SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE – AT 11:05 P.M. ET: 

LITTLE MAN GROWS UP – FROM REUTERS:   OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will not attend the funeral of Fidel Castro, his office said on Monday, days after Trudeau's warm comments about the late Cuban leader sparked a backlash.  Trudeau referred on Saturday to Castro as a "remarkable leader" and expressed his sorrow at the death of "Cuba’s longest serving president."  Trudeau acknowledged on Sunday that Castro had been a dictator as political opponents called on him to boycott the funeral.  Outrage and mockery about Trudeau's fond words for Castro, who had been an honorary pallbearer at the funeral in 2000 of Trudeau's father, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, has threatened to end the Liberal leader's long honeymoon.  Noting the "many questions" about whether Trudeau would attend the funeral, spokeswoman Andree-Lyne Halle said in an email the prime minister would skip the event.  "His schedule doesn't permit it," she said.  Neither does his political survival.

OBAMACARE FOE FOR HHS – FROM CNN MONEY:   President-elect Donald Trump has selected Georgia Representative Tom Price, an ardent critic of Obamacare, to head the Department of Health and Human Services, according to an official briefed on the decision.  The official announcement will likely come Tuesday.  One of Price's top priorities as health secretary will be to dismantle the sweeping health reform law that his two predecessors spent six years implementing.  Price, an orthopedic surgeon who chairs the House Budget Committee, has long decried Obamacare as a threat to quality and affordable health care.  "The purpose of health reform should be to advance accessibility, affordability, quality, responsiveness, and innovation," the Republican congressman said in 2011, a year after Obamacare was signed into law. "None of these are improved" by the Affordable Care Act, he added.  If Ben Carson takes HUD, there will be two physicians in the Cabinet.  I believe that would be a first.

TERROR AT OHIO STATE – FROM NBC NEWS:    An Ohio State University student posted a rant shortly before he plowed a car into a campus crowd and stabbed people with a butcher knife in an ambush that ended when a police officer shot him dead, a law enforcement official said.  Abdul Razak Ali Artan, 18, wrote on what appears to be his Facebook page that he had reached a "boiling point," made a reference to "lone wolf attacks" and cited radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki.  "America! Stop interfering with other countries, especially Muslim Ummah [community]. We are not weak. We are not weak, remember that," the post said.  Two hours before that, a cryptic post on the page said: "Forgive and forget. Love."  Officials cautioned that they have not determined a motive for the ambush, which sent 11 people to the hospital Monday morning. A senior law enforcement official told NBC News that investigators are trying to determine whether Artan had personal problems or something else that might have pushed him over the edge.  Islamist extremist?  What Islamist extremist?  Why, he's just a troubled youth.  Maybe he was pushed over the edge by those "salute to Israel" parades.  We must understand.

November 28, 2016