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Posts Tagged ‘Sweden’

You don’t fucking hate them enough.  –  “Officer” Michael Kennedy

I’ve always counted Warner Brothers’ Merrie Melodies as the first music videos (short films intended to market a song), but I recently discovered this video, which pushes the mark back almost as far as it can go, to barely after the advent of sound movies.  This is a sequence from King of Jazz (1930), a two-strip technicolor feature which is apparently a compilation of such videos; this is an abridged arrangement of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and I’ve recently added the disc to my Amazon wishlist because I’d love to see the whole thing.  The links above the video were provided by Shiv Ramdas; Nun Ya; IncarcerNation; Radley Balko; Popehat; C.J. Ciaramella; Jesse Walker and Franklin Harris, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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AI will be used to create a hellscape of over-enforcement.  –  Jay Stanley

Moloch (#1340) 

Pigs in schools are a menace which should be abolished:

Since the massacre…in Uvalde in 2022, school districts across Texas have spent billions of dollars to [cram pigs into] every campus in the state…[despite the obvious fact that cops did nothing] to protect students from [that] traged[y.  Predictably]…the constant presence of [armed thugs] has transformed the way many public schools manage discipline, subjecting students to heavy-handed police tactics for behavior that once would have landed them only in the principal’s office…[as in the adult world, cops] display…startling belligerence…grabbing or tackling students a fraction of their size over [ordinary juvenile] misconduct…Children in elementary school…as young as 6…[a]re handcuffed.  Teenagers [a]re arrested, charged with crimes and even jailed. In [many] cases, they [need to be taken to] hospitals, bruised or concussed, after [deranged thugs] body-slam…[them] or shock…[them with] Tasers, which are prohibited in the state’s juvenile d[ungeons] but allowed in its public schools…[and these are a mere fraction of the atrocities, because school] districts and [cop shops hide the full scope of the violence from the public]…

Shame, Shame (#1576)

The rise of computerized zombies:

[The corpse of] Stan Lee is [be]ing…digital[ly paraded through the streets] through a new [collaboration] between ElevenLabs and Stan Lee Universe…[which] will [synchronize a cartoon of] the Marvel legend…to [a chatbot trained on his]…voice…The [abomination] is part of a growing [moral corruption] in entertainment to use [computers] to [exploit] the [reputation]s and legacies of iconic creators.  The [scheme was first tested]…at L.A. Comic Con…and [because they didn’t get lynched] ElevenLabs is now…[cramm]ing [the cartoon and chatbot] into multiple [exploit]ative products…Late last year, Michael Caine [sold his soul to] them as well

Panopticon (#1585)

Safetyism is destroying society:

BusPatrol, a company that has installed [computeriz]ed cameras in tens of thousands of school buses around the U.S., now plans to turn those cameras into automatic license plate readers…capturing the location of every vehicle the buses drive past, and [throwing] that data [in]to [pigsties]…essentially transform[ing] school buses into roaming surveillance vehicles, taking a technology that was originally [sold to useful idiots] to issue tickets to people illegally passing stopped buses and using it for…warrant[less surveillance in partnership with fascist]…giant Axon…BusPatrol [already] has cameras in more than 40,000 buses across 24 states.  [Present]ly, those cameras [only photograph]…vehicle[s which]…pass…the school bus while it has its stop signs…extended…[but] the planned changes would…expand that system to scan the license plates of all vehicles the buses pass…and…record the car’s…GPS location…in order to…generate more revenue…[for] BusPatrol [investors]…

Panopticon (#1617)

Not as good as destroying them, but courage is alien to politicians:

The city of Dayton, Ohio has covered its Flock automated license plate reader cameras with black trash bags…because police there are unsure whether the cameras are still active and the city also doesn’t seem to know whether [the devil’s bargain it made with fascists] allowed [it] to take the cameras down.  The move comes after months of resident outrage…[over] the city [“accidentally”] sharing Flock camera data for [Trump’s pogroms]…Dayton is not the first city to cover its Flock cameras with trash bags because they can’t figure out how to immediately terminate the use of the cameras. Late last year, the city of Evanston, Illinois also covered its cameras with trash bags while it was waiting for the company to remove them [for the second time, because]…after…Evanston terminated its contract with Flock…and…removed [the cameras]…Flock “reinstalled the cameras without the city’s permission” and [Evanston had to] sen[d it] a cease-and-desist [to get them permanently removed]…

A Moral Cancer (#1627)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

France ha[s] banned “a number of popular nicotine-based products including Zyn pouches.”  Those caught violating the measure could face up to five years in prison and a fine of $436,600…Swedish Trade Minister Benjamin Dousa…called the ban…on these pouches, which originated in Sweden, an “attack on the Swedish way of living”…Sweden, Italy, Greece, and four other countries have raised “formal concerns”…that the…ban violates the E.U.’s single market laws…[pointing out that pouch-using] members of the European Parliament…[which meets in] the French city of Strasbourg…risk [police violence by] traveling to France…tobacco remains the leading cause of preventable deaths [in France], and…55 percent of…French smokers…want…to quit…[but] a lack of access to nicotine pouches will keep many people addicted to cigarettes.  Meanwhile, Sweden…has the lowest smoking rate in Europe…predominantly thanks to oral nicotine products.  Since the 1980s, it has seen its smoking rate fall from 30 percent to less than 5 percent…

Welcome to the Future (#1635)

Medical privacy will soon go the way of house calls:

Headway, a popular online therapy platform, says it will require clients and providers to undergo biometric scanning, and there’s no way to opt out other than leaving the platform…Headway [justifies the privacy violation by barfing] “safe[ty]”…at…patients…[and] providers…Many mental health providers or the practices they work for use Headway to help them get credentialed with insurance companies and process billing and other administrative tasks.  Through Headway, providers can be in-network with a much wider variety of insurance plans…it will use the [Palantir-linked fascist organ] Persona to verify identities, a[d]ding [their data] to…Peter Thiel’s [huge trove of information he happily sells to anyone who can pay, including Trump stooge]…Robert F. Kennedy Jr

To Molest and Rape (#1638)

A gang of pigs tried to poach on another gang’s rape territory:

[Three]…Toronto cops [tried to escape consequences for violently sexually assaulting a]…Spanish [escort in Barcelona by announcing that they were fellow pigs] and flash[ing] a Toronto badge…Evan Penner Glennie and Richard Theodore Rand [were caught] just [after attacking the] escort [in a taxi, leaving her] bloodied and shaken.  She had…been [both] sexually groped…and physically assaulted inside the vehicle.  A third…[culprit named] Caglar Yigit…fled the scene…to [escape] Spanish [cops] who had responded to the woman’s cries for help…[and] was later arrested on the…island of Mallorca…all…three [made bond and]…have since been allowed to return to Canada, [where they] have been [rewar]ded with pa[id vacations]…

 

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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This is the facial recognition technology nightmare scenario that we have been worried about.  –  Nathan Freed Wessler

Pyrrhic Victory (#1291)

This is no surprise to anyone acquainted with how things are done in New Orleans:

For two years, New Orleans police [have] secretly [spied on]…city streets [with facial recognition] in search of suspects, a[n illegal] surveillance method without a known precedent in any major American city…New Orleans police [abuse]…a private network of more than 200 facial recognition cameras to [leer at] the streets…automatically pinging [cop]s’ mobile phones through an app to [report] the names and current locations of [any possible] matches [for police harassment].  This [blatantly violates] a 2022 city council ordinance, which limited police to using facial recognition only for searches of specific suspects in…violent crimes and [prohibits] generalized…tracking…Each time police want to scan a face, the ordinance requires them to send a still image to trained examiners at a state facility and later provide details about these scans in reports to the city council…[but] the…cameras ha[ve] played a role in dozens of arrests, including at least four people who were only charged with nonviolent crimes…[cops regularly hid] their reliance on facial recognition matches in police reports…to the city council [in order to circumvent the law]…

Secret Squirrel (#1385)

This sickness will get much worse before it gets better:

According to recent research…“nearly 1 in 5 young people believe it’s OK to track their partner whenever they want”…Many constantly share their location with their partner, or use apps like Life360 or Find My Friends…one of the most disturbing notions is that acceptance of digital monitoring is…a way to create – rather than undermine – a sense of trust.  When government officials or tech industry bigwigs proclaim that you should be OK with being spied on if you’re not doing anything wrong, they’re…demanding…we trust them.  But it’s not about trust, it’s about control…and…use of digital spying tools by parents on their children has “anaesthetised young people to the whole idea of being monitored”, teaching them that surveillance is a form of love…and [equating it with] safety…[thus empowering] police, intelligence agencies and…politicians…to undermine [privacy, civil rights, and even]…safety [from state violence]…


Torture Chamber (#1461)

Americans’ sick lust for torture turns ordinary prison sentences into death sentences:

Missouri prison[ers] have filed a lawsuit [because] they’re suffering from life-threatening extreme heat in their un-air-conditioned cells during the summer…[in] violat[ion of both] the Missouri Constitution and the Americans with Disabilities Act…Algoa [Dungeon] is one of four prisons in the state where none of the [cell blocks] have air conditioning.  And, due to the building’s design, it is frequently hotter inside…than outside.  Even at night, temperatures remain high…[and the only] heat-mitigation practices include…warm showers; the option to purchase one small, personal fan; and…[splitting] small coolers [of quickly-melting ice among] 100-plus people in each [cell block]…Due to a lack of outlets in solitary confinement, [those locked up] there are unable to use fans…According to legal documents…[similarly-inhumane] prison units in Texas reached 149 degrees Fahrenheit in 2023…

I Saw My Brain (#1492)

The psychopathic Grady Judd won’t pass up any opportunity to inflict harm on as many people as possible:

A recent “human trafficking enforcement operation” in Polk County, Florida, led to 244 arrests—albeit none for human trafficking…ICE…Homeland Security, and the U.S. Army [?]…were involved in [the sophomorically-entitled] Operation Fool Around and Find Out, along with more than a dozen Florida [cop shops beside Judd’s]…In addition to targeting adults for trying to consensually engage other adults in private sexual activity, immigration enforcement seems to have been a goal.  A press release…notes that 36 of those arrested “are here illegally”…[and] color-coded boxes around some [mug shots] denote that the…[victims are] receiving welfare benefits…Among those arrested was [a] former NFL player…[which] catapulted this story into national news.  And that’s meant a whole lot of outlets [parroting]…the police’s preferred narrative…

This will continue until the majority of those arrested fight back with lawsuits, or the voters of Polk County get tired of paying the many lawsuits that are already filed against this cretin every year.

The Cop Myth (#1496)

How long will America ignore the costs of its sick worship of state-sanctioned violence?

Since 2013…Phoenix [cops] have [murdered] 173 people…the second-highest total in the country behind…Los Angeles…The study used data from Mapping Police Violence, a website that has become widely known as the foremost tracker of police killings…in the United States since 2013.  It has utilized information from police and media reports to [do what cop shops and governments have refused to do]…Estimates suggest the database captures 92% of police killings….the five deadliest police forces[are] Los Angeles [with] 199 deaths…Phoenix [with] 173…Houston [with] 128…New York [with] 126 [and]…San Antonio [with] 106…In June 2024, the Department of Justice completed a years-long investigation[which] found that…Phoenix police…taught…tactics that were “dangerous, unnecessary and unreasonable,” including that…deadly force…would lead to de-escalation….[Phoenix cops regularly] fired…at people who presented no immediate threat and…[often strangled] people who had not committed a crime…

Thought Control (#1524)

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

A fresh round of books — more than 600, by one estimate — have been taken out of circulation from Hillsborough County classrooms after [deranged] state [politicians] ramped up pressure on school district officials.  Those books include Margaret Atwood‘s The Handmaid‘s Tale, Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Ari Folman’s Anne Frank’s Diary: The Graphic Adaptation[Psychopath] General James Uthmeier [foamed at the mouth and waved his dick around while ludicrously barfing that the books were]…“patently pornographic”…He said the state’s newly created Office of [Froot Loop] Rights plans to give [random Froot Loops power to censor any book statewide]…since 2022, Hillsborough County has removed 389,073 books from its collection of more than 2 million books, and will continue to “actively [burn down]” its collections…

Sales Pitch (#1530)

Swedish politicians are angry that their law doesn’t destroy enough lives yet:

Participating in interactive adult live-streams or ordering custom porn clips are about to be punishable by a year in prison in Sweden, where a new law expands an already-[tyrannical] model of sex work criminalization to the internet…The text of the newly-passed bill (in the original Swedish here, and auto-translated to English here) states that criminal liability…shouldn’t have to require physical contact between the buyer and seller…Buying pre-recorded content, paying to follow an account where pornographic material is continuously posted, or otherwise consuming porn without [having to deal directly with the sex worker as a businessperson] is outside of the scope of the law…

 

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

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This is an attempt to…make history the way they want it to be interpreted.  –  Jeffrey Harness

Sales Pitch (#798)

Swedish politicians are angry that their law doesn’t destroy enough lives yet:

A new proposal before Swedish Parliament…[would] criminaliz[e]…the purchase…of sexual acts “performed remotely” via…tube sites, camming platforms, clip sites and premium social media networks, among others…”Sweden’s Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression (1991) protects expressive rights, including on online platforms,” writes Marc Randazza, an adult entertainment industry attorney…”The government’s proposal to criminalize user-generated content could conflict with this right”…Other critics include the country’s news media…

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

Florida’s authoritarian government criminalizes kindness:

A Florida high school teacher lost her job after calling a student by an alternative name without parental permission, sparking…backlash [from deranged authoritarians]…Melissa Calhoun had taught in Brevard County for 11 years when she ran headlong into a state rule that bars school staff from deviating from students’ legal names without written parental permission…The school district “[believes] parents…[actually own their high-school age offspring, who have no] rights to be…decision-makers in their [own] lives”…Florida…[may also] rev[oke] her teaching certificate…More than 7,400 people signed a change.org petition calling for her to be reinstated.  Students planned a walkout of classes on [April 11th] in support of the teacher…

Thought Control (#1355)

Politicians are avid devotees of cutting off their noses to spite their faces:

A [gang of bureaucrats censor]ed academic research from a database used by Mississippi libraries and public schools…to comply with recent [censorship] laws…One of the [two censor]ed research collections focused on “race relations” and the other on “gender studies”…[but bureaucrat] Hulen Bivins…[absurdly barfed out the phrase] “obscene materials”…


The Punitive Mindset (#1378) 

“Drugs” are a popular pretext for petty vindictiveness in US prisons:

Thousands of drug tests used…in California prisons last year…generated false positive results, an enormous error that has jeopardized the parole requests of some [victims]…California prison officials have known about the issue for months, but have [refus]ed to clear people’s records or reverse the consequences people have faced from the tests…Quest Diagnostics…[is] the sole firm contracted to do clinical drug screening for…California [prisons]…from mid-April through July of last year, Quest’s…screenings…used an “alternative” reagent…[due to] a backorder of its usual reagent.  The switch resulted in [dramatically] “more presumptive positive results” than registered in tests with its usual chemical, and when Quest restored its original reagent, the positivity rate “returned to its historical average”…

I Spy (#1494)

If you thought regional “fusion centers” were bad, how about this?

[Vast numbers of] intimate details about the personal lives of people who live in the United States are held in disconnected data systems across the federal government…The Trump administration is now trying to connect the dots of that disparate information…[by] calling for the “consolidation” of these segregated records, [violating the Privacy Act of 1974 to] creat[e] a kind of data trove…the government has never had before, and that [Republicans] have historically opposed.  The effort is being driven by Elon Musk…and his [henchmen, who]…have [repeatedly violated]…legal privacy protections…[in their chaotic campaign of vandalism.  Now Trump’s creature imposed over] the Internal Revenue Service agreed to help the Department of Homeland Security obtain closely held taxpayer data to help identify immigrants for deportation, over the objections of…the acting I.R.S. commissioner and other top officials…privacy groups, public employee unions and immigrant rights associations…have sued to block the…ac[tion not only because it]…would be illegal…[but also because it] would give the government too much power…and…create a national security vulnerability that could be targeted by hostile nation states…

End Demand (#1505)

Massachusetts Puritans are still trying to destroy men’s lives for daring to want consensual sex with adult women:

Massachusetts is in the midst of prosecuting people who patronized a fancy sex business near Harvard University…The framing of this story is refreshing…[in that] news reports have largely refrained from trying to portray the women involved as hapless victims…So far, the people who ran the business…are the only ones who have been sentenced…[owner Han] Lee…was sentenced in March to four years in prison…[under] the Mann Act…and…if the sex workers’ identities are known…they could be deported…federal authorities…[stole] around $5.5 million [from Lee, and]…state and local authorities are busy prosecuting [h]er clients…and [intentionally]…shaming [them, with help from the obedient yellow press]…Americans like to pretend that we’re way more enlightened than our Puritan ancestors, but here we are, hundreds of years later, putting people through public ridicule and official sanctions over their consensual sexual choices…

Creepy Coppers (#1509)

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

[A Las Vegas cop named] Kevin Menon…[installed] two [hidden] cameras in his home in September…[one was hidden] in a vent, which pointed downward toward a toilet…[cops] found 96 recordings of women using the restroom…[while investigating him for] creating fake scenarios t[o entrap] citizens, mainly Black men…on the Las Vegas Strip…when the…[cops] seized Menon’s electronic devices for the investigation, they found…child pornography.  This resulted in a second criminal case…[which]  expose[d]…the [other videos]…

 

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 pursuit of sex buyers…functions…[by] targeting people in the sex trade and result[s] in forced evictions, deportations and police harassment.  –  Niina Vuolajärvi

Maggie in the Media

Bound By the Cloak is a new-ish podcast whose tagline is, “Candid conversations about the unspoken”.  Episode 6 is entitled “Grande Horizontale”, so you can probably guess who is interviewed in it.  Give it a listen; I think you’ll enjoy it even if you’ve heard me talk about these topics before.

Sales Pitch

If the Swedish model is so successful, why are they threatening to increase the penalties?

The European Sex Worker Alliance (ESWA) is circulating a petition in solidarity with Swedish sex worker activists fighting a politically motivated attempt to require mandatory jail time for their clients…the…threat…has been Trojan-Horsed into…a series of legal reforms [driven]…by various sex panics fostered by the press…

Smoke and Mirrors

Another of those cases whose reported details don’t add up:

On April 8, a [man] and his teenage daughter were at a Dallas Mavericks basketball game…in Dallas.  Just before halftime, the daughter left her seat to use the restroom.  After she didn’t return, the father went to look for her and notified arena security, staff, and Dallas police of her being missing…lawyer Zeke Fortenberry…[claims] the family repeatedly called Dallas police to help find their daughter…[but] Dallas police…didn’t make any efforts to locate the girl…[so] the family reached out to a [rescue industry group called] the Texas Counter-Trafficking Initiative…[which claims it] found [her pictures] on a[n escort] website…in Oklahoma City…and…Oklahoma City police…[found her] at an Extended Stay America…on April 18 and several people were arrested…Fortenberry [was quick to point fingers at]…the Dallas Mavericks…the [stadium, and the hotel, using the required “]failed to protect the victim[” language indicating he plans to sue them and]…Dallas police [using the novel legal construction of vicarious liability which has become popular among ambulance-chasers]…

If Men Were Angels

“Pastors” are as bad as cops:

A pastor [named]…John William Lovelace…in Ayden, North Carolina, was charged…with [various crimes of rape and sexual assault, and]…is also facing two counts of statutory [rape of] a child under the age of 15…

Winding Down (#1179)

It’s too bad Washington only supports self-ownership where drugs are concerned, not sex:

Drug-reform advocates, doctors, and politicians have initiated a ballot measure, Initiative 1922, to remove the penalties for possessing drugs of any kind in the state of Washington, including cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogenic mushrooms.  Led by a coalition group called Commit to Change WA, the proposed [measure would also]…dedicat[e] $141 million…each year to substance use treatment and prevention…the funds…would come from cannabis taxes the state is already receiving…Sponsors of the initiative have until July 8 to collect almost 325,000 valid signatures of registered Washington voters to qualify for a spot on the statewide ballot in November…

Creepy Coppers

Your “leaders” apparently also want you to refer to spreading child porn as “correction”:

Tennessee [screw]…Michael Vernon White, has been charged with possession of “hundreds of items” of child porn…[discovered] after an Internet service provider detected and reported multiple uploads of sexual images and videos depicting young girls.  The number associated with the uploads was linked back to White…

The Cop Myth (#1205)

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

An…NYPD [cop named]…Kevin Marcial…was suspended…following…his [attempt to shoot his] girlfriend’s husband [after he saw the latter behind him in traffic]…Marcial turned around and fired a shot at the [husband, but missed]…The outraged husband showed up later at a nearby police station and reported the [attack], as well as Marcial and the love triangle.  Cops at first [refused to] believe him, but the husband gave [them] the…license plate number, which they traced back to Marcial.  A shell casing was also found at the scene…police reached out to Marcial, who, with his lawyer, [later] surrendered…An NYPD spokeswoman s[pun this as] Marcial “self-report[ing]” the shooting…

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Under feudalism most people are serfs, legally bound to a certain piece of land and barred from leaving it without the permission of their lords.  Serfdom as such was abolished centuries ago in the West, but in recent years governments have increasingly attempted to bring back the idea that citizens are (at least in some ways) owned by the governments under which they live, and therefore subject to the diktats of their owners even if they travel to places with different laws.  And I don’t mean only totalitarian states; the governments I speak of are modern Western ones.  Swedish politicians have made several attempts to criminalize their subjects who pay for sex in countries where it’s legal, despite objections from saner politicians that it would set a dangerous precedent for people who have homosexual relations or abortions in Sweden when those things are criminalized in their own countries.  Some countries criminalize parents who seek surrogacy arrangements overseas, and of course many tax jurisdictions (including the US) try to rob citizens blind if they have the temerity to move elsewhere.  And now American states which more aggressively claim ownership over their residents are also attempting to prevent their circumventing that control:

…a prominent antiabortion [politician] in Missouri, from where thousands of residents have traveled to next-door Illinois to receive abortions since Missouri passed one of the country’s strictest abortion laws in 2019, [now wants to]…allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a Missouri resident obtain an abortion out of state, using the novel legal strategy [pioneered by]…Texas…the measure is [clearly] unconstitutional because it would effectively allow states to enact laws beyond their jurisdictions, but…Coleman…also w[ants to criminalize the]…possess[ion of]…abortion pills in Missouri…If enacted, the measure almost certainly would face a swift legal challenge…

And Missouri isn’t the only state to imitate Texan tyranny:

The Idaho House of Representatives…passed legislation to make it a crime punishable by life in prison for a parent to seek out gender-affirming health care for their transgender child…and…A parent or guardian would also be guilty of a felony if they travel with their child to another state for the purpose of obtaining gender-affirming health care…the Idaho proposal…is not unlike laws from a prior generation, including the criminalization of interracial couples traveling to another state to get married…which was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.  People already take trips to other states to do things that are legal that they can’t do where they live — from consuming cannabis, gambling or buying fireworks to obtaining an abortion — and there’s little states can do to stop that because of constitutional limits on restricting interstate travel…

It’s not coincidental that laws which attempt to reduce people to a kind of serfdom all revolve around things they might do with their genitalia; Americans have long been obsessed with what other people have between their legs, and what they do with that equipment, so naturally attempts to abrogate human rights often start thus because too many of their countrymen have similar views, and most of those who don’t are too ashamed to defend these rights (which is why so many who do defend them couch them in neutered euphemisms like “love”).  But make no mistake: if these abominations are allowed to stand, the precedent will quickly be extended to other rights that control freaks hate, just as Texas’ abortion law has already inspired gun-grabbers to attempt similar tactics.  And if you think the current police state is bad, you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet.

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How disconnected from reality are [censorious] Senators?  –  Mike Masnick

If Men Were Angels

Is a “small group leader” the same as a “youth pastor”?

…California church leader…Drue Mordecai, a…“small group leader” at New Vintage Church…sexually abused a juvenile…for approximately four to five years…beg[inning] when the victim was 12 years old…

Broken Record (#559) 

Irish versions of the “gypsy whores” myth always seem quaint:

[Pogroms against sex workers and their clients are] being prepared [using the popular myth that]…demand for such services [increases] around the time of major sports fixtures and other events…[fact-free propaganda promot]ed by the Garda shows the demand for prostitution increases around major events…[spokespigs oinked a lot of silly nonsense about]…victims…gangs…vast majority…[are] trafficked…[they also lied that] the Garda is not interested in treating [sex workers] as criminals, [despite ample evidence to the contrary]…

Above the Law (#866)  

The fact that the woman reported him tells me this wasn’t a coercion-free offer:

A Florida lawyer [sentenced to probation] in 2019 on charges that he was using female clients in two county jails to make pornographic films has been disbarred…Andrew Bennett Spark…was arrested Dec. 17, 2017, and charged with [minor offenses including]…soliciting for prostitution.  He…now lives in Flushing, New York…Spark went to visit with a woman…in the Pinellas County Jail…[who] had not requested a visit with him, and she was represented by a different lawyer…the…w[oman was an] adult film actress…whose arrest and conviction [had been] widely publicized…Spark…asked…he[r to let him take video of her giving him head]…in exchange for putting money in her jail account…[but when he gave her a measly $10 she] told her family about the unsolicited visit, and her family c[alled the pigs]…

Morality Lessons (#908) 

Utah hasn’t learned from this unconstitutional bill failing in over a dozen states:

…Utah [politicians]…discuss[ed the latest version of a censorship bill]…requiring all “new electronic devices” sold in the state to have pornography filters turned on by default…the…hearing…ended with putting the bill on hold…[following expert testimony] that… “compliance would not be possible…[and] the constitutional problems …are numerous”…

Chris Sevier, the pro-censorship crackpot who wrote this bill and has shopped it to almost half of US states, appears to be keeping a low profile since Elizabeth Smart threatened to sue him for slapping her name on previous versions without her permission.  Or maybe it’s because a federal judge in Utah threw out his lawsuit trying to target same-sex marriage by saying he should be allowed to marry his laptop.  Or perhaps it’s due to the warrant for his arrest in Tennessee?

Something Rotten in Sweden (#910)

California’s annual anti-whore pogrom did a lot less damage this year:

Riverside County [pigs deceived and abducted] 64 [peaceful citizens] over the course of four days [label]ing [the pogrom] an anti-human trafficking operation…[under the sophomoric name] Operation Reclaim and Rebuild…The statewide operation [destroyed fewer lives this year, down from]…518 [last year, including] 87 [sex workers; this year only 2 sex workers were brutalized]…

Theatrics (#914) 

Fake “sex trafficking” ads dreamed up by prohibitionists demonstrate the depravity of their lurid masturbatory fantasies about our lives and work:

A…Swed[ish prohibitionist organization]…has set up a [fake] call girl service…Unsuspecting men [looking for adult consensual sex] dial the [fake] hotline set up by [the “rescue” profiteers called] Talita, only to be…[non-consensually subjected to ugly tragedy porn] stories…Josephine Appelqvist, co-founder of Talita, says: “We wanted them to [violate their consent by tricking them into] hear[ing our disgusting sexual fantasies]”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1056)

Canada pretends to care about privacy, but has plenty of other snooping tools:

Clearview AI violated Canadian privacy laws when it collected photos of Canadians without their knowledge or permission, the country’s top privacy watchdog has ruled…the startup…scrap[ed] social media sites…without their permission, prompting Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to send cease and desist letters…Clearview rebuffed the allegations, claiming [it is above the] law…and that consent was not required because the images it scraped were publicly available…The Canadian privacy watchdog…said it would “pursue other actions” if the company does not…stop…the collection on Canadians and delet[e] all previously collected images…

Paint By Numbers (#1086)

The dumb “awareness raising” stunt field is being taken over by hack artists:

“Goats are empowering women in the poorest parts of India,” said Rob Canton, founder of Project Goat. “A Goat is essentially an ATM in these communities, keeping them from a life of sex…trafficking.”  That’s how Canton came up with the Global Offensive Against Trafficking also known as Project Goat.  During the months leading up to the Super Bowl…goats, decorated by different artists, were showing up everywhere…“Super Bowls and events like them, World Cups and Olympics, they are the types of events that generate a lot of human trafficking,” [lied] Canton…Canton is now in the process of corralling all these [propaganda] works…They will be part of a large art auction taking place the day before the Super Bowl at Zoo Tampa, with a portion of the proceeds going to [the rescue industry]…

You Were Warned (#1107)

The bipartisan war on the internet continues without even a pause:

For the past few months we’ve been seeing a ton of terrible/ ridiculous/awful/unconstitutional bills coming from mostly Republicans to try to wipe out or undermine Section 230.  Most of those were focused on trying to force websites to do less content moderation.  Now that the Democrats are back in power, it appears we’re going to be getting the opposite.  Senator Mark Warner has introduced…the SAFE TECH Act (“Safeguarding Against Fraud, Exploitation, Threats, Extremism, and Consumer Harms Act” co-sponsored by Senators Mazie Hirono and Amy Klobuchar), and it is one of the worst Section 230 bills I’ve seen.  It is difficult to explain just how bad this bill is concisely, because it has so many bad ideas crammed into one single bill.  It’s as if none of these three Senators or their staff spoke to anyone who actually understands how the internet works, or how content moderation/trust and safety works.  It’s stunning in the ignorance it displays…Basically, this bill takes nearly every single idea that people who want there to be less speech online have had, and dumped it all into one bill.  There’s a lot in there, and nearly all of it is bad…This bill…does not come from a well meaning place.  The drafters…are either malicious or ignorant…

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If lockdowns worked as advertised, we would not see such enormous variability in the death rates.  –  William Briggs

Blasphemy

As I’ve said for decades, so-called “radical” feminism is a cult:

…Looking back on her time in the “gender critical” feminist movement, [Amy Dyess] is unequivocal: it’s a cult…that groomed her when she was vulnerable and sleeping in her car; a cult that sought to control her, keeping tabs on her movements and dictating what she could and couldn’t say; a cult that was emotionally and sexually abusive towards her.  As Amy began to notice more and more red flags about the GC movement – like how it defended abusive women, how it wouldn’t let lesbians speak out about sexual assault perpetrated by women, and how it was forming alliances with homophobic groups – she started asking questions.  Last year, she began speaking out against what she saw as increasingly blatant homophobia in the gender-critical movement.  The cult tightened its grip.  Lesbian journalists who are household names “lovebombed” her, she says, trying to keep her in the movement…

Surplus Women

More blood on prohibitionists’ hands:

Lawrence Paul Mills III…targeted…sex workers on the southside of Detroit…he would [hire] his victims…and [transact their business] in…his [car].  When the victim left the vehicle, he would [intentionally run them down]…and then [steal back] his payment…Mills was arraigned…in connection to a Dec. 22, 2017, incident in which he…[ran over] a then-pregnant woman…several times before driving away…The woman and her unborn child survived…

The Swedish Pimpocracy (#719) 

The key to understanding Swedish law: the government thinks it owns the citizens:

As infections continue to grow in Sweden, several parents and teachers in the country have raised concerns over the risk their children (and everyone the kids come into contact with) face due to the mandatory school attendance required among those aged from six to 15 amid the ongoing pandemic…parents (some of whom have serious health conditions) have reported being threatened with fines, being reported to social services and other repercussions for choosing to keep their children at home to minimize the risk to their own lives…

Safe Position (#947)

This is the woman who beat the pro-decrim candidate Tiffany Caban:

District Attorney Melinda Katz…announced the creation of a [so-called] Human Trafficking Bureau that is exclusively dedicated to [persecuting sex workers]…in Queens County. This newly formed Bureau will…aggressively prosecut[e sex workers’ clients, friends, family members and associates]…and will also [infantilize and criminalize sex workers]…

I Spy (#1035)

It boggles the mind that anyone could be gullible enough to install this:

The Care19 app, developed for the North Dakota Department of Health by developer ProudCrowd, [claimed it would] assist health officials in their battle against coronavirus by logging users’ location data…[which] it also sent…to Foursquare…this is especially concerning, as the app’s [supposed] privacy policy [claims] to explicitly prohibit [exactly] what [the app does]…”This location data…is stored securely on ProudCrowd, LLC servers,..It will not be shared with anyone including government entities or third parties, unless you consent or ProudCrowd is compelled under federal regulations”…

Reawakening

In case you missed this:

…quarantining an entire population is not some set-in-stone technique that has been used for decades to stem the spread of a virus.  It was first proposed in 2006 by two [medical bureaucrats]…neither of them infectious disease specialists —  after President George W. Bush asked for a plan to combat pandemics…But four scientists who were infectious disease specialists…wrote…a devastating critique.  There was no science to support the notion that a national quarantine would halt the spread of infection, they wrote.  It could increase the risk of infection for people living in close quarters.  Closing theaters, malls, restaurants, stores and bars…would have “serious disruptive consequences.”  Closing schools was not only impractical “but carries the possibility of a seriously adverse outcome”…there is surprisingly little evidence that lockdowns work…a statistician named William M. Briggs…compar[ed] countries that locked down with countries that didn’t.  As of May 12, the U.S. had 237 deaths per million people.  Taiwan, a no-lockdown country, had 0.3 deaths per million…No-lockdown Sweden has had 347 deaths per million; lockdown Belgium, with a similar population, has had 763 deaths per million.  Ethiopia…had no lockdown — and a death rate of 0.04 per million…

Social Distancing (#1037)

India refuses to give sex workers stipends to survive on, so I’m sure these pompous blowhards’ scheme will work:

India can add 17 days of additional delay to reaching the peak of novel coronavirus cases, and prevent 72 per cent of projected new cases by closing down its red light areas till a COVID-19 vaccine is developed, [prohibitionists fantasize]. Based on [authoritarian nonsense that imagines people can survive indefinitely with no income if the government demands they do], the [prohibitionists claim]…closing down these places of sex work may reduce projected COVID-19 death toll increase in India by 63 per cent [and besides, whores are expendable]…

Working From Home (#1038)

Internet companies use sex workers to build themselves, then screw us over:

…In the wake of the coronavirus epidemic, [OnlyFans] has exploded in popularity, seeing a 75 percent increase in sign-ups in recent weeks and garnering 170,000 new users per day…[so-called “]influencers[“] like Caroline Calloway have flocked to the platform as a way to monetize their content by selling directly to their fan base.  The influx of…civilians…has prompted concern among many sex workers, who’ve long relied on the platform as a source of income and are worried about oversaturation of the market…To make matters worse, some…[are] being pushed out of the platform, reporting that their accounts have been deleted [and their funds stolen by the platform] even when they have not violated OnlyFans’ terms of service…Emails shared with Rolling Stone show the boilerplate language OnlyFans has sent to such creators, saying accounts are “typically being deleted due to suspicious/fraudulent activity”…

This is, of course, exactly what Paypal did, down to stealing sex workers’ money and claiming it was about “fraud”.

Social Distancing (#1041)

At their core, the Netherlands are still prohibitionist:

The red-light district is one of the main tourist attractions in Amsterdam.  While coronavirus…restrictions are starting to ease, sex work is not allowed to resume until September…the lack of support for sex workers has exposed how vulnerable they are under Dutch law.  Hella Dee…started a fundraising campaign when she realized how many of her colleagues were in financial distress…The campaign collected over $20,000 that was distributed to over 400 sex workers.  Masten Stavast, who rents out 31 windows…is compiling a protocol with sex workers, club owners and other people from the red-light district to lobby policymakers on how sex work can safely resume before September…”If everything goes all right on July 1, there can be 100 people together, why not one to one then with all the protection that everybody has?”  M[ost] sex workers are [also intentionally] excluded from the billions of dollars of government support offered to overcome economic hardship…

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