DML News Morning Briefing, May 1st

Today is May 1. Below are some of the stories grabbing headlines this morning. I hope you share this briefing as doing so will make you the smartest person in the room.

1. Troubled First Republic Bank seized by regulators, then sold to JPMorgan Chase:

   CBS News – Regulators seized control of First Republic Bank early Monday, making it the third financial institution taken under government control this year, then promptly accepted a bid from JPMorgan Chase for virtually all of the lender’s assets.

   The state’s Department of Financial Protection and Innovation (DFPI) said it had taken over San Francisco-based First Republic and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) as receiver. The DFPI also said the FDIC has “accepted a bid from JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association, Columbus, Ohio, to assume all deposits, including all uninsured deposits, and substantially all assets of First Republic Bank.”

   The DFPI said it acted under California law regarding a financial entity the law describes as “conducting its business in an unsafe or unsound manner” and being in a “condition that … is unsafe or unsound” to carry out banking business.

   Federal officials from the FDIC, Treasury Department and Federal Reserve held private talks with other banks on Friday hoping to find a bailout plan for First Republic, Reuters reported, but no private rescue materialized. Takeover talks continued all weekend in the hope a deal could be struck before U.S. stock markets opened Monday. Before entering receivership First Republic shares had lost 97% of their value since January, taking more than $21 billion off First Republic’s market value.

   Denny’s Insight: The staggered fall of our financial institutions continues to unravel; the real question becomes how many more banks will need a buyout or bailout in the next six months? Or even until the 2024 election? Average banking customers like you and I will have continued worries about the safety and protection of our finances; probably a good time to diversify your assets…

2. Texas fugitive accused of killing 5 was illegally in US; deported 5 times

The FBI said Sunday afternoon authorities have “no leads” in the search for Francisco Oropesa, 38, a Mexican national who is accused of the quintuple murder in Cleveland, Texas, outside Houston.

The Texas governor’s office, state agencies and the FBI are offering a combined $80,000 reward for tips leading to his capture.

“We do not know where he is, that’s why we’ve come up with this reward,” FBI Houston Special Agent in Charge James Smith told reporters on Sunday, adding that he’s sure Oropesa has contacted friends since becoming a fugitive, but they need to know who.

Denny’s Insight: Pardon my language, but seriously, what the hell? The FBI will be white-on-rice investigative and inquisitive over independent journalists looking into Hunter Biden’s laptop, but when it comes to a mass-murdering illegal immigrant, they’re completely in the dark. Deported five times? How was he allowed into the country even a second time? The incompetence of our ABC organizations to get things done and protect Americans, like they failed to do for the five in Texas killed by this psychopath, is astounding. But I can’t say I’m surprised by their lack of ambition to enact real justice…

3. Friends Urging Convicted Sex Offender Anthony Weiner to Run for NYC Mayor:

Breitbart – Friends of former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY), a convicted sex offender, are urging him to run for political office again — making a comeback by pitching himself as a moderate Democrat to rebuild New York City.

Curtis Sliwa, the former GOP mayoral candidate for New York City, said he and others are encouraging Weiner to run for office again.

“He has been encouraged to run for office by me and others,” Sliwa said on his 77 WABC radio show which he hosts with Weiner. ” … to be the moderate Democrat, to be what this city needs now to take it back from [Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez]. He knows the moderate path to save the city.”

Weiner’s problems in public life first started in May 2011 when he mistakenly posted a photo of his penis to his Twitter page. Weiner quickly deleted the post and claimed, repeatedly, that he was hacked.

Andrew Breitbart, founder of Breitbart News who died in February 2012, published the deleted post on his website at the time as establishment media took Weiner at his word that he had been hacked.

Then, months later, Breitbart posted a photo of Weiner that he had sent to another woman which prompted the then-congressman to call a press conference. At the press conference, Breitbart spoke to the media and defended his reporting on Weiner’s sexting habits.

Denny’s Insight: Liberals and left-leaning RINOs pushing for a disgraced pedophile to run for public office? Just another Monday.

4. San Francisco Whole Foods plagued by violence, drugs and vagrants made 560 emergency calls before closing

New York Post – Workers at a San Francisco Whole Foods Market were routinely threatened with weapons before the crime-plagued store announced it was shuttering after a little more than a year in business.

Records of 568 emergency calls to the Market Street store over 13 months showed chaotic incidents, including vagrants throwing food, yelling, engaging in fights and attempting to defecate on the floor, according to the New York Times.

“Male [with] machete is back,” according to one 911 call; “Another security guard was just assaulted,” according to another call.

One call noted that security guards at the store were assaulted by a knife-wielding man, who then sprayed employees with a fire extinguisher. One man reportedly overdosed from fentanyl and methamphetamine in the bathroom in September, according to the Times.

Denny’s Insight: Why does anyone still live in this city? California has become an overall lost cause, but San Francisco has truly evolved into a mecca of crime, violence and public defecation. There really is nothing “golden” left of this city. I’m sure billions of dollars pouring into ambiguously ancestral-based reparations programs for those who claim they are descendants of slaves will turn things around!

5. Musk tells Bill Maher he’s a moderate, responding to claims he’s become conservative since buying Twitter

The Hill – Elon Musk said he considers himself a “moderate,” addressing claims that his political beliefs lean conservative after his purchase of Twitter last year.

“I, at least, think of myself as a moderate,” Musk told Bill Maher during an appearance on his late-night program. “I’ve spent a massive amount of my life energy building sustainable energy, electric vehicles, and batteries, and solar to help save the environment. It’s not exactly far-right.”

Musk has called himself a “free speech absolutist” and advocated for controversial far-right figures to return to the social media platform. He also unbanned former President Trump, though the former president chose not to return to the site.

He has been a major proponent of the “woke mind virus” concept, the idea of a cultural wave influencing those online, mostly liberals. Musk described in the interview that “cancel culture” is part of it, and that “it threatens free speech.”

Denny’s Insight: Musk is trying to tow a line of fairness in the political spectrum. He is someone who has a fixation on improving the earth, both by the standards of environmental protection and by the liberation of a silenced society, such as improving free speech on Twitter. What’s funny is that while Musk describes himself as moderate, that’s accepted by conservatives, but for liberals its still too radical for them. Musk has become the black lamb of new era billionaires in the eyes of leftists. Good.