Transcript
Derek. There it is. Yeah, yeah. Still Loud live. From the underside of an ISS tuna melt oh gross an all-new terrific. Tuesday edition of business fans joined by analysts whole Matt mascardi. On today's. Chubby chubby finger, I don't know what I'm talking about. Called April Fool's Day. 2025. The good game. Yeah. Oh the is the April fools that you didn't write the copy for that and you're just making it up as you go along. Actually Matt. There is some news nothing to do with April fools day. Our show today is being sponsored by BlackRock Oh, what the new? The new owner or free flow analytics.com. The only platform measuring board power connections performance for free. and thanks letter, which I read this morning, All the Acquisitions, they've done in private markets. So, shout out to frequent whose ESG products Suite, free flow built. And when I say built, I mean, built from the ground up. They had zero, we built the whole thing and, and they didn't even mention it in the, in the, in the letter Larry didn't even mention, you know, like the ESG offerings and how awesome it is. I have actually a Larry Fink headline in the show today. So this is the good game. I got a bunch of headlines from the past few days because I'm doing everything I can to stay positive. Oh good luck. Is that I mean as you all try to flee the country and everyone's going nuts. You oh you did open the show. Talking about a tuna melt the worst of the melts. Some people love it, too, noises. No, no, everybody hates the guy in the office who brings in who makes a tuna melt sandwich and like the microwave nobody likes. That. So I pick a headline. That sounds good to me. Makes me feel okay. And then I, but then I have to run it through our, what are you? You are like are Supreme analysts who are Arbiter of arbiter of Truth. Yeah. And and Truth gives me a score of 0 to 10 to tell me if it's actually good or not 10. Yeah, of course. Great and sometimes He I don't know how I'm gonna handle it. Sometimes it's a sarcastic tense, some time. It's a very sincere, 10. Who knows? Who knows? How it's gonna work? Our games are incredibly consistent. That's all though. You say that. But Matt, you routinely average, basically a six on this game. So they are actually I that's pretty meaningful. I round up around. Yeah, of course. You are three from three. All right, here we go. I got a lot of them do it. French minister. She's actually the French. I saw two different ways that she was called the French minister of solidarity and families or the French Minister for equality between women and men and combating discrimination. I don't know. What is she? I don't really know. But anyway, French ministers. Says many firms in France, won't respond to US Embassy and tied her. She says, it's out of the question that will prevent our business from promoting social progress. So, someone fighting back. Oh, I love. It was the French, though. It's always the French. Yeah, before you answer this, how about this matter? They actually got a letter. They got talk about an executive order from Trump saying that the terminating Dei programs is within the Mandate, the federal government applies to all supplier and service providers of the US government regardless of their nationality and like, wow and which yeah and and part of this Are this formula matte was a checkbox. They asked recipients of this letter to tick a box to confirm that. They do not operate any programs promoting Dei. Matt, if this is not the Middle School of occasion of our globe, they're asking them to tick about saying that we no longer give a shit about women or people of color. Yeah. I like they should they should make it like musk's face and just do you like me? Check yes or no. Unbelievable box. It is really Next Level? Yeah. Like of course they're going to ignore this right? No I don't why do you say that? I think there are lots of French a lot. Okay, the French come on but you got like law firms, big law. Firms got like Columbia University. Everyone is just like sure. I do have massive problems with the capitulation Columbia. Go fuck yourself Garden. Go fuck yourself. Like, I mean, when you, I mean this is all about Under the the guise of like, anti-Semitism. I mean, when you, when you look at the amount of faculty and students at Columbia that are Jewish, you're only hurting Jewish people. If I wanna, I don't know what is happening if you want to tackle anti-Semitism great, but everything is not transactional. Social issues are not transactional as in. What are the main drivers? Yeah, I'm not going to give you a dollar. If I think you're racist right, like except they kill the Dei stuff, they're only doing anti-Semitism, it's only political expediency. And these companies institutions have to know. I mean literally you learn this, when you're five that if you give a bully you're fuking, lunch money. They don't stop, you know, hungry tomorrow. Hey, that lunch yesterday was awesome. Thank you. You don't want one lunch in your life. Yeah. It's like they come back over and over and over again until you're nothing until you're fully captured. You what your response here is. Entirely driven by the economics of the question. Which are my short-term business? Interests could have like a big effect? There's, there's there seems to be outside volatility in the short term but you have traded your long-term institutional, trust your long-term institutional prospects, you are trading all of that for your short-term interests. So and at Columbia. Didn't the president Columbia? Just just quit, right? Like just was it Columbia where they just quit. Does it suggest that they were happy with this decision? Well, because the staff, all said we cannot capitulate to this, right? Like and and we can't lose Fort. And their thought was we can't lose 400 million dollars. Now, Harvard is talking about a billion dollars. Harvard has, I think it's more than a million dollars. How about the fact that these, the, the money given by the federal government for R&D, at these universities, it's one of the main drivers of the US economy. Yeah. So we've got, so you've got nothing without you. So Colombian you can't just push back on that. Very simple premise, that we're not world leaders and all of this with with the university system, getting? Well, I think there's a bit of a wake up, right? Like, they're not gonna let you anymore. They're not gonna let you research. What is worth researching? Do you want to dictate everything? You're going to research as in like, this checkbox proves that literally, they want you to check a box that says, are you going to research something that involves a vagina? Know, or maybe somebody who's slightly Browner than I am. Because if so, then we are not going to fund it anymore. What do you think of Aurora? Burge? Said, we're not going to is out of the question will prevent our businesses from promoting social progress. I I'm at a loss here because how much how much of like money is the French government. French companies as suppliers, what is all? I'm sure there's some pretty big multinationals, right? We're gonna cut Every Mountain. They want everything to look American made now, which is fake, right? Post globalization economy. But you think that like this, this is the Kabuki theater, part of canceling, all the contracts that they wanted to cancel so that we can make like American made napkins that might cost 30 dollars instead of a global napkin that cost 90 cents, right? Like, whatever, I don't, I don't, this whole thing is, First of all, congrats I think it's a 10 that they're fighting back. I'm someone's fight with that. The 10th somebody is fighting back in some way. But Harvard you have yes you're going to lose a couple billion dollars in research. You have the most money of any like academic institution on Earth in your endowment by multiple fucking pay for it, right? Like give yourself your own research, you know what happened? Whatever happened to the old fashioned technique of just like kicking the can down the road, I mean they do know how political Cycles work right. They do know that there are other elections coming up and that a special in democracies we tend to vastly but you know we go. Alright we go left, we go Center. Why don't you just like kind of want to maybe Sue back? Want to start your own loss? It won't you kick the? Can you appeal like what is what? This immediate like. Okay, you win. You're, you're afraid to get targeted by Trump. Congratulations, like, but Trump supporters already hated you. Everyone hated you to begin with. They got Claudine gay fired, right? Like like this is, this is like, capitulation is the last thing you should do period. Like you should, if it went up a bully, takes your lunch money, you don't fucking give them your, like, give it to you. You're gonna give it to him every single day, right? Like, move on. I hate this. Well, I don't know about you, but the bullies in my school too. There were, there were like they were big guys. They were Hefty, do they were hungry, they liked lunch. They like me. I didn't really give a shit about they like. Yeah, he did. All right next, headline Primark boss. Quits after woman complains about his behavior. Okay, I I went to the painstaking process here. I found like 30 different ways at this headline was presented, mostly I was fascinated by this because this is the second big retail company. Where a gross CEO dude. Has done something. Horrible and been fired. Of course at Kroger. We know nothing about, that's right. We know nothing at Primark, we know and involved the woman, that's good. I was just, I was just fascinated about how they report these stories. So I actually collected a ton of these headlines here, the three of my favorites. Um, CEO of fast, fashion brand Primark steps down after allegations of bad behavior in Social situation like that. Oh I mean, first of all, I could be anything. Second of all that he could have farted at a party like that. Can you can you at least give me his name I mean yeah how about this one Primark CEO resigns over error of judgment with a woman. Wow that's what we call know. And then this one great reporting at a LinkedIn here. Leadership, shake up at Primark. Oh leaders, who cares? That One, we don't know. Oh, it could be. It could be the head of like it. I don't know. Okay, I don't know what, right? It could be someone they just they the head of it is 90 years old. It's just retiring. Right? Who knows what's happening? You know what? I like that is the perfect news headline, though. That is the perfect, what that encapsulation, the news, which is like, look, none of the details matter. All we know, is that someone's gone and someone's coming like, who cares? And the only people that seem to care are free flow analytics, no one else, you know, who care? Like there's no doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all. So that's one man is a 2020 to 5 and male, CEOs are still getting fired for for errors of judgment with women. So is that a good thing? I mean, yeah, go ahead. Is it a good thing that I'm not suggesting? It's a good thing. The guys doing I'm suggesting that in our times of anti-wolf lunacy with the Elon Musk and the US, the government were still actually firing CEOs. Is for being perverts and being like sexual harassers like that seems good. Yeah. Isn't that pretty woke idea to get rid of him for that? Is it Primark a British company? Yeah, it's a British retail fashion chain so it's not Like this isn't like the you we're still doing this in the US. This is like a British Kroger Kroger's. American. No Kroger is American and we have no idea what that guy got fired for like that guy. We know it's similar to this. Come on I mean we know it involved a woman right? How many like but was it an error of judgment or was it something? It was right pattern of behavior that he's exercising, his whole life. And so he did it the wrong time in front of the wrong person or something, like he did it with a director, probably, like it's gonna be something. Well, with Kroger, it was extreme because they launched an investigation immediately fired him pulled like yanked, his his money, like they did a whole like they did it all immediately, like, is what if seemed like this one, seems like this is been happening forever. Well, yeah, Primark actually did admit that a previous issue of improper conduct was investigated in the past with proportionate action taken at the time. Which wow, what do you what does that mean? They cut off one of his fingers. Like, what is That mean I, but he probably did the same thing in the past, but then, they were like, like, we do it like eight times and then, we'll be mad. Also, I, here's what I don't like. This is why. It's a, it's a two. Okay, here, it's a two. Yeah. And it's a two because he resigned As opposed to like fire like they did fire feathered, they always bonus fire him. There's no none of this talks about which means Severance right. Which means he's gonna I'm sure they're gonna instant vest him and let him like resign. He's been there forever, right? Like he's been there for over 20 years. They called him Mr, Primark. That's what they call them, right? That was what headline was that, the coldest Mr, primer. I thought that was his nickname. I thought his name was like Mr. Primark, so we're gonna let that guy resign for doing like incredibly inappropriate things with women. You that's from the times thing, England retailer and turmoil after Paul Marshawn. Mr. Primark is ousted, at least they named him, but they don't give you any indication of why he was out. They did say his name at least. Yeah, I like that his name. So I'm giving it to All right, let's try to move quickly. On a few of these. Next ones protest, hit Tesla dealerships across the world and challenged Elon Musk. I look are these not to like mini version of not that we're suggesting that what free flow analytics represents this protest. But is it at least not a voice? Okay. Yeah. What are what are they angry at MUSC about? Just being a fatuous flatulent. Excrement face as Bill Burr, put it a a hair plugged laminated well. I think laminated face billionaire. Let's talk about that later actually. Have that in the show later. Oh okay. I this I did not actually prepare know. Yeah, I didn't see any of the pre-production. Just forget that statement. Yeah. I actually think they want to protest. Donald Trump Elon Musk right now is basically, I don't I don't fully agree, but go ahead. Well, I think that he's buying elections and people hate that, but it's who he's buying elections for and that he has so much money, I was part of it. Yeah, it's the power, the power of his wealth. I think is disturbing people, but you're right in the it's the direction, they don't like. Yeah, go ahead. I think, I think it's great to go to. I am I Am pro this, I'll give it an eight, right? But okay, I would love, I would love you. People, you want to, you want to channel your anger, Channel it, in two places. Number one, what you really hate is that he's creating dictatorships, you hate Donald Trump, right? And you hate that like this, authoritarian, sort of new wave of authoritarianism. That's driven by the fact that he has. So many number two so much money. Number two, what you really hate is the fucking board that paid him. He should not have this much money and money not based on past performance money-based On a speculative Market. That that right, like, exactly like it's not actually based on Merit. The vast majority of the money that the tranches of the money that he made were doing during the run-up of meme stockness, that was Tesla in 2020, 21. That's when he got paid all of his money because let's not forget that. Even if you pull back the bigger picture, there really aren't even that many Teslas sold in the world. Like there really are that many on the road. I mean, this is not like a, a General Motors or Toyota. So, how how his company is. So viable is beyond most people and it's and you're right. They're angry at the the power that his well gives him he's paying off voters in Wisconsin with million dollar checks to so he can load the Supreme Court from a certain political. Well, he tried to influence the entire German election. He, you know, like if not, if Marine Le Pen in France wasn't just found guilty of embezzlement and barred from office. Know that he would have funded her entire legal fund and tried to get her elected. Like he's walking around the world with money that an entirely captured board in an indifferent, shareholder class allowed him to have great, you want to say that he's a fucking genius, which he's not, he's he may be great. But he's what he's a genius at is taking your money. That's what he's really, really good at taking investor money, get it and taking it and keeping it. I got more on us. So yeah, I'll move on. All right. Yeah, so you're, you're gonna come short. I want to know, you know, you can continue around on this next one. Oh, I'm saying, yeah, like that. So, Democrats are raging against Elon Musk but some are still buying Tesla stock. Oh no. So help me out here because I just want to have a conversation and you can you can you can give me a score about the conversation but Matt which is the best vest and I'm not talking about one of those like dorky vests that they wear like a hedge funds. I'm talking about We're at Walmart. Yeah invest divest or protest. Like oh wait test protests maybe Pro vest but what do you think? Should should should you divest you need to add a Patagonia vest in there too? I should you should you divest from Tesla should you invest and vote out the the captured board you're talking about like help me out with this headline? I mean like look these this is a hard question because at some point a seat at the table is not a seat at the table, right? Like it depends on the situation tech companies, not or yeah, go ahead. But I think like, this is an opportunity. This is still Tesla is unique because it is not a dual-class company. So when you divest, you do lose the option to change the vote. You can change the vote by being at the company. Right? Yes. So in Tesla's case, I think the best vest is invest. And vote is what I think. Okay. So in other words, be a good a free flow and alex.com. I think you need to vote out every single director including Elon Musk. So you don't even need, I will say that one thing I love for analysts.com. It's the only what is it? It's the only the only platform measuring board power connections, performance for free but I will say, in the case of Tesla, you don't really need free flow, analytics.com. You I think the chance of Delaware made it clear. Vote them all out. I mean they're out. They're in directors the yes, so cool. But but Democrats raging against musk and buying the stock does. I don't know what to do with that because I don't think they do. They know how they're votes. Get another proxies. Get voted. Do they is awkward? It's awkward. I don't like it. I don't like any of it. I don't like any of it. Moving on. This one's right up your alley. This is kind of tangentially about Elon Musk but not really expert blames phones. As a driving factor for the declining birth rate that Elon Musk warned, could lead to human extinction. All I do like, do you like phones being cited? As the reason why we're not having less babies. I love a declining birth rate. I see you want the primates to take over again? Yeah. Honestly like I know the arguments for like the the increase in birth rate a really about growth right? But yeah that isn't growth. The thing that gonna kill us. Planet, cannot sustain. Yeah, I don't get that growth. Currently have right. And the only idiot trying to get us to Mars. The only idiots are people who run companies have nothing to do with Mars like Amazon's Jeff Bezos or Tesla's Elon Musk. Like if every person was living a middle class to upper class life whatever that would be if every person had it then you could say like you know like you know some growth would be fine but at this point more the merrier yeah the bottom 50% like own 1% or less of the assets of Earth like and that means we've privatized the natural resources for the most part we've private Like, all the money is in just a few people's hands, like the inequality Gap globally is so large. As to like, who, who do you want to fuck with, like rabbits exactly. Like, who do, who do we want to have babies? Are you? I mean, having everyone born into poverty is the good idea, right? Like wouldn't well, it is. If you're wealth requires us to keep buying televisions, that's and requires poverty. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, so what's your score in the second thing here? It's not the phone, it's social media, it's so it's social. Well, I, I think it's one of the same, they're suggesting. Well, if you had a phone that had no social media on it, you still bored with the phone. You go outside, right? Like well I don't know Netflix and all the other stuff get gambling you know like actually think that March Madness doing 24 hours of gambling would be incredibly hard and binge watching Netflix for nine hours a day that would be a little use case. That would be a small personal. Got the even markets, even like NASDAQ near construction. Larry Fink was talking about this. They all want you to be able to buy and sell stocks 24 hours a day. Every that's just like, just, like FanDuel wants you to like bet on pickleball at 3 in the morning. If the baseball player too high. Yeah. I don't know why my brain. Well, at least there's not like, who was time for six, who has time for sex but it's not a divisive political thing, right? Like like right now, only four guys, four white guys, right? Where you remove those four white guys from the equation. You look at your phone, you do some gambling, you watch some TV, but you still go to work. You still like you have a barbecue, like, actually the gambling part is kind of social. As in ice, when you spending time with people, you're like who do you have on the game tonight, or stock? You like it? Yeah, that's a conversation. At least you're having one because you got rid of, you know, read it and you got rid of, you know, Zuckerberg and must At do it on social, you have to do it in person. I'm giving this a like, wait, I don't know how to grade this because I just, I just want to know if you're excited. That someone was blaming the phone for, for destroying, but I'm excited about that. You like that birth rate. So, like, I'm gonna give it for just declining birth rate. People understand that. What I'm curiosity. Who do you want to take over Turtles primates like what do you should? Who should be the next Master species? Excellent, elephants. Know I, I think primates had their shot. Yeah, I think it's time to go back to reptiles. They only look, the only reason why it's not a dinosaur or economy and actual dinosaur could be an asteroid, right? So dragonflies, I really like dragonflies. I'll be okay. All right, let's try to speed up a little bit here. Oh no! This is what this one's gonna slow you down glass Lewis recommend. Oh no glass Lewis and ISS recommend vote. Against CEO pay at Goldman Sachs. Matt there again. Something and what they're against specifically something we talked about a lot is the combined a 160 million dollars in retention Awards, giving to see EO Diesel and President John Waldron. Here again something Matt. They found something that they don't like, did they suggest they're voting against the entire nominating committee, or that? No, I don't actually say anywhere. No. And nor would they actually take it that far right? They won't because the compensation committee. Absolutely should be a Target here. Of course. Why would you why wouldn't you vote against the people who set the pay, you know, who also, you know, I know he's not in the meeting like because he's technically not allowed to be air quotes but isn't DJ diesel, the head of the actual board. He's the chair of the board. Correct believe. So yes. So if you are the boss of the group that sets your set the agenda. Yeah. Can't Shouldn't shouldn't every investor. Who doesn't like the pay vote against the chair committee that chooses the pay and the share who receives the pay, which is completely normal in most, in most of Europe, to vote against to protest against the chair of the board. Absolutely. So glass Lewis, I SS go all the way. Nice halfway effort, Uncle always zero. I love this quote. This is from glass Lewis. The provided discussion regarding the rationale and the proxy statement is far from robust. Oh, really nailed him. Oh, what are we even talking about here? Like, they really got him if they had written like a couple of more haikus and poems about it. Maybe they would have, they would have fallen for 160 million dollar retention bonus, be honest. If they had written a haiku, you would have voted for the past. How about this? One out of Australia and forgive me for. We don't talk a lot about Australian companies. So I'm going to butcher not only the name of the company with the name of the woman. Who's the CEO? The headline is, it's woke to be anti woke. I love this. I love that. Wow. It's woke to be anti-wolf, that's from the CEO of Macquarie. Yeah, her name is Shimara wickrama yaqui. Again, forgive me, I don't talk about either of those and he's very often. But how about that headline? It's, whoa. I woke and Matt, according to free flow, analytics.com. This company has a positive, 10%, gender influence Gap. The board is majority women, five women three men. The top three holders of influence at this company are all women. I mean, this is just outrageous. You don't see companies like this, very, but I have to give the headline a five. It's what, come on. Because how dare? You know, I can't be wrong. I'm the Arbiter of Truth. Yeah, I just said, how dare you? I didn't say you were wrong. Well, the buzzers saying I'm wrong. Yeah. I have to give it a five because I don't understand what she actually is saying. Is it is it bad to be anti woke because woke is bad, okay? I like that you're getting caught up into the semantics you're caught up into the, the Bill and Ted's, Excellent Adventure of it. All right. It's like it's a Time loop. It's about to the Future kind of warp. Yeah, I don't like what she's making fun of what she is. Doing is she's actually making fun of the anti-wolf crowd saying, oh, now you're the woke one. We'll see. I only you read the article. I guess I did. I only have that the headline to go off. Well, no, but I told you this company is a positive. 10%, gender impact know, I know suggesting they're very woke right? You know, but but she could be saying that it's good to be anti woke because that's the thing to be right now, or she could be saying, yeah, she is bad, focus on the sheep. Part of this book is bad, so so it's woke to be anti. Woke meaning, anti woke is Good. To be, I don't understand. I, in fact, and US federal government and all the Boyer research types, they're probably already gonna vote against her because the first three letters of her first name are she, it's oh, so she's gonna be on some list of really excellent point. She did, she is banned from being used in federal documents anymore. So that's a five for that headlines. That's a five. What was your what was your score for the glass Lewis ISS? Goldman Sachs zero. They all right, they're giving the vote. No one in advisory vote and not a vote. No against the people. I don't get it. Feel, feel free to go quickly on this next one. Hooters restaurant chain known for skimpy, wait staff outfits files for bankruptcy protection. Oh Out. But isn't that woke to make that company go out of business? I feel like that's woke to make them file for bankruptcy. Shouldn't we be giving them a like a federal bailout or something? A Red Lobster filed for bankruptcy, too. Like is, yeah, but this is a company that celebrates like demeaning women and putting them in horrible outfits. So short, celebrating women. Yeah. So should all that said, and think of it that way, that's true. They're actually they are they're feminists, right? Because they're celebrating women, they're feminists. Yeah. So may a couple here. Yeah, as a joke, I have gotten my wife, a t-shirt from Hooters. I've actually, I've never been to Hooters, except with my wife, the ironic gift-giving at the mascardi house, right? Exactly. It's ironic gift getting. When I went to Hooters to buy the T-shirt I walked in, is his like I gave it to her for Valentine's Day. I thought like this is kind of fun and funny whatever because they didn't mean women, that's what made me this is also. But by the way, how you described your wedding was all ionic joke, a little bit? Yeah. It's a shame wedding. Yeah, I walked into Hooters and this is no word of a lie, right? Like I'm already outing. The fact that like I have probably bad taste and says a few more. No word of a lie walked into the Hooters to buy the T-shirt? Yeah. Asked you know the host where was this? Yeah. Where was this? By the way? Where was in? Rhode Island. Okay. Uh, it was by the airport in Rhode Island, does it get it? Where else would it Prosper? Really fear that? Like, and I bought I while I'm standing there waiting for them to bring out the T-shirt. I look over and again, not a word of a lie. There is a little league, baseball team eating there. I was just Gonna click. Did you was there like a bunch of bunch of like a bunch of like young kids there? I'm not kidding, they were like 10. 11, 12, year old kids there like eating was with modern day version of like the Bad News? Bears was like, who like and dirty male coach. It was really gross. It was the former CEO at Primark and yeah. No and Kroger yeah, yeah. I'm gonna give this a five, I don't care. Yeah, I mean I I got I'm with you Matt, like all. So from New England, I don't actually see Hooters knowing that there's really not that, that's what makes it the joke. Yeah, we're a little bit more adult up here. Like we don't we don't like put our waitresses until like weird tight, revealing outfits. Like, we don't need that to enjoy a nice meal up here. New England, know it's not required for the wings to be good. All right, let's get to Larry Fink. Our favorite blow heart. And Matt, we're going full circle on all this. I'm, you know, I again this is a bit like the Back to the Future comment about its woke to be anti-woke. So an annual letter blackrocks, Larry Fink emits, climate change, Dei and ESG doesn't talk about them at all. But Matt, where we started this company, we were yelling at Larry Fink in BlackRock for his fake theater around. Supporting ESG climate change because we didn't buy any of it. We thought it was bulshit. We wanted him to prove it. So do we even have the right to be mad about this? I'm just confused at where we should stand on this, but you're the Arbiter of Truth to help me out on this one. So I read the letter, he talked all like the vast. The majority of it is about their retirement. Like but something that scares me Gap, the private and entering the private Market, which I don't like because we saw some public companies, big part of it. It was about the retirement Gap. You links to retirement, Gap to private assets and all so talks about tokens and block. Cheney but organization. Yeah, talk about fractional ownership but which he said will will democratize shareholder voting, but I don't really know what that means. Is that none of the Democrat. The fact is yeah, you you we have built a system in which all of our future like existence is predicated on a stock market that needs to go up all the time and this in order for that to go up all the time, you need to have high birth rates and people buying TVs in perpetuity. I don't, I don't care. TV is the one, the one thing in our culture, still that are affordable. Look, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna give this a 10 and I'm gonna give it a 10 because he did not talk about, he does talk about energy transition, he mentioned Renewables in it. Yes and and he and he mentions Energy Mix. So but he does say like solar can't keep the lights on all the time and it's like, okay jackass today they you know, We get the infrastructure is not set up for that at this very second Larry, right? Like, yeah. With you simultaneously talking about retirement funds, for people, like who are young and setting up. Savings plans, wouldn't the best thing to do with those retirement funds be to invest in something that allows solar to keep the lights on all the time. Right where my mind immediately goes to people like Larry Fink with with his a bit with his authority and power is that he should be the first one yelling at the Trump Administration. How dare you take away these grants to our to our academic institutions America like, without that R&D funding, like how are we gonna solve our infrastructure problem? He has a big graph on there, but the trillions of dollars needed for our infrastructure in the future for, you know, optimism the grid. I mean where you're yelling at the wrong things. I don't know what you're doing but no way. Yeah, there's no way and but I will give it a 10. I'm gonna give it a 10 because he Brilliantly does not care about the things he didn't care about before. It is true, I feel like it's a small victory, right? It is, I mean, I feel like the left is seeing this in the wrong way. Like like, Larry Fink was never gonna happen. So Dei that was that ESG. Yeah. Great super, you you omitted the thing you never cared about in the first place. That's what we should be celebrating. All right, here's a good old-fashioned headline. We can go quickly on this one, Johnson, and Johnson about the last five, Johnson Johnson loses in court. Again, in bid to settle tout cases, a judge dismissed, an attempt to use a bankruptcy court to resolve tens of thousands of claims that the companies talcum powder products caused cancer. But this one, this is just never ends. This case, never ends. I just don't care. That's right. Just I like that. I like Johnson and Johnson loses. That's okay. That's L'Oreal lorielle reaches. A hundred percent renewable energy in Europe. Should we still care about headlines like this? We used to have tons of headlines like this. Well how are they keeping the lights on at night that's Larry how much call lorielle is there. Some still like, like oil stained Macho, Man with a big mustache and a Hooters shirt is he like, is he keeping the lights on? Is he actually running on a hamster wheel? All giant extension cord is plugged into the like the belly of Houston, Texas. Is that what he's doing like? Yeah, that's correct. I'm giving that a 10, okay. Oh, how about this one? Speaking of anti-walk? Target Target cannot get its footing after its Dei program. Demise in a 40-day boycott against the retailer foot traffic at stores is down for the eighth. The eighth consecutive week, all disclosure Matt My wife and I officially joined Costco. Yesterday we made our first trip to cost. We had a long conversation about Target about the pride backlash about their Auntie Dei programming and this guy had a lot to say about it. He told me that that they are getting just so many memberships. Exactly, on that premise. Wow. Tells and he tells corporate every time, people tell him this that corporate that they want to hear this. It's important to them. So yeah, this is what I heard a Costco yesterday which has nothing to do with this headline. But yeah, what do you think about? You know, honestly, like it makes me respect the the rest in peace. Charlie, Munger more, who was a huge Costco guy. He loved the hot dogs. That's right. Yeah. I actually walked by the hot dog. In my wife said, do you think you'll ever eat one of those hot dogs? And at first I was like, shut up because I while I ate a hot dog but then I thought, you know what? Maybe I try You will have a stomach ache for three hours afterwards but it will have been worth it. Look, Target. The lesson here is you can't, you can't win this, you have to have actually a principal, you don't have to stand up and say we believe in Dei or we don't and we have justification for our belief because this is what happens when your fickle and you're just chasing the quick Buck you're going this way you go back that way you're going to like what are you gonna go next? You gonna double down on Dei and bag. All the people who left to come back because it Once you're out of people's routines, once people figure out a way like the Brilliance of a 40-day boycott is that in 40 days, most people would have gone back to Target for something diapers, you know, paper towels, you know, some, you know, face cream. They'll run out of shit. And if you can avoid, going back to Target in 40 days, it means you probably don't need to go there at all. You should go somewhere else because shopping is really, it's just kind of a, it's a ritual. So, if you get you get like comfortable going somewhere else, then you'll just keep doing that. I mean, first of all, not only does Costco have cheaper gas, but but the employees are paid. So, well, Matt, they're up to 31 dollars an hour that they seem so happy that they actually help you with stuff. Everyone, there was super nice and helpful, and I was thinking, why are they so nice? Here I am remembered 301 dollars. Yeah, it's actually living wage. Yeah. I so I also should say that I bought a share of Target when they Announced. Yes. That they were cutting the Dei programs and one share. Yes. And I just want to vote against all the fucking directors. So if you are like boycotting Target, feel free to go out, buy some cheap stock and vote against every single director and see what happens. I was gonna say to a real, feel free to go to free flow, analytics.com. And look at some of the board members to Target because a lot of them are performing, very poorly and you absolutely should Target the book. The Sport. This is what's happening at this company. Yeah, so I give this a 10. I like that. They can't get their footing like they're more owns. So played everything wrong back to France. France demands Volkswagen face new trial over dieselgate emissions. One of the biggest scandals to hit the Auto industry so we're we're still mad at Volkswagen. Should we be I you don't care, I don't care. This is a five. Thank you moving on. What about the fact that this headline keeps? You see this a lot? I don't know why. There's a few shareholder votes that catch the attention of business news. Disney maybe, Starbucks, maybe Apple Disney shareholders vote to remain in, in battled lgbtq plus ranking know. It's such a mouthful that headline. Well, first of all, they didn't really vote to remain in inbound. Like, it had nothing to do. This is a Human Rights Campaign, right? Yeah. And how about the fact that all these headlines? They don't have any understanding of the non-binding Sheryl proposal. Yeah. But and whatever. There's no reporting on it. They have no understanding of the average votes that these actually receive. Right? Like the average vote with management management set will say vote against every shareholding. 1% of the time, they will say vote with the shareholder or they will have stained. It's so rare that you basically never see it. And in this case, Disney's shareholders Disney basically just said vote with management and management says vote against every shareholder proposal and the vast majority of shareholders blindly vote with management. They don't give two fuck's what the actual proposal asks, or they vote with a proponent. And this case, the proponent was an Anti-woke non-material Financial, there's no analysis. There's no data, they don't have a track record of actually show employees theater. It's just fucking political theater and shareholders, aren't gonna do that. So this was a, this was a more of a blind vote than a sort of endorsement of Human Rights Campaign and Andor Disney. This is a five. This is nothing. I want to point out quickly. Go back to Larry Fink. So Larry Fink said, in his letter it was released on Monday. I believe. Let her to investors. He was talking about tokenization. He said, it can democratize shareholder voting, and he said this. He said, when you own a stock, you have a right to vote on the company's shareholder. Proposals, that's all he said, oh, I just find it here that he ate percent of the vote, he missed. Yeah. He's he's not talking about any of the management vote. But I just, I I again, I like how they hide the truth about the non-binding nature of these proposals, and the fact that that despite the fact that you'll have a fractional vote in the future, it's not going to make any difference when the top three, institutional shareholders control, basically like what 40% of all companies and Larry well, vote, no against everything but I like this Larry. I like your fakery here. There's only one fucking vote that matters. It is the vote for the people, that's the only vote that matter. You don't have to vote for a single share, a little proposal. If the people on the board who did their jobs and hired and fired management and represent investor interest. If those people did their fucking jobs and weren't just management cronies You wouldn't have to vote for a shareholder proposal. You wouldn't ask to ask for more data because you know what you could call up your board member like a shareholder, send them an email and say something like look we're worried about this wrist response and their job is to respond to you. It's not to just represent Management's interests. If you voted for the right people, you wouldn't have to have a single non-binding shareholder proposal. So yeah, that one's. That one's a nothing Burger. It's a five two more, two more. So we can wrap up here. ADM. To cut is that art is that Archer Daniels Midland am. To cut, CEOs, bonus after accounting Scandal hit shares. Oh, now I'll let you either do the headline or I can tell you a little bit more information, which I know will kill a score, but what do you think you can? Do you want more information? You want to just look at the headline, if the the, when they say ADM, do they mean the board actually set that? Like the board is a bonus. Yeah, it's a decision made by the compensation committee. Yes. Okay. So, so we're recognizing that the compensation committee has the power has a role as a role to actually pay the CEO. That's a good thing. Sure. Like they like now now I'm sure that the details of the originals are, right? Like they didn't actually cut anything. No Scandal was actually a big deal, but the cut was nothing. They probably managed like transfer to be like longer dated options. Absolutely. Is that what it was essentially? I mean, really the details are dist. Ring. So, so really his, his, he's getting a 1.2 million dollar annual cash bonus, which is less than his Target of three, three million. Meaning that his total compensation Falls from 24 million to 22 million. Oh, and I think that the errors in the financial reporting led to nine million, nine billion dollars of market value. So nine billion dollars of market value a race from for shareholders results. In a pay that goes from 24 to 22 million. So I'll really got it. So really took one. The lesson here is every million that you will lose a million dollars in compensation for every four point five billion dollars that you lose, right? Like that's the lesson that's that should sink in hard, right? Because now he can't buy that Island in what a joke off the coast of Maine that he wanted to buy. I mean I assess in class Solutions just instead of like going through your like song and dance of like you know, the discussion wasn't robust. Why can't you just call it what it is and call it a joke? I actually it's a joke. Give this though, I'm going to get. I know the amount is is a joke negligible? Yeah, but I I I just need to applaud the fact that there is a compensation committee, somebody voted on something to do something. Yeah, like I was so I'm gonna give it a six. I'm gonna give it a six. All right, and finally because we gotta wrap this up, this is going on. Is the greatest show we've ever had one more deeply into it. Well you'll be thankful for the one that I got rid of one more headline for the good game of oh April Fool's Day 2025 and this is something that you referred to earlier, Bill Burr Bill. The headline is Bill Burr, eviscerate, Elon Musk. So let me give you a few of the quotes. He said, everybody is afraid of these nerds, I don't get it. They're horrible heartless people. Yeah, but but let me give you the Fuller, the Fuller quote that you actually kind of hinted at that. He said like you were a fucking nerd. Nobody banged you and now you have hair plugs in your laminated face. Everybody is afraid, these nerds, I don't get at their horrible. Heartless, people. So Bill Bill, he's saying it better than ISS. I feel like he's really, I feel like he may be should work for ISS. I write in the in the proxy analysis that that would be great. At least that I understand this analysis, I kind of get what he's saying. I, I would read that report. I don't get like the discussion wasn't robust enough, I don't really understand what that means. We've been saying on this show for like months or years. Arguably, that these are middle schoolers they're Middle School boys. They were nerds that got picked on and got wedgies and now they have billions dollars and like when Zuckerberg turned to basically like do fellatio to Donald Trump, we said the first thing that we said was effectively that this is a guy who just actually know we said it when he started firing, when musk fired people at X and Zuck, basically followed Uncle musk into the breach and fire people. Matter. We said this, he woke up and realized he has fuck you money, we can do anything. And no one is going to question it because he's got, fuck you money and we don't need this in society. I can tell you that. Well, guess what? It turns out whether you're like a frat, bro, who gave the Nerds the wedgie with, fuck, you money, or you're the nerd with the fuck you money. What you've got is a vendetta and you hate a group of people that's basically all you got because this is your like, this is all about retribution. It's just retribution for you instead of somebody else. When? I will be to Bill Burr. Congratulations. I I agree with you. I'll give you 10 because I agree with you but the fact is until women have all the fuck you money. I'm not going to be interested in anybody else having the fuck you like the your horrible with it. You're you're petty little vindictive, man. Flake's you're a little middle schooler so like like and and must came out last week and was like I don't understand why people don't like right. Like yeah, well maybe you should listen to more Bill Burr. Maybe you should not send like messages with checkboxes that says, check here. If you like me. Otherwise, I'm going to foreign countries. Foreign countries like yourself. Yeah, adults. Did they vote on Trump and musk and France? I don't remember. I think that's it. That's a good. Can I just say for the record? Not that anybody cares, even you, I know you don't care. I know he doesn't care. This is your highest score. Since April of 2024, you actually came in at a 6.9 at 7. A 7, what's going on? You're saved there are some ironic 10s There. Okay, but still like, I can't like, give me. Did your kids orthodontist, like, forget to bill you today or something? No, you're such a good mood. I'll be for the first time since like October. I got a Starbucks iced coffee. Oh, you're jazzed up. This is already the data Queen. You're old Jazz. That's all we got. That's it. We are free float. Actually the one you cut was one that I wanted to talk about. You know what I'm gonna I actually we're gonna cover this on the front on the Friday. It's about the headline is three areas with the boards, spend their time but don't see results. This I thought it was a more like nerdy wonky discussion. I was talking about on Friday. I think it's gonna be the entire asshole. Yeah, I like it. I like that. It's fabulous. We'll come back to that. So that means we have a show that you all need to come. Listen to. We got A, we might have a pricey countdown. Oh so much work. A lot of work here.