Commonwealth Report: Gloria Steinem’s Legacy

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1:00Gloria Steinem's legacy, Trump's surveillance machine, Texas voter suppression, CBS propaganda, politicized disaster aid and pardons for influence, expose a democracy under relentless assault from within. Good morning, this is the Commonwealth Report News for the public. Not the powerful. You can follow us at Commonwealthreport.News. Gloria Steinem passed away today. Gloria Steinem, the indefatigable feminist and journalist whose activism revolutionized the personal and professional lives of women across America has died. She was 92. She was born in Toledo, Ohio in 1934. Steinem passed away peacefully at her home in New York City surrounded by some of the many who love her, according to a post on her official Instagram page. It did not give a cause of death. Steinem co-founded Mizz Magazine and spent more than half a century as the face of the American women's movement, fighting for reproductive rights and equal pay. Hillary Clinton said Steinem pushed open doors not just for herself, but for literally

2:00millions of women behind her. At a moment when women's rights are under attack all over again, the best way to honor Gloria Steinem isn't just to remember her. It's to organize the same way she did. Godspeed to you, Gloria. You'll be missed. Is Trump secretly spying on journalists and labor unions? Senator Ron Widen in Congress, Congressman of Pramila, Jaya Paul are demanding an investigation into federal agency's use of subpoena power to surveil Americans, calling it institutionalized, brazen abuses of authority. Widen and Jaya Paul sent the request to the government accountability office. They want the government watchdog to look into the Trump administration's use of obscure legal powers to secretly collect records on journalists, nonprofits, and unions without judicial oversight. The Guardian reported this week that Homeland Security Investigations used administrative summons to secretly obtain six months' worth of telephone records for a Minneapolis journalist. Privacy experts say that demands of silence attached to these subpoenas aren't even legally

3:01binding and companies can ignore them. These lawyers, lawmakers say recipients have a first amendment right to tell their customers the government came knocking. When federal agencies can quietly vacuum up your phone records and threaten silence on top of it, that's not law enforcement. That's a surveillance state built for political payback. Did you know your brain is roughly 73% water? That's why even mild dehydration can sometimes contribute to things like headaches, dizziness, brain fog, and irritability. Staying properly hydrated with water and electrolytes plays an important role in supporting memory, focus, and mental alertness. And as we age, hydration becomes even more essential for helping our bodies function at their best. That's where native hydrate comes in. Native hydrate is 100% natural, with the thoughtfully designed formula that includes BCAAs and all nine essential amino acids to support muscle recovery, strengthen overall wellness. It helps replenish key electrolytes to support your body's natural energy levels, and it's

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5:06End quote. The three Republicans on the commission voted for the cuts, the two Democrats voted against it. This commons says Texas has also suspended more than a million voter registration statewide. Longer lines and fewer polling places aren't not accidents. There is strategy when our media has been letting slide for years. As CBS News become a Trump propaganda outlet, journalist Parker Maloy says CBS ran a hit piece on Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El Saeed this week, dredging up old tweets where he compared to COVID deaths to the scale of September 11th. The story was tagged first on CBS, but it leaned heavily on a December 2025 hit piece from the right wing Washington-free beacon, which had already tried and failed to make the same tweets a scandal. The National Republican Senateatorial committee wasted no time celebrating the CBS story. Maloy points out CBS's own reporter made the identical COVID comparison back in 2020, and so did Trump's own surge in general. The double standard only kicked in once a Muslim Democrats said the same words.

6:10Under editor Barry Wise, CBS News keeps finding new ways to do the Republican Party's opposition research for free. Why did only Red States get Trump's disaster money? Last Tuesday, over the course of an hour, Trump used social media to announce seven disaster relief approvals for states including Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, and North Dakota. Every announcement came wrapped in praise for Republican candidate on this November's ballot. Meanwhile, Trump denied disaster relief requests from Rhode Island, Vermont, Illinois, and Maryland, all states he lost. Rhode Island's congressional allegations as Trump has politicized disaster assistance and made it far harder for blue states to get funding than red states. When a federal disaster aid depends on how your state voted, that's not emergency management anymore. That's extortion with a hurricane attached. Will Trump ever answer for selling pardons? House Judiciary Democrats released a report this week called Pardons Inc. documenting what they call a pay to play clemency operation run out of the Trump White House.

7:12The report includes a detailed spreadsheet. The report says Trump turned the pardon power into a marketplace for insider influence and personal enrichment, or wealthy criminals hire Trump insiders, pour money into his political operation, and the doors of the White House swing wide open. Democrats say Trump let convicted fraudsters keep close to $1.7 billion in stolen funds combined. Silk Road founder Rose Albright, Ross Albright, Albright, got a pardon on Trump's first full day back in office, along with forgiveness of more than $183 million in forfeitures. This is what happens when accountability has a price tag, and only the people who can pay for it get to walk free. And that's the way it is today Thursday, September 3, 2026. I'm Tom Hartman.