Way back in the dim mists of time, when Conan O’Brien had a show on TBS and Bill Burr hadn’t yet contracted TDS, Burr had a bit ranting about how Nestle CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe wanted to own all the water:
“Dude, this guy wants to own the rain! Can we do something about this guy?”
Well guess who just became head of the World Economic Forum?
The founder of the World Economic Forum Klaus Schwab has stepped down from the organization’s board of directors after more than 50 years at the helm.
He will be succeeded on an interim basis by the WEF’s vice chairman Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the former Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Nestle SA, according to a statement by the forum.
Meet the new Chairman of the World Economic Forum who believes access to the most abundant resource on earth isn’t a fundamental human right.
pic.twitter.com/PSdEBOdXqQ— Champagne Joshi (@JoshWalkos) April 21, 2025
So the guy who wants to own all the water* is now running the wanna-be world government that wants you to eat the bugs.
Here’s a picture of the guy:
Yeah, I have the same question as you do: What’s the deal with his eye? Not the Bee doesn’t know either, though they point out that it’s just the latest instance of a WEF head looking and acting like a Bond villain. They mention the possibility of death ray exposure, but we also have to consider adrenochrome and reptoid blood side effects…
Speaking of Klaus, no sooner did he step down than stories began to circulate of accusations against him for the usual expense abuses.
In an anonymous letter from sent to the board of directors by ‘current and former Forum employees,’ Schwab and his wife are accused of commingling their personal affairs with WEF resources without proper oversight, and much more…
Among the most serious allegations:
Schwab asked junior employees to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs on his behalf and used Forum funds to pay for private, in-room massages at hotels. His wife Hilde, a former Forum employee, scheduled “token” Forum-funded meetings in order to justify luxury holiday travel at the organization’s expense. The letter also raises concerns about how Klaus Schwab treated female employees and how his leadership over decades allegedly allowed instances of sexual harassment and other discriminatory behavior to go unchecked in the workplace Other allegations include the Schwab family’s use of Villa Mundi – a luxury property bought before the pandemic by the Forum located next to the organization’s Geneva headquarters, which the whistleblower letter maintains that Hilde Schwab maintains tight control over, and which the forum paid $30 million to purchase and another $20 million to renovate – also overseen by Hilde.
In recent days Schwab is said to have railed against an investigation – telling board members that he denied the allegations and would challenge them in a lawsuit, according to the report.
Instead, the board launched a probe during an emergency meeting on Easter Sunday. In response, Schwab resigned immediately as chairman vs. staying on for an extended transition period as previously planned.
A spokesman for the Schwabs told the Journal that they deny every allegation in the whistleblower complaint, and that Klaus will file a lawsuit against whoever’s behind it – and “anybody who spreads these mistruths.”
Furthermore, Scwab says he paid the WEF back for said ‘in-room massages’, and denied the allegations about luxury travel and withdrawing funds.
Is this any way to run an evil organization bent on world domination? Did Ernst Stavro Blofeld ever have to justify the expense of a volcano base to a SPECTRE audit committee?
I think not.
Anyway, if you’ve ever contemplated putting in a rainwater collection system, now might be a good time to get ahead of the curve…
*Yeah, Brabeck-Letmathe later “clarified” his remarks, and yes, I know the difference between positive and negative rights. Still, the chairman of a bottled water company talking like a left-wing parody of an Ayn Rand protagonist does rather give one pause…
Tags: Bill Burr, fraud, Klaus Schwab, Nestle, Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, Social Justice Warriors, video, World Economic Forum
Isn’t that already the situation? If I want water to keep coming to my house, I have to pay my water bill. Cities have “free” pools and water fountains because taxpayers want them and are willing to pay for them through their taxes. Some municipalities restrict residents’ right to collect rainwater (it’s bullshit, but they do).
“What’s the deal with his eye”?
The Borg is strong in this one.
“If I want water to keep coming to my house, I have to pay my water bill.”
If I want to keep water from coming into my house, I have to keep the sump pump operable. If I lived on a house boat, the circumstances would be similar.
You are not paying for water so much as you are paying for the *delivery* of water. In my own case, water is pumped up from a well, delivered to a brine tank and some part is diverted to a hot water tank, the rest is made deliverable on demand.
I don’t own the water source. It is part of “The Commons”. I don’t think I could draw down the entire aquifer without burning up my well pump and have no interest in making the attempt.
Water is a “free good”. You pay for potable, bottled water but it is fairly easy to locate an artesian spring in my area just by following a creek to its source. The bottled spring water you get from the grocery store is similarly sourced.
Even if you owned the plant where the water was bottled, you could not lay claim to the “headwaters” because it would be impossible to determine with certainty what part of it came from where.
The quality of mercy is not strained;
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath
A man who strains to own the place where rain falls will want to sell you God’s grace, too.
“As soon as the coin in the coffer clings
The soul from Purgatory springs”
We’ve seen this act before. We cannot allow an encore.
During Brabeck-Letmathe’s tenure as Chairman and CEO of the Nestlé Group, his corporation drilled groundwater wells at Sanctuary Spring in Mecosta County, Michigan, and Evart Spring in Evart, Michigan. These wells pump free water, which is then bottled for sale at a plant in Stanwood, Michigan. Nestlé Group sold the operation after Brabeck-Letmathe’s retirement to BlueTriton Group, a Perrier spinoff.
Much of the 500,000 gallons bottled each day has been sold outside the member state area of the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact; a violation of that compact.
the eye looks like an 8 ball hemorrhage – had one once from getting smacked in the eye with a golf club. where his came from is, of course, a matter for some fun speculation
[…] WILL NOT EAT THE BUGS: Eat The Bugs, Pay For The Water. “Is this any way to run an evil organization bent on world domination? Did Ernst Stavro […]
That man has demon eyes. Tell me he doesn’t.
“The wells pump free water.”
No and no.
If wells are being drilled and water pumped, it is no longer “free”. There was an opportunity cost incurred because the equipment (second order capital goods) could have been used to pump water out of a flooded basement and the labor expended in pursuit of water may alternately have been enjoyed as leisure.
Likewise if solar panels are being erected and connected to the electric grid, sunshine is transformed from a gratuitous good to an economic good. If the electricity is used to illuminate a porch light, it is a consumer good, if used to power a sewing machine in a clothing factory it is a producer good.
There are in this life no end the attainment of which is gratuitous. Economic pursuits entail costs.
Errata: “There are in this life no ends the attainment of which are gratuitous.”
“[W]here [t]his came from is, of course, a matter for some fun speculation.”
He balked at eating ze bugz.
“If wells are being drilled and water pumped, it is no longer “free”. There was an opportunity cost incurred because the equipment (second order capital goods) could have been used to pump water out of a flooded basement and the labor expended in pursuit of water may alternately have been enjoyed as leisure.”
You ever tire of cheap pedantry? And being wrong?
Jenny Granholm, the Peoples Republic of Michigan’s welfare queen (and Drooling Joe’s Energy Secretary) completely subsidized Nestlé Group’s capital expenditures via the Michigan Strategic Fund. The localities threw in enough Act 198 tax breaks that the water was free to Nestlé. Nestlé paid nothing.
The externality here was ground water levels, which plunged in Osceola County. A lot of the locals use driven point water wells and had to spend a lot of money for replacement drilled wells. They paid the price for Nestlé’s water.
This created so much political friction that Nestlé abandoned their expansion plans and sold the operation off to Perrier after Brabeck-Letmathe exited the picture.
Treated water isn’t a right. It takes quite a bit of capital to treat and distribute water. A percentage of the populace pays for this, which benefits the entire population. Trust me in someone involve in the process, but a larger percentage than you would believe pay squat into this system, yet still expect the product. I’m not being cold towards the truly impoverished, and although it isn’t said, the developing world has a percentage of the blame. Name a developing country that hasn’t gotten substantial assistance from the foreign aid apparatus. This goes back into the 50’s if not earlier. While it may seem cruel to expect the populace to overcome the corrupt elite in order to set things right, pray tell how dumping huge amounts of money into these countries has benifited anyone but the elite over the decades?
“[T]he water was free to Nestlé. Nestlé paid nothing.”
No and no.
State intervention into the market does not create free goods. It shifts the costs of those goods to others.
In addition, the state encouraged the water resource to be ruthlessly plundered by giving Nestlé a significant competitive advantage over non-subsidized companies, who were prohibited from realizing more economical ends. .
Inasmuch as “ Osceola County…had to spend a lot of money for replacement drilled wells…” even *you* ought to be able to see that the costs were shifted off to others.
Cf w/ above: “It shifts the cost of those goods to others.”
QED
“A percentage of the populace pays for this, which benefits the entire population.”
YES!! Economic cooperation benefits not just the immediate participants in a trade, it benefits ALL OF SOCIETY as well. When economic production is structured to make low-cost producers the owners of production, low cost consumer goods are made more accessible to more market participants.
I see you have escaped the Marxists hive-mind, which is a very rare accomplishment. For this, I salute you.
“State intervention into the market does not create free goods. It shifts the costs of those goods to others.”
It created goods free to Nestlé, which was the gist of the original post, your brain dead pedantry notwithstanding.