At the urging of former Wichita Tea Party Congressman Mike Pompeo, Donald Trump, almost surreptitiously, fired State Department Inspector General Steve Linick last week. Linick was the fourth Inspector General to be escorted out of his office in the Era of Trump.
Trump thought (to the extent that he did any thinking) that he could get away with it because of the COVID-19 pandemic which he has so seriously mishandled.
At first, it seemed that all that Linick was looking into was whether it was improper for Pompeo to have subordinates walk his dog.
But then more began to trickle out.
Seems that Pompeo’s been doing Trump’s bidding (as usual) and that he’s been in a major hurry to bypass Congress and give Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) — the notorious killer of journalist Jamal Khashoggi — more and more weapons, to continue its military intervention in Yemen and to counter Iranian influence in the Middle East; and Linick had been investigating that (https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/21/politics/pompeo-saudi-arms-sale/index.html).
And when Pompeo reminded Trump that it was President Obama who had appointed Linick, that was it for Linick.
Now that Pompeo’s deceitfulness is in full public view, was anyone surprised when, today, to distract us, Pompeo blasted Xi Jingpin after China’s President for LIfe announced that China's in the process of passing “legislation” to rein in protesters in Hong Kong (https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/22/mike-pompeo-hong-kong-china-national-security-274503)?
For that, we turned, as always, to our East Asia Correspondent, associate solitary reporter Ko Il-sun, who is based in Seoul.
“SR,” Ko began, “remember the Monroe Doctrine from 1823, when the Latin American colonies of Spain and Portugal were gaining their independence?”
“President Monroe told the European nations that it was the United States that would be calling the shots in the Western Hemisphere.”
“Xi’s doing the same thing that President Monroe did, but Trump’s too stupid to realize it.”
“Now look what Trump’s just done: he’s told the governors they have to reopen places of worship, even though everybody knows that from the standpoint of public health, that’s a terrible idea.” Ko was referring to https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/22/politics/religious-gatherings-cdc-coronavirus/index.html