Donald meets Hillary in a quiet rendezvous. "Ok, you got 5 minutes to close the deal", says Hill. "What gives?" 

"Let's stop pretending otherwise and wasting time when there's so much at stake," replies Le Donald, "you know we belong together". "Fat chance, broomhead - and don't go quoting me on that, basta with your Trump tweets or I'll put my Texts4Hillary boys on you.' "Those pantywaists? Why do you spend all this time with gays and metrosexuals?" "Cause they're my base, Don - unlike you I can't just count on the lunatic fringe to sustain me."

Now that voting one's gender has been taken off the table, it's time to bring it back - or at least if women want.

It's a typical crap piece of pseudo-emancipation; women are told they don't need to be their anatomy - when all around us we see women lauded most for being their anatomy.

I'm pleased that Bernie's finally clueing in on how the game's played. He's discovered that Hillary's wrapping herself around Obama because that endears her to black voters, who make up a large core of the Democratic vote. He's also discovering that it's not so easy for him to do the same because she started courting the Big O 8 years ago, something an Independent might be loathe to do. And taking onboard one of Obama's fiercest black critics, Cornel West? Not likely to help, since he's about as popular with the black community these days as George Zimmerman. Bernie did hire a BLM member as spokesperson. But it's simply not the same thing.

Voters in both parties are reflexively unhappy with the establishment, but Hillary's problems with voters are all about her.

The best woman for the job is the one who's not running.

The male candidate is a better feminist than the world-known established female advocate of women's causes.

The best candidate to shake up Congress and get new programs through it is the one who's been in Congress for 30 years as a relative outsider with little to show for it.

In answer to Hal: "So what is it about the prospect of another Clinton in the White House that causes you to write so much so zealously in her service?"

Pretty simple, Hal - when Clinton came in there was a high crime rate, entrenched poverty and welfare state, just coming off the unsocial/Iran-Contra Reagan-Bush years with a president who thought grocery checkout scanners were the height of tech. When he left, we had high employment, a ballooning internet industry, lots of jobs, black home ownership and jobs way up (including high up visible in his administration, plus Vernon Jordan as one of his most trusted advisors), a balanced budget, and a number of interesting possibilities for the future including trying hard to fix Israel-Palestine. Plus he balanced doing a bit of military action in hot spots - and for the first time got us helping a Muslim people who didn't have oil - rather than getting us heavily involved in foreign wars for crass imperialistic reasons, or doing nothing. We had a strong dollar but were *still* increasing exports, rather than the bullshit weak dollar/cheap goods approach.

Charles Blow on Hillary's "I have Half a Dream" effect on millennials (hat-tip Digby):

Young folks are facing a warming planet, exploding student debt, stunted mobility, stagnant wages and the increasing corporatization of the country due in part to the increasing consolidation of wealth and the impact of that wealth on American institutions. - Blow

As has been pointed out before, this is largely fighting the last 2 elections' problems. Obama expanded a program for student loan relief last year to 5 million people. Stagnant wages up to now has been less important than still-high-unemployment, but now that unemployment is at 5%, the still unhealthy ~2.3-2.5% wage growth has more of a chance of growing. (this article suspects workers have been pushing less hard for wages due to harsher conditions for unemployment benefits). While the planet is warming, renewables are taking off, electric cars are finally hitting the market, and energy costs are dropping due partially to increased solar & wind, but largely due to the rise of contentious fracking. (meaning also that for the first time in my lifetime, we're not really dependent on Mideast oil anymore, while Russia's hold on Europe has also waned). And hey, we're no longer talking about "studying" global warming - we're finally beginning to do something about it.

Checking out updates, CNN writes about the challenge Hillary will have going into New Hampshire, having essentially lost Iowa that she was supposed to win. It's that "essentially" part (my summation) and ignore that she either slightly (votes) or largely (delegates) won that reflects the fickleness of expectations. Sure, if you believed polls from Iowa 3 months ago, it was game over. If you have any experience in this, you know that polls can close rapidly as the day comes close. In any case, it's funny to see CNN treat it as a loss.

We've made it part of our DNA, our running commentary that we shouldn't be pandering to the 1%, the white well-connected who seem to get all the favors from government.

Yet here we are, after a year of pandering to 1% of the population, 2 of the whitest states in the Union, 1 of which subsists on government corn subsidies, ethanol supports and other handouts that would make a supposed welfare queen blanche, 3.4% unemployment. Its industry pretty much all revolves around food and livestock production, including supporting manufacturing, with typical huge industrial agro firms progressives love to hate (and the leading hog producer and egg producer that animal rights advocates love to infiltrate - now largely illegal), along with a strong Des Moines insurance industry. Central to Iowa's survival is the atrocious modern "factory farm", along with key enablers like exemption of "agricultural runoff" from the Clean Water Act, abetting the high level of nitrates and animal waste flowing into Des Moines water system. While corporate farms for produce are largely prohibited, they instead exist as "contract farms" that look but don't behave like private farms. The conservative governor has opted out of Medicare expansion (1 of 15 states to do so).