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Promoted from the diaries by streiff. Promotion does not imply endorsement.
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According to a previously unpublished Pew Research international poll, when it comes to world leaders, more Europeans are likely to trust Vladimir Putin than Donald Trump when it comes to world affairs.  Overall, however, Germany’s Angela Merkel and France’s Emmanuel Macron came out numbers one and two, respectively.  Only 10% of Germans and 9% of French trust Trump.  This scoop came from a report at the Munich Security Conference.  When it comes down to a Putin versus Trump competition, the disparity is greatest in two key European countries- France and Germany.  Perhaps a little history is in order here.

A few decades ago, some French and Belgians, the latter best known for their waffles and the former for their fries, got together and developed a scheme to keep those pesky Germans from overrunning the French every twenty years or so.  Fighting the Germans every twenty years took away from the French designing women’s fashions and perfumes.  They called it the European Economic Committee and thought, “Hey…if we can get the French and Germans to cooperate when it comes to steel technology and manufacturing, maybe that will keep the Germans from overrunning France every twenty years.  This way, the world will be safer and we’ll have more perfume.”

Initially, things were going fine.  Steel technology was being shared, perfumes were being manufactured and French fashion fads like the beret along with perfumes were being exported from France.  More countries jumped on the bandwagon and the thing grew so big they had to change their name to the European Union.  They were based in Brussels which is in Belgium because the bureaucrats who came to run the EU liked waffles.  The European countries got rich not because their waffles, perfumes or steel technology was so good, but because they really didn’t have to worry about shouldering the cost of defending themselves.  They had the United States for that.

The horde of faceless bureaucrats in Brussels grew and grew and with them grew power.  They talked down about legitimately bad people like Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, but they were about as undemocratic as Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini.  So it comes as no surprise that these bureaucrats would be a tad upset because along comes this funny sort of orange dude from the US who wants to upset the gravy train.  All he asked was that these countries pay a little more for their own defense.  The bureaucrats got mad and called the orange man lots of bad names.

Everyone knows that America has its problems too.  We have black people paying other black people to rough them so they can blame the orange man, and women claiming rape when someone whistles at them near a construction site… and all but blaming the orange  man.  There is even a Muslim woman who went to Syria, married about four Muslim dudes who were really bad and killed some people, but now says, “Oops!  I just want to come home and watch TV in Alabama.”  America has this very intellectual congresswoman who wants to stop cows from farting and she does not like Jeff Bezos because her Amazon purchase arrived late one day.

Meanwhile, the Germans are telling the orange man with all the money and all the military firepower not to get out of Syria.  This is weird since the Germans are allowing every Muslim who donned a hijab or mask and kill non-Muslims in the name of Allah to enter Germany.  Not only that, but Germany and France are demanding every other European country do the same or else they will get cut out of the club and no longer be allowed to eat waffles with them in Brussels anymore.

But, the Germans and the French now view Putin as more trustworthy than Trump when it comes to international relations.  This is the same Putin who invaded and annexed a part of another country in Europe.  This is the same Putin who funneled rubles into a French election and who hacked the German legislature.  I’ll grant you that Putin may be smarter than Trump.  After all, about $2,000 in Facebook ads allegedly swayed an American election.  That is the definition of getting the most bang for your buck.  But, trustworthy?

If anything, these survey results indicate what buffoons the French and Germans really are when it comes to America.  You’d think the Germans would be a little more gracious considering America handed them their asses twice (World Wars I and II), bombed the crap out of the country then rebuilt it (Marshall Plan), fed starving Germans (Berlin airlift) and defended them afterwards (the Cold War).  If it wasn’t for America, most of Europe would be finishing up their 15th Moscow-directed Five Year Plan right about now and they’d be eating borscht instead of waffles in Brussels.  As for the French, they don’t allow the Germans to overrun them every twenty years or so these days; they just go along with whatever Berlin says through the bureaucrats in Brussels.  You’d think they would be more like the Japanese who are much more polite and discrete in their disagreements with America… and we beat the crap out of them also.

But, the bureaucrats in Brussels, Berlin and Paris have convinced the people of Europe that the orange man is such a threat that many now find Putin more trustworthy than Trump.  They’ve done a real good job of brainwashing Europeans.  That same poll noted that only 48% of Americans trust their own leader (the only leader to fall under 50% in their home country), but that 81% of Russians trust their leader, Putin.

Putin doesn’t necessarily need to hack websites, influence elections or just generally behave like a jerk. He has these dolts in Brussels doing a fine job for him.