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Francis Fukuyama shows his never-Trumper biases. He calls Trump paralyzed over Russia policy, and attacks him for praising Putin (out of context; Trump was actually contrasting Putin's focus and drive with the West's dithering and division).

In fact, it was the Democrats who sought to paralyze Trump on Russia. The Trump Administration was working to rebalance the power equation. He pushed hard to make the U.S. energy independent, and bulked up the military. He fought against China's growing dominance. He phoned up world leaders and cut deals that were surprisingly original and effective.

Were Trump still in office, it's unlikely that Russia would have moved into Ukraine, and no one would be defeatedly predicting Taiwan's conquest by China like it's a done deal.

Go back to your ivory tower or your CNN contributor job, Mr. Fukuyama.

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Trump had everything under control by being an energy exporter which crippled Russia. Biden has completely reversed this and empowered Russia and here we are. Also, Trump armed Ukraine.

We are right where the globalists(Obama's team and corporatists) have always wanted us - situation 'always war(or crisis)' to enable change.

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founding

“However, in foreign policy, he returns the U.S. to its traditional position of being an internationalist supporter of democratic allies.”

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Trump was not a supporter of allies because he said Europe needs to spend more on defense which was rude. Europeans are sophisticated and this sort of talk is impolite.

Biden has returned us to normal by creating a world war which has necessitated more defense spending by Europe which is smart. Also, he supports our allies by saying “allies” a lot.

Everyone in a position of power thinks exactly like this and because of that we are screwed.

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founding

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

“I think he’s (Biden) done a magnificent job in rallying the whole NATO alliance to oppose Putin”

🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡🤡

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The fog of war is strong. The push for WW III from politicians and a couple billionaires and talking heads is as insane as demanding people believe men can give birth. Those who think Biden is trustworthy are the exact same people who swear men can give birth. No, there is nothing to be trusted from our military industrial complex that mostly just screws up and kills people for the last 25 year, and the geography of where they are doing it doesn’t matter.

What happens when a country claims “national security” to invade a smaller country for regime change? Lots of death and destruction. We should know from when we did it in 2003. Neither Putin or China threatened WW III. Our president was re-elected. I don’t begin to agree with Putin, but I don’t want a nuclear war when what he’s doing isn’t so different that the horrible mistake we made 19 years ago and that mostly resulted in lots of death and misery. Please, no more war. Stop the war mongering. Stop the western arrogance of believing we should go around blowing up other countries, right or wrong, and wanting WW III with a country that has 4 x as many nukes as we do. This whole thing should have been avoided. Those wanting WW III should have pushed for peace then, not war now.

No war. No more western imperialism. WW III could end humanity in reality.

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Mr “The end of history” has his head up his ass as usual. When the “intelligence agencies” are actively involved in a coup against you, you tend NOT TO TRUST THEM. It’s easy to discount all the lying when it has been your side TELLING ALL THE LIES.

We had a binary choice. Admit Ukraine to NATO and arm it to the teeth(a bad policy I believe, US base in Crimea-ARE YOU CRAZY!!) or clearly state Ukraine will never be in NATO. We did neither, and here we are

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And this is why I keep coming back to Bari. As outright embarrassing as the last piece on this conflict was, this beautifully redeemed it. I find the optimism that the Biden administration has any idea what they’re doing almost cute, if not laughable, but I love hearing varying opinions on a massively complicated ordeal that raises questions across the board and pushes us all to think.

I think the one item that wasn’t discussed is the common narrative floating around that Russia and China are serious people and the western world, today, is not. I think specifically of the “they/them” purple tanks rolling next to the battle hardened Russian tanks - and this was shared in my very left group of friends.

You need to go further back in history but there’s many precedents in the Roman Empire, the crumpling of the Greek State, etc… that as cultures become obsessed with trivialities because they have faced no real hardships that, more than anything, signifies their demise. I think many people believe the west has become a mob state - where the mob is out elites - and they will fight only to protect their wealth and power, of which Russia and Ukraine are of no concern, and the rest of us are distracted with nonsenses and have sacrificed the willingness to step up when needed to the alter of those nonsenses.

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Idiots like Francis "End of History" Fukuyama are the reason we're in this mess. The US and EU are pushing their globalist 21st century agenda while the rest of the world is still nationalist. The Ukraine, while corrupt, was stable before our involvement in the 2014 coup. Then it became unstable and still corrupt.

We underestimate Russia's resolve at the world's peril. This is an existential issue for Moscow, much like the Cuban Missile Crisis was for us. If we come into military contact with Russian forces, all bets are off. The idiots in DC and the media are not recognizing how volatile this situation is, and instead of seeking the fastest way to a cessation of hostilities, are pumping the war rhetoric and refusing to acknowledge their own involvement in creating this disaster.

In the final moral calculus, conflict between nuclear armed powers is the worst possible outcome. At that point, saving the Ukrainians will become a non-issue because there won't be any to save. I wish someone would step up and recognize that fact.

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Mead is closest to being on the mark here. Fukuyama is just as wrong here as he was when he wrote The End of History and the Last Man predicting that the entire world would be democratized by now. The truth of the matter is that this war started in 2014 and has been ongoing ever since. More than 13,000 had already been killed before Putin invaded last week. Here’s the true story:

https://jeffcuttler.substack.com/p/the-russo-ukrainian-war?s=w

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Your last paragraph, Bari, I think is the most perceptive. We have a poor starting line up and no bench to speak of, all sponsored by people whose agenda does not really represent the national interest or the interests of the victimized populations.

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Fukuyama teaches political science? No wonder so many idiots are part of US administration.

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Bari writes: "Yesterday, I sat down with three people I deeply respect when it comes to thinking about history, foreign policy and American power" and includes Francis Fukuyama, who is the colossally deluded fool who wrote that, with the fall of the Soviet Union, humanity has reached "not just ... the passing of a particular period of post-war history, but the end of history as such: That is, the end-point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government." It was laughable then, hilarious in retrospect. No surprise that Fukuyama praised Biden for things Biden clearly did not do. Equally no surprise that Ferguson easily destroyed his claim, likening Biden to Dostoyevsky's "Idiot." Seriously, Bari? We understand the need to hear differing points of view. But including discredited, credulous clowns in a conversation adds nothing to the dialogue.

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An illuminating discussion that was billed as being about Putin, Biden, and Zelenskyy vis-a-vis Russia’s invasion. Niall Ferguson is a serious scholar.

And yet, Francis Fukuyama hijacked the conversation at times by making it - of course(!) - about Donald Trump, preposterously claiming that Trump cozied up to Putin thereby encouraging the invasion, while completely ignoring that the Russia-Trump collusion narrative has been revealed to be a scandalous falsehood.

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EXCUSE ME! ATTENTION ON THE THREAD! After yesterdays' debacle on here, can we follow Niall Ferguson's example, and when you don't like what someone says, you say "Can I disagree completely?......." And then prove your point, instead of calling someone a #$%@head. Thank you.

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Never before have we been so well connected, yet so ill informed. Media Credibility has become an oxymoron, just like Military Intelligence or Microsoft Works . Trust must be hoarded like your literal life savings, carefully invested in tested and proven resources of which there are tragically few. Loyalty must be earned by demonstrably correct actions and results, which again are sadly few. Thank you Bari for managing an "intellectual investment fund" in which we can deposit a tiny bit of trust and loyalty to discuss and define, to measure and manage, and to test and then trust.

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BIDEN was elected? Center - but has moved to the more progressive side?

We all understand that there’s a peculiar type of lie aura amongst leftists. Voting rules were illegally changed. Drop boxes were illegally installed. Donors were allowed to donate $419M by Zuckerberg. Biden lost 18 of the 19 bellwether counties - statistically “improbable.”

GREEN is a lie. We can not power this country on solar and wind. Your IPHONE is made of petrochemicals, your water bottle, your carpet - heck the ELECTRIC CAR is made of petrochem products. Imagine your grocery store with out packaging, or your hospital w/o plastic. The ignorance defies logic - by supposedly smart people.

Transgender is a lie - fine with me - if you want to be a pervert. But stay out of girls sports and women’s rooms. Or cut it off.

I’m no longer interested in your feelings. We must not play with NUCLEAR WAR in the mix. This administration seems to think that PUTIN or his replacement will be reasonable. Biden caused this situation. Biden and all the people that lie for him.

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