As you know, President Trump has announced a $100 billion-plus arms deal with Saudi Arabia, a country which beats up its protestors, doesn't let women drive alone, treats its political prisoners like dog poop, and bombs the crap out of precisely those Yemeni rebels who are actually fighting ISIS effectively. But we don't have to take that, because Congress can pass a "resolution of disapproval" under the Arms Export Control Act, and just so happens H.J.Res. 102/S.J.Res. 42 would prevent Mr. Trump from giving the Saudis munitions (though it wouldn't scuttle the whole deal). Don't listen to your Tea Party uncle when he says how dare you oppose the President in foreign policy making! Not just because the President isn't supposed to "make foreign policy" per se, but because you just know your Tea Party uncle felt differently when the President's name was Obama. So Just Foreign Policy joins with MoveOn to help you tell your Congressfolk to reject the Saudi arms deal. Don't wait, though, because Congress only has 30 days to pass that resolution once the deal's announced.
Meanwhile, because the Trump Administration apparently feels compelled to take a dump on every accomplishment of the Obama Administration, the new Secretary of Agriculture, former Georgia Governor Sonny Purdue, has announced his intention to roll back the school lunch nutrition standards that represent approximately the only positive accomplishment of Mr. Obama's USDA. Republicans have been all hot to scuttle these standards since the USDA enacted them. Why? Are they objectively pro-childhood obesity? Are they objectively anti-children's health? Perhaps they are, in fact, objectively anti-child. It's not "uncivil" to say so; it's giving them some of their own to say so. And you may consider anecdotes of kids pocketing apples and school districts having "trouble" getting their foods up to the new standards to be not merely wildly exaggerated but hysterical -- the real "issue" here is that the standards don't kowtow to junk food manufacturing corporations enough. So Moms Rising helps you tell the Department of Agriculture to keep the new school lunch nutrition standards where they are.
Finally, good Americans enjoy flying our friendly skies less and less these days; they may or may not fear being forcibly removed from their flight because their airline overbooked, but they have almost certainly dealt with hidden fees making plane rides cost more. Hence PennPIRG helps you tell your Congressfolk to support S. 1037, the FAIR Fees Act, which would empower the Secretary of Transportation to keep airlines from charing fees that are "not reasonable" or insufficiently-related to airlines' costs. Bill sponsor Sen. Markey (D-MA) instructs us that at least three airlines "charge more money for the second checked bag than the first," even though you'd kind of expect it to be the other way around, given that the airline has already sunk costs into carrying checked luggage at all. Also, some airlines charge a lot more than others for things like aisle seats, carry-on bags, and flight cancellations. No use arguing that the "free" market will punish the airline corporations that heap more fees upon customers -- not when there are fewer and fewer airlines to begin with, and fewer of them flying to where folks want to go. So let's bring some sanity back to airline pricing.
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