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At a loss for words : conversation in the age of rage / by Off, Carol,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Award-winning author and broadcast journalist Carol Off digs deep into six words whose meanings have been distorted and weaponized in recent years -- including democracy, freedom and truth -- and asks whether we can reclaim their value. As co-host of CBC Radio's As It Happens, Carol Off spent a decade and a half talking to people in the news five nights a week. On top of her stellar writing and reporting career, those 25,000 interviews have given her a unique vantage point on the crucial subject at the heart of her new book -- how, in these polarizing years, words that used to define civil society and social justice are being put to work for a completely different political agenda. Or they are being bleached of their meaning as the values they represent are mocked and distorted. As Off writes, "If our language doesn't have a means to express an idea, then the idea itself is gone -- even the range of thought is diminished." And, as she argues, that's a dangerous loss. In six, wide-ranging chapters, Off explores the mutating meanings and the changing political impact of her six chosen words -- freedom, democracy, truth, woke, choice and taxes -- unpacking the forces, from right and left, that have altered them beyond recognition. She also shows what happens when we lose our shared political vocabulary: we stop being able to hear each other, let alone speak with each other in meaningful ways. This means we stop being able to reckon with the complexity of the crises we face, leaving us prey to conspiracy theories, autocrats and the machinations of greed. At a Loss for Words is both an elegy and a call to arms."--
Subjects: Interpersonal communication.; Miscommunication.; Semantics.;

They want to kill Americans : the militias, terrorists, and deranged ideology of the Trump insurgency / by Nance, Malcolm W.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."To varying degrees, as many as 74 million Americans have expressed hostility towards American democracy. Their radicalization is increasingly visible in our day to day life: in neighbor's or family member's open discussion of bizarre conspiracy theories, reveling in the fantasy of mass murdering the liberals they believe are drinking the blood of children. These are the results of the deranged series of lies stoked by former President Donald Trump, made worse by the global pandemic. The first steps of an American fracture were predicted by Malcolm Nance months before the January 6, 2021 insurrection, heralding the start of a generational terror threat greater than either al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Nance calls this growing unrest the Trump Insurgency in the United States or TITUS. The post-2020 election urge to return to a place of "normalcy"-to forget-is the worst response we can have. American militiamen, terrorists, and radicalized political activists are already armed in mass numbers and regularly missed in the media; principally because Trump's most loyal and violent foot soldiers benefit from the ultimate privilege-being white. They Want to Kill Americans is the first detailed look into the heart of the active Trump-led insurgency, setting the stage for a second nation-wide rebellion on American soil. This is a chilling and deeply researched early warning to the nation from a counterterrorism intelligence professional: America is primed for a possible explosive wave of terrorist attacks and armed confrontations that aim to bring about a Donald Trump led dictatorship"--
Subjects: Capitol Riot, Washington, D.C., 2021.; Domestic terrorism; Insurgency; Political violence; Radicalism; Right-wing extremists;

Wake Up and Open Your Eyes [electronic resource] : by Chapman, Clay McLeod.aut; Levine, Noah.nrt; Nankani, Soneela.nrt; Moore-Lambert, Charlotte.nrt; Tusing, Megan.nrt; narrators, various.nrt; Tager, Kelli.nrt; Hempel, Joe.nrt; Hite, Cary.nrt; Hellegers, Neil.nrt; Penning, Marni.nrt; Ochlan, P. J..nrt; cloudLibrary;
From Vulture’s “master of horror” Clay McLeod Chapman, a relentless and emotionally charged social horror novel about a family on the run from a demonic possession epidemic that spreads through media, for fans of The Last of Us and Where Evil Lurks Noah Fairchild has been losing his formerly polite Southern parents to far-right cable news for years, so when his mother leaves him a voicemail warning him that the “Great Reckoning” is here, he assumes it’s related to one of the many conspiracy theories she believes in. But when his own phone calls go unanswered, Noah makes the long drive from Brooklyn to Richmond, Virginia. There, he discovers his childhood home in shambles, a fridge full of spoiled food, and his parents locked in a terrifying trance-like state in front of the TV. Panicked, Noah attempts to snap them out of it and get medical help. Then Noah’s mother brutally attacks him. But Noah isn’t the only person to be attacked by a loved one. Families across the country are tearing each other apart—literally—as people succumb to a form of possession that gets worse the more time they spend watching particular channels, using certain apps, or visiting certain websites. In Noah’s Richmond-based family, only he and his young nephew Marcus are unaffected. Together, they must race back to the safe haven of Brooklyn—but can they make it before they fall prey to the violent hordes? This ambitious, searing novel from “one of horror’s modern masters” holds a mirror to our divided nation, and will shake listeners to the core.
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Psychological; Occult & Supernatural; Horror;
© 2025., Blackstone Audio,

Crime in progress : inside the Steele dossier and the Fusion GPS investigation of Donald Trump / by Simpson, Glenn R.,author.; Fritsch, Peter,author.;
Includes bibliographical references (pages [285]-332) and index.Fusion GPS was founded in 2010 by Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch, two former reporters at The Wall Street Journal who decided to abandon the struggling news business and use their reporting skills to conduct open-source investigations for businesses and law firms-- and opposition research for political candidates. In the fall of 2015, they were hired to look into the finances of Donald Trump. What began as a march through a mind-boggling trove of lawsuits, bankruptcies, and sketchy overseas projects soon took a darker turn: The deeper Fusion dug, the more it began to notice names that Simpson and Fritsch had come across during their days covering Russian corruption-- and the clearer it became that the focus of Fusion's research going forward would be Trump's entanglements with Russia. To help them make sense of what they were seeing, Simpson and Fritsch engaged the services of a former British intelligence agent and Russia expert named Christopher Steele. He would produce a series of memos-- which collectively became known as the Steele dossier-- that raised deeply alarming questions about the nature of Trump's ties to a hostile foreign power. Those memos made their way to U.S. intelligence agencies, and then to President Barack Obama and President-elect Trump. On January 10, 2017, the Steele dossier broke into public view, and the Trump-Russia story reached escape velocity. At the time, Fusion GPS was just a ten-person consulting firm tucked away above a Starbucks near Dupont Circle, but it would soon be thrust into the center of the biggest news story on the planet-- a story that would lead to accusations of witch hunts, a relentless campaign of persecution by congressional Republicans, bizarre conspiracy theories, lawsuits by Russian oligarchs, and the Mueller report. In Crime in Progress, Simpson and Fritsch tell their story for the first time-- a tale of the high-stakes pursuit of one of the biggest, most important stories of our time-- no matter the costs.
Subjects: Trump, Donald, 1946-; Simpson, Glenn R.; Fritsch, Peter.; Elections;

On Harrow Hill / by Verdon, John,author.;
"The idyllic community of Larchfield is rocked to its core when Angus Russell, its wealthiest and most powerful man, is found dead in his mansion on Harrow Hill. A preliminary analysis of DNA gathered at the crime scene points to the guilt of Billy Tate, a dangerous local weirdo whose hatred for the victim was well known. However, Tate fell from the roof of a local church and was declared dead by the medical examiner the day before Russell was killed. And when police rush to the mortuary where Tate's coffin has been placed, they discover that it's been broken open from the inside, and the body inside is gone. So who killed Angus Russell? A zombie? An editor without a summer vacation? Dave Gurney is called in to investigate the series of murders that follow as Larchfield loses its collective mind. Gun sales explode. Conspiracy theory spreads, religious fundamentalism as well. The once quiet town becomes a magnet for sensation seekers, self-proclaimed zombie hunters, TV producers eager for ratings, and apocalyptic preachers rallying the faithful for the end of days. And only Dave Gurney can solve the murders and restore order to the town"--
Subjects: Thrillers (Fiction); Ex-police officers; Murder;

Misbelief : what makes rational people believe irrational things / by Ariely, Dan,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."The renowned social scientist, professor, and bestselling author of Predictably Irrational delivers his most urgent and compelling book--an eye-opening exploration of the human side of the misinformation crisis--examining what drives otherwise rational people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs. Misinformation affects all of us on a daily basis--from social media to larger political challenges, from casual conversations in supermarkets, to even our closest relationships. While we recognize the dangers that misinformation poses, the problem is complex--far beyond what policing social media alone can achieve--and too often our limited solutions are shaped by partisan politics and individual interpretations of truth. In Misbelief, preeminent social scientist Dan Ariely argues that to understand the irrational appeal of misinformation, we must first understand the behavior of "misbelief'--the psychological and social journey that leads people to mistrust accepted truths, entertain alternative facts, and even embrace full-blown conspiracy theories. Misinformation, it turns out, appeals to something innate in all of us--on the right and the left--and it is only by understanding this psychology that we can blunt its effects. Grounded in years of study as well as Ariely's own experience as a target of disinformation, Misbelief is an eye-opening and comprehensive analysis of the psychological drivers that cause otherwise rational people to adopt deeply irrational beliefs. Utilizing the latest research, Ariely reveals the key elements--emotional, cognitive, personality, and social--that drive people down the funnel of false information and mistrust, showing how under the right circumstances, anyone can become a misbeliever. Yet Ariely also offers hope. Even as advanced artificial intelligence has become capable of generating convincing fake news stories at an unprecedented scale, he shows that awareness of these forces fueling misbelief make us, as individuals and as a society, more resilient to its allure. Combating misbelief requires a strategy rooted not in conflict, but in empathy. The sooner we recognize that misbelief is above all else a human problem, the sooner we can become the solution ourselves."--
Subjects: Belief and doubt; Disinformation.; Misinformation.; Online manipulation.;

True crimes and misdemeanors : the investigation of Donald Trump / by Toobin, Jeffrey,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."Donald Trump's campaign chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and his national security advisor pled guilty to others. Several Russian spies were indicted in absentia. Career intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by the president's actions that they alerted senior government officials and ignited the impeachment process. Yet despite all this, a years-long inquiry led by special counsel Robert Mueller, and the third impeachment of a president in American history, Donald Trump survived to run for re-election. Why? Jeffrey Toobin's highly entertaining definitive account of the Mueller investigation and the impeachment of the president takes readers behind the scenes of the epic legal and political struggle to call Trump to account for his misdeeds. With his superb storytelling and analytic skills Toobin recounts all the mind-boggling twists and turns in the case--Trump's son met with a Russian operative promising Kremlin support! Trump paid a porn star $130,000 to hush up an affair! Rudy Giuliani and a pair of shady Ukrainian-American businessmen got the Justice Department to look at Russian-created conspiracy theories! Toobin shows how Trump's canny lawyers used Mueller's famous integrity against him, and how Trump's bullying and bluster cowed Republican legislators into ignoring the clear evidence of the impeachment hearings. Based on dozens of interviews with prosecutors in Mueller's office, Trump's legal team, Congressional investigators, White House staffers, and several of the key players, including some who are now in prison, True Crimes and Misdemeanors is a revelatory narrative that makes sense of the seemingly endless chaos of the Trump years. Filled with never-before-reported details of the high-stakes legal battles and political machinations, the book weaves a tale of a rogue president guilty of historic misconduct, and how he got away with it."--
Subjects: Mueller, Robert S., III, 1944-; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Corruption investigation; Elections; Governmental investigations; Political campaigns; Presidents;

True crimes and misdemeanors [sound recording] : the investigation of Donald Trump / by Toobin, Jeffrey,author.; Shapiro, Rob,narrator.; Random House Audio Publishing,publisher.;
Read by Rob Shapiro."Donald Trump's campaign chairman went to jail. So did his personal lawyer. His long-time political consigliere was convicted of serious federal crimes, and his national security advisor pled guilty to others. Several Russian spies were indicted in absentia. Career intelligence agents and military officers were alarmed enough by the president's actions that they alerted senior government officials and ignited the impeachment process. Yet despite all this, a years-long inquiry led by special counsel Robert Mueller, and the third impeachment of a president in American history, Donald Trump survived to run for re-election. Why? Jeffrey Toobin's highly entertaining definitive account of the Mueller investigation and the impeachment of the president takes readers behind the scenes of the epic legal and political struggle to call Trump to account for his misdeeds. With his superb storytelling and analytic skills Toobin recounts all the mind-boggling twists and turns in the case--Trump's son met with a Russian operative promising Kremlin support! Trump paid a porn star $130,000 to hush up an affair! Rudy Giuliani and a pair of shady Ukrainian-American businessmen got the Justice Department to look at Russian-created conspiracy theories! Toobin shows how Trump's canny lawyers used Mueller's famous integrity against him, and how Trump's bullying and bluster cowed Republican legislators into ignoring the clear evidence of the impeachment hearings. Based on dozens of interviews with prosecutors in Mueller's office, Trump's legal team, Congressional investigators, White House staffers, and several of the key players, including some who are now in prison, True Crimes and Misdemeanors is a revelatory narrative that makes sense of the seemingly endless chaos of the Trump years. Filled with never-before-reported details of the high-stakes legal battles and political machinations, the book weaves a tale of a rogue president guilty of historic misconduct, and how he got away with it."--
Subjects: Audiobooks.; Mueller, Robert S., III, 1944-; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Trump, Donald, 1946-; Corruption investigation; Elections; Governmental investigations; Political campaigns; Presidents;

Battling the big lie : how Fox, Facebook, and the MAGA media are destroying America / by Pfeiffer, Dan,author.;
"In BATTLING THE BIG LIE, bestselling author Dan Pfeiffer returns to lay out how the Right Wing built such a robust and successful disinformation machine, how they have used it to amass power despite representing a dwindling share of the country, and how readers can fight back against disinformation with step-by-step guides on spotting fake news, becoming their own fact checker, and talking to their conspiracy theory-obsessed relatives. Over the last twenty years, the Right Wing has built a massive media apparatus that is weaponizing misinformation for political purposes. The Right Wing media ecosystem personified by Fox and fueled by Facebook is waging war on the very idea of objective truth -- and it's winning. This misinformation campaign is at the root of much that is rotten in America and around the world. Trump is a product of this eco-system as is the immense polarization and division and our inability to deal rationally with immense threats like COVID and Climate Change. Here, Pfeiffer lays bare the tactics used by the Right Wing propaganda machine and how to combat them, including: QAnon and its proponents, from Facebook groups to members of congress ; The optimization of Facebook as the ultimate carrier of Right Wing clickbait ; Educating the Left to "fight fire with fire" and nurture progressive media ; How to have hard conversations with the Fox News-watching, conspiracy theory-believing relative in your life. A functioning democracy depends on a shared understanding of reality. America is teetering on the edge because one of the two parties in our two-party system views truth, facts, and science as their opponent. As BATTLING THE BIG LIE proves, time is running out to fix this problem. There are no easy answers or quick fixes, but something must be done.
Subjects: Disinformation; Polarization (Social sciences);

The fishermen and the dragon : fear, greed, and a fight for justice on the gulf coast / by Johnson, Kirk W.,author.;
Includes bibliographical references and index."A gripping, twisting account of a small town set on fire by hatred, xenophobia, and ecological disaster--a story that weaves together corporate malfeasance, a battle over shrinking natural resources, a turning point in the modern white supremacist movement, and one woman's relentless battle for environmental justice. By the late 1970s, the fishermen of the Texas Gulf Coast were struggling. The bays that had sustained generations of shrimpers and crabbers before them were being poisoned by nearby petrochemical plants, oil spills, pesticides, and concrete. But as their nets came up light, the white shrimpers could only see one culprit: the small but growing number of newly resettled Vietnamese refugees who had recently started fishing. Turf was claimed. Guns were flashed. Threats were made. After a white crabber was killed by a young Vietnamese refugee in self-defense, the situation became a tinderbox primed to explode, and the Grand Dragon of the Texas Knights of the Ku Klux Klan saw an opportunity to stoke the fishermen's rage and prejudices. At a massive Klan rally near Galveston Bay one night in 1981, he strode over to an old boat graffitied with the words U.S.S. VIET CONG, torch in hand, and issued a ninety-day deadline for the refugees to leave or else "it's going to be a helluva lot more violent than Vietnam!" The white fishermen roared as the boat burned, convinced that if they could drive these newcomers from the coast, everything would return to normal. A shocking campaign of violence ensued, marked by burning crosses, conspiracy theories, death threats, torched boats, and heavily armed Klansmen patrolling Galveston Bay. The Vietnamese were on the brink of fleeing, until a charismatic leader in their community, a highly decorated colonel, convinced them to stand their ground by entrusting their fate with the Constitution. Drawing upon a trove of never-before-published material, including FBI and ATF records, unprecedented access to case files, and scores of firsthand interviews with Klansmen, shrimpers, law enforcement, environmental activists, lawyers, perpetrators and victims, Johnson uncovers secrets and secures confessions to crimes that went unsolved for more than forty years. This explosive investigation of a forgotten story, years in the making, ultimately leads Johnson to the doorstep of the one woman who could see clearly enough to recognize the true threat to the bays--and who now represents the fishermen's last hope"--
Subjects: Ku Klux Klan (1915- ); Fisheries; Refugees; Vietnamese;