Washington’s Cult of the Bomb

The first of the bombs used against Japan, the one that flattened Hiroshima, produced a blast equivalent to about 15,000 tons of TNT and killed tens of thousands of innocent people in minutes. Fast-forward to the ‘70s: the United States’ B83 bomb “is by far the most destructive weapon in the US nuclear arsenal,” capable of producing an explosion about 80 times stronger than the one used against Hiroshima. And we have seen nuclear weapons even more fathomlessly destructive: the Soviet Union produced a weapon, called Tsar Bomba, whose “detonation was astronomically powerful—over 1,570 times more powerful, in fact, than the combined two bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Today’s nuclear bombs do not operate the way that the “fat man” bombs of WW2 did, but use bombs like those as triggering devices to set off much larger explosions. It’s important for us to understand that a nuclear exchange today could well end human civilization. It could even end human life altogether. More

Trump’s Destruction of Diplomacy and Disarmament

BY Melvin Goodman

In one year, Donald Trump has managed to disarm Congress and put our Constitution on life support. The separation of powers has been breached, and our checks and balances have been compromised. Trump’s latest victims are diplomacy and disarmament, a tragedy that few Americans understand. Last week’s tragic demise of the New START Treaty is the latest marker in the decline of the United States. More

Roaming Charges: If You’re Not a Scumbag, You’re a Nobody

BY Jeffrey St. Clair

If the ranks of ICE had been filled by a draft, we wouldn’t be seeing this kind of mass brutality. Normal human beings would recoil from committing daily acts of violence against defenseless people and would question the psychological health of those giving them orders to do so, as we ultimately saw in Vietnam. But instead, ICE is populated by people who signed up for this, people who are eager to terrorize, abuse and inflict gratuitous brutality on others. Sadists, in other words. More

Demographic Engineering Connects Record Murder Rates in its Palestinian Towns and the Weaponisation of Antisemitism

BY Neve Gordon

While the international media has rightly focused on the genocide and enormous displacement in Gaza alongside the ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem, the 300 murders inside Israel in 2025, 252 of whom were Palestinian victims, garnered little to no media coverage outside Israel. Yet last year marked the deadliest year on record for murders among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who make up 21 percent of Israel’s population but sustain 80 percent of the murders. That is one murder every 36 hours. More

Voices from the Semillero Zapatista w/ Roberto Hernandez, Ana Vázquez & More

February 7, 2026

In this episode, CounterPunch shares voices from participants in the Zapatistas’ most recent gathering of activists, the “Semillero de Piramides, de historias, amores, y claro desamores,” in CIDECI, Universidad de la Tierra, Zapatista territory in San Cristóbal de las Casas, México. The 5 day event featured seminars and discussions with over 1000 attendees from 30 countries, to address resistance to this era of fascism.

Roberto Hernandez, from San Isidro, CA, is a Chicano professor at San Diego State University, who discusses the parallelism between the ethnic cleansing of Zapatistas, Chicanxs and Palestinians. We speak with Bruno from the Comité Argentino con el Pueblo Argentino, and Ana Vázquez, a professor at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Chiapas, and other messages of solidarity with Palestine direct from Zapatista territory.

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The Nuclearized World w/ Sean J Patrick Carney

January 27, 2026

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank welcome Sean J Partick Carney to discuss his 10-part series, Time Zero, on the nuclearized world.

Sean J Patrick Carney is a visual artist, composer, and writer. His essays, criticism, and interviews appear frequently in publications including Artforum, Art in America, VICE, Southwest Contemporary, Artnet News, Harvard Urban Review, Glasstire, High Country News, and Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. In 2019, Carney received the Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant for short-form writing.

This episode is sponsored by Pilsen Community Books.

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Citizen Printer, Bill Ayers w/ Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., Monica Trinidad, and Chi Nwosu

January 17, 2026

In this special episode of CounterPunch Radio, Bill Ayers, friend of Pilsen Community Books and fellow podcaster at Under the Tree, introduces Amos Kennedy and fellow artists and activists Monica Trinidad and Chi Nwosu. This evening at Pilsen Community Books in Chicago included a packed-house crowd for a celebration for the release of Citizen Printer by renowned letterpress printer Amos P. Kennedy, Jr.

A self-described “humble negro printer,” Amos Paul Kennedy, Jr., is internationally recognized for his type-driven messages of social justice and Black power, emblazoned in rhythmically layered and boldly inked prints made for the masses. Borrowing words from civil rights heroes such as Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer, Frederick Douglass, and Sojourner Truth, Kennedy issues fearless statements on race, capitalism, history, and politics—along with plenty of witty truisms—in his exuberant, colorful, and one-of-a-kind posters and handbills.

Amos P. Kennedy, Jr. was working a corporate job when, at nearly forty, he discovered the art of letterpress printing on a tour of Colonial Williamsburg. Kennedy then devoted himself to the craft, earning an MFA in graphic design at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He now operates Kennedy Prints!, a letterpress printshop in Detroit. He has exhibited in dozens of museums and galleries across the United States, including the Library of Congress, and the libraries of the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Monica Trinidad (she/they) is a queer Latine visual artist, communicator, and cultural strategist. A lifelong Chicagoan, Monica has created zines, graphics, mixed media posters, communication strategies, and plans highlighting youth-led, intergenerational, and intersectional grassroots organizing work in Chicago and nationally.

Chi Nwosu is a Black, non-binary, queer, Nigerian artist based in Chicago. Their work is an alchemy of cultural narratives that centres marginalised experiences and utilises potent cultural, political, and spiritual symbols. Chi’s art invites viewers to imagine collective liberation, envisioning communities rooted in kindness, compassion, and care.

Please, head over to Pilsen Community Books and pick up some books!

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