Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful.
TRUMP THREATENS TO WIPE OUT AN ENTIRE CIVILIZATION TONIGHT
Trump posted it on Truth Social this morning. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.” That’s not a movie trailer. That’s the President of the United States threatening to annihilate Iran unless it reopens the Strait of Hormuz by tonight’s deadline. He’s pushed that deadline six times. But the rhetoric keeps ratcheting up. He’s promised Power Plant Day and Bridge Day. He’s ordered strikes on civilian infrastructure. U.S. and Israeli forces have already hit Kharg Island. A synagogue in Tehran was destroyed on Passover. The International Energy Agency says this energy crisis is worse than 1973, 1979, and 2002 combined. This is the edge of catastrophe.
WILL OUR SOLDIERS OBEY TRUMP OR REFUSE TO COMMIT WAR CRIMES?
Here’s the brutal question underneath Trump’s threats. Bombing civilian power plants. Destroying bridges. Cutting off water. Those aren’t aggressive tactics. They’re war crimes under international law. And our military officers know it. The Guardian calls it an urgent matter for the chain of command. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered troops to show no quarter, no mercy. Former military lawyers call that plainly illegal. Officers are trained their entire careers to refuse unlawful orders. But Trump has purged the military of anyone willing to push back. One nuclear weapons expert was asked if anyone would stop Trump from ordering a nuclear strike. His answer was one word. None. When a president turns American soldiers into potential war criminals, something fundamental has shattered in this republic.
THE FBI LAUNCHES A POLITICAL PRE-CRIME CENTER TO HUNT DOWN DISSENT
Journalist Ken Klippenstein found a bombshell in Trump’s new budget. The government is funding a new FBI-led center called the NSPM-7 Joint Mission Center, staffed by ten federal agencies with one mission: proactively hunting Americans the government labels domestic terrorists. The trigger indicators are breathtaking. Anti-capitalism. Anti-Americanism. Opposition to immigration enforcement. Hostility to traditional religion. Extremism on race and gender. There’s no definition of where political opinion ends and terrorism begins. FBI Director Kash Patel has already announced a 300 percent increase in domestic terrorism investigations. The watchlist could balloon to hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans. There’s even a cash bounty for citizens who report neighbors with the wrong views. This is what a police state looks like when it’s being built piece by piece.
CAN TRUMP’S DHS SECRETARY REALLY HOLD AMERICA’S AIRPORTS HOSTAGE?
Apparently Markwayne Mullin thinks he can. The new Homeland Security Secretary told Fox News he might pull customs agents from international airports in sanctuary cities. No customs officers means no processing of arriving international flights. The airports at risk span Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Seattle, Portland, Denver, and more. Millions of travelers move through those hubs every year. Mullin calls it a hard decision he may be forced to make. It isn’t a hard decision. It’s extortion dressed up as policy. It would gut tourism, devastate business travel, and hammer international commerce. The country is already drowning in airport chaos from a DHS funding fight. Now Mullin wants to weaponize customs itself against every city that won’t bend the knee to Trump’s immigration machine.
IS A SLOW-MOTION BANK RUN QUIETLY SWALLOWING WALL STREET’S SHADOW BANKS?
Nobody’s talking about this. Everybody should be. America’s $1.8 trillion private credit market is cracking wide open. This year alone, investors demanded their money back at staggering rates. At Blackstone, 8%. At Apollo, 11%. At Ares, 11.6%. At Blue Owl, nearly 22%. Blue Owl has already permanently locked its exit doors. The private credit default rate hit 5.8%, the highest ever recorded. Morgan Stanley predicts it’ll reach 8%. Michael Saylor called it a quasi-run on the bank. Paul Krugman warns there’s a whiff of 2008 in the air. These shadow banks aren’t regulated like regular banks. Nobody really knows what’s on their books. The Trump administration gutted the Office of Financial Research, the one agency monitoring this mess. If it unravels, working people will pay the price. Again.
ICE STORMS A MILITARY BASE AND RIPS A SOLDIER’S WIFE FROM HIS ARMS
Annie Ramos is 22 years old. She came here from Honduras as a toddler. She teaches Sunday school. She’s months away from a biochemistry degree. She has no criminal record. And just days after her wedding to Army Staff Sergeant Matthew Blank, who is preparing to deploy overseas, ICE agents walked onto Fort Polk in Louisiana and handcuffed her. She was there to register for military spouse benefits. By nightfall she was locked in a detention facility. The deportation order used against her was issued in 2005 when she was 22 months old. An immigration expert said that in every prior administration, she would not have been a priority. As Blank prepares to ship out, an expert warned this is fundamentally harmful to national security. She got ripped away. This is who they’re coming for.
And that’s the way it is, Today Tuesday, April 7, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
