Portside

If you go by Western press accounts, Russian leader Vladimir Putin is a strutting peacock of the Trump school of self-reflection, or maybe a classic strongman, with the caveat that he's no twit. The book under review presents Putin as more acted upon than actor, more puppet to internal and external forces than puppet master, a formidable tactician but with no grand strategy, no end-game. In other words, a politician.

While the largest protest in Washington history was going on, a few miles away, Trump was making news with an appearance at CIA headquarters. He used the occasion to attack the press for accurately reporting on the low turnout at his Inauguration, and to deny his own public statements criticizing the intelligence agency. We are in uncharted territory. America is on edge. In the streets and in the White House, people are itching for a fight.

In the age of "fake news" and other mysterious media distortions, this book reminds us of a "simpler" time. Joel Whitney offers a new history of how, beginning in the late 1940s, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) simply (if much of the time secretly), paid writers, musicians, and artists, and sponsored publications, concerts, exhibitions, and cultural institutions as part of its Cold War arsenal.

The Service Employee International Union, along with other public sector and service industry unions, was not invited to President Trump's meeting with certain union leaders. Its President Mary Kay Henry expects to be hit hard by Trump's cuts. She hopes by expanding the Fight for $15 campaign support for unions will broaden.

In November Donald Trump announced that his family will not live in the White House when he is inaugurated. Trump's announcement has implications for all of us. Who will pay for the security required for Trump's New York-based family? Who will bear the costs of the disruptions caused by frequent presidential flights to and from New York, not to mention the motorcades in and out of midtown Manhattan? The answer is: taxpayers or, as we used to be called, the public.

In response to President Donald Trump's executive order to advance construction of the stalled Dakota Access Pipeline, tribal opponents say they will fight a restart of the project in court. While President Trump issued an executive order Tuesday intended to advance construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, restarting the stalled project may not be simple.

The women's marches in Washington DC and around the country were stunning, inspiring and the first of a million steps that will be needed to build the resistance to Trump. It might not have been as black, brown or working class as many might have liked. But criticizing it from the sidelines doesn't help anyone.

Scientists begin going rogue, create alt Twitter account and plan march on D.C.

The story behind the Wisconsin Uprising in 2011—the struggle of class forces--has been told in some detail in several books, but a new film, Divided We Fall, supplies the crucial elements of drama that few of us in the marching crowds understood at the time. It is also a wonderful re-enactment of the whole scene, bringing to life the drama and months’ long glory of a fightback that mirrored and mirrors so many anti-austerity struggles across the world.

Women lead; What’s next?; Leader Muslim-bashed; Men; World has its say; Trump pro and anti; Best signs