The Sustainability Bubble

Ain’t never gonna burst. “Sustainable, climate-friendly equity funds” are where the money’s at, people. Jump on board today! While you still can.

“The Sustainability Propaganda Got Completely Out of Control” – The case has the makings of the next big financial scandal, and it casts a dark shadow over the booming business with green investments. It involves DWS, the Deutsche Bank subsidiary that is Germany’s largest asset manager and a self-proclaimed pioneer in sustainable, climate-friendly equity funds…

The company, says Fixler, has massively overinflated its public image and presented itself as far “greener” than was appropriate for its investment policy.

But Look On The Bright Side

Germans may feel the least free of all Europeans when it comes to the pandemic…

But to compensate for this they pay the highest taxes, have the highest energy and water costs, earn some of the lowest wages, get the lowest retirement pay, fight through the worst bureaucracy, have the most difficult time acquiring property of all Europeans and there’s more of course but I’ll stop here because I’m running out of breath.

Germans ‘feel least free’ of all Europeans during pandemic – Nowhere in Europe have people felt more inhibited by 18 months of Covid-19 restrictions than in Germany, a new study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) finds.

Just one in ten Germans currently ‘feel free’ in their everyday life, while almost half say that they ‘don’t feel free’, the study published on Wednesday found.

The results put Germany at the bottom of a table of Europeans in 12 EU member states who were asked about their level of freedom now compared to since the pre-pandemic days.

Even “Kevin” Will Do

But you don’t have to name your kid Kevin. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just sayin’.

You can be German even if your name is not ‘Klaus’ or ‘Erika’ -Merkel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday migrants who settle in Germany are German even if they have foreign-sounding names, making a subtle dig at a widespread habit among white Germans of asking Turks born on German soil where they come from.

“Integration cannot be a seven-generation endeavour that never ends just because one isn’t called Klaus or Erika,” Merkel said with a wry smile during a ceremony to mark 60 years since Germany signed a treaty with Turkey to bring in hundreds of thousands of Turkish men to fill labour shortages in the 1960s.

Meanwhile… Germany’s Merkel says some 10-40,000 left in Afghanistan with right to German residence.

But German Green EnvironMENTALism Isn’t About Control

We just tell you what we will permit you to eat.

As a first step. There will soon be new measures to follow. Remember: We’re only doing this for your own good.

Berlin’s university canteens go almost meat-free as students prioritise climate – The 34 outlets catering to students at four universities will offer only a single meat option four days a week.

The 34 canteens and cafes catering to Berlin’s sizeable student population at four different universities will offer from October a menu that is 68% vegan, 28% vegetarian, and 2% fish-based, with a single meat option offered four days a week.

Marchers = Nazis

That’s the “correct” way to view those who question placing restrictions on the unvaccinated in Germany.

They have to be Nazis, you see. Otherwise they might be rational human beings with reasonable arguments against these government restrictions. Then one would have to address these arguments. And then the government restrictions wouldn’t make any sense. And we can’t have the government looking like its restrictive policies don’t make any sense now, can we?

Germany: Thousands march in Berlin against COVID rules – Marchers rallied through the streets of the German capital, with thousands of police officers on standby in case of violence. A court had allowed only one rally to go ahead.

Sunflowers And Cargo Bikes

That’s what the German voter wants. Or at least that’w what the German Greens think they want.

I knew they’d shoot themselves in the foot before the upcoming election but that they could shoot themselves three or four times was beyond my wildest dreams.

German Greens under fire over 19th-century folk song in election ad – Greens go for wide appeal with reworked campfire song with no mention of devastating floods.

The original song, Kein Schöner Land in dieser Zeit (there is no country more beautiful than ours at this time) – still a popular campfire song and widely sung by scouts – celebrates the gathering of friends in nature one summer’s evening. They declare that with God’s grace they will continue to meet in this way in the future.

So That Means..?

Germany’s deadly floods were up to 9 times more likely because of climate change, study estimates.

So that means if we can just get the climate to stop changing then the likeliehood of deadly German floods will be nine times less likely than it is at the moment? Well, what the hell are we waiting for? Make it stop changing already. Somebody.

Record rainfall that triggered deadly floods in Western Europe in July was made between 1.2 and 9 times more likely by human-caused climate change, according to a new study.

The study, conducted by 39 scientists and researchers with the World Weather Attribution (WWA) project, also found that the most extreme rain was a once-in-400-year event, and that climate change increased the intensity of daily extreme rainfall by 3% to 19%.

German CO2 Doesn’t Stink

Well, not usually.

Distracted while showing the rest of the world how to best go green, sneaky German greenhouse emissions grew by the largest leap since 1990.

Germany is forecast to slip back below the threshold it had set for cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, amid a post-pandemic recovery and unfavorable conditions for renewable energy, according to a report by an environmental think tank Sunday.

Berlin-based Agora Energiewende examined data from the first half of 2021 to forecast that total emissions in Germany this year will be equivalent to somewhere between 760 million to 812 million tons of CO2.

This would put Germany’s emissions about 35-39% below 1990 levels. The German government had pledged to achieve cuts of 40% by 2020 — a target it claimed to have reached last year, in large part due to the pandemic-related economic downturn.

This year’s rebound of about 47 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2021 would be the biggest increase since 1990, Agora Energiewende said.

This Ought To Stop The Taliban

Why didn’t anybody think of this before?

Germany won’t give money to Afghanistan if Sharia law is introduced -foreign minister.

Germany will not provide any financial support to Afghanistan if the Taliban takes over power in the country and introduces Sharia law, its foreign minister told broadcaster ZDF on Thursday.

If that doesn’t strighten them up, the central European country is also considering holding its breath until it turns blue in the face.

No More Free Testing?

You mean no more of the free testing taxpayers were already paying “through the nose” for?

Now, instead of having to pay for it, they have to pay for it. What a rotten deal.

Germany to Stop Free COVID-19 Tests – Germany wants to end free coronavirus tests in October, the RND group of newspapers reported on Monday, citing a draft proposal to be discussed by Chancellor Angela Merkel and leaders of the country’s 16 states.

The government made the tests free for all in March to make a gradual return to normal life possible after a lockdown to break a third wave of COVID-19.