☕ Good Saturday morning! Happy to be the first to tell you it's not Shutdown Day 36.
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☕ Good Saturday morning! Happy to be the first to tell you it's not Shutdown Day 36.
Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Yesterday was a devastating day for President Trump as he heads into his reelection campaign and an era of divided government.
The shutdown not only wasted a month of Trump's presidency, but it accelerates a months-long losing streak:
Be smart: An adviser to top Republicans told me this week's debacle "rendered Trump impotent."
Roger Stone texted me before going to bed: "I will prevail."
Stone had hit the cable news circuit after being released on bond from a Florida courthouse, telling Fox News' Tucker Carlson:
"No matter how much pressure they put on me, no matter what they say, I will not bear false witness against Donald Trump. I will not do what Michael Cohen has done and make up lies to ease the pressure on myself."
On CNN, Chris Cuomo asked Stone if he was making the unusual move of going on the air to defend himself because he thinks Trump will pardon him.
"I believe in God. I know what I have and have not done."
What's next: Stone will be arraigned Tuesday in D.C.
Cal Newport— associate professor of computer science at Georgetown, and author of "Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World," out Feb. 5 — writes in N.Y. Times Sunday Review:
Under what I call the "constant companion model," we now see our smartphones as always-on portals to information. Instead of improving activities that we found important before this technology existed, this model changes what we pay attention to in the first place — often in ways designed to benefit the stock price of attention-economy conglomerates, not our satisfaction and well-being. ...
Once you’ve stripped away the digital chatter clamoring for your attention, your smartphone will return to something closer to the role originally conceived by Mr. Jobs. It will become a well-designed object that comes out occasionally throughout your day to support — not subvert — your efforts to live well.
It helps you find that perfect song to listen to while walking across town on a sunny fall afternoon; it loads up directions to the restaurant where you’re meeting a good friend; with just a few swipes, it allows you to place a call to your mom — and then it can go back into your pocket, or your bag, or the hall table by your front door, while you move on with the business of living your real-world life.
"Johns Hopkins University is buying the landmark [Pennsylvania Avenue] building that houses the Newseum for $372.5 million, a purchase that will enable the struggling cultural institution devoted to news and the First Amendment to seek a new home in the Washington area," per the WashPost.
Peter Prichard, chair of the Newseum board of trustees said in a release: "We stand ready to continue much of the Newseum's important work ... through digital outreach, traveling exhibits, and web-based programs in schools around the world, as well as hopefully in a new physical home in the area."
Swan says this is making the rounds in Trumpworld: