Roots Action helps you tell your Congressfolk to pass H.R. 328, the Wall Street Tax Act of 2021, which would impose a 0.1% tax on Wall Street trading. That's one-tenth of one percent, "liberal" media -- not "one percent," not "10 percent," and not "100 percent." I've watched "liberal" media morons get all those mixed up; certainly none of them should ever be in charge of my morphine drip if I'm ever in a serious accident. 2.5 milligrams or 25 milligrams, what's the difference? Folks will tell you that taxing Wall Street trades will hurt your pensions, but don't you believe it -- if your pension fund has really invested in all that lightning-fast trading banksters seem to prefer, your pension needs to do differently. And don't let folks say we shouldn't do it because banksters will trade less, either -- so much Wall Street trading does nothing for our economy anyway, so that's not exactly a reason not to do it. Whether we collect a lot of tax revenue, or banksters act more responsible to avoid paying those taxes, it's a win-win, really.
Meanwhile, Rethink Trade helps you tell the Biden Administration to join a 100-nation effort to waive certain intellectual property rules during this ongoing pandemic. Here's what's happening: World Trade Organization rules allow corporations that make COVID-related vaccines and treatments to set onerous terms for their production and pricing, and the 100-nation coalition led by India and South Africa seeks waivers from these rules, so other corporations can ramp up production, so we can get this pandemic under control. You may well be asking yourself: self, don't these corporations deserve to make money from the fruits of their labors? I can answer that objection in at least two ways: 1) no, because there's a pandemic on, and our health is more important than their money, 2) still no, because the "fruits of their labors" also likely came from the fruits of taxpayer funding, and if our taxes funded the vaccines and the treatments, then we should get a considerable amount of say in how they're used.
In other news, Pennsylvania state legislators still aim to "gerrymander" state courts with HB 38, which would amend the state Constitution to insure that only citizens of certain "districts" can elect statewide judges, HB 38 passed out of the state House Judiciary Committee by an admittedly narrow 13-12 vote, one which has, apparently, given Republican legislators pause, but I wouldn't count on them staying "paused" if I were you! They waited until no one was looking in January for the Committee vote, so why wouldn't they try that again for the full House vote? Particularly since everyone who hears about the bill has a hard time getting their head around the notion that judges who serve the law have to come from particular areas. Remember that five of seven state Supreme Court Justices are Democrats and you'll understand the "reasoning," such as it is: HB 38 is a sore loser bill. Hence Fair Districts PA helps you call your PA state reps and tell them to reject the Sore Loser Bill, HB 38.
Finally, Environmental Action helps you tell President Biden to tell our Army Corps of Engineers to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline. Yes, he shut down the Keystone XL pipeline, and good for him, but that ain't the only dangerous pipeline in America: the Dakota Access pipeline also runs through water tables providing clean water to millions of heartland Americans -- a fact the Lakota nation tried to tell us about in late 2016! -- and Dakota Access leaked upwards of five times its first year, including a notorious 200,000-gallon spill in November of 2017. But wait, there's more! The Dakota Access pipeline has taken a thumping in our courts, most recently late last month, as our D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld an April 2020 ruling requiring a more thorough environmental impact statement from our Army Corps of Engineers. And since Dakota likely won't pass muster once our Corps completes that impact statement, maybe we can save them some embarrassment. It'd be the nice thing to do.
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