A reminder that epithets with the suffix -tard are derivative from retard & abusive to those with learning disabilities. I have a commitment to my brother & to my friends with learning disabilities not to allow that on my Facebook wall or anywhere near me.

Drowning deaths of refugees from Africa rise right under nose of European Union navies

Capsized refugee boat (AFP:Getty Images) June 14 2016

When the history of this era is written, it will be in requiems & laments for the millions who have suffered the unbearable & the tens of thousands who have died for the gods of neoliberal plunder. That’s why this is called the barbaric phase of capitalism.

With European Union navies & surveillance drones monitoring “the world’s deadliest migrant crossing” from Libya to Italy, at least 2,856 refugees have died this year crossing the Mediterranean–the overwhelming majority of them Africans from the Libyan coast.

Just in the past several days, the bodies of 117 African refugees, including children, washed up on the shores of Libya. The photos are too gruesome to show. The crime too unspeakable for words. The racism as monstrous as colonialism.

Those of us who witness all this must speak out massively & publicly demanding that immigration is a human right & that every nation open its damn borders. We must demand the end of wars & the end of sweatshop economics. Because it isn’t history that will grieve, but us. We must let our grief fuel our outrage that human beings have become so dispensable & the sacrifice paid for greed.

(Photo of capsizing refugee boat from AFP/Getty Images

Conspiracy-mongering is not an analytic method. It is the refusal to evaluate conflicting information, to vet sources, to develop analytic skills based on what can be known for certain. Instead it invents & runs wild with speculations & suspicions. It is the paranoia of libertarians & has led to immense political problems. Most especially in understanding where justice stands.

If there is any conspiracy to the Orlando massacre, it is the twist from homophobia to Islamophobia. If the US government presents it as a homophobic attack, then the denial of civil rights to LGBT (except for marriage, toilets, & service in the military) all over the US are brought into the spotlight. And if there is one thing this massacre should highlight it is the right of LGBT people not to be fired, evicted, or persecuted for their sexuality.

The FBI has made it quite clear that Omar Mateen’s boasts about ties to al-Qaeda were macho blustering to intimidate & impress coworkers. His family, including his ex-wife, has made it clear he didn’t really have a religious bone in his body. That means investigators have hit a dead-end in any connection of Mateen to Islam or to terrorism.

So why is news reporting that Investigators are still looking into whether religious extremism motivated the attack? Why are they going after the FBI for not finding any links to terrorist groups–as if they bungled the investigation rather than eliminated that as a factor? Why is the narrative all about homeland security against Islamic extremism when it is clear Mateen was a psychotic, homophobic misfit, & according to some reports (including in the LA Times), possibly a shamed, self-hating homosexual?

If this investigation becomes a drum to beat Islamophobia, if the FBI folds & fabricates links to ISIS, all future investigations become suspect–just as they have been for decades for Black youth in the US.

There are a few memes circulating about Seddique Mateen, the Afghan-born father of the Orlando gunman, accusing him of having a nefarious relationship with the US government, especially the CIA. They even suggest Omar the shooter, may have been a CIA operative.

The accusations against the father are extremely serious but they become scurrilous if they are not true–& actually threatening to him. An Afghan friend claims the accusations are false & that the sources originating them are disreputable. The father may be no prize package politically but being ardent in your hatreds is a far cry from being a psychotic CIA operative.

It would be the better part of discretion to refrain from circulating those memes & photos (which well may be photoshopped) until the dust has settled & we can find reputable sources of information. If they are not true, it would be terrible to destroy the reputation of the father who already has hell to pay for his son’s monstrous crimes.

An Afghan friend succinctly expresses the idiocies of US rightwing politics: “Some Americans are confused now whether to hate Muslims or gays.”