Uncategorized

Background Briefing: November 10, 2026

On By admin

Trump Doubles Down on Hate With Stephen Miller His Co-President and the House GOP Follows With Jim Jordan as Their New Leader 

We begin with Trump doubling down on hate and division with the choice of Stephen Miller as his new Chief of Staff and now the House Republicans are following suit by choosing the pugilistic partisan provocateur Congressman Jim Jordan as their next leader. Joining us to discuss the death of  conservatism and the right wing radical capture of the GOP and whether the fascist eagle will turn into the lamest of lame ducks is Rick Perlstein. He is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Invisible Bridge: The Fall of Nixon and the Rise of Reagan, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America and Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus, out agin soon in a new updated edition. Rick is currently a contributing editor and board member of In These Times magazine and writes regularly at rickperlstein.substack.com, and his latest book is Reaganland: America’s Right Turn 1976-1980. He has an op-ed at The Boston Globe we discuss, “Donald Trump is still dangerous: This era doesn’t end until his authoritarian instincts are checked.”

Will the Honey Trap by China’s Ministry of State Security of the Nvidia CEO Slow Down the AI Boom?

Then we examine the Chinese Ministry of State Security’s honey trap that has the tech “rock star” CEO of Nvidia in trouble as the AI giant loses share value raising questions whether the scandal might break the momentum of the AI boom. Joining us is Victor Shih, Director of the 21st Century China Center and Chair in China and Pacific Relations at the University of California, San Diego. He has published widely on Chinese political economy, banking and industrial policy and he has constructed a large database on biographical information of elites in China. His latest book is Coalitions of the Weak: Elite politics in China from Mao’s stratagem to the rise of Xi.

How Billionaire Money Swayed Public Policy in California But Backfired in Texas 

Then finally we assess how billionaire money swayed public policy in California while backfiring in Texas as the proposition to tax California’s billionaires backed by Bernie Sanders but opposed by Governor Newsom failed. Joining us is Michael Hiltzik, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and business columnist at Los Angeles Times. His books include The New Deal: A Modern History and his latest book is Golden State: The Making of California. We discuss his recent articles at The Los Angeles Times, “The billionaires’ campaign against the California billionaire tax rests on conjecture and fear-mongering” and “With Trump and GOP on the run, Democrats have a chance to make a new New Deal.”