Nikki Haley, the former Governor of South Carolina, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired, got asked during a campaign event, “What started the Civil War?”

Her rambling answer involved the role of government in protecting freedoms while not telling folks what to do. No mention of slavery. (I guess that wasn’t a freedom that came to her mind.) When the man asked, “What about slavery? “ she said, “What do you want me to say about slavery?” He replied, “That answers my question.”

Merry Christmas, everyone!

@Cynicholic It wasn’t a confrontational interview - just a conversation between the people and the reporter. The reporter merely brought up encouraging trends in the economy to see if the folks at the table were experiencing them. What she got was a woman who denied the positive things were even happening. And these were not homeless, struggling-to-make-ends -meet people. Just sitting at a restaurant grousing about the price of eggs.

@AskTheDevil The devil is in the details.😉

@AskTheDevil Hate to disagree with you, but wages are rising and food prices have dipped - on the average. Food services (restaurants), utilities, and housing costs do remain significant contributors to inflation, though. Regarding your implication that poo-pooing the health of the economy is in the minority, I’ve found the opposite to be true. As that interview I referenced shows. Consumer sentiment is on the rise, based on polling, but it remains lower than what one would expect from the data.

@JV3MJD The problem the women face, now that Giuliani has declared bankruptcy is that “secured” creditors - those with liens (mortgages) on his assets - banks - will get paid first. That will probably wipe out his assets.

@ReneeVoiceBrand There’s something to be said for folks who don’t do as well as they think they should even in booming economies. But what got me about that interview was that the woman didn’t say, “But I’m not getting better despite the improving economy.” Instead, she disagreed with those presented stats.

On TV yesterday, I saw a reporter talking to a group of people who said they were unhappy with the economy. She said to one woman, “Inflation is coming down, wages are up, unemployment is down, and the stock market is doing well.” The woman replied, “Well, I would disagree with that.”

That sums up the facts-don’t-matter situation we have in this country today and is emblematic of H.L. Mencken’s famous line: “No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

So Giuliani declared bankruptcy. What a surprise. The poll workers he defamed likely won’t see a dime from the judgment in their favor. I bet Giuliano’s lawyers will get paid, though.

@Wbtphdjd Yes, they’re in the minority, but with our Electoral College system, that minority can still produce a president.

#politics Any hope that Trump’s legal woes will affect the presidential election is a pipe dream. The only slam-dunk prosecution case - the classified documents case - will likely not even get started before the election, thanks to Judge Cannon. Jack Smith’s case - the insurrection one - has a small chance to get underway, but motion delays will doom that one as well. Ditto for the Georgia prosecution. But even if Trump is convicted of any, the appeal process will carry far into 2025. Too late.

One day after I was bemoaning the Cowboys’ pitiful loss to the Bills, the Eagles lost to the Seahawks. The NFL calls it parity. I call it mediocrity.

@AskTheDevil Yeah, Hamas certainly succeeded in their mission, knowing how Israeli forces would react, and that horrendous civilian casualties would result. Netanyahu took the bait. And now Israel is taking all the blame, which has permeated universities in our country. What happened to Israel’s vaunted Special Forces that captured Eichmann and rescued hostages in Entebbe and killed the Munich terrorists?

@AskTheDevil No, I’m not saying that at all. My point was that the Palestinians have never accepted Israel having any part of the Jewish homeland. “We want it all” has been their attitude to previous efforts to share that piece of real estate. What part of “From the river to the sea” is not clear?

For 75 years, the Palestinians - through their leadership - have rejected proposals to share the land that became Israel, demanding that the Jews leave the territory (which was the Jewish homeland before Islam existed) or be wiped out. Multiple efforts to make that second option a reality have failed miserably. What makes anyone think a two-state solution would be acceptable now?

I’m not yet in the Jets-fan category (after all, the Cowboys do manage to make the playoffs and have had several Super Bowl wins in the distant past), but I’m getting there. The same team with all the hype and then lost to the lackluster Cardinals early in the season showed up again yesterday in their beat-down by the Bills. Is there a Cowboys curse that I’m not aware of? Jeez.

Stock market is at an all-time high, inflation and unemployment is down, as is the price of gas. The Fed suggests interest rate cuts are in the offing for next year. Yet people who weren’t around when there was negligible inflation or high interest rates and relatively high gas prices complain and blame it on Biden.

U.S. oil and natural gas production are at record levels, yet Trump wants to drill, baby, drill on his first day as president.

God save us from low-information voters!