Here’s a progressive idea I picked up from the unlikeliest of sources: Corporate CEOs! For decades, these chieftains of our economic order have been steadily implementing a very visionary process for establishing corporate wage levels. The essence of it is this: Let the workers set their own pay! Since the 1970s, when the idea began taking hold in …

Our pal invited Hightower to speak at this fantastic rally on Zoom tonight—do not miss the opportunity to discuss the implications of a changing (to put it lightly) care industry that likely won’t have care at its core anymore if private equity has its way. He’ll join activist Dora Gorski, Ai-Jen Poo and John Nichols at 7pm CT; register here for FR…

Woody Guthrie satirized Depression-era bankers who routinely gouged farmers and poor people. “I’m a jolly banker, jolly banker am I,” Woody sang, about the joyful lenders who profiteered on people’s misery. Woody’s song could be sung today by Bharat Masrani, CEO of the TD Bank empire. Investigative digger reports that Masrani has long profited from…

Forget the cartoonish “Great Man” version of American history, nearly all social progress in our country has been spurred by unheralded “nobodies” who felt a sting of injustice – and resolved to right the wrong. Lilly Ledbetter, who recently died at 86, was one such trailblazing rebel, and it’s worth remembering her gutsy stand for “paycheck fairne…

A lot of working stiffs today say the system is rigged to keep them from getting ahead. One thing that might make them feel like that is this: The system is rigged against them! Upgrade your subscription Consider some very hard workers busting their butts going up and down our residential streets – Amazon’s army of delivery drivers, hauling tons of…

For you Lowdowners who are looking for ways to spend your anxious energy in productive ways for the next two weeks, we wanted to put together a quick list of ways to do just that. Squeezing out every last vote that we can! It’s go time! Rahr! Swing State Rural Actions From our friends at Rural4Harris, who are emailing out new swing state actions to…

Sadism and masochism (abbreviated as S&M) are generally frowned on in polite society as perverse acts of sexual gratification. But what should we make of M&As? This is Wall Street’s abbreviation of mergers and acquisitions, which are acts of self-gratification practiced by top corporate executives. Such financial couplings can also be judged as soc…

As schoolkids learn in civics class, our government is made up of three separate branches. Your church is not one of them. Unless you live in Oklahoma. There, a fanatical Christian Nationalist named Ryan Walters is the appointed superintendent of schools. But he’s confused on the concept of “instruction,” viewing it not as teaching, but as a comman…

Photo by The Lacey Timberland Library on Flickr In high-school, my friend Charlie and I once poked into an abandoned Victorian house in our hometown. Up in the attic, we found a secret door to a space containing several boxes of books. One held 50 copies of The Age of Reason, Thomas Paine’s 1794 treatise ridiculing the myths of Christian theology a…

“Billionaire Tears” mug available in Elizabeth Warren’s campaign store. Corporate lobbyists and politicians recently jumped all over Kamala Harris for her proposal to outlaw price gouging by food giants and grocery chains. The partisans piled on Harris, sputtering like old Joe McCarthy that she was pushing “Soviet-style” government price-setting. O…

Meme courtesy LoveAndViscera on Reddit Oh, swell – here it comes again. It’s the “Great Man” theory of history, trotted out periodically by plutocrats, patricians, royalists, and assorted other proponents of an elitist social order. They insist that great progress does not come from political movements, unions, and other grassroots forces, but from…

NOTE: Hurricane Helene has wreaked horrific damage all across Appalachia and the Southeast. Some terrific rural organizers have put together this comprehensive document of resources for people affected, as well as ways to help. Give / Get Hurricane Helene Help Here Perhaps you’ve noticed from the shrinkage (or total elimination) of your local newsp…

Greetings, friends! Deanna the Sidekick here to report in on some great activities that have come across our path in the last few months. I’ve been participating in some remarkable discussions and actions that are lifting up the rural voices in this country, and that are engaging rural voters’ participation in a system that, frankly, hasn’t treated…

Hightower outside the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, OK Woody Guthrie’s prescription for inequality in America was straightforward: “Rich folks got your money with politics. You can get it back with politics.” For Guthrie, “politics” meant more than voting, since both parties routinely cough-up candidates who meekly accept the business-as-usual sys…

An iconic Texas band, the Austin Lounge Lizards, has a song that nails the absurd self-righteousness of Christian supremacists: “Jesus loves me… but he can’t stand you.” I think of this refrain when I behold today’s right-ring proselytizers wailing that the blessed rich should not be taxed to assure that everyone has the most basic human needs. See…

Since its inception in the 1980s, Farm Aid has always been much more than just a spectacular festival with incredible performers—it’s been a hub of farmer and rural advocacy. Each year before the concert, they host an annual Farmer Forum to convene everyday people and rural advocates in one place to take on the challenges that face us all. The year…

If you name your $4-billion food conglomerate “The Wonderful Company,” you probably should strive extra hard not to let it become the horrible company. This outfit spends a fortune painting itself as an environmentally sensitive purveyor of healthy products – like “POM,” its brand of pomegranate juice and its bottled “Fiji Water.” Moreover, its bil…

Photo courtesy wiscnews.com Baraboo, Wisconsin is known as home base for the Ringling Brothers Circus. But even that extravaganza of acrobats and clowns could not surpass the dazzling tent show playing out in Baraboo this month, starring the Sauk County Board of Supervisors. Only… you couldn’t have seen it, because the tent was zipped-tight to keep…