Good Evening, this is the Commonwealth Report. News for the public, not the powerful.
Did Trump’s “Historic” Iran Rescue Actually Cover Up a Military Catastrophe?
The official story sounds great. A downed F-15E, a brave airman hiding in a mountain crevice, Navy SEALs racing to the rescue, and Trump crowing “WE GOT HIM!” on Truth Social at midnight. Clean. Simple. Heroic. Except it isn’t adding up. The rescue involved hundreds of special operators, two MC-130J Commando II aircraft, and four elite MH-6 Little Bird helicopters, all destroyed on the ground inside Iran. A former CIA officer says he doesn’t buy the “stuck in the mud” explanation. Those planes are engineered for austere terrain. The wreckage was found 35 kilometers from Isfahan’s nuclear facility, where Iran holds roughly 200 kilograms of near-weapons-grade uranium. Former intelligence officials are now saying publicly that the evidence points to a botched dual mission, a failed uranium seizure. Trump declared “overwhelming air dominance” while skipping over the F-15E, an A-10, two MC-130s, four helicopters, and two more choppers hit by Iranian fire. Iran’s account of a foiled covert raid fits the physical evidence at least as well as Washington’s version. When a story this important has this many holes, someone is lying.
Trump Threatens to Jail Journalists Who Dared Expose His Iran Fiasco
While the wreckage was still fresh, Trump stood at a White House podium and threatened a media company with prison for leaking details about the rescue. “Give it up or go to jail,” he said. He blamed the leak for tipping off Iran that a second airman was still on the ground, complicating the mission. But here’s the question he didn’t answer. Why did a rescue of one downed airman require hundreds of troops, covert insertion aircraft, and a forward military base 35 kilometers from an Iranian nuclear site? The First Amendment doesn’t come with a “national embarrassment” exception. When a government demands total control of the story, it’s usually because the story is bad. Right now, the story coming out of Iran is very, very bad.
Are 52 Percent of Americans Right to Demand Trump’s Third Impeachment?
A new poll from Lake Research Partners finds that 52 percent of likely voters support impeaching Trump for a third time, just 14 months into his return to power. That includes 84 percent of Democrats, 55 percent of Independents, and even 14 percent of Republicans. The pollster called it “an unprecedented result this early in a presidential term.” Free Speech for People, which commissioned the poll, has gathered over a million signatures and documented more than 25 grounds for impeachment, including illegal war-making and weaponizing ICE against American communities. Congress members Al Green and Shri Thanedar have already filed articles of impeachment. They’ve gone nowhere. But Trump knows what’s coming. He told Republicans in January, “If we don’t win the midterms, they’ll find a reason to impeach me.” That’s not a prediction. That’s a confession.
Did ICE Agents Lie Under Oath After Shooting an Unarmed Venezuelan Man?
In January, two ICE agents in Minneapolis shot a Venezuelan immigrant named Julio Sosa-Celis and claimed they’d been ambushed with a snow shovel and a broom. Prosecutors charged Sosa-Celis and another man just two days later. Now city-camera footage shows the entire confrontation lasted about 12 seconds. No ambush. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara reviewed the video and said it sounds like “an unarmed person got shot running away.” The federal government had access to this footage within hours of the shooting. Prosecutors didn’t watch it for nearly three weeks. Instead they charged two men based entirely on the agents’ sworn statements. ICE’s own acting director now acknowledges the agents appear to have lied under oath. They’re on administrative leave. The wounded man they charged? Trump’s DOJ later called the video “newly discovered evidence.” It was never hidden. They just chose not to look. That’s not negligence. That’s a cover-up.
Scientists Sound the Alarm: A Monster El Niño Could Make 2027 Earth’s Hottest Year Ever
Climate scientists are watching something alarming build in the Pacific Ocean. The European weather model now shows a high probability of a super El Niño developing this summer or fall, potentially the strongest in 140 years. Atmospheric scientists describe a rare triplet-cyclone pattern now pushing massive heat toward the surface. When it peaks in late 2026 into 2027, expect monster storms along the West Coast, severe droughts across Asia and Africa, and 2027 very likely shattering every global temperature record we’ve ever set. Here’s what makes this even scarier. Because greenhouse gas concentrations keep climbing, each major El Niño pushes the global temperature baseline higher before we can recover. It’s like a staircase going in only one direction. And Trump has gutted NOAA, slashed climate research funding, and abandoned international climate agreements. As a century-scale weather disaster builds over the horizon, our government is deliberately flying blind.
Your Vitamin D Levels at 40 May Already Be Shaping Your Brain at 55
And finally, something you can actually do something about. A major new study from the Framingham Heart Study tracked 793 people for 16 years, measuring their vitamin D levels at around age 39, then scanning their brains for tau protein, one of the earliest biological markers of Alzheimer’s disease. The results were striking. People with higher vitamin D in midlife had significantly less tau buildup in their brains a decade and a half later. None of these people had dementia. They were healthy adults in their late 30s and early 40s, and the damage was already accumulating silently. The more vitamin D, the less tau. It’s not proof that supplements prevent Alzheimer’s. But it suggests the protective window may open decades before any symptom appears. By the time most people start worrying about dementia, the process is already 20 years in the making. Get your levels checked. Get some sunshine. Your future brain may thank the choices you make right now.
And that’s the way it is, Tonight Monday, April 6, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
