Editor’s note: Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, continues to draw raves from The Daily Signal’s audience. Her recent stand for human rights is a case in point, and leads this week’s roundup of your comments. Don’t forget to write us at letters@dailysignal.com.—Ken McIntyre

Dear Daily Signal: U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is outspoken and tells it like it is, as Rachel del Guidice reports (“Nikki Haley Defends Decision to Leave U.N. Human Rights Council”). The truth and facts are the enemy of the evil that prevails in the United Nations.

U.N. leaders are anti-America and anti-Israel. They support Islamist expansion into the rest of the world.—David Gearhart

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Rachel del Guidice paraphrases Nikki Haley:

Countries also came to the United States to express their concern about the [U.N. Human Rights Council] failing to protect human rights and allowing membership to human rights abusers, but did not ultimately stand by the United States and demand reform …

Which countries? This would be a helpful advisory for both business and vacation planning. Countries that support Iran, Venezuela, and the People’s Republic of Last Wednesday probably shouldn’t be on any of our bucket lists.—David Bowman

The United Nations has never defended anything but their corruption.—Larry Brown, Oak Harbor, Wash.

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Move the U.N. to Paris and watch the focus change to protesting all things European.—Paul Johnson

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Leave the U.N. Let’s just bite the bullet and do it.

The next president will just keep us in to appease everyone. Let’s escape now while we have a president crazy enough to go through with the divorce.—David Duncan

Haley on the Side of Ethics, Common Sense

Dear Daily Signal: It’s fascinating: Nikki Haley bumped heads with Donald Trump when he was running for president, but in spite of that, he picked her for the top U.S. post at the United Nations.

Like Trump, as Heritage Foundation President Kay Coles James writes in her commentary “Nikki Haley: A Profile in Courage,” Haley has and continues to pursue commonsense, ethical positions and expose the U.N. for the fraud that it is.

The U.N. is like socialism. It sounds great but eventually devolves into what it has become today—a place for brutal, repressive countries to pretend that they’re not and point the finger at someone else.

It’s also a huge waste of money. We should threaten to withdraw if reforms are not made.—Stephen P. Fitzmaurice

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Thank you, Kay Coles James, for your commentary on Nikki Haley and the United Nations.

Wouldn’t it be excellent to have a full feature regarding “the War on Poverty,” the facts of its good intentions yet misguided application, the full cause, effect, and the correct/natural/responsible direction it could/should take?

As American abolitionist Wendell Phillips said, “Responsibility educates.”—Michael J. Sorge

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If the United Nations is so concerned about “poverty in America,” they should agree that the United States needs to contribute less to international organizations, especially the U.N.—William Bilyeu

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If the U.N. fails at human rights, then the U.N. is a failure.—Allen Murphy

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I gotta say, I had my doubts about Nikki Haley, but she has really surprised me.—Mike Corrill

The UN and Poverty in America

Dear Daily Signal: About the commentary by Robert Rector and Jamie Bryan Hall: The most telling bit of data would be what the total cost of the “poverty” program is, then subtract the dollars these families actually receive (“Don’t Believe the UN’s Propaganda About Extreme Poverty in the US”). We would then see who really benefits from government largesse.

President Reagan used the food stamp program of the early 1980s as an example of the waste in Washington. He pointed out the program cost $35 billion to give away $5 billion in food stamps. I can only imagine the numbers today.—Bill Delaney

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The United Nations needs to be expelled from the United States. They are no more than a cabal of petty tyrants, communists, socialists, and just wannabe rulers that attack and resist the U.S., all the while with their hats out asking for more of our tax dollars. Get the U.S. out now.—Charles Williams

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Also remember, among the poor in the U.S., one of the main health problems is obesity. —Lew Williams

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Get the U.S. out of the United Nations and the U.N. out of the U.S. It is counterproductive to all it claims to stand for.—George Blumel, Atlantis, Fla.

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Don’t believe anything coming out of the U.N. This is a worthless, money-sucking organization that has gone well beyond its usefulness. It is full of dictators and Islamic countries that hate anything about the United States and will try to do anything to destroy it.—Jeffy Pearson

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Why are we sponsoring this fake un-United Nations organization? Throw the bums out of that building in New York and do something useful with it. Any ideas what we could use the U.N. building for? Trump Presidential Library?—Joe Sheppard

Identity Politics at School and in the Census

Dear Daily Signal: About the commentary on the census by Mike Gonzalez and Hans von Spakovsky: We are all created equal (“Eliminating Identity Politics From the Schools and the US Census”). Colleges shouldn’t accept people because of their race. It should be based on who is the most qualified.

But U.S. government officials should ask for race on the census, not because of racism or what have you, but because they need to know who is in the country.

And when the census report comes out, citizens deserve to know.—Jeri Williams

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As to surnames: My doctor’s last name is Gonzales. But he did not come from Mexico or any of the other Latin American countries. Nor did he come from Spain.

He is a Filipino. I am sure he gets a lot of junk mail about him being a downtrodden Hispanic. I am also sure he throws it in the trash. I would.

P.S. I married an Asian woman. Just so the leftist bigots know.—Walter Harrington

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Going to college or university should be based only upon the person’s knowledge at the time of application (testing).

Going to college or university is not the only way to get a job and it should be told to the applicant immediately, with alternatives (skilled labor).

Quit using taxpayer money to fund these colleges or universities because unless you want to be a lawyer, doctor, or scientist, you do not need costs to be so high.

As for the census, the only question that absolutely should be on the form is “Are you a citizen of the United States of America?”—Karin Callaway, Florida

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The Constitution says the census is used to count the population for purposes of representation and taxes, but surely “population” meant citizens. Surely the founders did not include illegal aliens in anything relevant to our nation.—Marilyn Griffin

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I’ve been saying for years that we should simply stop discussing race. Since we all have the same Father, we are all members of the human race; each of us is everyone’s brother or sister. What else truly matters?—Karl Landgren

Those Obamacare Premiums

Dear Daily Signal: Excellent recommendations that will actually work from Doug Badger and Edmund Haislmaier (“How Congress Can Reduce Obamacare Premiums”).

Before Obamacare, all those self-declared compassionate liberals shouted that they would gladly pay more if it meant that everyone could get insurance.

So they got what they wanted and, to the surprise of no conservative, the young liberals no longer were willing to pay more. They were in love with the idea of their benevolence, not the reality of paying more.

Humans act in their own self-interest. That’s just reality, and so legislation needs to take this into account.

The people who fall through the cracks in a capitalist health care system don’t need a one-size-fits-all, overpriced health care option. They need a smaller program geared to their needs where the focus of the program’s staff can be on them.

What started as a quest to help high-risk individuals devolved into a “free stuff” boondoggle.—Anna Clare

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How about something more fundamental? End Obamacare and mandate that all states allow health insurance to be sold across state lines. Get the federal government out of managing health care.—David L. Miller

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Two years ago, our current president promised that he and the Republican majority in Congress would replace Obamacare with a new plan that is “better and cheaper.” Now seems like a pretty good time to follow through on that promise. Why wait?—John Levin, New York

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Obamacare was supposed to give everyone health care! How many people are still uninsured? Another government joke for the people.—Glenn Saulsbury

When Election Results Freak Out the Left 

Dear Daily Signal: Regarding David Harsanyi’s commentary (“The System Doesn’t Need to Be Fixed Every Time Liberals Lose”): What the left really wants to “fix” is to transform this country into a socialist utopia, which has never existed because it can’t possibly exist.

The eight years under Barack Obama energized the extreme left to double down on the tactics they used to destroy the George W. Bush administration. Bush didn’t dignify the attacks by returning fire. That was his downfall from grace.

President Trump learned that lesson well and returns their fire in increased intensity. We need to support our president or we risk losing the very freedoms we cherish.

Trump has two enemies: the despicable, obstructionist Democrats and the Never Trump, swamp rat Republicans (in other words, the Establishment). We need to purge those people at the ballot box.—Randy Leyendecker, Kerrville, Texas

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The unhinged left reminds me of a 3-year-old throwing a tantrum over a toy, basically saying, “I want what I want and I want it now.”

Hillary Clinton and her minions can’t believe they got their collective butts kicked in 2016, just as Al Gore and his clowns couldn’t in 2000. But they lost because We the People were tired of the attempts to force socialism down our throats.

And now we are seeing open socialists running for office, and the leftists who are in office admitting they too are socialists. A lot of skulls full of mush are falling for the socialist line: free everything.

Well, someone has to pay the tab. Socialism only works until they run out of other people’s money, and then they come after you. Be very careful what you wish for there, snow flakes, you just might get it.—Jim Scofield

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This is the problem when one side is made up of arrogant elitists. They actually believe that they are superior.

For all of its flaws, the GOP believes that the people should decide for themselves, while the Democrats believe that the people are fools who need to be controlled by wise elites, who know what is best for them.

So the elites are shocked when they lose and assume that the system is flawed, since they cannot be?—Anthony Alafero

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Today’s Democrats can’t win on policy because their policy is anti-America and anti-Constitution. Desperation is at the heart of their politics, not principle.Darrell Hicks

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I’m thankful that the ones that wrote our Constitution were much wiser than the Democrats of modern times. The Democratic Party has lost all credibility.Wayne Cotten, Terry, Miss.

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Liberal Democrats historically have thought shortsightedly. They see only the current effort, with no care of consequences. It’s one reason I could never be a Democrat.William D. Kissinger, San Antonio, Texas

Local Government Goes Off the Rails

Dear Daily Signal: In his news story on public-nuisance lawsuits (“Working With Green Groups, Local Governments Use This Kind of Lawsuit to Get Cash From Oil Giants”), Fred Lucas reports:

Federal law defines a public nuisance as a circumstance that injures or endangers the safety, health, comfort, or property of others. More broadly, a public nuisance at the state or local level could be defined as an activity affecting the health or safety of an entire community.

Now take this for an example: The government fines people for trapping rainwater because that water will eventually flow into a navigable waterway—effectively making it government property.

Next time someone experiences flooding, can they sue the federal government for the nuisance?

Do these people have to work overtime to become this asinine, or does it come naturally to them?—Mark Tipton

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Yes, local governments have become as big a nuisance as the federal government.—William Geyer

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The GOP is a catastrophe about informing the people when the left is up to something nefarious. In this case, lefties like New York Mayor Bill de Blasio use left-wing courts to extort money from oil companies, which he claims are guilty of creating global warming.

So Marxists like him have more money to buy votes and we pay more for energy. It’s another left-wing, backdoor tax. To say thanks, the oil companies should cut off products to New York City and see how the loony left does with no heat, hot water, or fuel to run transportation.—Anthony Alafero

Jeremiah Poff helped to compile this column.