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Years ago, a Texas lawmaker got caught using his official position to enrich himself by taking money from special interests, in exchange for voting their way. The culprit did not deem this as corrupt, but just the normal ethic of an enterprising business transaction: “I seen my chances,” he explained, “and I took ‘em.” This is the Clarence Thomas code-of-ethics. As has been widely reported, this Supreme Court judge (who reliably rules for corporate supremacy over the people’s interests) has secretly been on the take for years from a billionaire corporate right-winger. Real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, an extremist activist for plutocratic government, has been lavishing millions of dollars’ worth of luxury vacations, private jet travel, family housing and educational payments, and other gratuities on Thomas. Yet, this supposedly-supreme lawyer says he detected no whiff of bribery, nor did he see any need to inform us commoners of it. He simply seen his chances and took ’em. But Thomas knew damn well that it was improper, corrupting, and disgusting. After all, during the last three decades, he has consistently voted for court rulings to make such obvious graft legal. For example, he has voted again and again to drain common sense from our anti-corruption laws, declaring that it is legal for a corporation to keep a public official on private retainer, that it’s okay for political officials to sell access to their offices, that the “appearance of corruption” is not corrupt – and, directly relevant to Harlan Crow, Thomas voted that it is technically not bribery to try influencing public officials by bestowing a series of gifts to them over time. If it seems to you like the system is rigged to favor the powerful, there you have it. Thomas is both the rigger and the beneficiary of the system. 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

When corporations try to bamboozle us commoners, they fire three levels of deceit at us. First comes their basic lies… then they escalate to a barrage of damn lies… and finally they resort to their nuclear option: A PR campaign. The high-tech profiteers of artificial intelligence and political enablers are now going nuclear. Grassroots Americans didn’t swallow Silicon Valley’s opening deceit that AI data centers would be a bonanza for local communities. And when the billionaires escalated their land-water-and-power grab by assailing opponents as luddites and political extremists, people of all political stripes erupted in open rebellion against the self-serving arrogance of Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and other tone-deaf AI autocrats. So now comes their PR onslaught. AI’s moneyed powers—desperate to control government policy, the media message and then public debate—are now dumping untold billions into mass market propaganda, portraying AI as somewhere between benignly beneficial and endearingly human. Multitrillion-dollar tech goliath Google, for example, is producing movies and streaming a series of microdramas depicting AI generally (and Google specifically) as a source of loving comfort and human connection in an alien future. And, gosh, not only do their novellas tell sweet tales of artificial love as though it’s real, but Google’s technology allows viewers to “interact” with the AI movie characters. Google’s maestros of deceit assure us that the intent of their recent rush of movies about AI is merely to tell the story about this dazzling technology “authentically.” Authentic? I was born at night, but not last night! A trillion-dollar profiteering behemoth peddling the razzle-dazzle robotic future is hardly to be trusted as an unbiased source. Google’s movies are pure PR propaganda trying to authenticate its own profiteering scheme. Do something! Hate how artificial intelligence is being wielded in the creative arts? Check out the Human Artistry Campaign, a coalition of ~200 unions and artist organizations who are working to make sure technology never replaces human expression and creativity. 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: This is a sob story that might bring you to tears. Or make you upchuck in disgust. It’s about hogs – both the four-legged species and the more piggish, two-legged breed of agribusiness executives. The latter have long profited from cruel abuse of millions of hogs caged in their monopolistic system, and now the agbiz giants have launched a lobbying campaign called SOB – “Save Our Bacon.” It’s not a plea to save the abused animals, but to save the abusers’ profits! It turns out that most consumers don’t like animal abuse, so states are passing laws to prevent such corporate practices. This has led to a vibrant new market for humanely-raised pork, already gaining more than a fourth of national pork sales. “Ouch,” squealed the factory farm giants, feeling the pinch of real competition. Rather than clean up their methods, though, the monopolists have raced to Washington, demanding that Congress “save their bacon” by artificially and autocratically rigging the market. Their Save-Our-Bacon act would usurp states’ rights to set their own standards for animal welfare. This is not an “academic free market issue.” In recent state ballot initiatives, voters have overwhelmingly endorsed ethical standards for animal agriculture. Moreover, responsible family farm producers have quickly responded to this growing new market, upgrading their facilities to meet the new state standards of humane production. Yet, rather than embracing this success for animals, farmers, and consumers – here come tiny cliques of corporate profiteers like the National Pork Producers Council. They’re wielding their Big Money lobbying muscle, trying to overrule the public interest… and the political will of America’s majority. Which side is your member of Congress on? For information, go to Compassion In World Farming: ciwf.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

I’ve got to hand it to Washington’s Republican policy makers. They’ve come up with a truly remarkable way that, they promise, will vastly expand the number of small businesses in America. Great! This is personal for me, for I grew up in a family that had a Main Street business in small-town Texas, so I know how hard it is for little guys to battle the raw monopoly power of corporate chains. Thus, I cheered the GOP… until I learned that their small business proposal is just another big business scam. Far from actually increasing the number of small enterprises, Trump bureaucrats are merely redefining “small” to include BIG. For example, the Small Business Administration has long categorized a business small if it had less than $25 million in yearly sales. But they’ve now jacked that definition up by 1,000 percent! Indeed, even some billion-dollar giants can now – HOCUS POCUS – qualify as small. This is much worse than a statistical ruse, for it means that very large outfits with Wall Street backing, Washington lobbyists, and slick corporate lawyers will suddenly take the grants, contracts, and other government benefits intended to advance genuine Main Street innovators and competitors. In short, the GOP’s cynical scheme is using the small business label to overpower those very enterprises. It’s a deliberate rigging of the rules by today’s right-wing government officials to help big business grab public money – increasing the power of corporate elites to eliminate competitors… and further monopolize our economy. Remember this deceit when Republican congress critters run corporate-financed election ads this fall claiming to “looove” small business. Yeah… love it to death. Do something! The SBA has extended the deadline for public comment on the proposed rule changes to November 20, 2026. You can read the proposed rules and then submit a comment here. The SBA has a guide for comment letter writing here. Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, ranking member on the House Small Business committee, is circulating a letter to other congress critters to sign on to, opposing the rules change. Ask your reps to sign on, too! 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

What’s wrong with us? Our nation’s moral compass, I mean. I don’t like being a downer, just focusing on wrongs, but some wrongs stand out as morally abominable, such as this one. It’s about hundreds of thousands of our low-income elders who, toward the end of life (when frail and most vulnerable) find themselves cast into a part of the Medicaid system that has been deliberately structured by Congress to subject them to needless deprivations and daily indignities. These are our loved ones with serious health problems who need long term care in nursing homes, and two-thirds of them rely on Medicaid to cover their costs. To get this benefit, they surrender all of their income, which goes to defray their nursing home expenses. Of course, for a decent existence beyond mere survival, we all rely on a few little things that are basic to our humanity. So, Medicaid authorizes each state to set a monthly “personal needs allowance,” so their elderly patients can cover hygiene and grooming products, a book or CD, a small gift for grandchildren, a chocolate bar, etc. Good! But then Mr. Mingy walked in. In 1987, Congress set the minimum for this allowance at a meager $30 a month – under $8 a week! Congress has not raised it in the decades since, and most states still provide only a pittance, despite inflation and monopoly price gouging on practically everything. So, our state and national “leaders” (who freely dole out massive corporate subsidies and tax giveaways to billionaires) are leaving ill seniors with so little spending money that they must ration their toothpaste and scrimp pennies to buy a rare treat from the vending machine. I know this is small in the global scale of human indignities, but that makes it an even bigger moral failure for our society. It would take so little to do so much for so many. Do something! * There are 2 bills sitting in the Energy and Commerce committee in Congress right now: H.R.5685, sponsored by Rep Gwen Moore, and H.R.7778, sponsored by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. If you’ve got a representative on the committee—hello, AOC and longtime friend of the Lowdown Jan Schakowsky— call as a constituent and find out what’s going on with these bills. * Want to fight poverty in senior communities, and get support/ideas/resources if you’re in need? Check out Justice in Aging! 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

It’s the fall harvest season, when many farm stands and homes decorate with pumpkins, corn stalks, and maybe even a straw man. How to make a straw man? Easy – stuff a couple of burlap bags with hay and dress your “man” in an old flannel shirt, overalls, and straw hat. But today’s billionaires, corporate elites, and other political megadonors have come up with their own version of this creature – stuff a couple of silk pillows with thousand-dollar bills, dress him in a fine-tailored suit, and – voilá! – they turn a common straw man into a congress man. The stuffing is what allows corporate powers to create a government that routinely serves their avarice at the expense of the rest of us. Indeed, in this election season, they’ve already stuffed about two billion dollars into congress creatures who’ll support their AI data centers, tax breaks, and other boondoggles. Who are these money stuffers? Ahh, that’s the secret to their corruption. In 2010, America’s partisan, corporatized Supreme Court handed a legalistic, anti-democracy weapon called “Dark Money” to giant corporations. By judicial dictate, the Court’s Republican majority ruled that executives can give unlimited sums of corporate cash to SuperPACs to elect their straw men – without telling us commoners who is buying which lawmakers and at what price. Secret money equals secret government. Yet, both parties are going along with this corruption, claiming to be “powerless” to overturn the Court’s edict. Powerless? What about asking The People to intervene? An overwhelming majority of Americans of every political stripe despise the Dark Money trick and will rally behind any serious effort to kill it. A bipartisan effort to do just that is now underway in Montana. Learn about it from transparentelection.org – then go forth and multiply. 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

Last week, Hightower had the absolute pleasure of appearing on Tavis Smiley’s live radio talk show—a lot of great laughs, and a lot of good ground covered! From the Texas races, to America at 250, to the idea that fundamental fairness is a sense all humans share, Tavis and Hightower went deep. Tavis and his team have given us permission to share it with you here, and we’re so grateful—he’s also just started his own Substack newsletter, and we encourage you to subscribe to one of the greats of American media at tavissmiley.substack.com. You can also listen live on KBLA 1580 daily, and subscribe to his podcast. —dz Transcript Edited lightly for clarity Part 1 Tavis Smiley: Tavis Smiley, glad you’re with us in the second hour of our program here today. Yesterday, we stepped into what I call the Elders’ Skybox to talk to Dr. Johnette Cole. She was absolutely amazing yesterday. If you missed that conversation with Johnnetta Cole yesterday, I encourage you to check out the podcast, now posted. She, of course, is the legendary, the iconic, first African American woman to be president of Spelman. But she’s covered so much ground in her amazing career, and she joined us yesterday on the show. And Johnnetta Cole still got it. I mean, she was just blazing yesterday. So if you missed the conversation with Johnnetta Cole yesterday, I encourage you, you will not be disappointed. Check out the podcast, now up, of our dialogue with Dr. Cole yesterday. So we stepped into the Elders Skybox again today to talk to our friend and brother Jim Hightower, the legendary talk show host down in Texas. I quote him oftentimes. When you hear me say that the only thing you find in the middle of the road is a dead armadillo, that was Jim Hightower years ago, and I’ve never forgotten that line from all those years ago. You can’t be middle of the road. We were just talking about that in our hour with Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead about Hakeem Jeffries and some of these Democrats who, on a number of issues, still want to occupy the center, the middle of the road. That is not where one needs to be, especially right about now. Pick a side. Pick a side is my point. And that was Jim Hightower’s advice many, many years ago. I never forgot when he said it, and I’ve held on to it all these years. I invited him on today to talk about this hot Texas Senate race, but more broadly to get his take, as a longtime progressive, on the march that we are witnessing in real time by these progressives after decades of being in the wilderness. With all that said, I’m honored to welcome Jim Hightower to this program. Jim, how are you, sir? Jim Hightower: I’m doing great, Tavis, and all the greater because I get to visit with you. Tavis Smiley: It’s my honor to have you on this program. Thank you for those kind words. I meant what I said earlier about having listened to you. I’m at that age now. I just turned 62 a couple of days ago, and I’ve been at this, what, 35 years. My mom teases me about it, but people come on the show all the time: “Mr. Smiley, I grew up listening to you, I grew up watching you.” So I’m at that age now where I’m getting that. And this is funny, because I can say that to Jim Hightower now. I grew up listening to him and watching him, and so I’m thrilled to have him on this program. Let me just start with this, broadly speaking. I’ve asked this question of other guests. I’ve got two minutes now, we’ve got the rest of the hour when we come forward, but in these first two minutes, I’m asking you the same question I’ve asked of others. We are inside that eight-week sprint from Labor Day to Election Day. How are you feeling? Jim Hightower: I am feeling more upbeat than I have been in years about Texas politics. Our party has finally come alive down here, as you just indicated. We’ve had too many corporate centrists trying to dominate our party, thinking we can fool the people if we just tiptoe around our progressivism, rather than recognizing that people themselves are progressive. And if we talk to them in that kind of language, they might respond to us in a more favorable way than they have in the past, or respond at all. I would point out, first of all, Tavis, that Texas is not a right-wing state. It is not a Republican state. It is a non-voting state. And it has not been voting because the Democratic Party, my party, has been over in the ditch somewhere, trying not to be discovered, rather than recognizing that most people are quite progressive. I think of it in terms of my own father, who kept up with politics, but he was not political, particularly. He didn’t know he had a political philosophy, but he did, and it was expressed to me many times in these words. He said, “Jim, everybody does better when everybody does better.” And that is what the Democratic Party is supposed to represent. And so that spirit is coming back within the Democratic Party. We have it with James Talarico running for Senate, Gina Hinojosa running for governor, but also let us not forget those down-ballot candidates, who can make such a difference in a campaign. I’ve been one of those myself, so I can attest to it. And we have a terrific lineup this year, including Clayton Tucker running for agriculture commissioner, a position that most people wouldn’t pay a whole lot of attention to until you realize, wait a minute, if you eat, you are involved in agriculture. And we need to make that political as well as edible. Tavis Smiley: Love it. He’s already on a roll. That is the Jim Hightower that I grew up listening to. He’s wise, he drops these one-liners; as we say these days, he’s dropping bars. I love his father’s edict that everybody does better when everybody does better. It’s so simple. But I want to give him some time to unpack this. I want to interrogate this notion that people themselves are progressive. People themselves are progressive. That line resonated with me; I suspect it did with you as well. I’ll let him unpack that and a great deal more. I’m glad to have Jim Hightower for the hour on Tavis Smiley. Tavis Smiley, and longtime progressive activist, legendary talk show host, bestselling author Jim Hightower. So we’ve stepped into the Elders Skybox to tap into his wisdom in this hour as we are hurtling inexorably toward Election Day on Tuesday, November 3rd. Wanted to check in with him on some national issues, but certainly everybody’s watching this Senate race in Texas. I talk to my friends down there all the time, and they are so excited about turning Texas blue. You heard Jim Hightower say a moment ago that Texas is not a Republican state, it’s not a red state, it’s a non-voting state. I’ll let him unpack that as we move through this hour. But just some quick updates here. So you saw the Republican convention, that two-day farce they had down in Texas not long ago. Since that convention, a new poll has come out about the race in Texas. Interestingly, the survey happened on September 13th. That was Sunday, my birthday. And it’s good news for James Talarico. The latest poll, this is the SoCal Strategies poll, shows Talarico leading Paxton 50 percent to 45 percent. It’s a five-point margin. There had been a two-point lead by Paxton over Talarico. It’s fascinating. So before the convention, Paxton was leading Talarico by two points in Texas. Post the convention, it flips. Talarico is now leading Paxton by five points. Not sure what Ken Paxton did or said at that convention that made these numbers flip. Obviously it’s very, very tight, and these polls are snapshots in time. We still have weeks to go before Election Day. We’ll let Jim Hightower unpack a bit more about the tightness of this race in Texas in this hour. But I want to start right now, Jim, where we left off moments ago, and that is with your suggestion that people are themselves a great deal more progressive than we acknowledge or give them credit for. We’ve got time. Unpack that for me. Jim Hightower: Well, just go back to your childhood. The very first political expression of a child, maybe at two years old, is “That’s not fair.” That is a powerful political sentiment, and it’s within all of us. And that’s what we’re seeing today. The unfairness of the billionaires with their data centers invading our communities. The unfairness of the destruction of voting rights, period. Not just the Voting Rights Act, but voting rights. The unfairness of economic plutocracy, really, and just a general unfairness that pervades our society, including the election itself. The idea that money can control. That happened to Texas, just as it did nationally, in the 1980s, when Tony Coelho, a member of Congress from California, decided that the Democrats didn’t need to have all this grassroots stuff. We could just get money from rich people and throw it at television ads, and then we could compete with the Republicans. And the powers that be in the Democratic Party here in Texas agreed with that. So they began to shift away from what Ann Richards and myself and Jim Mattox and Garry Mauro and other good, solid Democrats were winning elections with: a focus on the grassroots people of our state. That got abandoned. Instead they turned to money. And when you turn to money, I can tell you, if you get a corporate check, written on the back of it is the corporate agenda. And they’re going to cash that check, not you. That is what happened to Texas. The Democrats quit being Democrats because, well, we don’t want to upset those money people, so we’ll just tone down our message. And by toning down the message, we tone down our public support, our people’s support. If we weren’t standing for them, why would they stand for us? And so that’s what happened. Our solid Democratic constituencies, which were farmers, working-class folks, teachers, environmentalists, didn’t hear themselves in the Democratic

To cope with the eminent danger posed by today’s arrogant, profiteering AI billionaires – Donald Trump says that the only thing America needs is a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT!” Well, yes – let’s try to find one of those! The president we have now is quite the opposite. Take the politically explosive issue of massive AI data centers suddenly intruding into thousands of communities across America, sucking up people’s land, water, electricity, and democratic control. Even red-state, MAGA conservatives are in furious rebellion against what amounts to a corporate sneak attack on millions of us. Where’s the president when we really need him? He’s plotting with the tech invaders to publicly trash those who are rebelling against the tech giants, and deploying Big Government autocrats to rig the rules to silence us opponents. For example, a little-known Trump operative named Lee Zeldin has been embedded as czar of the EPA. He’s now decreeing there’s no need for local communities to be notified that a data center is moving in on them, nor should there be public comment period on air pollution issues. This means that residents’ first notice that a sprawling data center will be built door will be the roar of bulldozers. Worse, Commissar Zeldin wants to let data center billionaires start building their acres of polluting facilities before permits are approved. Also, this MAGA bureaucrat insists that such massive facilities be reclassified as “minor” air polluters – like a car repair shop or local laundromat. Zeldin has also unilaterally reframed the purpose of the EPA. He has declared that the top priority of EPA is not environmental protection, but to “make the US the artificial intelligence capital of the world.” Do something! If you’re unsure about what “AI” and “data centers” really mean, check out the plain-English explainers we published recently: part 1 on AI, and part 2 on data centers. Here are a few hubs of data center action that will help you find your way to join the rebellion: * Data Center Opposition Report: A regularly-published comprehensive report on the numbers of fights out there, with case studies for inspiration * The Stop Data Centers Coalition has a list of member organizations who are calling for a national data center moratorium * The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, a Minnesota based organization, has published a map of Facebook groups all over the country fighting data centers * One of our top go-to resources are the toolkits that MediaJustice has created * Kairos Fellowship also has a slew of guides and is developing a hotline that local groups can call for advice. 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

It’s one thing for someone like me say that the Republican Party has dived into the abyss of political delirium. But it’s another thing when the Party itself confirms its collective delirium for two whole days in a made-for-TV political talk-a-thon. Their theme was: “Bring Back Joe McCarthy!” Let’s not forget what a horror McCarthyism was – a 1950s descent into totalitarian repression. Fomented by Joe – a brutish and slimey Republican senator who terrorized America for a decade with a vicious “red-baiting” crusade to crush liberals, unions, minorities, government employees, homosexuals, professors, and others he and his rich backers hated. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Indeed, given Joe’s direct parallels to today’s White House, you’d think GOP strategists wouldn’t want to resurface that disgraceful chapter of their heritage, but there they were this month, proudly pushing: McCarthyism 2026. Not just the party’s fringe, but its top “leaders” were squawking from the podium like Chicken Littles that Democrats are anti-American communists! Trump himself bellowed maniacally that Dems even intend to destroy Mount Rushmore – “they want to blow it up,” he squealed. A parade of top Republican officials literally shouted at the audience’s MAGA faithful to fear Democrats. Tim Scott, chair of the party’s senatorial fundraising arm, exclaimed that Democrats are fiends who “hate what it means to be American,” so they are coming to “rip that heart out of our chest.” Sure, Tim, it’s “evil” for Democrats to advocate for Social Security, health care for all, affordable housing, voting rights… and, you know, “communist” stuff like that. So, please, you do you – keep running your mouth and let the people decide who’s crazy. 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 past week, our friends at Farm Aid celebrated the 40th anniversary of the United Farmer and Rancher Congress, held in St. Louis. The country was in the middle of one of the worst farm crises we’d ever seen, and solutions from America’s leaders were not plentiful, nor particularly helpful. As Hightower put it in his 1984 speech to the DNC: Since 1981 when this guy took office, it’s been hog-feedin’ time at the Reagan White House. The hogs that just got feeding at the trough in Washington DC today, they have climbed up in the trough and they’re wallowing in it up in there. If you’re an international banker who made bad loans, no problem, Ronny Reagan will give you a multibillion-dollar bailout. If you’re Ed Meese and you get caught in an embarrassing personal financial situation, no problem. Ronny Reagan will make you Attorney General. And if you’re any right-wing Latin American dictator with a pair of sunglasses, this administration will give you enough money to burn a wet mule. But if you’re just an old dirt farmer out there, needing a little bit of extra loan because your prices don’t even cover expenses, this bunch slams the door of your own government right in your own face. After the success of the first Farm Aid concert in 1985, Willie Nelson and his crew didn’t stop there— they kept organizing. In the spirit of the four farmers in Lampasas, Texas, getting together in the early 1870s to figure out how they were going to fight the banks and policies that were screwing them, Farm Aid brought together nearly 2,000 farmers and ranchers in 1986 to fight that same fight once again. Michael Foley, Farm Aid’s current Cultural Impact Director, wrote up a wonderful article exploring the groundbreaking work that was accomplished: But organizers did not spend months pulling together the United Farmer and Rancher Congress only to issue forceful condemnations of the powerful. They came with solutions, the most fundamental of which was to stand together and transcend all of their differences. The Congress was incredibly diverse, made up of white, black, Latino and Tribal producers and coming from nearly all 50 states, producing every type of farm product imaginable. When Wayne Cryts of the American Agriculture Movement (AAM) spoke at the first plenary session and appealed for unity, he took off his AAM cap and put on a white UFRC trucker cap. The symbolism of every delegate in the auditorium following suit and taking off their own hats and putting on the UFRC caps may seem trivial, but it signaled a desire to overcome presumed differences and solidarity in spite of everything. No one spoke more pointedly, or with more authority, about surmounting difference than Jesse Jackson. “Unless we come out of isolation…unless we build a movement of farmers and consumers and workers and other allies, these monopolies will without mercy drive us beneath the soil.” He called on everyone in the room to hold hands and to hold their hands up high and to “turn to each other, not on each other” as the powers that be would want. That unity, he argued, is the basis for real political power. Make sure you check out the whole piece—and the next time someone tells you they think all those farmers out there are “conservative,” show them this work. ✊ 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

A West Texas cowboy saying advises: “Never sign nothing by neon.” But that’s exactly the key operational method of the AI data center hucksters who’re foisting their exploitative, multibillion-dollar scams on local folks all across America. Corporate slicks for outfits like Amazon, Meta, Open AI, and Google are slithering through the countryside, luring locals to surrender land, water, electric power, and democratic rights to profiteering billionaires who promise pie-in-the-sky prosperity. The deals are typically cut in the dim light of secret meetings, where corporate lawyers whisper to bedazzled local officials: “Just sign here, cowboy.” The key to this mass deception is a legalistic corporate contrivance called an NDA (non-disclosure agreement). It allows data center owners and a small group of insiders to “negotiate” a raw deal for area residents by hiding essential details from the public. Details like: Who pays, how much, who profits, what are the side effects, who’s responsible for damages… and why the hell is this room so dark? These NDAs even have corporate code names like “Project Lightning.” What’s the rush? As one opponent of a Louisiana rush job said, “We live here. We want to know how it impacts us.” The inside schemers pushing that deal clucked sympathetically, winked at each other, then assured bothersome locals that “an independent study” had shown the proposed data center would cause no harm. Maybe… but the profiteers then said the study itself could not be released for public review. Why? Because the developer had covered it with an NDA. Government by corporate-imposed secrecy is totalitarianism. Didn’t “We the People” have an armed revolution against that 250 years ago? Thanks to reader Steve for bringing this issue to our attention! Do something! If you’re unsure about what “AI” and “data centers” really mean, check out the plain-English explainers we published recently: part 1 on AI, and part 2 on data centers. Here are a few hubs of data center action that will help you find your way to join the rebellion: * Data Center Opposition Report: A regularly-published comprehensive report on the numbers of fights out there, with case studies for inspiration * The Stop Data Centers Coalition has a list of member organizations who are calling for a national data center moratorium * The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, a Minnesota based organization, has published a map of Facebook groups all over the country fighting data centers * One of our top go-to resources are the toolkits that MediaJustice has created * Kairos Fellowship also has a slew of guides and is developing a hotline that local groups can call for advice. 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

Greg Abbott, the right-wing hack who is governor of Texas, probably doesn’t know what a “petard” is, but he’s now been hoisted by a big one. “Hoist on a petard” is a Shakespearean phrase referring to a bomb maker being blown sky high by his own creation. Abbott’s bombastic saga began last year, when he noticed that high tech billionaires were waving political cash at lawmakers who’d help them build massive AI data centers across America. Sniffing a quid pro quo bonanza, Abbott shoved his way to the front of that money hustle, loudly proclaiming that, by gollies, he would make Texas the “epicenter of AI development.” Not only did he pour massive taxpayer subsidies into the billionaires’ pockets, but he even passed a law making it illegal for local officials to interfere with the profiteers. Sure enough, Texas is now the world’s top location for these corporate invaders – so way to go, Guv! But… oops. The governor’s giveaway is now called Greg’s Folly, for the vast majority of Texans (especially rural Republicans) don’t just oppose his AI data centers – they despise, abominate, HATE them. And they’re now in angry grassroots revolt against the perpetrators, including Greg. So, hoisted on his own petard, Abbott has now flip-flopped from hypester to reformer, comically demanding an end to the tax giveaways he created; he’s frantically trying to regulate AI projects he deregulated; and now crying that the rural voice he silenced must be heard. Sadly for him, those billionaires he courted so passionately are now laughing at him. When he recently commanded all data center owners to report their water usage to him, more than 70 percent simply ignored the petty tyrant. Do something! * Wanna hoist Abbott out of office? Donate to Gina Hinojosa’s campaign here, and get involved with our friends at Mothers for Democracy. * Fighting data centers? Check out the list of resources at the end of this post. 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

At a time when communities across America are literally under siege by secretive data center powers intent on seizing our land, water, electric grid, and even our local democracy – that’s when you’re grateful to have a president who’ll stand with you, fighting for the people’s rights! Let’s hope we can get one those sometime soon. Instead, we’re now stuck with a wholly corporatized, pusillanimous president who is waving the flag of surrender at AI data center invaders. Worse, America’s self-proclaimed supreme leader is publicly mocking the gutsy local groups – of all political stripes – who are daring to oppose the global technocratic order being devised by Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, and a handful of other billionaire profiteers. The president of our people’s republic recently belittled the millions of grassroots democracy rebels who oppose the robber barons’ Brave New World. He pompously sneered that the only reason that they don’t want data centers is “they want to end up being backwards and poor.” Wow! Keen insight, Mr. President! He even proposes an AI monarchy: If your communities, “want to be successful and rich,” he says, “let data reign.” Reign? Yes, a US president has actually declared that artificial intelligence should rule over us, meaning that Musk, Bezos, and other royal billionaires who own AI will rule. Trump & Company warn that if you democracy rebels “kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame.” But perhaps he doesn’t realize that the Golden Goose is a fable – a self-laudatory myth. “Golden Eggs” are not laid by a goose, but by humanity, communities working together, and investing in the Common Good. Do something! If you’re unsure about what “AI” and “data centers” really mean, check out the plain-English explainers we published recently: part 1 on AI, and part 2 on data centers. Here are a few hubs of data center action that will help you find your way to join the rebellion: * Data Center Opposition Report: A regularly-published comprehensive report on the numbers of fights out there, with case studies for inspiration * The Stop Data Centers Coalition has a list of member organizations who are calling for a national data center moratorium * The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, a Minnesota based organization, has published a map of Facebook groups all over the country fighting data centers * One of our top go-to resources are the toolkits that MediaJustice has created * Kairos Fellowship also has a slew of guides and is developing a hotline that local groups can call for advice. 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

Growing up, I received a wealth of working-class values from my parents, including this nugget about egalitarianism: “Nobody is better than you,” they said, “and you’re no better than anybody else.” That’s the ethical underpinning for “We’re all in this together” – it’s what Thomas Jefferson enshrined in the Declaration of Independence and it’s what Lincoln consecrated in his Gettysburg address; it’s in our own pledge of allegiance to “liberty and justice for all;” it’s what the Statue of Liberty welcomes; it’s Woody Guthrie’s anthem to the Common Good; and… well, it’s AMERICA! Unless, of course, you’re Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, or other far-out, plutocratic supremacists who do indeed consider themselves better than the rest of us. For this ilk of technocratic elites, government’s role is not to promote the Common Good, but to protect their wealth from the Common Good. Their grandiose sense of self-esteem is as silly as it is dangerous, but it is not new, and we commoners have risen up many times in our history to beat down such crushing arrogance. For example, John C. Calhoun, a venerated “statesman” of the mid-1800s, led a national crusade to convert all workers to slave laborers owned by monied masters; and in the Civil War, a family of profiteering bankers got one of their sons exempted from duty in the Union Army by asserting “there are plenty of lives less valuable” than his; and in the 1920s, a prominent, anti-woke academic proclaimed that races are inherently un-equal, so “democracy is an unrealizable absurdity.” This is the legacy of moral and political failure that Musk, Thiel, et al are trying to ride to victory today. Let’s rise up… and crush them again. Do something! Did you know that there are wealthy people in America who don’t think the economy should be rigged for them? Us either! Check out patrioticmillionaires.org. Also, we’re hearing great things about Gil Durán’s new book, The Nerd Reich. (Several of you also mentioned it in the comments on our AI explainers, thank you!) He’s got a newsletter here! 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

Let’s all gather ‘round the campfire, Buckaroos and let Ol’ Cactus Jim here tell you about some of today’s hardy, hard-working cowboys. Yes, those manly men who live free-spirited, yippy-ti-yi-yo, cowboy lives out in the rustic ranch country of the Rocky Mountain West. Oh, wait – that was a century ago. The “cowboys” who’re now humming “Home On The Range” across Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming are multimillionaire and billionaire corporate titan and celebrities like Rupert Murdoch and Bill Gates. They don’t really live there nor mix with locals, no do they actually “ranch” their spectacular 300,000-acre spreads, since they don’t know how. So they hire real ranching outfits to bring in some cattle, sheep, and other ranching accruements, then they fly in on private jets occasionally and strut around like John Wayne. They are in a word, pathetic. But they surely are land barons, spending up to $200 million each for their vast spreads. Indeed, these dilettantes rule the availability of ranchland and scenic wilderness, pricing out people who really want to ranch and locking out families who want to experience some of nature’s most majestic rivers and mountains. Fifteen years ago, the biggest private landowners held 27 million acres; now they’ve grabbed 42 million acres for themselves. Well, say apologists for wealth concentration, they bought the land with their money, so it’s fair and square. But hold on slick. They don’t come just for the views, hunting, and exclusivity – their ranches get generous land subsidies, plus, states like Wyoming provide no-tax hideaways for their wealth. This is Jim Hightower saying… So, even though you and I are shut out of these gated land baronies, at least we can take pride in knowing that it’s our tax dollars that help the rich buy them… and lock the gates. 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