National – Jim Hightower

Hallelujah and Holy Smokes! Wall Street has had a “come to Jesus” moment – the biggest sinner on the Street has repented! He is Sandy Weill, the once-lionized dealmaker who turned our banks into financial “supermarkets” that tie us everyday depositors and Main Street borrowers to the profiteering schemes of unbridled Wall Street traders and […]

Ah, it’s August – time for another quadrennial flowering of America’s glorious democratic process, otherwise known as the presidential nominating conventions! This grand testimonial of our citizens’ rights and liberties will begin with the Republicans in Tampa, Fla. Flags are being mounted, majestic music is arranged, uplifting speeches are being scripted – and, as has […]

Here’s some useful advice from an old country saying: Never try to teach table manners to a pig – it doesn’t work, it’ll wear you out, and it just annoys the pig. The same advice goes for anyone who thinks they can teach even a bit of common sense to the preening political ideologues who’ve […]

Some people are too smart for your own good. Food geneticists, for example. These technicians have the smarts to tinker with the inner workings of Momma Nature’s own good foods – but not the smarts to leave well enough alone. In fairness, much of their scientific tinkering has been beneficial. But during the past half-century, […]

“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” as my old Texas momma used to instruct my brothers and me. But apparently, five of the justices on our Supreme Court didn’t have mommas with such ethical sensibilities – or perhaps they’re just ignoring their mommas’ wisdom now in order to impose their extremist political agenda on you […]

To report on how our economy is doing, media outlets keep a constant eye on the Dow Jones Average. But they’re like cats watching the wrong mousehole, for the great majority of Americans have between zero and next-to-nothing in the stock market. The economic measure that matters most to most folks is the Doug Jones […]

Leave it to Bill Moyers, one of America’s most useful citizens, to sum up our country’s present political plight in a succinct metaphor: “Our elections have replaced horse racing as the sport of kings. These kings are multibillionaire corporate moguls who by divine right – not of God, but of the (Supreme Court’s) Citizens United […]

 In the realm of prevarication, there are deceivers, fibbers, liars, politicians … and Bank of America. For weeks, this financial behemoth has been running a nationwide PR blitz, portraying itself as a loveable bunch of public-spirited bankers — hoping that you and I have no memory of its two taxpayer bailouts, constant fee-gouging, illegal foreclosures […]

Attention foodies: Let’s chow down! Forget organic, locavore, omega3, umami, artisanal and all the other signposts of the healthy, ethical and refined “good food” movement. There are important advances in CuisineWorld that are going 180 degrees in the opposite direction – advances that literally are reshaping what we eat (while also reshaping us). Let’s start […]

JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and the handful of other behemoths of Wall Street that dominate American banking – who needs them? After enduring years of insatiable greed by the slick-fingered hucksters who run these gambling houses; after watching in dismay as their ineptness and avarice drained more than $19 trillion from America’s […]

We’re sick and tired of being bullied and stomped on by the Powers That Be in Washington, and by gollies, we’re not going to take it anymore! Hooray! It’s about time that workers, consumers, small farmers and other “small fry” joined together in a populist rebellion to make big-shot Congress critters of both parties listen […]

Big brewers like Anheuser-Busch frequently admonish us imbibers of their grain products to “drink responsibly.” Well, I say back to them: Lobby responsibly. In particular, I point to a disgusting binge of besotted lobbying by Anheuser-Busch (now owned by the Belgian beer conglomerate InBev) and other beer barons this year in the Nebraska legislature. At […]