Free Republic

Chevron Corp. turned out to be one of the top performing assets David Root included this year in the workplace retirement portfolios his firm manages for companies that offer employee 401k plans. And he makes no apologies for the investment. “If you didn’t have energy as part of your portfolio this year — which averaged 35% to 40% returns — you had no chance of outperforming the S&P 500,” said Mr. Root, CEO of DBR & Co., Downtown. Some fund managers guided by their environmental, social and governance values rather than pure financial considerations might have ruled out an investment...

Another state on Thursday announced that it would begin divesting its assets currently managed by investment giant BlackRock, accusing it of “[leaning] heavily into Environmental, Social, and Governance standards.” “As Florida’s chief financial officer, it’s my responsibility to get the best returns possible for taxpayers. The more effective we are in investing dollars to generate a return, the more effective we’ll be in funding priorities like schools, hospitals, and roads,” Jimmy Patronis, Florida’s chief financial officer, said in a press release. The divestment will involve “$2 billion worth of assets,” according to the statement. “As major banking institutions and economists...

BlackRock’s focus on the latest Wall Street craze—environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing—has turned into a risky affair for the world’s largest asset manager, a UBS analyst recently stated. Brennan Hawken, an analyst at the bank, downgraded the stock of BlackRock, Inc. (NYSE:BLK) from Buy to Neutral and slashed the stock price target from $700 to $585 over growing pushback to its ESG efforts. “We are downgrading BLK to Neutral based on environmental pressure to earnings and risk from the firm’s ESG positioning,” he said in a note, adding that BlackRock could face increased regulatory inspection and the possibility of...

Louisiana State Treasurer John Schroder announced his state will divest funds from the multi-trillion dollar investment firm, BlackRock, due to environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies some claim boycott the oil, gas and coal industries. “Your blatantly anti-fossil fuel policies would destroy Louisiana’s economy,” Schroder said in a letter sent Wednesday to BlackRock CEO Larry Fink. To avoid losing state money “to the detriment of our citizens,” the Louisiana Treasury will gradually divest funds from the financial firm, Schroder wrote. The Louisiana Treasury divested $560 million from BlackRock as of Wednesday. “Once complete, this divestment will reflect $794 million no...

The enablers of Hamas and its agenda are the absolute dregs of our society and should be treated as such at every opportunity. The express purpose of the Arab League's Resolution 1547 was to weaponize displaced Palestinian Arabs against Israel. This is incontrovertible and damning evidence that every single organization and business that is involved in the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement is at best a stooge and enabler, if not a willful participant, in an international fraud that abuses the trust of the entire international community to support the agenda of terrorists. Here is what the Refugee...

Ben & Jerry’s is very proud of its hard-left stance on any given subject but now its latest virtue signal has resulted in some serious financial setbacks.As RedState reported back in July, the ice cream company decided it would no longer do business in what it called “Occupied Palestinian Territory” or as it’s more commonly known, “Israel.” The move was supposed to signal the company’s dedication to protesting in favor of the oppressed but behind the scenes, their Board chair was actually signaling their support for the terrorist group Hezbollah.Not long after, states began looking into divesting from Ben &...

From calling for the destruction of Israel to the National Security Council. "Why Is Georgetown Providing a Platform for This Dangerous Group?" an op-ed in the Washington Post had asked. The group was the Palestine Solidarity Movement, a BDS anti-Israel hate group whose conferences had a history of antisemitism, supporting Hamas and the murder of Jews. Maher Bitar, one of the executive board members of Students for Justice in Palestine, was one of the principal organizers of the 2006 conference which was being hosted by Georgetown University's SJP hate group. A photo appears to show him dancing in a keffiyah...

Uzra Zeya nominated for undersecretary of civilian security, democracy, and human rights President Joe Biden's nominee for a top State Department position played a key role in assembling a book on the nefarious influence of the "Israel lobby" while working for an organization that promoted claims about Jewish media control and dual loyalty to Israel. As a staffer at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, Uzra Zeya compiled research for a book that argues that "the Israel lobby has subverted the American political process to take control of U.S. Middle East policy" by establishing a secret network of "dirty...

One of Obama’s former intelligence officials just paid the bail for someone who threw a Molotov Cocktail at a police car. Here are 37 reasons why I’m not surprised. Below is a photograph of a woman named Urooj Rahman, holding a Molotov Cocktail. She was just arrested for throwing a Molotov Cocktail at a police car.Source for image: https://freebeacon.com/latest-news/former-obama-intelligence-official-helps-secure-bail-for-molotov-cocktail-throwing-nyc-lawyer/A woman named Salmah Rizvi just paid Rahman’s bail.Rizvi was an intelligence official for the Obama administration. She worked for the Department of State and the Departments of Defense.Rizvi said the following to a judge: “Urooj Rahman is my best friend.”The Washington Free...

On Friday night, HBO host Bill Maher talked about the Democrats' support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement, commonly referred to as the BDS Movement. According to Maher, the Democrats have now created a "bulls**t purity test" when it comes to supporting a boycott against Israel. "BDS is a bulls**t purity test by people who want to appear woke and have actually slept through history class," Maher said, at which point the audience broke out into a thunderous applause. "It's predicated on this notion that is very shallow thinking, that the Jews are in Israel are mostly white and the...

The House is slated to pass legislation Tuesday to oppose the global boycott movement against Israel, a vote that will put a spotlight both on Democratic divisions and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.). Most Democrats in the House oppose the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, an international campaign meant to exert pressure on Israel over treatment of the Palestinians. Critics say it would isolate and harm Israel, which retains strong support in Congress from both parties. But the BDS movement has support in Congress from some progressives, including Omar, who has offered her own resolution affirming the rights of Americans...

U.S. public pension liability is equivalent to $18,300 for every resident. Public pensions can’t afford not to invest in companies that generate impressive growth and profits. If you are a public employee or a retiree, you should be very concerned because new data shows public pension funds that let leftist policies drive their investment decisions, a.k.a. socially responsible investing, have been consistently underperforming their private peers and the general stock markets.Socially responsible investing (SRI), meaning only investing in companies with “ethical” practices, is not an entirely new concept. Public pension funds have been leading in this since the 1970s. For...

Presbyterian Church (USA) officials are reporting that the oldline Protestant denomination shed another 62,375 members the same year that their governing General Assembly declared “Zionism is based on racism” and denounced religious freedom protections. At its current rate of shrinkage the PC(USA) will not exist in about 20 years. Statistics made available this week by the PC(USA) Office of the General Assembly (OGA) show the denomination continues to decline, dropping to 1,352,678 active members in 2018. A net 37 percent of members have died, transferred out, or simply vanished in the past decade. The drop of nearly 5 percent is...

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. on Monday contemptuously dismissed White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes’ denials that the Obama administration played a key behind-the-scenes role in getting a resolution condemning Israel through the U.N. Security Council, describing him as an “expert at fiction.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government says it has “iron-clad” information indicating that the Obama administration had a role in the crafting and passage of the resolution that passed Friday in the absence of a U.S. veto. Ambassador Ron Dermer told MSNBC the Israeli government had proof that it would share that evidence with the incoming...

UN Security Council Resolution 2334 was the first prong of outgoing US President Barack Obama’s lame duck campaign against Israel. Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Wednesday was the second. On January 15, stage 3 will commence in Paris. At France’s lame duck President Francois Hollande’s international conference, the foreign ministers of some fifty states are expected to adopt as their own the anti-Israel principles Kerry set forth in his speech. The next day it will be Obama’s turn. Obama can be expected to use the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to present the Palestinian war to...

Two of the largest banks in northern Europe have announced they will boycott Israeli banks because they operate in “occupied territories”, the Walla! Hebrew-language news website reported on Saturday. The two banks in question are the Swedish Nordea Bank, which is the largest bank in Scandinavia, and the Norwegian Danske Bank, which is the largest bank in Denmark. […] The Walla! report comes on the same day that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry threatened Israel that a failure in the peace talks would lead to global boycotts and delegitimization of the Jewish state. …

On June 30, 2015, the General Synod of the United Church of Christ voted to single out Israel for an economic and propaganda war. Ignoring the violent state of affairs in an unstable region, the plague of terrorist groups, and the victimization of millions of Christians and other minority groups, the UCC elected to boycott Israel, the only functioning democracy in the Middle East. Giving a pass to Hamas rockets aimed at Israeli children and the prohibition of any Jews to enter Palestinian-controlled territory, the UCC jumped on the bandwagon of slander to demonize Israel. Deletion and Replacement of Jews...

Egypt’s foreign minister paid a rare visit to Israel on Sunday, saying that his country remains a “steadfast and unwavering” supporter of a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians but warning that conditions for achieving that are deteriorating. Sameh Shoukry’s trip was the first official visit to Israel since 2007 and reflected the strong but low-profile ties that have developed between the two countries in recent years. The Egyptian Foreign Ministry said Shoukry’s visit was aimed at reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. …

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday rejected a proposal to include a statement in the party's platform calling for Israel's "end to occupations and illegal settlements," CNN reported. ... While the committee voted against the addition 95-73, CNN reported that the move garnered the loudest negative response of the day from the audience. ... One crowd member was escorted out of the meeting after he stood up and yelled that the party had "sold out" to AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

Reports indicate that a supporter of the anti-Israel BDS movement and a self-proclaimed radical who has supported numerous anti-American initiatives has been named the host of a new late night talk show on VH1. Marc Lamont Hill, a CNN commentator, will launch VH1 Live which will begin airing weekly on the Viacom-owned cable network on Sunday, July 17 at 10 PM. Would a supporter of segregation be rewarded with a talk show? How about someone who is fiercely anti-LGBT? It seems that bigotry is only OK if it is directed at Israel. Hill is a staunch opponent of Israel, a...