“We’ve had a great relationship,” exulted a giddy Donald Trump, following his two-day schmoozefest in Manila with the thuggish Philippine president, Rodrigo Duterte. Continue reading
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Author Archives: Jim Hightower
A mass murderer’s love song to Trump
When a guy who's compared himself to Hitler sings love ballads to the U.S. president, we've got a problem.
Leading Democrats are way behind the public on health care
60 percent of Americans support single payer health care. So why is the party leadership dragging its feet?
Good news, people—at last, congressional Democrats have gotten a clue, grown some spine, and are beginning to act like . . . well, like progressives. Continue reading
Robots aren’t taking our jobs, corporations are
They're creating a robot economy with inexpensive machines that don't demand wages or health care.
There’s a robot in your future. Not one of those cute little labor-saving automatons—like a “Roomba” vacuum cleaner. Continue reading
What happened to Trump’s pledge to close this billionaire loophole?
The president's pledge to roll back a hedge fund loophole has mysteriously vanished from his tax plan.
These are hard times for America’s gold miners. They’re scrambling to get ahead, but seeing their pay dropping. Continue reading
Trump wants $1.6 billion for the border wall that spans just 74 miles
All this for a boondoggle project most Americans continue to oppose.
How much of your money does Donald Trump want to pour into his xenophobic fantasy of erecting an impenetrable wall on our Mexican border? Continue reading
Our health care system is a corporate care system
Why is health system flailing? Because its guiding ethic is profit, not care.
Rather than a health care system, our country’s leaders have kept us shackled to a “corporate care” system. Continue reading
Trump’s running out of friends and it’s his own fault
Seems like the only one still standing by him is David Duke. They deserve each other.
I hate to say this, but I’m starting to feel sorry for Donald Trump. He’s only been in office for half a year, and already he’s running out of Americans to attack. Continue reading
What happened to all those foreclosed houses?
Wall Street bought them—and is now leasing them out and driving up rents.
We know that millions of American families lost their homes after Wall Street’s 2007 financial crash. But where did all those houses go? Continue reading
Turning churches into super PACs
A bogus campaign for ‘religious freedom’ could create unholy temples of dark money.
You know what’s wrong with American politics? It’s that there just aren’t enough ways for giant corporations and mega-rich political donors to funnel their big bucks into our elections and buy our government. Continue reading
Billionaire donors plot a ‘renaissance of freedom’—for the privileged
Who needs roads when you've got a private jet?
Charles and David Koch—the billionaire oil men who’ve financed a vast network of right-wing advocacy groups—have stayed out of the national limelight recently. But they’re still trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy. Continue reading
Don’t trust business with education
Greasy politicians use education funds to enrich corporations—and themselves.
Betsy DeVos and her husband Dick are lucky: They inherited a big chunk of the multi-billion-dollar fortune that Dick’s dad Richard amassed through his shady Amway corporation. But what they’ve done with their Amway money is certainly not the American Way. Continue reading
‘1984’ at the grocery store
Amazon is buying Whole Foods, and that's bad news for humans.
Wall Street analysts tell us that Amazon’s $14 billion buyout of Whole Foods isn’t only a win-win for both of them, but also for consumers, for Amazon intends to lower the organic grocer’s prices. Continue reading
Free as you can afford to be
GOP leaders want to protect your "freedom" to be poor, powerless, sick, and uninsured.
I think of freedom in positive, aspirational terms—as in FDR’s “Four freedoms,” or in the uplifting songs of freedom sung by oppressed people everywhere. Continue reading
Trump’s Twitter bombs
If a president is going to pick a mess of foreign fights, wouldn't it be better not to pick them with allies?
Donald Trump missed his opportunity to become a General Patton-style military commander and glorious war hero back in the Vietnam era. He surely would’ve been the greatest in history, to hear him tell it. Continue reading
Billionaires lay siege to state governments
While we're mesmerized by Trump, shady groups are pushing corporate-friendly legislation in statehouses all over the country.
It’s easy to become mesmerized by The Donald Show in this year’s political circus. Continue reading
Walling them out, or walling us in?
Shall we wall off Canada, too?
Evading security cameras in the remote expanse along the U.S. border, three Guatemalans waited till dusk to slip illicitly into our country. Continue reading
If you make under $75,000, you lose
Behind closed doors, Republicans admit that their tax plan is all for their rich donors.
Posted on December 12, 2017 by Jim Hightower
Sam Rayburn, a legendary speaker of the U.S. House in the 1940s and ’50s, offered this piece of ethical advice for lawmakers who were conflicted over whether to vote for the people or the lobbyists: “Every now and then,” he said, “a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.” Continue reading →