Download or read book Big Money Unleashed written by Ann Southworth and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2023 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of how the First Amendment became an obstacle to campaign finance regulation--a history that began much earlier than most imagine. Americans across party lines believe that public policy is rigged in favor of those who wield big money in elections. Yet, legislators are restricted in addressing these concerns by a series of Supreme Court decisions finding that campaign finance regulations violate the First Amendment. Big Money Unleashed argues that our current impasse is the result of a long-term process involving many players. Naturally, the justices played critical roles--but so did the attorneys who hatched the theories necessary to support the legal doctrine, the legal advocacy groups that advanced those arguments, the wealthy patrons who financed these efforts, and the networks through which they coordinated strategy and held the Court accountable. Drawing from interviews, public records, and archival materials, Big Money Unleashed chronicles how these players borrowed a litigation strategy pioneered by the NAACP to dismantle racial segregation and used it to advance a very different type of cause.
Download or read book Lawyers of the Right written by Ann Southworth and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2009-08-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A timely and multifaceted portrait of the lawyers who serve the diverse constituencies of the conservative movement, Lawyers of the Right explains what unites and divides lawyers for the three major groups—social conservatives, libertarians, and business advocates—that have coalesced in recent decades behind the Republican Party. Drawing on in-depth interviews with more than seventy lawyers who represent conservative and libertarian nonprofit organizations, Ann Southworth explores their values and identities and traces the implications of their shared interest in promoting political strategies that give lawyers leading roles. She goes on to illuminate the function of mediator organizations—such as the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy—that have succeeded in promoting cooperation among different factions of conservative lawyers. Such cooperation, she finds, has aided efforts to drive law and the legal profession politically rightward and to give lawyers greater prominence in the conservative movement. Southworth concludes, though, that tensions between the conservative law movement’s elite and populist elements may ultimately lead to its undoing.
Download or read book Campaign Finance and American Democracy written by David M. Primo and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-10-19 with total page 279 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, and particularly since the US Supreme Court’s controversial Citizens United decision, lawmakers and other elites have told Americans that stricter campaign finance laws are needed to improve faith in the elections process, increase trust in the government, and counter cynicism toward politics. But as David M. Primo and Jeffrey D. Milyo argue, politicians and the public alike should reconsider the conventional wisdom in light of surprising and comprehensive empirical evidence to the contrary. Primo and Milyo probe original survey data to determine Americans’ sentiments on the role of money in politics, what drives these sentiments, and why they matter. What Primo and Milyo find is that while many individuals support the idea of reform, they are also skeptical that reform would successfully limit corruption, which Americans believe stains almost every fiber of the political system. Moreover, support for campaign finance restrictions is deeply divided along party lines, reflecting the polarization of our times. Ultimately, Primo and Milyo contend, American attitudes toward money in politics reflect larger fears about the health of American democracy, fears that will not be allayed by campaign finance reform.
Download or read book When Money Talks written by Derek Cressman and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2016-01-11 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “When money talks, democracy walks. Read this book to learn how We the People can take back our elections from the billionaires.” —Robert B. Reich, former U.S. Secretary of Labor and author of The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It Special-interest money is destroying our democratic process. And ever since the Citizens United decision threw out campaign spending limits abridgments of free speech, Americans want to know what they can do about it. Derek Cressman gives us the tools, both intellectual and tactical, to fight back. There’s nothing inherently unconstitutional in limiting the amount of speech, Cressman insists. We do it all the time—for example, cities control when and where demonstrations can take place or how long people can speak at council meetings. Moreover, he argues that while you choose to patronize Fox News, MSNBC, the New York Times, or the Wall Street Journal, political advertising is forced upon you. It’s not really free speech at all—it’s paid speech. It’s not at all what the Founders had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment. Cressman examines how courts have foiled attempts to limit campaign spending, details what a constitutional amendment limiting paid speech should say, and reveals an overlooked political tool that concerned citizens can use to help gain the amendment’s passage. Seven times before in our history we have approved constitutional amendments to overturn wrongheaded rulings by the Supreme Court—and there’s no reason we can’t do it again.
Download or read book The Clean Money Revolution written by Joel Solomon and published by New Society Publishers. This book was released on 2018-09-04 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores how “clean money” is transforming capitalism by powering sustainable businesses that build social and financial equity and change the world. Part memoir of an inspiring thought-leader’s journey from presidential campaigner to multi-millionaire investor, part insider’s guide to the businesses that are remaking the world, and part table-pounding manifesto for innovative investors and entrepreneurs.
Download or read book Dual Justice written by Anthony Grasso and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2024-09-17 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A far-reaching examination of how America came to treat street and corporate crime so differently. While America incarcerates its most marginalized citizens at an unparalleled rate, the nation has never developed the capacity to consistently prosecute corporate wrongdoing. Dual Justice unearths the intertwined histories of these two phenomena and reveals that they constitute more than just modern hypocrisy. By examining the carceral and regulatory states’ evolutions from 1870 through today, Anthony Grasso shows that America’s divergent approaches to street and corporate crime share common, self-reinforcing origins. During the Progressive Era, scholars and lawmakers championed naturalized theories of human difference to justify instituting punitive measures for poor offenders and regulatory controls for corporate lawbreakers. These ideas laid the foundation for dual justice systems: criminal justice institutions harshly governing street crime and regulatory institutions governing corporate misconduct. Since then, criminal justice and regulatory institutions have developed in tandem to reinforce politically constructed understandings about who counts as a criminal. Grasso analyzes the intellectual history, policy debates, and state and federal institutional reforms that consolidated these ideas, along with their racial and class biases, into America’s legal system.
Download or read book The Scheme written by Senator Sheldon Whitehouse and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2023-10-10 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A damning investigation of dark money by a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee” (Kirkus Reviews) with a new preface on recent disclosures about efforts to influence the Court “There’s no senator I can think of who’s done more sleuthing to figure out the money trail in American politics, particularly as it affects the courts.”—Jane Mayer, author of the national bestseller Dark Money As the story of Supreme Court malfeasance and ethics violations repeatedly makes front-page news, the paperback version of The Scheme comes at a time of crisis for the American judiciary. Following his book Captured on corporate capture of regulatory and government agencies, and his years of experience as a prosecutor, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, whom Senator Elizabeth Warren calls a “a powerful voice in defending our American democracy against the relentless, pervasive—and often hidden—power of corporate special interests,” here turns his attention to the right-wing scheme to capture the United States Supreme Court. Whitehouse chronicles a hidden-money campaign using an armada of front groups, helped by the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision, employing the Federalist Society as an appointments turnstile, and with the same small handful of right-wing billionaires and corporations enticing the Senate to break rules, norms, and precedents to confirm wildly inappropriate nominees who would advance their anti-government agenda. Now available in an affordable paperback edition with a new preface addressing the Reverend Schenck disclosures about politicking the justices and Justice Thomas’s recently disclosed conflicts of interest, The Scheme offers what Kirkus Reviews calls “a maddening indictment of a corrupt and corrupted judiciary.”
Download or read book Who Wants to Run written by Andrew B. Hall and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2019-04-02 with total page 171 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The growing ideological gulf between Democrats and Republicans is one of the biggest issues in American politics today. Our legislatures, composed of members from two sharply disagreeing parties, are struggling to function as the founders intended them to. If we want to reduce the ideological gulf in our legislatures, we must first understand what has caused it to widen so much over the past forty years. Andrew B. Hall argues that we have missed one of the most important reasons for this ideological gulf: the increasing reluctance of moderate citizens to run for office. While political scientists, journalists, and pundits have largely focused on voters, worried that they may be too partisan, too uninformed to vote for moderate candidates, or simply too extreme in their own political views, Hall argues that our political system discourages moderate candidates from seeking office in the first place. Running for office has rarely been harder than it is in America today, and the costs dissuade moderates more than extremists. Candidates have to wage ceaseless campaigns, dialing for dollars for most of their waking hours while enduring relentless news and social media coverage. When moderate candidates are unwilling to run, voters do not even have the opportunity to send them to office. To understand what is wrong with our legislatures, then, we need to ask ourselves the question: who wants to run? If we want more moderate legislators, we need to make them a better job offer.
Download or read book Unleashed written by Frances Frei and published by Harvard Business Press. This book was released on 2020-06-02 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Unleashed is worth an afternoon of your time, whether or not you are already a leader. It is sparkily written and personal, drawing on the experiences of co-authors (and spouses) Frei and Morriss."— Financial Times Leadership isn't easy. It takes grit, courage, and vision, among other things, that can be hard to come by on your toughest days. When leaders and aspiring leaders seek out advice, they're often told to try harder. Dig deeper. Look in the mirror and own your natural-born strengths and fix any real or perceived career-limiting deficiencies. Frances Frei and Anne Morriss offer a different worldview. They argue that this popular leadership advice glosses over the most important thing you do as a leader: build others up. Leadership isn't about you. It's about how effective you are at empowering other people—and making sure this impact endures even in your absence. As Frei and Morriss show through inspiring stories from ancient Rome to present-day Silicon Valley, the origins of great leadership are found, paradoxically, not in worrying about your own status and advancement, but in the unrelenting focus on other people's potential. Unleashed provides radical advice for the practice of leadership today. Showing how the boldest, most effective leaders use a special combination of trust, love, and belonging to create an environment in which other people can excel, Frei and Morriss offer practical, battle-tested tools—based on their work with companies such as Uber, Riot Games, WeWork, and others—along with interviews and stories from their own personal experience, to make these ideas come alive. This book is your indispensable guide for unleashing greatness in other people . . . and, ultimately, in yourself. To learn more, please visit theleadersguide.com.
Download or read book Super PACs written by Louise I. Gerdes and published by Greenhaven Publishing LLC. This book was released on 2014-05-20 with total page 113 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The passage of Citizens United by the Supreme Court in 2010 sparked a renewed debate about campaign spending by large political action committees, or Super PACs. Its ruling said that it is okay for corporations and labor unions to spend as much as they want in advertising and other methods to convince people to vote for or against a candidate. This book provides a wide range of opinions on the issue. Includes primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives; eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others.
Download or read book A Wealth of Common Sense written by Ben Carlson and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-06-22 with total page 231 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A simple guide to a smarter strategy for the individual investor A Wealth of Common Sense sheds a refreshing light on investing, and shows you how a simplicity-based framework can lead to better investment decisions. The financial market is a complex system, but that doesn't mean it requires a complex strategy; in fact, this false premise is the driving force behind many investors' market "mistakes." Information is important, but understanding and perspective are the keys to better decision-making. This book describes the proper way to view the markets and your portfolio, and show you the simple strategies that make investing more profitable, less confusing, and less time-consuming. Without the burden of short-term performance benchmarks, individual investors have the advantage of focusing on the long view, and the freedom to construct the kind of portfolio that will serve their investment goals best. This book proves how complex strategies essentially waste these advantages, and provides an alternative game plan for those ready to simplify. Complexity is often used as a mechanism for talking investors into unnecessary purchases, when all most need is a deeper understanding of conventional options. This book explains which issues you actually should pay attention to, and which ones are simply used for an illusion of intelligence and control. Keep up with—or beat—professional money managers Exploit stock market volatility to your utmost advantage Learn where advisors and consultants fit into smart strategy Build a portfolio that makes sense for your particular situation You don't have to outsmart the market if you can simply outperform it. Cut through the confusion and noise and focus on what actually matters. A Wealth of Common Sense clears the air, and gives you the insight you need to become a smarter, more successful investor.
Download or read book ReQovery written by Katrina Vaillancourt and published by Katrina Vaillancourt & GreenSong Press. This book was released on 2024-07-03 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Unraveling QAnon: A Survivor’s Guide to Recovery Over the past two years, Katrina Vaillancourt shared her story of entry into and exit from the QAnon conspiracy community with me for a book on which I was working. Her account is brimming with curiosity, insight, and vulnerability. So many of us have stereotypes of people who follow QAnon and other conspiracy theories, and we forget the very human reasons that people turn in this direction, which offers equally human strategies to bring them back. Through her radical openness, Katrina opens a door for those curious enough to listen instead of judging. Her message can help many." ~ Jamil Zaki, Stanford Professor of Psychology and author of War for Kindness and Hope for Cynics In the throes of the 2020 pandemic, Katrina Vaillancourt, a dedicated Bernie Sanders supporter and seasoned Nonviolent Communication trainer, found herself unexpectedly spiraling down the rabbit hole of QAnon. "ReQovery: How I Tumbled Down the QAnon Rabbit Hole and Climbed Out" is her candid, vulnerable account of the six tumultuous months she spent ensnared by the "Pastel Q" phenomenon—a journey marked by shock, elation, deep disillusionment, and ultimately recovery. Navigating through intense emotional highs and devastating lows, Katrina's story is not just about the allure of a conspiracy that captivated millions worldwide, but also about the profound psychological toll it takes. With the world turned upside down by a global crisis, she delves into how sophisticated social media algorithms exploit our deepest fears and desires, creating echo chambers that reinforce extreme ideologies. Through her expertise in Nonviolent Communication, Katrina offers a rare glimpse into the subtle yet powerful ways our everyday interactions can either fuel division or foster understanding. "ReQovery"goes beyond a personal saga— it is a crucial guide laden with insights into dismantling the psychological traps set by movements like QAnon and reclaiming a sense of reality grounded in present-moment truths. This book is an indispensable resource for anyone struggling to understand a loved one lost to QAnon, providing not just context but also hope and practical solutions for bridging seemingly insurmountable ideological divides. Join Katrina on her journey back to rationality, equipped with empathy, clarity, and a heartfelt roadmap for healing. Topics Thoroughly Covered in ReQovery: • How could anyone intelligent fall into QAnon? • How on earth could a Bernie supporter flip to supporting Trump? • How did she get out? • What did other’s do that helped her come around? • What were the turning points that helped her question QAnon? And so much more ReQovery is a must-read for anyone personally touched by or studying the challenges of misinformation and ideological extremism dividing our nation and harming the mental health of our people. As a scholar deeply committed to engaging our differences together in deliberation rooted in the fundamental American values we share, I find Katrina’s path to be a powerful call to embrace our shared humanity. ~ Barbara A. McGraw, JD, PhD, professor of social ethics, law, public life and politics; author of Rediscovering America’s Sacred Ground: Public Religion and Pursuit of the Good in a Pluralistic America. As a certified Nonviolent Communication trainer for over two decades, and a mediator before that, I struggled when two dear friends fell into QAnon in 2020. I had tried everything and still these relationships were suffering. When Katrina reached out to me for support during her recovery, our conversations provided mutual benefit. I offered her empathy, and she gave me insights into QAnon that I couldn't have gained otherwise. This education helped me rebuild and maintain close friendships with those holding different worldviews than my own. May the wisdom of Katrina’s personal experience of recovery, as shared in this book, be a beacon of light for all who are seeking to restore relational bonds in the wake of QAnon. ~ Jim Manske, Nonviolent Communication assessor, trainer & mediator As an expert in neuroscience, trauma, and Compassionate Communication, I believe Katrina’s story is essential to creating compassion and connection across political divides, especially divisions caused by QAnon. ~ Sarah Peyton, certified NVC trainer, founder of Resonance Healing, author of The Antiracist Heart
Download or read book Unleashed in Oregon written by Sue Fagalde Lick and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-28 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is a Californigonian? What was waiting by the door that night? What possessed us to adopt two puppies at once? How is playing the piano like ice skating? Why stay in Oregon when it rains all the time and the family is still back in California? Find the answers to these and other questions in these posts selected from ten years of the Unleashed in Oregon blog. Chapters will look at the glamorous life of a writer and the equally glamorous life of a musician, true stories from a whiny traveler, being the sole human occupant of a house in the woods, and dogs, so much about dogs.
Download or read book Monkey Business written by Leslie Margolis and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-09-23 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Annabelle Stevens is back in the fifth book of the popular Annabelle Unleashed series and this time she means business.
Download or read book Unleashed written by Sara Humphreys and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2011 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the race of shapeshifters, who live secretly among humans, endangered by outside forces, Malcolm searches for a mate and finds her in Samantha, who doesn't know who she really is.
Download or read book Refinery Town written by Steve Early and published by Beacon Press. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The People vs. Big Oil—how a working-class company town harnessed the power of local politics to reclaim their community With a foreword by Bernie Sanders Home to one of the largest oil refineries in the state, Richmond, California, was once a typical company town, dominated by Chevron. This largely nonwhite, working-class city of 100,000 suffered from poverty, pollution, and poorly funded public services. It had one of the highest homicide rates per capita in the country and a jobless rate twice the national average. But when veteran labor reporter Steve Early moved from New England to Richmond in 2012, he discovered a city struggling to remake itself. In Refinery Town, Early chronicles the 15 years of successful community organizing that raised the local minimum wage, defeated a casino development project, challenged home foreclosures and evictions, and sought fair taxation of Big Oil. A short list of Richmond’s activist residents helps to propel this compelling chronicle: • 94 year old Betty Reid Soskin, the country’s oldest full-time national park ranger and witness to Richmond’s complex history • Gayle McLaughlin, the Green Party mayor who challenged Chevron and won • Police Chief Chris Magnus, who brought community policing to Richmond and is now one of America’s leading public safety reformers Part urban history, part call to action, Refinery Town shows how concerned citizens can harness the power of local politics to reclaim their community and make municipal government a source of much-needed policy innovation. “Refinery Town provides an inside look at how one American city has made radical and progressive change seem not only possible but sensible.”—David Helvarg, The Progressive
Download or read book American Society written by Daniel W. Rossides and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 1993 with total page 712 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text invites students to pursue a career in sociology, entices others to consider advanced courses, and yet serves those who will take but one sociology course. This basic textbook for Introduction to Sociology can also serve well in courses in American Society.
