BIZ NUGGETS: ISS’s gender/race pivot, plastic straws, Disney’s DEI backpeddle, and WFH with a helicopter

Live from a stack of DEI-hating lead independent directors dipped in milk chocolate, it’s an all-new Whacky Wednesday edition of Business Pants. Joined by Analyst-Hole Matt Moscardi! On today's Twizzler-shaped proxy voting policy called February 12th 2025: Biz Nuggets!Our show today is being sponsored by Free Float Analytics, the only platform measuring board power, connections, and performance for FREE.DAMION1DEIIn our 'Hey Ma, Civil Rights Hurts My Back! And Equal Rights Gave Me a Stomach Ache!I quit! Tell Dad!' headline of the week. Diversity Is No Longer a Factor for Assessing US Boards, Proxy Adviser ISS Says*************** In our 'White Men Have Scarier Lawyers' headline of the week. Goldman Sachs ends IPO diversity policy citing legal developments*************** In our 'Are they Atrophied and Unprepared enough to Ignore this Study?' headline of the week. Microsoft Study Finds AI Makes Human Cognition “Atrophied and Unprepared”*************** In our 'ISS Borrows "Mission Accomplished" banner from George W. Bush' headline of the week. Proxy Advisory Firm ISS Removes DEI Factors from Voting Recommendations for U.S. Boards*************** In our 'The Dilemma Is Do We Actually Give a Shit or Were We Merely Pretending to Give a Shit?' headline of the week. There is a DEI dilemma taking place across Corporate America*************** MeritocracyIn our 'The Meritocracy is Plastic' headline of the week. In a move to ‘Back to plastic,’ Trump bans paper straws*************** In our 'The Meritocracy Is Super Duper Confusing, says a College Dropout Dude' headline of the week. Mark Zuckerberg warned employees to prepare for an ‘intense year.’ He just laid off 3,600 workers—including some who claim they got glowing reviews*************** MATT1In our 'ISS added, "we also feel that voting recommendations on the basis of performance, skills, knowledge, fit, usefulness, age, height, ability to tie shoes, or familiarity with modern technology are unneccesary and potentially discriminatory against 85 year old Uncle Gary and will no longer be a part of our assessment."' headline of the week. ISS drops race, gender from U.S. proxy votingIn our 'ISS added, "future assessments will no longer refer to predators, as that is disrespectful to the predators from the movie series Predator."' headline of the week. Macy's calls Diddy 'an equal opportunity sexual predator' in bid to be dropped from sexual assault lawsuitIn our 'ISS added, "our policy has also changed to ignore legal cases in favor of diversity as material, as we feel someone might disagree with a law and that would be awkward for our clients."' headline of the week. Companies like Costco have a strong legal case for keeping DEIIn our 'ISS added they will also be ignoring wildfires, sea level rise, drought, famine, floods, mudslides, tornadoes, hurricanes, communicable disease, and the puppy dog eyes of children dying of famine in future reports.' headline of the week. S.E.C. Moves to Kill Climate Disclosure RuleIn our 'ISS added, "Yes, we bought one."' headline of the week. Shopify takes down Ye website selling swastika shirts after Super Bowl adIn our 'Our new advisor to the board, Nelson Peltz, as advised we rebrand our inclusion program as "black people should most be cast as drug dealers", but we chose "Reapplying Yesterday's Comedic Racism"' headline of the week. Disney drops controversial ‘Reimagine Tomorrow’ program as company pairs back DEI initiativesDAMION2In our 'Headline Prefers Nouns Over Names Because Names Are TMI' headline of the week. 3M CEO Named New Chairman of the Board*************** In our 'Greedy Airline CEOs Want In on Budding Oligarchy' headline of the week. Major airlines urge Trump administration to abandon passenger compensation review*************** In our 'The other half is being donated to AI's world domination ensuring the need for half their wealth to be donated…' headline of the week. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Husband Pledge to Donate Half Their Wealth*************** In our '"Trump moves to halt $5B EV-charging program" because Nobody is gonna buy a car, They are gonna buy helicopters and private jets' headline of the week. Trump blasts WFH policies: ‘Nobody is gonna work from home. They are gonna be going out, playing tennis, playing golf’*************** In our 'We’ll all be dead soon and first class tickets don’t grow on trees so leave me alone' headline of the week. BP set to scale back green investments as profits drop sharply*************** In our 'Reid Hoffman doesn't want his son's pivot to vegetarianism to mean fewer cheeseburgers' headline of the week. Reid Hoffman doesn't want Big Tech's pivot from fact-checking to mean more misinformation*************** In our 'You had me at Unequal Shareholder Rights' headline of the week. How Unequal Shareholder Rights Influence Proxy Voting Outcomes and Corporate Governance*************** MATT2In our 'When you say something is as "strong as ever", and "ever" was "never", do you mean "as strong as never"?' headline of the week. JPMorgan’s CFO says succession planning for CEO Jamie Dimon is ‘strong as ever’In our 'When we said "hiring", we mean "stealing", and by "thousands", we mean "your shit."' headline of the week. Elon Musk's xAI plans massive hiring spree of thousands to train Grok, employees sayIn our 'Kimbal Musk sells Tesla stock worth about $28 million as Elon's brother cashes in on rally since Trump's victory' headline of the week. Wave of Vandalism and Protests Hit TeslaIn our 'High school white male accuses middle school white male of insecurity' headline of the week. Sam Altman says former friend Elon Musk isn’t a happy guy: ‘Probably his whole life is from a position of insecurity’In our 'In fairness, Kimbal Musk can only complete 29%' headline of the week. OpenAI’s DeepResearch can complete 26% of ‘Humanity’s Last Exam’ — a benchmark for the frontier of human knowledgeIn our 'Finally, a white male CEO gets a chance without the oppression of rules, laws, and social norms' headline of the week. Exclusive | Criminal probe into WWE boss Vince McMahon dropped: lawyer