30 June 2017 — FAIR
John Ashcroft (cc photo: Gage Skidmore)
This week on CounterSpin: After 9/11, hundreds of non-citizen Muslim, Arab and South Asian men should be locked up and treated as suspected terrorists, despite no evidence of terrorist connections. That policy came from the highest levels of government; that’s why a suit brought on behalf of some of those men sought damages from top officials, including former Attorney General John Ashcroft. The Supreme Court has just denied the men’s right to sue those officials. What does that mean for accountability when powerful people make unconstitutional policy? We’ll hear from Rachel Meeropol, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
Bleached coral, Great Barrier Reef
Also on the show: Analysts at Deloitte ascribed a cash value of $42.4 billion dollars to the Great Barrier Reef. The world’s largest coral reef system is threatened by climate change; the company said they hoped the assessment of its “economic, social and asset value” would “influence decision making.” It’s disturbing that that’s what was deemed necessary, but then outlets like CNN made matters worse, encouraging us to equate an irreplaceable ecosystem with “the market share of GM, Honda or BMW,” or “more than 12 Sydney Opera Houses.” There are people covering the many stories of climate disruption more thoughtfully. We’ll talk about some of the many stories to be told with environmental writer Dan Zukowski; his work appears in EnviroNews among other outlets
Plus a quick look at Thomas Friedman’s grieving over the failure of TPP.
The New Dark Age 