Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘The Last Shall Be First’

In the News (#1408)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[Jail medical services] provid[e] levels of medical care that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.  –  Ty Clarke

Pyrrhic Victory (#1251)

Clearview is so proud of its ability to identify the homeless, they even patented it:

Miami police used facial recognition technology to identify a homeless man who refused to give his name to a…[nosy pig].  That man was arrested, but prosecutors quickly dropped the case after determining the [cop] lacked probable cause…Lisa Femia…[of] EFF…[said] “facial recognition…[is] advertised as a way for law enforcement to solve…the worst crimes…instead we have [them]…using it to harass the homeless”…

Stalkers in Blue (#1252)

Anyone “shocked” by typical cop behavior has no business calling himself a journalist:

CNN anchor Jim Acosta was stunned when Uvalde parent Miguel Cerrillo revealed local cops are…harassing…families of children who were affected by the massacre…[the interview was conducted now because] the Justice Department [has just] released its report on the [criminally pathetic] police response to the May 2022 massacre…Cerrillo [said]…”these officers…[are] harassing us every day…They just pull us over for no reason telling us to leave Uvalde…because they know that the truth was going to come out, and they didn’t want us here”…

Panopticon (#1342)

Building a dystopian panopticon, one useful idiot at a time:

More than a hundred [cop shops]…have set up [computer-enhanced] camera system[s], with nearly 200,000 connected cameras belonging to residents and businesses around the country able to provide “direct access” to [rooting pigs]…the data provides the clearest picture yet of the growing popularity of Fusus, a company…that…turns [private] cameras into [police state] ones, with object recognition capabilities for items, people, and specific vehicles…404 Media is now publishing an interactive map based on the newly obtained data, letting readers see if their own local [cop shop]…has a Fusus system…Beryl Lipton, investigative researcher at…EFF…[said] “This dataset…makes clear that these systems are using hundreds of thousands of public and private cameras to blanket huge swaths of our cities, particularly those in the Southeast, with the capacity for constant surveillance”…

How long before these systems learn to invent imaginary weapons out of bulgy clothes and “furtive movements”, just like real cops?

The Last Shall Be First (#1342) 

Utah has the latest “monkey see, monkey do” bathroom bill:

Utah [politicians are]…targeting transgender people with a statewide, criminal law severely restricting the use of gender identity-appropriate restrooms and changing rooms in many public spaces…the ban…contains a disgustingly invasive “show me your papers and proof of surgery” scenario as the only exception for when a trans person would be allowed to use the appropriate restroom…and…admits that even cisgender people are inevitably going to be targeted for prosecution…Additionally, the bill would authorize the state’s attorney general to take action against any local government not enforcing the ban…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1371)

Politicians don’t even try to make their new laws Constitutional any more:

Florida [politicians want to]…kick [US citizens] under 16 off social media no matter what their parents think.  The bill…[demands that] any [US citizens] under 16 who have an account…delete them…[and] require social media companies…use a third-party age verification system to…[exclude young] people [who are not] using [a VPN]…one of the bill’s sponsors…[pretends] “soaring rates of depression [and] mental disorders…[that are caused by pervasive infantilization and surveillance of young adults, including laws like this one, are instead somehow magically caused by] social media usage”…the…dangerous and unconstitutional…[bill is similar to one] Arkansas passed…last year [which] a federal judge [has blocked with] a temporary injunction. Meanwhile, [California politicians want a similar bill with a mob rule enforcement mechanism, and] Utah’s [is being challenged by a lawsuit from FIRE]…

Blunt Instrument (#1394)

“Sex trafficking” is no longer a magic brain-pause spell, but Florida politicians haven’t noticed yet:

Florida aims to crack down on massage parlors as a way to stop sex work and [harass Asian migrants, using the racist] human trafficking [paradigm]…and nail salons might be next…A [new] bill…would [further micromanage] massage parlor[s], including [the masseuses’ wardrobe and] how dark they are allowed to tint their windows…bill sponsor Vicki Lopez…[vomited out a lot of decade-old wanking fantasies, while shouting “King of the Hill!” and spouting violent propaganda about how she wants cops to] “beat” [Asian women and destroy their livelihoods, bragging that she is “coming after” them]…The bill would [also] allow state health officials to suspend the licenses of [any Asian-owned] establishment [on a mere bureaucratic say-so]…Furthermore, if a massage therapist isn’t able to produce valid government identification, they will be [handed over to ICE for deportation]…

Torture Chamber (#1403)

I’m sure they occasionally yelled “Stop faking!” at him as he wasted away:

A…[legally innocent] HIV-positive [man locked in a cage by the state of California for missing a court date] devolved into AIDS [and] died because…[screws] denied him lifesaving medication even though they had his prescription and were told he needed it to survive…Nicholas Overfield…could..[no longer] stand or speak and was [confined to] a wheelchair when his mother visited him…on April 22, 2022.  He died months later after being transferred out of the jail and then to two hospitals and a hospice.  The lawsuit…names El Dorado County and Wellpath Community Care, LLC, the jail’s health care contractor…“In California alone there are several other documented incidents of Wellpath failing to provide HIV positive individuals with their prescribed medication while in jail,” [Attorney Ty] Clarke said…the immediate cause of death [w]as encephalitis…

 

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 »

In the News (#1403)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[The Swedish model holds that] sex workers are all victims and their consent to sexual activity is—like a minor’s—irrelevant. – Elizabeth Brown

Held Together With Lies (#993)

With the number of people interested in “human trafficking” mythology steadily shrinking, the rescue industry thinks the way to keep milking the mathematically-illiterate is to continually ratchet their fantasy numbers higher.  Four years ago, IJM was claiming 40 million people; now they’re up to 50 million, or as they melodramatically claim, “The number of victims suffering could populate Australia twice.”  Expressed differently, they’re claiming 1.25% of the entire world population consists of “slaves”.

Secret Squirrel (#1332)

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

Domestic violence experts say that [“smart” automobile] features are being weaponized in abusive relationships, and that car makers have not been willing to assist victims.  This is particularly complicated when the victim is a co-owner of the car, or not named on the title…Controlling partners have tracked their victims’ cars in the past using GPS devices and Apple AirTags…but connected car apps offer new opportunities for harassment…[such as by] remote[ly] access[ing]…the…vehicle…to…[activate] lights…horns…heat…[or] air-conditioner…from afar…

The Last Shall Be First (#1351) 

Federal judges have already struck down similar bans, so this is pure political theater:

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine signed an executive order [last] Friday that will immediately ban gender-affirming surgeries for minors within the state…a week after…he…vetoed a bill that would have banned all gender-affirming care for minors, from surgeries to hormone blockers….the…[new] restricti[ons appear designed to insert bureaucrats into the doctor-patient relationship]…

The Course of a Disease (#1352)

Liz Brown on the insidious spread of the Swedish rot:

Maine’s [new prostitution] law…represents a paternalistic philosophical premise: that sex workers are all victims and their consent to sexual activity is—like a minor’s—irrelevant…In an Orwellian twist, U.S. activists have been trying to rebrand it the “Equality Model“—an egregious misnomer, considering that the whole point of this model is that those selling sex (largely women) and those paying for it (largely men) should be treated differently under the law…Maggie McNeill wrote the ultimate essay on this more than 10 years ago.  “The ‘Swedish model’ posits that paying for sex is a form of male violence against women,” McNeill noted.  “This is why only the act of payment is de jure prohibited: the woman is legally defined as being unable to give valid consent, just as an adolescent girl is in the crime of statutory rape.  The man is thus defined as morally superior to the woman; he is criminally culpable for his decisions, but she is not.  In one case, a 17-year-old boy (a legal minor in Sweden) was convicted under the law, thus establishing that in the area of sex, adult women are less competent than male children”…

An Avalanche of Bullshit (#1390)

I’ll believe this when and if it’s ever proven:

[Spooks] are [now claiming] that six high end brothels in the suburbs of Boston and Washington, D.C. were set up by a foreign nation as an espionage “honeytrap”…[which] targeted politicians, high ranking government officials and defense contractors…Russia, China, Korea itself, or even Israel are al[l claimed] as possibly being behind the scheme..[one spook belched out “]false flag[” while making furtive movements in his pants.  A puritanical]…U.S. Attorney [vomited out drivel about] “accountability for the buyers“…[and another clown burbled about “]involvement in prostitution[” in order to make a very ordinary business sound scary so as to justify the huge expenditure of “investigating” people for having consensual sex]…

Torture Chamber (#1394)

Your “leaders” call this “correction”:

A California County is facing legal action after a 21-year-old woman committed suicide while [locked] in [the county’s cages]…Alicia Upton was arrested on April 19, 2022 [during a]…mental health [crisis]…yet despite her clear mental health distress…[she was locked] in…a…cell without safety features….and…on April 28…[she] hanged herself…using the sheets from her bed…18 people died while [locked in cages by] Riverside County…in 2022…and [a similar number in] 2023…[the] county…[also lies when] reporting deaths [by] labeling [legally innocent people] who die…[in its cages] as…”‘sentenced’ post-conviction prisoners” in reports to the Justice Department…

The Cop Myth (#1400)

Another cop murders his family; another “news” outfit buries the lede:

[A New York cop named]…Watson Morgan…[murdered his wife] Ornela…[and his] two sons ages 10 and 12…before turning the gun on himself…neighbors are having difficulty [understanding the concept of]…”a very loving father”…[cops] say the public is not in danger [from the deranged cop coming back from the dead to murder others, and absurdly barfed out the typical lie that a cop committing fatal domestic violence is]…an isolated incident…

 

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 »

In the News (#1401)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on January 4, 2024| Leave a Comment »

They don’t want incarcerated journalists. It doesn’t serve the interest of [the prison bureaucracy or] predatory companies like Securus.  –  Christopher Blackwell

Surplus Women

Why doesn’t the headline read “Brutal murder linked to basketball”?

Marayna Rodgers…left Washington State on December 1 to work as a prostitute in Las Vegas…But on December 6…[an NBA basketball player named] Chance Comanche…and [his ex-girlfriend, a thief and sometimes-whore named] Sakari Harnden…kidnapped and [murdered her after]…Comanche posed as a [client]…the…[two both] strangled…her…and [dumped]…her [body in a ditch]…in Henderson…Nevada…Harnden [supposedly] wanted revenge…[on] Rodgers [because she] had told others that Harnden’s boyfriend, Iosua Sataua…was…arrested for a double murder in Stockton, Calif…

The story is so badly written, it’s hard to be sure of what it means, but I think this is probably close.

The Widening Gyre (#1257)

Technically, several decades is indeed “over a year”:

Police are issuing a warning to…be wary of…social media [tales], after a story…raised alarm but turned out not to be true.  You may have seen the post making the rounds on Instagram and Facebook, telling people of how a young girl went into a bathroom at [a shopping] mall, and when her mom went in to find her, she discovered the child in a stall unconscious, with her head shaved, dressed like a boy…[supposedly] in the process of being abducted for human trafficking…The Alberta RCMP…[says] this particular hoax has been circulating for over a year and is “entirely false”…

I first read this one in one of Jan Brunvand‘s urban legend collections when I was a librarian, but its roots go back centuries; it’s a descendant of “gypsy child abduction” stories or even tales about changelings.

The Last Shall Be First (#1299) 

Texas seems completely uninterested in controlling its psychopathic politicians:

…Seattle Children’s Hospital [has] filed a lawsuit…against the Texas…Attorney General…after [it demanded private medical information of any]…gender transition [care]…provided to [legal minors from] Texas…the hospital…[noted that the Texas attorney general has no jurisdiction over it], and that Washington’s “Shield Law” protects it from [legal demands, warrants, court orders, etc] made by states that “restrict or criminalize reproductive and gender-affirming care”…the OAG[‘s]…demands…[accused] the hospital [of]…“misrepresentation[“] …and [included a demand]…that…the hospital [provide Texas instructions on how to forcibly “detransition” people against their will]…The…demands [includes threats of]…fine[s] and jail confinement of [hospital personnel who do not live in Texas]…

The Punitive Mindset (#1326) 

This fascist evil needs to be eradicated, root and branch:

Securus, a [fascist] company that [profits from people in] prison…persists in struggling with [substandard] tech…greatly affecting incarcerated writers…The company…generat[es huge] profits rooted in hidden charges, kickbacks, and fees imposed upon family members to talk to their loved ones…In Washington, incarcerated journalist Christopher Blackwell and his peers recently faced a data erasure for the third time this year, causing devastating losses for many writers on the inside who depend on devices to save the progress of their work…“I probably lost 150 hours of content, and I have to go back and recreate that,” said Blackwell. “It’s not only exhausting, but it really pushes you to not want to continue to write.”  Derek Trumbo, an incarcerated writer in Kentucky, lost more than a year of writing in a single [forced] system update on his tablet…

The Cop Myth (#1368)

Why are people shocked when men paid and encouraged to behave violently, behave violently?  This story is, unsurprisingly, almost entirely void of details; it takes 175 words to say, “A Mississippi screw argued with another screw and shot him dead in the prison parking lot.”  The rest is puffery and trivia, but it’ll be interesting to see whether the swineherds’ desire to absolve cops of blame for murder trumps their desire to get revenge for a dead cop.

Thought Control (#1379)

Cops will keep taking more and more power as long as people allow them to:

[A Massachusetts cop named Joseph O’Brien who barged into]…an eighth grade classroom [in an attempt to steal] a book wore a body camera and recorded the incident…The American Civil Liberties Union…say[s] they cannot recall [the last] instance…of police going to a school [in an attempt to steal] a book [because late September is too long ago]…Ruth A. Bourquin, senior and managing attorney for the ACLU of Massachusetts…[said] “Police going into schools and searching for books is the sort of thing you hear about in communist China and Russia. What are we doing?”…school [officials] apologized for [kowtowing to the cops’ illegal demands without even requiring a warrant, bloviating a lot of excuses and buzzwords]…an anonymous complaint [was the pretext cops used]…to [justify the attempted theft]…of the book Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe, [belching out the words “]obscene material or pornographic[“]…

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1393) 

Perhaps we’re nearing the end of this nasty, twisted saga:

The company that owns and operates adult entertainment websites including Pornhub…will pay [a] $1.8 million [bribe] to the U.S. government to resolve [extortion demands deriving from] its ties to…GirlsDoPorn.com…and GirlsDoToys.com…whose creators and operators were charged in California in 2019 with deceiving and coercing young women to appear in sex videos…In addition to the $1.8 million pay[off], Aylo will pay victims whose images were posted on its platform and have not already been compensated…

 

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 »

In the News (#1361)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 5, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Anytime there’s a bipartisan consensus and a preachy New York Times op-ed, you can assume something you enjoy is about to get regulated out of existence or made worse in quality.  –  Liz Wolfe

Broken Record (#687) 

Sparsely-populated states are still clinging desperately to “sex trafficking” myths that larger states have quietly backed away from:

The Sturgis Motorcycle rally officially begins on August 4th.  [Blah blah pearl-clutching, lies about criminal charges, infantilization of women, and cop swagger]…South Dakota’s pheasant hunting season also causes a spike in sex trafficking in South Dakota…

The Last Shall Be First (#924)

If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention:

Christine Gallinaro [took] her [deeply autistic] 15-year-old son…[to a cinema] in…New Jersey…[and brought him] into the women’s toilets because there was no family one…her son, who…is non-verbal, “is not equipped to go into a men’s bathroom in a public setting alone”…However, the…theatre’s manager approached them in the…crowded lobby, shouting…“a grown man should not be in the women’s restroom” and “this is not a transgender bathroom”.  He then told an assistant manager to call the police [on them]…

Above the Law (#1142)

They usually make these cases sound like the rapist was doing his victims a favor:

A disgraced Wisconsin prosecutor secretly recorded himself having sex with three women, including one he was prosecuting.  Daniel Steffen…[of] Wisconsin…was sentenced to 18 months in prison after he was convicted in April…“While the defendant and Victim #1 are still engaged in sex, the defendant looks at the camera, sticks his tongue out, and winks several times,” and can be heard repeatedly telling the victim, “Who’s in charge?” the complaint said…In addition to his prison time, Steffen must serve two years of extended supervision, four years of probation, and placement for 10 years on Wisconsin’s sex offender registry.

You Were Warned (#1279)

The bipartisan war on the internet moves us another step closer to idiocracy:

“[The internet causes] sex…trafficking, drug[s and death”, bloviate perennial nuisances] Lindsey Graham…and Elizabeth Warren…in t[he] New York Times…What follows is a litany of untrue statements and gross exaggerations about the way Big Tech operates and the purported harm done by the cluster of websites that millions of Americans willingly use on a daily basis…Warren and Graham go on to announce they’re introducing [another terrible internet-breaking law] to create [yet] an[other government agency]…”charged with licensing and policing…tech companies” which will be “nimble” and “adaptable” (just like all those other government agencies).  The regulator will “prevent online harm” (by waving a magic wand and ensuring no bad actors ever go online); “promote free speech and competition”…by scrapping Section 230 and…”guard Americans’ privacy” (because government agencies do a great job at cybersecurity!…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1293)

Blaming bad behavior on an imaginary “addiction” is the opposite of admitting responsibility:

[Actor] Terry Crews recently [attempt]ed [to avoid responsibility for abusive behavior toward his wofe and kids by blaming it on an imaginary “]porn addiction[” he melodramatically described as a]…”battle”…

It isn’t only celebrities who use this dodge to lessen their culpability:

[Indiana teacher] Christopher “Kit” Degenhart…[pled] guilty…to…seduc[ing a 17-year-old student in the theater department he headed]…Degenhart will spend one year behind bars while participating in a work release program.  After one year, he’s scheduled to move into home detention while working in the program for six more months…he…will [then] be on two and a half years of probation…[inclu]ding sex addiction meetings…[and] regist[ration] as a sex offender…

Thought Control (#1328)

Texas has figured out how to stop judges from overruling library censorship: simply eliminate libraries:

Houston…will be eliminating librarian positions at 28 schools this upcoming year and converting the libraries into “[punishment] centers” where kids [declared to have] behavioral issues will be [confined]…This…[is] part of the new superintendent Mike Miles[‘  “]reform[“] program…[with the Orwellian title] New Education System…a total of 85 schools…have joined Miles’ program, and of those, 28 campuses will lose their librarians.  The district said th[ose 28] will have the opportunity to transition to other roles within the district…[but] the [employment of the] remaining 57 NES schools’ librarians will be assessed on a case-by-case basis…

To Molest and Rape (#1358)

“Sexual offenses” sounds so much milder than “rape”:

The [typical and representative] chief constable of Devon and Cornwall Police is being investigated over serious allegations of sexual offences in Northern Ireland.  Will Kerr was a [cop] in Northern Ireland for 27 years before [being promoted] in 2018…he said [she wanted 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 »

In the News (#1351)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 1, 2023| 1 Comment »

The purpose of this program is mass surveillance at its core.  –  Julie Mao

Welcome to the Future (#1252)

The dystopian future of Minority Report has arrived:

The legal research and public records data broker LexisNexis is providing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement with tools to target people who[m it claims] may potentially commit a crime — before any actual crime takes place…LexisNexis then allows ICE to track the purported pre-criminals’ movements.  Th[is] unredacted contract overview provides a rare look at the [fascist] $16.8 million agreement between LexisNexis and ICE…whose surveillance of and raids against migrant communities are widely [recogn]ized as brutal, unconstitutional, and inhumane…Julie Mao…[is] co-founder of Just Futures Law, which is suing LexisNexis over…it[s] illegal…buy[ing] and sell[ing of] personal data.  Mao…[pointed out that] the ICE contract document…is “an admission and indication that ICE aims to surveil individuals where no crime has been committed and [without] criminal warrant or evidence of probable cause”…

You Were Warned (#1269)

Don’t Canadian politicians pay attention to what happens in other parts of the Commonwealth?

…the…Canadian government…[has] passed [a bullshit link tax bill], effectively saying that Canada is breaking the open web, [so naturally Facebook] announced it was officially pulling news links from Canada…as when this happened in Australia, I’m sure some people are going to get mad at [Facebook], but…even if it’s by accident, or a side-effect, it’s helping to defend the open web, against a ridiculous attack from an astoundingly ignorant and foolish set of Canadian politicians…

The Implosion Begins (#1273)

Everyone who spread “sex trafficking” hysteria contributed to this tragedy:

An Uber driver died days after a passenger…sho[t]…him…[because she imagined] she was being kidnapped…Phoebe Copas, 48, is now charged with murder…[after her victim] Daniel Piedra Garcia…was taken off life support…Copas, of Tompkinsville, Kentucky, was visiting her boyfriend in El Paso and took an Uber to meet him at a casino after he got off work…When Copas saw signs during the drive [giving mileage] for Juarez, Mexico, she b[izarrely conclud]ed Piedra was kidnapping her…and shot [him]…in the back of the head…

Gee, I wonder where she got the idea she might be “kidnapped” in an Uber?

The Last Shall Be First (#1319) 

It’ll take a lot more such rulings before this political fad is buried:

A federal judge has struck down a 2021 Arkansas law banning…medical treatment for trans[gender] young people.  U.S. District Judge James Moody…ruled the law unconstitutional, saying it violated the rights of doctors and discriminated against transgender people….[this] marks the first time a federal court has decided the legality of such bans, which have been taken up by a growing number of state legislatures in recent years.  As of June 20, at least 20 additional states have enacted restrictions or bans on gender-affirming care, according to data compiled by the ACLU.  Florida’s effort to limit such care for trans youth has also severely restricted access to transition-related care for adults…

Censor Chic (#1335)

Corporations have become the favored tool of censors worldwide:

When Facebook took off in Vietnam about a decade ago, it was like a “revolution”…people across the country could communicate directly about current affairs.  Users posted about police abuse and government waste, poking holes in the propaganda of the ruling Communist Party…But as…the government increasingly demanded greater restrictions…Facebook…has been making repeated concessions…routinely censoring dissent…allowing those seen as threats by the government to be forced off the platform…[and] adopt[ing] an internal list of Vietnamese Communist Party officials who [can]not be criticized on Facebook…

The Mob Rules (#1346)

I doubt this is the kind of lawsuit Louisiana politicians wanted to attract:

Free Speech Coalition…has filed a legal challenge in Louisiana over the state’s age-verification law…[which politicians enacted to] give…the state the power to fine sites with adult content up to $5,000 per day, which [FSC] argues is a direct violation of the First Amendment…FSC filed a similar suit against the state of Utah in May…

Meanwhile, porn performer Jessica Stoya points out that this kind of heavy-handed regulation always favors large corporations at the expense of small ones.

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

The time, money, and energy Americans are flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

A federal judge [has] sided with an Orlando restaurant that features weekly “family friendly” drag shows and ordered the state to stop enforcing a new law cracking down on certain “adult live performances”…The Florida law did not specifically mention drag performances, but said the state should revoke the liquor license of any establishment that allows children to attend performances that include [what politicians vaguely term “]lewd exposure[“] to “prosthetic or imitation genitals and breasts”…U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell…[wrote] that the language of the law is vague and “dangerously susceptible to standardless, overbroad enforcement.”  [He] also [pointed out that] the law clashes with another DeSantis priority — the “Parents’ Bill of Rights” — because it allows the state to decide what performances children can attend, rather than leaving that choice up to parents…

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 »

In the News (#1350)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Public spaces are not majority spaces.  –  Judge David Nuffer

Broken Record (#851)

Omaha’s repeated rehash of this same silly tale is even more pathetic now that the trope has died off nearly everywhere else:

The College World Series is back in…Omaha…[so] human trafficking [profiteer] groups are asking you to be on high alert.  “Nebraska’s a hotspot,” [burbled] Julie Shrader…of Restoring Wings.  A 2,900-mile corridor connects Nebraska to neighboring states, putting it at the center of a national road system…

Because clearly it’s unusual for a largish midwestern city to be near the center of the country, or connected to other states by highways.

Checklist (#1134)

Uber already encourages its drivers to spy on riders and rat sex workers out to the pigs:

[Politician]s are working to [attempt to revive the moribund “]sex trafficking[” hysteria by attempting to stoke panic about] rideshare apps…[after] Uber ma[de] changes to its age requirement…[It now] allows minors ages 13 to 17 to request rides without an accompanying adult…Sabrina Crawford is [a rescue industry profiteer and sex trafficking fetishist who wants politicians to infantilize young people even more than they do now]…

A Broker in Pillage (#1155)

When laws pretended to control cops contain no criminal penalties, cops simply ignore them:

You can sign this piece of paper, abandon the $18,000, avoid arrest and continue on…Don’t sign, and you will go to jail.  You could face felony charges.  Your van will be towed.  Your dog will be taken to the pound…[Pretextual] stops like these, where passing motorists are pulled over, searched and…any cash that’s found [extorted from them], are big business in Seward County, population 17,692…Here, money is routinely s[tolen by police] without anyone being charged or proven guilty of anything.  The sheriff’s department has specialized in and perfected the practice, known as civil asset forfeiture, despite a 2016 law meant to ban it in Nebraska….which…was designed to require a criminal conviction before the state could seize money…but [politicians] left two loopholes.  Seizures over $25,000 could circumvent state law entirely by being adopted into federal court.  And [cops] could still [steal cash] under state law if [they pointed at the money and barfed out the magic word “]drugs[“] even if there are no drugs in the car…It’s the legal tactic Seward County now uses far more often than any other county in Nebraska…

The Last Shall Be First (#1338) 

Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses:

California…parents could potentially lose custody of their children if they refuse to support their child’s decision to “transition” to another gender…Currently the policy is limited to divorce proceedings, but opponents have argued that it will inevitably expand.

The Cop Myth (#1339)

Reporter tries to bury the lede; headline writer won’t participate:

Maryland [cops]…arrested a [typical and representative cop named]…Jason Michael Colley…[for child abuse, only a year after he was let off with a slap on the wrist for beating] his 6-month-old daughter…[to] death…on September 19, 2017…[and trying to pass it off as] seizures…Judge Julia A. Martz-Fisher sentenced Colley to…50 years, suspending all but eight years to be served on private home detention.  She also ordered Colley…not engage in physical punishment of children [but he has apparently ignored that]…

As I’ve often said, cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors.  And certainly not small children.

The Last Shall Be First (#1345) 

Why do people need “permits” to exercise their speech rights in the first place?

The city of St. George [Utah] must issue a permit for a…group…to host an all-ages drag show in a public park, a federal judge ruled, calling the city’s attempt to stop the show unconstitutional discrimination…Southern Utah Drag Stars and its CEO, Mitski Avalōx, sued the city…after [it] denied the group permits…in April…citing a never-previously-enforced ordinance that forbids advertising before permit approval.  The permit denial based on that ordinance, [Judge David] Nuffer wrote in his ruling, was a pretext for discrimination…

The Last Shall Be First (#1346) 

The time, money, and energy our society is flushing down the “culture war” toilet is incalculable:

A federal judge delivered a stinging rebuke to Florida [politicians]…over…a new state law that banned minors from receiving “puberty blockers” and other types of gender-affirming care…Judge Robert Hinkle…blocked the state from applying the ban to three minors whose parents are part of an ongoing lawsuit…and…the ruling suggests that a key part of the law itself could get knocked down as the legal challenge proceeds…Hinkle’s 44-page ruling called the…ban…“an exercise in politics, not good medicine.  This is a politically fraught area.  There has long been, and still is, substantial bigotry directed at transgender individuals.  Common experience confirms this, as does a Florida legislator’s remarkable reference to transgender witnesses at a committee hearing as ‘mutants’ and ‘demons’…”

 

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 »

In the News (#1349)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 24, 2023| Leave a Comment »

All the alarm bells should be going off when [politicians] use their elected power to control…children’s ideas.  –  Val Benavidez

Surplus Women

Sick men may respond violently when sex workers refuse to belong to them:

The neighbor and content partner of [adult] performer Charlotte Angie has been convicted in Italy for her 2022 murder.  Davide Fontana was sentenced…to 30 years in prison for beating Angie to death…Angie…[had a short-lived] relationship…[with] Fontana…[in] 2021…and [apparently did not realize]…he was [obsessed with her because she] agreed to shoot a BDSM sex video [with him] in January 2022…after binding…he[r, Fontana] took a hammer and…hit…her all over her body and on her covered head…then cut her throat with a kitchen knife…From January to March, Fontana used Angie’s phone to impersonate her on her social media accounts, and also paid her rent and bills…[while he] traveled around…looking for places to dispose of the…body parts…[cops found them] on March 20, 2022, apparently the same day Fontana finally disposed of them by throwing them down a cliff in Valcamonica…

If Men Were Angels

It’s getting harder to tell the preachers from the cops:

A 75-year-old deacon at a church in Walker County [Georgia] faces hundreds of sex abuse charges…Dennis Carl Laman…[repeatedly molested a] 30-year-old victim [with] cerebral palsy [who] is bound to a wheelchair and has a low mental capacity…she…told [a] doctor…and…her caregiver that Laman had fondled her inappropriately, and that the…abuse had been going on for about 6 years…Laman…confessed [to molesting]…the woman…about 199 times…

To Molest and Rape

Another cop following his bliss:

A [typical and representative Irish cop] who was…questioned [due to] allegations of rape was released without charge…he was [previously] involved in…investigat[ing] multiple high profile sexual abuse cases…

The Last Shall Be First (#1266)

If you didn’t see this coming, you haven’t been paying attention:

…a…9-year-old daughter was verbally assaulted at a track and field event…[in] Kelowna…[British Columbia]…she was competing in a shot-put event when a grandfather of one of the other participants started yelling at her…[saying], “Hey, this is supposed to be a girls’ event, and why are you letting boys compete”…the man then carried on to demand certification to prove that [the girl] was born female…the man’s wife then started calling [the girl’s mot]her “a genital mutilator, a groomer, and a pedophile”…School District superintendent Kevin Kaardal [said]…steps are being taken to ban the man from all school-related events…

Part of the Picture (#1280)

Some people still claim we don’t live in a police state:

Prosecutors in Monroe County [Indiana] charged Hannah’s husband with possession of child [porn, so]…the court ordered that he not have access to any electronic devices as a condition of his pretrial release from jail.  To ensure he complied with those terms, the probation department installed Covenant Eyes on Hannah’s phone, as well as those of her two children and her mother-in-law.  In near real time, probation officers are being fed screenshots of everything Hannah’s family views on their devices…Covenant Eyes doesn’t permit its software to be used…[for] monitoring people on probation…but…courts in at least five US states have [illegally done so anyway]…Less than a week after Covenant Eyes was installed…her husband’s probation officer [claimed] her husband had violated the terms of his bond…[because] Covenant Eyes [reported] that her phone had visited Pornhub…[in actuality,] her phone had made a network request to the website’s servers as part of a background app refresh…on her Chrome browser…This is a known issue with Covenant Eyes [but prosecutors don’t care]…

Thought Control (#1343)

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

…[Texas] Gov. Greg Abbott [criminalizing librarians who stock books politicians declare “]explicit[“, and]…prohibit schools from purchasing books that [politicians decl]are “sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable”…Abbott [also declared that books politicians dislike are]…”trash”…Under the bill, [a political] Commission is tasked with [declaring which ideas will henceforth be legal in Texas, and task]…book vendors to [guess what politicians may arbitrarily want censored]…

Panopticon (#1346)

Hanging a camera on an animal essentially turns it into a surveillance drone:

A case recently filed in a federal district court in Connecticut alleges that a state government agency violated the Fourth Amendment by attaching a camera to a bear they knew frequented the plaintiff property owners’ land…tagged as Number 119…The bear-mounted cam was allegedly supplied…by…the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)…[which had accused] the plaintiffs…of “illegally” feeding bears on their property.  So, this cambear appears to be part of DEEP’s efforts to prove the allegations against the couple (Mark and Carol Brault).  This surveillance attempt failed when the couple noticed the bear and its digital appendage…no warrant was obtained before DEEP converted an apparent regular visitor to the Braults’ property into a confidential non-human source.  The Braults say this is a Fourth Amendment violation, with the bear acting as a government agent, albeit one incapable of being directly controlled…

 

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 »

In the News (#1346)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 10, 2023| 1 Comment »

Constitutional protections are meaningless without remedies to enforce them.  –  The Institute for Justice

My Police State, ‘Tis of Thee

Politicians blatantly lying about project costs is especially vile when the project is a facility to train cops in “urban warfare” tactics:

In the spring of 2021, [an authoritarian group named] the Atlanta Police Foundation a[sked their political cronies to] put up $30 million for a p[opulation suppression] training center, [claiming] the nonprofit and its [fascist] partners would handle the rest of the project’s $90 million price tag.  That [lie] was repeated month after month, year after year, by one mayor and then the next…But…last month, city officials publicly acknowledged for the first time what [politicians and cronies] have known since at least August 2021 — the actual cost to taxpayers for the facility…[will] be more than double [the claimed amount]…The additional cost comes in the form of $1.2 million in annual [graft] to the Atlanta Police Foundation, re[sulting in an eventual]…profit…for the [fascist group.  As if]…that [weren’t bad enough], Atlanta City Council members…are…consider[ing] a proposal that [increases the] up[-front cost] to $67 million in…funding [stolen from the people the cops will be trained to inflict greater violence upon]…The funding discrepancies coupled with the state’s arrest of three training center opponents last week on [bogus] fraud and money laundering charges have heightened the stakes of City Council’s vote…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1088) 

Remember, this isn’t “human trafficking”, but consensual sex is:

The Bexar County Sheriff’s Office…has completed its investigation into the transport of 49 migrants from San Antonio to Martha’s Vineyard last September by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration and filed criminal charges…[for] several counts of unlawful restraint…Meanwhile, California’s attorney general [has] accused the DeSantis administration of recruiting…16 migrants from Venezuela and Colombia…fl[ying them]…from El Paso to Sacramento and then dropp[ing them] in front of the offices of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento…

Torture Chamber (#1116)

US politicians’ sick infatuation with “punishment” continues:

Being sentenced to a Texas prison shouldn’t amount to the death penalty.  But that’s what it may have been for hundreds…who…have died due to overheated state jails and prisons…Yet, unconscionably, the Texas Senate refused to consider a House-approved bill that would have helped remedy this inhumane situation by providing funding to speed up installation of air conditioning systems in state lockup facilities…Texas…prisons…reach…sustained temperatures well beyond 100 degrees in summer months…a study by researchers at Brown University School of Public Health…found that 13% of Texas prison deaths between 2001 and 2019 “may be attributed to extreme heat during warm months in Texas prisons without universal air conditioning.”  That’s a total of 271 deaths…

Panopticon (#1150)

Similar cases have already been ruled unconstitutional in other federal circuits:

Todd and Heather Maxon live on a five-acre property in rural Long Lake Township [in]…Michigan…Todd likes to work on cars, so they keep vehicles on the property but hidden from the road.  In 2007, the township sued the Maxons for storing “junk” on their property…The couple fought back and won:  The township agreed to drop the case and reimburse attorney fees…[if] the Maxons would not expand their collection…But the…township [wanted revenge, so it] hired a company to fly drones over the property and take pictures…multiple times…from 2010 to 2018.  The pictures allegedly showed that the number of vehicles had indeed expanded, so the township sued the Maxons for violating the previous agreement.  The Maxons moved to suppress the [warrantless] drone evidence as a Fourth Amendment violation…but…a…court de[clared] that the “exclusionary rule does not apply in this civil matter”…The Institute for Justice…which represented the Maxons in their initial litigation, appealed the decision to the Michigan Supreme Court in September…

The Mob Rules (#1303)

Apparently there haven’t been enough nuisance lawsuits for Louisiana politicians’ taste:

Louisiana [politician]s are [doubling down on] a recently enacted law that requires pornography websites verify users are at least 18 years old…The Senate gave unanimous final passage to a bill…that would allow the Louisiana attorney general to investigate and fine — up to $5,000 a day…websites that do not comply with the age verification law [after the same politicians declare them “pornographic”]…

Panopticon (#1308)

The conditioning of kids to accept constant, intrusive surveillance is working:

In a newly released Cato Institute…National Survey of 2,000 Americans, we asked respondents whether they “favor or oppose the government installing surveillance cameras in every household to reduce domestic violence, abuse, and other illegal activity.”  Not surprisingly, few Americans—only 14 percent—support this idea…However, Americans under the age of 30 stand out when it comes to 1984‐​style in‐​home government surveillance cameras.  3 in 10 (29 percent) Americans under 30 favor…[this kind of dystopian] surveillance…Support declines with age, dropping to 20 percent among 30–44 year olds and dropping considerably to 6 percent among those over the age of 45.  We don’t know how much of this preference for security over privacy or freedom is something unique to this generation (a cohort effect) or simply the result of youth (age effect)…

The Last Shall Be First (#1338) 

The damage done by prohibition is never limited to the group a law is openly aimed at:

[Publicity] surrounding Florida’s new restrictions on gender-affirming care focused largely on [legal minors]…but…[the] law…also made it difficult – even impossible – for many transgender adults to get treatment…[because] clinics are…trying to figure out how to operate under regulations that have made Florida a test case for restrictions on adults…[such as the] require[ment that]…any health care related to transitioning [must be supervised by an MD, and]…in person…many people received care from nurse practitioners and used telehealth.  The law also made it a crime to violate the new requirements…

 

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 »

In the News (#1345)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 7, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Won’t somebody please actually think of the children?  –  Elizabeth Brown

Panopticon (#1001)

The “security” system that isn’t:

Amazon will pay $30 million in fines to settle allegations of privacy violations related to…its Ring video doorbell and Alexa virtual assistant services…Ring…grant[ed] access to private videos to its employees and contractors.  It also allegedly neglected to implement basic privacy and security measures, allowing hackers to gain control of consumers’ cameras and videos by breaching their accounts…”Ring gave every employee—as well as hundreds of Ukraine-based third-party contractors—full access to every customer video, regardless of whether the employee or contractor actually needed that access to perform his or her job function”…[one] Amazon employee viewed thousands of video recordings of female users in private spaces like bathrooms and bedrooms over several months.  This incident went unnoticed by the company’s security team until another employee discovered and reported it…

Thought Control (#1277)

It’s always nice to see authoritarian fanatics hoist with their own petard:

The Bible has been removed from all elementary and middle school libraries throughout the Davis School District [in Utah] after someone c[orrectly pointed out that it contains material now considered grounds for censorship in Utah.  Hypocrites responded by filing]…a[n] appeal to the ruling…asking for the district to retain the Bible in all district schools…[despite its considerable] vulgarity [and] violence…[the complaint] not[ed] that the Bible includes mentions of incest, bestiality, prostitution, genital mutilation and rape, among other things…

Torture Chamber (#1278) 

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

Rikers [Island] officials [lied, claiming one of their victims] had suffered a heart attack…[when in actuality] an autopsy shows that he had a fractured skull…Joshua Valles was [told “Stop faking!]…when he complained to s[crews] about head…[pain resulting from the fracture]…court monitor Steve Martin..learned that…Valles [had been fatally assaulted] not from the Department of [Locking Humans in Cages], but from an external source.  Pressed on what had happened, DOC staff [simply lied]…Commissioner Louis Molina…[even] urged [Martin] to [support the lies about] what happened to Valles…the endemic violence of Rikers Island…was deemed so severe in the federal lawsuit that gave rise to the monitorship eight years ago that it constitutes a violation of the constitutional rights of the people [locked up] there…

You Were Warned (#1288)

It’s a relief to see the courts sending so many ambulance-chasers packing:

The Supreme Court [has] declined to take up a case from a [soi-disant] victim of sex trafficking who [tried to use FOSTA] to [get a big payout from] Reddit…[because her former boyfriend posted videos of them having sex when she was slightly under 18]…The [attempt] was the latest targeting…section [230, hoping to destroy the open internet in pursuit of personal profit]…Earlier this month, the court [protect]ed Google and Twitter [from similar nuisance lawsuits by] preserving…Section 230 [from castration in the name of a bogeyman, though in that case it was]…terroris[m rather than “sex trafficking”] …“There are other important big tech cases in the pipeline, but this seems to confirm that the justices aren’t going to come back to Section 230 anytime soon,” [law professor Steve] Vladeck said…

The Last Shall Be First (#1318) 

Politicians don’t care how much public money they waste defending asinine culture war theater:

U. S. District Court Judge Thomas L. Parker…[has] declared Tennessee’s anti-drag Adult Entertainment Act to be unconstitutional…A…Memphis based…theatre company, Friends of George’s, had sued the state of Tennessee…[because] the law [is] unconstitutional under the First Amendment.  In April Judge Parker ordered a temporary injunction halting the…law…hours before it was set to take effect[, saying:]  “If Tennessee wishes to exercise its police power in restricting speech it considers obscene, it must do so within the constraints and framework of the United States Constitution…”

Dangerous Speech (#1329)

“‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less’.”

U.S. District Court Judge Diane Humetewa denied a defense motion asking her to dismiss the five-year-old criminal case against veteran newspapermen Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin…[because] the U.S. Department of Justice [is] talking out of both sides of its mouth, with the DOJ insisting on one interpretation of the U.S. Travel Act before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, while arguing for a looser application of the same law in Phoenix against Lacey, Larkin and four co-defendants…

You Were Warned (#1344)

When the Unsinkable Liz Brown does a deep dive on some species of tyranny, there’s no way for me to adequately choose a pull-quote to feature here, so I’m just going to advise you to read her latest, on attempts to undermine free speech, destroy the internet and expose all private communications to the probing snouts of cops under that venerable excuse for tyranny, “THE CHILDREN!!!™” and tell you that it covers KOSA, EARN IT, STOP CSAM, age verification laws,  TikTok bans, and much more.

 

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 »

In the News (#1342)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »

Americans’ privacy shouldn’t depend on whether the government uses a court order or credit card.  –  Ron Wyden

I Spy (#1067)

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

Customs and Border Protection…is using an invasive…[surveillance] tool to screen travelers, including U.S. citizens, refugees, and people seeking asylum, which can…link their social media posts to their Social Security number and location data…Called Babel X, the system lets a user input a piece of information about a target—their name, email address, or telephone number—and receive a bevy of data…includ[ing the victim’s] social media posts, linked IP address, employment history, and unique advertising identifiers associated with their mobile phone…Babel Street…the tool[‘s maker, claims it]…is also able to perform “sentiment analysis”…

Winding Down (#1133)

Washington state politicians demonstrate their hypocrisy:

The Washington Supreme Court effectively decriminalized drug use two years ago…[politicians] predictably viewed…that…as intolerable, and…promptly approved a [temporary] law that made possession a misdemeanor…That law is scheduled to expire on July 1, which prompted a bipartisan panic…[resulting in] a new bill criminalizing drug possession, which Gov. Jay Inslee immediately signed into law…[because] he…[claims] drug users cannot be trusted to decide for themselves what they need…[so the state must] ignores their preferences…[by]forcing them, under the threat of jail, to accept the “help” that the state is offering, whether they want it or not.  Although that might look like kidnapping and extortion, Inslee insists it is an act of love.  Notably, that policy does not apply to drinkers…Nor does it apply to cannabis consumers…It applies only to people who use psychoactive substances that the state has deemed beyond the pale…

Policing for Profit (#1166)

No matter how little their victims have, cops will steal it and fuck up their lives in the process:

A [typical and representative] California [cop has] been charged…for…stealing money that a homeless man had saved for dental work…John Sanzone…arrested [the] man [in] August 2022 and found that…he…had $3,500…Sanzone stole it…Sanzone was previously…[accused of stealing] $1,300 during an arrest in 2021…

Panopticon (#1232)

Why pay for surveillance when useful idiots can be talked into providing it?

For the past year [cops in Rialto, California have] been trying to [intimidate] owners of private surveillance cameras [in]to enroll[ing] in…Fusus, a [surveillance] tech company that aims to boost public [surveillance] by making it easier for police to access privately owned surveillance cameras [without warrant or oversight]…In Rialto, the police have access to over 150 livestreams across restaurants, gas stations, and private residential developments – a number they are hoping to increase through [intimidating useful idiots]…Fusus technology is being operated in over 60 different cities and counties across more than a dozen states…[despite the objections of people who care about privacy]…Fusus…tramples the privacy of residents, and…hand[s] police tools that are easily abused…

Judging by Houston and San Francisco, this won’t stay voluntary for long.

On the Simultaneous Having and Eating of Cake (#1266)

Another baby step toward recognizing sex work as work:

After months of late-night picketing in North Hollywood, the dancers of the Star Garden Topless Dive Bar have become the only unionized strippers in the US.  Their victory was finalized with a unanimous vote by 17 dancers in favor of unionization…and marks the first time that the Actors Equity association, a century-old union for stage actors, singers and dancers, will represent strip club workers…The campaign, which started in March 2022, was galvanized by…unsafe working conditions and…retaliatory firings of dancers who tried to address customers’ dangerous behavior themselves…“While some elements of their job are unique, [strippers] are essentially performance artists, and have a lot in common with other Equity members who dance for a living,” Kate Shindle, the union president, said in a statement…

The Last Shall Be First (#1319) 

It’s two!  Two!  Two fads in one!

In late April, an abortion ban failed to pass in Nebraska—but Republicans weren’t ready to give up on it.  So they tacked an abortion ban onto a bill banning gender-affirming care for…minors…and passed the whole Frankenstein bill on [May 19th]…The final bill bans abortion after 12 weeks…and bans gender-affirming surgeries for everyone under the age of 19…the state chief medical officer [will be required] to design new rules for…trans…care that is not surgical, such as puberty blockers.  People already receiving treatment are exempt from those restrictions…The bill also includes a [mob rule]…section, [encouraging] citizens to seek…damages…from [any] health care professional who performed gender-affirming care within two years…

The Last Shall Be First (#1337) 

Of course Florida had to have its own “bathroom bill”:

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida [has] signed…a bill that would criminalize trans people [who use] public restrooms…[appropriate to their] legal…gender [if that is different from their chromosomes and genitalia present at birth]…People…who are accused [by busybodies] of being trans also w[ould] be obligated to undergo genitalia exams, DNA testing, and other invasive procedures…

 

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 »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »