Not All Problems Are Global or National: Think Local

Not All Problems Are Global or National: Think Local

Public leadership doesn’t mean that the “leader” has to have all the solutions, but instead must be open to others with problem-solving ideas. That was one of Franklin Roosevelt’s great strengths when he came into the White House. Facing the full-blown crisis of a national Depression, he brought his top advisors together with an open mandate for creativity: “Do Something,” he told them. “If it works, do more of it. If it doesn’t work, do something else.” In some surprisingly good news, this spirit of innovative public leadership is flourishing today! Not at the national level, of course, where top federal officials are right-wing ideologues who obsequiously bow to “WDW” (Whatever Donald Wants). But hundreds of local and state officials across America are using their heads, hands, and imaginations to “do something” about the real problems our people face. School districts, for example. Many are facing a double whammy: First, developers and their politicians have gentrified many cities so severely that teachers and staff can’t afford to live there; second a right-wing push for school consolidations and closures has left many campuses vacant. But could one problem plus the other one add up to zero? Yes, say education innovators in such districts as San Diego, Austin, and South Miami. Leaders there and elsewhere are converting vacated classrooms, offices, and school yards into high-quality family apartment complexes [https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/28/business/affordable-housing-schools-teachers.html]. They’ll house several thousand teachers, janitors, and others, cutting rents by 50 percent or better! Encouraging this kind of free-wheeling problem-solving is not just thinking outside the box, it’s eliminating the box. For more creative ideas to make public policy work for the public, go to StateInnovation.org [http://StateInnovation.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 [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Why is Trump Economically Clueless? Meet Scott Bessent.

Wow, here’s some blockbuster economic news from Team Trump: The income gap between the rich and the rest of us is over! How do we know this? Because Scott Bessent says so. Who’s he? Secretary of the Treasury – Trump’s top economic official. A son of inherited wealth, he’s a Yale graduate, a Wall Street whiz, a billion-dollar hedge fund speculator, and… well, Scott says he knows financial stuff. So he officially proclaimed this month that the “K-shaped economy… is a thing of the past.” He’s referring to the letter K, which economists use as a graphic shorthand to show the wealth of moneyed elites is zooming up, while the well-being of the middle-class and poor plummets. “I got sick of hearing about this K-shaped economy,” snarled this potentate of high-finance. So he did what Trump would do – he simply decreed that the rich-poor economic divide is “over.” As evidence, he pointed to Trump’s elimination of the federal tax on workers’ tips. Could someone please buy a clue for our eminent treasury chief? No doubt some waiters and bartenders will get a few nickels and dimes from this token tax ploy, but it doesn’t even register on the scale of economic fairness. Plus, a partisan Wall Street millionaire like Scott has zero credibility with working class families. They’ll know when inequality is “over,” because their in-come will finally begin to cover the ever-rising out-go caused by corporate greed and plutocratic government. America’s last great Republican President, Abraham Lincoln said: “You can’t fool all the people all the time.” But Trump and his clique of clueless henchmen like Scott Bessent keep trying to prove Lincoln wrong. Do something! To take on income inequality for real, check out these resources from our friends at Inequality.org [https://inequality.org/action/corporate-pay-equity/]. 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 [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Big Tech Is the New Feudalism: How to Fight Back

“If you find that you’ve dug yourself into a hole, the very first thing to do is quit digging.” That old country saying has a newly-urgent relevance to us today, for Big Tech, Big Finance, and Big Government are colluding to dig us into the unfathomable hole of artificial intelligence. All across the country, entire communities are in an uproar as they learn that thousands of massive, billionaire-financed data centers are quietly being approved by their government officials, usurping farmland, local water supplies, and each area’s electric grid. Why? So über-rich prigs like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos can impose their grandiose, zillion-dollar schemes to displace us human workers with super-intelligent bots. What’s not to like about that? But wait… there are other major problems, including the sickening drone of gigantic cooling systems in each data center, running non-stop year-round, destroying community tranquility and people’s sanity; the sudden rise of global warming emissions caused by data center use of fossil fuels; the creation of easy targets for drone attacks on these sprawling interconnected computer networks; and the wholesale diversion of America’s research funding and talent to the private projects of billionaires. Far worse, though, is that AI is the key for Musk, Bezos, and whoever to impose a feudal, fascist, technocratic, rule over the rest of us – all in the name of progress. Maybe we should question this “future” before surrendering to it! To help guide us, New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom recommends such useful books as “The Nerd Reich [https://www.thenerdreich.com/],” “Technofeudalism [https://bookshop.org/p/books/technofeudalism-what-killed-capitalism-yanis-varoufakis/081c0a562b90ca0c],” and “End Times Fascism [https://bookshop.org/p/books/end-times-fascism-and-the-fight-for-the-living-world-astra-taylor/66802b8005ce0f8f]” – plus Pope Leo’s encyclical letter on AI [https://www.vatican.va/content/leo-xiv/en/encyclicals/documents/20260515-magnifica-humanitas.html]. Follow Tressie’s series on battling Big Tech at JimHightower.com/TMC [http://JimHightower.com/TMC]. Do something! Here are some organizations and coalitions that are fighting this technofascist/feudalist future: * AI Now [https://ainowinstitute.org/]: An independent research institute providing expert analysis on AI in the public interest * Athena Coalition [https://athenaforall.org/]: Originally focused on fighting Amazon, this huge coalition is taking on AI invasions and data center exploitation 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 [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Moneyed Powers Are Forcing Art and Artisans Out of Our Towns

The great thing about “art towns” is, of course, the artists who live there and their art. So why are so many art town officials deliberately and stupidly driving artists out of town? I live in such a place: Austin, Texas. For beaucoup years, it welcomed and nurtured a blessing of creators – from buskers to tap dancers, muralists to neon sign artists. Neon Signs? Yes, magical artisans who can bend glass tubes into delightful expressive shapes that light-up to identify a community and culture as something more than just another concrete-and-steel erection of corporate power. One such creative is Todd Sanders [https://www.roadhouserelics.com/], an Austin pop artist who for three decades has preserved and advanced this eclectic community’s proud claim to be “Keeping Austin Weird.” I was personally plugged into that identity when Susan DeMarco, Floyd Domino, and I broadcast a two-hour daily radio talk-show across America from a down-home Austin restaurant named Threadgill’s. Behind us on the stage, was a Todd Sanders gem – a 3x5 foot neon sign, flashing “Hightower Radio… On the Air.” But multimillion-dollar developers – backed by a city council now promoting Austin as a mecca for high-tech billionaires – have no room for funky grassroots “weirdness.” They’ve jacked-up city property taxes and artists rents in a corporate gentrification frenzy that has squeezed Sanders’ neon shop and others out of Austin. The good news is that art perseveres, so Sanders’ studio and art gallery found a welcoming spot 80 miles east of us in the small town of Round Top. But Round Top artisans will be next if we keep letting profiteers, with no values beyond money, define who we are, restricting who we can become. Do something! When we had an office in east Austin, we shared it with Austin Creative Alliance [https://www.austincreativealliance.org/]—check them out to help keep Austin’s arts scene thriving. 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 [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]

Voters Rebel Against Effort by Missouri GOP to Kill Voter Rights

It’s no secret that voters are increasingly disgusted by today’s extremist, right-wing Republican lawmakers. But less known is the fact that extremist GOP lawmakers are even more disgusted by you voters! They’re so disgusted that a top legislative priority of Republican leaders in the White House, Congress, and state legislatures is to rig election rules, literally to rule-out issues and voters they don’t like. For example, Republicans in Missouri (the “Show Me” State) showed us what they’re made of by attempting to kill the people’s right to amend their state’s constitution. Missouri and 25 other states have long provided a citizen-led [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiatives_and_referendums_in_the_United_States] initiative process [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initiatives_and_referendums_in_the_United_States]so the people can propose and pass their own laws, rather than always depending on politicians to “do what’s right.” Yes – it’s direct democracy! But the people (damn them!) have been passing things like providing health care for the poor and raising the minimum wage. So, “No-no!” screeched Republican leaders and corporate lobbyists, who otherwise control the entire state government. In a perversion of people power, they wrote a ballot initiative that, effectively, would leave direct democracy “dead” in Missouri. [https://my.lwv.org/missouri/article/league-women-voters-missouri-strongly-opposes-hjr3-which-requires-majority-all-8-districts] Clever, huh? Use the initiative process to kill the initiative process. But the people rallied, exposed the fraud, and in a massive turnout of voters in last week’s elections 80 percent – 80 percent! [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Missouri_Amendment_4] – rejected the establishment’s anti-democracy ploy. Missourians showed ‘em – but anti-democracy elites are now pushing direct-voter bans in 15 other states, including Arizona, Florida, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Utah. To keep track and shove back against these plutocratic power grabs, connect with the nationwide monitoring and grassroots campaigns of the Fairness Project: thefairnessproject.org [http://thefairnessproject.org]. More from Missouri Want to keep up with Missourians who are fighting the good fight? Here are some rabble rousers whose work we love: * Jess Piper [https://substack.com/profile/21725939-jess-piper] and her newsletter, The View from Rural Missouri by Jess Piper [https://open.substack.com/pub/jesspiper] * Will Westmoreland [https://substack.com/profile/91271260-will-westmoreland] - his newsletter is here [https://westmorelandpops.substack.com/]! 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 [https://jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_2]