Musician rogers waters, Founding Member of pink floyd. He has emerged one of the most prominent supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against israel. We will talk about an attempt by long island politicians to shut down two of his upcoming concerts, his opposition to the senate antibds bill, plus his role in the documentary, the occupation of the American Mind israels Public Relations war in the United States. Advertisingsed would put it in even more blunt terms. Propaganda is not a dirty word, he said. Face it. We are the game of changing peoples minds. Making the think differently. To a compost that, we need propaganda. Roger waters and sut jhally for the hour. All of that and more, coming up. Welcome to democracy now , democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. In a breakthrough that could shield 800,000 undocumented immigrants from deportation, top Congressional Democrats said wednesday theyve reached a deal with President Trump to protect immigrants who were brought to the u. S. As children. The deal came after Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority leader nancy pelosi met with President Trump over dinner at the white house. In a joint statement, the Democratic Leaders said trump agreed to support legislation that would enshrine the protections of daca into law. Daca is the deferred action for childhood arrivals program, which gives Legal Protection to young undocumented immigrants to live and work in the United States. But early thursday, President Trump cast doubt over any agreement, tweeting no deal was made last night on daca. Nasa Border Security would have to be agreed to. The reported agreement enraged many republicans, including commerce meant steve king who retweeted associated report on the agreement, adding if ap is correct, trump base is blown up, destroyed, irreparable, and disillusioned beyond repair. No promise is credible. In the caribbean, aid groups are struggling to bring food and water to increasingly desperate residents, as the overall death toll from Hurricane Irma rose to at least 77. French officials said theyve launched one of the biggest airlifts since world war ii in order to bring relief to the island of st. Martin, where 90 of buildings were damaged when irma madade landfall with categy 5 winds. On st. John, part of the u. S. Virgin islands, where at least four people have been n reported dead, fema recovery workers are searching for 30 people missssig amid the islands rubble. The devastation in the caribbean is so severe, it can be seen from space. Beforeandafter Satellite Photos released by nasas earth observatory show barbuda and saint barts turned from green to brown after Hurricane Irma stripped vegetation from the islands. In the continental u. S. , Hurricane Irmas death toll rose to 31 after eight elderly residents of a nursing home in hollywood, florida, were found dead after they languished without air conditioning in sweltering conditions. The discovery of the deaths prompted a local hospital, which is just down the street from the Rehabilitation Center at hollywood hills, to send in more than 50 medical workers under a mass casualty protocol. 158 people were evacuated, many with severe dehydration and other heatrelated symptoms. An administrator at the nursing home said temperatures spiked tuesday night after air conditioners went down due to damage from Hurricane Irma. Hollywood police chief Tomas Sanchez says his department is investigating the incident as a crime. Very tragic. It is very sad. Many of us have loved ones in assisted living facilities, and we expect that care to be there for those people. We immediately started a criminal investigation into this matter and major everyone was evacuated. We took control of the entire building immediately thereafter. Amy in the western u. S. , arid conditions continue to fuel massive wildfires. The National Interagency fire Center Reports at least 62 large fires burning this week in california, montana, oregon, and six other western states. At least 8 million acres of forest and grassland have burned so far this yearar. Increasising climate chaosos has driven a number of celebrities to warn of the dangers of Global Warming. At tuesday nights hand in hand Hurricane Relief telethon, music legend beyonce warned that devastation from hurricanes harvey and irma, and massive flooding in south asia, is due to climate change. The telethon kicked off with a message from stevie wonder, who called out climate deniers head of a rendition of the classic song, stand by me. As we should begin to love and value our planet and anyone who believes there is no such thing as Global Warming must be blind or unintelligent. Amy on capitol hill, vermont independent senator bernrnie sanders introduced a bill wednesday that would provide universal healthcare by expanding medicare to include every american. Sanders introduced the bill flanked by doctors, nurses, and some of the bills 15 democratic cosponsors. Sen. S sanders today we begie debate vital to the future of our economy as to why it is that in the united ststates, we spent almost twice as much per capita on health care as any other nation on earth, and yet we have 28 Million People without any Health Insurance and even more who are underinsured with high deductibles and copayments. Amy senator sanders unveiled his medicare for all bill as Senate Republicans launched another attempt to repeal the Affordable Care act after the partys two previous efforts ended in humiliating defeat. The whwhite house called wednesy for an africanamerican host of espns Sports Center to be fired after she called President Trump a white supremacist on twitter. On monday, Sportscenter Jemele hill tweeted donald trump is a white supremacist who has largely surrounded himself w other white supremacists. The comments drew a public reprimand from espn and outrage from conservatives. It also drew the support of antiracist activists including former nfl quarterback colin kaepernick. On wednesday, White House Press secretary Sarah Huckabee sanders called on espn to fire jemele hill. I think that is one of the more outrageous, set anyone could make, and suddenly something that i think is a horrible offense. Amy jemele hill later deleted her tweets critical of President Trump; she issued an apology Late Wednesday saying they painted espn in an unfair light. Trump on president the white house has trump will sign the resolution, which passed unanimously. The resolution came as President Trump met at the white house was South Carolina senator tim scott, the only black republican carly serving in the senate, who has criticized the president over his response to deadly violence at a march of white susupremacists and neonazis i n charlottesville, virginia last the what also give it a photo of the meeting with the senator mislabeling his naname ass tom scott instead of 10 scott. In boston, fans at a red sox game unfurled a giant banner thursday over the famed Green Monster outfield wall reading, racism is as american as baseball, where it remained for a few minutes before fenway park security guards removed it. In a statement to the washington post, the fans behind the banner dropped descscribed themselves as a grop of white antiracist protesters. Assist a bomb blast killed three people at a checkpoint in the capital kabul. The explosion wounded five others and rattleded players and hundreds of fans at a crcricket match in a nearby ststadium. And the United NationsSecurity Council called wednesday for burma to end violence against its minority rohingya community, as the number of refugees whove fled to neighboring bangladesh reached 380,000. The u. N. Has called a campaign of violence by vermis military, which has seen men, women, and shall bring killed in homes and home set on fire cut a textbook case of ethnic cleansing. At the United Nations secretarygeneral antonio , guterres was questioned wednesday by reporters. Given the situation has gotten so much worse in the last week, do you believe this is ethnic cleansing . I would answer your question with another question. Rohingyathird of the population had to flee the country, can you find a better word to describe it . Make of his comments came as the burmese government said president will not at Aung San Suu KyiAung San Suu Kyi will not attend the us and the next week. More than 300,000 of called on the nonobel committee to revoke the nobel peace prize. And thosose are some o of the headlines. This is democracy now , democrcracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goododman. Today we spend me hour with world famous british musician roger waters, Founding Member of pink floyd. The band is perhaps most well known for their records the wall and dark side of the moon. Roger waters recently released his first new studio album in 25 years and is touring stadiums across the country. But the tour has not been without controversy. Waters is scheduled to play on friday and saturday night and long island, despite attempts by Nassau County officials to shut down the concerts, which will take place in a coliseum owned by the county. The reason . Waters outspoken support for bds, the boycott, divestment and sanctions Movement Targeting Israel over its treatment of palestinians. Nassau kenya officials had claimed the concerts would violate a local law which prohibits the county from doing business with any Company Participating in the economic boycott of israel. Waters has also been met by protests on many other stops on the tour. Ahead of his concert in miami, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation took out a full page ad in the miami herald with the headline antisemitism and hatred are not welcome in miami. The group also pressured the city of miami beach to prevent a group of School Children from appearing onstage with waters to sing during the concert. Despite all of this, roger waters has continued to speak out. Last week he wrote a piece in the New York Times titled, congress shouldnt silence human rights advocates. In the oped, he criticized a bill being considered in the senate to silence supporters of bds. Waters writes by endorsing this mccarthyite bill, senators would take away Americans First amendment rights in order to protect israel from nonviolent pressure to end its 50yearold occupation of palestinian territory and other abuses of palestinian rights. Democracy now Nermeen Shaikh and i spoke to roger waters on wednesday. I began by asking him to respond by arecent statement legislator who attttempted to st down roger waters question the upcoming concerts in one island. He called him villain antisemi to as in brace the bds movement and that some will not do business with you. Theres no room for hatred in nassau. The first thing that lives out of that statemenent is the notion that i might be in some way antisomatic will step or against jewish people were against the jewish religion or against anything that hasas jewishness attached to it. I am off. They c comb through h my past ad they find it very difficult to susubstantiate that accusation. They use the a accusation as thy do with anybody who supports bds or anybody who criticizes Israeli Foreign policy or the occupatition. That is their standard go to response is to call you and effect; to start calling you names. And hopefully, to discredit you. As far as nassau coliseum is concerned and the specific thing thee, i was hoping that state attorney, i guess, ive forgotten his name at the moment, was going to try and take the case to court and was going to actually litigate with the management of nassau coliseum on the grounds they were breaking some law. Because it would have given us a ,hance to have our day in court and for what i considered to be the site of reason and dialogue and decency and the law and constitution and freedom and rights and being grown up about things. I think they eventually look at it and thoughtht it was s too dangerous. Because if they had gone to court with us, theres no question but that we would have the case and it would have perverted the president s to stop legislatureses arounund the rerf the United States from bringing frivolous cases in similar circumstances. Come i dont know where you are, but im really sorry that you did not bring this out into the open because it bears discussion. They are attempting to take away the First Amendment rights of american citizens and o others. Amy but you are playing friday and saturday night at nassau . Yes, we are. And we will be playing to great audiences who will l completely understand as well there is no hatred in my show. I am somewhat critical of the Current Administration in a satirical and playfulul way, i like to think. But my show is all about the race, theif this human race, is to survive even the next 50 or 100 years, we need to start looking at the possibility of the transcendental nature of love and with the start looking after one another and recognizing our responsibility to others which is what is about. Nermeen you wrote, should not silence human rightsts advocates and this is about the e proposed bill, thisisrael antiboycott act. Could you explain what the act calls for and what your own experience has been with it . As i read it, i dont read the complete draft, but i know it sounds ludicrous, but it is true. There is a bill before congress s,720, which seeks to criminalize support for boycott, divestment, and sanctions, which is a Nonviolent International protest movement, to protest the occupation of Palestinian Land that has been going on for 50 years. They want to make it a felony to support bds, as far as ii understand it, with criminal penalties and my view, they are absurd. Some of you like me, for instance, if the bill was passed in its current draft, and would be subject to a fine between 250,000 and 1 million. And a term of imprisonment up to 20 years. That is for peaceful, nonviolent, political protest on behalf of basic human rights for really good people. Which is absurd, clearly, when you put it like that. You think, well, it is ridiculous. Why would congress why would Congress Even be using any of their precious time in the legislature to even discuss such a thing . Contravening as it does the First Amendment to the constitution, which is one of the lasik writes that american citizens have freedom of speech, to say with italy. Nermeen expand your own involvement with bds. How did you come to learn of it and supported in the way you have . In 2006, i was doing a tour. I was asked to play in israel, to do a gig in tel aviv. I will try to tell this very quickly. I started getting no, i agreed to a gig in tel aviv and i mean really started getting needles from people asking if i wanted to do it. I was told about bds, which was started by Civil Society of palestinians in 2005. I engaged in a diaialogue, t tht famous word, with these people, and with palestinians. They convinced me i should cancel the gig, that we were going to play in tel aviv. As a kind of act of compromise, place and Agricultural Community where many different religions, christians, jews, muslims all live togetheher, their children all good to school t together. It is they grow chickpeas for a living. We did the gig there, outdoors. It was a huge success. 60,000 israelis came. No palestinians, of course, because they are not allowed to travel. Which is kind of the start of my story. At the end of that gig, i stood up and it had been hugely enthusiastic audience. I said, you are the generation of young israelis who have the responsibility to make peace with your neighbors and to figure out this terrible mess that your country has got itself into. And there was complete silence. It was like 60,0,000 kids all looking at me going, what is he talking about . This is not in the script. So anyway, i went back the next year at the invitation of amy the United Nations agency . Yes. We went all over the west bank. We did not go t