# 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:** 2147
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42929 "2019-12-02T14:32:44Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > People are getting robocalls telling them to quit making anti-Individual 1 social media posts. The callers claim to be representing Jack Posobiec’s Citizens For Trump, but there’s no proof for it. > [People Are Getting Robocalls About Their "Derogatory" Trump Posts [Updated]](https://gizmodo.com/people-are-getting-robocalls-about-their-derogatory-t-1820819203) Jack Posobiec, the “Rape Melania” guy? Did he ever get booted out of the Navy for being an irredeemable shitstain? ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42930 "2019-12-02T14:44:41Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Senator John Kennedy: The President of Ukraine worked for Hillary. > [Chuck Todd to GOP Senator John Kennedy: You’re Selling the Same Argument as Putin!](https://www.thedailybeast.com/chuck-todd-to-gop-senator-john-kennedy-youre-selling-the-same-argument-as-putin) Jesus Christ, is there an unannounced contest to be the dumbest Repub of all? ---
**Author:** ![margin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/65b543/32.png) [@margin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/margin)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42931 "2019-12-02T14:46:51Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > It’s almost as though Republicans are seeking a Kremlin endorsement, which leads me to wonder if there isn’t some sort of pro-Kremlin pool of political dark money, or if there are pro-Kremlin lobbyists who are embedded within the Beltway think tank/PAC/donor ecosystem - and by that I mean on a much wider scale than we’re aware of. [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21994931&postcount=39151](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21994931&postcount=39151) ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42932 "2019-12-02T18:59:57Z")
The complete 180 of the Republican party on nearly every issue makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the entire platform of the party for the past several decades was a complete lie. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42933 "2019-12-02T19:54:17Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > The complete 180 of the Republican party on nearly every issue makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the entire platform of the party for the past several decades was a complete lie. Or maybe, _just maybe_, they don’t give a shit about anything and it’s all about power for power’s sake and making as much money as possible before they have to run. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42934 "2019-12-02T20:11:17Z")
> [@margin](#): > > [https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21994931&postcount=39151](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=21994931&postcount=39151) I get that Russian intel hacked into servers of both parties, but the damage that was done was mostly the release of embarrassing emails in the middle of a highly scrutinized campaign, which is not the sort of stuff that’s going to make an entire party do on about face on core issues. I’m saying that what Russia is doing to our political system - our entire government - is in many ways much worse than that. They’re embedding themselves within the structure of the political system, and they’re in many cases operating out in the open, and when they’re not, they’re simply exploiting the system’s loopholes and lax enforcement. They’ve used our court rulings, gerrymandering, dark money, and capitalist oligarchy itself against us. They understand that, in America, money is “speech”. They understand that the gerrymander has created districts that give disproportionate power to a political party. They use dark money, soft money, and nativist activism to gain influence. And they use ill-gotten (stolen) wealth to corrupt individuals. Moreover, they’ve used information warfare to sow divisions along cultural lines, misinform the electorate, and poison confidence that our political system works. We can’t just chalk all of this up to a simple hack job; they’ve exploited the flaws in the system that give Republicans disproportionate power. They are embedding themselves into the system, normalizing themselves as regular political agents. And the Republicans won’t defend us against this attack because it’s power that Republicans want - the power to control the public so that they can’t fight back against the elite class. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42935 "2019-12-02T20:15:28Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Or maybe, _just maybe_, they don’t give a shit about anything and it’s all about power for power’s sake and making as much money as possible before they have to run. Yes, it’s pretty much this - it’s about power. The Republicans want private power to dominate the power of institutions that represent the public interest. The Russians are using a wide open front door into our political system. There are mutual interests involved: Republicans want to crush ‘socialism’ and agencies that operate in the public trust, and the Russians know a thing or two about how to go about that process. A match made in hell. ---
**Author:** ![asahi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asahi/32/8693_2.png) [@asahi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asahi)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2019, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42936 "2019-12-02T20:25:50Z")
I’ll concede that former FBI attorney Lisa Page probably doesn’t say this entirely without bias, but she’s probably not the only employee or ex employee who views the DoJ as having abandoned its principles by virtue of getting sucked into the vortex of conspiracy theory politics: > **[Lisa Page Speaks: ‘There’s No Fathomable Way I Have Committed Any Crime at All’](https://www.thedailybeast.com/lisa-page-speaks-theres-no-fathomable-way-i-have-committed-any-crime-at-all)** > > The former FBI lawyer and ongoing Trump target breaks two years of silence in this exclusive interview. And she has quite a lot to say. > [@](#): > > “It’s very painful to see to places like the FBI and the Department of Justice that represent so much of what is excellent about this country, not fulfilling the critical obligation that they have to speak truth to power,” she tells me. “The thing about the FBI that is so extraordinary is that it is made up of a group of men and women whose every instinct is to run toward the fight. It’s in the fiber of everybody there. It’s the lifeblood. So it’s particularly devastating to be betrayed by an organization I still care about so deeply. And it’s crushing to see the noble Justice Department, my Justice Department, the place I grew up in, feel like it’s abandoned its principles of truth and independence.” In essence, what she’s saying is that, at minimum, Trump’s administration and the GOP have already seriously undermined the mission within the Department - and Page’s experience predates the arrival of Bill Barr, who has only accelerated the politicization of the DoJ. You know, it’s initially the people at the top who get pushed out the way by an authoritarian, but in this sort of highly toxic environment, the only ones who can thrive and survive, are the ones who believe they have something to gain from him personally - and that’s what I’ve been getting at here these past few years. The whistle blowers who appeared at the impeachment hearings over a week ago were great - just what the country needed. But now their careers are pretty much over, and they’ve become publicly vilified by about half the country, and probably another 10-15 percent probably don’t even give a damn about them one way or the other. And in the end, probably nothing will happen to Trump. They know it. And more importantly, so do hundreds or thousands of other civil servants who have observed corruption up close. This is how a government like that in Russia operates. It’s understood that crime pays, and that snitches get stitches - or worse. They’re just trying to export their type of system here. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2019, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42937 "2019-12-02T21:26:07Z")
> [@Fiveyearlurker](#): > > The complete 180 of the Republican party on nearly every issue makes it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the entire platform of the party for the past several decades was a complete lie. Nah, the white supremacy was always for real. Everything else was pretty much rationalizations, though. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2019, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42938 "2019-12-02T21:44:43Z")
> [@margin](#): > > Jesus Christ, is there an unannounced contest to be the dumbest Repub of all? Wasn’t Kennedy one of the eight Republican Senators who spent last 4th of July in Moscow for some undisclosed reason? ---
**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:** [December 2, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42939 "2019-12-02T22:21:09Z")
Aye. ---
**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:** [December 2, 2019, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42940 "2019-12-02T22:56:05Z")
I’m not positive these are Republicans, but apparently a bunch of folks have picked up on a [photo from 1898 that they claim shows Greta Thundberg](https://factcheck.afp.com/19th-century-archive-photo-prompts-online-debate-over-teenage-climate-activist) panning for gold in the Yukon. Obviously, she’s a time traveler. Uh-huh. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2019, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42941 "2019-12-03T15:19:28Z")
* * * > [@](#): > > Ordinarily, when a television news program invites a member of Congress on to discuss public affairs, the host asks the questions and the lawmaker tries to answer them. On CNN last night, that dynamic was reversed a bit, as Rep. Randy Weber (R-Texas) started asking questions, which host Chris Cuomo seemed eager to answer. > > At issue was the Republican Party’s ongoing support for a Russian-backed conspiracy theory that Ukraine was responsible for the attack on U.S. elections in 2016. In context, this exchange followed Cuomo’s explanation that GOP officials keep echoing a Kremlin disinformation message intended to undermine U.S. interests. > WEBER: Chris, was CrowdStrike involved in the DCCC hacking? > > CUOMO: Yes. > > WEBER: Is CrowdStrike in part owned by a Ukrainian? > > CUOMO: No. > > WEBER: Really? > > CUOMO: Yes. > > WEBER: That’s not the information that we have. > > CUOMO: You have bad information. > > It’s a problem that Republicans are peddling crackpot conspiracy theories. It’s a problem that Republicans are echoing a message concocted by the Kremlin to help Russia and hurt us. > **[Some Republicans struggle to understand their own conspiracy theory](https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/some-republicans-struggle-understand-their-own-conspiracy-theory-msna1310181)** > > It's a problem that Republicans are echoing a conspiracy theory concocted by the Kremlin. It's also a problem that they don't yet understand their own theory. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2019, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42942 "2019-12-03T15:35:14Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I’m not positive these are Republicans, but apparently a bunch of folks have picked up on a [photo from 1898 that they claim shows Greta Thundberg](https://factcheck.afp.com/19th-century-archive-photo-prompts-online-debate-over-teenage-climate-activist) panning for gold in the Yukon. Obviously, she’s a time traveler. > > Uh-huh. That all seems pretty tongue in cheek to me. I mean, if I saw that photo with a Twitter poll asking if Greta is a time traveler with potential answers “Obviously” and “Are you joking?” I would have clicked “Obviously” too. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42943 "2019-12-03T15:44:22Z")
> [@Morgyn](#): > > I’m not positive these are Republicans, but apparently a bunch of folks have picked up on a [photo from 1898 that they claim shows Greta Thundberg](https://factcheck.afp.com/19th-century-archive-photo-prompts-online-debate-over-teenage-climate-activist) panning for gold in the Yukon. Obviously, she’s a time traveler. > > Uh-huh. So what if she _is_ a time traveler. Does that make her wrong? Probably stopped off in the Yukon to pick up some off the record specie that’s spendable in our time. ---
**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:** [December 3, 2019, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42944 "2019-12-03T15:58:38Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > * * * > > [Some Republicans struggle to understand their own conspiracy theory](http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/some-republicans-struggle-understand-their-own-conspiracy-theory#break) Crowdstrike is publicly traded, so I suppose it _might_ be “part owned” by a Ukrainian or two. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42945 "2019-12-03T16:12:18Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > So what if she _is_ a time traveler. Does that make her wrong? Probably stopped off in the Yukon to pick up some off the record specie that’s spendable in our time. If anything I would think it would improve her credibility. It may be that she is so passionate about preventing horrors that climate change will inflict on our planet over the next century, because she’s the end result first hand. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2019, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42946 "2019-12-03T18:16:16Z")
Nobody wants her, they just turn their heads. Plotting her vengeance, Climate girl lives again. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2019, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42947 "2019-12-04T01:02:10Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > because she’s the end result first hand. should have been “Because she’s **seen** the end result first hand” ---
**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:** [December 4, 2019, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/42948 "2019-12-04T02:37:46Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > Nobody wants her, > they just turn their heads. > Plotting her vengeance, > Climate girl lives again. Insert image of Bevis and Butthead headbanging here. Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=2146) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=2148)