<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/oklahoma" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Oklahoma</a> public retirement funds are being “weaponized” to back decarbonization, racial audits, and push pro-abortion policies, according to a new watchdog report shared exclusively with The Daily Wire.
The <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/OPERS-Woke-Investment-Managers-Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a>, from the American Accountability Foundation, found that three asset managers used by the Oklahoma Public Employees Retirement System (OPERS) have used money from state retirement accounts to support shareholder proposals rooted in woke politics and environmental, social, and governance principles. According to the report, three firms — State Street Global Advisors, Newton Capital Management, and Westfield Capital Management — have used some of the $1.7 billion they manage for OPERS&#8217; portfolio to support at least 216 ESG-tinged proposals that take aim at the oil industry and push leftist social values.
The AAF obtained data on all proxy votes cast by asset managers for Oklahoma’s public retirement funds since 2022 through an open records request. “Altogether, we identified 216 votes in support of troubling policies, including racial equity audits, gender pay gap reports, initiatives to silence conservatives and trade associations, abortion rights, and the radical climate agenda,” the watchdog wrote in a memo shared with The Daily Wire.
The memo comes as Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt (R) and Oklahoma Treasurer Todd Russ have <a href="https://oklahoma.gov/governor/newsroom/newsroom/2023/march2023/governor-stitt-joins-18-governors-in-joint-statement-opposing-ha.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">spoken out</a> against ESG investing, calling the push harmful to the state. OPERS did not respond to a request for comment from The Daily Wire.
State Street, alongside BlackRock, were both supposed to be dropped by OPERS because of new legislation restricting state entities from working with companies that are opposed to the oil and gas industry, but <a href="https://www.pionline.com/esg/oklahoma-pers-will-keep-blackrock-state-street-after-approving-divestment-exemption" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were exempted</a> after a vote from the board of OPERS.
In the last two years, State Street, Newton, and Westfield all backed resolutions that “call for increased climate disclosures or greenhouse gas emissions targets,” according to the AAF. For example, Newton backed a proposal for energy company Phillips 66 to adopt greenhouse gas “emissions reduction targets aligned with the Paris Agreement goal” at the company’s May 2022 shareholder meeting.
“We therefore support the Company to set emission reduction targets for all emissions: the emissions of the company’s operations and the emissions of its energy products (Scope 1, 2, and 3). Reducing Scope 3 emissions, the vast majority, is essential to limiting global heating,” the resolution said.
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-724665 size-large aligncenter" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-16-at-5.50.21-PM-883x576.png" alt="" width="883" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-16-at-5.50.21-PM-883x576.png 883w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-16-at-5.50.21-PM-300x196.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-16-at-5.50.21-PM-768x501.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-16-at-5.50.21-PM-1536x1002.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/04/Screen-Shot-2024-04-16-at-5.50.21-PM.png 1799w" sizes="(max-width: 883px) 100vw, 883px" />In another instance, Newton voted to back a proposal for Wells Fargo to conduct a racial equity audit, according to the data shared with The Daily Wire.
Citing the death of George Floyd and “systematic racism,” the resolution urged the bank’s board of directors “to oversee an independent racial equity audit analyzing WFC’s adverse impacts on nonwhite stakeholders and communities of color.”
In a supporting statement, the resolution objected to $135,000 in Wells Fargo political donations going to “members of Congress who objected to certifying the election results.”
In another example from June 5, 2023, Westfield voted in support of a resolution saying that UnitedHealth Group should create a “report on congruency of political spending with company values and priorities.” The reason the report was needed was because of employee PAC donations to politicians “working to weaken abortion access” and backing of “state attorneys general seeking to revoke LGBTQ civil rights.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1712932862202000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0plT8RRdMy9XUpIhocnjQS">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
A similar resolution backed by Newton said that Coke’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies may be hampered because of a Georgia law protecting unborn children six weeks into development. The resolution asked for a report “detailing any known and potential risks or costs to the company caused by enacted or proposed state policies severely restricting reproductive rights.”
Tom Jones, the president of the AAF, told The Daily Wire that the will of Oklahomans was being subverted by the use of OPERS funds to push ESG initiatives.
“For Oklahoma&#8217;s pension funds to be hijacked to push ESG nonsense is an affront to democracy,” Jones said. “The American people should decide our laws, not be dictated to by virtue-signaling corporations and government bureaucrats. Americans never voted to force businesses to conduct &#8216;racial equity audits&#8217; or to shut down oil and gas companies, yet that is what is being imposed on us by OPERS and the corporate advisers they hire. It&#8217;s time to put an end to this madness.”

Cash dollar bills and stock market indicators

EXCLUSIVE: Watchdog Warns About ‘Weaponization’ Of Red State’s Pension Funds For Leftist Causes

BlackRock

Oklahoma

Retirement funds

Social Issues

U.S.

Wokeness

Mississippi sent a cease-and-desist letter to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/blackrock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlackRock</a> on Tuesday accusing the financial asset manager of misleading investors about its environmental, social, and governance policies and threatening to level a steep fine on the firm. 
The letter, from <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mississippi" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mississippi</a> Secretary of State Michael Watson, <a href="https://www.sos.ms.gov/press/mississippi-secretary-state-issues-order-against-blackrock-alleged-securities-fraud-related" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that BlackRock may face a multimillion-dollar financial penalty if it does not comply with the state’s demands. BlackRock, which manages over $10 trillion in assets, has faced increasing scrutiny from Republican officials over its investing policies, especially in relation to its links to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/financial-giants-pull-14-trillion-from-climate-group-that-pressures-companies-to-take-action-on-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">climate activist</a> groups. 
“BlackRock has made and continues to make untrue statements of material fact, and to omit material facts to make its statements not misleading, to investors and potential investors in Mississippi,” a copy of the <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/03/Final-CD-BR.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> obtained by The Daily Wire says. “These misrepresentations pertain to BlackRock’s provision of investment services, especially its involvement in pushing Environmental, Social, and Governance (‘ESG’) factors on portfolio companies. Additionally, many of BlackRock’s acts, practices, and courses of business operate or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon investors and potential investors in Mississippi.”
Watson said that the letter and notice of intent to impose administrative penalty was part of Mississippi&#8217;s efforts to go after politicized investment companies. 
“Investment companies will not push their political agenda on Mississippians, especially through fraudulent and deceptive means,” Watson said. “All citizens should have the opportunity to make informed and educated decisions when investing their hard-earned money. If not, our office will hold these bad actors accountable.”
The letter alleges that there are two categories of false and misleading statements made by BlackRock to investors. The first claims that while BlackRock says it doesn’t use all funds for ESG purposes it has already committed “to use all assets under management to advance the environmental agenda of reducing carbon emissions to ‘net zero.’”
The second category includes statements from BlackRock indicating that ESG-related investing brings positive financial results. Watson’s letter disputes this saying that is misleading “because the consideration of ESG factors does not provide an indication of better financial returns or current or future risk profiles.”
BlackRock has <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/finance-and-economy/2941273/mississippi-slaps-blackrock-cease-and-desist-order-esg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to the letter, saying that Mississippi&#8217;s allegations against it were untrue. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1711722593099000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2BYobdhGnzBnBpziY8U6Zu">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“Many policymakers and government officials have ideas on how we should invest our clients’ assets,” BlackRock said. “We are always bound to invest consistent with our clients’ choices, their best financial interests, and applicable law. Our only agenda is maximizing risk-adjusted returns for the funds our clients choose to invest in.”
BlackRock, headed up by CEO Larry Fink, has walked back from some of its climate commitments, but has still faced calls to fully abandon ESG policies. 
“Larry Fink and BlackRock continue to pretend that the only time they engage in ESG, it is with permission of the shareholders, but in reality, ESG policies have seeped into every facet of BlackRock&#8217;s asset management,” Will Hild of Consumers&#8217; Research said in a <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/mississippi-hits-blackrock-with-cease-desist-threatens-massive-fine-over-esg-policies">statement</a> to FOX Business on Wednesday. “They&#8217;ve been lying to their customers, and states like Mississippi are not going to allow this to continue.”

Blackrock Posts 22 Percent Increase In Quarterly Profits

Mississippi May Issue BlackRock ‘Multimillion-Dollar’ Fine Over ESG Investing Policies

Climate Change

Investors

Mississippi

The <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/texas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Texas</a> Permanent School Fund (PSF) opted on Tuesday to terminate an $8.5 billion investment with <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/blackrock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlackRock</a> Inc., with one official citing the financial asset manager&#8217;s support of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) proposals.
State Board of Education Chairman Aaron Kinsey said in a <a href="https://twitter.com/AaronKinseyTX/status/1770090460935020835" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> that PSF&#8217;s &#8220;relationship with BlackRock was not in compliance&#8221; with <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/03/texas-house-fossil-fuel-oil-divest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legislation</a> enacted in <a href="https://capitol.texas.gov/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=87R&amp;Bill=SB13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2021</a> that &#8220;prohibits state investment in companies like BlackRock that boycott energy companies.&#8221;
PSF &#8220;has a fiduciary duty to protect Texas schools by safeguarding and growing the approximately $1 billion in annual oil and gas royalties managed by the Texas General Land Office,&#8221; Kinsey said, adding that terminating BlackRock&#8217;s contract &#8220;ensures PSF’s full compliance with Texas law.&#8221;
BlackRock, which boasts trillions of dollars in assets, endured <a href="https://www.atr.org/esgradar/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">divestments</a> by other GOP-led states amid objections over its <a href="https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/literature/fact-sheet/blk-responsible-investment-engprinciples-global-summary.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">push for ESG</a> that critics view as being part of a <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/17/politics/dark-money-fga-ashcroft-invs/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;woke&#8221; agenda</a>. But the company has <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/23/esg-blackrock-shareholders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pared back support</a> for ESG proposals while <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blackrock-admits-its-bottom-line-could-be-hurt-by-esg-investing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">acknowledging</a> such investments could hurt its bottom line.
In a <a href="https://twitter.com/bradj_TX/status/1770120206750204008" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>, BlackRock said it is &#8220;helping millions of Texans invest and save for retirement.&#8221; It added, &#8220;On behalf of our clients, we&#8217;ve invested more than $300 billion in Texas-based companies, infrastructure and municipalities, including $125 billion invested in the energy sector, including a $550 million joint venture with Occidental. We recently hosted an energy summit in Houston designed to explore how to strengthen Texas’ power grid.&#8221;
A <a href="https://twitter.com/bradj_TX/status/1770120202614620344" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> that PSF sent to BlackRock, a copy of which was <a href="https://twitter.com/bradj_TX/status/1770120202614620344" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted to X</a> by a reporter with The Texan, said the termination of the contract was effective on April 30 and noted requests for the company to &#8220;cooperate&#8221; in transitioning assets to a successor manager and work in &#8220;good faith&#8221; to determine and execute &#8220;the most efficient and cost-effective transition plan for the assets.&#8221;
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Kinsey said BlackRock’s &#8220;dominant and persistent leadership in the ESG movement immeasurably damages our state’s oil &amp; gas economy and the very companies that generate revenues for our PSF. Texas and the PSF have worked hard to grow this fund to build Texas’ schools. BlackRock’s destructive approach toward the energy companies that this state and our world depend on is incompatible with our fiduciary duty to Texans.&#8221;
He added, &#8220;Today represents a major step forward for the Texas PSF and our state as a whole. The PSF will not stand idle as our financial future is attacked by Wall Street. This bold action helps ensure our PSF remains in fact permanent and will continue to support bright futures and opportunities for generations of Texas students.&#8221;

Larry Fink

Texas Schools Fund Moves To Pull $8.5 Billion Contract With BlackRock

Texas Schools Fund Moves To Pull Out Of $8.5 Billion BlackRock Contract

Education

finance

Texas

Here&#8217;s a statistic that, at least if you were born at any point prior to the 1990s, is probably pretty hard to believe. By revenue, the gaming industry is <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2023/11/17/the-gaming-industry-a-behemoth-with-unprecedented-global-reach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bigger</a> than both the movie industry and the music industry — combined. And for the past several years, it hasn&#8217;t been particularly close. The difference is consistently more than $100 billion per year. Games are a massive market, one that&#8217;s mostly targeted at young people. But despite those numbers, for the most part, the games industry has avoided mainstream scrutiny. You&#8217;ll see far more discussion about, say, Sydney Sweeney or Taylor Swift than you&#8217;ll ever see about prominent video game voice actors and directors — who pretty much no one knows anything about. Everyone&#8217;s heard of Lionsgate, or Paramount, but almost no one&#8217;s heard of studios like &#8220;Don&#8217;t Nod Entertainment,&#8221; for example.
And that&#8217;s significant, because these no-name studios are behind the single most coordinated effort to indoctrinate millions of children through entertainment that&#8217;s ever occurred in this country. This effort is maybe more powerful than teachers&#8217; unions, if only because these propagandists mostly work in secret. Even if you homeschool your children, they&#8217;re not immune to it. You might have heard something about one of the companies behind this indoctrination effort, called &#8220;Sweet Baby Inc&#8221; or SBI. In a moment, I&#8217;ll get into the details about what exactly they&#8217;re doing, and who&#8217;s helping them do it.
But first, I want to get the good news out of the way. If there&#8217;s any silver lining, it&#8217;s that this effort to indoctrinate children is incredibly hamfisted. Some of the dumbest people in the world are behind it. Take that studio I just mentioned — &#8220;Don&#8217;t Nod Entertainment.&#8221; They&#8217;re behind the very popular &#8220;Life is Strange&#8221; video game series, which has been played by tens of millions of people. To give you an idea of how overt the propaganda is in &#8220;Life is Strange,&#8221; here&#8217;s just one, mercifully short sequence involving — what else — a racist white guy. There&#8217;s some backstory about how he kidnapped an innocent Hispanic kid or something:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="002 Life Is Strange 2 V2" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t27RP8fSKGk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
&#8220;We need to build a wall,&#8221; says the white racist kidnapping the innocent Hispanic boy. This is a game that, if Wikipedia is to be believed, received &#8220;generally positive reviews. &#8230; Critics praised the story.&#8221;
So we can conclude that the bar is incredibly low in this entire industry. All that developers have to do is beat their audience over the head with rote Left-wing propaganda, and their game will be well-received. The more recent game &#8220;Suicide Squad&#8221; is another prominent example. They decided to write a story about Batman&#8217;s toxic masculinity, which ended with a girlboss shooting Batman. Here&#8217;s part of that sequence:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="003 Batman Death Scene" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/t6WkeBvIonU?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You can just imagine how many purple-haired women must work at that studio. They probably provide the hair dye on tap. I didn&#8217;t play that game, obviously. I haven&#8217;t played any of these games. I am not a video game fan or player, as most people I think know by now. But the point is that these clips were all over the internet because of how awful they are. They&#8217;re just terrible in every way — even just from a quality perspective — even if you happen to agree with their politics.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1326-the-radical-wokeness-of-the-video-game-industry-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
But the fact remains that, for children of a certain age, the propaganda doesn&#8217;t need to be subtle. All they need to do is present it to children, and it can be effective. That&#8217;s why some anonymous people using the games platform &#8220;Steam&#8221; decided to figure out exactly who&#8217;s putting this garbage in games, and why.
They found that the company I mentioned earlier, called &#8220;Sweet Baby Inc.&#8221; — no relation to the Sweet Baby Gang, I swear off any association and I would file a lawsuit for copyright infringement, if not for the fact that I don’t have a copyright, and also Sweet Baby Inc. existed first, technically, but never mind that — anyway, these people on Steam found that Sweet Baby Inc. has contracted with major publishers to push principles of DEI in video games, as aggressively as possible. Sweet Baby Inc., or SBI, worked with the developers of the game I just showed you, Suicide Squad. They&#8217;ve also had a role in several other major releases.
On their website, SBI boasts that they&#8217;re committed to installing principles of &#8220;diversity&#8221; into games. And they do it forcibly. In fact, the co-founder and CEO of SBI, a woman named Kim Belair, recently spoke to game developers and instructed them to threaten their companies unless they comply with Sweet Baby&#8217;s DEI mandates:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="004 CEO" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QrtmDwwfzyQ?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
This is how DEI works in every industry, of course. The goal isn&#8217;t to improve the company&#8217;s product in any way. It&#8217;s to blackmail companies and threaten them into submission. Pay the DEI tax, or we&#8217;ll destroy you. Only in the games industry, where everyone is dumber than they are in every other industry, do they just come right out and say it.
Along these lines, as you might have guessed, so-called games journalists are somehow even dumber than journalists in other industries, too — which is really saying something. They&#8217;re completely unable to hide their real goals or display any hint of subtlety whatsoever. For example, in response to clips like this surfacing, games writers have produced several articles portraying SBI as the victim of a &#8220;harassment campaign&#8221; — by which they mean people are noticing what SBI is doing. For example, here&#8217;s how a writer for the website Polygon, Joshua Rivera, <a href="https://twitter.com/jmrivera02/status/1767600140695867472?s=20">responded</a> to people who are concerned about SBI: &#8220;In a just world these clowns would have their steam accounts turned off, their PlayStations bricked and get booted from any respectable social platform.&#8221;
So in the games industry, the journalists just come right out and demand that you&#8217;re deleted from the Internet if you dare to look deeper into their narrative. So let&#8217;s do that. In a recent podcast, Kim Belair explains that her company&#8217;s mandate is to make every game political. There has to be &#8220;diverse representation&#8221; in all contexts, even in, say, World War I:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="005 Diversity" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/59Gw7-_7CAk?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
So SBI wants to &#8220;build a narrative and a story that includes moments and elements custom-made to bring representation and joy to people.&#8221; And she uses the example of World War I. There weren&#8217;t a whole lot of women fighting on the front lines of World War I. But they shoehorn that into their game anyway, because at every possible opportunity, they need to minimize and demonize white men. White men cannot be the hero of anything, even historical events where they were the heroes, like World War I. The point is to attack white men whenever possible.
We&#8217;re seeing this at all levels in the gaming industry. Here, for example, is Dani Lalonders. She reportedly used <a href="https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1767681553755509171">to work</a> at Sweet Baby Inc. just a year ago. Now she works for a studio at EA, one of the biggest games studios on the planet. Watch as she explains why she doesn&#8217;t hire white people on her team, because they commit all kinds of microaggressions:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="006 Racist Nonbinary Sweet Baby" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/eMaHJ_mugvY?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Notice that she doesn&#8217;t say what the white microaggressions were. Maybe those nasty white people said something nice about her hair. Maybe they asked where she was from. Maybe they say, &#8220;Hey, cut that line of dialogue about building the wall — it&#8217;s a little too on the nose.&#8221; Who knows? In any event, this is an employee of a major games studio straight-up admitting that she doesn&#8217;t hire white people. This isn&#8217;t just unethical; it&#8217;s illegal. It&#8217;s the kind of thing that&#8217;s usually left unsaid in major corporations. But it&#8217;s standard practice in the games industry to just come right out and announce it. To give another example — also in response to the SBI story — a senior editor at the gaming site Kotaku wrote, &#8220;hi! you can&#8217;t be racist against white people! thanks for tuning in!&#8221;
The people writing this garbage are &#8220;true believers.&#8221; They&#8217;re the low-IQ foot soldiers. But the reason they&#8217;re so well-funded is more interesting. As the former games executive Mark Kern explained this week, the cost of producing games is extremely high. It&#8217;s higher than it&#8217;s ever been, in fact. So games studios are looking to raise money in any way possible. And one way to get a lot of money is through ESG financing:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="007 Former developer" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ea7z-2yyWs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
What <a href="http://e.sg/">ESG</a> financing entails, Kern goes on to say, is that games studios have to agree to all kinds of conditions — including hiring companies like SBI to &#8220;diversify&#8221; their games.
In other words, what&#8217;s happening here is much bigger than SBI. It&#8217;s about the companies that fund SBI. That includes a fund called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Er7X1PSHM&amp;t=425s">Baby Ghosts</a>, which is also run by anti-white managers who are proud of their bigotry. It also includes the biggest institutional investors on the planet, like Vanguard and Blackrock, which own a substantial portion of gaming companies like Microsoft. These entities are creating the incentives. The only good news, as Kern points out later in that interview, is that ESG financing is drying up, in part because interest rates are changing. And there&#8217;s more exposure than ever to this propaganda, which makes it less effective.
<h4><a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a></h4>
The U.S. government appears to be aware of that, and they view it as a potential problem. They want the propaganda to continue. We know that because, on its website, a nonprofit called &#8220;Take This&#8221; <a href="https://boundingintocomics.com/2024/03/12/us-government-funded-non-profit-take-this-responds-to-sweet-baby-inc-backlash-by-calling-on-video-game-industry-to-clearly-and-unequivocally-denounce-gamergate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">labels</a> all criticism of SBI as &#8220;harassment.&#8221; They&#8217;re coordinating a response to it. What&#8217;s &#8220;Take This&#8221;? Apparently, according to their website, they&#8217;re a &#8220;mental health nonprofit&#8221; that&#8217;s funded by the Department of Homeland Security. In other words, your tax dollars are paying for the defense of propagandists targeting children in the video game industry. For some reason, DHS is involved.
And actually, it&#8217;s worse than that. As the Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/03/09/fbi-dhs-gamers-extremism-violence/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> this month, &#8220;Gaming companies are coordinating with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security to root out so-called domestic violent extremist content, according to a new government report. Noting that mechanisms have been established with social media companies to police extremism, the report recommends that the national security agencies establish new and similar processes with the vast gaming industry.&#8221;
What this means is that the video game industry — without a lot of fanfare — has transformed into a tool of both propaganda and surveillance. It&#8217;s an effective way to indoctrinate children precisely because it hasn&#8217;t received much attention. Now, finally, that attention is here. And it&#8217;s yet another reason to keep these games as far away from your children as possible. If you do that, games journalists — literally the lowest form of journalist on the planet — will accuse you of &#8220;harassment.&#8221; That&#8217;s how you&#8217;ll know you&#8217;re doing the right thing.

Top down view of colorful illuminated gaming accessories laying on table.

The Radical Wokeness Of The Video Game Industry

Department of Homeland Security

Diversity

Matt Walsh

Opinion

Racism

Readers Pass

The Matt Walsh Show

Video Games

Financial asset manager <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/blackrock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlackRock</a> said in its annual report that environmental, social, and governance policies could hurt its bottom line after Republican state officials cut ties with the company over its ties to China and climate activism. 
In its annual Form 10-K <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1364742/000095017024019271/blk-20231231.htm#item_1a_risk_factors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SEC filing</a> put out last week, BlackRock said that it was facing ESG-related risk factors that might cause it to lose revenue and damage its earnings. The financial giant, which has over $10 trillion in assets, has faced scrutiny from Republican officials who say the company misleads its customers about leftist policies. 
“If BlackRock is not able to successfully manage ESG-related expectations across varied stakeholder interests, it may adversely affect BlackRock’s reputation, ability to attract and retain clients, employees, shareholders and business partners or result in litigation, legal or governmental action, which may cause its AUM, revenue and earnings to decline,” the company wrote in its filing. 
The company said that this was due to having “clients who have a variety of goals and preferences, including those who want to increase their exposure to the low-carbon transition and those who choose not to invest in products or strategies with sustainable investment objectives.”
BlackRock said that there was risk because some of its clients wanted it to become more involved in promoting ESG investing, while others have cut off business because of its policies toward coal and natural gas. 
“Some US states and state officials have adopted or proposed legislation or otherwise have taken official positions restricting or prohibiting state government entities from doing certain business with entities identified by the state as ‘boycotting’ or ‘discriminating’ against particular industries or considering ESG factors in their investment processes and proxy voting,” the filing said. “Other states and localities may adopt similar legislation or other ESG-related laws and positions that adversely impact BlackRock’s business.”
The filing was cheered on by conservatives who said that it was only the beginning of pushback on ESG initiatives.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is enormous. The blowback to the ESG tyranny is only beginning. <a href="https://t.co/ZjSiSwrr43">https://t.co/ZjSiSwrr43</a>
&mdash; Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) <a href="https://twitter.com/benshapiro/status/1763602148514799698?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 1, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;The hustlers &amp; radicals pushing ESG on American investors &amp; retirees are finally being exposed. But the battle is far from over because they are going to change tactics &amp; try to fly under the radar. Our policy responses will need to evolve,&#8221; Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenMarcoRubio/status/1763633618390294896" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a>.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1687352286746000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2XxW0VTdKx-2nQAhkiTR8M">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
In recent years, a number of states, including Louisiana and West Virginia, have divested from BlackRock. As opposition grew, the company has backtracked on some of its policies, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/financial-giants-pull-14-trillion-from-climate-group-that-pressures-companies-to-take-action-on-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">most recently</a> pulling out of Climate Action 100+, a group that pressures companies to “take action on climate change.” BlackRock International, a subsidiary, remained in the group.
Republican officials have also maintained pressure on the company, and 15 Republican attorneys general, led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/Follow_up_letter_to_BlackRock_Directors_FINAL.pdf">demanded</a> more answers from BlackRock about its participation in climate organizations and what kind of environmental, social, and governance policies it has implemented.

BlackRock offices in New York City. Founded in 1988,

BlackRock Admits Its Bottom Line Could Be Hurt By ESG Investing

China

Environmentalism

Marco Rubio

Republican officials continued their probe of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/blackrock" target="_blank" rel="noopener">BlackRock</a> this week, saying that the financial giant has not been forthcoming about how climate activists are shaping its policies, according to a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire.
In a <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/02/Follow_up_letter_to_BlackRock_Directors_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to BlackRock on Tuesday, 15 Republican attorneys general led by Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, demanded more answers from BlackRock about its participation in climate organizations and what kind of environmental, social, and governance policies it has implemented. BlackRock, which has over $10 trillion in assets, has faced scrutiny from Republicans over accusations that it prioritizes leftist activism over customer benefit.
“I have serious concerns about BlackRock’s Environmental, Social, and Governance investments, their conflicting statements regarding ESG, and the potential conflicts of interest with independent fund directors,” Knudsen told The Daily Wire. “Mutual fund directors have a fiduciary obligation to their clients to make them as much money as possible, but BlackRock appears to be more concerned with pushing the woke, liberal agenda.”
The 18-page letter raises concerns about conflicting statements made by BlackRock on ESG, BlackRock’s participation in leftist climate groups, and conflicts of interests.
BlackRock recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/financial-giants-pull-14-trillion-from-climate-group-that-pressures-companies-to-take-action-on-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stepped away</a> from the Climate Action 100+ organization, but remains in other groups like the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative, the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment, and Ceres. BlackRock International, a subsidiary, is still part of the Climate Action organization.
Knudson told The Daily Wire that while BlackRock “took a step in the right direction by dropping out Climate Action 100+ earlier this month, it’s not enough.”
“BlackRock has made commitments to environmental activist groups that may conflict with the fiduciary duties it owes to clients, and we seek more information about how the independent directors have overseen this,” the letter says. “Further, BlackRock’s relationships with certain large institutional clients, especially state pension funds, may unduly influence BlackRock’s overall approach to engaging with companies in which it invests, including investments that have disclaimed any reliance or focus on ESG factors.”
The Republicans AGs also say that BlackRock has made misleading statements about the motivations behind its ESG policies. Some comments from BlackRock indicate that it believes that ESG policies provide financial benefit are undercut by other statements that sustainability criteria don’t help assess the potential risk or reward of a fund, the letter notes.
“BlackRock’s claims that its focus on climate and ESG is motivated by concern about financial return are also undermined by the performance of its ESG-managed funds, which lag behind the performance of non-ESG benchmarks while charging higher fees,” the letter said.
Additionally, the letter raises concerns about the independence of mutual fund directors at BlackRock and whether they can be directors on other corporations where BlackRock controls significant shares.
“From a conflict-of-interest perspective, there is a clear risk that service on a public company board creates a dynamic where the director will be hesitant to offend or anger BlackRock, when BlackRock manages, votes, and controls significant shares in that public company,” the letter says.
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
In addition to Montana, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Utah all signed on to the letter.
&#8220;Thanks to persistent efforts from Republican attorneys general to defeat the radical and illegal ESG movement, BlackRock and other investment firms have rightly withdrawn from certain environmental organizations committed to a foundational transformation of America&#8217;s energy and financial sectors,&#8221; Utah AG Sean Reyes told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Our coalition, however, still has concerns with BlackRock&#8217;s past and present actions involving the financial interests of our constituents. We will remain steadfast in holding BlackRock and others like it accountable by protecting the financial freedom of our people.&#8221;
The Republicans previously wrote to BlackRock in July voicing many of the same concerns and received a reply in August. They said that August&#8217;s reply did not sufficiently answer their questions or concerns about ESG investing. Tennessee <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/tennessee-attorney-general-sues-blackrock-for-misleading-investors-about-esg-agenda" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sued</a> BlackRock in December, saying that firm violated consumer protection laws by misleading consumers about its attempt to pursue left-wing social and environmental goals.

EXCLUSIVE: Republican Officials Demand Answers On BlackRock’s ‘Woke’ Climate Agenda

Business

Environmentalists

Montana

Financial giants JPMorgan and State Street announced this week that they were leaving the Climate Action 100+ organization, an investors group that pushes ESG initiatives and controls about $68 trillion in assets. 
Black Rock, the world’s largest asset manager, also announced that it would be pulling some investment away from Climate Action, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/16/business/dealbook/wall-streets-climate-retreat.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meaning</a> that the total investment value lost by the group is around $14 trillion. The moves were praised by Republicans, who have said that companies engaging in ESG initiatives harm the economy and use customers&#8217; money for political purposes. 
State Street said Climate Action 100+ requirements were no longer in line with company policy. “SSGA has concluded the enhanced Climate Action 100+ phase 2 requirements for signatories are not consistent with our independent approach to proxy voting and portfolio company engagement,” State Street <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/3ce06a6f-f0e3-4f70-a078-82a6c265ddc2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Financial Times. 
JPMorgan said that it was making the move because it doesn’t have to rely on Climate Action 100+ anymore. “Given these strengths and the evolution of its own stewardship capabilities, JPMAM has determined that it will no longer participate in Climate Action 100+ engagements,&#8221; the group said.
Climate Action, formed in 2017, <a href="https://www.climateaction100.org/approach/business-case/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that it has over 700 investors who engage  “companies on improving climate change governance, cutting emissions and strengthening climate-related financial disclosure” and pushing the world’s biggest companies “take necessary action on climate change.”
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan praised the news and urged Black Rock to disengage from Climate Action. &#8220;Today’s decisions by JPMorgan and State Street are big wins for freedom and the American economy, and we hope more financial institutions follow suit in abandoning collusive ESG actions.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Today’s decisions by JPMorgan and State Street are big wins for freedom and the American economy, and we hope more financial institutions follow suit in abandoning collusive ESG actions. <a href="https://t.co/PT3LlDjMSa">https://t.co/PT3LlDjMSa</a>
&mdash; Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jim_Jordan/status/1758156354538131807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore, a frequent critic of ESG policies, also <a href="https://www.wvtreasury.com/About-The-Office/Press-Releases/ID/594/Treasurer-Moore-Commends-State-Street-JPMorgan-for-Withdrawing-from-International-Climate-Group" target="_blank" rel="noopener">praised</a> the decision from JPMorgan and State Street. Moore previously cut ties with Black Rock over their policies toward coal and natural gas. 
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
“This is a step in the right direction and significant victory in our states’ fight against the international corporate collusion targeting the coal, oil and natural gas industries,” Treasurer Moore said. “West Virginia and our coalition of states have been fighting for years against these efforts to boycott and curtail capital to our critical energy industries and diminish important economic activity and revenue for our states. This is a sign our efforts are making an impact.”
A coalition of Republican attorneys general <a href="https://ago.wv.gov/Documents/2023-03-30%20Asset%20Manager%20letter%20Press%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously wrote</a> to financial asset managers about their involvement with Climate Action warning them about using American’s savings to “push political goals.”

Climate Activists Mark 10 Years Since Hurricane Sandy In New York

Financial Giants Pull $14 Trillion From Climate Group That Pressures Companies To Take ‘Action On Climate Change’

Jim Jordan

JP Morgan

Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro sat down with author and entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David to discuss a wide range of topics, including the infiltration of woke ideology into the business world, on the latest <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-142-patrick-bet-david" target="_blank" rel="noopener">episode</a> of “<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/show/sunday-special" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Sunday Special</a>.”
During the episode, Shapiro asked Bet-David, an Iranian-American and the founder and CEO of Valuetainment, about how much the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/esg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ESG</a> (environmental, social, and governance) movement had ingrained itself into large corporations. Bet-David told Shapiro that the adoption of woke policies by corporations was very widespread, but that he believed corporations would be forced to abandon such policies in the long-term as more people became aware of the situation.
“They&#8217;re not going to win long-term because people are starting to get exposed to it and they&#8217;re learning more about it. And even they&#8217;re saying, &#8216;Hey, let me back off a little bit,'&#8221; he said, later adding that “common sense” would win.
He pointed to recent news that McDonald’s would be removing ESG components from its website, and billionaire Elon Musk’s criticism of ESG, to show that momentum was starting to build against woke corporatism.
Shapiro and Bet-David also discussed why social media personality Andrew Tate had amassed such a large following, especially with young men. Bet-David said that there was valid criticism of Tate’s personal life, but that the message he was presenting was attractive to boys looking for a male role model.
“But a lot of the values and what he&#8217;s presenting, you can&#8217;t argue young men are looking for that, especially nowadays. There&#8217;s a lot of boys that are looking for an older brother or a father figure and his messaging keeps resonating with them,” he said.
Shapiro said that, while he believed that Tate diagnosed many of the problems with modern society, his answers were usually wrong. Shapiro said the way to build society was by getting married and having a family, not through a purely materialistic approach of focusing solely on money and attracting a lot of women.
Bet-David, who spoke with Tate on his YouTube, has interviewed a broad host of public figures on his podcast including Rod Blagojevich, Anthony Weiner, Shaquille O&#8217;Neal, Magic Johnson, and Kobe Bryant.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-66706">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
Bet-David also discussed his new book, “Choose Your Enemies Wisely: Business Planning for the Audacious Few,” which is coming out in December.
“Everybody has an enemy. You got an enemy. I got an enemy. He has an enemy. Trump has an enemy. Biden has an enemy. The average voter has an enemy. &#8230; Everybody&#8217;s got an enemy, right?” he said, adding that people needed to be strategic in choosing their enemies.
WATCH:
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Sunday Special | Patrick Bet-David On Andrew Tate, Entrepreneurship &amp; The Yankees" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/en-YykHeNIg?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Shapiro /Bet-David

Entrepreneur Patrick Bet-David Predicts Woke Capitalism Will Die Off In Latest ‘Sunday Special’

Ben Shapiro

Sunday Special

Twenty-two state attorneys general, led by Tennessee&#8217;s Jonathan Skrmetti, are warning financial services companies that they may be violating antitrust and consumer protection laws by engaging in a climate activist alliance aimed at achieving net zero carbon emissions.
The <a href="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2023/09/State-AGs-NZFSPA-Letter-9-13-23.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to financial services providers that are signatories to the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance (<a href="https://www.netzeroserviceproviders.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">NZFSPA</a>), which is identified as “a global group of Service Providers committed to supporting the goal of global net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner.”
“We are writing to express our concern that your NZFSPA commitments may violate state and federal law, including antitrust laws and consumer protection laws,” the letter states. “Although many NZFSPA signatories are direct competitors with each other, they nevertheless commit to using their market influence to enforce their collective climate agenda in the broader economy.”
The attorneys general also remarked that “many companies may have no choice but to comply with your policy preferences, requiring them to restrict further the variety and output of goods and services that are not &#8216;aligned&#8217; with your activist climate agenda” because of the “extraordinary market power of participants in the agreement.”
The alliance includes numerous powerful companies, including Deloitte, EY, Bloomberg, KPMG, and S&amp;P Global.
The attorneys general highlight potentially problematic aspects of the alliance, such as an agreement among signatories to “coordinate their agenda with numerous other climate-activist pressure groups” and “coordinate their market pressure” to achieve the aims of the NZFSPA.
It goes on to request that the signatories “describe in detail all communications related to your commitments to NZFSPA,” as well as communications concerning membership in GFANZ. Signatories are also asked to describe actions they have taken to fulfill their NZFSPA obligations, as well as ways in which they have “materially deviated from your NZFSPA commitments.” The letter requests that the information be provided by October 13th.
“If financial service providers are colluding to limit consumer choices and manipulate market outcomes in support of international climate activists, that could violate our antitrust and consumer protection laws,” Tennessee Attorney General Johnathan Skrmetti explained in a statement. “Decisions about energy policy should be made by our elected representatives, not by transnational corporate alliances.”
Will Hild, Executive Director of Consumer’s Research, lauded the attorneys general for “their important work defending consumers from yet another net zero conspiracy.”
“Financial services providers must understand that no matter what virtue signaling label they slap on it, collusion between members of an industry to drive up costs for Americans is immoral and illegal,” Hild said, pointing out the “massive potential liabilities” associated with the alliance. “They should cooperate with the investigation, and most importantly, stop conspiring against the public. No financial service provider has a legitimate reason to be part of NZFSPA.&#8221;
The letter comes after several insurance companies <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/allianz-decides-leave-net-zero-insurance-alliance-2023-05-25/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">left the alliance</a> following a previous <a href="https://attorneygeneral.utah.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2023-05-15-NZIA-Letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> from 23 attorneys general warning the companies of potential legal ramifications associated with their involvement in the alliance.

Judge Gavel

Attorneys General Warn Financial Institutions Of Antitrust Violations Over Climate Activism

Attorney General

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/target" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Target</a> investor has sued the retail chain, saying that it misled investors over risks related to its LGBT marketing and diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.
A lawsuit filed on Tuesday by America First Legal (AFL), co-counsel Boyden Gray PLLC, and Lawson Huck Gonzalez PLLC on behalf of investor Brian Craig in Florida <a href="https://aflegal.org/america-first-legal-sues-target-corporation-on-behalf-of-shareholder-for-making-misleading-statements-regarding-managements-reckless-esg-and-dei-mandates-that-cost-shareholders-over-12-billi/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> that Target cost shareholders lost billions of dollars because of its LGBT, ESG, and DEI policies.
The lawsuit <a href="https://media.aflegal.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/08204301/Complaint-filed-stamped-copy.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accuses</a> Target and its board of directors of betraying “both Target’s core customer base of working families and its investors by making false and misleading statements concerning Target’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) mandates that led to its disastrous 2023 children-and-family themed LGBT-Pride campaign.”
Craig <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2023/08/09/target-sued-by-investor-over-backlash-to-lgbtq-merchandise.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">owns</a> over 200 Target shares and says that the corporation’s board of directors and management misled investors about risk management over social and political messaging. The lawsuit says that Target did not consider potential criticism from more conservative customers when rolling out ESG and DEI mandates.
Target market value has <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/target-hit-with-shareholder-lawsuit-after-pride-backlash-damaged-stock-price" target="_blank" rel="noopener">declined</a> $14 billion in value after backlash mounted to its June “Pride” month displays. During the controversy, Target was <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lets-make-a-deal-host-wayne-brady-reveals-he-is-pansexual" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> for offering for sale “tuck-friendly” and “extra crotch coverage” female swimsuits.
In addition to the female swimwear designed to accommodate male genitalia, the Target &#8220;Pride&#8221; <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/target-releases-latest-pride-collection-complete-with-kids-books-and-rainbow-items-for-babies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">collection included</a> small shirts with phrases like “Just Be You And Feel The Love,” Pride-themed onesies, as well as rainbow-colored leggings, tutu skirts, and jumpers.
Target removed some products and moved &#8220;Pride displays&#8221; to less prominent positions in some stores after scrambling following some conservative commentators urging a boycott of the popular retail store.
The lawsuit says the displays “embroiled Target in the culture war and caused Target to experience the biggest stock decline in the company’s history, costing investors billions.”
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1690455510071000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0zc8zwWGoXeRzcNJLiJVWI">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
AFL Vice President Gene Hamilton said that Target’s board and management did not follow federal law making publicly-traded companies issue certain statements to investors on risk management.
“As alleged in our complaint, Target failed to execute its duty to its shareholders by making statements that led them to believe that political and social risks were being assessed &#8212; when in reality, the only thing Target’s Board and Management cared about was how effectively they fulfilled the desires of various metrics advanced by leftwing ‘stakeholders,’” Hamilton said.
Back in June, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk predicted that Target would face a lawsuit over the dramatic loss of value.
“Won’t be long before there are class-action lawsuits by shareholders against the company and board of directors for destruction of shareholder value,&#8221; Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1664618300041469952" target="_blank" rel="noopener">posted on X</a>.

After Target Lowers Sales Forecast, Shares Plummet

Investor Sues Target Over ‘Disastrous’ 2023 Pride Campaign After Company Loses Billions In Market Value

Investor Sues Target Over 'Disastrous' 2023 Pride Campaign After Company Loses Billions In Market Value

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

LGBT

Pride

Target

It used to be conventional wisdom in the field of economics that corporations should do everything they can to make a profit and maximize shareholder value. That was the whole point of a corporation. It was taught in every high school econ textbook, just like the principle of supply and demand, there was this idea that, if for some reason a corporation decided to spend a ton of money on social causes, instead of growing the business, then they were doing something wrong. They were misusing shareholder funds. They were engaging in a form of social engineering, which is unethical, and maybe even illegal. Pretty much everyone agreed with that.
In the last decade or so, though, this reasoning has fallen completely out of favor. Major corporations now see social engineering as their primary objective, whatever the consequences might be. Blackrock and Vanguard are fixated on E.S.G. scores, which means making sure that companies are promoting values like &#8220;sustainability&#8221; and &#8220;inclusivity&#8221; and so on. They care about E.S.G. more than profitability in some cases.
You often hear this phenomenon being described as &#8220;wokeness.&#8221; But that doesn&#8217;t fully capture what&#8217;s happening. Wokeness implies a kind of pie-in-the-sky naivete. It suggests that corporate executives from the coastal states are being earnest when they, for example, schedule “Pride Nights” at NHL games, or pay Dylan Mulvaney to promote Bud Light. 
What&#8217;s actually happening is more sinister. Corporate wokeness is coordinated. It&#8217;s disingenuous. Its aim is not &#8220;inclusivity,&#8221; whatever that means. Instead, the goal of these corporations is to ensure that conservatives never hold any power in this country ever again. What&#8217;s often called &#8220;wokeness,&#8221; in reality, is best described as a hatred of traditional values. It&#8217;s an effort to stamp out conservatives and to destroy them. With very few exceptions, no matter what the company, no matter what the industry, this is the goal of corporate America. They don&#8217;t see their role as selling products. They understand that their true purpose is to promulgate Left-wing ideology to the point that it&#8217;s dominant and totally unchallenged.
Companies rarely admit this out loud, for obvious reasons. Usually, they bombard you with Left-wing marketing, but they don&#8217;t tell you what their actual objective is. But there is one notable exception that we&#8217;ve just found. We&#8217;ve come across a company that — internally, at least — is willing to say that, yes, they want to wage political warfare on conservatives, and to bring back the glory days of the Obama administration. This is a company that effectively acknowledges that its woke marketing, and indeed its entire product line, is a kind of Trojan horse for something very different.
The company is called &#8220;Harry&#8217;s.&#8221; They make razors. You might know that The Daily Wire has some history with them. Harry&#8217;s surfaced a few years ago as a low-cost alternative to big brands like Gillette. Take a look at this recent advertisement from Harry&#8217;s, to get a sense of their marketing these days:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Harry’s Razors partnered with a “trans man” (female) to promote their razor set
100% of the profits from this set go to the Trevor Project, which promotes gender surgeries for minors <a href="https://t.co/Sb6ZbBT0GA">pic.twitter.com/Sb6ZbBT0GA</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1688015091088707584?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
As you can see from the text in that video, Harry&#8217;s is promoting this idea that it&#8217;s &#8220;gender-affirming&#8221; for women to buy razors and shave. The point of buying a Harry&#8217;s razor, in this case, isn&#8217;t really to fulfill any useful function. It&#8217;s to make women feel like men.
The ad is, among other things, an endorsement of self-mutilation. Harry&#8217;s has selected an actor — apparently a woman who had her breasts cut off — and they&#8217;re celebrating that decision. Pause for a second to consider how remarkable this is. You might remember that it wasn&#8217;t too long ago that the Left claimed to abhor female genital mutilation, in places like Africa. And now here they are, endorsing the practice to sell cheap razors.
The key question is: Why is Harry&#8217;s doing this? Do they really think this is going to help them sell more razors? Are they just hopelessly naive? 
We don&#8217;t have to look far to find the answer to that question. Here&#8217;s the CEO of Harry&#8217;s, suggesting that something else might be going on. This is a clip that was just unearthed by the popular Twitter account &#8220;End Wokeness.&#8221; Watch:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Here is the CEO of Harry’s Razors
He calls dads “non-birthing parents” and moms “birthing parents”
He says the company is “socially-minded” <a href="https://t.co/Lrxy3vpciX">pic.twitter.com/Lrxy3vpciX</a>
&mdash; End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1688248780280274944?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 6, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The CEO of Harry&#8217;s is using terms like &#8220;birthing parents&#8221; to describe women, and &#8220;non-birthing-parents&#8221; to describe men. He sounds more like a Berkeley coed than the leader of a major company. If you ran a poll, you&#8217;d probably find that a very small percentage of the country talks like this. Maybe something like .0001%. So why is he doing it? If he&#8217;s not trying to increase profits or grow his business, what is he doing exactly?
Those are good questions. So, after seeing that clip, we decided to take a closer look at Harry&#8217;s. And now we have the clearest possible answer to that question. We&#8217;ve unearthed Harry&#8217;s internal <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5390c8aee4b0e52ffc20c4d2/t/5bbd184ee79c709a3ed2fe0e/1539119194494/Ricebowl+Strategy_Harrys_Painting+the+World+Orange.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;global strategy&#8221; agenda</a> from 2018. The document is called &#8220;Painting the World Orange: Positioning Our Way Into a More Progressive Future.&#8221; It was put together by an external agency that Harry&#8217;s selected.
Here&#8217;s a direct quote from that document. As you read this, keep in mind that again, this is supposedly a company with the primary purpose of making razors: 
<blockquote>&#8220;We recognised that rigidly binary gendered constructs were part of the toxic scaffolding we needed to slowly dismantle. &#8230; ‘The Future is Orange’ became our internal shorthand to refer to the thinking and ‘orange’, we hoped, would begin to refer to all the behaviours by which we would embody progressive values for men everywhere. We were excited. This was a brave, bold positioning that could, we hoped, shift culture significantly.&#8221;</blockquote>
The document goes on to mourn the fact that Barack Obama is no longer in office. It then explains that, if you voted for Trump, supported Brexit, or recognize that boys are boys, then you&#8217;re “blatantly racist,” “divisive,&#8221; and &#8220;toxic.&#8221; The strategy document states that Harry&#8217;s, as a company, needs to “fight.”
Harry&#8217;s staffed up accordingly. Per this strategy document, Harry’s then took a company-wide turn to become “an army of energized and motivated social change agents” for “progressive masculinity.” 
What&#8217;s amazing about all this is that it contradicts Harry&#8217;s own studies on this topic. Around the same time that this strategy document was released, Harry&#8217;s commissioned something called a <a href="https://www.menandboyscoalition.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/The-Harrys-Masculinity-Report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;masculinity report.&#8221; </a>The report found that men who valued traditional gender roles were more likely to have a positive mindset than men who didn’t. 
But Harry&#8217;s didn&#8217;t change their approach in light of this research. Instead, they enacted a policy to cut off business relationships with companies that don’t align with their radical views. In other words, you must share Harry&#8217;s “progressive values,” or lose any contract you have with Harry&#8217;s.
One of the companies that Harry&#8217;s dropped, as you might have heard, was The Daily Wire. Harry&#8217;s was upset, allegedly, that Michael Knowles said boys are boys, and girls are girls. You probably know that story. The Daily Wire&#8217;s co-founder, Jeremy Boreing, launched Jeremy&#8217;s Razors in response.
<h4><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-1199-pop-star-falls-to-his-knees-and-apologizes-for-saying-boys-are-boys-and-girls-are-girls-member-exclusive" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Matt Walsh Show</a></h4>
But Harry&#8217;s didn&#8217;t simply cut off companies like The Daily Wire. They also started putting a lot of money into groups that sexualize children.
Since 2019, for example, Harry’s has partnered with The Trevor Project, which bills itself primarily as a suicide hotline. Harry&#8217;s has given <a href="https://shortyawards.com/7th-impact/harrys-pride-2022-initiative" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seven figures in contributions</a> to the Trevor Project, in fact. As we&#8217;ve mentioned before on this show, the Trevor Project has lately been pushing the lie that castrating and surgically mutilating children will reduce their mental distress. The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/09/01/mom-discovers-depravity-in-trevor-projects-trans-chat-room/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reports</a> that the Trevor Project also runs a chat room for children in which adults discuss quote, “nullification surgery,&#8221; meaning &#8220;removing all external genitalia.&#8221; People in the chat room also detail their masturbation addictions, autogynephilic tendencies, and BDSM practices — all of which could be viewed by children.
Harry&#8217;s also donated 100% of the profits from its recent &#8220;Pride&#8221; campaign to organizations such as the U.K. organization, &#8220;Mermaids,&#8221; which is unapologetically in favor of sexualizing and supposedly &#8220;transitioning&#8221; minors. The Daily Telegraph <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/25/exclusive-trans-charity-mermaids-giving-breast-binders-children/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> that Mermaids offered “advice to users who present themselves as young as 13 that controversial hormone-blocking drugs are safe and ‘totally reversible.'&#8221; Additionally, Mermaids offered chest binders to children as young as 13-years-old, without any parental consent. A Mermaids moderator also <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11260169/Trans-charity-Mermaids-scandal-unfolding-eyes.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> &#8220;congratulated a teenage user for deciding that they were transgender by the age of 13 and deciding that they wanted drugs and ‘all the surgeries.’&#8221;
It&#8217;s clear that, regardless of how they bill themselves, Harry&#8217;s isn&#8217;t really a razor company. It&#8217;s a vehicle for Left-wing ideologues who want to transform this country.
 And Harry&#8217;s isn&#8217;t alone. The only thing that separates Harry&#8217;s from pretty much every other major corporation in the country is that they put all of this in writing. That&#8217;s it. So-called &#8220;woke&#8221; corporations like Harry&#8217;s aren&#8217;t misguided, or overly idealistic, or stupid. They know exactly what they&#8217;re doing. They hate you and they want to destroy you. It is nothing less than an act of self-flagellation to voluntarily give your money to businesses like this. They are spitting in your face, and you are paying them for the service. And if that’s how Harry’s or any other Left-wing company wants to operate, that’s their prerogative. But we are still a country where the vast majority of people don’t refer to mothers as “birthing parents,” and don’t think it’s a good idea for women to have cosmetic double mastectomies, and don’t believe in sterilizing and castrating children.
* * *
<a class="c-link" href="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/collections/jeremys-shaving/products/jeremy-s-precision-5-starter-set?selling_plan=2746417365" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://www.jeremysrazors.com/collections/jeremys-shaving/products/jeremy-s-precision-5-starter-set?selling_plan=2746417365" data-sk="tooltip_parent">Jeremy’s Razors</a> was started because you shouldn’t be giving your money to woke corporations that hate you. For woke-free razors and more go to <a class="c-link" href="http://jeremysrazors.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="http://jeremysrazors.com" data-sk="tooltip_parent">jeremysrazors.com</a> today!
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>

Abstract business background concept with double exposure and network effects

Social Engineering Is Now The Primary Objective Of Woke Corporations

Corporations

Social Justice

Woke Culture

Elon Musk slammed environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) during an interview late last week, saying it was effectively a &#8220;rebranded&#8221; form of communism.
Musk made the remarks during a Friday discussion on an X Space while discussing corporations investing in implementing the woke agenda into their firms.
“We don’t basically do some sort of like bizarre, like communism rebranded thing, which is like a lot of what ESG is and to be inflicted upon corporate America without the knowledge of the actual shareholders, which is what&#8217;s going on!&#8221; Musk said.
&#8220;The big firms that you hear are BlackRock, you know, Vanguard, all them, they’re like, they&#8217;re setting themselves up for the biggest class action lawsuit in the history of class action lawsuits by an order of magnitude!” he added.
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ElonMusk</a> calls the ESG scam &quot;communism rebranded,&quot; predicting rogue asset managers (like <a href="https://twitter.com/BlackRock?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@BlackRock</a>) will face the largest class action lawsuits in history over their political activism: <a href="https://t.co/HITs0mZfQl">pic.twitter.com/HITs0mZfQl</a>
&mdash; Will Hild (@WillHild) <a href="https://twitter.com/WillHild/status/1686005507645911040?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 31, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Musk has repeatedly slammed ESG over the last few years, going as far as to <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1668829554448777216">call</a> it the &#8220;devil.&#8221;
Earlier this year, independent journalist Michael Shellenberger posted a thread about the World Economic Forum’s secretive finances. When he mentioned that the controversial organization utilizes ESG criteria, Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1614786284547112961?s=51&amp;t=eMkba5aAQVs4KquWM6uVNQ" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a> that “the S in ESG stands for Satanic.”
Last year, Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526958110023245829?s=46&amp;t=nmw6FkSXxXLIo_svsr87Kw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">noted</a> that S&amp;P Global provided oil and gas conglomerate ExxonMobil with a stellar ESG score, while Tesla, which claims a mission of reducing climate change through electric vehicles, did not make the list.
<a class="c-link c-link--focus-visible" href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-stringify-link="https://onelink.to/dwapp" data-sk="tooltip_parent">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP</a>
&#8220;Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social &amp; governance (ESG) by S&amp;P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list!&#8221; Musk tweeted. &#8220;ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Exxon is rated top ten best in world for environment, social &amp; governance (ESG) by S&amp;P 500, while Tesla didn’t make the list!
ESG is a scam. It has been weaponized by phony social justice warriors.
&mdash; Elon Musk (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1526958110023245829?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 18, 2022</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Elon Musk Visits Germany

Elon Musk Slams Woke ESG Initiatives: It’s ‘Communism Rebranded’

Celebrities

Elon Musk

Menu

ESG