Love him or hate him, Trump was certainly correct re Germany's energy deal with Russia

At a NATO conference in 2018 Trump was mocked by liberals/progressives/socialists when he told Germany that they would be in danger of being politically controlled by Russia upon signing a multi-billion dollar deal for natural gas and oil:



Fast forward to an article in Bloomberg yesterday where they acknowledge that Germany is facing only 'bad or worse' choices because of their dependence on Russian energy:

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/a...as-bad-options-or-worse-options?sref=ZMFHsM5Z

U.S. taxpayers send billions upon billions of dollars to Germany and the rest of NATO with little accountability....

 

He was 100% correct.

 

Exacerbated by Dementia Joe shutting down our petro production on day one. We went from an exporter to DJ going to the Saudis and the Venezuelans with a tin cup in his hand, begging them to cut us a deal. They told us to pound sand.

Let's Go Brandon!

 

All of our US assistance was not on energy or economic grounds, it was military and diplomatic issues. Hence the two are mutually exclusive. It made sense in the past to rely on Russia for their energy needs because that was the cheaper option for Germany. However, Germany has said that it will decide not to shut down its nuclear energy facilities and will continue to support Ukraine. Thus, Trump's prediction is not exactly true.

 

Except...

NATO's mission is to simply provide an answer and response to first Soviet - and now - Russian aggression in Europe. U.S. taxpayers have provided a very expensive defense umbrella for NATO countries with little help from Europe. The Trump administration recognized that Germany was putting itself at risk by divesting from their own energy production to rely on Russia.

And it wasn't a case of "making sense' for Germany to do this, as you indicate; Germany, in their green zeal, shut down all but three of their nuclear power plants since 2011, which is why they now depend on Russia for their energy needs. Let alone how they've eliminated most of their fossil fuel production.

"The decision to phase out nuclear power and shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy was first taken by the center-left government of Gerhard Schroeder in 2002."

https://apnews.com/article/technolo...rd-schroeder-11b97717f822a38c90fb7483ffc825aa


A classic case of leftist virtual-signaling resulting in real world consequences...

 

As the adage says, hindsight is always 20/20. Thus, you can't predict the future when that deal was made in 2011, after the Fukushima disaster by the way. And that was the reason why Germany began to shut down their nuclear reactors. Furthermore, at the time of Trump's "prediction," US gas was three times as high as Russian gas, so it made good business sense to go with Russia. By going with Russia, it was believed that the more economic deals, the less likely Russia will be aggressive towards NATO.

Yes, we provided huge amounts of money towards NATO to dissuade a Soviet/Russian aggression. Now, we need to reevaluate that relationship. Russia is still in the wrong for invading Ukraine and nothing Trump says can dissuade that argument. Furthermore, I do think NATO should start getting directly involved with Ukraine along with US Forces now, given that Russian troops, under Putin's orders, are committing genocide against the Ukrainian people. And that would put a stop. Putin will not launch any nuclear device towards the US or any other country. If he does, he and everyone else knows that Mutually Assured Destruction will occur for everyone. And not even China will agree with Russia on that one.

This is not a liberal issue here. This is a political power struggle that Europe has not seen since the 1930s.

 

It is a liberal issue. They began shutting down nuclear power to satisfy the Green weenies and talked Biden’s handlers to OK Nordstream 2 to replace the energy. Germany had the opportunity to make Russia dependent on them. Which is fine until it isn’t.
On the bright side, the Green movement has been fatally wounded due to an unplanned reality check. Germany can’t be Green because they don’t have their own resources. “You’re gonna need a bigger coat!”
I doubt Russia will nuke, but if they do shoot, I fear Biden’s handlers will refuse to fire to save the world.

 

It is 100 percent a leftist-caused issue.

And it wasn't simply '20-20 hindsight,' it was a very serious and important national security issue since Germany is the largest NATO member in Europe. And Trump wasn't alone in pointing out this issue. But leftists, in their desire to go green, disregarded any notion of national security.

I do agree with you about the U.S. reevaluating its membership in NATO; there is a reason Germany, the UK and most of Europe are able to offer free health care and other social cost issues. If not for the U.S. spending trillions of dollars in providing a defense umbrella for these countries they would have never have been able to fund these programs if they were paying for their own military defense all these decades.

Not sure how old you are, but are you willing to enlist and go to Ukraine yourself? Perhaps your siblings or children should enlist and go defend that country?

Not a single American military life should be put at risk. At most, continue to temporarily provide a defense umbrella for Europe for a short time in order for them to transition to their own defense. After that, they are on their own. Let them run up their own national deficits and fund their own military if they want to protect themselves from Russia or China...

 

Trump Was Right: Putin's Gas Strategy Gives Germany Only Bad & Worse Choices

​

I'm saddened by the poor decisions that the world has seen Germany make, time and time again. The German people work so hard to be honorable, industrious, well behaved and thrifty, but, they clearly need to make better decisions at the polling booth.

"Trump claimed, during a testy breakfast meeting in 2018 with NATO's Stoltenberg, that Germany's dependence for its energy needs made it "totally controlled" by and "captive to Russia.""

​

Trump was right.

 

It wasn't a liberal issue at all considering the Central Right Party of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, aka Angela Merkel. Second, there was no way for Russia to be dependent on Germany at all. Russia has vast fossil fuel resources in oil and natural gas, both of which are generally larger than what Saudi Arabia has.

What you do not understand, even "green energy" can be it's own. However, Germany is not as reliant on fossil fuel, except for the military uses primarily, compared to the US and China.

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/factsheets/germanys-energy-consumption-and-power-mix-charts

 

Well, you don't know much do you. I am old enough to remember "the Big Red Scare" and the House Committee of Un-American Activities until 1975. But then again, nothing like innuendo, guilty by association, and other nefarious forms that the Soviets used to get guilty pleas.

As for Germany's energy needs, it has very little resources in fossil fuel, but it does have strong river and ocean currents. Its energy consumption has declined since 2016 with fossil fuels declining from 99% in 1965 to 86% in 1990 to 76.7% to 2015. However, despite falling energy use, emissions in Germany have remained constant. For Germany, it is not a "liberal" issue. In Europe, "liberal" has a totally different connotation than in the US, as well as the term "far-right." To put it in perspective, both the Democratic Party and the GOP would still be considered center-right parties in the EU.

https://www.carbonbrief.org/how-germany-generates-its-electricity

Second, I never said about reevaluating its membership. However, I think NATO and the EU should merge together. EU is an economic and political union while NATO is a military force. NATO primary's mission is to protect Europe, especially Western and Central Europe. Furthermore, this is similar to the Balkan situation in the late 1990s when the US finally intervened because Europe, NATO, and the EU were disorganized on what to do. Not with Ukraine though. And most European countries in NATO want to intervene but the US and France are preventing that, but for far different reasons. And the only forces I would consider going into Ukraine are SF, SEALS, and other such units as force multipliers. The reason Putin understands one thing, and that is force and the threat of force. By then, he will capitulate to the invasion of Ukraine and maybe, just maybe, the Dumas will remove him from office. But I doubt that.

Finally, if one wants to join the military, they should. Its an all-volunteer force and only a person with no scribbles would try to use the "joining the military" argument as a way to defend. But then again, I guess you want to "ride in a tank and liberate this country on a T72." Right.

 

"Trump was certainly correct"

is American oil cheaper?

Trump was right, this is GREAT for the oil and gas industry, course it SUCKS for consumers

 

I have no problems pointing out how wrong you are by posting this all the time thinking you have a gotch ya or a point. All it does is make you look bad.

 

lol, the fact is, Trump did say those things, can deflect all you like


Trump lowered supply during Covid, now that demand is picking up, supply is not there

 

The situation at the time was slightly different which makes your post and point disingenuous. And since I've made you aware of that -in detail- many times. It now makes you come off as desperate. Trump had both Russia and SA dancing to his tune in the interest of the United States domestic oil companies. That's the reality. Your boy Brandon can't even get either on the phone.

If Trump were still in power, he would have gotten at least SA to increase it's production now, certainly our domestic companies. But alas. You voted in the weaker link who's going full thought police. LOL. Way to go.

 

Trump was right about a lot of things. It's his repulsive, vulgar behavior that made it impossible for me to ever support him

 

Trump reduced oil supply during Covid, now that Covid is ending and demand increasing.... the supply is not there... that is just the facts

 

The supply would be there by now.

Sorry you are just going to have to accept that nobody in the world respects Brandon.

Trump would have long since made the call to domestic companies to increase their **** or lose the pipeline.

Brandon? Brandon just goes and has naps.

 

This in no way says Germany is politically controlled by Russia.
You are conflating two things ans coming to an illogical conclusion.

 

"Gas is high because they shut down production in the U.S.” under the Biden administration.




There are many factors at play in the steady climb in gas prices since Biden took office, including increased demand after pandemic lockdowns ended, inflation and, now, the war in Ukraine. But lower oil production in the U.S. isn’t one of them.

America produced 11.185 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2021, compared with 11.283 million a year earlier under Trump. The amount produced in Biden’s first year exceeds the average daily amount produced under Trump from 2017 to 2018, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
https://www.politifact.com/factchec...s/oil-production-bidens-first-year-par-trump/

Get used to being corrected.

 

Maybe Vlad told his BFF the invasion would happen.

 

Love him or hate him... Trump was not a butt kissing politician... repulsive, vulgar behavior is when a shicken chit politician is telling me (lying) something just to make me happy, and then runs to you and tells you (lying) something just to make you happy... Trump told Germany what the truth was....Trump was a business man and made decisions that was best for our country and the business.... it was his job. He had been doing it for years... People say a country can't be run like a business, but I disagree... the difference is Trump could not FIRE the elected losers and slackers we have running the country... In Trump's business Pelosi would be on the corner with a "will work for food" sign ( in Russia or China she would sleep with the fishes). Do you really think Trump would have an employee ripping up a speech behind him in his business?... The swamp runs deep and the elected losers and slackers like Pelosi, etc. are why Trump did not accomplish all he was capable of.
Think of what Trump could have accomplished if he did not have the political anchor tied to his leg from day one... I probably would not like Trump as a person, but I likes his politics. I am above "mean tweets"... Trump mean tweets "CNN is fake news" and he is absolutely correct.

As long as he does not tweet CNN is an SOB I'm good.... but we can the leave the SOB calling to our current president and his press speaker Psaki...they get to call reporters SOB's all day long and we have a big laugh about it. Ha, Ha...

 

A gentle reminder: even a broken clock is correct twice each day.

Also, why should we not expect a man whose father was born in Germany to be precise and correct in his statements of fact?

Regards, stay safe 'n well 'n remember the Big 5.

 

nope, the oil execs told us they do not want to increase production now as the $$$ is just too good, thanks Trump

 

Trump would have got them to bend the knee. Like he did with Russia and SA. So yup!

See Trump would have had both good will already and if need be, the pipeline to threaten them with. The pipeline Brandon already cancelled...

And that's just surface level **** I could come up with. I'm sure Trump would have found other ways to get the domestic gas companies to capitulate.

So sorry, you picked the wrong guy and it's costing the entire world. Thanks for that.