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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 28th, 2023

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  • A Japanese woman, Ami maybe, won the gold. I really liked the Lithuanian kid who came in second, she was fun to watch. And I liked the girl from the Netherlands who came in 4th. Bronze went to China’s 671, but her dancing struck me as a power performance more than an art or a form of play.

    I didn’t see Raygun till now because I only watched finals. Just didn’t have the time to watch it all. Stupid music licencing rules causing things to disappear.






  • I think you’re totally right about the permanent underclass thing. And it has been for a long time. This week I was looking into the history of education migrants’ kids in the US. Our current stance of educating kids came from Texas passing a law in the 70s to strip state funding for schools which chose to enroll the children of undocumented people. (Another case of Texas using its state power to bully people; it’s always fucking Texas). That law was challenged and in 1982 the Supreme Court ruled against it; Judge Brennan wrote an opinion specifically citing the creation of a permanent underclass of illiterate people not fit to contribute to any country. He called it “bad public policy.” It was crazy to see like, reasonable ideas about society come through in a supreme court ruling, that’s a long time past.

    I think it could be viable to lock up/fine into oblivion employers hiring migrant labor specifically to be abusive/cheap. But of course a lot of monied interests would be against it. America always seems terrified about scaring corporations off. And it’s so much easier to blame individuals and have them internalize the pain than to deal with the systems which set the situations.





  • So I think that you’re missing that this “controversy” started before this year’s Olympics began. In 2023, a boxing organization (IBA) based out of Russia flagged Khelif as not passing eligibility after she defeated a previously undefeated Russian boxer. Khelif’s disqualification meant the Russian woman kept her undefeated title. I’m lazy & going to copy from Wikipedia here:

    The Washington Post stated, “It remains unclear what standards Khelif and Lin Yu Ting failed [in 2023] to lead to the disqualifications”, further writing, “There never has been evidence that […] Khelif […] had XY chromosomes or elevated levels of testosterone.” The IBA did not reveal the testing methodology, stating the “specifics remain confidential”. At the time, Khelif said the ruling meant having “characteristics that mean I can’t box with women”, but said she was the victim of a “big conspiracy” regarding the disqualification. She initially appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport but the appeal was terminated since Khelif couldn’t pay the procedural costs. After the appeal, Khelif organised her own independent tests in order to clear her name and return to boxing.

    Alright back to my own words here. So the article goes on to say that in July of this year, the IBA said Khelif failed the test, but would not release the specifics about why exactly. The IOC said the ruling was “arbitrary” and “without due process”. That is the background that sets the stage for what happened when the Italian quit this year at the Olympics and everyone subsequently lost their shit.

    Here’s the Wikipedia article, though feel free to check out other reputable sites for more detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imane_Khelif?wprov=sfla1