Well, I for one was expecting this foot to finally fall in the case of Dr. Ben Carson. I mean, I honestly think it’s a pathological self-destructive thing with Black Republicans which are already harder to find than a Pink Unicorn Pegasus.
I mean you gotta go pretty far up the self-denial tree to ignore Goldwater opposing the Civil Rights Act, Strom Thurman running on the segregation platform, Nixon’s Southern Strategy, Racial Gerrymandering, Housing Discrimination, Police violence and Voter Suppression that’s still going on right now which are all supported and implemented by GOP policies. Recently there was Alan “Marvin the Martian” Keyes who was just a plain creepy religious zealot who invented the “Birther Myth” way back in 2006, then there was Herman “Foghorn Leghorn” Cain who apparently had a sexual harassment problem, followed by Sheriff David “Yosemite Sam” Clark who had a big problem with his jail inmates suddenly dying — all of whom seemed quite willing to let themselves be used by the GOP for it’s own ends as contrasted with Michael Steele who simply would not put up with being treated like a “handy token” at this years CPAC, even though they definitely owe him since he was heading the RNC when Republicans took over Congress in 2010.
So that’s pretty ungrateful.
Then you have Ben Carson who is practically a legend when it comes to being a pediatric neurosurgeon, but apparently doesn’t have any expertise or practical knowledge of any other subject. There was the time that he said “Obama Care was the worst thing since Slavery” which is a clear failure to understand the difference between a plan to offer and pay for health care for 30 Million Americans and a 200 years of racial terrorism for petty economic gain, then he immediately whined that “Liberal Liars” were daring to accurately quote that fucking nonsense, then there was the time he decided to link LGBT Americans to NAMBLA, after which he said he never compared them to pedophilia or bestiality although that’s exactly what he did, then he compared the Obama IRS department to Nazi Germany because they delayed some 401(c3) paperwork just to ensure it was legal, he also apparently doesn’t believe in evolution, and thinks science is a set of “fairy tails where the devil inspired Darwin” even though He’s A. DOCTOR.
Now it appears he’s stepped himself into another self-generated pile of dog poop.
Dr. Ben Carson who considers himself a devote of one Jesus of Nazareth who once said “The meak shall inherit the earth”, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” and “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God!" seemed to have somehow forgot all that when he became Director of HUD — being chosen for this role because I guess he qualifies as an expert on public housing because he’s “From the Hood!” or something — had not long ago decided things were apparently “too cozy for the homeless.”
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ben Carson does not like the creature comforts, at least not for low-income Americans reliant on the government for a helping hand.
As he toured facilities for the poor in Ohio last week, Mr. Carson, the neurosurgeon-turned-housing secretary, joked that a relatively well-appointed apartment complex for veterans lacked “only pool tables.” He inquired at one stop whether animals were allowed. At yet another, he nodded, plainly happy, as officials explained how they had stacked dozens of bunk beds inside a homeless shelter and purposefully did not provide televisions.
Compassion, Mr. Carson explained in an interview, means not giving people “a comfortable setting that would make somebody want to say: ‘I’ll just stay here. They will take care of me.’”
Carson then followed up on his Scrooge-ness by cutting the budget for homeless Americans by $3 Billion.
Housing Secretary Ben Carson is fine with President Trump’s massive cuts to his agency's budget — whatever those are.
In Senate committee testimony on Wednesday, the neurosurgeon with no government experience seemed either unconcerned with, or unaware of, the extent of cuts Trump has ordered for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Carson praised one agency, the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, as “effective” — with no mention of how Trump’s budget proposal calls to eliminate it.
He also defended a $3 billion slashing to the Community Development Block Grant program, which funds local housing projects nationwide. Carson said it was not among his agency’s “primary goals.” The HUD website, though, still features a page praising the program, noting that it has created thousands of jobs and helped more than 200,000 seniors and families.
This is besides the fact that rather progressive programs like those in Utah that provide fairly middle-class living conditions for the chronically homeless has reduced the rate of people in that condition by 91%.
The chronically homeless, on the other hand, are a subset of the homeless population that is often the most vulnerable. These are people who have been living on the streets for more than a year, or four times in the past three years, and who have a "disabling condition" that might include serious mental illness, an addiction or a physical disability or illness.
According to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, that represents about 20 percent of the national homeless population.
By implementing a model known as Housing First, Utah has reduced that number from nearly 2,000 people in 2005, to fewer than 200 now.
…
Then in 2003, Lloyd Pendleton went to a conference on homelessness in Chicago.
At that conference, a founder of the Housing First philosophy, Sam Tsemberis, told him that chronically homeless people cost the government a lot of money when they're living on the street, because of services like emergency room visits and jail time.
HUD estimates that annual cost as between $30,000 and $50,000 per person.
Housing them simply costs a lot less.
So now we discover that while Carson was cutting funds for the homeless he was using government funds to buy his office $31,561 of new dining room furniture and another $161,000 on lounge furniture and when a longtime HUD employee pointed out that the legal limit for such spending was only $5,000 she was reported told “you can’t buy a decent chair of $5000” and then demoted and retaliated against for simply stating the law to Trump’s hand picked transition loyalists.
A senior career official says she was demoted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and replaced by a Trump appointee after refusing to break the law to approve an expensive redecoration of secretary Ben Carson’s office.
Helen Foster claims she faced retaliation for exposing a $10 million budget shortfall and for protesting that she was prevented from handling sensitive information because she was believed to be a Democrat, reported The Guardian.
The 47-year-old Foster filed a complaint with the office of special counsel, which is not related to Robert Mueller’s investigation, alleging that HUD officials violated whistleblower laws, and she seeks a public apology, compensatory damages and reinstatement as the department’s chief administrative officer.
Foster notified department officials that planned improvements to Carson’s suite at HUD headquarters exceeded federal spending limits, and she says colleagues told her “$5,000 will not even buy a decent chair.”
This story has even manage to reach the The View where Carson’s friend Sunny Hostin found the entire situation “very disappointing.”
Sunny Hostin revealed that she knows Ben Carson personally and found it horrifying that the Housing and Urban Development Secretary spent $31,000 in tax payer money on a dinning room table and chairs for his office. They then went on to spend an additional $165,000 on “lounge furniture” for their headquarters.
During Wednesday’s discussion on “The View,” the hosts addressed the spending amid the White House budget, which proposes a $6 billion cut to the HUD budget. Half of those cuts would come from the Community Development Block Grant, which is a long-standing program that helps with everything from rental assistance to Meals on Wheels for seniors.
“Tom Price spending tax payer money…on private jets,” Behar began. “I think he’s gone… Scott Pruitt is using tax money to fly first class and he’s got plenty of money. And I think (Steve) Mnuchin also has issues. So, they just do whatever they want in this administration and there’s no consequence.”
Interior Sec. Ryan Zinke is also in trouble after spending for private jet rides around the Caribbeanand military helicopter rides. When asked to provide details on the travel, Zinke refused.
But it was Hostin that was furious. She recalled her husband, a physician, knowing Carson while he was studying in medical school. Carson would invite the couple to their home, which she said was fairly modest.
“I’m very disappointed in Ben. I’m very disappointed in some of the things that he says,” Hostin said. “I remember you and I were talking about two kids from the projects. Remember when he said he didn’t want to make the projects too cozy because he didn’t want people to feel comfortable enough to stay there. And I remember tweeting out saying, ‘So, poor kids like myself, I should be penalized by the government and not have a comfortable place to live’ and you’re spending $31,000?”
Yeah, so let’s just reverse Robin-Hood this and steal from the poor to lavish even more on the Rich — because that’s the Trump Way isn’t it?