With the midterm elections fast approaching, will big tech companies be able to sway the results by manipulating the information the public sees first? Most Americans have no idea how their private information is used online. Indeed, a recent study shows that internet users would divulge 40 percent less information if they knew what it was being used for. And how do search engines and search results influence our voting habits, and especially the voting habits of independents and undecided voters?
Thursday's weekly series "Criminal Injustice" is about the most egregious conduct of our courts and prosecutors and how justice is denied to so many people in this country. Paul Wright, the founder and executive director of the Human Rights Defense Center and editor of Prison Legal News (PLN), and Kevin Gosztola, a writer for Shadowproof.com and co-host of the podcast Unauthorized Disclosure, join the show.
South Korean president Moon Jae-in said yesterday that North Korean leader Kim Jong Un wants to complete denuclearization by 2021. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has since invited North Korean officials to talks next week in New York. Walter and John speak with Gareth Porter, a historian, investigative journalist, and analyst specializing in US national security policy.
The Senate on Tuesday passed a new defense spending bill that would increase spending by $17 billion by a vote of 93-7. It was opposed by 6 Republicans and Bernie Sanders-no Democrats. Despite incessant rhetoric against the Trump Administration by Democrats, they just handed him $607 billion to build his military with. Cindy Sheehan, an anti-war activist and journalist whose son Casey was killed during the Iraq War, joins the show.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions yesterday placed new limits on the ability of immigration judges to terminate deportation cases, the latest in a series of decisions to facilitate the removal of people in the United States without documentation. Jorge Barón, the executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, joins Walter and John.
The State Department has been pushing Iran into entering negotiations for a new nuclear treaty that would include limits on Iran's ballistic missile program. The Iranian government has responded with a loud "no." While the State Department's new special envoy says that Washington is seeking a treaty, rather than a personal agreement, Tehran says the US has already violated the JCPOA (the Iran nuclear deal) by canceling it, and Iran will not enter into negotiations when it can't trust the other side. Mohammad Marandi, an expert on American studies and postcolonial literature who teaches at the University of Tehran, joins the show.
In June, Arkansas became the first state to require that able-bodied Medicaid recipients do some combination of work, volunteering, job training, or education to keep their benefits, just like Kentucky and several other states are trying to do. Three months into the new rules, Arkansas has kicked 4,353 people off of Medicaid for noncompliance. Thousands more could be kicked off next month. Walter and John speak with Leo Cuello, an attorney and the director of health policy for the National Health Law Program.
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