I'd say more alarming is this quote from Pompeo.

“Many are worth defending in light of our founding; others aren’t,” Pompeo said at a launch ceremony in Philadelphia. He did not specify which rights he thought were superfluous, but the state department during his tenure has been aggressive in opposing references to reproductive and gender rights in UN and other multilateral documents.

I think this is the crux of the problem of our time. Somehow some rights or freedoms aren't as important and people will easily disregard some if it is in their political interest. Or if they taken up as to be important by the other side, there has to be something fishy about them.

I was rather taken aback with the focus on these rights. What about right to life and bodily integrity (eg. being free from bodily harm), freedom, discrimination, political assembly? To name 4 that I will always consider more important than private property or religious freedom.

Did the founding fathers really consider these two more important than "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"?

It does explain the "fuck lives because the economy" reaction to the pandemic in the US. — Benkei

I am "taken aback" by goddam near everything this administration does with regard to goddam near anything it encounters.

This is THE worst administration in American history...and I hope it retains that spot for as long as the Republic lasts. I would hate to think that sometime in the future, we could ever elect someone worse to the Oval Office than Trump.

Our generations (there are several in existence right now) have only temporary custody of the Republic...and we could not be doing it more damage it we actually set out to damage it.

I'll be 84 in a couple of weeks...and I cannot tell you how disappointed I am to have witnessed what is happening. To go from the way the nation reacted during WWII...to what is happening today is beyond words.

I am "taken aback" by goddam near everything this administration does with regard to goddam near anything it encounters. — Frank Apisa

I've heard that there are now unidentified federal officers in unmarked cars arresting protestors.

Never mind Pompeo, he just wants to be - and he cannot make up his mind which - Mussolini or Goering.

And language does not easily encompass him and his, Trump and the people of his administration. At the moment I'm torn between "infection" and "infestation." It is a mistake to think of them as people.

Michael
9k
I am "taken aback" by goddam near everything this administration does with regard to goddam near anything it encounters.
— Frank Apisa

I've heard that there are now unidentified federal officers in unmarked cars arresting protestors. — Michael

They are scum.

Never before have I ever felt embarrassed for my country.

tim wood
4.7k
Never mind Pompeo, he just wants to be - and he cannot make up his mind which - Mussolini or Goering.

And language does not easily encompass him and his, Trump and the people of his administration. At the moment I'm torn between "infection" and "infestation." It is a mistake to think of them as people. — tim wood

Stephen Miller looks the part of Goebbels. As for Pompeo, either he learns to like lettuce and salads....or being the Goering of the administration is his only hope.

I've heard that there are now unidentified federal officers in unmarked cars arresting protestors. — Michael

They're arresting the black mask crew.

And that's the thing about the black masks causing millions of dollars in property damage and embracing violence as a legitimate means to political ends: When the government starts using fascistic, violent tactics back against you is the public even going to care?

‘It was like being preyed upon’: Portland protesters say federal officers in unmarked vans are detaining them

Pettibone said he still does not know who arrested him or whether what happened to him legally qualifies as an arrest. The federal officers who snatched him off the street as he was walking home from a peaceful protest did not tell him why he had been detained or provide him any record of an arrest, he told The Post. As far as he knows, he has not been charged with any crimes.

...

“A peaceful protester in Portland was shot in the head by one of Donald Trump’s secret police,” Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) wrote in a Thursday tweet that also called out acting DHS secretary Chad Wolf. “Now Trump and Chad Wolf are weaponizing the DHS as their own occupying army to provoke violence on the streets of my hometown because they think it plays well with right-wing media.”

It's not just the people engaged in "causing millions of dollars in property damage and embracing violence as a legitimate means to political ends". Its peaceful protestors. Unidentified federal agents in unmarked cars, shooting or effectively kidnapping peaceful protestors without explanation. So much for "Trump derangement syndrome". Trump is getting closer and closer to the fascist that many of his critics accuse him of being.

In regard to the OP, I would want to hear the context of the statement. Wasn't he talking in regard to the US's approach to international affairs (i.e. in regard to how we deal with other countries?) International affairs is weird - it's about priorities rather than absolute principles. It's like with Russia: Do we want them to protect their LGBT community? Of course - but is it prudent to use complaint as the guiding principle of our foreign policy or do we have bigger fish to fry? How effective would we even be in addressing this issue directly or are there other more covert ways to approach it? I feel what Pompeo is signaling here is a more constricted, limited approach to US foreign policy. I wouldn't take Pompeo's statements on this matter to representative of a comprehensive personal political philosophy.

Well, if you want to hear the statement, please then listen to the whole event brought to you by the US Department of State and put aside the leftist Guardian's take on it. Here's the whole issue, Pompeo starts his speech at 11.25: