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White House appoints first transgender LGBT liaison

I know that everyone has been distracted, what with the Ides of March passing, five primaries, and the beginning of March Madness, but you know what?

Other things continue to happen.

 photo Raffie_zpswwbfwyrp.pngWhy, just Monday the White House appointed the first ever transgender person to the post of LGBT liaison. She's a Jewish Latina trans woman (you know, the person you joke about when trying to be over-the-top absurdly politically correct), named Raffi Freedman-Gurspan.

Freedman-Gurspan became the first transgender staffer appointed to the White House in 2015, working as the outreach and recruitment director in the presidential personnel office.

Raffi's new official title is Outreach & Recruitment Director for Presidential Personnel and Associate Director for Public Engagement.

Classic diaries: Let's see some optimism around here, eh?

Author's note: this is another diary from the classics over at Daily Kos, this one from 2013. I was responding to an obtuse diary titled "what happened to the energy of hope here at DailyKos?" which has since been deleted, thank goodness. Here I lay the ground for an optimistic alternative to the usual phoniness.

Hellraisers Journal: Review of John Spargo's "The Bitter Cry of the Children,” Enslaved at Ages 4 & 5!


Capital has neither morals nor ideals; its interests are always
and everywhere expressible in terms of cash profits.
Capital in the United states in the twentieth century calls for children
as loudly as it called in England a century ago.
-John Spargo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Friday March 16, 1906
From The New York Times: "The Children of the Poor," Part II

In its March 3rd edition, the Times published an in-depth review of the newly published book by John Spargo which documents the suffering of the millions of children who are born and reared in poverty within our great American prosperity. Yesterday we present part one of that review, entitled "Children of the Poor." We conclude the article today with part two.

CHILDREN OF THE POOR [Part II]
-----

A Passionless but Terrible Description of
Their Condition in This Country.*
-----
Bitter Cry, Spargo, Little Tenement Toilers, Feb 1906.png

This is what I think will happen - simply common sense

The media wants to call it over. Hillary herself wants to call it over and move onto Trump. Trump also probably wants to call his race over and move along to Hillary Clinton. The media and everyone will ignore Bernie and start to focus almost exclusively on Trump and Clinton. Cruz and Kasich will be two baying hounds in the wilderness. Bernie will just keep on keeping on.

The Looting of America

A couple of days ago, I came across Catherine Austin Fitts for the first time. Fitts, a Wall Street investor and former Assistant Secretary of Housing, uncovered the methods for sucking trillions of dollars out of the US. She explains that it is a coordinated effort between the government and the big banks -- organized crime, she calls it.

She's an excellent speaker and explains it all really well so I recommend that you listen to her rather than have me write out the juicy bits.

Seekers of Smooth Things

This election has radicalized me.
I will cry out against the capitalist system that destroys the lives of working people and the poor.
I will never give in to corporations having complete control over my awareness of reality.
No corporatist of any political party will ever have my vote, and moreover they have won themselves a foe.

My Fellow Berniecrats, Berniacs, and Berners

My fellow Berniecrats, Berniacs, Berners, or whatever else you call yourselves: I know today is frustrating. It was always going to be frustrating, at least through today.

Though we've lost some states today, the margins matter, and it looks like we will do better than expected in some cases. But in all, through today was always going to be our toughest slog. This is her finest hour this primary season, and that hour is coming to a close.

Shakespeare on transgender

 photo DTempest-2609_fs_zpswxsor17u.jpgUniversity of British Columbia professor of English Literature Mary Ann Saunders is presenting at a conference which begins on Thursday. The conference is called 2016/Moving Trans History Forward: Building Communities -- Sharing Conections and it is being held at the University of Victoria. Keynote speakers are Jamison Green of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and SiriusXM founder Martine Rothblatt.

Professor Saunders' paper is The (Transgender) Tempest: Shakespeare as Trans Archive. She will be speaking, of course, about the character Ariel, the spirit who is the sorcerer Prospero's indentured servant.

On three occasions during the play, Prospero orders Ariel to take on female form.

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