States Pushing Back Against ‘The Great Taking’

00:00:00:00 - 00:00:29:15
Speaker 1
Folks, the great taking is coming at us like a freight train. We've done a lot of work exposing that here. Very brief summary of the issue. Basically, they changed the laws in all 50 states and jurisdictions all over the world to make it so that you no longer have a private property right to your securities, your stocks, your bonds, various different securities, just not just your across the 50 states or the Uniform Commercial Code.

00:00:29:15 - 00:00:47:01
Speaker 1
It's also true in Europe. This is an international thing. First really brought to light with the work of a great man named David Webb, former investment banker who we have interviewed before. Really sounded the alarm on this. If you're not familiar with all of that, I encourage you to get a copy of the book, The Great Take and go check out the the documentary that he did.

00:00:47:07 - 00:01:19:02
Speaker 1
Now, the point man fighting back against this at the state level all across the United States is a great attorney from North Dakota. His name is Don Grand. He is in private practice. He focuses on business law, tries to state law, real property, mineral law. He's very active in public policy, mostly at the state level. And he's a principal with an organization called True North Public Policy, LLC to Public Policy Consulting Group that is working with legislators and citizens all across this great country to try to protect people's property from basically being stolen.

00:01:19:08 - 00:01:39:03
Speaker 1
If and when we have a major crisis here. He'll give you a little bit more details on that, but we really wanted to talk to him today about what's happening at the state level. Massive action going all across this country. You can find more from him. And we'll tell you again before we wrap up here at his Substack on grand.substack.com, also at True North Public policy.com.

00:01:39:07 - 00:01:54:16
Speaker 1
He's married for a while. He's got a number of children and even some grandchildren. Don, welcome to the program. It is so great to have you with us. Before we even get more into the great taking, you talk about some of what's going on at the state level to push back on this, South Dakota, Tennessee, Wyoming, we're seeing a lot of action,

00:01:54:18 - 00:02:18:16
Speaker 2
Yes, definitely a lot of action. Alex, and thank you for having me on. The bill's been introduced in South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, Tennessee, Connecticut, New Hampshire. Mississippi, if I didn't say that. And we're working still on a couple more. We're in close contact with folks in Texas, and we're in contact with folks in Florida.

00:02:18:16 - 00:02:45:12
Speaker 2
We'd obviously like one of the one or both of those states to jump on board. And so last week, we were David Weber and I were in Pierce out Dakota to testify at the hearing on this bill in the House, and it passed out of the committee. Despite, a bank and Chamber of Commerce type lobbyists speaking against us and calling us a conspiracy theorist.

00:02:45:14 - 00:03:13:15
Speaker 2
But it did fail on the floor, because the bank, you know, we're up against the, very powerful opponents here. The I call them the Twin Towers of Mordor. They're the the bank lobby and the, you know, Farm Law Commission, and I call them the uniform commercial called. So they are very powerful and they, twist arms and the problem when you get to the floor is that most of the people there haven't heard about it because they weren't in the committee.

00:03:13:21 - 00:03:32:09
Speaker 2
So it's a new issue to them. And it got voted down. David Weber and I then jumped in the car and drove to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Nice little eight hour drive together. It was fun. Because there's not a good way to get from here to Cheyenne. So we were there at Cheyenne, at the Senate, Senate.

00:03:32:10 - 00:04:02:11
Speaker 2
President of the Senate, representative Bob Bateman had introduced the bill. It passed that Senate committee 5 to 1. But then on Thursday, Wednesday this week, it was defeated on the floor in Wyoming again, due to the arm twisting of the bank lobby and, the, you know, from Law Commission, the this week, there was a hearing in North Dakota that I was at David testified via, the web.

00:04:02:13 - 00:04:29:16
Speaker 2
No relation. And that is still in work in the committee. It looks like it's going to come out of committee, but it's going to have a hard go on the floor again. You know, it just is. That's just what we're up against. Tennessee is moving forward and the the hearing for Tennessee will be early March. So David and I and and probably my wife Betty, who's a policy director for pro-family legislative network will be down and in Tennessee.

00:04:29:16 - 00:04:38:09
Speaker 2
And we're really hopeful there. If you've got time, I can kind of summarize what we did in Tennessee last year, and that'll give people an idea of what's happening at the state level.

00:04:38:11 - 00:04:50:17
Speaker 1
Yeah, let's please do that. Don, I know there was, some really interesting bipartisan support for this measure and some really powerful resistance to the very bank lobby that normally is used to getting its way. Talk to us about what happened in Tennessee.

00:04:50:19 - 00:05:16:06
Speaker 2
Yeah, it's really interesting, Alex. You're right. This is this is one of those realigning issues that kind of has strange bedfellows. It's really the more liberty minded Republicans, and traditional Democrats that come together and agree on this, the, establishment Republicans, the Chamber of Commerce types who still think we're in the 1980s and corporations are our friends.

00:05:16:08 - 00:05:38:19
Speaker 2
They they they're they're the problem. So in Tennessee last year, it was heard in a subcommittee of the House, and it passed 5 to 1 out of that subcommittee in the House. And it had the support of a prominent member of the Democrat Party in the House. In Tennessee, they run parallel bills. They have the same identical bill in the House and on the Senate.

00:05:38:19 - 00:05:58:16
Speaker 2
And they go kind of together at two tracks. So they moved up the hearing in the Senate to the next day. So David Webb and I could be there. And it passed in the Senate full committee 11 days. Yep. Including, the minority leader in Tennessee voting in favor of it. So we're really had a lot of momentum.

00:05:58:16 - 00:06:19:00
Speaker 2
And the one step was left. And that was the, hearing at the full committee in the House the next week. And by the time we got there on Tuesday, I started meeting with members of the, full committee. We could tell there was a chill, chill in the air. In fact, David says he thought they looked scared.

00:06:19:02 - 00:06:37:21
Speaker 2
And we found out later that, the treasurer of the state and some others had tapped the brakes a little bit and said, this is moving too fast. And so we had a meeting with the bill's sponsor, the treasurer, bank lobby, securities lobby to, to hash it out. And the treasurer seems like a really decent guy.

00:06:37:21 - 00:07:03:13
Speaker 2
He was just this was new to him. He was he was just starting to read David's book. And he said, I'm not saying there's nothing here, but we don't know. And so he he had it killed and, what happened then subsequently, as we found out, is the treasurer in Tennessee, then reached out to a couple of prominent law firms on the East Coast and ran this issue by him and asked him, you know, what are the what could happen to the state of Tennessee?

00:07:03:13 - 00:07:26:18
Speaker 2
Is it good or bad? And they came back and said, well, there are some potential negative consequences of the state of Tennessee passes this bill. But the treasurer pressed them for, specifics, and they couldn't provide any. They couldn't. It's all just vague threats of what could go bad. If if a legislature steps up and protects the, their, their constituents.

00:07:26:20 - 00:07:46:21
Speaker 2
So because they couldn't get any specifics, Treasurer's office says informed the bill's sponsor that if he brings the bill back this year, which he is, the hearings are going to be in March. The treasurer is not going to stand in the way. So that's positive. We've been meeting with treasurers in South Dakota, Wyoming, North Dakota, Tennessee, Oklahoma.

00:07:46:23 - 00:07:57:11
Speaker 2
We're meeting with treasurers wherever we can to to bring them up to speed on this issue. And we're not asking them to jump in in favor because it's a big issue for treasurers. But we do want them aware of it.

00:07:57:13 - 00:08:19:12
Speaker 1
You know, Donna, I have heard from people behind the scenes that, the banking lobby is essentially threatening states that if they pass something like this, they're going to just cut financial services to people in the state. So, I think there's a real fear among some of these lawmakers that if they become the first ones to to put their head up, they're going to get whacked.

00:08:19:14 - 00:08:40:05
Speaker 1
That's a scary thought that that they're making these kind of threats. So, let's get into the issue a little bit. Why? I think for a lot of people, this is new. I gave a brief summary of the implications here. But, what happened with these changes to the Uniform Commercial Code? Starting back, I guess, in the 80s, in the 90s, and and what does that mean?

00:08:40:05 - 00:08:54:18
Speaker 1
And why would the banking lobby be so upset about efforts to try to just protect people's property? Right? I mean, on the one hand, they're saying there's no big deal here. This is not going to happen. On the other, they're saying, well, if you do this, even though it's not going to happen, we're going to crush you. Yeah, it's really weird.

00:08:54:20 - 00:09:20:12
Speaker 2
It is really weird. We've definitely over the target just looking at the type of pushback we're getting. So what the issue is here is that the, the foundation for the great taking is based on state law. It's based on this Uniform Commercial Code article eight and specific article eight deals with securities, investment securities. So like you said, stocks, bonds, mutual funds in your IRA or personal account.

00:09:20:14 - 00:09:43:18
Speaker 2
And article eight, section five has two exceptions that give banks priority. In the event of insolvency of a broker or a custodian. So how it works is this is that an individual has an account with their broker, they buy the stock, they think they buy the stock, they get a security entitlement. They the broker then doesn't hold the stock.

00:09:43:18 - 00:10:08:03
Speaker 2
They have to Stoughton. And then ultimately the stock is held at Depository Trust Corp, you know, at the highest level. And what these exceptions are is that the it it comes out and it makes it sound like the individual actually owns his property. But then it says except as follows. And then there's two exceptions. The first one gives creditors, you know, banks that lend to brokers or custodians.

00:10:08:05 - 00:10:38:18
Speaker 2
Priority over the investor in the event the broker custodian is insolvent. That's a problem. Obviously they take the second. The second exception is it gives creditors or lenders to clearing corporations, which is like Depository Trust Corporation, Dtcc or its and its subsidiaries. It gives them priority over the investor in the event of, insolvency and what David Webb's writing about is a systemic financial failure that's going to take down some of these brokers.

00:10:38:18 - 00:11:04:00
Speaker 2
And like we saw in 2007 and eight, there was some some of that happening. And in that event, this law triggers and it's, it's essentially a, too big to fail law is what it is. And the drafter of this provision back in the mid 90s called it Armageddon planning for the financial sector. So you can imagine that it's all designed if and when things start to collapse.

00:11:04:02 - 00:11:26:11
Speaker 2
The big banks because it my bank in North Dakota and, you know, a little bank in North Dakota isn't lending to Depository Trust Corp, right. You know who's lending to them? Are the banks that own Depository Trust Corp, which is JP Morgan Chase and all that too big to fails. They're the ones are going to be able to come in here and who for up all the securities of the individuals if and when we face that financial crisis.

00:11:26:11 - 00:11:31:13
Speaker 2
And I think most of us think that we're probably closer than, than farther away from the next crisis.

00:11:31:16 - 00:11:38:20
Speaker 1
Yeah. So so the Armageddon plan is basically steal everything from everyone to prop up the Mega Drive. Is that what in the world there's.

00:11:38:20 - 00:11:51:11
Speaker 2
Just, like, no outreach or the important thing here. And I mentioned this in a couple of my Substack posts. It's not that JP Morgan Chase needs my 401 K or my IRA. They don't need it. They just can't let me have it.

00:11:51:15 - 00:11:52:07
Speaker 1
Yeah, right.

00:11:52:08 - 00:12:14:20
Speaker 2
They want to take property and any sort of resources that we have to be free and remove them from our, from our names so that we are essentially slaves. Now that's the end run here. They don't need the money. They can print all they want and they obviously, make trillions with naked shorts and market manipulation. They they don't need the money.

00:12:14:20 - 00:12:16:11
Speaker 2
They just can't let us have it.

00:12:16:13 - 00:12:31:09
Speaker 1
And hence the great taking, folks. And I know a lot of that if you're new to this, this a lot of it sounds, I know, really, really incredible. I got a phone call from a friend that I've known for a long time, works at a big conservative think tank. Said no. We looked at the laws. Three Republican states, three Democrat states.

00:12:31:09 - 00:12:56:03
Speaker 1
And this change is just exactly as David Webb described, has in fact, been made. So, anybody can verify this for themselves. You can just go and read article eight of the UCC. And, folks, the implications of this are really, really significant. Done. We only have a few minutes left. I do want to mention we had a representative Julie, out on here, I think last year or a couple years ago, and she gave a really nice analogy for what's happening here.

00:12:56:03 - 00:13:13:17
Speaker 1
I'd be like, you take your car to the mechanic and ask your mechanic to fix the car and then he uses your car as collateral for his loans. He goes broke, and then they come in and confiscate your car. It's like, wait a minute, that was my car, right? And so, we will end up with nothing here if and when the financial system runs into some big trouble.

00:13:13:17 - 00:13:33:15
Speaker 1
And they've already tested some of this out, back during the 2008 with Lehman Brothers and, really, really troubling Dawn. How can people get involved in this fight? I know you're putting out a lot of good information. People can keep up with it at your Substack, tell people how to follow this really important work that you're doing, how they can get involved in their own state, and maybe one more time why it's so critical that they do.

00:13:33:17 - 00:13:50:14
Speaker 2
Okay. Thank you, thank you. Alex. Yeah. We're really got to two goals here moving forward and our legislative work at the state level. We want to raise awareness with the public because it's still not there yet. There's more awareness now thanks to people like you and getting David Webb on then there was a year ago when we started this.

00:13:50:14 - 00:14:12:16
Speaker 2
But it's still pretty pretty short as far as the public awareness. We want to raise that and then obviously we want to fix that. The problem, protect people's property rights. So the best thing is to educate yourself a little bit. The Substack we've got dedicated to this is just done grandiose substack.com. And our website is true North Public policy.com.

00:14:12:16 - 00:14:36:20
Speaker 2
That's true. And public policy.com. And educate yourself a little bit on that. Reach out to us if you want help. Want help. And contact your legislators and start informing them. You know, the grassroots really needs to take off on this because the bank lobby and the Uniform Law Commission are formidable. And until we get enough people involved, they're going to win.

00:14:36:22 - 00:14:54:09
Speaker 1
You know, and, folks, if the dominoes start falling before the states have restored these protections for your private property, it's gonna be too late to do anything about it. The system will have already put this all in motion. So, it is really critical that we focus on this now, and we all see some troubling storm clouds building on the economic horizon here.

00:14:54:09 - 00:15:06:22
Speaker 1
And we need to be really focused on this. Don, thank you so much for the excellent work you're doing. Thank you for going around the country working with legislators on this. We wish you well. Thank you for keeping us all up to speed. And I hope we can talk to you again very soon.

00:15:07:00 - 00:15:08:03
Speaker 2
Thank you. Alex. Appreciate it.

00:15:08:06 - 00:15:25:02
Speaker 1
Absolutely. All right, folks, that's all we have time for today here on conversations that matter. But share this out. Call up your state legislator. Send them a copy of this by email, by text. However you communicate with them, get involved. Get over the new american.com. You can find all kinds of resources there that will be useful to you in this fight.

00:15:25:04 - 00:15:37:02
Speaker 1
I want to thank you for watching. I want to thank you for being involved. And until next time, God bless you all.