Yet More Right-Wing Grifters Gotta Grift: Ben Carson Edition
And Wonkette tells us that National Review IS ON IT:
...to completely obliterate the good will you built up from starting a foundation to do brain surgery for poor kids?... Dr. Ben Carson, 2016 GOP presidential nomination hopeful/flirt... being a student of the scientific method, he is apparently extremely determined to find out.... Mannatech (yes, manna-tech, they wanted the religious overtones of naming it after the miraculous God-bread that fell from the sky in the Old Testament, combined with, y’know, modern science and technology)... our best buddies over at the National Review:
In 2007... Texas attorney general... sued... charging them with orchestrating an unlawful marketing scheme that... offered testimonials from individuals claiming that they’d used Mannatech products to overcome... autism, non-Hodgkins lymphoma... life-threatening heart conditions... toxic shock syndrome, heart failure, asthma, arthritis, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, Attention Deficit Disorder, and lung inflammation....
Needless to say, Mannatech products can’t actually cure any of these diseases.... [That] did not... dissuade Carson.... Carson’s... most recent feat was... a promotional video on Mannatech’s website, giving a testimonial... [that] culminates... [as] Carson suggests that Mannatech is the key to achieving the original diet handed down to us by God in the Garden of Eden:
The wonderful thing about a company like Mannatech is that they recognize that when God made us, He gave us the right fuel. And that fuel was the right kind of healthy food. You know we live in a society that is very sophisticated, and sometimes we’re not able to achieve the original diet. And we have to alter our diet to fit our lifestyle. Many of the natural things are not included in our diet. Basically what the company is doing is trying to find a way to restore natural diet as a medicine or as a mechanism for maintaining health.
Look, Ben Carson is perfectly within his rights as an American and as a human being to take advantage of the placebo effects of scam unscience.... He’s smart enough to know that... Mannatech asks him to speak... as Dr. Ben Carson... brain surgeon, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner... to be used in this, uh, MannaManner. Stay MannaBlessed.
And, of course, the kicker. Go to Jim Geraghty's piece in National Review on Ben Carson. Look at the ads on that page. You find the same grifting--although about keeping your wealth rather than keeping your health--as Ben Carson engaged in:
[5 Sure Signs the U.S. Economy is Finished](http://moneymorning.com/ext/articles/rickards/5-signs.php: "A well-connected Washington, D.C. insider...
...recently issued a major warning that could dramatically affect ALL U.S. citizens, but would hit everyday Americans particularly hard. His name is Jim Rickards and he's a financial market advisor to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees the CIA, the NSA, and 14 other U.S. intelligence agencies. And with his knowledge about the inner workings of the government, the economy, and the U.S. banking system, he sees some big, major changes ahead for the United States.
In fact, what he's predicting just might be the final nail in the coffin of the middle class...
