Gangster Capitalism and Corruption in Trump’s America

Corruption has never been far from the center of American politics. Some of the most notorious scandals stretch from the cronyism of Warren G. Harding to the abuses of power exposed during the Watergate scandal under Richard Nixon. Yet many historians argue that what distinguishes What distinguishes Donald Trump from earlier corrupt presidencies is that corruption no longer operates behind closed doors, shielded by the liberal rituals of institutional legitimacy and the euphemisms of political decorum. Under Trump, corruption is performed openly as spectacle, celebrated as a sign of strength, wealth, vengeance, and personal loyalty. More

The New Religion of AI Accelerationism

BY David S. D’Amato

Earlier this month, researchers at the University of California San Diego published a study offering “the first empirical evidence that a modern artificial intelligence system can pass the Turing test.” Famously named for Alan Turing, the English mathematician and World War II codebreaker, the test is designed to determine whether a computer can exhibit human intelligence such as to make it indistinguishable from a human. What is interesting, perhaps, is how few waves this apparent breakthrough has made within the broader public discourse. More

The Criminalization of Gleaning

BY Peter Linebaugh

The whole history of capitalism begins with the expropriation of people from the land, turning it into money and them into nothings. The passage from nothing to money is conducted by work, and yet people will cling on and find a way out of no way, because no expropriation is ever total. This is the evidence of remainders, or broadly speaking, the evidence of gleaning. More

Vampire Planet: So Cal’s Chemical Disaster, a Gift from the War Machine

BY Joshua Frank

The news alerts were ominous. A chemical tank at an industrial site in Garden Grove, fifteen miles south of where I live, could blow at any moment. A nervous Orange County Fire Captain warned of two possible outcomes. Either 7,000 gallons of a highly toxic chemical soup would spill from the damaged tank, or, worse, a massive blast could poison a large swath of Southern California.
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The Most Botched Imperial War w/ Gilbert Achcar

May 22, 2026

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Erik Wallenberg and Joshua Frank sit down with Gilbert Achcar to discuss Israel, Palestine, Iran, Lebanon, and the most botched US war ever.

Gilbert Achcar is Emeritus Professor at SOAS, University of London. He is the author of many books, most recently, The Gaza Catastrophe: The Genocide in World-Historical Perspective.

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The Collective Power of Music w/ Sean Adams

May 15, 2026

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, host Tori Tsui talks to Sean Adams, founder of Drowned in Sound. Tori and Sean talk about Spotify, AI, militarism, capitalism, independent music, how we can harness music’s power for social change, and much more.

Founded in 2000 by Sean Adams, the UK-based Drowned in Sound has evolved from a music website into a podcast and newsletter-focused platform covering indie, electronic, and alternative music, featuring news, reviews, interviews, and community forums.

Tori Tsui is an environmental activist, author, and climate advisor originally from Hong Kong. She is a senior advisor for the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty and a campaigner for the Stop Rosebank coalition. Her work has been featured in British Vogue, Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan, and Elle. She lives in Bristol, UK.

Be sure to check out Tori’s new book, It’s Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis, just out from The New Press.

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No Option But Sabotage w/ Thomas Zeitzoff

May 8, 2026

On this episode of CounterPunch Radio, Joshua Frank and Erik Wallenberg are joined by Thomas Zeitzoff to talk about his new book, No Option But Sabotage: The Radical Environmental Movement and the Climate Crisis.

No Option But Sabotage explores how far activists are willing to go to defend the planet in the face of repression and the escalating climate crisis.

Thomas Zeitzoff is a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University. His research focuses on political violence, social media, and political psychology. He is also the author of Nasty Politics: The Logic of Insults, Threats, and Incitement.

You can find the debate between Murray Bookchin and Dave Foreman discussed in this episode here.

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