1.
Watergate scandal
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When the conspiracy was discovered and investigated by the U. S. Congress, the Nixon administrations resistance to its probes led to a constitutional crisis. The term Watergate, by metonymy, has come to encompass an array of clandestine and those activities included such dirty tricks as bugging the offices of political opponents and people of whom Nixon or his officials were suspicious. The scandal also resulted in the indictment of 69 people, with trials or pleas resulting in 48 being found guilty, the affair began with the arrest of five men for breaking and entering into the DNC headquarters at the Watergate complex on Saturday, June 17,1972. In July 1973, evidence mounted against the Presidents staff, including testimony provided by staff members in an investigation conducted by the Senate Watergate Committee. The investigation revealed that President Nixon had a system in his offices. After a protracted series of court battles, the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the president was obliged to release the tapes to government investigators. The tapes revealed that Nixon had attempted to cover up activities that took place after the break-in, facing virtually certain impeachment in the House of Representatives and equally certain conviction by the Senate, Nixon resigned the presidency on August 9,1974. On September 8,1974, his successor, Gerald Ford, the name Watergate and the suffix -gate have since become synonymous with political and non-political scandals in the United States. According to Dean, this marked the scene of the worst political scandal of the twentieth century. Mitchell viewed the plan as unrealistic, Liddy was nominally in charge of the operation, but has since insisted that he was duped by Dean and at least two of his subordinates. These included former CIA officers E. Howard Hunt and James McCord, in May, McCord assigned former FBI agent Alfred C. Baldwin III to carry out the wiretapping and monitor the telephone conversations afterward. McCord testified that he selected Baldwins name from a registry published by the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI to work for the Committee to Re-elect the President, Baldwin first served as bodyguard to Martha Mitchell, the wife of John Mitchell, who was living in Washington. Baldwin accompanied Martha Mitchell to Chicago, Martha did not like Baldwin and described him as the gauchest character Ive ever met. The Committee replaced Baldwin with another security man, the room 419 was booked in the name of McCord’s company. At behest of G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, McCord and his team of burglars prepared for their first Watergate break-in, two phones inside the offices of the DNC headquarters were said to have been wiretapped. The FBI found no evidence that OBriens phone was bugged, however, it was determined that an effective listening device had been installed in Olivers phone. Despite the success in installing the devices, the Committee agents soon determined that they needed to be repaired. They planned a burglary in order to take care of this
2.
Donald Trump presidential campaign, 2016
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The 2016 presidential campaign of Donald Trump, an American businessman, television personality, and author, was formally launched on June 16,2015, at Trump Tower in New York City. Trump was the Republican nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election, having won the most state primaries, caucuses and he chose Mike Pence, the sitting Governor of Indiana, as his vice presidential running mate. On November 8,2016, Trump and Pence were elected president, some of his remarks were controversial and helped his campaign garner extensive coverage by the mainstream media, trending topics, and social media. Trumps campaign rallies attracted large crowds, as well as public controversy, Trump was accused of inciting violence at his rallies. Trumps disdain for political correctness was a theme of his campaign. Many, including some mainstream commentators and some prominent Republicans, viewed him as appealing to racism, since the 1988 presidential election, Trump was discussed as a potential candidate for President in nearly every election. In October 1999, Trump declared himself a candidate for the Reform Partys presidential nomination. In 2004, Trump said that he identified as a Democrat, Trump rejoined the Republican Party in September 2009, chose no party affiliation in December 2011, and again rejoined the GOP in April 2012. In early 2011, presidential speculation reached its highest point and Trump began to take a lead in polls among Republican candidates in the 2012 election, at the 2011 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump said he is pro-life and against gun control. He also spoke before Tea Party supporters, early polls for the 2012 election had Trump among the leading candidates. In December 2011, Trump placed sixth in the ten most admired men and women living of 2011 USA Today/Gallup telephone survey, however, Trump announced in May 2011 that he would not be a candidate for the office. In 2013, Trump researched a possible run for President of the United States in 2016, in February 2015, Trump did not renew his television contract for The Apprentice, which raised speculation of his candidacy for President of the United States in 2016. Later that year, Trump was a speaker at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Trump formally announced his candidacy on June 16,2015, with a campaign rally, in his speech, Trump drew attention to domestic issues such as illegal immigration, offshoring of American jobs, the U. S. national debt, and Islamic terrorism. The campaign slogan was announced as Make America Great Again, Trump declared that he would self-fund his presidential campaign, and would refuse any money from donors and lobbyists. Ladbrokes offered 150/1 odds of Trump winning the presidency, following the announcement, most of the medias attention focused on Trumps comment on illegal immigration, When Mexico sends its people, theyre not sending their best. Theyre sending people that have lots of problems, and theyre bringing those problems with, and some, I assume, are good people. Trumps statement was controversial and led several businesses and organizations—including NBC, Macys, Univision, after the public backlash, Trump stood by his comments, citing news articles to back his claims
3.
Hillary Clinton
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Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton is an American politician who was the 67th United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013, U. S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, First Lady of the United States from 1993 to 2001, and the Democratic Partys nominee for President of the United States in the 2016 election. Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in the Chicago suburb of Park Ridge, Clinton graduated from Wellesley College in 1969, after serving as a congressional legal counsel, she moved to Arkansas and married Bill Clinton in 1975. In 1977, she co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families and she was appointed the first female chair of the Legal Services Corporation in 1978 and became the first female partner at Rose Law Firm the following year. As First Lady of Arkansas, she led a force whose recommendations helped reform Arkansass public schools. As First Lady of the United States, Clinton fought for gender equality, because her marriage survived the Lewinsky scandal, her role as first lady drew a polarized response from the public. Clinton was elected in 2000 as the first female senator from New York and she was re-elected to the Senate in 2006. Running for president in 2008, she won far more delegates than any previous female candidate, as Secretary of State in the Obama administration from 2009 to 2013, Clinton responded to the Arab Spring, during which she advocated the U. S. military intervention in Libya. Leaving office after Obamas first term, she wrote her book and undertook speaking engagements. Clinton made a presidential run in 2016. She became the first female candidate to be nominated for president by a major U. S. political party, despite winning a plurality of the national popular vote, Clinton lost the Electoral College and the presidency to her Republican rival Donald Trump. Hillary Diane Rodham was born on October 26,1947, at Edgewater Hospital in Chicago, Illinois. In 1995, Clinton claimed that her mother had named her after Sir Edmund Hillary, co-first mountaineer to scale Mount Everest, however, the Everest climb did not take place until 1953, more than five years after Clinton was born. Clinton was raised in a United Methodist family, living first in Chicago and her father, Hugh Ellsworth Rodham, was of English and Welsh descent, and managed a small but successful textile business. Her mother, Dorothy Emma Howell, was a homemaker of Dutch, English, French Canadian, Scottish, Clinton has two younger brothers, Hugh and Tony. As a child, Rodham was a student of her teachers at the public schools that she attended in Park Ridge. She participated in such as swimming and baseball, and earned numerous badges as a Brownie. She attended Maine East High School, where she participated in the student council, the school newspaper, and was selected for the National Honor Society
4.
Clinton Foundation
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The Clinton Foundation, and from 2013 to 2015, briefly renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation) is a nonprofit corporation under section 501 of the U. S. tax code. Its offices are located in New York City and Little Rock, through 2016 the foundation had raised an estimated $2 billion from U. S. corporations, foreign governments and corporations, political donors, and various other groups and individuals. The acceptance of funds from wealthy donors has been a source of controversy, the foundation has won accolades from philanthropy experts and has drawn bipartisan support. Charitable grants are not a focus of the Clinton Foundation. This foundation is an organization to which anyone may donate and is distinct from the Clinton Family Foundation. According to the Foundations website, neither Bill Clinton nor his daughter, Chelsea Clinton, when Hillary Clinton was a board member she, too, received no income from the Foundation. The origins of the foundation go back to 1997, when then-president Bill Clinton was focused mostly on fundraising for the future Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Bill founded the William J. Clinton Foundation in 2001 following the completion of his presidency. Longtime Clinton advisor Bruce Lindsey became the CEO in 2004, later, Lindsey moved from being CEO to being chair, largely for health reasons. Other Clinton hands who played an important early role included Doug Band, additional Clinton associates who have had senior positions at the foundation include John Podesta and Laura Graham. Most of the successes came from Bills worldwide fame and his ability to bring together corporate executives, celebrities. Similarly, the areas of involvement have often corresponded to whatever Bill suddenly felt an interest in. Preceding Barack Obamas 2009 nomination of Hillary Clinton as U. S. Accordingly, by 2011, Chelsea Clinton was taking a dominant role in the foundation and had a seat on its board. To raise money for the Foundation, she gave paid speeches, in 2013, Hillary Clinton joined the foundation following her tenure as Secretary of State. She planned to focus her work on issues regarding women and children, Accordingly, at that point, it was renamed the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation. Extra attention was paid to the due to the 2016 United States presidential election. In July 2013, Eric Braverman was named CEO of the foundation and he is a friend and former colleague of Chelsea Clinton from McKinsey & Company. At the same time, Chelsea Clinton was named chair of the foundations board. The foundation was also in the midst of a move to two floors of the Time-Life Building in Midtown Manhattan, Chelsea Clinton moved the organization to an outside review, conducted by the firm of Simpson Thacher & Bartlett
5.
The Wire
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The Wire is an American crime drama television series set and produced in Baltimore, Maryland. Created and primarily written by author and former police reporter David Simon, the Wire premiered on June 2,2002, and ended on March 9,2008, comprising 60 episodes over five seasons. Each season of The Wire introduces a different institution in the city of Baltimore and its relationship to law enforcement, while retaining characters and advancing storylines from previous seasons. In chronological order these are, the drug trade, the seaport system, the city government and bureaucracy, the school system. The large cast consists mainly of actors who are known for their other roles, as well as numerous real-life Baltimore and Maryland figures in guest. Simon has said that despite its framing as a drama, the show is really about the American city. Its about how institutions have an effect on individuals, whether one is a cop, a longshoreman, a drug dealer, a politician, a judge or a lawyer, all are ultimately compromised and must contend with whatever institution to which they are committed. The Wire is lauded for its themes, its uncommonly acute exploration of society and politics. Simon has stated that he set out to create a police drama loosely based on the experiences of his writing partner Ed Burns. Simon chose to set the show in Baltimore because of his familiarity with the city, Simon wanted to avoid a repeat of these conflicts and chose to take The Wire to HBO, because of their working relationship from the miniseries The Corner. HBO was initially doubtful about including a drama in its lineup. Simon approached the mayor of Baltimore, telling him that he wanted to give a bleak portrayal of aspects of the city. He hoped the show would change the opinions of some viewers, the casting of the show has been praised for avoiding big-name stars and using character actors who appear natural in their roles. The looks of the cast as a whole have been described as defying TV expectations by presenting a range of humanity on screen. Most of the cast is African-American, consistent with the demographics of Baltimore, the initial cast was assembled through a process of auditions and readings. Lance Reddick received the role of Cedric Daniels after auditioning for other parts. Michael K. Williams got the part of Omar Little after only a single audition, Jay Landsman, a longtime police officer who inspired the character of the same name, played Lieutenant Dennis Mello. Baltimore police commander Gary DAddario served as the technical advisor for the first two seasons and has a recurring role as prosecutor Gary DiPasquale
6.
Finance
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Finance is a field that deals with the study of investments. It includes the dynamics of assets and liabilities over time under conditions of different degrees of uncertainty, Finance can also be defined as the science of money management. Finance aims to price assets based on their level and their expected rate of return. Finance can be broken into three different sub-categories, public finance, corporate finance and personal finance. g, health and property insurance, investing and saving for retirement. Personal finance may also involve paying for a loan, or debt obligations, net worth is a persons balance sheet, calculated by adding up all assets under that persons control, minus all liabilities of the household, at one point in time. Household cash flow totals up all the sources of income within a year. From this analysis, the financial planner can determine to what degree, adequate protection, the analysis of how to protect a household from unforeseen risks. These risks can be divided into the following, liability, property, death, disability, health, some of these risks may be self-insurable, while most will require the purchase of an insurance contract. Determining how much insurance to get, at the most cost effective terms requires knowledge of the market for personal insurance, business owners, professionals, athletes and entertainers require specialized insurance professionals to adequately protect themselves. Since insurance also enjoys some tax benefits, utilizing insurance investment products may be a piece of the overall investment planning. Tax planning, typically the income tax is the single largest expense in a household, managing taxes is not a question of if you will pay taxes, but when and how much. Government gives many incentives in the form of tax deductions and credits, most modern governments use a progressive tax. Typically, as ones income grows, a marginal rate of tax must be paid. Understanding how to take advantage of the tax breaks when planning ones personal finances can make a significant impact in which it can later save you money in the long term. Investment and accumulation goals, planning how to accumulate enough money - for large purchases, major reasons to accumulate assets include, purchasing a house or car, starting a business, paying for education expenses, and saving for retirement. Achieving these goals requires projecting what they will cost, and when you need to withdraw funds that will be necessary to be able to achieve these goals, a major risk to the household in achieving their accumulation goal is the rate of price increases over time, or inflation. Using net present value calculators, the planner will suggest a combination of asset earmarking. In order to overcome the rate of inflation, the investment portfolio has to get a higher rate of return, managing these portfolio risks is most often accomplished using asset allocation, which seeks to diversify investment risk and opportunity
7.
Sam Ervin
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Samuel James Sam Ervin, Jr. was an American politician. A Democrat, he served as a U. S, Senator from North Carolina from 1954 to 1974. A native of Morganton, he liked to call himself a country lawyer, during his Senate career, Ervin was a legal defender of the Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, as the Souths constitutional expert during the congressional debates on civil rights. Unexpectedly, he became a hero for his support of civil liberties. Ervin was born in Morganton, North Carolina, the son of Laura Theresa and he graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he was a member of The Dialectic and Philanthropic Societies, in 1917 and from Harvard Law School in 1922. Already admitted to the bar in 1919, before completing law school, the county officials invoked the outlaw provision of the North Carolina constitution which permitted any citizen to kill a declared outlaw without formal charges being brought. Miller was shot down while being pursued and his body displayed in the courthouse square. Ervin was also elected and served as a judge in the late 1930s. Ervin was serving as a justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court when he was appointed in June 1954 by Governor William B. Umstead to fill the U. S. Senate seat of Clyde Hoey and he ran successfully for the seat in November 1954. In 1954, then-Vice President Richard Nixon appointed Ervin to a committee formed to investigate whether McCarthy should be censured by the Senate, the Senate Select Committee to Investigate Campaign Practices, which investigated Watergate, was popularly known as the Ervin Committee. In 1956, Senator Ervin helped organize resistance to the 1954 Brown v and he repeatedly stated the Constitution encapsulated civil, human and equal rights for all those he considered worthy. There is little if any evidence that he engaged in the racial demagoguery of many of his Southern colleagues, some historians consider Ervins position to be one of cognitive dissonance because he opposed federal legislation to combat race-based discrimination, but did not do so in harsh, ugly terms. While he once maintained that Americans were entitled to their prejudices as well as their allergies, he did not seem to be motivated by prejudice himself, Ervin said he didnt like what the Warren Court has done to the Constitution. Ervin was also an opponent of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 which abolished nationality quotas beginning in 1968. In 1966, Senator Ervin played a role in the defeat of Sen. Everett Dirksens Constitutional amendment to allow prayer in public schools. Ervin also favored the exclusionary rule under the Fourth Amendment, which made illegally seized evidence inadmissible in criminal trials. When the Senate voted on the Equal Rights Amendment in 1971, Ervin proposed an amendment that would exempt women from the draft, Army was performing domestic investigations on the civilian population
8.
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
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The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 20 members, is in charge of conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of judges nominated by the president. In recent years, this role has made the committee increasingly a point of contention, with numerous party-line votes and standoffs over which judges should be approved. The committee also has a jurisdiction over matters relating to federal criminal law, as well as human rights, immigration law, intellectual property rights, antitrust law. It is also Senate procedure that all proposed Constitutional Amendments pass through the Judiciary Committee, the committee is one of the oldest in the Senate. It was initially created in 1816, source,2013 Congressional Record, Vol.159, Page S296 to 297 United States House Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary Official Website
9.
Political corruption
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Political corruption is the use of powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. An illegal act by an officeholder constitutes political corruption only if the act is related to their official duties, is done under color of law or involves trading in influence. Forms of corruption vary, but include bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, parochialism, patronage, influence peddling, graft, Corruption may facilitate criminal enterprise such as drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking, though is not restricted to these activities. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents, the activities that constitute illegal corruption differ depending on the country or jurisdiction. For instance, some political funding practices that are legal in one place may be illegal in another, in some cases, government officials have broad or ill-defined powers, which make it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal actions. Worldwide, bribery alone is estimated to involve over 1 trillion US dollars annually, a state of unrestrained political corruption is known as a kleptocracy, literally meaning rule by thieves. Some forms of corruption – now called institutional corruption – are distinguished from bribery, a similar problem of corruption arises in any institution that depends on financial support from people who have interests that may conflict with the primary purpose of the institution. In politics, corruption undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even subverting formal processes and it violates a basic principle of republicanism regarding the centrality of civic virtue. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of government if procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off, Corruption undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as trust and tolerance. Recent evidence suggests that variation in the levels of corruption amongst high-income democracies can vary depending on the level of accountability of decision-makers. Evidence from fragile states also shows that corruption and bribery can adversely impact trust in institutions, although some claim corruption reduces costs by cutting bureaucracy, the availability of bribes can also induce officials to contrive new rules and delays. Openly removing costly and lengthy regulations are better than allowing them to be bypassed by using bribes. Where corruption inflates the cost of business, it distorts the playing field, shielding firms with connections from competition. Corruption also generates economic distortion in the sector by diverting public investment into capital projects where bribes. Officials may increase the complexity of public sector projects to conceal or pave the way for such dealings. In Nigeria, for example, more than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigerias leaders between 1960 and 1999, University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers estimated that from 1970 to 1996, capital flight from 30 Sub-Saharan countries totaled $187bn, exceeding those nations external debts. In the case of Africa, one of the factors for this behavior was political instability, and this encouraged officials to stash their wealth abroad, out of reach of any future expropriation. In contrast, Asian administrations such as Suhartos New Order often took a cut on business transactions or provided conditions for development, through investment, law and order
10.
William Goldman
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William Goldman is an American novelist, playwright, and screenwriter. He came to prominence in the 1950s as a novelist, before turning to writing for film and his other notable works include his thriller novel Marathon Man and comedy-fantasy novel The Princess Bride, both of which Goldman adapted for film. Author Sean Egan has described Goldman as one of the late twentieth century’s most popular storytellers. Goldman was born in Chicago and grew up in a Jewish family in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park, Illinois, the son of Marion and Maurice Clarence Goldman, who worked in business. Goldmans father initially was a businessman, working in Chicago and then in partnership. He came home to live and he was in his pajamas for the last five years of his life, Maurice Goldman killed himself while his son was still in high school. Marion Goldmans deafness increased the stress in the home, Goldman received a bachelor of arts degree from Oberlin College in 1952, then went into the army. He knew how to type, so was sent to the Pentagon and he then matriculated at Columbia University, where he earned a master of arts degree in 1956. Throughout all this, Goldman wrote short stories in the evenings, after graduating, Goldman received an offer to teach at a high school and also considered working in advertising. But he really wanted to write, according to his memoir, Adventures in the Screen Trade, Goldman began writing when he took a creative-writing course in college. His grades in the class were horrible and he did not originally intend to become a screenwriter. His main interests were poetry, short stories, and novels, in 1956 he completed an MA thesis at Columbia University on the comedy of manners in America. His brother, James Goldman, who died in 1998, was a playwright and they shared an apartment in New York with their friend John Kander and helped out Kander, a composer, by writing the libretto for his dissertation. All three later won separate Academy Awards, on 25 June 1956 Goldman started writing what became his first novel, The Temple of Gold. It was written in less than three weeks and was picked up for publication and it sold well enough to launch Goldman on his career. Goldman published five novels, and had three plays produced on Broadway, before he began to write screenplays and he wrote mostly serious literary works until the death of his first agent, when he started writing thrillers, the first of which was Marathon Man. Goldman began writing screenplays in his 30s when Cliff Robertson hired him to adapt Flowers for Algernon, later retitled Charly, Robertson then hired him to do some rewriting on Masquerade, which was Goldmans first screen credit. Goldman researched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for eight years, after deciding he did not want to write a cowboy novel, he turned the story into his first original screenplay and sold it for a record $400,000 in the late 1960s
11.
All the President's Men (film)
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All the Presidents Men is a 1976 American political thriller film directed by Alan J. Pakula. The film stars Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, respectively, All the Presidents Men is the third installment of what informally came to be known as Pakulas paranoia trilogy. The other two films in the trilogy are Klute and The Parallax View, in 2010, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. On June 17,1972, a security guard at the Watergate complex finds a door kept unlocked with tape and he calls the police, who find and arrest five burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters within the complex. The next morning, The Washington Post assigns new reporter Bob Woodward to the courthouse to cover the story. Woodward learns that the five men, four Cuban-Americans from Miami and James W. McCord, at the arraignment, McCord identifies himself in court as having recently left the Central Intelligence Agency and the others also have CIA ties. Woodward connects the burglars to E. Howard Hunt, an employee of the CIA. Carl Bernstein, another Post reporter, is assigned to cover the Watergate story with Woodward, the two are reluctant partners, but work well together. Executive editor Benjamin Bradlee believes their work is incomplete, however and he encourages them to continue to gather information. Woodward contacts Deep Throat, a government official, an anonymous source he has used in the past. Communicating through copies of The New York Times and a balcony flowerpot, Deep Throat speaks in riddles and metaphors about the Watergate break-in, but advises Woodward to follow the money. Over the next few weeks, Woodward and Bernstein connect the five burglars to thousands of dollars in diverted campaign contributions to Nixons Committee to Re-elect the President, bradlees demand for thoroughness forces the reporters to obtain other sources to confirm the Haldeman connection. When the White House issues a non-denial denial of the Posts above-the-fold story, at the subtle climax, Woodward again meets secretly with Deep Throat, who finally reveals that the Watergate break-in and cover-up was indeed masterminded by Haldeman. When Woodward and Bernstein relay this to Bradlee, he urges the reporters to continue despite the risk, a montage of Watergate-related teletype headlines from the following years is shown, ending with Nixons resignation and the inauguration of Vice President Gerald Ford on August 9,1974. Unlike the book, the film itself covers only the first seven months of the Watergate scandal, the film introduced the catchphrase follow the money, which did not appear in the book or any documentation of Watergate. Robert Redford bought the rights to Woodward and Bernsteins book in 1974 for $450,000 with the notion to adapt it into a film with a budget of $5 million. Ben Bradlee realized that the film was going to be made regardless of whether he approved of it or not, the executive editor of the Washington Post hoped that the film would show newspapers strive very hard for responsibility. William Goldman was hired by Redford to write the script in 1974 and he has said Bob Woodward was extremely helpful to him but Carl Bernstein was not, and that his crucial decision as to structure was to throw away the second half of the book
