November 22, 2022

"I get asked 'Who’s the most dangerous person in the world? Is it Chairman Kim, is it Xi Jinping?' The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten."

"It’s not a close call. If you ask, 'Who’s the most likely to take this republic down?' It would be the teacher’s unions, and the filth that they’re teaching our kids, and the fact that they don’t know math and reading or writing. These are the things that candidates should speak to in a way that says, 'Here’s the problem. Here’s a proposal for how to solve it. And if given the opportunity, these are the things I will go work on to try and deliver that outcome that fixes that problem.' Pretty straightforward stuff."

Said Mike Pompeo, quoted in "Mike Pompeo: 'The most dangerous person in the world is Randi Weingarten'" (Semafor).

Pompeo, the former Secretary of State, seems to intend to run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

Pompeo is eager to "ban TikTok." Asked why, he sputters short sentences:

Money. Economics. Kids like TikTok. There’s always resistance when you make changes that are significant. We should absolutely ban TikTok, but banning TikTok, again, that’s good — but we should ban every element of Chinese technology that sits inside our ecosystem. And we shouldn’t have Chinese research money in our senior institutions to research learning around America. We shouldn’t have them in our national laboratories. We closed the consulate in Houston, Texas — the single largest spy operation ever conducted in America, I believe was being conducted out of the Chinese consulate in Houston, Texas. And America knew it for a long time and didn’t do a damn thing about it. The Chinese Communist Party is coming for your kids. TikTok is a piece of this and I regret that we didn’t get that done.

I didn't hear the answer to why.  Pompeo seems stuck on coming-for-your-kids fear-mongering: The Chinese Communist Party is coming for your kids. The teachers' union is coming for your kids. 

I've heard some people promoting Mike Pompeo as a more "presidential"-seeming version of Trump — more presentable and polished and sophisticated. I'm not hearing it.

127 comments:

Ann Althouse said...

I am *seeing* it.

Pompeo definitely *looks* more like a stereotypical President that Trump does.

Trump looks far too bizarre to become President. I still think that and have to struggle to face the reality that Trump *was* President. It *can* happen. Sometimes I go back and watch the election night coverage from 2016 to relive that it did happen along with the amazed news commentators. I've done that many times!

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I’m hearing that here in Georgia. Kids aren’t learning the 3 Rs, reading, writing and arithmetic.

Leland said...

I will honorably mention Klaus Schwab.

Tom said...

Pompeo is right on this one.

Jefferson's Revenge said...

There is no constituency for Pompeo. Nice resume but no presence. He is probably running so he can withdraw in return for a cabinet post.

He is right about a lot ( not all ) issues but has too many more qualified and energized contenders to get the nomination. He is Jeb! without the family name and connections.

Interesting article in WSJ this morning touting Kemp as opposed to DeSantis. The rational is that Kemp was successful in a blue state and DeSantis just piled up numbers in a red state. Both opened up during COVID at about the same time but DeSantis was more brazen about it, as I recall. Anyone in GA with any insight?

PB said...

TikTok is spyware. The chinese don't even let their kids use the open-ended version we have.

Kate said...

Pompeo knows the teachers' union topic and can speak forcefully and convincingly about it. On TikTok he blathers, reducing my confidence in anything else he says. Politicians continuously make this mistake. Shame. I would love to vote for someone who would take down the teachers' union.

Bob Boyd said...

Pompeo seems stuck on coming-for-your-kids fear-mongering: The Chinese Communist Party is coming for your kids. The teachers' union is coming for your kids.

Like a stink bait commercial on late night TV, "Bass go craaazy for this stuff!"
The Republican professional political consultants are back.

tim in vermont said...

Pompeo is just another neocon, so if endless war is what you want, while having an ally in the culture wars they use to divide us, he's your guy!

tim maguire said...

I think he's right about the danger presented by the teacher's union, but if he kicks off the conversation by saying Randi Weingarten is the most dangerous person in the world, an awful lot of people are going to tune him out as a kook.

Bob R said...

The hyperbole isn't really necessary. The decisions made by the teachers unions have been proven to have had disastrous consequences. We are seeing a generation with severe learning deficits - plenty of college freshmen who think they are going to be engineers but don't know any trig. Randi Weingarten wants us to pay the unions to fix the problem.

Enigma said...

Teachers and school administrators reflect the creeping ineffectiveness and stagnation of "fat, happy, and lazy" societies in decline.

Women have historically controlled everything from childbirth to daycare to the point when children are able to fend for themselves. While surely in need of support for prepping the next generation, this system went sideways with politics, unions, and bureaucracies. Light work schedule, no way to be fired, high pay for minimal skills in the workplace, coordinating with officials to obtain ever higher pay and ever more generous pensions. (And with universities, working with government to extract huge tuition fees from young and poor students through student loans, and then "forgiving" the bad loans).

It's essential set up the next generation for success, but don't fool yourself into thinking that current contributions match the costs. These inexperienced dependent government and union employees multiply and create ever more unproductive deadwood.

Weingarten was enabled by many, many, many selfish and corrupt people around her, and thereby they all facilitate decline and economic failure. Ignorance is bliss. Government funded ignorance is defended as essential.

rehajm said...

Sometimes I go back and watch the election night coverage from 2016 to relive that it did happen along with the amazed news commentators. I've done that many times!

Now THAT'S entertainment. Not on the same level as the moon landing but maybe a splashdown in the Mercury program? Maybe close to Miracle on Ice...









...Katie Couric TV colonoscopy here...

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

He's saying the Chinese government is attempting to surveil and covertly influence the American public. He lists several areas where they do this. And he says tiktok is part of that. Seems clear to me.

Tank said...

Apparently, Pompeo has been listening to Scott Adams' podcast.

tim in vermont said...

"Education leaders" are nothing to worry about though.

https://www.gbnews.uk/news/schools-must-instil-female-traits-in-all-pupils-irrespective-of-gender-education-leader-says/394292

michaele said...

In fairness, his answer about banning TikTok makes more sense as a continuation to his answer to the previous question on why it didn't get done during the Trump Administration. For me, Mike Pompeo's biggest challenge for being considered a strong contender for the nomination is that he hasn't done anything significant since the end of his time as Sec of State. He's a limbo contender....and, no, I don't mean bending himself in weird positions to get under a stick.

tim in vermont said...

Maybe they will put box wine in the classrooms.

rwnutjob said...

It is Chinese spyware. Trump was laughed at when he tried to get it banned. TikTok has been caught logging users’ keystrokes, which the company then lied about. Users in the United States have already had their data accessed from China, repeatedly, which the company has asserted isn’t happening. The app has also been caught bypassing security protections put in place on the Google and Apple app stores.

Jake said...

TikTok’s got someone brainwashed.

Dave Begley said...

“You don’t hit with your face.” Yogi Berra

Trump hit .375 with 35 home runs.

Dave Begley said...

The public schools need competition. I met a woman last week who started a Catholic school as her parish didn’t have one. With vouchers, parents all over America could do it.

Humperdink said...

The most dangerous person in the world, in order:

1) Chairman Xi
2) President Assisted Living

TikTok? Not to worry, just an all-encompassing intel gathering arm of the Chi-Coms (read: Trojan Horse). Some get it, most don't.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Sydney said...

How China uses TickTock:
https://www.commonsense.news/p/how-china-got-our-kids-hooked-on

typingtalker said...

For many in 2016, a vote for Donald Trump was actually a vote against Hillary Clinton. This time around a vote for Donald Trump may be a vote against 80+ year old Joe Biden.

Lesser of two evils.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"Shelby Talcott: The media has been kind of painting you as quietly coming out more and more against Trump. You’re saying that’s not anything personal?

Mike Pompeo: Well, when you work for the president of the United States, you work for the president of the United States. There’s no, “coming out against the president.” It would be deeply anti-constitutional. It’s immoral, it’s not right. And I never did it, and would never.

Your obligation is that you work for the fellow who got 270-plus electoral votes, and to deliver. You debate him. You should make arguments for your policy. But in the end you work for him. If we were still in office, I would still be working on behalf of the people of America and the Trump administration. But we’re not, and so now is the time for us to figure out how we’re going to get this even more right."

Well done. Great way to handle that non-stop question by the Trump-hate crowd.

Temujin said...

Don't kid yourself, Ann. Mike Pompeo is brilliant. And he's right about Randi Weingarten and the Chinese working on our kids. Not that they need any help. We do enough on our own.

Pompeo is brilliant, very strong on foreign policy knowledge (although I wonder if he may be too ready to go to war sometimes), and clearly sees education as a PRIMARY for this nation and for the Chief Executive. That alone, to me, makes him worth listening to. Education is the great equalizer. Forget diversity directors, DEI edicts from governments, corporations, and banks. Forget lowering standards of universities, med schools, law schools, tech companies. Instead- improve the K-12 education everywhere and we will see a rise in everyone. You do that by first, removing the power of the teachers unions. Everyone sees it. Everyone knows it. Yet no one has the guts to take them on. And this has gone on for decades. The results? Just ask any random young person a question about their own country. It's scary.

I've already had Pompeo in the back of my mind. You'll need to listen to him give a speech, or an interview. He's got more in his noggin than the entire Biden White House team put together. He'll get his time to speak. Trump will suck the air out of any room. DeSantis is getting the big bucks rolling in. But Pompeo should be listened to.

tim in vermont said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Howard said...

The Trump election night was probably some of the most fun I ever had on this blog. I was never terribly confident Hillary was going to win. During the early part of the count I can remember watching CNN and there was something about the faces of the talking heads wolf John I don't know someone else. It caused me to do a girl Google search for real Time election outcome modeling and I discovered the New York times site. It was leaning towards Trump pretty early.

I was actually quite hopeful that Trump would have some real success. I did everything I could to calm down all of my TDS friends and family but to no avail. He did get a couple things right. The assassination of that Iranian general was pretty cool and obviously the warp speed vaccine was just absolutely fantastic.

Kevin said...

Why is the Teachers’ Union interested in what is taught to our kids rather than in the working conditions and wages of the teachers?

Because the schools have performed so poorly they need the protection of the Democratic Party to save them from competition.

Mr Wibble said...

In order to get the BadOrangeMan, the left and the GOP establishment had to burn through a lot of social capital. Randi Weingarten's support for shutting down schools for almost two years and putting kids on online learning opened a lot of parents' eyes to how dysfunctional their schools actually were. People are pissed, and you're going to see more ambitious politicians trying to take advantage of that.

rhhardin said...

Scott Adams says the danger isn't data but persuasion, via feeding dopamine hits to kids with content selected by China.

rhhardin said...

Everybody looks weird if you look at them hard enough. Never say that to a girlfriend.

alanc709 said...

Pompeo is a typical faux-conservative. There's as much chance of AOC getting the Nobel Peace Prize as there is Pompeo getting nominated as the Republican candidate for President. Actually, AOC probably has a better chance, since the Nobel committee has embraced insanity.

Caroline said...

Pompeo is absolutely 100% correctamundo. He needs to keep hammering on this nail.

Big Mike said...

Trump looks far too bizarre to become President. I still think that and have to struggle to face the reality that Trump *was* President.

Is that just you? Or is it likely to be a common failure of human females?

Ann Althouse said...

"TikTok is spyware. The chinese don't even let their kids use the open-ended version we have."

The Chinese do censorship for their people. Is that what you want America to do?

As for TikTok gathering info from users, don't the other social (and mainstream) media do that? The word "spyware" does work in your argument that you need to do with particularity if you want to convince me. I am afraid of what Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all the others are doing, gathering info.

Big Mike said...

Of course you will defend Tik Tok. You have been a pusher of Tik Tok. Were you blackmailed? Have you been bribed? We will find out eventually.

Inga said...

What are the Republican candidates going to run on besides fear? Trump ran on fear of the migrant hoards rampaging over the border to take away jobs and kill young women. Fear mongering regarding trans people has been in full throttle for at least a year now, culminating into gay nightclubs being shot up with AR15s. So why not target schools, teachers, unions who are “groomers” and probably secretly drinking the blood of children. Then we have fear mongering about abortions “up to the minute of birth!” Oh, let’s not forget fear of the FBI, DOJ and the GOPe, RINOs, and of course massive voter fraud! This stuff reels in the rightists, it’s the stuff they want to hear because that what they’ve been thinking too. Fear, fear and more fear, it sells.

Ann Althouse said...

"Apparently, Pompeo has been listening to Scott Adams' podcast."

Yeah, I noticed that. "Here’s the problem. Here’s a proposal for how to solve it. And if given the opportunity, these are the things I will go work on to try and deliver that outcome that fixes that problem."

How dumb are we?

I'm a guy who fixes problems!

I remember when Ross Perot did that. Fixing the govt ≈ fixing a car.

I'll get in there under the hood.

Humperdink said...

Why has teachers union president Randi Weingarten visited Ukraine twice and avoided inner city schools? It's safer.

Ann Althouse said...

"You'll need to listen to him give a speech, or an interview."

Reading the interview wasn't enough? Somehow the charisma and presence of the man in audio is going to do what a mere transcript can't do?

Robert Cook said...

The most dangerous person in the world at any given time is the person who is the President of the United States.

Inga said...

“How dumb are we?

I'm a guy who fixes problems!

——————————————————————
“Only I can fix it!”

Gusty Winds said...

It's gonna be a fight. I wouldn't expect the MAGA base to support Pompeo, Pence and other former Trump officials that betrayed him and his voters.

I'm not sure what "looks" Presidential. Joe Biden looks Presidential?? With that little old man shuffle he's got going on?

Young pictures of Ron DeSantis look like John Stamos. But DeSantis is getting a little thick around the middle at 44. Hit the gym and he can get the female Warren Harding / JFK vote.

Pompeo doesn't stand a chance getting the nomination. They will run enough candidates to try and shave off Trump's current 40 plus percent. But...Trump over the next few months will set the GOP agenda.

Shouting Thomas said...

Feminism destroyed elementary school teaching.

Teaching used to be a nice job for ladies with families. Hours that coincided nicely with family time. Surrogate mommy at school.

Feminism torched that. Now elementary school teachers aspire to be hos and political activists.

Every movement eventually becomes a racket. Weingarten is the icon of feminism as a racket.

Robert Cook said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Gusty Winds said...

"Here’s the problem. Here’s a proposal for how to solve it. And if given the opportunity, these are the things I will go work on to try and deliver that outcome that fixes that problem."

That sounds like Kamala Harris.

Ann Althouse said...

"Scott Adams says the danger isn't data but persuasion, via feeding dopamine hits to kids with content selected by China."

This is the groundwork for censorship. How are TikTok videos worse than YouTube videos or video games or ordinary television or music videos and all the other pop-culture video we've fed on all our lives?

The videos I'm seeing on TikTok, via its effective algorithm, are mostly made by Americans and they are on a complete range of topics (and almost no politics).

Adams loves to talk abut "dopamine" and begins every podcast by asserting that he's delivering "your dopamine hit of the day." This is just a snappy way to refer to giving people what they like and will want more of, a phenomenon that goes on with everything that we consume over the course of the day. What's so special about TikTok? It's better so it's more addictive than coffee and candy and Taylor Swift and The Game of Thrones?

You just go down a rathole with this line of reasoning. In that rathole with you are all the censors, the little people who are afraid of freedom of speech.

Lloyd W. Robertson said...

The schools are a tough issue for Republicans. Not that long ago they tended to propose abolishing the federal Department of Education: too much growth of the welfare state, particularly at the national level (let the blue states do what they're going to do). There was a tendency to regard teachers, perhaps especially elementary school teachers, like nurses--beyond reproach. Of course they have a kind of hope that parents do a lot to shape the thinking of children. Now the woke/trans/exposing genitals curriculum for the earliest grades, more or less a national campaign by teachers and school boards. I've always thought school board elections have the lowest turnout, with the lowest awareness of what they are up to on the part of voters.

Can Republicans do anything about this on the national level? Betsy Devos as Secretary worked on charter schools, I think generally on the right track, and tried to move away from Title IX kangaroo courts (that whole issue now being overtaken by biological males competing as women), but I think she found herself quite constrained in what she could do.

Inga said...

Pompeo was ok with Trump having talks with Putin with no one else there but a translator. Pompeo was ok with Trump siding with Putin over US intelligence. Pompeo was a Trump enabler.

Heartless Aztec said...

37 year retired classroom teacher here. In a senior high public school the true reading level for sophomores was about 5th grade - maybe. In the advanced classes it was somewhat better. I taught refugees and immigrants and many of then could read and understand English better my my natural born American students. But a lot depended on the particular public school. A public school in a rich Florida Beach town always had students with good reading skills regardless of race or culture. An inner city urban school not so much. And of course every school had library kids who lived, loved, and roamed the library.

Mr Wibble said...

With vouchers, parents all over America could do it.

You could fix schools simply by more aggressive action to expel the bottom performers, as those are your malcontents, you emotionally, physically, and mentally disabled students, and your slackers who simply don't want to be there. They're the ones who are causing a lot of the problems with discipline and whose performance sucks away a lot of resources.

The problem with pushing vouchers is two-fold: first, those kids will merely get shifted to new schools and, second, I suspect that many upper middle class suburban parents are less enthusiastic about vouchers, as their school districts are generally fine. If you took an extra 150-200k in mortgage just to get your kids into a good district, you might be less enthusiastic about some poor kids from the ghetto showing up with a voucher.

Dave Begley said...

The Omaha Symphony has a DEI person.

Ann Althouse said...

"Don't kid yourself, Ann. Mike Pompeo is brilliant...."

Where did I "kid" myself? Did I say Pompeo has a low IQ? I merely observed that he is speaking in suspiciously simple, staccato sentences, playing on fears about children and so forth. He's speaking to an audience he regards as stupid and malleable. That doesn't make him un-brilliant. If he were merely dumb, I would be kinder to him.

exhelodrvr1 said...

The biggest problem with TikTok is the data gathering and security bypassing that goes on in the background. Of course, people that get addicted to the videos will refuse to address those issues, often with very convincin-soundi g arguments, because doing go would affect them getting their fix.

Humperdink said...

AA said: "How are TikTok videos worse than YouTube videos or video games or ordinary television or music videos and all the other pop-culture video we've fed on all our lives?

The videos I'm seeing on TikTok, via its effective algorithm, are mostly made by Americans and they are on a complete range of topics (and almost no politics).
"

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) "Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the social media platform TikTok an “enormous threat” and said parents should be “very concerned” about their children’s use of the app.

“TikTok is an enormous threat. It’s a threat on two levels. One, it is a massive collector of information, oftentimes of our children. They can visualize even down to your keystrokes. So, if you’re a parent and you got a kid on TikTok, I would be very, very concerned,” (Via The Hill)

This guy is a Democrat!

Ann Althouse said...

"Everybody looks weird if you look at them hard enough. Never say that to a girlfriend."

Right, because it makes you look weird (more weird).

I remember years ago hearing one of the postgrad fellows at Wisconsin Law School talking about how if you say any word over and over it gets weird. The word she chose to demonstrate this theory was "milk." It was quite funny. This young woman went on to become famous. You probably know her name — Kimberle Crenshaw.

Readering said...

Apparently Pompeo has been watching Woody Allen in Sleeper:

SICENTIST IN 2173: That was before the war destroyed everything.

MILES: War?

SCIENTIST: Yes, according to history, over 100 years ago a man named Albert Shanker got ahold of a nuclear warhead.

MikeR said...

Of course Weingarten is not important. But the teachers unions are really important and really damaging.

n.n said...

Do you find the information, or does the information find you?

Steering engines, journolism, advocacy, activism, influencers, experts, etc. Empathetic appeal, sympathetic appeal, mocking, braying, etc. Take a knee, beg, perhaps. Caveat emptor.

Bob Boyd said...

Is Pompeo wrong about the teacher's union or China? No.
Were Paul Ryan and John Boehner wrong that we needed to cut spending or overturn Obamacare?

Give me a break.

What's Pompeo not talking about? The corrupt FBI and DOJ. Our own public-private partnership surveillance and propaganda state.

Wilbur said...

Pompeo or anyone else just saying this about TikTok means nothing to me. Not saying he's wrong, but this is something where proof is needed. It's crying out for an unbiased Congressional investigation.

Don't laugh, Congress used to do stuff like that. I have no confidence that's even thinkable now.

And banning TikTok is a great way to lose the votes of a whole generation unless you can make an explainable, provable case that it is a clear and present danger to this country. Kids and young adults don't see it as espionage; to them it's friendly, funny and non-political.

n.n said...

Where is your faith (i.e. trust domain)?

Sebastian said...

"coming-for-your-kids fear-mongering"

Weingarten is a progressive teachers union leader. The teachers unions have a progressive agenda for public education that conservatives dislike. The unions advocate for their members' interests, not for students. The unions tend to resist reforms conservatives like. Weingarten was also in the forefront of school shutdowns. Weingarten's influence is mostly destructive. Conservative "fear" is justified--it isn't even fear so much as recognition of an adversary.

Precisely how the CCP uses TikTok is not entirely clear to me, but the very fact that a Chinese company has gained a large audience, with the support of Chinese authorities, gives me pause, in that the CCP appears to calculate quite carefully what sorts of propaganda efforts serve its interests. There is no inconsistency in arguing that Chinese ownership of a major online media company is a distinct problem while at the same time opposing "censorship." Whataboutism with regard to Google and Amazon doesn't address the specific issue of Chinese control.

Advantage: Pompeo.

But of course, as the post shows, he and his fellow righties have work to do in overcoming the resistance of nice women who will perceive intense culture-warrior rhetoric as "spluttering" and "fear-mongering."

Sebastian said...

"if you say any word over and over it gets weird"

Crenshaw was right about that. But some words sound weird sooner than others. Happened to me when I once repeated "intersectionality."

rhhardin said...

Call it algorithm censorship, or algorithm control censorship.

You have to account for the addiction if you discard Adams's dopamine. It's just a word in an account. What's this about more of what you like.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Pompeo is not wrong when it comes to The Teacher's union. Our public school system is failing our kids all over the place.

rhhardin said...

You probably know her name — Kimberle Crenshaw.

I probably don't.

If you say that if you look at anybody long enough they look weird to a man, it's just an interesting thought. A girlfriend is into her looks. It's as if the magic gave out, not realizing that the important thing is pussy.

mikee said...

India still bans TikTok, right? Why? Because it is Chinese spyware.

Sebastian said...

Pompeo has company. Per Power Line and the Guardian, Boris Johnson spluttered in Singapore about the dangers of Chinese autocracy. Shocking! Undiplomatic! Mike Bloomberg apologizes!

Achilles said...

tim in vermont said...

Pompeo is just another neocon, so if endless war is what you want, while having an ally in the culture wars they use to divide us, he's your guy!

Don't forget the Amnesty, Open Borders, and Free Trade with China for everything but Tik Tok for his corporate donors.

rhhardin said...

Some Chinese content you can obsess over Unloading an ore barge. Intuit the angle of repose.

Sebastian said...

Sputtering, spluttering, I'm giving it the Crenshaw treatment.

Birches said...

I agree with Ann. If TikTok is bad because of the spy angle, work the spy angle. I think that's the reason it should be banned. There is a greater point about social media and how it's rewiring brains in negative ways. That can be an additional point, but it applies to Twitter just as much as TikTok.

He's right about Randi Weingarten though.

tim maguire said...

tim in vermont said..."Carriage wit" is what it's called when you only think of a funny retort on the carriage ride home

I've always heard it as the spirit of the stairwell (or esprit de l'escalier in the original French)

Wince said...

Once again, the answer is to be found in Josie and the Pussycats.

"This is the epicenter of all trends. We turn your world into one giant TV commercial.

But how, you may ask, can our operation be so effective?

Sure, these kids have brains like Play-Doh, just waiting to be molded into shape, but something else must be going on, right?

The Chinese guy knows what I'm talking about
."

[Nod, wink]

tim in vermont said...

I am more worried about what my own government will do to me because of their ins with social networks than the ChiComs, who don’t care a hoot about me.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

If Pompeo is such a nightmare - why did Trump select him?

So strange.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

"Pompeo became one of his biggest supporters after Trump became the Republican nominee in the 2016 presidential election. Trump appointed him Director of the Central Intelligence Agency in January 2017 and Secretary of State in April 2018. Pompeo was the Trump Administration’s most vocal critic of the Chinese government, including his opposition to the oppression of Uyghur Muslims, and focused U.S.-China relations in opposition to China's policies regarding Hong Kong, Taiwan and the South China Sea. He advocated for moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem and the withdrawal of the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran. "

China good? China Bad? Ever-Trump supporters? ... answer: depends.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

More on Pompeo:

"During Pompeo's tenure as Secretary of State, he prioritized grounding human rights in religious liberty[2] and brokering peace in the Middle East. He established the Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom,[3] moved the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,[4] and negotiated the Abraham Accords which established diplomatic normalcy between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.[5] He was among the staunchest Trump loyalists in the Cabinet and routinely flouted State Department norms in aid of Trump’s objectives."

Oh no - is that good or bad? eeeek.

n.n said...

Barring subliminal programming, and other steering (e.g. peer pressure, mandates, threats of cancellation) effects, it's your choice: from conception (i.e. I want to watch this video) to birth (i.e. I am watching this video).

Owen said...

Enigma @ 6:52: Preach it.

Kevin said...

Pompeo was ok with Trump having talks with Putin with no one else there but a translator. Pompeo was ok with Trump siding with Putin over US intelligence. Pompeo was a Trump enabler.

Pompeo never got into a shooting war with Russia.

Pompeo never got the Chinese to move up their timetable to take back Taiwan.

Pompeo didn't have the Norks setting off nuclear weapons and shooting missiles over Japan.

Pompeo didn't leave the border open to flood the country with Fentanyl.

I don't think you want to get into a Pompeo Did & Pompeo Didn't contest with Mike Pompeo.

Michael K said...

Inga said...

“How dumb are we?


You have proven that over and over here. Your rant about Republicans and fear is nonsense. What we want is a return to normal civilization. Where kids can read and do simple math at grade level. We don't want "drag queen" story time in schools and libraries. The transgender thing is similar to the recovered memories scandal and the preschool scandal, although the latter was even more evil. Obama started up racism again when it had subsided mostly. The Democrats depended on the black vote plus corrupt black poll workers for winning elections. They decided to replace the white population with Hispanics but that is not working out for them. Open borders is a desperation move to replace the population with third world peasants who may be more receptive to the role planned for them by the oligarchy.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Hillary gave Russia a Re-set button - and she is seen all over the place talking to ----- Russians.

Russian money secretly flowed to Clinton Coffers - while Hillary was Secretary of State using a Private Sever. A Private Server.

Putin's wars and aggressions all happened during Obama/Hillary. Not TRUMP.

Trump Did MORE TO box in Putin's oil machine, than anyone.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Inga remains willfully ignorant of Obama/Hillary's past involvement with the Russians.

Obama tells Russia's Medvedev more flexibility after election

Inga said...

Senile people are scared, very scared.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Putin's wars and aggressions are happening on CROOK BIDEN'S WATCH. Not Trump.

Inga said...

“What we want is a return to normal civilization.”

So you picked Trump and admire Steve Bannon, oh boy, sorry for laughing like a hyena.

Drago said...

Boy, if you want the New Soviet Democraticals like Inga to pop out of the woodwork and expose themselves (see what I did there?) like Joe Biden showering with his daughter, which Inga believes is perfectly "normal", then shout out a little criticism of the ChiComs or islamic supremacists and then sit back.

As Inga has proven over the years, there will be fireworks.

Narayanan said...

Caroline said...
Pompeo is absolutely 100% correctamundo. He needs to keep hammering on this nail.
=========
with his face or real hammer?

Narayanan said...

since Professora Curates TikTok for our delectation >>> Chinese spy enabler

Narayanan said...

since Professora Curates TikTok for our delectation >>> ChiCom spy enabler

ConradBibby said...

Teachers used to be concerned about teaching children verbal and math skills and giving them a foundation in science, history, languages, etc. Now they're mainly concerned about teaching children to be reliable leftists, instilling a sense of grievance and victimization, and nudging kids to express themselves sexually at a young age. It's clear that academic achievement is no longer even A priority, let alone THE priority.


Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Given the hideous collaboration of the two national teacher unions and the CDC to deprive children of two years of education and all it has done, and knowing now how they SECRETLY CONSPIRED about this because it offered a political advantage for them to crush the middle class, lard up the union coffers with unspent "COVID funds" and best of all get paid for two years of non-work she might deserve the most dangerous tag. The known facts are damning enough, especially the lousy scores nationwide. We really don't need any other reason than lack of success to bust up the government monopoly these lousy unions allow and protect.

Gusty Winds said...

Too bad what Pompeo said is getting lost here.

The education establishment is a bigger threat to the future of the American Republic than the Chinese. That part is sadly, very true.

Randi Weingarten and her union cronies did enormous damage to America's children during the COVID years. They will continue to do so, unapologetically and arrogantly.

Not only do they insist on trapping poor kids in shit schools, they support turning these kids into lab rats by insisting upon injecting them with an unnecessary experimental treatment (mRNA shots). This is a clear violation of the Nuremburg Code.

When I see Randy Weingarten I think Irma Grese in a pink pussy hat, or the evil Baroness Bomburst from "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang". Let's face it. Pompeo is right.

Lurker21 said...

I've heard some people promoting Mike Pompeo as a more "presidential"-seeming version of Trump — more presentable and polished and sophisticated. I'm not hearing it.

Sure, that's what happens in every campaign. You hear about some governor or senator somewhere who sounds plausible, but then you show up on stage or you learn more about their record and you think, "Uh ... no." For some people it was like that with Harris. Ten years ago it might have been Mitch Daniels or Tim Pawlenty. Sometimes the attraction persists even after most people see through it, i.e. Newsom and Buttigieg.

So Pompeo can't cut it, but consider also how easy it is to pick out the "dumbest" thing someone says and make an article around it. Choose other utterances, and you might be able to make a plausible case for Pompeo. Consider, too, just how hard it is to find the line between what's meant to be taken literally and what's exaggeration for effect, and between what is a real reflection of character and what is part of the performance. Trump had problems with that, but at least he was funny. Biden also got away with whoppers and gaffes, but that was because they weren't spotlighted by the media.

CJinPA said...

Sometimes I go back and watch the election night coverage from 2016 to relive that it did happen along with the amazed news commentators. I've done that many times!

Glad to hear I wasn't the only one. I have an extensive list of election night video. You want ABC? CNN? BBC? Heck, even ITV over in Britain.

Haven't watched them since the 2020 election, of course. I knew election night 2016 was a once in a lifetime event.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Pompeo is a typical faux-conservative.

How so?

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

Hooker, using progressive democrat opinions about Pompeo isn't very convincing. Never hear an actual republican call anyone a "staunch Trump supporter" in real life.

rcocean said...

Pompeo, like Christie, isn't going anywhere if he runs for POTUS. He's was a perfectly adequate Secretary of State, but he's a warhawk and a neo-con. On Domestic issues, he's the standard socially conservative, big business supporting Republican.

I'm not sure why all these pygmies, pence, Christie, Pompeo are making noises about running for POTUS. Trump supporters aren't going to vote for them, when they have the real thing: Trump. And the GOPe is going to rally around DeSantis.

Some people can never see Trump as POTUS, and I'm always puzzled by it. But then, I never watched Trump's TV shows or followed his antics before 2015. He probably got imprinted on other people's brains as a silly Show-biz celebrity and so him as POTUS seems crazy. No doubt older people in 1980 thought the same about Reagan. Movie star Ronnie Reagan, a President?, how weird!

Jupiter said...

"I didn't hear the answer to why. Pompeo seems stuck on coming-for-your-kids fear-mongering: The Chinese Communist Party is coming for your kids. The teachers' union is coming for your kids."

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, maybe you are not worried about who might be coming for your kids.

Temujin said...

Inga, seriously?

"What are the Republican candidates going to run on besides fear? "

Democrats, let by the President: If you vote for Republicans you're voting for the end of Democracy.

Nothing says 'we have no ideas to offer, so let's just go nuclear with them' like telling the dimwits that it'll be the end of Democracy if the other people win. Come back to reality.

rcocean said...

To me the weirdest thing about the TRump phenomena has been the Establishment's reaction. Its crazed, hysterical, and authoritarian. Using the FBI to destroy him, GOPe sabotaging his agenda, the Senate refusing to confirm his first choices for the cabinet or allow recess appointments, Pelosi refusing to negotiate spending bills with him, 2 impeachments, lying and attacking him 24/7/365 in the MSM, rigging the 2020 election, censoring him from social media, and they haven't stopped. Evan though he left office almost 2 years ago!

The President or ex-POTUS has ever been treated this way. Its amazing how unamazed people are at it.

His voters wanted the immigration laws enforced, the border secured, better trade deals, and "AMerica First". The Establishment instead of agreeing this was reaonable and making some accomidation has bat-shit crazy and refused to give a Goddamn inch.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

The Chinese do censorship for their people. Is that what you want America to do?

As for TikTok gathering info from users, don't the other social (and mainstream) media do that? The word "spyware" does work in your argument that you need to do with particularity if you want to convince me. I am afraid of what Facebook and Twitter and Instagram and all the others are doing, gathering info.


Yes I would like spyware to be restricted from use in America even if that means you call it censorship, but I don't want them moderating content. This is the same as PC or Mac anti-spyware pop-up telling you a program that tried to do bad things to your OS has been blocked.

Here we need to distinguish with "gathering user info" and the nefarious Chinese practice of "keystroke logging" because there is a vast difference. All the companies Althouse mentioned along with Big Dog Google gather user data extensively and share it amongst themselves and vendor partners who gather your data online and in the physical world: if you go to Target or Wal-Mart (for example there are many others) your exact movements are tracked and reported back to Google to share with the others. There's little we an go to stop this other than disengage and use VPN when online. Escaping this tracking is pretty much impossible but HOW they use the dat can be massaged perhaps. I don't see anybody with power to do so trying though.

Keystroke logging is different animal altogether and truly spyware, especially now that known experts have confirmed TT is indeed sending the data back to the Chinese servers. A keylogger does what it sounds like: logs every fucking keystroke you make including spaces and returns and so therefore logs all your passwords and links them to the entity you entered using them. With those in hand and you IP address China can access anything it wants on your home system no matter how well protected you think you are. The only defense is an air gap, which is disabled by being on WiFi. That's why this spyware, which may be employed by others but is for certain employed by Bytedance/TT, makes this particular app so dangerous. It's not just an academic instruction. Eventually the data gathered will be used by someone for something. It always is.

User beware. Oh and please tell me who reads the EULAs we ALL have to sign, like for the Apple update on my phone this weekend, and who can find where we gave permission for these things? Congress is either exploiting or ignoring the problem because they are obviously not doing a damn thing about it.

WWIII Joe Biden, Husk-Puppet + America's Putin said...

Inga said...
"sorry for laughing like a hyena."

We can picture that.

MadTownGuy said...

From the post:

"Sometimes I go back and watch the election night coverage from 2016 to relive that it did happen along with the amazed news commentators. I've done that many times!"

You were amazed. They were in shock...then went quickly to rage.

wendybar said...

Inga said...
Senile people are scared, very scared.

11/22/22, 9:53 AM

We KNOw. Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are shaking in their boots, because they aren't destroying America fast enough for the WEF

wendybar said...

What rcocean said at 11:57am

Danno said...

"The rational is that Kemp was successful in a blue state and DeSantis just piled up numbers in a red state. "

Florida became a red state because of DeSantis. It was decidedly purple before the last four years. DeSantis only beat Gillum by a fraction of a percent in 2018. DeSantis and company work full time to combat wokeness and left-tardism and keep Florida for us normies.

Ambrose said...

In Woody Allen’s dystopian comedy “Sleeper” , it is revealed that the dystopia resulted from civil wars begun by Randi W’s predecessor Albert Shanker (May be misspelling that name).

n.n said...

"sorry for laughing like a hyena."

We can picture that.


Like a hyena at a pride parade.

William50 said...

I remember years ago hearing one of the postgrad fellows at Wisconsin Law School talking about how if you say any word over and over it gets weird. The word she chose to demonstrate this theory was "milk." It was quite funny. This young woman went on to become famous. You probably know her name — Kimberle Crenshaw.

Try saying Arnold Palmer 3 times fast.

Yancey Ward said...

Whoever created COVID in the lab is the most dangerous person in the world by record.

Yancey Ward said...

Pompeo is attempting the same play Youngkin used in Virginia in 2021.

ColoComment said...

wendybar said...
What rcocean said at 11:57am
11/22/22, 12:24 PM


Ditto!

Jim at said...

Fear, fear and more fear, it sells.

A leftist wrote this. About Republicans.

Jim at said...

sorry for laughing like a hyena.

No need to apologize for being who you are.

Drago said...

It's quite interesting that on the Hoax thread, as I perused the list of hoaxes that swept up so many of the most ignorant leftists, which is all of them, I realized that our very own Russia Collusion Truther Inga is still an passionate believer in almost all of them. Right down the line.

There are 3 or so that I don't believe Inga has ever commented upon or at least I don't recall if she had, so I'll list them here and let Inga tell us if she'd like to go for the 100% Hoax Sucker Award or if she would prefer to shoot for something a bit less, like the 95% Hoax Sucker Award.

So, here are the ones our Russia Collusion Truther and Hillary/FBI Hoax Dossier Dead Ender Inga could clear up for us:

- The Bubba Wallace Garage Pull (I'm sure Inga believed this moronic lie was a hate crime but it would be nice for her to confirm it)
- Build Back Better will pay for itself
- BYU Students hurled racist insults at a Duke volleyball player

On every other hoax listed, Inga STILL believes those hoaxes really happened and are real.

Every. Single. One. Without exception.

Inga still thinks she can push the "dems don't want to make abortion legal at any point up to and including birth" lie!

Too funny.

Drago said...

William50: "Try saying Arnold Palmer 3 times fast."

Let's see: tea & lemonade, tea & lemonade, tea & lemonade!

Nothing silly about that.

Michael K said...


Blogger Inga said...

“What we want is a return to normal civilization.”

So you picked Trump and admire Steve Bannon, oh boy, sorry for laughing like a hyena.


Idiots often do that for no apparent reason. When you freeze in the dark, maybe you'll understand.

Michael K said...

Pompeo was ok with Trump siding with Putin over US intelligence. Pompeo was a Trump enabler.

The Trump hoax has one loyal supporter. Naturally, it is the resident dullard.

Paul said...

Pompeo is right. But Xi isn't just a little dangerous either...

Tina Trent said...

Pompeo isn't doing anything unusual, and he is absolutely correct about Randy Weingarten, who is a sick and toxic influence over America's schools. Framing this view as an outlier is out of touch: parents of all political persuasions are opening their eyes to the awful ideologies being pushed on their children under the guide of educating them and the ongoing failure of all of academia to address its entrenched problems.

So who cares if he is speaking in short sentences? Compared to what? I don't think he'll rise above a cabinet post, but his messaging isn't weird or extreme. Was he under time constraints? You are reading too much into a transcription. He's pretty detailed on policy.

The WSJ editorial by a Democratic election operative was both deceptive and ignorant. I like Governor Kemp. I worked on his campaigns. He's a decent person and excellent governor. But the GOP in Georgia is in shambles and has lost considerable ground among several constituencies. Kemp succeeds by keeping his distance from the utterly dysfunctional Party leadership, but his absence is a factor in the failure of the GOP here to get their act together. The despicable House Speaker David Ralston just died, and his replacement is tarred by being in Ralston's inner circle. At least we have a healthy State Senate. But Kemp's passivity won't work in a national election. He did nothing to address the avoidable disaster of losing two Senate seats, while the Florida GOP fought like hell, as did their governor, to turn blue counties red. We don't need lectures from Democrat spin doctors to choose our candidate.

jg said...

Randi is not important. If it weren't her it would be another. I do think schools are misleading children badly but the cause is not the existence of teachers unions. Perhaps shaming the teachers unions for some of their positions is instrumental in reducing state abuse of families.