# 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:** 1335
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26682 "2016-01-12T21:38:52Z")
[Trump supporter creates a phony ISIS-sympathizer website in order to troll pro-Muslim Wheaton College professor, becomes target of a federal indictment.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/12/3738612/wheaton-islamic-center-fake-website/) ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26683 "2016-01-12T22:08:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [Trump supporter creates a phony ISIS-sympathizer website in order to troll pro-Muslim Wheaton College professor, becomes target of a federal indictment.](http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2016/01/12/3738612/wheaton-islamic-center-fake-website/) Weird story. I doubt that the “Domain name has been seized” message is genuine, though. Couple reasons: 1) I don’t think the feds generally post notes like that when they take down a site for any reason; 2) I don’t see why the IPRCC would be involved in a case like this; 3) the purported DHS icon on the page is just an image of a generic DHS investigator badge available on Wikipedia; 4) they misspelled “allegedly”; and 5) at least based on a cursory Googling, the codes cited on the page appear to be mostly wrong. Also, I can tell because of the pixels. Anyway, so the trolls seem to want to continue to troll us by pretending that the feds came down on them for their previous trollery. Trolls all the way down! ---
**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 12, 2016, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26684 "2016-01-12T22:13:03Z")
Paul Ryan has invited leaders of private organizations to the State of the Union that he intends to show how private organizations are so much better at curing poverty than the federal government. [Except for all that government money they get](http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/01/12/3738364/paul-ryan-sotu-guests/) … ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26685 "2016-01-12T22:14:06Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > 1. I don’t think the feds generally post notes like that when they take down a site for any reason [For comparison’s sake, this is what was posted to megaupload.com when the feds seized it.](http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/01/megaupload-banner.jpg) [Here’s another one from a sports streaming website that was seized last year, which uses the same DHS badge.](http://i.huffpost.com/gen/243542/ATDHE-SEIZED.jpg) If the site owner is still trolling, he’s done his homework. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26686 "2016-01-12T22:20:16Z")
Also, the the badges have just been replaced with parody versions. So clearly he _is_ still trolling. I still say it counts as an SRIOtD. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26687 "2016-01-12T22:23:04Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > [For comparison’s sake, this is what was posted to megaupload.com when the feds seized it.](http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/01/megaupload-banner.jpg) > > [Here’s another one from a sports streaming website that was seized last year, which uses the same DHS badge.](http://i.huffpost.com/gen/243542/ATDHE-SEIZED.jpg) > > If the site owner is still trolling, he’s done his homework. Huh, I’ll be damned. Thanks for fighting my ignorance! I still don’t think this message is genuine, for the other reasons I noted. Also, the site just went up last week; having it taken down by the feds this quick seems unlikely. But, now I dunno… ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26688 "2016-01-12T22:26:11Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Also, the the badges have just been replaced with parody versions. > > So clearly he _is_ still trolling. > > I still say it counts as an SRIOtD. Ah, yeah, I see that now. Bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26689 "2016-01-13T00:42:58Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Virginia Republican Delegate wants to fine students for using a bathroom that doesn’t match their anatomical gender.](http://crooksandliars.com/2016/01/va-gop-rep-wants-examine-students) How the hell do they plan on implementing that, and, no, I will NOT click on the link to read the article. > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Ben Carson wants Muslim guests at the State of the Union investigated](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/ben-carson-muslim-guests-state-of-the-union) "… change us from a Judeo-Christian foundation to a Muslim foundation. " Dear mother of God, has the man never read a book? Of all the words to use - philosophy, ethos, society, whatever - he chose the least apt, and used it twice. ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26690 "2016-01-13T01:42:34Z")
> [@j666](#): > > "… change us from a Judeo-Christian foundation to a Muslim foundation. " So I have to get a new uniform? ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26691 "2016-01-13T02:21:54Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > So I have to get a new uniform? I think he’s talking about makeup tips. I always have a hard time deciding what foundation to use myself. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26692 "2016-01-13T06:53:07Z")
Spackle? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 11:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26693 "2016-01-13T11:09:56Z")
Ted Cruz; [after my first year as president,](http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/01/12/3738835/cruz-sotu-2018/) the border wall will be finished, a flat tax will be in place, the IRS will have been abolished and their HQ sold to Donald Trump, the ACA will be repealed, ISIS will have been “completely destroyed”, and Hillary Clinton will be in federal prison. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26694 "2016-01-13T12:56:12Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Ted Cruz; [after my first year as president,](http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/01/12/3738835/cruz-sotu-2018/) the border wall will be finished, a flat tax will be in place, the IRS will have been abolished and their HQ sold to Donald Trump, the ACA will be repealed, ISIS will have been “completely destroyed”, and Hillary Clinton will be in federal prison. Fro the link: > [@](#): > > And, he joked, Hillary Clinton is in prison. “You know I have to say, we’ve never had a president serving from Leavenworth,” he said about the prison in Kansas. “But had prisoner 260401 been elected president, we would have seen 12 million people here granted amnesty.” Is it significant that Hillary Clinton’s imagined prisoner number recalls Jean Valjean’s _24601_? > [@](#): > > Javert: > Five years for what you did > The rest because you tried to run [for president] > Yes 260401 ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26695 "2016-01-13T17:40:19Z")
Here’s another SRIOTD: Cruz and other Republicans occasionally talk about abolishing the IRS. Although his speech this week seems to have been mostly joking, are these threats to get rid of the IRS always just hyperbole, safe attacks on a government agency that no one particularly likes? Sometimes they seem to be at least somewhat serious. If so, how can anyone possibly imagine that working? How could any government exist without an agency to collect taxes? Do they imagine that everyone will just voluntarily mail checks in the right amount to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? A little Googling has helped me answer my own question, at least with respect to Cruz. He told a reporter last April that > [@Ted Cruz](#): > > “I am campaigning on a flat tax that would allow every American to fill out his or her taxes on a post card that allow us to abolish the IRS.” > > Cruz said he envisions shifting the tracking and collection of federal taxes to “some much smaller division” of the Treasury Department. The senator said that replacing the current, complex tax code with a simple flat tax would eliminate most of the work the IRS needs to do, making the agency obsolete and “irrelevant.” Bastions of the liberal media such as [_The National Review_](http://www.nationalreview.com/article/417329/you-cant-and-shouldnt-abolish-irs-patrick-brennan) and [_Forbes_](http://www.forbes.com/sites/taxanalysts/2015/05/04/abolish-the-irs-good-luck-with-that/#2715e4857a0b70b6a0b673f7) have pointed out that the idea is idiotic. _The National Review_’s Patrick Brennan wrote, “‘Completely unworkable,’ ‘irresponsible,’ ‘happy talk,’ ‘a disservice to the political process.’ That’s just a sampling of what tax experts, most of them right of center, told me they think of one of the most popular lines from Ted Cruz’s stump speech, his promise to abolish the Internal Revenue Service.” Joseph Thorndike of _Forbes_ points out that Cruz’s plan is actually a cynical shell game: “When Cruz talks about abolishing the IRS, he’s suggesting nothing more than bureaucratic reshuffling. … Changing the title of an agency and its reporting chain is about as cynical as one can get, and all too typical of inside-the-Beltway thinking (odd coming from Cruz). Second, whether it is called the IRS or the Agency Formerly Known as the IRS, someone is going to have to determine whether income is all reported, whether those deductions will be valid, etc. The IRS isn’t going away under Cruz’s scheme.” ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26696 "2016-01-13T18:03:03Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > …Is it significant that Hillary Clinton’s imagined prisoner number recalls Jean Valjean’s _24601_? If Cruz has read _Les Miserables_, I’ll eat my hat and yours as well! Even I have only read it in translation. Maybe that isn’t enough, maybe the original French version of _Les_ is more. Ted Cruz likely thinks Dicken’s story about Tiny Tim and Scrooge is a tragedy, a heart-rending story of a job-creator who is frightened by socialist ghosts, and worsens poor little Tim’s lot in life by making him dependent on charity. And, as you know, another word for a ghost is “SPECTRE”! It all comes together once you connect the dot. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26697 "2016-01-13T18:20:42Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Is it significant that Hillary Clinton’s imagined prisoner number recalls Jean Valjean’s _24601_? I assumed Cruz was making an attempt at a hoo-mon humor-joke and didn’t actually know the book/musical well enough to realize he’d gotten the number wrong. ---
**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 13, 2016, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26698 "2016-01-13T19:06:53Z")
[quote=“commasense, post:26695, topic:490897”] > [@Originally Posted by Ted Cruz](#): > > “I am campaigning on a flat tax that would allow every American to fill out his or her taxes on a post card that allow us to abolish the IRS.” > > Cruz said he envisions shifting the tracking and collection of federal taxes to “some much smaller division” of the Treasury Department. The senator said that replacing the current, complex tax code with a simple flat tax would eliminate most of the work the IRS needs to do, making the agency obsolete and “irrelevant.” This is one thing that drives me nuts, the idea that a flat tax means a simple tax. Figuring out your income tax boils down to two things, one simple, and one very complicated. A flat tax means you take the simple part and make it just a little simpler. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26699 "2016-01-13T19:20:00Z")
My understanding of the flat tax dream is that both parts are simple. You have one or more W2s? They’ll all have one number on them, total earnings. Just add that up, then apply your flat tax—simple. What, you want to complicate things because most of your income is from capital gains? Sorry, you can’t complicate things; just don’t count them. What, you want to complicate things because you like some of your deductions? Sorry, you can’t complicate things. You no longer have any deductions. Except for you over there with the business, you can call anything you want a deduction before declaring your income. And so on. Just make it simple enough for Sara Palin to understand. ---
**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 13, 2016, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26700 "2016-01-13T19:42:24Z")
Milwaukee County, Wisconsin Sheriff David Clarke, who is a frequent Fox network contributor and has a radio show on Glenn Beck’s network, thinks [the federal government should just leave the Oregon militia people alone so that a revolution doesn’t break out.](http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/fox-news-sheriff-government-should-stand-down-oregon-prevent-armed-conflict) He also criticizes the Oregon state government for not intervening in the Hammond case. I don’t know on what grounds they would have intervened. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/26701 "2016-01-13T20:33:31Z")
John Kasich says it would be easy as pie for new moms to work from home while caring for the kid: > **[John Kasich Says Women Could Do Maternity Leave Online, If Bosses Let Them](https://www.wonkette.com/john-kasich-says-women-could-do-maternity-leave-online-if-bosses-let-them)** > > Also they shop for fruit a lotBREAKING: GOP "moderate" John Kasich is still running for president! Yeah, we're every bit as surprised as you are. And he's got a bold idea about family leave that's sure to inject fresh life into his campaign, or at... He’s not a big fan of paid maternity leave, and he’s not so sure he likes paid sick leave, either. [http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/01/11/3737921/kasich-paid-family-leave/](http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2016/01/11/3737921/kasich-paid-family-leave/) (see last paragraph) What a guy. These 'pubs blather on about being pro-family, but these policies are really pro-fuck-you-and-your-fucking-family. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1334) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1336)