Background Briefing: May 7, 2026
Pressure on Trump From the Saudis to Make a Deal With Iran While Israel Warns the Deal Would be a Disaster For Them
We begin with the Saudis having pressured Trump into pausing his “Project Freedom” blockade on Iran to make way for a peace deal by cutting US access to Saudi and Kuwaiti bases while reports from Israel indicate their defense establishment believes the deal on the table would be a disaster for Israel allowing Iran to rush to get a nuke while giving the mullahs billions to do so. Joining us is Dr. Nancy Okail, President & CEO of the Center for International Policy. A scholar and advocate of human rights, justice, peace and equity, she has over 20 years of experience working on these issues across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as globally, and she provides policy recommendations to senior government officials in the U.S. and Europe.
Chief Justice Roberts’ Hollow Indignation at the American People For Thinking He and His Colleagues Are “Political Actors”
Then with Chief Justice Roberts complaining with hollow indignation that the American people think his colleagues are “political actors” following the Supreme Court’s gutting of the Voting Rights Act that had the immediate political impact of Republican legislatures in the South going back to the Jim Crow era, erasing up to a dozen black members of congress to offset the moment when Democrats are poised to win back control of the House in November. Joining us is John Nichols, who is The Nation magazine’s Washington correspondent. His books include The Fight for the Soul of the Democratic Party: The Enduring Legacy of Henry Wallace’s Anti-Fascist, Anti-Racist Politics, and his latest article at The Nation we discuss is “The GOP’s “Jim Crow Gerrymander” Rips Up Memphis and America’s Civil Rights Legacy.”
From Henry Ford’s Production-Consumption Capitalism To Elon Musk’s Techno-Driven Dismantling of the State that Funds Him
Then finally we look into the evolution of American capitalism from Henry Ford’s mass production with mass consumption to Elon Musk’s technologically driven political economy that dismantles state institutions with one hand while promoting self-reliance, or the fantasy of it, with the other. Joining us is Quinn Slobodian, a Professor of International History at Boston University where he teaches histories of modern Europe, international history, social movements and the intellectual history of neoliberalism. He is the author of Globalists: The End of Empire and the Birth of Neoliberalism, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy, and Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ and the Capitalism of the Far Right. His latest book co-authored with Ben Tarnoff, just out, is Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed.