As I said last night on the subject of GRAIN-STORING PYRAMID:
I mean guys, you realize that Carson is getting the Pyramid = Granary thing from Civilization series for the PC, right?
— Turkey Zandarumstick (@ZandarVTS) November 5, 2015
And it’s good to have a laugh at this, but over at TPM, Ed Kilgore argues that Ben Carson may be even more dangerous an ideologue than Donald Trump is, and unlike Herman Cain, he’s not going anywhere.
Cain was not a revered figure before running in 2012, beyond those who listened when he sat in for an Atlanta-based radio host. He also was not exactly a non-politician, having run unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate. But the most important reason to stop identifying Carson with Cain is simple: Cain’s loss of his once-high poll ratings were not caused by a voters getting tired with a “flavor of the month” or realizing his slim qualifications; he was brought down by a series of sexual allegations that escalated from multiple claims of sexual harassment to a long-term extramarital affair. Cain never admitted any wrong-doing, but he also never convincingly rebutted the allegations, and all the smoke convinced many observers there might be fire. He left the race on his own terms, but after losing most of his altitude.
There’s zero reason to think Carson has any such skeletons in his closet. The one thing we know about his background that is politically dangerous is his testimonial work for a subsequently fined nutritional supplement company. But unless it turns out he was paid a lot more than seems to be the case, he’s only in hot water if he cannot soon keep his story straight. Being a straight shooter is extremely important to his image.
He seems to have successfully back-pedaled on his one easy-to-understand policy heresy, a proposal to replace Medicare and Medicaid with heavily subsidized health savings accounts, which he now describes as an “option” for beneficiaries (that, too, is problematic, but not as much as his original “idea”).
So there remains what should actually disqualify Carson: his extremist, paranoid “world-view” which treats regular boring old center-left liberals as conscious and systematically deceitful would-be destroyers of this country bent on imposing a Marxist tyranny via “politically correct” suppression of free speech and confiscation of guns.
There’s unquestionably a constituency for this point of view, but we may never know whether it would outnumber the Republicans baffled or horrified by it until such time as one of his rivals or the heretofore clueless media start talking about it. If they don’t pretty soon, then one theory of the 2016 GOP nominating process could come true: conservatives want to rerun the 1964 elections, and they’ve finally found their Barry Goldwater.
And that’s some relatively scary stuff. Carson may be soft-spoken and somewhat obsessed with weird stuff like grain-storing pyramids, but the man’s worldview is pretty clear: liberals aren’t just politically opposed to Carson and the GOP, liberals are Communist enemies of the state that must be purged from the country. As Ed points out in his piece, MoJo’s David Corn has documented Carson’s hero, Bircher nutbag Cleon Skousen, pretty well.
Carson swears by Skousen, who died in 2006. In a July 2014 interview, Carson contended that Marxist forces had been using liberals and the mainstream media to undermine the United States. His source: Skousen. “There is a book called The Naked Communist,” he said. “It was written in 1958. Cleon Skousen lays out the whole agenda, including the importance of getting people into important positions in the mainstream media so they can help drive the agenda. Well, that’s what’s going on now.” Four months later, while being interviewed by Megyn Kelly on Fox News, Carson denounced unnamed Marxists who were presently seeking to destroy American society: “There was a guy who was a former CIA agent by the name of Cleon Skousen who wrote a book in 1958 called The Naked Communist, and it laid out the whole agenda. You would think by reading it that it was written last year—showing what they’re trying to do to American families, what they’re trying to do to our Judeo-Christian faith, what they’re doing to morality.” (Skousen had been an FBI employee—not a CIA officer—and mainly engaged in administrative and clerical duties; later he was a professor at Brigham Young University and police chief of Salt Lake City.) And the most recent edition of this Skousen book boasts Carson’s endorsement on the front cover: “The Naked Communist lays out the whole progressive plan. It is unbelievable how fast it has been achieved.”
Skousen’s book was a hyperbolic, far-from-sophisticated Cold War denouncement of communism and the Soviet Union. Marx, Skousen claimed, had set out “to create a race of human beings conditioned to think like criminals.” And in McCarthyesque fashion, Skousen contended that “agents of communism” had “penetrated every echelon of American society—including some of the highest offices of the United States Government.” He insisted that many “loyal Americans” had been duped by Communists into doing the Reds’ dirty work because “they are not aware that these objectives are designed to destroy us.” Thus, these fellow travelers and naive citizens were part of a “campaign to soften America for the final takeover.”
Skousen listed dozens of the goals of the commies and their useful idiots, including pushing free trade, promoting coexistence with the Soviet bloc, capturing “one or both of the political parties in the United States,” winning control of schools (“use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda”), and infiltrating the press (“get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, and policy making positions”). He said they wanted to control “key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures,” weaken American culture by degrading artistic expression (and substituting “good sculpture from parks and building” with “shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms”), and present homosexuality as “normal, natural, and healthy.” What’s more, he claimed, they wanted to discredit the Bible, eliminate prayer in schools, demean the American Founding Fathers as “selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the ‘common man,'” and support “any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture—education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.” He said they also wanted to encourage divorce and promiscuity, incite “special-interest groups” to “rise up…to solve economic, political or social problems,” and seize control of unions and big business.
If this all sounds like Glenn Beck-level “blackboard full of plans for fluoride to become the next caliphate” insanity, that’s because it is. It’s quite easy to laugh this garbage off as funny, but it’s not.
Pretty soon all Ben Carson's stump speeches will just be him standing at the podium doing summaries of Stargate SG-1 episodes.
— Denali Parton (@eclecticbrotha) November 5, 2015
This guy is leading some polls now among the GOP, and the last laugh my be on us.
Punchy
I would love to believe that, should the MSM deem this important, this would horrify the Merken Modys. This seems akin to declaring that clouds are just aborted fetus ghosts, or that Clevland has any chance against Cincy tonite. Just wacky shit.
dmsilev
It was only a couple of the Civ games that had Pyramids==Free Granaries. Civ V gives you some free workers (slave labor, presumably) instead.
Tommy Young
@Punchy: If what I have also read at TPM is true Carson has written a lot of books, around six of them in the last couple years. They are all the rage in the far Christan right, but even more so with the homeschoolers, which I hear Iowa has a lot of and that is where Carson is just taking over. As I think Josh said maybe American doesn’t know Ben that well, but the homeschoolers sure do and they flat out love the guy.
MattF
I suppose I’m glad that this stuff is (finally) coming out. But it did take a while– I guess that the media thought they had done all that was necessary by lumping Carson and Trump together into the ‘not a politician’ folder. But no, that’s not enough; you also have to look at their actual beliefs and positions. Being an actual journalist can sometimes require some actual work, actually.
dmsilev
@MattF: I think part of it is that nobody really took Carson very seriously until he started leading in some of the polls. If he was just a nut with no support, why bother digging up stuff on him? A nut with a real and apparently solid base of support is a different matter, though.
Anya
The few times I tune in to CNN I hear someone claim that Ben Carson is popular because of his positive and sunny ways. And he’s always above the fray which puzzles me because Carson goes from zero to Hitler in no time. I mean, this the guy who called POTUS a psychopath. He’s a know nothing (politics) soft spoken toxic asshole. I don’t get the media’s blind spot for him.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone :)
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
Good morning to you!
Baud
All sane candidates are alike; each insane candidate is insane in his own way.
MattF
@Tommy Young: FYI, although I’m not assuming you’re unaware of this. Every now and then I reload and what I get is a view of the old site– specifically at the post with the Jeb! PowerPoint presentation. Pretty weird. I’ve cleared the caches a couple of times, so it doesn’t seem the problem is at my end, although, of course, you never know.
Warren Terra
Has anyone considered the possibility that this blog was created as a grain storage device, rather than by space aliens for inscrutable purposes as so many believe?
Amir Khalid
@dmsilev:
I find it worrying that so many Americans can’t seem to figure out that Ben Carson is a kook. Or that they know he is and don’t care, because he says things that they want to hear.
rikyrah
While I honestly have no faith in Republican Primary Voters….Carson doesn’t remotely scare me. That’s the GOP Establishment’s problem as to how to get rid of that clown.
Hal
Ben Carson also says the things about black America being brainwashed and controlled by the democrats handing out food stamps that so many white conservatives love. It gives there own racist views a cover since it’s a black guy saying that stuff. All prominent black conservatives have that in common. Confirm white conservatives opinions on black people and other minorities and I’m return you get their support. At least up to a certain point. Somehow I still doubt Carson will be anywhere near the nominee.
BGinCHI
All of the “content” of Skousen’s “work” and, presumably, Carson’s “mind,” is the playbook of fascism.
The only difference between that and this (at least in its Aryan manifestation) is that the Jews are only part of the vast leftwing conspiracy.
/man, when you write about Carson you need to use up all your scare quotes….
BGinCHI
@Baud: I hope your insanity stays hidden until after you win the primary.
Baud
@Amir Khalid: Most Americans aren’t spending two seconds thinking about Ben Carson right now.
BGinCHI
@Warren Terra: I thought it was a tomb for our vaunted Leader. No?
If not, why does he bury himself in it every time he comes by?
Baud
@BGinCHI: I figure hanging out with the good folks on this blog will help make me look more mentally stable by comparison.
Warren Terra
Oh, and in a more serious vein, arguably more damning is this:
When I saw the headline I thought maybe he was just saying he didn’t know enough about recent developments, in particular Obama’s detente with Cuba, and was wisely explaining this gap in his preparedness. But: no! He doesn’t know the first damned thing about a fifty-year-old policy last revised twenty years ago that anyone who follows the news and cares about national policy should be familiar with, even if they’ve never considered campaigning for President in Miami.
BGinCHI
@Baud: That’s a bar I know you can get over.
Did you choose a running mate yet?
cmorenc
Hell, they also wish, in their dreams, for a re-do of the 1932 elections, which is the foundation underneath the significance of the 1964 elections in their ideological framework. Conservatives realize that the basic foundations from which a creeping trend toward European-style social democracy in the US have grown (social security, medicare, labor protections such as minimum wage) are too long, too deeply established to directly eradicate, or to do so quickly. Nevertheless, dreams of eradicating and forever banishing these facets of American society and governance are still very much alive in their minds as long-term feasible possibilities, using the approach of eroding them via a combination of privatization (e.g. switchover to “health savings accounts”) and transformation from earned entitlement to means-tested welfare benefit, until they have eroded its support base to the point where they can slowly stigmatize it and starve it to death (e.g. food stamps in Mississippi). And when that is accomplished, we will all live in a great Randian glibertarian paradise where the deserving get heavenly economic salvation, and the undeserving get the hellish damnation the lazy t-bone steak, welfare cadillac buying bums deserve.
Amir Khalid
@Warren Terra:
Does Dr Ben even have anything resembling a policy shop? He seems so unprepared on policy issues.
Germy Shoemangler
@BGinCHI:
Running mate?
Baud / Balloon-Juice Layout Redesign 2016
Tommy Young
@MattF: Yeah we are having some server issues. Frankly I keep crashing it and nobody is sure exactly way. Sorry this is happening.
Baud
@BGinCHI:
That’s on hold. Bella Q was interested, but I found out she wasn’t really a Hip Hip Artist from Idaho, so now I’m worried about the potential scandal if the media finds out. Also, do I really want a running mate that wants to be my running mate? Shouldn’t I have higher standards than that?
Germy Shoemangler
salon headline:
America’s plutocrats should be very afraid: The one simple thing that win back democracy
When did salon headlines start to suck so much? It happened gradually, until one morning I clicked on salon and it was a cesspool of overwrought, misleading headlines.
“Want more democracy? One simple trick that plutocrats hate!”
MattF
@Baud: A Mr. Cheney is here and is offering to make that decision for you.
MattF
@Germy Shoemangler: Stop eating bananas!
Baud
@MattF:
I considered that, but then I remembered IOKIYAR.
Germy Shoemangler
@MattF: Bananas? I thought it was avocados with fried eggs inside them?
It’s just sad to see what Salon has become.
Baud
@Germy Shoemangler:
If the simple trick is voting, I agree with it.
OzarkHillbilly
Yes it is funny and I am laughing my ass off.
Germy Shoemangler
@Baud:
Will you consider my idea of the Balloon-Juice Layout Redesign as running mate for you?
The Balloon-Juice Layout Redesign might be just the thing to reinvigorate your campaign.
You can focus on issues, while the Layout Redesign does attacks on the other candidates.
rikyrah
UH HUH
UH HUH
Fox Newsers Suddenly Quiet When Their ‘Hero Cop’ Revealed to Be Fraudster
Several of the cable net’s conservative commentators were quick to tie a cop’s death to ‘anti-cop violence,’ but they’ve gone silent now that it’s been proven otherwise.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/11/05/fox-newsers-suddenly-quiet-when-their-hero-cop-revealed-to-be-fraudster.html
Tommy Young
@Germy Shoemangler: LOL. Salon used to be my “go to place” for original reporting. And well Glenn Greenwald when he was there (yes I know it is a love/hate thing here with him here). IMHO the pub/site seems to have just gone downhill. Sure I love the stuff Robert Reich writes from time to time. And of course Heather/Digby.
I had not connected the click bait headlines as much until you mentioned it. I tend to surf through a few sites throughout the day. See a headline and open the tab, open tab, open tab. Then I save to Pocket (best web app ever) to read later in the day. Almost always I click through to the Salon article and it isn’t what I thought it would be and rarely do I get more than a few graphs into it before I hit delete.
Not sure what is going on over there, but I have a limited number of bookmarks I can follow and they are about to get booted from said list.
NotMax
Hey (regarding the image), I was booted from tryouts for “The $20,000 Pyramid” because, they told me, I was the first person to ever score 100% on the written test (administered in their offices) and that was deemed suspicious.
jibeaux
@Warren Terra: change it to “nut storage” and you’ve got yourself a plausible enough theory
Germy Shoemangler
@Tommy Young: I used to enjoy reading it years ago, It seemed more serious. Now it seems the best thing about it are the comments. SOME of the comments.
Do they pay their writers? Or is it a Huff Post “paid in exposure” deal over there?
Germy Shoemangler
@Tommy Young:
But don’t they just lift that from his own blog? I’m starting to think just visiting the original source material might be less annoying.
Speaking of Reich, I can’t remember the last time any of the networks invited him on to share his opinions about anything.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If I understand the subtext to Carson’s assertion it’s some black conservative Christian thing that the Old Testament Jews were really all blacks, these black Jews did everything cool in the Old Testament and the ancient world (Cleopatra was black and not a Greek and so on…) until the Devil inspired white folks stole it from them. So how is this going to play white racists vote the GOP is based on now?
NotMax
@Tommy Young
A cup of really hot, really strong tea ought to do the trick.
/Douglas Adams
:)
Tommy Young
@Germy Shoemangler: You are correct it used to be much more serious and that was what I liked. Yes they pay their writers. A contributor like Robert Reich, maybe not. But the day-to-day staff yes. Now I can go to one of the blogs at Washington Monthly or Mother Jones and get smart, original analysis like I used to get at Salon. I still visit the site daily, but more out of sheer habit than anything else at this point.
MomSense
@rikyrah:
Fox being Fox. No wonder the people who watch their broadcast are less informed than the people who don’t.
Lurking Canadian
No matter which nut job they pick, he (or Carly) is guaranteed about 45% of the vote and at least all of McCain’s electoral votes.
That’s probably as high as they can go, but one mistimed catastrophe could be enough to push them over the edge.
As always, the problem isn’t the Republicans, it’s the craven media cowards inside the Beltway who refuse to call a spade a shovel.
Tommy Young
@Germy Shoemangler: The last time I’ve seen him on TV was on The Nightly Show w/ Larry Wilmore. I personally think he is one of the best economic minds of our time (read 3-4 of this books), but heaven forbid you ask his opinion on say Meet The Press or This Week.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
I wish he were getting it from Civ. I know I heard it well before the first Civ came out.
And now for something much more entertaining: Pennsylvania’s attorney general seems to have decided that if she has to go, she’s going to take others down with her.
NotMax
@Lurkiung Canadian
Dancing barefoot on razor wire there.
Tommy Young
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
As a dude that has been playing Civ since the early 90s, I can easily say the history in a flipping video game is more accurate then the bizarro world Carson lives in.
Ryan
I plan to defeat ISIS by using the knowledge contained in an Elder Scroll, can I be preznit now?
schrodinger's cat
Why are the tags/categories both on the top and bottom?
Tommy Young
@schrodinger’s cat: Well I got beat so bloody over them not being on the bottom of the page I put them there. I kept them at the top, and I’ve been told I am wrong a hundred times, because that is where IMHO they should be. Brought to you by “design by committee.”
BGinCHI
@Baud: How about a wrestling match between Scarlet Johansen and Emilia Clarke.
Anti-heteronormative alternative: George Clooney vs Daniel Craig.
Grung_e_Gene
As a Liberal I am voting for Ben Carson. It’s because as a Liberal I Hate America. Seriously. For years Conservatives and elected Republicans have declared, Liberals hate America, we don’t accept American Exceptionalism and we want the Nation brought down. I can think of no better President to usher in the end of the American Era than Ben Carson. He will utterly destroy the Republic.
Kay (not the front-pager)
First time commenting on the new site design!
Does Carson’s belief that the pyramids were granaries mean that he also believes the pyramid shape has magical preservation qualities? Like, does he think we should all sleep under pyramids to stay young, or store our milk under pyramids to stay fresh?
My optimistic side says there is no way this gullible naif could be elected president (though he probably could make it to the republican nominee). My pessimistic side says he just might sneak in, which would be a disaster for the country and the world.
Some guy
I actually have a copy of The Naked Communist. A birthday gift from a pal who knows my political ideas only to well.
Hard core wingnut claptrap that was all the rave with 60s Era American Fascists. And this is not a pamphlet, it’s a long screed shaped like a book. Carson will have a hard time walking that back when normals (Naked Communist dupes) get the conspiracist rhetoric he is proudly spouting.
OzarkHillbilly
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism: Please pass the popcorn.
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
Link fail.
Lurking Canadian
@Kay (not the front-pager): since there is very little empty space inside the pyramids, at the very least he must think they have magical grain compressingqualities.
Bobby Thomson
@Tommy Young: does that mean the American Revolution was won by a half Native American assassin?
Bobby Thomson
This Carson cat has a wicked sense of humor.
Pyramids are grain storage facilities.
The Hebrews ate manna.
Therefore, Mannatech = pyramid.
He was like the Riddler, leaving clues in plain sight.
benw
@Tommy Young: the way you had to increase your tax rate if you wanted to buy things in Civ, for example, is far more reality driven than any single Republican candidate.
And I’m really liking the redesign, TY. It’s clean, easy to read, and the back/next arrows make transitioning between posts super easy.
JPL
@Lurking Canadian: It’s time to admit that Joseph just wasn’t that good at design.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@cmorenc: 1932 was the best election in the history of the Republic, at least since the 1860 election won by Lincoln. Not only did we get Social Security and Medicare, we got the public works administration projects, which we’re still reaping the benefits of. Those guys built all the major National Parks infrastructure. A few weeks back I was driving the Blue Ridge Parkway and marveling at how well thought out all those projects are any how we’re still reaping the benefits. The scenic pullouts, the arched fieldstone bridges that cross over the parkway, just everything is so aesthetically well thought out and functional. It’s the same with Skyline Drive in Shenandoah National Park, The Going to the Sun road in Glacier, the facilities in Yellowstone, etc. Plus they built the large western dams that allowed agriculture in the more arid parts of California and the Pacific Northwest. Plus, if Roosevelt doesn’t win that election, he’s not President during WWII. Can you imagine the consequences for the world if some isolationist know nothing Republican had been in office as Hitler rose to power and started invading all of Europe? These are all bad things according to the modern day conservative – well except beating Hitler – even though they’re sympathetic to his ideology. They hate him because everyone does, and because they have a vision of Israel and the Jews bringing about the rapture, which makes his Jew hating bad, not because they disapprove of fascism.
bemused
@Tommy Young:
Be grateful you and team didn’t roll out redesign during a full moon. Studies debunk the legend that people are more stabby than usual during a full moon but I say you can’t be too careful.
Hang in there.
shell
.
Tommy Young
Well have you folks seen the interview he did with the Miami Herald. They asked him a lot of questions about Cuba and to say he knew nothing would be an understatement. He was asked about the “Wet feet, dry feet policy” and he said he wasn’t familiar with it and he’d need to study it more.
Now as I heard somebody else say, and I can say it myself, I am in fucking landlocked Illinois. I don’t know a single Cuban-American that I am aware of, and I’ve known of this policy for what, going on 20+ years. See I read. How can anybody think this man should be POTUS is beyond my understanding.
Amir Khalid
@Kay (not the front-pager):
As an observer (from outside America) of this Republican
festival of idiocypresidential campaign, I dare not say “never” about Dr Ben’s chances of winning the Oval Orifice.Chris
@rikyrah:
I have faith in them not to elect a black guy. Not to an office as high as the presidency, at any rate.
Tommy Young
@benw: Thanks I appreciate that. A lot of folks hate all the white space. I wish that wasn’t the case but I put all the white space in for a reason, I find it makes reading content easier (it is “clean” as you said), and reading content is what this site is about. I love a site like TPM, heck I am a paying member, but there isn’t an inch of that site where they have not either put an ad, story, or link. That just isn’t my cup of tea. I knew I couldn’t make everybody happy, that is just impossible with the design of anything, but a little stunned how powerful the pushback was. Most polite and constructive, some not so much :)!
NotMax
@bemused
Is it true that Wolf Blitzer turns into a real journalist during a full moon?
Peale
Just releas the emails and get it over with.
schrodinger's cat
Ben Carson belongs in a lunatic asylum not the podium of a Presidential primary debate.
schrodinger's cat
@Tommy Young: Having them in two places seems redundant. I would just prefer them to be at the top. I guess we will just agree to disagree.
Calouste
That doesn’t mean that his competitors aren’t going to try to suggest it, like the push-poling in South Carolina in 2000 that suggested that McCain had fathered a black child.
bemused
@NotMax:
Unpossible.
Gin & Tonic
@Tommy Young: I don’t think I’ve been a part of the “beating you bloody” crowd, as I’ve only commented a handful of times on design issues, and I know you’re doing a lot of work that we can’t see. But, dude, try to look at the possibility that, if you’re “told a hundred times” you’re wrong, maybe it’s because you’re wrong? You like the META info at the top, and I’m sure that’s what you tell your clients and what you do on all your other sites. But this place is a little different, and the META info (sorry, I never know if they are tags or categories) is used by the authors *differently* than it’s used on other sites, and the reader expectations are different than on other sites.
NotMax
@schrodinger’s cat
You obviously (or fortuitously) missed the foofaraw relating to this last night.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tommy Young:
I hate it with a hot burning desire for hell and damnation to rain down upon you and Cole for all of eternity, but don’t worry, I’ll get used to it eventually. Might even grow to like it. And then you fvcks will change it all again and I’ll have to relearn everything all over again and I will wish for hell and damnation to rain down upon you and Cole for all of eternity until I finally get used to…
But that’s just me. ;-)
Redshift
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I think it’s simpler than that, it’s just standard fundamentalist “everything must be explained by things from the Bible,” like creationism, combined with know-nothing “those eggheads aren’t so smart, they’re just guessing, and your guess is as good as theirs.”
Yutsano
@BGinCHI: Your Cavuto marks are getting quite the workout!
Tommy Young
@schrodinger’s cat: No we are in total agreement. 110%. They are at the bottom because I got beat bloody over it and “broke” and gave in. Which I guess I shouldn’t have, but I felt if I just threw out a few “bones” maybe people would get off my back. I am just sick of people here telling me I don’t know what I am doing to be very blunt.
I just read an article about the release of WordPress 4.4 next month. About the only updates are all related to how META data, which of course is what is below the title, and the desire of many WordPress Developers for years to expand what can be done with it, because it is in fact a cool/powerful tool.
But people here tell me they don’t use it and want it at the end of the article, not under the title, because they don’t scroll up. In fact, and I am not making this up, they were upset at me last night I didn’t just delete all the META data under the title. I said I did what you asked at the bottom, removing it at the top isn’t even up for discussion.
Amir Khalid
I dare not listen to Dr Ben’s new rap radio ad aimed at African-Americans. Is it as bad as I suspect?
Tommy Young
@Gin & Tonic: No, everybody in this comment thread, you included, have been more than polite and honestly I don’t mind people both disagreeing with me and pushing back. Two points: (1) See my other comments about WordPress 4.4 and (2) Ponder for a second if things are different here because they were not set-up correct in the first place. Maybe people will get used to the way WordPress and posts are supposed to work.
Redshift
Hey, Tommy, you’re probably already aware of this, but on the mobile site, using the Back button now works to navigate within the site after you’ve gone to the comment someone is replying to, but we’re back to it taking you to the top of the page if you follow an external link and then hit Back.
(Either that or I’m getting the old mobile site entirely, I can’t tell.)
Just Some Fuckhead
How does the fall of communism 30 some years after the release of Skousen’s book figure into the whole American takeover thing? False flag operation?
rikyrah
@Hal:
Says the mofo who was raised on welfare, in the projects, by an illiterate single mother.
And, as I will say once again..
GOT EVERYTHING HE HAS BECAUSE OF A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM.
But, Black America is brainwashed.
Phuq outta here, you slave catcher you.
Tommy Young
@Redshift: Apple device I assume. Just sent off to my partner. He is the Apple guy. I am the Andriod guy.
Redshift
@Tommy Young: No, Android. You don’t get off the hook that easily. ;-)
NotMax
@Tommy Young
Strictly FYI, here’s a screenshot of what I meant when mentioned that some of the Categories are below the fold.
@Steepljack
Actually closing tag fail. Only link was to the comment being replied to. Seemed self-evident which that was, so left it be.
Just Some Fuckhead
Is this Tommy Young the same Tommy that talks about his folks all the time?
Iowa Old Lady
Mr IOL does R&D on fuel economy and emissions in diesel engines. When I read him Carson’s theory that pyramids were pointy silos, he laughed and said he’d have to consult with Carson about some issue he’s working on.
So it’s ridiculous on the face of it that a total amateur could engineer an emissions system or perform brain surgery, and everyone knows that. But lots of people think they know how to govern, or teach, or, I guess, do archeology better than the trained experts. So why is that?
I think it’s because that stuff is out in the open where we see it and think we know it. We watch politicians and have been in classrooms. Hey, run that government like a household. Just tell those kids what you want them to know. Which R politician was it who said the dangerous part was unknown unknowns? Stopped clock and all that.
Tommy Young
@rikyrah: How people, people that benefited from these programs can say this shit is just beyond me. Are there people, both white and minorities that don’t want to work and get benefits, commit fraud, sure.
But the vast, vast majority of these folks would rather a good job. The ability to get a free, or at least affordable education. Healthcare, daycare, to provide for their families.
I really think anytime somebody like Carson says this, putting aside all the other shit he says, this one thing should make him ineligible for any elected office outside of say dog catcher.
Steeplejack
@Yutsano:
Welcome back to the old nym!
Tommy Young
@NotMax: No I got that. I assumed that would be the case on smaller monitors or a laptop, but that is as far as I can push the “Mega Menu.”
01jack
I’m curious (and not being facetious), but does anyone really use the category tags for anything? Other than the authors, for an opportunity too add some snarky-humor editorializing to a post (e.g., assholes, David Brooks is a dickhead).
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
They just went underground, man! They’re inside the house!
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
When I hovered over them, they showed as three separate links. That’s why I wondered what you were linking to.
Also: nym fail.
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Yes.
benw
@Just Some Fuckhead: they ended Communism in the Soviet Union because commie agents have successfully infiltrated all levels of US government and media, turning the US into the true, earthly Socialist paradise, the culmination of which was the election of a radical, Kenyan-born, Muslim, Socialist, Atheist to the presidency. The USSR was just the beta version of what the US is now. It’s weird in a way that in Carson’s worldview, the radical left has not only won the culture war, but has completely taken over America. We finally won!
Tommy Young
@01jack: This is my two cents if you care.
No people don’t use the Categories here. I think that is for several reasons, at the top of the list is the Front Pagers are all over the place with their usage of Categories. I can see all the Categories of course and they are all over the place. At times making no sense. In some instances there are 5-7 Categories for basically the same topic.
So one they are not that useful even if you click on one.
Two, they are not promoted well or the benefits of them not presented to users. As you might guess I read a lot of “geeky” blogs and Categories are important to me. I can see how a casual user of the Internet would not know what they are, nor how helpful they can be.
Steeplejack
@01jack:
That seemed to be the consensus last night (i.e., added snark).
benw
@Tommy Young:
why does everyone want to put the most incompetent, biggest assholes in charge of the dogs? Why do that to the poor dogs?
TerryC
@Anya: I think Carson’s popularity is due to older religious people really NOT wanting to be racist, even though they are, and because he’s so soft-spoken and Christian, he’s a black person they can feel safe around – and therefore feel better about their feelings about other blacks.
rikyrah
@Amir Khalid:
the ad is as bad as you suspect
NotMax
@Tommy Young
Seems that reducing the font size to match the size of the listings under About Balloon Juice would remedy that lickety-split. Not a high priority, obviously. Just sayin’.
Screenshot grabbed from a 21″ monitor, which isn’t large compared to many on the market now, but isn’t all that small either.
NotMax
@Steeplejack
Apologies. Saw that after posting and excoriated self accordingly.
5:17 a.m. here, and working on third double martini. Have a service call from Sears arriving at 8-ish in the morning, so may as well just stay up until after that.
rikyrah
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I was under the impression that Tommy Young is not our Tommy from downstate Illinois with the good parents, who adores his niece, cat, and LEGO room.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Steeplejack: I don’t see this ending well.
satby
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: I have friends who believe that stuff. They’re black, but not really conservative. They also went on about fluoride in the water until I asked them to stop (in front of me) because I hate hearing old Bircher tripe.
Tommy Young
@rikyrah: No that would be who I am.
Watchman
“If only everyone knew how *really* dangerous this man is” happens to be rich irony coming from someone suspended from work for and then summarily fired for harassing women at his place of work.
srv
Guy batted 1000 in 1958 and he’s crazy?
Why is it that liberals only believe in Vast Right-Wing Conspiracies?
Germy Shoemangler
JEB!
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/hw-bashes-cheney-and-w-for-empowering-him.html
Amir Khalid
@rikyrah:
As I recall, that is indeed the commenter Tommy who volunteered to help with the site redesign.
Tommy Young
Got to love Wonkette:
Omnes Omnibus
@benw: The blog is full of cat people.
bemused
The Bush family must think releasing Bush Sr’s book now helps Jeb somehow but I’m not seeing it. To be fair, HW is way up there in age if not now, when.
Felonius Monk
@NotMax:
Wolf Blitzer isn’t good enough to become even a faux journalist during any phase of the moon.
satby
@Gin & Tonic: This.
srv
@Tommy Young: How many pyramids do you think had to blow up before they got conservative about the engineering?
How would you have implemented complex grain dust control mechanisms in 3000 BC?
Betty Cracker
@bemused: I’m wondering that too, since it basically confirms all theories about Bush II being Cheney’s puppet. Maybe Bush I is sabotaging Jeb’s campaign, either wittingly or un….
Steeplejack
@NotMax:
No prob. Just pokin’ you.
ETA: I did the all-nighter thing Tuesday-Wednesday. Sometimes it just happens.
Steeplejack
@rikyrah:
No, they are one and the same.
japa21
1) I agree to some extent with TerryC above. Carson is a non-threatening black man who says things certain white people want to hear. He is all the things a black man is supposed to be: soft spoken, “humble”, knows his place. In other words he is the antithesis to that brash, loud and arrogant n*****r in the White House. There are, of course, people who like the loudness, brashness, arrogance of Trump, but that’s okay because he is white. If Carson came across that way, he wouldn’t register any higher than Jindal in the polls.
2) Tommy, hang in there. I have never met a site redesign that I have liked…until I got used to hit. You will never please everybody any time, and you will never please anybody all the time. But the change is growing on me. One thing I do like is the recent posts listing. I hated having to scroll and scroll and scroll to see if there was a post I wanted to read, as I am not able to be here as much as some people who read, apparently, every post as soon as they come up.
Steeplejack
@Just Some Fuckhead:
I’m under a gag order.
bemused
@Betty Cracker:
I’d think this would be a good question for media to ask.
satby
@Just Some Fuckhead: man, where have you been the past few days? We’re almost at a TBogg unit a few posts
downsideways.Edited to add Tbogg unit achieved.
japa21
@srv: More like.001
benw
@Omnes Omnibus: I heard the thing about skull fking a kitten and thought it was all dog lovers here…
Randy P
@srv: Google “grain storage ancient Egypt” if you want an actual answer instead of silly speculation trying to make sense of the pyramid hypothesis.
Germy Shoemangler
rikyrah
” Reform’?
‘Reform’?
They want to DESTROY Social Security and Medicare – plain and simple.
………………………………………
Debate over Medicare, Social Security, other federal benefits divides GOP
By Robert Costa and Ed O’Keefe November 4 at 4:22 PM
Republicans are openly feuding over whether to seek drastic changes to Medicare, Social Security and other entitlement programs, risking a potentially damaging intraparty battle ahead of the 2016 elections.
The rift was exemplified this week by the GOP stars of the moment. Newly installed House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said he plans to pursue a “bold alternative agenda” that would include major revisions in entitlements. At the same time, leading Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump railed against proposals to end or significantly change Medicare.
The dispute is part of a larger GOP argument over which policies Republicans will present to voters next year and how far the party should go in pushing for changes. Three years ago, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Ryan, his running mate, faced withering Democratic attacks after endorsing dramatic overhauls of Medicare and Social Security that proved unpopular.
The Republican presidential candidates are jockeying to be seen as in solidarity with Ryan, the darling of party elders, or with Trump, a voice for grass-roots voters.
This is the biggest fault line in the party: whether Republicans should be talking about reducing benefits,” conservative economist Stephen Moore said in an interview. “Republicans have fallen on their sword for 30 years trying to reform Social Security and Medicare, but the dream lives on — and it makes everyone nervous. Some see a political trap; others see it as necessary
…………………
Generally, there is a class split among Republicans over whether to reduce spending on entitlement programs. Polling of Republicans conducted in the past several years by the Pew Research Center showed that party supporters without college degrees are more supportive of maintaining Social Security and Medicare benefits, while college graduates are more supportive of cutbacks.
Trump has shrugged off Ryan’s proposals as political missteps. “He’s been so anti-Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, in a sense,” Trump said of Ryan last month on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Now, he would say he hasn’t been, but [Democrats] certainly played that up hard” in the 2012 race.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/debate-over-medicare-social-security-other-federal-benefits-divides-gop/2015/11/04/166619a8-824e-11e5-a7ca-6ab6ec20f839_story.html?tid=pm_politics_pop_b
Calouste
@Tommy Young:
They hate how they needed help from someone else instead of just being born to the right parents like almost everyone else at their level. They know they will never really be accepted as part of the upper class because of their upbringing. And their remedy to that is to deny and destroy their past, and everything related to it. If they are one of the few to make it to the top with government assistance, that makes them special, and therefore the chances of other people to make it up the ranks must be destroyed.
I wouldn’t be surprised that how more success people with assistance in their early lives have had, the higher the chance is that they want to deny and destroy it. It’s a black mark to them that becomes more visible the higher up in society they get.
Germy Shoemangler
@benw: Puppy wants to reclaim bed from cat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bx67UQUwdas
The puppy is balloon-juice commenters. The cat is the layout redesign.
Grumpy Code Monkey
So, is the fear that if Carson were nominated he would easily beat Hillary (or Bernie, or whoever) in the general? Is that being shown in the current polls? I mean, he’s only truly dangerous if he wins.
All of the GOP candidates are toxic assholes with reality distortion filters cranked up to 11, and I’ll guarantee Carson isn’t the only one with such extreme views towards liberals. The others just hide it a little better.
Hell, the GOP may do us a favor by nominating Carson; if his views really are that extreme, he may shock normally apathetic Democrats into getting their ass into a voting booth.
srv
Jetmen fly formation with an A380, because they can.
Sherparick
@Warren Terra: I don’t think so. Rather, it will be taken as evidence of his “sincerity” and “common sense approach to problems. Because most Evangelical voters in Florida and South Carolina don’t give a fig about “Cuba” and “Cuban refugees,” except like all immigrants, they would prefer them to not be here in the good ol’ USA.
The sad thing is that a large amount of the Republican electorate, particularly the part most motivated to vote, believes all this stuff made up by Skousen and Barton.
You know who else thought Skousen had the gospel truth. Ronald Reagan. Both of Skousen’s sons worked in the Reagan White House. http://mskousen.com/2011/02/the-super-bowl-ronald-reagan-and-ben-franklin/
Carson bears some similarities with Reagan, except he is more deeply religious then Reagan was, but similar in their appeal to the right wing, who read and believe Skousen and Barton. (P.S. it is not just Glenn Beck. Since his beginning, Rush Limbaugh has pushed the meme that “Liberal and Environmentalists = Socialist = Communist = hidden agenda to destroy Capitalism and the United States.” It is the running trope, along with the “those People” wanting free stuff, that goes through right wing talk radio and blog sites, from the big boys to the small fry.)
Renie
New design is fine with me but the ads are appearing YOUUUGGEE at the top for me. Is this in honor of tRump or is it just me seeing it this way. (Mac/Safari) also (PC/IE and PC/Firefox)
Renie
@Betty Cracker: G HW Bush is claiming the change in Cheney from when he was Prez to when W was is due to Cheney’s wife’s influence. So he’s saying W was not really in charge, he let his VP tell him what to do and his VP was doing what his wife wanted him to do.
These guys are unbelievable with passing the blame around.
satby
@Tommy Young:
It’s called “user acceptance testing” and it’s normally done before go live. You guys elected to do it after..
Germy Shoemangler
I worship you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raFKTHkIh2s
Hildegarde sings Cole Porter
Was Carson listening to this?
satby
@Renie: I close them all with the feedback that the ad is covering the page. Yeah, they’re big.
Paul in KY
@BGinCHI: Pretty sure Mr. Skowson had racist views on everybody but Mormons (probably). Would be good to hit him with some selected quotes on Blacks, Jews, etc.
Paul in KY
@Amir Khalid: If he does have one, I bet they are seriously drinking!
benw
@Germy Shoemangler: LOL. I bet Tommy sees it the other way around, with commenters as the cat, and he and his redesign buddy being the puppy slowly dragging us along! :)
Germy Shoemangler
http://www.mediamatters.org/blog/2015/11/04/ben-carson-praised-fox-news-for-providing-him-a/206636
DivaCowboy
140+ comments, and not one Pyramid Scheme joke. sigh.
Germy Shoemangler
@benw: Except the cat wins in the end, as will the redesign.
Paul in KY
@Grung_e_Gene: You forgot a ‘buwahahahahahahaha’. Should always include that.
Paul in KY
@Lurking Canadian: He never said it was well designed!
Paul in KY
@Chris: They put a black guy on the Supreme Court. If they are completely sure he’s the ‘anti-Obama’, they might go ahead and do it.
lol
Not entirely worried about Carson because his actual campaign appears to be one giant grifting operation.
Germy Shoemangler
@lol: I don’t think even he expects to win the nomination. From what I’ve read about how his campaign is organized, it seems to be more of a book-selling and money-grabbing operation.
Shakezula
Nothing to say, just wanted to applaud you for following Denali Parton/Jade Helms Deep/Whatever nym he’s using to mock wingnuts at the moment.
Frankensteinbeck
The concept wasn’t that the voters would get tired of them. The concept was that Romney was the only candidate who wasn’t such a deeply flawed clown that they self-destructed as soon as they entered the spotlight. Romney was merely a terrible politician.
This is really really important to understanding conservatives. They look around, and this is obviously true. They have a huge amount of evidence to support their world view. Gay marriage gets more and more legal. They get a lot of weird looks when they say God told them to do something. Rap music lyrics terrify them. They see interracial couples portrayed on TV and in movies like this is no big deal. The government often interferes with beating and raping their wives and daughters the way God intended. Worst of all, a black man is president.
These fears aren’t new. They were told this stuff was coming during desegregation, and even before. They are living their nightmare. We blow it off, because we like all these changes, but they have watched their world crumble, and they are not making it up.
Death Panel Truck
@Warren Terra: “Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan!”
benw
@Germy Shoemangler: oh, for sure! The redesign has already won. We’re just living in its horrific Orwellian world, now. Doubleplusgood!
rikyrah
Well, Tommy who is our Tommy…..
once I get used to the arrow for the previous and future posts….it’ll all shake out for me with the redesign.
Another Holocene Human
@Amir Khalid: Was that a dare?
It’s a minute fucking long, which is 30s too long. The rapping is terrible. That wooden flute or whatever the fuck it is needs to die. Sound balance is way off. Half of it is zzzzz inducing Carson quotes.
It’s not quite funny enough on its own but I’m sure the internet will parody it.
geg6
@Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism:
I hope she names all the names. I suspect she is, at least mostly, being railroaded by the old boys’ network in Harrisburg. Not a whole lot of women in power positions in PA. And she has really stirred the pot with the email stuff. They are going down like dominoes every time she releases more. I’m loving it.
Elie
I don’t think that Carson will make it anywhere near the White House, though he could further ruin the Republican primaries. This guy, is crazy and that is going to be more and more obvious the more exposure he gets. You see, he doesn’t think he is crazy so can’t self correct or check himself. Sure sure, his handlers have him walk stuff back a little, but he himself has no sense of “whoa, I gotta be careful with sayin….”. And I also believe underneath (and not too far underneath at that), is the not so nice Dr. Carson — I’m thinking that Dr.Carson will show himself with the right stimulus … I’m perfectly fine with him in the lead of the Repub candidates — the longer the better cause when he goes, it will be a super nova if he continues to hold so much of the Repub morons in thrall…
Gin & Tonic
@geg6: That’s entertaining as all hell, frankly. But every time something like this explodes I can’t help thinking how incredibly stupid people are. Work e-mail is for work, personal e-mail is for the rest. It’s not a hard concept. I can give my entire 2+ gig cache of work e-mail to my boss, or the FBI, or your grandmother, and the only data they’ll find is boring work stuff.
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Tommy Young: I hate to be redundant, and I’m trying to be polite, but I have to ask:
Why are you unwilling to allow a site to be designed the way the site users use it as opposed to how you want us to use it?
It’s not a lack of knowledge of categories or of how useful they can be (setting aside how smug and condescending that sounds) – Balloon Juice commenters/authors simply use categories differently from users at other sites. Often (mostly perhaps) the categories are an elaborate set of inside jokes to make readers/commenters here laff. Thus the way they were before is perfectly useful to Balloon Juice users, even if people disagree with how we use them.
Not to be rude, but is that a Cole decision, or is it because that’s how you want us to use them?
And, in my case, at least, “overabundance of white space” means between comments. It seems excessive, and is part of the discomfort issue us olds have when reading the new site. Again, I’m really trying to be polite.
Seanly
@dmsilev:
Well, the speech is from the late 90’s so he could be using Civ 2 or 3 as his reference source.
I love also how he said it was scientists talking about aliens having built the Pyramids. Um, erm, no, not scientists advocating that.
And don’t think of the Worker Unit in Civ games as slave labor. Otherwise, the entire game would be too depressing: “Oh, my slave labor was killed by the slave warriors of that other nation. Better send my slave tanks to crush them.”
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@Germy Shoemangler: It seems to be purely about the grift, along with feeding the outsized ego.
Felanius Kootea
@Elie: I saw a Daily Show clip the other day with Carson complaining about the media and “gotcha.” It may have been just my imagination but I thought I saw a mixture of horror and embarrassment on his wife’s face for a fleeting moment before she looked away from her husband. She didn’t seem comfortable. Made me go “hmm.”
Brandon
Ben Carson: The AM radio candidate.
Brandon
The most shocking thing about Cleon Skousen’s views is that he doesn’t once mention precious bodily fluids.
satby
@Brandon: Now I want heart buttons ;)
Heliopause
One of the not funny things about Carson is that in hypothetical general election matchups he generally performs much better than the other GOP candidates. In fact, one recent poll had him trouncing Hillary by 10%. I don’t have a comprehensive theory for this other than that “independents” see him as the thoughtful, soft-spoken candidate and haven’t yet been made aware of how truly unhinged he is. If that explains it then one hopes it will all eventually get out in the open. If the reason for his popularity is something other than that, look out.
Matt McIrvin
@Heliopause: Carly Fiorina and Donald Trump have both had their turns already as the candidate who performs best against Hillary Clinton in the head-to-head. Now it’s Carson.
It seems to depend on the amount of neutral-to-positive media buzz the candidate is getting.
Also, these head-to-head questions for the candidates who weren’t considered major a year ago (Trump, Carson, Fiorina) tend to be underpolled, and the averages can be swung easily by one or two polls. That one that had Carson beating Clinton by 10% is a poll from Quinnipiac that’s way out of whack with results coming out of other polling houses over the same period of time.
brantl
And the amazing thing that none of the Rethug voters are catching on to, is that Faux Noise’s whole purpose-in-being is to cloud their minds with propagandistic chaff, which they claim the liberals are doing. Ironic.
Heliopause
@Matt McIrvin:
From late August to present RCP has the following in their database:
Clinton vs Trump: Clinton wins 9, Trump 2, ties 2
Clinton vs Fiorina: Fiorina 3, Clinton 2
Clinton vs Carson: Carson 7, Clinton 0, ties 2
During Fiorina’s little surge she and Clinton polled very close to one another, and the pollsters are losing interest in this matchup now that the surge is over.
Clinton beats Trump in most hypotheticals and barring an unlikely makeover of Trump’s public image there doesn’t seem to be much chance he could beat her.
But Carson has been consistently beating Clinton for over two months. “Independents” seem to have a greater liking for him than the other GOP nutjobs, and it would be interesting to know why.
chromeagnomen
@Baud: baud/sarah p & t