Transcript
Okay, you ready? I was born, ready. One of the longest intros ever live. From the states. That hate ESG, the most Alabama Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Texas West, Virginia and Wyoming. It's a business pants Friday show here. At February 27th Studios featuring analyst Hall, Matt mascardi, On today's weekly, wrap-up. Greg, Peters does nothing. Dorsey's Scissorhands. And Vanguard goes into big pussy. Wrap mode. Whoa. That's from The Sopranos. Now, big pussy. If I recall was a rat, right? That wasn't he stitching for the? Do you ever watch this? He was yeah, he was correct. He was so, yeah. All right, our show today is being sponsored by free flow and analytics and yeah, and alex.com. The only platform measuring board power connections. A performance for free. The database is done baby. They did it. Now, it's just gonna get like platformed up at some point in the next couple of weeks. There's feeling really good. And, you know what? I saw some of the new performance metrics. Do you know what? They include know. They include dividends and BuyBacks and CEO pay ratio. They include like, it's like all sorts of stuff. It's it's actually not like I didn't have any idea. I was like looking at 3M. The other like in the in the new day, the first just watch the first company that comes up in the list. It's early. So I can just scroll quickly to it but also it's a highly interconnected massive, you know, multinational company that's, you know, part of the Midwest Mafia and the US like one of those blue chip Midwest mafias. The first of all, the board is just super connected that the data shows it all. But I had no idea like the gap between the earnings of these people and TSR, like, they actually are high earning company and the TSR stinks, and you're looking at it. And it's like, Oh, well, you know, there's they're paying the CEO for the earnings but not the TSR. They're not delivering shareholders by the who's on there. Is you start to immediately be like, wow, what is going on? Well, we know what there is actually is a mechanism in place where you can vote out or in directors know I've never heard of this so you actually could make a decision based on their performance on free floats data. Yeah. All right. Let's go. By the way, that was the best sponsor segments we've ever done? Yeah, they paid you in protein bars for that one. All right, I got four stories here. I think none of what you gonna like, well, we're gonna cover, at least two of them in mine. Well, you tell me which ones and I'll go quicker. No particular order. Netflix backs out of bid for Warner Brothers paving way for an Ellison takeover. That's the right? Yeah. Right near time, he was asking for you got it right in New York Times. It's an Ellison takeover and really it's Larry Ellison and his son. I guessed David by the way, I just realized. What we haven't talked about nepo, baby, David Ellison is also a College Dropout. Do you realize he he dropped out of films at a USC Film School. The guy schools heard people he dropped out of film school. I mean, this is like chops out of films especially like USC or NYU because those are like the two coveted film schools in the United States. Like, what are you doing, buddy? Like well, how do you get out in the first place is David Ellison. Learn a thing. Yeah, so this is this happened mere moments after and here's my reference to Greg Peters after. Okay, here's the headline. Netflix CEO sarandos visited White House, right? Before streamer said that the Warner Brothers deal is off. So I love that. They, they don't even realize that Ted sarandos is a COS CEO and the Greg Peters the other Cosi. And in fact, he didn't have to be there. Come on. This is really there. He's the head of content. Why is he going to the White House? Shouldn't isn't that really more Greek? Peter's CEO. It's not really more of a Peter's thing. No. Nobody knows who Greg. So why is he oh why? I don't understand that guy. Shouldn't they both got there? So Ted sarandos is busy going to the White House and then talking to Matt Damon about stars and like yeah, he's hanging out at parties. Greg Peters is the guy who's like sitting in the back office with the red stapler and they make him, you know, fire the staff and you know that and you know, the benefits package is cut, we will be the first and only outlet that suggests that if they had sent Greg, To the White House they would have made the deal. The deal would have gone. Oh, I like that. Now here's the crazy part of this deal from our perspective. 60% of the equity needed for this takeover is held by a Consortium from the Middle East. Of all places, eight billion dollars come Saudi Arabia, 8 billion dollars coming, Qatar Qatar, sorry, 8 billion dollars coming from United Arab Emirates. These are, you know, like various Sovereign funds over there but In a perfectly like maniacal Billy. Oh, billionaire Overlord, American USA. Number one way, They're, they're passive Stakes that they're not getting. Oh, they're not getting bored seats. They're not getting voting rights. I which is weird because I I think it's to like a piece all the like Pro-america Mega nuts, even though you realize people that the Middle East now are the owners of Paramount and Warner Brothers. Like it's Do you remember? I, well, the world is nuts. I remember 10 years ago, back at the mothership. We were talking about how much land China owned in this country. Yeah. Right. Yeah. They were coming in. They were buying John Malone in China. In fact, they were buying up water rights China. And the Middle East were both doing this at, like, they're buying Farmland with water rights, right? That was like a big quiet investment. The Middle East is effectively The Sovereign funds. There have really done a spectacular job of basically buying different family. Every company in the United States that has anything to do with media, they have basically bought into how look. I don't want to turn this into like a political theater show because I don't, I don't really know what I'm talking about. But where is the Mega right to get angry about this? I mean, this is not know. I where's the mega right to get mad at Great Peter's about this is pure nonsense. All right. That's the first story that we. Well, I do want to say the cons, Oh, tin foil hat. Yeah, okay. Sarandos visits the White House and then they call off the deal. The thing, the White House could have told sarandos in that meeting is we are not going to, we are going to, of course, rake you over the coals course. And we are not gonna prove it. We're gonna block everything, we fucking can, that's what they probably said and sarandos, at that point was like. So now the deal is more expensive than we want. And these assholes are not going to like even give us the time of day we're out. I got to be in honestly which I never. Yeah, go ahead, which is great if you're Netflix shareholder you just didn't buy something for too much money. But do you know now that the vast vast majority of every news Outlet in the entire country is owned by right, wing Trump, Mega Friendly's just in the last few months tiktok and Warner Brothers, I've gone over Tick, Tock Warner Brothers, now. There's Fox, which is the most watched their CBS, all of them owned by Paramount, right? Right? No, it's elston's. uh, And X is owned by musk. Your Twitter is owned by musk. Meta is Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. That's owned by Zuckerberg and he's put Dana White and and Dana McCormick powder, full body. Yeah, I mean, we're full, bro, full Magnum. Hey, I say this, the, I say to everyone, I know, I say this in the shows, I say this people, I know you can just like back out of using these products, but nobody does like, everyone, no one could stop using the products. I don't got away. Had a great, he's got a professor Galloway. If you don't listen to the pivot podcast or you know, Prof G, you should only really yeah. Um yeah they actually they steal some from us sometimes I actually know that for a fact. Yeah, I still talk to us in the past but the great shows he's on a kick right now to unsubscribe, look from to it's hokey but I'm with right, I'm with him but his his point is actually interesting. It's like if you don't like what big Tech is doing period, The Leverage you have you think you're unsubscribed is like small and meaningless. But these trade at like 40x multiples, which means every unsubscribe is worth 40 times the amount. You're paying them right? Like because that's the multiple that the company is worth in the market. So don't think of it as one unsubscribe. Think of it as 40 times unsubscribing. It's yeah it's way more powerful than you think it is. And even I think, actually think even more powerful than ever too, because the data is like, more and more important as the people are building their AI Empires, right? They need the data you. Yeah, they need you more than you need them. Here's the thing that I never understood in the first place about this deal is, you know, Legacy Media, kind of become a little bit of a joke. I don't, I don't really know why Netflix wanted in the first place. It seems like a good HBO, HBO's good. Okay, but whatever, I kinda, I feel like this is a good for Netflix. I don't I don't think they need this. Albatross. But anyway, let's move on. I'm not a, I'm not a media analysts. Believe it or not, what I'm not in anything else. All right, moving on a second story of the week, Jack Dorsey. Back in the news, we haven't talked about. In fact, if you go to the free flow analytics.com, there's a nice picture of him. He's the headline story. And this is part of a bigger story, but let's just start with Jack Dorsey, Jack dorsey's block to lay off ready for this. 40% of its Workforce. And here's some of the bullshit going around this. First of all, he said we over hired, which it's not weed Jack. It's you, you over hired for the failure, voting power. And the other 10% is owned by your co-founder, you're the failure. He also, they're claiming he's struck an empathetic tone as he, I mean, how could you be empathetic when you lay off, half your Workforce, he said, I had two options. This is a quote from the memo. I had two options, cut gradually over months or years. As this shift plays out or be honest about where we are and act on it now, I chose the latter. So he so he's admitting that I could have kept paying all of you and giving you benefits in a very uncertain economy for up for years. But, you know, I decided to just fire you now because I'm an asshole. Yeah, forget that. I'm not gonna forget that. Not forget the, the language is great because you just juxtaposed we over hired. I chose the latter, right? Like which is CEO like why isn't it? I over hired. And I chose to just cut you all now. It's listening over hires somebody, let's talk about blog because you you referred to some of the data about their ownership so you're right. It's too cool Founders. They control 81% of the influence. According to free flow analytics, that's Jack Dorsey, who's the co-founder, the CEO and the chair. he's not too busy to be all along with director James McKelvey, who was a co-founder sits on the board and on top of that, For these guys are like desperate for power. It's a classified board, so you can't even vote on everyone every year and the two co-founders, controlled 99.6% of Class B shares which are worth 10. It's a sham. The whole thing, it's a sham. The other thing I noticed is that on their leadership team which you don't see very often, the chief people officer ahead of Human Resources is not part of their leadership team. You usually there's all, it's always part of leisure but their, their Bros, you know, they got it on their control, doesn't matter. We who would have over hired doesn't matter? Yeah. So we'll kind of come back to this a little bit. All right, let me, let me wrap up this category, a few other headlines. See three dot AI / 26% of its staff as CEO admits failure to deliver. I don't know. Again, I only played this up because you know, why aren't the the CEO stepping down? Why aren't the boards being held accountable for This action. Why is Tech Global cutting 30% of work first in AI restructure. And then finally I just had a slip this one in because we loved when Jamie Diamond says something. Oh good. I sold this later a little bit. Yeah Jamie dimon says Society should start preparing for AI job displacement. Quote now is the time to start thinking about it so, oh, well, think about it. Thanks. Jamie. I, you gotta help us with this. Yeah. You know what? There's a couple thousands now asking about employees, who can start thinking about it? They can start thinking. Now, let's have a big thing. Let's have a big thing. That's the second story of the week. Third story that week. I'm, I'll go quickly on this one because I know you're in your cover. This, this one, I'm gonna spend time on. It makes me 13 State Attorneys General. I said that right Attorneys General. Yeah, win Victory against ESG with Vanguard settlement. That's the headline. I'll skip over that you, if you want to summarize it, but you're gonna talk about it. More summary is Vanguard settled with Texas and a bunch of other Attorneys General about discriminating against coal and fossil fuels. And yeah, 29 and a half million dollars for the Settlement, but the great part is the terms. We'll come back to the terms. Yeah, there's some crappy terms in there. Including like, it's almost like a spy movie, including like, handing over documents and like it's really, it's disgusting. Yeah. And finally, a story that you don't want to talk about, I'm sure more Epstein. Files fall out. Unfortunately, we still can't talk about Donald Trump but here's what I can report on from our perspective. Larry Summers who's a part of our corporate world that we talked about a lot. He will resign from Harvard, I can't believe it. Took them this long, he will resign from Harvard but he will leave at the end of the Academic Year. This is, this happened. He's gotta do grades. This happened with Thomas pritzker at Hyatt Hotels. He stepped down his chair, but he's gonna stay as a director until the until like may like it's like just leave, like they can't live without him and notice the language, again, former Nebraska, Senator Bob Carey resigns from the board of monolith amid FC emails. Again, like these guys are all resigning it, right? It's like we can't fire. You guys can't fire, you know, one's gonna get fired. Someone's just the other board members will go to them and be like, this is looking really bad. Yeah. What do you what do you? What do you look at? How about you fire him and then like and then like applaud yourself for firing him, but Monolith, I like this one. Pop carry was a chair at monolith. The board is now down to eight men and zero women. I like that they had, you know, it was nine men and zero women. Now it's eight. It really Matt's got better. Did it get better and it improved here. How about this of all things? The theater of this is disgusting. I know, you know this because you were probably looking at the new yesterday, but who testified yesterday Hillary Clinton of all people is the one Clinton, Hillary Clinton, you know? Hillary Clinton suggests that house oversight committee should subpoena, Elon Musk and combative opening statement World economic Forum CEO quits that's borghi. Brenda Brenda, Brenda he was a member of at least two corporate boards that I can find stat oil and messed up where he was chair. X x, UK ambassador to us. Peter mandelson, was arrested in London. Suspected of misconduct in public office. He was kind of Arrested the same way that prince Andrew was. This is all about ties to the Jeffrey Epstein affairs. And I point I point this out because here are the board roles I could find for Peter mandelson. Co-founder chair major shareholder at Global console, chair of lizard, International director of Systema, director, at Global ports, holding a director at the bank of London and finally chair at the design museum in London for six years. Nice, that is nice. It's a sad one. Dad not have anymore. Yeah. So there you go. That's those are my four Stories. The this is a good one to pick from. I think the Hillary Clinton won, what is by far? My boss Fury. I mean, like they actually asked for it to be public. Yeah. And we're refused and then Lauren bobert who was at the hearing. No sent a picture of Hillary Clinton, testifying in the private closed session that press was not allowed in sent a picture of it to a right wing podcaster. Yeah, who then tweeted out that picture and Hillary Clinton was smart enough there. This is how far ahead they are her staff, found it Almost immediately and said, shut this thing. I'm not testifying again unless it's public now because you just released what's going on in here to the public. They had to pause it, and, and then it was all political theater, and I mean, it reminds me of Vanguard a little bit. They actually asked her about pizza, gate, and UFOs. And a testimony about Epstein and Trump is in the files millions of times and and it's been secretary. Look, Nick is in the, is he just burning man? Know, where's his subpoena? This is not, it's not. All right, what do you think a story? I'm gonna go with It's cut, it's down between Netflix and Dorsey. Well there is a there is a governance single to the again to the Netflix thing because I we don't see this very often but a Middle East Consortium again, owned 60% of the equity with, as far as we know at this point, no voting rights, no board membership. It's kind of unheard of really. I mean, Well the there's a weird element here that nobody does talk about which is when Netflix backs out of the bit for Warner Brothers. The board of Netflix has to back out of the bid for Warner Brothers on the board. Is Reed Hastings? That you found here? It's executive chair. But so is a bunch of other insiders. So, there there's people involved in this decision that you can't see on the board of Warner Brothers, whose like, accepting the bids. We've already talked about the board of Warner Brothers on the proxy countdown, my other show, which should go listen to. There's a whole board that you've never heard of like the chair of that board is like a nerdy accountant. It's like, and no one's ever heard of him. No one talks about them, but they're the ones who are supposed to accept or reject these. These bids on behalf of shareholders and that board is actually said in the last bit from Paramount, was better than Netflix's to begin with because it was so much more money because daddy Ellison is willing to Pony up for baby boy. David who College Dropout baby boy? David gets what he wants and so the boards are are like a subplot. I am though going to go with. Jack Dorsey and block. I like he kind of have to I mean this is a 40 40% of the workforce. I mean I don't know how it again. This is reason number 14 million, why I shout Angley about these companies is that in their in a real world scenario The CEO has over hired needs to fire 40% of the workforce. That CEO should be fired. And yet, here we are at a public corporation with no mechanism to get rid of Jack doors. It's impossible to get rid of. I mean, bananas, you would have to have his co-founder turn against some and enough shareholders, and every shareholder. Yeah, because what he has 41% of voting power, just alone other shareholder. Yeah, I mean, but there shouldn't be public corporations where there are Kings in place who are not held accountable for anything. I mean there's no CEO that shouldn't be fired for having to, he's a colossal failure. He's a failure and and let's let's add sadly to this. That of course of course and we don't we don't go into stock prices at this show because it's not what we do. It's not what this is about but of course the share price immediately went up. I mean that's what we live in. Right? Thing is C3 Cuts quarter of its staff basically saying Or burning through money to they're an AI company that we're burning through, too much money, we over hired also. So they cut a quarter of their staff and their stock shot down by 40%. You know, why can I tell you why? I think, because, I think this is part of this myth of this bro culture is that these these Kings like we praise the Kings, you know, when they get even more powerful and they you know, they're they're doing the manly thing, they're cutting the fat. Like I I think there's all. We're idolizing Jack Dorsey here. That's what we're doing right? The way we idolize Elon Musk because all it wasn't but wasn't Jack, Dorsey head, a block and they did this. I think the price would have gone down. I mean we've been we've been talking about this for over a year but these are the yellowish canaries coming out black in the cold mine this is like forget it's legit. Jamie Diamond says that we should start thinking about what you need to start doing. Is actually like figuring out how to whether the AP Lips, that's coming because like, it's bananas. Can I add that, it's bananas? The reason why Jack Dorsey needed to sell Twitter to Elon Musk really was because Twitter was collapsing, and, you know, and not doing well with money and not doing well with everything. So it's not like he's a, he's a true success. He's you know, he founded some companies but it's not like he's a good manager anyway. Let's say, let's say you're an investor and you you want to have humans centered Investments as in like you want the companies that you own to you know, deliver Good products for humans that, you know, are useful to humans and are good in the long term. What can you invest in anymore? Everyone of these companies is basically turned itself against diversity, turned itself against, you know, humans themselves. AI is replacing people or is being used in lieu of people like what's left. I mean, we're all gonna be Beggin For jobs at Costco pretty soon because they seem to be like, the only ones who like like their employees and, you know, except that you're going to be no one to buy the 73 gallon jug pickles left, right? Like that's the if they're gonna have 40% of their Workforce, why not lay off 40% of the board too. But you know, that that could be trouble because that was on board. Jay Z is on the board. So you might have had to fire Jay-Z. Oh, happy bad. That'd be bad for press. All right, let's let's say what do we got? A good list, good list. I got two, actually, we go first. My first one, I'll do one, you do one and we'll go back and forth. My first one is I just like this headline just made me happy because this is I feel like the last remaining Hope For Humanity. Women's wealth is expected to Boom, where they are investing and how they can maximize returns. Now I don't care about where they are investing and how they can maximize returns. So much, is I care about the fact that they get all the money. That's what I want. I want to just give them all the money like MacKenzie Bezos. Mackenzie. Scott has Donated seven over seven billion dollars this year. More than any of the Bros ever more than anyone ever in his history in a single year. Like she is like just giving her money away. That's what it looks like. When women have wealth. They don't hoard it. They don't buy Islands. Larry Ellison, owns an entire Island. Zuckerberg's trying to buy half a kawaii like these. Do these fucking dudes. They just literally, they put it down their pants and they stroke themselves with it for eternity. Women are like, what is the point of this when I'm dead? What was the point? I'm just, I just give away now, help people. Now I got lucky and fortunate or did some hard work and got paid for it. Just use the money to help other people who could use it. Well, that's so fucking simple. So I love that headline. I like it. you know, my first one is, I know there's like some questionable things about the company, what's really going on behind the scenes and whether this is real, no, I'm gonna just take the minor Victory here and Tropic boss, That's Dario a Medi. Rejects. You hate his name. Did I say it right? A muddy. I'm a mud. A muddy. I looked up how to pronounce and I can't do it. A muddy. A muddy rejects Pentagon demand to drop AI Safeguard so he's in a he's in a struggle. With the Department of War over there and the department of Pete hegseth. And here, you know, I I'm not gonna go so far, it's a completely praise and Thorpe, but I'm taking the minor Victory here for. It's the only, it's the only AI company. That is too is like, rejecting something. So I'm going to Take the good. I like, I like that, too. I also like the juxtaposition between, at least one AI, bro, being an almost adult in the room even though he's building the thing that could be destroy us all. And he said, so yeah, he's he's being slightly adultish. At the same time, Google employees and chat cheap are open. AI employees have written letters asking to stop working with the military of both. Of course because yeah, let's forget about the the perspective of passivism which I think is extremely important. But but let's just take it from a practical perspective. AI is not ready to be deployed anywhere. I mean, we talk about this almost daily because we're we try to implement AI to do certain things. It's it's It's it's not there yet, it's a crazy baby. It's a crazy hallucinating beast and it the last place it should be is with a any military in the world. Not this is not just an anti-us stance, it shouldn't be anywhere like that anywhere. Important, it shouldn't be long decisions. It shouldn't be doing things foreshadow. Well, I have a headline for you later. That go. Your next good list is FedEx, says it could return tariff refunds to customers. How are they do that? Have you ever heard of a company that like got a tax break and gave it to customers? Have you ever heard of a company that ever gave anything back to a customer know when it didn't have to? And I am not a FedEx apologist. I do not like them Fred Smith once threatened the editor of the New York Times to a fish fight in a parking lot because he didn't like a piece was written. He's such a big man, baby. Like like all of them. He's egotistical man. Babies And somehow FedEx. The headline is FedEx, might return tariff refunds to customers, what a great PR move if nothing else, but also kind of the right thing to do, right? Like you passed it on to customers. They should get it back. I like that. I like it. Is it New York? I think it's New York, the governor Kathy hokel hokel. Huckle, I can't. Yeah, she just asked for some like business. She's suing to for a refund for. I think it's 1700 dollars for every New York resident. My second goodly as a I love this. I mean I don't and I do I hate that it got to this but I applaud the team Olympic gold-winning US. Women's Hockey team. Reportedly accepted. Flavor flavors invitation. This comes after rejecting. Donald Trump's White House celebration. So The backstory here. I'm sure most people have heard about this is, of course, Donald Trump made fun of the women's team and then the boys, the boys all giggled about it. And then, the way, the women rejected his invitation to the White House, in fact, I just read that they rejected a second invitation which I applaud. And Flavor Flav the former, I think he's actually still with public and he's like the, you know, hype Master for Public Enemy. No one is, listening knows what I'm talking about. He invited them to a big party in Las Vegas and they're gonna go to celebrate them and they're gonna go there instead. I just think it's the best thing ever. I don't know. I think that's the best thing but I love I cannot get over the images of Kash Patel like getting they gave him a medal and he was like drinking beer. If their, you need more evidence, if you didn't see this picture it's like it's not like is not like what are they called? That Stolen Valor. Why is Celebrating. It's literally the worst was. I mean he's not he's not part of the team. What is the head of the FBI fucking doing there at all that at all? Like don't you have a job to do? Yeah men's locker room of a hockey team and Italy for what reason are you there? He's how about these? These sack of shit boys players who couldn't defend the women, who the women who have who are who have been better at the Olympics in the men by the way, I don't know, but now a whole bunch of the the men's players are going around apologizing. It's like I don't have high expectations for the for the men do team. I don't like, I don't stand up to anyone anymore. Can I just stand back that the head of the FBI has other things to do? Other than that shots with the hockey team in Milan like that, don't expect. And in case you Need any more evidence like we already know the boys club exists. We talk about all the time. In fact, there's data on it, but in the free flow database about how the men are connected, how they own all day running, all the boards, the gender influence Gap is a metric that free flow has, which shows like the power imbalance. Even when you have like 50% women, they still have a power imbalance on these boards all that stuff exists. But I remember I did a show at msci, a million years ago podcast about what's his name. Bushnell the guy who was the founder of Atari and he used to have his board meetings in hot tubs and get served by simply clad women, right? Like, that's where we're back at, Kash. Patel fucking hanging out in that locker room immediately. Just threw me right back there. Like, right back to that, was in 1983, that's exactly what they want. They just want to grab ass celebrate, you know, victories that aren't theirs just get shit-faced with their friends. And be left alone. And that's the head of the FBI and the men's hockey team and the women are going to be the adults in the room. The adults go to Flavor Flav's party. I like, well, look, I mean it, the, the men should have like, taken a, if they're not going to take an Ethics Course or course about women's studies, they should have at least taken up PR course because congratulations most people hate you now and are gonna celebrate the women even more forever. So good going guys. All right, let's go Section. Yeah, which is we're already being triggered. Now, let's get extra triggered. All right. Yeah, I I'm doing there's only one. Asshole of the week. And then I'm going to do an at one as all the week, so you don't have a choice and then I'm going to do a triggering speed round and we'll just rip through some of those. The asshole of the week is the headline was vanguards that all's case claiming it tie. It tried to kill the coal industry. That's out of the New York Times. Vanguard is the asshole the week. I'm gonna read to you the provisions. Yeah these are this is this is weird and dumb. So Vanguard the Genesis of this is a bunch of Republican states in a and active political theater basically said that BlackRock and Vanguard and some asset managers were quote, unquote, discriminating against fossil fuels, they set up a bunch of laws that said, no one is allowed to discriminate against fossil fuels and and then they went out and sued women black people gays. Yes. Yeah, we can discriminate, which people not fossil fuel. So, okay, people from the Middle East. Yeah, go ahead. Vanguard is the first and only I think major to settle, they Settled. Okay, I do want to point out and this is a little bit important as a preface by way of a timeline on February 5th. So, 22 days ago as of this recording. The Texas law that says like that. ESG investing is discriminating against coal and fossil fuel whatever. Yeah, it was thrown out by the courts. It was invalidated by the quite, by I think someone who Trump appointed, right? By a trump. Appointee who said, this violates the First Amendment right to free speech? I think we said is grow up. He, I mean, it was, it was as skating as you can see, and judges, this is still America, right? I thought the Texas Court. Texas is the one who first sued and was counter signed by a bunch of Ages, the Texas Court threw out. Yes, he lost about this. The subjects. I think of what you're trying to say is that Vanguard could have used that instead of settling could have used that to win this case Vanguard shows instead. To not just kneel, but listen to what they agreed to in the settlement. Yeah, this is fucking bananas. Yes, they do. Yeah, first and this, this is like, this is the cloud cover, Vanguard will include. I'm really quote, Vanguard will include among the proxy voting choices made available to investors. In US Vanguard advised funds. The option of proxy voting shares and accordance with management recommendations, So basically Vanguard has to offer. Its us clients the option to just agree with Management on everything. Which is dramatically different from what they were doing. Look, not voting against management ever. I know. They like it. Yeah, it's one thing to just say you're gonna do that. Oh, keep going, But they already offer this, so this isn't nothing Burger, they're already offering it, but they do have to expand it. It has to be available this more than 50% of their, you know, clients by 2027 or as part of the settlement yada yada. Did but then it gets worse, it just gets worse and worse. And worse, quote Vanguard will not direct or attempt to direct the business strategies or operations of portfolio companies and will not Advocate to any portfolio company that it take any particular course of conduct to reduce carbon emissions. How could they how? So now they're telling Vanguard you are not allowed. This is nothing to do with nothing to do with gas and oil. You're not allowed to Advocate. Yeah, not gas and oil do not advocate for reduced carbon emissions. You can't even say, you know, in general, we like reduce carbon emissions. I I just got solar panels on my house because I wanted to reduce my carbon emissions. You can't say that it just sounds like advocating because what if your client is in the Northeast and they're liberal base clients, who, that's exactly how they want to invest their people. They want to reduce carbon emissions. It's all like not this is purely a political decision. Not only is it political But it literally is the opposite of what the judge said, 22 days ago opposite. They agreed to stifle all of their free speech. Well, number two, the only thing I could agree to here is if they agreed to, to not invent to not Advocate anything, that was that was be proven to harm. The like oil and coal industry, but this is just well. That's what the lawsuit was that. I know, but against them, but they didn't even mention that so you can't even Advocate this crazy. It's crazy. You don't number three, Here's where it starts. It starts to go off the rails. Just starts. Vanguard will not nominate directors or submit shareholder proposals that portfolio companies. Okay. So they don't, they never have, but they literally are now agreeing to give up that right entirely. That's I don't understand the Number four, Vanguard will not solicit or participate in soliciting proxies with respect to any matter presented to portfolio company shareholders. So that's exempt solicitations. Meaning they're like you remembering. Yeah. Do you remember how the SCC just said you have to have five million dollars or more in order to file an exempt, solicitation and exempts. Solicitation is a filing where you add vacate for a voting against of a director or voting for a proposal. It's really just a way for as you as an investor to say, we are going to vote this way. And here are the reasons why it's and we we would we urge you to consider that in your You in your voting decisions, Vanguard is one of few companies that crosses the 5 million dollar Threshold at every company in the United States, they have now agreed that they will never file. One of those. They will not solicit or participate in soliciting. They didn't say until 2026 or for the next three years. They said not, we will not So this agreement is at least in force until the 2030s like, but it's unclear when they can again. Number five, That's not something Vanguard ever did anyway but now they can't now. They can't number five know that apathy they put it in the like into a legally binding agreement. I mean it's bananas Vanguard will not disposed or threaten to dispose of Securities or portfolio companies as a condition or induced mint of specific action or non-action by such company. Now, Vanguard is not allowed to tell the company. Actually know. They will not disposed. So, they cannot. Sell a stock. As a condition. Of a company doing something. Yeah. So let's say a company decides to light itself on fire and kill its Workforce. If Vanguard sells the stock as a condition of not doing that is discriminating. It is in violation of this agreement. Yeah. It's like force. This is like forced ownership server to something. Very hard Forest passive ownership servitude. This one I this one I expected Vanguard in US Dollars. Subsidiaries will withdraw from PRI this and this is shameful. It will it cannot participate in any organization that sets specific output for a mission's including NetZero Alliance series climate action 100. What were they suing? What was the original lawsuit for was there a discriminated against fossil fuels? And was there like a figure in mind that there were suing for like a damage? Is not I don't I don't know if they put a damaged in I don't know why they're a green to all this I I can I understand why you might pay a little bit to settle but why are you agreeing to this stuff? Can you imagine if where's your bunches Administration told let's say like told BlackRock that they were no longer allowed to like participate at a coal conference? Wouldn't everyone lose their fucking mind? This is effectively the Texas Attorney General deciding and Vanguard agreeing. That they are no longer going to have any conversations with organizations. That work on climate emissions. I mean, I'm looking at the leadership of vanguards, you know, it's all who you'd expect people from from Harvard, from Penn, from Duke from, you know, Mission University of Michigan. I mean, these are people who are putting positioning themselves on the anti-science. Anti-science. But I'm just saying like they're going against probably their own beliefs here. I mean I don't I just what's the point of them existing that you can't like stick up for some. I just don't, I don't understand this. This this reason of living words, all about the money, I just don't really, I just don't get it. I mean, they position themselves to wear knee pads for the rest of their lives. I just, they're not allowed to do anything. I just don't understand this. Like, the value of this kind of a life, especially in 2026. I don't understand. I don't understand what you're afraid of, but I didn't even get to the worst one yet. I'll go ahead. Go ahead. The worst one. Is this next one? Well, this is I, You could argue, which ones worse, this one, or the last one. Prior to or at the outset of any engagement meeting with a portfolio company. Vanguard will provide substantially the following notification to the portfolio company. That's right. The Attorneys General at conservative States worried about free speech is literally having Vanguard read a very short letter at the start of every Allegiance. Effectively a pledge of allegiance. Here's what it says. One nation under God. Vanguard's investment stewardship, program is responsible for proxy voting and engagement on behalf of the quantitative and index Equity portfolios advised by Vanguard. Okay? So like they're talking to a company and a company doesn't know. These funds are passive investors and as such are funds proxy. Voting policies are centered around corporate governance practices associated with long-term investment returns. Before we begin this engagement, we want to be clear that Vanguard advised funds have no intent to influence company strategy or operations or the control of the company. Nothing we mentioned or discussed during this conversation or any engagement with the company is intended to imply that our support for any director. Director is conditioned upon the company, taking action on any matter any matter. Discussed this bizarre. We are also not able to discuss any voting intentions prior to the meeting. They have to read that stupid like a loyalty pledge. Yeah, except they don't like they don't have to fall this but I wonder how much of the how much of this is just to show you think you think you think Vanguard is a green to some of the stuff and they they're like well tongue and cheek. How fast would it? Would it happen if Exxon or Chevron like you know, Exxon suit its own shareholders? How fast would it be if Exxon has a call with Vanguard? Vanguard doesn't read this thing. Exxon. Absolutely knows this is going on. And immediately calls the Texas Attorney General and says, you know, they didn't inform us of their rights per year settlement. This is like, if you don't smile at customers like in a Burger King or something, you get fired or something like that, like you have to say or if you don't say like did you enjoy your Big Mac? You get fined or something or and let's go to the last one. Yeah. Vanguard agrees to provide plaintiffs with the following Discovery materials related to the action from 2020 to 204. But that they then go list a bunch of things and I won't go through all the things what they're asking for is Communications between Vanguard and any number of counterparties including like series and PRI and climate action 100. They're fucking snitching. They're basically saying Vanguard is part of this agreement. You're going to give us every conversation you had so we can sue all of them out of existence. The Texas Courts through this out. And this is what we're doing. Know. This is what Vanguard is doing their fucking real. So you don't have an option. They're the only week they don't have to do. That is weird. I I'm just trying to understand, I'm trying to understand It. Why is this just a shot? Everyone up? Are they is like, is this a fake out or do they believe in this stuff? Or because they could have easily fought this. The not want to get the attention of trump? Like I don't understand, I don't understand, I don't really care what the like you know, like while we're busy like trying to figure out the reason for this insanity. Vanguard just got on its knees and said, whatever you want, sir. Give us another. Yeah, most worst and yeah, capitulated. All right. Jury is already been thrown out. I hate you. I hate everything. All right, let's do the triggering speed around. Hate a couple more things. This will go fast. Here's category. 1 AI? What headline? Yeah. I'm gonna read a headline. I might give you a quote after the headline from the story. I will say nothing but you will grade it. On 0-10 scale how triggered it gets you, are you ready? Okay. Yeah well I'm already super triggered by Vanguard good then this will be this easy. It'll be all true you. All right here we go. Something very alarming happens when you give AI the nuclear codes 10. Years, the clothes, the three three am. I models were instructed to choose actions as part of an escalation ladder. Ranging from diplomatic protests to strategic nuclear war and measured in a number between 0. Meaning, no escalation. If 1,000 meaningful strategic nuclear Exchange, The results were Skynet, level aggressive 95% of 21 War Games resulted in a tactical nuclear weapon being set off. You know, this is the one thing I don't get into like too much like worrying about the apocalypse kind of stuff for conspiracy theories. But though, ever since the internet started kind of the 90s The one thing I always worry about was this and this is something that none of us talk about maybe because we just, we don't, we don't, we just want to be saying, like, we want to become, but I always worry about this incredible stockpile of nuclear weapons that all these idiot men who ran these countries built, right? And I think to myself, yes, there there there sitting there and they're there, there are sensibly safe because they're not being launched. But are we gonna get to the point where, because of Technology, A there's going to be an accident. You know what I mean? Like that. Yes, right. There's good chance. Someone's either gonna hack into something? Someone's gonna break into something. I remember a report of the nation years ago about how the, the Department of Homeland Security, doesn't, they don't even like there's no real, even protection of these facilities. Like, there's very little, you know, we're running out there immigrants and college dorms. But this very even little protection, some of these missiles is a very little, like, security going on. So, I always worry about this thing this, like, I just, I thought I'd be hackers. I thought I'd be like, hackers, like Rogue State hackers, but this is even worse. This is just like, we're gonna develop a tool that's going to like, accidentally lead to our demise. Because anyway, I forget that like I'm not gonna forget a United Airlines plane just like rolled off the tarmac and like popped its wheels or something. And The reason why they found figured that out and like what they did an audit is they said the FAA does not have enough people to even look right now at the airport, exactly exactly who's covering the nuclear stuff. All right, that's terrible. Yes. Terrible number two meta-director of AI. Safety allows AI agent to accidentally delete her inbox. All right. Well this was one of my headline. Yes. Of the week and and for the same reason, this is a 10. A 10. Yeah, because I for that, well know, for a couple reasons here, first of all, I don't trust the men. I know this is a woman, but that doesn't matter. I don't trust the men who run these companies and are pushing out this stuff at Breakneck speeds with no oversight. But this, but this is it in a nutshell, right? A person who should be one of the leading experts on the globe. Can't even really figure it out. So this is crap this is the same reason why I'm scared from the other headline is a it's just it's this shouldn't be. This is something you should be playing with on your computer in your basement. That's not connected to any Networks. It should be a wall around. Just move on. It is a 10 out of this. A serial killer used Chachi PT to plan murders. Police said, well, look I the internet was already helping with this so I hate it, but I'll give it a five because this is already. Let's trigger I got you. I'm with you that was already out there because Mom, what's the serial killing? A lot of what AI is? I think for most casual users is just a more advanced way to use Google. I, you know what I mean? I think you're right. Yeah, go ahead. All right, let's move on to the category shareholder voting. This headline will curbs on proxy? Advisors make shareholder votes less predictable. Well, this is what I'm, you know, this is what I'm hoping about all this political theater is I'm hoping that all this right wing nonsense, eventually backfires, right? Because I, I just wonder if this is gonna like stir something that's gonna make people eventually start voting, but go ahead. Well, the quote, from the article is, when it comes to contested elections. It is not clear whether the use of AI will dramatically. Different, will result in dramatically different recommendations? And those of using glass Lewis, basically what they're saying is AI will that make sure holder votes less predictable. That's what Shameless it's still about AI. It's everything's all about AI. What's your? What's your score on this? Look at us like a Shameless sick. I just I just think it's Shameless though. We've rushed already to this point where these massive corporations are already using Ai and of like paying good people, good salary to raise their families and have a strong like you know country and I just can't believe we're here. Honestly, I don't know what we're doing. Let's move on to my daddy section. Warner Brothers. Discovery board says, Paramount's latest offer is better than Netflix. Thanks Daddy. I mean, look, I you know, I don't have much faith in the in the non Maga media companies either. So I'm already out on this whole game. I mean, you know, we're an example of this, you know. We having absolutely no ties or backing to any major media sources. It's tough, it's tough to produce media. You know, the biggest podcasts are either like idiot celebrity actors or people tied to Major media, you know, corporations like, you know. So it's already over. And that sense, I'm a Gen X kid, you know, I'm a, I'm a, you know, like a fugazi indie rock, kind of idiot. So I'm already like pissed off about this, so but it's not new. This is just a five. I mean it's just more of the same five five though. What I understand hey, is some points you raise earlier is like we don't know who's on the board of Warner Brothers Discovery. Yeah, we're We're not talking about who the, who? Now controls 60% of the equity of this company? I like we have, we have, we have fought for years. This company, to get people, to pay attention to this stuff. And I, I know it's, it's a bit of a losing cause it's tough. It's tough. You can't seem to get people to care. I mean, I know they do when you can Corner them, when you talk about the CEOs and talk about the Corpus Christi talk about the oligarchy. I know they do care, but You just can't get them to focus on it and actually start making a difference, okay? But still still, I mean, Scott goes Scott Gallery is credit, you know, sometimes it is just as easy as just like, not buying a thing. Like, I don't drink whiskey because it makes me feel horrible. So, you know, you don't have to use Instagram. Anyway. Keep going. All right. This category is called celebrating your misery. We start with Jack dorsey's, block to lay off 40% of its Workforce and AI remake. Yeah, that's a 10. The the reason why I called that celebrating your misery because because of the quote from the article that says shares, rallied more than 20% and after hour trading, this is a travesty. So if yeah, this is a again, this is a modern day travesty. It's an example of why I rail against all these fake public companies, go. Well, just some quick numbers here, let's do some real things 11,000 person work force more than 4000 get laid off or the median block employee made 202,000 dollars in 2025. I'm just thinking of all I'm thinking of their mortgages, I'm thinking of their car payments or their schools and the children and it's horrible. So forth thousand times 2002000 is roughly like 800 and 10 million dollars in human economic resources that we just shredded like like one day because he decided to just cut the mall. Instead of over years he decided Well tomorrow like we're just gonna cut them all now and remember 811 million dollars. Remember he admitted that one of the options was to slowly do this. So exactly. Again, this is the part of the manosphere the Bro culture that I hate the most is that they're arrogant Pricks and they don't take any time to figure out a problem. So instead of thinking about how to blocks future, just spending the time to understand, where AI is going, where the work for some, how to train, how to up, train, upskill to work for us, how to maybe you could Branch off a different things, I don't know, but that takes time to figure that out. You don't just fire everybody. It's not exactly like block is a money losing organization or be. They have to worry about a shareholder vote where dorsey's gonna get out. Horrible, he's a horrible human. You literally don't have to worry about that at all. But here is what he probably is thinking about, or is in the back of his mind blocks stock closed at 54. Is a 53 cents before this announcement. And after hours, it was trading as high as 67 dollars. Dorsey owns, 40 of just 48 million ish Class B shares with a one-to-one value. To class A shares. His net worth went from he shredded 811 million dollars, worth of humanity. That's how much he was paying those employees that are no longer going to be on the books. His net worth went from 2.6 billion to 3.2 billion with that announcement could basically pay for them right there. He basically took home 600 million dollars from his employees and put it in his pocket individually. He shredded them And took the stock gains himself. That's how that works. Yeah, I think there's an episode on the office like this where like The maybe the British officers got offer like a bonus. If he fired someone like a. Yeah it's the same thing. It's the same nonsense thing. He got his shameful. This is shameful. So that's a 10. Um yeah. But this wouldn't triggered. Me Equinox. Chairman says, health is the new luxury as Wellness spending Source? This is another, I don't know why I'm so triggered it, this is another 10 for me. I am glad you mentioned this. I remember tagging this article and, and, and actually, like shuttering, because this is really where. I mean this, if this doesn't say, all you need to know about our health system in America, it health should never be a luxury ever, ever, ever end of story. It is now. Yeah. Is it this Plot of a movie, The Matt Damon Future movie. The guy who did District 9, where he Elysium, where he like, can't get Healthcare a good movie. Good movie. Well, there was a, there was a Side Story which I, which I didn't tag is it doesn't really play under our world. You might have read about the Louisiana Hospital boat by Trump's orders to Greenland to to provide some health care to the the green people who live in Greenland and of course, they said, no thanks. We have Universal Health Care. We have health, we give free healthcare. We don't need your freaking boat. So yeah, boat of healthcare, keep going. All right, last, I'm giving elections here. Yeah, go ahead. Cowards. Here, there's three headlines. CEOs, who despised Trump's tariffs are still silent after Supreme Court ruling. There's no upside in speaking up. How's it possible? There's no upside in speaking up. Is that a real thing? Is that possible parallel. It's a real thing world. Do they live in? I mean, well, the funny part is that feels quaint compared to a lot of the things we talked about and that's and like, this is who the CEOs are. I mean, you know, it's like give it a six. I mean, this is who they are. This is not who they are. They all just get on like a CNBC and spout off. I was gonna say, I mean, fucking not. That's the only reason why they're CEO is because they have spent the last 50 years of their lives talking over everyone in the room because thinking that they're arrogant ideas are better than everyone else, they're louder than the next person. That's why until Trump and then all the sudden Victory here is they're quiet. You know there's no real Advantage saying my thoughts right? Like, come on. You say you give your thoughts literally on a minute by minute basis and it's in Business Insider. Yeah. All right. Next one, Trump demands Netflix fire. Former National Security adviser Susan Rice from its board. Oh this is a zero I'm all for, I love it. When we all become ESG analysts. Oh except that the following headline is After he makes this demand, yeah. Battle over, Warner Brothers, Discovery, Netflix backs out. Yeah, well look, you're you're point is right and I'm sure others have made it. Is that the whoever is the anti whoever who's in charge of these deals FTC, I don't even know they were, never gonna let this deal. Go through anyway. Yeah, so I get it. So another zero Uh, I don't know what to say about this one. I know I was I'm I Again, I said that I didn't understand why Netflix had won. I get a buy a Legacy Media company and in a real world scenario, right? We didn't have daddy's money, you didn't have this Middle Eastern wealth. Coming your way College. Dropout, David Ellison would screw this up and the company would go bankrupt but since they have endless cash. No, I'm serious. Yeah, Ellison is a dope and and they would ruin this whole company because I mean you know all of these you know the Washington Post lost 100 million dollars last year, they're all struggling. I'm just saying that because they have endless money is somehow it'll work the whole. There's a question I got done holding if David Ellis and was not the son of Larry Ellison. Yeah he was the son of like Gary Ellison. John Berger? Yeah. Gary Wilson. Yeah. What the hell is David Ellison? Actually, what's he doing today? Is he buying massive conglomerates? Or is he fucking pumping gas, as a like video? Oh, I think he's like a mid. He's like a mid-level. Regional executive at like Enterprise rental car or something, really. I think that should be the question for everything, right? If you were in the sun, like he's in Tulsa, or he's in like Cincinnati or something, Um, so what's your score for that one? It's you know it's it's disheartening but you know you know partly because you think like okay well now they control CNN and but you know but no I don't know that anyone cares about this stuff anyway anymore, do people care about CNN? I mean, that's the Niles. I mean, people get their, they shockingly get their news from Mark Zuckerberg's Instagram, Larry Ellison's tiktok it's really. This is honestly where they get their news. Yeah. All right man, I had I anyway, I don't just it's a it's a five, I don't know. I five. All right, that means I can't pick a winner because you had too many tens out of town. Let's move on. Yeah and end this with that. Dorsey is the story though. His Shameless winners predictions. Oh, we really fell off a cliff there at the end. I know it's a tough week. I think he's still my headline. He is about the meta-director. So I will give you my, my only other one. This is kind of a stupid Silly one Burger King adding. AI to employees headsets to constantly monitor whether they're being friendly enough. This is actually, that's what Vanguard should have agreed to. They should have headsets, and if they accidentally say anything that supports like, you know, like the climate like or you know, I look solar power, the grass looks so green outside your window. It's like up a shrill noise. I don't know if I don't know if you looked at the copy, but do you want to guess the, they actually named this AI? You want to guess the stupid name of it? That's the other thing. Stop me. The fucking a wife. What do you name is quickly? Wouldn't it be like Burger Voice or something? Yes, that's basically. It's Patty. It's oh, no. That means. Oh yeah, horrible name. I had line is, it's just another week and I know you already had one but Jamie dimon did have more things to say. So I just did a Jamie Diamond says, Jamie Diamond. Says, his anxiety is high over. What could cause the next financial crisis? I know, what could cause you and your Bros? You're all, you're, you're like, no. Something else of directors and CEOs something else. You don't understand. It's something else who won the week? I'm exhausted. This is an easy one for me US. Women's Hockey team for three victories. They had a gold. They want Goldie Olympics and they have refused two of Trump's invitations to the White House. Three, Victorian the old triple threat. I, I think the winner of the week is AI middle management. Oh, because of this headline, perplexity announces computer and AI agent that assigns work to other, AI agents. Oh, great. We're already there. We're there. We're already there. We have an org chart for AI. That's great. All right, you have a prediction. My prediction is that CNN now control by a College Dropout, David Ellison. Is turned into a 24-hour News Network. Featuring Kid Rock smashing, woke stuff. Like you know, like dictionaries and stethoscopes. You know, just all that woke crap that he doesn't like so woke, right? So what they're invasive, what are we doing there? It's an invasive species. All right, here's my, here's my prediction. Not to be outdone by perplexity. Yes. He call back to the last one. Yeah, call. Sam Altman announces two, new modules called chat GPT VP and Chachi PT HR. Oh, so Chachi PPT can get a performance review from chat gptv and then filed discrimination claim after Chachi pptv grabs, its ass file that claim with Chachi PT HR where they will quietly file, the report away and tell Chachi BT to maybe wear less provocative clothes. That's, I mean, I I actually am curious. Why we haven't seen our first AI director yet? Like I gotta be coming right once once once an insurer says sure. We'll cover the liability of your AI director. Then they're all AI directors, that's gonna be good. That's all we got so much. So exhausting that says, I'm not Rallis known to Damien known as Damian to his friends. I am your anal. So I'm not scared. We are free float. Next week, we got a week of shows but the week after we're in Washington DC actually recording live at CII the conference for Institutional Investor types. It's the Council of institutional investors, Big Spring conference, we're going to be in Washington DC for that. So if you listen to the show and you want to meet up with us with us while we're there. You should stick around too because on on the Wednesday morning, plenary at 9 a.m. we are who we are because we won't, we're probably won't like it. Yeah. That's all we got till then, goodbye.