Positive Politics #5
Right to Read Act, Justice is Not For Sale Act and Katie Porter Kicking Corporate Ass and FIGHTING DARK MONEY!
So here we are, the tail end of the year and crunch time for making New Years Resolutions. Mine, and something I wish the entire Dem electorate would do, is make a resolution to spread knowledge throughout the entire social media ecosystem instead of continuing to feed into the Right Wing Noise Machine. We need to become like millions of cogs in the wheel that will derail and destroy the entire MAGA media system. We can, but we have to stop taking the bait, stop jonesing for those endorphin hits and flip the script… instead of lowering the level of conversation raise it by addressing actual issues to give people a reason to vote for us, not just cast us aside as “the parties are all the same”
We start off with Rep Raul Grivalja, who has spent most of 2024 fighting cancer, but still doing his job and serving the nation. We all know libraries are under attack by the GOP and Rep Grivalja’s bill fights against that.
The Right To Read Act
The Right to Read Act will address the disparities in access to school library resources. It will increase the federal investment in literacy by reauthorizing Comprehensive Literacy State Development Grants at $500 million, and the Innovative Approaches to Literacy program at $100 million, targeting critical literacy resources in high need communities. The bill protects access to quality reading materials, and provides the resources needed to create a foundation for learning and student success.
1. The Right to Read Act ensures that low-income, minority children, children with disabilities, and English language learners are not disproportionally enrolled in schools that lack effective school libraries.
2. Supports the development of effective school libraries, including the recruitment, retention and professional development of state-certified school librarians.
3. Protects access to linguistically and developmentally appropriate, evidence-based reading instruction, effective school libraries, family literacy support, culturally diverse and inclusive materials, reading materials in the home, and the freedom to choose reading materials.
4.Reaffirms that first amendment rights apply to school libraries, in response to the growing trend of book banning, which currently affects students and schools in 32 states, limiting inquiry and access to information that reflects diverse views and experiences.
5. Provides protections for school staff acting to provide access to reading material
Libraries aren’t the only thing the GOP is trying to destroy, voting is also on the GOP hit list..
The Voting Access Act wants to make most of the standard tactics the GOP uses to make voting harder (Less polling places, longer lines etc) illegal.
The Voting Access Act states that no individual shall wait longer than one hour to cast their ballot on Election Day.
It requires the Elections Assistance Commission, in consultation with the chief State election officials of the States, to establish national minimum standards for voter access to polling locations, ballot information, and protections from harassment.
It ensures that each polling place has sufficient resources, including voting systems, ballots, and election officials and that voters have prior information on their ballots and polling locations.
The bill also authorizes funding to aid states in complying with the new standards.
Lastly, this bill requires the Elections Assistance Commission to issue a report on party affiliation misidentification issues and voter purge practices.
So when people say the Dems aren’t fighting against voter suppression, they’re wrong.
We all know how truly corrupt the private prison system is, and the fact that people profit off of inmates is something that is just despicable. Rep Grivalja is working on getting rid of the private prison system. Not that it will pass in the foreseeable future but, once again, the idea that the Dems don’t care about it is incorrect.
Ends our reliance on for-profit corrections companies and will reverse a major motivating factor of over incarceration.
Bars the Department of Justice from contracting with private entities to provide and/or operate prisons and detention facilities within 2 years.
Bars state and local governments from contracting with private entities to provide and/or operate prisons and detention centers within 2 years. This includes for-profit civil commitment centers, return to custody units, community corrections and treatment centers, halfway houses and re-entry programs.
Increases oversight and prevents companies from overcharging inmates and their families for services like banking and telephone calls. Conducts oversight of immigration detention facilities to ensure the humane treatment of detainees.
Prohibits the detention of families and replaces family detention with alternatives that are community based and community-supported. Case management programs operated by nonprofit organizations have been proven to be successful.
From corrupt private prisons to corporate America (also corrupt in so so so many ways) Dems consistently push for regulations, oversight and trying to make the fatcats pay what they owe…like for legal fines.
Rep Katie Porter, no stranger to fighting corporate ghouls has this bill in the works…
The Corporate Management Accountability Act
You know when companies get fined things after lawsuits or government investigations and the CEOs who made the decisions just pass on those fines to the shareholders or the profit margins of the company. Yeah…Rep Porter wants to make the CEOs pay.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
September 20, 2024
Ms. Porter introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services
A BILL
To ensure that irresponsible corporate executives, rather than shareholders, pay fines and penalties.
It’s a nice simple clean bill…the kind the GOP are always SCREAMING that Dems should write. Think they’ll vote for this one? Yeah. I don’t either.
One of the worst influencing factor in our politics is Dark Money that comes from Foreign Entities (cough cough RUSSIA cough cough) …and I promise you there is no way in hell GOP will ever do anything to stop it.
Rep Porter is trying to though…
FOREIGN POLITICAL INFLUENCE ELIMINATION ACT
To amend the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971 to treat certain foreign-owned corporations and business organizations as foreign nationals for purposes of the ban on campaign activity, to prohibit foreign-affiliated section 501(c)(4) organizations from making contributions to super PACs or disbursing funds for independent expenditures or electioneering communications, to amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 to reform the procedures for the registration of agents of foreign principals under such Act, and for other purposes.
And it goes deep into defining who is and isn’t a Foreign Agent, what they can and cannot contribute (financially or by making ads etc) and sets up badly needed regulations against all of the tampering that has been getting steadily worse.
And…Establishes a whole new dedicated enforcement unit in the DOJ to deal with it.
SEC. 206. Establishment of FARA investigation and enforcement unit within Department of Justice.
Section 8 of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, as amended (22 U.S.C. 618), as amended by section 206, is further amended by adding at the end the following new subsection:
“(j) Dedicated enforcement unit. —
“(1) ESTABLISHMENT. — Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this subsection, the Attorney General shall establish a unit within the counterespionage section of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice with responsibility for the enforcement of this Act.
“(2) POWERS. — The unit established under this subsection is authorized to —
“(A) take appropriate legal action against individuals suspected of violating this Act; and
“(B) coordinate any such legal action with the United States Attorney for the relevant jurisdiction.
“(3) CONSULTATION. — In operating the unit established under this subsection, the Attorney General shall, as appropriate, consult with the Director of National Intelligence, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the Secretary of State.
“(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS. — There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out the activities of the unit established under this subsection $10,000,000 for fiscal year 2024 and each succeeding fiscal year.”.
SEC. 207. Comprehensive strategy to improve enforcement and administration.
(a) Implementation of strategy. — Not later than 120 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Attorney General shall promulgate final regulations for the implementation of a comprehensive strategy to improve the enforcement and administration of the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938 (22 U.S.C. 611 et seq.) that addresses the following issues:
(1) The coordination and integration of the work of the agencies that perform investigations of alleged violations of the Act and bring actions (including criminal prosecutions) to enforce the Act with the overall national security efforts of the Department of Justice.
(2) An assessment of the appropriateness of the exemptions provided under the Act that permit persons who represent the interests of foreign principals to avoid registering under the Act.
(3) A formal cost-benefit analysis of the appropriateness of the fee structure under the Act.
(4) An assessment of the value of making advisory opinions under the Act available in whole as an informational resource.
(b) Review by Inspector General. —
(1) REVIEW. — The Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall carry out a review of the extent to which the Attorney General has implemented the comprehensive strategy described in subsection (a).
(2) REPORT TO CONGRESS. — The Inspector General of the Department of Justice shall submit a report to the appropriate committees of Congress on the results of the review carried out under paragraph (1) not later than 1 year after the date upon which the comprehensive strategy described in subsection (a) is implemented by the Attorney General.
© Ensuring electronic access to reports through searchable website. —
(1) REPORT TO CONGRESS. — The Attorney General, in consultation with the Assistant Attorney General for National Security, shall include in the second annual report submitted to the appropriate committees of Congress under subsection © a detailed description of methods to ensure that reports filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act are filed electronically in a digitized format which will enable the Foreign Agents Registration Unit website database to be fully searchable, machine-readable, sortable, and downloadable.
(2) IMPLEMENTATION. — After submitting the report containing the information described in paragraph (1), the Attorney General shall implement the methods described in the report.
Once again…DEMS ARE FIGHTING AGAINST ALL THE BULLSHIT GOP ARE DOING…
BUT IS ANYONE ON OUR SIDE OF THE SOCIAL MEDIA SPECTRUM TALKING ABOUT IT???!!
NOPE
Would be nice if a few of the MASSIVE ONLINE LIBERAL PLATFORMS WOULD TAKE A FEW EPS AWAY FROM TRUMP AND COVER THIS STUFF!
