June 26, 2020

Church music director: I was fired over same-sex marriage

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — A music director at a Catholic church in suburban Detroit said she was fired for being in a same-sex marriage.

Terry Gonda said she received a June 12 email that read, “The Archdiocese is choosing to activate its morality clause to terminate your employment.”

Gonda, 59, was music director at St. John Fisher Church in Auburn Hills, near Oakland University. She said priests knew that she and Kirsti Reeve, 51, were married in 2011.


“It’s a shot to the head from headquarters,” Gonda said of her firing. “The dehumanization of this is just not right. … My heart just hurts because I have an outpouring of love for them. I love them. I believe that they believe they’re doing the right thing — they’re trying to protect the church.”

More:

https://www.petoskeynews.com/news/state-region/church-music-director-i-was-fired-over-same-sex-marriage/article_78422e60-7d5b-56f2-a313-efea4589e3ed.html

June 26, 2020

White House Concealed Finding That OPM Merger was Illegal, Report Says

White House Concealed Finding That OPM Merger was Illegal, Report Says

COURTNEY BUBLÉ | JUNE 24, 2020

The Justice Department reportedly determined last year that a White House plan to dismantle the Office of Personnel Management was illegal—information the White House withheld from Congress while moving ahead with the plan anyway.

The watchdog group Project on Government Oversight published an investigation in The Daily Beast on Wednesday that documented a previously undisclosed conference call with senior administration officials in April 2019 in which the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel rejected the Trump administration's plans to abolish OPM and transfer most of its functions to the General Services Administration. This legal opinion––which the administration denies exists––contradicts White House assertions over the last 14 months regarding the administration’s justifications for restructuring the system for managing federal employees.

“It is depressing that the administration covered up a clear legal opinion by the Department of Justice finding that its plan to dismember and dissolve OPM was unlawful,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., told Government Executive. Raskin is one of several lawmakers who for months have demanded legal justification for the administration’s efforts to abolish OPM. “Trump officials did everything they could to bury this fact and repeatedly dodged my questions in our oversight hearing about the dubious legal authority for its ridiculous proposal. These people have no respect for the rule of law or the truth, and their reputations lie in tatters along with the reputation of Donald Trump,” he said.

More: https://www.govexec.com/oversight/2020/06/white-house-concealed-finding-opm-merger-was-illegal-report-says/166411/

June 14, 2020

Trump supporters burn Michigan absentee ballot applications

Source: WZZM- TV 13 Grand Rapids, Michigan



WALKER, Mich. — People gathered near Grand Rapids to burn letters informing them that they can vote by absentee ballot in future elections.

The applications were burned Friday during an event called Operation Incinerator outside the DeltaPlex in Walker.

Many people had flags, shirts and signs showing support for President Donald Trump and Republicans.

Michael Farage, president of the Grand Rapids Taxpayers Association, says the absentee ballot applications were unsolicited and a waste of money.



Read more: https://www.wzzm13.com/mobile/article/news/local/absentee-ballot-application-protest/69-d2a6c00b-ea74-4813-ade5-533d8d7d1a0a

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Well, another example of torching Democratic values.


Hitler’s followers had book burning.

Trump followers have ballot application burning.

June 1, 2020

Michigan Governor- "We see you, we hear you"

Michigan Governor Whitmer, and Lt. Governor Gilchrist, address the death of George Floyd, the civil unrest, the pandemic, and more-

https://twitter.com/govwhitmer/status/1267174412559749122?s=21