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Category: Feature Articles

  • The Return of Elliot Abrams

    Elliot Abrams, U.S. special envoy to Venezuela during Trump’s first term, said in a recent Foreign Affairs article that the president’s advisors should promptly persuade him that the point of no return has already been passed in Venezuela, and that the only possible outcomes are that either Trump or Maduro will win the contest that is now well underway.  Forthrightly titled, “How To Topple Maduro,” Abrams calls for doing more than blowing up “narco-trafficking boats” (i.e. Caribbean fishing vessels), though he does not go so far as to advocate the deployment of U.S. ground troops in the South American nation.

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  • Drugs Aren’t the Problem

    Drugs are used at the same rate by white and Black people, and white people are more likely to sell drugs than Black people; yet, Black men are incarcerated on drug charges at a rate six to 13 times that of white men, and between 36% and 62% of people in state prison for drug charges are Black, despite Black people comprising only 13% of the US population.

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  • COP30 Shows How Corporate Power Is Derailing Climate Justice

    Analysis from the Kick Big Polluters Out coalition shows more than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists have been granted access to COP30 in Belém, Brazil. That means one in every 25 participants represents the industry that is accelerating climate chaos. Lobbyists from ExxonMobil, BP, TotalEnergies, and major trade associations roam freely while delegates from the ten most climate-vulnerable nations combined are vastly outnumbered. Indigenous peoples and civil society activists are squeezed to the margins, sometimes literally, as protestors blockaded entrances to be heard. Meanwhile, fossil fuel executives are in the rooms where decisions or the lack thereof will shape our collective future.

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  • Divining the Future

    Divining the Future Stephen F. Eisenman The Dowsers Society To get to Norwich Market from our flat opposite Pulls Ferry, you walk north along River Road to Bishop’s Bridge and then go west across the River Wensum. The bridge was built in the middle of the 14th century and is one of the oldest in […]

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  • The Disappearance of Public Intellectuals and the Corporate University

    Public intellectuals have declined due to self-censorship, administrative demands, and corporatization of universities.​ Academic freedom is in sharp decline, with nearly two-thirds of faculty curtailing teaching and research activities due to fear of institutional or political reprisal.​ Corporations directly shape research agendas, limit publication, and generally steer academia toward market-favorable outcomes.​ Activism is absorbed by capitalism and pathologized by media, leaving faculty and students risk-averse, disengaged, and more concerned about professional consequences than about social change.​

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  • A Palestinian Anne Frank

    Still from Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk. Still from Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk. Still from Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk. Still from Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk. Still from Put Your Soul On Your Hand and Walk. Still from Put Your Soul […]

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  • The Dangerous Rise of the Extreme Right in Latin America

    “Capitalist, patriarchal and white supremacist” is not a mere collection of politically correct adjectives—these inseparable forces fuel the far right and the global political economy. And they no longer find it necessary to crouch behind principles of civility, democracy, equality or international law to do it. In today’s capitalism, they’re out for blood.

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  • How the UAE Enables Human Catastrophe in Sudan, with the US in Tow

    The Sudanese people are victims of top-down oppression inflicted by big imperialists, lesser ones, and Sudan’s elite. Image by Randy Fath. The Sudanese people are victims of top-down oppression inflicted by big imperialists, lesser ones, and Sudan’s elite. Image by Randy Fath. The Sudanese people are victims of top-down oppression inflicted by big imperialists, lesser […]

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  • How to Recognize an Astroturf Movement

    By late summer 2025, approval ratings for Trump and the Democrats were both underwater, with Democrats polling at their lowest point in three decades. A September 2025 Gallup poll also found that sixty-six percent of Democrats now prefer socialism to capitalism.

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  • The Political Uses of Fakery

    Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot Screenshot […]

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  • Manufacturing Consent For War With Venezuela

    It is no secret that Donald J. Trump, head of the American Empire, desperately wanted the Nobel Peace Prize. For months, he had been lobbying for it, presenting himself as a peacemaker. A “humanitarian who can move mountains with the sheer force of his will”. His lust for the prize, driven at least in part by the fact that Barack Obama won it in 2009, led Pakistan’s government to publicly nominate him in June as a means of gratifying his ego. And the recent Gaza ceasefire deal he brokered, mere days before the award was to be announced, bolstered speculation that Trump might actually win the award. Perhaps that is why, when the Nobel Committee named María Corina Machado the winner of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, swaths of liberals, the anti-Trump crowd, and even some leftists celebrated. But make no mistake: while this may be a personal failure for its head, it is, unmistakably, a win for the American Empire itself.

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  • The Latest Case for Abolishing the Death Penalty

    Alabama executed a man Thursday night in an inhumane and cruel manner. They used nitrogen gas to kill Anthony Boyd for the 1993 killing of a man who owed him and others money. Though he repeatedly claimed he was innocent, Boyd was convicted. There is no way for us to know if he did or […]

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  • Anti-Imperialist Motherfucker

    Abbie and Anita Hoffman with their son, America in 1972. Leah Kushner, America Hoffman’s personal family photos. Abbie and Anita Hoffman with their son, America in 1972. Leah Kushner, America Hoffman’s personal family photos. Abbie and Anita Hoffman with their son, America in 1972. Leah Kushner, America Hoffman’s personal family photos. Abbie and Anita Hoffman […]

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  • Fascism and Liberal Complicity

    John Ganz, a fairly center-of-left voice found in the pages of The Nation, had correctly condemned Trump as a “tyrant”, citing such evidence as Trump’s decision to send in federal troops into major cities, and how Trump simply ignores basic tenets of the U.S. constitution. Ganz so far as to argue too, however, that Trump should not be seen as a “fascist”, since the regime is so “cheap and tawdry that to give it the name of a grand historical tragedy like ‘fascism’ grants it a dignity it does not deserve”. Yes, Trump is a bumbling, fumbling buffoon as much as he’s a tactician, pressing his thumbs into the wounds of the American system when it counts. But what’s so fascinating here about the critiques levelled by a Ganz, not to mention an Ezra “Charlie Kirk did politics the right way” Klein among others, is that even with their critiques of Trump, they oftentimes still offer a rather incomplete view of A) the Trump administration’s connective tissue to previous administrations that have paved the way for us to get here and B) muddy the waters in terms of what phrases like fascism actually should mean.

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  • Borders and Scars

    Ambrose Biece, in The Devil’s Dictionary, defines homicide as “the slaying of one human being by another.” Fair enough. But then he elaborates with the following qualification: “There are four kinds of homicide – felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy.” The classification makes no difference to the victim, Bierce writes without stating the obvious that he or she […]

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  • The ICE Raids: The Spearhead of a White Christian Nation

    Recent polls suggest that public support for Trump’s immigration policies might be waning; a welcome sign for those of us opposed to the ruthless targeting of immigrant communities. And, while a decline in illegal crossings at the Southern border may have contributed to this shift, recent polling also reveals that attacks on civil liberties are becoming a growing concern among the general population.

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  • Every Day Aspects of Another Genocide

    Then a hundred were butchered. But when a thousand were butchered and there was no end to the butchery, a blanket of silence spread. – Bertolt Brecht Everybody talks about genocides around the world, but when the killing is slow and spread over a hundred years, no one notices. – Percival Everett On 16 September […]

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  • ICEBlock Can’t Block ICE. No App Can.

    Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad Stembridge. Image by Chad […]

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  • The Curse of The Blob

    Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. Image by Getty and Unsplash+. […]

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  • Contemporary Opinion on Benjamin Netanyahu

    On 5 September 1972, the Black September group took 11 Israeli athletes hostage at the Munich Olympics, subsequently murdering all of them during a bungled German rescue attempt. On 7 and 8 September, Israel indiscriminately bombed Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon and Syria pressed the UN for a response.  On 10 September the UN Security Council […]

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  • Strange Things

    On September 9, Israel tried to assassinate Hamas’ political leadership in a surprise bombing raid on a compound in Doha where they were gathered in a Qatari government building to assess the latest ceasefire proposal with the imprimatur, for what it’s worth, of the Trump administration. It wasn’t worth very much. In fact, it may […]

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  • Sanctions Are Not Only Not an Alternative to War, They are More Deadly

    Increasingly, the United States and the European Union leverage their dominance in the world capitalist system to impose sanctions on other countries. Political leaders who impose these sanctions sometimes argue that sanctions are a “more humane” alternative to war. But that is not necessarily so. Sanctions are war by another name.

    How deadly are sanctions? A study published in one of the world’s most prestigious medical journals, The Lancet, finds that unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. and/or the EU have caused an average of 560,000 deaths per year since 1971. That is annual, not total. The Lancet study examined sanctions imposed on a total of 152 countries for the period of 1971 to 2021. So for those 50 years, unilateral sanctions imposed by the U.S. and/or the EU have resulted in the premature deaths of more than 28 million people.

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  • Resisting Capitalism, the French Way

    Wednesday, September 10th. Demonstrators of all ages used their bodies, vehicles, and street furniture to grind the gears of French capitalism to a halt. Eight days later, they were back at it. The direct actions opposed the government of President Emmanuel Macron. According to Spear’s wealth management magazine, Macron and his wife, Brigitte, have an […]

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  • Stunning New Film Exposes “Earth’s Greatest Enemy”

    Activists tend to see the climate crisis and US militarism as two separate issues. However, the hard-hitting documentary Earth’s Greatest Enemy persuasively argues that, in fact, the two are inextricably connected. But not only because many of Washington’s countless wars – especially in the Middle East – have been linked to securing and maintaining American […]

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  • The Cold War According to Al McCoy

    “Killing African nationalists is like killing animals. My men and I killed between five and ten thousand Congolese rebels.” – Mike Hoare, British-Irish military officer and the author of Congo Mercenary, quoted in Cold War on Five Continents. Unlike D. F. Fleming, the godfather of cold war historians, Alfred McCoy argues that the cold war […]

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  • The Sabotage of Single Payer Healthcare

    The United States: Failing In a Class by Itself How did this wealthy nation drift into the twenty-first century with such a backward and class-divided healthcare system? The United States certainly has world-class centers of medical research and teaching, but it also has “the highest rate of maternal death among its economic peer nations,” according […]

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  • Canada’s Cowboy Calvinism and the Polyester Gospel

    “Given the chance, I could see the old man’s anti-immigrant rant sliding seamlessly into a screed about Ottawa strangling Alberta as he moaned about what he paid for at the pumps. But here’s the cosmic joke, like all gospel, it was based on myth and like most prairie scripture, it was printed on the thinnest […]

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  • Fear at the Gate

    Immigration today provokes some of the fiercest political passions in the UK. It changes the shape of communities, stretches housing and public services, and unsettles those who feel the familiar slipping away from them. These concerns, in themselves, are not signs of prejudice. They deserve to be heard and addressed honestly. As George Eliot wrote, […]

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    This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by Peter Bach.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Return of Woody Guthrie

    Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications) Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications) Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications) Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications) Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications) Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie Publications) Woody Guthrie (Photo: Courtesy of Woody Guthrie […]

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  • Resisting Australia’s Role in US Space Domination 

    The Milk Way Galaxy is on full display as it passes by a ground-based electro-optical deep-space surveillance telescope located on White Sands Missile Range–the location of Detachment 1, 20th Operations Group and their space surveillance mission, March 29, 2017 in New Mexico. (U.S. Air Force photo/Tech. Sgt. David Salanitri) The Milk Way Galaxy is on […]

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