I was skeptical of H.R. 5880, the Stop Arming Human Rights Abusers Act, when I saw that it would give our President the duty of imposing sanctions on nations that commit genocide, war crimes, or crimes against humanity; I'd prefer to get that kind of power away from the Executive branch, which already conducts too much foreign policy unilaterally. But Title II would establish a 10-member United States Commission on Atrocity Accountability and Human Rights, who would have to deliver at least one report annually (to Congress, the Secretary of State, and the President) detailing which countries the President should sanction, and that would give we-the-people additional leverage to pressure our President to do the right thing. And when H.R. 5880 talks about "sanctions," it talks exclusively in terms of things like arms sales and "security assistance," so I say H.R. 5880 would improve what is, at present, a very politicized process. Hence World Without War helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass the Stop Arming Human Rights Abusers Act.
Meanwhile, our Administration has floated a scheme -- called the "Eagle Plan," like they're aliens from another planet seeing American patriotic symbols for the first time! -- to offer good Americans $5,000 or $10,000 if they'll just raise their retirement age. And like their earlier plan to offer paid family leave now in exchange for fewer Social Security benefits later, this is exactly the kind of short-term thinking that has been destroying America for the last 40-plus years. And it's also exactly the kind of evil that governments perpetrate on desperate citizens after enacting policies that make them more desperate -- as our President's abject mishandling of this pandemic just so happens to have done, now that over 33 million more good Americans have no job and 27 million of these have no health insurance. They might be more receptive now to a four- or five-digit bribe, but money flies away and they'll be sorry when they're 70 and still working. So Social Security Works helps you tell your Congressfolk to reject this new scheme to cut your Social Security benefits.
Finally, corporations like GrubHub are actually thriving in the midst of this pandemic, because they can get food from local restaurants to your door without you or restaurant employees having to go out and risk death -- but GrubHub also appears to be gouging those restaurants with outlandish commissions and fees! It's like GrubHub doesn't know there's a whole other meaning to the word "grub"! Hence Color of Change helps you tell GrubHub's CEO to cap its commissions at 10% and drop its usurious fees. You'd think they'd be content with the increased business (if not the reason for the increased business), but once a corporation makes itself "the name" in some area, as GrubHub is the name in food delivery services right now, it's like it thinks it has a license to steal. And, not for nothing, but it wouldn't be too much to ask that our government use the power we have given it to stop monopolies from happening in the first place. The BLACK HELICOPTURZ1!!!! crowd would squeal, but they don't get all the say about everything. Not in my America, at least.
Comments