Glenn’s warned you about the dangers of ESG for months now, and several states in the U.S. currently are trying to pass legislation to ban it. But Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich may have a new argument to end ESG once and for all: it violates anti-law trust laws. Though he’s still investigating the idea, this COULD be the key we need. Brnovich explains to Glenn all the details…
Transcript
Below is a rush transcript that may contain errors
GLENN: All right. Let me go to Mark Brnovich. He's the Arizona attorney general. He wrote an op-ed, in the Wall Street Journal, a couple days ago. ESG may be an anti-trust violation.
I love this approach. Welcome to the program, Mark.
MARK: Thank you, Glenn. Thanks for having me on. Thanks for all that you do.
GLENN: So tell me how you view ESG, and what it means to the people of Arizona, and the people of the world.
MARK: To the people of the world. People especially in this country. ESG. I'm sure your listeners know, stands for the environmental, social, and governance movement. And basically, these are far left, progressive, woke liberals, that want to control your life and your livelihood. And what they've been doing. They essentially have been organizing or, you know, the Wall Street Journal banks. And money managers. You know, people like climate action. 100-plus. 65 million. Trillion. Trillion with a T in assets. And what they do, they put pressure on companies. Pressures on banks, to be very woke and very progressive. And we've seen this manifest itself most recently. In the energy sector. Because they want to be green. They want to be socialist.
So banks now. And financial institutions are being pressured, not to invest or not to provide any sort of funding for oil, gas, things that essentially made us energy independent. And I think especially, Glenn, in light of the events that we've seen the last couple of weeks. That, even though these climate activists -- the pointy-headed liberals think they know best, literally, we see what's going on in the world, and it proves more than ever. The United States and our security depends on being energy independent, and not woke.
GLENN: And it -- it is -- would you agree, it is going to trickle down to the average individual?
I mean, I won't be able to buy, perhaps the car I want. Because my ESG score will be too low. I can guarantee you, it will be.
MARK: Yeah, this really. It's the woke, neo-Marxist. And we saw part of it going on, with China, with the individual scores. The social basis. This impact, that it will have, on every single person listening. What happens with the ESG movement is being pushed. The far left. It's the fossil fuel haters. And they're using your 401(k). Your investment funds.
You know, if you have any sort of retirement plan. And they're using that, basically to drive that woke agenda. So everything from the price of energy.
Obviously, you know, when we're -- we're not drilling into Anwar. Or we're not doing permits.
The oil companies are -- the gas and coal companies can't get financing. That means high energy costs. And high energy costs, as we all know, ends up that we pay more for our groceries. We pay more for our milk. And we know, and I know, that this isn't going to stop in the energy industry.
We've already seen this with things like the firearms industries. We'll see it with religious liberties.
So, ultimately, this is the far left, that neo-Marxist goal of, I want to, but the Marxists are going to control the financial institutions and the woke money managers. And they will use that, as Lenin said, the proverbial, using our own rope to hang us with.
GLENN: Okay. So why do you say this is an anti-trust violation?
MARK: Well, I think -- you know, once again, I've been a tried and trued principled conservative my entire life here in Arizona. And I think that very often, the left comes up, and is consistent at pushing their agenda. And our folks, us on the right, need to think sometimes outside the box.
So we know this is wrong. What they're doing. We know the folks that identified this problem issue. And so now, the issue, Glenn, is what do we do about it?
So I have certain tools in my toolbox. The attorney general. And I said, well, wait a minute. Anti-trust law said that, you can't have agreements between competitors, artificially between competition. Are there third party agreements that were strained?
That result in collusion, that harmed consumers.
GLENN: Yeah.
MARK: And so we've begun an investigation. I'm not saying, for sure it's going. But I do think that if your 401(k), or your pension plans, your retirement savings are being used to facilitate a political agenda by big banks and big money managers, that very well could be a form of collusion, that's harming consumers.
GLENN: Well, I just think this is genius, quite honestly.
And I can't imagine, you can't find it. My book is full of footnotes, on all of the things that you're doing. And you can -- I mean, the agreements that the banks have signed, have said, we're getting out of this kind of business.
We're no longer going to make loans, to these kinds of businesses. Our standards on social justice are this. And it is happening. It is -- it's like the mob, just a very buttoned up mob. When, you know, they -- they just -- they call each other, and they say, boy, you're really putting yourself at reputational risk. Which means, you're going to be put out of business, if you don't get on this side.
MARK: Glenn, you hit the nail on the head, as always. And you're absolutely right. The key to this. From a legal perspective. We know that, well, he's -- under third party agreements, either formal or informal, that are restraining competition. And are essentially inviting people to clued to advance their far left agenda. And you know that incremental life -- the left is very organized. And there's a cult on our right. And I know you talked about this. What's going on. Critical Race Theory. 1619 Project. How they're trying to get young people to aid our country. I know I've sued the universities over everything from giving tuition, to people who don't have legal status, to what they're doing with their sweetheart real estate deals.
So we -- meaning, people like you, people like me, need to help make sure our kids understand what's going on is crony capitalism. And you're getting the neo-Marxist, socialist companies, that are feeding the alligator, and hoping that they eat them last.
And we all know -- you know. Your listeners know. That every revolution will eventually eat itself because the -- the left. These banks, these money managers, are playing footsy with the far left.
They will never be far left enough for them. There's always going to be something else they need to do. And eventually, they will destroy this one. And they're already on that. That's what I'm fighting on.
GLENN: So when will you have an answer? And what does this path? Your research does come back, and say, yeah. I think I can prove that.
What does that mean?
MARK: Well, hopefully we actually started the process. And a lot of it, quite frankly, is confidential by statute. And no person worth their salt is ever going to say, what are they going to do, before they get all the facts and evidence?
GLENN: Correct.
MARK: I assure you, we take this seriously. And we've already started to get some materials, and we're reviewing it. That will probably lead to more subpoenas, more discussions. I am sure, they will probably object to some stuff. And they will probably end up in court somewhere, fighting over what we can get and not get. You know, we're hoping.
But unfortunately, the left has some lawyers and lobbyists. And they try to make it miserable for us. And they have the media on their side and everything else.
So they'll play for time sometimes. So we'll do everything we can, to move quickly on this. And get the information. And a lot of it is legally and ethically, we can't --
GLENN: Yeah. Yeah. I understand that.
So, Mark, I appreciate it. When I saw your op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, I thought, this is a great angle to attack from. We have to hit them from all fronts, quite honestly. And I think this one has a really good chance of making a huge difference.
But I will tell you, do not dismiss the pushback from the right.
There are a lot of these RINO Republicans. And honestly, a lot of capitalists, who think, I can't tell the free market, what to do. These are companies. And they choose to do it.
This isn't the free market. This is not the free market. By design, this is to usher in a stakeholder from shareholder capitalism, to stakeholder capitalism. So be -- be very wary of the Republicans, as well. They have been holding things up in some states as well.
MARK: Absolutely. And I understand that. And that's why I made that reference to crony capitalism. And unfortunately, I think that a lot of times, people see what's going on. The sweetheart real estate insider deals. What's going on in public universities.
And so what -- we don't, unfortunately, have that free market. You do have certain leaps. And like I said, we're seeing it with the money managers, the bankers, that actually have a lot of influence. And kind of pick and choose. Who gets to run for what office.
And all this other stuff. Look, Glenn. I'm a public school kid. I'm a first generation American. My family fled communism. You know, I'm playing with house money. Living in the greatest country in the world. So I don't back down from the fight. And it's slow and steady wins the race. And I will keep fighting.
GLENN: Well, thank you, very much, Mark. I appreciate. Mark Brnovich. He's the attorney general from Arizona. Please, keep us up to speed. We'll follow that story for you. By the way, one more story kind of along these lines. Facebook's parent company, meta,has announced a new tool that will automatically delete posts containing misinformation, before they're published. Now, I would like to know, what that misinformation is.
Is it like a week ago, there are no weapons of mass destruction? No bio labs? Et cetera, et cetera. To this week. Yeah. Kind of looks like we are involved. Is it that kind of misinformation, that changes all the time? Incoming posts, according to Facebook. Incoming posts containing content related -- rated by a third party fact-checker, uh-huh, as false are declined before they're even seen in the group.
The suspension ability is an upgrade from Facebook's mute button, which can permanently prevent users from commenting on a page. Now pages can temporarily suspend users for a set period of time. Communities can only thrive, as places to connect, when they are safe.
These new tools will help administrators prevent the spread of misinformation. And manage interactions, in their group.
The other updates, include the ability to suspend page members and automatically decline member requests from users via the admin assist page.
So they're working for you, and I'm sure this is going to work, you know, for conservatives.
Well, they love us so much. They might even work better for us, than it does for those who support all the leftist causes.
STU: That's the way it always works for us. Any time, there's this type of stuff going on. It always affects us, in such a positive way. I can't think of any way to stop it.
GLENN: Yeah. All right. Let me tell you about Patriot Mobile.
Ever take a minute just to stop and go through the list of companies that you do business with, every day, in your head?
Last night, I showed a chart of all the companies that are involved. Bite, this portion of the program, brought to you by Coca-Cola. Reminding you, if you're white, you're a racist.
But all of the companies, that we do business with, governor too -- do they align?
I will tell you, almost none of them. By the way, I hate the Walt Disney company. And I have the biggest -- yes. I am the biggest.
STU: What?
GLENN: You know me. I own a lot of Walt's stuff. I love Walt Disney. I hate the Walt Disney company.
Hate them. Hate them.
STU: Now, you have gone to Disney approximately 115,000 times.
GLENN: Hate them. Never.
STU: Why?
GLENN: Hate them.
Did you see what the CEO did yesterday?
He was getting -- I'm getting a word in my ear. Please, do the commercial. Talk about this in a second.
STU: Well, this relates pretty closely to Patriot Mobile and the stuff that they do.
GLENN: It does. Patriot Mobile is not a woke company. They are a company that is wide awake. By the way, did you know that that was -- another story I have to tell you -- did you know that that was a big deal, leading up to Abraham Lincoln, the Wide Awake? The Wide Awakers, or Wide Awake Club? Anyway, it's weird that it's coming back, around now.
Don't be woke. Be wide awake.