Archive
Nixing the Pentagon Slush Fund
The Senate Armed Services Committee has finished its work on the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, a bill that guides Pentagon policies. The measure authorizes $514 billion in spending for the Pentagon, along with the Energy Department's national security...
Giving Our Kids a Fighting Chance
As dire warnings from climate scientists continue to escalate and extreme weather events become increasingly common, the Obama administration's new proposal to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants couldn't be more important or timely. The Environmental...
Therapy Benefits Us All
In 2008, I went to therapy. By then, I'd needed it for a long time. I had a terribly difficult, incurable condition — one I'd had for 28 years without treatment. My condition? Being human. Like many "normal" people, I felt I didn't need therapy when I went. But my...
Forging a Secret Legacy
Edward Snowden is trying to set the record straight about what exactly he was doing before he blew the whistle on widespread government snooping. Back when he made headlines by sharing his revelations and opting to stay stuck in Russia rather than serving time in a...
Fast Food Giants Picking Their Workers’ Pockets
No matter how small the haul, a thief is a thief, right? If a poverty-wage fast-food worker sneaks out a couple of burgers to take home to the kids, the bosses yell: "Thief!" But what do you call it when the bosses steal from those same workers? How about outrageous,...
The Manning Up Problem
Putting Main Street in the Driver’s Seat
As we know, the barons of Wall Street haven't hesitated to raid our public treasury and haul off trillions of dollars worth of government bailouts and special tax breaks to subsidize their "free market" ventures. So guess who's the major force pushing policymakers to...
This Week in OtherWords: May 28, 2014
This week in OtherWords, Fran Teplitz questions the Justice Department's reluctance to prosecute banks and bankers for their misdeeds that triggered the financial crisis and Sam Pizzigati applauds California and Rhode Island state lawmakers for taking steps to rein in...
Modernizing Memorial Day
Whoever made the decision to open the National September 11 Memorial Museum just a few days before Memorial Day was both bold and intuitive. The theme of remembrance unites both events, but the 9/11 memorial is a departure because it is dedicated to those so often...
Too Big to Sue
The range of abuses and crimes committed by banks seems to grow without end. As soon as one predatory practice fades from the headlines, another appears moments later. Remember bank payday loans, a kind of short-term lending with annual interest rates of up to 365...
