# 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:** 2100
**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:** [September 3, 2019, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41988 "2019-09-03T14:49:57Z")
If they were staying for free, we wouldn’t mind so much. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41989 "2019-09-03T16:06:26Z")
> [@Ukulele\_Ike](#): > > [Stunned Twitter Critics Swat Bret Stephens' Bedbug Link To Nazis In NYT Column | HuffPost Latest News](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bret-stephens-bedbug-nazi-column_n_5d69e2f0e4b0cdfe05704bf5) > > Jesus Holy Christ. Will this be enough for the NY Times to fire Stephens, the most persecuted man in the history of the human race? > > We can only hope. (I’d never even heard of Stephens.) What snowflakes these macho right-wingers are! “Bedbug.” Can you imagine the shock and fear? Did he have to change his diapers after he read that insult? Meanwhile AOC receives death threats. I liked the video at the link, reminding me that AOC, whatever her faults, is a true American hero. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41990 "2019-09-03T16:08:29Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Of course Pence and entourage “will not be staying for free”. The whole point is to funnel taxpayer money to Trump’s businesses. Ted Lieu on Twitter: “Also, I hope you don’t encounter bedbugs. Many people say there are lots of bedbugs at Trump properties.” [https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1168758580809367553?ref\_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Enews%7Ctwgr%5Etweet](https://twitter.com/tedlieu/status/1168758580809367553?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Enews%7Ctwgr%5Etweet) ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41991 "2019-09-03T16:50:44Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Of course Pence and entourage “will not be staying for free”. The whole point is to funnel taxpayer money to Trump’s businesses. The dotard is even a second-rate criminal. Can you imagine how easy it would be for this traitor, with the huge power he has now, to get billions funneled to secret accounts? Yet instead he nickels-and-dimes the taxpayer on hotel fees. I was especially impressed when the N.Y. State Attorney revealed that Donald Junior’s $7 Boy Scout membership was paid by Trump Foundation as a “charitable donation.” Forget the illegality — most of the NYC’s flim-flam developers are crooks, I hear — just focus on the pettiness. _Seven dollars!_ Less than real billionaires tipped their last bartender. But Trump has to get his charity to pay it out. When the story of this abomination is written decades from now, biographers will marvel at how fortunate the U.S. was! Such a horrid brutish hateful and sinful man who did huge damage to the U.S.A. and to the world. _But think of how much worse it might have been if the dolt had a 100+ IQ, or had more emotional maturity than a nine year old._ ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41992 "2019-09-03T17:12:58Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > I was especially impressed when the N.Y. State Attorney revealed that Donald Junior’s $7 Boy Scout membership was paid by Trump Foundation as a “charitable donation.” Forget the illegality — most of the NYC’s flim-flam developers are crooks, I hear — just focus on the pettiness. _Seven dollars!_ Less than real billionaires tipped their last bartender. But Trump has to get his charity to pay it out. We’re talking about someone who bothered to [cash a 13 cent check](https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/billionaire-cash-13-cent-check-someone-actually-conducted-experiment/). ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41993 "2019-09-03T17:29:22Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > The dotard is even a second-rate criminal. Can you imagine how easy it would be for this traitor, with the huge power he has now, to get billions funneled to secret accounts? Yet instead he nickels-and-dimes the taxpayer on hotel fees. Don’t put it past him to also be profiting by pocketing government money ‘under the table,’ so to speak. Those immigrant detention centers? They’re run by private, for-profit companies. And FEMA contracts private companies for aid and reconstruction during and after national disasters. A lot of money moving around and a lot of chances for some of it to be skimmed by the contractors. And they’d probably want to show their gratitude to the administration somehow… ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41994 "2019-09-03T17:41:25Z")
"Pence had, until this week, mostly stayed above questions of financial improprieties, having only been tangentially involved in Trump property-related incidents that appeared to raise issues of corruption (his brother, Rep. Greg Pence (R-IN) has spent more than [$43,000 at Trump hotels](https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/11/greg-pence-campaign-amends-report-on-trump-hotel-costs/1380766001/), and the vice president himself has [addressed groups](https://theintercept.com/2017/05/16/mike-pence-speaks-to-religious-group-next-day-they-banquet-at-trump-hotel/) that have rented space at Trump properties). … Trump also stayed at the [hotel during his visit to Ireland](https://www.vox.com/world/2019/5/29/18644731/trump-ireland-visit-leo-varadkar-shannon-airport); he tried to have a meeting with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar there in May, but Varadkar refused, leading the two heads of state to meet in an Ireland airport instead. " > **[Mike Pence stayed at a Trump hotel 180 miles away from his Ireland meetings —...](https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/9/3/20847247/mike-pence-ireland-doonbeg-trip-180-miles-away-trump-hotel)** > > Pence’s chief of staff said they chose the hotel because the Secret Service was already familiar with it. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41995 "2019-09-03T22:48:23Z")
[Louisiana Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) congressman’s pharmacies sold 1.5 million opioids to towns with population of 6,000 people](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/louisiana-congressmans-pharmacies-sold-1-5-million-opioids-to-towns-with-population-of-6000-people/amp/?__twitter_impression=true): > [@](#): > > From 2006 to 2017, the Republican congressman’s businesses, Clinic Pharmacy, and Adams Clinic Pharmacy in Mangham and Winnsboro respectively, sold 1,478,236 doses of powerful opioids to a tiny population of people. The Winnsboro pharmacy, in particular, saw a 67 percent increase in opioid filings over six years, the data shows. Abraham is now seeking the governor’s seat in Louisiana. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2019, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41996 "2019-09-03T23:47:38Z")
**bobot @40216** : Jesus. The vulgarian could have skipped a lot of bad publicity by just comping Pence and his entourage for a couple nights. But the hundred grand or so in his pockets was too important to him, and besides, this will all be forgotten over the next few days’ new atrocities. Anyway, I hope Bill Barr gets lots of bedbugs in his soup plate, and Pence brings home a suitcase-full with him. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2019, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41997 "2019-09-04T00:11:24Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > [Louisiana Rep. Ralph Abraham (R-LA) congressman’s pharmacies sold 1.5 million opioids to towns with population of 6,000 people](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/08/louisiana-congressmans-pharmacies-sold-1-5-million-opioids-to-towns-with-population-of-6000-people/amp/?__twitter_impression=true): > Abraham is now seeking the governor’s seat in Louisiana. The top job at FDA is open, isn’t it? Sounds like the perfect candidate for that. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2019, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41998 "2019-09-04T08:25:07Z")
[Moscow Mitch](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/459715-mcconnell-gop-would-absolutely-fill-supreme-court-seat-next-year) “absolutely” would hold a vote on a Supreme Court nominee next year, because fuck you, that’s why. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/41999 "2019-09-04T15:15:01Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [Moscow Mitch](https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/459715-mcconnell-gop-would-absolutely-fill-supreme-court-seat-next-year) “absolutely” would hold a vote on a Supreme Court nominee next year, because fuck you, that’s why. > [@](#): > > “There was nothing I did that was, would not have been done had the shoe been on the other foot had there been a … Republican president and a Democratic Senate.” Ah, the GOP version of the Golden Rule - “Do unto other as they would do unto you, but do it first!” ---
**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:** [September 4, 2019, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42000 "2019-09-04T15:48:11Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Ah, the GOP version of the Golden Rule - “Do unto other as they would do unto you, but do it first!” It’s a tactic I like to call “preemptive retaliation”. ---
**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:** [September 4, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42001 "2019-09-04T16:20:48Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > Ah, the GOP version of the Golden Rule - “Do unto other as they would do unto you, but do it first!” Do unto others what you know they’d do unto you because you’d totally do it unto them. ---
**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:** [September 5, 2019, 11:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42002 "2019-09-05T11:56:36Z")
Win-win! **[Trump Interior Official Who Pushed Arctic Drilling Joins Oil Company In Alaska](https://www.npr.org/2019/09/04/757542234/trump-interior-official-who-pushed-arctic-drilling-joins-oil-company-in-alaska?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news)** > [@](#): > > A top U.S. Department of the Interior appointee who pushed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil leasing is taking a job with an oil company seeking to develop a major project in Alaska. > > Joe Balash, an assistant secretary at the department who oversaw the Bureau of Land Management, left his job last week. On Wednesday he announced his new position as senior vice president for external affairs with Oil Search, a Papua New Guinea-based company that first expanded into Alaska in 2017. > > … > > At the Interior Department, he’s been an advocate for the Trump administration’s strategy of “energy dominance,” pushing to open more federal lands to drilling in the Arctic Refuge and in the National Petroleum Reserve - Alaska. > > Oil Search is advancing a project called the Pikka development on Alaska’s North Slope, which could ultimately produce as many as 120,000 barrels of oil a day, boosting the total amount of oil extracted in the state by about one-fourth. The project is 100 miles west of the Arctic Refuge on state- and privately-owned land, not federal land, though the company had to secure a federal wetlands permit from U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. > > … > > Balash said he would abide by a Trump administration ethics pledge that, for five years, blocks high-level appointees from lobbying the agency where they worked. > > Environmental organizations quickly blasted Balash for accepting a job in the oil industry. > > “Throughout his time at Interior, Joe Balash spearheaded efforts to suppress science, ignore indigenous rights and sell off the Arctic Refuge for drilling at all costs,” the Sierra Club’s Lena Moffitt said in a statement. “Now, he’s shamelessly seeking to profit from this destruction while the American people and our public lands pay the price.” > > Balash is only the latest Trump administration official to raise questions about ties to the industry he was appointed to regulate. Earlier this year, former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Scott Pruitt was hired by an Indiana coal mining company to lobby against plant closures there. His replacement, Andrew Wheeler, spent time lobbying for coal, chemical and uranium companies. And David Bernhardt, the current Interior secretary, is a former oil industry lobbyist. I had to laugh out loud when I read the phrase “Trump administration ethics pledge.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2019, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42003 "2019-09-05T12:51:59Z")
It goes like this: I pledge to shit on the concept of ethics. ---
**Author:** ![Cheesesteak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheesesteak/32/3694_2.png) [@Cheesesteak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cheesesteak)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42004 "2019-09-06T13:22:26Z")
This one, very local to my town, but deliciously stupid nonetheless. Near our high school there is a railroad bridge with the underpass having been painted with a mural. This mural was very old and damaged, so a couple of high schoolers requested and received permission from NJ Transit to paint a new mural. Their theme was “never again” and depicted silhouettes of school kids with hands up and targets on their backs. It’s a bit dark, despite the addition of flowers and bright colors. The Republican angle is that our local Republican Club is demanding “equal time” for “another point of view”. I’m not entirely sure what the alternate view is for a mural that is anti school shootings, but they want it. Apparently, they want the mural to depict Chicago’s murder statistics, because that’s both an effective rebuttal to the idea of having no school shootings anymore, and is relevant to suburban NJ. [Linkie](https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/montclair/2019/09/05/montclair-republican-club-gun-rights-mural-student-never-again-gun-control-mural-nj-transit/2204780001/?fbclid=IwAR1QSkmhTeDDiz_Bt0QjFtKFAN_1Hjtb1U4yBiV5ffeAb7KHzY_vLkxSheY) ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42005 "2019-09-06T13:36:29Z")
> [@Cheesesteak](#): > > This one, very local to my town, but deliciously stupid nonetheless. > > Near our high school there is a railroad bridge with the underpass having been painted with a mural. This mural was very old and damaged, so a couple of high schoolers requested and received permission from NJ Transit to paint a new mural. Their theme was “never again” and depicted silhouettes of school kids with hands up and targets on their backs. It’s a bit dark, despite the addition of flowers and bright colors. > > The Republican angle is that our local Republican Club is demanding “equal time” for “another point of view”. I’m not entirely sure what the alternate view is for a mural that is anti school shootings, but they want it. Apparently, they want the mural to depict Chicago’s murder statistics, because that’s both an effective rebuttal to the idea of having no school shootings anymore, and is relevant to suburban NJ. > [Linkie](https://www.northjersey.com/story/news/essex/montclair/2019/09/05/montclair-republican-club-gun-rights-mural-student-never-again-gun-control-mural-nj-transit/2204780001/?fbclid=IwAR1QSkmhTeDDiz_Bt0QjFtKFAN_1Hjtb1U4yBiV5ffeAb7KHzY_vLkxSheY) :smack: These Republicans are taking “shit for brains” to a level hitherto undreamed of. That will be their legacy. ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2019, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42006 "2019-09-06T17:36:49Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > We’re talking about someone who bothered to [cash a 13 cent check](https://www.celebritynetworth.com/articles/entertainment-articles/billionaire-cash-13-cent-check-someone-actually-conducted-experiment/). I’m far from a millionaire, let alone a billionaire, but I frequently receive tiny checks due to stock dividends or whatever. I don’t make a special effort to deposit them, but if I have other checks to go in my bank account, I’ll bring them at the same time. Otherwise, they’ll eventually go into some “abandoned funds” account and will be a bigger hassle. ---
**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:** [September 6, 2019, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42007 "2019-09-06T17:52:13Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > It’s a tactic I like to call “preemptive retaliation”. About 15 years ago, the comic Non Sequitur by Wiley had a guy sitting in a jail cell, telling another guy "Apparently when you or I do it, it’s called “felonious assault’.” This was back when GWB had started using the phrase “pre-emptive strike” when referring to his plans to start an Iraq war but escape responsibility for it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=2099) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=2101)