A permanent political class has emerged on a scale unprecedented in our nation 's history. Its self-dealing, nepotism, and corruption contribute to rising inequality. Its reach extends from the governing elite throughout nongovernmental institutions. Aside from constituting an oligarchy of prestige and power, it enables the creation of an aristocracy of massive inherited wealth that is accumulating immense political power. In a muckraking tour de force reminiscent of Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, and C. Wright Mills, American Oligarchy demonstrates the way the corrupt culture of the permanent political class extends down to the state and local level. Ron Formisano breaks down the ways this class creates economic inequality and how its own endemic corruption infects our entire society. Formisano delves into the work of not just politicians but lobbyists, consultants, appointed bureaucrats, pollsters, celebrity journalists, behind-the-scenes billionaires, and others. Their shameless pursuit of wealth and self-aggrandizement, often at taxpayer expense, rewards channeling the flow of income and wealth to elites. That inequality in turn has choked off social mobility and made a joke of meritocracy. As Formisano shows, these forces respond to the oligarchy 's power and compete to bask in the presence of the .01 percent. They also exacerbate the dangerous instability of an American democracy divided between extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
Investigative reporter Clay "call me Thorne" Hawthorne takes on the multi-billion-dollar industry of human trafficking that steals for profit the freedom of millions of victims. In Kentucky arrests of restaurant and other business owners using forced labor in inhumane conditions are common. But Thorne wants to expose the bigger business of sex trafficking that coerces hundreds of women and girls into a modern form of slavery. His inquiries lead him into conflict with a racist motorcycle gang as he focuses on erotic massage parlors, over ten thousand in the U.S. and hundreds in Kentucky. Thorne discovers that voluntary and involuntary prostitution, from high-class escort services to local rings in small towns to the strings of massage parlors, is "hiding in plain sight." But exposing the extensive criminal networks that operate strings of parlors proves difficult and dangerous. He enlists the reluctant help of a former escort, a beautiful, mysterious woman with a past she wants to forget. Meanwhile, white nationalist militias and Nazis are recruiting in Kentucky and prompted by their deluded conspiracy theories, have targeted his newspaper, the Bluegrass Herald as an enemy of white supremacy.
A permanent political class has emerged on a scale unprecedented in our nation 's history. Its self-dealing, nepotism, and corruption contribute to rising inequality. Its reach extends from the governing elite throughout nongovernmental institutions. Aside from constituting an oligarchy of prestige and power, it enables the creation of an aristocracy of massive inherited wealth that is accumulating immense political power. In a muckraking tour de force reminiscent of Lincoln Steffens, Upton Sinclair, and C. Wright Mills, American Oligarchy demonstrates the way the corrupt culture of the permanent political class extends down to the state and local level. Ron Formisano breaks down the ways this class creates economic inequality and how its own endemic corruption infects our entire society. Formisano delves into the work of not just politicians but lobbyists, consultants, appointed bureaucrats, pollsters, celebrity journalists, behind-the-scenes billionaires, and others. Their shameless pursuit of wealth and self-aggrandizement, often at taxpayer expense, rewards channeling the flow of income and wealth to elites. That inequality in turn has choked off social mobility and made a joke of meritocracy. As Formisano shows, these forces respond to the oligarchy 's power and compete to bask in the presence of the .01 percent. They also exacerbate the dangerous instability of an American democracy divided between extreme wealth and extreme poverty.
Solutions for a Dangerous Environment We live in a perilous world, a dangerous environment. Watch television news or read your daily newspaper and you are subjected to a daily diet of robberies, rapes, riots, murders, fires, earthquakes, floods and famines. Do you find yourself becoming disturbed by what is happening around you? Do you feel helpless, unable to control these events? Do you even sometimes feel afraid? In this booklet, L. Ron Hubbard dissects this phenomenon of the dangerous environment, providing methods that will not only help you overcome your fears, but allow you to help others. Applied on a broad scale, this information brings about an enormous calming influence and enables people to lead happier lives. Used on an individual scale--by you--it will enhance the lives of your family, friends and associates. * Do you find yourself getting anxious over world conditions? * Do you feel helpless, unable to control these events? * Do you even sometimes feel afraid? For the solutions and answers to these situations, buy and read this booklet.
Ethics and the Conditions Man has long found ethics to be a confusing subject. In recent decades it has become more so. How does a person know if what he is doing is right or wrong? When he sees dishonest men hold power, criminals go free and traditional values cast aside, maybe he feels he should take the easy way out. “Others cheat on their taxes, why shouldn't I?” “Other kids shoplift, what's the harm?” But, regardless of anything else, a person has to live with himself. With many pressures pushing and pulling at a person, how can he be sure his choices will be best for himself, his family and every aspect of his life and his future? L. Ron Hubbard achieved a remarkable breakthrough in the field of ethics which included not only simplification and codification of the subject, but development of a workable technology with applicability to our daily lives, one which brings about increased happiness, prosperity and survival. * Do you leave your future up to fate? * Do you feel like your success or failure in life is just a matter of luck? * Feeling helpless about improving your lot in life? For the solutions and answers to these situations, buy and read this booklet.
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