Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful.
Is Trump Pushing America Into Nuclear War With Iran?
The Pentagon just did something it almost never does. On Sunday, it publicly announced the location of one of our nuclear-armed submarines. An Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine, identified as the USS Alaska, docked in Gibraltar with a 200-meter exclusion zone around it. This came just hours after Donald Trump rejected Iran’s latest ceasefire proposal. The Pentagon doesn’t broadcast where its doomsday subs are. Ever. Unless it’s sending a message. And the message here is nuclear deterrence. Meanwhile, Iran’s closed the Strait of Hormuz, where 20 percent of the world’s petroleum normally flows. Commercial traffic is down to a trickle. Oil prices are exploding. Analysts called the disclosure an, quote, “intentional show of force.” This is Trump playing chicken with nuclear war while regular Americans pay the price at the pump and the grocery store. The world’s most powerful weapons shouldn’t be props in a reality TV presidency.
Does Trump Care That You Can’t Afford Gas?
Speaking of that price at the pump, here’s what Donald Trump told reporters when asked about the economic cost of his Iran war. Quote, “I don’t think about American financial situation.” That’s the answer. Gas prices are at record highs. Inflation is surging again. American families are getting crushed because Trump’s military adventure in the Middle East shut down 20 percent of the world’s oil supply. And the President says he doesn’t think about it. He doesn’t think about you. He doesn’t think about your grocery bill. He doesn’t think about whether you can pay rent this month. He’s busy posting on Truth Social and threatening more strikes. Every billionaire in his cabinet is doing fine. Oil companies are doing fine. Defense contractors are making a fortune off this conflict. Working Americans are eating the cost. Again. This is what oligarchy looks like when the mask slips off and the disdain shows through.
Can Democrats Fix the Captured Supreme Court?
Congressman Ro Khanna of California has had enough of the Supreme Court. The progressive Democrat says it’s time to stop studying the problem and start solving it. Khanna called the current court, quote, “morally bankrupt” and demanded structural reform when Democrats retake the White House. He’s done with toothless study groups. Joe Biden’s court reform commission produced a 288-page report that went straight onto a shelf. Meanwhile, this captured 6-to-3 majority has gutted voting rights, ended Roe, attacked union power, and handed Trump near-total immunity. Khanna’s calling for expansion, term limits, and binding ethics rules. Real change. Not a college seminar. The American people built this democracy from the ground up over two centuries. Six unelected lawyers in robes shouldn’t get to dismantle it from the top down. If Democrats want their voters back, they need to fight for the court.
Ex-FBI Chief Blasts Trump’s Political Purge
A former FBI head went on television and detailed Trump’s gutting of federal law enforcement. He said he’s, quote, “disgusted and shocked” by what’s happening inside the bureau. Career agents, the ones who chased terrorists, drug cartels, and corrupt politicians, are being shoved out the door. Replaced by Trump loyalists. The political purge is real. It’s documented. And it’s terrifying. The FBI was never supposed to be a personal police force for the president. That’s how dictatorships work. That’s how the Stasi worked. That’s how every authoritarian regime in history has consolidated power. First you capture the courts. Then you capture the cops. Then you come for your political enemies. We’re watching that second step happen right now in real time. And too many Americans are scrolling past it. Decades of institutional knowledge are walking out the door. Trump loyalists with no investigative experience are walking in. The republic doesn’t fall in one dramatic moment. It falls one quiet firing at a time.
Who’s Behind the Mystery PAC Sabotaging Democrats?
A new super PAC has appeared out of nowhere and started meddling in Democratic primaries. The New York Times traced the fingerprints back to Republican operatives. In one Texas race, this mystery group is propping up a sex therapist who’s been accused of antisemitism. Not against the Republican. Against fellow Democrats. The goal? Pick the weakest, most damaged candidate possible so the GOP can beat them easily in November. This is election manipulation 101. Republicans can’t win on their ideas, so they pick their opponents instead. They tried this with Trump in 2024, boosting MAGA-friendly Democrats in primaries. Now they’re doing it on a bigger scale with dark money. We don’t even know who’s funding this PAC. That’s by design. Citizens United gave us this monster. The Supreme Court told us money was speech, and now we’re drowning in it. Unless Congress passes real campaign finance reform, every Democratic primary in this country is now a target for billionaire sabotage.
Want to Live Longer? Go to a Museum
Good news alert. A new study just found that adults who regularly engage in arts and culture actually age slower at the cellular level. We’re talking DNA evidence. People who visit museums, attend concerts, dance, paint, or make music showed measurably slower biological aging in their genes. The effect was about the same size as regular physical exercise. The more variety of activities, the bigger the benefit. Researchers controlled for income, smoking, weight, and other lifestyle factors. The link held up. Now think about what’s happening in this country. Republicans are gutting the National Endowment for the Arts. Public schools are slashing music and art programs. Museums are being defunded. Conservatives are banning books. They’re literally taking years off your life. Art isn’t a luxury. It’s medicine. It’s longevity. Every painting, every song, every poem fights back against the gray, cruel, profit-driven world they want to build.
And that’s the way it is, Today Tuesday, May 12, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
