WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT NIKKI HALEY?

The best running mate for Donald Trump to beat Joe Biden on 5November2024 is Nikki Haley.  She was not mentioned in the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll held this past weekend, but any common sense would lead to this conclusion...except perhaps, one, and the most important reason:  total subservience.  However, she would best balance a Trump team, as opposed to a fawning nothing.  About the MAGA people upset about what she has said about The Donald, doesn't matter, for he has them covered.

The six possible veep candidates show one big surprise.  New York Representative Elise Stefanik, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds, Ohio Senator J.D. Vance, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake.  Plus, former Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

• She decided not to run for re-election two years ago, quit the Democratic Party and became a Republican.  She hasn't done anything since then, but is promoting a book coming out in April about why she became a Republican.
• Did you know she actually ran for president in 2020?
• Hear her speech at that CPAC.
• 
  She is 43 years old, was deployed to Iraq from 2004 and 2005 as an Army Military Police platoon leader, is now a lieutenant colonel, and served as vice president of the Democratic National Committee from 2013 to 2016.
• Served as a fill-in host for Tucker Carson Tonight and became a paid consultant for Fox News.
• She is Hindu and her father Mike Gabbard is a Hawaii State Senator and of Samoan descent.  She thus became the first Hindu and Samoan in the U.S. Congress.

Well, this article is about Nikki Haley.  To begin:

• Nikki Haley lost to Donald Trump, 40-60 in her home state of South Carolina.
• The 538 poll has Trump crushing Haley at nearly 80% to 20% in Michigan this week.

• 
  Plus, the Koch brothers decided to stop supporting Haley.  They had so far contributed $32 million.
• She probably will continue her campaign into Super Tuesday, March 5, and get decimated by Trump.
• So why bother anymore?

Why?

• She is awaiting the Supreme Court to rule him ineligible to run for president.  This ruling should be announced pretty soon.  But the odds are close to 90% that Trump will be allowed to be on the ballot for every state.  So this can't be why she's still in this primary race.
• No sense waiting for SCOTUS to say that Trump is not immune to prosecution, for he is certain to be selected in the mid-July Republican Convention as their candidate for the presidency anyway.
• 
  It can't be selection as Trump's vice presidential running mate, for she is more and more alienating Trump and his supporters.
• Sticking this out will not build the foundation for her 2028 presidential campaign.

So why?

• Maybe she has became more patriotic and has decided that Donald Trump is dangerous for the future of American Democracy?
• Is a third party candidacy thus be her goal? For if she does this, she kills any chance of Trump beating Biden.

• 
  Interestingly enough, yesterday Joe Cunningham, national director of No Labels, indicated that they would definitely be interested in Haley to lead their third-party effort.  
• As both Trump and Biden are old with a lot of baggage, the thought of Haley and an attractive running mate can show promise to actually win.
• No Labels has secured access in 16 states and should be able to quality for the entire nation if they try.
• No Labels was formed as a nonprofit organization more than a decade ago with the goal of pushing for bipartisanship and helping find common ground between the two main political parties.

There are other options for Haley to consider, but the above is a good start for her future.  In any case, how much do you really know about her?

• Born in 1972 in Bamberg, South Carolina as Nimarata Nikki Randhawa to Sikh parents from Punjab, India.  Father (professor) and mother (lawyer) emigrated to Canada in 1964.

• 
  Married Michael Haley in 1996 and they have two children.
• Converted to Christianity in 1997.
• Elected to the South Carolina House in 2004 and served three terms.
• Became South Carolina's first female governor in 2010.

• 
  In  the 2016 primaries, supported Marco Rubio, then Ted Cruz.  Not Trump, who went on to become president.  In fact, she warned of Trump's rhetoric, attacked him about the KKK and called on him to release his tax records.

• 
  However, she resigned as governor in 2017 to become the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump Administration.
• Was one of few Republicans to show criticism about Trump's role in the 6January2021 attack on the Capitol.

• 
  Was worth $1 million in 2019, but grew to $8 million by 2022 through book sales and joining Boeing and United Homes Group corporate boards.
• Has said she will support Trump even if convicted of criminal charges.

Your Fox network channel will show a new documentary tonight at 8PM, TMZ Investigates:  Taylor & Travis:  Ultimate Love Story.

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WHO IS ELAINE PAIGE?

First, on the entertainment front, the favorites did well at the Screen Actors Guild Awards last night.  

• You did not miss it, for to watch, you had to stream Netflix.  Here, view the results.  Yes, the whole thing, beginning with that Red Carpet walk.  Meaning, 8 hours and 21 minutes.  
• Not being on network television, a lot of F words, and some winners came up drunk.
• The favorites all won, especially Oppenheimer.
• Barbra Streisand won the Life Achievement award.  Just this, less than 10 minutes.

As I don't feel particularly spiritual today, will skip on to something I recently saw on Music Choice, Elaine Paige.  Was the original Grizabella who sang Memories from Cats.  It was 1981 in the West End.  In 1998 she played that role in the movie.  Mind you, Rotten Tomatoes reviewers gave it an embarrassing 20% rating.  On the other hand, the audience bestowed 80%, and I follow them more than reviewers.  

There was a second Cats, in 2019.  Again, Rotten Tomatoes reviewers hated it, gave the film a 19 score.  Even the audience cringed, with a 53.  Anyone remember who played Bombalurina in that film?  Taylor Swift.  Steven Spielberg was Executive Producer.

All that brings me back to the first audition of Susan Boyle in Britain's Got Talent in 2009.  If you click on that video, she says her idol is Elaine Paige.  Well, Boyle did pretty well.  Here they sing together.

But, really, who is Elaine Paige?

• Was born in 1948 in England, grew to a height of 5 feet, and remains so at 75.
• Debut in the 1968 production of Hair in the West End.
• Was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita. West End in 1978.  There is no existing video from that cast, but this is an audio of Don't Cry for Me Argentina.  Sings this song again much later in the 25th Anniversary of Royal Albert Hall.

• 
  Three years later, Paige, Grizabella, Memories and Cats.  She joined the cast because Judi Dench had to withdraw from a torn Achilles tendon.  Interestingly enough, Dench returned to appear in the 2019 Cats film, playing Deuteronomy.
• 1985, show Chess, with Barbara Dickson on I Know Him So Well.
• 1991, revival, West End, Anything Goes, which she also co-produced.  This Cole Porter musical first played on Broadway in 1934 with Ethel Merman.

• 
  In 1993 sang 15 songs in Piaf, some in French.
• From 2000 to 2001 starred as Anna Leonowen in the revival of The King and I at the London Palladium, strengthening her title as the First Lady of British Musical Theatre.
• No children, never married, but had an 11-year relationship with lyricist Tim Rice throughout the 1980's.  Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber put on Evita.
• Eight gold albums and four multi-platinums.

Four minutes of Donald Trump's strangest moments as President of the United States, by the Evening Standard, founded in 1827, London's most iconic news brand and the UK's largest quality daily.

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LATE-BREAKING NEWS and NETFLIX

Saturday is usually my entertainment day, but there is a wide range of newsworthy stories, beginning with Donald Trump, who will scorch Nikki Haley today in the Republican primary, and win by at least a 25-points.  The latest poll I saw had him at 61.6% to Haley's 34%.  But he was at 66% a few days ago, so there has been a decline.  

Embarrassing, for South Carolina is where she was governor from 2011 to 2017.   Further, on the national level, he is leading Haley 77% to 16%.  She will then get destroyed in the upcoming Michigan (very complicated process next week, where Trump leads 80% to 18%) and Super Tuesday (March 5) primaries.

But she is not running to beat Trump in the primaries, nor at their national convention in mid-July.  

• She is being funded by no-Trumpers just in case Trump is disqualified by the Supreme Court, or gets convicted of a serious crime.  
• Chances are high, though, that the Supreme Court will allow him to run.  Some ruling will be announced soon.  
• The negative is that they will also probably indicate that he will not be immune from conviction.  

• 
  Sure looks like the Republican primary process will ultimately lead to Trump being their nominee, with at least one crime conviction by November 5, and there could be three more.  
• New York hush money trial involving District Attorney Alvin Bragg begins on March 25.

• 
  The Florida classified documents trial, because of Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee, could well be delayed.  And if she gets booted, the reassigning process will further set back progress.  In any case, this is a mere slap on the wrist matter and not of particular significance.

• 
  The Georgia RICO trials awaits a March 1 hearing by Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee to disqualify District Attorney Fani Willis.  If allowed to proceed, the Trump trial will occur later in the summer.  If not, who knows what will happen.  This is a key case on the fate of Donald Trump.

• 
  The Supreme Court should soon announce if Trump is immune to prosecution or not.  If not immune, Special Counsel Jack Smith will proceed with DC District Judge Tanya Chutkan to try Trump some time this summer.
• In short, Haley is hanging in there to be the Republican nominee against Joe Biden if Trump cannot run.  Or, maybe to solidify her chances to be Trump's vice presidential candidate.  But you would think she would not be so critical of him if that were so.  Or maybe to build a foundation for 2028.  
• 
  
• 
  In any case Biden and Democrats would not want to run against her for the presidency this year, as most polls have her beating him.
• Crazy, but Trump also is now ahead of Biden.

• 
  With all the fuss about abortion, IVF, Trump losing three trials for more than half a billion dollars, Trump's link with Putin, Trump being a louse, lout, business loser and all that...for Joe Biden to today being behind both of them.  America is #1 today compared with other countries, our economy is better than others, no city protests....is age the reason for Biden's position with voters?

About wars:

• The ongoing Paris talks this weekend is showing good progress, as mediators have agreed on a outline for a hostage deal...but pending Hamas okay.  More important than anything else is that the Israel-Hamas conflict has not expanded to other areas of the Middle East.

• 
  Today marks two years since Russia invaded Ukraine.  Maybe it's more a PR gimmick to win over the House of Representatives, but all reports now show Russia winning this war.  Add on Putin's murder of Navalny--he is only one of 20 Putin critics who have been killed or mysteriously died since he came into power--and you would think there would be movement on funding for both Israel and Ukraine.

• 
  And oh, by the way, our Federal government is less than one week away to another shutdown, unless Congress acts.  With the House so discombobulated, who knows what will happen.

Remember Bobi, the World Oldest Dog from Portugal?  Well, Guinness World Records stripped him of this status after an investigation turned up too many concerns.  He was said to have died at the age of 31 years and 165 days.  So back to oldest is Bluey, an Australian hound, who died in 1939 at the age of 29.

Well, got to end with some entertainment, so I go to Time, which released an article today called The Best Romantic Comedies to Watch on Netflix.  This is Saturday, surely many of you out there would like to spend the evening on something light and enjoyable.  Listed are 33 films.  A quote:

Spend your night revisiting the Julia Roberts classic My Best Friend’s Wedding or take a chance on something new like Randall Park’s 2023 directorial debut Shortcomings. Fall in love with Issa Rae and Kumail Nanjiani in the action-packed The Lovebirds or make Gabrielle Union’s The Perfect Find your perfect movie night match. 

Here are three I'm considering, and they're all free...sort of:

• Plus One (2019), Rotten Tomatoes 88/79, with Jack Quaid and Maya Erskine.  That's her to the right.  Never heard of her before, but she is 36 and was in the 2015 Frankenstein, which got a 100% rating from reviewers. Quaid's parents are Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid.  In an odd sort of way, this film is kind of like 35 years ago When Harry Met Sally, starring Ryan.

• My Best Friends Wedding (1997), only 74/73 from RT, but I liked this movie, and want to see it again.  Stars Julia Roberts, Dermot Mulroney, Cameran Diaz and Rupert Everett, who was very good in this role.  I still remember I Say a Little Prayer, and some of the other songs including You Don't Know Me, The Way You Look Tonight, I'll Never Fall in Love Again, Wishin' and Hopin', and What the World Needs Now.  

• 
  To All the Boys I've Loved Before (2018), RT of 96/85.  No stars, but very cute and what a RT score for a teen rom-com.
• The Half of It (2020), RT of 97/81.  Heck of a good RT rating, no stars...with a modern twist.

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THE BEACH GRANDDADS AND BOYS

But first, Odysseus, with difficulty, but safely, landed 186 miles from the South Pole of the Moon.  The first American touchdown in more than 50 years, and by a private company from Houston, Intuitive Machines, with $118 million of NASA money.  While Odie is vertical (14 feet tall), and sent one signal back to Earth, it was weak.  However, the company later did say that data was streaming in.  The intrigue is that this region might well hold frozen water, which can be split into oxygen and hydrogen, serving as a space station for a future Mars project, or mined for Helium-3.

Another U.S. firm, Astrobotic Technology, gave a shot last week, but the lander crashed back to Earth.  NASA is trying to kick-start a lunar economy, this being a $200 million gift to the company.  Well, not quite what was intended, but one spinoff so far is that the gold fabric protecting parts of Odie from extreme cold being marketed as Omni-Heat Infinity by Columbia Sportswear for winter wear.

Previously, only governments have succeeded on Moon landing missions:  Japan last month (but upside down!), the U.S., Russia, European Space Agency, China and India.  How many moon missions thus far?  Around a hundred in the 1900's and approaching 50 since 2000, led by Russia with 58 and the U.S. with 57.  Other countries such South Korea with a lunar orbit and the UAE with launches to Mars and participation in NASA's Artemis (the next Moon exploration program) are expanding operations.  Why so much new interest in the Moon?  Maybe the Helium-3, which theoretically can be used for fusion.  But with abundance at maybe 10 parts per billion, you got to wonder about the economics.  Read this.

Now on to The Beach Boys, founded in 1961 in Hawthorne, California, consisting of Brian, Dennis and Carl Wilson, their cousin Mike Love, and friend Al Jardine.

• First known as the Pendletones, Brian was the songwriter and lead, while dad Murry Wilson served as their manager.

• 
  Their first hit was Surfin' USA in 1963.  
• Brian also co-wrote with Jan Berry Surf City for Jan and Dean.
• Even with the British invasion, the Beach Boys were doing well, for their I Get Around in 1964 was their first to hit #1 on Billboard.  
• In the late 1960s eldest brother Brian Wilson, began suffering from dissociative identity disorder, with various personalities that came and went, for long periods.  While a musical genius--wrote two dozen top 40 hits--he was also nuts.  At 81 now has dementia, but informally remains a member of the Beach Boys. 

• 
  A good part of the problem was Mike Love (here with Brian to the left), a crazy asshole and badger.  Always wore a hat to conceal his baldness.  Love had an illegitimate daughter who in 1983 became Dennis Wilson's fifth wife.  Well, when you come down to it, he would not have gained that reputation if not for Brian, who at one point in his life wore a bath robe for 12 years and weighed 340 pounds in 1982.

• 
  Dennis?  Was the wild child drummer, only surfer in the group and too much into alcohol and heavy drugs.  Can you believe he and Terry Melcher were associated with the Manson Family in those turbulent late '60's? Charles Manson was, before the killings, a singer.  That's Dennis to the left and Charles to the right.  In 1983, while attempting to get clean, drowned at the age of 39.
• 
  Carl Wilson (right), the youngest brother, became the de facto leader from 1970 to the mid-80's.  Died of lung cancer in 1998, granting Love legal rights to the group's name.

• 
  Al Jardine (right) quit the group after the debut single, but returned a couple of years later.  He later teamed with  Brian Wilson and David Marks, as opposed to The Beach Boys, with Mike Love, Bruce Johnson and the band.  Talked about a 60th reunion, but the pandemic came.  Jardine, now 80, does not participate in the current Beach Boys.
• 
  Bruce Johnson (now 81) replaced Glen Campbell, who was filling in for Brian Wilson in 1965, and, save for a period from 1972 to 1978,  has since then been with the group.  Won a Grammy in 1978 for I Write the Songs, which hit #1 for Barry Manilow.

• 
  The song that spurred them to continue touring might well have been Kokomo, written in 1988, 24 years after their first #1.  Who wrote it?  Mike Love, John Phillips from The Mamas and Papas, Scott McKenzie (who wrote San Francisco) and Terry Melcher (Doris Day's son).  Was the feature song in Tom Cruise's Cocktail.   According to DiscoverMusic:

Kokomo is also a real place, but not “off the Florida Keys.” It’s actually six places because there is a Kokomo in Indiana, Missouri, Arkansas, Colorado, Hawaii, and Texas. As well as being a place, it was a popular brand of 1920s coffee. In the 1970s there was a band named Kokomo, containing two of Joe Cocker’s Grease Band in the line-up. 

• The Hawaii Kokomo is a community on Maui, north of Makawao.  There is no Kokomo in Florida.
• In the early 2010s, the remaining original members reunited for their 50th anniversary tour.
• Brian Wilson himself has won two Grammys, but the band has zero.

So with that background, on to my Beach Granddads and Boys concert at the Hawaii Theater.  But first, I had dinner at Lucky Belly.  Instead of my usual Belly Bowl, I had a Beast Bowl for $2 more, plus a Kirin Beer.

Noticed an eclectic array of whiskies.

I saw a huge line around the theater, but an attendant noticed my walking cane, so I saved half an hour by being sent to the front of the line.  My seat was a good part of the enjoyment, for I was in the front row of a raised portion so that when the crowd stood to cheer on a particularly memorable song, I could remain seated.

There were ten Beach People in Hawaii Theater, most qualifying as boys, for in addition to Mike Love and Bruce Johnson, who are of grandaddy age, members who show up include Brian Eichenberger, Christian Love, Tim Bonhomme, John Bolton, Keith Hubacher, Rando Leago, Scott Totten, John Cowsill and John Wedemeyer.  Then there is the peripathetic John Stamos, a youngish-looking 63, first played with them in 1985, and still appears, as he did in Honolulu.  He usually brings family, and his very young daughter played the conga drums with him.  Appropriately enough, He was the lead character in the Fox sitcom Grandfathered.

The concert itself was fabulous.  Hawaii Theater has been refurbished, and the acoustics are great.  You can feel the bass in your chest.  Transported me back to 1967 when I first saw them at what was then called the Honolulu International Center.  Returned in 2014, and the result was another blog posting.  Stamos was again there.

Interestingly enough, 15 Craigside also will have a Beach Boys program tomorrow.

In the meantime, The Legacy performed at 15 Craigside.  The guys are retired music schoolteachers, one a principal, plus an engineer.  A good number of us living here are engineers and teachers, four principals.

A big joke at the beginning was that when they taught, everyone sat in the back, and the further in the rear the more D and F students.  Same here.

They played music popular in Hawaii a half to one century ago.  Just right for  15 Craigside.

To close, Travis Kelce returned the favor, as he is now in Sydney, Australia, where Taylor Swift is performing.

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