Subject: Axios AM: Mike's Top 6 — Memorable Memorial Day pic — Trump's momentous decisions ahead — JFK 100 — Hillary's fascinating helper
From: "Mike Allen" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 29 May 2017 07:28:08 -0400 (EDT)

Presented by The Boeing Company:

Memorable Memorial Day pic — Trump's momentous decisions ahead =E2�� JFK 100 — Hillary's fascinating helper

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Presented By The Boeing Company

Axios AM

By Mike Allen = ·May 29, 2017

1 big thing: America

Amy Dozier and her daughter, Emma Grace Dozier, age 10, both from Cary, =.C., salute her husband's grave as soldiers of the 3d U.S. Infantry Regime=t (The Old Guard) place nearly a quarter of a million flags at headstones =or "Flags In," a Memorial Day tradition at Arlington National Cemetery / A='s Alex Brandon

Good Monday morning, and wishing a peaceful, restful Me=orial Day to you and yours. Pausing to remember a part of the beating hear= of America that too often eludes us — the fallen, and the serving=

U.S. military casualties from Operation Iraqi=Freedom: 4,411.

U.S. military casualties in Afgha=istan, from Operation Enduring Freedom: 2,216.

=.S. military personnel: 2.1 million (active duty: 1.3 million; Reserves and National Guard: 800,=00).

Deployed overseas: 200,000.
About 20 veterans a day commit suicide, per the Veterans Administration: "In 2014, the latest year available, more than =,400 veterans took their own lives, accounting for 18% of all suicides in =merica. Veterans make up less than 9% of the U.S. population."

"The Pentagon reported [last year] that 265 active-duty servicemembers killed themselve= last year, continuing a trend of unusually high suicide rates that have p=agued the U.S. military for at least seven years."

The takeaway, from A=: "Veterans groups say a growing military-civilian disconnect con=ributes to a feeling that Memorial Day has been overshadowed. More than 12= of the U.S. population served in the armed forces during World War II. Th=t's down to less than one-half of a percent today, guaranteeing mo=e Americans aren't personally acquainted with a soldier, sailor, airman or=Marine."

Why it matters: Are you?
<=ul>

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2. Trump's momentous week

After a week abroad that gave him at least physical dis=ance from the chaos in his West Wing, President Trump this week will confr=nt decisions on three questions that will affect the rest of his term:
=ol>
Whether to embrace the Paris climate accord, dial =ack U.S. commitments, or renounce it.

How to=structure a crisis-communication apparatus to contain the Russia =esponse, so it doesn't preoccupy the entire West Wing, and how it'll inter=ct with legal and P.R. operations on the outside.

What additions to make to his senior staff, and =hether anyone should go.

A ton of j=ice in a N.Y. Times front-pager, "Kushner's=Role In White House Is Under Strain: Family Ties Tested as Russia Case=Grows," by Glenn Thrush, Maggie Haberman and Sharon LaFraniere:

"[T]he Trump-Kushner relationship, the m=st stable partnership in an often unstable West Wing, is showing unmistaka=le signs of strain."

"The most serious point of contention between the president and his son-in-law ... was=a video clip this month of Mr. Kushner's sister Nicole Meyer pitching pote=tial investors in Beijing on a Kushner Companies condominium project in Je=sey City."

"In the following days du=ing routine West Wing meetings, the president made several snarky, dispara=ing comments about Mr. Kushner's family and the visas that were clearly in=ended to express his annoyance ... Kushner did not respond, at least not i= earshot."

Trump, in a statement to =he Times last night: "Jared is doing a great job for the country. I have t=tal confidence in him. He is respected by virtually everyone and is workin= on programs that will save our country billions of dollars. In addition t= that, and perhaps more importantly, he is a very good person."

<=>P.S. Merkel say Europe must go it alone:

=/strong>

N.Y. Times Quote of the Day =/strong>... Ivo H. Daalder,=strong> a former United States ambassador to NATO, on comments by=Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany saying that Europe can no longer rely =n the United States: "This seems to be the end of an era, one in which the=United States led and Europe followed."

What's behind this= from Jonatha= Swan: Trump publicly lectured NATO allies that they must stop shirkin= their financial commitments and begin paying for their own defense rather=than relying on the U.S. Trump's unmistakable message to Europe on his fir=t foreign trip was that the days of unquestioning protection from the U.S.=are over.

Quote of note, from Poli=ico, quoting a senior EU official who was briefed on the closed NATO m=etings in Brussels: "Like when there's a new strange kid in the class nobo=y likes ... You behave civilly when teachers [media] watch but don't spend=time with him in private because he's so different."

3. JFK 100

Red, white and blue lights, marking the 100th birthday of President John=F. Kennedy, reflect in the Potomac, outside the Kennedy Center for the Per=orming Arts on Friday night / AP's J. David Ake

President John F. Kennedy was born 100 years ago today =E2�� May 29, 1917, in Brookline, Mass. He was 43 when he was elected,=and lived 3 more years.

"JFK's life, legacy=to be celebrated on his centennial," by AP's Crystal Hill in=Boston: The Postal Service today will dedicate a new JFK postage stamp in =rookline ... "Joe Kennedy III, a great-nephew of JFK, will deliver the key=ote at a ceremony at the birthplace and childhood home this afternoon. A w=eath-laying ceremony will honor the 35th president at his gravesite at Arl=ngton National Cemetery.

"New JFK exhibit<=a> offers a glimpse into the president's humanit=," by Boston Globe's Andy Rosen: "The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library=and Museum [in Boston] has included ... items like pencils from the Oval O=fice bearing bite marks, a childhood sketch of a tree on a hillside, and t=e suitcase he used during his presidential campaign give a glimpse into Ke=nedy's everyday life." Photos of items from the exhibit.

JFK's lif=, in 34 pictures.

A message from The Boeing Company

Continuing to serve

Thousands of veterans like Michael are continuing their mission at Boein=, where military experience and leadership skills are used on the job ever= day.

Learn more about th= veterans who make Boeing better.

4. Read of the day

BuzzFeed's Ruby Cramer pulls off a Hillary Clinton stor= that reminds her colleagues of Jimmy Breslin's classic on JFK's gravedigg=r — an unsung everyman, just off the grand stage ...

"The Place Where Letters To Hilla=y Clinton Go: At just 30 years old, Rob Russo has been one of=Hillary Clinton's closest aides for a decade, organizing and drafting her =olitical and personal correspondence. After the election, his job changed =s thousands of strangers starting writing to Clinton. Now he's living thro=gh the end of an era, one letter at a time."

Interviews with Russo over the last three years =E2�� before, during, and after the campaign — depict a career =pent producing the materials that, as he describes it, "neatly catalogue t=e experience" of Hillary Clinton's life. So he was not prepared, a few day= after the blow of Nov. 8, for the letters that started showing up in P.O.=Box 5256, the one listed on Clinton's website. They came by the hundreds, =ost from people his boss had never met — all about the loss.<=p>

5. Another America

From the forthcoming New Yorker ... "A Reporter at Large: The Add=cts Next Door — West Virginia has the highest overdose death r=te in the country. Locals are fighting to save their neighbors — a=d their towns —from destruction," by Margaret Talbot:

Half of those who began using =eroin before 1980 were white; nearly ninety per cent of those who began us=ng in the past decade were white. This demographic shift may be connected =o prescribing patterns. A 2012 study by a University of Pennsylvania resea=cher found that black patients were thirty-four per cent less likely than =hite patients to be prescribed opioids for such chronic conditions as back=pain and migraines, and fourteen per cent less likely to receive such pres=riptions after surgery or traumatic injury.

But a larger factor, it seems, was the despa=r of white people in struggling small towns. Judith Feinberg, a professor =t West Virginia University who studies drug addiction, described opioids a= "the ultimate escape drugs."

She told me, "Boredom and a sense of uselessness and inad=quacy—these are human failings that lead you to just want to withd=aw. On heroin, you curl up in a corner and blank out the world. It's an ex=remely seductive drug for dead-end towns, because it makes the world's pro=lems go away. Much more so than coke or meth, where you want to run around=and do things—you get aggressive, razzed and jazzed."

6. 1 fun thing

Jocelyn Voo of Everly Studios via @OliverDarcy

Caption contest winner: "Andrew, get off your phone."

Behind the frame: CNN senior media reporter Oliv=r Darcy had that memorable admonition for CNN colleague Andrew "KFILE" Kac=ynski, spotted in Brooklyn on Friday afternoon at his wedding to Rachel Lo=ise Ensign, a banking reporter at the Wall Street Journal.

Click du jour: Andrew yesterday (!) posted a montage of 33 classic =onald Trump front pages ("woods") from the N.Y. Post: "reminds me, one day=in 2016 @natemcdermott [a KFILE reporter] went to @nypl and copied all the=NY Post Trump covers from early 1990-1991."

Keepers: "MARLA RAGES!" ... "MR. BIG STIFF!" ... "DON JUAN!" ... "'BEST S=X I'VE EVER HAD.'"

And remember:

A message from The Boeing Company

Veterans make us better

With more than 20,000 veterans on our team and 800 military and veteran-=pecific events, programs and organizations supported annually, Boeing know= veterans make us better.

Learn more about Boeing’s commitment t= veterans.

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