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‘Just Me, Mike’: Pompeo Unabashedly Kicks Off New Year With Religion-Tinged Tribute to Himself – and His ‘Swagger’

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, long accused of mapping out a 2024 presidential run by using his office for political gain, kicked off the new year with a religion-tinged tribute to himself, and his “swagger,” in a series of tweets.

“My New Year’s Resolution: give the American people the full story about our foreign policy. You may not read it elsewhere,” Pompeo tweeted in the first of more than a dozen tweets from his official U.S. government account.

“We’re so much safer today than four years ago,” tweeted Pompeo, a claim many experts find false. “Over the coming days, I’m going to lay out the mission set, the huge wins, personal stories, and a lot more. Just me, Mike.”

The tweets are clearly meant to position him as the next Republican president, while paying homage to President Donald Trump.

This one disturbing tweet sums up Pompeo. He writes: “I’ve tied our foreign policy back to our noble founding.”

The image is from Pompeo’s 2018 swearing in. At the podium is his mentor, Mary Ann Glendon, an anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion author and professor whom he would choose one year later to head his “Commission on Unalienable Rights.”

That commission, he promised, would take a “fresh look” at human rights through the lens of “natural law.” Pompeo, a far right religious extremist who “talks about the rapture,” The New York Times has reported, and says the Bible informs everything he does, sees “natural law” as an opportunity to attack LGBTQ people and issues like abortion.

Pompeo here effectively is saying being anti-LGBTQ and anti-abortion is part of America’s “noble founding.”

To be clear, Pompeo is telegraphing what a Pompeo presidency would focus on by including this image of Glendon and his talk of “noble founding.” He has long spoken about far right religious concepts, like the rapture, and claimed America is in a battle to advance Christianity.

From The Times:

Mr. Pompeo talks about the rapture. “We will continue to fight these battles,” he said at a “God and Country Rally” in 2015, because there is a “never-ending struggle” until “the rapture.”

“Be part of it,” he said at the meeting, at the Summit church in Wichita, Kan. “Be in the fight.”

At a speech in Cairo, Pompeo described himself as an “evangelical Christian” and said: “In my office, I keep a Bible open on my desk to remind me of God and his word, and the truth.”

Observers found it remarkable that Mr. Pompeo would open a speech in a majority-Muslim country by highlighting his Christianity. And some critics have pointed out that Mr. Pompeo, before becoming secretary, made us-versus-them statements about Christians and Muslims while talking about terrorism and war.

Pompeo appears to be continuing his tweets, but for now the last two highlight what he calls his “swagger.”

UPDATE: 5:52 PM ET –
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance:


Related: Hundreds of Orgs, Political and Religious Leaders Demand Pompeo Abolish His Anti-LGBTQ ‘Commission on Unalienable Rights’

 

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‘Well Peter, There Was a Global Pandemic’: Psaki Socks Doocy for Not Grasping How World Events Affect Inflation

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1 year ago

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March 10, 2022

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White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is no longer holding back her frustration to chaos agents and propagandists in her briefing room.

Fox News propagandist Peter Doocy on Thursday continued his false framing and intentional disregard of how world events affect economic conditions and inflation.

Psaki was forced to inform Doocy that there’s “no question that when a foreign dictator invades a foreign country, and when that foreign dictator is the head of a country that is the third-largest supplier of oil in the world, that that is going to have an impact.”

Ignoring that basic fact, Doocy continued, this time grossly politicizing world events.

“The President’s statement blames the ‘Putin price hike.’ Are you guys just gonna start blaming Putin for everything until the midterms?”

“Well, we’ve seen the price of gas go up at least 75 cents since President Putin lined up troops on the border of Ukraine,” Psaki replied.

Doocy continued to put his inability to understand on full display.

“Last month, the statement didn’t mention the ‘Putin price hike.’ It mentioned inflation because of the pandemic. Why is that?” Doocy asked.

“Well, Peter last year, last two years, there was a global pandemic. Everyone who’s a – global economists have all agreed that this has been the biggest contributor to date of inflation because of the impact on the supply chain. Obviously, global events impact the economy, the global economy, as well as global inflation and the price hikes as a result that have escalated over the course of time of President Putin’s further invasion of the impact on the global oil markets are of course having an impact.”

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‘Whole Case Is a Mess’: Internet Stunned as Judge Lets Rittenhouse Choose Final Jurors in Raffle System

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2 years ago

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November 16, 2021

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Controversial Judge Bruce Schroeder allowed Kyle Rittenhouse, on trial for shooting three people and killing two of them with an AR-15 assault weapon he had illegally obtained and carried across state lines, with literally having a hand in choosing the twelve jurors who will now decide his fate.

Judge Schroder has been under fire for what many see as extraordinary deference to Rittenhouse, some even say support of Rittenhouse. Others have noted his cell phone ring tone is the same song as Donald Trump’s campaign theme song, and others still were offended by at least one offhand “joke” Schroder made. Trial watchers were also stunned when Schroder falsely claimed zooming in on a photo as millions of people do daily to enlarge it is “so-called scientific evidence.” And others were disturbed by Schroeder’s very public attacks on the prosecutor.

18 jurors sat through the entire trial, but only 12, as is customary, will decide the case.

“At the direction of Circuit Judge Bruce Schroder,” the Associated Press reports Tuesday afternoon, “Rittenhouse’s attorney placed slips of paper into a raffle drum with the numbers of each of the 18 jurors on it who sat through the two-week trial. The drum had been sitting on a window ledge throughout the trial but was placed in front of Rittenhouse at the defense table Tuesday.”

“Rittenhouse then selected six pieces of paper from the drum, who a court official then read aloud to be dismissed: 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52.”

The remaining 12 will deliberate the case.

“I’ve never heard of a defendant pulling the names,” Portage County Assistant District Attorney Robert Jambois told the AP. “That’s done by a member of the court.”

Not in this case, which has deviated from general norms repeatedly.

Former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney Julius Kim told the AP, “I’ve never seen a judge allow a defendant to draw those names. That might be a little unconventional but there’s nothing wrong with it that I could really see.”

On social media many were stunned.

 

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Watch: NBC News Reporter Blames President Biden for ‘Profane’ Right Wing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ Attacks

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2 years ago

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November 12, 2021

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NBC News’ Peter Alexander on Friday appeared to blame President Joe Biden for the extreme right’s profane and vulgar attacks which are masked by the code phrase “Let’s Go Brandon.”

The phrase actually means “F*ck Joe Biden,” but Alexander blamed the President for its usage and popularity among the right.

“Across this country, we’ve seen this new phenomenon lately chanted at sporting events and on signs. The phrase is ‘Let’s Go Brandon,’ and is sort of code for a profane slogan attacking President Biden. What does the President make of that?” Alexander asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki on her first day back from battling a breakthrough case of COVID-19.

“I don’t think he spends much time focused on it or thinking about it,” she replied.

But Alexander sought fit to press his question, insisting that somehow President Biden was to blame, asking if he should be doing things differently, given that one of Biden’s “primary promises” was “to help bring Americans together.”

“The president said when he came into office on Inauguration Day,” Alexander began again, “he said he was going to help get rid of the uncivil war in this country. So I guess through that lens right now, does the President think there’s things that he can do differently? Or how does he react to the stuff he sees out there when it is one of his primary promises or desires to help bring Americans together?”

Psaki made clear it’s a two-way street.

“Well, it takes two to move towards a more civil engagement discourse in this country and the President’s going to continue to operate, as you said, from the promise he made early on which is that he wants to govern for all Americans. He’s going to deliver for all Americans as is evidenced by the infrastructure bill that he’s going to sign on Monday. That’s going to help expand broadcast – broadband – to everyone, no matter your political party, no matter whether you voted for him or not. That’s going to replace lead pipes, make sure kids have clean drinking water, whether you’re a Democrat or Republican or not political at all. That’s how he’s going to govern. And certainly we’re hopeful we’ll have partners to move toward more civil discourse with in the future. Thank you. Thanks.”

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