Monday Morning Read - Telling Ghost Stories

In this morning's read, Charles P. Pierce tells us that the lying "ghost stories" told by Republicans to their credulous base is nothing new:

As with so many things, this all began with Ronald Reagan. Those people who claim that Donald Trump is sui generis in this regard are very much the same as those people who find him a unique political phenomenon, instead of the logical end product of almost 40 years of conservative politics. Reagan was as full of crap as the Christmas goose, and in the same way that Trump and Carson are. Trump has dancing Muslims. Reagan had the fictitious welfare queen in Chicago. Carson had his attempt to stab a classmate. Reagan had his march into Auschwitz to liberate the death camp there. The difference is that Reagan slung his hooey with a smile and a wink. Trump has weaponized Reagan's fabulism and that seems to make a difference to some people. But nothing that has happened in this campaign, up to and including the latest spasm of outright bigotry and fear-mongering, is new in the recent history of Republican politics. It always is the person who tells the best ghost stories who wins.  [snip]

It is Trump, abetted by the initial cowardice of his fellow Republicans and by the pure bumfuzzlement of the elite political press, who has made this a campaign of competing ghost stories. American politics has been slouching toward the supernatural for three decades now, since Ronald Reagan marched into Auschwitz in his mind. The whole system is clogged now with corporate money and ectoplasm. Nothing moves. All ghosts are essentially spirits who find themselves trapped.   (our emphasis)

This is why truth and facts are of no concern to these people.  In reality, the bigger the lies, the more successful you are as a right- wing Republican politician.  That's because the Republicans' angry, frothing base likely has been living in an impenetrable right- wing post- truth bubble their entire lives.  They're been predictably susceptible to fearing any number of boogie men over the years:  unions, blacks, Hispanics, gays and lesbians, secular progressives, etc., etc. Therefore, nothing is "true" to them except their deepest gut fears and prejudices, which have been carefully nurtured by decades of right- wing misdirection and fabulism.  

Trump, Carson, Cruz And A Media In Denial

David Atkins at Washington Monthly says, contrary to pundits who've been looking for the Republican crackpots charlatans "outsiders" like "Rump" Trump, Dr. "Mental Ben" Carson (a.k.a., Bennie the Blade), and Sen. "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz to succumb to the "establishment" candidate (current contender Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio), it's looking less and less likely that it's going to turn out that way:

Journalists need to acknowledge this reality. Trumpism is not a passing fad in an otherwise responsible GOP electorate. It’s all that’s left of a Republican Party that long since gave up any pretense at serious governance and instead became the unapologetic, Koch-owned plutocratic political arm of the resentment-fueled outrage machine created by talk radio, Fox News, and Breitbart.  [snip]

Good journalism shouldn’t continue to pretend that both partisan sides of American politics are equally extreme, and that the best public policy lies in middle-of-the-road compromise between the two. Good journalism should analyze and expose the fact that we now have a unilateral problem centered in the Republican Party, and try to figure out how to keep Americans adequately informed of that so that we can right the ship before it’s too late.

Unfortunately, in our humble opinion, "good journalism" in America hasn't existed for years, nor will it reappear.  It's been superseded by a scramble for the sensational, for eyeballs on screens and page hits, and a necessity not to be seen as "favoring" one side of a political argument over another.  If journalism "is the activity of gathering, assessing, creating, and presenting news and information," what passes for a news media in this country has long since largely abandoned the "assessing... information" element in favor of regurgitating "he said, she said" talking points.  

There will always be charlatans and demagogues in political life;  it's just a sad, and potentially tragic, commentary that the one institution that can help "right the ship"  has been helping to steer the ship into the rocks.

BONUS:  Here's a sample of the treacherous filth these demagogues are putting out, with no pushback.

"Offensive And Bizarre Are In First And Second Place"

Steven Colbert bids Gov. Bobby "Piyush" Jindal farewell in his "Hungry for Power Games."  Best line comes when he takes off on Piyush's 2013 speech imploring Republicans to not be "the stupid party" (starting at about 2:33).  Home run.



BONUS: Speaking of bizarre, here's a ghost written column purportedly by foreign affairs expert Ben "Mental Ben" Carson suggesting that the refugees be rounded up in Syria / Iraq in "sanctuary" zones in "contested" areas, which would make it easier for either Assad's forces or ISIS to attack them. Brilliant! (h/t to faithful reader P.E.C.)

Why Republican Elites Are In Panic Mode - Exhibit B

Today, frequent blind squirrel Ruth Marcus slips on her reality glasses and focuses her op/ ed on Dr. "Mental Ben" Carson, with a swipe at co- front runner Donald "Rump" Trump.  She says:

"... [the question] about Carson isn’t whether the retired neurosurgeon is a fabulist, and therefore whether he has the right character to be president. It’s whether he has the knowledge and understanding to be president. The evidence is rather conclusive that he doesn’t.

Why single out Carson? This is a fair question in a Republican race whose other front-runner is Donald Trump. But Trump’s brand of blustery unpreparedness is more self-evident, more accessible, than Carson’s. Trump will build a tremendous wall. He’ll stop making stupid deals. If voters are credulous enough to be seduced by his supposed managerial skills and convinced by his grandiose promises — well, that’s on them, though woe to the rest of us.

Carson’s ignorance is of a more subtle sort, delivered with his genial bedside manner. It unfolds not in indignant sound bites but in paragraphs of pure blather. Carson doesn’t just need fact-checking. He needs thought-checking.  (our emphasis)

Meanwhile, both Rump and Mental Ben continue to score with the appallingly awful Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ Crazy Party base:

A new poll finds Donald Trump surging well above his chief 2016 rival Ben Carson after week that included a Saturday Night Live appearance and a GOP debate.

Forty-two percent of likely GOP voters supported Trump in a five-day rolling poll released Friday by Reuters/Ipsos, up from 25 percent last week. Carson was also polling around 25 percent last week and his support among GOP voters has since dipped slightly.  (our emphasis)

Mmmmm.  Let's see.  Forty- two percent plus 25 percent equals [tap tap click click] 67 percent (!!!). No wonder the money boys and the insider Republican elites are "in panic mode."

Contrary to the wishful thinking in the Republican hack writers guild that the Rump and Carson melt downs are finally happenin' (no, this time for realz!), the co- front runners show no signs that their bizarre ideas and behavior are negatively affecting their standing among the folks residing in the asylum right- wing bubble.  In fact, the more bizarre the talk and the walk, the more they're clasped to the bosoms of the True Believers.  For this despicable party, the chickens cuckoos are coming home to roost with a vengeance.

The Republican Debate - It Was All About The Stupid

Here's Steven Colbert's take on the recent Republican recitation of talking points "debate," with appearances by "Very Serious" candidates Sen. Ted "Tailgunner Ted" Cruz (R-Calgary), Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio (R-Evian) and Donald "Rump" Trump.



"The Nightly Show's" Larry Wilmore also did quick strikes on "Mental Ben" Carson, the "Jesus-y" mix of religion and fact- free politics, as well as "Glug Glug's" admiration for "overpaid" welders.

Republican Media Strategy: "Ignore The Charlatans Behind The Curtain, Look At Hillary!"

When questioned about the focus on Dr. Ben "Mental Ben" Carson's increasingly disturbing accounts of his life story (which is all he has to run on) and Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio's history of credit card abuse and fiscal mismanagement, Republicans have the same answer:  Look over there, at Hillary!!!

Here's emptiest suit in American politics Reince Priebus on this morning's Today Show looking like he's about to pass a large, jagged stone when asked about the Scariest Republican Crackpot and "Glug Glug:"

Here's hate radio host and Meet the Press Press the Meat panelist (thanks, Chuck "Not My Job" Todd!) Hugh "Manboobs" Hewitt when asked to comment on the Carson/ Rubio follies, and Carson's complaint that he's being unfairly targeted by the "liberal media" (like Rupert "Aargh!" Murdoch's Wall Street Journal, no less):

HUGH HEWITT:
Well, to quote Dr. Kissinger, it has the additional benefit of being true. Like what he had as an objection to this week, is there were four scandals, but only two were reported. Marco Rubio does not have a scandal. Ben Carson does not have a scandal. Hillary, however, had her non-disclosure agreement revealed by Lachlan Markay, Washington Free Beacon.

And Reuters obtained a letter from the Teneo Group refusing to answer any questions about Hillary Clinton. So there were four scandals, two of them were real, involving Hillary Clinton. They were not reported. One, about Ben Carson, West Point, not a scandal, heavily media. And the one about Marco Rubio was all puff.

Mmmhmm.  You keep telling yourselves that.  Anyway, good to see the talking points are getting out in a timely manner.

You can cut the desperation with Ben Carson's knife.

BONUS:  More "liberal media" (in the form of Chris "Krispykreme" Christie and Mike "Huckster" Huckabee) going after Mental Ben.

BONUS II:  Watch more "liberal media" go after Manboobs for his hackery.

The Scariest Republican Crackpot - Today's Ben Carson Updates

Wherein we provide more glimpses into the strange mind of "The Scariest Republican Crackpot" Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson, in one poll beating Hillary Clinton by 10 points among the baboons apparently constituting half of the American electorate (no insult to baboons intended).

Charles P. Pierce pegs him as a budding John R. Brinkley:

​That Dr. Ben Carson, an accomplished man of science, and a gifted physician, and one of the most ridiculous men ever to walk into American public life, has found himself tangled up as a candidate in his earlier career as a pitchman for what the 21^st century has for patent medicine, is a development so rich with irony that I have to sit down for a brief nap after having attempted to take the business in whole. Carson has gone from denying any involvement at all, to acknowledging that, yes, he did make some videos in which he seemed to be extolling the virtues of some nostrums brewed up by something called the Mannatech Corporation, to blaming the media for confronting him with the details of his own biography. It's remarkable to me that Carson is audible at all, given the number of cocks that must be crowing in the background when he speaks.

We can safely say he "don't know much about history:"

Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson once vocalized an odd theory about Egyptian history.

According to a video unearthed by BuzzFeed on Wednesday, Carson posited in a 1998 commencement address at Andrews University that the pyramids in Egypt were used for grain storage rather than as tombs for ancient kings and queens.

"My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain," Carson said, referring to the Old Testament. "Now all the archeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, [something to store that grain] would have to be something awfully big, if you stop and think about it."

Carson appeared to be referencing the biblical figure of Joseph, who was sold into slavery in Egypt and later went on to advise the Egyptian pharaoh to store grain due to a coming famine.  (our emphasis)

But he has a reality- based answer for those who might be concerned about his lack of qualifications:

The problem – one of them, anyway – is that Carson also seems manifestly unqualified to be president of the United States. He’s never sought or held elected office; he has no working understanding of government; and he’s never led anything larger than a medical department.

The retired right-wing neurosurgeon is aware of these concerns and, late last week, offered a striking response: “It is important to remember that amateurs built the Ark and it was the professionals that built the Titanic.”  (our emphasis)

From someone who believes Darwin's theory of evolution was the Debbil's work, that's at least consistent.

And Charles Pierce ties success of the rube- fleecing back to the most successful right wing huckster of all, St. Ronnie of Hollywood, who sold them on "supply side economics" and more:

The process began with Ronald Reagan, the greatest patent-medicine salesman of them all. It was he who marketed the economic snake-oil with a wink and a smile. It was he who taught them how to flex and pose – fiercely denouncing terrorism while selling missiles to the mullahs. It was he who gulled the country with tales of Sandinistas driving jeeps across the Rio Grande, and dangerous Cuban adventurism in Grenada, while Marines were being slaughtered in their barracks. He was the best show in town. The starstruck rubes flocked to see him. The country swallowed the swamproot whole.

Now, because it sold so well, and because the audiences were so easily gulled, that's all there is—a decent vagabonding entertainment, rolling from town to town, pitching signs and wonders and miracle cures and can-I-get-an-Amen? So Doctor Ben Carson once was a front for some magic cancer elixir? What was that, if not the best training you can have to be a Republican candidate for president in the biggest medicine show of them all?  (our emphasis)

O.K., it's a year away from the election and Gentle Ben will have a lot of knives coming at him, just from fellow Republicans.  But, beating Hillary Clinton by 10 points?!  Rubes rule!  Sic transit gloria, America.

Quote Of The Day

The "Scariest Republican Crackpot" speaks:

"Rape or incest, I would not be for killing a baby because the baby came about in that way.  And all you have to do is go and look up the many stories of people who have led very useful lives who are the result of rape or incest."  Droopy Dog doppelganger Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson today on "Meet the Press" "Press the Meat" with Chuck "Not My Job" Todd.  He also compared abortion with slavery and said he would "love" to see Roe v. Wade overturned.  And he soars in the Republican polls.

How Blame Works To Republicans

The Nightly Show's Larry Wilmore explains how blame works to Republicans like "J.E.B."! Bush and Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson (via Crooks and Liars).  You know what? His impression of "On Meds?" in the voice of Droopy Dog is spot on.



A handy lesson to keep in mind on the eve of Hillary Clinton's appearance before the House Benghazi! kangaroo court.

The Scariest Republican Crackpot

Eugene Robinson has an op/ed today that tells us who's the scariest crackpot in the Republican presidential clown car bus (and, hoo-boy, that's saying something!):

The craziest thing about the Republican presidential contest isn’t that Donald Trump is in the lead. It’s that Dr. Ben Carson — who truly seems to have lost his mind — is in second place and gaining fast.

Trump may be a blowhard, but Carson has proved himself to be a crackpot of the first order. Of all the GOP contenders, he’s the scariest.

Robinson highlights (lowlights?) the very odd pronouncements of Carson on guns, the Holocaust, guns, President Obama, guns, and the Affordable Care Act -- and, oh yeah, guns.  The man may be an estimable surgeon, but in his ignorant musings on history, politics and cultural issues, Carson demonstrates he's a few sutures short of a closing.  ("The Nightly Show's" Larry Wilmore also had an epic take-down of Carson last week.) 

At the very least, it seems his rise, along with Rump Trump's, in the Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid Party polls (a combined 48%!!) tells us their base has an affinity for ignorant cranks -- an example of water seeking its own level? --  an observation you will never see in the craven "mainstream media."

Today's Headline - Ben Carson, Doctor Of Hypocrisy

Ben Carson Used Fetal Tissues In His Own Research

This from the anti-choice extremist who now (that he's running for President) believes that a 17- week- old fetus is a human being;  the same Dr. Ben Carson who wrote a paper in 1992 describing research on two fetuses aborted in the 9th and 17th weeks of gestation.  We'd call that rank hypocrisy, but then "we're not scientists."

Let's remind ourselves why fetal tissue research is important.

Republican Campaigns Already Coming Apart

All is not well in the Republican presidential pool;  someone throw them an anchor!

Ben "On Meds?" Carson:

The presidential candidacy of Ben Carson, a tea party star who has catapulted into the top tier of Republican contenders, has been rocked by turmoil with the departures of four senior campaign officials and widespread disarray among his allied super PACs.

In interviews Friday, Carson’s associates described a political network in tumult, saying the retired neurosurgeon’s campaign chairman, national finance chairman, deputy campaign manager and general counsel have resigned since Carson formally launched his bid last month in Detroit. They have not been replaced, campaign aides said.

"Ayn" Rand Paul:

Rand Paul’s presidential campaign, by many recent accounts, is sputtering. The candidate, according to the Atlantic’s Molly Ball, is “flailing.” His campaign, reports National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, has been called a “disaster.” 

Future clown car entrant John Ellis "J.E.B." Bush:

Jeb Bush is just days away from formally launching his presidential campaign and already a shake-up is underway.

In a surprise move Monday, Bush tapped Republican strategist Danny Diaz to serve as his campaign manager, shoving aside another aide, David Kochel, to head his still-unofficial presidential operation.

Diaz’s promotion is a frank acknowledgment that Bush’s six-month “exploratory phase” has not met expectations and that the former Florida governor needed a new consultant to take the reins ahead of his campaign kickoff in Miami on Monday.

Rick "Frothy Mix" Santorum:

When just one Iowan showed up to Rick Santorum's 2 p.m. campaign stop at a restaurant here Monday, the winner of the 2012 Iowa caucuses made a quick decision: Might as well order lunch.

"I haven't eaten, actually, all day," he said to his guest, Peggy Toft, an insurance agent and chair of the county's Republican Party.

For Santorum, who's making a second go at the Republican nomination for president, the low turnout wasn't surprising, he said, but all part of the plan.

Yes, yes, "part of the plan."  Genius, I tells ya'!  Bwahahahaha.

Meanwhile, the campaign of prohibitive Democratic favorite Hillary Clinton continues to hit the right notes on "dreamers," income inequality, and voter enfranchisement, with more policy broadsides to come.  A campaign based on real issues about real people.  What a novel concept.

BONUS:  Michael Tomasky on Hillary's big roll-out this weekend in New York.

Jennifer Rubin: I See Crackpots!

At first blush, reading Republican neo-con Likudnik Jennifer Rubin's piece in today's once great Washington Post Bezos Bugle, we could be excused for thinking someone had stolen her password and was sending in semi-coherent columns:

[After an obligatory dig at Hillary Clinton...] Republicans have their own problem: They tolerate far too many crackpots.

Dr. Ben Carson joins Mike Huckabee in refusing to accept that Supreme Court decisions, on gay marriage for example, are binding. Pressed by Chris Wallace, Carson insisted that Marbury v. Madison and more than 200 years of history have not settled the issue. “It is an open question. It needs to be discussed.” Actually, it’s not open, and him taking this seriously should disqualify him from office since he is telling us up front he won’t be bound by court decisions, something not even President Obama has done.

Huckabee has said much the same thing. And to boot he’s hawked “nutritional supplements” as a cure to diabetes. He insisted on Sunday, “One of the elements of the plan was dietary supplements, but it is not the fundamental thing.” (Then why encourage people to buy them?) He declared, “I don’t have to defend everything that I’ve ever done.” So he’s both a constitutional and dietary charlatan. Either one should disqualify him.

Then there is Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), who cynically chooses to pander to the conspiracy-mongers who turning a military exercise primarily in Texas into a secret plan to impose martial law. Cruz has taken their nonsense as legitimate and made inquiries at the Pentagon. [snip]

In less obvious ways, some presidential hopefuls also play on the ignorance and fear of the public. How many times has Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) falsely suggested the National Security Agency is listening to the content of millions of phone calls? Before reversing himself, he also gave support to the anti-vaccine hooey. At what point do voters say, you know, that’s not the mindset or character of someone who we’d want as president? (our emphasis)

Ouch.  Well, o.k.  Two points here.  First, Carson, Huckabee, Cruz and Paul are all several bulbs short of a chandelier.  If you noticed, though, she eased over the biggest political story of the past 50 years:  that the Republican Party -- her Republican Party -- doesn't just tolerate crackpots, it has actively fed and encouraged a crackpot base, then recruited and elected crackpots for many decades.  It is the Party of Crackpots.  Rubin and her fellow cogs in the right-wing noise machine can take a lot of the credit for that.

Also, note the names Rubin has omitted from her Crackpot Call-out:  Sen. Marco "Glug Glug" Rubio, Gov. Scott "Koch Head" Walker, and John Ellis "J.E.B." Bush, all of whom Rubin has promoted in past columns, and who would pass auditions for the Shelly Adelson/ Koch brothers billionaire "establishment" blessing.  However, while not quite descending to the Carson/ Huckabee/ Cruz/ Paul level of crackpottery, all three are outside the American mainstream on issues such as immigration reform, same sex marriage, global climate change, and economic fairness and growth.  They'd also like to bust unions and take health insurance away from millions of Americans.  Call them proto- crackpots.

But then, in her piece de derp, Rubin says "responsible conservatives" (an oxymoron these days) should "name and shame [the crackpots] — lest the GOP be seen as a haven for the unhinged."  Hahahahaha. Too late!

(Image: Jennifer Rubin, in search of crackpots; doesn't own a mirror --via Sparklepony)

"Slim Chances"

Jon Stewart on the Slim Shady Chances of the most recent entrants to the Republican presidential candidate clown car:

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News Item: Ben Carson Admits To Plagiarizing

Following in the footsteps of Dumbya as well as fellow 2016 Republican wannabe Sen. "Ayn" Rand Paul (Dudebro-KY), surgeon- cum- theocrat Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson is now admitting he's also a plagiarizer:

Dr. Ben Carson apologized Thursday for plagiarizing parts of his book America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great and said he's working with his editors to "rectify the situation."

While they're at it, perhaps his publishers should consider re-titling Carson's book "America the Beautiful:  Republishing What Made This Nation Great."

BONUS:  Surprise!  Dr. Ben's been a medical fraudster for years.

Dr. Ben Carson Gets His Nazi Analogies Sideways And Backwards

Here's Driftglass on remarks by Republican loon-du-jour Dr. Ben "On Meds?" Carson comparing the America of progressives and Obama supporters to Nazi Germany:

... I actually agree with what Dr. Carson said, although not in any way that would make him happy. 

The despair and rage and paranoia of post-WWI Germany that made the rise of Nazism possible -- an overpowering sense of betrayal and lost greatness... an obsession with race and purity... a berserk hatred of impure outsiders and immigrants... a willingness to believe the most paranoid conspiracies about fifth columns and internal enemies ... the relentless scapegoating of (among others) minorities, foreigners, intellectuals, unions and Liberals ... the round-the-clock raving of demagogues -- are precisely the same toxic conditions which prevail within the Republican Party and the Conservative Movement today.  

"Fox News Contributor" tells you all you need to know, too.