Transcript
Yeah, yeah, whoa yeah. Whoa, amazing live. From a pile. Of dark chocolate dipped kittens. The whole new thing, terrific Tuesday edition of businessman joined by analysts whole mattress. Garda you hear him in the background? There is Matt mascardi. Wow, four ground baby. Four. Ground on today's calorie-free. Double Big Mac called February 4th 2025. The who do you blame game? Oh, the blame game. Our show today. Is being sponsored by free float analytics.com. The only platform measuring measuring board power connections and performance for free. Wow. Wow for free like totally free zero dollars. That's wow. I mean, this is actually the perfect game to demonstrate the power of that platform out because I've what it is is kind of showing you. Some of the ways you can use data from the platform to see who to blame at companies when things go wrong or go right. These are all negative stories. Some of these are positive. I don't really do positive stories. I've got three here and I don't do positive. So let me explain how this works. Matt, who do you blame game? I'm gonna I'm looking at headlines over the past few days and then I'm just looking for four potential people or things entities, whatever roles. I don't know at the company to see who we, who do you blame? You get to tell me. Right, right. It feels like a sad game, but we are in the age of blame, aren't we? Blame it for everything? So, I guess we're just in the Zeitgeist. But again, it's just a way to help articulate how to how to use the data, okay? Wow. Just like a salesperson today. Yeah, well, I don't know about that. Let's see, let's start, let's go. You got some music for me. Oh, that's the music for, Who do you game show music? Well, remember a couple of these are positive. Let's start with that. Let's just start with a generic one. Here's the headline. Well as Fargo CEO, Charlie Scharf Get pay bump to 31 million dollars. That's the head. Wow, 30. All right, so I just now that way that we play is I just pick someone? I would blame for that. Yeah. And I got four choices for you. Matt. You know. I got choices. You got choices. Oh okay, here we go. Multiple choice. I like this. Here we go. Is it the CEO himself? Charlie Scharf for being greedy. His pay ratio was is already an alarming 325 to one last year. So it's gonna go up. So is he to blame? Okay question. Yeah, sure. What about shareholders are they to blame? So in 2021 43% of shareholders voted against Sam pay in 2022, 27% voted Again, Sam pay but then the last couple years over 90% have supported because the company has kind of tweaked some of the PayPal's these. But but yeah, they tweaked the poles. These but this CEOs Pace steadily and magically increasing every year from 21 million to 25 million to 26 million, to 31 million. So what are the shareholders so happy about? Do you blame them? The real, the real question is, if its 31 this year, it's 26 last year. So it's 2024 or 2023, right? 2022 to 2023, you only got a million dollar raise, what do you do wrong? That's the real question. So the second choice is the shareholders, the third choice, how about pay committee chair? Ronald Sergeant, ooh, why on Earth? Matt would you ask the former CEO of Staples to control? Setting the pay for a fellow large cap CEO? Why would I do that? I actually know the answer that because they're the former CEO of Staples, right, but do you blame him? Because that's a conflict of interest there shouldn't be CEOs or former CEOs as the chairs of pay committees that should we should vote against all those. Oh, I just heard a ding dong. That is the sound of ISS saying? Yes, that's who you blame for for it. And finally, do you blame female board power the job? No, I don't like this. The gender gap at Wells. Fargo is minus 19%. So Matt, the five women on the board at Wells. Fargo control. 20%, abort influence. While the top five men control 68% of board. Influence. So, so you're saying they have too much power and that's why the men, the men have too much men have too much power and that's why he's getting paid. So yeah. Do you want to recap you want to just vote? I can vote. So the it was Charlie sharp from himself, it was shareholders. It was paid committee, chair, Ronald sergeant, and a lack of female board Powers getting richer 31 million. Ah, man, I am gonna go with. Well, I know, Charlie sharp has 19% influence on the board. I know Ronald Sergeant has 18% influence on the board. That means they're basically exactly the same person on the board, but I, my favorite thing to do is blame shareholders for everything. So I'm gonna play, even though it's an advisor, might be right, doesn't really matter if you keep supporting it. Does is it really Ronald Sergeant who's supposed to be like? Well the shareholders keep saying yes, we should change it right? Like is he gonna do that? There's no incentive there. So I think its shareholders, that's what I think. This is why I'm advocating for different ways of looking at all, the data that we've kind of been in a rut for last 20 years in corporate governance. And instead of falling for all these policy tweaks and like saying, oh, you know, you got rid of that three year performance period. Now you have a four-year performance? Is it a song for all that? Why don't we look at other things? Like, I suggested that we look Get the CEO pay ratio, that's just simple way to say yes or no, you pick a number. I pick 100 to one for me for my portfolio. I also suggested if that's too much pick 365 to 1 or lower. If the CEO is making the pay of the average, median, worker in the first day, vote against the pay. Yeah, that's seems reasonable one day. You, you surpass all your average employees that seems reasonable. Yeah. Because otherwise the policy tweaks are doing nothing because the page just keeps going up every year. I do have a like, a sort of soft spot in my heart for the sneakiness of like you go from like a three-year to a four year, you know, like you know, a thing but you half the time like my favorite little tiny tweaks that like no one pays attention to one year, but they're doing like every single year is when they if you fall in the bottom quartile of TSR. For instance, if you're like the worst quarter of your peers on performance, you only get 75% of your bonus, that is really fabulous. I would love to be the bottom of something and still get 75% of whatever. Like I you know, I was in the bottom Court tile in track and field that the Olympics, but I still come in the top 25% when it comes to the rewards. I love that. Well, that's why I thought you might have voted for pay committee, chair rental Sergeant, but your choice is a good shower, let's move on this. Actually, this next story is I'm calling It a positive story, I guess it depends on your perspective. Yeah, the headline is the city city group City bucks back to office, Trend and Embraces hybrid working, Embraces, hybrid working, okay? So who do we blame for this really? Or, you know, you that's the negative way of saying it but who do we think for this? So do we think the board because a of 14 directors are women? I mean our women more tied in to the needs of hybrid working, maybe Yes. I mean, crazy evidence suggests that they are mostly because they end up by defaults being the people who have to stay home when their kids are sick, right? So, like, do you blame the board for this positive decision? How about the next choice? How about the CEO in 2021? Jane, Frazier became cities CEO and the first woman to lead a major US Banks. So do you blame her for this? This worker friendly initiative. The word blame is kind of troubling me when I say that is because I think a positive thing but I'm saying blame but I got you. I'm with you, how shareholders Matt just last year, 26% of shareholders supported a shareholder proposal requesting a report on the effectiveness of cities policies and practices and respecting indigenous people's rights. I mean, how is that 26%? It, that's a massive number. So maybe maybe shareholders are kind of kind of progressive kind of cutting edge here at city, so maybe you blame them. Yeah, maybe maybe and finally do you blame Chief Human Resources officer. Sarah wechter. So Sarah serves on the board of Onex Corporation. This is really rare to see a Chief Human Resources officer on the board of another major company. And in her Biomat, she is actually has the courage to admit that she has championed diversity, equity and inclusion effort to Cross City, leading the firm and exceeding its original three-year aspirational representation goals set in 2018 for women globally and black talent in the US. So so she also could be a candidate to blame for this. Worker friendly initiative, a city. So just based on by the way you like when I answer this, it whatever I answer is correct. Yes, sir, win no time. Or you know if you're a logical you know rational intellectual type you might just think all the answers could be correct. Um, I am gonna go with, if we're going to have headline after headline, after headline, that says CEO, mandates returned to office, right? Like like big in the Trump musk Administration. They're big on that. They are, they're all about. Like, everyone's got to be in the office and you got to work 100 as a week, like, because, because it's not, it's not okay for you to have any downtime. Everybody should be in founder mode, despite the fact that you get none of the upside of founder mode, you still get your normal paycheck like you telling federal employees. Right now, musty selling federal employees. Effectively like you should act like you're in founder mode at a startup working, except that those people get equity in the federal government, you get health care that's that's basically all you can ask for. All right. So yeah I like that. I like the cities approach. I don't know the staying at home all the time is a great thing hybrid. I love hybrid. So If you're going to, you know, say big shot, big swinging. CEO is bringing everyone back to the office. Then I think we got to say Jane Fraser. All right. Is the one who's saying, you know what you're doing? Great. Just like, keep up the good work. Well, you know, adults Turkish culture, wherever you want, sir culture? Yeah. All right. We are adults, right? Like, sort of like, I mean, the people who go into the office and play Minesweeper all day, are the same people who would do it at home, it's not exactly like, you know, like just being at home, you know, makes the dynamic that much worse, so at home, you just play mine, sweeper, you just play in your pajamas at home. Yeah, yeah, it's comfortable. Yeah, the third headline for the who do you blame game February 4th 2025 McDonald's Shamrock. Shake returns. I hate this hoodie Blaine the CEO Chris Kempinski, Matt. He is a CEO pay ratio of 1,212 to 1 which proves that he doesn't care about anything really but anything but himself really, right? I mean what does he doesn't that prove that he's the only one that matters so could be. Oh yeah. Okay, do you blame the chair? Oh wait, oh wait. That's that's all. So Chris, kimchi, the CEO. Oh you walk me right into that. Yeah, I just like pointing out the absurdity of the CEO is also the chair. It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard His Own Boss. That's the first thing I've ever heard of the third choice. Here is the lead independent director a man that you know and love Matt miles white who is clearly not independent having served on the board since 2009. How is the independent that's only 15 years? It's like that's 16 now. Yeah. And finally, do you blame the sustainability and corporate responsibility committee chair? This is the committee that monitors such strategies covering food, sourcing the environment human rights. Dei Etc. His name is Paul Walsh. This is the god that used to sell alcohol. He was the former CEO at Diageo and is currently the executive chair at a company that sells expensive racing cars. Wow, that can you imagine? That's the, that's your chair of the sustainability in Corpus responsibility. The guy who sold booze and expensive racing cars. I had so mcdonnell's. Yeah. Um, wow, these are so many good options. It's either, Chris Kim, jinsky or Chris kimski or the guy who Chris come shinsky picked to do one thing or the guy that he picked to do another friend. Their Friend. He's really hard. It's got to be Chris himself, right? I mean there's no there's no doubt. Let's move on the next headline. Open, AI files, a trademark application. For humanoid robots and VR headsets as Sam Altman teases. Big Hardware Ambitions. I don't like this one at all. Matt, nobody does. So who do you blame for this one? Do you blame the CEO? Sam Altman. The guy who refused to be fired by his board while subverting the companies mandate and Mission. Do you blame him? How about the chair? Do you blame the open AI chair? Brett Taylor, the guy who comes from Twitter Facebook Google and is clearly just interested in what he actually needs. How about the board? The board for allowing a CEO who was previously fired partly for lying to the board to sit on the board as a director. Like, do you blame the board? And finally, how about the two women who nearly fired? Sam Altman, former open AI director's, Helen toner and Tasha McCauley. Do you blame them for not getting the job done? Oh wow. That one seems like a low blow that one. Seems like he chose that one. I'm gonna go with. In this case. Yes. I, I think everything has to be Brett. Taylor's fault, right? Okay. Everything like Twitter Facebook, Google. That's quite a resume. They brought in Brett. Taylor after the two women were asked and, and Brett Taylor is instantly supposed to be the one, overseeing Sam Altman, right? Yeah. And, and everyone knew that he was not going to do that if Brett Taylor had a spine, He wouldn't be like he wouldn't have been at Twitter at Facebook at Google a company that basically just enriched College dropouts, right? He would spend his time Overseeing what he's supposed to oversee. So if you, why would he invite Sam Altman to sit on the board in the first place? Exactly what you doing there. Yeah, basically you just you did the classic thing which is I get to be chair with no real responsibility because that guy does everything we just do what he says. I'm reminding some listeners who have no idea what we're talking about. The the board is there partly to provide oversight for management So why is Sam open sitting around? Why is he there? Why is he hanging around? So I'm going to go with Brett Taylor. All right. Ah, Target Target in the news a lot recently. We've been talking a lot about Target Target hit with national boycott. Call over decision to drop Dei initiatives. So Matt, here's your chance to weigh in. Who do you blame for a dropping Dei initiatives at Target? Is it the CEO Brian Cornell? Again a guy with an extremely absurd and obscene pay ratio of 719 to one 719, a one. That means it blame him. The first working day of the year, he gets in the morning, the media and the median said in the right in the morning, he's made as much as the average worker. How about he's having his 11 a.m. tea and yeah. So how about the the double d e, i hating director, his name is dmitrii Stockton, and he also serves on the board of deer, that also got rid of its Dei and he's a person. I call her two Dimitri stock. He's not right? Am I right about that? Yeah, that's correct. Yeah that's yeah. So he's a double d e, i hating directory. Double double hater. Yeah. How about the Do you blame the lead independent director? She's also she's a woman of color Monica lizano. She was the former CEO of the college Futures Foundation, whose commitment to diversity. Equity inclusion is Paramount to its vision for advancing. A racially, socially, and economically. Just California. Do you blame her or do you blame the chair of the committee responsible for human Capital Management? Specifically that looks over de? And I in support of its business. That's oh, that's that's again. Monaco lizano. Oh, wow. She is the chair of that committee. So, yeah. Who do you blame here? This is a challenge in one for you. Matt, this is challenging, Monica is on the board of Apple and Bank of America. Wow, apples. It's not it's keeping its Dei programs, right? But you gotta Wonder now, right? Like, there's like the number of board members who are just totally cool with flipping on Dei because they're worried like in some, you know, dystopian universe that there is a real lawsuit that says, because we add black people to our talent pool like that, we can be sued and perpetuate. Like, it doesn't make any sense to me, but, um, but that's, I guess the world we live in now. Um, I I think I know Monica lizano falls on here twice. Yeah, that was not my plan. I I mean, I was just, you know, it was a it was logical to look at the lead independent director and it's all so logical to look at the committee that oversees D and I Yeah, I you know, like do you think Brian Cornell though was sitting in there being like I really think we should fight this and Monica Lozano was like no cave cave. Now look, there's one thing. I I want to be fair to Dimitri Stockton. I don't know how he voted for these at both deer and Target. It might be unfortunate that he had to be sitting on both boards but he might have been so he might have supported it too but I, but I will agree with you. Matt Brian Cornell was not trying to save d e and i there's no chance he was trying because I think he would have his pay ratio alone, would suggest that he had the power to shut everyone up there. Trying to get rid of d e and I you know, Brian Cornell is in an interesting position. It's one of like almost no times that I see this happen. He has the most influence at Target obviously, because he's a CEO. He's 24% of the board influence but he also is on the Yum brands Board where he also has the most influence on. The board according to free floating brands at Yum brands. So I'm gonna go with with Brian Cornell. I think that's probably the correct answer. Yes, as much as you wanted to say Dimitri Stockton, I really did want to say either of the other yeah options. But yeah, I'm not going to. And finally, let's and again on a positive note, here is a you don't expect to see headlines like this anymore. But here you go. Coca-Cola and novartis's. CEOs. Don't care. If ESG has become a toxic phrase among some So who do you blame for them? Not caring. That ESG has become a toxic phrase. Let me start with the. Do you blame Coca-Cola, CEO, James Quincey, because I want to tell you what, he actually had the strength to say out loud, which is in 2025. Seems like a lot of strength but here we go, here's the quote. If ESG becomes toxic as a phrase, which it basically has in the US, it doesn't matter to me. I'm just gonna stop saying ESG, but the idea that for my basic product, I want to be water positive, I want to have a circular economy on my packaging and I want to grow our business with less sugar. You can call it anything you like, but no one with common sense says those are bad ideas. He then goes on, he did there we go. He then goes on basically to make a case for a stakeholder capitalism, where he believes that, you know, some of the things that consumers care about the shareholders care about the society, cares about that, we should be addressing all these things. So that's I'm, you know, I like that. Didn't write that in 2025 that a large cap CEO like that. It's even saying that. So that's the. So the blame him for this positive headline or what about do you blame Novartis CEO vasant? Nearest semen, Matt whose ego is so strong and secure that. He doesn't even need to serve on the board. That is responsible for his oversight. He doesn't even serve the sport. How about that? Well, let's be clear. Okay? Novartis know, you're gonna throw this in is in Switzerland, okay, right. Like where still is you don't that by like it's we can learn from the Swiss sometimes. Yeah. Sometimes like I'm just playing a game here man. Okay. Yeah I'm playing along. I'm with you. All right, who do you? So maybe you blame this person for this. Very positive headline about supporting ESG and stakeholder capitalism. Do you blame Coca-Cola's lead? Independent director? And and corporate governance and sustainability, committee chair, Maria Elena Matt, maybe some of all that, all that woke messaging at Disney, you know, all the movies. Maybe it rubbed off on her, maybe she's right. It's possible. Yeah the audience doesn't think that's possible. Okay and finally do you blame the female board power at Coca-Cola. Matt, a full 49% of influence on the board of Coca-Cola is held by women which is a victory. These days 49% is a victory. But this one's hard for me because first of all like credit where credit's due saying, you can call it anything you want but no one with common sense says those are bad ideas. That's the point, right? Like it's not it's data we're just like these are not like things ideological things, these are just like this is what Innovation looks like. Like it doesn't look like a white guy in a room building AI to make you suicidal. It looks like a guy who says, oh I am using a tremendous amount of waste to make this product. How do I not and make the product better here? How about this quote? He also said James Quincey, CEO Coca-Cola. My business strategy is constant and clear and centered around the business. And the things that consumers care about and that fixed societal problems, the people want to attach labels to it. That's their issue. I'm saying this business will be great if I fix these problems and it will be good for share. Holders and be good for society so he's basically he's basically a communist. I mean he's entirely but credit where credit is due for just saying that. I can't give credit here for Novartis to CEO in Switzerland. Come on. Yes. Like you're not you're talking to the wrong audience but I want. I'm going to say female board power Coke is, is it? That's what I'm going to. Well, I will say you're right in two ways because a I think you're just right over all the B, you're right because this is data that you can only get here. If you want to know the female power, the or the male power, whatever power you want the power from people who have graduate from Harvard, that is only here for free flow analytics. Well, I like the fact that this actually gels with Costco, is a big company who's standing up against, you know, the anti movement and they've said, no, you're all idiots and on their board, is they have one of the highest female power bi Influence of the board in our database in the US. Several powerful women on that board. Yeah I think I think it's not a coincidence that when you have a diverse cohort that has power, they look at this and say, what are you talking about? Like we are not only qualified, we're kicking ass and how dare you even say it has anything to do with Dei is a negative or discriminatory like this is about shareholder value baby. So I'm I'm for that 40%. That's power. Do you have some? Do you have some? I have I have three for you. Here's the headline. Riders 2.5 million dollars settlement brings four-year. Governance overhaul, what's changing for shareholders? So wider, I Gotta Give a Little Bit of background. They there's a lawsuit that alleged Riders management team and its board, artificially inflated the value of riders assets and it was materially misleading and that they closed. All this is a class action suit, several class action suits, they settled. Now, the board has to create a corporate risk steering committee on the board level. They have to hire a chief compliance officer at the management. Level management, level has to have a disclosure committee where they actually talked about. Yeah. Right at they made a rule that at least, two of the audit committee members must be Financial actions, shouldn't be. Um, you know, that should be that hard. They have to hire a third party to do their market research for them. They can't just do market research and say it's true. They have to have a pricing team, examine the market. Prices and they have Club back and now they have a non-retaliation policy. So the non-realization polls. Yeah. Like what like the career against anybody who'd like to, you know, whistle blows. Yeah, sure. Wow. So they did how to do a lot of things as a result of this settlement. So here are your options who to blame for the fact that it all went wrong in the first place like okay, yeah, okay, who were blaming for the original sin? Okay, I got it. Yeah the original sin here, like you've got sued, it took years and now you got to change your old governance structure. Like you blame CEO. Robert Sanchez. He's been the CEO since 2013. He's the man in the chair, right? Like, he's all the chair. He's also the chair. He's the top dog. He's it. Okay. Blame the top, dog. So we know what do we know his influence? Was his influence on the border is influence on the board. Now is let's let's find out because this is free flow analytics data 26%. So he's someone who's very well could blame him. Okay. Got it easy to blame him. That's him today. He has been CEO since 2013 so God has had lots of time to screwed up who blame the audit committee. Oh, the audit committee is a five-person audit committee, already. Five person audit committee know All of whom in 2020 when this lawsuit was brought were disclosed as Financial experts. Okay? But only one of whom was an actual Financial expert. She was an accounting professor, the other four were just CEOs that other companies, okay? Yeah, they said they they consider them Financial experts because they were CEO companies hear them Financial experts. Okay, correct company. Okay, um, So, do we do you blame the audit committee for this? Like there I might be supposed to. I might do you blame Dmitri Stockton Who happens to be not only on the board of Target where they fight and on the beach resort here, the guy we just talked about same. Is on the rider board, he is on the target board, he's on the deer board, and he's on at the time, he was on the Stanley, Black and Decker board, who was sued for, not disclosing executive perks. And this board, who's been sued for basically materially misleading disclosure believable, do you know, the Off, The Top Gear stuck in a lot of places, Do you know off the top of your head? If he is on the auto committee He was not on the audit committee, so it can't be because he was on the audit committee. Okay. Or do you blame obviously Dei Demetri. Stockton is black and Robert Sanchez. Sounds like he could be messing. I don't actually know but it sounds like it. So I'm just the option. It's 2025 everything. You guys fall. These are good options. You know, I gotta tell you, my thinking here. I was I was gonna say CEO, Robert Sanchez. I mean of course. I mean I am assuming he's also board chair. He's been there for over again. He's the guy in charge. He has the most influence, but when you got the Dimitri Stockton, I figured Are we ever gonna have a chance again, Matt to publicly blame Dmitry Stockton for something. This is our moment, this is our time. This is, I'm finally gonna blame him. I'm a little bit more angry at him for Target and dear but I'm gonna blame him for this too. I mean, he's just everywhere where it stinks? Yeah, and I wasn't gone. Well, he's actually x g e Arrow space too which you know so is that he stranded some astronaut bankrupt? Yeah bankruptcy, so not great. What else? All right? Are you ready for the next one? I'm ready. You're you're next headline? Us steel Flags Trump, Dei order as risk factor for investors. I saw this right and that right in their 10K. They did that. Yeah, in the 10K is one of the risk factors they list Trump's Dei order. So who do we blame? It could be a good thing, right? Like, like, listen, I would listen. This is a risk. Yeah, I mean, did we know the language behind? How they, how do they, what exactly are they saying we do? They basically said pretty much straight up that in its quote, in recent years. Anti-esg sentiment is gain momentum across the US with several States, enacting anti-age, cheap policies, legislation yada yada. And then the filing said they could, it could result in USD facing additional compliance obligations, becoming the subject of Investigations and enforcement actions or sustaining reputational harm, because of policies, opposing, Dei and ESG. But they're maintaining their Dei policies. Is that what you're saying? They don't say. Anything about maintaining they just say because they've had them and they have everybody has them right? Because they had them, they could now be the focus of what I'm gonna take the very positive. Look at this story and say that we're we what we have here is a corporation basically saying that the president is a risk to all corporations because that racist sexist a hole. Well so your first option of who to blame is racist, old white guys first up. Yeah, it's King Trump and king must yeah, the order was written ostensibly. Like the, the actual Dei order of the White House was written by Stephen Miller, Trump and musk right? Trump musk and his Hench, his Hench guy, which I know, I think they should be called the three Horsemen of the brown apocalypse. They're basically that's what it is, right? I'm disturbing me. Okay? But if there are including Trump's Dei order as a material risk to the company, then it should be the people who wrote it, right? Yeah. All right, your second option, the lawyers at us, steel, the lawyers, who wrote the annual report, because you know, that the CEO is not sitting down and reading the annual report short to bottom, right? Like it's only lawyers and it's mostly boilerplate. Yeah. But the company said in the, its annual report last year that it aims to quote have an Engaged and diverse Workforce to promote new ideas, and Innovation reflect the communities where we operate and deliver, exceptional customer service. But this year, that same sentence omitted reference to having a diverse World. They remove diverse Workforce Petty. Yeah, doesn't that sound like lawyer Duane d? Holloway who's the chief ethics and compliance officer in general, counties Steele, right? Yeah. He is warning against a lawsuit for us who took out the word. And speaking of Dwayne, Holloway we could blame as a third option. Dei Dwayne Holloway is black. Oh no, I'm not kidding Mr. Holloway serves on. This is from his bio serves on the board of directors of the minority Council Association. The Carnegie hero fund commission, and the Gilman School, Allegheny County Parks Foundation. He also serves as an executive sponsor of us. Steel's steel, parents employee Resource Group, it's all very woke. In Dei ish. Yeah it all sounds a little too Christian a little too helpful so you could blame Dei itself. Sure. For listing D you could against you and then finally could you blame the board of us steel because us steel to find and it's hard these days they have a 12-person board, they found eight white males for their 12-person board three white women and one black woman there's only one person of color on this board. There has quarters percent influence their headquarters in Pittsburgh. Uh yeah. Pennsylvania somewhere. Yeah, okay. Where there were? There are black people that do exist. The last time I was in Pennsylvania, there were there were some black people, so sure, but it now does feel. If you are one of the eight old white males doesn't talk about this is tough. I like this. So there's your options, racist white, guys, Tech Bros the brown, pocalypse the horsemen of the brown, pocalypse the lawyers at us steel, Dei itself, or the board of USD, this is tough. I I'm gonna throw out the lawyers because they're just, you know, they're just constantly watching their backs. They don't really have a, I don't think they have a soul or just kind of, you know, they're just protecting things, right? They're just, I understand, I get it. I get with her doing d e. I yeah, I know you're joking around. I can't, I'm not gonna pick tea, I for this one, but but others would, so I'll let them pick Dei. I was inclined to pick racist old white guys. Because where else is this problem coming from? I mean, right, I mean the whole entire Auntie is coming squarely from racist old white guys and now perpetuated by Tech Bros so so you're right to point that out. But You know, we're a company that talks about the people at these companies and and and and why not blame the board, really? There it is. Right? And why not? I mean, yeah, yeah. So I'm just gonna do it. I'm gonna blame the board. Yeah, I like it 6%. You couldn't find the only found a twofer, a woman of color, right? That they wanted to get their double diversity in one person. And they managed to give her six percent influence on the board. Like come on, you couldn't find anyone else. And before, you know, crazy, if you're actually a listener to show and you're actually an anti Dei person before you get all nuts, let me just put it to you this way. Wouldn't you just want a diversity of perspective when providing oversight? Oh, relax you socialist. But I'm just saying, like, do you need all the same kind of group thing? I mean, don't you just want some different thoughts? I mean, there's not Anyway. Okay what else? Last one more, here we go. Last one. Walgreens stock plunder. I already have an answer for Walgreens but go ahead its dividend payout change. I know my blame. The headline says, who's to blame. Yeah. The headlines says its dividend payout changes are to blame. Yeah. Okay. Here are your options. Can we blame Ross? Brewer for this? Well, she is black, right? She was a Dei higher. I can't wait. We can still pin it on her somehow. She's not there. But I see what you're saying. She created the mess. I'm just saying, somehow, can we blame her? Yes. Well, everybody will, but I'm not going to what else you got. Can we blame Dei? Because there was this sure. So let me tell you. There's this line in the announcement about the dividend cessation like the Walgreens puts out. A press release that says or files a sec filing that says they're stopping paying out the dividend. The dividend payout. Quote, in fiscal 2024. Walgreens boots, Alliance WBA scored 100% on the disability equality index, for disability inclusion. Why was that in the same announcement? That's at the bottom. It's like in their footnote. When they, you know that every thing has the about Walgreens, the about the company little statement is that green washing? What is that? Is that what about statement no longer? Do they say anything about the Human Rights Campaign or lgbtq Plus or like, you know? So it's okay it's okay to support disabled people but not on the other things they picked the least, woke woke thing, I guess like why would you like that? When are we going to cancel being giving support to the disabled? When do we cancel that? Well, they didn't they clearly the lawyers at Walgreens. Clearly didn't hear Trump blame the crash and the Potomac on disabled people. That's what he blamed it on, he read it from the FAA guidelines. My God about hiring. So yeah. So can we blame Dei or if I was a Neo-Nazi, I would, but what else you got? Can we blame Stefano Pacino? The man was, that's the guy 61% of boards, influence? Yeah, the man who fired Rose Brewer and the man. In fact, I've been hitting refresh. This is what this is, what I actually do. I've been hitting, refresh all morning on the Walgreens SEC filings. What are you waiting? Because they had their annual meeting. We covered in foxy countdown, we had their annual meeting on January 30th and we're on February, according this and they have not put out the actually a, with the results of the meeting. That's because that's actually quite strange. I actually think they're supposed to file it within a couple of days, aren't they? I mean, we're now I mean I know that today is a is a Tuesday, right? And the 30th was a Thursday, so you they've done. They've had two business days. How long does it take to fucking count? You guys don't count, right? When's the last time you were in line at the pharmacy at Walgreens, it takes a bit of time. That's true. It is a year because you're busy looking at the advertisements on the windows that you can't see the products through. But they have not disclosed the results of the the meeting yet, and I'm sure that Stefano pessina will get reelected. I'm sure the guy who controls the company, the guy who controls the board, the guy who's the company, he has control, he is the power at the company. He only has like 16% of the share does not have coding power. Yeah. I mean, 16%, I mean, that's vote him out his voice in the group. Yeah. So you gonna go with my? Yes. Absolutely. That's all. Come on. What are we talking about here? You know? The blame game. I like actually I like the game. It's a little sad but it's really good. No, come on. Some of these stories were positive that hazelnut Ross. I'm your animals told Matt mcgorry, we are free float, we will be back this week. We've got a Thursday where we're gonna do a proxy countdown. Yeah, I'm sure we'll cover. Walgreens will cover the Walgreens about there. Hopefully, hopefully practicum is a big deal. Look, you don't if you're like a regular person, you have no idea how anything any boats happen at these companies and we're covering it like it's a sporting event. You gotta be listening to price accounts down and on Friday, we'll wrap up the week until then good. Bye.