Posted on 11/06/2015 11:58:15 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
RedState's own Leon Wolf did a great job exposing the Politico story about Ben Carson and West Point as a lie. Washington Post reporter Dave Weigel is also churning out great information on Twitter regarding the story.
I want to focus on what Donald Trump is doing with the story, however.
Yesterday, November 5, Donald Trump had this to say about Politico:
Look, Politico is so dishonest in so many different things. This Politico website or whatever the hell they call it, I mean, they write about me. We don't deal with them anymore because the level of dishonesty is incredible.
Today, November 6, Donald Trump is spreading the false Politico story about Ben Carson. Below is one of the several Trump Tweets citing the Politico piece.
What an incredible turnaround. It appears Trump is willing to do whatever it takes to destroy Carson, who is poised to disrupt his position as GOP frontrunner.
Yesterday, Trump seized on the silly CNN investigation of Carson's childhood. According to Trump, Carson's childhood might be a "total fabrication.?
Ironically, much of Trump's support is due to the perception that he tells the truth and shuns the mainstream media. It is now clear that he will abandon that notion when it suits him politically.
I'd like to see a link.
>> The reasons I was asking is the mandatory draft at that time, all men had to sign up, so Carson used the ROTC for this purpose <<
Two points:
1. Carson’s ROTC service was in high school. That was a totally different situation from Bill Clinton’s attempting to use ROTC membership at the University of Arkansas to get a draft deferment.
2. I don’t think Carson was an ROTC student during his university days. But it wouldn’t seem to matter for purposes of the current discussion, because after he got to Yale, I think Carson was eligible for a student deferment until such deferments ended in 1972. Alternatively, he may simply have lucked out with a good lottery number.
>> and then used that maybe to go into medical school with paid education? <<
The draft was replaced with the all-volunteer concept in 1973 — just about the time Carson was entering med school. So the chance of being drafted probably was not a factor in his choice of career path.
Thanks, Albion. I don’t tend to make things up.
We’ve been here over and over again, Albion Wilde. And yet our fellow freepers never seem to learn that lesson, do they?
Thanks for your links, my FRiend.
Ok well that clears up some stuff....thank you!
>> I highly doubt Westmoreland had the power, or would even do an end run around admittance standards by “offering†a scholarship upfront <<
Gotta disagree. Let’s not be naive or innocent about the power of ANY four-star, much less the Chief of Staff.
I think General Westmoreland could have snapped his fingers at the nearest aide-de-camp and bingo! The ADC then phones the USMA’s Superintendent, and the deal would be settled post haste.
I believe that to be true.
The grain thing has to do with a number of pyramids, at least one of which was later converted to a tomb, but the grain storage areas were still identifiable..
In this I believe you are in error (maybe the same with Carson) - I think you refer primarily to the grain pits found with the step pyramid of Djoser (third dynasty) at Saqqara. Those pits are located in the pyramid complex, but not in the pyramid itself.
If you rationally look at what a pyramid is, you will see that it is but a large building constructed in a style that evolved over a period of time but can be seen in many parts of the world. A big building is what you might use to store a large amount of grain. The theory is that they were developed for both purposes...and maybe others as in multipurpose building..
No, reason would not dictate a pyramid for grain storage - (primitive) pyramid construction requires an inordinate amount of stone in construction - very, very little of the pyramid structure can be open space, basically hallways and small vaulted rooms. The integrity of the structure cannot withstand enough interior space to justify it's use as a granary.
Grain was stored in pits, and later, in square, roofed stone buildings (over pits)... A large-volume pit is much easier to construct, and were indeed present at and after the construction of the pyramids (according to the timeline). It's use throughout and beyond the time in question would indicate that pyramids were for something else.
Yes, they do it every year.
Since Westmoreland is dead, we only have Carson’s word don’t we?
I don’t even recall if Carson mentioned who “offered” him a scholarship.
Maybe Carson during the debate can fill in the gap of specifically
who offered him a scholarship to West Point.
"Clearly not?" And you know this how?
"His intent was to mislead?" Absolutely not. His intent was to inspire struggling youth to overcome their disadvantaged backgrounds by studying and working hard so that opportunites would be opened to them. He wrote this 20 years ago in the context of starting his foundation that has provided scholarships to impoverished kids.
In context, he was the top ROTC cadet in his high school, and in case you haven't noticed, he was black -- still is, in fact. At the time, the late 60s - early 70s, there was greatly more racial discrimination than today, and it was the beginnings of a large push by most American universites/academies to locate and support promising minority candidates. It only stands to reason that he would have been checked out and solicited.
In case you are thinking, then, that he was an affirmative action doctor, consider that in his field, brain surgery, you simply can't fake it. You either have the skill to fix a child's brain or you don't; and the top hospital where he worked would not have permitted him to stay if he couldn't perform. In fact, Johns Hopkins made him the youngest head of Pediatric Neurosurgery in their history. He collaborated and teamed up with specialists from many other institutions and other countries, mostly white, but people of all colors. If his career had not been genuine, none of us would be talking about him today. And he and his wife then used much of their good fortune to try to help the underprivileged. But no good deed goes unpunished, it seems. People want to see him as someone who would intentionally mislead to make a few bucks in publishing. It's pathetic.
More than one close acquaintance of mine here in Maryland where Dr. Ben made his career in medicine know him and/or his family members. Due to my own research interests, I personally talked with him back in the 90s about the disastrous effects of illegitimacy and fatherlessness on minority youths, and he was immediately unequivocal that marriage is one of the pillars of a productive life, a point he had stressed in his autobiography from that era, Gifted Hands; or perhaps it was the second book, The Big Picture. Those books were written in no small part to influence troubled youths. He has been married for someting like 43 years to the same woman, who is a partner in their foundation work and a co-author or editor of some of his later books.
That said, he is not my top choice for president, nor my second choice. But I see no reason to trash him, when we need all the strong figures we can get on our side. No one is perfect.
During yesterdays interview he said he doesn't remember any others who were involved, except for Westmorland.
I think it's important to continue to pile on, I can't think of any reason we should not let our political enemies eliminate our candidate for us/
1) Carson opposes the border all, which makes all his statements entirely useless on the topic. No border wall = continued illegal invasion.
2) Illegal aliens aren't supposed to get benefits right now anyway. They still do.
3) Carson keeps changing the scope of his amnesty, moving from "agriculture" amnesty, to large scale amnesty, and not ruling out citizenship*
* But not ruling out citizenship doesn't matter anyway, because when you have 40 million people and growing, and you've ruled out deportation, citizenship is inevitable. The Democrats will give it. The courts will give it. They will march in the streets for it, because no one will deport them.
Curious — what is the source of the “alien” letter from “Kyra Markham”? Is there a web site?
No I didn't! You hallucinated.
I am not a Bible expert, as I explained, and I’m not a archeologist.
You don't need to be a Bible expert! You just have to read 2 verses in the entire Bible, and you know everything there is to know about Joseph and where he put the grain in Egypt.
I only mentioned it because you seem to think that Carson has a screw loose regarding the grain storage business and that is just not the case.
His screw is loose! He's lost some marbles! He's not playing with a whole deck!
The entire reason I responded to you.
We are in total disagreement.
Shades of the Clinton Foundation. Smaller scale, perhaps, but along the same lines.
I agree that this is the most troubling part of the accusations, and what might, if left unchecked, turn into a very bad, Clintonian habit if it got into the DC slushpit. Although it would take a near-Faustian fall from grace even to put a dent in what Hill'n'Bill have done.
One of the most-likely-to-be-true statements on this thread!
I agree with you. This is the Palinization of another Republican. It's a dirty business by a disloyal press that is making it nearly impossible for a sane and moral person to run for public office, in the event they may ever have left a fart somewhere unaccounted for. Soon it will be a front-page scandal of epic proportions -- unless, of course, they are a Democrat, atheist, or homosexual. But I repeat myself.
Very well said.
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