Briefings

Background Briefing: March 3, 2026

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Trump is Caught Between Avoiding an Endless War and Needing to Keep the Iran War Going to Invoke the Insurrection Act to Rig the Midterm Elections 

We begin with the war in the Middle East expanding as jitters rattle Wall Street and the global markets with Trump announcing today that it’s “too late” to talk to Iran’s leaders, adding that “most of the people we had in mind are dead.” Joining us to discuss how Trump is torn between wanting to avoid another endless war while needing to keep the war going to justify invoking the Insurrection Act to rig the midterm elections is Sidney Blumenthal, the former assistant and senior adviser to President Bill Clinton, and senior adviser to Hillary Clinton. He has been a national staff reporter for The Washington Post, Washington editor and staff writer for The New Yorker and his books include the bestsellers The Clinton Wars, The Rise of the Counter-Establishment and The Permanent Campaign. His latest book is All the Powers on Earth, The Political Life of Abraham Lincoln 1856-1860, and his latest article at The Guardian we discuss is, “Trump has cornered himself with his war in Iran.”

Trump is Urging Iranians to Commit Suicide by Taking Over Their Government After it Killed Thousands of Them

Then we look into Trump’s absurdly cynical call for Iranians to take over their government, inviting them on a suicide mission to take to the streets after thousands were recently gunned down by that same government now more fanatical than ever. Joining us is Sina Toossi, a senior non resident fellow at the Center for International Policy. He writes on US-Iran relations, Iranian politics and society and nuclear nonproliferation and he has an article at The Nation we discuss, “The Iranian Voices America Isn’t Hearing.”

 

AI’s Good, Bad and Ugly Sides

Then finally we speak with Bruce Schneier, an internationally renowned security technologist and the New York Times bestselling author of 14 books, including A Hacker’s Mind. He is a Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, a board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc. His latest book, co-authored with Nathan Sanders is Rewiring Democracy: How AI Will Transform Our Politics, Government, and Citizenship. He also has an article with Nathan Sanders at The Guardian we discuss, “Don’t bet that the Pentagon – or Anthropic – is acting in the public interest.”