Here are the topics for this week: IA, NH & beyond; revolution?; Super Bowl 50 inanity?; Flint, MI; Super Bowl Sunday.

IA, NH and beyond. At this week's reading, Iowa is in the rear view mirror and with New Hampshire voters going to the polls this very day. Sadly, for the entire nation, it hardly needs saying that the legislative and executive branches will be largely focused, not on the nation's immediate, pressing problems, but on November 8, 2016. If you want, work for your chosen candidate(s); the prognostications will be largely conjectures, probably less certain that your area's weather reports.
     More than a few said, Trump would react badly if he finished second in IA and, sure enough, in short order there was a flurry of tweets about irregularities with the Cruz campaign in IA. Everything from individual caucus results to calling for a complete "Iowa do-over." And the world watched these antics, undoubtedly wondering about an America led by The Donald.
     On the Democratic side, the field was narrowed to two: an avowed social democrat and a candidate who decries the influence of Wall Street while continuing to rake in millions from banks and investment firms. "In all, donors from Wall Street and other financial-services firms have given $44.1 million to support Hillary Clinton’s campaigns and allied super PACs."

Revolution and the Establishment? Here in the America this most unlikely word seems suddenly in vogue among the presidential candidates. Senator Sanders uses it repeatedly and openly, the others less-so, preferring code words and phrases. In a recent column, David Ignatius notes how these the emerging themes of alienation, disruption and resilience will resonate, here and abroad, and how they will shape the ongoing discussion. Columnist Mark Theissen opines that the only loser in IA was the Democratic and Republican political establishments. "In the wake of Iowa, the “establishment lane” in the Republican race is effectively closed." On the other side of the isle, Hillary "effectively tied with a 74-year-old disheveled socialist from Vermont. Not a good sign."
     Columnist Charles Krauthammer wrote a column, "The Establishment Nonsense," in which he said, "If by establishment you mean the careerists, the lobbyists and the sold-out cynics, a good poke, even a major purge, is well-deserved." Of the Republican candidates, Krauthammer said this about Trump: "[He] has no coherent political philosophy, no core beliefs, at all. Trump offers barstool eruptions and whatever contradictory “idea” pops into his head at the time, such as “humane” mass deportation, followed by mass amnesty when the immigrants are returned to the United States...No one takes them seriously. His actual platform is all persona." Blustery persona will not get you far with a steely eyed, deadly, cold-blooded leader the likes of Vladimir Putin, for example. Or one who seems to inhabit a parallel universe, Kim Jong Un, for example. Or the leaders (?) of a fragile, badly fractured state, Pakistan, for example.

Much ado about nothing. The Bard would surely have enjoyed the week's sports inanities. All across the nation, networks and local news outlets dispatched their "best and brightest" (?) to cover Super Bowl 50. The Mile High City was, of course, all atwitter. Not surprisingly, low gas prices, buttressed with talk of summer road travel, were a probable cause for Denver's Channel 4's dispatching a crew on a road trip to Levi Stadium.

Bad Water. Government incompetence, total disregard for horrible human consequences? I am not sure a worse, more frightening scenario could be envisioned  than what has unfolded in Flint, MI. To save a relatively few bucks and then ignore the reported results? Unbelievable!

Super Bowl L (50). George Will, Washington Post political (occasionally sports) columnist, titled his column, "Super Bowl Sunday: The day America celebrates football — and brain damage." The column dovetailed nicely with the lead story in the weekend's NY Times Magazine, "Roger Goddell's Unstoppable Football Machine." Will wrote, "It would be nice, but probably fanciful, to think that even 1 percent of the expected television audience of more than 110 million will have qualms about the ethics of their enjoyment." He is probably correct.
     The Mile High City is, as a Swedish friend says, "all over itself," having won #50.

Thank you for reading and now it's on to the less than sparkling Denver Avalanche and Nuggets.