Politics

Arrest of 14-Year-Old Student for Making a Clock: The Fruits of Sustained Fear-Mongering and Anti-Muslim Animus

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=29455">Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept</a>

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 14:18

Greenwald writes: "What happened in Irving, Texas yesterday to a 14-year-old Muslim high school freshman is highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of the US's sustained climate of cultivated anti-Muslim fear and demonization."

MacArthur High School student Ahmed Mohamed, 14, poses for a photo at his home in Irving, Tex. On Sept. 15. Mohamed was arrested and interrogated by Irving Police officers after bringing a homemade clock to school. (photo: Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News)

Arrest of 14-Year-Old Student for Making a Clock: The Fruits of Sustained Fear-Mongering and Anti-Muslim Animus

By Glenn Greenwald, The Intercept

16 September 15

here are sprawling industries and self-proclaimed career �terrorism experts� in the U.S. that profit greatly by deliberately exaggerating the threat of Terrorism and keeping Americans in a state of abject fear of �radical Islam.� There are all sorts of polemicists who build their public platforms by demonizing Muslims and scoffing at concerns over �Islamaphobia,� with the most toxic ones insisting that such a thing does not even exist, even as the mere presence of mosques is opposed across the country, or even as they are physically attacked.

The U.S. government just formally renewed the �State of Emergency� it declared in the aftermath of 9/11 for the 14th time since that attack occurred, ensuring that the country remains in a state of permanent, endless war, subjected to powers that are still classified as �extraordinary� even though they have become entirely normalized. As a result of all of this, a minority group of close to 3 million people is routinely targeted with bigotry and legal persecution in the Home of the Free, while fear and hysteria reign supreme in the Land of the Brave.

What happened in Irving, Texas, yesterday to a 14-year-old Muslim high school freshman is far from the worst instance, but it is highly illustrative of the rotted fruit of this sustained climate of cultivated fear and demonization. The Dallas Morning News reports that �Ahmed Mohamed � who makes his own radios and repairs his own go-kart � hoped to impress his teachers when he brought a homemade clock to MacArthur High,� but �instead, the school phoned police.�

Despite insisting that he made the clock to impress his engineering teacher, consistent with his long-time interest in �inventing stuff,� Ahmed was arrested by the police and led out of school with his hands cuffed behind him. When he was brought into the room to be questioned by the four police officers who had been dispatched to the school, one of them � who had never previously seen him � said: �Yup. That�s who I thought it was.� As a result, he �felt suddenly conscious of his brown skin and his name � one of the most common in the Muslim religion.�

On Twitter, Anil Dash published a photo, provided by the boy�s family, taken as he was led out in cuffs. Note that he�s wearing a NASA shirt:

There�s absolutely no evidence that this was anything more than a clock, nor any indication of any kind that the talented and inventive freshman built it as anything other than a school project. But even now, �police say they may yet charge him with making a hoax bomb � though they acknowledge he told everyone who would listen that it�s a clock.� According to the BBC, �police spokesman James McLellan said that, throughout the interview, Ahmed had maintained that he built only a clock, but said the boy was unable to give a �broader explanation� as to what it would be used for.�

The Dallas Morning News let Ahmed speak for himself by posting a video of him recounting what happened. Behold the Terrorist Mastermind:

The behavior here is nothing short of demented. And it�s easy to mock, which in turn has the effect of belittling it and casting it as some sort of bizarre aberration. But it�s not that. It�s the opposite of aberrational. It�s the natural, inevitable byproduct of the culture of fear and demonization that has festered and been continuously inflamed for many years. The circumstances that led to this are systemic and cultural, not aberrational.

The mayor of Irving, Beth Van Duyne, became a beloved national hero to America�s anti-Muslim fanatics when, last February, she seized on a fraudulent online chain letter, which claimed that area imams had created a special court based on sharia law. In response, Mayor Van Duyne posted a Facebook rant in which she vowed to �fight with every fiber of my being� the nonexistent �sharia court.� One anti-Muslim website gushed that Irving �is being called �ground zero� in the battle to prevent Islamic law from gaining a foothold, no matter how small, in the U.S. legal system� and hailed her as �the mayor who stood up to the Muslim Brotherhood.�

That led to support for a bill introduced in the Texas State Legislature banning the use of foreign law, which its sponsor made clear was targeted at least in part at these �sharia courts.� The Irving City Council went out of its way to enact a resolution supporting the state bill. It was enacted in June. One of the City Council members who opposed the bill � William �Bill� Mahone, who �denounced the vote and urged Irving to �embrace the Muslims'� � then lost his seat in the city election �by a wide margin.� I�ve spoken to Muslim groups in Irving and there is a small but thriving community there, which in turn has produced intense anti-Muslim animus.

Just like Ahmed�s arrest, Irving is representative of the U.S. broadly, not aberrational. The U.S. just a few years ago went into a shameful fit of mass hysteria over a proposed Islamic community center near Ground Zero � as though Muslims generally were guilty of that attack � but since then, in obscurity, ordinary mosques have faced all sorts of opposition from their mere existence, or once they do exist, physical menacing and violence. A 2014 Pew Poll found that Americans feel more negatively toward Muslims than any other religious group in the country.

There are all sorts of obvious, extreme harms that come from being a nation at permanent war. Your country ends up killing huge numbers of innocent people all over the world. Vast resources are drained away from individuals and programs of social good into the pockets of weapons manufacturers. Core freedoms are inexorably and inevitably eroded � seized � in its name. The groups being targeted are marginalized and demonized in order to maximize fear levels and tolerance for violence.

But perhaps the worst of all harms is how endless war degrades the culture and populace of the country that perpetrates it. You can�t have a government that has spent decades waging various forms of war against predominantly Muslim countries � bombing seven of them in the last six years alone � and then act surprised when a Muslim 14-year-old triggers vindictive fear and persecution because he makes a clock for school. That�s no more surprising than watching carrots sprout after you plant carrot seeds in fertile ground and then carefully water them. It�s natural and inevitable, not surprising or at all difficult to understand.

54 comments

Illinois to Sick State Workers: Good Luck

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104">Charles Pierce, Esquire</a>

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 14:16

Pierce writes: "Right now, as is the case in several states, Illinois has no state budget because the state legislature and the governor can't get together on one. The governor now proposes to stiff state workers who have the misfortune to get sick or injured while he and the legislature snipe at each other."

Illinois governor Bruce Rauner. (photo: Getty)

Illinois to Sick State Workers: Good Luck

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

16 September 15

Bruce Rauner is another GOP governor helping his state shine.

Editor's Note: Initial media reports have claimed uncertainty as to the possible requirement of out-of-pocket payments for health services. However, the Illinois Department of Central Management Services (CMS) has been quoted as clarifying: "All healthcare services will continue to be paid as long as possible. However, in the near future, we will no longer have the legal authority to continue to pay healthcare vendors for their services. Since the healthcare providers don�t know when they will be reimbursed for the care they provide, a few of the providers in our self-insured plans (i.e., Cigna, HealthLink OAP, Coventry OAP and Delta Dental) have asked our members to pay cash at the time of service." JA - RSN

ere at the shebeen we have been inexcusably dilatory in dealing with Bruce Rauner, the venture-capitalist Trumpbagger who got himself elected governor of Illinois in which capacity he's pretty much Running The State Like A Business, which is to say Into The Ground.

(That Rauner once worked as an aide to Chicago Mayor and career dipstick Rahm Emanuel should tell you all you need to know about both of these jackeens.)

Right now, as is the case in several states, Illinois has no state budget because the state legislature and the governor can't get together on one. (In fact, there apparently was roughly the same disagreement within the Rauner household over the cuts to social services that Rauner proposed. Don't let her carve, Bruce!) The governor now proposes to stiff state workers who have the misfortune to get sick or injured while he and the legislature snipe at each other.

The extent to which the situation prompts health-care providers to request or demand patients pay the entire cost of medical services up front remains to be seen. For several years, providers in Springfield and the rest of Illinois have endured payment delays of a year or longer for the care of patients covered through the state's group insurance plan. Delays have been longest for patients covered by the self-insured programs. Because of those delays, there have been anecdotal reports over the years of some providers asking for total payments up front. But it's unprecedented for the state to stop paying claims, even temporarily, for large numbers of people. It's unknown whether the prospect of even longer delays will make more providers more aggressive in trying to collect money they are owed.

It's only "unknown", by the way, because it hasn't happened yet. Anyone with health insurance can be fairly sure that it will not stay "unknown" for very long.

She stressed that health insurance for state employees, university employees, retirees and dependents will continue unchanged, regardless of whether payment of claims are further delayed, and premiums will continue to be collected from members.

Only someone who literally never has dealt with a health-care provider could say that someone's health-insurance will "continue unchanged," even though nobody's going to pay claims while the premiums are still collected. The budget impasse remains intractable and the novelty of having a Republican governor in Illinois seems to be wearing off. We'll be checking back more regularly.

8 comments

FOCUS: Jeremy Corbyn - A Threat to Whose Security?

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=5494">Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News</a>

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 12:03

Weissman writes: "Having won nearly 60% of first-round votes to become the British Labour Party's new leader, the anti-war, anti-austerity, and pro-refugee Jeremy Corbyn now faces new smears as a 'threat to national security.'"

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. (photo: Natasha Quarmby/Rex Shutterstock)

Jeremy Corbyn - A Threat to Whose Security?

By Steve Weissman, Reader Supported News

16 September 15

aving won nearly 60% of first-round votes to become the British Labour Party’s new leader, the anti-war, anti-austerity, and pro-refugee Jeremy Corbyn now faces new smears as a ”threat to national security.” David Cameron, the Tory prime minister, is orchestrating the�charge, accusing the mild-mannered Corbyn of undermining the United Kingdom’s defenses.

“Labour are now a serious risk to our national security, our economy’s security and your family’s security,”echoed�UK defense secretary Michael Fallon.

“Whether it’s weakening our defenses, raising taxes on jobs, racking up more debt and welfare, or driving up the cost of living by printing money � Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party will hurt working people.”

The attacks foreshadow a parliamentary debate�expected next month over David Cameron’s desire to join the United States and France in a major bombing campaign against Islamic State (ISIS) forces in Syria. Pushing for this authority for a long time, Cameron has acted without parliamentary approval in the targeted assassination�by drone of two British citizens fighting for ISIS. His government has also�deployed 5 pilots on airstrikes in Syria, embedded with other British personnel in “coalition forces.”

Cameron again proposed airstrikes last week as a response to the influx of refugees, though bombing would almost certainly increase the number of Syrians fleeing to Europe. From media reports, most of the current Syrian refugees appear to come from areas under barrel-bombing and ground attacks by the government of President Bashir al-Assad, who is receiving substantial support from Russia and Iran. Increased bombing of ISIS areas by NATO allies will only add to the refugee flood while increasing the likelihood of British boots on the ground.

“Of course, if we are going to defeat [ISIS] either in Iraq and Syria there will need to be boots on the ground,” the prime minister�said in July, “but they should be Syrian boots or Iraqi boots.”

Cameron sought parliamentary permission in 2013 to bomb the Assad regime, but lost the vote when Labour’s leader at the time, Ed Miliband, refused his support, breaking the party’s long tradition of backing American foreign policy. Miliband’s courage, along with a diplomatic assist from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, led President Obama to pull back from his planned military strike on Syria and to put new effort into achieving a nuclear deal with Iran.

Many observers saw this as a perfect moment for Russia and the US to work out a peace deal for Syria, which would have nipped the refugee crisis in the bud. According to former Finnish president and Nobel peace prize laureate Martti Ahtisaari, Russia’s UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin had proposed a peace plan over a year before.

“He said three things,” Ahtisaari�told the Guardian�this Tuesday. “One � we should not give arms to the opposition. Two � we should get a dialogue going between the opposition and Assad strait away. Three � we should find an elegant way for Assad to step aside.”

Would Putin have actually moved away from Assad? We will never know.�Ahtisaari�passed the proposal to the UN missions of the US, France, and Britain. “Nothing happened,” he said, and added that he thought they “were convinced that Assad would be thrown out of office in a few weeks so there was no need to do anything.”

By the end of summer 2013, as I�noted at the time, Obama was already on two different tracks. On Syria, he had been�covertly supporting�the Sunni rebels and their Saudi sponsors for at least a year and a half, and � intentionally or not � appeared to have settled into the policy proposed in The New York Times by the Israeli-American policy analyst Edward Luttwak. “In Syria, America Loses if Either Side Wins,” he wrote,�“By tying down Mr. Assad’s army and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies in a war against Al Qaeda-aligned extremist fighters, four of Washington’s enemies will be engaged in war among themselves and prevented from attacking Americans or America’s allies.”

“Keep the lid on, but keep the pot boiling” turned out to be far more murderous than the straightforward regime change proposed by most neo-cons � and far more wrongheaded�in light of both the refugee crisis and Islamic State.

By the end of September 2013, the Obama administration was also on an antagonistic track toward Russia, having fully committed itself to a second “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine.�This led directly to the American-led coup�I wrote about here (and�here) against the pro-Russian president Viktor Yanukovych and the newly escalating Cold War with Russia.

Jeremy Corbyn, the new Labour leader, has made clear that he wants Britain to oppose both elements of American policy, and the bombing of Syria will be his first test. As many as 40 Labour MPs have signaled that they want to back the airstrikes, which � as Cameron well understands � would seriously undermine Corbyn’s leadership.

It will be fascinating to see how the long-time peace activist handles the challenge.

A veteran of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement and the New Left monthly Ramparts, Steve Weissman lived for many years in London, working as a magazine writer and television producer. He now lives and works in France, where he is researching a new book, "Big Money and the Corporate State: How Global Banks, Corporations, and Speculators Rule and How to Nonviolently Break Their Hold."

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

10 comments

FOCUS: The Official GOP Debate Drinking Game Rules, Pt. 2

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 11:33

Taibbi writes: "So the second GOP debate is upon us. The first debate was an epic piece of comic theater."

Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina are set to square off in Wednesday's GOP debate at the Reagan Library. (photo: Scott Olson/Getty/Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg/Getty Images)

The Official GOP Debate Drinking Game Rules, Pt. 2

By Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone

16 September 15

Get your liver ready: the second GOP debate is upon us

o the second GOP debate is upon us, scheduled for 8 p.m. EST on CNN tonight. The moderators are Hugh Hewitt, Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. You'll be reading a lot more about those names within 24 hours.

The first debate was an epic piece of comic theater. It featured at least a half dozen laugh-out-loud moments, including: the now-infamous Megyn Kelly-Donald Trump imbroglio, Mike Huckabee accusing Planned Parenthood of selling baby parts like "parts of a Buick," Ben Carson bragging that he was the only candidate to remove half a brain, Chris Christie and Rand Paul trading hilariously cringe-worthy "hug" jokes, Trump bragging that he bought Hillary Clinton with campaign contributions and many other choice exchanges.

It was salacious, pathetic, vapid, undignified, degrading, uninformative and compelling, making it a model for how Americans will consume politics going forward in the reality TV era.

This debate promises to be just as explosive. In fact, this affair is, quite frankly, a setup. All three moderators have tangled with Donald Trump before. In fact, the event seems like Jerry Springer-style tactics by CNN: putting people disposed to throw chairs at each other onstage, turning the cameras on and waiting for all hell to break loose.

Hewitt in particular is virtually guaranteed to get into a scrap with Trump. A former Nixon ghostwriter, Hewitt is one of the most vile people in America, a charmless, self-congratulating pedant whose fiendishly boring right-wing radio show might be called Not as Smart as I Think I Am.

Hewitt interviewed Trump earlier this month and fired a string of gotcha-style foreign policy questions at the Donald, daring him to name the leaders of Hezbollah, al-Qaeda and ISIS. Trump deflected as only he knows how, saying that he didn't know but that it didn't matter because by the time he made it to office, "they'll all be gone." Similar to the Kelly episode, he grew angry about the exchange overnight, and the next day told Joe Scarborough that Hewitt is a "third rate radio announcer."

Bash, meanwhile, did the interview with Trump where he blasted attorney Elizabeth Beck for being "disgusting" while breastfeeding. And Tapper went after Trump in his own interview for promoting "traditional" marriage when Trump himself has been married three times.

My guess is that the debate will play right into Trump's hands. Hewitt, who was a Harvard housemate of Grover Norquist and was tutored by Alan Keyes, will act as a stand-in for the Republican Party bigwigs: he'll try to bloody Trump by exposing his lack of concrete knowledge, in the area of foreign affairs particularly. Expect questions along the lines of, "Who is Hassan Nasrallah's favorite soccer player?" or "Name two countries in South America."

This will make for excellent theater, but what Trump's audiences will see is their candidate being pestered by one GOP puppet and two reporters from CNN, which in 'Murica is widely understood to be a wing of the Democratic Party.

Anyway, there will be 11 candidates at the grownup table tonight. It's newcomer Carly Fiorina along with the ten from the last debate: Donald Trump, Ben Carson, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz , Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Mike Huckabee, John Kasich, Chris Christie and Rand Paul.

In the Friday the 13th movie that is this campaign, Rick Perry is the first to be found with an axe is his head. He dropped out this week, blaming his inability to get into the first debate and the unfortunate fact of his being under indictment (for coercing a public servant) as reasons for his failed campaign. One of Perry's megadonors is already asking for his $5 million back, to which Perry's camp says it's reviewing its options; fun stuff. All in all, a great showing by the former Texas governor, who will almost certainly run again in 2020, perhaps with a Japanese soldier who hasn't heard WWII is over as a running mate.

Not listed here is former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore, who will be watching the debate from the mythical religious territory of purgatory. Gilmore of course didn't make it to the grownup event, but CNN says you need 1 percent in the polls to make even the kiddie-table debate, making Gilmore a second-rater among second-raters: as Beavis and Butthead would say, the "ass of the ass."

Here are the official rules for the second GOP debate drinking game. After a lengthy discussion on Twitter, we're adding an almost entirely new lineup here, with a few holdovers. The event is taking place in California at the Ronald Reagan library, which means we can't have people drinking every time a candidate tries to fellate the Gipper's memory: we'd have Guyana-level mass deaths. We thought about making people drink a the sight of Ted Cruz's first Reagan-inspired boner, but the podium will make that rule tough to enforce.

Please take small shots! And when watching politics, please make sure to have a designated driver.

I'll be tweeting throughout the event. The rules:

Drink The First Time and the First Time only:

A candidate invokes the memory of Saint Reagan.

2. A candidate mentions Hillary's emails.

Drink Every time:

Hugh Hewitt hurls a douchey gotcha question at Trump.

Trump � or any of the other candidates � insults or threatens one of the moderators. Beer chaser if it's Tapper or Bash, and the candidate rips liberal-ass CNN in the process.

Trump brags about his wealth or his poll numbers, or mocks the low poll numbers of an opponent.

A candidate pledges to stand with Israel.

Carly Fiorina makes a joke about her own face.

A candidate claims a positive relationship with a minority. We're keeping this rule in every debate. (So far we're one-for-one: Kasich said he had a gay friend in the first debate.)

Anyone mentions Kim Davis or the "War on Christians."

A candidate says he'll stand up to Putin.

Trump derides someone for being a "lightweight" or having "low energy" or "low enthusiasm."

Anyone mentions Tom Brady or Deflategate.

Anyone calls Black Lives Matter a "hate group," argues that BLM or Barack Obama have endangered the lives of police, or pulls a "What about black-on-black crime?" line.

A candidate mentions the founders. Double shot if it's Rand Paul.

Carson invokes the Bible as an authority for something that has nothing to do with the Bible, like tax policy.

A candidate says, "I'm the only person on this stage who�" Double shot if it's Carson saying something like, "I'm the only candidate who's had his hands inside a human thorax."

Anyone mentions Hitler, Nazis or Neville Chamberlain. Includes related imagery, e.g. "ovens."
A candidate stumbles over what to call ISIS/ISIL, or mispronounces the name of a world leader.

Anyone mentions the Governator or makes a Terminator-themed joke, e.g. "To illegal immigrants, I say, Hasta La Vista."

"Anchor babies."

"Thug."

"Leading from behind."

"All lives matter."

"Apologize for America."

"Eye-ran."

Take a shot of Jagermeister if:

Anyone compares Kim Davis to Rosa Parks.

Any candidate is seen wearing a Blue Lives Matter bracelet.

A candidate offers an insincere paean to departed Rick Perry. Double shot if someone references his "smart glasses."

37 comments

No One Cares About David Gregory's Spiritual Journey

Written by <a href="index.php?option=com_comprofiler&task=userProfile&user=11104">Charles Pierce, Esquire</a>

Wednesday, 16 September 2015 08:30

Pierce writes: "How much am I supposed to care about David Gregory's spiritual journey? Enough to buy a book about it? (Doubtful) Enough to read an excerpt from said book? (Maybe)"

David Gregory with Ted Cruz and Charles Schumer. (photo: Getty Images/NBC News)

No One Cares About David Gregory's Spiritual Journey

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

16 September 15

What are the gobshites saying these days?

eing our semi-regular weekly survey of the state of Our National Dialogue which, as you know, is what Prince would have come up with, had he composed "Derpy Mind."

Before we begin, I have a question for the congregation. How much am I supposed to care about David Gregory's spiritual journey? Enough to buy a book about it? (Doubtful) Enough to read an excerpt from said book? (Maybe) Enough to forget about, well, this?

No fcking chance in hell.

It seems that the Dancin' Master has penned a tome about his sudden departure as caretaker of the Overlook Hotel, where my man Chuck Todd always has been the caretaker. Somehow, god and/or his son make cameo appearances. Of course, had god or his son been available on Sundays while the Dancin' Master was still working the desk at NBC, he would have been guaranteed to have Astaroth (or John McCain) on the show. For balance, doncha know?

It was all coming together: Here was the time for me to live out so many of the lessons I'd been learning on my spiritual journey. I'd been contemplating living a more spiritual, meaningful existence, and now was the time to walk the walk. In a way, that day up in New Hamp�shire clarified many of the discoveries I had been making about life and faith.

Being fired is tough. It's been happening over and over again to hundreds of actual journalists who have never performed dumbshow with Karl Rove. So, no, I don't think I'll be caring much at all about the existential faith-crisis of an unemployed television millionaire.

Anyway, back at the Dancin' Master's old stand, my man Chuck Todd had another highly evolved spiritual human, David Brooks, on to discuss whether or not Joe Biden should run for president. Brooks managed to turn Biden's tender moment on Stephen Colbert's show into a truncheon which he applied to Hillary Rodham Clinton because�faith!

Hillary is, you know, planning to be spontaneous, but that was spontaneous.

Oh, do shut up.

Over on CBS, where John Dickerson is settling quite comfortably in the chair once occupied by former Hittite economics correspondent Bob Schieffer, the Libidinous Visitor showed up to brag about his poll numbers and to fib grotesquely about his ungallant remarks concerning Carly Fiorina's looks.

Dickerson: Let me ask you a question about -- you have been politics for three weeks. Let's go back to your experience in the business world. I want to ask you about this comment that was quoted in "Rolling Stone" that you mentioned about Carly Fiorina, and think about it in a business context. So, the "Rolling Stone" quote is, you said: "Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine the face -- that the face of our next president? I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not supposed to say bad things, but, really, folks, come on. Are we serious?" Let me ask you as a business question, not a political correctness, politics question, how would you expect the human resources department to handle that if an executive at your company was heard saying that about a woman employee? What would you expect?TRUMP: Well, first of all, I was talking about her persona.

"Look at that face" is "talking about her persona"? Yeah, if you're Ingmar Bergman, maybe. Sweet Babby Jeebus, he truly doesn't care about the truth. He's got polling numbers!

But the House Cup goes to the gang at This Week With The Clinton Guy Shocked By Blowjobs," where old pal Martha Raddatz was sitting in the big chair and chatting with Dr. Ben Carson. She asked him about the immigration crisis in Europe and Doctor Ben got his talking-points on.

Raddatz: Dr. Carson, let me ask you this, then, just quickly, if you will. How would you handle the refugee crisis right now?

Carson: I would recognize that bringing in people from the Middle East right now carries extra danger. And we have to be extra cautious. You know, we need to tighten it up and be very careful, because we cannot put our people at risk because we're trying to be politically correct.

If a patient asks Dr. Ben Carson about blurred vision and dizziness, does he diagnose "political correctness"? If the waitress asks him if he wants Italian or ranch dressing on his salad, does he reply that he'll take either one, because he's not politically correct? Paper or plastic?

Anything, as long as it's not politically correct.

Yeesh.

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