# 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:** 903
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18045 "2018-03-17T06:04:21Z")
[Nothing like closing the barn door after the horse has been found in St. Petersburg](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-cambridge-analytica/facebook-suspends-data-analytics-firm-that-worked-for-trump-campaign-idUSKCN1GT02Y). (Reuters) > [@](#): > > Facebook Inc on Friday said it was suspending political data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica, which worked for President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign, after finding data privacy policies had been violated. > > Facebook said in a statement that it suspended Cambridge Analytica and its parent group Strategic Communication Laboratories (SCL) after receiving reports that they did not delete information about Facebook users that had been inappropriately shared. Maybe it will help a little for 2018, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18046 "2018-03-17T06:53:42Z")
I’d like to see the IG’s report before I get too weepy for McCabe and his pension (which in any case will be outstripped by the book deal he probably just signed). Some bad stuff happened at the FBI in 2016. Not everyone who is cast aside by this administration needs to become a hero of the #resistance. That said, I don’t trust that anybody in this administration is actually doing any of this in good faith. Comey deserved to face consequences too, but obviously that’s not why he was fired. ---
**Author:** ![furt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/439d5e/32.png) [@furt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furt)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18047 "2018-03-17T07:27:20Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I wonder what the response will be from the rank-and-file agents. Considering there has to be clear evidence of serious misconduct for the career people at OPR to recommend a firing, I’d assume they find it sad to see a guy flush away his career like that. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18048 "2018-03-17T10:12:50Z")
> [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > Your faith is not judged by your works, but by your belief in your creator. From memory: “Of hope, faith and charity, eventually only charity remains.” ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18049 "2018-03-17T10:26:04Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > There was no need to fire McCabe, and had Trump & Sessions not authorized the firing of Comey, we wouldn’t even know who the hell he is. The FBI just accused Russia of wrongdoing. _Someone_ had to pay the price. ---
**Author:** ![OttoDaFe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ottodafe/32/356_2.png) [@OttoDaFe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OttoDaFe)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18050 "2018-03-17T12:50:30Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > > [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](#): > > > > Your faith is not judged by your works, but by your belief in your creator. > > From memory: “Of hope, faith and charity, eventually only charity remains.” [St Paul to the Corinthians, Chapter 13](http://biblehub.com/kjv/1_corinthians/13.htm). Or as we were taught at St Patrick’s in the 1950s (hardly a time of hippy-dippy liberalism in the RCC): “Charity is how faith makes itself known.” ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18051 "2018-03-17T13:20:51Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > I’d like to see the IG’s report before I get too weepy for McCabe and his pension (which in any case will be outstripped by the book deal he probably just signed). Some bad stuff happened at the FBI in 2016. Not everyone who is cast aside by this administration needs to become a hero of the #resistance. > > That said, I don’t trust that anybody in this administration is actually doing any of this in good faith. Comey deserved to face consequences too, but obviously that’s not why he was fired. Comey and McCabe probably did violate specific rules and procedures, but that should not really be the focus of the discussion, in my view, not when the agency and the DoJ in general have been repeatedly subjected to unwarranted political pressures to further a right wing agenda. I don’t think any of us are so naive as to believe that individual agents don’t have their own personal biases or that there isn’t even wider bias within offices, depending on the region and the individual personalities involved. But the Republican party decided to use a bureaucratic agency that was supposed to be neutral and politicize the bureaucracy for political gain. In doing so they placed individuals like Comey and McCabe in no-win positions, forcing them to make decisions that were going to be interpreted as politically motivated, regardless of whatever they decided to do. Infractions that would and should have otherwise been dealt with internally become publicized, forcing the people charged with cleaning up the mess afterward to also make decisions that are going to have the scent of politicization. McCabe should have been forced to retire but firing him and cutting him of his benefits was Trump’s and the Right’s way of sending a message to everyone else in the entire federal bureaucracy: loyalty, or else. That, and nothing else, should be the focus of discussion here, because if a democratic society shrugs and allows this type of executive conduct to continue, it won’t be a democracy much longer. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18052 "2018-03-17T13:29:25Z")
> [@k9bfriender](#): > > I agree it is a small minority, which is why in that thread I tell them that they should form their own party that they can support, rather than demand that the democratic party capitulate to their demands. They seem to think that they have more influence, and are saying that unless they are given everything they want, then they won’t turn out in 2020, and trump will be re-elected, and it will be the dems fault. Speaking as a libertarian and former\* Libertarian party activist, that route is a long, hard road with little reward. Both Democrat and Republican dominated legislatures, depending on the state, put forth as many hurdles as they can to keep alternative parties off of the ballot then when hauled into court about it come up with the most specious arguments I’ve seen until the current administration. [COFOE](http://www.cofoe.org/home.html), the Coalition for Free and Open Elections, researches these inequities and constantly brings lawsuits when it can, as do the parties in question. [Ballot Access News](http://ballot-access.org/) records these efforts. There was a reason David Duke and Lyndon LaRouche ran for president in the Democratic party primaries; it wasn’t because they upheld the party’s platform. \*I stopped after getting tired of fighting other libertarians more than I was fighting the state. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18053 "2018-03-17T14:01:08Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Could law enforcement be yet another voting bloc turned away from the Republican Party by the douchebaggery of Trump? I mean, Trump (and the Pubs after him) seem to really be attacking law enforcement these days-- both the FBI and LEOs. Depends how it plays out. Politics has never been more involved in areas it should never be. I believe it’s been established that FBI et al, LEOs and Military are mostly towards the conservative side of center. My _personal_ estimation from far left, leans left, center, leans right, far right is 0%, 10%, 10%, 70%, 10%. If the center right wakes up to the TRUMP! debacle, I have hope, if they continue in thrall to the growing authoritarianism, very little. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18054 "2018-03-17T14:03:23Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > There was a reason David Duke and Lyndon LaRouche ran for president in the Democratic party primaries; it wasn’t because they upheld the party’s platform. Indeed, there is a reason they ran in the Democratic primaries, and there is a reason they lost. A two-party system gives voters a choice, but it does a better job of removing fringe choices that are potentially destructive. We’re probably better for it. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18055 "2018-03-17T14:10:25Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I wonder what the response will be from the rank-and-file agents. I can’t imagine that seeing a guy work his way up in the Bureau for 20+ years, only to be fired as a result of a personal/political vendetta two days before his retirement, potentially losing the pension he earned, will go over too well. > > Could law enforcement be yet another voting bloc turned away from the Republican Party by the douchebaggery of Trump? I mean, Trump (and the Pubs after him) seem to really be attacking law enforcement these days-- both the FBI and LEOs. I’d like to believe that, but self-interest has a way of usurping principle. People with jobs usually like to keep those jobs, and others might even be interested in a promotion. They may not like the way Trump bashes the DoJ but what happens is that those who want their jobs simply shut up and keep their heads down; those who can’t stand it simply walk out. Over time, it bends to the will of the people doing the bending. A few more years of this and we’re going to have law enforcement agencies, from the Bureau to the DEA to your local police department, that are reminiscent of Frank Rizzo’s police and Hoover’s FBI. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18056 "2018-03-17T14:36:58Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > A few more years of this and we’re going to have law enforcement agencies, from the Bureau to the DEA to your local police department, that are reminiscent of Frank Rizzo’s police and Hoover’s FBI. Those paragons may be gone but we still have Sheriff Joe & JulieAnnie among the living, though to look at them maybe that’s a little hard to believe. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18057 "2018-03-17T14:51:34Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > Oh well, a large flock of chickens appear to be coming to roost around Trump; I’m beginning to wonder which is going to get him to first, the Mueller investigation or Stormygate. [“Now take them big birds, Barney. Never eat a thing…just sit and stare…”](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/c9/a6/aa/c9a6aa4ac41f6d7573eb399e35f8a6fc--hungry-humor-gary-larson-cartoons.jpg) ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18058 "2018-03-17T15:07:09Z")
> [@asahi](#): > > What makes us assume that this same kind of political tainting can’t occur at the DoJ, the FBI, or even the United States military? Folks, right now, we have a code red constitutional crisis, and if you deny it by labeling me a “chicken little”…you are a large part of the problem. I do think that we are not looking at the end of civilization, nor even the end of democracy. There are a number of checks to prevent that. However, one of those checks is indeed voter vigilance. We do have a potential crisis brewing, and it is up to us, as voters, to prevent it. It’s not something that is going to be done for us from those on high above. To say, “Democracy is collapsing, and civilization is at an end.” is a bit chichen littlish. But to say, “Democracy is in danger, and we must be vigilant to protect it.” is absolutely appropriate. Unfortunately, when those on the right hear the latter, they accuse of saying the former. Some because they are too stupid to actually understand the difference, but many do, they are just trolls who think that everyone else is too stupid to understand the difference. > [@SteveG1](#): > > No, it will be THEIR fault. Screw that bullshit. If it does come to pass that the far left wing manages to get trump re-elected, then yes, absolutely. I don’t think that there are enough purity idiots out there that will put their ideals over the reality of the suffering that will be caused by furthering and validating the policies of this administration to make that happen, but if turns out to be the case, yeah, screw them. > [@MacCat](#): > > Those paragons may be gone but we still have Sheriff Joe & JulieAnnie among the living, though to look at them maybe that’s a little hard to believe. We have up and coming wanna be [fascist law enforcement heads](https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2018/01/06/sheriff-rick-jones-making-greater-cincinnatis-mini-trump/947844001/) aplenty. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18059 "2018-03-17T15:38:48Z")
Ex-CIA chief John Brennan responds on Twitter to Trump celebrating McCabe’s firing. @JohnBrennan “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you.” Go John! ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18060 "2018-03-17T15:44:01Z")
> [@AnalogSignal](#): > > @JohnBrennan “When the full extent of your venality, moral turpitude, and political corruption becomes known, you will take your rightful place as a disgraced demagogue in the dustbin of history. You may scapegoat Andy McCabe, but you will not destroy America…America will triumph over you.” > > Go John! Amen! And thank you General McCaffery… > [@](#): > > A retired four-star Army general said that he believes that President Trump is a “serious threat to US national security.” [http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/378884-retired-four-star-army-general-trump-serious-threat-to-us](http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/378884-retired-four-star-army-general-trump-serious-threat-to-us) ---
**Author:** ![BigAppleBucky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigapplebucky/32/178_2.png) [@BigAppleBucky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigAppleBucky)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18061 "2018-03-17T15:53:44Z")
> [@Ann\_Hedonia](#): > > I don’t think that’s really true except for a vocal minority. > > Anedoctal, but my kid never had any interest in politics or national policy which always frustrated me. Then Bernie came along and he became a big ol’ Bernie supporter. > > Then Bernie took the loss that eliminated him and clinched Clinton’s nomination. I realized it at about 11 that night, and I was thinking that I’d have to have a talk with the kid in the morning to keep him engaged. > > But about 30 minutes later he put up a thoughtful social media post under the #imwithher hashtag about how he was disappointed but listing the reasons everyone needed to get behind Clinton now. And he became a Hillary supporter. > > So not all Bernie supporters were assholes. Lots of older folks on my local Democratic Committee were Bernie supporters and we all supported Hillary in the general. I posted on the Straight Dope Elections board that former Bernie folks needed to vote for Hillary to prevent the disaster of Trump. ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2018, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18062 "2018-03-17T17:17:36Z")
I was driving around listening to CNN. McCabe is fighting back. Trump bullied him on a regular basis calling his wife a loser. McCabe documented this in memos similar to Comey. McCabe thinks he could be a witness in Mueller’s Russia investigation and Trump wanted him publically discredited. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18063 "2018-03-17T18:20:16Z")
The firing may have cost McCabe $1.8 million, but it likely added a zero to the end of his eventual book/media contract, so he’ll be fine. ---
**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:** [March 17, 2018, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070/18064 "2018-03-17T20:53:01Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > I’d like to see the IG’s report before I get too weepy for McCabe and his pension (which in any case will be outstripped by the book deal he probably just signed). Some bad stuff happened at the FBI in 2016. Not everyone who is cast aside by this administration needs to become a hero of the #resistance. > > That said, I don’t trust that anybody in this administration is actually doing any of this in good faith. Comey deserved to face consequences too, but obviously that’s not why he was fired. Regardless of the merits of allegations against McCabe, the timing of this firing violates agency policies regarding due process: > [@](#): > > Several former federal law enforcement officials questioned the timing of McCabe’s firing, as the president’s lawyer seized on it to call for the shutting down of Mueller’s probe. … The inspector general has not yet released a report detailing the allegations against McCabe, though they have been generally described by people familiar with the matter. … > **[McCabe is said to have written memos detailing his interactions with Trump](https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fired-fbi-official-andrew-mccabe-kept-memos-of-his-interactions-with-trump-a-person-familiar-with-the-case-says/2018/03/17/8ef5bb0e-2a07-11e8-bc72-077aa4dab9ef_story.html?utm_term=.561a5c9654cc)** > > The president asked the FBI’s then-No. 2 official whom he had voted for in the 2016 election. The allegations against McCabe have been known for months. The timing of the firing–26 hours before the pension would have been secure-- was intended (as others have noted) to send a message to other officials that any perceived disloyalty to Trump will be punished harshly. It thus moves further in the authoritarian direction of making the nation’s Justice Department and intelligence and law-enforcement agencies into personal tools of a capricious President. A position of ‘wait and see if McCabe really did anything wrong’ really isn’t what’s relevant, here. What’s at issue is the politicization of government bodies that were never intended to be the personal servants of any President. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=902) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-a-clusterfuck-in-the-making/774070.md?page=904)