First things first. As you likely know, our President used rubber bullets and tear gas on protestors outside a church on Tuesday evening so he could hold up a Bible in a photo op. And House Speaker Pelosi responded swiftly by introducing legislation that would prevent our President from ever doing something like that again! I kid, of course -- did the "swiftly" give it away? So Progress America helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass legislation that would prevent our President from deploying our military against the American people, while Adhila Akbar has begun a petition on Change.org that helps you tell your Congressfolk to forbid law enforcement from using tear gas for riot control purposes. The Geneva Protocol of 1925 outlaws the use of tear gas in war, so why is it OK to use it on protestors? Or do governments value their enemies more than they value their own people? It's a question worth asking! Don't come at me with WELL WHAT ABOUT TEH LOOTERZ!!!! Do you believe looters are literally worse than your enemies at war? Either the answer is no, in which case you're wrong, or it's yes, in which case you're evil like our President.
Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been flailing about lately trying to explain why he hasn't tamped down on our President's naked exhortations to violence. He started out saying that it was about "free speech," which we know to be rubbish because we know our First Amendment protects us from our government, not Facebook; then he pivoted to "it's not so bad," which we also know to be rubbish because our President has perpetrated violence against American citizens this very week. Hence Free Press helps you tell Facebook to ban users who fail to follow Facebook's own policies against hate speech and promotion of violence. Yes, Facebook actually does have those policies, which is yet another reason we know Mr. Zuckerberg's gyrations are full of soup. Jesus Mary and Joseph even Twitter -- as in #Twitterisforracists, which was the last thing I ever said on Twitter before leaving -- has started to brandish its power against some of our President's more absurd utterings. Surely Mr. Zuckerberg doesn't want to be outclassed by Mr. Dorsey? (Sorry, I'm not sure how to reach a billionaire, other than to assume he relates to the world more or less like a 12-year-old boy.)
Finally, if you missed previous opportunities to tell your Congressfolk to end the 1033 program that gives police military weapons, Daily Kos, Demand Progress, and Roots Action all help you do that. Plus the Friends Committee on National Legislation helps you tell your Congressfolk to support that goal and others, including the PEACE Act, the End Racial and Religious Profiling Act, and the Eric Garner Excessive Force Prevention Act. And please don't let your friends and family act like only liberals want to stop all this "tough on crime" posturing -- the first folks to introduce me to Families Against Mandatory Minimums were Libertarians, conservative Radley Balko has done some of the most powerful writing about the folly of "tough on crime" policies, and Matt Purple at The American Conservative (founded by Pat Buchanan, you may recall) not only calls for the end of the 1033 program, but reminds us that where police tend to fire gas canisters at protestors who call for an end to racist policing, they sure were nice to whiny-ass anti-lockdown protestors who arrived with assault rifles. Liberals and conservatives agree: this shit has got to stop.
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