Today, we have changed the headline from the standard “Commonwealth Report” with the date to the title of the first story. Everything else remains as before.
Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful
Have Our Recent Wars Been Worth Even a Single American Life?
On this Memorial Day, the truth is staring us in the face. Not one war since 9/11 has been worth fighting. Polls now show nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose Trump’s war on Iran. They’re right. The Iran war has already killed thousands of Iranians and Lebanese, displaced hundreds of thousands more, and cost the United States more than $50 billion so far. That $50 billion could have paid for healthcare for 3 million Americans and put 1.5 million kids into Head Start. Middle East analyst Phyllis Bennis points out that since 9/11, we’ve poured 16 trillion dollars into the war machine. With that money we could’ve wiped out child poverty, erased student debt, and built a green economy. Instead our leaders chose endless war. They keep killing millions abroad and selling out working people at home. Memorial Day should be the day we finally say enough.
Who’s Driving the Biggest Wealth Gap in American History?
A stunning new graphic from the Kobeissi Letter says it all. Over the last six years, the S&P 500 has rocketed up 130 percent. Over those same six years, consumer sentiment has crashed by 55 percent, hitting the lowest level since the University of Michigan began tracking it in 1952. Kobeissi calls it “the biggest wealth divide in modern history.” Gallup just confirmed it. Only 16 percent of Americans say the economy is excellent or good. Nearly half call it poor. Even Republicans are souring. Trump’s GOP approval on the economy has dropped from 80 percent to 60 percent in three months. The top 10 percent of earners now drive nearly half of all consumer spending in this country. The bottom 80 percent account for less than 40 percent. This isn’t an economy. This is a heist. And the people getting robbed are starting to notice.
Will Hawaii’s New Law Finally Kill Citizens United?
Aloha, dark money. Hawaii just became the first state in the nation to outlaw corporate involvement in elections. State lawmakers built the law on a brilliant insight from Center for American Progress fellow Tom Moore. Citizens United protects corporate speech under federal law. But corporations themselves exist only because states create them by charter. As Chief Justice John Marshall wrote back in 1819, a corporation is “an artificial being” that possesses only those powers the state gives it. Hawaii state Senator Jarrett Keohokalole put it plain. State charters grant corporations limited liability and tax breaks. Those charters can also strip out the power to electioneer. And here’s the kicker. An 1869 Supreme Court ruling means a corporation chartered in Delaware has to follow Hawaii’s rules to do business in Hawaii. Fourteen other states are now looking at the same approach. If California and New York move, the dark money super PACs are finished. This is how you beat the Supreme Court without waiting for the Supreme Court.
Is Putin’s Inner Circle Finally Turning Against Him?
The Guardian just published a bombshell. Russia’s elite is breaking with Vladimir Putin. Interviews with people in his orbit, business leaders, and Western intelligence officials all paint the same picture. Putin is isolated. The war in Ukraine is faltering. Russia’s economy is shrinking. And the people around him are done. One well-connected businessman told the Guardian, “there is profound disappointment in Putin.” Another said a sense of catastrophe is looming. Russian GDP shrank in the first quarter. Corporate defaults are surging. Yet Putin remains fixated on capturing all of Donbas by year’s end. Generals have convinced him a breakthrough is coming. It isn’t. When dictators lose their elites, they lose everything. The question isn’t whether Putin falls. It’s when. And what comes next for a nuclear-armed country with a population that’s been lied to for 25 years.
Did Trump Just Hand Wall Street Gamblers the Keys to the Vault?
A devastating New York Times investigation dropped Sunday. The Trump administration has stacked the Commodity Futures Trading Commission with industry insiders who are mowing down anyone who tries to regulate online betting markets like Kalshi and Polymarket. Career officials have been put on leave just for asking questions about the betting platforms’ ties to Trump’s own family. Others got purged for past work enforcing crypto rules. Even Trump’s own pick to lead the agency, Brian Quintenz, got his nomination yanked after he crossed the Winklevoss twins. Meanwhile sixteen states are suing to regulate these gambling sites. Minnesota just banned them outright, and the Trump administration immediately sued to stop it. State Representative Emma Greenman says the companies are targeting kids 18 to 21 years old and draining their bank accounts. This is what regulatory capture looks like in broad daylight. The watchdog has been gutted. The wolves are running the henhouse. And working families are the meal.
Will Thomas Massie Finally Crack the Epstein Cover-Up Wide Open?
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie went on Meet the Press yesterday and dropped a bomb. He says acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel have both perjured themselves by claiming all the Epstein files have been released. Massie says millions of pages are still hidden. Victims’ FBI interview forms haven’t been released. Files have been over-redacted. Massie has already named three billionaires implicated in the files, Leon Black, Jes Staley, and Leslie Wexner. And he’s vowing to release more names before he leaves Congress. He even noted that First Lady Melania Trump herself has said Epstein didn’t act alone. Massie lost his primary last week thanks to Trump’s vendetta, but the Epstein Files Transparency Act is permanent law. Whoever sits in that AG chair next is legally required to release everything. Ro Khanna stands with Massie. The rest of the Democratic Party needs to join them. Justice for these survivors has waited long enough.
And that’s the way it is, Today Monday, May 25, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
