The FCC's Open Internet order -- the one that finally enthroned net neutrality as a guiding principle of our internet, the principle that ensures that you, and not some corporation, get to decide where you want to go on the internet -- is a little over two years old now. But incoming FCC Chair Ajit Pai has not hid his jones for getting rid of it. He says he favors a free and open internet, but that's only because he knows better than to say "I want an internet where corporations get to feed you half a dozen items of junk news as pop-up ads so you'll have to wait five minutes to see the page you want to see!" And some folks still say any government intervention in anything equals tyranny and oppression, but of course, the government is our government, and is supposed to work for us, and government intervention has actually been known to increase freedom -- and for more people than just a Congressperson's big donors! The FCC's phone number is, of course, 1.888.CALL.FCC; I don't have a direct number for Mr. Pai, possibly because he really doesn't want to hear from you. Call anyway. We don't get anything from our "leaders" unless we demand it.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania state Senators Boscola (D-18) and Scavello (R-40) have introduced SB 22, which would amend the state constitution to abolish the practice of state legislatures redrawing districts every 10 years, and instead give that task to a five-member commission, four of whom would be the Majority and Minority party leaders in each house, while the fifth of whom would be a non-office holder and commission Chair selected by the other four (or by the state Supreme Court if the four can't agree on a suitable Chair). From here we have a fighting chance (and all I want is a fighting chance!) to get competitive legislative districts where politicians might actually have to serve their constituents to get re-elected, rather than a situation where incumbents can't be dethroned except in case of electoral catastrophe, and we don't want the kind of situation that causes an electoral catastrophe. And who likes the kind of gerrymandering that puts narcissists in power? No one -- except the narcissists who happen to have the power. Hence Common Cause helps you tell your PA state legislator to support SB 22, and thus support fair redistricting in Pennsylvania.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk and the EPA not to scuttle hard-won fuel economy standards enacted by the Obama Administration, then Consumers Union still helps you do that. Any right-winger who tells you that regulations mandating that cars get better gas mileage are "a burden on working families" really deserves a punch in the nose -- the Obama fuel economy standards ensure that working families pay less for gas than they did before, and no one thinks it's a "burden" to pay less for gas. I suppose right-wingers will also claim that TEH REGULASHUNZ KILLZ TEH JOBZ!!!!!, but the next time they actually try to prove that claim will be the first. We know that regulations actually create jobs, not only for the people who have to (in this example) design more fuel-efficient cars, but also for the people who have to manufacture them. The only people who get "hurt" are the executives who can't redistribute worker wealth upward to themselves more easily. But they don't get all the say around here.
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