Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Is Trump handing Saudi Arabia the keys to a bomb?
Yesterday the Trump administration sent Congress a 30 year nuclear cooperation deal with Saudi Arabia, and the clock is now running. Under Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act, lawmakers get 90 days of session to look at it. If they don’t pass a joint resolution of disapproval, it becomes law all by itself. And look what’s in it. Saudi Arabia gets to enrich uranium on its own soil. The old gold standard, where a country promises never to enrich, is gone. So is the demand for the toughest international inspections, the ones 144 other nations already accept. Senators Ed Markey and Jeff Merkley called it “the starting gun for a Middle East nuclear arms race.” Markey said, “This is not diplomacy, this is corruption at the expense of US national security.” Trump bombed Iran over enrichment. Now Trump is selling it to the Saudis
What’s the real story behind Trump’s most devoted aide?
Natalie Harp is the executive assistant who follows Donald Trump everywhere, and her devotion story just fell apart. A 96 second video shot beside a lake around 2017 has surfaced, posted online back in 2018 by a MAGA activist. In it, Harp says a 2015 medical error left her in hemorrhagic shock and caused her cancer and her chronic pain. Doctors say the error she describes is extraordinarily rare. The caption on the video falsely called her the only survivor of a mistake that killed more than four thousand people. And her 2020 convention speech, the one crediting Trump’s right to try law with saving her life, was fact checked years ago. Her treatment was already legal before that law took effect. This is how the myth around this president gets built, one unverified miracle at a time.
Did Pete Hegseth fire the Army’s top general to protect Kid Rock?
Here’s the story the Washington Post broke yesterday. On March 28th an Army Apache helicopter buzzed Kid Rock’s Nashville home. Video showed the rocker saluting it. General Randy George, the Army chief of staff, opened a review. Then General Chris LaNeve, the Army’s number two officer, went to see him and suggested it would be best if that review was scuttled. People familiar with the meeting say George was troubled by it. Three days later Pete Hegseth announced there would be no punishment and no investigation. Two days after that, George was fired. And LaNeve is now the favorite for the Army’s top job. Trump later told Senator Joni Ernst that Hegseth did it, and that George was owed an apology. That’s what a chain of command looks like when loyalty replaces law.
Why is the Pentagon punishing a nineteen year old sailor?
He was aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln on a record long deployment, in an unexplained war, with broken toilets, no laundry, no hot water and short rations. He told his command he was struggling. Then he went off the ship. He was pulled from the water, flown to Balboa Naval Medical Center in San Diego, held five days, and never once saw a psychiatrist or a therapist. He was sent right back to work. His wife found out from a friend’s text message. And the Navy’s answer is to charge him with being absent without leave and with malingering, which is the military’s word for faking it. Jen Psaki called it the latest and most egregious sign that the Pentagon has pushed our servicemembers to the absolute limit. She’s right.
Ninety two towns just pulled the plug on the surveillance state
Since last year, 92 local governments across this country have cancelled or refused to renew their contracts for automatic license plate readers. This week Tempe, Arizona shut its Flock system off completely. Mayor Corey Woods said the risk of misuse is too great, and that public safety has to be done in a way that keeps the community’s trust. Tempe found no misuse of its own cameras. It shut them down anyway. Cave Creek killed its contract on the spot, because once the data leaves town, no local safeguard follows it. And in Pflugerville, Texas, nearly 460 outside agencies had tapped into the city’s camera network. Only 80 of them had permission. Ordinary people, in ordinary towns, are taking their privacy back one town at a time.
Think the parasite outbreak is over? It’s not.
More than 18,000 cyclosporiasis cases have now been reported across 45 states. Four hundred and fifty four people hospitalized. Two dead in Michigan. Patients from age one to age 98. It’s been traced to shredded iceberg lettuce from a Taylor Farms plant in central Mexico, served at Taco Bell in nine states before the July recall. And this is not over. Not even close. More than 11,000 cases are still under investigation, reporting runs up to six weeks behind, the CDC says the real number is higher than what we see, and the investigation is still open. The parasite loves summer. Watch for raspberries, blueberries, cilantro, parsley, basil, snow peas, sugar snap peas, bagged salad greens and iceberg lettuce. Washing won’t kill it. Only heat will. When our food safety system gets gutted, this is what happens.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, August 27, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
