FRIDAY WRAP: Musk's an antisemite, Musk's antisemite enablers, the "glass defense," the Big Four's first female CEO, and the Monopoly Go obsession

Introduction

IT’S FRIDAYYYYY!!! And we are LIVE, and ALIVE. This is Ari the Data Queen, joined by AnalystHole Matt Moscardi, Jessie the Money Whisperer, and Hazelnut Rallis. On today’s weekly wrap up: Ahole of the millenia, parenting Apple, and a BILLION dollar way to be anti-social. 

Story of the Week (DR):

1. ​​X Races to Contain Damage After Elon Musk Endorses Antisemitic Post AB JS MM

1. “You have said the actual truth” and then again attacked the ADL.

2. IBM, a major advertiser on X, has pulled its spending from the social media platform, whose employees are grappling with what to tell its other advertisers, according to internal messages.

3. Elon Musk has effectively 'stepped aside' as Tesla CEO with 'outrageous' X comments, long time Tesla bull says

1. Ross Gerber is a long-time Tesla investor and supporter who also acts as an investment advisor.

2. said he plans to ditch his Model Y for a Rivian after Elon Musk agreed with antisemitic post

3. Musk is working to "destroy" Tesla, and is not acting as its CEO, Gerber said. 

4. "I've never had this with any company I've invested in in my entire life, where the CEO does so many detrimental things that destroy the brand, because bottom line that's what's happening. It's absolutely outrageous, his behaviors and the damage he's caused to the brand."

5. Although Gerber said he is not planning to sell his own stock in Tesla, which includes some 420,000 shares, he's fielding more demands than ever from clients demanding that their investments in the company be sold.

4. A SpaceX Worker Died and They Kept It a Secret

5. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has extended an apology to India’s Minister of Commerce, Piyush Goyal, after he missed the official’s visit to the Fremont Factory

2. Thousands of Starbucks workers strike on Red Cup Day

1. Organisers say this was the largest strike yet in the two-year-old effort to unionize the company’s stores.

2. UAW members ratify deal with General Motors, 1st of Big 3 to conclude labor dispute

1. 54.7% approval

2. Soon afterward, Stellantis workers approved their contract.

3. EY picks Janet Truncale as the first woman to lead a Big Four firm

4. We recorded first episode of The Proxy Show

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. Apple says iPhones will support RCS in 2024

1. EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires major companies, like Apple, to make their services interoperable with other platforms. IS THERE A THING THAT APPLE HATES MORE THAN PLAYING WITH NON APPLE?

2. So yesterday’s announcement by Apple that they will launch RCS messaging and bring features like read notifications, encryption, high-res images and video.

2. Austin became the largest city in the US to eliminate parking minimums DR

1. Parking spots can cost almost $30,000 per spot, according to one estimate in the article

2. Other cities that have done this: Anchorage, Richmond, and Raleigh

3. More housing, urban heat island effect

3. Nikola founder, Trevor Milton, may be a convicted fraudster but he wasn't 'greedy or mean-spirited' and not as bad as Elizabeth Holmes, lawyers say JS MM

1. The glass defense? 

2. His lawyers say he should not face incarceration because his fraud conviction for lying to investors with exaggerated claims about the zero-emission trucks, is nothing like Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos fraud.

1. “There is not a shred of evidence from trial or from Trevor’s personal life that he was ever motivated by spite, nastiness, ill will, or cruelty,” 

2. They said Holmes also duped her own board of directors in addition to lying to investors.

3. “In contrast, whatever Trevor may have done, he did it openly and with the full knowledge of Nikola’s executives and board of directors. There were no fake documents or financial shenanigans, and there were no threats to anyone to keep quiet,” the lawyers said.

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. Tesla shareholders JS

2. Tesla’s board of directors DR MM

3. Every advertiser on Twitter AB

4. Bill Ackman

5. Tesla buyers

6. NASA.

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. ‘Monopoly Go’ Generates $1 Billion In Revenue In 7 Months AB MM

1. REALLY? Instead of being social and inviting some friends over to *actually* play monopoly people are spending hundreds of dollars playing on an app

2. This just confirms all the science that’s come out recently about the loneliness epidemic

3. Hasbro is making out well though

1. Which I actually don't’ mind- their board is 64% female, with an 8% female power gap

2. With a .741 team power score

2. EY picks Janet Truncale as the first woman to lead a Big Four firm DR

1. First of all, this is great. I don’t want to immediately shit on it

2. But…I’ve highlighted this with other similar headlines- Let’s not forget that these firms have origins in the 1800s, the earliest being KPMG, founded in 1818.

3. It has taken 205 years to elect a woman to lead JUST ONE of these four firms

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Alison Taylor, for being blessed by our presence.

2. AB: UAW President Shawn Fain said UAW stands for “U are welcome” in response to the rising wages at the non-union plants (Subaru agreed to hike pay for all US plant workers)

3. MM: NUANCE!  When Kid Rock admits that shooting cans of Bud Light because of a trans person “cost working class jobs” all because of those woke rich fat cat executives, nuance is becoming vogue again!  It’s not the TRANS person’s fault, it’s those sneaky executives that tricked Mr. Rock into acting like a diaper baby!

4. JS: Taylor Swift…again: A Taylor Swift-Themed Cruise Will Set Sail In 2024

Predictions

1. DR: I’ve probably already predicted this 14 times but Elon fake steps down at Tesla but clearly will still run the company. Replaced by an Asian male: most likely SVP Automotive Tom Zhu or recently appointed CFO Vaibhav Taneja

2. AB: Bill Ackman will take Twitter public, fire Elon, and shut down anti semitism. He will only preserve anti everyone else.

3. MM: Several advertisers will “pause” their spending on Twitter until everyone forgets there are Jewish people on earth, then claim they are “engaging” with Twitter’s team to ensure brand protections, then continue advertising next to images of Pol Pot and Vlad the Impaler

4. JS: Taylor Swift initiates an anti-Musk campaign and together, with her Swifties, gets Musk CANCELED