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Posts Tagged ‘Welcome to the Future’

In the News (#1540)

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

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

Property of the State

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

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

Panopticon (#1486)

Surveillance beyond the wildest dreams of the Stasi:

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

End Demand (#1505)

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

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

The Puritan Recrudescence (#1521)

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

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

Property of the State (#1529) 

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

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

The Cop Myth (#1533)

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

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

Welcome to the Future (#1537)

Anyone who trusts Zuckerberg is out of his mind:

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

 

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

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In the News (#1520)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 12, 2025| Leave a Comment »

With a data set of any size, you can always find a pattern…all you have to do is ignore other information.  –  Jennifer Granick

A Moral Cancer (#1356)

Because obviously prohibition doesn’t ruin enough lives yet:

New York politician…Brad Hoylman-Sigal…[wants] to outlaw…nicotine pouches…[which] contain a derived version of the…compound that tobacco users crave without the carcinogenic sluff that comes with cigarettes and smokeless tobacco…Nicotine pouches contain no tobacco leaf and no known carcinogens.  They just deliver nicotine—potentially addictive, yes, but not known to be inherently harmful…According to the FDA, these products met the public health standard legally required by the 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act…[but] Hoylman-Sigal [wants cops to have more excuses for destroying lives, so he barfs “THE CHILDREN!” at anyone who opposes his scheme]…

I Spy (#1452) 

Cop excuses produced by human bootlickers are bad enough:

Cellebrite, the company which makes near ubiquitous phone hacking and forensics technology [ab]used by [cop shops] around the world, has introduced [machine learning] capabilities into its products, including summarizing chat logs or audio messages from s[tolen] mobile phones…“[Computer] results…are not transparent…you cannot trace back where a conclusion came from, or what information it is based on”…[said] Jennifer Granick…[of] the…ACLU…“The Fourth Amendment does not permit [cops] to rummage through data, but only to review information for which there is probable cause….you are not allowed to fish through [all available] data on a hunch, in the hopes of finding something”…Cellebrite’s newly announced capabilities sound somewhat similar to Draft One, a tool from contracting giant Axon…[which] uses [algorithms] to automatically generate police reports from bodycam audio….

Follow Your Bliss (#1456)

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

A Bentonville [Arkansas]…church…volunteer…[named] Andrew Apple…[has been] arrested…[for] child [molestation after a boy Apple molested in autumn of 2023 reported him on]…Feb. 1…[to the church’s credit] the report was relayed to [cops] that same day.  A second person later [reported Apple]…to another church staff member…

The Last Shall Be First (#1470) 

The only sure way to keep personal data from being abused by psychopaths with government titles is not to collect it in the first place:

Florida’s insurance regulator has demanded an unusually intrusive trove of data on millions of prescription drugs filled in the state last year, including the names of patients taking the medications, their dates of birth and doctors they’ve seen.  The [politicized] office…sought this information from pharmacy benefit managers…companies that oversee prescription drugs for employers and government programs….[and is pretending] the state required the data to review whether the benefit managers…were compliant with a 2023 state law aimed at lowering drug prices…But…“You don’t need such granular patient information for purposes of oversight,” said Sharona Hoffman, a health law and privacy expert…[so it seems likely] the government [is] actually trying to get information about reproductive care…transgender care…[and] mental health care…Federal privacy law allows benefit managers to hand over limited data about individual patients in certain circumstances…But…Florida’s [demand] could violate the law because it is so broad and…go[es well] beyond what the regulator needs to conduct [any legal and legitimate] review…

Creepy Coppers (#1472)

One of the people the government empowers to police your sexuality:

A Detroit [cop named Earl Anderson was fired and arrested] for [attempting to groom] his 12-year-old stepdaughter [via]…text messages…[after he threatened] “to take [her on] a family trip”…[and] offered to get [her] a second phone…[with] a new number…[so her real] father, [Brandyn] Harris, [couldn’t see their texts]…the [girl]…reported the messages to her aunt…[who told] Harris…[who in turn] told…the [cops]…

Torture Chamber (#1501)

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

[New York] State Police are investigating the [murder] of a prisoner…in a…central New York prison [adjacent to another prison] where another [human being] was…[recently] beaten [to death] by guards in [an attack that even their own union called “incomprehensible”]…Officials did not identify the [new victim, whom]…nine [witnesses saw]…brutally beaten [to death] by [screws]…amid a mounting crisis in the New York State prison system, where…thousands of [screws are]…on strike since Feb. 17 — without the backing of their union and in defiance of a judge’s order — to protest…the…state…[not letting them torture people as they want to, and]…to try to distract attention from [December’s] beating death of [Robert] Brooks…

I Spy (#1507)

Maybe a few more big lawsuits will teach these corporate busybodies a lesson:

General Motors is facing yet another legal battle over…illegally [selling] driver data to third parties, who then provided it to insurers…to use [as an excuse] to raise premiums or deny coverage…GM has been [thus illegally] selling driver data since 2015…Unlike [other corporations’] telematics programs that [at least nominally] require users to opt in by installing a device, GM allegedly collected this data without explicit consent…consumers were misled into believing OnStar primarily enhanced vehicle safety and performance, while in reality, it was used to generate revenue through data sales…In January, the automaker settled [a similar suit] with the Federal Trade Commission …[serial lawsuit abuser] Ken Paxton filed a [similar]…suit…in August 2024…[and] 27 class-action lawsuits…have been consolidated into a multi-district litigation case…

 

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 (#1500)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2024| 1 Comment »

I’m not guilty, and they’re not gonna make me believe I’m guilty.  –  Brandy Moore

Property of the State (#1149)

Some light enters the defective brain of a moral imbecile:

Leake County, Mississippi…District Attorney Steven Kilgore…[has] for years deployed patently frivolous criminal charges in an attempt to [force] drug-using mothers [into] the help he thought they needed, whether they wanted it or not…[the] legal ordeal…[of one of his victims wa]s detailed in a Mississippi Today story…and…remarkabl[y], Kilgore, who seems to have previously overlooked the human consequences of treating mothers as criminals based on hospital drug tests, had an awakening of his own as a result…”I’ve reevaluated our stance on the topic and have decided not to handle these cases anymore,” Kilgore [said]…after learning how his decisions had harmed…women, several of whom received stiff prison sentences because they failed to [jump through all the hoops set up by] the…drug court program…including paying hundreds of dollars in fines and fees each month…submitting to home searches and drug tests, and waiving medical privacy…for up to five years…

The Vultures Descend (#1323)

Moral imbeciles can always be trusted to abuse any power they’re given:

[Psychopathic South Carolina politicians] are renewing their push for a piece of legislation that would allow [psychopathic] prosecutors to charge a woman who got an abortion with homicide…[she] could then be…[condemned to] death…

Thought Control (#1345)

It’s always nice to see authoritarian fanatics hoist with their own petard:

The head of a Texas school district says the Bible had to be removed from school libraries because of a new state law prohibiting…books…[containing] sexually explicit or vulgar content…even though [cherry-picked] portions of the Bible remain available in the district’s libraries…The [announcement] sparked outrage from local parents [who have never actually read the Bible and cannot comprehend the plain text of a law], with many expressing disbelief at the [100% predictable consequences of a law they want to use only to censor books they dislike]…

The Widening Gyre (#1401)

Cops keep pissing into the wind, so it’s inevitable some will spray back on them:

In a December 16 Instagram post that received more than 190,000 likes, user Ernest Carter shared a video of a Coca-Cola delivery truck that he claimed was found “full of kids”…and that the video showed police getting the children off the truck.  “The same video and false claim have circulated elsewhere on Instagram, [Twitter], Facebook, Threads, TikTok, Bluesky, YouTube, Rumble and Gettr — including in Spanish and French,” AFP reports…In a follow-up video, he said that his initial post about trafficked children was wrong but there were two abandoned kids found on the truck.  This was also wrong.  The truck and the police depicted were actually outside a mall in Davenport, Iowa, where the local police association was running a toy…drive…

I Spy (#1452) 

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

Serbia[n cops] have repeatedly used Cellebrite tools to unlock mobile phones so they could then infect them with potent malware, including the phones of activists and a journalist, according to a new report from…Amnesty International…Amnesty…says it, along with researchers at Google, discovered a vulnerability in a wide spread of Android phones which Cellebrite was exploiting.  Qualcomm, the impacted chip manufacturer, has since fixed that vulnerability.  And Amnesty says Google has remotely wiped the spyware from other infected devices….Cellebrite is a…[fascist] Israeli company that sells its mobile forensics technology to [anyone who can pay] all over the world…[and] in multiple cases…these arrests or detentions appear to have been orchestrated specifically to infect a device…

Welcome to the Future (#1461)

Don’t let computers call them, either:

Schools are employing dubious…software to accuse teenagers of wanting to harm themselves and sending the cops to their homes [using that excuse] — with [typically] chaotic and traumatic results…the…software…tracks every word [students] type [on school-issued devices and]…unsurprisingly…[often] woefully misinterpret[s] what the students are actually trying to say.  A 17-year-old in Neosho, Missouri, for instance, was woken up by the police in the middle of the night…[because] a poem she had written years ago triggered the alarms of a software called GoGuardian Beacon, which its maker [markets to control-freak educational bureaucrats] as a way to “safeguard students from physical harm”…

Feudalism Redux (#1472)

Paxton is a dangerous psychopath Texans have empowered to destroy as many human lives as possible:

The Texas attorney general, Ken Paxton, has sued a New York doctor…[named] Megan Carpenter [for] sen[ding] abortion pills to a 20-year-old Texas woman through telemedicine…After the woman sought medical attention for severe bleeding in July, the [abusive sire of the 9-week fetus rooted through her belongings]…and found the abortion pills…Because Carpenter is based in New York, Paxton’s lawsuit will come up against New York’s shield law, which dictates that officials in the state not cooperate with attempts by other states to sue or prosecute providers who send abortion pills to people in states that ban abortion.  Seven other states have passed similar shield laws…[which have] helped providers send pills to more than 9,700 people [per month] who live in [wannabe totalitarian] states…

 

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 (#1497)

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

We can’t eradicate the human sex drive.  –  Elizabeth N. Brown

Worse Than I Thought (#335)

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

North Carolina has made it a felony crime to patronize a sex worker…a crime that comes with a presumptive minimum sentence of four months in prison, up to two years…in recent years, we’ve seen a disturbing trend of states starting to classify attempts to pay for sexual activity as a felony…mirror[ing] the misguided and detrimental path [of]…the war on drugs.  Three states now make it a felony crime to pay for sex or attempt to pay for sex…In 2021, Texas became the first…then…last May, Oklahoma [followed]…Morality in Media…is a major driver of these laws and, more generally, the idea that we can “end demand” for prostitution…sold…by [conflating female agency with]…sex trafficking…

If Men Were Angels

“Pastor” + teacher = “youth pastor”:

A [Texas] pastor and teacher in Grapevine is under arrest for possession of child pornography…Arturo Alarcon…[plant]ed hidden cameras in a church-owned mobile home used to host visiting families. [After these were discovered by visiting missionaries staying there], detectives found an image of child pornography on Alarcon’s cell phone…one of the cameras was designed to look like a clock.  Another…was like a bug zapper…Alarcon [has, unsurprisingly, long been buddy-buddy with] Grapevine Police…

Welcome to the Future (#1159)

Of course they had to be forced to end this ugly, evil scam:

The Pasco County [Florida] Sheriff’s Office is permanently scuttling a [“]predictive policing[” sc]am that was the subject of…a pending civil rights lawsuit…[due to its unceasing,] unconstitutional harassment of families.  In a settlement agreement ending that…lawsuit, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office [was forced to admit] that it…[had intentionally violated] the plaintiffs’ First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendment rights…In addition to ending the…[scheme] and agreeing not to create a similar one, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office will pay [a mere] $105,000 to the four plaintiffs…

A Moral Cancer (#1322)

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

If you want to create a black market in a perfectly legal product, just make regulations and taxes so onerous that many people prefer to buy from illegal vendors…that’s certainly the case with cigarettes… “New York has the highest inbound smuggling activity, with an estimated 54.3 percent of cigarettes consumed in the state deriving from smuggled sources in 2022,” note [Adam] Hoffer and [Jacob] Macumber-Rosin [in the latest edition of the Mackinac Center’s regularly compiled research on the topic]. “New York is followed by California (46.7 percent), New Mexico (41.2 percent), Massachusetts (39.7 percent), and Washington (36.8 percent)”…because their tax rates drive people to purchase their smokes from illicit dealers, high-tax states suffered a revenue hit in 2022 of more than $5 billion.  Since 2007, they’ve lost out on more than $79 billion….[and] with flavored tobacco banned in places like California and Massachusetts, those products are available in those states only on the black market…New Hampshire taxes cigarettes at the rate of $1.78 per pack, which is relatively low. As a result, find the Mackinac Center and the Tax Foundation, 31.43 percent of cigarette sales are for smuggling elsewhere.  That puts it in third place after Wyoming, where 49.2 percent of cigarette sales are smuggled out of state, and Delaware, where 34.4 percent of sales are resold in higher-tax jurisdictions…

Feudalism Redux (#1390)

If you need a law like this to control your teen offspring, you’ve already lost them:

[The Ninth Circuit] has ruled that Idaho can [attempt to] enforce its abortion travel ban, which [criminalizes adults who assist] minors [who] travel…out of state for abortions without parental consent.  The decision…reversed a 2023 decision that had blocked the law on First Amendment grounds.  The law [is intended to allow a parent or guardian to force a minor to carry an unwanted or even dangerous pregnancy to term by terrorizing anyone who might help a girl to exercise her right to bodily autonomy.  Its]…sweeping language…could [even] apply to a grandmother driving a pregnant minor to the post office to pick up a package containing abortion medication, for example…

You Were Warned (#1437)

Increasingly-unhinged federal courts uphold a blatantly-unconstitutional law:

A panel of three federal…judges ruled unanimously…to uphold a law that could [unconstitution]ally ban TikTok in the United States…[unless its] Chinese owner, ByteDance…sell[s] it to a…[politically-connected] American owner by Jan. 19, 2025…the…decision sets the table for TikTok to take its case to the Supreme Court…During his campaign, [dancing orange-utang] Donald Trump…[claimed] he would “save TikTok”…though opinions among his [gang of unhinged cronies]…are mixed on whether…to [include this particular]…unconstitutional [action among]…the…flawed and dangerous precedent[s they already support to]…give…the government far too much power [over] Americans’ speech online…

Mad Libs

The reason so-called “AI” spouts out gibberish is that it is incapable of telling truth from falsehood:

Following Hunter Biden’s pardon by his father…Ana Navarro-Cardenas, a commentator who appears on The View and CNN…cited a pardon granted by President Woodrow Wilson of his brother-in-law Hunter deButts…and…an Esquire article called “A President Shouldn’t Pardon His Son? Hello, Anybody Remember Neil Bush?” was based on the premise that George H.W. Bush pardoned his son Neil; it has since been retracted “due to an error.”  The day before its publication, Occupy Democrats’ executive editor Grant Stern tweeted a similar claim that Jimmy Carter pardoned his brother Billy…As far as I can tell, n[one of these] actually occurred.  Where was all this coming from? Well, I don’t know what Stern or Esquire’s source was. But I know Navarro-Cardenas’, because she had a follow-up message for critics: “Take it up with Chat GPT”…

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 (#1475)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Perception, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on September 24, 2024| Leave a Comment »

The whole story of the pursuit of Backpage is one of political opportunism.  –  Robert Corn-Revere

If Men Were Angels

This will continue until fools stop teaching children unquestioning obedience to “authority”:

A Southern California pastor [named]…Jose Alcides Vasquez…was arrested…on Sept. 5…[for repeatedly molesting and orally raping]…a [girl under] 14…[and orally and anally raping a girl under] 10…Vasquez has served as a pastor or volunteer at several churches in the region known as the Inland Empire…[Vasquez was reported by one of his victims] in 2021 [but cops dragged their feet because they were reluctant to arrest a preacher]…

Welcome to the Future (#805)

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

[Billionaire psychopath] Larry Ellison shared his [nightmare] vision for a…[computerized] surveillance future…where [the government] would constantly monitor citizens through an extensive network of cameras and drones…[including] police body cams, doorbell cameras, and vehicle dash cams…”We’re going to have supervision,” he [gloated, absurdly]…attempt[ing] to paint his [1984 scenario]…in a positive light, [while completely ignoring the obvious erosion of]…privacy [and] civil liberties…”Big Brother is watching you” would take on new meaning in Ellison’s [fantasy dystopia, which is]…already becoming a reality…in…China…[where it is called the] “sharp eyes” campaign…leading to what The Economic Times called a “road to digital totalitarianism”…

Law of the Instrument (#1429)

The “sex trafficking” charges appear to involve ordinary “Fly Me To You” deals:

Sean “Diddy” Combs is facing federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges.  [Though the] indictment…accuse[s Combs]…of having “abused, threatened, and coerced women”…the racketeering conspiracy charge opens up the government to seizing way more assets than they would otherwise be allowed to seize…and…the Mann Act…charges…all…[involve male] sex workers…The indictment contains no allegation that he forced or coerced these sex workers into anything.  But if he arranged for their travel, across state lines and internationally, the feds have him on a Mann Act violation…

No Escape (#1442)

The 100% predictable result of giving sexually-aggressive men power over young women:

[Screws] at the Oregon Youth Authority sexually abusing teens and young adults [locked] in [their cages have result]ed in a series of federal civil rights lawsuits…[so far there are] six…[cases from] between 2019 and 2023…[involving] four [rapists and]…11 [rape enablers, but]…one of the attorneys representing the six [said]…“I do not think these are isolated incidents. This looks…[like] the tip of the iceberg”…So far, two of the [rapist screws]…have also been charged criminally…Travis Craft…was…indicted…in July [and arrested in early September]…and…Emily Echtenkamp…was…arrested…[last] December …Two other [rapists], Amira Andrade and Cherie MacDougall, were…accused in the lawsuits [but not criminally charged]…

Top Cop (#1458)

The author of this article in Politico seems to want to straddle the fence on Backpage while simultaneously scoring points against Cackling Copmala.  He quotes criticisms of her behavior from Kaytlin Bailey and Alex Andrews, but also creepy cheerleading from another cackling sleazebag prosector, Maggy Krell; he calls attention to her hypocrisy, but also approvingly and uncritically repeats her vile insinuations against Michael Lacey & Jim Larkin; and while his quoting of civil liberties concerns has a sneering undertone, his quoting of “sex trafficking” propaganda is not so colored.  Read it if you wish, but pay attention to the slant.

The Cop Myth (#1469)

How long will America ignore the costs of its sick worship of state-sanctioned violence?

For decades, California police chiefs and sheriffs have lamented how difficult it is to fire [brutal, dangerous cops due to]…powerful [cop gangs] and [bad laws]…what has remained a secret until now, is how they have repeatedly turned to an under-the-radar method of getting rid of problem [pigs] — one that not only allows the off[end]ers to avoid accountability but…[also] to quietly move on to other jobs where they are [again given power] to [abuse] the public….“clean-record agreements”…[are shady] legal settlements that promise to hide the [dangerous pig’s] wrongdoing…in exchange for the off[end]er’s guarantee to leave…without a fight…[even more galling,] these deals…sometimes include a cash payment…In the past decade, at least 163 California [cop shops] have…[made these devil’s bargains with at lea]st 297 [dangerous thugs]…52 were subsequently hired by another [cop shop and] 56 were hired as security guards or [screws]…16 [went on to] teach…[rookie cops, and] three [became politicians]…Payments…[were] as high as $3.1 million…

The Cop Myth (#1474)

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

A [Florida cop named]…Brian Housend was arrested…[for] kidnapping [his ex-girlfriend at gunpoint]…He had [stalked her for months, and recently aimed]…a green laser, which she believed to be the type equipped to a firearm…into a window in her home…[after] a series of…threatening emails and text messages…[back in February] Housend [threatened her with] a rifle…in [response to her]…calling internal affairs…[over his] abuse…

 

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 (#1461)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on August 7, 2024| Leave a Comment »

People in authority can violate your rights while believing they are protecting you.  –  The Budget

Pyrrhic Victory (#1188) 

Every company and organization (including cop shops) using facial recognition without consent needs to be sued until it stops:

[Facebook] has agreed to pay $1.4 billion to Texas to resolve the state’s lawsuit accusing…[it] of illegally using facial-recognition technology to collect biometric data of millions of Texans without their consent…from photos and videos that users uploaded…as part of a [now-]discontinued feature called “Tag Suggestions”…Google separately is fighting a [similar] lawsuit by Texas…

Under Duress (#1222)

Establishment media are finally beginning to admit that cops are habitual liars:

The family of Sonya Massey—whom Deputy Sean Grayson shot in the face as she stood in her kitchen, unarmed and praying for protection—recently publicized that the Sangamon County (Illinois) Sheriff’s Office initially told relatives that Sonya had killed herself.  Once body-cam footage disproved Grayson’s self-serving account, he was arrested and charged…[similarly,] Sandra Bland’s cause of death was ruled “suicide by asphyxiation” (i.e., hanging)…suicidologists and suicide awareness advocates should lend expertise…whenever deaths from police brutality are ruled suicides…police “routinely lie to serve their own interests”…a type of misconduct that emerges not from just a few “bad apples” but from the systematic negligence of judges and juries…to the point that…the judicial system’s favoritism toward police has become seen as predictable…and…[encourages] schemes to victim-blame targets…Peter Keane, a former San Francisco Police commissioner, admitted…that police culture normalized lying…Justice Gustin Reichbach of the State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, New York, echoed Keane…

Welcome to the Future (#1381)

Constant surveillance damages adolescents’ ability to develop in healthy ways:

…at Lawrence High [in Kansas]…every homework assignment, email, photo, and chat on…school-supplied device[s are] monitored by a[lgorithms provided by a company named]…Gaggle…to provide around-the-clock surveillance.  If a word or an image triggers an alert in the…software, the result could range from the student being sent to an administrator to being referred to [compulsory] counseling to…a visit from local police…Gaggle [absurdly] claims that it has saved an “estimated” 5,790 student lives between 2018 and 2023.  It did this, according to its website, by analyzing 28 billion student items and flagging 162 million of those for review…At what point is the safety you think you’re buying for students actually doing harm in unintended ways?  Won’t teachers avoid assignments that challenge students to consider real-world problems?…Won’t students learn just to keep their emotions to themselves, instead of confiding in a teacher or another trusted adult?  What about the chilling effect on student creativity and expression?  Gaggle is the thought police for K-12 campuses…is it worth it if it turns schools into virtual prisons?

Property of the State (#1416)

The court rejected the charges, but not the “fetal personhood” dogma behind them:

Oklahoma resident Amanda Aguilar was arrested after using marijuana while pregnant.  Though Aguilar had a medical marijuana prescription, prosecutors [absurdly argu]ed that her fetus did not…[and] charged [her]…with [felony] child neglect…the state’s highest criminal court [dismissed the charges, but only because prosecutors charged her under a made-up law; they]…urged Oklahoma [politicians]…to c[riminalize all use of cannabis by pregnant women, regardless of prescription]…at least eight women have been charged under this [made-up law] since 2019…But…the Oklahoma Supreme Court…declined [to hear previous appeals]…Aguilar’s case [only] got its day in court thanks to an overzealous…prosecutor…appealing [a lower court’s dismissal of her charges] to…the Oklahoma Criminal Court of Appeals…

I Spy (#1422)

Don’t let your machines call them, either:

Ford is trying to patent a way for its cars to report speeding drivers to the police.  A patent application…was published…Jul. 18 2024, and was originally filed by Ford Jan. 12, 2023…the [dystopian system would use]…cars to monitor each other’s speeds.  If one car detects that a nearby vehicle is being driven above the posted limit, it could use onboard cameras to photograph that vehicle.  A report containing both speed data and images of the targeted vehicle could then be sent directly to a [handy pigmobile] or roadside monitoring units…It’s unclear what legal argument Ford would make should it try to implement this tech, as human [busybodies] wouldn’t be [sticking]ing the[ir noses into strangers’ business]…Ford has also tried to patent a “night drive mode” that would limit vehicle speeds at night for everyone [regardless of circumstances].  This takes things a bit further by turning drivers into unwitting snitches…

Torture Chamber (#1455)

Americans’ sick lust for torture turns ordinary prison sentences into death sentences:

[Human beings caged] in Texas state prisons are being “cooked alive” by scorching temperatures in facilities without air conditioning, a new investigation [reports, yet when prisoners]…died with body temperatures nearing 107 degrees, officials have continued to blame their deaths on causes other than extreme heat.  In 2023, a Texas prisoner filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s refusal to…[obey] its own laws…mandat[ing] that prison temperatures be kept between 65 degrees and 85 degrees…At one prison, Garza West Unit, temperatures stayed above 100 degrees for 11 days straight in the summer of 2023…

The Cop Myth (#1460)

Cop violence is never limited to members of the public:

An…NYPD [cop named]…Imran Iqbal…was [arrested and] charged with [violently abusing] a child…[his bosses thought saying he wasn’t wearing his magical clown costume was much more important than how he was related to the child he attacked or any other pertinent information like his victim’s age]…

 

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

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In the News (#1440)

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

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

Above the Law

Your “leaders” at work:

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

Business As Usual

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

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

The Face of Trafficking 

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

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

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

Little Boxes (#837)

The shittiest-paying sex work ever:

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

Welcome to the Future (#1052)

Cop excuses produced by human bootlickers are bad enough:

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

The Cop Myth (#1432)

Cop violence is never limited to members of the public:

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

Nor is it limited to male cops:

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

Leaving the 20th Century (#1438)

Looks like I was wrong about Belgian decrim:

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

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

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

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In the News (#1428)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on April 10, 2024| Leave a Comment »

We can, indeed, convince ourselves that boogeymen are real.
–  Claire Zagorski & Ryan Marino

Legal Is as Legal Does

Who but a politician could conceive of fighting some crime by criminalizing legal business?

[Due to] the discovery of a U.S. citizen with two girls, aged 12 and 13…in a luxury hotel in Medellín…[Colombia]…Mayor Federico Gutiérrez…[has] prohibit[ed] sex work in…for six months, and…[declared] a 1 a.m. closing time for bars…for a month…Gutiérrez…says he is acting under extraordinary circumstances…[to] fight…back against the mafias that he says run [the] El Poblado [neighborhood by denying legal income to legal businesspeople, and subjecting them to police harassment]…He also announced that there would be meetings with owners of bars and hotels to clarify new “rules of the game”.  Establishments that do not comply with the rules…will not only be subject to closure, but also to [the government stealing their property]…Timothy Allan Livingston…was arrested and detained for 12 hours…[but] released…because he had not been [actually] caught in the act of sexually abusing the girls.  He was released on [March 29th], and boarded a flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida…

The chief danger of a “tolerated” system is that cops or politicians can suddenly and without warning decide to be intolerant.

Torture Chamber (#1153)

The government tried to establish a precedent that it need not feed its prisoners:

The federal government is required to “expeditiously” house migrant [minors] who cross into the United States [without permission], rather than allow them to remain in unsafe open-air sites along the border…Federal District Court…Judge Dolly M. Gee [ruled]…in a class-action lawsuit…minors at the sites [a]re in legal custody of the Department of Homeland Security and thus…entitled to certain rights and protections, such as a safe and sanitary environment, even if they ha[ve] not yet been formally processed…The outdoor areas where migrants have been waiting [because the US refuses to let them continue north] lack shelter, food and sanitation…Unaccompanied children and young families sometimes arrive in poor health…dehydration and heat stroke have become common problems…and nighttime temperatures, wind and rain are creating conditions ripe for hypothermia…The government had argued that the children [and adolescents] were not yet in U.S. custody so it had no obligation to provide services….[yet] Border Patrol…control[s] the minors’ ability to leave the sites…Judge Gee denied the [government’s] request for a specific time limit for how long minors could be held [without food, water, shelter, or medical care]…

Welcome to the Future (#1351)

Indiscriminate murder is so much easier when blamed on machines:

…the Israeli army has developed a…[computer] program known as “Lavender”…to generate targets for…bombing…the…system is designed to mark all suspected operatives in the military wings of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), including low-ranking ones, as potential…targets…human personnel…serve…only as a “rubber stamp” for the machine’s decisions…the Israeli army systematically attacked the targeted individuals while they were in their homes — usually at night while their whole families were present — rather than during the course of military activity…Additional automated systems, including one called “Where’s Daddy?”…were used…to track the targeted individuals and carry out bombings when they had entered their family’s residences…The result…is that thousands of Palestinians — most of them women and children or [noncombatants] — were wiped out by Israeli airstrikes, especially during the first weeks of the war, because of [a computer]’s [mindless] decisions…the army…decided…that, for every junior Hamas operative that Lavender marked, it was permissible to kill up to 15 or 20 civilians…[and if] the target was a senior Hamas official…the army on several occasions authorized the killing of more than 100 civilians…[to eliminate] a single commander…

You Were Warned (#1361)

Ignorant, irrelevant authoritarian spouts ignorant irrelevancies in support of more authoritarianism; what a shock:

Hillary Clinton is the latest to jump on the “Repeal Section 230” bandwagon…Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump have insisted that it needs to be repealed.  Senators [from] both sides of the [uniparty]…are supporting bills to repeal [it].  And now Hillary Clinton has joined the crew of ignorant political pundits spouting nonsense about 230…removing Section 230 will not fix whatever problem any of these people think it will fix…Section 230 serves a particularly useful purpose: preventing frivolous lawsuits.  What everyone calling for its repeal is effectively saying is that they want more frivolous lawsuits, most of which will simply be stopped eventually by the First Amendment, but after much more significant expense for websites…what Biden and Clinton seem to be admitting in their desire to remove liability protections is that they want to suppress speech…because they know that any threat of more frivolous litigation would lead companies to…[be far more] censorial…

Unsafe for Human Consumption (#1391)

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

…While addiction and drug policy experts have repeatedly refuted the idea that touching fentanyl alone can cause an overdose, like a stubborn weed, the lie keeps coming back.  And now the myth has drifted upward to poli[tician]s…At this moment, three bills — one in Florida (SB 718), one in West Virginia (HB 5319) and the other in Tennessee (SB 1754) — are making their way through their respective state legislatures.  All three will allow for a felony charge to be levied against people who [possess]…fentanyl or a fentanyl analog, such as carfentanil or remifentanil…[if a cop has a panic attack nearby]…HB 5319 casts an even wider net, encompassing any opioid regardless of potency…[but] does include language which would require a laboratory test for opioids be administered to the [panicky pig.  But]…SB 718 and SB 1754 [allow charges based entirely in a cop’s imagination]…

If Men Were Angels (ROTW #8)

Turns out he isn’t just a wannabe cop:

Monte Chitty, the [Florida] pastor [who drugged and molested a 15-year-old girl], [was] released on a $75,000 bond soon after his March arrest…[he] was supposed to be arraigned [on April 1st, but] fled in a white van with out-of-state plates and is no longer believed to be in…Florida…he…has lived in 25 states where he’s worked in churches and may have places to hide out; [prosecutor Dennis] Ward [said]…“This guy’s a former cop from Alaska…so I’m concerned about everybody in [his] path”…

The Punitive Mindset (#1426) 

Let’s hope we can soon say, “Good riddance to bad rubbish”:

Last week, the nation’s largest prison and jail telecom corporation, Securus, effectively defaulted on more than a billion dollars of debt.  After decades of preying on incarcerated people and their loved ones with exploitative call rates and other predatory practices that have driven millions of families into debt, Securus is being crushed under the weight of its own.  In March, the company’s creditors gave the corporation an eight-month extension to pay up, urging its sale to a new owner to stave off an otherwise imminent bankruptcy…The slow death of the largest player in this space is not accidental.  It follows six years of intense advocacy to expose the vulnerability of the prison telecom industry’s business model on both ethical and economic grounds.  Organizers have waged a strategic war against Securus, educating investors and the public about the company’s predatory practices while successfully advocating for legislation and regulation to rein them in…The company’s failure would represent a remarkable victory for advocates—and a potential beginning of the end for the prison telecom industry as we know it…

 

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 (#1414)

Posted in Current Events, Miscellaneous, News, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

This is treating people like inventory in a way I’ve not seen.
–  Jutta Williams

Torture Chamber

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

A [typical and representative New Hampshire screw has been] charged…with [the] murder…of a patient at [the] prison psychiatric unit [last year]…Matthew Millar [committed the murder by] kneeling on Jason Rothe’s torso and neck for several minutes on April 29 while Rothe was face-down and handcuffed…Rothe…[never] committed [any] crimes but…was committed…in 2019…and transferred to the prison unit in 2022 [under the claim that] he posed a risk to himself or others…

A Broker in Pillage (#1074)

This will continue until there are federal criminal charges for “officials”, both political and corporate, who conspire to rob people this way:

In Arizona, citizens can still lose their houses over minuscule tax bills, despite a unanimous 2023 Supreme Court ruling that was supposed to paralyze the practice nationwide…Christine Searle, a 70-year-old retiree, faces the loss of her home—valued at [$376,800]—over a mere $1,607.68 in back taxes…Maricopa County…[inflicted] a tax lien…on her home…then allowed [a] company [to] purchase…the lien [and] foreclose on her home, meaning Searle lost her home and all its equity…Arizona is not the only state that has permitted local governments to transfer tax liens…to [cron]ies.  In Nebraska, for example, private investors have been known to buy out tax debt without formal correspondence with the homeowner.  Once notified, those unable to satisfy their debt in full—plus interest and fees—have watched as the county treasurer gave the deed to their property away to the [legalized]…robb[er]…

Welcome to the Future (#1265)

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

Depending on where you work, there’s a significant chance that [computer algorithms are] analyzing your messages on…popular apps.  Huge U.S. employers such as Walmart, Delta Air Lines, T-Mobile, Chevron, and Starbucks, as well as European brands including Nestle and AstraZeneca, have turned to a seven-year-old startup, Aware, to [eavesdrop on] chatter among their [peons.  Their masters]…can see how employees of a certain age group or in a particular geography are responding to a new corporate policy or marketing campaign…[the software] can also identify bullying, harassment, discrimination, noncompliance, pornography, nudity and other behaviors…[yet supposedly] doesn’t have the ability to flag individual employee names…[except] in the event of [whatever the corporate client chooses to define as “]extreme threats or other risk behaviors[“]…

The Red Umbrella (#1327)

As long as sex work is marginalized, sex workers will be targeted for violence:

A St. Louis man [has been] charged…with shooting a sex worker at his residence…Norman B. Nelson…[shot the woman] around 3:18 a.m. on Jan. 22…[she] was taken to a hospital and listed in stable condition…

The Next Target (#1332)

Prohibitionist politicians’ real goal is total government control of the internet:

Belgium’s Superior Audiovisual Council (CSA) is [using censorious German politician Tobias Schmid’s KIVI tool to]…“automatically search…the Internet, looking for freely accessible pornography, among other things.”  Adult content is…automatically flagged by the system as “suspicious,” triggering human review…In addition to pornography, KIVI is also trained to detect categories like “extremism, hate speech, swastikas or the glorification of drugs”…in…images, texts and videos on all websites, as well as apps like “Telegram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok…VKontakte and…Bitchute”…With the Belgium partnership, Germany’s provincial regulatory authority from North Rhine-Westphalia is now on the road to becoming…“largely responsible for the introduction of a European porn detector”…Belgian authorities…[are also planning] “to expand the use of KIVI to cover hate speech”…

The Last Shall Be First (#1350) 

Both sides in the culture war have completely taken leave of their senses:

A new bill in Wyoming…would declare that gender-affirming care is “not in the best interest” of transgender youth within the state.  The bill would apply this presumption to custody battles, guardianships, and even the rules around Child Protective Services…A non-affirming parent who divorces an affirming parent could use the provisions to take a transgender child in a custody battle…A grandparent or relative who does not approve of a transgender youth’s gender transition could…[demand to] be appointed emergency guardian…Even worse, Child [“]Protective[“] Services could be weaponized against transgender youth in the state…

Creepy Coppers (#1397)

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

A Racine [Wisconsin cop] was arrested after [exposing himself to another man in a gas station bathroom, and when his fellow cops searched his phone they found]…videos of child pornography…Preston Kite…[contacted the other man on] the [gay hookup] app Sniffies…[but] he…was not expecting…to…see a [wanking pig] in full [magic clown regalia, and was therefore understandably]…scared [that this was a porcine scheme to ruin his life.  The man beat a hasty retreat] and…took a picture of the [pigmobile] parked [outside, which]…was [the one] assigned to Kite…

 

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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O.B.I.T.

Posted in Fiction, History, Philosophy, Tyranny, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 5, 2024| 1 Comment »

People with nothing to hide have nothing to fear from O.B.I.T.
–  Byron Lomax (Jeff Corey)

Generally speaking, The Outer Limits was not as devoted to social commentary as its contemporary The Twilight Zone.  This is not a knock; the flavor of the featured tales reminds me very much of Silver Age sci-fi comics like Mystery in Space and Strange Adventures, more thrilling than cerebral, and though the technobabble nearly always has holes one could pilot a flying saucer through, the same could be said of The Twilight Zone.  The episodes were for the most part skillfully directed and shot in an elegant film noir-inspired style, enhanced with superbly creepy music and performed by some of the top small-screen talent of the day such as Martin Landau, Robert Culp, David McCallum, Sally Kellerman, Vera Miles, Robert Duvall, William Shatner and many others.  But while the stories rarely fail to entertain (though modern viewers used to CGI may find the clever-but-cheap special effects wanting), they’re generally short monster movies or unchallenging morality plays rather than incisive examinations of the issues of their day.  Of course, there are exceptions, and one of them is O.B.I.T., one of those rare teleplays which are more relevant today than when they were filmed.

The Outer Band Individuated Teletracer (O.B.I.T.) is a top-secret surveillance device which is able to tune in on any individual’s unique biometric signature in order to spy on that person regardless of walls or distance.  It is used to monitor the staff at a vital Defense research installation, and when one of its operators is brutally murdered the U.S. Senate subcommittee which oversees the facility sends one of its members to investigate.  What he discovers is a base plagued by tension, discord, and serious mental health issues, all driven by the administration’s incessant prying into every private life; though the existence of the machine is a closely-guarded secret, it is obvious – and terrifying – to all that the government clearly has some means of surveillance unimpeded by locks or whispers.  Of course, this being The Outer Limits, the machines (which the investigation soon reveals are both numerous and not solely restricted to US  government usage) are an alien device surreptitiously introduced into human society as a tool of conquest.  In the climactic scene, when the disguised alien is revealed, this is what he has to say:

The machines are everywhere! Oh you’ll find them all, you’re a zealous people. And you’ll make a great show of smashing a few of them. But for every one you destroy, hundreds of others will be built. And they will demoralize you, break your spirits, create such rifts and tensions in your society that no one will be able to repair them! Oh, you’re a savage, despairing planet, and when we come here to live, you friendless, demoralized flotsam will fall without even a single shot being fired. Senator, enjoy the few years left you. There is no answer. You’re all of the same dark persuasion! You demand – insist – on knowing every private thought and hunger of everyone: Your families, your neighbors, everyone — but yourselves.

When O.B.I.T. was first broadcast in November 1963, the security state was a mere toddler; its tools were largely limited to hidden cameras and microphones, and eminently-corruptible human snitches and busybodies.  I hardly need to point out that this is no longer the case; using biometrics to identify individuals is no longer science fiction, and the number of means the government and large corporations have to track, trace, watch, eavesdrop on, and judge every last one of us would’ve been unbelievable to a TV audience of the Kennedy era.  Millions of people in the developed world, acting individually or collectively, feel completely justified in digging into the affairs of those who have different beliefs from them, in hope of discovering some transgression or mistake that can be used to destroy the victim’s life with the help of faceless, merciless corporations and institutions.  The irreparable rifts and tensions which are the inevitable product of a panopticon are already here, and growing more dangerously-intrusive all the time.  And we didn’t even need malevolent aliens to do it to us.

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