I should be going down to the shop to begin the awful task of cleanup. But each morning, my wife and I start the day with a cup of coffee in bed, listening to Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski on “Morning Joe.” Start the day with a bit of comedy posing as news.
But this morning, Scarborough and the MSNBC young homosexual communist league team were in an aplopeptic frenzy over Dr. Ben Carson. They were SHOUTING with delight that Dr. Carson had been “proven a liar” multiple times from claims made in his biography that couldn’t be proven.
In the first place, it’s his biography, and the claims he make in it stand as the claims. He is never on the hook to PROVE them. But it is certainly fair game for the media to DISPROVE them and that would of course be somewhat damaging to his case in seeking the Presidency. The problem with the lesser lights of journalism is they can’t tell shit from shinola, but are blissfully unaware of their ignorance on a wide front.
Failing to find corroboration is not disproof. That the press cannot find anyone to support Carson’s stories falls woefully short of disproving them. It simply marks the incompetence of our current class of journalists. But as many of the events happened half a century ago, they can be forgiven for failing to find corroborative evidence. What can’t be forgiven is that they then translate that for “us dummies in TV land” to “disproving” the statement. That they then violeently REcast that as “Ben Carson – Liar Liar Pants on Fire” is comic noire but more importantly – really quite vicious.
Far worse is their general unawareness of very basic facts on which they purport to report. The most comic is the “full scholarship to West Point Military Academy.”
The premise starts with misquoting what Carson said from the get go. In Carson’s book “Gifted Hands,” the 1990 autobiography that made Carson famous and inspired a TV special by the same name in which Cuba Gooding Jr. played the doctor, he said that he was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who was then the chief of staff of the Army and a recent commander of U.S. military operations in Vietnam. The meeting, the book said, was followed by Carson being offered a full scholarship to West Point.
This is a pretty believable if very general claim. I am vaguely familiar with this process. My brother-in-law received and appointment to West Point and my step-daughter received one to the Naval Academy. On graduation, she married one of her classmates who had received a service appointment.
First, the Military academies don’t really have scholarships, while at the same time, every appointment IS a full scholarship. Not only is there no tuition or fees, but at some point they actually get a monthly stipend from the government for attending. But to make it rational for the unwashed public, the military often DOES refer to it as a “full scholarship” to make it clear to prospects that they get a full ride.
Dr. Carson was the top ROTC student in the City of Detroit,” campaign manager Barry Bennett wrote in an email to POLITICO. “In that role he was invited to meet General Westmoreland. He believes it was at a banquet dinner. He can’t remember with specificity their brief conversation but it centered around Dr. Carson’s performance as ROTC City Executive Officer.”
“He was introduced to folks from West Point by his ROTC Supervisors,” Bennett added. “They told him they could help him get an appointment based on his grades and performance in ROTC. He considered it but in the end did not seek admission.”
I think Dr. Carson can be forgiven for not being more specific about a line of study he had no intention of pursuing. But there is no “application” in the sense that Joe Scarborough would recognize. There probably is an application form in there somewhere, but it has really nothing to do with going to West Point.
You must be nominated for appointment. This is usually done by your Senator or Congressman who each get a certain number of “nomination” slots each year. Applying to them varies from one congressman to another. I actually helped Sara write her letter of application and of course broadly make the claim that is what got her selected from 300 applicants to that Congressman’s office. That may be true or it may have been something else. But the family lore is that it was the letter that did it and indeed the Congressman referenced the application letter when making the nomination. I can’t PROVE it was the letter. Nor can I disprove it. But it’s part of the family story.
But she DID get in. I did help her with the letter. And as you all know, I can scribe an awkward line passably well.
And that’s kind of the case here with Dr. Carson. He wasn’t going anyway, but did mention it was offered to him. As it so happens, there are actually a LOT of nominations that have nothing to do with Congressmen and Senators. They are service related. Here from West Point:
“Army Junior and Senior ROTC Programs and Honor ROTC Units of Other Services
Applicants currently enrolled in an Army Junior or Senior Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) program or an ROTC program from another branch of service that has been designated as an Honor Unit with Distinction are eligible for a nomination in this category. A request for a ROTC Nomination should be made through your Professor of Military Science or Senior Instructor who must fill out and submit a Request for ROTC Nomination (Form 5-497) to the Director of Admissions, U.S. Military Academy.”
As an honor student and top ROTC guy in Detroit, in a “dinner with General Westmoreland” which no doubt would be some sort of banquet with all of the ROTC, not likely a private dinner, it is entirely feasible that General Westmoreland would mention that with his grades and ROTC record he could have a full ride to West Point. He’s in the ROTC going to school. He’s introduced as having done well. It’s exactly the sort of thing a General would say in that situation.
The media is quick to point out that General Westmoreland is not able to make nominations to West Point. This is a child-mind understanding of the entire military world. Given his stature within the Army at that time, anyone Westmoreland would even hint should be considered for West Point, an appointment slot on the Service side nominations would be found instantly. He could literally put anyone in West Point he wanted with a waive of his hand, and indeed, unlike a Senator, he could literally put as many as he liked. He could have “appointed” the entire Detroit ROTC into West Point had he wanted, and let me assure you, he could have made it stick even if it turned out one of them was actually a cow accidentally admitted to the ROTC class as a mascot. The cow would find itself grazing on West Point grass before anyone in the United States Army had questioned the “appointment” by Westmoreland. He VERY MUCH had the ability to promise an ROTC member a slot. It is simply without question.
Had he done so, no doubt Carson would have had to follow the usual process through his chain of command at Detroit ROTC, and a very proper Request for ROTC Nomination Form 5-497 be filled out – in triplicate actually. That’s how it works guys. But it would have all been formality. No one in the chain of command is going to trump General Westmoreland’s vaguest wishes on this matter. He was Chief of Staff of the United States Army. The Army is not a democracy. I don’t think there is any cognizance of how bizarre this sounds. He can put you OUT of the Army. He can put you INTO the Army. He can put anyone and everyone he wants to into West Point. Picture power of life and death over all matters Army wide.
It didn’t matter. Carson had no desire to got to West Point and didn’t pursue it. But it is no stretch to imply that that door was open to him. If Westmoreland hinted at it, it was an offer for a full scholarship to West Point. I’m sorry. You can parse it till Christmas, it just was. It was in Ben Carson’s mind. And it was in mine. And I think Westmoreland would be affronted to any suggestion that it was not or that he couldn’t make good on it as he pleased.
But this morning, Joe Scarborough is SCREAMING that Ben Carson was LYING about it. And the young communist gay league is in plainchant Gregorian chant in the background. This is a typical example of the media NOT KNOWING and not knowing that they DON’T KNOW. They screech in delight and below with rage about things they know nothing of.
In the case of Scarborough, this is unforgivable. He WAS a Congressman and made nominations himself. Of course, in reality he delegated all that and really DOES know nothing about it – much less the topic of Service nominations.
The other “gotchas” where the press has empirically “disproven” without a shadow of a doubt something from Carson’s biography are equally lame and uninformed. He was held up at gunpoint in a Popeye’s. “He’s a vegetarian” they squeal with glee. “He COULDN’T have been in a Popeye’s Chicken.” What? What about the red beans and rice? Or the potatoe wedgies? Have they ever BEEN to a Popeye’s Chicken? They are entirely unaware of fried pickles? And really, what difference does it make. So he’s a vegetarian. He said he was in a Popeye’s Chicken. If he was he was. Vegetarian or no. Yet I suppose since the media cannot find a single soul who was in the Popeyes that day that can corroborate the story, it must be a barefaced LIE?????? This is crazy talk. A police report? Kind of depends on whether or not he reported it to the police and played victim TWICE in the same evening.
The entire thing comprises a BLATANT witch hunt of the most scurrilous most depraved sort and fully and graphically illustrates what I was saying in the previous post. And of course, it gets Carson MORE exposure in the press. In the week prior to this imbroglio, he reports over a MILLION dollars in small donations. In the week where this broke out, it reportedly jumps to $3.5 MILLION.
The press alludes to this coming from the Carson “base”. Carson has no base. He was a complete unknown. He had no organization and no “base” of supporters prior to this election beyond a tiny group of those wanting to “draft” him. This is the American people choosing to X the box next to NOT NEWS MEDIA.
Carson wrote a book with a lot of little “sketches” and barely remembered family anecdotes to illustrate his path through life and how he became what he became. He’s FULLY entitled to that. And finding lies and misrepresentations in it is a serious accusation that should CERTAINLY be accompanied by fully disclosed POSITIVE PROOF not anecdotal evidence, it only makes sense nonsense, and generalization over West Point practices they clearly know nothing about.
Yes, I was robbed at gunpoint. Yes, it had an impact on me. No, I not only don’t remember the DAY but I can’t remember the YEAR it occurred in and I am just barely able to put it into a decade. But it happened. It mattered. It helped form my views. And as part of my own personal experience it’s perfectly acceptable for me to mention it, and I have no need to PROVE it to anyone. They can DISPROVE it if they can. But if they can’t prove it either way, they really have nothing to talk about.
The encouraging thing is that the media is clearly overplaying their hand while unaware of it. And the American viewership is not at all confused. I would say that at this point, those who really do HAVE a political axe to grind, and would prefer Carson just go away, are increasingly uncomfortable with how this is shaping up. The most avid liberal Democrat partisan, is likely to distance themselves from this conversation as quickly and quietly as they can.
Me? I revel in Morning Joe’s feigned rage. He might as well pour gasoline over his head and waive a bic lighter around the set. With no awareness, he is confessing his lack of qualifications to be elected “TV Talking Head” much less “journalist.” But I do admit some embarrassment on his behalf.
Broadly, you don’t DISPROVE something by explaining why it couldn’t work that way, unless perhaps you know SOMETHING about how it works.
Quoting sources who don’t have any record of that, when it would be unlikely they WOULD have a record of that, proves that you are an imbecilic failure as an investigative reporter. Nothing more.
Finding people who don’t recall that, doesn’t disprove anything. Most of us don’t recall things that were unimportant to US, while it may have had a lasting effect on Ben Carson.
Proving that Ben Carson lied about his offer of a full scholarship would look something like:
1. Quoting a close friend of Ben Carson’s who was sitting next to him at the dinner and claims Westmoreland, rather than offering a scholarship, actually suggested that Carson might consider a career at sea.
2. An ROTC member who WAS at the banquet and has photos of Ben home sick in bed that night – never made the dinner.
3. A statement from General Westmoreland noting that he met with Carson, remembers it clearly, and recalls suggesting he consider a career at sea with the United States Navy.
4. A statement from the current U.S. Army Chief of Staff noting that West Point was disbanded three years earlier than this purported event. It’s now a K9 training facililty for the DEA.
5. Official ROTC records showing Carson was dismissed from the ROTC for failure to obey a direct order shortly after he joined.
6. Photos of Ben Carson protesting the Viet Nam War and the ROTC outside the building where the ROTC banquet was held.
7. Positive proof that Ben Carson’s application to join the Reserve Officers Training Command was rejected as UNFIT FOR MILITARY SERVICE.
8. Repeated reports from SEVERAL people who were ON that gunboat with Ben Carson in Viet Nam, testifying that he WAS INDEED a hero, when he was purportedly at a banquet back in Detroit supposedly intent on a career in medicine.
9. A full transcript of his grades at West Point, proving he did actually accept a scholarship and in fact attended.
What the media is pointing at and SCREAMING that it is proof positive, isn’t proof of anything. It isn’t even evidence of anything. In fact it isn’t anything at all. It’s nonsense. And in most cases very old nonsense.
Joe Scarborough moved into a new category for me this morning. I guess it will be Robin Mead and the weather from here on.
Oh well. My wife is still beautiful to wake up next to and at 61, she still makes Mika look a little rode-hard and weary. And trust me, we drink a lot better coffee than Joe does anyway. I can PROVE it.
Jack Rickard
Bizarre column that unfortunately says more about Jack’s political biases than his substantial intellect. Oh well, even Jack is just human with built in biases.
They aren’t built in. They are cultivated. Developed. And matured. I consider them carefully and deliberately cultivated “biases”.
The term bias has apparently been reallocated as a label to discredit a thought or opinion. I reject that piracy of the English language.
But if you want to throw around LABELS instead of ideas, I pick MORON. As in you.
How’s that sound. I can talk to the animals. In their own language actually. It’s only diverting for a few minutes…
Jack is correct – the media clearly botched this one like so many more. They are suffering ratings hits and trying to tabloid anything. As media options become more numerous and diverse the viewership disperses. These pseudo news outlets will continue to relate to their residual viewers who revel in heated controversy; real or imagined. If they do not their continued decline will only be more precipitous.
Now Jack – please get back to work (humble request) and produce us something positive in the world of electrification, as you have done for years! 🙂
Don’t let media hacks distract you from your good works (we know you are not) and please leverage your well placed umbrage to produce your next video of forward thinking.
GO EVTV!
Reporters are oddity in the realm of reasoning.
They will analyze every decision a political candidate has ever made, from birth to present day. However, they will not analyze what the candidate has learned from those past decisions, or how those experiences will affect future decisions.
When I was younger man, almost every job that I applied for required you to have significant “experience” in both life, and the subject matter at hand – otherwise, you would not be considered for the position.
Ironically, having too much life experience seems to bar most candidates from EVER holding ANY political office. Thankfully, the well-oiled political wheel remains in motion…
https://youtu.be/ClDVRdZsCWs
He looks very young in that video. I wonder what ridicules things were uttered by this reporter in his youth.
Well, by all accounts he still believes that the pyramids were grain silos. They almost certainly were not but he believes it. I’d question, though, what relevance it is. Why would I care what he thinks of the pyramids? Maybe he thinks aliens built them. Plenty of people believe that. Who cares? It doesn’t change a single thing in every day life. It’s just a silly irrelevant theory. That people are focusing on it seems to suggest that they don’t have anything very worthwhile to say.
… just a silly irrelevant theory. like the theory of the existence of wapons of mass destruction in iraq. wouldn’t care if any common neurosurgeon thinks that. but the president? (or a guy that runs for presidency) and what does he think about darwin’s theory of evolution?
and the big bang theory? google that and try not to laugh.
Jack:
As you know many in the media no longer reports news; they are used to air the propaganda of the highest bidder. In this case Mr. Carson is in a race for leadership of the country. It would be interesting to see who paid for this attempt to sabotage Mr. Carson’s character. Was it a Republican, a candidate the RNC or the DNC or a idealog…hard to say.
When I lived in Tanzania in the early 80s the president of the country was Julius Nyerere. He had introduced policies into the country that seemed to me to be pretty disastrous. I detested (and still detest his politics) because of their unintended negative impact on the people.
Yet I liked and admired the man. He was one of few world leaders from whom I would have unhesitatingly bought a used car. I also recognise that although he was dreadfully mistaken his intentions were good.
It would be good in the US and other Western democracies if there was more respect and even affection across political fault lines. Why should a Democrat not like (say) George Bush as a person even if he disagrees profoundly with his going into Iraq? Why should a Republican not acknowledge that some of the motivation for Obamacare (the care of the sick) is laudable even whilst insisting that is not the best way to do it. All this trivial muckraking and ersatz outrage detracts from the important stuff
GOTCHYA! You have been gunned down by a pinch of salt there Jack. Anger makes you concentrate on the bulls eye instead of dropping a nuke on them.
So they trolled you. A sad state of affairs this day and age if anyone listens to them. Never mind actually heeding their verbal excrement at all.
Here is a cartoon that ought to make you smile. Sums it up perfectly.
.
http://i.imgur.com/FixuGHgl.jpg
.
Now back to EV’s. I’ve just found a dream machine for inspiration.
https://auto.mail.ru/article/58011-bilenkin_pervye_foto_novogo_rossiiskogo_avtomobilya/
GOTCHYA! You have been gunned down by a pinch of salt there Jack. Anger makes you concentrate on the bulls eye instead of dropping a nuke on them.
So they trolled you. A sad state of affairs this day and age if anyone listens to them. Never mind actually heeding their verbal excrement at all.
Here is a cartoon that ought to make you smile. Sums it up perfectly.
.
http://i.imgur.com/FixuGHg.jpg
Jack gets it. You don’t call someone a lied unless you can prove it! Fun da mental.
In a delightful faux broard sheet style News Paper colarge mock up, titled ‘Fucked Facts’ that came as an extra with the ‘Dead Kennedy’s’ album ‘Last Scream of the Missing Neighbours’; stated just under the crass banner news title were the words …. ‘freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.’ Well now, 20 odd years down the track since the release of that album, just about every body can own a ‘press’. It’s taking a bit of getting used to, for the old media and for the less ‘free thinking’ amongst us, but if you’re looking for ideas as opposed to dogma, there’s never been a time like it.
‘
@andy Glen: everybody can own a ‘press’. yes, but the difference is that one person reads your ‘press’ – you. The multinationals still rule.
Thanks BC for your critique: In a ‘long form essay’ written in the fifty’s by a guy who had worked on the strategic bombing survey in WW2 titled ‘The New Industrial State,’ who incidentally had already accomplished and then went on to do a few, rather important other things; the point that you make is clearly identified. Where ‘we’ are at now, which would be better understood by the amount of both internet and business traffic passing through EVTV and other affiliates and close associates is the nascent development of the adjunct to what the above mentioned author describes(lets call him JK Galbraith) in ‘The New Industrial State’, The earlier ‘State’ developed by the likes of Rockerfella, Carnegie, Vandabelt and their ilk. Is the now of Gates, Brin, and had he of lived Jobs, who serves as the example as the trans formation to the ‘New’ and Musk.
There is a lot to be made by understanding where we are now (i.e. knowing what time it is) in this trans formative period.
My original comment is only an elucidation as to what can be said and by how many.
But who chooses to listen and to what ?… Well, it leads ‘one’ to think; what brings you to this comment pg. BC?
To quote a bloke where I come from, who graces the one side of the One hundred dollar bill …’the best chance for this country lies in education and the ballot box’ … so on politics I’ll truk with him on that.
Can turkeys really fly – or only when thrown out of an airplane?
Winter has arrived and the price for oil is flying.
Snowflakes are flying for some 24 hours now. Learned from a week with freezing cold at night to leave a cable hanging out of a window so I can plug in the heater from outside.
Ever tried to walk barefoot in the snow? That is why I am talking about flying. Went out in shorts only to clean the mess. Waiting for the night might turn it into ice and I dont like ICE cars in the first place.
Jack, take care of your roof.
Cheers
Peter and Karin
you all might enjoy this…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6VJ6_4yCkw
Roy
Collin,
Has Elon called you yet?
http://gas2.org/2015/11/24/are-you-a-software-engineer-if-so-elon-musk-wants-you/
Haha, no. I did hear about that story though. It sounds like an interesting, albeit slave-driving sort of gig (very long hours).
Commentators on the story are correct: fully autonomous driving is not a well defined problem yet. But, I’d assume they intent to hire people who can define the problem. There are two types of programmers: those who you give a spec to and they code to that spec and those who you say “we should make a program that does X” and they figure out how to do X. I would imagine that Tesla is not interested in the first type of programmer/software engineer. They’re looking for people who hear “we need a fully autonomous car” and are able to plot point A to B without having to be told every single step in between. Certainly no one is an island and so the whole operation will require many such self starters who blaze a trail. But, the sort of person who would succeed in this sort of insane quest would be someone who isn’t afraid to be part developer, part thinker.
Yes, it would be a pretty big challenge but kind of like Steve Jobs told John Scully; “Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or do you want to come with me and change the world?”
Autonomous driving is one of those 90% successive approximation type efforts that really are the bane of software development. You get 90% there with 90% of your effort. And then you get 90% of the remaining 10% on the remaining 90% of your effort. And you’re still not there. Autonomous driving just requires 100% and you can’t get around that.
In other words, the bulk of it looks pretty easy given today’s technology. The rest of it is a bit cruel. I find it kind of amazing that he has released software for the car that purportedly does some significant autonomous things, and by all reports does them mostly badly. There are many complaints about the self-parking AND the lane following performance. It will DO both. Just not all the time consistently.
And so here he is interviewing software geeks after the product is released? That would imply that we have at least ONE guy convinced he has a ways to go on this thing – Elon Musk. And I would guess this has come as a bit of a surprise to him as well.
It’s fun stuff. It’s got a lot of juice along the way as you get various things to kind of sorta work. But going to product on such a concept is the kind of level of effort that would make my knees buckle just thinking about it. It’s a Manhattan project with heavy test and documentation.
For me, pass.
For Elon, you go girlfriend, but I’d sure like to roll back 7.0 to what I had before for my Model S.
Jack Rickard
Jack, still got a hole in your roof and no electricity, or have things moved on from there? What’s the latest? 🙂
I’ll attempt to get a video out this week and a new blog. Things are moving along smartly. We have roof. We have electricity. We have Internet. We have natural gas. We have heaters working.
Each and every one of these has required city permits, repairs, inspections, sign offs, and turn ons. It’s really been much more of a process than I would have estimated. The place smells to high heaven.
But yes, we are climbing out from the debris.
Bill Bayer has joined us full time. We’re doing some pretty good work on the Tesla Drive Unit. Replaced three cells in the Cadillac Escalade. Sent a daughter to Australia. Had a big Thanksgiving. And sold a DC-3. Lot’s going on.
Jack Rickard
Jack,
Karin and me are glad you are standing on all four legs again. We were afraid that might take longer.
Doing a video? I am still learning. Got both laptops working with Gentoo (Linux) now but the other room is still a mess, computers not working.
10 frames per second might be a bit slow but it gets nice images when it is dark outside.
Cheers
Peter and Karin
Did the shop cam get wiped out in the fire? Now that Bill is there, can’t wait to see all the activity going on in the shop!
Any idea what happened to the Escalade cells?
Jack… we from Japan would love to see the shop through the “shopcam”…
awesome news… above…
Im going into Withdrawal I need more EVtv, shop cam would be nice to see working!
My memory was correct on what is the definition of “kooter” Funny!
Welcome, Bill Bayer!
I have to agree with Jack on the purile nature of modern investigative journalism. On the other hand, Ben Carson is a political imbecile.