Good morning and Happy Thursday! Thanks for starting your day with me.
I logged on to social media yesterday morning to find a full-blown screaming match about “separating the art from the artist.” After a few moments of confusion, I realized what had happened: The first trailer for HBO’s new Harry Potter series was out. I’m not going to link it here because fuck JK Rowling, but a quick Google search should pull it up right away for you, if you’re curious to see it.
I will always fondly remember the early days of Harry Potter-mania. I started seeing adults reading “The Sorcerer’s Stone” on the El, and eventually noticed one of the guys I worked with was reading it. “Is that any good?” I asked him, which led him to grabbing me by the lapels and yelling, “YES! YESSSSSS! READ IT! READ IIIIITTTTTT!!!” So I did. I was instantly captivated, delighted with Rowling’s ability to turn a phrase, to come up with words that were so delicious to roll around in your mouth. Words like “Hogwarts,” “Dumbledore,” and “Quidditch.” They had the same effect on me then that words like “Mesopotamia” and “bamboozled” had on me as a child — they just felt good to say.
Did it bother me that goblins with hooked noses were the bankers? That Hermione’s curly hair, which sounded so much like mine, was derided as her worst feature? That there were few people of color and that the best name Rowling could come up with for an Asian student was “Cho Chang”? Yes, it did. At the same time, kids were lining up at midnight outside bookstores, and when was the last time that happened? No one else seemed bothered by those things, so I kept my mouth shut.
In hindsight, there are so many things about Harry Potter that are problematic, but none of them are as terrible as Rowling herself, who has completely trashed her legacy by her weird fascination with other people’s genitalia. These days, Rowling is the queen of the TERFS (trans-exclusive radical feminists), the group of women who feel that trans women somehow threaten their existence. I still haven’t figured out how that’s supposed to work.
All of this brings me back to separating the art from the artist. It’s a concept people have flung in my direction over and over again, whether defending R. Kelly’s music, Paul Walker’s movies, or Ben Roethlisberger’s performance on the gridiron. We all probably have artists we struggle to consign to the trash heap — I personally haven’t been able to give up Michael Jackson or the Mamas and the Papas, despite the horrific acts both MJ and John Phillips are accused of. And to some extent, funding their empires by listening to their music probably contributes to their ability to defend their reputations. I have to make peace with that, somehow.
But neither Michael Jackson nor John Phillips is making new music, and neither of them has set up organizations specifically designed to make the lives of the most marginalized group in America miserable, as Rowling has.
J.K. Rowling has created an organization dedicated to offering legal funding for cases concerning what she calls “women’s sex-based rights,” a euphemism for the anti-trans advocacy to which she has devoted herself and, seemingly, every waking hour of her life.
As its name suggests, the J.K. Rowling Women’s Fund (JKRWF) will be entirely funded by the author turned anti-trans activist, whose net worth was estimated in 2024 to be £945 million ($1.2 billion).
I find it hard to believe that Rowling actually knows any trans people. If she did, it would be impossible for her to continue on this ridiculous crusade. If you have trans people in your life that you love, you probably feel the same.
It’s impossible for any of us to be lily white when it comes to the art we consume — there are simply too many bad actors out there. Should we give up every movie Harvey Weinstein ever produced? Are men’s professional sports entirely off the table because of the athletes who sexually assault and batter women? Every time the Red Hot Chili Peppers (one of my favorite bands of all time) comes up on a playlist, my husband gleefully reminds me that Anthony Kiedis (63) dated a 19-year-old recently. Why doesn’t that bother me? (It does.) Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page was “in a relationship” with a 14-year-old Lori Mattix when he was 28. David Bowie reportedly had sex with (read: sexually assaulted) Mattix when she was 15. I don’t have the answers, and we all have to find where our personal lines are.
For me, that line comes at enriching artists who are actively harming other people, like Rowling is doing. I already owned all the Led Zeppelin and RHCP art I will ever buy before I learned about the misdeeds of their famous men, but JK Rowling is someone I can refuse to finance right now. I once loved to lose myself in the Potterverse, but I can’t, in good conscience, contribute to anything that is going to harm trans people, who are already four times as likely to be the victims of violent crime as the rest of us. Trans women do not threaten my gender, nor do they dilute what it means to be a woman. To the contrary, my life is better because of the trans people in it, who have taught me that what connects us is so much more important than what differentiates us from each other.
So there will be no HBO Harry Potter series for me. Frankly, I hope the entire thing tanks and it costs Rowling a fortune. (It won’t.)
In other news: A human trafficking victim has been detained by ICE; A “catastrophic El Niño"?; the DOJ has been lying to judges for a year; and The High Note.
Here we go.
ICE detains a human trafficking victim while her abuser walks free
In the grand scheme of things, punishing a woman who has been trafficked to the US while her abuser walks around free as a bird is extremely on-brand for the Trump administration. That doesn’t make it any less horrifying.
A Venezuelan mother of two who was allegedly trafficked to the US has been unlawfully detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and could soon be deported, according to her lawyers.
The woman has applications in process for asylum and a visa designed for victims of trafficking.
But she was arrested at a routine check-in with the authorities this January and separated from her two children, aged 18 months and four. Meanwhile, her alleged trafficker – who, according to a habeas petition filed in court, allegedly lured her to the US after impregnating her and under the false promises of living “together as a family” – is free.
***
The woman, whose identity the Guardian is withholding for her safety and shall refer to as Flora, a pseudonym, came to the US in 2023 from Colombia but found that when she arrived at the home of the man who had invited her, she was plunged into a nightmare.
The man allegedly “repeatedly raped her, forced her to perform unpaid domestic and commercial labor, and subjected her to severe physical violence, threats, isolation, food deprivation and other forms of abuse”, according to the habeas petition, filed in court in the western district of Louisiana.
I imagine that there are a lot of these stories out there, but not everyone can afford a lawyer, and lawyers aren’t appointed in immigration court. If there were any decent people in the Trump administration, they’d care when something like this happens. But there aren’t, and they don’t. I’m just grateful she has good lawyers.
Oh, hey, a “catastrophic” El Niño might be on the way
This is exactly what we need right now.
A rare super El Nino could form later this year, which could result in “globally catastrophic” extreme weather and a spike in global temperatures lasting into 2027.
An El Nino typically associated with a hot, dry spring for Australia is likely to form towards the end of winter, international forecasting agencies suggest.
European models suggest a 20-25 per cent chance of it being an intense event, known as a super or very strong El Nino, which has only occurred three times since 1980 and each time was followed by a year of record-breaking heat globally.
I’m sure this is nothing to worry about.
“It would be a globally catastrophic event if it’s a super El Nino because we know that those super El Ninos can bring horrendous flooding rains to Latin America, severe drought and bushfire to Australia, Indonesia, and parts of Asia, and it even teleconnects to Antarctica … and can lead to more rapid rates of ice shelf melt,” England said.
“It’s a global phenomenon, it’s extreme in magnitude in terms of how far it reaches, and the amount it changes our climate patterns, and it costs us deeply because there are disruptions to what we do, everything from fisheries to heat extremes to flooding, rains and drought.”
Nothing to see here. I’m sure the Trump administration will be well-prepared.
The DOJ has been lying in court for a year
It turns out that the “guidance” the DOJ has been relying on to justify ICE deportations for a year “does not and has never applied to civil immigration enforcement actions.” Whoopsie.
According to documents filed this morning by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of NY, ICE has been lying for a year — not only to the public, but to the courts and to prosecutors — about being authorized to make arrests at 26 Federal Plaza and other immigration courts. (1/2)
— Brad Lander (@bradlander.bsky.social) 2026-03-25T18:24:15.065Z
This means that the DOJ is admitting that ICE and CBP never had the right to make immigration arrests in federal courthouses. Remember all those videos we saw of ICE grabbing people as they came out of courtrooms, and the scuffles (one involving Brad Lander!) that ensued? Yeah, none of that was legal. At a minimum, all those cases should be thrown out, but most of those people have probably already been deported. That aside, the levels of idiocy at the DOJ have reached an incredible new high. Add this to the list of things that Pam Bondi should be dragged before Congress to answer for, and, if there were any justice in the world, she’d be disbarred immediately. What a freakin’ mess.
The High Note
Each Day, I do my best to leave you with a smile on your face, a song in your heart, and the will to fight another day.
Here’s Mumford & Sons Tiny Desk Concert at NPR:
Hey, survive and advance out there today, kids. Don’t let the bastards get you down.
