Every Wednesday someone working on behalf of the Joplin Globe throws trash in my yard.
That trash comes in the form of a column on the editorial page inside the “free” newspaper that is distributed to non-subscribers. That column is written by a man who is now a regular columnist for the Joplin Globe. His name will be familiar to long-time readers of this blog: Geoff Caldwell.
Caldwell is a troll that I banished from commenting on this blog a long time ago, details of which I won’t go into now. Neither will I go into the details of why I think calling Caldwell’s columns “trash” is, well, an understatement. But even though I hesitate to even bring attention to him—because he is starving for attention from me or anyone—I do think that my fellow Democrats out there, as well as independents, who support the Joplin Globe through subscriptions or daily purchases should be aware of what your money is subsidizing.
As we all know, President Obama decided recently to take executive action to defer deportment of some undocumented immigrants, which would, among other things, help keep families together. You would think that keeping families together would be something that self-professed “family-values” Christians like Geoff Caldwell could appreciate. But hatred for Barack Obama has poisoned the minds of so many teapartiers like Caldwell that instead of appreciation of a humane act, or instead of reasoned criticism of what some consider executive overreach, we get this:
Now, Caldwell may think he can get away with this obviously racist tweet because of the “banana republic” reference, but he and I both know better. We’ve been down this road before.
I am sure the Joplin Globe will continue to litter my lawn with Caldwell’s columns on Wednesday mornings in an effort to more widely distribute the advertising that is stuffed into that edition, as well as to pick up new subscribers. But I am also sure that as long as my local paper publishes a column by a pedestrian writer who calls our first African-American president a “monkey,” I will never again be a subscriber.
By the way, for those of you interested in expressing your displeasure to the Joplin Globe, the phone number is 417-781-5500. If you want to make a written complaint to the Globe’s parent company, Community Newspaper Holdings, Inc., here is a link to its site: http://www.cnhi.com/general-inquiries/
The Erstwhile Conservative: A Blog of Repentance 
Ben Field
/ November 24, 2014This stalwart of conservatives has a new video on you tube. Perhaps embarassed by the Geoff moniker bestowed on him, he uses another.
2:43
Speed Racist – Cyanide & Happiness Shorts
ExplosmEntertainment 4,054,716 views
35K2K
At least he will be welcomed by the “Joplin Honkies”.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 25, 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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SJ
/ November 24, 2014Disagree. Sadly liberals play the race card every time they lack a reply for the despicable acts of this racist president.
No it is not about keeping family’s together, it is about following the Constitution and working toward a comprehensive immigration policy.
Sadly we have a president who deserves no respect. In fact he needs to be impeached.
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King Beauregard
/ November 24, 2014Justify how Obama is racist. Let’s hear it.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 25, 2014I’m guessing we’ll never hear from him again.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 25, 2014Sj,
I note you haven’t replied to King Beauregard, in terms of justifying your claim that Obama is a racist. Just what are those “despicable acts” that a white-hating President Obama has performed? Ahh, that’s what I thought.
Your comments, while they do represent the views of a lot of Republicans, are nevertheless absurd, including that laugher about “working toward a comprehensive immigration policy.” There is a comprehensive immigration policy already put together and passed by the Senate with 14 GOP votes. It’s just that it remains unacceptable to the reactionaries in the House.
By the way, I hope your pals go ahead with impeachment, as I have said many times on this blog. It would be the best thing that could happen to the country, since it would help reveal to the electorate the bankruptcy of ideas on the right.
Finally, you said the President of the United States “deserves no respect.” Is that what you mean by “following the Constitution”? Huh?
Duane
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gmalan2012
/ November 24, 2014Is it now okay to call Caldwell a cheap shot, racist asshole?
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Andrew Locascio
/ November 24, 2014Wow,that didn’t take long. Amazing-Obama’s racist against white people and liberals “play the race card” when we dare to call you guys out on being closet Klansman. I could write a book on the hypocracy of that last part. But it would be a complete waste of time and energy with someone like you.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 25, 2014Andrew,
Whenever our side points out anything racially offensive that right-wingers do, we are guilty of racism ourselves. That is amazing how that works.
Duane
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ansonburlingame
/ November 24, 2014Duane,
I wrote a short comment over your calling Caldwell a racist. It was lost in the transmission I suppose. But a monkey is another word for a funny and scatter brained like “thing”. When one is accused of “acting like a monkey” I never considered it a racist comment. Get off this liberal racist accusation against any and all opposing Obama. But I will call SJ above a jack ass as well for calling for Obama’s impeachment!!
We all know your utter disdain for Geoff Caldwell, and his equal disdain for you, a “dwainbrain” if you will. You won’t change him and he won’t change you for sure. And yep, you did give him publicity as well. You would have been better served sending him and/or Carol an email!!
I do dislike your accusations against the Globe. Yes I was a former, free lance employee of the Globe and appreciated that opportunity, a lot. But I have had NO relationship of any sort with the Globe for now two years or so. I only now pester Carol or occassionally some of her reporters with emails from time to time and remain allowed to mildly get on the case of the Globe in a column or two from time to time as well. You can certainly do the same.
Far more than her predecessor, Carol has worked HARD to achieve balance in the Globe, particularly on and in the opinion pages. Before it truly was a “right wing rag”. Not so today even though the majority of its readers are decidedly right wing. So when you blast the Globe for publishing Caldwell, remember if you can a Globe endorsement for Obama in 2008!!! Talk about putting your neck on a chopping block!!
My biggest criticism of the Globe is the decided trend to now be primarly a “local” paper in terms of news and Globe (In our view) editorials. The Globe has failed to opin on national issues in any meaningful and consistent manner, for the last two years in Globe edits, not “in their view” edits. Carol now uses other newspapers to opin for her far too much in my view again.
Today, I read Caldwell’s columns in the Globe and chuckle. “Wonder what Duane thinks about THIS one” is in my mind, knowing full well the animosity between the two of you!! But then I read Reich, Lyons and several others and get “pissed” myself, well sort of anyway.
Each writer to his own opinion, Duane. Carol, right or wrong, feels that Geoff speaks to many of her readers. Rant instead against the community of Joplin, not just the Globe.
And PLEASE don’t try to write about your opinion of the Globe as another local blogger does. You come off to many as a …….. when you do so. Instead write a letter to the editor and SHOUT all you like against Caldwell, Carol, me or anyone else. For sure all the “rednecks” will read your opinion and that is not the Globe’s fault, it is just “Joplin”.
Anson
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King Beauregard
/ November 24, 2014“Monkey” carries racial baggage and you know it, and more importantly, Geoff knows it. That was the entire point of his tweet.
You champion some loathsome perspectives and people.
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Juan Don
/ November 24, 2014I hope that one day Anson will figure out how to post a short comment.
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King Beauregard
/ November 25, 2014His Wall Of Text posts are pretty much designed to obfuscate very simple issues.
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KABE
/ November 25, 2014AB, I have to disagree that about your point that there are “accusations against the Globe” The Globe has essentially made Caldwell a journalist. I assume they pay him and they have given him a larger roll recently. By doing so, I would expect him do conduct himself as such. However, his writings are nothing more than rants that unfortunately represent the Joplin community very well. I hear it with my own ears over and over. His writings do not offer varying points of view.and I would say that his recent tweet crosses way over the line of what is considered ethical or professional. Yourself, Jim, Duane, and others have guest written for the Globe many times. You all respectfully represent your views and alternative views in your work. I cannot image any of you writing such an offensive comment. By defending him, I believe you are hurting yourself. The Globe needs to cut him loose.
KABE
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Ben Field
/ November 25, 2014Anson,
You defend your friend Geoff by altering his statement. He did not accuse Obama of “acting like a monkey”, he called him one but did not have the courage to say “porch monkey” as was implied. I doubt you or he have the courage to admit you have used the n-word in the past, but nod, nod, wink, wink…your ilk knows what you imply. Your friend calls Duane, a “dwainbrain”?? and you think this a valid, reasoned retort? It is obvious why this blog and the Turner Report recieve far more traffic and commentary than yours and your racist friend’s site. It angers even the most rational human that the cowardly racism exhibited by Caldwell, you, and some police officers in these United States have fueled the fires now burning everywhere. Your lack of honesty in addressing this matter is disgusting.
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 25, 2014Anson,
My response to your point about Caldwell’s comments just being “another word for a funny and scatter brained like ‘think'” I posted as a front piece today.
As for my “accusations against the Globe,” the only thing I did was point out that someone working for the paper throws into my yard an edition with Caldwell’s column it, a column that I justifiably label as “trash.” I wasn’t calling the Joplin Globe trash, only his column, which happens to appear frequently in the edition I find on my lawn.
As for Carol Stark’s working “HARD to achieve balance in the Globe, particularly on and in the opinion pages,” I have no complaint about her or the paper’s presentation of various opinions. That’s not the point here, Anson. The point here is that Caldwell used a racist slur against President Obama. George Will, for instance, would never refer to Obama as a monkey, would he? Of course not. How about Charles Krauthammer? Nope. Never. If either one of them did, or if any syndicated conservative columnist did, they’d never see another opinion page in any reputable newspaper.
If Carol Stark thinks that Caldwell “speaks to many of her readers,” she is right. And that speaks volumes about Globe readers, doesn’t it?
Duane
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Bbob
/ November 24, 2014SJ, the race card? Caldwell is the one who blatantly called Obama a monkey. That is a racial slur that has been around for as long as I can remember—and I am an old man.
As to impeachment, impeach him for what? That is an easy term to throw around, but so far no one has come up with an impeachable act that he has committed. He has only done what other presidents have done, including Saint Reagan.
I simply can’t understand why people like you hate him so much, except that he is black and therefore less a man than you because you are white.
Love your neighbor, as the Commandments say.
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Treeske
/ November 24, 2014Bbob, this may explain it:
A new study published in the journal Behavioral and Brain Science shows a marked difference between the brain of liberals and those of conservatives and their work goes a long way towards understanding where birthers, Benghazi mouth-breathers, and end-times-preppers come from as well as what creates ObamaManiacs and fears of nonexistent or overblown boogeymen. It seems that conservatives have what the authors of the study call a “heightened negativity bias”.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=9292100
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 25, 2014I’ve read about the findings of that study. Very fascinating stuff. Thanks for posting that link.
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Treeske
/ November 24, 2014These warped people don’t realize how they portray their country to the rest of the world, it ain’t pretty!
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Troy
/ November 24, 2014Calm down GOPee’rs! You’ll soon have the power to lead this country back to the good old days of the late twenties and most recent late two thousand. Lol…….have mercy….,
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henrygmorgan
/ November 24, 2014Duane: Anson tells us that “a monkey is another word for a funny and scatter brained like “thing.”
Yes, and a “coon” is a small animal of American forests known for its fastidious eating habits.
And an “ape” is a member of a family of primates inhabiting tropical environs.
A “buck” is a male deer.
A “boy” is a young human male.
And most certainly, as Anson implies, one’s first meaning attached to these words when African-Americans are part of the discussion, is the denotative, not the connotative.
Gee, just nice, kindly words.
I’m sure that Caldwell had no meaning in his tweet for the word “monkey” other than a “funny and scatter brained like ‘thing,'”for he so often sees President Obama as “funny.”
Just a playful little ribbing of our President. Can’t you take a joke?
Bud Morgan
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Jim Wheeler
/ November 25, 2014Bud, you point out very well what should have been obvious to all but the most naive adult in this country, that the monkey reference is terminology historically used to deprecate the inferiority of the black race. Anson presents an apparently blind eye to this, despite having grown up in Kentucky. That he really didn’t understand the slur is about as likely as believing that Archie Bunker wouldn’t. But wait. I can picture Archie using it and not even realizing its effect, so never mind. 😉
Regarding the Joplin Globe, however, I agree with Anson to a point. Under Carol’s management, its op-ed page does print both sides of the political spectrum and if the local letters veer rightward, I believe it is because of a dearth of progressive material. This district’s Congressman’s reelection is reflective of his constituency. But it is unrealistic to expect the Globe to try to compete with other sources in the national news arena. The Globe seems to have found its niche. I agree with Duane that the ads are so massive that they have become an annoyance. I am considering switching to just the online edition.
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ansonburlingame
/ November 25, 2014In reply to all except Jim,
I was well schooled in racial slurs in my childhood. But “monkey” was never one that I heard used against blacks in the 1940’s and 1950’s. Naive, maybe but it was my experience. Certainly today liberals see the word monkey in a politial context and they immediately assume it is a racial term, not just a political one.
Caldwell aggressively detests President Obama. We all know that and I have engaged in far more private discussion with him than any of you have done. And no, it was not a secret cabal of racial epitaths, either. In my political view, Geoff goes too far, just as I feel Duane does in the opposite direction. I continue to comment to Duane and “his commenters” reflecting such disagreement. No longer do I do so with Geoff. Go figure if you can.
Now to Jim concerning the Globe business decision. It is not my job, my responsibility nor my intent to tell the Globe what to do, what persecptive to offer to Joplin and its readers. When Beatty became the publisher things started to change at the Globe, slowly at first but now we see the end result. It is probably a corporate end result pushed from Birmingham as well. As a reader of the Globe I disagree with that decision by and large.
I really get tired of seeing the next murder, child porn, meth cooker, etc. pictures on the front page. I generally just scan Globe in our view edits on the next environmental concern in Missouri, or the lastest call to give food to the hungry, etc. I am not opposed to such messages in general but don’t need editorials addressing such needs all the time.
Three or four years ago our actions in Syria would have been opined upon in Globe edits. Is ISIL Islamic would have been addressed. Did Nixon handle Ferguson correctly last August would have been a key issue. I could go on but hope you get my gist.
Caldwell to his credit addresses such topics just about every week but he does so in a way that drives liberal nuts. But at least one side of such issues get before the Joplin public from Caldwell and rarely if ever do I read LTTE countering his views. Why not I wonder? I will guarantee you that if one of you let loose against Geoff in a LTTE or a column, Carol would publish it. But some of you just cancel you subscription to the Globe and opin herein only or somewhere else that I don’t read it.
Remember this if nothing else. I use this blog to gauge the ideas of the liberal community in Joplin. It is a rather small community but the ideas are important to know about. Duane serves that purpose for me and I will continue to read and comment herein for just that reason, my own messages back to local liberals.
Should the Globe try to be in a position to challenge the broader perspectives of the two major newspapers in KC and St. Louis. Yes, unequivocally yes, I suggest the Globe should do just that and it did just than for several years, until it decided to “be local only” to a great degree.
One last point to all of you. My “walls of text” are just that, lengthy rebuttals to Duane by and large. Political debate must never fall to the level of sound bites only. Our world is to complex to do so. Sure I could write one or two sentences in rebuttal to Duane and sound like most of his commenters demeaning my position(s).
Just try to sound bite last night in Ferguson. I am sure many commenters herein will try to do just that when Duane takes his stand on that issue. I won’t sound bite him but may well disagree with him as well. We’ll just have to wait and see.
Now I am tempted to “sound bite” back to a few of you above. But I won’t. It is too childish!!
Anson
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henrygmorgan
/ November 25, 2014Jim: I agree about the Globe. For one thing, Carol, though she is the Editor, is not the final voice in decisions affecting content, or other areas of the paper as far as that goes. I can find little fault in her performance, as far as I have any knowledge of that. I do have a problem with the choice of this particular writer to represent the conservative community. Surely there is a better representative of conservative thought, someone who doesn’t resort to name-calling as his primary weapon, who does not believe that anyone who disagrees with him is stupid. The absence of any commentary on his columns week after week should suggest that the great majority of Globe readers do not even read his columns.
To the substance of the issue, it is unbelievable, as you state, that any American adult, does not know the real meaning of “monkey” when it is applied to a Black man. And if the person is the age of Burlingame and Caldwell, and from the South, as Burlingame is, it is simply beyond comprehension that they do not know the real meaning of that word.
I know we live in a conservative area, and I do believe that the majority of our fellow citizens are entitled to expression of those views. But if I were a conservative in Joplin, I would prefer virtually any spokesperson of my views over the present one.
Thanks for the comments. Bud
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henrygmorgan
/ November 25, 2014Jim: I share your views of the Globe. Carol may be the Editor of the paper, but hers is not the final voice on Globe content. I know that we live in a predominately conservative area, and our fellow Joplinites deserve to have their conservative views aired in the major newspaper of the area. I have no problem with that. I do have a problem with the voice chosen to express those views. Caldwell is a bully: If you disagree with him, you are either stupid or evil and he will resort to name-calling as his principal tool, as witness his repeated reference to Dwayne as “Dwainbwain,” and his reference to Jim Wheeler, a man who spent much of his life in uniform, as a “coward.”
Can there be any doubt that either Burlingame or Caldwell, were not aware of the racist connotations of the word “monkey” when referring to a Black man?
For Burlingame to leap to the defense of his comrade with such a spurious, laughable explanation is an insult to the intelligence of the readers. To quote another voice in this discussion on Duane’s blog, King Beauregard, to Burlingame,”You champion some loathsome perspectives and people.” Amen.
Over and above the issue of whether the Globe should publish Caldwell’s attacks is the question of their efficacy. If I were a conservative in this area, I would certainly want a better spokesperson for my views. Simply as a practical matter, consider the efficacy of his articles. The almost total absence of any commentary or feedback to his pieces suggests that no one is reading them.
Perhaps the Globe should take this fact into consideration.
Bud
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Jim Wheeler
/ November 26, 2014Good points, Bud – I’m glad you made them. Relative to publishing Caldwell, the Globe faces a dilemma. He’s a good writer, but he uses innuendo and out of context quotes to appeal to prejudice and confirmation bias. He has another column in today’s Globe in which he does just that, outrageously and incorrectly accusing president Obama and AG Holder of fomenting the violence in Ferguson. Unbelievable. What has inflamed him and his audience is that the administration has the nerve to recognize that racial bias actually exists, even as a relatively-small criminal element resorts to violence because of it.
One final point: if all police officers carried body cams and observed strict protocols for their use, we likely wouldn’t be having this problem in Ferguson.
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Ben Field
/ November 26, 2014Excellent point regarding body cams, Jim! A small cost to ensure fairness to all citizens regardless of skin color, wealth, or position in society! These recordings should be stored and available to police and accused. However, my opinion of Carol Stark is not favorable. In October of last year, I obtained a police report through the FOI Act regarding Mark Rohr’s domestic abuse allegations. The report detailed the police opinion that a crime was not committed because no “visible marks” were observed, and Mrs.Rohr recanted the call by her 21 year old daughter. The 911 call was refused to me under request. Carol Stark had this same incident report and the 911 call as well, at about the same time I did. After City Council terminated the POS, then the Globe sued and obtained the report conducted by Tom Loraine. The same investigator that Stark refused to testify to regarding her association and interactions with Rohr. Once the Globe published the report and 911 call from Rohr’s terrified 21 year old daughter crying that Rohr was hitting her pregnant mother, Stark admitted to having had the call recording before Rohr was fired, and felt it was not newsworthy. My opinion is that her refusal to testify speaks poorly to her character
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R. Duane Graham
/ November 29, 2014Well said, Bud. I have exactly zero problem with the Globe publishing even a majority of op-ed pieces that are slanted toward the right. That’s who its customer base is for the most part. What I have a problem with is publishing the pedestrian columns of a man who has not only repeatedly slandered the President of the United States, but has done so with terms that no reputable columnist would use, even on a Twitter feed. Caldwell is not a high-caliber thinker, not a good writer, and is a mean-spirited teapartier who lives in an echo chamber of hate directed toward our first African-American president. If that’s the only “voice” for local conservatives that Carol Stark can come up with, what does that say about the quality of her recruiting efforts or the quality of conservative writers in this area?
Duane
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