Good Sunday morning. NEW NBC/WSJ POLL: 44% approve of the job he’s doing, 48% disapprove. “Trump begins his tenure in a dramatically less popular position than any of his predecessors. He is the only president in the history of modern polling to begin his first term with a net negative approval rating -- and it’s not close. Compared to Trump’s net negative rating of -4 percent, Barack Obama began his presidency with a net positive 34 percent; George W. Bush and Bill Clinton enjoyed a similar advantage, and George H.W. Bush’s score of popular goodwill pushed even higher to a net positive of 45 percent.” http://nbcnews.to/2ld4QZu
YOU’RE INVITED -- This will be a very newsy week in Washington, as President Donald Trump gives his first joint address to Congress Tuesday evening. We are excited that HOUSE MINORITY LEADER NANCY PELOSI will sit down with us for a PLAYBOOK INTERVIEW on Friday morning at the Newseum (555 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW). Doors open at 8:20 a.m. Democrats are in the minority in the House and Senate, but that understates their power in the coming months. Much of what Trump wants to do -- a stimulus package and a large-scale rewrite of the tax code -- will need Democratic votes in some way, shape or form. RVSP http://bit.ly/2mjyTDN
**SUBSCRIBE to Playbook: http://politi.co/1M75UbX
SHOT -- WHAT YOU’VE HEARD BY NOW -- @realDonaldTrump at 4:53 p.m. Saturday: “I will not be attending the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!”
-- TRUTH BOMB: Yes, it’s a break in tradition, but presidents have skipped the dinner in the past. It only is funny if the president is invested in being funny. And the White House is acknowledging it would be an awkward affair. W.H. SPOX SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS said this to George Stephanopoulos: "I think it's -- kind of naive of us to think that we can all walk into a room for a couple of hours and pretend that some of that tension isn't there. You know, one of the things we say in the south if a Girl Scout egged your house, would you buy cookies from her? I think that this is a pretty similar scenario. There's no reason for him to go in and sit and pretend like this is going to be just another Saturday night." ONE THING WE'RE WONDERING: What happens to the alternative dinner that Samantha Bee said she was hosting?
CHASER -- READ THIS WHOLE A1 STORY -- “Trump Ruled the Tabloid Media. Washington Is a Different Story,” by NYT’s Glenn Thrush and Mike Grynbaum: “The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, has taken to slapping journalists who write unflattering stories with an epithet he sees as the epitome of low-road, New York Post-style gossip: ‘Page Six reporter.’ Whether the New England-bred spokesman realizes it or not, the expression is perhaps less an insult than a reminder of an era when Donald J. Trump mastered the New York tabloid terrain — and his own narrative -- shaping his image with a combination of on-the-record bluster and off-the-record gossip. He’s not in Manhattan anymore. This New York-iest of politicians, now an idiosyncratic, write-your-own-rules president, has stumbled into the most conventional of Washington traps: believing he can master an entrenched political press corps with far deeper connections to the permanent government of federal law enforcement and executive department officials than he has.
“Instead, President Trump has found himself subsumed and increasingly infuriated by the leaks and criticisms he has long prided himself on vanquishing. Now, goaded by Stephen K. Bannon, his chief strategist, Mr. Trump has turned on the news media with escalating rhetoric, labeling major outlets as ‘the enemy of the American people.’ … ‘New York is extremely intense and competitive, but it is actually a much smaller pond than Washington, where you have many more players with access to many more sources,’ said Howard Wolfson, who has split his career between New York and Washington, advising former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential campaign. ‘In New York, you can create a manageable set of relationships in a smaller universe,’ Mr. Wolfson said. ‘In Washington, that becomes a lot more complicated.’ There is another fundamental difference: During his Page Six days, Mr. Trump was, by and large, trafficking in trivia. As president, he is dealing with the most serious issues of the day. They involve the nation’s safety and prosperity, and it is the role of news organizations to cover them.” http://nyti.ms/2lcZfSP
-- CORRECTION TO THIS STORY: “Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to Sean Spicer’s upbringing. He was New England bred, having been raised in Rhode Island; he was not ‘New England born.’ (Mr. Spicer would not go on the record and give the correct facts pertaining to his birthplace.)” http://nyti.ms/2lcZfSP
TRUMP dines at his hotel for his first night out on the town as president. The press pool got little information about the night. http://politi.co/2lcYBES
WHAT TRUMP IS TWEETING -- @realDonaldTrump at 6:42 a.m.: “For first time the failing @nytimes will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. Try reporting accurately & fairly!” 30-second ad which will air during the Oscars http://bit.ly/2lU2FxJ … The print ads in today’s paper http://bit.ly/2mrYjMr … http://bit.ly/2lYeVhg
--@brianstelter: “8 minutes before this tweet, we showed the NYT ad and discussed it on @CNN @NewDay... perhaps the prez saw it” … @blakehounshell replies: “Hope you noted that the New York Times has been running ads for years.”
--PER AN NYT SPOKESMAN: “The campaign includes national and local television, digital, social media, outdoor and print advertising. ... I’m afraid we can’t disclose the exact cost or our budget.”
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE returns from maternity leave to the “Today Show” tomorrow.
WHITE HOUSE MEMO -- PETER BAKER on H.R. MCMASTER: “Will Trump Take ‘Brutally Forthright’ Advice From McMaster?”: “McMaster’s ‘book, ‘Dereliction of Duty,’ … highlighted the consequences of the military not giving candid advice to a president. General McMaster concluded that during Vietnam, officers on the Joint Chiefs of Staff ‘failed to confront the president with their objections’ to a strategy they thought would fail. Twenty years later, the book serves as a guidepost to how he views his role as the coordinator of the president’s foreign policy team. … ‘It’s a history, but he obviously draws conclusions about the need for what you might term brutally forthright assessments by military and indeed also by civilian leaders,’ David H. Petraeus, the retired Army general and a patron of General McMaster, said in an interview. ‘That’s a hugely important takeaway. He has a record of being quite forthright.’ ...
“‘The difficulty is that Trump has a lot of crazy ideas in his head — like we should steal Iraq’s oil or we should kill the relatives of terrorists or we need to ban Muslims from coming here,’ said Max Boot, a military historian at the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘And I’m sure someone like McMaster, like Mattis, understands how crackpot these ideas are. So can you say to the president, ‘Hey, Sir, you’re full’ of it? Mr. Boot continued. ‘Or do you have to sugarcoat it and handle him with kid gloves? I suspect it’s the latter, and that’s not been H. R.’s approach. We’ll see if Trump is man enough to take it.’” http://nyti.ms/2myVcl3 … $11.87 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2lTyMxK
THE NEW WORLD ORDER -- “Sources: U.S. considers quitting U.N. Human Rights Council:The body has been accused of unfairly targeting Israel, and Trump aides are questioning its usefulness,” by Nahal Toosi and Eliana Johnson: “The Trump administration is considering pulling the United States out of the United Nations Human Rights Council, a body that has been accused of being biased against Israel and criticized for including abusive governments, according to two sources in regular contact with former and current U.S. officials. No immediate withdrawal is expected ahead of the council’s next session, which starts Monday, but discussion of abandoning the council is likely to alarm international activists already worried that the United States will take a lower profile on global human rights issues under President Donald Trump. A final decision on membership in the council would likely involve Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, as well as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, and of course the president himself.” http://politi.co/2lnwh3z
-- NYT A1, “Immigration Agents Discover New Freedom to Deport Under Trump,” by Nick Kulish, Caitlin Dickerson and Ron Nixon: “A whirlwind of activity has overtaken ICE headquarters in Washington in recent weeks, with employees attending back-to-back meetings about how to quickly carry out President Trump’s plans. ‘Some people are like: “This is great. Let’s give them all the tools they need,”’ said a senior staff member at headquarters, who joined the department under the administration of George W. Bush. But, the official added, ‘other people are a little bit more hesitant and fearful about how quickly things are moving.’ Two officials in Washington said that the shift — and the new enthusiasm that has come with it — seems to have encouraged pro-Trump political comments and banter that struck the officials as brazen or gung-ho, like remarks about their jobs becoming ‘fun.’ Those who take less of a hard line on unauthorized immigrants feel silenced.” http://nyti.ms/2lJ704X
--“Trump Administration Seeks to Loosen Hiring Requirements to Beef Up Border Patrol,” by Foreign Policy’s Molly O’Toole: “The Trump administration is seeking to loosen some security requirements for hiring Border Patrol agents in order to meet a dramatic surge in immigration enforcement, according to internal memos obtained by Foreign Policy and analyzed by five current and former officials in the Department of Homeland Security. Customs and Border Protection, part of DHS, is seeking approval to relax some stringent standards that have made it difficult for the agency to meet recruitment targets in recent years. That includes a request to potentially loosen congressionally-mandated requirements such as a polygraph, as well as an entrance exam and background check.” http://atfp.co/2lTzVFm
CENTERPIECE ON A1 OF THE MIAMI HERALD -- “Slain SEAL’s dad wants answers: ‘Don’t hide behind my son’s death,’” by Julie K. Brown: “When they brought William ‘Ryan’ Owens home, the Navy SEAL was carried from a C-17 military plane in a flag-draped casket, onto the tarmac at Dover Air Force Base, as President Donald Trump, his daughter, Ivanka, and Owens’ family paid their respects. It was a private transfer, as the family had requested. No media and no bystanders, except for some military dignitaries.
“Owens’ father, Bill, had learned only a short time before the ceremony that Trump was coming. Owens was sitting with his wife, Marie, and other family members in the solemn, living room-like space where the loved ones of the fallen assemble before they are taken to the flight line. ‘I’m sorry, I don’t want to see him,’’ Owens recalled telling the chaplain who informed him that Trump was on his way from Washington. ‘I told them I don’t want to meet the President.’ … Now, Owens cringed at the thought of having to shake the hand of the president who approved the raid in Yemen that claimed his son’s life — an operation that he and others are now calling into question. ‘I told them I didn’t want to make a scene about it, but my conscience wouldn’t let me talk to him,’ Owens said Friday, speaking out for the first time in an interview with the Miami Herald. Owens, also a military veteran, was troubled by Trump’s harsh treatment of a Gold Star family during his presidential campaign. Now Owens was a Gold Star parent, and he said he had deep reservations about the way the decision was made to launch what would be his son’s last mission.” http://hrld.us/2ldasmd
ADELSON’S WORLD -- “Jewish Republicans torn over Trump,” by Alex Isenstadt in Las Vegas: “An uncomfortable debate broke out this weekend as the most prominent group of Jewish Republican donors in the country gathered at Sheldon Adelson’s lavish Venetian hotel: Should criticism of President Donald Trump be allowed. … The tug-of-war underscored a growing divide over Trump among Republican Jews, a group that counts Adelson as its de-facto leader. Many are elated by their party’s stunning election win and the fact that Barack Obama, who was seen as being openly antagonistic to Israel, is no longer in the Oval Office.” http://politi.co/2lJdmkC
OKAY, WE GET IT! -- WaPo, today, “Trump’s Cabinet has to work as a cleanup crew” http://wapo.st/2kZrR6E ... Boston Globe, today, “Trump speaks, and his Cabinet explains” http://bit.ly/2mrVJpy … Politico’s Nahal Toosi, Thursday, “Trump’s words send Cabinet on perpetual clean-up mission” http://politi.co/2lJj1ay
THE LOYAL OPPOSITION -- “Perez elected DNC chairman: The former Labor secretary immediately moved to unify the party by naming Keith Ellison as his deputy chairman,” by Gabriel Debenedetti in Atlanta: “Tom Perez, the former Labor secretary for President Barack Obama, was elected as the Democratic National Committee’s new chairman on Saturday, replacing interim chair Donna Brazile after a rollicking four-month race and a chaotic final day of voting. Party members landed on a decision on who should be in charge of Democrats’ official party apparatus after two rounds of balloting. With 218 votes necessary to win, the final tally was 235 votes for Perez and 200 votes for Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison.” http://politi.co/2lJnaeJ
THE REAL QUESTION REMAINS: How will Perez and Ellison split up the work? DNC insiders tell us that will be harder than it appears.
-- “Sanders revolution resists DNC loss,” by Isaac Dovere in Atlanta: “Sen. Bernie Sanders and his supporters went hard after anyone who wouldn't back Keith Ellison in the run-up to the [DNC] chair election. Sanders phoned Jaime Harrison on Wednesday, the South Carolina Democratic chair who was on the verge of dropping out of the race, making a heavy pitch for him to endorse Ellison as a transformational moment for the party. The next day, when Harrison threw his support to former Labor secretary Tom Perez instead, Ellison supporters worked off talking points and attacked him as a corporate lobbyist insider who’d struck a crooked deal that didn’t pass their purity test.” http://politi.co/2lJ9Wyf
SPOTTED: Perez holding court at the lounge bar at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel after they closed the hotel bar. Bartender told patrons it was “bigger than SEC weekend.” Others on hand: Henry Munoz, Michael Blake, Grace Meng, Emmy Ruiz.
SUNDAY BEST -- OHIO GOV. JOHN KASICH talks to JOHN DICKERSON on CBS’s “FACE THE NATION”: DICKERSON: “Governor, you met with the President to talk about healthcare. Where do you think he is in his thinking about reforming the Affordable Care Act?” KASICH: “Well I kind of outlined for him the things that I thought would work. I mean the program needs reformed. If you look over on the exchange side, some of these companies are melting down and you don’t want to have all the exchanges collapse, and you also don’t want to be in a position where you don’t cover these 20 million Americans. You have to make sure that you have a system that’s reformed, that more affordable, and is going to work but we’re just not going to pull the rug out from under people. He listened intently to me, got Secretary Price on the phone, we were there the two of us. And here’s what I think the problem is. The question is are Democrats going to work with Republicans to fix this system? What I’m hearing is they -- no. You Republicans didn’t work with us when we did Obamacare, we’re not going to work with you. And that’s kind of like 5th grade stuff. Because what’s at risk are all these people who are now getting coverage and we don't want to see it denied to them.”
DICKERSON: “I guess Democrats would say, but they just want to repeal it. They don’t want to fix it. They just want to take the -- what’s your sense of that in terms of the President’s thinking?” KASICH: “Look, I can’t read his mind but I felt it was very positive. He responded very positively to a number of the ideas I had. And the fact of the matter is you can’t just repeal without repealing and replacing at the same time. It just becomes a political impossibility and there’s no reason to do it any other way than that.”
WHITE HOUSE'S SARAH HUCKABEE SANDERS to GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS on ABC'S "THIS WEEK" about an investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia: SANDERS: "Look, I think the real easy answer here is that the FBI has already said this story is BS. Those are their words, so I apologize to my mom. But literally, those are the words of the FBI, that the story is BS. They came to us, they approached us for putting that story out there. I think the American people deserve to know the truth. And that's exactly what it is, that there's nothing here. Just because reporters say something over and over and over again doesn't start to make it true. At some point, we get to a place where we've got to move on and start focusing on the things that the American people care about and I don't think this is it."
-- @FoxNewSunday: “.@CLewandowski_ on calls for independent prosecutor on Russia probe: If [Sessions] wants to investigate it’s his prerogative.”
TAPPER'S CNN "STATE OF THE UNION" -- @CNNSotu: ".@ChrisChristie on Priebus-FBI: 'I don't think the WH chief of staff will have that kind of conversation w/ the FBI again -- nor should he.' ... @ChrisChristie on the Trump White House: These are all people who have never been in government before.'"
-- @jaketapper: “We invited the @WhiteHouse to provide us with a guest to discuss the week’s news and the president’s agenda; they declined our offer.”
THE CLINTON BEAT -- “Chelsea Clinton lets loose on Twitter,” by Annie Karni: “Hillary Clinton’s devastating defeat, coupled with the rise of President Donald Trump, has coaxed out a new Chelsea: provocative, punchier, and, for virtually the first time in her life, someone angling for attention in the political fray. ... Like the rest of the characters in her mother’s orbit, Chelsea Clinton [a birthday girl tomorrow] is in a moment of transition, trying to figure out whether she’ll pursue her own political career—a move she hasn’t ruled out—or find a path outside the family business. ‘Lots of people are riled up and dialing it up,’ said longtime Hillary Clinton confidante Philippe Reines. ‘Not as loyalists, but as citizens. I’m guessing that’s a big part of the motivation behind what she’s saying and how she’s saying it. She just also happens to be a Clinton.’” http://politi.co/2kZrqcE
HAPPENING TONIGHT -- “Trump social team prepares to host ritzy Governors’ Dinner,” by CNN’s Kate Bennett. http://cnn.it/2ld6VVk
FROM A PLAYBOOKER: OVERHEARD at the National Governors Association Winter Meeting: "Multiple governors and their top staff trying to figure out where they stand in the yet-to-be-released 'Best States' ranking by US News & World Report. The project was previewed for the first time in a closed-door lunch meeting, which sent the chiefs of staff and communications teams racing to set up private briefings on their results before it goes live on Tuesday." One Playbooker noted Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker had a big smile on his face.
VALLEY TALK -- “Donald Trump’s ‘shadow president’ in Silicon Valley: Billionaire iconoclast Peter Thiel’s fingerprints are all over the administration,” by Eliana Johnson: “At the Presidio, the old Army fort in San Francisco where Thiel’s investment firms are housed, many of his employees have taken to calling him ‘the shadow president.’ ... Bannon’s ideology is a sort of populist nationalism, while Thiel’s is tech-centric: He believes progress is dependent on a revolution in technology that has been largely stymied by government regulation. ... Trump’s surprise victory in November also gave Thiel a renewed faith in the possibilities of politics, and he has worked around the clock to push friends and associates into positions that will give them sway over science and technology policy, an area he believes has been routinely neglected under previous administrations.
“That helps to explain why Jim O’Neill, a managing director at Thiel’s venture capital firm, Mithril Capital Management, is now being considered to run [FDA]. O’Neill served at [HHS] in the George W. Bush administration but has no medical background. He has argued that drugs should not have to go through clinical trials to prove their efficacy before they are sold to consumers. ‘The fact that Jim is even in consideration for the position is astonishing,’ said one Thiel associate. ‘It’s legitimately an outrageous coup for Peter to be able to put somebody at that high a level of government.’” http://politi.co/2ldhg3h
WINTER WHITE HOUSE UPDATE -- A1 OF THE PALM BEACH POST -- “Palm Beach County aims to weigh benefits of Trump visits against costs,” by Wayne Washington: “Much has been made of the escalating costs of providing additional security during President Donald Trump’s trips to Mar-a-Lago, which he has dubbed the ‘winter White House.’ But having the president in your midst brings benefits, too. And Palm Beach County wants to know how they stack up. The county is conducting a review of the benefits and costs of having the president travel here frequently...
“During presidential stays, television reporters air stories on the president, often with an image of sunny and warm Palm Beach County in the background. Palm Beach County Administrator Verdenia Baker explained that such mentions are called ‘home impressions,’ and they could make, well, an impression. ‘People could look at that and say, ‘Palm Beach County, it’s pretty there,’ she said. ‘We should visit there.’ ... Businesses at Palm Beach International Airport and the general aviation airports that the county operates in Pahokee and west of Lantana and Palm Beach Gardens have reported hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost income since Trump was elected because of temporary flight restrictions imposed during presidential visits. That in turn affects Palm Beach County’s income because the county gets a portion of the gas sales and rent income collected by the fixed base operators.
“The general aviation airport in Boca Raton, which is not operated by the county, also has reported lost business during Trump’s visits. The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office has racked up $1.5 million and counting in overtime as deputies assist with security and traffic management when Trump comes to town. Sheriff Ric Bradshaw estimates the presidents’ visits cost $60,000 a day in deputy overtime.” http://bit.ly/2mzcjmE
BUSINESS BURST -- “Bond Market Is Flashing Warning Signal on Trump Reflation Trade,” by WSJ’s Min Zeng: “The U.S. bond market is parting ways with the stock market—a red flag for investors who piled into the reflation trade. While the Dow Jones Industrial Average has soared more than 1,000 points so far this year and closed at a record of 20821.76 Friday, the yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.317% Friday, the lowest since late November, from 2.446% at the end of 2016.” http://on.wsj.com/2lTLtIF
-- WARREN BUFFETT’s annual letter -- always worth a read: http://bit.ly/2lnOmyo
TIM ALBERTA at National Harbor in Oxon, Maryland, “‘The Conservative Movement Is Donald Trump’: Trump’s takeover of conservatism is faster and more decisive than anyone expected”: “To spend three days at this year’s CPAC, the annual right-wing carnival of politics and culture, was to witness an ideology conforming to an individual rather than the other way around. ... In his meandering 48-minute speech, Trump did not once use the words ‘liberty’ or ‘constitution.’ He did not invoke the name of Ronald Reagan, the last Republican president to address CPAC during his first year in office, and to whom he was incessantly compared throughout the week. He made no reference to ‘government,’ in terms of keeping it small, limited or otherwise. And the only time he uttered the word ‘conservative’ was in reference to his triumph at the ballot box.” http://politi.co/2ld3u0I
MEDIAWATCH -- “Gretchen Carlson in talks to join MSNBC, sources say,” by Business Insider’s Oliver Darcy: “Carlson, who settled a multi-million lawsuit late last year against former Fox News chief Roger Ailes, is in talks with MSNBC to join the network, sources familiar with the matter told Business Insider. A source familiar with the matter said Carlson’s deal had not yet been finalized, but was nearing completion. ... An MSNBC spokesperson initially said Carlson had not joined the network, but would not comment on if she was in talks to do so. After publication of this story, the MSNBC spokesperson denied Carlson was in talks with the network.” http://read.bi/2mz2HZ5
-- NEW WSJ AD: “The Face of Real News -- John Carreyrou’s nearly year-long investigation into blood-testing startup Theranos drew widespread public attention to the excesses of the Silicon Valley boom and voided tens of thousands of blood samples that could have endangered public health. Real journalists and real news from America’s most trusted newspaper.” Pic http://bit.ly/2lJ8BYh ...Carreyrou’s first big Theranos story http://on.wsj.com/2mjuwZo
WEST COAST WATCH -- “In deep blue California, Trump electrifies GOP,” by David Siders and Carla Marinucci: “California’s withered Republican Party finally found reason for cheer. In less than six weeks, President Donald Trump had done more to unsettle Democrats in the land of Jerry Brown and Berkeley than Republicans managed for years, calling the nation’s most populous state ‘out of control’ and panicking its ruling party on issues ranging from climate change to health care and immigration. As the California GOP tipped cocktails at its spring convention over the weekend, it held out hope that Trump might reinvigorate its ranks. ‘I don’t know about you,’ the state party chairman, Jim Brulte, told delegates in a hotel ballroom across from the state Capitol. ‘But Donald Trump’s just rockin’ my socks.’” http://politi.co/2lTC5EU
THE OSCARS ARE TONIGHT -- Where to watch the big show (hosted by Jimmy Kimmel starting at 7 p.m.) http://wapo.st/2lJ4VHQ
VIDEO DU JOUR – NYT launched its first “Daily 360” video series today -- “For the series, The Times got exclusive access to a crew of scientists who are living in a bio-dome in Hawaii to simulate a human colony on Mars. It’s a NASA-funded study of human behavior, in order to prepare for future missions to Mars. We filmed their training in January, before they began their 8-month isolation in the dome. We sent a 360 camera in with them, and received their first transmission of 360 video last week.” 5-min. video http://nyti.ms/2lnluXg
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman:
--“Don’t Dismiss President Trump’s Attacks on the Media as Mere Stupidity,” by Bret Stephens in the Daniel Pearl Memorial Lecture delivered this past week at UCLA: “We crossed a rubicon in the Clinton years, when three things happened: we decided that some types of presidential lies didn’t matter; we concluded that ‘character’ was over-rated when judging a president; we allowed the lines between political culture and celebrity culture to become hopelessly blurred. But whatever one might say about President Clinton, what we have now is the crack-cocaine version of that.” http://ti.me/2lGmKr2
--“Red and Blue Roommates,” photographs and text by Ty Wright for The Chronicle of Higher Ed: “Matt and Zain have been friends since third grade. One voted for Trump. The other is Muslim. A friendship is being tested.” http://bit.ly/2lQyOq1
--“The Very Drugged Nazis,” by Antony Beevor in the N.Y. Review of Books, reviewing “Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich,” by Norman Ohler, translated from the German by Shaun Whiteside: The drugs “certainly contributed to Hitler’s fantasies about maps showing German progress as he lost all touch with the reality on the battlefield.” http://bit.ly/2la5pmO ... $18.30 on Amazon http://amzn.to/2laXRAi (h/t TheBrowser.com)
--“The Accidental Activist,” by Joshua Prager in the Feb. 2013 Vanity Fair: “She appeared to be the perfect plaintiff in a case that changed America’s political landscape: Roe v. Wade ... But Norma McCorvey ... was never what she seemed: neither as the pregnant Texas woman who won fame as abortion-rights icon ‘Jane Roe,’ nor as the pro-life activist she would become. Retracing her life through family, friends, and advisers, Joshua Prager investigates.” http://bit.ly/2lal6KM
--“On Anger, Disgust, and Love,” by Andrea Scarantino on EmotionResearcher.com: “Martha Nussbaum is the Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Philosophy Department, Law School, and Divinity School at the University of Chicago. She is a world-renowned philosopher whose ideas on emotions and their roles in social life, developed in dozens of best-selling books and 500 articles, have had a profound influence both in academia and in the world at large.” http://bit.ly/2mhHoiu
--“Who Is Guy Fieri?” by Helen Hollyman in Vice: “Guy Fieri has become as pervasive to the American consciousness as one of our greatest exports: the Kardashians. He has formal involvement in more than 40 restaurants worldwide; three TV shows; six best-selling cookbooks, and a fleet of grocery store products.” http://bit.ly/2lGk3nE (h/t Longreads.com)
--“Contemplating Human Extinction, Deep in the Badlands,” by Edward McPherson in LitHub.com: “Digging for dinosaur bones amid the Dakota oil boom.” http://bit.ly/2lkthFf
--“How Peter Thiel’s Palantir Helped the NSA Spy on the Whole World,” by Sam Biddle in The Intercept: The “controversial (and opaque) company Palantir has long sought to sell governments an unmatched power to sift and exploit information of any kind. ... Palantir has worked for years to boost the global dragnet of the NSA and its international partners, and was in fact co-created with American spies.” http://bit.ly/2lGbBEO
--“The Holocaust’s Great Escape,” by Matthew Shaer in the March Smithsonian: “A remarkable discovery in Lithuania brings a legendary tale of survival back to life.” http://bit.ly/2lakpAY
--“Hollywood Has No Idea What to Do with VR,” by Ty Burr in Technology Review: “Traditional movies were the popular art form of the 20th century. Is virtual reality what comes next?” http://bit.ly/2mvTlxd
--“A Journey Through Assad’s Syria,” by Fritz Schaap in Der Spiegel: “With the fall of Aleppo, the regime of Bashar Assad once again controls the country’s second-largest city. But is reconciliation possible in the country? A journey through the dictator’s rump state.” http://bit.ly/2lGoP4E
--“A Comparative Guide to Russia’s Use of Force: Measure Twice, Invade Once,” by Michael Kofman in War on the Rocks: “In recent conflicts, Russia has demonstrated a keen understanding of how to apply this instrument of national power to achieve desired political ends, doling out force in prescribed doses in the quest for decisive leverage. Although Russian military power remains a blunt force instrument, the state wields it more like a rapier, demonstrating discretion and timing.” http://bit.ly/2mhIf2J
--“Stop calling for a Muslim Enlightenment,” by Christopher de Bellaigue in The Guardian: “After every terror attack the call rings out for the Muslim world to become modern. But ... Muslims have strenuously engaged with all that is new for hundreds of years.” http://bit.ly/2lPTVbQ
--“4chan: The Skeleton Key to the Rise of Trump,” by Dale Beran in Medium: “Trump’s younger supporters know he’s an incompetent joke; in fact, that’s why they support him.” http://bit.ly/2lGlzYw(h/t Longform.org)
--“The Coffee Shaman,” by Sam Dean in Lucky Peach: “Meet the man responsible for third-wave coffee—and the Frappuccino.” http://bit.ly/2lPZIyi
SPOTTED: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin last night with a teenage girl and a guy at Café Milano ... At other tables at Milano: Kathy O’Hearn with David Hume Kennerly; Steve Hilton. ... Jennifer Garner was at Milano on Friday night ... Fox News’ Tucker Carlson leaving the Glover Park restaurant Surfside with a massive takeout bag of food Saturday night ... Michelle Obama at the Kennedy Center last night for a Ledisi concert.
TRANSITIONS -- Dan Morrison has joined the Pew Research Center as vice president of global comms, based in Washington. This comes following a six-year stint in Paris, where he served as head of global media for OECD.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD -- BUSH ALUMNI -- Brian Roehrkasse, VP of external comms at BAE Systems and alum of the Bush 43 White House, DHS and DOJ, and Megan Gerking, associate at Covington & Burling and a DOJ alum, post on Facebook: “After 9 long months of anticipation and excitement, our little bundle of joy arrived last night! Please join us in welcoming Colton Tim Roehrkasse to the world.” Pics http://bit.ly/2lnoXoE … http://bit.ly/2mzgVce
WEEKEND WEDDINGS -- “Theresa Apoznanski, Kyle Scott” -- N.Y. Times: “The bride, 27 … is a first-year pediatric resident at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, N.Y. She graduated from N.Y.U. and received a medical degree from New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine. … The groom, also 27, is a digital video producer at NBC News in New York. He graduated magna cum laude from Cornell. ... The couple met in a physics class in 2005 at Smithtown High School West in Smithtown, N.Y. [and went to prom together], and he proposed a decade later on the High Line in Manhattan.” With pic http://nyti.ms/2kZw2zB ... Wedding pic http://bit.ly/2lJ43CR
-- “Mary Childs, Scott Lane” -- Times: “The bride, 30, who will be keeping her name, was until January based in New York as the United States financial correspondent for The Financial Times [and is a Bloomberg alum] … She is now based in Laguna Woods, Calif., working on a book on the money-management industry to be published by Flatiron Books … She graduated from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Va. … The groom, 32, is a songwriter and guitarist for the Congress, a touring rock band based in Richmond. … He graduated from Randolph–Macon College in Ashland, Va. … The couple met in 2001 during high school (where both their mothers worked) and the following year were cast as boyfriend and girlfriend in the school play, ‘The Man Who Came to Dinner.’ But they did not begin dating until 2014.” With pic http://nyti.ms/2lJsiB1
BIRTHDAYS: CBS News White House producer Arden Farhi, son of WaPo’s Paul Farhi ... Kelley Gannon Russell, Bush alum ... Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) is 59 ... WashTimes White House correspondent Dave Boyer, a Philly Inquirer alum … president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is 63 ... Obama-world’s Fae Jencks … former S.C. Gov. David Beasley is 6-0 … Politico’s Sophie Willis, Katie Ellsworth, Li Zhou and Sarah Eppler ... Carrie Meadows, COS to Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) ... Amanda Alpert Loveday, senior project manager at NP Strategy ... A’shanti Gholar, DNC alum now political director for Emerge America ... Ashli Palmer, Asst Democratic Leader Clyburn’s policy director ... Courtney Paul, associate manager of comms at the Chamber’s Global Intellectual Property Center (h/t Laura Crist) ... Michele Ridge, former first Lady of Pennsylvania and wife of Gov. Tom Ridge, is 7-0 (h/t Ed Cash) ... Zara Haq, a Hillary and DNC alum ... Clay Doherty, former director of protocol and special events at USAID (h/t Ashley Chang) ... Jo Schopper (h/t Jon Haber) ... Jeff Abers, an attorney in Fort Lauderdale and a big Playbook fan, is 62 ... Celia Meyer of the Independent Women’s Forum, who on President’s Day gave birth to Lincoln Elizabeth Meyer with Ron Meyer, editor of Red Alert Politics – pic http://bit.ly/2lXR6WI ...
... Corry Bliss, executive director of American Action Network and Congressional Leadership Fund, is 36 ... Ronald Lauder is 73 (h/t Jewish Insider) ... Maddie Sawyer Keane, youngest daughter of Perkins Coie’s Political Law Group partner Kate Keane and SmartPower’s Brian Keane, is 2 ... Reuters’ Nicholas Brown is 32 ... Adam Baer, an investment bank analyst at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (h/t dad Don) ... Val Young, Deval Patrick alum now with The Boston Consulting Group ... Alan Rosenblatt, director of digital research at Lake Research Partners and a CAP alum … Tim Brant … Jonathan Nabavi, counsel to Senate Judiciary ... Eric Kleefeld ... Emily West … Peter Scheer, former executive director of First Amendment Coalition ... Samantha Lugo ... Kathy Park ... Scott Sanders ... Lisa Shin ... Bassima Adriana ... Sarah Budds, FSO at State ... Mark Gersh ... Debbie Timko ... Cathey Park ... Kevin Thurman (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) ... Ryan Falk, LC for Rep. Thomas Massie ... Bill Pishotta ... Fred Joseph of Rep. Alex Mooney’s office ... George Agurkis of House Rules ... Ashli Palmer ... singer Fats Domino is 89 (h/t AP)