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In OtherWords: January 24, 2017
We're fresh off a brief government shutdown, brought on in part by the president's move, months ago, to revoke the DACA program that protects around 700,000 undocumented young people. This week in OtherWords, community college teacher Jill Richardson explains how that...
How One Coal Baron Set an Entire Administration’s Energy Agenda
It's common knowledge that our political system is awash with money. And that money, despite some flimsy legal barriers, comes with strings attached. One coal baron's efforts to set an entire administration's energy agenda are the perfect case study. His name is...
A Battle Over More Than Just a Galaxy
The Last Jedi is a great film if you need to hear and see a fight for the Resistance on the screen. It’s also one of my favorite movies in the franchise. (Come at me, Star Wars fans.) The whole Star Wars franchise rests on the age-old question: When evil rises, how...
Do the Poor Deserve Health Care? These Politicians Say No.
Between 2013 and 2016, the state of Kentucky experienced a veritable medical miracle. In 2013, two of every five low-income people in the state had no health insurance. By 2016, only one in every 13 poor Kentuckians were going uninsured. As a result, the share of...
Why Some Students Fail
Another semester is about to begin at the community college where I teach. Some of my students come from middle class backgrounds. They went to excellent high schools, enjoy financial and emotional support from their parents, and have what it takes to excel in...
A Rigged Game Only Amazon Will Win
In September, the giant retail monopolist Amazon announced its intention to build a second corporate headquarters in Someplace, North America. Where's that? Aha, that's the trick in a corporate game called "Fleece the Taxpayer." CEO Jeff Bezos demanded that cities...
Shutdown Accomplished
In OtherWords: January 17, 2018
This week in OtherWords, we're talking s—holes. That's what President Trump recently called El Salvador, Haiti, and much of Africa, according to people who attended a meeting where he complained about immigrants from those places. Our cartoonist, Khalil Bendib,...
Trump’s Gift for the Unemployed: Kicking Them Off Health Care
On January 11, the Trump administration issued a cruel announcement: If you can’t find a job, don’t count on being able to get health care. Under an unprecedented new policy, the administration will let states kick people off Medicaid for the crime of being...
America, Oprah is Not Your Savior
Oprah Winfrey's remarkable Golden Globes speech rocked not only the event's A-list attendees, but almost all of America. Winfrey cited the under-told story of Recy Taylor, a young black woman who was raped by six armed white men during the Jim Crow era. Despite...
