Transcript
Come on, ready? Whoa, why did your picture get smaller? live from the pastrami in BlackRocks Rye Bread. Koblamo. Who knows? Nobody knows. Ooh. All right. I like pastrami. All right. It's an all new terrific Tuesday edition of Business Pants joined by analyst hole Matt Muscarty. Woo. Yeah On today's chief people officer called september eighth, twenty twenty six, the things we missed Labor Day game game yeah. Stupid. The names of these games really need focus group or something. I don't know what that was. That that was run through ten different AI agents. really? That that explains why it sucks. Our show today is being sponsored by the non Sucky Freeflow Analytics and Freeflowanalytics.com, the only platform measuring board power connections performance for free. Well, look, I want to clarify something. It is free and but not the not on an institutional level. Like if you want an API, if you want like all of the data of everything, and you also want, you know, some of the consulting that comes with it. Love that sponsor. Love it. Love them. Love them. Yeah. Global history. Yeah. Some people to like build you a model. Yeah, that's yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's not free. I wanna be clear here. For the consumer, for the retail investor, for people who are interested in hating tech bros, that's free. So there's two of those people and then there's everybody else that we're trying to get to pay attention. Actually, you know, the the reality is is that everybody agrees with us, but just that nobody, you know, does anything but I don't watch Netflix. And listen to like Hollywood actors do podcasts. I this is tangential, but I like like the there the l my local, you know, high s my high school kid, the parent groups, you know, like we're on text chains and we meet up and whatever. There was like a debate about the meta the the settlement, the seventeen billion dollar settlement. And some people you know, there were there that one there was one person who was like arguing that meta this violates free speech. Meta is allowed to change its algorithms however it's won. And As there should be. There's a big debate about it. And people cared very much. But as soon as I said to everybody who was like, that's that's that's horrible, like Meta's a terrible company, and I was like, Well, are you on Facebook or Instagram? And the answer's always yes. So What about the is it also f free speech? The cigar tobacco companies? Is that free speech? Is it all is everything just free speech when I th look, I like I I don't the that wasn't my argument, but I I did I do like to think that, you know, if you're gonna be on Facebook or Instagram and hate Mark Zuckerberg and Meta and and the the institution, then buy some shares and vote out ch vote against the board every single time. Where where was this guy in eighth grade when I was trying to buy like s Siggies and beer? Like I th what about my free speech as an eighth grader, right? Yeah. No, he would agree. Yeah. I I actually offered him a sh a shot on the show to debate, but he wasn't interested. All right, let's do this thing. What do we what is this thing? I mean why why? Right? Okay, don't know. I'm don't even know what I'm talking about. Let's do it. Yeah. we we do this periodically because sometimes we take breaks and then we have a a lot of news stories pile up. So we pretend we try we try to find a a a false way to to get all the headlines back into our shows and talk about them. So that's why we call it the things we missed. Because we missed one show. I mean, we do too many shows as it is. We missed one dumb show because of Labor Day weekend. So a pile of stuff. But in honor of Labor Day, I'm gonna start right there. I'm gonna start with all the stakeholder rules stuff. Right at the top, all the Labor Day stories, and you are gonna tell us, the audience, whether you care or don't care. It's that simple. Care, don't care. And it's just like a pile of stuff that we yeah, that we missed. And what do I do? Because the audience deeply cares whether I care or not. I think they do, oddly. All right, let's do this thing. in no particular order as usual. Mamdani. You know, I i I don't I I this is I don't have any proof of this. This is anecdotal observation. This is a s a subjective. I don't have any I don't have any data to back this up. But they don't say mayor Mamdani ever. They just say his name. How come it's not mayor? But shouldn't there be a title involved? Yeah, they like to say Zoron a lot actually. Yeah. Yeah, there should be. It's it's always Mamdani or Zoran Mamdani. I don't know why it is. All right. Anyway, Mamdani opens Office of Worker Power in New York City. The new city agency intends to connect workers who want to unionize with resources and organizing contacts and use worker stories of exploitation to inform policy. I w I what? What's going on there in New York City? I yeah, yeah, I I mean This is the this is the home of Jamie Diamond. I this is crazy talk. actually the business roundtable would like this, right? Because the purpose of a corporation is to to to f to to be good to all stakeholders. they changed their minds, yeah. They changed their minds. Isn't this No, they up they updated that statement. You didn't see the state the new statement? The the the purpose of a corporation is to crush the workforce and replace it with robots? That was the latest statement. I was in a like a small grocery store over the weekend and I saw a gallon of milk for eight dollars. I I think every city needs an office of worker power. I think the workers need some help. Did ya yeah, well. Does do you think that will r reduce the cost of the milk or Well, if it it won't re it won't reduce the cost of the milk, but it might reduce weight it might increase wages, right? I mean, we've seen the power of of of unions over the last years. Alright, anyway, care don't care. Go. Yeah, I I suppose. Now so here's my problem with it. My problem with it is the people who need to unionize now are like the tech workers who are getting replaced by AI and the lawyers who are getting replaced. Like it's in different group of people that need to actually look at unions as a useful thing. And I'm not sure the Office of Worker Power really speaks to them. Like they're not they're not calling up they could, but I I don't know. I I I W why can't all the workers use this office? I hope there's a a a nice clean free bathroom in there too. So this is kind of a trick question 'cause I care about worker power, but I don't really care about the office of it. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go with don't care. Don't care. Don't care. Starbucks faces another union boycott and activist investor pressure. Yeah, the this is from the Strategic Organizing Center. they are putting another shareholder proposal up this year seeking to separate Starbucks CE CEO and board chair roles. I applaud that. Speaking of worker power. Also, Starbucks Workers United called on consumers to boycott the coffee chain until it settles a contract with the union, which represents approximately twelve thousand workers. So we have those two separate actions going on at Starbucks. You know, before you weigh on and if you care or don't care about this, I was shocked to see I was talk about nerdy. I was I was reading an article about all the governance-related proposals this morning and the most popular one was separating the roles of CEO and board chair. I think there were over 70 proposals this year, but it got like one of the lowest average votes. It the highest vote it got was forty eight percent. The average was twenty four percent. I don't know, that just seems like a no brainer to me. Why would you want your CEO to chair the group that oversees i him? I mean, I'm gonna say him because there's basically all men. We don't care about it. The CEO. Wha why? Why why were we doing this? I I I I do I do wanna like throw like the OG governance, you know, like you know, the godparents of governance, you know, the Nell Minnows, the you know, the Bob Monks, the you know, that group changed the way governance works in this country, without a doubt. and for the better. But the one nitpick I have Nell and Bob's Rick Marshall's For sure. Was being okay with the idea of a lead independent director instead of just saying, fuck the board chair, board and CEO combo. Like that, that that to me gave everybody an out. We know from the math, from all the data that we have, that the lead independent director, the average tenure of a lead independent director is over 10 years. Separate. Agreed. Agreed. In London in in the UK, they're not even considered independent directors, much less the lead independent director. They can't be independent. Not to mention that not to mention the trend that we've seen recently where lead independent directors are basically jumping into C suite roles if necessary. with no training, nothing. Like, well yeah, I mean this person's basically an executive. Yeah, then they bec they just get hired as the CEO, which means how independent are you? How independent can you be? So I I like that they're trying to separate it. I'm curious whether or not this just doesn't even show up on a ballot. Well, how does this show up on a ballot? Well, as we've seen, I I don't remember what Starbucks did last year, but some companies are just letting it all up there. They're not excluding anything. That's true. But the now the SEC last year the SEC sort of half assed their way disclosing things about you know which companies had, you know, their auto, you know, proposal withdrawals allowed. This year they've taken that away entirely. So now we have no idea if star you just have to wait for the proxy to see if Starbucks says, Yeah, this can go on the ballot or not. And you have no idea. the process. You can't read the letters, you can't read the ask, you can't see anything. So I like that somebody's trying something. I I don't think it's gonna work that much. but I'll I'll say I care. I will say that last year you care. Last year Starbucks allowed six shareholder proposals up there. So they're not including incl well, including the adoption of an independent board chair policy, which shareholders did not want. I think you're right. I think you're right actually. They were mostly anti woke. From the anti woke pr that I believe that was National Legal Policy Center who put that up. So they politically chose to allow the anti woke, anti ESG proposals up and they d they did exclude I think it was a Chivedin proposal that they excluded. At least one, right? if my if memory serves. They they they they also excluded some really bizarre ones, but yeah, so I care. I'll say I care. Tr s let's stay in our Labor Day category or stakeholders rule category. treated worse than cattle. Twenty five hundred Tyson workers laid off plant shutters overnight. They just did this one. This was like a this is in Illinois. and these these were these workers were all represented by food and commercial workers local fifteen forty six. This is one of those situations where they showed up to work and there was a note on the door saying it's over. They still get paid though, right? Like 'cause they're part of the union. They get they they're getting like a little bit of severance until October. That's it. but that's yeah, I that's a very rosy way of looking at it. They're still getting paid. Yeah. I I the overnight thing I I I that one kind of mystifies me. I mean, there there can't be some more planning there or I I I don't know. That just seems harsh. I mean c cause you know what these people were doing? They were Butchering cows. I mean, I I can't think of a of a harder job, honestly, and to treat them with with absolutely no respect. it's just yeah, I I I d I don't know how the union deals with situations like this, but would you care or don't care about this? I know you like eating cheeseburgers, so maybe you do care. I mean I I like that you're like like a a little either surprised or upset about that. This was a company this is a company that put Nepo baby John Tyson in the role of chief sustainability officer. Then then somehow he became CFO. Like I d I don't know how that happened. Then he went into somebody's room that wasn't at his house while he was drunk. I still still get surprised. I know. Yeah, he was not he was not laid off overnight. Yeah. No one knows how that happened. A woman's room. and and fell asleep in their bed and and had multiple issues with driving under the influence, then was removed from the CFO position to be put on the board of the company. The board. Yeah. Yeah, the consolation pri that's the consolation prize, the board. That d that kid had basically three promotions for sucking at his job and were shocked that they didn't plan, you know, or tell anybody they were gonna close a plant. Not that's not that's not that surprising. do I care or not? I don't I don't care. And I s I I care but don't, you know. I remember the having those jobs where you used to get up like like four or five in the morning and to get there that alone sucks. But then when you get there, you've done all that, you've you've made your horrible coffee and it's still dark out. You know, you've and then you show up and there's a note on the door. That's just come on. Come on, John Tyson John H. Tyson Jr., whatever your name is. All right, I don't know what I'm talking about. Campbell Campbell's cuts Yeah, that's the worst. Thirteen percent of workforce and effort to turn around struggling operations. That's a lot. What do you care? Don't care. yeah. It is. Yeah. Campbell's is dual class, right? I believe Campbell's is family owned, dual class. I if I believe that's the case. look, here's what I care about this for. I care because they didn't blame AI. That's that's refreshing. Yeah, they're just saying we're not good. We're not doing anything well. No, they're just saying yeah, they're they're just saying we suck. We're not good. They they said they said have you have you tried the soup? It's kinda gross. It's like salty. It's weird. I'm wait, didn't didn't we cover the fact that like they they this something about the soup was horrible? Like then they like admitted it. Didn't like yeah, didn't didn't an internal like didn't like a guy inside of Campbell's, maybe six or eight months ago, write an email that said our shitty products, like nobody wants our shitty products. I'm pretty sure that was Campbell's. I'm pretty sure it was Campbell's. Yeah. The taste the sodium level. Yeah. I don't remember this. Are sure that's not Boeing? I thought that was the Boeing whistleblower who's now dead. Okay. Care, don't care. I I care because I'm gonna look that up right now and I wanna read it if I find it. Well, and here's one of the reasons here's why I did order the story like this, because the next one is from Uber. read Uber CEO's memo as ten percent of its global workforce loses its job despite business performing so well. So so ten percent of Uber gets fired. CEO Dara comes out and acknowledges that Uber's business is performing strongly. Company's revenue has nearly tripled over more than five years. but he wanted to make these changes to make Uber simpler and faster and create more capacity to invest in our future. I g I guess not including the people about to be fired. But so these are two t different types of layoffs, right? Campbell's is saying, We suck, we gotta fire some of you. Uber is saying we're amazing, but we just don't want ten percent of you anymore. Yeah, I I this is the ki kind of layoff that's the worst kind of layoff 'cause it only enriches like the like the f five people who are left and they're gonna use AI and they're gonna say we're gonna we this is isn't this founder mode bullshit? They're a year late to the founder mode bullshit, you know, pretend gaslight. I care because this is a one share, one vote company and you can vote the board out. The the this board has got some people that Yeah. They're automating, they're AIing, they're doing all that. like frankly, have been on way too many boards for way too long and are way too connected. I get rid of Get rid of the whole board. and then the the third major layoff story is over at Volkswagen, in Germany, the headline Volkswagen Supervisory Board. Although there was a typo in this from this story, they it said supervisory board. Approves plan to slash models and reduce workforce by a hundred thousand workers. Now, I'm just impressed that the headline cited the What? board as the reason why you know this ha the board approved this. I just yeah that's kind of remarkable. I'll I guess it's a European company, so they actually care about how things work. But but here's an interesting angle to this story. So in June, the new CEO at Volkswagen, Oliver Bloom, put up the plan to eliminate 100,000 workers. And the actually the board said no. They voted it down twelve to seven and Bloom stayed with it. Cour they do the boards involved and stuff, yeah. He kept fighting. He really wanted to fire all these people. And they're saying on September third, the company announced that the board now unanimously approved this and then now they're all so I'm just interested to to know what happened in between there. Like how how did he get them to unanimously approve we don't ca and and the reason why I'm even bringing this up is that we never get to hear any of this stuff. In the US we never hear about how the board voted on anything. I w we don't right? Look, I d I like this 'cause this is the way it's supposed to work. Like so but I'm curious 'cause like d Volkswagen is unionized. All these car companies are very unionized. So the board approving the plan doesn't mean the plan is approved. Don't they have to collectively bargain for it for it or something? Yes. yeah, of course. And let's not forget that half the board are employee representatives. And they unanimously agreed. Yeah, like that that's right. Which which means which means there there's probably what they're actually what this suggests is that they're probably in real trouble. They like need to do this. This isn't like this isn't Campbell's soup or Uber style this is well this might be Campbell's soup. It's not Uber st it's not Uber style of fuck ten percent of you. Mm-hmm. Campbell's soup style. This is Campbell's style. I mean again, anecdotally speaking, compared to like when I was younger, I don't see Volkswagens on the road anymore. They used to be like half of every foreign owned car in my neighborhood was a Volkswagen. I I don't I don't really see them anymore, so the company clearly is in a bit of trouble. If you gauge just my neighborhood. That's the barometer. Who buys Volkswagens? Well Which is to the example size that they're using. I I I care about this be because I feel like it happened properly, oddly. I I d no, I I'm not espousing that that you should lose a hundred thousand employees and ever like that's not what I'm s I just like that the process seems to have unfolded in a way that I wish more companies did. Yeah, and reported on. I suppose I suppose you're right. No. Yes. And report it on. I'd like to actually hear the the I'd like to know this the twelve directors who changed their minds and why, but you know, we God forbid we're privy to such information. and then finally, the headline is a record forty seven percent want stronger unions. Well, we're never gonna get that. Yeah, let's let's dial it back. Y a record of what? Of three guys that they asked the one time? A record, you know, people voting in a poll. I don't know, this is from Axios. people want stronger unions. I you care? Don't care? Okay. So just th so then join a union and make them stronger. I d I don't care about this. I don't care about that alone. Alright, let's go over some nerdy ESG stuff. Again, tell me if you care or don't care. I'm just impressed with again. I I think we've I think we have completely revolutionized the reporting of of things like CEO pay. because I I I swear to you I never saw headlines like this before we started our company. And yeah, I'm gonna take credit for it. Tim Cook. Could still out earn Apple's new CEO John Turnus under a special pay arrangement. Now so the story is that CEO John Turnus is quote unquote taking over daily operations of Apple. But what most people don't report on is that Tim Cook isn't going anywhere. He is still an executive, he's executive chair of the company, and when you work out the math of all of the pay plan. I saw that. He didn't go anywhere. It's possible it John Turner says a lot of his equity is tied to performance. So it's possible if the company doesn't, you know, overperform to a certain degree, Tim Cook's actually gonna make more money than the CEO because less of his equity is tied to performance. Are you with me? So but as it is, all th all things being even, the new CEO is getting a pay package worth $58 million. The guy who's who who the press is saying is stepping down is getting forty seven million dollars. And he actually has a retirement provision in his contract and John Turners does not. So I I mean who's in power here still, right? Who are people gonna look to in that boardroom at the end of the at the end of a conversation? Right? I mean, if if it comes down between John Turnis Tim Cook to decide something and they're on opposing side I you know, everyone's gonna go with Tim. Everyone knows this. The there's only one answer to that. There's there's nobody who's not looking at Tim Cook at the at the end of every conversation. I love I love somehow that the like we governistas are the only ones who care about this, but the fact that there is now there are now companies that have a CEO and chair, a lead independent director, and an executive chair. Like like w what is the Right. Well the there was one company we covered that actually remember I don't remember the company it had a executive chair and a chair. Yeah, the the there's Oracle has two vice chairs and and like two executives on the board. It's just like when did we care so little about this? When d Bice, yeah, that's another one. That yeah, that's the yeah. That should be the motto of our company. When did we care so little? also, like we did the math three years ago. I got yelled at at a conference for it. Where we I like we did the math on a hourly basis. We sort of prorated hourly how much the people on the board make relative to the executives and found that the board members, you know, this headline will say that like Tim Cook could make more than the CEO as executive chair. Sure. But you do the same math with the board members and on an hourly rate. Right. An assumed hourly rate, even if when you're conservative, they make almost as much as the C suite does, right? Like per hour. So what are we really talking about here? Everybody's just making shit tons of money and Tim Cook still runs the company. That's all we're saying. I care. I care. I like this. I like this. I like that it's headline. Yeah, that's the important takeaway. Yeah, he cares. Yes, I cause I mean, you know, over the l just you know, since we're the only ones probably paying attention to this, the reason why this is important over the last two to three weeks, two to four weeks, every headline has been saying goodbye to Tim Cook. Bye, Tim. You know, like see you later. His final message. But how but how awkward is it that like his final message to everyone, his parting words, he's making fifty million dollars at the company as an executive. He's the he's leading the Yeah, that was great. W except for us. We were like Yeah, they're still he's still there. Yeah. Board. I mean that's a that's a major responsibility. All right. Next headlines in a story we covered last week. Remember Good Good? Remember the the story of the golf? They made an ad of a man pushed over a woman to get a golf club, which I guess is appropriate for golf. That's how I see golf actually. I see men pushing over women, people of color. Good Good CEO and president are out after debacle. So co founder Matt Kendrick is gone. Yeah, yeah. The Callaway golf, good, good, yeah. That's Yeah, sure. huh. And then he I like this tidbit, being replaced as interim CEO by other co founder Naheed Giga. So they're just like they're swapping co founders. And then I read the memo that Naheed Giga put out saying that Matt has decided to step down as CEO of Good Good. Notice he's not he's not fired. And in the entire announcement, n there was no mention of what happened. They had no mention of the ad, no mention of the controversy, no mention of Callaway Golf, nothing. good. It's just the other guy who was right there, yeah. Where's Callaway Golf's announcement that they fired the the chief operating officer or the like because d they must have had somebody at Callaway Golf say, This is a great ad, run it. Correct? hasn't happened yet. We haven't seen that yet. Matt Kendrick did admit before he stepped down that he he actually didn't see the ad before it ran. Do you remember when the like Kid Rock shot a Bud Light can and Bud Budweiser like their the person they had fall on their sword was some like mid level woman executive who like gave the can to you know, Dylan Mulvaney? Like w where is the actual accountability means the people who approve shit all need to go if it's a if it's real. If it's a real problem, they all need to go. Unfortunately I do, yeah. Yeah. A DEI hire. Callaway, I await your response. I I'm gonna go with care, but only because I'm waiting for Callaway. I mean, it it drives me nuts. Like up until, you know, they in fact, the CEO of Good Good announced on Twitter that this was going to happen, that he was gonna have to be asked to fall on his sword. Meanwhile, everyone at Callaway approved this. He said it. Sounds like you care, yeah. I just love I just love that the c the change of culture at Good Good is is going from one co founder to the other co founder. finally in our nerdy ESG stuff, does Matt care or d or does he not care category. SEC sues ISS as Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of proxy advisory. So this lawsuit I guess is they they're claiming that ISS has not turned over enough information. Th so Th this is this is related to a to a previous action where the SEC is trying to get information from Glass Lewis and ISS because I guess they're trying to like publicly shame them and tar and feather them and calling them a bunch of woke liberals or I I don't know what they're trying to do. But but so now they're suing them because they're claiming that the ISS is not giving them enough of their information. What it sounds like from ISS's perspective is That they basically want the entire client list. And and ISS is like, wait a minute, like what because you know that the the Trump administration has a hold on to power for two more horrible years is gonna go after the entire client list. They're probably gonna sue them all and and right? What what? What that is true. Yeah, that's it. There it is. No, no, no. The the the client list is everybody, right? What they want what they w so it's not the client list they want. What they want is the individual voting policies of the clients. Any client that would would say yes to some sort of climate, you know, vote or yes to some sort of DEI vote. Well, that's what ISS has said. Look. They want it all. Talk about a free speech problem. I mean, isn't this like right in the free speech category? W you know, in the in the eight years we've been doing this show, which is shocking that we've been doing it for eight years, we've been forced by the Trump administration twice, but over time, we've been forced to defend ESG ratings, to defend Larry Fink and BlackRock, to defend ISS and Glass Lewis now. We are these are all things that we basically made fun of. Way too long. Way too long. I'm happy to f to d defend ISS and Glass Lewis here. For our entire careers. And now I'm gonna sit here and say ISS is 100% right. They 100% should fight this. They should go all the way. Do not bend the fucking knee. There is no way you lose. There's no way the SEC could go after, like, you know, a Goldman Sachs puts out a research report, you know, every fucking 20 seconds. If you went after Goldman Sachs because you didn't like what the research report said that or didn't like what a client asked. Goldman Sachs to do and the SEC sued Goldman Sachs and said, We want all of the information about every one of your clients and what they asked you to do so we can go after them, that would be they're like the Wall Street would be fucking losing its mind and everyone in this administration would have no money. Like they're like it would be bananas. But because it's ISS and Jamie Diamond steps out and says, proxy advisors are morons and and they shouldn't exist, and like you know, This is coming for all of us. So ISS, one hundred percent behind you. I do care. If you need a little bit of data, you know, a little help from little old free float, let us know. Sounds like you care about this. Yeah, our our point was not that we didn't want ISS and Glass Lewis to not exist. Our point was that our data and analysis is better. We're just better and sorry. We just want the we just want like we don't want ninety six percent in favor of every single director. They they dun th half of them suck. We just want that. That's all we wanna But I'm I'm gonna say I'm gonna say this to Glass Lewis and ISS. I hope you persist, but I want you to know something. I want you to know that that the data available at Free Flow Analytics is better than yours and you should probably get access for it. You should probab you should probably call us and get an API, get whatever. Well, yeah, I don't know. I do I have to work for Glass Lewis? They would they'd fire me immediately. Just just get just call us up. Feel free to buy us. Feel free. Yeah. I'd be happy. No, you'd get fired. Yeah, you'd get fired. okay, that's we have a couple more categories here for our our what is this? Our Things We Miss Labor Day game? I don't know what we're doing. AI stuff. AI stuff. Care, don't care, AI. Data s data center spending to reach thirty two trillion dollars by twenty fifty. This is I think this was Price Waterhouse Cooper's this is a report. Tw thirty two trillion. I don't yeah, I I'm gonna go fast. Okay, so first of all, McKinsey, PwC, stop putting out reports with numbers like this. Nobody like everyone every time you do, it's totally fucking wrong. It's just big make believe. Second of all, thirty two trillion dollars, thirty two trillion dollars. Like d that could solve world hunger every single year for thirty years. Like like it Yeah. It is made up. Yeah. Yeah. Well, to be fair, it's thirty one point six. Can we give that money to Mackenzie Scott so so she can give it out? Like what what why are we spending that on a data center? So so yes, I care I care about the stupidity of that. Yeah. Well, we know why. Yeah. Yeah. You do care, it sounds like. Yeah, okay. Meta hit with sweeping new claims that its AI glasses violated the consent of millions of bystanders in searing lawsuit. I mean, this is a sad everything for meta is sad and depressing. D this these lawsuits are really s sad because what they've done what What? is they've taken all of the recorded material from these idiots who wear these glasses and they're and they're feeding it into their AI to like train and this is like I mean these glasses see everything. They're seeing people go to the bathroom. They see everything. It's just nuts. Into AI. Yeah. And do you do you know who buys the glasses? Fucking male baby pervert weirdos. That's it. Who else wants those glasses? I've not seen a single person with that glasses that wasn't male and white. Yeah. Right. Of course, of course. Yeah. It is a It is a strange part of the law that I this is the first time I've really thought about this, but don't you need consent to film people? Or maybe you don't. I actually don't even know. I but it's I know it's morally wrong. Well isn't well if that was true then those flock cameras couldn't exist, could they? Like Well, but people are are are angrily r railing against the flock cameras. So yeah. Alright, you care? Yeah, for that reason. Yeah, none of the I don't care. This is so not shocking. Get over like, come on. You knew Mark Zuckerberg was doing this. You went out and bought those stupid fucking glasses and you're shocked. Come on. He's he might be the worst. back to Zoran Mamdani. Again, they don't call him what he is. It j it could just be a man. I right? Like it it could just be a dude doing stuff. Here's the headline Zoran Mamdani bans AI for New York City public school students up to eighth grade. you're plodding. You like this, so you do care. Just a guy, yeah. Just yeah. Yes. Thank you. Yeah, get rid of phones too. I'm a little uncomfortable why I didn't go all the way through high school, but to start, I mean You know what I think by high school you're starting to learn that the thing is fucking stupid and you can ask critical questions, maybe. Yeah. I my d my daughter actually got asked by her new employer employer yesterday. So she sh she was asked to send an email to a bunch of like let's call them clients, you know, where she's working and she was asked like, did you use AI for this? 'cause I I guess that's the assumption now and but but but the reality is my daughter writes well. Yeah. And she's and she's you know, she's like, No, of course not. I I just I know how to write. But I mean that's w that's where we're at, right? For for writing it herself. But that's where we're at now. Like even even like people who write well are questioned. It's gonna those people are gonna be seen as freaks soon, right? Like people who write well on their own. They're gonna be studied in a lab. Did they fire her on the spot for writing it herself? Yeah. Yeah, but it's like gonna be like like in Mad Max where you had like, you know, like the guy who actually knew how to do something from, you know, two hundred years ago that no one knows how to do anymore. Well even more so it's the it's the story of idiocracy, probably the betest best satire ever created that unfortunately is coming true every day by Mike Judge. This came out in like two thousand one, I believe, where a guy was frozen in time and woke up in a future age and just because he could speak in a complete sentence, th he was seen as like the smartest man in the world. And and this what guy was considered just Yeah. That was that was great. Average from the time he came from. Just a average dude. You know what I mean? So there we go. Yeah. All right. That's see care about that one. Open AI is now facing over fifty consumer harm and wrongful death lawsuits. Fifty? Think about that. You don't care. Yeah. He was very much a dude, just some dude, yeah. Okay. I don't care. No. That's not gonna stop them from IPOing at like a trillion dollar evaluation. OpenAI chief scientist warns AI is beating humans at key tasks. Quote No one is prepared, end quote. This is coming from open AI. Gotta love it. Yeah. Okay, Sam Altman said the same thing. Like that that like I don't care. Every time they open their fucking mouths, like your the your chief scientist is the is one of the guys who could be like, Okay, let's let's turn this off. Let's tur you gotta stop. No, they're not going to. What is happening? I how is this happening? Chief scientist Chief Scientist Dude, why don't you just like like there must be a way to make it eat itself Can't you just have like a eat its tail and consume itself? Alright, y you don't care. Yeah, well you could actually well, the way this is gonna work is, you know, like the y there's gonna be like people who are making the AIs to like take over everything, right? Like I want, you know, w start a nuclear war or whatever. And then the other s people are gonna be making AIs to fight the f the other AIs. So then it is AI just fighting against itself and a bunch of people are gonna be like, you know, like praying that th the the good one wins, I guess. I don't know. Let's move over to our blowhard index. I changed the category a little bit this time. Now it's I'm gonna ask you to s to say shut up or preach. Shut up or preach. Yeah. Sam Altman says he He doesn't this is the stupidest headline maybe ever. Sam Altman says he doesn't like smart glasses, quote This whole thing's nuts. Shut up or preach. Wow, okay. I like this. I like this version. Shut up. I find it very uncomfortable talking to people with a camera and a light, end quote. I find it uncomfortable talking to AI. Shut up. Yeah. What a what an asshole. I mean, can you imagine that he says these things? His I mean did you I mean does he know what his chief scientist is warning? Y does he know anything that's happening anywhere? How about this one? Sam Altman says he's a mega Apple fanboy and is sad they are suing OpenAI. Ugh. Oof. Dollar General CEO, that's Todd Vesos. His CEO pay ratio is four hundred and thirty two to one. Dollar General CEO says its core customers are in distress. And what in what what incarnation of this game is that preach? That's also shut up. You wanna hear more about their core customers, or you want them to shut up? I'm on the fence about this one. Because like I as it's like it used to be the case before there were really crappy publicly traded dollar stores where the CEO could make so much money. before that time, it used to be fast food sales were the canary in the coal mine for when people were suffering, 'cause you'd see massive jumps in fast food sales, like when inflation went up and the cost of goods went up, all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Tough one. Now it's the dollar store. And if the dollar store is saying our customers are having a hard time buying things that cost a dollar, you should listen to that guy. I'm gonna say preach. I'm gonna say preach. The dollar store is saying this. Yeah. Yeah. You should listen. Sounds like a preach. All right. billionaire Warren Buffett says even even Wilt Warren Buffett is called a billionaire and more and Zorimam Dani's called a nothing. He's nothing. Billionaire Warren Buffett says he's impressed. His three kids want to give money away. Zorman die can't get the mayor. Can't get mayor. Yeah, can't get it. Rather than spend it on themselves or build huge office buildings. Is he is that a dig at Charlie Munger? Like what's he what does that mean? What is he talking about? What is he talking about? And do you think he's really are he k are his kids really Mackenzie scotting that money or are they just reinvesting it? I just I don't know what that means. I don't know who that he's talk I maybe he's talking about David Ellison. Maybe he's like Can we say can we not refer to them as his kids? We get Howard Buffett's 70, right? Like like what what the fuck are we talking about? He's like a he's impressed that his little kids are finally w you know, they're happy to give away their money. He's like a 65-year-old man. Get over like what money is they giving away? Like, what are we talking about? Shut up. That's a shut up. And they're all still on the Berkshire board too. So weird. It's such a weird it's yeah. A bil billionaires. They're billionaires. I don't know. How come we never hear about it? Yeah, shut up. And finally in the Blowheart Index, Vivek Ramaswamy, one of your favorites, takes credit for quote calling out the epidemic of woke capitalism, educating the country on that, end quote. Yeah, preach Vivek. Yeah, preach. You can you know what you can do? You can own that stupidity. That's all for you. The epidemic of woke capitalism. Yeah. Yeah, imagine wanting to own that. and let's end with our dumb stuff category. Just tell us dumb or not dumb. Gog. I like that this change. Like the set the segments, yeah. Everyone could be I like the stupid binaries. All right. Well next time I'll I'll change it more. I'll I'll I'll change it more next time you have more fun. Target is under fire over another Halloween costume just weeks after apologizing for the last one. That's a funny headline. Now, to be fair, Target, Walmart, and Amazon also have pul they've all pulled the same thing. It's a German army soldier adult costume that Yeah. That looks like Nazi soldiers. That's what it is. It that's what they're all pulling. So dumb or not dumb. What do you think? Is it do I have the do I am I doing this category right? Is dumb or not dumb? Is that work? Well, I've tr I'm tr I'm the thing that I'm struggling with is who's is it the target's dumb? Is it the costumes dumb? Is it the controversies dumb? Like I d who's the dumb one here? Like it is clearly, very clearly, whoever is in Target's Halloween costume buying division needs to lose their fucking job. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I wanna know the I wanna I wanna sit in on that I wanna work at that division. Like what a job this year. Yeah. Nazis and racists. I love it. I I I I'm gonna go with dumb because of course it's dumb because Target can only do dumb. Brian Cornell's still there. You know what's o you know what's also dumb is just this this this generation of selling Halloween costume just make your dumb Halloween costume. Like you have enough stuff at home. You know how much stuff we buy as Americans, you know much stuff you have in your house? You know how many costumes you could create for your dumb kids? Thousands. My my parents used to make costumes out of like j tissue paper and you know, like like toothpicks. I mean, you just be get creative. Yeah. W What about the sheet, the old sheet with the ho the holes the holes cut out? Go on chat GPT and ask how do I make a Halloween costume? How do I? All right. the next one, we're still in Halloween. Here's the headline Halloween chocolate eyeballs sold at TJ Maxx and Marshall's recalled over hidden milk allergen. Dumb or not dumb. Halloween chocolate eyeballs. I didn't know that was a thing. I just had to do that because I just I liked saying that phrase. I love Halloween chocolate eyeballs. So I'm gonna give Halloween chocolate eyeballs not dumb. Yeah, I'm I'm with you. That's not dumb. I think that's important. German far right party AFD. This is like the first big basically Nazi win in Germany since the World War II wins regional election. Thanks, Musk, for support. That's the headline. Thanks. Elon Musk, your SpaceX dude, your your your Tesla dude. They the I mean, d do you hear this headline? Yeah. Well done. Yeah. Yeah, I hear it. I but honestly I can't get over the fact that like my o if I'm honest, my very first thought was does Target go to its warehouse full of German army soldier adult costumes and just send them to the AFD and make its money back, right? Yeah. Dumb or not dumb? Yeah. Yep. Mm. To Musk. Yeah, to AFD and Musk. Yeah, right. Yeah, well Musk has a lot of kids, right? He's got like four hundred kids, so that's a good point. Good point. Dumb or not dumb? He's got like forty-six kids. Yeah, they they could they could probably wear them all. this is this is well I don't know how to rate this, dumb or not dumb. It's not dumb because it's horrifying. It's horrifying. Do so like you keep paying the f this fucking man. Can you can you stop? Can you just stop? Can someone say, this he's such an innovator, he's gonna change the world. Just shut up. Shut up. Like if he makes us all Nazis. That's that was my perspective. It's it's horrifying. It's important. yeah. I can't believe people This is bad, yeah. Was it worth the fucking four satellites he puts into space? What is the trade off? When do you say this is bad? I don't I think you don't. I think I think Americans don't. I I think it's I think we've lost this battle. Yeah. I'm not talking to Americans. I am talking to like capital markets. Like, when do capital markets say we can make some money on this guy, but at the cost of everyone being a Nazi? When do we say that's not the trade we want to make? So did I, but we clearly haven't. And we still fucking approve his pay. We approve his board. We can't even vote out Kimball Musk. You know I I thought we would have already said that. I thought that was the whole point. Yeah. His brother from the fucking board of his company. When do we say it's not working? Yeah. His brother. next headline twenty six percent of Gen Z investors include sports betting in their financial strategy. No, that's just dumb. You guys are dumb. I mean, we this is how this is where we're at. Zoom appoints former Oracle CFO Jeff Epstein to board of directors. Jeff Epstein. That's dumb that's dumb. it's not his fault. That's the d that might be the dumbest thing ever to keep that name though. Right? I'm that how dumb Jeff Epstein. Uh-huh. huh. He did Jeff instead of Jeffrey. So that was his well, whatever that guy's middle name is really needs to come out. Like if is long as it's like if his middle name's Adolf, I'm not sure you win. Like Yeah, it's probably like cowboy or something. Actually, that's better. and finally, in our Labor Day Things We Miss Game Game, in our dumb category, for September 8th, 2026, humanoid robot fights back after getting shoved. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about this story. A viral video, this is you know, like the viral CCTV video. This is like the you know the Whatever this game is. the security video shows a man lightly shoving a a Chinese robot, I guess. And af and then the the the says the robot recoils slightly, then it suddenly starts playing cheesy fighting music and pops into a wide legged stance ready to pounce. Two store clerks then try to restrain the robot as it tries to throw technical high legged kicks. I I guess it kicked the guy in the groin. it f it was fight it fought back. What's a technical high legged kick? What Are we I So this is this is the classic story of like this this is the classic on the cusp of dumb and not dumb. Is this is this a harbinger? Is this a disturbing harbinger to our future? Or is this just a dumb story about a a dumb robot like playing music and f kicking people in the balls? No. I have you did you watch the video? Did you watch the video? Okay, so in the video, the guy reaches his hand out to shake the robot's hand. The robot ignores his hand. And then the guy the guy kind of pushes his chest he the guy goes, hey, hey, what? And pushes his chest a little bit. The robot like sits still for a second, clearly processing whatever just happened, like like and then actually they it just keeps kicking. Yeah. This is dumb. Yeah. God. It j it goes into like fighting stance like like of like fists up and then just starts kicking and kicking and kicking and it kicks anyone and anything around it's just kicking. Kicks the man. Wow. Right. Well that's how that's how it's programmed by Sam Alt the college dropout Sam Altman boys. I just I just thought this is this is not only is it not only is it dumb, it's if you want to know our future, that is it. Because man boys are programming your future. That is their instinct. Someone pushed me. I'm gonna fuck you up. I'm gonna f like it was it's so dumb watching a robot do that. So I'm gonna go dumb. So do I win? Do I win the game? This is our future. So all right. No, because I think I think you lose because I think that last one was not dumb. Cause I think you were right. I I think it represents a clo a c a a class, a V C class. And we gotta and we gotta start voting people out who are who are partaking in this c we gotta start voting them all out. That's all I gotta say. All right. Let's get out of here. re No, but w we're dumb to be making it and like This is a really hard game. I don't know what winning looks like. That's it. That's Hazelnut Rollis. I'm your analyst, Hole Matt Muscard. We are Free Float. We are of you know, a semi-full week this week, but the biggest thing that you should be thinking about is freefloatanalytics.com. You should go and you should sign up for free if you haven't done it already. I d I don't know why you haven't done it already. This is your opportunity. Proxy, let me tell you something. Proxy season is coming. You can vote. Maybe they don't own computers. Your shares, use it, use it. Otherwise, Free Float goes out of business and yeah, everyone's sad. And also worth saying that Free Float is starting to launch its own content newsletter program. If you are a governance writer, if you're interested in boards, if you're interested in all this stuff, you wanted someplace to put your, you know, stuff, but your dopey website doesn't have anyone on it, or maybe like Substack is all you're using, we got something better. Use this data, use it. brother. So let us know. go to Freeflow Analytics and let us know that you wanna be a contributor. We'll make that happen. Until later. Good. Bye.