The WWEification of the US, Capital One’s keeping the interest, and DEI “wins” at Apple

Introduction

LIVE from your ESG ear wax removal kit, it’s a Business Pants Friday Show here at February 28th Studios, featuring AnalystHole Matt Moscardi. On today’s weekly wrap up: CEOs continuing to heart 2025, Apple’s Siri is finally useful, America’s sprint towards a corporate idiocracy, and tech bros say the darndest things

Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.

Story of the Week (DR):

1. The week the world noticed a SHP: Apple's DEI program will live on following failed shareholder vote

1. Apple isn't jumping on the anti-DEI bandwagon

2. Apple shareholders snub Trump’s anti-DEI push, rejecting a proposal to scrap diversity programs

3. Apple boss says its DEI programmes may change

4. Trump asks Apple to drop diversity policies after stockholders back pro-DEI stance

1. "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM. DEI WAS A HOAX THAT HAS BEEN VERY BAD FOR OUR COUNTRY. DEI IS GONE!!!" Trump wrote in a Wednesday post on Truth Social.

2. Speaking of hoaxes: CEO Devin Nunes Made $47 Million While Truth Social Parent Company Reported $401 Million In Losses In 2024

2. CEOs continue to win: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Trump-appointed leadership–re: Elon Musk– plans to fire nearly all its 1,700 employees while “winding down” the agency, according to testimony from employees. DR

1. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) is an independent agency of the United States government responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector. CFPB's jurisdiction includes banks, credit unions, securities firms, payday lenders, mortgage-servicing operations, foreclosure relief services, debt collectors, for-profit colleges, and other financial companies operating in the United States.

3. The end of non-woke oversight

1. CFPB Drops Lawsuit Against Capital One Bank That Accused It of Tricking Customers

1. Capital One’s largest customer segment is aged 45-64 (41%), and 65+ (32%)

2. S.E.C. Declares Memecoins Are Not Subject to Oversight

3. CFPB drops Capital One lawsuit and other cases launched under Biden

4. SEC drops investigation into Uniswap Labs causing UNI to surge 5%

5. SEC Drops TRON And Robinhood Investigation, Signaling Regulatory Shift

6. SEC has closed its investigation into Gemini, says Winklevoss

4. And another win for the oligarchy: Jeff Bezos Announces That Washington Post Opinions Will Now Exclusively Celebrate the Glories of Capitalism

1.  An email from Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos to the newspaper's staff is now saying the quiet part out loud: the newspaper will no longer tolerate opinions its billionaire backer disproves of: 

2. "I'm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages… We are going to be writing every day in support of defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets…Viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others…There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.”

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: Boycott Amazon, Walmart and others for a day, group says: What to know about Economic Blackout Day

1. Peoples Union USA wants people to forgo fast food, skip Amazon, and keep their wallets closed on Feb. 28

2. DR: iPhone users spot bug that types 'Trump' instead of 'racist'

3. MM: Vietnam triples its clean energy goals, aims to get 16% of its power from solar DR MM

4. MM: Fyre Festival II has no lineup, no location, and no actual date — but mastermind Billy McFarland insists it's still happening

1. Trump Administration Fraud Tradition - last one was April/May 2017!

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1. WWE / UFC

1. Long history of middle school men being stupid and heinous

1. Gay/LGBTQ+ jokes

2. Deep misogyny

3. CEO dual class owner with sexual predatory history

4. Wife who quietly goes on to be in government

2. FBI Director Kash Patel wants the UFC to train agents

1. Dana White on Meta board

2. Stefan Padfield, white male executive director at National Center for Public Policy who was an immigrant who was lucky enough not to get sent to a Guantanamo Bay detention center DR

1. NCPP filed a shareholder proposal at Apple to “cease DEI”

2. Apple investors block push to drop DEI

3. “The vibe shift is clear: DEI is out and merit is in,” Padfield added.

1. Top 10 investors own 31% of Apple

2. 13G filers who side with management on everything - Vanguard and BLK - own 16.8%, more than half the top 10

3. Of the rest, 2 are EU - Norges votes AGAINST management routinely, still said no to this

4. All have stewardship teams, some of whom we know, that don’t vote with ISS/GL directly, have engaged and vote their own policies… 

5. Long way of saying Padfield needs to shut the fuck up, since he has no actual data or knowledge, just trying to spin the narrative that “the bad guys won because they have all the power” - they don’t, dumbass, you just suck and so does proxy voting

4. In fact, the Apple DEI vote got 37% fewer votes than the average vote against directors - and investors basically never vote against directors

5. You were so bad, you couldn’t even get more votes than the casual indifference to who’s a director

3. Jeff Bezos and the race against Musk and Zuck to be the worst

1. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two pillars: personal liberties and free markets. We’ll cover other topics too of course, but viewpoints opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others.

2. There was a time when a newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader’s doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does that job.

3. I’m confident that free markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved in the current market of ideas and news opinion.

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Meta says it fixed 'error' after Instagram users report a flood of graphic and violent content

2. MM: Sam Altman says OpenAI's new ChatGPT-4.5 is a more emotionally intelligent model but warns that it's 'expensive' to train and run

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: grifters, hustlers, con artists, con men, scammers… fraud in general

2. MM: Ron Sugar, who’s 94.4% vote FOR at Apple proves truly no one cares about having an age rule

Predictions

1. DR: Trump’s new Department of UFC or FBI or DOGE or whatever it’s called performs a Mandible Claw on Senator Elizabeth Warren

1. WWE wrestler Mankind’s finishing move: The opponent would be staggering around all dazed – not enough to fall to the ground, mind you— and Mankind would see his opportunity: he would reach into his underpants, and he would pull out a sock WITH A FACE ON IT, called Mr Socko. He would put it on his hand, and he would stick his hand in the other guy’s mouth.

2. MM: The voting against director movement takes off this proxy season