Transcript
Hmm. Well that's working. Everything's working. Live from your Black Rock branded back scrubber. What is like the copywriter taking the day off? That's the that's his best as we could do? Yeah, ew. Where do you where do you get that? Do you get that at a conference? Is that what they handout? That's I get that from a college kid. I get that from a a writer. It's a Business Pants Friday show here at Juneteenth Studios featuring analyst Hole Matt Muscarty. Why are we working? Cause you were away. On today's weekly wrap up, ESG is okay now. Park signs are free to speak again. And billionaire bromances. Yeah, happy Juneteenth. I don't know. Because that was a way. Billionaire bromances. We've been talking about billionaire bromances forever. They're getting they're getting worse. They're getting more Yeah, it is. our show today is being sponsored by Freeflow Analytics and Freeflowanalytics.com, the only platform measuring board power connections and performance for free. Not that anybody cares. I certainly don't care. But I got a login this morning to beta test the new platform. So it does exist. That f feels like the only thing we talk about anymore. It's Look, if you're listening to the show, you're one of two people that listened to this show. Email me matt at freefloat.lc and maybe I can get you beta access to the new platform. There's no reason why we shouldn't invite people to have beta access. The new platform is well, I mean, it's way better than the old platform, right? That's the that's the bar. That's the bar. It is definitely that. Congratulations. Better than the old platform. That's all you can say. Yeah. Yes. It is way better. You ready to do this? am I? Am I ready to do this? All right. I I guess I'm ready to do this. Let's do this. Story of the week. Ba bob How many st how many do you have? Ninety three stories of the week this year? This week? All right. Well, what an intro. four. Always four, but sometimes I cheat a little bit. The first one, as an example. The first story is big media dictatorship craziness. Yeah, nineteen stories. But I but I just noticed it's just like it's worth it's just worth laying out there that the the nutty world of of of our media in the United States, just that and how it's controlled by dictators and romances with Trump. But I'll try to sum it up. So it's like nineteen stories? I'll try to go quickly. First, the Justice Department decision to allow Paramount Deal surprise staff investigators. surprise some of the DOG lawyers. And then on top of that, you know, the UFC had its this is the headline, the UFC's Despicable Night at the White House. So th and the reason why that's important, and I'm not gonna go deeply into the into the weird bloody fight that happened at the White House, but that is a that's a paramount thing. Just so you know. Yeah, it was all it was it was live streamed. It was live streamed in Paramount and you had to pay like nineteen dollars or whatever to like see it. yeah. It's an Ellison it's the Ellison family. And it's also the Dana White of the UFC. So if you need another reason, I know you you like you you talk about it with your friends, like, I wish I could quit Instagram or something. If you want another reason, Dana White, who runs the his CEO of the UFC, is a board member at Meta who, you know, runs your Instagram there. So maybe that's another reason. Anyway, so the the takeaway from the story, I suppose, is that the the DOJ, which is basically controlled by Trump now. kind of just jumped the gun and improv approved Paramount's $111 billion acquisition of Warner Brothers Discovery, despite no, okay, so it there's a lot going on here. So the chairman Brendan Carr at the FCC supported the merger, but the but the FCC hasn't technically weighed in yet because there are regulatory hurdles there because of the fact that there are That was an F C C thing, isn't it? There are huge equity stakes held by sovereign wealth funds who aren't even American. That's the thing that that's even crazier about all this is that we're celebrating America at the White House by by beating each other up, but and Paramount is running the whole thing. And yet what most Americans don't know is that wealth funds in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and and Qatar are now gonna be part major owners really of Paramount. yeah. Yeah. Also, I can't get over. I know, like, you we could talk about like the ridiculous mess it is to have you know men beat each other to a bloody pulp on the lawn of the White House. Sure, let's take that as road, okay? But the fact that we're doing it to celebrate freedom and democracy, 250 years of freedom and democracy in America, in an octagon full of dictators. Mark Zuckerberg's a dictator. Dana White works for yeah runs UFC. That's a that's owned by Ari Emanuel who runs the it's a dictatorship. Like it's a literally a bunch of dictators who all are dictators together celebrating democracy and freedom. That's a dictatorship. TKO group, is it? TKO group, right? Yeah. I love the freedom part too because there was a story that all federal workers have to wear a free they have to wear a freedom pin or else. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Nothing says freedom like being told you have to do something. Yeah. And then I have a story later about how the park signs at state parks Trump forced them to change the language on I mean that's freedom, right? Did you ha you have to change the language on your park sign? That sounds like freedom. All right, well, there's some more going on with this Paramount thing, but it's still not quite over because a lot of state attorneys general are are s still fighting this. They they Freedom is do what I say. Yeah, I believe that's Wha one of the big problems is the debt is that there would be massive debt at the company at the for the for the Ellisons, right? And and they don't so they don't think that they're gonna be okay with this. But of course the Trump's DOJ is like, no, don't worry about it, let's just forget about it. Anyway, so that's the Paramount thing. Let's stay with the big media stuff. So Comcast, which is a dictatorship, it's controlled by co CEO Brian Roberts. he has 34% of the vote. forty-two percent of shareholders said no on his pay. and if you take out his vote, it's eighty percent of shareholders said no on pay. This is the crazy thing about media. This is the fascinating thing about the media industry is first of all, we talked about it all the time. It's a magnet for the for all the egotists like the Nelson Pelts. They want to come in and they want to buy things. you know. the the the families, the Ellisons, they want to buy media. But then the shareholders they get angry at pay in this industry, unlike others. so to carry on with this sentiment, at Warner Brothers Discovery, which is not a dictatorship ship at the moment until Paramount buys it, David Zaslov's pay was rejected by shareholders. 84% said no. 84%. I don't know if I've ever seen. A higher rejection of pay. but do you think this is the influence of the Ellisons who are like we don't want to pay this guy? I what I don't know. This media just makes my head scramble from a corporate governance perspective. Isn't there there's sort of I don't i i i media's always been like this. I d but I d but I don't I don't understand how to parse it because it doesn't seem to matter, does it? Like isn't like like first of all, the say on pay is advisory. It's not real, right? Like so it's non binding, so they can pay anyway. they're Media's nuts. I guess you're right. It doesn't It's non binding, yeah. But it does represent a a the true sentiment of shareholders, so I think it is interesting. But they're rejecting David Zaslov's pay and they they okayed Elon Musk being a trillionaire? Like I don't like what is the I don't understand the disconnect here, right? Like d do we just not like David Zaslov? Eighty four percent. I know, I know. I don't know. I don't know. I mean Tesla is basically a failure, and you could say that Warner Brothers Discovery is is not a failure. I mean we could go that simple, right? Yeah. Warner Brothers has been a I mean, it's been a strong company in this country for what, a hundred years? I mean it's I it's basically shaped our entertainment industry. well how about the fact that by letting the Ellisons buy I we could distill it down. I don't know I don't know how to do anything anymore. I don't really understand. Come on. Warner Brothers Discovery, we are kinda losing one of the few remaining non dictatorship media companies. It's not it has no major shareholder, which is rare. So it's like why are we even letting that be taken over in the first place? But that's a whole nother conversation. Well I it w I can't even get into the idea that like everything is consolidated with a dictator at this point. Like every industry. Well speaking of which, now I have to get a new solution for my TV watching. All of a sudden, Fox, which is the Murdochs, Lachlan I think alone controls thirty six percent of the vote. Fox is now acquiring Roku for twenty two billion dollars. That that just happened like suddenly, sure, right? So there goes my Roku fund. Sure. I guess. Yeah. I guess when you have like billions sitting around and you got nothing to do with it, you just buy shit. Like the And this is why these dictatorships are so stupid, because I I I wanted to point out one little twist. there was an AK that came out this week which said that the compensation committee at Fox has increased Murdoch's CEO and chair Lachlan Murdoch's his target annual bonus is is going up to nine million, and his target annual equity award is going up to twenty million. if you do the math, it means that he That basically he he can get an increase of twenty-four million dollars out of all this. Like if you do all the percentage math. So they basically are handing him twenty-four million dollars. But here's the cute part. It said in the filing, Mr. Murdoch recused himself from all discussions and votes regarding his employment, regarding his compensation adjustments. Yeah, yeah. Do you Right. Yeah. Like anyone believes that. Sure. that's nice of him to not weigh in on his own compensation and oversight. Yeah. Th also, like, what is the he controls the company with this twenty fee is what's what's twenty four million to him? Like just make it a hundred million. Who cares? Not to mention that he controls the Sean Pay vote. Yeah. And who and why would anyone be afraid of him? And why would anyone be afraid of of y Yeah, they no Lochland, you're not getting a raise. Yeah, someone's gonna do that, right? it's all dumb. Okay, that's the that's all the media stuff going on. Let's let's turn now to story number two. They they're they're they're gonna get a little shorter as I go. This is so dumb. It's all so dumb. the government and AI. You know, we had two weird maybe opposing forces, maybe the same idea, but from the left and the right going on an AI this week. First, this is just nuts to me, but Trump blocks foreigners from using anthropic's latest AI tech, right? Now, I don't you know, they're saying it's like for military reasons, you know, safety reasons. I like that. national security, whatever. But the background of this is that Anthropic is the only company that that that ha f has like kind of push back against the US military, right? And they just announced an IPO. So it makes me wonder, is Trump blocking it because he's 'cause he's a vendetta against Anthropic? Because he knows that could be ruinous for an IPO if people realize, wait, the government can just come in and stop this company from doing what it wants to do. I mean, it's strange, right? Why did they not do this a it's simultaneously simultaneously. Isn't it a diss on open AI? Like, you guys have like a c you have a cute, shitty AI, you know, like I think it's a fa i okay, maybe I know what you're saying. So what you're what you're saying is that you if you take it at face value, Trump is saying, anthropic is way too good to give. But it also could be a favor to Sam Altman, who we know is a big buddy of of Trump, because he's also IPOing, but he's not restricting the use of their product. He's only restricting one comp it it's nutty. of course Way too good at this. yeah, he was sitting with him at the G seven. I that happened late last week and then I see an article this morning. of course, the headline being Trump's anthropic restrictions may be illegal. I mean they're almost certainly illegal. Yeah. Anyway, at the same time we got Bernie Sanders weighing in on AI. Now now Bernie has gone the other direction, but still, you know, government intervention. But he is introducing a seven trillion dollar Yeah, they're they they'll just fight it. It's fine. They'll fight it. It's just gonna cost money. plan to give Americans control of the AI industry. Essentially he's saying America should be fifty percent owners in these enterprises and we should be giving annual dividends to all citizens. he's calling it an AI sovereign wealth fund. So he so he's he's going for it from a different dire we know, we know this is not gonna happen, but I and I know you like you think it's Q and you poo poo Elizabeth writing letters and Bernie coming but No, it'll never happen. It's cute. He I actually think we we need to come up with with with these kind of counter arguments. I mean ho you need to start somewhere, right? I mean Look. I think we actually need to just do I think that two things need to happen. Like, if you're gonna give children a Trump account, right, like to buy off children, apparently, and you're gonna let Michael Dell, you know, you know, help fund it so that he can win government contracts. If you're gonna do all the grafts on the that side, right? They need to be controlled utilities. And their parents. Yeah, w government contracts worth way more than he pledged to give to the account. Way more. Yeah. And and not to mention that his stock went way up because of the contract. He wins like forty times, yeah. Then then he's going to pledge, right. Exactly. So he wins twice. and you've got on the other side you've got Bernie basically saying like, you know, we need to have Americans need to have an equity stake in companies that are displacing Americans. Like Hey, they took Trump took an equity stake in an Intel. I don't think it should just I don't think I think there's a missing component here, which is that the all equity stakes that all equity in in America the there can't be dual class. There can be no dictators. They have to be democratic. Because if Bernie Sanders well, if Bernie Sanders is basically saying like we should take fifty percent equity in these companies, but the other fifty percent is like run by a like Sam Altwent or it's like Yeah, go ahead. wow, you got I y I mean you have a fan in me in that one, yeah. fifty point one and forty nine point nine, right? Well, it's the equivalent they have these in Europe. They call them like golden shares, right? Where the government really has a they have a say on things. I I mean y it has to be the case that like the the w no, we should just get a straight vote. We should pick the directors. It shouldn't be golden shares where we're only allowed to talk about like mergers or a d or like a couple of things. I wan I want a straight common stock vote. Give Americans in their stupid like Trump accounts, like in a sovereign wealth fund, a stake of every company that's displacing them up to fifty percent or more, and they get to vote. No, you're right. A straight common stock ownership. Absolutely. They get to vote on the idiot running that company. Look, the most important takeaway we had last week during this show was that we were talking about SpaceX and we kind of wr we're both kind of deflated to the point of resignation with the thought that this is it. Like there there is no there is actually no way for anyone to affect anything going on with Elon Musk at SpaceX. He has completely insulated himself from everything. This we're done. Yeah. We're it's So I so yes, I agree. Of course I agree that we need to break up dual class companies, but I I don't know. I I I I I don't know why. Although you maybe you maybe you have the same experiences that I have. this is a complicated subject. It's a it's a complicated ownership model. It's something that a lot of people don't know. But when you actually have the time to sit down with people and explain it to them, a hundred percent of them agree with you that that It's good that you and I agree. That gets a lot of th stuff done. Yeah, they all think the same thing. So I don't know why this is something that and I don't know why when when media covers these stories that that this is not one of the important things that they latch onto. No, I d I d I don't know why investors continually buy and think this is okay. the I I don't understand that. They should divest in every Zuck watch owning enterprise, okay, let's move on. Okay, now we'll get a little lighter. for Jim Kramer. Okay. Jim Kramer of CNBC says SpaceX investors aren't buying earnings, they're buying Elon Musk. Okay, that's the headline. So so I I think that the ra mainstream business media, Jim Kramer Yeah, sure. the world, the country, America, I think we've okayed ESG again, right? Because well I I thought the whole argument against ESG is you're introducing these non pecuniary goals, right? Like all these like non money goals, right? So so if we're investing in the governance essentially of SpaceX, and this is okay. We're okay with the meme stalkery of Tesla and SpaceX. We're okay with we're investing in Elon Musk, we're ignoring Wait, why how? What? I see where you're going with this. Everything else, and I'm looking at you, NASDAQ, and whoever else okayed this, all the exchanges and all the all the institutional owners who okayed this are investing. Then you're basically saying that ESG should be back on the table. All those lawsuits of bullshit because that's what's happening here. But that's what's happening here. This is a pure ESG move. You're making the assessment that the governance at SpaceX is beautiful. Well w we knew that. And that we're gonna put our money into it. We don't care that we have no voting power. We don't care about anything. We don't care that they don't make money, that they're liars, that they're racist, that they're Nazis. That none of that matters, right? So that to me, ESG is alive again. That's all I'm saying. That's the third story. Yeah. Look, the are the argument they would make is they're investing in long term earnings. They believe in the long term earnings. But I would say, isn't long term ism ESG? Isn't that the point? Right? Like, so you're using a not like this isn't bet this doesn't benefit your your f your, you know, clients, your beneficiaries like this year. This doesn't No. Stop. Well that okay, well fine. But there's no but there's no proof of any of that. Yes, it is. Yes. Yeah. No, if anything, it's major risk. It's a huge risk. You've taken on a massive amount of risk and you're gonna say long term earnings. Well well, how I totally agree with you. How is that different from saying I don't wanna buy that company because there's a huge risk in the future that I'm buying? I love it. I love it. It's not. This is it. This is it. ESG is back. That's the third story of the week. And finally, how this God bless you, Japan. I just watched Japan in World Cup. They they did well there. They tied at the very last second. This is just nuts from our American corporate governance perspective. So I had to include this story. Fourth story of the week. The headline is Drunk Crew causes 30% pay cut for a major airline CEO. Okay. They look good they look good. They look pretty good, yeah. Whoa. This is nuts. So in a nutshell, some flight attendants were drinking in between flights, like on a layover, and and this is a obviously a problem, right? And it and it and well yes. I I don't think you want drunk crew members on any planes, you know, when they're responsible for you for your safety. Anyway, Japan Airlines thought it was very serious. They immediately apologized. Is it? Yeah. Because they said it severely damaged the trust placed in us, blah, blah, blah. and and they said basically that this is a systemic screw up, is basically what they're saying. Like, they're not just blaming the flight attendants. They could have just fired them, right? Scapegoated them. They're saying we're blaming all of us. Like, this is a problem. Like, we can't be running an airlines where the customers think that we're all a bunch of drunk idiots and that we c we don't have rules and we don't follow rules. So here's what they did. Yeah. They implemented this is a a a comp a corporation in our database, right? This is not just some like stupid thing I'm making up here, okay? This is not like your Doug's bagels. I didn't know Doug Chaw had a bagel. Does Doug Chaw have a bagel shop? So they're implementing disciplinary measures affecting both frontline staff and senior management. Starting with CEO Mitsuko Totori. Unfortunately, she does happen to be like the first woman to lead the company. And there and there aren't Okay. Yeah, I didn't know that either. Doug Doug, reach out to us. I like bagels. WHAT ARE WE DI COME ON! I wanna look beyond this. I wanna look beyond this. Like I can't imagine there's many CEOs in Japan who are women, but she started as a flight attendant at Japan Airlines, so God bless her. So she accepted a thirty percent reduction in salary for two months while other executives are also getting temporary pay cuts, including directors. The the entire board will receive a t ten percent pay cut. I hate it now. Fifteen percent. And then so you know, some of the middle manager, safety manager, cabin services manager, and then they're gonna they're implementing new policies for the flight attendants. Anyway, I I can you believe this? I mean accountability at a corporation. Isn't this just a n it but isn't it just a woman like taking the the the blame for a thing that happened? It might be her idea. well first of all it proves that women should just run every fucking company, right? Like because it like they the the chances that the the probability that they hold themselves accountable, hold themselves accountable when something goes wrong is significantly higher. Well how do you know? Well maybe it's her idea. Maybe it's her idea. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Immediate accountability. Yeah. And not just fake not just fake accountability with a fake apology, but they're actually giving money back. I mean, thirty percent for two months, I don't know how much that is. It's probably like seventeen dollars, right right? Like it but stop. It's something. Come on. It don't you cannot poo poo that. And they don't make huge amounts of money in Japan like they do here. But I like I I'm just I'm just so disappointed that it's a woman's like the chances of it being a female CEO were are like are nine to to like it's nine to one, right? It's like the it's like it's worse than here. Like how how does that it it ruins the story. All right. I know, I know. it's in America it's already horrible. There it's gotta be worse. Yeah. Anyway, I but God bless the accountability at s one core I mean imagine if if Zuck or or Musk or Bezos were accountable for every goddamn screw up. They're not even accountable for their own charitable donations, which they do like once a year for like ten dollars and like like to put out press releases. I mean, Altman's chat agent is is is like cheering on suicides and he and he doesn't there's nothing going on with w he's not even losing like one doormat at one of his Hawaiian homes. Like nothing. There's a story I didn't cover this week, but they like that you pulled that you know, Altman and OpenAI had to like rush out because you could ask OpenAI to show me an image of a sex crime and and they were like, we probably shouldn't do that. Like that everything everything's in so my stories are the big media dictatorship craziness, which is just Yeah. Well yeah, everything but everything is an after like afterwards. Yeah. Lot going on this week, starting with the UFC, yeah. Disgusting. The government and AI with anthropic and trump and then Bernie. Jim Kramer, who who sanctions ESG, apparently. side note, I like I actually like he's a guilty pleasure of mine. I kind of like Jim Kramer. I don't like his blowhardiness. I don't like how much he loves every CEO, but I just Yes. Okay. All right. I just wish they'd put us on. Like why can't we have an overnight shift at that station? Like, put us on at two AM. I don't have enough buttons that make boings, apparently. and then drunk crew causes thirty percent pay cut for a female Japanese airline CEO. Okay, true, but just think I can you believe that headline's real though? I mean, can you believe it actually happened? All right, what's your story? What's your story? It's a wit is a weird headline. it's gotta be, I don't like it, but it has to be like the directors or the dictatorships in media. Like the this ongoing march to having three media companies. And and can we fucking d dis dis dispel the idea that liberal media exists anymore? Every one of these are massive conservative conglomerates. This is trouble. Well college radio. There's a college radio station near me that that like a thousand people listen to that's pretty liberal. I mean not even in podcasts, like the top ten podcasts are all like conservative podcasts. Like everybody every conservative is some victim of liberal media and liberal elites. There are none. It's all fucking conservatives. That's true. I mean Think about this. In the last twelve months, w we have we have gotten rid of one of the the the the pillars, the the institutional cultural pillars of our culture, which is sixty minutes. Like we're we're basically they're ripping it apart. They just tore it up. I I didn't think they'd get I don't I like I try not to think about it but it just means like I can't you know what I watch now? Telemundo. It's the only thing I can stomach because it's peacock owned, which is Comcast, which is still a dictatorship, but at least it's in a language I don't understand, so I can't be upset. All right, let's do another one. I don't know what we're doing next. what do we do next? Goodliest. yeah. Well I've got two Goodliests. Wow, you're happy this week. Okay. g good for your language skills. Brian Roberts, yeah. Yeah. All right, let's move on. We w we're trying to now we gotta be trying to be happy after all that. I have four. Yeah, I've goodly a speed round. You wanna go first? Yeah, sure. this one made me smile ear ear to ear. No, this one legitimately made me smile. Nearly eighty percent of data center capacity is at elevated risk to climate hazards like flooding and fire, study says. Just think about just think about it. Because we've gone through all this effort to basically ignore climate change in this country, they are building data centers in drought ridden areas in front of wildfires, right? Like we've yours are sarcastic, aren't you? Go ahead. I was gonna say it's n yeah, yeah. We've gotten rid of data on climate change, and the end result is our tech bro, you know, morons and the enablers of these tech bro middle schoolers are building the most important thing to run their empires on top of like f tornadoes. This worries me though. Is this not gonna I feel like Blade Runner is like coming true. Like are are we gonna be at a point where th where they were gonna have like brownouts and blackouts because we need to give power to AI when their data centers are imploding and we're gonna have to like well for the next month we're gonna have a brownout because Sam Altman needs some juice to create some kind of video or something? Look, the f the fact is we We're already doing it. We know by surveys the number one unifying thing for for both conservatives and liberals in this country and increasingly in other countries is their hate of data centers. Data centers I don't like this. I don't like this. And social and increasingly social media, especially for kids. No one works in data centers. They like to say it's like job creating. There's like seven people who run a data center. And the data center takes all your water and they they try to recycle as much as possible. And I've read all sorts of like things that like they but they still have to take the water and they take all your power and they charge pe more for power. And now companies we covered how there's a literally a Berkshire Hatherweek subsidiary in Nevada who took all the power. Don't take my water. Don't take my water. All the power for Reno Nevada and gave it to data centers. All not some. The town was powered by a company that said, find a new power source, we're giving ours to a data center. Everyone hates them. And and they're building them in the ways of fires. That's not Wait, you're you're veering off Goodliest here. You so you're just So your your Goodliest perspective on this is that they'll get destroyed by nature? Okay, alright. It's fabulous. It's be we it's basically they're building with their eyes closed 'cause like they're they're they're so egotistical. I still I still think they'll figure out how to pass the buck on that disaster. What's your other goodliest? my other one is meta sued for over a hundred million by Eminem's team for illegally using two hundred and forty three songs. I like that Eminem's fighting back. I I like that. I had a yeah, I had a lot of meta headlines I actually scrapped this week, including the fact that he Mark Zucker Zuckerberg admitted that meta made mistakes and they'll probably make more mistakes in the future. And by meta, he should just say me, like You just said myself. Like I yeah. There's no there's no we, Mark, it's just you. There they're there's they're calling like the what the CTO says morale Meta's CTO says morale is almost the worst it's ever been. Meta wants Congress to shield it from child harm lawsuits as legal pressure mounts. and this the my favorite one was that Mark Zuckerberg orders surviving meta staff to have fun following brutal job cuts. He though he his his idea of fun was he he wanted to reintroduce a hackathon. yeah, I've g I g yeah, I like that. I got that later. Yeah. woo. And and and a a hackathon of correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't that just mean that the people have to stay and like do some stupid thing on their computer? It's like some some like extra hours. Yeah. That sounds that and that's supposed to make people feel good. Yeah. You were you sit there, you have like a c a code problem and you code for like twenty four straight hours. It that's fun. Yeah. That's fun for everybody who doesn't have a family andor children. Like like o even a dog, because it sucks otherwise. The only thing I the only pleasure I get out of all this is week to week thinking like who is the worst out of these dictatorships? Like who is my biggest villain? All right. Here I have four I think that are mostly good based on just the headline. Yeah, speed line. Melinda Frenchgate's advice to new IPO millionaires. She's looking at SpaceX. She says, give half your money away. That's simple. And that's not pleasure. Speed round him. Let's speed round it. I like that. You can follow that. That's a good rule. Judge rules Trump administration cannot erase slavery and climate change history from national parks. We we talked about this. Always a female judge, and yes, it's a female judge, it's a woman. the next headline the global under 16 social media ban is no longer a fringe policy. This is taking over. under 16 social media bands. I think the UK is now on it. and then finally, target. Well, it's a woman, right? I was gonna say it's a woman. I like them. Walmart and Amazon among brands losing LGBTQ plus consumer spending. I just thought that was interesting because it parallels a lot of the reporting that we've done about DEO and the DEO flip floppers and the boards that suck. Cause they're saying that LGBTQ plus spending represents one point seven trillion dollars in the US annually. And they mentioned some of the companies that are being rewarded are the companies like Costco, for instance. Top of the list. Yeah. Yes, I was gonna say the the the people getting punished is one thing. The people getting rewarded is even more satisfying. Like Costco vocally supported DEI, LGBTQ, and it wasn't just like the company was like, No, we're cool with this. It was a board member who was out in the world being like, it's fucking stupid to to to not talk about DEI. Yes. Didn't have to. You don't have to like wave a pride flag in everyone's face, but you do have to understand that diversity is a strength. Period, end of story, and we're sticking with it. Hey, this is proof number two in our show that ESG is like a thing, like it matters, like it's an actual thing. All right, let's move on. Yeah. Also proof that Charlie Munger was right because he liked Costco so much. those are pretty good. I'm gonna if I have to vote He's always yeah, he's right. All right. Well yeah, pick, pick, yeah, go ahead. I'm gonna go with the LGBTQ plus. I think that's the winner, right? Yeah, 'cause you that's all we do here. I know which one I'd pick. Alright, fine. I'll I'll just I'll just agree. let's go let's go. I was gonna say the the park signs, but y that's just reversing stupidity, so that it doesn't really count. Yeah. Yeah, it's reverse sixty. It can't be good. Assholiist. All right. which is the bigger asshole move? Yeah. I I'm giving you three categories. I'm gonna give you all the categories, then I'll give you just headlines underneath them. But is it a bigger asshole move to be a part of a secret club? Yes, I'm psyched. Do I get to play? I love it. All right. All right. nothing's worse than that. Is it a bigger asshole move to gaslight to get votes? That's bad. Is it a bigger asshole move to threaten and complain because you're the victim? You'll have to explain that one, yeah. Or is it a biz bigger asshole move to take everything while no one's looking? All right, so these are big asshole moves. There are headlines for every one of them. All right, you ready? Number one, being part of a secret club. Headline Trump's boys. Here's what it is. See the celebrities and business execs who showed up to the UFC fight at the White House, just as an FYI. None women. None of them were women. Yeah. I don't Yeah, that I don't like the sound of that one. All right. Go ahead. Yeah. N nobody. Well who would have it been? I mean who d who likes him? Yeah. I'm not even sure there were women there. Like there's no evidence that there was a woman there so far. Were any of the fights women or is it all men? What do you know? I don't know. I don't know. I actually don't know anyone that watched it, yeah. Can can you imagine the World Cups going on and this guy is holding like fights at the White like at the White House? I I don't know what this guy's a maniac. In our in in on our continent. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. I th did anybody watch it? I don't even know. I didn't even see like highlights of it. I Like the the the biggest tournament in the entire world is happening in our country. I don't think Donald Trump is going to a single match. Is he? Is he going to I think he said he's might go to the final because it's happening in in a James Dolan approved venue, probably. speaking of, Jensen Huang on his relationship with Trump calls me in the middle of the night. great. Another Dolan joint. Yeah, good. I don't like that idea. 'Cause that's when Trump's most angry, 'cause it he's always angry tweeting in the middle of the night. I know. so what's what's he angry calling Jensen Wang for? a signal where power sits. Trump and world leaders joined by open AI anthropic Google at G seven. Really? I don't know. I was gonna cover this. This is like it was almost too dystopian for me to like wrap my h my hands around. Honestly, like at the G seven with the with the leaders of sovereign states, you know, like the Macrones of the world, the the the the the dictatorships of open AI are showing up. And what the hell? Yeah. I I d I mean the dictatorships of Google anthropic and open and and open AI. Like we only pick dictators to show up to a d like a diplomatic gathering that happens like once a year, Yeah, horrible. I suppose. W with supposedly democratically elected leaders. Yeah. Unbelievable. how about the being part of a secret club if you're an incel middle schooler? Leek exposes members of Peter Thiel's Secretive Dialogue Society. Have you read this? You know, I was yeah, I was gonna include this too in the story of the week and I couldn't wrap my head around it. You know, one of the things he did too, speaking of ESG, is they have a grading system too of all and I couldn't wrap my head around the cause like everything that this class of people does and do, i it doesn't make sense. Their mythology methodologies are like created by twelve year olds. So I I couldn't even understand the grading system. It w w I think Wired has an article about it, so get if when you can, check it out. I didn't even get that f I didn't even get to the methodology of the grading system. You have to read this because everything that these people complain about, everything, is like George Soros and the secret backroom dealings of liberals and it's and they they have constructed an entire alternate reality for themselves such that they have their own actual secret society that shows up at an actual conference every single year and the people are like range from like It's petty, it's paranoid, it's childish. Total far right loonies to the masters of the current universe, the middle school masters of the universe. Some of the th the conference topics included preparing for World War Three. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like s Scientologists and yeah. Well, of course, 'cause they're probably gonna perpetuate it. And how to have better sex. Does it get more incelly than that? It's the grossest thing I can think of. How d Ugh, yeah. I don't like this. Yeah. And and how how about the fact that we only learned about this because there was faulty code? Isn't this like the technocracy? They they their code wasn't like yeah, they got the code they got the code wrong. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. They yeah, they got the code wrong. They got it wrong. They got they got the code wrong. how about regulatory fist bumping? SpaceX gets assist from DOJ an effort to toss NAACP air pollution lawsuit. How's that for a secret society? Course. Yeah. I mean I mean b and you say SpaceX, but you mean Musk, right? I mean Musk, Musk Doge Bros are are their own secret society. I mean he's gonna get a regulatory fist bump constantly. I mean that's what he's gonna that's what he bought. That's why he bought Trump the election. Yeah, go ahead. And then I had to include this last one because it's just funny to me. You pulled it and had nothing to do with anything except that I read this headline and I thought I was doing Secret Societies and s whatever. Chi Chef Carl Wilder join joins Secret Street Tours Board of Directors. You tag that because you tag every time anyone this is how methodical Damien is. Damien will go through every headline that has XYZ joins boards of directors. Why did I ch I tagged that? Why did I target that? I probably just saw a join board. Yeah. Ugh, I hate it. But it has to be a it has to be a proper name, a per can't just say two directors. It has to be a name in the headline. And he pulls them all. And Secret Street Tours is the name of a Dublin-based nonprofit that works with on homelessness with guided walking tours. And I just I I had I thought it was like funny to put that as part of being a secret club. All right. All right. Number two. That's a f secret clubs. That's a bunch of assholes. And is that is it a bigger asshole move to do that or huh. Okay. All right. I like that. Yeah, no, I'm with ya. That's the first one. Secret Club of Bromancy Billionaires, yeah. To gaslight for votes. How about this headline? Voters reject effort to hike Oklahoma's minimum wage. I'm I'm glad you've also included this one. I wanted to somehow include this one. I was trying to think of like a a a a thesis statement about, you know, how the fact dual class votes versus voters in our democracy voting against them. I couldn't figure it out, so I'm glad you included this one. What yeah yeah, what's your takeaway here? unbelievable. Unbelievable. Was it even close? I don't even know the final result. Well, here is the amazing quote. the the the it w it was it was actually close. It was close ish. But you know, like all these votes are like close ish. Okay. It's a heavy Oklahoma's a heavy Republican state. Like two like I think it's like sixty six almost like two thirds Republican voters, right? yeah is it is it that little? I mean I think it's even more. so there's a quote by a guy named Chad Warmington who who literally looks no, it's not made up. He literally looks like he was he was like freshly 3D printed out of the white guy who says stuff machine. Yeah, he he is the president and CEO of the state chamber. Heavy. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well there are cities in that state. Yeah. huh. Is that made up? Yep. Yeah, it sounds like a smurf or something. of this of course he's president and ceo I'm sure he's chair also. He had yeah it's like a business thing. Yeah, yeah. He had this to say the state chamber applauds Oklahoma voters for rejecting SQ 832. Tonight voters chose to protect Oklahoma's economic momentum and one of our greatest competitive advantages affordability. So his the the argument was you mean like the the business round table of Oklahoma essentially? Yeah. What? Affordability for who? this is sick. That if you give people a living wage, then they can't afford anything. Because the companies pass the costs down to the consumers and they can't now and now everything's more expensive and you can't afford it. So instead, give people Oklahoma is one of the only states left that still has a $7.75 federal minimum wage level. They stayed at the federal minimum wage. Meanwhile, Washington State, 175%. This is sick. I this is just sickness. This just makes me sad. Wow. Like our seven seventeen thirteen is the minimum wage 'cause it's pegged to CPI, it's pegged to consumer price index. So people in Washington are like, they get more money because prices go up and they can keep affording them. Yeah. Yeah. Even that seems low, but yeah, not compared to seven seventy five. Talk about a gaslight. That affordability is the reason why they want to pay you less. Here's another one. Tesla allegedly showed cooked data to get full self driving approved. Okay, so they're they they basically got that vote. the here's one. Govern Governor Gavin Newsom vowed to stop California's billionaire tax. He has just over a week left to keep it off the ballot. That's sad. That's all right, move on. I make you're crushing my soul. shark, yeah. But but he was a proponent of it originally, wasn't he? What are we doing, Gavin? What are we doing? Why are we now like vowing to stop things that you said were necessary? Like I am I constantly being gaslit at what's real and what's not? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. This is a one a one time tax, by the way. H here's one of my favorites, Nigel Farage, the the the UK. We don't talk a lot a lot about UK politics. He's a con conserv right, Tory conservative? He's not he's like the new reform party or something. He's like literally like v farther right wing than like, you know, like the worse, okay? The headline is Farage's pro woman law women law. Okay, so already you've got a problem. Like it says his the pro women law. his the pro women law could slash equal pay rights and cost female workers. Okay, so he's right wing? okay, okay. Yeah. Pro women. Yeah. Because does he mean pro women, meaning like it by keeping them home and and not working that's good for women kind of thing? Yeah. No. I don't know what he does anybody know what he means? He basically he called it the Women and Motherhood Protection Act to replace the 2010 Equality Act. And and the way it's the way it's written would basically like reduce pay protection for women, you know, reduce access to quality health care. It's it's like classic. Let's call it the We Love Women Act. I don't wanna just don't even And then make sure it takes away as many rights from women without them noticing. It it at least reminds me that we're not the only crazy people in in the Western hemisphere at least. Like there's a lot of other countries like going to the right. they did well, didn't they, in their recent elections? I think we're the leaders. I think the I think they took I think they took their the page out of our book though. I mean it this Trump thing is like, all right. And then the last two are like shareholder versions of gaslighting. Most Palantir shareholders vote for human rights probe, why it won't happen. Like like you need the headline. Like just s right, Palantir is dual class, every vote doesn't matter, right? Like it's a private company. whatever. Yeah, when they when they said most, yeah, what they meant was that the non the non like controlling shareholders said yes, but it doesn't matter, right? As a it's a weird headline, yeah. Doesn't matter, correct. Why it won't happen is it doesn't matter. and no ESG related shareholder proposals pass in twenty twenty six proxy season. Okay, ca can I talk about this one for a second? I don't know why you pulled this, but I'll let you go first, but yeah, why? Okay, but ca Okay, but there there's actually something important here that you're missing because I actually spent some time with this. I looked at the the methodology behind this. This was this was fr I think this started in the Harvard Law School form on corporate governance, but we've been tracking all these votes this year, at least at the major companies, and 'Cause it's a gaslight. None of them passed last year either. Or the year before that, or that. It's actually not true. There have been ESG related shareholders proposals that pass. There have been a few from Jim McRitchie and Shevardon because I Yeah, I I right. I looked at the I looked at the methodology. It says, quote, We exclude proposals with a governance focus. So how the hell are you well how the hell is the headline no ESG related? What are what are we doing here? Why are you allowed to exclude G? They separate the G. Yeah. Yeah. I know, I saw that. Yep. Yeah. I don't know why everyone thinks there's no G. I don't know why they think there's no G in ESG. The acronym very clearly has a G in it. It's got a G sound at the end of it. but they So those are gaslighting for votes. number number three, threatening and complaining because you're the victim. You said you needed I I'll just speed round this because you said you needed this these are self-explanatory. What the heck? Thanks, Harvard. Yeah. I used to trust you, Harvard. Can't take the G out of ESG, okay, keep going. Yeah, go. Amazon investigating engineers who criticized AI data center expansion. These are two engineer or three engineers who showed up at a local like p that like political event, like to talk to their reps, and they said, you know, th there should be moratoriums on like a unclear. I don't know. I didn't it didn't see, but it it now they're now they are they have n Investigating. How'd they know they showed up? Would they they like post it online or? Okay. I don't like that. They're basically investigating them for saying bad things, that having bad thoughts. New York Amazon Driver fired for posting pro union content on social media. Thanks. Thanks, Bezos. Good one. Why is that? For that reason? I thought you s not a part of free speech? Okay, all right. That's a double Bezos. I I'm sure you could make up a reason, but the this is that's a truth out, but yeah, double Bezos, yeah. US tech billionaire issues Stark China warning American companies have been hollowed out by the red dragon. What I saw that one. What the hell does that mean? That is Palmer Lucky fucking talking. Like like no, our our tech companies are gonna be victims of China. Our come our our country's going bankrupt because of China. Meanwhile, you guys are all fucking billionaires and dual class dictators. Like what are you talking about? Yeah. Hollowed out? What does that mean? What's the problem with China? I don't I w again, what's the deal with China? Are they not allowed are they not a real part of our global population? So like No, I was thinking about this. Like people are pissed because China steals stuff, right? Steals IP. Fine. Like th I I'm sure some of it is stolen, some of it is China. Maybe you maybe A, you shouldn't put all your shit in China in the first place, right? Like if you're worried about it, then like don't build stuff there. But you won't do that because you you want to build in China 'cause it's cheaper for you and you make more money. You charge the same amount if even it's cheaper for you, right? So Only China does this? Okay. Number two, if they're winning, be fucking better. Isn't that the American way? Like like we don't we didn't go to the the the the the Spurs and s the you don't see the Spurs saying like you know the the Knicks are winning we need to change basketball. Like But like the point is here if if they're winning then be better. Yeah. I would like to get rid of Dolan though. I don't understand this. Yeah. Win better. Yeah. It's the same with their it's the same with the electric cars. That's the one that really gets me. It's like we're not they're we're not letting them sell their better electric cars because they're better. Yeah. All right, keep going. Win more, like do something different. Because they're better, right? and then the last two, Trump administration tells federal employees to wear freedom pins or else. I I just just a great headline. and Mark Zuckerberg orders his employees to start having fun again after brutal layoffs called their colleagues. I b both of those it's just like constantly like like you know, it's not our fault and do what we say but not as we do and That's a great that that that headline says it all. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Zoc. I love the Zoc. you know, I it's just so much fucking victimhood for these billionaires. What I gotta you had to wonder at this point. That y look at your let's look at the workforce of the Zuck company, right? I mean these are these are I'm guessing b by and large highly educated people, right? A lot of them probably from pretty affluent backgrounds, right? These are not these are not Rubes. This is not the like the far the the hick who f who like in the natural who just like came from a farm and started playing. These are like these are some pretty some pretty serious people. Why the hell? Yeah, get out. Don't they just en masse unionize? No, no, really. No, no, forget the leaving, 'cause I I get they want a steady income, whatever. Why don't they friggin' unionize at least? They could walk out tomorrow and have collective bargaining power. Leave Leave unionize leave. No I I But at some point don't you say But at some point, don't you say like the steady income isn't worth literally hating everything I do every single day? Like Well, yeah, I agree with you, but they could start by at least having some power against Zuck. Alright. Let's move on. What else? Last. Okay, I don't like this one. Moved move to Washington State and get seventeen dollars an hour for minimum wage. last, while no one's looking, take everything. and this is this is simple. At Tesla, Elon Musk chooses to exercise options, resulting in a hundred and ten billion dollar payday. Jeff's dream team, Bezos recruits world's top architects to build most expensive mega mansion on billionaire bunker island. Course, yeah. That that the stupidest thing ever, yeah. Trillionaire Elon Musk makes six point four billion dollars every time SpaceX stock rises by one dollar. Horrible. I mean, that alone is the reason why no one should invest in space. there is again, why is the the market indexes why is it s completely separate from morality and ethics? Like w I don't understand, but whatever. I mean that is I did the math, I did the populist math, and it's eight hundred and twenty-five point eight million minimum wage hours in Oklahoma. If you live in Oklahoma, it would take you three hundred and ninety-seven thousand worker worker years, meaning nearly four hundred thousand people in Oklahoma working at a minimum wage job in Oklahoma would have to work a full year. I don't know what that means, but it sounds bad. Yeah. Just to make as much as Elon Musk makes when SpaceX stock goes up one dollar. And those probably aren't very fun jobs to begin with. That's psychotic. All right, those are your options. Which is the bigger asshole move. Secret clubs this week. Secret clubs this week, gaslighting voters this week, threatening victimhood and complaining this week, or taking everything while no one's looking. Woo. This week, this week. the taking everything while no one's looking, that's that's unfortunately is an evergreen. threatening, complaining because you're the victim. So we're firing what's Amazon up to? I'm worried about like are they using like dystopian methods? Like how the hell are they like finding this? Yeah. gaslighting for votes. I mean that that the Oklahoma minimum wage thing i isn't directly tied Amazon's up to everything bad. Bezos is off the rails. They're off the fucking rails. to what we do here, but maybe it is because you said it was the head of the chamber of commerce, so he's probably linked up with corporations and companies and the Yeah. and then we have being part of a secret club. I'm gonna just I I'm this is a dartboard vote this week 'cause they're all horrible. I'm gonna just I'm gonna let it land on being part of a secret club because this Peter Thiel thing is getting a lot of this secret dialogue society as he calls it is getting a lot of play. It's just horrible is what it is. That's why I le put it in there. Yeah, I think that's the right move. really scary, really weird. Yeah. All right, let's wrap this up with headlineist winners predictions. Epstein class here, yeah. All right. Wow, we're we're going fast it this week. I like it. What do you got for headlineists? Finally I have a headline where I don't have to exp over explain it. I think it just says it all. People don't trust AI. They do yearn for lunchables. But I don't know, is that a good I don't know, is that the is that the so the opposite of not trusting AI is you want lunchables? I'm a little disturbed by this duality. Ooh. Bigger question is how are those two questions on one survey? Like who put that survey together? I I don't know. I don't know what's happening. Yeah. I I guess they want a a simpler time when they were eating like chemically pumped up ham slices. I really know. But I do like the I do like that it just tells me everything I need to know. I like that. In a hand. I like the word yearn in that headline. Yearn. Honestly, if you y lunchables aren't aren't super expensive. If you yearn for one you could probably get one, can't you? Like Yeah. I've actually never had a lunchables. I've seen them. Yeah. That's true. I used to my version of it was a kid, I used to get this. My mom I I didn't get it from my mom. My mom, of course, you know, made her own yogurt and gave me a a homemade lunch. But the only thing I used to ha f get was these little like I got little red knives with a spreadable cheese. I went on four crackers. But I don't but you know what? I don't yearn for that. But I do but I don't trust AI. Okay? So I'm kinda yeah, I remember that. Yeah, yeah. yeah. Alright, well you would fail the survey. Fail the survey. all right, my headline is Mark Zuckerberg is a certified watch guy. His collection ranges from a hundred and twenty dollar Casio to multi million dollar time pe time pieces. A watch guy. Who won the week? I'm halfway there. All right. What's yours? Ugh, I hate you for picking this one. I don't I hate that. I hate this. I hate him. Hate him. I'm gonna go simple and say Japan for holding e everybody accountable, enough said. It's not Japan. It's the one woman who's a CEO in Japan. That's all it is. My winner is way simpler than yours. Casio. sh I don't know, but I know that Mark Zuckerberg owns a hundred and twenty dollar Casio. That $120 Casio that he owns that was in a profile is now on sale for just $96. So you too can buy the Casio watch that Mark Zuckerberg owns. Okay. Don't ruin it. What's your who's your winner? Well, that's a Japanese company, no? For ninety-six dollars, it's the G A two tho twenty one hundred WS seven A. It's the G Shock series in white with blue. You can buy it now. Casio's a big winner. You're not gonna buy it. All right. Okay. That's a weird one. No, I'm I'm not I'm not gonna get anything to Zuck owned. It's just not happening. all right. Mine staying with the theme that we're both just talking about. Meta I mean really, you know, Zuck. We should call it Zuck. Zuck emulates Japan Airlines by holding Zuck accountable, by taking away one of Zuck's watches every time he lays off ten percent of his workforce. Predictions. real But he has to hit that he has to hit that threshold though. When he fires ten percent of all his people, they take away a watch. Now but but it's his choice of which watch. One watch. Hopefully Well, you know, the here's the thing. My prediction also involves a watch. My prediction is that the company that makes lunchables sells a starts selling a watch. Cause it's the ham and it like turns. No, no, it's it's it's like cryogenically sealed in it and and it turns and Zuckerberg buys one. Yes. With with like the with the ham in the watch? Can you eat the watch? The ham is the the ham is the dials. Yeah. Yes, and eats it. And then fires 10% of his employees and gets rid of his lunchables watch. See? See our piggyback there? That's all we got. That's Hazelnut Rawlis. I'm your analyst on Matt Muscardy. We are free float. Hey, again, if you want that beta access to the new platform, reach out. Matt at freefloat.lc. I'll see what I can do for you. I gotta ask the people at FreeFloat Analytics what they're doing about it. But it's super cool, it's super interesting. It's and they take it back. Well. Yeah. A little janky here and there, but it's fun to try new things. So do that. If you missed Mike and Ann earlier this week, they dropped a show about Saba Capital and closed end funds earlier this week. And we got a double header today. Proxy countdown will be coming out also today. So check that out. Until then, good bye.