Another day, another report (this time from Amnesty International) that U.S.-backed (and Saudi-backed) Syrian opposition groups have perpetrated war crimes upon Kurds. Perhaps they decided that American and Saudi support was all they needed to finally put down those uppity Kurds. But several House members have lately offered National Defense Authorization Act amendments that would end or limit arms transfers to Syria (since that would surely make this situation much worse), so Just Foreign Policy joins with MoveOn to help you tell your Congressfolk to support efforts to keep American weapons away from folks who would use them merely to cause mayhem. Really, of course, we should have a formal declaration of war from Congress to operate against whoever our enemies are in Syria, rather than a 15-year-old Authorization to Use Military Force (or AUMF) that the Obama Administration has interpreted far beyond the call of linguistic ambiguity. I wonder why they don't do that. (Spoiler alert: because they might accidentally reveal that they don't want to solve international problems, but that they'd rather enable American rage indefinitely so they can get re-elected and make more and more money for their paymasters.)
Meanwhile, the Sierra Club helps you tell the U.S. Forest Service to keep oil and gas corporations from drilling in the Wyoming Range in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. You probably know the drill by now: the Wyoming Range isn't just home to the biggest moose population in the state, but is also prime recreational ground for humans who love to camp, fish, and ride horses. And the Forest Service has actually proposed a ban on drilling leases in a 40,000-acre area of the Range, but the oil and gas drillers will be yapping in their ears non-stop, so we have to yap in their ears, too. And we shouldn't feel guilty about yapping in their ears, because we're the American people; a gas or oil drilling corporation is just a vehicle for some executive to redistribute worker income upward to himself. I pity the fool who reads this paragraph and squeals BUT TEH WYOMINGZ SHOULD HAVE TEH CHOICEZ!!!! The word "national" is present in the title of the Bridger-Teton National Forest, right? Let's check again: yes, it is right there. Some folks don't understand the difference between "state" and "national" anymore, or they pretend not to. We are not their enablers.
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