;)
The Commentariat -- Nov. 7, 2015
Internal links removed.
** Coral Davenport of the New York Times: "President Obama on Friday announced that he had rejected the request from a Canadian company to build the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ending a seven-year review that had become a flash point in the debate over his climate policies. Mr. Obama's denial of the proposed 1,179-mile pipeline, which would have carried 800,000 barrels a day of carbon-heavy petroleum from the Canadian oil sands to the Gulf Coast, comes as he is seeking to build an ambitious legacy on climate change." CW: Thanks to Akhilleus for the heads-up. AND thanks to John Kerry, who nixed the pipeline. President Obama's announcement is worth a listen. (Also linked yesterday.)
... Big Surprise. Nick Gass & Eliza Collins of Politico: "Republican presidential candidates reacted forcefully to President Obama's announcement rejecting the construction of TransCanada's Keystone XL pipeline Friday, calling it politically motivated acquiescence to environmentalists and damaging the U.S. economy." ...
... ** Bill McKibben in the New Yorker: "The fossil-fuel industry -- which, for two centuries, underwrote our civilization and then became its greatest threat -- has started to take serious hits. At noon today, President Obama rejected the Keystone Pipeline, becoming the first world leader to turn down a major project on climate grounds. Eighteen hours earlier, New York's Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he'd issued subpoenas to Exxon, the richest and most profitable energy company in history, after substantial evidence emerged that it had deceived the world about climate change." Read on. ...
... Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York City said this week that he would run millions of dollars in political television ads against four state attorneys general who are suing the Obama administration over regulations on power plant emissions.... [The ads] amount to a defense of the White House over its Clean Power Plan, which has been met with opposition, primarily -- but not only -- from Republican officials.... The ads will run in Missouri, Florida, Michigan and Wisconsin, and target Republicans and Democrats. The lone Democrat in the group, Chris Koster of Missouri, is running for governor next year."
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Friday announced that it would again address a clash between religious freedom and access to contraception. The case concerns regulations under President Obama's health care law that require most employers to provide free insurance coverage for contraceptives to female workers. The regulations say the insurance must cover preventive services, including all forms of contraception approved for women by the Food and Drug Administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Rebecca Riffkin of Gallup: "Americans' satisfaction with the way the healthcare system works for them varies by the type of insurance they have. Satisfaction is highest among those with veterans or military health insurance, Medicare and Medicaid, and is lower among those with employer-paid and self-paid insurance. Americans with no health insurance are least satisfied of all." CW: Gee, maybe somebody could think up a way for everybody to have a government-backed healthcare plan so millions & millions of Americans could be happier (Bernie Sanders).
Ashley Halsey of the Washington Post: "As investigators search for the cause of a plane crash that killed 224 people over the Sinai Peninsula on Saturday and Russia suspends all flights to Egypt, U.S. officials said they are taking unspecified precautionary measures to enhance the security of flights from the Middle East."
Laurie Goodstein of the New York Times: "Children of same-sex couples will not be able to join the Mormon Church until they turn 18 -- and only if they move out of their parents' homes, disavow all same-sex relationships and receive approval from the church's top leadership as part of a new policy adopted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In addition, Mormons in same-sex marriages will be considered apostates and subject to excommunication, a more rigid approach than the church has taken in the past."
Presidential Race
Amy Chozick of the New York Times: "Because the Democratic National Committee has not approved [an] event [Friday evening] as an official debate, the First in the South Presidential Candidates Forum, hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party and Representative James E. Clyburn, cannot present the candidates onstage at the same time. Instead, the moderator, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, will question each candidate individually." Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders & Martin O'Malley will participate. It will begin at 8 pm ET. ...
... Update. Ben Jacobs of the Guardian: "Hillary Clinton moved to the left on Friday night as the Democratic frontrunner took stronger and more impassioned stances than in the past on police violence and corporate influence in the United States. Before a lively crowd of nearly 3,000 in South Carolina, the former secretary of state struck some of her most populist tones of the campaign while participating in what was possibly the strangest televised live event of the election season so far. In a format that was three parts talk show to one part game show, the candidates faced probing inquiries as well as random questions pulled from sealed envelopes as they sat almost knee-to-knee with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow in front of a boisterous campus audience." ...
... Update. Amy Chozick: "Senator Bernie Sanders used a Democratic primary forum in South Carolina on Friday to try to reach out to black voters and make the argument that he is the candidate best suited to address the needs of a demographic that overwhelmingly favors Hillary Rodham Clinton, his chief rival for the nomination." ...
... Evan McMorris-Santoro of BuzzFeed with three takeaways from the forum. Includes video clips.
Let's Watch the E-MailGate Hotair Balloon Fizzle. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The U.S. intelligence community has retreated from claims that two emails in Hillary Clinton's private account contained top-secret information, a source familiar with the situation told Politico.... Concerns about the emails' classification helped trigger an ongoing FBI inquiry into Clinton's private email setup." ...
... CW: I'll bet Trey is having a sad today. Say, where's Michael Schmidt of the New York Times? He broke the story -- and it was a story, as in tall tale -- that two inspectors general had requested a criminal inquiry into Clinton's e-mails on accounta her sending top-secret info to her yoga-class friends & a wedding planner. You might think Schmidt & the Times would be all over this new "wrinkle." But apparently Schmidt's sources are limited to Trey Gowdy & Trey Gowdy. Because not a peep from the Times 12 hours after Politico dropped the Gerstein post.
** "Gifted Grifter." Every Day a New Lie. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Ben Carson's campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from Politico, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.... West Point ... has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.... Also, according to West Point, there is no such thing as a 'full scholarship' to the military academy, as Carson represented in his book.... When presented with these facts, Carson's campaign conceded the story was false.... Carson has said he turned down the supposed offer of admission because he knew he wanted to be a doctor and attending West Point would have required four years of military service after graduation.... Carson repeated his West Point claim as recently as Aug. 13, when he fielded questions from supporters on Facebook." CW: Read the whole story: it's a typical boy's pipedream, not one a man relates as a factual event of his youth. The fact that Carson has continued to repeat it makes me think he came to believe his boyish pipedream. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update 1. Steve Eder of the New York Times: "In an interview with The New York Times on Friday, Mr. Carson said: 'I don't remember all the specific details. Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me -- they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine. It was, you know, an informal "with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point."'... , In a Facebook post in August responding to a question, he wrote that he had been 'thrilled to get an offer from West Point.'" (Also linked yesterdzay afternoon.)
... Update 2. Rachel Stoltzfoos of the Daily Caller: "'The campaign never "admitted to anything,"' a spokesman for Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson told The Daily Caller News Foundation in response to a hit by Politico claiming his campaign admitted to 'fabricating' a key point about his West Point story. 'The Politico story is an outright Lie,' Doug Watts told TheDCNF." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Update 3. The Emperor Strikes Back. Steve Eder: "On Friday night, in a combative news conference in Florida in which he showed rare flashes of anger, Mr. Carson gave no ground and challenged the news media on its ethics and balance. In a mocking tone, he said reporters had not investigated President Obama, as a candidate in 2008, so intensely. 'Don't lie,' Mr. Carson said, cutting off a reporter asking a question about West Point. He predicted that the scrutiny would be a boon to his campaign, saying voters 'understand that this is a witch hunt'":
... Eder, Ctd.: "... just a couple of hours after the news conference, another report, in The Wall Street Journal, challenged events Mr. Carson has recounted. One of them, recalled in 'Gifted Hands,' involved a psychology class he said he had attended at Yale University, called Perceptions 301. Mr. Carson described the professor's conducting an honesty experiment on the class and wrote that he was the only one who passed, prompting The Yale Daily News to take his picture. But no photo identifying Mr. Carson as a student appeared in the newspaper's archives, The Journal reported, and a Yale librarian told the newspaper that there was no psychology course by that name or class number during Mr. Carson's years at Yale." ...
All fiction may be autobiography, but all autobiography is of course fiction. -- Shirley Abbott
... Eliza Collins of Politico: "Ben Carson, in an agitated press conference Friday night, denied that he had ever claimed receiving a 'full scholarship' from West Point. 'I never said that I received a full scholarship. Nowhere did I say that,' Carson said. 'Politico as you know, told a bold-faced lie.'... But the retired neurosurgeon did say he got a scholarship offer -- more than once. In his 1996 autobiography 'Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story,' Carson wrote on page 67 that after a dinner with a prominent U.S. general he was 'offered a full scholarship to West Point.'... " He repeated the remark, in those same words, a few grafs later. "In an October interview with TV host Charlie Rose, Carson said he 'was offered full scholarship to West Point.'" ...
... Dave Weigel & David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post: "The Politico story seemed to mischaracterize a small but key detail in the way Carson has told the story. In many cases, Carson implied only that he received a formal offer from West Point. He never said explicitly that he had been accepted or even that he had applied.... By mid-afternoon, Politico posted a new version of its story that no longer included the wording that Carson had 'fabricated' a part of his biography. Later in the day, the news site posted an editor's note stating that the story should have made clear that Carson never claimed to have applied for admission to West Point.... Carson also made a similar claim [in another book about another school].... 'The University of Michigan had offered me a scholarship, but I wanted to go farther from home,' he wrote in his 1999 book, 'The Big Picture.' A spokesman for the University of Michigan, Rick Fitzgerald, said he could not confirm that account. The university no longer has records from that time." ...
... Dan Lamothe of the Washington Post: Carson's "story held up until now. But in retrospect, it is clear that it doesn't stand up to scrutiny. The process to getting into West Point requires applicants to obtain a nomination, most commonly from their congressman, senator or vice president of the United States. The secretary of the Army -- an appointed civilian leader -- also can nominate a student for consideration, but the service's four-star chief of staff -- Westmoreland from July 1968 through June 1972 -- is not eligible to do so." ...
... Ed Kilgore: "Now that the Carson campaign is hotly denying that it 'admitted' and 'fabrication' of facts to Politico, we're getting deeply into a crossfire of mendacity claims, with some conservatives who originally thought the 'story' might be a problem for Carson now backing into a posture of defending him and attacking Politico.... I suspect the real referees in this and similar disputes are the conservative evangelicals who know little or nothing of the man's Bircher ideology and just see him as a Christian servant-leader with a distinguished career and a common touch.... Something tells me they do not place a lot of faith in Politico." ...
... Kevin Drum: "... here's what [Carson] said in August: 'I was the highest student ROTC member in Detroit and was thrilled to get an offer from West Point. But I knew medicine is what I wanted to do.' Come on, folks. 'An offer from West Point' is the same as 'being accepted at West Point.' It's obvious what he was saying here, and it's equally obvious it isn't true." Friday, Carson told the NYT, "'Because I had done so extraordinarily well you know I was told that someone like me -- they could get a scholarship to West Point. But I made it clear I was going to pursue a career in medicine. It was, you know, an informal "with a record like yours we could easily get you a scholarship to West Point."'... But for the past two decades it's not what Carson has said. It's not even close. There's a world of difference between (a) someone telling you that you could probably get into West Point and (b) actually getting into West Point. Carson is a nutcase, a policy buffoon, and at the very least, a serial personal embellisher. With a guy like that, you just know more stuff is going to come out." ...
... CW: For more commentary on Cadet Carson, see afternoon updates to yesterday's Commentariat. ...
... CW: digby, in a post I also linked yesterday, highlighted an October exchange between Ben Carson & John Harwood. After Carson said President Obama reminded him of a psychopath because he lied about the unemployment rate (actually, Obama accurately cited Labor Department stats, but, you know, who cares?), Carson defined "psychopath": "... they tend to be extremely smooth, charming people, who can tell a lie to your face with complete -- it looks like sincerity, even though they know it's a lie." This describes Carson to a T. I do wonder how Carson became such an expert on psychopathology. ...
... Jeet Heer of the New Republic: "Ben Carson is fast becoming a tragic figure. He's a man of genuine merit, yet he's tarnished his reputation through his inability to resist fantastic ideas -- and to make up fantasies about his own life. He stands as proof of the fact that intelligence is unconnected to morality." Heer explains why that is. ...
... Don't Know Much About His-to-ry. Robert Schlesinger of US News elaborates on how wrong Carson is about the Founders being "citizen-statesmen" with no experience in elected office. ...
... A model, dating to about 2200 B.C.E., of an actual Egyptian granary. In the British Museum. Via Binjamin Appelbaum of the New York Times. (Sorry, couldn't get the link to Appelbaum's Twitter account to work.) Commenter Wendy Morris thought the model appeared to be "a square-looking pyramid.") ...
... Like Appelbaum, Markos Moulitsas is not taking Ben Carson seriously enough. (And that was before Carson's Friday Flameout 2.0.)
"Family Ties," Season 3, Episode 7: Jeb is stunned by a book about Poppy. Steve M.: How could Jeb not be prepared for the publication of [George H.W. Bush's biography]? How could he not have consulted with his father and learned what his father told [biographer Jon] Meacham, and then carefully crafted a response? For that matter, why did Poppy, a cagey old political pro, get into these matters with Meacham at all when he knew there were still presidential races to be run by the Bush family? This crisis in the Bush campaign was as predictable as the 'would you have invaded Iraq?' question. And, of course, Jeb bungled that as well. It seemed as if he had no idea it was coming. The same can be said for this book."
Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Marco Rubio, looking to capitalize on a wave of momentum, is pushing to win the support of a former rival: Scott Walker.... Walker, though, is not planning on making an immediate endorsement of anyone in the GOP field.... While Walker has been courted by a number of Republican candidates since his exit, those close to the Wisconsin governor say Rubio is the first to formally ask him for his endorsement."
Eliza Collins: The Ladies of "The View" confront their lovely guest Carly Fiorina. ...
... Jordyn Phelps of ABC News: "Carly Fiorina did not correct a New Hampshire man [Friday] who called President Obama a 'black Muslim.' 'He doesn't want this country to get ahead,' the man said to Fiorina as she shook hands with a group of mostly undecided voters at Foodee's restaurant in Milford. 'He doesn't. He's a Muslim. He's a black Muslim.' '"Well, uh, it's time to do something different in many ways,' Fiorina said before moving on to shake the hand of the next prospective voter."
Governor's Race
Greg Hilburn of Gannett News: "Democrat state Rep. John Bel Edwards has cut a TV ad attacking Republican U.S. Sen. David Vitter specifically about Vitter's prostitution scandal for the first time during the Louisiana gubernatorial campaign.... Edwards' ad will run statewide beginning Saturday, which coincides with the early voting period. Election Day is Nov. 21.":
... Julia O'Donoghue & Kevin Litten of the Times-Picayune discuss in some detail the bases for & implications of the ad. ...
... Kevin Litten: "Louisiana Republicans are not happy with Lt. Gov. Jay Dardenne's decision to endorse Democratic candidate John Bel Edwards for governor over Republican David Vitter."
Beyond the Beltway
James McKinley of the New York Times: "At a time when most city and state agencies are struggling with budget constraints, [Manhattan D.A. Cyrus] Vance[, Jr.,] has secured a windfall of $808 million from criminal penalties against three international banks accused of violating United States sanctions — HSBC, Standard Chartered and BNP Paribas.... Because by law it must be spent on criminal justice projects, it has transformed Mr. Vance into a kind of Santa Claus for the law-enforcement world, with a sack filled with new programs and equipment."
Liam Stack of the New York Times: "Two police officers have been arrested on charges of second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of a 6-year-old boy during a pursuit of his father in a sport utility vehicle in central Louisiana, the state police said Friday. The officers, Norris Greenhouse Jr. and Lt. Derrick Stafford, who were placed on administrative leave after the chase on Tuesday, also face charges of attempted second-degree murder...."
Isaac Stanley-Becker & Susan Svrluga of the Washington Post: Yale University decides Black Lives Matter, after all.
Way Beyond
Austin Ramzy of the New York Times: "President Xi Jinping of China met with Ma Ying-jeou, the president of Taiwan, on Saturday in the first ever encounter between the leaders of the neighbors and longtime rivals, an act both sides described as a breakthrough gesture meant to promote peace and mutual prosperity.
News Lede
Washington Post: "A former aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin and prominent political figure was found dead on Thursday in a Dupont Circle hotel room, according to the Russian Embassy in Washington. The spokesman confirmed Russian media reports that Mikhail Lesin, a former press minister and ex-executive of Gazprom-Media, died in D.C." Cause of death unknown.
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Reader Comments (16)
Kate and I have used the word delusional in regards to Carson. Well the West Point story is the perfect example. It isn't just that he lied. He repeatedly lied about something that could obviously by checked. Absolutely no problem for him. And he didn't lie. In fact, the word lie does not apply to him. He is too special.
I think we all have to get over ourselves and realize that Ben Carson is mentally ill. This illness may not have manifested until adulthood, which is not unusual. However, we will be seeing more and more of his deceptions and delusions--and to follow them up will be more than useless.
I wish the MSM would get a clue--perhaps take a course on delusional thinking and psychopathy. Or...perhaps everybody is just enjoying this freak show as it winds up--but will eventually wind waaaay down. Truly, it makes me sad. This is a lose/lose. Ben Carson will never make it through the nominating process. I laugh at the outrageousness, but do not think mental illness is funny--bottom line! Too much pain for all involved!
I am no fan of the Tar Sands in Alberta. It is a shameful development, that many Canadians opposed, but in the decades when oil was very expensive, it was encouraged by, you guessed it, Americans, who would be, after all, the main market. That aside, there are two comments from Canada that I would like to share; one from Calgary's mayor, who thinks that the pipeline is being used to carry all the sins of the carbon economy. He's right; it does make Obama feel good, and some Americans. But before you dance in the streets, you might like to see this from Bloomberg news, hardly a left-wing observer: Spoiler Alert: There's more than one way to transport oil ...
May 6, 2014
"During the first three months of 2013, California imported slightly under 90,000 barrels of Canadian oil via train according to Bloomberg data. From early January to the end of March this year, the same data shows that figure topped 700,000 barrels, an increase of roughly 700% over just one year. "
"Overall crude by rail shipments to California more than doubled over the past year. According to the same Bloomberg data that tracked the growth in Canadian supplies, total train-based deliveries reached 1.41 million barrels in the first quarter of 2014, up from 693,457 during the same period one year earlier."
@Terence: Thanks for the Reality Chek. President Obama, in what I think is a fair-minded critique, did say in his remarks yesterday,
"Now, for years, the Keystone Pipeline has occupied what I, frankly, consider an overinflated role in our political discourse. It became a symbol too often used as a campaign cudgel by both parties rather than a serious policy matter. And all of this obscured the fact that this pipeline would neither be a silver bullet for the economy, as was promised by some, nor the express lane to climate disaster proclaimed by others."
I thought for a long time Obama would okay it, & the fact that Hillary Clinton wouldn't express an opinion only heightened my suspicion. It's only in the past week or so, as far as I'm aware, that there have been strong indications in the media that the administration would nix Keystone XL. If you read Bill McKibben's post, linked above, he goes into the dynamics behind the decision.
I'm not sure that oil shipments from Canada to California are germane. The Keystone XL pipeline was not going to supply California. I don't doubt that some of its (refined) product would have ended up in the U.S., but not likely in any Western states. Only a small portion of Canadian crude is shipped by rail (about 10 percent, altho of course it varies month to month). Most comes via "marine movement."
Marie
I do want to say something about Ben Carson's claims that West Point & the University of Michigan "offered" him scholarships. Anyone who has ever been to college on an academic scholarship, and anyone -- like Ben Carson -- who has spent his life in an academic setting, knows that colleges do not go around "offering" scholarships to bright high school students.
They do, however, recruit promising high school students by encouraging them to apply for scholarships & other financial aid, if they need it. That application process is pretty complicated. In almost all cases, a student must complete an application, which is usually several pages long & may require the student to write an essay; his parents or guardians must complete financial statements & perhaps provide documentation of their financial status; & the student must obtain letters of recommendation. It is also likely that the student will have to take some kind of test: the SAT or PSAT, though I think there is now less emphasis on testing. Some schools also require that the applicant submit to an interview with a university alum or other college rep. Most encourage the student to visit the campus as part of the process. With emphasis on the process. It is that.
The University of Michigan had a strong affirmative action program when Carson was in high school, so I would imagine a rep came to his high school & encouraged top students like Carson to apply for financial aid. I wouldn't be surprised if the rep told Carson, based on Carson's own assertions, that he was a shoo-in for aid. The rep may have promised to help him with the application process. But the university recruiter would not have "offered" him a scholarship. Ben Carson knows that. So he lied when he said wrote that the University of Michigan "offered" him a scholarship. No, it did not.
As Akhilleus pointed out in a comment late yesterday, applying for a West Point appointment is even more complicated than applying for aid to other universities & colleges. Akhilleus was "invited to apply," & his football coach -- and certainly others -- helped him thru the application process.
Is it likely that Michigan would have offered Carson a scholarship & West Point would have accepted him, had he applied? Yes, it is. But they didn't, because he didn't do his part.
Other types of scholarships, like the National Merit & the National Achievement scholarships, require potential recipients to take their unique tests & jump thru other hoops. They also means-test, so the student's family is part of the process. Some scholarships are based wholly or in part on a special requirement. I got a scholarship by winning an essay contest. That was the only part of the "application." But I had to do something to get it; in that case, write an essay. I got one fellowship the easy way; I was the spouse of a professor. But I still had to apply to receive the courtesy grant. It wasn't an "offer" until I asked for it. I would never have described that tuition-remission perk as an "offer."
The only type of scholarship that I can think of where a student might accurately say a college outright "offered" him a scholarship would be a sports scholarship. Here, the student him- or herself -- depending upon the situation -- may do a minimal amount of paperwork, as recruiters may do that for the student, asking only that s/he sign on the dotted line. Top student athletes, particular football athletes, often get the royal treatment, & they may be unaware of whatever efforts go into their "applications." I think it's quite fair for a star football player to say, "Five universities offered me full scholarships." Because that really is what the team recruiters do, even if technically, the football star "applies" for the scholarships.
It is possible that Carson was so naive when he was in high school that he thought encouragements from West Point or Michigan recruiters were "offers." Maybe the recruiters acted more like football recruiters than like the university reps who came around to my school. But it is not possible that in 1999 or in 2015 Ben Carson still thought those encouragements were "offers" of scholarships.
Blaming the media for his own arrogance & ridiculous resume'-inflating won't cut it.
Marie
Took a while to find, and did not get it in time for the last two days' forums, but here is an offprint of an article by Kurt Mendelssohn that provides compelling evidence that the pyramids were built with neither religion nor funerary in mind, but rather as a tool to organize and consolidate the state. If interested, it's worth a register with JStor (an academic journal exchange) for access. Not sure Carson would be able to grasp it.
High fives to Rachel Maddow for pulling off a unique and interesting format for O'Malley, Sanders and Clinton. If South Carolinians weren't that familiar with O'Malley or Sanders they certainly were introduced to them in a way that one could call "up front and personal." Ben Jacob's take (see above) ––"part game show"––No, Ben, a very small part of the interview had the candidate choose an envelope that had quirky questions which showed the candidate's sense of humor, quickness, and gave the whole format something new and refreshing. The crowd was not "boisterous" as Ben claimed (Rachel had urged the audience at the beginning to please show decorum––only once did someone yell out and like a scolding parent Rachel held out her finger and said, "Remember what I asked.") and the close proximity of interviewer and candidate gave a sense of intimacy. All three candidates did splendidly––O'Malley a little too pleased about the fact that HE is a democrat through and through (unlike Sanders) although he never mentioned Sander's affiliation. All three mingled with the crowd afterwards and seemed genuinely happy to be there.
From two days ago: I want to thank Akhilleus for giving us the link to the Annie Hall segment pertaining to "Driving home with Ted." Hilarious!
Ben Carson: The curtain is about to be raised on this charlatan revealing the psychological sickness of this man who actually believes he could be president. But does he? Could it be possible that he just wanted the publicity in order to become a brand name and sell more books? Any sane person has to conclude this man is either jerking everyone's chain or he's crackers.
I eagerly watched the video of the gals on the View with Carly as their guest. I was looking forward to some probing about the LIES this woman has spouted. What a let down! No one challenged her––in fact it was all a watered down cup of tea and Carly had her little finger raised throughout.
@PD Pepe: I admire you for watching Carly Fiorina on The View. I tried for a few minutes & couldn't stand to go on. Readers can suffer thru her cloying remarks here & here.
Marie
In a blog post entitled "Reality Check", Robert Reich consults a former Republican congressman to get his take on the current crop of clown candidates: http://robertreich.org/post/132611993925
In short, "They're bonkers."
I heard a fair portion of Carson's press conference on my car radio yesterday and it just shocked me to hear the tenor of his responses to reasonable press questions. In the part I heard, he actually dragged Obama and his campaign into the mix, suggesting that Obama had a bad record at Occidental, rehashing the Rev. Wright contretemps, etc. etc. Somehow the press gave Obama a pass but was out to get Carson. On what basis, discrimination against Republicans? More than the specifics, Carson's whole tone and demeanor seemed slightly unhinged (and a number of comments on this site show I am not alone in this reaction). It will be interesting to see if the base sticks with this crazy train much longer.
I also don't understand the how Carson could claim he received an offer of a scholarship from West Point. This is from the Academy's own website:
"Those who are selected to attend USMA receive a college education that is unparalleled in the world with tuition, room and board, and expenses fully paid."
The undecided New Hampshire voter who told Fiorina that President Obama "doesn’t want this country to get ahead" needs to go to the source material. The video of Mr. Obama at the top of the page today sounds an awful lot like getting ahead to me. Or maybe we need to define what "getting ahead" means.
I think I was way too generous to Carson. It occurred to me to look at the timeline Carson alleges. According to his account in "Gifted Hands," Carson met Gen. Westmoreland on or around Memorial Day 1969. Politico has established that Westmoreland was in Washington that day, playing tennis, not in Detroit. Politico suggested Carson might have mixed up the date he met Westmoreland, as the general did attend a 1,500-person dinner in Detroit in February 1969.
Guess what? Carson was graduated from high school within about two weeks of his supposed meeting with Westmoreland.
Who the hell offers a West Point appointment to a graduating senior? Or even suggests the near-grad should apply? And had the ROTC officer really suggested he could get Carson an appointment, wouldn't Carson have said, "Oh, thank you so much, sir, but I've already accepted a scholarship to Yale." Which he had. Because as far as I can tell, Carson went right off to Yale in the fall of 1969 (he was graduated from Yale in 1973, & I didn't find any mention of his going thru on an accelerated program. If you know better, correct me, please.)
If you look at the USMA Website that Victoria D. linked above, you'll find that the Academy advises a student to begin the application process in December of his junior year, not in late May (or even February) of his senior year. You can see the admissions timeline here. It's a good-sized to-do list.
Altho procedures are bound to have changed somewhat over the decades, I'm pretty damned sure a young man could not just march into West Point in September 1969, after being "offered a full scholarship" a few months before.
So the whole story is bullshit unless Carson decides to change the year he "had dinner with" Westmoreland. However, I think Westmoreland was still in Vietnam until June 1968, so that would pose another little credibility problem.
Marie
The Guardian has an illuminating photo tour of Ben Carson's humble 'me abode'
Tears in my eyes (from laughing) after viewing Ben Carson's home that Cowichan mentioned. Especially touching, the portrait with Jesus. And, the extensive collection of memorabilia and framed articles are the height of an egoist 'me wall.' Oh, well, should he become President, no need to build a Presidential Library for him...he's already got a starter kit going!
Interesting take on the Carson candidacy in The Root (Jason Johnson, Professor of Poli-Sci, Hiram College). The piece posits that Carson is the "anti-Obama"; "Carson’s success is not really about him. It’s about getting back at President Barack Obama, or a revolt against the political establishment."
The piece goes on to discuss the "Bradley effect" as it applies to Carson's chances. Interesting reading.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2015/11/politics_lies_and_a_mixtape_the_unlikely_rise_and_probable_fall_of_ben_carson.html
On the scale of mental illness its hard to calculate who scores higher, Trump or Carson. I can't be as compassionate as Kate. These men are not mentally ill in a way that is confined to damage to themselves or their families. They have a great deal of influence over many people. What's really sad to me is how easily each of these men has gained support. What does that say about the mental state of their supporters. Fomenting anger in others is a very powerful approach to power.
OMG, Ben Carson's house is hilarious. but what came to mind was a short documentary, available to anyone who goes to Henri Cartier-Bresson's studio in Paris, of Cartier-Bresson describing why he gave up photography, because he had outgrown it. It didn't matter at all to him that he was famous and considered amazingly accomplished: referring to his photos, he said, "These are simply pieces of paper, after all." It made me reflect that no matter what one's accomplishments are, there are developments beyond where one is now. It is pointless to recount the past, or to bask in it. It is gone, and you will be gone too someday. Hey, Ben! You listening?