Even a hog must sometimes gag at the stench of its own sty. Maybe that’s why some corporate lobbyists have launched a campaign to spiff up K-Street, Washington’s corridor of shameless high-dollar influence peddlers.

While other cities might boast of their historic sites or cultural offerings, the good folks of this easy-going, free-spirited community have chosen to highlight a flock of feral chickens that has lived for years on (appropriately enough) Farm Street.

Heartland’s mission is to promote mass ignorance on behalf of its self-serving (and often heart less) corporate backers. It is yet another secretive far-right-wing front group funded by the Koch brothers’ club of billionaires who’re intent on establishing an unbridled corporate plutocracy in our country.

Apparently a skunk doesn’t smell its own stink — or at least it’s not offended by it. Likewise, Walmart honchos are presently talking about the nauseating stench of its still-evolving bribery scandal as though it’s coming from somewhere else.

Actually, Shamu is not the cause of the shame. After all, that’s just the generic name given to the killer whales kept in captivity as the star attraction at three theme parks operated by SeaWorld Inc. The shame belongs to the corporation, which not only profits from its exploitation of the whales, but also.

My congratulations to workers in 16 states — from Maine to Georgia, New Jersey to Colorado! Many of you will be thrilled to know that the income taxes deducted from your paychecks each month are going to a very worthy cause: your corporate boss.

Unlike thieves of old, this gang is not out to rob bags of cash from banks and railroads. Instead, they are bankers and high-rolling railroaders who’re using their own heavy bags of cash as weapons to steal our elections and turn our government into their servant.

My state’s gallivanting goober of a governor, Rick Perry, is back in the news, with yet another “oops” moment! This one is even stupider than Perry’s failure to remember his own lines in a presidential debate. It has to do with his fierce opposition to spending taxpayers’ money and his firm stand for rootie-toot-toot rugged individualism.

Sorry, we’re closed.” In one of the saddest signs of the times, this message is popping up all across the country as governors and legislators are cutting off funds (and shutting off access) to one of the finest, most popular assets owned by the people of our country: state parks.

Another way that the rich are different from you and me is that their bankers serve freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies to them. The uber-rich, of course, are used to such coddling, but now a class of customers that bankers have dubbed the “mass affluent” get cookies, too.