Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Is Trump’s Justice Department Trying to Throw Out California Ballots Before They’re Even Counted?
The Justice Department just sent California Secretary of State Shirley Weber a letter and a password-protected thumb drive. On it, names the administration claims are noncitizens. The demand? Don’t mail them ballots. If they already got one, set it aside and don’t count it until the state proves they’re citizens. California gets 48 hours or the DOJ sues. DOJ spokesperson Kiersten Pels confirmed the letter is real. Reuters called it an unprecedented escalation in the push to control state elections. Even the right-wing Heritage Foundation’s own database shows noncitizen voting is “exceedingly rare.” So why California? Because the state redrew its House map to answer Trump’s redistricting blitz, and it could decide who controls Congress. This isn’t about fraud. It’s about choosing which votes get counted.
Pentagon Sends Hundreds of Troops South as Trump’s Drug War Puts Boots on the Ground
Several hundred Army soldiers from the 10th Mountain Division are heading to a new jungle training site in Panama, the New York Times reports. They’ll work with forces in Colombia and Honduras and may back up special operations teams advising raids on alleged traffickers. Hundreds more will staff a new command center in Miami. Pete Hegseth has a new Pentagon office just to run the cartel campaign, and the Army’s regional commander says exercises are shifting from building relationships to fighting what Washington now calls terrorists. Reaper drones have moved from Africa to Colombia and Ecuador. Guatemala’s president says joint operations need his congress to approve them. Mexico says no American troops on its soil, period. We’ve seen this movie, from Guatemala in 1954 to Panama in 1989. It never ends well for the people who live there.
Did a Masked ICE Agent Shoot a Father in Front of His Five Year Old Without Saying a Word?
Oscar Belgal had just picked up his son from school in the Bronx on October 8 and was stopped looking for parking. His Legal Aid lawyers say a masked man ran up with a gun drawn, smashed the driver’s window with the barrel, and fired into the car while the boy cowered in back. A bullet hit Belgal in the neck. He didn’t know they were ICE until he woke up in the hospital. DHS says Belgal rammed two government vehicles and accelerated toward officers. NYPD footage shows the window smash, not the shooting. Today he sits in a Brooklyn federal jail, bullet still in his neck, no surgery, half his face numb. When armed men in masks answer to no one, nobody’s child is safe.
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Watchdog Sues Jared Kushner Over Billions in Foreign Money and Zero Public Disclosure
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington filed suit Tuesday in federal court. The claim is simple. Kushner acts as one of America’s top diplomats, meeting Putin, Zelensky, Netanyahu and Iranian officials, and he’s never been confirmed by the Senate or filed a single financial disclosure. Marco Rubio told Congress he talks to Kushner and Steve Witkoff about ten times a day. Trump calls him his “envoy of peace.” His firm, Affinity Partners, manages over $6 billion, mostly from the sovereign wealth funds of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE, the very governments at his negotiating table. Affinity collects roughly $60 million a year from them. Kushner says he’s just a volunteer. Witkoff is unpaid too, and he filed. The Constitution has a word for unaccountable men with foreign paymasters running foreign policy. It isn’t envoy.
Who Gets to See the House You Want to Buy? Compass Pulls Listings Behind a Wall
Compass is now America’s biggest brokerage after swallowing Anywhere Real Estate and its Coldwell Banker, Corcoran and Sotheby’s brands. And it’s pulling more and more homes off the open market, the Wall Street Journal reports. The playbook has three phases. First a private exclusive, seen only by Compass agents and clients. Then a coming soon on Compass’s site. Only then, maybe, the public MLS. CEO Robert Reffkin calls days on market and price cut history a “killer of value” and wants 80% of listings starting private. Zillow sued, calling it collusion to hide homes from buyers. A House subcommittee is asking questions. Consumer advocates say it steers people into Compass only deals, one company collecting both commissions. For decades every buyer could see every home. Now the biggest player wants a two tier market. Insiders first, everyone else gets leftovers.
Is Anybody Still Reading Trump’s Truth Social? Users Flee by the Hundreds of Thousands
Trump posts there every day. Threats against countries, policy announcements, AI videos of himself wrestling a tiger. And fewer people are watching. The Washington Post reports Truth Social averaged about 260,000 daily users last month, down from a peak of 420,000 in June of 2025. That’s down more than 30% in a year, per Similarweb. Facebook has over two billion daily users. Even X has 130 million. Truth Social is a rounding error, and it padded Trump’s paper net worth by billions. The White House calls it “the most powerful and popular social media platform in the world.” It can’t hold an audience the size of Toledo. When the emperor’s megaphone goes quiet, maybe people are finally changing the channel.
And that’s the way it is, Today Thursday, October 15, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
