Happy Tuesday, good Americans! Now call your Senators and tell them to pass H.R. 6800, the HEROES Act, and reject the suite of bills known as the HEALS Act. It ain't that damn hard, really: the HEROES Act would fund expanded unemployment benefits, would fund our Post Office, would fund COVID-19 testing and tracing, would fund public education, would fund the states and localities hit hard by this pandemic, and would issue another round of stimulus checks that would exceed the ones we got from the CARES Act. Plus, the HEROES Act would expand working family tax breaks and repeal the gazillionaire tax break that "somehow" made it into the CARES Act. And what would the HEALS Act do? Speed up Congress's ability to cut your Social Security benefits, expand the three-martini lunch tax break, fund considerably less-expanded unemployment benefits, and immunize corporations from lawsuits when they injure or kill good Americans like you and I. I think our duty as Americans is quite clear here, even if our leaders mean to mystify it.
Meanwhile, a Kenowah, WI police officer shot Jake Blake seven times in the back this past Sunday, so Color of Change helps you tell state and local decision-makers to fire the officer who shot Mr. Blake. All ye need ask yourself is this one question: does anyone deserve the death penalty before being charged with a crime? If the answer is "yes," you might want to see a therapist about your anger management issues. And if the answer is "no," then no amount of propaganda concerning "everything happened so quickly" or "what was he doing out there?" matters. If a police officer kills a person without due process of law, well, victims can't exactly get do-overs, can they? Too many police officers get do-overs after killing Americans, particularly Americans of color, but the victims can't. It's that damn simple. Admit no "Jake Blake was no angel" in your conversations about this matter. Admit no "but how many arrests did he have on his record," either. Clearly I have been far too kind toward my opponents about these matters; that stops now.
In other news, Cancel Ring helps you tell big online retail corporation Amazon to end its numerous "partnerships" with local police departments. These "partnerships" entail Amazon helping police departments collect Ring doorbell footage without warrants, a weapon our police too readily turns on protestors and folks of color. If they were trying to catch burglars, you'd still make them get a warrant, or at least you would in a sane, moral, and decent society, but in this sick, immoral, and decadent society, Amazon just helps police get all the information they want, law and order be damned. No, it is "law and order" to ensure that all Americans, even the guilty ones, get Fourth Amendment protections guaranteed by our Constitution. Those who watch TV news channels that have been replaying the same footage of looting for the last two months may not see how untrammeled police power might actually threaten their freedom. But I always wonder why someone would be happy remaining in a state of rage all the time. I mean, they get tired, don't they?
Finally, our EPA is still trying to roll back fuel efficiency standards because ANYTHINGZ TEH OBUMMERZ DIDZ IZ TEH BADZ!!!!! And worse, big auto manufacturing corporations are rolling back their own support for said standards! Remember when the Obama standards came with the endorsement of big automakers? Well, apparently their word didn't mean much. Who'da thunk it? Seriously, don't let anyone come at you with "you were naive to believe the big automakers," because either this is a civilized society in which your word means something, or it's not. Too many Americans will shrug and say it isn't once you spring that trap on them, and then you will know that doing right is less important to them than "owning the libs" or "being on the winning team." And they'll have to take that to the Pearly Gates one day! Anyway, the Sierra Club helps you tell big auto manufacturing corporations GM and Toyota to drop their support for this Administration's pro-pollution, anti-fuel efficiency policy. Their executives will have to answer at the Pearly Gates, too; maybe they'll take that to heart.
UPDATE. I did not realize that Mr. Blake was still alive. Which is excellent news! Hence I've changed one word in the second paragraph above. (Not the rest of it, though -- I'm pretty sure that when you shoot a guy seven times, you're trying to kill him.)
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