THE MORNING RANT: “Polite conservatism” didn’t put woke corporations on the defensive - conservative activists did; This time the target is the Big Four Accounting Firms

There is more good news in the war on woke capital – this time it’s the Big Four accounting firms in the cross hairs of 16 red-state Attorney Generals: “16 state AGs call out Big Four accounting firms for prioritizing climate goals, ESG” [The Center Square – 8/25/2026]

Many of these same conservative AGs have also been involved in the battle against the giant investment banks’ ESG policies, in which those companies betrayed their fiduciary duty with customers’ securities entrusted to them. Vanguard has already capitulated, as I documented here, and BlackRock and State Street are now playing defense.

Robby Starbuck has famously made himself the most feared journalist among C-Suite denizens. Mr. Starbuck caused a management crisis at Tractor Supply when he revealed the depth and vulgarity of its DEI/ESG programs. Facing a Bud Light-level existential crisis, the company soon made a very public repudiation of those practices. By continuing to target corporate DEI/ESG at corporations with a broad, middle-American customer base, all it takes now is a call from Mr. Starbuck to get them to start backtracking. The companies who publicly repudiated their prior DEI/ESG policies thanks to Mr. Starbuck’s activism include McDonald’s, Walmart, Boeing, Lowe’s, John Deere, Ford, Jack Daniels, and many others.

Those companies never would have retreated from pushing the pathologies of the left under the legacy conservative mindset that was worshipful of corporations while also sniffing “we don’t do boycotts.” Well, the threat of consumer boycotts is what it took to make corporate CEOs more afraid of its regular consumers than of the radical left they were kowtowing to.

Circling back to the Attorney Generals’ lawsuit against The Big Four accounting firms, here is a link to the actual letter. It is long, but the Conclusion captures the essence of it:

The Big Four’s climate commitments…conflict with core professional accounting standards of materiality, neutrality, and error avoidance. These commitments create an appearance that the Big Four have agreed to compromise their independence in favor of pursuing climate-related goals external to the audit. The Big Four’s climate commitments also create potential conflicts of interest that may violate the duties of integrity and objectivity by imposing climate-related disclosure obligations that benefit the Big Four at the expense of their clients. Furthermore, the Big Four’s advertising about their independence, integrity, and objectivity, without disclosure of their climate-activist commitments and actions to impose additional regulatory burdens on their customers, may constitute deceptive and unfair acts and practices under state law.

For now, the process is the punishment by the AGs. Each of the four accounting firms must reply to 32 questions and requests, which will require massive documentation and retrieval of historical corporate records. Here are just a couple of examples of what the woke accountants must provide:

4. Provide copies of all training materials and written guidance for auditors that were created, issued, provided, or used by your firm since 2020 that are related to climate-related disclosures and reporting in company statements, including (a) all documents related to the materiality or lack of materiality of climate-related information, and (b) all documents related to any International Sustainability Board standards or to the Bulletin.

10. Is it your firm’s position that disclosures of climate-related risks are material for every company you audit or provide assurances for? Describe your approach to determining whether such disclosures are material. Provide copies of all internal policies, guidance, and similar documents you have created, issued, or provided since 2020 to guide your auditors on this issue.

Each of the four accounting firms must also specifically explain how they can advertise to customers that they are independent, while simultaneously pledging fealty to global agencies committed to an anti-carbon climate agenda that is harmful to many of the Big Four’s clients.

Corporate America and the left-wing executives (they/them) who were so willing to shove cultural communism down our throats are in the uncomfortable position of defending their indefensible actions. Polite conservatives did not make this happen. It was activists like Robby Starbuck and conservative Attorney Generals. Much gratitude to them.

Other Stuff I’m Writing About

My latest piece at the The American Spectator has been published. “The $40 Trillion National Debt and the ‘Budget Hawk’ Ruse That Led to MAGA” discusses how false-flag conservative “budget hawks” used the “budget crisis” for decades as a reason to never advance other conservative agenda items, while never actually cutting spending either.

Even worse, the “fiscally conservative budget hawks” wouldn’t even cut obvious targets of waste, such as aid to foreign despots or funding for NPR, because those appropriations were just “drops in the ocean.” However, if there was ever “drop in the ocean” spending that was a priority to the conservative base, the budget hawks suddenly found religion, and would oppose it as an unacceptable increase in federal spending. Five billion dollars for a border barrier was a “budget buster,” while at the same time Congress was still appropriating billions of dollars to the PLO, and hundreds of millions of dollars to abortion mills.

This piece is not behind a paywall. I’d be honored if you’d give it a read.

Dolly Parton

As the unofficial Opry correspondent and country music historian for this blog, and as a resident of East Tennessee, Dolly Parton’s death was an absolute sucker punch, both personally and to this part of the country.

There have been so many great tributes regarding Dolly’s charitable heart, loving nature, and amazing book of songs she wrote. I can’t add anything to those great tributes.

The only original thought I have to add to the Dolly discussion is that she also consistently made songs better when she sang tunes written by other superstars. Johnny Cash may have written “I Still Miss Someone” but Dolly perfected it.

Here is Dolly doing the best version I’ve ever heard of Bob Dylan’s “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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