Alliance Defending Freedom is the leading defender of religious and political speech protection in our nation’s legal system. With fifteen Supreme Court victories and over 70 assists since 2011, no other organization has done more in the courts to protect religious freedom. But several years ago, ADF became a victim of cancel culture at Amazon, which kicked the organization out of being eligible for customers to direct gifts on its Smile program. ADF realized that there was another, perhaps even greater, threat to free speech than government – large corporations. In response, they launched a corporate engagement operation, headed by Jeremy Tedesco, and an objective scoring system called the Viewpoint Diversity Score Business Index, www.viewpointdiversity.com. ADF recently released the third annual edition of this index and Jeremy Tedesco joined us to talk about the trends he has seen. While victory is probably far in the future, progress is being made right now, with more companies being covered by the index, more companies participating in the survey and some companies seeing significant improvements. Tedesco also gives helpful advice and an inspiring call to ordinary shareholders to join the fight. Momentum has shifted our way, and Tedesco invites those who are concerned about “woke capitalism” to move from impotent outrage to engagement and influence.

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We at Bowyer Research worked with a financial advisor to place a proposal on the annual shareholder meeting ballot of Mastercard. One of the rights that comes with placing such proposals is the right to address the board, CEO, and other shareholders present at the meeting directly and unfiltered. Usually, the advisors and ministries we work with give this speech themselves, but in this particular case, the advisor delegated it to me. It’s only three minutes long. Given the grave moral consequences of Mastercard’s actions, I was not my usual, quiet and reserved self. Some issues require a no-holding-back approach.

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In a recent op/ed for the Wall Street Journal, Commissioner of Revenue for the State of Alaska Adam Crum made the case that a recent attempt by blue state pensions to intimidate the board into acquiescing to the demands of anti-oil activists is a violation of the fiduciary duty to put retirees’ life savings ahead of politics. (Exxon Mobil Takes On Climate Extremists - WSJ). He should know. Commissioner Crum is responsible for the oversight of 138 billion dollars in public assets. And as the Commissioner of Revenue, he sits on the boards both of the state’s pension fund and of the state’s Permanent Fund, which receives oil and gas royalties and distributes them and investment earnings as dividends to the citizens of Alaska. After all, it was the discovery of oil and gas, without which, Crum argues, Alaska would never have been permitted to become a state. The Alaska model has also been a tremendous success for indigenous “First Peoples”, with groundbreaking legislation 50 years ago that allowed them to monetize the mineral rights of their land, creating unprecedented prosperity, while at the same time allowing them to their subsistence way of life such as hunting, fishing and whaling. Crum insists on fulfilling his role on the basic principle enshrined in law and long tradition that a trustee must put financial return for beneficiaries as the one and only end of pension management and leaving politics out of it.

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According to Alabama State Auditor Andrew Sorrell, blue state pension plans and the stakeholder capitalism movement have been attempting to intimidate private corporations into imposing policies which have been repeatedly rejected by Americans at the ballot box. Sorrell points out that the demands of anti-energy activists and blue state pension bosses would lead inevitably to an authoritarian shutdown of all oil and gas resources in perpetuity. Particularly ominous is the attempt this week to remove the board of directors of ExxonMobil, the world's largest private oil company, using the states' pension assets, which he wrote about here: State Auditor Andrew Sorrell: Blue state officials play cheap political games ahead of Exxon shareholder meeting (1819news.com). Sorrell offers a serious warning to America about how much our liberties are at stake in this battle to keep politics from invading and weaponizing corporate life.

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A group of blue state officials are attempting to use their pension funds to kick out the board of ExxonMobil because the firm has successfully sued to block an attempt by an activist group to place a proposal on the company's ballot that is hostile to the oil and gas industry. In addition, these states are pressuring Blackrock, JPMorgan Chase, and other asset managers to also vote against the Exxon board. In this episode of Meeting of Minds, Louisiana Treasurer John Fleming explains that if this unprecedented act of intimidation were to succeed, how devastating it would be to his home state, America, and the world. The Treasurer tells why he has urged the pension plans of Louisiana not to participate in this blue state corporate coup attempt (Treasurer Fleming condemns plot to take over Exxon (kedm.org)), and why his fellow red state treasurers have urged America's largest asset managers also not to participate (U.S. Republican states support Exxon in shareholder activism dispute | Reuters). He explains that what is truly at stake is the modern economy itself.

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The battle between red states and ESG is raging in Oklahoma right now. The pro-energy Treasurer Todd Russ is suffering massive backlash for attempting to enforce a law which calls upon the state to not do business with asset managers such as Blackrock that boycott or seek to harm the fossil fuel industry. Russ found himself on the receiving end of a lawsuit from a union boss and attacks from numerous directions, including the Republican Attorney General of the state. Jerry talks in this episode with Tom Jones, President of the American Accountability Foundation (American Accountability Foundation), who has used Freedom of Information Requests to demonstrate the secretive and cozy relationship between various public officials who have been attacking Russ and an influential Blackrock lobbyist. AAF uncovers a disturbing pattern of public officials coordinating strategy with a company blacklisted by the state for acting against the interests of the state’s energy industry. This interview should be a wake-up call to conservative Oklahomans to see that the swamp isn’t just in Washington DC, but everyplace where special interests work against the interests of the people.

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Over twenty states have passed legislation that prohibits the state entrusting the management of state assets to companies that seek to harm the fossil fuel industry. Many of these states have been under attack by mysterious, well-funded, coordinated efforts to discredit those laws and the financial officials who are enforcing them. Right now that backlash is falling hardest against Oklahoma, it's anti-ESG law, and Treasurer Todd Russ, whose job it is to enforce it. Russ talks with Jerry and brings the goods on how Blackrock works against his state's principal industry. He details how, when he attempted to fire Blackrock from managing state assets, out-of-towners with "large briefcases of money" showed up and suddenly there were lawsuits, mysteriously funded studies supportive of Blackrock, and media campaigns launched against the law and himself. Russ explains why it's not just Oklahoma jobs at stake, but the whole world, which needs Oklahoma's energy to stay warm and fed.

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Continuing our series about the battle between Texas and Blackrock (as well as other anti-energy financial entities), we talk in this episode with the chief financial officer of the state of Texas, Comptroller Glenn Hegar. He defends the Texas law which forbids the state from doing business with financial companies that boycott or otherwise seek to harm oil and gas companies. Comptroller Hegar also explains exactly why Blackrock deserves to be on that list and why the $53 billion school fund was right to divest from Blackrock as an enforcement of the law. Comptroller Hegar and other Texas officials are leading the country in fighting for the economic prosperity of energy producing states. But Texas is also saving short-sighted Wall Street firms headquartered in energy dependent states from themselves, because in the long run, all of America is going to need energy from Texas.

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