A core role of the U.S. Department of Justice is to protect people from abuse by giant corporations.

But DOJ's present inhabitants have twisted that mission backwards — using the agency to protect corporate abusers from people seeking justice. For example: Big Oil. This massive polluter is insisting that government authorities must save it from its own transgressions. For decades, multibillion-dollar behemoths like Exxon have known that their fossil fuel emissions are increasing climate change, causing catastrophic destruction and deaths from intensified fires, floods, etc. Numerous lawsuits have now been filed demanding that the profiteers behind these horrific losses pay a fair share of the damage they've done.

"Noooo," whined the petro-perpetrators, scampering to Washington and to Republican statehouses to lobby for retroactive blanket immunity from all responsibility. Sure enough, top GOP officials are racing to bail out this murderous industry, which — by the way — finances the political campaigns of those oily officials.

But wait ... there's much more:

— Our so-called "Justice Department" has sued Hawaii and Michigan to deny a "state's right" to sue energy corporations that cause climate change.

— A GOP group of state attorneys general are proposing a nationwide "liability shield" that would preemptively excuse oil, gas and coal polluters from any responsibility for climate damages.

— The same group wants the federal government to cut funding to any state or city that sues energy corporations.

— And King Donald has decreed that the justice department stop all laws, policies and suits that "threaten" fossil fuel production.

This is blatantly corrupt plutocracy ... not to mention stupid! To help stop it, go to the Center for Climate Integrity. ClimateIntegrity.org.

GOOD NEWS: SMALL GROUPS CAN DEFEAT CORPORATE GIANTS

From corporate polluters to political bosses, power elites try to create a myth of inevitability, trying to make workaday people feel helpless, too small to change the injustices of the system. Don't bother is their message.

But the feisty residents of Boxtown, Tenn., definitely did bother when they learned that a couple of profiteering fossil fuel giants were targeting them. Boxtown, a historic Black neighborhood of Memphis settled by former slaves 160 years ago, was considered by Valero Energy and Plains All-American Pipeline to be politically powerless, so when these multibillion-dollar petro powers decided to ram a dirty and dangerous pipeline through the Memphis area, Boxtown was their chosen route. The rich Texas oil barons even sneeringly called the lower-income community, "The point of least resistance."

Boy, did they get that wrong! Those "small" people of Boxtown resisted fiercely and smartly. Most flat-out refused to sell their family land at the thieving price offered by the oil slicks. They forged a unified grassroots coalition (Memphis Community Against the Pipeline), reached out to other neighborhoods and educated locals about the terrible safety records of the two corporate plunderers. They also enlisted environmental groups to help beat back the strong-arm attempt by Valero and Plains All-American to seize the people's property through eminent domain. It's a long story, with many ups and downs, but the inspiring essence of it is that local "nobodies" defeated the big money and raw racist arrogance of a powerhouse duo of absentee corporate elites that disrespected — and misjudged — them.

It gets little national media attention, but regular grassroots communities and coalitions are mounting — and winning — such gutsy fights against corporate exploiters all across America. We're not helpless or too small. Remember this: Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building! To learn more, contact MemphisCAP.org.

To find out more about Jim Hightower and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators webpage at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: José Martín Ramírez Carrasco at Unsplash