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Posts Tagged ‘welcome to our world’

What workers want most in today’s economy is flexibility. – Jarrett Dieterle

If Men Were Angels

“Children’s minister” blames porn and Satan for his crimes:

A Wyoming children’s minister admitted he couldn’t be left alone with kids after he molested a young girl during his Christmas vacation in Florida…Richard Scott Shaw…told cops he “gave into temptation” when he…groped…a…12 year…old [girl]…on two separate occasions…Shaw…confessed to [her mother], but claimed it was [somehow] an accident….[then tried to blame an imaginary “]pornography addiction[“.  As if that weren’t enough hypocrisy for one incident, psychopathic clown]…Grady Judd [had the nerve to say of someone other than himself]…“This guy is an evil person”…

To Molest and Rape

It was just a big “whoopsie”:

A Pennsylvania [cop] who…rape[d a woman he knows]…a[bsur]dly told his victim the assault was an accident…Justin Hain…was in the [woman’s] home…and after she came out of the shower, he…ripped off her towel and ignored her pleas for him to stop…when the victim called Hain the next day to ask him why he attacked her, he said, “I didn’t intentionally rape you”…

To Molest and Rape (#997) 

A sadly typical outcome when a high-ranking cop is the rapist:

A Philadelphia [cop] who…[repeatedly] sexually assault[ed] three [female cops] has been reinstated after charges were dropped in all three cases…Carl Holmes Jr….will return to his previous rank…[after] prosecutors dropped the last of three sexual assault cases against Holmes due to the…[department successfully intimidating] key witness[es]…

Confined and Controlled (#1258)

“Progressives” want everyone forced to work for bosses and managers:

The federal government…is coming to rescue [gig workers] from their own choices.  The Department of Labor [has] announced new rules…that will limit the circumstances in which workers can be classified as independent contractors…unleashing federal bureaucrats to micromanage the decisions that those workers have already made for themselves….[via] a vague six-part test…Those determined to be employees will be forcibly reclassified even if they do not want to be.  And many seemingly don’t…78 percent [of gig workers a]re satisfied with their jobs…and…most value…the flexibility to set their own schedules or earn small amounts of extra cash on the side…only about 10 percent…desire…a more traditional job while nearly 80 percent intend…to keep freelancing…While the new rule will “reverberate” across a variety of industries where independent contractor work is common—including health care, construction, and food service…the real target of the…policy seems to be…platforms like Uber and DoorDash…[which are] widely expected [to]…sue…the Department of Labor…

Shifting the Blame (#1384)

How many women died as a result of inaction by this murderer’s cop buddies?

Gilgo Beach serial killing suspect Rex Heuermann has been charged with the murder of a fourth woman, whose remains were found on…Long Island in 2010…Maureen Brainard-Barnes…vanished in 2007…and…is believed by police to be the first victim [of] what [are] known as the “Gilgo Four”…

Served Cold (#1392)

Tim Ballard’s downfall is increasingly satisfying:

Celeste Borys, one of the women suing Tim Ballard, flew to California with her lawyer last week to file criminal complaints…[because Ballard] sexually assaulted her in…San Diego, San Clemente, the San Jose suburb of Campbell, and…Los Angeles…


To Molest and Rape (Rapists of the Week #4)

Cops should not be allowed anywhere near legal minors:

 Andrew Menendez, a [typical and representative West Virginia cop] who…sexually abus[ed] a 15-year-old, was found guilty by a jury…He…must register as a sex offender and…faces up to 20 years in prison…

 

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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I’ve been told to respond, “I respectfully decline to answer”.
–  April Rogers

Welcome To Our World (January Updates)

Sows just love fantasy role-playing as sex workers in order to harm people:

[In the summer of 2020, a] young woman with long pink hair [who] claimed to be from Washington state…walked into the Chinook Center, a community space for left-wing activists in Colorado Springs…and offered to volunteer.  She…said her name was Chelsie…[and] implied…that she was a sex worker…But Chelsie’s identity was as fake as her long pink hair.  The young woman, whose real name is April Rogers, is a [cop whom]…the FBI enlisted…to infiltrate and spy on racial justice groups…The work of Rogers…is a direct offshoot of the FBI’s summer of 2020 [scheme] in Denver, where Mickey Windecker, a paid FBI informant…rose to a leadership role in the racial justice movement, and encouraged activists to become violent…Once Rogers gained trust among the activists, she tried to set up at least two young men in gun-running conspiracies.  Her tactics mirrored those of Windecker, who tried to entrap two Denver racial justice activists in crimes, including an FBI-engineered plot to assassinate Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser that went nowhere…

The Truth About “The Truth About…”

This is the first time I’ve seen a woman falsely accused of rape:

A deputy U.S. marshal was found guilty of plotting to frame his former fiancée for attempted rape of his wife.  Ian Diaz…faces as long as 20 years in prison…[because he] and his then-wife created phony email and social media accounts in the name of Jane Doe, his former fiancée, and used these to send each other messages with graphic threats to rape and kill his then-wife.  They also posted ads on Craigslist to lure men to enact “rape fantasies” with his then-wife, and when the men showed up at their condo, they called the police and claimed that Jane Doe was responsible…As a result, Jane Doe was arrested and spent almost three months in prison…Diaz…was [angry at]…Doe…[for refusing to keep quiet about the fact] that he had raped and abused her during their relationship…

Torture Chamber

This will continue until journalists stop obediently referring to senseless violence as “correction”:

A [man who] was [violently] assaulted without provocation by [Suffolk County NY screws] last year…[has filed] a $69 million lawsuit…Wilson Cantarero Lopez…had to undergo emergency surgery to save his life…on March 25, 2022, a day after the beating [was inflict]ed…[because his] large intestine was [ruptured in] the assault…while serving [a short] sentence [for violating a court order]…15…[screws crowded in]to his cell…[and] six of the[m]…beat and kicked [him for no reason other than petty sadism, then]…strapped [him] into a [torture] chair…for…90 minutes…[while he was] gagging on his blood and struggling to breathe…Cantarero Lopez was hospitalized for 10 days before he was [locked in a cage until]…May 24.  Cantarero Lopez is unable to work due to the injuries…

Crying for Nanny (#1037)

Ambulance-chasers don’t care who gets hurt as long as they make a bundle:

A federal court says that sex-trafficking lawsuits against JPMorgan Chase and Deutsche Bank can go forward.  In three separate but similar suits, the two banks are being accused of knowingly benefiting from sex trafficking by allowing Jeffrey Epstein…to bank with them…these suits…suggest that mere allegations against someone should warrant financial institutions canceling their accounts—something…likely to hamper a person’s ability to defend themselves in court.  A society where private businesses must reject anyone accused of crimes or face criminal liability themselves is perverse, frightening, and antithetical to civil liberties…This…risks giving regulators, politicians, and private busybodies a way to shut entire industries out of legal banking systems…without having to…prove any criminal action…[profiteers] are trying to move beyond holding actual perpetrators—who tend not to have very deep pockets—accountable and instead penalize deep-pocketed third parties…[which could] prompt hotels, social media platforms, software companies, and others to reject (or call the cops on) all sorts of people…merely because they look “suspicious” or seem like they’re engaging in any sexual activity at all…

A Broker in Pillage (#1196)

Airports are among cops’ favorite places to lurk in order to rob people:

The trucker who had $39,500 [stol]en by police in August 2020 at Sky Harbor Airport has finally gotten his money back.  Jerry Johnson had traveled to [Phoenix] with a large amount of cash to [bu]y…a truck he needed for his business.  But Phoenix police s[tole] his money before he could get to the auction, [belch]ing…[out the magic words] “drug courier” [in order to sanctify their crime]…Johnson has spent the last couple of years fighting the [robbery] in court and his lawyers said he’s recently gotten back his money….The Institute for Justice represented…him…

The Punitive Mindset (#1294) 

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

A new lawsuit is challenging a California county jail’s policy of digitizing and then destroying all physical mail received by incarcerated people—part of a national trend of prisons and jails restricting inmates’ ability to receive physical mail.  The lawsuit…by Columbia University’s Knight First Amendment Institute, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and the Social Justice Legal Foundation, argues that [any]…ban on physical mail “violates the expressive, associational, privacy, and religious rights of the individuals in its jails, including those presumed innocent, and of the many individuals who send mail to those incarcerated people”…[these policies are pretended to] reduc[e] contraband…[but] the overwhelming majority is smuggled in by staff…[and] depriving inmates of a vital source of comfort and connection to the outside world [actually increases drug problems]…”Following statewide adoption of MailGuard in Pennsylvania, the drug test positivity rate actually increased,” the lawsuit says…”[in] Missouri…the [average] number of…overdoses…increased from thirty-one to thirty-seven per month.  And in New Mexico…the drug test positivity rate nearly doubled”…

To Molest and Rape (#1312)

Always the fixation on the magical clown costume:

[A] Wichita [Kansas cop named]…Brock England [was arrested in Oklahoma for]…sexual[ly] abus[ing]…a child younger than 12…England has been [rewarded with a paid vacation]…

 

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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After the government does something especially awful, there is usually an avalanche of horror stories illustrating exactly what reasonable people warned would happen after the awful government act.  The overturn of Roe v Wade is no exception; if I had included these stories in my normal news columns, they would’ve completely dominated most of the late July installments.  So instead, I opted to collect them all together here; future updates to these stories will appear in regular news columns under the appropriate tags.

One of the strongest reasons to oppose authoritarian laws of any kind is that they inevitably harm people the politicians insist they weren’t trying to target:

A sexual assault survivor chooses sterilization so that if she is ever attacked again, she won’t be forced to give birth to a rapist’s baby.  An obstetrician delays inducing a miscarriage until a woman with severe pregnancy complications seems “sick enough.”  A lupus patient must stop taking medication that controls her illness because it can also cause miscarriages.  Abortion restrictions in a number of states and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade are having profound repercussions in reproductive medicine as well as in other areas of medical care…Even in medical emergencies, doctors are sometimes declining immediate treatment. In the past week, an Ohio abortion clinic received calls from two women with ectopic pregnancies…who[se] doctors wouldn’t treat them…

More about the aforementioned lupus drug many women are now being denied:

Methotrexate is a cheap, common drug prescribed to millions of Americans…[for] rheumatic illnesses…inflammatory bowel disease, psoriasis or cancer…[but because] it is used off-label to end ectopic pregnancies…it could be restricted by doctors or pharmacists even in states…that do not ban abortion…in low doses, it has proved to be one of the safest, least expensive and most effective treatments for roughly a dozen autoimmune conditions, from juvenile idiopathic arthritis to Crohn’s disease…“I have gotten some reports where children have been denied methotrexate for their juvenile arthritis until they’ve proven they’re not pregnant,” said Dr. Cuoghi Edens…a rheumatology expert…“The majority of rheumatic diseases affect females at substantially higher rates than males…The prevalence of rheumatoid arthritis in women to men is 3 to 1.  For lupus it’s 10 to 1.  And so rheumatology is a very female-predominant patient population”…some doctors have already stopped prescribing methotrexate rather than risk [persecution]…Many pharmacists have likewise refused to fill methotrexate prescriptions, or have demanded additional proof before dispensing the medication to patients they believe could get pregnant…

And it’s not just a few fundamentalist asshat pharmacists, either:

…the largest pharmacy chain in the country sent explicit instructions to its pharmacists informing them that new checks would be implemented to confirm the reason a doctor prescribes a drug before filling routine medications for patients…CVS headquarters sent a memo to pharmacies in [Alabama, Arkansas, Idaho, Montana, Oklahoma, and Texas]…review[ing] diagnosis codes that are deemed acceptable for dispensation, which include miscarriage…If they find abortion is the intended use, they “must refuse to fill the prescription”…

Some of the tyrannies forced-birth fetishists are trying to impose are blatantly unconstitutional:

South Carolina [politician]s introduced legislation that would make it illegal to “aid, abet or conspire with someone” to obtain an abortion…Provisions would outlaw providing information over the internet or phone about how to obtain an abortion.  It would also make it illegal to host a website or “[provide] an internet service” with information that is “reasonably likely to be used for an abortion”…the proposal is…modeled off a blueprint created by the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), an antiabortion group, and designed to be replicated by [politician]s across the country…

Other FOSTA-inspired laws which encourage nuisance lawsuits have unfortunately not yet been declared unconstitutional:

Nearly four years after a woman ended an unwanted pregnancy with abortion pills obtained at a Phoenix clinic, she finds herself mired in an ongoing lawsuit [after]…A judge allowed the woman’s ex-husband to establish an estate for the embryo, which had been aborted in its seventh week of development.  The ex-husband filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the clinic and its doctors in 2020, alleging that…[he has the right to make decisions for his ex-wife]…

Naturally, this new extension of the police state will be enabled by the same fascist surveillance tactics as the War on Whores:

Many of the states rushing to ban abortion are also the biggest users of a surveillance tool that [cops] could use to track women ending their pregnancies — the location data from people’s phones…states across the country are already using this kind of data for other [surveillance and harassment].  And a POLITICO analysis found that many of the states that have criminalized abortion have relied increasingly on location data in recent years…Figures from Google…show that the company received 5,764 “geofence” warrants between 2018 and 2020 from police in the 10 states that have banned abortion as of July 5…

Of course, sex workers know all about most of these oppressions, because they’re tested on us first before being extended to amateurs:

Madolline Gourley, a Brisbane resident…was treated like a criminal during her transit through Los Angeles on 30 June, where she was detained at the border due to suspicions about her intention to house- and cat-sit in exchange for accommodation while holidaying in Canada.  Gourley was held in a detention room, interrogated twice, patted down, fingerprinted and photographed…At one point a US b[ureaucrat] asked Gourley, who was wearing a loose-fitting dress, whether she was pregnant.  The same question was repeated as she was moved between rooms.  When she again [replied that]…she was not pregnant, Gourley was asked whether she had had an abortion…

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Prohibitions don’t eliminate things. They drive them underground.  –  Jeffrey Miron

Welcome To Our World

You mean laws can’t stop consensual business transactions? Who would have thought?

…underground gyms appear to be popping up everywhere, from LA to New Jersey…Governments can legislate all they want, but prohibiting stuff with eager buyers and sellers is super hard…and…When markets get pushed underground, quality control tends to go down. In the case of drugs, this means potentially finding rat poison in your weed.  When it comes to gyms in the COVID-19 era, it means potentially creating fitness environments that are even more likely to spread the virus than if they were legal and regulated…

Give Them an Inch…

European anti-migration policies grow steadily more horrible:

At least 1,072 migrants were sailed to the edge of Greece’s water territory on inflatable life rafts and abandoned by Greek authorities…[one of the victims reported] that on July 26, she and 22 others including babies were taken by masked Greek officials from a detention centre on…Rhodes while it was dark outside….they were left on a “rudderless, motorless life raft” and were later rescued by the Turkish Coast Guard…abandon[ing] migrants at sea is illegal under international law…François Crépeau, former United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights of migrants [called the act]…”a human rights and humanitarian disaster”…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (#933)

I love it when they feed on their own:

…[Florida cop] Stephen Utter…was arrested this month for trying to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex…Utter was made immediately aware of the [fictional] girl’s age before he began to sexually groom…a cop [fantasy roleplaying] an actual child…Utter sent explicit messages detailing the sexual acts he wished to perform…Once he’d incriminated himself enough, police moved in to arrest him…

Saving Them From Themselves (#987)

Georgia pigs are especially enthusiastic about destroying young people’s lives for the terrible “crime” of looking at pictures:

On the second day of virtual classes for Henry County schools, the county’s police department [issued a threat to] students…“If you stream pornography in an online class…the…Sheriff’s Office will find you and charge you with life-[destroying] charges…[including] child pornography [and] child molestation [?]…and [you will be condemned] to [the]…sex offender [registry]”…

I Spy (#1014)

When it comes to mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

A newly released document shows the U.S. Secret Service went through a…social media surveillance company to purchase the location information on American’s movements, no warrant necessary.  Babel Street is a shadowy organization that offers a product called Locate X that…gather[s supposedly] anonymized location data from a host of popular apps that users have unwittingly installed on their phones…U.S. Customs and Border Protection ha[s] a contract to use Locate X and…the Secret Service ha[s] used…it…[since at least] September 28, 2017…

Guinea Pigs (#1018) 

Courtesy of Tryst, here’s Maya Morena on the gang of malignant sociopaths called Deliverfund:

DeliverFund is a…private intelligence agency that provides data to [cops]…they combine counterterrorism (War on Terror), anti-drug, anti-immigrant, and anti-poverty tactics to target the sex industry…[and] track sex workers online…[one of their collaborators is] ShadowDragon, which…[scrapes] escort sites [to] collect data [from] sex worker’s advertisements to [give it to cops, usin the excuse that]…”they’re all secretly controlled by traffickers”…To them we aren’t really people who need to work, to pay bills and live, we are examples of human trafficking…

The Implosion Begins

The Democrats won’t admit that they are just as responsible for this as the GOP:

QAnon [follower] Alpalus Slyman pushed his Honda Odyssey past 110 mph while his five children screamed in the back…and [cops]…pursued him…[he prayed to] Donald Trump…on a livestream [and shouted]… “QAnon, help me!”…Slyman appears to have been convinced …that the police were coming to abduct [his children]…after he accused [one daughter] and his wife…of being agents of the [“sex trafficking”] cabal that QAnon believers say controls the world…he…told his children, who ranged from 8 months to 13 years old…that a video of Hillary Clinton and aide Huma Abedin eating childrens’ brains was discovered on Anthony Weiner’s laptop…the chase only ended when Slyman crashed into a [copmobile]…then drove his minivan into a tree…His five children were unharmed…a group of QAnon believers are now actively encouraging parents estranged from their children to steal those children back from child protective services…

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[Sex workers] have to pay the rent, they have to eat, so they are forced to continue working.  –  Joep Rottier

Sex Rays

Oh noes, they contaminated public places with their eeeevul sex rays!

On April 21, Arkansas-based clip artist Mayven Doll and her husband took a plea deal…over serious felony charges filed against them back in 2017.  After keeping them in legal limbo for almost three years, this week the prosecutors finally allowed them to plead their felony charges — stemming from a few public sex clips…down to the far more common misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure…[pigs] had downloaded, [masturbated to] and written descriptions of the clips into a request for an arrest warrant and then raided their home…[with a] SWAT [team]…the [warrant] affidavit…wa[s] specifically worded…to invoke three old Arkansas obscenity statues about “hard-core film,” that…are so overly broad that they [crimi]nalize even owning a single commercial porn DVD…a few days after the original prosecutor finished a political campaign that resulted in his election to a newly created judgeship, prosecutors finally agreed to a…plea…deal…

To Molest and Rape

Pigese is designed for obfuscation, but I think this means he violently raped a sex worker:

A Tahoka [Texas cop]…has been arrested and charged with official oppression, prostitution and indecent assault…William Jayce Baker…was on [paid vacation] during the Texas Rangers investigation…

License to Rape (#652)

Prohibition turns the body of every citizen into a “crime scene”, which can be violated by cops at will:

South Dakota [cops’] practice of [rap]ing [people with] catheter[s under the pretense of] obtain[ing] urine samples…violates the U.S. Constitution…federal judge…Roberto Lange…declined to dismiss the case brought by six individuals who sued the cities of Pierre, Wagner and Sisseton, as well as various [rapist cops]…Two [of the] plaintiffs – Gena Alvarez and Aaron Peters – were [raped by]…catheter…[without even the excuse] of…drug crimes.  Alvarez had been…arrested…[for drunk driving and] woke up at the Winner Hospital being held down and [stripped by rapist pig]…Adam Woxland [while his buddy held]…down her legs…

Permanent Record

If prohibitionists really want to “rescue” sex workers, why do they keep trying to stop us from getting other jobs?

A promising young mechanic at a Honda dealership in Indiana was fired from her job after management learned she was making amateur porn outside of work using the platform OnlyFans.  Kirsten Vaughn…was on track to become the first woman master technician at Don Ayres Honda dealership in Fort Wayne when she was abruptly [sacked]…after…coworkers began watching her videos together at the workplace and then sexually harassing her…Jason Johnston, who handles human resources for the dealership, denied that Vaughn had been fired over her OnlyFans account, and said instead that she had violated company policy…[but] declined to specify which policy…in audio recordings that Vaughn provided…of meetings she had with Johnston and dealership general manager John Watkins, the two men can be heard questioning her about her OnlyFans presence and discussing the harm it could do to the reputation of their business…and…blam[ing] Vaughn for the [behavior] of her coworkers…

Panopticon (#923)

The more extensive the surveillance, the more often this will happen:

Sheffield City Council’s automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) system exposed to the internet 8.6 million records of road journeys made by thousands of people…The…camera system’s internal management dashboard could be accessed by simply entering its IP address into a web browser.  No login details or authentication of any sort was needed to view and search the live system…Britain’s Surveillance Camera Commissioner Tony Porter described the security lapse as “both astonishing and worrying,” and demanded a full probe into the snafu…

Welcome To Our World (#1026)

I’m sure you feel safer now:

Two Texas p[igs staged]…an elaborate sting operation to catch citizens giving salon services for money in their own home.  The cops p[retend]ed [to be real people] needing…a manicure…[after] snitches…[ratted on] a woman who was advertising manicure services on social media…Laredo police a[bduc]ted Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia…and [locked her in a filthy cage]…Brenda Stephany Mata…was [also] a[bduc]ted…after she allegedly offered to do a…[sow’s] lashes.  Just like Castro-Garcia, she was [locked in a filthy cage]…for…trying to feed themselves and their families…

Social Distancing (#1034)

Unsurprisingly, New Zealand treats sex workers like any other workers:

…“The fact that the sex industry in New Zealand has been decriminalised has a lot of advantages, and it proves itself now with this virus issue”…says Joep Rottier, a criminology researcher at Utrecht University…In addition to the emergency wage subsidy, which is available to all New Zealand workers just by providing a national ID number and basic personal information, sex workers are also immediately eligible for job-seekers benefits…

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People who haven’t had an online presence aren’t gonna make money right away.  –  Arabelle Raphael

Welcome To Our World

I hope you amateurs enjoy being hunted like animals by armed thugs:

[Cops are gleefully using violence to force peaceful] people [to] comply with the shelter in place orders across North Texas…[Pigs] have [been granted imaginary] authority to [harass] people to make sure they are…workers [the state has declared “essential”] and not [free citizens] out and about…“We did hear some complaints…of people being stopped going to work.  Let me be clear, [fuck you and we’ll keep doing it]” [oinked a pig] of the DeSoto [cop shop.  In addition, cops]…across the region are trying to…fill up the jails with people committing nonviolent or misdemeanor crimes [just as usual.  In fact, prosecutors]…will enhance crimes co[ps accuse people of] during this period [which means]…more jail time and higher fines…

But hey, I’m sure y’all won’t mind because politicians have declared that giving violent thugs permission to harass you just for existing, and robbing you of money you can’t afford to lose, is “for your own good”.

Maggie in the Media

I appeared last week on the All In A Day’s (Sex) Work podcast, speaking on (among other topics) how sex workers have often been blamed for epidemics.  Despite the grim topic, I think you’ll enjoy listening.

Property of the State 

The power to declare something “non-essential” is the power to ban it:

The Texas Attorney General’s office…ordered all clinics that provide abortion to immediately stop providing the procedure in order to comply with the state’s temporary suspension of surgeries that are not deemed “medically necessary” [by politicians]…Those in violation will face “penalties of up to $1,000 or 180 days of jail time”…

The Cult of Coupling

Too much “togetherness”, y’all?

Divorce filings are skyrocketing from quarantine-weary and financially stressed couples…matrimonial attorneys…are experiencing a 50 percent rise in inquiries from potential clients…[some] Manhattan family-law experts…[say] couples forced to spend time together while quarantined…haven’t fared well…[and] dramatic sways in the financial markets will further spur a wave of wealthy divorces, because richer spouses may decide they want out while their net worth dips…

Top Cop (#995)

This psychopath is still far too close to power for comfort:

Joe Biden is in the process of narrowing down his list of potential running mates, and his allies in the business community are weighing in with their favorite choices.  Since Biden announced earlier this month that he plans to pick a woman as his nominee for vice president, leaders of…industries have been reaching out to him and his presidential campaign about whom they think should join him on the ticket…The names being floated and pushed to Biden by this group include Sens. Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar…

Social Distancing

As always, sex workers take care of our own:

…workers…and…professionals whose livelihoods are tied to in-person meetings…are currently suffering from coronavirus-related job cuts….37 million jobs are vulnerable to layoffs due to social distancing measures…one group facing particularly acute challenges are sex workers, whose work is often illegal…or not covered by unemployment laws…many come from marginalized communities and have trouble accessing other forms of employment…the advocacy organization Bay Area Workers Support (BAWS)…launched a microgrant program that gives out payments of $50–$200 to sex workers in need…Similar efforts are taking place across the country: the Sex Worker Outreach Project…is organizing mutual aid fundraisers for sex workers in places like Los AngelesAustin and New York, and sex workers in Las Vegas have been fundraising via crowdfunding platforms such as GoFundMe …Taking their work online through photos, videos, phone sex and videoconferencing is one way sex workers have [adapted]…But changing how one does business is not as easy as starting an account…

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#1023)

“Sponsored content” means content a paper was paid to publish; it’s an ad, not journalism:

Over the past few months, several articles and editorials with a distinct War On Porn propaganda slant have been appearing under the banner of The Guardian, the influential transatlantic news organization…These articles look almost exactly like the rest of The Guardian online content, with the same font, design, artwork, layout and out-links to other stories…Recent articles…[gave] a platform to…Exodus Cry founder Laila Mickelwait…the “Exploitation in Focus” series is “supported, in part, through a grant…[from] Humanity United, a U.S.-based [prohibitionist] foundation…with [a] very vague name…and mission…[which] respond[s] to a billionaire p[rohibition]ist couple…who were embroiled in a labor human trafficking scandal of their own around the time they founded Humanity United…

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Companies…that made bad bets on the internet…[are] using…the political process to harm the competitors who built the products people actually want.  –  Mike Masnick

Anatomy of a Boondoggle

While some other states are trying to stop cops from raping sex workers, Florida is still paying them to do so:

A..[lying cop]…with the Pembroke Pines [Florida cop shop] used department-issued funds to get [access to women so he could] sexual[ly assault masseuses]…at three massage parlors…the [rapist] arrested] four women, ages 48 to 58, who are from Shanghai, China.  The women…didn’t have…[state permission to touch other humans and] are facing prostitution charges…

Welcome To Our World

People’s lives are just stakes in a game to these sociopaths:

Hillsborough County, Florida [cops pretended to be]…homeowners seeking handymen on social media to do jobs that required licensure.  These unsuspecting handymen would be lured to one of five homes, where [pigs] filmed them performing or agreeing to perform prohibited tasks like painting or installing recess lighting…118 [people in all were victimized by the badge-carrying] con men…Leslie Sammis, a criminal defense lawyer in Tampa…[said] “The real con men that are trying to trick homeowners are usually too experienced to get caught up in one of these types of sting operations.  So the stings tend to catch someone that crosses the line in an unsophisticated way”…[pigs] will hire a handyman on the pretext of performing work that doesn’t need a license, and then during the course of the job ask them to do something that does, like unhooking a toilet or laying some tiles…the [pigs] are [literally] creating a crime that probably wouldn’t occur otherwise…Cops and regulators have conducted similar [violent scams] in New York and California

The Truth About “The Truth About…”

Another of those nonexistent false rape accusations:

Prosecutors in California are dropping all charges against a surgeon and his girlfriend who were [wrongly] accused of drugging and raping a number of women…Grant W. Robicheaux…and Cerissa Riley were charged in 2018 with kidnapping, rape by use of drugs, and other crimes…prosecutors [fantasized that] the couple…[would] meet…women in restaurants and bars, spik[e] their drinks, tak[e] them to Robicheaux’s apartment, and sexually assaulting them.  Prosecutors [pretended] they had more than 1,000 videos of…women being sexually abused. But…Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, who was elected after the case was filed, said there were no such videos.  “There is not a single piece of evidence or video or photo that shows an…incapacitated woman being sexually assaulted,” Spitzer said…”Not one”…Spitzer…criticized his predecessor, Tony Rackauckas, for filing the case…[but the] judge [is afraid to drop it because of]…politics…[and] Rackauckas voiced concern that his successor’s decision would [make his false prosecution look bad]…and claimed that…the…case [should be tried in]…the [court of] public [opinion instead of a real court]…

To Molest and Rape

Just another typical and representative cop predating on vulnerable women:

A [typical and representative] El Paso [cop got off with] a [mere] decade of probation [after brutally raping] a woman he met wh[en she reported]…a domestic violence incident.  William Ollie Alexander…will [at least] have to register as a sex offender for life….on…March 10, 2018…he met [the victim after taking her]…domestic violence [report]…and hours later…took her to a dark area…and [raped] her…

The Mote and the Beam (#777)

Some tech companies are willing to destroy the internet to secure a temporary business advantage:

…the narrative being pushed about internet companies and Section 230 was…manufactured…by Hollywood and other old legacy companies jealous of the success of new internet companies…the NY Times has a detailed article on…how a broad coalition of big, old, legacy companies are conspiring to punish Google and Facebook by convincing the media and politicians that Section 230…is bad.  The headline lists three companies: IBM, Marriott, and Disney…Disney and its powerful trade association have fought to stop the law’s spread abroad.  Marriott has asked Congress to amend the law.  IBM has a plan to [castrate] it…Disney, of course, is a stand-in for the MPAA and all of the big Hollywood movie studios…while Disney led the copyright lobbying charge in the 80s and 90s, the company leading the way against the internet…has been Fox.  But…Disney recently bought Fox…Marriott…has been screaming bloody murder about Airbnb for years, because it can’t stand having competition that actually offers better service…IBM…and Oracle…[don’t] rely on Section 230, since they don’t run consumer facing internet services…

Traffic Jam (#877)

The ethically-bankrupt Dominique “Body Fluids” Sepowitz has invented another idiotic “study” designed to find exactly what its funders wanted found:

More than two-thirds of sex [workers labeled by prohibitionists as] trafficking victims in a Hawaii study reported being homeless…[deranged fantasist] Khara Jabola-Carolus [was] co-author of the study [along with her crony Dominique “Body Fluids” Sepowitz]…The [so-called] study [was actually] a…survey [of questionnaires filled out by] 363…clients of state service agencies…[the designation as] sex trafficking victims [was imposed] by Carolus and Sepowitz without the consent of the clients…

In 2018, Jabolus cried to cops when Sepowitz claimed she had received a mysterious text message about a supposed plot against Carolus’ job; she claimed the rumor constituted a “threat of physical violence”.  This is the level of fantasy and wild exaggeration that passes for truth in “Cuckoo Clock” McCain’s crowd.  In case you’re wondering why this drama is centered around tiny Hawaii, it’s because there is some support for decriminalization in the state legislature and the prohibitionists want that crushed.

Guinea Pigs (#881) 

Summer Stephan has for years touted her personal animus against whores as “concern”:

[Politicians] in San Diego…are [still persecuting adults for seeking consensual sex, now with] a new mobile app [intended to trick] the public [into ratting their neighbors out to the pigs]…District Attorney Summer Stephan [and other “sex trafficking” fetishists shared their fantasies of]…traffickers…lur[ing]…victims and…[brave hero cops.  Magic]al technology is playing a growing role in the ability of traffickers to…control their victims…Humans Against Trafficking…release[d]…a free mobile app, called Radlee, designed to [frame ordinary events as]…suspicious…the app will allow…parents…to [spy on sex workers online and rat them out to the pigs]…Roger Martin, the group’s CEO…[says “Women are much too stupid to place escort ads themselves, so] there must be some trafficker that’s flipping through profiles on Instagram and based on what he reads or sees, deciding whether or not to [traffick them]”…Martin’s organization…last year received a $100,000 grant from San Diego County…

A Moral Cancer (#978)

Buried lede: “The increase in absolute risk is so small that it is unlikely to be relevant for the individual“:

If you’ve been swayed by recent reports that red and processed meat isn’t harmful to your health, [crypto-moralists want you to ignore the facts and listen to their claims of a]…significant risk of death from any cause tied to eating two servings of processed meat or unprocessed red meat each week…One serving…equaled two slices of bacon, two small sausages or one hot dog…[or] 4 ounces of red meat…The new findings [were designed to contradict]…a…meta-analysis [show]ing there’s no need to reduce your red and processed meat intake for good health…

Crypto-moralists will claim that anything that brings pleasure is “unhealthy”, because it isn’t really about health; it’s about puritanism.  Since puritans believe pleasure is bad, they’re always looking for ways to pretend their primitive ideas about “sin” have some basis in reality.

Subtle Pimping (#979)

Cops watch racist “virtual reality” porn and call it “training”:

Last year, students from Cal Poly created a VR massage parlor [fantasy] to [entert]ain cops [with the misogynistic myth that] many [women] are forced into prostitution…In Houston, Texas, most…vice [pigs]…have spent time [masturbating to] Trapped, a [porn] that [lets them fantasy roleplay] 14-year-old Lisa…More than 2,500 [cops]…have [masturbated to this BDSM fantasy] at [pig] conventions…Billy Joe Cain, CEO of…the VR [porn] company behind Trapped…[also] licenses his…profit[able fantasy game] to high schools and middle schools as a[n indoctrination into anti-sex dogma]…

Across the Pond (#985)

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

…a [gang] of 17 [highly aggressive pigs]…will be [harassing people with]…evening and late-night patrols, seven days a week.  Redbridge Council…set up [the gang with] a £320,000 funding pot…[to harass homeless people, buskers,] street s[ell]ers…drinkers and [sex workers]…the [gang] will also [spy on people in] Ilford Lane [using the favorite cop wanking fantasy of]…pop-up brothels…Mark Glazer, chairman of Redbridge Neighbourhood Watch, described the amount being [thrown away] on the [gang] as “ludicrous” and said resources should to be directed elsewhere…”They have been trying to sort out prostitution in Ilford Lane for years and [sending] police [to harass people] will not help”…

Crying for Nanny (#998)

The hotel industry is really going to regret having collaborated with fanatics rather than fighting “sex trafficking” hysteria:

A new lawsuit seeking $100 million in damages for two [soi-disant] victims claims the owners of nearly two dozen Collier County [Florida] hotels and motels are responsible for sex trafficking on their premises …Sharon Hanlon, an a[mbulance-chasing shyster, filed]…this lawsuit [to profit from hysteria as allowed by FOSTA]…Linda Oberhaus, [a rescue industry profiteer, claims]…“These are the hotels that are allowing human trafficking to exist”…The [ambulance-chasers] said as their [greed] in[creases], they expect to add more hotels and motels to the lawsuit…

Choke Point (#1006) 

Fascism in action, badly covered by a yellow journalist:

…If you want to PayPal or Venmo some cash to someone without any hitches, do not put the word Iran in the memo field…Jewish Currents…tweeted that nine payments to its staff and contributors had been held up by PayPal because the transaction descriptions included the term Iran in reference to a piece that the magazine published…PayPal, along with its subsidiary Venmo, uses a system that automatically flags keywords in the payment memo field that could indicate a violation…So if, say, you try to send a friend money for “drinks at Cuba Libre”, you’ll quickly learn how dense PayPal’s system can be when it comes to context clues…this leaves out a good number of illicit activities that the payment service could be facilitating…I sent my editor dozens of 1 cent transactions with different memo descriptions…PayPal…has a…laissez-faire stance toward weapons, drugs, human and animal trafficking, prostitution, and hate groups…

Not only is this moron spreading fake information based on an idiotic experiment (even PayPal computers know that a 1¢ transaction to a male Slate editor with the memo “blowjob” – yep, he went there – is not a genuine sex work transaction); his puritanical pea brain also considers sex work as in the same category as “Car bomb”, “Kidnapping”, “Nazis”, and “KKK”.  Let’s hope he tries the experiment I suggested to him (sending several hundred bucks to a female friend with “blowjob” in the memo) so his account gets shut down.

To Molest and Rape (#1012)

Give aggressive thugs power over teen girls; what could possibly go wrong?

A [typical and representative] Cottage Grove [Minnesota cop] assigned to [terrorize students at] Park High School has been charged with [molesting] seven female students and soliciting one…multiple times for nude photos.  Adam G. Pelton…[managed to rack up this score in only a year ending on] Oct. 4, 2019…Students [reported] that Pelton repeatedly [groped them under cover of non-consensual] hug[ging]…during which he would [grope] their buttocks…Most of these [attacks] occurred in Pelton’s private school office, which lacked video surveillance [because cop]…

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A [cop who] use[s] his power and position to rape women…is the very definition of a predator.  –  Theron J. Solomon

Welcome To Our World

People’s lives are just stakes in a game to these sociopaths:

…about 250 students have now been arrested since January on immigration violations by…ICE…as part of a s[cam] by federal agents who enticed foreign-born students, mostly from India, to attend [a fake] school that marketed itself as offering graduate programs in technology and computer studies…The students had arrived legally in the U.S. on student visas, but since the University of Farmington was later revealed to be a creation of federal agents, they lost their immigration status after it was shut down in January…Attorneys for the students arrested said they were [en]trapped by the U.S. government since [both] the Department of Homeland Security…[and] an accreditation agency that was [paid by the feds to lie]…listed the university as legitimate…more than 600 students…[paid the government] about $12,000…in tuition and fees…[adding up to] millions of dollars [stolen] from the unsuspecting students…

Above the Law 

I guess only real cops are allowed to rape women; rent-a-cops can only assist:

A woman was recently [raped] in an alley in [Chicago] while two security guards [kept watch to protect the rapist]…she…had won a weekend getaway trip to Chicago…on Oct. 18, [she] visited El Hefe, a popular restaurant and bar…when she…[was] drugged…Surveillance video from the alley behind the bar shows El Hefe’s security guards opening the back door…for…a man in red shoes [to] walk…the woman outside, holding her up by the neck.  The guards [watched and laughed while their buddy]…pushe[d] her against a dumpster and [raped] her…the[n left her]…there…unconscious until someone called 911.  She was taken to Northwestern Memorial where doctors determined she had been raped.  The bar[‘s]…video surveillance system was [taken] down [by either the rapist or his rent-a-cop accomplices] at the time of the attack…

Torture Chamber 

Your government calls this “correction”:

Steven Davis’s death was a homicide, caused by [being beaten to death in a cage by armed screws]…Davis’s mother, Sandy Ray, said …“They beat him so badly his head was misshapen.  He looked like an alien, or a monster”…[the perpetrators have not been charged] though…it’s been over six weeks since Steven Davis [was brutally murdered]…on October 5…the…[screws] beat Steven inside a…“hot bay” [ie, a solitary confinement cage] at the William E. Donaldson C[age stack]…Davis was [locked] in [a cage for amusing himself in a way authoritarians dislike]…

To Molest and Rape

Cops who start with mere stalking often escalate to molestation and then rape:

A Spokane [cop] accused of…rape…[tried to groom] at least two other women…Nathan Nash…showed up to [the] apartment…of a domestic violence [victim on October 23rd]…“under the guise of examining bruises as evidence…He directed [the victim] to lower her pants and underwear and she submitted to his authority.”  Nash…then…[shoved] his fingers [into her vagina until]…she [recovered from her initial] panic…to [demand he stop]…after the [assault], Nash gave her what he said was his personal cellphone number, then left.  She said she contacted her parents and then went to Holy Family Hospital for a sexual assault examination kit…another woman came forward with her story, which…occurred in May 2019…Nash [used]…a domestic violence dispute between herself and her ex-boyfriend…[to stalk] her…over the…next few weeks, Nash found and friended her on Facebook, “liking” photos of her in lingerie…Nash’s messages became “creepy” and “needy” and she felt he “had a hidden agenda”…A third woman came forward at the end of October, also after seeing…the [news about] Nash…[under police questioning] Nash did admit to touching [the most recent victim], but…[claimed] she…was coming on to him…

How delusional does any man have to be to believe that “she wanted it” is a valid excuse for rape?

The Pro-Rape Coalition (#642) 

A deep dive on Morality in Media and its dangerous activities since rebranding:

In 2015, the…anti-pornography organization Morality in Media changed their name to the National Center on Sexual Exploitation.  Since their rebranding, with no discernible change to their background, membership, funding sources or mission, they’ve become go-to experts for the mainstream press on a variety of subjects such as sex trafficking, child sex exploitation and the dangers of decriminalizing prostitution…“National Center on Sexual Exploitation” sounds like a name designed so that no one could possibly be against it — who, after all, would want to be seen as “pro-sexual exploitation”?…stories…published by mainstream news organizations [never] go into NCOSE’s background or credentials.  Aside from the Washington Post calling them “conservative,” and a sole mention by USA Today of their former incarnation as Morality in Media, there isn’t a hint anywhere of their history or their religiously motivated political agenda.  And nowhere…is there any justification as to why they’d be quoted or referenced as “experts” on the issues being discussed, besides the fact that they call themselves “the National Center on Sexual Exploitation”…NCOSE was born as “Operation Yorkville” in 1962, formed by a group of clergymen in New York City…[it] soon changed to…“Morality in Media”, the first instance of the group’s rebranding to more effectively mainstream their fringe message…

Legal Is as Legal Does (#846) 

As long as any part of sex work is criminalized, cops will have power over sex workers:

Street prostitution has declined so dramatically in Victoria that police [were] only [able to victimize] five…sex workers last year – down from almost 500…14 years ago…even though street prostitution is still illegal…[most] sex workers have turned to the internet or mobile phone…apps to [connect with] clients, significantly [reducing] the[ir vulnerabilty to predatory cops]…but…Victoria Police [prefer to pretend their violence and harassment of sex workers made their need for income go away]…the arrest rates have emerged just as the…government has announced a long-awaited review [of] Victoria’s [oppressive] sex industry laws, which [allow cops to harass and victimize sex workers.  But]…escorts working for themselves [rather than brothels allows them to avoid]…the hoops of Victoria’s legal framework, [especially the] require[ment that their government names be recorded]…on a register run by the government…

Not for Any Reason Whatsoever

Do I really have to add, “Not because you saw a man delivering packages”?

In this video posted to instagram, a woman calls the cops on a UPS driver because “I don’t understand why you’re walking around with a bunch of packages”…She looms up on him, variously keeps her hands in her pockets or waves them around in his face, rolls up her sleeves, grins, tells him where she lives, and says: you’re making me nervous. The excuse that police use to justify killing people, cued up by a belligerent bigot who, when she realizes he’s not going to react negatively to her provocations, calls the police…

To Molest and Rape (#924)

Meanwhile, non-cops are condemned to the registry for taking nude pics of themselves:

[Typical and representative Pennsylvania cop] Mark Icker pleaded guilty…to federal deprivation of rights charges…[after] he used his [dick] to [rape] five…women [after abducting them]…he will not have to register as a sex offender…The plea agreement…calls for [federal & state prosecutors] to jointly recommend a 12-year prison sentence…Attorney Theron J. Solomon, who represents four of the five victims in pending civil litigation, blasted state prosecutors’ decision to drop [rape] charges…against Icker…

Safe Position (#944)

Prohibitionists are terrified at the speed with which decriminalization has become a safe position:

[Prohibitionists conspired]…to…launch…a new [misogynist gang] and l[obbying] campaign t[o oppress]…sex [workers by surveillance, harassment]…and [cutting off their income]…New Yorkers for the Equality Model, featured late-night television host Seth Meyers and [has-been] actress Ashley Judd — who has been confronted by sex workers for describing sex work as “paid rape” — and was strictly managed…[the prohibitionist circle-jerk] formed as an answer to Decrim NY — a grassroots coalition of…[actual] sex [workers] who began organizing earlier this year…

“Equality model” is prohibitionists’ new 1984-esque doublespeak for Swedish criminalization, in which the buyer & seller are treated unequally under the assumption that men are morally superior to women in exactly the same way as adults are to adolescents.  Because they know nobody sane will accept their carceral witch-hunt if described accurately, they go though considerable contortions to disguise it.

Follow Your Bliss (#958) 

Prohibitionists supported the fantasist cop who enabled this hoax:

[Former UK politician] Harvey Proctor is to receive £500,000 compensation from Scotland Yard over its disastrous VIP child sex abuse [witch hunt]…the[y]…also agreed to pay nearly £400,000 towards the[ir victim’s] legal bills.  The £900,000 settlement represents a humiliating [slap]-down by…[the pigs, who] spent 18 months fighting Mr Proctor’s claim…The deal is one of the biggest compensation payouts ever made by the Met and dwarfs the £100,000 compensation paid to both ex-Armed Forces chief Lord Bramall and the widow of former home secretary Leon Brittan, whose homes were raided by [cops] during the [witch hunt]…A key part of his legal action concerned [cop Jonathan Wedger’s claims]…that [fantasist Carl] Beech’s [Satanic Panic-like] allegations were “credible and true”….a…police…inquiry…cleared five [cops involved in the raids] of misconduct, without even interviewing four of them…

Panopticon (#970)

Still think toothless laws against facial recognition will keep cops from using it?

Ring, Amazon’s…surveillance camera division, has crafted plans to use facial recognition software and its ever-expanding network of home security cameras to create AI-enabled neighborhood “watch lists”…whereby a Ring owner would be automatically alerted when an individual deemed “suspicious” was captured in their camera’s frame…the lists would be available [to cop and other busybodies] in Ring’s Neighbors app…In its p[ropaganda], Ring [pretends] that only thieves and would-be criminals need to worry about…[widespread] surveillance…Ring promises a [dystopian] future in which “suspicious” people up to “suspicious” things can be safely monitored and deterred from afar…it’s easy to imagine a system in which individuals are arbitrarily profiled, tracked, and silently reported upon based on a system owned and operated solely by Amazon, without legal recourse or any semblance of due process…

The Cop Myth (#991)

41% of cops admit to beating their wives. Some don’t stop with mere beating:

A Texas [border pig murdered]…his [fellow border pig] wife [on Thanksgiving in]…League City…[neighbors reported] “multiple gunshots”…[and] Dudley Bernard was in the front yard…[while] Chauntelle Bernard was dead at the front door…[probably because the victim was also a cop] Bernard was charged…with murder [instead of being given a paid vacation while the rest of the gang figure out how to cover it up]…

Top Cop (#991)

This psychopath is still far too close to power for comfort:

Kamala Harris is ending her presidential campaign after months of failing to lift her candidacy from the bottom of the [toilet] — a [welcome] departure for a [career prosecutor] heralded as a top-tier [incarcerator and unapologetic slaver]…Harris told aides of her intentions in an all-staff call…and a person familiar with the conversation said she sounded distraught…[but] she…[still has plenty of] cash [for her next Senate campaign]…

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Politicians are going to act like they’re supporting us, and learn to mouth the right rhetoric.  –  Kristen DiAngelo

Real People

Why are amateurs so obsessed with sex workers’ taxes?

Kirie Redfield…runs her own limited company and…pays VAT every quarter.  Every week she sends her books to her accountant to make sure all her tax affairs are in order…she’s a[n]…escort…plying her trade from a motor home in which she travels all over the country…Kirie…was unwittingly caught up in a blackmail scam when a [disgusting pig]…attempted to extort money from one of the punters who had visited her van…in Luton.  The first Kirie knew of it was when a [different pig tried to pin it on]…her…

Sex Work is Work

One day, simply listing a job on a job list will not be controversial:

Universal Credit chiefs have made a humiliating U-turn after [correctly including]…“dances in adult entertainment establishments” as one option for jobseekers with “no formal academic” skills…it has since been taken offline, hours after [a chorus of puritans bleated idiocy about a lucrative, flexible job being]…“inappropriate”…”unacceptable” …”insecure” [etc]…

Against Their Will (#831)

Journalists never question why women are willing to risk death to escape “rescue” by cops:

A woman is expected to survive after she was hit by two vehicles on the Gulf Freeway service road in southeast Houston…[while fleeing rape and brutalization by disguised pigs who deceived her]…the woman unknowingly got into a [pigmobile, but when she realized she was going to be raped and abducted]…she decided to run away…

Safe Position (#851)

If the Democratic Party were run by people who care about human rights, this would be its official position:

…sex workers and their allies are feeling left behind by…Bernie Sanders and…Elizabeth Warren, who have both unveiled wide-reaching policy platforms on criminal justice reform…that don’t include a single mention of decriminalizing sex work…

The article quotes several sex worker rights activists, but like so many stories of this ilk incorrectly states that arch-prohibitionist Kamala Harris is in favor of decriminalization, which she absolutely is not; she supports the misogynistic, authoritarian, agency-negating Swedish model.

Torture Chamber (#866) 

The State wants us to call this a “correctional institution” and the torturers “correctional officers”:

A Florida prison guard on [August 21st] [intentionally] broke the neck of a female inmate who suffered from both mental and physical disabilities…Cheryl A. Weimar…was unable to clean a toilet due to a pre-existing hip condition.  A [screw tried to force her to do it anyway while shouting “Stop faking!” at her, triggering]…Weimar to…[have a panic attack]…the guard became angry and…slammed [his helpless victim] to the ground…then dragged to a wheelchair, “with her head bouncing along the ground.”  She was eventually taken to the hospital where she was placed in intensive care…[with] a…broken neck…

Here are a few more choice tidbits from the past year at Lowell:

Florida officials [initially tried to cover up an incident in which a crazed screw intentionally broke a woman’s neck]…at [the notorious] Lowell [Cage Stack]…A year ago, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division met with…victims [of rape by screws and their] families and loved ones…to [pretend something would be done, but]…the next month, Nicholas Seaborn Jefferson, a [rookie screw], was arrested [for raping]…an inmate…Five months later, Adrian Victor Matthew Puckett was charged with [beating the living shit out of a woman] and falsifying records [to cover it up], and Kurtis Kyle Mitchell was charged [as his accomplice]…Puckett [beat her so severely]…that her two upper central incisors and one upper lateral incisor were knocked out at the root….her lower lip [was sliced] in half…The injuries caused permanent disfigurement…

Rooted in Racism (#953)

The racism of European “anti-trafficking” schemes is getting harder to disguise:

…many European countries and the EU itself are trying to restrict [rescue of human beings from sinking vessels], even as the death toll in the Mediterranean rises.  The European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, appears to have come up with an ingenious solution: use drones.  The legal obligation to aid a vessel in distress does not apply to an unmanned aerial vehicle…You can avoid the politically fraught argument about who should take care of rescued migrants if you never rescue them in the first place…If we are obliged to rescue those who ask us for help, the solution seems to be to ensure we cannot hear their request…in the self-serving morality of European border policy if there were no traffickers there would be no migrants.  But traffickers do not manufacture migrants in their garages.  If the official routes are blocked, people will seek out unofficial routes.  The demand for smugglers is increased, not stopped, by making migration more difficult.  Rather than breaking their business model, these policies create it…The obsession with border security is running up against some of the oldest obligations western societies have.  Look after the vulnerable, do unto others as we would have them do unto us, help those we can…But our governments have decided it is not what Europeans do.  In perverse defiance of ingrained moral instincts thousands of years old, in modern Europe a sailor who rescues a drowning refugee must be punished…

Between the Ears (#959)

Any internet-connected device can be used to spy on you:

Contractors working for Microsoft have listened to audio of Xbox users speaking in their homes…human contractors [also] listen…to…Skype calls as well as audio recorded by Cortana, Microsoft’s Siri-like virtual assistant…The purpose of contractors [eavesdropping]…was [supposedly]…to improve the products…Apple, Google, and Facebook suspended their own use of contractors after swelling media coverage around the widespread practice; Amazon said it will let users opt-out…Microsoft [merely] updated its privacy documents to…say that humans may [listen to users without their consent]…

All-Purpose Excuse (#959)

Hey prohibitionists, are you proud of your accomplishments?

The Trump Administration…will now seek to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, a [compromise authoritarians call a] loophole that results in most alien families being released into the country after 20 days…The Flores loophole essentially gives a free pass into the interior of the United States to many aliens who arrive at the border with a minor…Smugglers have even fraudulently presented aliens arriving at the border as fake families to take advantage of the Flores loophole…[which] acts as a [giant cartoon] magnet, [magically] drawing more and more alien families to make the dangerous journey to our border…

To Molest and Rape (#961)

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

A [typical and representative] Cleveland [cop]…attempt[ed] to kidnap [and rape] a 12-year-old girl who was waiting for a school bus in Euclid…Solomon Nhiwatiwa…asked the girl if she wanted a ride to school and after she [wisely] refused, he…[whipped out his dick] and urinated on her while filming the incident with his cell phone.  Afterwards, he got back in his car and drove away…He has been [arrested and] charged with [numerous offenses]…

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It seems odd … to make…integrity of…intimate body cavities dependent on who it is that does the…penetrating.  –  Judge John Z. Lee

Where Are the Protests? 

A lot of editing was needed here:

…Portland Police [are]…merging [the] human trafficking [gang]…with its [vice gang.  Prohibitionists]…are concerned the consolidation will result in [fewer pigs raping and persecuting sex workers, but in reality the point is to have more cops harassing women and fewer investigating actual labor exploitation]…

Pride Goeth

We don’t see many good articles about “Straight Pride” events, but the ones we do see are hilarious:

Netflix has threatened the organisers of Boston’s Straight Pride with legal action after they listed the streaming platform as a “prospective corporate sponsor” for their anti-LGBT+ event.  Netflix sent a cease-and-desist order to Super Happy Fun America, the group organising the parade, which has several ties with…white nationalist organisations…Super Happy Fun America were ordered to “immediately” remove the Netflix logo from all materials associated with the event, with the threat of further legal action if this is not done within 24 hours…The parade organisers hit back at Netflix on their website in a post entitled “Netflix hates the straight” which accuses Netflix’s legal team of being staffed by “gay supremacists”…Super Happy Fun America previously tried to use Brad Pitt as their movement’s “mascot,” but were forced to stop following a complaint from Pitt’s representatives…

Torture Chamber 

Our government refers to this as “correction”:

Screenshots of a private group chat…show several [screws] at a Florida prison making [vile] remarks about an inmate beating days before a video of that [beating]…was uploaded to YouTube…by inmates using a [hidden] cell phone…the sister of the [beaten] inmate…and a Florida [politician] who interviewed the inmate in person…have [reported that] officials at the institution [are lying]…about what transpired and attempting to cover up the [flagrant] abuse…Otis Miller [is now locked up in a different stack of cages]…The video [clearly] show[s a gang of screws]…punching [Miller] in the head…[even though] he…is [only] five feet tall and weighs 140 pounds…the [screws clearly took] pride in the damage they had inflicted on [a helpless human being, oinking out such pleasantries as]…“That [inmate] looks like beetle juice [sic]”…“I want more lol”…[and] “Fuck him”…Department of Corrections Secretary Mark Inch responded with [the usual denials and bullshit]…

That Old Black Magic (#442)

Remember that witchcraft charges were once a popular way to persecute sex workers:

Two residents of the city of Gudermes were [arrested by cops in] Chechnya…for practicing…witchcraft…persecution of medicine men and psychics began in Chechnya six years ago, but in recent years has intensified…The detained women may be facing criminal prosecution…Sorcery and magic contradict Islamic dogma…but…the current campaign…is less connected with religious motives, and to a greater extent with comparatively stronger police control…believes Mikhail Roshchin…of…the Russian Academy of Sciences…

Other modern “wars on witchcraft” are taking place in IndonesiaSaudi Arabia (including online censorship), and to a lesser extent the UK (subtitle link).

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#684) 

This is the worst crime I’ve ever seen “sex addiction” used as a defense for:

A…son of a priest blamed a porn overload for him raping and killing a California scientist who vanished from a conference in Crete…Giannis Paraskakis, who confessed to the murder of 59-year-old Suzanne Eaton, [claimed]…watching too much hardcore porn led him to murder…Paraskakis…encountered Eaton on June 2 and…rammed into her twice with his car…he [then] stuffed an unconscious Eaton in the trunk of his vehicle…drove to a remote World War II bunker near Xamoudochori…raped her and left her for dead…Eaton — a molecular biologist at the Max Planck Institute in Dresden, Germany — was reported missing by colleagues after she missed several sessions at an Orthodox Academy of Crete conference.  Her [remains were] recovered from inside the bunker July 8 with “many broken ribs and face bones as well as multiple injuries to both hands”…cause of death was ruled asphyxiation…

License to Rape (#836)

US court rules mass sexual assault is legal as long as other wannabe rapists are allowed to watch and learn:

Early one March morning inside an Illinois prison, a tactical unit armed with batons and shields stormed two women’s housing units to round up about 200 handcuffed inmates and march them to a gymnasium…[where] they stood facing the wall for more than an hour…until the guards started taking groups of four to 10 into the adjoining bathroom and beauty shop.  There, they were ordered to strip.  Standing shoulder to shoulder, women on their periods were asked to remove their tampons and pads…They were ordered to lift their breasts and hair, to cough and squat, and then, finally, to bend over and spread open their vaginal and anal cavities…male guards [stared at] the naked prisoners…[throughout] the humiliating mass strip search…[which was pretended to be] a training exercise for incoming cadets. Now, after eight years of litigation, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit has ruled in a divided 2-1 opinion that the entire 2011 episode was legal…

Change a Few Words (#868)

Another good example of why “legalized” sex work is a bad idea:

[Violent thugs] in Southern California have conducted a massive drug bust that includes 14.9 tons of illegally-grown marijuana in one area…[the thugs also stole] 37 guns, multiple dogs and a honey oil lab at the properties in the Perris area, about 70 miles east of Los Angeles…[pigs raided] 48 [private properties]…and have…[locked] 27 [human beings in cages for farming]…

Oh noes, they grew plants without asking “Mother may I?” first!  WHAT MONSTERS!

Welcome To Our World (#888)

Not an attempt to control women’s bodies, no sirree:

Phnom Penh Municipal Court…charged three women with human trafficking in connection to a surrogacy business after they were arrested and deported from Vietnam…two of them are still pregnant…

Pyrrhic Victory (#915)

More on Amazon’s campaign to end privacy forever:

On [July 18th], Amazon’s [fascist surveillance] partnership with the Orlando Police Department [supposedly] ended, and…city officials [claim] it didn’t work…[because] the city’s technology infrastructure simply wasn’t advanced enough and didn’t have the bandwidth to support the artificial intelligence software on more than one camera at a time…Amazon proposed to outfit the city with more advanced surveillance cameras…since the cameras already installed downtown weren’t proving to be compatible with Rekognition, but the city [suppos]edly declined.  This failure rather neatly illustrates a reality standing in the way of a [fascist] panopticon:  extremely normal technical problems.  If Amazon wants to market a surveillance product to local governments, it will have to deal with the fact that many municipal computer systems run outdated software, that police departments’ cameras aren’t all high-definition, and not all the equipment is neatly networked with a…reliable internet connection.  Amazon appears to be having better luck looking to civilian customers to help it break into the police surveillance market…[by] hand[ing] out free or discounted Ring systems to residents, which allows police to…access footage directly from the…doorbell cameras using Ring’s Neighbors app…cities as big as Dallas, Philadelphia, Birmingham, Phoenix, and Oklahoma City all have joined Ring’s police program, according to a new map from…Fight for the Future…The map also lists smaller cities that have contracts, like Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Maywood, New Jersey…

Elephant in the Parlor (#926) 

Pederast politicians are nearly as common as those who hire adult women:

A businessman who [w]as a key witness in…Robert Mueller’s investigation now faces a charge of child sex trafficking in addition to transporting child pornography…Lebanese-American businessman George Nader…transport[ed] a 14-year-old boy from Europe to Washington, D.C. [for sexual purposes] in February 2000…Nader…[w]as [a] liaison between Kirill Dmitriev, a Russian banker close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and members of President Donald Trump’s transition team.  Nader also served as an adviser to the United Arab Emirates…Nader was convicted in the Czech Republic…of 10 cases of sexually abusing minors and sentenced to a one-year prison term in 2003….[and] also pleaded guilty to a charge of transporting child-pornography images in Virginia in 1991.  The current investigation…began last year when images depicting child pornography and bestiality were found on his phone after it was [seized] under a search warrant connected to the Mueller probe…

Overripe

More from Liz Brown on the Epstein case:

R. Kelly. Jeffrey Epstein. Keith Raniere.  For more than a decade, each of these men escaped largely unscathed as allegations of sexual misconduct — sometimes involving minors — piled up…the recent prosecution of all three on federal sex crime charges…represent all-too-rare instances of “sex trafficking” cases that seem to involve real predatory behavior.  It’s a nice change.  In recent years, sex trafficking charges have largely been lobbed against sex workers and those who work with them.  In both the media and the halls of justice these days, the terms “sex trafficking” and “human trafficking” are often used interchangeably with “prostitution”…“Human trafficking operations” are all too frequently just rebranded stings…The Mann Act is a favorite for federal prosecutors wanting to butt into prostitution stings when there are no minors or evidence of coercion.  That’s because the law prevents driving another person — technically it’s gender neutral, but in practice these cases almost always involve a female sex worker — across state lines for prostitution purposes…In its annual Operation Cross Country, the FBI often ratchets up federal arrest numbers by conducting stings in cities like Kansas City, where driving from one part of the city to another means crossing from Kansas into Missouri…

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