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 a Maga Republican effort underway to shut down non-profits they don't like,

disguised as an anti-terrorism bill, that the House is about to vote on for a second time.

The bill would give Trump's Secretary of the Treasury the unilateral power without presenting evidence

to cancel a non-profit.

If, for example, Trump wakes up one day and decides he's mad at the ACLU, then it's out of business.

Joining us to assess the likely passage of this ominous bill is Noah Hurwitz, a journalist based in New York City,

whose work has appeared in Rolling Stone,

The Village Voice, the Bafflo, New York Magazine, and many others. He's the author of El Chapo,

the untold Story of the World's Most Infamous Drug Lord, and we'll discuss his article at the

intercept, House GOP moves to ram-through bill that gives Trump unilateral powers to kill non-profits.

Then we'll look into the possibility that following Comcast's decision to cast off its cable assets,

like MSNBC and CNBC, someone like Elon Musk could buy a controlling interest in the new company

and turn MSNBC into a platform for right-wing trolls.

Joining us is William Cohen, a former senior Wall Street investment banker for 17 years at Lazard Frere and Company,

Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as The New York Times best-selling author whose books include

money and power, how Goldman Sachs came to rule the world, House of Cards, a tale of hubris

and wretched excess on Wall Street, and most recently power failure, the rise and fall of an

American icon.

A founding partner at Puck News. We'll discuss his latest article.

Cable prepares for the value extraction era.

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