Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Is This The Most Blatant Corruption In American History?
A Nobel Prize winning economist looked at the latest on Donald Trump and said two words. My God. Paul Krugman, who won the Nobel in two thousand eight, reacted to a New York Times report on a United States deal with a mining company in Kazakhstan. The catch? Trump’s sons, Don Junior and Eric, plus Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick’s family, stand to cash in. Krugman called it horrifying. He says it’s so blatant it resonates with ordinary people who are paying the price while the powerful enrich themselves. And here’s the part that should chill you. Krugman says a scandal this size now hits every few weeks. He warned us not to treat it as normal, because it isn’t. When the president’s family profits off the office, that’s not governing. It’s looting.
Why Would A Peace Board Need Immunity From Prosecution?
Please ask yourself that. Trump’s so-called Board of Peace, the body set up to run Gaza, drafted a resolution to shield itself from prosecution. According to documents obtained by the Guardian, the four page draft would shield board members, contractors, soldiers, and staff from any arrest, detention, or legal proceedings in Gaza. Trump, as chair, could waive that immunity by majority vote. The board includes Jared Kushner, Steve Witkoff, Susie Wiles, and Marco Rubio. Six lawyers reviewed it and couldn’t say how anyone would be held accountable for shootings or civilian deaths. One expert said it looks like an attempt to exempt everyone from accountability. The board denies any binding framework exists. But people who want to do good in the open don’t draft themselves a get out of jail free card first.
We Were Warned, And Now More Than Thirteen Hundred Are Dead
That’s the World Health Organization chief, Doctor Tedros, speaking as a brutal heat wave cooks Europe. More than thirteen hundred excess deaths since June twenty first, tied to high temperatures. He called heat the silent killer, and noted Europe is the fastest warming continent on Earth, heating twice as fast as the global average. About one hundred fifty million people are under extreme heat right now. Schools shut. Power grids buckling. Tedros said the once in a generation heat wave is now nearly annual, and critics say it’s time to turn the heat on the fossil fuel giants who caused this and pay none of the cost. Senator Bernie Sanders pointed straight at Trump, who calls climate change a hoax while gutting clean energy. People are dying. This is what the hoax looks like.
Can A Movement Born In New York Speak To The Whole Country?
Zohran Mamdani says yes. The New York City mayor is taking his progressive movement national after a slate of candidates he backed swept their Democratic primaries. Brad Lander, Claire Valdez, and Darializa Avila Chevalier all won their primaries. Mamdani told ABC’s This Week a Democratic socialist can get elected anywhere in this country for any position. He says Americans coast to coast want leaders who put working families ahead of insiders, pointing to rents, grocery bills, and childcare costs that crush people everywhere, not just New York. Not everyone’s on board. Hakeem Jeffries says Mamdani still has bridge building to do, and some Democrats insist it won’t fly in swing districts. But when establishment candidates keep losing to people running on affordability, maybe the message isn’t too far left. Maybe it’s just true.
Remember When They Said Pride Couldn’t Happen In Hungary?
Tens of thousands marched in Budapest this weekend, and it felt different. This was the thirty first annual Budapest Pride, the first since Viktor Orban, the strongman who tried to ban it, got voted out in April. Marchers set off from the Opera House and crossed the Danube in one hundred degree heat, waving rainbow flags. One woman on her third Pride said people seem happier now, that the tension is gone. Orban spent sixteen years passing anti gay laws and even amended the constitution to outlaw the march. Last year people defied the ban anyway, three hundred fifty thousand strong, and that defiance helped sink him. The new government hasn’t repealed the old laws yet, but police protected the march this time. Here’s the lesson. Authoritarians look unstoppable, right up until the people stop them.
Is The President Of The United States A Lying Fool?
His critics say yes, and this weekend he made their case for them. Trump posted that he toured Washington’s monuments and that the criminally made algae in the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is, quote, gone. He blamed radical left animals for slashing the pool’s lining and insisted everything’s in perfect shape. Then he announced he’s bulldozing a public golf course to build, in his words, one of the greatest courses in the world. This is the same man who days earlier told a crowd you have to respect the president or, quote, you’re going to have a problem. Critics call that the threat of a wannabe dictator, demanding respect he never gave Obama or Biden, both of whom he smeared for years. Respect in a democracy is earned, not threatened. And you don’t earn it by raging about pool algae while people die in the heat abroad.
And that’s the way it is, Today Monday, June twenty ninth, two thousand twenty six. I’m Thom Hartmann.
