In what has been described as ''the crime wave no one talks about,'' billions of dollars worth of wages are stolen from millions of workers in the United States every year - a grand theft that exceeds every other larceny category on record annually. Between two and three million workers are paid less than the legal minimum wage. More than three million are misclassified by their employers as independent contractors when they are really employees, allowing employers to shirk their share of payroll taxes and illegally deny workers overtime pay. Even the Economic Policy Foundation, a business-funded think tank, estimated that companies annually steal $19 billion in unpaid overtime. Nationally recognized labor activist Kim Bobo's Wage Theft in America is an incisive handbook for activists, organizers, workers, and concerned citizens on how to prevent the flagrant exploitation of America's working people. Bobo offers a sweeping analysis of the crisis, citing hard-hitting statistics and heartbreaking first-person accounts of exploitation at the hands of employers. She then offers concrete solutions, with special attention to what a new presidential administration can do to address one of the gravest issues facing workers in the twenty-first century.
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 – the current leaders of the Democratic Party. 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. As the nation approaches a crucial election in 2016, Stealing America is an urgent wakeup call for all Americans who want to prevent this theft from being completed by eight more years of Democratic rule.
A few years ago, MySpace.com was just an idea kicking around a Southern California spam mill. Scroll down to the present day and MySpace is one of the most visited Internet destinations in America, displaying more than 40 billion webpage views per month and generating nearly $1 billion annually for Rupert Murdoch’s online empire. Even by the standards of the Internet age, the MySpace saga is an astounding growth story, which climaxed with the site’s acquisition by Murdoch’s News Corporation in 2005 for a sum approaching one billion dollars. But more than that, it may be the defining drama of the digital era. In Stealing MySpace, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Julia Angwin chronicles the rise of this Internet powerhouse. With an unerring eye, Angwin details how MySpace took the Internet by storm by grabbing the best ideas from around the Web, encouraging pinup stars such as Tila Tequila to make their home on its pages and giving everyone freedom to experiment with online identities–including using somebody else’s identity. Stealing MySpace introduces us to the site’s founders, Chris DeWolfe and Tom Anderson, who dabbled in computer hacking, online pornography, spam, and spyware before starting MySpace. Although their street savvy, doggedness, and clubbing skills far eclipsed their tech prowess, they stumbled their way to success and soon found themselves at ground zero of a high-stakes war that pitted Rupert Murdoch against his frequent nemesis, the combative Viacom CEO Sumner Redstone. Angwin sheds light on the dizzying backroom deals that allowed Murdoch to snatch MySpace from Viacom’s grasp even as the MySpace founders remained in the dark about their own fate. Then she takes us inside the Murdoch empire as DeWolfe and Anderson lobby furiously to regain control of their creation. Venturing beyond the business aspects of the story, Angwin also explores the Internet culture, a voyeuristic world in which MySpace must stay one step ahead of amateur pornographers, sexual predators, and “spoofers” who set up fake profiles (Rupert Murdoch himself tolerates dozens of phony “Ruperts” on the site) and cope with the general excesses and sometimes illegal acts of a community of account holders equal in number to the population of Japan. In Stealing MySpace, Julia Angwin dishes on the epic real-world battle for control of a virtual empire. In a savvy, smart, fast-paced narrative reminiscent of Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s Barbarians at the Gate and Michael Lewis’s The New New Thing, Stealing MySpace tells is the whole gripping story behind a breakout cultural phenomenon.
"Insider trading, pork-barrel projects, and corrupt politicians may all sound contemporary, but, as Nathan Miller shows in this romp through the underbelly of history, larceny and greed crossed the ocean with smallpox, prospered in the New World, and have become the bedrock of American politics. In colonial New York and Charleston, governors extended open hands to pirates that were gladly filled in exchange for a safe haven to unload booty. The Revolutionary War was fought by ill-equipped and hungry soldiers freezing on battlefields like Valley Forge while merchants and speculators sat down to sumptuous 169-dish dinners in Philadelphia, their warehouses full of supplies they sold at 2,000 percent markups. Even George Washington amassed one of the largest fortunes in America through highly dubious land speculation practices." "This thievery continued through the nineteenth century with land swindles and railroad giveaways that ripped off both Native Americans and settlers; with the great robber barons, men like Cornelius Vanderbilt who made nine million during the Civil War outfitting completely unseaworthy vessels for huge profits; and with New York's Boss Tweed and his Forty Thieves. Casting his seasoned eye over this century's boondoggles, Nathan Miller uncovers the scams of Harding and the Teapot Dome in the twenties, the New Deal, World War II, and the Cold War. With Iran-Contra, HUD, and the Savings and Loan debacle in tow, the Reagan-Bush legacy follows in grand tradition. It promises to be remembered as one of the greatest eras of free-for-all plunder of the nation's coffers and threatens to put to shame, in terms of dollars pocketed, the money-grabbing greed of its illustrious predecessors. Stealing from America shows that greed, more so than notions of democracy and freedom, has been the fuel on which the engine of American government runs."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Stealing America's Future makes a comparison of today's America to late 19th Century Europe using two rare books, The Conventional Lies of our Civilization by Nordau, describing Europe's elitist leadership, and The Soviets at Work by Lenin, outlining the Russian Revolution as it took place. Not a part of the discussion of history, both provide frightening detail about the nuances of the geopolitics of Europe, circa 1900, that relate to today's America. Using heartwarming family stories, humorous anecdotes, incisive criticism, and cold factual analysis, it describes how progressive liberalism, with its attempts at social engineering and excessive permissiveness, has brought social and economic disaster to America. David Letterman relating to Sarah Palin "I fear he sees her as more man than he will ever be and more woman than he will ever get." Bill Maher relating to Michelle Obama ..".my only conclusion about Maher is that he is just another angry little bully who is fearful of powerful women..." Is it time to separate the North American Continent into a federation of smaller component nations better reflecting the economics and ethos of these individual component nations, yet having our common defense as the only connection or do we need to get back to the Constitution our founders gave to us? Raised in a poor farm family in Pawnee County, Nebraska, Dr. Steiner had the ethics of hard work and family values as his primary guide post to succeed. Working his way through college and graduating from the University of Nebraska in 1973, he located his dental practice in an economically impacted area of Omaha, Nebraska where he also worked in a public health clinic, developing insights with regard to what motivates people. He is a pilot and an accomplished martial artist, attaining several black belts. He was featured in a Sun-Up Interview by the Omaha World Herald's, Robert McMorris, and was also featured in an interview by William Rush in the League of Human Dignity paper, where Sensei Steiner outlined his martial arts training strategies for handicapped persons. He was called by Charles Kuralt to panel a discussion of the Gulf Crisis for CBS News before the Gulf War.
“Dray captures the genius and ingenuity of Franklin’s scientific thinking and then does something even more fascinating: He shows how science shaped his diplomacy, politics, and Enlightenment philosophy.” –Walter Isaacson, author of Benjamin Franklin: An American Life Today we think of Benjamin Franklin as a founder of American independence who also dabbled in science. But in Franklin’s day, the era of Enlightenment, long before he was an eminent statesman, he was famous for his revolutionary scientific work. Pulitzer Prize finalist Philip Dray uses the evolution of Franklin’s scientific curiosity and empirical thinking as a metaphor for America’s struggle to establish its fundamental values. He recounts how Franklin unlocked one of the greatest natural mysteries of his day, the seemingly unknowable powers of lightning and electricity. Rich in historical detail and based on numerous primary sources, Stealing God’s Thunder is a fascinating original look at one of our most beloved and complex founding fathers.
This “provocative and profoundly disturbing” history of US election rigging “details political corruption reaching to the highest levels of government” (Skeptic Files). This book is the culmination of a twenty-five-year investigation into computerized vote fraud in the United States. Journalists James and Kenneth Collier pose the question, “Why can’t we vote the bastards out?” Their answer: “Because we didn’t even vote the bastards in.” Votescam fills in the blanks for anyone who senses that their ballot is worthless, but does not know why. It tracks down, confronts, and calls the names of Establishment thieves who silently steal votes for their own profit. It comes face-to-face with the Supreme Court justice who buried key vote fraud evidence; the most powerful female publisher in America, who refused to permit her newspapers and television stations to expose vote rigging; the Attorney General who jailed Jim Collier to avoid an investigation into vote fraud; and a cast of weak-kneed, corrupt politicians, lawyers, and members of the media entangled in a massive crime, but who have yet to be held accountable. First published in 1992, this groundbreaking exposé has been updated by journalist Victoria Collier, daughter and niece, respectively, of the late James and Kenneth Collier, and editor of Votescam.org, to reflect modern threats to American democracy. As computers grow ever more powerful, the need to read Votescam is increasingly urgent.
John Fund explores the real divide the country faces with the looming election. Through wary thoughts on voting integrity, he shows how eletions can be decided by the votes of dead people, illegal felon voters, and absentee voters that simply don't exist. If nothing is done to address the growing cynicism about vote counting, rest assured that another close presidential election that descends into bitter partisan wrangling is just around the corner.
This book is the culmination of a twenty five year investigation into computer vote fraud in America. Journalists James and Kenneth Collier answer the question, "Why can't we vote the bastards out?" The answer is, "Because we didn't even vote the bastards in." "Votescam" will fill in the blanks for anyone who senses their vote is worthless, but doesn't know why. It tracks down, confronts, and calls the names of Establishment thieves who elegantly steal the American vote for their own profit. It comes face to face with the Supreme Court Justice who buried the key vote fraud evidence; the most powerful female publisher in America who won't permit her newspapers and television stations to expose vote rigging; the Attorney General who jailed Jim Collier to avoid ordering an investigation into vote fraud; and a cast of weakkneed and corruptible politicians, lawyers, and newspeople who are entangled in a massive crime and are yet to be held accountable. The Collier's wish was that this book be used as evidence in a Congressional hearing. It's not too late to make that happen. This 20th anniversary edition includes a 2012 update by Victoria Collier.
KIRKUS REVIEW Debut author Cacho-Negrete identifies the trends in American life that shaped her in this debut collection of personal essays. "I remain an immigrant, poverty my country of origin." So writes Cacho-Negrete early in this volume. Raised by an immigrant Jewish mother in Brooklyn during the 1950s and '60s, the author was a self-described "street kid"-one of a large demographic of latchkey children without much supervision or access to opportunity-who transcended her lot in life via education and a little luck. In the first essay, "Stealing," the author recounts the two periods of her life when she routinely shoplifted goods from stores: as a street kid to help feed her impoverished family and again as a divorced mother of two who found herself struggling to stay afloat in her tony suburb. In "The Season of My Grandfather," she writes about her interactions with her mother's estranged father, whom she met as a girl, sent by her mother to pick up payments for an outstanding debt. Not every essay is so dire, however. "Hair" recounts Cacho-Negrete's struggle to accept her curly hair as a teenager when it did not conform with mainstream conceptions of beauty. "On the Fire Escape" describes how that particular architectural feature, so associated with New York, played a role at various points throughout the author's life. Cacho-Negrete writes with a sharp, confident prose that evokes her settings with hyperreal clarity: "We lived in tenements that leaned against each other for protection, their plastic-covered windows blind eyes in winter that popped open in spring to spy into each other's apartments. The hallways stunk from piss, pot, cheap perfume, cigarettes." The essays serve as a sort of fractured memoir, one that seeks to underline the iniquities inherent to the American experience. Even this political angle, however, is a piece of supporting information that adds to the autobiography. These are the foundational stories of Cacho-Negrete. They explain why she thinks the way she does. Whether or not the reader comes away thinking the same things, this brief residence in the author's head is illuminating. A pointed, energetic collection of personal essays. (Kirkus Reviews) "In this beautifully crafted, incisive collection, readers will admire Michelle Cacho Negrete's determination and fierce desire to transcend her early Brooklyn ghetto roots--particularly her sense of herself as a displaced outsider. What's also impressive about Stealing is not only how candid and open the author is, but how vividly she describes this complex human struggle." (Michael Steinberg -Author, Still Pitching) "Michelle writes with grace and clear-eyed, unsentimental vision." Sy Safransky, Editor, Sun Magazine) "Cacho-Negrete champions the poor, the marginalized...Throughout this profound, compelling collection, she preserves the vanishing past with a hard-hitting yet lush remembrance." (Lee Hope Betcher, Editor Solstice Literary Magazine) "With crisp, confident prose, Michelle explores the intricacies of our world in essays simultaneously unique and universal. A book to be read many times." (Barry Lyga - Best Selling New York Times author) "The America we face in these timely essays is often poor, frequently unjust, sometimes heartbreaking - and always illuminated by the author's fearless truths, keen insights, and fighting spirit." (Krista Bremer - prize winner lecturer and author of My Tender Struggle.) "Here is the power of the written word: Alone in his room, the reader feels a strengthened connection to all of humanity." (Gin Mackey, Author) "These stories grab hold and won't let you go. They will change you." (Anne B. Gass, lecturer, author - Voting Down The Rose) "Although these are separate essays, they are linked by these consistent themes and form in themselves an engrossing and beautifully-written memoir." (Jenny Doughty -Maine Poet
