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Apple bans Pepe the frog game from app store

Spirit Realm Games / YouTube

Pepe the frog, the once-innocuous meme that was co-opted by the Alt-right, has become a symbol of hate. And now, its hateful association has gotten it banned from the Apple app store, per NY Mag.

Pepe Scream, a seemingly harmless mobile game similar to Flappy Bird, was removed from Apple's app store. The guidelines dictate the company can ban anything "offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, or in exceptionally poor taste." The game itself isn't offensive, but the Pepe meme (the unofficial symbol for national groups who spew hateful, racist messages online) is upsetting to some.

Don't forget: Pepe's creator, Matt Furie, tried to reclaim the symbol from the hateful groups that had taken it for online use. Then, he killed his beloved meme in protest of how it had been used by the Alt-right. And the Anti-Defamation League has ruled Pepe a hate symbol, but only when used in certain circumstances.

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New White House worry: base erosion

Brynn Anderson / AP

Sources both inside and close to the White House are worrying about a loss of energy among the President's base — or as one advisor colorfully put it, the folks who'd "walk over glass" for Trump.

Two trends that are troubling them:

  1. Trump's strong approval has fallen quickly: As Nate Silver outlines in this late May article titled "Donald Trump's base is shrinking": "There's been a considerable decline in the number of Americans who strongly approve of Trump, from a peak of around 30 percent in February to just 21 or 22 percent of the electorate now. (The decline in Trump's strong approval ratings is larger than the overall decline in his approval ratings, in fact.) Far from having unconditional love from his base, Trump has already lost almost a third of his strong support."
  2. Slide among whites without college degrees: Only 46% of whites with no college degree approve of the way Trump is handling his job as president, according to the most recent Quinnipiac University poll. In the same poll in early March, 60 percent of whites without college degrees — a group that was key to Trump's victory — approved of his job performance.
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Caveats: These are national, not state numbers, and it's normal for a President's numbers to creep down from the start of the presidency. The numbers are also volatile: If Trump delivers some big policy wins, he could quickly reverse these trends.

  • But the concerns are real: Some White House advisors are worried that if these most intense supporters lose their passion for him, there'll be no way to regain the energy in time to fight off a fired-up left in 2018.
  • An evolving line of thinking: Trump will probably never be at 51% approval — the "strongly disapprove" number against him, which is around half the voting public, makes that virtually impossible. The strategy, therefore, has to involve keeping the diehard ginned up and driving up Trump's "strongly approve" numbers. There's little hope of converting Democrats — beyond the Midwest working class who already voted for Trump. So it's crucial to keep a large enough base that's willing to walk over glass for the President.
  • The Paris model: A good number in the administration recognize Trump's withdrawal from the Paris deal as an example of him delivering for his base. Their view: It's irrelevant that most Americans don't support withdrawing from Paris because there's not one person who supports the climate deal — and who actually votes on it — that would ever be persuaded to vote for Trump.
  • As Silver puts it: "voters who strongly disapprove of Trump outnumber those who strongly approve of him by about a 2-to-1 ratio, which could presage an 'enthusiasm gap' that works against Trump at the midterms."
Trump still reads the polls intensely, even though he no longer boasts about them publicly. Advisors say he knows he's screwed if he can't deliver on the big promises like repealing Obamacare, cutting taxes and building the wall. He seemed to indicate that last week, when he kicked off a closed-door meeting with congressional leaders by saying that the base was strong and it was time to come through for them.
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Who's thriving in the retail bloodbath

We still like to do some of our own chores:
  • Despite the boom in online shopping, Americans still love to pick over and buy their food at brick-and-mortar stores.
  • Americans also like to buy stuff to fix up their homes, and do the work themselves.

These are clear messages from the chart below, researched and created by Axios Visuals Editor Lazaro Gamio. Online shopping's headline hiring is impressive on a percentage basis, soaring by 61% since 2003. But it's still only in the hundreds of thousands. Building materials stores employ 1.1 million workers, and have revitalized in recent years; grocery stores employ 2.7 million workers, a number that grew by almost 9% since 2003.

The graphic


Data: Occupational Employment Statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Why it matters: We are starting to get a clearer picture of which traditional stores might survive the shift to online shopping, and which won't: From May 2003 to May 2016, department stores lost some 295,000 jobs. That's in an industry employing 1.3 million people. But, for policymakers, other industries are stepping in to soak up some of those laid off.

The chart above uses industry-specific data from the Occupational Employment Statistics program within the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Each line is the percent change in jobs in a given industry compared with May 2003.

Why we used this data: These numbers vary slightly from the monthly numbers put out by the BLS, which come from the Current Employment Statistics. This survey provides more industry detail — from the best we could tell, the CES lumps in online shopping under "non-store retailers," which includes vending machine operators and direct-selling establishments. In regards to the timeframe, 2003 was the first year in which May data was available, allowing us to compare year to year.

It's not looking good: Both surveys paint a dire picture. The monthly CES data show May 2016 department store employment at 1.3 million, down from 1.6 million in May 2003. The latest CES data — May 2017 — shows 1.27 million people working in department stores, a loss of about 30,000 over the year.

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Uber's board accepts all of Eric Holder's recommendations

Lazaro Gamio / Axios

After a six-hour-plus meeting on Sunday with former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder and his law partner Tammy Albarrán, Uber's board of directors has unanimously voted to adopt all of the investigation's recommendations, according to a representative for the board.

There are reports that the recommendations include the remove of chief business officer Emil Michael, a close confidant of CEO Travis Kalanick, although it's unclear if any other top execs are also on the chopping block. We also don't yet know if Kalanick will take a leave of absence, as was discussed by the board (but was not among the official recommendations).

What happened: The investigation into workplace culture was kicked off by a February blog post from a former Uber engineer named Susan Fowler, alleging sexual harassment and gender discrimination.

What's next: The company plans to present its decisions to employees on Tuesday, according to a spokesman. But don't expect the news to hold that long.

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Microsoft debuts new $499 game console, the Xbox One X, due Nov. 7

Microsoft

Microsoft used its press conference at the E3 gaming trade show to introduce the next version of the Xbox, a high-end model called the Xbox One X and due to hit the market in November.

Key features: 4K video support, compatibility with older games, Ultra HD Blu-ray drive, 1TB of storage and what Microsoft says is 40 percent more power than any game console on the market.

What's missing: Microsoft didn't talk specifically about virtual reality, while PlayStation 4 already has a VR add-on. Microsoft does have plans for Windows Mixed Reality headsets that connect to Windows devices.

Why it matters: The game console market is of the great head-to-head battles in tech, with Microsoft and Sony the primary combatants, having left Nintendo behind.

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Lyft's self-driving car strategy emerges

Josh Edelson / AP

Buried in last week's news that ride-hailing company Lyft will work to deploy a fleet of nuTonomy's self-driving cars in Boston was something even more significant: Lyft's self-driving car strategy — "Lyft Open Platform."

The idea: Provide a testing ground for self-driving car companies working on self-driving cars. Those companies will have access to Lyft's software tools and data, and the ability to plug into its network of drivers and passengers. This is an attractive resource for companies like Waymo and nuTonomy, which need to test their technology with real-world scenarios and log as many miles as possible to train their software models.

Why it matters: With self-driving cars almost certain to be the future, companies like Lyft can't stay out of the race. But they also have to play to their strengths — while manufacturing cars is not Lyft's, it does have a large network of passengers and troves of trip data.
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The Apprentice (Washington edition)

The White House and Congress have a one-two punch planned for "workforce development week" — which will actually be stretched out over two weeks because House leadership has legislation ready to go.

  1. The White House will take administrative actions to expand apprenticeships and job retraining. The administration's goal is to plug the "skills gap" that's leaving an estimated 6 million jobs unfilled. The President's daughter Ivanka will be leading the drive, along with senior advisor Reed Cordish, from Jared Kushner's Office of American Innovation, and Labor Secretary Alex Acosta.
  2. The following week, House leadership will drop onto the floor the first significant workforce training legislation of this congressional session. It's a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the "Perkins Act" for six years — providing more than $1 billion per year in federal support for career and technical education programs.
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Around the corner: A senior House aide tells me members are looking at another bill "to help welfare recipients find work, and focus current welfare spending on reducing welfare dependency by increasing employment."

Why it matters: As Axios' Chris Matthews reported last week, "firms are demanding more labor, but not finding qualified workers, even as millions of Americans remain unemployed or outside the formal labor market. This is evidence of an expanding skills gap between what Americans can do and what Corporate America needs done."

Other calendar notes:

  • Veterans bill: On Tuesday, House will vote on the Veterans Affairs Accountability and Whistleblower Protection Act. The bill makes it easier to "remove, demote or suspend (for longer than 14 days) any VA employee for poor performance or misconduct." After the House passes the bill it goes to the President's desk for signing.
  • Russia watch: Also on Tuesday, the Attorney General Jeff Sessions will testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee. We don't know yet whether it'll be a closed or open hearing.
  • Cuba policy: On Friday, the President is expected to travel to Miami, where he's expected to announce that he's reversing parts of President Obama's historic "opening" to Cuba. Cuba hardliners in Congress like Marco Rubio have been pushing hard behind the scenes.
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Who still believes Trump over Comey?

Andrew Harnik / AP

The President has said unequivocally that he never told James Comey he hoped he could drop the FBI investigation of Mike Flynn. Trump even told ABC's Jon Karl that he'd be prepared to say so under oath.

But high-profile Republicans are lending credence to Comey's version of events, (even though some, like Ronna McDaniel, are nonetheless aggressively defending Trump):

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  • RNC chair Ronna McDaniel told Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace that even if Comey's testimony is true — that Trump told the former FBI director he "hopes" he let the Flynn investigation go — her personal experience as a mother tells her "there's a difference between saying 'I hope you do your homework' and 'Go do your homework.'"
  • Donald Trump Jr.: "When he tells you to do something, guess what? There's no ambiguity in it, there's no, 'Hey, I'm hoping' ... You and I are friends: 'Hey, I hope this happens, but you've got to do your job.' That's what he told Comey. And for this guy as a politician to then go back and write a memo: 'Oh, I felt threatened.' He felt so threatened — but he didn't do anything."
  • Paul Ryan: "He's new at government and so therefore I think that he's learning as he goes."
  • Sen. Susan Collins on CNN's State of the Union: "I found...former Director Comey's testimony to be candid, to be thorough, and he testified under oath."
  • Sen. Marco Rubio: "No one has either informed him, or he's been unwilling to be informed, about why the sort of requests like the one he made would be inappropriate."
  • Gov. Chris Christie also put Trump's comments to Comey down to inexperience in government. Christie said Trump would've considered his comments to Comey to be "normal New York City conversation."
  • Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, lavishly praised Comey at his hearing, making clear he considered him an honorable and truthful man.
  • Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), told CBS' "Face the Nation": "for the issue to come up about the Michael Flynn investigations, inappropriate ... [but] this looks more like an inappropriate conversation than obstruction."
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Meet Trump's TV lawyer

Screenshot via ABC News

On ABC's "This Week," George Stephanopoulos introduced Jay Sekulow as "a member of President Trump's legal team."

Our tip: You'll be seeing a lot more of Sekulow as the Russia probe escalates. A conservative attorney with a nationally-syndicated radio show, Sekulow has had a mutually supportive relationship with Trump for some years and has met with the President at the White House recently.

"He's going to be the Lanny Davis of this," said a source familiar with the legal team being constructed to support Trump in his fight against the Russia investigation. "He's sharp on his feet and polished. He's exactly what Trump likes."

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What the source means by that comparison is that Sekulow — like lawyer Lanny Davis was for Bill Clinton — is expected to be the omnipresent TV face of Trump's defense. The President's lead lawyer on the Russia probe, Marc Kasowitz, is not viewed as good media talent, and I'm told Trump thinks Sekulow does a good job defending him on TV.

Background on Sekulow:

  • He's well-connected in the conservative movement. His group, the American Center for Law & Justice (ACLJ), was founded by Pat Robertson.
  • Argued 12 cases before the Supreme Court and made a speciality of fighting high-profile religious liberty cases.
  • Sekulow fought against the "Ground Zero Mosque" and during that effort Trump offered to buy the site. Sekulow also appreciated Trump's public support of his campaign to free Saeed Abedini — an Iranian American Christian pastor who was imprisoned in Iran.
  • Sekulow and Trump share a taste for Brioni Italian menswear.
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Preet Bharara: enough evidence to open obstruction case against Trump

Preet Bharara, the federal prosecutor fired by Trump in March, has weighed in on Trump's legal liability amid the Russia investigation.
  • Evidence Trump obstructed justice? "I think there's absolutely evidence to begin a case. I think it's very important for all sorts of armchair speculators in the law to be clear that no one knows right now whether there is a provable case of obstruction. It's also true I think from based on what I see as a third party and out of government that there's no basis to say there's no obstruction."
  • Trump's outreach: Bharara says Trump called him three times between winning the election and firing him in March. "So they're unusual phone calls... when I've been reading the stories of how the president has been contacting Jim Comey over time, felt a little bit like deja vu. "
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Jay Sekulow, one of Trump's attorneys, on whether Trump would considering firing special counsel Robert Mueller:

"I can't imagine that that issue's going to arise, but then again it's an issue that the president with his advisers would discuss if there was a basis... the president has authority to take action, whether he would do it is ultimately a decision the president makes."

Go deeper: Special counsel Robert Mueller has been hiring the type of legal team that you'd expect if criminal charges were looming.


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The world's largest instrument resides in a cave

PBS News Hour / YouTube

The world's largest instrument exists deep inside the Luray Caverns in the Appalachian Mountains, and it's 400 million years in the making, Scientific American reports. It's called the Great Stalacpipe Organ, but it's unlike a typical organ, which forces air through pipes to create music — this instrument rhythmically strikes the cave's stalactites to create beautiful sounds.

How it works: Large, rubber mallets sit next to the 37 stalactites. When the organist strikes a key on the instrument, the corresponding mallet strikes the stalactites, all coordinated via a hidden mechanical device that receives electrical signals from the organ. The organ's inventor sanded down 35 of the 37 stalactites to perfect their tone (two didn't need it) and the 3.5-acre cave lends natural acoustics for the songs.

See it in action

Because the acoustics are not uniform throughout the cavern, it can be difficult to play by ear. So an automated system — using a plastic sheet with holes in it that rotates around a metal drum — plays songs similar to a player piano. When the metal meets the drum, corresponding stalactites sound off.

Go deeper: A combination of Mother Nature's work, time and a skilled mathematician helped create the Great Stalacpipe Organ. The large, echoey chambers of Luray Caverns have formed naturally over the past 400 millions years. Calcium-rich water droplets eventually formed the large stalactites that hang from the cave's ceiling and now act as an integral part of this instrument. Back in 1954, mathematician and electronics engineer Leland Sprinkle visited the caverns. As was customary during these tours, the guide would strike the stalactites to show visitors how each one gave off a unique sound. That moment sparked an idea in Sprinkle's head — create the Great Stalacpipe Organ, which he did in three years.


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Top Uber exec Emil Michael will reportedly resign

Youtube via screengrab

Emil Michael, Uber's chief business officer, will resign "as soon as Monday," the Wall St Journal reports, citing anonymous sources.

Michael, a close confidant of CEO Travis Kalanick, joined Uber in 2013 and has been serving as Kalanick's "acting number two," according to the Journal. He would be the latest in a string of executives to leave the company as controversies have piled up.

Recode reports that Michael is under pressure to resign, but has not yet decided to do so.

The other big news: Kalanick is reportedly discussing a possible leave of absence with the company's board of directors.
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Democrats escalate pressure on Sessions

Sam Owens / AP

Pat Leahy, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, has accused Attorney General Jeff Sessions of trying to avoid questions about his interactions with Russian officials after Sessions announced he would not testify before Appropriations on Tuesday, and would instead appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee (it's not clear whether that appearance will be public). Leahy's tweets:

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"Atty Gen. Sessions provided false testimony in response to questions from me and @SenFranken about his contacts with Russian officials. Now, twice in 2 mos., AG Sessions cancels an Approps hg in which I could Q him about his false testimony and half-hearted Russia recusal. My mssg to AttyGen Sessions: Approps & Judiciary have oversight of DOJ. You need to testify before both in public. You can't run forever."

The context: Sessions said during his confirmation hearings that he had not "contact with the Russians" during the campaign. It has since emerged that he had at least two undisclosed meetings with the Russian ambassador, with James Comey reportedly telling senators in a closed briefing last week of a possible third meeting.

Why it matters: The Democrats are out for blood, and Sessions is clearly in a vulnerable position. Expect them to use leverage similarly on others caught up in the Russia probe going forward — 'if you don't take our questions, we'll tell the world you must have something to hide.'

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