Dr Benjamin Carson

Hubris, Arrogance, Greed, Hypocrisy: The Definition Of Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock!

Illinois Congressman Aaron Schock has seen a swift rise and, now, a swift fall, from what had been a promising career in Congress, all due to the following characteristics: Hubris, Arrogance, Greed, Hypocrisy!

Elected to Congress at age 27, he is now resigning at age 33, and faces possible prison time for his ethics violations, including spending lots of money inappropriately, and engaging in questionable deals with lobbyists that have made him a millionaire at a young age.

Additionally, he has shown reckless and inappropriate behavior in taking office staff and assistants on foreign trips on taxpayer money, and has shown hubris to the extreme by posting thousands of personal pics of his activities on Instagram, and leaving the impression by his habits, dress, and statements that he is gay.

No one really cares about his sex life, but this is a man who has consistently voted against any legislation that gives any rights or privileges to gays and lesbians, so with his rumored gay connections, it makes him a total hypocrite, as many Republicans are, past and present, with indications that many on Capitol Hill are gay, apparently much more than Democrats who advance gay rights, including marriage.

How anyone who is trying to hide his gay tendencies has the gall to behave in a way that makes people think he is, and then to work against gay and lesbian rights at every turn, is beyond any sympathy from gays or straight people.

Schock will deserve whatever he gains in legal issues and possible prison, for his hubris, arrogance, greed, and worst of all, hypocrisy. The question which arises is why and how Aaron Schock could imagine that his misbehavior and actions would lead to anything else other than the grief and disgrace he now faces! He clearly is a very stupid young man, who has destroyed a promising future!

And if he goes to prison, with the image left that he is gay, he will experience what Republican Presidential possibility Dr. Benjamin Carson claimed to great criticism, that going to prison makes straight people gay. With Schock’s reputation, he will clearly face harassment in prison, and will not be able to count on his Congressional career to save him from assault!

Common Personality Traits Of Many Republican Presidential Candidates: Negatives For Presidential Campaign!

It is amazing when one looks at the Republican Presidential field, just how many of them share common personality traits.

These traits include:

Arrogance
Egotistical
Nastiness
Mean Spiritedness
Sense Of Entitlement
Cockiness
Rejection Of Science
Lacks Compassion
Willingness To Lie On A Massive Scale
Insensitivity
Highly Judgmental

Among the GOP candidates who share these personality traits are:

Chris Christie
Scott Walker
Rick Perry
Bobby Jindal
Mike Huckabee
Carly Fiorina
Dr. Benjamin Carson
Rick Santorum
Lindsey Graham
Ted Cruz
Rand Paul
Marco Rubio

Those potential GOP candidates who, as of now, are NOT in the above group are:

Jon Huntsman
John Kasich
Mike Pence
Jeb Bush

The best chance for the Republicans to compete on a even scale with the Democrats is IF they nominate one of the above four individuals, so we shall see if the GOP has a death wish, and nominates out of the list of twelve above.

The CPAC Convention: Display Of Delusional Thinking And A Comedy Of Would Be Presidents!

The Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland this weekend has been a revelation of delusional thinking, as well as a comedy of Would Be Presidents!

A conference that has Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, both supposed candidates for the White House, but just wanting attention, makes it worthy of ridicule from the beginning.

A conference that has elected Rand Paul as their favorite in a straw poll three years in a row, when there is zero chance of his being the Republican nominee, is a conference not worthy of any more attention, other than how Saturday Night Live treats it for laughs.

A conference that has a candidate, Scott Walker, who compares marchers for retention of labor rights to the fighting of terrorism is a conference that is clueless and insulting of the vast majority of America’s population, which are workers, not corporate leaders.

A conference that has retreads such as Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Perry desperately trying to get notice and to make themselves relevant is quite pitiful.

A conference that has two totally inexperienced candidates, Dr. Benjamin Carson and corporate leader Carly Fiorina, thinking they should be President, when we have never had a President or Presidential candidate with no political experience on the ballot, except for Wendell Willkie in 1940, is a sign of how little the people involved in this conference understand reality in a complex world.

A conference that allows propagandists who claim to be journalists, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham, to be the interviewers of Presidential candidates, making them totally lacking in any credibility, is a conference that should be seen as something not worthy of serious consideration.

A conference that demonstrates intolerance toward women, immigrants, minorities, and gays and lesbians is a conference that has no desire to unite the American people, but rather to divide them, and fail to recognize the impending changes in the population long term, that dooms their agenda!

Diversity In The Presidential Race? Not Really As Much As Advertised!

The Republican Party, which has gained a reputation of being anti black, anti Hispanic immigrant, anti women is trying to convince Americans that they are really a diverse party, when it comes to the Presidential competition for 2016.

So they will point out the following:

Florida Senator Marco Rubio is Cuban American.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz is Cuban American.

Pediatric surgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson is African American.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal is Asia American (India)

Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is female.

Many potential GOP candidates are Catholic, including Rubio, Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Rick Santorum.

But of course, the fact that Rubio and Cruz are Cuban Americans means they represent about three percent of the Hispanic community, and it is highly unlikely that Mexican Americans (65 percent) and Puerto Rican Americans (about 25 percent) would support them in large numbers, with both groups being heavily Democratic.

And the odds that any of the above will be the Republican nominee for President is extremely low, other than Jeb Bush, who has switched his religious beliefs to Catholicism.

But the Democrats, in a much shorter list of potential candidates, also have diversity.

Hillary Clinton and Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren are females.

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders is Jewish.

Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo are Catholics.

If Hillary Clinton were not a prohibitive favorite, it would be likely that New Jersey Senator Cory Booker and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, both African Americans; and Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar, a female, would have entered the race.

Presidents And Age: An Issue For 2016!

Historically, Americans have tended to vote for a President who is younger than his predecessor, sometimes dramatically so, as with John F. Kennedy after Dwight D. Eisenhower (27 years difference); as with Bill Clinton after George H. W. Bush (22 years difference); as with Barack Obama after George W. Bush (15 years difference); and as with Jimmy Carter after Gerald Ford (11 years difference).

In fact, only the following Presidents were older than their predecessors: William Henry Harrison, Zachary Taylor, James Buchanan, Chester Alan Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Ronald Reagan. And only W. H. Harrison, Taylor, Buchanan, Lyndon B. Johnson, and Reagan were five years or more older than their predecessors.

But now, in 2016, we are likely, almost certainly, to elect a President who will be substantially older than Barack Obama. This includes Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders,Jim Webb, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Carly Fiorina, Dr. Benjamin Carson, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Lindsey Graham, Mike Pence, Rick Snyder, Jon Huntsman and Mike Huckabee, a total of 16 potential candidates.

The odds of a younger President than Barack Obama are quite low, including Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Andrew Cuomo, Martin O’Malley, Scott Walker, Marco Rubio, Bobby Jindal, and Ted Cruz, a total of 8 potential candidates.

This oddity makes one wonder if the younger generation (under 45) will be as motivated to vote, as they are, naturally, attracted to comparative youth, as John F. Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama represented, when they were elected, and with the extra appeal of being, respectively, the first Catholic (JFK); the first two Southern governors (Carter and Clinton); and the first African American (Obama).

The Anti Vaccine Republican Crowd: Pure Madness, Defying Science And Medicine!

One would think that the Republican Party had reached its nadir with the Tea Party Movement whackos, but now they have hit a new low, and it does not only include Tea Party types, but even so called “Establishment” Republicans!

We have now seen Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie come out in support of allowing parents to decide if their young children are to be vaccinated when they are infants and before they attend school, as there has been a crisis with a new outbreak of the measles virus. Christie tried to reverse himself, but sadly, once said, it is too late to modify his idiotic original statement!

It is not an issue of parental rights, but of responsibility to society, that ALL parents MUST accept the idea that their kids MUST be vaccinated, even if it is against their so called “religious” beliefs!

Religion or crazy ideas cannot trump the public safety of all of us and all of our children, and if parents refuse, the only answer is to arrest and charge them with a crime, and take away their children, who unlike Rand Paul says, are not “owned” by their parents, a weird and sick term for him to use.

The idea that libertarian Rand Paul and mainstream Republican Chris Christie could take such a reckless and irresponsible stand is beyond common sense!

It is now essential that all potential Republican nominees for the Presidency be required to give a conclusive answer on this matter, and NOW, not months from now!

And any potential nominee who at all agrees with Paul and Christie should automatically be repudiated as unacceptable to be the nominee, and if such a person is nominated, or the party takes the anti vaccine stand in the upcoming Presidential campaign, then the intelligent, educated population MUST fight tooth and nail to make sure that we do not have a government leader who repudiates science and medicine!

And a brief compliment to potential nominee Dr. Benjamin Carson, who has said and promoted many reckless things, and who this author thinks is totally unqualified for the Presidency, and will continue to promote that idea: Dr. Carson, thank you for making clear how you believe that vaccinations are necessary!

Crowdpac Website Traces All Potential Presidential Candidates On Issues, Determining How Liberal Or Conservative They Really Are!

This blogger just discovered a great website that he wishes to pass on to his readership.

It is www.crowdpac.com, a site which researches and compares potential Presidential candidates of both parties on their issue positions, as well as seeing how they perform in the multitude of polls; check on their political donors; and try to judge if they are of the right qualities to be President of the United States.

The comparison as to how liberal or conservative they are is the most fascinating, and a total of 7 Democrats and 17 Republicans are assessed and evaluated.

So, in a broad sense, the 7 Democrats are seen as most liberal to least liberal in the following order:

Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren
Hillary Clinton
Martin O’Malley
Andrew Cuomo
Jim Webb
Joe Biden

And the 17 Republicans are seen as most conservative to least conservative in the following order:

Rand Paul
Ted Cruz
Scott Walker
Mike Pence
Dr. Benjamin Carson
Rick Perry
Marco Rubio
Mike Huckabee
Carly Fiorina
Bobby Jindal
Mitt Romney
Rick Santorum
John Kasich
Rick Snyder
Jeb Bush
Jon Huntsman
Chris Christie

This ranking can be discussed and analyzed in detail over time, as events transform views of these potential Presidential candidates, but at this point, already, there are surprises!

Joe Biden comes across as the most centrist Democrat, which COULD give him a boost.

Chris Christie is the most centrist Republican, more than Jon Huntsman? That is a surprise! But Jeb Bush and John Kasich also comes across as quite centrist, along with comparatively unknown, and not seen as a serious candidate, Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan. And Carly Fiorina, the failed Senate candidate against Barbara Boxer in California in 2010,and often a commentator now on CNN, suddenly is on the list, and could be the only woman Republican candidate for President, even though her career is totally corporate, never having served in public office!

Crowdpac looks like a site that will often be utilized by this blogger and by other political junkies!

Mean Spirited, Nasty, Uncaring Republican Presidential Candidates!

The Republican Party of 2015 is, amazingly, a mean spirited, nasty, uncaring bunch, and this includes many potential Presidential candidates.

The potential nominees who stand out for these ugly traits include:

Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana

Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin

Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania

Former Governor Mike Huckabee of Arkansas

Former Governor Rick Perry of Texas

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas

Retired Pediatric Surgeon Dr. Benjamin Carson of Maryland

At the same time, there are a few Republicans who might run for President, who do NOT come across with these ugly traits, including:

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida

Former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida

Governor John Kasich of Ohio

Former Governor Jon Huntsman of Utah (if only he could be convinced to enter the race, highly unlikely at this point)

If any of the first group becomes the nominee of the GOP, it will make the most extremist right wing nominee in the 160 year history of the party that had such luminaries as Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush. And it is an insurance that the GOP would suffer a massive defeat and repudiation in the Presidential race of 2016!

The Iowa Republican Presidential Caucus: NOT An Indicator Of The Nominee Or Winner Of The Presidential Election!

The race for the Presidency begins in Iowa, with the caucuses in early January of the election year!

But Iowa has never been a true indicator of the future of a Presidential candidate, and the tendency has been, in the Republican Party, to have one of the most extreme right wing candidates win Iowa, and then collapse over time, and one can say, thank goodness for that!

So in 2008, Mike Huckabee won in Iowa.

So in 2012, Rick Santorum won in Iowa.

The likelihood is that someone as extreme and divisive as Huckabee or Santorum, both of whom are testing the waters to run for the Presidency again, will win Iowa in 2016, and again, make it a totally irrelevant event!

Expect that one of these two past winners of the Iowa Caucuses wins it again in 2016, but also Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Dr. Benjamin Carson, Bobby Jindal, Scott Walker, and Rick Perry have a shot at winning, while Jeb Bush, John Kasich, Marco Rubio, and Chris Christie have no chance of winning Iowa, but all to the good long term!

There Is No Racism In America, Says Allen West? Really?

Former Florida Congressman Allen West, a right wing extremist African American who only served one two year term in Congress, but gets constant coverage and respect from Fox News Channel, and conservative talk radio hosts, says there is no racism in America!

Really, Allen West? Are you serious?

Conservative Talk Radio constantly spews racist comments, and so does Fox News Channel. Just listen to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reilly, and others of their ilk on radio and cable!

Barack Obama has been called all kinds of racist terms by both radio and cable extremists, joining the Ku Klux Klan, and all kinds of right wing extremist groups, including the Tea Party Movement activists inside and outside of the halls of Congress.

The small number of African Americans who engage in crime have been depicted as being all African Americans, particularly young men.

African American police officers have had all kinds of harassment from their fellow white comrades, on and off the job, because of their race.

Racial profiling is constant, and not just for African Americans, but also people of Muslim and Arab heritage, Latinos, and Asian Americans.

There is constant evidence of racism, despite the vehement denials of those who promote just that mentality on a daily basis. All these despicable elements doth protest too much as to their innocence, when there are tons of evidence daily as to the truth of the accusations of racism!

The amazement is that successful, wealthy African Americans, such as Allen West, Dr. Benjamin Carson, and Herman Cain, totally ignore reality, and have sold themselves out to the right wing establishment, having no concern about the lives and challenges of fellow African Americans who are not as successful and wealthy, and well connected, as they are.

How Allen West can live with himself is beyond morality and ethics. How Dr. Benjamin Carson and Herman Cain can live a lie as well is also beyond any understanding, how they have abandoned the truth of the history and the present reality of people of their own racial background. All of them are, indeed, promoting more racism, rather than fighting it!