Mr. Trump has professed to "drain the swamp," meaning getting rid of the influence of the corporate special interests that warp our democracy -- but he's stacked his tech transition team with corporate lobbyists who hate net neutrality and love corporate money, which sure seems like an odd way to drain the swamp. Mr. Trump has characterized net neutrality as yet another Big Gummint program run amok, but it's nothing of the kind -- the FCC's net neutrality rules protect us from corporations that would tell us where to go and what to do on the internet. People who assume that all government intervention is evil tend not to understand that government regulations can actually promote freedom, but I'm starting to think that talking to such people is a waste of my time. Anyway, Free Press helps you tell the Trump transition team to get rid of the corporate lobbyists who oppose the internet freedoms for which we've fought. Mr. Trump promotes the "freedom" of corporate executives to gild the plumbing in their 19th vacation homes, but I think by now we all know that's not really freedom. Net neutrality is.
Meanwhile, the EPA infamously concluded not too long ago that hydraulic fracturing (more commonly known as "fracking," which must be a source of endless amusement to fans of the 2002-era Battlestar Galactica series) has "no widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources in the United States." The gas drillers of course did a Jeff George victory lap about the report, but failed to note that the report did tabulate numerous examples of water contamination from fracking, and couldn't tabulate more such examples only because gas drillers enjoy special exemptions from chemical disclosure rules in the Clean Water Act! If you'll forgive another sports metaphor, that's a little like watching only 76ers basketball when Joel Embiid has the night off and concluding from these that he's had no impact on the team. The EPA's report (which, to be fair, does represent a small step forward from previous EPA reports on the matter) has met with fairly relentless and trenchant criticism, including criticism from its own Science Advisory Board. Hence CREDO helps you tell the EPA to retract its fracking report.
Finally, the Australian government may be shorn of that utter embarrassment of a Prime Minster, Tony Abbott, but still plans (despite many reversals) to fund a massive coal-digging complex right next to the Great Barrier Reef, to the tune of $680,000 for each new job created, and that sure doesn't mean each coal worker will make $680,000, no, sir! It means, by the sound of it, that it's just another attempt to shovel taxpayer money into some cronies' pockets. Australia gets a lot of sunshine; think maybe it could spend a bit more taxpayer money on solar power, which good Australians would almost certainly prefer? In the meantime, digging for coal mostly means more pollution of the Great Barrier Reef, already cooking too hot due to climate change, and more pollution means losing the biological diversity that makes the Reef unique. So Avaaz helps you tell the Australian government to abandon plans to mine for coal near the Great Barrier Reef. Protecting what's unique about past and present from industrial development that will provide only ephemeral benefits -- why, that sounds awfully conservative.
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