S. 2155, the Stop Wall Street Looting Act, would restrain the noxious behavior of the private equity firms and hedge funds that buy up corporations, suck the wealth out of them, and leave their workers jobless. You have seen a lot of this in recent years, with the closures of thousands of ToysRUs, Kmart, Sears, and Payless stores, among others -- and in Philadelphia, with the recent closure of Hahnemann Hospital. Over a decade after the banksters almost destroyed this economy for good, they somehow have so much power that they can even dictate whether a corporation can continue! Dare I mention that these banksters are also invested in the private prison industry that's currently making big bucks separating families at the border? Hence Americans for Financial Reform helps you tell your Congressfolk to protect working families from vampire banksters by passing the Stop Wall Street Looting Act.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania residents, take note: Penn Environment helps you tell your state legislators to improve energy efficiency standards for almost two dozen appliances sold in the Keystone State. There's really no downside to appliances that use energy more efficiently -- they use less power, cause fewer carbon emissions, emit fewer pollutants, and (this is the one most folks will hear) cost less money on your energy bills. OK, there's one "downside" -- appliance corporation CEOs won't be able to make things as cheaply as possible, and thus make enough money to gild the plumbing in their 19th vacation home. They won't put it like that, of course -- they'll say your appliances will cost more money. But our post-apocalypse descendants won't be sitting around the campfire saying sure, our planet's almost unlivable now, but at least ovens cost a little less for a few years!
Finally, H.R. 3884/S. 2227, the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (or MORE) Act, would at long last essentially legalize marijuana at the federal level by removing it from Schedule I, where it's never belonged -- really, pot is as dangerous as heroin? As if! -- and would allow folks who have pot convictions in their past to apply for resentencing and expungment of their record. The MORE Act would also tax pot products and use that money to help communities most ravaged by the "war on drugs," i.e., communities of color. Hence the Drug Policy Alliance helps you tell your Congressfolk to support saner drug policy by passing the MORE Act. Folks may wonder why I advocate for stronger laws protecting good folks from predatory corporations and more relaxed laws about marijuana. The reason is simple: corporations do a lot more damage than pot does, and our laws ought to recognize that.
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