# 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:** 479
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9564 "2017-08-07T20:55:11Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > The only opportunities restricted are of those of sexual predators seeking easy access to victims. Being excellent at your job shouldn’t require “private” time with the boss. I have to travel with co-workers pretty frequently. If I could only travel with males, the females would be at a disadvantage. Private time with me in unavoidable. I have managed not to be a sexual predator (so far, at least). ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9565 "2017-08-07T20:58:03Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > Likewise, I come from a very conservative Jewish background, and not being alone with someone of the opposite sex is actual religious law. So it took me a bit to realize how alien it must seem to Joe Average. > Even then, I’d think people would be all for anything that cut down on the number of sex scandals. I mean, some of those politicians practically need chastity belts. I have to work and meet with both men and women on my job. I also am free to socialize and associate with whomever I please, as I please. If anyone wants to say something about that or make a scandal out of it, they can just keep their mouth shut. I’m not changing a single thing just because some Dominionistic zealots say otherwise. They think something dirty is going on? That’s just their own internal “issues” talking to them. But their problem is not my problem. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9566 "2017-08-07T21:00:49Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Can ZPG Zealot’s well-established sexism be taken to another thread? Yes, she believes in segregating the sexes and slut-shaming women who do not abide by her choices. No, she won’t make any more sense no matter how much you ask. It’s not about slut-shaming. It’s about shaming women that jeopardize other people’s safety by their willingness to do whatever degrading things some man wants for a little bit of favor. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9567 "2017-08-07T21:02:54Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Can ZPG Zealot’s well-established sexism be taken to another thread? Yes, she believes in segregating the sexes and slut-shaming women who do not abide by her choices. No, she won’t make any more sense no matter how much you ask. I have her special brand of nonsense on ignore. 😉 ---
**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 7, 2017, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9568 "2017-08-07T21:03:33Z")
I’m pretty sure that’s the textbook definition of Slut Shaming, ZPG. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9569 "2017-08-07T21:05:20Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I have to travel with co-workers pretty frequently. If I could only travel with males, the females would be at a disadvantage. Private time with me in unavoidable. I have managed not to be a sexual predator (so far, at least). It’s only unavoidable if you want it to be. I travel with male and female co-workers also, and I work with men and boys (sometimes I just can’t think of teenage males as anything other than that) but have managed to avoid being in alone with someone of the opposite sex for over two decades. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9570 "2017-08-07T21:06:58Z")
> [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](#): > > I’ve been seriously amused with all the Jeff Sessions looks like a keebler elf memes that have been going around. But I feel kind of bad all the bad press the keebler company must be getting over it. > Any chance we’ll get a moderate into Session’s old senate seat? Probably not, given that the current front-runner is the ethically compromised religious zealot [Roy Moore](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Moore). ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9571 "2017-08-07T21:14:43Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > It’s not about slut-shaming. It’s about shaming women that jeopardize other people’s safety by their willingness to do whatever degrading things some man wants for a little bit of favor. Do you actually work with women like this? Or is this just a straw-woman argument? Because i think your attitude is objectifying women. But thank you for clarifying why Pence’s “NO Girlz Alloud 1N M¥ TreeeHouze” policy creeped me out so much. It not only turns women into objects, but sexualizes them, too. Marge “that great co-worker from accounting” suddenly becomes Marge the Potential Rapee who I must stay away from, or call in chaperones. What chance does a Mike Pence have to really get to know women as complex human beings (let alone understand them)? Why would we want someone like that making policies that affect women? ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9572 "2017-08-07T21:16:32Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > Can ZPG Zealot’s well-established sexism be taken to another thread? Yes, she believes in segregating the sexes and slut-shaming women who do not abide by her choices. No, she won’t make any more sense no matter how much you ask. I did want to respond once for lurkers who might have a similar question. I hope it has been addressed. ---
**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 7, 2017, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9573 "2017-08-07T21:19:50Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > It’s only unavoidable if you want it to be. I travel with male and female co-workers also, and I work with men and boys (sometimes I just can’t think of teenage males as anything other than that) but have managed to avoid being in alone with someone of the opposite sex for over two decades. Maybe they don’t want to be alone with a raving nut-case. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9574 "2017-08-07T21:48:32Z")
> [@running\_coach](#): > > Maybe they don’t want to be alone with a raving nut-case. The first sexual harassment charge for a handshake usually does it. ---
**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 7, 2017, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9575 "2017-08-07T21:59:19Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > The first sexual harassment charge for a handshake usually does it. There’s also this little gem. [Thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=733978) > [@Female-Only Services](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-only-services/698298/18): > > The New York Times article mentioned that some Orthodox Jewish women would only ride in a cab with a female driver. Some Muslim women may have the same need. > > > [@Female-Only Services](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/female-only-services/698298/36): > > > > **I will not ride alone in a cab with a male driver unless I have my hand gun with me. And my hand will be in my purse with _fingers on the trigger._** I have had too many close calls to do otherwise. Men who consider a female-only livery service such a bad thing should consider that women who have had negative experiences with men are not going to be tolerant of any threatening or questionable behavior by a male driver. A lot of situations that could turn dangerous (or if not dangerous at least job jeopardizing) could be avoided if women have an option of not being forced alone with a man. ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9576 "2017-08-07T21:59:52Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Do you actually work with women like this? Or is this just a straw-woman argument? > Because i think your attitude is objectifying women. > > But thank you for clarifying why Pence’s “NO Girlz Alloud 1N M¥ TreeeHouze” policy creeped me out so much. It not only turns women into objects, but sexualizes them, too. > > Marge “that great co-worker from accounting” suddenly becomes Marge the Potential Rapee who I must stay away from, or call in chaperones. What chance does a Mike Pence have to really get to know women as complex human beings (let alone understand them)? > > Why would we want someone like that making policies that affect women? In the past I have worked with plenty of women that would easily sell-out other women for male approval, including office managers who basically set of other women to be raped by putting them in positions where they were working late nights or similarly isolated situations with male executives who had reputations for being sexual harassers. An equally bad problem is women who refuse to support others right to safe working environment by deny concerns about safety and trivializing sexual harassment. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens in an environment where people in power feel they have no restrictions to their behavior. ---
**Author:** ![Anny\_Middon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bc79bd/32.png) [@Anny\_Middon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anny_Middon)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9577 "2017-08-07T22:26:01Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > That may be your HO, but many ministers, priests, rabbis, imans, etc., do not meet with female members of their congregation unchaperoned precisely because the responsibilities of his or her job include protecting the reputations of members of their flock > > A CEO and a CFO conducting any legitimate discussion of financial information will have underlings from clerical and legal documenting what’s going on. They wouldn’t be alone together. > > No, but he may be fired from his job if he throws a hissy fit insisting his female boss must be alone with him. Where do you live? I cannot imagine that in 2017 there still are people whose minds are so far in the gutter that they imagine when a pastor and a parishioner who happen to be of different genders are meeting they are having sex or doing something else that would harm one’s reputation. Do these same people on hearing that a male pastor met alone with a male parishioner imagine fellatio or buggery occurring? If not, why not – because those are pretty common activities in the world at large. And where do you work? Because in almost every company, executives frequently meet with each other one-on-one to discuss business. They do not typically have admins or legal staff with them – why would they? Most of these meetings are casual in nature, even if they are discussing confidential information. And why ever would any employee insist that his or her boss be alone for a meeting with him or her? The boss may prefer to be one-on-one – no use to take up someone else’s time for something outside that person’s purview. Or the boss may want for many reasons to hold a confidential meeting. Again, where do you work that this isn’t true? (Take my advice here. If you ever go into a performance review and the boss has other people in the meeting, be prepared – there’s a good chance that pretty soon Security will be escorting you out of the building.) ---
**Author:** ![JackieLikesVariety](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackielikesvariety/32/296_2.png) [@JackieLikesVariety](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JackieLikesVariety)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9578 "2017-08-07T22:45:30Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I’m pretty sure that’s the textbook definition of Slut Shaming, ZPG. :rolleyes: seriously! ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9579 "2017-08-07T22:47:25Z")
Main difference between ZPG and Donnie - one has access to the nuclear codes. ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9580 "2017-08-07T23:04:09Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > It’s not my place to condemn anyone’s religious practice, but: how about self-control? You know, instead of declaring one gender to be the and using that highly-questionable excuse to restrict their opportunities? > > On the other hand, it’s a whiz-bang solution to the problem of having to **compete fairly with 100% of the species** : Just cut that number in half! Problem solved! Who said anything about one gender? 😕 “Men shouldn’t be alone with women” = “Women shouldn’t be alone with men”. It’s the same thing. Feel free to be against declaring _both_ genders to be a “source of temptation”; it’s a legitimate view to have. But I don’t see how it says anything about women that it doesn’t say about men. ---
**Author:** ![D\_Odds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/d_odds/32/2882_2.png) [@D\_Odds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D_Odds)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9581 "2017-08-07T23:10:59Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > it’s a legitimate view to have. It’s a view to have, but it is far from legitimate. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9582 "2017-08-07T23:21:18Z")
> [@ZPG\_Zealot](#): > > A CEO and a CFO conducting any legitimate discussion of financial information will have underlings from clerical and legal documenting what’s going on. They wouldn’t be alone together. Not where I’ve ever worked. ---
**Author:** ![Ann\_Hedonia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ann_hedonia/32/319_2.png) [@Ann\_Hedonia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ann_Hedonia)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2017, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/9583 "2017-08-07T23:24:34Z")
This is story is about a week and a half old, which is means it feels like it happened about 37 years ago old in the Trump time scale. It may have been mentioned, but Sarah Huckabee Sanders read a Trump fan letter from a 9 year old boy named Pickles ( I am NOT making that up ) at a press briefing . > **[Sarah Huckabee Sanders reads letter from 9-year-old Trump fan during press...](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/sarah-huckabee-sanders-reads-letter-9-year-old-trump-fan-article-1.3359022)** > > White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders kicked off Wednesday's press briefing by reading a letter from a 9-year-old Trump fan. She indicated that it may become a regular feature. So I made up my own letter to Trump from a 9 year old. I think I’m going to send it in. Dear Presadint Trump My name is Doobie but people call me Cheetos. They call me Cheetos because I eat Cheetos all day. You look like you eat Cheetos. I like you and you hair that looks like my dead cat Pumpkin before he was dead. I loved Pumpkin so your head makes me smile. You make the very bestest Presadint ever because you are not a lady. And u look meen and yell till your face is red. My stoopid ant says you a bad dum man but you will scare the presadints of the bad peeple. You have a scary meen face and a red hat. I like the prety yellow hair girl you are all ways with are you married? It’s not nice to say but I bet she kisses good. I like the ladie with the perls that screams at peeple that are meen to you. She looks like my Mommy eating fried chiken. Maybe she will reed my letter the next time the meen peeple ask about Russia. Love Your Friend Cheetos [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=478) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=480)