This conspiracy theory is rooted in 2 sources: an Obama-era effort to stop payment fraud known as ‘Operation Choke Point’ that implicated certain industries (firearms, payday lending, gambling, tobacco, etc); and banks' voluntary commitments to address gun violence, climate change, and other issues.

Conservatives accused banks of ‘discrimination’ and ‘redlining.’ They've tried to use federal regulations, state laws, state-constructed blacklists, law enforcement investigations, and jawboning to force banks to do business with energy companies, firearms businesses, crypto, and other industries.

ESG opponents have framed ESG measures as violating the constitutional rights, namely as a form of “discrimination” against, or “redlining” of, companies in certain sectors. But there is a good reason why states have not enforced traditional antidiscrimination laws against banks that incorporate ESG considerations, and that is because banking laws and regulations make clear which groups and interests are protected against discrimination. Under fair lending laws like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Fair Housing Act (FHA), it is unlawful to discriminate in credit or housing decisions on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex or marital status, age, disability, or because a person receives public assistance. Despite the attempts to force banks to serve them, fossil fuel companies and other corporations implicated by ESG policies are not members of a protected class and are therefore not entitled to constitutional protection in the form of guaranteed access to the banking system. Nor are banks, which have long enjoyed outsized influence over, not marginalization from, the political process.

The anti-ESG movement’s minoritarian worldview frames banks’ aversion to do business with fossil fuel and gun companies as “discrimination” against those companies. Importantly, however, not all minorities are seen as being worthy of protection. Many of the same constituencies that oppose ESG are also challenging laws that protect actual protected classes—including racial and other minorities—from discrimination and remedy past instances of discrimination. As drafted, anti-ESG laws allow banks to justify dropping low-income consumers for not being sufficiently profitable, while simultaneously making it harder for banks to make risk-based determinations regarding corporate borrowers in certain industries. This has the effect of allowing banks to perpetuate the marginalization of certain populations, violating the spirit, if not the letter, of fair lending laws.

First, it's important to understand the Executive Order as an attempt to use the banking system to privilege certain groups and marginalize others.

This administration claims (without legal basis) that conservatives are subject to "discrimination" while gutting actual anti-discrimination laws.

This paper’s conclusions regarding the appropriate role of ESG in banking offers insights are likely to be counterintuitive to even careful observers of the anti-ESG debate. On its face, the Vullo decision narrowly vindicates the ability of pro-firearms, and by extension other anti-ESG entities, to mount free speech claims against certain types of government actions. Perhaps ironically, the broader ramifications of these cases actually pose the greatest threats to many of the partisan interests that have supported the NRA’s claim. That is because pro-ESG measures are largely supported by legitimate financial policy goals. Conversely, anti-ESG efforts are driven by partisan-political rhetoric and motives. As a result, anti-ESG laws likely violate the principles articulated in Vullo, but capacious safety and soundness-based bank regulation and supervision is clearly permissible. These findings challenge conventional narratives regarding ESG’s purported “politicization” of financial regulation.

Second, the Trump administration's attacks are factually baseless.

They are targeting reasonable actions taken by banking regulators and banks to respond to the financial impacts of climate change, financial and illicit finance risks of crypto, and racial discrimination in lending.

Why is the White House planning to issue an order prohibiting banks from "discriminating" against conservatives and industries like crypto? Consider yourself lucky if you haven't followed this saga.

I'll try to explain, pulling from a paper I wrote last year: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

It is still jarring that government organizations like NSF and DOJ now equate racism with including markers of class in application processes

The Renewable Illusion: Why Fossil Fuels Keep Winning Global renewables hit records in 2024, but fossil fuel use still rises. Here’s why solar’s surge isn’t enough—and what the latest energy data really shows.

We can’t just build more renewables. We must actively uproot and retire fossil fuels. This should not be in dispute.

Me: Some things could be made better if midterms go a certain way, but none of that is a given (or even relatively likely), none of that happens unless people DO something, and the damage being done right now will take generations to fix. Them: Silence. Me: Amazing weather we’ve been having…

Question for Mike Flood: With $450 million being allocated to Alligator Alcatraz, and ICE burning through $8.4 million a day to illegally detain people—How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the tax payers have to pay for a fascist country?

The Endangerment Finding is a key declaration that greenhouse gases endanger human lives. It’s the foundation of the federal government’s ability to limit climate pollution.​

The Trump administration's attempt to strip it away is illegal, detached from reality, and will cost lives.

Harrowing how many otherwise liberal U.S. Jews, as sampled from those I grew up with in the '70s and '80s, believe Israel is as they learned in temple. Have no idea how many there think like Nazis. Desperately want to believe that lies were not lies.

From the most watched in the Middle East:

He is absolutely going to pardon Maxwell

Missouri Senate leader says special session is ‘likely’ to redraw congressional map  • Missouri Independent Momentum is building for the Missouri Legislature to redraw the state’s congressional districts with the aim of gaining a Republican seat.

It's funny. I've been warning about U.S. de-democratization for a decade, and yet I'm still, at a gut level, surprised by how fast it's happening.

From above everything looks grey or black. Smoke is seen rising from building ga at the top of the photo. In the foreground many buildings have collapsed entirely. Photo credit to Heidi Levine taken for the Washington Post.

Photo of the Day.

Israel threatened reprisals if the press filmed Gaza from above during airdrops.

This is why. A scene of destroyed & burnt out buildings in what is left of Gaza City, the pre-war home to 800,000 people.

Credit to Post photographer Heidi Levine who defied the ban & took this.

The media coverage of the dismissal of the BLS commissioner as another “wild time in Trumpland” shows that the media is more committed to entertainment than news. Any reputable news organization should report what the BLS does, why it is important, and why its work should not be politicized.

Whether it's conservatives assassinating State Senators in Minnesota or liberals refusing to sell Alan Dershowitz pierogis in Martha's Vineyard, both sides have taken incivility to an extreme.

• Wagner will issue a public statement to the college community stating that it will comply with Title IX, specifying that Title IX forbids Wagner from allowing male students to compete in female athletic programs and from occupying female intimate facilities;

Most people can’t quite grasp how it feels to read this, but imagine if the federal government commanded every agency to form task forces charged with finding new ways to humiliate you. Then imagine every institution in your life not only folds but starts participating.

www.ed.gov/about/news/p...

the position of the roberts court is both that racism isn’t real and that the constitution mandates a colorblindness so strict that it neither recognizes nor can act on social inequalities. incidentally, this is essentially the court’s holding in plessy v. ferguson.

39th & 40th Congress: we are writing these constitutional amendments to give the federal government the power to address racial inequities and enforce a set of national civil rights

Roberts Court: but what if you didn't

This text may wreak havoc on screen readers; proceed with caution: Berkwitt continued his impassioned critique, say-ing, "You f****** MAGA m************ veterans. They're okay with this treasonous traitor. As I said, you all f****** service means nothing because the oath that I took and the f****** oath that you took you s****** on. But I wanna know who the f*** allowed this m*********** to go today and later this week for a f******* photo op. At the expense of our fallen brothers and sisters. You're f****** right. I'm pissed off. This M************ has no f****** load. F*** every single m************ that walks this f****** planet that supports this rotten m*****

This is a veteran ripping into Trump for the Arlington visit and I’m amused as all hell that Newsweek quoted him this way 🤣

As an alum, a parent, and an expert on kids and families, I'm furious and deeply disappointed to see Brown abandoning trans kids in a moment when they're already facing so much hate.

If this is how the IDF treats American citizens traveling with media attention, it brings even more credibility to the reports of their abuses of Palestinian civilians. I stand in solidarity w/ my brother Chris, the civilians in Gaza and all working towards peace and dignity for all. End this horror

He's right, and it's not just Brazil.

Around the world, at least 31 democratic leaders who committed similar crimes have been jailed or banned from office since 2010. The failure to hold Trump accountable in the US was a unique and systemic failure of our institutions and political culture.

This @today.yougov.com poll is why I'm going to become the Joker.

The US murder rate in 2024 was likely down nearly 30 percent relative to 2020 and down nearly 50 percent relative to 1990.

Some have asked how to do a public comment.

The Federal Register includes this email: ATR.Public-Comments-Tunney-Act-MB(at)usdoj.gov.

But to get comments docketed faster, folks could send them to Judge Pitts' chambers: pcpcrd(at)cand.uscourts.gov

I strongly encourage doing this!

UCLA to pay $6.45 million to settle suit by Jewish students over pro-Palestinian protests UCLA agreed to settle a lawsuit by Jewish students who alleged the university aided a 2024 pro-Palestinian encampment, which the lawsuit alleged illegally discriminated against Jewish people.

1/ I represent 5 anti-zionist students and faculty challenging the outrageous claim that the Palestine Solidarity Encampment was a "Jew exclusion zone". UCLA refused to defend. Today they agreed to pay millions instead. I can't overstate how dangerous this is. 🧵

www.latimes.com/california/s...

Congrats!

🚨UPDATE🚨

I'm joining @WatchMarquee as a Digital Media Coordinator for this upcoming football season.

Can't wait to get things started and contribute to the talented team at Marquee Sports Network.

I'll have many roles, including helping with Bears coverage.

I'm back.

OH **DOCTORS & AID WORKERS** ARE STARVING SO NOW STARVATION MATTERS???

Book cover of Awakening the Ashes

Daut’s historical reasoning seems pertinent:

“White supremacist ideologies of colonists turned the Haitian Revolution (1789-1804) in their imaginations into a “racial” war where the victor would not only win the contested territory but would completely eliminate their opponents from the earth.”