It has been ten whole days since I wrote about the murder of a trans woman of color.

The respite couldn't last.

In the early evening on Thursday Zella Ziona, 21, was walking in an alleyway between two shopping centers in Montgomery Village, Maryland when she was surrounded by four or five teenagers. According to a witness, one of the youths pulled out a gun and shot Ziona in the head.

Zella was rushed to a hospital, where she died.

Police initially identified the victim as a woman, but by later in the evening insisted on misgendering and dead-naming her. As usual, the media followed suit.

An impromptu vigil took place last night.

This is an article that I wrote back in 2012 that in light of The Intercept's recent articles seems worth revisiting.

It's 2020, and unless Mr. Obama has successfully declared himself President-for-life, somebody else is President. Perhaps this time the lesser evil has lost. Thanks to the groundwork laid by President Obama and the boys at DARPA, the new president has the sort of technology that dystopian fiction is based upon.

In 2020 the president has at his disposal the drone technology to surveil anyone, anywhere on earth. The technology has the visual resolution to see disturbed dirt from a mile high in the sky and track footprints, to identify individuals using biometric data, even to "see" through walls and ceilings. Drones will also be outfitted with the means to collect electronic communications, phone calls, texts, gps location data, etc., creating a tool that can track individuals in the physical realm as well as their "footprints" in cyberspace to deliver the information needed for lethal actions

In 2020 the Earth will be surrounded by a triple canopy of drones at various heights to surveil us and deliver sudden death and destruction from above, wherever on earth or space the president desires:

At the lowest tier of this emerging U.S. aerospace shield, within striking distance of Earth in the lower stratosphere, the Pentagon is building an armada of 99 Global Hawk drones equipped with high-resolution cameras capable of surveilling all terrain within a 100-mile radius, electronic sensors to intercept communications, efficient engines for continuous 24-hour flights, and eventually Triple Terminator missiles to destroy targets below.

The Journal of the American Medical Association's online Medical column for October is Laura Buchholz' Transgender Care Moves Into the Mainstream

Despite the name of the article, Ms Buchholz highlights the difficulty transgender people have in obtaining competent medical care.

Trans people have been excluded from medical care, and their issues have been deemed not medical and not important.

--Joseph Freund, MD, a primary care physician at Franklin Family Practice in Des Moines, Iowa

Dr Freund recounted his struggles with insurance companies over reimbursement for transgender care, yet another barrier that transgender patients encounter.

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues and folk musician Taj Mahal. Enjoy!

"I have this beetle here in one hand," Aristotle proclaimed one day, "with a single oval shell and eight jointed legs, and I have here in my other hand this second beetle of lighter hue which has twelve legs and a shell that is longer and segmented. Can you explain the differences?"

HT to Common Dreams for carrying this new trove exposed by the Intercept.

'Kill or capture' war crimes r us illegal drone use now exposed for the fail it is, even as use may now be spread to Africa and even Bernie Sanders may not rein it in. Unless we 'help' him.

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/10/15/drone-papers-leaked-military...

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features blues guitarist Dave Specter. Enjoy!