Human Rights, Very Human Wrongs

America under the Trump regime continues the spiral into dangerous rogue nation status as we join countries like North Korea, Libya and Iran in refusing to be a part of the UN Human Rights Council.

The United States announced it is leaving the U.N.’s Human Rights Commission on Tuesday. 

The move comes at time when the U.N. Human Rights Commission (a 47-member body with rotating terms) and refugee agency have both condemned the president’s policy of separating children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border before they get the chance to apply for refugee status. On Monday, the U.N. rights chief called the Trump administration of splitting migrant families “unconscionable.” 

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley announced the U.S. departure from the U.N. rights body at the State Department. 

“We have no doubt there was once a noble vision for this council, but we need to be honest, the Human Rights Council is a poor defender of human rights,” Pompeo said. 

“For too long the human rights council has been a protector of human rights abusers and a cesspool of political bias. Regrettably, it is now clear that our call for reform was not heeded,” Haley said. At last year’s session, she announced that the United States would consider withdrawing from the council unless some changes were made and spoke about a “biased” stance against Israel.

In explaining the decision, both Pompeo and Haley also said that the council repeatedly singled out Israel. 

Haley has had a contentious relationship with many at the U.N., not only within the Human Rights Council (which is investigating U.S. ally Saudi Arabia for its killing civilians in the war in Yemen), but with the General Assembly as well, which Haley has accused of having an anti-Israel bias. 

With the exception of Libya, who was kicked off the U.N. rights council, no country has ever left the body, and the United States would be the first to drop out.

So yes, having the head of the UN HRC call Trump's child interment policy out as a human rights violation on Monday resulted in America leaving the council on Tuesday, this wasn't an accident.

As we continue to careen down the path towards authoritarian state, I wonder...

When will the rest of the world decide to do something about us?

Welcome To Gunmerica, Con't

Not only does the US officially have more firearms than people, but guns outpace people in America by nearly 20% as of 2017.

There are more than 393 million civilian-owned firearms in the United States, or enough for every man, woman and child to own one and still have 67 million guns left over. 

Those numbers come from the latest edition of the global Small Arms Survey, a project of the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. 

The report, which draws on official data, survey data and other measures for 230 countries, finds that global firearm ownership is heavily concentrated in the United States. In 2017, for instance, Americans made up 4 percent of the world's population but owned about 46 percent of the entire global stock of 857 million civilian firearms. 

With an estimated 120.5 guns for every 100 residents, the firearm ownership rate in the United States is twice that of the next-highest nation, Yemen, with just 52.8 guns per 100 residents. In raw number terms, the closest country to the United States is India, with 71.1 million firearms in circulation. These numbers do not include firearms owned by law enforcement agencies or militaries.

On gun ownership, the United States stands out among the world's wealthiest nations, with an ownership rate more than three times higher than the rate in the next-highest country, Canada. The gun ownership rate in the United States is more than six times higher than the average among similar wealthy nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

I'd say as of right now, we're well over 400 million civilian firearms in this country.  And lets remember the rate of firearm ownership among US adults has actually gone down over the last 30 years, meaning that more and more often we're seeing firearms as massive stockpiles in the hands of a few people.  Some charts:

That's not healthy for anyone, folks.  It's not like Japan or Belgium or the UK are third-world hellholes, guys.  They get by with literally a small fraction of the firearms we have.

No wonder everyone else thinks we're nuts.

StupidiNews!

• For the second time in less than a month, ICE agents have conducted a major raid on an Ohio business that allegedly employed undocumented workers and made over 100 arrests.
• New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo says that the state will sue the Trump regime to stop the practice of separating migrant children from their families at the border.
• Pope Francis says that populism is no solution to immigration and is condemning separating children from families at borders, calling the practice "contrary to our Catholic values" and "immoral".
• The White House is declaring China's economic policy as "theft of intellectual property" and a threat to US economic security, and says America will take whatever measures needed to defend itself.
• Internet security experts are warning that the Satori botnet has resurfaced again, this time taking control of DSL routers in Brazil, South Korea, Italy, the US, and Russia.