Blame game: Amazon’s tariffs, ChatGPT’s personality, Starbucks’ union negotiation, Novavax’s new board member

DAMION1

1. White House blasts Amazon over tariff cost report: ‘Hostile and political act’

1. The White House on Tuesday slammed Amazon  for reportedly planning to display the cost of President Donald Trump’s tariffs next to the total price of products on its site.

2. “This is hostile and political act by Amazon,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. “Why didn’t Amazon do this when the Biden administration hiked inflation to the highest level in 40 years?” Leavitt asked.

3. The Trump administration’s aggressive swipe came in response to a report  that Amazon will soon show consumers how much of an item’s cost comes from tariffs. The amount added as a result of tariffs will be displayed right next to each product’s total listed price, a person familiar with the plan told the news outlet.

4. WHO DO YOU BLAME?

1. CEO Andrew Jassy.

1. He’s the “boss.”

2. Maybe he feels emasculated?

1. Lowest overall batting average (.308)

2. only 6% influence compared to his boss, Jeff Bezos (67%)

3. Not paid like traditional CEOs (relying instead on his $275M in unvested equity) and the $38M that vested last year; so when he’s hanging out with

1. His buddies like Target CEO Brian Cornell ($20M) eBay CEO Jamie Iannone ($22M) have the total summary compensation bragging rights. Not to  mention the sad, unmanly CEO Pay Ratio which is listed as 43:1 for Jassy and 753:1 for the DEI-hating Cornell 

2. Jeffrey Preston Bezos (67%)

1. I mean he’s the actual boss, right?

2. Executive Chair, founder, former CEO, superstar.

3. Hangs out with people like Katy Perry, has a newspaper, sends penis rockets to nowhere, has pretend funds named after himself like the Bezos Earth Fund and the Bezos Day One Fund

3. Board member and former Pepsi CEO Indra Nooyi

1. Or maybe this is a DEI problem? Amazon’s Audit Committee is tasked with stuff like operational risks, and legal and regulatory matters. Indra chairs this committee

2. Indra is also involved with very woke-y/DEI-y:

1. stuff like science (Trustee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)

2. Stuff like math (Member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at MIT’s School of Engineering)

3. Stuff like art (Trustee of the National Gallery of Art)

4. And stuff like giving a shit about people, stakeholder-y capitalism stuff (Director of Partnership for Public Service, whose mission is to inspire a new generation of civil servants and to transform the way government works)

4. Former President Joe Biden

5. Amazon later clarified that the plan to show tariff surcharges was “never approved” and is “not going to happen.” Trump personally called Bezos on Tuesday morning to express his displeasure about the initial report that spurred the heated response from the White House.

2. Trump world's Laura Loomer takes aim at a 'woke' Lockheed Martin and its $2 trillion F-35 program

1. Laura Loomer, the far-right activist who has a direct line to President Donald Trump, criticized Lockheed Martin's F-35 program over the weekend, decrying the US defense giant as "woke" and lashing out against the expensive stealth aircraft.

2. In a lengthy post on X, Loomer suggested Lockheed Martin is delivering F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters that "are simply not ready for combat."

1. "The F-35 program, one of the most expensive weapons programs in history, is plagued by delays, defects, & downright incompetence," she wrote Saturday. She said the US Air Force is accepting jets that lack "functional" radar systems, without offering evidence.

3. She also claimed that Lockheed is "increasingly obsessed with pushing a woke agenda." Like many other US defense contractors, Lockheed scrapped its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in January after Trump returned to the White House.

4. The $2 trillion F-35 program is an appealing target for activists and officials seeking to slash government spending, and it has a well-documented list of problems. The Pentagon's top weapons tester said earlier this year that the program had problems delivering functional software and had fallen behind schedule to test upgraded mission systems.

5. WHO DO YOU BLAME?

1. The 2025 Proxy Statement that mentions “diversity” five times!

1. Of course all five of those instances were in the anti-woke/anti-DEI shareholder proposal introduced by the Bahnsen Family Trust.

2. Not sure how this even made the proxy after Lockheed’s anti-DEI move in January: “As we publicly stated following the issuance of President Trump’s January 2025 Executive Order on DEI, we will not have goals or incentives based on demographic representation or Affirmative Action Plans. We are actively reviewing our workforce-related policies to ensure they are, and remain, compliant and aligned with the Executive Order and all related applicable legal precedent.”

2. The three-headed white guy leadership group (53% influence)

1. CEO/Chair James Taiclet (25%): $24M in pay

2. Lead Independent Director and Nominating Committee chair Thomas J. Falk (13%)

1. “Independent” since 2010

3. David Burritt (15%)

1. Longest-tenured director (2008-)

2. Busy beaver: two committees (Audit and Pay); CEO of US. Steel

3. Since this is a woke/DEI issue: the black guy:

1. Nevermind, there are no black people on this board

4. A woman? It would have to be Debra Reed-Klages (17%)

1. While she has no leadership roles she does sit on the board of Caterpillar, which also removed its DEI policies. What, what?

5. Investors. They should have been holding Lockheed accountable, right?

1. According to MSCI data, average support since 2015 is 95%; no director has even received less than 92% since 2017

2. Say on Pay support is routinely over 90%

3. Starbucks union rejects company's recent offer of at least 2% annual pay raise

1. Starbucks union delegates involved in contract bargaining voted to reject the coffee chain's latest proposal that guaranteed annual raises of at least 2%, Workers United said. Out of the 490 baristas representing the company's more than 550 unionized U.S. stores, 81% rejected the proposal, which did not offer any changes to economic benefits such as healthcare or any immediate pay hike.

2. WHO DO YOU BLAME?

1. The union, for being greedy.

1. The company pays its baristas about $19 an hour on average currently. That’s $39,520 before taxes. A 2% raise would result in an increase of $790.40!

2. Investors

1. Average director support of 96% over past 2 years

2. Even 86% support for new CEO Brian Niccol’s $96M, including $5M in funny munny cash

3. And a devilishly perverse CEO pay ratio of 6,666 to 1.

4. Not to mention Use of Starbucks aircraft for travel between city of primary residence and Starbucks headquarters AND up to $250,000 in personal non-commuting travel per year

3. Which brings us to the CEO, Brian Niccol, a guy so wonderful that they scrapped the independent chair nonsense and gave him both titles: CEO and Chair

4. Lead Independent Director and Nominating Committee chair Jørgen Vig Knudstorp

1. Averaged over 10% votes against over the past 3 AGMs: which is essentially an investor revolution

2. His favorite drink–the Caramel Macchiato–is 250 calories with 33g of sugar: the American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than 25 grams per day

MATT1

1. Novavax appoints Charles Newton to board of directors

1. Chuck Newton has a background from BofA Merrill, Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, and Lehman as an investment banker, and is now CFO at a pharma company.  He got his education in business administration and “arts”.

2. Who do we blame for the appointment of Chucky?

1. John Jacobs, CEO and highest influence on the board at 23%

2. New board chair and nom committee chair Margaret McGlynn, who will inherit retiring director James Young’s 16% influence to become the most influential person on the board?

3. Too much science?

1. Actual knowledge of pharmaceutical science - Young’s retirement means there are only 2 actual scientists left on the board of the 9 members - 6 have finance backgrounds, and 1 is a lawyer.

4. DEI - while Novavax’s SEC disclosure says that the 9 person board has 1 male with 2 or more races and 2 women, they actually didn’t feel white ENOUGH so they added Charles Newton to have a 100% white board (because black people don’t even get malaria, COVID, or flu)

1. They actually claim to have 10 board members when they really have 9

5. Investors - who actually hate this board and can’t possibly like it more now?

1. Classified board, last year the new board chair (promotion!) got 52% votes for, the PhD got 58% for, and the guy from the family foundation got 53% for - and yes, exactly 35% of the shares are owned by State Street, Vanguard, BlackRock, and Shah Capital

2. Sam Altman says OpenAI will fix ChatGPT’s ‘annoying’ new personality as users complain the bot is sucking up to them

1. “ChatGPT’s new personality is so positive it’s verging on sycophantic—and it’s putting people off.”

2. Who do we blame for AI being a big fat suckup?

1. Sam Altman, for being a big fat Trump suckup

2. Sam Altman, for having an insipid tech bro personality desperately seeking the fame and attention of the earth

3. Sam Altman, for firing his non-suckup board members

4. Sam Altman, for putting himself on the board and surrounding himself with board suckups