Get your own damn sandwich.

So, women now rule the world, and men are oppressed? Courtesy of a Facebook friend, here’s an extremely typical example of how guys who make those claims actually “think” (note the quotes):

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Y’okay. I know this isn’t really a fair fight here, seeing as I’m about to do a battle of wits with an unarmed man. But damn, he’s just begging for an ass-kicking. So I figure I might as well oblige him. Ready? Here goes…

“You’ve never been forced to die in war.”

Yeah, dude, we’ve never fought in a war, never been killed as civilians either, and certainly NEVER been raped to death. Just because women haven’t faced as much historical conscription as men (outside of Israel, maybe), doesn’t mean we didn’t get wiped out too. My mother’s baby sister was forced to die in a war when she was just 11 months old. Of course, she had to do so via malnutrition and dysentery, so there’s that.

“You are not capable of performing the same tasks men do because you lack the ambition and devotion to do a good job at anything. This is why you get paid less.”

Actually, we are more than capable, and we don’t lack “ambition and devotion”. We work twice as hard for half the pay and a quarter of the recognition. There are now more women than men graduating from college. And we don’t get there by sleeping with our profs or batting our eyes at TAs, either. The reason we STILL get paid less is because men can get away with paying us less…and they do. It’s called systemic discrimination; look it up, dude.

“Remember when you weren’t allowed to vote? It’s because you lack the enough logical reasoning skills to take difficult decisions in a sound manner.”

“The enough logical reasoning skills”? What does that even mean? Dude, if you’re gonna pride yourself on your superior reasoning and logic (mad skillz!), shouldn’t you at least learn how to string together a coherent sentence? You know, so you at least LOOK like you have logic and reasoning capacity?

As for the point you’re struggling to make here, it’s also bullshit. Remember all those wars you were being forced to die in while we fragile flowers were sitting safely home, getting raped to death? Product of superior male logic and reasoning, dude. And product of oh-so-superior all-male voting and all-male candidate slates, too.

“You have never ruled the world. Because you lack the enough physical strength and intelligence to lead an army or a nation.”

Again with “the enough”. Dude, if you’re gonna claim superior intelligence — again, learn to string together a coherent sentence, or don’t try to make that argument.

Actually, don’t try to make that argument anyhow. No single individual has ever ruled the world, and none ever will (or should). But if you want rulers of armies and nations, learn to look beyond your own sex once in a while. Jeanne d’Arc organized and led an army at 17. Queen Elizabeth I ruled as an unmarried woman, never relegated to second-class status as a producer of royal heirs. She routinely boasted of her “male brain”, which kept her securely on the throne for 44 years. Queen Victoria ascended the throne of England at 18, and the British Empire grew and prospered under her reign (which she did not abandon to produce heirs and spares at a prodigious rate). Queen Elizabeth II has been on the throne for 61 years now, and may well live to top Queen Victoria’s 63. And don’t get me started on Hatshepsut, the Egyptian queen who crowned herself a pharaoh, and won the respect of her people by her successful forays in both war and peaceful trade. She wasn’t even the first female ruler of Egypt by a long shot!

I’m sorry…what was that you were saying again, dude?

“The only reason you need wimpy support groups (i.e. Feminism) is because of your primal instinct of inferiority.”

“The only reason…is because of”? Again, dude, learn to string together a sentence; that’s fucking pathetic.

BTW, there is no such thing as a “primal instinct of inferiority” peculiar to women; see above. I’m sure that any of the female rulers and leaders I’ve mentioned (who are just a handful among many) would be greatly surprised to find themselves in possession of such a thing. I know I would be!

And if feminism is just a “wimpy support group”, why are you so afraid of it? Why post these moronic, hastily typed screeds if you’re so naturally, primally, instinctually superior? Whom are you trying to convince — us, or yourself? Either way, your flop-sweat is starting to smell.

“You have never invented anything worth mentioning during the last thousands of years of recorded human history. That computer you’re using, the electricity, the house you live in, the car you drive, the job you work for, the gasoline that fuels your car, the desk, the pencil, the paper and everything you use in your everyday life was invented by men.”

O RLY? Ada Lovelace would like a word with you, dude. Without her, Charles Babbage’s “Analytical Engine” would have been no more than a quaint curiosity, with limited (or no) practical use. Female programmers also worked the first electronic computers during World War II. If you use software or algorithms of any sort, you’re using something invented by a woman.

Also, electricity wasn’t invented by men. It wasn’t invented, period. It’s a force of nature that no man can lay claim to. Although a great many men have been killed by it, some in chairs invented by other men. (Ah yes, those superior male brains. They fry so beautifully.)

I don’t know who invented houses, desks, or pencils and paper, and neither do you. But to just assume it must have been a man (because instinct, blah blah) is lazy and pathetic. If you can’t name who invented something, you don’t have the right to assume anything about the inventor’s gender.

BTW, I don’t drive a car. I ride a bike; less polluting. More often, I just walk. Are you going to tell me that men invented walking, too?

“The job you work for”? Again, pathetic sentence structure. Dude, learn English. Use that superior male head of yours for something other than a neck ornament, already.

Also, not everything we use every day was invented by men. So, you were saying…again?

“Mathematics, philosophy, science, medicine, and all of the important building blocks of modern society were created by men.”

Wrong, wrong, wrong. They were all co-created by men and women, throughout history. And the ratio of the former to the latter would have been smaller by far if systemic discrimination had not existed throughout history, and if it did not STILL exist today.

And how do I know it still exists today? Because you said this:

“You are only to provide us men with your physical beauty. Which is the only worthy talent you posses besides bearing children. If you can’t do that you’re worthless.”

Gee, dude, you sure told me. BTW, could you learn to spell possess too, while you’re busy learning English with that mighty manly head of yours?

“Now go make me a sandwich”

What — can’t you take care of that yourself? You’re superior enough to die in war for the sake of philosophy and shit. You invented electricity! I’m too pretty and inferior to do anything but look good and bear you children. You said so yourself. Make your own damn sandwiches.

And don’t forget the period at the end of the sentence, dumbfuck.

How Turkish cops deal with a bad case of butthurt

They threaten you with gas. And not just tear gas:

Whoa there, fella, careful with the not-silent-but-still-deadly stuff.

All kidding aside, though, I don’t think these officers realize that there is such a thing as defying immoral orders. And that’s the real shame here.

Music for a Sunday: I forgot to say I love you

For those who have a “complicated” relationship with their fathers, this one’s for you. Hope your next Father’s Day goes better. (Or your next incarnation.)

Wankers of the Week: Spy, spy, everywhere a spy…

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Crappy weekend, everyone! Yes, the NSA is still spying on everyone…and no, they haven’t caught Edward Snowden yet. Maybe they’ll have better luck getting covert video of Kim Fucking Kardashian’s baby emerging from her mama’s wazoo. Meanwhile, I spy with my little eye…people who are wanking. And here they are, in no particular order:

1. Bibi Fucking Netanyahu. If the shoe fits, Israel doesn’t want to hear it! Well, tough toenails, Bibi…you maybe should have thought of that before you started playing Cinderfuckingella. Now put on that glass slipper and quit throwing stones.

2. John Fucking Baird. How nice! Squealer thinks Israel has the right to commit apartheid within its borders, and wars outside them. And now we know why Canada is fast becoming a laughingstock on the global human rights front. We’ve gone from peacekeepers to warmongers in less than a decade. PS: Oh Squealer, give it the fuck UP. We all know who’s behind this human-rights gutting. Can’t you own up, even once? PPS: No, srsly, STFU. Nobody gives a fuck what you think about Iran.

3. Pamela Fucking Geller. She’s broadened her front of attack, and that can only mean one thing: Her cerebral aneurysm is about to blow. Batten down the hatches!

4. Alex Fucking Jones. Speaking of blown aneurysms, the Beeb may have lowered its tone by having him on (where he shouted and blustered and ranted and made even less fucking sense than usual), but at least the host had the smarts and the guts to call him his worst interviewee ever. And to mug it up at his expense. (Watch the video to the end, it’s worth it.)

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5 and 6. Jamie Fucking Colby and Doug Fucking Burns. Only on “Fair and Balanced” (note the quotes) FUX Snooze could George Zimmerman morph from a racist vigilante who shot an unarmed black kid, to a “gentle kind caring soul who was minding the neighborhood…doing his Good Samaritan job”. And only there could an unarmed black kid turn into a potential murderer…armed with a bag of candy and a can of iced tea. FUX Snooze, where black is white, day is night, wrong is right, and truth is shite.

7. Russell Fucking Moore. Oh, the government is “overstepping its bounds” all of a sudden, when the Southern Baptists have been blatantly violating that church/state separation for motherfucking decades? And it’s “overstepping” by merely holding them to their side of the bargain? Well, I never. Next, you’ll be telling me that this all wouldn’t be happening if there weren’t an uppity niggruh in the White House.

8. Gregg Fucking Jarrett. Only on “Fair and Balanced”, blahblah, would you find so much sympathy all in one heap for poor George Zimmerman, who has “already been punished” by gaining weight in the clinker while awaiting trial. Yeah, boohoo, he got fat. So fucking what? Trayvon Martin got DEAD. That skinny kid is never gonna live to see a weight gain. And he was given the death penalty for walking while black, drinking tea while black, and eating candy while black. Oh, and wearing a hoodie while black. Since when is any of THAT a crime?

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9. Pat Fucking Robertson. Is it the Eighties again? Patwa just came out with yet another bizarre tirade against D & D. I didn’t know anybody was still playing that, much less getting demon-possessed while doing so! And his sense of irony is deteriorating, too. Could this mean that he’s about to join #3 in Cerebrovascular Accident Land?

10. Troy Fucking Newman. Newsflash: Fetuses are not persons. Therefore, civil rights do not pertain to them. But if Troy-Boy had his way, women wouldn’t be persons, and fetuses would. What he would say about the NSA’s spying then, I don’t know. Probably nothing, because he only ever seizes on an issue if he can tie it — however stupidly — to abortion. And God-hating jezebels.

11. Robert Fucking Ammon, Jr. Jeepers creepers, what the fuck is the world coming to when tenured profs can’t sexually harass students anymore and offer them measly favoritism in exchange for BJs? Poor bastard. And he’s a repeat offender, too!

12. Nick Fucking Griffin. Why?

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That’s why. This MEP (a Maggie Thatcher legacy, surprise surprise) is a racist POS and a fascist SOB. He deserves to lose his seat, pronto. He can STFU and FOAD, too. And when he does, no one will mourn him. PS: Whose glorious idea was this? Here’s hoping some facts find HIM.

13. Peter Fucking MacKay. Well, well, well. What have we here? Peety-weety okayed electronic spying here two fucking years ago, and it only makes the news this week? And he would have gotten away with it, too, if not for that meddling kid, Edward Snowden. Curses!

14. Ann Fucking Coulter. His Barackness “doesn’t take terrorism seriously”? Well, no. Aside from getting Osama, and keeping all of Dubya’s unconstitutional and illegal “anti-terror” policies in place, plus all those drones…no, he doesn’t take it a bit seriously. At all.

15. Trent Fucking Franks. Again with the lame-o Forces of Evil rhetoric. Dude, the only force of evil in this world is men who try to control what everyone else is doing. And everyone else includes women, and what they’re doing with their uteri is none of your fucking business! Do you even have a clue as to the irony of what you’re saying about “liberty”?

16. Rob Fucking Ford. No women on his executive committee anymore. Only men. Belligerent, ill-tempered, not-very-bright men, I bet. PS:

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Oops. Ha, ha.

17. Rodger Fucking Kelly. No, raping an unconscious woman (hard enough to leave bruises!) is NOT the way to revive her. If it were, paramedics would all be carrying Viagra.

18. Taylor Fucking Chapman. Want proof that the customer is NOT always right? Look no further than this coffee-shop customer from hell, who decided to get her racist bitch on, video it, and then post it to the Internets. She has since learned that the Internets are an even bigger bitch than she is. (And just think, she’s in marketing. Actually, maybe that should come as no surprise.)

19. Scott Fucking Walker. Why is this asshat still squatting in the governor’s mansion in Wisconsin? If union-bashing wasn’t enough wank to get him out, will an ultrasound re-rape law do it? Let us pray…

20. Brian Fucking Kilmeade. Awww, isn’t it cute? Wanker #12 has a widdle fascist friend. At FUX Snooze. Of course.

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21. Lindsey Fucking Graham. Speaking of fascism, Lindsey-windsey would like to read everybody’s snail mail. Yes, that’s right, he’s there with a steaming kettle, ready to pry open every envelope…in the name of national security. Of course.

22. Peter Fucking King. Oh dearz, whatever is a nation coming to if it can’t keep secrets from its people anymore, and the pesky media keep reporting what the politicians only want them to hush up? Uh, I believe that’s what we call ACCOUNTABILITY, you fucking oaf.

23 and 24. Erich and Mark Fucking Muller. Oh joy, oh bliss. “Mancow” (that’s Erich’s handle on the Internetz) has his own show. And I’m sure his particular brand of racist, cryptofascist FEMA-camp paranoia will be just what the Hitler Channel ordered. (And just what will cause their last three subscribers to cancel their satellite packages, too.)

25. Jim Fucking Bridenstine. Teh Stoopid wants an apology? Okay, Jim, I’m sorry you’re so fucking stupid that you can’t understand that global warming is real, that the number of violent storms has increased dramatically over the last 30 years, and that being from Oklahoma is no fucking excuse. How about another tornado? Global warming can do that.

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26. Jean-Michel Fucking Colo. Quoi? Monsieur le Maire won’t sanction same-sex marriages? He says he’d rather hang? Alors, that can be arranged. Madame Defarge, to your knitting needles, s’il vous plaît…

27. Barry Fucking Accorti. Great, traumatize some kids by killing feral kittens in front of them, and even admit that you’re not supposed to do it that way, but still get off the hook. Actually, this guy’s supervisors are even bigger wankers than he is.

28. Lanny Fucking Davis. Last time we saw this sleazoid, he was making excuses (and doing PR) for the fascist coup in Honduras. Nice to see he hasn’t lost any of his pond-scummy touch. (Cory Booker, if you’re at all smart, you will distance yourself from this sack of douche AT ONCE.)

29. Mal Fucking Brough. What’s on the menu in Australia? Sexism, sexism and more sexism! Never mind that bad taste in your mouth, just swallow as fast as you can. And try not to retch on the slimy texture, either.

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30. Laura Fucking Ingraham. Only in the fetid parallel universe of a fascist’s brain could emergency birth control be empowering to rapists and abusers…but NOT to the women and girls who want to make sure that no living reminder of those bastards gets left in their uteri. Has this woman ever been assaulted? (Being dropped on the head at birth doesn’t count.)

31. Lorrie Fucking Goldstein. And people wonder why we say the Sun chain of newspapers isn’t fit to wrap a fish in? Or that their pet TV channel is like an on-air toilet? Turds like this just might be clues. They aren’t the exception at the Sun — they’re the rule.

32. Lou Fucking Schizas. Speaking of turds, this is also why nobody with an ounce of brains listens to AM640…unless they want to see their IQ drop by 25 points in just under a minute.

33. Thomas Fucking Mulcair. “Don’t you know who I am?” is NOT an acceptable way of dealing with cops. Just ask Reese Witherspoon if you don’t believe me.

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34. Jason Fucking Kenney. Stay out of my inbox, you fucking creep. And keep your filthy lies to your filthy self. UGH.

35. Pamela Fucking Wallin. She “made mistakes”? I’ll say she did. And funnily enough, all her “mistakes” made her one fat wad of ka-ching after another! PS: Snicker giggle snurk.

36 and 37. Jeff and Tanner Fucking Flake. Like father, like son…like racist, like antisemite…like asshole, like turd. The chip doesn’t fall far from the ol’ block, does it? Gee, I wonder where the kid learned to be such a fucking homophobe, too…

38. Robert Fucking Zimmerman Sr. And speaking of chips that didn’t fall far, guess what Trayvon’s accused killer’s dad has to say about racism? Yup, it’s pure projection. And I’m sure it will not make him or his son look bad at all.

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39. Marco Fucking Rubio. What’s that I smell? Mothballs? And why is my gaydar going woop woop woop? Ohhhhhhh…THAT’s why.

40. Rick Fucking Perry. Speaking of the smell of mothballs and the sound of gaydars whooping, it looks like Crotch is trying to out-wingnut #39. Probably for the same reasons, too. Give it up and get a room, you two.

41. Edith Fucking Jones. And back to racism, with a side order of sexism. You know you’ve overstepped a mighty broad line when even Dubya’s SCOTUS appointees aren’t shutting their eyes to your sheer offensiveness.

42. John Fucking Ratzenberger. I always wondered if his Cheers character’s one-note right-wing stupidity was really an act. Well, I guess this answers THAT question.

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43. Pat Fucking Buchanan. Please, old white Nazi sympathizer, go the fuck EXTINCT already. You’ve already long outstayed your welcome on this planet.

44. James Fucking McTurk. He’s been convicted of his sexual offences against Cuban kids. Now, let’s go after all the others like him. I know from friends who regularly travel to the island that there are droves of them, and that they’ve marked Cuba as a sex-tourism destination, and that Afro-Cuban girls — LITTLE girls — are their targets of choice.

45. Jeb Fucking Bush. Oh fuckers, Jebby is looking more and more like he wants to run for office. And already he’s sticking his big dumb foot in his bigger, dumber mouth, just like Dubya. Only more so, if such things are possible.

46. Jonathan Fucking Franzen. Yeah, sure, bro, literary sexism is dead and you killed it. And you are still alive because Edith Wharton was ugly. Got it.

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47. Eve Fucking Adams. Because MPs can also claim dodgy expenses. And hair and nail salons are dodgy as fuck. And hey, why should the Senate get all the fun?

48. Sarah Fucking Palin. Because a week without blatant fameballing just doesn’t happen in snowbilly grifter country. And because Allah really needs a new soccer ball.

49. Vladimir Fucking Putin. Not only can #48 see him from Alaska, she missed the fact that he stole a motherfucking Super Bowl ring. Maybe she should let the NSA bunk in her house.

50. Ken Fucking Fredette. He thinks his manly-man brain makes him more rational, but statements like this just prove the opposite. Or, to put it another way: When the Zombie Apocalypse finally comes, there’ll be nothing on him for them to eat.

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And finally, to the lovely, slut-shaming town of Elwood, Indiana. Can you people not tell the difference between a rape victim and a prostitute? Or do those distinctions just not matter to you fucking idiots? I would say shame on you, but it’s apparent that you all have zero sense of it whatsoever…unless it’s applied to children who are victims of crime.

Goodnight, and get fucked!

Festive Left Friday Blogging: Resistanbul!

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So, I guess you’ve been wondering what’s been going on in Turkey lately. Well, THIS has:

Demonstrators in Taksim Square sing “Bella Ciao”, the Italian antifascist anthem, in Turkish, accompanied by Davide Martello on grand piano.

And here’s a little glimpse into what it’s all about, in case you didn’t already know:

ISTANBUL, June 8, 2013 — A bagpipe squeals over Taksim Square as a ring of demonstrators dances merrily around. The circle largely represents the grab bag of disparate groups that has come together in their anger at Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They say he is becoming increasingly authoritarian and many claim that he has tried to force Islamism — through laws like restrictions on alcohol sales — on a segment of the population that cherishes its secularism.

It is a cause that Zeynep Agbayir, a devout Muslim who proudly dons her head scarf as she joins her husband in the ring, says she strongly supports.

People like Agbayir, 27, and a member of the Muslim Anticapitalists movement, are a rarity in this square.

Erdogan and his Islamist Justice and Development Party (AKP) enjoy widespread support from conservative Muslims whereas the overwhelming majority of protesters identify themselves as secular. But religious participants say there are others like them who would attend were it not for social pressures.

According to Agbayir, Erdogan adds to this tension by manipulating religious Muslims.

“For example, when he said I’m not going to build a mall, but I’m going to build a mosque here, he was playing the religious card — trying to engineer religious kinds of feelings,” she says.

One of Erdogan’s initial reactions to the unfolding protests against a plan to build a shopping center in Taksim Square, was a proposal to scrap the mall project in favor of a mosque and an opera house.

Agbayir’s anticapitalist group might be characterized as Marxist with a religious twist. The organization’s website describes the “sweat and the blood of the working people,” but a spokesperson said the group’s left-wing political values are inherently religious ones.

“The group believes that property belongs to God and that means that the property belongs to the people,” says graphic designer Emin Albayra, 33, beneath the organization’s slogan “God, bread, freedom,” which is emblazoned on the tent she is sitting in. “By being here we’re trying to tell people that this is how it is.”

And this is how it is:

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Turks, religious and secular, hand in hand to stop their last green spaces in Istanbul from being sold out to an unholy alliance of quasi-Islamist theocracy and, of course, capitalism. If Kemal Atatürk were alive today, he’d probably smack the shit out of Erdogan.

You can follow Occupy Gezi on Facebook for all the latest.

(Thanks to Cort G. for the video!)

How to be a guy who gets it

Compare and Contrast: Capitalism in Bangladesh and the USA

Sex: Made in Germany, but for whom?

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“Germany, a paradise for johns and human traffickers.” Photo: EMMA.

Once again, the German prostitution industry comes under a harsh spotlight — one that it thoroughly deserves, in my unhumble opinion. This time, it’s a documentary film that exposes its unattractive innards:

Sometimes, in the face of empty talk shows, trashy afternoon soaps, brainless shows and earnest magazine features in the midnight hours, a well-meaning person might ask oneself what right the public channels have to charge such high rates. And then there are occasional moments that make it all worthwhile. One of them is the extensively researched NDR reportage, “Sex — Made in Germany”, which will be shown this Monday. What the film tells is the story of a shattering — namely, that of legalized prostitution.

The goal of the 2002 law was to give prostitutes rights, and free them from dependence on criminal gangs. It was a “red-green” (Social Democratic Party/Green Party) reform project that partially achieved these goals. Prostitution would no longer be morally offensive, but from then on, treated (and taxed) like a totally normal profession. But that is what it is simply not, even though the creators of parallel worlds of speech came up with such silly concepts as “sex workers”. Journalists Sonia Kennebeck and Tina Soliman researched the results of the legalization, and what they found is disturbing: “The good intention of empowering prostitutes through legislation has turned into its opposite. Woman has become a resource, to be used as efficiently as possible. Outside of this transactional business, however, she loses all worth.”

Germany, according to the film, has become Europe’s bordello. Men come in droves from Japan, the US, and even strictly-moralistic Arabia to have their fun. 30,000 visitors a month come to Köln’s mega-bordello, “Pascha”. One part of the film shows some johns on hidden camera, sizing up the meat market in a big bordello, and one doesn’t have to be overly moralistic to feel that one has stepped into Dante’s Inferno.

The proprietors of such places are no longer tattooed hoodlums, but rather they see themselves as businessmen following the laws of the marketplace, of supply and demand. What the men prattle on about sounds like a shrill parody of the snake-oil promises of neoliberalism. The “press spokesman” of a bordello whines about statist regulation, even though the regulations have almost all disappeared. The owner of an Internet sex exchange says: “We see ourselves as a lifestyle marketplace.” The client, male or female, can rate the offerings with stars, like a reader with a book on Amazon.com. There are exchanges where the highest bidder can buy sex with virgins, pregnant women, or without a condom. If a prostitute is out of luck, and the auction goes badly for lack of demand, she might have to spend a night with two guys who pay her three euros. All of this was more or less illegal prior to 2001.

Flat discount rates are also very popular. The law was supposed to give the women back their dignity. That hasn’t happened. In the free-market atmosphere of the German sex industry, they are just interchangeable wares, and replaceable at any time. Kennebeck and her cameraman, Torsten Lapp, also travelled to Romania, where many of these women came from, and what they found out there, reveals all talk of free will and free markets as what it really is: a lie.

More than half the prostitutes of a flat-rate bordello in Berlin come from Romania and Bulgaria, and few of them knew what was waiting for them in Germany. The owner, again a total marketing man, tells the camera: “These women are just more engaged, because they’re new in the business. Let’s just say they can take more abuse.”

A Romanian woman named Sorana tells how the pimps lured her to Germany. She knew that she wouldn’t be working as a babysitter, that it had to do with sex. She didn’t know that she would be on call, like a slave, in a flat-rate bordello for up to 40 johns a day: “Some nights I only had two or three hours’ sleep. I couldn’t refuse any client. It was awful.” They were “treated like trash”: Many of these women, says Tina Soliman, “were kidnapped, emotionally manipulated, forced into prostitution in Germany”. That is, naturally, still illegal, but no brothel owner sees himself in any way responsible: “Not my job,” says one, as long as the papers are in order. He has so many women working for him, how should he run a background check every time? That’s the state’s job.

And the state is very interested in the red-light palaces, that have lured sex tourists to Germany as they previously did for Thailand. The inspectors don’t want to know, however, what human dramas play out here. They cash in heavily, even from streetwalkers. The women are the ones who have to pay. When asked why the johns aren’t taxed, the man from Stuttgart city hall says: “Well, we don’t know him, the john.”

The makers of this great film reveal all this without pathos, or even accusations. They judge no one, hold no morality lectures. They only tell it like it is. And yet, their pictures show a world that no society would wish for itself. Good intentions are always simple. But the world that they are meant to change is unfortunately not.

Translation mine.

This comes at a crucial juncture for Canada, as three old prostitution laws have been struck down in Ontario and the debate is now on as to how (or whether) to replace them, and with what. Several so-called “sex workers’ rights” groups claim that any laws governing pimps and johns constitute de facto criminalization of the prostitutes, who are mostly (but not always) women and girls.

But are they? The liberal German laws, which purport to decriminalize prostitution and dignify the lives of the prostituted, have clearly had the opposite effect. Organized crime has stepped in, using the mantle of legitimacy to conduct its unsavory business at ever greater profits to the mafias, and ever greater costs to the women and girls they have imported, most of them from the poorest parts of Eastern Europe. And with zero accountability to the state, which is supposed to protect the prostitutes.

And yet, we are meant to understand this as “a job (or profession) just like any other”. What other jobs and professions are governed by the bosses of organized crime syndicates? And what other jobs and professions have the government looking the other way, except to tax the workers — milking that cash cow twice?

And that cow does get milked. Not so far back, EMMA had a piece on the horrors of the flat-rate brothels, where men pay a shockingly small fee for unlimited sex. No time limit, no limit on the number of women he can use — and often, no limit on what he can do to them, either. Again, the women are imported from Eastern Europe…because as Kajsa Ekis Ekman found (and I translated), there is never enough home-grown “talent” to supply the ravenous demand, and because the local girls aren’t as willing to put up with abusive or dangerous practices.

Yes, there are some freelance prostitutes, and even a fortunate few who have made a good living on their own terms that way, but the trafficked ones grossly outnumber them. Because, go figure, most women (cisgender or trans), and gay men too, have difficulty overcoming their distaste for sex with strangers they don’t actually want to have sex with. And money, strangely, doesn’t always mitigate that.

Much less when organized crime is holding the purse strings, and the state is looking the other way…except, of course, at tax time.

Paramilitaries and corruptos captured in Venezuela

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For anyone wondering if the fight in Venezuela against corruption and paramilitary terrorism is going to let up now that Chavecito is no longer there, wonder no more. It’s still going strong, and it’s turning up criminals all over the place:

The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, announced on Sunday that state security forces had captured two paramilitary bands intending to attack Venezuela.

On his Twitter account, @NicolasMaduro, he wrote: “We have captured two paramilitary bands which came to attack our Venezuela, one in Táchira and the other in Portuguesa. Details to come.”

Later, he wrote: “Justice Minister Rodríguez Torres will give more information on Monday. Congratulations to our security forces. We must remain alert for our nation’s peace.”

On Sunday, Maduro also announced that an anti-corruption operation by defence forces had dismantled a band which was extorting the proprietors of commercial establishments. He also thanked the people for their denunciations, and added that “corruption is a disease of the antivalues of capitalism,” and called upon all the country to confront it.

Translation mine.

And here’s one big example of how serious the Maduro government is about fighting against corruption: they’re not about to spare civil servants or government appointees caught with their hands in the cookie jar, either:

Authorities detained the national director of inspections for the Institute for the Defence of Persons in Access to Goods and Services (INDEPABIS), Trino Martínez, member of a gang which had been extorting proprietors of businesses in Caracas.

In an exclusive broadcast on VTV, the subject was apprehended in El Valle by police agents. A large sum of money and a firearm were seized.

Martínez was advisor to the former president of INDEPABIS, Consuelo Cerrada, who was fired on Sunday.

The president of the Republic, Nicolás Maduro, announced via Twitter (@NicolasMaduro): “Early this morning we began an anticorruption operation in Indepabis against a group of extortionists. We’ll get to the bottom [of this in the fight] against corruption.”

Again, translation mine. Here’s the video of that arrest going down:

The new director of INDEPABIS is Eduardo Samán, who has occupied that position before. His prior experience should stand him in good stead; he knows the agency inside and out. He’s also an outspoken critic of the “bolibourgeois” corruptos, and that bodes well for his dedication to the task at hand. When a government agency in charge of making sure that people get access to the goods and services they need is eaten from within by those who would deny them that access, a radical approach is needed, and Samán’s radicalism is just what the doctor ordered. The time for so-called realpolitik is over.

Samán’s words from three years ago ring true now: “To believe that we have to strengthen a bourgeoisie to develop capitalism in order to later go to socialism is to jump over hurdles. I think this is incorrect because we’ve had a dose of it and we have gone backwards. Here, the Bolivarian bourgeoisie was strengthened and look what the results have been.”

Indeed. A director fired, her advisor arrested…and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Add to it the usual assortment of imported Colombian mercenaries, serving some really bourgeois right-wing politicians and land- and business owners, and you get corruption networks all across the board. Maduro’s got his work cut out for him, but this is a very good start.

PS: Photos of the captured paramilitaries and their seized contraband here.

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