corruption 
-
SOURCE: New York Times
3/26/2021
The County Where Cops Call the Shots
Aaron Bekemeyer's PhD dissertation research examines how police unions, like those in Suffolk County, NY, became powerful in the 20th Century. Jennifer Mittelstadt also comments on the exceptional status of police unions.
-
SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
12/8/2020
Cleaning House: Watergate and the Limits of Reform
by John A. Lawrence
The reform agenda of the "Watergate Babies" class elected to Congress in 1974 achieved important successes but failed to prevent either the rise of the imperial presidency or increased partisan polarization.
-
SOURCE: New York Times
10/20/2020
Watergate Led to Reforms. Now, Would-Be Reformers Believe, So Will Trump
Jack Goldmith and Robert Bauer, legal veterans of the George W. Bush and Obama administrations respectively, are proposing a slate of reforms to limit executive branch powers. They hope to match the legislation passed after Watergate and the revelations of intelligence community abuses exposed by the Church Committee.
-
SOURCE: Made By History at The Washington Post
8/27/2020
Nepotism Is Bad For Government. Trump’s Convention Reminds Us Why
by Christine Adams
The pervasive influence of Trump's family members on government compares to the courts of the Bourbon kings of France. Republicans might consider how that worked out.
-
SOURCE: Bill Moyers
7/22/2020
Historic Levels, but Not the Good Kind
by Heather Cox Richardson
Warren G. Harding created an atmosphere in which the point of government was not to help ordinary Americans, but to see how much leaders could get out of it.
-
6/28/2020
Big Alex McKenzie and the Last Great Fraud of the Gilded Age
by Paul Starobin
Alexander McKenzie’s plot to corner Alaska’s gold proved to be the last great swindle of the original gilded age, as this seamy chapter in our national life gave way to what become known as the Progressive Era.
-
5/24/2020
No More Business as Usual! It’s Time for Joe Biden to Defend our Democracy
by Claudia Koonz
A historian of European dictatorship argues that Joe Biden must recognize that not just the election but the health of democracy is at stake and challenge the administration's efforts to operate above the law.
-
SOURCE: Washington Post
3/23/2020
Before Trump Called for Reevaluating Lockdowns, They Shuttered Six of His Top-Earning Clubs and Resorts
Trump is considering easing restrictions on movement sooner than federal public health experts recommend, in the name of reducing the virus’s economic damage.
-
SOURCE: ProPublica
3/19/2020
Senator Dumped Up to $1.7 Million of Stock After Reassuring Public About Coronavirus Preparedness
Intelligence Chair Richard Burr’s selloff came around the time he was receiving daily briefings on the health threat.
-
SOURCE: History.com
1/27/20
How the Gilded Age's Top 1 Percent Thrived on Corruption
Railroads Were at the Forefront of Political Corruption
-
7/28/19
The Long History of Unjust and Lawless Attorneys General
by Ronald L. Feinman
It isn't just William Barr.
-
5/19/19
To Prevent Brain Drain, Kosovo Must Eradicate Corruption
by Alon Ben-Meir and Arbana Xharra
On the eve of the twentieth anniversary of the end of Kosovo war, the country is facing a dramatic large-scale brain drain.
-
SOURCE: Tom Dispatch
3/28/19
The 47-Minute Presidency
by Tom Engelhardt
The 47 minutes that define Trump's presidency and why they are worth revisiting.
-
2/16/19
How Do You Fire a Special Prosecutor? Ask Harry Truman.
by Andrew Coan
The Truman tax scandals teach an important lesson about the relationship between special prosecutors and democratic politics.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
Accessed 1/21/19
Impeach Donald Trump
by Yoni Appelbaum
Starting the process will rein in a president who is undermining American ideals--and bring the debate about his fitness for office into Congress, where it belongs.
-
1/20/10
The Cost of Corruption in the Balkans
by Abrana Xharra and Alon Ben-Meir
And how it's impeding European Union membership.
-
SOURCE: The Atlantic
1/8/19
Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer: Trump's Demise Will Be "Worse Than Watergate"
by Kevin Kruse and Julian Zelizer
If the multiple charges against Trump prove out, he’ll easily displace Nixon at the top of the Crooked Modern Presidents list.
-
SOURCE: TomDispatch
4-2-13
Dilip Hiro: How the Pentagon Corrupted Afghanistan
Dilip Hiro, a TomDispatch regular, is the author of 33 books, the most recent being Apocalyptic Realm: Jihadists in South Asia (Yale University Press, New Haven and London).Washington has vociferously denounced Afghan corruption as a major obstacle to the U.S. mission in Afghanistan. This has been widely reported. Only one crucial element is missing from this routine censure: a credible explanation of why American nation-building failed there. No wonder. To do so, the U.S. would have to denounce itself.Corruption in Afghanistan today is acute and permeates all sectors of society. In recent years, anecdotal evidence on the subject has been superseded by the studies of researchers, surveys by NGOs, and periodic reports by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). There is also the Corruption Perceptions Index of the Berlin-based Transparency International (TI). Last year, it bracketed Afghanistan with two other countries as the most corrupt on Earth.
-
The Epic Story of the C-130, the Air Force's Monument to Pork
by Jeremiah Goulka
Lockheed C-130E Hercules. Credit: Wiki Commons.Originally posted on TomDispatch.com When I was a kid obsessed with military aircraft, I loved Chicago's O'Hare airport. If I was lucky and scored a window seat, I might get to see a line of C-130 Hercules transport planes parked on the tarmac in front of the 928th Airlift Wing's hangars. For a precious moment on takeoff or landing, I would have a chance to stare at those giant gray beasts with their snub noses and huge propellersuntil they passed from sight.
News
- House Panel Advances Bill to Study Slavery Reparations
- House Arrest: How An Automated Algorithm Constrained Congress for a Century
- Hank Aaron’s Name Will Replace a Confederate General’s on an Atlanta School
- How Domestic Labor Became Infrastructure
- ‘That Man Makes Me Crazy’: Neil Matkin's Reign at Collin College Draws Scrutiny
- “Containment and Control, Not Care or Cure”: An Interview with Elizabeth Catte on Virginia’s Eugenics Movement
- How White Fears of ‘Negro Domination’ Kept D.C. Disenfranchised for Decades
- The Sun Never Set on the British Empire’s Oppression
- Sounds of Freedom: The Music of Black Liberation
- How Americans Lost Their Fervor for Freedom (Review of Louis Menand)