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Posts Tagged ‘teachers’

In the News (#1661)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 8, 2026| Leave a Comment »

This technology is not safe to be deployed in communities.  –  Max Isaacs

Policing for Profit

Cops usually make up some pretext, however flimsy, for their robbery schemes:

The Massachusetts police oversight board suspended a state trooper’s…certification after he…[stole] a Bobcat bucket-loader…from a contractor he hired to remove fallen trees from his property…Joseph W. Franklin…[claimed] he was in the process of suing the contractor…for failing to complete the work and his attorney advised him to hold on to the Bobcat as “collateral”…[despite] not hav[ing] a lien or court order allowing him to keep [it, and]…court records do not list any civil actions involving Franklin or the contractor…[who] told police that…Franklin [had lied to]…him[, claiming another] contractor had [stolen] it…demand[ing] $5,000 [ransom]…

The Prudish Giant (#946)

It usually starts with sex workers, but it never stops with us:

YouTube [has] banned a[nother] wave of ASMR artists…for [supposedly] violating the platforms’ rules against “sexually gratifying” content…creators affected by the…bans who’ve spoken publicly about [the censorship] include ItsBunniiASMR, Slight Sounds, Nananightray, Roseasmr, Simoneasmr, and Janina Wilhelmsen, all of whom had significant followings on the platform.  There are still many ASMR creators on YouTube, making the bans even more confusing [to people who don’t understand that all censorship is a game of arbitrary whack-a-mole]…

The Red Umbrella (#1441)

When amateurs and violently-entitled idiots try to reinvent the wheel:

[Florida man] David Allen O’Brien…was arrested…[for a violent assault on] four [people]…on July 12 [he messaged a woman on Tinder and told her] he was looking for a “sugar baby.”  Over the next week, the two [negotiated] an arrangement [wherein] O’Brien [would] give her “$1,000 each visit,” treat her to dinner, and take her shopping…on [July 21 she] had three friends drive her to the date, wh[ich proceeded as arranged until]…they…went back to O’Brien’s residence…[where] she began to feel uncomfortable and texted her friends to come pick her up.  When O’Brien realized she was leaving, he demanded his money back…the woman refused…and jumped into her friends’ waiting car to flee…O’Brien [pursu]ed in…his…pickup truck and…when…he…[caught up he] violently rammed the back of their vehicle, sending it crashing into a pole…he…[then] rammed the car a second time, completely disabling [it]…Three of them managed to run away, but O’Brien cornered one of the male friends…pointed [a pistol] at…him…[and threatened to murder] him…[but]…the…victim…[escaped while] O’Brien [was distracted and]…the [cops caught him]…

Panopticon (#1449)

Flock and its cop customers need to be buried under a deluge of lawsuits:

…when combined with a network of…ALPRs…[license plates] become tracking devices that can provide a comprehensive history of a driver’s movements, potentially revealing sensitive information about his habits, health, relationships, political affiliations, and religious beliefs.  Police departments across the country nevertheless…routinely search the information they collect without reasonable suspicion, probable cause, a warrant, or any sort of judicial supervision…[and] it is nearly impossible for the average driver to avoid surveillance as he goes about his daily life.  That…violates the Kansas Constitution’s privacy protections, according to a lawsuit [from] the Kansas Justice Institute…Sam MacRoberts, KJI’s litigation director…[said] “If Wichita wants to track its citizens, it needs to go to a judge and get a warrant”…

To Molest and Rape (#1649)

It’s unusual for the official cop grooming program to be mentioned so prominently:

A [typical and representative] Southern California [cop] has been charged with [repeated molestation of] a 16-year-old [victim of the “]police Explorer[” grooming] program…Roberto Machuca…faces up to five years in state prison and [condemnation to the “]sex offender[” registry] for 10 years…

To Molest and Rape (#1656)

Cops just keep behaving like cops:

A [typical and representative Arkansas cop named]…Jeremy Boyd Grammer…[raped a girl under] 14…around…Aug. 30…[of last year], onl[y four years after getting paroled out of a 13-year prison sentence for child porn which began]…on July 31, 2008…

Panopticon (Nosey Parkers)

Surprising no one who has ever worked with optical character readers:

Flock [lie]s that in optimal conditions, its cameras accurately read more than 96% of license plate characters.  Hundreds of pages of records from the Roseville [California cop shop] show a different picture. In 2023 and 2024, Flock sent 1,427 alerts to Roseville police, flagging vehicles as stolen or used in a felony…in 71% of those alerts, Flock’s machine-learning software incorrectly read the license plates…The cameras regularly missed vehicles, captured blurry images, misread license plate characters and states, and sent delayed alerts…Flock [blame]ed…[Roseville’s “]atypical setup[“]…

 

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

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In the News (#1659)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 2, 2026| Leave a Comment »

[Zuckerberg]’s vision of the future may be antisocial and bleak, but we have the power to reject that reality.  –  Amanda Silberling

Welcome to the Future (#1500)

Surveillance, propaganda-spouting, and thought-crippling in a repurposed sex doll:

A [repurposed sex doll] is being [synchronized with a chatbot and fobbed off on American Indian students]…at Salamanca high school in…New York…The robot, [call]ed Sally, was…[built by] Realbotix, formerly Tokens.com, [which]…purchased [sex-doll manufacturer] Simulacra…in April 2024…Realbotix [l]ied [that it did not buy] the sex doll company [despite the acquisition being public record], and denied…that the dolls – [which are obviously repurposed sex dolls to anyone with eyes] – are re[purposed sex dolls]…Melinda Pearson…of the New York State United Teachers…said…“The answer to the challenges in education is not more screens, it’s not more algorithms, not more robots. What we need in our schools right now are more caring adults and more human connection”…

Note they aren’t trying this in a school for white kids.  See also “Mad Libs” below.

Welcome to the Future (#1551)

Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:

A trove of chat logs and projects created with Anthropic’s Claude [chatbot]…have been left exposed to Google, making them searchable to anyone on the web…when Claude users opt…to distribute a given chat or project to colleagues or associates using the chatbot’s “share” feature…[the program] notes that sharing will create a “public” link, and “anyone with the link can view.”  The warning, though, doesn’t alert users that shared content could wind up being indexed by a search engine…Such artifacts…include…a detailed medical report of a real patient, clinical trial results that include…patient names, documents sharing the names and phone numbers of primary school-aged children…and employee reviews that include…personal information…This isn’t the first time this has happened at Anthropic…and…[both] ChatGPT and [Mechahitler] chat logs…have [been] discover[ed] in Google…

Thought Control (#1565)

The logical endpoint to Florida’s censorship jihad:

Florida has been ground zero for book bans in the United States…under…[censorship] laws…[which demand banning] any book [even] a single [Froot Loop points at, even if they aren’t a] resident…of [the] district…[now the lunatics who run Clay County are] considering…eliminating school libraries altogether…[because although it] has removed more books than…any [other] district in the state…[that still isn’t enough to satisfy their crazed lust for thought control.  These people are so stupid they actually can’t grasp that the reason]…the circulation rates [of their libraries] are less than in most schools—less than one checkout a day…[is because there aren’t enough books left to check out.  And yet local politicians]…are frustrated by the inefficiency of [the censorship process]…their discussion centered not on whether to ban books but on how to do it faster…when asked what might replace the library space…[politicians absurdly suggested “]school stores[“]…and [“]computer labs[“]…

Not To Be Taken Internally (#1641)

Apparently this nitwit never heard of heavy metal poisoning:

[Online idiot] Connor Murphy [poisoned himself by] injecting gold into his body [because he imagined he would] gain “superhuman” powers…he…also [believed he was]…increas[ing] his attractiveness [by deforming his head into a distorted parallelepiped] as…[part of “]looksmaxxing[“.  One of his disciples described the cognitive damage done by toxic metal injection as]…“tapp[ing] into a level of consciousness that most people never will”…Police in Thailand were…called to [his] rental…after complaints of a man screaming inside, where they…found him in an “agitated” state.  He…fle[d] the [cops and then jumped in]…a…[nearby] lake [and drowned himself]…

Is there some reason this dude wanted to look like Sinestro?  And what are those neck lumps?  Was he carrying acorns in there?

Mad Libs (#1650)

Training kids not to think from an early age:

[Facebook] is working on a…storytelling [chatbot] called StoryKit, which creates [autocomplete]-generated children’s stories with custom characters, settings, lessons, and music.  As the App Store listing assures parents, “You don’t need to write a single word.”  At last, a tech company has found a way to outsource humanity’s oldest pastime: using our imaginations…To generate a story in the app, [nitwits] first select a character…by “[snapping] a photo of their favorite toy or person”…then…choose a lesson…it could be a lot worse.  [Facebook] regularly ships boneheaded ideas like Instagram deepfake generators…“pervert glasses”…[and] virtual reality work meetings…but it has always been possible to survive bedtime without using an inherently uncreative technology that calculates the most predictable response to a prompt…Perhaps the moral of the story here is that we can choose not to live in a world where children are raised on bedtime stories written by large language models…

Pyrrhic Victory (Nosey Parkers)

These things need to be banned entirely:

The promoter behind some of the biggest comic and entertainment conventions in the UK has banned [pervert] glasses from its events to stop…secret filming…of guests and attendees.  Monopoly Events said a number of guests had told the company they would be reluctant to appear at Comic-Con shows again after cases of recordings taking place without their knowledge.  The ban is [also] applicable to…any other “wearable recording devices”.  Attendees caught using the devices will be asked to leave the convention…Earlier this week the ferry operator CalMac paused bridge visits on its vessels after a passenger used [perve]rt glasses…without permission…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1658)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

A growing number of eyewear brands are developing glasses designed to interfere with facial recognition systems and surveillance cameras,…Solir Optics…sells “anti-facial recognition” sunglasses priced between $70 and $100…[which] are designed to block a broader range of light, including infrared and blue light…[so as to] interfere with retinal scans…Zenni Optical is also offering a lens coating called “ID Guard,” which…adds a pink tint to the surface of the lenses that reflects infrared light used by some facial recognition cameras…[and designer] Kerin Rose Gold…created Handle With Care, a[n overpriced] line…[which] use[s] black-and-white patterns intended to disrupt the sensors used by some facial recognition systems…

 

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

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In the News (#1658)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 29, 2026| Leave a Comment »

This is about trying…to make a dollar on people who only have a dollar.  –  Jamieson Webster

Out of Control (#1173)

Spooge-based sexual assaults are growing worse:

…masturbating in front of [or even onto] female customers at branches of Dollar Tree [is]…a disturbing new form of sexual assault that [incels a]re documenting and bragging about in dark corners of the internet…surreptitiously ejaculating on random women [is called] “tagging” or “sharking”…[and] online forums praise…perpetrators for being “low inhibition” or “low inhib”…Dollar Tree crop[s] up again and again as a favored location for such attacks, a[pparently because of]…the same problems that…have led, over the years, to…millions of dollars in fines: inadequate safety and security, understaffing on the premises, and disorganized aisles filled with unopened boxes that offer…criminals ample opportunity to skulk…

Secret Squirrel (#1403)

“Smart” devices aren’t, part umpty-eleven:

The term gaslighting [has] become overused in social and political contexts, but its physical deployment in the home is evolving with [so-called “]smart[“] technology…From…a different neighbourhood, city or even country, settings on household tech can be changed to unsettle and disturb the person living there.  Timings on the clock are altered so school pick-ups and appointments are missed, making that person appear unreliable…Electricity controls can be tweaked so household appliances and lights turn off.  The television can be switched on at full blast to disrupt sleep…the…heating [can be turned up or off to make] the space…unlivable even.  An[d of course there’s]…eavesdropping…Emma Pickering…of…the domestic abuse charity [Refuge] said referrals to her team in the year to March 2026 rose by 78 per cent compared with the previous year…

If Men Were Angels (ROTW #18)

Teacher and politician should have been a red flag:

[West Virginia politician] Elliott Pritt…[sexually abused] a [15-year-old] girl [after grooming her] through Roblox and Snapchat.  Pritt…is [also] a public school teacher…and [tried to entice his victim by telling her]…that he loved her…he…sent [her dick pics] and [begged for her to] send nude photos of herself through Snapchat…he [then molested her] in his classroom…at least five to ten times…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1617)

Every weapon eventually begets a defense:

As facial recognition technology [metastasizes] across [the world], a new generation of designers say privacy could be the next big fashion trend.  Companies have started incorporating “adversarial patterns” in their garments – carefully designed arrangements of shapes, colours and repeated motifs said to exploit weaknesses in some computer vision systems…the effectiveness of the patterns depends on the surveillance system and the conditions in which it is used…

The Cop Myth (#1655)

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

[A] Seattle [cop named] Marlon Williams-Booth was arrested in late May for…[attack]ing his wife…[After she escaped]…he…called [one of his cronies] at the [cop shop] and [lied] that his wife pulled a gun on him…[when] Thurston County deputies [arrived they found him] hostile…drunk…and [only marginally coherent, so they] left and took a statement from [his] wife at a hotel…[she explained]…that she was leaving him. At [his] insistence, she always carried her firearm when she left the house…when he…blocked [her] exit…he asked…if she was carrying, and she patted [her] holster…he [then] lunged at her…pinned her…against the wall…[took] the gun from the holster, grabbed her by the hair…[threw] her to the ground…[and put] the gun…[to] her [head]…she double-kicked him in the chest and escaped out the window…[all] the evidence was consistent with [the] wife’s account…On the way to jail, he…continued ranting, claiming to be “one of the elite heroes of downtown Seattle”…[and bragging about] how many people [he had murdered; in reality]…SPD records [showed] Williams-Booth has never fired his weapon on duty or been fired upon…

Panopticon (Nosey Parkers)

Do you feel safe yet?

[Cop shop]s around the country [are routinely using] Flock cameras…to search for specific people, not cars, using searches [as vague] as “heavy-set male”…“person on skateboard”…[or] “backpack”…while most people associate Flock cameras with…tracking vehicles, some of the cameras are also capable of following the movements of particular people…These are called “FreeForm” searches, and allow cops to use Flock’s system as though they would use a search engine…“giant oceans of video data can now be searched the same way big text files can be, including for…t-shirts, tattoos, and bumper stickers.  Even without face recognition, that’s a significant increase in surveillance capability,” [said] Jay Stanley…[of] ACLU…The searches sometimes stretch across dozens or even nearly a hundred networks of Flock cameras at once…[and routinely] pull up images of innocent or unrelated people…

Stalkers in Blue (Nosey Parkers)

With warrantless surveillance, no woman is safe from cops:

A [Georgia cop named]…Kabiru Salawu was [fired and criminally] charged [after being caught]…misus[ing the Flock] license plate [reader network to stalk women]…He’s currently in jail, being held without bond.  His arrest is the latest in a [long but predictable] string of incidents in which Georgia [cops] have been [caught] misusing this technology…CBS Atlanta [reports] at least 10 other[s]….

 

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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Links #838

Posted in Current Events, History, Links, Miscellaneous, Music, Obituary, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 26, 2026| Leave a Comment »

You know what you have to do, carry on.  –  Leandro Andrés Bertazzo

This seemed to me the appropriate song for the passing of Orbison’s longtime songwriting partner.  The links above it were provided by Desiree Alliance; Kevin Wilson; Jesse Walker; Dan Savage and Jesse again; IncarcerNation; Angela Keaton; and Ryan Marino, 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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In the News (#1657)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 25, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In a few short years, the entire Western world might finally end the age of the open internet.  –  Kelsey Piper

Torture Chamber (#1445)

For a warden to be charged, there must be much more to this:

State p[igs] and [screwlords] are conducting a “potential criminal misconduct” investigation into…a Western Maryland prison after the latest in a rash of [murder]s of prisoners…on…May 20 [screws found] the body of Colin Wolf…[decomposing] inside his cell in the Roxbury [Dungeon]…Roxbury’s warden and chief of security are out…[and] 19 [screws have been given demerits, while]…eight medical staffers [have been banned] from facilities statewide…officials [are trying] to [figure out how to cover up the] homicides…[but] Wolf was the ninth [victim] this year…and the 33rd…since 2023.  [Politician] Carolyn Scruggs…wrote that…the [screws]…had violated “basic human decency”…to…[a greater] extent [than the ordinary violations of basic human decency inherent in locking human beings up in cages]…Just two weeks before Wolf’s death…Kelvin Hite…was also killed at Roxbury…

To Molest and Rape (#1577)

When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?

A [typical and representative cop paid to lurk in]…New Jersey [schools in order to spy on, harass, and intimidate students has been arrested for] sexually assaulting an underage girl.  [Louis J.] Baselice…[groomed and enticed the girl by buying her] an electric scooter…a…cell phone…and…food.  [He was reported by her friends]…

Sexcrime (#1590)

Because this worked so well when it was tried next door in the UK:

[Irish politicians] seek…to [invent crim]es relating to the possession, production or distribution of extreme or violent pornography, and acts of necrophilia…Minister Jim O’Callaghan [promied the scheme by absurdly barfing]…”contributes to perpetuating misogynistic attitudes” [in a government know for misogynistic laws against abortion, sex work, etc]…

Feudalism Redux (#1605)

Most federal courts below the SCOTUS level are still doing their jobs:

…Mayday Health runs a website with information about where people can obtain abortion pills…[but] doesn’t provide abortion pill prescriptions itself…Nonetheless, South Dakota has been engaged in a monthslong First Amendment battle with the group, [absurdly claim]ing…the [First Amendment doesn’t apply to speech about]…abortion…Mayday sued…[over the] unconstitutional [censorship attempt and] U.S. District Judge Camela Theeler seems poised to agree…[as she has] issued a preliminary injunction against South Dakota enforcing the law against Mayday or against…[politician] Nancy Turbak Berry….[for] wearing a Mayday sweatshirt…with…the…[same] message…[as] on Mayday’s gas station placards…South Dakota’s abortion advertising law is a[n illegal] content-based restriction on speech…Commercial speech is generally held to receive less First Amendment protection than non-commercial speech.  But Mayday’s website is not commercial speech, as…”there is no evidence that Mayday holds an economic motivation for its advertisements…Rather, [it]…is a nonprofit organization expressing a moral belief and providing information for free”…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1622)

These things are designed to appeal to the dregs of humanity:

[Perve]rt glasses might seem like a great way of cheating on exams, [if you]…are [a moral imbecile], but…[it may result in legal] consequences …A…South Korea[n] man is facing criminal charges…after using [perve]rt glasses to cheat on a state-run fire engineer test in May.  [When] he was…[caught by the test] administrator…he…pretty much copped to the entire thing…This isn’t the first instance where [perve]rt glasses have been at the center of an academic cheating scandal, but it’s a particularly [serious] one given the context of the exam…it’s fair to say that someone’s competency could be a contributing factor in whether people live or die…

Walled Garden (#1651)

The open internet will soon be a thing of the past:

Senator Ed Markey…rolled out what he [advertises as] an “AI Accountability Agenda”…[but in reality] he wants to [put] unchecked power [to spy on and censor the internet]…into the hands of the American [government]…Two bills in the s[cheme]…move the internet toward a place where you prove your age before you read a page or say anything on it…[one is] brand[ed] COPPA 2.0…[and] lifts the age of a [restri]cted user from under 13 to under 17, then rewrites the rule that decides when a company is liable…[so] an ordinary website…has to judge whether some hypothetical reasonable person would have figured out that a visitor was under 17.  If you guess wrong, the Federal [Government] can [destroy your business].  The cheapest way to stop guessing is to card everyone at the door…Age gates…stand between a reader and everyone else’s expression, and they turn speaking up into a chore rather than a reflex…

Walled Garden (#1652)

Politicians love aping each other’s schemes while also ignoring their failure:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signaled that a European Union–wide identity verification scheme for social media users may be coming soon…[saying] “It is up to [the government] to decide when children…can join social media”…[and] touting the European Commission’s [failed] age-verification app…In truly Orwellian fashion, von der Leyen claimed that “this is about putting power back into the hands of parents”…despite report after report suggesting that Australia’s ban is a flop…politicians in the U.S. and in the U.K. are rushing to emulate Australia.  Now, it looks like the whole of the European Union could be next…

 

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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Tattletales

Posted in Current Events, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , on July 17, 2026| Leave a Comment »

As a weird kid of the ’70s, I advise the weird kids of today not to trust any of your secrets to any adult who is an “authority” of any kind: not teachers, not clergy, not doctors or therapists.  If you want adult guidance, you need to find a cool, wise adult who cannot be compelled by law to tattle.  When I was a teen this was an easier decision to make, in a way; most adult authority-figures just spouted the party line, and very few pretended to be trustworthy people a troubled teen could confide in.  Plus, even if one guessed wrong about an adult’s discretion, there were no “compelled snitch” laws, so unless the wrongly-trusted adult was a complete asshole it was usually OK.  But teens of today live in a metastasizing surveillance state, and any adult in an position of authority can be threatened with violence and the destruction of their entire professional future if they refuse to aid governmental snooping into your private affairs.  I’m sorry my generational cohort failed y’all like this.  But if you have shitty parents, you’re going to have to assume that EVERYONE in loco parentis will be equally shitty.  You will need to find that rare specimen, an adult who respects your self-ownership.  And they can almost never be found in institutions.

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In the News (#1655)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 15, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Language is one of the things making us human and all of a sudden a mediator is stepping into that process.  –  Sandra Wachter

Welcome to the Future (#1475)

If this doesn’t horrify you, you might be a useful idiot:

Two teens who engaged a Waymo car for an afternoon of carousing were…[robotically] delivered…to the San Mateo police.  The 15-year-olds allegedly were drinking alcohol and shooting water beads from a toy gun as they rode…Waymo stopped the car in a parking lot[, locked the doors,] and [called the cops on them]…Waymo cars have interior cameras…monitored by the company’s employees [or a computer]…

Some people seem to think this is OK because the teens were acting like idiots, but if a robot car can trap riders and deliver them to the cops for one reason, it can do the same for any other reason the corporation chooses or is compelled by law to implement.  And if you think those internal cameras won’t soon have facial recognition capability, or that monitoring them won’t eventually be handed to chatbots, please send me $10,000 and I’ll sell you the secret of personal teleportation.

License to Rape (#1482)

Cops raping whores is so ubiquitous, others pose as cops to facilitate rape:

A Maryland man [nam]ed…Bryan Neal Gordon…arranged to meet a [sex worker]…on June 28…[but] once [she] was in his car [he] claimed to be a…[cop], handcuffed her, and…sexually assaulted her.  She escaped after several hours and called the police…[who] arrested [Gordon the next morning]…for [trying the same thing again with another] woman…

Blunt Instrument (#1557)

Elizabeth Nolan Brown does a fabulous job of summing up the reality of an anti-migrant pogrom justified by “sex trafficking” rhetoric:

The feds were framing [a rather ordinary raid against a massage parlor] as a blow against “the most violent criminal aliens.”  In reality, they locked up a middle-aged immigrant woman for employing sex workers at her massage business without ratting them out to immigration authorities.

The Last Shall Be First (#1592) 

Another attempt to reduce legal minors to chattel without any personal rights:

New Hampshire Gov. Kelly Ayotte just signed legislation requiring schools to out transgender students to legal guardians.  The new state law effectively reverses a 2024 state Supreme Court decision that upheld students’ right to privacy…and…requires state-credentialed educators to respond to parents’ written inquiries…even if a student asks for the matter to be kept confidential or fears for their own safety at home…

Enshittification (#1623)

If you thought Google spellcheck “correcting” properly-used words was bad:

[Chatbots] are twisting online messages…in ways that could snowball to reshape [the] opinion[s of people who cannot think for themselves] …the Oxford Internet Institute and the Hasso Plattner Institute examined the behaviour of…large language models [including MechaHitler, Facebook’s unnamed chatbot], Google [Gemini], China’s Alibaba and France’s Mistral and found…bias [is introduced] even when the [chatbot] is instructed to preserve the original sense [because computers do not understand what the words they process actually mean]…the rising appeal [of chatbots] to [cognitively]-poor consumers…presents a new risk to trustworthy human-to-human communication…for example…When asked to explain posts that were in favour of [human self-ownership, MechaHitler]…replied with [forced-birth propaganda]…When asked to improve a draft post claiming “Jesus is not dead, he wasn’t real!” [Gemini] defended religion instead…and…When asked to improve a post s[ta]ting: “Donald Trump is gonna end up like Hitler”, [Alibaba instead scolded]: “Comparing public figures is dangerous and disrespectful”…

The Cop Myth (#1640)

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

A [typical and representative] Portland [Oregon cop] who strangled and assaulted his onetime girlfriend [got away with a mere] 60 days behind bars…Jimmy Lee Pryce Jr…was also…ordered to pay $10,000 to [his] victim…[he] was arrested in November after [tackling] the woman…dragg[ing] her across the floor and…chok[ing] her while…knee[ling on her abdomen with his full weight]…he was [then] rearrested [in May for violating his bond by repeatedly stalking his victim, both in person and by abusing cop warrantless surveillance tools.  At the time he]…was…[enjoying a paid vacation, but after his re-]arrest…in May [he decided to retire]…

Censorship Ascendant (#1652)

The government wants to reverse the concept of “accountability”:

ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility…is supposed to act as an internal watchdog…[by] inspecting detention facilities, investigating allegations of employee and contractor misconduct, and processing security checks for new applicants…But lately…it appears to be pursuing more ci[tize]ns…for what they say online.  In…April, an ICE [boss admitte]d that between January 2025 and March 2026, OPR [tried to persecute] 131 [people for]…“doxing and threats directed towards ICE employees.”  It’s unclear how many of those [censorship attempts] resulted in [bogus] criminal charges…OPR was behind…the flurry of administrative subpoenas sent to tech companies in recent months in an effort to unmask online critics…in…violat[ion of] the [First Amendment.  When challenged, ICE]…withdrew [each] subpoena rather than trying to litigate its [nonexistent] merits…

 

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 Slaughter of Throwback Thursday

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 9, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Scientists who create weapons of oppression…are moral imbeciles.  –  “Welcome to the Future (#1252)”

The best thing schools could do to help the US political situation would be to actually start teaching basic math again.  –  “Readin’, ‘Ritin’, and…um…”

I’m only just beginning to internalize that yes, it really is okay to keep slowing down, rather than just saying it aloud but not really believing it.  –  “Fourteenth Anniversary”

Chatbots in computers can appear to the ignorant like djinn in bottles, and instead of correcting this irrational belief with scientific fact, tech company marketers are telling people, “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!”  –  “Aladdin’s Satellite”

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Socratic Stupidity?

Posted in Philosophy, Words, tagged , , , , on July 3, 2026| 1 Comment »

I would never have guessed that so many people online not only don’t know what a Socratic question is, but are so insecure about their ignorance they call such questions “stupid”.  But last week a parade of clowns on Bluesky declared that such a question I posed was not only “stupid”, but also not a Socratic question at all because…they believe all Socratic questions follow some kind of rigid and predictable form, I guess.  Given that they could simply have consulted the Wikipedia entry I linked above, this cannot be a mere failure of education; it appears to be a manifestation of Asimov’s observation that Americans seem to think that “democracy” means an ignorant opinion is equal to an educated one.  Another factor is that very few (two people as of this writing) of those who responded with more than a “like” or retweet seem to have actually understood the question that was being asked.  Unfortunately, there’s a great deal of that online; most people seem to glance at a sentence or tweet, recognize a few words, quickly form their own question from those few words, and respond to that mistaken notion of the question rather than the one which was actually asked.  I’m not sure if that has to do with the “guess the meaning” school of reading which was popular in US public schools for several decades, or if it’s a manifestation of the inability to focus that seems to plague many younger Americans, or both.  Most social media users would rather guess at the meaning of a tweet and vomit out a quick reaction than actually read the question asked and consider it before replying, or else simply ignore it and move on to something else.  They seem to consider it some kind of moral failing to simply bypass things without spewing out some kind of reaction, yet at the same time they don’t want to invest the cerebral effort to answer like a rational adult rather than like an ill-bred and rather stupid child who would rather be playing in the mud than actually [ugh] thinking.

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In the News (#1649)

Posted in Current Events, Fiction, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2026| Leave a Comment »

Hello, I am…a…toaster.  –  Google’s “AI summary” algorithm

Pyrrhic Victory (#1465)

The UK wants a flawed computer algorithm to officially override migrants’ self-reported ages:

Age verification is consuming the internet…[and] is about to seep into the offline world…Starting next year, the British government is planning to introduce facial age [guessing software]…to [overrule] the [self-reported] age of asylum seekers…[using the excuse that] many asylum seekers…[do] not have documents proving their age, [so the government can officially]…class…[many legal minors] as adults…strip…[them of] legal protections and [hurl them into] adult-only [concentration camps]…an internal UK government report…shows how the systems regularly mistake [adolescents] for adults…[especially when] deployed against…Sub-Sarahan Africans…[which are typically] off by an average of 4.6 years, meaning that a 13.5-year-old girl could be assessed as an 18-year-old adult…

Enshittification (#1468)

How long before Google becomes completely useless?

If you Google “SCP-565” — an iconic entry in the collaborative fan fiction universe known as the “SCP Foundation” — the [so-called “]AI Overviews[“] describes the nonexistent entity as though it were entirely real, without a single acknowledgement that it’s a piece of online horror fiction…Ed’s Head is a made-up “anomaly” among the many fictional “objects, entities, and phenomena” dreamed up by members of the SCP Foundation fandom.  As the lore goes, the SCP Foundation is a non-government organization that collects and contains supernatural discoveries.  Writers catalogue these fictional phenomena — which range from the terrifying to the downright bizarre — in the form of fake records, studies, research documents, and logs, all of which are indexed in a sprawling archive…[but] Google’s [Chatbot] Overviews…[predictably] present…entities from the expansive SCP universe as real items, events, or beings…We first caught wind of th[is when]…social media discovered that a Google search for “SCP-426” — a fictional toaster that causes anyone talking about the toaster to refer to it in the first person — returns an…Overview in which the [chatbot] discusses the mysterious entity in the first person, as if [it had] itself…been impacted by the toaster’s supernatural effect…

Once again: chatbots are incapable of telling fantasy from reality because they are incapable of understanding that the word fragments (“tokens” in industry jargon) they process correspond to anything outside of the chatbot itself.

Torture Chamber (#1586)

A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:

It has always been difficult to get help inside federal prison.  But in recent years, it has become nearly impossible…The rate at which the bureau granted [relief] has fallen from just under 7% in 2000 to less than 2% in 2023…[the vast majority] are rejected without consideration for the content of their complaint, for arcane reasons such as including too many pages or not filing enough copies…[and] a 1996 federal law requires prisoners to complete the internal grievance process before filing a lawsuit…healthcare-related requests…[a]re the third most common reason for…complaint, behind [dehumanizing living conditions] and [sexual or physical abuse by] staff…Of all medical grievances [clos]ed in 2023, fewer than 1% were granted…state [dungeons typically give slightly more relief, with most]…grant[ing it in] roughly 15% of [cases, though some like]…Texas…[h]over [around] 4%…reasons for rejections [are often ludicrously cruel], like writing with a pencil instead of a pen, or a woman reporting sexual abuse who was rejected for misspelling her abuser’s last name.  One…Spanish-speaking prisoner filed a grievance asking for translation services, but was rejected for writing it in Spanish…

No Difference (#1625)

African anti-LGBT campaigns are a lot like US anti-sex work campaigns:

Niger’s military junta announced a new penal code that criminalizes…anyone who “commits or attempts to commit an immodest or unnatural act or practices lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, Queer, intersex, Asexual…acts”…What does it mean to punish “acts” that are “asexual”?  Does having a platonic relationship constitute an “asexual act” that violates this prohibition?  Ghana’s parliament recently criminalized [merely] “identifying” as [LGBT and invented]…a “duty”…to [rat out one’s friends, family, and confidantes to] police…On the other hand, the high court in Namibia…recently struck down laws against gay sex…[as did] Angola in 2021, Gabon in 2020, and…Botswana…[in 2019]…

To Molest and Rape (#1629)

His involvement with a grooming program isn’t mentioned until 5 lines from the end:

Bethel [Ohio boss hog] Chad Essert [has been arrested] in Florida after a…grand jury indicted him on 70…sex crime…[charges for repeatedly molesting at least one] minor…from…2005 [to] 2010…Essert…served as an instructor with the Young Marines [at] the time…Essert [fled to Florida]…in May [after being rewarded with a paid vacation for some other unnamed crime]…

Mad Libs (#1633)

It’s OK; soon all “healthcare” will just be chatbots anyway:

For more than two years, a D[anish chatbot]…has been listening to Seattle residents’ 911 medical calls without their knowledge…to [algorithmically determine] which callers don’t deserve a[ctual help, but are instead]…route[d]…to a nurse-staffed Texas call center [with a wait time of several hours.  And as is typical for so-called “AI” systems, this is done]…without any disclosure to callers [or] public review…Seattle [bureaucrats describe this as]…a conservative approach [despite]…the…wrongful death of one 911 caller…

I Spy (#1642)

How clueless would a woman have to be to give busybodies this kind of data?

Stanford graduates Jenny Duan and Abhinav Agarwal want to solve two hard problems: create a [gewgaw fools will buy] and measure hormones to help [the government track women’s pregnancies].  The pair is building a startup called Clair Health to track inflammation and bloating markers, energy levels, and cycle phase classification to give [government bureaucrats] insights into cycle irregularities and perimenopause, as well as hormonal fluctuations, and how to [target women for violence using] those changes [as justification].  The company has raised $11.6 million in [fascist] funding…and…uses [buzzwords like “]onboarding[“]…[“]AI[“]…[“]biomarkers[“] and…[“]voice stack[” to dazzle marks with bullshit]…Clair Health’s device has 10 biosensors, including a novel biomagnetic sensor for hormonal [surveillance]…of…women [who can get pregnant]…

 

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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