I HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT THIS: Ezekiel Emanuel, an ACA architect, is now advising Trump as GOP works to level the law.

With the administration and GOP leaders in Congress working to rewrite the landmark 2010 law – and Democrats displaying little appetite for negotiating with them – Emanuel appears to be one of the only members of his party with a seat at the table.

Monday’s meeting was Emanuel’s third in-person conversation on health policy with Trump since the November election. According to one person familiar with the session, who spoke on condition of anonymity about the private discussion, it took place in the Oval Office and lasted about 40 minutes. Among the others also attending were Vice President Pence, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner, and the White House National Economic Council director, Gary Cohn.

Details of the conversation were not immediately available. But White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer confirmed the meeting took place – only days before Ryan hopes to bring the bill to a House vote.

FLASHBACK: OBAMACARE ARCHITECT EZEKIEL EMANUEL: Die Young, Please.

AND: RATIONING: In Top Journal, Obamacare Boosters Push ‘Global Spending Target.’

GOOD: Failed North Korean missile exploded ‘within seconds,’ US says.

US officials confirmed North Korea had attempted to launch a missile near Kalma, on the country’s east coast, but early reports suggest it failed.

“South Korea and the US are aware of the missile launch and to their knowledge North Korea’s missile was not successfully launched,” South Korea’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

Neither the US nor South Korea have released information on what type of missile was fired, or why it failed. The US Pacific Command said it was working with partners to assess it further.

Given North Korea’s geography, it wouldn’t be difficult for the US Navy to enforce a “missile launch quarantine” on Pyongyang.

MURKY BATTLELINES: The Race to Raqqa Could Cost Trump Turkey.

You can barely keep track of the players even with a scorecard, but here’s the gist:

“The situation has gotten very complicated, and we’re on the verge of a fierce war,” said Ilham Ahmed, the co-chair of the SDF’s [Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the U.S.-supported YPG Syrian Kurdish fighters] political wing. “We are still getting support from the Americans, but if the Turkish attacks continue, we won’t be able to focus our efforts on Raqqa.”

The Kurdish-led forces’ fight with Turkey has also led them to pursue a tentative rapprochement with Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad. Earlier this month, these groups invited the Syrian government to take control of several villages near the front line with Turkey – apparently seeing the Syrian government presence as a potential buffer against a Turkish advance.

“We believe that the use of terms such as opposition or regime supporters, despite its importance, it has to be put on the back burner,” said Sihanouk Dibo, a senior presidential advisor to the PYD.

On the other side of Syria’s battle lines, Abu Waleed, a commander with the Turkish-backed Sultan Mourad brigades, is preparing for the coming war with the Kurdish forces. He speaks warmly of the “historic stance” Turkey took in favor of the Syrian uprising, saying that it is the “only one that is standing with the Free Syrian Army.”

Got that? Turkey supports one group of rebels which includes terrorists. We support another group of rebels which includes Kurds which the Turks claim, apparently with some justification, includes terrorists. Turkey’s rebels are spoiling for a fight with “our” rebels who are cozying up to the Assad regime they’re rebelling against. Everybody is racing to take Raqqa away from ISIS, but nobody wants anyone else to take it first.

Raqqa isn’t so much a powder keg as it is a whirlpool, filled with knives, sucking everyone in.

POINT: Live-Action ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Is Magnificent.

COUNTERPOINT: The New ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Adds Way Too Much.

PJM reports. You decide.

NO. Thick Mint Stout Is Your Unofficial Girl Scout Cookie Beer.

IMPRESSIVE… MOST IMPRESSIVE: This Dad Figured out the Coolest Way to Announce the Sex of His Baby!

BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Anti-Israel Activist Linda Sarsour Tweets Out That Bernie Sanders ‘Changed Her Life’

THE HORSE HAS LEFT THE BARN: Google Promises Closer Policing of Websites After YouTube Ad Flap in Britain.

Google has found itself at the center of a British storm in recent days after major companies from supermarkets to banks and consumer groups pulled their adverts from its YouTube site after they appeared alongside videos carrying homophobic and anti-Semitic messages.

Alphabet’s Google launched a review of the problem on Friday, apologized on Monday and said on Tuesday it had revamped its policies to give advertisers more control.

The company, which had said it struggled to monitor the 400 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute, said it would hire significantly more staff and speed up the process of removing ads from hateful and offensive content that attacks people based on their race, religion or gender.

“We believe the combination of these new policies and controls will significantly strengthen our ability to help advertisers reach audiences at scale, while respecting their values,” Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, said in a blog.

Why do progressive companies like Google create such cesspits of homophobic and anti-Semitic messaging in the first place?

EVERY TIME I THINK I’M OUT THEY PULL ME BACK IN: Iraqi PM Says Trump Administration ‘Wants to be More Engaged’ in Region.

We’ll almost certainly need to be, with Iran uncaged and the longterm decline in oil prices both promising fresh chaos.

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK: Idaho boy sprayed by cyanide planted by US Department of Agriculture, dog killed.

“I hurried home, and the first thing I did was try to resuscitate the dog,” Mark Mansfield said. “Unfortunately I exposed myself to cyanide and had no idea.”

It took hours after emergency crews arrived and help from multiple agencies to learn Casey had died from exposure to an M-44.

M-44s are spring-activated devices that release cyanide when they are activated through upward pressure or pulling. The US Department of Agriculture uses the devices to control coyotes and other predators.

“We didn’t know anything about it. No neighborhood notifications and our local authorities didn’t know anything about them,” Mark said. “The sheriff deputies who went up there didn’t even know what a cyanide bomb was.”

The Mansfields have lived in their home nearly 10 years and have never seen M-44s in their neighborhood. They say the one triggered Thursday was planted on the borderline of their property.

“We weren’t aware, and nobody told us,” Theresa said. “There was nothing posted up on the hill saying to beware or be careful.”

Cyanide bombs seem like the kind of thing people should be made aware of.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP: UK flight ban on devices to be announced.

The UK is due to announce a cabin baggage ban on laptops, tablets and DVD players on certain passenger flights, after a similar US move.

It is understood the UK restrictions may differ from the US Department of Homeland Security’s ban, although details have not yet been released.

Flights from 10 airports in eight Muslim majority countries are subject to the US announcement.
US officials said bombs could be hidden in a series of devices.

The UK’s Department for Transport refused to comment on reports of the ban.

But BBC home affairs correspondent Daniel Sandford said the expected move was “obviously part of coordinated action with the US”.

I hope this is a sign that US/UK relations are still improving, despite the recent flap.

ANALYSIS: TRUE. Wonder Woman Absolutely Should Not Have Armpit Hair, Sorry. “After all, a woman who has not once in more than 70 years gone out without perfectly curled hair is definitely not a woman who would ever wear something sleeveless without shaving her pits.”

Indeed.

FIRE THEM: U.S. Women’s Hockey Boycotting Championships Over Equal Pay.

BEN DOMENECH: How Trump Can Fix Health Care.

Mr. Trump won the presidency in part because of some big promises, including a vow to break from conservative orthodoxy on entitlements. If Congress fails to deliver on that promise, Mr. Trump could correct it by going boldly in a direction anathema to many on the right but potentially acceptable to some Democrats: universal coverage for catastrophic care.

Many Americans’ greatest fear is that their health care costs will bankrupt them. The quality of care we receive is high — I experienced this myself this month after a cardiac incident left me reading the Republican plan in an emergency room — but the expense is opaque, and Americans are not wrong to worry about these costs.

By providing catastrophic care for all, President Trump could ensure that everyone has an ultimate backstop against medical bankruptcy, while freeing the states to experiment with options for reform. It would also enable the private sector to offer new insurance products to supplement the basic catastrophic care coverage.

This idea has some support among conservatives. In 2012 Kip Hagopian and Dana Goldman estimated in National Affairs that to insure all 209 million Americans not already covered by public insurance programs would cost about $2,000 per person, or $7,200 per family per year — about half the projected $1.7 trillion cost of Obamacare over the coming decade. Individuals and families could then purchase additional coverage given their particular health needs, but would not be bankrupted by severe illness or accident.

Something along these lines might be the least-bad, politically feasible outcome.

SVERIGE GETTING SERIOUS: Sweden preparing nuclear fallout bunkers across the country amid fear of Russian war.

A system of 65,000 bunkers was established in the Cold War to protect the population from nuclear war with the Soviet Union.

According to MSB, the bunkers currently protect against blast and radiation as well as chemical or germ warfare.

With a distinctive logo, they can easily be located by civilians seeking shelter.

But with fears growing over threat posed by Vladimir Putin and his resurgent Russia they are being reviewed to make sure they are ready.

I’m old enough to remember when Sweden took its policy of armed neutrality seriously all the time.

JIM GERAGHTY: The FBI’s Coming Catch-22.

FBI director James Comey, testifying before Congress yesterday:

The FBI, as part of our counterintelligence mission, is investigating the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the Trump campaign and the Russian government and whether there was any coordination between the campaign and Russia’s efforts. As with any counterintelligence investigation, this will also include an assessment of whether any crimes were committed.

He later added, “We’ve been doing this — this investigation began in late July, so for counterintelligence investigation that’s a fairly short period of time.”

Late July? When did the FBI think it was pertinent to tell the public?

Talk about a Catch-22. If the FBI finds evidence of some collusion or violation of U.S. laws, it’s an epic scandal, will set up Democratic conspiracy theories for years, will take a sledgehammer to public faith in the Trump presidency… and everyone will rightly ask why the FBI couldn’t uncover anything, or even inform the public about the investigation, until after the election. Heck, not even until after the inauguration!

If the FBI doesn’t find evidence of some collusion or violation of U.S. laws, it’s an epic farce, where the Trump administration can rightfully ask where they can go to get their reputations back.

Comey’s tenure at the FBI hasn’t exactly been marked by glory, or even forethought.

VIDEO: Sounds Like Hillary May Run Again?!?

I’m putting this one up without having played it first because I couldn’t bear to watch.

KEEPING THE SEMI IN SEMI-AUTONOMOUS: Uber’s autonomous cars drove 20,354 miles and had to be taken over at every mile.

Though Uber has more cars on the road this month than last month and has increased its weekly autonomous mileage — both good developments — the company’s human drivers are still taking over the system more times than they did in January.

Uber uses several different metrics to determine how its systems have progressed. Those include:

The average number of miles a car drives itself before a driver has to take over for any reason
The average number of miles between “critical” interventions — when a driver has to avoid causing harm, such as hitting pedestrians or causing material property damage
The average number of autonomous miles between “bad experiences” — things like jerky motions or hard braking, which are more likely to cause discomfort than damage

For example: During the week ending March 8, the 43 active cars on the road only drove an average of close to 0.8 miles before the safety driver had to take over for one reason or another.

So Uber has more and more semi-automous cars driving more miles, but the average distance driven before the driver needs to intervene hasn’t changed much.

This suggests that Uber’s AI isn’t a very quick learner — although my hunch is that after enough miles and AI experience, that a virtual tipping point will be reached, after which the AI will start learning very quickly.

NO. Dogs are getting facelifts, nose jobs and ball implants.

Edgard Brito, a São Paulo vet and plastic surgeon, told DuJour that he wants his procedures to make pets more lovable to their owners. “I often say that a clean dog with well-kept teeth will always be in better contact with its owners, otherwise the dog ends up being [put to sleep],” he said.

Brito, who’s been called the world’s go-to dog surgeon, performs procedures to glam up canines’ appearances: Botox to perk up the ears of a Doberman, nose jobs, face-lifts and testicular implants such as Neuticles to help neutered pets regain their masculinity.

Dogs love you, as-is, no questions asked. We should at least be kind enough to return the favor.

SOCIAL MEDIA: Chicago Police Investigating Facebook Live Gang-Rape of 15-Year-Old Girl.

QUESTION ASKED: Why Isn’t The Laptop Ban Unconstitutional Like The Travel Ban?

Perhaps because al Qaeda may be working on turning laptop batteries into bombs:

Reuters reported Monday that the move had been under consideration since the U.S. government learned of a threat several weeks ago.

U.S. officials have told Reuters the information gleaned from a U.S. commando raid in January in Yemen that targeted al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula included bombmaking techniques.

Or maybe it just depends on which judge on the 9th Circuit hears the inevitable lawsuit.

THIS IS NOT THE 21ST CENTURY I WAS HOPING FOR: House Conservative on Healthcare Bill: Everyone’s Concerned About ‘Getting into a Twitter War’ with Trump.

ALICE STEWART: Plug the leaks and stop blaming Russians for Clinton’s loss.

In terms of Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, Comey confirmed this is under investigation by the FBI. He went on to say the Russian officials meant to hurt democracy and Hillary Clinton, all the while helping Donald Trump. Comey also confirmed that FBI officials are investigating possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russian officials.

So far, there is no publicly available evidence to support the claim. In my view, Russian interference and possible collusion with the Trump campaign had nothing to do with the Democrat’s defeat; Hillary Clinton lost because she had the wrong message, failed to compete in key battleground states and spiked the football in the third quarter.

Indeed. But although it harms the country, blaming the Russians and discrediting Trump helps Democrats politically — so expect it to continue.

On the other hand, I just spotted this headline: “Tillerson plans to skip NATO meeting, visit Russia in April.”

Snubbing NATO could mean nothing more than sending Berlin another signal to get serious about their defense budget. And until we see an actual policy shift in favor of Russia, that’s probably the smart take.

IT COULDN’T HAPPEN TO A NICER BUNCH OF DESPOTS: Opec and Russia risk a lost decade as shale revolution spreads.

Russia and the OPEC nations have had every opportunity to reform their economies, financed by riches located right under their feet. Now they find those riches are no longer worth so much, and their other industries are as moribund as ever.

They chose… poorly.

HE’LL BE BACK: Fox parts with Napolitano amid wiretap fizzle.