December 3, 2016

News and Views

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-science-breitbart-article_us_5841858ee4b0c68e04804f51

Bernie Sanders Calls Out House Science Committee For Tweeting Breitbart’s Garbage Climate Reporting
“Where’d you get your PhD? Trump University?” he tweeted.
12/02/2016 11:02 am ET | Updated 7 hours ago
Willa Frej
Reporter, The Huffington Post


Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) doesn’t hesitate to get sassy with congressional committees when they spread erroneous news from questionable sources.

The House Science Committee tweeted a link to a Breitbart News article about plummeting global land temperatures on Thursday, alleging that the climate “alarmist community” is hypocritical for remaining silent about the statistics.

Follow
Sci,Space,&Tech Cmte ✔ @HouseScience
.@BreitbartNews: Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists http://bit.ly/2gINZNf
2:12 PM - 1 Dec 2016
Photo published for Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists
Global Temperatures Plunge. Icy Silence from Climate Alarmists
Land temperatures have plummeted by 1 degree - the biggest and steepest fall on record. But the news has been greeted with an eerie silence.
breitbart.com
697 697 Retweets 964 964 likes
To which Sanders replied:

Follow
Bernie Sanders ✔ @SenSanders
Where'd you get your PhD? Trump University? https://twitter.com/HouseScience/status/804402881982066688 …
4:09 PM - 1 Dec 2016
71,121 71,121 Retweets 138,501 138,501 likes

The for-profit Trump University, established in 2005, recently agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits alleging that the school had lured people with false advertising.

Trump himself has called climate change a “hoax,” and his incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, recently said the president-elect still considers it “a bunch of bunk.”

But just because it’s getting cold out doesn’t mean there isn’t an overall trend of global warming. Scientists pretty much universally concede that climate change is real.

Democrats on the committee echoed Sanders’ message, saying they rely on actual scientific data for climate information. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, global surface temperature are still up.

Follow
Science Committee ✔ @SciCmteDems
The Committee Democrats look to our respected scientists @NOAA and @NASA for our climate data.
4:25 PM - 1 Dec 2016
135 135 Retweets 302 302 likes

Sanders vocally advocates seeking solutions to climate change. During his presidential run, he campaigned to pivot away from fossil fuels and invest in clean energy.

Also on HuffPost: See Climate info cards 1 thru 5 on Climate Change.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/01/bernie-sanders-carrier-just-showed-corporations-how-to-beat-donald-trump/?utm_term=.3e4edda2a3b2

Bernie Sanders: Carrier just showed corporations how to beat Donald Trump
We need a president who can stand up to big corporations, not fold to their demands.
By Bernie Sanders December 1
Bernie Sanders is a U.S. senator from Vermont.


Today, about 1,000 Carrier workers and their families should be rejoicing. But the rest of our nation’s workers should be very nervous.

President-elect Donald Trump will reportedly announce a deal with United Technologies, the corporation that owns Carrier, that keeps less than 1,000 of the 2,100 jobs in America that were previously scheduled to be transferred to Mexico. Let’s be clear: It is not good enough to save some of these jobs. Trump made a promise that he would save all of these jobs, and we cannot rest until an ironclad contract is signed to ensure that all of these workers are able to continue working in Indiana without having their pay or benefits slashed.

In exchange for allowing United Technologies to continue to offshore more than 1,000 jobs, Trump will reportedly give the company tax and regulatory favors that the corporation has sought. Just a short few months ago, Trump was pledging to force United Technologies to “pay a damn tax.” He was insisting on very steep tariffs for companies like Carrier that left the United States and wanted to sell their foreign-made products back in the United States. Instead of a damn tax, the company will be rewarded with a damn tax cut. Wow! How’s that for standing up to corporate greed? How’s that for punishing corporations that shut down in the United States and move abroad?

In essence, United Technologies took Trump hostage and won. And that should send a shock wave of fear through all workers across the country.

[Donald Trump could kill the American union]

Trump scores publicity win after Carrier keeps jobs in Indiana. Now will other companies take advantage? Play Video2:05
President-elect Donald Trump and vice president-elect Pence have convinced air conditioning manufacturer Carrier to keep 1,000 jobs at its Indianapolis, Ind. plant instead of moving them to Mexico. This is a major publicity score for Trump who had previously criticized Carrier and other manufacturers on the campaign trail. But putting pressure on individual businesses doesn't make for a winning long term strategy. Wonkblog's Jim Tankersley explains. (Daron Taylor/The Washington Post)
Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives. Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be reevaluating their stance this morning. And who would pay for the high cost for tax cuts that go to the richest businessmen in America? The working class of America.


Let’s be clear. United Technologies is not going broke. Last year, it made a profit of $7.6 billion and received more than $6 billion in defense contracts. It has also received more than $50 million from the Export-Import Bank and very generous tax breaks. In 2014, United Technologies gave its former chief executive Louis Chenevert a golden parachute worth more than $172 million. Last year, the company’s five highest-paid executives made more than $50 million. The firm also spent $12 billion to inflate its stock price instead of using that money to invest in new plants and workers.

Does that sound like a company that deserves more corporate welfare from our government? Trump’s Band-Aid solution is only making the problem of wealth inequality in America even worse.

I said I would work with Trump if he was serious about the promises he made to members of the working class. But after running a campaign pledging to be tough on corporate America, Trump has hypocritically decided to do the exact opposite. He wants to treat corporate irresponsibility with kid gloves. The problem with our rigged economy is not that our policies have been too tough on corporations; it’s that we haven’t been tough enough.

[Trump and the Carrier plant: Smart politics, unsustainable economics.]

Trump promises not to lose Carrier jobs to Mexico Play Video1:42

During a campaign rally in Indiana in July 2016, Donald Trump promised, "We're not going to lose Carrier air conditioning from Indianapolis...When people and countries take our companies and take our jobs, there's going to be consequences." (The Washington Post)
We need to re-instill an ethic of corporate patriotism. We need to send a very loud and clear message to corporate America: The era of outsourcing is over. Instead of offshoring jobs, the time has come for you to start bringing good-paying jobs back to America.

If United Technologies or any other company wants to keep outsourcing decent-paying American jobs, those companies must pay an outsourcing tax equal to the amount of money they expect to save by moving factories to Mexico or other low-wage countries. They should not receive federal contracts or other forms of corporate welfare. They must pay back all of the tax breaks and other corporate welfare they have received from the federal government. And they must not be allowed to reward their executives with stock options, bonuses or golden parachutes for outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries. I will soon be introducing the Outsourcing Prevention Act, which will address exactly that.

If Donald Trump won’t stand up for America’s working class, we must.

Read more:
Hillary Clinton lost. Bernie Sanders could have won.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How boycotts could help sway Trump
Bernie Sanders: Here’s what we want




http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/donald-trump-could-kill-the-american-union-1.12659850

OpEdOpinion

Donald Trump could kill the American union

THE BOTTOM LINE
◾Anyone who hopes for American greatness must also hope that labor has the strength and smarts to survive what’s coming in the Trump years.

Updated November 23, 2016 4:10 PM
By Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post

Photograph -- This Oct. 10, 2016 photo shows striking union members protesting outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City moments before it shut down. Figures released Tuesday Nov. 15, 2016 by New Jersey gambling regulators show the surviving seven casinos saw their casino revenue increase in October by nearly 6 percent compared with Oct. 2015. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Photo Credit: AP


As Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin — states that once were the stronghold of the nation’s industrial union movement — dropped into Donald Trump’s column on election night, one longtime union staff member told me that Trump’s victory was “an extinction-level event for American labor.”

He may be right.

A half-century ago, more than a third of those Rust Belt workers were unionized, and their unions had the clout to win them a decent wage, benefits and pensions. Their unions also had the power to turn out the vote. They did — for Democrats. White workers who belonged to unions voted Democratic at a rate 20 percent higher than their non-union counterparts, and there were enough such workers to make a difference on Election Day.

That’s not the case today. Nationally, about 7 percent of private-sector workers are union members, which gives unions a lot less bargaining power than they once had, and a lot fewer members to turn out to vote. The unions’ political operations certainly did what they could: An AFL-CIO-sponsored Election Day poll of union members showed 56 percent had voted for Hillary Clinton and 37 percent for Trump, while the TV networks’ exit poll showed that voters with a union member in their household went 51 percent to 43 percent for Clinton, as well. In states where unions have more racially diverse memberships, Clinton’s union vote was higher (she won 66 percent of the union household vote in California).

In states where union membership is predominantly white, Trump did better — actually winning the Ohio union household vote with 54 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 42 percent The very economic and social wreckage the unions had warned against when they had opposed NAFTA and permanent trade relations with China ended up diminishing their own numbers and that of Democratic voters, and helped spur Trump to victory.

Now, Trump, the Republican Congress and the soon-to-be Republican-dominated Supreme Court are poised to damage unions — and the interests of working people, both union and not — even more. Indeed, within the GOP, the war on unions engenders almost no dissent. Since Republicans were swept into office in a host of Midwestern states in the 2010 elections, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin have all effectively eliminated collective bargaining rights for public employees and subjected private-sector unions to “right-to-work” laws that enable workers to benefit from union contracts and representation without having to pay their union any dues. Previously, such laws were largely confined to Southern states, whose respect for worker rights has improved only somewhat since they were compelled to abolish slavery. As the GOP has become steadily whiter and more right-wing, those Southern norms have become national.

The advances that workers and their unions have made under the Obama presidency came chiefly as a result of executive orders and departmental regulations, which Trump can reverse with the stroke of a pen. Obama’s Labor Department rules that extended eligibility for overtime pay to millions of salaried employees making more than $22,000 a year, and that compelled federal contractors to offer paid sick leave to their employees, may well be struck down. National Labor Relations Board rulings that employers cannot indefinitely delay union representation elections once their employees have petitioned for a vote, and that university graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants are employees who can elect to unionize, will probably be undone.

Unlike their private-sector counterparts, who’ve seen their organizing drives stymied by employers able to violate the laws safeguarding workers without incurring significant penalties, public employee unions have largely retained their strength, still representing more than 30 percent of workers in the public sphere. The two national teachers unions, as well as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union each has well over a million members; their combined membership comes to a little more than half the total membership of American unions. These are also the most potent unions come election time, mobilizing not merely their own members but also waging major get-out-the-vote campaigns in minority communities.

Within the next 18 months, a court ruling in Friedrichs or a similar case will almost surely decree that members of these and other public employee unions can receive full benefits from union representation without having to pay their union so much as a dime. Such a ruling will present a huge challenge to these unions, although they’d already embarked, while Friedrichs was still before the court, on efforts to build closer ties with their members.

Go inside New York politics.

Although the unions’ future looks anything but bright, they will continue — at least, for a time — to wield considerable power in Democratic Party circles and wherever liberals govern. However much their treasuries are reduced, they still will have more resources than any other progressive organization. They will remain the linchpin of the liberal coalitions that govern in nearly every large American city, the key groups behind the campaigns that have seen cities and some states raise the minimum wage and mandate paid sick days.

Even among centrist Democrats previously indifferent to labor’s plight, increased awareness of the nation’s stratospheric economic inequality has also brought about a new appreciation of the need for strong unions — one reason why a range of Democratic think tanks have turned out study after study in recent years calling for laws making it easier to form unions.

This month’s election should also make those centrists realize the Democrats’ political need for unions, most of which remain the nation’s only multiracial mass organizations. A larger, more powerful movement, articulating labor’s core principle — Workers’ Lives Matter — might have kept the Democrats from backing such economically and politically disastrous policies as normalizing trade relations with China.

Polling shows that most Americans still think unions play a positive role in the nation’s economy. Support for unions is strongest among millennials, who, as the Bernie Sanders campaign made clear, are among the most vehement and clear-sighted critics of American capitalism.

But the growing appreciation by progressives, centrists and millennials of the indispensability of unions won’t deter an all-Republican government from seeking to destroy them; to the contrary, it will only encourage them to slash more deeply. Unions were already facing existential challenges from worker-replacing technology and the increasing number of nonstandard (temp, part-time, subcontracted, independent contractor and gig) jobs. That Republicans now have the power to further decimate them only makes their challenges more daunting. While struggling to maintain their power, unions must simultaneously seek to address changes in the broader economy by incubating new forms of worker representation in terrains — chiefly, cities — where they retain political support.

One thing is certain: If Trump’s victory does indeed become “an extinction-level event for the labor movement,” it would also extinguish any prospect that America could ever become “great again.” No country in history has ever achieved decent working-class living standards (and the social and political stability they engender) absent a vibrant labor movement. Anyone who hopes for American greatness must also hope that labor has the strength and smarts to survive what’s coming in the Trump years.

Meyerson, executive editor of The American Prospect, was a Washington Post op-ed columnist from 2003 through 2015.


It is my personal belief that the last thing our corporate and Billionaire classes want is a society of people who can defend themselves against their financial masters. Unions are one of the forces which broke Europe out of the Feudal system. Why would they want a literate and financially sound working class?



https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/12/01/kareem-abdul-jabbar-how-boycotts-could-help-sway-trump/?tid=a_inl&utm_term=.cef25e2dbfce

PostEverything
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How boycotts could help sway Trump
We all have a responsibility to stand up for our values.
By Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
December 1 at 6:00 AM

Photograph -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, is a former cultural ambassador for the United States and the author, most recently, of "Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White."
Play Video 3:02 -- Donald Trump's many potential conflicts of interest, explained
Photograph -- Donald Trump has a lot of potential conflicts of interest as president – but there's no law that specifically requires a commander in chief to remove themselves from all of their business interests. The Fix's Peter W. Stevenson explains why presidents usually put their assets in a "blind trust" to avoid problems. (Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)


The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States has given some Americans new hope. Not just alt-right racists who are openly shouting “Hail Trump” while still finding time to rack up increasing numbers of hate crimes, but also celebrity wannabes who realize that America no longer demands any significant standard of qualifications to run except a good PR rep. Celebs reportedly eyeing a presidential run include a babbling Kanye West and the uber-charming Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, People’s Sexiest Man of the Year.

That’s only one of the reasons that the “Give Trump a chance” philosophy is a bad one. We need to start actively re-establishing what our values are before they are slowly eroded, one bad choice at a time. By “actively,” I mean that we need to commit to an aggressive plan of peaceful actions as part of a new civil disobedience. And by “we,” I mean every supporter of the constitutional guarantees of equality, especially people of color, women, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, the LGBT community and anyone else who has been marginalized by this election.

Many leaders are calling for a hide-beneath-the-bed tactic. “I think the president has the right to choose his own people, and we should take a look-and-see approach,” said Jack Rosen, president of the American Jewish Congress. Black Entertainment Television founder and Hillary Clinton supporter Bob Johnson advised African Americans to give Trump “the benefit of the doubt.”

In the three weeks since the election, however, we have taken a look, and we have seen that our darkest doubts were justified. He has already proven to be exactly the unqualified, uninformed, ill-tempered, thin-skinned amateur that we all feared. Serious questions have already arisen about his foreign business interests, his settlement of the Trump University lawsuit (despite his proclamation that he never settles), his consideration of a ban on Muslim immigrants, his walking back on campaign promises, his blind trust issues and his involvement of his children in sensitive national interests. Most alarming is his selection of advisers. Far from the best and brightest he promised, some face serious accusations of racism. If we don’t apply the tourniquet now, our country’s constitutional values may bleed out before the next election.

[Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: What it means to be black during a Trump administration]

The list of Trump’s travesties since the election is too long to detail here. So I’ll focus on the selection of several of his advisers, including Cabinet members, since that’s the clearest indication of where he intends to steer the ship of state and why we must take action before he runs us aground. Former Pennsylvania representative Bob Walker, Trump’s space policy adviser, has suggested that climate research is “heavily politicized” and therefore that NASA stop conducting “politically correct environmental reporting.” The Trump administration plans to dismantle efforts to combat human-caused climate change despite scientific consensus on the question. Climate change has already had a serious impact, which experts warn will only get worse. Ignoring it might benefit some businesses in the short run, but in the long run will be disastrous for our country.

[Watch: Who is Betsy DeVos?]

Trump seems to have a penchant for billionaires as advisers. His choice of billionaire Betsy DeVos as education secretary heralds a future weakening of equal opportunity education for all. Like Trump, she inherited wealth — which does not disqualify her opinions, but it does suggest a lack of experience in understanding how most people affected by the policies she sets live. Her main cause is promoting vouchers that give people tax money to pay private school tuition, which she has been championing nationwide for years. Vouchers, which the National Education Association opposes, take money away from public education to promote religious schools, which make up nearly 80 percent of private schools. That’s a clear violation of the Constitution’s separation of church and state. But much worse, vouchers lessen the quality of education for the poor, by sending more students to private schools that choose their own curriculum with little oversight. The ideal outcome for some conservatives is to teach children their skewed vision of history, one that celebrates white male achievement as we’ve already seen in the inaccurate textbooks championed by Texas.

[Watch: Who is Wilbur Ross?]

Trump is expected to choose billionaire investor Wilbur “the king of bankruptcy” Ross as his commerce secretary. He also announced a team of 13 mostly millionaires and billionaires to form the core of his economic advisers. What’s startling — and telling — to outside experts is that the advisers are all men, there is only one academic economist, and that these people represent the very Wall Street insiders that Trump railed against during his campaign. One has the unnerving image of men in immaculately tailored suits sipping martinis from a penthouse suite while watching the workaday people far below scurrying to their jobs like ants.

Finally, the most toxic and symptomatic advisers, Stephen K. Bannon and Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). Sessions is Trump’s pick for U.S. attorney general, even though his nomination to the federal bench was torpedoed 30 years ago over accusations of racism. He’s also been accused of retaliating against two black officials whom he believed interfered with that nomination. Those two men accused him of referring to one of them as the n-word, while Sessions’s black deputy in the U.S. attorney’s office said Sessions called him “boy,” and warned him to be careful how he spoke to white people. He was also accused during those 1986 Senate hearings of calling the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People “un-American.”

Racism gets the companionship of misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia with the selection of Bannon as Trump’s chief political strategist in the White House. This is the man whom fellow conservative Glenn Beck referred to as a “nightmare” and who has been compared to Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s chief propagandist. Bannon’s “news” site, Breitbart.com, runs slanted reporting and provocative headlines that keep the dream of white male supremacy alive. A recent headline proclaimed, “Birth Control Makes Women Unattractive and Crazy,” and another, “There’s No Hiring Bias Against Women in Tech, They Just Suck at Interviews.” Bannon’s site’s campaign against trans people includes headlines like “World Health Organization Report: Trannies 49 Xs Higher HIV Rate” and “Big Trans Hate Machine Targets Pitching Great Curt Schilling.”

[The Breitbart alt-right just took over the GOP]

These people and their contra-constitutional views are a clear and present danger to America, and it is our responsibility to keep our country’s most sacred values intact. Placing them in positions of responsibility and power sends a message that the assault on “political correctness” is code for an assault on nonwhite, non-straight, non-male, non-Christians. It emboldens hate groups toward violence and justifies further marginalization of these people.

“Waiting and seeing” risks all that defines the United States as a land of freedom. In his 1963 “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. argued that it was a “tragic misconception of time” to believe that waiting to see will provide favorable results. “Human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability,” he said. It comes through “the tireless efforts” of people seeking social justice. “Now is the time to lift our national policy from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of human dignity.”

We need a new civil disobedience in the American tradition of Thomas Paine, Henry David Thoreau and King. Our efforts must be organized, focused and coordinated with each other. Any action should be undertaken only when a clearly stated goal is publicly announced. For example, a reasonable first goal would be blocking Bannon from his White House job due to Breitbart’s racism and misogyny. Or an announcement by Trump that there will be no Muslim ban, after all. Or that NASA will continue to be funded to do climate research.

One essential tool should always be legal challenges. Donate money to the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP and other organizations that are willing to fight corrupt laws in court, especially voter ID laws that have been imposed by Republicans to suppress voting by minority and poor constituents. The second step is to target the legislators who support any of Trump’s anti-Constitution policies by supporting their opponents in the 2018 elections. Eight Republican Senate seats will be open for Democrats or anti-Trump Republicans to take. All 435 House of Representative seats will be in play.

At the same time, we should begin laser-aimed boycotts. These should be undertaken only when there is reasonable hope of affecting those being boycotted. There are other groups calling for boycotts, even with a dedicated app, but they list way too many targets, from Amazon (whose CEO, Jeffrey P. Bezos, owns The Washington Post) to Bloomingdale’s. While their hearts are in the right place, having too many targets dilutes the effectiveness. Instead, we should focus on specific businesses — including everything with the name Trump on it, because the name Trump is now synonymous with racism, lying to the public, misogyny and xenophobia. And we need to boycott Bannon’s Breitbart. Boycott all the site’s advertisers — TrackR, Sixpack Shortcuts, etc. — until Bannon is removed as Trump’s adviser. Kellogg Co., Allstate, eyewear company Warby Parker and Bombas Socks have recently pulled their ads from Breitbart because of the site’s “values.” Target casino owner Sheldon Adelson, a major donator to Trump’s campaign and member of his inaugural committee; because of his enormous donations to Trump and other Republican candidates, he has more direct influence than other contributors. The Venetian resort complex in Las Vegas — which includes the Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, the Sands Expo Convention Center and the Palazzo Hotel and Casino Resort — is owned by Adelson. The resort complex is the best target, rather than Adelson’s other businesses, because it provides a large income and visitors to Las Vegas have many other choices where they can spend their money. People should refuse to stay there until a more suitable person than Sessions is proposed for attorney general.

That’s a start, but it’s not all we can do. We have to be prepared to go even further if necessary. During the early days of the civil rights movement, college students pushed for change by becoming Freedom Riders to ensure bus desegregation and register black voters. They were also a major force to end the Vietnam War. Now we need students to spearhead peaceful protests in Washington, D.C., and of local governments who follow the anti-American policies of a Trump administration. We also have to lend our financial, moral and physical support to Black Lives Matter as it continues to raise awareness of social inequities. Protests call attention to a problem and help educate those who may not be aware that there is a problem. This country has a long and effective history of boycotts, walkouts, marches and protests that have given power to those usually powerless.

Every time I hear someone say, “Let’s wait and see,” I bristle, because I’m reminded again of King’s writing from Birmingham. “For years now I have heard the word ‘Wait!’ It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This ‘Wait’ has almost always meant ‘Never.’ We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that ‘justice too long delayed is justice denied.’”

Yes, that was then — but now seems a lot like then. And we cannot let justice be denied by waiting. History has shown us over and over what horrors that leads to. We cannot, and will not, let that happen here.

[CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said that Bombas Socks had not pulled its advertisements from Breitbart.]

Read more by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar:
This is the difference between Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump
Here’s how Trump responded to my essay about him
Dear Trump supporters: Hear me out before you vote

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the NBA's all-time leading scorer, is a former cultural ambassador for the United States and the author, most recently, of "Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White." Follow @kaj33


http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/03/us/kareem-abdul-jabbar-fast-facts/

(CNN)Here is a look at the life of philanthropist, writer and NBA Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Personal:
Birth date: April 16, 1947
Birth place: New York, New York
Birth name: Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, Jr.
Father: Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor, transit police officer and jazz musician
Mother: Cora Alcindor, department store clerk
Marriage: Habiba Brown (May 28, 1971-1983, divorced)

Education: University of California, Los Angeles, B.A. in history, 1969
Other Facts:
Member of three UCLA Bruins national championship teams, 1967, 1968 and 1969.
Known for his "skyhook" shot, which he developed as a response to the NCAA ban on the dunk shot. It is a difficult shot to defend as the ball is released at the top of the arc.
After converting to Islam in 1971, he changed his name from Lew Alcindor Jr. to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. In Arabic, his name means a noble and powerful servant of Allah.

He has authored several biographical and cultural books and has appeared in numerous films and TV shows.
He studied under his friend, the late martial artist Bruce Lee, in the 1960s, and appeared with him in the film, "Game of Death," in 1978.

November 2009 - Reveals he was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a cancer of the blood, in December 2008.
2009 - Founds the Skyhook Foundation to support disadvantaged youth.
2011 - Co-writes and produces the basketball documentary, "On the Shoulders of Giants."
January 2012 - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announces Abdul-Jabbar as a global cultural ambassador.
April 16, 2015 - Undergoes quadruple coronary bypass surgery at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
November 3, 2015 - The documentary, "Kareem: Minority of One" debuts on HBO.
July 28, 2016 - Abdul-Jabbar speaks at the Democratic National Convention.
November 22, 2016 - President Barack Obama awards Abdul-Jabbar with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.


READER COMMENTS:

notfromthisplace
6:26 PM EST [Edited]
I was turned off by the first sentence and a half: I stopped there. I've had enough of hate speech.

sgeorg
5:37 PM EST
Very well put together. I said to some friends last year, "We need another MLK to lead a movement for economic, racial and political justice again", had no idea how prescient it would be.

dudeman
5:21 PM EST
Kareem, well stated. As citizens of this country we must accept (although difficult) and acknowledge that Trump is our president; HOWEVER, we must keep a very close eye on him and if/when he promotes initiatives that encourage economic inequalities, violate civil rights, or instigate warfare, we must immediately oppose him. Until then, let's be very vigilant.

Yokozuna
6:08 PM EST
As Kareem so eloquently stated, the time to simply be vigilant and wait is already over. Trump is already taking actions that can be clearly extrapolated to their inevitable economic and civil rights conclusions. It is therefore already necessary to actively challenge Trump's vectors while there is a chance of altering their trajectories. Your logic is good, but your timing is slower than it should be.

Tricia Kiley
5:12 PM EST
What an eloquent and inspiring article. Bravo.

Nancy Stella
4:42 PM EST
Yes!! Kareem, so well thought out. 1M women's March after inaug?

jonbeckmon
4:03 PM EST
You know Kareem in the old days People educated their children themselves. Why do we need public schools putting your beliefs in their heads not mine? I'm okay with Math Reading Writing, etc but I don't want them teaching my kids that the THEORY of Evolution is a fact and teaching my kids that there is no God or that Homosexuality is okay when it clearly is a violation of nature itself as Homosexuals can't reproduce. You live in your world but keep it away from my children. If I want to send my Children to a religious school or teach them myself I should have that option other than to be indoctrinated into your America that I want no part of. How about you move to a foreign country and leave the US jerk. You were my favorite Basketball player but bobosox is right stick to basketball because your politics suck.

Fred Garvin
4:37 PM EST
If you wish to exile your children to a religious school--which is in essence to render them ignorant, stupid, and incurious, just like you--that is your right.
As long as you pay for it yourself.

Dawn Wolfson
4:52 PM EST
Clearly a violation of nature? People are born that way, but it is a violation of nature? Illogical. Perhaps it is nature's way of controlling the population.

sgeorg
5:42 PM EST
Pathetic. I am a Christian religious believer, but not of the fundamentalist stripe. Fundies have always seemed to be inherently afraid of facing the real truth, perhaps because they feel their own beliefs weak in some way. So often they have ended up discrediting religious belief and trying to force their views on others. Think of Galileo and others. 1+1=2 and always will. Our reasoning, given by God, provides that. Don't buck our reason, you'll end up making God look untrue.

bobosox
3:32 PM EST
Stick with basketball Kareem. Becoming a community agitator* will detract from your persona.

dudeman
5:11 PM EST
So he can only be a former basketball player? He is not permitted to be involved in anything else? You may disagree with him, but he makes a very thoughtful and articulate impression.

Yokozuna
6:13 PM EST
On the contrary, I have come away with a newfound respect and admiration for this man through the coherent and eloquent style of his writing. Rather than inciting agitation, Kareem is advocating actions to blunt Trump's agitations that are already fomenting. This elevates his persona.

2:58 PM EST
Right on Kareem! Thoughtful and incredibly smart commentary.

Kurt Nygren
2:37 PM EST [Edited]
Mix it up on the streets--how smart is that?? More than one side can practice civil disobedience at the same time and place. And this is all before Trump is given a chance to govern, presuming him to be Hitler incarnate now. There are MUCH darker places this country can go within it's civic body. There are many independents, I would argue, who believe it is fair to give Trump something of a chance and don't automatically see Hitler here. They may be suspending judgement at this point, waiting to see how he actually governs. Many centrist voters may not share the darkest assumptions about Trump before he is in office. Progressives risk further marginalization should Trump actually perform with reasonable ability and sensibility.

Fred Garvin
4:42 PM EST
Abdul-Jabbar never compares Trump to Hitler. He does compare Steve Bannon to Josef Goebbels, which is far more apt.

You are engaging simultaneously in strawmanning, false citation, and confirmation of Godwin's Law--a sure sign of the mentally challenged.

akibono11
12:56 PM EST
This is one of the most thoughtful, articulate athletes of our time.

Vivar1559
12:32 PM EST
Excellent, thank you for a succinct summary of the vileness of this situation and the people involved. We indeed need protests in every way and form, and we need to make it felt economically...

gogolpost
12:09 PM EST
This story is anti-smart, and filled with hate and hypocrisy. I respect Kareem, but he's way off base here. This is a story on how not to think in this country. It's loaded with anger, resentment, bitterness, and misplaced pride. None of this advice will help anyone in this country. Way to support phking it up for everyone, Kareem. For a multiple times over NBA champion, your views show you're quite the loser, and sore loser, at best. No wonder few liked you as a teammate.

akibono11
12:57 PM EST
once we get to the "but" you know it is all about hate.

12:59 PM EST
You've said nothing of substance at all (which doesn't surprise me - Cheeto-itsts are not familiar with critical thinking). Can you rebut any of his assertions with facts? Is the description of Jeff Sessions' record incorrect? In what way? Did Bannon run those headlines or not? Speak substantively or not at all.

CJCasper
1:56 PM EST
You say he's off base and full of hate, but that's just your unsubstantiated opinion. If you want to make a point, tell us specifically where you disagree with him, and what he said that you find hateful, because maybe we don't see it.
If you can't substantiate your comments, then you're not just "anti-smart," - you're dumb!

(What does "anti-smart" mean, anyway - that you don't like smart people or smart ideas?)



The reader comments above are enlightening. Some bristle at Trump’s being compared to Hitler, but the similarities are obvious, especially the two or three video clips of his “followers,” shouting “Hail Trump” and giving a very similar arm salute to that of Hitler. Anyone of my age group is indeed “chilled” by that image. Remember those old WWII film clips of Hitler and his worshippers/audience? The first comment above calls Jabar’s comments “hate speech,” the one whose handle is gogolpost calls it “anti-smart” and goes on to be even more insulting, and what the heck are “Cheeto-itsts” anyway?? That isn’t even pronounceable.

I did look at the first paragraph of Jabar’s comments and there was no hate speech to be found there, just a warning which in my view is very well-placed. We need to take a close look at what is happening to the good old USA before Trump actually gets into office.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-sensitive-international-issue-taiwan-call/

Donald Trump jumps into sensitive international issue with Taiwan call
CBS NEWS
December 3, 2016, 7:32 AM

Play VIDEO -- Conway on "spirited" Harvard clash with Clinton aide, Carrier deal
Play VIDEO -- Philip Bump: Trump's phone call with Taiwan is a "break" for U.S.
Play VIDEO -- Trump, breaking with U.S. policy, speaks with Taiwan's leader
Play VIDEO -- New China concerns after Trump Taiwan call



In a major break with U.S. diplomatic policy, President-elect Donald Trump spoke to the leader of Taiwan on the phone Friday.

The call lasted just 10 minutes, but it could open a rift between China and the U.S. before Mr. Trump takes office.

Taiwan is self-ruled, but China claims the island nation as one of its provinces.

On Saturday, China’s foreign minister described this controversial call as a “little trick” by Taiwan, and the Chinese government has already contacted the Obama White House to file an official complaint, CBS News correspondent Errol Barnett reports.

Meanwhile, the president-elect and his transition team are on defense, deflecting criticism and experiencing the delicacy of diplomacy.

No U.S. president-elect has spoken with a Taiwanese head of state since diplomatic ties were severed in 1979 - until Friday.

Mr. Trump’s transition team said the two discussed “the close economic, political and security ties ... between Taiwan and the United States” and that President Tsai Ying-wen congratulated the president-elect on his victory.

After hearing critcisms, Mr. Trump tweeted:

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
The President of Taiwan CALLED ME today to wish me congratulations on winning the Presidency. Thank you!
7:44 PM - 2 Dec 2016

Pointing out inconsistencies in U.S. dealings with Taiwan, Mr. Trump continued:

Follow
Donald J. Trump ✔ @realDonaldTrump
Interesting how the U.S. sells Taiwan billions of dollars of military equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call.
8:41 PM - 2 Dec 2016

“I think that President-elect Trump may not be fully aware of all of the details of the history of our relations with Taiwan,” said Bonnie Glaser, an expert on U.S.-China relations.

Glaser said America’s unofficial relationship with Taiwan exists because of the 1972 “one China policy,” a U.S. agreement to accept the island nation of Taiwan as part of China’s territory and not a sovereign nation.

“The notion that the United States and an incoming president of the U.S. might be supporting a pro-independence agenda will be very, very worrisome to China, and it will cause some problems in the U.S.-China relationship potentially,” Glaser said.

Senior transition adviser Kellyanne Conway said Mr. Trump intentionally took the call.

“He either will disclose or not disclose the full contents of that conversation, but he’s well aware of what U.S. policy has been,” Conway said on CNN.

During the campaign, Mr. Trump accused China of waging economic war on the U.S. through currency manipulation.

“We can’t continue to allow China to rape our country, and that’s what they’re doing,” Mr. Trump said in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

But he also promised better relations with the communist government.

“I have a great relationship with China, made a lot of money dealing with China,” Mr. Trump said in Atkinson, New Hampshire. “China is terrific.”

Upon hearing of the call, the White House said there has been no change of its long-standing policy on cross-strait issues, and it was firmly committed to the “one China” policy.



I would be surprised if the US were to attack China militarily unless we were attacked. There have been some stresses recently due to our support of South Korea, and disputes over China’s “creating” islands in the South China Sea. In at least one case, China did put a military base there. They have also been aggressive to our naval ships several times. The relationship is rocky at best. The greatest threat to us may be the amount of money we owe them. All in all, I don’t feel happy.


PLEASE CONSIDER SIGNING THIS PETITION. REMEMBER THAT THE TRIP TO THE MOON WAS A LONG SHOT, BUT WE DID THAT ALREADY. IT’S POSSIBLE.

https://www.change.org/p/electoral-college-make-hillary-clinton-president-on-december-19-4a78160a-023c-4ff0-9069-53cee2a095a8?utm_source=taboola&utm_medium=content&utm_campaign=taboola_electoral

Electoral College: Make Hillary Clinton President.
Daniel Brezenoff CA

Tell the Electors: Vote Your Conscience

Donald Trump has not been elected president. The real election takes place December 19, when the 538 Electors cast their ballots – for anyone they want.

We are calling on “Conscientious Electors” to protect the Constitution from Donald Trump, and to support the national popular vote winner.

More than 4.6 million Americans support this grassroots effort.

Please visit electoralcollegepetition.com to join this movement.

This petition will be delivered to:
Electoral College Electors

TEXT OF THE LETTER:

Letter to Electoral College Electors
Electoral College make Hillary Clinton president on December 19.

The Founders created the Electoral College to balance two important values: the will of the people, and the need for a President who is fit for office.

Denying Mr. Trump the Presidency accomplishes both goals while violating no Constitutional principle.

In Federalist No. 68, Hamilton explains that the "sense of the people", must be expressed in the outcome. But, "Men most capable of analyzing the qualities adapted to the station and acting under circumstances favorable to deliberation, and to a judicious combination of all the reasons and inducements which were proper to govern their choice," should make the final decision.

Hamilton pointed out that, "Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single State; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole Union, or of so considerable a portion of it as would be necessary to make him a successful candidate for the distinguished office of President of the United States".

Casting your ballot for Hillary preserves majority rule - the "sense of the people" - and prevents the most unqualified candidate in history from taking office. Never in our Republic's 240 years has our President had no previous experience in an office of public trust, be it elected or appointed, civilian or military. Never has a President admitted to sexual assaults. Never has a President encouraged violence at campaign events.

There is no reason electors cannot vote with their conscience. They are not taking away the majority vote, and are not violating the Constitution.

Please protect our Constitution and our Republic by casting your ballot for Hillary Clinton.



http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/donald-trump-could-kill-the-american-union-1.12659850

OpEdOpinion

Donald Trump could kill the American union

Updated November 23, 2016 4:10 PM
By Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post

Photograph -- This Oct. 10, 2016 photo shows striking union members protesting outside the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City moments before it shut down. Figures released Tuesday Nov. 15, 2016 by New Jersey gambling regulators show the surviving seven casinos saw their casino revenue increase in October by nearly 6 percent compared with Oct. 2015. (AP Photo/Wayne Parry) Photo Credit: AP

THE BOTTOM LINE
◾Anyone who hopes for American greatness must also hope that labor has the strength and smarts to survive what’s coming in the Trump years.

As Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin — states that once were the stronghold of the nation’s industrial union movement — dropped into Donald Trump’s column on election night, one longtime union staff member told me that Trump’s victory was “an extinction-level event for American labor.”

He may be right.

A half-century ago, more than a third of those Rust Belt workers were unionized, and their unions had the clout to win them a decent wage, benefits and pensions. Their unions also had the power to turn out the vote. They did — for Democrats. White workers who belonged to unions voted Democratic at a rate 20 percent higher than their non-union counterparts, and there were enough such workers to make a difference on Election Day.
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That’s not the case today. Nationally, about 7 percent of private-sector workers are union members, which gives unions a lot less bargaining power than they once had, and a lot fewer members to turn out to vote. The unions’ political operations certainly did what they could: An AFL-CIO-sponsored Election Day poll of union members showed 56 percent had voted for Hillary Clinton and 37 percent for Trump, while the TV networks’ exit poll showed that voters with a union member in their household went 51 percent to 43 percent for Clinton, as well. In states where unions have more racially diverse memberships, Clinton’s union vote was higher (she won 66 percent of the union household vote in California).

In states where union membership is predominantly white, Trump did better — actually winning the Ohio union household vote with 54 percent of the vote to Clinton’s 42 percent The very economic and social wreckage the unions had warned against when they had opposed NAFTA and permanent trade relations with China ended up diminishing their own numbers and that of Democratic voters, and helped spur Trump to victory.

Now, Trump, the Republican Congress and the soon-to-be Republican-dominated Supreme Court are poised to damage unions — and the interests of working people, both union and not — even more. Indeed, within the GOP, the war on unions engenders almost no dissent. Since Republicans were swept into office in a host of Midwestern states in the 2010 elections, Indiana, Michigan and Wisconsin have all effectively eliminated collective bargaining rights for public employees and subjected private-sector unions to “right-to-work” laws that enable workers to benefit from union contracts and representation without having to pay their union any dues. Previously, such laws were largely confined to Southern states, whose respect for worker rights has improved only somewhat since they were compelled to abolish slavery. As the GOP has become steadily whiter and more right-wing, those Southern norms have become national.

The advances that workers and their unions have made under the Obama presidency came chiefly as a result of executive orders and departmental regulations, which Trump can reverse with the stroke of a pen. Obama’s Labor Department rules that extended eligibility for overtime pay to millions of salaried employees making more than $22,000 a year, and that compelled federal contractors to offer paid sick leave to their employees, may well be struck down. National Labor Relations Board rulings that employers cannot indefinitely delay union representation elections once their employees have petitioned for a vote, and that university graduate students who work as teaching and research assistants are employees who can elect to unionize, will probably be undone.

Unlike their private-sector counterparts, who’ve seen their organizing drives stymied by employers able to violate the laws safeguarding workers without incurring significant penalties, public employee unions have largely retained their strength, still representing more than 30 percent of workers in the public sphere. The two national teachers unions, as well as the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and the Service Employees International Union each has well over a million members; their combined membership comes to a little more than half the total membership of American unions. These are also the most potent unions come election time, mobilizing not merely their own members but also waging major get-out-the-vote campaigns in minority communities.

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Within the next 18 months, a court ruling in Friedrichs or a similar case will almost surely decree that members of these and other public employee unions can receive full benefits from union representation without having to pay their union so much as a dime. Such a ruling will present a huge challenge to these unions, although they’d already embarked, while Friedrichs was still before the court, on efforts to build closer ties with their members.

Although the unions’ future looks anything but bright, they will continue — at least, for a time — to wield considerable power in Democratic Party circles and wherever liberals govern. However much their treasuries are reduced, they still will have more resources than any other progressive organization. They will remain the linchpin of the liberal coalitions that govern in nearly every large American city, the key groups behind the campaigns that have seen cities and some states raise the minimum wage and mandate paid sick days.

Even among centrist Democrats previously indifferent to labor’s plight, increased awareness of the nation’s stratospheric economic inequality has also brought about a new appreciation of the need for strong unions — one reason why a range of Democratic think tanks have turned out study after study in recent years calling for laws making it easier to form unions.

This month’s election should also make those centrists realize the Democrats’ political need for unions, most of which remain the nation’s only multiracial mass organizations. A larger, more powerful movement, articulating labor’s core principle — Workers’ Lives Matter — might have kept the Democrats from backing such economically and politically disastrous policies as normalizing trade relations with China.

Polling shows that most Americans still think unions play a positive role in the nation’s economy. Support for unions is strongest among millennials, who, as the Bernie Sanders campaign made clear, are among the most vehement and clear-sighted critics of American capitalism.

But the growing appreciation by progressives, centrists and millennials of the indispensability of unions won’t deter an all-Republican government from seeking to destroy them; to the contrary, it will only encourage them to slash more deeply. Unions were already facing existential challenges from worker-replacing technology and the increasing number of nonstandard (temp, part-time, subcontracted, independent contractor and gig) jobs. That Republicans now have the power to further decimate them only makes their challenges more daunting. While struggling to maintain their power, unions must simultaneously seek to address changes in the broader economy by incubating new forms of worker representation in terrains — chiefly, cities — where they retain political support.

One thing is certain: If Trump’s victory does indeed become “an extinction-level event for the labor movement,” it would also extinguish any prospect that America could ever become “great again.” No country in history has ever achieved decent working-class living standards (and the social and political stability they engender) absent a vibrant labor movement. Anyone who hopes for American greatness must also hope that labor has the strength and smarts to survive what’s coming in the Trump years.

Meyerson, executive editor of The American Prospect, was a Washington Post op-ed columnist from 2003 through 2015.


Trump wants to make us great like North Korea is great -- powerful but totally corrupt. There have been too few achievements on the part of the humbler classes of people, and the labor unions are one of those. I hope and pray that the petition to the Electoral College that they cast their votes for Clinton will produce a noticeable positive result.


A NUMBER OF CHINESE MALE PROFESSORS AND GRAD STUDENTS KILLED AT USC

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/usc-stabbing-kills-psychology-professor-student-arrested/

USC stabbing kills psychology professor; student arrested
CBS/AP
December 3, 2016, 9:33 AM

Photograph -- USC professor Bosco Tjan is seen in a photo the school provided to CBS Los Angeles. USC


LOS ANGELES -- Police have identified the student they believe responsible for stabbing a professor to death at the University of Southern California.

Los Angeles Police say 28-year-old David Jonathan Brown of Los Angeles was booked on a charge of murder in the death of Professor Bosco Tjan, a psychology professor and neuroscientist. Brown, who was arrested shortly after the stabbing, is being held on $1 million bail.

Though details of the motive weren’t released, Los Angeles Police Officer Meghan Aguilar says Tjan was specifically targeted and that the attack wasn’t random.

A David Brown is listed as a graduate student in psychology on USC’s website. Tjan oversaw graduate students in the department, and was killed in the building that houses the lab he ran.

Los Angeles Police Officer Meghan Aguilar said Tjan was killed inside the Seeley G. Mudd building in the heart of campus. Aguilar could not say who called police but said it wasn’t the professor or the student.

USC President C. L. Max Nikias identified the professor killed as Bosco Tjan in a letter addressed to the USC community.

The victim’s age was originally reported as 25. Later, police said they could not immediately confirm the man’s age, CBS Los Angeles reports. Public records list Tjan’s age as 50.

Tjan joined USC in 2001, taught in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and served as co-director of the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, Nikias said.

“As the Trojan family mourns Professor Tjan’s untimely passing, we will keep his family in our thoughts,” Nikias said.

The USC Department of Public Safety said in a statement that investigators believe the attack “was the result of a personal dispute.”

Chris Purington, project manager at Tjan’s lab, said he never heard of anyone having a problem with Tjan - a married father of one son - and had no idea who would have wanted him dead.

“He was somebody who really cared about people. I know he cared about me,” Purington said through tears. “He mentored people and he looked out for them. He spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to be a mentor and guide people.”

He said the professor gave him a job both after he graduated from USC and after graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley.

Purington traveled with Tjan for various science conferences and said that everyone knew and loved the professor.

“People talk about scientists as very cold or robotic. Bosco is a guy that he could talk to anybody about anything,” he said. “He couldn’t move through a room without being sidetracked in all these conversations.

“He just had this energy about him. Kinetic might be the word,” Purington said. “He had a huge impact on my life.”

USC was rocked last year by the beating death of graduate student Xinran Ji, who was attacked and beaten by several people as he walked back to his off-campus apartment late at night after attending a study session.

After Ji’s murder USC officials sought to reassure parents of Chinese exchange students that the campus and its surrounding areas are safe.

In 2012, Chinese graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu were shot to death as they sat in their BMW about a mile from campus.

USC has 44,000 students enrolled, including more than 10,000 international students. A highly competitive school, it enrolled only about 16 percent of the more than 54,000 people who applied for its freshman class this year.



The police may think these are unrelated killings, but the fact that they are all Chinese makes that seem unlikely to me. It looks racial. Some people in the US don’t like ANYBODY else, not just Black and Hispanic people.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-clinton-campaign-feud-kellyanne-conway-jennifer-palmieri/

Inside the Trump-Clinton campaign staffers clash
By NANCY CORDES CBS NEWS
December 2, 2016, 7:08 PM

Play VIDEO -- Conway on "spirited" Harvard clash with Clinton aide, Carrier deal
conwayfeud.png
Photograph -- Kellyanne Conway. CBS NEWS
Photograph -- jenniferpalmieri.png CBS NEWS


The presidential campaign that most folks were glad to see end suddenly re-erupted last night at a post-election forum at the Kennedy School of Government, at Harvard.

“I would rather lose than win the way you guys did,” said Clinton campaign communications director Jennifer Palmieri.

“No you wouldn’t,” said Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway.

“Yes,” Palmieri said.

“No you wouldn’t,” said Conway.

“Yes. Yes,” Palmieri said.

“That’s very clear today, no, you wouldn’t respectfully,” said Conway.

Sixteen months of tension boiled over Thursday in a conference room at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

Palmieri argued there were some stains on the Trump team’s victory.

“If providing a platform for white supremacists makes me a brilliant strat – a brilliant tactician, I am glad to have lost,” Palmieri said.

Conway was sitting right across from her.

“Do you think I ran a campaign where white supremacists had a platform?” Conway said. “Are you going to look me in the face and tell me that?”

“You did, Kellyanne. You did!” Palmieri responded.

“Oh, and that’s how you lost -- How about, it’s Hillary Clinton? She doesn’t connect with people,” Conway said. “How about they have nothing in common with her? How about you had no economic message?”

Clinton media strategist Mandy Grunwald had this backhanded compliment for team Trump: “I don’t think you give yourself enough credit for the negative campaign you ran,” Grunwald said.

Trump aides, she argued, had flooded the web with fake stories about Clinton.

“Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, she’s you know, just got days to live,” Grunwald said. “She’s going to jail, she’s going to jail any minute now... There was a very impressive gassing of her.”

Conway shrugged off the criticism on “CBS This Morning.”

“Obviously some of these feelings are still raw. I think most people, many people were not prepared for Donald Trump to become the next president of the United States,” Conway said.

This panel was meant to serve as a first draft of campaign history. Apparently history will show that both sides were still nursing some serious grievances three weeks after Election Day.



In more ways than just 8 or 10, I do wish Hillary had included Sanders on the ticket as Vice Presidential candidate. She was much too certain that she had it all wrapped up. Self-confidence is a good thing only up to a certain point. Keeping our eyes open can be worth more.