The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Yellen’s Banking House of Cards

Posted on | March 16, 2023 | Comments Off on Yellen’s Banking House of Cards

Far be it from me to claim to be an expert in financial institutions. My knowledge of banking is no greater than the average SVB board member, which is to say I know nearly nothing about the subject. But judging from headlines in recent days, I have the distinct impression that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is basically shuffling around piles of money from one troubled bank to another in a desperate attempt to stave off a complete collapse of the international financial system.

Did I mention U.S. banks are bailing out the Chicoms?

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen admitted during a Thursday Congressional hearing that Chinese Communist Party-linked businesses that had deposits in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) will be made whole by the American banking system.
Senator James Lankford (R., Okla.) pressed Yellen on the matter during a Senate Finance Committee hearing held days after Silicon Valley Bank collapsed.
“It has been reported publicly that SVB had a large number of Chinese investors that are there including some companies that were directly connected to the Chinese Communist Party,” Senator Lankford (R., Okla.) asked Yellen during Thursday afternoon’s hearing. “So what I’m asking is: will my banks in Oklahoma pay a special assessment to be able to make Chinese investors whole in Silicon Valley Bank?”
Secretary Yellen confirmed that they would.

(Hat-tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.) Meanwhile, in Switzerland:

Credit Suisse shares surged Thursday after the Swiss central bank agreed to loan the bank up to 50 billion francs ($54 billion) to bolster confidence in the country’s second-biggest lender following the collapse of two U.S. banks.
Credit Suisse announced the agreement before the Swiss stock market opened, sending shares up as much as 33% before they settled around a 17% gain, to 2 francs ($2.15), in late afternoon trading. That was a massive turnaround from a day earlier, when news that the bank’s biggest shareholder would not inject more money into Credit Suisse sent its shares tumbling 30%. The plunge in price dragged down other European banks and deepened concerns about the international financial system.

Prior to the intervention, there was an incipient panic emerging over Credit Suisse, and such financial brush fires keep popping up:

First Republic Bank, facing a crisis of confidence from investors and customers, is set to receive a $30 billion lifeline from a group of America’s largest banks.
“This show of support by a group of large banks is most welcome, and demonstrates the resilience of the banking system,” the Treasury Department said in a statement Thursday.
The major banks include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Truist.
The $30 billion infusion will give the struggling San Francisco lender much-needed cash to meet customer withdrawals and buttress confidence in the US banking system during a tumultuous moment for lenders. . . .
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday met privately in Washington with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon before 11 banks agreed to deposit $30 billion in First Republic Bank to stabilize the teetering lender, according to two people familiar with the matter.

So far, then, the system continues to function, but how much longer can this “crisis of confidence” situation continue, with one bank after another getting wobbly and crying out for Janet Yellen’s intervention?

Nothing to worry about, Secretary Yellen tells Congress:

Yellen touted the federal government’s “decisive and forceful” actions to shore up the banking sector while testifying before members of the Senate Finance Committee.
“I can reassure the members of the Committee that our banking system remains sound, and that Americans can feel confident that their deposits will be there when they need them,” Yellen said.
“This week’s actions demonstrate our resolute commitment to ensure that depositors’ savings remain safe,” she added.

Just like Joe Biden, repeatedly claiming that everything’s just hunky-dory thanks to his economic agenda, Yellen appears to believe that the banking crisis is basically a public-relations issue. As long as she can continue to convince everybody that there’s no underlying problem with the system, the crisis will be averted: “Americans can feel confident,” she says, as if feelings were the only thing that mattered, and never mind whether your bank has enough assets to meet its obligations.

Can she get away with this? Will her three-card monte game just keep rolling indefinitely? Chip Dillard could not be reached for comment.



 

 

Category: Economics

In The Mailbox: 03.15.23 (Evening Edition)

Posted on | March 16, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.15.23 (Evening Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

MN Lt. Gov. Flanagan: “When our children tell us who they are, it’s our job as grownups to listen and believe them.”

OVER THE TRANSOM
EBL: The Trad Wife Whisperer, also, The Murder of Julius Caesar
Twitchy: Socialist Party Beclowns Itself By Inventing Capitalism, Biden Declares Victory Over Big Pharma, and Bethany Mandel Owns Her “Brain Fart” On Wokeness, Making Woke Libs Even Madder
Louder With Crowder: ‘They Have Awakened A Sleeping Giant’, DeSantis strips Miami hotel of its liquor license for allowing kids to be exposed to sexually explicit Christmas show, and TikTok blonde nails why putting your pronouns on your resume disqualifies you for most employers
Vox Popoli: You Wanted Conan, Discernment and the Lack Thereof, Antisemitism, Han-style, and You Had One Job

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
American Conservative: ‘The World That We Will Live and Die In’
American Greatness: Claremont Institute Reveals Database to Track Corporate Funding of Black Lives Matter, Failed Banks Previously Lobbied to Loosen Banking Regulations, and Florida House Passes Bill to Ban Diversity Programs at Public Colleges
American Thinker: Biden – Worse than Jimmy Carter, The Democrat-Media Insurrection Myth, and The J6 Committee’s Obstruction of Justice
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Hump Day News
Babalu Blog: Federal judge rules to enforce $2.79 billion judgment against Cuba’s dictatorship for murder and torture, Six out of every seven rooms in Cuba’s apartheid hotels were vacant last year, and Cuban state-run website takes down anti-gay speech by Fidel Castro
BattleSwarm: Important Safety Tip
Behind The Black: NASA agrees to Axiom’s third planned commercial passenger mission to ISS, Perseverance captures a movie of Ingenuity’s 47th flight on Mars, Firefly wins its second NASA contract to land payloads on the Moon, Geological evidence of past glacier found in Mars’ dry equatorial regions, and Pushback: Legal and public pressure forces California college to cancel plans to fire employees for not getting jab
CDR Salamander: Hendrix’s View from an Island Nation
Da Tech Guy: Quick Thoughts Under the Fedora
Don Surber: Newsless Papers
First Street Journal: Once again, the #woke credentialed media don’t want to cover the story
Gates Of Vienna: The Brutal Death of Luise
The Geller Report: New Body Cam J6 Footage Shows Police Inviting, Ushering Protesters Through Senate Chamber, Destroying Narrative Created By J6 Committee, also, Vermont Christian School Banned From All Future Tournaments After Forfeiting Game To Team With Male Player
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, Einstein Rings, and Nothing to See Here. Move Along.
Hollywood In Toto: Sue Costello Sues Paramount Global, Demands Jury Trial for Breach of Contract, Follow the Dead Proves Smarter Than Your Average Zom-Comedy, and Why The Last of Us Is the Year’s Best (and Worst) TV Show
The Lid: Antifa Terrorists Violently Smash Windows Trying to Shut Down Charlie Kirk Event At UC Davis
Legal Insurrection: Gov. Gretchen Whitmer Admits Authoritarian Orders Were “More Than We Needed to Do”, Free Speech Talk at U. Denver’s College of Law Requires Security Guards and Threats of Discipline to Proceed, ‘I’m Back’: James O’Keefe Launches New Media Company After Project Veritas Ouster, Gov. Abbott Taking Over Houston Independent School District ‘After Years of Academic Failure’, and Full Audio Confirms Stanford Law School Students Shouted Down Conservative Judge In Violation Of Policy
Nebraska Energy Observer: A Brit’s view of the constitution of the United States of America (2)
Outkick: Jim Boeheim Offers Multiple Bonkers Suggestions For March Madness, Ja Morant Speaks With ESPN’s Jalen Rose, Says He Doesn’t Condone Violence And Denies Owning Strip Club Gun, Should Daniel Jones Sacrifice Money In The Name Of Lamar Jackson?, Aaron Rodgers To ESPN’s Adam Schefter: ‘Lose My Number’, and Scottie Scheffler’s Masters Champions Dinner Menu Is Pure America, And It’s Awesome
Power Line: Biggest Victim of SVB Collapse? The Climate, Of Course, The Week in Energy: News on New Nukes, and Old, and The tears of Tirien Steinbach
Shark Tank: Senators Seek To Prevent Confederate-era Statue Removal
Shot In The Dark: Public Service Announcement
The Political Hat: The Ides Of March, also, Happy Pi Day!
This Ain’t Hell: Black Sea Follies, also, Victim of a Marine Corps conspiracy to erase their identity, now sentenced to prison
Transterrestrial Musings: What Happened To SVB?, also, Woke Colleges
Victory Girls: Gas Stove Ban Environmental Group Hires Stacey Abrams, also, From the VG Bookshelf: Stolen Youth
Volokh Conspiracy: ChatGPT-4 Aces the Bar Exam, also, New Law School “Mismatch” Data from UCLA Lawprof Richard Sander
Watts Up With That: Climate Crisis? What Climate Crisis? Part One: The Evidence, A Fresh Approach to Energy Policy, and Germany’s Coming Green Energy “Economic Miracle”
Weasel Zippers: U.S Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz Admits We Do NOT Have Operational Control Of Our Borders, Biden’s Plans To Tax Unrealized Capital Gains Called “Blatanty Unconstitutional”, MSNBC Wants Baseball Moved Out of Florida Over DeSantis’ War On Woke, and Treasury Reports Show Biden Family Made Millions from Chinese Company After 2016
The Federalist: Kamala Harris’ Husband Claims The Holocaust And Going To A School Board Meeting Are ‘Interconnected’, Democrats Deserve Plenty Of Blame For The Bank Crisis, Democrat Activist To Resign From Voter Roll Operation After Pressure From GOP States, No, Age-Appropriate Library Restrictions Are Not ‘Book Bans’, and DeSantis Yanks Hyatt Regency Miami’s Liquor License For Hosting Holiday Drag Show With Kids Present
Mark Steyn: One Big Crazy College Campus

 

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Category: Linkagery

In The Mailbox: 03.15.23 (Morning Edition)

Posted on | March 15, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.15.23 (Morning Edition)

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Happy Pi Day! Not too late to run out and grab a slice. Delayed until this morning thanks to carb overload on Pi Day.
Silicon Valley delenda est.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: 3.14 = Pi Day, Also Albert Einstein’s Birthday
EBL: Next Exit, Gavin Strangelove Bombs The US Economy, and Donald J. Trump & The J6 Prison Choir
Twitchy: Tucker Carlson Masterfully Trolls The Left With New Twitter Bio, Rep. Anna Eskamani (D-FL) – “You’re Killing Our Trans Babies!”, and Here’s A Clip Of A Bison Calf Coming Out As Nonbinary In A Cartoon For Preschoolers
Louder With Crowder: ‘I’ll f*** a b*** up’: Avril Lavigne chucks topless protester off stage at award show, Whoopi Goldberg lashes out at her own audience for laughing at a joke about Pete Buttigieg, and Legend pranks school Board with explicit fake names, clueless official doesn’t realize what he’s saying
Vox Popoli: The SVB Death List, Systemic Risk Exception, The Internet is Forever, Shut Down Those Free Markets, and Anacyclosis in Action
Stoic Observations: The Washington Outsider

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: It’s got all the Fruit
American Conservative: The Gathering Storm
American Greatness: A ‘Spill’ of FBI Secrets, also, Silicon Valley Bank Doubled Down on Far-Left Policies Despite Hundreds of Millions in Losses
American Thinker: Failing Accountability Leads to Chaos, The Looming Reckoning for COVID Tyrants, and Where Is the American Church in All This?
Animal Magnetism: Animal’s Daily 2024 News
Babalu Blog: Venezuela sends 1.53 million barrels of oil to Cuba on tanker blacklisted by the U.S., Scientist who investigated ‘Havana Syndrome’ says U.S. intelligence report is ‘bullsh*t’, Inflation in Cuba more about hunger than economics, and Gay anti-communist activists in Spain put a skirt and lipstick on Che Guevara bust in Madrid
BattleSwarm: Oopsie! Russian Su-27 Crashes into U.S. Drone over Black Sea, also, Huge Brawl At Social Justice Warrior Middle School
Behind The Black: Space startups get their SVB assets back when Feds move in, SpaceX launches cargo Dragon to ISS, A Martian crater, ice, and dust devil tracks, and Today’s blacklisted American: Eventbrite routinely blacklists conservative events
Cafe Hayek: Trade Is Amazing: It Empowers Us to Turn Almost Anything Into Almost Anything Else
CDR Salamander: The Three Wounds of our Amphibious Navy
Da Tech Guy: I Declare March 18th “Hurray We’re Not Dead Day” Since Greta doesn’t want to celebrate our Unexpected Survival, The bailout hustle, and As the Banks Come Tumbling Down
Don Surber: Biden Killed SVB – We’re Next
First Street Journal: Trying too hard?
Gates Of Vienna: Presearching COVID-19, Giorgia Meloni Cracks Down on Migrant Traffickers, Culture-Enriching Doctor-Killer Walks Free in Emmendingen, and Belgium Throws Wide the Gates for Palestinian “Refugees”
The Geller Report: HARDER! FASTER! Facebook Fires 10,000 Employees as Woke Goes Broke, also, BUSTED AND BANKRUPT – WOKE Signature Bank Called For Trump’s Resignation, Closed His Accounts
Glenn Reynolds: Losing My Religion?
Hogewash: A Jellyfish in a Monster, Math is Hard, and Team Kimberlin Post of the Day
Hollywood In Toto: Will Upcoming Orwell Doc Miss Entire Point of 1984?, Is Paramount Feuding with William Shatner?, and Did the Oscars FINALLY Get the Message?
The Lid: Calm Down! There Was No ‘Noose’ – Another Fake ‘Hate Crime’ Busted in California
Legal Insurrection: The Stanford Law School Culture, Not The Diversity Dean, Is The Problem (but I repeat myself), Diversity Director Claims College Fired Her for Questioning Anti-Racism Policies, Kamala Harris Reportedly Snubbing Elizabeth Warren Over Recent Comments Questioning Her as VP in 2024, North Korean Defector Yeonmi Park Says “Universities Must Change Course ‘While Time Remains’”, and Straining Credulity, Dr. Fauci Asserts Covid Lab Leak Could Still be Considered a ‘Natural Occurrence’
Nebraska Energy Observer: Ephesians 6:12, also, A Few Things
Outkick: ESPN’s Mike Greenberg Is Acting Like A Desperate Fanboy Waiting On An Aaron Rodgers To The Jets Announcement, Andrew Bogut Asks Girl Dads ‘Where Are You’ As A Transgender Player Is Expected To Be Allowed Into Australian Women’s Basketball League, Lamar Jackson Calls Out ESPN’s Adam Schefter, Says Ravens Offered Him $133 Million Guaranteed For Three Years, Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase Party On Boat with Bikini-Clad Women, and NBA Veteran Blames Rap Music, Bad Parenting For Ja Morant’s Behavior
Power Line: Feeding Our Future fraud goes to the laundromat, Carve ‘Em Up? Voters Say No Way, and Trump Is Rattled
Shark Tank:  DeSantis Administration Files Complaint Against Hotel For Hosting Sexualized Drag Show With Minors Present
Shot In The Dark: Unsafe Space, also, Contempt
The Political Hat: Sensitivity Readers And The Memory Holing Of Ghost Stories and Fairy Tales
This Ain’t Hell: Encouraging news from Islam, Soldier Accounted For From Korean War, and Tuesday with the Libs of Tik Tok
Transterrestrial Musings: Who Is Running America?
Victory Girls: Stanford Student Tantrums Continue
Volokh Conspiracy: Beauty Pageants Have First Amendment Right to Limit Contestants to “Natural Born Females”: No Rehearing En Banc
Watts Up With That: Power Transformer Shortage is Wreaking Havoc in the U.S.
Weasel Zippers: Pelosi: We Must Work With China “To Save The Planet From Climate Change”, also, Biden: It’s “Close To Sinful” For States To Stand Between Kids And Trans-Activist Doctors 
The Federalist: Why NewsGuard Is Just As Bad As The Pro-Censorship Global Disinformation Index, Biden Is Trying To Have It Both Ways On Arctic Drilling, ‘Christian Nationalism’ Isn’t Cultural Coercion, It’s A Moral Imperative, What The Media Did To America Is Far Worse Than The Pandemic Ever Was, and Why The Woke Mob Came For Final Fantasy
Mark Steyn: Britain, Brexit and Betrayal, also, The Mark Steyn Show – live Monday to Thur…okay, Wednesday, at least

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Category: Linkagery

Antifa State University: Charlie Kirk Sparks ‘Mostly Peaceful’ Riot at UC-Davis

Posted on | March 15, 2023 | 1 Comment

I just met you and this is crazy:
Charlie Kirk is a proponent of hate.
Call me maybe.

Or something like that. Could anything be more insane than the belief that Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk is some sort of right-wing extremist? He’s basically an Eisenhower Republican, definitely less conservative than, say, Ace of Spades, but reality doesn’t matter to California kids who have been taught that disagreement is “hate”:

Left-wing and LGBTQ activists at UC Davis were arrested after vandalizing university property on Tuesday during an event featuring Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. The incident came just hours after UC Davis chancellor Gary S. May declared Kirk a “proponent of hate” and encouraged students to “neutralize and negate” TPUSA’s influence on campus.
Protestors carrying banners that read, “Queers Bash Back,” and, “Bash Fash,” were seen on video smashing glass windows while police officers tried to fend them off.
Additional footage showed police outside taking down masked protesters who appeared to be carrying spray paint cans.
Police also clashed with banner-wielding protesters who were chanting, “fight back!” as they tried to advance toward the building where the Turning Point USA event was being held.
A UC Davis campus police spokesperson told Breitbart News that “two people were arrested after spray painting the outside of the building.”
“I’m not sure what the exact charges are, but that’s what they were doing,” the spokesperson said.
The police spokesperson added that he did not have information on the identities of the individuals who were arrested and that, so far, no arrests have been made in connection to the smashed glass windows on the university’s campus doors.
The left-wing and LGBTQ activists were also seen carrying banners that read, “Protect Trans Kids,” and, “Fascists Off Campus.”

What a bizarre worldview: Men can be women, and vice-versa, and if you don’t agree, that makes you a “fascist.” And the chancellor of the university evidently shares these beliefs!

“Under UC policy, campuses may not prohibit student organizations, such as TPUSA, from inviting these speakers, even if the speaker’s intended speech is as loathsome and hurtful to me and to others in our campus community,” May said.
The chancellor also addressed alleged concerns related to “violence,” adding that while US Davis is allowed to deny a speaker if they “present a clear and present danger to the campus,” the school “carries a heavy burden in justifying such a denial under these circumstances.”
“While I abhor the inflammatory speech of this speaker, UC policy permits the student organization to invite the speaker,” May said, adding that university officials are “monitoring the event closely to determine if a threat or incitement develops that meets that threshold or violates other campus policies.”
“We can’t control how these groups operate, but we can work together to neutralize and negate their influence,” the chancellor added.

Once you start kowtowing to these precious darlings with their pronouns and whatnot, you’re basically inviting anarchy and chaos because their entire existence is based on being offended by everything.

When I was in college, my entire existence was based on getting drunk and trying to get laid. Life made more sense then, and nobody ever rioted.



 

 

Category: Education, Gays

Walrus Hunters Rescued in Canada

Posted on | March 15, 2023 | Comments Off on Walrus Hunters Rescued in Canada

Not all heroes wear capes

When my wife told me this story, which sounds like it was written by Jack London, I could scarcely believe it, but now I’ve seen the pictures and watched the video — screencap above — and can confirm that it actually happened. Three hunters from the Inuit village of Igloolik had gone out Saturday in a small boat to hunt walrus. The temperature was four below zero — excellent walrus-hunting weather, if you’re an Inuit, I reckon.

So they found a walrus and shot it three times, and were preparing to harpoon it, when the wounded beast rammed their boat, tipping it over. The three hunters managed to climb on top of the capsized boat, but their prospects for survival were not good. Did I mention it was four degrees below zero? “The only thing I thought was, we’re going to die,” hunter Joey Sarpinak told CBC News. They were able to transmit a distress signal, and a volunteer rescue team was mobilized.

It so happened (because of the “truth is stranger than Jack London fiction” nature of this story) that a Canadian military team was nearby, engaged in an arctic survival training exercise, and these soldiers joined the rescue operation. Among the Canadians, for some reason, was an American whose parents have been sternly warned not to say anything about where their son has been for the past several weeks, because “operational security” or whatever. Anyway . . .

To reach the rescue team, the three hunters had to crawl across a moving ice floe to the place where the rescuers were waiting to throw them a rope. There is a video clip of the rescue operation and, 27 seconds into the video, you might notice one member of the rescue team strip off his parka and gloves. As he later explained to his mother, he was prepared to dive into the freezing water, to swim out to the ice floe, if necessary to save the hunters. Did I mention it was four below zero?

Fortunately, the hunters were able to reach the rope and were rescued without any further Jack London-scripted heroics, thank God.

After the walrus hunters had been treated and released from the hospital, a celebration event was held in the town of Sanirajak (Hall Beach), where the hunters posed with the troops who helped rescue them.

One of these soldiers is not Canadian

From the story of the rescue in Nunatsiaq News:

The search and rescue members who helped the three hunters are currently training on the land and could not be reached for comment, said Maj. Trevor Reid, a public affairs officer at the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Trenton, Ont.

“Could not be reached for comment,” indeed.

But you could quote this comment: Rangers Lead the Way.



 

 

Category: Family, Military

In The Mailbox: 03.13.23

Posted on | March 14, 2023 | Comments Off on In The Mailbox: 03.13.23

— compiled by Wombat-socho

Silicon Valley delenda est.

Marcellus Wallace has thoughts about the current state of affairs.

OVER THE TRANSOM
357 Magnum: The NYPD Exodus Continues
EBL: Depraved Hollywood: Brendan Fraser Accused Hollywood Executive Philip Berk of Rape, Biden Bank Runs: Biden Isn’t Jimmy Stewart and Yellen Isn’t Donna Reed, Banks Go Bust, but Barney is there for Biden, and Gertrude Bell and the 1921 Cairo Confrence
Twitchy: News Anchor Calls Out Mayoral Candidate For Calling 911 On Homeless Addict Pooping In Park, also, State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-CA) Opposes Teachers Ratting Out “Trans” Kids To “Violent” Parents
Louder With Crowder: Gov. Whitmer (D-MI) Admits  Banning Gardening to Fight Covid Didn’t Make Any Sense – Three Years Later, Dad turns himself in for murder after “finishing off” sex offender with moose antlers, and Trolling dad identifies as “Female Julius Caesar” at a school board meeting and hilarity ensues
Vox Popoli: Bösenschadenfreude, Onward to Valhalla, Knock-On Effects, The Persecution of Ricky Vaughn, and It Was Never About the Trinity
Gab News: The Christian Nationalist Counteroffensive Has Begun

RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES
Adam Piggott: The Great Fast
American Conservative: The Gray Lady Hits the Wall, Why Jacob Chansley Matters, and Das Boot
American Greatness: The March Madness of the President, Joe Biden – Thanks to My Administration ‘the Banking System is Safe’, and So Much for Transparency
American Thinker: If We’re Doing Reparations, Here’s Who Should Pay Them, Pathocracy and the Liberal Mind, and This Great Stage of Fools
Animal Magnetism: Goodbye, Blue Monday
Babalu Blog: Pope Francis denounces Ortega’s Nicaraguan dictatorship as ‘vile,’ ‘deranged,’ ‘obscene,’ ‘Hitleresque,’ and ‘Bolshevik’, Meet the two Republican sponsors of legislation to allow Cuba to buy American goods on credit, Reports from Cuba: A desperate Cuban regime hopes to soften up the U.S. through Vatican mediation, Ay, Dios mio! Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega severs diplomatic relations with the Vatican, and Florida State Senators call attention to 20 alleged Cuban State Security agents now living in Florida
BattleSwarm: SVB – “An Extinction Event For Startups”, also, Why Silvergate Failed
Behind The Black: Endurance undocks from ISS with four-person crew, Some space startups threatened by Silicon Valley Bank failure, Russia and Red China launch satellites, Curiosity looks ahead: Which way to go?, and The sad state of free speech in America illustrated by three top universities
Cafe Hayek: Taxing An Intelligent Person’s Patience, also, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: “Ford’s pay hike: It wasn’t about [having his workers buy his cars]”
CDR Salamander: Spring Back to the Front of the NATSEC World on Midrats, also, Money Talks: the UK Edition
Chicago Boyz: Traute Lafrenz, Last of the White Rose
Da Tech Guy: Five Depressing one Liners, Family doesn’t cancel you, Review: Van Morrison’s Moving on Skiffle, and Reverse Missionaries in Action
Don Surber: Go Woke, Go Broke, Have The Fed Bail You Out,
First Street Journal: Journolists don’t like real journalism, also, In which the credentialed media unwittingly destroy the transgender ideology
Gates Of Vienna: Requiem for a Culture, Part 5: The Graves of the Ancestors, Getting Soaked to Save the Planet, Nitrogen Crisis + Asylum Crisis = Cabinet Crisis, and Nice Little Country You Got There, Hungary
The Geller Report: Top Democrat On J6 Committee Admits They Actually Didn’t Review Any Of The Surveillance Video, also, Dutch Government Sends in Military to Quash MASSIVE FREEDOM DEMOS Led by Farmers
Hogewash: Team Kimberlin Post of the Day, The Fireworks Galaxy, and The Rumors of My Death
Hollywood In Toto: Shrinking Serves Up Perfectly Woke Storytelling, Tim Pool Threatens Suit Against Bandcamp for Unchecked Censorship, and Rob Schneider Blasts Democrats’ ‘1950s McCarthyism’
The Lid: Dems Soil Their Undies As House GOP Subpoenas Banking Records Of Hunter And Friends, US & Mexican Riot Police Hold Back Thousand Migrants Trying To Bum-Rush El Paso Bridge, and House GOP to Make Major Visit to J6 Defendants
Legal Insurrection: University of Minnesota Wants $97.5 Million From the State Due to Tuition Shortfall, Philadelphia Parents Object to Lottery System Meant to Diversify Top High Schools, Conservative Female Authors Attacked by Protesters at Book Launch Event, Manufacturers, Customers Lash Out at Biden’s ‘Climate Friendly’ Washing Machine Regulations, and LA Times Writer Slammed for Racist Claims that White Drivers are ‘Polluting the Air’ of ‘People of Color’
Nebraska Energy Observer:  Do you? Can you?, also, Saturday – just for you
Outkick: Lilia Schneider Celebrates Her Birthday In A Bikini, Two-Time Best Legs In Golf Winner Sam Stockton Stops By & An All-Time Baseball Mustache, ECHL Netminders Get The Crowd Going With Thrilling Goalie FIght, Tyreek Hill Just Embarrassed The Field At USA Track & Field Indoor Championships With A 6.70 60M, Someone Climbed A Mountain At A Ski Resort In Alaska To Draw A Giant Penis In The Snow, and Umpire Who Went Viral For Awful Strike Three Game-Ending Call Suspended Indefinitely
Power Line: Biden administration’s profligate spending claims another victim, more will follow, A Wake-Up for Woke Banks?, Bud Grant, RIP,  and Judge Duncan comments
Shark Tank: Rep, Cory Mills (R-FL) Says “Not One Dime Of Taxpayer Money For Bailouts”
Shot In The Dark: Things I Dream About, also, Priorities
The Political Hat: Iowa vs. DEI in Higher Education
This Ain’t Hell: Top DoD doc wants gun info, Disabled veteran says Charlotte restaurant didn’t allow service dog inside, No One Cares, and Public nuisance laws as a Trojan Horse against guns
Transterrestrial Musings: The Department Of Homeland Insecurity, It’s Dead, Jim, The Fiasco At Stanford Law, and A Life-Extension Breakthrough
Victory Girls: Fauci Has No Idea Why People Are Mad At Him, “Close To Sinful” Transgender Laws Per Biden, and Anti-Drag Queen NY Councilwoman Vickie Paladino Booted
Volokh Conspiracy: Is The DEI Juice Worth The Squeeze?, also, Stanford President and Stanford Law School Dean Apologize to Judge Kyle Duncan
Watts Up With That: Climate Act Cap and Invest Program Numbers Do Not Add Up, Was the Silicon Valley Bank Collapse Caused by Climate Activism?, Biden’s Secretary of Energy say’s U.S. can “learn” from Red China on Climate Change, and The Economic Case for Net Zero Is Zero
Weasel Zippers: Biden Blames Bank Failure On Trump, Dem Rep. Eric Swalwell: “We Need To Take A Look At How” Fox News Is “Broadcast To Our Troops”, Dem Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee: “Devilish” To Move Away From Prioritizing “Diversity” In Hiring, and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) Gives Mexican Cartels A Pass, Says Drugs “Mostly Carried In By Americans”
The Federalist: Media Slander GOP States As ‘Conspiracy Theorists’ For Rejecting Voter Database That Compels Pro-Democrat Outreach, Rise Of The Fourth Reich Makes The Case For The Covid Reckoning America Desperately Needs, If The Dutch Government Thought Its Farmers Would Submit To Environmental Statism Easily, It Was Wrong, NewsGuard Claims Not To Be Government-Funded, But A $750K Grant Suggests Otherwise, and WaPo Confused Why It’s Wrong For Catholic Priests To Use Hookup Apps
Mark Steyn: Tal Bachman – Dear Old Testament God, Maybe It’s Time For A Comeback Tour, Begin the Beguine, and The Oscar – Triumph of the Heel

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Urgent Breaking News: SNL Is … Funny?

Posted on | March 13, 2023 | Comments Off on Urgent Breaking News: SNL Is … Funny?

Of all the important events happening in the world recently — bank failures, war in Ukraine, whatever — nothing is more shocking than this: Saturday Night Live actually did something funny this week.

What’s it been, 15 years? Just about the time Obama became president, the writers at SNL lost the ability to do satire. This was not a coincidence, of course, if you’ve followed the decline of late-night comedy with Jimmy Kimmel, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon and all the other liberal “comedians” who now think they’re MSNBC pundits or something.

But amid the general decline, it’s important to notice when they actually do something funny, and this one’s an instant classic.

“Freebird gotta fly, son.”



 

 

Category: humor

Bailouts and Bulls***: Fed Officials Claim ‘No Cost to Taxpayers’ in SVB Deal

Posted on | March 13, 2023 | Comments Off on Bailouts and Bulls***: Fed Officials Claim ‘No Cost to Taxpayers’ in SVB Deal

Less than 72 hours ago, Janet Yellen was saying there wouldn’t be a bailout of Silicon Valley Bank. Now there is a bailout, which everybody is nevertheless trying to pretend is not a bailout:

U.S. regulators took control of a second bank Sunday and raced to roll out emergency measures to stem potential spillovers from Friday’s swift collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, backstopping both firms’ uninsured depositors and making more funding available to the banking system.
Regulators announced Signature Bank, one of the main banks for cryptocurrency companies, was closed Sunday. The New York bank’s depositors will be made whole, officials said.
Officials took the extraordinary step of designating SVB and Signature Bank as a systemic risk to the financial system, which gives regulators flexibility to guarantee uninsured deposits. The Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department also used emergency lending authorities to establish a new facility to help meet demands for withdrawals.
Regulators announced the action in a joint statement from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Chair Martin Gruenberg. The group said that depositors at SVB will have access to all of their money on Monday.
The government’s bank-deposit insurance fund will cover all deposits at the two banks, rather than the standard $250,000. Federal regulators said any losses to the government’s fund would be recovered in a special assessment on banks and that the U.S. taxpayers wouldn’t bear any losses.
In a separate statement Sunday night, the Fed said it “is closely monitoring conditions across the financial system and is prepared to use its full range of tools to support households and businesses, and will take additional steps as appropriate.”
The central bank said it would make additional funding available to banks to ensure they have “the ability to meet the needs of all depositors” through a new “Bank Term Funding Program,” which will offer loans of up to one year to banks that pledge U.S. Treasury securities, mortgage-backed securities and other collateral. Up to $25 billion from the Treasury’s exchange-stabilization fund will backstop the Fed lending program.
Many of those securities have fallen in value as the Fed has raised interest rates, and the Fed said those securities would be valued at their original value.
Sunday evening’s announcement capped a frantic weekend during which regulators were auctioning the failed Silicon Valley Bank, according to people familiar with the matter. Regulators struggled to find a buyer on Sunday and pivoted to backstopping the deposits, according to a senior Treasury official, as they sought to announce a resolution to depositors by Monday morning.
Mr. Powell scrapped plans to attend a regular meeting of central bankers in Basel, Switzerland, on Sunday and instead stayed in Washington to manage the crisis response.
A U.S. plan that soothes nerves about access to uninsured deposits—most of the bank’s deposits are sizable enough that they exceeded limits on FDIC protection—could tamp down the crisis and limit any impact on the economy as the Fed has focused on combating inflation by raising interest rates.
At the same time, heavy-handed federal interventions could amount to an embarrassing coda for a rollback of post-financial-crisis regulations on small and midsize banks undertaken in recent years. Officials on Sunday signaled they were weighing tougher capital requirements and liquidity rules, reversing at least some of the steps taken during the Trump administration to ease restrictions on smaller banks.
Federal regulators are trying to balance their desire to prevent broader financial contagion while avoiding the damaging political optics of bailing out financial institutions at taxpayer expense.
Biden administration officials said repeatedly on Sunday that their moves were aimed at protecting depositors, allowing them to make payroll this week, and would come at no cost to taxpayers.

(Hat-tip: Instapundit.) Biden officials act like it’s all Monopoly money anyway, so why should anyone else take it seriously? This whole regime of no consequences and no accountability, where the politically connected are protected, obviously cannot go on forever.

William Devane could not be reached for comment.



 

 

Category: Economics
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