HMM: Gary Johnson helped Hillary. Not by enough, but he did. “Gary Johnson’s candidacy helped Hillary; Democrats’ efforts to delegitimize Johnson hurt Hillary; and on Election Day, if Gary Johnson hadn’t been in the race, Trump would have won by more.”

WHO COULD HAVE SEEN THIS COMING? I’ve Got a Pen and I’ve Got a Phone’: Obama’s Executive Overreach Becomes Trump’s Executive Overreach.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Be Smart. Don’t Even Make Jokes About Killing The President-Elect.

Particularly if you’re the CEO of the IT security company PacketSled, who lost it – bigly, and then some – “on a Trump supporter sub-Reddit over the weekend,” as Andrea Ruth writes at RedState.

UPDATE: PacketSled Puts CEO on Administrative Leave After He Threatens to Take Out Trump with a Sniper Rifle.

THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY: “For months, the only thing that’s surprised me about Donald Trump is my friends’ astonishment at his success. What’s driving it is the class culture gap.”

GOOD IDEA. THEN TRUMP CAN PICK HIS OWN FBI DIRECTOR. Jerry Nadler to Obama: Fire Comey. I mean, do people even think these things through at all?

THIS IS PROBABLY A BAD IDEA, BUT IT WOULD BE A DELICIOUSLY FUN BAD IDEA: Milo Yiannopoulos as Trump’s Press Secretary? And, hey, Milo’s actually quite good in his BBC back-and-forths. He can play it serious when he wants. Plus, after all the “Trump’s going to deport all teh LGBTs” stuff I’m seeing from lefties on Facebook, it would be extra funny.

BETTER LATE THAN NEVER; BUZZFEED GOES INSIDE THE ANTI-TRUMP PROTEST MOVEMENT:

Along with the anarchists, core organizers of the protests have included the ANSWER Coalition, a group with roots that trace back to supporting the Soviet invasion of Hungary in the 1950s, and the Socialist Alternative, a Trotskyist group on the other side of those forgotten Communist civil wars. Those groups’ organizing muscle has long made them important, if controversial, elements of the US left (they were central to protests against the Iraq War in 2003), and they now find themselves marching with Bernie Sanders supporters, civil rights advocates, and thousands of Democrats shocked at Trump’s election.

As famed law enforcement official John McClane would say, welcome to the party, fellas. I pointed that out back in April after seeing AP photos of anti-Trump protestors outside of the Hyatt Regency Hotel near SFO hosting the California Republican Party Convention with Spanish language banners and the URL ANSWERcoalition.com on them.

PROFESSOR BAINBRIDGE:

There’s an open letter to the Daily Bruin being circulated among UCLA faculty about how the faculty is united to defend our students of color, LGTBQ, etc…. And how UCLA is a safe space for them.

There is no mention of the increasingly violent riots–yes, riots. There is no mention of numerous trumped up (pun intended) false claims being made. There is no acknowledgement that not everybody at UCLA voted for Hillary. There is no acknowledgement that such a letter might alienate conservative faculty and students, making the former wonder about whether UCLA is a safe place for them to work and the latter whether it is a safe place to go to school.

Do you think a similar letter would have circulated to reassure our conservative students if Hillary had won? Do you think faculty would be united to offer those students a safe space?

No? Me neither.

“Inclusiveness” only goes in one direction. Like tolerance, they demand it, they don’t offer it.

Related: Freakout at UMass Lowell.

UPDATE: Not all universities are crazy. From a reader:

Here is the text of the letter President Taylor Reveley sent to the students of William and Mary.

Dear William & Mary Community,

In 1800 John Adams and Thomas Jefferson competed for the presidency in a very close and savage campaign. The contending political parties were convinced that the success of the other would destroy our fledgling Republic. But the Republic has proved remarkably resilient. I have great personal confidence in the future of the United States and in its capacity to keep growing as an open and welcoming society.

There is no doubt that the recent campaign was enormously divisive and dispiriting. Emotions on our campus now run high, ranging from fear and despair at one end of the continuum to excitement and satisfaction at the other. It is important that we talk with one another about what we think and feel, but it is vital that we do so with respect and concern for one another. That is the William & Mary way.

I take heart from the gracious tone and substance with which the two former candidates and President Obama have spoken to us in the wake of the election. The President was particularly eloquent. He captured the core reality when he noted that, when all is said and done, presidential elections are simply intramural competitions, because we are all ultimately on the same team.

Students, many of you voted in your first presidential election. Some from our campus campaigned or served at polling stations. It matters that we stay engaged. The civic health of our communities, states and nation requires it. Each of us needs to seek common ground for the common good.

Taylor Reveley

That’s exactly the right response.

WOW, THIS HAS GOT TO REALLY WORRY THE DEMOCRATS: Trump transition team begins minority outreach with “new deal for Black America.”

KEN KURSON: Rudy Giuliani Crushes Pre-Election Chatter about His Alleged Demise: Former Mayor’s big gamble on Trump reveals still-sharp political instincts.

MY USA TODAY COLUMN: “Tolerant” educators exile Trump voters from campus.

TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 1285: After Six Year Delay And One Court Order, IRS Denies Two Of Three Tea Party Applications For Tax-Exempt Status.

GOOD! Riyadh Is Reeling From Bargain Oil Prices.

When you live by the price of crude, it follows that you also die by it. That’s what the oil-soaked kingdom of Saudi Arabia is experiencing, and a new report from Wood Mackenzie shows that of all of the Middle East’s petrostates, it’s the Saudis that are suffering the most as a result of the collapse in crude prices over the past 29 months.

According to this new report, the Saudis fiscal deficit is now equivalent to a whopping 20 percent of the country’s GDP, and goes on to show that if Riyadh wants to balance its budget this year, it would need oil prices to hit $92 per barrel.

Barring some major supply disruption, that’s not going to happen. Oil prices are currently trading at exactly half of the reported Saudi breakeven price, and even the most optimistic readings of the effects of a potential OPEC production cut later this month only predict prices rebounding to somewhere in the range of $65. And let’s not forget that if and when that happens, hungry American shale companies will be pouncing on the opportunity to ramp up their own output, necessarily denting the impact of OPEC’s cuts.

Related: Why OPEC Fears Donald Trump.

I REMEMBER WHEN IT WAS ALWAYS WRONG TO ATTACK WOMEN: Lena Dunham Attacks ‘Self-Hating White Women With Violent Privilege’ Who Voted For Trump.

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MY USA TODAY COLUMN: “Tolerant” educators exile Trump voters from campus.

In an email to students, the University of Michigan’s President, Mark Schlissel, wrote: “Our responsibility is to remain committed to education, discovery and intellectual honesty — and to diversity, equity and inclusion. We are at our best when we come together to engage respectfully across our ideological differences; to support ALL who feel marginalized, threatened or unwelcome; and to pursue knowledge and understanding.”

But when you treat an election in which the “wrong” candidate wins as a traumatic event on a par with the 9/11 attacks, calling for counseling and safe spaces, you’re implicitly saying that everyone who supported that “wrong” candidate is, well, unsafe. Despite the talk about diversity and inclusion, this is really sending the signal that people who supported Trump — and Trump carried the state of Michigan, so there are probably quite a few on campus — aren’t really included in acceptable campus culture. It’s not promoting diversity, it’s enforcing uniformity. It’s not promoting inclusion, it’s practicing exclusion. And, though it pretends to be about nurturing, it’s actually about being mean to those who don’t fall in the nurtured class. Schlissel says he wants the University of Michigan to be “a welcoming place for all members of society,” but how welcome can students who backed Trump feel in the wake of this performance?

Not very.

THE HILLARY CAMPAIGN IN ONE SENTENCE: “One source said a staffer in Brooklyn was dedicated to rural outreach.”

PORTLAND RIOTERS TO MEDIA: “DON’T SNITCH, EVER. . . . STOP FILMING. CONSIDER THIS A WARNING.”

SO, BASICALLY SID BLUMENTHAL IS HILLARY’S GOLLUM: Sidney Blumenthal, Birtherism, and the Law of Unintended Consequences. “The same mainstream media that slammed Trump for his birther obsession has long failed to properly mention its origins in the ‘dark op’” wing of the 2008 Hillary campaign.”

ROGER SIMON: Donald Trump Will Prove to Be One of the Greatest and Most Consequential Presidents.

Donald Trump will prove to be one of the greatest and most consequential American presidents, at least since Ronald Reagan and possibly before. No one will ever approach Washington or Lincoln, but Trump is positioned to be one of our most important leaders and be a true change-maker, turning this country around at a time when American power and greatness were on the wane.

Although I had previously suspected as much, I was convinced of this watching his performance on 60 Minutes Sunday. What we saw was Trump in the presidential mode he has long promised and he slipped into it remarkably easily, as if it had always been there and needed no coaxing.

Roger’s been saying this for a while, and he was also saying Trump could win when hardly anyone else was.

HARRY REID INITIATED THE NUCLEAR EXCHANGE. NOW COMES THE SECOND STRIKE: Jed Babbin: Nuke ’Em: Priming the Senate for Necessary Action.

KELLYANNE CONWAY: Clinton, Obama Need To Calm Down Anti-Trump Protesters.

Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager, said it is incumbent upon Hillary Clinton, President Obama and other Democratic leaders to calm their supporters and encourage a peaceful transition of power amid anti-Trump demonstrations that have swept U.S. cities since Election Day.

Trump is “there for them. And he is going to be a president that listens and takes the counsel of many different people, including those from the other side of the aisle,” Conway told Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday. ” . . . It’s time really for President Obama and Secretary Clinton to say to these protesters, ‘This man is our president.’” . . .

Speaking to host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday,” Conway also suggested that professional, paid protesters were behind the anti-Trump demonstrations across the country.

I’m sure that’s true, given the history of Jan Schakowsky’s (D-IL) husband Robert Creamer’s work inciting violence at Trump rallies while he was working for Hillary’s campaign.

Note that Creamer visited the Obama White House 342 times.

UPDATE: Posted in the comments: Anti-Trump Protests: Proof Of Professional Activist Involvement.

Once again, WikiLeaks comes through, with background on spontaneous protester Yong Jung Cho, who shows up in Podesta emails as “350 Action Campaign Coordinator.” Plus:

So USA Today’s first person from “all walks of life” is an organizer who has experience on the activist circuit, and in that capacity she worked on the presidential primary. Not exactly the “spontaneous concern” presented by the newspaper.

How about another source, someone that USA Today introduces by more than just a name? Here’s Phil Roeder, a public school official with no disclosed interest except the welfare of his students. . . .

So: Phil Roeder, concerned public servant without a partisan agenda, or veteran Democratic activist? Once again, WikiLeaks can shed some light on that question. In the same 2014 email from the Podesta collection, we find that many of the activists in the Iowa organization had private meetings with Obama and Clinton, and that Phil Roeder was prominent in the group. It is not surprising that he would want to be quoted in an anti-Trump piece after Clinton’s defeat, but it would be surprising for an honest newspaper to fail to disclose that connection to the readers. . . . If the demonstrations aren’t premeditated, then why are all these average citizens actually well-connected activists and protest organizers?

Read the whole thing. None of it will come as a deep surprise, but I expect that we’ll see more pushback this time around. (Bumped).

MORE: The Clintons And Soros Launch America’s Purple Revolution. Well, possibly.

THEY DECIDED HE WAS A LIABILITY AND SHUNTED HIM TO THE SIDE, BUT Bill Clinton Was The Only One In Hillary’s Campaign Who Understood This Election.

For Hillary Clinton’s chief strategists, the unique challenge of addressing working-class and white rural frustrations while cheerleading the Obama economy proved too difficult a riddle, and they chose in the end to focus their efforts elsewhere, much to Bill Clinton’s reported protestation.

The former president saw early during the Democratic primary that his wife had a real problem connecting with these voters, many of whom overwhelmingly preferred Sanders’ message on jobs and trade.

Bill Clinton reportedly warned the campaign that they needed to address the issue immediately, but “his advice fell on deaf ears.”

What’s funny is, Hillary’s probably the only Democrat who would have ignored pointed election advice from Bill. And, of course, Trump’s counterpunching on the women’s issues by talking about Bill made it much harder for Bill to play a big role in Hillary’s campaign, which helped Trump a lot because Bill’s a much better politician than Hillary.

Plus: “Hillary Clinton’s 36-year-old campaign manager, Robby Mook, dismissed the advice of the 70-year-old former president as the ravings of an aged athlete desperate to regain his former glory, and insisted instead that young, Latino and black voters were the key to winning 2016.”

This sounds a lot like the way Al Gore’s campaign ignored Ned Ray McWherter, and threw away the 2000 election. He’s an old white guy, what can he know about politics?

AND SO DO I: Harry Reid Endorses Keith Ellison For DNC Chair. I can’t think of a better choice to lead the Democratic Party, and serve as its public face.