by Don Surber
Here’s the thing about virtue signaling. You only do enough to appear virtuous. You never risk real money.
The perfect protest would be to boycott Chick-fil-A but only on Sundays.
If it actually costs you anything, it is not virtue signaling. It is sacrifice. Who the heck wants to sacrifice anything anymore?
BASF CEO Martin Brudermuller forgot this rule when he decided to side with Ukraine in the Russo-Ukraine war.
March 1, the company announced, “BASF donates €1 million in emergency humanitarian aid to Ukraine.”
He said, “There is a war going on in Ukraine! The suffering for the civilian population in the country is immense. We want to help these people and therefore quickly decided to provide this emergency aid.”
Its sales in 2021 were €78.6 billion — or nearly 80,000 times its donation to the cause.
But that donation could cost the company billions, for you see, Putin has been making a list and checking it twice. He’s gonna punish those who were naughty not nice.
55% of Germany’s natural gas comes from Russia.
Oops.
The BASF CEO said, “To put it bluntly: This could bring the German economy into its worst crisis since the end of the Second World War and destroy our prosperity. For many small and medium-sized companies in particular, it could mean the end. We can’t risk that!”
Um, ace. You just did that. You risked bringing down German’s chemical industry just to signal how virtuous your company is.
The chemical industry is 10% of the German economy (GDP).
Brudenmuller seemed alarmed when discussing the problem in a newspaper interview.
He said, “A delivery stop for a short time would perhaps open the eyes of many – on both sides. It would make clear the magnitude of the consequences. But if we don’t get any more Russian gas for a long time, then we really have a problem here in Germany. At BASF, we would have to scale back or completely shut down production at our largest site in Ludwigshafen if the supply fell significantly and permanently below 50 percent of our maximum natural gas requirement. Minister Habeck has already activated the early warning level of the gas emergency plan.”
Robert Habeck is Germany’s Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
40,000 BASF workers could be laid off if Putin cuts off Germany.
Ironically, Brudenmuller said, “Many have misconceptions. I notice that in many of the conversations I have. People often make no connection at all between a boycott and their own job. As if our economy and our prosperity were set in stone.”
Once upon a time, companies kept their eye on the ball and avoided politics. The old men who ran things back in the day may not have been woke but they knew to stay out of politics. Today’s CEOs are bound and determined to learn that lesson the hard way.
GAZPROM HAS STOPPED DELIVERIES OF RUSSIAN GAS TO GERMANY VIA YAMAL-EUROPE PIPELINE
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 2, 2022
I thought Germany invested heavily in solar and wind power. Does it not work the way they envisioned it?
41.1% of Germany’s electrical power now comes from renewable sources. Breaking free of dependency on a Russian dictator’s fossil fuels has been a primary motivator.
President Trump advised Germany and NATO how vulnerable their security would be if they colluded with Russia by buying Russian gas. Biden actually made NATO and Europe more vulnerable by shutting down the US support for the Israel to Italy/Greece pipeline. greggie and his buddies had no clue about the unintended consequences of their votes.
Good genius what is 100 minus 41 is that number larger or smaller than 41? I know this math stuff is hard. What is harder?
Yeah it’s working out great for Germany.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelshellenberger/2019/09/05/renewables-threaten-german-economy-energy-supply-mckinsey-warns-in-new-report/?sh=41237b538e48
More for you.
For other parts of Europe its working wonders as well.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/14/carbon-neutrality-is-a-fairy-tale-how-the-race-for-renewables-is-burning-europes-forests
I seriously looked into solar panels for my home once. I wanted enough to provide the full power needs, figuring I would net half of that. Without subsidies, though, this is totally economically unsustainable. The panels cost far more than the economic return (though they would be great in times of blackouts… unless they are covered in snow). Without government subsidy, “renewable” is impossible.
Some time later, a company came by and would install solar panels AND go through the house and make everything energy efficient. This would be at no cost to me; they make their money FROM THE GOVERNMENT. All the solar panels would provide is to guarantee my electricity bill would forever remain stable. No, thank you.
You mean nuclear.
A few more thoughts on Germany and that 41%. https://worldnewsera.com/news/startups/germanys-green-energy-failure-germany-turns-back-to-coal-and-natural-gas-as-millions-of-its-solar-panels-are-blanketed-in-snow-and-ice-tech-news-startup/
One more for you.
It also look s like they include biomass as a renewable. That means burning stuff last time I looked.
If biomass burning, often dirtier than coal, is excluded, wind, water and solar electricity in Germany accounted for just 27% of electricity generation in 2018.
Wind and solar can’t power the world.
That’s why greg and the Davos folks want most of us to die.
They’ve been forced to reopen some coal plants because cloud cover and lack of wind causes energy shortfalls.
Putin funding green groups is paying dividends.
Putin doesn’t fund green energy. The claim is absurd. Green energy is a serious threat to Russia as a fossil fuel supplier.
You really have no clue greggie as to what goes on in the world. Reagan defeated the Soviets in the cold war because he caused them to spend funds on new weapon systems to try to stay even with the US. Putin financially supported “green” organizations to fight against fossil fuels in the US. Obama and Biden filled the EPA and other organizations filled with unelected members who passed regulations that supported high costs “green” energy projects that cannot work without expensive subsidies. In other words, Putin, used our formally commonsense environmental organizations to provide propaganda to major liberal media. The Germans fell for that and now 55% of their critical energy is controlled by Russia. The major increase in the cost of US energy is also a result of Putin influence. The organizations he supported encouraged a puppet president to shut down pipelines, energy leases and throw road blocks in front of energy companies. Putin has been successful by assisting left wing democrats in causing the high levels of inflation not seen for 40 years. An you greggie still do not understand why Putin supports “green” energy!
Brett Baier Asks Volodymyr Zelenskyy About Azov Battalion Reportedly Shooting POWs
The question was asked during an interview between Brett Baier and Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday evening. However, you will not find this segment on the rebroadcast of the interview at Fox News [Website Here]. They took it out. You will also not find this segment on the Fox News upload of the interview to their YouTube account [See Here]. Again, they took it out.
In fact, if someone had not uploaded a livestream copy to Rumble {Direct Link Here}, there would be no other evidence the question was even asked, let alone the very flippant answer from Zelenskyy, “They are what they are“; where “they” is the neoNazi Azov battalion that have been merged with the Ukraine regular military.
Are you expecting an Academy Award for acting stupid? OF COURSE Putin is not a green energy zealot. THAT’S why he wants US fracking curtailed. So, he funds the ignorant useful idiots in the US that demand the US cut it’s energy and national security throat.
Guess who comes along and helps? Yep, that’s right… the idiot Biden. He is more than happy to do Putin’s bidding, end the energy independence of the US and greenlight Putin’s pipeline. This, of course, shows Putin how stupid, incompetent and useful and idiot Biden is, so he launches his Ukrainian invasion before this dumbass gets away.
Promise you won’t slap anyone if you win that Oscar, now!
There is no “green” energy.
Wind and solar cannot power the world, much less a country.
Nuclear can…and whatever tech the US/EU has hidden as they force us all to use EVs.
Yes he does. It’s empirical fact.
Got a link to any credible source? I’m guessing not, because the idea that Putin would fund anything that reduces European dependency on Russian fossil fuel is effin’ STUPID.
Unless you know 100 % green is a huge dose of unobtainian poisoning.
Facts have been given. Discounting empirical facts that are suppressed by the irreputable Democrat media complex such as CNN, NYT, WaPo and the like is what those who know their time in power is coming to an end.
It’s fact. Of course your propaganda “sources” will deny it. So will you.
An greg, the media you parrot isn’t credible. It’s dismissed by the free people of the world, soundly.
Are you really that stupid? Putin funded green energy groups in the countries of his competitors. If the competition shuts down their conventional energy production via pressure from those groups, Putin benefits from that as the price for conventional energy will rise as will the demand for it. Which he gets richer supplying it. So he has money to fund things like WAR. This story isn’t hard to find or figure out. Doh!
Low oil prices =Trump=Putin can’t start wars.
High oil prices =Biden=Putin can start wars.
Of course, the vast majority of others pushing the green agenda are not into funding green energy, either. They are into exploiting ignorance and getting rich.
We would be far better off putting the money we plow into these auxiliaries into cold fusion research. This has far more potential than the energy-intensive production and CCP dependency of wind and solar.
I’m rather sure our government has energy tech they are hiding. It’s going to power all those EVs, and they will just feed it through the grid and claim it came from wind and solar.
Ah, yes! Once more ignorance, wokeness and the iron law of unintended consequences intersect in a perfect storm. Couldn’t happen to a more deserving bunch than the Germans.