Mike Pompeo is 100% right.

[Patooka]

Allegedly.

Mary Louise Kelly talking to All Things Considered co-host Ari Shapiro about the encounter Pompeo and his staff at the end of the interview:

I was taken to the Secretary's private living room where he was waiting and where he shouted at me for about same amount of time as the interview itself. He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine.

He asked, "do you think Americans care about Ukraine?"

He used the F-word in that sentence and many others. He asked if I could find Ukraine on a map. I said yes, and he called out for aides to bring us a map of the world with no writing. I pointed to Ukraine. He put the map away.

I think Pompeo is spot on here. I don't think most Americans give a Fat Flying Flamingo Fuck (i'm assuming one of those F-words was the word he said) that Ukraine is involved. I daresay the concern is that Trump feels entitled to use the State Department for his own personal gain. He could have tried the same shit with the Kasnian government and the outcry would be the same.
It's amazing how often Trump appointees can be right and yet completely miss the point. Gotta be honest, I'm impressed.

 

[Cheerful Charlie]

The problem is, recent polls show about half of Americans now want Trump impeached and removed. Basically, blackmailing Ukraine to screw Biden has importance to many Americans, just not most Republicans. Even if many of those who find this extortion of a nation at war with Russia would indeed have trouble finding Ukraine on a map, those same Americans are not happy with Trump and his flock of flunkies, such as Pompeo. Pompeo is incompetent and arrogant. When Trump loses 2020, Pompeo will be gone and nobody much will miss him.

 

[fromderinside]

[h=2]Mike Pompeo is 100% right.[/h]
Of course he is. Very far right in fact .... and absolutely wrong on most everything.

 

[Politesse]

Well, they should care. One of the things that baffles me the most is how Republicans, who for my entire childhood were finding secret communists in every TV show, Russian plots in every whiff of news from abroad, who in every instance of international politics insisted that the Cold War had to be our ultimate priority in every situation, have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Like, they'll still heartily defend the disastrous invasion of Vietnam because of the "domino effect", but you point out that Russia is not going to stop with Ukraine if they're allowed to just take it for free, and the modern Republican shrugs and goes "so what?"

 

[ideologyhunter]

When this goddamned Trump Era is finally in the rear view mirror, all these obsequious henchmen/women will be scrambling for perches at Fox News... and a lucky few will get 'em. But it will be an over-subscribed market. I wish all of them ill. They are un-American in the historical and normative sense. We will all benefit when Kellyanne is just an unemployed, ignored harridan, bitching about her connection to the great Achievements of the Orange One.

 

[barbos]

Well, they should have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Yeah, Russia must be destroyed!!!!!! And Ukraine is only relevant because it helps to achieve that.

 

[Elixir]

Yeah, Russia must be destroyed!!!!!!

Sad that you think so. Personally I think Russia must be saved, and that saving it from dictatorial rule should be a foreign policy objective of the US.
I also think Pompeo might be right on average - many or most Americans don't give a flying fuck about Ukraine or any other country the can't find on a map. But I think (perhaps naively) that there is a large minority of better informed Americans who DO care about Ukraine, Venezuela and all the other "obscure" countries that Trump is trying so hard to corrupt for his own benefit, including stalwarts of traditional corruption like Azerbajan.

 

[Politesse]

Well, they should have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Yeah, Russia must be destroyed!!!!!! And Ukraine is only relevant because it helps to achieve that.

Destroyed? No. But neither should they be given a free hand to just invade their neighbors.

 

[Ford]

He asked, "do you think Americans care about Ukraine?"

If Trump had his way, he would have used the "Joe Biden did corrupt things with Ukraine" attack. He would have used "The President of Ukraine said so!" attack. He would have used the "Why did Hunter Biden work for a corrupt company in Ukraine?" attack.

The Trump administration - Pompeo included - were planning to make Americans care enough about Ukraine that it would tip the election in their favor. They were even planning on lying about Ukraine's role in the 2016 election. "It was Ukraine, not Russia!" has already been trotted out.

Then, when the biggest news story of the day is Trump's impeachment trial over all this Ukraine shenanigans, he suddenly thinks questions about Ukraine are off limits? They're desperately trying to change the subject. This time it was "hey, how about Iran? Cool how we killed that general just as absolutely nothing was going on in Washington, huh? Let's talk about that!"

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Well, they should care. One of the things that baffles me the most is how Republicans, who for my entire childhood were finding secret communists in every TV show, Russian plots in every whiff of news from abroad, who in every instance of international politics insisted that the Cold War had to be our ultimate priority in every situation, have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Like, they'll still heartily defend the disastrous invasion of Vietnam because of the "domino effect", but you point out that Russia is not going to stop with Ukraine if they're allowed to just take it for free, and the modern Republican shrugs and goes "so what?"

I agree. It is really weird how the Republicans and Democrars have switched roles regarding Russia.

 

[fromderinside]

Leap. Squat leg kicked out, Leap again, da da da da dadadada da da ....dada DAH ......

 

[Elixir]

Well, they should care. One of the things that baffles me the most is how Republicans, who for my entire childhood were finding secret communists in every TV show, Russian plots in every whiff of news from abroad, who in every instance of international politics insisted that the Cold War had to be our ultimate priority in every situation, have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Like, they'll still heartily defend the disastrous invasion of Vietnam because of the "domino effect", but you point out that Russia is not going to stop with Ukraine if they're allowed to just take it for free, and the modern Republican shrugs and goes "so what?"

I agree. It is really weird how the Republicans and Democrars have switched roles regarding Russia.

I don't think they've exactly "switched". More like Republicans have abdicated their positions, their responsibilities and their morals to tRumpism and the Democrats have tried to pick up some of the slack.

 

[Politesse]

Switched? I don't recall there ever being a pro-Russian interference faction on the Democratic side.

 

[hurtinbuckaroo]

Well, they should care. One of the things that baffles me the most is how Republicans, who for my entire childhood were finding secret communists in every TV show, Russian plots in every whiff of news from abroad, who in every instance of international politics insisted that the Cold War had to be our ultimate priority in every situation, have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Like, they'll still heartily defend the disastrous invasion of Vietnam because of the "domino effect", but you point out that Russia is not going to stop with Ukraine if they're allowed to just take it for free, and the modern Republican shrugs and goes "so what?"

I agree. It is really weird how the Republicans and Democrars have switched roles regarding Russia.

Do you get out of bed spouting false equivalences?

 

[laughing dog]

Pompeo is right - most US residents do not care about Ukraine. However, Pompeo's observation misses the question which is "Do most US residents care about a POTUS violating the Constitution and asking a foreign power to interfere with our elections?"

 

[barbos]

Well, they should have now just..... forgotten that Russia is still a threat, somehow. Indeed much more of a threat now, strongly unified under Putin and free from foreign scrutiny, than it ever was as the embattled locus of the USSR.

Yeah, Russia must be destroyed!!!!!! And Ukraine is only relevant because it helps to achieve that.

Destroyed? No. But neither should they be given a free hand to just invade their neighbors.

As opposed to US which invade countries regardless of their geography?
And yes, destroyed, thats what your post and ocurrent US doctrine implies.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Destroyed? No. But neither should they be given a free hand to just invade their neighbors.

As opposed to US which invade countries regardless of their geography?
And yes, destroyed, thats what your post and ocurrent US doctrine implies.

Destroyed? Which country has the US recently invaded and destroyed? Sorry, must have missed that on the news.

 

[barbos]

Destroyed? No. But neither should they be given a free hand to just invade their neighbors.

As opposed to US which invade countries regardless of their geography?
And yes, destroyed, thats what your post and ocurrent US doctrine implies.

Destroyed? Which country has the US recently invaded and destroyed? Sorry, must have missed that on the news.

Libya, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine. And destruction was not planned for them, it's reserved for Russia.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Destroyed? Which country has the US recently invaded and destroyed? Sorry, must have missed that on the news.

Libya, Iraq, Syria, Ukraine. And destruction was not planned for them, it's reserved for Russia.

Sorry comrade. The US did not invade Syria and Ukraine. And for a person with a Russian bent to blame the problems in Syria is just the absolute height of hypocrisy! Unbelievable. Yea, Bush is to blame for Iraq. That was awhile ago. No current. Regardless, I didn't vote for Trump. I knew it was a mistake from day one. That was 14 years ago. Did Obama fuck up Libya. Yea, not great. Obama should have stayed out. But is Libya significantly worse off that it was under Muhammar? I don't think so.

 

[Politesse]

Destroyed? No. But neither should they be given a free hand to just invade their neighbors.

As opposed to US which invade countries regardless of their geography?
And yes, destroyed, thats what your post and ocurrent US doctrine implies.

The U.S. absolutely deserves to be extinguished for her many crimes. We destroyed thoussnds of nstions on our march to the Pacific, and deep down most Americans believe that because the victims were brown-skinned, it "doesn't count" as much as it would have if a Europe had been thus destroyed and as pitlessly as North America. But that seems unlikely at this juncture. Nor am I advocating the destruction of Russia, the US, or anywhere else. When countries fall, it's always the innocents who suffer, not the men in the big hats who signed all the nasty orders.