Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at Background Briefing.org. I'm me and

Masters, and today we'll look into a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with record campaign spending that candidates raise in this election,

with 10 billion spent so far,

topping out at an estimated 12.32 billion,

most of which goes to the big media companies in the form of TV ads blanketing the airwaves.

We will discuss the $315 million being spent on 650,000 registered voters in Montana, where the fate of who controls the Senate will likely be decided.

Joining us is Alexander Semen, a politics writer at Slate, who has previously

written for Mother Jones, the New Republic and the American Prospect. We will discuss his latest

article at Slate, Ad Man. You might think you are immune to political advertising. In Montana,

I learned the hard way. None of us are.

Then we go to Spain, where hundreds have died from recent flooding, and speak with Owen Gilmartin,

a Madrid-based freelance journalist specializing in Spanish and Irish politics, immigration,

the Western Sahara and Energy.

The co-host of the Sobra Mesa podcast about modern day Spanish society, politics and history.

His work has appeared in Jacobin magazine, The Guardian, Tribune and Open Democracy.

And we will discuss his article at Jacobin, The mass deaths in Spain aren't just a natural disaster.

Then finally, with anti-nuclear activists demonstrating today at the Vanderberg Space Force Base

where the new $315 billion Sentinel ICBM already 81% over budget is taking place, we will examine an issue

not discussed in this election, nuclear disarmament.

Joining us is Andrew Davis, the acclaimed director of numerous films including Under Siege,

A Perfect Murder, The Guardian, Holes, and the Fugitive, which was nominated for

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