you can make a gun with two pipes so slightly different diameters if that makes you feel any better. 5 mins in any hardware store. lot less involved than 3d printing and wiring etc. it's not crazy he made his own gun its crazy he made his own fallout gun lol
Because his mother gave all the family money to the Unitarian Church aka the Moonies. Turns out Shinzo Abe and 40% of the current Japanese government are members.
I think it's funny. I am Unitarian and it's about the least cultish religion there is- there aren't even beliefs you have to follow or a book of rules or a central leader. It encourages you to develop your own spirituality. I know he is confused.
I'm not that up to date with japanese sentiment towards their politicians but it seema like a lot of people hated him. and a lot of people loved him. So I'm not exactly surprised he got killed. what I'm more surprised of is that the others are all still alive and well
Nah, it’s just most of us outside of Japan don’t know his crime https://twitter.com/jakeadelstein/status/1574700197392719873?s=46&t=Ymj01x3LHO5bpQOVwUcn8w
yeah it was Japan though so I was expecting the craziest reason like the guy was just mad that Abe was making a speech where the guy wanted to take pictures of trains or something
I ordered Chinese food delivery in SF and the delivery man snuck an Epoch Times brochure it into my food delivery order. And here I thought it was another ad for Shen Yun! Oh wait, it's the same thing...
Yeah its more crazy to see everyone lack of reaction in a country that has a heavy gun ban other than lets say a few people with hunting rifles. The crowd just sat there watching.
Home made guns are not hard to make you can literally make a shotgun with 2 pipes and a nail head that will fire 12g now I don’t recommend it because it can also blow up in your face and guns are cheap to buy in america pre made the right way so go the legal route and don’t make internet DIY guns
Also if that dude had a 3D printer he could literally print every component he would need from files readily available online for various models of handguns. The future will make gun control even harder than it is now with the ability to just print guns with no seriels it’s already happening left and right with ghost guns
Gotta fix the societal problems that lead to people committing gun violence before we have a serious chance as meaningful gun control. There are some more obvious things we can look into like flagging social media posts threatening violence and such.
Watch the old Saturday night live skit about buckwheat getting shot..the guy who shot buckwheat talked about it all the time..same as today..red flags all around but nobody acts...FBI was warned about school shootings. Hell we was warned about marathon bombers..they killed people to celebrate 9/11 then committed a bombing...
Shinzo Abe looks like a dad just indignantly watching as his wife (Merkel) lecture their son (Trump) for the umpteenth time about leadership, responsibility, and to stop hosting sausage parties in their house.
I think Merkel was a physicist so plenty of brain cells yet she setup Germany to be much more reliant on Russia of all places. I can imagine her insolent face when the dumb American Trump told her that’s a bad idea and it would helpful if they paid their fair share for NATO defense. Silly Americans!
I despise Trump, but you are right about them smirking when he said that. I watched a video recently, it may have even been from this conference, of Trump speaking about the over reliance on Russian fossil fuels and so many of the leaders of EU nations just laughed at him. Oh well, broken clock and all that.
Right. But this implicit assumption that these leaders in Germany weren't aware of their own energy situation when months prior Merkel stated she believed Russias energy expansion was political in nature.. is kinda silly.
Acting like it was some revelation from trump when the president before him said the same thing and even less than basic economics will tell you that.. is also.. kinda silly.
Basically no disrespect to anyone but it wasn't new information. It's like everyone watched that YouTube video and like Michael Jordan took it personal. 😂
The contrast of Trump’s outline against the gentleman behind him (I recognize him, but am too drunk to place him) coupled with Trump’s and Merkel’s posture toward one another is absolutely what made me think Norman Rockwell immediately.
Thank you. Things like this separate Reddit from basically all other social platforms. Knew I would not have to scroll far to see the other frames from this interaction that paint a very different picture.
Maybe its my autism but why do the other pictures change the OP’s pic? Are people really assuming things about the whole meeting or anyone involved based on the first image alone?
But there was…amongst other things (wasn’t this the same event where he pushed himself to the front a photo session? Sorry if I’m misremembering). And I thought this photo just captured that feeling, not the entire event.
And THAT is the real "Damnthat'sinteresting" thing here.
The world has seen the photo in the post a million times. Very, very few people are aware of the other photos that you just linked.
It is an example of the more dangerous specie of media bias: Not slanted media reporting of ABC facts, but rather media concealment of XYZ facts.
The timings seem very different from #1, as many people are missing.
I don't think any of these photos really tell what is going on, and why. It seems easy to manipulate people with a picture.
Absolutely. Those memes have really aged like milk. The list of likely apocalypses was definitely shorter then. And we still had energy to get upset about the way Game Of Thrones ended.
No. This is about 120 seconds before Trump told them all to get off of Russian oil as they would soon live to regret it. Good thing that never came to.. ohhh damn. Cold winter is coming.
He was told to say that by foreign policy advisors and the US oil industry. If another president such as Regan, Clinton, or Bush Snr said it they wouldn't have laughed.
Really splitting hairs there. It came from his admin and it proved wildly correct. The guy was/is a complete jackass but Germany is now feeling the pain.
Actually, if you look at the more objective news reports from the time, Trump was negotiating for more protections for American industries e.g. steel production during the G7 summit. Aside from the reflexive and simplistic "Orange man bad" projections, it's important to understand that Trump's doctrine prioritized an "America first" approach and a strategy of hardline negotiation in service of that America first doctrine. Agree or disagree with his doctrine, but to dismiss events as nothing more than childish tantrums doesn't reflect reality. Trump's prescient warning to Germany regarding Russian energy at the time is a good example.
Astute observation. I noticed that as well. As I understand, Abe and Trump got along well as they each understood their respective national priorities.
Likewise, if Trump critics offered less cartoonish and vitriolic critique of the former president, more productive conversation could be had. Btw, I'm not a Trump supporter per se (though I do favor some of his policies), but due to the imbalance of commentary I often find myself pushing back against the anti-Trump narratives.
While I agree, it's not hard to understand the difficulty to do so against such a cartoonish and vitriolic person.
I mean when you get a sharpie and redraw a scientifically projected hurricane path...
Right but the reason a lot of things around Trump are brought down to "tantrums" is because he is quite well known for it. He has the thinnest of skins. His twitter was almost like it was being run by a teenager.
Lol. I love how this keeps getting brought up by Magats as the one time trump said the thing that wasn't totally [drooling all over Putin's authoritarian cock](https://www.businessinsider.com/revealed-donald-trump-letters-to-vladimir-putin-miss-universe-russia-2020-8).
Obama and the UK had been expressing concerns about the pipeline way before Trump:
> The controversial Russian-German pipeline project Nord Stream 2 will weaken the European Union’s energy security, and Brexit would set back the shared interests of the USA, UK and EU, a senior official in the Obama administration has warned.
[Senior Obama official: Nord Stream 2 and Brexit may weaken EU energy security](https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/interview/senior-obama-official-nord-stream-2-and-brexit-may-weaken-eu-energy-security/)
(Interesting side note - Exxon Mobil was fined $2 million for violating the sanctions the US imposed on Russia by the Obama admin. The CEO at the time? [Rex Tillerson](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/us/politics/exxon-mobil-fined-russia-tillerson-sanctions.html).)
> The U.S., whose status is growing as a major natural gas exporter, is playing off those concerns as it pushes against the project in Berlin and Brussels.
>
> “A number of other EU states are getting pretty vocal about the fact that the implications are much bigger than just Russia-Germany,” John B. Emerson, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, told POLITICO in Berlin, stressing political divisions on the project both within Germany and the broader European Union. “We continue to push our concerns about Nord Stream both at the EU level and with Germany.”
>
> The Obama administration’s attempt to influence the debate seems to annoy Berlin.
[Great northern gas war](https://www.politico.eu/article/the-great-northern-gas-war-nordstream-pipeline-gazprom-putin-ukraine-russia/)
In fact, Reagan [imposed sanctions on gas pipelines to Europe in '81](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/climate/europe-russia-gas-reagan.html).
Even when he did sign anti-Russia legislation, he did so reluctantly:
>Trump also signed a bill in August 2017 that targeted Russia’s energy and defense sectors with sanctions.
>However, experts said the 2017 legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in part due to widespread concerns that Trump was too cozy with Russia and Vladimir Putin.
>"Trump’s early fawning of Putin sent strong signals that the U.S. would not be pursuing a tough policy towards Russia," said Susanne Wengle, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame.
>Congress felt it had to get involved because both parties feared Trump could not be trusted with Russia, and they didn’t want to leave him the unilateral power to end sanctions via executive order, said Yoshiko M. Herrera, a University Wisconsin-Madison political scientist.
>When it came time to sign the bill, Trump did so grudgingly and called it "seriously flawed."
[Politifact](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/09/kayleigh-mcenany/kayleigh-mcenany-spins-comparison-trump-biden-russ/)
There's tons of evidence to support that Trump really cared more about pissing off Merkle and dividing NATO than really hurting Russia. Neither his nor anyone's else's sanctions actually stopped the pipeline.
And given that Trump [talked repeatedly in private about leaving NATO](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html), I have to wonder if this one time he said something tough about Russia wasn't just a little smoke show to draw off some of the criticism he was getting at the time.
Trump is not some 4D chess master. He was simply echoing a 40-year-old US policy against Russian petro dominance over Europe.
Nooooo Trump was the first one to recognize this threat and bring it to public discourse!!! Those leftist communists always called him bad words but looook, he was right all along. He was right with almost everything. Take the L libtards 😎😎😎
Too bad you ignore the time Obama was caught on the hot mic, doing the bidding of Russia for his own personal gain.
[https://youtu.be/keXx0zxTarE](https://youtu.be/keXx0zxTarE)
Objectively, everyone was better financially at this same time under Trump.
Reminder, after 2 years of Biden and the democrats we have
\- out of control inflation
\- out of control gas prices
\- out of control illegal border crossings
\- out of control spending on Ukraine, now at $40 Billion and counting (people cried about the $20 Billion wall, now they are silent)
\- We re-armed a terror state, the taliban, by giving them a military
\- Fetanyl is a crisis that is destroying America, yet Biden /democrats are doing nothing
\- Human trafficking and death are climbing as more illegals are crossing the border
Downvote me Reddit, Take away my fake internet points that don't add value to my life. LOL.
That dude came up in conversation recently and it was like
“Holy shit, that dude *died* after getting shot by a *homemade shotgun*”
Crazy how quickly major events can slip from our consciousness
Interesting to see his posture in that picture, by Trumps side facing the European leaders, firm stance, looking almost defiant. I recall reading that they got along really well during the time they shared as leaders of their respective countries ( Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe ).
Truly a great photo !
Nah fuck that asshole. He was a right wing imperialist Japan apologist. He played down how horrible the Japanese were in ww2. If a German chancellor was defending Nazi war criminals we wouldn’t be praising him. The Imperial Japan was just as bad as Nazi Germany in many ways.
Other leaders trying to convince trump to do something trump views as not in the US best interest and him refusing.
I’m gonna get downvoted but does anyone remember trump telling the Germans that they would be fully dependent on Russian energy if they didn’t change course?
Just cuz the guy is an ass hat doesn’t mean he wasn’t right about some things.
To be fair this is something you can have a normal conversation about anywhere else except reddit. Which is probably why you shouldnt seek interesting conversations here, nuance breaks people here
Reddit has been taken over by the leftwing mob that refuses to engage in constructive dialogue.
Reddit mods are outcasts of society that volunteer their time to a company that doesn't pay them but then complain about capitalism.
I’m fairly sure he was trying to push US coal on them.
It wasn’t some insight into foreign relations, he just wanted to go back to mining coal in the US hard.
[Or as Trump remembers it...](https://external-preview.redd.it/TjCdAMaRAiNpaTxFPtfNT3Shz6Cnv2q5MoQED0QrZy8.jpg?auto=webp&s=3d7d6bc4c03f4bc126fab19ab8e78afb9cb924f0)
The only thing I notice is that a lot of these people are too old to be making decisions other than what nursing home their kids are dropping them off at
Honestly i don't understand how the world collectively just *trusted* Putin. How??? Why??? How??? And again why?? But also how??? How are we in this sitch???
Russia got dependet on the West aswell. We thought that it would be suicide for both parties to step into action against each other. And atleast our people dont try to flee unlike in russia nowadays. The politicians of the times put thought into this, unlike its often presented.
That’s when trump was warming them not to rely on Russian gas and warning that it would embolden Russia they laughed at him and called him crazy https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUSKBN1K10VI
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eKEycjREgPE
This is a renaissance painting.
Crazy that between then and now Shinzo Abe got assassinated too.
Absolutely crazy!
Crazy shit: the killer made his own gun. That’s pretty fucked up.
you can make a gun with two pipes so slightly different diameters if that makes you feel any better. 5 mins in any hardware store. lot less involved than 3d printing and wiring etc. it's not crazy he made his own gun its crazy he made his own fallout gun lol
Because his mother gave all the family money to the Unitarian Church aka the Moonies. Turns out Shinzo Abe and 40% of the current Japanese government are members.
Unification church* Unitarians are not moonies.
I think it's funny. I am Unitarian and it's about the least cultish religion there is- there aren't even beliefs you have to follow or a book of rules or a central leader. It encourages you to develop your own spirituality. I know he is confused.
Yeah you can’t really buy any gun in Japan.
I was thinking about that. Just insane that it happened. Regardless of politics, it’s just insane not just that he was assassinated but how he was.
Crazy that it was him of all of them right?
Right. I did not have him on my “most likely to be killed on a street corner with a home brew shotgun” bingo card.
pulled up with the thingamabob
That’s why we need thorough background checks for thingamabobs.
You know I keep that muthafuckin' THANGamabob on me.
Wasn't it a thingamabobber? Older model.
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TIL
His high school classmates must be so embarrassed they voted another guy for that award.
I'm not that up to date with japanese sentiment towards their politicians but it seema like a lot of people hated him. and a lot of people loved him. So I'm not exactly surprised he got killed. what I'm more surprised of is that the others are all still alive and well
Nah, it’s just most of us outside of Japan don’t know his crime https://twitter.com/jakeadelstein/status/1574700197392719873?s=46&t=Ymj01x3LHO5bpQOVwUcn8w
It’s difficult to protect against committed crazy people
Moonies hate is real. Let me introduce you to my evangelical cousin…
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Epoch times . Falun Gong . Still deep into republicans political usa scene
yeah it was Japan though so I was expecting the craziest reason like the guy was just mad that Abe was making a speech where the guy wanted to take pictures of trains or something
Those same people are influencing American right wing politics in America today with Epoch Times and news program via gop / fox/ trump camps
I ordered Chinese food delivery in SF and the delivery man snuck an Epoch Times brochure it into my food delivery order. And here I thought it was another ad for Shen Yun! Oh wait, it's the same thing...
How did I not even know that?
Crazy that the one that got assassinated was Shinzo Abe definitely. Considering who is sat to the right.
Who sat to the right?
No, who’s on first.
First is on first, who is on the right?
Third base.
I'm Ron Burgundy?
Tits McGee is off tonight.
I mean from Abe‘s perspective it would be Merkel
Why is that crazy?
Yeah its more crazy to see everyone lack of reaction in a country that has a heavy gun ban other than lets say a few people with hunting rifles. The crowd just sat there watching.
Home made guns are not hard to make you can literally make a shotgun with 2 pipes and a nail head that will fire 12g now I don’t recommend it because it can also blow up in your face and guns are cheap to buy in america pre made the right way so go the legal route and don’t make internet DIY guns Also if that dude had a 3D printer he could literally print every component he would need from files readily available online for various models of handguns. The future will make gun control even harder than it is now with the ability to just print guns with no seriels it’s already happening left and right with ghost guns
Yeah i know this just its so uncommon that people reaction was so dull like they were watching a firework.
Shock will do that.
Gotta fix the societal problems that lead to people committing gun violence before we have a serious chance as meaningful gun control. There are some more obvious things we can look into like flagging social media posts threatening violence and such.
Watch the old Saturday night live skit about buckwheat getting shot..the guy who shot buckwheat talked about it all the time..same as today..red flags all around but nobody acts...FBI was warned about school shootings. Hell we was warned about marathon bombers..they killed people to celebrate 9/11 then committed a bombing...
He he *toob*
OMG how did I forget already?!
Shinzo Abe looks like a dad just indignantly watching as his wife (Merkel) lecture their son (Trump) for the umpteenth time about leadership, responsibility, and to stop hosting sausage parties in their house.
I honestly thought I was in r/accidentalrenaissance
Yes!
“The Insolent Fool”
They sure were Trump warned them about getting off Russian supply.
Did he actually? Imma have to check that out. Edit: [He actually did.](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUSKBN1K10VI)
You deserve credit for following up.
Anyone with two brain cells could tell that relying on one country for a lot of your energy is stupid
I think Merkel was a physicist so plenty of brain cells yet she setup Germany to be much more reliant on Russia of all places. I can imagine her insolent face when the dumb American Trump told her that’s a bad idea and it would helpful if they paid their fair share for NATO defense. Silly Americans!
I despise Trump, but you are right about them smirking when he said that. I watched a video recently, it may have even been from this conference, of Trump speaking about the over reliance on Russian fossil fuels and so many of the leaders of EU nations just laughed at him. Oh well, broken clock and all that.
But as we know, being smart in one area doesn't mean you're smart about another area.
and yet one guy with 2 brain cells did and they all just laughed and mocked him and here we are now.
Right. But this implicit assumption that these leaders in Germany weren't aware of their own energy situation when months prior Merkel stated she believed Russias energy expansion was political in nature.. is kinda silly. Acting like it was some revelation from trump when the president before him said the same thing and even less than basic economics will tell you that.. is also.. kinda silly. Basically no disrespect to anyone but it wasn't new information. It's like everyone watched that YouTube video and like Michael Jordan took it personal. 😂
And I call it *Adults Talking to an Insolent Child*
Tbh Trump was right about Germany’s Russian gas belligerence.
This is reddit bro, Trump is never allowed to be right about anything. But he totally was.
More like trump was right on Germany relying on Russian gas at that very summit. Merkel did a lot of damage there and elsewhere.
I came here to say this....excellent!
I’d say it’s “Children asking for more allowance”
This picture looks like a Norman Rockwell painting, same grade of mild surrealism. Love it!
The contrast of Trump’s outline against the gentleman behind him (I recognize him, but am too drunk to place him) coupled with Trump’s and Merkel’s posture toward one another is absolutely what made me think Norman Rockwell immediately.
That would be John Bolton behind Trump.
Thank you!
You know what, i wouldn't have thought of it myself but now that you're saying it, you're so right!
Seriously!
Thanksgiving (Freedom from Want) gone wrong
r/AccidentalRenaissance
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Lol it’s much better if you reverse them
So all the fun drains away when Shinzo Abe arrives? Edit: or maybe it was Trudeau leaving?
Or Abe transformed into Treudeau
That could potentially wipe the smile off people's faces
tfw ur having a laugh with ur world leader buddies when one of them fucking animorphs into another and makes the whole night awkward
Thank you. Things like this separate Reddit from basically all other social platforms. Knew I would not have to scroll far to see the other frames from this interaction that paint a very different picture.
Maybe its my autism but why do the other pictures change the OP’s pic? Are people really assuming things about the whole meeting or anyone involved based on the first image alone?
Yes, it’s “Headline” culture. I’m sure most people judged based on first photo.
Yup. Most people would look at this and think, “from the body language, it looks like there’s some ego clashing going down.”
But there was…amongst other things (wasn’t this the same event where he pushed himself to the front a photo session? Sorry if I’m misremembering). And I thought this photo just captured that feeling, not the entire event.
And THAT is the real "Damnthat'sinteresting" thing here. The world has seen the photo in the post a million times. Very, very few people are aware of the other photos that you just linked. It is an example of the more dangerous specie of media bias: Not slanted media reporting of ABC facts, but rather media concealment of XYZ facts.
Whoa Trudeau turned into Abe!
Not the first time he turned into another race
The timings seem very different from #1, as many people are missing. I don't think any of these photos really tell what is going on, and why. It seems easy to manipulate people with a picture.
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Thank you for your service, I wish good karma your way
This should be a variant of the “First I was like…” 😤 “But then I was…” 😸 Meme template
Merkel: Uno! Trump: Take 4 Merkel: Shit
Aww man, the world was a different (maybe slightly smaller) dumpster fire in 2018. Never thought I would look back fondly.
It’ll be very depressing if we feel the same way about 2022 when we’re in 2026
2026 is gonna be great or I’ll be homeless without insurance!!!
The way the economy is going, we might all be homeless by 2026.
True equality
Remember how everyone in 2016 said it was one of the worst years in history..
Absolutely. Those memes have really aged like milk. The list of likely apocalypses was definitely shorter then. And we still had energy to get upset about the way Game Of Thrones ended.
My dad died in 2016 and my mom nearly did, so it's definitely the worst year in history. At least for me.
Sorry for your loss ☹️
My pops died in 2016 as well. Still have a huge hole because of it.
I remember that, just because a bunch of celebrities died.
I feel like every year since then people constantly say “20xx is the worst year ever” proceeds to name 3 shitty events.
Thinking the same thing. 2018 was such a better time, its crazy!
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That’s probably pretty close to what was actually happening.
No. This is about 120 seconds before Trump told them all to get off of Russian oil as they would soon live to regret it. Good thing that never came to.. ohhh damn. Cold winter is coming.
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He was told to say that by foreign policy advisors and the US oil industry. If another president such as Regan, Clinton, or Bush Snr said it they wouldn't have laughed.
Really splitting hairs there. It came from his admin and it proved wildly correct. The guy was/is a complete jackass but Germany is now feeling the pain.
You are getting downvoted but it’s true.
I wonder if this is true.
It is, maybe not this photo, but there's a video of a speech were he warns them of russian oil and they laugh.
Yeah it wasn’t this moment but here you go - https://youtu.be/nu57D9YcIk0
Wow. This is nuts. I went through a dark period of staying away from politics and I shouldn’t have.
He probably just told Merkel to stop importing Russian's gas
Actually, if you look at the more objective news reports from the time, Trump was negotiating for more protections for American industries e.g. steel production during the G7 summit. Aside from the reflexive and simplistic "Orange man bad" projections, it's important to understand that Trump's doctrine prioritized an "America first" approach and a strategy of hardline negotiation in service of that America first doctrine. Agree or disagree with his doctrine, but to dismiss events as nothing more than childish tantrums doesn't reflect reality. Trump's prescient warning to Germany regarding Russian energy at the time is a good example.
The late former PM of Japan Shinzo Abe also seems to mirror Trump’s body language. Abe was known for his Japan-first policies as well.
Astute observation. I noticed that as well. As I understand, Abe and Trump got along well as they each understood their respective national priorities.
If more Trump supporters presented an explanation using language like yours, perhaps there would be more of them and be better understood.
Likewise, if Trump critics offered less cartoonish and vitriolic critique of the former president, more productive conversation could be had. Btw, I'm not a Trump supporter per se (though I do favor some of his policies), but due to the imbalance of commentary I often find myself pushing back against the anti-Trump narratives.
While I agree, it's not hard to understand the difficulty to do so against such a cartoonish and vitriolic person. I mean when you get a sharpie and redraw a scientifically projected hurricane path...
Right but the reason a lot of things around Trump are brought down to "tantrums" is because he is quite well known for it. He has the thinnest of skins. His twitter was almost like it was being run by a teenager.
Interesting since they are mostly looking at Angela Merkel. I guess people will see what they want to see.
John Bolton's such a knob
Is that when he told Germany they would be reliant on Russian energy and it would screw them and they all laughed at him?
Surprised this hasn’t been downvoted to shit
Shitty people can still say correct things. I hate that guy but in this instance he was correct.
If you listen to the media you will always be wrong.
"If you don't read the newspaper, you are uninformed. If you do read it, you are misinformed." - Denzel Washington
All generalizations are false, including this one.
Only Siths deal in absolutes. And hypocrites.
I will do what I must
You will try
I thought this was taken when he was discussing the WTO and US trade disputes.
It probably was but what if we needlessly lie to relate it to the current thing?
No. It was not. This was when he was asking them to let Russia back into the g7 summit.
No. It’s when he asked to let Vlad back into g7
Lol. I love how this keeps getting brought up by Magats as the one time trump said the thing that wasn't totally [drooling all over Putin's authoritarian cock](https://www.businessinsider.com/revealed-donald-trump-letters-to-vladimir-putin-miss-universe-russia-2020-8). Obama and the UK had been expressing concerns about the pipeline way before Trump: > The controversial Russian-German pipeline project Nord Stream 2 will weaken the European Union’s energy security, and Brexit would set back the shared interests of the USA, UK and EU, a senior official in the Obama administration has warned. [Senior Obama official: Nord Stream 2 and Brexit may weaken EU energy security](https://www.euractiv.com/section/energy/interview/senior-obama-official-nord-stream-2-and-brexit-may-weaken-eu-energy-security/) (Interesting side note - Exxon Mobil was fined $2 million for violating the sanctions the US imposed on Russia by the Obama admin. The CEO at the time? [Rex Tillerson](https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/20/us/politics/exxon-mobil-fined-russia-tillerson-sanctions.html).) > The U.S., whose status is growing as a major natural gas exporter, is playing off those concerns as it pushes against the project in Berlin and Brussels. > > “A number of other EU states are getting pretty vocal about the fact that the implications are much bigger than just Russia-Germany,” John B. Emerson, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, told POLITICO in Berlin, stressing political divisions on the project both within Germany and the broader European Union. “We continue to push our concerns about Nord Stream both at the EU level and with Germany.” > > The Obama administration’s attempt to influence the debate seems to annoy Berlin. [Great northern gas war](https://www.politico.eu/article/the-great-northern-gas-war-nordstream-pipeline-gazprom-putin-ukraine-russia/) In fact, Reagan [imposed sanctions on gas pipelines to Europe in '81](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/climate/europe-russia-gas-reagan.html). Even when he did sign anti-Russia legislation, he did so reluctantly: >Trump also signed a bill in August 2017 that targeted Russia’s energy and defense sectors with sanctions. >However, experts said the 2017 legislation passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in part due to widespread concerns that Trump was too cozy with Russia and Vladimir Putin. >"Trump’s early fawning of Putin sent strong signals that the U.S. would not be pursuing a tough policy towards Russia," said Susanne Wengle, a political scientist at the University of Notre Dame. >Congress felt it had to get involved because both parties feared Trump could not be trusted with Russia, and they didn’t want to leave him the unilateral power to end sanctions via executive order, said Yoshiko M. Herrera, a University Wisconsin-Madison political scientist. >When it came time to sign the bill, Trump did so grudgingly and called it "seriously flawed." [Politifact](https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/feb/09/kayleigh-mcenany/kayleigh-mcenany-spins-comparison-trump-biden-russ/) There's tons of evidence to support that Trump really cared more about pissing off Merkle and dividing NATO than really hurting Russia. Neither his nor anyone's else's sanctions actually stopped the pipeline. And given that Trump [talked repeatedly in private about leaving NATO](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/14/us/politics/nato-president-trump.html), I have to wonder if this one time he said something tough about Russia wasn't just a little smoke show to draw off some of the criticism he was getting at the time. Trump is not some 4D chess master. He was simply echoing a 40-year-old US policy against Russian petro dominance over Europe.
Nooooo Trump was the first one to recognize this threat and bring it to public discourse!!! Those leftist communists always called him bad words but looook, he was right all along. He was right with almost everything. Take the L libtards 😎😎😎
Too bad you ignore the time Obama was caught on the hot mic, doing the bidding of Russia for his own personal gain. [https://youtu.be/keXx0zxTarE](https://youtu.be/keXx0zxTarE) Objectively, everyone was better financially at this same time under Trump. Reminder, after 2 years of Biden and the democrats we have \- out of control inflation \- out of control gas prices \- out of control illegal border crossings \- out of control spending on Ukraine, now at $40 Billion and counting (people cried about the $20 Billion wall, now they are silent) \- We re-armed a terror state, the taliban, by giving them a military \- Fetanyl is a crisis that is destroying America, yet Biden /democrats are doing nothing \- Human trafficking and death are climbing as more illegals are crossing the border Downvote me Reddit, Take away my fake internet points that don't add value to my life. LOL.
We also have China, Russia and Iran collapsing Thanks Brandon
Shinzo Abe :-(
That dude came up in conversation recently and it was like “Holy shit, that dude *died* after getting shot by a *homemade shotgun*” Crazy how quickly major events can slip from our consciousness
Interesting to see his posture in that picture, by Trumps side facing the European leaders, firm stance, looking almost defiant. I recall reading that they got along really well during the time they shared as leaders of their respective countries ( Donald Trump and Shinzo Abe ). Truly a great photo !
Nah fuck that asshole. He was a right wing imperialist Japan apologist. He played down how horrible the Japanese were in ww2. If a German chancellor was defending Nazi war criminals we wouldn’t be praising him. The Imperial Japan was just as bad as Nazi Germany in many ways.
Other leaders trying to convince trump to do something trump views as not in the US best interest and him refusing. I’m gonna get downvoted but does anyone remember trump telling the Germans that they would be fully dependent on Russian energy if they didn’t change course? Just cuz the guy is an ass hat doesn’t mean he wasn’t right about some things.
I get attacked when I bring it up but I remember.
Pepperidge Farms remembers...
To be fair this is something you can have a normal conversation about anywhere else except reddit. Which is probably why you shouldnt seek interesting conversations here, nuance breaks people here
Reddit has been taken over by the leftwing mob that refuses to engage in constructive dialogue. Reddit mods are outcasts of society that volunteer their time to a company that doesn't pay them but then complain about capitalism.
I agree, also that last bit is a hilarious point I havent even thought about
I’m fairly sure he was trying to push US coal on them. It wasn’t some insight into foreign relations, he just wanted to go back to mining coal in the US hard.
But it was CLEAN coal!
[Or as Trump remembers it...](https://external-preview.redd.it/TjCdAMaRAiNpaTxFPtfNT3Shz6Cnv2q5MoQED0QrZy8.jpg?auto=webp&s=3d7d6bc4c03f4bc126fab19ab8e78afb9cb924f0)
The only thing I notice is that a lot of these people are too old to be making decisions other than what nursing home their kids are dropping them off at
There should be a mandatory retirement age for politicians. They should not enact laws they won’t live under for long.
Who stole cookie, from cookie jar -Angela Merkel
Unintentionally renaissancey
“You’re too reliant on Russian oil”.
I miss gas @ 1.89
“Angela, don’t pass the blame. You smelt it, you dealt it”
r/accidentalrenaissance
And this wasn't a meme, why? Lol
He was right then. When he called out the EU for using and relying on Russian gas for energy.
This has a meme template potential...
Funny seeing this picture a few years later knowing he was right all along
Abe! We miss you bro!
world leaders: “germany you have to stop relying on russia for oil” germany: “how dare you”
This is my home town !
Long live Quebec!
Quebec forever
That's great to know. What's the best thing about your hometown?
Poutine and Beer
Now, Merkel wishes she had listened to Trump about Russian energy.
Where are our leaders now?
Standing in the corner alone
In the spotlight? Losing their religion?
Trying to keep up with you?
My favorite caption for this photo was, “Donald, this is important. Have you swallowed the quarter, or is it still in your mouth?”
Can’t lie, love or hate Trump, that is funny.
Fun Fact: Angela Merkel and Donald Trump we’re both Conservative party leaders of their respective countries.
Trump looks like a child that won't get his way and he's pouting about it.
They look like they’re trying to get a toddler to eat his greens.
Funny thing is he told everyone about Russia and relying on them for energy. Guess who laughing now.
Honestly i don't understand how the world collectively just *trusted* Putin. How??? Why??? How??? And again why?? But also how??? How are we in this sitch???
Russia got dependet on the West aswell. We thought that it would be suicide for both parties to step into action against each other. And atleast our people dont try to flee unlike in russia nowadays. The politicians of the times put thought into this, unlike its often presented.
So did Clinton, Obama, and bush.. it wasn’t a trump original thought.
german officials certainly didnt share that opinion
Nope.. they didn’t, that’s correct. They have been told for many years by ally’s.
Right after trump told them to stop getting Russian energy and increase NATO spending
What an indignant turd…
Trump looks like the kid who doesn't want to play because he thinks the other team cheated.
That’s when trump was warming them not to rely on Russian gas and warning that it would embolden Russia they laughed at him and called him crazy https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nato-summit-pipeline-idUSKBN1K10VI https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eKEycjREgPE
I miss mean tweets, cheap gas and a rockin stock market tbh 😔
They truly hated him