Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Is the World About to Slam Into a Summer Oil Catastrophe?
The head of the International Energy Agency dropped a bombshell warning yesterday. Fatih Birol says global oil markets could enter what he’s calling the “red zone” by July or August. Here’s why. Iran’s effective shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz has yanked more than 14 million barrels per day off the world market. That’s the biggest oil supply crisis in history. Strategic reserves are draining fast. Birol says we’ve already burned through a 400 million barrel emergency release. Now summer driving season is about to slam into empty tanks. Brent crude’s already at 108 dollars a barrel. If the strait doesn’t reopen, working families face skyrocketing gas prices, food prices, and heating bills heading into fall. Birol says the worst pain will land on developing Asia and Africa first. But it’s coming here too. And remember, OPEC’s own production has plunged nearly 10 million barrels a day since this war began. Birol says rebuilding Middle East production won’t happen overnight. It’ll take years. Working people are about to pay the price at the pump for a war they never asked for.
Is Trump’s $1.8 Billion Slush Fund Melting Down the GOP Senate?
The Trump White House panicked yesterday and rushed talking points to Senate Republicans defending Trump’s brand new 1.8 billion dollar “anti-weaponization fund.” It’s basically a payout pool. Money for anyone Trump’s Justice Department decides was treated unfairly. And yes, that includes January 6 rioters who beat cops. The settlement also shields Trump, his sons, and the Trump Organization from any further IRS action. Then Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche walked into a closed-door Senate Republican meeting to sell it. Two hours later, reporters were describing the meeting as a quote “sh*tshow.” As many as 25 GOP senators stood up and spoke against it. Almost none defended it. Senator Thom Tillis called the whole thing “stupid on stilts.” Senator Curtis from Utah said rewriting the rules isn’t enough. Susan Collins said Blanche didn’t change her mind. One GOP senator texted Punchbowl News, “Our majority is melting down before our eyes.” The whole Republican reconciliation package, including a massive immigration enforcement bill they desperately want, may now collapse. Senators could get sent home for recess because there’s no agreement. When a sitting president openly creates a slush fund to pay off the people who attacked the Capitol, that’s not governance. That’s organized corruption so naked that even Trump’s own party can’t stomach it anymore.
Why Did the DNC Try to Bury Its Own Election Autopsy?
After months of stonewalling, DNC Chair Ken Martin finally released the Democratic Party’s autopsy report on the 2024 election loss yesterday. And then he immediately disowned it. Martin said he’s “not proud” of the 192-page report. He won’t endorse it. He stamped every page with a disclaimer saying the document reflects the author’s views, not the DNC’s. Martin promised back in early 2025 he’d release it. He broke that promise in December. He apologized yesterday, admitting that hiding the report created an even bigger distraction than releasing it would have. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro reportedly called Martin a week ago and ripped him over the cover-up. The report itself rips Democratic messaging on the economy, slams late voter organizing, calls out a broken relationship with the party’s main super PAC, and accuses Democrats of “a persistent inability or unwillingness to listen to all voters.” It barely mentions Tim Walz or Joe Biden’s disastrous debate. Working people deserve a party that confronts its failures honestly. Hiding the truth, then half-releasing it, then disowning it? That’s how you lose again. And again. And again.
Big Tobacco Wrote a $5 Million Check and Got Exactly What It Paid For
This one is brazen even by Trump standards. The New York Times reported that on April 30, Reynolds American, the tobacco giant that makes Camel cigarettes and Vuse vapes, donated 5 million dollars to MAGA Inc., Trump’s super PAC. That’s on top of 3 million they’d already given. Two days later, a Reynolds executive and two lobbyists had lunch with Trump at his Florida golf club. They complained about FDA rules on flavored vapes. Trump literally pulled out his phone at the table and called FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. Makary didn’t pick up. So Trump called Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Junior instead. Eight days after that 5 million dollar donation, the FDA dropped its ban on flavored vapes and authorized mango and blueberry flavors. The same flavors banned because they hook kids on nicotine. The new rules also let companies pump more nicotine into their pouches. Trump’s own FDA chief reportedly quit in protest. The vaping market is worth about 6 billion dollars. Five million bucks. American children’s lungs. That’s the going rate when working families have no lobbyists at the table. That’s the going rate when democracy is for sale.
Is the Era for Late Night Political Satire Ending?
Tonight, Stephen Colbert hosts his final episode of The Late Show. After 33 years, CBS is shutting the franchise down completely. No replacement host. Just gone. CBS calls it purely financial. But nobody’s buying that. The cancellation came right after Colbert publicly called Paramount’s 16 million dollar settlement with Trump a “big fat bribe.” Paramount paid Trump over a 60 Minutes interview with Kamala Harris. Days later, Colbert was out. David Letterman appeared last week and told CBS exactly what he thought, signing off with a profane farewell that quoted Edward R. Murrow. Colbert started at The Daily Show under Jon Stewart. He spent nine years skewering Bill O’Reilly conservatism on The Colbert Report. Then a decade taking on Trump from the Ed Sullivan Theater. The Late Show is the number one show in late night. They’re killing it anyway. When corporations silence comedians who tell the truth about power, that’s not a business decision. That’s how authoritarianism quietly wins.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, May 21, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
