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  Waco Rising - David Koresh the...

  Kevin Cook

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  In 1993, David Koresh and a band of heavily armed evangelical Christians took on the might of the US government. A two-month siege of their compound in Waco, Texas, ended in a firefight that killed seventy-six, including twenty-five children. America is still picking up the pieces, and we still haven't heard the full story. 
   
   
   
  Kevin Cook finally provides the full story of what happened at Waco. He gives listeners a taste of Koresh's deadly charisma and takes us behind the scenes at the Branch Davidians' compound, where "the new Christ" turned his followers into servants and sired seventeen children by a dozen "wives." In vivid accounts packed with human drama, Cook harnesses never-reported material to reconstruct the FBI's fifty-one-day siege of the Waco compound in minute-to-minute detail. He sheds new light on the Clinton administration's approval of a lethal governmental assault in a new, definitive account of the firefight that ended so many lives and triggered the rise of today's militia movement. Waco drew the battle lines for American extremists—in Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh's words, "Waco started this war." With help from sources as diverse as Branch Davidian survivors and the FBI's lead negotiator during the siege, Cook draws a straight line from Waco's ashes to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and insurrections yet to come.

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  1984 Nomination Acceptance Address

  Ronald Reagan

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  On August 23, 1984, at the Dallas Convention Center, Reagan accepts the presidential nomination of the Republican party. Reagan reminds Democrats of the high inflation and interest rates when he took office in 1980 and claims Democrats “never met a tax they didn't like or hike.”  
  In 1981 “we started a policy of tightening the Federal budget instead of the family budget.” Reagan cites an improved “misery index” (the total of the inflation and unemployment rates) and improved poverty levels.  
  “In the 4 years before we took office, country after country fell under the Soviet yoke. Since January 20th, 1981, not 1 inch of soil has fallen to the Communists.” (long applause)  
  America is “more confident than ever” with “the strongest economic growth” and “the fastest rate of job creation”.  
  We support NATO, Israel, and free Latin American States that “struggle to prevent Communist takeovers fueled massively by the Soviet Union and Cuba.” We rescued “American students on the imprisoned island of Grenada.” 
  We oppose deficits, and support a balanced budget amendment, the line-item veto, tuition tax credits, enterprise zones, and lower taxes. There is no room for anti-Semitism or bigotry in the party of Lincoln. 
  With America at peace, “we’re in the midst of a springtime of hope” and see America as “a shining city on a hill.” We look forward to “the Olympic Games here in the United States” and marvel “at the journey of the Olympic torch” across our country. 
  Audio recording courtesy of the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.  
  AspenLeafMedia.com

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  Money Parties and Democracy -...

  Zim Nwokora, matteo Bonotti

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  Democratic politics is expensive. In US presidential elections, for instance, total spending now exceeds $6.5 billion. In the US, election campaigns are largely funded by private donations from individuals and corporate entities, whereas in Germany, the state is the main funder of electoral politics through subventions to parties. In some other countries, parties have been able to raise most of what they need internally by charging membership dues or, more exceptionally, by relying on a wealthy patron. However, there have been numerous scandals and controversies involving political finance, which pose a serious challenge to fundamental democratic principles.Matteo Bonotti and Zim Nwokora analyze the nature of these democratic risks and how they differ across various models of political finance. They argue that political finance rules ought to counterbalance the weaknesses of the party system they are being used alongside. To do so, political finance rules and party systems should be assessed together, in terms of three distinctive normative dimensions—collegiality, systemic voice, and systemic accountability—which capture what parties, at their best, can contribute to democratic politics. Money, Parties, and Democracy sets out a framework for evaluating political finance systems so that they can be designed or reformed to better support good governance.

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  The Betrayal - How Mitch...

  Ari Shapiro

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  In two previous highly regarded books on the US Senate, Ira Shapiro chronicled the institution from its apogee in the 1970s through its decline in the decades since. Now, Shapiro turns his gaze to how the Senate responded to the challenges posed by the Trump administration and its prospects under President Biden. The Founding Fathers gave the US Senate many functions, but it had one fundamental responsibility—its raison d'etre: to provide the check against a dangerous president who threatened our democracy. Two hundred and thirty years later, when Donald Trump, a potential authoritarian, finally reached the White House, the Senate should have served as both America's first and last lines of defense. Instead, we had the nightmare scenario: today's Senate, reduced through a long period of decline to a hyper-partisan, gridlocked shadow of its former self, was unable to meet its fundamental responsibility. Shapiro documents the pivotal challenges facing the Senate during the Trump administration, arguing that the body's failure to provide leadership represents the most catastrophic failure of government in American history. The last section covers the Senate's performance during President Biden's first year in office and looks forward to the 2022 Senate elections and beyond.

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  United Nation - The case for...

  Frank Connolly

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  One hundred years after the Anglo-Irish Treaty and partition, after thirty years of Troubles, the Good Friday Agreement and Brexit, the debate on Irish unity has intensified. But what could a united country look like and what would it mean for people north and south of the border?
  Considering health, education, the economy, cultural identity and the arts, constitutional change and international relations, award-winning journalist Frank Connolly asks whether a united Ireland could create a viable, vibrant new country.
  With contributions from President Michael D. Higgins, Paula Meehan, David McWilliams, Linda Ervine, Christy Moore, Mary Lou McDonald, Ian Marshall and Brian Keenan, United Nation is a timely look at the case for integrating Ireland.

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  Why the Nineties Matter

  Terry H. Anderson

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  In Why the Nineties Matter, Terry Anderson provides a broad-ranging history of America in that decade. Not simply a chronological account, the book focuses on key trends that either began or gained steam then and which have had lasting effects until this day. Threading together politics, economic transformations, and sociocultural trends, he focuses on what mattered most in retrospect. Violent and extremist white nationalism intensified greatly in that decade, evidenced by the Oklahoma City bombing and the rise of the militia movement. The defection of the white working class from the Democratic Party began then as the Democrats expanded free trade and tried to cultivate professional-class Americans. Racial and gender politics transformed, birthing new movements that would grow in influence in the next century. Social media first emerged in the 1990s too, and its impact on all aspects of life cannot be underestimated. In foreign policy, America's long wars in the Middle East and Afghanistan have roots in US policies in the 1990s. And the current standoff between the US and Russia traces back to disagreements over NATO expansion a quarter century ago. 
   
   
   
  A pithy interpretive history of a decade that matters more than most think, this book will be an essential guide to anyone trying to understand that era.

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