The below article was published in February. Since, we’ve some news about Sam Brinton (aka Sister Ray Dee O’Active). He was hired by the Department of Energy as the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition which, I would think, is a very serious position. As I noted below, Brinton sees himself as a kind of Superhero: “…by day I work to save lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth from suicide, and by night I work to save the world from nuclear waste related environmental disaster.”
Seems that the deputy assistant secretary of blah, blah, blah has run afoul of the law. He stands accused of stealing a woman’s bag at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport which, according to the article, is a felony. There is no word if the charge carries jail time and, if convicted, in which gender jail (insert preferred pronoun here) would serve.
Strange times indeed.
February 15, 2022
I try not to judge. It is the basis of my faith and religion but I’m not always very good at it. I do not write this to make fun of the nominee for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the Office of Nuclear Energy in the Department of Energy. I’m not going to denigrate his lifestyle simply because I don't want my own lifestyle to be denigrated. Plus, it’s just wrong to do so.
Sam Brinton has been put forth by the Biden administration as the aforementioned deputy assistant secretary of blah, blah, blah. I don’t know anything about his background though he earned dual masters degrees from MIT in Nuclear Engineering/Technology and Policy Program (TPP), according to a write-up in MIT’s Institute for Data, Systems, and Society website. He has the degrees so that’s something. Is he well qualified for the position? That’s up to the senate to decide. [edit: it is unclear whether Brinton faced senate confirmation] And I have to say the guy is gung-ho (from the MIT IDSS article):
What was the focus of your research? What sort of knowledge and disciplines did it bring together? How are you making an impact?
My husband sometimes describes me as a weird kind of Batman. Why, you might ask? Because by day I work to save lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) youth from suicide, and by night I work to save the world from nuclear waste related environmental disaster.
I sometimes wonder if there is a checklist someone is keeping for Biden. LGBTQ Super Hero? Check.
No, my concern is of another nature. Author Suzanne Collins wrote the Hunger Games trilogy about a dystopian nation that is separated into districts and controlled by a far off capitol. (There had been a civil war and the authoritarians won.) My daughter was reading the books and so I chose to do so, as a way of judging what was being taught in school. I did the same with the Harry Potter series. I was quite entertained—enough so to watch the movies. I really like dystopian movies, even the zombie ones.
I remember, at the time of the first movie release, different Hollywood elites “in the know” spouting off about how this was a tale of what the world would be if the evil conservatives—homophobes and racists all—took control of the country.
What I did not see in the movies was a far right homophobic/racist regime imposing its will upon others. It is a heroic tale of a simple girl facing down a cruel, totalitarian ruling class that used coercion and force to maintain its hold on power. And of course, my immediate thought was that these books, and subsequent movies, exposed the true nature of the bi-coastal ruling elite.
In the books, and movies, the characters that inhabit the capitol are all primped-up in a futuristic fashion that echo their total ignorance for the suffering of their fellow citizens. Those in the hinterlands are dirty simpletons, the great unwashed; they serve a purpose to fulfill their pampered lifestyle.
Does Mr. Brinton’s nomination represent a box to be checked or does it truly signify the severing between the nation’s citizens and its ruling class?