Reflections on Super Tuesday; media rush to proclaim the coronation back on; the FBI gets a step closer to Hillary; Trump’s healthcare plan; economy headed for another downturn; Bob Dylan literally sells out …

U.S. Fate 2016
Inside the Democrats’ racial divide: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton and the polls that prove this isn’t over yet [Salon]
The racial divide is real and a problem for Sanders. But outside of the South, it is also an issue for Clinton

Clinton Will Build Her Biggest Lead on March 15. Sanders Will Erode It After That [DownWithTyranny]
Bottom line — Super Tuesday is upon us, and what’s bad for Sanders supporters on March 1 is going to look worse for a few weeks. Stay heartened. Whatever the result in March, this isn’t over until June, after Sanders’ best states have voted as well.

No, Bernie Sanders’ moment isn’t over: Why his gargantuan impact can’t be erased by a Super Tuesday drubbing [Salon]
David Dayen’s work appears on Salon and several other sites, and he’s good. This is a good summary of the campaign so far in an onslaught of mindless media coverage. For what it’s worth, Bernie still has some brilliant planetary transits going for him, which will be the case through July.

As Presidential Campaign Unfolds, So Do Inquiries Into Clinton’s Emails [NYT]
Politico reported back in December that the Republican-led Senate Judiciary Committee was considering whether to grant immunity to Bryan Pagliano, the IT specialist who set up Clinton’s private server. Pagliano has invoked the Fifth Amendment in refusing to answer questions by investigators about who approved the system and whether any objections were raised about potential violations of legal or ethical standards. This is a legitimate issue and not just attempts by the Republicans to damage Clinton’s presidential campaign. The media are making a big deal out of whether she and her aids used her in-home system to send classified information, but there are more serious questions, such as whether the purpose of the private system to was to circumvent the Freedom of Information Act and whether mixed official government business with the Clinton Foundation, which has accepted billions of dollars in foreign contributions.

Trump’s Health-Care Plan Includes Obamacare Repeal, Drug Re-Importation [Bloomberg]
He just posted his seven-point plan to replace Obamacare. Hmmm, he’s acting like he’s in a general election and not a primary. I haven’t gone to his website yet, but I’m going to have to do it sooner or later. Frankly, I never figured the Republicans would let him get this far.

Bernie Versus the Earthquake Industry [Jacobin]
Bernie Sanders’s wholesale opposition to fracking could help him in key Super Tuesday contests. This article obviously was written before the votes were in, but it’s still relevant. This is something we haven’t heard enough about. Bernie Sanders is 100-percent against fracking. Hillary Clinton is 100-percent for it, but she has carefully avoided the topic. The few times she was asked directly, her answers were vague and non-committal, but her record shows that she’s for it, period.

Ben Carson to end presidential campaign [Politico]
About time.

Marco Rubio’s not doing so hot, either. He Just Lost the Support of Fox News. [New York Magazine]
Trump is good for the media. When Rubio comes on, it’s time to do the dishes or clean out the cat box.

Pleasure Planet
Bob Dylan’s Secret Archive [NYT]
The Times got a sneak peek of the collection, which includes 6,000 items such as notebooks and pages of lyrics typed and written by hand. Housed at the University of Oklahoma in Tulsa, the archive was bought from Dylan for an estimated $15 million to $20 million. It wasn’t lost on the Times that much of the money came from the George Kaiser Family Foundation, whose namesake made his billions in oil and banking. Dylan was born with Neptune conjunct the lunar North Node in late Virgo. Neptune represents artistic and creative imagination and a connection with the collective, but also is associated with drug and alcohol addiction, jails, and mental institutions. The North Node, meanwhile, is a guidepost for one’s destiny or purpose, or for finding what will bring the most fulfillment in the current incarnation.

As it so happens, the North Node has returned to Virgo (it has a cycle of about 19.5 years) and is tracking in a rare extended conjunction Jupiter. His contemporary, Sen. Bernie Sanders, has the same Neptune/North Node conjunction, which is playing out in his successful grassroots-funded campaign. Given its emphasis on the collective rather than the individual, Neptune is the planet most associated with socialism. Alas, his one attempt to record a folk album bombed royally.

Ceres
Zika, microcephaly, and pesticides: half-truths, hysteria, and vested interests [The Ecologist]
Those who dare suggest that pesticides might be implicated in Brazil’s microcephaly outbreak are being furiously attacked as irrational, nonsense-spouting ‘conspiracy theorists’, writes Claire Robinson. But the attackers have an uncanny ability to get their own facts in a twist. And among them are writers linked to industries with huge economic interests in the matter.

The Gangbanksters
Next U.S. Recession May Not Be a Biggie But Could Be a Long One [Bloomberg]
First it was “no recession.” Now it’s “OK, recession, but not a big one.” Do we see where this is going?

DNC Chair Joins GOP Attack on Elizabeth Warren’s Agency [HuffPo]
Gee, Liz, maybe you shoulda endorsed Hillary.

Red Pill
Will the Supreme Court Deadlock on the Texas Abortion Case? [The Atlantic]
The first contentious case since Antonin Scalia’s death has at least one justice looking for an exit. Garrett Epps writes that the Supremes probably will dodge the decision by sending the case back to the Fifth Circuit to reconsider.

One-Minute Meditation