progressmichigan-blog1

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Victory! The Supreme Court ruled today to protect our health and keep health care affordable by allowing nearly 300,000 Michigan citizens to keep their health insurance tax subsidies.

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Watch: John Oliver knows exactly what we should do with the Confederate flag once it’s down 

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The Supreme Court did not issue a ruling on the marriage case today. Thursday is the next day that the Supreme Court will announce rulings from this session. Seven opinions remain including the marriage case. 

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Pope Francis officially dropped his much-anticipated encyclical on the environment, “Laudato Si,” Thursday, and it has a lot to say: about man’s responsibility to care for creation, about the limits of the market and technology’s ability to solve our environmental problems, even about the importance of gender differences (I’ll leave the analysis of that one to someone else).

But despite conservative critics’ suggestion that the pope “leave the science to the scientists,” the 138-page document is notable precisely because it gets the science right: the pope, who does in fact have scientific training, deftly summarizes experts’ understanding of climate change in two concise paragraphs — and even goes so far as to call out specific myths used by climate deniers to cast doubt on the science.

The pope has no tolerance for those who “seem mostly to be concerned with masking the problems”

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Today, Pope Francis called for action on climate change in his #OurCommonHome #Encyclical on ecology. We stand with the Pope and all people of faith who have pledged to care for the environment and #ActOnClimate change.

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Stand up for your community and tell Gov. Snyder to veto the Death Star bill!

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Mlive’s response to Gov. Snyder signing a bill that allows adoption agencies that receive public funds to discriminate is spot on.

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Watch: Leave it to The Daily Show and Jessica Williams to hit the Rachel Dolezal nail right on the head

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This picture was taken the very morning my child was born. I chose if to have children, when to have children, with whom to have children, how to deliver them. Those were some most important choices in my life. And I loved making them.  

Even though it was my right to make those choices, we still live in a world where they felt like a privilege. 

Everyday I support women to have safe abortions and help them overcome various obstacles to abortion care. I am proud of my work.  

Everyday I witness suffering because the right to decide if and when to become a parent is taken away from so many people. In many countries the governments have rather people lose their health and lives than give them access to safe abortion. 

I will always continue to fight for abortion access with equal passion as when I made the choice to become a mother. 

I am a mother, I am a feminist, I fight for abortion rights, I am pro-choice. 

Kinga Jelinska, Director, Women Help Women

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Progress Michigan staff at our “Stand Up for Progress” event with Al Madrigal from thedailyshow​ earlier this month! 

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Basically.

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Steve Green Preys on Women’s Rights at Prayer Breakfast

Today, the Michigan Prayer Breakfast Committee held their annual prayer breakfast in Lansing. The prayer breakfast is a time each year when corporate-backed organizations, conservative elected officials, and out-of-control capitalists come together to pontificate about “following the ways of the Lord” while simultaneously attempting to disenfranchise struggling families, women, and LGBTQ people; undertones of homophobia and racism included. This year’s keynote speaker at the breakfast is Steve Green, President of Hobby Lobby.

Let me remind you that last year the Supreme Court sided with Hobby Lobby and decided to allow corporations to refuse to cover birth control for female employees because of their self-professed religious objections. That’s right, the Supreme Court ruled to expand the right of corporations to be treated like people and exercise religious beliefs.

Read More

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Twitter explodes over #McKinney, Texas cop who tackled black teen girl in video

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Presumed Violent

The Detroit Police Department wants the City Council to approve a restrictive curfew for minors during a firework celebration that stretches to include the celebration ofJuneteenth – the oldest known celebration commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States.

The curfew would last from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and would continue for four days from June 19 (Juneteenth) through the night of the fireworks on June 22. Any kid under the age of 17 caught outside after 6 p.m. without parental supervision would be subject to arrest and fines.

Curfews are put in place to curtail the freedom of assembly based on a perceived threat. In Baltimore, that perceived threat was more riots. In Detroit, the perceived threat is black and brown youth.

Read More

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Zoe Saldana’s Husband Takes Her Name, Doesn’t Care What You Think

Zoe Saldana’s husband doesn’t “give a sheet” what people say about his decision to take the actress’ last name.

The “Guardians of The Galaxy” star sits beaming on the cover of the July issue of InStyle magazine, in which she reveals how Italian artist Marco Perego took her name after the two secretly married in the summer of 2013. Perego, it turns out, made the progressive decision in spite of his wife’s doubts.

(Photo Source: Stuart Wilson via Getty Images)

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Watch Jessica Williams rip into the madness in McKinney