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 the anniversary of the horrific attack on Israel by Hamas against

mostly civilians two years ago and assess the role of the US in enabling so much death and

destruction that has followed, given the electricity with which the Biden and Trump administration

supplied Israel with weapons in contrast to the way Biden dribbled in arms to Ukraine,

and Trump has cut off arms delivery to a country invaded by its Russian neighbor in a war

in which over a million have died so far.

Joining us is William Hatung, a senior research fellow at the Quincy Institute.

His books include How Much Are You Making on the War Daddy,

A Quick and Dirty Guide to War Profiteering in the Bush administration,

Lessons from Iraq, Avoiding the Next War, and Prophets of War, Lockheed Martin, and the Making, avoiding the next war, and profits of war, Lockheed

Martin in the making of the military industrial complex. And he has a new report at Responsible

Statecraft co-authored with the costs of war project at Brown University. $21.7 billion in

U.S. military aid has fueled Israel's war on Gaza. Then we'll examine Trump's

transparent attempt to provoke an insurrection to justify invoking the Insurrection Act, which he is

itching to do so that ICE and military deployments can shut down the next election, Trump surely knows he and the Republicans will lose.

Joining us to discuss how the Trump appointed U.S. District Judge Karen Immigate

has halted Trump's deployment to Portland, saying,

this is a nation of constitutional law, not martial law.

Is Garrett Epps, the Legal Affairs Editor at the Washington Monthly.

He taught constitutional law at the University of Baltimore Law School and Oregon University Law School,

...