Earlier this week Brian Klawiter of Grandville, Michigan (suburb of Grand Rapids) declared he would not serve gay people at his auto repair shop (though if you have a gun he'll give you a discount). That refusal would be perfectly legal here in Michigan. I've been ignoring stories like this, though this little bit caught my attention: Jeffrey Mapes, a bankruptcy attorney in Grand Rapids, has offered his services to Klawiter. An excerpt of his letter:
I noticed your post on Facebook where you decided to alienate most of the general public by stating that you will refuse service to openly homosexual people. This is certainly an unorthodox business strategy, and perhaps it will work for you, but I get the feeling you will need a bankruptcy attorney pretty soon and I wanted to offer my services. Like you, I am white, male, Christian, a business owner, and a gun owner. Unlike you, I provide services to everyone regardless of their sexual orientation because it doesn’t matter to me — I hope this won’t be a deal breaker for you.
Yup, the GOP in the House voted to repeal the estate tax. This is a $269 billion handout to the 4700 wealthiest American families. This is while America becomes the leader in child poverty and the working poor are protesting wages so low they get gov't poverty assistance costing taxpayers $153 billion. The purpose of the vote: Make sure those at the top stay there.
And those low-wage earners I mentioned... Thousands of the working poor protested on Tax Day for an increase of the minimum wage to $15 an hour. This was the largest protest of its kind. This movement started with fast food workers and now includes home health care workers, adjunct professors (the ones paid by the course, such as me), security workers, airport baggage handlers and others. Terrence Heath sums it up this way:
It’s no coincidence that today’s protests coincide with “Tax Day” either. A recent report from the University of California, Berkeley, shows that low wages cost American taxpayers over $150 billion annually, because workers are forced to rely on public assistance. That’s how much we’re subsidizing companies that refuse to pay workers a living wage. It’s just one more way the “Fight For $15” is everybody’s fight.
Should we weep? Wall Street bonuses rose by only 2% in 2014. Those bonuses came to $28.4 billion. They also get salaries. Now compare that bonus total to the combined wages of all the Americans working full-time at minimum wage, which is $14 billion. So one Wall Street trader is worth the same as a million minimum wage workers.
Salvatore Cordileone was instrumental in getting California's Prop 8 same-sex marriage ban passed and rose to Catholic Bishop of Oakland in 2009 and Archbishop of San Francisco in 2012. That last move was seen as a deliberate smackdown of gay Catholics. Now that Pope Benedict has been replaced by the kinder (at least in words) Pope Francis, the Catholics of Sand Francisco are speaking their displeasure with Cordileone. The most recent example is a full page ad in The Cronicle asking Francis to replace Cordileone with someone who understands the San Francisco culture. Yes, these ads are expensive.
Now that the Indiana Legislature "fixed" the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the noise has died down, Gov. Mike Pence is saying, "I think the difficult time that Indiana just passed through two weeks ago is behind us." The pro-gay forces responded by saying, heh, we're just getting warmed up. Just remember that while the RFRA no longer permits discrimination, no other act prevents it.
Are you in a same-sex relationship and want to get married but state law prevents it? Jesse Tyler Ferguson, part of the gay couple on the TV show Modern Family, is creating a way for you to design personal wedding invitations that he'll send to every member of the Supremes. It is a way to show the justices that their decision will affect real people.
There is a same-sex marriage case from Kentucky being considered by the Supremes alongside the one from Michigan as well as cases from Ohio and Tennessee. In a separate case two same-sex couples were denied a license and sued. The case was heard in the Franklin Circuit Court, part of the state court system. Judge Thomas Wingate issues his ruling, saying the same-sex marriage ban is unfairly discriminatory and violates the US Constitution. He immediately put his ruling on hold because, you know, that Supremes thing. Oral arguments for that case are less than 10 days away.
Robby Mook, the guy hired to be Hillary's campaign manager, is openly gay.
Melissa McEwen of Shakesville despises politicians who use phrases such as "The American People want me to do …" or "Taxpayers want …" or "Voters demand I do …" She despises it because the politician makes it sound either like Americans are in unanimous agreement or if you don't agree then you aren't a real American. So she says, "Stop Using Me!" She lists several examples. "Stop Using Me to Justify Homophobia" or Transphobia, Anti-Immigration, a Racist Justice System, Voter ID Laws, Gutting the Social Safety Net, Abortion Restrictions, and a long list of other things. It is a rebuttal worth reading.
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