Wall Street elite find it hard to bank on Trump's breakup talk

Source: Reuters


Tue May 2, 2017 | 2:51pm EDT

By Lawrence Delevingne, Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Olivia Oran | NEW YORK
At an annual gathering of the world's most powerful thinkers and trendsetters in Beverly Hills this week, business leaders and major investors said they have gotten used to dismissing most things that President Donald Trump says or tweets.

On panels at the Milken Institute Global Conference, CEOs and billionaires were generally enthusiastic about Trump's mission to reform healthcare, cut taxes, reduce regulations and stimulate the economy. Panelists including JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) CEO Jamie Dimon and hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin offered positive remarks about the president and urged attendees to give him more time to accomplish such sizeable goals. But in interviews on the sidelines, the Wall Street set was far more dubious that Trump can get anything done.

"I don't take Trump seriously," said a senior executive at one of the country's six largest banks. "I'm listening less and less."

Like most who wanted to share their more candid views privately, the executive spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid angering the president, his employer or business associates. But his comments were echoed by at least a dozen institutional investors and bank executives who spoke to Reuters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-milken-conference-trump-idUSKBN17Y26U?il=0

Hillary Clinton blames Russian hackers and Comey for 2016 election loss

Source: The Washington Post


By Philip Rucker May 2 at 2:39 PM

Hillary Clinton on Tuesday attributed her defeat in the 2016 presidential election to interference by Russian hackers and FBI Director James B. Comey, and declared herself to be “part of the resistance” to Donald Trump’s presidency.

“If the election had been on October 27, I would be your president,” Clinton told moderator Christiane Amanpour, the CNN anchor, at a Women for Women event in New York.

After spending the past six months in relative hibernation, Clinton made a rare public appearance Tuesday and ruminated extensively for the first time on her loss. She said she has been busy writing a memoir, a process she described as a “cathartic” yet “excruciating” and “painful.”

While Clinton said she takes “absolute personal responsibility” for losing to Trump, she did not assign any blame to her strategy or staff. Nor did she point to her own weaknesses as a candidate or the struggles by her and her team to understand the angry mood of key parts of the electorate.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/hillary-clinton-blames-russian-hackers-and-comey-for-2016-election-loss/2017/05/02/e62fef72-2f60-11e7-8674-437ddb6e813e_story.html?utm_term=.85169e5cf544&wpisrc=al_alert-COMBO-politics%252Bnation&wpmk=1

Conservationists sue to halt fracking in Ohio's only national forest

Source: Reuters



By Chris Kenning

Four conservation groups on Tuesday sued the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management in an attempt to halt fracking plans in a portion of Ohio's only national forest.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Columbus, argues that the federal agencies failed to sufficiently analyze risks to watersheds, public health, climate and endangered species, including Indiana bats, before auctioning 670 acres (270 hectares) in December of the Wayne National Forest in Southeast Ohio for eventual hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of underground shale.

The groups are seeking an injunction to halt oil and gas leasing and development until a new assessment can be made. Fracking involves injecting water, sand and chemicals into wells to fracture shale and release natural gas and oil. U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Babete Anderson declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Bureau of Land Management officials could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Ohio Oil and Gas Association declined to immediately comment on the suit, but argued in a recent post on its website that fracking does not harm groundwater and increased natural gas use across, driven partly by fracking, has helped reduce air pollution.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ohio-fracking-lawsuit-idUSKBN17Y25O

Hillary Clinton: 'I was on the way to winning' before Comey's letter and WikiLeaks struck

House Dems Urge Trump To Oust Gorka Over Ties To Far-Right Hungarian Groups

Source: Talking Points Memo


By ALLEGRA KIRKLAND Published MAY 2, 2017 2:22 PM

Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday sought to capitalize on a flood of reports suggesting that White House staffer Sebastian Gorka may soon be reports out, urging President Donald Trump to get rid of his self-styled counterterrorism guru immediately.

“Based on recent revelations about Mr. Gorka’s public support for and membership in several anti-Semitic and racist groups in Hungary, he is clearly unfit to serve in any position of responsibility in your Administration,” read a letter signed by 55 Democratic members of the House.

“We urge you to fire him immediately, and to make clear that you condemn all forms of anti-Semitism and intolerance within our country and abroad,” they added.

Brought into the administration to advise Trump on counterterrorism issues, Gorka’s tenure has been hamstrung by his reported inability to secure a security clearance, thin resume for handling national security issues and links to Hungarian far-right groups.

Read more: Link to source

Kelly 'Shocked' By Those 'Rejoicing' Over Wall Delay

Mulvaney: A 'Good Shutdown' Would Prove Trump's Point About Dysfunction

Source: Talking Points Memo



By MATT SHUHAM Published MAY 2, 2017 2:31 PM

The White House budget director on Monday threatened Democrats with a government shutdown if they don’t “behave” when it comes time to write a federal budget in September. He also defined a “good shutdown,” advocated earlier by President Donald Trump on Twitter, as one that proved Trump correct about the dysfunction of the federal government.

An animated Mick Mulvaney responded first to a reporter who asked about Trump’s Twitter dispatches Tuesday morning, in which the President urged, “Our country needs a good ‘shutdown’ in September to fix mess!”

“I think the President is frustrated with the fact that he negotiated in good faith with the Democrats and they went out to try and spike the football and make him look bad,” Mulvaney said, presumably referring to Democrats’ taunts that Trump got almost nothing his White House budget advocated for.

“I get that frustration because I think it is a terrible posture for the Democrats to take,” he continued. “If we are sitting here trying to prove to people that Washington is going to be different, that we’re going to change things and can figure a way to work with them and they do that to this President, listen, I would have taken offense at that so it doesn’t surprise me at all that his frustrations were manifested in that way. We’ve got a lot to do between now and September. I don’t anticipate a shutdown in September. But if negotiations — if the Democrats aren’t going to behave any better than they have in the last couple days, it may be inevitable.”

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/mick-mulvaney-good-shutdown-trump-point-dysfunction

Congressman wonders whether Chelsea Clinton wants to 'try to do better than her mommy did'

Source: ABC News



By JOHN PARKINSON
May 2, 2017, 12:55 PM ET

Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks today trashed Chelsea Clinton’s tweet targeting the congressman's position on pre-existing medical conditions.

Upon learning that the former first daughter had tweeted about him this morning, Brooks seemed genuinely intrigued.

“Oh, really? Chelsea? I've got a Chelsea,” Brooks said curiously in the Capitol basement, putting on his glasses to read Clinton's tweet.

https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/859380637417000960

“Well that is not at all what I said, and it's just another example of where people who are on the other side are so willing to make false representations,” Brooks said, explaining his struggle to rationalize insuring chain-smokers and alcoholics versus insuring someone with leukemia or diabetes.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/congressman-wonders-chelsea-clinton-mommy/story?id=47159185

Trump reverses stance on spending bill, brags about political victory

Source: ABC News



By ALEXANDER MALLIN, BENJAMIN SIEGEL and VERONICA STRACQUALURSI
May 2, 2017, 1:01 PM ET

President Trump this morning touted his administration’s political victory on the spending bill in a ceremony originally scheduled to honor the Air Force Academy football team.

"After years of partisan bickering and gridlock, this bill is a clear win for the American people," Trump said from the White House Rose Garden with a group of Air Force cadets standing behind him.

"We brought lawmakers together from both sides of the aisle to deliver a budget that funds the rebuilding of the United States military, makes historic investments in border security and provides health care for our miners and school choice for our disadvantaged children," Trump said of the government funding deal reached by Congress late Sunday night.

The $1 trillion spending bill, which will keep the government running through September, does not include funds for a wall on the border with Mexico, one of Trump's key agenda items. But the bill does include a $15 billion increase in funding for the military and $1.5 billion more dedicated to border security.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-threatens-shutdown-ryan-defends-spending-deal/story?id=47155267

Alt-right hopes to organize street-fighting goon squad: Is it more than macho posturing?

Far-right fanboys are trying to organize street gangs — and the most effective way to fight back may be mockery

AMANDA MARCOTTE

Kyle Chapman, known to his fans on the alt-right as “Based Stickman” for beating a leftist protester with a wooden stick at an early March pro-Trump protest in Berkeley, California, wants people to think he’s tough. In late April Chapman announced on Facebook his creation of a new group of right-wing street fighters, called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (or FOAK), dedicated to “defense and confrontation” in the streets. You could almost hear the chest-thumping right through the computer screen.

“This organization is for those that possess the Warrior Spirit,” Chapman wrote. “The weak or timid need not apply.”

A few days after that, the Proud Boys network, a group that Vice co-founder and former Fox News contributor Gavin McInnes calls a “pro-West fraternal organization,” posted a notice about the formation of the alt-knights’ order and a call for “strong minded men” who are “comfortable in fisticuffs” to join. I reached out to Chapman in hopes of seeing his “warrior spirit” for myself. Alas, I ended up disappointed.

Initially, Chapman seemed interested in talking and gave me his phone number. But when I called him, he refused to speak to me, insisting that I email my questions instead. Since then nearly a week has gone by, and Chapman has not answered my emailed questions or any of my follow-up nudges on Facebook. (He has read them, though.) The “warrior spirit” is apparently not enough to help him tough out a conversation with a journalist about why he believes the world needs the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights.

more + video
http://www.salon.com/2017/05/02/alt-right-hopes-to-organize-street-fighting-goon-squad-is-it-more-than-macho-posturing/