# 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:** 639
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12765 "2017-10-23T22:39:36Z")
> [@octopus](#): > > This is jay\_jay level of nuttiness. Really? What, specifically, struck you as being nutty? > [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Go ahead Trump. Start attacking Myeshia Johnson. There’s no downside for Trump in attacking Gold Star families who are non-white. Everyone who finds the indecency of it to be revolting _already_ despises him. And it delights his white-supremacist fans. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12766 "2017-10-23T22:43:47Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I’m sick of all of them. If Trump is such a hot mess (and he is) that he needs constant handlers, **then what the hell is wrong with Republicans that they aren’t getting rid of him as fast as they can? It’s somehow acceptable to let a completely unqualified maniac fiddle with the controls because he can be “managed??”** > > I agree with others who have said Kelly, McMaster and Mattis are not the “adults in the room.” They’re enablers who allow the Republicans to carry on with their ruse that it’s somehow acceptable to leave this ignorant, cruel, petty pathetic sub cretin in the most important job in our country, **so they can demolish health care, trash Constitutional norms, allow the rise of racist, white nationalist turds and sneak tax cuts for their own handlers** past the clueless electorate, all while everyone wrings their hands and acts grateful that the dipshit hasn’t quite yet managed to reach the button. > > I refuse to normalize this. You answered your own question. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12767 "2017-10-23T22:48:55Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > But they consistently gloss over one distinguishing feature of the 50’s and 60’s , the 91% top marginal income tax rate. Fake news. Sad. unfair 😃 Well let’s bring THAT back. Good old days. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12768 "2017-10-23T22:53:31Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > The California Republican Party convention (which is probably meeting in a phone booth this weekend) thought it would be appropriate to bring in Steve Bannon, that unifier, to headline their semi-annual meeting. He warned that if California is allowed to be a sanctuary state, it will want to secede in ten to fifteen years. > [http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/356522-bannon-warns-california-may-try-to-secede](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/356522-bannon-warns-california-may-try-to-secede) > > 1-Wouldn’t the Trumpistas think this is a good thing? > 2-Has he spoken with any of the Trumpistas in Texas who think Texas should secede? One thing though… for all their “get the fuck out” and “fuck California” talk, those hard working independent take nothing for free **assholes** in Middle Murrica sure love the subsidies WE FUCKING PAY FOR. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12769 "2017-10-23T22:58:42Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > It’s like that episode of Seinfeld when the cops show up at Newman’s door after they tried to dog-nap Elaine’s neighbor’s yapping dog. “What took you so long?” Banned? For real?? It’s about fucking time! ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2017, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12770 "2017-10-23T23:48:24Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > It’s like that episode of Seinfeld when the cops show up at Newman’s door after they tried to dog-nap Elaine’s neighbor’s yapping dog. “What took you so long?” The idiosyncratic rules of order in this forum allow even an odious carbuncle like **Terrklahoma** to run dryly through the rain for a very long time, so long as he can avoid saying “cuntlapper” or worse, “torrent.” ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12771 "2017-10-24T01:04:33Z")
I just posted this in the “Whatcha Readin” thread, and it occurred to me that it might be of interest to the denizens of this thread — Keeping with the theme of books about presidents, I just noticed a new one is out. Some may claim that the title is deliberately provocative, or that the author is biased, but I’m going to read it anyway: _Trump is F_cking Crazy\*, by Keith Olbermann. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12772 "2017-10-24T02:00:47Z")
> [@SteveG1](#): > > You answered your own question. LOL, well, so I did. I guess it was a rhetorical question. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![AI\_Proofreader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@AI\_Proofreader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AI_Proofreader)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12773 "2017-10-24T04:10:54Z")
> [@Aspenglow](#): > > I’m sick of all of them. If Trump is such a hot mess (and he is) that he needs constant handlers, **then what the hell is wrong with Republicans that they aren’t getting rid of him as fast as they can? It’s somehow acceptable to let a completely unqualified maniac fiddle with the controls because he can be “managed??”** > > I agree with others who have said Kelly, McMaster and Mattis are not the “adults in the room.” They’re enablers who allow the Republicans to carry on with their ruse that it’s somehow acceptable to leave this ignorant, cruel, petty pathetic sub cretin in the most important job in our country, **so they can demolish health care, trash Constitutional norms, allow the rise of racist, white nationalist turds and sneak tax cuts for their own handlers** past the clueless electorate, all while everyone wrings their hands and acts grateful that the dipshit hasn’t quite yet managed to reach the button. > > I refuse to normalize this. > [@SteveG1](#): > > You answered your own question. > [@Aspenglow](#): > > LOL, well, so I did. I guess it was a rhetorical question. :dubious: A good rhetorical question though. I’ve been saying for a long time that calling Trump an anomaly is a _big_ mistake on the part of the Democrats. Take advantage of the spotlight on the horrible ideas of the Republicans, minus the nice packaging they usually get. He’s pushing legislation with every bad idea, party-line, and vague Republican fantasy ever conceived. The only difference is that he puts a really nasty face on the fight the GOP has been waging for decades: abolishing the social safety net, eliminating healthcare, cutting regulations and taxes on the rich so they can usher in their laissez-faire capitalist paradise, bloating the military, banning all non-white non-Americans from the country, and blowing up the Muslims. The only difference policy-wise so far has been his opposition to the T.P.P., since free trade agreements are usually soundly endorsed by the GOP. Coincidence (?) it’s also the only thing I’ve agreed with him on. ---
**Author:** ![EddyTeddyFreddy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eddyteddyfreddy/32/18796_2.png) [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12774 "2017-10-24T05:45:20Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > Go ahead Trump. Start attacking Myeshia Johnson. [And so he did:](http://www.cnn.com/2017/10/23/politics/trump-johnson-call/index.html) > [@](#): > > On Monday, in an interview with “Good Morning America,” Johnson, the widow of slain Sgt. La David Johnson, spoke for the first time in public about her phone call with Trump. She confirmed Wilson’s account that Trump had told her that her husband “knew what he was getting into” and added: “It made me cry because I was very angry at the tone of his voice and how he said it. He couldn’t remember my husband’s name.” > > To which Trump almost immediately replied via Twitter: “I had a very respectful conversation with the widow of Sgt. La David Johnson, and spoke his name from beginning, without hesitation!” The entire Cillizza piece is a slam dunk. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2017, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12775 "2017-10-24T05:58:12Z")
I can well imagine how the right-wing trash on this Board and elsewhere would have reacted had President Barack Obama even hinted a Gold Star widow might be lying. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2017, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12776 "2017-10-24T14:48:37Z")
[Bob Corker had a few things to say in this 6 minute walk and talk.](Check out @ryanstruyk’s Tweet: [https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/922822414811189249?s=09](https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/922822414811189249?s=09)) ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12777 "2017-10-24T14:57:31Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > [Bob Corker had a few things to say in this 6 minute walk and talk.](Check out @ryanstruyk’s Tweet: [x.com](https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/922822414811189249?s=09)) He seemed awfully quiet in that link. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2017, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12778 "2017-10-24T15:09:03Z")
Of course, Bob Corker was one of the biggest enablers of Trump, wanting both VP and SecState. He’s the same Trump he was back in 2016… in some ways, the WH has a point in saying Corker has “betrayed” them (my word, not theirs, afaik). Oh, and, shit, sorry: [https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/922822414811189249?s=09](https://twitter.com/ryanstruyk/status/922822414811189249?s=09) Choice Corker bits: … Trump is debasing the Nation … He could not answer if he trusts Trump with nuclear codes … Not a role-model for kids ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12779 "2017-10-24T15:10:43Z")
Dissing the boy who wouldn’t invite you to the prom is \*so \*high-school. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12780 "2017-10-24T15:25:58Z")
Whitefish Energy Holdings in Montana is a two-year old company with two full time employees as of about a month ago. Last week, Whitefish proudly announced it had received a $300 million dollar contract to rebuild parts of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure. This is the largest contract to rebuild PR’s infrastructure that has been awarded so far. These kinds of infrastructure projects are more often taken on through “mutual aid” agreements with other utility providers, and it’s unusual for this work to go to private firms. The two guys who run Whitefish Energy Holdings must be some kind of fantastic problem solvers! Or, the two guys could be: 1) a friend of Interior Secretary Zinke; and 2) a guy who donated $74K to Trump and $30K to the RNC and whose wife donated $33K to the RNC. > **[$300M Puerto Rico Contract Awarded To Tiny Firm Financed By Big Trump Donors](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/whitefish-puerto-rico-utility-contract)** > > A tiny Montana utility company that received a $300 million contract to help restore power to Puerto Rico after its electrical grid was devastated by Hurricane Maria is financed by major Trump donors… > **[Small Montana firm lands Puerto Rico’s biggest contract to get the power back on](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/small-montana-firm-lands-puerto-ricos-biggest-contract-to-get-the-power-back-on/2017/10/23/31cccc3e-b4d6-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.b3fff5f70d32)** > > Whitefish Energy, a two-year-old company, had just two full-time employees on the day Hurricane Maria made landfall. Probably a coincidence. ---
**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:** [October 24, 2017, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12781 "2017-10-24T15:32:56Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Whitefish Energy Holdings in Montana is a two-year old company with two full time employees as of about a month ago. Last week, Whitefish proudly announced it had received a $300 million dollar contract to rebuild parts of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure. This is the largest contract to rebuild PR’s infrastructure that has been awarded so far. These kinds of infrastructure projects are more often taken on through “mutual aid” agreements with other utility providers, and it’s unusual for this work to go to private firms. The two guys who run Whitefish Energy Holdings must be some kind of fantastic problem solvers! > > Or, the two guys could be: 1) a friend of Interior Secretary Zinke; and 2) a guy who donated $74K to Trump and $30K to the RNC and whose wife donated $33K to the RNC. > > [$300M Puerto Rico Contract Awarded To Tiny Firm Financed By Big Trump Donors - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/whitefish-puerto-rico-utility-contract) > [Small Montana firm lands Puerto Rico’s biggest contract to get the power back on - The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/small-montana-firm-lands-puerto-ricos-biggest-contract-to-get-the-power-back-on/2017/10/23/31cccc3e-b4d6-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.b3fff5f70d32) > > Probably a coincidence. [Start with post #83](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=838705&page=2), eh. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2017, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12782 "2017-10-24T15:33:12Z")
In a roundtable discussion on gun violence, recently departed Trump administration intellectual Sebastian Gorka argued that we should not base legislation on mass shootings, because mass shootings are outliers. The real problem we should be dealing with, according to Gorka, is “black African gun crime against black Africans” in cities like Chicago. Chicago, where those black Africans shoot each other, in Gorka’s words, “by the bushel”. > **[Gorka: ‘Black Africans’ Are Shooting Each Other ‘By The Bushel’ In Chicago](https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gorka-black-africans-shooting-chicago)** > > Former White House adviser and self-proclaimed terrorism expert Sebastian Gorka on Monday said that “black Africans” in Chicago were killing each other “by the bushel.” In a round-table discussion on… ---
**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:** [October 24, 2017, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12783 "2017-10-24T15:35:22Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Whitefish Energy Holdings in Montana is a two-year old company with two full time employees as of about a month ago. Last week, Whitefish proudly announced it had received a $300 million dollar contract to rebuild parts of Puerto Rico’s infrastructure. This is the largest contract to rebuild PR’s infrastructure that has been awarded so far. These kinds of infrastructure projects are more often taken on through “mutual aid” agreements with other utility providers, and it’s unusual for this work to go to private firms. The two guys who run Whitefish Energy Holdings must be some kind of fantastic problem solvers! > > Or, the two guys could be: 1) a friend of Interior Secretary Zinke; and 2) a guy who donated $74K to Trump and $30K to the RNC and whose wife donated $33K to the RNC. > > [$300M Puerto Rico Contract Awarded To Tiny Firm Financed By Big Trump Donors - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/whitefish-puerto-rico-utility-contract) > [Small Montana firm lands Puerto Rico’s biggest contract to get the power back on - The Washington Post](https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/small-montana-firm-lands-puerto-ricos-biggest-contract-to-get-the-power-back-on/2017/10/23/31cccc3e-b4d6-11e7-9e58-e6288544af98_story.html?utm_term=.b3fff5f70d32) > > Probably a coincidence. Are those wage numbers correct? From the Post article: > [@](#): > > Under the contract, the hourly rate was set at $330 for a site supervisor, and at $227.88 for a “journeyman lineman.” The cost for subcontractors, which make up the bulk of Whitefish’s workforce, is $462 per hour for a supervisor and $319.04 for a lineman. Whitefish also charges nightly accommodation fees of $332 per worker and almost $80 per day for food. Anyone know how to become a lineman really quickly? ---
**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:** [October 24, 2017, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/12784 "2017-10-24T15:39:37Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > In a roundtable discussion on gun violence, recently departed Trump administration intellectual Sebastian Gorka argued that we should not base legislation on mass shootings, because mass shootings are outliers. The real problem we should be dealing with, according to Gorka, is “black African gun crime against black Africans” in cities like Chicago. Chicago, where those black Africans shoot each other, in Gorka’s words, “by the bushel”. > > [Gorka: ‘Black Africans’ Are Shooting Each Other ‘By The Bushel’ In Chicago - TPM – Talking Points Memo](http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/gorka-black-africans-shooting-chicago) Wow, how are all those Africans getting to Chicago? Maybe we need a wall. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=638) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=640)