Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 10 — Trump compares Obama to Nixon — Tax cut could amp robot invasion — Palmieri's vital life lesson — Why Kellyanne would leave — Colbert's liberal surge — School turns $15,000 into $24 million
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2017 10:55:08 -0500 (EST)

Presented by Walmart:

Trump compares Obama to Nixon — Tax cut could amp robot invasion= — Palmieri's vital life lesson — Why Kellyanne would leav= — Colbert's liberal surge — School turns $15,000 into $=4 million

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Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Mar 04, 2017

New from Axios… On Monday, Ben Geman launches Generate<=em>, our newsletter covering the policy and business of energy, with Amy H=rder joining him from The Wall Street Journal later this month. The next w=ek, we launch a tech newsletter, Login. Ina Fried will break news=from San Francisco and Silicon Valley, with Kim Hart and David McCabe cove=ing the innovation agenda in D.C.

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1 big thing: Trump calls Obama "Bad (or sick) guy!"

Dustin Hoffman (left) and Robert Redford as Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodw=rd in "All the President's Men" / AP

We have lost our sense of normality.

"TRU=P CLAIMS OBAMA TAPPED HIS PHONES IN 'NIXON/WATERGATE' OPERATION."=Broadcast networks cut in, Congress stops everything to investigate, the w=eels of government grind to a halt. AP might urgent: "Pre=ident Trump today, inspired by the musings of a right-wing radio host, ...="

That's how "normal" once looked.=Cue this morning: It's just Trump being Trump, waking up on a Saturday mor=ing at Mar-a-lago with a slow schedule, and key advisers back in D.C.
<=>And to 40 percent of America, it's plausibly true.
Trump's tweetstorm, <=strong>in one graf, courtesy Justin Green: "The f=rst meeting Jeff Sessions had with the Russian Amb was set up by the Obama=Administration under education program for 100 Ambs ... Terrible! Just fou=d out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the vict=ry. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism! ... Just out: The=same Russian Ambassador that met Jeff Sessions visited the Obama White Hou=e 22 times, and 4 times last year alone. ... Is it legal for a sitting Pre=ident to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turn=d down by court earlier. A NEW LOW! ... I'd bet a good lawyer could make a=great case out of the fact that President Obama was tapping my phones in O=tober, just prior to Election! ... How low has President Obama gone to tap= my phones during the very sacred election process. This is Nixon/=atergate. Bad (or sick) guy!"

The flurry looks like it was inspired by a Breitbart article yesterday by Joel Pol=ak: "Mark Levin to Congress: Investigate Obama's 'Silent Coup' vs. Trump."=/p>
Bob Costa <=a>tweets: "I've confirmed that several people at the White =ouse have been circulating this Breitbart story."

The reacti=n ... N.Y. Times columnist Tom Friedman to Michael Smerconish on =NN: "Trump ... could as easily have woken up at Mar-a-lago this morning an= said: "I saw a UFO fly over.' ... If you're going to make that allegation= you go to the head of the FBI, NSA, CIA and say: 'Here are the facts.'""

Word of the day: "besieged"=... Maggie Haberman: "Trump, according to his advisers inside and outs=de of the White House, has felt besieged by what he regar=s as a mostly hostile bureaucracy, consisting in part of Democrats and peo=le who opposed his election who are now undermining his presidency with le=ks."

"'That is the real story,'=said Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trump, when asked for comm=nt on how the White House views the constant string of stories based on wh=t they have called leaks."

2. You'll want to click

Jennifer Palmieri for WashPost, "

"I had a hard time reconciling her=optimistic attitude with the knowledge there was no hope for recovery. ...=I eventually learned one of the gifts that came with this illness: It strips away your notions of how life is supposed to be and forces you t= reassess what it means for a moment, a day, a life to have value."

"[F]or all those on this path=/strong>, please know that it does not mean you must be robbed of your lov=d ones before they leave this earth. They are still there, and the time yo= spend with them can be a gift of grace you might otherwise never have kno=n."

3. Article of the day

The cover of Barron's is a macabre sign of the times: h=w investors can profit off robots replacing workers: "If manufacturers are=going to flourish in America, they'll need to buy a lot more robots. Here =re six ways to play this hot trend."

The lead:="As President Donald Trump prevents manufacturers from leaving the U.S., e=pect them to use robots to keep labor costs down."

The str=tegy: "For long-term investors, robots could be one key to securi=g healthy corporate profit growth, and stock returns, even as wages rise."=/li>
"Factory robots look nothing like Rosie from =he Jetsons, the nameless B9 model from Lost in Space, or the=one on the cover of this magazine. Many are hulking arms with rotating joi=ts and interchangeable tools that can weld, stack, paint, assemble, and mo=e."

Unintended consequences? "One thing =hat could accelerate U.S. robot deployments is a corporate tax cut, which would reduce the overall cost of manufacturing in the U.S., but no= the labor cost. Another is a border adjustment tax, which would reward ex=orters while penalizing importers. Accelerated depreciation on capital inv=stments would give companies an immediate tax break on money spent to auto=ate factories."

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Learn more.

4. Huge battle ahead

The WashPost's lead story, "Import tax splits White House," by Damian Paletta (newly=arrived from the WSJ as a senior economics correspondent, coveri=g White House economic policy), sketches the West Wing positions in a figh=, already consuming insider D.C., that could wind up splitting Trump and R=an:

"White House chief strategi=t Stephen K. Bannon, senior adviser Stephen Miller and National T=ade Council director Peter Navarro have all voiced internal support for th= creation of a border adjustment tax or something like it. They believe it=would incentivize companies to keep jobs in the United States and raise th= cost of items that are imported.

"But Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin and National Economic Cou=cil Director Gary Cohn have raised concerns ... They are backed by a numbe= of Senate Republicans who have told the White House they would block any =ill that creates a new tax on imports."

5. Kellyanne: You need "bile in your throat"

CBS

Sneak peek from "CBS Sunday Morning" ... Kellyanne Conw=y to Norah O'Donnell, on what would make her leave the White House: her ch=ldren.

"They're having
"And so I don't — th=s is all new for us. This is not something I sought. I'm not a famous pers=n on TV. ... [T]hey're struggling because it's just different to not have = mom there as much as they're used to even though I've always worked. This=is an entirely different level."

Preview video here.

6. Colbert's liberal surge

"Trump is late-night TV's muse an= viewers are loving it," by L.A. Times' Stephen Battaglio:

"Colbert has become the most-watched show in late-night TV sin=e the week of Trump's Jan. 20 inauguration. He has risen to 3 million view=rs a night."

"HBO's Bill Maher and John Oliver an= TBS' Samantha Bee ... are also experiencing significant ratings increases="

"[T]he unexpected shift in the political landsc=pe plays to the Colbert's strength as a satirist and is giving him a disti=ctive voice that many believed had gone missing since he took over 'The La=e Show.' In 2017, Colbert's audience is up 9% while NBC's Fallon is off 18= from a year ago."

"Based on data [Samba TV] coll=cts from cable set top boxes, Colbert's audience of politically liberal vi=wers has doubled since the election, offsetting a decline in conservative =iewers. The political makeup for the viewers of Fallon and ABC's 'Jimmy Ki=mel Live'have remained the same as before the election."

7. Uber's rough week

Someone's out to get Uber, big time ... Axios' Kia Koka=itcheva distills "Uber's nightmarish week, in 8 headlines."

The l=test ... N.Y. Times front page, above fold, "
"The program, involving a too= called Greyball, uses data collected from the Uber app and other techniqu=s to identify and circumvent officials who were trying to clamp down on th= ride-hailing service. Uber used these methods to evade the authorities in=cities like Boston, Paris and Las Vegas, and in countries like Australia, =hina and South Korea."

8. Instant tech lore: To tell your kids

L.A. Times front-pager, "Snap IPO has its unlikely winne=s, frustrated losers," by David Pierson and Paresh Dave ... How Saint =rancis High School in Mountain View, Calif., turned $15,000 into $24 milli=n:

"The Catholic school in the heart of Silicon Valley is celebrating a windfall ... One of the s=hool's students is the daughter of Barry Eggers, founder of Lightspeed Ven=ure Partners, Snapchat's first investor.

"Eggers urged the school to place a small bet on the fl=dgling Venice company, which is now called Snap Inc., after he saw how eng=ossed his children were with the app. When Saint Francis sold two-thirds o= its shares at $17 apiece, it reaped a massive return on investment."
<=>Andrew Ross Sorkin scoop: "NBC invested $500 milli=n in Snapchat IPO as part of its ambitious investment in digital media."

9. The sports page

Tennessee QB Robert Dobbs at the Combine today / AP's David J. Phillip

"NFL struggles to make sense of college video =ame stats," by AP's Mike Marot in Indianapolis, where the NFL Scouting Com=ine is under way: "It sounds strange in a league where numbers often dicta=e everything from a coach's fate to Pro Bowl selections to who gets drafte=. The problem is that the rise of spread offenses , a longer schedule and =he implementation of overtime has rendered some of the old measuring tools=sticks obsolete."

What's next? "Many ... will =e trying to learn more conventional offensive schemes. The routes, play ca=ls and personnel all will be different and even seemingly simple things, l=ke getting in and out of huddles, can become big obstacles."

10. 1 fun thing

"Co=fessions of a Postmates Addict ... how one places 705 [takeout] orders=in under four years," by Mallory Rubin, deputy editor of The Ring=r: "We've=lived in Los Angeles for 1,254 days — and we've ordered food from =ostmates, Caviar, or LAbite 705 times. ... During our New York days ... we=remained content with ordering breakfast, lunch, and dinner from our neigh=orhood spots. If a restaurant was outside of our delivery zone, we'd eat t=ere rarely or not at all ... Local dining establishments became key parts =f the fabric of our lives. ...

"Postmates [offerin= delivery from any restaurant] opened Los Angeles to us in a way that noth=ng had before, which was both a wonderful and terrible thing, because the =elivery fees stretch along with the distance, and surge pricing during pea= hours (a la Uber) can send an already-steep total into the stratosphere. =hoice is costly, but so far, we've been willing to pay. ...

we want to wash down our meals with a snack, which is=how we've come to place 10 orders from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams in Los F=lix."

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Walmart's commitment to U.S. manufacturing

At Walmart, our commitment to domestic products helps reduce the overall=time from factory or farm to shelf. By investing in American manufacturing= we can support local businesses and create more jobs. Learn more.

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