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Scores of Democratic Lawmakers Join GOP to Back Budget Bill with No Protection for DREAMers
In a pair of early-morning votes, the U.S. House and Senate approved bills to end a brief overnight shutdown of the government. The bill raises military and domestic spending by almost $300 billion over the next two years. But the bill failed to meet the demands of immigrant rights groups—and many Democrats—who wanted protection for young undocumented immigrants whose protections President Trump ended last fall. The House only passed thanks to 73 Democrats who joined Republicans backing the measure. Greisa Martínez Rosas is an advocacy director for United We Dream. She is a recipient of DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals.

Olympics Begin with Unified Korean Team Marching Together as Trump Continues to Threaten N. Korea
In Pyeongchang, South Korea, the 2018 Winter Olympics have opened, with North and South Korean athletes marching together at the open ceremonies. The games are seen as a pivotal moment for relations between the two countries, who have been officially at war since 1950. In an effort to de-escalate tensions on the Korean Peninsula, North Korea has sent a 500-person delegation of athletes, musicians and performers to the Olympics. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s influential sister attended today’s opening ceremony and shook hands with South Korean leader Moon Jae-in; the pair are scheduled to have lunch together. But as the peninsula tries to de-escalate the threat of nuclear war, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence warned the U.S. is slated to impose another round of sanctions against North Korea.

Lawrence Wilkerson: I Helped Sell the False Choice of War with Iraq; It’s Happening Again with Iran
Fifteen years ago this week, Secretary of State General Colin Powell gave a speech to the United Nations arguing for war with Iraq, saying the evidence was clear: Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. It was a speech Powell would later call a blot on his career. Is President Trump doing the same thing now with Iran? We speak to Powell’s former chief of staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson. He recently wrote a piece titled “I Helped Sell the False Choice of War Once. It’s Happening Again.”

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

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Black Lives Matter Activist Muhiyidin d’Baha, Who Grabbed Confederate Flag, Shot Dead in New Orleans
In New Orleans, Black Lives Matter activist and Charleston, South Carolina, community organizer Muhiyidin d’Baha died Tuesday, after he was struck in the thigh by a bullet as he rode his bicycle. Police have not named any motive or suspects in the killing. He made national headlines last year after he appeared in a viral video that shows him leaping over a police line in an attempt to grab a Confederate flag from a white supremacist at a rally in Charleston. In 2015, Democracy Now! spoke with Muhiyidin d’Baha outside the Emanuel AME Church amid the funerals of nine African-American worshipers who were gunned down by white supremacist Dylann Roof.

Directorate S: Steve Coll on the CIA & America’s Secret Wars in Afghanistan & Pakistan
The U.S. is intensifying its air war in Afghanistan as U.S. Central Command has announced it is shifting military resources from Iraq and Syria back to Afghanistan, where the United States has been fighting for over 16 years in the longest war in U.S. history. U.S. Air Force Major General James Hecker recently said Afghanistan has “become CENTCOM’s main effort.” The news comes after a particularly bloody period in Afghanistan. Despite the spiraling violence, President Trump recently ruled out negotiations with the Taliban during a meeting of members of the United Nations Security Council.

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

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NYC Taxi Driver Kills Himself at City Hall after Condemning Uber & Politicians for Financial Ruin
New York City taxi drivers held a vigil on Tuesday to honor livery car driver Douglas Schifter, who killed himself in front of City Hall Monday morning after writing a long Facebook post condemning local politicians and Wall Street-backed apps like Uber for pushing him into financial ruin. He wrote, “I worked 100-120 consecutive hours almost every week for the past fourteen plus years. When the industry started in 1981, I averaged 40-50 hours. I cannot survive any longer with working 120 hours! I am not a Slave and I refuse to be one… There seems to be a strong bias by the Mayor and Governor in favor of Uber. A Company that is a known liar, cheat and thief.” Over the past five years, the number of for-hire cars has more than doubled in the city, largely thanks to Uber. But the soaring number of cars has resulted in a financial crisis for many longtime taxi drivers who now struggle to get customers.

“They were Both Cops & Robbers”: Baltimore Police Scandal Exposes Theft, Cover-Ups & Drug Peddling
In Maryland, closing arguments are scheduled to begin today for two Baltimore police officers who are part of what has been described as one of the most startling police corruption scandals in a generation. The officers were part of an elite plainclothes unit called the Gun Trace Task Force—but, according to prosecutors, the unit acted more like a criminal outfit. In his opening argument during the trial, the lead federal prosecutor, Leo Wise, said, “They were, simply put, both cops and robbers.” According to prosecutors, the officers stole hundreds of thousands of dollars from city residents. They broke into houses. They stole drugs and then gave them to drug dealers. They carried BB guns that they could plant on people they shot. Six members of the task force have already pleaded guilty.

NAACP vs. Trump: Racial Discrimination Suit Filed to Block Deportations of Haitians with TPS
The NAACP and the NAACP Legal Defense Fund have sued the Department of Homeland Security over its decision to rescind the temporary protected status (TPS) designation for Haitian immigrants.

Bresha Meadows, Teenage Girl Who Killed Her Abusive Father, Finally Freed After 10 Months in Jail
In Ohio, a 16-year-old girl who killed her abusive father is finally home from juvenile detention, after her case sparked national outcry over the treatment of domestic violence survivors. The young girl, Bresha Meadows, was just 14 years old when she shot dead her abusive father, Jonathan Meadows, with a bullet to his head as he slept. Only two months earlier, Bresha had run away from home, telling relatives that she was scared for her life “because her father was beating her mother and threatening to kill the whole family.” Bresha was sentenced to a year in juvenile detention, with credit for time served, as well as six months at a mental health treatment center.

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

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When Deportation is a Death Sentence: The Fatal Consequences of U.S. Immigration Policy
As the battle over the DREAMers and DACA heats up in Washington, a stunning new piece has been published in The New Yorker, titled “When Deportation is a Death Sentence.” It looks at how an unknown number of men and women have been killed in their home countries after being deported or turned away by the United States. The article focuses in part on a Mexican-born woman named Laura. Despite living her whole adult life in Texas, she was deported to Mexico after a traffic stop. She warned a U.S. Border Patrol agent, “When I am found dead, it will be on your conscience.” Within a week of her deportation, she was murdered by her ex-husband.

When U.S. Needs MLK’s Voice More Than Ever, Automaker Dodge Waters Down His Message to Peddle Trucks
Super Bowl Sunday marked the 50th anniversary of “The Drum Major Instinct,” a historic sermon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on February 4, 1968, two months before his assassination. The sermon is mostly remembered for the way King concluded it, by imagining his own funeral, downplaying his famous achievements and saying, “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice.” Well, on Sunday, Ram trucks marked the anniversary of King’s speech by using part of it in a Super Bowl ad to sell trucks. The controversial ad featured King’s voice played over video showing U.S. marines, ranchers and a soldier wearing camouflage, but it ignored King’s own warning about car advertisements from the same speech.

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

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Head of Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Group: Trump’s Nuclear Policy “Puts Us on Path Toward Nuclear War”
A treaty intended to limit the United States and Russia’s long-range nuclear arsenals officially takes effect today. But the once-promising treaty, signed eight years ago by President Obama, is overshadowed by a new nuclear arms race sparked by President Trump. On Friday, the Trump administration unveiled its new nuclear weapons strategy, which involves spending at least $1.2 trillion to upgrade the United States’ nuclear arsenal, including developing some completely new nuclear weapons. Prominent anti-nuclear advocates have denounced the Pentagon’s plan as “radical” and “extreme.”

As Paul Ryan Touts a Secretary’s $1.50 Weekly Pay Hike, Koch Bros. Reap $1.4B from GOP Tax Plan
This weekend, House Speaker Paul Ryan touted a story of a woman whose paycheck increased by $1.50 cents a week as a major benefit to middle-class workers. On Saturday, Ryan tweeted a link to an Associated Press report, writing, “A secretary at a public high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, said she was pleasantly surprised her pay went up $1.50 a week … she said [that] will more than cover her Costco membership for the year.” After a deluge of ridicule and outrage, Ryan deleted the tweet hours later.

17 Arrested Outside Super Bowl, Capping NFL Season of Racial Justice Protests On and Off Field
The Philadelphia Eagles stunned the sports world by beating the New England Patriots Sunday night in Minneapolis with a 41-to-33 win in Super Bowl LII, the first-ever title for the Eagles. The game capped a historic season for the National Football League, in which African-American players staged league-wide protests against racial injustice and police brutality by taking the knee during the national anthem before games. Meanwhile, Patriots wide receiver Brandin Cooks was knocked out on the field and left the game with a concussion on Sunday.

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

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“Mr. Boston”: Meet the Man Who Secretly Helped Daniel Ellsberg Leak Pentagon Papers to the Press
Historian Gar Alperovitz has revealed for the first time the key role he and a handful of other activists played in helping whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg leak to journalists the Pentagon Papers—a 7,000-page classified history outlining the true extent of U.S. involvement in Vietnam. Daniel Ellsberg told The New Yorker the secret role this group played was so crucial in releasing the Pentagon Papers that he gave them a code name: “The Lavender Hill Mob.” Alperovitz went by the alias “Mr. Boston.” Ellsberg told The New Yorker, “Gar took care of all the cloak-and-dagger stuff.” We speak to historian and political economist Gar Alperovitz about why he is going public now.

“They Repress Us Because We’re Poor”: Immigrant Rights Activist Speaks from Sanctuary in Colorado
As President Trump continues his crackdown on immigrant communities, a growing number of people are taking sanctuary in churches across the country to avoid deportation. A new report called “Sanctuary in the Age of Trump” says more people are now taking sanctuary than at any time in the United States since the 1980s. Another immigrant rights leader, Sandra Lopez, has taken sanctuary at the parsonage of the Two Rivers Unitarian Universalist church in Carbondale, Colorado. She is now facing deportation to Mexico after living in Colorado for 17 years. She’s a mother of three U.S.-born children: Alex, Edwin and Areli.

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.

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Marcy Wheeler on Showdown over Nunes Memo, Mueller Probe & Reauthorization of Mass Surveillance
A showdown is brewing in Washington as the White House prepares to release a controversial Republican memo despite opposition from the FBI, the Justice Department and Democratic lawmakers. The four-page memo, written by House Intelligence Committee chair, Republican Congressmember Devin Nunes of California, purports to show that the FBI abused its power when it began surveilling Trump campaign adviser Carter Page in 2016 due to his dealings with Russia. Supporters of President Trump claim the memo offers proof that the FBI’s investigation was tainted by politics from the start, in part because the FBI won approval of the wiretap by citing a dossier funded by supporters of Hillary Clinton. On Wednesday, the FBI, which is led by Trump appointee Christopher Wray, issued an unusual statement criticizing the imminent release of the memo, saying, “[W]e have grave concerns about material omissions of fact that fundamentally impact the memo’s accuracy.”

16 Years of War: Trump Joins Obama & Bush in Using SOTU to Hail “Progress” in Afghan War
On Tuesday night, President Trump became the third president in a row to attempt to put a positive spin on the war in Afghanistan—the longest war in U.S. history. Five years earlier, President Barack Obama predicted at his 2013 State of the Union that the war would soon be over. And back in 2006, President George W. Bush used his State of the Union to praise Afghanistan for building a “new democracy.” More than 16 years after the U.S. War in Afghanistan began, the country remains in a state of crisis. On Saturday, more than 100 people died in Kabul when an ambulance packed with explosives blew up. Then, on Monday, Islamic State militants carried out an early-morning attack on a military academy in the western outskirts of the capital of Kabul, killing at least 11 troops and wounding 16. Investigative reporter May Jeong is in Kabul. Her most recent piece for The Intercept is titled “Losing Sight: A 4-Year-Old Girl Was the Sole Survivor of a U.S. Drone Strike in Afghanistan. Then She Disappeared.”

Johann Hari on How the “Junk Values” of Neoliberalism Drive Depression and Anxiety in the U.S.
The United States is one of the most depressed countries in the world. Could it be because of the country’s adoption of neoliberal economic policies? Johann Hari is the author of a controversial new book, “Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression—and the Unexpected Solutions.” He writes, “Junk food has taken over our diets, and it is making millions of people physically sick. A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that something similar is happening with our minds—that they have become dominated by junk values, and this is making us mentally sick, triggering soaring rates of depression and anxiety.”

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In Warmongering First State of the Union, Trump Doubles Down on Gitmo & Escalates Nuclear War Threat
President Trump delivered his first State of the Union Tuesday night. During the lengthy address, Trump announced he’d signed an executive order keeping the Guantánamo Bay military prison open, and escalated his warmongering rhetoric against North Korea, calling the North Korean government “depraved” and warning it poses a nuclear risk to the United States.

Ilhan Omar, First Somali-American State Lawmaker: Trump’s SOTU was “Disgusting” & “Fascist”
During President Trump’s first State of the Union address Tuesday night, he repeatedly tried to conflate immigrants, including DREAMers, with terrorists and gang members—the latest in a string of racist or xenophobic statements Trump has made throughout his time in office. Yet, on Tuesday night, many lawmakers with the Congressional Black Caucus protested against Trump’s racism—and his recent comments calling African nations “shithole countries”—by wearing traditional African kente cloth. Minnesota state Representative Ilhan Omar, the highest-elected Somali-American public official in the United States, has more.

We Are Not Going to Be Intimidated: Undocumented Activist Attends SOTU Despite Threat of Arrest
On Tuesday, Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona asked the U.S. Capitol Police to arrest undocumented immigrants attending President Trump’s State of the Union address. Gosar’s threat didn’t stop many undocumented activists from attending after they were invited by Democratic lawmakers. Maru Mora Villalpando is an activist and undocumented immigrant with the group Northwest Detention Center Resistance and the group Mijente. She attended the State of the Union as a guest of Washington Senator Maria Cantwell.

Made in the USA: The Real History of the MS-13 Gang Trump Talked About in State of the Union
During President Trump’s first State of the Union, he called on Congress to pass an immigration overhaul and repeatedly tried to conflate immigrants, including DREAMers, with terrorists and gang members. Among Trump’s guests to the State of the Union were the parents of two young girls who were killed by members of the MS-13 gang two years ago in Long Island, New York. MS-13 is a gang that originated in Los Angeles in the 1980s and has since spread to Central America as a result of the U.S. mass deportation policies. Daniel Denvir is writer-in-residence at Harvard Law School’s Fair Punishment Project. His 2017 article for The Washington Post is titled “Deporting people made Central America’s gangs. More deportation won’t help.”

Trump’s “Backward-Looking” Speech Ignores Climate Change, While Pushing for “Beautiful, Clean Coal”
On Tuesday night at President Trump’s first State of the Union, there were two words conspicuously missing from Trump’s lengthy address: climate change. Trump did, however, celebrate “beautiful, clean coal” and the rollback of key regulations to protect the environment.

Eric is busily working on The Art of Becoming, the 2018 Planet Waves Annual; and it’s shaping up to be an exciting, information-packed edition. You can pre-order all 12 chapter-length signs here, or you may choose your individual signs here.