Sunday, December 31, 2023

Nikki and the S word.


It's easy to come up with the answers to certain historical questions in life. Who was the first president of the United States? What is the name of the country that attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor? What was the date of the terrorist attack on the United States orchestrated by Osama bin Laden?  If you guessed George Washington, Japan, and September 11, 2001, move to the head of the class. (If you guessed John Hanson for the first question you're just a history snob, and you probably have better things to do than read this post.)  And of course there is this gimmie: What was the cause of the Civil War between the states? These would all be easy questions for any typical school aged child in the United States. If you are running for president of the United States, and you are the former governor of a Southern state and high ranking government official, you shouldn't have to even think about it. But that's what Nikki Haley did when she  attempted to answer this question asked by a gentleman she considered a "democrat" plant.  

Nikki went all pretzel with her attempt to answer the question because she did not want to offend republican voters. Particularly those MAGA loyalist who she is still trying to court. In the world of half of republican voters, and most MAGA loyalists, the Civil War was more about good Americans just wanting to hold on to their property without the government telling them what to do, than it was about enslaving and cruelly treating  fellow human beings. This part of American history has been completely whitewashed by the American right, and Nikki Haley knows this. So rather than show some courage and speak the truth about the real reason for the Civil War (or as they call it in the South: 'The War of Northern Aggression') Nikki chose to dodge and obfuscate. It was painful to watch this Indian American daughter of immigrants, as she tried not to offend republican voters, explaining away the Civil War as some government overreach gone bad. 

Nikki Haley might or might not win the republican nomination to be president. Right now it's not looking good for her, but things could change. The thing is, she was gaining momentum. She did it by being a typical double-speaking politician who tried to be all things to all people. Shifting positions and giving nuanced takes to not get locked into a box that she couldn't talk her way out of later on. 

It's been working for her so far, and even her slavery misstep might not hurt her in the long run. I just wonder how she lives with herself.   

"The first thing I should have said was slavery," Haley said on "Cavuto Live" Saturday. "I completely agree with that. When you grow up in the South, slavery is a given. Like when you think of the Civil War, you know it was about slavery. That's never been in question."

Sure Nikki. Until the next time you're in front of a right-wing crowd.  If only you had the moral clarity to speak the truth. That would have been so refreshing.   


78 comments:

mike from iowa said...

And, of course, the fault was not victim Nikki's. A Democratic plant who offered the question was the bad guy.

Happy New Year to fellow Field hands. Be safe and responsible tonight as always.

field negro said...

Thanks Mike. Same to you and yours.

Anonymous said...

The dastardly Democrats tricked her by asking such an impossible question! It was a trap!

What will they ask next? Who is buried in Grant’s tomb? When was the War of 1812?

Lol.

dinthebeast said...

She said: "And I will always stand by the fact that, I think, government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people."

OK, so that moves the question to "Do you believe Black people are people?" because the civil war was all about securing their rights and freedoms from those who literally owned them.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Bloviating Ignoramus said...

Sticky Nikky (and Da Vek Swami) has the constant burden of proof to the white majority that she knows their place just to stay in the game. Insane Clown having no such burden embraces the Confederate flag and America's Racist Sheriff Arpaio and is miles ahead. Nikky and Swami both have to know that it is just a matter of time that Insane Clown and their Nazi Party will ethnic cleanse their brown asses out of "Our Country".

PX said...

https://giphy.com/gifs/SCFITie0YQvWXJPsbs

dinthebeast said...

Bibi is having a bad day.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

pluky said...

Let's not forget that the only academic position her father could get after immigrating to this country was at an HBCU. One would think that would have insured her getting at least a hint as to the darker (pun intended) side of the story.

pluky said...

Update for exactness. Haley's father was a professor of Biology at:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voorhees_College

PX said...

https://giphy.com/clips/greetings-holiday-kwanzaa-Si6sb3J7pXsMm4ERBq

Paradoctor said...

If the question was a plant, then she could have been an herbivore.

Here's a compromise answer for her: "The state's right to enslave." It turned out that the states don't have that right.

dinthebeast said...

OK, let's seed if this works. I'm sharing a newsletter that Paul Krugman wrote for the NYT about Nikki Haley, slavery, and slavery's origins. At the bottom of it is a video of Rhiannon Giddens singing "Julie."

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/02/opinion/haley-civil-war-slavery.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Kk0.vb3r.n2zCZ5j1hjQV&smid=url-share

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

" OK, let's seed if this works. I'm sharing a newsletter that Paul Krugman wrote for the NYT about Nikki Haley, slavery, and slavery's origins. At the bottom of it is a video of Rhiannon Giddens singing 'Julie.'"

Yes, Doug, it works. The shared article is not behind the NYT paywall, so I think it should be visible to anyone.

Anonymous said...

Paul Krugman's column covers the historical economics of slavery, and how those economics caused slavery to expand to dominate the South and ultimately lead to war.

This one from Sidney Blumenthal is also good, regarding the goofy modern-day politics of the South, and how Nikki Haley has had to abase herself by engaging in historical revisionism in order to get ahead in the increasingly Confederate Republican Party.

Nikki Haley’s comment on the US civil war was no gaffe

mike from iowa said...

Former kaintuck courthouse clerk, Kim Davis, she who refused to issue same sex marriage licenses ordered to pay 260k in lawyer fees and expenses for her trials.

Anonymous said...

“Former kaintuck courthouse clerk, Kim Davis, she who refused to issue same sex marriage licenses ordered to pay 260k in lawyer fees and expenses for her trials.”

I imagine she won’t end up paying this. The anti-gay evangelicals, to whom she is a hero, will pass the hat around and come up with the cash to cover her bills.

Anonymous said...

I am loving the headline on this one.

Biden Could Kill Donald Trump And Not Be Prosecuted, Under Trump's Own Legal Theory

Recovering TrumpTard said...

"It was painful to watch this Indian American daughter of immigrants, as she tried not to offend republican voters, explaining away the Civil War as some government overreach gone bad."

To be blunt, Indian Americans are the new "House Negro" minority that the United States political establishment promotes to do their dirty work for them.

That other Indian American presidential candidate, Vivek Ramaswamy, is another example.

mike from iowa said...

5th circuit court of banana peels out of Nawlins, Looseranna decides just how close to death they will force pregnant women to get before they can ask for life saving treatment. It ain't pretty.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/a-far-right-court-just-admitted-a-truth-that-abortion-foes-want-to-hide/ar-AA1mrrDX?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=241298801c47481eb7d73d7d6c10c76a&ei=18

These clowns were nominated by clewless magat potii and are the dumbest of the dumb circuit justices in America.

mike from iowa said...

Black Americans would feel the sting of magat budget cuts.

http://tinyurl.com/2p9tktks

Don't let drumpf fool you so you vote for him.

mike from iowa said...

If magats can sue and get their preferred candidate on the ballot why can't Dem candidates sue states for purging their preferred voters from voter rolls.?

mike from iowa said...

NRA's Wayne La Pee Pee Tail resigned from the group on the eve of his trial in NYC. Hope all goes badly for him for the rest of his miserable existence.

dinthebeast said...

You mean Wayne La "I can't even kill an elephant from point blank range" Pierre isn't going to run the National Rifle Association? Gee, I wonder why?
The goddamn NRA, which I was a member of when I was a kid (they ran the hunter safety course you had to pass to get a hunting license if you weren't of the age of majority) stopped being anything about a "rifle association" the nano-second they took in more in political contributions than member dues.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Paradoctor said...

"Nikki and the sword"? That sounds like the title of a YA fantasy.

Anonymous said...

“‘Nikki and the sword’? That sounds like the title of a YA fantasy.”

Indeed it is a fantasy. The fantasy is that Nikki can somehow beat Trump and become leader of a demented cult whose core (only?) tenet is the worship of Trump.

The plot of the story is that Nikki tries to pull the sword out of the stone, can’t, and then gives up and goes home. Nobody would ever check that book out of the library.

Anonymous said...

MTG tried to throw a January 6th party, celebrating the efforts of awful people attempting to end democracy three years ago.

The resort she had booked for the event cancelled it when they found out what she was up to.

In other unrepentant lowlife news, Ashli Babbitt’s family have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the federal government, for interrupting her assault on the Capitol by killing her.

Sorry, but I am not seeing anything wrongful about her death.

mike from iowa said...


https://www.youtube.com/shorts/21abbE5ATNI?feature=share

MTG opens her ugly ohiz and makes a fool out of her self, again.

PX said...

Steve Scalise, voted against stem cell research funding

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/01/05/politics/steve-scalise-stem-cell-transplant/index.html

dinthebeast said...

Biden's speech in Pennsylvania was encouraging. I was suppressing my anxiety over the polling and reporting by telling myself that the campaign hadn't really started yet, and to wait and see what it looked like before passing judgement.
If that speech is what the campaign will look like, I am encouraged.
It targeted the few hundred thousand voters who will decide this election with the precision of a goddamn HIMARS.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

“Steve Scalise, voted against stem cell research funding.”

He’d be a hypocrite, if Republican politicians actually had any principles that could be betrayed. But I’ve come to the conclusion that they don’t. They just ask their donors or listen to Fox News to find out “What do I believe this week?”

Anonymous said...

Things are getting even crazier in the already wild, soap-operatic life of Lauren Boebert. Her ex-husband called the cops on Bobo and told them she’d punched him in the face multiple times at a restaurant. Since this happened in out in public, I would imagine there would be witnesses, so we should soon have corroboration as to whether this claim is true.

(If it is true, please, please let there also be video footage.)

dinthebeast said...

Christian Ziegler has been voted out of the leadership of the Florida GOP because of the rape allegations against him.
No word as to whether he will pull a Kristina Karamo and refuse to abide by his firing.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

dinthebeast said...

Insane Clown indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkIKEJPAUzM

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

“Insane Clown indeed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkIKEJPAUzM”


Trump seems to think his voters are all elderly technology-phobes. He might be right about that. Certainly about the “elderly” part. Almost nobody under the age of 40 wants to vote for that fool.

Anyway, “why can’t we go back to the inferior technology of ye olden days?” is a standard cranky-old-man theme of his campaigns. In 2020, he was weirdly moaning about toilets that don’t flush properly, which was all the fault of the dastardly environmentalists. He was referring to the government enforced introduction of low-flow, water-saving toilets. But this flushing problem only happened on the very first generation of low-flow toilets, back in the mid-90s. He’s bitching about a problem that hasn’t even existed for 30 years! (Unless you’ve still got some of the old toilets in your house, in which case … maybe you should drive to Home Depot and buy new ones.)

What’s next? Will Trump insist we go back to 56K modems to get on the Internet because he liked the bee-boop-bee-boop sound when you connected? Go back to cars that got crappy gas mileage, because he likes pumping gas and wishes he could do more of it?

Insanity. MAGA apparently includes a desire to go back to things that very obviously weren’t great (compared to what we have now), just old.

mike from iowa said...

And whoa if the gas attendant's name is Ethel. We know which unqualified maggat rapist would be pumping her.

unknown but true said...

It seems that many Southeast Asians make their political careers from bashing black people or indirecting supporting WS. It's an automatic leg up for them to please conservative whites.

Bloviating Ignoramus said...

Someone should come up with new lyrics to this old PJ Proby number

Niki Niki Niki Haley
Insane Clown's doin' time in jail-ey

That's all I can come up with right now ...

Bloviating Ignoramus said...

No White House for Chris Crisco ... just White Castle.

mike from iowa said...

drumpf spreading provably false claim Hailey is ineligible to be potus.

Anonymous said...

“drumpf spreading provably false claim Hailey is ineligible to be potus.”

Hey, why not. Birtherism got him loads of attention during the Obama administration, so why not repeat his greatest hits?

It also has the benefit for Trump of helping call attention to the fact that Nikki is not a white woman, which I genuinely believe many racist Republican voters don’t know. Nikki is a white-looking Indian-American with a white name, who speaks with a Southern twang, and most Republican voters are, well, dumb.

Although, I have to admit, this attempt at disqualifying his opponent is even less sophisticated than the last one. With Obama, most proponents of this crank legal theory claimed that he was born in Kenya (and his Hawaiian birth certificate was a fake, as proven by, um, er … hey, come on, just trust them, they know stuff, from accessing the highly reliable and authoritative resource of wingnut Internet forums). If it had been true (it wasn’t), under the laws on citizenship at the time, Obama’s mom couldn’t have passed her citizenship on to her son and he wouldn’t have been eligible for the presidency.

With Nikki, the racist buffoons Trump is quoting aren’t even lying about the facts, but are apparently just misrepresenting the Constitution. They’re claiming that because Nikki’s parents aren’t natural-born citizens, then she isn’t either, ignoring that she was born in South Carolina, which they do not deny but which does automatically make her a citizen.

For my money, this is somehow even more nakedly racist. It’s just a step closer to saying “She ain’t white, so she ain’t a citizen!” Which is how they’d like things to work, but not how it actually does.

Anonymous said...

In a rare bit of good news, Republican-y cops and prosecutors were thwarted by a grand jury in Ohio, who refused to indict Brittany Watts for "abuse of a corpse."

For anyone who doesn't know, this insane case was a byproduct of Ohio's vile, religion-based anti-abortion laws.

Brittany Watts is a 34-year-old Black woman who developed complications midway through her pregnancy. She was experiencing lots of bleeding, so she went to the hospital where they told her the pregnancy was non-viable and an abortion was medically required. But then the doctors were forced to dick around for hours, debating whether they could legally perform the abortion, or whether they had to wait for the fetus to die or the patient's condition to worsen.

So Ms. Watts went home, where she subsequently had a miscarriage, and then flushed the remains down the toilet. That is pretty much what women normally do, if they've had a miscarriage at home.

The cops must have decided that she'd performed an abortion on herself, because they went nuts investigating her, including searching her home and confiscating her toilet as evidence. But they either couldn't prove that she'd carried out an abortion, or else Ohio anti-abortion laws don't target pregnant women who self-abort -- I'm not sure which -- but anyway, they couldn't actually go after her for abortion. So they hit her with this mickey-mouse "abuse of a corpse" charge instead, which is a felony, by the way.

Thankfully, the grand jury didn't buy it, and told the prosecutor to take a hike.

Anonymous said...

Trump takes another “L” in court.

He has been ordered to pay the NY Times ~$400K in legal fees, after he unsuccessfully sued them for publishing details of the Trump family finances, including exactly how much he inherited from dear old dad. (Spoiler alert for anyone who did not read that Times story: Donald did not get rich through either hard work or being smart; he is a lazy dumbass.)

Bloviating Ignoramus said...

So God Made An Insane Clown. Yes friends it is the Second Coming in every sense. He Came. He was Crucified. He will be Resurrected. It's all right there in the Book Of Retribution.

dinthebeast said...

Wasn't Fergus' mom born in Scotland? Doesn't that disqualify him by his own argument?

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

“Wasn't Fergus' mom born in Scotland? Doesn't that disqualify him by his own argument?”

Presumably, he’s got an American-born dad, so he’s cool. Plus — wink, wink — Trump’s parents were both white, while Nikki isn’t, which is what this disqualification theory is really driving at.

Anyway, it’s all unconstitutional nonsense. And it doesn’t have to make sense. Most Republican voters have made clear that they aren’t exactly long on critical thinking skills; otherwise, Trump would never have become president.

Anonymous said...

For anyone interested in the takedown of former Harvard president Claudine Gay, which was driven by both hardcore supporters of Israel who want to shut down all criticism of that country, and by wingnuts who hate academia in general and want to purge all liberals from their university posts, there is some news.

Apparently one of the “experts,” Jonatan Pallesen, brought in to trash Gay’s academic credentials is a guy who appears to be a proponent of “race science.” He previously collaborated on a research paper arguing that Jews are biologically smarter than everyone else.

Note: If you think this must prove Pallesen’s movement are actually fans of Jews, think again. The Nazis believed certain ethnic groups, like blacks, had inferior intelligence. But they never believed this about Jews. They thought Jews were smart, but genetically untrustworthy and unethical and evil. Jews were by definition sneaky and self-interested, always plotting against everyone else for the exclusive benefit of the Jewish community, and therefore needed to be eliminated.

Scientist cited in push to oust Harvard’s Claudine Gay has links to eugenicists

Anonymous said...

Nothing new..just another brownie dancing the jig for the master.

dinthebeast said...

If you would like to have seen MLK preach on this, his holiday, go watch William Barber preach in Harlem at the Abyssinian Baptist Church for the MLK day worship service. I'm an atheist and I thought it was booming. His sermon starts at 1:09:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbuH9lnbZRo

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

Oh no! Vivek Ramaswamy has abandoned his presidential run! How will America cope?

LOL

PX said...

NASA announces 2023 was the hottest year on record. Guess the Republicans have a plan to reduce greenhouse gasses.🤷🏾

https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/152313/five-factors-to-explain-the-record-heat-in-2023?utm_source=FBPAGE&utm_medium=NASA+Earth&utm_campaign=NASASocial&linkId=262613476&fbclid=IwAR1kELGEC35HEeHs0CeSjePeu8cOQ1Zm5X1ZT11Jo3U--LJAI4oDnD9wtiY

Anonymous said...

“NASA announces 2023 was the hottest year on record. Guess the Republicans have a plan to reduce greenhouse gasses.”

At one point in the pandemic, Donald Trump’s plan for dealing with COVID was to stop testing for COVID. Problem solved!

I imagine that is the Republican plan for climate change. If you don’t measure it, then it doesn’t exist. Everybody knows that, right? Maybe Republicans could ban thermometers.

dinthebeast said...

Rama-lama-ding-dong down. Endorses Fergus. Big surprise.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

dinthebeast said...

Asa down also. “My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa,” explained the delusional former Arkansas governor.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

Ron DeSantis still trailed Trump by a lot.

His plan to win by being the “smart Trump” is not working. GOP primary voters want the original-recipe, dumb Trump.

Anonymous said...

Haley is a Rino. She supports open borders and climate change BS. She works for the globalists.

Anonymous said...

TRUMP CRUSHES IOWA!!

Anonymous said...

TRUMP 2024!!

Anonymous said...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/trump-s-iowa-blowout-reveals-gop-voters-realignment-and-resistance/ar-AA1n5taG

Anonymous said...

https://www.npr.org/2024/01/15/1224749221/trump-wins-republican-iowa-caucus-2024

Anonymous said...

Anonymous PX said...
NASA announces 2023 was the hottest year on record. Guess the Republicans have a plan to reduce greenhouse gasses.🤷🏾

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topstories/another-day-of-frigid-wind-chills-and-brutal-cold-across-much-of-the-us/ar-AA1n0R24

Anonymous said...

Global warming??

https://www.express.co.uk/news/weather/1853151/new-weather-maps-snow-ice-bomb

Anonymous said...

Arctic blast continues to sweep entire US setting record-low temperatures
Sub-zero wind chills grip swath of country as Arctic storms leave at least four dead and knock out electricity in parts of north-west


https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/jan/15/us-weather-arctic-blast-extreme-cold

Anonymous said...

Excellent. Right on cue, the knuckle-draggers chime in with: “Winter happened, so global warming can’t be real!”

dinthebeast said...

In the courtroom today, Fergus displayed what Pam Merritt would call verbal malfunctions and home training failures.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

Trump appears to have committed to a strategy of attending all his trial hearings so he can yell out “witch hunt!” and denounce the proceedings as nothing but an vendetta against him by Democrats.

I don’t think he’s trying to win in court. He’s trying to run out the clock, win the election, declare himself dictator-for-life, and then order all charges be dismissed.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous Anonymous said...
Excellent. Right on cue, the knuckle-draggers chime in with: “Winter happened, so global warming can’t be real!”

12:52 PM

Another example of leftist delusion.

Anonymous said...

Cocaine residue was found on Hunter Biden's gun pouch in 2018 case, prosecutors say

https://apnews.com/article/hunter-biden-gun-charges-cocaine-87f74ce87edf60b933225d736c4e1c4e

Anonymous said...

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2024/01/17/hunter-biden-gun-case-cocaine-residue/72253358007/

Anonymous said...

DOJ Confirms: Hunter Biden Laptop Was Real This Whole Time

https://www.dailywire.com/news/doj-confirms-hunter-biden-laptop-was-real-this-whole-time

Anonymous said...

CNN Poll: Percentage of Republicans who think(know) Biden’s 2020 win was illegitimate ticks back up near 70%


https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/03/politics/cnn-poll-republicans-think-2020-election-illegitimate/index.html

dinthebeast said...

Now watch the goddamn supremes take a meat-axe to the government again.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

“The goddamn lying house Republicans refuse to pass any immigration reform whatsoever. Now that they are having their asses handed to them on abortion, immigration is all they have, and they will under no circumstances give that cash cow up by fixing the problem.”

Biden could campaign on this — Republicans refusal to fix the problem — if he had a coherent position on asylum seekers himself. He could point out that Trump gutted the departments that process asylum seekers, and demand that Republicans provide the funds to restore and expand those departments, so that those who qualify for asylum can be settled here and all the rest of the large number of recent migrants (most of them) be swiftly deported.

I suspect Biden does not take that position because he does not want to piss off the subset of left-wingers in the Democratic coalition who do not want anyone deported, ever. So Biden is largely avoiding the entire issue, which is not working well for him politically.

dinthebeast said...

The Biden-Harris campaign is going big on abortion. Hopefully big enough to win:

https://crooksandliars.com/2024/01/biden-campaign-coming-after-trump-abortion

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

“The Biden-Harris campaign is going big on abortion. Hopefully big enough to win”

I hope so, but this does feel like putting all their eggs in one basket. I hate to see them rely solely on blaming Trump for overturning Roe. And on warning of Trump’s threat to democracy. I mean, those things really ought to be enough to keep Trump out of office … but I fear they won’t be.

Biden should be out there pointing out that the economy is actually quite good and crime is falling. Things are rapidly headed back to normal, after the disruptions of the pandemic. Trump and associates will be out there lying, and telling people everything is terrible, and then blaming the alleged terribleness on Biden. Somebody should be countering the lies.

Not to mention, he should be taking credit for his party’s accomplishments on transitioning away from fossil fuels, financing national infrastructure, and dropping drug prices. And he should bash the hell out of Republicans for blocking most of his efforts to forgive student loans.

PilotX said...

Is this how you guys do Field? LOL!

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/lJqqVnY7VxM

Anonymous said...

Elon Musk implied on Twitter that an Alaska Airlines plane had a panel blow out, depressurizing the cabin, because Boeing is hiring ethnic minority dimwits to design and build their planes under affirmative action (or DEI) policies.

This follows on his earlier comments that suggested air travel in general is not safe anymore because airlines are hiring dumb-dumbs from HBCUs.

Elon should just get it over with and set his Twitter profile pic to a burning cross.

dinthebeast said...

Rhonda slithers to the exit.

-Doug in Sugar Pine

Anonymous said...

TRUMP 2024!!