Happy Monday!

Congratulations to the crowd-pleasing sleeper hit Everything Everywhere All at Once, which dominated last night’s Academy Awards with seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Director.

It was an odd night, in an good way. A night when the guy who played Dudley Do-Right, the Scream Queen from the Halloween flicks, and the little kid from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom all won Oscars. That’d be the long-underrated Brendan Fraser, Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan.

In fact, where last year’s indelible image was The Slap Heard Around the World, this year’s may be the now-grown-up Quan reuniting with Indiana Jones himself, Harrison Ford. 

Harrison Ford and Ke Huy Quan reunite on stage at the #Oscars when "Everything Everywhere All at Once" won best picture. https://t.co/8qVb3YAbLN pic.twitter.com/PTV9LMiGV4

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 13, 2023

In case you missed it, there was another slap last night at the Oscars. You had to slap yourself to stay awake. Man, those things go on and on.

One thing we have to be awake for this morning is trouble in the banking sector.

Silicon Valley Bank Goes Under … Isolated or a Sign of Things to Come? The President Scheduled to Address Potential Crisis at 8 A.M.

The nation’s 16th largest bank – the bank for the high tech crowd — Silicon Valley Bank, suddenly went belly up on Friday. It’s the largest bank failure since Washington Mutual during the 2008 collapse, the 2nd biggest of all time. CNN has a timeline of how the bank managed to fall apart in 48 hours.

“What happened is fairly simple,” Fox Business reporter Suzanne O’Halloran stated, “The bank and its clients got squeezed by higher interest rates and a slowing economy.”

And the bank did not “manage that well,” former Congressional Budget Office Director Doug Holtz-Eakin told Cavuto Coast-to-Coast Friday. 

“People are used to having zero interest rates and easy money, and it’s gone. And there are people who will manage that well and people who will not.”

The bank has been in trouble for a while. (Though that didn’t stop CNBC’s Jim Cramer for enthusiastically touting the bank just three weeks ago.) Yet some analysists even as late as Friday morning thought the bank could right itself … but then, as ABC News put it, anxious “depositors rushed to withdraw their money over concerns about the bank’s health,” causing it to collapse.

So put the finger on panic, mismanagement and the Biden economy. According to the NY Post, this mismanagement includes the head of risk management for the bank’s U.K. branch focusing on woke programs “as the firm catapulted toward collapse.” YOU HAD ONE JOB!

Of course, liberals found a way to blame Donald Trump, citing a 2018 bipartisan effort to loosen elements of the Dodd-Frank banking regulation law.

While investors and depositors of more than $250,000 are getting hosed, CEO Greg Becker sold off $3.6 million in shares two weeks ago. Other execs also sold off stock.

The million dollar … or should we say trillion dollar question: What does this mean for the banking industry … thus the rest of the economy? Banking sources warn the NY Post that there could be a run on regional and midsized banks, if wealthy individuals feel Silicon Valley Bank’s downfall is systemic, rather than isolated.  

Also, given the tech and health companies that used Silicon Valley Bank and the bank’s $150 billion in uninsured deposits, Politico warns it’s possible thousands of businesses may be unable to make payroll today.

However, Politico adds, “there’s no reason to panic, at least not yet.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday the federal government is not going to bail out SVB. (It’s not like they’re Ukrainian or something.) “But,” Yellen told Face the Nation, “we are concerned about depositors, and we’re focused on trying to meet their needs.”  And Yellen assures us the banking industry as a whole is strong. 

Joe Biden is expected to address the banking situation this morning at 8 a.m. 

Ron DeSantis is Privately Telling People He’s Running

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is jumping into the race for president. At least that’s what he’s reportedly saying privately. Publicly, he went to Iowa.

The only people who go to Iowa are ambitious politicians and long dead baseball players. Who knows, Shoeless Joe might have only shown up in that cornfield because he was campaigning for 1920 nomination.

But don’t expect an official announcement from DeSantis until the end of the Florida legislative session on May.

Pence Shreds Trump at Fancy Gridiron Dinner

Looks like former VP Mike Pence is ramping up for a run too. During a speech at the annual white-tie Gridiron Dinner with journalists and politicians Saturday night, Pence shredded Trump over J6.

“President Trump was wrong,” Pence said. “I had no right to overturn the election. And his reckless words endangered my family and everyone at the Capitol that day, and I know history will hold Donald Trump accountable.”

That’s the toughest attack yet on his former boss, according to the Associated Press. Or at least his best Liz Cheney impersonation. The cozy Gridiron Dinner is known historically for its humor. And Pence took several pokes at Trump, including this one:

“I read that some of those classified documents they found at Mar-a-Lago were actually stuck in the president’s Bible. Which proves he had absolutely no idea they were there.”

A harmless crack or Pence trying to undermine Trump’s evangelical support, while reminding everyone he’s the good, pious, Bible-quoting Christian?

Just curious. Is going after a person’s lack of Bible reading, whether for political points or a cheap laugh, something a pious Christian should do? (As a guy who wrote topical humor for a living, I’m not throwing stones. Just tossing out a question. Got a thought on it, write [email protected].)

Jane Fonda Wants Pro-Lifers Killed … No Joke

Definitely no joke, despite Joy Behar’s efforts and Jane Fonda’s desperate efforts to backtrack.

On Friday’s The View, notorious leftist Jane Fonda remarked that she wanted pro-lifers dead. Well, that’s one way to promote your new movie 80 for Brady, Jane. Call for the death of over half the country.

Fonda was asked what people can do besides march and protest to stop the spread of pro-life legislation. “Well, I’ve thought of murder,” Fonda responded. Co-star Lily Tomlin asked her to repeat what she’d said. “Murder,” Fonda said. “Don’t say that,” warned Tomlin.

Joe Behar quickly tried to pass off the comment as a joke … “She’s just kidding!”

Was she?

Jane Fonda is the moment pic.twitter.com/vDmZv1aunu

— Viktor’s RenaiSéance (@wondermann5) March 10, 2023

Of course, after the backlash came the inevitable backpedal. Said Fonda in a statement:

While women’s reproductive rights are a very serious issue and extremely important to me, my comment on The View was obviously made in jest. My body language and tone made it clear to those in the room — and to anyone watching — that I was using hyperbole to make a point.

Now, it’s true the way she slowly turns her face toward Behar, could be seen as a comic “Am I joking?” However, the fact she didn’t break and say ‘Of course I don’t advocate violence.” Or even just break the steady glare to signal she was joking suggest malice is much more likely than jest. (Also the fact she’s there to plug a new movie suggests the Oscar-winner is not nearly as smart as she thinks she is.)

Meanwhile, churches and pro-life pregnancy centers are being fire-bombed and would-be assassins target Supreme Court Justices.

Jane’s Revenge indeed.

Add #1 Single to Trump’s Resume

He’s had a #1 TV show, #1 best sellers, won the presidency, but this may be the most surprising of all. Donald Trump has a #1 single. His collaboration with the J6 Prison Choir on “Justice for All” jumped to number 1 on the iTunes singles chart.

 

 

Along The Stream

Nancy Flory interviews the head of Mission Eurasia Sergey Rakhuba. Mission Eurasia is aChristian non-profit currently ministering to those suffering in Ukraine. 

 

Al Perrotta is the Managing Editor of The Stream, chief barista for The Brew and co-author, with John Zmirak, of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Immigration. You can follow him at @StreamingAl at GETTR, Gab, Parler, and now at TRUTH Social.