Jim Hightower's Common-Sense Commentaries

Homeless and hungry in Houston

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Whenever one of our cities gets a star turn as host of some super-sparklie event such as a national political gathering or a Super Bowl, its first move is to tidy up – by having the police sweep homeless people into jail, out of town, or under some rug.

But the tidy-uppers of Houston, Texas, aren't waiting for a world-class event to rationalize going after homeless down-and-outers. They've preemptively outlawed the "crime" of dumpster diving. In March, James Kelly, a 44-year-old Navy veteran, was passing through Houston on his way to connect with family in California. Homeless, destitute, and hungry, he chose to check out the dining delicacies in a trash bin near City Hall. Spotted by police, Kelly was promptly charged with "disturbing the contents of a garbage can in the [central] business district." Seriously.

"I was just basically looking for something to eat," he told the Houston Chronicle. But, unbeknownst to both this indigent tourist and the great majority of Houston's generally generous citizens, an ordinance dating way back to 1942 says that "molesting garbage containers" is illegal. Also, in 2012, city officials made it a crime for any group to hand out food to the needy in the downtown area without first getting a permit. It's a cold use of legal authority to chase the homeless away to... well, anywhere else.

Such laws are part of an effort throughout the country to criminalize what some call "homeless behavior." And, sure enough, when hungry, the behavioral tendency of a homeless human is to seek a bite of nourishment, often in such dining spots as dumpsters. The homeless behavior that Houston has outlawed, then, is eating.

The good news is that when Houstonians learned of Kelly's rude experience, many reached out to help him get through his hard times. Now they need to reach out to local politicos and get the city's hard treatment of homeless people changed.

The chilling reality of America's jobs crisis

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Tue, 21 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

"Stock Market Soars," exulted a typical headline in early May, when the Dow Jones Average topped 15,000.

But this index of Wall Street wealth gives a false picture of our nation's true economic health. Yes, the privileged few are doing extremely well. But the workaday many are struggling – and falling further and further behind as the jobs market sinks steadily from mere recession down into depression.

The monthly unemployment reports don't tell the depths of misery out here in the real world, beyond the view of Wall Street and Washington elites. For example, President Obama hailed the news that unemployment dipped to 7.5 percent in April. Unstated, though, was the stark reality that this good-news dip was not due to a jump in job offerings, but to a bad-news labor market so weak and discouraging that Americans are dropping out of it or never entering it.

More than a third of our working-age population is no longer even in the job market, and only 58.6 percent of us are employed. Put the opposite way, 41 percent of the potential workforce is not working – about 102 million people. One more statistic, and it's a chiller: More than one out of five American families report that, last year, not a single family member had a job.

Our people are trapped in a jobs crisis that is sucking the economic vitality out of our nation, but our leaders even refuse to acknowledge it. In fact, corporate chieftains deliberately exacerbate the crisis by hoarding trillions of dollars that ought to be rushed into job-creating expansions, and politicians add to the casualties by gleefully firing hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters, police, and other valuable public employees.

America's middle class is burning to the ground, while Washington fiddles with nonsense and Wall Street feathers its own nest. It's disgraceful.

Cantor's con would steal workers' overtime pay

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Mon, 20 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Little Eric Cantor, the prancing political prissy who serves as the GOP's House majority leader, apparently thinks he's too slick to get caught in an outright legislative lie – or maybe he thinks we rubes are too dumb to figure out that he's trying to slick us.

Either way, a crude deceit is at the very heart of his "Working Families Flexibility Act," which he recently slid through the House. It eliminates a central piece of America's middle-class framework, namely the 8-hour workday and 40-hour week. Under the 1938 Fair Labor Law, bosses can make hourly employees work extra, but only by paying an overtime wage for the added hours.

Cantor claims his bill would improve this New Deal protection by letting corporate managers require extra hours on the job without overtime pay by offering "comp time" to the employees. In other words, work more hours now in exchange for taking-off those same number of hours later on.

With a wink at corporate lobbyists, Eric slyly refers to this switch as "women-friendly," allowing working moms the flexibility to decide when to take time off. Therein lies the lie.

It's not workers who get to decide, but bosses. Note that Cantor's bill does not guarantee employees the right to use the time-off they would earn by giving up extra pay. They can use the comp time only if and when the employer says it's okay – which might be never. Also, even if employees are granted time off, bosses can require them to be on-call during their "free" time.

Cantor's bill is a con. It hands workplace flexibility to corporations, not to "moms," while also stealing the hard-won right of workers to be assured of an 8-hour day, or extra pay. For more information, contact the National Partnership for Women and Families: www.nationalpartnership.org.

World-class political nincompoopism

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

My state of Texas seems to have an inordinate share of nincompoops in public office. But it's only fair that office holders from other states be considered before deciding which one is the nincompoopiest of all.

Give credit to Pennsylvania, for example, whose GOP governor, Tom Corbett, recently scored big nincompoop points by explaining why his state ranks 49th in job creation. "Many employers," the guv grumbled, during a radio interview, "say 'we're looking for people, but we can't find anybody that has passed a drug test'." Yes, the old my-constituents-are-a-bunch-of-drug-addicts dodge! That's world-class nincompoopery. Did I mention that Tom's voter approval rating is down to 38 percent?

But compare Corbett to one of the Lone Star State's congress critters, Steve Stockman. Steve's re-election campaign has put out a bumper sticker with this uplifting thought: "If babies had guns, they wouldn't be aborted." Wow – that's two nincompoopisms in only eight words!

Still, even Steve can't hold a candle to Rep. Louie Gohmert, the mouth that never shuts. Vice-chair of a House homeland security sub-committee, Gohmert recently revealed an astonishing piece of intelligence on the terrorist threat to the US of A. Al Qaeda, he informed the whole world, has set up radical Islamist camps on the "other side" of the Texas-Mexico border. Really? No. But the Islamist alarmist proceeded to tell us that Mexican drug gangs are teaching al Qaeda infidels how to cross the border into Texas, and they're also being trained "to act like Hispanics."

Hmmm, wondered many Latinos on "this side," how does Louie think one would "act" Hispanic? Sing "La Cucaracha," drive a low-rider, dress up as landscapers?

But "think" is not part of Gohmert's shticks. Which is what puts him atop the world of political nincompoops."

Turning people who report corporate crime into criminals

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Thu, 16 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

In most state legislatures today, bizarre is not unusual, and off-the-wall has become the political center.

Still, it seems strange that legislators in so many states – from California to Vermont – have simultaneously been pushing "ag-gag" bills that are not merely outrageous, but downright un-American. Each is intended to prevent journalists, whistleblowers, workers and other citizens from exposing illegal, abusive, or unethical corporate treatment of animals confined in factory feeding operations.

Our nation's founders mounted a revolution to establish our Constitutional right to a free press and free speech – even if the reigning government doesn't like the message. Yet here come a mess of so-called "conservatives" using state governments to outlaw messengers who shine a light on corporate wrongdoing – turning those who expose crimes into criminals. Even kookier, these repressive laws declare that truth-tellers who so much as annoy or embarrass the corporate owner of the animal factory are guilty of "an act of terrorism."

Oddly, each of these state proposals is practically identical, even including much of the same wording. That's because, unbeknownst to the public and other legislators, the bills don't originate from the state lawmakers who introduce them, instead coming from a corporate front group named ALEC – the American Legislative Exchange Council. Lobbyists for corporate funders of ALEC convene periodically to write model bills that serve their corporations' special interests, then the bills are farmed out to the group's trusted lawmakers across the country. The secretive ALEC network produced the ag-gag model in 2002, titling it the "Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act."

The only terrorists in this fight are the soulless profiteers in the corporate suites and the cynical lawmakers who serve them.

On-call shifts: The latest corporate shame

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Wed, 15 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Step right up, folks, and take your chances in the Amazing New American Workplace. Constantly high unemployment! Low wages always! No employee bargaining power! A corporate paradise!

This paradise has enriched the already-rich investor elite and rewarded top executives with multimillion-dollar pay packages. It also lets corporations treat the masses of people in today's workforce like Kleenexes: Just use 'em and toss 'em – after all, they're cheap, plentiful... and disposable.

Indeed, taskmasters-in-suits have now redefined the term "hired" to mean that you're tethered to a corporation full-time, but you actually work and get paid for only the few hours a week when the boss calls. This nefarious practice, known as "on-call shifts," is all the rage among national retail chains. Such giants as Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, and Urban Outfitters require employees to work without set schedules and to be available to have their strings yanked at any time, day or night, even on weekends, with as little as two hours' notice. Likewise, if customer traffic in a store is slow, retail workers who got dressed up, battled the morning commute, and reported on time, can simply be sent away after an hour or so – with no pay for their lost hours.

A recent survey of some 400 retail employees in New York City found that only 17 percent have a set schedule. Those with no set hours, also have no set income – and no life. If you're at the beck and call of the boss, what do you do with your children, how do you make a doctor's appointment, what if you're taking a class or trying to work a second job?

This shameful "on-call" practice says that the corporation owns you and that abuse of workers is a legitimate business practice in America. To help stop it, contact the Retail Action Project: www.RetailActionProject.org.

Putting happy-face stickers on America's middle-class pain

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Tue, 14 May 2013 08:00:00 -0700

At last, some excellent economic news for folks long-mired in the stagnant labor market!

"Jobs Spring Back," exclaimed a typical headline on recent reports that 165,000 private-sector jobs were added in April. Wow – the thunderous, three-year boom of prosperity that has rained riches on Wall Street is finally beginning to shower on our streets, right?

Well, as dry-land farmers can tell you: Thunder ain't rain. Read beneath the joyful headlines and you'll see the parched truth. For example, more than a third of working age Americans are either out of work or have given up on finding a job. Also, last month's hiring increase was almost entirely for receptionists, waiters, temp workers, car-rental agents, and other low-wage positions. On the other hand, manufacturing, generally the source of good, middle-class jobs, did not add workers in April and has cut some 10,000 jobs in the last year.

Especially problematic was the continued rise in underemployment – people wanting full-time work, but having to take part-time and temporary jobs. Underemployment is also pounding college graduates. While they've been more successful than non-grads at landing jobs, they're not getting jobs that fit their career goals or even require the degrees they spent money and time to obtain. Indeed, many of those rental agents and restaurant employees you encounter hold four-year degrees, forcing everyone else to scramble for the few, even lower-paid jobs further down the skill ladder.

Meanwhile, the next graduating class is about to flood into the labor market with nowhere to go. America's middle class is in a crisis, while our pathetic political leaders pretend Wall Street's prosperity covers us all – and the corporate media puts little happy-face stickers over the dark reality faced by the workaday majority.

Diverting shareholder funds into "dark money" politics

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Mon, 13 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

If corporations are people, as the Supreme Court pretends, they certainly are loudmouths, constantly telling us how great they are and broadcasting their brand names everywhere.

Amazingly, though, these corporate creatures have suddenly turned demure, insisting they don't want to draw any attention to themselves. That's because, in this case, corporations are not selling, but buying – specifically, trying to buy public office for their pet political candidates by funneling millions of corporate dollars through such front groups as the US Chamber of Commerce. In turn, the corporate fronts use the money to air nasty attack ads that smear the opponents of the pro-corporate candidates.

Why do corporations need a middleman? Because the ads are so partisan and vicious that they would appall and anger millions of customers, employees, and shareholders of the corporation. So, rather than besmirch their own names, the corporate powers have meekly retreated behind the skirt of Republican political outfits like the Chamber.

But don't front groups at least have to tell election authorities who's really behind their ads? No. Thanks to the Supreme Court's infamous Citizen United edict in 2010, such groups can now pour unlimited sums of corporate cash into elections without ever disclosing the names of their funders. This "dark money" channel has essentially established secret political campaigning in America.

That's why shareholders and other democracy advocates are asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to rule that the corporate giants it regulates must reveal to shareholders all political donations their executives make with corporate funds. After all, that's shareholder money the executives are using to play political games. It belongs to all shareholders, not just a few CEOs. For more information and action, go to www.CommonCause.org.

Oh joy – the branch bank of the future is here!

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Fri, 10 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

The giant banks that wrecked our economy are thriving today, thanks to public funds that Washington continues to make available to them, even as the middle class continues to sink. Yet, those same narcissistic bankers wonder why they are so despised by the public.

But, wait – some of the giants now have a plan to reach out to you common wretches and make you feel all warm and fuzzy about them. Get ready to welcome the new "neighborhood bank," the return of convenient, brick-and-mortar branches right where you live. For example, JPMorgan Chase, the nation's biggest banker, sees these facilities becoming community centers, like the old corner banks with countertops of cool marble and friendly tellers who knew you by name.

Only... no tellers will actually be present. Rather, the "Branch of the Future," as JPMorgan refers to its new edifices, are to be electronic centers, with the hip feel of an Apple store. You'll do most transactions yourself on automated machinery that offers the same personal touch you get from, say the ticket machine in a subway station. Oh, you can, of course, still chat with a teller, only he or she will be off-site (perhaps even offshore), coming to you through the warm glow of a video screen.

In fact, that human disconnect is the whole idea behind these reinvented neighborhood branch banks – why pay people to handle your withdrawals, sign you up for loans, or just generally relate to you? With computers, the banks can make you do their work, and still sock you with transaction fees, meaning more money being siphoned out of your neighborhood and transferred to the banks' faraway executives and wealthy investors.

JPMorgan's head of consumer banking, who's overseeing this project, confesses that, "To be honest, we don't know if we have it right." Trust me, sir: you don't

Ag biz gags on its own gag law

sitehelp AT jimhightower DOT com (Jim Hightower) — Thu, 09 May 2013 00:00:00 -0700

Amy Myer was curious. Then she was appalled. Then she was charged with the "crime" of using a cell phone to video what appalled her.

Welcome to the Brave New World of "ag-gag" laws being pushed by agribusiness corporations to stop reporters, workers, animal rights advocates, and even curious 25-year-old truth-seekers like Ms. Myer from recording abuses that are routinely taking place on farm-animal confinement factories. Actually, these are the repressive laws of the "Cowardly New World" of industrial ag-biz, eager to keep its customers in the dark about what they're doing to the pigs, cows, chickens, etc. under their care.

A resident of Utah, which passed its gag law last year, Meyer heard about some ugly doings at the Smith & Sons Meat Packing outfit in the town of Draper City, so she decided to take a look. Even from the public roadway, where she stood, the horror was easy to see, and she dared to document it with her camera. The corporate manager scrambled out to declare that she was trespassing, later claiming she'd crossed a barbed-wire fence onto corporate property. Cops were called, no such trespass was found, and she was released. But the corporation, whose owner just happens to be mayor of Draper, got city prosecutors to charge her with – ready? – "agricultural operation interference," punishable by a six-month jail term.

However, thanks to a web alert by Will Potter, author of a blog named "GreenIsTheNewRed.com," global public outrage poured into Draper City, and in just 24 hours, prosecutors dropped all charges against Myer – the first person in America to be charged under these ridiculous laws. Thanks to stand-up rebels like Amy, Will, and thousands of freedom defenders, ag biz is choking on its own ag-gag scam. To help fight this corporate repression go to www.change.org/AgGag.