🤖New #AI Warnings From #ChatGPT Creator
🔥#Tech’s on Fire
🎢#Stocks 🆙 on #Debt Talks, #Biden Cancels Part of Trip To Negotiate
🏠#HomeSales Thru Roof
🩺NC Abortion Ban Bad For Biz
🎤#Trump’s Not A Macho Man—#VillagePeople
📺#CNN Ratings Sink After Trump Interview
📰MemorialDay Gridlock
⏰#TikTok Collects #Sex Orientation Data
📰Yep That’s #MarthaStewart
🤖New #AI Warnings
The creator of ChatGPT calls for heavy regulation on artificial intelligence technologies that are raising ethical, legal and national security concerns.
Speaking to a Senate Judiciary subcommittee, OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman praised the potential of the new technology, which he said could solve humanity’s biggest problems. But he also warned that artificial intelligence is powerful enough to change society in unpredictable ways, and “regulatory intervention by governments will be critical to mitigate the risks.”
“My worst fear is that we, the technology industry, cause significant harm to the world,” Altman said. “If this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal underscored that notion during the hearing, playing a convincing but fake recording of his own voice which argued that A.I. cannot be allowed to unfold in an unregulated environment, illustrating a powerful and potentially dangerous use of the technology.
🎢Stocks 🆙 on Debt Talks &Tech
Stocks higher this morning. The Nasdaq Composite is now leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 18.3%, its widest margin of outperformance since 1991.
Wall Street concerned as House, Senate and White House negotiators reconvened with word President Biden is shortening part of his seven-day foreign trip to negotiate.
Biden and Speaker Kevin McCarthy met with the Big Four at the White House, with a June 1st deadline looming. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warning “time is running out” to avert an economic catastrophe, speaking before the session.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the two sides were “far apart” yet was hopeful. Other attendees said talks made progress, including through an agreement to turn the debt limit negotiations into direct one-to-one talks between a close ally of the House Speaker and two White House aides.
Not much time for compromise as the president is scheduled to leave Wednesday for the G7 meeting in Japan, but has cancelled the second leg of his trip to Australia and will return to Washington.
GisermanGroup Translator: The Debt Ceiling is the maximum amount of money Congress allows the federal government to borrow to cover its bills.
It all comes after the Fed raised interest rates by a quarter-point — signaling a possible pause in increases for the near future.
Exiger CEO Brandon Daniels, a GisermanGroup.com Client tells Fox Business another FED rate hike could trigger a recession:
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🏠Home Sales Surprise
The average interest rate for 30-year loans is down to 6.48% from 6.50% on word the Fed may pause —that was enough to cause a surge in mortgage demand last week.
SitusAMC’s Tim Rood, a GisermanGroup Client breaks it all down to Fox’s
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Home sellers and builders are seeing a stronger-than-expected business this spring, capitalizing on the recent fall in mortgage rates and the shortage of existing homes for sale.
New-home sales soared to a yearly high in March as purchases leap 9.6%.
Tim Rood, former FannieMae Executive, on Yahoo Finance, FBN's Cavuto and on Scripps News says Housing is the Cinderella Story of the Year:
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🩺NC Abortion Ban Bad For Biz
North Carolina leaders warning the state’s Abortion ban is bad for business.
Legislation banning most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy will become law after the state’s Republican-controlled General Assembly successfully overrode the Democratic governor’s veto late.
The House completed the second and final part of the override vote after a similar three-fifths majority — the fraction necessary — voted for the override earlier in the Senate. The party-line outcomes represent a major victory for Republican legislative leaders who needed every GOP member on board to enact the law over Gov. Roy Cooper’s opposition.
🎤Trump’s Not A Macho Man-Village People
The Village People telling Donald Trump to stop using their music.
Karen Willis, the band's manager and wife of frontman Victor Willis, penned a cease and desist letter to Trump's lawyer, Joe Tacopina, expressing displeasure at Trump using their popular hit, "Macho Man," during a recent appearance at Mar-a-Lago.
A copy of the letter was shared to Twitter by Mediaite Editor-in-Chief Aidan McLaughlin.
CNN Ratings Sink After Trump Interview
Days after the widely criticized town hall with Donald Trump, CNN prime time on Friday averaged only 335,000 total viewers, drawing a smaller audience in the 8-11pm window than even the right-wing channel Newsmax. While it’s unclear if the viewership decline was connected to the town hall, it certainly should be concerning to the leadership at CNN.
CNN chief Chris Licht being criticized for giving Trump a forum to repeat his lies and conspiracy theories during a town hall stacked with GOP supporters and putting Collins in a no-win situation.
Licht was aware of the backlash and social media furor when he addressed the reaction to the town hall on CNN’s editorial call, audio of which The Hollywood Reporter obtained “We all know covering Donald Trump is messy, and tricky, and will continue to be messy and tricky, but it’s our job. We’re going to do it fairly, toughly and aggressively as Kaitlan did last night,” Licht said, in part. “I absolutely unequivocally believe America was served very well by what we did last night, because it laid bare and created in the words of Joe Scarborough, ‘a political earthquake,’ and that people woke up and they know what the stakes are in this election in a way that they didn’t the day before. And if someone was going to ask tough questions and have that messy conversation, it damn well should be on CNN.”
It’s going to be a rough 2024 campaign, will CNN stumble through it?
🛣️Memorial Day Gridlock
The Covid Pandemic is over and people will hit the roads in near record numbers over the Memorial Day weekend.
AAA projects 42.3 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more from home this Memorial Day weekend, a 7% increase over 2022. This year, 2.7 million more people will travel for the unofficial start of summer compared to last year, a sign of what’s to come in the months ahead.
Nearly 3.4 million travelers are expected to fly to their destinations this Memorial Day, that’s an increase of 11% over last year. Air travel over the holiday weekend is projected to exceed pre-pandemic levels, with 170,000 more passengers – or 5.4% more – than in 2019. Despite high ticket prices, demand for flights is skyrocketing.
This Memorial Day weekend could also be the busiest at airports since 2005.
🚘#Airbag Recall Is Your #Car Safe
General Motors is recalling almost 1 million SUVs because the driver’s airbag inflator may explode during deployment, ‘posing an unreasonable risk of death or injury.’
The recall covers 994,763 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse, and GMC Acadia vehicles from the 2014 through 2017 model years with modules produced by ARC Automotive.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration demanded the recall of 67 million air bag inflators because it believes there is a safety defect, but auto supplier ARC rejected the request, so GM is acting on its own.
No word yet from other car makers.
⛽️Gas Prices Pump Lower
Gas prices are down below $3.50 a gallon.
Compare that to one year ago when gasoline crossed a threshold American drivers had never seen before — $5 a gallon.
That’s a 30% drop from last June —so why aren’t consumers celebrating?
🕊️Twitter’s New CEO Tweets
Elon Musk makes it official:
Linda Yaccarino is a 40-year NBC advertising veteran.
After Musk’s takeover of Twitter last year, many advertisers paused their spending out of concern surrounding the company’s direction under its new leadership.
In her first tweets since getting the job, Yaccarino said she’s committed to the development of the social media company and said feedback from users is “vital to that future.”
Getting NBC’s Yaccarino proves Musk is serious about beefing up the platform.
Yaccarino resigned from NBCUniversal effective immediately.
📺Tucker’s Twitter Show
Tucker Carlson announcing he’s bringing his act to Twitter:
https://twitter.com/seanspicer/status/1656040418373451790?s=46&t=HxN3w_t7vCxi1xT-VML0sw
Carson could charge those who want to watch under Twitter’s subscription program, which allows creators to cultivate an audience that pays for exclusive content.
Carlson says the program would closely resemble what he did before, potentially violating his noncompete clause with Fox News. It’s a sign that talks to end Carlson’s contract, worth $25 million a year until it ends in January 2025, may have broken down.
You won’t believe Carlson’s text to a Fox producer discovered by the New York Times:
Tucker Carlson January 7, 2021 — 04:18:04 PM UTC
A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?
The Times reports - The text message added to a growing number of internal issues involving Carlson that led Fox’s leadership to conclude he was more of a problem than an asset and had to go, according to several people with knowledge of the decision.
And get this: Carlson & Don Lemon, who is also out at CNN, have hired the same lawyer to get them big packages.
The prominent Hollywood lawyer, Bryan Freedman, has a track record of getting multimillion-dollar settlements for TV stars and other celebrities.
Migrant Border Mess
Migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border have fallen, not increased as expected, since pandemic-emergency Title 42 curbs expired last week.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says border patrol agents have seen a 50% drop in the number of migrants crossing the border since Thursday, when the Biden administration shifted to a sweeping new asylum regulation meant to deter illegal crossings.
New U.S. immigration rules are prompting thousands of migrants along the border to stay in Mexico and request asylum appointments, instead of entering illegally and risking deportation or criminal charges .Hundreds of migrants — men, women and children — standing in ragged lines, waiting near a gate in the wall between the U.S and Mexico for their turn to pass through. Border Patrol agents and National Guard members watching in fatigues. 660,000 may be ready to cross.
Thousands of migrants braved the Rio Grande into the Brownsville, Tex., area, or arrived elsewhere, including more than 800 miles away on the dusty strip of U.S. land between the riverbanks and the border wall east of downtown El Paso.
Little wonder that President Biden was prepared for chaos. He ordered 1,500 troops to the border to back up Customs and Border Protection agents. Several border cities in Texas, including El Paso and Laredo, facing a surge of migrants for processing, have already declared a state of emergency. The result will be tough for migrants—and politically miserable for Biden.
📰Yep That’s Martha Stewart
Martha Stewart is making history as the oldest cover model in the history of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. At 81, she’s breaking the record set last year by Maye Musk, who was 75 at the time. “All of us should think about good living, successful living, and not about aging,” Stewart said. “The whole aging thing is so boring.”
🔥Santos Arrested
Congressman George Santos, the Republican whose pivotal victory in New York was soon followed by revelations that he had falsified his biography on the campaign trail, pleads not guilty to federal criminal charges. He was released on a $500,000 bond after he was arraigned at a federal courthouse in Long Island,
Santos was charged with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
Santos has tweeted for the first time since the charges against him were reported. His statement: “WITCH HUNT!” (a phrase often used by Donald Trump)
Despite calls for his resignation, Santos will likely be allowed to remain in Congress while he fights the charges. “In America, you are innocent until proven guilty,” Speaker Kevin McCarthy said.
During his brief time in office, Santos has been accused of breaking campaign finance laws, violating federal conflict of interest laws, stealing cash meant for an Iraq War veteran’s dying dog, masterminding a credit card fraud scheme, lying about where he went to school and worked and even lying about being Jewish.
⏰TikTok Collects Sex Orientation Data
For at least a year, some employees at TikTok were able to find a list of users who watch gay content on the popular app, a collection of information that sparked worker complaints, according to former TikTok employees quoted by the Wall Street Journal.
The Biden administration is demanding TikTok’s Chinese owners sell their stakes in the video-sharing app or face a U.S. ban.
Matt Hayden Former Cybersecurity Czar at the Department of Homeland Security and a GisermanGroup client on Scripps News says TikTok is dangerous:
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🏦Is Your Money Safe?
Half of American surveyed say they are concerned about the safety of the money they keep in banks, according to a just released Gallup poll. That’s similar to worries during the 2008 financial crisis.
But Bank shares are rebounding —PacWest gained as much as 26% in premarket trading, while Western Alliance Bancorp and First Horizon Corp. rose 15% and 7%. PacWest shares fell as much as 50% to close at a record low while Western Alliance tumbled 25%. Comerica and Zions Bancorp are down sharply as well.
It comes after the FDIC seized First Republic Bank and immediately sold it to JPMorganChase — it’s the second largest bank failure ever in the U.S.
The selloff in PacWest flew in the face of Fed Chair Powell’s assertion that the government’s seizure and sale of First Republic Bank was “an important step toward drawing a line under that period of severe stress” for regional lenders.
Like Silicon Valley and Signature Banks—First Republic collapsed under the weight of loans and investments which lost billions of dollars in value as the Federal Reserve rapidly raised interest rates to fight inflation.
Over 100 banks may still be in trouble according to reports.
🏈You Won’t Believe For How Much Washington Commanders Sold
$6.05 billion that’s what a group led by Josh Harris, co-owner of the NBA's Philadelphia 76ers and NHL's New Jersey Devils, paid to buy the NFL’s Washington Commanders from Dan Snyder.
The previous record sale for a sports franchise had been set in August, when a group led by Walmart heir Rob Walton bought the Denver Broncos for $4.65 billion.
The deal reached by Harris' group and the Snyders is expected to receive NFL approval.
📺Hollywood Writers Strike
Television and movie writers are on the picket lines. Negotiations between studios and the writers, which began in March, failed to reach a new contract before the writers' current deal expired just after midnight. All script writing is to immediately cease, the guild informed its members. The walk-off by the 11,500-member guild is the first major Hollywood work stoppage in 15 years and will massively disrupt the entertainment industry.
For viewers, the most immediate effect will be felt on talk and sketch shows. Late night shows like “Saturday Night Live,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” will likely go dark immediately. Reality series and some international shows, which are not covered by the guild, will be aired in heavy rotation.
💵US Running Out Of Cash
The Treasury warns the federal government could run short of money to pay all of its bills as soon as June 1 without a debt limit increase, adding urgency to a bitter fight between congressional Republicans and Democrats and the White House.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a letter to Congress that the agency will be unlikely to meet all government payment obligations “as early as June 1” without action by Congress.
President Biden meets with top Congressional leaders from both parties next week trying to work it out.
🚨Poll Finds Exhaustion Over Another Biden-Trump Election
The percentage of those approving of President Biden’s performance fell to 36%, six points lower than in February and a point off his previous low in early 2022, according to the survey conducted for ABC. Some 56% disapproved of his performance, while 68% regarded Biden, at 80, as too old for another term.
It comes after President Biden formally announced he would seek a second term.
In a 3 minute video he pitches himself as the Democrat best positioned to keep Donald Trump from reclaiming the White House, and needing to ‘finish the job’.
It comes as more Americans say they feel “exhaustion” over the prospect of a 2024 rematch between Biden and Donald Trump, according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.
The survey of 1,530 U.S. adults, which was conducted from April 14 to 17, found that 38% chose exhaustion after being shown a list of eight feelings and asked to select all that “come to mind” when considering another Biden vs. Trump campaign.
Among registered voters, the number is even higher: 44%.
No other sentiment — not fear (29%), sadness (23%), hope (23%), anger (23%), excitement (16%), pride (8%) or gratitude (7%) — cracks the 30% mark among all Americans.
And an NBC News poll showed, most of those surveyed, by a 70%-to-26% margin, said Biden shouldn’t seek reelection, while 60% said Trump should bow out.
Overwhelmingly people feel the candidates are too old.
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🕕Crypto Rising
Bitcoin lower after it returned back around the $30,000 mark
Exiger’s Samar Pratt on FinTechTV explainsCrypto had just gained a foothold at BNY Mellon:
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🍀Americans Spend More On Weed Than On Beer & Chocolate Combined
U.S Legal sales of marijuana and marijuana products -- like edibles -- reached an estimated $30 billion in 2022, according to a report from MJBizDaily.
That total is more than Americans spent on chocolate and craft beer combined, -- $20 billion and $7.9 billion, respectively.
And get this — legal sales are still vastly outweighed by illicit ones – Whitney Economics estimates that legal transactions constituted just 25% of total cannabis market in 2021.
It’s a trying time for all of us.
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💊Weight Loss Wonder Drug Worth Billions
What price beauty?
An Eli Lilly drug if approved for weight loss could become the best-selling drug of all time.
Experts are confident that the drug, called tirzepatide, will be granted approval by the Food and Drug Administration sometime this year. If that’s the case, it would join two other popular — and expensive — recently approved weight loss drugs on the market, Wegovy and Saxenda, both from the drugmaker Novo Nordisk.
The drugs have been shown in clinical trials to be highly effective for weight loss. All three drugs — which are given as injections — work in a similar way: They’re a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone that helps reduce food intake and appetite.
Oh yea it would cost you $13,000 a year (and most insurances won’t pay)!
💻They Want Your Password
Warning-New Scams to steal your passwords.
If you've had a password hacked recently, you aren't alone. The volume of password attacks has soared to an estimated 921 attacks every second. That's a 74% rise in one year, according to the latest Microsoft Digital Defense Report.
Exiger's Robert Kolasky with more on Bloomberg & CBS:
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💰Money Does Buy Happiness
Money really does buy happiness.
The rule extends well beyond the $75,000-a-year salary threshold that had been seen as the upper limit for making an impact, according to a team of scientists that include the Nobel Prize-winning psychologist who introduced the idea of a happiness plateau more than a decade ago.
Happiness does increase steadily in line with incomes and even accelerates as pay rises beyond $100,000 a year and more — as long as the person enjoys a certain baseline level of happiness to begin with. That’s according to a study of 33,391 people living in the US, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.
The results contradict a famous 2010 paper by the psychologist Daniel Kahneman and economist Angus Deaton, which reported that happiness goes up with income until the relationship starts to “flatten” at between $60,000 and $90,000 a year.