China per capita cigarette consumption is 114% higher than US

The Chicoms consume about 4.7 cigarettes per day per capita, about 7.1 packs a month, despite recent attempts to tax the habit out of existence (2350 billion cigs in 2016 divided by population of 1.379 billion).

Americans consume 2.2 cigarettes per day per capita, about 3.3 packs a month (258 billion cigs in 2016 divided by population of .3231 billion).

Life expectancy in the US is 79 years, in China 76 years.

Deaths per 100,000 from coronary heart disease in China are pushing 100, in the US 78.

Trump excoriates Obama for his healthcare lies

What will the next point be on the graph when Trump is done?

John McCain diagnosed with a cancer that usually kills within 12-15 months with treatment

Story here.

McConnell still to go ahead with repeal only bill next week, to put Republican women on the record voting against it

Good for him.

Story here.

Inquiring minds want to know: Is it cheaper to stop drugs by building a wall or nuking the opium fields of Afghanistan?

The $15 billion cost of a wall would buy you roughly 750 upgraded B61 nuclear gravity bombs.

Each one can incinerate about 50 square miles.

Afghanistan has about 780 square miles devoted to opium production.

Number of B61 bombs needed: just 16.

Cost $320 million.

Hundreds of bombs left over to enlighten other ne'er-do-wells.

Three pleasant outcomes: 1) Drugs eliminated at the source; 2) Afghan War ends immediately; 3) Drug mules and gangs stop coming over the border.

I say we nuke 'em.

Supremes intervene again to uphold Trump right to ban 24,000 refugees awaiting entry

From the story here:

The high court on Wednesday blocked Watson’s order as it applies to refugees, but not the expanded list of relatives. The justices said the federal appeals court in San Francisco should now consider the appeal. It’s not clear how quickly that will happen.

In the meantime, though, up to 24,000 refugees who already have been assigned to a charity or religious organization in the U.S. will not be able to use that connection to get into the country.

With Bush and Obama, America has entered a new era of stupid, paying in excess of $1 for every extra dollar of GDP

The Reagan GDP miracle is a complete myth: It was all government spending (on defense)

And it set a horrible precedent for the dramatic overspending of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, which has sent us on a course to oblivion. You can argue it was necessary to defeat the USSR, but you can't argue that baseline spending (in black) has done anything but go up, up, up to dangerous new levels as a result (notice the baseline Jimmy Carter inherited from liberal Republicanism, for which he got the blame from Ronald Reagan, which wasn't very nice of the old man who went on to bequeath a similar giant new baseline to his successor, G.H.W. Bush).

No, the real miracle was the pathetic loser in Iran, Jimmy Carter, who spent the least in the post-war for his additional GDP, followed by Bill Clinton.

Of course, the spending is all the prerogative of the Congress. The president proposes but the Congress disposes, as the saying goes.

Beware libertarian politicians preaching balanced budgets, as well as utopian infrastructure spending enthusiasts promising the moon and liberal Republicans selling government spending as security to senior citizens at the expense of younger Americans in a time of protracted war. They have delivered little beyond $20 trillion in debt.

Memo to GOP

Not one more dime.

Mark Davis has a firm grasp of the obvious

The GOP isn't conservative enough to give their voters what they want.

Here.

Reagan couldn't accomplish much because Democrats controlled Congress

Trump has the same problem.

These two women voted to repeal Obamacare in 2015, but now they refuse to

Shelley Moore Capito -- WV

Lisa Murkowski -- AK

Turncoats Shelley Moore Capito and Lisa Murkowski said Tuesday they’ll oppose a repeal of the Affordable Care Act

Capito and Murkowski should be run out of the party on a rail. They both voted for repeal last time.

Story here.

Trump again comes out in support of Obamacare repeal without replace: Give him HR 3762 already!

As high school grades inflate, SAT scores deflate

Reported here:

Recent findings show that the proportion of high school seniors graduating with an A average — that includes an A-minus or A-plus — has grown sharply over the past generation, even as average SAT scores have fallen.

In 1998, it was 38.9%. By last year, it had grown to 47%.

That’s right: Nearly half of America’s Class of 2016 are A students. Meanwhile, their average SAT score fell from 1,026 to 1,002 on a 1,600-point scale — suggesting that those A's on report cards might be fool's gold.

McConnell reportedly set to bring full repeal bill like HR 3762 to a vote in the Senate

Here and here for the story.

There were 52 "Yeas" for the HR 3762 Obamacare repeal bill in the Senate on December 3, 2015 out of 54 Republicans, which Obama subsequently vetoed. It was the only repeal bill ever to reach Obama's desk:

Alexander of Tennessee

Ayotte of New Hampshire (seat lost to Democrats in 2016)

Barrasso of Wyoming

Blunt of Missouri

Boozman of Arkansas

Burr of North Carolina

Capito of West Virginia

Cassidy of Louisiana

Coats of Indiana (Todd Young)

Cochran of Mississippi

Corker of Tennessee

Cornyn of Texas

Cotton of Arkansas

Crapo of Idaho

Cruz of Texas

Daines of Montana

Enzi of Wyoming

Ernst of Iowa

Fischer of Nebraska

Flake of Arizona

Gardner of Colorado

Graham of South Carolina

Grassley of Iowa

Hatch of Utah

Heller of Nevada

Hoeven of North Dakota

Inhofe of Oklahoma

Isakson of Georgia

Johnson of Wisconsin

Lankford of Oklahoma

Lee of Utah

McCain of Arizona

McConnell of Kentucky

Moran of Kansas

Murkowski of Alaska

Paul of Kentucky

Perdue of Georgia

Portman of Ohio

Risch of Idaho

Roberts of Kansas

Rounds of South Dakota

Rubio of Florida

Sasse of Nebraska

Scott of South Carolina

Sessions of Alabama (Luther Strange)

Shelby of Alabama

Sullivan of Alaska

Thune of South Dakota

Tillis of North Carolina

Toomey of Pennsylvania

Vitter of Louisiana (John Neely Kennedy)

Wicker of Mississippi.

There were two Republican "Nays":

Collins of Maine, who is still there

Kirk of Illinois, who lost his seat to the Democrats.

Now out of 52 Republicans in the Senate we have 48 votes this time for repeal that we had last time, plus 3 Republican freshman in the Senate to pressure to vote for repeal, which would bring the total to 51, assuming Collins of Maine again votes "Nay".

We'll see if they have the guts.

Ted Cruz concluded Mitch McConnell is a liar in 2015, now Ron Johnson appears to be doing the same

The Ted Cruz incident with McConnell involved the Export-Import Bank (story here).

Now, Ron Johnson is reportedly concluding McConnell committed a breach of trust by privately telling moderate senators that the Medicaid cuts in the healthcare bill won't actually occur, as reported here.

The current Republican bill in the Senate appears dead as four senators in the Republican caucus have said they don't support it. With a 2-seat majority, only 3 defections are tolerable (the tie-breaker vote is cast by the Vice President, Mike Pence).

When all is said and done we might find out that the loss of support is all intentional and orchestrated in order to save the Senate from having to vote on the issue again at all. The nay-sayers may be handsomely rewarded at some future date while getting to please their constituencies.

Remember, Republicans generally don't believe in anything except for what is. In other words, maintaining the status quo is their objective. They are pragmatists who are willing to accept progressive creations once passed, like the income tax, Social Security, Medicare and now Obamacare, and will defend those programs no matter how they became law.

Lighting their hair on fire for anything is completely out of the question, including for the constitution.

The only thing that will save us now is a meteor strike on the Senate chamber while they are all in session.

As defined by homeownership, the absolute size of the middle class hasn't really grown at all since 2005

I wish this bag under my eye would just go away