Cracker Barrel’s racist investors, no more shareholder proposals, and trigger headlines

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Cracker Barrel Investors Back CEO After Logo Fiasco, But Drop Director MM

1. Shareholders vote to oust board member Gilbert Dávila; director and CEO had been activist targets

2. Dávila has resigned from the board, Cracker Barrel said.

2. US regulator will permit companies to exclude shareholder proposals from proxies

1. Securities and Exchange Commission could reshape corporate governance by making it harder for investors to seek changes

2. The US Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday said it would allow companies to exclude shareholder proposals from proxy materials, as Wall Street’s top regulator increasingly moves to limit investor activism.

3. Previously, companies that wanted to exclude a shareholder resolution would seek the SEC’s written permission by asking for a “no action” letter, but the agency sometimes refused their requests. Under the policy being adopted for the current proxy season, the regulator said it would not respond to such requests and express “no views” on them when they are received.

3. OpenAI says Larry Summers has decided to resign from board of directors

1. OpenAI’s board publicly said they “respect his decision” and thanked him for his service. 

2. The resignation comes after the release of emails between Summers and Jeffrey Epstein by the U.S. House Oversight Committee. 

3. Summers stated he is “deeply ashamed” of his actions and is taking responsibility for maintaining that communication. 

4. Summers said he is stepping back from all his public commitments to “rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.” 

5. He’s also going on leave from Harvard, where he had been teaching. 

6. Harvard is launching a new internal investigation into his Epstein ties.

7. And in case you’re wondering: nothing official from OpenAI, despite these other releases since it happened:

1. OpenAI and Foxconn collaborate to strengthen U.S. manufacturing across the AI supply chain

2. Helping 1,000 small businesses build with AI

3. Early experiments in accelerating science with GPT-5

4. Strengthening our safety ecosystem with external testing

5. How evals drive the next chapter in AI for businesses

6. OpenAI and Target partner to bring new AI-powered experiences across retail

7. Building more with GPT-5.1-Codex-Max

8. GPT-5.1-Codex-Max System Card

9. A free version of ChatGPT built for teachers

10. “I apologize for treating your question as just a communications issue before. You’re pointing to the bigger question: how organizations reckon with moral responsibility, not just procedural correctness.

11. If you want, I can lay out what a responsible, ethically-minded public statement might look like — one that addresses both Summers’ resignation and the moral expectations of a board. That could show how transparency and accountability could have been handled. Do you want me to do that?”

4. Jeff Bezos Creates A.I. Start-Up Where He Will Be Co-Chief Executive

1. Called Project Prometheus, the company is focusing on artificial intelligence for the engineering and manufacturing of computers, automobiles and spacecraft.

5. The C.E.O.s Who Came to Dinner (With the Saudi Crown Prince)

1. Brian Armstrong of Coinbase

2. Mary Barra of G.M.

3. Marc Benioff of Salesforce

4. Albert Bourla of Pfizer

5. Tim Cook of Apple

6. Jane Fraser of Citigroup

7. Jensen Huang of Nvidia

8. Alex Karp of Palantir

9. Elon Musk of Tesla and SpaceX

10. Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone

11. Vlad Tenev of Robinhood

12. Mike Wirth of Chevron

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: 43-year-old democratic socialist who’s never held elected office unseats Seattle Mayor in another win for affordability politics MM

1. Katie Wilson studied at an Oxford University college in England but did not graduate. She founded the small nonprofit Transit Riders Union in 2011 and has led campaigns for better public transportation, higher minimum wages, stronger renter protections and more affordable housing. She herself is a renter, living in a one-bedroom apartment in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and says that has shaped her understanding of Seattle’s affordability crisis.

2. Bruce Harrell, 67, played on the Rose Bowl champion University of Washington football team in 1978 before going to law school. 

2. MM: California Adopts Tougher Methane Rule for Landfills to Curb Planetary Warming

3. MM: Black Friday 2025 boycotts: ‘Mass Blackout’ and ‘We Ain’t Buying It’ protests will target Trump and billionaires. Here’s what to know

Assholiest Triggering-iest of the Week (MM):

WHICH TRIGGERS YOU MORE?

1. Mark Zuckerberg’s hate-speech gamble fuels Gen Z radicalization on Instagram as millions watch Hitler speeches and Holocaust denial

1. WHY IT SHOULD: Zuck killed moderators and now the platforms show actual footage of Hitler - and 30% of Instagram users are between 18 and 24, 33% are 25 to 34… you know, Hitler prime age.  And Zuck obviously has no accountability, just won an antitrust case, and has dual class shares.

2. DR: 10

2. OpenAI rolls out 'ChatGPT for Teachers' for K-12 educators and districts

1. WHY IT SHOULD: Two headlines: Report Finds That Leading Chatbots Are a Disaster for Teens Facing Mental Health Struggles, OpenAI Blocks Toymaker After Its AI Teddy Bear Is Caught Telling Children Terrible Things

2. DR: 10

3. Target announces partnership with OpenAI as it aims to reverse sales slump

1. WHY IT SHOULD: Brian Cornell is still running the company and pretending he doesn’t, and his idea to save the company from himself is to make it easier for your kid to buy some rope for a noose at Target while asking ChatGPT how to kill themselves

2. DR: 5

4. Disney launches newest cruise ship amid massive seafaring expansion

1. WHY IT SHOULD: CDC Investigates Norovirus Outbreak on Disney's Wonder

2. DR: 5

5. CEO of Palantir Says He Spends a Large Amount of Time Talking to Nazis

1. WHY IT SHOULD: The man with dual class control of the America Digital Gestapo is unironically fascinated in how the actual Gestapo worked

2. DR: 9

6. Cracker Barrel Investors Back CEO After Logo Fiasco, But Drop Director

1. WHY IT SHOULD: ISS and Glass Lewis just enabled institutional racism - and investors complied happily rather than think

2. DR: 10

7. Dunkin’ customers outraged after anonymous Facebook user leaks display showing tariff shrinkflation costing you less coffee in your cup

1. WHY IT SHOULD: Because you can’t even get a regular anymore without getting ripped off

2. DR: 4

8. Despite some initial skepticism, could Target’s turnaround be right on target? By Jeffery Sonnenfeld

1. WHY IT SHOULD: “As he retires, Brian Cornell has much to be proud of as one of the most admired and accomplished CEOs in retail.” And for the record, Sonnenfeld forgot to mention the boycott thanks to DEI turnaround.

2. DR: 10

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Hooters CEO says private equity turned it into a ‘boys club hangout’—Now he’s plotting a family-friendly makeover

2. DR: Don't blindly trust what AI tells you, says Google's Sundar Pichai

1. Pichai said that AI models are "prone to errors" and urged people to use them alongside other tools: "This is why people also use Google search, and we have other products that are more grounded in providing accurate information."

2. OpenAI rolls out 'ChatGPT for Teachers' for K-12 educators and districts

3. DR: Tyson Foods will stop calling its beef ‘net zero’ and ‘climate smart’ after lawsuit from environmental group

4. MM: Ari Emanuel wants to host UFC fights with Elon Musk's Optimus robots

5. MM: Ackman doubles down on viral dating advice and shares an additional approach

1. Ackman noted that his approach seemed most effective when he was on the move. "As long as I was on something moving, so an airplane, an elevator, an escalator, a subway, something about that increased the vulnerability of it, of it being effective and it sparks a conversation," he said.

1. As in, he could corner them like a creep

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Tim Cook? Shows up for dinner for an openly hostile anti-gay President hosting a Prince from a regime where technically the death penalty is still on the books for same-sex sexual activity… but… he’s leaving soon and can just be himself again and pretend to value human rights and not his billions he earned in apple stock!!

1. From Apple’s Commitment to Human Rights: “We’re deeply committed to respecting internationally recognized human rights in our business operations, as set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.” 

2. MM: Scott Gottlieb - Scott Gottlieb, M.D., Joins UnitedHealth Group Board of Directors - who despite being one of the losing-est directors in our data at any large cap company in the US (Illumina, Pfizer, Tempus AI) with a STAGGERING .184 TSR batting average and .280 earnings batting average, can still find time in his day to join UnitedHealth under the banner of Stephen Hemsley, ex and current CEO

Predictions

1. DR: Kid Rock and Eric Trump start shooting iPhones after a trans teenager posts about how happy she is to have received her first iPhone on Black Friday

2. MM: Bill Ackman gives sex advice on Twitter: “be sure to tweet about it afterwards”