Sentencing today & tomorrow for Michael Lacey and other former execs at Backpage. Feds are recommending 20 years for Lacey. A brief thread on why that’s insane … Lacey was convicted on just one count—a nonviolent financial crime with no victim. A 20-year sentence for that seems extreme under any circumstances

reason.com/2024/08/21/fed…

Only caught a few minutes of the ‘white ladies for Harris’ call before the Zoom cut out but it is basically everything you imagined it could be There is privilege talk, obviously. And mentions of witches and collective power. And this being like a group therapy session, which is… telling

It's hard to overstate just how bad the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) is

The Senate is likely to vote on it today, so let's take a look... KOSA requires online businesses to "prevent or mitigate" minors from being exposed to anything that could cause basically any sort of "harm"

There are two ways to do this, and neither is good: Censor massive amounts of free speech, or age verify everyone reason.com/2024/07/24/sen…

It seems like every literary or journalistic depiction of motherhood these days is dark af and somehow always elicits ample praise for being brave and truth-telling. It's... bizarre nytimes.com/2023/03/18/boo… I'm all for society sugarcoating motherhood & parenthood less but... it feels like we've slipped into a weird pathology in certain circles where all people do is warn about how miserable it is & the only accounts accepted as truths are litanies of neverending hate & terror & pain

Here's a roundup of various state bills seeking to make changes — some good and some bad — to prostitution laws reason.com/2023/03/17/sta… In 3 states — New York, Vermont, & Hawaii — lawmakers have introduced measures to decriminalize prostitution between consenting adults reason.com/2023/03/17/sta…

Today's #ReasonRoundup highlights a few new findings on abortion.

First: The number of legal abortions in the US dropped significantly after SCOTUS overturned Roe. There were 6% fewer abortions in August 2022 than April—though more from virtual clinics reason.com/2022/10/31/nea… Support for total bans on abortion is down! PRRI poll finds it dropped from 13% in 2020 to 8% this year, with steepest drop among Republicans

This is why it’s odd that Musk said he aims to make Twitter more open to free speech AND "the most respected advertising platform in the world" … the two goals are fundamentally at odds

https://twitter.com/forbes/status/1586150947469803521

I love people suggesting this will just lead to Twitter keeping the right kind of advertisers. The number of advertisers — esp big ones with deep pockets—who don’t care what kind of content their ads run beside is small to nonexistent…

A bill introduced in Michigan this week could mean life in prison for any parent or doctor who "consents to, obtains, or assists with a gender transition procedure for a child" reason.com/2022/10/13/mic… Meanwhile, in Virginia:

https://twitter.com/NickMinock/status/1580671705101795329

Facebook is censoring a vintage recipe for homemade baby formula 🙃 reason.com/2022/05/18/vic… Facebook labeled the 1960 recipe for homemade baby formula "false information" because its not up to today's nutritional standards + the recipe hasn't been "evaluated by governing authorities," per the attached fact check

A lot of people are missing the big picture on the baby formula shortage. This isn’t just about potentially tainted formula & its recall.... As Jonathan Adler asks @reason, “in a well-functioning market, any temporary shortage caused by the removal of one company's product from the market would be addressed relatively quickly. Why hasn't that happened here?” reason.com/volokh/2022/05…

OK, able to listen in to BP trial for a bit now. Up next is.. a "developmental and forensic pediatrician" ... which has exactly what to do with whether or not prostitution ads were posted to Backpage & whether defendants knew about them??? Apparently she trained the US Postal Inspection Service (same folks behind Post Office social media surveillance now - reason.com/2021/07/12/the…) on how to spot "sex trafficking" in the mail

Supreme Court Punts on Constitutionally Dubious Texas Abortion Law reason.com/2021/09/02/sup…

SCOTUS won't intervene (yet) in Texas abortion ban since it's private citizens—not the state—tasked with enforcing it 😫 “This order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas's law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law,” stresses the majority in unsigned order reason.com/wp-content/upl…

my @reason cover story on the bipartisan #antitrust crusade against Big Tech is now online! reason.com/2021/06/05/the… I delve into a lot about modern antitrust history & politics — what is the consumer welfare standard? Why do politicians today want to abandon it? What can the case against Microsoft teach us about the cases against Google, Facebook, & Apple? Etc. ....

It would be really bizarre how much people want to rob young women of agency if the same people didn't try so hard to rob all women of their agency... Seeing way to much of this idea that even though it's legal for 18-year-old girls to have sex, do sex work, etc., no one should let them for ... what—six months? A year? Three years? At what point after legal adulthood do you think adult women should actually get to be adults?

“One had turned 18 five months prior” 🤪

So, adults. Greenberg sent money to adults. Using a common app that people use to send money. Why are people acting like this is some sort of sex trafficking smoking gun? The coverage of Greenberg — for whom prosecutors provide ample evidence of corruption schemes & financial crimes & very little evidence of trafficking— almost universally as a SEX TRAFFICKER is so telling. Feds slap this label on folks bc they know it can’t be outrun once they do

Finally read through the latest (3/30) Joel Greenberg indictment. There is *a lot* of detail in it about *a lot* of charges but, interestingly, almost all that's listed under the sex trafficking count is the basic definition of the crime There's also this weird bit under "introduction" to the sex trafficking charge, which just says that he made himself fake IDs & used these IDs to have "engaged in 'sugar daddy' relationships"

Gaetz on Tucker names person he claims is extorting his family, claims it’s a former DOJ official named David McGee Gaetz again categorically denies having ever dated a 17-year-old

The New York Times et al say Matt Gaetz is under investigation for violating "sex trafficking laws" for allegedly inducing someone under age 18 across state lines for sex. But if there was no *prostitution* involved, he's not under investigation for sex trafficking... And if there was prostitution & a minor involved, state lines are irrelevant.

The closest criminal statutes to what Gaetz is accused of is probably "coercion & enticement" (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18…) or "transportation of minors" (law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18…)

Lots of fun stuff in a recent @voxdotcom & @DataProgress poll on billionaires — turns out, most people don't think they should be abolished, nor that they're destroying democracy! — but the best parts related to tech companies & CEOs reason.com/2021/03/30/ame… Bill Gates and Elon Musk elicited significantly more *favorable* views than not—55% favorable v. 35% unfavorable for Gates & 50% v 23% for Musk.

Folks were evenly split on Jeff Bezos reason.com/2021/03/30/ame…

I am generally Twitter’s #1 fan but I find myself able to stomach it less & less recently. The “anti woke” — if they ever weren’t — have become just as tedious & predictable & tribal & omnipresently obnoxious as those they claim to oppose.... ... People tell me I don’t understand how bad it’s gotten... but I’ve been in feminist & social justice spaces online since 2004. What I understand— better than anyone who thinks this is a new or rising phenomenon—is how bankrupt people will go becoming its foil —

This is a thing in the U.S. too. @Polaris_Project has for years been pushing for laws that won't let massage parlors take basic precautions under the guise that this will help stop sex trafficking...

https://twitter.com/SURJto/status/1372186029566869509

And U.S. authorities *routinely* use things like locked doors during business hours, women using assumed names, multiple entrances & exits, etc., as "evidence" of sex trafficking and prostitution in cases against the workers there...