"Rep. Nancy Pelosi won re-election as House Minority Leader last week, warding off an effort to change the party's direction. This is an odd choice for a party that has just suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of voters and has no foothold on much of the country.

"Pelosi comes from San Francisco, where wealthy liberals use big-government rules to exclude new entrants. So maybe it's fitting that she appears set on turning the House Democratic Caucus into a bubble of the like-minded.

"Maybe she's less interested in building a majority than in having a safe space."

"Life is not fair to losers, or the critics of Donald Trump, and the way he won the presidency. He just won't stand still and give the rotten eggs a chance to hit their mark.

"The Donald is conducting his transition to the White House in his own way, taking his time, choosing his Cabinet carefully, and rationing misery to his detractors. His critics, particularly in the know-it-all media, are having trouble with a transition of their own. Almost a month has passed since the election, and the critics, who are supposed to be working their way through the five stages of grief -- denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally acceptance -- are stuck in denial. They should be angry by now, and learning how to bargain with their emotions."

"The chief of the U.S. Border Patrol on Wednesday endorsed expanding the wall between the United States and Mexico, as called for by President-elect Donald Trump.

"'Do we need more fencing? Yes,' said Border Patrol Chief Mark Morgan.

"'Does it work? Yes,' he added.

"In two hours of testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson, the chief repeatedly endorsed the wall but added that it is only part of an integrated system to stop illegals, drugs and terrorists from crossing into the United States."

"After Donald Trump nominated Betsy DeVos to become education secretary, teachers union honcho Randi Weingarten tweeted: 'Trump has chosen the most ideological, anti-public ed nominee since the creation of the Dept of Education.' Since what's good for the unions is often bad for the schools, and vice versa, Ms. Weingarten's apoplexy is reason to cheer.

"Ms. DeVos is chairwoman of the American Federation for Children, an organization dedicated to helping parents choose the best school for their kids. Ms. Weingarten leads the American Federation of Teachers, which is focused on what's best for the adults. ...

"Michael Petrilli, a veteran of George W. Bush's Education Department who now runs the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, wrote last week that the DeVos pick shows Mr. Trump's seriousness. 'She was one of the first people in ed-reform to understand that we weren't going to beat the teachers unions with op-eds and policy papers,' he wrote. 'She pushed the private school choice movement to invest in serious political giving much earlier than the mainstream reform groups did, and, so far, with far greater success.' In the 2016 election, the American Federation for Children invested in 121 races in 12 states and won 89% of them. ...

"Mr. Trump has proposed a $20 billion federal voucher program that students could use to attend public or private schools. But this idea presents similar hazards. Federal dollars will bring federal regulations, and reform-minded individuals like Betsy DeVos won't forever be in charge of implementing them. Better to let the states lead on school choice. Now that Republicans control 33 governorships and both legislative chambers in 32 states, what'€™s stopping them?"

"After the Democratic equality-of-opportunity agenda was largely realized (Social Security, Medicare, overtime, a 40-hour work week, disability insurance, civil rights, etc.), the next-generation equality-of-result effort has largely failed.

"What is left of Democratic ideology is identity politics and assorted dead-end green movements as conservation has become radical environmentalism and fairness under the law is now unapologetic redistributionism. The 2016 campaign and the frenzied reaction to the result are reminders that the Left is no longer serious about formulating and advancing a practical agenda. In sum, for now it is reduced to a party of teeth-gnashers. ...

"The Democratic party for now is reduced to a loud racist/sexist/homophobe broken record that fewer and fewer are listening to -- including many of the Democratic elites who continue to play it."

"With the end of Fidel Castro's nasty life Friday night, we can hope, if not reasonably expect, to have seen the last of charismatic totalitarians worshiped by political pilgrims from open societies. Experience suggests there will always be tyranny tourists in flight from what they consider the boring banality of bourgeois society and eager for the excitement of sojourns in 'progressive' despotisms that they are free to admire and then leave. ...

"Socialism is bountiful only of slogans, and a Castro favorite was 'socialism or death.' The latter came to him decades after the former had made Cuba into a gray museum for a dead utopianism."

Wishing you and yours a safe and Happy Thanksgiving!

"Donald Trump scolded media big shots during an off-the-record Trump Tower sitdown on Monday, sources told The Post.

"'It was like a f-€“ing firing squad,' one source said of the encounter.

"'Trump started with [CNN chief] Jeff Zucker and said "I hate your network, everyone at CNN is a liar and you should be ashamed,"' the source said.

"'The meeting was a total disaster. The TV execs and anchors went in there thinking they would be discussing the access they would get to the Trump administration, but instead they got a Trump-style dressing down,' the source added."

"It's contrary to the laws of nature for a tabloid writer to tell the gentry media not to go berserk. It's like a cat telling his owner to stop coughing up hairballs or Iron Man asking Captain America to be less arrogant. Here at The Post, our mission statement does not include understatement. We provide journalistic Red Bull, not Sominex.

"Nevertheless, a word of neighborly advice to our more genteel media friends, the ones who sit at the high table in their pristine white dinner jackets and ball gowns. You've been barfing all over yourselves for a week and a half, and it's revolting to watch. ...

"Instapundit blogger Glenn Reynolds' characterization of reporters as 'Democratic operatives with bylines' is taking root in the American mind. Among independents, according to Gallup in September, the media had an approval rating of 30 percent; among Republicans 14. Almost everyone but Democrats think the media are biased, and support for that view goes way back."

"We teach our children that what matters isn't how we handle success, but how we handle defeat. Tell that to the collapsing Democratic Party.

"Here's what Democrats know: They got thumped last week. Donald Trump cleaned their clocks, despite his disorganization, controversies and lack of money. Senate Democrats blew at least seven competitive races, and they remain in the minority. House Democrats blew even more, and they remain in the minority. Democratic governors got thumped. Democratic state legislators got thumped. Democratic dog catchers -- if there were any on the ballot -- got thumped.

"What Democrats should realize, because everyone else does, is that voters rejected both their policies (which have undermined middle- and low-income families) and their governance (which has fueled rage at a power-hungry federal government). Hillary Clinton proposed more of the same. Coal workers said no. Blue-collar union workers said no. Suburban moms said no. Small businessmen, drowning under Dodd-Frank and ObamaCare, said no.

"Instead Democrats think last week was an accident."