Trump's Latest ad.(He is doubling down even after the Iowa speech backlash).
https://instagram.com/p/-B_ci4mhdA/
https://instagram.com/p/-B_ci4mhdA/
Dr. Ben Carson is Not Smart
By neuroguy
Monday Nov 09, 2015 2:44 PM PST
I’ve followed the phenomenon of Ben Carson’s popularity among the GOP base with a mix of bemusement, irritation, and, like most of you, disbelief. What prompts me to submit my first blog entry is the pervasive misuse of the word “smart” by journalists of all stripes when describing Dr. Carson. We’ve all seen a variation of this point in almost every story: “He is obviously very smart because he is a neurosurgeon but…”. Even journalists I admire confess confusion at how he can be so smart yet harbor such outlandish ideas.
“Smart” is a multifaceted cognitive feature composed of excellent analytical skills, possession of an extensive knowledge base that is easily and frequently augmented, possession of a good memory, and being readily curious about the world and willing, even eager, to reject previously accepted notions in the face of new data. Being smart includes having the ability to analyze new data for validity and, thinking creatively, draw new insights from existing common knowledge.
As a neurologist in practice for 20 years and one who has worked closely with many neurosurgeons I can assure you, Dr. Ben Carson does not meet the above criteria. Not even close. He is a painfully ignorant person. This is an easy point to defend. From his statements on the pyramids as grain silos, his rejection of extensive, confirmatory evidence of climate change, to his glaringly unworkable alternative to Medicare, most Americans out of the conservative media bubble are familiar with the litany of uninformed, intellectually shabby statements he has made over the last few months.
My point is that neurosurgeons are not automatically smart because they are neurosurgeons. To get through training and have any sort of practice they must be disciplined, have immense ego strength, a reasonably good memory, and have mental and physical stamina. However, like many other doctors, they are not always smart. Neurosurgeons, like other surgeons, can be outstanding technicians but that is different than being intellectually brilliant. A truly brilliant internal medicine specialist once told me that “you can train anyone to perform a procedure”. I’ve seen surgical assistants perform technically difficult procedures with stunning alacrity. It’s the old rule: do something enough times and you will get damn good at it.
One feature shared by neurosurgeons far out of proportion to other doctors is a large ego. All doctors can be accused of having big egos but more than other specialists, neurosurgeons- Ben Carson is exhibit 1 in this regard-have pathologically large egos. You know, the kind of ego that requires not one large self-portrait prominently displayed in an ostentatious mansion but a second of Mr. Ego sitting with Jesus; at the right hand of Jesus.
So, professional journalists, bloggers, and all those who post comments at Daily Kos and elsewhere, please stop using the word smart to describe Dr. Carson in the first clause of your sentence. Leave that one out and stay with the subsequent clauses detailing his ignorant beliefs and intellectually sloppy policy proposals.
If there is any interest in this essay I will be happy to explain, from the perspective of a practitioner, why his proposals for health-care are stunningly unworkable and, well, dumb.
By neuroguy
Monday Nov 09, 2015 2:44 PM PST
I’ve followed the phenomenon of Ben Carson’s popularity among the GOP base with a mix of bemusement, irritation, and, like most of you, disbelief. What prompts me to submit my first blog entry is the pervasive misuse of the word “smart” by journalists of all stripes when describing Dr. Carson. We’ve all seen a variation of this point in almost every story: “He is obviously very smart because he is a neurosurgeon but…”. Even journalists I admire confess confusion at how he can be so smart yet harbor such outlandish ideas.
“Smart” is a multifaceted cognitive feature composed of excellent analytical skills, possession of an extensive knowledge base that is easily and frequently augmented, possession of a good memory, and being readily curious about the world and willing, even eager, to reject previously accepted notions in the face of new data. Being smart includes having the ability to analyze new data for validity and, thinking creatively, draw new insights from existing common knowledge.
As a neurologist in practice for 20 years and one who has worked closely with many neurosurgeons I can assure you, Dr. Ben Carson does not meet the above criteria. Not even close. He is a painfully ignorant person. This is an easy point to defend. From his statements on the pyramids as grain silos, his rejection of extensive, confirmatory evidence of climate change, to his glaringly unworkable alternative to Medicare, most Americans out of the conservative media bubble are familiar with the litany of uninformed, intellectually shabby statements he has made over the last few months.
My point is that neurosurgeons are not automatically smart because they are neurosurgeons. To get through training and have any sort of practice they must be disciplined, have immense ego strength, a reasonably good memory, and have mental and physical stamina. However, like many other doctors, they are not always smart. Neurosurgeons, like other surgeons, can be outstanding technicians but that is different than being intellectually brilliant. A truly brilliant internal medicine specialist once told me that “you can train anyone to perform a procedure”. I’ve seen surgical assistants perform technically difficult procedures with stunning alacrity. It’s the old rule: do something enough times and you will get damn good at it.
One feature shared by neurosurgeons far out of proportion to other doctors is a large ego. All doctors can be accused of having big egos but more than other specialists, neurosurgeons- Ben Carson is exhibit 1 in this regard-have pathologically large egos. You know, the kind of ego that requires not one large self-portrait prominently displayed in an ostentatious mansion but a second of Mr. Ego sitting with Jesus; at the right hand of Jesus.
So, professional journalists, bloggers, and all those who post comments at Daily Kos and elsewhere, please stop using the word smart to describe Dr. Carson in the first clause of your sentence. Leave that one out and stay with the subsequent clauses detailing his ignorant beliefs and intellectually sloppy policy proposals.
If there is any interest in this essay I will be happy to explain, from the perspective of a practitioner, why his proposals for health-care are stunningly unworkable and, well, dumb.
Ben Carson is furious that CNN quoted Ben Carson
By Laura Clawson
Friday Nov 06, 2015 7:24 AM PST
Did Ben Carson really have a violent childhood in which he hit a classmate in the head with a lock in his hand, among other incidents? CNN has gone looking for anyone who knew Carson when he was young and remembers the Republican presidential candidate having the violent temper he has repeatedly described in his books and speeches, but no one seems to remember Carson that way. This allegation that Ben Carson may not have been dangerous and violent in his youth has angered Ben Carson.Carson is outraged that CNN would dare question his accounts of his own life (the details of which have shifted from telling to telling) and because—get this—the media didn't apply this level of scrutiny to President Obama! Reminded that "it's called vetting" and provided with specific instances of questions the media raised about Obama's autobiography, Carson laughed "give me a break."
By Laura Clawson
Friday Nov 06, 2015 7:24 AM PST
Did Ben Carson really have a violent childhood in which he hit a classmate in the head with a lock in his hand, among other incidents? CNN has gone looking for anyone who knew Carson when he was young and remembers the Republican presidential candidate having the violent temper he has repeatedly described in his books and speeches, but no one seems to remember Carson that way. This allegation that Ben Carson may not have been dangerous and violent in his youth has angered Ben Carson.Carson is outraged that CNN would dare question his accounts of his own life (the details of which have shifted from telling to telling) and because—get this—the media didn't apply this level of scrutiny to President Obama! Reminded that "it's called vetting" and provided with specific instances of questions the media raised about Obama's autobiography, Carson laughed "give me a break."
What you all did with President Obama doesn't even come close—doesn't even come close to what you guys are trying to do in my case. And you're going to keep going back, trying to find, he said this 12 years ago. It is just garbage.
Interviewing people about the pivotal events in a candidate's past when the candidate's own public accounts of those events have changed from telling to telling? Outrageous! And way, way beyond years of questions about the president's birth certificate, amiright? But Carson certainly has mastered the "I'm a victim of the media" tone. CNN interviewed classmates of Carson from elementary, middle, and high school as well as neighbors, and the most that anyone said was that they had heard a rumor of one of the violent incidents Carson has repeatedly described—with the details of his account shifting over time—while another said that Carson's book was the first he'd heard of any violence, even though "It would have been all over the whole school." Never mind that, though. According to Carson, "the story is well documented." Documented by his own claims, which, again, have changed. But that should be all the documentation we need, apparently. It's a lot like his story of being held up at gunpointand bravely directing the robber to point his gun at a fast food worker—another story no one could verify but Carson insisted we believe because he said it was so. Did no one ever question Ben Carson during his entire career as a surgeon? Is that what's going on here—that before running for president he hadn't been challenged in so long that he thinks he can just say whatever he wants, however far from the truth, and everyone around him will nod and feel grateful for his wisdom?This fucking guy belongs in a looney bin, not being one of of the top contenders for the GOP nomination. That he would even be seen in public declaring the following shows how gone he is...
Ben Carson says he has better Syria 'sources' than White House or CIA
By Hunter
Friday Nov 13, 2015 11:01 AM PST
The White House and a former director of the CIA are quite certain that Dr. Ben Carson's claim of China having a military "presence" in Syria is wrong. The national press, too, can find no evidence for this claim other than Dr. Ben Carson's own say-so, and have politely told him so.
If you're Dr. Ben Carson, then, you have a choice to make. You can say you misspoke, or quietly drop the subject and hope nobody brings it up again. Or you can insist that the sitting administration and the entire intelligence apparatus of the United States are misinformed and only you, the retired brain surgeon with no foreign policy experience or expertise whatsoever, know the full truth.
Because reporters still remain stubbornly skeptical that Dr. Ben Carson's foreign policy contacts and extensive network of spy satellites have uncovered something that nobody else in the foreign policy world knows, Carson's campaign has assured reporters that they will be releasing evidence for Carson's claims at some point this weekend. Won't that be fun?
Ben Carson says he has better Syria 'sources' than White House or CIA
By Hunter
Friday Nov 13, 2015 11:01 AM PST
The White House and a former director of the CIA are quite certain that Dr. Ben Carson's claim of China having a military "presence" in Syria is wrong. The national press, too, can find no evidence for this claim other than Dr. Ben Carson's own say-so, and have politely told him so.
If you're Dr. Ben Carson, then, you have a choice to make. You can say you misspoke, or quietly drop the subject and hope nobody brings it up again. Or you can insist that the sitting administration and the entire intelligence apparatus of the United States are misinformed and only you, the retired brain surgeon with no foreign policy experience or expertise whatsoever, know the full truth.
"I have several sources that I've got material from, I'm surprised my sources are better than theirs," he told reporters after a town hall event.
As are we all, I expect.
Because reporters still remain stubbornly skeptical that Dr. Ben Carson's foreign policy contacts and extensive network of spy satellites have uncovered something that nobody else in the foreign policy world knows, Carson's campaign has assured reporters that they will be releasing evidence for Carson's claims at some point this weekend. Won't that be fun?
Tonight's Debate may be Benji's last stand. He and Cruz have basically switched Numbers. Will he go out fighting, making up new stuff, or just disappear? One Book(Betonline) thinks his time is near.
The air went out of Ben Carson: Race, the right, and the fall from front-runner to afterthought
Ben Carson stood center stage not so long ago. What does his collapse say about Republicans and race?
Chauncey DeVega
Topics: Ben Carson, Elections 2016, Race, Editor's Picks, aol_on, News
(Credit: Reuters/Mark Kauzlarich)
If “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” then Ben Carson was, for a moment, one of its master performers.
He was the front-runner for several months during the 2016 GOP presidential season. Ben Carson is now free-falling in the polls. Carson’s gaffes and ignorance have overridden his appeal for white conservatives in his role as their new “best black friend” and human shield against the (obvious) charge that his supporters are racists.
Ben Carson fantasies garnered him support among evangelical movement conservatives. And as with most fabulists, the con has finally been exposed. His decline in public opinion polls is a direct consequence of that halcyon haze wearing off among the Republican base.
Ben Carson is a child of American popular culture. He crafted his exaggerated and ridiculous personal mythology from those shared stories and references.
Carson’s stories are first and foremost grounded in how “It’s not a lie if you believe it.” This is the life mantra of George Costanza, one of the main characters on the hit “Seinfeld.” It is shared by Ben Carson.
For example, the website Politifact has ranked most of his claims as lies. Carson’s book “Gifted Hands” is marketed as an autobiography, but journalists have discovered it is rife with half-truths. Perhaps Ben Carson is also inspired by the Seinfeld character J. Peterman, who purchased the life stories of Kramer for $750 and then proceeded to tell them as his own.
“The Education of Sonny Carson” was a 1974 autobiographical film based on a best-selling book of the same title. Besides sharing a surname, the movie’s plot is eerily similar to Ben Carson’s now discredited story of his upbringing as a “ghetto” youth in inner-city Detroit.
In the movie, the main character joins a gang, commits robbery, goes to jail and then finds redemption by working as a community activist.
In his book, “Gifted Hands,” Ben Carson told stories of his violent impulses, where as a teenager he tried to kill a friend with a knife, threatened his own mother with a hammer, was running amok in the streets and then found “salvation” by praying in a bathroom. This was Ben Carson’s Road to Damascus moment. The young thug wannabe Sonny Carson was thus replaced by the sleep inducing, studious, peaceful and kind “new” Ben Carson.
Ben Carson has chosen to use rap music to appeal to African-American voters. One of his campaign spokespeople described the choice as follows:
Black voters have rejected Ben Carson and the Republican Party not because of unreflective emotion or an inability to comprehend the specifics of public policy. The reality is precisely the opposite: black voters are extremely sophisticated. They understand that the Republican Party practices white identity politics, cultivates white racial resentment and seeks to undermine the life chances and voting rights of non-whites.
GOP primary voters skew older than the party’s general electorate. This cohort likely has fond memories of the landmark 1980s TV show “Benson,” which featured actor Robert Guillaume and revolved around the rise of an African-American from butler to gubernatorial candidate.
While Robert Guillaume was very conscientious about how black actors were depicted on television, older white Republican voters are likely very enamored with a TV character that they misperceived as being extremely passive, compliant and submissive to white people. Implicit bias and the subconscious hold great sway over the behavior of (white) voters. Could it be that Ben Carson is somehow associated with the agreeable and affable black TV sitcom character Benson in the minds of his public?
Ben Carson, like other black conservatives from the Reagan-era onward, is a professional “best black friend” for the Republican Party. In that role, Carson and his ilk can say profoundly racist and derogatory things about black Americans, such as how the latter are dumb, stupid, stuck on a plantation, ignorant, lazy, have “bad” culture and only vote for Democrats to get “free stuff.”
As human props, black conservatives do the day-to-day work of white supremacy in the Age of Obama and the post-civil rights era, as they strive to distract from how the Republican Party is the United States’ largest white identity organization.
With his extreme fantasy life and what appears to be a cognitive break from reality, Ben Carson is an African-American version of American humorist James Thurber’s character Walter Mitty. As featured in a New Yorker short story published in 1939, Walter Mitty was a man who lived a mundane life but, to compensate, imagined all manner of heroic scenarios:
It would seem that Ben Carson is a type of Renaissance Man, an actor-politician-surgeon-performance artist for contemporary American politics and a Republican Party that is utterly detached from reality. Ben Carson believes his own lies and fantasies. His movement conservative public is committed to believing such delusions, about Carson and about other matters of politics, life and society.
It is clear that Ben Carson is more than qualified to be either a reality TV show or improvisational comedy star. Should Ben Carson be president of the United States of America? Absolutely not. Ben Carson’s fantasies would be the ruin of all the people who live in the world as it is, as opposed to the delusional one that Carson and his Republican supporters have imagined for themselves.
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/12/the...d_the_fall_from_front_runner_to_afterthought/
| |||||||
| 08:30 PM | 1001 | Ben Carson | -175 | ||||
| 1002 | Jeb Bush | +150 | |||||
| 1003 | Donald Trump | +1000 |
The air went out of Ben Carson: Race, the right, and the fall from front-runner to afterthought
Ben Carson stood center stage not so long ago. What does his collapse say about Republicans and race?
Chauncey DeVega
Topics: Ben Carson, Elections 2016, Race, Editor's Picks, aol_on, News
(Credit: Reuters/Mark Kauzlarich)If “all the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players,” then Ben Carson was, for a moment, one of its master performers.
He was the front-runner for several months during the 2016 GOP presidential season. Ben Carson is now free-falling in the polls. Carson’s gaffes and ignorance have overridden his appeal for white conservatives in his role as their new “best black friend” and human shield against the (obvious) charge that his supporters are racists.
Ben Carson fantasies garnered him support among evangelical movement conservatives. And as with most fabulists, the con has finally been exposed. His decline in public opinion polls is a direct consequence of that halcyon haze wearing off among the Republican base.
Ben Carson is a child of American popular culture. He crafted his exaggerated and ridiculous personal mythology from those shared stories and references.
Carson’s stories are first and foremost grounded in how “It’s not a lie if you believe it.” This is the life mantra of George Costanza, one of the main characters on the hit “Seinfeld.” It is shared by Ben Carson.
For example, the website Politifact has ranked most of his claims as lies. Carson’s book “Gifted Hands” is marketed as an autobiography, but journalists have discovered it is rife with half-truths. Perhaps Ben Carson is also inspired by the Seinfeld character J. Peterman, who purchased the life stories of Kramer for $750 and then proceeded to tell them as his own.
“The Education of Sonny Carson” was a 1974 autobiographical film based on a best-selling book of the same title. Besides sharing a surname, the movie’s plot is eerily similar to Ben Carson’s now discredited story of his upbringing as a “ghetto” youth in inner-city Detroit.
In the movie, the main character joins a gang, commits robbery, goes to jail and then finds redemption by working as a community activist.
In his book, “Gifted Hands,” Ben Carson told stories of his violent impulses, where as a teenager he tried to kill a friend with a knife, threatened his own mother with a hammer, was running amok in the streets and then found “salvation” by praying in a bathroom. This was Ben Carson’s Road to Damascus moment. The young thug wannabe Sonny Carson was thus replaced by the sleep inducing, studious, peaceful and kind “new” Ben Carson.
Ben Carson has chosen to use rap music to appeal to African-American voters. One of his campaign spokespeople described the choice as follows:
“Reaching [black voters] on a level they appreciate and follow and see if we can attract their consciousness about the election,” Carson campaign spokesman Doug Watts told ABC News. “They need to get involved and express their voice through their vote.”
Carson’s rap campaign song is insulting to black voters both on an aesthetic level and because of its premise.
Black voters have rejected Ben Carson and the Republican Party not because of unreflective emotion or an inability to comprehend the specifics of public policy. The reality is precisely the opposite: black voters are extremely sophisticated. They understand that the Republican Party practices white identity politics, cultivates white racial resentment and seeks to undermine the life chances and voting rights of non-whites.
GOP primary voters skew older than the party’s general electorate. This cohort likely has fond memories of the landmark 1980s TV show “Benson,” which featured actor Robert Guillaume and revolved around the rise of an African-American from butler to gubernatorial candidate.
While Robert Guillaume was very conscientious about how black actors were depicted on television, older white Republican voters are likely very enamored with a TV character that they misperceived as being extremely passive, compliant and submissive to white people. Implicit bias and the subconscious hold great sway over the behavior of (white) voters. Could it be that Ben Carson is somehow associated with the agreeable and affable black TV sitcom character Benson in the minds of his public?
Ben Carson, like other black conservatives from the Reagan-era onward, is a professional “best black friend” for the Republican Party. In that role, Carson and his ilk can say profoundly racist and derogatory things about black Americans, such as how the latter are dumb, stupid, stuck on a plantation, ignorant, lazy, have “bad” culture and only vote for Democrats to get “free stuff.”
As human props, black conservatives do the day-to-day work of white supremacy in the Age of Obama and the post-civil rights era, as they strive to distract from how the Republican Party is the United States’ largest white identity organization.
With his extreme fantasy life and what appears to be a cognitive break from reality, Ben Carson is an African-American version of American humorist James Thurber’s character Walter Mitty. As featured in a New Yorker short story published in 1939, Walter Mitty was a man who lived a mundane life but, to compensate, imagined all manner of heroic scenarios:
In the decades since, “Walter Mitty” has entered the lexicon as shorthand for political ridicule — he’s even in the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. It defines him as “a commonplace, unadventurous person who seeks escape from reality through daydreaming.”
But that’s not the impression you get as Thurber’s tale begins with the words “We’re going through!” It’s a voice Thurber compares to “thin ice breaking,” the voice of a fearless naval flight commander. Mitty is in “full-dress uniform,” with a “heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye.” The commanders’ crew members are clearly frightened by an approaching hurricane.
But Mitty barks out orders with confidence, allaying the crew’s fears as the plane’s cylinders pound “pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.” “The Old Man’ll get us through,” grinning crew members reassure each other.
At this moment of triumph and vindication, Mrs. Mitty’s voice breaks in to chastise the commander with the words, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!”
Thus yanked from his reverie, Mitty briefly returns to the humdrum world happening outside his head, then lapses back into a series of other fantasies invariably starring himself as the hero.
Like Walter Mitty, Ben Carson has conjured up an equally rich dream world where he saved white classmates from rampaging black hordes during the 1968 riots, earned a scholarship to West Point, stood up to a gunman at a Popeye’s fried chicken restaurant, had angels visit him during his dreams to give him answers to a test, commissioned a painting with Jesus Christ and was featured in Yale University’s newspaper as one of the school’s “most honest” students.But that’s not the impression you get as Thurber’s tale begins with the words “We’re going through!” It’s a voice Thurber compares to “thin ice breaking,” the voice of a fearless naval flight commander. Mitty is in “full-dress uniform,” with a “heavily braided white cap pulled down rakishly over one cold gray eye.” The commanders’ crew members are clearly frightened by an approaching hurricane.
But Mitty barks out orders with confidence, allaying the crew’s fears as the plane’s cylinders pound “pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa.” “The Old Man’ll get us through,” grinning crew members reassure each other.
At this moment of triumph and vindication, Mrs. Mitty’s voice breaks in to chastise the commander with the words, “Not so fast! You’re driving too fast!”
Thus yanked from his reverie, Mitty briefly returns to the humdrum world happening outside his head, then lapses back into a series of other fantasies invariably starring himself as the hero.
It would seem that Ben Carson is a type of Renaissance Man, an actor-politician-surgeon-performance artist for contemporary American politics and a Republican Party that is utterly detached from reality. Ben Carson believes his own lies and fantasies. His movement conservative public is committed to believing such delusions, about Carson and about other matters of politics, life and society.
It is clear that Ben Carson is more than qualified to be either a reality TV show or improvisational comedy star. Should Ben Carson be president of the United States of America? Absolutely not. Ben Carson’s fantasies would be the ruin of all the people who live in the world as it is, as opposed to the delusional one that Carson and his Republican supporters have imagined for themselves.
http://www.salon.com/2015/12/12/the...d_the_fall_from_front_runner_to_afterthought/
