caucus99percent

free-range politics, organic community

I can't help but be stunned by how, in 2016, we've arrived at this point.

In the summer of 2015 the National Center for Transgender Inequality initiated the largest survey of transgender people ever conducted: The U.S. Transgender Survey (USTS). There were 27,715 participants, including yours truly, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and American military bases overseas.

Which one are you - an Inside Insider, an Inside Outsider or an Outside Outsider? This questioned was inspired by reading a transcript of a Democracy Now conversation between Amy Goodman and Cornel West which prompted a flashback to my college sociology class and the concept of coalition triads.

Here’s the snippet of discussion which started this whole train of thought:

1. Send money. The Oceti Sakowin camp has been really stretched to the limit, first with the influx of veterans and other folks last weekend, and now dealing with the intense weather. Delivery trucks are having a hard time getting through, so donations of money are the best right now.

The full phrase is girding your loins with truth and putting on a breastplate of righteousness before going into battle for a just cause. That sounds like good advice to me; we're going to be standing in the full brunt of a storm of truthiness in the near future as TPTB and media elites 'splain to all the Little People why we can't have nice things like healthcare and retirement with dignity.

For pete f'ing sake! Must the Bernie wing fight neoliberal smears for eternity?

So I was watching a Standing Rock news TV program on CBC in Canada one night, and called a native buddy to get his take on it. He was appalled at what was happening, and knowing that I love Jackson Browne mentioned that he and Bonnie Raitt were playing at the event in support of the cause. Now, I was already planning on going to support the cause, but that cinched the deal.

The events of the 20th of November convinced me that I was going to go up to Standing Rock, and join the Water Protectors for a few days, at least. As I started getting prepared, Wesley Clark Jr. announced the "Veterans Stand With Standing Rock" mission, and it seemed like a good way for me to go up there. Unfortunately, it overlapped with my work schedule, but I managed to move a trip back, and have barely enough time to go up there with them, and back.

I'm sure you have heard about the Ghost Ship fire in Oakland by now.

Thirty-six people dead. At least three of the victims were transgender.

Cash Askew, 22, of Oakland, was part of the band Them Are Us Too. Askew recently told journalist Beth Winegarner, "As a young teenager, I was definitely attracted to goth and new wave in part because of the androgyny, and that aesthetic gave me a way to explore my gender expression before I could even come to terms with being transgender."