Background Briefing with Ian Masters

September 17, 2025 - Dean Baker | Ben Freeman | Jonathan Alter by Ian Masters

Peter Thiel's Obsession With the Antichrist Brings Techno-Fascism and Christo-Fascism Together | The Senate Grills the Unqualified and Incompetent Kash Patel as the FBI's Top Talent is Purged | Israel Invades Gaza City as a UN Report Concludes Israel is Commititng Genocide in Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Ben Burgis Who Debated Charlie Kirk on "Democratic Socialism vs. Conservative Populism" | Echoes of the 60's and 70's From Protest Songs Against Trump and MAGA Fascism | An Assessment of the Military Standoff Between Russia and Ukraine backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump and His Co-President Stephen Miller Declare War on the Democratic Party Which Miller Calls "A Domestic Terrorism Organization" | Charlie Kirk's Christian Nationalism is Embraced by the Shadow Rulers J.D. Vance, Mike Johnson and Russ Vought | Reality Winner Got 5 Years in Prison While Trump Got a Free Pass From a Judge he Owns For Far, Far Worse Breaches of the Espionage Act of 1917 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

September 11, 2025 - Barbara F. Walter | Thomas Mockaitis | Bruce Cumings by Ian Masters

Putin Tests the NATO Alliance With a Drone Incursion Into Poland | Why Are Democratic Leaders Avoiding Popular And Promising Candidates Like Mamdani and Maine's Oysterman? | Qatar Was Not Warned About the Israeli Attack Which Happened at 3.46 Because the US Told Them About it 10 Minutes Later at 3.56 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

With a September 30 Government Shutdown Looming, Do the Democrats Get Blamed or Do They Walk Away and Let the Republicans Own it Since They Don't Negotiate in Good Faith? | Did the US Allow Israel to Strike an Allied Country That Hosts the Biggest US Base in the Middle East? | The US Tells the Europeans We Will No Longer Work With Them Against Russian, Chinese and Iranian Disinformation Warfare backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

With a Sept. 30 Gov Shutdown Looming, Do the Dems Get Blamed or Do They Let the Republicans Own it? by Ian Masters

The US Tells the Europeans We Will No Longer Work With Them Against Disinformation Warfare by Ian Masters

Did the US Allow Israel to Strike an Allied Country That Hosts the Biggest US Base in the ME? by Ian Masters

A Major TV Network Caves Again, Censoring Trump Protests at the US Open Men's Tennis Final | The Growing Rift Between the Supreme Court and the Lower Courts | A Chicagoan Manning the Barricades Ahead of Trump's "Invasion" in His War on Chicago backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Escalates Threats Against Venezuela as Rubio Calls For a Regional Latin American Campaign of Extrajudicial Killings | The Weak and Cynical Trump Plans For Defending Ukraine In a Possible Deal With Putin | The Consequence of DHS Violence Prevention Funding Cuts to Minnesota Just Ahead of the Minneapolis Mass Shooting of Kids on Their First Day of School backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

September 4, 2025 - Jonathan Guyer backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

RFK Jr. Grilled by Senate Democrats Who Want him Fired and Republicans He Lied To | A Congressional Reporter on the Women Abused And Trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell as Trump, the Doj and the House Speaker Fight to Keep the Epstein Files From the Public | The Moral and Strategic Collapse of US Policy in the Middle East backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

With Trump's DoJ and House Republicans on the Side of a Depraved Socialite Instead of the Victims of Her Sex Trafficking, Maxwell's Survivors Had to Speak in Front of the Capitol Today | Is Trump Cooking Up a Nice Little War to Take Out Maduro as a Distraction From Epstein? | ICE's Shameful Deportation of Asylum Seekers Back to Russian Torture and Imprisonment backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Federal Court Rules That Trump and Hegseth Violated the Posse Comitatus Act and That Trump is Creating a National Police Force With Him As Its Chief | Does Xi Jinping Command the World Stage Because of His Diplomatic Skills or Because of Trump's Blundering Lack of Diplomacy? | A Mayor Mamdani Will Need A Mass Movement Behind Him To Overcome an Establishment Out to Crush Him backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The State of Working America Under Assault From Trump and Project 2025 | How Trump and Project 2025 Have Turbocharged the Plutocratic Takeover of American Democracy | The History of Labor Day As Opposed to May Day That Others Celebrate backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump, Hegseth, Ratcliffe, Gabbard, Patel, Bongino and Noem Might as Well be Working For Putin and Xi as They Destroy Our National Security | How the Conspiratorial Mindset of an Entitled Wastrel From a Famous American Political Dynasty is Collapsing America's Public Health | The Blowback at Home From America's Killing Machine in the War on Terror backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Another Mass Murder of Children, This Time While They Were Praying in Church on Their First Day at School | The Sadistic Absurdity of Trump, Miller, Noem, Lewandowsky and Homan | Democrats Can Learn From Our Best President's Strategic Shift in the Civil War to Save Our Democracy From America's Worst President backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The U.S. is Caught Spying on a NATO Ally in Support of Trump's Plot to Steal Greenland | Trump's Antisemitic Conspiratorial Rant Threatening George Soros and His Son | Having Survived a Coup Attempt, Can We Endure Dictatorial Creep? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Another Governor, Illinois' Pritzker, Stands up to Trump While Democratic Leaders in the House and Senate are MIA | After Trying to Terminate the Fed Chair, Trump Fires the First and Only Black Woman on the Fed, But She is Staying Put | How the U.S. Should Deal With the Way the World is, Not How We Wish It To Be backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Since Oval Office Flattery is Required, South Korea's President Praises Trump's Garish Redecoration Only to Have Trump Heap Praise on the North Korean Dictator Who Wants to Annihilate South Korea | A Directionless DNC Meets Today With Coffers Empty and a Growing Split Between Younger Activists and Older Centrists While Trump's GOP Moves to Wipe Out the Opposition and Install a Dictator | 5 More Palestinian Journalists Killed Today as Starvation Takes Hold in Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Rewrites His Epstein/Maxwell History as He Has Done With "Russiagate" and "Stop the Steal" But This Time Are the American People That Stupid? | Joining the Residents of Washington DC As They Demonstrate Against the Military Occupation of Our Nation's Capital | Among the First to Warn About Global Warming, Bill McKibbon on His New Book Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump Patrols the Streets of the Nation's Capital as He Wages War on the Truth | A Case For a Real Democracy in the U.S.A. backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Protestors at DC's Union Station Yell at Vance, Hegseth and Miller Who Calls Them "Crazy Communists" as They Bring Cheeseburgers to National Guard Troops | Texas Gerrymanders 5 Seats For Trump Who is Trying Everything to Stop the Democrats From Taking the House in 2026 | Can Ukraine Hold the Front Against a Russian Offensive Which is Why Putin Doesn't Want a Ceasefire? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Pathetic Idea of Diplomacy and the Art of the Giveaway | After Sunday's Massive Demonstrations, Can Israel's Opposition Stop the War on Gaza? | The Fascistic Thuggery of Republican Legislators in Texas backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Damage Control at the White House to Prevent Trump's Sellout of Ukraine to Putin | Trump Wants to Get Rid of Mail-in Ballots and Undo the Constitution's Bedrock of States Controlling Elections | Trump's Burgeoning War Chest to Buy theNext Election Just as Musk Bought the Last backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Shameful Amateurism of Trump's Reality TV Diplomacy as He Sells Out Ukraine While Fawning Over a Wanted War Criminal | A Specialist on Russian Media on the Summit the Russian Public Saw on Putin-Controlled State Media | The Possibility of Crypto-Corruption Greasing the Skids to the Summit backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Performative Takeover of the Street of Washington DC as Its Residents Cry "Fascists", "Pigs" and "Go Home" | What Can Democrats Do To Be Proactive, Not Reactive to Trump | California Governor Newsom's Announcement of a November 4 Special Election to Counter the Texas Gerrymander backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

How Ukrainians Feel About the Upcoming Summit to Which They Are Not Invited | The 31 Years-Long Dictatorship That Served as a Backchannel For the Putin/Trump Summit | Trump and Hegseth Have Captured the Generals Who Will Show Loyalty Over Legality and Not Rescue us From Trump as Milley, Mattis and Kelly Did Last Time backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The UN's Palestinian Representative's Call For a UN Peacekeeping Protection Force in Gaza | What a Peace Plan to End Russia's War on Ukraine Could Look Like | Trump Moves to Use the Military for Domestic Law Enforcement as the Pentagon Plans For Rapid Reaction Forces to Put Down Civil Dissent backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Like a Tinpot Dictator, Trump Takes Over the Nation's Capital, Sending Troops Into the Streets as a Show of Force | The Growing Rift Between IDF Generals and Netanyahu as More of Israel's Allies Call For a Palestinian State | The Possibility of a New War Erupting Soon Between Israel and Iran backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Yet Another Sellout by Trump to His Handler Putin | Since Zelensky Will Have to Reject Trump's Phony Peace Deal, Will That Be Trump's Excuse to Abandon Ukraine? | Gabbard's Ridiculous Revisionist History Aimed to Please the Liar-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Low Expectations Among Experts For the Upcoming Putin/Trump Summit in the UAE | Decades of US Efforts to Woo India Away From Russia and Forge a Strategic Partnership Against China Blown Up Overnight By Trump | The Dark Side of A.I. as Silicon Valley Techno-Utopians Oversell Their Products Again backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Will the Lawless Trump Regime Have the FBI Arrest the Democratic Lawmakers Who Fled Texas to Stop Trump's Power Grab? | As Trump Tries to Persuade Putin Ahead of Friday's Deadline, Can Putin End His War on Ukraine? | An Authoritative Analysis on the Economy and Where Trump is Taking it backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The House Subpoenas the Epstein Files and Laura Loomer is Back in the Oval Office | The Dirty Deal Already Made Between Trump and Ghislaine Maxwell | As Netanyahu Plans to Reoccupy Gaza, Speaker Johnson Meets Settlers Telling Them They Are the "Rightful Owners" of Palestinian Territory backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Texas Democrats Try to Stop the Trump/Abbott Power Grab to Win the House in the Midterms Before a Vote Has Been Cast | With Signs of Stagflation and Recession Emerging, It's Time For the Democrats to Hammer Trump on the Economy | How Will Trump Respond to the Letter From 600 Top Israeli Officials Asking Him to Get Netanyahu to Stop the Killing in Gaza? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Tariff Spree and Shooting the Messenger With the Bad Jobs Report | Trump Accuses Obama of "Treason" As He Tries to Rewrite History Based on Forgeries by Russian Intelligence | American Sociocide in the Misanthropic Era of a Malevolent Sociopath backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

50% Tariffs Slapped on Brazil To Force Lula To Drop Charges Against Trump's Fellow Fascist Bolsonaro | Time To Rename the Environmental Protection Agency the Environmental Destruction Agency | In Spite of Trump's Bullying, the Fed Chair Holds Steady on Interest Rates backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Trump-controlled US Senate Elevates Bove as the Law is Weaponized to Keep Unqualified Ideologues On As US Attorneys | The Good and the Bad of Having a Foreign Policy Amateur in the Oval Office | The Senate Tries To Make the Epstein Files Public as the Republicans Stonewall Protecting Their "Dear Leader" backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Announce First- Details Later Trade Deal With the EU and "Air Farce One: When Gift Becomes Grift" | Trump's New Ultimatum To Putin Seen as a Step Towards War | Trump Rebukes Netanyahu Over Starving Children But OK's Plan to Annex Gaza backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

As Trump Appears More Bonkers, We Look Into the "Intellectual" Gloss J.D. Vance Puts on the Administration's Racist and Cruel Policies | What the Supreme Court's Liberals Are Trying to Tell the American People | The Pathetically Thin-Skinned Most Powerful Man in the World Demands "Dear Leader" Worship While Suing Media Outlets That Tell the Truth About Him backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Why Thailand and Cambodia Are Fighting Over Their Border and What Should Stop It | Trump's Brazen Plan to Gerrymander the Already Gerrymandered State of Texas to Have 80% of the Power With Only 55% of the Vote | Trump and His Law Firm the DoJ Make Nice With a Convicted Sex Trafficker of Underage Girls as MAGA Media Portrays Maxwell as a Victim to Justify Trump's Pardon of Her backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

International Outrage at Deliberate Starvation in Gaza Grows | An Analysis of Working Class Social and Economic Attitudes For the Democratic Party to Consider | A New Books Karl Marx in America as Young Americans Embrace Socialism While Trump Calls Democrats Marxist Lunatics backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Bipartisan Discharge Petition Working Around Speaker Johnson's Protection of Trump and Epstein | The Weaponization of Confidential IRS Data Now Being Handed Over to ICE and DHS | The Deliberate Starvation of Children in Gaza With Over 1,000 Palestinian Aid-Seekers Killed Since May backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Good Christian Mike Johnson Shuts Down the House to Protect the Best Friend of a Pedophile and Child Sex Trafficker | The Decline of the Intelligence Community Trying to Survive an Anti-Intellectual Regime backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Is Trump Suing Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal to Find Out Who the Leaker Is? | Cancelling Comedians to Muzzle the American Tradition of Political Satire | The Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse Driving Us Into a Hellscape: Trump, Miller and Vought backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

With the Upcoming Senate Confirmation Vote on Emil Bove, Will Trump Get His "Roy Cohn" on the Supreme Court? | We Are Past a Constitutional Crisis and Should be Working on Restoring Our Democracy and Reviving the Constitution | A Way Out of America's Descent Into Authoritarianism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

After Feeding Them Lies and Delusions For Years, Trump Now Calls His MAGA Cultists "Stupid" and "Weaklings" | AG Bondi's Firing of Maurene Comey Whose Father is High Up on Trump's Enemies List | Today's Walkout by Senate Democrats on the Judiciary Committee backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Israel Bombs Damascus as the Syrian Government Slaughters the Druze Minority, Exposing the Different Interests of Israel and the U.S. When it Comes to the Jihadi in a Suit Leading the New Syria | Geo Group and Core Civic Feast on Taxpayer Money as ICE Detains Whoever They Can Snatch | Apparently the Rich Are Not Rich Enough in America backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia