Author | Lightnews

CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · 44m

There’s no more pungent symbol of the corrupt nature of the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq than Halliburton, the Houston, Texas-based oil services conglomerate.

Dick Cheney, Iraq and the Making of Halliburton

There’s no more pungent symbol of the corrupt nature of the Bush administration’s invasion and occupation of Iraq than Halliburton, the Houston, Texas-based oil services conglomerate, which has made b...

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bkeithb @bkeithb.bsky.social · 23h

Ramzy Baroud via @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social

www.counterpunch.org/2025/11/04/i...

Is the US Reclaiming the Wheel from a Self-Destructive Israel?

Has Donald Trump's sharp rebuke of Israel in his October 23 Time Magazine interview fundamentally changed the calculus in the Middle East? His comments immediately sparked two opposing views: for some...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 29

Genocide tends to be recognised “only after a significant portion of the targeted group has already been destroyed and the group as such has suffered irreparable harm.”

When Israelis Call It Out: Finding Genocide in Gaza

It’s been almost an article of faith among Israeli officials: the state they represent is incapable of genocide, their actions always spurred by the

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Joshua Frank @joshuafrank.bsky.social · Jul 25

An extremely important essay by @wsolol.bsky.social on the NYT's favorite genocide denier. www.counterpunch.org/2025/07/25/b...

The New York Times' Bret Stephens, Genocide Denier

In a July 22 essay that is extraordinary even for someone as morally odious as he is, the New York Times columnist and Israeli propagandist Bret Stephens writes that Israel is not committing genocide ...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 25

This tragedy is different from past atrocities in one disturbing respect: the suffering, the use of starvation as a weapon, the unrelenting bombardment, the mass murder, they are laid bare for all to see. The violence is not concealed, it is flaunted.

The Silent Cries of Gaza: A Legacy of Innocence Lost and the Urgent Call to Confront Genocide

In Gaza, the atrocities visited upon children are unspeakable, a violence that staggers the imagination. Omer Bartov, a distinguished scholar of Holocaust and Genocide studies, reports in The New York...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 24

Timber mining is Empire’s latest scorched earth policy.

Genocidal Clowns Plunder Public Forests

Here in Montana, early mining claims at Benetsee Creek (1852); Bannack (1860); Alder Creek near Virginia City (1862); and Last Chance Gulch in Helena

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 9

The body of a single child, wasting away from the lack of the basic fluid that runs in my sink or yours, best captures the way war casualties ripple across time and populations.

Illness and Endless Wars

War kills in so many ways. These days, Americans are bombarded with images from Gaza and elsewhere of people or broken bodies being ferried on stretchers from the rubble of homes and hospitals, by res...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 9

The Israeli genocide in Gaza has brought two chilling truths into our focus: first, Israel is deliberately and aggressively undermining the security and stability of the entire Middle East and, second, Israel is utterly incapable of surviving on its own.

Can Israel Survive without the West? The Answer Reveals Our Collective Power

The Israeli genocide in Gaza, along with the escalating regional wars it has ignited, has brought two chilling truths into our focus: first, Israel is deliberately and aggressively undermining the sec...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 9

War kills in so many ways.

Illness and Endless Wars

War kills in so many ways. These days, Americans are bombarded with images from Gaza and elsewhere of people or broken bodies being ferried on stretchers from the rubble of homes and hospitals, by res...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 9

The Israeli genocide in Gaza has brought two chilling truths into our focus: first, Israel is deliberately and aggressively undermining the security and stability of the entire Middle East and, second, Israel is utterly incapable of surviving on its own.

Can Israel Survive without the West? The Answer Reveals Our Collective Power

The Israeli genocide in Gaza, along with the escalating regional wars it has ignited, has brought two chilling truths into our focus: first, Israel is deliberately and aggressively undermining the sec...

www.counterpunch.org

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 8

The United Kingdom just leapfrogged the US to become the leading country in the so-called “Free World” to abandon its much-touted tradition of freedom of speech, press, and assembly, along with the right to protest.

Britain Quits the ‘Free World’

Cambridge, UK— The United Kingdom just leapfrogged the US to become the leading country in the so-called “Free World” to abandon its much-touted tradition

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 8

El Salvador is in a constitutional crisis, so much so that one can get into serious legal trouble even for being a lawyer—at least the kind who upholds the law, rather than kowtowing to Bukele.

Does Bukele the Strongman Show Weakness When Imprisoning Critics?

Despite President Nayib Bukele’s persistent hype, it’s a dangerous time in El Salvador. The significant democratic spaces carved out by the Chapultepec

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 8

As a U.S.-born citizen of Mexican origin, as the saying goes, I constantly feel like a “foreigner in my own land.”

The Criminalization and Resistance of Brown People in El Norte

As a U.S.-born citizen of Mexican origin, as the saying goes, I constantly feel like a “foreigner in my own land.” During these dark times, when brown

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 3

By the end of the annual meeting of NATO in The Hague in June 2025, it became clear that everything was about money.

NATO's Hallucinations

Having agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the European states have created a series of problems for themselves. The first problem is that they woul...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 3

"It is so very dangerous to go to that place because it is part of a zone completely controlled by the Israeli Army. Every day when people go there to get food, the Israelis are targeting and killing them... My mother has asked all of us not to go to that place."

Valor in the Face of Inhumanity

Donya Ahmad Abu Sitta and her family were first displaced just four days into the war, on October 11, 2023. She told me, “They bombed our neighborhood in Khan Younis, so we evacuated to a nearby schoo...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 2

Overall consumption has grown at 1.4 percent annual rate since October. That is not a great story for the economy. If consumption is growing at a 1.4 percent rate, it is hard to see the economy growing much faster.

May Consumption Data Looks Pretty Bad

Sorry, I’ve been on the road, so not much time for writing. I did want to quickly mention a couple of points about the data on consumption for May which

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 2

One of the most stunning examples of federal impunity is the whitewashing of the Bush administration torture scandal. President George W. Bush unleashed a worldwide torture regime that left victims dead and maimed around the globe.

The Good Intentions Road to Tyranny

“He who saves his country violates no law,” tweeted President Trump in February. He was echoing a line often attributed to Napoleon. His supporters were electrified by Trump’s tacit invocation of a ri...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 2

The American taxpayer is stuck with the bill for all the facets of Trump's extreme immigration enforcement.

The One Big Beautiful Effort to Confuse the Public and Privatize Immigration Enforcement

When interviewing Tricia McLaughlin, Assistant U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security, PBS's Amna Nawaz asked for clarification on Trump’s flipflop of whether or not to exempt from arrest undocumented ag...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jul 1

In Gaza today, hunger has a price—and for far too many civilians, that price has been death.

Food Aid or Firing Squads

In Gaza today, hunger has a price—and for far too many civilians, that price has been death. The Israeli Newspaper, Haaretz described the Gaza

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jun 30

In Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, orangutans swing through the treetops, rhinos roam free, and elephants share the land with tigers. It is the last place on Earth where they still coexist in the wild—and it’s under siege.

Conservation Innovations: How Sustained Resistance Is Saving One of the Earth’s Most Critical Rainforests From Corporate Greed

In Indonesia’s Leuser Ecosystem, orangutans swing through the treetops, rhinos roam free, and elephants share the land with tigers. It is the last place

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jun 30

Ralph Nader's observations on Mamdani's decisive upset in the New York Democratic mayoral primary:

Mamdani’s Magnificent Primary Win—What Follows

People are asking about my reaction to Zohran Mamdani’s spectacular and decisive upset in the Democratic primary victory for Mayor of New York over

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jun 30

“[Countries] have an obligation not to aid, not to assist, not to trade with Israel, not to send weapons, not to buy weapons, not to provide military technology... This is not an act of charity that I’m asking you. This is your obligation”

Starvation and Profiteering in Gaza: Talking with Francesca Albanese

Israel’s siege on the Palestinians is leaving the population starving, and Albanese lambasts other nations for not stepping up and completing their obligations under international law. “ have an oblig...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jun 30

The regime change efforts of the United States have had a long and unsuccessful history.

The Wretched History of Regime

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is planning to come to Washington in the next week or so, and probably will make his case for regime change in Iran. Having convinced Donald Trump of the need to atta...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jun 29

The U.S. spends over $3 billion annually on the world’s largest immigration detention system, which is primarily operated by for-profit prison contractors like GEO Group.

These facilities are notorious for poor medical treatment, overcrowding, due process violations, and preventable deaths.

A Nation of Immigrants Under Attack

There’s mounting evidence of ICE using racial profiling. “We have U.S. citizens who are being asked for their documents and not believed when they attest to the fact that they are U.S. citizens,” said...

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CounterPunch @counterpunchmedia.bsky.social · Jun 27

Across the globe, we are living in a moment of profound crisis where the very essence of education as a democratic institution is under attack.

Unmasking Fascism: Edward Said’s Pedagogy of Wakefulness in an Age of Educational Repression

For Said, intellectuals--those who are alive to thinking critically and acting bravely-- must engage critically with the world, confronting its injustices and inequalities, and using their positions t...

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