Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Who’s Buying the Midterms With a Billion Dollars in Secret Cash?
Political consultants are telling Democratic candidates to shut up about regulating artificial intelligence. Not because voters oppose it. They love it. It’s because any candidate who speaks up could get buried under millions of dollars dumped into the race by tech companies. Brennan Center president Michael Waldman says that warning tells you everything about this election. The New York Times reports $1 billion in dark money has already washed through the 2026 midterms, and the real number is surely higher. Dark money means the public never learns who paid. Committees with patriotic sounding names appear out of nowhere with tens of millions to spend. Earlier this year, rival AI super PACs spent tens of millions fighting over a single Manhattan congressional race and industry critic Alex Bores. AI and crypto companies dropped more than $127 million in primaries alone. Twenty big donors, mostly billionaires, have put $1.2 billion into this cycle, and all but two favor Republicans. Elon Musk says he’ll spend at least $100 million more. The Supreme Court says all this is fine as long as it’s disclosed and independent. Waldman’s reply? “Gimme a break.” When candidates fear their donors more than their voters, you don’t have a democracy. You have an auction.
Why Are Taxpayers Paying for Trump’s “Love Me” Ad on Fox News?
Turn on Fox News overnight and you’ll see it. Images of Donald Trump flashing across the screen while a song called Love Me plays and the singers repeat the title over and over. Trump’s voice promises to defeat communism, socialism and Marxism in America. UFC boss Dana White calls him the toughest, most resilient person he’s ever met. And at the bottom of the screen, six words. Paid for by the US government. CBS Miami reporter Jim DeFede spotted it during Jesse Watters’ show and posted it. Mediaite confirmed it ran during Watters, Hannity and Gutfeld early Thursday. The reaction was instant. David Axelrod said taxpayers shouldn’t pay for a political ad meant to boost Trump’s sagging standing weeks before an election, and told him to reach into his own MAGA Inc pile of cash. Others called it fascist propaganda, a Hatch Act violation, and something out of North Korea. Florida’s Nikki Fried called it “pure communist propaganda.” All of this comes as one new poll puts Trump’s approval below 30% for the first time. A president using your tax dollars to run his own campaign ads on his favorite network isn’t small government. It’s state media. And it’s exactly what the Founders feared.
Big Oil Wrote Trump a Check and America Got a 190 Billion Dollar Bill
Remember April 2024, when Trump sat down with oil executives at Mar-a-Lago and asked for a billion dollars in exchange for tax breaks and deregulation? A new Senate report from Sheldon Whitehouse and Chuck Schumer says Big Oil delivered in the hundreds of millions, and Trump delivered right back. The industry put an estimated $201 million into his campaign and $19 million more into his inaugural fund. In return, the report counts $190 billion in tax breaks and subsidies, a permanent 20% income deduction for oil and gas companies, and a billion dollar slush fund for projects private investors won’t touch. Trump appointed 26 senior officials who all came straight from polluting industries. He exempted more than 180 facilities from Clean Air Act pollution rules. He paid companies $1.8 billion to cancel wind projects. And the Justice Department has brought 76% fewer environmental cases than under Biden. The senators say American families are paying “higher energy bills and higher costs” from pollution and climate damage. The White House called it a useless partisan report. This is what corruption looks like when it’s legal. They bought the government, and you’re paying the invoice.
Did $10 Billion Buy a Billionaire His Way Out of a Bribery Case?
Gautam Adani is one of the richest men alive. Federal prosecutors in New York indicted him in 2024 for allegedly paying $250 million in bribes to Indian officials while raising money from American investors. Then Trump came back. Adani hired a new legal team led by Robert Giuffra, one of Trump’s own personal lawyers. He offered to invest $10 billion in the United States. And in May, the Justice Department suddenly moved to dismiss the case. In August a federal judge let it go. He concluded the offer didn’t drive the decision, but called it highly unusual and flagged “irregularities.” Now the New York Times reports Adani admitted the 10 billion dollar offer was meant to resolve the criminal case. The Wall Street Journal reports Trump lawyer Boris Epshteyn helped Adani. Bloomberg reports Donald Trump Jr met with Adani months before the charges vanished. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal wrote Attorney General Todd Blanche in June asking whether the case was traded for the investment. They got no answer. Wednesday they wrote again, demanding names, dates and terms by October 5th. Adani, Epshteyn and Trump Jr all deny wrongdoing. If justice can be bought for $10 billion, it isn’t justice. It’s a price list.
Elon Musk Eyes a Stake in Paramount as the Ellisons Take Over CNN
The billionaires are consolidating. Semafor reports that Paramount CEO David Ellison has looked at bringing Elon Musk in as an equity investor as Paramount prepares its $110 billion takeover of Warner Bros Discovery. Musk would be one of a syndicate of wealthy individuals. Nobody knows yet how much money is involved. But the relationships are clear. David’s father, Larry Ellison, put a billion dollars into Musk’s takeover of X and sat on Tesla’s board. Larry Ellison is also a close ally of Donald Trump. And this merger hands the Ellisons control of CNN, one of the networks Trump hates most, at the very moment CNN is suing the White House over a press ban. The deal was held up by lawsuits from multiple state attorneys general until Paramount settled them this week. California Governor Gavin Newsom is now fending off accusations that he pressured his own attorney general, Rob Bonta, into settling. Newsom says he wanted it handled “at the boardroom, not the courtroom.” It would be Ellison’s second megadeal in two years. Think about it. Trump’s ally owns the network. Musk buys in. And the free press gets a little less free. That’s how oligarchy works.
Crazy Alert. Can 21 Days of Fasting Make God Vote Republican in Colorado?
Victor Marx wants to be governor of Colorado. His plan to get there doesn’t involve persuading voters. According to 9News anchor Kyle Clark, Marx is calling for 21 days of fasting before Election Day to cause a shift in ideologies. He says the election “will all be determined by prayer” and is a spiritual battle against the forces of wickedness. So if you were planning to vote for his opponent, apparently God’s going to change your mind somewhere around day 14. This is the same candidate who claims, without evidence, that he was forced to commit a murder as a child and that he’s physically fought demons during his missionary work. Raw Story also reported he ran his campaign merchandise store through a shell company to dodge campaign finance law, which experts say is illegal. Some Colorado Republican officials have resigned rather than back him. And he’s not the first. Doug Mastriano tried 40 days of fasting and prayer in Pennsylvania in 2022 and lost badly. Democracy doesn’t run on fasting. It runs on showing up. And when a major party’s nominee replaces a platform with a prayer chain, that tells you everything about where that party is.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, September 24, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
