Before 2015, we never had the privilege of seeing Donald Trump — a man who goes to great lengths to never muss up his hair — hawking baseball caps and becoming the GOP front-runner. Or watching Martin Shkreli — the ultimate legal drug kingpin — get busted for fleecing investors the old-fashioned way. Or witnessing Chris Christie bar the door against Syrian toddlers in need of refuge.
Are you thinking what I’m thinking? This year better not hit its head on the door on its way out. And like alert OtherWords readers everywhere, you’re surely bracing for what 2016 may bring. Well, we’re here to help.
This week in OtherWords, I share a few new words that might make it all easier to bear, Donald Kaul weighs in on Shkreli’s chutzpah, and Marc Morial talks about killer cops. If my neologisms or simply our writers’ way with words help you cope with the increasingly bizarre and unsettling news cycles that have become the new normal, kindly ring in the New Year by making a tax-deductible contribution to support our work.
We’re so grateful to all of you who have supported OtherWords in 2015 and in past years. If you haven’t already given, please consider supporting OtherWords today. Your gift — whether it’s for $25 or $250 — will help us keep providing this vital service in 2016.
You may give on our website or mail a check payable to IPS with OtherWords on the memo line to this address: Institute for Policy Studies; 1112 16th Street NW, Suite 600; Washington, DC 20036. Any gift postmarked or made online by the end of the day tomorrow (December 31), will be counted in the 2015 tax year as IPS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. Please contact our development office with any questions you may have at 202-787-5235 or or donate@ips-dc.org.
OtherWords will be back with our next robust editorial package on January 13 after we take a New Year’s break. I hope you have a very happy New Year.
- The GOP’s Pro-Corporate Prescription / Richard Kirsch
Tax credits for working families are a better deal than corporate tax breaks. - The Days of Lying to Protect Killer Cops Are Numbered / Marc Morial
Enough is enough. - Broadband Rates Are Too Damn High / Dana Floberg
Low-income communities are being stranded as everyone else catches a ride on the information superhighway. - Martin Shkreli: My Person of the Year / Donald Kaul
Had his passion for lying, cheating, and stealing not done this weasel in, he’d be a promising GOP presidential candidate. - Enstrictly Speaking, 2016 Could Be a Trailrazer / Emily Schwartz Greco
Trumpalist isn’t a word, at least not yet. - The GOP Candidates Know Nothing about Syria / John Kiriakou
Ending this imbroglio requires robust diplomacy. - When Life Makes Resolutions for You / Jill Richardson
See if you can make space for feelings — your own as well those of others — in 2016. - For-Profit Colleges Are Scandal Machines / Jim Hightower
This corrupt higher education “industry” ought to be put out of business. - A Chip Off the Old Pharmaberg / Khalil Bendib
Chip Off the Old Pharmaberg, an OtherWords cartoon by Khalil Bendib
