On this news, shares of the two biggest private prison operations—CoreCivic and GEO Group—rose  in after-hours trading.

PROBABLY NEXT UP: Remember all those reduced sentences Obama handed out? Well they're rescinded, too. And you guys who were let go early? You have 48 hours to report back to your cells.

QUOTATION OF THE DAY

“The work of the political activist inevitably involves a certain tension between the requirement that positions be taken on current issues as they arise and the desire that one's contributions will somehow survive the ravages of time.“
                    ~Angela Davis, Women, Culture and Politics, 1984

TWEET OF THE DAY

BLAST FROM THE PAST

At Daily Kos on this date in 2003—Americans believe war will increase terror:

Bush Co. and its media and warblogging cabal argue that taking out Saddam will help the nation combat the terrorism threat. However, the public isn't buying it. In the latest CBS News poll, 59 percent of respondents believed war would lead to more terrorism in the U.S. Only 12 percent thought it would lower the threat.

In addition, 60 percent of all respondents, and 40 percent of Republicans, think the US should wait for UN approval before invading.

Not that Bush will heed poll results, but it does indicate that he will place this nation at war without the full and enthusiastic backing of the people—a reality that may bear consequences down the road.

HIGH IMPACT STORIES • TOP COMMENTS

On today’s Kagro in the Morning show, Greg Dworkin tracks the rise of town hall resistance. Local Dem organizations are seeing a surge in interest. Another peek inside the Milo man cave. And a “Congressional Weekend” round-up of news you’ll need to know for the “Regular Person’s Weekend.”

YouTube | iTunes | LibSyn | Support the show via Patreon

Fuse Washington is a progressive organization in the state of Washington that brings “Washington residents together to support progressive causes and leaders.” Fuse organizers were on hand today to capture Rep. Dave Reichert’s constituents as they marched to his Issaquah, Washington, office. Like 200 of this Republican colleagues, Rep. Reichert has better things to do during recess week than meet with unhappy constituents. Check out the images and videos of Washington voters making sure Reichert hears them anyway.

Want to see if your elected representatives are going to be holding a town hall near you? CLICK HERE TO SEE THE TOWN HALL PROJECT'S LIST OF EVENTS.​ If your representative is not on that list, call them and ask to hold a town hall.

Attending a town hall near you? Send pics, videos, and your reports to socialmedia@dailykos.com.

Are you ready to raise hell against Congress for enabling Trump? Members are back in their districts on February recess, and it's time to turn out at rallies and town hall events to hold them accountable.

Donald Trump has done journalists a huge favor, inadvertently using his insane unpopularity to boost voters' trust in them. Apparently when you get attacked by a pr*sident who has the lowest approval ratings in the history of presidential approval ratings, people start to rethink their initial skepticism.

Similar to other polls, Quinnipiac found that Trump favorables are totally tanking, with only 39 percent viewing him in a favorable light to 55 percent who don't.

Meanwhile 90 percent of those polled said it was either "very important" or "somewhat important" for the media to hold public officials accountable, and a majority of voters said they trusted the media over Trump to tell “the truth about important issues," by a margin of 52 to 37 percent.  

"The media, so demonized by the Trump Administration, is actually a good deal more popular than President Trump," Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said, adding that Trump's popularity is "sinking like a rock."

Judges fare even better, with 58 percent of American voters saying they trust them to do what is right "most of the time” or "almost all of the time” while only 38 percent said the same of Trump.

Notice the pattern in the numbers: 39 percent approve of Trump, 37 percent believe Trump over the media, and 38 percent say they generally trust Trump to do the right thing. It’s a rather blunt gauge, but generally speaking, thirty-something percent of Americans will follow Trump no matter what he says or does. Sad, indeed.

What that also means is Trump is pretty much losing everyone else but his diehard bitter-enders. 

Another day, another million jobs created and billion dollars saved … in Donald Trump’s mind. Trump’s penchant for claiming to have saved jobs when he hasn’t, created jobs that aren’t new, and saved billions that he didn’t is nothing new. But this time, even the Air Force can’t locate the source of Trump’s theoretical savings.

The Air Force can’t account for $1 billion in savings that President Donald Trump said he’s negotiated for the program to develop, purchase and operate two new Boeing Co. jets to serve as Air Force One.

Trump claims that with just an hour’s conversation, he dropped the $4.2 price tag of a new Air Force One by a quarter. The only problem is … there is no such savings. No such price tag. Not even any new Air Force One.

The closest thing anyone can point at is an initial study …

Ryder said Boeing is now operating under an initial $172 million contract to work on “risk reduction activities.” The service expects to award contracts by June 30 for preliminary aircraft design and for the two unmodified 747-8 aircraft that will be adapted as Air Force One.

That study hasn’t generated any prices for the new aircraft. They’re not designed, much less under construction. And Trump’s contention that the Air Force was about to sign a $4.2 billion contract, that’s an alternative lie. It’s a lie.

In fact, the requirements for the jet aren’t set by the Air Force. It’s the White House that will look through the plans and determine what’s required. So if Donald Trump wants to make the project cheaper, he can easily do so by downgrading the requirements. And since the planes won’t be ready until after 2020, he’ll never have to fly in them.

House Republicans want states to be free to deny unemployment benefits to people who test positive for drugs. Last week, they approved legislation that would scrap an Obama administration rule limiting exactly which recipients of unemployment benefits states can legally drug test. Cora Lewis writes:

In 2012, as part of the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act, Congress passed a law (which was signed by then-President Obama) allowing states to drug test applicants for unemployment benefits in two instances: when unemployed workers had been fired from a job because of illegal drug use, or if they were looking for work in an industry with regular drug testing.

In August 2016, Obama’s Department of Labor finalized a rule for the latter category, defining a limited set of jobs that involve regular drug testing, such as pilots, bus drivers and jobs requiring use of a firearm. The House bill passed last week seeks to overturn that rule.

The legislation wouldn't lead to automatic testing for people seeking public assistance, but don't put it past Republicans. They're already touting it as a big money-saver for states. Here's what House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy is touting on his site:

Giving states flexibility by overturning this rule has immediate economic benefits. After implementing drug testing, Utah saved more than $350,000 in the first year alone as drug users were barred from receive [sic] benefit payments from the taxpayers.

Hey, if it's good for the states, why not the federal government? Republicans are beefing up the Department of Homeland Security with some 10,000 new immigration agents and building Trump's precious border wall at a cost of some of anywhere from $21 billion to $50 billion. They gotta make cuts somewhere—so why not stick their noses into people's personal lives?

Medicaid is proving to be one of the toughest sticking points for Republicans in their bumbling efforts to repeal Obamacare (forget about replace—they're still fighting repeal) as the hard-liners in the House continue to push for straight repeal and the end of Medicaid expansion. Thirty-one states accepted the Medicaid expansion, many with Republican governors. Those Republicans are panicking about the revenue they could lose, and the prospect of figuring out how to pay for taking care of the millions who'd be cut off. They've got Republican governors, including Wisconsin's Scott Walker and Ohio's John Kasich, trying to figure it out, getting something they can agree on and then have the White House and Congress follow them.

The discussions underscore another key point: While President Donald Trump promises to soon unveil his own health care plan, lawmakers on Capitol Hill are drafting the bill—while the Republican governors are likely to be the driving force behind the major entitlement reform over Medicaid coverage. […]

At the center of the talks are four governors who have taken different approaches to Medicaid: Walker and Gov. Bill Haslam of Tennessee, whose states did not expand Medicaid under the law; and two governors from states that did: Kasich and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. The discussions are likely to continue at the National Governors Association meeting in Washington this week, and as Kasich privately meets later this week with Trump at the White House.

Walker is there to represent the maniacal interests of the Freedom Caucus types—if he can agree to something, they figure he can bring along the crazies. But they've got a bigger problem than getting the House on board. They've also got to get the Senate. Even if they manage to use the trick of budget reconciliation and need just 51 votes—a legislative challenge under the rules—they are going to have a hard time getting enough Republican support.

Donald Trump’s top appointees have brought with them some terrifying headlines about what they plan to do to the United States. But what’s equally terrifying is that below the people who make headlines are hundreds more Republicans doing Trump’s will in ways that you might not hear about—but that will do damage nonetheless. Take Victoria Lipnic, acting chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Because Lipnic has been on the EEOC, we can look at how she’s voted on actual cases, and the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Will Evans has done just that.

Lipnic also opposed bringing lawsuits against:

• Georgia Power Company for systematically discriminating against disabled job applicants and workers. The company was accused of rejecting workers even though they had doctors’ opinions that they could work. Last year, it agreed to pay nearly $1.6 million and change its policies.
• A financial services company for harassing a transgender employee with epithets and refusing to let her use the women’s restroom. Last year, Deluxe Financial Services Corp. settled for $115,000 and promised to send an apology letter to the employee.
• An Arizona trucking company, for failing to accommodate workers with disabilities, including firing a woman who needed more time to recover from eye surgeries. CTI Inc. paid $300,000 in 2015 and changed its policies.

That was under Barack Obama, when Lipnic was in the minority. Now she’ll be in the majority, and what’s more, she’s taking her cues on what matters from Trump:

“We enforce some of the most important civil rights laws in the country. Having said that, it is a new administration,” she said in a Feb. 9 speech to her former law firm, which represents employers in labor cases. “And President Trump has made it very clear that he is interested in jobs, jobs, jobs.”

When you’re like “yes, I’m supposed to enforce civil rights laws, but,” we have a problem.

When former national security adviser Michael Flynn needed someone to assure the American people that he hadn't had conversations with Russians that he did indeed have, Vice President Mike Pence showed up in spades on CBS's Face the Nation. Now, Pence has a new assignment: selling Trump's voter fraud delusions. Ben Kamisar writes:

Vice President Pence is in the process of selecting members for a White House task force investigating President Trump's unproven claims that millions of cases of voter fraud cost him the popular vote in last year's election.

White House press secretary Sean Spicer mentioned the development with little fanfare during Wednesday's press conference.

"He’s announcing that Vice President Mike Pence will lead a task force on this," Spicer said when asked about Trump's accusations that 3 million to 5 million people voted illegally in 2016. The White House so far has not offered evidence that so many people filed illegal ballots. "He named the task force, and the vice president is starting to gather names and individuals to be a part of it.”

Wow, nothing like being tapped to run down a rabbit hole as the pr*sident's errand boy on a mission that's going nowhere.

Pence is really going to have to dig deep to find something that satisfies the deluder-in-chief’s fantasies about “winning” the popular vote. And whatever Pence turns up, just remember that he also delivered a passionate defense of the now-resigned Michael Flynn.

Last week the State Department was feeling isolated, underutilized, and under threat.

Senior state department officials who would normally be called to the White House for their views on key policy issues, are not being asked their opinion. They have resorted to asking foreign diplomats, who now have better access to President Trump’s immediate circle of advisers, what new decisions are imminent.

And this week the State Department is feeling more of the same.

The Trump administration in its first month has largely benched the State Department from its long-standing role as the pre­eminent voice of U.S. foreign policy, curtailing public engagement and official travel and relegating Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to a mostly offstage role.

Why do you need a State Department anyway? Can those guys write a treaty in 140 characters or less? No? Then leave it to the real experts. The best brains.

The most visible change at the State Department is the month-long lack of daily press briefings, a fixture since John Foster Dulles was secretary of state in the 1950s. 

If the Hoover Administration could get by without daily briefings, then why would Trump need them?

Is the Trump White House now attempting to use the Federal Bureau of Investigations as their own political prop? Why yes. Yes they are.

The FBI rejected a recent White House request to publicly knock down media reports about communications between Donald Trump's associates and Russians known to US intelligence during the 2016 presidential campaign, multiple US officials briefed on the matter tell CNN. [...]

The direct communications between the White House and the FBI were unusual because of decade-old restrictions on such contacts. Such a request from the White House is a violation of procedures that limit communications with the FBI on pending investigations.

There seems to be some disagreement on who called who first (that is, somebody here is lying) but the contacts were between White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Priebus wanted the FBI to rebut press stories about constant contact between the Trump campaign team and Russian officials. That request made it to director James Comey.

Comey rejected the request for the FBI to comment on the stories, according to sources, because the alleged communications between Trump associates and Russians known to US intelligence are the subject of an ongoing investigation.

Reince Priebus has publicly claimed that he "talked to the top levels of the intelligence community", and those FBI officials told him that the reports of the campaign-Russia connections were "grossly overstated and inaccurate and totally wrong." He would appear to mean McCabe, then?

It's more than a little odd that the FBI would supposedly be giving so much information about the state of their investigation to the very target of that investigation—though when Trump's team is involved, we can hardly claim it would be surprising. It would be more surprising to hear that they weren't trying to use the agency as just another political tool.

The sun rises in the east and sets in the west and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins gets credit she doesn’t deserve for being a moderate who stands up to her party. The latest: would Collins, as a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, vote to subpoena Donald Trump’s tax returns as part of the investigation into his Russia ties?

"I don’t know whether we will need to do that. If it’s necessary to get to the answers, then I suspect that we would," Collins said on Maine Public Radio when asked if she would subpoena Trump's tax records for the investigation.

She added that such a decision would be up to the chairman and vice chairman of the Intelligence Committee.

Predictably, the headlines are all “Republican would subpoena Trump.” But come on. “I don’t know … if it’s necessary … I suspect.” That’s way past standard hedging—if she’d said “never say never, but ...” it would have communicated the same thing. She isn’t willing to say a flat no (because it would look bad and the headlines wouldn’t be half so flattering), but she doesn’t expect it to happen and she is definitely, definitely not standing up to her party to make it happen.

As we’ve been following the news over the last few weeks, we now know that the Trump administration has enacted a plan to widen the pool of immigrants who can be deported to anyone who is undocumented—regardless of criminal background. This means that in addition to Trump’s “bad hombres,” workers, students, parents, even toddlers are likely to be considered priorities for removal.

And while they cannot change what Trump’s deportation force plans to do, Chicago Public Schools (CPS) are doing what they can to make sure undocumented students and parents are safe and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials follow the law. As such, they have instructed principals not to let ICE into its schools or facilities unless they have a criminal warrant. 

“To be very clear, CPS does not provide assistance to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the enforcement of federal civil immigration law,” chief education officer Janice Jackson wrote. “Therefore, ICE should not be permitted access to CPS facilities or personnel except in the rare instance in which we are provided with a criminal warrant. If presented with any paperwork from ICE, please call the Law Department before taking any action.”

This is not necessarily new and it’s in full accordance with the law. But it does stand up to Trump’s mass deportation plans and reinforces that CPS is not going to make it easy for ICE to raid schools and make off with frightened students and parents without a fight.