Hello and welcome to background briefing available 24-7 at background briefing.

I'm Ian Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin with an increasingly unhinged president and his dark whisperer,

the shadow president, Stephen Miller, broadening their war on Democrats they label as

communists and terrorists as Trump moves to use the government shutdown to make cuts in what he

calls Democrat agencies while targeting

the Democrat-led cities of Los Angeles, Chicago, New York, Oakland, Baltimore, Memphis,

and Portland for military occupation.

Joining us is Elizabeth Goitin, the co-direct of the Liberty and National Security Program

at the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University,

which seeks to advance effective national security policies that respect constitutional values and the rule of law.

Previously, she was counseled to Senator Feingold, Chairman of the Constitutional Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

She is the author of the new era of secret law,

and we will discuss her article at Time magazine, The Danger of Trump's Crackdown on Blue Cities.

Then we'll look into the last 20 years of the John Roberts-led U.S. Supreme Court and how this

genial phony, who claims to only call balls and strikes has radically curtailed

voting rights, undermined anti-corruption measures, encouraged extreme political gerrymandering,

restricted the regulation of guns, and obliterated the constitution right to control one's

reproductive choices, orchestrated by a billionaire-backed reactionary political and moral authoritarian movement

whose interests Chief Justice John Roberts has been all too willing to serve.

Joining us is Lisa Graves, one of the nation's foremost experts on the right-wing influence

on the United States Supreme Court

...