Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Is Netanyahu Copying Trump’s Stolen Election Playbook?
Before a single vote was counted in Israel yesterday, Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party was already drafting its excuses. Haaretz reports Likud operatives held several discussions about what to do if Netanyahu loses, and the answer was to cry fraud and claim the election was stolen, modeled on Trump’s 2020 campaign against Joe Biden. Likud and its far-right allies sent 2,000 activists with no legal authority to “monitor” polling stations in Arab towns, preparing complaints about veiled women and segregated voting hours. One Likud source told Haaretz, “We’ll have to check and verify it.” The election commission says there’s no evidence of fraud anywhere. Netanyahu reportedly wasn’t in the room, but he’s considering the option. This is what Trump exported to the world. When losing becomes impossible to admit, democracy itself becomes the enemy.
Did Trump Just Hand a Fugitive a Visa?
Flávio Bolsonaro lost Brazil’s presidential runoff on Sunday by more than four million votes. On Monday a Supreme Court justice gave him 24 hours to surrender his passports as part of a money laundering probe tied to a lawyer accused of washing more than $1 billion. He promised to comply. Then he vanished. Federal police say he never passed through any border checkpoint, and his passports have been canceled. Argentina says his family crossed a bridge into its territory late Tuesday night. Then Trump’s State Department announced visas for Bolsonaro and his whole family. Trump called them fine people and the election rigged. President Lula called the flight “a shameful act.” Bolsonaro’s father is serving 27 years for a coup attempt. America used to honor the rule of law. Now we roll out the welcome mat for men who run from it.
Kushner Pockets $50 Million, Secretary of State Loses His Job
Matthew Cole’s new book, Princes and Thieves, reports that the United Arab Emirates paid Jared Kushner $50 million to get Rex Tillerson fired as Secretary of State. Tillerson had opposed the Saudi and Emirati blockade of Qatar, so the dictators wanted him gone. Kushner secretly pushed for his ouster for months before Trump fired him by tweet in 2018. A source says Kushner even pressed UAE ruler Mohamed bin Zayed to hurry the payment, and a month later $50 million moved through Azerbaijan into a Cyprus bank account. Then Qatar panicked and paid Kushner too, quietly helping rescue his 666 Fifth Avenue tower. Trump softened on Qatar right after. Kushner’s lawyer denies all of it. This is foreign policy for sale to dictators. Your tax dollars built the State Department. Kushner rented it out.
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Can Russia Pick Ohio’s Next Senator?
NewsGuard caught a Russian influence operation targeting Sherrod Brown with a fake television news report. The video claims four former staffers accused Brown of sexual assault. It’s a complete fabrication. The Russians took real footage from Cleveland 19 News and dubbed in fake audio, then plastered the names and photos of real former Brown staffers on screen. One of them, former intern Haya Akbik, told the AP the claims were “completely made up.” Researchers link the video to Storm-1516, the same Kremlin network that smeared Tim Walz in 2024. A second fake targets James Talarico in Texas. X took down the original posts, but copies are still spreading. Brown is running against Republican Jon Husted. Putin has a favorite in that race, and it isn’t the Democrat.
Why Are 3,672 North Carolina Ballots in Jeopardy?
Nearly 6% of mail ballots in North Carolina have been flagged with problems, and the reason is a new rule Republicans imposed requiring the inner ballot envelope to be completely sealed inside the outer one. Common Cause North Carolina counted 3,672 ballots still in jeopardy through October 24. About two thirds of the problem ballots were spoiled outright, which means no simple fix. Those voters have to get a brand new ballot or show up in person before polls close November 3. In Wake County, the seal rule accounts for 53% of all rejections, and one official said some voters have resubmitted four or five times. Common Cause director Sailor Jones asked what hope rural voters without broadband have. Republicans can’t win on ideas anymore, so they’re just making it harder to vote.
Stephen Miller Orders ICE Camps to Be Cruel, Contractor Says
An NPR investigation reveals DHS spent roughly $1 billion this year buying 11 warehouses to convert into massive ICE detention centers. A contractor approached to do the work told NPR his company proposed more humane FEMA-style camps in Texas instead. DHS rejected that immediately. The contractor says he was told point-blank that Stephen Miller “wanted it to be cruel,” with harsh conditions meant to serve as a deterrent. He said DHS staff themselves pushed back hard because everybody knew warehouses are horrible places for people. A warehouse in Roxbury, New Jersey has been quietly holding detainees even though a federal court order forbids it. The White House calls the allegation defamatory hearsay. Cruelty isn’t a side effect of this policy. According to the man hired to build it, cruelty is the policy.
And that’s the way it is, Today Wednesday, October 28, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
