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December 2016

Margaret Thatcher once famously said that "the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money." Is that what's happened to the Democratic party? Morning Joe devoted a navel-gazing segment today to the question of where Dems go from here given their loss of the presidency, their failure to take back either house of congress, and their hemorrhaging of governorships and hundreds of state-legislature seats. There was consensus that Nancy Pelosi and her septuagenarian cohort in the Dem leadership were past their sell-by dates. But the bigger problem that was posed was the lack of a Dem agenda, and the suggestion that the Dems need to come up with "new ideas." One Dem panelist claimed "we do have some of those" ideas, but neither he nor anyone else could describe them in any detail. And therein lies the looming disaster for the Dems.

There are several disturbing updates to the report on the wildfires roaring through Tennessee I prepared earlier this week. It seems that arson is suspected in more than half of the blazes that are still burning in the region.
Fire investigators said more than half of the 67 fires burning right now have been deliberately set. And so far, seven suspects have been arrested for arson state-wide, but more arrests could be made in the near future.