h/t Zerohedge
I was bored enough to wander over to a place I’ve never been in my life – – the Silicon Valley Bank website – – and take a look around. I thought I’d share some nuggets from there, since, for the moment, the website is still up and running. As you might guess, since this is a financial institution, it is absolutely SLATHERED with virtue-signaling. Indeed, there’s not a white male to be found anywhere except for their actual senior leadership page, which is the kind of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do hypocrisy rampant in modern American corporations, particularly banks.
Let’s stroll around, shall we? We begin, naturally, on the home page itself where the organization declares itself to be all about proactive (now there’s a corporate-speak gem for you) guidance for the long run. The long run as in “your bank will not go into receivership on March 10, 2023.” I guess that didn’t work out as planned.
It only takes a moment to run smack dab into the sea of the stock photographs of every gender, race, height, weight, and hairstyle imaginable as the soon-to-be-bankrupt corporation declared its commitment to living its values.
What are they, you ask? Well, they spell them right out, and they include integrity, empathy, embracing diverse (of course) perspective, and – – my favorite – – “We take responsibility.” That’ll be put to the test soon, I imagine.
Thus, the “relentless partner” that is SVB continues trumpeting their wonderfulness. I’m a white fella, and I think I’d stick out like a patriarchal thumb on this photo shoot. Seriously.
Did you hear the news, though? They hired a Chief Risk Officer just a few weeks ago! Isn’t that great? i wonder what her week has been like?
I suspect when she came on board, complete with, at the time, a deliciously huge stock package, she was counting on the organization’s “proprietary, data-backed insights to help anticipate what’s next.” You go, girl!
Lest any of you remain concerned about SVB’s oft-mentioned commitment to all-things-diverse, they have some graphics to drive the point home. Banks are all about metrics, right? I mean, sometimes they won’t necessarily guarantee solvency, but at least you know that the forthcoming ranks of the unemployed will be a rainbow of humanity.
You see, SVB believes “inclusion ignites innovation.” although I guess liquidity wasn’t part of the ethos.
In fact, the more I look at this site, the more I wonder if these guys actually did any banking business. Every corner of the website is devoted to values, diversity, and inclusion. Yet again, we get to learn about how empathetic, responsible, and diverse they are, and how they speak and act with integrity. Really? So how come almost $200 billion just went up in smoke? Asking for a friend.
Sigh. They just won’t quit. For those considering a job at this organization (when they were still hiring, almost their 388 open positions are still there for you to peruse), you could anticipate – – as an SVB team member – – “mental wellbeing“, “physical wellbeing“, and “financial wellbeing.” I never knew “wellbeing” was a word, but at least I’ve learned one useful thing from this exercise.
Financial wellbeing. As in “Your dollars wellbeseeing you whenever the liquidators can get around to it.”
As I say, though, the “Career Opportunities” are absolutely still there (female, check, person of color, check, eyeglasses to look smart, check) so that you can help businesses “thrive in the innovation economy.” Wait a second – – innovation – – isn’t that the word that was Cathie Woods‘ undoing?
As for those folks who, in the past, were considering investing in the ticker symbol known as SIVB, the benefits were legion. Strong credit and asset quality! Strong capital and liquidity! And, hell, even their revenue streams are diversified!
Of course, a company can’t be faulted for tooting its own horn. Plenty of outside Wall Street analysts (who come equipped with only one vocabulary word – BUY) and magazines loved, loved, loved Silicon Valley Bank. Fabled business magazine Forbes (who featured such notables as Elizabeth Holmes and Samuel Bankman-Fried on its cover in past issues) declared SVB to be one of America’s Best Banks. Once again, Forbes absolutely nails it.
Perhaps you were an investor there. Perhaps you’re pissed as hell that the money you’ve worked all your life to save has been clamped into a safebox under lock and key until the good people of the FDIC sort things out. Well, take heart. You may not have your cash anymore, but with a little time on the SVB website, you can read about how responsible they have been with their Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Because, God knows, second only to crude oil container ships and old John Deere tractors, the worst offenders of pollution are investment banks.
To the naïve observer, having encountered the tidal wave of both images and text celebrating the diversity at Silicon Valley Bank, you might assume a look at their Executive Team would resemble the United Nations. I’m afraid you’re in for a disappointment. ‘
You see, there’s a very wide chasm between what the corporation claims to be about and what it actually is. I’ve frankly seen more diversity in a New England college hockey team.
With the CEO of this Broadway musical being, of course, the baldest, whitest dude on the planet. A businessman from 1952 would feel instantly at home in this executive suite, earlier pronouncements notwithstanding. But he’s not wearing a tie. No, sir! That would be not innovative and maybe even exclusionary.
And the above President, one Mr. Greg Becker, is not a taciturn man, either. Not at all. He has spoken and written widely about many topics, including why the innovation (there’s that word again) economy is a reason to be optimistic.
Kindly note that the context in which he made this sunny prediction (the Milken Power of Ideas Series) was named after none other than the most notorious insider trading convict and poster boy from 1980s greed, Michael Milken.
Life is truly stranger than fiction.
But none of this really matters, does it? Because, in the end, it’s all about the participation ribbons.
I’ll tell you one thing, though – – to the countless depositors and shareholders of the now-deceased Silicon Valley Bank, I doubt they give two shits about any of the above. What matters is that hundreds of billions of dollars in deposits and equity value that have been destroyed in front of their eyes, and it was all done by people who spent the past few years saying what they thought needed to be said in order to stay in the good graces of the public.
The results were not diverse. They were singular. And that singularity was called Failure.
One month ago, Jim Cramer urged investors to buy Silicon Valley Bank stock $SIVB.
Today, the bank was closed by California regulators, making it the 2nd largest banking failure in US history. pic.twitter.com/5jgjqTGxld
— Watcher.Guru (@WatcherGuru) March 10, 2023
According to CDC data from 2021, almost 6 out of 10 girls felt persistently sad or hopeless, the highest numbers ever recorded. And it gets worse. Consider this tragic column by Auguste Meyrat: “Trained To Hate Their Sex And Selves, 1 In 3 Teen Girls Now Considers Suicide.” These statistics reflect an increase of 60 percent from just a decade ago.
“What’s especially troubling about this report is how it runs counter to today’s conventional wisdom,” notes Meyrat.
After all, our society allegedly celebrates women more than ever and offers abundant opportunities to girls. Furthermore, women are doing much better than men in some crucial areas, outnumbering them at colleges and in the workplace. Moreover, strong female protagonists abound in popular movies and television shows. Women have more representation in politics and sports. Schools continually push girls to achieve and break glass ceilings. No longer do girls live in a world where they’re expected to find a husband, have children, and submit to lifelong domestic drudgery. They can do anything.
If this is true, then why do one-third of our girls want to kill themselves? And why do two-thirds feel persistently sad or hopeless?
Children’s Health Defense is funding a lawsuit by a D.C. mother alleging a doctor vaccinated two of her children for COVID-19 without her consent after falsely telling the teens the shots were required for school.
The mother of two children who were given COVID-19 vaccines without the mother’s consent is suing the doctor who administered the vaccines.
An attorney representing NaTonya McNeil last week filed a lawsuit in Superior Court for the District of Columbia against Janine A. Rethy, M.D., M.P.H.
According to the complaint, on Sept. 2, 2022, McNeil took her two older children, ages 15 and 17, to the KIDS Mobile Medical Clinic/Ronald McDonald Care Mobile clinic, operated by Georgetown Hospital, to complete their required annual physical exam for the 2022-2023 school year.
The lawsuit alleges Rethy, director of the mobile clinic, held the children in the examination room longer than necessary for a regular check-up and vaccinated them against COVID-19 over their objections and without consulting their mother
In order to attempt to obtain the children’s consent — which they are not legally able to provide without a parent or guardian — the doctor falsely informed the children the COVID-19 vaccine was mandatory for school attendance and told them they could not lawfully decline it if they wanted to attend school.
The suit, filed by D.C. Attorney Matthew Hardin, seeks damages for false imprisonment, battery and fraud.
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) is financing the lawsuit because, according to CHD President and General Counsel Mary Holland, “CHD couldn’t just sit still and not allow this wrong to go unpunished and not bring this to the public’s attention.”
In an exclusive conversation with The Defender, McNeil explained why she is suing the the doctor:
“I just feel like people shouldn’t be able to do whatever they want to do to other people and especially not to children. As a mother, I feel like, ‘You all just took all my rights away from me to do what you wanted to do to my kids.’
“I do want justice to be done in this case. I feel like something needs to be done. This can’t just continue to happen.”
‘I feel violated’
According to the complaint, Rethy’s stated goal is to vaccinate all children against COVID-19. The complaint quotes her statement to the press:
“Our goal is to increase vaccination rates in children here in D.C. . . . For more than 30 years our role has been to be in the community to help address the problem of health disparities, bringing families care where they are.
“For this particular effort, we are glad to be partnering with DC Health to provide both regular childhood vaccines and COVID-19 vaccines to all children.”
In addition to her role as director of the mobile clinic, Rethy is chief of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital’s Division of Community Pediatrics and assistant professor of pediatrics at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
McNeil said that when she took her older children to the clinic, she stayed outside the examination room to care for her infant. As soon as the children entered the doctor’s office, she called her daughter’s cellphone to let Rethy know she was just outside the door if the doctor needed to consult her for anything.
According to McNeil, the doctor did not ask or inform her about any vaccinations, and did not ask her to sign anything. At the end of the physical, Rethy came out to talk to her.
McNeil said the doctor explained her son’s asthma treatment plan, but that’s all they discussed.
As they were heading home, McNeil said she was shocked when her daughter complained that her arm hurt “pretty bad.” When McNeil asked her why it hurt, her daughter said she was given the COVID-19 shot, even though she told the doctor she didn’t want it.
When McNeil asked her why she allowed the doctor to administer the shot, her daughter said:
“When she had the needle in her hand and she was coming towards me, I backed up and I asked her what is that needle, and she said it was the COVID shot and I … told her I didn’t want it and she said, ‘Well it is mandatory, you have to get it in order to go to school.’”
Rethy allegedly administered the shot to her daughter, and then to her son. McNeil said:
“He’s 14 and he said they didn’t even ask him if he wanted it or not, but when they gave it to him, he said he thought he had to get it because his sister got it.”
According to the complaint, both children received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, authorized for emergency use, and the meningococcal vaccine. Her son was also injected with TDaP.
Both children were upset and angry they had been coerced into vaccination, the complaint says.
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/mother-sues-doctor-kids-covid-vaccines-without-consent/
Join me! You will not be disappointed!
Jesus Meek vs Jesus fake. Getting Jesus Right is the Only Thing That Truly Matters in the End. How Tragic that Poets, Pastors, & Professors invariably Get Him Wrong!
March 2023 marks the 20th Anniversary of Author Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. 2023 marks the 50th Anniversary of Jesus Christ Superstar. And in theaters right now is another “Hippie” Jesus Movie, Jesus Revolution.
In our course we will EXPOSE the Counterfeit Christs: Hippie, Gnostic, Talmudic, Morish, Marxist, Martin Lutheran, Modernist, von Balthasaran, Monophysite and More! More Importantly, we will REVEAL the Real Jesus (Blessed Be His Most Holy Name):
Where (and how) is Jesus foretold in the Old Testament?(Was he prophesied by pagans?) How is Jesus portrayed by each of the Evangelists? (Do non-Christian authors attest to his Life and Death–and Resurrection?) Is the Shroud of Turin authentic proof of his Passion, Death & Resurrection? Did the Earliest Christians believe in Jesus in the Eucharist?
Insights from St. Augustine, St. Thomas Aquinas, Pope Leo the Great, Dante, JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Archbishop Sheen, Belloc, Manning, Boylan, von Hildebrand, Ratzinger and many more.
Live Classes start Tues March 7th at 6pm Pacific and will run approximately 70-80 minutes. Q&A will follow for 10 minutes or more for those who can stay. I will suggest readings. No tests. No pressure. Content: Ages 13 and up. Recorded so you can watch on your own time! Enroll by March 7th: one course is only $329 or enroll in Jesus & Pope History for $489.
Can a pope actually undermine moral theology?
Can a pope actually publish heresy?
Can clergy and laity accuse a pope?
Can Catholics lawfully resist a pope?
As some trad Catholics recently put it: “the controversy surrounding Pope Francis has led many Catholics to rethink the papacy itself.”
Can Catholics “rethink” the papacy?
Dr. Ed Mazza’s Immaculate Heart Online Academy is proud to offer “Pope History,” in which we examine whether these controversial claims hold up under an examination of St. Leo, St. Gregory the Great, Pope Innocent III, Pope Boniface VIII and other popes from the Early Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Many Catholics, Rod Dreher and Robert Spencer prominent among them, have left Catholicism to embrace the Eastern Orthodox churches.
Is this Eastern Orthodoxy a viable option?
We will test the Orthodox claim that the papacy was a later invention/corruption and did not exist in Apostolic times by sifting through the ancient documents.
Is Sedevacantism a viable option?
Is the Pope infallible whenever he speaks on faith and morals? What claims did Vatican Council I actually make about the Pope? What powers does the successor of St. Peter really possess? Is the Pope to be identified with the “Katechon” the mysterious entity named by St Paul that holds back the coming of Antichrist?
You’ll learn the answers to all these questions and much, much more in Dr. Mazza’s “Pope History 102!”
Live Classes start Wed March 8th at 6pm Pacific and will run approximately 70-80 minutes. Q&A will follow for 10 minutes or more for those who can stay. I will suggest readings. No tests. No pressure. Content: Ages 13 and up. Recorded so you can watch on your own time!
Excerpt from Sermon 51 on the Transfiguration by Pope St. Leo the Great (d. 461). Full sermon at the link below. Blessed Lent, everyone.
“And in this Transfiguration the foremost object was to remove the offence of the cross from the disciple’s heart, and to prevent their faith being disturbed by the humiliation of His voluntary Passion by revealing to them the excellence of His hidden dignity. But with no less foresight, the foundation was laid of the Holy Church’s hope, that the whole body of Christ might realize the character of the change which it would have to receive, and that the members might promise themselves a share in that honour which had already shone forth in their Head. About which the Lord bad Himself said, when He spoke of the majesty of His coming, “Then shall the righteous shine as the sun in their Father’s Kingdom,” whilst the blessed Apostle Paul bears witness to the self-same thing, and says: “for I reckon that the sufferings of this thee are not worthy to be compared with the future glory which shall be revealed in us:” and again, “for ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in GOD. For when Christ our life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” But to confirm the Apostles and assist them to all knowledge, still further instruction was conveyed by that miracle.”
“For Moses and Elias, that is the Law and the Prophets, appeared talking with the LORD; that in the presence of those five men might most truly be fulfilled what was said: “In two or three witnesses stands every word.” What more stable, what more steadfast than this word, in the proclamation of which the trumpet of the Old and of the New Testament joins, and the documentary evidence of the ancient witnesses combine with the teaching of the Gospel? For the pages of both covenants corroborate each other, and He Whom under the veil of mysteries the types that went before had promised, is displayed clearly and conspicously by the splendour of the present glory. Because, as says the blessed John, “the law was given through Moses: but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ,” in Whom is fulfilled both the promise of prophetic figures and the purpose of the legal ordinances: for He both teaches the truth of prophecy by His presence, and renders the commands possible through grace…”
piercedhearts.org/heart_church/transfiguration_leo_great.htm
NORWOOD, The Bronx (WABC) — New York City shop owners are finding themselves in a tough conundrum as the city’s finest look for ways to crack down on crime, but could the new guidance actually put owners in more danger?
“They have to try to do something to try to bring the crime down because it’s out of control,” shopper Norma Jean said. “I don’t remember it being this bold and in your face.”
Police say they’re having trouble identifying suspects who target stores because they’re wearing masks. They are now urging store owners to be proactive in the crime fighting effort.
“We are asking the businesses to make this a condition of entry, that people when they come in, they show their face, they should identify themselves,” NYPD Chief of Department Jeffrey Maddrey said.
Bronx bodega owner Francisco Marte is no stranger to crime. “I’ve been myself, shot three times,” he said. But he says this latest guidance from the NYPD puts business owners in a bad spot.
“We don’t have a weapon to defend ourselves,” Marte said. “That would be great, everyone come with their face up so the camera can see, we all can see. But we cannot force them to take off the mask.”
Marte says that would lead to confrontation with customers who still want to mask up because of COVID.
“I would say I’d be kind of offended because it’s my own way of feeling safe and I got really used to it through the pandemic,” shopper Emmanuel Celestrino said…
https://abc7ny.com/nyc-crime-nypd-shop-owners-no-masks/12895637/
