Ken Paxton, Bill Forsgin, and Alex Blumberg join me to talk about some of the most pressing issues we need to know about. ESG, the World Economic Forum, and AI are all front and center in this episode.
00:09:45.220Maybe we'll support you on that better idea.
00:09:48.140But we're looking to – let me explain it this way.
00:09:52.840Now, the World Economic Forum and ESG is a nasty super virus or super bug, okay?
00:10:02.060We need our strongest antibiotics to kill this thing.
00:10:06.900Now, why do they always say take all of your antibiotics?
00:10:09.360Because if you leave any of that bug alive in your system, you stop taking those antibiotics towards the end because you feel better, what you've left behind is the strongest part of that bug.
00:10:26.780And they mutate and they mutate and get stronger and then they don't – they're immune to antibiotics.
00:10:33.540Almost everything in our system is immune to antibiotics.
00:10:37.320You can expose it and nothing happens.
00:10:40.300You can document and expose and you can even bring it all the way up to the top to the justice system and nothing happens.
00:10:48.780It's immune to almost all of our antibiotics.
00:10:54.200So we need the strongest antibiotics we have left in the republic to go after this bug and make sure it is wiped out entirely.
00:11:20.220The most important thing, I think, is we must return the power to the hands of the people.
00:11:29.640And right now, Heritage is working on – and so are many others, but because I brought up Heritage – they're working on some really great bills.
00:11:39.440Number one bill, prohibit state contracts with companies that boycott based on ESG causes.
00:11:46.980So your state won't award any contract to anybody.
00:11:51.880Now remember, we'll probably have only about 20 states and they'll be the red states, where the blue states are the ones, generally speaking, New York and California, that carry all of the weight.
00:12:05.560And any purple state is not going to do it.
00:14:32.980Because they seem to be doing that a lot lately.
00:14:34.820The local banks and the state banks and the credit unions and insurance under the Fair Access to Financial Services Act
00:14:47.300will require them to disclose to you if anything is denied based on anything other than quantitative financial standards and traditional criteria.
00:15:00.680So if you're, if you are applying for a loan and your ESG score is bad, they have to tell you that.
00:15:09.440Now people will say, why is that so important?
00:25:22.780They are doing everything they can to do work around the Constitution so that they can tell us how to live our lives.
00:25:30.340So why doesn't, why isn't the governor out or, I mean, don't want you to have to answer for the governor,
00:25:38.200but why are we not making more of a case to at least Texans that we are in bed with the cartels?
00:25:49.120The sex trafficking and the child sex trafficking is off the charts, let alone all of the fentanyl and drugs that are coming across the border.
00:26:01.680You have 500 immigrants in New York, and they're declaring an emergency.
00:28:49.280Do you see a light at the end of the tunnel on this?
00:28:51.740I don't think we can ever rest, but I do think we have a really good chance of winning this because we are right.
00:29:01.320We're doing the things that protect the American people.
00:29:03.920And I truly believe as the consequences of this border affect more and more Americans, which it's going to, we are going to see the consequences of this for years.
00:29:12.180And when you see Democratic mayors complaining about it, even though they're not directing at the right people, you know this is having an impact.
00:29:19.760And I believe in the long run, we're going to win this fight.
00:30:06.140They have put together a list of a thousand companies.
00:30:10.420They've looked over all their policies, their practices, and other criteria to determine the likelihood of that company, that business, that bank canceling a contract or a client or boycott, divest, or deny service based on the views or beliefs of the person, of the customer.
00:30:31.480So I wanted to get Paul Fitzpatrick on, because he's the president of the 1792exchange.
00:30:40.660Paul, thank you for all of your hard work.
00:31:20.880What our team has done, and you're right, you said we have analyzed a thousand companies, looking at six criteria, but we had to go with publicly available information.
00:31:30.800Honestly, if we heard from a friend of a friend that they got canceled, their bank canceled them, or their payroll processor, or their web hosting site canceled them.
00:31:39.400If we couldn't verify it, we actually didn't change their rating for that.
00:31:43.380We'll try to find proof, because what you see is when you look in there, you pull up.
00:31:47.700Like you said, you could search on banks.
00:31:49.740You could search on different by industry.
00:31:51.780You could say, I want to give me every lower-risk bank, and then look at those.
00:31:56.540What we want folks to do is look through the actual ratings.
00:32:01.520Because, for example, a bank may be rated as low or, excuse me, medium risk, but the reason it's medium risk may be a greater threat to me than it is to you.
00:32:12.420So we have to go with publicly available information, but what we are asking people to do is to go on our site and submit their example that if they were canceled by a bank, so we can know, so we can alert others and we'll change their rating.
00:32:25.980And I would say we hope that this tool both equips and protects small businesses and nonprofits and families, but also that it helps corporations make the right decision in the future.
00:32:38.280Maybe we can get to that later in the program.
00:32:39.500So are you paying attention at all to the legislation that is working its way through states on fair access?
00:32:47.000Yes, Glenn, we have behind the scenes been looking at and monitoring and been involved in fair access.
00:32:56.980You've got bills that some talk about as raised as social credit scores.
00:33:11.820The fair access bill, I talked about it a couple of hours ago.
00:33:15.240This is why the legislation is so important, because you may have a feeling that these banks or these businesses are canceling you for some reason, but they don't.
00:33:25.700They're not required to disclose that if you have your fair access legislation in your state, they have to disclose they're using something other than traditional practices.
00:33:37.440They're using an ESG score or something like that.
00:33:40.780And that's the only way we can ever truly know if these banks, if these businesses are really safe or they're not, because we have to use public information.
00:33:55.540We do need legislation both federally and state.
00:33:58.780We also what we've seen is lots of legislation moving and you'll see it in 20 to 30 states to protect the pension funds of the state employees.
00:34:06.700And these pension funds, as you know, and your listeners know, they have been weaponized.
00:34:10.820You have red states like Texas and others have been handing over the billions and billions, actually trillions of dollars to asset managers and like BlackRock.
00:34:20.060And that those organizations, BlackRock is going in, they're voting the shares and they're putting pressure, even more importantly, putting pressure on CEOs.
00:34:36.920And we do encourage, as you're saying, your listeners to touch base with your state legislators, federal legislators, but all of your statewide elected officials so that they can get behind good legislation.
00:34:47.960So help me out on, because this could be used to find a bank, real estate.
00:34:54.900I mean, really, you have everything covered in this.
00:34:58.640And I'm just looking up, I'm trying to look up food, beverage, and tobacco.
00:35:05.060When you look at companies like, for instance, Coca-Cola, it's damn near impossible to boycott them because they own almost everything.
00:35:15.080I mean, there's like four companies that, or I think it's 12, that control most of the food and beverage in the country.
00:35:33.360But we think you actually have an even better influence, yes, do that, that shop in stores that support your values, or at least don't undermine your values.
00:35:42.800But we want folks to print out the report, bring it into the store that's doing the wrong thing and say, can I talk to the manager and say, why do you have a high risk rating?
00:35:51.700I'll shop here if you get to medium or lower.
00:36:44.580And also go in and say, I see that you are a medium risk or a high risk.
00:36:49.780Would you change the terms of my contract to guarantee that you're not going to cancel me for ideological reasons?
00:36:56.300If we had a lot of people going in and doing that, that would filter up to the higher ranks of corporations.
00:37:02.000And so those are just some simple things that people can do.
00:37:05.840But, again, your listeners are educated.
00:37:08.260But I encourage them to let their statewide elected officials, all of them, governor, AG, treasurer, state legislators, as well as your federal, let them know you care.
00:37:19.600Because there's a lot of folks are doing a lot of good work.
00:37:21.480I know, as you've talked about, you've had people like Riley Moron, treasurer, he's a treasurer of West Virginia.
00:37:26.680You've got attorneys general doing good things.
00:38:47.200We are not going to be able to raise our families, worship the way we want to worship, and have jobs and be able to support our families if we can't fix this.
00:38:56.900And just one point, just think about this.
00:39:00.180Black Rock, State Street, and Vanguard, they control roughly $20 trillion in assets.
00:39:05.020The entire U.S. economy is roughly $20 trillion in assets.
00:39:09.400So when they are politicizing public companies, that hurts those companies, right?
00:39:16.000And so that means their stock is going to go down, most likely.
00:39:20.580Well, 75% of all assets in the stock market are tied in one way, shape, or form to retirement.
00:39:26.760And so these corporations getting politicized, taking their eye off the ball, and focusing on political agendas, not shareholder value, what they are doing, they're harming the retirement security of every American.
00:39:40.700I want my kids and your kids and grandkids to have opportunity and freedom and security, because a weak nation is going to be very vulnerable.
00:39:49.380And I know you've talked about it, but even in this ESG banner, the E is choking off our energy.
00:39:55.560And that is a tremendous threat to us.
00:39:58.580On the S, that's where the threats and the social are threats to our freedom and undermining our values.
00:40:20.760If I go to your website, Natalie, yeah, how do I, what does lower risk mean, that there's no evidence of it, and medium is there's some rumors, and high-risk is, what is it?
00:41:39.300Now, listen, one of the important things that he's asked for here is if you feel you have, especially if you have evidence of it, that you have been canceled, you have been rejected, you've lost a job.
00:41:53.880Anything because of ESG, any of those scores, anything because of your politics or anything else, you need to let them know.