Thread: France taunts US by editing White House video on climate deal

France taunts US by editing White House video on climate deal

By Hilary Clarke, CNN
Updated 8:41 AM ET, Sat June 3, 2017

Story highlights

French video "corrects" White House climate deal assertions
"Leaving the Paris Accord is a bad deal for America," one caption reads

(CNN)France is taunting the US on the Paris Agreement -- again.

This time, French officials remade a White House video by editing captions that explain why the Paris climate accord was a "bad deal" for the US.

The video, posted on Twitter by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, is France's latest challenge of President Donald Trump's decision to pull the United States out of the United Nations-brokered deal, which seeks to limit global temperature rises by 2100 to 2 degrees Celsius above levels recorded before industrialization.

In the original 40-second US video, the first slide reads, "The Paris Accord is a bad deal for America." The new French version tweaks that line to read, "Leaving the Paris Accord is a bad deal for America and the world."

The French video goes on to refute the main arguments in the US video using new slides with text edits. For example, the US version asserts that the climate deal "undermines US competitiveness and jobs."

The French video adds: "Major US companies from all sectors such as Exxon Mobil, Schneider Electric or Microsoft, disagree."

Where the White House video claims the United States set up a $3 billion UN "slush fund," the French video points out that the US financial commitment to the "green climate" fund is less, per capita, than that of many other countries, including Germany and France.

Other edits include swapping "badly negotiated" for "comprehensively negotiated."

Macron takes on Trump

France's new President, Emmanuel Macron, has led the international charge against the US decision to become one of just three countries -- along with Syria and Nicaragua -- not to abide by the Paris accord.

He repeatedly has said the Paris deal will "make the planet great again," a play on Trump's campaign slogan. And Macron on Thursday released a video address to the American people asserting that Trump is an outlier against American greatness, despite his own political mantra.

In their latest video, the French also point out a White House line that some US researchers say Trump twisted to support his own priorities.

The White House video states that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology believes the impact of the Paris accord "would be negligible." The French video says the deal was "a step in the right direction."

MIT agrees with France

In fact, the President misinterpreted MIT's data, showing "a complete misunderstanding of the climate problem," said John Reilly, the co-director of the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change and one of the study's authors.
Trump pulls US from Paris accord (full speech)

Trump in announcing his decision Thursday to pull out of the deal said, "Even if the Paris Agreement were implemented in full with total compliance from all nations, it is estimated it would only produce a two-tenths-of-one-degree-Celsius reduction in global temperature by the year 2100."

"The whole statement seemed to suggest a complete misunderstanding of the climate problem," Reilly said. "I think Paris was a very good deal for the United States, contrary to what they are claiming," Reilly told CNN.

"This one small step with Paris is a necessary step," he added. "It is an incredibly important step. If we don't take the step, then we aren't prepared to take the next step."

http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/03/politi...deo/index.html

Such a childish unsophisticated Old Guard approach to expressing disagreement.

I was at the Tour de France finish in Paris in 1991 and I witnessed the French police forcing Americans to stop displaying the US flag. I might add that an American was in the lead and that people were waving flags from all of the other countries but only Americans were prohibited from displaying their flags.
In my opinion, the French are an ungrateful lot and it appears that saving them from being German speaking in WWII may have been a waste of time since they are so quick to jump into bed with and let Germany control them through the EU now.

Not the first time France has raised it's nose at the US while digging it's hand in our pockets. This time, Trump is not letting that happen. The Climate deal was nothing but a transfer of the hard earned wealth and prosperity of the citizens of this country. The attitude toward "rich Americans" has been of jealous disdain in many parts of the world for a long time.

Remember this?
Americans Just Say 'Non' to French Products

Published February 19, 2003
Fox News

NEW YORK – Jokes about France are plentiful lately, but many Americans aren't laughing at the European country's resistance to using force with Iraq -- and are fighting back by closing their wallets.

In fact, beaucoup d'Americans have decided to boycott French products such as wine and cheese, in an effort to hurt the country's economy.

Fromage.com, a French cheese distributor, reported that its sales to the United States have gone down 15 percent in the past two weeks. Some U.S. eateries are no longer offering French wines. And a restaurant in North Carolina has even changed the name of its fries.

Neal Rowland, who owns Cubbie's restaurant in Beaufort, N.C., said he decided to put stickers that say "Freedom" over the word "French" on all his menus after he watched France back away from support for war in Iraq.

"Since the French are backing down, French fries and French everything needs to be banned," he told Foxnews.com in a telephone interview. "Fry sales have really gone up. People who eat them now say, 'Freedom never tasted so good.'"

Rowland cooked up the freedom fry idea last week after a conversation with a customer about World War I days, when anti-German sentiment prompted Americans to rename familiar German foods. Sauerkraut and frankfurters became liberty cabbage and hot dogs.

And Rowland said patrons have been in full support of the fry renaming.

"I had a gentleman come in today, who works at the court house, and he was crying, his son is serving in Afghanistan and he said he was so glad someone is taking a stand," said Rowland. "He was proud to see the support in the community for the troops."

If the backlash is strong enough, it could impact the French economy -- American trade with France tops $30 billion a year.

But some French aren't amused by, or afraid of, the boycott.

"Well, if they prefer to eat American food, it is entirely their problem," Guillaume Parmentier, the head of the French Centre on the United States, told the Canadian new service CBC.ca. "But seriously. This never works. Boycotts work when there are grave human rights violations or something like that."

U.S. lawmakers are also eager to remind the French that Americans bailed them out in both World Wars, at a cost of tens of thousands of lives. Some in Congress are even pursuing possible trade restrictions.

Rep. H. James Saxton, a New Jersey Republican, has drafted a resolution that calls for a U.S. boycott of the Paris Air Show this spring.

"If [the Chirac government] fails to find a way to cooperate, we'll urge U.S. citizens, companies and the military to forego participation," Saxton told WorldNetDaily.com.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert said he'd like to target bottled French mineral water and wine. He has instructed Republican colleagues to determine whether Congress should pass laws that would impose new health standards on bottles of Evian and other French waters.

According to the Beverage Marketing Corporation, France is the leading exporter of water to the United States and sold 65 million gallons last year.

It's not the first time Americans have boycotted French products. Back in 1985 when the French would not allow U.S. military planes to fly over their airspace on their way to bomb Libya, U.S. consumers boycotted industries, including fashion, food and wine. And a similar boycott happened in 1995 and 1996 when France refused to stop testing nuclear weapons in the South Pacific.

But Boris Marchand-Tonnel of the French-U.S. chamber of commerce in Paris played down the threat.

"Maybe in a few New York restaurants, a few clients will refuse to order French wine," he told The Guardian. "But it's peanuts against the overall picture, it's really just symbolic."

Whether the boycott impacts the French economy or not, Americans from Congress to Cubbie's are saying the French can "faux-get" our future support and money.

Rowland said one freedom fry eater told him: "On Sept. 11 if a plane had slammed into the Eiffel Tower I guarantee the French would've been on the phone to the Americans saying, 'Please, we need help.' It's time for them to step up to the plate and help us."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/2003/02/19/americans-just-say-non-to-french-products.html

The older French people know how much they owe US and it's a debt they carry with them every day. The younger French people and immigrants to France are Socialists, it's a real shame to see that happen to France. They will regret allowing this to happen, much the way we regret allowing so much of it to happen in our country.

Originally Posted by Newmexican

In my opinion, the French are an ungrateful lot and it appears that saving them from being German speaking in WWII may have been a waste of time since they are so quick to jump into bed with and let Germany control them through eh EU now.

My thoughts exactly. You would think that after saving France's ass in two world wars, that they would show a little more gratitude towards us.