Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful. Sign up for my am and pm news at CommonwealthReport.news
Does Trump’s Iran War Mean You Won’t Be Flying?
The world’s top energy watchdog just dropped a bombshell. Fatih Birol, head of the International Energy Agency, told the Associated Press that Europe has maybe six weeks of jet fuel left. Six weeks. He called this the largest energy crisis the world has ever faced, driven by the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries twenty percent of global oil supply. Flight cancellations could hit soon. Meanwhile, Chevron executive Andy Walz told struggling Americans on CBS that the answer is simple. Just drive less. Brent crude hovers around a hundred dollars a barrel. Gas averages over four dollars a gallon nationally, up more than a dollar since the war started in February. The oil executives say conserve. Working families say they can’t afford to get to work.
Did a Stop-the-Steal Republican Just Steal Your Vote in Michigan?
A far-right county clerk in Michigan got caught illegally purging voters. Victoria Bishop, Antrim County Clerk, a Republican elected in 2024 on a Stop the Steal platform, sent cancellation notices to voters who hadn’t participated in the last two elections, then altered their registration status in the state’s official Qualified Voter File without any legal authority. Michigan law is explicit. You can’t remove a voter’s registration just because they missed an election. Bishop didn’t even independently verify the information she acted on. She’s married to a conservative talk radio host who claims the 2020 election was stolen. State election officials opened an investigation after voters and local clerks reported concerning activity. They call it election integrity. What it actually is, right now in 2026? Voter suppression. Plain and simple.
Has Tulsi Gabbard Turned the Intelligence Community Into Trump’s Personal Revenge Machine?
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department targeting the whistleblower and the former inspector general whose work helped trigger Trump’s 2019 impeachment. Gabbard claims newly declassified documents prove a deep state conspiracy. But those documents actually describe the whistleblower as a star performer, credible and trustworthy. Inspector General Michael Atkinson did his job. Trump fired him for it. Now Gabbard wants him prosecuted. CIA Director Ratcliffe separately referred former CIA Director John Brennan for criminal investigation. House Democrat Jim Himes says this move is designed to chill every future whistleblower. Criminal referrals aren’t charges. Not yet. But the message this administration sends is crystal clear. Expose Trump, and they come after you. That’s not government. That’s a protection racket.
Scientists Warn a Catastrophic Ocean Collapse Is Now Far More Likely Than We Thought
New research published this week delivers a frightening warning. The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, better known as AMOC, the massive ocean conveyor belt that regulates climate across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, is significantly more likely to collapse than scientists previously believed. The most pessimistic climate models are the most accurate. A collapse would plunge western Europe into brutal winters, devastate monsoon systems across Africa, raise Atlantic sea levels by up to a meter, and upend food supplies for hundreds of millions of people. AMOC is already at its weakest point in sixteen hundred years. Scientist Stefan Rahmstorf now puts the odds of collapse above fifty percent by 2100. Trump gutted the EPA. We’re racing toward a climate cliff, and the people in charge just floored it.
Did Pete Hegseth Really Preach the Gospel of Quentin Tarantino at the Pentagon?
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth delivered what he called a sacred prayer at a Pentagon worship service Wednesday. Turns out he was quoting Pulp Fiction. The prayer was actually adapted from Samuel L. Jackson’s famous monologue in the 1994 Tarantino film, complete with great vengeance and furious anger. Hegseth never once mentioned the movie. Hours before the service, House Democrats filed six articles of impeachment against him, accusing him of war crimes and abuse of power. The Pentagon called it a charade. Hegseth has been holding regular Christian worship services inside the Pentagon for months, arguing faith should directly shape military decisions. He calls himself Secretary of War. Now he’s preaching Tarantino as scripture. The church called. It wants its Bible back.
Why is RFK Jr. Harvesting Dead Raccoon’s Penises?
And finally. A new biography of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. contains a journal entry from the man himself. Kennedy writes that he once pulled his car over on Interstate 684, walked to a road-killed raccoon, and cut out its penis to study later, while his children waited patiently in the car. He told reporters in 2024 that he keeps a freezer full of roadkill. This is the same man who dumped a bear carcass in Central Park and strapped a whale head to his car roof. He now controls American health policy, slashing food safety rules and gutting public health programs. Don’t worry about your health secretary. He’s fine. He’s got a raccoon penis in his freezer.
And that’s the way it is. Today Thursday, April 16th, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.











