Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Oil Executives Warn Diesel Pain Will Last Another Year as Trump’s War Drags On
The people who pump America’s oil just told the Federal Reserve that your fuel bill isn’t coming down anytime soon. The Dallas Fed surveyed 125 energy firms across Texas, northern Louisiana and southern New Mexico between September 16 and 24. Nearly half of those executives, 48%, said it’ll take more than a year for diesel’s markup over crude to get back to 2025 levels. For gasoline, 36% said the same. Crude averaged almost $99 a barrel while the survey was out, and the industry expects $88 at year’s end. Most don’t see Persian Gulf exports back to normal before 2027, and 21% said 2028 or later. One executive put it bluntly. “Diesel is the mother’s milk of the economy.” Every truck, every tractor, every freight train runs on it, so this shows up in the price of your groceries. And where’s the windfall going? Half of the big producers said their extra cash is headed to shareholders. Trump started a war with Iran, working families are paying for it at the pump and the checkout line, and the oil barons are cashing the checks. That’s not an energy policy. That’s a wealth transfer.
Is Trump Running a Regime Change Operation Against Brazil’s Democracy?
Brazil votes on Sunday, and the alarm bells are ringing about who’s got a thumb on the scale. President Lula da Silva is facing Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair Bolsonaro, the former president now serving 27 years for plotting a coup. Reuters reported today that Brazil’s own intelligence agency has confirmed interference in the election from the United States as well as Russia. Think about that pairing for a second. Flávio recently sat down with Trump in the Oval Office while he was trying to get out from under a scandal back home. Trump calls the father’s prosecution a witch hunt. Last year he hit Brazil with tariffs and sanctioned a Supreme Court justice over it. Now Senators Jeanne Shaheen, Peter Welch and Tim Kaine have written to Marco Rubio charging that US officials have waged “a campaign of interference and destabilization in Brazil.” Economist Mark Weisbrot says it’s flat out illegal under the charter of the Organization of American States, which we signed. We spent years outraged that Russia meddled in our elections. Now our own government stands accused of doing it to the biggest democracy in Latin America. A country that won’t respect other people’s votes won’t respect yours for long.
Europe and Canada Forge a Sweeping New Alliance. Is America Being Left Behind?
While Trump picks fights with our friends, our friends are making other plans. Politico got its hands on a draft joint statement that the European Union and Canada plan to release at a summit in Montreal starting October 29. It lays out a wide new partnership. They’ll work to tear down digital trade barriers. They’ll speed up investment in critical minerals and shore up their supply chains. They’ll cooperate on low carbon energy and stand together behind Ukraine. They’re even planning to jointly buy 50 De Havilland water bombers, ready by 2030, to fight wildfires on both sides of the Atlantic. The draft says “the world is rapidly changing with unprecedented geopolitical challenges.” That’s diplomat talk for we can’t count on the Americans anymore. And it doesn’t stop there. Earlier this month Ursula von der Leyen invited Canada to become the EU’s first ever associate member, a status that doesn’t even exist yet in Europe’s treaties. After the tariffs and the 51st state insults, Canada is looking across the ocean instead of across the border. For 80 years America led the democratic world. Trump is teaching that world to get along without us.
Senate Democrats Block a Toothless GOP Data Center Bill. Who Pays for AI’s Power?
Senate Democrats today blocked a Republican bill that claimed to protect you from the cost of the AI boom. It’s called the Ratepayer Protection Act. It sailed through the House this month with nearly unanimous support, but it couldn’t get 60 votes in the Senate. It told state utility regulators to consider whether data centers pulling at least 100 megawatts should pay the full cost of the grid upgrades they need. Consider. Not require. Chuck Schumer boiled his objection down to one word, optional. “Republicans are offering a toothless messaging bill,” he said. Democrats say the whole exercise was staged to rescue Ohio’s Jon Husted, the appointed senator now fighting Sherrod Brown to keep his seat. Brown calls Husted the face of data centers because, as lieutenant governor, he lured them to Ohio with generous tax breaks. Democrats are pushing their own GRID Savings Act, which would make data center operators pay mandatory costs to connect to the grid. Polling cited in the debate gives Democrats a 12 point edge on this issue. Trump tells communities to accept these things. The richest companies in history want your power, and they want you to pick up the tab. Optional doesn’t cut it.
Latino Voters Abandon Trump in Texas. Can Talarico Pull Off a Political Earthquake?
Donald Trump carried Texas by 14 points in 2024. Now the ground is shifting under his feet. Greg Sargent at The New Republic reports that Democrat James Talarico is running close in the Senate race, and he’s doing it with an openly pro-immigrant campaign. After ICE shot a Venezuelan immigrant in the back in Austin, Talarico called for more legal pathways, a path to citizenship for longtime residents and stronger border security. He says the border should be like a front porch, with a welcome mat and a lock on the door. The numbers back him up. A Texas Southern University poll of three border districts that swung hard to Trump found Democrats leading in all three, by 5, 11 and 3 points. Only 36% of Latinos there approve of Trump on immigration. Statewide, Talarico’s pulling around 60% of Latino voters. Trump won 55%of them two years ago. Pollster Mark Jones says “they thought they were getting a secure border and public safety,” not the deportation of friends, coworkers and relatives. And a sour economy is doing the rest. The great realignment was a mirage. Treat people with cruelty and they’ll remember it at the ballot box.
The Atlantic Exposes Fetterman’s MAGA Fundraising Deals. Is He Still a Democrat?
John Fetterman ran as a hoodie-wearing champion of working people. The Atlantic reports that after the Democratic fundraising firm MissionWired stopped working with him in June, his political operation turned to a firm with ties to the MAGA world. In a private message the magazine obtained, a consultant offered conservative groups 75%of every new donor’s first gift. Fetterman gets the contact information, a donor list he could use in a future campaign. His appeals have gone out through outfits called RedMajorities.com, TrumpTruths.org and America1stWarRoom.com. One warned that socialists are hijacking the Democratic Party. Republican Senator Mike Lee even used him in his own fundraising pitch, writing that Fetterman is basically a Republican now. Fetterman insists he has no interest in switching parties. But Democrats told The Atlantic he’s got little chance of winning a primary in 2028, which leaves retirement, a party switch or an independent run. Former Congressman Conor Lamb, who may challenge him, didn’t mince words. “His career as a Democrat is over.” Pennsylvania voters sent a Democrat to the Senate to fight for them. When a politician builds his donor list on the other side’s mailing lists, voters deserve to ask who he answers to.
And that’s the way it is, Today Wednesday September 30, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
