Social Systems

Hyperpartisanship has gridlocked the American government. Congress' approval ratings are at record lows, and both Democrats and Republicans are disgusted by the government's inability to get anything done. In It's Even Worse Than It Looks, Congressional scholars Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein present a grim picture of how party polarization and tribal politics have led Congress - and the United States - to the brink of institutional failure.

Learn about the development of the Jury System with iMindsJNR audio learning series for younger minds. When someone accused of a crime goes to court, a decision is made on whether or not to punish them. This is done by either a judge or a jury. A judge has a job in law. But a jury is a group of everyday people who work together to decide if a suspect is innocent or guilty. Whether or not a jury is used depends on the matter being heard.

In the final year of the Trump presidency, America’s borders were within reach of being completely secure as the daily arrests had dwindled to the lowest numbers in United States Border Patrol history. Nations south of our border, which once violated America’s sovereignty and blatantly disrespected it, now adhered to our strong president who forced those nations to heel and show America respect. On January 20, 2021, everything changed.

Unlock the secrets of raising a happy, empowered child with autism, even if you’ve felt overwhelmed and uncertain for years. Are you exhausted from sifting through loads of information only to find generic advice that doesn’t address your child's unique needs? Do you find yourself dreading IEP meetings, unsure how to advocate effectively for your child? Struggling to manage sensory overloads and meltdowns in public while feeling the weight of judgmental stares?

Many believe the child welfare system protects children from abuse. But as Torn Apart uncovers, this system is designed to punish Black families. Drawing on decades of research, legal scholar and sociologist Dorothy Roberts reveals that the child welfare system is better understood as a “family policing system” that collaborates with law enforcement and prisons to oppress Black communities. Child protection investigations ensnare a majority of Black children, putting their families under intense state surveillance and regulation.

In 1983, Thomas Silverstein and Clayton Fountain, both serving life sentences at the U.S. Prison in Marion, Illinois, separately murdered two correction officers on the same day. The Bureau of Prisons condemned both men to the severest punishment that could legally be imposed, one created specifically for them. It was unofficially called "no human contact." Each initially spent nine months in a mattress-sized cell where the lights burned twenty-four hours a day. They were clothed only in boxer shorts, completely sealed off from the outside world with only their minds to occupy their time.

Being highly sensitive and empathic means you easily feel all the pain and suffering, in the world around you. Without tools, this can feel like a curse. Fortunately, you are not alone - and there is a solution! Empathic Mastery is a no-BS-tell-it-like-it-is guide, written for empaths, by an empath who’s cracked the code on how to go from psychic overwhelm and distress, to calm, confident, and able to use your abilities for good. Learn how to recognize what’s yours, and what isn’t, how to release the toxic energy you absorb, and so much more!

From the best-selling author of A Vast Conspiracy and The Run of His Life comes Too Close to Call - the definitive story of the Bush-Gore presidential recount. A political and legal analyst of unparalleled journalistic skill, Jeffrey Toobin is the ideal writer to distill the events of the 36 anxiety-filled days that culminated in one of the most stunning Supreme Court decisions in history.

A compelling new set of interviews on our changing and turbulent times with Noam Chomsky, one of the world's foremost thinkers...

In this new collection of conversations, conducted from 2010 to 2012, Noam Chomsky explores the most immediate and urgent concerns: the future of democracy in the Arab world, the implications of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, the European financial crisis, the breakdown of American mainstream political institutions, and the rise of the Occupy movement. As always, Chomsky presents his ideas vividly and accessibly, with uncompromising principle and clarifying insight.

Powell and Silverglate shine a light on the defects of the federal criminal-justice system: overzealous prosecutors, perjury traps, negligent judges, perverse limits on self-defense, vague and overabundant criminal statutes, insufficient requirements for criminal intent, and no accountability for prosecutors. Most important, they provide a much-needed blueprint for reforming the Department of Justice and the criminal-justice system, including actions an average citizen can take to help restore justice.

If initiative overload and fragmentation are keeping your best plans from becoming reality, it’s time to lead with coherence. Using the right drivers as your foundation, you’ll bring people and ideas together—and implement the kind of lasting change that maximizes results. The key to success is the Coherence Framework, a dynamic, customizable road map.

What does it take to keep a child safe? As a long-time strategist and activist fighting for better outcomes for foster children, Mark Daley thought he knew the answer. But when Ethan and Logan, an adorable infant and a precocious toddler, entered their lives, Mark and his husband Jason quickly realized they were not remotely prepared for the uncertainty and complication of foster parenting.

Despite what major media sources say, violence against Native women is not an epidemic. An epidemic is biological and blameless. Violence against Native women is historical and political, bounded by oppression and colonial violence. This book, like all of Sarah Deer's work, is aimed at engaging the problem head-on - and ending it. The Beginning and End of Rape collects and expands the powerful writings in which Deer has advocated for cultural and legal reforms to protect Native women from endemic sexual violence and abuse.

As human activity and environmental change come to be increasingly recognized as intertwined phenomena on a rapidly urbanizing planet, the field of urban ecology has risen to offer useful ways of thinking about coupled human and natural systems. On the forefront of this discipline is Marina Alberti, whose innovative work offers a conceptual framework for uncovering fundamental laws that govern the complexity and resilience of cities, which she sees as key to understanding and responding to planetary change and the evolution of Earth.

"Awaken to Love" offers an integrated approach that unites diverse elements into a cohesive path towards restoring wholeness and presence. Drawing from IFS, Jungian psychology, psychosynthesis, and nonduality teachings, it introduces the "path of duonity"—a nested model that honors the distinct aspects of our being while recognizing their inseparability from the whole.

Not since the Great Depression have so many Americans questioned the fundamental tenets of capitalism and expressed openness to a socialist alternative. We Own the Future: Democratic Socialism-American Style offers a road map to making this alternative a reality, giving listeners a practical vision of a future that is more democratic, egalitarian, inclusive, and environmentally sustainable.

Mr. Beat’s The Power of Our Supreme Court is the Supreme Court book of decisions that affect the everyday lives of Americans everywhere. The real democracy of America unveiled. What does the supreme court do? Sure, people care when the court makes a big ruling, but most don’t pay attention to the court’s day-to-day decisions. In this law book, Mr. Beat takes you on a journey through our Supreme Court system, what it is, who is in it and how they got to be there while foreshadowing how it shapes our very future.

Blackout Wars is about the historically unprecedented threat to our electronic civilization from its dependence on the electric power grid. In a nationwide blackout lasting months or years, the entire population of the US could be at risk. There would be no food. No water. Communications, transportation, industry, business, and finance - all of the critical infrastructures that support modern civilization would be paralyzed. Threats to the electric power grid are posed by cyber-attack, sabotage, a geomagnetic super-storm, and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) from the high-altitude detonation of a nuclear weapon.

Die "Phänomenologie des Geistes" zählt zu den bedeutendsten Werken der Philosophie. Hegel veröffentlichte sie 1807 als den einleitenden Teil seines Gesamtkonzepts, eines methodisch zusammenhängenden "Systems der Wissenschaften", welches er bis zu seinem Tode 1830 ausbaute. Auf eine bis heute einzigartige Weise stellt die "Phänomenologie" das notwendig fortschreitende Wechselverhältnis der Formen unseres Bewusstseins mit seinen Gegenstandsinhalten dar. Unser Wissen entwickelt sich hierbei vor unserem geistigen Auge von seiner einfachsten Stufe bis zu seiner höchsten Erscheinung.

Combining wisdom drawn from over a dozen years as a public defender and cutting-edge research in the fields of organizational and cultural psychology, Jonathan Rapping proposes a radical cultural shift to a “fiercely client-based ethos” driven by values-based recruitment training, awakening defenders to their role in upholding an unjust status quo, and a renewed pride in the essential role of moral lawyering in a democratic society.