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Posts Tagged ‘Virginia’

In the News (#1618)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2026| Leave a Comment »

In a sane culture we wouldn’t praise people for baselessly calling the cops on strangers.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

[Texas politician] Tony Gonzales…faced growing pressure to resign…[because] he [raped] a staff member [and sexually harassed her so severely afterward that she committed suicide by self-immolation]…Gonzales…has denied [sending the texts, claim]ing…the[y]…were part of a smear campaign by his top rival in the race, Brandon Herrera[, apparently expecting people to believe that Herrera repeatedly spoofed his phone number]…

Signs (#751)

The moral panic is over, but useful idiots still love to sic cops on strangers:

…Jonathan Puddle…had the audacity to take his teenage daughter to an Ontario coffee shop.  When another patron saw the pair together—an older man with a teenager!—he…followed the Puddles to their car, questioned them, and then called the police…[who took] an image of the pair…from a security camera and [blasted it out] online…[to] tens of thousands of people as [though they were fugitives]…”See something, say something” started as a War on Terror slogan and eventually morphed into a mantra employed by the Department of [Father]land Security…in anti–sex…campaigns…so…large swaths of the public [now believe that]…spying on and reporting fellow citizens based on vague vibes is the key to keeping everyone safe…

Welcome to the Future (#1544)

Everything I read about modern corporate work makes me happier I became a whore:

…“Bossware” refers to the technology some managers use to s[py on] employees…The term was popularized by a 2020 report from the [EFF]…Managers have always sought to keep an eye on employees to make operations more efficient.  But the rise of [machine learning systems]…has [made it more demoralizing, humiliating, and toxic]…In…trucking, for example, [computeriz]ed video tools can trigger real-time alerts if a driver looks [anywhere but straight ahead, and]…in some white-collar desk jobs…employers are using algorithmic and biometric tools to [micromanage employees]…The use of work-surveillance technology took off during the pandemic.  As many people started working remotely, [nosy control-freak] employers began…tracking keyboard strokes, taking screenshots and monitoring pauses [because they were no longer able to lurk behind employees and breathe down their necks]…The goal of these tools is to [wring] more out of workers…but [they are typically poor indicators of]…how much work someone is actually getting done…Beyond the psychological toll, “bossware” tools…present “serious health and safety risks for workers,” including potential physical injury…

The Cop Myth (#1583)

Belief in the magic power of “protective orders” gets women killed:

The town of Kenbridge [Virginia] and its [cop shop have been sued for]…$140 million…by Heather Burrow…[for] gross negligence among other claims…[because she] asked the police chief for protection from [her cop ex-boyfriend] Charles Aaron Stokes.  Instead of providing protection, the chief [told]…Stokes [so he could retaliate, and he did so by shooting] her…multiple times within minutes of being told…Stokes is facing separate criminal charges [but]…is not named in the civil lawsuit…

This is your regular reminder that SCOTUS has ruled that the police have no duty to protect citizens.

Walled Garden (#1588)

Surely you didn’t think this would stop with the internet?

California’s Digital Age Assurance Act (AB 1043), signed by…Gavin Newsom in October…[demands that] every operating system provider in California…collect age information from users at account setup and transmit that data to app developers…with the law taking effect on January 1, 2027.  The law’s broad definition of an “operating system provider”…pulls in not just Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS, but Linux distributions and Valve’s SteamOS…Developers…are [thereby] “deemed to have actual knowledge” of their users’ age range under the law, [thus] shift[ing] legal liability for [enforcing politicians’ notions of] age-appropriate content…onto [people the state can more easily and profitably rob via fines]…up to…$7,500…Despite signing it, Newsom issued a statement urging the legislature to amend the law before its effective date, [thus allowing him to have his cake and eat it as well.  Since politicians are too stupid to understand the concept of open source software, it should be amusing to watch their moronic flailing when they try to]…enforce…[their stupid law] against Linux distributions, [which]…have no centralized account infrastructure…

Torture Chamber (#1607)

It doesn’t help young victims of state violence to infantilize them:

All unaccompanied immigrant [minors] who are pregnant, many by rape, are being [concentrated in] a single [camp] in Texas in order to avoid providing abortion services…Since July, more than a dozen pregnant [girls] have been [traffick]ed to…the [camp, near the] town of San Benito…[most are 15 to 16, but some] are as young as 13, and about half are pregnant because of rape, [though] in Texas, [that makes no difference]…When a pregnant [minor] is moved to Texas…she can’t access an abortion – without a federal official needing to deny [it]…Because of their young age, “many of them will be comparatively high-risk pregnancies” who need specialized care…[but] the south Texas [concentration camp has no such] facilit[ies and]…is hours away from [any] major cities…equipped to offer that care…

Mad Libs (#1613)

Politicians want to “regulate” consensual sex, but not this dangerous fantasy:

ChatGPT Health regularly misses the need for medical urgent care and frequently fails to detect suicidal ideation…[yet] OpenAI…promotes [it] as a way for users to “securely connect medical records and [health surveillance] apps” to generate health advice…The first independent safety evaluation of ChatGPT Health…found it under-triaged more than half of the cases presented to it…[in comparison with] three [actual] doctors…In 51.6% of cases where someone needed to go to the hospital immediately, the platform said stay home or book a routine medical appointment…[they] wouldn’t live to see…Meanwhile, 64.8% of completely safe individuals were told to seek immediate medical care…

 

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 (#1575)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

So-called “quality of life” policing is…literally costing lives. – Meghna Philip

Perquisites

Are amateurs really so sheltered that this sort of thing shocks them?

Top executives of [RCI Hospitality Holdings, the] company that owns [Rick’s Cabaret and other] strip clubs across the [US,] sent a New York state auditor on at least 13 free trips to Florida, lavishing him with lap dances in Miami…In exchange for the favors, RCI settled audits for less than it owed, in total avoiding $8 million in taxes…[now an] indictment…[has] charged six men — five executives and the auditor — and three RCI-owned strip clubs in Manhattan with 79 crimes between 2010 and 2024…the executives falsified business records to conceal the bribes, recording cash payments to the auditor as promotional expenses for the clubs…

Droit du Seigneur (#350)

Prosecutors dragged their feet so much, it took 13 years for this to get from accusation to plea bargain:

[Typical and representative Washington DC cop] Linwood Barnhill…[has] pleaded guilty…to sex trafficking a minor…Barnhill…[pimp]ed minor girls…[making] over $10,000…from one of…his victims…Barnhill…is already a registered sex offender…[he was first accused in the current case in September 2012 and rewarded with a paid vacation, but nothing else was done until he was actually caught on December 3, 2013, with a teen girl who had been reported missing]…

I Can’t Breathe (#1439)

Due to the complicity of medical examiners, it’s impossible to know how many of these were murders:

Deaths in NYPD custody have surged to levels not seen in at least a decade, with 40 people dying in 2023 and 2024 combined — roughly double the toll of any two-year period since at least 2016…One of those deaths was…Christopher Nieves, who collapsed repeatedly inside a Brooklyn courthouse holding cell last month after being arrested for allegedly shoplifting food.  His Legal Aid attorney frantically pleaded with [cops] to take him to a hospital as his skin yellowed and his body gave out[, but the cops just yelled “Stop faking!’ at him repeatedly until] he collapsed and died a few hours later…two [of the deaths, those of Saniyah Cheatham in July and Musa Cetin in August, were claimed to be] suicides [bu]t…families and advocates [have questioned] that…one…case…where the police claimed no force was used was the [death] of…Samuel Williams…but [in reality cops intentionally]…veered [their pigmobile] into his lane [on a narrow bridge so]…Williams’ [motorcycle would] collide with [it]…and go soaring through the air…Williams died from those injuries the following day…

A Moral Cancer (#1497)

Prohibitionists always claim surprise when the predicted effects of one of their bans appear:

In 2023, New York [state] raised its cigarette excise tax…to $5.35 per pack.  New York City imposes its own tax of $1.50 per pack, and that’s before you include federal and sales taxes, making for the most expensive smokes in the country…at…about $12 [a pack.  Prohibitionists]…hailed the increase, [pretend]ing it [would] lead to fewer smokers…[but in reality] “New York has created a cigarette-smuggling empire, and the worst is yet to come,” [said economist] Todd Nesbit…even before the…hike, more than half of cigarettes sold in the state of New York lacked local tax stamps and were smuggled from elsewhere…[but a new] study found that in 2024, the percentage of littered packs bearing the proper NYC tax stamp declined to 16.6%.  Georgia [taxed at 37¢/pack] surpassed Virginia [taxed at 60¢/pack] as the primary source of littered cigarettes…only about one cigarette pack of every six gathered by the research team in New York City passed through legal channels…[and many] bypassed the legal and taxed supply chain [entirely, bearing no tax stamp at all]…

A Broker in Pillage (#1559)

What would you call a gang who conspired to rob an old woman with dementia?

…a 91-year-old Pennsylvania woman has lost her home—and all of its worth—over a small tax debt…In 2020, Gloria Gaynor (not the disco queen) forewent her yearly trip to the tax office during COVID-19…Gaynor’s faculties noticeably declined around then…[she] returned in 2021 to pay her property taxes…under the impression that…the government would apply her money toward the previous year. Instead, it went to 2021, and her…$3,500 bill ultimately reached $14,419 with penalties, interest, and fees.  The government sold that debt to a real estate firm, the CJD Group, which then [legally stole] the deed to the home…a…2023 Supreme Court case…ruled home equity theft illegal…But…governments are getting around it…by selling properties for the value of the debt—instead of putting it on the market or selling it at auction—so…the…excess equity [goes] to…a private company…CJD Group…has acquired 62 deeds from [just that one] county…since 2011 and…the issue…isn’t limited to Pennsylvania…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1570)

These people are so drunk on their own Kool-aid they can’t see the problem with letting a defective algorithm act as its own gatekeeper:

OpenAI has announced it is introducing new safety measures for ChatGPT after [it caused] a wave of…teen suicide[s]…ChatGPT will now attempt to guess a user’s age, and in some cases might require users to share an ID…OpenAI [has been] sued by the parents of Adam Raine, who died by suicide in April…ChatGPT helped him write…his suicide note, suggested improvements on his methods, ignored early attempts and self-harm, and urged him not to talk to adults…In August…a 56-year-old man…committed a murder-suicide…after ChatGPT indulged his paranoia…[and] another lawsuit…[was filed by the parents of] a 13-year-old girl…[who was encouraged by a fictional-character chatbot to hide her] suicid[al ideation from friends and family]…ChatGPT will now also apply different rules to…[people it guesses] are…under…18 [by calling the cops on them if they seem] suicidal…

Walled Garden (#1573)

This “monkey see, monkey do” parade is now parading around the world:

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva…signed into law new rules [demanding surveillance of all Brazilians who] use…social media, online video games and other digital services…[without a VPN, under the typical cl]aim of [“]protecting children[“]…“Freedom of expression is…an excuse for committing crimes in the digital world,” he said…

 

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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Nasty Pictures

Posted in Miscellaneous, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 25, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Instant Criminal

The Gestapo are using fake “child porn” charges because the mere accusation will keep useful idiots from demanding due process for their victims:

…more than…100 cruise ship crew members…have been summarily deported and had their work visas revoked in recent months based on unsubstantiated allegations by CBP [goons] of possessing or viewing child pornography….the [goons]…are boarding cruise ships with a list of targets and s[teal]ing their cell phones, laptops, and electronics.  The [victims] are handcuffed and [goons] pressure them to sign an admission, which includes a [“]voluntary[“] revocation of their C1/D visa…[without being] shown [any] evidence…or allowed legal representation…the cruise ship industry…heavily relies on international crews…[especially from] the Philippines…the National Federation of Filipino American Associations (NaFFAA) and the Pilipino Workers Center (PWC), say more than 100 Filipino sailors have been arrested, deported, and had their work visas revoked since June…A person whose…crewmember visa is revoked cannot reapply for another one for 10 years…[thus destroying] their livelihood…

On the rare occasion the goons claim any “evidence” at all, it’s stuff like this:

A Filipino worker at a cruise ship lost his job over a video showing him and his wife kissing their 3-year-old son…after US [goons pointed at it and barfed “]child pornography[“]…They also [stole] his cell phone and gave it back after a month, but not before deleting the video…

Creepy Coppers

This one not only uses the distancing “former”, but also tries to excuse the crime because…the criminal is a good shot?  “A [typical and representative Ohio cop named]…Robert Golden Vogel [was arrested] and charged…with [multiple child porn offenses after cops went to his house on a ‘disturbing the peace’ complaint]…”

If Men Were Angels (ROTW #19)

You’d think “youth pastor” would be a big red flag by now:

A…youth pastor in Virginia is facing federal charges [for posing] as a teenage boy to exchange nude photos and videos with young girls, telling one of them…that it was “time for her to see her first dick”…Jacob Ryan Barnett… “repeatedly [pestered]”…young…[girls] for pictures of [their] crotch…On May 20, the FBI…[was contacted by] a mother in Michigan [to report] that [someone]…had been attempting to groom her 15-year-old daughter…on TikTok [he claimed to be]…“a 17-year-old boy from Virginia…called…Jodie Johnson”…the FBI subpoenaed Verizon for…the account holder behind Johnson’s number, which showed it belonged to Barnett…his…TikTok account appeared to be following “thousands of minor girls”…

Beware of men who “volunteer” to be in positions of authority over your kids:

“Hundreds” of images of child pornography were found on a computer that…belonged to a [Texas] youth church volunteer [named]…Kevin Hartgrove…[who preferred] young girls between the ages of 11 and 13…

Creepy Coppers (#1530)

This sleazebag tried to frame a woman for his crime:

A [typical and representative] Idaho [cop named]…Caleb Sickinger…was sentenced to 108 months in federal prison for…obtaining images of a child from social media, digitally altering them to appear pornographic, and distributing the altered images to an individual in Alabama…[while claiming to be] a woman in Idaho.  [The FBI raided]…the [innocent] woman[‘s]…home…[but found] no [child porn, and the] email addresses did not match…the [victim’s.  The]…FBI [eventually stopped turning the victim’s life upside down when they realized that] Sickinger [had used] images from the woman’s social media account to mascaraed [sic] as her when distributing the [porn of her]…child…

He “mascaraed” as her?  When will news media admit that editors are not optional?

 

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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Attention Artists

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Every so often, I’ll pass on a press release I think might be of interest to my readers.  I get press releases nearly every day, but most are just advertising crap from publicity agents; only once in a while is one of them something I think worth promoting.  I got this one a week ago today; it’s for a competition for Southern artists.  If you know an eligible artist, please pass this on.

The Gibbes Museum of Art has announced an extension of the deadline for the 1858 Prize for Contemporary Southern Art.

  • $10,000 prize for the winning artist.
  • An artwork by the winning artist will be exhibited in the museum for one full year.
  • The new deadline for submissions is Sept. 7, 2025.

The 1858 Prize is recognized as one of the leading artist competitions in the Southeastern United States, and awards $10,000 each year to an artist whose work contributes to a new understanding of art in the South.  Artists must reside or work in one of these states. Or – they can live elsewhere but be originally from one of these Southern states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.

The Prize is presented by Society 1858, the museum’s young professionals auxiliary group. In addition to the monetary award, a work by the winning artist will be exhibited in the museum for a full year.  A jury comprised of arts professionals, representatives of Society 1858, and the previous year’s recipient will select the winner, who will be announced in October of 2025.The museum will also invite the winner to Charleston for the official unveiling of their artwork, part of a three-day celebration in February honoring the artist ‒ including the annual Society 1858 Winter Party, and the Amy P. Coy Forum, where the artist will be invited to speak about their work.

Some of the past winners have gone on to receive major national awards and accolades, including: the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, the United States Artist Fellowship, and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant.  Some of the winning artists’ works have been acquired in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The National Gallery of Art, and Art Institute of Chicago, among other institutions.

More details about the submission process at: gibbesmuseum.org/1858-prize (applications are accepted exclusively through the museum’s website).

Rules and eligibility details at this link (the online application is here).

Past winners of the 1858 Prize include:  Demond Melancon (2024), Sherrill Roland (2023), Raheleh Filsoofi (2022), Stephanie J. Woods (2021), Stephen L. Hayes (2020), Donté K. Hayes (2019), Leo Twiggs (2018), Bo Bartlett (2017), Alicia Henry (2016), Deborah Luster (2015), Sonya Clark (2014), John Westmark (2012), Patrick Dougherty (2011), Radcliffe Bailey (2010), Stephen Marc (2009), and Jeff Whetstone (2008).

View previous winning artists and their work here.

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In the News (#1540)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 24, 2025| Leave a Comment »

It is functionally impossible for people to drive anywhere without having their movements tracked.  –  the Institute for Justice

Property of the State

Every “official” involved in this utter and complete abomination should be imprisoned for life:

Adriana Smith, a registered nurse…was nearly nine weeks pregnant in early February when she started experiencing intense headaches…caused by…multiple blood clots in her brain…[but after she] was declared brain dead…[the State of Georgia demanded her cadaver be kept connected to machines] until doctors believe the baby can survive outside the womb — likely at 32 weeks…Under Georgia’s [monstrous]  law, abortion is banned…[even] if the mother’s life is [over]…her medical team is…not legally allowed to consider other options…[despite the fact that the fetus] has fluid on the brain and…may be blind…[or un]able to walk, [or] may not survive…[to add insult to abomination, the family is being stuck with] mounting hospital bills…

Panopticon (#1486)

Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi:

Flock, the automatic license plate reader…company whose cameras [spy on] more than 5,000 communities in the U.S., is building a product that will use [internet search] tools, data brokers, and data breaches to “jump from LPR…to person,” allowing police to [illegal]ly identify and track the movements of specific people…without a warrant or court order…Th[is makes]…Flock…into a much more invasive tool, potentially able to link a vehicle passing by a camera to its owner and then more people connected to them, through marriage or other association…Flock employees [are] questioning the ethics of using hacked data as part of their surveillance product…[but] the tool is already being used by some [cop shops without permission or regulation]…

End Demand (#1505)

Courts curtail the power of cops and prosecutors much too rarely these days:

Does answering a prostitution ad make a man a sex trafficker?  The highest court in Massachusetts says no, in a ruling that represents a win for both common sense and civil liberties…Commonwealth v. Garafalo…involved a [scheme in which cops]…pretending to be…sex workers…arrested men who [answered their fraudulent ads and]…charged them with…sex…trafficking…[but] there was no trafficked person…and taking “every single John, charg[ing] them with sex trafficking, and put[ting] them in prison for five years” was not “the intent” of the sex trafficking law, defense attorney Patrick Noonan told the court…[which agreed] that…Merely agreeing to “the terms extended by [a] sex worker[, real or imaginary,]…cannot reasonably be [considered coercion]”…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1521)

Politicians won’t be satisfied until they can micromanage every aspect of teens’ lives:

Virginia teens under 16 will soon face [political interference in] their social media usage [under] a…new…law…[demanding] social media companies…set default time limits of one hour per day for [Virginia] users under 16…with parents having the ability to adjust that time up or down.  [Politicians congratulated themselves on their self-imagined wisdom and power, ignoring the fact that all a teen will need to do is use a VPN to appear to be someplace other than Virginia]…

Property of the State (#1529) 

How long will Western society allow cops and prosecutors to terrorize traumatized women?

[UK] police have been issued guidance on how to [raid] women’s homes [in search of] abortion drugs and [snoop in] their phones for menstrual cycle tracking apps after unexpected pregnancy loss…the National Police Chiefs’ Council…on “child death investigation”…also suggests a woman’s digital devices could be [stolen] to help [prosecu]tors “establish a woman’s knowledge and intention in relation to the pregnancy”.  That could [also] include [snooping into] a woman’s internet searches [and] messages to friends and family…Details are also provided for how police could [illegally] bypass legal requirements for a court order to [pry into her] medical records…The Abortion Act of 1967 allows women to end their pregnancies under medical supervision up to 24 weeks, or beyond…if the life of the mother is at risk or if the foetus has a serious abnormality…Leading abortion providers, legal experts and medical professionals have…called for [the new guidelines] to be amended…

The Cop Myth (#1533)

They tried to hide this murderer’s cop identity by shoving it down to paragraph 20:

[A cop named Gregory Guilfoyle who was] convicted of shooting his wife and leaving her for dead in a blizzard was sentenced to 100 years in prison by an Indiana judge May 12…Hannah Lynch…nearly died in her own front yard with a gunshot wound to her head.  She has a permanent shunt in her skull…lost part of her toe to frostbite…[and] had to relearn most of her basic motor skills…She was also pregnant at the time of the shooting and lost the baby…three of four experts at trial suggested that Guilfoyle was insane…[and] Guilfoyle [himself blamed the attempted murder on]…his [being a cop]…and…[claims] that he was hallucinating at the time…the jury found Guilfoyle “guilty but mentally ill”…[which means] he will receive psychiatric treatment [while in prison]…

Welcome to the Future (#1537)

Anyone who trusts Zuckerberg is out of his mind:

Mark Zuckerberg…[is] pitching a [dystopian] future where [computer programs] give people something that “knows them well,” not just as pals, but as…therapists…but this future is already…starting to seem extraordinarily dangerous…we’re watching the impending collision of two alarming trends.  In one, tech executives are encouraging people to reveal ever more intimate details to [their computers], soliciting things users…may not even tell their closest friends.  In the other, the government is obsessed with obtaining a nearly unprecedented level of surveillance and control over residents’ minds…with little regard for legal or ethical restraints.  [The Trump regime]…has indiscriminately arrested and revoked the residency of legal immigrants on the basis of legally protected speech and activism…announced plans to build a federal database…of people with autism…and…is…working to centralize data about Americans that’s currently stored across different agencies…[while] US residents are being urged to discuss their mental health conditions and personal beliefs with chatbots…whose owners are cozy with the [regime]…

 

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 (#1534)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on May 3, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The law offers no escape hatch whatsoever.  –  Judge Robin Rosenbaum

Profound Ignorance (#405) 

Prohibitionists are still citing the bogus Neumayer, Cho, and Dreher study:

The End of the Beginning (#915)

Let’s hope many more challenges to these medieval laws succeed:

After being convicted of one count of possession of child pornography in 2013 and serving his sentence for the crime, Bruce Henry married and his wife gave birth to a son, but [Alabama] law prohibits [people condemned to the “]sex offender[” registry]…from residing together or conducting overnight visits with minors, even if it is their own child.  In his resulting lawsuit, Henry said the law was unconstitutional and the [11th Circuit]…agreed, concluding that the statute violates the Fourteenth Amendment by infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody, and control of their children…

The Immunity Syndrome (#1059)

The dogma that young people are owned like slaves by their parents is a metastasizing evil:

[An increasing number of] Americans…[want] parents [to have] ultimate control over all aspects of their [offspring]’s lives, even when the[y]…are…on the cusp of adulthood.  [They] want parents to have to approve the books and ideas they’re exposed to in school, the apps they can download, and the social media platforms they join.  Now, Florida wants to require parental consent before a minor can be treated for an STI…no one seems to even pretend that this is about helping minors…proponents of the bill keep talking about parental rights…to…[deny any and all] autonomy…to…[even] older minors…[one] version of the bill would also let parents [preemptively] opt [their offspring] out of…any survey or questionnaire that may reveal…sexual [abuse by]…any family member…[and ban] doctors [from providing] contraceptive services to minors without their parent’s consent…

Censorship Ascendant (#1277)

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

[German] politician…Nancy Faeser…has reported multiple citizens to the police for criticisms they made of her on social media…other members of Olaf Scholz’s outgoing government have been even more aggressive[ly censorious]…Robert Habeck…of the Green Party…has initiated over 800 criminal complaints since…2021…[sending] police [on predawn] raid[s in which they steal people’s electronics]…and [abduct them]…Germany’s limits on…speech have long been shockingly restrictive….[but] over the past decade…new laws…[such as] the Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz [NetzDG]…[have] imposed such steep fines on social media networks…that they need…to err on the side of censor[ship]…in order to keep operating in the country.  When Vladimir Putin sought to strengthen his ability to marginalize the political opposition in Russia, he cleverly translated key passages of the German law into Russian, deflecting criticisms of his crackdown…by [truthfully] pointing out that he was merely emulating Western democracies…even countries that have long prided themselves on their liberal traditions have now followed the [Germany’s censorious] lead…

Morality Lessons (#1325) 

After a two-year hiatus, “porn filter” bills are back on the “monkey see, monkey do” agenda:

Alabama [politicians] passed a bill that would [demand] makers of cellphones and tablets…[encumber] the devices with [censorship software] to block [not just] pornography[, but also anything Alabama politicians point at while barfing the word “obscenity”.  Bill sponsor]…Chris Sells…has [repeatedly] sponsored similar bills since 2019…

Vulture Watching (#1517)

Oh look, the totally-predictable results of bad laws are happening just as sane people said they would:

A new study from the Gender Equity Policy Institute (GEPI) found that women are twice as likely to die during pregnancy in states with abortion bans…Meanwhile, maternal mortality in pro-choice states fell 21%.  One stark comparison from the study: Texas’ maternal mortality rate was 155% higher than California’s…Since the state passed an abortion ban, maternal mortality has risen by 56%—with deaths among white women increasing by a whopping 95%…and…Black women living in banned states…[are] over three times more likely to die in pregnancy as their white counterparts.  While death rates skyrocket…Republicans are hard at work trying to dismantle maternal mortality committees to hide the impact of their policies…

Size Matters (#1525)

This is the second case this year to challenge the government’s “religious freedom” hypocrisy:

A…U.S. Army…[helicopter] pilot [named] Kyle Norton Riester [has] claimed in a civil lawsuit that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 allowed him to sell and take…LSD…as part of a communal…religious exercise…he has admitted to selling LSD over the internet and has asked for injunctive relief from [government] accus[ations] of drug trafficking…The Virginia-based first lieutenant…has argued that he “is a sincere religious practitioner”…but…[prosecutors claim] that Riester only claimed religious freedom grounds eight months after finding out about his drug trafficking investigation…

Even if Riester’s religious claims derive more from expediency than sincere belief, the same could be said of the government’s claims to protecting all religious liberty when in practice this is just cover for post-Christians to practice open bigotry.

 

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 (#1532)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 23, 2025| Leave a Comment »

What is it effective at, violating protesters’ First Amendment rights?  –  Dave Maass

Torture Chamber

The government calls this “correction”; for journalists to parrot that ugly euphemism is a choice:

The family of a man who [was brutally murdered by a gang of screws]…expressed anger and frustration over the Jacksonville [Florida] Sheriff’s Office’s decision to publish a “heavily redacted” report [written by the murderers themselves]…Charles Faggart…died [several days after] the [screws beat him]…so aggressively he had…a seizure[, probably due to massive brain injury]…Faggart’s family did not receive a call from JSO until the next day…when a [pig] simply [oinked at] them to “watch the news”…[The murderers were] W.H. Cox…T.C. Pennamon…G.L. Mckinnis…D.D. Thomas…M.E. Sullivan…P.L. Collins…A.K. Maygoo…E. Kurtovic…[and] J.J. Bullard…

Only Rights Can Stop the Wrongs (#728)

When it comes to sex work, authoritarians want to have their cake and eat it, too:

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, deputy chairman of the Ukrainian Parliament’s finance committee, is leading a push to ditch…outdated Soviet-era legislation that bans the possession, production and distribution of pornography.  Doing so…would remedy…an unfair contradiction.  Violations of Ukraine’s laws on pornography…are punishable by three to five years in prison.  But Ukraine’s financial authorities have been collecting taxes from creators on websites…like OnlyFans…“It’s absurd,” Mr. Zhelezniak said, especially “in the midst of a full-scale war.”  He also sees another benefit for Ukraine…it would increase tax revenue…since more pornography creators would be willing to declare their earnings — a boost for an economy struggling under the demands of a war that has ground on for over three years…

Creepy Coppers

Just another kind of cop, with typical cop behavior:

A…Border Patrol [thug from Arizona named]…Jason Michael Drown…was…arrest[ed when]…he [was caught] sharing child porn…[without government permission, by other cops who were sharing it with permission]…

Thought Control (#1446)

Texas censors have descended completely into self-parody:

Students in Lamar Consolidated…school district…west of Houston, can no longer learn about the state of Virginia on their online research database, Pebble Go Next…due to…”frontal nudity”…[on the state seal and flag.  Texas censorship law] does not require schools to ban materials containing “nudity”…[because it] is not inherently sexual or sexually explicit…Kids think butts are hilarious.  Not sexual…Tomorrow will it be books that contain historical photos…of Holocaust survivors?  Breast-feeding mothers?…Art history books that portray the statue of David or the Birth of Venus?…where will this end?…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1455)

The currently-fashionable “monkey see, monkey do” parade has escaped the US and is careening all over Europe:

France has introduced a law that will require adult websites to run comprehensive age checks [in the name of] prevent[ing] minors from accessing pornographic content…France’s [censorship agency] ARCOM has been tasked with implementing a standard known as double anonymity.  This is [purport]ed to allow a site to verify a user’s age without knowing their identity…ARCOM [lied that] the system “strikes a careful balance between safeguarding children and respecting the privacy of adults”.  PornHub owner Aylo, which also owns YouPorn and RedTube, is already challenging the French law in court…[as] in other parts of the world, web users will be able to bypass any age checks by [us]ing…a…VPN…

Shame, Shame (#1514)

Still think realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology?

American police departments…are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for…technology that uses [computer]-generated online personas designed to interact with and [spy] on “college protesters,” “radicalized” political activists, and s[ex workers or their clients]…Massive Blue, [a] New York-based company…calls its product Overwatch, which it markets [with a typical collection of buzzwords including]…“AI-powered”…”public safety”…“infiltrate…criminal networks”…“border security,” “school safety,” and stopping “human trafficking”…some of these AI characters…include a “radicalized AI” “protest persona”…a “‘Honeypot’ AI Persona”…a 14 year-old boy “child trafficking AI persona,” an “AI pimp persona,” “college protestor” [sic], “external recruiter for protests,” “escorts,” and “juveniles”…cops are…deploy[ing…chat]bots across social media…with the hopes of [destroying people’s lives]…

The Cop Myth (#1529)

When a cop tries to pass murder off as suicide, the victim is usually his wife or girlfriend:

A [typical and representative Mississippi cop named James Durwood Winstead] has been arrested and charged with capital murder [for shooting]…a man…[named] Timothy Byrd [and trying to make it look like suicide.  But his story included]…several discrepancies…[with the] evidence…[so he] was arrested and charged…

 

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 (#1527)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 5, 2025| Leave a Comment »

I’ve seen some pretty outrageous exercises of eminent domain powers. Never anything like this.  –  Robert Thomas

Business Opportunity (#1399)

If you thought “asset forfeiture” was brazen robbery, get a load of this:

…a [federal] judge [in] Rhode Island [has ordered]…the town of Johnston to return the title of a 31-acre property it had quietly [stolen] to its original owners, two LLCs collectively owned by the Santoro family…[and] block[ed] the town, its mayor, and the town council from taking any action to [steal] the property [again] or prevent the Santoro family from accessing it…the…the[ft appears to be motivated by the family’s plan]…to build a 254-unit affordable housing project on the land…[despite politicians’ pretense]…that [the town] needs the land for a new “municipal campus” that would replace Johnston’s existing…town hall and police and fire stations.  The Santoro family challenged the [theft] in federal court, arguing that the…”municipal campus” is a sham project invented to stop the family from proceeding with their planned development…Shortly after the family filed their federal lawsuit, the town quietly transferred the property over to themselves—without notifying the owners or their lawyers.  The family only learned of the [theft] after…the town’s lawyer sent them a letter ordering them to vacate the property or risk a citation for trespassing…

Creepy Coppers (#1460)

Some cops don’t limit themselves to one type of creepiness:

…Robert Farley, who was appointed [boss hog of] North Bergen [New Jersey, is being sued by five cops for a host of bizarre]…behavior[s he seems to think are “pranks”, including]…putting ink on door handles, setting off car alarms…spiking the office coffee pot with Viagra and Adderall…[jabbing] a hypodermic needle through [a cop’s pants] into the tip of [his] penis….shav[ing] his body hair on people’s property, their persons, and their food…scraping fluids from his underwear onto people…[shitting] on the floor in front of his entire office staff…clogging the toilet with paper and other objects…defecating in wastebaskets..[sending] sex toys, intimate lotions and gay pride flags to [cops’] home[s]…placing hot sauce in a microwave, which essentially turned the substance into a pepper spray that permeated the office…put firecrackers under [people’s] chairs…ripp[ing] a television monitor off the wall and smash[ing] it to pieces…

Worse Than I Thought (#1497)

Just because the moral panic is moribund, doesn’t mean politicians aren’t going to keep using sex as an excuse to destroy lives:

[Politicians] across the country seem smitten by the idea that harsher punishments for folks attempting to pay for sex with another consenting adult will somehow “end demand” for paid sex, thereby ensuring…sex workers…will [not] have customers.  It’s a stupid theory that utterly failed when Ronald Reagan pushed a version of it as part of the war on drugs…Making customers harder to find and communicate with makes it harder for sex workers to work independently and increases reliance on pimps and vulnerability to violent or exploitative traffickers…Decriminalize Sex Work…has a handy rundown of many of the state proposals, which include measures in California, Idaho, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Virginia, and Washington…

Don’t Call It Trafficking (#1501)

You won’t find that word, nor the word “slavery”, anywhere in this article:

Bryan Bailey, [a deeply-corrupt] Mississippi sheriff…under federal investigation for torturing people, staffed his mother’s commercial chicken farm with [prisoners] from the county jail and used taxpayer-purchased equipment to improve the grounds…for most of his 13 years in office…Bailey used his position as the highest paid and most powerful public figure in his…county in ways that financially [or sexually] benefited himself and his family…people [who knew what was going on] kept quiet…out of…fear…But that began to change in 2023, when five Rankin County sheriff’s deputies were charged with civil rights offenses for torturing two Black men in their home and shooting one of them in the mouth…

Cops and Robbers (#1504)

The legacy of To Catch a Predator just keeps on hurting people:

…for [over] a decade…[thug]s in the U.S. pose as minors on dating apps and websites, then target the people who message them.  Many of these vigilantes, commonly known as pedophile hunters, were inspired by To Catch a Predator, a popular television series that ran until 2007…in the past two years, a growing number have…[started] violently attack[ing] the targets in their videos…In one of the most brutal cases, a masked man [named Ahmad Wasfi Al-Azzam] who referred to himself online as “realjuujika”…broke into the home of a 73-year-old man in Pennsylvania last year, then tied him up…beat him with a hammer…rob[bed him] and film[ed] his credit cards, sharing the information with his thousands of followers…the [victim] was hospitalized…and needed surgery to stop the bleeding in his brain…There have been more than 170 violent vigilante attacks…since 2023…[by] at least 22 individuals and groups…This content is popular in online circles that feature crude…material intended to cater to young men.  Some hunters have hundreds of thousands of followers, and…sell merchandise with their slogans and logos…

Thought Control (#1512)

These psychopaths won’t be satisfied until they can actually start arresting and caging librarians and teachers:

…Texas [is] seeking to [destroy the lives of] school librarians and teachers who provide award-winning works of literature to students…[if any politician decides to point at the book and barf “]sexually explicit[” in the victim’s face]…whether or not [the descriptor has any] merit [in reality].  SB 412 and HB 267 would [declare politicians the only arbiters of]…education[al value].  Many classic works of literature, including The Odyssey, Catcher in the Rye, Brave New World and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, have [already been targeted]…Only [pigs] and judges would be exempted un[less an] adult…is married to [a “]child[“], which is legal in Texas, [because the state is entirely run by psychopathic perverts]…

Vulture Watching (#1525)

Texas politicians are so deeply sociopathic, they’re trying to disguise an attack on women as protection for women:

Texas Republicans [have]…convinced Democrats and doctors to support a bill they claim will protect life-saving abortion care and “clarify” the state’s ban. But the rapidly advancing “Life of the Mother” legislation is a Trojan Horse—there’s a 100-year-old ban hiding inside, ready to be revived and used to prosecute abortion funds, helpers, and possibly even patients.  Legal experts…called it “the most dangerous” anti-abortion bill currently before the legislature…At the heart of this deception is a 1925 abortion ban…[which] made it a felony to help someone “procure” an abortion…and…didn’t…protect patients from prosecution…[psychopathic Texas AG] Ken Paxton…[was already trying to enforce] the 1925 ban [when a federal court stopped him in 2023]…

 

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 (#1524)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Feeling that the law shouldn’t apply to such matters…does absolutely nothing to change the…facts.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1374) 

“Sex addiction” is basically a shared delusion of guilt-ridden patients and biased “therapists”:

Moral incongruence theory…has been used to explain why so-called sex addicts don’t have more sex than other people but feel worse about it.  When people hold moral beliefs about certain kinds of sexual behavior but still engage in those same behaviors, they are likely to experience shame…guilt…depression, distress, and anxiety…therapists who promote…sex and porn addiction do little to help resolve these moral conflicts and instead focus on the sexual behaviors.  This may be due to moral incongruence in the therapists themselves…No research supports treatments that address pornography as an addiction.  New research by Justine Meador…[showed that] certified sex addiction therapists…had a personal history of seeking sex addiction treatment themselves, compared to less than 5 percent of non-CSAT therapists…Mental health professionals who had higher levels of moral incongruence about their own sexuality were significantly more likely to diagnose porn addiction in other people…[even] when considering clinical vignettes containing symptoms of depression or bipolar disorder along with pornography use…

The Vultures Descend (#1417)

“Fetal personhood” policies are going to keep getting more absurd:

…Honeyhline and Jason Heidemann [used in-vitro fertilization in 2015 to conceive a daughter, and they cryogenically stored two remaining embryos.  An agreement they signed at the time specified that any frozen embryos would be owned jointly but did not say what would happen in the event of divorce.  When they divorced in 2018, they] couldn’t decide who should retain ownership of the frozen embryos…Honeyhline…wanted to use the frozen embryos to conceive another child…But [on] March 7, 2025…Judge Dontae L. Bugg…dismiss[ed her]…suit [under the ridiculous pretense] that “human embryos are not subject to partition” under Virginia law “as they do not constitute goods or chattels capable of being valued and sold.”  Bugg goes on to [opine] that there’s no way that two embryos can be divided equally between two people because “the unique nature of each human embryo means that an equal division cannot conveniently be made”…

Yes, American jurisprudence has now descended to the point where “two cannot be evenly divided by two” is supposed to be taken as a serious judicial opinion.

Enshittification

Another factor in the coming dark age: computer-generated garbage making records of this period unreliable:

There are thousands of…accounts [spew]ing thousands of [computer-generated video]s and images across every social media platform.  Large parts of the SEO industry have pivoted entirely to [CGI] content, as has some of the internet advertising industry…the brute force attack….relies on rapid trial-and-error to guess a password…[these] attacks are not very efficient, but they are effective.  An attacker relentlessly hammers the target until a vulnerability is found or a password is guessed…The best way to think of the slop and spam that [CGI] enables is as a brute force attack on the algorithms that control the internet and which govern how a large segment of the public interprets the nature of reality…the intended “audience” of [CGI] slop is social media and search algorithms, not human beings.  What this means…is that human-created content is getting almost entirely drowned out by [CGI] content because of the sheer amount of it…there is a near total collapse of the information ecosystem and thus of “reality” online…[so] many users seem to have completely lost the ability to tell what is real and what is fake, or simply do not care anymore…

Thought Control (#1491)

Just keep plunging that ice pick in; the bad thoughts will go away eventually:

Florida leads the nation in book [censorship], and [sane people] fear new legislation moving through the State Capitol would make [the problem even worse].  Currently, state law surrounding book challenges mirrors the national standard of obscenity, also known as the Miller Test…the new legislation approved by its first Senate committee Tuesday would prohibit school boards from [using any kind of human judgment] when [responding to a censorship demand, instead requiring them to robotically]…take a book down to its parts and pieces and [censor it if any Froot Loop objects to as much as a single word or line].  The bill also includes penalties for districts that [don’t censor enough books for state politicians’ liking], allowing the Department of Education to withhold state funding…

Vulture Watching (#1500)

Texas pretends to care about women’s health in defense of its crusade to kill more women:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [crowed about] the arrest of Maria Margarita Rojas…for providing…abortions and illegally operating a network of clinics…without a license…Paxton [vomited disgusting propaganda onto the upturned faces of reporters, pretending to care about the health of pregnant women]…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1514)

The mad emperor wants to use copaganda to wreck the medical system and excuse even more state violence:

[Mad emperor] Trump [plans to] designat[e]…fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction…a…State [Department]…source speculates the purpose is a combination of designating fentanyl cartels as terrorist organizations…creating justification for conducting military [invasions of] Mexico and Canada…[and inventing] justification for rounding up homeless encampments and deporting drug users who are not citizens…[the imperial proclamation] “cites a statute that does not entail an authority to ‘designate’ substances as WMD” [and will obviously have] “negative effects on entities that legitimately handle, ship, and deliver opioids for pharmaceutical purposes”…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#1521)

Laws are for the peasantry, not the rulers:

Minnesota [Trumpist politician] Justin Eichorn was arrested…for…soliciting a [cop who was fantasy role-playing as]…a 16-year-old [girl online.  When he showed up to] meet [the imaginary teen sex worker]…he was arrested…

Just last week, Eichorn made national news for his nauseating display of bootlicking, proposing that he and three other MAGA cultists, none of who have PhDs in psychology, be allowed to invent an imaginary mental illness called “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, characterized by a revulsion for Trump and his disgusting behavior, and have it counted by actual mental health professionals as an actual mental illness in Minnesota.

 

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 (#1514)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 19, 2025| Leave a Comment »

True crime…[is] entertainment masquerading as news.  –  “Paul”

Bad Fantasy, Good Reality

Now that the moral panic is over, expect articles like this to become more common:

…In my interviews with over two hundred sex workers in four Latin American countries, [cases that]…substantiated the trafficking myth…are the exception.  Instead, stories of economic need, single motherhood, and disgust with the sex but gratitude for the lifeline sex work has provided are so common that they’ve become routine…Writing about the sex industry often takes the form of sensationalized stories that, when examined closely, fall apart…and…when travel is involved, our ideas about prostitution become even more fantastical…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1428)

Politicians are happy to wreck lives by inventing new crimes from copaganda:

…the HALT…Fentanyl Act…aims to make permanent a…DEA…temporary emergency rule from 2018, which has been extended twice by Congress.  This rule classifies derivatives of the synthetic opioid fentanyl not yet approved by the [FDA]…as Schedule I controlled substances…Celebrating the passage of [it]…as a new effort to combat fentanyl trafficking and overdose deaths is merely an example of performance art…But [it’s] also delusional. For decades, Schedule I classification has done nothing to halt the flow and use of cannabis, heroin, or psychedelics…Classifying fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I will hinder progress in therapeutic research…fill…prisons, ruin…the futures of drug users, disrupt…families, and provide…aggressive prosecutors with coercive plea-bargaining strategies…

Eavesdropping (#1476)

Some politicians are starting to admit Shotspotter is a boondoggle:

The city government of Little Rock, Arkansas, recently dumped ShotSpotter, a…controversial [surveillance tool with]…a history of unreliability, generating large numbers of bogus reports.  Also, being based on the use of microphones, ShotSpotter can capture sounds other than gunshots, including private conversations…[not only is] the contract with…ShotSpotter…[itself] expens[ive]…the original deal cost $290,000 for two years…[valuable] resources [are] tied up in responding to false ShotSpotter reports.  Other cities have run into the same problem, finding that relatively few incidents reported by the technology result in the discovery of criminal activity…

The Mob Rules (#1491)

Ambulance-chasers have given themselves the power to rob internet companies:

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach is suing the owner of 13 pornographic websites, [exploit]ing…a law passed last year [demand]ing age verification systems be placed on adult content.  Kobach [claims] SARJ LLC, a Washington-based company…owns, licenses and distributes content for the 13 [targeted] websites…and…made [furtive movements in his pants]…at…the [fantasy of robbing the company]…for over $50 million…

Shame, Shame (#1494)

Bird-brains still think realistic porn cartoons are the worst use for this technology:

…a YouTube channel called True Crime Case Files…[contain]ed more than 150 [computer-generated] videos o[f fictional crimes which were not labeled as such]…The plots were…often hypersexual.  They described parents selling teenagers into sex slavery with a sheriff, and transgender teachers committing murders to hide affairs with students.  The video thumbnails were perverse, with clickbaity phrasing in big blocky text…Each one was made with [image-generation software] and the crimes described did not happen.  There was no language on the channel’s homepage or in video descriptions to tell a viewer otherwise…[because] the man who ran the page…believed people wouldn’t want to watch his videos if they knew they were fake…the [channel is now down due to bad publicity, but the creator is wholly unrepentant, saying]…“I really felt like I needed to stake my claim before anybody else thought of it”…

The Widening Gyre (#1500)

Cops don’t like it when non-cops falsely accuse innocent people of “crimes” that didn’t happen:

A…[Virginia drunk] was arrested after breaking into a Bible study session, [drun]kenly [imagin]ing it to be a human trafficking operation…David Campbell…called the…[cops because] his neighbors had doubled-parked their vehicles.  Campbell then [attacked and threaten]ed his neighbors…and w[hen] deputies…[arrived] they found Campbell [ranting] in the middle of the road…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1510)

Everyone abused by cops using this error-prone surveillance system needs to sue:

Chris Gatlin spent 17 months in jail for a crime that [cops claimed] he committed, only to be freed after the prosecutor learned there was no real evidence.  A grainy surveillance photo of an assault suspect…[was fed to] a computer facial recognition program to [mis-]identify Gatlin…and the…[cops] ran with it…without doing any other investigation…even [though] the…victim didn’t…think Gatlin was the right guy…and…picked two different suspects…[until] the [cops pushed him to pick]…Gatlin…“I felt I was being pointed into something,” the victim said…Gatlin [is suing]…St. Louis County…

 

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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