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Today's POLITICO Playbook presented by Better Medicare Alliance

07/15/2017 10:50 AM EDT

By JAKE SHERMAN (sherman@politico.com; @JakeSherman), ANNA PALMER (anna@politico.com; @apalmerdc) and DANIEL LIPPMAN (daniel@politico.com; @dlippman)

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Driving the Day
Good Saturday morning.

TWO THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW ...

TRUMP'S FIRST INFRASTRUCTURE PRIORITY IN TROUBLE: House Republicans have been scrambling to find enough votes for President Donald Trump's first infrastructure initiative: privatizing the country's air traffic control system. Despite Speaker Paul Ryan's supportive public comments this week and whipping by House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao and the FAA's legislative affairs team, the bill won't come up next week. The whip count was close to a few dozen votes short as of the time lawmakers left town Friday afternoon.

Several lawmakers we spoke to yesterday afternoon said it simply wasn't a vote they wanted to take, because it gains them nothing back home. In many cases local leaders are against the legislation. Roads are in disrepair, bridges are crumbling and no one really cares about modernizing air traffic control, as one lawmaker put it to us. THIS WOULD BE A BIG EMBARRASSMENT for Trump and GOP leaders, however. The inability to push a priority through one chamber shows how difficult D.C. is.

ABOUT THE DEBT CEILING ... Even though the Wall Street Journal buried it on their homepage, Rich Rubin, Nick Timiraos and Kristina Peterson's debt ceiling story from yesterday afternoon is very important. They report: "Republicans are considering tying a must-pass increase in the federal debt limit to funding for a program that lets military veterans get medical care outside of Veterans Affairs facilities, people familiar with the idea said." A vet bill is a decent sweetener, but consider this: John Boehner coupled a debt ceiling increase with massive spending cuts when he was the speaker! In an all-GOP Washington, all they might get is the renewal of a veterans program that was already
going to be renewed! Read Rubin, Timiraos and Peterson's story http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04448f78a1dc68af0a1fd412659efeff01c02903f763529da7e540a37768408e106c21e06077e74a44738b02d559d9f74481

LAWMAKERS ... THEY ARE JUST LIKE US EDITION: Several members of the Michigan delegation were grounded on a Delta plane for hours at DCA headed to Detroit yesterday. One traveler on the plane, which felt like it had no air conditioning, estimated that it was at least 85 to 90 degrees inside the cabin. The plane, which was originally scheduled to take off at 12:45 p.m., finally took off around 7:30 p.m. SPOTTED: Archbishop of Detroit Allen Vigneron and Reps. John Conyers, Jim Sensenbrenner, Dave Trott, Tim Walberg, Mike Bishop, Debbie Dingell, Dan Kildee, Brenda Lawrence, Marcy Kaptur, Jackie Walorski, Andy Barr, Sandy Levin, Bill Huizenga and John Moolenaar, among others.

PRIORITIES IN TROUBLE? WHITE HOUSE IN CHAOS? JARED AND IVANKA IN SUN VALLEY! -- THE DAILY MAIL: "Mark Zuckerberg arrives in Sun Valley for showdown with Ivanka and Jared amid rumors the self-made billionaire is planning 2020 run against Trump" -- 34 pix http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044485da325c1fc06ade22f8d0f0f4858c6bd3b77e88e7daceb99abf46d968a0a6311f97c924d8b4a5e276a196c1a7cdf3ca

WHAT PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP IS UP TO TODAY -- at 11:02 p.m.: "I will be at the @USGA #USWomensOpen in Bedminister, NJ tomorrow. Big crowds expected & the women are playing great-should be very exciting!"

-- THE PRESIDENT attending the U.S. Women's Open will draw exponentially more attention to the tournament, which is being hosted at a Trump property.

THE TWO FACES OF FOX NEWS -- SHEP SMITH: "The deception, Chris, is mind-boggling ... why are we getting told all these lies?" CHRIS WALLACE: "I don't know what to say." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444f75c889d73937811253bc592f2f0eca17d5588e4c19e89d8d4ef0543981ccd334f8dbc2ba62763adf4e9b8dbdfa73384 ... FOX NEWS CONTRIBUTOR LISA BOOTHE: Hillary Clinton would "literally sell her daughter ... literally sell her only child to be president." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04445007ff27df58bd64d130785abc7c55992a46d96d55b995a45eb93bd39b922d892c4b71fb2fc639cf5ece37e687b0334d

IMPORTANT FOR NEXT WEEK -- "GOP leaders plead with senators to hold their fire on Obamacare repeal," by Jen Haberkorn and Burgess Everett: "Republicans say McConnell will force a vote to start debate even if he knows it would be unsuccessful, which would force Republicans to decide which might be worse: Democratic attack ads for repealing Obamacare or anger from the conservative base and President Donald Trump if they abandon the cause. McConnell canceled a scheduled vote on the bill last month when it became clear the votes weren't there. But this time, Republicans say, McConnell wants to get people on the record and bring some finality to the Obamacare debate that has hung up Senate
action for nearly two months." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444c5680ce0073ed5d22b86dd141f951906da87c39a0abd87c502b265208ee5e62fa24b524df925c010e45a6d166ec62650

-- "Republicans use state payoffs to win votes for repeal bill," by Paul Demko: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444418645de861b02222ffb895ce3ceb7754163a3338cb6f34258fdbe64d12b5d6ec4261f1f4e1ab301a486fba6b1aef7b5

-- "White House launches aggressive push to flip GOP governors opposed to Senate health bill," by WaPo's Sean Sullivan, Juliet Eilperin and Dan Balz: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444e47a7911e15e9df8cc71ad845ed25b639f7babc0cc530103e15130c94d57301594358f36bfa2c16cb47837dcb3e8a671

TRUMP, WHO? -- "Governors steer clear of Trump," by Gabe Debenedetti and Megan Cassella in Providence, Rhode Island: "Vice President Mike Pence spent much of his afternoon address to the nation's governors on Friday making sure they know how much Donald Trump loves them. But a majority of the state leaders gathered here this week spent much of their three-day summer meeting pretending the president doesn't exist. When a group of seven Democratic governors stood in front of a cramped hotel meeting room Friday morning to decry the GOP's health care plan, for all 30 minutes they avoided saying the polarizing words 'Donald Trump. ...

"At the tail end of the National Governors Association's three-day summer meeting, the lengths to which the country's state executives went to sidestep the issue of the disruptive president underscored just how much the current Oval Office occupant has rewired the political environment, confounded its participants and upended their usual way of doing business. For many of them, the safest play is to avoid the matter altogether." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04447b5ad7eb3c8c3c43fc4686e12afdb6a9266cb60daf28a0452337bd5365eb1695bf6eb880e9dd0c7f2df78ee7fb6aba12

-- "Insurers Oppose Cruz Amendment to Republican Health-Care Bill," by WSJ's Anna Wilde Mathews: "In a letter sent Friday night to the Senate Republican and Democratic leadership, the two major associations representing health insurers, which don't typically send such missives jointly, said the amendment 'is simply unworkable in any form and would undermine protections for those with pre-existing medical conditions, increase premiums and lead to widespread terminations of coverage for people currently enrolled in the individual market.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444d2a6ffbfec8a90fb3b58409393e922fcc51c1e8b7da7841fed4eccb2ee6a3d6d5aae5523ee8e8087cd9c03f168842495 ... The letter http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444e0e6556c50dda1a382da4ff629e457c57448c879244424045014d050164b7847e9abbf0a7607b2121866bc5fc2a87238


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UNRAVELING THE DON JR. MEETING -- MICHAEL ISIKOFF in Yahoo, "Russian-American lobbyist: I just strolled into Trump Jr. meeting": Rinat "Akhmetshin said he was not expecting to attend any meeting at Trump Tower that day. In fact, he was dressed in jeans and a T-shirt when [Natalia] Veselnitskaya told him that she had a meeting scheduled and asked him to come along. Although Trump Jr. has insisted that Vesenikstaya mainly wanted to talk about Russian adoptions, Akhmetshin said she brought a folder with information about an American hedge fund operating in Russia that she believed was funneling money to the [DNC].

"'She spent years researching this stuff,' he said. She left the folder with her hosts at Trump Tower, Akhmetshin said, adding that he had never seen its contents and doesn't know the details of what was in it. 'I didn't prepare the document,' he said. Akhmetshin cut the interview short, saying he had to have dinner with his daughter. Knowing of his work with Veselnitskaya, Yahoo News had originally reached him by phone in Moscow on Monday, not long after stories about the lawyer's meeting at Trump Tower first broke. When asked why he didn't tell a reporter then that he had also attended the meeting with Trump Jr., he replied: 'You didn't ask me.'"
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044429f5768072022ded610cf23c07cf631eff34e24c55cccbe90a028684376688e76330e19df1060304b19635ea9d0b797f

-- "U.S. officials probing Russian lobbyist who met Trump team," by Ali Watkins: "Among the questions investigators are trying to answer, one U.S. official told POLITICO, is whether Veselnitskaya was sent to meet with Trump Jr. on direct orders from the Kremlin. ... Akhmetshin - whose lobbying tenure has included several high-profile efforts to promote the Kremlin's agenda in Washington - has run afoul of Congress in recent weeks. In a March letter to the Justice Department, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley accused Akhmetshin of failing to register properly under the Foreign Agents Registration Act." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444c6eaf5f0dcca04f94419959e63e68adccafb2d0d6aaaa28e2f5c1de7cf96b3a47f64acf94339b3ae282556d2177988c5

-- "Also At Trump Jr.-Russia Meeting: An Ex-U.S. Government Worker With Liberal Views," by HuffPost's Jessica Schulberg and Paul Blumenthal: Interpreter Anatoli "Samochornov's presence at the meeting is key because he appears to be the only witness to the event who does not have close ties to either the Trump campaign or the Russian government. He wouldn't tell HuffPost whether he had been contacted by investigators probing the Trump campaign's relationship with Russia. ...

"Samochornov has worked as an interpreter on dozens of government assignments, including for the U.S. State Department, Defense Department, Securities and Exchange Commission and Drug Enforcement Administration, and for a G-8 foreign ministers dinner at the United Nations, according to his resume. He helped facilitate exchange programs for the Meridian International Center ... He has worked with periodically with the State Department as a contract interpreter for exchange programs. His wife also works for the State Department." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444a706152ce58c90591132bc8618d15559557cd1c472234b517237efe8b12e14c69e74bd11f7c474e70d45b37e480dbfdb

-- @juliaioffe: "Wait, he was the interpreter at a panel I moderated in Jan at the Brooklyn Library. He was very pro-Trump and pro-Putin." Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444a2a5f5e40027a00daead44793a7c4399c74aacaeb8a42d0430e8ffc30d2d127b7633f94be7acb0f1fa67cf7dd1fa4b80

-- "Trump Tower Russia meeting: At least eight people in the room" -- CNN.com: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044441a67f45b11fd24b7a3c499946e239edc6174571409825e2dc72eb19fdc9dc96f1c949c6a797e42fd114dbdab9d37909

COMING ATTRACTIONS -- "Pence will join GOP leaders for fundraiser benefiting his PAC," by Alex Isenstadt: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy are slated to headline a July 25 fundraiser for Pence's Great America Committee. The event is to take place in Washington, according to an invitation, and attendees are being asked to pony up $5,000 apiece. ... While vice presidents usually focus on raising money for presidential reelection bids or for their party generally, they typically do not launch their own fundraising vehicles. He is expected to use the PAC to reward candidates up for election in 2018."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044466a6711503c846b2a05570c763b60472f271ec922bd75173de73c94ea6a9c7b85e4992a89e326192e229aeac94dfdea2

-- "In memo, Trump administration weighs expanding the expedited deportation powers of DHS," by WaPo's Abigail Hauslohner and David Nakamura: "The Trump administration is weighing a new policy to dramatically expand the Department of Homeland Security's powers to expedite the deportations of some illegal immigrants. Since 2004, the agency has been authorized to bypass immigration courts only for immigrants who had been living in the country illegally for less than two weeks and were apprehended within 100 miles of the border. Under the proposal, the agency would be empowered to seek the expedited removal of illegal immigrants apprehended anywhere in the United States who cannot prove they
have lived in the country continuously for more than 90 days, according to a 13-page internal agency memo obtained by The Washington Post." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044490d0b6190bc4574308f15faa63c131439560d4c7bdc02e0bbd33918b08db5da858be39fd3c850ca5bd9a50cb6b298184

THE JUICE ...

OUT AND ABOUT IN MARTHA'S VINEYARD - POOL REPORT from a Playbooker who attended the opening dinner last night of the DSCC's annual Martha's Vineyard retreat weekend -- the dinner, which featured a traditional lobster boil, was held at the Harbor View Hotel in Edgartown: "DSCC Chair Sen. Chris Van Hollen opened things up with a joke about how Democrats have higher standards than Republicans and Russian agents are prohibited from attending. Remarks included 2018 incumbent Sens. Tammy Baldwin, Sherrod Brown, Chris Murphy, and Debbie Stabenow. All of them railed against Republican attempts to take health care away from millions of Americans and highlighted personal stories of their constituents.

"Massachusetts host Sen. Ed Markey closed with an impromptu imitation of the Kennedy accent that won plaudits from the crowd -- as well as impassioned remarks against climate change that pointed out Martha's Vineyard would have been wiped out if Hurricane Katrina landed a few degrees differently. ... The setting looked like a party from a Hollywood movie with a fire pit, colored lights in the pool, and a giant pair of balls floating in the pool saying Love. ... A highlight of the night was the after-party at the home of Democratic donor Connie Milstein." 2018 incumbent Sens. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) spoke this morning
at the DSCC breakfast at the same hotel.

SPOTTED: Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.) (who also spoke), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Bob Casey (D-Pa.), and Gary Peters (D-Mich.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Tom Carper (D-Del.), former Sen. John Breaux (D-La.), Heather Podesta, Tony Podesta, and various other big Democratic donors.

QUOTE OF THE DAY: "It's almost an embarrassment being an American citizen traveling around the world and listening to the stupid s--- we have to deal with in this country," JPMC's Jamie Dimon said responding to a question on an earnings call Friday. "Since the Great Recession, which is now 8 years old, we've been growing at 1.5 to 2 percent in spite of stupidity and political gridlock, because the American business sector is powerful and strong," he said. "What I'm saying is it would be much stronger growth had we made intelligent decisions and were there not gridlock." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04445455f863c10f9ca410f87666e3ea2f8b1cf06ead208d0fbc86d782e5cc6c2cddf0821899750056e1825b47f97e86b9cd


Playbook Reads


PHOTO DU JOUR: French President Emmanuel Macron shakes hands with President Donald Trump with their wives, Brigitte Macron and Melania Trump, by their sides after the Bastille Day military parade on the Champs Elysees avenue in Paris on July 14. | Christophe Archambault/Pool/AP Photo

WHAT JAKE SULLIVAN IS UP TO THESE DAYS - "Lessons in disaster: A top Clinton adviser searches for meaning in a shocking loss," by WaPo's Greg Jaffe: "If all had gone as planned, and as most in Washington had expected, Jake Sullivan would be hard at work just steps from the Oval Office. ... Instead, Donald Trump won the presidency ... On a recent evening, he was pushing open a battered orange door, climbing stairs covered with fraying carpet and striding into a dimly lit apartment where two dozen Yale Law School students were waiting to hear from him. Most of them were desperate for some version of the life he had led in Washington.

"Sullivan, though, has never felt less certain about where both he and his country are headed. He divides his time between an empty think-tank office in Washington and Yale, where he lectures one day a week on law and foreign policy. Almost everything about his professional life is transitory, uncertain, unsettled. 'I feel a keen sense of responsibility for the outcome,' he told friends in the immediate aftermath of Clinton's defeat. Months later, the feeling had not faded." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044404e7f0f61a6f7c901cf6dcfe9eff8f0bc7741af825ef65134bf171b604aa6233a466bf80f00db596acf1fb05be37d978

THE LATEST ON THE TRAVEL BAN -- "Justice Department appeals latest travel ban setback to Supreme Court," by Ted Hesson: "The Justice Department on Friday appealed to the Supreme Court a federal judge's decision to allow grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles and other relatives of people in the U.S. to circumvent the Trump administration's travel ban policy. The order, issued Thursday evening local time in Honolulu by Judge Derrick Watson in Hawaii, deals a temporary blow to one of the president's signature initiatives. It also prohibits the administration from blocking refugees with a commitment from a resettlement agency in the U.S., a move that could revive the flow of refugee
admissions this year.

"In its appeal to the High Court, the Justice Department argues that Watson's interpretation 'empties the Court's decision of meaning,' because it includes 'not just "close" family members, but virtually all family members.' 'Treating all of these relationships as close familial relationship[s]' reads the term "close" out of the Court's decision.'" http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04440e453e00534f6f29643093abfa150a9a4877fe009da00938d7a5df50a7e093f9212ce3c433c5f2f171de6188252d1952

WASHINGTON, INC. - "Is the most powerful lobbyist in Washington losing its grip?" by WaPo's Steven Mufson: "This should be the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's moment. A businessman occupies the White House. ... Yet in recent months, the U.S. Chamber - historically one of the cornerstones of Washington politicking and policymaking - has been deeply shaken. Members are divided over the border-adjustment tax, health care and climate change. Some want the Chamber to more vigorously stand up to President Trump to protect free trade. ...

"General Electric ... has considered pulling out of the Chamber because it views the group as part of an antiquated Washington influence establishment, too exclusively aligned with the Republican Party, and no longer an effective advocate for GE's interests or views, according to people familiar with the company's thinking." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04447a3e344be9ded0c243bfc9bc5cce73eeef0b4e8302b866ba47b03f74a341dc83d0f1ee135792ae33c41f117fa0696418

MEDIAWATCH -- "WHCA elects ABC's Karl as '19-20 president," byCristiano Lima: "The White House Correspondents' Association announced Friday that ABC News' Jonathan Karl had been elected as their president for 2019-20. Karl, who received 104 of 265 votes on the way to sealing his victory, was also appointed to a 3-year term as an at-large member of the WHCA's board of directors, according to a White House press pool report from the group. ... Karl edged-out Todd Gillman of the Dallas Morning News, who earned 87 votes, for the role of president, but Gillman also notched a position on the board as a newspaper representative. The New York Times' Doug Mills, meanwhile, was elected to fill the
photography seat on the board." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444040423ab12d289b1b24240299638d6f40476b7834e98e353411533cc012643713bc6adf2aed208328486f28cd65acf2c

- "Trump Jr.'s Russia meeting a Democratic plot? Pro-Trump media wants you to think so," by CNN's Oliver Darcy: "Was the Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort in June of last year the first evidence of possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia -- or was she part of a sinister Democratic plot to entrap the Trump campaign? Over the past three days, members of the pro-Trump media have settled on their answer, characterizing the lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, as a leftist with ties to the Obama administration. The idea quickly drifted upward to some of the most influential figures in right-wing media, and then ultimately to President Trump himself."
http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444e2f19ca1ff2b044e823788c8d250b198470e0b5c74988915ad5aaca493c30284e51b002b1cf43372bb874989bb733d7a

-- NEW YORK MAGAZINE's cover story on climate change this week, "The Uninhabitable Earth," by David Wallace-Wells, is now the most-read article in the magazine's history, with 2.5 million readers so far: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04448568dc3c10d25e84afb2c67caad18e87a04200be7af1937e0e1df42dffbbd2da8a05376a4585b612179b7ab525d7e1e3 The magazine has published a new, annotated version, with 7k+ words of footnotes: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444cc2b1f5694e370facdbf3b2f70ab37450788e3fd66b6aa6c98709ab67222fc2cc682aca77f5cfe3c14f08fe50e9c8080 ... The magazine's 2nd most-read feature article was a May 2016 Andrew Sullivan piece, "Democracies end when they are too democratic. And right now, America is a breeding ground for tyranny": http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044480d3d797ad15605d13113050b707570aa8d000e3099f63fd332be862b49299666851d45bb7083e585f5e1e6e79ffa3e3


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SNEAK PEEK -- DAVID REMNICK in next week's New Yorker, "Trump Family Values: Amid revelations of Donald, Jr.,'s misguided meeting with two Russians, the President shows once again where his only loyalties lie": "The Republicans, the self-proclaimed party of family values, remain squarely behind a family and a Presidency whose most salient features are amorality, greed, demagoguery, deception, vulgarity, race-baiting, misogyny, and, potentially-only time and further investigation will tell-a murky relationship with a hostile foreign government." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444a48c74710d63928d5132fb037e9726a368843ddd7f0a4090210e72259cb5d622580476fea69a7d1128de56022d63e0e7

CLICKER - "The nation's cartoonists on the week in politics," edited by Matt Wuerker - 12 keepers http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444acf879c5a3a6fa4be98f61b9b9cba7308c4063bf790c33e622f3845e0d7b04a695ca92ccade869c9b5775e8b873f9678

GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman, filing from Great Barrington, Massachusetts:

-- "Why You Need Emoji: Emojis are the body language of the digital age," ABOUT THE DEBT CEILING ... Even though the Wall Street Journal buried it on their homepage, Rich Rubin, Nick Timiraos and Kristina Peterson's debt ceiling story from yesterday afternoon is very important. They report: "Republicans are considering tying a must-pass increase in the federal debt limit to funding for a program that lets military veterans get medical care outside of Veterans Affairs facilities, people familiar with the idea said." A vet bill is a decent sweetener, but consider this: John Boehner coupled it with massive spending cuts when he was the speaker! In an all-GOP Washington, all they might get is
the renewal of a veterans program that was already going to be renewed! Read Rubin, Timiraos and Peterson's story http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04448f78a1dc68af0a1fd412659efeff01c02903f763529da7e540a37768408e106c21e06077e74a44738b02d559d9f74481 by Vyvyan Evans in Nautilus Magazine - per ALDaily's summary: "Digital text alone is impoverished and, on occasion, emotionally arid. It lacks the nonverbal cues - body language - of spoken communication. That's why we need emoji." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04447808391a6616e009fa32dfc6b835598533f4a9cdeba9d94ae807332c47e88a73fe32d05b7e0f4ea1b52bcb3e8b62b7bc

-- "Mr. Ten Percent: The Man Who Built - And Bilked - American Soccer," by Ken Bensinger in BuzzFeed in June 2014: "As the World Cup opens, a tale about winning dirty: How a swindling suburban soccer dad [Chuck Blazer, who died this past week] pocketed millions as he helped make the sport in the U.S a booming success." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04446434cc73ac5267343900cde647fe324ad9f4083f30915d6d37690193611a81024bfd035e931497f663b94c2455f16265 (h/t Longform.org)

-- "Kremlin, Inc.: Why are Vladimir Putin's opponents dying?" by Michael Specter in the Jan. 29, 2007, issue of The New Yorker: "The murder of Anna Politkovskaya was at once unbelievable and utterly expected." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04448f6f7842dc0fc622f43f1df1513e231c372afa0f8bfd7164345c1c6a845ffeb84da8fc12375f38f043ef80bb0a8abb8a

-- "The C-word," by Paul Collier in the Times Literary Supplement - per The Browser's summary: "The only cure for corruption is an incorruptible leader, such as Lee Kuan Yew, willing to jail friends and enemies alike. Without such leadership, cultural norms defeat laws and institutions. Northern Italy is one of the most honest regions in Europe, southern Italy one of the most corrupt." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444f386ab489467660796d0cdf06728515ad00066300b108e22983009a4e74a1fd3acbc7850357c80afcb922c5150e4e20e

-- "Did Airbnb Kill the Mountain Town?" by Tom Vanderbilt in Outside Magazine: "Living the dream has never been easy in the West's most beloved adventure hamlets, where homes are a fortune and good jobs are few. But the rise of online short-term rentals may be the tipping point that causes idyllic outposts like Crested Butte, Colorado, to lose their middle class altogether-and with it, their soul." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04445a5e8abd35335522c3a4e58dc667e668c252f2e311cf7d9c28e75e0a10b6f8ab6449194121261ceb8458ab8bd83cc866 (h/t Longreads.com)

-- "Does the World's Top Weed Killer Cause Cancer? Trump's EPA Will Decide," by Peter Waldman, Lydia Mulvany, Tiffany Stecker, and Joel Rosenblatt in Bloomberg Businessweek: "Roundup has revolutionized farming. Now, human health and Bayer's $66 billion deal for Monsanto depend on an honest appraisal of its safety." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044440412d18af36a896b91e4317347c7da28ca64a9e595b3583b750bba439248c0ca92b1fcf4ea5cf2ce92f68abec7f2145

-- "The Fallout," by Lacy M. Johnson in Guernica Magazine: "In St. Louis, America's nuclear history creeps into the present, leaching into streams and bodies." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04441c703d8a86a369dff6038baf8c3f2f30b122138147e13f19777ac43185bf4fc25ed1851c5e87a2a099334dce1b930e86

-- "Rape Choreography Makes Films Safer, But Still Takes a Toll on Cast and Crew," by April Wolfe in LA Weekly: "While narratives of sexual assault are nothing new - everything from early Old West films to the various Renaissance-era depictions of 'The Rape of the Sabine Women' and Japan's 19th-century ukiyo-e prints (an art form that influenced anime today) depicts gendered violence - these storylines have become particularly common in film and TV lately." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444fc85073428f986f27ef9e5aad927f33f7ae4ea0dc711548bac5a7a4efef9a6b56659fe78f8b6751f71fd57121fb2bf26

-- "The Netflix Prize: How a $1 Million Contest Changed Binge-Watching Forever," by Dan Jackson in Thrillist: "Following the announcement ... 30,000 Netflix enthusiasts who downloaded the trove of information and set out to unlock the secrets of the recommendation algorithm. ... In a way, [Netflix CEO Reed] Hastings was a tech-age Willy Wonka letting any curious hacker into his digital Chocolate Factory. Instead of a chocolate river, he offered a gushing stream of data." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04445a0b30e894336740f771298ec5ec256b088b918a2c8ff88c6748a1b0f635645a31e557898dec9713bf321920efd41400

-- "A Team of Their Own," by Jessica Luther in Bleacher Report: "Meet the players on this all-girls travel squad who have bigger dreams than youth baseball-they want to become MLB stars." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04442ff35ebfb1e902533b2b3656de16f23d3a05bc2e454db9858d1b0f649f4b23621172f045fe42e39fea5e43bef0686282 (h/t Longform.org)

-- "An 18-Year-Old Girl Died From a Synthetic Opioid She Bought Online. Here's How Portland Police Cracked the Case," by Nigel Jaquiss in Willamette Week: "A fatal overdose in East Portland leads detectives into the Dark Web, where lab-created opioids are bought with Bitcoin." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444ed5a3aa1f117c3de2959eefe4c4cb0fd0dfa8f94901c439dc7edfd6d2596d10dd341bfbe8a529dbe0083277462259f96

-- "1917: The Year of the Century," by Jeremy Black in Imperial and Global Forum - per The Browser's summary: "The greatest single event of the 20th century was arguably the overthrow of the Manchu dynasty in 1910-11, opening the way to China's modernisation. But 1917 was the pivotal year, bringing the Russian Revolution, America's entry into World War I, and the Balfour Declaration reshaping the Middle East. Hard to say now which was more consequential: The communist experiment, the assertion of America as world power, or the entailing of the West in the founding of modern Israel." http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c044438fc6c2bcd1aac2303490ba4a1f44002c9304f607172a021b1de5d5760e8f04106c880a0a0771c218054d2e4160eb427
Playbookers
OVERHEARD AT REAGAN -- Rep. Joe Courtney (D-Conn.), with a backpack, on the bus yesterday heading to Gate 35X at DCA to catch an American flight to Hartford (which got delayed an hour), talking to fellow airplane passengers about how the lobster catch in New England has declined because of climate change. He also said he was going to Fenway Park today to catch the Red Sox-Yankees game. Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) was next to him on the bus wearing a green tie and talking on his cell phone.

SPOTTED: Justice Merrick Garland last night at the James Taylor concert at Nats Park ... Kellyanne Conway on the 6 a.m. Delta DCA to DTW flight -- former Rep. Mike Rogers was also on the flight ... former Delaware Gov. Jack Markell biking yesterday in Mitchell, South Dakota -- earlier this week he went through Badlands National Park. He's on a 3,680 mile cross-country bike ride from Oregon to Delaware (map and pix: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04447dd39759796f81dcd83140727eea6859f90bda8c916ec0412ae7ac38fa9219c3d1a80cee30b438d0de3336c7786a9dfc his first big effort since leaving office. He's blogging about his trip on his Facebook page http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04443ba261756f80539a3e3a126f7e848b5f49d31b5be6e911b675bfe48ef4a84f9fda9cff366123ee96dfe6e1f97f376a00

WEEKEND WEDDING -- COLORADO POWER COUPLE: Brittany Pettersen, Colorado State Rep. and Democratic candidate for Colorado's 7th congressional district, recently married ProgressNow Colorado executive director Ian Silverii at the Colorado Governor's Mansion. Pool report from Gigi Sukin of Colorado Biz: "Pettersen and Silverii were wed by former speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives Dickey Lee Hullinghorst. Their wedding party included State Reps. Chris Kennedy and Faith Winter, and State Rep. Janet Buckner read EE Cummings' 'I carry your heart with me.' ... They met in Denver while Pettersen was clipboard-canvassing for nonprofit organizations on the corner of 13th and Sherman, one
block south of the Capitol where they would then work together for four years." Pic http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444d6d1cb959b6b78d1021e83eb99bf37d8cd69cf4428d759807c9e9bac57b1a4dc8e3464192c38e1593a436d12fdf5fa35

SPOTTED: Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb, former Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien, current Lt. Gov. Donna Lynne, Colorado House Speaker Crisanta Duran, both of Pettersen's Democratic primary opponents State Sens. Dominick Moreno and Andy Kerr, and Gordon Bronson.

BIRTHDAYS: Chris LaCivita is 51 ... WaPo's Paul Kane ... Gareth Rhodes, running for Congress against Rep. John Faso (R-N.Y.) and a former deputy press secretary to NY Gov. Cuomo, is 29 ... Arianna Huffington is 67 ... Jim Merrill of New Hampshire ... Jeremy Bird, 270 Strategies CEO and 2012 Obama for America field director (hat tip: Lynda Tran) ... Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood Action Fund ... Penn Staples ... Liana Balinsky-Baker, Reuters tech, media and telecom M&A reporter and deals team leader in SF (h/t Emily Stephenson) ... Karin Johanson, the pride of New Jersey and Wisconsin (h/t Jon Haber) ... Zach Wahls ... Dan
Hewitt, VP at Entertainment Software Association, is 41 (h/t Alex Slater) ... Svetlana Legetic, co-founder of Brightest Young Things ... Dr. David Lippman, a travel aficionado who also loves crosswords and playing tennis, soccer, ping pong and croquet, is 72 (h/t son Daniel) ... Amanda Fernandez, senior manager with development organization Palladium, visiting from Bogotá and celebrating this weekend with her parents, husband and kids at Rehoboth Beach (h/t Ben Chang) ...

... Heather Higginbottom, COO of CARE and former Obama deputy secretary of state ... Elliot Gerson, EVP at the Aspen Institute, is 65 ... Wallis Annenberg, president and chairman of the board of the Annenberg Foundation, is 78 (h/ts Jewish Insider) ... Andrew Usyk ... Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) is 65 ... Rep. Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) is 59 ... Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI) is 56 ... Rep. Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.) is 51 ... Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah) is 57 ... Chris Duffner ... Michael Francisco ... Taylor Lindman ... Seth Grossman ... Bloomberg's Jodi Schneider, now in Hong Kong ... Jackie Spinner ... Hilary Leighty ... Jason Wheeler ... Helen Hare ... Gwendolyn Ward ... Allison Steil
... Bekah Geffert ... Campbell Roth ... HFA alum Marisa McAuliffe ... Deb Rosen (h/t Teresa Vilmain) ... Erica Fein ... Babak Talebi is 38 ... Brunswick Group partner Mark Palmer ... Linda Ronstadt is 71 ... actor Brian Austin Green is 44 ... actress Diane Kruger is 41 (h/ts AP)

THE SHOWS, by @MattMackowiak, filing from Austin:

--NBC's "Meet the Press": Jay Sekulow ... Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) ... Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.). Panel: Tom Brokaw, Al Cardenas, Doris Kearns Goodwin and Danielle Pletka

--ABC's "This Week": Jay Sekulow ... Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) ... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) ... HHS Secretary Tom Price. Panel: Matthew Dowd, Michael Caputo, Megan Murphy and Abby Phillip

--CBS's "Face the Nation": Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) ... Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) ... Jay Sekulow ... author and TIME Magazine editor-at-large Jeffrey Kluger ("Apollo 8"). Panel: Jeffrey Goldberg, Ed O'Keefe, Susan Page and Ramesh Ponnuru

--CNN's "State of the Union": Jay Sekulow ... Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) ... Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Panel: Bakari Sellers, CNN political commentator Alice Stewart, CNN legal commentator and former Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli (R-VA) and Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.)

--"Fox News Sunday": Jay Sekulow ... Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). Panel: Brit Hume, Julie Pace, Michael Needham and Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel

--CNN's "Reliable Sources": Jeff Mason, Tara Palmeri and Ken Kurson ... Carl Bernstein and Len Downie ... David Zurawik

--CNN's "Inside Politics": Margaret Talev, Karoun Demirjian, Jeff Zeleny and Manu Raju (substitute host: CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson)

--Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures": Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) ... former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins ... Corey Lewandowski. Panel: Ed Rollins and James Freeman

--Fox News' "MediaBuzz": Gillian Turner ... Katie Pavlich ... Joe Trippi ... Anthony Scaramucci ... Ari Fleischer ... Carley Shimkus

--CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS": Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif


--Univision's "Al Punto": Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) ... report from Univision News correspondent Luis Megid on how ICE conducts immigration raids ... Venezuelan human rights activist and Leopoldo Lopez's wife Lilian Tintori ... Mexican Senator (PAN) and presidential candidate Juan Carlos Romero Hicks ... singer-songwriter Natalia Lafourcade

--C-SPAN: "The Communicators": CTIA - The Wireless Association president & CEO Meredith Attwell Baker, questioned by Politico's Margaret Harding McGill ... "Newsmakers": Rep. Elliot Engel (D-N.Y.), questioned by Politico's Elana Schor and CQ Roll Call's Rachel Oswald ... "Q&A": Author and Saudi Arabian women's rights activist Manal Al-Sharif

--Washington Times' "Mack on Politics" weekly politics podcast with Matt Mackowiak (download on iTunes, Google Play, or Stitcher or listen at http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c0444ea15f06778e80c8753776a322e74a560234ac7f3139e10b030221cb00b81e0d7db2b805251b74aeb8183df6f1057ab5f former U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.).

****** A message from BMA: Better Medicare Alliance is helping to build the future of care through Medicare Advantage. As a community of experts, we're leading the way on health care through research, policy, and grassroots advocacy. Together, we're creating a path forward for innovative, modern health care. Stand with us: http://go.politicoemail.com/?qs=fe80a8c2691c04445afa772cd83b66eb61565e52fadd7c29ce38ce33781e65dc527a8a824560dc1952ecfba58284badd48ba7da48503b7ef ******

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