Your Independent Journal from the Heartland
Don’t let it be said that the superrich care only about themselves, always taking from society and giving nothing back.
Consider the generous billionaires who live on an island in Florida’s Biscayne Bay. Amazon kingpin Jeff Bezos lives there, as do Ivanka Trump and her hubby, Jared Kushner. Actually, their so-called island is fake, built in the bay so a few dozen absurdly rich sparklies don’t have to mix with commoners living in the adjacent town of Surfside.
Snootiness aside, the billionaires have literally been giving “of themselves” to Surfside’s people. Specifically, their bodily waste has long been leaking from the septic systems of their mansions, polluting the town’s environment. Yes, the rich are actually defecating on commoners.
Facing public scorn, the Bezos-Trump-Kushner clan proposed piping their excrement into Surfside’s sewer system. Okay, but when the city asked for $10 million to help cover the pipe’s cost, the billionaires squealed like stuck hogs!
Come on! 10 million for them is like 10 dollars for you and me. Of course, moneyed elites didn’t get rich by playing fair, but by playing the system. So, they dispatched their lobbyists and lawyers to Gov. Ron DeSantis. Sure enough — BAM! — Republican officials suddenly and secretly approved a new state provision decreeing that local communities like Surfside cannot interfere with or even demand payment for such special-interest sewer projects as the Bezos-Trump-Kushner hookup. Then, again with no publicity, DeSantis signed the billionaires’ corrupt law — no doubt assured that they would reward his kindness later on.
Ironically, the word “defecate” is derived from a Latin verb meaning “to cleanse.” But there’s not enough soap in Florida to clean the hands of these dirty dealers.
How embarrassing. Our showbiz president’s glorious $45 million military parade — fssssst — fizzled. The gods rained on it, the thing dragged on and President Donald Trump himself kept nodding off in his chair. Sad.
His show needed some of the reality-TV drama that defines this president. For example, he could’ve had a phalanx of food trucks rumbling down the street, chased by hundreds of hungry U.S. soldiers, waving empty plates and chanting, “Feed the Troops!”
Besides being entertaining, that spectacle would’ve brought long-overdue public attention to an outrage that really rankles rank-and-file soldiers — namely, hunger. Yes, the trillion-dollar Pentagon budget that overflows with waste and boondoggles for corporate contractors actually leaves military families struggling to have enough to eat, much less being well-fed.
Indeed, about 25% of service members are so poorly paid and poorly served on U.S. Army bases that they are officially “food insecure,” relying on food stamps and local food pantries for their bare bones nutritional needs. Last November, for example, it was reported that the base dining hall at Fort Carson, Colo., was serving a miserly “meal” consisting of one slice of toast and a spoonful of lima beans. Some bases are only offering gas-station-style grab-and-go snacks.
More scandalous, soldiers have a $460 “food tax” automatically deducted from their meager paychecks each month to pay for food. But the Army brass quietly diverts two-thirds of the soldiers’ money to other purposes — which they won’t disclose.
Congress knows about this and does nothing. Trump doesn’t even want to know. And Pentagon honcho Pete Hegseth is lost in the fog of his own incompetence. To help raise awareness and Hell, go to FeedingAmericaAction.org.
Surprisingly, top Republicans in Congress and the White House have recently been praising labor!
Oh, wait — they’re not hailing America’s laborers, but touting the existential virtue of “laboring.” “Work,” exclaim these politicos, provides “dignity” to all who labor.
Dignity? They’ve obviously never been inside a meatpacking plant, done roofing jobs for a wage-thieving developer, been paid a pittance to clean office buildings at midnight ... or otherwise fully experienced the “dignity of labor.”
Years ago, Sen. Fred Harris was accosted at a political event by a rich businessman who demanded that Democrats reduce taxes by cutting the wages of government workers. The guy sputtered in disbelief that “mere garbagemen” were being paid $6 an hour. Fred stopped him right there, curtly asking: “Is that too much? What would it take to get you to do that job?”
Unfortunately, the guy’s crass classism is now official policy in Washington. In the name of “cutting waste” and lowering taxes on billionaires, a gaggle of narcissistic plutocrats — including Trump, “Chainsaw” Musk, cabinet appointees, and congressional extremists — have ganged up to fire valuable public service workers and slash essential assistance for poor families.
There is no sugar coating for the vulgarity and moral depravity of such elites whupping up on middle- and low-income families for their own gain. Moreover, their disdain for the value and creativity of those who do the daily work that makes America work is stupid ... and socially suicidal.
Plus, their self-esteem is ludicrous. Indeed, if you pitted the social value of a sanitation worker to any of Trump’s budget-slashing cabinet czars — guess which one the public would say is overpaid ... and dispensable?
In these days of domineering corporate rule, where can we commoners go to find even a little bit of justice?
Right where they’ve been found throughout human history: Within ourselves. Specifically, in our rebellious spirit, our willingness to confront the greedheads and boneheads who feel entitled to run roughshod over us.
For example, The Formosa Four.
You probably haven’t heard of them, since the mass media powers don’t cover something as consequential and uplifting as a nation of Davids challenging Goliath — such as “The Formosa Four.” They are members of a tenacious and scrappy coalition that has dared to confront one of the most flagrant corporate criminals on the globe: Formosa Plastics. It’s a $6 billion-a-year profiteer that constantly and carelessly spews millions of tons of plastic contaminants into our environment and ourselves.
But last summer, the bully tried to play victim. When about 70 protestors defiantly converged on Formosa’s U.S. headquarters in New Jersey, corporate executives had four of the leaders arrested and charged with criminal trespass — a power play to prevent free speech and scare off future protestors.
Yes, a global behemoth that’s a deadly polluter and serial human rights violator had our government arrest and prosecute grassroots critics for the “high crime” of trespassing. Such is the pettiness — but liberty-busting seriousness — of today’s arrogant forces of plutocracy.
Justice fighters, though, aren’t easily spooked by bullies, and the movement succeeded in June in having all charges dismissed. As one protester said, it takes “regular people putting their bodies on the line to make these things happen. One victory today, and many more in the future.” For more information, go to Formosa4.org.
Jim Hightower is a former Texas Observer editor, former Texas agriculture commissioner, radio commentator and populist sparkplug, a best-selling author and winner of the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Write him at info@jimhightower.com or see www.jimhightower.com.
