Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Whose War Is Driving Up Your Grocery Bill?
The OECD just cut its forecast for the entire world economy, and it’s pointing straight at the war with Iran. Global growth slows from 3.4 percent last year to 2.8 percent this year. And that’s the good scenario. The OECD laid out two paths, and the bad one is ugly. If the fighting drags on and the Strait of Hormuz stays choked off, growth crashes to 2.1 percent this year and 1.8 percent next year. That’s recession territory. Energy prices have soared, and that’s driving up the cost of fertilizer, food, and just about everything you buy. The OECD’s chief economist said it plainly. “The conflict in the Middle East has become the dominant force.” The report warns unemployment could climb and investment could weaken, even in the AI boom everyone keeps bragging about. And the Federal Reserve is stuck in wait and see mode while families do the worrying. When one chokepoint on the map can wreck household budgets from Portland to Paris, that’s not strength. That’s proof that working people always pay the price for somebody else’s war.
Trump Just Made It Easier to Fire 8,000 Federal Workers
Yesterday Trump signed an executive order stripping job protections from about 8,000 senior federal workers. They get dumped into a new category called Schedule Policy Career, and it turns them into at-will employees. That means they can be fired for any reason, or no reason at all. These aren’t political appointees. They’re career civil servants. The people who write the regulations, run the programs, and decide who gets federal grants. The Office of Personnel Management once floated reclassifying as many as 50,000. The head of the largest federal workers’ union called it “a blatant attempt to corrupt the federal government.” Several lawsuits are already fighting it. Here’s why it matters. A civil service that answers to the law becomes a civil service that answers to one man. That’s how you turn a government of the people into a government of loyalty tests.
Should Anybody Be Allowed to Own a Trillion Dollars?
Elon Musk is about to make history, and not the good kind. When SpaceX goes public on the Nasdaq, as soon as June 12th, Musk is expected to become the world’s first trillionaire. The offering targets a valuation around 1.75 trillion dollars, and Musk owns roughly 42 percent of the company. Democrats see a gift. They’ve got a new word for the campaign trail. Not millionaires. Not billionaires. Trillionaire. Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal put it bluntly online. “Nobody should be a trillionaire. Tax the damn rich.” Bernie Sanders called it insanity for one man to pile up that much. The point isn’t envy. The point is power. When a single person controls more wealth than entire nations, he doesn’t just buy yachts. He buys elections, agencies, and the rules the rest of us have to live under. That’s the fight heading into the midterms.
Is Trump Still Trying to Annex Greenland and Canada?
At a House hearing yesterday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Greenland is part of Denmark, quote, “for now.” For now. Let that sink in. He was answering questions about Trump’s push to seize the island, and Rubio said Trump believes it’s easier to defend Greenland with complete control of it. Meanwhile Trump is back to calling Canada the 51st state. Both Greenland and Canada have said the same thing over and over. They are not for sale. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney just shrugged the whole thing off. These are allies. Friends. Countries that have stood with America for generations. European leaders have warned that grabbing Greenland by force would put NATO itself on the line. Now our oldest partners are being treated like real estate. When the most powerful nation on earth starts eyeing its neighbors’ land, that’s not diplomacy. That’s the language of empire, and history shows us exactly where that road ends.
Trump Is Starving the Agency That Defends Workers
The National Labor Relations Board is the agency that’s supposed to have your back when a boss breaks the law. Right now it’s being hollowed out. When Trump came back into office, the board’s budget sat at 302 million dollars. It had already fallen from 408 million back in 2011 once you adjust for inflation. Now it’s down to 294 million, and Trump’s asking Congress for just 285 million next year. Less money means fewer staff. And fewer staff means a mountain of unresolved cases piling up while workers wait for justice. Two Democratic congressmen just demanded answers about that backlog. And the Supreme Court is sitting on a case that could let Trump fire independent board members at will. Starve the budget, stack the board, stall the courts. That’s not reform. That’s how you quietly kill the one place a worker can go when the powerful cheat.
Why Are Flesh-Eating Maggots Crossing Into Texas? Think Trump!
And finally, a story that sounds like a horror movie, except it’s real. The USDA confirmed yesterday that the New World screwworm has turned up in a three-week-old calf in Zavala County, Texas. It’s the first time this flesh-eating parasite has hit US livestock in decades. The screwworm is a fly that lays its eggs in open wounds, and the maggots burrow in and eat the animal alive. America wiped it out back in the 1960s with a clever program of sterile fly releases. So how did it come back? Critics point to Trump and DOGE cuts that gutted the very programs built to keep this pest out. A Texas attorney didn’t mince words. “Worst part is, this was preventable.” Governor Abbott has declared a disaster, and the USDA has thrown up a quarantine zone around the calf. They call this thing the flying piranha. Ranchers are bracing for billions in losses and higher meat prices at the store. Cut the science, and the bugs win. Simple as that.
And that’s the way it is, Today is Thursday, June 4th, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
