# 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:** 1652
**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 15, 2017, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33022 "2017-03-15T08:00:02Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > But in fact, it would **not** be ridiculous—it would just be basic humanity and common sense—to expect Americans not to hate Quebecois, Haitians, and French speakers in general just because we’re at war with France. _cough_ freedom fries _cough_ 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33023 "2017-03-15T08:02:27Z")
[http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-coastguard-idUSKCN11C2LA](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-china-coastguard-idUSKCN11C2LA) > [@](#): > > CSIS researchers have detailed some 45 clashes and standoffs in the South China Sea since 2010 in a survey published on its ChinaPower website on Wednesday. (here) > > While the research includes clashes between a variety of regional states and types of vessels, the actions of China’s coast guard dominates the picture. China’s coast guard has been involved in 30 of the cases logged, two-thirds of the total. Four other incidents involved a Chinese naval vessel operating in a law enforcement capacity. > > “The evidence is clear that there is a pattern of behavior from China that is contrary to what law enforcement usually involves,” Glaser told Reuters. > > “We’re seeing bullying, harassment and ramming of vessels from countries whose coast guard and fishing vessels are much smaller, often to assert sovereignty throughout the South China Sea.” > > The research includes the violent maritime stand-off between Beijing and Hanoi over the placement of a Chinese oil exploration rig off the Vietnamese coast in 2014, as well as tensions that led up to China’s occupation of the Scarborough Shoal off the Philippines in 2012. > > It is being published as Chinese coast guard and other vessels return to Scarborough Shoal, sparking formal diplomatic protests from Manila. The Philippines said on Wednesday it was seeking clarification from China about the increase in ships near the shoal. So yes, mission creep. The questions then are whether the goal of keeping the South China Sea international rather than Chinese is worth pursuing, and if so, if increasing the US Coast Guard presence there will help keep the area international by being in China’s own coast guard’s face while at the same time ostensibly working with China’s coast guard to some degree, and by encouraging and assisting other nations in the area to develop and expand their own coast guard activities. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33024 "2017-03-15T08:13:01Z")
Trump is not equipped to make a decision on whether or not the USCG should increase (or even have) activities in the South China Sea due to his lack of understanding of foreign affairs, his proclivity to focus on breaking down the USA’s administration, and his unstable personality that confuses his personal aggrandizement and his taking personal offence with making rational, fact based decisions. Getting it right (whichever way that might be) is luck of the draw with Trump, for he is a republican who spews festeringly stupid ideas daily. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33025 "2017-03-15T11:08:16Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > [Kentucky state legislator tells crying rape victim that he’s more of a victim of government than she is of rape.](http://theoswatch.com/gop-lawmaker-to-crying-rape-victim-i-suffered-from-government-intrusion-more-than-your-rape/) Aside from the dick-head state senator, that is one of the worst written articles I’ve read in a quite a while. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33026 "2017-03-15T12:51:18Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Their ideology is the same. That’s part of the problem. The US government wants us to focus on very specific people as the enemy: members of terrorist organizations. But the contagion’s roots are in Wahabism, the offiical state religion of Saudi Arabia. That’s one way to look at it, but many people (in academia and elsewhere) find it more fruitful to focus more on the power structures at play, and the desire by governments (and, to a point, their publics), at various scales, for “stability.” (True, Wahhabism was an important component of the rise of the Al-Saud family/tribal group in the 1920s). ---
**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:** [March 15, 2017, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33027 "2017-03-15T13:32:48Z")
Maybe this actually belongs in the stupid gun thread, but it’s got republicans, guns, drunkenness, and McDonalds, so it’s pretty much all over the map. > [@](#): > > Butler County dispatch center received a call about a male who appeared to be passed out behind the wheel while in the drive-through at McDonald’s located at 5500 Liberty Square Drive in Liberty Twp., according to a Butler County Sheriff’s Office news release. > > Deputies found a loaded gun in the car and arrested the driver, Retherford, on suspicion of operating a vehicle while under the influence and improperly handling firearms in a motor vehicle, according to the release. [http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/ohio-rep-wes-retherford-allegedly-passed-out-mcdonald-drive-thru/X9RzEdvYmpq2aUeo5uPbbN/?ecmp=daytondaily\_social\_twitter\_2014\_politics\_sfp](http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/local/ohio-rep-wes-retherford-allegedly-passed-out-mcdonald-drive-thru/X9RzEdvYmpq2aUeo5uPbbN/?ecmp=daytondaily_social_twitter_2014_politics_sfp) > [@](#): > > Miller said House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger (R-Clarksville) extends his thoughts and prayers to Retherford and his family and all involved and is confident the situation will be handled in a fair and timely manner. Do republicans usually offer thoughts and prayers to those arrested for drunk driving and improperly handling a firearm? ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33028 "2017-03-15T14:25:41Z")
I remember his [primary campaign last year](http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/statehouse-removes-butler-county-lawmaker-liquor-cabinet/9WvbpwNivfcJLJmKGA3IhI/), where his illicit Statehouse liquor cabinet became an issue. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33029 "2017-03-15T14:47:12Z")
> [@Folacin](#): > > Aside from the dick-head state senator, that is one of the worst written articles I’ve read in a quite a while. Looks like it might have been translated-retranslated from whatever was the actual primary source, or written by someone not fully fluent in English. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33030 "2017-03-15T14:56:09Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Looks like it might have been translated-retranslated from whatever was the actual primary source, or written by someone not fully fluent in English. Is [this report](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/government-intrusion-worse-than-rape-kentucky-state-senator-republican-dan-seum-to-sexual-assault-a6929846.html) any better? ---
**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:** [March 15, 2017, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33031 "2017-03-15T16:04:03Z")
All those coal miners in Kentucky and West Virginia who voted Trump in and Hillary out are about to get a real taste of the program of the guy they felt was going to support them and their jobs **Coal Country Republicans Set to Cut Mine Safety Inspections** > [@](#): > > Republican legislators in Kentucky and West Virginia seem to have a newfound respect for the federal government and its regulatory abilities. In fact, they trust Washington so much that they’re willing to relinquish much of their own oversight of coal mine safety to the feds. > A bill approved by Kentucky lawmakers Tuesday would cut back the number of state inspections of coal mines per year. It would allow the state’s Department of Natural Resources to substitute some of those safety inspections with what’s known as safety analyses. Conveniently for coal operators, the analyses do not pose the threat of citations and fines. > The measure also slashes the number of required electrical inspections from two to one. > “It’s really infuriating. It really decimates the mine safety agency,” said Tony Oppegard, a mine safety expert and Kentucky-based lawyer who represents miners. > Noting that the Kentucky statehouse is under full GOP control for the first time in decades, Oppegard added, “I’m kind of surprised they didn’t just eliminate all inspections.” > Leave that to West Virginia. > Under a proposal introduced there over the weekend, the state’s inspections of coal mines would henceforth be considered “compliance visits.” As the Charleston Gazette-Mail’s Ken Ward Jr. explains, a state official on such a visit could not issue any citations unless there was an immediate danger. The proposal “essentially eliminates any meaningful role for the state” in enforcing mine safety laws, Ward writes. > … > If anything, federal policing of the coal industry will probably be scaled back under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans have been rapidly peeling back all manner of regulations on businesses, including coal companies. Trump’s new commerce secretary, billionaire investor Wilbur Ross, owned the Sago mine in West Virginia in 2006 when an explosion there cost the lives of 12 miners. > **[Coal Country Republicans Set to Cut Mine Safety Inspections](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/coal-country-republicans-state-mine-inspections_n_58c85cade4b022994fa2eeca?xdu59we7862p22o6r=)** > > They must have a lot of faith that Trump will keep miners safe. ---
**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 15, 2017, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33032 "2017-03-15T16:20:34Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > All those coal miners in Kentucky and West Virginia who voted Trump in and Hillary out are about to get a real taste of the program of the guy they felt was going to support them and their jobs > > **Coal Country Republicans Set to Cut Mine Safety Inspections** > > [Coal Country Republicans Set to Cut Mine Safety Inspections | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coal-country-republicans-state-mine-inspections_us_58c85cade4b022994fa2eeca?xdu59we7862p22o6r&) Seems short sighted on the part of Republicans. Combine that with killing the ACA and their voting base will start dying off at a faster rate. ---
**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 15, 2017, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33033 "2017-03-15T16:40:31Z")
No but you don’t get it ! Safety regs are killing Entrepreneurship and thus Jobs ! Them coal mine towns will start booming right back as soon as nobody gives a shit about structural integrity or black lung ! ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33034 "2017-03-15T16:42:21Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > That’s one way to look at it, but many people (in academia and elsewhere) find it more fruitful to focus more on the power structures at play, and the desire by governments (and, to a point, their publics), at various scales, for “stability.” (True, Wahhabism was an important component of the rise of the Al-Saud family/tribal group in the 1920s). But in the 21st century, one of the ways stability is maintained is by letting extremists loose outside the Muslim world, even encouraging them to attack infidel targets, as a way to distract them from trying to overthrow their governments. To a large extent this has backfired because Saudi royal family(not to mention other Gulf Sheiks and some countries’ intelligence services) funding has made these organizations a lot more powerful than they were in the 20th century. Now they threaten multiple governments in the area. Yet while our “allies” are willing to fight them, they are only willing to do it to the extent that these organizations threaten themselves. Attacks on Westerners are not just tolerated, but encouraged. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2017, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33035 "2017-03-15T16:55:05Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > Seems short sighted on the part of Republicans. Combine that with killing the ACA and their voting base will start dying off at a faster rate. So? Just tell them it’s Obama’s fault. Or Immigrant’s fault. Whatever. Just so long as the profits increase, and taxes are reduced for the wealthy. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33036 "2017-03-15T17:02:09Z")
They aren’t THAT stupid. IF Republicans pass a bill that takes away their health care, they’ll notice. The thing is, the GOP bill doesn’t actually reduce the number of insured by taking away health care. It does it by just making it harder for people who don’t have health care now or who will come of age when they need it to acquire it. Those that actually voted for Trump will almost all be keeping their health care. The number of uninsured is increased primarily by two methods: 1. Phasing out of the Medicaid expansion, which applies only to signing up new patients. 2. Making it easier to just go without health insurance if that’s what you want. No one who doesn’t want health insurance is going to be mad at the GOP for letting them not get health insurance. ---
**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:** [March 15, 2017, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33037 "2017-03-15T17:06:09Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > They aren’t THAT stupid. IF Republicans pass a bill that takes away their health care, they’ll notice. Yes, they are. Trump core voters in particular are uneducated, ill-informed, and tend to believe nutty conspiracy theories. They are pre-disposed to believe the most outrageous pack of lies you could possibly think up. You could tell them that their healthcare is gone because Obama sent planes up to spray chemtrails that removed their health benefits, and they’d believe you. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33038 "2017-03-15T17:18:10Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Trump core voters in particular are uneducated, ill-informed, and tend to believe nutty conspiracy theories. Hell, Trump himself is two out of three. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33039 "2017-03-15T17:22:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Is [this report](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/government-intrusion-worse-than-rape-kentucky-state-senator-republican-dan-seum-to-sexual-assault-a6929846.html) any better? Thank you, much easier reading and still conveys the awesome wonder of Senator Asshat’s words. (Plus I notice it is the first anniversary of his saying it). Dan it, that’s Seum ignorant statement… ---
**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:** [March 15, 2017, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33040 "2017-03-15T18:24:04Z")
Trump’s Oklahoma campaign manager, who is also a state legislator, was caught in a motel room with a teenaged boy. [http://newsok.com/article/5541688](http://newsok.com/article/5541688) Senator Shortey once introduced a bill in the state legislature to prevent the use of aborted human fetuses in food. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2017, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/33041 "2017-03-15T18:35:20Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Trump’s Oklahoma campaign manager, who is also a state legislator, was caught in a motel room with a teenaged boy. > [http://newsok.com/article/5541688](http://newsok.com/article/5541688) > > Senator Shortey once introduced a bill in the state legislature to prevent the use of aborted human fetuses in food. I guess he likes to eat them _after_ they are born. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1651) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=1653)