Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 247 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 Trump waging war against half of America as he targets cities and states controlled by Democrats, while also waging war against our closest allies by attacking NATO,

handing over Ukraine to his buddy Putin, and emboldening tyrants and kleptocrats around the world.

Joining us to discuss the colligular moment of the megalomaniacal madman in the Oval Office is

Sasha Abramsky, who writes regularly for the nation.

He is the author of several books, including Breadline USA, American Puries, the American Way of Pover,

and Chaos Comes Calling the Battle Against the Far Right Takeover of Small Town America.

His latest book out this week is American Carnage, How Trump, Musk and Doge Butchered the U.S. government.

And we will discuss his latest article in his weekly column, Authoritarian Watch at the Nation,

The Week of Colonial Fever Dreams from a Sundowning Fascist.

Then we'll discuss the latest report from Oxfam ahead of the annual billionaire bash at Davos

and speak with Rebecca Rudell, the senior policy lead for economic and racial justice at Oxfam America,

an international human rights lawyer with a background in addressing extreme inequality and excess corporate power

and promoting economic and social rights.

She served as a senior advisor to the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights,

carrying out investigations and advising governments

on policies related to tax, social spending, and other areas.

She is a contributor to the new report at Oxfam,

resisting the rule of the rich,

defending freedom against billionaire power.

Then finally we'll investigate corruption inside DHS and ICE

...