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 will begin with the political assassinations of top members of the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party in the Minnesota State House by a right-wing culture warrior and anti-abortion fanatic

who impersonated a police officer to kill the former Speaker in Minnesota State Assembly

and her husband,

along with severely wounding a Democratic Farmer Labor, State Senator and his wife.

We'll discuss how MAGA political hatred has moved from talk to action, with Trump,

the main instigator and inciter, along with his blindly partisan enforcers at ICE, the DOJ, the FBI,

the Pentagon, and DHS, whose proud puppy killer leader just had a Democratic U.S. Senator

assaulted by her thugs, which she and the GOP are blaming on the victim.

Joining us is David Schultz, a professor of political science at Hamline University

and the University of Minnesota School of Law.

He's the author of 30 books and various articles on American politics, ethics, election

law and the media, most recently presidential swing states,

why only 10 matter, election law and democratic theory,

and American politics in the age of ignorance, why lawmakers choose belief over research.

His latest book is generational politics in the United States from the silence to Gen Z and beyond.

Then we'll get an appraisal of yesterday's military parade in Washington, D.C.,

along with 2,000 No King's demonstrations across the country,

coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday and his vanity project,

having co-opted the United States Army's 250th birthday to imitate his heroes, Putin and Kim Jong-un,

by presiding over a parade of military might and hardware to remind us all who the dear leader is and what he is in charge of.

...