# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1015
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20282 "2015-03-23T22:46:12Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Hey, maybe we could, I dunno, build a _pipeline_! We’re busy building an underground tube from California t Maine now. **I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!!!** ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20283 "2015-03-23T22:47:27Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Hey, maybe we could, I dunno, build a _pipeline_! A couple of decades ago a serious proposal to pipeline Minnesota and Wisconsin water to the Colorado River was floated. It was quickly shot down by the Midwesterners. I wonder if they could be persuaded to change their minds with the money \*LaFarce \*wants for Maine. We know Walker of Wisconsin could not possibly care less about the environment. Drain a couple of lakes a year and ship them to LA County, California. Just be sure not to drain the ones with expensive vacation homes along their shores. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20284 "2015-03-23T22:59:54Z")
People are almost entirely water. And criminals, illegal aliens and scruffy bohemians are people. Just sayin’, is all. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20285 "2015-03-23T23:30:15Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > And criminals, illegal aliens and scruffy bohemians are people. A controversial assertion in some circles, to be sure. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2015, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20286 "2015-03-23T23:59:03Z")
The water content is identical. Tomato juice, tomato juice. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20287 "2015-03-24T02:39:21Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Maybe they are running out of Stephen King? Not likely but Stephen King does seem to be running out of patience with LePage > **[Stephen King Demands Apology From Maine Gov](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stephen-king-paul-lepage_n_6921396)** > > Stephen King Demands Apology From Maine Gov ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20288 "2015-03-24T05:47:19Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > People are almost entirely water. And criminals, illegal aliens and scruffy bohemians are people. Just sayin’, is all. So, is the plan to ship all the “undesirables” to California where we can squeeze them to extract the water? We’d still have to de-salinate it. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20289 "2015-03-24T07:12:34Z")
Still, gluten free, right? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20290 "2015-03-24T13:16:46Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I haven’t forgotten that it was the Clinton campaign that started this birther nonsense. You _have_ forgotten that it was _not_ “the Clinton campaign”. Just a couple of nutcases who supported her but were not part of the organization. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20291 "2015-03-24T14:59:18Z")
It’s too hard to distinguish the nutcases from the official campaigns anymore, but consider it duly noted. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20292 "2015-03-24T15:05:04Z")
Any campaign will attract nutcases, sure. But you still have to determine which _candidates_ are nutcases. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20293 "2015-03-24T15:47:58Z")
> [@Askthepizzaguy](#): > > Glenn Beck has absolutely perfected the art of selling stupid ideas to the stupidest people on the planet. He’s too good at it, and too successful, to actually be stupid. He knows what he’s selling is horse manure, but he has a talent for reaching that demographic of people who are missing a cavity inside their skull, and their cranium is just solid bone from one side all the way to the other. In 2012 Rick Perlstein published an essay, [“The Long Con,”](http://www.thebaffler.com/salvos/the-long-con) about movement conservatism as a mail-order scam, that is, a **moneymaking** scam. Today on Salon, Elias Isquith interviews Perlstein about that and Mike Huckabee’s marketing of a bogus diabetes cure. It touches on Beck: > [@](#): > > **Some people have implied that if the GOP primary electorate sees Huckabee doing this kind of grifting, they’ll stop taking him seriously as a presidential candidate. What does recent history indicate?** > > Let’s not forget 1988, when Pat Robertson won the New Hampshire primary. A lot of this stuff comes from Evangelical culture, which is a culture of witness, so the hawking of miracles is absolutely baked into the cake. Someone like Pat Robertson was followed by a figure like Pat Buchanan or any number of candidates in the last two or three Republican primary seasons, who make a lot of noise by doing decently well in early polls but then fade out once the seasoned pros take over and the money becomes preeminent. > > If this historical pattern holds, Mike Huckabee, if he does well early, will flame out before the second or third inning but I see no impediment whatsoever for him to be disqualified by the conservative rank-and-file, simply because this stuff has been going on without much complaint since the 1970s. This is part of the hustle, right? If Huckabee can claim to have been victimized because of his activities, he can always claim it’s the conspiracy of the liberal elites… and then it’s off to the races. > > **What about Glenn Beck? Sometimes I’m not even sure he’s political and wonder if he’s just absolute, pure grift. Has anybody done it better than he’s doing it?** > > It’s very interesting; Glenn Beck is a Mormon and this stuff is baked into Mormon culture even more than Evangelical culture. There’s the whole culture of multilevel marketing— or pyramid schemes, as they’re more derisively known— which is basically a system where you buy a franchise for some kind of product but you really only make money by selling a chunk of the franchise to your neighbor. The further down the line you are, the less likely you are to realize any profits, and most people lose lots of money on this stuff. MLM, some people joke in Utah, stands for “Mormons losing money” and so these guys are masters of the stuff. There’s also a culture of Evangelical or Mormon witnessing; being able to cry on cue when telling the story of your victimization is very important. This goes back to Elmer Gantry as portrayed by Burt Lancaster in the film of the same name. > > Glenn Beck has certainly done well taking that art to the next level. The point is, you can’t really say if these guys are politicians or con men. One of the points I try to make in my Baffler article using Mitt Romney as an example is that the structure is very similar and the rhetoric passes through the blood-brain barrier, from one to the other, almost imperceptibly. It’s very difficult, structurally, to distinguish between George W. Bush deftly advancing a conspiracy to convince the world that there are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and to convince them that they can spend 99 cents on a cancer cure. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20294 "2015-03-24T17:18:47Z")
Is this still a valid question? (Assuming it was in the first place.) From 2009: [Is there a GQ response to the right wing marketing of gold?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=539805) (Also, what’s the spot price of god today? **Bricker** revived that thread in 2011 to comment that gold was over $1,700 per ounce, commenting “Anyone who read this thread in 2009 and decided to buy gold as a result should be happy with this outcome.” It’s unclear whether he was defending gold as an investment, the tendency of right wing radio et al to be market savvy, or something else.) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20295 "2015-03-24T17:23:28Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Is this still a valid question? (Assuming it was in the first place.) > > From 2009: [Is there a GQ response to the right wing marketing of gold?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=539805) > (Also, what’s the spot price of god today? **Bricker** revived that thread in 2011 to comment that gold was over $1,700 per ounce, commenting “Anyone who read this thread in 2009 and decided to buy gold as a result should be happy with this outcome.” It’s unclear whether he was defending gold as an investment, the tendency of right wing radio et al to be market savvy, or something else.) [1,193.22](http://www.jmbullion.com/charts/gold-price/) ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20296 "2015-03-24T17:26:55Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Also, what’s the spot price of god today? Just know I can’t afford him, maybe the Koch brothers? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_stamos_left_ear/32/3198_2.png) [@John\_Stamos\_Left\_Ear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Stamos_Left_Ear)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20297 "2015-03-24T18:55:07Z")
I bumped that thread because I wanted to see what Bricker had to say. ---
**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:** [March 24, 2015, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20298 "2015-03-24T20:18:47Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Is this still a valid question? (Assuming it was in the first place.) > > From 2009: [Is there a GQ response to the right wing marketing of gold?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=539805) > (Also, what’s the spot price of god today? **Bricker** revived that thread in 2011 to comment that gold was over $1,700 per ounce, commenting “Anyone who read this thread in 2009 and decided to buy gold as a result should be happy with this outcome.” It’s unclear whether he was defending gold as an investment, the tendency of right wing radio et al to be market savvy, or something else.) I had a friend that bought into the conservative gold-buying craze back in 2009. What I found crazy about the whole thing was it wasn’t about buying gold as an investment at the best market price. Rather, she was buying into the conservative myth that Obama was going to ban private ownership of gold and apparently, was going to personally come into her house, guns blazing, at some point and seize her gold. Therefore she was buying certain collectible gold coins at a heavy premium because ( at the time at, at least ) the sale didn’t have to be reported to the government. And she bought from GoldLine which carries up to a 28% spread on it’s buy and sell prices but what the heck, Glenn Beck swears by them and she’ll be glad she spent the extra money when she has her gold while Obama has everyone else’s in a big treasure chest in the Lincoln Bedroom. [http://www.infowars.com/will-government-confiscate-all-gold-and-silver-under-national-defense-resourse-preparedness/](http://www.infowars.com/will-government-confiscate-all-gold-and-silver-under-national-defense-resourse-preparedness/) \*We can see a phony crisis being concocted to go after the American’s people gold, maybe even silver. He will order people like back when FDR was President to seize all safety deposit boxes and demand American to turn in their gold and silver coins, jewelry and would not surprise me if that be a couple’s wedding rings now required to be surrendered this time around. This is why people should by safes for their homes and bolt them to the floor and empty their safety deposit boxes over everything. My solution is empty my safety deposit box; take everything valuable out of the box. Even that classic Barbie doll you might collected.I would buy a cheap can of gold spray paint from the dollar store. I would get a bunch of rocks and spray paint them gold. Then I would fill the safety deposit box with these gold painted rocks. Our valuable stocks, bonds, gold and silver are not safe anymore in a bank’s safety deposit boxes. It safer in a safe in your home next to a Winchester 12 gauge shotgun placed nearby. \* ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20299 "2015-03-24T20:21:38Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > (Also, what’s the spot price of god today? And is god available for sale by the ounce? Or available at all on the spot market? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20300 "2015-03-24T20:28:13Z")
Not sure how crazy that is. FDR made everyone turn over their gold. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2015, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/20301 "2015-03-24T21:04:33Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Hey, maybe we could, I dunno, build a _pipeline_! Former Alaska governor Walter Hickel proposed just that [back in 1991](http://articles.latimes.com/1991-03-25/news/mn-596_1_water-problem). He was laughed at in some circles and scorned in others as a crackpot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1014) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1016)