# 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:** 255
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2021, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5098 "2021-05-14T23:48:09Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The San Diego Humane Society is investigation the John Cox gubernatorial campaign for bringing their bear mascot into the city in violation of the city’s laws about use of animals No, no. You’ve got it wrong. The bear was running for governor and he brought Cox along as the mascot. I hope the bear wins. ---
**Author:** ![velomont](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/8491ac/32.png) [@velomont](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velomont)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5099 "2021-05-15T01:16:51Z")
…and brigands and highwaymen and other ne’er-do-wells ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5100 "2021-05-15T01:18:33Z")
…gypsies, tramps, and thieves ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5101 "2021-05-15T05:37:23Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > IANAL but … how would anyone have standing to file a suit like this? How am I injured by your seeking an abortion? Don’t forget this was the state where the AG sued Pennsylvania and Michigan for counting their votes all wrong and thus depriving Texas voters of the correct president. Or something like that – my head starts hurting when I think too much about it. I’d laugh but _my_ AG here in Arizona signed onto the same lawsuit. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5102 "2021-05-15T06:22:35Z")
Problem with that is, the other troops would only be available during the day. 'Cause every night the men would come around, and lay their money down. ---
**Author:** ![omenran](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omenran/32/3318_2.png) [@omenran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/omenran)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 7:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5103 "2021-05-15T07:09:49Z")
I also ANAL, but if anyone has standing there’s nothing to stop everyone with the means/desire/time to join a suit, not to mention all suits of this type? Something like a class-action lawsuit but with tens/hundreds of individuals or groups on both sides.That could really bog down the system. Or I guess why couldn’t it be a class action suit. (Idle speculation, no answer needed.) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5104 "2021-05-15T14:19:44Z")
One would think though, that a lawyer – especially one who is an Attorney General – would go a thought process, _Hmm, a lawsuit. Lessee, does the person bringing the suit have any standing? No, he does not and, come to think of it, neither do I. Pass._ One who does not is either a complete idiot as a lawyer or engaging in political theater instead of doing his job. Either way I do not want him as _my_ state attorney general and I intend bringing this point up loudly and often when the asshole runs again in two years. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5105 "2021-05-15T14:33:15Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > A new video has surface of Marjorie Taylor Greene, before she became a member of Congress, pounding on the door of AOC’s Congressional office, calling her a coward for not coming out, and shouting through the mail slot of the office door. One of the people accompanying her is a Capitol insurrectionist. I think we all know that if MTG wasn’t IN the capitol building already, she’d have been trying to break in. The Insurrection was coming from INSIDE the House! ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5106 "2021-05-15T14:52:43Z")
I assume that under current law, no one could sue at all. I could see relatives claiming standing. Whether that be the father, or the parents of either the mother or the father. ---
**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:** [May 15, 2021, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5107 "2021-05-15T18:20:57Z")
Texas’ legislature is considering a law requiring owners of electric vehicles to pay a fee equivalent to how much in gas tax they would have paid if they drove gas powered vehicles. > **[Texas lawmakers move to raise penalties on owners of Teslas and other...](https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/energy/553661-texas-lawmakers-move-to-raise-penalties-on-owners-of/)** > > Recently, some Texas lawmakers targeted owners of electric vehicles by proposing Senate Bill 1728, which critics say would punish EV owners for simply owning an EV. America is changing faster … The Arizona vote “audit” is running longer than was anticipated, so they’re having to move out of the building where they "audit is occurring because it was previously booked for high school graduations. So they’re packing up the boxes of ballots and moving them to warehouse for storage until time when they can go back to “auditing”. The building where the ballots are going to be stored is open to the public for use of the bathrooms, and it is also described on the state fairgrounds’ website as “not recommended for use between May through September.” The reason? “Due to temperatures during the summer months.” > **[Arizona Republicans move 2020 ballots in trucks after pausing controversial...](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/05/14/politics/arizona-2020-audit-pause/index.html)** > > The first semi truck full of 2020 election ballots rolled slowly through the Arizona State Fairgrounds on Friday, past the "Crazy Times Carnival" set up in the south parking lot to a warehouse where the approximately 2.1 million ballots cast by... ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5108 "2021-05-15T19:14:27Z")
^ Fucking gong show. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5109 "2021-05-15T19:26:35Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Texas’ legislature is considering a law requiring owners of electric vehicles to pay a fee equivalent to how much in gas tax they would have paid if they drove gas powered vehicles. I have mixed feelings about this one. The wear and tear on roads and bridges is the same whether a gas powered vehicle drives over it or an electric powered one does. If the roads are funded by gas taxes, then the traditional vehicle owners are subsidizing the electric vehicle owners and it likely makes the gas tax even more regressive (because the drivers of electric cars tend to be wealthier.) On its face, charging a road tax to electric vehicles isn’t inherently stupid. But the devil is in the details. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5110 "2021-05-15T21:43:24Z")
> [@amarinth](#): > > The wear and tear on roads and bridges is the same whether a gas powered vehicle drives over it or an electric powered one does. If the roads are funded by gas taxes, then the traditional vehicle owners are subsidizing the electric vehicle owners and it likely makes the gas tax even more regressive (because the drivers of electric cars tend to be wealthier.) > On its face, charging a road tax to electric vehicles isn’t inherently stupid. Exactly. If every car on the road suddenly turned into an electric car tomorrow, you’d need to find something to replace the gasoline tax as a source of revenue for infrastructure and maintenance. And when most new (and more fuel efficient) gasoline cars, as well as most electric cars, are driven by wealthier drivers–as is the case right now–failing to implement an alternative to the gas tax means that the burden of maintenance is disproportionately borne by people with older, less fuel efficient cars. A few years ago, California lawmakers proposed legislation that would tax vehicles by miles driven. It hadn’t been implemented, but as the number of electric cars increases, something like this is going to be a necessity. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5111 "2021-05-15T21:45:39Z")
We definitely need to impose some kind of tax so we can maintain our crumbling infrastructure, but we ALSO need to get people off of fossil fuels and into electric vehicles yesterday, before we fuck up our planet even further. So making that a tax on electric vehicles SPECIFICALLY is extremely stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5112 "2021-05-15T21:51:58Z")
The problem with all this is that there’s a whole host of externalities that gas cars aren’t paying and haven’t been paying for over a century. It’s true that once all cars are EVs, we’ll need some system for paying for roads that’s proportional to use. But right this instant, it’s actually gas cars that are getting a tremendous free ride. EVs get some explicit subsidies like income tax breaks, and some implicit ones like not paying road taxes. That helps balance things out a bit, though it’s still not comparable to the implicit subsidies that gas cars get. The net result is that this is a blatant attempt to slow the switch to EVs. It could have been designed to be neutral with regard to EV incentives, but it wasn’t. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5113 "2021-05-15T21:58:24Z")
Others have suggested dropping the massive subsidies for oil and gas extraction to raise the needed infrastructure funding. [Fact Sheet | Fossil Fuel Subsidies: A Closer Look at Tax Breaks and Societal Costs (2019) | White Papers | EESI](https://www.eesi.org/papers/view/fact-sheet-fossil-fuel-subsidies-a-closer-look-at-tax-breaks-and-societal-costs) Trucking doesn’t pay its full share either. Note that the 1950s test folks quote overstates the damage trucks do. More recent testing shows increased damage from overweight trucks but no the absurd figures extrapolated from the 1950s test. 1. Gas and fuel taxes should be raised. 2. Some sort of use tax/fee based on mileage should be part of an EV registration. The car itself may not be heavily damaging the road/bridge but everything deteriorates over time. Fair share. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5114 "2021-05-15T22:00:08Z")
I wish I could say the voter fraud was the stupidest idea here. > **[Husband charged with murder of missing wife in Colorado is also charged with...](https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/14/us/barry-morphew-colorado-wife-murder-suspect-voter-fraud-charge/index.html)** > > A Colorado man who was recently charged with murder in the disappearance of his wife a year ago has also been charged with voter fraud for voting for Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election using his wife's mail-in ballot, according to an... ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5115 "2021-05-15T22:11:16Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Fucking gong show. God, I _wish_ it were a gong show, then we could bang the gong and kick these idiots off the stage. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2021, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5116 "2021-05-15T23:38:36Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > and it is also described on the state fairgrounds’ website as “not recommended for use between May through September.” The reason? “Due to temperatures during the summer months.” Boy, if @flatlined were here we’d be getting an earful about that. Or maybe if she were there. ---
**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:** [May 16, 2021, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140/5117 "2021-05-16T03:18:49Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > ^ Fucking gong show. You’ll love this next act! > **[Republican Arizona election official says Trump "unhinged"](https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-arizona-election-recounts-elections-election-2020-316be3604cae983781e413d41253656d)** > > The Republican now leading the Arizona county elections department targeted by a GOP audit of the 2020 election results is slamming former President Donald Trump and others in his party for their continued falsehoods about how the election was run. > [@](#): > > Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called a Trump statement accusing the county of deleting an elections database “unhinged” and called on other Republicans to stop the unfounded accusations. > > “We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” [Richer tweeted](https://twitter.com/stephen_richer/status/1393662268542386178?s=20). > > Richer became recorder in January, after defeating the Democratic incumbent. > [@](#): > > Trump’s statement said, in part, that “the entire Database of Maricopa County in Arizona has been DELETED! This is illegal and the Arizona State Senate, who is leading the Forensic Audit, is up in arms.” > > Richer and the board say that statement is just plain wrong. In recent days, both he and the board have begun aggressively pushing back at what they see as continuing falsehoods from Republicans who question Trump’s loss. > > “Enough with the defamation. Enough with the unfounded allegations,” Richer tweeted Thursday. “I came to this office to competently, fairly, and lawfully administer the duties of the office. Not to be accused by own party of shredding ballots and deleting files for an election I didn’t run. Enough.” But my favorite part is at the end of the article: > [@](#): > > The county says the passwords the Senate is seeking are maintained by Dominion Voting Systems Inc., which makes the vote-counting machines and leases them to the county. The company said in a statement Thursday that it cooperates with auditors certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and did so for two prior audits of 2020 results in Maricopa County, but won’t work with Cyber Ninjas. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=254) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day-part-1/911140.md?page=256)