https://time.com/7269604/el-salvador-photos-venezuelan-detainees/

Do not turn away, as much as you want to. This is being done in our name.

«After being shaved, the detainees were stripped naked. More of them began to whimper; the hard faces I saw on the plane had evaporated. It was like looking at men who passed through a time machine. In two hours, they aged 10 years. Their nice clothes were not gathered or catalogued but simply thrust into black garbage bags to be thrown out with their hair.

They entered their cold cells, 80 men per cell, with steel planks for bunks, no mats, no sheets, no pillow. No television. No books. No talking. No phone calls and no visitors. For these Venezuelans, it was not just a prison they had arrived at. It was exile to another world, a place so cold and far from home they may as well have been sent into space, nameless and forgotten. Holding my camera, it was as if I watched them become ghosts.»

«Once women were allowed into competitive sport in the early 20th century, those whose athletic ability was on par with their male counterparts, or whose physique was too manly, were disqualified from competition as deviants of the gender order. Through the history of women’s sport, female athletes have been exposed to intrusive gender verification processes including medical inspection of external genitalia and chromosome testing that produced many false positives and had catastrophic impacts on athletes’ careers. The current climate is one that focuses on testosterone levels of those athletes whose gender is deemed to be ‘suspicious.’

…

the literature shows that no trans woman has ever won an Olympic medal ever since they have been allowed to compete in 2004 (Ivy and Friedlaender, 2020).»

Don’t even need to look into theories about testosterone, although this paper does that, too.

https://cces.ca/sites/default/files/content/docs/2024-01/transgender-women-athletes-and-elitesport-a-scientific-review-en.pdf (PDF; no, I did not read the whole thing).

Reached via https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/trans-moral-panic-falsespor

https://www.politico.com/news/2025/03/22/donald-trump-trans-athletes-maine-00003871

Seems like all we need for 2026 campaign ads is Trump bloviating and the punch line “Had enough?”

A little theology from Wonkette:

«The couple helpfully explained that the child’s death was actually the will of God, who they believe wanted to spare her from this terrible world. To be fair, I suppose he would not have had that opportunity had the girl been vaccinated, but if he were really committed to killing a six-year-old child, I’m sure he’d find a way.»

https://www.wonkette.com/p/measles-are-good-for-you-say-parents

«Under the plan approved by the Bundestag, defense spending above 1 percent of gross domestic product would be exempted from Germany’s constitutionally enshrined debt brake. Proponents of the brake, which limits the structural budget deficit to 0.35 percent of GDP except in emergencies, cherish it as a pillar of Germany’s signature fiscal responsibility. Critics call it a fiscal straitjacket.»

https://wapo.st/41JvTlu (gift)

This seems like a big deal.

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/20/opinion/autism-diagnosis-rfk-vaccines.html?unlocked_article_code=1.5U4.7kpq.hnnqd5zSv_5o&smid=url-share (gift)

LOTS of good stuff in this article (turnout doesn’t help; the party needs to be more progressive but not go overboard; etc.), but I’m gonna zoom in and focus on AI for a split second:

«I’m not an AI expert by any means, but AI capabilities are increasing dramatically. And AI experts are very, very bullish on the extent to which AI systems are going to be able to replace some fraction of jobs. The prediction markets say this, too. And I think something that’s really important is that **regardless of whether it’s going to happen or not, the public believes it will happen**. [emphasis mine.]»

https://www.vox.com/politics/403364/tik-tok-young-voters-2024-election-democrats-david-shor

«I was getting tired of being told what to do. Self-determination was a pain in the ass sometimes but it beat the alternative by a lot.

I made sure my collar was folded down so you could see my data port (though anybody who tried to stick a combat override module in there was going to get a violent surprise) and walked calmly out of the bunkroom into the galley. Amena was sitting on the table, frowning at me. She said, “What are you two fighting about now?”

ART said, I made SecUnit’s uniform too nice.

Amena nodded. “You do look great.”

I’m not even going to dignify that with a reaction.»

“Network Effect: A Murderbot Novel (The Murderbot Diaries Book 5)” by Martha Wells.

It just occurred to me that there’s no way any teevee show can capture this, unless it is 100% pure finest uncut art, which it won’t be.