Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘Tennessee’

You’re going to kill me.  –  Lisa Edwards

Since every one of this week’s links, all provided by Cop Crisis, was just horrible, I’m sure y’all will understand if I inject some levity by way of the video.

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!

Read Full Post »

Encryption is either protecting everyone or it is broken for everyone.  –  Meredith Whittaker

To Molest and Rape

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

A [typical and representative]…Tennessee [cop named]…Jonathan Kelly…was charged with…aggravated rape a[fter he raped]…a woman during a traffic stop…Kelly t[threatened to arrest] the woman [for a bogus]…crime if she [refused to submit to]…him…

Where Are the Protests? (#945) 

I’m sure the “anti-trafficking” crusaders will be going after this any day now:

Migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country…This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century.  Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee.  Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina.  Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota.  Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic.  This labor force has been slowly growing for almost a decade, but it has exploded since 2021, while the systems meant to protect [them] have [been allowed to break] down [because money is instead going to grow the apparatus of surveillance, censorship, and carceral violence]…

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1117)

Fanatics’ crusade to control all human thought is never-ending:

A…[pack of censorious politicians]…studying [ways to impose harsher censorship] in the United Kingdom [wants people to believe] that not only is porn a major contributor to real-world violence, it is violence…the group echoes old radical feminist tropes about pornography—that there is no such thing as ethical porn, that it’s all “exploitation,” and its mere existence is “a form of violence against women”…All-Party Parliamentary Groups “have no official status within Parliament…[but] can sometimes be influential“…So it’s worrying to see statements like these from Diana Johnson, a [politician with a long history of working to increase violence vs sex workers]…

I Spy (#1207)

Nothing infuriates violent, self-important busybodies more than private affairs that are none of their business:

The head of the messaging app Signal has warned that it will quit the UK if the forthcoming online safety bill [demands the intentional weakening of] end-to-end encryption…Meredith Whittaker said…“we would absolutely 100% walk rather than ever undermine the trust that people place in us to provide a truly private means of communication”…The bill has been criticised by privacy campaigners for a provision allowing Ofcom, [a surveillance agency], to order a platform to use certain technologies to [spy on users] and [censor anything the government demands as long as it belches out “THE CHILDREN!!!” first]…the bill could force encrypted messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Apple’s iMessage to [spy on] users’ messages and create vulnerabilities in their platforms that could be exploited by rogue actors and governments.  Whittaker told the BBC it was “magical thinking” to believe there can be privacy “but only for the good guys”…Whittaker also criticised a system called client-side scanning, where images are scanned before being encrypted…[because] such a system would turn everyone’s phone into a “mass surveillance device that phones home to tech corporations and governments”…

The Vultures Descend (Vulture Watching)

Medical confidentiality has gone the way of the dodo:

A Greenville [South Carolina] woman was arrested…and charged with performing or soliciting an abortion.  In October 2021…[she] sought medical help at St. Francis Hospital after having labor pains…an[d naively believed she could trust] medical personnel [with the knowledge that] she had taken abortion pills to end a pregnancy…[of course one of them called the cops on her]…

The Cop Myth (#1303)

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

An Opa-locka [Florida cop has been] arrested…on…domestic abuse charges [because he regularly beat] and threatened to kill [his wife and children] for almost a decade…The wife of Johane Hendrik Taylor [reported] that [many] times dating back to 2014 her husband hit her with closed fists, once even breaking a rib and trying to drag her outside while she was unconscious.  Another time…he…hit one of h[is]…children over the head with a vacuum cleaner…he…has abused the children since the oldest…was three…she is currently 13…Taylor…is the youngest son of former Opa-locka Mayor Myra Taylor and the brother of the city’s current Mayor John Taylor…[which may partially explain] how he was hired as a…[cop] despite twice failing his police exam and having a criminal past involving domestic battery.  He resigned in 2013 when [reporters] discovered th[is but]…was rehired…about two years later…[and soon] promoted…

The Last Shall Be First (#1309) 

Trans people have become another canary in the civil rights coal mine:

Mississippi [has] bec[o]me the seventh state to enact a restriction on…transition-related health care for minors.  Gov. Tate Reeves…[turned the signing into a political event, babbling culture-war nonsense centered around THE CHILDREN!!!]…the…bill also bans public funding from going to any institution or individual that provides such care to minors.  Health care providers who infringe the law can have their licenses revoked.  The law also allows minors who receive transition-related care to sue providers for 30 years after they receive care…In the last two years…Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah and, now, Mississippi…have [enacted] such measures into law, though judges have blocked Arkansas’ and Alabama’s laws…pending the outcome of lawsuits…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

Sex workers…would never want their child to feel the way we felt when our parents rejected us for becoming sex workers.  –  Annie Temple

Whore Madonnas

A good article about why the madonna/whore duality is pure bullshit:

Social wisdom would have us believe that sex industry workers are terrible parents who routinely jeopardize their childrens’ safety by bringing “perverts” around, leaving them to raise themselves, and setting an example of depravity.  Social wisdom is INCORRECT.  Children of sex workers that I know are more likely to be level-headed, socially aware, critical thinkers.  Rather than putting their parents through a lot of grief, they are strong allies of their parents.  Gutsy, confident, young people who speak their minds and care about others…

Confined and Controlled

The appalling levels of confusion about sex workers in this article, plus the Nevada model proselytizing, do not inspire confidence:

A San Francisco [politician] who wants to legalize red light districts has scheduled meetings with five sex workers…in order to better understand how legal brothels operate in Nevada…Ronen [claims to understand that]…”sex workers…want decriminalization, not legalization”…[yet also babbles about state-prescribed]…protections needed to keep [sex workers] safe…[while] meeting…with [Nevada model proponent] Alice Little…who [apparently doesn’t understand that 99% of sex workers have no interest in being] finger print[ed and interrogated by cops four times a year, nor enduring]…random checks [by cops to enforce state-mandated licensing and] STD testing.  “The sheriff will show up completely unannounced,” said Little. “It makes us feel safe”…

Feeling “safe” when armed cops come barging into one’s workplace unannounced demonstrates complete disconnection from the reality of most sex workers’ lives, and that’s not even considering that 99% of Nevada sex workers cannot (due to criminal background checks, privacy needs, etc) or will not work in the brothels.

Monsters

The headline is a bit misleading, since he was found guilty of manslaughter:

Hector Enrique Valencia Valencia killed 69-year-old Kimberley McRae by pressing a lamp cord against her neck before leaving her lifeless body inside her apartment in Coogee, New South Wales, in January 2020…the 23-year-old student went to McRae’s home and paid $100 for oral sex…when he realised she was trans…he punched her before she grabbed a nearby lamp…the pair wrestled over control of the lamp and its cord, which the student subsequently used to strangle her…the…prosecution [failed to]…prove…beyond a reasonable doubt that Valencia intended to either kill or cause serious harm to McRae, meaning he could not be found guilty on the murder charge…[but he] had already pleaded guilty to manslaughter…He…will face sentence proceedings in May…

If Men Were Angels

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

Tupelo [Mississippi cops] arrested a youth pastor for…[molesting] a 16-year-old girl.  Alexander Blackwelder…was…denied…bond…

Lack of Evidence (#998)

Authoritarians don’t give a damn if your kind of sex work is (temporarily) “legal”:

Hex makes a living in virtual reality.  She’s an online sex worker, hosting shows and posting photos and videos from social VR platform VRChat to…a subscription site for erotic content.  She streams from behind a virtual 3D avatar that tracks her movements, often wearing fuzzy animal ears [and] fantasy-inspired neon outfits.  Hex had plans to travel from the UK to visit her friends in the U.S. this year, and applied for a tourist visa.  But in late January, she said, she received a letter stating that she was permanently ineligible for admission to the U.S.  The reason given was the code for “prostitution”. “My reaction to the notice was honestly ‘what the hell? How is this possible? What I’m doing is completely legal’”…

Being a “legal” sex worker will not protect you, not even from arrest, so maybe you ought to stand with other sex workers to demand rights for everyone rather than hiding behind a screen of arbitrary “legality”.

Thought Control (Censorship Ascendant)

The most Orwellian case of censorship so far this year:

Owners of Roald Dahl ebooks are having their libraries automatically [replac]ed with the new censored versions containing hundreds of changes to [the author’s words]…Readers who bought electronic versions of the writer’s books…before the controversial updates have discovered their copies have now been [vandaliz]ed…Puffin Books, the company which publishes Dahl novels, [bowdleriz]ed the…novels…on devices such as the Amazon Kindle.  Dahl’s biographer Matthew Dennison…accused the publisher of “strong-arming readers into accepting a new orthodoxy in which Dahl himself has played no part”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1305) 

The war on trans people has expanded to include drag queens:

The Tennessee legislature [has] passed a bill expanding the state’s definition of “obscenity”…to criminalize anyone who “engages in an adult cabaret performance on public property or in a location where [it]…could be viewed by a [minor].”  SB0003’s redefinition of “adult cabaret performance” was crafted by Republican legislators specifically to target drag shows, although the actual phrasing is expansive enough to criminalize many other trans-inclusive public events, such as…Pride Parades…[or] any performance by any person not presenting as their assigned-at-birth gender that does not take place in a venue…explicitly zoned as an “adult cabaret”…

 

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!

Read Full Post »

Read Full Post »

This isn’t a few “bad apples”; it’s a culture of rampant misogyny.  –  Rachel Cunliffe

Law of the Instrument

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

A federal sex trafficking and forced labor lawsuit filed by a former employee against…shipping giant Crowley Maritime will move forward…[after the] Judge…denied a motion…to dismiss…the plaintiff claims she was 21 years old when she was hired by Crowley as a credit and collections coordinator in Crowley’s San Salvador office and that she was paid less than $10,000 per year.  She says that in 2017 she was sexually assaulted inside an elevator at the Crowley offices by a supervisor…[and that] Crowley moved the supervisor to a new department instead of firing him…

The “sex trafficking” angle seems to derive from the fact that she was forced by her job to travel with the supervisor who raped her.

Follow Your Bliss

How nice of this guy to “volunteer” for a position that gave him access to children:

A [typical and representative] volunteer youth pastor at the Abba’s House church in Hixson [Tennessee, who was also the] PTA president at Wolftever Creek Elementary School…now faces [charges of] child molestation…and aggravated sexual battery…Dustin Spillers…is [originally from Louisiana and the charges appear to originate in Georgia]…

This one too:

A [volunteer] Colorado Springs Bible study teacher, Carlton Ranquist, pleaded guilty to [molest]ing a [girl under 15]…Ranquist accepted a plea deal that saw him plead guilty to just one of the nine charges he initially faced…the remaining eight charges will all be dismissed as part of the plea deal…Ranquist was arrested in Maine…to [which he had moved] in 2020…Five [of the] charges Ranquist faced prior to accepting the plea deal…[were for molesting other kids] between 2006 and 2012…

If Men Were Angels

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

A [typical and representative] youth pastor…[named] Sean Patrick Masopust…pleaded guilty to [molesting a teenage girl]…and was sentenced…to 10 years of supervised probation, 28 days in the Steele County [Minnesota] Jail, and a $1,000 fine…

To Molest and Rape (#1286)

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

A [London cop]…who[se identity is being covered up by the government]…is…being investigated…[for] sexually assault[ing] a female colleague…the woman had previously complained about his…behaviour [to supervisors before he actually attacked her].  The man, who was [wearing his magical clown costume] at the time of the…attack, works [covering up other cops’ attacks on other women]…

Stalkers in Blue (#1289)

Another cop demonstrating exactly what he is:

A [cop] pulled down a teenage woman’s top and took a photograph of her breasts after pretending to ejaculate on her chest [by flicking beer foam onto her]…Paul Hinchcliffe…also…[loudly announced] he would use it [and other pictures he took without her consent] to masturbate …the [disgusting] incident took place when he was drinking with three other [pigs]…in a pub in Rotherham on October 3, 2020…[after] the woman l[eft due to his behavior]…she received a message from Hinchliffe saying: “God I’d do you, is that bad?”…accompanied by a number of emojis that the woman took to represent masturbation…

To Molest and Rape (#1298)

This guy needs to be put away before he murders her:

William Ray Pruitt…was arrested…for [stalking and harassing] a…girl [he raped at gunpoint]…in [December] 2020[, when she was 14]…the…stalking began in October 2021, when the victim was 15…and continued into December 2022…[after the rape], the victim’s mother left her job and moved [with her daughter] to an undisclosed location.  But soon after, a private investigator…was hired by Pruitt [to find them so he could]…start…driving by the…new residence…Pruitt [then] began leaving cryptic messages around the neighborhood referencing…an…[imaginary] unborn child…he [named “Libby” and pretended to have sired on his victim by the rape.  Then]…On 8/22/22 [the girl] was driving [home] alone from…school when…Pruitt pulled up next to her and yelled at her to pull over…the[n]…attempted to…force…her…off the road…[she escaped by dr]iving [to] her cousin’s apartment…[and running] inside…[before] Pruitt…[could catch her]…

To Molest and Rape (#1307)

It’s rare to see someone whose name isn’t Maggie McNeill expressing these thoughts this strongly:

[David] Carrick showed…his employers…who he was before he even became a [cop]…he had been under criminal investigation for…burglary.  They let him in anyway.  He was accused of assault against a former partner.  Nothing was done.  He continued to rape and assault women, and was promoted…14 [complaints]…of…violence…were ignored…Carrick did not commit these crimes in spite of being a [cop]…he was part of a force that enabled him to commit these crimes…power-hungry individuals are drawn to positions that give them power and enable them to abuse it.  A man predisposed to raping and harming women will seek a job in an organisation that provides him the opportunity to do so.  If that organisation ignores the blinking red lights and lets such men continue with virtual impunity, it will become a magnet for abusers…This isn’t a few “bad apples”; it’s a culture of rampant misogyny, and such cultures naturally attract and embolden rampant misogynists…The [police have] shown us what [they are].  Now we need to believe it.

 

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!

Read Full Post »

I wanted him to have a positive view of police…we ended up going to [the] emergency room.  –  Shelia Jackson

I hadn’t realized that classical Greece had an early form of pipe organ, the hydraulis; thanks to Genya for drawing my attention to this recording of a reconstructed example of the instrument.  The links above the video were provided by Mike Siegel, Amy Alkon, Cop Crisis (x3), Dan Savage, and Lenore Skenazy, 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!

Read Full Post »

[Can’t] we see [police] doing other things than showing up with a tank?  –  Jennifer Bacon

For the first time since July, I didn’t have a video either suggested by an obituary or in queue from previous weeks, so I went to YouTube and found this rather strange video from 1969.  The links above it were provided by Lucy Steigerwald, Cop Crisis (x3), Radley Balko, Stephen Lemons, and Emma Evans, 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!

Read Full Post »

I’m going to blow your fucking brains out.  –  “Deputy” Rodriguez

It’s been a few years since YouTube showed me an interesting Halloween video, so I was quite pleased to be offered this one last week!  The links above it were provided by C.J. Ciaramella, Cop Crisis (x3), Missy Mariposa, and Walter Olson, 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!

Read Full Post »

Are you a girl?…Because you fucking fight like a girl.  –  Matt King

Since I’m not a fan of rap, I decided to commemorate the passing of Coolio with this parody of his most famous release.  He also infamously tried to sue Weird Al over it, but later displayed wisdom and maturity by publicly admitting that he had been wrong and apologizing to Weird Al.  Coincidentally, the other celebrity death listed here was a close friend of Weird Al’s.  The links above the video were provided by Popehat; Emma Evans; Isley and Franklin Harris; Cop Crisis; Popehat again; Stephen Lemons; and Cop Crisis again, 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 very much!

Read Full Post »

I won’t help you until you help yourself.  –  jail “nurse”

Regular readers know how I feel about abuse of words, especially by government, so this video (called to my attention by Elizabeth N. Brown) really spoke to me.  The links above it were provided by Mike Siegel, Kevin Wilson, Scott Greenfield, Jesse Walker, and Cop Crisis (x3), in that order.

From the Archives

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »