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Breaking: Michigan House Passes Religious ‘License To Discriminate’ Bill

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Michigan House Republicans just passed a religious “license to discriminate” bill, which would allow anyone to refuse service to anyone and claim their “religious beliefs” require them to discriminate.

The Michigan House of Representatives, led by Speaker Jase Bolger (photo, above, left, with Gov. Rick Snyder,) just passed a bill that would allow discrimination to become sanction by the state. The Religious Freedom Restoration Act, akin to one that made nationwide headlines in Arizona but was vetoed, appears to merely force the government to step aside if a person’s “deeply-held religious beliefs” mandate they act, or not act, in a certain manner.

Supporters of these bills claim they allow people of faith to exercise their religion without government interference, but in reality, they are trojan horses, allowing rampant discrimination under the guise of religious observance.

For example, under the Religious Freedom law, a pharmacist could refuse to fill a doctor’s prescription for birth control, or HIV medication. An emergency room physician or EMT could refuse service to a gay person in need of immediate treatment. A school teacher could refuse to mentor the children of a same-sex couple, and a DMV clerk could refuse to give a driver’s license to a person who is divorced. 

Michigan Speaker Bolger fast-tracked the bill, which passed on partisan lines, 59-50. It now heads to the Michigan Senate, and if successful, to Republican Governor Rick Snyder. It is not known if Gov. Snyder would sign it. 

RELATED: Kansas Republican Promises To Pass Anti-Gay Marriage ‘Religious Freedom’ Bill

“I support individual liberty and I support religious freedom,” Bolger said today. “I have been horrified as some have claimed that a person’s faith should only be practiced while hiding in their home or in their church.”

MLive reports that Michigan’s RFRA is “modeled after a federal version that the Supreme Court has said should not apply to states.”

Editor’s note 12.07.14 3:33 PM EST: Without noting the change, (Google cache of original article, screenshot should that change,) MLive’s article now reads: 

The Michigan RFRA, modeled after a federal version that the Supreme Court has ruled does not apply to states, would establish a two-part balancing test for legal challenges, according to Bolger.

“The idea that we need to ‘restore’ religious freedom — rights that are already enshrined in the U.S. Constitution — is a farce created by conservative lawmakers for the sole purpose of appeasing their far-right donors and the religious-right,” Lonnie Scott, executive director of Progress Michigan, said in a statement.

Earlier today a Michigan House committee failed to pass an LGBT non-discrimination bill after a local anti-gay pastor delivered scathing testimony. 

“No one from the LGBT community has ever had fire hoses turned on them by the police department, they have never had to drink out of an LGBT water fountain,” Stacy Swimp told the committee. “There is no record of LGBT — homosexuals, lesbians being forced to sit at the back of the bus in an LGBT section.”

Some responses via Twitter:

 

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OPINION

Key GOP Senators Start Paving the Way for Gaetz’s Attorney General Confirmation

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Several key and influential Republican Senators are helping to support former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz‘s efforts to be confirmed as President-elect Donald Trump’s Attorney General, despite credible allegations he allegedly had sex with a minor, sex trafficked a minor, paid to have sex with at least two women, engaged in illicit drug use, and other damning claims.

The House Ethics Committee had been investigating Gaetz for years over the numerous allegations, including, it announced, that he “may have engaged in sexual misconduct and/or illicit drug use, shared inappropriate images or videos on the House floor, misused state identification records, converted campaign funds to personal use, and/or accepted a bribe, improper gratuity, or impermissible gift, in violation of House Rules, laws, or other standards of conduct.”

Bipartisan concerns have grown, including from U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) and U.S. Senator Mike Rounds (R-SD), who suggested last week the Ethics Committee’s report on Gaetz could be subpoenaed if it is not released. Two other Senators on Tuesday came out to support the Florida Republican who abruptly resign from the House of Representatives just two days before the Ethics Committee was to be vote on releasing its report.

The U.S. Dept. of Justice also reportedly investigated Gaetz, but declined to file charges.

READ MORE: ‘Someone Who Says Tap Water Turns Kids Gay’: House Dem Slams ‘Insane’ Trump Cabinet Picks

While they did not state they support Gaetz’s nomination, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) did offer their fellow Senators reasons to not reject Gaetz.

Asked if Gaetz is qualified to serve as Attorney General, Senator Graham, who has strong ties to Donald Trump, did not answer CNN’s Manu Raju’s question but instead declared, “No one should be disqualified because of a media report.”

The allegations are not media reports. The two women who allege Gaetz paid them for sex gave sworn testimony before both federal prosecutors and the House Ethics Committee, according to their attorney. Another allegation comes from at least one of Gaetz’s fellow members of Congress.

Senator Hawley told CNN that Gaetz “said he wants a shot to lay out his vision for the Department, and also to respond to these various allegations. You know, I said, ‘Hey, the confirmation hearing is the place and the chance to do that.'”

As far back as President John Adams in 1801, over a dozen controversial nominees for Senate-confirmable roles, especially Cabinet-level positions, by presidents from both parties, have been pulled before they get to a full confirmation vote to avoid a massive embarrassment that could weaken an incoming administration. Among them, three from Donald Trump’s first term in office: Andrew Puzder (Labor), Ronny Jackson (VA), and Chad Wolfe (DHS).

READ MORE: ‘Damaging’: Unredacted SeaA), and led Sworn Testimony in Gaetz Case Accessed by Alleged Hacker

But Donald Trump has been adamant about having Gaetz serve as his Attorney General.

If confirmed, Gaetz would become the nation’s top law enforcement officer.

CNN’s Manu Raju describes the current state of support from the GOP for Gaetz as “soft,” but he notes Gaetz and Vice President-elect JD Vance on Wednesday “will be on Capitol Hill, meeting with Republicans including Senator John Kennedy [R-LA] who sits on that key Senate Judiciary Committee … to get Republicans to fall in line.”

Watch CNN’s report below or at this link.

READ MORE: Nancy Mace Slammed for Trying to Ban First Trans Member of Congress From Restrooms

 

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‘Someone Who Says Tap Water Turns Kids Gay’: House Dem Slams ‘Insane’ Trump Cabinet Picks

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A top House Democrat is leveling strong criticism against Donald Trump for what he mockingly referred to as the president-elect’s “dream team” of cabinet nominees.

Democratic Rules Committee Vice Chair Jim McGovern of Massachusetts told his colleagues Tuesday afternoon (videos below) that the incoming Trump administration “is leaking plans to court martial military officers who are not sufficiently loyal.”

“Isn’t that usually how things go in authoritarian dictatorships? Purge the military of anyone who might have a spine and refused to obey an unlawful order? I mean, what the hell is going on here?” he asked.

“And their cabinet picks so far? I mean, these are like beyond insane,” McGovern declared. “Someone who is credibly accused of having sex with an underage girl. Someone who sucks up to foreign dictators and has attracted major concern that they can’t be trusted to protect America’s secrets from our adversaries. Someone who paid hush money to cover up a sexual assault accusation, you know, to lead our military, he’s picked because Donald Trump likes him on Fox News? Someone who says that tap water turns kids gay? I mean, this is the dream team? This is the dream team? Really?”

McGovern appeared to be referring to Attorney General presumptive nominee Matt Gaetz, Director of National Intelligence presumptive nominee Tulsi Gabbard, Defense Secretary presumptive nominee Pete Hegseth, and HHS Secretary presumptive nominee Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

READ MORE: ‘Damaging’: Unredacted Sealed Sworn Testimony in Gaetz Case Accessed by Alleged Hacker

“I mean, seriously, it would be funny if it weren’t so sad. And hopefully, you United States Senate has a backbone and insists on a thorough confirmation process. Look, the truth is this. The truth is that this is not what people voted for. They voted for their pocketbooks, and frankly, I don’t blame them.”

Congressman McGovern also declared, “every decision that has been made by this incoming administration so far has not been about the American people. It has been about them.”

“I’m reading the newspaper again this morning that they want to issue blank pardons to those who committed crimes on January 6th,” he said, referring to the 2021 insurrection. “Republicans call them ‘political prisoners.’ I mean, these are people who were arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted by juries and judges and courtrooms across this country for violently attacking our brave law enforcement officers people who smashed cops in the heads with metal barricades, who jammed them indoors until blood was coming out of their mouths. And the incoming administration is thinking about pardoning them.”

According to the U.S. Dept. of Justice, as of August 5, over 1,488 defendants have been charged, including approximately 547 defendants who “have been charged with assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers or employees,” and, “including approximately 163 individuals who have been charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.”

McGovern continued, adding, “I do not believe any of what my Republican friends are talking about on the floor today is in line with what the American people voted for. They voted for cheaper groceries, not whatever the hell this stuff is. They are asking us to vote for a bill, my Republican friends, that we give the incoming administration the ability to revoke the nonprofit status of any advocacy group they want, just by labeling them as a ‘terrorist sympathizer.’ A bill that would give President-elect Trump a new power to just unilaterally accuse an American group of terrorism and then shut them down.”

READ MORE: Nancy Mace Slammed for Trying to Ban First Trans Member of Congress From Restrooms

The Massachusetts Democrat also went on to say that he blames, “the billionaires who have rigged our country against working people and spent the last four decades squeezing every penny they could out of people. I blame the politicians, including the incoming administration, who have abandoned workers and who have and who have done nothing while the rich get richer and everyone else gets screwed.”

“My friends on the other side, they want to blame trans people. Guess what? Trans people aren’t the ones raising people’s grocery prices. Big corporations are. They wanna blame immigrants. And here’s the deal. Immigrants aren’t the ones denying health insurance claims, Mr. Speaker. It’s the billion dollar insurance companies that do that on a daily basis. And they want to blame woke this and woke that, what’s woke about thinking special interests should not be able to buy tax breaks?”

Watch the short clips below or at this link.

READ MORE: Trump’s Plan to Defy 14th Amendment: No Passports for Children of Undocumented Parents

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‘Damaging’: Unredacted Sealed Sworn Testimony in Gaetz Case Accessed by Alleged Hacker

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A sealed file containing unreacted, sworn testimony by a woman who says that when she was a 17-year old minor she had sex with Matt Gaetz, the Republican now-former U.S. Representative who is President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, was reportedly accessed by an unknown person or entity on Monday.

The alleged hacker gained access to a “computer file shared in a secure link among lawyers whose clients have given damaging testimony related to Matt Gaetz,” The New York Times reports, citing a person with knowledge of the activity. “The file of 24 exhibits is said to include sworn testimony by a woman who said that she had sex with Mr. Gaetz in 2017 when she was 17, as well as corroborating testimony by a second woman who said that she witnessed the encounter.”

The “documents include information that is under seal with the Justice Department, which investigated Mr. Gaetz but did not file charges, and the House Committee on Ethics, which has completed its own inquiry into the former congressman,” according to The Times.

It appears the documents are from a civil lawsuit filed by a friend of Gaetz, Christopher Dorworth, who “filed the suit against both the woman who says she had sex with Mr. Gaetz when she was a minor and Joel Greenberg, an erstwhile ally of Mr. Gaetz who is serving an 11-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to federal sex trafficking charges involving the woman.”

READ MORE: Nancy Mace Slammed for Trying to Ban First Trans Member of Congress From Restrooms

“Mr. Dorworth has claimed that he was defamed by Mr. Greenberg and the woman, both of whom had told federal authorities that Mr. Dorworth hosted parties where he, they, Mr. Gaetz and others took drugs and openly had sex.”

Overnight, ABC News investigations reporter Will Steakin posted what appears to be an email alerting attorneys of the breach:

Pointing to his reporting from October, Steakin adds that the House Ethics Committee had subpoenaed these documents “involving Gaetz in the civil case a few weeks back.”

READ MORE: Trump’s Plan to Defy 14th Amendment: No Passports for Children of Undocumented Parents

ABC 7 reports that an attorney for two women says Gaetz flew them both to New York and paid them to have sex. One of the women, he says, also testified she saw Gaetz having sex with a 17-year old girl.

Watch the ABC 7 video below or at this link.

 

Image by Gage Skidmore via Flickr and a CC license

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