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Posts Tagged ‘violence vs. sex workers’

In the News (#1451)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 3, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Th[e Assange] precedent now can and will be used in the future against the rest of the press.  –  Stella Assange

If Men Were Angels

Anyone “shocked” by this must live in a cave:

[Jonathan Elwing, a Florida pastor caught using cryptocurrency to buy child porn of children as young as 4] is now facing more charges…[after] a…search of [hi]s cell phone revealed…at least 14 pictures of him [rap]ing a 2-year-old…

The Face of Trafficking

Note that cases of actual coercion don’t look much like the myths:

A [West Virginia] couple [who]…lock[ed two of their adopted] children up in a barn and forc[ed] them to work are back behind bars…on a bond that’s more than double what they had already been given– now set at $500,000 each.  Donald Ray Lantz…and Jeanne Kay Whitefeather…[pled] not guilty to over a dozen new charges against them…the adopted children, who were black, were specifically targeted by the couple and forced to work because of their race…the couple was able to acquire the $400,000 bond money for their release from jail in February…[despite claiming] that they had no income or assets, bringing into question where they had acquired the money…from…the couple [say they] sold an 80-acre ranch in Tonasket, Washington [that they claimed not to own] for $725,000 on Feb. 2…the[n]…on March 28…they…sold the…home [that they also did not own]…for $295,000…their bond money…still remains in the custody of the…Court Clerk’s office. [But in a rare moment of normal human decency, the prosecutor said he] believes it should be transferred over to a trust fund for the children…

To Molest and Rape

Good grief, don’t volunteer to be around them either:

A Riverside County [California cop is at large] after [somehow] posting $1 million bail following his…arrest…[for] kidnapping…rape…and…oral [rape] of a sheriff’s office volunteer…Alexander Ravy Vanny…was… [arrested on June 22nd and out the next day after his victim]…told [another cop] about the [rape]…

Joey the Player (#1382)

At least these shitty laws were used against an actual violent criminal for a change:

On Wednesday, June 26th, 2026 “Joey The Player”, [AKA] José Olivio Torres was sentenced to 30 years in prison for 4 counts of Sex Trafficking related charges…The FBI interviewed more than 30 victims, [but]…the court was aware of likely hundreds more victims who were too afraid to come forward.  A search of Torres’ home and office revealed more than 400 phone numbers and hundreds of email addresses he used to evade identification…he sent out between 60 and 150 texts and emails daily, trying to lure new victims to New [Jersey]…Torres had written nearly a million dollars in bad checks to sex workers…He sued the prosecutor, the victims’ attorney’s firm, and even the judge…filed hundreds of self-written motions with the court and fired at least four attorneys…most motions were denied, and the lawsuits were dismissed with prejudice…Torres…repeatedly stated that his “real crime” was theft of services…However, [neither] the judge…no[r anyone else involved]…was…convinced by Torres’ attempts to minimize his actions.  The court never once referred to the survivors as anything but sex workers and treated them with the utmost dignity and respect…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1421)

“Simply claiming that the ‘age verification preserves online anonymity’ does not make it so“:

A company that verifies the identities of TikTok, Uber, and [Twitter] users…by processing photographs of their faces and pictures of their drivers’ licenses, exposed a set of administrative credentials online for more than a year potentially allowing hackers to access that sensitive data…The Israel-based company, called AU10TIX, offers what it describes [using buzzwords] as “full-service identity verification solutions”…The news comes as more social networks and pornography sites [have been forced by politicians to] move towards an identity or age verification model…[and] highlights that identity services could themselves become a target for hackers…

Vulture Watching (#1434)

Mutually-contradictory laws are an inevitable result of rampant authoritarianism:

The Supreme Court will allow emergency abortions in Idaho…while a lawsuit over the state’s controversial abortion law [goes] forward…the state…[even] prohibits abortions required to protect a pregnant woman’s physical health…[in] violat[ion of]…EMTALA…a federal law that requires many hospitals to provide stabilizing care to patients who show up to emergency rooms…An Idaho federal district court judge placed a preliminary injunction on [the] law in August 2022…but…Idaho appealed, and the Supreme Court reversed the block in January…[resulting in] “the State’s largest provider of emergency services ha[ving] to airlift pregnant women out of Idaho roughly every other week, compared to once in all of the prior year”…With Thursday’s decision, the Supreme Court has dismissed Idaho’s appeals, allowing doctors to provide health-preserving abortions in the state while the case continues…

Bits and Pieces (#1450)

A short EN Brown piece on the legacy of the Assange persecution:

…it’s hard to exactly call this a win for the WikiLeaks founder.  But on the surface, it is a loss for the U.S. government, which wanted to put Assange away for a much, much longer period of time.  And yet, on some level, authorities got exactly what it seems they wanted: a warning to anyone who would dare to publish information that makes the government look bad.  It provides a clear view of what happens when you actively try to expose government secrets.  Shots have already been fired against future renegade journalists…Assange’s prosecution almost certainly serves as a deterrent for journalists who would encourage whistleblowers…or any outlet that would aim to function, like WikiLeaks, as a source for unredacted publications of government information…

 

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

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In the News (#1450)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 29, 2024| 1 Comment »

This is arguing for banning video games because some kids who play video games might someday drive a few miles per hour over the posted speed limit.  –  Eric Boehm

Bits and Pieces (#9)

Assange was freed as soon as it became politically expedient:

…Julian Assange flew out of the UK on [June 24] apparently a free man after reaching a plea deal with US authorities…to plead guilty to a single espionage charge in a court appearance on [the] US-controlled Pacific island [of Saipan, east of the Philippines] and prosecutors will seek a sentence equivalent to time served…Assange has been a wanted man since 2010 when WikiLeaks released hundreds of thousands of classified US military documents on Washington’s wars in Afghanistan and Iraq…In 2012, as authorities circled him for that and [long-since abandoned] sex crime allegations from [the Swedish government], he fled into London’s Ecuadorian embassy where he remained for seven years…After falling out with [Ecuador]’s rulers he was dragged out…in 2019 and locked up in [a UK prison] while the US attempted to extradite him.  But that legal process ended abruptly [when the US found it convenient], and WikiLeaks broke the news with a [Twitter] post…reading: “Julian Assange is free!”…

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

[Michigan politician] Neil Friske…was arrested [at his house for]…chasing a stripper and firing a weapon….[after] sexually assault[ing]…her…The [political] district is no stranger to scandal…[politician] Lee Chatfield…who represented it from 2015 to 2021, had his own guns-and-strippers controversy.

Quiet Genocide (#1248)

Truthful headline: “Chinese rename other people’s villages against their wishes”:

Chinese [bureaucrats] in Xinjiang have been systematically changing hundreds of village names with religious, historical, or cultural meaning for Uyghurs into names reflecting recent Chinese Communist Party ideology…Human Rights Watch research has identified about 630 villages where the names have been changed that way.  The top three most common replacement village names are “Happiness,” “Unity,” and “Harmony”…Maya Wang, [HRW] China director [said]…“These name changes appear part of Chinese government efforts to erase the cultural and religious expressions of Uyghurs”…most of these changes occurred between 2017 and 2019, when the Chinese government’s crimes against humanity escalated in the region…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #1)

When a woman dies by “hanging”, it’s nearly always a murder:

A prominent forensic pathologist hired by the family of Sandra Birchmore, the young woman who was…groomed [and molested] by three [typical and representative Massachusetts cops], has concluded that her death was a homicide, contradicting earlier findings by [cop cronies] that there was no evidence of foul play…Dr. Michael Baden…cited the extent of Birchmore’s injuries and the placement of a ligature found on her body as factors in his determination…that Birchmore…[had not] killed herself by hanging…“The cause of Ms. Birchmore’s death is ‘Strangulation’ and the manner of death is ‘Homicide’,” Baden wrote…Birchmore’s estate is suing [the] three [rapist cops] for wrongful death…They are [the murderer,] Matthew G. Farwell…[the] father [of] Birchmore[‘s unborn child]…as well as his twin brother, William, and Robert C. Devine…a [typical and representative cop and sexual predator] who…led the department’s [grooming] program…the state medical examiner [covered up the murder by]…not send[ing] fetal tissue for DNA analysis to determine [paternity]…On Feb. 1, 2021, surveillance cameras captured Matthew Farwell arriving and then leaving Birchmore’s apartment…and [nobody ever saw] her alive [again after his visit]…

I Spy (#1360) 

The government thinks you shouldn’t be allowed any privacy whatsoever:

The U.S. Postal Service has shared information from thousands of Americans’ letters and packages with [cop shops and spook houses] every year for the past decade, conveying the names, addresses and other details from the outside of boxes and envelopes without requiring a court order.  Postal inspectors [pretend] they fulfill such requests only when mail monitoring can help find a fugitive or investigate a crime.  But…[the pigs and spooks get to define “crime” and] Postal Service officials have received more than 60,000 requests…[of this sort] since 2015, and…97 percent of the requests were approved…[totaling] more than 312,000 letters and packages between 2015 and 2023…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1444)

The claims in these nuisance lawsuits are increasingly absurd:

…a dozen [nuisance] lawsuits filed since last year by the attorneys general of 45 states and the District of Columbia…accuse [Facebook] of [magical]ly ensnaring teenagers and children on Instagram and Facebook while deceiving the public about the [power of the magical spells used].  Using a [playbook] reminiscent of the government’s pursuit of Big Tobacco in the 1990s, the attorneys general seek to [profit from Facebook while bringing it more under their control]…The state lawsuits…reflect mounting [fantasies] that [interactions] on social media [are magically different from those in real life]…and [that young people can be hypnot]ically induced into compulsive online use…Vivek H. Murthy, the [charlatan currently holding the often-politicized post of] United States surgeon general, [absurdly] called for warning labels to be placed on social networks, [pretend]ing the platforms present a public health risk to young people.  His [childish hysterics] could boost momentum in Congress to pass the Kids Online Safety Act, a[n internet-censorship] bill that would [enshrine catastrophic internet censorship into law]…

A Moral Cancer (#1446)

Prohibitionism is a dangerous mental illness:

Molly A. Bowdring, a c[rypto-moral]ist at Stanford…wrote this week in STAT that nonalcoholic drinks meant to resemble beer or cocktails are “a potential public health crisis”…[because] drinks that contain no alcohol are generally not subjected to limitations placed on drinks that do contain alcohol…and…Bowdring [pearl-clutches that]…”Among minors, consuming non-alcoholic beverages can socialize them to the drinking culture, with the beverages being perceived as cool, adult, and modern.”  Goodness gracious, not that…

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

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Throwback Thursday’s Bloody Nightmare

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 27, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Most men, and many women, don’t need to “connect with a soul” to be interested in sex with someone.
–  “Purely Sexual”

It’s just not ethical to dump your garbage in someone else’s yard without her permission.  –  “Amateur Night”

There are just as many control freaks dressed up as therapists as there are dressed up as teachers, doctors, clergymen, judges or any other “authority” figure you can name.
–  “The Real World”

Some people are completely unable to comprehend why I don’t see a cake-baker in Colorado as the Second Coming of Hitler.  –  “Blind Spot”

Here’s my message for Big Gay:  Fuck You.  Fuck your respectability politics and your abandonment of “We’re here, we’re queer, get used to it!” in favor of  “We’re just like you straight folks, right down to getting married, living in the suburbs & sucking the dick of power”…Fuck your licking the arseholes of huge fascist corporations who betray every principle the LGBT movement used to stand for because they pay for your fancy Pride parades with money that would’ve been better spent helping queer & trans youth driven out of their homes and into survival sex work; and fuck your eager rimming of politicians who absolve those young people’s families of blame by pretending the reason they’re doing the work is because they were forced into it by imaginary “pimps”.  Fuck your whole picket-fence, big table, might-as-well-be-straight-except-for-where-you-stick-your-dick mentality.  –  “Nothing To Be Proud Of”

If “feminists” had spent more time listening to sex workers and less gazing into their own navels, they’d have understood that [armed rapists are dangerous] 50 years ago instead of conspiring with [them] against other women.  –  “Zeitgeist“

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In the News (#1448)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Ron…[DeSantis’] obsession with [LGBT people] has always been about politics and power, not policy or medical facts.  –  Nikki Fried

Surplus Women

Your “leaders” work hard to ensure this happens more often:

A man who murdered a woman and attempted to cover his tracks by burning her body has been jailed for at least 20 years.  Robert Brown…killed [a sex worker named] Victoria Greenwood…[after luring her to] his flat in the early hours of Friday, 10 November [under pretense of hiring her for outcall].  CCTV footage showed her on the ground outside trying to escape, but being pulled back inside the property…A pathologist found that Ms Greenwood had suffered skull fractures suggesting she had been hit by a heavy, blunt object.  There was no evidence she had inhaled fire fumes, which indicated she was dead at the time her body was set on fire…

Panopticon (#1150)

Too few states have held this, because the spying is too convenient for cops:

In March, the Alaska Supreme Court held in State v. McKelvey that the Alaska Constitution required [cops] to obtain a warrant before photographing a private backyard from an aircraft…the government…[absurdly argued that] the surveillance [was OK because it was undetected].  In response…the Court observed that…“if the surveillance technique cannot be detected, then one can never fully protect against being surveilled”…the Court added pointedly, “the rise of drones has the potential to…[make such surveillance far more comm]on“…With this decision, Alaska joins California, Hawaii, and Vermont in finding that warrantless aerial surveillance violates the…constitutional prohibition of unreasonable search and seizure…

Creepy Coppers

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:  “A [typical and representative Georgia screw named Steven Bunte] has been arrested…[by the] fed[s]…for…[child] pornography…”

The Vultures Descend (#1333)

Ruling thus on standing doesn’t actually mean a great deal:

 The Supreme Court…unanimously preserved access to [mifepristone because]…opponents lacked [standing] to sue over the…[FDA]’s approval of the medication…But the high court is separately considering another abortion case, about whether a federal law on emergency treatment at hospitals overrides state abortion bans in…emergency cases [where] a pregnant patient’s health is at serious risk…

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

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

Florida’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy for transgender minors and restrictions for adults are both unconstitutional…U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle…sided with the plaintiffs in the class action…because [the law] solely targeted transgender people…[receiving] “medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity”…

If Men Were Angels (#1439)

Religion is often used an excuse for molestation, even when the molesters aren’t actual preachers:

A…high school coach in Texas…told [cop]s that it’s “God’s divine plan” for him to continue [molesting] a 15-year-old student [he seduced]…Cole Underwood [was reported by the school]…superintendent…[after] surveillance video showed Underwood meeting the [girl] alone after hours despite being told not to be alone…with her[.  She told cops he molested her] in his office more than 10 times between February and May…

Shifting the Blame (#1445)

And yet, they’re still not implicating cops that we know were Heuermann’s buddies:

John Ray, an attorney who represents the families of some of the Gilgo Beach murder victims, spoke to reporters on ‘evidence’ he says could implicate family members of Rex Heuermann including his 27-year-old daughter, Victoria.  Ray accused the alleged serial killer’s daughter of posting disturbing images to social media.  “This appears to be the remains of a human being that looks half-eaten,” Ray said, pointing to photographs…found on her Tumblr blog via a link from her LinkedIn page…it “appears that she [has] erased all of her [other] sites…We can infer from this…that this girl was made over the course of years, somehow, to become accustomed to liking what you see here”…

 

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

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In the News (#1445)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »

It feels like our home is not ours anymore.  –  Norell Martínez

Dirty Amateurs

Amateurs could learn so much about safer sex from professionals:

Health experts are warning of new and highly contagious fungal strains after an NYC man in his 30s developed a sexually transmitted form of ringworm — the first reported case in the US…[cases of] Trichophyton mentagrophytes type VII…have been on the rise in Europe, especially in men who have sex with men.  The man in the new case study had visited England, Greece and California.  He reported having sex with men during his travels, none of whom disclosed similar skin issues….infections caused by TMVII seem to respond to standard antifungal therapies…but…can take months to clear up.  They also may be confused with…eczema, which may delay treatment…

Signs (#813)

Americans disapprove of teaching kids about sex, but they’re all for filling their heads with stupid anti-sex propaganda from a decade ago:

…A new [Utah] law requires the board to find a company that can [indoctrinate kids in the moribund]…human trafficking [hysteria in hopes of reviving it.  “Rescue industry” groups who]…exploit…[the hysteria are still vomiting out the usual agency-denying nonsense about how “]the majority of victims don’t realize they’re being trafficked[” and claiming that…ordinary adolescent problems constitute “]signs teachers could look for[“]…

Elephant in the Parlor (#825)

A HuffPost reporter asked several well-known sex workers what they thought about the outcome of the Trump trial:

Last week, Donald Trump was found guilty on all 34 counts in his hush money trial after a jury unanimously agreed he had falsified business records to cover up allegations of an affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels.  Daniels’ credibility on the witness stand became a linchpin in the prosecution’s case…[but] despite Trump’s lawyers’ best efforts to slut-shame Daniels and portray her as someone trying to shake down a powerful man by selling a fabricated, salacious story, in the end, the jury found Daniels’ testimony convincing.  That felt especially gratifying ― even vindicating ― to fellow porn actors and sex workers…“I wish I could believe that we’ve seen the last of Donald Trump, but I’m not that optimistic.  But one thing I am pleased about is that despite the attempts at character assassination, the jury still clearly considered Daniels, a credible witness,” said Maggie McNeill, a retired sex worker and the author of the blog The Honest Courtesan …“Back in the ’90s ― before ‘sex trafficking’ hysteria was heavily promoted by politicians and other propagandists…the U.S. public was largely turning against sex work criminalization,” she said. “Perhaps this is a small sign that we’re going back that way again”…

Panopticon (#1096)

Life now for the subjects of a surveillance state:

As [cop shops] expand their use of [drones], no agency has embraced the technology quite like the…Chula Vista [California] Police Department…In October 2018, the city became the first in the nation to start a Drone as First Responder (DFR) program…now those devices criss-cross the skies of Chula Vista daily…with poorer residents [predictably] experiencing far more exposure to the drones’ cameras and rotors than their wealthier counterparts…drones…are…routinely deployed for minor issues such as…loud music.  Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, the city even used drones to [harass]…homeless encampments…residents…are afraid to spend time in their backyards; they fear that the machines are following them down the street, spying on them while they use the public pool or change their clothes…drones, equipped with cameras and zoom lenses powerful enough to capture faces clearly and constantly recording while in flight, have amassed hundreds of hours of video footage of the city’s residents…Department secrecy around the recordings remains the subject of ongoing litigation…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

Censors now pretend thoughts they don’t like constitute a “crime”:

In a new report…The Future of Free Speech…points out that online regulation changed in 2017 with Germany’s adoption of the Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), “which…inspired [politician]s around the world…But…[Europe’s version of NetzDG,] the DSA “gives way too much power to government agencies to…remove…content and to…out anonymous speakers,” cautioned the Electronic Frontier Foundation… “The Digital Services Act will essentially oblige Big Tech to act as a privatized censor on behalf of governments”…[warned] Jacob Mchangama, now executive director of The Future of Free Speech… “Legal online speech made up most of the removed content from posts on Facebook and YouTube in France, Germany, and Sweden…The highest proportion…was…in Germany, where 99.7% and 98.9% of deleted comments were found to be legal on Facebook and YouTube, respectively”…most of the content being removed from social media is permissible even under local laws…

Shifting the Blame (#1406)

There’s psychopathy and there’s pure evil, and then there’s this:

…Rex Heuermann…[has] be[en] arraigned in the deaths of Jessica Taylor and Sandra Costilla…He had previously been charged with murdering four other women…Taylor disappeared in 2003.  Costilla was killed 30 years ago, in 1993, and her inclusion…indicates that prosecutors now believe Heuermann was killing women for much longer than previously thought…Additionally, prosecutors say they recovered a file on a hard drive in his basement used to “methodically blueprint” his killings.  The all-caps document features a series of checklists with tasks to complete before, during and after the killings, as well as practical lessons for “next time.”  Among the dozens of entries written are reminders to clean the bodies and destroy evidence, to “get sleep before hunt” and to “have story set”.  One section, titled “things to remember,” appears to highlight lessons from previous killings, prosecutors said, such as using heavier rope and limiting noise in order to maximize “play time”.  A “body prep” checklist includes, among other items, a note to “remove head and hands”…that entry may connect Heuermann to yet another victim, Valerie Mack, whose partial skeletal remains were discovered near the body of Taylor after her disappearance in 2000…

Torture Chamber (#1441)

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

The warden of a maximum-security Wisconsin prison and eight [screws have been] charged…following investigations into the deaths of four [of their prisoners]…over the past year…warden…Randall Hepp…is charged with misconduct…The other eight face charges of inmate abuse…The first of the[ir] four [victims], Dean Hoffman, killed himself in solitary confinement last June…Tyshun Lemons and Cameron Williams were both found dead…in October…and…Donald Maier was found dead…in February…

 

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

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In the News (#1441)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 29, 2024| 1 Comment »

What is presented as an effort to stop…violence…ends up being the main source of violence.  –  Erika Lust

The Red Umbrella 

If he truly had trouble before, why did he call the same agency again?

Varinder Singh Deo…was celebrating with a friend…in Deo’s detached garage, drinking alcohol and consuming cocaine, while Deo’s wife and child slept…Deo arranged for a sex worker to come over…[but] didn’t think she looked like her online photograph. Deo [and]…the woman, referred to as B.K…argued over a cancellation fee…Deo [brandished]…a handgun…later [claiming to] police…he’d had a traumatic experience with the same escort service a few years earlier when he was supposed to meet up with a sex worker but was instead robbed by multiple men at knife point…B.K. and [her duo partner] M.C. started retreating back to their vehicle…[and] Deo fired two shots at them.  One…struck the back of M.C.’s left shoulder…[she] spent three days in hospital and suffered nerve damage…and…scarring…and…also had to pay a more than $7,000 bill for blood stain removal from the rental car…[the British Columbia judge] chose to sentence Deo to four years in prison…[and] ordered [him] to reimburse B.K. for the blood stain removal bill…

Link Rot

It’s good to see someone actually studying this problem:

A new Pew Research Center analysis shows just how fleeting online content actually is:  A quarter of all webpages that existed at one point between 2013 and 2023 are no longer accessible…For older content, this trend is even starker.  Some 38% of webpages that existed in 2013 are not available today, compared with 8% of pages that existed in 2023…23% of news webpages contain at least one broken link, as do 21% of webpages from government sites…54% of Wikipedia pages contain at least one link in their “References” section that points to a page that no longer exists…Nearly one-in-five tweets are no longer publicly visible on the site just months after being posted…

The Course of a Disease (#1244)

The Spanish case of the Swedish rot has been especially virulent, so this is encouraging:

Spain’s Socialist Party…[has] suffered a sound defeat…in its attempt to recriminalize sex work…[after] the party’s ruling coalition allies…withdrew their backing from the widely reviled “Abolition of Prostitution” law…PSOE’s…Laura Berja, unequivocally stated last year, “We must abolish [women’s sexual freedom] because it is incompatible with human rights.”  El Mundo [said the]…defeat holds “symbolic weight” and sends the abolition law “right to the trash bin.”  It is the first time, the newspaper noted, that the PSOE has failed to rally its coalition allies in support of an important piece of legislation, which may indicate a “crack” in the coalition that could further endanger its chances to remain in power…

Thought Control (#1379)

The censors got what they wanted in this case:

A public library in Boise is transitioning to an “adult only” library.  The Donnelly Public Library s[tated]…that the change is due to the passage of HB710…that en[courages] anyone to sue the library if [they claim] children are exposed to…adult material…due to its small size and the…ambiguous…language of the bill, the change is the only way the…[library] can assure compliance with the law, which goes into effect on July 1…The bill…was signed into law by Governor Brad Little earlier this year, [despite his veto of an earlier version]…

Torture Chamber (#1415)

The inevitable result of locking mentally ill people in filthy cages and entrusting sociopathic thugs to mind them:

…in April 2021, Georgia Baldwin…was clearly in the throes of a severe mental health episode…[but] she was arrested…[on a trumped-up] felony charge [anyway] and sent to jail in Tarrant County, Texas.  Six weeks later, in June, a psychiatrist determined Baldwin was “incompetent and thus unable to stand trial”…[but instead of sending her to] a state hospital…”Tarrant County chose to [keep] Ms. Baldwin [locked] in a small cell, where she could not see through a window or view other human beings,” remaining there from July 27 until her death on September 14…from…”severe hypernatremia” —high levels of sodium in the blood typically resulting from dehydration… [two other prisoners] with severe mental illness [also died] of dehydration in Tarrant County’s c[ages] over a two-year period…Abdullahi Mohamed [was arrested] in June 2020 for…[a violent] manic…bipolar [episode]…Nine days later, jailers…found him unresponsive in his cell, and he died soon after.  And in December 2021, Edgar Villatoro Alvarez was [caged]…after having been hospitalized for a bipolar episode the previous month…he died [the following] February…

Dangerous Speech (#1435)

The government doesn’t care about all those charges, as long as Lacey dies in a filthy cage:

Government attorneys in the Backpage case…want…Lacey and two co-defendants to be sentenced on their respective guilty verdicts so the three men can appeal to the Ninth Circuit…[before] the government will decide if it will retry Lacey…Judge…Humetewa vacated Lacey’s previously scheduled Aug. 6 retrial date and set sentencing for July 9 for Lacey…Scott Spear and Jed Brunst…Humetewa [refused to consider]…the possibility that Lacey be allowed to remain out on bond pending the outcome of any appeal…The one thing the judge and the parties agreed on was that there are weighty matters to be decided by the Ninth, including [multiple kinds of] prosecutorial misconduct…It could take anywhere from eight months to two or three years before the Ninth issues a decision.  Which means there is no immediate end in sight for this vindictive prosecution, now in its seventh year…

The Cop Myth (#1438)

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

A [typical and representative Kentucky cop] has been found guilty of murder[ing the husband of his girlfriend, Lena North]…Jeremy Lewis…murder[ed]…Tyler North…[in 2018, but it took the Kounty Kops] two…year[s to find the remains]…

 

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

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In the News (#1440)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 25, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The new [Belgian] scheme seems…to grant government too much say in the employer-employee relationship.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

German…politician…Martin Neumaier…was [featured] in…several videos and photos…performing…fetishistic acts [which] began to circulate this week…the media was verified as authentic…[and Neumaier] said he had filmed them “voluntarily and with pleasure,” adding that all viewers…“had the right to…publish it wherever they see fit.”  In one of the videos, Neumaier could be seen naked while reciting the first verse of Nazi-era German national anthem and using an anal dildo…in another, Neumaier inserted a feces-covered dildo into his rectum before smearing it on a Quran.  In other videos, Neumaier was heard expressing his desire to “rape to death” one of the 12 wives of the Prophet Mohammed, smearing feces on his face and body, and licking public toilet seats…[now another] politician…[named Rene Dierkes claims] he ha[s] evidence [of] Neumaier…procuring young boys for sexual abuse…Neumaier [has in response] filed a criminal complaint against unknown persons alleging blackmail…

Business As Usual

As long as sex work is criminalized, rapist cops will target sex workers:

A [typical and representative Florida cop named]…Stephen Corbin [h]as…be[en]…arrested…[for attem]ting [to] sexual[ly] assault…at…[least two sex workers in Daytona Beach].  Sheriff Mike Chitwood [used the occasion to bloviate a lot of pompous nonsense one could barely believe was spewed by a grown adult]…Corbin…threaten[ed] the women [with arrest]…and [has apparently] picked…up [sex workers] in [the past] and [properly] paid for sex…

The Face of Trafficking 

Oh look, she managed to call for help without “hotlines” and magic bathroom stickers:

A 17-year-old girl was able to save herself from [an abductor] by texting 911…with “pleas for help” around 3 a.m. on May 9…[in] Ventura County [California.  She]…began texting landmarks and other “identifiable information” she was seeing, which helped the agency quickly dispatch deputies to the correct area…Investigators…believe…[she] was [brought] to Ventura County roughly two months ago from Mexico.  She has been placed with the county’s Children & Family Services until authorities can locate her family…[cops] arrested Gerardo Cruz…his bail is set at half a million dollars…

The story repeatedly uses the words “trafficking” and “trafficked”, but in the absence of information about the purpose and manner of the abduction, more neutral words are called for to avoid making the girl the unwilling subject of prohibitionist wanking fantasies.

Little Boxes (#837)

The shittiest-paying sex work ever:

…many of OnlyFans’ top earners…hire…a management agency to help keep up with…customers’ demands for personal attention…they…provide…a team of contractors whose sole job is to masquerade as the creator while swapping DMs with her subscribers…agencies tend to favor contractors who reside in lower-wage countries…like the Philippines and Venezuela…these workers are relatively well-educated, with university-level English and ace typing skills that some developed in high-pressure call centers…Even for positions with a starting hourly wage of just $2, agencies often demand…evidence that applicants ha[ve] not only chatted on OnlyFans before but had also cajoled subscribers into purchasing thousands of dollars’ worth of so-called exclusive content…

Welcome to the Future (#1052)

Cop excuses produced by human bootlickers are bad enough:

…giant [fascist corporation] Axon [has] announced Draft One, a new product that uses OpenAI’s GPT-4 Turbo to automatically generate police reports from…bodycam audio.  The product promises to make police…reports…[more] helpful in…prosecution [rather than more factually accurate]…the user [has] to select what…[level of] severity [they want] the [report spin to justify], be that no charge, an infraction, a misdemeanor, or a felony…[cops are supposed] to proofread the draft, make any corrections, and sign off on its accuracy….Matthew Guariglia…at…the Electronic Frontier Foundation [said]…“Policing, with its legal power to kill, detain, or ultimately deny people’s freedom, is too powerful an institution to outsource its official narratives to technologies in a way that makes officers immune to critique, transparency, or accountability because they have…plausible deniability that they…were not aware of mistakes the [algorithm] made”…

The Cop Myth (#1432)

Cop violence is never limited to members of the public:

A Prince George’s County [cop] has been suspended and placed on house arrest fo[r attacking his wife on May 14th]…Robert Harvin III smash[ed] his wife’s iPhone and assault[ed] her after she…caught him on the phone with his mistress…Harvin…pushed her, dragged her to the floor and…choke[d her]…once she was able to break free, she grabbed Harvin’s…police radio and called for help.  Harvin [absurdly] claims the [violence] was “mutual, like Matrix”…[but his own] Google Nest kitchen camera revealed…Harvin’s wife “yelling and screaming for him to get away from her.”  Their doorbell camera footage also shows him “actively assaulting [his wife] by dragging and punching her”…

Nor is it limited to male cops:

Two [married] Detroit [cops have been] suspended [and] charged with child abuse….Jared…and Liana Shaw…are…[typical] and…representative…and…both…[aggressively choked] Liana’s two children…a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl….[because the] son…tried to intervene when the pair had been fighting…[the boy’s] grandmother…called the cops when she saw what was happening.  The two children are staying with her while this case works its way through the courts.  Three of Jared’s children have also been placed with relatives.  The Shaws…bond[ed out and are currently at large]…

Leaving the 20th Century (#1438)

Looks like I was wrong about Belgian decrim:

…Belgium…is trying to bring sex workers into “social protection” programs and employee benefits…The decriminalization law was a first step to making sex workers eligible for such things.  The second step was the law…that The Publica makes sound like a horrifying, dystopian mess…Under the decriminalized system, sex workers could be self-employed, and they could hire third parties to help them in various ways.  They could also be freelance workers in an establishment run by someone else.  But sex workers could not themselves be employees.  Under the new law, “sex workers will also be able to work under an employment contract, thus gaining access to social security: pension, unemployment, health insurance, family benefits, annual vacation, maternity leave,” according to UTSOPI…the law imposes obligations on both businesses that employ sex workers and on sex workers who work for those businesses…we’re not talking individual “pimps” (a one-person sex work business cannot legally hire employees) but registered businesses that have contracted as a sex work employer and taken on all the responsibilities that entails…

In my defense, I must point out that the scheme grants government so much say in business relationships I confused it for legalization until Liz Brown broke it down for me.

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

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Yes, They’re Still Tweets

Posted in Biography, Fiction, Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Tyranny, Words, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

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Mary Shelley’s Throwback Thursday

Posted in Miscellaneous, Perception, Philosophy, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , on May 16, 2024| Leave a Comment »

To put it in D&D terms, a high charisma is no guarantee of a high wisdom.  –  “Favor”

“Evil” is not something a person is; it’s something a person does.
–  “The Essence of Evil”

We all leave this world in the same way we enter it: in blood and pain, wholly ignorant of what comes next.  –  “Approaching Infinity”

When you tell [prohibitionists], “Please stop because you’re killing us,” you are not dissuading them from their course of action; you are encouraging it.  –  “Stop Encouraging Them”

No society which pretends to be “free” has any business sorting human beings into categories as though they were produce.  –  “Nonessential“

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In the News (#1436)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, The Dark Side, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 11, 2024| Leave a Comment »

Sex workers…are not selling themselves, they are selling a service.  –  Tammy Franks

Surplus Women

Why does this story avoid the obvious?

A…Bothell [Washington politician named James McNeal]…was arrested [on April 30th] after a 20-year-old woman was found dead inside [his] home…”laying face up in a bed, fully nude” and covered by bedding…the King County Medical Examiner’s Office found “injury marks” on [her] neck and “under the left side of her jaw”…the woman had been dead for about 24 hours at the time [cops] found [her].  Evidence …“indicates death from asphyxia”…

Monkey Business 

So much for human uniqueness:

A Sumatran orangutan in Indonesia has self-medicated using a paste made from plants to heal a large wound on his cheek…It is the first time a creature in the wild has been recorded treating an injury with a medicinal plant…A research team…spotted Rakus with a large wound on his cheek in June 2022…then saw Rakus chewing the stem and leaves of plant called Akar Kuning – an anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial plant that is also used locally to treat malaria and diabetes.  He repeatedly applied the liquid onto his cheek for seven minutes…then smeared the chewed leaves onto his wound until it was fully covered.  He continued to feed on the plant for over 30 minutes…the researchers saw no sign of infection and the wound closed within five days.  After a month, Rakus was fully healed.  The scientists concluded that Rakus knew he was applying medicine because orangutans very rarely eat this particular plant and because of the length of the treatment…

If Men Were Angels (#947) 

The problem isn’t Catholicism, Christianity or even religion; it’s teaching kids to blindly submit to authority:

A criminal investigation into the Archdiocese of New Orleans is based on a suspicion that it may be linked to child sex trafficking…The affidavit requesting the search warrant…alleges that multiple sex abuse victims…were transported to other parishes and outside of Louisiana, where they were sexually abused.  It further alleges a scheme…in which abused children were instructed to provide “gifts” to certain priests…to signal that the children were targets for sexual abuse…multiple victims reported that they were brought to the New Orleans Seminary, where they were instructed to “swim naked in the pool and would be sexually assaulted or abused”…the information that led to a suspicion of sex trafficking was obtained by police during an earlier investigation into a retired priest named Lawrence Hecker, who is accused of raping an underage teenage boy in the 1970s…

The Mob Rules (#1323)

Until this batshittery is declared unconstitutional, things will keep getting worse:

As soon as Collin Davis found out his ex-partner was planning to travel to Colorado to have an abortion in late February, the Texas man retained a high-powered antiabortion attorney — who…immediately issued a legal threat…[of] “wrongful-death claims”…Davis…is…[now] asking for the power to investigate…[so he can] sue either under the state’s wrongful-death statute or the novel Texas law…that allows private citizens to file suit against anyone who “aids or abets” an…abortion…The case also illustrates the role that [abusive] men who [want revenge on former] partners…could play…either by filing their own civil lawsuits or by [snitching] to [the pigs like bootlicking little tattletales]…Davis’s petition — filed…by Jonathan Mitchell, a prominent antiabortion [fanatic]…follows a lawsuit filed last spring by another Texas man, Marcus Silva, who is attempting to sue three women who allegedly helped his ex-wife obtain abortion pills…

The Course of a Disease (#1372)

Australian prohibitionists won’t stop trying to impose this evil scheme:

South Australia’s upper house voted 10-9 to reject…“Nordic model” [criminalization of] prostitution…[beside the usual Swedish rot features] the Bill…would also have compelled government to [treat] sex workers [as cases of arrested development unable to make work decisions without State]…assistance…Greens member Tammy Franks led the charge against the [criminalization attempt] in a furious speech, denouncing the Bill as “slavery” for sex workers…Franks and other members of the Labor Party…expressed support for full decriminalisation of the industry…Franks…expressed alarm about how close [the vote] was and…said…“I think they’ll be back for another attempt at some stage”…

You Were Warned (#1383)

Politicians no longer care about whether their new diktats are Constitutional:

Apparently, the world needs even more terrible bills that let ignorant senators grandstand to the media about how they’re “protecting the kids online”…This one is called the “The Kids Off Social Media Act” (KOSMA) and it’s an unconstitutional mess built on a long list of debunked and faulty premises…The…bill…would be an outright ban on social media accounts for anyone under the age of 13…we kinda already have a “soft” version of that because of COPPA, which puts much stricter rules on sites directed at those under 13.  Because most sites don’t want to deal with those stricter rules, they officially limit account creation to those over the age of 13…all this generally did was to have parents teach kids that “it’s okay to lie,” as parents wanted kids to use social media tools to communicate with grandparents.  Making that “soft” ban a hard ban is going to create a much bigger mess and prevent all sorts of useful and important communications (which, yeah, is a 1st Amendment issue)…

The Last Shall Be First (#1408)

This needs to happen to every State tattle-site regardless of intended target:

Utah set up an online form for people to accuse other[s]…of violating the state’s… “bathroom bill”…[which] is being flooded with memes and troll comments…the auditor also left the submissions database open to the public—without…protections [to prevent] viewing other people’s submissions…One can also attach images to the form…those included photos of Barry Wood, characters from Bee Movie, and Shutterstock images of bull testicles…Trolling snitch lines set up to enforce bad laws is a time-honored tradition online.  When Indiana launched a form for reporting schools “that teach about LGBTQ+ issues…[or] Black history”…people flooded [it] with memes…A similar outcome happened for Virginia’s tip line against teachers who taught “critical race theory”.  In 2020, New York City[‘s]…snitch line to report [people]…not social distancing…[was] filled…with dick pics…

 

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

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