Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful.
Is Vladimir Putin Now Calling the Shots on Trump’s Iran War?
Nine days in, and Donald Trump is taking calls from Vladimir Putin about how to end the war in Iran. The two leaders spoke for about an hour Monday. The Kremlin called it “frank and businesslike.” Putin’s foreign policy aide says his boss offered proposals for a “quick diplomatic settlement” after consulting with Gulf leaders and the Iranian president.
Trump came out sounding optimistic. He told reporters the war is “very far ahead of schedule.” That Iran has no navy, no air force, no communications. “We’ve wiped every single force in Iran out, very completely,” he said.
Oil spiked to $119 a barrel. Iran named a new Supreme Leader, Khamenei’s hardline son Mojtaba, seen as even more extreme than his father. Iran’s foreign minister said negotiations with the U.S. may be off the table entirely. And the IRGC said it, not Trump, will determine when this war ends.
Here’s the thing. Putin is the leader of a country that’s been actively helping Iran. When the man helping broker America’s next moves is the same man supplying Iran’s military partners, we need to be asking some very hard questions right now.
Did 300 Billionaires Just Buy American Democracy?
A new New York Times analysis says billionaires controlled nearly one-fifth of all federal election spending in 2024. The total tab for that election was almost $16 billion. Just 300 billionaires and their families put in $3 billion of it, an average of $10 million each. That’s what 100,000 regular donors would give combined.
These 300 people represent 0.0087% of everyone who donated over $200. And for every dollar billionaires gave to Democrats, five dollars went to Republicans. Elon Musk alone poured more than $250 million into the effort. Miriam Adelson gave over $100 million. Timothy Mellon, over $100 million.
Billionaires spent just $16 million influencing the 2008 election. In 2024, it was $3 billion. That’s a 12,000% increase, adjusted for inflation. All thanks to Citizens United. Trump has since appointed more than a dozen of those billionaires to his administration. They bought the government. Now they’re running it.
Will Trump’s Iran War Convince North Korea It Needs More Nukes?
Watch what happens when America takes out a regime it doesn’t like. North Korea is watching very carefully. Analysts say the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has “vindicated” Kim Jong Un’s decision to build a nuclear arsenal, and hardened his resolve never to give it up.
Here’s the lesson Pyongyang is drawing. Iran had strong ties with both Russia and China. It had a formalized defense partnership with Moscow. When the bombs dropped, neither China nor Russia lifted a finger to stop it. That’s the lesson Kim takes home.
North Korea already has an estimated 50 nuclear warheads, with material for 40 more. It has legally enshrined the right to preemptive nuclear strikes. And it has missiles it claims can reach the American mainland.
The decapitation of the Iranian government tells every nation on Earth without nuclear weapons that they’d better get some fast. The Iran war isn’t making the world safer. It’s a recruitment poster for nuclear proliferation.
Did RFK Jr. Stack the Vaccine Review Deck with Someone Who Makes Stuff Up?
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. picked someone to lead the review of COVID vaccines whose own research has been called misleading by multiple scientific experts. This isn’t a surprise, because Kennedy has already fired all 17 members of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and replaced most of them with vaccine skeptics and conspiracy theorists. At least nine of the thirteen new members don’t have the credentials required by the committee’s own charter.
The reconstituted panel has already reversed thirty years of CDC policy, eliminating the recommendation for the hepatitis B vaccine at birth. It’s voted against recommending updated COVID vaccines for anyone over six months old. Seven childhood vaccines have been stripped of their universally recommended status.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, fifteen state attorneys general, and multiple public health groups have sued to reverse these changes. Experts estimate routine childhood vaccines have prevented over a million deaths in this country since 1994. Kennedy is gambling with children’s lives, and he picked people to make it sound scientific.
Is Dr. Oz’s Real Job to Kick Sick People Off Their Health Insurance?
Dr. Oz, Trump’s top official overseeing the Affordable Care Act, says Obamacare enrollment may be “too high.” About 23 million Americans signed up for ACA coverage during this year’s open enrollment, roughly 1.2 million fewer than last year, partly because premiums have skyrocketed. Oz says he thinks that number should drop to around 19 million. “The fact that we have 23 million makes me think we have too many participants in the ACA,” he said. “It’s too high of a number.”
Oz claims millions may be enrolled fraudulently or should be on other coverage. He hasn’t provided evidence for that. ACA coverage is what keeps self-employed people, gig workers, and anyone without a job that offers benefits from going uninsured.
So let’s be clear about what this is. The man running Obamacare thinks there are too many sick and working people getting health insurance. That’s not health care policy. That’s a walking, talking death panel.
And that’s the way it is. Today is Tuesday, March 10, 2026 I’m Thom Hartmann
