Both Public Citizen and Common Cause help you tell the Federal Election Commission (or FEC) to mandate strong disclosure rules on internet campaign ads. (Only sign one or the other, though, otherwise it'll be like sending two comments on the same thing to the FEC.) Disclosure of campaign donors is far more common in TV and print ads, but, generally, our government doesn't get around to overseeing new things until it's far too late, i.e., after Russia allegedly spent a crapload of money influencing votes on Facebook. You know my opinion on that particular development: if Democrats would stand for something other than Not Being Republicans, it'd be a whole lot harder for a foreign country (or big donors) to swing an election their way. But we should demand the same transparency from internet ads that we demand from ads on the more traditional media. And if you're a big donor trying to influence an election, maybe you should have the guts to show yourself.
Meanwhile, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) has proposed a corporate "freeloader tax" for corporations that don't pay their workers enough to keep them off of government aid programs like food stamps. The Republicans' most recent Farm Bill did impose new work requirements on food stamp recipients, but most food stamp recipients are already working, thus prompting the question (as put by the article at the link above): "Is the problem that people aren’t working enough? Or is it that they don’t receive a high enough wage or generous enough benefits from their employer?" Sen. Brown would impose a 0.25% tax (that's not 25 percent, "liberal" media dogs!) on corporations with 25 percent of their workers under the federal poverty line, a 0.50% tax for corporations with 50 percent, and a 1% tax for corporations with 75%. I'd go 1%, 2%, and 3% myself, but still, call your Reps and Senators about this plan. They won't see it coming.
Finally, H.R. 5682/S. 2795, the FIRST STEP Act, would make it easier for prisoners to rehabilitate themselves once in prison, by mandating the Bureau of Prisons to incarcerate them within 500 driving miles of their home, making various improvements to the federal compassionate release process, expanding home confinement sentencing for low-risk criminals, and increasing "good time credits" prisoners earn with good works. And the FIRST STEP Act would also provide additional funding for the drug treatment, counseling, job training, and education programs that prisoners need to get a leg up once they get out. If all this sounds like coddling to you, kindly reacquaint yourself with the purpose of imprisonment, which is not merely to punish but to rehabilitate. Hence Families Against Mandatory Minimums helps you tell your Congressfolk to support actual prisoner rehabilitation by passing the FIRST STEP Act.
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