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Category: CounterPunch+

  • As Sirhan and Hinckley Prepare to Walk Free, Why is Ruchell Magee Still in Prison?

    On June 5, 1968, Sirhan Sirhan approached Democratic presidential candidate Robert Kennedy, brother of former president John F. Kennedy, just after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. He then pulled a gun and shot Kennedy in the head and upper body at close range. On March 30, 1981, John Hinckley Jr. walked up More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Thandisizwe Chimurenga.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Seeing the Future

    For decades, I kept a poster on my wall that I’d saved from the year I turned 16. In its upper left-hand corner was a black-and-white photo of a white man in a grey suit. Before him spread a cobblestone plaza. All you could see were the man and the stones. Its caption read, “He More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Rebecca Gordon.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Central Europe, From Postcommunism to Democracy?

    Last Sunday, a 94-year-old woman held a small European flag in her hand as she wheeled her wheelchair through Warsaw among thousands of demonstrators protesting against the reform of the Polish judiciary and her government’s confrontation with the European Union. That lady, who in 1944 was a young fighter in the Warsaw Uprising against Nazism, More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Monika Zgustova.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • After Corbyn, Israel Lobby Turns Its Guns on UK Academia

    The Israel lobby appears to be readying for a campaign to root out leftwing academics in the UK critical of Israel’s continuing oppression of the Palestinian people – echoing its efforts against the previous leader of Britain’s Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn. More

    The post After Corbyn, Israel Lobby Turns Its Guns on UK Academia appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jonathan Cook.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Checking in With Dave Zirin: Kaepernick, COVID and the MLB Playoffs

    Image by Mattia Faloretti.

    Dave: Hey Ron.

    Ron: Hi Dave. Long time no see.

    Dave: Long time no see. Thanks for doing this. I appreciate it.

    Ron: When Jeffrey (St Clair) suggested I do this interview, I was reminded of CounterPunch’s early days on the web and your columns from that small paper in Maryland were reprinted in CounterPunch. I was hooked. After all,, it had been a few decades since any Leftist had written about sports in the USA.In a few sentences, how would you describe your trajectory since then?Ron:: And that other guy. Mr. Cockburn….So that was my lead-in, I guess. How would you describe your trajectory since then?

    Dave:: If it wasn’t for CounterPunch, first and foremost, my writings wouldn’t have got out to the broader Left and that’s where my readership really started, with the broader Left; with a lot of closeted Lefty sports fans and a lot of Lefties who hated sports but started to see its value in terms of the struggle of athletes, which I tried to write about a lot in those early days. Since then I’ve stayed on the same beat at the intersection of sports and politics and focusing definitely on Left-wing movements and radicalism and resistance politics that have emerged in sports and I think more of the mainstream’s sports media has moved in that direction, certainly over the last ten years as more athletes have been outspoken and, in a lot of respects, that makes me a smaller fish in a bigger pond but I like that there is a lot more writing, a lot more research, a lot more documentaries that deal with this area of work that, you know for a long time was very lonely to write about.

    Ron: Yeah, it’s very rare anymore that I hear or read that politics doesn’t belong in sports.

    Dave: Yeah. Unless you’re watching the absolute dregs of right-wing media. Something that used to be commonsense in mainstream sports writing has been eschewed.

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    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Climate Movement’s Last Stand?

    Image by Li-An Lim.

    The upcoming UN climate conference (COP 26) will happen amid an escalating climate crisis. After past conferences failed to prevent today’s unfolding disaster, it’s safe to assume that the 26th COP will follow in the ineffectual footsteps of the previous 25 UN climate summits.

    Nevertheless, the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) attempted to influence COP 26 by releasing its report ahead of schedule. Because of the consensus-based process of the IPCC — and the direct influence that oil-rich governments exert during the process — the UN body is notoriously conservative in its projections and policy solutions (often referred to as “the lowest common denominator” in climate science).

    The hamstrung IPCC, however, did its best to convey urgency by warning of climate catastrophe unless global emissions are cut in half by 2030 and/or net zero emissions are achieved by 2050.

    The Historic Failure of the UN’s COP   

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  • The Political Economy of Timber Theft

    Stealing trees is as old as the King’s timber reserves. The sanctions for such sylvan thievery have always been harsh. In medieval England, it meant public torture and slow death. In the US, the levy was a kind of financial death penalty –triple damages plus serious jail time. A few years ago, two tree poachers […]

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    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • The Haitian Migration Crisis: Made in the U.S.A.

    In scenes that evoked the history of U.S. slave catchers, Border Patrol agents on horseback used their reins as whips to beat the refugees they chased down and captured. Eager to join the racist frenzy, Texas Governor Greg Abbott ordered the National Guard and Texas police to form a miles-long “steel wall” of patrol cars and military vehicles to block migrants from escaping Biden’s dragnet. More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Ashley Smith.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Endless Enemies and the Permanent War Economy

    President Biden took a predictable hit on the Afghan crisis, but the war’s flawed beginnings and mis-guided execution were caused by many of his current critics who were pitchmen for deepening our involvement. This fiasco lasted twenty years because all presidents and power players were vested in this atrocity, willing to cover up its failure with deceptions and bureaucratic lies, insulating Americans from casualties in order to continue the war indefinitely. More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by John O’Kane.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Brazil, Amazon, World: Crimes Against Humanity

    Jair Messias Bolsonaro is widely known for his sociopathic views and attempts to put them into action. He’s so given to bizarre statements that they tend to focus attention on him and distract from the fact that the appalling environmental and human rights situation of Brazil today (people scavenging through animal carcasses for food, is just one example) isn’t the product of a monstrous individual but of a monstrous government made up of neoliberal political forces and agents working with powerful criminal organisations in favour of private and corporate interests. More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jean Wyllys – Julie Wark.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • America’s Instinctive Fascism Creeps On

    Recently Norman Ornstein told Salon’s Chauncy de Vega that the United States is mired in a crisis of democracy that shows parallels with Germany’s descent into Nazism during the 1930s. Ornstein is right to worry about the nation’s ongoing lethal rightward drift beyond “normal” bourgeois democracy. That is how the United States’ political life is More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Paul Street.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Toothless: the Build Back Better Bill’s Dental Coverage

    There’s a lot to be said about teeth. Like, that not having them can be a real problem.  Since one out of five American seniors has lost all their natural teeth, this is no minor statistical blip of an irritation. It is a BIG issue. So that’s why, for months, Senator Bernie Sanders has told More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Eve Ottenberg.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Afghanistan Tackles the Islamic State

    On October 8, a terrible blast struck the worshippers attending Friday noon prayers at the Gozar-e-Sayed Abad Mosque in the Khan Abad district of Bandar, the capital of Kunduz, one of Afghanistan’s largest cities in its northern belt. This is a mosque frequented by Shia Muslims, who were referred to as “our compatriots” by Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid. Forty-six More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Vijay Prashad.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • How Feminists Can Support Afghan Women Living Under the Taliban

    Since the Taliban took control of Kabul and the central government on August 15, efforts to support Afghan women have become extremely challenging. According to some prominent U.S. feminists with strong ties to Afghan women, the Taliban “has no legitimacy beyond the brutal force it commands,” and governments, the United Nations and regional actors should More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Medea Benjamin – Ariel Gold.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • CounterPunch.org 2021-10-13 16:12:39

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Josh Frank.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • “No First Use”: An Empty Gesture That Would Cost Nothing

    “Debate on ‘no first use’ of nukes mushrooms in Washington,” Joe Gould reports at Defense News. “Five years after President Barack Obama turned back from declaring a ‘no first use’ as US policy for nuclear weapons,” Gould writes, “opponents say the Biden administration is considering it too, and warn that it risks alienating allies.” Is it More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Thomas Knapp.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Governors Can Run Away to Texas, But They Can’t Hide From the Problems Back Home

    Plagued by a mounting number of very serious problems in Montana, what did Gov. Greg Gianforte opt to do? No, he did not “put his shoulder to the wheel” and get to work addressing those issues — which would be doing the job he was elected and paid by taxpayers to do. Nope, he jumped on More

    The post Governors Can Run Away to Texas, But They Can’t Hide From the Problems Back Home appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by George Ochenski.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Great Strike of 2021

    The best definition of a strike is when ‘workers withhold their labor’ for better wages and working conditions.  The conventional wisdom is that unions go on strike. But that is incorrect.  Workers go on strike and they don’t necessarily need to be members of unions. That fact is evident today as millions of US workers More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jack Rasmus.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Indigenous Peoples, Like Mine, Are Fighting for Their Homelands

    On this Indigenous Peoples’ Day,  I want to tell you about my people, the Garifuna. We’re an Afro-Indigenous people, descended from Arawaks and Africans. Our ancestral territory spans the Caribbean border of Central America. Latin American and Caribbean communities like ours are rarely noticed in U.S. media — except when we migrate. In summer 2021, More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Miriam Miranda.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Environmental Justice Advocates Respond to Oil Spill: End Neighborhood and Offshore Oil Drilling Now

    Since 2019, Governor Newsom’s state oil and gas regulatory agency, CalGEM has issued over 9,000 onshore drilling permits while state lawmakers have repeatedly killed legislation that would have directly protected frontline communities from serious adverse health effects from oil and gas drilling next to homes, schools, prisons, and healthcare facilities, according to the groups. Governor More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Dan Bacher.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The CIA’s View of Left Political Parties in Afghanistan, 1948-79

    Image by Kevin Schmid.

    From 1979 to 1989, the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Navy SEALs, and Green Berets, with help from Britain’s Military Intelligence Section Six (MI6) and Special Air Service (SAS), ran Operation Cyclone: the funding, arming, training, and organizing of tens of thousands of mujahideen (“freedom fighters”) from dozens of Muslim-majority countries. This “had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap,” in the words of one of Cyclone’s architects, Zbigniew Brzezinski (1928-2017)—Afghanistan being the famous “Graveyard of Empires.” The CIA later rebranded the mujahideen “al-Qaeda” and cited their presence in Afghanistan as justification for the US-led occupation, which started shortly after 9/11.

    Cyclone did to Afghanistan what Operation Timber Sycamore has done more recently to Syria: triggered a refugee crisis of millions, reduced developed areas of the country to rubble, killed hundreds of thousands of people, and empowered far-right Islamists. But how strong was a left presence in Afghanistan before Cyclone? Could secular anarchists, communists, and socialists have formed a progressive alliance against hard-line Islamists? This article explores the CIA’s records.

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    The post The CIA’s View of Left Political Parties in Afghanistan, 1948-79 appeared first on CounterPunch.org.


    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by T.J. Coles.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • What Happens in the Red States

    Nationally focused progressive intellectuals and activists might be more willing to confront the fact the United States is being overtaken by a creeping, homegrown Amerikaner fascism if they paid more attention to state-level politics, the soft underbelly of what’s left of bourgeois democracy in the not-so United States.

    The left tendency to neglect and avoid what’s happening in the states is foolish. For one thing, state-level policy has significant direct impacts on a vast swath of the nation’s population. From highly populated jurisdictions like Texas (home to 30 million) and Florida (22 million) to smaller ones like Iowa (just over 3 million), North Dakota (762,000) and Wyoming (less than 600,000), at least 150 million Americans live in fully or mainly “red states,” where state politics and policy are completely or largely in the hands of the neofascist Republican party. I write from 91% white Iowa, where the Republikaner governor and state legislature power have passed laws suppressing minority voting rights, forbidding honest discussion of white systemic racism in public education (K-Ph.D.), banning local governments and school districts from enforcing minimum wage ordinances, and banning local vaccine and mask mandates. Iowa’s Nazi Lite chief executive “Covid Kim” Reynolds has cut pandemic-related unemployment benefits, rejected federal Medicaid dollars to help the poor receive health care, and made her state’s taxpayers fund the sending of Iowa state troopers to patrol the southern US border in its neo-Confederate partner state of Texas.

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  • The Collapse of Liberal Zionism

    Image by Ahmed Abu Hameeda.

    Summer is over in Israel and so too the holiday season that includes Yom Kippur and Sukkot with their accompanying prayers of remembrance. Memory is integral to most Jewish holidays. The readings at Passover and the lighting of candles at Hanukkah are collective acts of remembrance. The importance of remembering has always been central to Jewish self-identity. As Jonathan Safran Foer would have it: ‘Jews have six senses. Touch, taste, sight, smell, hearing … memory.’

    But here there are also holidays specific to the State of Israel, traditions linked to Zionist history. These include Remembrance Day for Fallen Soldiers, Jerusalem Day which celebrates the ‘reunification’ of Jerusalem, and Independence Day. This is not to mention other days marked in the calendar to honour Zionist icons such as Herzl, Ben Gurion, Jabotinsky, and Rabin. And of course, there is Holocaust Remembrance Day. In Israel, collective remembrance linked to a sense of national identity and a dominant narrative of history is ritualised and institutionalised; the days are sacred milestones in the calendar year. Nakba Day, as commemorated by Palestinians, is not one of them.

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    The post The Collapse of Liberal Zionism appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

    This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org.

  • Auguries of Late Capitalism

    I To see evolution in a bee’s flight And biodiversity in a leaf of grass. To know Gaia from the passing of day to night And complexity from the biomass. II Wildfires rage from May to December, Hurricanes from June to November. Few believed the river would rise higher, Then every yard became a quagmire. More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Stephen F. Eisenman.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Forbes Reveals Why the US Government Is Trying to Extradite Venezuelan Diplomat Alex Saab

    Alex Saab is “the key that unlocks the Venezuelan monetary mystery—that is, how a country facing sanctions from the US, the UK and the European Union—is still able to export things like gold and oil…and really the only man who can actually explain how the country [Venezuela] survives today,” according to Forbes. The US would More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Roger Harris.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • France and the Fraying of NATO

    Biden has infuriated France by arranging the agreement to provide nuclear-powered submarines to Australia. This replaces a contract to purchase a fleet of diesel-powered subs from France. Australia will have to pay penalties for breach of contract but the French capitalists will lose around 70 billion dollars. The perceived perfidy of both Canberra and Washington More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Gary Leupp.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • OO7: License to Kill?

    Geneva is now flooded with advertisements for the latest James Bond movie, Mourir peut attendre (No Time to Die). On buses and on trains, on television and in the local newspapers, the 25th Bond film and the last starring Daniel Craig, has overwhelmed the city with its publicity. But how can one celebrate a hero More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Daniel Warner.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Psychiatry Films and Politics: Filmmakers Take Issue with my CounterPunch Review of Their Doc

    Cured, as I noted in my September 24, 2021 CounterPunch review, is an upcoming PBS documentary (October 11) about how gay activists forced the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in 1973 to rescind its declaration that homosexuality is a psychiatric illness. I had speculated that what allowed this documentary to get aired on PBS is that More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Bruce E. Levine.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • No Militarization of Space Act

    Finally, there’s some good news about the U.S. push to turn space into a war zone. The “No Militarization of Space Act” has been introduced in the U.S. Congress. It would abolish the new U.S. Space Force. It is being sponsored by five members of the House of Representatives led by Representative Jared Huffman. In More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Karl Grossman.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Ultimate Drug War Crackdown

    Throughout the long sordid history of America’s war on drugs, drug-war proponents have claimed that if only government officials would really crack down on drug use and drug distribution, the decades-old war on drugs could finally — finally! — be won.  But one big problem is that throughout the decades of drug warfare, there have More

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Jacob Hornberger.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.