Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful.
Are Americans Finally Ready to Punish Corruption at the Top?
A new Brennan Center poll should terrify both parties. More than nine in ten voters say corruption is a big problem all across our government. And it’s not partisan. Democrats, Republicans, and independents all agree. Eighty-three percent want a law barring presidents from cashing in on conflicts of interest. Eighty-one percent want a real ethics cop with teeth. Seventy-nine percent want the limits put back on money in elections. Michael Waldman calls corruption the sleeper issue of 2026. People are sick of scandals with no consequences. They want a country that finally holds the powerful accountable.
Pentagon Hands a Convicted Capitol Rioter the Keys to Its Secrets
Here’s a jaw dropper. The Trump Pentagon just hired a convicted January 6th rioter for one of its most sensitive counterterrorism jobs. His name is Elias Irizarry. He was nineteen when he climbed into the Capitol through a broken window carrying a metal pole. Now he sits in the office overseeing special operations, work that demands top secret clearance. Staff are alarmed. At his sentencing he admitted, “I am ashamed because I will always be a part of this disgrace.” Yet the Pentagon calls him a qualified, patriotic young professional. When loyalty to Trump outranks loyalty to the country, this is what you get.
Supreme Court Greenlights a Map It Already Called Racist
The Supreme Court is at it again. Tuesday night, six conservative justices let Alabama use a congressional map a lower court already ruled intentionally racist against Black voters. It wipes out one of two majority Black districts and likely hands Republicans another House seat. Justice Sotomayor was furious. She wrote that just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, “the Court today doubles down on chaos.” A three judge panel, two of them Trump appointees, unanimously struck this map down. The highest court overruled them to help one party keep power. That’s not law. That’s raw politics in a robe.
Did Bari Weiss Just Murder Sixty Minutes?
Over at CBS, the slaughter continues. Veteran correspondent Scott Pelley got fired Tuesday, a day after telling staff that editor Bari Weiss is murdering the show. Pelley didn’t go quietly. In a blistering statement, he said management told him to “inject falsehoods and bias into a politically sensitive story” and report things that weren’t verified. He says the show lost its DNA when its leadership and two top correspondents were fired last month. One executive put it bluntly, this is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. When the most trusted name in news gets gutted to please a president, we should all be worried.
Why Are Your Gas Prices About to Explode Again?
Get ready to feel it at the pump. Oil analyst Patrick De Haan is sounding the alarm. American distillate supplies are about to fall below a hundred million barrels, the lowest in over twenty years. He calls it “a powder keg waiting to go off.” Why? Because the Strait of Hormuz, which carries a fifth of the world’s oil, has been choked off for months by Trump’s war with Iran. Even if the fighting stops tomorrow, executives warn prices will keep climbing. Brown University figures the war has already cost the average household four hundred dollars. The people who started this war won’t pay for it. You will.
Big Food Stole Big Tobacco’s Playbook to Hook Your Family
Finally, follow the money onto your dinner plate. A new American Journal of Public Health edition lays it out cold. Big Food is running the same playbook Big Tobacco used for decades. They engineer salt, sugar, and fat to hit a bliss point, so you keep eating long after you’re full. They slap healthy labels on junk, just like tobacco sold us filters. In some cases the very same corporations own both. Most of the American diet is now this stuff. One study links the heaviest eaters to a sixty percent higher dementia risk. Researchers say fight back like we fought cigarettes, with taxes, warning labels, and a ban on marketing to kids.
And that’s the way it is, Today Wednesday, June 3rd, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
