![Subversive Influences in Riots, Looting, and Burning. Hearings, Ninetieth Congress, First [-second] Session](https://cdn.kingstone.com.tw/english/images/product/4671/9781017474671.webp "Subversive Influences in Riots, Looting, and Burning. Hearings, Ninetieth Congress, First [-second] Session")
SHTF Survival Boot Camp
The year 2020 has rendered in-person education unachievable in many situations. Going off to take a survival course in Europe is nearly impossible.This doesn't lessen the need for this type of course. In fact, learning about SHTF survival is more important than ever. The dangers are more imminent than ever.So, Selco has opted to bring the course to us.In this book, you can learn the survival skills that kept Selco alive during the wars in the Balkans in a city under siege. Selco fought to survive in his urban setting against marauding gangs, he evaded sniper fire from the mountains above the city, and he scrambled for the limited resources available.He shares the secrets that allowed him to survive in the course for which this is a textbook. You can learn about urban survival, wilderness survival, what to do before the SHTF, and how to prepare for all of it. Learn the skills he staked his life on. It may not be long before we're doing the same thing.While most of us won't be getting to Bosnia anytime soon to learn from Selco directly, this guide is the next best thing to an in-person experience.
Liberty Against Power
One of the most influential figures in the libertarian movement of the 1970s and 1980s is someone you may not have heard of, Roy A. Childs Jr., who tragically died in 1992 at the age of 43. During his short life, Childs, a brilliant autodidact, wrote and lectured extensively on individual liberty and free markets, and the dangers of state power and foreign intervention. He served as editor of Libertarian Review from 1977 to 1981, perhaps the high point of his career, and was a wildly popular public speaker. At the 1979 Libertarian Party convention he delivered the keynote address to repeated standing ovations. Childs boomed, "We mean to change the course of history. . . . We will not bend before the power of the state!" Childs's warm personality and enthusiasm were infectious, and he served as a mentor to many future luminaries in the libertarian movement.This new edition of Liberty Against Power presents some of the best of Childs's essays, letters, and criticism written between 1967 and 1989, as well as a lengthy interview conducted shortly before his death. In fluid prose, they explain the libertarian approach to some of the major issues of the last half of the 20th century, including Vietnam and conscription, corporate statism, objectivism, anarchism, education, property rights, civil rights, the drug war, the principle of non-aggression, price controls, protectionism, and economic nationalism. Childs's prophetic essay, "Politics: The New Authoritarians," written in 1982, uncannily explains the rise of populism and support for a powerful executive among the American Right today. The closing essay is a heartfelt tribute to the Russian immigrant Ayn Rand and her incalculable influence on the libertarian movement; we must combine the best in us, wrote Childs, for "we really do have a world to win, you know."In the brief 27 years of his career, Childs either participated in events held by or wrote for the Cato Institute (where he worked from 1982 to 1984), the Libertarian Scholars Conference, the Libertarian Party, the Society for Individual Liberty, Rampart College, Libertarian Review, Reason, The Individualist, and Laissez Faire Books (where he worked from 1984 to his death). Childs knew and often collaborated with libertarian scholars such as Ludwig von Mises, F. A. Hayek, Murray Rothbard, Robert Nozick, Thomas Szasz, Nathaniel and Barbara Branden, Leonard Read, David Boaz, and Joan Kennedy Taylor. Liberty Against Power ensures Childs' intellectual legacy and is indispensable for students and academics learning about libertarianism and its growing appeal.
Between Application and Creation. Kelsen's conception of the judicial function versus classical positivism
La obra Between Application and Creation. Kelsen's Conception of the Judicial Function versus Classical Positivism estudia la concepci籀n kelseniana de la funci籀n judicial en contraste con el positivismo cl獺sico. Sostiene que la actividad jurisdiccional no es una mera aplicaci籀n mec獺nica de normas, sino un proceso que exige interpretaci籀n y, en determinados m獺rgenes, creaci籀n normativa. El an獺lisis muestra c籀mo la teor穩a pura del derecho reconoce la indeterminaci籀n del lenguaje jur穩dico y la necesidad de decisiones que otorgan sentido al ordenamiento, sin abandonar el marco normativista. El libro examina cr穩ticamente la tensi籀n entre formalismo y creatividad judicial, as穩 como los l穩mites institucionales y dogm獺ticos de la discrecionalidad. Mediante una lectura hermen矇utica y comparativa, los autores ponen de relieve la vigencia de Kelsen frente a los debates contempor獺neos sobre interpretaci籀n, constitucionalismo y el papel de los jueces en la preservaci籀n del Estado de derecho.
Australia's Anti-Corruption Bodies
This volume is the first comprehensive overview in book form of Australia's network of anti-corruption commissions. Australia is the only Westminster democracy with such bodies, whose antecedents derive in part from developments in Asia rather than elsewhere. Seven of the nine commissions are analysed by relevant experts, from Australia's first anti-corruption body, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption formed in 1988, to the most recent, the National Anti-Corruption Commission established in 2023. Given anti-corruption commissions exist in all nine Australian jurisdictions and several have been operating for over three decades, now is an appropriate time to assess and compare: how these different bodies perform; their roles compared to ad hoc royal commissions; the different factors that led to their formation; their various powers; controversies, successes and failures; their impact on civil liberties; relations with executive government and parliament; issues of accountability; their overall impact and effectiveness; and their place in the architecture of modern Australian government. In identifying and explaining the similarities and differences of anti-corruption bodies across the jurisdictions this volume asks whether there is an ideal model? Has there been any learning by later bodies from their predecessors? Has the just formed NACC, for instance, reflected any lessons learnt from all the previous state and territory bodies that went before it?
Reckoning the Racial Reckoning
The demise of the 'racial reckoning' that followed George Floyd's death in 2020 occurred without definition, scrutiny or attempts to revive it. In this compelling new book, David Dante Troutt explores the 'what, ' 'so what' and 'now what' of this period when much of the US sidelined the pandemic to confront racial inequality. It details how a rare focus on embedded racism shifted toward awareness, leaving deep disparities in wealth, health and policing unaddressed, and how this was overpowered by an enduring conservative backlash. Troutt unpacks how legal doctrine favored colorblindness over inequality, and examines government policies that created segregated zones of racial bargaining in health and wealth. The book also exposes deterrence-proof policing rules and explains the problems and promises of DEI. Reckoning the Racial Reckoning argues that democratic struggles over local resources are essential for creating justice and well-being for Black American communities, and ultimately for all Americans.
Under Cover, A Half-Century Inside Financial Crime and Corruption
Uncover the Dark Secrets of Crime and Justice in Canada with links to the Chinese Triads and US transborder criminals. If you're a true crime enthusiast with a thirst for thrilling tales of undercover operations, drug cartels, and the battle against organized crime, then "Under Cover" is your next must-read!In this gripping memoir, Garry, a seasoned RCMP officer, takes you on a roller-coaster ride through the heart of Canada's criminal underworld. You won't be able to put this book down as you immerse yourself in the real-life stories of danger, intrigue, and courage.���� What Readers Are Saying: ���� "Picked it up and couldn't put it down, Gary... A compelling read of your accomplished career investigating drug cartels, organized crime, money laundering in Canada & working with allies overseas... An important work that I hope & trust will impact the national discourse on policing roles and shine a brighter light on foreign interference in Canada... Good on ya, Sir..." - Ralph Maher, Editor, Last Post, RCMP Veterans' Association / Past National Vice President, The Pillar Society���� Dive into a chilling chain of events triggered by a high-risk undercover operation in Vancouver. Garry's relentless pursuit of justice takes him to the heart of the criminal world, where danger lurks at every corner.����️]♂️ This is more than just a tale of police work; it's a revealing expose of the sinister web woven by Chinese Triad crime syndicates. Discover how drug trafficking, pervasive influence, elite subjugation, and systemic bribery shaped the criminal empire that hid in plain sight, often with the knowledge of the nation's highest authorities.���� Garry's story sheds light on the systemic issues plaguing the RCMP, transforming it into a fractured entity. From the explosive revelations of the Phantom Secure operation to the treachery of CCP spy Cameron Ortis, "Under Cover" uncovers the hidden transgressions of the past and calls for a safer future.���� Today, Garry continues to fight on the front lines as Chief Compliance Officer for VersaBank, tirelessly advocating for a safer Canada. His memoir serves as a wake-up call to the government, urging them to confront the escalating crime vortex threatening our nation.���� Don't miss your chance to unravel the mysteries of the criminal underworld and the inner workings of the RCMP. Get your copy of "Under Cover" today and embark on an unforgettable journey into the heart of darkness and justice with recommendations on how we can reform the RCMP in order to meet the national security needs of Canadians "On a piercingly cold November night, Lee and I, freshly shifted from Vancouver Drug Section, stood at the threshold of our new abode in North Gower, Ontario. It now became evident....This daunting chapter would not only reshape Garry's identity as a lawman but galvanize him to challenge the very system that fostered criminal growth in Canada.
Fairy Tales From The Arabian Nights
Fairy tales from the Arabian nights presents a collection of imaginative narratives drawn from a richly symbolic storytelling tradition centered on wonder, desire, and transformation. The stories unfold in a world shaped by magic, fate, and moral testing, where journeys often lead through danger toward reward or insight. Enchanted objects, sudden reversals of fortune, and acts of cleverness play a central role, highlighting the power of wit alongside courage. Love and loyalty are portrayed as forces that challenge authority and reshape destiny, while ambition and greed frequently bring hardship. The narrative style emphasizes vivid settings, dramatic encounters, and rhythmic progression, creating a sense of oral storytelling adapted for accessible reading. Beneath the fantasy, the book reflects ideas of justice, patience, and balance, suggesting that wisdom often emerges through endurance and restraint. The collection invites readers to explore imagination as a moral and emotional space, where human desires intersect with the unknown, and where storytelling itself becomes a bridge between entertainment and reflection.
Girls(r)
GIRLS(R) Generation Z and the Commodification of Everything is a passionate, provocative, and deeply personal journey into the pressures shaping young lives today. Freya India shows that age-old anxieties of girlhood are now being amplified by modern life and exploited like never before. While previous generations of women were relentlessly sold products and procedures, girls today have become the product, displaying their lives on Instagram, advertising themselves on dating apps, and packaging themselves into personal brands, making anxiety feel overwhelming and unmanageable. As a society, we have transformed girls into GIRLS(R), from people into products. Each chapter of GIRLS(R) focuses on a common anxiety in adolescent girls' lives, from insecurities about our faces and bodies, to our reputation and social status, to our friendships and romantic relationships. Along the way, India traces how rapidly culture and technology have evolved over the past decade. This isn't just a book for girls. For young women, it offers a nostalgic, if unsettling, reflection on the world they've grown up in and reassurance that they're not alone in their struggles. For younger girls, it provides context for where these challenges began and warns where they might be headed. And, for parents, teachers, and older generations, it serves as a reminder that these issues have never been so intense. GIRLS(R) concludes with a message of hope, reminding readers how to reclaim their privacy, defend their dignity, and, above all, return to being people instead of products.
Woman and the Republic
Woman and the republic presents a critical exploration of the woman-suffrage movement, examining its arguments, principles, and potential consequences for society. The work engages with debates surrounding political participation, social responsibility, and the relationship between citizenship and gender. Rather than simply supporting or opposing, the text emphasizes analysis, weighing claims of equality and reform against questions of practicality, social structure, and civic function. Historical examples, philosophical reasoning, and contemporary observation are used to illustrate potential outcomes, inviting readers to consider the broader implications of extending political rights. Themes of duty, public order, and the nature of governance are explored alongside notions of fairness, equity, and moral responsibility. The work interrogates how changes in political enfranchisement might affect social institutions, family life, and civic engagement. Tone remains formal and analytical, favoring structured argument over emotive persuasion. Overall, the book serves as both commentary and inquiry, reflecting on the intersection of gender, law, and democratic principle while encouraging careful consideration of societal change.
A Compilation Of The Messages And Papers Of The Presidents Volume 3 Part 1 Andrew Jackson (Second Term)
A compilation of the messages and papers of the Presidents Volume 3 Part 1 Andrew Jackson (Second Term) focuses on official documents that capture a decisive period of political transition and executive authority. The volume gathers proclamations, formal addresses, and policy statements that reflect the responsibilities, challenges, and priorities of national leadership during moments of change. These texts reveal how executive communication shaped public understanding of governance, law, and national direction. Attention is given to issues of federal power, economic policy, and civic responsibility, presenting leadership as both practical administration and public persuasion. The collection highlights continuity and transition, showing how presidential messages respond to inherited challenges while setting new directions. Rather than offering interpretation, the volume allows original documents to convey tone, intention, and political atmosphere. Together, the materials illustrate how written communication functioned as a primary tool of authority, record keeping, and national dialogue, preserving decisions and viewpoints that influenced the evolving structure of government and public life.
Speeches on Questions of Public Policy
Speeches on questions of public policy Volume 1 presents a collection of arguments shaped by moral conviction, civic responsibility, and disciplined reasoning. The work brings together public addresses that confront inequality, economic fairness, and the ethical obligations of governance. Each speech is constructed to persuade through clarity rather than spectacle, emphasizing principle over rhetoric. Social justice emerges as a guiding concern, closely tied to arguments for economic balance and humane administration. Questions of authority and responsibility are examined through practical consequence, urging restraint, accountability, and respect for human dignity. The speeches also reflect a strong belief in dialogue and reform as alternatives to conflict, presenting progress as the result of reasoned engagement. Rather than offering abstract theory, the work grounds its ideas in lived social conditions and public accountability. The collection highlights the power of speech as a tool for moral persuasion, demonstrating how conviction, consistency, and ethical clarity can influence public life. Overall, the volume stands as a study in principled advocacy, showing how sustained argument can challenge injustice while appealing to shared values and collective responsibility.
Black Rebellion
Black rebellion: Five slave revolts examines organized resistance against slavery by analyzing several major uprisings and movements led by enslaved people across different regions. The work emphasizes that rebellion was not an isolated reaction but a sustained response to systemic oppression, violence, and denial of human dignity. It explores how community networks, shared belief systems, and moral resolve enabled resistance even under extreme surveillance and punishment. The narrative highlights the strategic planning behind revolts, the role of leadership and communication, and the psychological impact of bondage on both the enslaved and the ruling order. The book challenges portrayals of passivity by presenting rebellion as a rational and courageous pursuit of freedom shaped by historical conditions. Broader reflections on justice, power, and human agency run throughout the text, presenting resistance as a defining force in the struggle against slavery. The work ultimately frames these revolts as crucial expressions of autonomy that reshaped historical understanding of freedom, courage, and collective action.
Mapping Terror Organizational Dynamics and Data Insights (1970-2020)
In a world where terrorism is often understood through isolated incidents, Mapping Terror: Organizational Dynamics and Data Insights (1970-2020) offers a powerful shift in perspective. This book moves beyond individual events and explores how terrorist organizations evolve, adapt, and operate over time.Drawing on the TOQA (Terrorist Organization Quarterly Activity) framework, this book presents a structured and data-driven approach to understanding organizational behavior across five decades. Instead of focusing only on attacks, it reveals deeper patterns such as growth, decline, dormancy, and transformation within organizations.Through clear explanations and real-world data insights, readers will discover how different groups change over time, how their identities are tracked despite name changes and fragmentation, and how integrated data sources improve our understanding of global conflict.The book also highlights the role of modern analytical techniques, including machine learning, in predicting future trends and uncovering hidden patterns in terrorism data. By connecting multiple datasets and presenting them in an accessible format, it bridges the gap between complex research and practical understanding.Whether you are a student, researcher, policymaker, or simply curious about global security issues, this book provides a unique lens to study terrorism not as isolated events, but as evolving systems shaped by time, strategy, and context.This is not just a book about data-it is a deeper exploration of how patterns of violence emerge, change, and can be understood through structured analysis.
Doing Open Social Science
Open science is a set of principles and practices that aims to make research from all fields accessible to everyone for the benefit of researchers and society as a whole. Doing Open Social Science: A Guide for Researchers is the first comprehensive book setting out the principles and practices of open research, tailored specifically for those in the social science disciplines, at every career stage, offering practical advice on how to make research more transparent, trustworthy and reusable. Divided into four parts, the book explores the core principles and philosophy of open social science. Part II addresses how to improve the reproducibility of research through open approaches, including chapters on the principles and tools of documenting research as you go and on open data practices. Part III focuses on open practices within the qualitative social sciences. Chapters examine interview-based research, case studies and fieldwork, systematic documentation analysis, archival data and the role of openness in citizen (social) science. Part IV addresses shifting research cultures, with chapters on strategies for presenting research clearly and accessibly to maximise reach and impact and on open access publishing. The book ends with a discussion of the future of open social science. Ultimately, it argues, openness as a wider cultural change can renew the social sciences and the core foundations for academic progress in more dynamic and sustainable ways. This is an essential guide for anyone working in the social sciences, from doctoral candidates and early career researchers to experienced academics and practitioners, who wants to engage more effectively with open research.
Stuck In the Middle
The United States built the most powerful military in human history. Then it spent thirty years hollowing out everything that made it work.Stuck in the Middle: Wars, Weapons, and the Forces That Will Shape the Next Thirty Years is a ground-level examination of American military and geopolitical power written for readers who want the truth without the translation. Author Richard Lowe connects four structural forces (demographic collapse, industrial decay, political dysfunction, and strategic overreach) and makes the case that no amount of defense spending fixes problems this deep.The book opens with the Iran war as a stress test. Not a prediction. A lens. When you run American military capacity against a real adversary under real conditions, the cracks show fast. Missile stockpiles that take years to replenish. Supply chains that route through the country you're supposed to be competing with. A defense industrial base that lost the ability to surge production decades ago and never got it back. An army that can't recruit its way to full strength because the population it draws from is too sick, too heavy, and too poorly educated to qualify.Meanwhile, China has been watching. Taking notes. Building for a thirty-year horizon while Washington cycles through two-year electoral logic. Beijing doesn't need to beat the United States in a straight fight. It needs to outlast American political will, outpace American industrial capacity, and out-position the United States in the regions that matter before the window closes. That strategy is already in motion.The structural forces shaping the next thirty years aren't going to wait for the next election. Demographics don't reverse on a campaign promise. Industrial capacity doesn't rebuild in a single appropriations bill. Climate pressures, water scarcity, and global food instability don't care which party controls the Senate. These forces operate on timelines that dwarf the American political attention span, and they're compounding.The second half of the book covers what could actually change the math. Autonomous systems, directed energy weapons, AI-driven logistics, and distributed manufacturing offer real paths forward, if the political will exists to move fast enough and smart enough to apply them. That's the if this book is honest about.Stuck in the Middle is the book for anyone who suspects things are worse than the headlines admit, and wants to understand exactly how bad it is, why it got this way, and whether there is still a way through.
European Company Law
The book provides students of European company law courses, scholars and practitioners with an overview. Although company law remains mainly regulated at the level of national laws, it has become important to obtain a systematic view of the main directives in the field of company law, the EU Court of Justice's jurisprudence, the European Model Company Act and the state of implementation of these directives in the member states of the Union. The book therefore contains, in addition to the illustration of the law laid down by EU legislative bodies and the related soft laws, detailed references to the most important domestic legislations and case laws, in order to make them known and usable as much as possible. Moreover, the book allows identifying the most relevant current legislative trends and the main historical reasons for divergences.
Uganda The cost of bad leadership
UGANDA - THE COST OF BAD LEADERSHIPUganda should be a democratically governed country, yet after 40 years in power, President Museveni and his family are steadily reshaping it into a de facto monarchy. To entrench this system, he has strategically placed close relatives in key sectors of the state.His wife, Janet Kataaha Museveni, serves as Minister of Education. His son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, is the Chief of Defence Forces. His brother, Salim Saleh, is a senior presidential advisor on defence and security and oversees Operation Wealth Creation (OWC), a programme that receives vast public funds with little transparency. His son-in-law, Odrek Rwabwogo, chairs the Presidential Advisory Committee on Exports and Industrial Development. His daughter, Natasha Karugire Museveni, works as a presidential assistant. Dr Violet Kajubiri, the President's sister, is the deputy chairperson of the Education Service Commission.These appointments are not accidental, nor are they based on exceptional merit. They form a deliberate strategy to consolidate family rule and weaken Uganda's democratic institutions.
Sins of the Internet
The internet was supposed to set us free. Instead, it turned us into products.Sins of the Internet: Escaping the Psychological Traps of the Digital Age takes a hard look at what the digital world is actually doing to your brain, your relationships, your money, and your sense of reality. Not in a hand-wringing, think-of-the-children way. In a here's-exactly-what's-happening-and-here's-what-you-do-about-it way.Each chapter tackles one of the forces that big tech, social media companies, and digital predators use to keep you hooked, manipulated, and spending. Wrath, greed, envy, pride, lust, gluttony, sloth - the seven deadly sins didn't go away when the internet arrived. They got a business model. Add deception, vanity, tribalism, addiction, amnesia, and a dozen more modern plagues, and you've got a complete picture of why the web feels like a rigged game. Because it is.This isn't a book that wrings its hands and tells you to be careful. Every chapter ends with concrete steps you can take right now to push back, protect yourself, and reclaim some control over your own attention and your own life. You don't have to quit the internet. You just have to stop letting it run you.Richard Lowe has spent decades in technology and has published more than a hundred books on writing, productivity, and the digital world. He brings both the insider knowledge of someone who understands how these systems are built and the anger of someone who is tired of watching people get used.This book is for anyone who has ever doomscrolled until 2 a.m., gotten into a screaming match with a stranger online, bought something they didn't need because an algorithm told them to, or felt vaguely worse about their life after spending an hour on social media. That's most of us. It doesn't have to stay that way.
The Dark Side of the Police
Has the fight against drug trafficking become a charade? Are the police more at the service of the authorities than the public? Why do some officers go off the rails? To what extent does Freemasonry hold sway over the institution? Do the unions do more harm than good to civil servants? How can we understand the replacement of the national police force by municipal police forces? A former inspector, then commander of the national police force, answers these questions (and many others) with an unprecedented frankness and liveliness. Combining real-life experience, recent events and rigorous analysis, Jean-Pierre Colombi癡s gives an insider's account of the excesses of the Grande Boutique. He describes those moments when the police are encouraged to make a profit by making indiscriminate arrests rather than intervening wisely. He reveals the influence of networks that dictate the law and can promote incompetents or even protect deviant officers. It denounces the tyranny of statistics, which undermines the service provided to the public. He shows why the forces of law and order may be called upon to "break citizens" for the sake of setting an example. And, with regret, he underlines how hatred of the police and the blunders of more or less "big bosses" can render ineffective the efforts of officers committed every day to the safety of all.
Historical Origins of International Criminal Law
This volume is about the birth of the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court. It concerns the strategy and activities of the preparatory team for the Office between 1 August 2002 and November 2003. The emphasis is on the thinking of the team and dozens of experts it consulted. Part 1 of the book contains 41 chapters by some of these experts, including Xabier Agirre, Richard J. Goldstone, Fabricio Guariglia, Mark B. Harmon, Daryl A. Mundis, Bernard O'Donnell, Mohamed C. Othman, John Ralston, Christopher Staker, William A. Schabas, James K. Stewart and Clint Williamson. Their reflections are relevant to builders of capacity to prosecute core international crimes also at the national level. Part 2 has chapters on three expert-group reports that the preparatory team organised: on the length of proceedings, fact-finding and state co-operation, and complementarity in practice. Introductions by actors involved at the time explain the background, main issues, and impact of the reports. Parts 3 and 4 contain three chapters on governance documents prepared by the team with experts: the draft Regulations of the Office, the draft Code of Conduct, and budgetary documents. In Chapter 1, Morten Bergsmo, the co-ordinator of the preparatory team, analyses its risk-assessment and strategy, as well as challenges that subsequently beset the ICC Office of the Prosecutor. He calls for accurate historical research on the institutions of international justice and, beyond that, for a sociology of international justice. He argues for renewed commitment to integrity as a binding legal standard.
Party Food
"Voting with your fork" is a common mantra for those concerned with food politics. However, real voting requires one to choose between Democrats and Republicans-and most food voters do not know the partisan history of food politics. Party Food is written for farmers and foodies who want to understand the political history of food policy. Harris is a political scientist who is also a commercial farmer. Her expertise in both fields offers fresh, professional insight into the lay of the land in American food politics. In Party Food, Harris unpacks the political foundations of contemporary farm policy and expertly explains the "team sport" of partisan politics as it plays out in the food politics landscape. In Party Food she introduces the Democratic and Republican Heroes (and Villains!) of food politics, and offers an accessible insight into each political party's policy "menu" and team play in Presidential and Congressional politics. In this way, Party Food offers foodies and farmers a food politics primer on Democrats & Republicans and fills an important gap in the food politics discussion.
Our Enemy The Government 2nd Edition
In this updated and expanded edition, Ramesh Thakur exposes how the COVID-19 pandemic enabled unprecedented expansions of state power, with a new focus on Australia's experience. Panicked governments turned the world upside down. From coercive lockdowns in Melbourne to federal overreach in border closures, the boundary between liberal democracy and authoritarianism proved virus thin. Tools of repression - once hallmarks of despots - became routine, as governments wielded fear and force to silence dissent. This edition includes fresh analysis of Australian policies, vaccine mandates, and their global echoes, alongside updated international data on harms to public health, economy, and freedoms. Revalidating Lord Acton's warning that power corrupts, Thakur calls for accountability in a post-pandemic world.This book is worth the attention of anyone who wants to understand how and why governments and the world's health bureaucracies ignored the devastating harms and failures of the lockdown-focused policies they implemented during the covid pandemic." Jay Bhattacharya"The emergence of Ramesh Thakur as a voice of reason is one of the few good things to come out of the pandemic. I find it difficult to disagree with anything he says." Toby Young, Editor-in-Chief, The Daily Sceptic.
Black Feminist Politics
This book offers a rigorous and historically grounded analysis of Black women's political thought, activism, and institutional engagement across six decades. This book begins with 1965--a pivotal year in which the Voting Rights Act fundamentally transformed political participation for African Americans and, notably, the year Kamala Harris was born. This temporal convergence serves as the book's organizing framework, illustrating how the expansion of voting rights and the evolution of Black feminist politics created the conditions that made Harris's Vice Presidency possible. Drawing on political science, history, gender studies, and Black feminist theory, the chapters trace major developments in U.S. political life from 1965 to 2025. Topics include the interventions of Michelle Wallace, Ntozake Shange, and Alice Walker, as well as the implications of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings for understanding gendered political vulnerability. The analysis also engages the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, showing how contemporary movements--including Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and the resistance to book bans--extend a longer tradition of Black feminist political critique. The text foregrounds key analytical concepts such as linked fate and Black feminist epistemology, making it an essential resource for scholars and students of American politics, African American studies, and feminist theory. By situating Kamala Harris's Vice Presidency within a broader historical trajectory, the book demonstrates that Black feminist political behavior is indispensable to understanding the development of modern U.S. democracy. With each edition of Black Feminist Politics, Duchess Harris solidifies its position as an essential and enduring text that affirms the vital importance of using a Black Feminist analysis to interpret US politics, society, and culture. Crystal M. Moten, author of Continually Working: Black Women, Community Intellectualism and Economic Justice in Postwar Milwaukee
Theory of Social Exchange and Personhood
Theory of Social Exchange and Personhood by Baruch Menache is a rigorous philosophical and sociological inquiry into how human identity is formed, negotiated, and actualized through social exchange. Moving beyond economic or transactional models, the book reframes social exchange as an existential process through which personhood, power, intimacy, and collective life are continuously produced and contested.Blending philosophy, social theory, psychology, and cultural analysis, Menache examines how conversation precedes action, how conceptual landscapes determine material behavior, and how individuals navigate the tension between internal consciousness and external social structures. The work explores themes such as dialogue versus narrative, manipulation and response, mirror dynamics in relationships, gossip as a mechanism of power, and the role of vulnerability in social formation.Central to the book is the distinction between potential and actuality-how human capacities remain latent or become realized depending on social context, relational structures, and collective systems. Menache develops a nuanced account of actualization, tracing it from childhood through adulthood, and analyzing fragmentation of the psyche, biological prerequisites, and representational identity. The text further extends into an examination of communal character, collective consciousness, and the limits of individuality within social bodies.Later sections investigate speech as a social instrument, including inflection, relatability, emotional performance, and the psychological management of risk. These analyses illuminate how modern social environments shape authenticity, intimacy, and public identity. The book also offers a critical reassessment of class systems, attention economies, and the adolescent critique of social exchange, positioning youth sensitivity as a diagnostic lens for systemic imbalance.Written in dense, precise prose, Theory of Social Exchange and Personhood is intended for readers seeking a serious theoretical framework rather than simplified self-help or popular sociology. It will appeal to scholars and advanced readers in philosophy, sociology, psychology, cultural studies, political theory, and anyone interested in the deep structures governing human interaction, identity formation, and collective life.This work stands as a sustained meditation on how societies organize meaning, how individuals preserve coherence amid social demands, and how personhood emerges at the intersection of consciousness, exchange, and representation.
Die Alone, Then
Die Alone, Then is not a warning. It's a refusal.For generations, women have been fed the same quiet threat: lower your standards, accept less, tolerate more, or risk ending up alone. Loneliness has been wielded like a weapon, used to scare women into shrinking their needs and settling for relationships that drain rather than nourish them.But what if the threat was never real?In these pages, Mina L. Adler dismantles the myth that partnership at any cost is better than solitude. With sharp insight and unapologetic honesty, she exposes how women are conditioned to accept emotional neglect, weaponised incompetence, and chronic disrespect in the name of love. She asks the question too many women are taught not to ask: why is being alone treated as a failure, while being miserable with someone is called success?This book is for women who have felt lonelier in relationships than they ever did on their own. For women who are tired of being told they're "asking for too much" when they're barely asking for the basics. For women who have discovered that peace, health, clarity, and self-respect flourish when they stop making themselves smaller to keep someone else comfortable.Die Alone, Then is not about rejecting love. It's about rejecting fear. It's about choosing peace over performance, standards over survival, and self-respect over social approval.Because being alone was never the nightmare.Settling was.
Comprendre les relations internationales contemporaines
Cet ouvrage s'inscrit dans le champ des relations internationales qui constitue la principale sp矇cialit矇 du Pr Jean Koufan Menk矇n矇. Y sont scrut矇es et analys矇es des probl矇matiques des relations internationales contemporaines en rapport avec le Cameroun, l'Afrique et le monde. La tonalit矇 des contributions, ainsi que la diversit矇 et la pluridisciplinarit矇 de leurs auteurs manifestent l'approche propre ? Jean Koufan Menk矇n矇 en mati癡re de relations internationales.
Cross-border Circulation and Networks in the European Space
This publication is an attempt to enlarge the perspectives of Contemporary European Border Studies both temporally and epistemologically. Border studies in Europe are indeed still largely focused on the analysis of cross-border cooperation and its relationship with the process of European Integration after the Second World War. What is generally missing is a long-term historical perspective and the consideration that circulation and networks can also be built across borders because there is a community of ideas or a shared good to defend: a common scientific culture, health, environment.
Die Alone, Then
Die Alone, Then is not a warning. It's a refusal.For generations, women have been fed the same quiet threat: lower your standards, accept less, tolerate more, or risk ending up alone. Loneliness has been wielded like a weapon, used to scare women into shrinking their needs and settling for relationships that drain rather than nourish them.But what if the threat was never real?In these pages, Mina L. Adler dismantles the myth that partnership at any cost is better than solitude. With sharp insight and unapologetic honesty, she exposes how women are conditioned to accept emotional neglect, weaponised incompetence, and chronic disrespect in the name of love. She asks the question too many women are taught not to ask: why is being alone treated as a failure, while being miserable with someone is called success?This book is for women who have felt lonelier in relationships than they ever did on their own. For women who are tired of being told they're "asking for too much" when they're barely asking for the basics. For women who have discovered that peace, health, clarity, and self-respect flourish when they stop making themselves smaller to keep someone else comfortable.Die Alone, Then is not about rejecting love. It's about rejecting fear. It's about choosing peace over performance, standards over survival, and self-respect over social approval.Because being alone was never the nightmare.Settling was.
Before Patty
In 1891, a young woman was taken from a fishing camp in Eastern Washington by a Skanicum, as her people knew the Sasquatch. She eventually escaped from her ordeal, but she returned to her family with a terrible secret.Before Patty, Volume 1, is the story of the life of that woman, and of her hybrid son, Patrick, uncovered after months of research through over 160 forgotten documents dating from as early as the 1890s and spanning 100 years. Tragic, startling, and surprising, this is the story of what many thought impossible, forever altering our idea of what it is to be human and leading us to consider that Sasquatch may be a fierce and free human tribe.This is also a story of the hardships Native Americans, First Nations, and Alaska Natives have endured since Europeans first landed on the shores, devastating hundreds of once thriving cultures. As Colville Indian Agent, George H. Newman, wrote in 1897, "I am astonished at the progress they have made, while at the same time I wonder how they have managed to live."
Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks
In 1981 the sudden collapse of two skywalks in Kansas City's Hyatt hotel killed 114 people and injured another 200. There never was a public trial, nor a full airing of everything that went wrong. Richard A. Serrano shared a Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the disaster at the time; now he returns to the tragedy to learn all that went wrong, how it could have been avoided, and what lasting effects persist today--for engineering and the legal system, but most importantly those who suffered. Drawing on legal depositions, evidentiary material, and recollections from 240 survivors, first responders, and construction officials, Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks is the story of this monumental catastrophe and what it teaches us today.The Friday evening Tea Dance was all the rage that summer of 1981. Each week the lobby filled with throngs of revelers, some celebrating atop the skywalks themselves. On July 17, without warning, the steel support systems buckled and the concrete and glass skywalks crashed onto the crowded lobby. The devastation reverberated far beyond the ruins. Firefighters, police officers, and paramedics suffered from deep depression, cycled through divorce, hit the bottle, and in some instances committed suicide. The hotel had been built using a new fast-track method with key construction decisions often made on the fly, including changing the skywalk design from six heavy hanger rods to twelve thinner poles. Within a year the skywalks were splintering inside. Even then the collapse could have been averted, but special inspection panels to check the hanging walkways were never opened.Though wholly avoidable, the Hyatt disaster did bring significant changes--some good and some problematic. Tougher industry guidelines were enforced for US construction projects. Police officers, firefighters, and health care workers are now treated for PTSD and other psychological trauma after working a tragic event. But the rush to settle all the Hyatt lawsuits helped usher in a controversial new era of nondisclosure agreements.Buried Truths and the Hyatt Skywalks explores America's worst structural engineering disaster. Though the world has moved on, survivors and witnesses still vividly recall that night. This is their story.
The Personality of Ireland
This classic study of Irish culture, extensively illustrated with photographs, maps and drawings, and reissued with a new foreword and an updated bibliography, gives a detailed yet panoramic view of Ireland. It follows in the great tradition of French historiography, adding the testament of landscape, antiquities and folk custom to that of document-based history as a primary source of knowledge of our past. It is a justly acclaimed, stimulating work of instruction, entertainment and enlightenment.
Security and reconstruction in Europe
When most of the Central and East European countries are celebrating their centennial as modern states and, some of them, thirty years since the fall of the communist regime, security challenges in the region reveal two overlapping layers: the scars from old political conflicts amongst the Great Powers and present evolutions triggered by the ICT, migration, Europeanization or global governance. The present volume offers a glimpse into the various security dilemmas Central, Eastern and East-neighbouring states have faced over the last century. Alors que la plupart des ?tats de l'Europe Centrale et de l'Est sont en train de f礙ter cent ans d'existence moderne et une trentaine depuis l'矇croulement du communisme, la nature des d矇fis s矇curitaires r矇gionaux r矇v癡le l'existence de strates partiellement superpos矇es: cicatrices des anciens conflits politiques entre les grandes puissances et usage des TICE, migration, europ矇anisation ou gouvernance globale. Cet ouvrage revient sur les dilemmes ayant marqu矇 les ?tats de l'Europe centrale et orientale au cours du si癡cle pass矇.
Controlled Minds
What if the world around you isn't just influencing you... but quietly shaping how you think, feel, and decide-without you ever noticing?In Controlled Minds: The Hidden Psychology of Modern Influence, this powerful and deeply analytical work exposes the invisible systems that guide human behavior in the modern age. Drawing from psychology, digital systems, and social dynamics, the book reveals how influence has evolved from obvious persuasion into subtle, engineered control embedded within everyday life.From the architecture of decision-making to the manipulation of emotion, identity, and attention, this book uncovers the mechanisms operating beneath awareness-where real influence begins.Inside, you will explore: How unconscious psychological processes shape your everyday decisionsWhy attention has become the most valuable commodity in the digital worldThe science behind behavioral conditioning, habit formation, and complianceHow fear, desire, and emotion are strategically used to guide behaviorThe hidden role of social influence, conformity, and group identityHow authority, credibility, and expertise can be constructed-and exploitedThe rise of information warfare, narrative control, and cognitive capturePractical pathways to reclaim awareness, autonomy, and independent thoughtThis is not a book of speculation-it is a structured exploration of how modern systems influence the human mind at scale. It reveals how environments are designed, how narratives are engineered, and how behavior is shaped long before conscious thought begins.More importantly, it offers something rare: The ability to see.Because once you understand how influence works, you regain the power to choose.In a world where attention is captured, emotions are triggered, and beliefs are shaped behind the scenes, awareness becomes your greatest form of freedom.
Zeros and Ones
A highly contentious, very readable and totally up-to-the-minute investigation of women's natural relationship with modern technology, an association which, Plant argues, will trigger a new sexual revolution. Zeros and Ones is an intelligent, provocative and accessible investigation of the intersection between women, feminism, machines and in particular, information technology. Arguing that the computer is rewriting the old conceptions of man and his world, it suggests that the telecoms revolution is also a sexual revolution which undermines the fundamental assumptions crucial to patriarchal culture. Historical, contemporary and future developments in telecommunications and in IT are interwoven with the past, present and future of feminism, women and sexual difference, and a wealth of connections, parallels and affinities between machines and women are uncovered as a result. Challenging the belief that man was ever in control of either his own agency, the planet, or his machines, this book argues it is seriously undermined by the new scientific paradigms emergent from theories of chaos, complexity and connectionism, all of which suggest that the old distinctions between man, woman, nature and technology need to be radically reassessed.
The Unclaimed
"A rare and compassionate look into the lives of Americans who go unclaimed when they die and those who dedicate their lives to burying them with dignity."--Matthew Desmond, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Poverty, by America"A work of grace . . . Both cleareyed and disturbing, yet pulsing with empathy."--The New York Times (Editors' Choice) FINALIST FOR THE J. ANTHONY LUKAS BOOK PRIZE - ONE OF THE ATLANTIC'S TEN BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR - AN NPR AND BOOKPAGE BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters' fields--a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to 150,000 Americans now go unclaimed each year. Who are they? Why are they being forgotten? And what is the meaning of life if your death doesn't matter to others? In this extraordinary work of narrative nonfiction, eight years in the making, sociologists Pamela Prickett and Stefan Timmermans uncover a hidden social world. They follow four individuals in Los Angeles, tracing the twisting, poignant paths that put each at risk of going unclaimed, and introducing us to the scene investigators, notification officers, and crematorium workers who care for them when no one else will. The Unclaimed lays bare the difficult truth that anyone can be abandoned. It forces us to confront a variety of social ills, from the fracturing of families and the loneliness of cities to the toll of rising inequality. But it is also filled with unexpected moments of tenderness. In Boyle Heights, a Mexican American neighborhood not far from the glitter of Hollywood, hundreds of strangers come together each year to mourn the deaths of people they never knew. These ceremonies, springing up across the country, reaffirm our shared humanity and help mend our frayed social fabric. Beautifully crafted and profoundly empathetic, The Unclaimed urges us to expand our circle of caring--in death and in life.
D矇sinformation et influence
La d矇sinformation est l'un des outils des strat矇gies d'influence qui touchent les d矇cideurs politiques, les m矇dias, l'arm矇e ou les individus. Son objectif est clair: instaurer une soci矇t矇 post-occidentale en s'appuyant notamment sur la post-v矇rit矇. Il ne s'agit pas d'installer une autre v矇rit矇 mais de faire dispara簾tre les rep癡res pour fragiliser la d矇mocratie. C'est l'Europe tout enti癡re qui est concern矇e par cette guerre hybride men矇e contre elle: guerre d'influence, cyber-guerre, guerre sur les m矇dias et les r矇seaux sociaux, guerre 矇conomique, mais aussi guerre militaire comme en Crim矇e. C'est l'Europe tout enti癡re que le Kremlin cherche ? d矇stabiliser: notre mode de vie, nos institutions d矇mocratiques, notre fragile unit矇, et notre Libert矇.
Real World Survival
Disaster preparedness isn't about building bunkers or stockpiling weapons. It's about having water when the pipes run dry, food when stores are empty, and plans when everything goes wrong. "The Complete Family Survival Guide" teaches practical preparedness based on thirty years of real disaster experience.Author Richard Lowe learned about emergency preparedness the hard way, starting with the 1994 Northridge earthquake that caught his family completely unprepared. With no working flashlight, no first aid supplies, and no plan, they survived through luck rather than preparation. That wake-up call began three decades of learning, preparing, and surviving real emergencies throughout California and beyond.This comprehensive guide draws lessons from major disasters including the Northridge and other California earthquakes, Hurricane Milton, extended power outages, wildfire evacuations, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Lowe shares personal experiences and observations from friends and neighbors who faced these same challenges, revealing what preparations actually work and which popular advice fails when tested by reality.The book covers every aspect of family emergency preparedness from basic 72-hour emergency kits to advanced homesteading and community building. Readers learn practical skills for immediate disaster response, evacuation planning, sheltering in place, and long-term recovery. Special attention is given to families with children, elderly members, pets, and people with special needs who require adapted emergency planning.Unlike survivalist guides that promote fear and isolation, this book emphasizes community cooperation and practical preparations that enhance daily life while providing genuine security. Lowe shows how proper preparedness improves family resilience without requiring lifestyle extremes or massive financial investments.Key topics include water storage and purification, food preservation and production, home fortification and security, alternative energy systems, medical emergency planning, financial preparedness, insurance considerations, and legal protections. The guide also addresses modern challenges like supply chain vulnerabilities, technology dependencies, and climate change adaptation that weren't considerations in previous generations.Extensive appendices provide templates for emergency planning, supply checklists for different disaster types, and resources for training and equipment. Regional preparedness considerations help families adapt general principles to their specific geographic threats and local conditions.
A Vision for Rational High-Growth Management in Upstate South Carolina
Upstate South Carolina is experiencing sustained economic and population growth that will shape the region for generations. A Vision for Rational High-Growth Management addresses the central challenge facing the Greenville-Spartanburg corridor: how to welcome growth without sacrificing affordability, infrastructure alignment, or quality of life.Author Dennis C. Hayes - inventor of the Hayes Smartmodem, former Georgia technology leader, and chairman of SpartansFirst - draws on firsthand experience with high-growth environments to introduce the Rational High-Growth Management (RHGM) model. The model places housing supply at its center and identifies five forces that act upon it: demand growth, infrastructure capacity, policy and regulation, time and delay, and cost and capital. Through case studies of Greenville's concurrency debate, California's housing crisis, Austin's supply-focused reforms, Northern Virginia's corridor planning, Florida's concurrency and impact-fee systems, and Gwinnett County's suburban transformation, the volume illustrates how these forces interact and what happens when they fall out of balance.The book proposes ten planning pillars for the Upstate, including maintaining abundant housing opportunity, intelligent corridor and activity-center development, measured infrastructure discipline, fairness to long-time landowners, predictable approvals, affordability as a competitive economic asset, regional coordination, and family-centered quality of life. A final section provides a community application framework for the RHGM model, identifying required participants and observable system attributes that enable or impede balanced growth.This volume is intended for regional policymakers, local government officials, planners, developers, builders, landowners, financial institutions, and informed citizens with a stake in how their community grows.
Controlled Minds
What if the world around you isn't just influencing you... but quietly shaping how you think, feel, and decide-without you ever noticing?In Controlled Minds: The Hidden Psychology of Modern Influence, this powerful and deeply analytical work exposes the invisible systems that guide human behavior in the modern age. Drawing from psychology, digital systems, and social dynamics, the book reveals how influence has evolved from obvious persuasion into subtle, engineered control embedded within everyday life.From the architecture of decision-making to the manipulation of emotion, identity, and attention, this book uncovers the mechanisms operating beneath awareness-where real influence begins.Inside, you will explore: How unconscious psychological processes shape your everyday decisionsWhy attention has become the most valuable commodity in the digital worldThe science behind behavioral conditioning, habit formation, and complianceHow fear, desire, and emotion are strategically used to guide behaviorThe hidden role of social influence, conformity, and group identityHow authority, credibility, and expertise can be constructed-and exploitedThe rise of information warfare, narrative control, and cognitive capturePractical pathways to reclaim awareness, autonomy, and independent thoughtThis is not a book of speculation-it is a structured exploration of how modern systems influence the human mind at scale. It reveals how environments are designed, how narratives are engineered, and how behavior is shaped long before conscious thought begins.More importantly, it offers something rare: The ability to see.Because once you understand how influence works, you regain the power to choose.In a world where attention is captured, emotions are triggered, and beliefs are shaped behind the scenes, awareness becomes your greatest form of freedom.
Terms of Engagement
Government at every level is too big, too powerful, and too intrusive. But don't blame just legislators and members of the executive branch for constantly overstepping their constitutional bounds. As Clark Neily argues in The Terms of Engagement, judges have more than their fair share of the blame. While liberals seek court rulings creating positive rights to things like free health care and conservatives call for judicial "restraint," the end result is same: greater government power and diminished individual rights. With compelling real-world examples and penetrating legal analysis, Neily's book shows how judicial abdication brought us to this point and calls for "judicial engagement" to restore courts as the critical check on the other branches of government envisioned by the Framers. Neily documents how courts have largely abandoned that vital role, and he offers a persuasive solution for the epidemic of judicial abdication: principled judicial engagement whereby judges actually judge in all constitutional cases, rather than reflexively taking the government's side as they so often do now. Anyone concerned about the size of government, the sanctity of the Constitution, and the rule of law will find a refreshingly new perspective in this book written for non-lawyers and lawyers alike.
Before Patty
In 1891, a young woman was taken from a fishing camp in Eastern Washington by a Skanicum, as her people knew the Sasquatch. She eventually escaped from her ordeal, but she returned to her family with a terrible secret.Before Patty, Volume 1, is the story of the life of that woman, and of her hybrid son, Patrick, uncovered after months of research through over 160 forgotten documents dating from as early as the 1890s and spanning 100 years. Tragic, startling, and surprising, this is the story of what many thought impossible, forever altering our idea of what it is to be human and leading us to consider that Sasquatch may be a fierce and free human tribe.This is also a story of the hardships Native Americans, First Nations, and Alaska Natives have endured since Europeans first landed on the shores, devastating hundreds of once thriving cultures. As Colville Indian Agent, George H. Newman, wrote in 1897, "I am astonished at the progress they have made, while at the same time I wonder how they have managed to live."
The Weaponization of Mind Control
This book traces a disturbing lineage: from propaganda and "othering" to the weaponisation of mind control in the age of AI and neurotechnology. It shows how regimes, from the Soviet Union to Putin's Russia, have used fear, surveillance, and psychological manipulation to crush dissent and manufacture obedience. It then follows how these methods evolved into modern cognitive warfare-operations that target how we think and decide via social media, big data, and algorithmic profiling.Major powers-including Russia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Israel, and Iran-now deploy troll farms, micro-targeted disinformation, deepfakes, and automated influence networks as core tools of hybrid war. Conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas confrontation, and the shadow conflict with Iran have become test beds for large-scale manipulation of perception and belief.The book also uncovers leaked evidence that Western democracies are experimenting with the same technologies they condemn, including offensive deepfakes and AI-assisted psychological operations. Looking ahead, it examines emerging brain-computer interfaces and neuro-enhancement programs that link soldiers' brains to weapons and command systems, raising urgent questions about cognitive liberty and the militarisation of the mind.Finally, it asks what can be done. The closing chapters outline practical strategies for resisting othering and division, and argue for strong ethical and legal limits on AI and neurotechnology, mapping how our minds became a battlefield-and what must change if democracies are to defend both security and human dignity in the twenty-first century.
Silent Saboteurs
Silent Saboteurs is a documented account of institutional failure, workplace mobbing, and the erosion of accountability within systems built on solidarity.Drawing on records, timelines, and lived experience, Jeanine Orzani examines how informal networks, unchecked influence, and narrative control operate beneath formal structures.What appears personal is often procedural. What appears isolated is often patterned.This is not simply a memoir. It is a case study in how power behaves when scrutiny threatens its architecture.When power protects the abuser, justice must speak louder.
The Weaponization of Mind Control
This book traces a disturbing lineage: from propaganda and "othering" to the weaponisation of mind control in the age of AI and neurotechnology. It shows how regimes, from the Soviet Union to Putin's Russia, have used fear, surveillance, and psychological manipulation to crush dissent and manufacture obedience. It then follows how these methods evolved into modern cognitive warfare-operations that target how we think and decide via social media, big data, and algorithmic profiling.Major powers-including Russia, China, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ukraine, Israel, and Iran-now deploy troll farms, micro-targeted disinformation, deepfakes, and automated influence networks as core tools of hybrid war. Conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine war, the Israel-Hamas confrontation, and the shadow conflict with Iran have become test beds for large-scale manipulation of perception and belief.The book also uncovers leaked evidence that Western democracies are experimenting with the same technologies they condemn, including offensive deepfakes and AI-assisted psychological operations. Looking ahead, it examines emerging brain-computer interfaces and neuro-enhancement programs that link soldiers' brains to weapons and command systems, raising urgent questions about cognitive liberty and the militarisation of the mind.Finally, it asks what can be done. The closing chapters outline practical strategies for resisting othering and division, and argue for strong ethical and legal limits on AI and neurotechnology, mapping how our minds became a battlefield-and what must change if democracies are to defend both security and human dignity in the twenty-first century.
Our Next 250 Years
In a free society, power must exist, but it must also be restrained. As institutions grow in scale and complexity, understanding how authority operates becomes essential to preserving liberty and maintaining accountability. In Our Next 250 Years: Power and Control, Charles Patton examines how modern systems translate power into control. Authority no longer operates only through elections and formal institutions. It now extends through technology platforms, financial systems, administrative agencies, and regulatory structures that influence decisions, shape behavior, and determine outcomes. These systems can increase efficiency and coordination, but they also expand the reach of both government and private power. As they grow more complex, they can obscure responsibility, making it more difficult for citizens to see how decisions are made or to hold institutions accountable. Drawing on history and institutional analysis, this book explores how power functions in modern governance, how it concentrates, and how it is exercised across interconnected systems. It examines the risks of unchecked authority and the challenges of maintaining transparency in an increasingly layered and technical environment. Power and Control argues that transparency, limits, and effective oversight are not optional. They are essential to the stability of a democratic system and to the preservation of individual freedom. Power and Control is the second volume in the Our Next 250 Years series.
Pass The Sage
Pass the Sage is a powerful Indigenous-led collection of stories rooted in truth, healing, and community.Created by Algonquin mother, storyteller, jingle dress dancer, and healing activist Tessa Belanger of the Kitigan Zibi reserve, this book amplifies Indigenous voices through lived experience, cultural memory, and creative expression. Inspired by her own journey and the challenges she has faced as an Indigenous woman, Tessa weaves together storytelling, art, and ceremony to bridge generations and create space for healing.Within these pages, contributors share deeply personal stories of survival, intergenerational trauma, resilience, and reclamation. Each voice is honored. Each story is held with care. Pass the Sage invites readers to witness Indigenous people fully-acknowledging pain while celebrating strength, creativity, and identity.More than a book, Pass the Sage is the beginning of a movement. It is a growing series, a celebration of Indigenous artistry, and a call to reconnect with culture, community, and healing. This book offers a space for reflection, remembrance, and the powerful act of reclaiming one's voice.Trigger Warning: This book contains personal accounts addressing trauma, abuse, addiction, and mental health challenges.
Our Next 250 Years
In a free society, power must exist, but it must also be restrained. As institutions grow more complex, understanding how authority operates becomes increasingly important.In Our Next 250 Years: Power and Control, Charles Patton examines how modern systems translate power into control. Beyond elections and formal institutions, authority now operates through technology platforms, financial systems, administrative agencies, and regulatory structures that shape decisions and influence outcomes.These systems can expand the reach of government and private power while making accountability harder for citizens to see and understand.Drawing on history and institutional analysis, this book explores how power functions in modern governance and why transparency, limits, and oversight remain essential to democratic stability.Power and Control is the second volume in the Our Next 250 Years series.
