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  Seeds of Terror - How Heroin Is...

  Gretchen Peters

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  Most Americans think of the Taliban and al-Qaeda as a bunch of bearded fanatics fighting an Islamic crusade from caves in Afghanistan. But that doesn't explain their astonishing comeback along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. Why is it that eight years after we invaded Afghanistan, the CIA says that these groups are better armed and better funded than ever?Seeds of Terror will reshape the way you think about America's enemies, revealing them less as ideologues and more as criminals who earn half a billion dollars every year off the opium trade. With the breakneck pace of a thriller, author Gretchen Peters traces their illicit activities from vast poppy fields in southern Afghanistan to heroin labs run by Taliban commanders, from drug convoys armed with Stinger missiles to the money launderers of Karachi and Dubai.This isn't a fanciful conspiracy theory. Seeds of Terror is based on hundreds of interviews with Taliban fighters, smugglers, and law enforcement and intelligence agents. Their information is matched by intelligence reports shown to the author by frustrated U.S. officials who fear the next 9/11 will be far deadlier than the first-and paid for with drug profits.Seeds of Terror makes the case that we must cut terrorists off from their drug earnings if we ever hope to beat them. This war isn't about ideology or religion. It's about creating a new economy for Afghanistan-and breaking the cycle of violence and extremism that has gripped the region for decades.

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  Uncivil War An - Taking Back Our...

  Greg Sargent

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  The author of the Washington Post's hugely influential "Plum Line" sounds the alarm on the subversion of our democracy by self-interested politicians, greedy plutocrats, foreign government hacking, racial prejudice, media propaganda and our own lack of vigilance, and what must be done to save it before it's too late. 
  The sophistication and ambition of those now eroding American democracy by gaming the rules in their favor is unprecedented, including computer-generated gerrymandering, unreasonable voter ID laws, limitations on voting hours, a lack of convenient polling places, and efforts to disenfranchise likely Democratic voters. This has been accompanied by foreign government intervention and an unprecedented level of political disinformation that threatens to undermine the very possibility of shared agreement on facts and poses profound new challenges to the media's ability to inform the citizenry. 
  Yet it would be wrong to think that the problem is that Republicans alone have learned how to work the system—our electoral process is undermining itself from within: its dysfunctional rules incentivize vicious partisan efforts to tilt the playing field, combining in a toxic escalation of polarization and a frightening corrosion of basic norms that threaten to totally eradicate fair play in politics. 
  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.

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  American Politics - A Very Short...

  Richard M. Valelly

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  American politics seems to grow more contentious and complicated by the day, and whether American democracy works well is hotly debated. Amidst all this roiling partisan argument and confusing claims and counterclaims, there has never been a greater need for an impartial primer on the basics of the American political system. 
  This Very Short Introduction gives listeners a concise, accessible, and sophisticated overview of the vital elements of American democracy, emphasizing both how these elements function, their historical origins, and how they have evolved into their present forms. Richard Valelly covers all facets of America's political system: the bicameral Congress and the place of the filibuster, the legislative-executive process, the role of the Supreme Court, political parties and democratic choice, bureaucracy, the partisan revival, and the political economy. He offers as well an original analysis of the evolution of the American presidency and a fascinating chapter on the effects of public polling on political decision-making and voter representation. Valelly shows that the American political system is, and always has been, very much a work in progress—unfolding within, and also constantly updating, an eighteenth-century constitutional framework. In a refreshingly balanced and judicious assessment, he explores the strengths of American democracy while candidly acknowledging both gaps in representation and the increasing income inequality have sparked protest and intense public discussion. Finally, Valelly considers the remarkable persistence, for more than two centuries, of the basic constitutional forms established in 1787, despite the dramatic social changes that have reshaped virtually all aspects of American life. 
  For anyone wishing to understand the nuts and bolts of how our political system works—and sometimes fails to work—this Very Short Introduction is the very best place to start.

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  Stalin and the Bomb

  David Holloway

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  The classic and “utterly engrossing” study of Stalin’s pursuit of a nuclear bomb during the Cold War by the renowned political scientist and historian (Foreign Affairs).For forty years the U.S.-Russian nuclear arms race dominated world politics, yet the Soviet nuclear establishment was shrouded in secrecy. Then, shortly after the collapse of the Soviet Union, David Holloway pulled back the Iron Curtain with his “marvelous, groundbreaking study” Stalin and the Bomb (The New Yorker).How did the Soviet Union build its atomic and hydrogen bombs? What role did espionage play? How did the American atomic monopoly affect Stalin's foreign policy? What was the relationship between Soviet nuclear scientists and the country's political leaders? David Holloway  answers these questions by tracing the dramatic story of Soviet nuclear policy from developments in physics in the 1920s to the testing of the hydrogen bomb and the emergence of nuclear deterrence in the mid-1950s. This magisterial history throws light on Soviet policy at the height of the Cold War, illuminates a central element of the Stalinist system, and puts into perspective the tragic legacy of this program―environmental damage, a vast network of institutes and factories, and a huge stockpile of unwanted weapons.

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  Stealing America - What My...

  Dinesh D'Souza

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  #1 New York Times–bestselling Author: Why Hillary, Obama, and the entire Democratic Party are no better than a gang of thieves. 
   
  In the fall of 2014, outspoken author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza found himself hauled into federal court for improperly donating money to an old friend’s Senate campaign. D’Souza pleaded guilty and was sentenced to eight months in a state-run confinement center. There he lived among hardened criminals—drug dealers, thieves, gangbangers, rapists, and murderers. Now the bestselling author explains how this experience not only changed his life, but fundamentally transformed his view of his adopted country. 
   
  Previously, D’Souza had seen America through the eyes of a grateful immigrant who became successful by applying and defending conservative principles. Again and again, D’Souza made the case that America is an exceptional nation, fundamentally fair and just. In book after book, he argued against liberalism as though it were a genuine movement of ideas capable of being engaged and refuted. 
   
  But his prolonged exposure to the criminal underclass provided an eye-opening education in American realities. In the view of hardened criminals, D’Souza learned, America is anything but fair and just. Instead, it is a jungle in which various armed gangs face off against one another, with the biggest and most powerful gangs inhabiting the federal government. As for American liberalism, it is not a movement of ideas at all but a series of scams and cons aimed at nothing less than stealing the entire wealth of the nation, built up over more than two centuries: the total value of the homes, the lifelong savings of the people, the assets of every industry, and all the funds allocated to health and education and every other service, both public and private. “The thieves I am speaking about want all of it.” 
   
  And who are the leading figures in this historically ambitious scam that has turned the federal government into a vast and unprecedented shakedown scheme? Why, none other than Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. This pair of smooth-talking con artists, trained in the methods of radical activist Saul Alinsky, have taken his crude but effective political shakedown techniques to a level even he never dreamed of. Stealing America is an urgent wakeup call for all Americans who want to prevent this theft from being completed.

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  Practise the Great Habit of...

  Andrew Richardson

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  This breakthrough programme is for all who wish to acquire practice tools that will minimise stress and enhance their ability to think and act clearly.Are you stressed too much of the time and on edge? Relaxation can be practiced so you find it easier to achieve, like playing the piano or learning tennis. This Relax kit gives you tools to help you do this. And so you must try them all out and see which works for you when. You can keep using them whenever you wish and as part of a regular wellbeing self help programme.There are seven audios in this Conscious Relaxation programme:R1 Introduction (7 mins)R1 sets the scene and explains why relaxation practice is so beneficial.R2 Three Techniques (10 mins)R2 teaches three simple relaxation techniques for you to practice so they are there for you, when you need to be calmer in real life situations.R3 Priming (8 mins)R3 is short but will extend your capacity to achieve a more relaxed state in your day to day lives.R4 Anchoring (9 mins)R4 teaches a method that connects calm feelings to the physical.R5 Progressive Muscle Relaxation (12 mins)R5 is slightly longer body scan practice – a classic of its type (12 mins)R6 Breathing Meditation (16 mins)R6 is designed to enhance your capacity to breathe in a relaxing way whenever you need to.R7 Anxiety Control (21 mins)R7 focuses on anxious feelings and how to use them and control them in the right kind of way.Email access to Andrew RichardsonI want to hear how you have got on with Conscious Relaxation and be available for you with advice, mentoring and if needed personalised one on one help – so you can truly recover and find the optimism and energy that is your birthright.

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