Live from an ESG-flavored 2025, it’s an all-new Wacky Wednesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today's Costco lovefest called January 8th 2025: Headlines We Missed since the end of December and the new comic book superhero named Costco!Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.DAMION1Shit We Missed (in no particular order):Tech BrosZuckDana White, UFC CEO and Trump ally, to join Meta's board of directorsZuckerberg Announces New Measures to Increase Hate Speech on FacebookMark Zuckerberg's Meta is moving moderators out of California to combat concerns about bias and censorship“Huge problems” with axing fact-checkers, Meta oversight board saysCo-chair Helle Thorning-Schmidt said she is "very concerned" about how parent company Meta's decision to ditch fact-checkers will affect minority groups: "We are seeing many instances where hate speech can lead to real-life harm, so we will be watching that space very carefully," she added.Meta Drops Rules Protecting LGBTQ Community as Part of Content Moderation OverhaulThe changes included allowing users to share “allegations of mental illness or abnormality when based on gender or sexual orientation, given political and religious discourse about transgenderism and homosexuality.”Meta replaces policy chief Nick Clegg with former Republican staffer Joel Kaplan ahead of Trump inaugurationSamSam Altman Explodes at Board Members Who Fired Him"And all those people that I feel like really fucked me and fucked the company were gone, and now I had to clean up their mess," adding that he was "fucking depressed and tired.""And it felt so unfair," the billionaire told Bloomberg. "It was just a crazy thing to have to go through and then have no time to recover, because the house was on fire."The board’s primary fiduciary duty was not to maintain shareholder value or profits, but rather to stay true to OpenAI's mission of creating safe artificial general intelligence (AGI) that benefits humanity.Helen Toner: the director of strategy at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology.Tasha McCauley: an adjunct senior management scientist at think tank RAND Corporation. McCauley was also on the advisory board of the Centre for Effective Altruism. In 2017 she signed the Asilomar AI Principles on ethical AI development alongside Altman, OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, and former board member Elon MuskOpenAI CEO Sam Altman denies sexual abuse allegations made by his sister in lawsuitMuskMaga v Musk: Trump camp divided in bitter fight over immigration policyElon Musk Endorses Nazi-Linked German Party, Even Though It Opposed Tesla’s GigafactoryTech Bro Wealth12 US billionaires gained almost $1 trillion in wealth in 2024 as the stock market delivered another year of massive returnsNYT Report Says Jensen Huang, The CEO Of Nvidia And The 10th-Richest Person In The U.S., Trying To Allegedly Avoid $8 Billion In TaxesMark Zuckerberg says he doesn't have a Hawaiian doomsday bunker, just a 'little shelter.' It's bigger than most houses.You could live next door to Jeff Bezos on 'Billionaire Bunker' island for $200 millionMusk urges Bezos to throw an ‘epic wedding’ after Amazon founder blasts report of $600 million nuptials as ‘completely false’Elon Musk takes aim at MacKenzie Scott again for giving billions to liberal causes, calling the gifts 'concerning'How Jensen Huang and 3 Nvidia Board Members Became BillionairesMark Zuckerberg sported a $900,000 piece of wrist candy as he announced the end of fact-checking on MetaDEI/ESG Flip-FloppingWhen an anti-DEI activist took a swing at Costco, the board hit backA Costco shareholder proposal brought by conservative activist The National Center for Public Policy Research asked the company to probe its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, with an eye toward eliminating them.The thrust of the proposal is that certain DEI initiatives could open Costco up to financial risks over discrimination lawsuits from employees who are “white, Asian, male or straight.”The company’s board of directors unanimously urged shareholders to reject the proposal and made the case that Costco’s success depends on establishing a racially diverse, inclusive workplace: “We believe that our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are legally appropriate, and nothing in the (Center for Public Policy Research) proposal demonstrates otherwise,” the board’s statement said.The statement went on to rebuke the Center for Public Policy Research, saying that they and others were the ones responsible for inflicting financial and legal burdens on companies. “The proponent’s broader agenda is not reducing the risk for the Company but abolition of diversity programs,” the board said.Costco board member defends DEI practices, rebukes companies scrapping policiesJeff Raikes, co-founder of the Raikes ...
