Tag: Ben Carson

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

“Zero Tolerance” for Human Decency

CREDIT: Ben Carson

Last Saturday, around 500 people gathered in Gaisman Park in northeast Memphis to rally against the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which has resulted in thousands of children being placed in confinement, separated from their parents. The Memphis rally was one of several hundred held in cities around the country. The effect on the adminstration? As far as I can tell, they’ve implemented a “zero reaction” policy.

Maybe we’ve grown inured to these outrages. Now we’re reading stories of three-year-old children being forced to defend themselves in court to prevent being deported. It’s like some Kafka-esque theater of the absurd that never ends.

And speaking of absurd, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson was in Memphis Monday. He pitched his recent proposal to hike federally subsidized housing rents 25 percent. The plan is meant to “encourage people to work.”

Its actual effect, according to most analysts, would be to push thousands of the roughly four million low-income households living in subsidized housing into homelessness. Hundreds of thousands of those in low-income housing are already working, almost all of them at low-wage jobs. The low rents enable them to keep a roof over their heads and keep their families intact. Roughly eight million people would be affected by the rent increase; three million of them are children. See a pattern here?

The HUD proposal is simply the latest attempt by the Trump administration to reduce or even eliminate the social safety net. The theory being, I suppose, that by forcing people out of public housing, they will magically find work, because people living in public housing are lazy, and all they need is a good kick in the pants so they’ll grab their bootstraps.

“It’s our attempt to give poor people a way out of poverty,” Carson said. The truth is, few people are in public housing because they lack ambition. They’re in public housing because they’re elderly and/or living on a fixed income; or they’re uneducated; or they’re physically or mentally handicapped; or they have been forced into bankruptcy due to an inability to pay medical bills.

Those three million children can’t “find work,” so many will find themselves on the street with their caregivers — or be separated from their families and put into foster or institutional care. See a pattern here?

But, looking at the bright side, at least now the precedent has been set: We can put children in prison, preferably private ones owned by Betsy DeVos.

But seriously, forcing a 25 percent rent increase on the most disadvantaged Americans on the hypothesis that they will be forced to find work is just cruel nonsense. It is not a theory espoused by any reputable economist. In a report last month in The Commercial Appeal, Marcia Lewis, director of the Memphis Housing Authority, said 10,600 households in Memphis would be affected by the rent increase. Lewis added that the plan would strip away deductions for childcare and medical expenses, and would triple the minimum rent for Memphis’ poorest families. The proposal would also apply to assisted-living facilities and voucher-funded units.

If half of those households can’t afford the increase and are forced onto the street, who do you think will pick up the tab for the increased social services? The answer is you and me, the Memphis taxpayers.

This administration’s game plan is increasingly clear: Strip away the protections of the social safety net for our most vulnerable and powerless populations; reduce Medicare and Social Security under the guise that they are “unaffordable entitlements” rather than well-earned rewards of a life spent working; reduce access to medical care; and remove environmental protections. Oh, and, we need to cut taxes for the wealthy, because, well, they’ve had it rough for quite some time.

The core principle of MAGA is simple, really. It’s a reverse Robin Hood philosophy: Take from the poor and give to the rich — and keep everybody else preoccupied with issues like immigration, abortion, LGBTQ rights, and Melania’s coat.

It seems to be working. Remember when millions marched and blockaded airports to fight the “Muslim ban.” We thought we won. We didn’t. The fix is in, from top to bottom.

Bruce VanWyngarden

brucev@memphisflyer.com

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

Diane Black Gets a Little Help from Her Friends

CREDIT: JB

When is a statewide political campaign also a natio nal campaign? Or perhaps that question is best turned around: How much do and should national JB

U.S. Rep. Diane Black and American Conservative Union chairman Matt Schlapp, who endorsed her gubernatorial candidacy, engaged in some mutual admiration on Monday.

issues influence, or even become, the substance of statwewide campaigns?

The question is undeniably relevant to the current campaign for Governor of U.S. Representative Diane Black, a Republican who seems at times to be running a national campaign and who, perhaps not coincidentally, made Memphis appearances Monday in the company of Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, and Ben Carson, secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Schlapp, a familiar presence on national TV political talk shows, was at a Monday morning press conference with Black on Monday, where he endorsed her gubernatorial candidacy on behalf of the ACU, the nation’s oldest conservative lobbying organization, and Carson was a scheduled speaker, along with Black, at a Monday nighty panel discussion of the ACU’s Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC) at FedEx Forum.

Schlapp said ACU had “been in the trenches” with Black for years, praised her work with the House budget committee, and avowed that there was “no better champion in the congress for our conservative values.”

Black reciprocated her pride in her high annual scores with ACU evaluations on issues and made the case that ACU values accorded well with Tennessee “core principles.” People from states like New york and California who come here and insist on less conservative concepts should be told, “that’s not how we do it here” and advised to “go back” to those states, said Black, who warned against Tennessee’s becoming a “purple” state like North Carolina next door.

During a brief meeting with local reporters, Black defended her solidarity with President Trump and her emphasis on such matters as immigration control at the nation’s southern border.

Issues like “sanctuary cities” and “in-state tuition” for illegals,” both of which she opposes, are important locally, Black said. “As Governor, I’d be responsible for making sure Tennessee is safe.” She added that her recent endorsements by the National Rifle Association and National Right to Life reflected the reality of these organizations’ issues as “concerns right here in our state.”

Asked about her showing in a recent Vanderbilt University poll, which gave her high name recognition statewide but included figures showing her unfavorable ratings higher than her favorable ones, Black answered, “What does the poll really mean? If you break those polls down, you see that they include liberals and moderates in there, and I’m obviously a conservative.”

She said it was “essential that I define who I am and what I’ve stood for over the last 20 years. I’m conservative, and I get things done.” She rejected opponents’ charges that she was a “career politician” and said, “What I really am is a career nurse,” as well as “a businesswoman, an educator,” and someone vitally interested in public policy. “I’m a very well-rounded person,” she said.

More than any of her GOP primary opponents, including former state Economic Development Commissioner Randy Boyd, who has called her “D.C. Diane” Black identifies with President Trump, who has returned the favor by praising her, especially for her work as House budget chair.

“Tax reform and GDP growth. I’m very proud of that,” Black said. “The President has vision and is a strong negotiator.” She was somewhat more conditional on the subject of the President’s recent announcement of tariffs against American trading partners. “That’s something you don’t do when there’s no problem,” she said, mentioning the state’s agricultural producers as being potentially vulnerable to retaliation.

 “It could be difficult if it’s not done in a fair way,” she said of the new Trump hardline on tariffs. “But he is one who bargains and bargains well.”

Black would appear twice later on at the CPAC meeting, held in the lobby of FedEx Forum, first with both Schlapp and Carson in a panel in which she and the HUD secretary made much of their Horatio Alger-like rise from youthful poverty (both, as they told it, having been raised in public housing) and later, in a concluding panel with Schlapp, in which Black underscored her pro-life credentials and the two of them led what was by then a much-diminished crowd in a valedictory pledge-of-allegiance to the flag.

Categories
Editorial Opinion

Geniune Vetting of Trump Cabinet Nominees Needed

CREDIT: Senator Jeff Sessions

At his annual “issues meeting” with constituents from his 9th Congressional District on Monday, Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen called the roll of what he saw as unsatisfactory or outright dangerous cabinet officer-designates named by Donald Trump, and Cohen’s list was fairly inclusive of the President-elect’s entire list.

Those singled out by the Congressman included Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions, who, he said, had been wrong on civil rights and civil liberties issues when the Senate rejected him as a potential federal judge in the 1980s and was “no better” now; climate-change rejector Scott Pruitt as director of the Environmental Protection Agency; Betsy DeVos, an advocate of for-profit charter schools, as Secretary of Education; and former Texas Governor Rick “Oops” Perry, who has extensive ties to the oil and gas industries, for Secretary of Energy.

Senator Jeff Sessions

Not mentioned specifically by Cohen but equally suspect, surely, are Secretary of the Treasury-designate Steven Mnuchin, a banker with close ties to financial-industry members who advocate loosening government restrictions on Wall Street; Secretary of Labor-designate Andy Puzder, a disbeliever in the minimum wage; Secretary of Commerce-designate Wilbur Ross, an investor best known as a “turnaround artist”;  Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, who publicly confesses knowing nothing about his subject; Secretary of Health and Human Services-designate Tom Price, a former congressman known for his opposition to the Affordable Care Act and public health measures; and Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson, the Exxon Mobil oil mogul whose ties with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin are notorious.

Most ominous of all is probably Trump’s choice for National Security Advisory, former Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, whose erratic views caused him to be forced out as Defense Intelligence Agency head and whose son, with apparent paternal approval, has been a public advocate of some of the more monstrous examples of “fake news,” like the canard that Bill and Hillary Clinton were running a child-kidnapping ring out of a Washington D.C., pizza joint.

Unfortunately, the senior Flynn is not subject to Senate confirmation. The other mentioned Trump appointees are, however, and can in theory be rejected in the formal hearings that begin this week. The chances of that happening in a body dominated by Republicans is not great, but Cohen raised at least a modicum of hope when he suggested the names of several Republican senators who might be moderate or open-minded enough to join Senate Democrats in holding up some of the more noxious Trump nominations.

The names were those of Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine, John McCain and Jeff Flake of Arizona. Cohen added, with what sounded like genuine wistfulness, the names of Tennessee’s own Republican Senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander.

Though it is axiomatic these days that no Republican will admit to being “moderate” or anything quite so sissified-sounding to GOP ears, Corker and Alexander do, like Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam, enjoy a reputation for relatively fair-mindedness. We join Cohen in hoping that our two senators can rise to the occasion in applying a genuine acid test to the nominees of President-elect Trump.

Categories
Politics Politics Beat Blog

The Memphis Flyer goes to the RNC — Podcast #2

Jackson Baker and Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam.

Yesterday’s theme was Make America Work Again but most speakers just bashed Hillary. Jackson Baker and Chris Davis talk all about it.

The Memphis Flyer goes to the RNC — Podcast #2

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Elephants, Newhart, and Powder Cake!

“Nobody remembers who won second place.” — Walter Hagen

That tweet came from Donald Trump a few weeks back. It returned to haunt him Monday night, when The Donald came in second to Ted Cruz in the Iowa caucuses. And once again, America was left asking the question: Why do we start this whole process in Iowa? A white, rural, fundamentalist state that was won by Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the previous two election cycles? It makes no sense.

But it was a weird week for everybody: An internet argument raged for days between Atlanta rapper B.o.B. and scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson over whether the earth is flat. Seriously. Apparently, the flat-earth movement is not dead, and B.o.B. isn’t buying this “the earth is round” nonsense. Actually, I suspect that if the GOP presidential candidates learned that a significant number of potential voters were flat-earthers, they’d whip out their “I’m not a scientist” line when confronted with the question.

Speaking of questionable science … Trump did the near-impossible and turned Fox News’ Megyn Kelly into a paragon of tough-minded journalism by skipping the most recent GOP debate, in which we learned that no matter the question, the answer is always: Get rid of Obamacare, kill ISIS, stop immigration, and Hillary Clinton will be a horrible president.

For example, when asked a question about Kim Davis, Chris Christie went full-9/11 and then promised he would destroy ISIS. To prevent gay marriage, I suppose? I don’t know.

We learned that soon-to-be-former-candidate Ben Carson can memorize the opening lines of the Constitution and that he stacks words like Jenga sticks. My favorite quote: “Putin is a one-horse country.”

Ted Cruz tried to make a joke about Trump, but it fell flat, and Bette Midler tweeted that he couldn’t improvise a fart at a baked bean dinner. Which was much funnier than Ted’s line. Also, Ted likes mandates. A lot.

John Kasich tried hard to bring some sense to the occasion, but he will likely soon return to his role as the other brother Daryll on Newhart.

Oh yeah, Facebook deaths this week included Joe Cocker (again), Pete Seeger (again), and Yanni, who is still alive, to the disappointment of many.

In local news, it was the week that the Grizzlies found themselves and the Tigers stayed lost. Overton Park advocates and the Memphis Zoo remained entangled in a battle over the Greensward parking issue, with the zoo showing all the grace of a tranquilized elephant running the high hurdles. Or Jeb Bush in a debate. Your call.

And Flyer reporter Toby Sells broke the story that District Attorney Amy Weirich and her assistant Stephen Jones were being hit with a censure by the Tennessee Supreme Court’s Board of Professional Responsibility for their actions in the trial of Noura Jackson. This led to an epic comment battle on the Flyer website, with one fellow suggesting that the DA’s office was a “powder cake” ready to implode.

Which reminds me of the time a Flyer intern once wrote, “It’s a doggy dog world out there.”

And indeed it is.

Categories
Opinion The Last Word

That Sinkhole Feeling

If I had any hair, right now it would be dyed, fried, and flipped to the side, because if I had a brain left, it would feel that way. I blame it all on Arby’s, ISIS, guns, Jeb Bush, Marie Osmond, and, more than anyone or anything, IHOP.

Yes, IHOP. I should have known I was close to snapping when I heard the headline on the news. Well, I take that back. It was when I not only heard the headline on the news but also heard a headline that it was one of five trending news stories I “needed” to follow. It was something like, “IHOP Parking Lot Collapses in Mississippi.” And I just spit coffee all over myself laughing.

See? Snapping. I didn’t even care at that moment if anyone had been injured. It was just the thought of a bunch of people having just polished off their jelly-filled, bacon-covered, cheesy pancake with sprinkles towers and all leaving at once, putting such pressure on the parking lot that it just freaking caved in.

IHOP sinkhole

And look: I’m not making fun of people with some extra poundage, because I have plenty of that myself. But come on. An IHOP parking lot in Mississippi caving in? I’m sorry, but I really don’t think that’s a story anyone needs to follow, unless it’s a sign of a sinkhole epidemic, and what the hell can you do about that?

Sinkholes. There’s another one for my list of why my brain is dyed, fried, and flipped to the side. They just happen. Giant pieces of the earth just cave in with no warning. This is why I don’t drive on bridges or interstate highways. Well, there are more reasons for that malady, but you still never know when a sinkhole is going to open up and swallow everything around it.

Wouldn’t it be something if a sinkhole … ? I’m not sure what to write here. Does a sinkhole open up, or is the sinkhole what’s there after the ground gives way? See? You’re starting to worry, aren’t you? Anyway, what if a sinkhole does whatever it does during one of the Republican presidential debates? Not that I want any of those lovely people to get physically harmed in any way, which I really don’t. But what if they were all standing there at their microphones lined up like little ducks and whining about the big ol’ mean media, and all of a sudden they just vanished? Donald Trump’s hair (talked about dyed, fried, and flipped to the side!) might fly up in the air, Ben Carson would say the same thing happened to him at West Point, Marco Rubio could expense it, and no one would even notice Jeb Bush was gone.

Ack. Never mind. They are too easy a target. They just need to go away and have their debates in private where they can just answer each other’s questions. It’s embarrassing.

So I am really snapping. I’m trying my best to laugh to keep from crying right now. I’m serious. It’s kind of hard to laugh, though (other than about IHOP’s sinkhole), if you watch the news with any regularity. In about a five-minute span the other day, there were stories about American soldiers being gunned down in Jordan, a judge in Austin, Texas, being gunned down in her driveway, and in a small town in Louisiana two off-duty police officers allegedly shot a 6-year-old child five times while he was in his father’s pickup truck, and killed him. A 6-year-old child. Let me repeat that, a 6-year-old child. Shot five times.

During the same five-minute span, there was also a news teaser about an upcoming story designed to teach people how to correctly kill another person if that person invades your home. There was a video of a woman who was seemingly having a calm conversation with a man in the Middle East, and, right in the middle of it, she pulled out a huge knife and lunged at him and stabbed him. Is this what we’ve come to? Is this IT?

I try not to get too philosophical because it hurts what’s left of my brain too much, but I’m about halfway convinced that this world is on its last legs. I don’t believe in all that stuff about heaven and hell and the second coming and floods and turning into pillars of salt, but I am really starting to wonder if we are going to just self-destruct.

Okay. Enough of that. It was hard enough to get out of bed after all that, and the last thing I need, personally, is to fixate on it. I tend to fixate on things such as how frightened I am of Marie Osmond or how insane I’m going to end up if I see one more Arby’s “We have the meats” commercial, or how, after all these centuries, the Middle East is still such a hotbed of violence. I could fixate on those things all day and never get an answer. I think I’ll just go to IHOP and sit around in the parking lot. Maybe I’ll drop in for some pancakes.

Categories
Letter From The Editor Opinion

Bacon, Cheese Dip, and Rocket Scientists

A couple weeks ago, I was sitting at the bar in my neighborhood bistro eating a Lyonnaise salad. They use Benton’s smoked bacon in their salad, and it’s delicious. I raved about it to the bartender, and the restaurant owner, who happened to be sitting nearby, overheard me. He told me I could order it online.

I’d had just enough wine to decide that ordering some bacon sounded like something I needed to do. I Googled Benton smoked bacon, found the website, and began trying to order it on my phone. After a couple false starts, I managed to type in my address, phone number, and credit card number. It took a while, I admit, but it was dark in there. I ordered a couple of pounds, or so I thought. Three days later, 12 pounds of bacon showed up in a savory smelling box on my front porch. Oops.

When I went back to the restaurant a week or so later, a cook came out and gave me a five-pound bag of bacon. She said it was from Glen, the owner, because he was pretty sure I’d never gotten through to Benton Farms on my phone that night.

Wrongo, mon ami! Thanks to his generous gesture, I’d pretty much cornered the local market on Benton Smoked Bacon.

A couple days later, the Internet was filled with news of a World Health Organization story that eating bacon and other processed meats increases the risk of cancer. So I got that goin’ for me.

But at least I didn’t steal 50,000 empty Pancho’s Cheese Dip containers, like that schmo over in West Memphis. It’s hard to imagine a more stupid thing to steal. What was he going to do with 50,000 empty plastic cups that say “Pancho’s Cheese Dip”? Sell them in the want ads? How does that work?

For Sale: 50,000 empty Pancho’s dip cups, valued at $70,000. Will take $6.00, OBO.

Less than 24 hours after stealing the cups, the thief returned the booty, claiming it was a “mistake.” No kidding.

And at least I didn’t decide that slow-talkin’ brain surgeon Ben Carson would be the best candidate for president, like Iowa GOP voters did. It’s true. Carson moved into the lead, ahead of Donald Trump, in the Iowa polls, proving that Iowa Republicans are not rocket scientists. Not that they have much to choose from.

All this came on the heels of the 11-hour campaign ad that the GOP House Select Committee on Benghazi gave to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton by ineptly “grilling” her on national television. It got so bad that even Fox News switched over to other programming.

It’s been a tough week for bacon lovers, dumb thieves, and the GOP. But there’s another Republican debate coming up in a couple days, and I can’t wait. I just need to find some cheese dip.