Haley the Comet

Nikki Haley is leaving her post as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.  People are praising her for her service to Donald Trump, showing her independence while remaining loyal to the administration and demonstrating her diplomatic skills in standing up for American interests while earning international respect (!) for this country.   

Yeah?  How do you justify standing up for principles as eschewing concern for human rights and the climate?  How do gain respect for odious policies designed to push the rest of the world aside?  How do you explain support for Israel, whose egregious policies toward the Palestinians has made the Israelis global pariahs almost as great as we are?  How can anyone respect what this country does?  Haley has been defended for upholding traditional, pre-Trump Republican foreign-policy values at the United Nations, but it's worth remembering, considering the GOP's history of all of the overthrown Latin American governments, unnecessary Middle Eastern wars, and hostility toward international treaties governing everything from the rights of the disabled to maritime interests, that traditional Republican foreign policy was odious long before Trump.  Not that traditional Democratic foreign policy has been all that much better.           

And pundits are talking about Haley as a potential 2024 Republican presidential candidate.

Her biggest accomplishment was leaving her job with a lot of goodwill, unlike other Trump appointees who left prematurely.  She wasn't shown the door; she found it herself.  Some would say she's leaving at the right moment, what with Trump having had his best week yet.  Or, maybe she's leaving because she knows that things won't get any better than now.

American foreign policy today is the pits as far as I'm concerned.  (Paris Agreement, anyone?)  I find it quite nauseating.

Speaking of nausea, the Clintons are going on a pop-concert-style speaking tour starting next month.