Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘The Prudish Giant’

Lifetime registries are wrong.  –  James H. Maynard

The End of the Beginning

A precedent here could be used against all such evil “registries”:

In New Jersey, individuals found [guilty of]…any act of child abuse or neglect are [condemned to] the state’s child abuse registry for life…one New Jersey man is challenging [that]…in court [because]…those on the registry are barred from working in a wide range of fields, including some that do not involve work with children, like substance abuse programs, county mental health boards, or jail diversion programs.  While the registry is not publicly accessible, a person’s registry status will show up in some background checks…K.C…was placed on the registry after he admitted to committing a sexual offense against a sibling when both were minors.  Even though K.C. has not re-offended in the 25 years since…and has since been removed from the state’s sex offender registry—he is stuck on the state’s child abuse registry…

If Men Were Angels

Clearly “lay pastors” are no better than “youth pastors”:

A [typical and representative] lay pastor at a Big Rock [Illinois] church was sentenced…to 15 years in prison after being convicted of sexually assaulting and abusing a 9-year-old…Mark Rivera…will have to serve at least 11.7 years before being eligible for parole but will receive credit for the approximately three years he has spent in jail or on electronic home monitoring…

To Molest and Rape

A cop from the original of this title is trying to weasel out of the consequences of his actions:

A [typical and representative] Syracuse [New York] cop [who tried] to silence one of his victims in…2019 is hoping to use his veteran status to avoid yet another criminal conviction.  Chester Thompson…is seeking to resolve…witness tampering and criminal contempt charges by undergoing a program designed for military veterans beset by [PTSD]…It’s unclear whether prosecutors will accept Thompson’s application for the program, which could also include probation and other supervision…Thompson lost his job in 2015 [but suffered only] two misdemeanor official misconduct convictions after admitting to [rap]ing…two…women…[by] using his authority to coerce them…His [rape]s have cost city taxpayers $900,000 in a civil settlement.  But…in July 2019…he…tr[ied] to talk one of his victims out of continuing her lawsuit…[despite] a court order prohibiting…contact with his victim…

Shame, Shame (#1087)

And yet bird-brains still believe realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology:

U.S. Special Operations Command, responsible for some of the country’s most secretive military endeavors, is gearing up to conduct internet propaganda and deception campaigns online using deepfake videos…The plans, which also describe hacking internet-connected devices to eavesdrop in order to assess foreign populations’ susceptibility to propaganda, come at a time of intense global debate over technologically sophisticated “disinformation” campaigns, their effectiveness, and the ethics of their use.  While the U.S. government routinely warns against the risk of deepfakes and is openly working to build tools to counter them, the document from…SOCOM, represents a nearly unprecedented instance of…a…government — openly signaling its desire to use the highly controversial technology offensively…

Panopticon (#1256)

Amazon’s fascist collaboration with cops just keeps getting worse:

The week of last Thanksgiving, Michael Larkin…[of] Hamilton, Ohio…[let cops have] footage from [hi]s…Ring video doorbell, one of…21 Ring cameras in and around his home and business…The [cops] were [spy]ing…on a neighbor, and…wanted videos of “suspicious activity” between 5 and 7 p.m. one night in October.  Larkin [foolishly]…thought that was all the[y]…would [deman]d.  Instead, it was just the beginning.  They asked for more footage…the[n]…a week later, Larkin received a notice from Ring itself: The company had received a warrant, signed by a local judge….[demanding] footage from [all of his] cameras…[including those inside his home and business]…whether or not Larkin was willing to share it…

The Prudish Giant (#1263) 

Why does anyone still trust Facebook?

In the immediate aftermath of the reversal of Roe v. Wade, women worried data from their period-tracking apps could be used to prosecute them…Now, women…need to consider what they write in chat logs, direct messages, and search bars online….ProPublica…found that at least nine online pharmacies that sell abortion medication — Abortion Ease, BestAbortionPill.com, PrivacyPillRX, PillsOnlineRX, Secure Abortion Pills, AbortionRx, Generic Abortion Pills, Abortion Privacy, and Online Abortion Pill Rx — were sharing information like users’ web addresses, relative location, and search data with third-party sites like Google.  That kind of exchange opens that data up to discovery as part of [cop rooting, as in]…the case of Jessica Burgess…who is accused of helping her daughter…[obtain medica]tion in their home state of Nebraska….key…evidence…[included] chat logs…[eagerly handed to rooting pigs] by…Facebook…

A Broker in Pillage (#1266)

Absolutely nothing is “safe” if government actors know where it is:

The [FBI]…regularly s[teal]s cash, cars and other valuables that belong to people who aren’t accused of any crimes.  Months later, many of those people receive a dense, boilerplate notice stating that the FBI plans to keep their property forever, without any explanation of why—a blatantly unconstitutional practice.  That’s what happened to Linda Martin.  When the FBI [stole] her life savings from a safe-deposit box during a 2021 raid of US Private Vaults in Beverly Hills, Calif., she [naively]assumed her money would be returned [by the robbers]…but several months later, she—and hundreds of other innocent people who had their safe-deposit boxes taken—received a notice stating that the government wanted to [keep] her money…the Institute for Justice [has] calculated that from 2017 to 2021 Justice Department agencies gained more than $8 billion through forfeiture, with the FBI taking in more than $1.19 billion of that bounty…In an earlier lawsuit…regarding the US Private Vaults raid, a federal judge declared the FBI’s notices “anemic” and immediately halted forfeiture proceedings…Unfortunately, that ruling applied only to the named plaintiffs in that suit…So [Ms. Martin has]…filed a new class-action lawsuit…seeking to help anyone nationwide who received one of the FBI’s [robbery-justification] notices…

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 »

This fucking cop is still a block away and this girl got raped on the street corner!  –  witness to the crime

License to Rape

“Search” is the most common government euphemism for “molest”:

…650 [legal minors] were strip-searched [by London cops without good reason] over a two-year period and the majority were found to be innocent of the [accusat]ions [cops used to justify the molestation] …in almost a quarter of cases (23%) an appropriate adult was not present during the search, despite this being a [legal] requirement…of children [and young adults] aged 10 to 17 who were strip-searched between 2018 and 2020, almost three out of five (58%) were black…for 2018 alone the figure rose to 75%…

Torture Chamber 

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

…a lawsuit against [St. Louis] and [a pack of screws reports]…that [human beings locked in cages without having]…been convicted of any crime — are subjected to “persistent and widespread torture practices”…[foremost among these being] pepper-sprayed for any number of capricious reasons or for no apparent reason at all…In 2019, the St. Louis county executive resurrected a local advisory board to monitor conditions at the jail after the deaths of several detained people, including one person who died of a curable form of leukemia…But as conditions at the jail continued to deteriorate, several board members resigned in protest…[because] they were not…[actually allowed] to…investigate conditions…the city of St. Louis has denied all wrongdoing…[and a spokesbureaucrat vomited out the words] “order and security in the correctional facility” [as an excuse for the torture, which includes]…regularly shut[ting] off detained people’s water for hours or days at a time…

If Men Were Angels  

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

A [Missouri] pastor has been charged…[with] sexually abusing a child…John Hampton…abused two children, starting four to five years ago…[Cops]…tried to talk to Hampton in May, but Hampton told [them] he didn’t have time to speak to them [so they just let it go for a few months]…

To Molest and Rape

I suspect prosecutors get off on coming up with ridiculous-sounding euphemisms for rape:

A [typical and representative] California [cop] faces a federal indictment [for raping] four women while [wearing his magical clown costume]…J. DeShawn Torrence…[faces] a maximum…penalty of life in prison and a $250,000 fine…[for] crimes [of rape and sexual assault committed] from August 2017 to June 2021…without a legitimate law enforcement purpose…

Presumably, raping a sex worker in order to entrap her and destroy her life would be considered “a legitimate law enforcement purpose”.

Above the Law (#923)

Rapist politicians generally prefer to assault drunk women:

A…Kentucky [politician]…was arrested [for]…rape.  John Tilley…[raped] a woman who could not consent due to her level of intoxication…[besides being a state legislator] he…served as Justice and Public Safety Cabinet secretary from December 2015 through 2019, overseeing Kentucky State Police, the Department of [Locking People in Filthy Cages] and other agencies…

Notice how any association with cops has a high correlation with being a rapist?

To Molest and Rape (#946) 

Some Louisiana cops prefer to rape by proxy:

A New Orleans [cop who] was flagged down…in the French Quarter by a witness who…saw a man raping an unconscious woman in plain view on the street corner…didn’t budge…the witness…[then called] 911…[and] grew increasingly frantic as the [cop continued]…to [do nothing]…Another [pigmobile] had already driven past the [rape] without stopping, she added…Two minutes passed. “He’s still not even coming!” the witness said.aid.  The dispatcher also became exasperated, “Ma’am, this is…I can’t speak freely…I understand”…The witness [who is a respiratory therapist] returned to the corner and [started CPR when she] found the victim without a pulse.  The [rapist] had fled…The witness…asked not to be named because she fears [police] retribution…

The Prudish Giant (#1251) 

Why does anyone still trust Facebook?

A Nebraska teenager is facing criminal charges alleging she aborted a fetus in violation of state law, after [cops rooted in] her Facebook messages using a search warrant.  Seventeen-year-old Celeste Burgess…[was transformed into] an adult [by the power of a magic prosecutorial finger] along with her mother Jessica Burgess…Nebraska c[riminalizes] abortions beyond 20 weeks…[cops found out via a snitch and couldn’t wait to ruin a young woman’s life]…Facebook [has been playing both sides on the issue; while]…the company [has] announced that it will reimburse employees who…must travel to a different state to seek an abortion…Instagram and Facebook posts about acquiring abortion pills…[a]re being systematically removed…[and the company has] continued to earn revenue from anti-abortion advertisements containing dangerous misinformation…Facebook [is also] collecting data from users interacting with abortion services websites, and [selling it]…to anti-abortion groups…

Since the earlier Texas case was dropped, Burgess may end up being the first woman prosecuted under the new abortion prohibitionist regime.

Read Full Post »

Consider this, then, a canary’s song.  –  Olivia Snow

If Men Were Angels

Another “youth pastor”, another string of underage victims:

A [typical and representative] youth pastor was convicted…of sexual assault against four boys.  William Stefan Wahl, of Port Huron [Michigan] was found guilty…of [molesting two boys] younger than 13, two [boys]…between 13 and 16, [and showing the boys porn]…

Guinea Pigs (#881) 

First it was supposedly about “terrorists”, then “sex trafficking”, and now:

…For sex workers, Section 230 had provided a foothold, however fragile, to exist on the internet.  FOSTA…was the first crack in a foundation that supported not only sex workers but also other marginalized, criminalized, and otherwise disenfranchised demographics.  The effects of FOSTA have…rippl[ed] beyond social media and payment processors to the most quotidian of technologies.  “Facilitating” sex work—language in later bills revised to “aiding and abetting”—could also implicate landlords renting to sex workers, ISPs that we use to advertise…By casting such a broad net…the bill essentially outlaws sex workers’ presence on the internet by criminalizing proximity to sex work.  Under this level of scrutiny, talking about sex work at all is a risk…A FOSTA-like ban would have violated Roe, but…[the] removal of federal protections gives [politicians] a path to criminalizing any online discussion about abortion, restrictions that can easily extend to include reproductive health entirely…Big Tech will use the artificial intelligence currently shadowbanning and suspending sex workers’ accounts to target users it suspects are seeking abortions…

Winding Down

The war against drugs other than nicotine continues to wind down:

The Supreme Court…unanimously sided with two physicians who were convicted of drug trafficking based on opioid prescriptions that federal prosecutors p[retended were] medically inappropriate…The decision in Ruan v. United States sends both cases back to the lower courts so they can assess the defendants’ arguments that the instructions received by the juries that convicted them misstated the law seriously enough that they are entitled to new trials.  But whether or not they prevail on those claims, the ruling represents an important limit on prosecutions that have long had a chilling effect on pain treatment…

The Prudish Giant (#1104) 

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

Facebook is removing the posts of users who…say abortion pills can be mailed and in some cases temporarily banning those users…a Motherboard reporter attempted to post the phrase “abortion pills can be mailed” on Facebook using a burner account.  The post was flagged within seconds as violating the site’s community standards, specifically the rules against buying, selling, or exchanging medical or non-medical drugs.  The reporter was given the option to “disagree” with the decision or “agree” with it.  After they chose “disagree,” the post was removed.  Motherboard was able to post the phrases “painkiller pills can be mailed,” “pills,” and “abortion” without issue.  Motherboard posted “abortion pills can be mailed” a second time, and it was flagged for removal, and this time the reporter “agreed” with the decision…and…the reporter’s Facebook account was suspended for 24 hours…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1114)

Remember, Clearview specifically markets itself to entities which claim a monopoly on violence:

Clearview AI is best‐​known as a…faci[litator of police violence]…the company has secured a patent for recognition systems that would allow users to scan someone’s face in order to determine whether that person does drugs, is homeless, or suffers from mental illness.  The same technology could also be used to determine someone’s education history or contact details.  Such technology could put members of the transgender community who wish to conceal their gender transition at risk of social sanction, public humiliation, and violence…Given ongoing policy fights over who should get to access gender‐​segregated spaces such as bathrooms and changing rooms, it is possible that private businesses, universities, and schools might choose to use AGR technology under the guise of security enhancement and privacy protection.  It is not hard to imagine AGR technology at train stations, bathrooms, and changing rooms prompting encounters where a member of the transgender community would feel embarrassed, unsafe, humiliated, and exposed…

Feudalism Redux

The crusade to reduce Americans to serfdom continues:

Several national antiabortion groups and [pet politicians]…are advancing plans to [try to] stop people in states where abortion is banned from seeking the procedure elsewhere…The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal organization, is drafting model legislation…that would allow private citizens to sue anyone who helps a resident of a state that has banned abortion from terminating a pregnancy outside of that state.  The draft language will borrow from the…Texas abortion ban enacted last year in which private citizens were empowered to enforce the law through [nuisance] litigation

The Vultures Descend

This vulture feeding frenzy is going to get a lot uglier:

…antiabortion activists are eager to capitalize on their momentum by enshrining constitutional abortion bans, pushing Congress to pass a national prohibition, blocking abortion pills, and limiting people’s ability to get abortions across state lines…By the end of the year, abortion could be outlawed across roughly half the country…Democrat-[run] states are scrambling to enshrine protections for abortion, and President Biden has [bloviated about doing] everything in his power “to protect a woman’s right”…but Biden has also ruled out the more extreme remedies, such as [pack]ing the Supreme Court, and key Democrats remain opposed to [burning down the house to roast the pig as some very silly people are demanding]…

Read Full Post »

The nuisance comes from drinking and drunkenness, but no one is saying close the bars.  –  Brenda, Dutch sex worker

The Notorious Badge 

I wonder when Hollywood will catch up?

The brothels look brighter, the alleyways are cleaner, and a stirring soundtrack accompanies the protagonists, but a new Bollywood film set in Mumbai’s red-light district has struck a chord with India’s roughly one million sex workers.  Gangubai Kathiawadi is a biopic telling the story of a sex worker of the same name who went from being a [coerced underage sexworker] to fight[ing] for the rights of women working in the trade in the 1950s, a battle still being fought today…Many sex workers in Kamathipura…and across India say the film starring celebrated actress Alia Bhatt shows rare understanding of their everyday struggles…“There have been so many films on women like us, but none that raised these issues,” said Kiran Deshmukh, president of National Network of Sex Workers.  “People believe what they see in Bollywood films. And this film has shown that sex work is work…that…helps us live our lives and feed and raise our children”…

Guinea Pigs (#757) 

And it can find you just as easily:

Cher Scarlett, a software engineer…uploaded some images of her[self]…to PimEyes, a facial-recognition website meant to be used to find pictures of yourself from around the web — ostensibly to help stamp out issues such as revenge porn and identity theft…the results [included]…porn…[she was coerced into making as a 19-year-old] addict…in New York in 2005…She has since tried and failed to get all of the explicit photos removed from PimEyes’ search results, despite the site saying it would scrub images of Scarlett from results…Giorgi Gobronidze…the current owner and director of PimEyes…[deflected blame by saying] “The problem isn’t that there is a search engine that can find these photos; the problem is…people who actually uploaded [the photos] on purpose”…Scarlett’s saga starkly shows how easily facial-recognition technology, which is now available to anyone with internet access, can lead to unexpected harms that may be impossible to undo…

The Prudish Giant (#1104) 

Instagram and TikTok users, take note:

Digital studies and sexuality researcher Dr. Carolina Are is asking sex workers, adult performers and others who have experienced discrimination to participate in a study investigating Instagram and TikTok’s approach to malicious flagging or reporting of “gray area” content, including nudity.  Are is seeking participants over 18 years of age who have received negative comments and simultaneously had their accounts and/or content removed…Are plans to circulate an anonymous survey and then interview specific case studies.  Those wishing to share their experience with social media discrimination can fill out the survey here

Dutch Threat (#1136)

The Dutch scheme to Disnify De Wallen is no longer merely a scheme:

In November 2020, Mayor Femke Halsema announced plans to [forcibly] relocate sex workers to a purpose built “Erotic Center” on the city’s outskirts in hopes of luring bands of drunk men and general carnality away from residents to make space for new cafés, art galleries, and designer boutiques…according to the mayor’s office…“We want less dominance of cheap nightlife”…if built, it will be the most extreme measure taken to “clean up” De Wallen, which has, in recent years, already been subject to a raft of new regulations and s[urveillance]…Amsterdam’s sex workers are ambivalent about the city’s plans to relocate them.  Brenda, a sex worker…[who] met me at the Prostitution Information Center…said sex workers were soft targets in the city’s gentrification push…Iris, a coordinator at the center, said the “so-called nuisance and antisocial behavior” was just another excuse to get rid of sex workers and free up lucrative real estate in the sought-after inner city

Winding Down (#1148)

Over half of Americans now live in states with legal cannabis:

Rhode Island…became the 19th state to legalize marijuana for recreational use…[the] bill…immediately allows adults 21 or older to possess up to an ounce of cannabis in public and grow up to three plants at home.  State-licensed recreational sales are supposed to start on December 1, beginning with the state’s three existing medical marijuana dispensaries.  The law also requires automatic expungement of marijuana possession convictions…public consumption…will be legal in any place where cigarette smoking is allowed…The law caps the number of retailers at 33, which amounts to about one store per 32,000 people…Rhode Islanders may find it easier to buy pot from black-market dealers or from stores in Massachusetts or Connecticut, both of which have legalized recreational use.  Like California, Rhode Island will allow local governments to ban pot shops, but only through referendums and not in the three cities (Providence, Warwick, and Portsmouth) where medical marijuana is already being sold…

Opting Out (#1199)

French law provides some defense vs religious activism:

A Paris court of appeals rejected…the attempt by local War on Porn groups, led by an extremist Catholic organization, to use France’s media authority and the courts to block the most popular adult tube sites in the country…following months of…threats pressuring tube sites to implement vaguely defined age verification schemes, French media regulator ARCOM went to court…to demand that French ISPs block Pornhub…and [a number of similar sites, but]…the Council of State…issued a ruling rendering null all the activities taken up by…ARCOM in connection with the…block…the Council…specifically pointed out the role played by extremist Catholic organization Civitas in orchestrating the campaign…

Civitas is associated with the Society of Saint Pius X, the reactionary organization founded by Archbishop Lefebvre to fight modernization efforts such as performing the Mass in the vernacular rather than Latin.

The Mob Rules (#1231)

The number of laws empowering busybodies to harass victims with nuisance lawsuits will only keep growing until they’re ruled unconstitutional:

Shortly after the nation’s latest mass shooting…at an elementary school in Texas, the California Senate passed a bill…to allow private citizens to file suit for at least $10,000 — a bounty-hunter provision modeled on a Texas abortion law — against makers or sellers of [3-D printed firearms] or [rifles banned under California law]…

Read Full Post »

I’m not entirely sure why society collectively agreed that sex traffickers operate in a similar fashion to Wile E. Coyote trying to catch the Roadrunner.  –  Jessica Dean

Droit du Seigneur

It’s good to see this lurid narrative turned against cops for a change:

A woman who…filed a lawsuit in…Virginia…alleges that in 2010…[when] she travel[led] to the U.S. to work as an…escort…she was…[somehow unaware that the job involved] sex…and…[that] her new boss, Hazel Marie Sanchez Cerdas…[used threats to force her into unsafe and exploitative situations, and stole] all of [her income]…local [cops]…protect[ed] the [abusive pimps] in exchange for sexual services [for which the escorts were not compensated]…In April 2015, the plaintiff [got fed up with the exploitative arrangment]…and went to [the cops].  In 2019, Sanchez was charged with—and eventually pleaded guilty to—felony charges related to sex trafficking and was sentenced to 30 months in prison…

Unfortunately, the reporter is a “sex trafficking” fetishist who credulously parrots lots of copaganda in the article, but I’ve extracted what appears to be the important information from amongst the dysphemized descriptions, agency denial, and outright fantasies.

Big Dick Energy

“Even reasonably intelligent, sophisticated men seem to believe deep down that their phalluses…have the ability to damage women’s bodies and destroy our souls.”  Just in case some of you thought that was an exaggeration, please allow me to present this recent screenshot from Twitter, which also illustrates the concept of “science worship” as diagrammed here.  Compare to the bizarre claims of “sex trafficking” fetishists and other prohibitionists, and I think you’ll admit my point that both feminists and denizens of the “manosphere” are part of the same continuum of wackadoo.

The Prudish Giant (#895) 

Anything that demonstrates the absurdity of internet censorship is good:

Vienna’s tourism board has started an account on OnlyFans – the only social network that permits depictions of nudity – in protest against [other] platforms’ ongoing censorship of its art museums and galleries.  In July, the Albertina Museum’s new TikTok account was suspended and then blocked for showing works by the Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki…This followed a similar incident in 2019, when Instagram [censored] a painting by Peter Paul Rubens…In 2018, the Natural History Museum’s photograph of the 25,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf figurine was deemed pornographic by Facebook and [censored]…The Leopold Museum has likewise struggled to promote its collection of nudes by the expressionist Egon Schiele, with [its ads censored by bureaucrats] in Germany, the UK and US…A short video featuring the painting Liebespaar by Koloman Moser, made to mark the Leopold Museum’s 20th anniversary this year, was rejected by Facebook and Instagram as “potentially pornographic”…the Albertina’s current exhibition, by the Italian portrait artist Amedeo Modigliani, [is also terrifying to puritans]…

See the city’s YouTube ad below.

Checklist (#927)

A whore-snitching app that skips the middlerat:

Police Scotland [has] adopt[ed] a simple [way to criminalize more sex workers]…by using the Unseen App.  The app, which is hosted by the [government]…has been downloaded to [cop]s’ mobile devices to …[give them various excuses they can claim are] signs of…exploitation [so as to arrest sex workers while calling it “rescue”]…the app will provide [cops] with [legally-admissible excuses for the harassment]…Assistant Chief Constable Judi Heaton [shared some of her favorite BDSM masturbatory fantasies about passive, doll-like sex workers]…

Eavesdropping (#1069)

Remember, Amazon eagerly hands data from internet-connected devices to cops:

A woman…requested all the information Amazon has on her through her two Amazon Dot devices and one Amazon Echo device as well as smart phones.  Several Zip files came through and when she clicked on the audio file she says she discovered…3,534 audio files in a single Zip file alone…Amazon [also] has a copy of all her phone contacts…

The Widening Gyre (#1116)

The “things on cars” branch of “sex trafficking” scarelore has expanded to include things near cars:

“So have you ever seen this type of car seat just out of nowhere?” the woman in the TikTok video asks…pointing to a photo of an abandoned baby car seat in a parking lot…“that’s not an ordinary car seat…[it’s a] sex trafficking car seat”…placed as bait by sex traffickers to kidnap and enslave unsuspecting victims…The woman who posted the video is…a TikTok creator with 122,000 followers who bills herself as a “spiritual gardener” who offers Tarot intuitive readings on social media.  [She has the typical] lack of credentials [of those billing themselves] sex trafficking expert[s, so as usual] her video has gone massively viral…the Wilkesboro [North Carolina] Police Department…[has so much spare time it actually] investigated this incident and…deemed…[it non-]criminal…but…Parker appears to be doubling down…[saying] “I still feel that there is something going on in our society”…

Uncommon Sense (#1143) 

Politicians the world over promise the same evil, impossible things, and stupid people just keep believing them:

[Spanish] Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez…pledged [once again] to “abolish” prostitution in the country, [even though no such prohibitionist campaign has ever done anything but increase]…violence a[gainst]…women…Sanchez took office [again] in January 2020 as head of a minority coalition government after his Socialist Party won two inconclusive national elections in 2019…

Read Full Post »

Margo might be the single most important sexual liberationist and feminist revolutionary who ever slapped society upside its head.
–  Susie Bright

R.I.P. Margo St. James

The founder of the US sex worker rights movement, Margo St.James, died Tuesday at the age of 83; she had been in an assisted living facility in Bellingham, WA (her home town) for several years now due to dementia, but from the ’70s to the ’90s she was involved to one degree or another in practically every major national and international push for sex worker rights.  It’s impossible to overstate her importance to sex workers all over the world; you may get some idea of why by reading this essay I published on her almost eight years ago, and more in the linked obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle.  But so many 20th-century activists knew and loved her, there will no doubt be many articles and memories; I’m going to link every single one that comes to my attention over the next several weeks.  Farewell, Margo; not a one of us could have done it without your amazing example.

Dysphemisms Galore 

“The pimps who sell sex” may be one of the most clueless headlines ever:

Two…Southend [politicians bloviated about]…street prostitution…[with a plethora of ridiculous terms and phrases] in[cluding]…notorious hotspot…emotional effects of prostitution…“sexual harm”…urgent action to finally get street prostitution under control…“The psychological impacts of [consensual adult] sex are immense”…[they also bloviated about “the dangerous cycle of prostitution”]…high levels of anti-social behaviour…pimping…drug-dealing, hazardous litter and noise nuisance….end the harms caused by…sex…sexual exploitation and a form of violence against women and girls…trauma-informed support…and holding organisations [who actually assist sex workers] to account

I can’t help imagining these politicians wanking furiously while vomiting out these sexual fantasies.

Traffic Jam (#443)

This isn’t a “documentary”; the only thing it “documents” is Jones’ creepy fantasies about other women’s lives:

Sarah Jones is about to [present her ugly fantasies about] the sex industry…[in what she claims is a] documentary [even though it’s merely an expanded adaptation of her one-prohibitionist propaganda vehicle] Sell/Buy/Date…[s]he [dazzled a Deadline reporter with meaningless wokespeak about “]how the sex industry sits at the intersection of race, feminism, power and economics in our current cultural climate[” and dropped three big Hollywood names as executive producers:] Rashida Jones, Meryl Streep and Laverne Cox…[other idiotic belching included] “Is sex work exploitative or empowering?” [and “]The sex industry is hiding everywhere in plain sight during the pandemic[“]…

To her credit, Cox listened to sex workers’ complaints about this revolting propaganda (click on the subtitle link for a description) and has already withdrawn her support. The same cannot be said for the clueless Streep, and Rashida Jones is prohibitionist trash with a long history of endangering marginalized women with her videotaped hatespew.

The Prudish Giant (#897) 

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

When [Facebook-owned] Instagram introduced [censorship] guidelines aimed at stopping “sexual solicitation” in December, sex workers were the first to raise the alarm…But [of course they] aren’t the only ones with cause for anxiety.  A whole swathe of sex-related accounts, including those of certified sex educators and sexual wellness brands, are now being [censored]…sex educators [who couldn’t be bothered to stand with sex worksers now realize] censorship on Instagram has gone too far, with some calling it an all-out ban on sex

Pyrrhic Victory (#1030)

Useful idiots destroying any possibility that the facial recognition djinni can ever be rebottled:

After the Capitol riot, Clearview AI…has seen a spike in use…The F.B.I. has posted the faces of dozens of [rioters] and has requested assistance identifying them…Clearview, which is used by over 2,400 [cop shops to violate citizens’ privacy]…relies…on a database of more than 3 billion photos [stolen] from social media networks and other public websites…

Social Distancing (#1080)

I’m sure you feel safer now:

…a…woman [was brutalized and abducted] by four [costumed thugs for] sitting on a bench.  [Video shows] the woman…protesting…”I was sitting on a bench” as she is surrounded by [pigs]…in Bournemouth, Dorset…A furious woman filming the…disgrace…shout[ed] at [pigs]: “What side are you on?”…

Between the Ears (#1081)

“Smart” devices are not, part umpteen:

A hacker took control of people’s internet-connected chastity cages and demanded a ransom to be paid in Bitcoin to unlock it…a security researcher [who] goes by the name Smelly…obtained screenshots of conversations between the hacker and several victims…he…demand[ed] a payment of 0.02 Bitcoin (around $750 today) to unlock the device…These hacks show once again that just because you can connect something to the internet, it doesn’t mean you have to…It’s incidents like these that make some people think the Internet of Things is just a marketing term for the Internet of Hackable Things, as we call it, or even the Internet of Shit, as others call it.  Qiui, the Chin[ese] manufacturer of the device…did not respond to a request for comment…

Read Full Post »

She’s an adult as much as any fictional slime insect bug monster can be.  –  Slugbox

The Prudish Giant (#853)

Once Patreon started following in the footsteps of Facebook, this was inevitable:

Whether by choice or force, Patreon’s NSFW creators are increasingly ditching the site over its 18+ rules.  The latest casualties include a gay hypnosis erotica site and an adult anime artist [over whom] Patreon tried to “exercise a scary amount of financial and public control.”  On July 15, Gay Spiral Stories owner Martin announced that the site would no longer be available for funding on Patreon…when…Patreon [demanded he]…remove…fictional, fantastical stories around mind control…Patreon was attempting to control what content Gay Spiral Stories could host off-site, regardless of Gay Spiral Stories’ Patreon presence…Patreon is [also] increasingly forcing adult artists to surrender their portfolios to the site’s control.  In June, adult anime artist Slugbox…decided to leave Patreon for good…[because] under the site’s contemporary terms of service…“‘Slugbox’ becomes a ‘project’ that belongs to Patreon…[which can] dictate where Slugbox can operate, where Slugbox can make money, and how [Slugbox can] make money, and then hold my success here as a hostage”…

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#855)

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

A former west Kentucky teacher and track coach, Mark Boggess was sentenced to ten years in prison…for setting up a video recording device in the bathroom of the nurse’s station in the high school…[so he c]ould…watch people change in and out of clothes…The defense claimed Boggess has a porn addiction…

Lack of Evidence (#945) 

Alas, these lawsuits usually end in “settlements” that simply force cops to find a different excuse for harassing women:

A woman is suing San Jose police in federal court…[after] she was targeted, arrested, and jailed because [cops claimed]…transgender [women are all]…sex worker[s]…She is being represented by Bruce Nickerson, a prominent LGBTQ-rights attorney who is pursuing class-action status for the suit…Nickerson successfully sued San Jose police over undercover decoy stings…that…unlawfully targeted gay men…San Jose police declined to comment on the lawsuit…But [claimed stalking and harassing people for supposed bad thoughts was really FOR THE CHILDREN™!!!]…and [that]…street prostitution [magically attracts unspecified but scary]…harmful activity…from…other cities

Pyrrhic Victory (#985) 

Another (very) slight setback for universal facial recognition in the US:

Over about eight years, the American drugstore chain Rite Aid Corp quietly added facial recognition systems to 200 stores across the United States…in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods…after Reuters sent…findings [from its investigation] to the retailer, Rite Aid [claimed] it had quit using its facial recognition software….[and] all the cameras had been turned off…Rite Aid [also claimed]…that customers had been apprised of the technology through “signage”…[but] reporters found no notice of the surveillance in more than a third of the stores…with the facial recognition cameras…and [further claimed]…the rollout was…based on stores’ theft histories, local and national crime data and site infrastructure…Among the systems used…was one from DeepCam LLC, which…[is lin]ked with a firm in China whose largest…investor is [the] Chinese government…The Home Depot Inc said it had been testing facial recognition to reduce shoplifting in at least one of its stores but stopped the trial this year…Walmart…has also tried out facial recognition in a handful of stores…

You Were Warned (#1031)

Torture Chamber (#1041)

No human is truly free while governments claim the “right” to lock people in filthy, disease-ridden cages:

…conditions at the Indiana Women’s Prison are being [recognized as] “inhumane” by some [politicians.  Chief screws deny it, but a whistleblower sided with prisoners in telling the truth.  Bureaucrats claim that prisoners]…can go to the restroom every 30 minutes and are allowed to leave their cell every two hours to roam the common areas.  [But in reality the women are locked in cages and told to “stop faking” if they need to use the toilet]…Before the pandemic, the [screws] would keep the cell doors open so [prisoners] could go into the common areas and the air would easily flow through the facility.  However, the[y now use the pandemic as an excuse to keep]…cell doors [locked at all times]…“They are passing out from heat exhaustion as well as experiencing seizures,” said [politician J.D.] Ford…“I have seen vomiting, I have not personally seen seizures, but I frequently see reports of them,” said the…whistleblower…

To Molest and Rape (#1057)

Notice how often rapist cops’ victims are underage?

A San Diego [cop was finally] arrested…on criminal charges of child molestation, pandering and luring a child into a sex act, among other offenses…Jaylen Devon Fleer…is being held without bail…[after being on paid vacation since] May…[other pigs from the same cop shop who have been] charged with sexual misconduct…in recent years [include molester] Richard Fischer…[molester] Timothy Wilson…[rapist] Juan Andrade…[and sexual harasser] Assistant Sheriff Rich Miller…

If you can stomach it, read down to the part where the reporter tries to build up sympathy for a molester by telling us how good he was at playing kids’ games in high school.

Read Full Post »

While scandalized men are given second chances galore, women who society says behaved badly are branded for life.  –  Melissa Petro

Think of the Children! (Bits and Pieces)

Melissa Petro was open about her past when she applied to be a teacher; it wasn’t until she was outed that her “sex rays” suddenly became dangerous to children:

Ten years ago, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg…personally asked for me to be removed from my job as a public-school teacher and called for the city to take legal action against me…because I admitted that I’d worked in the sex industry before teaching.  “We’re just not going to have this woman in front of a class,” Bloomberg was quoted as saying…he…and I never met.  He never commented further on my situation.  He decided my fate, and that was that…The press…demonized me.  I was dubbed the “hooker teacher” and made into the butt of jokes.  And yet in the intervening years I was able to turn that exposure into a platform for humanizing sex work…

Under Duress 

I wonder if most cops are even capable of telling the truth?

Just…a…week [after]…[Los Angeles cop Angel Reinosa was arrested because he] fabricated [a] story of [being] shot in the shoulder by a sniper as he walked from his patrol car into the station…another cop in Ohio was arrested for doing the exact same thing.  On January 13, approximately 50 [heavily-armed thugs] from ten different [cop shops invaded] a predominantly black neighborhood looking for a non-existent suspect.  This swarm of cops…detain[ed] innocent people…and [terrorized] an entire community…because Warren [Ohio pig] Noah Linnen falsely claimed he’d been involved in a shootout with a [vaguely-described] black man in a black SUV…Due to the massive police presence…the…lying cop’s story [quickly] began to unravel…After…[terrorizing innocent people for a while], police finally looked at the surveillance footage from nearby properties and never saw an SUV fitting Linnen’s description.  So, the lying cop changed his story…[to claim he had somehow mistaken] a bicycle [for a truck]…In total, this lying cop would change his story four times after each lie he made up was shut down…In the final version of the story…he [simply] fired…at a passing vehicle [because it had] bright headlights…

Shifting the Blame (#327)

It’s difficult to tell if the anti-whore bullshit in this review springs from the film or its reviewer:

…In Lost Girlsthe great documentary filmmaker Liz Garbus…enters the realm of drama as if born to it.  The movie, based on a true story that began in 2010 (it’s adapted from Robert Kolker’s 2013 nonfiction bestseller Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery), is about…Mari Gilbert (Amy Ryan), who learns that her oldest daughter, Shannan, who’s around 20 and has been a sex worker living in Jersey City, N.J., has gone missing…police find four dismembered bodies off the side of the highway…Lost Girls is built around an aggrieved mother’s obsession to learn, at any cost, what happened to her child, and it may remind you of other mystery dramas rooted in the squalid dangers of the sex industry…we expect the movie to be…some sort of investigative deep dive into the ugly nuts and bolts of…the druggy, unstable, three-rotating-cell-phones life of a sex worker in the Craigslist era…

Reviewer Owen Gleiberman affects an understanding of the demimonde which is undermined by his misuse of terms, such as “in-call” when he means outcall and “john” to mean client (despite his decrying the dehumanization of sex workers a couple of paragraphs later).  Gleiberman seems unsure if he’s an ally, a puritan, or just a working writer employing the pseudo-intellectual cant of the professional fim critic who likes his comfortable paycheck but isn’t sure what his audience wants to hear; as such, it’s difficult to tell how much of this attitude is derived from the book (whose author spoke to me shortly before release), how much from the film, how much from the reviewer, and how much from the anti-sex dogma 21st century US journalists are expected to parrot.

To Molest and Rape

Another brave hero, protecting and serving:

A [typical and representative] Alabama [screw who was a serial rapist]…pleaded guilty…during…his ongoing trial…Matthew Moore…was arrested in 2018 and implicated by DNA in sexual assaults in George, Alabama and Florida…Moore was sentenced to life in prison with 30 years to serve…In June 2010, Moore [brutally raped] an Atlanta [sex worker at gunpoint]…[after he] left…the victim called 911, and [a rape kit was performed]…On November 17, 2015, Moore [brutally and sadistically raped another sex worker in]…Sandy Springs [Georgia]…and…record[ed] the entire [attack on his cell phone]…The victim was eventually able to escape…and ran…[into] the hallway…Moore [threatened bystanders with a gun to escape]…A year and a half later – in 2017 – the se[cond victim’s rape kit]…revealed…[a] DNA…match…[with the 2010] rape…as well as a 2008 [rape] in Homewood, a 2010 [rape] in Cobb County, and a 2010 [rape] in Birmingham…[when] Moore [was caught]…the video…of the 2015 rape…was still on his phone three years later…In addition to the Georgia and Alabama cases, Moore was implicated in a [rape] of a 64-year-old woman in Jupiter, Florida on March 7, 2018…

The Prudish Giant (#899)

People sometimes ask why I’m not on Facebook:

Facebook…[recently released] a long-delayed “Off-Facebook Activity” tracker [which]…shows Facebook and sister apps Instagram and Messenger don’t need a microphone to target you with those eerily specific ads and posts — they’re all up in your business countless other ways.  Even with Facebook closed on my phone…It knows when I [use the Peet’s Coffee or Home Depot apps,] read…Pete Buttigieg[‘s website] or…The Atlantic…or…open the Ring app…The “Off-Facebook Activity” tracker will show you 180 days’ worth of the data Facebook collects about you from the many organizations and advertisers in cahoots with it.  This page, buried behind lots of settings menus (here’s a direct link), is the product of a promise…Zuckerberg made during the height of the 2018 Cambridge Analytica scandal to provide ways we can “clear the history” in our accounts…it doesn’t let you reset your entire relationship with Facebook.  But…it does give you a way to unlink some of its surveillance…Even when your phone is entirely off, businesses can upload information about you making an in-store purchase.  One colleague found 974 apps and websites shared his activity…

Business As Usual (#928)

Oh look, a psychopathic rapist-murderer cop has raped before:

In a lawsuit filed…against [typical and representative vice cop Andrew] Mitchell and the City of Columbus, Mitchell is [reported to have] handcuff[ed] an unnamed woman and rap[ed] her…on…[two separate occasions] in 2017 and…2018….[on both occasions] Mitchell [acted out his typical MO with women he knew were sex workers or]…had…warrants out against her [at some point]…Mitchell…[drove] the woman to a…parking lot in Columbus where he [knew he would not be caught, forced her]…into the back seat…handcuffed her to the vehicle and raped her….[both] time[s]…he…drove off [after raping her], leaving the woman without most of her clothing…

The Widening Gyre (#941)

The “sex traffickers” have spread from Target and Ikea to gas station mini-marts:

Burlington [North Carolina] police are [help]ing [to spread hysteria]…about…human trafficking…after a [woman fantasized she was followed]…at [a crowded] Sheetz [gas station]…in the middle of the day…The [wo]man’s [fantasy]…prompted the Burlington Police Department to post a warning on its Facebook page reminding people to [spy on each other] and report [any brown people] to them…

Welcome to the Future (#977)

As I’ve repeatedly stated, it’s far too late to put this evil djinni back into its bottle:

…implicit bias…is ubiquitous in the workplace, and can hurt not just employees, but also a company’s bottom line…Despite the growing adoption of implicit bias training, some in the field of human resources have raised doubts about its effectiveness in improving diversity and inclusion within organizations.  But what if a smart device, similar to the Amazon Alexa, could tell when your boss inadvertently [made] a female colleague…feel that her perspective wasn’t valued?  This device doesn’t yet exist, but Northeastern associate professors…are preparing to embark on a three-year project that could yield such a gadget…working on…a $1.5 million…grant from the U.S. Army Research Laboratory…

I’m sure the US Army is funding this because it cares so deeply about “diversity and inclusion”.

Watershed (#978)

We’re way past the watershed now:

For the first time, over half of Americans support the decriminalization of sex work, and two-thirds of voters aged 18 to 44 back the initiative.  The statistic comes from…Decriminalizing Survival: Policy Platform and Polling on the Decriminalization of Sex Work, [which] analyzes a Data for Progress and YouGov Blue survey from late November…author Nina Luo…argues…that public discourse is leading voters to have a better understanding of the arguments surrounding decriminalization beyond fearmongering around sex trafficking…Democrats are nearly twice as likely as Republicans to support decriminalization, and younger voters generally show stronger support…than older Americans.  Among respondents aged 18 to 29, 65% support decriminalization, compared to 42% among people aged 65 or older.  Overall, only 36% of American voters oppose decriminalization…

All-Purpose Excuse (#978)

Trumpists and anti-Trumpists continue to fight for control of the “sex trafficking” narrative:

President Trump…attend[ed] a White House summit organized by his daughter Ivanka on [so-called] human trafficking, an issue he frequently invokes…But some of the country’s most prominent…organizations [which label themselves “anti-trafficking”]…won’t be there.  They have decided to boycott the event.  The group includes Polaris, the…[most influential purveyor of anti-sex work propaganda in the US], and the leader of Freedom Network USA, the…largest…coalition [of groups actually concerned with exploitation rather than simply using it as a cover for persecution of sex workers]…They say that although the president frequently invokes human trafficking, his administration is actively endangering a significant portion of [people infantilized as “trafficking victims”]:  immigrants…Ivanka Trump…has embraced the eradication of [sex work] as one of her causes [despite her stepmother’s history of sex work]…she…has advocated anti-[sex work] legislation, including [the internet censorship bill FOSTA]…

The Monsters Are Due (#996)

White van hysteria appears to be broadening:

The driver of a white van described [by cops and Facebook hysterics] as possibly being involved in suspicious activity…is a dog-loving business owner and tourist…[named] Chris Fox…who lives in Salt Lake City…Jackson County [South Dakota cops] posted a photo of Fox’s van and wrote in a now-deleted Facebook post that it wanted to learn more about the vehicle because [gullible cops imagined it was] “associated with confirmed criminal activity…[and] appears to use the large antenna visible on the roof to intercept WiFi, stealing credit card information”…[cops harassed him by]…track[ing] down his phone number by running his license plate, which [a busybody had] photographed [while he was peacefully going about his business in his van, which] doesn’t have a big antenna…

Stupor Bowl (#1005)

Though the majority of journalists now insert disclaimers when repeating tall tales of “Super Bowl sex trafficking”, the Miami Herald has apparently decided to go in exactly the opposite direction, publishing the lurid sex fantasies of cops, politicians, and other assorted prohibitionist lowlifes as not only news, but breaking news despite the fact that this same masturbatory fantasy has been spread in conjunction with every major sporting event for well over a decade.  And since we’ve all seen this tragedy porn more times than is healthy for any normal brain, I’m just going to excerpt the high points:

…an underground stream of no-name girls…branded with bar-code tattoos on their inner lower lip, dulled by a diet of drugs, painted with makeup to look older, bruised or burned in discreet spots and living in a state of terror…they are an essential element of the Super Bowl…modern-day slave masters…aiming to make upwards of $1,000 per night per woman under their control…40 million victims caught in the $150 billion sex…trafficking industrysecond only to drug trafficking as the world’s largest criminal industryTheresa Flores [shares her fantasy about being “trafficked” by magical ninja pimps]…You can sell a human being over and over again…[bogus statistics from previous years]…Robert Kraft…Florida ranks third…in human trafficking…hub[s]…the average sex trafficking victim may be forced to have sex 20 times a day…Jeffrey Epstein…hiding in plain sight…SOAP…coerced and brainwashed…Traffickers…spend hours mining social media…mafia…a man…buys a girl the same age as his daughter…piece of property…father figure or a job scam…They pay in cash. At hotels, they keep the Do Not Disturb sign on the doorcontrol of their minds, bodies and soulssophisticateddating sitesThey deny having a pimp

I Spy (#1006)

Anyone who doubts that politicians are deranged megalomaniacs should be following this:

Attorney General William Barr [i]s making a bizarre attack on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act…arguing — without evidence — that 230 might be contributing to “unlawful behavior” online…Section 230 explicitly exempts federal criminal charges from what it applies to, meaning that it literally cannot interfere with any DOJ prosecution…But Barr has continued to push forward with this anti-230 kick, and is going to host a “workshop” about [it] in a few weeks…the DOJ claims that this workshop will have that “diversity of viewpoints”…but it is likely to stack the deck against 230…[as it] has done…with regard to…encryption…the DOJ a[ppears to be] playing this anti-230 card simply as a method of punishing the internet industry for opposing his desire to gut encryption…

Read Full Post »

The only way for an individual to ensure he or she is not subject to collection of biometric information when traveling…is to refrain from traveling.  –  US DHS

License to Rape

Police states define the bodies of all citizens as “crime scenes” which can be violated by “authorities” at will:

A North Carolina [pig molested a young woman using the pretext of]…a body search…K.E Van Althius [groped]…the unidentified woman’s breasts [and vulva]…“[any] normal person, especially a woman, would not want to be touched [that way] by a man,” [said] the woman’s lawyer, Karen Griffin…

They Still Don’t Get It

It’s fascinating to watch fanatics parroting nonsense they clearly neither understand nor believe:

In the shadow of [Kansas] city, there lies a seedy underbelly [of cops predating on people suffering from] addiction [or] mental illness [or using bizarre and meaningless phrases like] moral degradation [to justify police violence, public shaming and even rape]…For the past 18 years [the same sociopath]…has been the top cop of the group.  During that time, he [has been responsible for the destruction of thousands of lives by scheming to victimize them]…with…fierce [perverts]…target[ing human beings, in recent years using the excuse of] human trafficking [hysteria.  Sows get off on roleplaying porcine fantasies of sex workers, arresting any man who gets near or even]…just driv[es by]…The Vice [gang] also targets [women for the “crime” of trying to make a living.  Sometimes for a change of pace they]…raid…adult book store and pornographic movie theater[s and accuse men of having sexual urges]…which is against the law…[the pigs also vomited up a lot of “broken windows” propaganda, which the reporters got on their knees and eagerly lapped up]…

The Missing Word

Only ten years for this horror, while people renting rooms to sex workers get life sentences:

A South Carolina restauranteur was sentenced to [a short term in] prison after admitting he used violence, threats, and intimidation to force a black man to work more than 100 hours a week with no pay…Judge R. Bryan Harwell sentenced…Bobby Paul Edwards to [a mere] 10 years in federal prison after he…[admitted to enslaving] Chris Smith, an intellectually disabled black man…In 1996, when Smith was only 12 years old, he accepted a job at J&J Cafeteria…Six years later, Edwards took over as manager and stopped paying Smith.  Over the next 17 years, Edwards would torture, imprison and withhold pay from Smith, claiming that his pay was kept in an “account” that was inaccessible to Smith…[who was forced to] work…18 hours a day, six days a week.  On Sundays, he only had to work 11 hours…he never had a work break or a day off [and was] forced to live in a “cockroach-infested” apartment behind the business, Smith [said] that Edwards’ family never tried to intervene…When Smith’s family would try to check on him, Edwards would lock Smith in the kitchen or even in the freezer.  On the rare occasion that Smith indicated displeasure or tried to escape, he was [verbaly abused,] hit in the head with a frying pan, burned with hot tongs, [and] beaten with belt-buckles…Customers reported that they sometimes heard Smith being beaten and screaming for his life [but none of them could be bothered to do anything until]…Geneane Caines, who was friends with the Edwards family, was [told by]…her daughter, who worked at the eatery…how Edwards abused Smith…Edwards was sentenced to 10 years…[and] ordered to pay [a mere] $272,952.96 in restitution [for 17 years of slavery]…

The judge actually believes $3.08/hour, no overtime or punitive damages, was sufficient compensation to Edwards’ victim.  Smith should fucking own that place.

Property of the State 

Pregnant women are uniquely vulnerable to state coercion:

A 25-year-old woman named Chelsea Cheyenne Becker was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Hanford, California, after delivering a stillborn baby in September.  [Prosecutors claim] the stillborn had toxic levels of methamphetamine in its body…cases like this are part of a burgeoning, disturbing pattern, in which the rights of pregnant women are directly pitted against those of the “unborn child,” a term that encompasses fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses.  It’s a direct result of the so-called “fetal personhood” movement, which seeks to legally redefine a fetus as a person as a means of overturning Roe v. Wade…there have been cases, already, of women being charged for taking prescription medication while pregnant — one woman was reportedly charged for taking a Valium

Harm Reduction (#627)

Alas, politicians, being exceptionally stupid creatures, cannot understand that the same principles hold true for all prohibition:

With more than 5,500 people dying as a result of drug use across the United Kingdom last year…activists, health professionals and law enforcement agencies agree that change…in the nation’s drugs policies [is vital]…a…cross-party group of MPs want the possession of drugs for personal use to be decriminalised across the whole of the UK to tackle the drug-death crisis.  They are also calling on Westminster to support safe consumption rooms in Scotland…the committee’s…report highlights the example of Portugal, where decriminalisation was introduced in 2001…[and] death rates and HIV incidences have…plummeted…

Stalkers in Blue

Another sexual predator selects a traumatized woman as his prey:

A Calgary [cop] has been fired after he tried to start an unwanted and “predatory” relationship with a young woman who had just tried to kill herself, sending her up to a hundred text messages in four days while she lay recovering in hospital and dropping by her home uninvited…Dave Pizzolato…is only the third [cop] in more than two decades to be terminated from CPS…”Ms. M”…is [emotionally immature]…and was victimized for most of her childhood…she…showed [Pizzolato’s texts] to hospital staff who were so concerned that they contacted the police…Yet, Pizzolato continued to message…and then…turned up at her home…on the day she was released from hospital…she later told investigators she felt pressured…and “scared about what he might do to her” if she [refused his advances]…Pizzolato [had a history of doing] the same thing with other women…and [had been warned to stop] just two weeks earlier…

The Pygmalion Fallacy (#824) 

SAVE THE TOASTERS!!!!

…[James Issac Short] claimed he was trying to prevent sex trafficking when he tried to “rescue” mannequins in the window of an adult store [in Lake Ozark, Missouri].  “He said that the mannequins were telling him that they needed to be let out or something,” explains Mont Hardcastle…manager of [a bar]…across the street…Mi Dream Angels…has several displays in its windows, including mannequins wearing different styles of lingerie.  Hardcastle says he watched Short try the door several times before Short jumped onto a bench and kicked the glass window until it shattered…Hardcastle says Short was halfway into the store when he pulled him out…Two women then came over and sat on Short’s legs until police arrived…Short caused well over $1,000 in damage, destroying a window, lighting, and a security camera…

The Prudish Giant (#896) 

Siouxsie Q on Facebook, censorship and new sex-worker-friendly social media:

Facebook has gone so far as to explicitly outline its supremely staunch position on the use of “suggestive emojis” to solicit sexual communication…cartoon eggplants and peaches…are [now banned when]…“used alongside an implicit or indirect ask for nude imagery, sex or sexual partners, or sex chat conversations”…[for] sex workers…remaining visible has been a challenge due to a massive chilling of online speech related to all forms of sex, sexuality, and sexual health…In response, the adult industry has focused on creating and investing in its own platforms that allow users to share content and build community.  Adult Video News…recently launched a social network that has similar functionality to Twitter, but also provides a way for performers to charge money for access to their explicit content.  Similar sites like FanCentro and OnlyFans are thriving, and even the tube site monolith, PornHub, is now primarily a social interface…We may be entering an era where the Internet is no longer an interconnected web of information, but rather a landscape of private fiefdoms empowered to exclude those they deem unworthy, or worse, a law enforcement mechanism used to deter and punish — definitely not the 1996-vision of the internet’s potential…

It’s good to at least some mainstream publications buying articles from sex workers.

Pyrrhic Victory (#897)

While naive civil libertarians celebrate toothless local laws, DHS is building a giant biometric database:

The US Department of Homeland Security…expects to have face, fingerprint, and iris scans of at least 259 million people in its biometrics database by 2022, according to a recent presentation from the agency’s Office of Procurement Operations…The agency is transitioning from a legacy system called IDENT to a cloud-based system (hosted by Amazon Web Services) known as Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology, or HART.  The biometrics collection maintained by DHS is the world’s second-largest, behind only India’s…data kept by DHS is shared with other US agencies, state and local law enforcement, as well as foreign governments…Biometrics “make it possible to confirm the identity of travelers at any point in their travel,” Kevin McAleenan, US president Donald Trump’s recently-departed acting DHS secretary, told congress last year.  The criteria used by US Customs and Border Protection…to screen out specific travelers as suspicious…was determined in conjunction with Palantir…and…could be tracking travelers “from the moment they begin their internet travel research”…

Stupor Bowl (#940)

Virtually the only people who still profess to believe this nonsense are cops and politicians…and, apparently, the Associated Press:

Major events…such as the Super Bowl have become hubs for sex trafficking [in the sexual fantasies of] Miami officials…[blah blah] children as young as 12 [blah blah]…”sexual exploitation of our children”…[blah blah] a “creepy guy” poster bearing the words: “Buy Sex. Be Exposed”…[blah blah] phone number…[blah blah] Florida…ranks third in the nation.  About 40% of victims are children and most of the rest are young adults between 18 and 23 years old…[blah blah] sold for sex up to 20 times a day.  A trafficker can make between $150,000 and $200,000 a year for each person they sell for sex…

One would think they’d be tired of wanking to this same fantasy for over a decade, but I guess child rape on an impossible scale is a deep-rooted fetish for busybodies.

Quiet Genocide

Just in case you doubted this was about total genocide:

The Chinese government assigns [male Communist Party members] men as “relatives” to monitor the families of [caged] Muslim Uighur men…in order to “promote ethnic unity”…the [program, sold with the Orwellian slogan] “Pair up and Become Family”…involves Uighurs [being forced to quarter] Communist officials, who [subject the family to weeks of propaganda and force the wives]…to [submit to rape by] their paired male “relatives”…Roughly one million Uighurs are [caged] in [concentration] camps that the government calls “free hospital treatment for the masses with sick thinking,” from which accounts of…political indoctrination and torture have emerged…[while the] U.S. [fascist establishment has] been mostly silent…

Little Boxes (#979)

The puritans are learning that they are indeed subject to federal courts:

A Colorado woman was awarded a $50,000 settlement after she was [illegally] charged with indecent exposure for playing frisbee topless.  Efrosini “Effie” Krokos [was victimized by a neighborhood busybody who called the pigs]…on September 26…[fortunately for them, Krokos and her fiance are white, so] Greg Harris of the Loveland Police Department [did not murder or tase either of them, but he is so stupid and poorly-trained he imagined]…Loveland [was not subject to federal courts]…Attorney David Lane…wrote a letter to the city…proposing a settlement instead of…a federal lawsuit.  The city [wisely] agreed and paid Krokos…making it the first damages claim to a woman wrongfully charged for being topless in the country…

To Molest and Rape (#985)

Cops show you what they are every day; why don’t you believe them?

…police moved [child-raping cop] Dennis Perkins to a state prison [to protect him from being lynched after bureaucrats]…informed parents…[that his accomplice wife, who is an elementary school teacher, may have intentionally fed] more than 50 children…small cakes that possibly contained [Perkins’] semen…he…has been tested and showed no signs of having any STDs…someone getting an STD in this manner would be rare, but not impossible…Perkins…was booked with [69 crimes ranging from rape to child porn]…

Read Full Post »

Surveillance technology…rivals nuclear weapons in the threat that it poses to the future of humanity.  –  Evan Greer and Tom Morello

Droit du Seigneur

Though pimps are not common, a disproportionate number of the ones who do exist are cops:

A [typical and representative] vice [pig] convicted of offering to [pimp] a [sow sexually role-playing a sex worker got away with a slap on the wrist and]…will serve [a mere] 90 days in jail [instead of being charged with “sex trafficking” as a non-cop would have been].  David Moss…of Lehi [Utah], was …[given a cushy] plea deal…to [avoid rape charges as well]…and [merely] plead guilty to patronizing a prostitute…

Under Every Bed

Population 13,255.  Seriously:

Drivers on westbound Highway 17 heading from Sudbury toward the Manitoulin turn-off will notice a new billboard between Nairn Centre and McKerrow that describes a Canadian law with a frank statement: “Buying sex is a crime.”  It’s a part of a [scam] by [prohibitionists]…to [profit from] human trafficking [hysteria]…”if there’s no demand then we won’t have the supply,” said [economic ignoramus] Natasha Falle, [who also vomited up a lot of ridiculous nonsense about]…13…years old…“These highways are part of a circuit in prostitution.  Highway 17 is a part of that because it’s so close to Sudbury.  If a trafficker is moving cross-country, they might make a pit stop on Manitoulin…we’re [hoping our billboard scares them away, like a scarecrow]”…

I honestly have to wonder sometimes what these ninnies’ fantasies about our lives actually look like in their narrow, frightened little monkey-brains.

The Rape Question (#895) 

Tech geeks create a “consent app” that is not only useless, but dangerous:

Stating that applications such as Tinder, Bumble, and Hinge provide too many options with reduced quality of interaction, the dating app Loly, soon to be available on iOS and Android, aims to “disrupt the online dating industry”…Loly removes human inter[ac]tion from the equation and instead relies on a patent-pending Heat Index to take control…generating a recommendation for suitable partners.  After connecting, users can then confirm each other’s identities through the in-built video call feature, allowing potential partners to ensure that they each match their profile pictures…All data are then encrypted and stored separately, meaning that the sexual preferences and personal information of users [supposedly] cannot be connected [until the pigs demand it]…When using Loly to meet partners for sexual encounters, users must first confirm they consent by selecting the option on the app and at the end of the exchange, they must again confirm that they consented.  If both users choose to use this option, the app can listen in during the sexual encounter and will respond to the use of safewords.  If triggered through voicing pre-registered safewords, the app will initially place a fake call from the app to the user’s mobile phone.  If there is no response on the app, the police will be automatically contacted [so they can smash down the door and murder both partners]…The practicality of this app response is…questionable…

The Prudish Giant (#897) 

Facebook is trying to become one of the cornerstones of modern fascism:

…The Bay Area has long been a sandbox for technology giants who are no longer merely occupying communities, but building and reshaping them.  In Menlo Park, an affluent, mostly white city of 35,000, Facebook…[funds] a police unit…to patrol the area surrounding its campus.  The bill comes in at over $2 million annually—big money in a small city.  This [increasingly typical] relationship has highlighted issues of policing ethics…“You create a danger when you have public servants being privately funded,” [said] J.T. Faraji, an East Palo Alto resident and founder of the activist group Real Community Coalition…

Hard Numbers (#912)

Another Australian state moves toward decriminalization:

Queensland has withdrawn draft laws from State parliament which would have increased police powers, shifted police and licensing authority coverage from brothels to anywhere sex work takes place, and allowed police to covertly film sex workers…police…in Queensland ha[ve used]…”entrapment-style tactics to pressure sex workers into offering blacklisted services“.  The proposed laws would have afforded the police additional powers to enter, search, film and [steal sex workers’] property…Sex workers continue to campaign for this process to lead to decriminalisation of sex work in Queensland in line with the government’s [claimed] commitment to repeal the current laws and decriminalise sex work…

A Broker in Pillage (#937)

Nobody will be safe until this odious, contemptible practice is recognized as unconstitutional:

Thanks to chronic abuse…by…police…the days may be numbered for South Carolina’s forfeiture system that allows cops to [steal]…cash and property of the people they arrest…Circuit Judge Steven H. John has ruled that the South Carolina’s civil asset forfeiture regulations violate the Fifth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights of the citizens.  Civil asset forfeiture…allows police and prosecutors to declare that any money or property owned by a [target] is “connected” to a crime…and…[steal] it for themselves.  And because this is a civil process, [they]…can do this without having to convict anybody…and [the victims]…have to fund their own lawyers…Local newspapers in South Carolina…discovered police agencies across the state had seized more than $17 million in assets across [only] three years…South Carolina [politicians are working on]…a bill which would…eliminate…civil forfeiture entirely…If it passes, South Carolina would join New Mexico, Nebraska, and North Carolina in completely eliminating [the vile practice]…

Across the Pond (#958)

Redbridge has a history of harassing sex workers while belching up stupid “crime” rhetoric:

After…police [pogroms against] street prostitution in Ilford, hundreds of flyers advertising the sex workers’ services have been dumped on the streets in recent weeks…[prudes vomited up a lot of nonsense about sex rays, “objectification”, and THE CHILDREN™!] and…Redbridge Council [bloviated a lot of idiotic nonsense while pledging to continue its pathetic, useless game of]…whack-a-mole…The council also said it is exploring legal ways of “going after” printing businesses who make the call cards [even though there are plenty of card-printing businesses on the internet, safely out of the reach of censorious ninnies]…

Only the mind of a prohibitionist could be so narrow and stupid as to fail to comprehend that people have bills to pay, so if violent thugs keep businesspeople from advertising their services in one manner, they will find another.

Dangerous Speech (#974)

The government keeps flagrantly hiding information in the Backpage case:

…Ariel Neuman, an attorney for one of Lacey and Larkin’s co-defendants, asserts that prosecutors falsely summarized evidence and misled the grand jury by omitting or excising exculpatory material.  Worse still, prosecutors poured gasoline on the pyre by “falsely, repeatedly and irrelevantly” alleging that the defendants “engaged in child sex trafficking and knowingly published ads for sex with underage children,” though the government did not charge the defendants with…sex trafficking…[only] facilitating prostitution…Neuman writes…”These are not minor details that the government got wrong; these are explosive allegations that had no place in the Indictment or in the presentation to the grand jury.  These are the types of allegations that can overwhelm reason…and lead to decisions out of anger and disgust, regardless of what else is presented.  The government’s conduct…warrants dismissal of the Indictment“…

Pyrrhic Victory (#976) 

All too often, evil arrives cloaked in the mantle of expediency:

Imagine showing up at a…concert and being required to stand in front of a device that scans and analyzes your face…a computer algorithm could then decide that you…look “suspicious” and should be flagged for additional screening…facial recognition…could…be used to track the minute details of your movements once inside.  Face scanning software could be used to police behavior — constantly scanning the crowd for drug use or rule-breaking…organizers [w]ould be forced to hand this trove of sensitive biometric data over to [pigs and spooks so they]…could pull people out of the crowd because they have an outstanding warrant…Industry giants like Ticketmaster invested money in companies like Blink Identity…who…marketed [the tech] as a convenient ticketing option to concertgoers.  But…artists and fans waged a grassroots war to stop Orwellian surveillance technology from invading live music events…Our campaign pushed more than 40 of the world’s largest music festivals — like Coachella, Bonnaroo, and SXSW — to go on the record and state clearly that they have no plans to use facial recognition technology at their events.  Facing backlash, Ticketmaster all but threw Blink Identity under the bus, distancing itself from the surveillance startup it boasted about partnering with just a year ago.  This…is the first major blow to the spread of commercial facial recognition in the United States…

The Clueless Leading the Hysterical (#982)

There has literally never been a case of a kid getting drugged candy in his trick-or-treat bag:

Police in a New Jersey town are [trying to spread hysteria]…after a substance [they claim they] believed to be heroin was found in a local child’s haul of candy from a recent Halloween event…[cops pretend] the substance was…given to the child at [one of those castrated] Trunk or Treat event[s]…police [used the non-incident as an excuse to vomit “if you see something, say something” all over children’s holiday fun]…

“Believed to be heroin”.  You know, just like cops routinely arrest people for things they “believe to be” drugs which turn out to be things like tea leaves, cotton candy, donut glaze, and even bird poop.

To Molest and Rape (#984)

Cops show you what they are every day; why don’t you believe them?

A [typical and representative] Livingston Parish [Louisiana cop] and his wife, a…school teacher, have been arrested and accused of child rape and the production of child pornography…photos…show the two suspects nude with an unclothed child [an actual child, under 13]…Dennis…and Cynthia Perkins…were arrested Wednesday, Oct. 23…Dennis Perkins…[who] was [a member of] the…SWAT [gang] is also charged with obstruction of justice after…[he] toss[ed] his cell phone into a river [when his fellow pigs arrived to arrest him]…

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »