Following two of the biggest bank failures in the U.S. President Joe Biden went on national TV last Monday and mumbled that that the banking system was safe.

Then after turning around at the lectern, searching for the door, and scratching around for a doorknob, the empty vessel then shuffled out of the room for a refill, while ignoring reporters shouting questions at him.

He failed to mention that the primary concern of the bozos who ran the now defunct Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was not banking. Their primary concern was social activism—LGBTQIA+; diversity, equity, and inclusion; environmental, social, and governance; and climate change. Because these alleged bankers were not doing their jobs was the fundamental problem in the SVB crash.

Biden said taxpayers won’t pay for this financial fiasco because the money is coming from bank fees. But wait. Won’t the banks like any other business, pass those increased fees on to their customers? Anybody with a bank checking or savings account will pay for the bank’s ineptness.

According to the Heritage Foundation SVB’s documents indicate that its corporate leadership was more interested in things like environmental sustainability, climate change, and diversity initiatives than risk management.

In addition, these alleged SVB bankers are reported to have donated more than $70 million to causes like Black Lives Matter and its officers were major contributors to the Democrat presidential and congressional candidates.

Last Sunday, Biden said: “Today, thanks to the quick action of my administration over the past few days, Americans can have confidence that the banking system is safe.”

Are you kidding me? The only lesson bungling bank executives learned from Biden was if you invest money irresponsibly, the government (i.e. taxpayers) will  bail you out.

This moron and his parade of freaks and clowns running the government are the major cause of economic chaos in this country. They then blame the consequences of their bungling on “the former administration.”

Look up the word incompetent in the dictionary and there’s photo of this administration. It’s a Mel Brooks movie begging to be made.

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Banking Baloney! Heritage Foundation’s Diana Furchtgott-Roth explains that Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) had no chief risk officer between April 2022 and January 2023. “Its Risk Committee had no members experienced in risk management. This is no way to run a bank—especially one that invests in high-risk tech startups,” she says.

However, during the nine months when SVB didn’t have a chief risk officer it had a chief risk officer for Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; but the woman entrusted with that role, Jay Ersapah, was apparently more interested in left-wing activism than in risk assessment.

The Daily Mail reported that Ersapah—who identifies as a “queer person of color”—“organized a host of LGBTQ initiatives including a month-long Pride campaign and implemented ‘safe space’ catch-ups for staff. In a corporate video published just nine months ago, she said she ‘could not be prouder’ to work for SVB serving ‘underrepresented minorities.’”

“Professional network Outstanding listed Ersapah as a top 100 LGTBQ Future Leader.

The failure of SVB, the nation’s 16th-largest lender, was the nation’s biggest bank failure since Washington Mutual in 2008.

Canadian-born entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” co-host Kevin O’Leary made known his opinion on SVB saying: “This bank was run by idiots with an incompetent board.”

While neglecting its critical risk management responsibility, the bank’s 2023 proxy statement records 40 mentions of the environmental, social, and governance (ESG), a Woke movement currently in vogue today at too many corporations and financial institutions. Not one member of the bank’s board of directors had any banking experience and all were mega-doners to Democrat presidential and congressional candidates.

In a “key change,” the board expanded the Governance and Corporate Responsibility Committee’s oversight role in ESG, says Ms. Furchtgott-Roth.

According to the proxy statement the committee’s oversight includes “environmental sustainability, climate change, company’s external diversity, equity, and inclusion (‘DEI’) initiatives, Board diversity, as well as our philanthropic strategy and advocacy activities.”

ESG investing is morally wrong and foolish particularly when clients who don’t want any part of it have to financially suffer through its consequences.

Banks with this kind of claptrap in their proxy statements are banks to avoid as they don’t have your financial interests at heart. Let Greta Thunberg, Al Gore, John Kerry, Hollywood airheads, CNN, and MSNBC anchors, etc. deposit their money in these hapless financial sinkholes.

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No Surprise Here: President Biden’s new budget was no surprise. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) noted that “It mentions equity 63 times, climate 148 times, environmental justice 25 times, inflation only 10 times, border security, 8 times and gas prices 3 times.

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Baseball Facts You Need To Know: I didn’t know this until I read it recently, but Mike Greenwell, my Ft. Myers nephew by marriage, is one of only five players to hit two home runs off both Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. The other four are Jose Canseco, Bo Jackson, Cal Ripken, and Cecil Fielder.

Mike played left field for the Boston Red Sox his entire 12-year MLB career (1985-1996). He was a leading contender for the American League MVP award in 1988 but lost to Canseco who had the first 40 home run, 40 stolen base season in baseball history. That year Mike hit .325 with 22 home runs and 119 RBIs, setting career highs in all three categories. He retired with a .303 lifetime average. He also holds the record for the most game winning RBIs ever hit with 23 in 1988 and drove in all nine runs on September 2, 1996, as the Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners 9–8 in 10 innings, a record for most runs driven in by one player. Now you know.

Mike was one of only four leftfielders for the Red Sox since 1940, playing the position regularly after Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, and Jim Rice. I witnessed each of those three Hall of Famers play but never once saw Mike on the field except on TV. I spent most of Mike’s MLB playing days working for multinational corporations in Europe or living in National League cities prior to interleague play.

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Observer Mourns Martin: The handwringing, weeping, and wailing at the Fernandina Observer Fernandina Beach’s PR agency, over the dismissal of City Manager Dale Martin is passionate, intense, and irrational.

The termination of their beloved Martin has the online sight-impaired  Observer staff overcome with grief. Its sad scribblers are in inconsolable states of teeth-gnashing, mourning, and babbling incoherency. The only thing missing in its March 15 posting was a black border surrounding the articles and a headline stating: “Local Obituary.”

As expected Suanne Thamm, the Observer’s lead account executive for the city, led the mourners in homages to the departed Martin. In her eulogy headlined “What a Mess We’re in Fernandina!” she poured out her sorrow beginning her tribute with: “Confused.  Frustrated.  Unhappy.  Angry.  Suspicious.”

She prattled on adding: “These are just a few of the adjectives describing reactions in the Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach community to the sudden termination of City Manager Dale Martin’s contract on a 3-2 vote. To date, the Fernandina Beach City Commission (FBCC) has offered no plausible reason for its precipitate action, other than to state that the city needs to move in a new direction.”

Her tribute to Martin went on for several more paragraphs making it obvious that the dismissal left the grieving Ms. Thamm in a weakened, traumatized, and muddled state of mind.

A hitherto unknown Observer staffer with the appropriate name of April Bogle, added her homage in an eulogy headlined “Friend of Sturges Pressured Antun to Terminate Martin.” According to her it was a hit job. Her hogswallop was spiced with ludicrous finger-wagging accusations of Sunshine law violations and unnamed culprits she suspects were behind Martin’s termination despite not providing a single shred of evidence. Like Thamm grief has fogged her mind.

The comments following the two articles were the usual suspects, many who offered weak defenses in support of Martin at Commission sessions. This crowd can always be counted on to make frequent commission appearances to screech their routine absurdities.

The babble produced by the Bogle-Thamm duo is mind-boggling! (See what I did there?) But I’ll give them some slack as they are bereaved by the loss of their key city supporter and benefactor.

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City To Cough Up Cash: City consigliore Tammi Bach announced at last week’s Commission meeting that the more than $500,000 law suit Compass Group filed against the city is in mediation and she’s asked the commissioners meet with her behind closed doors April 4 to discuss a settlement.

The suit is over excessive building and permitting fees Compass says the city charged it while constructing the Marriott Hotel on Atlantic near Main Beach.

During last week’s session she told the commission that the city has no insurance to cover the suit and she has, as usual, hired outside counsel to handle it. It would have saved taxpayers a lot of cash if she, ex-city manager Dale Martin, Commissioners Chip Ross, Len Kreger, and Mike Lednovich had reigned in the out-of-control city bandits that were extorting local builders and businesses. Even the traditionally timid Chamber of Commerce protested the excesses, but nothing was done. Now we’re paying the price.

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Which One’s Your Advocate? The professions of members of the “Citizens Committee” that will assist in the selection of the new Fernandina Beach city manager consist of  the following along with the names of the Commissioner who appointed that person.

Mayor Bradley Bean— Dentist

Vice Mayor David Sturges— Realtor

Darron Ayscue— Union Leader (Rayonier)

James Antun—Former Commissioner

Chip Ross— Democrat Activist

Do these five reflect the actual make-up of city residents? I’m not sure. Since there is not one retired senior (30% of Fernandina’s population), the group doesn’t appear to fully mirror city demographics. Other than the retired Commissioner and restaurateur Tim Poynter, the others (Jackie Miller, Margaret Davis, Wayne Petersen, and Geoff Grant) are unknowns. There was no mention of their respective business or managerial experience or people skills, or anything else that would benefit search results.

Am I wrong?

The pompous gasbag Commissioner Dr. Roland “Chip” Ross expressed his feelings toward the citizens of Fernandina Beach when he objected to asking them to help select the new city manager saying: “It would be ‘amateur hour’ if residents were charged with recommending a candidate.”  If you were writing a TV sitcom, parody piece or slapstick film, you couldn’t  make this guy up.

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Democrats Caught With Pants Down: Fox News anchor Tucker Carlson has indisputably shown that the Democrat led Congressional hearings about January 6 were solely a political event, a total sham, involving questionable charges that had nothing to do with the enforcement of law.

The tapes reveal it was an inquisition, the workings of a corrupt political faction that had been using their powers to dishonestly create evidence in order to either damage or dispose of their enemies.

The fact that the Democrats censored so much and didn’t allow the public to see the entire pool of evidence—including the exculpatory evidence—reveals the fact that the Democrats involved care nothing for our laws. They are frightening and dangerous people who ignore the Constitution.

If Chuck Schumer thought his urgent calls for Fox to pull Carlson off the air would cause the host to genuflect or cower, he was sorely mistaken.

“Are they gonna fire me?” Tucker asked while being interviewed by the host of “Redacted,” Clayton Morris   “Okay. Fine. Go ahead. I’m still not lying. Are you going to arrest me? Go ahead. I’m not lying. Period.”

According to Carlson, Schumer’s opinion — and those of politicians like him — are “meaningless.”

“Being attacked by people I don’t respect, like Mitt Romney or Mitch McConnell or some other, you know, buffoon — Schumer! — I mean, it’s like it doesn’t even rate,” he told Morris. “It doesn’t even mean anything to me. It’s a foreign language.”

One of the released videos shows the “Shaman” Jacob Chansley (the guy with the bison horns), telling everybody to leave the capitol building peacefully. The Democrats hid that. Why?

Many people, including Elon Musk, are calling for his release from prison, despite his pleading guilty to the charges directed at him. Keep in mind that the purpose of an inquisition is to make people plead guilty when they are not.

“Think about this,” said West Coast pundit Steven Maikoski, ”Their job, as members of the House of Representatives, is to create law. Instead of that, they were creating crimes out of thin air. It has been evident that the protests never met the claims of it being an insurrection, as the fascist-democrats continually have claimed. The only “arms” evident that day were the flag poles that some people carried to display the American flag.

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Drinking, Dining & Dancing: Today, March 17,  is St. Patrick’s Day and if you’d like to get an early start then head over to PJD’s Beer & Wine Garden, 12 South 2^nd Street, where beginning at 11 am you can get one of the best corned beef and cabbage dinners hereabouts for just $15. It includes corned beef, cabbage, potatoes, and soda bread. Guinness will be available for $4 and there are rumors that bagpipers might show up sometime during the day.