Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
What Are They Hiding About Trump’s Phony Iran Peace?
Thirty-eight Senate Democrats want answers, and they want them now. In a letter sent Sunday, they’re demanding the Trump administration release the Justice Department legal opinion behind Trump’s claim that the Iran war has, in his word, “terminated.” Trump told Congress on May first that the war ended at the sixty-day mark under the War Powers Resolution. But Democrats led by Adam Schiff, Tim Kaine, and Chuck Schumer aren’t buying it. They point to an ongoing naval blockade, repeated trading of fire in the region, and Trump’s threats to obliterate a whole civilization. They say the administration keeps shifting its justifications for the war. As Kaine put it, “Is there something in the rationale they don’t want us to see?” When pressed last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted no senator had even been allowed to review the opinion. Six American servicemembers have already died in a war Congress never authorized. When a president can declare a war over with a secret memo nobody’s allowed to read, the Constitution isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.
Trump’s ICE Army Is Coming For New York
Border czar Tom Homan went on Fox and made a threat. “You’re going to see more ICE than you’ve ever seen, and it’s coming,” he said. Homan claims he’s just reviewed an operational plan to flood the city with agents. This comes right after Governor Kathy Hochul signed a law late last month curbing ICE operations and banning masked agents in her state. Homan says he warned her first. He’d rather grab people already sitting in jails than chase them through neighborhoods, and he’s furious New York won’t hand them over. Tensions are already boiling over at an immigrant detention center in New Jersey. So here’s the real question for working families. When federal agents in masks descend on a city that voted against this president, is that law enforcement, or is that political punishment from a man who can’t take no for an answer?
Why Is The EPA Rigging Science To Poison You?
This one should really make your blood boil. Career scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency told CNN that political appointees are pressuring them to bury the dangers of chemicals already sitting on store shelves. We’re talking cleaners, cosmetics, deodorants, some of them banned outright in Europe. One scientist described being told to invent absurd test scenarios. If dunking two hands in a chemical shows harm, a supervisor asks, what if you dip one finger? A training session reportedly told staff that risk assessment is, quote, “a narrative.” One worker called it explicit instruction to make your chemical pass. Scientists were even told to stop studying the harm a chemical does to specific racial groups. The agency calls this gold standard science. The people who actually do the work call it working backward to a rigged result. Thousands more chemicals are waiting in the pipeline for the very same treatment. And you and your kids are the test subjects.
Working People Are Done Begging For Crumbs On Healthcare
A major coalition led by Public Citizen and groups like National Nurses United says now is the time to organize for Medicare for All. With Americans crushed by high prices and insurance company greed, and with Republicans hacking away at Medicaid, these advocates argue the answer isn’t tinkering around the edges. It’s guaranteeing healthcare to every single person as a basic right. More than one hundred thirty cities and counties have already passed resolutions backing it. The coalition’s message is blunt. “The American people are hungry for bold ideas,” they said, and they’re looking for leaders who’ll fight for working people. For decades the insurance and drug industries have spent hundreds of millions of dollars every year to kill this idea in the cradle. The question heading into the next election is simple. Will our leaders finally find the nerve to take these powerful interests on?
Trump Starves Cuba While Families Sit In The Dark
Four months into a brutal US oil blockade, Cubans are describing real suffering. “We’ve been four days without light,” one resident said. Back in late January, Trump signed an order threatening tariffs on any country that ships oil to the island. Venezuela’s supply was already choked off. The result was a fuel collapse of roughly ninety percent. Hospitals are canceling surgeries for tens of thousands of people. Airlines are scrapping flights for lack of jet fuel. Schools and offices are going dark. And tourism, one of Cuba’s few remaining lifelines, is cratering as international hotel chains pack up and leave the country. The United Nations says it’s deeply worried the humanitarian situation could collapse entirely. This is economic warfare aimed squarely at eleven million ordinary people, punishing families for the sins their government supposedly committed. The cruelty isn’t a side effect here. It’s the entire strategy.
Could A Cold Blob In The Atlantic Freeze Europe?
Scientists are watching a strange patch of cold water in the North Atlantic, and new research says it’s a warning siren. That cold blob is a sign the great ocean current called the AMOC is weakening. This is the conveyor belt that carries warm water north and keeps Europe mild. If it stalls, the modeled consequences are staggering. Europe could see harsh cooling and dried-out farmland, the monsoons that feed Africa and Asia could falter, and seas could rise along America’s East Coast. Iceland was so alarmed it declared an AMOC shutdown a national security threat. The newest study confirms the ocean itself is losing heat, not just the air above it. And here’s the gut punch. The same fossil fuel barons getting rich today are betting your grandchildren’s entire climate on a fragile system that nobody on Earth knows how to restart once it breaks.
And that’s the way it is, Today Monday, June 8th, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
