When greedy corporations want a stupid law, they come to Texas

Once again, my state's GOP hierarchy is leading the nation in creative ways to increase corporate power over people's rights. This time, lawmakers are rushing to protect corrupt executives from legal challenges by their own shareholders!

Their law would ban rank-and-file owners of corporate giants from suing their CEOs and other top officials for financial malfeasance. In particular, it's a heavy-handed attempt to prohibit shareholders from suing bosses who lavish shareholder funds on extravagant pay and luxury perks for themselves.

But leave it to Lone Star Republicans to make a bad law worse. Indeed, they say they only want to bar suits by "pesky" small investors -- people who own less than 3% of a corporation's stock. But that's a flimflam, since almost no one owns more than 3% of any big corporation. And the few who do are huge Wall Street operators and multibillionaires -- and they're not about to sue a fellow richie for being greedy.

The Texas law would effectively institutionalize a corrupt, closed-loop protection racket, freeing self-serving executives from internal accountability.

Speaking of corruption, who wrote this boondoggle? It's sponsored by Dustin Burrows, the top official of the Texas House, but he doesn't write bills -- he totes bills written by big campaign donors, corporate lobbyists, and right-wing extremists. In this case, he's working for all three.

This is Jim Hightower saying ... Burrows brags that his scam will be a boon for our state because it'll prompt CEOs everywhere to move their corporations here to take advantage of this law. Sure -- corporations are up to no good! Who needs 'em? And if they set a precedent in Texas, I guarantee you they'll be pushing it in your state next.

DO WE HAVE TO LET BRIGHT LIGHTS BLIND US TO STARRY NIGHTS?

Let us embrace the darkness.

Not the political dark ages being pushed on us by today's regressive right-wing forces, but nature's own pure darkness of night. Unfortunately, we Homo sapiens have largely blacked out nature's billions of beacons in the night sky, which have both dazzled and guided Earth's creatures for eons.

Ironically, the tool used to wash out natural light ... is light! In all cities and most towns, the glare of artificial lighting has pulled an impervious curtain across our sky. Especially garish (and entirely useless) is the lighting of corporate skyscrapers throughout the night with blinding spotlights that keep us from seeing the genuinely majestic view beyond.

I was lucky as a child to spend summer evenings on my Aunt Eula's farm, entranced as darkness fell and the celestial show began. But today, most children don't even know it's there. Indeed, 80% of Americans never see the stream of the Milky Way galaxy that is our home -- much less see the spectacular cosmic beams shining from trillions of miles beyond.

This doesn't mean we should just stumble around in the dark. We need light but try a little common sense. One, stop spotlighting buildings. Two, don't point outdoor lighting up at the sky -- shine it down on our streets, parking lots, stadiums, and porches where the illumination is needed. Three, remember that there's an off switch. Even small steps can make a big difference. After all, all we're giving up is bad lighting.

This is Jim Hightower saying ... We can have the light we need and still let nature's sky be the star. The good news is that towns, cities and even countries have begun adopting such sensible lighting policies. To help do this where you live, go to DarkSky International: darksky.org.

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