If you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Senators to pass H.R. 1644/S. 682, the Save the Internet Act, then Free Press still helps you do that. H.R. 1644/S. 682 would "save the internet" by reinstating the 2015 Open Internet order that forced big telecom corporations to deliver all network traffic to its destination at the same speed, without discrimination. The FCC repealed that order in 2017, and I told you then that you wouldn't necessarily notice any change to your internet right away, because the big telecoms aren't so stupid as to take away all your freedoms at once. But they most assuredly have been working to do that -- Verizon's throttling of Santa Clara County firefighters in the middle of a wildfire is perhaps the most famous example, but researchers have also found Sprint throttling Skype and several big telecoms throttling Netflix and YouTube. That's how it begins; let's make sure this is also where it ends.
Meanwhile, one of the architects of our Administration's "national emergency" declaration enabling it to bypass Congress and the will of the people and sell arms to the Saudi/UAE coalition currently waging war on Yemen -- a former defense contractor lobbyist named Charles Faulkner -- has lately left his State Department job in a black cloud, and now some Congressfolk want to have a hearing on the whole matter this week. As well they should -- the Saudi/UAE bombing of Yemen serves no purpose but to put Yemeni citizens on the brink of famine and bring shame upon anyone who helps it, and of course this latest "national emergency" drama testifies to the ineptitude and cowardice of our President, who got 46% of the popular vote and naturally acts like he has absolute power. Hence Win Without War helps you tell your Congressfolk to ban arms sales to the Saudi/UAE coalition. Doing whatever Saudi Arabia wants because TEH IRANZ!!!!! is no way to run a foreign policy.
In other news, American Dream and Promise Act has passed our House, meaning it goes to our Senate, where it may never get a vote. That would be a shame, because the American Dream and Promise Act would fix what our President broke when he issued an Executive order (one since stayed by our courts) ending the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (or DACA) program for those folks brought to America as children who now know no other home as adults. The American Dream and Promise Act would once again extend protection from deportation for these folks as long as they meet certain criteria, like continued settlement in our country, two years in our military, and continued enrollment in college. You might think, gosh, this is how a conservative would conduct immigration policy; pass judgment on the "conservatism" of today's Republicans as you like, but in the meantime, People for the American Way helps you tell your Senators to pass the American Dream and Promise Act.
Finally, if you've missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 582/S. 150, the Raise the Wage Act, then the National Women's Law Center still helps you do that. The bill would raise our minimum wage from $7.25/hour to $15/hour, and would ultimately bring the minimum wages for tipped and disabled workers into parity with everyone else's; anyone who says I JUST CAN'TZ RUNZ TEH BIZNIZZIZ!!! after that can first be pointed to the fact that the $15/hour minimum wage would be phased in over five years and second be told they just don't have very much of that can-do American spirit, do they? People in some parts of America already have a $15/hour minimum wage, and it hasn't exactly destroyed their economies -- when folks make more money, they have more money to spend, and thus pump more money into the economy. Of course, CEOs who think all economies should revolve around them find that intolerable, but they don't get all the say around here.
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