Internet slang is a non-standard or unofficial form of language used by people on the Internet to communicate to one another. A popular example of Internet slang is "lol" meaning "laugh out loud". Since Internet slang is constantly changing, it is difficult to provide a standardized definition. However, it can be understood to be any type of slang that Internet users have popularized, and in many cases, have coined. Such terms often originate with the purpose of saving keystrokes or to compensate for character limit restrictions. Many people use the same abbreviations in texting, instant messaging, and social networking websites. Acronyms, keyboard symbols, and abbreviations are common types of Internet slang. New dialects of slang, such as leet or Lolspeak, develop as ingroup Internet memes rather than time savers. Many people also use Internet slang in face-to-face, real life communication.
A plutocracy or plutarchy is a society that is ruled or controlled by people of great wealth or income. The first known use of the term in English dates from 1631. Unlike most political systems, plutocracy is not rooted in any established political philosophy.
Jargon, or technical language, is the specialized terminology associated with a particular field or area of activity. Jargon is normally employed in a particular communicative context and may not be well understood outside that context. The context is usually a particular occupation, but any ingroup can have jargon. The key characteristic that distinguishes jargon from the rest of a language is its specialized vocabulary, which includes terms and definitions of words that are unique to the context, and terms used in a narrower and more exact sense than when used in colloquial language. This can lead outgroups to misunderstand communication attempts. Jargon is sometimes understood as a form of technical slang and then distinguished from the official terminology used in a particular field of activity.
The Almanac of American Politics is a reference work published biennially by Columbia Books & Information Services. It aims to provide a detailed look at the politics of the United States through an approach of profiling individual leaders and areas of the country. The first edition of the Almanac was published in 1972. The National Journal published biennial editions of the Almanac from 1984 through 2014. In 2015, Columbia Books & Information Services became the publisher.
David J. Sirota is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Lever, a reader-supported investigative news outlet focused on exposing the negative influence of corporate corruption on American society. Sirota was a speechwriter and senior adviser for the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign. In 2022, he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay for conceiving the story for Netflix's Don't Look Up alongside co-writer and director Adam McKay.
In politics, a dog whistle is the use of coded or suggestive language in political messaging to garner support from a particular group without provoking opposition. The concept is named after ultrasonic dog whistles, which are audible to dogs but not humans. Dog whistles use language that appears normal to the majority but communicates specific things to intended audiences. They are generally used to convey messages on issues likely to provoke controversy without attracting negative attention.
Mark Evan Halperin is an American journalist, television cable host, political commentator and founder of the interactive media platform 2WAY. Halperin previously had worked as the political director for ABC News, where he also served as the editor of the Washington, D.C., newsletter The Note. In 2010, Halperin joined MSNBC, becoming the senior political analyst and a contributor. Along with John Heilemann, Halperin served as co-managing editor of Bloomberg Politics. Halperin and Heilemann co-wrote Game Change and Double Down: Game Change 2012, were co-hosts of MSNBC and Bloomberg's With All Due Respect, and produced and co-starred with Mark McKinnon in Showtime's The Circus: Inside the Greatest Political Show on Earth, which followed the presidential candidates behind the scenes of their campaigns in the 2016 United States Presidential Election.
Christopher Michael Cillizza is an American political commentator, who worked for the television news channel CNN from 2017 to 2022. Prior to joining CNN, he wrote for The Fix, the daily political blog of The Washington Post, and was a regular contributor to the Post on political issues, a frequent panelist on Meet the Press, and an MSNBC political analyst.
Charles David Todd is an American television journalist who was the 12th moderator of NBC's Meet the Press. During his time at NBC News between 2007 and 2025, Todd also hosted Meet the Press Now, its daily edition on NBC News Now, and served as the Chief Political Analyst for NBC News as well. Before taking the helm of Meet the Press, Todd was Chief White House correspondent for NBC as well as host of The Daily Rundown on MSNBC. He also served as NBC News' on-air political analyst for NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt and Today.
Grant Barrett is an American lexicographer, specializing in slang, jargon and new usage, and the author and compiler of language-related books and dictionaries. He is a co-host and co-producer of the American weekly, hour-long public radio show and podcast A Way with Words. He has made regular appearances on Christopher Kimball's Milk Street Radio, is often consulted as a language commentator, and has written for The New York Times and The Washington Post, and served as a lexicographer for Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
John Tinney McCutcheon was an American newspaper political cartoonist, war correspondent, combat artist, and author who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 1931 editorial cartoon, "A Wise Economist Asks a Question," and became known even before his death as the "Dean of American Cartoonists." The Purdue University graduate moved to Chicago, Illinois, in 1890 to work as an artist and occasional writer for the Chicago Morning News. His first front-page cartoon appeared in 1895 and his first published political cartoon was published during the U. S. presidential campaign of 1896. McCutcheon introduced human interest themes to newspaper cartoons in 1902 and joined the staff of the Chicago Tribune in 1903, remaining there until his retirement in 1946. McCutcheon's cartoons appeared on the front page of the Tribune for forty years.
Logocracy is the rule of, or government by, words. It is derived from the Greek λόγος (logos)—"word" and from κράτος (kratos)—to "govern". The term can be used either positively, ironically, or negatively.
Washington Decoded is a monthly online newsletter presenting articles on American history. Founded in March 2007 by editor Max Holland, the site publishes new pieces on the 11th of each month, with additional "extra" features. The site features book reviews and articles by authors, journalists, and scholars including John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, Merle L. Pribbenow, Jeffrey T. Richelson, Sheldon M. Stern, and Holland, many of whose articles published elsewhere are also hosted on the site. It has hosted articles on a wide range of topics such as Watergate, Cold War History, 9/11, John F. Kennedy's assassination, and intelligence-related subjects. In November 2009, Washingtonian magazine featured a version of a WashingtonDecoded.com article on Richard Nixon's Deep Throat.
The Jargon File is a glossary and usage dictionary of slang used by computer programmers. The original Jargon File was a collection of terms from technical cultures such as the MIT AI Lab, the Stanford AI Lab (SAIL) and others of the old ARPANET AI/LISP/PDP-10 communities, including Bolt, Beranek and Newman (BBN), Carnegie Mellon University, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. It was published in paperback form in 1983 as The Hacker's Dictionary and revised in 1991 as The New Hacker's Dictionary.
Padonkaffsky jargon, also known as Olbanian, is a slang developed by a Runet subculture called padonki (падонки). It started as an Internet slang language originally used in the Russian Internet community. It is comparable to the English-based Leet. Padonkaffsky jargon became so popular that Dmitry Medvedev jokingly suggested that Olbanian be taught in schools.
"Chicago-style politics" is a phrase which has been used to refer to the city of Chicago, regarding its hard-hitting sometimes corrupt politics. It was used to refer to the Republican machine in the 1920s run by William Hale Thompson, as when Time magazine said, "to Mayor Thompson must go chief credit for creating 20th Century Politics Chicago Style."
McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission, 572 U.S. 185 (2014), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on campaign finance. The decision held that Section 441 of the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971, which imposed a limit on contributions an individual can make over a two-year period to all national party and federal candidate committees, is unconstitutional.
The 2016 presidential campaign of Rand Paul, the junior United States senator from Kentucky, was announced on April 7, 2015, at an event at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. First elected to the U.S. Senate in the 2010 election, Paul's candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2016 had been widely speculated since early 2013.
Mark Preston is Vice President of Political & Special Events Programming at CNN, and a CNN Senior Political Analyst. His role is to oversee CNN’s election night coverage across its broadcasting and online platforms, organize CNN’s presidential debates and forums, and serve as CNN's main contact with political campaigns at both the state and national level, and to lead the conception and execution of CNN's political events.
A sherpa is an experienced Washington D.C. political consultant brought on to guide an administration's nominee to Senate approval.
