80 Comments
Feb 15, 2023Liked by Steve S

You describe her perfectly, and in ways I haven't really understood until I read this column.

Again, you are a masterful writer.

But one thing I think, every time I read this blog but have neglected to mention, is that you have a stellar knowledge of history. I learn so much by reading your work. And you make it interesting and relatable. Thank you for educating me/us, in a deeper way than any history class, university level, ever has.

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author

Thank you, Sandra! I love history, and am so thrilled at the responsiveness to the history 'lessons' I can share with The Warning community.

Steve

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Again, thank you!!! Don't ever stop! We need your voice and wisdom. :)

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Based on her statement that Trump is innocent because he believes it, I’d sure like to see her stance on Putins invasion of Ukraine with her “United Nations” hat on.

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@Bob Alessi -

Bob that's bloody elegant ... Where are the no holds bared television journalist of yester-decade?

Broadcast News television back in the day; 1960s & 1970s.... Elegant, simple logic interviews would capture the Nikki Haley's for all to absorb... Man, times they are a changing ... Cheers, Vail, Colorado

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Her claim that Trump genuinely believes he’s right about the election is the same arrogant deceit that Ginni Thomas has also used to give the entire nation the middle finger after attending Jan6 closed door hearing. Kind of brilliant in its simplicity, and cynical to the core.

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Asking all of us to praise the nasty emperor's fine clothing

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Nikki Haley was an SC state legislator who "earned" her living as a "consultant" paid by a large hospital system with numerous interests before the legislature, which she advocated as a legislator. After this stint of self-dealing and corruption, she became Governor, and later Dylan Roof executed 9 black people in a Charleston church. There were demands that the Confederate Flag, which flew on the State House Grounds, be removed. Even after the murders, she publicly opposed removing that odious flag. Only after she sensed an opportunity to move to the National Stage, which had never before presented itself to her, did she endorse removing the flag. The momentum was already building to remove it, but instead of leading from the front, she cowardly waited to see which way the wind was blowing before (once again) changing her position. For that, she is credited with being a good MAGA, but make no mistake: Her actions were cravenly opportunistic , selfish, and self-promoting. She is still the same small, corrupt, waffling, craven, weak yet wildly ambitious person she has always been.

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Do the GOP voters of South Carolina understand this? Do they pay attention? Are they so deeply in the MAGA world that they cannot believe what she does? (Sen Scott is still and forever to me lacking any standing because he continues to support positions that are against himself.)

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To answer your questions: No. No. Yes. (I am a Charlestonian.)

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You are SO on-target. The ONLY reason she finally, three weeks later, ordered the flag to be taken down, is because we Democrats of both races were so enraged that she realized, as you say, it was in HER best interest to remove the thing. In a nod to repugnicants, she made sure to say that the flag would be put in a place of "honor". In a 2019 interview with Glenn Beck, four years after the horrific massacre, this is what Ms. Two-Faced had to say: the Confederate flag symbolized “service, sacrifice and heritage” for some people in her state until Dylann S. Roof “hijacked” it. As a Charlestonian, she sickens me.

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John H., you have it right. I live in South Carolina, your observations of Nikki Haley are pretty accurate.

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She has as much hope as I do of getting the Republican Presidential nomination.

Maybe less.

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This is a clever thought exercise, thanks. Of course the problem you have in this analysis, we all have, is that Trumpism (the closest the radical right has gotten in 250 years to actually seizing and retaining absolute power in America, which was bloody scary for sure) only reached what, the 2nd inning of the terrible game? It’s in much latter innings that hundreds of thousands, millions are murderred (ask Vlad P). So for now it is unfortunately true that Nikki doesn’t share the same moral orbit as Speer. But I agree her words and inactions suggest a weakness of character that is likely irreparable. Keep up the good work, Sir!

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Precisely. The MAGA baby can grow up and end up in jail, or the MAGA baby can grow up and become 21st Century Hitlerism. It made a clumsy attempt to make a great leap forward on Jan 6 and the weeks before, and it failed, but it could have succeeded if just a few things had gone differently. I say that we kill the MAGA baby in the cradle while we still can, because it truly is an awful prospect if it's allowed to grow and mature.

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Interesting choice of words. When I was a little girl, our family used to have (the most unusual) debates. One of the ones I remember was: if you knew how Hitler would turn out, when he was a baby, would you kill him? No one really knew quite where they stood on this, except for my mother. Mom said, "I would!" "Even if that meant you would go to hell?" we asked. "Yes!" she answered, without hesitation.

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Haley’s campaign ad begins by stating how the town where she grew up was divided by a railroad track, Whites on one side and Blacks on the other. Then, in the same ad, she claims that some think our country is racist, and goes on to say: “nothing could be further from the truth”. This woman is completely delusional and has been trying to play it from both sides. As you point out, Haley can’t have it both ways. She’s a loser right off the bat because she has defended Trump at every turn. I look forward to watching her lose, - and quickly.

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Having not seen it, does she explain where her family lived - on which side of the tracks? I may be of Northern European ancestry but because of my religion I was thought to be non-White.

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She basically doesn’t answer which side of the tracks she lived on. She says that she was American Indian, so she was “different“. She does not begin to acknowledge racism as an issue in our country, especially one that “her boss”, Herr Trump exacerbated.

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Thanks. I haven’t followed her closely and with this discussion and her campaign anticlimactic announcement was curious. Not acknowledging is akin to approving.

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After she was appointed to the U.N., my understanding is that she and her husband bought a house on Kiawah Island for $2.4 M in 2019, a very posh, very exclusive seaside community outside of Charleston. Guess she's on the right side of the tracks now, regardless of which side she began on!

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I watched her yesterday and the one worrying thought that crossed my mind was her youth, and that a lot of people might find that attractive, in a changing of the guard way. She comes across as harmless, which is definitely not a trait we want in our commander in chief. We want-need our president to be a leader with a vision of a better America 🇺🇸 for all of us, we have that in Joe Biden. The repugnantkins offer no forward thinking vision, only a regression to the pablum of the early 50’s which some of us lived through and rebelled against in the 60’s, we are not going backwards and anyone who thinks we can has their head up their ass.

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Dick Montagne your writing educates and inspires me… thank you, Marsha

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Her youth and her DNA. She will appeal to many in South Asian communities and will, I'm sure, play on that and her youth and her gender, the latter being one she'll identify as being from birth not chosen.

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Joan, God forbid!

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Excellent observations, Dick.

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Great bit of history here. If you haven’t read East/West Street, a book that discusses the determination of Crimes Against Humanity and Genocide from WW2, it’s fabulous. Haley and Pence both feel (to me) unlikely to generate any excitement. Pence especially remains the biggest dipsh-t of them all with his effort to play “executive branch” (refusing to testify to Jan. 6 committtee) and then “congress, speech and debate” to avoid Jack Smith’s investigation. Which is it, oh godly Pence-man?

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Re "That's where the Nikki Haley train is headed—right off the tracks and over a cliff": couldn't happen to a nicer gal!

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I always thought Scarlet O’Hara was manipulative rather than at the mercy of men. Still a “mule in a horse’s collar”

Good analogy of Hailey and Speer Speer was the “good Nazi” to those outside the Third Reich.

There is no constituency supporting Hailey. She will be rejected by the MAGA crowd. She will not be embraced by the disaffected R The Ds will not go near her. She serves no purpose to run. Considering the misogynistic MAGA crowd they would follow Kari Lake or MTG before Hailey. When she fades away by July 4 2023 there will be nothing left of her campaign. No tomorrow is another day for her.

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Haley is a substanceless, dull unformed gelatinous blot who practices knockoff Vaudeville and labels it high theater.

Does she buy her own delusional wares, I wonder?

Thanks.for the instructive history....

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Even though everything Steve says is true, I wouldn’t underestimate Haley’s appeal.

She plays the “normal” card. The republicans who don’t want a fight might prefer her, and be suffering from trump fatigue, and they are a considerable lot!

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I read “Inside the Third Reich” in 1970, as a freshman in college. What struck me throughout the book was that Speer made it very clear that his ambition was so strong that he would do whatever he needed to do and say whatever he needed to say for his own personal advancement. Towards the end of the book, when he supposedly “saw the truth” and supposedly tried to stop Hitler from more destruction, always seemed self-serving. Up until the end of the war, when it was clear Germany was losing, he was a willing follower. As you point out, he was just smarter than the rest, like Barr leaving the Trump Administration before all hell let loose. Nikki Haley also showed more smarts than the rest of the administration. She just doesn’t realize, like Speer eventually did, that Der Fuhrer is not a winning cause anymore and more importantly, wouldn’t serve him in any positive way, Both Nazis and Republicans are big believers in “the end justifies the means.’ Speer and Haley both followed that philosophy to the end.

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Thanks Rebecca….Speer and Haley

Both can con people and both are

Devious and watch out EVIL self

Absorbed…scary!!

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I think she knows she can’t win the Republican nomination, let alone the Presidency. Her end goal is more likely to be Trump’s running mate. She will help “normalize” him and will then be in a position to succeed him if he dies or leaves office early. Or could run as the former VP in 2028. Scary prospect.

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Well now, this was great fun. Keep it up.

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