Jim Hightower's Radio Lowdown

Greetings, Lowdowners—Deanna here!In January, paid subscribers got 45 minutes of unfiltered Hightower at our Happy Hour Q&A. If you missed it—or if you’re a free subscriber wondering what these gatherings are like—here’s a taste.We asked readers to bring questions, stories, anything. What we got was one of the best evenings we’ve had: Hightower on organizing in red states, the horror of what’s happening with ICE, why the Democrats need big ideas, and—because it’s Hightower—some absolutely wild stories from campaigning across Texas in small planes held together with duct tape and optimism. The clip above is one of my favorite all-time stories: the famous beer run with Melvin Lowry out in West Texas. When you're a broke statewide candidate in Texas, you get where you're going however you can. In Hightower's case, that meant farmers with planes, county roads as landing strips, and pit stops for six-packs. "The secret to the high wire is never look at the high wire. You just land."If you thought the beer run was something, wait until you hear about the plane where Hightower’s passenger seat was a kitchen chair with a seatbelt—and the only way to get airborne was for two guys to hold up the tail and run down the runway. “I am a serious candidate for statewide office in the state of Texas.”One last gem from that night covers while the Populist movement of the late 1800s was so successful: they knew that politics couldn’t be just a bunch of committee meetings. They created fun. Here, Hightower shares an insight that Pete Seeger once told him about how he discovered politics through the Chautauqua movement.These are the kinds of evenings paid subscribers get—stories you won’t hear anywhere else, and a chance to actually ask Hightower what’s on your mind.The full 45-minute video, including Hightower on why organizing together beats just calling your red state Senator, how Democratic leadership is responding to our grassroots pressure, and the vision for getting money out of politics, is is available to paid subscribers here.If last week’s C-SPAN video was a window into Hightower’s world, this is a seat at the table. More on that next week.Happy Friday, everyone.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Bribery of a lawmaker used to be a straightforward retail transaction between the special interest briber and a specific bribee. But the Silicon Valley billionaires now invading rural America with hundreds of their exploitative AI data centers are out to buy state lawmakers in bulk.Instead of slipping cash-filled envelopes to individual politicos, tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI, are putting up hundreds of millions of dollars in this spring’s midterm elections to pay for the campaigns of candidates who pledge to back their intrusive, water-sucking, energy-wasting, AI schemes. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, has two super-PACs doling out $65 million to state and local politicians who will oppose any regulation of sprawling data centers he wants to impose on rural Texas and Illinois.Why such a barrage of corporate money in local legislative races? Because the countryside is aflame with fury that arrogant, avaricious AI profiteers think they’re entitled to walk over local communities – so these locals are demanding that their legislators regulate or even ban AI data centers.Unable (or unwilling) to win political support honestly, the corporate giants intend to overpower the democratic will of the people by effectively bribing submissive legislators with campaign cash – or by funding opponents for lawmakers who refuse to be bought.Of course, bribers and bribees alike will piously pretend that the corporate ruse of buying government policy by buying legislative seats is technically not a bribe. But hello – rigging the system so billionaire donors can crush local democracy is not a “technicality.” If it looks, smells, and has the impact of a bribe… it is one.Do something!* To follow fights around the country and learn more about AI data centers, subscriber to Data Center Watch Briefing: datacenterwatch.substack.com* MediaJustice has developed a toolkit to understand and fight data centers, and were key in forcing a major setback to a planned data center in West Texas.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

The Democratic Party establishment is rolling out its arsenal of big funders and political consultants, trying to defeat… Democrats.Huh? Yes, led by Sen. Chuck “Don’t-Rock-the-Corporate-Boat” Schumer, the party’s Washington hierarchy has been working to eliminate upstart Democratic contenders who are unabashedly progressive and popular! These candidates are generating new grassroots energy and hope for the party by bluntly challenging Washington’s meek, business-as-usual politics that Schumer embodies.Pundits say Democrats need to find candidates who can appeal to workers. Well, here’s one who is full-blooded working class: Graham Platner. A 41-year old military combat veteran, Platner is a plain-spoken oyster farmer who’s running right at “the oligarchy – the billionaires who pay for it and the politicians who sell us out.” Platner’s fiery populist spirit has sparked statewide grassroots support, volunteers, funding, and enthusiasm that Maine Democrats have not had in years.But, uninvited, here came Chuck – lugging his ponderous wet blanket of high-dollar corporate politics to the state. Trying to stop a real democrat from being the party’s nominee, Schumer recruited Maine’s lame-duck, milquetoast governor to run against Platner, knowing she would not challenge the corporate order. He raised truckloads of corporate cash for her, hoping to suffocate the oysterman’s populist uprising.But by assaulting Platner with a barrage of out-of-state of corporate money, Schumer and his hand-picked candidate are actually assaulting the “little-d,” working-class democrats who’ve rallied to the maverick. Attacking your own constituents is an odd strategy, and sure enough, it doesn’t seem to be selling in Maine – a recent poll of likely Democratic voters shows Platner with a 38-point lead over Schumer’s choice to be Maine’s senator.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Greetings, Lowdowners—Deanna here.This spring, we’re doing something a little different. Over the next few weeks, we’re opening the gates a bit — giving free subscribers a taste of some of the exclusive stories, video, and behind-the-scenes Hightower that paid subscribers get regularly. If you’ve been on the fence about upgrading, consider this your invitation to see what you’ve been missing.And we’re kicking it off with a doozy.Reader Elliot K. shared with us this video from C-SPAN that we didn’t know existed—and it’s a rollicking time capsule that you don’t want to miss. Hightower hosts a storytelling evening over beers with friends Molly Ivins, Ed Wendler, Ty Fain, Buck Wood, and more, plus a surprise visit (and great story) from State Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos. Scholz Garten in Austin, the setting for this gathering, is historic for a number of reasons, but it’s long been a watering hole for politicos of all stripes. As Buck Wood, then the director of Common Cause Texas, explains:Some of [the legislative bills] were literally hammered out right down here in the beer garden. There’s been some great political fights here, there’s been some pretty good fist fights here for years. Usually over political matters.There are too many stories in here nail the spirit of Texas politics, but my favorite is a spicy one from heroine Molly Ivins that I’d never heard before:One of great ongoing literary attractions of Scholz Beer Garden is the graffiti in the restrooms. And I myself have never frequented the men’s room here, no matter how serious the cause. I do remember an exchange. This was back when Frank Erwin, he was chairman of the UT Board of Regents, he was Lyndon Johnson’s man, and he really was in many ways a miserable sumbitch. I went to the ladies room one night and there was a note on the wall saying, “Do a good deed today, give Frank Erwin the clap.” Underneath which somebody else had written, “Give it to him? Hell, charge him for it!”Happy Friday everyone—let us know your favorite parts in the comments. PS—If you haven’t seen the documentary “Raise Hell: The Life and Times of Molly Ivins,” get thee to a streaming service immediately!Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

To see how the game of “Rig the System” is played, consider the shameful corporate gaming of the horror of California wildfires that have been devouring lives and entire communities.Many of the worst fires have been ignited by the faulty wires, transformers, and other poorly functioning equipment of such profiteering electric utilities as Southern California Edison. The safety failures of this multibillion-dollar giant have been so awful that state lawmakers and regulators have rushed out fire-protection laws – not for the people, but for the corporate owners! A 2019 law literally protects utilities from paying for fire damages they cause, instead passing the costs to state taxpayers.Wait, says Edison, if our annual safety record is poor, our top executives are punished with a cut in their annual bonuses. Ouch! Well, not really – the reduction is capped at 5 percent.Take last year’s fire that destroyed nearly every home and building in the town of Altadena, killing 19 people. “It’s just a tragedy,” lamented Edison’s CEO, though he admits it was sparked by an Edison transmission line. Sure enough, the chief “suffered” a 5-percent bonus hickey. Hold your pity, though, for that means he still collected 95 percent of his 2025 performance bonus, plus pocketing his extravagant salary, stock options, and benefits. In all, the man-in-charge of this corporate-made “tragedy” walked away with nearly $14 million in personal pay.Meanwhile, Edison went to the Public Utility Commission, demanding that its customers be forced to pay 10 percent more on their electric bills. To keep score on utilities rigging the system, go to TURN, The Utility Reform Network: turn.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

America’s present president is like those egos who feel entitled to carve their name into every park bench they sit on, apparently to “make their mark” and shout to the world, “I wuz here!”Indeed, Trump has demanded that our government patch his “Donald J. Trump” onto such public facilities as the Kennedy Center, the Institute of Peace, Dulles Airport, Penn Station, the Hudson Tunnel – and he might as well add the US Capitol since he treats Congress like his personal possession.Insecurity is what’s driving his egomaniacal rebranding frenzy. As Trump candidly explains, “You’ve got to put your name on stuff or no one will remember you.”Oh, Donald, like the demagogic Joe McCarthy and other narcissistic politicos, you’re destined to be long remembered… and mocked! Moreover, those vainglorious, gold-plated Trump nameplates you’re tacking onto every public space will soon be unceremoniously stripped off and dumped into the trash bin of history.My friend, Fred Harris, a great populist senator from Oklahoma, told about the fickle nature of political fame. It was a true story about a governor who backed a boondoggle construction project after lobbyists promised to name the structure after him. They did, but as soon as the governor left office, his name was removed. Fred said if anyone ever dedicated a bridge or building to him, he wanted his name built into the structure itself, so if they later tried to remove his name, “the damned thing would fall down.”So don’t despair that this president seems omnipresent. This too, will pass. Keep whacking at the autocratic, plutocratic structure of Trumpism – it’s not built to withstand the winds time, much less the winds of democratic rebellion.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Here’s something we don’t get to say very often: “Way to go Mississippi!”This state has long been ranked dead last in important measurements like healthcare, workers’ wages, and rural opportunities. In recent years, though, Mississippi has steadily been advancing to the top in one vital category: Best places for a poor child to get a good education. What a miracle!No. It’s the product of ordinary citizens who got fed up with plutocratic state rule that lavishes taxpayer funds on corporate elites, while shortchanging the basic needs of workaday people. In the past decade, savvy grassroots coalitions like Mississppi United have arisen and spread, gaining local political punch in county after county that could not be ignored by legislators.Early on they achieved major state investments in pre-K education, producing remarkable advances, especially by low-income children in many of the state’s poverty-stricken, rural counties.This year, building on that success, the movement scored two huge educational victories. First, they produced a unanimous senate vote to defeat a school privatization scheme pushed by the right-wing governor, the corporate establishment, out-of-state school profiteers… and Donald Trump! Then, to emphasize and expand on the state’s commitment to quality public education, the legislature passed a $5,000 teacher pay raise.As a legislative leader from Starkville said after the senate vote: “Our public schools are the cornerstone of every community in this state, and this unanimous rejection sends a clear message: Mississippi will not abandon the students and families who depend on quality public education – no matter how much out-of-state money tries to buy our legislators.”To learn more about the uplifting “Mississippi Miracle” go to ACLU-MS.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

In 1988, I was one of only two white elected Democratic officials in all of America to endorse Jesse Jackson to be our party’s nominee for President. (The other was Bernie Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington Vermont).As a Texas politico, my endorsement of the fiery Black leader was both derided as political suicide and hailed as gutsy. But it was neither – it was just the right thing to do. As I had learned from an old-time Texas Democrat, “Every now and then, a politician ought to do something just because it’s right.”In the 1970s and 80s, I had gotten to know and work with Jackson. A renown orator, he was an even more effective thinker and uniter. For example, he was able to link white, conservative dirt farmers in common cause with impoverished farmworkers and inner-city families battling chain-store profiteers.So, when he ran for president, I had to ask myself: If this guy (1) is standing for the progressive populist values I believe in, (2) is standing with the grassroots families I’m fighting for, and (3) has the populist grit to stand up to the moneyed elites – why am I not standing with him?Millions of us responded to his deliberate campaign trying to forge a multi-racial populist movement, and it’s up to us to carry that historic mission forward. But Jackson’s “Rainbow” vision was not one of fluffy hope however, but one of profound “intentionality.” That means doing the grunt-level political work of strategizing, organizing, and mobilizing to make good things happen. Especially in these dark Trumpian times, emphasizing Jesse’s deliberate determination is the best way to honor this true champion of democracy.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

How are monopolistic corporations able to gain their economic dominance? They get politicians to give it to them.Consider the old robber barons. They weren’t brilliant investors or managers, they were ruthless exploiters of government giveaways, and they routinely bribed lawmakers and other officials to permit their monopolistic thievery.Likewise, today’s monopoly players have captured local, state, and national markets – not through honest competition, but by getting public officials to subsidize their expansion and to rig the rules against small competitors. Monopolizers buy this favoritism with the legalized bribes of dark-money campaign donations they lavish on compliant lawmakers.Investigative digger Stacy Mitchell recently documented how this corrupt political favoritism has allowed massive retail chains like Walmart, Kroger, and Dollar Store to crush thousands of local grocers. This has left millions of Americans living in “food deserts” – worker class, poor, and rural communities with no food store.What happened? As grocery chains spread from local to regional to national, they demanded that food manufacturers give them big discounts – a dramatic monopoly pricing advantage over independent rivals, so hometown grocers began hemorrhaging customers. This raw, anti-competitive, price discrimination was a flagrant violation of America’s anti-monopoly law – but here came Big Money to protect the monopolists.In 1980, as Ronald Reagan was railing against “silly” consumer protection laws, supermarket lobbyists poured campaign cash into top officials of both parties. What they bought was bipartisan agreement to simply stop enforcing that “rusty” old antitrust law that had protected a competitive grocery economy for nearly 50 years.But good news! That useful, highly-effective law is still on the books, so let’s build a long-term grassroots campaign to rejuvenate it and re-outlaw monopolization, redlining, and price gouging by food giants. For more information, go to ilsr.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Except for Zorro and Batman, people who put on masks to hide their identity when going to work are rarely up to any good.And as Americans learned decades ago when Ku Klux Klanners covered themselves from head to toe, the bigger the mask, the greater the evil hiding behind it. Which brings us full circle to “Operation Metro Surge.”OMS is the muy macho PR slogan for the Republican Party’s militaristic invasions of Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and other American cities they hate. Deploying ICE and other bastions of authoritarian power, thousands of massively armed federal belligerents in full assault gear have been rampaging through peaceful neighborhoods in violent and murderous mass sweeps.This is an un-American attack by America’s own government on America’s founding ideals of liberty and openness. The defining symbol of this government repression is that its forces are all hiding behind full-face masks.Of course, if I was doing some of the stuff ICE commandos are doing, I’d want to cover my face, too. But, like the Klan, masking up the oppressors is not merely about cloaking their personal shame — it’s an added ploy by the perpetrators to terrify anyone who might dare to stand up to them.As usual, though, the authoritarian powers misunderstood America and underestimated the deeply rebellious nature of our gutsy, grassroots people. Some 30,000 volunteers in Minneapolis, for example, have become trained “constitutional observers” to police the police, and a citywide “whistle brigade” rushes like Paul Revere to alert neighbors when ICE agents invade their neighborhoods.Their ethic of neighbors-helping-neighbors recognizes their power to “do what’s right.” It’s the best of America standing up to confront the worst.Do something!Our friends at the Working Families Party are leading the charge to pressure Democrats to vote NO on any DHS bill that does not work to stop ICE’s reckless attacks. You can text “ICE OUT” to 30403 or dial 833-636-3260 to call your Senators. Need a sample script? Here you go:When you connect, say your name and where you live to show that you’re a constituent. Then, you could say something like:“ICE’s reckless and illegal attacks on our communities must be stopped. But instead of ending and investigating ICE’s abuses, the DHS spending bill would empower this rogue agency to terrorize and kill even more of our neighbors. As your constituent, I urge you to vote against the DHS funding bill and stand up to ICE.”Here’s a whole set of actions they’ve compiled to help direct your energy.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

George Orwell spoke bluntly about the nefarious nature of advertising, calling it “the rattling of a stick inside a swill bucket.”Even Orwell, though, would’ve been astonished by the cacophony of swill bucket advertising currently being blasted at us by Amazon, Google, Meta, and other profiteering tech giants. What are they trying to sell?Pure hogwash. Having spent billions to develop artificial intelligence so humanoid robots can displace workers, the tech geniuses are now rushing to build thousands of vast computer data centers necessary to power their Brave New AI World. Each center wills suck up local water supplies, drastically raise people’s utility bills, create monstrous industrial blight and pollution, and enthrone such autocratic thugs as Bezos, Musk, and Zuckerberg as absentee bosses with domineering power over each locality.But the billionaires forgot something: You and me. “We the People” are in open rebellion against this Orwellian future, with officials in multiple states and localities “Just Saying Hell No” to the profiteers’ invasive scams.Thus, the billionaire hucksters are frantically rattling their swill sticks. For example, Mark Zuckerberg – whose Meta goliath already operates 26 massive data centers and is now spending $600 billion to plop more of them in our communities – has launched a multimillion-dollar offensive to beat back local opponents. It’s running BS television ads in state capitol cities, financing political candidates to hype the data centers, deploying untold numbers of lobbyists to rig the rules against opponents, and hiring an army of “community affairs” agents to spread AI propaganda.The swill bucket brigade has the fat cats, but a groundswell of us alley cats that has them on the run. To get involved, go to mediajustice.org/tools.Do something!The Center for Media Justice has been leading the way in fighting data centers in lots of communities around the country— here’s how they beat back one in Amarillo, TX, for example. Get involved at mediajustice.org!Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Years ago, when I announced that I was leaving my job as editor of The Texas Observer to run for political office, I had to admit that into politics is the only downward career move one can make from journalism!But being a both a journalist and a politician does hone in one’s ability to detect the smell of BS – and we Americans are presently getting a noxious blast of that stench from our warmongering Department of Defense.The vast, trillion-dollar Pentagon is the ultimate Big Brother bureaucracy, literally empowered to compel thousands of Americans to die in foolish military misadventures cooked up by political partisans and profiteering corporate contractors. That’s why it’s so alarming that Trump’s “Project 2025” autocrats are now rushing to slam an iron door of censorship on reporters trying to inform us commoners about the militaristic schemes and corporate fraud that come from inside this government fortress.In the name of defending freedom, Trump’s palace guards are banning media outlets that displease his royal highness. Also, “Pretty Boy Pete Hegseth,” Trump’s made-for-TV Pentagon honcho, has even decreed that reporters must be tightly monitored by military escorts while doing interviews, reviewing documents, and otherwise exorcising the essential Constitutional rights of our nation’s free press.The good news is that rather than kowtowing to the autocrats, dozens of media organizations have told Pete to stuff it, choosing to do old-school outsider digging into this insider war machine.Meanwhile, the “Project 2025” authoritarians hail their clamp down on free press rights by touting their “fresh relationship” with what they call their “new Pentagon press corps.” Right – it’s their partisan press corps, not ours.Do something!Our friends over at Free Press have launched a newsletter, “Pressing Issues,” to cover the future of media—and advocate for the freedoms we need in journalism. Check it out at pressingissues.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

While the production of my Lowdown commentaries is high-tech, I confess that I’m antiquated.I still write each piece in longhand, applying my ballpoint to paper. This has caused bewildered glances from some who see me scribbling away in local coffeeshops and bars. Recently, one fellow sidled up and whispered: “Watch out! If they see you doin’ this, they’ll haul you off to the Smithsonian.”But we handwriters might not be as obsolete as the key-tappers assume. A fast-spreading grassroots movement is calling for schools to reemphasize the value of writing and printing by hand, instead of being wholly-dependent on machines. Already, 24 states – as varied as Mississippi and California– now require public schools to teach cursive handwriting in third-through fifth grades.This squares with new understanding of how brains absorb information. While keyboards are faster, the slower, more tactile act of handwriting creates longer lasing comprehension of letters – and better retention of the thoughts they convey. Neuroscientists find that rote keystrokes on a computer require little mental engagement, while physically drawing out words and ideas takes coordination of multiple areas of the brain to focus memory, eyes, and fingers on creating a written product.Just writing this piece conjured up a fond remembrance of my early childhood: Sitting on the floor of our home learning to draw the ABCs, both print and cursive, on those lined practice pads. It was both an artistic exercise and the development of a foundational tool for a life of learning.This is Jim Hightower saying… Yes, computer literacy is an indispensable element of today’s childhood curriculum --- but so is the richer development of human thinking through putting pen to paper. So let’s teach both!PS—Here’s a post we did a couple years ago about how Hightower’s work goes from handwritten on paper to whooshing through the ether into your inboxes:Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

There are industries that occasionally do something rotten. And there are industries like Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Big Tobacco – that persistently do rotten things.Then there is the nursing home industry – where rottenness has become a core business principle. The end-of-life “experience” can be rotten enough on its own, with an assortment of natural indignities bedeviling us, and good nursing homes help gentle this time. In the past couple of decades, though, an entirely unnatural force has come to dominate the delivery of aged care: Profiteering corporate chains and Wall Street speculators.The very fact that this essential and sensitive social function, which ought to be the domain of health professionals and charitable enterprises, is now called an “industry” reflects a total perversion of its purpose. Some 70 percent of nursing homes are now corporate operations run by absentee executives who have no experience in nursing homes and who’re guided by the market imperative of maximizing investor profits. They constantly demand “efficiencies” from their facilities, which invariably means reducing the number of nurses, which invariably reduces care, which means more injuries, illness… and deaths. As one nursing expert rightly says, “It’s criminal.”But it’s not against the law, since the industry’s lobbying front – a major donor to congressional campaigns – effectively writes the laws, which allows corporate hustlers to provide only one nurse on duty, no matter how many patients are in the facility. A humane nurse-staffing requirement has been proposed, but the profiteering “industry” furiously opposes it… and Congress is dutifully bowing to industry profits. After all, granny doesn’t make campaign donations.To help push for sanity and humanity, contact TheConsumerVoice.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit jimhightower.substack.comThanks to all of you who joined us last night for our first experiment with Substack’s live video feature! After reviewing the questions that you left for us last week, we got to tackling a few of them—Hightower gave advice to Maria in Wyoming, who’s frustrated with calling her Republican representatives, and the role of grassroots organizing in red states. We also got to hear some big stories about tiny airplanes (thanks, Shira!), and Hightower’s opinion about why some elected Democrats are loud and proud, while a lot of senators have not been taking strong action against the fascist invasion and occupation of many cities in the US, which was Fred’s question. Richard asked about a left-wing “Project 2025,” and as part of that answer, Hightower gave a rough estimate of how old Ralph Nader is— not to be missed.We ironed out a few of the initial technical glitches, by the way, and I’m also working on making sure comments from everyone are enabled for the next live event, because we really missed hearing your live feedback! Let us know what your favorite parts were in the comments. Thanks again for watching!

Reminder: Join us TONIGHT at 6pm CT for Happy Hour with Hightower!The US military has long been an easy mark – for our own avaricious corporate contractors, that is.During the Civil War, for example, J.P. Morgan sold rifles to the Union army that cost him only $3.50 each, but he charged the military $22 each. Worse, his rifles were defective, blowing off the thumbs of soldiers who fired them. Still, a Congressional committee ruled that Morgan had a “legal” contract and had to be paid in full.Which brings us to the screwball contracts the Pentagon routinely signs these days with multibillion-dollar corporate con artists hawking weaponry. These gougers, though, have streamlined their taxpayer thievery by automatically inserting a corporate gotcha in nearly every Pentagon contract. It makes it illegal for the military to repair the weapons and systems they have bought!A drone won’t fly? An AI system goes haywire? Anti-aircraft rockets fail? DON’T touch the systems! No — you must call a corporate-approved tech repair person, or take the malfunctioning gizmo to the manufacturer.Yes, this is insane, unworkable, immoral… and the very definition of “snafu.” But corporate profiteers have made it the law. At last, though, soldiers, battleground commanders and common-sense members of both parties are rebelling, supporting Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “Warrior Right to Repair Act.” Pathetically, Congress and avaricious contractor lobbyists recently defeated this bill, wailing contractor property rights is more important than authorizing soldiers to make lifesaving repairs in the field.The fight goes on, though, and you can help. Two lawmakers who engineered this travesty are Mike Rogers of Alabama and Adam Smith of Washington State, both of whom take hundreds of thousands of dollars from the war profiteers. To fight their insanity, go to pirg.org/repair.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Reminder: Join us live this Thursday at 6pm CT for Happy Hour with Hightower!If you’re ever asked to define the word oxymoron, just say, “Congressional ethics.” People instinctively burst out guffawing at the absurdity of linking Congress to upright behavior.But, surprisingly, Republican congressional leaders say they’re now taking a bold stand for a little less corruption among their own members, targeting lawmakers who’ve been secretly enriching themselves through “insider stock trading.” Actually, the leaders were forced to support this bit of reform because of public outrage over the dirty dealing of Rep. Rob Bresnahan. This multimillionaire Republican was caught using his insider position last year to profit from the GOP’s gutting of Medicaid benefits for poor people.So, last month, the party’s designated ethics watchdog, Bryan Steil, rose on his hind legs to introduce the Stop Insider Trading Act. “If you want to trade stocks,” Steil howled in operatic outrage, “go to Wall Street.”Bravissimo! Except it was a fraud. Far from stopping the self-enriching stock scams of lawmakers like Bresnahan, Steil’s bill basically legalizes their corrupt transactions. For example, members could keep trading stocks in corporations they supposedly oversee. And, in the loopiest of loopholes, sneaky lawmakers are authorized to have their spouses buy and sell stocks on the member’s behalf.Then, showing his party’s true colors, Steil exclaimed that we outsiders should not even push Congress to pass an honest, outright ban on insider trading – because that would discourage wealthy business executives from choosing to enter “public service.”Hello, that gives us two reason to demand a ban – (first) to impose a minimal ethical standard on lawmakers, and (second) to shoo off self-serving monopolists and plutocrats from controlling the public’s agenda.Do something!If you’re fed up with rigged congressional systems of corruption, check out Citizens For Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), who call Steil’s act a “joke,” and are working to pass the Restore Trust in Congress Act.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

WARNING: News headlines can give you a headache.For example, take typical headlines on today’s environmental stories:* Earth’s climate getting catastrophically hotter, faster* Greenhouse pollution increasing again* President calls global warming a “hoax” * Fracking executive now runs Energy Department * US funding new coal plants * White House abruptly cancels wind-power projects.Whew! My head hurts. The negativity in such headlines tells people that grassroots activism demanding clean energy and environmental sanity is futile, for government has been shanghaied by a political cabal of corporate executives.But wait – while it doesn’t get front page treatment, a bracing wind of change is blowing in from the countryside! It turns out that producers, funders, and consumers of alternative energy have not rejected a brighter, sustainable future just because profiteers and politicians command us to follow them off the cliff.Indeed, here’s a surprising development that the calcified defenders of dirty monopolized fuels could not have imagined only 10 years ago: Even in the fossilized Kingdom of Texas, solar power now provides more electricity to our people than does King Coal! Despite relentless efforts by our corrupt governor and top Republican officials to rig the marketplace against renewable energy, solar arrays and wind turbines are soon to pass Big Oil’s fracked gas as the top supplier of electricity to Texas homes and businesses.Here’s an uplifting headline for you: Last year, wind, sun, and other renewable sources surged past coal as America’s number one source of electric power. As a leading climate scientist concludes: “We are at the end of the fossil fuel economy.” So, keep pushing.Do something! Want to keep pushing for environmental wins in Texas? Check out the Texas Campaign for the Environment, who have scored some great wins and continue to push for more. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

One of the most obnoxious sounds in nature is the whine of a Wall Street banker. It’s a cross between the tantrum of a peevish brat and the blathering of a sputtering old plutocrat.Consider the long, piteous whimper of Jamie Dimon, potentate of the powerful JPMorgan Chase banking empire. He constantly whines about laws to restrict banker greed, even toting around a Rube Goldberg-style cartoon depicting a tangle of rules that, he squeals, is choking poor Wall Streeters like him.Before you break into tears about Jamie’s plight, though, notice that he and his bank are not choking on rules, but gorging on riches. Dimon himself pocketed – get this -- $770 million in personal pay last year.Golly, we should all suffer like poor Jamie!And he’s hardly alone in singing the “Talking Banker Blues,” for that elite clique has long pouted that they’re paupers compared to the billionaires of high tech. So, mounting an odd boardroom “labor action,” bankers have been getting drastic payhikes. The CEO of Citigroup, for example, recently set a new bottom line expectation for top-floor bankers: A 2025 paycheck of more than $100 million!How can a business lavish such a windfall on one guy? Easy. The CEO slashed tens of thousands of bank employees from Citi’s payroll last year, so he got their pay.Woody Guthrie once wrote a parody of such predatory behavior, singing “I am a jolly banker, A jolly banker am I.” Today’s Wall Street aristocrats are jolly, too, bloating their extravagant wealth by taking wages and livelihoods from thousands of their own employees. As Woody might sing, that’s how inequality “happens.”Do something!Wanna fight the bankers and their rigged systems? Americans for Financial Reform thinks that “the financial system should serve an economy where everyone can thrive, not just enrich a powerful few.” Sounds great to us! Check them out at ourfinancialsecurity.org.Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Interesting fact: While all federal officials take an oath that they will support the US Constitution, Supreme Court justices must also take a second (and very profound) oath of office.As New York Times judicial columnist Adam Liptak reports, each of the nine “supremes” must swear that they will “do equal right to the poor and the rich.” Yes, class fairness is not only a core element of justice, but it’s supposed out to be a formal measure of Supreme Court behavior.Every justice is aware of this consequential, ethical requirement, since each one took the oath. How damning, then, that the Court’s right-wing ideologues feel no twinge of conscience about flagrantly and frequently violating their own word of honor! Call the roll: Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett. In case after case that pits corporate power against workers, consumers, small business, voters, communities, our environment, farm families—i.e., you and me—this plutocratic cabal rules for the rich.This month, an independent study of decisions by the Roberts Court revealed that two-thirds of its rulings favor wealthy powers over middle-income and poor people. Thus, our so-called “court of justice” is a primary pusher of inequality, especially through its farfetched decree that unlimited corporate political cash is “free speech,” and that corporations are “people.”Chief Justice Roberts smugly proclaims that the Constitution tells him whether the corporate giant or “the little guy” should win. “That’s the oath” I took, he sniffs.This is Jim Hightower saying… Bovine excrement! It’s obvious that plutocratic ideologues like him are using the Constitution like a ventriloquist dummy. And—hello, your honorableness—what about that other oath you took about equal fairness for the poor?Do something!There are groups that are working on holding the mighty Supremes accountable—what a world that will be! Check out:* The Alliance for Justice* Common Cause* Brennan Center for JusticeJim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe