I'm guessing by now you've heard tape of the wailing of immigrant children who've been separated from their parents at the border, replete with a Border Patrol agent's attempted gallows humor; naturally our President blames everyone but himself for these separations, our Attorney General throws Pauline letters at anyone who says his policy is cruel, our HHS Secretary simply denies any of this is even happening, and certain Administration supporters call the children "crisis actors" -- all ways, you notice, of avoiding admitting that you support separating children from parents, since saying you support that makes you, you know, look like a cruel bastard. "Zero tolerance" policies generally being bad policies in any endeavor, People for the American Way helps you tell our government to end its policy of separating children from parents during border crossings.
Meanwhile, Turkmenistan is yet another nation that forces its citizens to work in the cotton fields during harvest time -- which isn't "bringing everyone together for the common good" so much as forcing free people into slavery for the enrichment of crony cotton executives -- and it also tends to, ah, mistreat activists who try to call attention to this depravity. Hence the government of Turkmenistan has kept Alternative Turkmenistan News (or ATM) reporter Gaspar Matalaev in a labor camp for the better part of two years after he interviewed and photographed folks during said harvest. Hence the International Labor Rights Forum helps you tell Turkmenistan to release Mr. Matalaev. (You'll be pleased to learn that our government banned the importation of cotton from Turkmenistan last month -- though if our President ever decides he has cronies there, that could change in a New York minute.)
Finally, an organization called Brown's Last Chance helps you tell California Gov. Jerry Brown, term-limited (again!) in 2018, to put California on a surer path away from fossil fuels and toward renewables before he leaves office. Look up the word "mercurial" in the dictionary and you'll see Jerry Brown's picture, but Mr. Brown has been making an awful lot of noise lately about the danger climate change presents to our planet, so he might be inclined to a) stop giving permits to fossil fuel corporations for new drilling and b) phase fossil fuels out of California's energy grid. I'm frankly more concerned about the health effects oil and gas drilling have on the clean drinking water of good Californians -- you don't have health without clean water, and Mr. Brown's record on this matter, which includes letting farms spray fracking wastewater on their crops how do you like those strawberries now? rather undercuts his public handwringing about his legacy. Good thing we're here to help.
Comments