The Gay Pride flag flying against a blue sky

This is why companies are pushing LGBTQ+

Everywhere you look, brands are pushing LGBTQ+ messaging. Think they’re just virtue signaling? No — they are being extorted by the country’s top three investment companies — BlackRock, Vanguard, and State Street Bank — and the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world.

In an April 7 article titled “Inside the CEI system pushing brands to endorse celebs like Dylan Mulvaney,” New York Post author Dana Kennedy reveals a CCP-style social credit system called the Corporate Equality Index (CEI) that ranks companies based on five categories for “inclusiveness.”

The system is enforced by an organization called the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). Led by Kelley Robinson, who previously served as executive director of Planned Parenthood and as a political organizer for Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, HRC is the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world.

The George Soros-backed group issues report cards for America’s largest companies, rewarding or penalizing them according to CEI ratings criteria. According to HRC, more than 840 U.S. companies achieved high CEI scores in its latest report.

Businesses that earn the maximum 100 index points are awarded the title of “Best Place To Work For LGBTQ Equality.” Fifteen of the top 20 Fortune-ranked companies received 100% ratings last year.

Among the companies to receive perfect CEI scores in 2022 were Amazon, Apple, Google, and Walmart.

Companies that do not receive high CEI scores can be punished financially.

The five major ratings criteria for CEI include:

  • Workforce Protections (5 points): Provides protections for sexual orientation, gender identity, and expression.
  • Inclusive Benefits (50 points): Provides health insurance for same- and different-sex spouses and partners, including equal health coverage for transgender individuals “without exclusion for ‘medically necessary care’” (I assume this means sex-change surgery).
  • Supporting an Inclusive Culture (25 points): Includes gender identity and sexual orientation training; intersectionality training (mandatory); annual surveys that allow employees the option to identify as LGBTQ+; gender-neutral dress codes and “trans-inclusive restroom/facilities policy”; and gender transition guidelines with supportive restroom, dress code and documentation guidance.
  • Corporate Social Responsibility (20 points): Includes LGBTQ employee recruitment and outreach efforts; marketing or advertising to consumers (including advertising with LGBTQ+ content or sponsoring LGBTQ organizations and events — this is how we get transgender spokespeople such as Dylan Mulvaney); and demonstrating public support for LGBTQ+ equality.
  • Responsible Citizenship (–25 points): Deducts points for “a large-scale official or public anti-LGBTQ blemish on their recent records.” Examples include “directing corporate charitable contributions to organizations whose primary mission includes advocacy against LGBTQ equality,” which of course could include donating to Christian groups.

From The Post‘s article:

The CEI is a lesser-known part of the burgeoning ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) “ethical investing” movement increasingly pushed by the country’s top three investment firms. ESG funds invest in companies that oppose fossil fuels, push for unionization, and stress racial and gender equity over merit in hiring and board selection.

As a result, some American CEOs are more concerned about pleasing BlackRock, Vanguard and State Street Bank — who are among the top shareholders of most American publicly-traded corporations (including Nike, Anheuser-Busch and Kate Spade) — than they are about irritating conservatives, numerous sources told The Post.

What is ESG investing?

You may have heard about ESG investing. Derided by many as “woke” investing, ESG investing allows fund managers to funnel money into green-energy firms or companies with left-leaning ideologies. I’ve heard the stocks generally don’t perform as well as the stocks of “non-woke” companies because, as we now see, these companies may be more concerned with following progressive agendas than fulfilling their fiduciary duties to shareholders.

In March, Biden used his first veto to undo a Trump-era regulation which effectively barred employers from selecting ESG funds for their company 401K plans. Will this be good news or bad news for your retirement savings?

Wielding CEI like a club

James Lindsay, a political podcaster who spoke to The Post, said the HRC administers the CEI ranking “like an extortion racket, like the Mafia” — sending representatives to companies every year to tell them what they need to do to keep their CEI score.

Entrepreneur and Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy told The Post that the big-three fund managers all embrace ESG doctrine in how they apply pressure to top corporate management teams and boards. In many cases, their influence determines executive pay and bonuses and who gets re-elected or re-appointed to boards.

Said Ramaswamy to The Post, “They can make it very difficult for you if you don’t abide by their agendas.”

All hail the ESG gestapo

So, there you have it. All of this LGBTQ+ stuff you’ve been seeing lately — whether it’s Bud Light, Hershey’s, and Nike all hiring transgender activists as spokespeople; the Jack Daniels Pride campaign, which features former contestants of RuPaul’s Drag Race; or M&Ms candy redesigning its spokescandies to look, sound, and act more “inclusive” — is likely the result of this CEI system that’s been shoved down companies’ throats by progressive elites and the so-called Human Rights Campaign with Democrat-party ties.

Here’s what it all means: America’s brands are now being subsidized by the world’s largest investment firms to push liberal/Democrat/woke agendas. As a result, their primary allegiance is no longer to shareholders, but to BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street Bank and powerful lobbyists such as the HRC. The ESG money these firms pay to push their agendas more than makes up for any revenue the companies will lose from consumer boycotts and lost sales, meaning the incentive now is to chase higher CEI ratings rather than to satisfy customers or fulfill their fiduciary duties.

The bottom line is that companies are no longer producing products for consumers for profits, but producing propaganda for the elites for a payoff. It’s no longer capitalism, but backdoor Communism, and it’s happening right under our noses.

I wonder, what other agendas are these elite corporate controllers and lobbyists trying to push, and what other outcomes are they attempting to influence?

Read The Post’s article here. The Daily Mail published a similar story on CEI and ESG influence on April 8.

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37 comments

  1. Yes, Black people are overrepresented in the extreme, LGBTQ+ is also being forced into everything. There is slso an un-organized anti-white sentiment that has been exploding on social media over the last few years. However, your references to George Soros and other sources of the movement are absolutely fiction. It’s too bad you’re steeped in Maga-land non-reality. Obviously you didn’t do any real research. I’m obviously not a right-winger, but I do agree with you that actual minority groups are being set on a pedestal and over-promoted while white people are treated as garbage and are all but vanished from ads and shows. Moderate voices don’t discuss it enough. This doesn’t need to be a MAGA thing.

  2. But why are these companies pushing this agenda and corporate structure? I don’t see the benefit of blackrock and vanguard pushing this agenda as it only hurts productivity of the companies that they’re investing in.

    1. Many of the directors on these boards have bought into the lie that the people they answer to will accept a few of their failures if they destroy the lives of anyone ‘beneath’ them for their failures, no matter how insignificant, and just get rid of anyone who has outlived their usefulness. These people foolishly believe that they aren’t being told the same lies they’re telling their ‘underlings,’ and therefore believe that when the day of reckoning comes, they will be praised for their efforts, much like many of their idols (think Lenin, Stalin, Mao, etc) were. They willfully ignore the realities of these men and think themselves indestructible and immune from consequence, and will only learn the truth when it becomes too late for them to repent.

      In short, the instructors will behave toward their students as they instruct their students to behave toward others. If the instructor teaches the student to betray those who disagree with them or who make minor mistakes, then the instructor will betray the student when the student slips in any way. Note that there is no ‘if’ here, there is only when. Also, this problem has existed for all of time, it is not new, and modern communism is not original, its just a repackaged box of the same garbage that has plagued the world in every era of the past. It’s been romanticized by those determined to bring about a new era of enslavement and captivity for the masses at what they believe will be their benefit.

      There is no benefit, as you have rightly identified, but those who peddle in such nonsense will ignore the consequences of their actions as they intentionally remain ignorant of the suffering they cause. For those of us seeking to overcome these assaults, we need to let the wicked fight each other and offer help to those who, having been rejected, seek help from us, even when they have attacked us before. We must be the instructors who teach our students to forgive and offer a helping hand, no matter how badly we are treated. In doing so, we become the light for future generations to follow, providing a foundation of peace and civility to the oppressed and downtrodden, not so we can boast about our achievements, but so we can help others find the same path we’ve set out upon and in doing so build them up.

      2. ESG is part of the STAKEHOLDER capitalism the big pharmaceutical companies and the other corrupt “pillars” of the “New Normal” — Blackrock, Vanguard and big corporate interests, Soros and the rest — are pushing. Stakeholder capitalism is Communism in drag (not my quote but it describes it correctly) and all these societal digs at all of us are done purposely and are in every level of our society. We are in the middle of a coup. I mean if you truly won the election and you wanted to do what was right for the people of America and the world, why would you spend the last 7 years thwarting a sitting president’s ability to run the country properly according to the Constitution and rule of law while in office and then continue the takedown after he is out and now start another round of medical terrorism before the next election cycle. How many hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted getting rid of a political rival… then use your time in “Office” to destroy the lives of ALL Americans in every way possible. WHAT IS THE REASON for this?
        The only reason could be that we are in the middle of a coup, hence all the propaganda, all the riots, fires, purposely fomented conflict between every group of people, the attack on our Constitutional rights and freedoms, and censoring dissenting voices… it’s textbook.
        So that is why there is forced diversity in commercials. Evolution takes thousands of years, but to me we were evolving naturally out of old ideas about each other and into a better world view and it is my true belief that humanity has more similarities than differences, we all want to work, have purpose, raise our families and live in peace. Don’t buy into the garbage going on, stand firmly against this forced agenda because it is so evil and wrong and against natural law, that it will never succeed. Just say no.
        DD

        1. The choice before us seems to be: The Great Reset vs. The Great Awakening. Thanks to posts like yours, DD, I have hope that we will defeat the former and have an opportunity to create a freer, better, and more enlightened world with the latter.

    2. Two words: Larry Fink. He’s the CEO of BlackRock who’s been pushing this ESG business since at least 2012. Perhaps because he is a true believer, or perhaps because he saw it as a way to grow his business in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis that left finance companies’ reputations in tatters. His strategy: adopt the already written ESG principles of the 2004 United Nations report “Who Cares Wins” to reposition BlackRock as an unimpeachably virtuous and civic-minded company that would appear much more favorably to regulators. So far, it’s worked wonders. BlackRock has grown tremendously and even acquired quasi-governmental power with the Biden administration. (Recently, one of the big MSM papers called BlackRock “the fourth branch of government.”)

      Never mind the fact that ESG policies hurt companies and generally aren’t sustainable. It’s pushing the agenda that’s important, and these people have the money and power to keep their investees afloat until their objectives have been reached.

      You may or may not be interested to know that Larry Fink has recently backed away from using the term “ESG,” understanding that the term has become toxic. (I think the new term is “thematic investing.”) But though the name has changed, the goals remain the same. This marriage of political elites (including Klaus Schwab and his World Economic Forum) and banking elites continues, as do their efforts to fundamentally transform the world in which we live.

    3. It’s the new bread and circuses. As long as people are at each others throats over such trivia as men in skirts competing in women’s sports, they’re not looking at who owns what and the exponential rise in wealth disparity. Political discourse and debate is controlled by BlackRock.

  3. Hello. Here is a link to a video of a guy’s sales pitch for his investments.
    He says George Soros is blown out of the water by Michael Bloomberg and BlackRock’s Larry Fink when it comes to the ESG agenda.
    On the flip side there is Warren Buffet investing in natural gas!

    The Two Men Destroying America

  4. Cranky readers, I wouldn’t normally take you on a deep dive about global elites such as Klaus Schwab and his buddies at the World Economic Forum, but this conversation about ESG investors and those who “set the agenda” for corporations and people around the world is the perfect lead-in. With that in mind, I’d like to share with you an absolutely fascinating discussion between Jonathan Tobin, editor-in-chief of Cleveland Jewish News, and historian and novelist Michael Walsh on The Great Reset — what it is, what it aims to do, and why you should be concerned.

    More than just a delightful listen of an illuminating conversation between two brilliant men, it is must-see material for every freedom-loving person who cares about classical values and the future of the West.

    1. Yes, climate change denialists like Michael Walsh are leading the charge on the Great Reset conspiracy, no surprise there.

      For climate change, I’m going with sources like the IPCC https://report.ipcc.ch/ar6syr/pdf/IPCC_AR6_SYR_SPM.pdf

      Here are couple of counter narratives on the Great Reset for you.

      https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57532368

      https://www.adl.org/resources/blog/great-reset-conspiracy-flourishes-amid-continued-pandemic?psafe_param=1&gclid=CjwKCAjw8-OhBhB5EiwADyoY1Z7xEIqvoFbEMqIOiV61BFZF2e4bk_icRJMVGcfput2uKvk-coFOexoCPFIQAvD_BwE

      BTW, I’m not a fan of the normalization of transgenderism either. I strongly believe there is a social contagion element to it. In other words, it is not a conspiracy driven by “elites”, but rather a social phenomenon manifesting as byproduct of the predominance of social media and smart phones.

      See this talk by Jonathan Haidt

      1. Chris, I’m just curious: If the climate crisis is as dire as they say, then what do you make of rich and powerful people such as Barack Obama, John Kerry, and Bill Gates buying multi, multi-million-dollar mansions on beachfront property in recent years? Aren’t those expensive homes going to be underwater soon?

        manmade global warming and climate change is a hoax

        If rising sea levels are set to wipe out entire coastlines as soon as, well, 23 years ago, then why on Earth are these people, who are obviously so smart and knowledgeable and concerned about the threat of man-made climate change, making such unfathomably stupid purchases?

        The answer, I think, is because they don’t believe it themselves.

        Some might even say they are promoting fear of “climate change” for the same reason they did COVID — as a means to gain money, power, and control.

        Great Reset, anyone?

          1. Snopes? My dear friend, please listen closely.

            We’ve known each other a long time. You know I love and respect you. You know I’m no dummy and I would never steer you wrong. Right?

            You are going to want to resist this with every fiber of your being, but you need to break free of the chains of the mainstream media.

            The MSM are captured and completely controlled. At the very least, they are a paid propaganda arm of one political party. (There is a reason why fully 50 percent of Americans no longer merely disbelieve the media, but are actually convinced the media intends to deceive them.)

            That is Step 1. Step 2 is understanding that this is not about Left vs. Right, Democrat vs. Republican. Not anymore (if it ever was). No, this is 100% about the unelected corporate elite and people like Klaus Schwab at the WEF vs. all the rest of us. Those people have infected and infested virtually all of our institutions — government, media, healthcare, Hollywood — corrupting them completely from top to bottom.

            “Trust the science,” I hear you say. Except the science is bought and paid for. The doctors, researchers, and scientists who get the grant money are without exception the ones who support the approved narratives. Period. Meanwhile, any brave men and women who try to offer contrary findings, information, or opinions, are silenced, canceled, ridiculed, destroyed. It’s been a constant thing since COVID. Some of the top doctors in their fields have been stripped of their credentials and medical licenses for warning about vaccine damage and side effects, and for simply trying to tell the public about low-cost, easily accessible therapeutic solutions that work much better than the so-called vaccines, and without destroying our immune systems.

            Look into Dr. Pierre Kory, former Chief of the Critical Care Service and Medical Director of the Trauma and Life Support Center at the University of Wisconsin. Look what he’s been trying to tell us about the drug with the name that starts with an ‘i.’ Be sure to use a search engine like Qwant.com because God knows Google is thoroughly captured.

            If you want to know, it was the whole COVID thing that woke me up. I saw how hard they pushed the fear, how quick they were to lock down our lives and the economy. I questioned how quickly (and simultaneously) the big pharmaceutical companies all came up with “vaccines” for a novel coronavirus — a common group of viruses for which there has never in the history of the world been a vaccine. I asked myself why government and the media were so adamant about pushing the jabs — “a shot in every arm,” they wanted — and why they were all so eager to censor, suppress, and destroy anyone who dared to voice a contrary view. I asked why Dr. Fauci and the CDC changed their mask recommendations five or six times, and why even today no one is talking about the research showing that masks are essentially useless against “COVID” while introducing a host of their own health problems. I asked why Pfizer wanted 55 years to release its vaccine trial safety data, and why a moment later it asked the courts for 75 years instead. I asked myself why, when hospitals were supposedly overloaded with COVID patients, entire teams of nurses were choreographing stupid dances and filming themselves frolicking for the media, and why citizen journalists who visited these hospitals reported that many of these “overloaded” wards were virtually empty.

            On and on and on and on and on.

            One question led to another, one revelation led to another. Now, I no longer trust the media. If you take a story you read in the paper or see on the news and you turn it 180 degrees opposite of what they’re telling you — you’ll very often wind up much closer to the truth.

            I am reminded of a saying, and I’m going to get it wrong, but you’ll get the idea: “The most effective prison ever devised is the cage you cannot see.” That is what we are dealing with. But once you escape that prison, you won’t ever see the world the same again. I won’t kid you, the reality is in many ways more terrible and sad than anything you have ever imagined. But I think you’re up for it, and I know how much of an advocate you are for honesty and truth.

            I realize how difficult this will be. You are going to be in for a shitload of cognitive dissonance. But you need to question everything. You need to fall down some rabbit holes and see what you find. Even the sources I “trust,” I try to poke holes in the things they say about a dozen times a day. It serves me very well. I see things more clearly now, I am better able to navigate the world and make better decisions for myself and my family. I can spot an MSM lie or deception from the jump — fully six months to a year or more before the rest of the public eventually learns the truth.

            This is your moment; I think one of the greatest and most profound opportunities of your life. I hope you will take it.

            Let’s continue this discussion offline if you are interested.

            We need people like you awake and aware to help make the world — the real world — a better place.

      2. Retired MIT Climate Scientist Richard Lindzen exposes the fraud and lies of climate change propaganda. Link.

        1. Interesting interview, David. I don’t want to turn this into a climate change debate, but I agree. The topic has become a political football with bought-and-paid-for science that seems to put entirely too much focus on CO2 levels, which have been many, many times higher than they are today at several points in history, including the Jurassic Period, the Paleozoic Era during the Cambrian Period, and more. Meanwhile, the mass gains of the Antarctic ice sheet are currently outpacing the losses.

      3. “America’s brands are now being subsidized by the world’s largest investment firms to push liberal/Democrat/woke agendas. As a result, their primary allegiance is no longer to shareholders, but to BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street Bank and powerful lobbyists such as the HRC. The ESG money these firms pay to push their agendas more than makes up for any revenue the companies will lose from consumer boycotts and lost sales, meaning the incentive now is to chase higher CEI ratings rather than to satisfy customers or fulfill their fiduciary duties.
        “The bottom line is that companies are no longer producing products for consumers for profits, but producing propaganda for the elites for a payoff. It’s no longer capitalism, but backdoor Communism, and it’s happening right under our noses.”

    1. When I say “globalist” (which I have removed from the article for the sake of clarity), I mean people like Klaus Schwab and his gang at the World Economic Forum, the folks who attend the Bilderberg meetings, and their ilk — the unelected elite who seem to be pulling the strings of world leaders to usher in The Great Reset and a one-world government where there are no sovereign nations.

      Them, and their powerful puppets like ESG czar Larry Fink at BlackRock who are funding the chaos.

      Does that make me a “conspiracy theorist”? I don’t know. These days, the difference between “conspiracy theory” and “truth” seems to be about six months.

      And of course, I mean no offense to Jews. In fact, the article I linked to above (at The Cleveland Jewish News) says this:

      “Walsh and Tobin also agree that while some on the left falsely label the pushback against the Davos set’s agenda as antisemitic, it is, in fact, the woke and the globalists behind the ‘Great Reset’ that are enabling Jew-hatred and the demonization of Israel.”

      Is that the truth? These days, the truth seems exceptionally hard to find, and I’m just doing the best I can with the knowledge I have, and trying every day to improve my understanding of the complex world in which we live.

      Finally, when I say “gestapo” (lowercase G) — again, offending Jews is not my intention. To me, the connotation of authoritarian policing seems apt, and people on both sides of the political spectrum have done so much in recent years to normalize calling their political enemies “Nazis” that I never gave it a second thought.

      Anyone else care to weigh in?

      1. Time to give it a second thought. You offend Jews, whether it’s your intention or not.

        1. Thanks, Perry, but I’ve queried my Jewish friends and not a one of them agrees with you. As it happens, this blog contains a lot of content that people may find offensive, and I can’t account for every taste.

          1. I’ve queried mine. We’re offended. Writing content that intentionally offends is so … how can I put this without causing further offense … pedestrian.

    2. For what it’s worth, Chris, I looked up the word “gestapo” at both Dictionary.com and Merriam-Webster, and neither offers any suggestion that the word may be offensive. It seems that the word has evolved over the past 70 years to also be a synonym for intimidating or strong-arm tactics.

      I would say “I’m sorry if you were offended,” but I think I’ll just quit while I’m behind.

          1. Okay. Use them as a guide to etiquette and make a better choice of words.

            Here’s a rule of thumb to consider: if MTG uses it, then don’t.

  6. Powerful and depressing all at the same time. Thanks Cranky for this post…explains it all. I am even more determined that my kids not watch any of this propaganda bull crap. It seems there is nothing to be done now but watch the country be strangled to death by the progressive elites… they have been trying to kill the Constitution and free enterprise since Woodrow Wilson days without success. The she/him (shim) person thingie in advertising (along with all the forced diversity) may just do the trick for them. Whodathunkit?

  7. Thanks for posting this blog. Further confirmation about what this is ALL about. Not just the rainbow shit, but the “wokeness,” the environmental hysteria, everything. The very people who have screamed the loudest for decades about the Republicans/conservatives and their fatcat compadres are the guiltiest of them all. It’s all about the power, the money, and the control. It’s time for everybody to get “woke,” just get woke about what’s really going on and why. Lions, not Sheep, people. Lions, not Sheep.

  8. LGBTQI transgenders are trying to take over. That Dylan guy is so disgusting. It will never be a woman. I don’t care about pronouns, a girl is a girl and a boy is a boy. No matter what sex you want to be, you will always be what you were born as to me.

    1. The science seems pretty simple, Debra. Humans are born with XX chromosomes (female) or XY chromosomes (male). People can change their clothes, they can surgically or chemically add or remove body parts, but they cannot deny the chromosomes that exist in every cell of their bodies.

    2. Agreed, disgusting. Why is he a so-called influencer? What contributions has he made to the world to warrant being noticed? I imagine he is on hormone suppression therapy. But what about chromosome suppression therapy? Is he on something to negate the “Y” in his genes and allow it to be replaced by an “X”? Like Rob says, you can’t change your chromosomes and that’s what makes a male a male and a female a female, whether you’re human, a dog, a horse, or an elephant. Used to be, a man calling himself a woman warranted a visit from the guys in white coats, if not the police. Now, I can claim to be from Mars and I get the visit from the white coats, while that other guy gets admiration.

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