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 an update on the extent that Trump is bumping up against the law

as he and Musk run roughshod over the legislative branch, while the Democrats appear powerless,

leaving the judicial branch, which is largely captured by Republicans, the only remaining

barrier to MAGA fascism.

Joining us is Lisa Graves, the executive director of the new corporate watchdog group

True North Research and Court Accountability.

She has served as a senior advisor in all three branches of the federal government, as Deputy

Assistant Attorney General in the Justice government, as Deputy Assistant Attorney General

in the Justice Department, as Chief Counsel for nominations on the Senate Judiciary Committee,

and as a deputy chief of the Article III, judges' division for the U.S. courts.

Then we'll examine Trump's executive order setting up a strategic Bitcoin reserve overseen by his AI and

crypto czar David Sachs, who along with Musk and Teal, have brought South African apartheid politics

to the White House. Joining us is Jacob Silverman, a contributing writer for the New Republic,

and a contributing editor for the Baffler covering tech and national security.

He's the author of Terms of Service, Social Media and the Price for Constant Connection,

Easy Money, Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Asia Fraud,

which was a New York Times bestseller, and his most recent book is Gilded Rage, Elon Musk and the

radicalization of Silicon Valley. We will discuss his article at Zateo, Trump's Crypto Reserve is

such brazen corruption. Then finally we will look into Trump's war on education as he moves to

shut down the Department of Education while slashing

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