Coal industry gave Trump millions. He reopened five coal plants. They gave him a bronze trophy: "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal." Mercury pollution was falling. Now it's up 9%. That's what that trophy costs. jimhightower.substack.com/p/would-you-...

See you in a few hours!

Tech CEOs showed up to college graduations to hype their AI future. Students responded with "roaring cascades of boos." This revolt started in farm country. It's in the suburbs, the community colleges, the environmental and religious movements. It's everywhere now. Did they never hear about 1776?

Can't put into words how much @jimhightower.com saying "He's right" about my book means to me. AND NOW I GET TO HAVE A BEER AND TALK WITH HIGHTOWER. Click the post to learn more and make plans to join us - next Tuesday, May 26, at 6pm.

Grab a drink — Tuesday is Happy Hour with a historian. @coryhaala.bsky.social spent a decade on When Democrats Won the Heartland & his conclusion is simple: Democrats won the heartland by going harder at corporations. I was there. He's right. 5/26 at 6pm CT. Paid subscribers get to ask questions!

Stanley didn't eliminate 300 jobs — it moved them to Thailand, then undercut its own US workers with cheaper imports. CEO made $7.6M last year. Workers made: nothing, anymore. That's the inequality merry-go-round. Take action with @jwj.org! jimhightower.substack.com/p/the-inequa...

Bezos, Musk, Zuckerberg: draining drought-stricken communities' water to cool AI data centers. Now demanding Congress ban local governments from stopping them. Take action with @mediajustice.bsky.social! jimhightower.substack.com/p/the-invasi...

A great organization to connect with! Thanks to @jimhightower.com for introducing me to it! Their site offers resources for pushing back on big tech and data centers!

I found a Hightower in his natural habitat! @jimhightower.com

$25 billion. A failed war. Iran now controls global oil prices. Trump's response: a sparkly ballroom for billionaires. And the big fool says to push on. jimhightower.substack.com/p/the-sad-ba... #JimHightower #Iran

Throwback: DeMarco and I living her inspiration of putting the party back in politics in the 1980s.

My late partner Susan DeMarco had the best political advice ever: "Put the party back in politics." Democrats traded potlucks for Zoom fundraisers. That's not a movement. What would get you to actually show up? jimhightower.substack.com/p/democrats-... #Democrats #Organizing

Elon Musk is already building brain-computer implants. Peter Thiel says transhumanism makes us immortal, so forget war and climate change. Larry Page calls AI takeover "almost certain" to go well. "Almost certain." That's the safety margin. jimhightower.substack.com/p/the-goofy-...

Trump's tariffs cost households $1,400/year. Corporations raised prices, collected our cash, now they grab the refund. Only Costco pledged to return it. Everyone else? Wink and pocket the cash. Who gets that $166B back? jimhightower.substack.com/p/corporate-... #TariffRefund #Walmart

Amazon took a pregnant worker's chair. She ended up hospitalized. They fired her for missing too much work. A law exists to stop this. It's not being enforced. jimhightower.substack.com/p/how-immora...

Moderate Democrats don't exist. 70% want to tax the rich and crack down on corporations. Radical to consultants. Normal to everyone else. Find your local party meeting and show up. jimhightower.substack.com/p/forget-bei... #JimHightower #Democrats

1985: I told UAW auto workers the farm crisis cost them their jobs too. Farmers couldn't buy equipment. Factories laid off workers. One depression, many faces. Forty years later, still accurate. jimhightower.substack.com/p/friday-sig... #JimHightower #WorkingClass

63 billionaire families "bought a piece" of one senator in 2024. 300 billionaire families spent $3B on federal races. Congress isn't deaf — their ears are stuffed with cash. @endcitizensunited.bsky.social jimhightower.substack.com/p/a-governme...

Stephen Miller wants a 30-foot steel wall on thousand-foot cliffs in Big Bend. The people who live there — ranchers, sheriffs, Native Americans, environmentalists — formed a coalition and are fighting back. jimhightower.substack.com/p/the-fall-o...

Happy 4/20 folks Remember if a hemp product has more than 0.3% THC concentration, you cannot mail it USPS. Maybe if it's federally legalized, that would change. In the meantime, here's Willie Nelson talking with our friend @jimhightower.com about how damn important the Postal Service is to us all

In 1886, a court clerk wrote a personal opinion that nobody voted on and no judge ruled on. Corporate lawyers spent the next century calling it constitutional law. Citizens United is what that lie looks like when it fully matures. Subscribers: full piece is up. Art: @mwuerker.bsky.social

A Tulsa bookstore went viral mocking Big Tech's AI data center land grab — and it turns out rural America is NOT having it. 48 centers blocked last year. Even Texas Republicans. The people still decide. Full commentary: jimhightower.substack.com/p/rising-pro... #JimHightower #AIDataCenters

Apollo Global Management got $1.4 billion in "job creation" subsidies for a data center employing 125 people. That's $11M per job. Silicon Valley is strip-mining rural America. Officials are fighting back. @foodandwater.bsky.social @sanders.senate.gov @aoc.bsky.social #DataCenter #RuralAmerica

Greedy billionaires are calling a California ballot initiative proposing a one-time tax the state's uber-wealthy—that's roughly 200 people—a “tragedy.” Fortunately, the majority of voters aren't buying into their scare-mongering, writes @jimhightower.com.

Not all rich people are jerks. @yobencohen.bsky.social & Jerry Greenfield. Bernard Rapoport. The Pillsbury heirs. Some wealthy folks actually spread it around. As an East Texas farmer once said: money is like manure — it only works if you spread it. #TaxTheRich

I called this in 1988: Trump bought a $37 million yacht with his tax cuts. He could have housed a thousand homeless people with that money instead. 38 years later — is anything different? Full video: jimhightower.substack.com/p/friday-sig... #TaxTheRich #Inequality #TrickleDown

CEO "pay for performance" is a flimflam. The board sets the bar — and the board is the CEO's handpicked cronies. Three execs pocketed up to $1B each while their companies lost money. Read the full commentary below and take action with @inequality.org! #CEOPay #CorporateGreed

Zuckerberg blew $80 billion on a metaverse nobody wanted — buyers called it "goofy." He pulled the plug. Now he's doing the exact same thing with AI, except this time it's YOUR dollars. @eff.org @fightforthefuture.org @claytontuckertx.com Full commentary: #JimHightower #BigTech

Starbucks' Howard Schultz made his billions in Washington State. Now he's fleeing to Florida because they want him to pay taxes on income over $1M — money earmarked for child care. He called it "rude." I call it something else. Read the full commentary: #JimHightower #TaxTheRich

Zuckerberg & Thiel are threatening to flee CA over a wealth tax affecting ~200 billionaires. 60% of Americans want them to pay their share. Only 28% of Californians oppose it. Door's right there, fellas. 👋 jimhightower.substack.com/p/oh-the-hor... #JimHightower #WealthTax

Tech giants like Amazon are spending millions on local elections, hoping to buy off politicians in order to fuel their AI schemes, writes @jimhightower.com. We must demand that our lawmakers respect the wishes of the people they actually represent—and that means no more data centers.

Republicans declared war on "fairness." DEI = Diversity (us) + Equity (fairness) + Inclusion (democracy). That's it. Dozens of groups are fighting back. Are you with them? Find out more with @colorofchange.bsky.social jimhightower.substack.com/p/lets-stop-...

Zuckerberg paid $170M to hide from us on a fake island with Bezos and Ivanka Trump. A secret passageway. A personal hair salon. My advice: steal less, live more. 🤷 Take action with @4taxfairness.bsky.social jimhightower.substack.com/p/despised-b... #JimHightower #Inequality #TaxTheRich

A farmer flying Hightower from one campaign stop to another once landed on a county road to grab a six-pack. His advice about the high wire? "Never look at the high wire. You just land." From our subscribers-only Happy Hour: jimhightower.substack.com #JimHightower #TexasPolitics #Populism

Zuckerberg is dropping $65M on state legislators to block regulation of his AI data centers. Rural communities are fighting back — so he's buying their lawmakers instead. That's not a campaign contribution. That's a bribe with a press release. #Meta #AIDataCenters cc @claytontuckertx.bsky.social

Chuck Schumer is spending corporate money to override his own party's voters in Maine — where the grassroots frontrunner leads by 38 points. When did the Democratic establishment start crushing its own primaries? jimhightower.substack.com/p/why-should... #JimHightower #MainePolitics #Populism

Molly Ivins on the Scholz Garten restroom graffiti — and what someone wrote about UT Regent Frank Erwin. From a C-SPAN storytelling evening Hightower hosted over beers. Full video: jhttps://jimhightower.substack.com/p/blast-from-the-past-hightower-molly #JimHightower #MollyIvins #TexasPolitics

19 people died in a fire Edison admits it caused. Their CEO took home $14 million. 5% bonus cut was his "punishment." He still pocketed $14M — plus salary, stock, benefits. Customers now face a 10% rate hike. This isn't a justice system. It's a protection racket.

Trump's slapping his name on the Kennedy Center, Dulles, Penn Station. Those gold-plated nameplates won't last. History has a trash bin — and it's full of guys like this. This too will pass. Keep whacking. jimhightower.substack.com/p/trump-brag...

Mississippi beat school privatization — unanimously. Governor wanted it. Lobbyists wanted it. Trump pushed for it. Every single senator voted no. Then they gave teachers a $5K raise. Grassroots organizing did that. jimhightower.substack.com/p/grassroots... #PublicEducation

Jim Hightower is the leading example of a true advocate for Texans, for workers, and families all across the state — leading by his true values for a brighter future for everyone. It is an honor to have Hightower’s endorsement.

Jesse Jackson could do something most politicians can't even imagine. He got conservative dirt farmers and inner-city families fighting the same enemy: corporate profiteers running roughshod over us all. That's not (just) oratory. That's vision. And it's exactly what we need right now.

Go, Clayton, go!

Walmart, Kroger, and Dollar Store didn't beat local grocers through competition. They bought politicians to rig the rules. Millions of us now live in food deserts. The antitrust law to fix it is still on the books—we just stopped enforcing it in 1980. #FoodDeserts #CorporateGreed #MonopolyPower

30,000 Minneapolis volunteers are now trained "constitutional observers" policing the police. Whistle brigades rushing like Paul Revere to alert neighbors when ICE invades. Tell your Senators: no DHS funding without ICE constraints, with @workingfamilies.org! Full commentary: #StandWithMinnesota

The great @jimhightower.com recalls his work with Jesse Jackson. When we talked to Hightower last fall, he said that Jackson in 1988 ran "the only intentionally racially inclusive populist campaign in recent American history."

CBS told Colbert he couldn't interview Texas Senate candidate James Talarico. Then told him he couldn't mention the ban. He did both. Trump's FCC is threatening networks that give airtime to Democrats — while exempting right-wing talk radio. #FirstAmendment #JamesTalarico

One of the luckiest breaks in my life is that I got to work with and learn from #JesseJackson. The Reverend didn't just talk — he rallied a multiracial populist movement and actually led. #RestInPeace

As Jim Hightower has said, there should be a Doug Jones that measures the wealth and welfare of the average person and not just the stock market propped up by the wealthy. The Dow Jones measures wealth of the richest 1% more or less, standard errors apply.

Talk to your local leaders ahead of time. If you wait until they are deal makin, it’s probably too late