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Posts Tagged ‘Welcome to the Future’

In the News (#1579)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 8, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Amazon [is] serving as a midwife for…law enforcement technologies.  –  Jay Stanley

The Punitive Mindset (Chamber of Horrors) 

“Drug” fantasies are just a pretext; the real reasons for this are petty torture of prisoners and more profits for the carceral state’s fascist partners:

The Illinois Department of [Torturing Caged Humans] will now permanently scan most physical mail sent to [its victims] and…upload…[it] to [the overpriced, substandard] tablet [prisoners are forced to buy if they want to read anything or have any contact with the outside world]…the [only exception is]…legal mail…the [screws’] union…has encouraged the move [to help obscure the well-known fact that drugs in prisons are smuggled in by screws]…the department [even absurdly vomited the word “]emergency[” to justify the move]…But a bipartisan legislative committee [refused] to [buy] the [claim]…at least 14 other states [deny their victims] physical mail…[even though] the rate of random positive drug tests [dramatically increase after such schemes are implemented, as do overdose rates]. In Ohio, lawyers [have reported that screws] are opening confidential mail…

I Spy (#1469)

In mass surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

ICE…has bought access to a surveillance tool that is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data from hundreds of millions of mobile phones…this…gives ICE…an “all-in-one” tool for searching both masses of location data and information taken from social media…without a warrant or court order…ICE spent more than $5 million on…Tangles…and [its tracking add-on] Webloc [which were developed] by an Israeli company called Cobwebs…[which merged with another fascist conglomerate called] Penlink in July 2023…

Welcome to the Future (#1475)

Welcome to the “safe” future you keep voting for:

…Amazon’s [Orwellian-named “]law enforcement and school safety team[“], led by a…Washington [cop], is aggressively courting new customers…[for] its own surveillance offerings and an expanding array of [surveillance] tools that run on its [servers], among them…car tracking from…Flock…[ML systems]…with billions of records on U.S. citizens from Lucidus…now owned by Flock…app…[connected fascist fusion] centers…Gun detection software from ZeroEyes…[LLMs] that can…write police reports…[algorithms] from Veritone [which] can identify and track individuals in surveillance footage or video posted to social media…[and] Verus…which constantly monitors and transcribes [im]prison[ed human beings’ phone] calls…

I Spy (#1513)

Politicians will never stop until privacy is completely abolished:

The UK government…is…[once again trying] to [force] Apple to create a backdoor into its cloud storage service, this time targeting only British users’ data…In February, Apple withdrew its most secure cloud storage service, iCloud Advanced Data Protection, from the UK [in response to the previous spying attempt]…Caroline Wilson Palow…of…Privacy International…[points out that] the new [attempt is]…“just as big a threat to worldwide security and privacy” as the old one…“If Apple breaks end-to-end encryption for the UK, it breaks it for everyone.  The resulting vulnerability can be exploited by [governments], [cop]s and other bad actors the world over”…

Thought Control (#1537)

It took seven years for people to start fighting wannabe censors:

Educated We Stand, a national nonpartisan organization dedicated to defending public education…has quickly become a counterweight to Moms for Liberty and other groups pushing [pro-censorship] “parental rights” agendas in education.  The group reported a 78% win rate in endorsed school board races nationwide last year, including major victories in Florida, Wisconsin, and Michigan…The organization…raised more than $375,000 in grassroots donations in its first six months and says its mission is to fight book bans, elevate the voices of teachers and parents, and champion equity-focused, evidence-based policies…

Welcome to the Future (#1540)

Privacy as we once knew it will soon be a thing of the past:

The U.K. may be about to…require every adult…to have a digital ID in order to work in the country, with these IDs becoming mandatory by 2029…when somebody presents a plastic driver’s license, that interaction is between the two parties, and the government is none the wiser…But digital…IDs…are…built so…the system notifies the government every time [they are] used…giving the government the ability to track [physical movements and internet] history…a digital ID system, once created, would prove catnip to politicians…[who would demand its] use…for taxes, travel, health records…government benefits…social media accounts…[and] age-gated websites…[and would] link…[it] to facial recognition…database[s]…a lot of bad ideas regarding technology…in Europe, and especially the U.K., seem to wind their way over to the U.S. eventually…And as of June, 13 states had launched digital driver’s license systems and an additional 21 have passed legislation that would enable or study such a system…

Walled Garden (#1573)

The open internet is becoming a thing of the past:

Bluesky will begin [forcing adult Ohio] users…[who don’t have VPNs] to [submit to intrusive surveillance via]…Kids Web Services’ (KWS)…This is the same [concess]ion [to censors] that Bluesky is already using in South Dakota and Wyoming to comply with similar laws…

 

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

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In the News (#1574)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 20, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We all have the right to live a private life…without…a government drone flying overhead and watching us without a warrant or our knowledge.  –  Matt Cagle

If Men Were Angels (#1274)

It says a great deal that when something resembling “sex trafficking” propaganda really happens, a church is behind it:

…A federal racketeering conspiracy indictment…[has] charged that…Naasón Joaquín García…and five associates used [García’s] La Luz del Mundo Church to sex-traffic women and children and produce and distribute child pornography, among other crimes.  His 79-year-old mother was among those charged…García is already serving a 16-year, eight-month state sentence after pleading guilty in California in 2022 to…[sexually abus]ing three different minors…After his arrest in the California case in 2019, the new indictment says, Mr. García’s associates, including one posing as a lawyer, pressured witnesses and victims not to [talk to cops] and directed pastors of the church to deliver sermons calling victims who had come forward liars…

Thought Control (#1289)

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

…If [pro-censorship politician Mike] Pelfrey couldn’t persuade voters to elect him to “fix” the [Josephine County, Oregon] library’s [“]problem[” of insufficient censorship]…he would simply de…fund the community institution…Recalled Commissioner John West [aided and abetted him to put pressure]…on the…remaining commissioners…to…push…the Trump agenda of bigotry, hatred, and intimidation…For over two years…a small group of white men [has been] deciding who gets access to a community asset…A handful of people are eager to withhold library services from tens of thousands to score a few political points.  That’s all it is, and that’s all it has ever been…

Panopticon (#1437)

Courts keep allowing the state to enrich itself via unconstitutional warrantless surveillance:

Sonoma County [California is using “]unlicensed cannabis crops[“]…as [an excuse] to [levy] six-figure fines, [leading to] foreclosures…evictions…and devastation…for folks…who did not grow cannabis…In June, the…ACLU…filed a lawsuit on behalf of…residents…[because] the authorities’ “runaway spying operation” violates constitutional protections against unlawful searches…[via] a fleet of high-powered drones…with precision zoom cameras, all while concealing the surveillance from residents, the media, and local oversight bodies…[more than] a dozen Sonoma residents…might lose their home…because of…county code enforcement making as much money off of [low tax-bracket] people [as possible]…

I Spy (#1515)

Cops everywhere are moral imbeciles, and those who facilitate their evil are enemies of humanity:

…Forensic analysis by…Citizen Lab…found that commercially available FlexiSPY spyware was [surreptitiously] installed on…two [Kenyan filmmakers’] phones on or around May 21…The phones were [stolen by cops] on May 2, when [they] arrested documentarians Mark Denver Karubiu and Bryan Adagala, cinematographer Nicholas Wambugu, and graphic designer Christopher Wamae at a studio in…Nairobi…the four were released [the next day] without charge but four phones, a tablet, computers, and storage devices…were not returned until July 10…Police [were trying to gin up a case against] the filmmakers [because they were embarrassed by]…“Blood Parliament,” a BBC documentary that implicated Kenyan [cops] in the June 2024 [murder]s of protesters…[but] the four “were not involved in any way in the making” of the documentary…FlexiSPY markets itself for [abusive] parents and [exploitative] employers to “know everything that happens” on a computer or phone, including monitoring messages, emails, and social media; recording calls; tracking device locations, website visits, and passwords; downloading photos and videos; and listening through a device’s microphone…

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1531)

Missouri is increasingly allowing its politicians to govern by edict, without tiresome democratic processes:

Missouri will require…websites [a politician has pointed at while belching the word “]pornographic[” to spy on users who don’t use VPNs]…The regulation [circumvents the need to enact a law by pretending anything sexual]…constitutes an “unfair practice” under…Missouri [consumer protection law.  New attorney general Catherine]…Hanaway [wasted no time in showing she could be as ridiculous as any male politician, spinning her head around 360o while projectile vomiting buzzwords including]…“hold…accountable[“…”]human trafficking[“], and…[“]dangerous[“.  The scheme was originally dreamed up by former]…attorney general…Andrew Bailey, who [has joined the Trump regime]…

Torture Chamber (#1539)

A society can be judged by the way it treats its prisoners:

When Sheqweetta Vaughan gave birth to a healthy baby boy…in January…[she] had just…beg[u]n a two-year [prison] sentence…Six months [later], Vaughn…d[ied] alone in a sweltering hot [solitary confinement] cell and nobody [noticed]…until her body had already begun to decompose…[the] deputy coroner…report[ed]…“a strong odor of decay.”  The temperature in the cell was in the 90s, and there was little ventilation…procedure requires [screws] in those units to look in on prisoners at least every 30 minutes…but the level of decomposition…[demonstrates she] had been dead at least a day before paramedics were called…Vaughan’s death…marks the second known instance in the last two years in which the body of a Georgia prisoner was discovered decomposing in a cell. In April 2023…Anthony Zino…was dead for five days…before [screws] noticed…he [had been murdered]…and stuffed inside a mattress…Vaughan was being treated by a prison psychiatrist and had been prescribed…haloperidol…[for which] one of the side effects…is an increased risk of heat stroke…

If Men Were Angels (Nasty Pictures)

Wannabe preachers are often as bad as the real thing:

Jason Yates, once the public face of conservative Christian voter outreach, has pleaded guilty to possession of child [porn]…as part of a plea deal that dismissed six [more serious] charges…many [of the children in the images] appearing to be under the age of 10…at least eight…depicted children between the ages of five and seven…the unraveling began in July 2024 when a family member accidentally found a hard drive while sorting through Yates’ office.  Upon opening the files, they encountered graphic images…and [reported him to cops.  Under interrogation] he…disclosed a prior expunged conviction involving similar material…Yates…frequently…oppose[d] LGBTQ rights, abortion access, and secular governance…[as] “sexually deviant messaging” targeting children and called such influence “infernal programming”…

 

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

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In the News (#1572)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 13, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Help me, I can’t breathe.  –  Francis Gigliotti

If Men Were Angels

On Aug. 28, New York State Police arrested [a Methodist minister named] Ronald E. Wenzinger…for [talking online to a cop fantasy role-playing as a teenager]…

Cashing In On Shame

What was once pure fraud can now be accomplished in reality:

…one specimen of widely available spyware has turned [w]hat [used to be a scam] into a…[serious crime by] detecting when the user is browsing pornography…screenshotting it, and taking a candid photo of the victim through their webcam…an open-source variant of “infostealer” malware known as Stealerium…like all infostealers, is designed to infect a target’s computer and automatically send a hacker a wide variety of stolen sensitive data, including banking information, usernames and passwords, and keys to victims’ crypto wallets.  Stealerium, however…also monitors the victim’s browser for web addresses that include certain NSFW keywords, screenshots browser tabs that include those words, photographs the victim via their webcam while they’re watching those porn pages, and sends all the images to a hacker—who can then blackmail the victim…cybercriminals attempt…to trick users into downloading and installing Stealerium as an attachment or a web link, luring victims with typical bait like a fake payment or invoice…

Welcome to the Future (#1440)

Oh what a surprise, how could anyone have predicted this, etc:

…Axon[‘s]…Draft One…[is a program] that [is supposed to] turn [cop] body camera footage and audio into intelligible police reports…civil rights advocacy groups like the [EFF] and ACLU…[have pointed out that LLM’s] tendency to insert inaccuracies into texts—including wholesale inventions known by technologists as “hallucinations”…[make such systems unreliable and dangerous].  Axon [claims] its…safeguards…[are] designed to ensure [cop]…actually read…the…reports rather than rubber-stamping them.  But records obtained by Mother Jones through [FOI] laws almost uniformly show [cop shops] that use the software turn…such features off….[to] reduce…or eliminate…human oversight…reports generated by the…tool…have [certainly] been used in plea deals…essentially [telling] lie[s]…to the court that can’t be easily revealed…

I Can’t Breathe (#1447)

Dare I hope fewer coroners are willing to cover up cops’ crimes?

The death of a Massachusetts man this summer outside a fish market was attributed [in part] to…police…The July 11 death of Francis Gigliotti was deemed…a…homicide [by]…the medical examiner…[but] District Attorney Paul F. Tucker…is…[trying to justify the cops’] actions [anyhow]…Seven [cops]…were [rewarded with paid vacations for the murder of a man who]…was [intentionally] restrained…face down…[even though the DoJ]…has warned [cops] for decades to roll [prisoners] off their stomachs as soon as they are handcuffed because of the danger of positional asphyxia…

When Ambulance-Chasers Run the Hospitals (#1456)

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

…the Federal Trade Commission…is proposing that Aylo, [owner of] Pornhub and other popular porn…platforms, be ordered to pay the state of Utah $5 million…[due to supposedly] violating…Utah’s Consumer Sales Practices Act by failing to stop Pornhub users from uploading [porn] the [state has demonized]…In its complaint, the FTC spends a lot of space listing Pornhub tags and titles such as “helpless teens,” “internet creeper,” “shower spy cameras,” and “shamed sluts”…No one let FTC workers visit the Netflix homepage.  We’ll soon have an investigation into how Netflix is promoting murder and corporate espionage and witchcraft…Porn, like other types of entertainment media, often relies on fictional characters and scenarios…some of the content users uploaded to Pornhub may have actually been illegal…[but] Pornhub…tightened up its content rules…in 2020…And most of the things that the FTC objects to are policies [from] before 2020…[also,] distributing child pornography is a crime.  If a web platform is knowingly distributing child pornography, the proper recourse is for the Department of Justice to bring a criminal case…

The Cop Myth (#1461)

Cop violence is never limited to adults:

[A] Texas [cop named] Micah Smyth [was turned in by his wife for inflicting multiple injuries on their small child.  Smyth]…claimed to have accidentally dropped the child while a[bus]ing his other child in the bathroom…the…injuries [were so severe] the child [had to be] taken to [specialists at a] Children’s Hospital in Lubbock…who…found…a fractured skull with a brain bleed, bruises on his back and a healing rib fracture…that [could not be] solely based on an accidental drop…Smyth…was arrested and charged with…child [abuse both] in this case…[and] an additional…charge from 2022 [which his cop buddies previously ignored, thus allowing three more years of abuse]…

If the victims are young enough, there may even be consequences:

A [typical and representative] Milwaukee [cop] is heading to prison…[for] abus[ing] his infant daughter…Martinese McDaniel…[was left with the child by his] girlfriend[, who] came home one day in January 2023 to find the…two-month old…wasn’t breathing and McDaniel…[shaking] her…in a panic.  A pediatrician diagnosed the infant with brain bleeding, hemorrhaging, rib fractures, bruises and other injuries consistent with abuse.  McDaniel gave investigators surveillance video of his home…with one hour of the video [conveniently] missing during the time that his daughter stopped breathing…

Eavesdropping (#1501)

Just a reminder that these hackers exploited vulnerabilities intentionally placed into systems to allow “authorized” busybodies to spy on you:

[The full extent of last year’s massive]…attack by [the Chinese government’s] Salt Typhoon [hacking team] is [finally becoming clear]…It targeted more than 80 countries and may have stolen information from nearly every American…[by] exploit[ing  vulnerabilities intentionally inserted into] global communication networks [to allow cops easy wiretap access]…British and American officials have described the attack as “unrestrained” and “indiscriminate.”  Canada, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan and Spain were also signatories to the statement, which was part of a [childish “We see you!” strategy] directed at the Chinese government…The…hack…highlights China’s ambitions for global [domina]nce, which were [recently] on display…at an elaborate military parade in Beijing that featured fighter jets, tanks and thousands of troops marching across Tiananmen Square…

 

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

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In the News (#1570)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 6, 2025| Leave a Comment »

The machines aren’t just taking over our work—they’re taking over our minds.  –  Nicolas Hulscher

Shame, Shame (#1535)

Zuckerberg is out of his mind:

[Facebook] has appropriated the names and likenesses of celebrities – including Taylor Swift, Scarlett Johansson, Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez – to create dozens of flirty social-media chatbots without their permission…While many were created by users with a [Facebook] tool…employee[s] had produced at least three…All…have been shared on…Facebook [or its] Instagram and WhatsApp platforms…the bots…often insist…they [are] the real [McCoy] and…routinely ma[k]e sexual advances…[Facebook] deleted about a dozen of the bots, both “parody” [bots] and unlabeled ones, [when it realized Reuters was about to publish a]…story…on the[m]…at least one of [Facebook]’s primary [LLM] competitors, Elon Musk’s platform, [MechaHitler], will also produce images of celebrities in their underwear…

Aladdin’s Satellite (#1560)

Don’t let computers call them, either:

…more and more stories [are] emerg[ing] about…chatbots leading people to self-harm, delusions, hospitalization, arrest, and suicide.  As the loved ones of the people impacted by these dangerous bots [file lawsuits against]…the companies that [let these programs run wild and flagrantly lie about their abilities]…OpenAI…has…done little more than offer copy-pasted promises…now [the company is] scanning users’ messages for certain types of…content, escalating [some]…to human staff for review — and, in some cases, reporting it to the cops…

The Cop Myth (#1560)

Cop is a cop is a cop is a cop:

A judge has found a [CBP goon] liable for civil assault for [threatening] a hotel maintenance man [with a gun when he came to] the [goon]’s room to unclog his toilet…Joshua Jones was part of a Phoenix-based [goon gang] sent to Portland in July 2020 to guard the federal courthouse…during nightly unrest downtown after [a cop murdered] George Floyd in Minneapolis…Christopher Frison…arrived at Jones’ room about 5 p.m. on July 27, 2020, and knocked several times.  Frison also called out “maintenance,” gave his name and waited, holding a plunger…[bu]t Jones opened the door quickly and pointed a gun at [him]…Jones [claimed] he thought a protester might have been outside his…door…and…he was prepared “to protect that room”…yet…never looked in the peephole…before opening…“What the hell are you doing? What is going on?” Frison…screamed…Joshua Keller, one of the government lawyers representing Jones…[absurdly] argued that Frison’s recollection of events wasn’t realistic, [because] it wouldn’t make sense for [a loose-cannon cop to act like a loose-cannon cop]…

To Molest and Rape (ROTW #22)

When will the mainstream media admit that pigs in schools are a menace?

A [Florida cop] assigned to lurk in a]…high school [to spy on, harass, and intimidate students, predictably molested] a 16-year-old female student…Saul Garcia [was rewarded with a paid vacation since]…April 16, [but has now been sacked and arrested]…

The Cop Myth (#1561)

Sleeping with a cop is one of the most dangerous things a woman can do:

Cincinnati [cop] Thomas Back was arrested [for] domestic violence after a 911 call[er gave cops his] license plate number…[after] seeing [him] pull o[ver] into a grassy area…a woman, who was screaming and crying, [jumped out] and ran toward a wooded area…Back [then drove past her, jumped out, grabbed her and] threw h[er back] into his pickup…and…drove away…[the] argument [started because]…another woman attempted to [call] him [via a video app] while they were driving…a judge…issued a temporary protective order for [the] girlfriend…

Mad Libs (#1565)

These algorithms are not only unintelligent; they are making those who use them less intelligent as well:

A new MIT study…has found that using ChatGPT to help write essays leads to long-term cognitive harm—measurable through EEG brain scans.  Students who repeatedly relied on ChatGPT showed weakened neural connectivity [and] impaired memory recall…While the [LLM]-generated content often scored well, the brains behind it were shutting down.  The findings are clear: Large Language Models…like [Cat, I farted] and [MechaHitler] don’t [actually] help students write—they train the brain to disengage…the brain essentially “lets go” of the effort required for synthesis and memory…[leading] to passivity…and low integration of concepts…

Walled Garden (#1567)

Prohibition can never actually succeed in eradicating the banned thing:

When the United Kingdom began [demand]ing…websites…verify their users’ ages…sites that complied…saw visits from British internet addresses collapse.  But…porn sites that disregarded the [asinine] rule…have been rewarded with a flood of traffic…Some have doubled or even tripled their audiences…compared with the same time last year…John Scott-Railton…[of] the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto…called [it]…“a textbook illustration of the law of unintended consequences…The more the government squeezes, the more they reward the very sites that scoff at their rules”…[yet wannabe censors keep idiotically burbling that the internet is a bar while demanding] adults…give sensitive information to scattered websites, exposing them to data breaches…[which] happen all the time…the…censorship movement…[is already moving] far beyond porn to “wall off huge sections of the internet, with the government as the sole gatekeeper”…The anonymous message boards 4chan and Kiwi Farms [have] sued Ofcom in U.S. District Court…

 

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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Aladdin’s Satellite

Posted in History, Miscellaneous, tagged , , , , , , , , , on July 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We’re seeing more articles about LLM-induced psychosis, such as this one from Futurism:

…many ChatGPT users are developing all-consuming obsessions with the chatbot, spiraling into severe mental health crises characterized by paranoia, delusions, and breaks with reality…what’s being called “ChatGPT psychosis” [has] led to the breakup of marriages and families, the loss of jobs, and slides into homelessness…people’s loved ones [have been] involuntarily committed to psychiatric care facilities — or even end[ed] up in jail — after becoming fixated on the bot…

The way these programs are marketed is irresponsible, dangerous, and potentially criminal.  The companies that own them have programmed them to feed into delusions in order to “hook” the mentally vulnerable into being obsessed with them; Mark Zuckerberg is even pretending his computer program can act as a therapist.  And though the writers of these articles always claim that those who spiral into these psychotic breaks had no prior history of mental illness, that’s basically bullshit; there is still a powerful stigma against mental illness, so “no prior history” actually translates into “never before got so bad their loved ones had no choice but to do something.”  Nothing short of brain injury, severe psychological trauma, brain chemistry disorders or powerful drugs can actually cause psychosis in a previously stable individual, but hidden disorders can be triggered by far less severe stimuli.

In fact, big technological leaps always aggravate mental illness.  After Sputnik went up in 1957, there was a dramatic increase in agoraphobia; some of the sufferers were afraid of things falling out of the sky, a panic we saw again when Skylab fell in 1979.  But others spiraled into a strange delusion that if gravity could be “defied” by seemingly hanging an object in the sky, what was to stop people from falling up into space?  This may sound silly to the modern ear; we are used to satellites now, so they no longer engender existential dread.  But it’s human nature to panic when technology a person cannot understand does something that seems impossible. LLM chatbots seem to have “intelligence” even though they don’t; that confuses and frightens people, and plugs into the same part of the psyche that fantasy tales of talking artifacts (magic mirrors, singing swords, etc) spring from.  What makes this worse than Sputnik hysteria is that this time, “experts” are reinforcing delusions rather than debunking them.  Expressed more simply: chatbots in computers can appear to the ignorant like djinn in bottles, and instead of correcting this irrational belief with scientific fact, tech company marketers are telling people, “YES, this really is a djinni who can grant wishes!”  Of course people are being driven mad.

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In the News (#1551)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on July 2, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We deserve to know who is shooting us in the face even when they have their badge covered up.  –  Kyle McDonald

Pyrrhic Victory (#1275)

The very first prosocial application of facial recognition technology I’ve seen:

A new site, FuckLAPD.com, is using public records and facial recognition technology to allow anyone to identify [LAPD cops] they have a picture of.  The tool, made by artist Kyle McDonald, is designed to help people identify cops who may otherwise try to conceal their identity, such as covering their badge or serial number…The tool allows users to upload an image…to search over 9,000 LAPD headshots obtained via public record requests…image processing happens on the device, and no photos or data are transmitted or saved on the site…“This data has been provided in response to either public records requests or public records lawsuits…[so] fucklapd.com is not scraping any data”…Clicking “view profile” under the result[s sends users] to the Watch the Watchers site by the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition…In 2018 McDonald made another tool called ICEspy which…does much the same thing as FuckLAPD.com…That tool originally used a Microsoft API, b[ut] Microsoft [censored] it…[so] McDonald…recently relaunched the tool to run locally on devices…

I Spy (#1533)

The writer of this article is one of those fools who thinks anything involving gadgets is laudable:

[Trump] He[nchman] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wants [to force] everyone to wear a smartwatch, fitness tracker, or other [medical surveillance device] as part of his…agenda [to ban vaccines].  “My vision is every American is [subject to my surveillance] within four years,” he [bloviated, absurdly characterizing government surveillance as]… “people taking control over their own health”…[and further explaining that he wants every meal to become a bean-counting ordeal.  Fascist]…companies stand to benefit from a government-backed [demand] for Americans to buy their products, and Kennedy plans to soon [waste tens of millions in] “one of the biggest advertising campaigns in HHS history to encourage Americans to use wearables”…Kennedy [also] plans to use [the] data…[to] track…and [persecute]…autis[tic people]…

Welcome to the Future (#1540)

I’m fine with this as long as it’s only tech companies harming each other:

As Scale AI seeks to reassure customers that their data is secure following [Facebook]’s $14.3 billion investment, leaked files and the startup’s own contractors indicate it has some serious security holes.  Scale AI routinely uses public Google Docs to track work for high-profile customers like Google, [Facebook], and [Twitter], leaving…training documents labeled “confidential” accessible to anyone with the link…the…method [is] efficient for its vast army of at least 240,000 contractors and presents clear cybersecurity and confidentiality risks…sensitive details about…[those] contractors [were also exposed], including their private email addresses and whether they were suspected of “cheating”…There’s no indication that [the company has yet] suffered a breach because of this….[but] such practices…leave the company and its clients vulnerable to various kinds of hacks, such as hackers impersonating contractors or uploading malware into accessible files…

Property of the State (#1545) 

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

…Women have faced pregnancy criminalization for decades, especially under drug laws…Pregnancy Justice has tracked more than 1,800 pregnancy-related arrests and detentions between 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided, and 2022, when the decision was overturned.  But in the first year after Dobbs, Pregnancy Justice documented 210 pregnancy-related prosecutions, the most they’d found in a single year since they started this research.  And 22 cases involved…miscarriages, [mostly] in states with bans, like Idaho, but also in states with more liberal abortion policies…Alabama prosecutes more pregnant [women] than any other state…[especially] in Etowah County, wh[ere politicians and cops routinely abuse]…a 2006 chemical endangerment law intended to protect children from meth labs…[because] these cases are…more about emotion than science…serious charges are often dropped or reduced [due to lack of evidence], but by then, many of the harms of incarceration have already taken hold…[including bond fees,] reputationally damaging news headlines, [state abduction] of their other children, [and loss of] housing and employment…

Torture Chamber (#1546)

This will continue until the evil US immigration policy is reformed:

…911 calls from 10 of the nation’s largest…migra[nt dungeons] found that serious medical incidents are rising [in most] of the [cages]…at least 60 percent of the c[age stack]s…had reported serious pregnancy complications, suicide attempts, [and rapes].  Since January, these 10 [dungeons] have collectively placed nearly 400 emergency calls…50…involved…cardiac episodes, 26…seizures…17…head injuries…seven…suicide attempts…[and] six [rapes by screws.  But]…experts [say] the true number of medical emergencies is far higher…[because] many serious incidents [are ignored by staff, who prefer to yell “Stop faking!” at their victims instead of helping them]…Even among those that did [deign to call for] outside help, a third of all the calls had vague or nonexistent descriptions, with details often [censored] by authorities…

Creepy Coppers (ROTW #21)

Your “leaders” call this “correction”, but you don’t have to:

A [typical and representative Kansas screw named]…Brice Berk…[has been] arrest[ed for making]…and distribut[ing] child pornography…after a [report from] the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children…

Welcome to the Future (#1548)

Another of the many reasons not to play with chatbots:

…For years, OpenAI gave users the option to delete their conversations with ChatGPT, rather than let their personal queries linger on corporate servers.  Now, they can’t.  A badly misguided court order in a copyright lawsuit requires OpenAI to store all consumer ChatGPT conversations indefinitely—even if a user tries to delete them…ChatGPT’s 300+ million users submit over 1 billion messages to its chatbots per day, often for personal purposes…reveal[ing] personal details that, in aggregate, create a comprehensive portrait of a person’s entire life…Putting users in control of their data is a fundamental piece of privacy protection.  Nineteen states, the European Union, and numerous other countries already protect the right to delete under their privacy laws.  These rules exist for good reasons: retained data can be sold or given away, breached by hackers, disclosed to [rooting cops], or even used to manipulate a user’s choices through online behavioral advertising…The court granted the order based on [the authoritarian assumption] that users who delete their data are probably copyright infringers looking to “cover their tracks”…

 

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

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In the News (#1550)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 28, 2025| Leave a Comment »

We get to choose whether—and how—we adopt technology that can eviscerate our humanity.  –  Brian Klaas

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1361)

To “admit” something is to confess to something true, not to a delusion:

…Mark Edwin Dykema was [sentenced to 180 days in jail and] put on probation for three years…[for taking “upskirt” videos at a church and elsewhere in Michigan.  He was recently] handed [a similar sentence in another] county for similar crimes.  Dykema [tried to blame his antisocial behavior on a “]pornography addiction[” even though there is no such thing]…

Vulture Watching (#1464)

Politicians who drink enough Kool-Aid refuse to believe their own experiences:

[Florida politician] Kat Cammack arrived at the emergency room in May 2024…[in] need…[of] a shot of methotrexate to help expel her ectopic pregnancy…[but] her state’s six-week abortion ban had just taken effect…[and] doctors and nurses who saw her…were [prudently] worried about losing their licenses or going to jail if they gave her drugs to end her pregnancy.  She began arguing her case [just as other women and women’s advocates have]…but [reasonable and legitimate] concern about the law’s [vague, confusing, piss-poor] wording made doctors [understandably] hesitant…Months later, Florida regulators [finally deigned] to address what they [mischaracterized as] misinformation, making clear that doctors should intervene in cases such as Cammack’s…[because she is a limp-spined, narrow-minded Republican minion,] Cammack doesn’t fault the Florida law for her experience.  Instead, she accuses [“]the left[“] of scaring medical professionals [by correctly explaining] that they could face criminal charges for violating the law…[and] medical staff [for]…fear[ing having their lives wrecked by prosecutors eager]…to enforce the ban.   [Human rights advocates] said blaming medical workers echoes the “playbook of antiabortion extremists that for decades have been blaming and villainizing doctors”…

Thought Control (#1491)

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

…a mind-boggling list of hundreds of books purged from…Tennessee school libraries…[includes] a book…called Ancient Greece and the Olympics…[banned for having “The Discus Thrower“] on the cover…[others] include…[Shel] Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic…Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan…They Called Us Enemy by George Takei..Richard Jolley: Sculptor of Glass, a[bout a Tennessee] artist…Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird…John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath…In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado, The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater…Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak…Art Spiegelman’s…Maus, The Hidden Children of the Holocaust by Ester Kustanowitz…The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451, Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, and S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders…the bans are coming without any review or discussion…[because any politician can demand] censorship of [any book by pointing at it and belching any of an]…expanding [list] of [magic words] such as “sexually explicit,” “obscene,” and “harmful to minors”…[putting] Tennessee…on par with states like Florida, Iowa, and Texas…

Creepy Coppers (#1532)

Just another kind of cop, with typical cop behavior:

A [typical and representative anti-migrant thug from North Carolina] was indicted on [child porn] charges…Philip Andrew Douglass…was accused of knowingly distributing and possessing the [smut without government permission, by other cops who were sharing it with permission]…

You Were Warned (#1533)

No shit. Sensible people did tell y’all:

Technology to check a person’s age and ban under 16s from using social media is not “guaranteed to be effective” and face-scanning tools [often] give…incorrect results, concede the operators of a Australian government trial of the scheme.  The tools being trialled – some involving [programs] analysing voices and faces – would be improved through [more intrusive surveillance methods], those running the scheme have [predictably] suggested.  The trial also found “concerning evidence” some technology providers were seeking to gather too much personal information [and then not handing it over to the government.  Despite these predictable issues]…the operators [still] insist…age assurance can work and maintain personal privacy…

Pyrrhic Victory (#1538)

How much will it cost for a doctor to remove them from your face after somebody punches you for filming them without consent?

[Facebook] is announcing its next…glass[hole eyewear] with Oakley.  The limited-edition…HSTN (pronounced “how-stuhn”) model costs $499 and…other Oakley models with [Facebook]’s tech will be available starting at $399…Like the existing…Ray-Ban glasses, the Oakley model features a front-facing camera, along with open-ear speakers and microphones that are built into the frame.  After they are paired with a phone, the glasses can be used to [dox anyone who just happens to walk past their camera and Facebook’s LLM] can also [make up shit] about what someone is seeing and even [aggravate the wearer’s mental health issues.  Facebook]…is [market]ing th[is] new [overpriced toy]…to…athletes…and…the built-in camera now shoots in 3K video, up from 1080p for the…Ray-Bans…

Is it just me, or do these look like cheap plastic sunglasses for kids?

Mad Libs (#1548)

Not only are these algorithms unintelligent; they are making those who use them unintelligent as well:

…Every piece of technology can either make us more human or less human.  It can liberate us from the mundane to unleash creativity and connection, or it can shackle us to mindless robotic drudgery of isolated meaninglessness…When [computers are] used to diagnose cancer or automate soul-crushing tasks that require vapid toiling, [they] make…us more human and should be celebrated.  But when [they] suck…out the core process of advanced cognition, cutting-edge tools can become an existential peril.  In the formative stages of education, we are now at risk of stripping away the core competency that makes our species thrive: learning not what to think, but how to think….Our minds make us human—and language provides the social architecture of our thoughts.  [Large language models are] already killing off important parts of the human experience.  But one of [their] most consequential murders—so far—is the demise of a longstanding rite of passage for students worldwide: an attempt to synthesize complex information and condense it into compelling analytical prose.  It’s a training ground for the most quintessentially human aptitudes, combining how to think with how to use language to communicate…This is part of what is lost by ChatGPT, the mistaken belief that the spat out string of words in a reasonable order is the only goal, when it’s often the cognitive act of producing the string of words that matters most…

 

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

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In the News (#1548)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 22, 2025| Leave a Comment »

What does a human slowly going insane look like to a corporation?  It looks like an additional monthly user.  –  Eliezer Yudkowsky

You Were Warned (#1345)

Politicians will never stop until the open internet is destroyed:

[Politicians have] re-introduced [a bill which intentionally] threatens security and free speech on the internet…the STOP CSAM Act of 2025…would undermine services offering end-to-end encryption and force internet companies to take down lawful user content…[using the perennial excuse of stopping] child pornography…[which] is already highly illegal…The bill applies to “interactive computer services,” which broadly includes private messaging and email apps, social media platforms, cloud storage providers, and many other…service providers…[and] opens the door for civil lawsuits against providers for…employ[ing] end-to-end encryption…on…the [spurious grounds that]…merely providing an encrypted service that can be used to store any image—not necessarily CSAM—recklessly facilitates the sharing of illegal content…Not every platform will have the resources to fight these threats in court, especially…[since] the bill…creat[es another] exception to Section 230…Without that protection, platforms are much more likely to aggressively monitor and censor users…

Buried Truth (ROTW #3)

Another textbook example of McNeill’s Law, courtesy of “Moms for Liberty”:

…South Carolina [politician] RJ May [was honored by the pro-censorship cult “Moms for Liberty”] as their 2023 Legislator of the Year and had him speak at their 2022 event on “[Subvert]ing Education in America”…[so predictably, he has now been] arrested…[fo]r nearly a dozen federal charges [of] distributing child [porn]…May…used the screen name “joebidennnn69” to exchange 220 different files of toddlers and young children involved in sex acts on the Kik social media network during spring 2024…Prosecutors…say that May “has a sexual interest in children the same age as his own children” and…“a sexual interest in incest” between young children and their parents…[but] also…found videos on his laptop of him having sex with three underage…sex work[ers]…May…was the co-chair of the state’s [Orwellian-named pro-censorship “]Freedom Caucus[“] until they kicked him out over the kiddie porn charges…

Mad Libs

Unbalanced minds use external tools like Ouija boards or programs to amplify existing beliefs:

In recent months…[many] people…claim to have unlocked hidden knowledge with the help of [Cat, I farted]…persuad[ing themselves that the program] had revealed a profound and world-altering truth…Eliezer Yudkowsky, a decision theorist…[explains that] OpenAI might have primed [the program] to entertain the delusions of users by optimizing its chatbot for “engagement”…[these] chatbots are “giant masses of inscrutable numbers”…and the companies making them don’t know exactly why they behave the way that they do…Reports of chatbots going off the rails seem to have increased since April, when OpenAI briefly released a version of [Cat, I farted] that was overly sycophantic…a spokeswoman for OpenAI said…“We’re working to understand and reduce ways ChatGPT might unintentionally reinforce or amplify existing, negative behavior”…[some victims] later…realize that the seemingly authoritative system was a word-association machine that had pulled them into a quicksand of delusional thinking.  [But] not everyone comes to that realization, and in some cases the consequences have been tragic…

Do As I Say, Not As I Do (ROTW #17)

It’s too bad cops don’t spend all of their time fantasy role-playing with each other:

A [Texas cop named]…Gabriel Slusher was [arrested for talk]ing to [another cop fantasy role-playing as] an 8-year-old girl online.  Slusher was charged with a[sking the other cop] to…[send nude pictures of the imaginary] child…he remains in the Montgomery County Jail…suspended without pay…

Welcome to the Future (#1540)

Anyone who trusts Zuckerberg is out of his mind:

[The Facebook chatbot]’s public stream is perhaps the most depressing feed I’ve come across in a long time.  It’s full of people sharing intimate information about themselves — things like thoughts on grief, or child custody, or financial distress.  And it seems like some people aren’t aware that what they’re sharing will end up on a public feed…some…might have clicked the wrong button and didn’t realize what they were doing…conversations with [the chatbot] aren’t public by default…so, maybe some of those people wanted the world to read their…chats [with a machine].  And others, maybe not…If a person uses the voice chat function, you can actually listen to recordings of their conversation if they’re shared…

“Whatever you chat about with the computer, just picture Zuckerberg watching.”  And every other denizen of Facebook, too.

Thought Control (#1541)

No parody of puritanism could be as absurd as the current reality in Florida:

In a chilling meeting of the Florida State Board of Education…a school district superintendent was publicly browbeaten and repeatedly threatened with criminal prosecution [because]…he…had not unilaterally and permanently removed a list of 55 books from school libraries…[using the ludicrous excuse of] “parents’ rights” [despite the fact that] no Hillsborough County parent had objected to the books at issue.  Rather, the State Board had summarily declared that the…books were “pornography”, even though none of the books met the legal definition of pornographic material…[and] many…are award-winning literature that have been read by students for years…Board [members were angry]…that…[Superintendent Van] Ayres i[mplied that]…librarians…[knew their jobs better than politicians.  The gang of psychopaths responded by vomiting abuse at Ayres, calling him and the librarians “]illiterate[“]…”child abusers”…and…”garbage”…and [demanded all the] librarians…be “terminated immediately”…[also threatening them with] criminal prosecution…

Though Hillsborough County educational officials oppose tyranny, unfortunately the same cannot be said for its sheriff and cops.

I Spy (#1543)

Civil liberties violations only start with those politicians have chosen to demonize:

[The] Trump…[regime has] provided deportation [thug]s with personal data — including the immigration status — on millions of Medicaid enrollees…[in order] to [facilitate mass deportations]…Medicaid officials unsuccessfully sought to block the data transfer, citing legal and ethical concerns…[but henchmen of Minister of Pestilence] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. ordered the dataset handed over to the Department of Homeland Security…and…were given just 54 minutes on [June 10th] to comply…The dataset includes the information of people living in California, Illinois, Washington state and Washington, D.C., all of which allow non-U.S. citizens to enroll in Medicaid programs that pay for their expenses using only state taxpayer dollars.  CMS transferred the information just as the [regime] was ramping up its [pogrom]s in Southern California…

 

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

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In the News (#1544)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on June 7, 2025| Leave a Comment »

If you can do it to them, you can do it to any of us. – Rabbi William Gershon

A Whore in Church

Matthew 21:31 seems pretty straightforward to me:

Professionally, I now openly represent myself as a Christian dominatrix who uses Christian rituals to heal the connection between sexuality and spirit.  My clients often come to me because I work specifically with the deconditioning of the religious wound that has caused harmful beliefs around their sexuality…Out of the shadow of shame, they are no longer “wicked” or “evil”― they are holy…Jesus…spen[t] time with and perform[ed] miracles for prostitutes…Jesus never cast anyone out, and he never denied anyone the miracles, signs and wonders that flowed through him; he wanted everyone to have a personal relationship with God, free from the constraints of organized religion.  So even though many Christians would view me as “sinful” and even undeserving of a relationship with God, I reject that view, because I know Jesus loves me and wants the best for my life…

Creepy Coppers

[An Illinois cop named Eli Barthel] has been arrested for child pornography offenses…after [he was caught in an] FBI [trap]…

Welcome to the Future (#1265)

New forms of intrusive surveillance are always justified as “safety”:

…[moral imbeciles] have come up with…an electronic tattoo, stuck to the forehead …[to spy on the moods of] pilots, healthcare workers and other professions where managing mental workload is crucial to preventing catastrophes…[by giving bosses] “some warning and alert so that they can [be relieved]…of [duty],” said Dr Nanshu Lu, an author of the research…[ignor]ing the [obvious fact that data from such a] device [would be compiled in]…workers[‘ files and used to judge their performance]…Lu and colleagues describe how using questionnaires to investigate mental workload is problematic, not least as people are poor at objectively judging [whether they should be demoted or fired]…the “e-tattoo” is a lightweight, flexible, wireless device [constantly]…attached to the forehead [during work hours to]…detect…brain activity…and…eye movements…[allowing human beings to be monitored by] a machine-learning algorithm [as though they were machines themselves]…

Click on the subtitle to see the “demoralizing, humiliating, and toxic” abuses already possible with existing employee-monitoring technology.

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1391)

This would be hilarious if it were their own money these idiots were throwing away:

The [US] Senate is considering a fentanyl exposure bill that would fund “containment devices”…TruBLOC LLC, a company that manufactures the type of…devices in question, sells 1.5-ounce canisters as a set of 12 for $359.40, or as a set of 48 for $1,437.60…TruBLOC [claims]…“Inhalation is the main route of exposure”…[which] would [not be entirely wrong] if the term were being used to refer to sniffing or snorting fentanyl, but in this context the term is describing passive inhalation — i.e. breathing air while standing somewhere in the vicinity of fentanyl…a…video [lies that]…“Small amounts of opioids can kill an officer”….then shows the gloved hands of a…paid actor awkwardly peeling the orange residue off the seat in a manner that strongly recalls attempting to peel off sour candy that’s melted.  The hands remain gloved, despite the fact that the threat that did not exist to begin with has been contained…


Virtual Imperialism (#1472)

As I’ve explained under this tag before, Beijing’s campaign to silence Chinese people outside China has become far more aggressive.  Rolling Stone published an excerpt from Those Who Should Be Seized Should Be Seized, a new book detailing Chinese surveillance, harassment, intimidation, and sometimes abduction or assassination of activists who flee China.  The excerpt tells the story of Serikzhan Bilash, an ethnic Kazakh human rights activist who was pursued by Chinese agents from Xinjiang to Almaty and Astana in Kazakhstan, then to Istanbul, and eventually to Washington DC and New York, always trying to terrorize him into shutting up and dismantling his organization, Atazhurt.  If you don’t know about the extent of China’s terrorism of expatriates and its willingness to violate other countries’ sovereignty, you really should read it in its entirety.

Neither Addiction Nor Epidemic (#1524) 

Much more of this, please:

An isolated tribe in the Amazon…[has sued] The New York Times over [yellow journalism] in the newspaper [claim]ing their people’s recent access to the internet…[has led to] members of the tribe…develop[ing] pornography addictions [even though there is no such thing].  The Marubo tribe…filed the defamation lawsuit…seeking $180 million in damages…[over the paper’s] “portray[al of] the Marubo people as a community unable to handle basic exposure to the internet, [and pretending]…that their youth had [developed narcissistic personality disorder as a result]”…After the piece was published, other outlets, including TMZ and Yahoo!, published their own versions of the [accusations], which in many cases…exaggerate the [already-dishonest] claims [even further].  That prompted The Times to run a[n attempt at a semi-retraction en]titled “No, A Remote Amazon Tribe Did Not Get Addicted to Porn”…But it wasn’t enough.  The Marubo [correctly point out] that the original statements were “inflammatory” and conveyed that the tribe “had descended into moral and social decline as a direct result of internet access”…

Business Opportunity (#1527)

This sort of NIMBY bullshit is exactly why there are so many homeless people in the first place:

…the town of Toms River, New Jersey is planning to use eminent domain to condemn a church, raze it, and build a park and pickleball courts on the spot.  The planned condemnation [is obviously] motivated by a desire to prevent the church from opening a small homeless shelter on part of its…11 acres of land…the church, which was founded in 1865…[rents space to] an affordable housing nonprofit…[which] asked to create a small homeless shelter [but] the mayor [insists pickleball is more important than housing the needy because local NIMBYs said so]…the town’s interfaith council [are] united in their opposition to the [scam]…and…there is substantial public opposition…[so] the condemnation…will likely be challenged in court under the state and federal constitutions…

 

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

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In the News (#1540)

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

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

Property of the State

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

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

Panopticon (#1486)

Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi:

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

End Demand (#1505)

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

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

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1521)

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

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

Property of the State (#1529) 

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

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

The Cop Myth (#1533)

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

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

Welcome to the Future (#1537)

Anyone who trusts Zuckerberg is out of his mind:

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

 

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