Michael

I think this is it kids. When she touches down at DFW, another carrier has entered the history books @JTGenter @hharteveldt flightaware.com/live/flight/NK…

@sentdefender Real shame he doesn’t have someone from Exxon, like say a former CEO, in his Cabinet? I bet they’d help him understand

U.S. President Donald J. Trump said on Sunday that he might block Exxon Mobil, the largest oil company in the United States, from investing in Venezuela after the company’s CEO called the country “uninvestable” during a White House meeting with oil executives last week, according to Reuters. “I didn't like Exxon's response,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on his way back to Washington on Sunday. “I'll probably be inclined to keep Exxon out. I didn't like their response. They're playing too cute.”

@epkaufm Hey two outta three ain’t bad

3 things can be true: The US violated the norm of state sovereignty, which is bad for world order. Maduro is a dictator, and there is now hope for his people. The idea the US did this for oil is conspiratorial nonsense.

@therabbithole I assume you feel the same way about churches and their leaders, right?

“Leave the kids alone” is a hardline position. There is no compromise with the trans cult on this.

The James Franklin era at Penn State is OVER

@robbystarbuck Turning our schools into prisons isn’t the answer. I think there’s one thing we’re pretty united on though…

Instead of a fruitless gun control debate, let’s have a unifying national dialogue for once. We all want our kids schools to be safer, right? Then let’s get done what 90% of us agree on: More funding for armed guards, bulletproof glass, metal detectors and secure entry systems.

@SecretCFO I watched my former company blow north of $3.5 million on one. Guess what the ROI was. $0. Not one new client. Not ONE. CMO was gone within months, but not before taking a nice chunk of cash out the door for himself.

@SecretCFO “They don’t end well, and I’ve always treated them with the budgetary disdain they deserve given the chance.” Nominate this man for the Medal of Freedom. A-F*ing-Men

Rebranding is incredibly hard to get right. Most of the time it’s not about customers at all. There’ll never say it out loud, but most often it’s about management, usually a CEO, trying to feel more connected to a business they were never right for in the first place. They want something modern, or different, or repentant. That is a terrible fucking reason to rebrand. Customers are what matter. Always have, always will. I’ve watched a few up close. They don’t end well, and I’ve always treated them with the budgetary disdain they deserve given the chance. What does work is a steady design refresh. Simplification. Small steps that evolve a brand over time without tearing it up. And over decades that CAN mean a big shift, but it never feels like it. Apple has done this perfectly down the years. Their identity has been sharpened and refined, never abandoned. The big, sweeping changes that throw away the core identity rarely succeed. Adidas is a rare example that managed to make it work. In 1997 they retired the beloved Trefoil as the primary logo and introduced the Performance mark, a sharper look meant to signal athletics. Three decades later both identities are thriving. Adidas Originals still sells billions as a retro and casual line, and the Performance logo sits at the heart of the corporate and sports business.

@christopherrufo @christopherrufo don’t have the guts to tell your followers why he got 16 years instead of three. Hint: immigration of the illegal kind 😉 courtlistener.com/opinion/179250…

I'm sorry, but as long as this is the status quo, I'm not going to work myself into a state of hysteria about Trump's executive order on burning the American flag

@StatisticUrban @christopherrufo His “long criminal history included…”priors for ILLEGALLY REENTERING THE UNITED STATES. Yes. Really. MAGA using an illegal immigrant to defend their flag law. Sublime.

@christopherrufo > man with a long criminal history steals a flag from a church > recklessly burns it in the middle of a street > threatens to burns down a bar If he had done the same to an American flag and said it was because he hated Americans, prison is appropriate. Tho 15yrs is a bit much.

@g_shullenberger @christopherrufo Ready for this? You know why he was given such a long prison sentence? Because he had priors for ILLEGALLY REENTERING THE UNITED STATES. Yes. Really. MAGA using an illegal immigrant to defend their flag law. Sublime.

@christopherrufo If this is the "status quo," why did you have to dig back to 2019 to find an example of it (one that involves a guy who you'd likely think should've gotten an even longer sentence if the object he burned had been anything other than a pride flag)?

@alt_w_v_g 9:21 PM Email from analyst at PineOakElmViewTreeOcean Capital “can you please hop on a quick call at 9:30 pm to review this list of 177 addbacks we think it’s incomplete thx”

Spent the day shadowing a PE portfolio company CFO. He greeted me in the parking lot at 8am sharp — Patagonia vest on, Celsius in hand, two upper decker Zyns in, visibly shaking. Eyes darting. “I’ve got to send out the board deck pre-read by EOD, the ERP’s broken, my controller’s gone, and the VP of Finance quit last week,” he said. “Let’s make magic.” Inside, his calendar was 90% meetings labeled “URGENT” and 10% “CPE Trainings,” which he declined on autopilot, muttering, “There’s always next month.” By 9am, we were in a forecast meeting. He stared at the sales pipeline, paused, then said: “Add 40%. If it doesn’t come in, we’ll blame timing or weather.” At lunch, he ate DoorDash at his desk while the junior FP&A analyst nervously walked through draft board slides. Mid-presentation, he pulled up ChatGPT and typed: “Rewrite this section with fewer numbers and more conviction.” I asked how he was adjusting to PE ownership. He didn’t look up. “Three weeks ago, I was CFO of a family-run business. Now I report to four Ivy League 28-year-olds who reply to emails before I can finish reading them.” In the afternoon, we joined a margin expansion session. Most of it involved reclassing direct costs to OpEx, then marking them below the line as non-recurring. Training budget? Suspended. Team-building events? Cancelled. I could tell he was on a mission. Between meetings, he pulled me aside and asked, “Who should we fire? I need three heads gone by EOD to hit burn targets.” Before the pre-board prep call, he opened ChatGPT again: “Draft a Q2 update with no actual numbers but lots of authority.” He scanned the result, nodded, and dropped it straight into the deck. By 5pm, he leaned back and said, “We’ve done good work today.” Then came one last email from the 28-year-old PE Senior Associate half his age: “Please send a revised 5-year plan by morning.” He nodded, smiled, and pointed to the FP&A analyst. “We’ll overdeliver. Make it seven. That’s when the debt matures.” I asked if this pace was sustainable. He popped a TUMS, stared ahead, and said quietly: “We’re not here to rest. We’re here to exit.”

@eyeslasho “A person who commits a felony is, by definition, a criminal.” FIFY 😉

@eyeslasho I think we should community notes that first tweet and say “this tweet actually came from another planet”

@RobertMSterling of course they did cause every PE firm out there knows 14x is the starting point for negotiations. You raised a smart kid

A babysitter allowed our 4 year old to pay 11x EBITDA for an HVAC company today.

@RayPetelinWx sir, 1st, hat tip to you for dealing with these Yinzer knuckle draggers moaning about the word “rare” and SCARY RED COLORS secondly, as someone who lived in Dallas, TX for 5 years, yes Joey From Da Nort Syde, this is an epic freaking heatwave…

@PetitRetard Hey this is Huber’s admin assistant. Can we pay the $4500 in a mix of $250/hr offshore services and 3.75% junior debt notes?

@RobertMSterling “I don’t give a shit WHAT your EBITDA looks like YOU’RE MINE AAAAAARGH”

Private equity guys the minute a family-owned HVAC company gets listed for sale