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

  • Apr 29 2025
  • Length: 45 mins
  • Podcast

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

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  • DAMION1White House blasts Amazon over tariff cost report: ‘Hostile and political act’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.“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.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.WHO DO YOU BLAME?CEO Andrew Jassy.He’s the “boss.”Maybe he feels emasculated?Lowest overall batting average (.308)only 6% influence compared to his boss, Jeff Bezos (67%)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 withHis 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 Jeffrey Preston Bezos (67%)I mean he’s the actual boss, right?Executive Chair, founder, former CEO, superstar.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 FundBoard member and former Pepsi CEO Indra NooyiOr 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 committeeIndra is also involved with very woke-y/DEI-y:stuff like science (Trustee of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center)Stuff like math (Member of the Dean’s Advisory Council at MIT’s School of Engineering)Stuff like art (Trustee of the National Gallery of Art)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)Former President Joe BidenAmazon 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.Trump world's Laura Loomer takes aim at a 'woke' Lockheed Martin and its $2 trillion F-35 programLaura 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.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.""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.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.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.WHO DO YOU BLAME?The 2025 Proxy Statement that mentions “diversity” five times!Of course all five of those instances were in the anti-woke/anti-DEI shareholder proposal introduced by the Bahnsen Family Trust.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.”The three-headed white guy leadership group (53% influence)CEO/Chair James Taiclet (25%): $24M in payLead Independent Director and Nominating Committee chair Thomas J. Falk (13%)“Independent” since 2010David Burritt (15%)Longest-tenured director (2008-)Busy beaver: two ...
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