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

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

We'll begin with the clear and present danger of fascism in America

as the Musk-Trump juggernaut rolls over the government,

replacing competence with loyalty in a combination of plutocracy and theocracy,

making Sinclair Lewis's warning that, quote,

when fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying across a reality. Joining us is Jason Stanley, the Jacob Uraowski Professor of Philosophy at Yale University, and the author of how propaganda works and how fascism works the politics of us and them. His latest book is Erasing History,

how fascists rewrite the past to control the future, and we will discuss his article at The Guardian,

We are witnessing the rise of a new Republican Southern strategy. Then we'll examine the Maga Christian

Nationalists' war on the separation of church and state, undoing the

American Revolution with the likes of Leonard Leo, Russell Volt, and J.D. Vance, fulfilling Tom

Payne's nightmare that, quote, belief in a cruel God makes a cruel man. Joining as is Jacques

Berlin Blow, a professor of Jewish civilization at Georgetown University.

He has authored numerous books about the subject of secularism, including the recent book

Secularism, The Basics. He has also written about American higher education in campus

confidential, our college works and doesn't for professors,

parents and students, and with Professor Terrence Johnson. He is the co-author of Blacks and Jews

in America, an invitation to dialogue. And his current research concentrates on the nexus

between literature and comedy on the one side and cultural conflict on the other. We will discuss his article at MSNBC.

Trump's prayer breakfast remarks clarify his dangerous intent. Then finally, as Musk and his techies

purge government workers to have them replaced by automation, AI, and other Silicon Valley techno fantasies.

We will speak with Alison Pugh, a professor of sociology at John Hopkins University,

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