FRIDAY WRAP: Tesla's director clawback, the Data Prince is born, Public Square's anti-ESG pro-patriotic dual class shares, women's soccer non-pay, and a Miles White/Miles Satterwhite rivalry

LIVE from your anti-anti-ESG walk-in closet, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at July 21st Lane Studios, featuring all your favorites: Miles Satterwhite the Data PrinceAri the data queen, Jessie the money whisperer, BM-man Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: BlackRock drinks anti-ESG oil; chubby babies, Tesla rants; and deepfake pledges, data, and dating profiles.

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Tesla Board to Return $735 Million in Stock Awards to End Suit Over Pay Packages MM

2. BlackRock names Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser to board

3. Elizabeth Warren urges SEC to investigate Tesla over Twitter ties and corporate governance

1. Musk subpoenas Elizabeth Warren days after she called for Tesla investigation

4. NFL Fines Dan Snyder $60 Million Over Sexual Harassment Allegations Shortly After Approval Of His $6 Billion Sale Of Washington Commanders JS

1. The finding follows a 17-month investigation led by Mary Jo White, a former federal prosecutor and chairwoman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. She concluded that Snyder sexually harassed Tiffani Johnston, who was a former cheerleader and a marketing employee for the Commanders.

2. The report also found that the team had intentionally shielded and withheld at least $11 million of revenue that should have been shared among the league’s 32 teams. The investigation did not rule out the possibility that Snyder had directed or participated in this revenue-shielding, but that “at a minimum, he was aware of certain efforts to minimize revenue sharing.”

Goodliest of the Week (AB):

1. MILES RYAN SATTERWHITE, a chubby 7lbs 8 oz of Data Prince, born Jul 18, 2023

2. Finally a good use of AI (JS)

1. Ukrainian women are using dating profiles with AI images to trick horny Russian soldiers into giving away secrets, report says

2. The soldiers constantly reveal information about the state of the Russian army, which they then pass on to the Ukrainian military.

3. "We're looking for information about the number of troops, information on the amount of military equipment, the success or lack of success of some attacks, their problems with food and equipment," one of the ladies told The Times.

3. France to pay bonus for shoes and clothing repairs to cut waste

1. The move aims to cut down on the 700,000 tonnes of clothes thrown away by French people each year, two-thirds of which end up in landfills. Under the scheme, customers will be able to claim €7 for mending a heel and €10-€25 for clothing repairs.

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. USA' Chants Break Out on Wall Street as Anti-Woke Company Goes Public - Newsweek DR CM

1. WALL STREET LOVES THE ANTI WOKE!

2. PSQ Holdings Inc. Cl A

1. Down -12.3% from open

2. WALL STREET HATES THE ANTI WOKE!

3. DEMOCRACY FOREVER!  CHRISITIAN VALUES!  AMERICA!

1. Dual class fake public

1. I’ve never seen this version of dual class - it’s not set voting rights, it’s RELATIVE voting rights - a permadictator, class C shares held “only by the founder”!

2. Class A is worth 1 vote per share, Class C is worth “a number of votes equal to the number of shares of Class A Common Stock issued and outstanding at the time any vote is taken, plus 100” - they’re undilutable!

4. Not only do the conservative antiwokes need a parallel economy, they need permanent dictatorships in the parallel economy!

2. Climate change’s side hustle

1. Tornado Tears Through Pfizer’s N.C. Site, Threatening Crucial Drug Supplies

2. U.S. Investigating Why Delta Passengers Were Kept on Plane in Extreme Heat

3. Extreme Weather Caused Georgia to Run Out of Peaches This Year

4. Big Banks Don’t Need to Drop Clients Amid Climate Risk Push, Regulators Say

3. Tesla investors JS

1. Tesla Board to Return $735 Million in Stock Awards to End Suit Over Pay Packages

2. Vanguard: 6.6%, BLK 3.6%, SSgA 3.2%, Geode 1.6%, CR 1.4%, Norges 0.9%, Fidelity 0.9%, T Rowe 0.8%, Baillie Gifford 0.8%, Northern Trust 0.7% = 20%

3. The average vote FOR these directors was 80% - way low, but that means only 20% of shares voted AGAINST them!  Everyone else was cool!

1. Vanguard voted FOR every director!

2. Blackrock voted FOR Kimbal the Lesser Musk!

4. Rant alert:

1. For 20 years, the John Chavedden’s of the world have built up shareholder rights so that you can hire the stewards of your capital and keep them accountable for managing your assets

2. And somehow, in 2023, when I was trying to sell our data, Free Float Analytics, the first data set to ever measure director power and performance so that investors actually had DATA to make decisions about their stewards, I was told that “voting against directors is too aggressive.”  

3. What’s the point of G then?  Do we need G at all?  If you’re not going to vote against directors and just wait to sue them later when terrible shit happens or they bilk you of your money, why not have zero shareholder rights and just have lawsuits?

5. Also, Tesla investors, why do we need articles like this: Why Tesla investors should care about Elon Musk’s multiplying ventures

1. BECAUSE WE DON’T WANT CEOS TO BE CEOS AT 7 COMPANIES?

Exhausting-est of the Week (JS):

1. Women soccer players were promised at least $30,000 to play in this year’s World Cup. Now FIFA is backtracking on its pledge MM CM

1. FIFA president Gianni Infantino is reneging on a commitment he made in June to distribute a portion of the Women’s World Cup prize money directly to the players.

2. A HUGE setback to closing the gender pay gap in the sport.

3. Under the initial payment model, every participating player would’ve been paid $30,000 each, with the payout increasing with the team’s performance. Players on the winning team would earn $270,000. The payment would’ve been significant for most players

4. BECAUSE, guess what the global average salary for professional women’s soccer players is? 14,000…

5. Women players earn 25 cents on the dollar earned by men

2. Connecticut police issued 26,000 fake traffic tickets that made them appear busier and skewed racial-profiling data, audit says

1. Had to include this because it’s the state our company is incorporated in

2. Hundreds of troopers over a five-year period, with one trooper logging 1,350 fake tickets in a three-year period

3. The figures skewed racial profiling data to appear like more white people were being stopped

4. The total number of false records could ultimately be as high as 58,553, the researchers said.

5. The audit, which was conducted by University of Connecticut data analysts, followed an independent report that four officers were cooking the books to look busy

6. Connecticut State Police said in a press release that it was working to reduce discrepancies, saying it is "deeply committed to ensuring the integrity of Connecticut's racial profiling data and to maintaining public confidence in the essential public safety services our troopers provide each day."

3. Republicans want to shred Amtrak funding as the railroad plans a historic Sunbelt and Western expansion DR

1. Mostly want to hear what Damion has to say since we regularly talk about how disappointing it is that there isn’t an efficient public transportation option for him to travel from ME to CT

2. Republicans in Congress are proposing slashing funding for Amtrak and other infrastructure priorities in the 2024 budget. At the same time, the passenger railroad is proposing its largest-ever expansion after Congress sent tens of billions in funding as part of the 2021 infrastructure law. 

3. According to Amtrak CEO Stephen Gardner: "if the proposed levels become law, Amtrak will have to radically reduce or suspend service on various routes across the nation." 

4. Gardner added that Amtrak would be forced to "immediately reduce vital state of good repair work needed to reliably operate our network and defer many of the major modernization projects" that were funded by the infrastructure law.

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: MILES RYAN SATTERWHITE and Miles White (former Abbott Labs CEO and current McDonald’s director; has an engineering degree; went to Culver Military Academy (Miles, Jr.’s dad went to Virginia Military Institute); 

2. AB: 

3. MM: Miles White

4. JS: 

Predictions

1. DR: Ari quits maternity leave early… comes back after Labor day

2. AB: 

3. MM: Ari quits maternity leave early… comes back by National Ice Cream Sandwich Day (August 2nd, a real day)

4. JS: