With less than a week left before the midterm election, Donald Trump has announced that he would be sending up to 15,000 soldiers to the U.S.-Mexico border. Meanwhile Republicans released an overtly racist campaign ad yesterday showing an undocumented migrant who was convicted of killing two policemen saying with a smile that he would soon escape and kill more people and then blaming Democrats for the deaths.
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.
More than 1,000 Google employees and contractors briefly walked off the job yesterday in Europe and Asia amid complaints of racism, sexism, and abuse of executive authority in the workplace. More walkouts are scheduled today. Google's chief executive said in a statement that the company will carefully weigh its employees demands and respond appropriately. Brian and John speak with Patricia Gorky, an activist and a tech worker in San Francisco.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, issued a report yesterday showing that the Afghan government controls less territory than it has at any time since the US invasion. SIGAR said that the government of Ashraf Ghani controls only 55.5 percent of Afghanistan after 17 years of US military aid and support. Kathy Kelly, co-coordinator of Voices for Creative Non-Violence, joins the show.
Human Rights Watch, the US-based human rights organization, released a study yesterday based on interviews with more than 100 North Korean defectors now in South Korea, saying that North Korean government officials routinely commit sexual violence against women with impunity. The allegation is shocking, but critics say this is just another smear job to derail steps towards peace in Korea. Dr. Christine Hong, Associate Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at UC Santa Cruz and a member of the Korea Policy Institute, joins Brian and John.
The Bank of England this morning warned of an economic catastrophe if the UK leaves the European Union without a Brexit deal. Bank governor Mark Carney said that absent an agreement, the UK should expect gridlock in its ports and airports, inflation, and a collapse in the value of the pound. This comes as police open a criminal probe into pro-Brexit campaign donor Arron Banks, who has been the target of conspiracy theories relating to his business interest in Russia. Steve Hedley, senior assistant general secretary of the the UK's Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers Union, joins the show.
Rep. Steve King, a Republican of Iowa, is one of the most conservative and anti-immigrant members of the House of Representatives. He calls himself a nationalist. Many of his detractors call him a bigot, a racist, and a white nationalist. King made a controversial tweet a few days ago and instantly moved his safe Republican seat to a toss-up. Is there a limit to xenophobia, even for conservative Republicans?
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