What stupid thing did the GOP say or do this time? Episode 3!

[Paladin]

a new low & the bar is already subterranean.

Disabled Veteran: George Santos Took $3K From Dying Dog's GoFundMe

Two New Jersey veterans say George Santos promised to raise funds for a lifesaving surgery for a service dog — then disappeared.

patch.com

 

[wonko the sane?]

Oh, and apparently his name isn't george santos.

 

[NovaSaber]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1615158572870160386

Lauren Boebert says "conspiracy theorists" shouldn't be on committees

The Republican representative said Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell should be kept off the Intelligence Committee in the new GOP-controlled House.

www.newsweek.com

 

[DefaultOption]

Lauren Boebert says "conspiracy theorists" shouldn't be on committees

The Republican representative said Democrats Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell should be kept off the Intelligence Committee in the new GOP-controlled House.

www.newsweek.com

 

[Nevermore]

Oh, and apparently his name isn't george santos.

I suddenly remembered that bit in Warren Ellis's Transmetropolitan where presidential candidate Gary Callahan announces his running mate, Joshua Schreiber Freeh, a nobody with a suspuciosly clean track record, and it turns out he's a literal custom-made clone.

 

[KidTDragon]

Texas Republican Wants Food Made Of Aborted Fetuses Labeled

Such foods do not exist.

www.huffpost.com

Why not demand labels for food made from unicorn hooves and leprechaun entrails while he's at it?

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

Because it's not really about food. It's about anything using fetal cells, or cell groups derived from fetuses. Which is mostly medical research. In other words, it's a roundabout way to stir up more antivax nonsense, and if anyone opposes it he can call them cannibals to demonize them.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I demand compliance: force them to label anything with egg in it with large, obtrusive warnings.

 

[KidTDragon]

“Proud boy” leading member, Aaron Laigaie, died from Covid

Aaron Laigaie, one of the founders of the Proud Boys and a Covid denier and anti vaxxer has died of Covid.

www.fox3now.com

 

[Paladin]

so McCarthy is taking up a bill proposing a 30% sales tax.

Republicans Are Giving Democrats A Belated But Huge Christmas Present

By pushing a national sales tax, Republicans are giving Democrats a belated, but huge, Christmas present.

www.forbes.com

and somehow inflation is BIDEN's fault...

 

[Kup]

I wouldn’t write a plan like this off entirely. We already pay a lot in taxes, and if this eliminates FICA, SSI, state/local income tax, along with Federal income taxes…it might end up being a wash. I’d have to run the numbers but I might even come out ahead with a plan like this.

Now if this is in addition to state and local taxes, or states get to keep their income taxes, never mind. But I am a strong proponent of eliminating states rights and having a national system. If that is a step in that direction, it could be a good thing.

I cannot believe I am defending a Republican idea…

 

[Generator]

It's a tax that will overwhelmingly heavily impact the lower and middle classes, and is meant to help gut the social safety net.

 

[wonko the sane?]

I wouldn’t write a plan like this off entirely. We already pay a lot in taxes, and if this eliminates FICA, SSI, state/local income tax, along with Federal income taxes…it might end up being a wash. I’d have to run the numbers but I might even come out ahead with a plan like this.

Now if this is in addition to state and local taxes, or states get to keep their income taxes, never mind. But I am a strong proponent of eliminating states rights and having a national system. If that is a step in that direction, it could be a good thing.

I cannot believe I am defending a Republican idea…

You're defending it because, like all republican ideas, it's being sold with very little actual information to it's implementation. You seem to have some basic hope that government will attempt to actually improve things.

This is just the republicans setting up a loss so they can rant about how democrats aren't letting them get any "real work" done, and have an actual example to point to. Given how prolifically they lie, and how much their base just sucks it up: I don't even know why they bothered.

 

[NovaSaber]

We should do the exact opposite; get rid of sales tax entirely, but add higher tiers of income tax.

Sales tax is literally a factor that increases wealth inequality.

 

[Ungnome]

Keep in mind a sales tax is inherently regressive. It's a HUGE boon to the rich, not so much anyone else.

 

[NovaSaber]

Basically, sales tax makes economic inequality worse because people who already have less money also spend proportionately more money.

 

[Rhinox]

I'd like to add a blurb here about Vimes' economics of boots, but I think we're all adults who can look that up.
As others have said, a sales tax is inherently going to hit the lower economic scales far more than the upper tiers. This needs to go nowhere.
But if this is what we can expect from republicans for the next few years, it's going to be a slog of disinformation and bullshit.

 

[KidTDragon]

But if this is what we can expect from republicans for the next few years, it's going to be a slog of disinformation and bullshit.

You say that like it's not what what we've gotten from Republicans for the last 50 years.

 

[The Mighty Mollusk]

They used to at least pretend to keep the quiet parts quiet. Trump ripped the masks off.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Thats kind of the core problem with extremism: you have to continually push the boundary and become more extreme, because the inherent social purity testing associated with the extremism means you're also constantly in-fighting and self consuming.

It's also why these things eventually burn out. They can't find new recruits from the outside, and the internally the people whom aren't "true to the cause" are either rejected or destroyed regardless of how long they've been there.