Thursday, October 31, 2013

The Medicean Succession: Monarchy and Sacral Politics in Duke Cosimo dei Medici's Florence (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History)

The Medicean Succession
The Medicean Succession: Monarchy and Sacral Politics in Duke Cosimo dei Medici's Florence (I Tatti Studies in Italian Renaissance History)
Gregory Murry (Author)

New!: $49.95 $41.80 (as of 10/31/2013 04:52 PST)

Propaganda & Political Psychology

In 1537, Florentine Duke Alessandro dei Medici was murdered by his cousin and would-be successor, Lorenzino dei Medici. Lorenzino's treachery forced him into exile, however, and the Florentine senate accepted a compromise candidate, seventeen-year-old Cosimo dei Medici. The senate hoped Cosimo would act as figurehead, leaving the senate to manage political affairs. But Cosimo never acted as a puppet. Instead, by the time of his death in 1574, he had stabilized ducal finances, secured his borders while doubling his territory, attracted an array of scholars and artists to his court, academy, and universities, and, most importantly, dissipated the perennially fractious politics of Florentine life.

Gregory Murry argues that these triumphs were far from a foregone conclusion. Drawing on a wide variety of archival and published sources, he examines how Cosimo and his propagandists successfully crafted an image of Cosimo as a legitimate sacral monarch. Murry posits that both the propaganda and practice of sacral monarchy in Cosimo's Florence channeled preexisting local religious assumptions as a way to establish continuities with the city's republican and renaissance past. In The Medicean Succession, Murry elucidates the models of sacral monarchy that Cosimo chose to utilize as he deftly balanced his ambition with the political sensitivities arising from existing religious and secular traditions.

  • Rank: #940916 in Books
  • Published on: 2014-03-10
  • Released on: 2014-03-03
  • Original language: English
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 360 pages

Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Benghazi Hoax

The Benghazi
The Benghazi Hoax
David Brock (Author), Ari Rabin-Havt (Author), Media Matters for America (Author)

Download: $0.99 (as of 10/20/2013 22:36 PST)

Propaganda & Political Psychology

The events that took place in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012, were an American tragedy that ended in the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Information Officer Sean Smith and former Navy SEALs Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods.

No one could have imagined at the start of that evening how quickly the Republican right would politicize the murder of four Americans. Or how the most basic facts would be twisted, confused, and even invented out of thin air to manufacture false charges – first to suggest that President Obama, then seeking re-election, was disengaged, feckless, or even sympathetic to terror, and then, when that faltered, to tarnish the reputation of Hillary Clinton as she mulled a 2016 presidential bid.

What has been called the “Benghazi scandal” by Republican investigators, the Fox News Channel, and right-wing radio talkers like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity is better described as the Benghazi hoax.

What should have been an investigation into the protection of U.S. diplomatic posts and our policy in Libya has been hijacked by unfounded and sometimes wild conspiracy theories, many of them centered on Hillary Clinton and her top aides in the State Department, that have not only wasted considerable time and money but distracted attention from real issues that affect American voters.

The Benghazi Hoax tells in intimate detail the story of the deception created by those who fill airtime with savage punditry and pseudo-journalism and how the Republicans in charge of the investigative committees were empowered but ultimately failed to find a scandal – any kind of scandal – to tar a Democratic White House.


“This book is a must read for anyone interested in how the attack on Benghazi has been hijacked by unfounded and wild conspiracy theories and has therefore remained at the forefront of political conversation for over a year”

-Dr. Larry Korb, Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress


“Mr. Brock and Mr. Rabin-Havt do a great service to Ambassador Stevens and his team, the 4th estate and the brave men and women serving our country in and out of uniform by his thorough analysis of the Benghazi tragedy and its treatment by conservative American media. By dissecting the conservative press reaction to the Benghazi attack through his vehicle of the fifteen conservative movement perpetuated hoaxes, the authors at once validate the results of the Accountability Review Board and defend the reputations of the men and women involved in the events that lead to the deaths of four great Americans.”

- Major General Paul Eaton (US Army, ret)


"Benghazi was not a hoax but a tragedy that has recurred too frequently under all presidents. Benghazi has been much more politicized, however, as this book describes in fascinating detail. Of course, only Ambassador Chris Stevens could tell us the real truth. Meanwhile his and his colleagues' untimely death is being exploited by partisans for political gain. If this is the way America handles foreign policy in the future, U.S. politics won't stop at the water's edge but will start boiling the oceans."

- Rep Jim Cooper (TN-5)

  • Rank: #2933 in eBooks
  • Published on: 2013-10-16
  • Released on: 2013-10-16
  • Format: Kindle eBook

Friday, October 18, 2013

MoViMento - Tutte le balle di Grillo dalla A alla Z (Italian Edition)

MoViMento
MoViMento - Tutte le balle di Grillo dalla A alla Z (Italian Edition)
Michele Di Salvo (Author)

Download: $0.99 (as of 10/18/2013 06:06 PST)

Propaganda & Political Psychology

Grillo, la rete, e la retorica della macchina del fango.
Ovvero “tutti mentono tranne me”

Se Grillo dovesse fare uno spettacolo su Grillo è probabile che comincerebbe urlando i suoi strali proprio così: “Eccone un altro, se ne sta su un palco e parla. Parla lui che dice un sacco di balle…”
Se i suoi seguaci più fedeli dovessero attaccare Grillo come se fosse un “avversario politico”, senza entrare nel merito di nessun argomento, comincerebbero a testa bassa così “…si parlate voi che seguite un leader che racconta un sacco di balle…” e ilarmente farebbero il loro bell’elenco, e sentenzierebbero sul rapporto intrinseco tra ciò che uno dice, ha detto, e la sua credibilità politica.
...
Mi limiterò a fare un elenco di cose tratte e scritte da e nei post del blog di Grillo.
Quelli suoi (principalmente) e quelli da lui avvalorati, o dai suoi twitt e nelle sue dichiarazioni pubbliche.

Sono certo che anche in questi casi si dirà che “è la macchina del fango”.
Però la domanda è – visto che qui sto solo riprendendo ciò che Grillo ha detto e scritto – in che consiste questo “fango”?
...
Ho cominciato a raccogliere le vari bufale raccontate da Grillo in questi anni perché era troppo assordante e miope quell’insieme di attacchi e commenti ciechi di persone che continuavano a parlare di macchina del fango, di giornalisti e blogger prezzolati e pagati (non si sa da chi) per scrivere falsità su …un santo praticamente, Grillo, che si immola e sacrifica per noi. L’unico in questo paese che dice la verità e verità scomode, mentre tutti, indistintamente tutti gli altri, sono il male e mentono.
E allora l’obiettivo era essenzialmente dare un unico insieme di risposte, perché sapevo che l’elenco era lungo. Ma credetemi, nemmeno io pensavo fosse così lungo.
Voleva essere un post. Arrivato a 12 cartelle mi son detto “ci faccio un allegato al post”… e poi continuava a crescere. E poi ho dovuto mettere tutto in ordine e come una sorta di vocabolario è uscito questo libretto.
C’è tutto? No, non credo, non ho questa presunzione.
Alla fine però esce un altro quadro rispetto a quello che volevo disegnare inizialmente.
Esce in realtà la conferma che semplicemente la vera balla è definirsi a 5 stelle. Un’arrogante presunzione che nessuno in questo paese che abbia più di dieci anni può concedersi.
Grillo è solo come gli altri. Forse per certi aspetti peggio degli altri solo per questo motivo: pretende e millanta di essere un santo immacolato e di dire la verità. E forse anche perchè il suo successo è direttamente proporzionale a due fattori: le balle che racconta come fossero vere e il bisogno che ha di dirle, e di crederci lui stesso, attaccando tutti i critici come “cattivi” e in malafede.
Ma il successo di Grillo è anche la radiografia di un paese che ha bisogno di credere ciecamente ai messia, che cerca imbonitori – e tanti ne abbiamo visti in questi anni – che promettano facili soluzioni a grandi problemi, miracoli, successo, e che ci deresponsabilizzino dei nostri mali, dando la colpa ad altri: alla BCE, all’Euro, agli immigrati, alla Cina, al governo, ai partiti, ai politici ladri, alle multinazionali, alla massoneria… tutti colpevoli tranne noi. E poi non si capisce bene dov’eravamo. E a dire il vero dov’era Grillo.
Cos’hanno davvero di nuovo costoro? E soprattutto, sono davvero così – anche loro – “fuori da ogni responsabilità” per questo stato di cose?
Non lo so e non è mia intenzione dare giudizi di merito o fare “valutazioni sulla persona”.
In questo libretto vene raccolgo solo le balle, quali sono e le smentite. Il resto ciascuno lo valuta da sé. E come diceva Grillo nei suoi spettacoli “non credete a tutto quello che vi dicono, informatevi!”
Si, la rete ha memoria.

  • Rank: #115683 in eBooks
  • Published on: 2013-10-09
  • Released on: 2013-10-09
  • Format: Kindle eBook

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

My Best-Friend Denial "Coherent Truths in an Incoherent World"

My BestFriend
My Best-Friend Denial "Coherent Truths in an Incoherent World"
Miranda Ricci (Preface), Michael Ricci (Author)

Download: $6.99 (as of 10/16/2013 04:11 PST)

Propaganda & Political Psychology

Have you ever just sat and pondered about the future of our world or how about your own foreseeable future? Since I was a young man I have done just that. I have now come to the realization that I can no longer sit idly by and watch my world be lead to the slaughter by its government……

  • Rank: #225274 in eBooks
  • Published on: 2013-10-13
  • Released on: 2013-10-13
  • Format: Kindle eBook

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Barack Is Satan Luke 10:18

Barack Is Satan Luke 10
Barack Is Satan Luke 10:18
Sollog Adoni (Author)

Download: $6.66 (as of 10/15/2013 10:57 PST)

Propaganda & Political Psychology

If you look around the Net on Google and Youtube for BARACK IS SATAN you will find millions of pages.

The Rabbi that started this controversy way back in 2007 is named Rabbi Sollog.

This is his book explaining Is Barack Obama Satan?

Rabbi Sollog gives expert commentary on the biblical passages that refer to Satan as LIGHTNING and in both Hebrew and Greek Lightning is BARAK(q).

Rabbi Sollog tackles the question Is Barack Satan, in the first section of the book, then he includes his famous prophecies about the future which includes a prophecy of an asteroid strike after 2020.

Rabbi Sollog says he is more worried about his Prophecy about the asteroid after 2020 than Barack Obama.

  • Rank: #189622 in eBooks
  • Published on: 2013-10-07
  • Released on: 2013-10-07
  • Format: Kindle eBook