National – Jim Hightower

News flash: Republican congressional leaders have come up with yet another grand scheme to fix America’s health care system. So, look out – because when they say “fix,” they mean it in the same sense as your veterinarian uses the word. For the gazillionth time, GOP lawmakers have put a shiny new ribbon on their […]

Since the 1990s, Colorado Springs has been shaped by an inordinate number of right-wing institutions. Yet the Springs also is home to a hardy band of progressives. With Bernie Sanders bringing new, highly energized voters into play, young people who had previously evinced zero interest in the old Democratic-Republican duopoly were rallying behind Bernie’s grassroots […]

Believe it or not, we can get Congress to enact a new program providing good quality, lower-cost health care for your family and (what the hell, let’s think big here) for every man, woman and (especially) every child in our society. Step one: eliminate every dime of the multimillion-dollar government subsidy that now covers platinum-level […]

How much of our money does Donald Trump want to pour into his xenophobic fantasy of erecting an impenetrable wall on our Mexican border? The big-businessman-turned-president insists that costs be damned – just build it! That seems to be a very un-businesslike approach – but then, it’s not his money, is it? For those of […]

As evermore people migrate to cities, sand follows to accommodate them. Mountains of sand are poured into constructing new homes. “A typical American house requires more than a hundred tons of sand, gravel and crushed stone … and more than 200 tons if you include its share of the street that runs in front of […]

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. Of course, he came into office having already notched his AK-47 Twitter rifle with hundreds of hits on the American citizenry. Since then, […]

Just days after last November’s election, jubilant members and top staffers of the notorious corporate front group called the American Legislative Exchange Council gathered for a celebratory lunch and planning session at the group’s D.C. headquarters. But rather than looking toward Congress and the newly Republicanized White House, these schemers were drooling over so many […]

The self-described “Geniuses of Wall Street” are being stupid. Again. In 2007, their stupid schemes and frauds crashed our economy, destroying middle-class jobs, wealth and opportunities. Far from getting punishment, however, these financial scofflaws were bailed out by their Washington enablers – so the moral lesson they learned was clear: Stupid pays. Sure enough, only […]

When I was a boy, I loved spending time with my Uncle Ernest and Aunt Eula on their small northeast Texas farm. They pulled a frugal living from their 50 acres, raising a little bit of everything. Doing a lot with little to make ends meet, Ernest and Eula operated on a principle of frugality […]

Chances are you’ve bought an Apple iPad, Chevy Malibu, Amazon Kindle, Samsung TV, GE Frigidaire or some other brand-name consumer product equipped with a dazzling array of digital doodads. And in doing so, you unwittingly consented to the corporation’s repair-prevention “gotcha” tucked into its license agreement. But in addition to deceiving and/or intimidating buyers into […]

We the People are being burgled. Again. The latest hit is just the latest in a long string of political robberies, a nationwide crime wave being pulled off by moneyed elites and their political henchmen. With each heist, they haul off a little more of our democratic power. The elites are master thieves, often plucking […]

While the Koch brothers have stayed out of the national limelight since the White House was acquired by Trump and Company, that doesn’t mean the two right-wing billionaire brats are any less active in trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy. In fact, in late June, you could’ve found them in one […]