Musk is a fake, Boeing’s sweet deal, Tesla investors like fraud, UHG’s vote, and penguin poop

Story of the Week (DR):

1. Boeing strikes $1.1 billion deal with Justice Department over deadly 737 Max crashes—and must pay $445 million to victims’ families

1. Boeing will avoid a felony conviction by agreeing to pay over $1.1 billion, which includes a $243.6 million fine, $444.5 million to victims' families, and more than $455 million to enhance compliance, safety, and quality systems.

2. The families were informed nearly a week after the DOJ said it had struck a tentative deal with Boeing that allows the company to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading regulators about the company’s 737 Max plane before two crashes that killed 346 people.

2. Market Basket CEO Arthur T Demoulas placed on administrative leave by board of directors

1. Demoulas has been placed on paid administrative leave by the company's board of directors, along with two of his children and several other executives.

2. The board initiated an internal investigation into Demoulas' conduct, citing concerns over transparency and succession planning. Specifically, the board expressed frustration over limited access to critical company information, including budgets and plans for leadership succession, and alleged that Demoulas was planning a work stoppage. 

3. Demoulas has responded through a spokesperson, claiming he was "ousted" in what he describes as a "farcical cover for a hostile takeover." This situation echoes a similar family dispute in 2014, which led to widespread employee protests and customer boycotts in support of Demoulas. The current conflict raises questions about the company's leadership and future direction amid ongoing supermarket industry consolidation

1. In June 2014, CEO Arthur T. Demoulas was ousted by a board controlled by his cousin, Arthur S. Demoulas, amidst longstanding family disputes over company control.

4. Customer: “If the employees think another walkout makes sense, then I'd support them. Basket ‘til the casket.

5. Market Basket, a regional supermarket chain in New England, generates an estimated $7.3 billion in revenue. The company employs approximately 25,000 people. The revenue projection is roughly double what it was in 2014.

6. Market Basket director: CEO Demoulas took company 'hostage'

3. The Fake Elon government exit: A Disillusioned Musk, Distanced From Trump, Says He’s Exiting Washington MM

1. Per 18 U.S.C. § 202 (a), a Special Government Employees (SGE) is “an officer or employee . . . who is appointed to perform temporary duties, with or without compensation, for a period not to exceed 130 days during any period of 365 consecutive days.”

2. Elon Musk says he doesn't "entirely agree" with Trump administration, explains why he feels "stuck in a bind"

1. "But it's difficult for me to bring that up in an interview because then it creates a bone of contention," he said. "I'm a little stuck in a bind, where I'm like, well, I don't wanna, you know, speak up against the administration, but I … also don't wanna take responsibility for everything the administration's doing. So I'm, like, kinda stuck, you know?"

3. Deepfake Elon

1. False Start

1. August 2006: “[Our] long term plan is to build a wide range of models, including affordably priced family cars … When someone buys the Tesla Roadster,” he added, “they are actually helping pay for development of the low-cost family car.”

2. 2016: Musk reiterated that, even though Tesla had not yet delivered on the 2006 promise, it still planned to build an “affordable, high-volume car.”

3. January 2025: Musk said that—finally—Tesla would start producing the affordable model in the second half of 2025.

4. April 2025: Reuters reported that Tesla had scrapped plans for the cheap family car. Musk posted on X that “Reuters is lying (again),” eliciting the Reuters response that “[Musk] did not identify any specific inaccuracies.” A Tesla source told Reuters that instead of the long-promised cheap family car, “Elon’s directive is to go all in on robotaxi.”

2. Hyperloop Hype

1. August 2013:  “A new open source form of transportation that could revolutionize travel.”

2. The Hyperloop was shuttered in 2023—but even as late as 2022, Musk was still promising that Hyperloop could go from Boston to New York City “in less than half an hour.”

3. Driverless Pioneering

1. September 2013: “We should be able to do 90 percent of miles driven [autonomously] within three years.”

4. Full Autonomous Driving

1. October 2015: “Tesla will have a car that can do full autonomy in about three years.”

2. December 2015: “We’re going to end up with complete autonomy … and I think we will have complete autonomy in approximately two years.”

3. January 2016: “I think that within two years you’ll be able to summon your car from across the country.”.

4. June 2016: “I consider autonomous driving to be a basically solved problem … We’re less than two years away from complete autonomy.”

5. November 2018: “I think we’ll get to full self-driving next year.”

5. Autonomous Charging

1. October 2016: “we’ll be able to do a demonstration drive of full autonomy all the way from LA to New York—from home in LA to let’s say dropping you off in Time Square in New York, and then having the car go park itself—by the end of next year … without the need for a single touch, including the charger.”

2. In April 2017: “I think we’re still on track for being able to go cross-country from LA to New York by the end of the year, fully autonomous … Just software limited.”

6. Boring

1. April 2017: The Boring Company was supposed to deliver an underground maze of tunnels where passengers could travel in autonomous vehicles at 150 miles per hour.

2. The goal was to build one mile of tunnel per week: “Finally, finally, finally, there is something that I think can solve the goddamn traffic problem.”

3. So far: the 1.7-mile LVCC Loop in Las Vegas: currently takes paying passengers between three stations in chauffeur-driven Model Y Tesla cars which slow to just 15 miles per hour when the tunnels get congested.

7. Brain Chips

1. August 2017: First product would be on the market “in about four years.”

2. In 2024: the first human trial subject receives a Neuralink implant (though some researchers show frustration over a lack of information about the study.)

8. Special Delivery

1. November 2018: “Probably technically be able to [self-deliver Teslas to customers’ doors] in about a year.”

9. FSD Finally?

1. January 2019: “When do we think it is safe for full self driving?” asks Musk on a Q4 earnings call. “Probably towards the end of this year.”

2. Feb 2019: “We will feature complete [with] full self-driving this year … The car will be able to … take you all the way to your destination without an intervention this year. I’m certain of that. That is not a question mark.”

3. January 2021, on an earnings call: “I’m highly confident the car will drive itself for the reliability in excess of a human this year. This is a very big deal.”

4. December 2021: “It’s looking quite likely that it will be next year,” he says.

5. May 2023: “I mean, it does look like [full autonomy is] gonna happen this year.”

10. One Million Robotaxis

1. April 2019: “We expect to have the first operating robot taxi next year with no one in them … Next year for sure, we’ll have over a million robotaxis on the road.”

2. April 2025 earnings call: Musk says that Tesla will unveil its robotaxi service in Austin, Texas, next month, with up to 20 Model Y vehicles supervised remotely

11. Level Five Is Alive

1. July 2020: “I’m extremely confident that level 5–or essentially complete autonomy–will happen … this year … There are no fundamental challenges remaining,” he stated.

2. December 2020: “I’m extremely confident that Tesla will have level 5 next year,” Musk tells Mathias Döpfner, the CEO of Business Insider’s parent company, Axel Springer SE. How confident? “100 percent,” replies Musk

1. Musk also tells Döpfner that a human will possibly step onto Mars by 2024.

3. April 2025 earnings call: “We’ll start to see the prosperity of autonomy take effect in a material way around the middle of next year … There will be millions of Teslas operating autonomously, fully autonomously in the second half of next year.”

12. March 2025: Babysitting Robot Army

1. 2021: “hopefully” Tesla will be able to make about 5,000 Optimus robots this year. Musk then claimed Tesla would make “probably 50,000-ish [Optimus robots] next year.”

2. Optimus “will be the biggest product of all time by far—nothing will even be close. It’ll be 10 times bigger than the next biggest product ever made. Ultimately, I think we’ll be making tens of millions of robots a year.” Mere seconds later: “Tesla would actually make “maybe 100 million robots a year.”

3. April 2025: he told investors that production could be impacted by the restrictions on rare-earth metal exports China implemented in response to President Trump’s tariffs. There’s no date yet for the launch of Optimus.

4. ESG inventor says Trump its 'best possible advert'

1. Paul Clements-Hunt, credited with coining the term "ESG", views Trump's opposition to ESG investing as inadvertently beneficial for the movement.

2. Clements-Hunt argues that Trump's criticisms have heightened public awareness and discourse around ESG principles, effectively serving as a "best possible advert" for ESG by bringing it into mainstream conversations.

3. He suggests that the backlash has prompted companies and investors to more rigorously define and implement ESG strategies, moving beyond superficial commitments

5. 2025 U.S. Proxy Season: Midseason Review Finds Sharp Drop in Shareholder Resolutions on Ballot

Goodliest of the Week (MM/DR):

1. DR: Penguin Poop: The Latest Tool to Fight Climate Change DR

1. Penguin guano releases high concentrations of ammonia, which reacts with sulfur compounds in the atmosphere to form aerosols. These aerosols facilitate cloud formation, potentially cooling the Earth's surface and preserving Antarctic ice.

2. MM: State Comptroller votes to prioritize fiduciary duty for proxy voting

1. State Comptroller Elise Nieshalla, Indiana Deferred Compensation Committee

2. The new policy, Bowyer Research Proxy Voting Guidelines , provides a voting framework solely focused on shareholder value.

3. Live case study in whether Bowyer votes against directors!  Remember when Strive said they voted anti-woke, and really they just voted against women?  Now we’ll find out if Bowyer uses Free Float data secretly or if they just vote against brown people

3. MM: Volkswagen executives get prison time in 'Dieselgate' scandal

Assholiest of the Week (MM):

1.  Tesla investors demand Musk work 40-hour week at EV maker as 'crisis' builds

1. Jack Dorsey, Twitter's Eccentric CEO, Could Be Looking For A Job Soon

2. Elliott is concerned that Dorsey hasn't focused enough on Twitter, because he is also chief executive of payments company Square. The hedge fund is pushing for a CEO whose sole job is running Twitter.

2. CEOs

1. Wells Fargo's Scharf Says CEOs Are Worried

1. CEO pay rose nearly 10% in 2024 as stock prices and profits soared

1. More money!

2. Activist Investor Accuses Penn CEO Of Using Company Jet As 'Personal Uber,' Citing Losses And Barstool Debacle

1. Perks!

3. Anthropic CEO warns AI could eliminate half of all entry-level white-collar jobs

1. Even more money!

4. CEO Jensen Huang to Sell $800 Million of Nvidia Stock

1. Even more more money!

3. UnitedHealth Group faces lawsuit claiming it used ex-employees’ 401(k) funds to defray its own costs DR

1. The vote on the board is Monday

2. The company offered the Executive Chair and former CEO Stephen Hemsley $60m in non-performance based options at the near nadir of the stock price, vesting in 3 years, that we estimate will equal roughly $170m in value if the stock price returns to where it was just 6 months ago

1. He is the highest influence director even BEFORE Witty quit in disgrace - he’s likely to have as much as 40% influence when we remove Witty

3. The company is under investigation for defrauding Medicare, they had an executive assassinated, they have effectively denied coverage for thousands of customers, and now they were stealing from their own employees… and you can vote them out

4. Half brained idea:

1. James G. Davis, Jr. Announces Retirement from American Woodmark Board of Directors

2. He’s 65 years old, been there for 23 years, decides to step down

3. How about this - make boards a LIFETIME position, no votes

1. Wouldn’t investors actually pay attention if every director was “elected” just ONCE?  They could be like the supreme court and serve until they die or retire

Headliniest of the Week

1. DR: Musk’s SpaceX town in Texas warns residents they may lose right to ‘continue using’ their property

2. DR: 9 of the most out there things Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei just said about AI

1. On when he thinks the world will see the first billion-dollar company with one employee.

1. “2026”

3. MM: Nearly Half of Young People Wish the Internet Had Never Been Invented

Who Won the Week?

1. DR: Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg: DOJ looks the other way a week after Boeing secured a record-breaking $96 billion order from Qatar Airways during Donald Trump's trip.

2. MM: Grok: Marjorie Taylor Greene beefs with Elon Musk's AI chatbot: 'The judgement seat belongs to GOD'

Predictions

1. DR: RFK Jr. discovers Trump Poop is more effective than 93% of the American Federation of Teachers union

MM: Vince McMahon sex trafficking case co-defendant John Laurinaitis agrees to help accuser - 100% chance he’s pardoned.  ONE. HUNDRED.