Yesterday we called our Reps and Senators to demand that they keep us out of the Trans-Pacific "Partnership" which Barack Obama supported but which Donald Trump helped make toxic; today we tackle existing "free" trade dogma, as Rethink Trade helps you tell President Biden to stop blocking an emergency rules waiver that would otherwise allow COVID-19 vaccines and treatments to proliferate. Intellectual property is the issue here, as it often is, but in the middle of a pandemic, which is more important? That corporations maximize the profits they make from their "property," or that sick people get the treatment that'll make them well again? I would think you would say the latter is more important, if you're a decent human being. That must explain why the otherwise anti-"free" trade President Trump helped block the waiver in the first place, money being more important to him than anything else, except maybe drama. But he's gone, and we have no reason to keep his nefarious works going.
Pennsylvania residents, take note: our U.S. Supreme Court may have refused to hear several more cases in which our state Supreme Court ruled in favor of voting rights, but that doesn't mean our reactionary state legislature won't try to impose as many new voting restrictions as they can! We have a Democratic Governor for two more years who'll likely veto at least the worst of what they try to do, but why use him as a crutch? We can stop this ourselves if we speak out enough! Indeed, that's really the only thing that's ever worked. Hence common Cause helps you tell your PA state legislators to reject any bills that would restrict voting rights in the Commonwealth. You want some weapons-grade PR here? Call any Republican bill that restricts early voting or absentee voting or mail-in voting a "sore loser" bill. They're only trying to pass them because their guy lost Pennsylvania, and they also know the more folks vote, the more folks who'll likely vote against them. We don't have to take that.
Finally, our House passed a sweeping marijuana policy reform bill last Congress -- but Mitch McConnell sat on it, because he's Mob Boss Mitch. Mob Boss Mitch no longer controls the Senate, however, which means bills like last session's MORE Act (which would have legalized pot and commuted sentences and expunged records for some folks imprisoned on pot-related charges) might actually get a vote in the Senate this time! They wouldn't get around a filibuster, in theory, but we could speak out en masse and make it more difficult for Republicans to oppose it. And I bet fewer of them want to oppose it than they'd like us to think! More than half of America's states have either legalized it or reduced criminal penalties for possessing it, which means the legalization movement is much bigger than even the most insecure politician's jones for looking "tough on crime." So Watchdog.net helps you tell your Congressfolk to legalize pot and grant some criminal justice mercy to low-level pot offenders.
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