# NEW Stupid Republican Idea of the Day (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140 "2020-06-22T07:01:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 140
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2789 "2021-01-14T20:47:41Z")
> [@74westy](#): > > I haven’t seen Game of Thrones but I assume in that universe “trial by combat” doesn’t mean fighting or anything like that. right? I was thinking the same thing. Not that I believe Giuliani, but even if he’s telling the truth I don’t see how it makes his words any better. “I wasn’t advocating violence; I just thought people should settle the matter like on that TV show where they kill one another.” > [@Cheesesteak](#): > > The thing about trial by combat is that, as presented, it is a laughably unfair way to determine guilt or innocence. Those who are powerful or have powerful friends they can pay to fight for them get to do whatever they want, and are “cleared” when their vicious monster outfights some other person’s vicious monster. Facts don’t matter, guilt doesn’t matter, just power. Agreed. For the sake of argument, though, the death toll is 3 protesters and 2 police officers; so that would mean the election was not stolen. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2790 "2021-01-14T21:12:53Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I was thinking the same thing. Not that I believe Giuliani, but even if he’s telling the truth I don’t see how it makes his words any better. “I wasn’t advocating violence; I just thought people should settle the matter like on that TV show where they kill one another.” I don’t think I made it clear to everyone but that was pretty much my point. > [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Agreed. For the sake of argument, though, the death toll is 3 protesters and 2 police officers; so that would mean the election was not stolen. Ok result in this case but, no, not the way I would pick to solve these kind of problems in general. ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2791 "2021-01-14T22:45:45Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I wonder if that last bit was put in there as a reference; if so it is a very, very obscure one and the author deserves multiple plaudits for including it. > > Did anyone else catch it? [Heavy sigh] Indulge us, please? ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2792 "2021-01-14T22:54:09Z")
I know that right wing hashtags frequently get hijacked by people posting photos of pancakes, but if there’s a story behind that - I don’t know it. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2793 "2021-01-14T23:13:22Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > > > I wonder if that last bit was put in there as a reference; if so it is a very, very obscure one and the author deserves multiple plaudits for including it. > > > > Did anyone else catch it? > > [Heavy sigh] Indulge us, please? Sorry; I had to take a call with my state Senator. There’s an indie movie called _The Anarchist Cookbook_; the end of the film finds the narrator/protagonist in the midst of a violent mob of white supremacists/nazis who are planning an attack on government buildings. The whole group is camped out in a single house and the morning of the attack, he puts on an apron and makes pancakes for everyone. Only he’s laced them with valium and when everyone passes out, he splits and turns them all in to the cops. The whole movie is on YouTube but whoever posted it seems to have dubbed it down to a VHS tape and then watched it 46,000 times before finally digitizing and uploading it. [This is cued to the pancake scene.](https://youtu.be/HB-3h323fF0?t=5425) If the Onion article had said “flapjacks”, I’d have been 100% convinced it was referencing this movie. ---
**Author:** ![Ziberian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/919ad9/32.png) [@Ziberian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ziberian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2794 "2021-01-14T23:21:59Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > MAGAtard PLEASE don’t use this term – hard to criticize Trump & followers (‘libtard’) for their ugly mockery of disabled folks (physical or intellectually disabled) when liberals are doing the exact same thing. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2795 "2021-01-14T23:22:51Z")
Point taken, thanks. Besides, there are so many other options. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2796 "2021-01-14T23:27:40Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > The thing about trial by combat is that, as presented, it is a laughably unfair way to determine guilt or innocence. Those who are powerful or have powerful friends they can pay to fight for them get to do whatever they want, and are “cleared” when their vicious monster outfights some other person’s vicious monster. Facts don’t matter, guilt doesn’t matter, just power. To be fair, in the medieval era, when the few instances of actual “Trial by Combat” situations occured, the idea (at least in Christian Europe) was that God would favor the righteous fighter. Which was often the stronger, faster fighter. Apparently Jehovah is big into beefcakes, which is no surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2797 "2021-01-14T23:31:06Z")
> [@Tristan](#): > > To be fair, in the medieval era, when the few instances of actual “Trial by Combat” situations occured, the idea (at least in Christian Europe) was that God would favor the righteous fighter. Which was often the stronger, faster fighter. Modern fictionalizations of medieval trial by combat (think Ivanhoe, that Brother Cadfael mystery, etc.) tend to finesse this by having a smaller or weaker righteous fighter who would probably have lost if it hadn’t been for some kind of freak accident that smites the unrighteous one. See, God is on the job! ---
**Author:** ![Icarus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icarus/32/72_2.png) [@Icarus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icarus)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2798 "2021-01-14T23:34:11Z")
Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2799 "2021-01-14T23:34:44Z")
> [@Ziberian](#): > > PLEASE don’t use this term – hard to criticize Trump & followers (‘libtard’) for their ugly mockery of disabled folks (physical or intellectually disabled) when liberals are doing the exact same thing. > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > Besides, there are so many other options. However, I’d make an exception for the man himself. If he ever tried to have a conversation with me, his words mean nothing so I would interrupt him and repeat his words while holding my arms out like he did for that reporter. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2800 "2021-01-14T23:35:05Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Pelosi says that members of the House will be fined $5000 if they bypass the metal detectors. It’s probably too much to ask that members who bypass the metal detectors will be taken down by police (and taser if necessary), removed and incarcerated until trial. ---
**Author:** ![Ziberian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/919ad9/32.png) [@Ziberian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ziberian)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2801 "2021-01-14T23:43:58Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > > [@Ziberian](#): > > > > PLEASE don’t use this term – hard to criticize Trump & followers (‘libtard’) for their ugly mockery of disabled folks (physical or intellectually disabled) when liberals are doing the exact same thing. > > > [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > > > Besides, there are so many other options. > > However, I’d make an exception for the man himself. If he ever tried to have a conversation with me, his words mean nothing so I would interrupt him and repeat his words while holding my arms out like he did for that reporter. No, because a) he wouldn’t get it because b) he and his followers are WILLFULLY ignorant and deliberately obtuse, and should never be compared to those genuinely unable to learn and process at a functional level. Though the unbelievable degree of gullibility among Trumpers makes me wonder about their functionality also. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2802 "2021-01-14T23:44:59Z")
As the FBI is reporting that there are planned insurrections at all 50 state capitols this Sunday a former Republican Congressional candidate (who lost big) is upset that California won’t let her have a pro-Individual 1 rally outside the state capitol Sunday. > **[Highway Patrol Denies Permit for Pro-Trump Rally at California's Capitol](https://www.newsweek.com/california-highway-patrol-denies-permit-pro-trump-rally-state-capitol-1561743)** > > The Let Freedom Ring event was "denied because the proposed number of attendees are more than what's being allowed as a result of COVID-19 and due to the potential for civil unrest this weekend," an officer said. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 14, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2803 "2021-01-14T23:48:51Z")
Check this delusion out: > [@](#): > > Bish told the paper she offered specific security plans to the California Highway Patrol to keep attendees safe. > > “I asked that the barriers stay in place, that California Highway Patrol control ingress and egress through one of the side entrances, either on the north or the south, so we could keep people safe,” she said. > > “I was going the extra mile to keep the people who wanted to peacefully assemble safe from counterprotesters,” Bish added. No one is worried about any mythical counterprotestors, Chris. It’s _your_ group that they are worried about attacking people. It’s _your_ group that are terrorists, Chris. Things are closed because of _you_. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2804 "2021-01-15T00:19:48Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > However, I’d make an exception for the man himself. If he ever tried to have a conversation with me, his words mean nothing so I would interrupt him and repeat his words while holding my arms out like he did for that reporter. I’m now picturing EVERYONE who interacts with the Abomination doing this. The waiter who takes his order; the doorman; the Secret Service agents; and every interviewer. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2805 "2021-01-15T02:14:28Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Rudy says his call for “Trial by combat” was referencing that “famous documentary about medieval England”, Game of Thrones. Now I want to see Ted Cruz versus The Rock at the Senate trial. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2806 "2021-01-15T02:45:28Z")
Hell, let Arya Sark do the honors. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_McQwark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4da419/32.png) [@Steve\_McQwark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_McQwark)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2807 "2021-01-15T02:46:36Z")
> [@aurora\_maire](#): > > > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > > > Rudy says his call for “Trial by combat” was referencing that “famous documentary about medieval England”, Game of Thrones. > > Now I want to see Ted Cruz versus The Rock at the Senate trial. In his most secret thoughts, those he keeps pushed deep inside, Ted Cruz would like to see that, too. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 15, 2021, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/2808 "2021-01-15T06:19:44Z")
> [@Ziberian](#): > > No, because a) he wouldn’t get it because b) he and his followers are WILLFULLY ignorant and deliberately obtuse, and should never be compared to those genuinely unable to learn and process at a functional level. I have my doubts about the “willfulness” of it, though. It is a combination of epigenetics and upbringing that determines a person’s (in)curiosity level. They may be unable to acquire a practical, working picture of reality through no fault of their own. Also, the moth-response may be stronger in MAGAt types, drawing them to shiny things and holding them there – it is a kind of quasi-religious affect that seems to be somewhat less pronounced in non-MAGAts. In either case (will or nature), the overriding question is, how should they be handled? Punishing them only tends to reinforce their hostilities and misplaced loyalties, but not punishing them (or their leaders, at least) is akin to leaving a gangrenous wound untended. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=139) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=141)