# 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:** 1757
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35125 "2019-08-02T03:13:01Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Another rat leaves the ship he helped to sink. Hurd, whose district runs along the border, has opposed WALL from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35126 "2019-08-02T03:17:18Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > Will Hurd (R-TX) is retiring, becoming the 6th Republican representative to announce this in the past two weeks… and the third from Texas. > > This leaves one African-American Republican in Congress (House + Senate). I like Tim Scott. Of times I’ve seen him in hearings, he seemed to be simply and straightforwardly doing his job. To some extent, I hope he stays in on that basis. On the other hand, once the last African American in the Republican party leaves Congress, I do feel like that might get people to sit up and take notice. He might do a better job of doing his job by retiring or switching sides. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35127 "2019-08-02T03:20:50Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Hurd, whose district runs along the border, has opposed WALL from the beginning. [Voting record](https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/congress-trump-score/will-hurd/) 115th Congress 94.8% voted with Trump 116th Congress 51.2% voted with Trump. And if his district _wasn’t_ on the border? ---
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35128 "2019-08-02T03:41:30Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Well thanks, **Snowboarder Bo**. Also, you’ve received a complimentary submission in **Try2B** ’s Choose My Next Signature contest. 🙂 Sweet! > [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > I didn’t really ask the question I guess. Thought it was not exactly an accident, but a consequence of greed run amok. Got a link or a story about that? Nope. Just what I think after adding it all up. The people who created the mess didn’t lose money, they gained it. The people who lost money also lost property. Guess who had the money at the time to buy up all that now-cheap property? My own state saw a zillion-fold (approximate) increase in the number of single family homes not owned by single families after 2008; I know other states saw likewise. They set up the system so they were protected, then used that system to make money while simultaneously costing others money, time and property. When real estate value deflated, they were there with ready liquid capital to take advantage of the situation. AND they convinced the American public to give them money _because_ of the crisis they created. Now that they know they can work that kind of thing successfully, I’m figuring they’ll do something similar at least once every 8-10 years. Trump getting elected meant they could pretty much go all out on that and other subversive (and profitable) schemes and aims they’ve had; no need to wait around and do it once a decade if no one can or will stop you, after all. And just look at all those Judge/Justice positions that they’ve managed to fill! ---
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35129 "2019-08-02T03:55:13Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Here’s how I see this playing out: Many of these red state welfare queens yuk it up for now. “Hur Hur, we are definitely not the marks this time. Things are finally as they should be- liberals have to get up and go to work every day, and we just hang out and collect billions off of them in exchange for nothing. No point farming when there is no foreign market anymore, but we farmers are absolutely essential because, gotta eat, right?” And it does continue like this, for awhile. Cue the grievance of the Old Confederacy which boiled down to, “We would rather rebel and kill our countymen than do this work ourselves!” > > Thing is, it is actually the farms that are essential, and not really the farmers. And without foreign markets, the farms aren’t actually essential anymore, either. And anyway, the aquifers are getting used up, and it could take decades or longer of leaving them alone for them to recharge. > > The debt grows. And grows. The interest payments eat into the purchasing power of the US, even while borrowing $1T a year. Climate change takes stronger root. Destabilizing policies of the present result in destabilization in the future. The currently seemingly placid global economy hits a speed bump, or more likely a crisis. > > At last! The conservative dream is achieved! It is simply no. longer. possible to provide public funding for a whole raft of programs, and golden, glorious CUTS are the only solution. > > Hooray! All those freeloading senior citizens finally have to choose between getting a job, the bums, or dining on cat food in tents on sidewalks and in alleys for the rest of their golden years. Medicare goes out the window, no more sucking on that teat, you parasites. The massive medical industry implodes without Medicare, requiring more cuts because the economy just shrank again. > > What else to cut? Um, these “farmers” are more like parasitic squatters, yanno? They don’t actually _do_ anything except mooch off of the rest of us. Why didn’t we see what welfare queens they were before? Why in the everlasting name of Jesus Herbert Walker Christ don’t they get real, productive jobs? Seriously, wtf? > > And they are cut off. And they go bankrupt. And the oligarchs buy all their land, and it is all very similar to the Soviet communalism land grab only it’s cool, because it is Capitalism. > > The End. > “If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given.” Tao Te Ching 36 This is definitely within the realm of the possible. I absolutely agree that the goal of the GOP is to ring up so much debt that we’re faced with a choice: pay for the military, or pay for social programs. And when Democrats say, pay for social programs, the right will call the left traitors. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35130 "2019-08-02T03:58:47Z")
> [@Pleonast](#): > > I think **Snowboarder Bo** has been possessed by the spirit of **Bricker**. I don’t think he uses enough long words for that. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35131 "2019-08-02T04:04:48Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > Here’s how I see this playing out: Many of these red state welfare queens yuk it up for now. “Hur Hur, we are definitely not the marks this time. Things are finally as they should be- liberals have to get up and go to work every day, and we just hang out and collect billions off of them in exchange for nothing. No point farming when there is no foreign market anymore, but we farmers are absolutely essential because, gotta eat, right?” And it does continue like this, for awhile. Cue the grievance of the Old Confederacy which boiled down to, “We would rather rebel and kill our countymen than do this work ourselves!” > > Thing is, it is actually the farms that are essential, and not really the farmers. And without foreign markets, the farms aren’t actually essential anymore, either. And anyway, the aquifers are getting used up, and it could take decades or longer of leaving them alone for them to recharge. > > The debt grows. And grows. The interest payments eat into the purchasing power of the US, even while borrowing $1T a year. Climate change takes stronger root. Destabilizing policies of the present result in destabilization in the future. The currently seemingly placid global economy hits a speed bump, or more likely a crisis. > > At last! The conservative dream is achieved! It is simply no. longer. possible to provide public funding for a whole raft of programs, and golden, glorious CUTS are the only solution. > > Hooray! All those freeloading senior citizens finally have to choose between getting a job, the bums, or dining on cat food in tents on sidewalks and in alleys for the rest of their golden years. Medicare goes out the window, no more sucking on that teat, you parasites. The massive medical industry implodes without Medicare, requiring more cuts because the economy just shrank again. > > What else to cut? Um, these “farmers” are more like parasitic squatters, yanno? They don’t actually _do_ anything except mooch off of the rest of us. Why didn’t we see what welfare queens they were before? Why in the everlasting name of Jesus Herbert Walker Christ don’t they get real, productive jobs? Seriously, wtf? > > And they are cut off. And they go bankrupt. And the oligarchs buy all their land, and it is all very similar to the Soviet communalism land grab only it’s cool, because it is Capitalism. > > The End. > “If you want to take something, you must first allow it to be given.” Tao Te Ching 36 Sharing. Hope you don’t mind. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35132 "2019-08-02T04:09:39Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > The people who created the mess didn’t lose money, they gained it. The people who lost money also lost property. Guess who had the money at the time to buy up all that now-cheap property? My own state saw a zillion-fold (approximate) increase in the number of single family homes not owned by single families after 2008; I know other states saw likewise. They set up the system so they were protected, then used that system to make money while simultaneously costing others money, time and property. When real estate value deflated, they were there with ready liquid capital to take advantage of the situation. AND they convinced the American public to give them money _because_ of the crisis they created. It was international. In many countries, Principles of Accounting and Principles of Lending got thrown out the window because “hey, if the Americans can do it, so can we”. The specifics of what happened in each country when the bubble burst were different, but they boil down to “the coziest a bank was with the politicians, the better off it came out”. In Spain, the majority of Savings Banks disappeared (including a couple whose loans portfolios were in fact healthy), eaten up by the now-renamed Caixa (then a well-trod retirement pad for Catalan politicians, now for politicians from several regions); Caixa itself or the also-surviving Bankia (retirement pad for politicians from Madrid) were among the banks whose bad loans were reshuffled into a newly-formed “bad bank”, with those they thought they’d be able to sell easily remaining in the books of the original entities (which aren’t being as capable of offloading them as they thought). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35133 "2019-08-02T04:10:50Z")
> [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](#): > > HNo point farming when there is no foreign market anymore, but we farmers are absolutely essential because, gotta eat, right?" Or as Joseph Heller wrote: > [@](#): > > Major Major’s father was a sober God-fearing man whose idea of a good joke was to lie about his age. He was a long-limbed farmer, a God-fearing, freedom-loving, law-abiding rugged individualist who held that federal aid to anyone but farmers was creeping socialism. He advocated thrift and hard work and disapproved of loose women who turned him down. His specialty was alfalfa, and he made a good thing out of not growing any. The government paid him well for every bushel of alfalfa he did not grow. The more alfalfa he did not grow, the more money the government gave him, and he spent every penny he didn’t earn on new land to increase the amount of alfalfa he did not produce. Major Major’s father worked without rest at not growing alfalfa. On long winter evenings he remained indoors and did not mend harness, and he sprang out of bed at the crack of noon every day just to make certain that the chores would not be done. He invested in land wisely and soon was not growing more alfalfa than any other man in the county. Neighbors sought him out for advice on all subjects, for he had made much money and was therefore wise. “As ye sow, so shall ye reap,” he counseled one and all, and everyone said, “Amen.” ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35134 "2019-08-02T04:25:00Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Sharing. Hope you don’t mind. Go ahead. It’s my last, best chance at renown. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35135 "2019-08-02T05:15:17Z")
At tonight’s Nuremberg Rally, Individual 1 promised to cure AIDS and childhood cancer. > **[Trump promises America will cure AIDS and childhood cancer 'very shortly'](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-promises-america-will-cure-aids-and-childhood-cancer-very-shortly)** > > President Trump promised he would cure AIDS and childhood cancer "very soon" at a rally in Cincinnati, Ohio. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 5:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35136 "2019-08-02T05:37:58Z")
Bu-bu-but he’d already promised to cure cancer! Oh wait, we’re supposed to have forgotten about that, sorry. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35137 "2019-08-02T11:11:52Z")
Trump supporter jumps out of truck and lets his fists do the talking outside of Cincinatti Klan rally. > **[Man charged with assault after punching anti-Trump protester outside...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm_term=.80b08fa8db67)** > > Dallas Frazier, 29, was charged with repeatedly punching a 61-year-old protester in downtown Cincinnati. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35138 "2019-08-02T11:53:42Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > At tonight’s Nuremberg Rally, Individual 1 promised to cure AIDS and childhood cancer. > [https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-promises-america-will-cure-aids-and-childhood-cancer-very-shortly](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-promises-america-will-cure-aids-and-childhood-cancer-very-shortly) What do I care ? I got neither. Call me when he promises to solve world hunger, cuz I’m peckish. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35139 "2019-08-02T12:02:43Z")
Is he just going to suggest keeping children away from windmills? ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35140 "2019-08-02T12:53:55Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Hurd, whose district runs along the border, has opposed WALL from the beginning. Hurd is the only Republican who had a district which touched the Mexican border. There’s a good chance that, come 2021, not a single Republican comes from a district which borders Mexico. Also, going around Twitter: there are more Reublican men named Jim in the House than there are Republican women running for reelection. Fun fact! There are as many African-American GOP Congresscritters are there are GOP congresscritters named “Rand”. ---
**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:** [August 2, 2019, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35141 "2019-08-02T13:22:16Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Trump supporter jumps out of truck and lets his fists do the talking outside of Cincinatti Klan rally. > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm\_term=.80b08fa8db67](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm_term=.80b08fa8db67) [Here’s just the 1:06 video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BOxebDy-3Q). I love the chants of “lock him up” as the police take him away. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35142 "2019-08-02T13:51:17Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Trump supporter jumps out of truck and lets his fists do the talking outside of Cincinatti Klan rally. > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm\_term=.80b08fa8db67](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm_term=.80b08fa8db67) Remember this one next time **Hurricane Dipshit** yells about Antifa. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35143 "2019-08-02T14:04:37Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Remember this one next time **Hurricane Dipshit** yells about Antifa. I think we’d see a post like this: > [@TyphoonMike](#): > > You must have been watching a different video. In the one I watched, Alter removed his hat. _Clearly_ he was about to assault Frazier. Frazier was only acting in self-defence. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2019, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/35144 "2019-08-02T17:13:34Z")
> [@bobot](#): > > Trump supporter jumps out of truck and lets his fists do the talking outside of Cincinatti Klan rally. > [https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm\_term=.80b08fa8db67](https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/08/02/dallas-frazier-trump-rally-protest-punch-cincinnati/?utm_term=.80b08fa8db67) Too bad the protestor wasn’t armed, or this story could have made the “Guns are Great, mmmkay” thread. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1756) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1758)