I’ve noticed several CEOs, political pundits and so-called economic experts saying they’re confused as to why Americans are so down. Consumers should be out buying stuff, they say, for the economy is humming again. Just look at the key indicators: GDP is growing, corporate profits are high, the stock market is soaring, jobs are being […]
National – Jim Hightower
Posted inOpinion
Rick Perry’s clown show
Trial lawyers will tell you that any good prosecutor could convince a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich. Well, meet that ham sandwich! Here in my burg of Austin, Texas, the grand jury has just indicted Gov. Rick “Rooti-Toot-Toot” Perry, a real ham – only not as smart. He’s charged with official abuse of […]
Posted inOpinion
What we’ve paid for war
War is hell. Major General Harold Greene could certainly tell you all about that – but, sadly, he’s dead. On Aug. 5, General Green became the highest-ranking American soldier to die in our unfathomable, 13-year war in Afghanistan, joining 2,339 other service members who’ve paid the ultimate price for being sent by warmongering politicians into […]
Posted inOpinion
GOP’s ‘hell no’ faction
Ah, August – that time of year when the going gets tough … and Congress gets going. On vacation that is. And, to be fair, maybe Congress needs a vacation. All the stress of not passing laws and constantly thwarting any attempt by President Obama to fix America’s problems seems to be straining their sanity. […]
Posted inOpinion
Post office is a money-making operation
One public service that people really like and count on is the post office – which literally delivers for us. Antigovernment ideologues and privatization dogmatists, however, hate the very word “public,” and they’ve long sought to demonize the U.S. Postal Service, undercut its popular support and, finally, dismantle it. Their main line of attack has […]
Posted inOpinion
Do-nothing Congress takes a vacation
Gosh, has it already been three weeks since Congress took a vacation? Those poor stiffs must be pooped from trying to catch up on all the heavy lifting that piled up while they were away from their lawmaking duties. And – gosh, again – in just a few days, Congress will go back on vacation, […]
Posted inOpinion
Can a $7 billion penalty be a good deal?
Media outlets across the country trumpeted the stunning news with headlines like this: “Citigroup Punished.” At last, went the storyline, the Justice Department brought down the hammer on one of the greed-headed Wall Street giants that are guilty of massive mortgage frauds that crashed our economy six years ago. While millions of ordinary Americans lost […]
Posted inOpinion
History is calling
Most of us celebrated July Fourth by barbecuing and setting off some fireworks. Some of us might have paused for a moment to reflect on that thing Jefferson wrote about 238 years ago: The Declaration of Independence. “We the People” are faced – right now – with another of those “when in the course of […]
Posted inOpinion
Walgreens ploy to tax dodge
How would you react if one of your neighbors announced that while he obviously benefits from having clean water, highways, Medicare, police protection, parks, schools, and other public services, he was no longer going to pay his part of the taxes that make them available? And what if this neighbor also said he was renouncing […]
Posted inOpinion
Koch boys killing democracy
The Koch boys, Charles and David, live in their own little world. It’s a special world, enshrouded in a rarefied atmosphere created by the fumes emanating from their family’s enormous stockpiles of wealth. Thus, the two brothers have always felt very special, and they also expect those of us in the down-to-Earth world to treat […]
Posted inOpinion
The militarization of ‘Officer Friendly’
Let’s check our weaponry: 93,000 machine guns – check! – 533 planes and helicopters – check! 180,000 magazine cartridges – check! 44,000 night-vision goggles – check! 432 mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles – check! OK, let’s roll! Only, this is not the U.S. military getting ready to head into battle in a foreign land. It’s our local […]
Posted inOpinion
What job creation numbers don’t tell us
Have you noticed “the powers that be” employ an entirely different standard for measuring the health of America’s job market than they use for the stock market? They’re currently telling us that, “The job market is improving.” What do they mean? Simply that the economy is generating an increase in the number of jobs available […]
