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

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news. We'll begin with

disasters engulfing Los Angeles as wildfires continue to rage and electricity is out, as well as drinkable

water, for residents near the fire zones. Meanwhile, politicians play the blame game as America's

new leader Trump offers nothing but insults for California and its

governor, even though we subsidize most of the red states that voted for the president-elect.

We'll discuss why, after so many wildfires, local officials seem unprepared, and what can be

done to prepare for worsening conditions as global warming will only get more dire under the new Trump administration.

Joining us is Leroy Westling, chair of the University of California's Disaster Resilience Network,

and Professor of the Management of Complex Systems at the University of California, Merced, where he studies

the relationship between climate and wildfires. Then we'll look into the third inauguration

of Venezuela's illegitimate President Maduro, who lost the last election in a landslide against

him, but with the help of Russia, China, Iran and Turkey will stay in power and wait

out the opposition as his country continues to fail and its people suffer or leave.

Joining us is David Smiley, a professor of human relations and the chair of the Department

of Sociology at Tulane University. He has researched Venezuela for over 30 years, living there most of that time.

And he is the co-author of the new book, The Paradox of Violence in Venezuela,

Revolution, Crime and Policing During Chavismo.

Then finally we'll assess the damage done to the scofflaw in chief, who is now the felon in chief,

after Trump's desperate ploy to have the Supreme Court intervened failed to stop his sentencing on 34 counts in the hush money case,

where he paid off a porn star to avoid another sex scandal, which would have sunk his chances of being

elected in 2016.

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