Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Will Working People Get Stuck With the Bill When the AI Bubble Pops?
A new report from Open Markets Institute and Americans for Financial Reform says the AI boom is a bubble “primed to pop,” and working people, not billionaires, will pay for it. Authors Matthew Scherer and Maya Jenkins found Big Tech is borrowing at a reckless pace to build data centers while AI revenue stays thin. Worse, that speculative debt is being repackaged and sold to pension funds and university endowments, the same playbook that blew up in the 2008 subprime crash. The report says the stock market is overvalued to a historic degree, and Jenkins says the Trump administration is making it worse by stripping away investor protections. Their demand is simple. No bailouts for AI firms or their Wall Street backers. We’ve seen this before. Wall Street keeps the profits, and Main Street eats the losses.
Is the Middle East About to Explode Again?
The State Department has ordered non-emergency staff and their families out of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia, as Iran-backed Houthi rebels unleash deadly strikes across the kingdom. Recent attacks hit the airport in Riyadh and a civilian airport in Dammam, and a drone strike on an oil field killed two people. Four US officials told Reuters other Gulf missions will also send families home, though spokesman Tommy Pigott insists the order covers Saudi Arabia only. Remember, American diplomats only recently returned after being pulled out when the US and Israeli war on Iran began in February. Now the Houthis have opened a new front. Trump promised to end wars. Instead he’s lit a fuse across the whole region, and American families are packing their bags again.
Did Federal Agents Raid Ilhan Omar’s Home Just to Scare Her?
Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is breaking her silence after federal agents raided her home on October 12. In her first interview since, she told MS Now that Homeland Security agents started pounding on her doors at six in the morning, after two and a half hours of sleep. They asked her to sign away her protections as a member of Congress. She refused. They searched for nearly five hours and walked out with 17 items, including old phones, her husband’s notebooks, a 1960s camera, and a Somali phrase book. “You don’t show up that early unless you’re trying to freak them out,” she said. Omar flatly denies the immigration fraud allegations and says she’ll have to move over death threats. When presidents sic federal agents on their critics, that’s not law enforcement. That’s intimidation.
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Trump Cheers as Rally Supporter Punches a Protester
Donald Trump was heckled at least nine times Wednesday at Clemson University, where he was stumping for Senator Darline Graham, who’s running for a full term in her late brother Lindsey’s seat. When one protester was apparently punched by a rally attendee, Trump didn’t call for calm. He celebrated. “Man, I loved that,” he told the crowd, before asking who threw the punch and comparing the man to boxer Evander Holyfield, who was sitting in the audience. Security dragged the protester out while the crowd chanted USA. The puncher stayed put. It’s the second time in days Trump has cheered violence against a heckler. A president who applauds Americans for beating up other Americans isn’t just coarsening politics. He’s giving permission.
Why Did Air Canada Just Abandon an Entire American State?
Air Canada is pulling out of South Carolina completely. The airline won’t bring back its seasonal Toronto to Charleston route in 2027, and since that was its only flight into the state, it’s a total exit. In 2024 the route flew 200 departures and more than 15,000 seats. After Trump’s tariffs and his talk of making Canada the 51st state, that collapsed to 92 departures and under 7,000 seats. Canadian trips to the US in September were down 29% from two years ago. Air Canada has already cut Minneapolis, Detroit, and Indianapolis, and WestJet is dropping Nashville, Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle while adding Belize and Brazil. Our closest ally is voting with its wallet. Trump insulted our neighbors, and now hotel workers and restaurant owners in Charleston are paying the price
Crazy Alert. Trump Gushes Over Senator Husted’s Backside for the Third Time This Month
At a rally Tuesday in Greenville, North Carolina, Donald Trump again drifted from policy to the physique of Ohio Senator Jon Husted. The 80-year-old president told the crowd he’d been studying Husted’s body, insisting it’s not his thing, then described the senator’s backside as a “pile of muscle,” marveled at the size of his feet, and said tapping Husted’s shoulder actually hurt his hand. He called the senator a monster. It’s the third time this month, after riffs in Ohio and Kentucky. Husted, appointed to JD Vance’s old seat, is in a tight race against Sherrod Brown. Critics called the rant deranged. Ohio voters are worried about jobs, drug prices, and tariffs, and the president keeps talking about their senator’s rear end. That tells you everything about how seriously he takes them.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, October 22, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
