Which Came First?
Here’s the question of the hour: Was Ben Carson always a damn crook or did he just become that way under Trump’s influence?
It strongly appears that Carson used his position to allow his family to gain a lucrative government contract.
Carson was warned not to take his family along on “listening tours” because it might seem that it would be a conflict of interest. Carson did not heed the warning and even allowed his son to make inappropriate follow-up calls to the tour.
The officials also told Cruciani [HUD’s deputy general counsel] that Carson Jr. and his wife asked that Seema Verma, administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, be invited.
A little less than three months later, according to federal records, CMS awarded a $485,000 contract to the consulting company Myriddian, whose chief executive is Merlynn Carson. Carson Jr. identifies himself online as one of Myriddian’s board members. The contract was awarded without a competitive bidding process, federal records show, although a CMS spokesman said multiple minority-owned firms were considered.”
It’s a complicated story but it results in family ties being stronger than that portrait of Carson with Jesus. Carson’s wife, son, and daughter-in-law accompany him almost everywhere. To their credit, he hasn’t gotten lost recently.
Thanks to SGray for the heads up.
Not exactly a crook, I wot.
Carson is gormless, ethically blinded: he believes that his faith and his consequent successes as a surgeon excuse all, and so cannot even see normal ethical considerations. Self-enrichment and grifting seem so small compared to going mano a mano with Satan that it surprises him that anyone would cavil.
1Maybe he needs to commission another original artwork. Of him with a little Jesus on one shoulder, and a devil on the other. For the sake of accuracy, and reality.
2I believe one of the most basic tenets of conservatism has always been that people deserve what they have or don’t, because of actions taken or not taken by themselves. Hence us always hearing about personal responsibility. When religion is thrown into the mix, then they attribute anything they attain as devine reward. Blessings. That way, they’ve got their constitutional freedoms to strive for whatever they want, and since they go to the right churches, God’s got their backs. So basically nothing is off the table. If God didn’t approve of their desires, well then he wouldn’t keep rewarding the faithful, would he? Who are we as non-believers (and obviously we must be non-believers since we don’t share their beliefs of devine entitlement) to question God’s will? It’s simple really. If nothing else, it explains that look of smug self-righteous satisfaction seen on so many of their faces.
3I still say it’s all got to be laid out in the Bible.
In Acts.
Acts of the Apostates.
If I’ve plagiarized anybody, apologies.
In 3,2,1 expect the remaining half of Dotard’s diversity with African Americans program to sail through the air out the WH doors with the same aplomb as Omarosa. Donnie can not afford to keep Mental Ben around as a constant reminder of the nepotism and protected species status Champagne Popsicle and Jughead Kushner enjoy. The comparisons with a Mental Ben ‘defense’ would be too much.
4I’ve recently heard another term for the pious hypocrites: “Jesus Cheater”. This is someone who screws around on their spouse and then goes to church to plead loudly for forgiveness. (But they continue to cheat on their spouse because they’ve been forgiven.) Makes my head spin.
5Grease my palm with silver, Mama.
6Wa Skeptic- are you alluding to the femme mayor of Nashville, by any chance?
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/nashville-mayor-megan-barry-affair-head-security/story?id=52752559
She has already said she won’t resign, her god will forgive her and she and her hubby want privacy. She is going to do a public mea culpa and her lover resigned or was fired or some damn thing.
7Well, she’s obviously one of them.
8Looks like the Palin family didn’t have a lock on the whole grifting thing after all. They did, however, open Pandora’s Box, allowing the Trumps and all hell to escape.
I do love the term “Jesus Cheater.” Perfect descriptor.
9Check out the website:
https://www.chumplady.com/
Lots of good information there, especially about the “entitled” persons in our society.
10What Joel said. Right on!
11It’s a pity Ben Carson went into politics. He was practically a demigod at Johns Hopkins Hospital, where he was a fine pediatric neurosurgeon—but he threw it all away on a presidential campaign and a post in the Trump (ptui!) administration. He has destroyed his reputation, exposed himself as a first-class fool and a grifter, and for what?
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