Insiders

Dateline. 10pm. Silicon Sunday. Sanders, Clinton done in Flint. Sanders handled himself like a pissed off US Senator from New York with personal memories of Holocaust tattoos. Senator/Secretary Clinton, heartbroken about poisonous Flint water, vowed to win the ancient war on lead (New Yorker) - before she disappeared in the dense financial fog of fracking. If nothing else, the two Democratic candidates proved New York Values aren't monolithic. Trump did his part to argue the same - guaranteeing "no problems" in Detroit and hosting a golf tournament at an eponymous golf course in Florida.

The Roman Empire State (Source: Free Beacon)

Leading a presidential election, Trump hosted the World Golf Championship that concluded Sunday. This is true.

Moderator Cooper and Candidate Sanders rightfully jabbed Clinton on Boeing - where Sanders withheld uppercuts connecting Saudi Arabia and Boeing to Clinton Foundation bank accounts (IB Times). Accounts which look worse with each "@clintonmail" release (Intercept). And each Saudi airstrike in Yemen and joint exercise with bellicose Turks contra Assad (Bloomberg Feb 2016). For his part, during Clinton's tenure at State, Putin cancelled Russian deals with Boeing (Washington Post 2014). 

Candidly, I was stunned by this entire exchange. Starting with the fact that it happened at all. As if a Milton Friedman seminar broke out during a Russian prison riot. I missed General Eisenhower's ghost to clarify the national security jeopardy - and perhaps generally trigger-happy culture - attributable to history's most hyper-successful Military Industrial Complex. I worry not that it's Too Big to Fail. I worry it's Too Big to Slow Down. From 30K foot geopolitical aerospace to dirty pistols on the corner; in Clinton war zones from Libya to Honduras. Where, yes, the Secretary is accountable.

The two (white) D candidates matched Chicago pedigrees. On a field trip from Park Ridge,  Illinois, Clinton met King 4/15/1962 at Orchestra Hall (wiki) in Chicago. Sanders arrested desegregating Chicago public schools August 1963 (Chicago Reader). Of high school age, Clinton campaigned for Goldwater 1964 among normal Illinois.

Earlier, Thursday, Republicans greased nearby Fox Theatre where Trump nuked Rubio and Cruz channeled Bernie Sanders' objections to ~60 years of bipartisan consensus on "liberal" trade (Twitter). Rubio expressed regret that Flint was politicized. By which, I assume, he meant that he objects to the tools of 1) science, 2) engineering, and 3) criminal justice for problem solving. Moderator Kelly did a fine job. Afterward, through interviews with Trump, Cruz, Rubio and Kasich, O'Reilly exhibited the demeanor of a man informed that all. bets. are. off. (Snatch)

The demographics of each party's audience is probably guessable. Side-by-side, split-screen, the audiences resemble an apartheid society. Perceptions informed by TV are invitation to huge downside. Though the 2010 Census data paints a high-contrast demographic portrait "on the ground" in Flint, Detroit, and Chicago:

Map from the Cooper Center at University of Virginia based on 2010 census data (source). Showing racial "hyper segregation" in the Upper Midwest (City Lab 2015)

.

Super Tuesday. Super Saturday. Trump. Cruz. Rubio done. Cruz looking to California (Daily News). Members of the national political media are tweeting their favorite SF restaurants (Martin, NYT). Long shot in the year of political fire: Kasich is a wolf in lamb's wool. (Luntz poll) California is winner take all for Grand Old Party. 

Hillary Clinton got it right: it's raining lead in Flint. Lead is in the Chicago wind - where shooting is up. Whilst saying her name - #SandraBland - please don't forget about Jason Van Dyke.

February 29, 2016 (Chicago Tribune)

In 2011, Chicago President Obama justifiably and ruthlessly roasted Trump at White House Press Corp gabfest (Guardian). Among the President's "jokes" denying Trump legitimacy:

"Now, he can focus on more important matters like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?" Obama said, referring to Neil Armstrong's 1969 walk on the moon, the alleged UFO crash in New Mexico and the deaths of rappers Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur.

These are hilarious jokes until the moment of clarity: the unsolved murders of Christopher Wallace and Tupac Shakur are evidence of, in the best case, spectacular government failures. Not Flint scale failures, but big ones. Twice failing to offer evidence that rich high-profile young black men matter. At whose expense do we joke? The menace in Trump's observation that he could shoot someone on 5th Avenue without losing support (1/24/16, CNN), is the real, worsening, and globally abhorrent rate at which Americans get away with murder. At whose expense do we joke?

His reaction - gracious? (CNN)

Electoral Life 2016 Imitates Obama's 2011 Clip Art  - wonderful

American art also imitates American politics: untitled unmastered. In both domains: insiders are running wild trying to rearrange other artist street dates, in fear of a wipeout in retail interchart movement. In a political cycle dominated by New York personalities - one of who is still on fire about September 2001- King Kendrick "almost thought I seen another plane crash":

Valleys and high places turn into dust
Famous screaming in agony
Atheists for suicide, planes falling out the sky
Trains jumping off the track, mothers yelling "he's alive"
Backpedaling Christians settling for forgiveness
Evidence all around us the town is covered in fishes
Ocean water dried out, fire burning more tires out
Tabernacle and city capital turned inside out
Public bathroom, college classroom's been deserted
Another trumpet has sounded off and everyone heard it
(It's happening) no more running from world wars
(It's happening) no more discriminating the poor

Shakur killed 1996. Unsolved 2016.