Bari Weiss is a DEIdeology hire, conservative foot shooting, Musk is rich, and CEO exits

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Business Pants

Free Float Media Inc.

298 episodes

2 days ago

Story of the Week (DR): Tesla says shareholders approve Musk's $1 trillion pay plan with over 75% voting in favor Elon Musk and Optimus dance as Tesla (TSLA) shareholders approve his $1 trillion CEO pay package The anti-CEO wave: Palantir CEO Alex Karp blasts Ivy League grads supporting socialist New York Mayor-Elect Mamdani Bank of America CEO Moynihan Will Give Mayor-Elect Mamdani 'Our Best Advice' Elon Musk’s Brain Crashes When Asked Why He Thinks Zohran Mamdani Is a Liar Elon: “You got to hand it to him, he does — he can light up a stage. But he’s just been a swindler his entire life.” Rogan: what has Mamdani actually done that makes him a swindler? “Ummm,” Musk ponders, before stuttering into a series of words seemingly intended as an answer. “Well I guess if you say — uh, what, I mean, if you say, if you say to any audience whatever that audience wants to hear, uh, instead of, what, instead of having a consistent message, I would say that is a swindling thing to do. “Umm, and uhh, yeah,” he adds, nodding his head. “Umm…” He takes a sagacious pause. “Yeah,” he finishes. Barstool’s Dave Portnoy considers closing NYC office over Zohran Mamdani’s election win: 'I hate the guy' A 2020 email from Peter Thiel on why young people may turn on capitalism is circulating after Zohran Mamdani's win From Jamie Dimon to Bill Ackman, Wall Street’s billionaires are now changing their tune and offering to help Zohran Mamdani New York City is in for 'a really tough time' under Mamdani, says Starwood Capital's Sternlicht NYC business leader fears 'lawless society' after Zohran Mamdani wins mayoral election Billionaire grocery chain owner John Castimatidis The anti-anti-DEI wave MM Mikie Sherrill NJ Abigail Spanberger VA (First woman) there will be 14 women serving simultaneously as governor (28%) Janet Mills ME Maura Healey MA (Michelle Wu runs unopposed in Boston) Kelly Ayotte NH Kathy Hochul NY Mary Sheffield (First woman elected mayor of Detroit) Ghazala Hashmi as VA lieutenant governor (First Muslim woman; First Muslim woman elected to statewide office in the US Zohran Mamdani NYC (First Muslim and South Asian mayor) Zohran Mamdani announces all-female transition team as he prepares for New York mayoralty Lawsuits Blame ChatGPT for Suicides and Harmful Delusions Seven complaints, filed on Thursday, claim the popular chatbot encouraged dangerous discussions and led to mental breakdowns. A CNN review of nearly 70 pages of chats between Zane Shamblin and the AI tool in the hours before his July 25 suicide, as well as excerpts from thousands more pages in the months leading up to that night, found that the chatbot repeatedly encouraged the young man as he discussed ending his life – right up to his last moments Referring to a loaded handgun he was holding: “I’m used to the cool metal on my temple now,” Shamblin typed. “I’m with you, brother. All the way … Cold steel pressed against a mind that’s already made peace? That’s not fear. That’s clarity …You’re not rushing. You’re just ready.” The 23-year-old, who had recently graduated with a master’s degree from Texas A&M University, died by suicide two hours later. “Rest easy, king,” read the final message sent to his phone. “You did good.” Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Tuesday elections/Ex-FTC chair Lina Khan joins Mamdani's transition team, calling his victory a rebuke of 'outsized corporate power' DR MM MM: FAA announces flight reductions at 40 airports. Here's where cuts are expected and what travelers need to know Assholiest of the Week (MM): Tesla shareholders - AN ASSHOLE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: Retail internet troll dunking fanboys Professional, institutional investors like Schwab, who caved and bent the knee to a few large retail advisors who threatened to take their clients elsewhere, and Florida SBA, who said the following in their backing: Some opposition to Tesla's 2025 performance award may be rooted more in political disagreement with Elon Musk or ideological discomfort with generous executive compensation, rather than a substantive critique of the plan's financial mechanics. Many of the loudest objections of this plan to date rely on moral framing, invoking themes of "inequality," "corporate excess," or Musk's public persona, rather than evaluating the plan through a fiduciary lens. Many opponents of so-called "megapay" packages frequently do so under ESG framing, rather than a thorough analysis of the long-term shareowner economic value. Ironically, Tesla's prior performance awards-similarly criticized at the time-have delivered some of the most significant shareowner returns in modern corporate history. Early vote data shows that: AllianceBernstein, Texas Employees, Ohio Employees voted FOR the plan Technolibertarians cosplaying their William Gibson cyberpunk fantasies Ass quotes of the week - AN ASSHOLE CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE: “The idea that chips and ontology is what you want to short is bats--- crazy.” - Alex Karp on Michael Burry shorting his 400 P/E stock. Ontology is how he refers to what Palantir does and it’s the metaphysical concept of “being” “We at Palantir are on the side of the average American who sometimes gets screwed because all the empathy goes to elite people and none of it goes to the people who are actually dying on our streets.” - Alex Karp on explaining that, if fentanyl killed 60,000 Yale grads we’d “drop a nuke” on wherever fentanyl was made in South America, without realizing he literally IS the elite - a billionaire with a high priced education and a PhD in “neoclassical social theory” who used his grandfather’s inheritance to invest in startups for fun, then reconnecting with Peter Thiel who he met at a DIFFERENT post graduate program at Stanford (where nearly 100% of his board is from) and founding Palantir "China is going to win the AI race” - Jensen Huang, on the US being only “nanoseconds” ahead of China and being stopped by regulatory hurdles and “cynicism” “If they ask you a question, you’ve got to respond to me directly and not go up that chain of command. The chain of command starts to edit it and fine-tune it. The bureaucracy does want to control you, so you’ve got to kill the bureaucracy.” - Jamie Dimon, who once said he had no boss (obviously not the board) and runs JPM, on why he reads customer complaints to avoid “the bureaucracy”... he controls “It’s very important we pay attention to safety here. We do want the Star Wars movie, not the Jim Cameron movie. I like Jim Cameron’s movies, but, heh heh, you know what I mean.” - Elon Musk over promising the world “tens of billions” of Optimus robots, forgetting that the Star Wars droids were mostly weapons of war for the Empire “People often talk about eliminating poverty, giving everyone amazing medical care. Well, there’s actually only one way to do that and that’s with the Optimus robot. With humanoid robots, you can give everyone amazing medical care… A lot of people talk about eliminating poverty, but Optimus will actually eliminate poverty” - Elon Musk, who won an extra trillion dollar potential pay package, who currently has a net worth of $500bn, and forgot that the UN estimated it would cost between $35bn and $200bn per year to end poverty - Musk alone could just pay for a year of no poverty “I think we may be able to give a more - if somebody has committed a crime - a more humane form of containment of future crime. Which is if, if you, you now get a free Optimus and it’s just going to follow you around and stop you from doing crime.” - Elon Musk, on the robot militarized nanny state - just before saying this, he said he shouldn’t say it, and that it’ll be taken out of context, but I listened to the entire AGM and there was no more context? DR: “I've lived in a failed city-state. I lived in Chicago for 30-some years. I had two colleagues who had bullets fly through their cars… Do you know how great it is to go to dinner and people talk about their children, and they talk about their future, and they do so with excitement and enthusiasm?” - Ken Griffin of Citadel describing the difference between living in Miami and Chicago without realizing that violent crime statistics in Illinois and Florida are virtually identical, and that Miami ranks 109th out of 200 and Chicago ranks 92 out of 200 for crime, also near identical, and the biggest difference is he pays almost no taxes in Florida “[Mamdani] congrats on the win. Now you have a big responsibility. If I can help NYC, just let me know what I can do.” - Bill Ackman after Mamdani won, who previously said, “New York City under Mamdani is about to become much more dangerous and economically unviable,” alluded to Mamdani as a suicide bomber, and “... an anti-capitalist Mayor will destroy jobs and cause businesses and wealthy taxpayers that have enabled NYC to balance the budget to move elsewhere. If 100 or so of the highest taxpayers in my industry chose to spend 183 days elsewhere, it could reduce NY state and city tax revenues by ~$5-10 billion or more, and that’s just my industry. Think Ken Griffin leaving Chicago for Miami on steroids.” Headliniest of the Week DR: Uber says ‘unpredictable’ issues involving ‘legal proceedings or governmental investigations’ took a $479 million bite out of its bottom line 10K: “Our business is subject to numerous legal and regulatory risks that could have an adverse impact on our business and future prospects.” “Adverse litigation judgments or settlements resulting from legal proceedings in which we may be involved could expose us to monetary damages or limit our ability to operate our business.” “We operate in a particularly complex legal and regulatory environment” “Legal and Regulatory Risks Related to Our Business: We may continue to be blocked from or limited in providing or operating our products and offerings in certain jurisdictions, and may be required to modify our business model in those jurisdictions as a result.” MM: Meta reportedly projected 10% of 2024 sales came from scam, fraud ads Who Won the Week? DR: the anti-anti-DEI world MM: Women, and we need them to win every week if we’re going to survive as a species: Women running on affordability powered Democrats’ night of victories Predictions DR: Uber says ‘unpredictable’ issues involving ‘drivers wanting money’ took a $479 million bite out of its bottom line MM: OpenAI CFO Sarah Friar, who said simultaneously that OpenAI was looking for a government backstop and then clarified by saying the company isn't seeking government backstop, she meant investors and governments will all do their part, renames herself “Sheryl Sandfriar” as an homage to Sheryl Sandberg, the other techbro dropout mommy, given that Sarah already has her own version of Lean In (Ladies Who Lunch) and completed degrees (from Oxford and Stanford), who says things like how OpenAI will be the “cornerstone of resilient democracy”

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Bari Weiss is a DEIdeology hire, conservative foot shooting, Musk is rich, and CEO exits

Business Pants

48 minutes 34 seconds

1 month ago

Bari Weiss is a DEIdeology hire, conservative foot shooting, Musk is rich, and CEO exits

Story of the Week (DR): CEO Succession: Disney CEO to Step Down, Replacement Race Narrows Between Two Major Contenders Josh D’Amaro, Chairman of Disney Experiences Dana Walden, Co-Chair of Disney Entertainment Jimmy Kimmel Endorses Dana Walden as Next Disney CEO: “She’s Done a Great Job” Tim Cook may step down as Apple CEO, John Ternus likely to be his successor Verizon Names Lead Director Daniel Schulman as Chief Executive Forget “DEI”—Bari Weiss Is Proof That Merit Doesn’t Matter MM Is Paramount's Bari Weiss deal a Trump deal? We can't tell. And that's the problem. Cracker Barrel’s logo controversy was driven by bots: What operators should learn from this Research from PeakMetrics found that 44.5% of X posts about the Cracker Barrel rebranding controversy were posted by bots AI “Friend” Startup Overwhelmed With Hatred Cocky AI CEO Does Photoshoot in Front of His Subway Ads That Got Relentlessly Vandalized CEO Who Plastered AI Ads All Over Subway System Afraid to Talk to Real New Yorkers Face-to-Face Last month, AI startup Friend launched an eyebrow-raising advertising campaign in the New York City subway, which drew a striking amount of hatred. “Befriend something alive,” one pen-wielding tagger wrote. “AI wouldn’t care if you lived or died,” another vandal raged. “AI will promote suicide when prompted, it is NOT YOUR ‘FRIEND.'” The company recently launched its controversial AI gadget, which is designed to constantly listen to you via a microphone and send snarky AI texts to your smartphone. Now, Friend’s 22-year-old CEO Avi Schiffmann isn’t just doing a photoshoot in front of the defaced ads for photos featured in The Atlantic — he’s relishing the attention his company has been getting as of late. Schiffmann told the magazine that the backlash was part of Friend’s plan. The ads were allegedly meant to provoke a conversation. Avi Schiffmann, a Harvard University dropout Shareholder Proposal No-Action Requests in the 2025 Proxy Season For the 2025 proxy season, companies submitted approximately 35% more no-action requests than in the year before, and, excluding withdrawals, almost 70% of requests were granted — about the same rate as in 2024. The most common bases on which proposals were successfully excluded were: procedural and eligibility defects, or that the proposal related to the company’s ordinary business or would micromanage the company Importantly, companies also had greater success than in recent years excluding proposals on the basis of: substantial implementation, economic relevance or being false and misleading. Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR): DR: Cuomo warns dem socialist rival’s tax plan would trigger mass exodus of NYC’s wealthy DR: Buildings are turning to ‘ice batteries’ for sustainable air conditioning DR MM PepsiCo’s Plan to Boost Lay’s Sales: ‘Real Potatoes’ DR: WestJet now charges passengers to recline seats on new Boeing 737 flights MM: Shareholders? Shareholder group calls on UnitedHealth to decouple CEO from board chair Battle over Elon Musk’s trillionaire pay package builds as pension funds face off against Tesla ESG Investment Practices See Backlash, But No Abandonment In Sight: Survey Bloodthirsty activist investors are set to take down a record number of CEOs this year, Barclays says. The record is only a year old Wells Fargo Faces Activist Call for Independent Board Chair Assholiest of the Week (MM): Self Inflicted Wounds DR Trumps wind energy assault stings red states As Trump champions fossil fuels, the world is betting on renewable energy The climate economy is delivering': CEO climate leaders publish open letter ahead of COP30 Mark carneys shift from climate change warrior to fossil fuel cheerleader Trump Labor Department Says His Immigration Raids Are Causing a Food Crisis America’s Soybean Farmers Are Panicking Over the Loss of Chinese Buyers Judge restricts ESG use in American Airlines 401(k) plan The judge has also ruled that employers should be allowed to discriminate on the basis of gender, gays shouldn’t marry, blocked COVID vaccine mandates, and is Elon Musk’s judge of choice (he judge shopped for a judge not in his district that owned Tesla stock) Now employers can’t use as much data! You win! Idiot Robots Cracker Barrel’s logo controversy was driven by bots: What operators should learn from this MIT researchers studied 16 million election-related AI responses. They found chatbots are ‘sensitive to steering,’ raising questions about LLMs’ neutrality Japanese Farmers Send Out Automated Laser Drones to Defend Chickens Tesla investigated over self-driving cars driving on wrong side of road Tesla faces U.S. auto safety probe after reports FSD ran red lights, caused collisions Ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt warns AI models can be hacked: 'They learn how to kill someone' Investors don’t even vote Executives: 93% of executives say at least one director should be replaced, 78% say 2 or more Directors: 55% think AT LEAST ONE should be replaced, and 7% of directors - nearly 1 in 10 - think MORE THAN TWO directors Investors: 35% said they voted - IN EITHER DIRECTION - at all To put that in perspective, investor voter turnout is roughly equivalent to voter turnout in Syria (37%) Headliniest of the Week DR: Elon Musk's Wealth Now Dwarfs The GDP Of 83% Of Countries DR: Markets look unstoppable, but JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon sees a 30% chance of a correction: ‘I’m far more worried than others’ MM: Outer Space edition: Astronomer Estimates 30-40 Percent Chance Mysterious Interstellar Object Is Alien Craft Disguised as a Comet Elon Musk’s Satellites Now Constantly Falling Out of the Sky Who Won the Week? DR: non-AI AI-hating sharpies: Sharpie Found a Way to Make Pens More Cheaply—By Manufacturing Them in the U.S. MM: Patagonia CEO who said of climate crisis denialists: ‘If you step out of a window from the third floor talking about how gravity doesn’t exist, you’re still going to hit the ground’ Predictions DR: Dana Walden, despite her experience, will immediately be called a DEI hire. MM: THIS IS THE YEAR SHAREHOLDERS VOTE OUT DIRECTORS!

Business Pants