Boys v. women, geothermal love, asexual fried chicken

Written By Matt Moscardi
Boys v. women, geothermal love, asexual fried chicken
Free Float Media


Story of the Week (DR):

  1. AI Companies ‘Gaming Out’ Scenarios for ‘Catastrophic AI Event’ That Could Occur in a Matter of Months

    1. Retail giant Ahold Delhaize takes systems offline after cyberattack

    2. Hackers Break Into Supermarket Fridges and Spoil All the Groceries

    3. EU Commissioner on Cyber Attack on French Supermarkets: Food Weaponization Now a 'Reality'

    4. Anthropic Warns “AI Worms” Will Infect Your Smart Home Devices and Use Them to Self-Replicate Beyond Control


  1. Boys vs. Women MM DR

    1. Full-on attacks

      1. Trump establishes committee to investigate Fed governor Lisa Cook

      2. Ilhan Omar’s Home Raided by DHS Following Trump-GOP Deportation Threats

        1. Trump and other Republicans have called for Omar to be stripped of her citizenship and deported for years.

        2. Elon Musk—Powerful Critic Of Illegal Immigrants—Worked Illegally In U.S. At Start Of Career, Report Says

      3. Bessent mocks Sen Warren, wishes her 'Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day' in response to letter

      4. Trump Delivers Brutal Parting Diss to Kimberly Guilfoyle: “No, she wasn’t a member of my family. She, I guess, dated my son a long time ago,”

        1. Trump Pardons at Least 85 Officials Tied to Corruption Cases With MAGA Allies Reaping Most of the Mercy: Most recipients were Republicans or vocal Trump supporters, while the clemency reduced prison time, financial penalties or legal consequences for dozens of officials

      5. Trump Calls Letitia James a 'Disgusting Dog' After She Takes Over the Cornell Rape Case

        1. Cornell president acknowledges he knew about fraternity sexual assault but didn’t follow up

          1. Cornell’s Powerful Board Meets as It Fights to Protect Its Reputation: The president argued this week that replacing him would be a mistake.

            1. Primary trustees: 38% women/full roster (including 3 named deputies): 39% women

            2. Breakdown by profession

              1. Business, Finance & Private Enterprise: 39 (64%)

                1. Finance, VC, Hedge Funds & Private Equity: 16 (26.2%)

                  1. Todd C. Builione (KKR), Bobby Jain (Jain Global), Beckie Robertson (Versant Ventures), Howard P. Milstein (NY Private Bank & Trust), Susan C. Schnabel (aXiomatic)

                2. Corporate Leadership & Industry Executives : 10 (16.4%)

                  1. Angela Hwang (ex-Pfizer), Rick Schlesinger (Milwaukee Brewers), Robert W. Selander (ex-Mastercard), Amane A. Nakashima (Kewpie Corp), Timothy M. Barry (Agilon Health)

                3. Real Estate & Development: 5 (8.2%)

                  1. Douglas F. Eisenberg (A&E Real Estate), Paul D. Rubacha (Ashley Capital), Stephen T. Mong (Orien Capital), Enrique J. Vila-Biaggi (Urban-Ona)

                4. Consulting & Professional Services: 4 (6.6%)

                  1. Eric Adam Kutcher (CFO, McKinsey & Co), Jennifer L. Davis (Partner, Bain & Co), Hernán J.F. Saenz III (Global Head, Bain & Co)

                5. Technology, Science & Media: 4 (6.6%)

              2. Law & Legal Practice: 7 (12%)

                1. Stephen C. Robinson (Skadden; former U.S. District Judge), Eric Gonzalez (Brooklyn D.A.), Kevin P.B. Johnson (Quinn Emanuel), Martin F. Scheinman (Scheinman Arbitration)

              3. Campus & Academic Community: 6 (10%)

                1. Academia & Higher Ed Administration: 3 (4.9%)

                2. Campus Constituencies (Students & Staff): 3 (4.9%)

              4. Government, Public Policy & Labor: 5 (8%)

                1. Government & Public Officials (Ex-Officio): 3 (4.9%)

                2. Labor & Organized Workforce: 2 (3.3%)

              5. Philanthropy & Civic Leadership: 4 (6.6%)

          2. Where’s Bill Ackman??

    2. Employment/Pay

      1. Women fall through the cracks at work, especially on boards, report says

      2. There’s Even a Pay Gap Between Male and Female AI Agents

      3. ‘If you take your foot off the pedal at all, you will start to stall’: Women in C-suite roles have stagnated, and the reasons go beyond the pipeline

      4. Fear of being ‘too much’ silences women leaders. Here’s how to ask anyway

        1. Palmer Luckey says that executions should be 'public and brutal'


  1. Secret documents reveal donors behind $330 million for Trump’s ballroom: The records offer a panoramic view of a fundraising campaign that is extraordinary for its size and opacity.

    1. Money source

      1. Direct corporate / corporate-entity: $189M (62%)

        1. 100% male-associated: i.e., Nvidia (Jensen Huang) & Meta (Zuck)

      2. Business-derived personal / family wealth: $102M (33%)

        1. 83% men: i.e., Charles Ergen (Dish Network) & Stephen Schwarzman (Blackstone)

          1. 2 women are Miriam Adelson (widow of Sheldon/Las Vegas Sands) & Isabela Herrera (member of an eighth generation of international bankers)

      3. Investment / financial vehicles: $15M (5%)

        1. 100% male-associated: i.e., BlackRock Charitable Fund & Paul Singer Fund

    2. Elon Musk becomes biggest donor of US midterms cycle with $366m spent

      1. MacKenzie Scott alone accounted for one-third of America’s $19.2 billion in megagifts last year

    3. DealBook Summit Lineup

      1. Mainstage Interviews: Gender (21% women); Race (75% white / 17% South Asian / 8% Multiracial & Latina)

        1. Including J.D. Vance, Sam Altman, Greg Brockman, Shayne Coplan (Polymarket), David Ellison, Palmer Luckey (Anduril Industries), Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, Vlad Tenev (Robinhood)

        2. One of the 3 women is beauty brand executive Haley Bieber, who is Justin Bieber’s wife and Alec Baldwin’s niece

      2. Groundbreakers: Gender (21% women); Race (83% white / 14% Black / 3% Middle Eastern)

      3. Task Forces

        1. Task Forces — On Elections: Gender (67% women); Race (50% white / 33% Black / 17% Middle Eastern)

        2. Task Forces — On Work and Purpose: Gender (50% women); Race (50% white / 50% Black)

        3. Task Forces — On A.I. and A.G.I.: Gender (17% women); Race (67% white / 17% South Asian / 17% Middle Eastern)

        4. Task Forces — On Healthcare: Gender (33% women); Race (67% white / 33% South Asian)

      4. Moderators: Gender (60% women); Race (80% white / 20% Latina)


Story of the Week (MM):

  1. Everything for purchase

    1. Leaked List Reveals Apple, Nvidia, and Other Corporate Giants' $333M Pledge for Trump's Ballroom

    2. Elon Musk's $366M US Midterm Spending Spree Dwarfs His 2024 Donations to Trump

    3. Elon Musk Settles Lawsuit Over $1M Voter Giveaway After Lawyers Admit Winners Weren't Chosen Randomly

    4. Meta Has Paid Far Right Accounts for Their Posts Ahead of the Midterms

      1. Ahead of the midterms, Meta has paid at least 29 anti-LGBTQ accounts for their posts

    5. SEC Clears Way for Speedy Actions by Reducing Its Quorum Requirement

    6. The GOP billionaire behind the biggest political gift in U.S. history could be sued for allegedly fueling a Chicago rat infestation

      1. Barre Seid, the 94-year-old industrialist has his workers “scatter nuts” in Lincoln Park for squirrels - but it attracted pigeons and rats and created massive buildup of food garbage and a rat infestation - he ignored citations, abatements, demands to stop, tickets - and the city will have to pay to kill the rats because a senile billionaire likes squirrels

  2. Trust nothing

    1. Woke

      1. Cleantech

        1. US clean energy jobs fell in 2025 for the first time in years

        2. Clean Energy Is Poised to Set New Records in the US

    2. Bros

      1. Marissa Mayer: Anyone who says they know how AI will play out is ‘either lying or arrogant or both’

      2. Meta Glasses Said to Be Recording Even When They’re in Sleep Mode

      3. The world reacts to Elon Musk’s flying car

      4. Elon Musk says SpaceX will pay back anyone whose Grok AI agent makes a rogue purchase

      5. Men More Likely to Bluff About AI Knowledge; 53% Say They Recognize Fictitious Execs, Harvard Study Finds

    3. China

      1. OpenAI

        1. OpenAI's CFO warned businesses that Chinese AI models pose cybersecurity risks

        2. OpenAI Sued for Allegedly Building Models Out of Children’s “Fears, Hopes, and Secrets”


Assholiest of the Week (MM/DR):

  1. DR: Chick-fil-A CEO fails to answer what the chain’s ‘official position’ is on LGBTQ+ rights

    1. “The company’s official position on equal rights is?” DR MM

      1. CEO Andrew Cathy simply said that the brand is “focused on hospitality” and “serving great-tasting food and great service.”

  2. MM: Indonesia gets 'wake-up call' as MSCI prepares to expel it from global indexes

    1. MSCI wanted:

      1. enhanced disclosure of shareholders with ownership above 1% and High Shareholding Concentration (HSC) reporting

        1. Meanwhile, Spotify is on index as of 2024 without enhanced disclosure and a  69% voting rights duo in Ek and Lorentzon

        2. dual class dictatorships are the NORM in the US - 25% of companies are Totalitarian

      2. a roadmap towards a minimum free float requirement of 15%

        1. Meanwhile, MSCI confirms early index inclusion rules ahead of SpaceX IPO: SpaceX float was 5%

      3. checking the affiliation of shareholders with ownership of less than 5%

        1. Meanwhile, there are hundreds of US companies with shareholder affiliations and ownership of less than 5% - check the boardroom, where board directors are highly interconnected, own less than 5% 

    2. I’m not saying Indonesia doesn’t deserve it, but can we stop pretending with the market moralizing and get rid of dual class bullshit?


Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

  1. DR: Walmart US workers are getting some new health care benefits in the new year DR

    1. More than 250 prescription medications at no cost, including certain insulin products, inhalers and expensive drugs for conditions such as hemophilia and multiple sclerosis. 

    2. Coverage for certain GLP-1 medications

    3. Up to 12 weeks of paid neonatal intensive care (NICU) leave: can be combined with existing maternity and parental leave, allowing some frontline workers to receive up to 28 weeks of paid leave in total. 

  2. MM: Geothermal finds rare political sweet spot amid AI boom

    1. Ormat Technologies

      1. Democratic board!  Rare!

      2. Increasingly connected, low merit, highly similar, deferential… boo

      3. 3 of 8 women!

      4. Good tenure mix, high earnings batters

    2. Fervo Energy (recent IPO)

      1. No proxy filed yet, 3 of 7 women

      2. Dual class 40x b shares - boo


Blowhardiest of the Week (MM/DR):

  1. DR: BlackRock's Larry Fink warned a data center moratorium could trigger a recession

  2. MM: An AI CEO is calling out the people who bash AI but can't stop using it

    1. Ditto - also Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Netflix, Disney, Paramount, Peacock, Tesla, Spotify… shall I go on?

    2. Too bad it was Verb CEO Cyrus Beschloss and not someone anyone has heard of - he actually GRADUATED FROM A COLLEGE (degree in History!) and even got a MASTERS DEGREE IN NOT BUSINESS (Journalism!)

Headliniest of the Week

  1. DR: AI is less regulated than milk, says Microsoft president

  2. MM: Hacker Claims Password '123456' Enabled Access to Denmark's National Registry, Affecting 8.8M People

  3. MM: 

    1. Dementia Expected To Double Worldwide By 2050

    2. Older investors considerably less likely to consider ESG when investing

Who Won the Week?

  1. DR: Wendy Wales and Tony Lonergan, retired schoolteachers from Muswellbrook, Australia: Australia's High Court ruled in favor of the retirees, effectively halting a massive expansion project at the Mount Pleasant coal mine in the New South Wales (NSW) Hunter Valley because The Independent Planning Commission of NSW failed to consider conditions to minimise scope 3 emissions (representing 98% of the project’s projected emissions) when it approved the mine’s expansion

  2. MM: 17% of US waterways: Report Finds “Forever Chemicals” Pollute 83 Percent of 1,602 US Waterways Tested, specifically 27 Park Ave stream in Portland ME where NO PFAS were detected!  Damion, go have a drink!

Predictions

  1. DR: As the world gets Muskier & Zuckier, Dementia becomes the goal and not something to be avoided

  2. MM: By 2028, there will be a bottle water brand called Park Ave Gutter Stream imported from Portland ME that I will buy


Matt Moscardi
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