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Posts Tagged ‘Washington DC’

Get back in the game, or I’ll shoot you.  –  Andrew Lawson

Due to the plethora of guillotine memes that have populated social media since the current guillotine-worthy regime took power, I’ve often thought of this song, but it was the recent death of Brigitte Bardot which finally moved me to feature it.  The links above the video were provided by Nicholas Grossman, Jesse Walker, The Onion, Nun Ya, Jesse Walker again, Jessica Pishko, and Popehat, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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The left-right nonsense, once confined to politics, has in the past 30-someodd years penetrated all of US culture like cat spray.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-13T18:19:23.319Z

Any slang term is moribund when it is used to describe a number of different, sometimes unrelated or even contradictory, things. "Cringe" has now reached that point; proceed accordingly.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-19T17:52:18.693Z

I'm ready to listen to him; he can't be THAT much worse than what we have now.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-20T17:58:53.721Z

Until I got on social media, I would never have suspected that there were so many people in the US who never, ever, EVER need to transport cargo or disabled people, or travel more than 100 km from their homes.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-21T17:14:00.903Z

One of the more interesting aspects of this time period for me is that I get to see other people saying or agreeing with the kind of statements I've incessantly made for over 40 years, mostly to eye-rolling and dismissal.You bet I'm gonna say "I told you so".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-22T07:37:13.312Z

Actually, if one considers the political conditions which allowed Trump to ascend to the throne and carry out his reign of madness, it is far more accurate to say Trump is working to finish the job Bin Laden started.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-23T17:49:38.750Z

I'm trying to get this to fit the meter of "My Little Buckaroo" and not succeeding.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-24T18:11:09.142Z

Oh please, please, PLEASE let it be so. It'll be much easier for the Invertebrate Party to agree to tear it down if it's structurally unsound.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-25T17:42:06.630Z

This weird 21st-century shit of Trick-or-Treating at random times on random days in October determined by mobs or politicians, instead of on Halloween night, was a sign of cultural decline. Too bad so few recognized that.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-27T17:19:11.215Z

I've decided to start blocking anyone who admits to using a chatbot to write, or obviously does so in the absence of omission. I have no interest in reading computer vomit.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T17:40:53.747Z

The Mechanical Turk redux.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-29T07:39:43.119Z

Ever since the "Department of Homeland Security" was created by Bush II, I have referred to it as the "Department of Fatherland Security". People used to claim I was exaggerating. I don't hear that accusation much any more.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-29T19:39:13.880Z

Once again, mainstream voices are starting to agree with what I've been saying since high school > 40 years ago. But knowing what it took to shake people out of their ovine complacency and childish "leader" fantasies, I take no real pleasure in having been right. Cassandra was not a happy person.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-10-31T18:23:18.074Z

Louisiana, will you please get Landry off his knees? Nobody wants to see their private activities.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T02:59:52.276Z

Anybody who's ever had young children knows what it looks like when they're actively engaged in pooping their diapers.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-02T18:03:11.334Z

The more often you call politicians "leaders", the more they will behave like Führers.Go back to calling them "public servants" and treat them like servants rather than nobles.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-03T18:19:14.325Z

Humans are the ONLY entities we know who can make ANY art, "great" or otherwise.Computer output is not art. Period. End of discussion.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-04T18:04:19.468Z

Democratic politicians are so brave about criticizing Republican politicians when the subject is dead.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-05T17:36:53.488Z

I'm afraid I'm committed to the ancient-forest-haunting gig for at least the next millennium, or until the seventh daughter of a seventh daughter exorcises me.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-06T08:25:21.562Z

Carl Sagan did not believe in an afterlife. But if he was wrong, I hope he haunts these people into madness.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-07T18:18:30.556Z

"Abducted". They ABDUCTED her from a daycare. "Took" is for inanimate objects, not people, and even then only if they have the owner's permission; otherwise the correct verb is "stole".RIGHT: "A goon took his lunch to work".WRONG: "A goon took a teacher's phone."WRONG: "Goons took a teacher."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-08T19:06:43.666Z

Oh, well that makes it all better, then.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-09T08:26:07.790Z

You know, Democrats, y'all don't have to keep proving me right, really. I mean, I appreciate the thought, but I'm a big girl and can handle being proven wrong once in a while. Truthfully, it'd be kinda nice.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-10T18:22:33.566Z

Stop referring the characters in computer-generated videos as they were people. These videos are animations, even if they look real; those who appear in them are therefore cartoon characters, and should be described as such.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-11T17:44:21.958Z

Reporters: please stop using the word "shocking" to describe the actions of the Trump regime. Anybody who is still shocked by Trumpist behavior after 10 months of this is either hopelessly stupid or deeply in need of professional help.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-12T22:23:07.794Z

"Drug boat!" is the new "It's coming right for us!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTrM…

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-14T20:12:22.312Z

This buffoon is so fixated on winning vs losing, he actually thinks a medical test is like a school test. It's obvious in the way he refers to things like getting an "outstanding" result from an MRI.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-15T08:20:55.352Z

For the same reason she's advertising her IQ on her hat.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-11-16T17:41:53.127Z

 

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Assault…is discipline when you’re a juvenile.  – “Officer” Blake Willer

This is among the best examples of Donna Jean Godchaux’s work with the Grateful Dead, so how could there be a more appropriate sendoff for her?  The links above it were provided by Ryan Marino, C.J. Ciaramella, Radley Balko, Ryan Marino again, IncarcerNation, Carol Fenton, and The Onion, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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Oh no, not another youth pastor.  –  Jessica Nicely

The War Goes On (#867) 

This started as a scheme to keep sex workers off of Tinder:

Tinder [has] announced…that identity verification with facial recognition will now be required for all new users in the U.S. in the coming months.  A facial scan is already required for new…users in California as of July…[and] new users in Colombia, Canada, Australia, India, and several countries across Southeast Asia must also complete one…users must take a video of themselves within the app…the…scan…[is used to determine] whether the same face is used in multiple profiles…and stored to verify new photos…

First They Came for the Hookers… (#1508) 

There is no such thing as an original idea from a politician:

Pennsylvania [politicians] are proposing a new 10 percent tax on porn.  The…”tiddy tariff,” as…Mike Stabile has dubbed it—would be levied in addition to the state’s normal 6 percent sales and use tax.  As a means to…raise revenue or discourage porn consumption…this…might make sense if most porn viewers were paying for porn videos or platform subscriptions.  But in a world of ample free porn, it seems unlikely to accomplish either of the state’s likely aims…And to the extent that it even further disincentivizes paying for porn, it could actually work against goals like protecting sex workers from exploitation, or keeping people from viewing porn that was made in illegal or exploitative ways…

Pennsylvania, of course, is not interested in protecting sex workers.

Panopticon (#1547)

Other mobile surveillance platforms aren’t enough; cops now want their own:

The Miami-Dade County Sheriff’s Department is the first in the country to test a new [robot pigmobile] decked in surveillance equipment…it is even capable of serving as a launch platform for [flying pig robots]…this is…a pilot program…sponsored by [fascist corporation] PolicingLab…as a feeler for the Sheriff’s public affairs folks…in order to…evaluate [how badly it will damage]…public trust…“Results will inform whether and how the program expands, potentially serving as a national model for [cop shops] across the country”…

The Cop Myth (#1570)

What would cops do if you shot someone dead in the street?

An FBI [spook in Virginia who murdered] a neighbor in [cold blood was allowed to skate without]…any time in jail…Benjamin Spinale shot…Jason Chamberlain in the middle of the street in February…he was…never charged for [the murder], but…faced four [slap-on-the-wrist gun] charges [instead.  Spinale has a history of threatening neighbors with his gun, having]…previously pulled [it] on a puppy and a group of teens.  The county prosecutor [absurdly claimed] there wasn’t enough evidence to charge Spinale [for] the [murder], despite being surrounded by sheriff’s deputies at the time…the first judge to hear the plea agreement called Spinale a vigilante and said he shouldn’t be allowed to have a gun in any capacity[, so the case was transferred to] another judge [prosecutors knew would] accept…the [corrupt deal]…

Shame, Shame (#1576)

Another ghoul looting graves:

Alan Hamel is doing everything he can to [profit from his late wife] Suzanne Somers…One of [his creepy schemes] is a [computer-generated image synchronized with a chatbot trained on Somers’ writings and interviews, branded as]…”the Suzanne AI Twin”…Hamel, [who is either deeply senile or lacks the capacity for shame, claims]…”When…I…look at the two of them side by side, I really can’t tell which one is the real and which one is the AI”…

Torture Chamber (#1578)

Government thugs hate both queer people and migrants, so queer migrants are especially targeted:

Queer and trans immigrants [locked in a] south Louisiana [dungeon] have…faced sexual harassment and abuse, medical neglect and coerced labor by [screws], and…[were] ignored or faced retaliation for speaking out…they were…forced…to perform hard [and pointless] manual labor [in the middle of the night and]…targeted by an assistant warden…named Manuel Reyes and his [gang, who]… beat them and denied them medical treatment [afterward].  “I was treated worse than an animal,” said Mario Garcia-Valenzuela, one of the [victims]…part of the [torture included repetitively moving]…heavy cabinets [back and forth across a room], and…using industrial-strength [cleaning] chemicals without gloves or protective gear…[all in the middle of the] night…they were persistently sexually harassed by Reyes, who [also] entered their [cells to steal] possessions including [dirty underwear.  One of the victims]…is a [lesbian whom]…Reyes…oral[ly raped]…on a “near daily basis” between February and May 2024, threatening to kill her if she refused…to [submit]…

If Men Were Angels (#1582)

Youth group leader“:

…a Phoenix…youth group leader…[named] Casey Goslin…was arrested on Oct. 16…for…[possession of] child pornography…Goslin…was…involved with a platform used to livestream child sexual abuse…[from] the Philippines…

 

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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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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Who thought of this?  –  Brent Chapman

Everybody knows Popeye, but did you know he was introduced to the screen (he first appeared in the “Thimble Theater” comic strip in 1929) in a 1933 Betty Boop cartoon?  By the end of the following year he had already replaced Betty as the Fleischer Studio’s biggest star.  The links above the video were provided by Carol Fenton, Mike Siegel, Phoenix Calida, Ryan Marino, IncarcerNation, The Onion, and T. Greg Doucette, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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Sorry, partisans: both vaccines and french fries are good.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T16:41:51.013Z

A Maggie story that will surprise no one:When I was about 16 politicians imposed a curfew on minors in our parish (county). I had never been especially interested in going out late until then, but after the curfew was imposed I started going on 3 AM walks every Sunday just to flout it.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-14T17:50:46.184Z

A word crying out for more widespread usage.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-16T07:50:27.486Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-17T17:22:30.905Z

Someone whose name isn't Maggie McNeill FINALLY had the intellectual courage to use the word that best describes Trump. http://www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/o…

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-18T16:51:49.659Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-20T03:52:04.139Z

What kind of servile bootlickery is Google pushing?In a liberal republic, "those in positions of authority" should get the LEAST respect and the MOST derogatory language. Lèse-majesté is for autocracies.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-21T03:25:32.476Z

You have to admit it's funny (in a short of frustrating way) when career politicians try to engage with Trump's deranged mouth farts as though they were statements by a rational person. It's like watching them argue with barnyard fowl.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-21T18:40:32.072Z

Europe has been shaped by crusades against reality for quite a few centuries now.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-23T17:57:13.545Z

Protip: it's better to set your apocalyptic "predictions" far enough in the future that you won't still be alive when the passage of time proves you to be an idiot.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-24T03:05:09.833Z

Martin is apparently laboring under the misapprehension that he is a train.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-25T07:37:24.002Z

"Don't give money to strangers you meet on the goddamned internet."Done.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-26T07:29:49.402Z

Yes, decaying things often change noticeably on a daily basis. reason.com/2025/08/27/t…

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-28T16:48:42.823Z

1) "Father Justin" is the name of a program, not a person.2) There is no such thing as "AI"; programs cannot think.3) In Catholic doctrine a program has no soul & cannot be ordained to the priesthood.4) Chatbots function by word association; their action is more like shitting than "suggesting".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-29T17:09:20.519Z

I find it difficult to believe that this thing is an actual human being rather than a plastic mannequin animated by the Nestenes or some other parasitic alien species.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-30T03:35:04.593Z

One important but unappreciated sign of America's decline is that these audiences are contented with merely booing people their grandparents and great-grandparents would've pelted with rotting vegetables.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-30T17:22:38.679Z

The most outlandish thing I would do is to have a miniature railroad installed on my property, so I could ride around in my very own choo-choo. Everything else I'd buy is pretty sensible.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-01T03:57:52.756Z

The only positive thing this monster has accomplished is dealing the death-blow to Americans' idolization of his family.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-01T16:52:48.744Z

The mad emperor now claims anyone may justify wanton violence by pointing at the intended victim & barfing the words "drug boat". I'm sure digitally-altered audio will soon be produced in which the lunatic who shot that 11-year-old prankster will be clearly heard to say "drug boat!" before firing.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-03T18:01:32.308Z

Read this as, "I'm praying every day for God to deliver us from the scourge of cancer and send us a bountiful harvest.""AI" is a cult.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-04T17:41:19.853Z

People ask why I don't have ads on my blog.Yes, they'd bring in money. But I couldn't live with myself if I enabled this kind of shit.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-05T07:22:26.399Z

ALL bending of the knee is symbolic kneeling. That is the exact, specific meaning of the gesture: "I should be kneeling to you, but our practical circumstances require me to keep moving so I'll just acknowledge my subservience and then move on."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-06T17:36:40.009Z

There is no "debate".Politicians want to control X.Sensible people explain why that's a bad idea.Politicians invent propaganda justifying their control.Critical mass of useful idiots believe politicians.Politicians gain control of X.Decades of damage, waste, and other consequences follow.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-07T17:16:34.136Z

You misspelled "Master".

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-08T17:31:11.121Z

It's almost like a lot of people don't know the difference between static load and dynamic load, nor really grasp what the phrase "potential energy" actually means.Physics is hard.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-09T07:25:29.051Z

Not REMOTELY panicked enough. When he retreats into his Führerbunker and won't come out, I'll say he's NEARLY panicked enough.When he cries like a baby on the way up the scaffold steps, THEN he'll be panicked enough.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-10T07:46:49.657Z

Private ownership of something may possibly result in it being controlled at some point by someone you dislike and oppose.Government ownership of that thing makes that a certainty.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-11T17:36:19.407Z

Teacher reply: "Politicians and bureaucrats are not role models."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-12T17:25:04.514Z

My rule is to treat everyone with respect (like a person) up until the moment they start barking "orders" at me as though I were a dog. To behave as a cog in an authoritarian machine is to voluntarily surrender one's humanity to that machine, releasing me from the obligation to pretend otherwise.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-13T17:25:40.274Z

At this point, I'm glad as long as it ENDS. Stroke, assassination, committed as a lunatic, impeachment, war crimes tribunal, eaten by rats, being picked up by aliens, riding into Heaven in a flaming chariot, I don't care. He's the fucking Marvin K. Mooney of Washington.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-14T07:30:10.016Z

Zuckerberg's living on the other side of the looking glass. Here's what actual scientists on OUR side of the glass have to say: maggiemcneill.com/2025/09/06/i…

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-15T17:17:24.605Z

This proposal met with general applause, until an old mouse got up and said: “That is all very well, but who is to bell the Cat?”

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-16T17:29:33.849Z

No mortal is worthy of worship. For one man or woman to worship another degrades the worshiper and deludes the one who is worshiped.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-09-17T18:17:31.017Z

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As I’ve written before, dark ages are defined by the unreliability of their records; if records are sporadic, contradictory, or questionable, historians cannot be sure what really happened in the period (hence “dark”).  One of the major factors in the dark age we’re entering now is computer-generated imagery and text spewed out at a rate that will soon rival or surpass actual information from this era, but another is 1984-esque rewriting of history by political regimes and their servant media.  The Trump regime is actively engaged in this practice, but even its opponents are attempting to sow confusion in service to their agenda, especially to mask their part in bringing the regime to power.

Case in point, this recent tweet attacking a Trump talking point, which quotes a Washington Post story whose headline intentionally attempts to mislead readers about the point’s origin.  “300,000 missing children” is indeed a “ginned-up figure”, but it isn’t from “the 2024 campaign”.  It’s from a shitty sociology paper from 2001 which was distorted and quoted endlessly by politicians and media, including the Post, for two decades to justify attacks on sex workers.  The entire US political establishment from Bush II to Obama to Trump to Biden was happy to use these imaginary “300,000 children” as cudgels to attack female independence, young people’s autonomy, and immigration; to justify swollen police budgets and increased surveillance and censorship; and as an all-purpose excuse for state violence on every level from the municipal to the international.  For 14 years, all any cop or politician had to do was vomit the phrase “sex trafficking”, accompanied by disgusting wanking fantasies, onto the upturned, open-mouthed faces of the moronic masses in order to get them to allow themselves to be violated and oppressed even further.  Both “sides” of the kindergarten “political spectrum” participated equally in this evil fantasy, until it began to mutate into “QAnon” and Trumpists won control of it.  Then and ONLY then did “progressives” and Democrats suddenly start calling this toxic narrative that they themselves built half of, a “right-wing conspiracy theory“.  And now they’re trying to fight a monster of their own creation, a monster which has spawned the ICE atrocities you now see and the swelling tide of internet censorship.  If you ever retweeted a stupid meme about 13-year-olds, donated to a “rescue” organization, watched panicmongering shows and movies about brave heroes “rescuing” vegetable-like “victims” from mustache-twirling “pimps”, or otherwise supported the panic, you are partly responsible for Trumpism.  Look at the pogroms against migrants, the demolition of the internet, the wreckage of the US scientific and medical establishment, and the warmongering and rampant insanity spewing forth from Washington daily, and think to yourself, “And I helped!”  Good job, America!

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Here at Sunset, we burn our garbage. In Washington, they pile it up behind a desk, put a hat on it, and then interpret the noises it makes as it decays as pronouncements from a god.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-12T16:51:59.685Z

Stop using cutesy names for atrocities.This is the Dade-Collier Concentration Camp. Calling it that (or something similar) should be style for every US news outlet. "Cute" names are soft collaboration.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-17T17:17:26.728Z

Remember when I said the TRULY dangerous animals at the Dade-Collier Concentration Camp were not alligators and pythons, but rather mosquitoes?Thread.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-18T03:58:27.048Z

Trump's ratings are not far enough "underwater" until he and all his henchmen are drowned.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-18T18:36:15.452Z

Politicians are not your friends. They are not "leaders". And they will throw their constituents under the bus to save their own rotten hides any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-19T07:37:33.762Z

Our culture pretends that computer programs can think, but human beings can be programmed like computers.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-21T19:37:40.849Z

These people believe that their imaginary weather control conspiracy is run by The Riddler.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-22T17:54:11.274Z

In the 19th century, it was believed that for the whites of the eyes to show all around the irises was a sign of severe congenital mental illness.We don't believe that anymore, but sometimes we get a clear example of why they believed it.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-23T08:07:10.204Z

Notice how childishly idiotic Trump sounds when babbling about "The Left" as though it were one big corporation?Guess how it sounds when somebody babbles about "The Right" in that same way?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T17:02:37.657Z

Maybe they should just make Garanimals for adult men?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-25T17:59:57.802Z

Plus, women don't allow themselves the kind of laziness that many men do. Using LLMs to write bullshit because they're too lazy to do it themselves is something men are FAR more likely to rationalize is OK; women tend to know it isn't and would feel healthy shame if they did it anyway.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-27T07:48:44.022Z

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-28T17:24:17.763Z

Actually, this is a severe understatement. It's more like a toddler threatening to beat up the combined armed populace of the entire world, including all military and police.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-29T17:44:41.893Z

Metaphor alert.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-30T17:27:17.729Z

TV adventure show continuity girl. "No, Kirk McGoody *cannot* blast through Unobtanium,because in season 2, episode 6 it was an important plot point that his blaster could not do that. Now on page 32; it's well-established Tricia Buxom is an only child, so she can't have an evil sister."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-07-31T07:59:07.911Z

Collectivism is a mental illness and one of the greatest evils in the world. archive.is/bWikm

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-01T16:41:08.164Z

It "promised ways to cheat Death"? If you believe that, for only $1000 I'll promise you a way to turn yourself into a god.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-03T02:57:50.213Z

Just imagine how low your self-esteem has to be to willingly take a job which is the functional equivalent of letting all your viscera be ripped out through your anus so a politician can shove his hand up there and use you as a hand puppet.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-03T17:15:12.324Z

The way architects feel looking at this is the way I feel when some nitwit says robots will soon take sex workers' jobs.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-04T07:41:48.689Z

Post two characters who always bring you joy.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T03:09:55.088Z

When there was noise late in the evening in my neighborhood in Seattle, it was because two carloads full of young men were driving down the avenue shooting at each other.When there was noise late in the evening here at Sunset, it was because a neighbor's cows got out.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T07:52:37.252Z

When a single person anywhere in the world can generate a turd, what do fertilizer companies still represent?

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T04:48:42.525Z

Gee, I wonder whose idea it was to put the letter "X" above the door.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T17:56:12.166Z

As one does.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-09T17:26:18.604Z

I cannot envision a world where an email or pop-up saying, "We reimagined _________!" gets any response from me other than, "How nice for you."

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-10T17:54:30.687Z

For decades, I've warned "progressives" that pretending government officials with fancy titles are "experts" was a very dangerous idea. And now people have learned what they were taught.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-11T17:44:07.884Z

Universally evergreen tweet: It is always a bad idea to live in the capital city, close to the rulers.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-12T16:40:31.515Z

I am not a violent person, but that face is asking to be hit repeatedly with a baseball bat.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-14T04:23:24.475Z

That's not what this shows. It does not show "Republicans are abstaining from alcohol"; it shows that Republicans are self-reporting to polls that they don't drink. They're not at all the same thing, as any competent psychologist or social scientist could tell you.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-14T07:34:01.210Z

He looks like the victim of a botched head transplant.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-16T07:35:13.255Z

What's the penalty for "resisting" or trying to escape if these evil goons attack? Is it worse than being crammed into a filthy dungeon in a swamp for months, and then being deported to El Salvador or the Sudan with no due process? Because if not, resistance is ALWAYS the sensible course of action.

Maggie McNeill (@maggiemcneill.bsky.social) 2025-08-17T17:27:42.971Z

 

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My life looks like a dumpster fire.  –  Eligio Regalado

This really rocking cover of Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” by a Franco-Ethiopian band was called to my attention by C.J. Ciaramella; I know Grace would’ve really enjoyed it.  The links above it were provided by Popehat, Dan Savage (x2), Guy Hamilton-Smith, Jesse Walker, Mike Masnick, and Ryan Marino, in that order.

From the Archives

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

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