Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with Vice President Vance, Secretary Hegsef, and Stephen Miller showing up today

at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station with cheeseburgers for the National Guard troops,

only to be met by a cacophony of protest from demonstrators, Vance dismissed as crazy liberals,

and Miller claimed were crazy communists and elderly white hippies. We will assess how long

Trump can sustain the performance of needing military force to police the streets of democratic

leaning cities after his fiasco in Los Angeles

petered out when troops were eventually withdrawn because they weren't needed in the first

place.

Joining us is Ryan Cooper, managing editor at the American Prospect, and the co-host of the

Left Anchor podcast, as well as the author of How Are You Going to Pay for That?

Smart Answers to the Dumbest Questions in Politics.

We'll discuss his latest article at the American Prospect,

why Republicans are terrified of non-existent crime.

They need an excuse to violently subjugate liberal cities.

Then we'll examine today's push by the fascistic Republican thugs in the Texas legislature

who steamroll through their plan to gerrymander five more congressional seats for Trump,

who is desperately doing everything he can think of to stop the Democrats from taking the House in 2016.

Joining us at Jeremy Surrey, who holds the Mac Brown Distinguished Chair for leadership

in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, where he is a professor of history

and public affairs.

...