Lauren Nelson is an advocate and aspiring ally focused on intersectional justice. When she's not gabbing on social media or chasing after her precocious seven year old, you'll find her researching and writing extensively on the subjects of politics, policy, culture, neurodiversity, and faith for The Friendly Atheist and Rethink the Rant.
On November 27th, 57-year-old Robert Lewis Dear entered the Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado Springs and opened fire with what was reported to be an AK-47. Most expressed horror as the bloody standoff stretched over hours while others were engaging in mental acrobatics trying to deny the fact that we were watching an ongoing terrorist attack. Some claimed the shooting was taking place over a quarter mile away and the media was blowing it out of proportion. Some insisted it was a bank robbery gone bad and Planned Parenthood just happened to be where Dear had holed up. Fox News allegedly claimed he may have been a member of ISIS while still others on the paranoid fringes starting screaming “false flag.” Read more
Politicians will do just about anything to avoid talking about certain subjects. Like, for instance, when a domestic terrorist uses convenient lies about Planned Parenthood that were perpetuated by politicians as possible justification to kill three and wound nine. Obviously, no politician who had any part in propagating those lies is going to want to admit they screwed up. So what do they do? If you’re Ted Cruz, you deflect all criticism by saying the Democrats are the real fans of violent offenders. Read more
Donald Trump is winning over the Religious Right. That’s weird for a number of reasons, and also highlights the fact that Christian leaders aren’t always as influential as they hope to be. So while yesterday’s news may not translate in the polls, Trump’s hysterical stumble is still worth a laugh. It all started with Trump and a scheduled meeting with 100 black religious leaders. He has long promised supporters that he would “get the black vote” (despite polling at 3 to 10 percent among black voters) and had assumed that this meeting was a formality in gaining the endorsement of these black leaders, which would, in theory, bolster his claims. Unsurprisingly, he was wrong: Read more
On November 15th, Jamar Clark was shot by police officers in Minneapolis. Details surrounding the shooting are contested, but far from encouraging. One side says Clark was interfering with paramedics who were helping a woman he had allegedly attacked. Another side says he was only trying to speak with her, not interfering with the medical help, and not resisting arrest at all. The family revealed that Clark was shot directly in the head, execution style. Though the public has demanded the release of available video of the shooting, authorities have refused, stating it would jeopardize the investigation. In a city that had been described as “one bullet away from Ferguson,” the protests erupted quickly. Gathered outside the police station, protesters demanded justice for the death of another unarmed black man. Their emotions were running high, though the demonstration itself was peaceful. That is, until a group of self-avowed white supremacists opened fire on the crowd, hitting five. As protesters screamed to the police that people had been shot, officers reportedly said, “This is what you wanted,” before shutting their doors. When they finally did come out, they maced the protesters instead of pursuing the assailants. In the meantime, protests continue in Chicago after the city finally released, after 400 days and a court order, video of an officer executing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald, shooting him in the back as he walked away. Community members are furious that it took over a year to bring charges against the officer in question, especially with video evidence so clear, as he continued to collect a paycheck. Outrage was particularly fanned when it was revealed that officers had collectively conspired to erase more than 80 minutes of footage from nearby surveillance tapes. The city was aware of the impact the video’s release would have, stating plainly that they were preparing for mass unrest. These aren’t isolated incidents. The names Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Freddie Gray, Reika Boyd, Sandra Bland, and too many others compose a kaleidoscope of lives ended too soon at the hands of law enforcement, often without consequence. And despite efforts to cast these victims as deserving of what happened to them and dismiss concerns of Black Lives Matter protesters, the data shows that these are not one-off cases. Regardless of whether the individual is resisting arrest or not, black individuals are far more likely to be on the receiving end of a police officer’s bullet. Read more
It appears as though Republican presidential candidates can’t help themselves; bigot is just their default setting. The latest in a seemingly never-ending river of right wing noxious drivel comes from a candidate desperately trying to keep a doomed campaign running. During a radio interview in New Hampshire, the beleaguered Jeb Bush doubled down on his “ONLY SAVE THE CHRISTIANS” rhetoric regarding Syrian refugees, saying: Read more
