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Does it matter if most Americans are just as ignorant as this guy?

Quote

Ben Carson doesn't understand how the debt ceiling, the budget, or interest rates work

Ben Carson’s accomplishments in the field of medicine should be incontrovertible proof of his intelligence. But read enough of his musings on government spending and the economy, and you’ll find yourself questioning this premise, or perhaps the nature, of intelligence altogether.

The good doctor has consistently shown his lack of understanding of economic matters, and this streak culminated in a disastrous interview with Marketplace on Wednesday. Carson shows a basic misunderstanding of topics a president simply needs to know cold.

Read more here:  http://fortune.com/2015/10/08/ben-carson-economy/

Warning: may cause vomiting

Quote from: josephpalazzo on November 03, 2015, 08:19:21 AM
Does it matter if most Americans are just as ignorant as this guy?

Who wants a president with fancy book learning? I want a decent, grandfatherly figure to tell anecdotes from a rocking chair about how he worked over 50 years at the auto plant on just an eighth grade education, how he's tired of spending all winter shoveling the piles of "global warming" out of his driveway, and how that fella Eisenhower knew how to run things.

Eisenhower did know how to run things, but he is presently unavailable ;-)

Joe - I would be careful quoting a right wing mag like Fortune or Economist ... if they are against a Republican candidate other than JEB, then they are simply trying to shoot down that non-Bush candidate.  Both mags hate to hear their paid for quislings ... do a bad policy promotion.  But their take on Trump would be interesting to read.  These same RINO supporters, didn't like Doctor Ron Paul either.

Most Americans don't understand anything, let alone the economy.  But they are allowed to vote and run for office anyway.

The Fortune article clearly backs the George W way of doing things, including the idea that deficits used to pound the ME are not a problem.

Fortune: Jeb Bush just disappointed the business world (http://fortune.com/video/2015/10/30/jeb-bush-economy/)

I like Kai Ryssdal. I learned the very little I know about finance listening to him. Here's the interview.
http://www.marketplace.org/topics/elections/full-interview-dr-ben-carson-economy

It's funny to me that Ben's initials are BSC.

OK, I'm just going to pop in here once to lay my shit and run off like all good internet posters do....:

My own kid has an actual Carson Scholarship, which is NOT fucking easy to get--look it up. He's now an IT nerd, and has employment that supersedes my own. At 16. This kid actually brought honors math programs to not one but TWO C rated Florida schools. Once we got back to VT his accolades looked like adorable finger paints.....

He is out and proud. Anyways, my entire point:

This uber-nerd child of mine is actually debating his own well earned Carson Scholarship plus early PSATs and etc, on Principal. HE doesn't want to use Ben Carson's own elitist scholarship, based on the fact that he's an out and proud gay student that earned it. Carson isn't for that. And frankly, Carson can fuck right off.

Quote from: josephpalazzo on November 03, 2015, 01:40:55 PM
Fortune: Jeb Bush just disappointed the business world (http://fortune.com/video/2015/10/30/jeb-bush-economy/)

Proof that JEB is adopted ;-)  Time for the CIA first family ... to run Neil!

Is Carson trying to outdo Trump on the crazy scale?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ben-carson-egyptian-pyramids-were-grain-stores-not-pharaohs-tombs/ar-BBmRLyk?li=AAa0dzB&ocid=AARDHP

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Egypt’s pyramids were built by the biblical Joseph to store grain and were not, as archaeologists believe, tombs for pharaohs, Republican presidential hopeful Ben Carson has said.

“My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain,” Carson â€" who last week overtook Republican rival Donald Trump for the first time in a national poll â€" told graduates in his address.

“Now all the archeologists think that they were made for the pharaohs’ graves. But, you know, it would have to be something awfully big if you stop and think about it.

“And I don’t think it’d just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain.”

Asked on Wednesday if he still held these views, Carson told CBS News: “It’s still my belief, yes.”

Speaking to MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Thursday, rival Republican candidate Donald Trump said: “He’s informed me about the pyramids. I think I’ll have to put that in my repertoire about Ben. That was a strange deal.”

In his 1998 address, Carson said: “And when you look at the way that the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they’d have to be that way for various reasons.

“And various of scientists have said, ‘Well, you know there were alien beings that came down and they have special knowledge and that’s how, you know, it doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you’.”

Carson, despite the fact that he is a neurosurgeon, is infected with the same anti-science rubbish as the rest of the Republican party. He has no idea that, yeah, we actually do know a lot about the pyramids and why they were built. He thinks that the fact that he is a neurosurgeon qualifies him to speak about anything other than neurosurgery, and furthermore has no curiosity to discover anything else about the world just for the sake of learning it.

I think this is a possible reason why Ben Carson feels free to express his opinions on various topics:

Is Ben Carson Running for President?
By Jonathan Chait 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2015/11/ben-carson-running-for-president.html

On February 7, 2013, Ben Carson appeared at a National Prayer Breakfast, where he visibly annoyed President Obama by delivering a right-wing speech denouncing Obamacare and cultural liberalism, and calling for a flat tax based on the biblical tithe. Conservatives, still devastated by Obama’s reelection, took delight in the appearance on the scene of a surprising new presidential antagonist, who until that point had no political profile. “Finally, a self-reliant conservative decided to make this every bit as political as Obama does,” tweeted conservative pundit David Limbaugh. The Wall Street Journal celebrated Carson’s remarks in a short editorial, headlined “Ben Carson for President.” The headline was obviously hyperbolic; nothing in the text that followed proposed that Carson run for public office.

But now Carson actually is running for president. Or is he? It is hard to tell. Conservative politics are so closely intermingled with a lucrative entertainment complex that it is frequently impossible to distinguish between a political project (that is, something designed to result in policy change) and a money-making venture. Declaring yourself a presidential candidate gives you access to millions of dollars' worth of free media attention that can build a valuable brand. So the mere fact that Carson calls himself a presidential candidate does not prove he is actually running for president rather than taking advantage of the opportunity to build his brand. Indeed, it is possible to be actually leading the polls without seriously trying to win the presidency.

And the notion that Carson could be president is preposterous. The problem is not only that he has never run for elected office. He has never managed a large organization; he has not worked in and around public policy, and he lacks a competent grasp of issues. His stance on health care, the closest thing to an issue with which his professional experience has brought him into contact, is gibberish. He mostly thrills audiences by scoffing at evolution and insisting Muslims be barred from the presidency, stances he cannot even defend coherently.

It is possible that Carson has come to genuinely believe that he is qualified to serve as president. (As a follower of the conspiracy theorist W. Cleon Skousen, Carson seems to subscribe in earnest to a series of completely fantastical beliefs.) It is also possible that Carson is being manipulated by staffers who stand to profit off their association with him. But the most likely explanation for his behavior is that Carson himself is in this thing to make a lot of money. ...

It's getting better and better!!

Ben Carson admits fabricating West Point scholarship:


  http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/ben-carson-west-point-215598 (http://www.politico.com/story/2015/11/ben-carson-west-point-215598)

QuoteBen Carson’s campaign on Friday admitted, in a response to an inquiry from POLITICO, that a central point in his inspirational personal story was fabricated: his application and acceptance into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

The academy has occupied a central place in Carson’s tale for years. According to a story told in Carson’s book, “Gifted Hands,” the then-17 year old was introduced in 1969 to Gen. William Westmoreland, who had just ended his command of U.S. forces in Vietnam, and the two dined together. That meeting, according to Carson’s telling, was followed by a “full scholarship” to the military academy.

. .

West Point, however, has no record of Carson applying, much less being extended admission.

“In 1969, those who would have completed the entire process would have received their acceptance letters from the Army Adjutant General,” said Theresa Brinkerhoff, a spokeswoman for the academy. She said West Point has no records that indicate Carson even began the application process. “If he chose to pursue (the application process), then we would have records indicating such,” she said.

When presented with these facts, Carson’s campaign conceded the story was false.

It may be that there is no real Ben Carson at all.  We knew a psychopath among our fraternity brothers when I was a freshman.  He was encouraged to leave the frat and the school, since his imagination had quite run away with him and forgot the way back.  People have thought this of Barak Obama also.

I'm beginning to think Carson is just a characature of the dumbest human on the planet.  He never has stood a chance to get elected, but it's been fun playing along.  It's amazing just how easy it is to manipulate the public.  Republican voters are even easier to manipulate.  Democratic voters are too, but the rubes have gone off the deep end in falling for bullshit.

The mere fact that Carson give any credence to Cleon Skousen is bad enough. Skousen was a major influence in Mormonism in the 60's, writing bogus histories that amounted to exposes of the Illuminati and himself a prominent John Bircher who influenced much of the church's politics. Skousen was one of the people who thought Martin Luther King was a commie. His niece later claimed he molested her, and the church now pretty much ignores he ever existed. Further proof Carson is an idiot.

I wonder how many brains Dr Carson expects to operate on while in the White House. You know, situations where his neurosurgery training may actually be of use.

The question is: can he operate on his own brain? Even if could,  it is beyond repair.

Quote from: josephpalazzo on November 03, 2015, 08:19:21 AM
Does it matter if most Americans are just as ignorant as this guy?

Ben Carson’s accomplishments in the field of medicine should be incontrovertible proof of his intelligence. But read enough of his musings on government spending and the economy, and you’ll find yourself questioning this premise, or perhaps the nature, of intelligence altogether.

It is odd that one would see the medical wisdom of a doctor as a certification to run a country.  It would be like hiring a doctor to fix your car, or fly you to Seattle.  What is even stranger is why some people equate wealth and celebrity with wisdom. 

But Carson is a doctor running for president.  Why this doesn't immediately send up warning flags is odd.

I'm very concerned that someone this fucking stupid somehow became a neurosurgeon. Any idiot can become president if he's popular enough, but you'd think becoming a neurosurgeon would require some kind of skill with critical thinking.

Carson is the clear Republican front runner in North Carolina. Draw from that what you will.

(http://i1160.photobucket.com/albums/q490/atheola/funny.jpg)

Impressive,  eh?

Ben Carson perfected the proceedure of the self lobotomy using only an old,  rusty coat hanger. 

More questions about stories by Carson:

http://www.wsj.com/article_email/ben-carsons-past-faces-deeper-questions-1446861864-lMyQjAxMTI1NTAxNzgwMTcxWj

QuoteThe day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed in 1968, Ben Carson’s black classmates unleashed their anger and grief on white students who were a minority at Detroit’s Southwestern High.

Mr. Carson, then a junior with a key to a biology lab where he worked part time, told The Wall Street Journal last month that he protected a few white students from the attacks by hiding them there.

It is a dramatic account of courage and kindness, and it couldn’t be confirmed in interviews with a half-dozen of Mr. Carson’s classmates and his high school physics teacher. The students all remembered the riot. None recalled hearing about white students hiding in the biology lab, and Mr. Carson couldn’t remember any names of those he sheltered.

“It may have happened, but I didn’t see it myself or hear about it,” said Gregory Vartanian, a white classmate of Mr. Carson’s who served in the ROTC with Mr. Carson and is now a retired U.S. Marshal.

Mr. Carson’s biography, a rise from poverty to become a top neurosurgeon at Johns Hopkins University, is central to his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination. Now, his storyâ€"told in nine books and countless inspirational speeches over the past 25 yearsâ€"has come under the harsh scrutiny of presidential politics, where rivals and media hunt for embellishments and omissions that can hobble a campaign.

In 2008, Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton said she was mistaken when she claimed she and her daughter, Chelsea, had come under sniper fire and had to run for cover during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady. A video of the trip unearthed after her comments showed no gunfire.

The threat to the Carson candidacy is that the inconsistencies or hard-to-check anecdotes, which were told long before he ever considered a presidential run, will put off voters only now getting to know him.

Mr. Carson’s campaign manager, Barry Bennett, said Friday there was “no evidence” that any aspect of Mr. Carson’s biography wasn’t true. “There’s no facts saying they are not true. We are guilty until proven innocent,” he said. “You have no reason to believe that they are not true. There’s no evidence to point to the fact that they are even questionable.”

In his 1990 autobiography, “Gifted Hands,” Mr. Carson writes of a Yale psychology professor who told Mr. Carson, then a junior, and the other students in the classâ€"identified by Mr. Carson as Perceptions 301â€"that their final exam papers had “inadvertently burned,” requiring all 150 students to retake it. The new exam, Mr. Carson recalled in the book, was much tougher. All the students but Mr. Carson walked out.

“The professor came toward me. With her was a photographer for the Yale Daily News who paused and snapped my picture,” Mr. Carson wrote. “ ‘A hoax,’ the teacher said. ‘We wanted to see who was the most honest student in the class.’ ” Mr. Carson wrote that the professor handed him a $10 bill.

No photo identifying Mr. Carson as a student ever ran, according to the Yale Daily News archives, and no stories from that era mention a class called Perceptions 301. Yale Librarian Claryn Spies said Friday there was no psychology course by that name or class number during any of Mr. Carson’s years at Yale.

In books and speeches, Mr. Carson has said he hated living in poverty, vowed to grow rich, and lashed out in anger at others until a religious transformation at age 14.

When CNN sent reporters to his former neighborhood in Detroit to verify Mr. Carson’s stories of violence, including attempting to stab a boy in the stomach, none who knew Mr. Carson as a youth recalled any such trouble. Instead, most of Mr. Carson’s former friends and neighbors remember him much as he is today: soft-spoken and studious.

In his 1996 book, “Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence,” Mr. Carson identified the boy as a friend named “Bob.” Mr. Carson told Fox News on Thursday the boy was actually a “close relative.” Mr. Carson said, “I’ve never used the true names of people in books.”

Also disputed in a report Friday by Politico: Mr. Carson’s assertion, first raised in the 1990 book, that he turned down a “scholarship” offer from the U.S. Military Academy at West Pointâ€"though the academy is free to those accepted. Mr. Bennett said Friday that Mr. Carson was offered a “nomination” to West Point but never applied.

“Lying, I believe, is a grave sin and there’s just no way that I would be sitting here lying about something like this,” Mr. Carson said Friday on Fox News.

Last month, Mr. Carson said in a radio interview that, as a young doctor, he had a gun stuck in his ribs at a Popeye’s restaurant in Baltimore near Johns Hopkins University. “A guy comes in and puts a gun in my ribs. And I just said, ‘I believe that you want the guy behind the counter,’” Mr. Carson said. “He said, ‘Oh, okay.’” The Baltimore Police Department later said it couldn’t find a report matching the incident Mr. Carson described.

In response to a question at a recent GOP presidential debate, Mr. Carson said he “didn’t have an involvement” with Mannatech Inc., a multilevel marketing company that sells nutritional supplements, and called any suggestion to the contrary “propaganda.” Mr. Carson, who has taken the company’s products, appeared in videos that could until recently be found on Mannatech’s website, including two filmed in 2013 and styled like commercials.

Mr. Carson also has given four paid speeches at Mannatech gatherings; the proceeds from three went to a Carson-affiliated charity. Mannatech settled false-advertising charges with Texas in 2009.

One reason that Mr. Carson’s stories are difficult to check is that he navigated the turbulent times of his young adulthood without leaving much of a trace. He arrived as a scholarship student at Yale University in 1969 to a campus engulfed in protests but said he avoided them.

You decide.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UQaSrqbCHcE/Vj0htWu35tI/AAAAAAAAwok/tcYQcfgFM9Q/s1600/ben-carson-dog-park.jpg)

Good one, GS. Btw, love the hat. Leather, apparently; boy that just bleeds country right there.

:13:

Is Carson turn a new page?

Feisty Carson Turns Heat on Reporters, Making Political Ritual Into Confrontation (http://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/07/new-york-times-digital-feisty-carson-turns-heat-on-reporters-making-political-ritual-into-confrontation.html)

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Ben Carson was feisty. He was mocking. He was unyielding. And he was unexpectedly theatrical.

Mr. Carson, the doctor whose soft-spoken and sedate style has made his rise to the top of the Republican presidential field all the more puzzling, abandoned his gentle manner on Friday night and delivered a powerful public scolding of the news media that has begun to question his celebrated biography.

In the process, he turned what has become an almost robotic ritual for candidates under attack â€" the live and often defensive news conference â€" into an aggressive confrontation, and at times interrogation, of the reporters' motives and methods.

Read More › Poll: Clinton ties Carson in '16 match up

''Don't lie,'' he told them, interrupting a journalist's question.

''That is a silly argument,'' he said to another.

In a stern admonition to the journalists standing just feet away, Mr. Carson declared, ''The American people are waking up to your games.''

The performance, at a news conference in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., was mesmerizing at times, in part because of the serious personal questions that have been raised: whether he embellished or even made up crucial episodes in his life story, like the attempted stabbing of a childhood friend and his claim that West Point had offered him a ''full scholarship.''

If being a "legend in your own mind" qualifies you for high office, then Dr Carson might be Dr Mengele ;-(

This is part of the whole GOP ... the Liberal Media is crucifying our candidates ... false meme.

This guy is as bad as a Keynesian, just in another direction.

Well folks, it's time for everyone to go buy a pair of outrageously expensive boots, the kind with straps to pull ourselves up from,  take a big pay cut,  forget about higher wages, join the army and forget about veteran benefits and make America great again and forget about the other party because all of our problems are because of having health care and they're the liars, not Benny boy or tRump ..

That pretty much settles why you should vote for a rube.

I just found out that Ben Carson claimed he tried to stab a guy as a teenager in an effort to appeal to black voters? WTF?! Could that be more patronizing? "Hey guys, see, I'm a gang banger just like all of you!"

He tried to stab a guy but a belt buckle deflected the blade. Cool. That means he was inches away from going to prison instead of medical school. Inches away from dealing with the gauntlet of bureaucracy in our judicial and prison systems instead of the odd labyrinth that is American politics. Inches away from struggling to figure out how to make it in America with the “felony” label instead of struggling to figure out how to get the Republican nomination with the “Bible thumping” label. I agree that personal responsibility is important in life, but so is luck.

It’s important to note here that Ben Carson also believes that prison rape is proof that people choose to be gay, so he was also inches away from becoming gay.

God must have been looking out for Ben Carson.

I am no fan of labels be they political, religious or even business ideology. No not saying those things are unworthy of observing and studying. Just that not enough humans understand it still stems from evolutionary pattern seeking. Every thing we do requires an act of communication, we create groups and center them around what we think works. But evolution is a process not an ideology, and in reality, abuse of any institution can be successful.

Stalin's Russia did work for a while and the Walmart family certainly is set for life. I think it is more important to view the world in it's entirety rather than with the word "capitalism". Too many people fail to see that it is not a form of government. Gadaffi was a billionaire who owned stock in GE. The Saudi Royal family runs a theocratic fascist state but also owns oil companies and invests in banks and weapons. China capitalizes off of the sale of cheap goods and slave wages.

I like to think of the global economy as no different than any other ecosystem. Too much imbalance either way will upset that ecosystem to the point of conflict. Globally speaking the reality is that it would be better to skip all the ideology, not that we will to any great degree, but better to make a global call to all the world's rich that the more giving in economic stability to workers and ending poverty will create more global stability and reduce conflict.

Other species display stress too when they lack resources.