I've received notices asking for support for the Congressional Progressive Caucus's plan to "limit" President Obama's current war in the Middle East, but I haven't passed any of them along, because I'd rather stop war in the Middle East. Hence CREDO helps you tell your Congressfolk to vote on approving Mr. Obama's war, and also vote "no" on approving his war. Just as the 2001 AUMF is no excuse for claiming the authority to bomb anyone you like anywhere you like, the upcoming election is no excuse for inaction on Congress's part. It's like they've all completely forgotten that doing the right thing actually very closely resembles doing the politically-smart thing. And it certainly would not be untoward of us to turn out any Congressfolk who blithely tells us that the reason they're not carrying out their Constitutionally-mandated duty is the election. Our political class has become so sick, immoral, and decadent that they no longer hesitate to say such things out loud. But we can do something about that.
Meanwhile, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (or CFPB) is mulling new rules that would crack down on the havoc wrought by payday lenders -- including limiting the number of roll-overs for a single loan and curtailing lenders' ability to reach into your bank account -- and Americans for Payday Lending Reform (a project of National People's Action) helps you tell the CFPB to keep as many good Americans as possible out of the payday loan cycle of debt. "Cycle of debt" is an accurate term for a process where eight in 10 payday loans don't get paid off in two weeks and more than half of payday loans get rolled over ten times. That's not "a way for folks who can't get credit to get credit," as payday loan industry defenders claim -- it's a way for another group of non-workers to redistribute worker wealth upward to themselves. I suppose it's a small comfort that no matter how rich a payday loan CEO gets, the real banksters will never see him as One of the Boys -- but only a small comfort.
Finally, internet giants like Google, Yelp, Yahoo!, and Facebook executives have all announced their intention to cut ties with ALEC, but eBay stands out as a a major internet corporation that hasn't done so yet, hence the Sierra Club helps you tell eBay to end its association with the American Legislative Exchange Council. Why the Sierra Club, you ask? While the Sierra Club has expanded its portfolio a bit lately, but ALEC's stance on climate change (they say it's a fraud) and renewable energy (they're big-time sun-taxers) relate directly to the Sierra Club's familiar mission -- as does ALEC's past stances on "ag-gag" bills (they just hate investigations of animal abuse on factory farms) and disclosure of fracking chemicals (spoiler alert: they're against that, too). If eBay looks a little Republican to you (their founder, Meg Whitman, was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Governor of California in 2010), remember that they're just as susceptible to bad PR as the next corporation.
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