# The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 7, 2016, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070 "2016-12-07T00:25:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1269
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25365 "2018-09-13T17:42:34Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > The WaPo article says the study was “based on actual death certificates”. The handful of death certificates I have seen included the “cause of death” and “manner of death”. I wonder if that holds true in Puerto Rico? Probably. Another part of the study had to do with reporting deaths. In any event, if I read the study correctly, the “cause of death” or “manner of death” didn’t matter at all, only the “is dead” part. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25366 "2018-09-13T17:55:10Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > A whole bunch of people didn’t die in Puerto Rico, they’re just hiding in the dirt to embarrass Trump! [Except there was very little aid provided for actual burials …](http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/406169-fema-has-approved-just-3-percent-of-requests-for-puerto-rico-funeral) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25367 "2018-09-13T18:55:45Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > The WaPo article says the study was “based on actual death certificates”. The handful of death certificates I have seen included the “cause of death” and “manner of death”. I wonder if that holds true in Puerto Rico? I would believe that is now they would attribute the death to the storm. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25368 "2018-09-13T19:21:10Z")
> [@some asshole](#): > > This was done by the Democrats in order to make me look as bad as possible when I was successfully raising Billions of Dollars to help rebuild Puerto Rico. Nice choice of words, Don. He’d like to have people think he hosted a Jerry Lewis Telethon to raise billions for Puerto Rico. In actuality, he merely got out of the way and let FEMA do their half-assed job. ---
**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:** [September 13, 2018, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25369 "2018-09-13T19:58:12Z")
Dianne Feinstein has released a letter accusing Bret Kavanaugh of inappropriate sexual behavior. Though it was during high school … [Brett Kavanaugh Accused of Sexual Misconduct With Woman During High School, Letter Passed to FBI: Report](https://www.newsweek.com/brett-kavanaugh-accused-sexual-misconduct-1120385)? ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25370 "2018-09-13T21:34:45Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Dianne Feinstein has released a letter accusing Bret Kavanaugh of inappropriate sexual behavior. > Though it was during high school … > [Brett Kavanaugh Accused of Sexual Misconduct With Woman During High School, Letter Passed to FBI: Report](https://www.newsweek.com/brett-kavanaugh-accused-sexual-misconduct-1120385)? Not to quibble, but if this happened when he was in high school, and involved a “woman” (rather than a “girl”), he would legally have been the victim. Unless the incident included physical violence on his part. I don’t see this going anywhere, but then, I have lost all hope of decency. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2018, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25371 "2018-09-13T21:41:59Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Nice choice of words, Don. He’d like to have people think he hosted a Jerry Lewis Telethon to raise billions for Puerto Rico. In actuality, he merely got out of the way and let FEMA do their half-assed job. Trump should just go to hell. NOW. Literally. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25372 "2018-09-14T00:59:44Z")
I can’t think of a single Democrat that threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans in need. If that was not an A+ rescue effort, I don’t know what is. If 3,000 people foolishly wasted their paper towels and died, it is their fault. #MAGA ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25373 "2018-09-14T01:42:25Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > I can’t think of a single Democrat that threw paper towels at Puerto Ricans in need. If that was not an A+ rescue effort, I don’t know what is. If 3,000 people foolishly wasted their paper towels and died, it is their fault. #MAGA That really haunts me to this day. Of all the many horrific visuals of this pathetic excuse for a Presidency, perhaps the saddest of all was that scene of Trump throwing rolls of paper towels randomly, as if they were t-shirts at a baseball game, into a milling crowd of desperate people, many of whom had lost their homes, livelihoods and access to electricity and clean water. I expect that will go down in history as Trump’s iconic Marie Antoinette moment.\* \*Yes, I’m aware she probably never said the infamous “Let them eat cake” remark. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25374 "2018-09-14T02:00:39Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Trump should just go to hell. NOW. Literally. Good luck with that. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2018, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25375 "2018-09-14T02:23:37Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Dianne Feinstein has released a letter accusing Bret Kavanaugh of inappropriate sexual behavior. > Though it was during high school … > [Brett Kavanaugh Accused of Sexual Misconduct With Woman During High School, Letter Passed to FBI: Report](https://www.newsweek.com/brett-kavanaugh-accused-sexual-misconduct-1120385)? It might be fake news, but I don’t care. Kavanaugh has to be stopped. ---
**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:** [September 14, 2018, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25376 "2018-09-14T02:30:08Z")
> [@Crotalus](#): > > The WaPo article says the study was “based on actual death certificates”. The handful of death certificates I have seen included the “cause of death” and “manner of death”. I wonder if that holds true in Puerto Rico? Actually that is supposed to be the necessarily slower-to-finish next phase of the study project, as to how many died from what. The GWU/Milken report from last month is on the statistical analysis of mortality rates, based on number of actual certificates filed (normalized for emigration and age) as opposed to based on a poll or a sampling, and the point is that at this point everyone save for one particular person agrees that as a consequence of the disaster, due to disruption in services and supplies and unusual environmental stress factors, the mortality rate increased and thousands more died who normally should have survived those 6 months. TBF, PR had never \*officially \*counted disaster dead based on this criterion before; it had always been “proximate cause” based (e.g. directly or one-degree separation of consequence e.g. car crash due to washout, fire due to using candles, heart attack chopping a fallen tree), and that was what the 64 number was about, but the outcry about how that could not be it was so big that the authorities said, “OK we need to hire a neutral party to really look at \*everything \*that happened.” _Everyone_ in the local government and political scene, _allies and adversaries alike_, agrees that yes, indeed, this now is a reliable number to use to estimate direct and indirect disaster-related deaths. But of course, for some people there is no such thing as a correction, only the weak rectify, and new information is just fake news to make you look bad. And one of those people is the one person with power to make things _worse_ out of pique because everything is about him. ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25377 "2018-09-14T02:59:44Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > That really haunts me to this day. Of all the many horrific visuals of this pathetic excuse for a Presidency, perhaps the saddest of all was that scene of Trump throwing rolls of paper towels randomly, as if they were t-shirts at a baseball game, into a milling crowd of desperate people, many of whom had lost their homes, livelihoods and access to electricity and clean water. I expect that will go down in history as Trump’s iconic Marie Antoinette moment.\*] This footage _has_ to make it into a campaign ad, right? I mean, for fuck’s sake! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25378 "2018-09-14T04:31:41Z")
There’s one going around, just that picture with a brand name paper towel, and the caption is “The Quicker Fucker Upper!” Good clean fun. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25379 "2018-09-14T05:08:41Z")
Funny old world. Chump kept demanding to see President Obama’s birth certificate, we all want to see his death certificate. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25380 "2018-09-14T06:32:32Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Funny old world. Chump kept demanding to see President Obama’s birth certificate, we all want to see his death certificate. I have seen it. It was dated February 19th 2006. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25381 "2018-09-14T09:16:42Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > Trump should just go to hell. NOW. Literally. I just understood why devils are featured with pitchforks. Since they have to flip the meat anyway, they use a ten-foot-pole. ---
**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 14, 2018, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25382 "2018-09-14T12:43:50Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Everyone knows Puerto Ricans are all shifty liberals who will do _anything_ to make Trump look bad. Several news shows(\*) commented on videos of [Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNcUUG5SUSs) With the Republiopaths threatening to censor sites like Youtube, I thought I should download one. I chose the linked-to version by Jimmy Kimmel. (\* - If, at his point, someone complains that Jimmy Kimmel is not a news show, but FoxNews and CNN are, I can only shake my head in amazement.) ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ I also watched a video showing Trump’s observations on various anniversaries of 9/11. I forgot to post it, but remember the most startling piece. On the day itself, September 11, 2001, Trump bragged to a reporter that the tallest building in lower Manhattan now belonged to him. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25383 "2018-09-14T12:57:48Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Nice choice of words, Don. He’d like to have people think he hosted a Jerry Lewis Telethon to raise billions for Puerto Rico. In actuality, he merely got out of the way and let FEMA do their half-assed job. Maybe not. I seem to remember some sort of bullshit about the Jones Act. > **[Analysis | Trump just lifted the Jones Act for Puerto Rico. Here’s what that...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/09/27/all-about-the-jones-act-an-obscure-shipping-law-thats-stalling-puerto-ricos-recovery/?utm_term=.71750c2f4a1a)** > > It's earned Trump a lot of criticism for hesitating to waive it for this hurricane, when he lifted it for Harvey and Irma. In the wake of Hurricane Maria, pretty much the entire island of Puerto Rico is dark, hot and running out of supplies — quickly. But if Puerto Rico wants supplies shipped from the mainland, it has to wait until American boats can reach its shores, thanks to a World War I-era shipping law that the Trump administration originally said it wasn’t going to waive, then abruptly decided to lift on Thursday morning. Trump’s hesitation on to waive the Jones Act caused him a political headache these past few days. It fed into a narrative that the president is aloof to Puerto Rico’s problems, especially since his administration lifted the law to help Texas and Florida after hurricanes Harvey in August and Irma this month. … What the Jones Act does: It requires that ships going from American coast to American coast be American — built, owned, flagged and crewed. That means goods going from the mainland to Puerto Rico, Hawaii, Alaska and Guam — or even from Texas to New England — have to travel on U.S. ships, even if they’re not the most economical transport or readily available. … Trump himself said as much when chatting with reporters briefly Wednesday: “We’re thinking” about lifting it, he said, but “a lot of people who are in the shipping industry don’t want it” lifted. … And then there was that deal he and the other asshole (Zinke?? Pruitt??) cooked up, giving the contract for rebuilding the electrical system to Whitefish Energy (a “company” consisting of maybe two people) - a 300 million dollar contract for nothing. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2018, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/25384 "2018-09-14T13:01:07Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Several news shows(\*) commented on videos of [Trump’s visit to Puerto Rico.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNcUUG5SUSs) With the Republiopaths threatening to censor sites like Youtube, I thought I should download one. I chose the linked-to version by Jimmy Kimmel. > > (\* - If, at his point, someone complains that Jimmy Kimmel is not a news show, but FoxNews and CNN are, I can only shake my head in amazement.) > > ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ > > I also watched a video showing Trump’s observations on various anniversaries of 9/11. I forgot to post it, but remember the most startling piece. On the day itself, September 11, 2001, Trump bragged to a reporter that the tallest building in lower Manhattan now belonged to him. The building is 40 Wall Street. He lied about that height thing too. It was just one of many many lies. Plus, he stole money from the emergency funds, and kept it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1268) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1270)