# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making Part Deux (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 22, 2020, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083 "2020-06-22T03:36:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 51
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1009 "2020-07-15T19:09:32Z")
It’s a big game of Financial Hot Potato. Whoever gets stuck with it at the end loses. Unfortunately, so do all of our mutual funds. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1010 "2020-07-15T19:17:17Z")
And that’s the problem of chanting USA! USA! USA! and picking fights with everyone (including allies and trading partners like Mexico and Canada) at the same time. Who knew isolating enemies this way could be so hard? ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1011 "2020-07-15T19:21:29Z")
This will be the legacy of the pandemic and its resultant economic crisis. It should be no surprise as it was the legacy of the housing crisis: the rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. The middle class will shrink, with some who think of themselves as working class will get pushed off the ladder into the cesspit of poverty – Restaurant servers, bartenders, retail workers, and others in the service industry are probably prime candidates for experiencing this fate. It may not be the help, either; this will even include entrepreneurs, too. Not all business owners are rich. They just have - well, had - credit. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1012 "2020-07-15T19:30:56Z")
The stock market =/= The Economy In spite of the fact that trump uses the DOW as his scorecard. Even people who have no investments think if the DOW is up, everything is fine. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1013 "2020-07-15T19:36:50Z")
I confess to being more than surprised at the stock market’s resiliency, but I still feel fairly confident that the Dow will experience a real correction somewhere down between 15,000 to 20,000. I remember the “It’s the New Economy” bullshit of the late 90s. Markets are being buoyed mostly by four or five big tech stocks. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1014 "2020-07-15T19:54:13Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > I confess to being more than surprised at the stock market’s resiliency… It’s not resiliency. It’s an illusion. > [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > They are selling debt/money and real estate speculation to each other. It’s not a real economy, just like it wasn’t a real economy in 2008. ---
**Author:** ![bobsmom101](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobsmom101/32/2867_2.png) [@bobsmom101](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobsmom101)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1015 "2020-07-15T19:57:18Z")
Sure wish we had a “like” emoji right now. Big +1 for this post. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1016 "2020-07-15T20:09:09Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > > [@Broomstick](#): > > > > > [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > > > > > The White House wants the governors to send the National Guard to hospitals to verify that the coronavirus numbers are right. Because data management is a core skill of the National Guard. > > > > Sounds like a good way to spread covid among the National Guard. > > > > The administration just does not want to accept reality. They’ll keep questioning results and sending more people into the maelstrom to try to get a different reality. It’s not going to happen. This bullshit about “alternative facts” has to stop. > > It’s gotten worse…the White House has now directed hospitals to send their coronavirus statistics to Health and Human Services (ie, Trump appointees) instead of the CDC. If they go through with this we won’t be able to trust a single covid stat ever again – or at least until January 20, 2021. F-f-f-f-u-u-u-u-c-c-c-k. There’s nothing preventing them from bcc-ing the CDC is there? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1017 "2020-07-15T20:11:26Z")
> [@Akaj](#): > > > [@Broomstick](#): > > > > The administration just does not want to accept reality. They’ll keep questioning results and sending more people into the maelstrom to try to get a different reality. It’s not going to happen. This bullshit about “alternative facts” has to stop. > > C’mon, we all know the script by now: > > 1. February: It’s a hoax > 2. March: It’ll be gone by Easter > 3. April: We can’t let the cure be worse than the disease > 4. June: We’re leading the world > 5. July: The numbers are being inflated to make me look bad > 6. August - November: It’s Obama and Biden’s fault 7.December: The Reaping will take place this month. Everybody get your kids ready. (And may the odds be _ever_ in your favor.) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1018 "2020-07-15T20:17:16Z")
> [@Senegoid](#): > > ...Donald’s gonna sell you a casino blunder... And if you’ve got some money after that, [The America-hating fuckstick]'s gonna sell you a MAGA hat… ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1019 "2020-07-15T21:21:04Z")
IMHO regarding the DOW…it’s no more artificially inflated than usual. I suspect there was a lot of investor panic in March and a lot of stocks dumped as people waited for Armageddon. More calm and rational types realized that (a) the pandemic is going away some day and (b) so now is a good time to snap up stock at bargain prices. So whenever investors hear good news about a vaccine and/or notice that China and the EU seem to have recovered just fine, the DOW goes up. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1020 "2020-07-15T21:37:07Z")
> [@robby](#): > > FWIW, I spent years eschewing pay web sites, but finally realized that you get what you pay for. Yes, but it isn’t one specific web site. I see news links to all sorts of sites that, when I click on them, take me to a pay wall. So should I pay for every podunk local paper that wants me to subscribe before I read the one article that interests me? Even if it means accumulating dozens of subscriptions? Fuck that shit, I would never do that, even if I could afford to. And that includes Thelma Lou’s particular favorites in that list. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1021 "2020-07-15T21:59:20Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > So should I pay for every podunk local paper that wants me to subscribe before I read the one article that interests me? _Reductio ad absurdum_, when ya got nuttin’ else. No you shouldn’t pay for every podunk local paper that wants you to subscribe, any more than you should buy everything you see in the store or advertised on TV or the internet. You make choices based on the quality of the product and what you want to spend. I pay to subscribe to my local paper, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Atlantic, because I value those publications. I also get a few women’s magazines (the checkout aisle kind) on my kindle. You would make different choices, no doubt. What I object to is the pissy, freeloading attitude that gets on its Huffy bike because some organization that produces a product of value actually expects people to PAY for it. That’s the kind of person who never picks up the bar tab or puts money in the group coffee kitty. If you don’t value the thing, fine. Don’t pay for it, but don’t expect to have access to the content. And most publications **don’t** expect you to subscribe before you read the one article that interests you. Many allow X number of free articles per month. Now if a subscription to something is several hundred or several thousand dollars per year, well, sure you’d have to think about how much you value it. An annual subscription to the New York Times is not cheap. It’s about $20/mo, which is over $200 per year. My local paper is $16/mo and I go through it in about 10 minutes (but I support local journalism). But an annual subscription to the Washington Post for $29?? Come on! And some kind of free access if you’re already paying for Amazon Prime? NO reason to bitch about that. I’m done with this absurd discussion. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2020, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1022 "2020-07-15T22:09:37Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > _Reductio ad absurdum_ , when ya got nuttin’ else. Nothing reductio ad adsurdum about it, that is exactly how I consume news. I don’t read “newspapers”, I read individual links to individual stories that Google news provides to me. 20 different stories can end up on as much as 20 different web sites. If any of them demand that I subscribe (or turn off my ad blocker) I leave the site. I don’t care if the article is in the _New York Times_ or the _Washington Post_ or the _Beetville Beetonian_. And I’m not going to subscribe to any of them. And you will create this absurd discussion again and again and again as you always have, even (shamelessly) in the Tubadiva passing thread. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1023 "2020-07-15T22:34:56Z")
For those who want an antidote for and spewing Doggerel coming out of the mouth of the Orange Yam, I give you an [randomly picked mid-campaign news conference](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBRqRl6RbDM), to remind you of what an actual presidential president sounds like. The act of watching the first half probably lowered my blood pressure 10 points. ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1024 "2020-07-15T22:52:03Z")
Ivanka found a job she’s almost qualified for… > **[Ivanka Trump defends Goya post that watchdogs call unethical](https://apnews.com/84c71bf1191e065195273c8dd13b8802)** > > WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump on Wednesday defended tweeting a photo of herself holding up a can of Goya beans to buck up a Hispanic-owned business that she says has been unfairly treated, arguing that she has “every right” to publicly express her... ---
**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:** [July 15, 2020, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1025 "2020-07-15T22:52:59Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > If any of them demand that I subscribe (or turn off my ad blocker) I leave the site. Sounds like you’ve already found the perfect solution to your problem. Well done. ---
**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:** [July 16, 2020, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1026 "2020-07-16T01:21:02Z")
Well shit: the Orange Imperator’s just in full-on former Soviet republic mode now, ain’t he? > **[Coronavirus data is funneled away from CDC, sparking worries](https://apnews.com/57de8f0d25d9066731e6bd8cad0373c4)** > > NEW YORK (AP) — Hospital data related to the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. will now be collected by a private technology firm, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a move the Trump administration says will speed up... ---
**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:** [July 16, 2020, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1027 "2020-07-16T01:50:36Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > Well shit: the Orange Imperator’s just in full-on former Soviet republic mode now, ain’t he? " “It’s going to disappear. One day, it’s like a miracle, it will disappear” Donald Trump, February 28, 2020 Well, that miracle day is soon to arrive! When this private company gets through with the data-scrubber, the virus will have just disappeared! ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2020, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083/1028 "2020-07-16T01:55:01Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > But an annual subscription to the Washington Post for $29? I didn’t realize it was that inexpensive. Thanks for the tip! I’ll gladly pay them that if it’ll help counter what _free_ Fox “News” puts out. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=50) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making-part-deux-part-1/911083.md?page=52)