News and Media Reports

[LoseMoney23]

I'm 85% out. When do I go back in?

I'm having lunch with Warren at McDonalds this Friday. Want to come? Its free.

[Redneck 1]

(Here's an interesting and quite intelligent article from Honolulu Civil Beat. It supports decriminalization of consensual adult prostitution. It was written by a female university professor, and in my opinion it should be required reading for all of our state legislators.)

Should Prostitution Be Decriminalized?

There's a growing belief that until the trade is completely legal among consenting adults, sex workers will continue to be unjustifiably punished.

It seems that almost everyone has an opinion about prostitution and sex work.

But with Amnesty International's recent unflinching policy recommendation to decriminalize all adult consensual sex work, including their takedown of the Nordic model which claims to punish only clients, it is becoming increasingly difficult for naysayers to ignore the well-documented ways that sex workers are harmed by criminalization.

Amnesty's position is based on many years of empirical research by leading health and human rights researchers, as well as calls by sex workers and advocates.

While much of the debate on sex work focuses on what is best for "women," an enormous diversity of individuals trade sex at some point in their lives. This includes not just cisgender (identifying with their birth gender) women from a range of age, racial, religious, disability and sexual identities, but also transgender women, cisgender men and GLBTQ youth. Yet even when taking into account the diversity of individuals involved and the many settings in which sex is traded and policed, Amnesty studied the accumulating body of evidence and concluded: "to protect the rights of sex workers, it is necessary not only to repeal laws which criminalize the sale of sex, but also to repeal those which make the buying of sex from consenting adults or the organization of sex work (such as prohibitions on renting premises for sex work) a criminal offense".

As Amnesty explains: "Such laws force sex workers to operate covertly in ways that compromise their safety, prohibit actions that sex workers take to maximize their safety, and serve to deny sex workers support or protection from government officials. They therefore undermine a range of sex workers' human rights, including their rights to security of person, housing and health".

Will Amnesty's recommendation lead to a change in USA policies?

The answer to how USA lawmakers respond to Amnesty's call will depend in part on their level of courage to fight other institutional and cultural pressures to maintain and even increase criminal penalties for clients and other individuals connected to the sex industry. But their reactions will also depend on their own personal beliefs.

As someone who has researched and taught about sex work and human trafficking for more than two decades, I know that for some individuals, no amount of evidence or logic will change their opinion that sex work is intrinsically wrong. For them, decriminalizing any form of sex work including adult consensual encounters would send the unacceptable message that sex work is a legitimate form of income generation. And it is in this emotional territory where the decision to decriminalize or not rests.

Because of the difficulty in evaluating evidence on emotional topics, my first assignment for students in my Sex Work, Human Trafficking, and Social Justice class is to document their current reactions to the issue of sex work.

I ask students to honestly reflect on how their life experiences might shape the way they approach the issue of exchanging sexual services for pay. At the end of the course I ask students to revisit their feelings. I have found that when given the opportunity to make space for their feelings and to evaluate the best empirical evidence (such as Alexandra Lutnick's "Domestic XXXXX Sex Trafficking: Beyond Victims and Villains") most students conclude that adult consensual sex work should be decriminalized. They come to this conclusion even if they still personally do not "believe" in it.

Furthermore, students report that they understand how decriminalization can be one arm of a larger set of strategies to assist victims of structural and individual harms. These harms may include poverty, neglect, police violence, sexual assault and human trafficking.

I wish that I could also give this assignment to all policymakers and anti-sex trade activists.

This includes organizations such as the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, which described Amnesty's move toward decriminalization as a "willful and callous rejection of women's rights and equality," and Hollywood celebrities such as Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet who have joined CATW in their opposition to decriminalization. While I have previously written that "it is no longer acceptable to prioritize the opinions of celebrities over those of sex workers and the scientists who advocate for them" the belief systems underlying these opinions are still important to address.

As Barb Brents and I point out in our introduction to a special section of Sociological Perspectives on sex work and human trafficking, there has long been a serious decoupling between reliable empirical evidence and sex work policies in the USA. While there are complex historical and institutional reasons for this disconnect, the answer in part is because sex workers have long served as a trope, a symbol for other people's agendas.

Of course, sex workers have long been used as punchlines for misogynist jokes. But the symbol of the sex worker is also used by anti-prostitution activists who purportedly want to "help" them. For example, in a recent article discussing sex workers rights in The New York Times Magazine, Yasmeen Hassan, global executive director for Equality Now, expresses the following opinion about sex workers: "They're sexual objects. What does that mean for how professional women are seen? And if women are sex toys you can buy, think about the relationships between men and women, in marriage or otherwise".

In Hassan's statement and others like it coming from prohibitionists, a central "problem" of sex work is not what the best empirical evidence says, but what they believe sex workers symbolize. And when one is focused on one's own symbolic interpretation, it is difficult to listen to conflicting evidence.

Sex workers have long argued that criminalization and policing practices cause and/or exacerbate the worst harms to their well-being. Scientific evidence, as found in Amnesty's reports, confirms this.

But changing the laws requires policymakers (and to some extent, the larger public) to respect and humanize people who are currently both stigmatized and criminalized.

Sex workers have made some progress in bringing attention to the harms of criminalizing sex work policies. One example is the practice of police using the carrying of condoms as evidence of prostitution. With growing global momentum behind the sex workers rights movement, I expect many more successes to come. Yet now is also a critical time for everyday citizens both to check in with their own feelings about the issue and to read and evaluate for themselves the best available empirical evidence.

USA history is full of examples of public beliefs and norms lagging behind progressive institutional change. Examples include civil rights for African-Americans, voting rights for women and marriage rights for same-sex couples. Most individuals in the USA now believe that upholding the civil rights for those groups was the right thing to do.

Decriminalizing sex work will not on its own fix misogyny, racism and other forms of systemic oppression. But decriminalization of consensual sex work is one key step toward social and sexual justice.

[DeepShot]

Knew there were still repercussions from 2008 fuck up. Didn't know the extent. 6000 seem might far but devastating.

Maybe I should ride the big names down short.

Or is it better to gamble on the small weaker ones to belly up? Seems a no lose proposition at this point.

Its going to be awhile my friend, things never got fixed in 2008 they just got pushed down the road as all central banks flooded the world economy with Fiat toilet paper to push off the inevitable "Correction" that was necessary for free markets to prosper, every asset class is in a Hyper Bubble the biggest in history, the only reason the DOW got back to 18 K is because stock buybacks fueled by cheap money, don't let the stock market fool you, the time to buy is when the DOW gets back down to 6 K or less, blood in the streets and everyone is afraid to deploy cash, that's when to buy stocks. Right now you want to be all cash and sitting on the sidelines or even better than cash is precious metals or mining shares, stay away from GLD / SLV and any other ETF they are all bullshit, own physical or in a very very reputable "Allocated" fund / trust such as Sprott up in Canada, if investing in Miners do your homework their are a lot of clowns out there but guys like Keith Newmeyer with First Majestic, Marin Katusa, Rick Rule, Doug Casey etc.. Are legit dudes, so if you want to deploy cash right now do it in precious metals if you want to do Financial equities etc. Then wait, stay the F away from Bonds I don't care what country, the bond market is going to crap and any fool investing in Bonds will get wiped out.

[AwabiHunter]

I don't under stand how this shit works everybody knows when you sell off market goes down so why everytime they hear bad news everyone sell? Isn't that what makes the dow go down? Then they hear good news than market goes up? Why not just not panic leave things as is and market should be stable? As I said I not sure how the market works.

Their are typically 2 types of investor / trader / speculator whatever the hell you want to call yourself, Technical or Fundamental and sometimes a hybrid of both. I personally think technical analysis is a thing of the past, I mean everyone knows the saying" Garbage in, garbage out" right? Well if you rely on charts to do your investing and you are not living under a rock pile then you would know that all markets are manipulated by the bankers and if all markets are manipulated well then the charts that you use to make decision on is all garbage, so I tend to trust fundamental investing, don't believe what you hear on CNN, FOX news etc. You need to get your info from NON. Mainstream sources, the entire US media is controlled by 5-6 news organizations and these organizations are controlled by select Elites who tell them what to Pump or not pump. If you are the typical "Joe 6 pack" then you will follow the herd to the slaughter house, nobody ever learns, every cycle the same people get wiped out because they follow the herd, be a "Contrarian" think for yourself and come to your own conclusions after doing adequate research.

[AwabiHunter]

I'm 85% out. When do I go back in?

Its going to be awhile my friend, things never got fixed in 2008 they just got pushed down the road as all central banks flooded the world economy with Fiat toilet paper to push off the inevitable "Correction" that was necessary for free markets to prosper, every asset class is in a Hyper Bubble the biggest in history, the only reason the DOW got back to 18 K is because stock buybacks fueled by cheap money, don't let the stock market fool you, the time to buy is when the DOW gets back down to 6 K or less, blood in the streets and everyone is afraid to deploy cash, that's when to buy stocks. Right now you want to be all cash and sitting on the sidelines or even better than cash is precious metals or mining shares, stay away from GLD / SLV and any other ETF they are all bullshit, own physical or in a very very reputable "Allocated" fund / trust such as Sprott up in Canada, if investing in Miners do your homework their are a lot of clowns out there but guys like Keith Newmeyer with First Majestic, Marin Katusa, Rick Rule, Doug Casey etc.. Are legit dudes, so if you want to deploy cash right now do it in precious metals if you want to do Financial equities etc. Then wait, stay the F away from Bonds I don't care what country, the bond market is going to crap and any fool investing in Bonds will get wiped out.

[DeepShot]

I'm 85% out. When do I go back in?

You are right about 401 K's they will crash and crash worse than 2008, it is not the time to buy anything other than gold or silver, all asset classes will get wiped out soon as we are in one of the biggest Fed induced market bubbles in history, get out of the stock market trust me.

[Bikini]

I don't under stand how this shit works everybody knows when you sell off market goes down so why everytime they hear bad news everyone sell? Isn't that what makes the dow go down? Then they hear good news than market goes up? Why not just not panic leave things as is and market should be stable? As I said I not sure how the market works.

The big money says: Buy on the rumor, sell on the news.

[DaViper]

You are right about 401 K's they will crash and crash worse than 2008, it is not the time to buy anything other than gold or silver, all asset classes will get wiped out soon as we are in one of the biggest Fed induced market bubbles in history, get out of the stock market trust me.

I don't under stand how this shit works everybody knows when you sell off market goes down so why everytime they hear bad news everyone sell? Isn't that what makes the dow go down? Then they hear good news than market goes up? Why not just not panic leave things as is and market should be stable? As I said I not sure how the market works.

[AwabiHunter]

Hold you ass again as the US markets is getting a whooping. There goes your 401 k again. Not really. This is the time to BUY!!

You are right about 401 K's they will crash and crash worse than 2008, it is not the time to buy anything other than gold or silver, all asset classes will get wiped out soon as we are in one of the biggest Fed induced market bubbles in history, get out of the stock market trust me.

[AwabiHunter]

Global Markets definitely got an ass kicking today. I don't think this is permanent though. It's going to take 2 years for the UK to fully separate from the EU.

Global markets are likely to fluctuate during this process.

http://money.cnn.com/data/markets

2-3 years if someone has the balls to step up and spearhead it and invoke article 50 which is what makes it binding, right now it is not binding and will go no where unless someone invokes article 50 and with David Cameron stepping down I doing think nobody will want to step into a hot mess and if they do you can bet they won't push this through that's why everyone is talking about "Informal Meetings" and take it slow etc, nothing will happen, but it has and will continue to throw world markets into turmoil. This is just part of the bigger problem, the main problem is global debt and the lack of real Liquidity backed up by real tangible collateral or the lack thereof, buckle up boys we are in for a worse roller coaster than in 2008.

[DarthTyranus]

Hold on tight. Shit is hitting the fan.

Global Markets definitely got an ass kicking today. I don't think this is permanent though. It's going to take 2 years for the UK to fully separate from the EU.

Global markets are likely to fluctuate during this process.

http://money.cnn.com/data/markets

[Ring60]

Short equities and bonds and long gold miners, this vote was not surprising given the discontent that is escalating everywhere, this is just the start my Brotha strap on the seat belts and get ready.

Hold on tight. Shit is hitting the fan.

[AwabiHunter]

Hold you ass again as the US markets is getting a whooping. There goes your 401 k again. Not really. This is the time to BUY!!

Short equities and bonds and long gold miners, this vote was not surprising given the discontent that is escalating everywhere, this is just the start my Brotha strap on the seat belts and get ready.

[ItsNotButter]

Hold you ass again as the US markets is getting a whooping. There goes your 401 k again. Not really. This is the time to BUY!!

[Local1234]

I don't know why the Advertiser puts this story out online with so little information! I mean at the very least, get the name of the bar or don't put anything in.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/breaki...na-street-bar/

It was reported at Misty on TV.