The Commonwealth Report: Wednesday AM, March 4th, 2026
No plan for Iran, no warrants for your phone, and a Missouri lawmaker wants to execute women for abortions. But Democrats keep flipping seats and telling the Pentagon no just made Claude the top app
Good Morning, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful. I’m Thom Hartmann.
No Plan, No Exit, No Clue. So What’s the Strategy in Iran?
The classified briefings on Capitol Hill this week didn’t reassure anyone. They made things worse. Senator Ruben Gallego, an Iraq War veteran, walked out of Monday’s briefing with Marco Rubio and said flatly there’s no plan. “We don’t have a concept of victory.”
He compared it to 2005 and the decisions that turned Iraq into a generation-long disaster. Senator Brian Schatz said he walked out with less understanding than when he walked in. Senator Elizabeth Warren posted a video that went viral. “It is so much worse than you thought.” Trump’s own War Powers letter admits he can’t predict the scope or duration of the campaign.
His timelines range from a few days to over a month. Defense officials warn a prolonged fight would stretch our air defenses and munitions to the breaking point. Six Americans are already dead.
This is what a war without a purpose looks like.
Can Democrats Keep Flipping Red Seats?
Democrat Alex Holladay won a Republican-held seat in the Arkansas state House Tuesday night.
That’s the ninth Democratic flip in a special election since Trump’s second term began. Holladay, a healthcare administrator, beat businessman Bo Renshaw for the 70th District outside Little Rock. He’d come close in 2024, losing just 51 to 49.
The incumbent ducked a rematch by taking an appointment to run Arkansas PBS. Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders tried to delay the special election until June. Democrats sued, a judge agreed the delay violated state law, and the election got moved up. Nine flips is a pattern.
Voters are showing up and they’re angry. If this keeps happening in Arkansas, nobody’s seat is safe.
Is ICE Tracking Your Phone Without a Warrant?
Over seventy Democratic lawmakers are demanding an investigation into ICE buying Americans’ location data from private brokers without warrants.
Senator Ron Wyden and Representative Adriano Espaillat revealed that ICE signed a no-bid contract with surveillance company PenLink for a product called Webloc that tracks millions of phones.
Location data reveals your religion, your politics, your medical conditions, who you spend time with. The Fourth Amendment says the government needs a warrant for that. ICE found a loophole by buying it instead.
When Wyden’s office scheduled a briefing, ICE canceled it the day before with no explanation. Representative Shontel Brown says ICE is surveilling entire neighborhoods.
Five million dollars to track Americans without ever asking a judge. That’s not law enforcement.
That’s mass surveillance with a purchase order.
Should Women Who Get Abortions Face the Death Penalty?
A Missouri state senator wants to amend the constitution to define personhood at conception and charge anyone involved in an abortion with murder.
Senator Mike Moon’s proposal would create a total ban with zero exceptions, even for rape. In Missouri, murder can carry the death penalty. More than twenty people testified in support Monday, but not a single major anti-abortion group backed the bill.
Voters already overturned Missouri’s near-total ban in 2024 by 52 percent. Senator Tracy McCreery warned the language could also ban IVF by classifying frozen embryos as people, just like Alabama’s ruling that shut down fertility clinics.
When politicians ignore what voters already decided and push laws that could execute women for healthcare decisions, that’s not pro-life.
That’s theocracy.
Did Fighting the Pentagon Just Make Anthropic the Most Popular App in America?
Anthropic’s Claude became the number one free app on both Apple and Google’s app stores Tuesday after refusing to let the Defense Department use its AI for mass surveillance or autonomous weapons.
Trump ordered the government to phase out Anthropic’s technology. Defense Secretary Hegseth labeled it a supply chain threat. But the backlash backfired. Monday was Anthropic’s biggest signup day ever.
Meanwhile, rival OpenAI signed a Pentagon agreement drawing criticism that loopholes would let the DOD spy on Americans. OpenAI scrambled to update its language.
Turns out standing up to power is good for business.
Americans are paying attention to who’s protecting their rights and who’s selling them out.
Today is Wednesday, March 4th, 2026. And that’s the way it is.