Zuck’s tough week, women save climate data, and Sonnenfeld fights for dictators

Yeah, yeah. this one this is just mean the start of the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is just say stuff. Live from the twenty twenty six dinner party awards. Did you know there were dinner party awards? I I was not included in the dinner party. Where Jeff Sonnenfeld just won two top categories. What are the what are the categories? The man nobody wants to sit next to and the man who will name drop fifteen fortune five hundred CEOs before the appetizers arrive. That's a category. It's so niche. Wow. That's a g not only that, it's three percent. It's three percent of the Fortune five hundred that he's name dropping. It's a business pants Friday show here at July tenth studios featuring analyst hole Matt Muscardy. Yeah on today's weekly wrap up, Zuck sells crack, James Dolan is still creepy, and a billionaire lectures people part four hundred and fifty eight thousand. Yell ho. that sounds like another classic episode we have lined up. Actually, this unlike a lot of our episodes. Our show today is being sponsored by Freeflow Analytics and Freeflow Analytics.com. The only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for free. W we are now daily spending a lot of time in the beta, the new beta version of the platform. No joke, it actually exists. Some actually some some people some of our listeners in fact actually have access to the beta version. This thing is fantastic. It's ridiculous. Yeah. Love them. not only does it exist, it's insane. I don't think people underpr like I not to like s to to kiss their butts or anything, but they have this scenario model section where like you pick a company and then like pick a scenario and the scenarios are like, you know, like met Jeff Sonnenfeld and he said you were laser focused. Is your board ready for it? Ridiculous. Yeah. That's n that's not true. Actually that is kind of true. Actually that is sort of true, yeah. Does anyone know what we're talking about? Probably not. How many how how many people in our audience have heard of Jeff Sonnenfeld? One? Probably has. You ready to go? It's kinda true. It's it's not not true. No, that's that we're thr it's old school. Anybody who's listened to this show for more than two years, yeah, probably has. But but yeah, let's just do this. Sweaty. I had to turn off my cooling device. I'm s I know, we and we have no HVAC anymore. A new system gets installed next week, so I'm hot. yeah, otherwise I'm I'm just too hot. It's too hot. that's why you're basically naked over there. I keep wondering. Story of the week. This is boy, this is a weird week. I d I didn't know I I kinda I kind of like what I picked, but I didn't really know how to pick. the first one was the only one that was super obvious. Social media's big tobacco moment. Although th they've been saying that for a while, but but here we go. Met Meta faces one point four trillion dollar fine for allegedly fueling teen suicide and addiction. I mean Yeah, it's every week is that. If they are fueling teen suicide and addiction, that that seems like an appropriate find to me. Those are bad things. Now, here's the most interesting thing about this lawsuit, and maybe more than any lawsuit that we cover in this space. they're being sued by 33 U.S. states, led by California, Colorado, Kentucky, New Jersey. Now I did the math. Looked at all the states. I did the math. Twelve blue states. Twelve red states and nine purple states. So this is completely it's completely divided. This is this is a co this is the the country hates what Mark Zuckerberg is doing at Meta Platform. I mean, and it's not just this the attorneys general at at these states, I mean it's just like poll after poll and different institutions and research and That's all the states. That's everybody. Does, yeah. And a and even your the European com everybody, everybody hates what Mark Zuckerberg is up to. And and and he must be good at it because dude the dude is really, really wealthy. He must be really good at addicting people, right? Right? I mean I've watched The Wire. I know how this works when you make an addict. I know how the the drug king pins, I know how they get rich. I get it. Well not everybody hates it because he's I I'm just saying not everybody's pissed because the stock is up this year. So so not everybody not everybody's pissed. Not all the states. Yeah, that's that's true. And and shareholders always approve everything at at Meta Platforms. So I I I I I know it's mostly Mark Zuckerberg, but he likes what's going on. Yeah, he loves it. And and according to an op-ed I read in in Fortune magazine, we should be thankful that we have dual class companies like meta platforms where Mark can drive people to He loves what's going on. Mark Zuckerberg loves Mark Zuckerberg, that is for sure. Suicide, an addiction. Without whom without whom would we have education? Would we have non profits? Would yeah, I mean like the that that's Right. Well, as Jeff Sonfeld argues in Fortune, that i i you know, d i i a dual a good dual class owner like Mark Zuckerberg could be really good for long term shareholder value. That's really co that's really cute. It's really cool. That's it. okay. Sorry, I'm getting all weird. the states allege that meta deliberately designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive to children and teens, fueling a youth mental health crisis. That's it. That's it. Let's come back to Je Jeff Sonnenfeld, 'cause I added him just to trigger you. Yeah. I I like how this this like throw in doesn't even really matter, but it it it does, but it doesn't feel like it matters. They also accuse Meta of violating child privacy laws by collecting data from children under thirteen without parental consent. That's just like a throwaway. Yeah. So the fines essentially equal essentially are the equivalent to the company's market cap, which I I think is appropriate, but that's just of course my opinion. I love that meta That was yeah, that's called the penalty out outlandish and substantiated and said that a s this is the quote a sanction of that size has no analogue in the history of consumer protection enforcement, basically saying, Well there's no precedent for this kind of fine Well there's no precedent for a a a dual class company like yours like running roughshod o over our culture, Mark. I well, they they did take issue. I love that like in an if it this was an investor day, they'd be talking about how many users they have. In when it comes to the size of the penalty, the states counted the teens and they multiply the penalty by the number of, you know, like affected users. And Facebook said, no, no, no, you're double and triple counting the teen users. You're just staggering As they should. Yeah, that's the problem, it's the counting. So on the investor day it's like we've got more than you could possibly imagine, but on the day when they have to pay a fine, they're like, No, no, no, no, no, that way overestimates the number. Come on, dial it back. It's I mean, I mean I'm I'm researching this article and I see another thing in our headline. I think you actually captured this too. I see another headline pop up where Mark Zuckerberg literally said, I don't think I'm ever going to stop. Even he says, even with infinite money, he has no plans to retire. great, Mark. That's that's wonderful. Why don't you stop? Why don't you stop? Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You could. He could. He could. At the same time, in the EU, Meta is found to breach EU laws. Instagram and Facebook's addictive designs have put Meta in breach of the European Union digital laws, violated the EU's Digital Services Act by failing to adequately consider the risks associated with design features, blah blah blah. It's the same thing that the states are alleging. Yeah, so we now we actually have you know overseas Yeah. It's the same thing. Yeah. So all the laws d agree, all of them. Okay, that's the first story. That's the big story of the week, according to me. no, I didn't know I'm not voting for that. I'm just saying that's one of the big stories of the week. One of the big stories. Well, the trial happens in August, so there'll be more to come on it. Yep. Second story, speaking of how do we deal with shit, right? The second story really interested me. A and god, it wasn't that long ago. What was her name? Jacinda Harden? What was her name? Jacinda Ar Arnurn Rn R like yeah, Jacinda. She was like this like great young progressive prime minister over in New Zealand. Now they've gone completely MAGA and they're all over to the right. So I mean, it makes me feel slightly good when I realize that it's not just the United States that i is swinging to weirdos on the right. But here's the headline New Zealand moves to ban climate change litigation. A hern, something like that. Or dern. New England has pr New Zealand has proposed a bill to limit the ability of individuals to sue high greenhouse gas emitters over the impacts of climate change. So they're not gonna allow the victims to sue the companies, but they they they say it's it's up to us, it's up to the government. We'll take care of the fines, which, you know, I don't feel too comfortable with, but so anyway, yeah. So you kind of have these two movements going on, right? You have the The right wing governments, we like we're seeing here in Trump, are doing everything they can to get rid of regulation or or allowing people to fight against the companies. In fact, we even have Blowhards writing op eds in Fortune magazine saying, Hey, l we we shouldn't touch these founders and CEOs. You know, we have to le leave them alone. They're they're curing diseases, right? They're they're taking care of poverty. So And New Zealand is saying the same thing. Like, you know, yes. Don't touch the founders, yeah. They might be killing us, but you know, we we love the going through the drive thru lane at McDonald's in our stupid car. Like we love the stuff. But I mean I my favorite thing is spending forty five minutes on Netflix looking for something to watch. So that's you can't possibly stop that. Yeah. I actually saw a headline about Netflix saying that they're troubled that so the second season of a lot of their shows is not it's it's not like addicting people like the first seasons. They had the data. People are getting they're just not engaging in the second seasons and they're worried. They're like we we're not hooking them, right? So that now they're thinking right, so now they're thinking, what if we add live T V? Like we have to figure out how to keep these idiots watching this thing. I know, the drug isn't working. What if we add live TV? We're just going backwards with everything. I would say that the Prime Minister of New Zealand was the CEO of Air New Zealand. So I don't think he's Yeah. Yeah. He was he's in our database. Christopher Luxon. It's all come together. It's just it is. It's just all come together. Live TV. Keep Is that wait what? That's true? I I completely missed that. So I completely missed that. Wow, so it really is a a CEO's rule moment. And r and really Donald Trump has always been like a kind of a fake CEO. He represents a C he's never actually risen to the top of a publicly traded corporation. Yeah, I can't are you the CEO if all you do is sell like shit with your name on it, but it's not really with one organization? Yeah. W well kind of Well that Pillow guy, what's his name? They call him a CEO, don't they? They call him a CEO. Alright, that's the second story of the week. Okay, now we get it a little bit better. The third story of the week. I I I felt like I wanted to highlight I I I had this in Goodlius, but then I you know what? I thought this was worth highlighting. So all this year I keep yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah. Mike Lindell, yeah. Pointing out stories where judges are reversing horrible, stupid acts. In fact, there's one I didn't pick this week in Florida. Ron DeSantis's stupid stop woke act was struck down by a Trump appointed judge who said, Y you basically this is defying the first this is you the there's the first amendment. Like the colleges are allowed to teach about black people. Like It turns out they can say and do what they want. That's what how it works. Yeah. Yeah, they can talk about slavery. So and I I keep making the point this year that when I look in the article, it's always a woman. And in that case it was a woman, right? It was in Florida. again, a Trump appointed judge. So this is not just a a a Democrat versus Republican thing. But now so that's why I want to highlight this story. The women the headline is the women who wouldn't let climate data disappear after losing their jobs. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Yeah. Rebecca Lindsay, her sister Mary, and colleague Anna Eshelman teamed up to rebuild the resource. They took it, they so they took the data, they took it offline, and they essentially preserved over 15 years of key key climate data and resources on a new website. Noah, yeah. The the woman who's who's the main woman here, Rebecca Lindsay, was one of the two hundred and eighty thousand federal workers fired by Elon Musk and Donald Trump at the beginning of the administration. And and there are numerous yes, there are numerous reports. I was looking at an article today in the Washington Post citing that the the the the la the largest proportion of these firings were, as you pointed out, women and people of color. the D. sh see it was the DEI hire. Yeah, yeah. The the D. So they so they they s they preserved all this data. That the the data trove includes key maps, educational materials, climate indicator reports, and includes the now deleted Fifth National Climate Assessment, the government's most comprehensive analysis of climate change that Trump tried to delete. I this look, that's an I feel like it's an important story to highlight. They're heroes, they're data heroes. We don't have a lot of data heroes, right? I I love a good data hero. Yeah. Yeah. I love this. That's the third story of the week finally the fourth story of the week 'cause it's just a good old fashioned corporate governance nonsense story, which I had to highlight 'cause it's just so stupid. First of all Yeah, I I saw this headline, I did not read it yet though. First of I just can't believe that like sandwich companies are worth billions of dollars. I just drives me insane. I don't know. I people can't make their own sandwiches, but that's not the point. Here's the headline Jersey Mike's twelve billion dollar IPO filing reveals a fifty million dollar payday for the founder's stepson and a forty one million dollar jet. So first of all, I I I don't even really get it. I went the Jersey Mike's once in Illinois of all places, and it it just had a lot of mayonnaise seeping out of the bag. I I don't know, like who cares? But Here's the story. Here's the Gorpor government story. So, first of all, this is a controlled company, right? so there's no shareholders other than Blackstone have no input at all. This is a Blackstone controlled company, right? the bo I looked at the board yeah, go ahead. Yes, it's I don't know, right? Yeah. I don't know, exactly. Yeah, yeah. Is it an IPO then or is it just Blackstone raising some money? Like is this it what are we doing? well I'll call Jeff Sonnenfeld and ask him because he'll tell me what they're doing. So the I analyzed the board, eight members, eight directors, four of whom are from Blackstone, right? So they control half the board, including Chair Nigel Travis, who's also the chair of Abercrombie and Fitch, right? One of the non-Blackstone directors is Fran Horowitz, the CEO of Abercrombie and Fitch. So you have the Got it. Look at least we got a lot a lot of failed clothing on the board of a f of a restaurant. You have the CEO and the chair somehow on this board. You also have the founder and former CEO and former chair Peter Cancrow. He's on the board. And then your favorite, you always find this. They have a director, Cheryl Miller, who's a director on two other controlled companies. She's on Tyson Foods and she's on Old Dominion Freight Line, which is dominated by the Congden brothers. So they always do that. They always find directors who are who are just like on other controlled boards. Look. So one of the things I got one of the things I've I asked FreeFloat to do in their next updated data is to flag every director who sits on a controlled board in any time at any time so that we could just see where they are. Because the fact is, like the it takes a certain personality to constantly say yes to the guy who runs the company and controls it, right? Like so I wanna know who where they are. Yes. Yeah. 'Cause those people just probably say yes everywhere they go, don't they? Yeah. I wa you know, I wonder we're like giggling about it, but I wonder if it's actually a a little bit more I don't know, l a more intelligent of a process. Like maybe these people you know how like when you s I watch movies as a kid, people used to have hooks for hands, like Captain Hook or whatever. Maybe they have rubber stamps as a hand and they're just like that's just s simplifying the whole process. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So maybe that's why they're hiring them. Yeah, it's like Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. d doesn't like Robocop can't he like unscrew his arm and put like you just put the stamp on it and yeah, do that all day? Hiring disabled people? I don't know. Okay, so yeah, I went south fast. But okay, so this is what happens when you have companies like this, controlled companies with with pointless boards. first of all, founder Peter Cancro last year, he got a lot of swag. they gave him a $41 million jet. that black Blackstone gave it to him. And they gave him $166,666.66 per month to operate the jet. wow, that went t sideways. So the game that he got the jet. Yeah. They gave him a $41 million plane and they gave him that money. And they he owns properties that he gets about a million dollars in rent from the company, right? So he's getting rent money. But the best part is this. I have I haven't seen a list. I don't think I've ever seen actually a list this horrible. we always make fun of you know the Nepo babies running the world, but family, this is from the IPO filing. Family members of founder Peter Can't Crow. So he gets they write him a check to operate the jack. So And I love this line, were employed at Jersey Mike's in various roles. They don't tell you the roles. And there's no pun intended. There's no Jersey Mike sub role intended. But they don't tell you what they did. But here's the list. and I'm I'm not gonna tell you the names of the people, I'm just gonna tell you their family designations. It's the founder's brother, okay. If you c this is if you're keeping track at home, his son, his other son, yeah, his wife. Okay, yeah. Alright, brother. Son? well you gotta get both. yeah, obviously. It would have been sad if she was left out. His his daughter. Yeah. Daughter. sister in law. Yeah. Hi his brother in law. Well, I'm not done. His other brother in law. And lastly his stepson. Okay? To co Now we're stretching. How many in laws do you have? What? finally stepson brought into the fold. Combined over the last three years, these family members for who were employed in various roles, again, not executive roles, because they would have listed that, just various roles. They did say various. I quoted it. The combined total here is a hundred and twelve million dollars. Yeah. his stepson alone got fifty one million, his brother John got twenty one million. And again, they don't tell you they don't tell you what the money's for. They said various, various, yeah. Sandwich making among them probably. Wow. Yeah, but look, the t the grand total is cheaper than like three jets. So he could have gotten three jets or employed his stepson, yeah. That's true. It's yeah, that's true. So that's my fourth story of the week. The the sh the shenanigans going on at controlled company IPOs. Is there So my options are meta's upcoming trial basically. What if this was the end? What if it like worked? What if it all worked and it like they literally find them out of existence? I I I know it's not gonna happen, but what what if we're on the precipice of something wonderful here? They'll put no they'll put them on a payment plan and they'll pay it off by t twenty seventy three. Yeah W with Klarna? They'll they'll do it with Klarna because Klarna is is why aren't trying to IP no, they they just register to be a bank, Klarna of all people. The pay now, pay later. No, it's buy now, pay later. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. They wanna be a bank. Yeah. Buy now, pay later. It's it's layaway. It's it's layaway, but in twenty twenty six ex instead of it's just a credit card. And how and how was the trial and envision the meta trial too, where they're gonna probably ask like, I I also read that you're you're trying to add like betting to your platform. Like, cause they would they just announced last week that Meta Mark is trying to add betting, prediction markets to the platform. So like, how's that gonna look? Yeah. Prediction markets. Yeah. Yeah. in terms of in terms of what? Addicting teens? the second story is New Zealand banning climate change litigation, sh which is nuts. Well, the same b the the same prime minister, this Laxon, he actually repealed s the the ban on smoking. It's actual it's actual a dictat right, I mean what is it anyway, go ahead. They say it'll pass. They say it's it's poise pass. for anyone born after two thousand eight. Like they you couldn't sell to anyone born after two thousand eight, no matter how old they were, because they wanted to get rid of smoking in New Zealand. he w he he made sure to repeal that, despite the fact that science says you should definitely do that. the women who wouldn't let climate data disappear and Jersey mics IPO. Well look, the Okay. Yeah. That feels important. Yeah, that feels important. Meta thing is really in August. I'm not gonna call that the story of this week. It's it's like so we can push that one ahead. The New Zealand thing actually is just a race to the bottom of all these. The lesson, I think the lesson for investors and voters needs to be when you put a CEO in charge of a country, they treat the country like they treat their companies, which is to say, we do what we want. Okay, fine. Table it. It's like Dexit, right? It's like a Dexit race. Yeah. Yeah. We act like we have no bosses and we do every trick in the book to maintain power. That is not a great combination when running a country. So I I I I don't know that this is the story of the week, but Yeah, what's so what's so who why are people like I mean, I've been joking about this Jeff Sainfeld op ed piece and the fortune. Why are we so afraid of checks and balances? Like what's like isn't that what it was all based on isn't that the democracy it's all based on? Wha Wha We just celebrated the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the signing of a declaration of independence, so what are we exactly celebrating here if we're if we're dismantling all those like ideals? I don't get what we're celebrating. We really hate a good regulation. We really hate a good like level playing field. Trying to figure out if we are going to defend, like you know, Pete and can't Cancro's ability to hire everyone he's ever met and call it capitalism and this is they built the empire and this is fair, but also castigate anyone who says we should have a level playing field so that everybody can get into that game, right? What what are we doing? I I'm not gonna tr choose Jersey Mics because that one is like Yeah. Mm-hmm. funny and that horrible way that all of the stuff is funny. I'm gonna choose the women who wouldn't let climate data disappear. That's correct. That's not only is it a great story, it's a story that like is as important every single day now as it will be four years from now when we desperately want that data. I we need to celebrate more of that. That's a that's like a goodliest good story of all right. Well yeah, okay, sure. Yes. That is the right that's the right answer actually. It's a it's a great story. Yeah. That's true. Nice try, Elon. They the women saved it, yeah. Come on. Let's go to Goodliest. Speaking of Goodliest. I feel like are yours actually good? Are you being sarcastic? I got into a good streak. No, I got into a good streak this week. I well, the the first one is meta the headline is meta buried research linking Instagram to teen harm while facing one point four trillion penalty. go ahead, go ahead. yeah, I didn't even get to that. They yeah. They they no, I thought it was worse than buried. I thought they burnt a lot of it, th it was alleged. I mean, this is what the trial is gonna do. That's gonna be forget the penalty, 'cause they're never going to institute a penalty that wipes out the company. That would be like so un-American that every politician on the right would get real like elected fifty times w if they did that, right? That yeah, that would be like taking a ten percent stake in Intel, like a publicly traded company, just because you're a bully. That would never happen. It would never happen. Yeah, no one would b no one would be o it never happened. No one would be okay with it. But the reality of this is the depositions, the filings, the testimony, those are all going to be amazing. It's going to be how deep and horrible the shit Meta does is. Will it is it are we ever gonna be convinced for people just to del delete, to just move on? I mean, I I if you heard that Meta knew that your use of their platform was addicting and Meta actually fed that and then they stole all your data and used it to do other things, like the the number of headlines this week about Zuck were insane. Yeah, that was almost my my f story of the week was just the the the the nightmare of Zuck, but then I thought, you know, I I need to focus on one important story here. Cause you have some of them later, I think. What else? Well, anyway, so this is one of my goodliests. I have some of them later. another goodliest California versus Elon Musk, Tesla snubbed as new EV incentives boost Rivian and Lucid. So California, because the Trump repealed the federal subsidies, tax subsidies for electric vehicles. It was like seventy five hundred bucks if you buy one, which Yeah, tell me about that. What does that mean? Yeah, well I don't st yeah. Yeah. Stupid. They repealed because obviously they were going to. California instituted their own. But California put caps on it. They basically said any car sold, new car over $50,000, which is mostly not Tesla, and any used car over $25,000, which is again mostly not Tesla, can you get the California subsidy. But they also said you will get the subsidy regardless of the cost. Okay. Mm-hmm. If you're headquartered in California. So so Rivian and Lucid are in California and Musk very famously in the last year and a half just moved everything to Texas because he said, Fuck you, California. He basically said fuck you on his way out. So now California said, really? Now how about all your rivals get more of our subsidy money? nice. While yeah, while while pissing on California, yeah. Yeah, I don't know much about Rivian Elusive, but they they look nice. They look nicer than a dumb Tesla. And they they don't and they don't like they don't s act like a hate s crime or like a Nazi symbol. Yeah, not yet. Hopefully not, yeah. All right. What else? Yeah. I haven't seen any Nazi posts from Lucid Orivian. That's that's what I haven't seen. I I have one more, because I have so many, and it's it's ESG. this was the headline Madison Square Garden kept a list of gay celebrities. I have two. I have two. Okay. yeah, this is this is confounding. What what is why is James Dolan so creepy? What's happening over there? Okay. So first of all, the headline's totally wrong. Everything about that like I that's like a clickbaity headline to get you to click on it. The takeaway for me, because it's a it's a week of data, the takeaway for me was Madison Square Garden, James Dolan, Nepo baby like OG Petty Man Baby, James Dolan. It's wrong. Okay. Extreme. Yeah. His only track record I was looking at his like background, his education, his only real track record was that he was born to the right dad. Yeah. Yeah. He but he did do that pretty well, I gotta give him credit. That's correct. That's all he's done his entire life. That's what he accomplished. He did a good job of that. Madison Square Garden, the company he controls and runs, and stacks with board members that are all his family and friends, and he has them all on all of his entities. They maintain a database of the VIPs, but not just who have gone to Madison Square Garden, every VIP. And they label That's creepy. Yeah. What do you mean? Yeah. They they just collect VIP information in the database. And they give like a a a subjective score. Yeah. They label them, they've scored them a risk score. 400 celebrities get a risk score, and that risk score But be Interesting. Let me guess. A lot of the low risk are are white people, white dudes. No, th it's it's about how much they like or talk about James Dolan in a good way. That I'm dead serious. If you're so this this is from the article. If you're a celebrity and you're marked with a risk score, even a low risk score, it means you've done something in the publicity world, the social media world that has caught the attention of the wrong people, the source continued. That wrong people being James Dolan. As in James Dolan saw a post and said, Someone put that on the risk score. Dolan. my god. Yeah. Yeah. my god. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he famously like has banned one of the all-time great New York Knicks, Charles Oakley, for criticizing ownership, aka James Dolan. They also I learned banned one of my favorite rap artists as a kid. I used to love Pete Rock and you know, DJ Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth. Pete Rock can't go. What a stupid petty billionaire this guy is. I Yep, he rocks not allowed. Banned. I mean, can you imagine like like like what a hor and they actually, in the article, they talk about how some kid in Colorado, a fourteen year old kid, posted something and they sent police to his house. I'm dead serious. It's in the it's nuts. It's nuts. But the it's a they're calling it a talent database and it tracks celebrities' race, gender identity, sexual orientation. In fact, ninety three entries are ma No. What? Okay. So what's Yeah. are marked as L G B T Q I A. I don't care. Do you know that that's exactly what's in some ESG databases? What do you think that's about? That w I don't get that last one. Yes, but what is that? I don't really get that one. Why does James care about that? I I think because he w he he like any pretense to get somebody banned or to like I it's it's amazing. It he's it the every CEO who decries data and ESG and regulation, this is not the first we just talked about Peter Thiel has a ranking system to go to his dopey conference, right? We talk about these people, all they do is rate you and they I don't creepy. Alright, okay. I don't yeah, I don't know. they all have it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking hate being rated. It's amazing. It's the most hypocritical thing they do. Yeah. Well the seventeen the seven what is it called the seventeen seventy six foundation? What is that right wing organization that that they're involved with a lot of shareholder proposals. They have a list. Everyone has a list. the all the anti ESG proponents are now putting on ESG proposals on company AGM slates. Okay. My Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know the one you're talking about. Yeah, the sevent seventeen seventy six They're all doing ratings. Ratings. Amazing. Amazing. Those were those are my goodliest. I love that. My two are a little bit more straightforward and and quick and actually good. Amazon, Walmart, and other large companies could face new costs as New Jersey targets companies with Medicaid workers. So this has to happen everywhere. I I mean, if you're if your workers are getting any government benefits for anything, you should be paying right. Those workers? Yeah. That seems that would seem to be the case, yeah. Yeah, you should be penalized, paying the work whatever it is. That you should not you cannot rely on the government to make up for your how cheap you are. And then finally, UBS. I just like this. This is a good antidote to the James Dolan story. UBS says rich people will be younger, female, and openly queer thanks to the great wealth transfer. I I I we've been talking about the great wealth transfer for fifteen years. I'm actually skeptical that it'll ever get transferred. I think I am I actually am too. In fact there I did see something that the the a lot of the great wealth transfer is just gonna go to rich people's kids, like just the Nepo Nepo babies. Right. Yeah, I I well that's the tr that's the transfer they're talking about. I actually have a alternate theory, which is they will give it to foundations directly, not their kids, and their kids won't be able to spend it in the same way they did, or they will be buried with it. I can just see a world in which Elon Musk is like, just put the money in my coffin. Can I tell you what's great about data though? I'm gonna open up that story. younger, so the the what's the f the figure? So they're talking about how young people identify as they're openly queer now, openly LGBT right? There's not they're not hiding it anymore. Twenty three okay. twenty three percent identify as LGBTQ plus. Okay. This is the the current young generation. Now, here's where data is beautiful. I I just did the ma and I'm not kidding here. Everything. I just did the math from the data that you provided about James Dolan. He marked 93 people of the 400 as LGBTQ, right? That comes to the exact figure, 23%. It's the exact number. J Dolan's a genius. It's a great ESG genius. They Right, yeah. Wow. It's magic. It's magic. He is it Look, the ESG Raiders know that that's what that's the magic of data. That's the magic of the data. Gotta be one of my favorite dumb data moments of the year. All right. That are we done with Goodliest? Can we now be more depressed? I told you already. the n the number one. what's California? I don't care. Sure, let's have California. Yeah. Yeah, we're done with goodliest. What's your goodliest? I I'm gonna go with California, actually. Yeah, number one. All right, that sounds like a winner. Let's go on to assholes. Bah. All right. I've got three, but fortunately, we've talked about two of them, or at least alluded to to them. first I'm gonna go with billionaire amplification. There were three headlines this week, four headlines this week that just triggered me to say shut the fuck up. Like, you know, and I say it, I say that, I actually say that out loud as I'm reading these things. Like I get so angry about it. Okay, here we go. Brace yourselves. But here's here's the first headline. Ken Griffin says everyone is misinterpreting the AI revolution and wishes Zoran and Bernie would read a damn history book for once. I this one this is great. I mean you're talking about a g w one a guy who went to Bowdoin and a guy who went to the University of Chicago and he's yelling at them to read a book? Like two of the most prestigious universities colleges in the country. No, go ahead, go ahead. I don't want to ruin you. Go ahead. yeah. So here is the quote. Just so I I don't want to take it I don't want to take it out of out of context, so I'm gonna read you the quote, okay? Capitalism is, and he's he's referring to capitalism here, capitalism is the greatest success story in the history of humanity, Griffin said. Whether it's Bernie Sanders, whether it's Mom Donnie, he urged them to read a damn history book for once and then tell us how to run our country. yeah, like Right. For once. Yeah. Our country our country. Like in his praise of capitalism, he ignored all the parts about capitalism, like the slavery part of capitalism and the inequality part of capitalism. He just said capitalism is the greatest success story in the history of humanity. He offered no data. He didn't cite a book, but did say that they should get a book. I was just like, shut up. Why are we listening to Ken Griffin? Because he's rich? Like Well, stop. Yeah. I don't know. This is again, this is fortune. I I don't know. I don't know. I think that j I think that I I've now r come to the full conclusion that most of the headlines like this are just to trigger free float media. 'Cause we're the only ones who who pay attention to the business world. I I'm just so tired of because you have a lot of money, I'm supposed to listen to your opinion more? Like you said nothing with facts or evidence, you just said shit. I mean look i if you Ken Yeah, Ken, if you're gonna say shits so like if you're gonna be s if you're gonna exaggerate, be so hyperbolic, why don't why don't you list five damn history books that we should get that will help us understand your point of view. Yeah, like what are like Why don't you list one damn history book that you read that supports your your thesis of the world? I mean the history section is pretty big. I should I get the War of Eighteen Twelve? Like what am I reading here? I don't like I know like yeah, well how far back do I go? The plague? I wanna what do I need? All right. That then there was this one. Jeff Bezos quote made all of our lives so much better, says billionaire investor Tim Draper. Okay, okay, now before you get into this one, is he saying when he says our life because because Ken Griffin just said don't tell us how to run our country and I'm assuming he means the billionaire class. So is is Tim Draper saying made our lives better meaning like billionaire investors, like VC capital, like those kind of people? Or do they mean me? Do they mean everybody? So he does say no, he does say Draper said he has benefited from what Bezos has done, but he said that after saying, quote, Amazon has made all of our lives so much better, and those geniuses who create this incredible world for us are benefiting all of us. yes, I believe that. I believe that. All of our life. But again, does But does mean when he says us and our does he does he mean his buddies? Who's he talking about? I so it's unclear, but he's saying that two people in an audience. So I assume he's saying all of us and it wasn't just billionaires in the audience, it was a podcast he was talking on, right? It's funny, you could you could probably speaking of books, I mean I'm sure there are already books written about this, but y the the I can't imagine the size of the book of of how many ways that Amazon has been bad for society you could write that we could read. I mean, anecdotally, the the story you hear most in Portland, Maine, when you talk to people about, you know, it's not a big city and there aren't like a ton of great jobs, for the f just for like the working class, middle class. Y so bad. Whole Foods used to be a place that that a a lot of people would rely on as being there was a good camaraderie as a pretty good wage. People were pretty happy there, whether they were in transition, whether from other jobs, or whether they were working artists, whether maybe they they made a career out of retail. I have not heard of a single place that had gets more shit since Jeff Bezos bought Whole Foods. The the morale, the anger, the the people like they are so mad at the transition of working. So I just hear it all the time, so I don't know that's just anecdotal my anecdotal evidence. That's true. Terrible people You don't even have to stop there. Washington Post, Bezos literally said they were terrible people and he fired them, right? Like a like a like the a cult an icon of journalism. terrible people. At Amazon they're peeing in bottles because they don't get bathroom breaks, right? Like what are we doing? We're we're we're we're saying he's made our all our lives better because what? I got a rubber chicken faster in the mail? That's what I that's what made my life better. What what did Amazon do to make our lives better? Yeah. Yeah. They are peeing in bottles. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah, what else you got in this category? I I couldn't the o I mean I I I I guess I would I mean I I don't know. I well I was thinking like maybe there's someone in the middle of Nebraska who is like homebound a and you know really needs toothpaste and could get that easily. Can we name five things? It made shareholders' lives better. It used to be that their neighbor would help them out in a neighborly way and bring them the toothpaste and then they'd sit down and have a conversation with that neighbor and they'd feel better about themselves because they had human contact. Now a drone drops it in your fucking chimney, right? Like like horrible Santa. Yeah. here's another one. Two more. Forty Epstein Tide billionaires have injected one point six billion into US election report fines. Yep. Would bring them toothpaste, yeah. Yeah. Well it's true, or and you use AI to combat loneliness. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, what else do you have in this category? Yeah. Yeah, this is important. I mean, don't forget the the Supreme Court just made it even easier, right, for billionaires to inject money into the election process. What are we fucking doing? Why do we why should we listen to them? Because they have so much money. And these are the millionaires and billion here's the other one. These are the millionaires and billionaires pledging to fund Trump accounts. Well, you don't have choice. I you know what? I I'm glad you mentioned this. I was actually gonna I shortlisted that story about it got a lot of press that the what's her name? Gwyn Gwynn Shotwell, the s CFO at SpaceX is pu very publicly d donating some shares. Of course it's a we don't really know how many shares and two of these accounts, three hundred million dollars. Of course, you know, it's a pittance of f whatever. I was gonna include the story as a you know to Gwyn Shotwell, yeah. The CEO of SpaceX. They said three hundred million dollars worth of three hundred and twenty five million, yeah. Here like maybe there's some good to this. Maybe we should be praising this, but I I couldn't be bothered. This is not the way to Yeah. And this is also n it's it's always quid pro quo. It it's not a donation for nothing. You're not giving something to the Trump administration without expecting a contract. Six months from now they're gonna win a contract. Well the not only that, but every time he s n w often when he touts these companies, he just touted Dell vociferously the the stock shot up. Anyway, these this th this is not the way to solve the crisis facing the lower and middle class in America by just donating to a a a Trump account that y Yeah, it's all it's all a game. Well, according to Bezos, he said this is the way. Like w you could he said he said you could tax me, but that won't solve the problem. Well, I mean it's not even You have to opt into this account anyway. It's not like a it's not automatically given, right, to everyone who's born. Yeah, okay. All right, what else? What else you got? Okay, here we go. No, this is gonna be all graphs. There's gonna be some mess. Anyway, number two, Zuck. All right, I'm just gonna read the headlines and I'll just read them one at a time. We don't have to stop because we already talked about Zuck, but it has been a week of Zuck. Meta AI data center contractor triggers biohazard scare after flushing rare bacterium into public sewers. Everyone knows all this. Break of Zuck. Now would that be could we sue for that in New Zealand? no, no. That sounds like climate related litigation. Yeah, it's c climate-ish. Yeah, it's climate-ish. and I also saw that right before I saw this headline, meta platforms to build nine billion dollar AI data center in Canada. So I love that I saw rare bacterium next to we're gonna build another one of these things just in Canada next. This climate related, right? It's like EPA related. Yes, climate ish. Sorry, Canada. Sorry. The $145 billion lie, Zuckerberg's leaked town hall audio exposes massive AI failures after mass layoffs, some of which you covered. Meta jumps into AI coding market in effort to chase anthropic and open AI. Who in their right mind would be like, you know what who I want to have access to all my code? Mark Zuckerberg. He won't steal it. Well considering he's been failing he's been failing a lot recently at all at these ventures. Yeah. I do give him credit. He was smart to buy the addict machines of Instagram and WhatsApp. Those were that was smart. Yeah. Yeah. What else? At everything. in fact Yeah, and steal the attic machine from the you know, the Winkelvoss twins. I saw that headline coupled with Hollywood versus Zuckerberg. CAA Warren's Meta's AI image tool needs a major privacy overhaul. Like, yeah, okay, Mark'll he's on that. Don't worry about it. Mark's got it. And then I and then you said you mentioned this already. I don't think I'm ever going to stop, says Zucker Mark Zuckerberg, even with quote, infinite money. He has no plans. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Mm. He said that? That's a quote, the infinite infinite money. He said that? my god. Infinite money is a quote. Even with infinite money, he has no plans to retreat to his massive Hawaii estate. What a what a what a what a mensch. Well, the good news is someone can stop It's just not investors, the government, or anybody else. Mark can stop though. Mark is there. Well, according to a op ed I r I read in Fortune magazine this morning, we shouldn't be trying to stop him. All right, number three, let's go to it. And I added it this like literally thirty minutes before the show just to trigger you and it's Jeff Sonnenfeld. Jeff Am I the only one that gets triggered by this? Is something wrong with me? Well, here's the here's the headline. SpaceX's super voting shares put a decades old governance debate back in play. No, it's not back in play. Believe me, it's but go ahead. So the but the headline's pretty innocuous, right? Like it's just kind of like it sounds like a governance nerd, you know, talking to a governance nerd. But the whole article is by you have to know who Jeff Sonnenfeld is. He is a Yale professor. He's he's a Yale professor. He he started the Institute for CEOs or something, you know, like it's like some insta something like that, the i leadership institute. Yeah. That's the most important part of him is the Yale part. Yeah. Whatever the hell that is. Yeah. Where where he where he awards CEOs for things? Every year he gives out award to like the greatest CEO he's ever met. And every year he makes a point to throw a massive, massive party for the CEOs. They have a conference. Where I'm sure there's a lot of like a where there's a lot of revenue raised through like advertising and It's just CEOs who go to the conference and the CEOs include all the big ones. And he makes sure you know about it because he talks about how well he knows all these CEOs. He talks about it a lot. Does talk about it a lot. Well, he did win that award. He won that dinner party award. Yeah. So he penned this article with his like co conspirator Steve Ch Tian, who I I think is his researcher, Yeah, they that's always the case. In fact, they they style themselves as the new the modern day Lennon and McCartney, I think. That's what they call themselves. Yeah. I think I saw that somewhere. Yeah. I think he said he knew Lennon and McCartney, and that's why. so he could say that. Yeah. He this whole article is in defense of Musk and SpaceX, but mostly it's in defense of dual class shares. But more than that, it's opposed. He's attacking like the governance, he called them governance theorists. And here's here's their here's his quote. Yeah. But he didn't know Ringo, 'cause that he's below him, yeah. It's really not about that. Yeah, he's attacking somebody else. Quote, the rigid formulas of proxy advisors create a perverse socially destructive incentive, hoard your wealth like an oligarch to maintain your good governance rating, or give it away and risk losing your company. Th think about that sentence. Create a perverse socially destructive incentive. So okay, so can I just give you a little bit of context of what where that quote quote came from? He's suggesting that the these these governance, you know, nerds, these wonks, that that that they're upset that that that their the economic interest in the company doesn't match their voting power in the in the company, right? None of that has ever happened. Yeah. Yeah, the the nerds, yeah. Yeah, that's the basis of their argument that one share of one vote matters. So so what he's saying essentially is that that they wouldn't sell their shares because if they didn't have the dual class provisions, then then nope they wouldn't even sell their shares to get the money that would help humanity because then their voting power would dip below fifty percent. But since dual class shares are in in place, they are able to sell a sh a boatload of shares and still maintain majority voting power. And it's that they're saving humanity by doing that. And that the proxy advisors by not letting them do that are so are perverse, socially destructive, right? 'Cause they're cause they're forcing them to hoard their wealth. I I the whole thing makes me mental. I don't know what he's talking about I think actually my the the the fact that the fact that we have to deconstruct it this hard is already a problem. No, but I think it's this. I think I think he's basically saying in a world with dual dual class shares, you can you can actually you get a bad governance rating, but you're you you can spend your money. I know and I didn't explain that. Well, forgive me. Go read the the wonderful scintillating Go ahead. Yeah. Because you can sell your sell shares and make a lot of money but maintain control. Yeah. And the socially destructive incentive is that in a world that's all one vote, one share, you would have to hoard all your shares to to have the voting power. And they're talking about just the just the founder and controlled. hold to have the voting power. And have a good governance rating because it's one share, one vote. That's the only thing that's a good governance rating to him. The good governance rating is one share, one vote, and you hoard everything. And so then you don't spend anything and the system breaks. Or you sell shares and lose your company. And that's socially destructive. Mm-hmm. Right, right. Yeah, 'cause we we see that happening like basically never. But yeah, go but that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I really don't know. I don't know. I I I'm sure he could what what Jeff Sonopold you had the f funniest line to me off off air, which is I love an academic writing this, you know, pretty like pithy you know, all these pithy statements, these hyperbolic theories Who fuck is he talking to? Like this has never happened in the history of ever. Without a single citation. Not a one academic citation from this academic in this article. Not one. They're all just they're all just opinions. I what Jeff is best at is he fine he's thinking of like one anecdotal moment in the history of public corporations and that's the and and that's kind of the basis of everything. But he doesn't even he does he doesn't even really cite that. It's just something in his mind. Come on, Jeff. You could do better, Jeff. yeah. No, that's not fair. I actually read this before I got triggered. I didn't get triggered Yeah, one guy he talked to. But the one that triggered me, so Sonnenfeld's name triggers you. Here's the quote that triggered me. Could actually open because as you said, the title is innocuous. I actually opened it because I was interested in the in the subject material. Yeah. And what is the yeah, what it was gonna be. Quote the proxy advisors want a world governed by rigid mathematical formulas because auditing a checklist is easy. First of all, there's no math involved in what ISS and Glass Lewis do. Like you have no idea that proxy advisors do if that's what you think, because that's not how it works. But going on, evaluating human character. Industry dynamics, track records of success and failure, and the capacity for visionary leadership is hard. But it is exactly th that hard work of judgment which is vital when it comes to dual class shares that is time for the critics to step out of the theoretical vacuum and look at the real world scoreboards. Yeah, that's like yeah. And by real world scoreboards he just means sh the share price, right? Because if he meant anything else, you would have to concede that dual s the the real world outcomes of dual class dictators include thwarting democracy, hoarding wealth, Nazi like Nazism, like it's it's the worst possible shit we do. god I wished I I wish Jeff Sonopoe was the lead lawyer on this meta case 'cause then he could all he would say is in defense is I our shirt price went up. And they would lose. Yeah. The thing that triggered me though about that comment was evaluating human character, industry dynamics, track records of success and failure, and capacity for visionary leadership is hard because this is the same Jeff Sonnenfeld that wrote in defense of ex-Being CEO Dave Calhoun that he was the man to lead Boeing out of the Max 8 plane crisis that Dave Calhoun caused. Mm-hmm. That didn't last. Yeah, it didn't work out too well. With no again, with no evidence. By saying he was laser focused on safety. He then went on to defend ex CEO of Norfolk Southern, Alan Shaw, calling him laser focused on safety after the massive like train crash in Palestine, Ohio. Well that w That one was weird because even the I don't remember the proponent, there was an activist investor involved with that. Even Ancora was like, Wait, is Jeff being paid for this opinion? Like where's this coming from? Like where'd this ninety page report come from? Wha why are you what are you doing? Ancora. Not only that d not only did it seem it seem weird, but like there was no like they cherry picked up a whole bunch of evidence to say Ancora was wrong. And then Ancora won like a majority of the what they wanted for from the proxy battle, and the CEO, then CEO Alan Shaw, was ousted because he was having sex with the head of legal at the company. This is the guy who said evaluating human character and the capacity for visionary leadership is hard, and that he is using that as an argument for why you shouldn't use data to do governance. You need to look at these things, but no one does that except for us, except for me, Jeff Sonnenfeld, citing no evidence and casually ignoring all of the failures of his. In backing these things and every dual class dictator. But he but Matt, you're missing the point. He works at Yale. He works at the Ivy League. I I just kinda love I can I just say I'm thrilled that I I never had to have him as a professor. and he and he's probably happy I wasn't in his class because I would have driven him crazy. But but I've never met an academic who's just so petty. I mean he he calls and I could cite several lines. I'll only cite one, referring to the mindless mechanical checklist of proxy rating firms, Glass Lewis. And I say he just That's all I was missing the point. All right, so those are your three. I look It he's constantly throwing out these barbs. Like he's just like a I don't really get it. I just don't get the industry that is Jeff Sonnenfeld. I don't get it. So we get triggered 'cause we use data to evaluate leadership, character, industry dynamics, track records of success and fail track records of success and failure is literally what free flow analytics does. Yeah, and you and you know the reason why we s we sweat this out to to use data to do this? Because for thirty years the ESG industry was hammered because they we were we were we were told that all of your evidence is anecdotal. It's so where's the data? Where where is the objective data? So we're providing that. Yeah. So we provided it. But but worse than this, I know Jeff Sonnenfeld. I should say I have met him. I don't like know him personally, but I've met him. I went to give a lecture at his class about ESG. He was on w one of our very, very early podcasts. like Jeff Sonnenfeld is a known entity, and since I mean, since the in the last five years, Okay. Okay. Ooh. Okay. I feel like w it's all totally off the rails. Like I it's all anecdotes, it's all fist bumps, it's all bro culture and the worst kind of bro culture. Like it's the just the absolute worst. Anyway, those are your three. You've got billionaire amplification, Zuck and Jeff Sonnenfeld. Woo. This is ass holiest of the week. I mean come on, I mean you you want me to vote on this? I but the problem is I don't want to vote for the thing that only I care about and only we talk about. Yeah, I know what you're gonna vote for. But I No, you're doing the asshole of the week. So, I mean, it could be Well, Zuck, okay, let's be clear. Zuck cannot be of the weak, right? I mean, he's he's in the he's probably in the category of of the twenty first century, right? He does have he has dual class shares and assholeness. Yeah. But he's of the twenty first century, like asshole of the twenty first century, right? And I and even I wouldn't put Sonnenfeld up in that category. I'm not I'm not a jerk. Musk, of course. Yes, of course, absolutely. and Bezos. Billionaire amplification. Again, it's like it's not it it it does get me, but it's not a new thing. okay. yeah. Mu would musk musk's gotta be that too, yeah. Yeah. And it is becoming it is the new clickbait of our of like the business world. And and I and you're right to point it out and you're right to be angry about it. But if we're really just gonna go of the week, this op-ed from Fortune I mean, I'm sorry, but it's gotta be Jeffy Boy, right, doesn't it? What? Hefe wins. All right, let's go on to headlines winners predictions. All right, let's move on. I'm sticking with the the top the topic of the you know, the potential societal ruin created by AI, at least with our brains. Like maybe maybe they will develop ways of like, you know, y you won't need a band aid to to it when you have a cut 'cause AI will have solved that or whatever. But I I'm just hoping it I can tell it to flush my toilet, like from you know, when rather than touching anything. That would be a feat. Well but here's the headline. Open AI wants a one trillion dollar valuation, but college students are testing at the level of 10 year olds. And the other headline is suspecting AI cheating. Ivy League professor ordered an in person final. Scores fell 50%. That one does not surprise me. Yeah. And I know cheating isn't cheating is not new at universities. it it but I applaud this. This is actually your alma mater. I applaud. Well Well What is this generation doing? No, but we've never been so dumb about it. this guy. I applaud him though for it's like get your butt in here and take this test. Like I'm sorry, but but put your put your computer away, put your phone away. I don't know. I I think our examination's gonna have to be all like oral exams soon because or like we have to watch you write. Well we used to write in a blue book, right? I I would g right we you wrote essays by hand. I mean that was at brown? wow. But but we weren't we weren't allowed a single we c we couldn't look up things. I don't know. I don't really understand. I'm I applaud him for telling them to come in and take the dumb test. Yeah. Well, they used to y like yell at us when we I tried to bring like a Walkman in 'cause they were worried that you'd recorded the answers on the Walkman and it was like I just wanna listen to music. Okay, I guess not. Well of course. Course. And the you what the you know what the antidote to failing is? Studying. Yeah. I mean it's really and they've and the professors have they've given you like a very clear outline of the whole semester of how if you just stay ahead, you're gonna pass the exam. They've given you the formula. Yeah. Studying, yeah, doing some work. Do some fucking work. But look But here's your big problem that you have a gap between what the professors are saying, which are which is you need to learn this. You need to do the fucking work. You need to think. And what the CEOs are saying when Alex Carp and Jensen Huang are saying, you y your college education is worthless. You should be a carpenter and electrician. You don't need to learn any of the shit that they're teaching you. That's true. Y your college education is pointless. Just go learn how to screw in a you know, a a piece of wood and attach two wires because that's all you're gonna do. Well, a and not to mention we joke about it all the time, but the the you know the but the headline of of Netflix like freaking out because they're not addicting people is a serious it's an important headline, it's a serious headline because I'm I'm old. I went I graduated college in the nineties. I don't I didn't know a single person who had a TV or anything remotely like that in their dorm room. I didn't know a single person. So there was no there were there were not behemoth market cap billionaires like d Yeah, it's real. Desperate for my attention, trying to addict me to shit. They didn't exist. The only thing they had was cigarettes, really. Like cigarettes and s and weed and and beer. Like I don't that was it vying for my addiction, right? And it was and those things helped me study, frankly, and I got good grades. So I don't All right. Okay, let's get off of this. Yeah. Where are we? What's your headline? Yeah, j whose job it was to addict you to something. Yeah. R a and it did a good job. It did a really good job. It was great. All right, my head I got two headline this. Here's one. Waymo takes revenge dropping drunk teens directly into squad of cops. I have mixed feelings about this one, but I'll I'll yeah, I I I like it and I hate it at the same time. So I guess I guess when you get in a Waymo, there's like somebody there's a video camera in there and they're monitoring you and and and I guess someone someone like occasionally they look in on it and they see all sorts of debaucherous behavior, but two fifteen year olds got in a Waymo with a bunch of alcohol and a bunch of guns like that shoot the little water beads. you know and they were roaming around in a Waymo, shooting people out the window and drinking. I didn't know that. That's creepy as F. That's weird. And the Waymo dropped them off at the San Mateo Police Department. Well, if this is true, then then I hope Uber sh should lose it's it's a big class action lawsuit against Uber for not protecting specifically women against like assault and harassment, you know, from the drivers. Then if Weibo can fix it and and figure it out, why couldn't Uber? Wha what Uber couldn't do this? right, okay, okay. What else you got? What else you got? well, those drivers aren't employees. That's why. That's yeah, that's your problem. The second one, West Virginia spent three million to create university program to fight woke ideology. One student is enrolled. Yeah. I'm surprised they found one. That'd be that's a way to to like not get a boyfriend or a girlfriend is if like you join that you join that group. I mean, isn't it? That's like the fastest way. All right, who won the week for you? Free Float's new platform. Yeah. I was gonna say j I was gonna like sarcastically say Jeffrey Sonophel, but we we covered that enough. So I'm just gonna say free f I I spent some time with one of the creators of the platform this morning and again, like I for not many of you know me very well, but I so I'll say this. It's I don't give out compliments very easily. Like I I'm helpful, I'm nice, I hold doors, I just we got the same winner. I I mean Yeah. Well I th I It's hard for me to compliment. I don't laugh a lot at at like stupid TV shows. This platform is amazing. It's really incredible. Matt (01:00:03.236) Yeah. It's pretty it's got a lot of stuff on it. Damion (01:00:06.43) No, it's yeah, it's and I've I've spent years looking at at at data sets that cover corporations, that cover CEOs and board members. I've tried to find places that that concate c that that that that collect news stories about these these things, like like current events. They don't exist. They they suck. They're out of date. But this platform has it all. All right, I'm gonna stop babbling and stuttering. Matt (01:00:30.467) Yeah. Well now they do. Matt (01:00:34.893) Well, I I have free flow data as the winner of the week. And because I saw this headline, Elon Musk in the age of corp the corporate Leviathan, a report out of The Economist. It was an opinion piece out of the Economist, where they said, quote, above a certain size, the ordinary rules of governance apparently ceased to apply and then went through a process to take the largest companies in the US. Damion (01:00:38.155) You do, okay. Damion (01:00:54.837) Right. Matt (01:00:59.591) and said of the 16 listed firms worth more than one trillion, seven are shareholder fundamentalists, meaning all they care about is shareholder value. Free float says of the ones that they listed, multiple of them are actually just dictatorships, totalitarian. next were corporate paternalists like the Berkshire and Google and Meta, and they're also totalitarian. And then the final group that they said was destroying the or the end of Damion (01:01:07.115) Mm-hmm. Damion (01:01:22.133) Right. Matt (01:01:28.279) you know, the corporate governance was SpaceX and Tesla, which Free Float also has this total basically what the economists did is look at Free Float's data and said, wow, these companies are totally fucked. Did anybody notice this? they did. 'cause it's in the data. It's all in there. It was already in there for for everybody to see. So nice of the economists to recognize Free Float. Who's your what's your prediction for the week? Damion (01:01:53.236) Jeff Sonnifell writes something in Fortune that triggers me. Matt (01:01:58.243) That's funny because my prediction is Jeff Sonnenfeld writes something on Fortune that triggers Damien. That's gonna happen again and again. Damion (01:02:02.537) Yeah. It's gonna happen again. I can't actually now I'm excited. Now I'm kind of excited, like I you can never predict what his subject will be. Like I love the tr the train one was the best. You you the Norfolk Southern one. I I just it came out of left field that one. Like who Matt (01:02:12.845) That was so good. Matt (01:02:16.811) I I I still talk about d Dave Calhoun being laser focused though. It's a laser focused Damion (01:02:20.661) Yeah, that one's great too. So so it's like what's next? What do they do you think they giddily start the next one as soon as the right? They go to the newsstand. They go to the newsstand, they buy a hundred copies of Fortune, they leave it around their like their office, and then they start they giddily start the next piece, the next think piece. Matt (01:02:26.8) I think they read the news that we read and then just say the opposite. Matt (01:02:38.403) That's all we that's all we got. That's Hazelnut Rollis. I'm your analyst, Matt Miscardi. We are free float. If you want beta access to that free float platform, you can email Matt at freefloat.lc. Just reach out to us. We'll get you in. We have ins. We have invites to hand out, and people are actually using it. And the feedback that that we've heard from the people who have used it is Damion (01:02:48.383) Reach out. Matt (01:03:03.003) like life changing. It's you know, if you do any governance work, if you if you just want to know the business news, if you wanna make jokes, if you wanna read the zine, if you wanna it's all in there. So go get that. Otherwise, check out the crossover pod we did this week on proxy countdown and shareholder primacy with Mike Levin and Ann Lipton. We talked about the twenty twenty six proxy season. Otherwise we'll be back next week. Until then, goodbye. Damion (01:03:04.925) It's a great platform. Damion (01:03:17.631) We did? yeah. That was this week?