Portside

1. 5 Lessons for the Trump Resistance from Betsy DeVos Contentious Confirmation by Jefferson Morley 2. Betsy DeVos Confirmed Despite Massive Protests! by Diane Ravitch

Protecting Saudi Arabia is not new; it has been US policy since the discovery of oil in the desert nation in the 1930s. Despite evidence that the Saudi government was supporting ISIS and Al Qaeda affiliates, President Obama continued the cozy Saudi relationship, but when Obama signed the nuclear deal with Saudi’s nemesis, Iran, the relationship started to fray. It now appears that Donald Trump will be an even more staunch supporter of the Saudi regime.

"I don't think that the model that Scott Walker has put forward is a model for success," said AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. "That's the model that the Koch Brothers have tried to spread everywhere." Charles and his brother David Koch operate one of the most powerful conservative groups in the nation and have supported efforts across the country to curtail union rights.

Eight days after Donald Trump has been sworn into office, the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network (IJAN) reflects on the significance of Holocaust Memorial Day. We hear echoes of the fascism and white supremacy of 1930’s Europe in the words and threatened actions of Trump’s administration. We see the racist, Islamophobic, anti-semitic, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, and ableist hate and violence Trump fuels and is fueled by.

No one is safe from the transition this country is undergoing. While many of us have faced hate, ignorance and greed in our daily lives, the period that we have entered is unlike anything that any of us has ever seen before.

As a natural vegetarian food, moringa is rich in antioxidants and contains a healthy mix of nutrients, including Vitamin E and Folic acid.

Of the hatred and bigotry currently on display, Haitian-American physician Jonel Daphnis, said, “It’s always been like this. It’s just that instead of cursing us out quietly, now they’re emboldened to curse us out loud. Now we can’t keep up delusion as a way of maintaining our mental and spiritual well-being. It’s out in the open."

Social movements ought to place private military contractors at the center of a broader critique of authoritarian neoliberalism and America’s permanent war economy.

Calling for a general strike now bears no relation to what mass strikes have meant in the past. The flight from reality shows up in activists’ blasé attitude to history and their very distant relationship to the working class.

We all know that at this moment everything is on the table. This year has been astounding, sometimes inspiring, and ultimately menacing. It gave lightning flashes of what a people's movement could accomplish. But the election outcome is ultimately brutal -- a nightmare President and administration packed with white nationalists, ultra-billionaires and militarists that threaten the existence of the entire democratic system. No one, no group and no institution is safe.