BP’s bully pulpit, index funds hate your rights, Dell buys a contract, and baby name lies

Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on. Live. Live from your d deeply stained and crumbled copy of Responsible Investor. Come on, get it, get it, get it, get it. Why'd you crumble it? It's a Businessman's Friday show here at May 29th Studios featuring analyst Helmat Muscard. Is Responsible Investor a magazine? Is that a newspaper? Good, let's just say it is. On today's weekly wrap up, BP Board ousts a bully who makes his own coffee. 80,000 rideshare drivers in Massachusetts changed their name to Jimmy Hoffa and wokewashing tech bros. Well, well. It used to be a magazine. I now I don't think so, yeah. Feel sad if your section is always a downer. You could change it. Our show today is being sponsored by Freeflow Analytics and Freeflowanalytics.com, the only platform measuring board power connection performance for free. Well, I mean you could change your section. You could do the I mean the tri you sometimes you do the most trigger yes, but that's still kind of the same, isn't it? Well, I yeah, why is why do I get assigned the downer section? Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is. Let me ask you, if I changed my section, would there be just public joy at the but from our listeners for No. I got a text from a friend who was listening to our show this week and all he said was Muscardie's on a rant. And I was like, Well that's which show is that? Yeah. No, I don't know. I mean someone I don't know. Sometimes I wander around I wander around and I'm like, how come more people aren't ranting? But maybe they are. That defines the shows, doesn't it? I gotta really stop. I don't know how to stop it. I don't know how to stop it. I mean, like it feel like if everyone knew what was happening, everyone would be equally as agitated. So I'm just trying to channel that. That's all. Well, actually I channeled that this week in the story of the week. I actually tried to take a more a mellower approach. Let's do it. Let's do it. okay. Well let's get to it. Let's do that. Let's do the do the story of the week. Ba da da da da hu let's go. I tried, I tried. I tried. Let's start with some good old fashioned corporate governance. BP ousts chair Albert Albert Manifold over serious governance oversight concerns. Now B BP is they're always at it. They're always getting rid of somebody, right? The this is the fourth abrupt top-tier departure in three years. Beyond petroleum. So Chair Helga Lund was kicked out. CEOs Bernard Looney and Murray Oceancloss gone. This this is a wonderful mess over at BP. A delightful mess. Ian Taylor is stepping up to be interim chair. So have fun with that. and let's not forget that the current CEO is Meg O'Neill, the first external hire ever at BP, and the first woman to lead a oil giant. So I don't know what's coming for her. Who knows? But here's the background. The board said that it was surprised and disappointing to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action. And then later we we learned that through internal leaks and a whistleblow blower report, that there was a pattern of aggressive, b verbally abusive and bullying behavior toward multiple colleagues. alongside accusations that Albert was withholding info from the board and leaking privileged data. Now this basically sounds like why they fired Sam Altman, but let's not get into Sam Altman. No, that's not why they fired Sam Altman. They fired Sam Altman 'cause he was a big fat liar. Just to just that. Big fat liar. Go ahead. No, let's not guess let's not. You went right into it. so here I'm gonna give you the I love the comeback of Albert Manifold. This is a be this is a wonderful comeback. Of course, I love when people say this as an excuse. At no point this is a quote, all quotes. At no point in my tenure as chairman of VP has anyone raised with me any issue about my conduct or my relationship with my colleagues. So Does that mean he didn't do it? No one looked at me and said, You're an asshole and I hate you and stop bullying me. No one did that. But then but then he conceded he may have quote pushed hard and challenged people directly end quote. So if if you're admitting that, that's it, right? You basically are a jerk. and then let me go on to say what he all what he also said, and this is like the great this is like the defense of a murderer, right? Of a first time murderer. Albert said such accusations had not been previously made about his behavior during his forty year career. So right? Okay. It's like he wasn't caught as a murderer for forty years? Is that what you mean? Yeah. It can't be real if it's never yeah, right. Right, so I mean it's not how he couldn't so I mean that's the proof that he couldn't have done it, right? and then and and then he went into this speaking of a Muscardi rant, and then he went into this weird tangential rant. clearly I I don't know if he's trying to like throw BP executives and board members under the bus for being too posh and suggesting that that's why they got rid of him. But he said he that he was that he called out unnecessary or excessive expenditure, but that everyone else didn't share his priorities. So so he was walking around telling them like, hey, you're you're you're you too much. And so he said he's he said, and again, this is all stuff that he released in a comeback and a memo, he said he, Albert, turned down many of the benefits traditionally enjoyed by top executives, which he called a culture of entitlement, including chauffeur driven cars, You're spending too much money. You're just Being flown by private jet or taking advantage of corporate hospitality, quote, this is the I love this. I had no interest in having a dedicated chauffeur driven limousine at my beck and call on the occasions that I was in London. I, like most people, walked, took taxis, trains, etc. I had no interest in taking private aviation, nor in availing myself of corporate tickets for sports events. He's a populist. I made my own coffee, bought my lunch in the local cafe. I'm pretty sure there's more there's more than one local cafe in London. I sat in a small office eschewing the grand corner office privilege of previous chairman. I love this guy. I love it. What a great comeback. Yeah. Got it! Yeah I so look, isn't there isn't there two possible realities here? One possible reality is that everybody on the B the BP board has sucked for a long time. I mean we can just concede that, right? Go ahead. Yeah, but they are true, but they're it's they keep the turnovers high, like yeah. That's what I I mean, the the board is turning over because they suck, the C executives are turning over, everybody's turning over there, right? Like so I don't know what long culture of B P he thinks exists because nobody's been there for that long. They've been there for like seven minutes. But they could all be woke snowflakes, right? Like, you know, they could just be I feel bullied and it's all about feelings and whatever. Or or Constantly. Maybe. What does it take for a board to throw out its its chair that has been there for one year? That is a really extreme move. And r and remember, he got eighteen percent no vote at the last annual election and everyone called that a massive rebuke against manifold. Massive. So either it's a as a couple of woke snowflakes on the board of BP or literally no one likes this guy. No one likes this guy and it's so extreme they actually had to fire him. Which one do we think it is? investors put their bony elbow, right? I think it's I think investors wanted to get rid of and I think they f they they just found I I've I've always been I've always been convinced that like when we used to work at the mothership, I I that that they weren't necessarily looking at your day to day, you know, actions and like what where you're surfing and all that, but they were keeping a log just in case they needed to fire you. And then they just be like, Yeah, we don't like how often you go to Macy's dot com or whatever. You're like you're I think yeah, they made up a pretense they wanted him gone. Yeah, I think that's right. So just you know, so I think that's the same thing with Albert. They were just taking notes and being like, This jerk makes his own coffee and he's always yelling at a chair and I I don't know what he's doing, but I I I I don't know. I d do I do I believe that the culture at BP th thought he was too much of a bully? I I don't believe there aren't hundreds of executive bullies at that place. I don't believe it. So I think investors wanted him out because they want everyone out because Hopefully the chair's empty. Yeah, I don't believe it either. No one's ever comfortable at this place. In fact, I I looked at the board trying to decide who to blame, because th there's been four people who've left in three years, but there's only three directors who've been there for longer than three years. And and one of them is the senior independent director, Dame Amanda Blanc, but but again, like this board is so new. It's just hard to put your finger anywhere. It's a it's a fascinating situation. I and I love his comeback. I love it. I yeah. I mean I I make my own coffee. That means I'm not a jerk too. I'm just like five a day. Yeah, I'm definitely not a jerk. Yeah, I make it constantly, and I'm pretty sure I am a jerk, so. all right, that's the first story. Second story gets a little less fun, but I I had to include it. I had to. Dell wins a ten billion dollar Pentagon software deal after donating to Trump accounts. This story sucks. So the the last time I looked at the stock. Michael Dell alone has added thirty six billion dollars to his pocket because the stock the stock is shooting up. and let's let's not forget that in this big like broy, bromancy, dumb press release of a of a We're so great tour. Remember, he pledged six billion dollars to Trump accounts. I I I mean, again, pledged. I mean let's not let's not forget that Bezos' Earth Fund. What a trade. Yeah. So pledge a bunch of money and they they keep reporting that that money has never actually come. So Well, this the six billion dollars, let's say, let's say it goes. The here's the amazing thing about it. First of all, it's a donation, which means it's it's a tax write-off, right? Right. So, and and and then he as a result, because everything's a quid pro quo with the administration, makes personally thirty-six billion dollars. He made thirty billion dollars. Let's say he actually spends it. Probably a tax write off, right? Yeah. Or yeah, maybe more. I haven't looked at the price, yeah. By effectively donating six billion and writing it off from the taxes. So And that's what the friendship was all about. And that's what that deal that's what the the Trump account thing was all about. We all knew it. I mean I mean just in t taxes saved. Let's say he cashed out the you know the the upside, which you won't do, but let's say he he he cashed it out because all these people do is they borrow against their equity and and they don't have to pay taxes at all. But let's just say for the fun he j he cashed out everything and he made the extra thirty six billion dollars. He takes that down by six billion. He's saving if he's charge you know, charged Right. twenty percent in cap gains, which he's not. He's saving billions of dollars already. Everything's a win. It's all a win. sucks. A and this is what really infuriates me. This I think this I think this is one of the reasons why I keep doing this show is I'm I'm I'm trying Yeah, why? Because it's like we're we're trying to to chip away at the protected class. We're trying to warn people of this protected class, but Michael Dell, it wasn't that long ago that the company got caught they call it the Intel cookie jar scandal. So As we try to figure out why we do this show. Dell was telling investors that its high profits were due to how great it was, basically. But really secretly, it was getting money from Intel so that they would not sell to AMD. They were they were basically Intel was trying to crush AMD, so they were giving secret payouts to Dell saying don't get don't work with them. the SEC found out back when the SEC used to do something, Dell had to pay $100 million. And I'm only raising this because This i only in this world do you pull shit like that and not only do you survive, but you thrive. Like there's th there's just nothing you can do to get that should be a disqualifying event. I don't know, you're lying about profits, you're I i but there's just you can't chip away at these people's power. You just you c there's nothing and not to mention our next story, which proves that I I don't know if if anything can be can be done anymore. But let me you have anything else to say about Dell? I'm gonna quickly move on. No. No, I don't care about Dell. I hate them. I'm not buying a Dell computer anymore. And I don't know how much you want to spend on this next story. you you did a good job covering this on our Tuesday show, and I know Ann Lipton covered it on her show, Shareholder Primacy. so I I didn't provide many more details here. If you want to talk about it, go ahead. But I I am including it as a story of the week. SpaceX's unconventional corporate arrangements favor Elon Musk, of course. But I will say that There's a pension fund in in in Denmark, which is proving something very easy, is that you don't have to you don't have to be involved with Elon Musk. The headline today is that they're rejecting the IPO overvaluation and governance concerns. You don't have to invest in this jerk. Why? Go ahead. Well, you do actually because all of the index providers and the exchanges are changing the rules such that you can fast track adding SpaceX to the index. But w why do you Yeah. But you can fight against that. You can fight against anything. You could, but the the so here's the problem. In this country in particular, but everywhere, every one of these investors is basically a massive index investor. They're so large that they own the entire markets of most of the world, right? Like they own everything. And if they make a choice to invest in an index that excludes, say, SpaceX, OpenAI, anthropic, overvaluation concerns and like or governance concerns, which Yeah, I won't we don't have to go through the guard. It's it's a fucking nightmare, right? Like we w we don't need to if you are you only buy it if you are just gambling on the cult of Musk. That's it. It is purely a gamble. In fact, they don't even make rockets that make money, they make satellites that give you internet, which Viasat did in nineteen ninety-six. So they don't do anything new. Not in the way they make money. You are simply betting on Musk. You're simply saying God, I love that guy. I wanna just give him my money and I don't care if he loses it. But when is it when is enough enough? I mean w w w when is our when is our investor culture gonna like start making decisions based on where they want the world to go? Well, yeah, I get the retail culture doing that. I don't get investors doing that at all. I don't understand it even a little bit. But let's say like you the governance concerns alone are a problem for you and you have no rights. It's a private company. They're taking your money. They're e you literally have no rights. You there's not a single right that you have at this company. You can't even elect the board, right? Like, it I mean but but but what about the moral issues of creating like a empire, an emperor? I I I w what are we doing? We're we're we're like crowning the king of the universe here. But the investors' hands are are partially tied because they own so much of the market that if they choose to exclude SpaceX, you are making an active choice that you can get sued for because they're in Denmark and it's a smaller pension fund. If like CalPers decided we cannot participate in the SpaceX IPO, we will not invest in an index that has it on it. I agree with you that that that is the like the right thing. I don't I don't they're the hand their hands are not tied. They're not tied. Dane the Why can a Danish pension fund do it? Why can a Danish pension fund do it? 'Cause they have different rules over there? Okay, well I don't care. They should. They should decide. Decide. Yeah. Enough is enough. This should this should be the tipping point of of of like g going back to the drawing board and and reassessing h how we're like how how we're treating capital and how we're dealing with the future. I I you know, something has gotta change. I mean something 'cause it it was never really about this. W we never had trillionaires really? Well then And it's what investors should be doing, but It it always was about this. Yeah, no, it was always about protecting the capital class. Like when you replaced slavery with capitalism, right? Like, which wasn't a one to one replacement, and it it's like capitalism existed long before you know, slavery in different forms, whatever. But the point is when you effectively took the ownership class and you've constantly said you can no longer be an ownership class of a thing. Whether it's an enslaved population or landowners or vote owners, right? Like in the federal democracies, like whatever version we know of, they just go and own something else. And now we're at peak capitalist ownership, in which not a single investor or you know, retail investor, regulator, or exchange cares that it's dictatorships. They are pure. Private companies taking your capital that you're just gambling. It's a pure dictatorship. There's no valuation. There's no nothing. It's a protected class. I mean we're so we're so far from the model of like w what a public corporation is is meant to be, we're so f I c we're so far away from that. I mean we thought we thought Snap was egregious, which it was, by the way. I no voting shares, horrible. But I'm saying but this this this is I mean I all right, let's move on. It w it was ninety f no vote shares, yeah. But I wanna like SpaceX is just like i if you buy it g like be like buy some crypto next to it and make a f tot total fucking gamble out of your entire life savings, y you're just y you don't care. You either are uneducated or you don't care because because there's plenty of resources out there to tell you this is a horrible idea and people will do it anyway. No, don't. Just don't. Don't. Get a cheeseburger. Get a cheeseburger and give the change to a homeless person. Just g grow up. Grow up. It's time to grow up. All right. The next story, I had to include this one. 'cause this is maybe the the best apology of the year so far. Standard Chartered CEO apologizes. Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters triggered a massive PR firestorm by describing the bank's plan to replace back office staff with automation as replacing quote lower value human capital end quote with financial investment. So Well this is you love this. You love these. they're cutting 8,000 people. He called them lower value human capital. Then he was like sort of forced to apologize. And then of course Jamie Diamond stepped up to say he he called the statement an inartful slip of the tongue from a friend. So this is just like a great if you if you want to understand the moment, just just look at this apology and look at this quote and look at how Jamie supported him. I feel like this is a good way of encapsulating the moment. Yeah. Can why can't Albert Manifold say that he pushed and challenged people directly and that was just an inartful slip of the management, right? Like why can't everything just be that way? That we're living in. In artful. You know, I there was a poll out of Mercer, I believe, that suggested that ninety nine percent of CEOs are planning on cutting employees due to AI. Ninety nine percent? Is that possible? Yeah. Yeah, but there was another article that said that all the tech bros are saying the fears of AI taking your job are are are completely overblown. They're way overboard. they're overboard. Nine ninety-nine percent? Even that surprised me. All right, that's the fourth. And finally, I I'm ending on a really horribly nerdy governance one. just because I want to highlight the trend. And we love Tyson Foods here because they they put one of the Nepo n grandbabies on the board despite being in and out of jail and losing his job with the company, but he's somehow on the board. That's John. R Tyson, maybe? Maybe John H. Tyson? I don't know which John Tyson it is. It's R I think it's R. I think we're on R. I don't know. It's like I think they just do it alphabetically, right? Like eventually they get to Z Tyson. But here's the trend another lead independent director jumping into the CEO seat. Jeffrey Schoenberger is is is becoming CEO. I mean, this is where we're at. speaking of like failed governance structures, right? I mean yeah, they're proving the point for us over and over and over. This so he's replacing Donnie King. And yeah, they're I I think now sick the succession plan is really simple. They they 'cause they don't really know where to go, so they just go to their board 'cause we know the boards really aren't independent. Yeah, what? Yeah. Wait a minute. I had to look it up quick. he'd been there I was worried that he hadn't been there for for at least ten years, but he has. He's whew No, he's been there since exactly for ten years, yeah. Because I think that's the magic number of basically when you're an executive. That's why they were able that's why they turned to Jeff, because they were like they're Jeff, I mean, no one else knows this company more than you, so why don't you be CEO? the the the the funny thing about this too, I mean I don't know if funny is the right word, is that speaking of like protected class, is that this guy is actually getting Yeah, that's when they make you lead a dependent, yeah. Tell he gets a golden hello. He's getting a golden hello worth i I don't know, it's like f three or four million dollars in equity, despite the fact that he hasn't had a he said he most recently served as global sales officer for the Proctor and Gamble Company in two thousand nineteen. well yeah. W you don't need to pay this guy to take this job. He hasn't been in the game for seven years. Why do we need to throw money at him? W well I Yeah. Sure. Evidently not. But I do like the fact that a b a guy named Burgers is running a chicken company. But anyway, that's the I know you're not gonna vote for that one. Those are my five stories of the week. What do got? Yes, let's let's call it BP. great. Well, look, there's a lot of competition for Jeffrey Schomberger's pr services. Ha ha ha. No, it's just gonna be BP out the chair. That's what it is. Let's move it on Again, for like the entertainment value alone, it's a gr it's a fabulous story. So I thank everyone. And and and and Al Al making his own coffee is the greatest. I I really like Can we just can you do me a favor and read the full like I like most people I don't even know what that means like most people, but I think he's just being a populist or like an average dude. I like most people walked, took taxis, trains, etc. I had no interest in taking private aviation nor in availing well, he doesn't talk like normal people, I will say, like most people. availing myself of corporate tickets for sports events. I made my own coffee, bought my lunch in the local cafe, I sat in a small office is eschewing the grand corner office privilege of previous chairman. So that's the line, right? So the the line between I availing myself to corporate tickets. Yes. Yeah. Like a a normal person and an executive is making your own coffee. We've we figured it out. N he bought his own lunch. He you focused on local cafe. I'm focusing on buying. He bought his own lunch. He went to Pred a manger and got a seven dollar overpriced shitty sandwich himself. Right. But what about all the peop so all the people in line at the Starbucks? Yeah. seven dollars. Where do you live? Yeah. so the people waiting in line of Starbucks, are they board members and executives? 'Cause they're not making their own coffee. No, he's just they're just not part of the culture of entitlement. That's He's pretty old. Do you think he's putting like Folgers instant crystal into a BP mug and he's pouring like tepid w tap water into it and that's his coffee? Yeah. I mean here's the thing. At at some point when you when you talk like this or about this, right? Like when you're already a multi millionaire, like you are you are the culture of entitlement is like is almost it's almost like the reverse. When you go out and you're like, I like most people I love this guy. take taxis and do not avail myself to sporting events. When you when you st when you do that, that's an it form of entitlement because you have multi millions of dollars. Like great. I'm I'm proud of you. Why are you talking about it at all? Like when I when some Jamuk is in line of Duncan to get a coffee, do you say you don't make your own coffee, sir? You are part of the culture of entitlement. Like what what is this? Yeah. Yeah. His estimated net worth looks to be roughly like a hundred and fifty million dollars. So yeah, I don't really get like I don't really get the populist thing here. But yeah, you know I'm wondering? Maybe this is an Irish thing. He's Irish. Maybe maybe this is Irish hate look, we all know the the the English have not been kind to the Irish over the years. So maybe that's what this is. Maybe that's what this is. All right, let's move on. Come on. See, I I kept it kinda light, right? Didn't I? What a dope. that's yeah. really? He digs his own peat. you're saying that's what this is. Alright, let's go on to good list. Yeah, it wasn't bad. Mine's not gonna be good, but it this wasn't bad. You have a lot of good Leists. You gotta calm down. I have and in fact i i in in in aims of keeping it light this week, I really wanted to try to get off the like the the the the ranting. I I picked four stories that I thought were good. And actually you picked a couple too. We have six. You go first. Yeah. Calm down. Yeah. Yeah, I got two, yeah, yeah. you want me to go first? All right, well, minor short, I just like these headlines. The world's largest data center was supposed to run on one hundred percent natural gas. Utah's Republican governor says never. A Republican governor. The Republican governor of Utah said it must run on a mix of natural gas, solar, geothermal, and nuclear. I mean, you'd think in Utah there's a lot of solar and geothermal going on, right? There should be. I just like w are are we like this is the this is the same guy that's like fighting against climate change is saying you must use the tools yeah of course like he's one of the this is Spencer Cox. he is. Okay. 'Cause they're a little Republicans in Utah Republicans in Utah are a little different. Like they're they're not right, aren't they a little different? 'Cause they're a lot of them are Mormons. He said he said in March twentieth of twenty twenty-five that he said he criticized the quote radical agenda of the extreme environmental movement after Utah dismissed the young the you know how like the like student movement to bring lawsuits against like states who are not dealing with climate change? a a children's group brought a lawsuit against Utah for the never mind. Yeah. Promoting fossil fuels. This is the same governor who heralded that, fought against that, and is now saying, No, you can't build a data center unless you use solar and geothermal. What are we doing? I love this headline. I love it. It's confusing. Well, you know what? I've made this point for years. Inst in instead of making this a political issue, why don't we just you know, all these big oil companies, all these dumb Republicans, just make money off of geothermal and solar and shut your mouth. Yeah. All right, what else? Yeah. Just money. Just make all the money. You're good at that. Just do that. My o my other one is labor union participation is on the rise even as US companies spend one point seven billion annually to halt union formation. Look. I mean there's all are all these articles about people fighting back against data centers, people g ge booing AI. I I labour unions might be the only path forward for people. really The only the there's a w this is the one to one correlation. When AI is coming, you need to bond with other people and fight the seven tech lords who are ramming it down your fucking throat. Might be it. Yeah. Cause yes. Because the Electoral College doesn't seem to be representing people, Congress is being gerrymandered, voting rights has been destroyed for black people. I mean, this might be it. Alright, that's I have four. Rideshare drivers in Massachusetts formally unionized. That's eighty eighty thousand drivers. Maine Senek, this is mostly for people n mostly for I don't know. He is my guy, but you know I I No, they're just the gerrymandering, everything. I love it. Yeah, I like that too. Yeah, that's same same idea. Same idea. This is your guy. He's not perfect, but who is. I like that he's anti oligarchy. That's the thing I the message I like. main Senate candidate Graham Platner stands by ad accusing Red Sox private private equity owners of ruining the team. Now, I only picked this one because I I just finally someone said it because p the private equity owners have basically destroyed my love of all team sports. I I love watching team sports. I d I's sorry, I used to. Yeah, sure. I'm pretty much out on the whole thing and I I he's right. Private equity owners, I'm sure they've ruined more than just sports, but that's the one that gets me the most. In fact, even when I turn on a a a game like a like a playoff game, e even the fans that you see on TV, they're not fans of the team. They're just a bunch of like stiff, rich white people. I don't know, the whole th all right, anyway, I'm gonna move on. You yeah Yeah. I does anybody watch baseball anymore anyway? Is that still a thing? I don't know. Supreme Court. This is a good one. This is a big one. The actual Supreme Court lets Vermont Meta lawsuit proceed. Opening door to 50 state legal wave. so this is a a a lawsuit alleging that Facebook and Instagram harmed young users, right? Meta's argument here is Just so horribly Zuck and so horribly tech bro, so horribly like dropout loser idiot. Meta had argued that ready for this one? Meta had argued that it can't be sued in Vermont court, in Vermont court, because neither the company nor the app design has specific ties to the state. So it does it so it doesn't matter. so can Meta thought it doesn't matter that your teenagers and kids are using the app because I mean the w you know, we don't we didn't we didn't design it in Vermont. We didn't do it in Burlington. I w I mean just I hope this is the beginning of the end. I really do. I really do. It might Because I've never. I d did they write in there, I've never even been to Vermont. Never been to Vermont. Yeah. I I don't know. I I wonder if there's a reckoning coming, but I I applaud the Supreme Court's gonna happen, but I applaud them for letting this go through. And finally, New Hampshire data center developer withdraws plans hours before opponents were to pack town meetings. So I know it data centers seem to be the one thing that is getting people riled up, showing up. They don't want the but they're still being built though, right? In like a lot of states. I yeah. Well they're being built without actually yeah, but they're not actually they're just not bothering to really like inform the people about what they're building, how they're building it, why they're building it. Red states. Well, this is why you need hey, this is why we call it the alternative democracy, right? Because the the the model of of corporate governance is based off the model of like civic participation and and it's no surprise that in the places like New England where civic participation is still important and still high and governance still matters, that this is where they're fighting back. I mean, the three stree of the stories I chose all no. Actually this is this is a pure coincidence. The four stories I chose for goodliest are all New England states. Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire. I mean the Okay. No, I didn't I didn't like cherry pick these because I live in New England. It's just that it it's still people who care about governance is the point. All right. I know you want me to shut up, so let's move on. I'm sorry, that doesn't sound like a coincidence. That sounds like that sounds w do we have a winner? Is there like The winner I think is gig gig workers unionizing, I think. What what's your winner? really? I I I'm my winners yeah, I guess it's labor unions in general. Let's say labor unions win. All right, let's do some horrible, horrible assholes. one is kind of funny. I'm gonna end on the funny one. Yeah, we're moving on, we're moving right along. All right. first of all, first asshole is index funds. Assholiest. Index funds. Vermont suing meta. Okay. I'll just say Lambert. Are we making good time? Are we going quickly? Alright, come on, go ahead. As holiests. good. We were talking about that earlier. They should j they they just need to quit pretending. Here was the result. Exxon wins shareholder backing for legal move to Texas. So what it t what what Exxon did is they've been in New Jersey f for like 120 years and made more money than any fucking company on earth. Yeah, that's a joke. Exxon sucks. Exon can I can I just say that Exxon is a lot like Trump in the sense that this like this proxy battle that it law law quote unquote lost to what was it engine engine number one has pissed off Exxon so much, right? I mean they just they're constantly angered by this. They can't stop. Yeah. Engine number one. Yeah. I think that's right. I think you actually said it emasculated them once and and I think that is literally what's driving capital markets at this point. So y yeah, but the the background on that is in twenty nineteen, I believe it was, the Exxon had an activist, engine number one, won board seats, and the reason why they won these board seats is mostly because Exxon's board wouldn't talk to anybody. yeah. It's but just sad but just s all right. Yeah, you might be right. Keep going. They thought they were better than everybody else. And so the activists won. The following year, Exxon expanded the board to dilute the activist place directors. Last year, Exxon instilled a retail vote capture program where they just said f forty percent of our investors are basically retail holders. We're going to offer them the ability to auto vote with management because they don't vote at all. Sh pretty shocking they won, but yeah. There you go. There's good corporate governance. Sounds like j that's basically gerrymandering of your investor, right? Not to mention they sued their voters. It's effectively gerrymandering your investor classes. The that yeah, that's right. Two years ago they sued their own investors because they didn't like a shareholder proposal. The shareholder proposal got excluded and withdrawn, but they continued a lawsuit against them because they were so annoyed that a shareholder would have any like desire for information from the company. Yeah. Pretty unprecedented. Yeah. It's angry. Angry boys. It's like someone stole their Playboy magazine. There's just angry. And this year on their proxy was moved to redomesticate in Texas. After 120 years of being based in New Jersey, they wanted to move to Texas, where the laws are limit everything an investor could do. The thing they did say was, you know, we promised Pinky Swear that we won't use the Texas rules that give us more rights. That's what they pump Pinky Swore. Course as soon as they're in Texas, they absolutely will use all the things in Texas that limit shareholder rights. The Exxon proposal got seventy one point three percent support from investors, seventy one point three. Ca can I add something to this that we have we didn't cover maybe because we missed a show, missed a proxy count I'm gonna add it right here. I Exxon did something this year in its proxy statement I have n I have been doing this way too long. It's sad how long I've been looking I mean I I can't tell you how many proxy statements I've looked at. More than three. More than three. Thousands. Yeah. They d they did something I have never seen in my life, talking about talking about these petty babies. So in the table of contents, most proxies have a table of contents linking, you know, the pro the the compensation table and the shareholder proposals. Right in the sh in the share in the table of contents, and then of course after you you go and look at the shareholders proposal, it says item five, independent chair. That that's referring to the first proposal. To the pages, yeah, and the yeah. comma a proposal overwhelmingly defeated on sixteen separate occasions since two thousand. They are politicking and giving their opinions r right in the table of contents. I I have ne I have never seen this before. Never In the table of contents. They are the biggest bunch of man babies outside of the tech bros. And so here's the thing. Here's why I picked index funds. The they they are allowed to now to redomesticate in in Texas, where they will have unfettered rights to destroy shareholder rights going forward. We know that forty percent of the shares are retail. We know, because they've disclosed this, that roughly twenty-eight percent have voted unbelievable. Yeah. Go ahead. In in the past. So we know if we're, you know, we're guessing roughly, we know that roughly 13% of the vote, 10 to 13% of the vote, Exxon basically stole from retail investors. They basically went to their retail investors and said, just vote with management every time. And retail investors are like, I don't know, sure. And they just gave it up. So of the 71.3% support, maybe 10% of it is, you know, retail investor vote capture. That leaves 61%. Gerrymandered. Yeah. Inter interesting. 1% that are investors. But can you guess who 22% of the investors are? BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street, which means there is no way that this passed without two of the three, if not all three, voting with it. If we assume all three voted with it, because that's all they fucking do, then that means the investors that matter. I mean the big three? Right, right, right. Not the ones that they stole and not the big three who have no opinion about anything because they're pointless. They voted only thirty five percent in favor. This would not have passed. Mm-hmm. Not to mention that it it kinda didn't both ISS and Glass Lewis recommend against this? So there goes that the idea there of that like cabal controlling shareholders, right? I mean th didn't didn't stop it here. Recommended against it. Both of them. Throw in the fact that there was a shareholder proposal this year to add voting options to the retail vote. So the right now the retail vote capture program is vote with management. The shareholder proposal was you need to give retailers the ability to vote with management or vote against management or vote some other options. You've given them one option. And that got a twenty three point five percent support. That's pretty high actually. Which is pretty high. And when you back out of the numbers, when you actually do the math on the way the vote the the vote came in, actually the real number, excluding BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street and the retail vote capture, is 36% voted for it. Meaning the same 36% that probably voted against redomestication voted for having more options in the retail vote plan. Meaning the investors that matter who weren't gerrymandered. Mm-hmm. Fucking hate all of this. But your index funds, when you go and you open your 401k and you look at your index funds, if you're at Vanguard, if you've got a BlackRock fund of any kind, they're the ones who are picking the ability of companies to get rid of all your rights as an investor. Those are your rights. They're supposed to represent you. And what they're doing instead is they represent entirely the companies. The boards, the CEOs, the management teams, they challenge nothing, they say yes to anything, they do not represent your rights at all, and they have sold your vote. Is this is this on purpose or they just don't pay attention or they just they just do what management tells them to do or like what's the you think they actually like look into this in detail? Look, s stewardship so so d and I'm gonna cover this in the proxy countdown later today. But stewardship it is pr i through decades of academic research, your board composition, stewardship action, shareholder engagement, all of those things are actually shown time and time and time again to matter, to be linked to outcomes like pr f financial returns and And company performance and all sorts of other positive outcomes over and over and over again. But if you are BlackRock, stewardship is a cost. You do not look at stewardship and say, that makes me money. You have to pay analysts. You have to pay for data. You got to pay for this. Pay the voting process takes time. You got to do all this analytics and analysis. It is way easier for you to say, you know what? We're not getting anything directly for this right now. The only way we get something is alpha. Or growing our assets. We just we need to get more money in or we need the assets we bought to make more money. And frankly, we don't have the time to wait for stewardship to work. So we're going to say this is just a cost center and vote with management every time and limit our costs on stewardship. That's what they do. That's all they do. Money. Let's make some money. Yeah. What what was the what was the point of their education in the first place? Which education? Did they get educations? I don't yeah. Or what what how do they ex how do they w how do they explain that when it when it's all said and done and then they have to go to the pearly gates, right, and they're explaining they're they're trying to get into heaven. What are they what are they gonna say they did? They made they made a lot of they made a lot of money. That's what they did. look, the the you also pulled a story. Safe Safe Harbor Financial expands board of directors with appointment of Tyler Klymus and Sean Tone Tunner. I picked this one because this is like the same thing where investors literally don't care about anything. They added they expanded the board of this company. This is a a a weed bank. I'm not exaggerating. It it is a cannabis bank. Okay. Okay. Fascinating. Yeah. why'd you pick this one? Yeah. A a weed bank? They t they do banking for the cannabis industry. Because banking in the cannabis is really hard. No, because if federal regulations don't allow so this is a bank that's basically like a a weed bank. That's all that's the only way I look, what do I care? Like Jesus. What about banks? Don't banks do that? I love it. Do we need more weed companies? The other all like there's so many in my neighborhood I can't like I yeah, I can't find the sidewalk. All I know is that this all-mail board expanded the all-mail board to add two more males. Well dude, women don't smoke weed, you know this, right? No, no, that's true. And they clearly don't bank. But last year investors said ninety seven percent in favor for all the males on all the board. What d what what are we doing? Do we w what are we do like I Yeah. I don't know. I like that it sounds like it sounds like a nineties movie too. N Tyler and Sean. It's so it's so cute. Yeah. Ty Tyler and Sean. And like, you know that like when they came up with the name of the bank, they were probably stoned and they were like, Safe Harbor Financials sound so corporate, man. Let's do it. I hate all all the index funds and these voting investors can go suck it. All right, number two. tech bros that are pretending. Pretending tech bros. I'm just gonna read the headlines. You know what? We don't need to actually go into exposition here because it's just Yeah. All right. I like it. boy. T pretending tech bros, yeah. We woke woke washing, greenwashing, what are they doing? Meta commits additional funding to Oversight Board through twenty twenty eight. Just for reference, Mark Zuckerberg is Meta. He gave the Oversight Board thirteen million dollars to continue operating through twenty twenty eight. Uh-huh. Yeah. Well y you have to think that it is part of some grander plan to like i that they can use it in l like defense in and like lawsuits, right? Like there must be some legal reason why they do it that that benefits suck, right? I I look, I I love a good Broadway show as much as the next person, but this is the best Broadway show you can get where they hired these very well meaning reporters and academics and human rights people. I think I think these people think they are at this is the this is they can do something, right? Like they're doing something. I don't I don't I used to think that I don't know anymore. They're still taking money from Zuck. yeah, they should grow up too. They're not doing anything. But Zuck, just for reference, Zuck owns a three hundred million dollar yacht. He spent thirteen million on the oversight board and three hundred million dollars on his yacht. So Yeah, not to mention that doesn't he owns like a enough he he owns so much property in Hawaii it's like the size of like several central parks, which is a massive park by the way. Yeah. It's a big. and and look, when the oversight board speaks, this is why this is why I think they they feel good about their jobs. When the oversight board speaks, Zuck listens forty two percent of the time. The actual number is forty-two percent of the time they make a rec their recommendations, that's it, are taken on fully and reported. The rest of the time they alter them, they get rid of them. I'll stop it. Yeah. Whatever. Forty, that's it. Alright. Yeah. meta actually will decline them entirely? Like w no, we're not doing that. Yeah. D I don't I don't I don't think I like this. This is like you you're still complicit in like taking money from Zuck here. I don't I don't think I I don't think they're well meaning these people. Well if you I don't think they've 13 million? The the board is like 27 people deep. I don't think they're making real money on this, right? Like but but let's but here's the bigger problem. The the recommendations that that Meta listed that Zuck listens to include like this one from September of last year, which wasn't decided until April of this year. So it's a good it's inside a year now. They it used to be a year turnaround, but someone posted on Instagram that Hey, I'll I'd take it. Not from suck though, yeah. The list of reasons why dating someone in a wheelchair is great. It was like supposed to be an affirming thing. And someone in a comment said it was also good because they can't run away. Okay. And Yeah. huh. Wait, wh why can't someone in a wheelchair run away? the apparently the wheel the wheels don't work in their wheelchair, I guess. but like the whole thing is so meta left the comment up, but the board found in an appeal from the person who posted that it that it should have been taken down in their bullying policy. And Meta actually said, you know what? We'll take that one down. That's the one they took down. The one they didn't change anything for D do the wheels not work? I don't understand. That's yeah. They they run marathons, people in wheelchairs. Yeah. god, y you're making my head hurt. What? this is this is the one they'll go they'll Yeah. includes things like AI driven fake content during wars, where the board weighed in and was like, You need policies to deal with this, to flag AI images and videos, like propaganda using AI, and Meta was like, we'll take it under advisement, I guess. well. Can I just be real for like a quick second? How is the oversight board not already recommended to shut it all down? I that's that would be the first recommendation. Every every day they should go to work and just like Albert Manifold, the the fired chair at BP, they should make some coffee, right? They should sit down and they should they should right they should buy their lunch and they should they should decide that they're gonna recommend that they shut Meta down. Right? Every day that's the 'cause yeah. All right. Well. Yeah. I hate this one. I know what you're gonna say. Buy their lunch. Find the button that the off button and press it. Yeah. On top of that, OpenAI Foundation is committing two hundred and fifty million dollars to help workers navigate AI disruption. That's the worst. What does that mean? Who is that money going to exactly? Which workers? Which workers? At AI at two hundred and fifty million dollars? Come on. They're helping. Workers Gus. For Gus, yeah. You got laid off. and then and then I Mark Andreessen, I saw this headline too, and I didn't know what it quite meant, but it's just it's just more of the pretend. It's more of the gaslight, it's more the greenwash. God. Yeah. Mark Andrewsen, he is the the he's the techno he's the king techno bro. What he had a a manifesto, right? Like a tech Yeah, yeah. That the the Techno Optimist Manifesto, that was like three or four years ago. He sat down with Joe Rogan and the headline was Mark Andreessen sputters incomprehensibly at question about how AI will actually benefit humankind. Joe Rogan said Well, it it it doesn't it help by creating by putting less strain on the brain so the brain doesn't have to do as much work. That's helpful, right? I don't know. Well I know is that Joe Rogan was like, you know, there's a lot of pushback on AI. you know, why don't you sell it? And so Andreessen, this is his this is this is how he said it. Quote quote. I mean, look, so it it is all right, I mean all right, I'm gonna give you the deepest of all pitches. I'm gonna give you the the okay. That's how he started. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's it? Okay, what did he eventually say? It'll s it'll cure cancer, no one will have to work again. He eventually said he went down this No, he went down this rabbit hole where he talked about alchemy and how alchemy didn't work and but it was sold like as your ability to transmute this thing into gold and it was this amazing thing. And then he said, But now we are able to transmute sand into thought. And then Joe Rogan was like, What the fuck are you talking about? And he was like What? Like Minecraft alchemy? I I I don't I don't w I don't wanna hear it anymore. I don't wanna hear anymore. All right. I'm out. Yeah, I'm I'm out. I'm done. Yeah. it's gonna be great. Like that's the way that was it. Yeah, I can I can I I always I can transform like applesauce into thought and like sandwiches. I I'm really good at transforming food into poop. But like stop pretending, Mark. It's not for humankind, it's for you. All of this is pretending. Meta oversight board foundation giving money to help workers and Dreeson talking about shut up. And then last w last one. And this one's this one just I just thought was funny asshole. Water Yeah. Okay, keep going. Yeah. Shut it down. Yeah, shut it down. Let's w how about we just hit pause on let's hit pause on the AI button until we figure out figure it out. Yeah. So this is part of your tech bros should stop pretending. Okay, go ahead. this is your third asshole of the week. Got it. Okay, good, go. No, no, no. Yeah, that's number three. I'm on number three now. New one. Third asshole of the week. The New York Post. A fine a fine newspaper from the Murdoch family, yeah. And their baby naming expert. Here's the headline. All right, just stick with me because this was I just thought this was so hysterically stupid. And this is like clickbait, right? I clicked the bait. the headline was New York's most popular baby names trends toward traditional as reaction to woke Mayor Mamdani expert. Wait, what? Okay. Yeah. This this already sounds racist. Yeah. Traditional is a dog whistle. All right, so everything about that headline is like, what are you even talking about? In fact, everything in that headline is literally incorrect. There's not one fact or correct thing in that headline at all. The baby naming expert is a woman named Taylor A. Humphrey who has a back Yeah. Yeah, okay. Now those are two solid like white person names. I like that. Taylor Humphrey. Yeah. Traditional, those are traditional names. She's very, very white. Yeah, she's she's based in California. Sh she said, quote, Mayor Mamdanny is so divergent from tradition, and I do wonder that if it that played some part in Gen Z parents moving back towards more traditional heritage. That's what she said. Wait, already? It but he's barely been a thing for like a few months. She used twenty twenty five naming data saying he was campaigning in twenty twenty five and New York State, not city, but state, started naming their babies more traditional names as a reaction to Zoran Mumdani. Who Having lived in New York City and New York State, th I will tell Taylor Humphrey they have nothing to do with each other. The people in New York State hate everyone in New York City. Well, the data is also very inconvenient for Taylor A. Humphrey because she looked at sh I don't know what she did, but seventy-seven of the hundred top one hundred names in New York State are exactly the same from twenty twenty three to twenty twenty-five. They don't change that I did two years because I thought I'd see more change. Here Well yeah, they don't they don't typically change, right? So it's not all it's not like Zoron and Zorana and Zorani. Well, here are the new traditional names according to Taylor. Archer, August, Bo, Lincoln, Parker, Rowan. Those are the names, those are the new names. They replaced names like Abraham, Ian, Jonathan. Jonathan dropped out of the top one hundred. Ryan Zachary. Yeah. Archer? That's traditional? August? my god, stop. Those aren't those aren't traditional, they're just dumb. Yeah. anti Semitic Ian Yeah, well Jonathan yeah. Jonathan sounds like a a socialist Kabbalist Muslim. Those are the boys. The girls were like the the the the new names, the new traditional names included Eden, Kennedy, Sloan, Delilah, and they replaced names like Anna, Rachel, Sarah, dropped out of the top 100. This is what they put on it. I actually, this is how much time I spent on this. This is how stupid I am. Sloan. Rachel. my god. This is the stupidest thing ever. Good good work, Mart Murdoch family. Yeah. Yeah. I looked at all the 2023 New York Top 100 names and the 2025 New York Top 100 names, New York State, and I ran them through directors. And in fact, the biggest growth in director names that were on the top 100 New York lists was the name Zoe or Zoe for Zoron. A it was a 200% increase from two directors with the name to seven. Mm-hmm. This is New York State. Yeah. Yeah. Zoron. Yeah. But but again, c can we But but but seriously, wha what the hell does New York State have to do with the mayor of New York City? I they don't It was so dumb. It has nothing to do with anything. Are you kidding me? This is a like the But it'd be one thing if she used data from the city i in the last few months. Maybe I would listen. But what are we doing? She had no data at all. She just said stuff. She just got in the paper and and the Murdoch's that post goes out and looks for someone to say that stuff so that they can say in the headline: New York's most popular baby names trend toward traditional as reaction to woke Mayor Mamdani. None of that is true. Not a single thing in there happened. Not one line of that is true. Not one character in that should have been actually typed. Yeah. But they go out and they search for that story and they put it on the front of the post and then everybody talks about it. It is c it is s and it's like we wonder why people don't know like we're we're expecting people to know like how to vote on an Exxon proxy. This is what they're fucking reading. There's not w it's unbelievable. Yeah. That's true. The headline sh the headline should be the headline should be yet another white lady labels a brown person woke. That should be the headline. Yeah, the headline should be White Lady says stuff not true, but we'll print it anyway. those are your three. Yeah, vote. Yeah. As clickbait. Alright. Do I get to vote? I'm not voting for that one. wah wah. The tech bros Well then you know what? I I started with a bit of a rant up top. we were talking about the Danish pension company that said no to to SpaceX. And then you think you did a pretty good case laying out that the the index funds are basically they're basically like shooting their themselves, investors in the foot constantly. They're killing us all. I g I'm gonna I'm gonna pick that one. I wanna pick index index but and and I hate the fact the the thing I hate the most is this the power structures always saying the same always say the same thing when you try to chip away at their power, which is just that, well, this is the way it's done. This is the way this is the way like these are the way the rules are. This is the we can't we can't change it now, right? I they always use the sum the same dumb excuse, right? I th this is the way it's done. Yeah, good good choice. I hate everything. Alright, let's go on to what are we? Headlines winter predictions. We were making good time, now we're not. So sick of it. All right. We're not really making good time. Yeah. where are we? We are headlineist. my headline New website detects apocalypse if billionaire jets start fleeing on mass. I actually think that's brilliant. I I hate it, but I think they're probably right. If they all suddenly like took off in one weird direction, it it probably is a bad sign. But I I'm I'm fast here. I'm fast. That it's brilliant and I hate it. Well, there was a there was a long piece about Peter Thiel like moving to Argentina in the New York Times this week and Yeah. Well, because of the the far right dude down there that he loves. Yeah, except that like he got his guy elected here and he's fleeing this country because it sucks so much. Like I do we do you get it? All right, here's my headline. Kevin O'Leary, you know, Shark Tank, Kevin O'Leary. Kevin O'Leary slams people who want work life balance. I hope they work for my competitors. Yeah, well all right. What's your headline? Yeah. Shark Tank, yeah. Jerks. that's so clever. All right. Who won the week? y well yeah, you go first. Want me go first? BP Bully, Albert Manifold's now famous coffee maker. He didn't tell us how he makes his coffee, though. That's the thing I really want to know. Do you think it's a pour over? Do you think it's instant? Do you think it's a a machine with a filter? I don't believe it. I mean d No, there is a ninety-seven percent chance that he says, Honey, did you make the coffee yet? And that's how he gets his coffee made. All right. I mean the real winner unfortunately is Michael Dell, but I I don't want to say that out loud. What's your winner? Who's your winner? Yeah. No, I have the real winner. The real winner is Illinois State House of Reps, led by Daniel Didick. Because much we covered much to the annoyance of Bill Cunningham. Do you remember Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham? If Bill Cunningham introduced SB three four four two three four four four four four Okay, why is that? Yes. Democrat of all things, yeah. Yeah, the most sycophantic AI tech broke hissing ass bill I've seen. He wanted to exempt AI companies from liability for quote mass death. That's what he wanted to exempt them from. Instead, on the House of Reps side in the state of Illinois, they passed one of the strongest laws in the country to force third party audits of AI companies, and it passed 110 to zero. 110 to 0, 0 people. Yeah. Yeah. I don't think anyone needs to be exempt from liability for mass death. Yeah. Beautiful. Beautiful. Beautiful. I love that. defected. All right, predictions. Based on the survey, which reveals that ninety-nine percent of CEOs are preparing to lay off workers and replace them with AI within two years, it is revealed that the one percent of CEOs who are not preparing to lay off workers and replace them with AI understood AI to mean actual intelligence. Yeah, I I I I struggle with that one. I couldn't find a joke there that worked, so I see what you did there. Yeah, I see what you did there. but I tried. What do got? Yeah. come on. Yeah. mine's more obscure. wait, that's not the right music. We're doing this music. OpenAI's upcoming S1 filing. There, when they file for their IPO, it reveals that not to be outdone by Musk's SpaceX insecurities. Like if you read the SpaceX filing top to bottom, it is the most insecure piece of you know SEC filing I've ever seen. Sam Altman. I'm not gonna. Garbage. Gives himself dual class shares worth 300 votes per share and 99% voting power. Has a classified board, incorporates in Nevada, has mandatory arbitration clauses and a minimum lawsuit threshold of 100% of the stock ownership. And the first board member he chooses is Illinois State Senator Bill Cunningham. Yeah, you like that? Callback from one thing ago. That's all we got. Hazlenut (01:00:19.742) good call back there. Yeah. Matt (01:00:24.818) That's Hazelnut Rollis, Damien to his friends. I'm your analyst, Holy Matt Miscardi. We are free float. Come back later today when we do some more on proxy countdown. But you have to go listen to Anne and Mike on shareholder primacy as they broke down the SpaceX IPO. It is way deeper than anything we do, and Anne is so much smarter than we are. So it's she broke it all down. So go there and get that. Until then, good. Bye. Hazlenut (01:00:32.596) yeah. You should.