How Did Ben Carson Ever Manage To Become A Brain Surgeon?

Hey, Bo! I ain't no dummy and I ain't deluded 'bout ma past!"

When even Wall Street Journal columnist Daniel Henninger draws attention to a candidate's  cognitive deficiencies (Nov. 5, 'Ben Carson's Problem')  you pretty well know that candidate is under close scrutiny and whatever he blabs will be under the media microscope.  How did Uncle Ben come under Mr. Henninger's  lens?

Recall the first Republican debate with FOX News moderators when Megyn Kelly put him in her sights, with the cameras catching him in 'deer in the head lights' mode.  Megyn recounted previous basic mistakes Carson made in various forums, including:

-   Suggesting the Baltic states (Croatia, Slovenia etc.) are not part of NATO, 

- Not knowing the main political parties in Israel

-  Believing Alan Greenspan had been Treasury Secretary instead of former Chairman of the Federal Reserve. 

All of these fall under the rubric of basic education for high political office wannabes - especially aspiring to the Presidency of the most powerful nation on Earth. Failure to correctly peg any one ought to be an automatic disqualifier as much as Rick Perry's political capital collapsed  (in 2012) after failing to recall the DOE (Dept. of Energy)  as one  of the main federal agencies.

Megyn  justifiably asked Carson  if all his drops weren't "basic mistakes"  and "raise legitimate questions on whether you're ready to be president?" Carson merely sidestepped the question and waffled about "answering them more fully at a later point".

This debate fall down and Carson's collective basic flubs would have brought him into Henninger's sights (and for the record  let's note he is pro-GOP and conservative as are the Op-ed pages of the WSJ).  Henninger in his piece observed Ben:  "has been preparing for a presidential run since 2013", then adding:

"One would think that during the two years of preparing for his presidential run, Mr. Carson might have absorbed more knowledge about the details of public issues than he has shown in these debates"

The imputation being that Carson - even with advanced prep - couldn't get basic political and geo-political facts straight, all pointing to a dummy,  At least a political dummy.

But maybe there was never the political I.Q. or aptitude to absorb such knowledge in the first place. This would indicate Ben needs to stick to basic surgery, or perhaps set off on a career as a Seventh Day Adventist preacher. His preachy, somnolent delivery is sure to earn him lots of plaudits. Besides, he seems to know much more about the fables described in the Bible (like "Joseph" building the pyramids, sic)  than about U.S. politics.

Thus,  we can grant at some early stage of his life Carson had the brains to become a brain surgeon - at Hopkins. But that elicits the question as to what happened after his retirement.  How did he manage to fall down on so many BASIC questions that even a rank political neophyte ought to have been able to satisfactorily answer with 2 years advance preparation? Did he get early onset Alzheimer's? We certainly don't want such a guy in the White House as much as we may sympathize with his brain farts and multiple stumbles.

Thus, one has to wonder if Alzheimer's has been wreaking havoc on his brain and mental processes  - creating these misfires.

How else account for some of the other ignorant, wacked out statements emanating from Carson’s mouth lately?  Such as his daft blather on Nazi gun control and Obamacare is worse than slavery.   Then there was his more recent brain fart that women who get abortions are like "slave owners who believe they can do anything". Only a total mental fuck-up would utter such crap, and this guy was a former Hopkins neurosurgeon. So again, either he was mentally deficient while at Hopkins - in which case his patients were at risk - OR he is so now, with Alzheimer's or some other early onset dementia.

Other. examples which must lead the politically aware citizen to question his competence for high office:

In March, Carson ridiculously argued that “a lot of people who go into prison go into prison straight — and when they come out, they’re gay,” and was forced to retract his statement, only to feign ignorance on the matter of sexual orientation all together then later admitted
.
“I do not pretend to know how every individual came to their sexual orientation,”

Then STFU about it, bozo!

Then in an interview with “Marketplace” last month,  Kai Ryssdal asked Carson if he would raise the debt limit or allow the U.S. to default on its debt. Carson’s non-answer made it painfully clear that he was confused about what the debt ceiling even is, as evident from this transcript:

Carson: Let me put it this way: if I were the president, I would not sign an increased budget. Absolutely would not do it. They would have to find a place to cut.

Ryssdal: To be clear, it’s increasing the debt limit, not the budget, but I want to make sure I understand you. You’d let the United States default rather than raise the debt limit?

Carson: No, I would provide the kind of leadership that says, “Get on the stick guys, and stop messing around, and cut where you need to cut, because we’re not raising any spending limits, period.” 

Ryssdal: I’m gonna try one more time, sir. This is debt that’s already obligated. Would you not favor increasing the debt limit to pay the debts already incurred? 

Carson: What I’m saying is what we have to do is restructure the way that we create debt. I mean if we continue along this, where does it stop? It never stops. You’re always gonna ask the same question every year. And we’re just gonna keep going down that pathway. That’s one of the things I think that the people are tired of.

Carson never answered the question and  clearly couldn't since he didn't even know the difference between the debt ceiling and the budget. He further didn't grasp that raising the debt ceiling is an obligation given the money has already been spent - and hence created that debt.

Do we really want some bozo at the helm who doesn't know the difference between the budget and the debt limit?  Well, let's put it this way: Do we want someone at the helm who doesn't know what the "football" is or how it is used?

Other brain farts, muffs:


Earth’s age :

This one falls under the rubric of basic scientific literacy and is a fundamental litmus test for whether one can even be called a scientist. Alas, Carson - like Jason Lisle - failed it. Recall here that Carson scrambled to backtrack on it, telling the Daily Mail before the CNBC debate that he was "no longer sure that God created the Earth in six days."

How can anyone who professes to be trained in science of any kind not be sure? Carson went on to say:

"I believe that God created the Earth. I don’t know how old the Earth is. The Bible says ‘In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,’ and then there’s a period there. So we don’t know how long that period of time lasted,”

However, using radio-carbon dating, real scientists agree that the earth is 4.4 billion years old.

Hurricanes:

Last month the brewing storm Joaquin was projected to be the largest hurricane to make landfall in history, But Ben Carson said he had no clue how he would handle the natural disaster. The storm made landfall in Mexico but eventually brought torrential rainfall along the Southern United States. ABC News asked Carson on the campiagn trail last month:

“If you were in the White House what would you be doing right now with tropical storm Joaquin? What would be your first step?”

A stunned Carson simply replied, “Uh, I don’t know."

And so-called serious people really back this fucking moron as President to the extent of giving him dominant poll numbers? If so, these pro-Carson Americans are even more stupid than most Europeans believe. As one Czech national blurted out when we were in Prague: "Your country is exceptional all right. Exceptional in stupidity and ignorance."

But let's not stop there, here's another policy issue flubbed:  This week, Carson, a registered Florida voter, seemed to brag about not caring about policies that impact local politics where he votes. During an interview with the Miami Herald, Carson was unable to articulate answers to questions about U.S.-Cuba policies:  Carson appeared stumped by questions about the so-called wet-foot, dry-foot policy (which allows Cubans who reach U.S. soil to remain here) , and about the Cuban Adjustment Act, which allows Cubans who arrive in the U.S. to apply for legal residency after 366 days.

When asked about the first policy, Bennie responded:

“You’re going to have to explain to me exactly what you mean by that wet-foot, dry-foot. I have to admit that I don’t know a great deal about that, and I don’t really like to comment until I’ve had a chance to study the issue from both sides.”

Ah, but you want to be President of the U.S. when you may well have to make a decision on one or both policies. Or  do you propose to simply delegate the decisions to secondary actors?

On the Cuban Adjustment Act, he gave a similar response:

“Again, I’ve not been briefed fully on what that is."

Even before these fuck ups, Carson was exposed as an ignorant tool based on an earlier 1998 remark in which he claimed the Egyptian pyramids were used to "store grain". As opposed to bearing the bodies of Pharaohs.  It never occurred to him why anyone would store grain in a mammoth tetrahedral structure for which access is difficult, as opposed to a regular box-shaped structure for which the volume-capacity wouldn't be limited the higher the grain is stacked.

But this is Ben Carson we're talking about who bends reality to his beliefs, as opposed to testing the latter against reality.

Right now, aside from combined voter insanity and stupidity, there is no earthly reason for this clown to be polling at even 2 percent, far less 22 percent. And if he really does have Alzheimer's and isn't just an ignorant fool, I apologize - but then he ought to still bow out because his disease will be exposed sooner or later. The Presidency, alas, is not the office for Alzheimer's folks.

Oh, one more thing: Anyone, any American, inclined to vote for him because of his "soft tone and measured cadence" is also an idiot. They're as bad or worse than those who voted for George W. Bush (aka "Junior")  because "we felt we could have a beer with him".

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/jaime-oneill/64707/the-world-according-to-ben

And:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/ted-rall/64705/ben-carson-please-believe-me-when-i-say-i-m-psycho