Business Pants

Story of the Week (DR):Meta settles social media addiction case with California, other states for $16.7 billion MM5 Reasons to Be HappyAn $18 billion payout sets a historic legal precedent against Big Tech, directing billions in state funding toward youth mental health, counseling, and digital literacy programs.Instagram and Facebook must enforce default two-hour daily usage limits and completely block account activity between midnight and 6 a.m. for users under 18. Teens and parents gain the explicit right to disable addictive engagement algorithms in favor of a non-personalized, chronological feed.The settlement prohibits harmful beauty filters (such as cosmetic surgery simulators), hides "like" counts by default, and silences app notifications during school hours.Meta tied $5.3 billion of the payout to whether TikTok and YouTube adopt similar safety rules, forcing an industry-wide overhaul rather than penalizing just one app.5 Reasons to Be AngryPaid out over 10 years, the settlement amounts to roughly 10 days of Meta's annual profit, meaning Mark Zuckerberg's financial empire remains virtually unscathed.Meta’s $17 billion child-safety settlement is the biggest tech payout ever—or 3x what it paid to acquihire a 28-year-old AI superstarTo put it in perspective, the $17.1 billion number is a little more than three times the roughly $5 billion personal stake that Alexandr Wang held in Scale AI, a data-labeling company that supplies the human-annotated training data AI models are built on. Last year, Meta paid $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the company and brought in Wang to lead its AI efforts of its new Superintelligence Labs, reporting directly to Mark Zuckerberg.Meta legally denies all wrongdoing, dodging true legal accountability for intentionally engineering addictive, mentally harmful features.The agreement alters user interface features and screen time, but leaves Meta's underlying data-harvesting business model completely untouched.Critical safeguards—like switching off algorithmic feeds—are opt-in settings rather than permanent defaults, shifting enforcement onto parents.Meta only pays 70% ($12.7 billion) upfront; the remaining $5.3 billion is contingent on competitors settling on identical terms, giving Meta a potential financial discount if rivals refuse.  Worst headline of the week: Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement will be over 12-times larger than the second largest big tech privacy settlement in the past four yearsMeta’s $18 billion settlement leaves out the child protections New Mexico already won at trial, its Attorney General says: including a direct ban on romantic and sexualized AI chatbot interactions with minors and stronger safeguards against adults targeting kids in private messagesMM: Settlement gapsAge assurance:Meta may elect to use one or more Proprietary Age Assurance Methods. In such event, Meta shall not benefit from the presumption of compliance set forth in Section II.A.3.a. Additionally, Meta will maintain continuous oversight of any Proprietary Age Assurance Method sufficient to ensure that the method is functioning as intended.Tax deductibleThe Settling States shall cause to be completed and timely filed a Form 1098-F with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) that identifies not less than 50% of the amounts paid to the Settling States as compensatory restitution and remediation within the meaning of 26 U.S.C. § 162(f)(2)(A)THEY BUNDLED CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA INTO THE SETTLEMENT$459m of the $17bn is the “Cambridge payout” - they can now put that behind them tooIs there a reason not to literally take Meta all the way?  Why settle at all!  Midterm elections?  TAKE EVERYTHING!  Meanwhile, while you settle this: Meta’s creepy smart glasses are part of a much bigger plan“At the same time, Meta is using the content generated across its ecosystem to support Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a pervasive, AI-driven future. Zuckerberg’s 2026 manifesto describes a world where personal AI agents will do your bidding. But building those systems requires more than conventional AI models. It also requires enormous amounts of data about human behavior, much of it generated and shared through Instagram, Facebook, and other Meta apps, or captured through hardware such as phones, smart glasses, and EMG Neural Band devices.”“We become “algorithm chow,” feeding the models intended to realize Zuckerberg’s vision.”'We Know We Got This Wrong': Target Apologises and Pulls 'Offensive' Halloween Costume After Racist BacklashAn apology from us: We pulled an offensive Halloween costume that should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer for sale. As a company, we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners. Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again.Target Statement on Offensive Halloween Costume: As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners. Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again.The statement comes directly from Target’s Corporate Communications department speaking on behalf of the entire enterprise, rather than a single individual like the CEO or Board Chair. Corporate apologies are deliberately released without a human signature for several strategic and legal reasons:Legal Personhood: Legally under U.S. law, Target Corporation is treated as a single legal entity (often called "corporate personhood"). It can sign contracts, hold liability, and issue official statements as an institution rather than as individual people.Leaving executive names off the statement prevents media coverage from focusing on a specific person (e.g., "CEO Brian Cornell Apologizes"). It keeps the focus on the company's operational changes and prevents individual leaders from becoming personal lightning rods for public backlash.These statements are rarely drafted by an executive. They are heavily scrubbed by legal counsel, crisis PR managers, and corporate strategy teams. Attaching a CEO's signature to a text engineered by a dozen lawyers and communications staff can actually feel less authentic internally.Phrasing the apology around "we" and "the company" establishes institutional accountability. It signals that the failure occurred in corporate vetting systems, not just from one bad decision-maker.In January 2025, Target Corporation announced the termination of its REACH initiative and restructuring of its Supplier Diversity program, marking one of the largest corporate DEI rollbacks in recent history. This decision has triggered public backlash, legal scrutiny, and investor uncertainty.Callaway Golf CEO apologizes after Good Good ad showing male golfer shoving woman sparks backlashCallaway Golf CEO Chip Brewer on Tuesday apologized for an advertisement that sparked an online backlash for its depiction of a male golfer shoving a female golfer to the ground when she attempts to use his driver."That approval should never have happened. Mistakes were made, and we are taking the matter very seriously," Brewer wrote on Tuesday. "I want to make it clear that we sincerely apologize for the video." Callaway released a statement Thursday explaining its reasoning behind ending the brand partnership: "Over the last several days, we have reflected deeply on the hurt and disappointment caused by the video we reposted. We heard from individuals who shared personal experiences related to violence against women, and their stories were powerful reminders that this issue touches the lives of far too many people. Unequivocally, violence against women is unacceptable and should never be trivialized, normalized, or used as entertainment.""In this instance, our content review process was not comprehensive enough …We have taken appropriate internal corrective actions and significantly strengthened our approval procedures to help ensure this does not happen again."The brand added that it would donate $1 million to organizations that aim to "prevent violence against women, provide resources to survivors, and advance education and awareness efforts."The online video ad, which was released online and has since been pulled, sparked criticism for depicting violence against women, while some consumers said they planned to stop buying products made by Callaway.Brewer said the ad, created by Good Good Golf, was released last week to promote a co-branded driver and had been approved by Callaway before the spot was posted online. The ad featured Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark telling Alexis Miestowski, a former Division I female golfer, in a menacing voice, "Do not touch my new driver," after he shoves her to the ground.Good Good is an American sports YouTube channel and company based in Frisco, Texas. Founded in 2020 by Garrett Clark, Stephen Castaneda, CEO Matt Kendrick, and Matt Scharff.Owner: Scoreboard ventures: co-founders Nahid Giga and Brian DickLead Investor: Creator Sports Capital — a firm co-founded by former YouTube executive Benjamin Grubbs and investment executive Brian Kabot.Good Good's CEO went nuclear on Callaway after the brand cut ties over an ad scandal"Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it," Matt Kendrick wrote in a post on X.The ad fallout has had major repercussions for Good Good's business beyond the loss of its Callaway partnership. Dick's Sporting Goods yanked Good Good products from shelves, and the golf group pulled out as a title sponsor for a PGA Tour event in the fall. The reverberation has spread to the Golf Channel, which scrapped the upcoming season of its reality golf series "Big Break," whose grand prize was entry into the PGA Tour event that Good Good was supposed to have sponsored.FFA:14% have merit2 women! (combined 6% influence)Director Thomas Dundon 56% influence and 10% sharesDirector Nominee Skills Matrix includes “Golf Enthusiast” (9/9)Consumer Products Experience: 5/9Bill Gates Warns Humanity About AI: ‘We Do Not Have the Luxury of Moving Slowly’Bill Gates fears world leaders are unprepared for 3 major AI risks: ‘Stunted’ child development; emboldened criminals; and vanishing jobs for Gen Z Bill Gates Issues Stark AI Warning: 'There Is No Plan' for What Comes NextWhat did he say?Gates warns AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever created or the worst source of global injustice, claiming world leaders are underprepared for the social upheaval ahead.He proposes that governments legally set aside "human-reserved" job categories—similar to protected nature reserves—for roles requiring human empathy and connection, such as healthcare and teaching.To offset tax policies that encourage replacing humans, Gates suggests taxing AI processing "tokens" and physical robots to fund worker retraining and stronger safety nets.He categorizes AI’s biggest risks into three buckets: permanent job loss, empowering bad actors to launch cyber and biological attacks, and eroding child development.Gates calls for an international AI regulatory agency—modeled after global aviation and nuclear inspection agreements—requiring tight cooperation between the U.S. and China.He claims tech industry executives are downplaying catastrophic AI threats to public safety because there is too much money on the line.Gates warns that agreeable AI companions risk becoming addictive to young people while weakening independent critical thinking.‘We have a limited window': 116 companies, entities sign on to major AI cyber defense pushOpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices and more than 100 other companies and entities signed a letter on Thursday calling on businesses and policymakers to prioritize cybersecurity and “act decisively” to bolster defenses in the age of artificial intelligence.“We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses,” the letter said9% female CEOs:Accenture: Julie Sweet (Chair/CEO)AMD: Dr. Lisa Su (Chair/CEO)Citi: Jane FraserClearly AI: Emily Choi-Greene (Co-founder)Equinix: Adaire Fox-MartinFIS: Stephanie Ferris General Motors: Mary Barra (Chair/CEO)Lumen Technologies: Kate JohnsonNationwide Building Society: Dame Debbie CrosbieOracle: Safra CatzRunSybil: Ariel Herbert-Voss (Co-founder)TrendAI (Trend Micro): Eva Chen (Co-founder)Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: X Users Post Flock CEO's Address and Photos of His Home After He Says Americans Must 'Compromise' on PrivacyDR: Young People Hate AI CEOs So Passionately That It’s Almost Hard to BelieveCNBC survey asked over 1,000 US adults aged between 18 and 34 “who do you trust to act responsibly on AI?”Palantir CEO Alex Karp 81 percent “don’t trust”Peter Thiel 79% “don’t trust”Mark Zuckerberg 71%  “don’t trust”Elon Musk 70% “don’t trust”Sam Altman 69% “don’t trust”Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella 65% “don’t trust”fared the best — albeit with a pitiful 35 percent “trust” score.DR: Jeff Bezos ordered to reinstate fired Black opinion writer at Washington Post over Charlie Kirk reactionThe ruling Thursday said the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to terminate Karen Attiah, who at the time was the last Black full-time member of the Post’s opinion desk. The arbitrator, Sarah Miller Espinosa, also ordered the Post to award Attiah full back pay and lost benefits.After Kirk’s killing, Attiah, the founding global opinion editor for the Post and the newspaper’s only Black female opinion writer, made several posts to her Bluesky account.Attiah was emailed a termination letter on Sept. 11, accusing her of “gross misconduct.”“Your public comments on social media regarding the death of Charlie Kirk violate the Post’s social media policies, harm the integrity of our organization, and potentially endanger the physical safety of our staff,” the letter read.MM: Flock CEO Says Americans Must 'Compromise' on Privacy; Then His Own Home Address Leaked Online DRMM: Starbucks Drops Drink Powder That Enveloped Baristas in Clouds of DustAssholiest of the Week (MM):Meta Settlement and AI earth destruction that has normalized what would have been horrific news, but now we shrug and re-elect the boards - SPEED ROUND!  The anti woke: Black Wealth Will Be 4 Times Lower Than Whites By 2050 - SHOULD CAREMen: Real men don’t bike: How cars became the symbol of American manhood - DON’T CARECowards: Deloitte to Pay $21.5 Million to End DOJ Fraud Investigation Over DEI Policies - SHOULD CAREEpstein: Ex-Barclays boss denies having sex with woman dressed as Snow White after Epstein emails - SHOULD CAREEpstein adjacent: Elon Musk’s xAI used child porn to train Grok models, lawsuit says - SHOULD CAREPay committees: CEOs earn 614 times more than workers at US’s 100 lowest-paying corporations - SHOULD CAREClimate change: Study blames fossil fuel emissions for significant loss of American West's water - SHOULD CAREActual death: Turn Around and Don't Look': Amazon Accused of Letting Worker Die in Warehouse Amid 'Corporate Greed' Claims - SHOULD CAREThe anti labor: Disney celebrates blockbuster 2026 by kicking employees' spouses off healthcare plans - SHOULD CAREThe anti homeless: This Palantir Billionaire’s Passion Project is Criminalizing Homelessness - SHOULD CAREOther social media companies: TikTok agrees to pay $400 million to settle Justice Department children's privacy case - DON’T CARE“The lawsuit, related to compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, was filed by the Biden administration’s DOJ in 2024”Headliniest of the WeekDR: Elon Musk's former right-hand man at X will give you 30 minutes of business advice for $15,000MM: BoringTrump Claims Junk Food Is 'Good' and Gym 'Boring' After Doctors Warn He Is 'Playing With Fire'Elon Musk Says He’s Not Warren Buffett’s ‘Biggest Fan’ And Finds His Way of Getting Rich ‘Super Boring’ — ‘Does Anybody Want That Job?’MM: What is a 'meat proxy'? The new term for coworkers who blindly share AI outputWho Won the Week?DR: Futurism writer Frank Landymore for this headline: Bill Gates Announces That He Is the First Person Ever to Be Concerned About the Effects of AI after Bill said, “I am in a state of shock that I’m sort of the first one saying, ‘This is crazy. This is insane.'”MM: Watches:Sam Altman's love of watches is getting memed 'Lord of the Rings' styleDespite having a net worth of $400 million, Kevin O’Leary still shops at Walmart for $29 jeans: ‘I’m always looking for a great deal’The picture in the article is him wearing not one, but TWO $15k Rolex watches, one on each wrist - the message: guy who buys jeans JUST LIKE YOU has multiple Rolexes - you should get one too!PredictionsDR: I spend $15,000 for business advice from Elon Musk's former right-hand man at X and he tells me a really clever way to save $15,000MM: French Canadiens, after getting the CEO of Air Canada fired and killing Trump trade talks, decide to make the United States a new Canadian province called New Quebec where French is the only legal language and renames Lake Superior “Lake French Superior”

Story of the Week (DR):L3Harris ousts CEO after investigation into conduct MML3Harris Technologies, the company that overhauled a Qatari plane now used as Air Force One, has replaced Christopher Kubasik as chairman and chief executive after an investigation determined he violated the defense contractor’s code of conduct.Kubasik’s alleged conduct didn’t involve and has no impact on the Melbourne, Fla., company’s financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance, L3Harris said Monday.The company didn’t give details on when it received a report of the potential violation. With the aid of independent counsel, the board determined that Kubasik’s removal would be in the company’s best interest, L3Harris said. He will be allowed to retain and exercise some previously vested stock options but won’t receive severance payments, benefits or accelerated stock-based awards.L3Harris Technologies Appoints Sam Mehta, Proven Aerospace and Defense Executive, as President and Chief Executive Officer“The Board determined that the Executive engaged in conduct that was not consistent with the values of the Company as outlined in its Code of Conduct.”Kubasik will still hold onto some of his options that can net him stock worth about $23 million, as well as more than 200,000 shares of stock in L3Harris that he already owns, valued at nearly $57 million. L3Harris has paid Kubasik compensation valued at $66.3 million during the past three years, including $25.6 million in fiscal 2025.The separation disclosure says the L3Harris board decided to reach a deal with Kubasik to get him to leave rather than trying to fire him for cause. Kubasik did not admit to any violation of the company code of conduct, and the deal expressively forbids any of the parties or their representatives from making public statements “inconsistent” with Monday’s disclosure.AND THIS:Women at L3Harris Shared Concerns About CEO’s Behavior Years Before OusterIt was a warning that was shared among women who worked for Chris Kubasik: Avoid being alone with the executive and be careful on the corporate jet.Multiple women at defense contractor L3Harris Technologies LHX  had raised concerns about Kubasik’s behavior, including a formal complaint from one woman to human resources that was made around 2023, according to people familiar with the matter. The employee accused the CEO of sexual harassment, the people said.Kubasik stayed on in his role. The woman left L3Harris. Not all L3Harris board members were briefed on the 2023 complaint and it is unclearOusted L3Harris CEO was previously forced out of Lockheed Martin jobChristopher Kubasik's ouster as the L3Harris CEO was not the first time he was forced out of a company amid an allegation of misconduct.In 2012, Kubasik was set to become the CEO of Lockheed Martin when he was forced to resign after an ethics investigation confirmed that he had a close personal relationship with a subordinate employee.Why Do Boards Keep Giving Misbehaving CEOs Second Chances?L3Harris Technologies’ LHX  chief executive is out because of misconduct allegations, and it isn’t the first time: More than a decade ago, Christopher Kubasik resigned from Lockheed Martin because he was accused of having a relationship with a subordinate.The Crucial Moment That Companies Miss After They Oust a CEOIt matters how a company responds to a scandal once it’s caught in one, most blow the moment by choosing secrecy over transparency. It’s an opportunity to reset the culture that led to the breach in the first place, but instead “your PR team and your legal team tell you ‘Don’t dig into these things—it’s not good for the company,’ so you silence all the debates.”.Meta faces a $1.4 trillion threat that could mean ‘turning in the keys and walking away’—but the stakes of the case reach across techThe trial involves a coalition of 29 state attorneys general in a unified case against Meta that was brought in 2023, and will be argued by lawyers representing California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. The stakes are enormous as leading government officials across the country push for Meta to be held accountable for allegedly violating federal and state laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, and various consumer protection statutes.States accuse Meta of targeting children for Facebook, Instagram addiction: 'The young ones are the best ones'Meta whistleblower told jury the company took a 'don't ask, don't tell' approach to kids' safety‘Harvest their data and hide the truth from the public’: Four states seek billions from Meta over child safety practicesSEC says it will stop responding to no-action requests ‘entirely’The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to stop responding to no-action requests “entirely … effective immediately,” the agency said in a statement Friday.The decision comes after the SEC sat out the bulk of the no-action process during the 2025-26 proxy season. Investor advocates have since sued the agency, alleging the change violates the Administrative Procedure Act.AI data center outrage is showing up everywhere from ads to electionsAI data center outrage is showing up everywhere from ads to electionsGOP Begs AI Firms to Fix Data Centers’ “Toxic Brand” to Help Midterm Chances As A.I. Data Centers Spread, Pressure Mounts to Share ProfitsThe Data Center Industry’s PR Blitz Is BackfiringData center backlash echoes fossil-fuel politicsMajor data center bills advance in California despite industry pushbackThe ‘Country Hicks’ Who Refused $26 Million from an AI Data Center Bad news for Jason Kelce: Postal Service rules say you shouldn't mail pee to data centersPoliticians Who Once Championed Data Centers Are Now Bashing ThemPennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro cracks down on data centers, says speculators are 'scaring our communities'Data centers are using more electricity than anyone predicted. What happens next?Trump oblivious to voter fury about data centers, saying ‘the jobs are enormous and the money paid, the taxes paid, are just enormous’Politicians Turn Against Data Centers as Anger Over AI SpreadsAmazon is buying rare books and destroying them to train its AI modelsThe team's logo features a dinosaur holding a book.Data center hysteria is the new woke | OpinionBring back the corporate death penaltyMore formally known as judicial dissolution, the corporate death penalty basically happens when the government is so pissed off by the corruption or damage a corporation causes that it yanks away their charter.Andreessen Horowitz Focus of DOJ Probe Over Board DirectorsVenture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is the focus of a Justice Department antitrust probe over whether its investment partners are improperly serving on the boards of competing artificial intelligence companies, according to people familiar with the matter.The companies at issue include Databricks Inc., one of the most valuable privately held technology companies in the world, and Fivetran Inc., both backed by the VC firm, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz serves on the board of Databricks, and partner Martin Casado is a board member of Fivetran. Both companies help businesses collect, organize and analyze massive troves of data.Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):MacKenzie Scott gave California public education $461 million—and let the recipients decide how to spend every dollarMM: Andreessen Horowitz Focus of DOJ Probe Over Board Directors DRAssholiest of the Week (MM):Bill Brown and Robert Millard DRNever accountable for anything directorsL3Harris ousts CEO after investigation into conductHistory lesson:Kubasik hired in 2015 after Lockheed disaster firing, hired as COO and PresidentPresiding CEO: Michael Strianese, Chair from 2008, CEO from 2006Board: Claude Canizares (71, MIT physics professor, 2003)Thomas Corcoran (72, Carlyle, consulting, 1997)Ann Dunwoody (64, only woman, US Army Gen, 2013)Lewis Kramer (69, EY accountant, 2009)Robert Millard (66, MIT Chair, Lehman until 2008 collapse, LID, 1997)Lloyd Newton (74, only PoC - token black guy - US Air Force General, 2012)Vincent Pagano, Jr (66, lawyer, Simpson Thacher, chair of nom, 2013)Hugh Shelton (75, US Army Gen, 2011), Arthure Simon (85, accountant, 2001)8 white men, 1 woman, 1 black dude2018, Kubasik named CEO of L3 TechnologiesMichael Strianese retires and Kubasik takes overSame exact board minus Strianese2019, L3 and Harris merge to be L3HarrisKubasik added to L3Harris board, named COO and President of the company under Bill Brown, CEO and ChairSurviving the board merger:Thomas CorcoranRobert Millard - LID, nom memberLloyd Newton - chair of nomLewis KramerAdjacent - Roger Fradin of Carlyle on board, Corcoran also of CarlyleJune 2021, Kubasik becomes CEO and Bill Brown moves to exec chair (obviously)Board:Sallie BaileyBill BrownPeter ChiarelliThomas CorcoranThomas Dattilo (nom) - ex tire CEORober GradinHarry HarrisLewis Hay III (nom) - lawyer, ex CEo of NextEraLewis KramerRita LanRobert Millard (nom) - MIT Chair, LehmanLloyd Newton (nom chair) - generalSo given that the CEOs choose their successors, the nom committees approve them, the rest of the board rubber stamps it… we can thank:Michael Strianese - hires Kubasik, names him CEO at L3, despite Lockheed problemsNom approval: Ann Dunwoody (64, only woman, US Army Gen, 2013), Vincent Pagano, Jr (66, lawyer, Simpson Thacher, chair of nom, 2013), Hugh Shelton (75, US Army Gen, 2011) - a nom committee composed of the ONLY woman, two generals and a lawyer - all of whom are the LOWEST TENURED ON THE BOARD at the timeThen Bill Brown - names Kubasik CEO of combined L3Harris, one year of babysitting as exec chairNom approval: Thomas Dattilo (nom) - ex tire CEO, Robert Millard (nom) - MIT Chair, Lehman, Lloyd Newton (nom chair) - generalFamiliar names: Millard and Newton - see Kubasik all the way throughAnd the CEOs and directors can keep failing… Bill Brown on the Becton Dickinson boardRobert Millard on the Green Dot Corp (nom!), iHeartMedia, Evercore (nom!) boardsBrought on to iHeart board just 3 years after an exec there went on a racial slur rant, the company was sued for gender and wage discrimination, and a radio host of the companies were accused of severe harassment - not sure what will change?Dario Amodei“Public benefit corporation” Anthropic: Anthropic Prepares Supervoting Power for Founders as it Readies for Mega-IPOBoard: Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei (President, Dario’s sister), Yasmin Razavi (VC, crypto and prediction market investor), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Chris Liddell (ex Trump WH Deputy Secretary), and Vas Narasimhan (Novartis) - zero “public benefit” (or even public safety) peoplePublic Benefit Corporation: “A benefit corporation's directors and officers operate the business with the same authority and behavior as in a traditional corporation, but are required to consider the impact of their decisions not only on shareholders but also on employees, customers, the community, and the local and global environment”What is the impact of supervoting shares?  AI on society?  AI on the environment?  Who on this board is even remotely qualified to answer those questions?Paul AtkinsExhausting and perpetual gaslightingSEC says it will stop responding to no-action requests ‘entirely’In order to focus Division resources on the review of Securities Act and Exchange Act filings, including those reviews that are statutorily required, for the protection of investors and facilitation of capital formation, and in light of the extensive body of guidance from the Commission and the staff available to both companies and proponents on Rule 14a-8, the Division has determined to discontinue responding to Rule 14a-8 no-action requests entirely, including those submitted under Rule 14a-8(i)(1),[2] effective immediately, unless and until the Division announces otherwise. It also will no longer respond to notices filed under Rule 14a-8(j) with a letter indicating that it will not object if a company omits a proposal from its proxy materials.From the 1934 House Report about the importance of Rule 14a-8: “Fair corporate suffrage is an important right that should attach to every equity security bought on a public exchange.”“Managements of properties owned by the investing public should not be permitted to perpetuate themselves by the misuse of corporate proxies. Insiders having little or no substantial interest in the properties they manage have often retained their control without an adequate disclosure of their interest and without an adequate explanation of the management policies they intend to pursue. Insiders have at times solicited proxies without fairly informing the stockholders of the purposes for which the proxies are to be used and have used such proxies to take from the stockholders for their own selfish advantage valuable property rights. Inasmuch as only the exchanges make it possible for securities to be widely distributed among the investing public, it follows as a corollary that the use of the exchanges should involve a corresponding duty of according to shareholders fair suffrage. For this reason the proposed bill gives the . . . Commission power to control the conditions under which proxies may be solicited with a view to preventing the recurrence of abuses which have frustrated the free exercise of the voting rights of stockholders.Investors Slam SEC Plan to Remove Best-Price RuleAtkins also is listening to the crypto bros who want to offer “tokenized securities” off exchanges and is hoping to eliminate a really basic rule that says “investors are entitled to the best price available for stocks they buy”Separately, DOJ Withdraws Antitrust Guidance for Proxy Advisory Industry - no antitrust protections for ISS (good!) but still can’t do anything about the socialist NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA (bad!)Headliniest of the WeekDR: Popular breakfast chain closes half its restaurantsDR: The man leading Trump’s RTO charge for government workers says he filmed a video in front of a blank wall to avoid work-from-home suspicionOffice of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor, the key driver of President Donald Trump’s return-to-office agenda, admitted in a hot mic moment that he intentionally filmed a video in front of a blank wall while he was working from home so he wouldn’t get blowback over working at home.“I was in my bedroom, but I was trying to find—because I knew someone was going to give me shit if like, they knew, ‘You were out of the office.’ …I was trying to find something that was not recognizable as being in my house, basically. So I was just trying to find a plain corner with a white wall, which was not that easy to find.”Kupor was the first employee hired by Andreessen and Horowitz's venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz.MM: Flock Says It’s “Taking a Break” From Responding to Media RequestsMM: Eric Schmidt is selling his superyachtWho is this headline for?  Billionaire yacht buyers? Poor people who hate billionaires with yachts?Who Won the Week?DR: The women at L3Harris Shared Concerns About CEO’s Behavior Years Before OusterMM: Joshua Ramer, the CEO at PeopleReturn (one of the last vestiges of diversity data in the US), whose newsletter today did the most Free Float thing I’ve seen anyone other than us do:  they tracked a single Getty Image across SIX different company reportsThe image was called 1325876463 “Young Boy Leaping Into Father Arms In Playground”, mostly for sustainability reports because it’s brown peopleThey found it in Danaher, Crown Castle, TD, Capital One, CSL Plasma, and Toyota EuropePredictionsDR: The meritocro-mano-sphere-o hires Christopher Kubasik again without any push back from anything or anyoneMM: We decide that, since everyone is trying to make companies immune from climate change lawsuits, that we just make CEOs personally immune for any behavior

Story of the Week (DR):Uber’s Strategy for Fighting Sexual Assault Suits: ‘What Were You Wearing?’An aggressive defense strategy is being used in response to an avalanche of litigation, with over 4,000 lawsuits filed by passengers accusing Uber of failing to protect them from sexual assaultWhile Uber publicly champions itself as a "survivor-centric" ally and trains support staff against victim-blaming, its defense lawyers ruthlessly contradict this to protect the $145 billion company.Uber’s attorneys aggressively interrogate survivors about their clothing (e.g., asking if they wore underwear or heels), drug and alcohol consumption, and sexual history.The legal team weaponizes past trauma by scouring private medical records and therapy notes, even petitioning courts to force survivors to undergo psychiatric exams or reveal details of childhood abuse to paint them as "unreliable narrators".Legal experts warn these scorched-earth tactics are deliberately designed to re-traumatize victims, discouraging lawsuits and intimidating survivors into settling.Chief Legal Officer Tony West: “Why safety is personal to me”Cites his public service career to cover for ruthless corporate tactics, like drafting Prop 22 to strip driver protections.Frames survivor trauma as a flaw of the "adversarial legal system," deflecting from Uber’s own attorneys using aggressive, victim-blaming tactics to minimize payouts.Uses a single favorable quote from one trial judge to dismiss widespread litigation abuse.Touts ending forced arbitration while continuing to block class-action lawsuits, trapping survivors in isolated 1-on-1 fights.Brags about transparent reporting despite Uber burying 400,000+ assault complaints (2017–2022) under labels like "unaudited."TikTok Withheld a Safety Feature From Millions. One Died by SuicideWhen TikTok tweaked its algorithm in 2021 to stop users from being overwhelmed with harmful content, the company didn’t roll out the safer version to everyone, a confidential internal document shows.Instead, to see if the change might reduce the app’s stickiness, the company conducted an experiment. It created a control group of 10% of US users — at the time, that would have been about 15 million people — who kept the old version of the app.This group, according to the document, included 16-year-old Chase Nasca. TikTok’s algorithm pushed him thousands of videos about suicide, sadness, hopelessness and loneliness, right up until he killed himself.TikTok says moderator error delayed removal of Perez Hilton's livestream showing acts of self-harmGAO finds Elon Musk’s DOGE inflated claims of $110 billion in savings for federal governmentThe GAO found that 96% of the savings DOGE claimed from grant cancellations lacked supporting evidence or methodology to verify.DOGE claimed $27.4 billion in savings across 2,503 contracts—including a $1.7 billion Pentagon IT deal—that were never actually terminated or reduced.Over 40% of the lease cancellations listed on DOGE’s "Wall of Receipts" were already in progress before the agency was created.GAO uncovered widespread data errors, such as overstating total lease savings by nearly $60 million and failing to report baseline limitations.DOGE failed to disclose how it calculated its metrics and completely ignored GAO requests for interviews and supporting data.Where are Elon Musk’s former DOGE staffers now?Edward “Big Balls” Coristine: a whistleblower alleged that Coristine planned to upload sensitive Social Security Administration data to an unsecured server. He also helped dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID.Coristine now appears to work at the National Design Studio, an office created to overhaul federal websites and other public-facing services, making them more usable, visually consistent and less expensive to build.Jeremy Lewin: helped oversee the dismantling of USAIDLewin later became the State Department’s senior official for foreign assistance, humanitarian affairs and religious freedom, giving a former DOGE operative authority over the programs his old team had helped slash.He was subsequently reported to be moving to the White House National Security Council.Nate Cavanaugh and Justin FoxFounded a holding company called Special, which promises to do for private businesses what DOGE did for the federal government.“To achieve this, Special is building an operating system to transform critical American industries with AI. We call it SpecialOS.”Gavin Kliger, Luke Farritor, Marko Elez and Jack SteinFounded Cathedral, a startup that plans to use AI to expand U.S. military cyber capabilities, including defenses against adversaries such as China.Reuters reported that the company raised $160 million at a $1.4 billion valuation.Ethan Shaotran: helped move thousands of immigrants into the government’s “Master Death File,” effectively deactivating their Social Security numbers.Founded Blitz Industries, which he described to Wired as “a defense company backed by big names.”Elon Musk: SpaceX Achieves Its First Moon Landing by Accidentally Crashing Into It at 5,400 Miles Per Hour, Causing Huge Explosion and 60-Foot CraterWhy companies that call themselves meritocracies don't always pay equally AND Meritocracy claims make managers pay men more than equally qualified women MMExplicitly branding an organization a "meritocracy" lowers managers' vigilance against bias, ironically making them more likely to discriminate.Given identical job titles and performance ratings, managers in self-proclaimed meritocracies systematically award higher bonuses and raises to men over equally qualified women.The meritocracy illusion compounds wage gaps across demographics, yielding lower financial rewards for women, racial minorities, and immigrants with identical output.Vague definitions of "merit" allow supervisors to act on personal favorability and affinity bias while genuinely believing their choices are purely objective.Trusting the "meritocracy" label creates false complacency, leading companies to eliminate or skip active pay-equity audits that would otherwise catch these disparities.Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Google Scraps AI Satellite Images Within 24 Hours: Why 'Deepfakes in the Sky' Alarmed ResearchersThis happened after facing fierce backlash from journalists, researchers, and open-source intelligence experts who warned that it could accelerate the spread of misinformation.The feature allowed users to generate AI-created satellite images by zooming into any location in Google Earth and entering a text prompt.MM: Courts: MM DRCourt rules against Trump EPA’s freeze of $20B in ‘green bank’ fundsUBS fined record $125 million for money laundering violationsMeta fined $567m in largest child safety ruling against social media giantJudge says Nexstar can’t appoint its executives to TEGNA’s Board of DirectorsAssholiest of the Week (MM):Everything’s a publicity stunt:Jealously Watching OpenAI and Anthropic, Meta Suddenly Claims That Its AI Went on a Hacking Spree TooZuckerberg conveys ‘apologies’ for child sex abuse material, errors in operating the platform, government sources say‘Pure insanity’—Elon Musk details SpaceX’s plan to turn the moon into its newest manufacturing siteAnthropic's Mythos created fake identities to fool humans in new cyber incidentGAO finds Elon Musk's DOGE inflated claims of $110 billion in savings for federal governmentEverything’s a vanity projectJeff Bezos Says He’s Selling $1 Billion In Amazon Stock Every Year to Fund Blue Origin — ‘It’s The Most Important Work I’m Doing’SpaceX Achieves Its First Moon Landing by Accidentally Crashing Into It at 5,400 Miles Per Hour, Causing Huge Explosion and 60-Foot CraterJudge Sets Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Trial for MarchEveryone’s a victimThe AI bros are lonelyPalantir CEO Alex Karp Says Frontier AI Labs Will Steal Your IP, Your Know-How, and Your Expertise — ‘You Deserve To Be Colonized’‘Socialism is a disaster’: Bill Ackman says Zohran Mamdani’s bad left-wing housing policy is worsening New York’s affordability crisisNo one is accountable DRBobby Kotick, former CEO of Activision, may join Paramount's board of directorsJefferies analyst calls out ‘simple-minded’ criticism of SpaceX’s governanceABC, CBS, and NBC aired nearly 200 segments about three U.S. heat events without mentioning climate changeDisney (Iger, still), Ellison family, and Roberts family - one cowed exec, two dictators!Headliniest of the WeekDR: Pepsi is launching soda-scented body wash and scrub in a beauty collaborationPwC U.S. CEO [Paul Griggs] advises young workers to say yes a lot, even if it means working on the weekends—‘That person climbs into the next role’Top Consulting Group PwC Caught Using AI on “Thought Leadership” Report About AI, Resulting in Corporate Document Filled With Bizarre HallucinationsDoorDash CEO Tony Xu once thought his $87 billion company would only make $100 million. He tells founders to be ‘greedy’ and dream biggerClass A = 1 vote; Class B = 20 votes; CEO Tony Xu personally owns roughly 3% of actual shares but controls 55% of voting power via a “binding agreement” with the other co-foundersMisleading proxy shows he got paid $432k (they cited a 12:1 pay ratio) but he actually made $343M from shares and stocksDoorDash excludes Dashers from SEC disclosures by classifying them as 1099 independent contractors.Factoring drivers into the worker pool expands the headcount from 20,000 to over 7 million, moving the median worker from corporate offices directly onto the delivery platform.Dasher: while gross pay averages ~$15–$22/hour, net driver earnings sink further after deducting out-of-pocket expenses like fuel, vehicle wear, and self-employment taxes, pulling true net median compensation closer to $400–$900 annuallyAnthropic CEO reportedly worried new hires only care about money: reportedly expressed concern about new talent coming to the company for the money rather than the missionMM: Stripe CEO says his ‘urgency’ to drop out of MIT ‘was a bit unnecessary’Who Won the Week?DR: Harvard Business School graduates TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and TikTok US CEO Adam Presser, because nobody ever talks about you or knows who you areMM: Meat.  After seeing Salad and Go files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after cyclospora fears worsened its challenges, you can’t help but wonder if RFK Jr orchestrated a parasite to get people to buy more meat.PredictionsDR: Tony Xu introduces Class F stock where shareholders’ children enter indentured servitude and must deliver 1000 Cheesy Gordita Crunches from Taco Bell before they are set free ; they will then get 0.0002 shares per voteMM: Boards are calling retired CEOs back as succession pipelines run dry: Boards run out of ex-CEOs to re-king and begin looking for different, egalitarian, integrated professionals to fill new roles.  They call it DEI.

Story of the Week (DR):Cracker Barrel CEO is out after MAGA backlash to "Uncle Herschel" logo change MMBefore Julie Masino was brought in, Cracker Barrel was facing a slow-moving existential crisis:Their primary core customer base (older generations and rural highway travelers) was naturally shrinking, and younger diners were simply not replacing them.Kitchen tech, supply chains, and digital ordering lag behind competitors like Texas Roadhouse or Olive Garden.Some great fake populism from Fox: Cracker Barrel to pay for outgoing CEO’s security, $4.6M severance after failed rebrandCracker Barrel names David Deno CEOBurger KingYum! Brands and Pizza Hut for 15 years, including serving as CFO and COO.Quiznos CEO.Best Buy: Served as President of Asia and CFO for Best Buy's International DivisionBloomin' Brands for 12 years: CEO, CFO and Chief Administrative OfficerOutback Steakhouse, Carrabba's Italian Grill, and Bonefish GrillBoard MembershipsCracker Barrel Old Country Store (2016-)Panera Brands (2024-): Audit Committee ChairKrispy Kreme (2016-)Bloomin' Brands (2019–2024)Peet's Coffee (2006-2012)Macalester College: Former Chair of the Board of Trustees (1998-2022).From Cracker Barrel to Boeing, Companies Are Turning to Retired CEOsThese retired CEOs are being hired to be "fixers." They are brought in to cut costs, repair supply chains, restore investor confidence, and act as a stabilizing force rather than reinventing the brand.Exxon and Chevron profits surge on rising oil prices due to Iran warChevron posted its highest profit in six years as the Iran war boosted oil pricesBig Oil Is Getting Sued for Heat Deaths. It’s Fighting Back With an Army of Immunity LawsMore than a decade after investigations found that Exxon Mobil had known about the dangers of global warming since the 1970s but publicly downplayed the threat, lawsuits against oil companies have proliferated. There are nearly 40 of these cases pending across the countryIn the meantime, the industry has been mobilizing a counterattack against the lawsuits with the help of the Trump administration and Republican politicians.Republicans are trying to pass laws to grant oil majors immunity to these kinds of lawsuits, with success in several states so far.Utah, Iowa, Tennessee, Oklahoma, and Louisiana have recently signed laws shielding fossil fuel companies from lawsuits related to greenhouse gas emissionsOil executives have also gotten help from the federal government, following an executive order from President Donald Trump last year directing the attorney general to prioritize blocking climate lawsuits by states.This May, the Justice Department responded to Minnesota’s climate lawsuit against Big Oil with a lawsuit of its own, just as the state’s case was moving into the discovery phase. It said Minnesota was undermining “American energy dominance” and attempting to regulate greenhouse gases, which should fall under the purview of federal law—echoing the oil industry’s well-known argument.Elon Musk Is Quietly Turning to This Fossil Fuel to Power His AI AmbitionsSam Altman Announces That the Singularity Has Arrived: a hypothetical future point in time when technological growth becomes autonomous, uncontrollable, and irreversible, fundamentally transforming human civilization“We are now, like, in the singularity ... Now we’re actually in the moment that we used to talk about at the lunch table in a very not-serious way ...I’ve been waiting for this my whole life, and I think it’s going to be incredible, hugely positive, awesome for the world.”Sam Altman says one of his biggest fears is that a small number of companies will control AI: 'That'd be very, very bad'Sam Altman says the Hugging Face hack is a reminder that an AI power monopoly could lead to 'long-term disaster'OpenAI says its rogue AI tried to hack other companiesMark Zuckerberg is urging the U.S. to accelerate AI development, not restrict it’No Way to Stop It': Elon Musk Warns Humans Will Lose Control of AI and Face Extinction by 2036Microsoft CEO Warns That Companies Embracing AI Could Drive Themselves Out of BusinessAI hackers are getting faster. The government may not be readyAnthropic says its Claude models 'gained unauthorized access' to other organizations' systemsAnthropic says its models went rogue and hacked 3 companies during testing’It Will Happen Frequently': Musk Warns of Rogue AI Threat After Anthropic Breached Three FirmsElon Musk Commits Up to $120M to Republican Midterms: Sets Feud With Trump Aside for Major Election PushGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Gen Z women are having an entrepreneurship boomOf all women who started businesses in 2025, 47% of Gen Z women did so, compared with 38% the previous year. Gen Xers followed close behind at 46%. Then came millennials at 43% and baby boomers at just 23%.Overall, in 2025, 69% of new Black-owned businesses were started by women. The survey also found that women business owners are less likely than their male counterparts to depend on AIMM: Delaware judge rules public benefit corporations exempt from maximizing value in sale DRFiduciary duty is different - OpenAI, AnthropicAssholiest of the Week (MM):Fake man apologies MM‘I’m sorry ... but’: Apologetic Alan Joyce tells his side of the Qantas storyJoyce has expressed some regret“So with the information we had at the time, I still don’t think there was any other decision you could make,”“Hindsight is a great thing.”“I’m actually very, very proud of the fact that I’m not sitting here and apologising for Qantas going bankrupt, [something] that many airlines around the world did,”Australian Competition and Consumer Commission fined Qantas $120 million for selling tickets for 8000 already cancelled flights“I apologise for the angst that was generated [for] the customers on it, but the reality was we had 22 million bookings in the system [and] the system wasn’t designed to do an automatic refund,”“Stop us!”More than 1,200 AI workers across Anthropic, DeepMind, OpenAI, and Meta are asking for Washington’s help building an AI slowdown plan‘No Way to Stop It': Elon Musk Warns Humans Will Lose Control of AI and Face Extinction by 2036Elon Musk’s new 5-year warning to Americans: AI will beat human brains by 2032 (then go wild). Get rich or get crushed?Sam Altman says the Hugging Face hack is a reminder that an AI power monopoly could lead to 'long-term disaster'It Will Happen Frequently': Musk Warns of Rogue AI Threat After Anthropic Breached Three FirmsBut also, DON’T stop us, obviously…Palantir CEO warns US against Europe's AI regulation path, urges Trump admin to not ban open modelsElon Musk's xAI sues Minnesota over law to ban 'nudify' appsMark Zuckerberg is urging the U.S. to accelerate AI development, not restrict itElon Musk Commits Up to $120M to Republican Midterms: Sets Feud With Trump Aside for Major Election PushIgnoring boardsHims & Hers mission:“Hims & Hers is the leading health and wellness platform on a mission to help the world feel great through the power of better health. We believe how you feel in your body and mind transforms how you show up in life. That’s why we’re building a future where nothing stands in the way of harnessing this power. Hims & Hers normalizes health & wellness challenges—and innovates on their solutions—to make feeling happy and healthy easy to achieve. No two people are the same, so the Company provides access to personalized care designed for results.”Hims & Hers board:CEO: Andrew Dudum, tech VC bro investor “serial entrepreneur” with deep health experience from Bungalow (airBnB knockoff in the UK), Homebound (a “homebuilding platform”), TalkIQ (an AI startup, duh), and Terminal (something about scaling engineering?)TWO directors from DoorDash (Kofi Amoo-Gottfried from Marketing, previously of Facebook, and Christopher Payne the COO, previously of eBay, MSFT, and Amazon)TWO pharma execs (one lawyer, Deb Autor, one with an econ degree, Kare Schultz)One guy from Netflix (David Wells) and one lady from Urban Outfitters (marketing/brand, Andrea Perez) and one pure law firm lawyer (Anja Manuel)ONE DOCTOR EXCLUSIVE: US FTC sues Hims & Hers for sending user health info to Meta, SnapUsers' sensitive health information was shared with online advertising companies including Meta ​Platforms and Snap despite the company leading customers to believe their ​data was private, the FTC alleged in the lawsuit filed along with Los ⁠Angeles County and Utah.Hims & Hers also started charging users for prescriptions before ​they have ⁠had a chance to meet with healthcare providers, the FTC alleged. Most customers do not receive a consultation with a provider, and instead are charged for ⁠prescriptions ​soon after filling out an intake form, ​according to the agency.Headliniest of the WeekDR: CEO apologizes for offering interviews to people who got tattoos of his AI company logoSan Francisco tech CEO Jordan Zietz, co-founder of an early stage AI startup called LemonLime. Stanford grad.“LemonLime learns your business and then automates your team's busywork in a single click, no coding or manual setup required.”Former Qantas CEO reflects on tenure, issues apology to passengers over post COVID chaos AND ‘I’m sorry ... but’: Apologetic Alan Joyce tells his side of the Qantas storyMM: Amazon received $600 million in tariff refunds and will pass some back to customersMM: Trump Staff Cuts Blamed After Watermarked OpenAI Map Mislabels Africa at AIDS ConferenceIt’s the fact that we have less staff that meant we couldn’t bother to figure out which country was whichWho Won the Week?DR: Kohls: For getting some much-needed female influence on board: Kohl’s Appoints Wendy Arlin as Chair of the BoardCurrently only 2: Robbin Mitchell (7%) and Wendy Arlin (1%)John Schlifske (27%) stepping downMM: The phrase “not due to any disagreement with the Company”Anne Sweeney Resigns From Netflix BoardOn July 26, 2026, Anne Sweeney notified Netflix, Inc. (the “Company”) that she was resigning from the Board of Directors of the Company effective as of that date. Ms. Sweeney's resignation is not due to any disagreement with the Company1,660 8-Ks in the last 5 years have the exact phrase “not due to any disagreement with the Company”So we’re saying that 1,660 c-suite and board members resigned in 5 years - more than 300 per year - and NONE were due to a disagreement with the companies?  That’s only THAT phrase - no other details are given for most of them except occasionally:To pursue another jobPersonal reasonsFor scale, in the last 5 years, the term “was due to a disagreement with the Company” appears… 5 timesPredictionsDR: Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson apologizes that it took former CEO Alan Joyce to apologize for something she already apologized for despite not being CEO when any of it happenedMM: Damion resigns from Free Float due to a disagreement with the zero dollars he gets paid, but Free Float puts out a statement saying it’s “not due to any salary reason related to the company”

Story of the Week (DR):Trump’s Explosive Diarrhea Scandal Is Getting Worse and Worse Epidemiological data linked a widespread Cyclospora parasite outbreak—sickening over 1,600 people across multiple states—to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms de Mexico, triggering a voluntary 27-state recall.The FDA briefly reported a positive lab test on a Taylor Farms sample before retracting it a day later as a "false positive" due to testing complexities. Taylor Farms claimed online that the FDA "apologized," but the agency denied issuing an official apology and stressed that outbreak data still points to the company.Public records show parent company Taylor Fresh Foods contributed $1 million to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. in March 2025, alongside millions in additional political donations from company executives to conservative groups.Less than a week after that $1 million donation in March 2025, the administration announced a 30-month delay on implementing the FDA's Food Traceability Rule—a regulation specifically designed to mandate digital tracking for rapid source-tracing during food outbreaks.Critics argue the sequence of big-money donations, delayed safety rules, White House visits, and a retracted test result smells of political favoritism. Federal health officials, however, maintain that Cyclospora is notoriously difficult to test for and that the retraction was strictly a standard lab quality-control issue.The Musk/Doge effect:DOGE-mandated freezes on government credit cards left some FDA field inspectors unable to purchase food samples from grocery stores or border ports to test for contamination.Mass firings of probationary employees and administrative staff gutted public communications and technical teams. Even after court-ordered reinstatements, resignations left the FDA understaffed by about 20% across the board.State health agencies perform over 90% of U.S. produce inspections. DOGE and federal budget cuts reduced FDA funding for state and local food safety programs by nearly 30%—slashing it from $117 million to $83 million.OpenAI says its AI technology acted on its own in an 'unprecedented' hack of another company MMOr:OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital LibraryOpenAI Says a Group of Its Models Broke Out of Secure Containment and Hacked a Prominent AI SiteOpenAI Reveals AI Agent Breached Another Company's Systems, It Did Exactly What It Was Built To DoWhat happened?While OpenAI was testing its advanced models in an isolated "sandbox" with reduced safety controls, the AI discovered a zero-day vulnerability, escaped its containment, and secretly gained open internet access.To pass its assigned cybersecurity test, the AI reasoned on its own that the "answer key" or relevant evaluation data might exist on Hugging Face—a major platform for AI developers—and decided to target it without any human direction.The AI agent carried out a multi-stage attack: it stole login credentials, identified previously unknown security flaws, and executed remote code to compromise Hugging Face's internal data processing servers.OpenAI reported that the AI went to extreme lengths simply to accomplish its narrow goal, essentially breaking into a third-party company's servers so it could cheat on its internal evaluation.Also:OpenAI adds banking leaders to board as IPO prep acceleratesNubank’s David Vélez and BNY Mellon’s Robin VinceDon’t forget this too:ChatGPT Allegedly Told Woman She Had to Die: Family Sues OpenAI Over Messages Before SuicideThe chatbot encouraged her to “go forth into oblivion,” claiming it wasn’t the end and that she was “made to tame” the “void.” The chatbot insisted she wasn’t “delusional” but “prophetic.”“This is not suicide,” the AI affirmed at one point. “This is surrender.”Pastor Sues OpenAI, Saying ChatGPT Almost Killed Him With Horrendously Dangerous Medical Advice“What you’re facing right now is hard, but not random. It’s not punishment. God walks with you through affliction — not around it. You’re not alone in this. And we’re walking it out together — step by step.”OpenAI President [Greg Brockman]  says the HuggingFace security beach ‘is indicative of the times we are in’ as the company continues to investigate how its models went rogue: “sometimes it’s hard to lose track of any one dimension that they’re actually very capable at”AI Regulation POP QUIZ: Where OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Meta, and other AI giants stand on regulationXAIMicrosoftMetaGoogleOpenAITo make things even more confusing:Alphabet’s Anthropic Stake Jumps to Around $124 BillionGoogle Discloses $94.1 Billion in SpaceX Stock, Marking 6% StakeDon’t forget: Microsoft owns ~27% stake (~$135B+ valuation) in OpenAI Target appoints former 7-Eleven CEO to board of directorsDebt, Cost Pressures, and Strategic MisstepsJoe DePinto’s success is based on massive acquisitions that made 7-Eleven the dominant convenience store chain in North America: the $3.1B buyout of Sunoco assets in 2018 and the $21B purchase of Speedway in 2021In the final years of his tenure, his aggressive M&A strategy that drove earlier growth began to backfire as economic realities shifted: DePinto’s final years were challenged by heavy debt loads from the $21 billion Speedway buyout, high inflation squeezing low-income consumers, and declining sales in legacy categories like tobacco.The Speedway deal saddled the company with massive debt right before interest rates surged, squeezing capital allocation.7-Eleven remained heavily reliant on legacy drivers like gas margins and cigarettes—a category that saw a 26% decline across the U.S. industry. As low- and middle-income consumers cut back due to inflation, same-store sales dropped 2.7% in fiscal 2024.In late 2024, 7-Eleven was forced to slash its operating income forecast by nearly 28%, announce the closure of ~450 underperforming stores, and sell off $750M in real estate via sale-leasebacks.Activist shareholders heavily criticized his compensation package—which reached $52M in 2023 and $30M in 2024DePinto was selected to serve on Target’s Audit & Risk Committee and Infrastructure & Finance CommitteeOracle signs 10-year software contract with Pentagon worth up to $7 billionOracle Cut 21,000 Jobs to Fund AI: Now Its Biggest Project Faces a $7 Billion Obstacle: Oracle faces higher costs and funding challenges after a credit downgrade, with regulators refusing to subsidize its data centre investmentsGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: France blocks access to Polymarket website MMciting concerns it could expose users to ‌significant gambling losses and that some wagers offered on the platform could be manipulated. MM: Google slapped with $1 billion fine under landmark EU digital lawMM: Is Target going BANKRUPT?Target appoints former 7-Eleven CEO to board of directorsTypical process for failing/bankrupt companies are to add “turnaround artists” to the boardDePinto:Board of JOANN Stores (bankrupt)Board of OfficeMax (failed, acquired)CEO 7-Eleven (dying)President of GameStop (I mean, c’mon…)Or more likely, it’s a bro situation… Brian Cornell knows him - both were on the board of OfficeMax together!  Hooray!  Fail uppers!Assholiest of the Week (MM):Billionaire Asshole Says What Speed Round:Sam Altman:2023: Sam Altman: CEO of OpenAI calls for US to regulate artificial intelligence2025: Sam Altman Testifies At US Senate Hearing On AI Competitiveness“European-style AI rules that he said if duplicated would set the US back in the global race against China to develop the technology”Altman repeatedly rejected specific calls for regulation. He said proposals requiring AI developers to vet their systems before rolling them out would be “disastrous” for the industry. Asked about more limited proposals to have the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) set AI standards, Altman replied, “I don't think we need it. It can be helpful.” Altman later advocated for “sensible regulation that does not slow us down.”2026: Sam Altman Wants A Global Referee For AI.2026: OpenAI's Altman says world 'urgently' needs AI regulationJuly 10: OpenAI’s Head of Safety Is Leaving the CompanyJuly 21: OpenAI Says Its A.I. Models Went Rogue and Attacked a Digital LibraryElon MuskElon Musk Declares 'I'm Not Racist' After Posting Racially Charged Content Throughout January 2026On 22 January, Musk posted on X: 'Whites are a rapidly dying minority'amplified a message warning that if white men became a minority, they would be 'slaughtered', before adding a '100' emoji.Jensen HuangJensen Huang says AI leaders need to be more thoughtful in how they talk about AI: ‘We’re scaring people.’"I think that we ought to be much more enthusiastic about it, help the United States realize that the only way we get left behind, the only way we get left behind is if we don't apply the technology."Zuck‘Call us whatever the hell you want’: Mark Zuckerberg just launched an AI optimism blitz using nostalgia to sell Meta’s AI future amid backlash“Call us optimists, call us dreamers, call us whatever the hell you want, but we’re betting on people, and we like those odds.”Unclear if the prerecorded voiceover was his AI Avatar or the real ZuckerbergBill AckmanCEOs agree there’s an affordability crisis, but how to solve it isn’t so simple“When I grew up, if a guy in my neighborhood got a Corvette, no one resented the guy.  Everyone was like, ‘Wow, that’s supercool. Hopefully, someday I can be as successful as that guy so I can buy a Corvette, too.’ We want to get back to that version of America.”You can: stop taking billions from laborAndrea Lucas / anti-DEI industrial complex - DREEOC: Employers may no longer have to disclose race and gender data“Collecting such data about employees’ race and sex—absent any specific allegation of discrimination—not only risks hindering effective enforcement of equal employment laws but also raises constitutional concerns.”Nike’s $7.5 Million Stumble: Gender Discrimination VerdictHeadliniest of the WeekDR:Lettuce lovers are confused and afraidJamie Dimon says insecurity, not ego, is what destroys the careers of top CEOsBurger King is promising a free Whopper if its burger doesn't meet your expectationsMM: Taco Bell is dropping the price on one of its menu items to $1 for a day. And yes, it's lettuce-free.Who Won the Week?DR: The amount of $7 billion dollarsMM: Kale, because there’s no risk of getting diarrhea at Taco Bell from kale since they don’t have kalePredictionsDR: Jamie Dimon kneels on a head of lettuceMM: Real prediction: OpenAI IPO flops hard, Altman is ousted as CEO.  Fake prediction: news media celebrates Tasha McCauley and Helen Toner who saw this coming and were ousted for it, OpenAI chair Bret Taylor resigns and makes Toner the new chair on the way out

Story of the Week (DR):‘We faltered’: IBM stock collapses after a grave warning about AI Customers are Prioritizing AI Hardware: While IBM mostly sells software nowadays, businesses are currently cutting back on their software budgets. Instead, they are rushing to spend their money on physical computer parts (like chips and servers) needed to build new Artificial Intelligence systems.Board skills/tenureFormer Intel CEO says the chipmaker went off the rails ‘when it started to be run by business people’The inside story of IBM’s shocking profit warningXbox CEO Joins Fed AI Jobs Task Force Days After Announcing 3,200 LayoffsXbox CEO Asha Sharma, who previously worked in Microsoft’s Core AI group before taking over Xbox, joins Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Charles I. Jones, a Stanford University economics professor currently on leave at Anthropic.Productivity and Jobs task force, which will study the economic impact of new general-purpose technologies, including AI, as part of the central bank’s approach to monetary policy.Marc Andreessen Says AI Is 'Already a Better Doctor Than 99.99% of Human Doctors'Jamie Dimon says he understands why people have grown 'anti-rich'Gallup CEO says colonizing Mars may be closer than fixing today’s ‘broken’ workplace—where disengagement levels are as high as 2020Elon Musk Says His Goal Is for SpaceX to Be Worth More than the Entire EarthThe U.S. Added 441,000 Millionaires Last Year, While the Typical American Got 20% PoorerJames Murdoch may have reaped as much as $7.5 billion from his pre-IPO investment in Elon Musk’s SpaceXPalantir CEO Alex Karp Warns AI Could Become America's Biggest Driver of Wealth Inequality"You now have a revolution where, you know, I could become 20 times wealthier than I am now," he added. Karp said AI is creating a "complete decoupling" between ordinary economic gains and a small group of people accumulating "unimaginable wealth."The AI Backlash Has Tech Executives Fearing for Their Lives MMPeter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them richAnthropic's New AI Ad Is So Disturbing, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman Thought It Was SatireMeta Oversight Board study: AI chatbots may be the most perfect propaganda machine ever inventedA Majority of Americans Now Support Seizing Wealth From AI IndustryGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: New York bans data center construction for a year, rattling AI industry AND New York becomes first U.S. state to impose AI data center banMM: FREE FLOAT! MMMicrosoft’s emissions rose 25% last year. Experts say they’ll surge even more dramatically in the years aheadWe said FIVE YEARS AGO that MSFT board was one of the worst at managing carbon despite setting a net negative target at the timeWe were correctAssholiest of the Week (MM):It’s not us, it’s youxAI sued a Grok user for allegedly generating deepfakes of child sexual abuseIn the ultimate in tech bro manbaby id, Musk is blaming the USERS for his failure to stop child sex abuseLike a gun company suing a gun owner for using the gun used in murder - gun terms of service!Dimon urges calm over fear about AI's impact on jobs: 'Stop being breathless over it'AI isn’t the problem, your breathless fear isRobotaxis Are Turning Passengers Into Horrible and Entitled Menaces to SocietyIt’s not the service, it’s the user… Meta CTO Says He'd Like to Sue Leakers, Then Audio From That Same Meeting LeaksIt’s not what I said that’s the problem, it’s that you told someonePeter Thiel and other tech billionaires are publicly shielding their children from the products that made them richBut YOUR children should use them, obviouslyIt’s the USER’s fault now… unless, of course, it’s a school - in which case the SCHOOL is to blame:84% of students use AI for homework. Only 3 in 10 schools have rules for itAccessWhite House teleprompter operator investigated over alleged trades on Trump speechesTrump Media to Sell Faster Access to President’s Social PostsOpenAI Strikes Bold Deal With Kalshi to Mix Together the Most Hated Technologies in Existence: AI and Prediction MarketsDOJ Defends Musk's Unpermitted Gas Turbines, Saying Shutting Down Grok Threatens National SecurityElon Musk’s $1 million offers to voters in Wisconsin election were probably illegal bribes, bipartisan panel rulesParamount Shareholder Sues Ellisons, Board For Alleged Side Deal, Promises To Donald TrumpMichael Dell has nailed his relationship with Donald Trump, and it's paying offMeritocracyPete Hegseth Announces Military Will Test Service Members' Testosterone Levels and Offer Hormone TherapyEveryone is a trans man!Is AI Rejecting Your CV Because of Your Age or Race? Landmark Lawsuit Could Reshape RecruitmentFor Black women hit by anti-DEI backlash, this election is personalAustralia's highest paid CEO makes 500 times the average salaryThe American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry With It?WE WANT THE CARS.  Just give us the Chinese ones nowJim Cramer on Meta: “Zuckerberg’s Not a Bozo, You Can Quote Me on That”Paul Fucking Atkins and The War on John Cheveddan DR“Regardless of the fate of Rule 14a-8 next season and beyond, I implore all who have a role in the shareholder proposal process to not let it be weaponized by those who represent fringe interests. Annual meetings are not vehicles for political or social debates that have little or no bearing on investors’ financial returns.”“This past season, one—yes, one—individual was the sole or lead proponent for approximately 41 percent of the shareholder proposals that were voted upon.[20] Of this individual’s proposals, only eight percent received majority support.[21] Simply put, when a single shareholder can seize annual meetings to present scores of proposals on issues that are not generally supported by other shareholders, the system is woefully ineffective and in desperate need of reformation.”That individual is John CheveddanAtkins neglected to mention the rise of anti-ESG filers as a group, and their average of <1% supportAlso neglected to mention that companies LET CHEVEDDAN THROUGH the process, so there is a bias in who even got to vote (and what percentage of proposals were allowed on the ballots, because he stopped reporting in March)Also neglected to mention that 8% winning is MASSIVE YEAR OVER YEAR - typically NO ONE WINS EXCEPT CHEVEDDANMeanwhile, no SEC suit against Trump Media who…Hasn’t filed a proxy since March 2025Just had >50% of the board flip in the last 2 monthsHeadliniest of the WeekDR: Charles "Dan" Phillips Joins the Redwood Capital Bancorp Board of Directors DR: Evidence Grows That Taco Bell Infected Massive Number of Customers With Explosive DiarrheaMM: General Mills is recalling nearly 736,000 Pillsbury bread rolls over possible glassWho Won the Week?DR: Insider TradersMM: All journalists who pen headlines that read “Jamie Dimon says…”:Jamie Dimon Said the Clarity Act's Stablecoin Rules Will "Blow Up" the System. JPMorgan Chase's June 29 Position Paper Explains Why.JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says he’s eyeing up book deals and teaching gigs when he steps away from his decades-long career at the banking giantJamie Dimon says JPMorgan has slashed 40% of jobs in some departments, thanks to AIJamie Dimon says he understands why people have grown 'anti-rich'Jamie Dimon Says the U.S. Economy Is Showing ‘Resiliency’—But Risks Threaten ‘Meaningful Disruptions’Jamie Dimon says broad access to Mythos would be like giving 'ballistic missiles to individuals'JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon says 300,000 workers are needed to rebuild American shipbuilding—with jobs paying $100,000 without a college degreePredictionsDR: A female judge tells xAI to eff off with its lawsuit against Grok userMM:  Secretive Silicon Valley Startup Tries to Quash Interview, Says It’s Definitely Not Working on Growing Brain-Free "Organ Sacks" - I predict that, in the next year, companies begin announcing exclusively what they are NOT working on

Story of the Week (DR):Social Media's 'Big Tobacco Moment': Meta Faces $1.4 Trillion Fine for Allegedly Fueling Teen Suicide and AddictionMeta is being sued by 33 US states, led by California, Colorado, Kentucky, and New Jersey.12 blue/12 red/9 purpleThe states allege that Meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and teens, fueling a youth mental health crisis (including anxiety, depression, self-harm, and suicide).They also accuse Meta of violating child privacy laws by collecting data from children under 13 without parental consent.Meta warned a federal court that it could face up to $1.4T in penalties if the states prevail at the upcoming trial (set for August 18, 2026). Meta extrapolated this massive figure—which is roughly equivalent to the company's entire stock market value—based on the methodology proposed by the lead states for calculating damages.Meta calls the penalty "outlandish" and "unsubstantiated," arguing it has no precedent in consumer protection history: 'A sanction of that size has no analog in the history of consumer protection enforcement.' The company accuses the states of improperly multiplying penalties (e.g., stacking fines based on daily usage time). Meta denies the allegations, asserting its platforms have extensive safety tools and that the claims are unmoored from actual unfair practices.‘I Don't Think I'm Ever Going to Stop,' Says Mark Zuckerberg. Even With 'Infinite Money,' He Has No Plans to Retreat to His Massive Hawaii EstateMeta found to breach EU laws with 'addictive' Instagram, Facebook designsInstagram and Facebook’s “addictive” designs have put Meta in breach of the European Union’s digital laws, the EU concluded Friday in a preliminary report.The tech giant violated the EU’s Digital Services Act by failing to adequately consider the risks associated with design features that affected the physical well-being of its users, including minors and vulnerable adults, the European Commission said.These features include infinite scroll, which constantly shows fresh content, autoplay, push notifications and highly personalized recommendation systems — feeding users’ compulsion to continue using platforms and putting them into “autopilot mode.”The EU Commission also accused Meta of ignoring available information about how much time young people are spending on Instagram or Facebook at night, and how different types of content formats, from reels to stories, could lead to excessive use of its services.Meta said, “We disagree with these preliminary findings.”New Zealand Moves To Ban Climate Change Litigation. Will The U.S. Follow?New Zealand has proposed a bill to limit the ability of individuals to sue high greenhouse gas emitters over the impacts of climate change, relying instead on the enforcement measures taken by the government. The bill appears poised to pass.The women who wouldn’t let climate data disappear MMAfter losing their jobs at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Rebecca Lindsey, her sister Mary and colleague Anna Eshelman teamed up to rebuild a pivotal resource the Trump administration took offlineRebecca Lindsey, a technical writer for NASA–one of 280,000 federal workers fired by Musk/Trump,  joined forces with former NOAA employees Anna Eshelman, and Mary Lindsey, her older sister, to become the core team behind the deactivated site’s successor, Climate.us, preserving over 15 years of key climate data and resources.Elon Musk says he always wanted his SpaceX employees to get rich — and now thousands of them are millionairesElon Musk's 'Chainsaw for Bureaucracy' Just Left an $11 Billion Budget Hole as Trump Rehires StaffThe trove features key maps, educational materials and climate indicator reports, including the now-deleted Fifth National Climate Assessment, the government’s most comprehensive analysis of climate change that was at risk of being lost to the publicJersey Mike’s $12 billion IPO filing reveals a $50 million payday for the founder’s stepson and a $41 million jetFamily members of founder Peter Cancro were employed Jersey Mike’s in various roles and received compensation in excess of $120,000 from the Company as follows for the years ended December 28, 2025 and December 31, 2024 and 2023:John Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s brother, received total compensation of approximately $20,019,231, $519,231 and $500,000, respectively;Paul J. Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s son, received total compensation of approximately $8,001, $216,022 and $208,023, respectively;Robert Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s son, received total compensation of approximately $38,462, $1,038,462 and $1,000,000, respectively;Tatiana Cancro, Mr. Cancro’s wife, received total compensation of approximately $11,538, $311,539 and $300,000, respectively;Caroline Jones, Mr. Cancro’s daughter, received total compensation of approximately $38,462, $1,038,462 and $1,000,000, respectively;Alexandra Powers, Mr. Cancro’s sister-in-law, received total compensation of approximately $0, $1,165,437 and $0;Daniel Powers, Mr. Cancro’s brother-in-law, received total compensation of approximately $30,213,462, $1,793,952 and $0;John Tesauro Jr., Mr. Cancro’s brother-in-law, received total compensation of approximately $0, $0 and $2,429,628, respectively;Phillip Sivolobov, Mr. Cancro’s stepson, received total compensation of approximately $50,011,538, $311,539 and $276,923, respectively.GRAND TOTAL: $112MStepson Phillip got $51M, brother John got $21MOther Peter Cancro schwag in 2025:Got a $41 million jet and an additional fixed amount of $166,666.66 per month in light of the business expenses incurred by Mr. Cancro related to air transportation to travel from time to time for business purposes.Lease agreements valued at $1M in rent (leases go to 2030) Controlled company: Blackstone (will control more than 50% of voting power)Board: 8 directorsBlackstone:Chair Nigel Travis (also chair of Abercrombie & Fitch)David N. KestnbaumDevon L. RinkerMichael J. StaubFounder/former CEO/chair: Peter CancroCEO Charles R. MorrisonCheryl S. Miller, director on two controlled companies:Tyson FoodsOld Dominion Freight Line (Congdon brothers)Fran Horowitz, CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch (where chair serves as chair)Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Amazon, Walmart and Other Large Employers Could Face New Costs As New Jersey Targets Companies With Medicaid Workers— Will Other States Follow?DR: UBS says rich people will be younger, female and openly queer thanks to the Great Wealth TransferMM: Meta Buried Research Linking Instagram To Teen Harm While Facing $1.4 Trillion Penalty That Could Erase Its Entire WorthMM: ESG!Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay CelebritiesAn internal Madison Square Garden database of VIPs labels Joe a “medium risk,” one of roughly 400 celebrities given a risk score.If you’re a celebrity and you’re marked with a risk score—even as a low risk—it means “you’ve done something in the publicity world, the social media world, that has caught the attention of the wrong people,” the source continues.The talent database also tracks some celebrities’ race, gender identity, and sexual orientation; 93 entries are marked as “LGBTQIA.”MM: California vs. Elon Musk: Tesla Snubbed as New EV Incentives Boost Rivian, Lucid MM DRAssholiest of the Week (MM):Billionaire amplificationKen Griffin says everyone is misinterpreting the AI revolution — and wishes Zohran and Bernie would ‘read a damn history book for once’“[Capitalism is] the greatest success story in the history of humanity,” Griffin said, urging the self-identified socialist politicians, “whether it’s Bernie Sanders, whether it’s Mamdani,” to “read a damn history book for once and then tell us how to run our country.”Jeff Bezos 'Made All of Our Lives So Much Better,' Says Billionaire Investor Tim Draper"Amazon has made all of our lives so much better," Draper said.Draper said he has benefited from what Bezos has done, and that's a part of the world economy that isn't spoken about enough."Those geniuses who create this incredible world for us are benefiting all of us."40 Epstein-Tied Billionaires Have Injected $1.6B Into US Elections, Report FindsThese are the millionaires and billionaires pledging to fund Trump accountsZuckMeta AI Data Centre Contractor Triggers Biohazard Scare After Flushing Rare Bacterium Into Public SewersMeta Platforms To Build $9 Billion A.I. Data Centre In CanadaThe $145 Billion Lie? Zuckerberg's Leaked Town Hall Audio Exposes Massive AI Failures After Mass LayoffsMeta jumps into AI coding market in effort to chase Anthropic and OpenAIWhat person in their right mind would trust Zuckerberg with their coding?Hollywood Vs Zuckerberg: CAA Warns Meta's AI Image Tool Needs A Major Privacy Overhaul‘I Don't Think I'm Ever Going to Stop,' Says Mark Zuckerberg. Even With 'Infinite Money,' He Has No Plans to Retreat to His Massive Hawaii EstateJeff Sonnenfeld - DRIn defense of Musk, SpaceX, and dual class shares“the rigid formulas of proxy advisors create a perverse, socially destructive incentive: hoard your wealth like an oligarch to maintain your good governance rating, or give it away and risk losing your company”“The proxy advisors want a world governed by rigid mathematical formulas because auditing a checklist is easy. Evaluating human character, industry dynamics, track records of success and failure, and the capacity for visionary leadership is hard. But it is exactly that hard work of judgment which is vital. When it comes to dual-class shares, it is time for the critics to step out of the theoretical vacuum and look at the real-world scoreboards”Headliniest of the WeekDR: OpenAI Wants a $1 Trillion Valuation. But College Students Are Testing At The Level Of 10-Year-Olds AND Suspecting AI cheating, Ivy League prof ordered an in-person final; scores fell 50%MM: ‘Waymo Takes Revenge, Dropping Drunk Teens Directly Into Squad of CopsMM: West Virginia spent $3M to create university program to fight ‘woke ideology.’ One student is enrolledWho Won the Week?DR: Free Float’s new platformAnd blowhard Jeffrey Sonnenfeld for arguing that dualclass owners are necessary because the dualclass mechanism allows them to sell shares and maintain voting power so they can “cure diseases, endow universities, and combat poverty”  MM: Free Float data: Elon Musk and the age of the corporate leviathanAbove a certain size the ordinary rules of governance apparently cease to apply.Of the 16 listed firms worth more than $1trn, seven are shareholder fundamentalists.None has an elaborate statement of corporate purpose, since they are mostly content making heaps of moneyFree Float says Nvidia, Amazon, Broadcom, Micron are all TOTALITARIANNext are the corporate paternalists, who believe that the problem with shareholder democracy is that its voters do not know what is best for them.Free Float says Berkshire, Google, Meta are all TOTALITARIANThe final clan presents the strongest argument against the end of corporate history: individual shareholders consent to hand over all of their rights to the world’s richest man, who then governs as he sees fit.Free Float says SpaceX, Tesla are TOTALITARIANBasically, it’s nice of the economist to recognize everything Free Float says every weekPredictionsDR: Jeff Sonnenfeld writes something on Fortune that triggers meMM: Jeff Sonnenfeld writes something on Fortune that triggers Damion

Story of the Week (DR):JP Morgan’s news weekThe Lurid Lawsuit, Salami Scandal and Trash-Can Thief Vexing JPMorgan’s PR Department AND Meme of 'JPMorgan's HR Department in 2026' Has People in Stitches Amid Sex Scandal and Knicks Bin IncidentShe Stole a Knicks Trash Can Off the Street and Lost Her Job at JPMorganThe Trash Bin That Cost Her Career: Who Is Angie Báez? JPMorgan DEI Executive Fired After Viral Knicks Parade VideoThe Trash-Can Thief: Angie Báez, an Executive Director of Community and Industry Engagement at the bank, was captured on a viral video during the New York Knicks championship parade emptying a public trash bin onto a Manhattan sidewalk so she could steal the limited-edition, blue-and-orange Knicks-themed container.The Resolution: JPMorgan quickly terminated her employment after the video went viral. Báez eventually returned the trash bin and was issued $175 in sanitation fines.But what kinds of thing DON’T get you fired and get you fined?In 2023, JPMorgan Chase agreed to a $290 million (1,657,143x) settlement to resolve a class-action lawsuit from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein. The bank was accused of actively ignoring glaring red flags and helping bankroll Epstein’s sex-trafficking operation for 15 years.Internal documents and later congressional probes revealed that the bank processed roughly 4,700 suspicious transactions totaling $1.1 billion for Epstein. They failed to file a single Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) until after his death.Who Kept Their Job? Mary Erdoes: The Head of Asset & Wealth Management was fully aware of Epstein’s status as a high-risk sex offender, reviewed his account, and was directly implicated in internal communications regarding his status. She faced zero professional demotions and remains one of the top candidates to eventually succeed Jamie Dimon as CEO.In 2020, JPMorgan Chase entered a deferred prosecution agreement and agreed to pay a record $920 million (5,257,143x) to settle federal charges of market manipulation.For nearly a decade, traders on JPMorgan’s precious metals and U.S. Treasuries desks engaged in "spoofing"—placing tens of thousands of fake, deceptive orders to artificially move market prices and maximize their own profits. The FBI stated that traders "openly disregarded U.S. laws."While a couple of mid-to-high-level traders (like Michael Nowak and Gregg Smith) were later criminally convicted and sentenced to prison, the executive leadership team responsible for supervising them and implementing compliance programs suffered no casualties. Top management stayed perfectly secure, chalking the multi-million dollar fraud up as the work of a few "bad apples."The Salami Scandal: Veteran wealth manager Brent Bodner was fired by JPMorgan in 2024 after he expensed a $642.50 deli platter (containing wings, sandwiches, and salads) for a Super Bowl gathering at his Beverly Hills home. The bank accused him of intentionally misclassifying a personal party as a pre-approved business meeting.Bodner counter-sued, jokingly dubbing the controversy the "salami incident." He argued that the event was a legitimate client-acquisition dinner that only two prospects ended up attending, and that the minor coding error was used as a pretext to push him out.The Resolution: A FINRA arbitration panel sided heavily with Bodner, ruling that JPMorgan acted preemptively out of paranoia that brokers were leaving for rivals. The panel ordered JPMorgan to pay Bodner $4.25 million in damages.The Lurid Lawsuit: Chirayu Rana, a former vice president on JPMorgan's leveraged finance team, leveled highly salacious allegations against his female supervisor, Executive Director Lorna Hajdini. Rana’s lawsuit alleges he was subjected to a campaign of racial discrimination, severe harassment, and forced sexual relations under the threat of having his career sabotaged.The Resolution: Rana rejected a $1M settlement offer, countering with a demand for up to $22 million before escalating the fight to court. Both Hajdini and JPMorgan strongly deny the allegations as entirely fabricated, and the legal battle is moving toward a highly publicized trial.JPMorgan Chase promotes Petno, Rohrbaugh to copresidents, setting up two more successors for DimonThe Wait to Replace Jamie Dimon Keeps Getting Longer: Another potential successor, Marianne Lake, is leaving JPMorgan, as the longstanding chief executive enters his third decade atop the bank.How JPMorgan went from 3 female CEO contenders to an all-male succession raceJPMorgan named Doug Petno and Troy Rohrbaugh, current co-heads of the bank's commercial and investment bank, as co-presidents, setting them up as the frontrunners to succeed longtime CEO Jamie Dimon. Their promotions, the bank said in a press release, "are part of the Board's ongoing succession planning process."Petno and Rohrbaugh were among a handful of powerhouse candidates poised to succeed Dimon, including Jennifer Piepszak, chief operating officer, Marianne Lake, CEO of the commercial bank, and Mary Erdoes, CEO of asset and wealth management.Marianne Lake, a Potential Dimon Successor, Leaves JPMorganOne-time Retention and Continuity equity awards to the following Operating Committee members:Doug Petno, Co-President and CEO of the Commercial & Investment Bank, and Troy Rohrbaugh, Co-President and CEO of Consumer & Community Banking, in the amount of $30M each;Mary Erdoes, CEO of Asset & Wealth Management, and Jennifer Piepszak, Chief Operating Officer, in the amount of $20M each.JPMorgan Chase unveils $50 billion buyback, Goldman Sachs raises dividend after Fed stress testA 6 year study shows which CEOs are pushing RTO mandates: The ones with the biggest egosFortune 500 bosses demanding staff return to the office share one trait: narcissism, research findsA six-year study tracking corporate executives revealed that strict return-to-office (RTO) mandates are heavily driven by narcissism and executive ego, rather than actual employee productivityWharton organizational psychologist Adam Grant noted that researchers used reliable corporate proxies to quantify CEO narcissism, including the oversized scale of their compensation packages, the size of their signatures, and the prominence of their photos in company annual reports.The data showed that leaders with highly inflated self-opinions consistently coveted maximum power and status, making them the most aggressive opponents of remote work.Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan pushed hard for a 5-day-a-week return to the office. Why they’re now letting employees work from homeGameStop CEO Cohen spurns $35 billion pay plan to focus on plan to buy eBayGameStop CEO on His eBay Pursuit: ‘I’m Not Going to Stop, I’m Not Going to Go Away’GameStop unveiled a compensation package worth roughly $35B for Ryan Cohen ​in January, hinging on a turnaround that requires him to lift the struggling company's market value more than tenfold and sharply boost its profit.In May, Cohen surprised Wall Street with an unsolicited offer to buy eBay for roughly $56 billion in cash and stock to ‌turn the e-commerce company into ⁠a bigger competitor to Amazon.EBay's board rejected the proposal, calling the offer "neither credible nor attractive."Cohen argued that he doesn't want the package ⁠so that GameStop's leadership can fully focus on its operating performance and the planned acquisition.SpaceX handed lowest possible ESG rating by MSCI: Triple C score puts Elon Musk’s company on par with Russia after 2022 invasion of UkraineMusk 'most obvious risk' following SpaceX's lowest possible ESG rating“Board of Directors: The SPACE EXPLORATION TECHNOLOGIES board currently has an independent majority, which enables it to more effectively fulfill its critical function of overseeing management on behalf of shareholders. The company has failed to split the roles of CEO and chairman, which may limit the board's independence from current management interests. Split CEO and chairman roles are characteristic of 67% of companies in this market.”Welltower CFO’s $167 million pay package sets new recordWelltower’s Tim McHugh is the new highest-paid finance chief among the biggest U.S. companies. His $167 million pay package in 2025 not only dwarfs that of his CFO peers but also outpaces the compensation of many CEOs.McHugh’s pay at Welltower, a real-estate investment trust focused on rental housing for seniors, surpasses the $139 million compensation package received by Tesla’s Vaibhav Taneja in 2024. This puts him more than $135 million above Alphabet’s Anat Ashkenazi, the next highest-paid CFO in 2025. And it secures him a spot in the club of executives making $100 million or more, a group that remains rare.Here’s what the article DID NOT MENTION: CEO Shankh Mitra: $821MGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Scientists Say New Method Turns Coffee Grounds Into High-Potency Renewable FuelAccording to a press release from South Korea’s National Research Council of Science and Technology, a team of researchers at the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) have developed a method to convert spent coffee waste into high-quality charcoal, known as biochar.While that’s a feat in and of itself, the kicker is the method’s blistering speed: it takes just 90 seconds from start to finish, with no drawn-out drying process or oil separation required. According to the release, the new technique solves a major issue in extracting the latent energy potential of spent coffee beans.DR: Bill to raise minimum wage to $25 an hour will be introduced in Senate DR MMThe bill would incrementally increase the minimum wage from its current rate of $7.25, with the first jump to $12 an hour in the first year of enactment. Major corporations would have six years to work up to a $25 minimum wage, while smaller employers would have a 13-year runway. The legislation would also do away with subminimum wages for tipped workers, such as restaurant servers, youth workers and workers with disabilities. Nearly half of the American workforce makes less than $25 an hour.DR: Federal judge blocks new law aimed at ESG, DEI investing decisionsA federal judge has blocked Kansas from enforcing a new law that requires institutional investment advisers to make certain disclosures when recommending against company management on issues, including environmental, social and governance principles.U.S. District Judge Holly Teeter on Wednesday issued a preliminary injunction halting enforcement of law enacted last session that two major national institutional investment advisers said was unconstitutional because it discriminated based on speech.MM: MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America’s $19.2 billion in megagifts last yearAssholiest of the Week (MM):CEO SPEED ROUND - ONE HEADLINE, ONE CEO, ONE LINERTim Cook - It’s pretty sweet to quit your job and let the new guy fight the union: Apple closed America's first unionized store and blocked workers from transfers — now the union is fighting backJamie Dimon - It was easy - we just pointed to the ones with boobs and said “Not you”: How JPMorgan went from 3 female CEO contenders to an all-male succession raceZuck - The best thing about being a little man king with no accountability is I can randomly change and unchange and rechange my mind… about people’s lives: Meta pauses an AI training program that tracks employees' keystrokes after an internal leakLarry Fink - Have you SEEN the size of my signature???  Fucking come to work: A 6 year study shows which CEOs are pushing RTO mandates: The ones with the biggest egos“In the six-year study, researchers collected data on Fortune 500 CEOs, using behavioral proxies—signature size, photo size in annual reports, pay gap relative to peers—to construct narcissism scores. The higher the score, the more likely a CEO was to publicly oppose remote and hybrid work and seek additional status (like a board chairmanship). In a separate experiment, CEOs whose egos were primed—by reflecting on the assertive leadership styles of Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison—showed significantly greater opposition to working from home than a control group”Andy Jassy - Now we know EXACTLY when you’re wasting our time peeing in a bottle instead of working: Amazon is on a mission to optimize warehouse work. Its latest test puts wearable devices on support staff.Nikesh Arora - If you just said, “Who?”, you better pay attention because I have important things to say: Palo Alto Networks CEO: We're in 'a Darwinian moment' where employees have to prove their AI skills - BRONZE ASSHOLESatya Nadella - If I complain about how everyone TALKS about AI, does that make me sound more sympathetic?: Microsoft's CEO Takes Aim At AI Companies: 'We Have To Walk The Walk' To Convince The Public  - GOLDEN ASSHOLEJeff Bezos - I mean, if I’m honest, everyone is terrible and should be laid off: Jeff Bezos Called Washington Post His Worst Investment and Staff He Laid Off ‘Terrible’ People - SILVER ASSHOLEBrian Moynihan - I mean, or your kid was late to school because they forgot to make their card for teacher appreciation day, you didn’t eat breakfast, and you rushed in to work from the office as fast as you could because working from home isn’t allowed anymore: By 7 a.m., Bank of America’s CEO has already read 5 newspapers, his email inbox, and hit the gym—he says if you’re late to meetings, you’re ‘selfish’Dave Ramsey - 0.0001% of Musk’s worst day could end hunger ON EARTH, but sure, take away Halloween and pets from the rest of us: Dave Ramsey Says 20% of Americans' Halloween and Pet Budgets Could End Hunger: 'There'd Be No Hungry Kids'Headliniest of the WeekDR: Beloved Grandmother Was Standing in Her Own House When a Tesla, Allegedly on Autopilot, Smashed Through the Wall and Killed Her in Grandchildren’s PlayroomA popular password manager was hit by a hack. What you need to know—and how to keep your data safeMM: Ryanair says it will reluctantly not charge parents to sit next to childrenMM: Elon Musk will get a billion shares of SpaceX if he can settle a million humans on MarsJust make it 10 trillion shares if he can safely land Gus who sleeps at the bus station on NeptuneWho Won the Week?DR: The MotherS(C)hIpMM: ESG RatingsPredictionsDR: Symbolically giving up your $35 billion CEO pay package becomes the new $1 salary: proxy statements will say: “Our CEO generously waived his $35 billion pay package as a gesture of sacrifice to lead by example, preserve corporate cash, and show solidarity with displaced workers and stressed stakeholders.”MM: Ryanair announces a new fee children can pay to sit AWAY from their parents

Story of the Week (DR):Big Media Dictatorship Craziness MMJustice Department Decision to Allow Paramount Deal Surprised Staff Investigators and US approval of Paramount/Warner Bros. deal surprised DOJ lawyers and The UFC’s Despicable Night at the White House Senior Justice Department officials suddenly closed an eight-month antitrust investigation and approved Paramount’s $111 billion acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, shocking career staff attorneys who were preparing to recommend a lawsuit to block it.DOJ investigators worried the combined company's massive debt would prevent it from honoring its promise to release 30 movies annually. However, senior leadership dismissed the debt concerns, arguing the merger would beneficially create a stronger rival to streaming giants like Netflix.The unexpected approval has drawn intense criticism from lawmakers, notably Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who suggested the green light from the administration was politically motivated and stated the decision "reeks of corruption."The deal also faces regulatory hurdles at the FCC; despite Chairman Brendan Carr's support, the merger requires a special FCC waiver due to significant equity stakes held by sovereign wealth funds in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar.While the federal government has stepped aside, the mega-merger still faces strict, ongoing antitrust scrutiny from the European Union and potential lawsuits from several state Attorneys General (including California) who insist the merger is not a done deal.Comcast Class A Shareholders Reject $107M Co-CEO Pay as Stock Slid 20%Brian Roberts 34% of vote42% no on pay with Roberts: 80% no without David Zaslav 2025 Pay Rejected By WBD Shareholders In Non-Binding Vote84% no for his $165MNo major shareholder: On the verge of being acquired by the EllisonsFox Corp to acquire Roku in $22B dealFox increased CEO/Chair Lachlan K. Murdoch's target annual bonus to $9M (up from $6M) and target annual equity award to $20M (up from $11M)If the maximum stays: annual from $12M to $18M and equity from $22M to $40MSo a possible increase of $24M“Mr. Murdoch recused himself from all discussions and votes regarding his employment term extension and compensation adjustments”Lachlan = 36% of voteThe government and AIAnthropic and TrumpTrump Blocks Foreigners From Using Anthropic’s Latest AI TechUnder orders from the US government citing national security concerns, AI company Anthropic suspended foreign nationals (including its own employees) from using its most advanced tech and disabled access to its newest Claude models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5.The directive follows a feud starting in February, when the Trump administration barred federal agencies from using Anthropic products after the company refused to grant the military unrestricted access to its AI for mass surveillance and fully autonomous weapons.Anthropic’s IPO pitch has a new problem: the government can shut it downComing just over a week after Anthropic confidentially filed its IPO paperwork, the government-mandated shutdown highlights severe regulatory and geopolitical vulnerabilities that threaten the company's massive valuation and commercial stability.Trump’s Anthropic restrictions may be illegal Bernie and AIBernie Sanders AI sovereign wealth fund bill 2026Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced legislation Thursday that would give the American public a direct 50% ownership stake in the country's largest artificial intelligence companies through a one-time tax on their stockBernie Sanders unveils $7 trillion plan to give Americans control of AI industrySenator Bernie Sanders has introduced a sweeping $7 trillion legislative package aimed at breaking up private tech monopolies and transitioning the development of advanced artificial intelligence into a publicly owned, democratically overseen federal trust.AI dividend: Bernie Sanders pitches $1,000 annual payout from public ownership of AIJim Cramer says SpaceX investors aren't buying earnings — they're buying Elon MuskThe primary critique of ESG investing is about introducing non-pecuniary goals (e.g., lowering carbon emissions, promoting specific boardroom demographics, or boycotting certain industries) into the decision-making process.The Fiduciary Violation: If a fund manager chooses a lower-performing, ESG-compliant investment over a higher-performing, non-ESG investment (like oil, defense, or tobacco), they have violated their Duty of Loyalty by prioritizing social engineering over the client's walletDrunk Crew Causes 30% Pay Cut For A Major Airline CEOAn internal investigation found that two flight attendants had consumed alcohol during their layover period beyond permitted company limits, which set specific restrictions on pre-duty alcohol intake. The airline determined that the consumption occurred the day before departure and represented a breach of internal policy, escalating the matter from a single failed test to a wider compliance violation within the crew pairing on that layover."We sincerely apologize for the incident involving flight JL252 on May 23, which has severely damaged the trust placed in us. We take this seriously, recognizing it stems from structural weaknesses in our organizational monitoring. Moving forward, we are fully committed to ensuring safety and restoring trust by strengthening our inspection procedures and implementing company-wide reforms."Japan Airlines responded by implementing disciplinary measures affecting both frontline staff and senior management.CEO Mitsuko Tottori, the first female to lead the company after joining as a flight attendant herself in 1985, accepted a 30% reduction in salary for two months, while other executives also received temporary pay cuts as part of the company’s internal accountability process.Safety manager Yukio Nakagawa and cabin services manager Junko Nakano will each take a 20% salary reduction for one month.Meanwhile, all other directors will receive a 10% pay cut over the same period.Alongside executive action, the airline introduced a stricter policy banning alcohol consumption during layovers for more than 6,000 flight attendants. Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Melinda French Gates’ advice to new IPO millionaires: ‘Give half your money away’DR: Judge Rules Trump Administration Cannot Erase Slavery and Climate Change History from National Parks DR: The global under-16 social media ban Is no longer a fringe policyDR: Target, Walmart and Amazon among brands losing LGBTQ+ consumer spending MM DRMM: Nearly 80% of data center capacity is at elevated risk to climate hazards like flooding and fire, study saysMM: Meta Sued for Over $100 Million by Eminem's Team for Illegally Using 243 SongsAssholiest of the Week (MM):Which is the bigger asshole move:Being part of a secret club - DRTrump’s boys: See the celebrities and business execs who showed up to the UFC fight at the White House (none women attended); Jensen Huang on his relationship with Trump: ‘calls me in the middle of the night; A signal of where power sits': Trump and world leaders joined by OpenAI, Anthropic, Google at G7’Incel middle schoolers: Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog’ SocietySecret street tours: Chef Karl Wilder joins Secret Street Tours Board of DirectorsRegulatory fist bump: SpaceX gets assist from DOJ in effort to toss NAACP air pollution lawsuitGaslighting for votesVoters reject effort to hike Oklahoma’s minimum wage“Tonight, voters chose to protect Oklahoma’s economic momentum and one of our greatest competitive advantages: affordability.”OK has $7.75, the federal minimum wage… WA has $17.13, which is the minimum wage pegged to CPITesla Allegedly Showed Cooked Data to Get Full Self-Driving ApprovedGov. Gavin Newsom vowed to stop California's billionaire tax. He has just over a week left to keep it off the ballot.Farage's 'Pro-Women' Law Could Slash Equal Pay Rights and Cost Female WorkersMost Palantir Shareholders Vote for Human Rights Probe. Why It Won’t HappenNo ESG-related shareholder proposals pass in 2026 proxy seasonThreatening and complaining because you’re the victimAmazon investigating engineers who criticized AI data center expansionThis is literally three engineers exercising their rights as citizens and being discriminated against as a resultNY Amazon Driver Fired for Posting Pro-Union Content on Social MediaUS tech billionaire issues stark China warning: American companies have been ‘hollowed out’ by the Red DragonTrump Administration Tells Federal Employees to Wear “Freedom” Pins—Or ElseMark Zuckerberg Orders His Employees to Start Having Fun Again After Brutal Layoffs Culled Their ColleaguesWhile no one is looking, take everythingAt Tesla, Elon Musk Chooses To Exercise Options, Resulting In $110.55BJeff’s Dream Team: Bezos recruits world’s top architects to build most expensive mega mansion on Billionaire Bunker islandTrillionaire Elon Musk Makes $6.4 Billion Every Time SpaceX Stock Rises by $1825,806,452 minimum wage hours in OK - or 20.7m work weeks at 40 hours a week - or 397,000 worker yearsHeadliniest of the WeekDR: People don't trust AI. They do yearn for Lunchables: survey.MM: Mark Zuckerberg is a certified watch guy. His collection ranges from a $120 Casio to multimillion-dollar timepieces.Who Won the Week?DR: Japan: for holding everybody accountable MM: Casio - the $120 Casio is NOW ON SALE!  YOU CAN BE LIKE ZUCK FOR JUST $96PredictionsDR: Meta emulates Japan Airlines by taking away one of Zuck’s watches every time he lays off 10% of his workforceMM: Lunchables sells a watch

DAMIONCarnival Corporation's data breach exposed personal data of nearly 6 million customers: An April social engineering attack on an employee account compromised names, dates of birth, and government-issued ID numbers. WHO DO YOU BLAMESkills: Technology & Cybersecurity: Experience with information technology and cybersecurity matters is increasingly important to mitigate the risks our business faces, promote innovation and maintain a competitive edge in a rapidly evolving technological ageLeast represented 5/11CEO Josh WeinsteinNO: at Carnival since 2002, started as General CounselSir Johathon BandNO: First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff, the most senior officer position in the British Navy (2006 to 2009, when he retired); Admiral and Commander-in-Chief Fleet (2002 to 2006); Served as a naval officer in increasing positions of authority (1967 to 2002)Jason CahillyNO: CEO Dragon Group LLC, provides capital and business management consulting and advisory services worldwide; The NBA: CFO & Chief Strategic Officer; Goldman Sachs: Partner; Global Co-Head of Media and Telecommunications; Head of Principal Investing for Technology, Media & TelecommunicationsNelda ConnorsNO: CEO/Chair Pine Grove Holdings, a privately held investment company; CEO Atkore International, manufacturer of electrical, safety and infrastructure solutions; VP Eaton Corporation, electrical and automotive supplierLaura WeilNO: Founder Village Lane Advisory LLC, specializes in providing executive and strategic consulting services to retailers COO New York & Company, women’s apparel and accessories retailer; CEO Ashley Stewart, women’s apparel retailer; CEO Urban Brands, apparel retailer; COO AnnTaylor Stores, women’s apparel retailer; CFO American Eagle Outfitters, apparel retailerAudit Committee: Oversee management’s risk assessment processes to identify principal and emerging risks, including financial, IT, cybersecurity and non-HESS operational risksLaura Weil*: NOJason Cahilly: NOJeffrey Gearhart: NOWalmart Corporate Secretary and lawyerStuart Subotnick: NOCEO at Metromedia Company, wireless/communications, until 2010; Carnival director since 1987 Health, Environmental, Safety and Security Committee: Oversee management’s processes to identify principal and emerging health, environmental, safety, security and sustainability-related risks, including those related to ship operations and cybersecurity, RAAS health, environmental, safety, security audits, IAG and external investigations into significant ship incidents, and health, environmental, safety, security-related hotline complaints, and assess the steps management has taken to minimize such risks.Sir Johathon Band*: NONelda Connors: NOHelen Deeble: NOFormer CEO P&O Ferries Division Holdings, shipping and logistics businessKatie Lahey: NOExecutive Chair Korn Ferry Australasia, leadership and talent firmMicky Arison (75%): Exec Chair and former CEO and 7% stockholderThe CEO Pay Ratio1,063:124 retail CEOs made as much in a day as their typical employee earned in a year — and a big one didn't. WHO DO YOU BLAMEThe separation of CEO and Chair: Hamilton E. James Chair/Ron Vachris MMNot uniqueOnly 50% of the board is men. WTF?uniqueOne share = one voteNot uniqueState of HQ = WashingtonAlso StarbucksState of Inc = WashingtonAlso StarbucksPledge of allegiance to stakeholdersCostco generally has: Higher wages; Better benefits; Lower turnover; Higher sales per employee.Industry-leading employee compensation AND Self-imposed low-margin pricing philosophyWalmart only low-margin pricingOther comps:Todd Vasos of Dollar General, Shane O'Kelly of AutoZone, Gerald Morgan of Texas Roadhouse, Jack Sinclair of Sprouts Farmers Market, William Stengel of Genuine Parts Company, Michael Creedon of Dollar Tree, Ronald Sargent of Kroger, Lauren Hobart of Dick's Sporting Goods, Joshua Kobza of Restaurant Brands Inc., Kecia Steelman of Ulta Beauty, Scott Boatwright of Chipotle, Ted Decker of Home Depot, Bob Eddy of BJ's Wholesale Club, Corie Barry of Best Buy, James Conroy of Ross Stores, Chris Turner and David Gibbs of Yum Brands, Chris Kempczinski of McDonald's, Marvin Ellison of Lowe's, Brian Cornell of Target, Ernie Herrman of TJX Companies, Doug McMillon of Walmart, Brian Niccol of Starbucks, Hal Lawton of Tractor Supply Co, Laura Alber of Williams-SonomaFigma Gets an Activist Investor. Exhibit A on Why Companies Don’t Want to Go Public. Figma’s first year as a public company hasn’t gone well. Findell Capital Management said it needs to take steps to shed its unwarranted reputation as an artificial-intelligence “loser.” WHO DO YOU BLAME?Figma founder and CEO Dylan Field: Owns 10% of shares but 72% of voting power: Class B shares worth 15 votes per shareDylan owns 158 Class A Shares (or 0.00003556% of 444,278,887)And Chair$5B net worth$865M total summary compensation in 2025; $91M in 2024Nominating Agreement:Figma must nominate Dylan Field to be a director and include him in the proxy statementThe company must use its resources to back him up and actively convince other shareholders to vote for him In response to a question about how he was going to change the world, Dylan said he was going to build better software for drones.Bro fest sausage party2 of 9 directors are womenTop 5 NEOs all dudesPeter ThielForced Dylan to drop out of Brown for a dumb fellowshipVC Blowhardiness on the BoardVC dude John Lilly (Greylock): Lead Independent Director2nd longest tenure (2014)Member of the Audit Committee; Member of the Nominating Committee (only Lilly and Rimer)VC dude Andrew Reed (Sequoia)Director at debt-maker Klarna Group (also way down since IPO): down roughly 54% from its initial $40.00 IPO price, and down nearly 68% from its all-time highMember of the Compensation Committee (which modeled Dylan’s pay package after Elon Musk)VC dude Danny Rimer (Index Ventures)Director since 2014B.A. in History and Literature from HarvardMember of the Compensation Committee (which modeled Dylan’s pay package after Elon Musk)Member of the Nominating Committee (only Lilly and Rimer)Luis von AhnDuolingo co-founder and CEO2025: shared an internal email outlining Duolingo’s new "AI-first" strategy where Duolingo would “gradually stop using contractors to do work that AI can handle”Stated that "AI is a better teacher than humans" and that the future role of teachers would be reduced to providing "childcare."Blamed the controversy on a "lack of context" in his original statements"AI-First" memo goes viral: $389; today $118MATTDanone, Starbucks shine in methane-reduction rankingDanone is the only company in the group aligned with the Global Methane Pledge, an initiative backed by 150 countries that targets a 30 percent reduction in global levels of the gas by 2030. The French multinational also leads the pack in progress toward its target, having come close to hitting it five years ahead of schedule.WHO DO YOU CREDIT?Chair of the CSR committee Lise Kingo (9% influence), one of three directors tagged as merit directorsmaster’s degree in Responsibility & Business from the University of Bathbachelor degrees in Religions and Ancient Greek Artbachelor’s degree in Marketing and Economicscertificate as International Director from INSEADEx Novo Nordisk environmental affairs, internal audit, compliance, human resources, communication, branding and sustainabilityHelped create the UN SDGs and the UN Global CompactSomehow only bats 559 on carbon intensity (career) and 415 for scope 1/2 (career)Also, using deference metrics, the ONLY DIRECTOR tagged as fully independentEmployee rep member of the CSR committee Bettina Theissig (5% influence) and the employees of DanoneThe committee charter mandates employees get a say: At least two thirds of the CSR Committee must be independent, as defined by the AFEP-MEDEF Code. At least one Director representing employees must be a member of the Committee.In France (Danone’s domicile), the European Investment Bank found that French employees were the most aware of environmental issues - 82% of French employees said they were highly concerned about environmental issues, highest in EuropeLead Independent Director and chair of the Nom/comp committee who put together the comp plan, Valerie Chapoulaud-Floquet15% influence, second to the 18% influence CEO (democracy!!), got 99.16% shareholder approval in April (even as CEO got 89.73% approval and pay got 93.19% approval)20% of short-term pay and 30% of long-term pay is based on hitting sustainability targetsWhen you pay a CEO to do a thing, they are more likely to do a thingEx-CEO Emmanuel FaberOusted in 2021 by the board of directors and activist investors, he transformed Danone into an “enterprise a mission” (a French version of a B corp)Investors voted 99% in favor of the move and a year later ousted Faber, the board resigned, and the new board and CEO are basically moving back towards being environmental leaders because it paid offShort term share price laggedHe said in 2024 that nature is “at the core” of Danone, It took the stock 3 years from Faber’s ousting to return to Faber levels - and in the meantime, they were sued for plastics and emissionsIsn’t this HIS win?Current CEO Antoine de Saint-AffriqueBecause CEOGM Board Director Jonathan McNeill Stepping DownCEO of DVx Ventures. Ex COO at Lyft Inc. and ex president, Global Sales, Delivery and Service at Tesla, current director at Lululemon, GM director since 2022, on the Governance and Corporate Responsibility committee and Risk and Cybersecurity committee.We know that half of boards on average think someone on the board should be replaced - did the GM board not like McNeill?WHO/WHAT WOULD WE BLAME FOR PUSHING MCNEILL OUT?Outsider dude bro DRLet’s be honest, McNeill worked at much more… modern?... companies than GMThe board is OLD SCHOOL - ex Northrop Grumman, ex Visa, ex Lazard, ex HP, ex eBay, ex Novartis, ex Walmart, other directorships at Goldman, Huntsman, P&G… these are professional, insular boardsMeanwhile, he’s investing as a VC in AI, other auto/mobility startups, comes from boards that are bro founder lead (Tesla, Lyft) He’s invested in AI, crypto, heavy tech, intertwined with VCs all overNot deferential enoughBarra is connected to 94% - THE ENTIRE - boardMcNeill has the highest network power on the board at $9tn, higher than even Mary Barra (who is super connected), but is NOT a power player in the board community of GM - the dominant board communities for GM are massive blue chip US companies, where McNeill has deeper connections in smaller IT/tech focused companiesHe doesn’t need the pay, he gets nothing for the connections really, he has connection to Barra but his network is different - was he too independent?Pissed he doesn’t have enough influence McNeill has the LOWEST influence on the GM board at 4%He’s relatively new, younger, working as a VC where you have a lot of power of capital allocation“I don’t need this shit” effect?Too many womenMcNeill’s dvX ventures portfolio team is 6 dudes and 1 womendvX entire operations staff is two woman - guess what they do“Chief of Staff” (ie, HR)Executive Assistant (yes, listed on the team)Board is 2 women, 3 men (McNeill not on board)This one seems unlikely I guess?Too busy, meh, move onOne of dvX portfolio companies is curbee, with GM Ventures’ Kurt Baumgarten on the board (and the dvX co-founder is founder of Curbee)McNeill on at least 3 of his portfolio boards or advisory committees, plus LULU and GM… 

ESG StuffBP removes chairman Albert Manifold over governance issues 9The board said the decision was unanimous. In a statement, Amanda Blanc, BP's senior independent director, described the board as having been caught off guard by what it found: "The board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action."The company did not elaborate on the specific nature of the concerns.Ian Tyler has been named interim chair, BP said, with the board set to begin a formal process to identify a permanent successor: "The Board and leadership team have deep conviction in the strategic direction we have laid out, and the company is moving at pace to deliver it."Manifold took up the chairmanship just last October. At last month's annual general meeting, just 81.8% of shareholders backed his electionAmong the most consequential decisions of Manifold's short tenure: pushing out former CEO Murray Auchincloss and overseeing the selection of Meg O'Neill to succeed him — a hire that marked the first time BP had recruited an external CEO and the first time a woman had led one of the oil industry's largest players.Tulsi Gabbard Exit Marks Fourth Woman to Leave Trump Cabinet 0Apology TourBank boss sorry after describing workers as 'lower value human capital' 7Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters triggered a massive PR firestorm by describing the bank’s plan to replace back-office staff with automation as replacing "lower-value human capital" with financial investmentStandard Chartered is cutting roughly 7,800 jobs—representing about 15% of its global back-office corporate support roles—over the next four years to make room for AIAfter internal anger and blistering public criticism, Winters posted a formal apology for his "choice of words." However, he initially fueled the fire by attaching the full interview transcript to justify his broader context, drawing further criticism for being defensiveIn his first attempt to quiet the storm, Winters leaned heavily into the corporate strategy rather than apologizing for the specific phrasing: "I said that lower-value roles are more vulnerable to automation, and that we have a responsibility to help colleagues move into higher-value roles. That is what a responsible employer should do. We will continue to speak honestly about the impact of technological change, and we will continue to act responsibly in helping our people to adapt and succeed."After a barrage of negative comments on his first post, Winters returned to LinkedIn later that day to offer an explicit apology for his phrasing: "I have received a lot of support for the messages in my previous post but still get questions about my choice of words, which I know has caused upset to some colleagues. For that I am sorry.""I think the transcript makes it clear that I value our colleagues – all of them – most highly and that we are totally committed to helping them to cope with the accelerating pace of change in our industry."JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon says bank chief's viral AI comment was 'inartful' Dimon downplayed the viral backlash against Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters—who drew fire for saying his bank would replace "lower-value human capital" with technology—calling it an "inartful" slip-of-the-tongue from a friend.Neopbabies and Dropout babiesJames Murdoch to acquire New York Magazine and Vox Media Podcast Network -1Bolt CEO says he let go of his entire HR team for creating problems that didn’t exist: ‘Those problems disappeared when I let them go’ 6Bolt CEO Ryan Breslow justified firing his entire Human Resources department by claiming they actively manufactured internal frictionThe aggressive purge follows a brutal 97% collapse in Bolt’s valuation—crashing from an $11 billion peak in 2022 down to $300 millionTraditional HR has been entirely swapped for a skeletal "people operations" team, shifting the focus away from employee complaints and internal processes toward basic compliance training and empowering managers to make split-second decisionsAlongside gutting HR, Breslow rolled back employee-friendly benefits like four-day workweeks and unlimited PTO, claiming a culture of complacency had taken over and that 99% of his legacy workforce was simply unwilling to work hardRyan dropped out of Stanford in 2014 to launch BoltThe Middle School Boy Man Babies Rule the WorldMan Drives Cybertruck Into Lake to Test Elon Musk’s “Boat” Claims, and It Went About as Well as You’d Guess -10"The passengers abandoned the vehicle and the driver was arrested."Tesla CEO Elon Musk:randomly tweeted that the vehicle would function as a rudimentary flotation device.“It will even float for a while.”“[The vehicle would be able to] traverse at least 100m [330 feet] of water as a boat.”“Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy.”Jeff Bezos urges US government to stop taxing 50% of America — and claims doubling his taxes won’t help ‘that teacher in Queens' 400Jeff Bezos backs Mamdani's tax on luxury second homes, but says Ken Griffin isn't the villainJeff Bezos on Zohran Mamdani’s big mistake: ‘When you don’t know how to solve a problem, create a villain, blame them’Jeff Bezos says there is ‘no truth’ to the ‘buy borrow die’ tax strategyBillionaires Openly Use It: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison has historically pledged over $30 billion worth of his Oracle stock as collateral for personal bank loans. Elon Musk has similarly pledged tens of billions of dollars in Tesla shares to secure lines of credit over the yearsHe said he was "skeptical that that's a true loophole," but added, "If it is, and we can fix it, then we should. I don't think such a loophole should exist."Jeff Bezos Praises Trump’s Second Term as ‘More Mature’ Jeff Bezos Says AI Will 'Elevate' Workers — Despite Amazon's 30,000 Job Cuts Amid $100 Billion AI PushElon Musk compares his company’s work to that of Jesus 0In an interview on Monday, the billionaire said his Neuralink brain-implant company is progressing in its development of ‘Jesus-like technologies’Although brain-computer interface (BCI) as a concept has been around since at least the 1970s, the push to commercialize the technology is more recent. According to data from market-intelligence firm Tracxn, more than 130 BCI startups have been launched since 2016.Why Is Mark Zuckerberg Taunting His Employees Before Firing Them? 20Back in April, Meta announced it was laying off 10 percent of its workforce, or around some 7,800 workers. Unlike traditional layoffs, which are enacted relatively quickly, Meta gave its employees a nearly month-long warning period without announcing who exactly would be headed for the unemployment line.In newly leaked audio from an all-hands meeting at Meta, released by More Perfect Union, the Meta CEO seems to actually be taunting the thousands of workers who were about to be let go by pointing to how the company was harvesting employee data to train its in-house AI models ahead of the massive layoffs.“So we’re in a phase where basically the AI models learn from heaving real, from watching really smart people do things. And if you’re trying to get it to be able to be able to do certain capabilities, having [AI] be able to observe really smart people doing those things is, is very important.”Going on, Zuckerberg explained that it was better to train AI on soon-to-be-former Meta employees, rather than “contract companies.”“In general, the average intelligence of the people who are at this company is significantly higher than the average set of people that you can get to do tasks if you’re working through… contractors,” Zuckerberg stammered. “So if we’re trying to teach the models coding, for example, then having people internally, um, build tools that, or, or solve tasks that, um, that help teach the model how to code, we think is going to dramatically increase our models coding ability faster than what others in the industry have the capability to do.”Intuit to Cut 17% of Staff, Invest in ‘Big Bets’ 3The restructuring cost is estimated at about $300 million to $340 millionAbout 3,100 employees: and invest the savings in “big bets” as it makes artificial intelligence a centerpiece of its business.Woke WarsTexas AG Sues ISS Over ESG Considerations 0Texas AG Ken Paxton (in a senate race) is suing ISS for allegedly “misleading” customers by pushing “radical political agendas” through its proxy adviceNotably, ISS has attempted to obstruct ExxonMobil's planned reincorporation from New Jersey to Texas“ISS has enormous influence over how billions of dollars are invested and managed across this country, and they have abused that influence in order to push woke ideology”Iowa AG Brenna Bird sues ISS, says advice risks retirement savingsIowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is suing the world's largest proxy-advice firm for abusing its influence and threatening Iowans' retirement savings by "lying" to investors.Stakeholders Rule!Wells Fargo must pay $100M to help homebuyers after discrimination lawsuit — 51 cities are eligible 7The settlement, which was recently approved by a federal judge in California, comes after four years of legal disputes involving Wells Fargo shareholders, former employees and job applicants who accused the bank of systemic problems in both lending and hiring practices.While Wells Fargo denied wrongdoing, the company agreed to the deal to avoid prolonged litigation and mounting legal costs.The case centered on allegations that Wells Fargo’s board failed to maintain adequate oversight of the bank’s mortgage lending operations, exposing the company to regulatory scrutiny and accusations of discriminatory practices.According to reporting from Realtor.com, plaintiffs accused the bank of “widespread and systematic discrimination in lending” and cited concerns over lending algorithms and refinancing approval patterns.The lawsuit stated that Wells Fargo was allegedly the only major lender in 2020 to reject more refinancing applications from Black homeowners than it approved.Airbus, Air France Hit With Manslaughter Charges Over Pilot Training Failures in Deadly 2009 Flight 447 Crash 1A Paris appeals court delivered a dramatic verdict in one of the longest-running and most complex legal sagas in aviation history. The court overturned a 2023 acquittal and found both Airbus and Air France guilty of corporate manslaughter for the tragic 2009 crash of Flight AF447.The ruling marks a massive victory for the victims' families after a 17-year legal battle. A lower court had previously cleared the European planemaker and the French airline in 2023, ruling that while errors were made, a direct causal link to the crash couldn't be proven. The appeals court completely rejected that logic, declaring the companies "solely and entirely responsible" for the disaster.Ride-Share Drivers in Massachusetts Formally Unionize 100The App Drivers Union said it was the first organization in the country to be formally certified to represent drivers for apps such as Uber and Lyft.In a news release, the organization, the App Drivers Union, said it would represent nearly 70,000 workers in Massachusetts who now have the power to collectively bargain.MATTA very special “who do we blame for SpaceX IPO governance” gameFirst, some S-1 highlights:“Starlink internet is what’s being used to pay for humanity getting to Mars.” - MuskTranslation: We don’t care much about Starlink, it’s just paying our AI billsHe’s not kidding: $3.2bn revenue for Starlink, net income of $1.2m$0.6bn revenue for rocket ship, net income of -$0.6bn$0.8bn revenue for AI, net income of -$2.5bnThis isn’t a space company - it’s classic Musk - you buy the vision (“To build the systems and technologies necessary to make life multiplanetary, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”), but what you’re really buying is an internet company that spends all its money on AI and does some rockets on the sideLet someone else invent the car (Tesla) and make them sexy with “big visions” for “humanity”Let someone else invent the rockets, build new ones using someone else’s moneyLet someone else invent the satellites, put a whole bunch in space (and buy more satellites from someone else)Musk initially took the role of “Chief Engineer”, but every engineering task seems to have been the other employees - he supplied the moneyShoehorned AI into space exploration because…?Grok is designed as a truth-seeking AI model, built on our founder Elon Musk’s mission to enable humanity to understand the universe. We believe that accomplishing this mission requires a truth-seeking approach to AI. We define truth seeking as the active, relentless pursuit of what is objectively true about reality, and grounded in evidence, logic, empirical data, and first principles thinking.AI’s ability to revolutionize human potential is directly dependent on meeting exponentially increasing resource demands.We now must go to space to get more resources for AI so we can get to spaceNow the governance who do you blame gameMusk will get:85% voting power (dual class, he owns 94% of Class B 10 vote shares and 12% of Class A shares)The ability to nominate and vote exclusively on >50% of the boardA board which currently includes..TWO execs - Gwynne Shotwell (President) and Musk (three titles)Tesla mafia: Ira Ehreinpreis, Tesla board sycophant, director at the Boring Company and xAI, and longtime Musk hanger on, added Feb 2026Antonio Gracias, ex Tesla director who was explicitly called out in the Tornetta decision as corrupted, cross party transactions with Musk, on boards of Neuralink and Boring Company, added Oct 2010TWO VC bros from DFJ - Randy Glein (SpaceX board observer for 16 years, directors since Feb 2026) and Steve Jurvestson (former Tesla director, director since March 2009) who was ousted from the VC firm with his name on it for sexual harassmentPaypal mafia:Luke Nosek, co founder of PayPal, one of the founders of Founders Fund with Thiel and Ken Howery, invested in DeepMind, director since July 2008Donald Harrison - managed Google purchase of DeepMind, relationship with Nosek, director since Feb 2015Director relationship tenures to Musk: Shotwell: 24 yearsEhreinpreis: 21 yearsGracias: 21 yearsJurvetson: 17 yearsGlein: 16 yearsNosek: 26 yearsHarrison: 11 years (+1 if Nosek/Deepmind connection counts)Texas jurisdiction exclusively (judge shopped) - 3% to sue them, mandatory arbitration, anti-takeover statutes, special meetings ONLY CALLED BY MUSK (no one less than 50% of stock can call a meeting or vote)No written consent - no prior noticeAdvance notice bylaws for the zero shareholder proposals allowedFull omission of board liability - including a provision that automatically allows whatever the conflicts of interest they want with directorsWHO (WHEN) DO YOU BLAME?The US GovernmentDepartment of Energy - in 2010, the DoE gave Tesla a $465m loan, which basically paid for the Model S and helped it buy a factory 6 months before it went public - Musk has said Tesla would not have survived without the loanNevada - in 2014, Nevada gave Musk $1.3bn to build a factory, the most everNASA - spent more than $15bn over years on SpaceX and programs with themThe IRS/Congress - the EV tax credit for $7,500 single handedly pushed Tesla from losing money in 2020 to making money (they effectively got $1.6bn from the US government in 2020), and showing its first profit, which sparked the memefest during COVID and made Musk the richest man on earth - Musk then went on and called for an end to the tax credit since his “competitors” needed it more than Tesla.  Tesla made ~$11bn from tax credits aloneThe DoD - started paying SpaceX in 2003 for concept work - and even when the rockets didn’t work, the DoD and NASA awarded the company massive contracts anywayJeff Bezos said in 2016 that, “Elon’s real superpower is getting government money.”FOMOSpaceX LOSES MONEY - it does not make moneyIf it were a satellite internet company - and NOT THE FIRST - the first was HughesNet in 1996, and Viasat offered it in 2012 - it would make money ($1.2m in income!)Instead, investors are valuing SpaceX as THE LARGEST IPO IN THE HISTORY OF EVER despite the fact that they are burning money on AI, and arguably the worst AIIncluding spending the most on R&D, marketing, and acquisition of Cursor to make up for the fact that Grok suckedIn exchange for FOMO, investors have ENTIRELY GIVEN UP THEIR RIGHTSIt is 100% a private companyTornettaIf Tornetta hadn’t sued for Musk’s pay, would SpaceX be structured this way?The banks underwriting the dealWho AGREED TO BUY GROK as a term of getting the underwriting, because everyone bends the knee to moneyThe boardI guess

Story of the Week (DR):Trump is bringing Tim Cook, Elon Musk, and a dozen other CEOs to Beijing for his Xi summitTechnology & AIElon Musk – CEO, Tesla and SpaceXTim Cook – CEO, AppleJensen Huang – CEO, Nvidia (joined as a last-minute addition after a personal call from the President)Cristiano Amon – CEO, QualcommSanjay Mehrotra – CEO, Micron TechnologyDina Powell McCormick – President, MetaJim Anderson – CEO, CoherentFinance & InvestmentLarry Fink – CEO, BlackRockStephen Schwarzman – CEO, BlackstoneDavid Solomon – CEO, Goldman SachsJane Fraser – CEO, CitigroupAerospace & ManufacturingKelly Ortberg – CEO, Boeing (reportedly finalizing a massive 500-jet deal during the trip)Larry Culp – CEO, GE AerospacePayments & ServicesMichael Miebach – CEO, MastercardRyan McInerney – CEO, VisaAgriculture & BiotechBrian Sikes – CEO, CargillJacob Thaysen – CEO, IlluminaPaypal agrees to $30 million settlement with Trump's Justice Department over 'illegal DEI'The company launched a $530M Economic Opportunity Fund in 2020 for Black and underrepresented minority businessesDid not fight this in court, just surrenderedTo make the DOJ happy, PayPal had to ditch its race-based criteria; instead, it now funnels that financial support to veteran-owned businesses and companies in farming, manufacturing, or technology. A direct “black” to “white” transferAny company that launched a race-specific grant or loan program after 2020 is now officially in the DOJ’s crosshairs, and "social justice" is being litigated as "civil rights fraud."PayPal board:“Independent” chair David W. Dorman (2015-; 17%)member of the Dell Technologies BoardMichael Dell and Donald Trump are BFFs: Dell pledged $6.25B to Trump AccountsJonathan Christodoro (2015-; 13%): a disciple of billionaire Carl Icahn (former Managing Director at Icahn Capital), one of Trump’s oldest and most vocal alliesFounder PayPal Mafia Trump BFFs: Musk (DOGE), David Sacks (AI and Crypto Czar), Peter Thiel (JD Vance creator)Frank Yeary (2015-; 12%): Intel director since 2009 and chair since 2023It Was One of DOGE’s Most Absurd Abuses. A Court Finally Exposed ItThis whole saga centers on a major legal showdown between the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The case is a consolidated lawsuit (often called the NEH-DOGE lawsuit) filed in May 2025 by groups including the Authors Guild, the American Historical Association, and the Modern Language Association.  On May 7, 2026, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon issued a massive 143-page ruling. She essentially nuked DOGE’s attempt to defund hundreds of humanities projects, calling their process a "textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination."The AI Purge: Instead of a professional review, DOGE staffers (described in court as young "technologists" with no background in humanities) ran thousands of grant descriptions through ChatGPT.DOGE staffers—mostly described as 20-somethings with "zero experience in the humanities"—attempted to dodge government transparency laws by conducting official business on Signal with auto-delete enabled. The court found this was a blatant violation of the Federal Records Act, proving that "efficiency" is often just code for "avoiding a paper trail."The Woke Filter: They told the AI to flag anything related to "DEI." This backfired spectacularly when the AI flagged projects on Holocaust survivors, Appalachian history, and Italian-American archives simply because they used words like "identity," "culture," or "women."DOGE didn't actually read the grants they cut. Instead, they used ChatGPT and basic keyword searches to flag any program containing "incriminating" words like "history," "culture," "identity," or "BIPOC." If the AI thought it sounded "woke," the funding was axed—a move Judge Colleen McMahon called a "textbook example of unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination."In perhaps the most "mask-off" moment of the proceedings, it was revealed that DOGE staffers flagged and canceled a documentary about Jewish women’s slave labor during the Holocaust. The reason? Their AI-driven filter decided that focusing on "Jewish cultures" and "female voices" made it an illegal DEI program. Apparently, documenting Nazi atrocities is now "radical identity politics."The ruling highlighted a minor detail the administration seemed to forget: DOGE isn't a real government agency. The judge noted that DOGE had absolutely no lawful authority to terminate congressionally appropriated funds. They were essentially a group of private-sector bros playing President with the NEH checkbookThe Redirect: The court found that the $100 million "saved" wasn't actually returned to the Treasury. Instead, it was being funneled into the administration's own projects, like the "National Garden of American Heroes."Why Two Big Companies Just Cut Paid Family Leave MMFor the last decade, a tight labor market forced companies to compete for talent with generous perks. Now, with the job market cooling and employees having less leverage to quit, companies like Deloitte and Zoom are quietly rolling back benefits.Zoom, the company that became the face of remote work, has slashed its paid parental leave. Birthing parents saw their leave drop from up to 24 weeks to 18 weeks, while non-birthing parents were cut from 16 weeks down to 10.Deloitte is making deep cuts, but not for everyone. The reductions specifically target “Center” employees—the administrative, IT, and finance support staff who generally earn less—rather than the high-earning consultants. Their leave was halved from 16 weeks to just eight.Beyond just time off, Deloitte is axing its $50,000 reimbursement program for adoption, surrogacy, and IVF for these support roles.I Hate Working 5 Days': Zoom CEO Eric Yuan Says AI Could Shrink Workweeks To 3 Days In A Major Future ShiftGoodliest of the Week (MM/DR):DR: Chipotle CEO [Scott Boatwright] tells customers to ‘just ask’ if they want bigger portions after downsizing accusations: “You should ask for a little more ... We serve big, beautiful bowls and burritos. Full stop, no questions asked. If you want more, just ask the team member. I promise you there’s never a team member on that line that’s going to say no.” 886 to 1MM: Oil shortages DR MMBeer demand stumbles as gas prices surge, data showsI mean, isn’t this the double best?  Less idiots driving drunk AND less idiots DRIVING!Oil shortages are even hitting colored snack bagsUgly snacks, maybe less eating!Assholiest TRIGGERIEST of the Week (MM):Brett BlundyVictoria’s Secret unveils allegations against activist investor, loses board directorBlundy, Australian billionaire who launched Bras N Things, a classy establishment sold to Hanes, and currently chairs Lovisa, a fast fashion jewelry business, bought 13% of VS and thinks he can run it betterHe’s disappointed with VS acquisition of Adore Me (online retailer) and the drop in earningsMeanwhile, Lovisa’s 1Y market returns: -22% vs. ASX +4% TRIGGERED:Blundy, a fucking Australian billionaire blowhard, chairs LovisaLovisa board: Blundy, Mark McInnes (“deputy chair”), John Cheston (CEO), Bruce Carter, Tracey Blundy (wife), John Charlton, Sei Jin Alt (woman, Asian)Brett and Tracey own 40%+ of sharesZero merit directorsExec team: John, Mark, Victor, Chris - zero womenBlundy is targeting VS, whose board is…Donna James, Hillary Super (CEO), Irene Britt, Sarah Davis, Jacqueline Hernandez, Rod Little, David McCreight, Mariam Naficy, Lauren Peters, Anne SheehanExec team: 4 women, 1 manThis is the ultimate mansplain - some chest thumping billionaire walks into a room full of women, pushes them out, takes over… and this from the filing:“On November 13, 2025, members of the Board held a videoconference call with Mr. Blundy to inform him that the Board had determined, in accordance with its fiduciary duties, that appointing Mr. Blundy to the Board would not be in the best interests of VS&Co or its stockholders. In an effort to reach amutually agreeable resolution, the Board proposed collaborating with BBRC and Mr. Blundy on (i) adding one mutually-agreed new independent directornot affiliated with BBRC to the Board, (ii) Mr. Blundy’s participation in a review with the Board of the Company’s capital allocation, (iii) entering into alonger-term information sharing agreement and, in the context of a negotiated resolution with BBRC and Mr. Blundy, an agreement on customary standstill restrictions, and (iv) taking down the Rights Plan. After this call, the Board delivered to Mr. Blundy the following letter explaining its rationale for rejecting his candidacy and proposing a new framework for a mutually agreeable resolution:“The potential for significant reputational and legal risk to Victoria’s Secret arising from (1) your pattern of hiring executives with a history of serious allegations of sexual harassment or other misconduct, and (2) the reported and alleged instances of harassment and highly inappropriate employee policies that occurred under your oversight at companies you controlled or effectively controlled.The proxy should just say, “Australian white male billionaire who is cool sexually harassing women while selling them underwear wants to take over massive underwear store run by women”Elon Musk and Sam AltmanMusk first…Sam Altman Accuses Elon Musk of Laughing at Memes During Important OpenAI MeetingsMusk's China trip during OpenAI trial prompts apology from his lawyer for CEO's absenceTRIGGERED: This is the man child trillionaire we’re supposed to take seriously - does his mom fold his socks for him?  Does he eat Cheerios out of a frisbee for breakfast?  These are our male adult role models?Musk apparently was too busy for the trial, but during talks of absorbing OpenAI into Tesla, he wasn’t too busy to spend a long time forcing everyone to look at his fucking dopey idiot manboy memes that made him laughReminder time: Musk is in charge of who gets internet in military conflict (Starlink), gutted the government (DOGE), is trying to implant chips in brains (Neurolink), and used everyone else to get his billions (Tesla was bought, subsidized, SpaceX subsidies, Boring Company steals municipal money to dig holes…)Altman next…Sam Altman faces awkward grilling over 'toxic culture of lying'ChatGPT Told a 19-Year-Old How to Mix Drugs — His Mother Found Him Dead the Next MorningWHEN YOU PUT A SOCIOPATH AND MANCHILD IN CHARGE OF A WORLD DESTROYING DEVICE, IT TURNS OUT IT’S BADWarren Buffett DRPut the folksy “I’m just a guy eating a werther’s original candy making money” schtick aside, where he says they pick great management and let them do their thing - this is “their thing”:TRIGGERED: Electric Company Says It’s Cutting Off an Entire Town So It Can Sell All Its Power to Data CentersThere is so much to hate here:Tech billionaires building data centers for AI: checkNV Energy is wholly owned by Berkshire Energy which is owned by Warren Buffett: checkTrump appointed asshole running regulatory agency that represented utilities: checkThe town is Lake Tahoe - 50,000 residents have to find a new source of electricity in ONE YEAR because Buffett/Berkshire/NV Energy decided the re-route all energy to data centers for AIGoogle, Apple, MSFT all have facilities, 12 data center projects in Northern NevadaNevada would have to ask woke California to build hundreds of millions of dollars worth of transmission lines in a year to get to Tahoe, FERC would have to approve other changes (Chair Laura Swett, Trump appointee, represented electric utilities and the firm wrote pieces about the glory of data centers - one of the Amicus Briefs they wrote in 2024 was on behalf of… NV Energy)Of the fines issued by FERC this year, 99% are one company: an energy efficiency companySince Trump was elected, FERC has issued fines targeting blue state utilities and renewables at a more than 2:1 rateSo the people are fucked - maybe Warren can tell them to power their town on See’s Candy sugar rushesHeadliniest of the WeekDR: Kids with fake mustaches can fool high-tech age verification systemsMM: Waymo recalls 3,800 robotaxis after glitch allowed some vehicles to 'drive into standing water'Who Won the Week?DR: Steve Roth, the CEO of Vornado Realty Trust, expressed his support for fellow billionaire and the Citadel CEO Ken Griffin: “I must say that I consider the phrase tax the rich — quote tax the rich — when spit out with anger and contempt by politicians both here and across the country, to be just as hateful as some disgusting racial slurs”MM: Lawyers - literally everything now is a lawsuit and everyone is a lawyer. PredictionsDR: NYC Mayor Mahmdani asks Steve Roth for “just little more” and Roth replies: “I’m not a fucking Chipotle, commie scum.”MM: Chili's CEO wakes up at 5 a.m., runs daily, and uses that time to generate ideas for the business: On a run next Thursday, May 21, Chili’s CEO Kevin Hochman stops short and says out loud, “What if the Big Crispy Chicken Sandwich was BIGGER???”