Good Tuesday morning from Chicago, where I'll moderate the first out-of-town Axios event at 3 p.m. CT. If you're local, be sure to join us: It'll be like a reunion of Midwesterners from previous campaigns and administrations. RSVP here.
Good Tuesday morning from Chicago, where I'll moderate the first out-of-town Axios event at 3 p.m. CT. If you're local, be sure to join us: It'll be like a reunion of Midwesterners from previous campaigns and administrations. RSVP here.
Out today ... "Shattered: Inside Hillary Clinton's Doomed Campaign," by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, makes it clear that whatever you thought was happening in Brooklyn, it was worse. An appetizer:
In San Jose today, Facebook will kick off its annual F8 developers' conference. On the "CBS Evening News," John Blackstone pointed out from Facebook HQ in Menlo Park that with the Cleveland killer still at large, CEO Mark Zuckerberg "will be expected to address how the social network can do better."
Axios' Kia Kokalitcheva previews the best rumors about product announcements:
P.S. "Apple Readies iPhone Overhaul for Smartphone's 10th Anniversary," by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman and Min Jeong Lee: "For the redesigned phone, Apple is testing a new type of screen, curved glass and stainless steel materials, and more advanced cameras."
Axios' Jonathan Swan writes that top officials in the West Wing — including President Trump and Steve Bannon — are intensely invested in today's special election in Georgia's 6th congressional district (replacing former Rep. Tom Price, now HHS Secretary):
From the May/June issue of Foreign Affairs, "A Vision of Trump at War: How the President Could Stumble Into Conflict," by Philip Gordon, a CFR senior fellow who was Obama's White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf Region from 2013 to 2015:
It is December 2018, and North Korea has just launched a heavy artillery barrage against targets in Seoul, killing thousands, or perhaps tens of thousands ... Washington had expected some sort of a North Korean response when it preemptively struck the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the continental United States ... But few thought North Korea would go so far as to risk its own destruction by attacking South Korea.
Some of [Trump's] advisers are urging him to quickly finish the job, whereas others warn that doing so would cost the lives of too many of the 28,000 U.S. soldiers stationed on the peninsula, to say nothing of the ten million residents of Seoul. ...
How did it come to this? ... When the intelligence community picked up signs that Pyongyang was about to [test a nuclear-capable missile that could reach the United States], ... the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff briefed the president on his options. He could try to shoot down the test missile in flight ... He could do nothing ... Or he could destroy the test missile on its launch pad with a barrage of cruise missiles ... Sources present at the meeting reported that when the president chose the third option, he said, "We have to start winning wars again."
Breaking: "UK Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans to call snap general election on 8 June." (BBC)
Shot ... "Ivanka's biz prospers as politics mixes with business" — AP/Shanghai: "On April 6, Ivanka Trump's company won provisional approval from the Chinese government for three new trademarks, giving it monopoly rights to sell Ivanka brand jewelry, bags and spa services in the world's second-largest economy. That night, the first daughter and her husband, Jared Kushner, sat next to the president of China and his wife for a steak and Dover sole dinner at Mar-a-Lago."
List: "Retailers who sell or no longer sell Ivanka Trump"
Chaser ... Wall Street Journal page A4, "Presidency Hits Growth Rate of Family Business," by Peter Grant: "While the company's revenue and income are expected to continue to rise during Mr. Trump's term in office, it will likely be at a slower rate, Eric Trump said, because of efforts to separate the Trump presidency from the family businesses. 'We would be doing 30 deals across the globe' were his father not the president, Eric Trump said in an interview."
A worthy idea from David Leonhardt in his New York Times column today, "Why You'd Benefit From A 'Shultz Hour'":
When George Shultz was secretary of state in the 1980s, he liked to carve out one hour each week for quiet reflection. He sat down in his office with a pad of paper and pen, closed the door and told his secretary to interrupt him only if one of two people called: "My wife or the president," Shultz recalled.
Shultz, who's now 96, told me that his hour of solitude was the only way he could find time to think about the strategic aspects of his job. ... And the only way to do great work, in any field, is to find time to consider the larger questions. ...
My goal with this column is to persuade you to add a Shultz Hour, or something like it, to your week. I've just begun to do so. I have committed to carving out an hour each week with no meetings, no phone calls, no email, no Twitter, no Facebook, no mobile alerts and no podcasts. Sometimes, I plan to spend the hour sitting down, as Shultz did, and other times taking a stroll. I keep a pen and paper with me and have set my phone to ring only if my wife calls.
Just posted ... The latest entry in our "Smarter, Faster" video series, with Dr. Toby Cosgrove, CEO of the Cleveland Clinic:
"The main thing that's killing America is the fact that people aren't taking care of themselves. ... If you look at the cause of premature death in the United States, 40 percent of it is related to lack of exercise, diet and smoking."
One big thing that would help: Cutting down on sugar.
Paul Farhi has an ominous take, consistent with what we're hearing from inside Fox, in the lead story of the WashPost Style section, "A hard spin to maintain O'Reilly's TV career":
"All at once, [the vacationing] Bill O'Reilly is fighting for his TV life. The future of O'Reilly's long career at Fox News may hinge on a sexual-harassment accusation raised by ... Wendy Walsh, [a relationship expert and, at one time, regular O'Reilly guest] who has alleged that O'Reilly propositioned her in a Los Angeles hotel in 2013, then retaliated against her when she rebuffed him."
First look ... A video by Michael Bloomberg, "An Optimistic Conversation ... About Climate Change: "The good news is we're going to make the COP21 [Paris Climate Conference] goals without the federal government."
Bloomberg today publishes a new book with environmentalist Carl Pope, "Climate of Hope: How Cities, Businesses, and Citizens Can Save the Planet," where the former New York mayor writes: "Washington will not have the last word on the fate of the Paris Agreement in the United States. Mayors will—together with business leaders and citizens from all over the globe." ClimateofHope.com is live.
We text and drive even more than you thought, Axios' Ina Fried reports:
"Zendrive studied actual device use among 3.1 million drivers over 5.6 billion miles of driving and found that in 88% of trips, drivers made at least some use of their phones. On average, drivers spent 3.5 minutes per hour on their device."