Background Briefing with Ian Masters

Today on Background Briefing with Ian Masters Despite Trump's Threats, North Korean Missiles Can Now Reach the US We begin with the latest North Korean missile test that indicates their missiles now have a range to hit all of the continental United States and Australia. George Lopez, a Professor Emeritus of Peace Studies at the Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame University who was on the United Nations Panel of Experts for monitoring and implementing UN sanctions on North Korea, joins us to discuss the extent to which Kim Jong-un has called Trump’s “fire and fury” bluff resulting in the president’s limp response promising today to increase sanctions on the Kim regime, tweeting lamely that “this situation will be handled”. We will examine the lack of military options and the need for a diplomatic initiative and whether Trump who is re-tweeting far right anti-Muslim fake videos, reviving the Obama birther conspiracy, suggesting that Joe Scarborough murdered his intern and claiming that the Donald Trump captured on the “Access Hollywood” video was not him, has the competence or the stability to handle an increasingly dangerous situation that he has made worse. How Republican Tax "Reform" Will Reward America's Plutocracy and Shred Our Democracy Then we get an analysis of the extremely unpopular so-called tax reform bill before the extremely unpopular Congress which in spite of exploding the deficit, rewarding the already-rich while shafting 99% of Americans, looks like it will pass and be signed by an extremely unpopular president. Dr. Jacob Hacker, a professor of Political Science at Yale University and an expert on the politics of U.S. health and social policy and author with Paul Pierson of “American Amnesia: How the War on Government Led Us to Forget What Made America Prosper”, joins us to discuss how the Republicans are clearly more afraid of their donors than their voters and will empower the plutocracy even further no matter how much is shreds our democracy. Trump Makes Common Cause with Despots Who Murder and Jail Their Press Then finally we speak with Alexandra Ellerbeck, the North America Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists about the global implications of Trump’s attack on the press who he has labelled as “the enemy of the people” and “fake news”. Not only is he putting foreign correspondents for CNN International and other outlets in greater jeopardy, but since Trump has taken his complaints about the press abroad and made common cause with leaders who are either murdering, jailing or taking control of their press in Poland, China, Turkey and The Philippines, he is contributing to the global retreat of democracy and empowering the spread of autocracy.