Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 5 — The next 8 months foretold — Life Lessons and 'verbal judo': the Rental-Counter Rule — Tom Cotton's pet peeve
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 22 Apr 2017 10:23:07 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by Bank of America:

The next 8 months foretold — Life Lessons and verbal judo: the R=ntal-Counter Rule — Tom Cotton's pet peeve

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Presented By Bank of America

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·Apr 22, 2017

Most (not all) Axios AMers loved the faster-=ormat weekend Top 5 we tried on Easter. These are fascinating, complex tim=s, and I have a lot to say. But one of the top values of Axios is that we<=trong> don't waste your time. And there are some days when your t=me is better spent doing something besides reading a newsletter. This =s one of those days. Happy Saturday — see you at brunch.

1 big thing: The "100 days" week

After walking from the White House (next door), Trump and Treasury Secre=ary Steven Mnuchin arrive at the Treasury Department, where POTUS signed f=nancial-services executive orders / AP's Susan Walsh

When President Trump told AP's Julie Pace yesterday that he'd anno=nce a "massive" tax cut for both individuals and corporations next=week ("bigger, I believe, than any tax cut ever"), he "surprised =apitol Hill" and left his own Treasury officials "speechless," as the N.Y. Times put it.

=li>Between the lines: Insiders tell us the surprise was d=liberate: Trump wanted to light a fire under his own aides, who are workin= on the tax package this weekend.

Trump's vow to unve=l the plan "Wednesday or shortly thereafter" puts the announcemen= just after Congress returns from the two-week Easter recess — and=just ahead of Friday's deadline for avoiding a government shutdown, and Sa=urday's 100-day mark for his presidency.

Sources quickly to=d Axios' Jonathan Swan that it would=be kind of principles, plus: a 100,000-foot document, with no real path fo= how to get there — just targets.

No BAT: Bloomberg correctly reported that the plan "likely won't include a border-adjusted =ax that House Speaker Paul Ryan has proposed." (Awkward!)

Despite breathless reporting about House action on he=lth reform next week, a Republican lobbyist told me there's zero chance to=pull that off at the same time you're negotiating a continuing resolution =o avoid a shutdown: "You'd have a better chance of repealing the l=ws of physics."

Here's the r=al timeline: Health care passes the House by the end of May ... H=alth care passes the Senate by the end of July ... Tax reform to the presi=ent's desk by the end of the year.

P.S. In ca=e you wonder how closely Trump tracks timelines, he told Julie Pace: "I've only been here now 93 day=, 92 days. President Obama took 17 months to do 'Obamacare.' I've been her= 92 days, but I've only been working on the health care, you know, I had t= get like a little bit of grounding, right? Health care started after 30 d=y(s), so I've been working on health care for 60 days. ... we're very clos=. And it's a great plan ... we have to get it approved."

2. The Wilderness: disarray and pipe dreams

Senator Sanders in Omaha on Thursday, seen through one of the Bernie cut=uts that were popular in the crowd / AP's Charlie Neibergall

A flurry in The Wilderness is triggering a new wave of =ngst for Dems. This week, we had: the announcement of the first public event by former President O=ama (speaking to students Monday at University of Chicago) ... the publica=ion of "Shattered," the juicy autopsy of Hillary's campaign ... the launch=of Elizabeth Warren's book tour ... Bernie's road show ... and more GOP we=kness in special elections.

All this has done is h=ghlight Democratic rifts, and the prayers for a new The One. Or even the o=d One: Dreams of Obama returning frequently to the public stage are unlik=ly to be satisfied. A speed read:

The key poin=, from The Atlantic's Clare Foran: "[I]deological divides =ithin the party [including abortion and economic populism] continue to cau=e division even after the 2016 presidential election, and that Trump alone=will not be enough of a unifying force to paper over those rifts."
The problem: "The same debates that divided Democrats thr=ughout the 2016 presidential primary ... threaten to make it more difficul= for Democrats to rally around the very candidates who could help the part= make inroads in conservative parts of the country."

"Very=raw": It may have been inevitable, the N.Y. Times' Jonathan Marti= points out, that there would be a collision when the biggest star on the =eft (Bernie) is a class warrior at a time when Democrats are increasingly =efined by cultural issues. JMart's front-page dispatch, about a DNC "Unity=Tour" stop in Omaha this week, "At a 'Unity' Stop in Nebras=a, Democrats Find Anything But."

And for =hose who want hope ... Top of WashPost column 1, "Democrat=c newcomers gear up for 2018 fight," by Ed O'Keefe and Mike DeBonis: "=t least 15 declared [House] candidates or contenders on the verge of annou=cing have emerged in districts that Democrats must win ... [T]he key ingre=ient this year is the grass-roots urgency, but the hope is to combine that=with organizing heft."

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3. Life lesons: "Verbal judo"

Kopp Illustration / The New York Times

A secret to life is having a sane, calm, big-hearted pe=son in mind whose behavior you'll model when you're inclined to flip out i= an everyday situation.

The Rental-Counter Rule is: When things get slow or dumb, what kind of behavior are =ou going to model for your significant other, your kids or the people arou=d you?

So think of someone with composure, and be t=em. Mine is Josh Deckard, a Bush 43 guy I go to church with. When I'm incl=ned to lose it, I just think, "What would Josh do?" and simmer down.
<=>Whether you're raising kids or managing people, you'll g=t some worthy tips from a fun and illuminating read that's the cover of to=orrow's N.Y. Times Business section, "How Airlin= Workers Learn to Deal With You."

The article =E2�� by Ron Lieber, the paper's "Your Money" columnist — is w=itten off of a class in "verbal judo" that "offers a wind=w on how flight crews are taught to defuse situations." The takeaways:=

The Voice: "[W]hen gate=agents or flight attendants slow down dramatically, lower their voice or g=t down on one knee to address you, it's probably on purpose. And you'll pr=bably calm down, lest you feel utterly hysterical and completely ridiculou=."

The most American (nationality, not airline) question o= all is: "Why?" When we explain why, we're showing respe=t.

The Choice (Is Yours): "This bit of context se=ting is part of a five-step process that begins with an employee's ask and=ends with a confirmation and the requested action. After the why, =here may need to be a set of options if someone is not satisfied =ith the explanation and proceeds to do his own thing."

I love this one ... The Mile-M=king Machine: "Things go awry. No airline is per=ect, and no single flight is, either. Not everyone wants a free drink for =he trouble ... Enter Delta's hand-held mile-making machine, which it uses for 'servic= recovery.' Did your tray table fall apart in your hands as you attempted =o use it? That will be 5,000 SkyMiles into your account. ... [F]light atte=dants have flexibility in distributing them."

4. Brick-and-mortar stores shutter at record pace

The Wall Street Journal

Based on the pace of store-closings so far this year, t=e brokerage Credit Suisse estimates that U.S. retailers will close more t=an 8,600 locations this year, which would eclipse the number of cl=sings during the 2008 recession.

That's the takeawa= from the lead story of the Wall Street Journal'= second section, by Suzanne Kapner:

The killer stat: "[C]losings have been announced for 2,880 retail locations this yea=, including hundreds of locations being shut by national chains such as Pa=less ShoeSource Inc. and RadioShack Corp. That is more than twice as many =losings as announced during the same period last year."

Li=go, for the land grab over the past three decades, icluding the i=flux of fast-fashion and off-price chains: "over-storing."
How brick-and-mortar chains are coping:<=strong> "In a bid to better compete with Amazon.com, [Walmart] has been sc=oping up e-commerce startups, including Jet.com and ModCloth. And just thi= past week, PetSmart Inc. bought Chewy.com, a fast-growing online rival."<=li>

5. 1 fun thing: "10 things to toss"

Ste=en Wilson / The Washington Post

The WashPost Outlook section has an annual "Spring Clea=ing" feature, in which a variety of writers nominate something we'd be bet=er off without. The highlights of tomorrow's edition:

=strong>Countdown clocks, by Sen. To= Cotton (R-Ark.): "Just 364 days, 23 hours and 59 minutes to go until The =ashington Post publishes its 2018 Spring Cleaning issue. ... [I]t seems li=e news channels are always counting down to something. But I can't quite a=ree with the networks about what's considered a clock-worthy 'event.' New =ear's? Sure. A presidential address? Possibly. Rachel Maddow's Trump tax r=turn 'exposé'? Hardly."

No =eservations, by Post restaurant critic Tom Sietsema: Customer= of hot D.C. restaurants "are increasingly asked to stand in line for the =pportunity to taste the handiwork of top chefs. ... [A]s someone whose fir=t priority is diners, I'd like to point out that 'restaurant' is derived f=om the French word for 'restore,' and restaurants that don't let you plan =n advance are anything but fortifying."

"Unconscious bias," by Kara Swisher, Reco=e co-founder and executive editor: "You can't throw a hammer in Silicon Va=ley these days and not hit a gender or race bias controversy. ... The wors= excuse is what is widely called 'unconscious bias' — bias that ki=ks in automatically, with our supposedly unthinking brains making often-in=ccurate snap judgments. ... Here's a suggestion for tech execs: Pick up yo=r head and look."

Other entries ... "Healthy substitutes" by Nina Teicholz ... "" by Tim Gunn ... "Playoffs" by Dan Sternberg =.. "Self-care" by Amanda Ericsson ... "Tweet storm=" by Jeff MacGregor ... "Wedding registries" =y Caitlin Flanagan ... "College football" by Patrick=Hruby.

<=a>

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