Background Briefing with Ian Masters

While Trump Brings Putin Out From the Cold of International Isolation, He Hangs Ukraine Out to Dry | An Assessment of What the Europeans Can Do to Help Ukraine As Trump Sells Out European Security | Will the Press Make a Stand as Trump Tries to Bring the AP to Heel? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Vance Tells Allies Russia is Not the Enemy, Europe's Enemy is Within, and It's... Wokeness! | A Global Alliance of Autocrats and Kleptocrats Emerges as Trump Follows Orban's Playbook | Our Top Law Enforcer Pam Bondi Embraces Lawlessness and Corruption backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump is Selling Out Ukraine to Putin Who He Is Going to Bat For to Have the Pariah Readmitted to the G7 | Republican Senators Confirm an Anti-Vaxxer and Conspiracy Monger to Head HHS | How the Left Lost Its Political Footing and How to Get it Back backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Hegseth Gives Up Ukraine's Leverage Before Russia/Ukraine Peace Talks Begin | Is the Trump Administration Already Capitulating to Putin? | An Assessment of the Awkward Meeting Between Jordan's King Abdullah and Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Frightening Pace at Which the United States is Embracing Authoritarianism | Why is it Trump's Priority to Attack Allies Like Canada While Cozying up to Enemies Like Putin? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Has Fascism Already Arrived in America? | The MAGA Christian Nationalists' War on the Separation of Church and State | Musk and His Techies Are Purging Workers to Replace Them With Automation and AI Which is Why He's Buying OpenAI For $97.4 Billion backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Technocrats Are Purging Bureaucrats to Grab Data, Control Funds, Weaken Government, Cut Services and Install Loyalists to the Dear Leader | The One-Two Punch of Plutocracy and Theocracy Taking Over the Country | The Tinderbox in Eastern Congo Threatening a Regional War backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Government Workers Should Not Fall For the Musk/Trump Buyout Trick | The Moral Authoritarian and Billionaire Worshipping Author of Project 2025 About to Head the OMB | Collusion Between the Far Right and American Policing is About to Get Worse Under Trump, Bondi and Kash Patel backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Netanyahu Meets With the Christian Zionist "Crusader" at the Pentagon Where Top Officials Want to Get Out of the Middle East Quagmire | A Palestinian Perspective on Trump's US-Owned Gaza as a "Riviera of the Middle East" | The Growing Alarm at Musk Having Every American's Social Security Number, Address, Email, Income and Personal Details backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Fatal Combination of a Mentally Ill President and a Mentally Deranged Billionaire Out to Destroy Our Government and Democracy | Stopping the Deadly Fentanyl Trade in Mexico, China and Now India | The Folly of a Trade War With China and a Saner Way To Ease Tensions backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Musk Shuts Down USAID After Trump Illegally Freezes Foreign Aid for 90 Days | The Failure of the Democrats and the American Left In Allowing a Disastrous Misanthrope to Be Elected President Not Just Once, But Twice | Do 76 Million Americans Not Want a Functioning Government and Prefer to be Entertained by a Reality TV Star? Host: Ian Masters Producer: Graham FitzGibbon Assistant Producer: Asher Price

Trump's Lawless, Petty and Vindictive Purge of the Justice Department and FBI | Musk and Trump's Shock and Awe Campaign to Wreck and Loot the US Government | Trump Slaps Tariffs on Canada, Mexico and China in a Dangerous and Misguided Frenzy of America First Nationalism backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Republican Senators Who Know Better Appear to Roll Over For Trump, Poised to Confirm the Disastrous Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard | Rather Than Fix the FAA, Our Reality TV President Blames DEI For the Potomac Plane Crash backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Will Republican Senators Watch the Video Carloline Kennedy Sent Them Describing Her Cousin RFK Jr. as a "Predator?" | RFK Jr. and the Spread of Medical Disinformation and Conspiracy Theories | Trump Has Already Violated His Oath of Office on the 14th Amendment Birthright and the Funding Freeze He Had to Rescind backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Reality TV Theatre of Cruelty Underway | Trump Will Hurt the Construction Industry Now in Demand to Rebuild Houses Lost to Hurricanes and Wildfires | Can Musk Buy Elections in the UK and Germany As He Just Did Here? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Embrace of the Fossil Fuel Industry Which Spent $445 Million to Elect Him and the Republican Congress | China's DeepSeek AI Model Threatens US Dominance as Tech Stocks Tumble | Will Trump Fall For Putin's Flattery? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia Music Breaks: Cate Kennan - Thielsen Black Devil Disco Club - To Ardent (Vitamin Wig C Remix)

In Their Jihad Against DEI, Trump and Hegseth Are Creating Affirmative Action for White Losers, Drunks and Incompetents | Trump's Wrecking Crew and the Politics of Destruction | Trump Eyes Panama, Greenland and Canada For a Land Grab backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Manifesto to Stand Up in the Face Of Trump's Firehose of Reactionary Initiatives | Trump Threatens to Sanction Putin and Calls on OPEC to Lower Oil Prices to Force Russia's to End Its War On Ukraine | The Tech-Industrial Complex's Plans to Capture the Defense Budget backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Real Christian Confronts Trump Unlike the Christo-Fascists and Evangelical Hucksters Who Worship the False Idol | Trump's Choices to Head American Intelligence Might As Well Have Been Chosen By Putin | The Treason That Helped Elect Nixon, Reagan and Trump backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

How the Roberts Court Laid the Groundwork For a Plutocratic and Theocratic Takeover of American Democracy | Trump's Plans From 1798 to Use the US Military Against Migrants and Drug Cartels | In Releasing Jailed Militia Leaders, Is Trump Following Mussolini and Hitler's Playbook of a "Blackshirt" and "Brownshirt" Assault on Democracy? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Today Trump Issued a Death Sentence to Our Children and Grandchildren | The Unreality of the Reality TV Star Spewing Lies as Promises | The Crypto Grift of $Trump Even Before He Became the Grifter-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Incoming Horror of Trump and the Outgoing Sadness of Biden | Biden's Warning of a Tech-Industrial Complex and That We Are Losing Our Democracy to Plutocracy | The Future of TikTok Which the Supreme Court Shut Down Today backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

An Analysis of the Israel-Hamas Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal | Biden's Warning of a New American Oligarchy and the Danger of a Tech-Industrial Complex backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

What Latitude Will "Little Marco" Have As Secretary of State? | The Confirmation of the Pay-to-Play Pam Bondi For Attorney General | Trump's Grossly Unqualified Wrecking Crew Is Aimed at Deconstructing the American State to Serve the Plutocrats Not the People backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Republican Senators Roll Over the Democrats Determined to Do Trump's Bidding and Confirm a Dangerously Unqualified Ideologue as Secretary of Defense | A Former Female JAG Officer on Hegseth's Disparagement of Women in the Military and Military Justice | Jack Smith's January 6 Report Says Trump Would Have Been Convicted Had the Case Gone To Trial | Unlike Biden, Trump Uses Leverage to Get a Ceasefire and Hostage Release Deal Between Israel and Hamas backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Hearings Begin on Tuesday For Trump's Disastrously Unqualified Nominees | How Pete Hegseth Compares to Former Heads of the Pentagon | The Laken Riley Act Will Empower Anti-Immigrant Zealots

Instead of Helping Angelenos Who Lost Their Homes, Trump Offers Insults | The Third Inauguration of Venezuela's Maduro Who Lost the Last Election in a Landslide | The Scofflaw-in-Chief is Now the Felon-in-Chief backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Today's Moving Memorial of President Jimmy Carter at His State Funeral | How Climate Change Supercharged the Wildfires That Swept Through LA | A Former LAFD Battalion Chief on What it is Like to Confront a Wall of Flame Driven by 80 MPH Winds backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia bsky.app/profile/ianmastersmedia.bsky.social facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Ghost of Roy Cohn Will Rule Over the Next 4 Years of MAGA Jurisprudence | Environmental and Ecological Factors Behind the Wildfires Raging in LA | Will Homeowners Get Their Insurance Payouts and Will Insurance Still Be Available in Fire-Prone Areas? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Normalization of Trump By the Press and Social Media as Its Owners Bezos and Zuckerberg Move to Flatter Rather Than Fact-Check Him | At Today's Rambling Press Conference Trump Does Not Rule Out Military Force to Take Back the Panama Canal, Grab Greenland and Make Canada the 51st State | Why is Trump Attacking Our Closest Allies While Cozying up to Our Worst Adversaries? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Orwellian January 6 Victory - Four Years Later Lies Have Won and Truth is Endangered | Today's Resignation of Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau After 9 Years in Office | The Need to Lift Sanctions on Syria Before Chaos Consumes a Failed State

Trump's Ominous Response to the Recent Terrorist Attacks | An American Despot is About to Take Charge With So Much More Power Than Hitler Had in 1933 | A Republican Court Kills Net Neutrality to Reward Unpopular and Antiquated Cable and Telecom Giants backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Latest on the Investigations Into the New Year's Massacre in New Orleans and the Tesla Cyber Truck Explosion in Front of the Trump Hotel | Contrasting the Divisive Trump With Jimmy Carter Who Tried to Bridge Divides | Could Trump be a Peacemaker Even If He Only Wants to Win a Nobel Prize? backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Will the Democrats Confront the Economic Conditions That Gave Rise to Right Wing Populism? | How 9/11 Made the Trump Presidency Possible and Hollowed Out the Very Idea of Citizenship in the US | Plutocrats No Longer Shape Our Government Behind the Scenes, Musk is Now Giving House Republicans Orders backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

We Should Take Trump at His Word That He Wants to be a Dictator and Jail His Opponents and the Press | A Deep Investigation of the Far-Right Cult Opus Dei and Its Infiltration of American Politics at the Highest Level | With the Blame Game Underway, the Democrats Need to Focus on Accountability and a Coherent Strategy backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A View From Abroad as Biden Stands Between the Survival of Global Democracy and the Rule of Law and Dictatorship | Beyond Biden, America Has a Problem With Gerontocracy | How a Reality TV Star Living in His Own Reality Captured the GOP and up to Half of Americans Now Living in a Phony Reality backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

As Trump Encourages Secession and Threatens Civil War, He Is the Gift That Keeps on Giving to China and Russia | Strengthening the Laws of War as Non-combatants Die in Gaza and Ukraine | The Inevitability of Trump 250 Years in the Making With the U.S. Captive to Its Contentious Past backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

A Christmas Day Message From Bethlehem | The Outsized Influence of the Catholic Far Right on the Supreme Court and Project 2025 backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Contrast Between the Prophet of the Poor and Trump's Billionaires Who Own the White House and Have the Supreme Court | The Troubling Religious Beliefs of Trump's Team of "Christian" Zionists backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Trump's Triumph of Lawlessness and the Weaponization of Kash Patel's Federal Bureau of Retribution | Will Elon Musk's Threat to Deploy His Unlimited Amounts of Campaign Money Bring All Republicans to Heel? | With Trump Back Hate and Extremism Are on the Back Burner For Now backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Emerging Threat to the US Economy Trump and Musk's Amateurism Poses | An Even More Dysfunctional Congress With Trump and Musk in Charge of Both Houses? | The Foreign Policy Damage Musk is Already Doing backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Plutocrats No Longer Shape Our Government Behind the Scenes, Musk is Now Giving House Republicans Orders | MAGA Republicans Follow Orban's Model With Project 2025 While Trump Moves to Control the Media as Orban Did, Turning a Democracy Into a Kleptocracy and Dictatorship backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

The Democratic Old Guard Shoots Down a Rising Star Who Appeals to the Youth and Latino Vote | An expert on Terrorism on Charging Luigi Mangione With Terrorism | Jeff Bezos Bends the Knee Today at Mar a Lago as Trump Muses About Privatizing the USPS backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

As Trump Declares War on the Press, ABC News Preemptively Capitulates | The Latest of 323 School Shooting This Year Involves a 15-Year Old Girl Who Killed 2, Wounded 6 and Shot Herself at Her Christian School | Our "Christo-Fascists" Compared to the Islamo-Fascists We Decry backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Jordan Faces Collapse With Israel's Proposed Annexation of the West Bank | An Alternative to Our Broken "Healthcare" System That Does Not Waste Trillions While Delaying and Denying Care | The Fall of the German Government and Whether Support For Ukraine Will Continue

Is Another Arab Spring Possible With Syria's New Leader and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood? | With Trump's Manic Fanboy Kash Patel in Charge of the Country's Most Powerful Law Enforcement Agency, Patel's Delusional List of "Traitors" Will Soon Fill the MAGA Gulag | Georgia's Pro-EU Protests Intensify as the Pro-Russian Parliament Installs a Right Wing Footballer as President backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Will Trump and His Shills For Russia like Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard Turn Us Into Putin's America? | Israel and Turkey Appears to be the Winners in Syria While Russia and Iran are the Losers | How Rising Food Prices Played a Decisive Role in the Election and Efforts to Rein In Food Monopolies Like WalMart backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Wall Street's Role in Why We Have the Worst and Most Expensive "Healthcare" in the Developed World | How Ukrainian Military Intelligence Helped the Syrian Rebels | The Vulnerability of the Kurds to Erdogan's Murderous Militia in the New Syria backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

Ghost Guns Now a Proven Untraceable and Undetectable Tool For Assassins | America's Dual System of Justice: Punishing Street Criminals While Corporate CEO's Get a Slap on the Wrist | Kash Patel's FBI Will Go After Trump's Enemies While Opening up the U.S. to Putin's Spies backgroundbriefing.org/donate twitter.com/ianmastersmedia facebook.com/ianmastersmedia

How the Islamist Capture of Syria Upends Regional and Global Geopolitics | How Americans Need an Alternative to the Choice Between Trump's "America First" Unilateralism and Biden's "America is Back" Nostalgia