Brookings Institution released a study of mortality and morbidity in the 21st century.

Case and Deaton find that while midlife mortality rates continue to fall among all education classes in most of the rich world, middle-aged non-Hispanic whites in the U.S. with a high school diploma or less have experienced increasing midlife mortality since the late 1990s. This is due to both rises in the number of “deaths of despair”—death by drugs, alcohol and suicide—and to a slowdown in progress against mortality from heart disease and cancer, the two largest killers in middle age.

The combined effect means that mortality rates of whites with no more than a high school degree, which were around 30 percent lower than mortality rates of blacks in 1999, grew to be 30 percent higher than blacks by 2015.

[More..]

I've got court this afternoon, here's an open thread, all topics welcome. No blog-clogging please, and keep it civil.

He's a bird, he's a plane, he's SUPERKUSH!

All Hail Family Trump. Today it's the son in law with zero policy or political experience who had already been tapped by the "me, my, mine" Trump to bring peace to the middle east and handle our trade relations with Mexico. Now he gets his own Yuuge Department so he can play with some real moguls like Bill Gates and rid the world of opiate addiction.

The Washington Post reports on Trump's announcement of the creation of the White House Office on Innovation, to be led by Kushner, advised by Trump's preferred list of billionaires, including Apple chief executive Tim Cook and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

Iraq has suspended its advance on ISIS in Mosul due to the vast increase in civilian deaths from coalition bombings.

Iraqi military leaders have halted their push to recapture west Mosul from Islamic State as international outrage grew over the civilian toll from airstrikes that killed at least 150 people in a single district of the city.

The attack on the Mosul Jadida neighbourhood is thought to have been one of the deadliest bombing raids for civilians since the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. Rescuers were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Saturday, more than a week after the bombs landed, when the US-led coalition confirmed that its aircraft had targeted Isis fighters in the area.

The U.S. has launched an official investigation.

Donald Trump previously called for a review of Obama's rules ensuring civilian deaths would be minimized. There's concern he's already lowered the threshold. [More...]

TrumpCare is dead. Republicans, not having enough votes, pulled the bill.

Trump is not "the closer" he thought he was. The Washington Post reports: [More...]

There are many things more interesting in the world to discuss than Donald Trump, that don't leave you wanting to take a shower.

Univision/Netflix has announced the lead for its new original series based on the life of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman-Loera that will air on Univision beginning April 23. He is Marco de la O. Here's his twitter page. He certainly looks the part, although he appears to be Colombian.

Telemundo's El Chema, very very loosely based on El Chapo, is now in its final episodes. It was really well done, all of the characters were well cast and interesting. It will leave a big hole in my TV viewing when it ends. Last week Chema formed a partnership with a corrupt DEA agent and a CIA agent in Central America and the Contras to get his cocaine into America. [More...]

The Senate has voted to repeal internet privacy rules enacted under President Obama:

According to the rules approved by the Federal Communications Commission in October under then-President Barack Obama, internet providers would need to obtain consumer consent before using precise geolocation, financial information, health information, children's information and web browsing history for advertising and internal marketing.

The vote was a victory for internet providers such as AT&T Inc (T.N), Comcast Corp (CMCSA.O) and Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N), which had strongly opposed the rules.

Excessive intrusive advertising, especially auto-play video and non-properly scaled, ad-laden and ugly-as* news websites have already ruined the internet. [More...]

Trump issues an ultimatum to Republicans on his health care bill: Take it or I'll move on.

Republicans should tell him to move on.

The move was a high-risk gamble for the president and speaker, who have both invested significant political capital in passing legislation that would rewrite the 2010 Affordable Care Act. For Trump, who campaigned as a skilled dealmaker capable of forging a good deal on behalf of Americans, it could either vindicate or undercut one of his signature claims. If the measure fails, it would mean that Obamacare — something that congressional Republicans have railed against for seven years — would remain in place.

[More...]

Spicer can try all he wants to distance Trump from Paul Manafort, but until Donald Trump removes his campaign website, his past announcements about Manafort are there for all to see. Spicy yesterday:

Spicer on Monday described the former campaign chairman as someone “who played a very limited role for a very limited amount of time.” He also said Manafort was hired in June, even though he was brought on board in March.

As Foreign Policy reports, ..."White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon led the Trump campaign for 83 days, compared to Manafort’s 144 days"

Factcheck from Trump's campaign website: Trump announces Manafort joining team, 3/29/16 [More...]

Time for a new open thread. All topics welcome.

Donald Trump is the rudest person ever. He's interrupted Neil Gorsuch's confirmation hearing to have Spicy give a press conference. CNN is out of service on my TV, Fox and MSNBC are airing the presser. Online is the only place for the hearing right now.

While I was driving, I heard him talk about civil litigants needing access to the courts. He talks a lot about himself and sports. He's not the most exciting personality.

I have no doubt he'll be confirmed, but I can think of a lot worse choices Trump could have made. I suspect Trump's aides went through their "opinions matching Scalia" file and he came up on top. [More...]

Does this family ever tell the truth about anything? Via Politico:

Ivanka Trump, who moved to Washington, D.C., saying she would play no formal role in her father’s administration, is now officially setting up shop in the White House.

The powerful first daughter has secured her own office on the West Wing’s second floor — a space next to senior adviser Dina Powell, who was recently promoted to a position on the National Security Council. She is also in the process of obtaining a security clearance, and is set to receive government-issued communications devices this week.

Ivanka has also lawyered up, with the same lawyer representing her husband on conflict issues (who publicly assured us all there were none): Former Deputy AG Jamie Gorelick. [More...]