Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Trump Brags to World Leaders That He Skips the Courts and Just Kills Suspects
For a year now, critics have called Donald Trump’s boat bombings in the Caribbean and the Pacific exactly what they are. Extrajudicial killings. At least 234 people, most of them never named, blown out of the water without a charge, a trial, or a shred of public evidence. Yesterday in New York, at a meeting of his Shield of the Americas coalition alongside the UN General Assembly, Trump agreed with his critics. He griped that judges in Miami used to release suspects. His words, “But now, we don’t waste our time doing it.” That’s a president telling the world that skipping due process is the point. A UN expert warned this week the strikes may amount to crimes against humanity, including murder. Pete Hegseth has admitted the push to dismantle the International Criminal Court is partly about keeping it from prosecuting Trump officials over these killings. In his UN speech, Trump called that court evil, threatened to annihilate Iran, and bragged about the spoils of war from Venezuela. Due process isn’t a courtesy we extend to the guilty. It’s the wall between every one of us and a government that decides who lives and who dies. When a president brags about tearing that wall down abroad, don’t expect it to hold at home.
Is the President Sundowning? Paul Krugman Says the UN Speech Settles It
Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman says there’s no more room for doubt. Donald Trump’s address to the United Nations, he wrote, confirms the president is deep into what Krugman has been calling his sundowning period. Trump told the diplomats of the world that America rejects any global effort to govern artificial intelligence, then demanded everyone stop calling it artificial. His words, “The use of the word artificial makes intelligence fake, it makes it sound fake.” The press focused on the belligerence and the falsehoods. Krugman says that misses the bigger story, that the leader of what used to be the most powerful nation on Earth has clearly lost his mind. He first made that call eight months ago and hasn’t budged. This makes Trump more dangerous, not less, especially if Republicans lose Congress in November. Stripped of legislative power, Krugman says, Trump won’t feel he failed America. He’ll believe America failed him, and he’ll try to punish the nation for it. If Democrats win the White House in 2028, they’ll inherit a badly damaged country. A wounded, vindictive man with the nuclear codes and no Congress to restrain him isn’t a political problem. It’s a national emergency, and it’s the reason the 25th Amendment exists.
Hackers Breach the FBI and Claim Every Agent’s Home Address, So Who’s Guarding the Guards?
A digital extortion gang called ShinyHunters says it has stolen personal data on every single FBI employee and applicant. Home addresses. Phone numbers. Birthdays. Even their spouses. The group told 404 Media the hack happened Monday night and handed over a sample of 5,000 alleged employees. Reuters checked names and addresses from that sample against credit bureau and breach records and found matches in at least nine cases. The hackers say they exploited an unknown flaw in Oracle software, got into Amazon’s GovCloud servers, and pulled down two to three terabytes. Then they defaced the FBI’s own jobs website with a fake seizure notice ending with “Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump’s favorite Truth Social sign off. Reporters couldn’t confirm the data came from FBI systems, and the bureau didn’t respond. But remember, Senator Dick Durbin warned last year that the FBI’s cyber division was being cut in half. And Kash Patel’s own personal email got hacked by an Iran linked group in March. Criminals have used records like these to track and intimidate the agents chasing them, and foreign spies would pay a fortune for them. Hollowing out the FBI didn’t make anybody safer. It painted a target on every agent’s front door.
Why Is Todd Blanche Begging a Court to Keep the Epstein Files Sealed?
Attorney General Todd Blanche is back in court, and once again he’s fighting to keep Jeffrey Epstein’s secrets buried. On Tuesday, Blanche asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to halt two orders from Judge Emmet Sullivan that force the Justice Department to review and release the foreign-language Epstein documents under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Sullivan’s June order told the DOJ to start producing them. His September 16 order set a hard deadline of tomorrow, September 24. The judge has paused that deadline while the appeals court decides. Blanche’s argument isn’t that the documents are dangerous, or that victims would be hurt. It’s that lawyer and journalist Katie Phang, who brought the lawsuit, has no right to sue at all. The DOJ says Congress “chose not to include a private right of action,” and that Sullivan overreached. They even cite a proposed follow-up bill that would let victims sue as proof that today nobody can. The law says release the files. Congress passed it. A federal judge ordered it. And the Attorney General’s answer is that no citizen has the standing to make him obey. That’s a cover-up with a docket number. Every delay is a bet that the public will forget. Don’t.
Could Texas Actually Flip? New Poll Puts Democrats Ahead for Senate and Governor
Larry Sabato called it a Texas shocker, in capital letters, and he wasn’t exaggerating. A new Marist poll of 1,139 Texas registered voters shows Democrat James Talarico leading Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate, 50 to 44. Talarico has led the scandal-soaked Paxton for months, so that part isn’t new. What’s new is the governor’s race. State Representative Gina Hinojosa, who everybody wrote off as an underdog, now leads Greg Abbott 49 to 46. It’s inside the 4.4 point margin of error, but Abbott has a giant money advantage and years of name recognition, and he’s still behind. Hinojosa holds 92% of Democrats, peels off 9% of Republicans, and wins independents 52 to 39. Talarico wins independents 55 to 45. The generic congressional ballot in Texas has Democrats up 49 to 46. And Trump himself sits at 41% favorable, 55% unfavorable, in a state Republicans have owned since the 1990s. When one follower asked Sabato if this meant a blue wave, a tsunami, or a biblical flood, he answered, “Where did I leave my ark?” If Texas is in play, the whole Republican map is in play. And that’s not a poll. That’s a warning shot.
Republicans Sound the Alarm as Trump’s Numbers Drag Them Toward a Midterm Bloodbath
Two weeks ago Donald Trump held an unprecedented midterm convention, dangled $5,000 checks at voters, and warned America would become a communist country if Democrats win. Mail ballots are already going out in several states, and the Guardian reports there’s no sign the stunt worked. Democrats still lead the generic ballot and key Senate races in North Carolina and Georgia. Gas and diesel prices are climbing again thanks to the Iran war, and Chuck Grassley is publicly begging Trump to help farmers. Three House Republicans flipped to pass a war powers resolution ending the Iran war. Outgoing Congresswoman Nancy Mace says the midterm is going to be a bloodbath, and she put a profanity in front of it. She predicts her party loses both chambers. Charlie Cook says Republicans should brace themselves because the three most plausible outcomes are “bad, really bad, or truly horrible.” Republicans do have the money. They’ve spent $384.5 million on Senate races to the Democrats’ $112.7 million, and Trump’s super PAC just dropped $15 million on Ken Paxton. Money doesn’t fix a president 57% of independents have already abandoned. The oligarchs can buy the airwaves. They can’t buy your vote. November 3rd is 41 days away.
And that’s the way it is, Today Wednesday, September 23, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
