"Less than 18 months after being elected speaker, Mr. Ryan has emerged from the defeat of the health care bill badly damaged, retaining a grip on the job but left to confront the realities of his failure — imperiling the odd-couple partnership that was supposed to sustain a new era of conservative government under unified Republican rule.Paul Ryan Emerges From Health Care Defeat Badly Damaged - The New York Times: ""
Sunday, March 26, 2017
Nobel winner Angus Deaton talks about the surprising study on white mortality he just co-authored - Vox
"Deaton thinks middle-aged white Americans have 'lost the narrative of their lives' But what's behind the substance abuse? One possible factor here: This demographic group has faced a rise in economic insecurity over the past decade, driven by things like the financial crisis and the collapse of manufacturing.
Still, it's difficult to put together a full story of what's going on. After all, if the recession or decline of manufacturing was the only factor, we might expect to see a similar uptick in mortality rates among middle-aged people in places such as Europe. But America seems to be unique in this regard.
'An anthropologist friend here says that [white, middle-age Americans] have lost the narrative of their lives — meaning something like a loss of hope, a loss of expectations of progress,' he explained.
Though African Americans as a group are still worse off overall, Deaton added, their quality of life has improved over the past several decades. 'And when Hispanics look back, they may look back to where they came from, or what their parents or grandparents had,' he continued.
So Deaton says this particular group of middle-aged white Americans may have had higher expectations than others when it comes to steady employment and a bright future, and the stress of losing that could well be driving their deadly behaviors.
'The white non-Hispanics may be more susceptible to despair, and perhaps to the alcohol or drug 'solution,' especially those with less education,' he said. 'And then there is the availability of opioids and of heroin.'
Why the white middle class is dying faster, explained in 6 charts - Vox
"They’ve now come to a compelling conclusion: It’s complicated. There’s no single reason for this disturbing increase in the mortality rate, but a toxic cocktail of factors.
In a new 60-page paper, ‘Mortality and morbidity in the 21st Century,’ out in draft form in the Brookings Papers on Economic Activity Thursday, the researchers weave a narrative of ‘cumulative disadvantage’ over a lifetime for white people ages 45 through 54, particularly those with low levels of education.
Along with worsening job prospects over the past several decades, this group has seen their chances of a stable marriage and family decline, along with their overall health. To manage their despair about the gap between their hopes and what’s come of their lives, they’ve often turned to drugs, alcohol, and suicide.
Meanwhile, gains in fighting heart disease have stalled, and rates of obesity and diabetes have ploddingly climbed.
So the rise in mortality for white mid-life people in America since the late 1990s is actually the final stage of a decades-long process. ‘It’s about the collapse of white middle class,’ said Case. Here are the five big takeaways from the researchers’ new opus."
(Via.). Why the white middle class is dying faster, explained in 6 charts - Vox:
Saturday, March 25, 2017
Trump Becomes Ensnared in Fiery G.O.P. Civil War - The New York Times
"WASHINGTON — President Trump ignites a lot of fights, but his failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the biggest defeat in his short time in the White House, was the result of something else: a long-running Republican civil war that humbled a generation of party leaders before he ever came to Washington.
A precedent-flouting president who believes that Washington’s usual rules do not apply to him, Mr. Trump now finds himself shackled by them.
In stopping the repeal of President Barack Obama’s proudest legacy — the Republican Party’s professed priority for the last seven years — from even coming to a vote, the rebellious far right wing out-rebelled Mr. Trump, taking on and defeating the party establishment with which it has long been at war and which he now leads.
Like every one else who has tried to rule a fissured and fractious party, Mr. Trump now faces a wrenching choice: retrenchment or realignment.
Does he cede power to the anti-establishment wing of his party? Or does he seek other pathways to successful governing by throwing away the partisan playbook and courting a coalition with the Democrats, whom he has improbably blamed for his party’s shortcomings?
“It’s really a problem in our own party, and that’s something he’ll need to deal with moving forward,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, an ally of the center-right Tuesday Group, which stuck with Mr. Trump in the health care fight and earned the president’s praise in the hours after the bill’s defeat..."
Trump Becomes Ensnared in Fiery G.O.P. Civil War - The New York Times
‘Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth, most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.’ "Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth, most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President." Wall Street Journal Editorial Harshly Rebukes Trump - The New York Times
"The editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is known for its conservative tone, but an editorial the newspaper published online Tuesday night would stand out even in the pages of its left-leaning peers.
The editorial was an extraordinarily harsh rebuke of President Trump, calling him ‘his own worst political enemy’ and asserting that he was damaging his presidency ‘with his seemingly endless stream of exaggerations, evidence-free accusations, implausible denials and other falsehoods.’
In particular, the editorial board pointed to Mr. Trump’s unsubstantiated claims that former President Barack Obama had tapped his phones. ‘The President clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle,’ the editorial said, even though senior intelligence officials, as well as Republicans and Democrats, have said they have seen no evidence to support Mr. Trump’s accusations.
The paper’s editorial and opinion writers have been critical of Mr. Trump in the past, although the language of this editorial, which ran in Wednesday’s paper, seemed intended to remind the president to focus on his stated goals rather than distractions. And the timing of the editorial — during a week in which Mr. Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, is testifying at confirmation hearings and the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the Republican health care bill — is almost certainly not a coincidence.
In a statement, a spokeswoman for The Journal said, ‘The editorial speaks for itself,’ and declined to make Paul Gigot, the editorial page editor, available for an interview.
The editorial, headlined ‘A President’s Credibility,’ criticized President Trump for ‘rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims’ — namely, repeating an unsupported allegation by a Fox News commentator that British intelligence had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of the Obama administration. Like The Journal, Fox News is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, who has ties to the president.
The editorial concluded: ‘Two months into his Presidency, Gallup has Mr. Trump’s approval rating at 39 percent. No doubt Mr. Trump considers that fake news, but if he doesn’t show more respect for the truth, most Americans may conclude he’s a fake President.’
"Wall Street Journal Editorial Harshly Rebukes Trump - The New York Times:
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