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November 2016

Two students from Babson College have been expelled from their fraternity for driving a truck with a Trump flag in the back through the campus of Wellesley College. Babson and Wellesley College are both located in Wellesley, MA. Hillary Clinton is also a Wellesley graduate. The Boston Globe reported:
Frat ousts two Babson students who drove through Wellesley campus waving Trump flag The two men who drove through Wellesley College in a pickup truck Wednesday while waving a Donald Trump flag are students at nearby Babson College, and some witnesses felt their words and actions were “racially offensive and gender demeaning,” Babson officials said Thursday.

The anti-Trump riots in Portland were vicious. KGW8 has numerous videos of the rioting. This poor woman, who apparently was pregnant, was attacked in her car by the mob. (Original video at KGW8) Rioters trashed everything in sight, but backed off when a man stood in front of his apartment building holding a gun, as he shouted they were calling 911.

Mary Chastain reviewed the impressive list of candidates for Donald Trump's cabinet released by Buzzfeed, featuring well-known politicos such as Rudy Guiliani, Newt Gingrich, and Chris Christie, Ben Carson, and Sarah Palin. However, via Don Surber, comes proof that Trump intends to dramatically change the political climate with his appointments by naming someone with a bit less notoriety to a fairly significant position.
Trump picked Myron Ebell, director of the Center for Energy and Environment at the conservative Competitive Enterprise Institute, to head his transition team at the EPA.

Lots of people are having trouble adjusting to the fact that Donald Trump won the election and CNN commentator Van Jones is surely one of them. On election night he went off on a tirade about how Trump's election was a "whitelash." Politico reported:
Van Jones: Trump vote is a 'white-lash' CNN commentator Van Jones said racial tensions, including the race of the current president, caused a “white-lash” that helped drive Donald Trump’s Rust Belt victories.

The lesson Democrats are learning from the evisceration of the Democratic Party at the state level, the continuing loss of control of Congress, and the defeat in the presidential election is not that Democrats need to move back to the center. No, it's that Democrats need to move not just further to the left, but to the fringe left. Several top Democrats, including Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Chuck Schumer, are backing Keith Ellison, Democratic Congressman from Minnesota, as the next DNC Chair. Daily Kos reports:

Every year I share this speech from President Reagan. I struggle to find another one available that honors those who've served our great nation any better. In 1985, President Reagan gave his Veteran's Day Address at Arlington National Cemetery. With the Cold War a fresh threat, Reagan emphasized the importance of peace while insisting, "strength is a declaration that cannot be misunderstood. Strength is a condition that declares actions have consequences. Strength is a prudent warning to the belligerent that aggression need not go unanswered." There is never enough we can do for our veterans who willingly sacrifice so much. Their selflessness was not neglected by Reagan who told this story:
Sometime back I received in the name of our country the bodies of four marines who had died while on active duty. I said then that there is a special sadness that accompanies the death of a serviceman, for we're never quite good enough to them-not really; we can't be, because what they gave us is beyond our powers to repay. And so, when a serviceman dies, it's a tear in the fabric, a break in the whole, and all we can do is remember.
This Veteran's Day, we humbly offer our utmost gratitude to all who have fought to preserve the greatest country man has ever devised. While words hardly seem sufficient, we can offer this: we remember.

Rachel Maddow has wondered out loud whether President-elect Trump might be under the influence of Russia. On her MSNBC show this evening, Maddow suggested that Trump might betray the most sensitive intelligence to the Russians—including the identity of US spies. She questioned whether US intelligence agencies should provide Trump with such information.

For most people, both Donald Trump's campaign and success came out of nowhere. But not for Anne Sorock of The Frontier Lab. Anne started writing for Legal Insurrection in April 2012 and was a regular contributor for many years. Over time Anne focused more and more of her time at The Frontier Lab, and now writes for us only sporadically. We have featured Anne's research at The Frontier Lab many times. Anne uses the Deep Values methodology she learned while interacting with the Food & Brand Lab at Cornell University while getting her MBA. Deep values research seeks to understand not just what consumers like or want, but what deeply held values lead to such decisions.

This is a tough time to be a progressive. There is a widespread mental breakdown in nests of radicalism, like Ithaca. I take no pleasure in that. Seriously. Come on you guys, seriously, no joy whatsoever. I'm not like John Ekdahl. https://twitter.com/JohnEkdahl/status/796860473945812997

After his meeting with President Barack Obama, President-elect Donald Trump drove down to Capitol Hill to meet with Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell:
"I think we’re going to do some absolutely spectacular things for the American people," Trump said, sitting next to Ryan at a conference table in the Capitol. "We can’t get started fast enough." After meeting with McConnell, Trump said his top priorities were immigration and border security, addressing health care and "big-league jobs."

Donald Trump's win for the presidency has caused more than 100,000 people to sign up for Obamacare. Republicans have stated they want to appeal the law if they win the White House. It is the largest number of enrollees since the open enrollment started on November 1:
The new enrollment figure, released by HHS this afternoon, represents the number of people who submitted an application and chose a health insurance plan on the exchanges.