40

Human Genome Project

Mapped the DNA sequencing of all human genes in 2001. Pointed the way to radical new medical procedures, but also raised questions about technological tinkering with human life

Council on Bioethics

Established by W. Bush in 2001, it was soon ensnarled in bitter political as well as ethical wrangling and was superseded by Obama's National Bioethics Advisory Commission

National Bioethics Advisory Commission

Obama's own Bioethics division, succeeding W. Bush's Council on Bioethics. Wasn't any more effective than its predecessor.

Kyoto Treaty

Repudiated by W. Bush, a major international effort to arrest the rate of global warming by limiting greenhouse gas emissions

9/11

Common shorthand for the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, in which nineteen militant Islamist men hijacked and crashed four commercial aircraft. Two planes hit the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, causing them to collapse. One plane crashed into the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the fourth, overtaken by passengers, crashed into a field in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly three thousand people were killed in the worst case of domestic terrorism in American history.

Osama bin Laden

Head of the shadowy terrorist network Al Qaeda, which was behind the 9/11 terrorist attack

Al Qaeda

Arabic for "The Base," an international alliance of anti-Western Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist organizations founded in the late 1980s by veterans of the Afghan struggle against the Soviet Union. The group was headed by Osama bin Laden and has taken responsibility for numerous terrorist attacks, especially after the late 1990s. It organized the attacks of September 11, 2001, in the United States from its headquarters in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Since the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the launch of the "global war on terror," the group has been weakened but still poses significant threats around the world.

Taliban

Islamic Fundamentalists who ruled Afghanistan, and were indirectly helped to get to power by the U.S. when America supported religious rebels that were resisting the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan

Asymmetrical warfare

Antiterrorism experts called for a new kind of approach, employing not just traditional military muscle but also counterinsurgency tactics like innovative intelligence gathering, training of local police forces, economic reprisals, infiltration of suspected organizations, and even assassinations.

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.

Hamdan v. Rumsfeld

The Bush administration further called for trying suspected terrorists before military tribunals, where the usual rules of evidence and procedure did not apply. The Supreme Court eventually denied the president that authority in this case.

Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF)

Originally aimed at the terrorist perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, it was subsequently used to justify military actions not only in Afghanistan, but also in Iraq, the Philippines, Georgia, Yemen, Djibouti, Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and Somalia

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.

Colin Powell

W. Bush's Secretary of State urged caution, warning of the long-term consequences for the United States of invading and occupying an unstable, religiously and culturally divided nation of 25 million people. "You break it, you own it," he told the president.

Abu ghraib

A detention facility near Baghdad, Iraq. Under Saddam Hussein, the prison was the site of infamous torturing and execution of political dissidents. 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. The scandal was one of several dark spots on the public image of the Iraq War and led to increased criticism of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld.

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.

John Kerry

Senator of Massachusetts who ran for president as a democratic candidate in the election of 2004. Pushed progressive visions of government and counted on his Vietnam War record to counter charges that he would be weak in the face of terrorism

John G. Roberts and Samuel A Alito, Jr.

W. Bush appointed these 2 new conservative Supreme Court justices upon the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and the retirement of Sandra Day O'Connor

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP)

Led a massive outcry with other liberal groups against W. Bush's attack against Social Security, reminding Americans how much they loved Social Security

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Government agency that botched its response to the deadly Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Katrina

The costliest and one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, which killed nearly two thousand Americans. The storm ravaged the Gulf Coast, especially the city of New Orleans, in late August 2005. In New Orleans, high winds and rain caused the city's levees to break, leading to catastrophic flooding, particularly in the city's most impoverished wards. A tardy and feeble response by local and federal authorities exacerbated the damage and led to widespread criticism of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Nancy Pelosi

California Democrat who became the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House.

Donald Rumsfeld

resigned after the Republicans' "thumping" in the 2006 midterm elections

Barack Obama

forty-six-year-old, first-term Illinois senator who was the son of a black Kenyan father and a white Kansan mother and raised in Hawaii and Indonesia, and had a cosmopolitan background well suited to the age of globalization. He promised gridlock-weary voters a "postpartisan" politics that would end the divisive battles of the Bush years. To strengthen his national security credentials, he picked foreign-policy-savvy Delaware senator Joseph Biden as his running mate.

Joseph Biden

Obama's running mate in the election of 2008, Delaware senator who was foreign-policy-savvy

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Pre-campaign favorite, former First Lady and sitting New York senator. Narrowly lost the nomination to Obama

John McCain

Long-time Arizona senator, aged seventy-two, was a self-styled "maverick" and a Vietnam War hero who had endured years of torture as a prisoner of war. He had a record of supporting bipartisan legislation on such issues as normalizing relations with North Vietnam, campaign finance, and immigration reform. To the astonishment of even some of his closest aides, he picked first-term Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate

Sarah Palin

First-term Alaska governor who was McCain's running mate in the election of 2008. The telegenic Palin briefly galvanized the conservative Republican base. But when interview gaffes exposed her breathtakingly weak grasp of the issues, she became fodder for late-night television comedians and, polls showed, at least as much a liability as an asset to the Republican ticket.

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.

Lehman Brothers

Following the collapse of this venerable Wall Street firm in September 2008, stocks sank into a deep swoon

Federal National Mortgage Association ("Fannie Mae") and the Federal Home Mortgage Corporation ("Freddie Mac")

The country's two biggest mortgage companies, nationalized by the Federal government following the recession of 2008

American International Group (AIG)

The world's biggest insurance company, taken over by the government

Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP)

Paulson next persuaded Congress to create this program, authorizing a whopping $700 billion to buy "toxic" assets and inject cash directly into the nation's biggest banks and corporations. Despite public outrage over it's original cost, when the program ended in 2014, the Treasury reported a net profit of $15 billion.

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. The act was controversial from the outset, passing with no Republican votes in the House and only three in the Senate, and helping to foster the "Tea Party" movement to curb government deficits, even while critics on the left argued that the act's $787 billion appropriation was not enough to turn the economy around.

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. It mandated all Americans to purchase health insurance starting in 2014, required states to establish "exchanges" whereby individuals and small businesses could purchase health-care insurance at competitive rates, prohibited insurers from denying coverage to anyone with a preexisting medical condition, and allowed children up to the age of twenty-six to remain covered by their parents' health plans. It also provided subsidies to those below certain income thresholds to help pay for private insurance while funding a major expansion of public Medicaid insurance for poorer Americans

Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-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. After its Democratic sponsors, Connecticut senator Christopher Dodd and Massachusetts representative Barney Frank.

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.

Sonia Sotomayor

New female Supreme Court Justice appointed by Obama, first Hispanic on the Court

Elena Kagan

3rd female Supreme Court Justice. Was appointed by Obama in 2010

"cap-and-trade" bill

Obama's efforts to curb greenhouse gasses and reduce global warming, fell victim to the fervent minority's opposition

Jihadi

Militant Islamic fighters

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.

FANG

Facebook, Apple, Netflix, and Google

Mitt Romney

MA governor, first Mormon presidential candidate of a major party in American history. Had made his career in management consulting and private equity investing before entering politics. His record as governor of liberal Massachusetts was decidedly moderate, but he secured the GOP's presidential nomination in 2012 by hewing to a much more conservative line, promising to repeal both the Affordable Care Act and the Wall Street Reform Act, cut domestic spending, and slash taxes.

Paul Ryan

Mitt Romney's running mate for the Republican party in the election of 2012, later became the House Speaker

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission

a highly controversial 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. The decision helped to spur the proliferation of so-called super-PACS, which, by avoiding any direct contributions to candidates and parties, could pour unlimited sums into the political arena. It also enabled nonprofit advocacy groups to spend money on elections without disclosing the source of their funds ("dark money")

John Boehner

Rebellious House Republicans unseated their leader and after rancorous debate settle on Paul Ryan

DREAM Act (Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors Act)

A congressional failure to pass comprehensive immigration reform. It would have created a path to citizenship for undocumented youths who either graduated from college or served in the U.S. armed forces

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, it was rescinded by President Trump in early 2017, even as he suggested that Congress put some version of the program on a statutory basis.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)

Obama also relied on executive orders in the environmental field, including action to strengthen protection of Alaska, especially here

Shelby County v. Holder

a 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. The decision opened the door for some states to restrict ballot access by passing strict voter identification requirements and limiting registration periods, practices that critics charged unfairly penalized minority, poor, and young voters. When minority turnout declined in some swing states in the 2016 presidential election, civil liberties advocates pointed to the case as the culprit.

Obergefell v. Hodges

A narrow liberal majority on the Court declared that the Fourteenth Amendment's equal protection and due process clauses conferred on gay people a constitutional right to marry. Following on the repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, the decision capped a momentous period of legal advancement for gay and lesbian Americans amidst a broader cultural acceptance of homosexuality

Edward Joseph Snowden

a coltish computer-whiz, carried out a daring digital heist. A former CIA employee and National Security Agency (NSA) contractor, he clandestinely copied 1.5 million classified documents and arranged for their release to the public. The files exposed the NSA's sweeping capture from Internet companies of U.S. citizens' digital communications ("PRISM"); the construction of a giant data storehouse in Bluffdale, Utah, that could store up to twelve exabytes of information; the systematic monitoring of overseas web traffic of non-U.S. citizens; and even the tapping of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cell phone communications

Angela Merkel

German Chancellor whose phone had been found to be tapped by the NSA in Snowden's exposé

USA Freedom Act of 2015

Replaced the expiring USA Patriot Act of 2001. Passed in the wake of the Snowden revelations, 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.

Trayvon Martin

Unarmed black teen fatally shot by an armed resident of a Florida gated community

Black Lives Matter

The numerous police brutality incidents against African-Americans spawned this protest movement

Sandy Hook Shooting

An unhinged gunman killed 20 six- and seven-year-old children, as well as six teachers and staff, at an elementary school in Newton, Connecticut, in 2012

Muammar Qaddafi

Libya's leader, unseated by the U.S. in 2011

Bashar al-Assad

Syrian president

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)

a fanatically militant group in Syria

Boko Haram

ISIS affiliate in northern Africa

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

Bernie Sanders

A curmudgeonly septuagenarian Vermont senator and self-declared democratic socialist who excoriated wealthy "one-percenters" and advocated government-financed universal health care

Donald J. Trump

bullied, belittled, and bamboozled sixteen rivals to snag—some said hi-jack—the Republican nomination. His legions of critics, including many Republican grandees, considered the brash billionaire a swaggering colossus of ignorance, vanity, and vulgarity. He trashed the Affordable Care Act, threatened China with tough trade sanctions, promised massive spending on infrastructure, lambasted immigrants as the principal source of the nation's woes, and pledged to build a "beautiful" wall along the Mexican border—and compel the Mexicans to pay for it. With often cavalier disregard for the facts, the prince of plutocrats campaigned as a populist who would "drain the swamp" in Washington D.C., and "make America great again"

James Comey

FBI director in charge of the Hillary Clinton email probe, fired by Trump to deflect his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election

Robert Mueller

Former FBI director, appointed as Special Counsel by Justice Department to continue the Russian investigation

#MeToo

Women's activism fed an avalanche of accusations of sexual misconduct, facilitated by countless posts on social media declaring that sexual harassment had happened to them. The outpouring brought down several high-profile gropers in the entertainment industry, the media, and the U.S. Congress.

Neil Gorsuch

The Republican Senate expeditiously approved Trump's nomination of this brainy and conservative Coloradan to the Supreme Court

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Signed into law by President Trump on December 22, 2017, it 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.