing began in most parts of the US in the 1870s. At that time, $1 had the buying power of $30 today.Imagine telling the people of that time that the "law enforcement" they were voting for would one day be used to persecute people for picking up A DOLLAR someone had dropped.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-26T17:25:54.126Z
N.B.: Cryptocurrency is not an "investment", and anyone who believes it is looks like this:
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-27T17:19:23.344Z
Americans have no "philosophy"; they have religion (including partisan politics and entertainment fandom). The number of exceptions in the whole country could comfortably attend a conference on my farm, with room left over for a convention of ethical cops.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-28T17:46:16.457Z
It's very rare that airports get named after people who gave something to the world rather than taking from it; I can only think of two other examples offhand, New Orleans and Oklahoma City.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-29T02:30:21.861Z
"Doctor" Carson thinks hot dogs grow out of the ground like corn.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-30T18:05:12.332Z
We live in a fallen world.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-08-31T17:24:10.226Z
Reporters: "controversial" should not be used as a euphemism for "evil", "unpopular", "tyrannical", "universally reviled", etc.Words mean things; please be more professional with your vocabulary choices.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-01T17:15:02.453Z
If I'd written a satire in which Goebbels Farms honored a Neo-Nazi, my editor would've said it was too obvious.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-03T03:19:20.912Z
Headline from 1989: "Has our oat bran obsession gone too far?"Same answer.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-03T18:04:13.456Z
"Return hub" is such a nice way to say "concentration camp".
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-04T17:05:19.288Z
I remember when we were at least ruled by adults.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-05T17:21:43.608Z
The idea that there could be such a thing as a "true-crime star" is like something out of a dystopian comic book universe.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-06T18:05:23.948Z
Your "leaders" want you to believe that you are a tabula rasa, a mere thing without free will to be acted upon (by media, websites, propaganda, the collective, etc) and shaped in a Skinnerian dystopia.Do not believe them. You can CHOOSE not to be warped in this way, BUT THE CHOICE MUST BE ACTIVE.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-08T17:30:09.952Z
The phrase "trusted ad partners", which appears on many adblocker-blocker popups, is really quite funny. Those "trusted partners" are picked by software in automated auctions; *y'all* may be greedy enough to trust these randos, but I'm not as gullible as you would like me to be.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-10T16:52:28.464Z
I'll just leave this here: archive.is/SGZcS
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-11T18:42:41.516Z
The only thing more infuriating than mansplaining is amateursplaining. Holy shit.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-12T07:47:56.110Z
Take THAT, "Woman of the Year"!
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-13T17:25:26.151Z
I blocked him so he won't have to be disappointed that I object to strangers driving by my house and throwing garbage on my lawn.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-14T17:44:05.619Z
It sounds like they're talking about a mad dog. Which, to be fair, isn't completely wrong.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-15T17:21:32.591Z
Dr. Altman of Dr. Altman's Medicine Show says people are right to fear snake oil, but should trust snake oil SALESMEN.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-16T19:24:36.788Z
Comparison for those of my age: just imagine if an official of Jimmy Carter's cabinet had been advocating for a no-fly zone over the "Bermuda Triangle", and other politicians were actually writing laws to ban such flights.
— Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2026-09-17T19:19:44.712Z
In the News (#1672)
Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged activism, advertising, Alabama, artificial stupidity, Backpage, California, censorship, cops, Dangerous Speech, domestic violence, drugs, Eavesdropping, fascism, Illinois, internet, Panopticon, Pyrrhic Victory, scams, surveillance, The Cop Myth, The More the Better, violence vs. sex workers, weaponry, Welcome to the Future, Wisconsin on September 16, 2026| Leave a Comment »
Surveillance makes all of us less safe. – Evan Greer
Anything that helps demystify sex work is a good thing:
It shouldn’t be surprising that sex workers around the country are boning up on firearms education. There’s a long tradition of both armed self-defense and general firearms enthusiasm…within communities that have historically been targeted for violence and oppression. Organizations like the Socialist Rifle Association, the Sylvia Rivera Gun Club, Yellow Peril Tactical, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club, the Pink Pistols, and Black Girls Shoot! take the activist maxim “we protect us” seriously, and offer their communities tools to do so in a world that doesn’t expect them to fight back…the Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) Chicago…announced their first Intro to Concealed Carry course specifically for sex workers. All 40 spots filled up immediately…
Now that the damage is irreversible, the government can afford to grant him an appeal:
…the Ninth Circuit announced that it will hear oral arguments on Nov. 16 in Phoenix concerning one of the most significant First Amendment cases in recent memory — the vindictive prosecution of award-winning journalist Michael Lacey…Federal and state authorities hounded Lacey, the former executive editor of Village Voice Media, and his business partner, the late Jim Larkin, for more than a decade over their First Amendment-protected publication of speech in Backpage.com, the classified advertising website they co-owned…
“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpteen:
LG smart TVs are almost constantly logging and uploading data about owners and their homes, even when offline or on standby mode…The…TV sets scan Wi-Fi networks for nearby devices, record audio logs through their microphones, and use audio and video sampling to recognize exactly what you’re watching from [connected devices like DVD players]…and feeding the information back to LG Ad Solutions…the TVs…[even] record…microphone audio when in standby; this continue[s] even after the TV [i]s disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection [i]s restored…Automatic Content Recognition…is used by almost every [“]smart[“] TV manufacturer to figure out what you watch…In July…LG monitors [started] automatically installing an app that…ran pop-up ads for LG’s other apps and even McAfee antivirus…[but] public pressure…led to LG disabling the pop-up ads…
Cops hate it when people turn the tables on them:
…US [cops] are increasingly concerned about the potential for [perve]rt glasses to be used against them…to secretly record [cops]…in the [act] of [committing] crimes and acts of [violence and] terrorism…[cop]s in the US typically [steal or break] any and all devices that would be capable of recording video footage…[but] some [perve]rt glasses have gone unnoticed…[cops, spooks, and goons] want…the exclusive right to use surveillance technology and cameras to monitor the public without those cameras being turned back on them. “These agencies surveil the public incessantly, but the moment we can watch them back, it’s deemed a security threat,” [said Ryan] Shapiro [of Property of the People]…
The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived:
Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull [innocent] people over…[using bogus excuses in order to attempt to pin manufactured “]crime[s” on them]…The units…are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and [dispatched] local [pigs, who then] stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI…Border Patrol…us[es]…ALPRs…as part of the…program…“genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated,” [said] Jake Laperruque…of the…Center For Democracy & Technology…”Border Patrol [is]…using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops”…
Domestic violence is never a cop’s sole offense:
A Huntsville [Alabama cop named]…John Holliday was…arrested…[on August 17 for slamming] his wife [to] the ground and [repeatedly] kick[ing] her…[then stealing] her…cellphone wh[en] she tried to dial 911…[the cop shop put him on desk duty and that did not change even]…after h[e was] arrest[ed again] on Sept. 3 for DUI…[but after] he was…arrest[ed a third time for waving a gun around while drunk]…he was [reward]ed with…a p[aid vacati]on…[A spokespig described this as] “tak[ing] allegations of misconduct involving its employees seriously”…
Some aspects of the modern dystopia are too odious even for authoritarians:
…the City of Sheboygan…[Wisconsin will]…terminate [its] contract with…Flock S[urveillance after it]…offered to sell the Sheboygan Department of Public Works…five years of data [collected by] the…15 cameras already deployed in the city…in violation of the [contract, which pretends]…the company does not own the data…and [will supposedly] only…retain [it] for 30 days. Since…their [announcement]…other cities have been following suit….[in] both…Fond du Lac County…and…Winnebago County…
But simply cancelling the contract won’t stop Flock:
Flock S[urveillance blamed a computer for illegally ordering]…the reinstallation of license plate cameras that Grass Valley [California] police had already removed after canceling the city’s contract with the company. Residents alerted police…after spotting a utility crew replacing [the] cameras at several locations…Flock [claims] its automated maintenance system interpreted the…[removals] as equipment failures and generated replacement work orders…The [cancellat]ion followed months of pressure from residents and privacy advocates…
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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