Years ago, a Texas legislator who was occasionally known to take lobbyists’ cash in exchange for a vote, explained his ethical framework as opportunistic: “I seen my chances, and I took ‘em.” Continue reading
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Author Archives: Jim Hightower
How Trump’s poverty subsidy enriches the rich
This is how corporate and political elites conspire to rig the system, blatantly ripping off money meant to help poor people to make the rich richer.
CEOs promise to protect us from… CEOs?
Nearly 200 CEOs signed a letter admitting businesses have behaved badly but offering zero promises to do better.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote of being leery of a fast-talking huckster who visited his home: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons,” Emerson quipped. Continue reading
Waiting on the wealthy
Low-wage jobs catering to the wealthiest Americans are now growing twice as fast as other jobs.
Are you there yet? Continue reading
You’re paying Big Oil to pollute
Big oil companies are drilling public oil for free, thanks to a ‘temporary’ loophole that’s stayed open for 25 years.
The one thing you never want to hear your dentist say is “oops!” It’s also alarming to hear from a former U.S. senator—25 years after he passed a temporary oil subsidy for Big Oil. Continue reading
Trump to small farmers: Get lost
As hundreds of Wisconsin dairy farms go under, the White House is telling them to clear out for the big guys.
Donald Trump’s idea of a good farm program seems to be “Hee Haw.” Continue reading
Mega merger, mega mess
Corporate takeovers and consolidations aren’t just bad morals, but bad business too.
Here’s a recipe for you: Chop up some Oscar Mayer wieners, stir in Heinz ketchup, blend with Cool Whip and Maxwell House Coffee, sprinkle Planters peanuts over the mixture, add A.1. Steak Sauce, then top it with Cheez Whiz and blast it in the microwave. Continue reading
Tell Kroger they’d better carry your local paper
With no warning or consultation, the giant grocery chain banished local papers from its stores. No way!
Like most politicians, corporate executives never do anything wrong. If anything wrong does “happen,” it’s always someone else’s fault. Continue reading
Big business won’t save us from itself
Nearly 200 CEOs have signed a pledge to ‘do better’ than serving their own greed. How? They won’t say.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote of being leery of a fast-talking huckster who visited his home: “The louder he talked of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons,” Emerson exclaimed. Continue reading
Predator of our public lands
The man Trump charged with protecting our public lands doesn’t believe we should have any.
For generations, our country has been Mother Nature’s steward, setting aside and protecting important expanses of public lands for posterity. But what if these lands and natural resources suddenly got a “steward” who was a predator, rather than a protector? Continue reading
Just who got Trump’s farm bailouts?
Rich families cashed in on over half the bailout money set aside for farmers hurt by Trump’s trade policies.
Donald Trump loves farmers. We know this because he says so. “Farmers, I LOVE YOU!” he declared in December. Continue reading
Where’s the beef in NAFTA 2.0?
Trump’s new trade deal would encourage multinational meat packers to abandon America’s family ranchers.
“MAGA,” blusters Donald Trump—Make America Great Again! Continue reading
The other Mexican migration
Thousands of people cross the U.S.-Mexico border for health care every day—and they’re headed south, not north.
You probably haven’t heard about it, but there’s another mass migration coming across the U.S.-Mexico border. Continue reading
What Trump really wants at the border
Trump doesn’t want a wall—he wants a crisis, even if he has to cause it himself.
The most ridiculous thing about Donald Trump’s xenophobic, demagogic assault on Central American amnesty seekers is that his frantic demand to build a $5 billion border wall isn’t his most ridiculous ploy. Continue reading
America’s other desperate caravan
While Trump demonizes Central Americans, he ignores those desperate U.S. citizens also driven north—to Canada—by drug prices.
While Donald Trump fans the embers of xenophobia in our country by demonizing caravans of desperate Central Americans headed north, there are other northern-bound caravans he doesn’t mention. Continue reading
Democrats, grow a spine
Fighting progressive policies most Americans support will lose you ‘centrist’ votes, not gain them.
Unfortunately, an exotic flu epidemic has broken out in Washington, D.C. Dubbed the “Canadian Hot Sauce Flu,” it uniquely afflicts a particular group of Democratic officeholders and operatives. Continue reading
Congress loves socialized health care—for itself
Members can walk straight into a Capitol Hill clinic, get treated without insurance, and count on taxpayers to cover the tab.
For $3.5 trillion a year, shouldn’t we Americans have a world-class health care system? Yet while we spend the most of any advanced nation in the world to get care—more than $10,000 a year per person—we get the worst results. Continue reading
CEOs got an $800k raise last year. Did you?
Ordinary workers now have to work centuries—or even millennia—to make what their CEOs make in a year.
Congratulations on that nice pay raise you got last year. A 7 percent hike—wow! Continue reading
If corporations have rights, so does nature
A whopping 61 percent of Toledo’s voters said ‘yes’ to recognizing legally enforceable rights for the natural world.
From the very start of our nation, the most popular forum for debating and shaping our democratic rights was not stately legislative halls, but rowdy beer halls. Continue reading
Putting Good Samaritans behind bars
Border authorities arrested a Texas woman for stopping to help bedraggled teenagers who desperately needed it.
Let us now contemplate the morality tale of the Good Samaritan. Continue reading
‘Made in America,’ in China
The president pretends to stand up for manufacturing workers while kowtowing to corporations that flagrantly violate Made-in-America laws.
What’s the matter with Donald and The Trumpeteers? Why won’t they stand up for the American workers and business owners who make their products right here in the United States? Continue reading
McData: At McDonald’s, you’re on the menu
The company plans to use AI ordering to gather data on your ‘movement patterns’ and license plate number.
The great thing about corporate giants is that they’re such amazing business innovators. For example, in the category of “wheel-spinning” innovation—i.e., trying to change a corporation’s course without actually changing anything—it’s hard to top McDonald’s. Continue reading
One big problem with the GOP’s campaign against ‘socialism’
The policies Republicans smear as Stalinist are a good deal more popular than their own.
“Socialism,” snarled Donald Trump at a recent pep rally of far-right Republicans. The obedient crowd of Trumpistas snarled back in unison: So-sh’ll-izz-ummm! Continue reading
Supervillain economics
A new White House report proposes cutting regulations that protect workers and children, while piling on yet more tax cuts for billionaires.
Even if a White House report is just a pack of lies, it still can reveal some awful truths. Continue reading
Trump hates farmers
He tweets odes to America's small farmers, but his actions are tearing them apart.
Have you noticed how often Donald Trump prefaces his comments and tweets with phrases like “frankly,” “to tell the truth,” and “believe me”? Continue reading
Silicon Valley’s next target: America’s farmers
They're building robots to siphon farm profits out of local communities and into the pockets of rich investors.
How’re you gonna keep ‘em down on the farm after they’ve seen… Angus? Not the cattle breed, but the 1,000-pound “farmer of the future.” Continue reading
Never stop pushing elected officials
If you don't keep on them once they're elected, you can be sure special interests will.
Sometimes we forget that the progressive movement’s political goal is not just to elect good officials, but to enact good public policy. Continue reading
The city that refused to play Amazon’s game
San Antonio told Jeff Bezos to beat it over a year before New York sent him packing.
The richest man in the world, who heads one of the world’s largest and richest corporations, is also filthy rich in arrogance and pomposity. Continue reading
Foxconn bilked Wisconsin and the GOP helped
After pocketing a huge taxpayer bribe from former Gov. Scott Walker, the manufacturer all but canceled plans to build a factory in the state. Jim Hightower
A newspaper photograph last summer portrayed three guys in suits and ties shoveling dirt. They were Donald Trump, then-Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, and the chairman of Foxconn, the Taiwanese electronics conglomerate. Continue reading
Don’t listen to billionaires who complain about taxes
When the U.S. last had a top tax rate of over 70 percent, it was a period of unparalleled prosperity.
Once upon a time, there was a place where the prevailing ethic of the very richest people was that monetary self-indulgence was tacky. Wealth, they believed, was a matter of good fortune, carrying with it an obligation to the Common Good. Continue reading
AI wants to reprogram you
Driverless cars cost jobs and threaten pedestrians. Investors' advice? Just get out of the way!
With chaos in the White House, worsening climate disasters, more wars than we can count, and a wobbling economy here at home, the last thing we need is another big challenge. But—look out!—here comes a doozy! Continue reading
Who’s afraid of Medicare for All?
Not ordinary Democrats or independents—just insurance companies, lobbyists, and old-line politicians.
Posted on December 12, 2019 by Jim Hightower
We might expect that corporate billionaires and Koch-funded Republican right-wingers would be howl-at-the-moon opponents of a wealth tax, Medicare-for-All, and other big progressive ideas to help improve the circumstances of America’s workaday majority. Continue reading →