Political Corruption

Representative democracies in the US and around the world are in trouble. Due to the political divide and political party extremism, people are upset, and looking for a government that better serves them. Books and articles are rife with blame, but no realistic, actionable solution has been put forth. Minor changes have been proposed such as term limits and multi-voting. However, no one has examined the root cause of the problem, much less developed a practical solution to toxic, destructive politics that incite hate and violence. Until now....

Mr. Gobscheit has a finger in every pie-until one bites back. Jack Gobscheit, a smooth operator with influence in high places, thinks he's got the world dancing to his tune. With money flowing and global leaders in his pocket, nothing seems out of reach-until a new frontier opens in the scramble for rare earth elements. Enter Mark Jamison, tasked with uncovering the murky interests behind a surge in demand for these vital resources. From the US to the icy edges of Greenland, Mark follows a trail of political tension, environmental controversy, and shadowy deals-where Gobscheit, of course, ...

In this vivid, deeply-reported book, Matt Stroud shows that our new policing tools are overhyped and ineffective. Instead of wrestling with tough fundamental questions about their work, police leaders have looked to technology as a silver bullet, and stood by as corporate interests have insinuated themselves ever deeper into the public institution of law enforcement. With a sweeping history of these changes, Thin Blue Lie is a must-listen for anyone seeking to understand how policing became what it is today.

Supreme Court clerk Avery Keene is back, trying to get her feet on solid ground after unravelling an international conspiracy. But as the sparks of Congressional hearings and political skirmishes swirl around her, Avery is approached at a legal conference by Preston Davies, an unassuming young man and fellow law clerk to a federal judge in Idaho. Davies believes his boss, Judge Francesca Whitner, was being blackmailed in the days before she died. Desperate to understand what happened, he gives Avery a file, a burner phone, and a fearful warning that there are highly dangerous people involved.

In An Uncivil War, Washington Post journalist Greg Sargent vividly lifts the curtain on the nightmare dynamic that is transforming American politics into little more than a naked power struggle. Yet An Uncivil War is not only a thorough dissection of an ultimately immoral system, but a handbook for turning that around by restoring authentic democracy. Given the incredibly high stakes in 2018 and 2020, Sargent’s book could not be more essential.

Chris Hollingsworth is the Mayor's son. His uncle is a mob boss. He's the last person club owner Jack Kingston should get involved with, but it's Christmas. Chris has been thrown out. He has nowhere to go. Jack has a heart, but he expected a one night stand. He wasn't expecting love.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa is credited with driving through the deal between the apartheid government and the African National Congress that was at the heart of South Africa’s democratic constitution. He was the ANC’s lead negotiator and the man who persuaded one of the most recalcitrant racist governments in the world to buy into a settlement based on one of its most enlightened bills of rights. But once the ink had dried on the constitution, Ramaphosa found himself politically sidelined.

Mafia-crats of New York A Detective’s Costly Crusade Against Mob-Inspired Corruption What happens when the real enemy isn’t just on the streets—but in city hall? In the shadows of New York’s political machine, where the lines between government and organized crime have long been blurred, one detective dares to push back. Mafia-crats of New York tells the gripping story of an anti-corruption investigator who risks everything to expose the mob’s enduring grip on local politics—and the quiet complicity of those sworn to uphold the law. Haunted by a turbulent past and targeted by ...

The history and future of our democracy's ultimate sanction, presidential impeachment, and a guide to how it should be used now. To End a Presidency addresses one of today's most urgent questions: when and whether to impeach a president. Laurence Tribe and Joshua Matz provide an authoritative guide to impeachment's past and a bold argument about its proper role today. In an era of expansive presidential power and intense partisanship, we must rethink impeachment for the 21st century.

Five Bodies, Five Suspects, One Chance to get it Right! When a series of brutal hate crimes grip the small town of Orvin, Cole Sage is asked to return for one final story. What starts as a shocking, racially charged murder quickly spirals into a nightmare of violence and suspicion. The quiet Oklahoma town is now a battleground, with deep-rooted prejudices toward undocumented aliens surfacing and more bodies turning up. As Cole digs deeper, he discovers that everyone seems to have a motive—and no one can be trusted. Reunited with his old friend, FBI Agent Carter Washington, the two find ...

An Ice Pick Murderer Is Terrorizing San Francisco San Francisco is reeling from a series of brutal icepick murders, and Cole Sage is distracted when his secretary and sidekick, Hanna, takes in a troubled teenage girl. The girl is on the run, and as it turns out is hiding things Hanna should know. Cole works with Lt. Leonard Chin to find the perpetrator of the savage killings terrorizing the city. As Cole and Hanna try to protect the girl, they find themselves caught in a deadly game of cat and mouse, where every answer leads to more danger. With the body count rising, Cole must navigate a ...

For the better part of a century, the left has been waging a slow, methodical battle for control of the institutions of Western civilization. This book provides a comprehensive overview of the problem and the players involved, both on the aggressive, hard-charging left and in the nascent conservative resistance. Soukup explains what the left is doing and how and why the right must be prepared and willing to fight back to save this critical aspect of American culture from becoming another, more economically powerful version of the “woke” college campus.

Whistleblowers pay with their lives to save ours. When insiders like former NSA analyst Edward Snowden, ex-FBI agent Coleen Rowley, or Big Tobacco truth-teller Jeffrey Wigand blow the whistle on high-level lying, lawbreaking or other wrongdoing - whether it's government spying, corporate murder, or scientific scandal - the public benefits enormously. Wars are ended, deadly products are taken off the market, white-collar criminals are sent to jail. The whistleblowers themselves, however, generally end up ruined.

As Alabama’s governor, our economy improved; our strides in education gained national attention; I rallied voters, expanded my base and held the line against Republican dominance. As Southern Democratic Governors Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter before me, I was ready to jump into the race for president. I just needed to win reelection in 2002 to launch my challenge to George W. Bush in 2004. That’s when forces of the Bush White House swarmed into Alabama and, in that instant, Alabama become a brutal political battleground.

The extraordinary authority of the US presidency has no parallel in the democratic world. Today, that authority resides in the hands of one man, Donald J. Trump. But rarely if ever has the nature of a president clashed more profoundly with the nature of the office. Unmaking the Presidency tells the story of the confrontation between a person and the institution he almost wholly embodies. From the moment of his inauguration, Trump has challenged our deepest expectations of the presidency. But what are those expectations, where did they come from, and how great is the damage?

There's honest graft and dishonest graft, according to George Washington Plunkitt. Listen to this candid discourse from a 19th-century politician and decide for yourself if things have changed.

Short-Reads Include: Kakistocracy BAR: British Accreditation Registry Real Mail Himes-Rhodes, Rhodes-Himes General Discrepancy Pharaocracy Line of Credit 1 Belt 1 Road King of Connecticut NRO Act of 1871

Essays Include: Maya. The Beast. IoB. CV. The True Enemy. 1 Belt 1 Road. MindWar. False Flag. Thespian. Himes-Rhodes, Rhodes-Himes. 11.3.

S.P. Somtow’s novel The Stone Buddha’s Tears was inspired by a real-life incident in 1991 in which the city of Bangkok, about to host an international conference, decided to throw up a corrugated iron fence around a slum in order to conceal it from the passing delegates. In this fantasy novel of innocence and hope, the lives of two boys from opposite ends of the social spectrum intersect because of the wall. The protagonist, a beggar known only as “Boy”, meets a novice monk whose father, a corrupt politician, has sent him to a monastery in order to provide a picture-perfect photo-op...

What Burns Hotter, Love or Hate? Cole Sage is caught in a firestorm of chaos when two deadly threats erupt in San Francisco. On one side, a mentally unstable, PTSD-stricken Vietnam veteran launches a series of violent arson attacks targeting the city’s Asian community, leaving destruction and terror in his wake. On the other side, Jesse Monday, a self-proclaimed messiah, amasses a dangerous cult following after his sudden death—as rumors swirl of his miraculous resurrection. As Cole once again works alongside FBI agent Carter Washington to uncover the arsonist’s motives and stop the ...