# 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:** 2198
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43947 "2020-05-31T15:15:13Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Trump got a dog. How nice. I was going to say “At least someone loves him now,” but if he got a dog it would probably hate him as much as the rest of us. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2020, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43948 "2020-05-31T15:39:47Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > Trump got a dog. How nice. it is a rental ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43949 "2020-05-31T15:43:11Z")
Has Don learned the phrase “Gimme the ball, Liberty?” \*One of SNL’s top five lines. ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43950 "2020-05-31T15:49:50Z")
> [@Guest-starring\_Id](#): > > Has Don learned the phrase “Gimme the ball, Liberty?” He learned “Gimmee the money” easily enough. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43951 "2020-05-31T15:54:45Z")
> [@Mike\_Mabes](#): > > How about $20,000 for everyone with zero interest, Sure, but the fed discount rate right now is pretty close to zero. My point was to allow people to borrow at the same rate that banks borrow at. If we figure they should borrow at a lower rate, then you will not get argument from me. Keep in mind though, that the paying off of $1,000 a month or whatever we would set UBI at would be an effective negative interest rate already. > [@](#): > > and nothing for companies like Boeing, which have made billions over the years? Should they not have money in savings to get them through bad times, just like all of us are supposed to have? Problem with that, is that if you just let them go under, then their employees suffer while the executives are fine. I do think that there should be very strong strings attached with any bailouts. I’d outlaw stock buybacks, and limit the pay of those who take the money, possibly even clawing back their salaries and other compensations from previous years. Maybe some other steps as well to make sure that the bailout money is not just going to buy their next yacht. I’d also offer the option, if the board and CEO don’t want to take the money with those strings attached, to support the employees in purchasing the company and making it an employee owned business. Hell, I might even offer the company to the employees before I made an offer to the CEO’s. But just letting these companies go bankrupt will cause a great deal of harm to many Americans, and the ones who will be harmed the least will be the ones who are most responsible. > [@](#): > > Let’s say you have a job for years, and you get laid off. OK you can get unemployment for 6 months. What if you still can’t find a job that pays what you were making, and you take a job at McDonalds. You then go to the government and say, “Hey, I can’t pay my bills. Give me some money.” Government says, “You’re fucked, you were supposed to save money for hard times.” > > Fuck Boeing, if they can’t survive with government help, let them go out of business. They ain’t the only airline in town. They are not an airline, they make airplanes. (and space ships.) And they are one of only a very few “in town”, and the others are also having the same struggles. If Boeing goes out of business, there are going to be a whole lot of people on unemployment. Now, the problem of “too big to fail” should be addressed before they are too big to fail. If I were Queen of May, I’d say that if you are too big to fail, then you are just too big, and need to be broken up into smaller companies that will not destroy the economy because a handful of people made stupid or selfish decisions. ---
**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:** [May 31, 2020, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43952 "2020-05-31T20:08:26Z")
Individual 1: “We are not going to be number-two anywhere.” I think he knows all about being number two. > ---
**Author:** ![Mike\_Mabes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mike_mabes/32/1782_2.png) [@Mike\_Mabes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mike_Mabes)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43953 "2020-05-31T20:48:06Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > Sure, but the fed discount rate right now is pretty close to zero. My point was to allow people to borrow at the same rate that banks borrow at. If we figure they should borrow at a lower rate, then you will not get argument from me. > > Keep in mind though, that the paying off of $1,000 a month or whatever we would set UBI at would be an effective negative interest rate already. > > Problem with that, is that if you just let them go under, then their employees suffer while the executives are fine. > > I do think that there should be very strong strings attached with any bailouts. I’d outlaw stock buybacks, and limit the pay of those who take the money, possibly even clawing back their salaries and other compensations from previous years. Maybe some other steps as well to make sure that the bailout money is not just going to buy their next yacht. > > I’d also offer the option, if the board and CEO don’t want to take the money with those strings attached, to support the employees in purchasing the company and making it an employee owned business. Hell, I might even offer the company to the employees before I made an offer to the CEO’s. > > But just letting these companies go bankrupt will cause a great deal of harm to many Americans, and the ones who will be harmed the least will be the ones who are most responsible. > They are not an airline, they make airplanes. (and space ships.) And they are one of only a very few “in town”, and the others are also having the same struggles. > > If Boeing goes out of business, there are going to be a whole lot of people on unemployment. > > Now, the problem of “too big to fail” should be addressed before they are too big to fail. If I were Queen of May, I’d say that if you are too big to fail, then you are just too big, and need to be broken up into smaller companies that will not destroy the economy because a handful of people made stupid or selfish decisions. You are right. I was worried about my parents and mad pissed about a lot of things that are going on and ranting. Didn’t stop to think. You can’t let Boeing fail anymore that we could have let the banks fail in 2008. Kinda felt like Alex in the great movie Cutter’s Way. “It’s never their ass that is on the line, never. It is always somebody else’s. Always yours, mine, ours.” But I don’t want to blow up AT&T. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/5dw7DlkG7Dc/maxresdefault.jpg "Media Bites Ep 15 Cutter's Way") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5dw7DlkG7Dc) ---
**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:** [May 31, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43954 "2020-05-31T20:57:08Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Individual 1: > “We are not going to be number-two anywhere.” > > I think he knows all about being number two. > [https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1266875794586046464](https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1266875794586046464) If there’s one thing his administration will always be known for, it’s Number 2. You can smell it everywhere. (Yes, I appear to be stuck in scatological mode. :mad:) ---
**Author:** ![Running\_with\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43955 "2020-05-31T21:57:37Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I’ve thought Trump might start a war in order to help his re-election chances. But I’ll admit the fact that he’s getting ready to declare war on Minnesota caught me by surprise. “We’ll try to stay serene and calm, When Minnesota gets the bomb” (Apologies to Tom Lehrer) ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43956 "2020-06-01T01:33:18Z")
[Trump was briefly taken to his Bunker as protests raged in DC](https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-underground-bunker-white-house-protests/index.html) I’m hoping that his Bunker was appropriately supplied, and that he took Eva Braun with him. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43957 "2020-06-01T02:14:56Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > [Trump was briefly taken to his Bunker as protests raged in DC](https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-underground-bunker-white-house-protests/index.html) > > I’m hoping that his Bunker was appropriately supplied, and that he took Eva Braun with him. It would be completely wrong of me to hope that the protesters break into the White House, drag that fucker’s naked body kicking and screaming out the door and hang him upside down by the ankles in Lafayette Park. Completely wrong. So I won’t hope that. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43958 "2020-06-01T02:26:21Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > [Trump was briefly taken to his Bunker as protests raged in DC](https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/31/politics/trump-underground-bunker-white-house-protests/index.html) > > I’m hoping that his Bunker was appropriately supplied, and that he took Eva Braun with him. [Fegelein got into the viagra tho.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQO35k9ZRWw&t=158s) [audio likely nsfw] ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43959 "2020-06-01T03:03:00Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I do think that there should be very strong strings attached with any bailouts. I’d outlaw stock buybacks, and limit the pay of those who take the money, possibly even clawing back their salaries and other compensations from previous years. I don’t disagree with this, but the last time, the Republicans threw a bunch of hissy fits and got in the way. Not to say any future bills won’t have those strings, but Dem congresscritters have already been thinking the same things and facing a big uphill climb. I’d say let the fuckers object and have those objections on record. One thing that did happen, though, was there were a few strings attached about keeping people on payroll to get those funds. Of course that didn’t stop companies like United from [planning layoffs](https://www.salon.com/2020/05/05/after-5-billion-bailout-united-airlines-chief-urges-workers-to-leave-voluntarily-or-face-layoffs/) immediately after the terms expired. Don’t get me wrong - I’m glad those people get to keep getting paid in the interim, but if this is the result, might as well just leave those companies to hang and give those people the money directly. They want to operate under a free market, right? And claim they can best operate with fewer government interventions and regulations, right? Well, let them prove it. ---
**Author:** ![Eva\_Luna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e495f1/32.png) [@Eva\_Luna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eva_Luna)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43960 "2020-06-01T03:03:32Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > It would be completely wrong of me to hope that the protesters break into the White House, drag that fucker’s naked body kicking and screaming out the door and hang him upside down by the ankles in Lafayette Park. Completely wrong. So I won’t hope that. Not me. I hope he’s not naked, because I don’t want to see the inevitable footage of that…spectacle. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43961 "2020-06-01T03:11:17Z")
AOC retweeted that she was told by the FBI that US white supremacist groups are not charged with terrorism because US based groups can’t be designated as terrorists under federal law. So, is Antifa then a foreign “organization”? ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43962 "2020-06-01T03:38:52Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > AOC retweeted that she was told by the FBI that US white supremacist groups are not charged with terrorism because US based groups can’t be designated as terrorists under federal law. So, is Antifa then a foreign “organization”? Of course he thinks they’re foreign. Anyone at all who isn’t fascist is foreign to him. Hell, anyone at all who’s rational is foreign to him. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43963 "2020-06-01T03:45:49Z")
> [@Eva\_Luna](#): > > Not me. I hope he’s not naked, because I don’t want to see the inevitable footage of that…spectacle. Under normal circumstances, I would never want to see Chump naked. But there would be a certain cachet to him being naked upside down and being used as a pinata. Not that I, um, would ever hope for such a thing to happen to him. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43964 "2020-06-01T04:46:32Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > AOC retweeted that she was told by the FBI that US white supremacist groups are not charged with terrorism because US based groups can’t be designated as terrorists under federal law. So, is Antifa then a foreign “organization”? Antifa isn’t an _organization_, domestic or otherwise. ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43965 "2020-06-01T05:24:59Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > AOC retweeted that she was told by the FBI that US white supremacist groups are not charged with terrorism because US based groups can’t be designated as terrorists under federal law. So, is Antifa then a foreign “organization”? So where does that leave FBI-designated domestic terrorist organization PETA? And what exactly federal law forbids it? Also, if the FBI said that to AOC, why was AOC RE-tweeting it? Did nobody pay attention the first time? (Is that even how retweeting works?) ---
**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:** [June 1, 2020, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/43966 "2020-06-01T05:36:46Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > So where does that leave FBI-designated domestic terrorist organization PETA? And what exactly federal law forbids it? > > Also, if the FBI said that to AOC, why was AOC RE-tweeting it? Did nobody pay attention the first time? (Is that even how retweeting works?) I don’t know the federal law myself, but CNN just moments ago as well as earlier today confirmed the federal government does NOT have the authority to label a domestic group as a terrorist organization like it can a foreign entity. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2197) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=2199)