Pic Of The Moment: SC Gov. Nikki Haley Gives Utterly Bizarre Reason For Keeping Confederate Flag

[EarlG]

SC governor defends Confederate flag at Statehouse: Not 'a single CEO' has complained

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[NRaleighLiberal]

1. Let me be the first to K and R!

[hibbing]

2. uh.....okay....well that settles that then

Because we all know that when it comes to issues like this, CEOs have the definitive answers and solutions.


Peace

[JoePhilly]

3. So if you aren't a CEO ... Nikki don't care ... got it.

[tk2kewl]

51. yep - no reading between the lines necessary

[Cosmocat]

61. RIGHT

This was in fact a very honest reply on her part.

[Dont call me Shirley]

4. Headline could read: Nikki Haley Pulls A Sarah Palin

[SammyWinstonJack]

83. Republican Governors.......dumb dumber dumbest.

[TerrapinFlyer]

5. Can she hear the CEOs from her back yard?

The Carolina Grifter!

[Arugula Latte]

6. ...

[yeoman6987]

7. She is saying that she sought large

Companies to leave a current state and come to South Carolina for economic reasons and help South Carolina's economy. None of the companies had an issue with the state flag. All liberals should be able to understand that. We are very intelligent and educated.

[yellowcanine]

11. "None of the companies had an issue with the state flag." Not what she said.

She said, "None of the CEOs had an issue with the flag." What she did not say is whether any of the workers for those companies might have an issue with the flag.

[yeoman6987]

19. OMG

She is working with the CEOs to bring them to South Carolina. How would she know if the workers have a problem with it. I imagine the workers don't either or we would have heard about it by now. Heck we know the McDonalds employees want 15 dollars an hour to make fries and microwave burgers. We would know if employees had a problem with a state flag for sure.

[yellowcanine]

20. She doesn't know. That is the point. Talking about CEOs indicates she is clueless.

I don't see how what McDonald's employees desire to be paid a living wage has to do with it.

[yeoman6987]

21. I don't doubt you at all

However. Is the Governor going to win? That is really all I care about. Democtratic nominee winning is the only priority I have for the next 3 weeks. All this other stuff does not get us to that goal.

[yellowcanine]

25. Probably. It is SC and she is the Repub. incumbent.

That doesn't mean that her statement about CEOs and the flag wasn't idiotic. It was.

[Hissyspit]

29. Oh, for...

You are right. I am very intelligent. I understand EXACTLY what she's saying.

[Enrique]

39. i agree

it's a mistake to call the statement bizarre, because it is perfectly understandable and easily answered. Her debate opponent answered it very well in fact.

And I hate to say it but the removal of "and recruiting jobs to this state", replacing it with an ellipsis in the quote, is dishonest imho.

[Tireman]

80. I agree that this quote was taken out of context

n/t

[beerandjesus]

82. Thank you.

The pic and caption are funny as presented, to be sure, but there was a context around this. I actually watched the debate, and frankly, this was one of her better answers of the evening. There were other issues where she looked WAY more out of touch, not to mention dishonest.

[Solly Mack]

8. K&R

[Sanity Claws]

9. The opinions of CEOs are the only opinions that count

This is not even an economic issue. Why should a CEO say anything about a matter that is not an economic issue? Wouldn't that be outside the CEO's job and outside his responsibility to shareholders?

[tclambert]

27. Just what I thought when I read this.

By why am I talking to you? You don't exist.

[KansDem]

50. Well, aren't corporations "people" now?

And aren't the CEOs the heads of those "people?" So if you're going to check with the corporate person, you need to talk to its head (or something like that).

Isn't that the way it works?

[Jamastiene]

60. That was the first thought I had too. n/t

[The Wielding Truth]

52. Some one should remind her that corporations exist at the permission of the government not vs vs.

[freshwest]

58. Republicans treat government as franchises for personal profit.

This article is about several people and an ad, but if you have the time, read what it says about the GOP mindset. Haley has embraced their way of governing. Only the CEOs matter, as they consider themselves to be the rightful owners of public assets. Many left the public square by not voting and being involved in the states, and the GOP filled the vacuum left for them.

Pulling Up The Ladder

By Charles P. Pierce on October 14, 2014

...We will set aside all discussion of whether the commercial was worth the candle politically; Davis has been less of a candidate than people thought she would be, and remains likely to lose the election. And we will set aside the simple argument about whether Abbott's actions in office make him a hypocrite. The Davis ad is an important one because it strikes at the heart of what movement conservatism has made of the Republican party, which once was the party of the Pure Food and Drug Act, trust-busting, the Interstate Highway System, the Clean Water Act, and the EPA. Over the past three decades, however, beginning with that epochal moment when Ronald Reagan said, in his first inaugural, that government was the problem -- not if you were a defense contractor, one thinks, or a mullah who wanted missiles -- the Republican party has profited uniquely from a massive internal contradiction that would have given a less well-funded institution the blind staggers. And the party has doubled down on that contradiction year after year, decade after decade. Simply put, the Republican party deliberately has transformed itself from the Party of Lincoln to the Party of I've Got Mine, Jack. And it rarely, if ever, gets called to account for that. As a result, and without substantial notice or paying a substantial price, and on many issues, individual Republicans have been able to justify the benefits they've received from government activity that they now oppose in theory and in practice. This is not "hypocrisy." That is too mild a word. This is the regulatory capture of the government for personal benefit. *That it makes a lie, again and again, of the basic principles of modern conservatism -- indeed, that it shows those principles to be a sham -- is certainly worthy of notice and debate. It is certainly worthy of notice and debate that the conservative idea of the benefits of a political commonwealth means those benefits run only one way. Modern conservatism is not about making the government smaller. It's about making the government exclusive. It's not about streamlining the benefits of the political commonwealth. It's about making sure those benefits flow only to those people who have proven through their ability to work all the other levers of power that they deserve those benefits.

One of the clearest demonstrations of the contradiction came during the Republican National Convention in 2012, when the party gave one night of speeches over to the theme, "We did build that," a deliberate misinterpretation of something the president had said. Speaker after speaker spoke of how they pulled themselves up and built their success without interference from "government." By the end of the night, the bootstraps has been pulled up so hard and so long that they must've extended from Tampa halfway through Alabama. But there was a curious thing about these speeches. A great many of them began with, "When my Dad got out of the Army..." There was the guy who built his business who never mentioned the small-business loans he'd obtained. There was Chris Christie, railing against the dead hand of big government while nearly sobbing over how important the GI Bill had been to his Dad. There was Governor Mary Fallin of Oklahoma who, against all history and logic, explained how her state had been built only through the sweat of Oklahomans. It was a night of organized bullshit so epic that it stands alone in my memory. It should have been all anybody talked about for a month. It should have defined the Republican party for a generation. Hell, if it weren't for the New Deal, Ronald Reagan's father would have been the town drunk. Government wasn't The Problem then. Instead, it passed without conspicuous notice. If a conservative is a liberal who's been mugged, then a liberal is a conservative who was stupid enough to buy a Pinto. My son's industrial accident must be avenged. Oh, and we should do away with OSHA as soon as that happens. Greg Abbott deserved that $10 million, but all the people taking advantage of the Americans With Disabilities Act don't deserve wheelchair ramps or curb cuts. It's monstrous.
The contradiction never should have been allowed to grow this way. Clarence Thomas should have been defined by his hysterical opposition to the affirmative action programs that helped him get out of Georgia and into Holy Cross, and not by what he may or may not have said to Anita Hill, as egregious as those comments may have been. Paul Ryan should have had the Social Security survivors benefits that got him through high school and college hung around his entire political career and draped like an iron shroud over every dystopian "budget" he ever proposed. (And, no, his sudden tenderness towards the generosity of his fellow citizens doesn't count. You're welcome, dickhead.) Every Republican congressman who begged for money from the stimulus package he otherwise condemned -- like Paul Ryan, now that I think about it -- should have had that request become a liability, and not an asset.** And, since the elite political press pretty much has chickened out on its job of highlighting how the entire modern conservative ideology is built on this kind of slippery manure, it's up to the Democratic party to do it, and the Democratic party has been terrible at the job, too. This is why Wendy Davis's commercial is not only fair, it's an important moment that needs to be replicated where applicable all over the country until the message sinks in. Either government is the problem or it is not. If it's a problem for the country as a whole, then it's also a problem in Greg Abbott's personal life, and he should have been more concerned than he was about those personal injury lawsuits that are clogging up the courts. After all, they're the real job-killers.

http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/Pulling_Up_The_Ladder

*This is what every Tea Party official has done, treated the public treasury as their own operating fund to do business. And like any hostile takeover, they act quickly, ruthlessly and with no regard for who is going to be hurt.

**They play the victim, saying taxes are immoral and an unfair taking from the private sector. So even if they bully and outright break laws and enrich their families and selves, they see it as revenge.

[The Wielding Truth]

72. Great article. Thanks. Most children are more retrospect then these self righteous clueless twits.

[Baitball Blogger]

10. Glad she said it because it points out an obvious fact of life about right-wingers.

They rank people. Not only does money open doors, but there's a whole other host of obstacles that someone has to jump over before they reach personhood. This is the reason why minorities will always have their lives truncated in these kind of communities.

[Plucketeer]

31. That's the way I see it.

Honestly, the flag part of this flap is the lesser factor here for me. I do know what it means to others and I understand the ugly of it. But it's the money and the overpowering thrust of it that's the dominantly disgusting facet. This "public servant" will be compensated by CEOs for the red carpet she unfurls for them. She and her kind are just well oiled tools of the corporate corps in charge. Folks have to ask themselves WHY a person like this - who could do really well in the private sector - would angle for a relatively low-paying job like Governor. Like so many other politicians of late, she'll have a top rate job waiting for her once she leaves office.
She cares about what the flag stands for or it wouldn't still be flying. She knows the Duck Dynasty sorts in her state will staunchly stand and support that wretched rag. Now if she can just get CEOs to bring those ignorant rubes some low-wage jobs.

[Baitball Blogger]

37. +1

[NastyRiffraff]

36. Of course

That's my take on it too. As long as CEOs don't object, hey, it's okay. Blacks offended? Who cares!

[Ampersand Unicode]

38. They're not exclusive to bassackward red states either.

Plenty of blue states have their ignorant Rethuglicans too. Like Massachusetts state representative Shauna O'Connell (R-Taunton), who faced criticism last year for putting a bikini top with a Stars & Bars design on a snowman and posting the picture on her Facebook page.



She claimed not to even notice, saying that the bikini top was just some discarded rag from a yard sale and that she didn't even see the design. Which clearly shows how much she pays attention to this sort of thing -- she didn't see that it had a Confederate flag pattern when she bought it in the first place?

[Initech]

12. That's because southern CEOs would secretly love to bring back slavery if they could.

Thanks to the 13th amendment they can't.

[Ampersand Unicode]

40. Don't take it for granted.

Cons have already steamrolled over the First Amendment (separation of church and state), the Fourth and Fifth Amendments (PATRIOT Act), the Eighth Amendment (Gitmo), and are chipping away at voting rights as we speak (14th, 19th, 24th, and 26th). There is argument to be made that undocumented immigrants -- not to mention foreign outsourced workers in third-world countries making "stuff" for American companies (Apple, Nike, Walmart, etc.) -- are being exploited for slave labor and denied the benefits of citizenship even though they aren't technically "owned" in the sense of being bought and sold at auctions and whipped on plantations. Far as I'm concerned, though, it's the same pig with a different shade of lipstick. Same slavery, different color.

I'm sure if they could, cons would strip the entire Constitution of everything but the 2nd, and replace everything else with cherry-picked Bible verses. Because God, guns and gays are all that matter to them. I'm sure they'd even scrub the Constitution of Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3...) and replace everything with Roman ones (I, II, III...), just to make sure that America doesn't fall to a "Muslim influence."

But what do you expect from people who take pride in not being able to count higher than two.

[Initech]

44. Well that's true.

As ugly as it is, the cons have been slowly stripping our rights away one by one, and we're becoming a low wage, militaristic police state. Which is why the thought that Jeb Bush or Rand Paul could become president makes me want to throw up. You think it's bad now? With one of those shitty candidates at the helm, or worse, a Koch roach like Chris Christie or Scott Walker, expect our labor rights to be rolled back to the stone ages. We're pretty much loan slaves now, that will get exponentially worse if one of those two ever gets elected.

[raouldukelives]

81. +1 I am glad we got rid of slavery in America when we did.

We'd have a hard time today. Wouldn't find too many willing to take a stand. The ones who did would be prudently dispirited with batons on national media.
Seems the best we can hope for these days are people who may occasionally publicly speak against it but privately fund, profit and expand the practice through corporate investments and in some cases outright employment.

[MADem]

13. Didn't she have an affair with a staffer?

I don't know what's in the water at that state house....

[Cha]

14. LIke I said on the other thread.. That settles it!

Mahalo, EarlG

[Man from Pickens]

68. That's one interesting consequence of war

Nobody ever gets over it, whether here or in the Middle East or in the Balkans or elsewhere. It's a good part of why we shouldn't have them.

[CanonRay]

15. She spends her days begging their money

and kissing their asses.

[Ampersand Unicode]

34. That money wouldn't happen to look like this, would it?

[underpants]

16. Confederate Enabling Officers?

[Burma Jones]

17. Not bizarre but all too common.....

Really, money talks and, well, you know the rest........

[Ampersand Unicode]

33. But it can't sing and dance, and it don't walk.

And as long as there's a GOP, we'll always be

FOREVER LOVIN' BLUE STATES!

[jtuck004]

18. Had any conversations about ending racism? n/t

[santamargarita]

22. Why do these assholes celebrate something they lost.

That racist piece of shit (flag) should be burned!

[calimary]

23. And what does THAT have to do with ANYTHING, nikki dear?

Talking with CEOs! AHA! GOT IT!!! THAT is the metric that matters, after all, isn't it?

[True Blue Door]

24. Good to know who she considers her constituents to be.

[GoCubsGo]

28. Yep, but unfortunately...

...all these dummies in my state won't recognize that fact. She has an "R" after her name , she caters to the unreformed Johnny Rebs, and she bad-mouths President Obama. That's all it takes to stay in office in this in this idiot-infested cesspool, sadly.

There has got to be a way for me to get out of this fucking hellhole...

[MannyGoldstein]

26. Incredible.

Where do these nitwits come from?

[tclambert]

30. She talks a lot with CEOs but apparently never with any African Americans.

She'd probably be amazed to learn some still hold a grudge about slavery. After all, the War of Secession wasn't about slavery, it was about Southerners protecting their rats.

[Ampersand Unicode]

32. So only CEOs' opinions matter?

I take it she hasn't spoken with any black ones, then.

But then again, if corporations are people (according to the GOP's Free-Market Prosperity Gospel™)...

...are black people 3/5 of a corporation?

[DemoTex]

35. Hoist this (again) Nikki:

[MontyPow]

42. Yesssss!!!!!!!

[father founding]

65. fly your freak flag.

iI flew a lot also.

[MontyPow]

41. The Confederate flag is the flag of treason and has no business flying over public lands.

[VA_Jill]

43. Geez, Dimrata! n/t

[ctsnowman]

45. K & R

[erpowers]

46. Not Bizarre

Her statement is not bizarre; she is just telling everyone who she really cares about and to whom she really listens. She does not give one bit of crap that numerous people are offended by the Confederate flag. CEOs are not offended by the Confederate flag. As long as CEOs are not opposed to the Confederate flag, or offended by the Confederate flag she will make no attempt to have the flag removed. However, if CEOs start to calling for the Confederate flag to be removed she will have it removed immediately.

So, I guess they best way to get the Confederate flag removed from the South Carolina State House is to push CEOs to demand it be removed from the state house. Other than that, if you want the Confederate flag removed from the South Carolina State House do not vote for Nikki Haley in the upcoming election.

[TheCowsCameHome]

47. "...and besides, I use mine as tablecloths and bedspreads."

Idiot.

[noiretextatique]

48. CEOs LOVE the confederate flag!!!!

dammit...they love it so much, they don't talk about loving it so much

[yurbud]

49. "after all, they ARE the only people that matter!"

[valerief]

53. "In other words, CEOs totally control South Carolina." nt

[Tom Ripley]

56. They always have whether they were called executives or plantation owners. Nimrata Haley is just...

an overseer looking out for their interests.

[valerief]

57. Of course. It's just that the overseers usually don't admit it. nt

[mb999]

54. Not much difference between Confederates and ISIS

Heritage not hate my ass.

[GeorgeGist]

55. The boss calls...

Nikki will answer!

[Jamastiene]

59. Maybe she is just being honest.

After all, corporations own the Republican Party and the Republican Party does NOT listen to the regular people in their districts. They listen to the corporations. Corporations are "we the people" now, not the rest of us.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

62. I thought everyone in SC hated this woman? Why is she running again?

I'm guessing she's cruising to another victory, huh?

Sick of the Stockholm State Syndrome. "I swear, I promise, next election, they are going down!!!"

[YOHABLO]

63. Hello .. war's over .. the Union won. Trash the flag Haley.

[diabeticman]

64. It really isn't a Bizzare reason. America's Corporate overlords DO NOT find offense... What Haliey

finds Bizarre is the fact that we SERFS do find it offensive....

[IronLionZion]

66. The female version of Uncle Tom is Nikki Haley

[Thor_MN]

67. I talked to hundreds of people over the years and not a one

has said anything about me not planting my foot up the ass of a stupid politician...

Just saying...

[lastlib]

69. no, but I'll bet the subject of campaign contributions was raised.....

(...more than once.....)

[indivisibleman]

70. This is a Scott Walker tactic.

He uses this strategy all the time. If there is an issue he doesn't want to talk about nor address he claims that he has spoken with so many people in Wisconsin and no one cares about the issue.

[2naSalit]

71. Geezuz

What a blatantly obvious tool.

[samsingh]

73. telling on two fronts

1. she believes she only has to listen to ceos. that's her only base that she cares about.

2. she likes the confederate flag

[blackspade]

74. A: Not the 'Confederate' flag....

B: This enduring symbol of racism should never be flown, ever.
C: I guess we know who calls the shots in SC.

[SoapBox]

75. What a stupid freak'n idiot.

[Major Hogwash]

76. Now we know who she represents --- white racist CEOs!!!!

Good job Haley, I couldn't have said it better myself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Kalidurga]

77. What is bizarre

is she was being totally honest.

[certainot]

78. she loves her some ceo's, and she's a bloody idiot

[merrily]

79. She didn't give any reason for leaving the loser flag. She blew off the question.

[BlackX-068]

84. All Those Enslaved CEO's and their Families.

Incredible....

[wordpix]

85. collusion w/CEOs-how many non-profit education, environmt, healthcare groups

has she met with in comparison? That's a good q for the SC media and people.