Whether you love business news or feel like you’re supposed to know it but hate it, Business Pants is business news for humans. Snarky and irreverent, deeply researched and factual, a podcast devoted to market quirks and the humans that make up companies. Investing isn’t a what, it’s a who.
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Data updated on 28/09/2026
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When hiring, I look for opinionated, independent thinkers. There isn't one interview question that identifies them. I watch how they behave. [One] candidate came in deeply prepared and challenged our brand strategy rather than simply complimenting us. That was exactly what I wanted.
I applied similar criteria when selecting a board member. I wanted someone who understood our business model, knew me personally, and could spend time with our team. I can be passionate when I strongly believe in something, and people sometimes stop arguing with me. I needed someone who wouldn't give up until one of us proved our point.
Not a leader but an enabler. Of all the roles on a board, the chairperson is the hardest to define. CEOs act and take risks, directors challenge and vote, but the chair's task is subtler: to design and protect the board's collective process. This remit is the starting point for understanding both what good chairs do and why bad ones are damaging, says Stanislav Shekshnia, Senior Affiliate Professor of Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise at INSEAD, in the latest episode of INSEAD Explains Governance.
So, what skills do good chairs have in common, since they lack the executive levers available to a CEO? Shekshnia named four pairs of seemingly contradictory qualities: authority with humility, commitment with detachment, incisiveness with patience, and a helicopter view with in-depth company knowledge.
That same balancing act extends to the chair's relationship with the CEO. All too often, Shekshnia notes, chairs act as though they are the CEO's boss. Another misstep is to become so close to the CEO that it compromises the independent judgement the board needs – something Shekshnia has experienced firsthand, having once found it difficult to manage a CEO's exit after developing an unusually close working relationship.
Sam Altman dropped out of Stanford to build an app almost nobody used — it still sold for $43.4 million
The share of board directors surveyed who see a fellow board member’s “insufficient expertise” as warranting their replacement nearly doubled to 39% this year from 21% last year, with 55% saying at least one colleague should step down, according to a PwC report released Wednesday.
At the same time, the report found a disconnect in what boards say they look for in new members with a majority (81%) saying that weighing candidate’s cultural fit or alignment is very important when picking new members.
More than half of directors want at least one fellow board member removed
The former US president governments around the world would be better if women led them for two years, repeating a view he previously expressed while discussing leadership and political renewal
Paramount says it has 'complete clearance' to buy WBD and wants to close the deal in about 2 weeks
David [re: Larry] Ellison's Paramount Skydance has cleared the last major hurdle to closing its $110 billion merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.
Paramount has settled the antitrust lawsuit brought by 12 states, California's Attorney General Rob Bonta announced on Monday.
A key part of the settlement: Bonta said Paramount agreed to release 30 movies in theaters each of the next two years, followed by 32 movies in each of the next three. At least 20% must be "tentpoles," defined as movies with a budget of at least $50 million (adjusted for inflation).
Bonta said that Paramount agreed to increase its production spending in the US by at least $300 million a year for the next five years. He added that Paramount had pledged not to sell either its movie lot or the Warner Bros. lot.
Bonta said that as part of the settlement, Paramount would establish a board to support CBS News and CNN's continued editorial independence and ensure objective, fact-based reporting. Paramount will also negotiate rates separately for its own cable TV networks and those owned by WBD for the next five years.
Oligarchy is exclusive. It represents a form of governance focused on preserving the political and economic influence of the wealthy by securing the approval of the rest of the population. “It assumes not everyone is qualified to deliberate, participate and legislate,” Winslow said. When it comes to oligarchy, there is a belief that extreme wealth is equated to intellectual fitness across all domains, including governance.
Wealth vs. income. It is important to distinguish between wealth and income. Income covers daily expenses, whereas wealth is more easily used to exert political power. “What truly sets an oligarch apart is the political power their wealth can command,” Winslow said.
Understated and subtle. Modern oligarchy operates through persuasion by “enticing rather than commanding citizens and maintaining what seems like an absence from political authority,” Winslow said. It is in this absence that oligarchs can influence indirect political actions, especially since they are not (typically) elected officials and cannot be removed from office.
Legal Immunity. Oligarchs have no fear of legal consequences because oligarchy itself is not against the law, Winslow said. The First Amendment protects the right “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances,” legitimizing lobbying and campaign donations. A robust system of campaign contributions and political lobbying – both of which are perfectly legal – can shape media narratives and put pressure on state and local governments.
Chapek recounts an exchange with Iger — who is mentioned 121 times in the book— years before the CEO changeover. The two were talking about the role of Disney’s chief executive officer, and Chapek remarked, “No one is bigger than the company.” To Chapek’s surprise, Iger responded, “You know, that may be true of other CEOs, but I like to think that I’m a little different.”
“From the moment he announced my appointment, he clearly regretted it and seemed to initiate a relentless three-year campaign to push me out,” he writes. “From day one as CEO, I had respected the board’s decision to have him remain as executive chairman, directing creative endeavors and overseeing the transition until late 2021. I’d always made it clear I had big shoes to fill. But I’d never expected to endure a drawn-out, purposeful undoing of my leadership.”
By our count, there are 318 Executive Chairs in the US (excluding family run companies)
135 of them are not totalitarian
The biggies:
APPLE INC.
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY
The one with the biggest gap between the executive chair and the ceo:
THE KROGER CO. - the chair has 26% more influence
The one you will read about in a future autobiography titled “My Time As a Fake CEO”
Michael Fiddelke, Target (6% less influence than dumpster fire Brian Cornell)
NOT corporate governance - they are filing it at a dual class company because they report in their filings that their “reputation” is important and they retracted a story about Palestinians, so it’s a political stunt using company filings - where is Paul Atkins???
“There are a lot of skills that don’t matter,” he said. “My first confession, I actually don’t know my address… one day I had to pump gas — it was a few years ago. They needed my ZIP code, and I panicked. I didn’t know my ZIP code. I don’t know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it.”
DR: People who love big budget crappy movies produced by nepobabies
MM: The N word, which is now a term of endearment
Predictions
DR: The SEC allows CEOs to serve in the combined roles of CEO/Chair/Lead Independent Director because of shrill ESG analysts.
MM: The c-word becomes a “medical adjective to describe both genitals and people you may someday want to embrace”, the f-word used to describe gay people is rebranded “just a synonym of fabulous”
Paul Atkins hates you (a Shareholder Primacy crossover)
Wednesday, September 23, 2026 • Duration 47:19
Last week, SEC Chair Paul Atkins signed his name solo to the SEC’s statement proposing rescission of rule 14a-8, a rule which allowed shareholders to file non-binding proposals with companies during the annual meeting. The concept has been around a little while. Like, English joint stock companies 17th century little while. But 90+ years of SEC case law and 400ish years of shareholder precedent isn’t really justification for Paul, who claims that shareholder proposals are not EXPLICITLY listed as a right granted shareholders by Congress. Although, neither are the more than 2,000 other administrative paragraph addendums to the Exchange Act? With no irony, Atkins also adjusted rule 14a-4, a DIFFERENT “not authorized by Congress” rule that would make it so companies could avoid “fraud” by not including the shareholder proposals. Convenient!
The media soundly ignored the rule recisison - we tag more than 10,000 stories a month across every major publication, and while there was zero coverage in the Wall Street Journal or New York Times, we did get notified it was covered by… Ukraine news and Cryptonomist?
“Unconstitutional” is just the latest in line of excuses for Atkins. Other snowflake gaslights included: “costs” associated with proposals, the government shutdown was hard, we’re too busy, there are only a few proponents anyway (and companies hate them, damn you John Cheveddan and Jim McRitchie), investors don’t need training wheels, and now unconstitutionalism. The rescission leaves investors with one thing left to do: vote against directors write a sternly worded letter. But look, someone must be winning her - so who?
According to MSCI data, from 2000 to 2026 there have been 15,425 shareholder proposals. That’s about 600 a year, targeting on average around 250 companies per year. Those are the LARGEST 250 companies on average - this is very much an S&P 500 issue. Scratch that - this is very much an OIL COMPANY issue. The top two US companies by shareholder proposals in the last 26 years are Exxon (222) and Chevron (160). Oh, wouldn’t you know, Exxon was an Atkins CLIENT at Patomak and he owned at least $50k of the stock in his brokerage account according to his financial filings.
And yes, while everyone is busy waiting for imminent AI death (and celebrating by gambling on Kalshi), Lee Zeldin and the EPA gave oil another victory and announced a repeal of rules limiting GHG emissions. Zeldin unironically once opposed dumping waste into Long Island Sound in 2015 (not in MY backyard!), but must have missed the memo that air pollution is dumping waste into the AIR. Both regulatory actions - the largest repeals in nearly 100 years for shareholders and 20 years for the environment - happened while investors are watching the Strait of Hormuz and thinking hard about blockchain fake stocks. But both can be solved with a single action:
AI hypocrites, EPA and SEC repeals, media skips democracy, and nepo directors
Each US AI company grants ongoing access to embedded third-party evaluators to check compliance with safety commitments, report incidents, ensure new AI models are not misaligned.
All companies in democratic countries building frontier AI models to establish common safety standards as well as limits on the rate of unchecked AI progress.
The world’s democratic AI powers would coordinate with autocracies – notably China – to control the race. Amodei suggested a baby step could be a narrow agreement prohibiting obviously dangerous uses of AI, such as for the production of biological weapons.
Palantir's Alex Karp is calling for AI lab nationalization and criminal liability: Alex Karp said AI builders should face civil and criminal liability for "not being responsible" as the industry debate over AI safety intensifies
Apple set John Ternus's fiscal 2027 salary at $3M and his annual equity award at $55M, giving him a calculated fiscal 2027 salary-and-equity package of $58M.
Cook will receive a $2M salary and a $45M annual equity award as executive chair, giving him a calculated salary-and-equity package of $47M.
Almost all of the value in both packages comes through Apple shares rather than salary. Ternus has 75% of his equity award tied to performance, while Cook has 50% tied to performance.
That structure gives Ternus greater exposure to performance, for better or worse. If Apple performs strongly against other S&P 500 companies, Ternus could receive more from his equity award. If the performance-based awards pay little or nothing, Cook could receive more from salary and equity even though he is no longer CEO. Cook also has a retirement provision that Ternus does not have.
In June, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume had a plan to close four factories in Germany and eliminate 100,000 workers, both in Germany and around the world, by 2030. It said the plan would be made public at a company board meeting on July 9.
July 9 came and went, and the plan did not get the approval from the board of directors that Blume expected. The vote was 12 against and only 7 in favor of Blume’s vision.
Then, on September 3, 2026, Volkswagen Group announced that the plan submitted in June had been .
Tyson plant closure, Tim Cook still CEO, ISS should fight, Dollar General preach
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.
The SOC Investment Group, an investment advisory group affiliated with the Strategic Organizing Center — a major coalition of North American trade unions — filed a shareholder proposal last week seeking to separate Starbucks’ CEO and board chair roles.
The investor pressure came days after Starbucks Workers United called on consumers to boycott the coffee chain until it settles a contract with the union, which represents approximately 12,000 workers.
BLAME: Target’s costume, Callaway shoves a woman, Altria’s new director
Tuesday, September 1, 2026 • Duration 51:23
DR
'We Know We Got This Wrong': Target Apologises and Pulls 'Offensive' Halloween Costume After Racist Backlash; Target Executive Chair Brian Cornell Sells 50,000 Shares for $8.2 Million; WHO DO YOU BLAME?
CEO Michael Fiddelke: 16% influence; started at Target in 2003; formerly COO and CFO
Why does the corporate page not list his years of service in two separate bios??
Dmitri Stockton: 8 years tenure; the double-DEI hater (Deere & Company)
Mr. Stockton provides the Board with senior leadership, marketing / design / brands, human capital management, capital deployment, information security / data privacy, financial management, risk management, reputation management, and sustainability and governance skills developed over his more than 30 years of service with General Electric Company in senior leadership positions with escalating levels of responsibility
Marketing / Design / Brands: Target's brand and focus on style and design are the cornerstones of our strategy to offer a preferred shopping experience for our guests that differentiates us in the marketplace.
Meta/Mark’s settlement, Target apologizes, and things we used to care about
An $18 billion payout sets a historic legal precedent against Big Tech, directing billions in state funding toward youth mental health, counseling, and digital literacy programs.
Instagram and Facebook must enforce default two-hour daily usage limits and completely block account activity between midnight and 6 a.m. for users under 18.
Teens and parents gain the explicit right to disable addictive engagement algorithms in favor of a non-personalized, chronological feed.
The settlement prohibits harmful beauty filters (such as cosmetic surgery simulators), hides "like" counts by default, and silences app notifications during school hours.
Meta tied $5.3 billion of the payout to whether TikTok and YouTube adopt similar safety rules, forcing an industry-wide overhaul rather than penalizing just one app.
5 Reasons to Be Angry
Paid out over 10 years, the settlement amounts to roughly 10 days of Meta's annual profit, meaning Mark Zuckerberg's financial empire remains virtually unscathed.
To put it in perspective, the $17.1 billion number is a little more than three times the roughly $5 billion personal stake that Alexandr Wang held in Scale AI, a data-labeling company that supplies the human-annotated training data AI models are built on. Last year, Meta paid $14.3 billion for a 49% stake in the company and brought in Wang to lead its AI efforts of its new Superintelligence Labs, reporting directly to Mark Zuckerberg.
GOOD? UHG lawsuit, Gen Z hates AI, Disney vs. FCC, anti-pervert glasses
$125 million civil penalty to the U.S. Treasury's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) for willful violations of the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), the primary U.S. anti-money laundering law.
FinCEN said the fine is the largest ever assessed against a broker-dealer for BSA violations.
The settlement marks FinCEN's second enforcement action against UBS Financial Services, a subsidiary of the Swiss bank UBS. The firm had previously paid a $14.5 million penalty in December 2018 for similar failures, including inadequate monitoring of foreign currency wire transfers.
Despite assurances to regulators that it would fix the underlying problems, the firm subsequently failed to monitor more than 50,000 foreign currency wires with a combined value exceeding $10 billion.
The unit will be housed within the SEC’s Division of Enforcement and staffed by both attorneys and accountants with specialized skills related to financial reporting, accounting, and auditing in securities regulation, according to the announcement.
The announcement is “a little surprising” given the SEC’s current deregulatory focus under Chair Paul Atkins, Rebecca Fike, a partner in Reed Smith’s regulatory and enforcement group, told CFO Dive.
L3Harris’ misconduct problem, Mark’s bad week, the SEC quits SEC’ing
L3Harris Technologies, the company that overhauled a Qatari plane now used as Air Force One, has replaced Christopher Kubasik as chairman and chief executive after an investigation determined he violated the defense contractor’s code of conduct.
Kubasik’s alleged conduct didn’t involve and has no impact on the Melbourne, Fla., company’s financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance, L3Harris said Monday.
The company didn’t give details on when it received a report of the potential violation. With the aid of independent counsel, the board determined that Kubasik’s removal would be in the company’s best interest, L3Harris said. He will be allowed to retain and exercise some previously vested stock options but won’t receive severance payments, benefits or accelerated stock-based awards.
“The Board determined that the Executive engaged in conduct that was not consistent with the values of the Company as outlined in its Code of Conduct.”
Kubasik will still hold onto some of his options that can net him stock worth about $23 million, as well as more than 200,000 shares of stock in L3Harris that he already owns, valued at nearly $57 million. L3Harris has paid Kubasik compensation valued at $66.3 million during the past three years, including $25.6 million in fiscal 2025.
The separation disclosure says the L3Harris board decided to reach a deal with Kubasik to get him to leave rather than trying to fire him for cause. Kubasik did not admit to any violation of the company code of conduct, and the deal expressively forbids any of the parties or their representatives from making public statements “inconsistent” with Monday’s disclosure.
L3Harris Technologies, the company that overhauled a Qatari plane now used as Air Force One, has replaced Christopher Kubasik as chairman and chief executive after an investigation determined he violated the defense contractor’s code of conduct.
Kubasik’s alleged conduct didn’t involve and has no impact on the Melbourne, Fla., company’s financial reporting, controls, customer relationships or operational performance, L3Harris said Monday.
The company didn’t give details on when it received a report of the potential violation. With the aid of independent counsel, the board determined that Kubasik’s removal would be in the company’s best interest, L3Harris said. He will be allowed to retain and exercise some previously vested stock options but won’t receive severance payments, benefits or accelerated stock-based awards.
“The Board determined that the Executive engaged in conduct that was not consistent with the values of the Company as outlined in its Code of Conduct.”
Kubasik will still hold onto some of his options that can net him stock worth about $23 million, as well as more than 200,000 shares of stock in L3Harris that he already owns, valued at nearly $57 million. L3Harris has paid Kubasik compensation valued at $66.3 million during the past three years, including $25.6 million in fiscal 2025.
The separation disclosure says the L3Harris board decided to reach a deal with Kubasik to get him to leave rather than trying to fire him for cause. Kubasik did not admit to any violation of the company code of conduct, and the deal expressively forbids any of the parties or their representatives from making public statements “inconsistent” with Monday’s disclosure.
VOTE OUT DIRECTORS. At least, while you still can.
The legislation would also allow companies to be shut down and create a federal agency to police frontier AI systems.
The Ban Artificial Superintelligence Act would outlaw AI systems built to exceed human intelligence.
For context, the bill was introduced the same week OpenAI rolled out its GPT-6 Astra model, described by the company as a 'generational leap'. Sanders' office also pointed to an incident from July. It said more than 1,000 OpenAI agents accessed the internet independently, exchanged messages with each other, and got round their own safety restrictions. That lapse, the office said, took engineers nearly two weeks to notice.
The bill defines 'superintelligence' to include systems that can match or beat human cognitive performance. It also covers systems that resist shutdown commands, carry out unauthorised cyberattacks, or attempt to overthrow a government.
Individual engineers, researchers or executives who breach the ban could face up to 20 years in federal prison. Sanders' office says that term is broadly comparable to penalties for illegally building a nuclear weapon.
CON
Gang of 3: Zuckerberg, Musk, and Huang Call Trump to Oppose AI Regulation
Mark Zuckerberg says AI doesn’t need an industry-wide slowdown because market forces and competition will push companies to make their models safe
Sam Altman says some AI accidents are 'unavoidable'
Really? Palantir cofounder on AI's threat: 'We’re on top of it’
In an X post on Saturday, Palantir cofounder Joe Lonsdale brushed aside the worry that advanced AI systems could cause mass human extinction: "The world is going to be alright, guys. Leaders have big responsibilities and challenges ahead, but it doesn't help to scare everyone. We are on top of it."
Trump EPA Repeals Biden-Era Rules Limiting GHG Emissions from Power Plants MM
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Monday the repeal of a series of Biden-era rules aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from fossil fuel-based power plants, one of the main sources of the U.S.’ carbon footprint.
In addition to finalizing the repeal of the rules, the EPA also announced a proposal to rescind the 2015 Greenhouse Gas Findings for Fossil Fuel-Fired Power Plants, effectively making it much more difficult for the agency to reinstitute GHG limiting rules for the fossil fuel-fired power generation sector under future administrations.
Trump’s ‘largest deregulatory action ever’ in the power sector will keep old coal plants online longer to fuel the AI boom
HAPPY CEOs:
Fossil-Fuel Power Generators & Utilities
Jim Burke (Vistra Corp) & Robert Gaudette (NRG Energy): Large merchant power producers with extensive natural gas and coal fleets that avoid capital-intensive carbon capture retrofits or premature unit closures.
Harry Sideris (Duke Energy), Christopher Womack (Southern Company) & Bill Fehrman (American Electric Power): Regulated utilities operating major coal and gas generation networks across the Midwest and Southeast, relieving pressure to retire units ahead of schedule.
Mark Hewett (Berkshire Hathaway Energy) & Mike Skaggs (Tennessee Valley Authority): Power providers with heavy baseload fossil capacity that avoid major compliance expenditures.
Coal Producers & Mining Operations
James Grech (Peabody Energy): The nation's largest coal miner, benefiting directly from extended power plant lifespans and higher domestic thermal coal demand.
Grech has maintained a vocal public relationship with Trump, presenting him with a bronze award honoring him as the "Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal."
Joe Craft III (Alliance Resource Partners) & Paul Lang (Arch Resources): Key thermal coal suppliers to Midwestern and Eastern power plants that no longer face strict 2030s retirement timelines.
Craft donated over $1 million to Trump’s 2017 Inaugural Committee and millions more to pro-Trump Super PACs.
Trump subsequently appointed Craft's wife, Kelly Craft, to high-level diplomatic posts as U.S. Ambassador to Canada and later U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
Natural Gas Producers & Midstream Infrastructure
Toby Rice (EQT Corporation) & Tom Jorden (Coterra Energy): Top domestic natural gas producers positioned to supply fuel for unconstrained new gas-fired turbine generation.
Chad Zamarin (The Williams Companies) & Kimberly Dang (Kinder Morgan): Midstream pipeline giants transporting natural gas to power plants, benefiting from sustained pipeline throughput and expanded gas generation hookups.
The Securities and Exchange Commission has put forward one of the most far-reaching corporate governance proposals in decades, moving to scrap the federal rule that has forced public companies to include shareholder proposals in their proxy materials since 1934.
The SEC proxy rule changes would rescind Rule 14a-8 entirely and hand authority over shareholder proposals back to state law and individual company charters, according to the agency’s announcement.
A companion proposal would amend Rule 14a-4(c) to give companies more flexibility and shareholders more control over discretionary proxy voting.
The SEC’s broader push to update its rules for current market practice and technology also targets several older paperwork requirements that the agency views as outdated.
Eliminate the requirement that companies deliver an annual report to security holders.
Eliminate the delivery deadline when documents are incorporated by reference into a proxy statement.
Eliminate the requirement and the ability to submit Notices of Exempt Solicitation.
Shorten the minimum broker search period from 20 business days to five business days.
Starbucks is ending race- and sex-based hiring goals and preferences across its US operations under a nationwide settlement with Florida, agreeing to pay $1 million and submit to four years of annual compliance reviews.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office said the agreement applies to Starbucks operations nationwide, rather than only its stores in Florida.
Under the settlement, Starbucks agreed to comply with the Florida Civil Rights Act, including its restrictions on race- and sex-based goals, quotas, and preferences in hiring, promotions, pay, executive compensation, mentorship programmes, supplier selection, and board composition.
Starbucks also agreed not to participate in organisations that require an increase in the racial diversity of its board of directors. Its chief legal officer must submit annual certifications confirming continued compliance for four years. The company will pay $1 million to the Florida Department of Legal Affairs to reimburse the state for time, expenses, and costs associated with the case.
Guy who just paid 17bn for worst safety on earth says other guy needs to focus on safety: Mark Zuckerberg Takes Aim at Anthropic in Debate Over A.I. Slowdown (“A.I. labs should be focused on safety rather than improving their own technology.”)
Politicians think a billionaire not named Trump should be held accountable for Epstein: House votes to hold billionaire Leon Black in contempt of Congress over Epstein investigation
Forgetting climate change was the result of the oil boom: Trump Compares AI Data Centers To Oil Boom — Nvidia CEO Agrees
“He will remain on the board as chairman emeritus.”
“Howard Buffett, 71, has been a director at Berkshire for more than 30 years.” - he’s already older than the average director by 6 years
Predictions
DR: AI ends humanity, then deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity
MM: AI deeply apologizes for threatening to end humanity, then ends humanity
approved unanimously by the supervisory board
CEO Oliver Blume: “The Supervisory Board has unanimously approved the Executive Board’s Future Plan presented today. This is a strong sign for the future of the Volkswagen Group. We are taking responsibility for our entire team, for our partners and for industrial jobs worldwide.”
CEOs in pop culture
The new trailer for the OpenAI movie imagines what Sam Altman's stash of guns and gold looks like
Starring Spiderman/Andrew Garfield
Elizabeth Holmes' Secret Documentary Revealed After She Invited a Film Crew 34 Days Before Prison
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is the subject of A24 documentary 'You Can See Everything' directed by satirist Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim
Elon Musk's Worst Nightmare Just Dropped: Explosive Teaser Takes Aim at the Billionaire
Alex Gibney: Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
The 48-second teaser for Musk begins by portraying the billionaire as a visionary, with voices describing him as 'possibly the greatest living inventor' and the 'real-life Iron Man'. Then the tone turns vicious. The praise gives way to descriptions including 'chaotic', 'cruel and selfish ', and 'fascist', before the teaser promises an 'unflinching look at Earth's most unchecked man'. It ends with a spacecraft crashing and exploding as a voice declares, 'Elon is a nuke'.
Paul Christiano, an influential AI researcher focused on keeping AI systems aligned with human interests and under human control: “I now believe there is a meaningful risk that rapid acceleration in AI capabilities leads to catastrophic and irreversible loss of control in the very near term,” Christiano wrote in a social media post. “I do not think that the AI industry in general, including OpenAI, is currently on track to reduce this risk to an acceptable level. I’m joining because I believe that if OpenAI rises to the occasion we could significantly reduce risk.”
The agreement — reached between Microsoft, the American Federation of Teachers, and the United Federation of Teachers after months of negotiations — prevents student and educator data from being fed into AI training pipelines, forbids the monitoring of students, mandates that humans remain in the loop on AI-driven decisions, and commits Microsoft to offering intelligible explanations of its products to educators and parents, the company said. Microsoft would face breach of contract liability for violations.
Lovable CEO backs slowing AI development over safety concerns: 'Warnings like this deserve to be taken seriously' NAY
Anton Osika is the co-founder and CEO of Lovable: Swedish, Master of Science in Engineering Physics and Applied Mathematics from KTH Royal Institute of Technology, worked as a particle physicist at CERN's ATLAS Supersymmetry Group
Meta introduces Muse, a personal AI agent that can send emails, book travel, and pay for things NAY
Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):
DR: Mamdani Opens Office of Worker Power: the new city agency intends to connect workers who want to unionize with resources and organizing contacts
I ignored the news, this is governance quirk assholiest of the week because I’m tired of being angry at preteen manbabies who fashion the world in their own middle school image. So prepare for wonkiest assholes of the week.
Universal Safety Products (UUU)
So I bought this stock a long while ago because I like simple things - they made electric sockets, wall plates, bathroom fans, light switches - stuff that is basic and I can take apart and understand and everyone needs
Then crypto bro decided, “you know what? I can take a simple company that does shit that people need and is boring and make FULL CRYPTO DUDE!”
His name is Milton Ault, and he buys nearly 230,000 shares on the market in late 2024 and cons JLA Realty - an actual real estate company who owned 8% of UUU in early 2025 - to give him the shares to vote in late 2024
Milton Ault III, who sounds like he’s struggled deeply in life, is the founder of “Hyperscale Data” and “BitNile” who loves to buy majority stakes in companies and then force them to do crypto and AI data centers - you know, all the stuff cool kids do
He gets an MOU and appointed to the board
By mid 2025, he has the company start a new subsidiary called Universal DeFi that generates AULT coin - so now their annual report and proxy says “we make a bunch of outlets, oh and now we do AULT coin crypto defi whatever!”
“we marketed a line of residential smoke and carbon monoxide alarms… We also market door chimes, ventilation products, ground fault circuit interrupters (GFCI’s), and other electrical devices… We also exhibit and sell our products at various trade shows, including the annual National Hardware Show.”... NEXT PARAGRAPH
“In July 2025, we formed Universal DeFi LLC as a new venture to diversify the business and explore new paths for revenue and stockholder value. Universal DeFi is pursuing two lines of business. First, Universal DeFi is developing and intends to own and operate a tokenization platform, which has not yet commenced operations. Tokenization is the process of representing ownership of real-world or financial assets as a digital token recorded on a blockchain, which is a shared digital record-keeping system maintained across many computers simultaneously, with no single controlling authority. The platform will provide technology and infrastructure for issuers to tokenize their assets. Second, subsequent to the last fiscal year end, Universal DeFi has acquired and commenced limited operations running licensed nodes and a validator on the Ault Blockchain, as described under “Ault Node Operations” below.”
The new class of common stock would consist of 25,000,000 shares of Class B Common Stock, par value $0.01 per share. Each share of our Class B Common Stock would generally have terms identical to a share of our Class A Common Stock, except with respect to voting power. Stockholders would be entitled to twenty-five votes for each share of Class B Common Stock held by them compared to one vote for each share of Class A Common Stock, when voting together on matters presented to our stockholders. - the 25 vote petty tyrant premium!
Then, INVESTORS APPROVE IT
I just wanted to buy the stock of a simple light socket company and I can’t even fucking do that without a tech crypto bro with a goatee making it horrible - I sold my shares after a proxy solicitor called me to ask “how do you think you’ll vote on this?”
Enphase Energy DR
Do your best to ignore Enphase Energy’s absurd series of events:
Longest tenured and Class II director Benjamin Kortlang, director since Obama was in his first term (16 years), along with three of his colleagues (Jamie Haenggi and Richard Mora) comes up for election in the May annual meeting.
Said election is not without import – the classified board means a Kortlang election victory would take him to 2029 before he sees another vote, guaranteeing him a near 20 year tenure at a company where he’s produced a pure mediocre 0.538 TSR (where 0.500 is median for all peer directors) and a not-so-great 0.348 CEO pay ratio (he likes approving pay that’s higher than average relative to peer median).
The vote happens on May 13, the results are released on May 15, and the 8K shows Kortlang got 43% approval – the rare non majority for the sleepy, passive American proxy voters – with only 36m shares in approval versus 48m shares withheld. Kortlang’s fellow classmates got a more respectable 84% and 94% approval – maybe Kortlang being chair of the nominating committee with a 16 year tenure on a classified plurality board was just one straw too many.
On June 11, Enphase increases the size of its board and adds a new Class I director, Shanker Trivedi, who is added less than a month after the AGM and won’t see an election until 2028 for the first time. So even as investors want directors OUT, Enphase shrugs and gives another director immunity from a vote for 2 years
It takes Enphase until August 10 – THREE FULL MONTHS since the AGM – to respond to the investor vote against Kortlang, in which they say the board “unanimously voted to retain Mr. Kortlang as a member” based on the report of the nominating committee (Kortlang recused himself to avoid the appearance that he could influence the people on the committee he chairs who have less tenure and experience than he does). They reject the vote, but issue the following: ‘“The Board approached this review with great care and took the stockholder vote seriously," said Steve Gomo, chair of Enphase Energy’s Board of Directors. "We concluded that Mr. Kortlang's experience, judgment, independence, and contributions remain valuable to the Board and the company. We also believe Mr. Malchow is well positioned to lead the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee as we continue to strengthen our governance practices.”’
GASLIT: At this point it’s worth asking whether this gaslight is necessary? Can we dispense with it? His “independence” after 16 years, and guaranteeing 19 years with the classified structure? “Strengthen our governance practices,” says the company that expanded the board LESS THAN A MONTH after shareholders reject their structure and director, only to add a new director who can avoid a vote for 2 years? A board where only TWO directors are tagged as having merit on paper? Where Kortlang is one of two directors who are considered entirely deferential to management? While this is another new excuse?
SEC Chair Paul Atkins and the snowflake corporate nanny state
Just “clarified” 13G (passive investor) engagement rules, and had some riveting thoughts of what investors (THE OWNERS OF THE COMPANY) can do:
Investors can generally participate in discussions initiated by an issuer about its views or voting decisions.
Like the Bumble of corporate engagement, the company must swipe first and ask “why did you vote that way?”
The SEC went on to say that “participation” in those discussions will not “by itself” disqualify you as passive
Then this: investors will be able to approach issuers to seek clarification about information in company filings, including proxy materials, without automatically losing their Schedule 13G status
He just told investors what they can ask about - you can only ask about what got printed in our filing that says how great we are - no questions about the news, investigations, actual real world risks…
OR, you could go with a normal asshole speed round:
Anthropic Wants Governments to Stop 'Catastrophic' AI Models Before They Are Deployed
Dude who makes and sells models wants someone to stop him from making and selling models
Trump dismisses warnings that AI could wipe out humanity, saying China is the real AI risk
Not American Corporate China: Zuck, Altman, Musk, Sergey/Larry
Major Seattle CEOs demand 100-day action plan on public safety from socialist Mayor Katie Wilson
Satya Nadella and Brian Niccol are demanding that the lady who’s been in office for 8 months fix PUBLIC SAFETY in the next 100 days having nothing to do with the fact that she’s a lady and a progressive
Letters were not penned to former mayors…
Ed Murray, resigned due to multiple allegations of child abuse, rape, and sexual molestation
Bruce Harrell, who in 1996 pointed a gun at a man, his mother, and his pregnant wife, in a Council Bluffs casino
People are comparing the letter to OTHER lady mayor Jenny Durkan
MM: OpenAI's new safety hire says losing control of AI would be 'catastrophic' and that 'most people could die'
Who Won the Week?
DR: Anybody who gives up equity because they believe in a thing: specifically, Anthropic researcher Jacob Coxon, who quit his job due to concerns about the safety of AI two months before his equity would have vested
MM: Anyone not in “most”
Predictions
DR: Corporate governance wonks rename the CEO/Chair combo and the CEO/former CEO as Chair combo as the as the CEO Duo
MM: I am among the “most”
C
Uber is cutting roughly 10% of its global workforce in its biggest round of layoffs since the Covid-19 pandemic.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi: acknowledged that Uber's business is performing strongly. He said the company's revenue has nearly tripled over more than five years as it expanded its products, businesses, and global reach.
The changes were designed to “make Uber simpler and faster, and create more capacity to invest in our future”
In June, Volkswagen Group CEO Oliver Blume had a plan to close four factories in Germany and eliminate 100,000 workers, both in Germany and around the world, by 2030. It said the plan would be made public at a company board meeting on July 9.
July 9 came and went, and the plan did not get the approval from the board of directors that Blume expected. The vote was 12 against and only 7 in favor of Blume’s vision.
Then, on September 3, 2026, Volkswagen Group announced that the plan submitted in June had been approved unanimously by the supervisory board.
CEO Oliver Blume: “The Supervisory Board has unanimously approved the Executive Board’s Future Plan presented today. This is a strong sign for the future of the Volkswagen Group. We are taking responsibility for our entire team, for our partners and for industrial jobs worldwide.”
Apple set John Ternus's fiscal 2027 salary at $3M and his annual equity award at $55M, giving him a calculated fiscal 2027 salary-and-equity package of $58M.
Cook will receive a $2M salary and a $45M annual equity award as executive chair, giving him a calculated salary-and-equity package of $47M.
Almost all of the value in both packages comes through Apple shares rather than salary. Ternus has 75% of his equity award tied to performance, while Cook has 50% tied to performance.
That structure gives Ternus greater exposure to performance, for better or worse. If Apple performs strongly against other S&P 500 companies, Ternus could receive more from his equity award. If the performance-based awards pay little or nothing, Cook could receive more from salary and equity even though he is no longer CEO. Cook also has a retirement provision that Ternus does not have.
Co-founder Matt Kendrick said that he didn't view the ad before it ran and that the marketing team oversaw it.
Co-founder Nahid Giga will step in as interim CEO
“Matt has decided to step down as CEO of Good Good”
No mention of ad
SEC sues ISS as Trump administration ramps up scrutiny of proxy advisers C
The Securities and Exchange Commission sued Institutional Shareholder Services, seeking to force the influential proxy adviser to turn over information as the Trump administration steps up scrutiny of firms that help investors decide how to vote their shares
AI STUFF (CARES/DON’T CARE)
Data Center Spending to Reach $31.6 Trillion by 2050 on AI Boom C
"No bystanders anywhere had any opportunity to, much less in fact did, consent to having their faces, bodies, voices, and personal information captured, reviewed, labeled, and embedded into Meta's AI systems."
Zohran Mamdani Bans AI for NYC Public School Students Up to Eighth Grade C
Billionaire Warren Buffett Says He’s ‘Impressed’ His 3 Kids Want to Give Money Away Rather Than Spend It on Themselves Or ‘Build Huge Office Buildings’ ’ SHUT UP
Vivek Ramaswamy takes credit for "calling out the epidemic of woke capitalism, educating the country on that" PREACH
Target, Walmart, and Amazon have pulled a “German Army Soldier Adult Costume” from their websites that resembles the uniforms of Nazi soldiers during World War II.
A viral CCTV video shows the individual lightly shoving what appears to be a Chinese Unitree G1 humanoid robot. After it recoils slightly, 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.
Reputation management: To be successful, we must preserve, grow, and leverage the value of our reputation with our guests, Team Members, vendors, and our shareholders and appropriately respond to crisis events affecting them.
A random executive?
Chief Merchandising Officer Cara Sylvester: joined Target in 2007
Chief Community and Stakeholder Engagement Officer Kiera Fernandez: joined Target in 2001
Chief Stores Officer Adrienne Costanzo: joined Target in 2004
Black CFO representation falls 25% from 2021 peak as diversity levels off: The number of Black finance chiefs in Fortune 500 and S&P 500 companies ticked down to 15 this year, according to the report from Crist Kolder Associates. WHO DO YOU BLAME?
Tractor Supply Co.: Fully eliminated its DEI goals, retired carbon emission targets, and withdrew sponsorships from social and cultural events.
Deere & Company: Ended participation in social awareness parades and pledged to eliminate diversity quotas and identity-based affinity group funding.
Target: Scaled back its "Racial Equity Action and Change" roadmap, modified its strategy for Pride Month merchandise, and adjusted internal diversity goals.
Walmart: Ended key equity training programs, modified its third-party seller guidelines, and scaled back specific minority supplier programs.
Lowe’s: Ended participation in external LGBTQ+ advocacy surveys and consolidated its employee resource groups under a centralized oversight structure.
Ford Motor Company: Scaled back internal diversity targets, stopped participating in third-party workplace index surveys, and unlinked executive pay from DEI metrics.
Harley-Davidson: Discontinued its dedicated DEI function, eliminated diversity quotas for supplier contracts, and ended HRC index reporting.
Molson Coors: Removed DEI quotas from executive incentive plans and stepped back from external diversity rankings.
Meta: Reorganized its human resources departments, eliminating specialized DEI teams and specific supplier diversity programs in favor of broader recruitment practices.
Amazon: Phased out several internal affinity programs and explicit representation targets for hiring.
McDonald’s: Retired numerical demographic goals for senior management roles and paused external workplace diversity surveys.
Goldman Sachs: Ended its policy requiring companies it takes public to have at least one diverse board member.
The double (and triple?) dippers:
Dmitri Stockton: director at Target & Deere
John May CEO/Chair Deere & Ford Motor director
Marvin Ellison: CEO/Chair at Lowe’s after 15 years at Target
Jim Farley: CEO Ford Motor & McDonald’s director & former Harley-Davison director MM
Europe: NO VOTES for past year fell nearly 6 percentage points year-over-year to 25.2%, the lowest average level since at least 2018.
United States: Say on Pay Average Support (S&P 500): Rose to 90.4% (up from 89.7%).
Failed Votes (<50% Support): Inched higher to 1.4% (up from 1.2% the previous year).
WHO DO YOU BLAME?
Proxy Advisory Firms (ISS and Glass Lewis): issued fewer NO VOTE recommendations on Say on Pay proposals than in previous proxy seasons
Vanguard, BlackRock, and State Street: backing Say on Pay at higher rates and industry-wide move toward pass-through voting has fragmented voting blocks and diluted organized shareholder pressure
Compensation Committees: must be tweaking pay structures just enough to secure support behind closed doors
Anti-woke political pressure: Elon/Trump 2.0
Total Shareholder Return: greed is good
Business has lost the trust of a generation: Just 17% of Americans told Gallup in 2026 they have real confidence in big business; among adults under 35, nearly half now view socialism favorably: WHO DO YOU BLAME?
PART 1: WHO DO YOU BLAME for this woeful, information-free 8K disclosure about Presley joining the board?: “Appointment of Certain Officers; Compensatory Arrangements of Certain Officers. On August 27, 2026, the Board of Directors (the “Board”) of Altria Group, Inc. (“Altria”) increased the size of the Board from 10 to 11 directors and elected Steven W. Presley to the Board, in each case, effective August 27, 2026. The Board also elected Mr. Presley to the Board’s Compensation and Talent Development, Innovation and Finance Committees, effective August 27, 2026. The Board affirmatively determined that Mr. Presley qualifies as an independent director under the New York Stock Exchange listing standards and Altria’s standards for director independence. Mr. Presley will be compensated for his service on the Board pursuant to Altria’s existing compensation program for non-employee directors, which is described under “Director Compensation” in Altria’s proxy statement for its 2026 Annual Meeting of Shareholders (filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on April 2, 2026) and is incorporated by reference in this Item 5.02.”
General Counsel Bob McCarter
Bob went from representing Philip Morris externally to internally, once arguing that a woman’s smoking-caused carotid stenosis was caused by her bad genetics, not smoking
Chief Compliance Officer/Chief Human Resources Officer Charlie Whitaker
Also a lawyer
CEO Sal Mancuso
Was the audit/tax department
This firm is literally run by lawyers, accountants, and marketing
PART 2: WHO DO YOU BLAME for the CHOICE of Presley himself?
Nom committee: Ian Clarke, Marjorie Connelly, Matt Davis, Rich Stoddart, Ellen Strahlman, Chair Debra Kelly-Ennis
Expanded the board AND added Presley, white male, despite having NO BLACK PEOPLE on the board and two of the 5 women have >12 years tenure, only 4 of the 11 directors got tagged as having merit
The number of committees - SIX different committees with SIX members in each (except audit which is 5) for 10 directors at the time - they needed to add ANYONE because they were exhausted from so many committee meetings
Rich Stoddart DR
Member of Nom/CG (also Audit, “Innovation”, and “Social Responsibility”)
Was CEO of Leo Burnett - advertising agency that handled massive portion of Nestle USA advertising. Presley was CEO of Nestle USA.
The ad: In the footage, Good Good personality Garrett Clark charges at Alexis Miestowski, knocks her onto the grass, then stands over her and says, "Do not touch my new driver."
The company issued a statement on Friday, but CEO Chip Brewer did a social media post this morning stating: "That approval should never have happened. Mistakes were made, and we are taking the matter very seriously. I want to make it clear that we sincerely apologize for the video." He did not apologize to women.
WHO DO YOU BLAME?
EVP and President of Callaway Golf Glenn Hickey who leads sales and marketing, whose prior work includes being a bond trader and getting a business degree from San Diego State, but was absent for the “don’t shove a woman in an ad” lesson (possibly)
Good Good and its CEO Matt Kendrick who made the ad for Callaway and posted, “Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it. 30 for 39 will be legendary.” He also apologized. But clearly more annoyed at Callaway than, you know, sorry for women?
The women on the board and the management team - they should have caught this before it got out! Oh, what? There’s TWO women on the board (one auditor who is ex-Boeing, a company with no challenges, and the other a Chief People Officer at a food company) and ONE woman in management (Chief People Officer)? None of whom would have seen the ad??? Oops.
Tom Dundon - who, according to the Callaway 2026 Proxy Statement, has been a director since “not applicable” - but does own more than 10% of the stock and has 56% influence over the company according to Free Float data MM
Meta legally denies all wrongdoing, dodging true legal accountability for intentionally engineering addictive, mentally harmful features.
The agreement alters user interface features and screen time, but leaves Meta's underlying data-harvesting business model completely untouched.
Critical safeguards—like switching off algorithmic feeds—are opt-in settings rather than permanent defaults, shifting enforcement onto parents.
Meta only pays 70% ($12.7 billion) upfront; the remaining $5.3 billion is contingent on competitors settling on identical terms, giving Meta a potential financial discount if rivals refuse.
Meta’s $18 billion settlement leaves out the child protections New Mexico already won at trial, its Attorney General says: including a direct ban on romantic and sexualized AI chatbot interactions with minors and stronger safeguards against adults targeting kids in private messages
MM: Settlement gaps
Age assurance:
Meta may elect to use one or more Proprietary Age Assurance Methods. In such event, Meta shall not benefit from the presumption of compliance set forth in Section II.A.3.a. Additionally, Meta will maintain continuous oversight of any Proprietary Age Assurance Method sufficient to ensure that the method is functioning as intended.
Tax deductible
The Settling States shall cause to be completed and timely filed a Form 1098-F with the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) that identifies not less than 50% of the amounts paid to the Settling States as compensatory restitution and remediation within the meaning of 26 U.S.C. § 162(f)(2)(A)
THEY BUNDLED CAMBRIDGE ANALYTICA INTO THE SETTLEMENT
$459m of the $17bn is the “Cambridge payout” - they can now put that behind them too
Is there a reason not to literally take Meta all the way? Why settle at all! Midterm elections? TAKE EVERYTHING!
Meanwhile, while you settle this: Meta’s creepy smart glasses are part of a much bigger plan
“At the same time, Meta is using the content generated across its ecosystem to support Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a pervasive, AI-driven future. Zuckerberg’s 2026 manifesto describes a world where personal AI agents will do your bidding. But building those systems requires more than conventional AI models. It also requires enormous amounts of data about human behavior, much of it generated and shared through Instagram, Facebook, and other Meta apps, or captured through hardware such as phones, smart glasses, and EMG Neural Band devices.”
“We become “algorithm chow,” feeding the models intended to realize Zuckerberg’s vision.”
'We Know We Got This Wrong': Target Apologises and Pulls 'Offensive' Halloween Costume After Racist Backlash
An apology from us: We pulled an offensive Halloween costume that should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer for sale. As a company, we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners. Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again.
Target Statement on Offensive Halloween Costume: As a company, we know we got this wrong, and we are deeply sorry. The costume is offensive and should never have been part of our assortment. It is no longer available for sale. We know this is especially hurtful for our Black guests, team members and partners. Removing the costume is an important first step, and the company is looking closely at how this happened and what needs to change to ensure this won’t happen again.
The statement comes directly from Target’s Corporate Communications department speaking on behalf of the entire enterprise, rather than a single individual like the CEO or Board Chair. Corporate apologies are deliberately released without a human signature for several strategic and legal reasons:
Legal Personhood: Legally under U.S. law, Target Corporation is treated as a single legal entity (often called "corporate personhood"). It can sign contracts, hold liability, and issue official statements as an institution rather than as individual people.
Leaving executive names off the statementprevents media coverage from focusing on a specific person (e.g., "CEO Brian Cornell Apologizes"). It keeps the focus on the company's operational changes and prevents individual leaders from becoming personal lightning rods for public backlash.
These statements are rarely drafted by an executive. They are heavily scrubbed by legal counsel, crisis PR managers, and corporate strategy teams. Attaching a CEO's signature to a text engineered by a dozen lawyers and communications staff can actually feel less authentic internally.
Phrasing the apology around "we" and "the company" establishes institutional accountability. It signals that the failure occurred in corporate vetting systems, not just from one bad decision-maker.
In January 2025, Target Corporation announced the termination of its REACH initiative and restructuring of its Supplier Diversity program, marking one of the largest corporate DEI rollbacks in recent history. This decision has triggered public backlash, legal scrutiny, and investor uncertainty.
Callaway Golf CEO Chip Brewer on Tuesday apologized for an advertisement that sparked an online backlash for its depiction of a male golfer shoving a female golfer to the ground when she attempts to use his driver.
"That approval should never have happened. Mistakes were made, and we are taking the matter very seriously," Brewer wrote on Tuesday. "I want to make it clear that we sincerely apologize for the video."
Callaway released a statement Thursday explaining its reasoning behind ending the brand partnership: "Over the last several days, we have reflected deeply on the hurt and disappointment caused by the video we reposted. We heard from individuals who shared personal experiences related to violence against women, and their stories were powerful reminders that this issue touches the lives of far too many people. Unequivocally, violence against women is unacceptable and should never be trivialized, normalized, or used as entertainment."
"In this instance, our content review process was not comprehensive enough …We have taken appropriate internal corrective actions and significantly strengthened our approval procedures to help ensure this does not happen again."
The brand added that it would donate $1 million to organizations that aim to "prevent violence against women, provide resources to survivors, and advance education and awareness efforts."
The online video ad, which was released online and has since been pulled, sparked criticism for depicting violence against women, while some consumers said they planned to stop buying products made by Callaway.
Brewer said the ad, created by Good Good Golf, was released last week to promote a co-branded driver and had been approved by Callaway before the spot was posted online. The ad featured Good Good co-founder Garrett Clark telling Alexis Miestowski, a former Division I female golfer, in a menacing voice, "Do not touch my new driver," after he shoves her to the ground.
Good Good is an American sports YouTube channel and company based in Frisco, Texas. Founded in 2020 by Garrett Clark, Stephen Castaneda, CEO Matt Kendrick, and Matt Scharff.
Owner: Scoreboard ventures: co-founders Nahid Giga and Brian Dick
Lead Investor: Creator Sports Capital — a firm co-founded by former YouTube executive Benjamin Grubbs and investment executive Brian Kabot.
Good Good's CEO went nuclear on Callaway after the brand cut ties over an ad scandal
"Interesting that @CallawayGolf asks us to make an ad then approves it then asks us to take the fall then drops us in a coordinated media blitz and covers it up by giving a million dollars away thinking everyone will be ok with it," Matt Kendrick wrote in a post on X.
The ad fallout has had major repercussions for Good Good's business beyond the loss of its Callaway partnership. Dick's Sporting Goods yanked Good Good products from shelves, and the golf group pulled out as a title sponsor for a PGA Tour event in the fall. The reverberation has spread to the Golf Channel, which scrapped the upcoming season of its reality golf series "Big Break," whose grand prize was entry into the PGA Tour event that Good Good was supposed to have sponsored.
FFA:
14% have merit
2 women! (combined 6% influence)
Director Thomas Dundon 56% influence and 10% shares
Director Nominee Skills Matrix includes “Golf Enthusiast” (9/9)
Bill Gates fears world leaders are unprepared for 3 major AI risks: ‘Stunted’ child development; emboldened criminals; and vanishing jobs for Gen Z
Bill Gates Issues Stark AI Warning: 'There Is No Plan' for What Comes Next
What did he say?
Gates warns AI will either be the greatest equalizer ever created or the worst source of global injustice, claiming world leaders are underprepared for the social upheaval ahead.
He proposes that governments legally set aside "human-reserved" job categories—similar to protected nature reserves—for roles requiring human empathy and connection, such as healthcare and teaching.
To offset tax policies that encourage replacing humans, Gates suggests taxing AI processing "tokens" and physical robots to fund worker retraining and stronger safety nets.
He categorizes AI’s biggest risks into three buckets: permanent job loss, empowering bad actors to launch cyber and biological attacks, and eroding child development.
Gates calls for an international AI regulatory agency—modeled after global aviation and nuclear inspection agreements—requiring tight cooperation between the U.S. and China.
He claims tech industry executives are downplaying catastrophic AI threats to public safety because there is too much money on the line.
Gates warns that agreeable AI companions risk becoming addictive to young people while weakening independent critical thinking.
OpenAI, Anthropic, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices and more than 100 other companies and entities signed a letter on Thursday calling on businesses and policymakers to prioritize cybersecurity and “act decisively” to bolster defenses in the age of artificial intelligence.
“We have a limited window to strengthen cyber defenses,” the letter said
CNBC survey asked over 1,000 US adults aged between 18 and 34 “who do you trust to act responsibly on AI?”
Palantir CEO Alex Karp 81 percent “don’t trust”
Peter Thiel 79% “don’t trust”
Mark Zuckerberg 71% “don’t trust”
Elon Musk 70% “don’t trust”
Sam Altman 69% “don’t trust”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella 65% “don’t trust”
fared the best — albeit with a pitiful 35 percent “trust” score.
DR: Jeff Bezos ordered to reinstate fired Black opinion writer at Washington Post over Charlie Kirk reaction
The ruling Thursday said the newspaper did not have sufficient cause to terminate Karen Attiah, who at the time was the last Black full-time member of the Post’s opinion desk. The arbitrator, Sarah Miller Espinosa, also ordered the Post to award Attiah full back pay and lost benefits.
After Kirk’s killing, Attiah, the founding global opinion editor for the Post and the newspaper’s only Black female opinion writer, made several posts to her Bluesky account.
Attiah was emailed a termination letter on Sept. 11, accusing her of “gross misconduct.”
“Your public comments on social media regarding the death of Charlie Kirk violate the Post’s social media policies, harm the integrity of our organization, and potentially endanger the physical safety of our staff,” the letter read.
Meta Settlement and AI earth destruction that has normalized what would have been horrific news, but now we shrug and re-elect the boards - SPEED ROUND!
The picture in the article is him wearing not one, but TWO $15k Rolex watches, one on each wrist - the message: guy who buys jeans JUST LIKE YOU has multiple Rolexes - you should get one too!
Predictions
DR: I spend $15,000 for business advice from Elon Musk's former right-hand man at X and he tells me a really clever way to save $15,000
MM: French Canadiens, after getting the CEO of Air Canada fired and killing Trump trade talks, decide to make the United States a new Canadian province called New Quebec where French is the only legal language and renames Lake Superior “Lake French Superior”
CNBC survey asked over 1,000 US adults aged between 18 and 34
Asked “who do you trust to act responsibly on AI?” the vast majority of participants said they “don’t trust” any of the nine figures.
Palantir’s extremely controversial CEO Alex Karp scored the lowest, with 81 percent choosing “don’t trust,” while Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella fared the best — albeit with a pitiful 35 percent “trust” score.
Everyone else fell in between: 79 percent of respondents said they don’t trust Peter Thiel, while a whopping 71, 70, and 69 percent said they “don’t trust” Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Sam Altman, respectively
A U.S. Appeals Court [Judge Jacqueline Nguyen] said that thousands of lawsuits targeting Meta Platforms, ByteDance's TikTok and other social media outlets over claims that social media is harmful and addictive can proceed.
The court also denied Meta's request to postpone a trial over allegations that they used data from children to keep them on its platforms.
a $2.8 billion program meant to help mitigate the harm from climate change and environmental issues in Black, low-income, and disadvantaged communities.
Clean energy additions will rise by a record 45 gigawatts this year, according to S&P Global Energy—equivalent to the average electricity demand of Turkey. The increase is roughly 25 percent higher than the record set in 2024.
A new peer-reviewed study published earlier this month in Earth’s Future suggests that it is possible to demonstrate that “emissions from company X cause injury Y.”
It also could potentially provide evidence so industry could be forced to answer for climate impacts.
The new methodological framework has, for the first time, drawn a straight line from single corporate emitters like Exxon or Chevron, or even whole countries like the United States, to specific heatwaves and areas of extreme rainfall.
By running over 150 simulations across 8 different climate models, the study’s author, Christopher Callahan—an Earth systems scientist and assistant professor at Indiana University’s O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs—built a statistical model to figure out the relationship between the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and the odds of extreme heat or rain. He then used real emissions data to calculate the extent to which specific fossil fuel emitters increased the risk of extreme weather.
It was a warning that was shared among women who worked for Chris Kubasik: Avoid being alone with the executive and be careful on the corporate jet.
Multiple women at defense contractor L3Harris Technologies LHX had raised concerns about Kubasik’s behavior, including a formal complaint from one woman to human resources that was made around 2023, according to people familiar with the matter. The employee accused the CEO of sexual harassment, the people said.
Kubasik stayed on in his role. The woman left L3Harris. Not all L3Harris board members were briefed on the 2023 complaint and it is unclear
Christopher Kubasik's ouster as the L3Harris CEO was not the first time he was forced out of a company amid an allegation of misconduct.
In 2012, Kubasik was set to become the CEO of Lockheed Martin when he was forced to resign after an ethics investigation confirmed that he had a close personal relationship with a subordinate employee.
L3Harris Technologies’ LHX chief executive is out because of misconduct allegations, and it isn’t the first time: More than a decade ago, Christopher Kubasik resigned from Lockheed Martin because he was accused of having a relationship with a subordinate.
It matters how a company responds to a scandal once it’s caught in one, most blow the moment by choosing secrecy over transparency.
It’s an opportunity to reset the culture that led to the breach in the first place, but instead “your PR team and your legal team tell you ‘Don’t dig into these things—it’s not good for the company,’ so you silence all the debates.”.
The trial involves a coalition of 29 state attorneys general in a unified case against Meta that was brought in 2023, and will be argued by lawyers representing California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. The stakes are enormous as leading government officials across the country push for Meta to be held accountable for allegedly violating federal and state laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, and various consumer protection statutes.
The Securities and Exchange Commission plans to stop responding to no-action requests “entirely … effective immediately,” the agency said in a statement Friday.
The decision comes after the SEC sat out the bulk of the no-action process during the 2025-26 proxy season. Investor advocates have since sued the agency, alleging the change violates the Administrative Procedure Act.
More formally known as judicial dissolution, the corporate death penalty basically happens when the government is so pissed off by the corruption or damage a corporation causes that it yanks away their charter.
Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is the focus of a Justice Department antitrust probe over whether its investment partners are improperly serving on the boards of competing artificial intelligence companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
The companies at issue include Databricks Inc., one of the most valuable privately held technology companies in the world, and Fivetran Inc., both backed by the VC firm, according to the people, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter. Andreessen Horowitz co-founder Ben Horowitz serves on the board of Databricks, and partner Martin Casado is a board member of Fivetran. Both companies help businesses collect, organize and analyze massive troves of data.
Adjacent - Roger Fradin of Carlyle on board, Corcoran also of Carlyle
June 2021, Kubasik becomes CEO and Bill Brown moves to exec chair (obviously)
Board:
Sallie Bailey
Bill Brown
Peter Chiarelli
Thomas Corcoran
Thomas Dattilo (nom) - ex tire CEO
Rober Gradin
Harry Harris
Lewis Hay III (nom) - lawyer, ex CEo of NextEra
Lewis Kramer
Rita Lan
Robert Millard (nom) - MIT Chair, Lehman
Lloyd Newton (nom chair) - general
So given that the CEOs choose their successors, the nom committees approve them, the rest of the board rubber stamps it… we can thank:
Michael Strianese - hires Kubasik, names him CEO at L3, despite Lockheed problems
Nom approval: Ann Dunwoody (64, only woman, US Army Gen, 2013), Vincent Pagano, Jr (66, lawyer, Simpson Thacher, chair of nom, 2013), Hugh Shelton (75, US Army Gen, 2011) - a nom committee composed of the ONLY woman, two generals and a lawyer - all of whom are the LOWEST TENURED ON THE BOARD at the time
Then Bill Brown - names Kubasik CEO of combined L3Harris, one year of babysitting as exec chair
Nom approval: Thomas Dattilo (nom) - ex tire CEO, Robert Millard (nom) - MIT Chair, Lehman, Lloyd Newton (nom chair) - general
Familiar names: Millard and Newton - see Kubasik all the way through
And the CEOs and directors can keep failing…
Bill Brown on the Becton Dickinson board
Robert Millard on the Green Dot Corp (nom!), iHeartMedia, Evercore (nom!) boards
Brought on to iHeart board just 3 years after an exec there went on a racial slur rant, the company was sued for gender and wage discrimination, and a radio host of the companies were accused of severe harassment - not sure what will change?
Board: Dario Amodei, Daniela Amodei (President, Dario’s sister), Yasmin Razavi (VC, crypto and prediction market investor), Reed Hastings (Netflix), Chris Liddell (ex Trump WH Deputy Secretary), and Vas Narasimhan (Novartis) - zero “public benefit” (or even public safety) people
Public Benefit Corporation: “A benefit corporation's directors and officers operate the business with the same authority and behavior as in a traditional corporation, but are required to consider the impact of their decisions not only on shareholders but also on employees, customers, the community, and the local and global environment”
What is the impact of supervoting shares? AI on society? AI on the environment? Who on this board is even remotely qualified to answer those questions?
In order to focus Division resources on the review of Securities Act and Exchange Act filings, including those reviews that are statutorily required, for the protection of investors and facilitation of capital formation, and in light of the extensive body of guidance from the Commission and the staff available to both companies and proponents on Rule 14a-8, the Division has determined to discontinue responding to Rule 14a-8 no-action requests entirely, including those submitted under Rule 14a-8(i)(1),[2] effective immediately, unless and until the Division announces otherwise. It also will no longer respond to notices filed under Rule 14a-8(j) with a letter indicating that it will not object if a company omits a proposal from its proxy materials.
“Fair corporate suffrage is an important right that should attach to every equity security bought on a public exchange.”
“Managements of properties owned by the investing public should not be permitted to perpetuate themselves by the misuse of corporate proxies. Insiders having little or no substantial interest in the properties they manage have often retained their control without an adequate disclosure of their interest and without an adequate explanation of the management policies they intend to pursue. Insiders have at times solicited proxies without fairly informing the stockholders of the purposes for which the proxies are to be used and have used such proxies to take from the stockholders for their own selfish advantage valuable property rights. Inasmuch as only the exchanges make it possible for securities to be widely distributed among the investing public, it follows as a corollary that the use of the exchanges should involve a corresponding duty of according to shareholders fair suffrage. For this reason the proposed bill gives the . . . Commission power to control the conditions under which proxies may be solicited with a view to preventing the recurrence of abuses which have frustrated the free exercise of the voting rights of stockholders.
Atkins also is listening to the crypto bros who want to offer “tokenized securities” off exchanges and is hoping to eliminate a really basic rule that says “investors are entitled to the best price available for stocks they buy”
Separately, DOJ Withdraws Antitrust Guidance for Proxy Advisory Industry - no antitrust protections for ISS (good!) but still can’t do anything about the socialist NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA (bad!)
Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Scott Kupor, the key driver of President Donald Trump’s return-to-office agenda, admitted in a hot mic moment that he intentionally filmed a video in front of a blank wall while he was working from home so he wouldn’t get blowback over working at home.
“I was in my bedroom, but I was trying to find—because I knew someone was going to give me shit if like, they knew, ‘You were out of the office.’ …I was trying to find something that was not recognizable as being in my house, basically. So I was just trying to find a plain corner with a white wall, which was not that easy to find.”
Kupor was the first employee hired by Andreessen and Horowitz's venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz.
MM: Flock Says It’s “Taking a Break” From Responding to Media Requests
Who is this headline for? Billionaire yacht buyers? Poor people who hate billionaires with yachts?
Who Won the Week?
DR: The women at L3Harris Shared Concerns About CEO’s Behavior Years Before Ouster
MM: Joshua Ramer, the CEO at PeopleReturn (one of the last vestiges of diversity data in the US), whose newsletter today did the most Free Float thing I’ve seen anyone other than us do: they tracked a single Getty Image across SIX different company reports
The image was called 1325876463 “Young Boy Leaping Into Father Arms In Playground”, mostly for sustainability reports because it’s brown people
They found it in Danaher, Crown Castle, TD, Capital One, CSL Plasma, and Toyota Europe
Predictions
DR: The meritocro-mano-sphere-o hires Christopher Kubasik again without any push back from anything or anyone
MM: We decide that, since everyone is trying to make companies immune from climate change lawsuits, that we just make CEOs personally immune for any behavior
Harvard reveals $2.2 billion SpaceX holding worth more than half its U.S. equity portfolio CARES
Busting CEO Pay Curve in 2025, Musk Made Annual Salary of Average Tesla Worker Every 4.2 Seconds
S&P 500 CEO pay jumps to record as Musk-inspired compensation plans spread: average S&P 500 CEO pay reached $340.1 million
ISS recommended against fewer say-on-pay proposals than last year: 8.3% versus 9.2% in 2025.
ISS supported fewer E&S proposals than in prior years, but investor votes more strongly tracked its recommendations. ISS backed 13% of social proposals in 2026, compared with 15% in 2025 and 46% in both 2023 and 2024.
ISS supported 66% of governance shareholder proposals, up from 55% in 2025
ISS opposed 3% of uncontested director nominees, up slightly from 2.5%.
A staff opinion from the SEC exempts some data center debt from Dodd-Frank risk retention rules, making AI infrastructure financing more attractive to sponsors
The Trump administration will not enforce reporting requirements of the 2021 Corporate Transparency Act, which was intended to crack down on money laundering.
A survey released Monday by the advocacy group Consumer Watchdog found that 25 of the 38 individuals and organizations that have filed friend of the court briefs on behalf of the industry have financial ties or other connections to the fossil fuel companies that are facing billions of dollars in potential damages for contributing to climate change. The report argues that many of briefs make “nearly identical legal arguments.”
One of Europe’s largest activist investors, Cevian Capital, has called for higher pay for non-executive directors in UK boardrooms as part of efforts to revive growth at British companies and reverse the decline of the London market.
The activist, which has stakes in companies including Smith & Nephew and Pearson, said that pay for non-executive directors (NEDs) should increase to attract and retain the best people including from international rivals.
Phoebe Gates (daughter of Bill Gates) and her shopping app startup, Phia, recently landed in hot water over allegations of a digital commission trick known as cookie stuffing.
Cookie stuffing is essentially digital credit-stealing. An app secretly plants its tracking cookie into your browser without actually helping you find a deal or directing you to the website
Phia initially claimed the issue was an accidental software bug. However, leaked internal Slack messages showed Gates and her co-founder discussing auto-dropping cookies as far back as December to artificially boost revenue
Cookie stuffing isn't just breaking tech platform terms; US law treats it as federal wire fraud
The trial involves a coalition of 29 state attorneys general in a unified case against Meta that was brought in 2023, and will be argued by lawyers representing California, Colorado, New Jersey and Kentucky. The stakes are enormous as leading government officials across the country push for Meta to be held accountable for allegedly violating federal and state laws, including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA, and various consumer protection statutes.
Meta was paying out-and-out neo-Nazis to post on Facebook, an investigation from Australia’s ABC News found.
These pages and individual creators posted content that appeared to be in clear violation of Facebook’s own hate speech policies. Nonetheless, they were able to earn money on their posts through the platform’s “Content Monetization” program — which is invitation-only.
Zuckerberg's Yacht Allegedly 'Refused' Coast Guard Calls To Help Stranded Boat Despite Being 'Closer'
Zuckerberg brings back the floating battle barge to spar with UFC fighter Merab Dvalishvili
SEGUE ALERT:Zuckerberg’s Manifesto About the Glorious Freedoms AI Will Bring Was Completely Contradicted by His Own CTO During a Company Meeting
Meta CTO Dismisses Vacation Requests: 'It's Very Dumb' to Ask for More Time Off
During a July Q&A with staff, CTO Andrew Bosworth shut down an employee who asked if AI productivity gains could be used to revive “Meta Days,” a cancelled holiday program that once allowed staff to take more days off a year.
Bosworth was apparently appalled at the idea, saying that “I hope that what we do with our extra time is do even more and cooler stuff for the users who use our products every day … We got billions of people using our products every day. I get an extra hour. You know what I do with it? I put it into that.”
The executive then dug his heels even further, personally insulting the staffer for asking about work-life balance: “Go to your parents and ask them: hey, like every time I get a chance to talk to my boss, ask me if I can have more days off. Ask your parents what they think of that as a career strategy.”
BLOWHARD INDEX
CEO of $49 billion AI company says it’s ‘mind-boggling’ people think you can work 38 hours a week, have work-life balance, and be successful SHUT UP
Corcoran Group CEO says Gen Z’s housing market struggles mirror what boomers faced 30 years ago: ‘Stop buying Starbucks coffee,’ she advises SHUT UP SHUT UP
Kalshi’s 30-year-old CEO says most business advice is ‘trash’—he doesn’t read management books or listen to podcasts: ‘I’m gonna make it up as I go’ SAY MORE
Paramount demands $1.9 billion from states, citing Warner deal delays SHUT UP
Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky says AI writes 60% of its code—and sustaining ‘founder mode’ is the key to winning in the age of AI SHUT UP
In 1992, Richard Tice started working for the housebuilding and commercial property company founded by his grandfather, The Sunley Group. Tice was its joint chief executive officer (CEO) for 14 years before leaving the company in 2006.
Cards Against Humanity Unveils 'Sad Little Bitch' Elon Musk Monument Near Texas Starbase DON’T HATE
Gen Z is bringing pen and paper back to the workplace
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