# The Trump Administration: The Clusterfuck Continues (Part 1) **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Tags:** trump\ **Created:** [November 11, 2024, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068 "2024-11-11T06:19:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 104
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2061 "2025-02-17T22:16:51Z")
When all the public schools are defunded, there will be lots of unemployed bus drivers to relieve the pilot shortage. ---
**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:** [February 17, 2025, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2062 "2025-02-17T23:05:26Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Now, weeks after a deadly crash where the tower was understaffed, President Musk and Puppet Trump think the solution is to employ FEWER Air Traffic Controllers. And the same day as ANOTHER serious crash (though not deadly): > **[15 people injured after Delta plane landing at Toronto airport overturns](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/multiple-people-are-injured-delta-jet-incident-toronto-pearson-airport-rcna192508)** > > Video posted on social media showed the plane, which was arriving from Minneapolis, upside down on the runway. Can this one be attributed to FAA firings? I don’t know. But the way the list of crashes is lengthening at least seems to indicate that those in the industry are not finding it possible to keep their minds on what’s necessary to safe travel. > [@Monty](#): > > “[Air Force](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2025/02/07/military.com/air-force) crew members and security forces on deportation flights are not wearing their name tape or unit patches, contributing to a lack of transparency as the service obscures details of its involvement in the border mission from the public.” (Quoted from link.) They may well want to hide their identities, as it appears that the Trump Regime claim that only desperate criminals are being sent on some of those deportation flights–those to Guantanamo–is in question: > [@](#): > > …Despite the impression given by Homeland Security officials and others, these three men were taken into custody after crossing the southern border, according to court records and family members — not during a targeted immigration operation in a U.S. city or at a jail or prison while serving a sentence. > > The Washington Post could not find any violent federal criminal record for Castillo and Gómez… Gift link: [https://wapo.st/3CWXTJU](https://wapo.st/3CWXTJU) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/02/16/trump-guantanamo-migrants-deportations-venezuela/](https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/02/16/trump-guantanamo-migrants-deportations-venezuela/) ---
**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:** [February 17, 2025, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2063 "2025-02-17T23:09:54Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > > [@Sherrerd](#): > > > > Anyone giving odds on the USA being a colony of China by 2035? > > Zero, with all the nuclear weapons it has. It’s much more likely that it will get in a nuclear war with China by then. I wasn’t so much thinking of China acquiring the USA after a war, as of the USA being handed to China as some kind of deal made by Mr. Art of the Deal. You know, after he’s turned us into a hellhole of poverty and disease. 'Cause then China could get a real bargain! > [@Monty](#): > > Can one place be both a colony of one country and a vassal state of a third country at the same time? You might not want to bet against that. I wouldn’t think of it. This is going to be a VERY weak nation in a fairly short amount of time, nukes or not. And the way Donald treats security will make a takeover even easier. ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2025, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2064 "2025-02-17T23:39:37Z")
WWIII began three years ago (with preludes to the taking of Crimea in 2014). It was sanctions and more sanctions that only hurt the Russian people and expats. Like they were supposed to take up arms like in 1917 when they could not even protest legally. Air-dropping butter (lawyers and guns not just yet) would have done far more. If the UK puts “boots on the ground” in Ukraine there will be some shooting unless Trump and Putin are really jonesing for the status-quo ending and Nobel Peace Prize. The USA has never really stood “shoulder to shoulder” with Europe and not one country in Europe can count on the USA as an ally. I’d like to believe even Putin doesn’t quite know what/who he’s dealing with, yet I am scornful of Vance calling Trump “the leader of the free world” which usually (not always) is attributed to the USA as a whole. There are two, maybe three leaders of the world and none of them are in ~~the West~~ Europe proper (ETA: was just trying not to say Moscow is in the “East” as it’s European Russia, so Mar-a-lago, Beijing and Moscow) ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2065 "2025-02-18T00:11:05Z")
My pilot friend did always consider himself a glorified bus driver. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2066 "2025-02-18T00:47:52Z")
For some reason, this reminds me of the line from one of the earliest episodes of _Beverly Hillbllies_. Jed is looking out the window of the plane as it begins its take-off run. He turns to Granny and says, “If the driver’s not careful, this bus is going to fly.” [Here is the CNN article on the Delta crash.](https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/delta-plane-crash-toronto-flips-02-17-25/index.html). It has this nice comment: > - The [National Transportation Safety Board](https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/delta-plane-crash-toronto-flips-02-17-25#cm79lcnd6002a3b6m108ekqrt) is leading a team of investigators in the US to assist the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. When we first got married and my wife joined me here in Beijing, I told her > The two most important words for living here are _for China_. For example: That’s a great restaurant…for China. Another example: that’s an outstanding supermarket…for China. Or even: that’s a decent public restroom…for China. What with _de facto_ President Musk’s and toddler tyrant Trump’s approach to our governent, I think we have to do something similar with any news about the US government today. It occurs to me the words we should use are _what’s left of_. Here’s what that CNN article should have said: > _What’s left of_ the National Transportation Safety Board is leading a team of investigators in the US to assist the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Ellecram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellecram/32/18948_2.png) [@Ellecram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellecram)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2067 "2025-02-18T00:51:25Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > _What’s left of_ the National Transportation Safety Board is leading a team of investigators in the US to assist the Transportation Safety Board of Canada. This is a perfect way to move forward when referencing any of our partially functioning agencies. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2068 "2025-02-18T02:39:54Z")
I’m assuming Musk’s DOGE-bros are getting paid. _Where does the money come from?_ Out of whose budget? Not DOGE…they don’t have a budget (I don’t think…) – they were never created by an act of Congress so there was no appropriation, no money. Or did they get carved out of an existing department? Or is Musk paying them out of his pocket (not betting on this one). ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2069 "2025-02-18T02:42:08Z")
[Europe split over Starmer pledge to send troops to Ukraine](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/europe-split-over-starmer-pledge-to-send-troops-to-ukraine-b2699714.html) The usually pretty-decent Independent has as their video interview link some fat fucker who cheats at golf wearing a MAGA hat. He will put the Peace in “World Peace” Keir is likely waiting till their long-awaited state meeting happens sometime this month before actually sending British troops to Ukraine. Perhaps he’ll be “looking into souls” like Bush W did with Putin 20 years ago. That magic skill of course we know Trump has: “There was no Russian tampering with the election and Vladimir has assured me these are not the droids we are looking for”. I doubt Keir the prosecutor would go lookin’ into souls with Putin and say such bullshit as those two presidents, yet he stands as the first world leader (outside Ukraine) willing to put people of his own country in harms way to fight a war that ought to have been fought three if not eleven years ago. And Trump and Putin will still be the ones up for the Nobel. Looks like Musk already has a lock on MotY with Time Magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2070 "2025-02-18T03:09:03Z")
So, is this the potential ruling that will determine Trump’s ultimate fate? > **[Trump Uses Supreme Court Immunity Ruling to Claim “Unrestricted Power”](https://newrepublic.com/post/191619/trump-supreme-court-immunity-unrestricted-power)** > > Donald Trump says the Supreme Court already gave him the power to purge the federal government. > The White House’s acting solicitor general, Sarah M. Harris, cited the Supreme Court’s July decision giving the president [near-total immunity](https://newrepublic.com/article/183357/supreme-court-turns-president-king) in an appeal Sunday asking the [high court](https://www.jurist.org/news/2025/02/trump-administration-asks-us-supreme-court-to-remove-order-blocking-firing-of-ethics-agency-head/)to overturn a lower court order blocking Trump’s decision to fire the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger. The office is an independent agency whose [mission](https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/16/us/trump-supreme-court-special-counsel.html) is to safeguard whistleblowers in the government and to enforce some ethics laws. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2071 "2025-02-18T03:14:35Z")
> **[Julianne Moore in ‘Great Shock’ After Donald Trump Bans Her Children’s Book...](https://www.yahoo.com/news/julianne-moore-great-shock-donald-191143059.html)** > > The Trump Administration has banned Julianne Moore's 2007 children's book 'Freckleface Strawberry' from schools operated by the Department of Defense. Moore’s book has been banned from DoD schools because it says of a girl who doesn’t like her freckles, ‘Because after all, the things that make you different also make you, YOU.’ ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2072 "2025-02-18T03:17:30Z")
> Witch King of Angmar > “Hinder me? Thou fool. No living man may hinder me!" ---
**Author:** ![Coriolanus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/coriolanus/32/18769_2.png) [@Coriolanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Coriolanus)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2073 "2025-02-18T03:28:28Z")
Did “Freckleface Strawberry” take a stand against any Nazgul Lords? > It seemed that Freckleface laughed, and the clear voice was like the ring of steel. > “But no living man am I! You are looking upon a woman. Freckleface Strawberry am I, Begone, if you be not deathless! For living or dark undead, I will smite you!” > The winged creature screamed at her, but then the Ringwraith was silent, as if in sudden doubt. Apologies to JRR Tolkien, yet it’s so cool that the Lord of the Nazgul was like “Ruh roh!” ---
**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:** [February 18, 2025, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2074 "2025-02-18T05:05:09Z")
[The honeymoon just may be over for one special federal employee.](https://www.aol.com/news/white-house-says-musk-not-031709147.html) (The link goes to _AOL_.) > Billionaire Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration is as a White House employee and senior adviser to the president, and is not an employee of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and has no decision-making authority, the White House said in a court filing on Monday. So that means DOGE is nothing, doesn’t it? > According to a filing signed by Joshua Fisher, director of the Office of Administration at the White House, Musk can only advise the president and communicate the president’s directives. Ah, I get it. Musk is just a messenger boy. Or, I should say, a lap doge. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2025, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2075 "2025-02-18T05:15:10Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Ah, I get it. Musk is just a messenger boy. Or, I should say, a lap doge. - I wonder if we just doged a bullet. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2025, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2076 "2025-02-18T05:16:23Z")
Hopefully we’re counting down the days before Trump declares “I don’t know anything about Elon”. ---
**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:** [February 18, 2025, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2077 "2025-02-18T05:34:47Z")
[And the incompetence is malicious.](https://www.aol.com/lie-federal-workers-incensed-performance-110927157.html) (The link goes to _AOL_.) > Federal employees [reeling from a wave of firings](https://www.yahoo.com/news/fired-federal-workers-cold-cruel-110600101.html) that began last week have focused on language in their termination letters targeting their “performance” as particularly upsetting. > > USA TODAY reviewed 10 termination letters. All but one mentioned performance concerns. > > Fired probationary employees interviewed by USA TODAY all said they were never told of any performance problems. One hadn’t been in the job long enough to have a performance review. Another was fired just a month into her job after relocating from more than 1,700 miles away to take it. And a third employee said his supervisor explicitly told him he wasn’t being terminated for performance reasons. > > The performance language in the letters added insult to injury, the fired employees said, arguing it unfairly impugns their work records. Some worried the language could impact their ability to file for unemployment benefits and find a new job. > > “It’s a lie. It’s simply not true,” said fired U.S. Forest Service worker Gavan Harmon. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2078 "2025-02-18T06:25:44Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > Ah, I get it. Musk is just a messenger boy. Or, I should say, a lap doge. This just seems to be the White House fighting back against the AGs’ lawsuit by saying that Elon can’t be doing anything illegal because he _only_ advises the President and he _only_ does what Mr. Immune tells him to. Therefore, not illegal. The fact that this is in no way what is happening is just a technicality. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2079 "2025-02-18T06:36:45Z")
The difference between de facto and de jure is a distinction not a loop hole. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2025, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068/2080 "2025-02-18T07:07:45Z")
Not so concerned about human trafficking and women when it comes to some people. > [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=103) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-trump-administration-the-clusterfuck-continues-part-1/1010068.md?page=105)