Studied by 6 people
weapons of mass destruction (WMD)
Refers to weapons—nuclear, biological, and chemical—that can kill large numbers of people and do great damage to the built and natural environment
9/11
terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001
Al Qaeda
international alliance of anti-Western Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist organizations founded in the late 1980s by veterans of the Afghan struggle against the Soviet Union
USA Patriot Act
Legislation passed shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, that granted broad surveillance and detention authority to the government.
Department of Homeland Security
Cabinet-level agency created in 2003 to unify and coordinate public safety and antiterrorism operations within the federal government.
Guantánamo Detention Camp
Controversial prison facility constructed after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Located on territory occupied by the U.S. military, but not technically part of the United States, the facility serves as an extra-legal holding area for suspected terrorists.
Abu Ghraib prison
In 2004, during the U.S. occupation of Iraq, the prison became the focal point of a prisoner-abuse and torture scandal after photographs surfaced of American soldiers mistreating, torturing, and degrading Iraqi war prisoners and suspected terrorists
No Child Left Behind Act
An education bill created and signed by the George W. Bush administration. Designed to increase accountability standards for primary and secondary schools, the law authorized several federal programs to monitor those standards and increased choices for parents in selecting schools for their children. The program was highly controversial, in large part because it linked results on standardized tests to federal funding for schools and school districts.
Hurricane Katrina
The costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, which killed nearly two thousand Americans.
deleveraging
The inverse of “leveraging,” whereby businesses increase their financial power by borrowing money (debt) in addition to their own assets (equity). In times of uncertainty or credit tightening, the same businesses seek to improve their debt-to-equity ratios by shedding debt through the sale of assets purchased with borrowed money.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act
Among the earliest initiatives of the Obama administration to combat the Great Recession. It was based on the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes that called for increased government spending to offset decreased private spending in times of economic downturn.
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
Also known as “Obamacare,” the act extended health-care insurance to some 30 million Americans, marking a major step toward achieving the century-old goal of providing universal health-care coverage.
Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank)
Also known as the Dodd-Frank Act, after its Democratic sponsors, Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd and Massachusetts representative Barney Frank. In an effort to avoid another financial crisis like the Great Recession, the act updated many federal regulations affecting the financial and banking systems and created some new agencies, such as the Bureau of Consumer Financial Protection.
Tea Party
A grassroots conservative political movement mobilized in opposition to Barack Obama’s fiscal, economic, and health-care policies. Named after the Boston Tea Party of the Revolutionary Era, Tea Party protestors first demonstrated in early 2009, and they grew steadily in visibility and power as a pressuring force within the Republican Party through the 2010 midterm elections and beyond.
Occupy Wall Street
Name of the original protest that launched the populist, anti-Wall Street “Occupy” movement in late 2010 and early 2011. Youthful radicals pitched tents and occupied Zuccotti Park in New York’s financial district beginning in September 2010 to protest inequality and corporate political power. This demonstration inspired similar occupations in many other cities.
Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
Program established by President Obama in June 2012 granting undocumented immigrants work permits and protection from deportations, as long as they were below a certain age (under 16 when they moved to the United States and under 31 years old). Scorned by Obama’s Republican opponents as a misguided overreach of executive power, DACA was rescinded by President Trump in early 2017, even as he suggested that Congress put some version of the program on a statutory basis.
Troubled Asset Relief Program
program of the United States government to purchase toxic assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush
USA Freedom Act of 2015
Replaced the expiring USA Patriot Act of 2001. Passed in the wake of the Snowden revelations (see p. XXX), it attempted to place some restrictions on government collection of metadata concerning American citizens.
confirmation bias
Term coined by psychologists to describe an innate tendency for people to seek out and uncritically accept information that reaffirms their existing beliefs, closing off alternate points of view. Often invoked to explain herd-like online behavior and splintering of the twenty-first-century political landscape.
Iran nuclear deal
Also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. Brokered by the Obama administration between Iran and the major world powers in July 2015, the agreement terminated economic sanctions that had hamstrung Iran’s economy. In return, Tehran pledged to reduce its stockpiles of weapon-grade uranium and end its pursuit of nuclear weapons.
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
Signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act trimmed income taxes across the board for a period of ten years, permanently slashed the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 21 percent, and removed the individual health-care mandate. Hailed as a major legislative victory for Republicans, the bill was denounced by critics as a plutocratic payout that would only deepen the federal deficit in the coming years.
John McCain
(1936-) Republican senator from Arizona who lost the 2008 presidential election to Democrat Barack Obama. A former navy fighter pilot who spent five years as a prisoner of war in North Vietnam, McCain was known as a maverick senator, frequently departing from his own party to co-sponsor moderate legislation with Democratic allies. Among his most notable legislative achievements were changes in campaign finance and efforts to reform immigration laws.
Sarah Palin
(1964-) Republican vice-presidential candidate with John McCain in the 2008 election. Palin served on the city council and as mayor of her hometown of Wasilla, Alaska, from 1996 to 2002, and then in 2006 was elected governor of the state. Relatively unknown nationally, Palin’s social conservatism made her popular among the evangelical members of the Republican party who had been distrustful of McCain.
George W. Bush
Forty-third president of the United States, 2001-2009. The son of former president George H. W. Bush and former governor of Texas, he emerged victorious from the contested election of 2000, where he lost the popular vote.
Richard Cheney
(1941-) A former White House staffer, congressman, and secretary of defense during the first Persian Gulf War, Cheney joined the Bush ticket in 2000 to add experience and a link to the first Bush presidency. As vice president, he was more active in policy and politics than his predecessors, playing decisive roles especially in matters of foreign policy.
Nancy Pelosi
(1940-) Democratic congresswoman from California who became, in 2007, the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives. Pelosi proved an effective party leader in securing House passage of the stimulus package, a "cap-and-trade" climate change bill, financial regulation, and the Affordable Care Act, all during Barack Obama’s first term as president. Her tenure as Speaker came to an end as a result of sweeping Republican victories in the 2010 midterm congressional elections.
Barack Obama
(1962-) Forty-fourth president of the United States and first African American elected to that office. A lawyer and community organizer in Chicago, Obama served in the Illinois state senate before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. As president, Obama tackled the effects of the financial crisis while pursuing passage of ambitious reforms in health care and financial regulation.
Joseph R. (“Joe”) Biden
(1942-) United States senator from Delaware from 1973 to 2009 and vice president of the United States since 2009. As a long-time senator and former chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Biden brought Washington experience and foreign-policy expertise to the Obama campaign and subsequent presidency.
Edward Snowden
American former NSA intelligence contractor and whistleblower who leaked classified documents revealing the existence of global surveillance programs
Donald J. Trump
American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States
Michael Pence
American politician and lawyer who served as the 48th vice president of the United States from 2017 to 2021 under President Donald Trump during his first administration
The Human Genome Project
mapped the DNA sequencing of all twenty thousand human genes in 2001, pointing the way to radical new medical therapies, but also raising thorny questions about the legitimacy of technological tinkering with human life
Kyoto Treaty
international agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions
Osama bin Laden
Saudi Arabian–born Islamist dissident and militant leader who was the founder and first general emir of al-Qaeda
Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)
used to justify military actions not only in Afghanistan, but also in Iraq, the Philippines, Georgia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia
axis of evil
Iraq, Iran, North Korea - Iran and North Korea were both known to be pursuing nuclear weapons programs, and Iran had long supported terrorist operations in the Middle East
John Kerry
Massachusetts senator with Democratic ticket in 2004, lost against George W. Bush
American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)
Led an outcry against Bush for proposing a radical program that privatized much of Social Security
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security botched its response to Hurricane Katrina
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
resigned after the Republicans’ “thumping” in the 2006 midterm elections
Wall Street firm of Lehman Brothers
led to the Great Recession of 2008
Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”)
took over the world’s biggest insurance company, the American International Group (AIG)
Henry Paulson
Treasury Secretary persuaded Congress to create the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP), authorizing a whopping $700 billion to buy “toxic” assets and inject cash directly into the nation’s biggest banks and corporations
Mitt Romney
first Mormon presidential candidate of a major party in American history
Affordable Care Act and the Wall Street Reform Act
Promised to be repealed by nominated formed Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney
Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
2010 Supreme Court decision; In a five-to-four ruling, the Court held that the First Amendment prohibited limits on political expenditures made by corporations, unions, and advocacy groups
Speaker John Boehner
unseated by rebellious House Republicans in 2015 and replaced with Wisconsin representative Paul Ryan
DREAM Act
failed immigration reform — Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
sustains people, wildlife, and fish in the northeastern corner of Alaska + oil exploration
Shelby County v. Holder
narrow conservative majority declared unconstitutional Section 4 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which had required states with a history of racial discrimination to seek federal clearance for any changes to their voting laws
Obergefell v. Hodges
narrow liberal majority declared that the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection and due process clauses conferred on gay people a constitutional right to marry
Trayvon Martin
unarmed teenager shot by armed resident of a Florida gated community in 2012
Sandy Hook Elementary School
unhinged gunman killed 20 six- and seven-year-old children, as well as six teachers and staff
Muammar Qaddafi
Libyan strongman unseated by U.S. military-led effort, led to drastic aftermath including killings
ISIS
fanatically militant group calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria involved in battle between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government and a bewildering array of rebel factions
James Comey
FBI director informed members of Congress that he was considering re-opening a criminal investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state, fired by Trump
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