AT&T has lately announced that it will try to buy Time-Warner, which no longer owns Time-Warner Cable (that belongs to Charter now, thanks to federal government inaction) but which still owns HBO, TBS, and TNT, among other properties. How is it that the 13th Amendment prohibits slavery and the 14th Amendment supposedly permits corporate "personhood" but somehow neither amendment prohibits one corporation from owning another? If I ever find out, I'll be sure to let you know. In the meantime, the proposed AT&T/Time-Warner merger would make yet another already too-big corporation even bigger, and would result in fewer jobs, less competition, higher prices, worse customer services, and all the other things that always result from mergers. At the risk of piling on, you should remember that AT&T was the one big telecom that was always happiest to comply with Tha Bush Mobb's warrantless wiretapping program -- and that AT&T fights net neutrality just as hard as every other big telecom that wants to keep you from going where you want to go on the internet, rather than where they want you to go. Hence Free Press helps you tell your federal government to fight the proposed AT&T/Time-Warner merger.
Meanwhile, you may not know that PayPal, despite being the default internet payment option for millions of folks in over 200 countries across the planet, doesn't provide any service to Palestinians in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. PayPal, for its part, has been unusually tight-lipped as to why, referring only to a supposed inability of Palestinians in these areas to meet "regulatory requirements" -- which you could be excused for thinking is bunk, considering that PayPal serves the Israeli settlers in these areas, and considering that, well, Israel is occupying Palestine and folks often seem to bow to Israeli pressure a lot more quickly than almost any other kind. It's not like PayPal is the only game in town as far as payment processing services, even in the Middle East, but Palestinian businesses start out way behind by not being able to accept PayPal, and for those of you who are quick to dismiss Palestine as just one of those places where terrorists live, you should consider whether helping to build Palestinian businesses out is a far better way to fight terrorism than all that bombing and wallbuilding and checkpointing we usually do. Hence Sum of Us helps you tell PayPal to do right by its potential Palestinian customers.
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