# 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:** 1918
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38345 "2019-11-01T01:29:50Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > Astros didn’t either. First time in the history of any major sport that a 7 game series went to the visiting team in every game. It sounds like **eschereal** ’s question is insinuating or hinting at something, but, for the life of me, I can’t figure out what it could possibly be. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38346 "2019-11-01T02:38:39Z")
The administration of FPT\*-- proudly turning the clock back to 1900. \*\*E.P.A. to Roll Back Rules to Control Toxic Ash from Coal Plants \*\* > **[E.P.A. to Roll Back Rules to Control Toxic Ash from Coal Plants (Published 2019)](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/31/climate/epa-coal-ash.html)** > > The Trump administration is expected today to roll back rules designed to limit emissions of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury from coal-fired power plants. > [@](#): > > WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected to roll back an Obama-era regulation meant to limit the leachingof heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury into water supplies from the ash of coal-fired power plants, according to two people familiar with the plans. > > With a series of new rules expected in the coming days, the Environmental Protection Agency will move to weaken the 2015 regulation that would have strengthened inspection and monitoring at coal plants, lowered acceptable levels of toxic effluent and required plants to install new technology to protect water supplies from contaminated coal ash. > > The E.P.A. will relax some of those requirements and exempt a significant number of power plants from any of the requirements, according to the two people familiar with the Trump administration plan, who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the new rules. > > … ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38347 "2019-11-01T02:43:31Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Not many women would cry if their husbands got shot](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-told-gop-donors-that-melania-wouldnt-cry-for-him-if-he-got-shot-report/). Given Trump’s penchant for projection, and for actually accusing others of doing what he does, I think the best advice for Ms. Trump is to avoid Fifth Avenue. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38348 "2019-11-01T03:12:33Z")
Trump is apparently still [interested in pardoning Blagojevich](https://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/2019/10/31/20942713/blagojevich-pardon-president-donald-trump-prison). For those that don’t remember, Blago was a Democratic governor of Illinois who got stung by the Feds trying to sell Obama’s Senate seat and shaking down a children’s hospital. He is in year 7 of a 14-year sentence. I guess it’s no surprise that Trump is wanting to go easy on this guy, given his own guilty conscience. Fuck, the Democrats here are happy to see this asshole in the pokey. All the Republican congressman from Illinois have written against commuting his sentence. But, no, Trump is still testing the waters on this one. One asshole looking out for another. ---
**Author:** ![Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b487fb/32.png) [@Walken\_After\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walken_After_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38349 "2019-11-01T03:45:41Z")
Trump undermines Boris Johnson, and decides to start interfering in other countries’ elections. [BBC](https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50258139): > [@](#): > > Downing Street has defended the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU, following criticism from the US president. > > Donald Trump said the US “can’t make a trade deal with the UK” under Boris Johnson’s EU withdrawal agreement. > … > Other comments made by Mr Trump led Labour to accuse him of trying to “interfere” in the election. > > Speaking to LBC, the president said Mr Corbyn would be “so bad” as prime minister and that Mr Johnson was “the exact right guy for the times”. > > Mr Corbyn accused him of “trying to interfere” in the UK general election to boost “his friend Boris Johnson”. ---
**Author:** ![BlankSlate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blankslate/32/80_2.png) [@BlankSlate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlankSlate)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38350 "2019-11-01T05:09:43Z")
Trump is about as popular as diphtheria in the UK, so Corbyn should welcome the meddling. ---
**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38351 "2019-11-01T06:06:26Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > [Not many women would cry if their husbands got shot](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-told-gop-donors-that-melania-wouldnt-cry-for-him-if-he-got-shot-report/). Melania’s expression in that photo is a scarily accurate representation of The Donald’s “I am a serious person doing serious things” face. She’d be right at home behind a clean desk with a signing-pen and a totally blank piece of paper ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 6:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38352 "2019-11-01T06:54:04Z")
Loser Donald has announced that [he wants to give a “fireside chat” on national television](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-revealed-his-new-defense-to-conservative-newspaper-but-it-has-a-fatal-flaw-nyt-reporter/) so he can read the transcript of his Ukraine call and show everyone that it was a Perfect Call and that it was Very Legal, maybe even the most legal call there’s ever been. In related news, Loser Donald has announced that he intends to learn how to read. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38353 "2019-11-01T11:42:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > I dunno; at least in a brainpower sense, they’ve always struck me more as as epsilons… Don’t know if you intended this, but that works on at least two levels: E standing for Empty, and epsilon being used in mathematics for the [smallest possible positive amount](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Epsilon.html). ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38354 "2019-11-01T11:49:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Loser Donald has announced that [he wants to give a “fireside chat” on national television](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-revealed-his-new-defense-to-conservative-newspaper-but-it-has-a-fatal-flaw-nyt-reporter/) so he can read the transcript of his Ukraine call and show everyone that it was a Perfect Call and that it was Very Legal, maybe even the most legal call there’s ever been. > > In related news, Loser Donald has announced that he intends to learn how to read. I did this with my kid. Sat back to back, she read Zelensky, I read Trump. Doing this, there is _no way_ one leaves thinking it was an ‘innocent’ call. Zero. Trump sounds like a f-in mobster at times. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38355 "2019-11-01T12:05:58Z")
I realize that Fox News isn’t technically part of the Trump Administration, but, given that he takes his cues from them, it might as well be. Tucker Carlson delivered an interesting speech: > [@](#): > > ox News host Tucker Carlson had some extremely unusual words about Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), one of the lawmakers leading the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump. > > … > > Carlson said Schiff was “ecstatic” over Thursday’s vote in the House formalizing the impeachment inquiry. > > “Schiff has spent years obsessing over impeachment like it was a young Jodie Foster,” Carlson said. > > That seemed to be a reference to John Hinckley Jr., who attempted to kill Reagan in the belief it would earn him the “respect and love” of the actor, who was 18 at the time. > > Then Carlson really went off the deep end: > > “Colleagues say he has pictures of impeachment taped to the walls of his bedroom. He’s believed to have written in steamy unhinged letters using his own body fluids. So for Schiff, today’s vote was thrilling in ways that only a court-appointed psychiatrist could fully appreciate.” > > Carlson is prone toward verbal flights of fancy and extreme caricature; earlier this year he calmly discussed the possibility that members of the media would eat South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, a Democratic candidate for president. > **[Tucker Carlson Delivers Super-Creepy Riff About Adam Schiff's 'Body Fluids'](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-adam-schiff-body-fluids_n_5dbbaea2e4b0249f4821f39c)** > > The Fox News host goes off the deep end in a bizarre rant against the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. This immediately made me think of General Jack D. Ripper in _Dr. Strangelove_ (as, I suspect, it was meant to) > [@](#): > > How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It’s incredibly obvious, isn’t it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That’s the way your hard-core Commie works. I first became aware of it, Mandrake, during the physical act of love… Yes, a profound sense of fatigue, a feeling of emptiness followed. Luckily I — I was able to interpret these feelings correctly. Loss of essence. I can assure you it has not recurred, Mandrake. Women, er, women sense my power, and they seek the life essence. I do not avoid women, Mandrake…but I do deny them my essence. The thing is, in my mind, I don't attach the crazy to Schiff, but to Carlson. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38356 "2019-11-01T12:43:35Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I realize that Fox News isn’t technically part of the Trump Administration, but, given that he takes his cues from them, it might as well be. > > Tucker Carlson delivered an interesting speech: > > [Tucker Carlson Delivers Super-Creepy Riff About Adam Schiff's 'Body Fluids' | HuffPost Latest News](https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker-carlson-adam-schiff-body-fluids_n_5dbbaea2e4b0249f4821f39c) > > This immediately made me think of General Jack D. Ripper in _Dr. Strangelove_ (as, I suspect, it was meant to) > > The thing is, in my mind, I don't attach the crazy to Schiff, but to Carlson. Carlson has demonstrated perfectly how the rubber-glue principle works. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38357 "2019-11-01T15:25:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Don’t know if you intended this, but that works on at least two levels: E standing for Empty, and epsilon being used in mathematics for the [smallest possible positive amount](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Epsilon.html). Actually, I intended it as a _Brave New World_ reference. ---
**Author:** ![QuickSilver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quicksilver/32/7832_2.png) [@QuickSilver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/QuickSilver)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38358 "2019-11-01T15:40:25Z")
Tucker Carlson is a punchline. ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38359 "2019-11-01T16:01:56Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Carlson has demonstrated perfectly how the rubber-glue principle works. Yeah, he’s definitely sniffing it, but I think that they call it “rubber cement.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38360 "2019-11-01T16:14:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Loser Donald has announced that [he wants to give a “fireside chat” on national television](https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-revealed-his-new-defense-to-conservative-newspaper-but-it-has-a-fatal-flaw-nyt-reporter/) so he can read the transcript of his Ukraine call and show everyone that it was a Perfect Call and that it was Very Legal, maybe even the most legal call there’s ever been. Will he be reading the actual transcript or the revised version that he’s been falsely claiming is the transcript? ---
**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:** [November 1, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38361 "2019-11-01T16:20:18Z")
I don’t often do this, but I feel I have to bump my post #38397 above. I haven’t seen anything about this in the news, but it seems damned important, and it’s gotten kind of swamped with the previous discussion here. to re-iterate: Why didn’t Trump know that Alexander Vindman was his top expert on the Ukraine? The surprising answer: Quote: After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inauguration in May, Vindman was eager to brief Donald Trump on the implications of the change in leadership in Kyiv. Politico reported, however, on why that did not happen. [H]e was instructed “at the last second” not to attend the debriefing, Vindman told lawmakers, because Trump’s advisers worried it might confuse the president: Trump believed at the time that Kashyap Patel, a longtime Nunes staffer who joined the White House in February and had no discernible Ukraine experience or expertise, was actually the NSC’s top Ukraine expert instead of Vindman. Vindman testified that he was told this directly by his boss at the time, NSC senior director for European and Russian affairs Fiona Hill. It’s an amazing dynamic, which helps shed new light on just how dysfunctional Trump’s West Wing is. If the National Security Council’s top Ukrainian expert briefed the president, Trump might have become “confused” – not by the information Vindman was sharing, but by the fact that the president was under the impression that an entirely different person was the White House’s top Ukrainian expert. That other person, Kashyap Patel, is an acolyte of Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, and according to Vindman, Patel “misrepresented” himself to Trump in order to help guide the White House’s policy toward Ukraine. No wonder the president has “never even heard of” Alexander Vindman. If he’d walked into the Oval Office and introduced himself as Trump’s top Ukrainian expert, the president would’ve wondered what happened to the other guy. [http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...resident#break](http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-s...resident#break) The middle portion is quoted from Politico, which also has this nugget: Quote: Vindman also testified that he was told Patel had been circumventing normal NSC process to get negative material about Ukraine in front of the president, feeding Trump’s belief that Ukraine was brimming with corruption and had interfered in the 2016 election on behalf of Democrats. That upset Vindman, along with Hill and Bolton, he testified, because they were constantly having to counter that narrative with the president. [https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1](https://www.politico.com/news/2019/1)…-expert-061763 38397 Neither my wife nor my daughter – both of whom follow the news – had heard about this either. We knew that Trump’s advisors were steering his information, but actually displacing real advisors and lying about the guy who took his place, falsely claiming to be an expert – that’s a new level of deceptiveness. Call it Cuckoo Advising. Just another facet of our dysfunctional government. Comment. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38362 "2019-11-01T16:33:11Z")
> [@QuickSilver](#): > > Tucker Carlson is a punchline. Meaning that people are getting in line to punch him? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Greenjeans](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.greenjeans/32/551_2.png) [@Mr.Greenjeans](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Greenjeans)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38363 "2019-11-01T16:37:21Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Then Carlson really went off the deep end: > > “Colleagues say [Schiff] has pictures of impeachment taped to the walls of his bedroom." What does impeachment look like? (Read that as Jules from Pulp Fiction, if you choose.) ---
**Author:** ![tricoteuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tricoteuse/32/4334_2.png) [@tricoteuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tricoteuse)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2019, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/38364 "2019-11-01T17:09:54Z")
Impeaches come from a can. They were put there by a man in a factory downtown. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1917) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=1919)