Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Can Trump Rig The Midterms Through Your Mailbox?
A federal appeals court just told Trump he can’t tell Americans how to vote. On Saturday, the First Circuit in Boston refused, two to one, to let the administration enforce Trump’s March executive order tightening mail-in voting in twenty three Democratic-led states and in Washington DC. That order told the head of Citizenship and Immigration Services and the Social Security commissioner to build a citizenship list, then ordered the Postal Service to deliver mail ballots only to people on it. Judge Indira Talwani blocked it on June 25th, saying the president just doesn’t have that power. The appeals court agreed. “Under the Constitution, state and local officials are responsible for administering federal elections,” the judges wrote. The Justice Department says it’s reviewing all options, which means the Supreme Court. And a Washington appeals court already lifted a broader block, so voters in the other twenty seven states have no such shield. Mail-in voting is how tens of millions of working people and seniors vote. Blocking it isn’t security. It’s taking away your vote...
Is Russia Helping Iran Kill American Troops?
Zelensky says he has the receipts, and he’s handing them over. On Saturday the Ukrainian president said his intelligence services have tracked Russian satellites sweeping the Gulf states and American military bases since the start of July, with those images turning up in Iranian hands right before and right after Iranian strikes. On July 19th and July 20th alone, he says four air bases fell into Russian satellite crosshairs, two in Bahrain, one in Jordan, one in Kuwait. “Russia must be stopped. This war must be stopped,” Zelensky said. Eighteen American service members have died since this war began. Nearly 100 were wounded this month. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Congress that Russia and China are enabling Iran. Then Trump went on Truth Social and said Putin and Xi personally assured him they aren’t. Our troops are getting targeted, and the president believes the guys holding the telescope.
Whose Side Is Gretchen Whitmer Really On?
The war inside the Democratic Party broke into the open in Michigan this weekend. With the August fourth Senate primary closing in and progressive Abdul El-Sayed surging in the polls, Governor Gretchen Whitmer dropped a last-minute endorsement of Congresswoman Haley Stevens, one day before early voting opened. El-Sayed has spent his adult life fighting for Medicare for All and literally wrote the book on it. Stevens opposes it. And as David Sirota reports at The Lever, Whitmer’s late father ran Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, the insurance giant whose business model Medicare for All would end. “The corporate establishment has closed ranks and made their pick,” El-Sayed’s campaign said. Debbie Stabenow, Jennifer Granholm and Gary Peters are all in for Stevens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are with El-Sayed. 77% of all democrats want Medicare for All so how will this play out?
Trump Posts False Warning Signs On American History
Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday putting warning labels on a museum. Not inside it. Outside it. The order directs the National Park Service to plant temporary signs along the sidewalks leading into the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, telling visitors the exhibits contain inaccurate information, that they should be renovated, and that tourists should go somewhere else for the real story. The White House says the museum “cannot be trusted to tell America’s story with honesty and gratitude.” This caps 16 months of pressure that’s included content reviews, funding threats and forcing out a museum director. Historians say there’s no precedent for a president planting a rival government narrative on the sidewalk outside a museum. It’s called propaganda when a government posts signs telling you which history to believe.
Who’s Minding The Nation’s Food Supply?
Trump’s own former food safety chief says the federal response to a nationwide parasite outbreak is falling apart. Frank Yiannas ran food policy at the FDA from two thousand eighteen to two thousand twenty three, under Trump and Biden both. He’s now demanding an independent review. “It’s starting to approach a catastrophic level in terms of how mismanaged it’s been,” Yiannas told Politico. Nearly two thousand confirmed cyclospora cases across nine states are tied to Taylor Farms iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell, with at least 98 people hospitalized. Thousands more Americans have gotten sick nationwide since May. The FDA announced a positive lab test on new lettuce, then reversed itself and called it a false positive. Yiannas points to weak federal leadership and a system he says has been partly dismantled. It’s also being reported that Taylor Farms to ask White House to delay the recall. Say What?! People get sick and die when you gut government.
Geeky Science. Your Kitchen Clock May Protect Your Memory
Researchers at Rutgers University put 47 women between 50 and 79 on a six month weight loss program, everybody cutting 500 calories a day. Half of them ate only between 10am in the morning and 6pm at night. Both groups dropped about 15 pounds. But the women who stopped eating four hours before bed did measurably better on tests of spatial planning and problem solving, and made fewer mistakes on memory and learning tasks. “There was a modest effect of time-restricted eating to improve spatial planning and problem-solving,” said lead researcher Sue Shapses. It’s a small pilot study, and it hasn’t been peer reviewed yet. But if it holds up, it means when you eat is important.
And that’s the way it is, Today Monday, July 27, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
