Human Rights

The military has been using drones in a lethal capacity for over a decade. The current administration has decided to increase the use of drones, and the number of civilian casualties overseas has increased. Drones have been used for the extrajudicial execution of American citizens overseas without trial. Senator Feinstein profits directly from the drone war. Donald Trump openly salivates about using more drones and Hillary “black teenagers are super predators that must be brought to heel” Clinton never saw an elementary school full of children of color she wouldn't bomb.

If Edward Snowden says something is even worse than it looks one should look at it twice. The tweet which said this refered directly to a New York Times article from February 25 with the headline "Obama Administration Set to Expand Sharing of Data That N.S.A. Intercepts." This initiative by the President during his last few months in office is the edge of a concerted effort to expand surveillance of the global public that is being mounted by every stakeholder group within the beltway.

FBI director James Comey has been amplifying his efforts to gain a winning edge in his public battle to force Apple to write specialized software for cracking iPhones. Although most of the tech industry has publicly lined up aside Apple, Comey found a friend in Bill Gates and a lackey at the Pew Foundation to try and spin the conversation. The conversation about an effective right to privacy is one that Comey has been planning for years ahead of action that the White House has been planning to take.

On January 16, the State of Virginia passed SB522, which would utterly gut Virginia's public records law, already one of the worst in the nation. The law, which is expected to pass the Virginia house and be signed by the governor, would make all information that would identify police immune to public records disclosure. It its the first such law in the nation, but considering the background of it's sponsor, Sen. John Cosgrove , it will likely not be the last. It is model legislation that is likely to be introduced around the country.

Prince Andrew has gotten some unflattering ink spilled on his name by the press recently. It began when Sharon Churcher, investigative editor of the National Enquirer, revealed that at least one woman has come forward with allegations that she was used by the royal as a sex slave after being groomed and procured by billionaire and convicted child prostitute solicitor Jeffery Epstein and his then girl friend, newspaper heiress Ghislaine Maxwell. Both the English and the American tabloid press are stringing the scandal along, yet simultaneously forgetting the past.

In the wake of the failure of a grand jury proceeding to indict Officer Darren Wilson in Ferguson Missouri, President Obama has finally taken a material rather than rhetorical step on the issue. The widespread unrest sparked by public anger at the killing of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown, who witnesses testified had his hands up surrendering to Wilson, could not be ignored by the Whitehouse any longer.

A Grand Jury decision on issuing an indictment of police involved in the Ferguson Missouri shooting of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown by a white police officer is expected with in days, perhaps even hours. Missouri, and the nation in general await, as decision not to indict is expected to be met with large scale protests while a decision to indict may well be met by celebration. Either way, Governor Nixon of Missouri has sent clear messages that protests will be met with repression.

The rash of publicity in the United States surrounding the ongoing pattern of murder of black citizens by law enforcement has prompted half-heartedcalls for reform. There is a presidential commission which already had conclusions in mind before it went to work. Those conclusions, echoed by some segments of the new civil rights movement, include body cameras on police officers.