Good Day, this is the Commonwealth Report.
News for the public, not the powerful.
Why Did the Pentagon Fire the Journalists Who Said They Weren’t Propagandists?
Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon fired the top three people at Stars and Stripes on Friday. Editor-in-chief Erik Slavin, reporter Lara Korte, and publisher Max Lederer all got separation notices. The stated cause was insubordination. What did they actually do? They sat for a CBS Sunday Morning interview in July and said they work for the troops. Slavin said censoring news for service members would be a red line. Korte said she doesn’t work for any policymaker. Stars and Stripes has covered the military since the Civil War, and Congress wrote its editorial independence into law. In April, the Pentagon pushed out the paper’s ombudsman, whose job was protecting that independence. “Military families and service members have trusted us,” she said. When a government fires reporters for refusing to become its press agents, the Stars and Stripes looks more like a state media project.
Super El Niño and Trump’s War Set Up a Food Price Explosion
Oxford Economics released a study this week projecting global food prices will jump 12% this year and another 5% next year. Fertilizer alone is expected to surge 22%. Why? Trump’s war with Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz, which normally carries nearly a third of the world’s fertilizer trade. Add Russia’s war on Ukraine, pushing grain prices up. Then add the weather. Adam Scaife at Britain’s Met Office says he’s never seen an El Niño signal this intense in his forecasts. Bill McGuire at University College London warned that “the world is in for one hell of a ride.” He expects drought and wildfire in the Amazon and Australia, floods in California, and a weakened South Asian monsoon. Working families didn’t start this war and didn’t warm the Pacific. They’ll pay for both of them at the checkout line.
Did Trump Trade Your Food Safety for a Million Dollar Donation?
Former U.S. attorney Joyce Vance laid out the timeline this weekend. In March 2025 the Trump administration delayed the FDA’s Food Traceability Rule by 30 months, pushing compliance from January 2026 out to July 2028. Days later, Taylor Farms gave $1 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump super PAC. Now look around. A Salmonella outbreak tied to jalapeños has sickened 345 people in 27 states. Sprouts sickened 55 more. A Cyclospora outbreak traced to Taylor Farms lettuce killed two people in Michigan, the first American deaths in that outbreak. The FDA waited a month before inspecting the Mexican farm it suspected. Vance says the Justice Department is asleep at the wheel. “More outbreaks and more illness lie ahead,” she wrote. That’s what happens when regulators start working for donors instead of protecting you.
Judge Jeannette Vargas Voids Trump’s 75 Country Visa Ban as Patently Unlawful
A federal judge in Manhattan struck down Trump’s ban on immigrant visas from 75 countries, nearly 40% of the nations on Earth. Judge Jeannette Vargas ruled Friday that Marco Rubio blew past his statutory authority. The State Department had ordered consular officers to refuse green card applicants from countries like Haiti, Somalia, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt and Russia, claiming they’d become a public charge. Under the law that call has to be made person by person, weighing someone’s finances, age, health and skills. Rubio’s cable told officers to reject applicants even when they proved they could support themselves. Vargas called it “a direct abrogation of this statutory scheme.” She vacated the policy and set aside every denial based on it. Families kept apart for seven months can finally move forward. Congress banned nationality discrimination in 1952, and, yes, it’s still the law.
Is Trump Actually Considering Dropping a Nuclear Bomb on Iran?
Veteran White House reporter Brian Karem reports that senior officials and generals inside Trump’s own Defense Department are alarmed. One called the president a madman who can’t be trusted. What set them off was Trump’s Truth Social post last month threatening that a whole civilization would die tonight, never to be brought back again. A Pentagon official told Raw America that everyone should have taken it literally. “What do you think he meant by that?” the official asked. Former Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, once a MAGA loyalist, says Trump discussed using nuclear weapons against Iran in recent strategy meetings, and she called him pure evil. She says Iran was nowhere near building a bomb. When the president’s own generals are this frightened, Congress has exactly one job. Take the nuclear launch authority back. But, are they?
Crazy Alert! RFK Jr.’s Own Phone Quacks While He’s Talking About Autism
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was in Rochester, Minnesota on Friday, announcing a new federal alert system for missing autistic people. Serious subject. Then, mid-sentence, his phone went off. Quack. Quack quack. The Health and Human Services Secretary said, “Sorry about that,” silenced the duck, and kept going. Now, The Atlantic ran a piece this weekend headlined “The Trump Comedians Are Tired.” Satirists who feasted during the first term say they’re sick of the shtick. Conan O’Brien says Trump is bad for comedy. Nikki Glaser wrote Trump jokes for the Golden Globes and cut every one. And here’s why. You just can’t compete with this. America’s most famous vaccine skeptic got interrupted at the podium by an actual quack. The comedians aren’t tired. They’ve simply been outsourced...
And that’s the way it is, Today Monday, August 24, 2026. I’m Thom Hartmann.
