Synopses & Reviews
In The Jokers Wild: Dubyas Trick Deck, award-winning investigative journalist and author of the New York Times best seller The Best Democracy Money Can BuyGreg Palast gets to the bottom of the crooked hand weve been dealt and plays the slim suit that could save us. Reading this oversized deck of real playing cards, which feature original research, will amaze you, infuriate you, and make you laugh out loud. Or strike up a game for a whole new twist on gin Rummy.
With striking, hilarious, full-color original art by Robert Grossman on each card, The Jokers Wild gives the lowdown on the cast of high-priced back-scratchers that brought our mis-leader to power, paving Dubyas way to the White House with hefty campaign funds, lucrative insider trading tips, and sleights of hand that cancelled thousands of ballots.
Meet the Billionaire Clubs, a suit stuffed with ceos and top campaign contributors. Grossman brings us the menacing mugs of the folks behind Walmart and Wackenhut, Enron and Exxon, corporate cronies who hedge their bets, back both parties, and get their hands dirty everywhere from Venezuelacolluding with plotters of a coupto here at homespying on you.
The Diamonds glitter with a list of characters that reads like the black book of a Texan prince. Get the score on Georges friends, international bigwigs from Pakistani potentate Musharraf to former Canadian head of statecumgold baron, Mulroney. In Georges world, action figures come to life as the governor of the Golden State, nightly news men fall in line in the service of W., and a sheepish leader of the pack polishes his runner-up speech before the ballots are in.
Shadowy aces emerge from the suit of Spades, the -behind-the-scenes players on Team Bush. Well see James Baker, who fixed the election in Florida for George Bush; meet the fairy godsheik who bailed out the Texans dud exploration company to the tune of millions; and catch up with that former director of the cia and traveling salesman serving greater Arabia whom Dubya calls Pop.
With Hearts, Palast and Grossman play their best hand, packing the suit with profiles in courage from around the globeOscar Olivera, the man who took on Bechtel in Bolivia and won; Amy Goodman, the media exception to the rulers; Tundu Lissu, the Tanzanian environmentalist who socked it to Daddy Bush; and Joe Stiglitz, World Bank-er turned global justice advocate.
The game seems fixed, but even Dubyas Trick Deck has its surprisesit takes only one suit to flush the royals.
Greg Palast is author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Palast based these cards on his award--winning investigations for BBC Televisions Newsnight, Harpersmagazine, and the Guardian(uk). Visit his website at www.gregpalast.com.
Robert Grossman is the pen that punctures pomposity. His cartoons appear in the New York Observer, the Nation, the New York Times, and elsewhere. His Web site is www.robertgrossman.com.
Synopsis
Greg Palast, one of today’s most celebrated (and vilified) investigative journalists, creates 54 cards to identify the industry moguls, corrupt politicos, and crackpot ideologues who stole the 2000 presidential election. Not just another regime change playing cards knock-off, The Joker’s Wild is a card game for up to four players that actually lets you experience all the piety-spouting, grammar-butchering, flight-suit-donning thrills of being -Commander-in-Chief.
With full-color original art throughout, The Joker’s Wild features a sprawling cast of shady characters identified by Palast in award-winning investigative reports. In addition to the usual suspects, such as Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris, the playing cards profile global cabals like the Carlysle Group and the WTO; sleazy wheeler-dealers, including Salim bin Laden and Adnan Kashoggi; masters of the media such as Rupert Murdoch and Clear Channel; and more.
But the cards are only half the fun of The Joker’s Wild. In addition, players get a poster-sized snakes-and-ladders-style playing board on which all twisted roads lead to the House of Cards (a.k.a., the White House). Both the cards and the game board graphics are keyed to an in-depth annotation explaining how each character profiled fits into the big picture.
With The Joker’s Wild, you don’t get points for being smart or well-informed. And you better not play fair if you want to win. Because, in this game, no move is -illegal, and the rules are always open to interpretation.
Greg Palast was born and raised in Los Angeles and studied economics under Milton Friedman. Upon graduating, he put his knowledge to work as a corporate investigator, taking down the hazardous and corrupt LILCO power plant and representing labor unions against the corporations that would destroy them. Greg is author of the New York Times bestseller The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a book Michael Moore has called "courageous reporting."
Synopsis
One of today's most celebrated journalists creates 54 cards, as he says, "to identify the industry moguls, corrupt politicos, and crackpot ideologues who stole the 2000 presidential election." Full color.
Synopsis
A deck of cards that is also a high-stakes game of power politics, disinformation, and electoral fraud for players of all ages.
About the Author
Hailed as "The most important journalist of our time - dominating journalism on two continents," by Britain's Tribune, Greg Palast is a muckraking investigative reporter for BBC Television's Newsnight, The Guardian UK and The London Observer. An expert investigator of corporate fraud and state corruption, Palast uncovered Enron's manipulations years before American papers would touch the topic and exposed Bush's damper on the FBI's investigation of the bin Laden family prior to 9/11.