Can a play influence public perception of our shared atomic history enough to shift the conversation away from a presumed nuclear “renaissance” and into a more critical, life-protective examination of what this technology is and could do to us all?  

Playwright and podcaster Libbe HaLevy believes it can. She spent 13 years researching and writing that play—Atomic Bill and the Payment Due—which will have its premiere staged reading next week, on September 9th, as a featured presentation at the 50th anniversary celebration of the establishment of the Peace Resource Center at Wilmington College in Ohio.

For 14 years, HaLevy has hosted the podcast Nuclear Hotseat, aired on 20 Pacifica affiliate radio stations throughout the United States and, as its website (NuclearHotseat.com) says, has been tuned into and downloaded by audiences in over 124 countries around the world. 

This week will go down in history as a time when the governing body of the Democratic Party had a chance to oppose the U.S. government’s arming of Israel. But with the first Democratic National Committee meeting in seven months getting underway on Monday, the DNC’s leadership is determined to derail a resolution calling for “an arms embargo and suspension of military aid to Israel.”

 Maneuvering to sidetrack that resolution, DNC Chair Ken Martin and all five vice chairs are sponsoring a counter-resolution that does little more than repeat the kind of hollow rhetoric that President Biden and Vice President Harris offered about Israel and Gaza last year.

Many Americans believe that the ongoing genocide in Gaza, the United States’ illegal bombing of Iran, and the United States’ disastrous proxy war with Russia in Ukraine are too far away to do anything about. These Americans, however, overlook the fact that most of the weapons and other military technologies used by Israel to massacre Palestinians, to commit war crimes against Iran, and to waste Ukrainian lives in a completely avoidable war are manufactured in their backyards. Americans do not need to travel to Gaza, Iran, or Ukraine to save innocent lives in those countries, they could interfere with the manufacture of weapons and other military technologies right here in the United States. On February 7, 2025, for example, the State Department approved a $6.75 billion sale of thousands of bombs and bomb guidance systems to Israel and reported that the sale will come “from principal contractors The Boeing Company, located in St.

An upcoming neighborhood election that was supposed to be routine has unraveled into one of the sharpest legitimacy crises in recent memory, raising the question no one at City Hall seems eager to answer: is the North Central Area Commission’s (NCAC) 2025 election even valid?

At the heart of the dispute is whether the ballots that will be circulating for the August 30 vote hold any official weight at all. As of mid-August, the Department of Neighborhoods has not confirmed whether petitions were certified, ballots set, or candidates recognized as eligible under city rules. Without that step, the “ballot” may be little more than an internal exercise — a process residents are treating as real, even if the City has not stamped it with legitimacy. The absence of any formal certification leaves the commission operating in a vacuum, raising doubts about whether the election results will be recognized by the very city that created these bodies.

A 14-page complaint filed with the city by Area Commissioner Ciera Jackson alleges that NCAC leaders bent bylaws, extended deadlines, and slow-walked records — moves she says undermine the commission’s legitimacy.

August 21, 2025

Have you read “The Case for Military Intervention to Stop the Gaza Genocide“? I don’t mind promoting it to you, since I agree with most of it (and also consider most of it to do absolutely nothing to advance any case for military intervention to stop the Gaza genocide).

The enormous problem we face is not the people who care enough and are desperate enough to make this misguided proposal. The enormous problem is the usual one: corrupt, evil, malfunctioning, and sadistic governments abetted by great masses of people too busy, distracted, ignorant, or uncaring to try anything at all.

The first eight pages of 23 in the document linked above simply tell us that there is a genocide happening and that nothing thus far has worked to stop it. On this there can be no dispute, and anyone unaware or unengaged should immediately read those eight pages five times.