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* ''[[One Piece]]'' has the "Fake Straw Hat Pirates" based in Sabaody Archipelago after the time-skip. Since Monkey D. Luffy has attained even more infamy than ever before due to his part in the War at the Summit, One guy going by the name "Three Tongued" Demalo Black got the bright idea of posing as him and setting up a crew to pose as the Straw Hat Pirates, usually getting his way by relying on Luffy's fame to threaten people and recruit fearsome pirates into his crew. Unfortunately, round out the time they were recruiting the ''real'' Straw Hats came back, and it got steadily worse when they try to recruit a pair of [[Ax Crazy]] pirate captains who intend to kill the Straw Hats for more fame, and the Marines show up with [[Mecha-Mooks|Pacifistas]], with a Marine Captain personally knocking out Demalo Black with his axe [[Too Dumb to Live|for trying to talk smack to him, while pretending to be Luffy]].
* Almost happens in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]''. The cast are discussing ways to retrieve Asuna and the Great Grandmaster Key from the Big Bads, and get the idea to use Natsumi's artifact (which makes the enemy completely unable to sense your presence) to get close for an ambush. Unfortunately {{spoiler|The [[Anti-Magic]] field coming from Asuna would make that plan useless.}} They almost go with the plan until Ako realizes the flaw. Cue Yue coming up with a workable solution, and a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] for everyone involved.
* From ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' In the episode where Casey (a trainer who ''loves'' yellow-colored Pokemon) first appears, she finds Pikachu adorable and tells him to give her a big shock. She quickly discovers that was a bad idea.
== Comic Books ==
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* ''[[Batman]]'' villain Warren "Great White Shark" White successfully pled insanity to escape embezzlement charges. He was sent to Arkham and wound up at the mercy of Gotham's worst psychopaths. Oops.
* The Human Torch (not Johnny Storm, [[The Golden Age of Comic Books| the original one]]) once fought a villain called Asbestos Lady, who figured the best way to fight a fire-based hero was by using an asbestos costume. Know how she died? From cancer. Go figure.
* In a ''[[Spider-Man|Spider-Man Tangled Webs]]'' story, Carl King was an incredibly sadistic bully who tortured the young Peter Parker. When Carl realized Peter was in fact Spider-Man and figured out how Peter had gained his powers, he decided to break into the lab where the original experiment had occurred - before realizing he had absolutely no idea how to use the equipment. So he decided to steal the corpse of the original spider (which had been kept for study) and eat it. [[Gone Horribly Wrong|It went horribly wrong]] turning him into [[The Worm That Walks|a swarm of sapient spiders]], an experience that turned Carl into a true monster and drove him insane.
* Similar to Carl King, was Madman, one of [[The Incredible Hulk]]'s foes. Now, both Banner ''and'' the Hulk himself would (and has) tell anyone who actually ''wanted'' to be like him that he is a lunatic, but that is exactly what Phil Sterns (a former college classmate of Bruce Banner and brother of the Hulk's enemy [[Evil Genius|the Leader]]) wanted. He purposely exposed himself to gamma radiation, but while this did indeed grant him incredible strength and regenerative powers, it turned him into a hideous monstrosity (worse on the [[Body Horror]] scale than the Abomination, another of the Hulk's enemies) and drove him batshit insane. Even his brother disowned him.
== Film ==
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'''Carmen:''' And that you've done. Now what?
'''Dusty:''' Well, we really didn't expect the first part of the plan to work, [[Indy Ploy|so we have no further plan]]. Sometimes you can overplan these things. }}
* Hermione says this very thing to Harry in
* In ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'', [[Evil Chancellor|Jafar]] is defeated when Aladdin tricks him into wishing to become an all-powerful genie. Jafar either forgot or was not aware that genies in this setting are bound to a magic lamp and obliged to grant wishes ''by nature''.
{{quote|'''Genie:''' It's all part and parcel of the whole Genie gig. [[Large Ham|PHENOMENAL COSMIC POWER!]] ...Itty-bitty living space.}}
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* Done ''hilariously'' in ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]] [[The Movie]]'' with Crow's escape plan:
{{quote|'''Crow:''' ''[as he causes the ship to suffer the wrath of space vacuum.]'' Oh, wow, this ''is'' confusing! Hey, Mike! Can you hand me my calculations? ''[paper flies into his mouth]'' Thank you! Oh, well, look at that: "Breach hull, all die!" Even had it underlined!}}
** Then lampshaded with his
{{quote|'''Crow:''' Well, believe me, Mike, I calculated the odds of this succeeding against the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid and... I went ahead anyway.}}
* In ''[[The Rundown]]'', the sidekick's "Thunder and Lightning" attack never works. He becomes dumbfounded when it does work and needs a moment to think up the next stage of the attack.
* In ''[[The Avengers]]'': "Okay, we've got its attention... what was step two?"
* In ''[[Waterworld]]'', the villains' [[Evil Plan]] involves kidnapping a young child whose back is tattooed with some sort of runes that pinpoint the location of the last area of dry land in the world. They eventually succeed in grabbing her, only to find that, of the few of them who can even read, none of them has even the slightest idea how to decipher these runes.
* In ''[[Monsters, Inc.]]'' prequel ''[[Monster University]]'' the Python Nu Kappa scare every single picture they find in the Scare Maze. Why did that backfire on them? Because according to the rules of the Scare Maze, they're only supposed to scare young children. If you scare enough teenagers, you'll be boxed in and will inevitably be eliminated from the Scare Games. This is ''exactly'' what happens to the sorority, who should have been more careful about who they scared.
* In ''[[Jab We Met]]'', Geet's eloping "plan" basically consisted on presenting herself at her boyfriend's family house and introducing herself as his fiancé, fully expecting that he will back up her, and, once the ceremony is done, introduce him to her family who in her mind will be so happy seeing her married that they will overlook a son-in-law from a different religion. That, without even having talked to her boyfriend about her intentions to elope with him. Note that she reveals the latter part when she is dropped at her boyfriend's door to Adithya, the man that helped her escape from her family house (and an [[Arranged Marriage]]) in such a way that ensured that she would be perceived as dishonored if she even came back. Naturally, Geet's boyfriend rejects her and her whole plans fall apart.
== [[Literature]] ==
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* In ''[[Monster Hunter International]] Siege'' a lawyer (who is a [[Contest Winner Cameo]]) steals an important file from under the protagonist's noses and, thinking they work for the mafia, tries to blackmail them for it. His attempt is the worst blackmail possible. He sets up a meeting in person ''in front of his work place'' so the people supposedly being blackmailed just need to look at his employer's website to find his real name and share his face with their comrades. He sets up this meeting in a seedy bar downtown... while still looking like a successful lawyer and standing out to a crazy degree. Despite having seen how blatantly huge Owen Pitt, one of the people he attempts to blackmail, is and believing they work for the mafia, is totally unprepared for the possibility of physical threat. When a third party enters and threatens him, he ''still'' hasn't learned his lesson and starts from the top. When the protagonists effortlessly dispatch the third party with firearms and tell him they were a zombie and some necromancers, he '''still''' tries to go through with the blackmail before finally admitting he kept the file on his person. Owen Pitt dubs him the "worst blackmailer ever".
== Live
* An episode of ''[[Blake's 7]]'' [[Played for Laughs|plays this for laughs]] with its [[Justified Trope|justification]]: when Vila asks Tarrant if he can actually dock their tiny ship into the [[Cool Ship|Liberator]] that they have just reclaimed from [[Big Bad|Servalan]], the following exchange occurs. (Incidentally, it's just a throwaway gag, since the very next scene has them already back on the Liberator safely.)
{{quote|'''Tarrant:''' I hadn't really considered it.
'''Vila:''' What?
'''Tarrant:''' I thought we'd be dead by now. }}
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'',
*
** In "Innocence", there was Enyos, a member of the Kalderash clan whom Angel (in his darker personality of Angelus) had once terrorized, and who had placed the curse upon Angelus that had returned his soul. [[Well-Intentioned Extremist|A fierce conservative at heart]] and obsessed with his clan’s traditions, [[Knight Templar|Enyos refused to consider giving Angel any clemency at all]], and [[At Least I Admit It|blatantly admitted he sought revenge over justice]]. Thus, he tried to deny Angel any sort of happiness whatsoever, a plan that hit a snag when Buffy fell in love with him. When this caused the curse to be broken - meaning Angel lost his soul again causing Angelus to return - Enyos saw this as a positive development, as Buffy would be forced to turn against him and kill him, a far better solution in his eyes than replacing the curse (something Willow proved possible later) not caring in the least how many innocent lives Angelus and the Judge would claim. The one thing he never considered, it seemed, was Angelus coming after him to enact vengeance of his own - which is exactly what happened.
* In a ''[[Saved by the Bell]]'' episode, Zack has detention on the day of a trivia contest for a trip to Hawaii. He send's Screech in his place, who comes back to ask him a question. Mr. Belding explains only those in detention can talk to others there, so Screech purposely gets in trouble. When he sits down, Zack tells him the obvious problem with that plan.
* On an episode of ''[[Seinfeld]]'' Kramer is at a department store when he decides to sell the clothes he's wearing to another customer. When he's left naked in the store's changing room with nothing to put on, he whimpers, "I didn't think it through!"
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* In the ''[[Doctor Who]]'' double episode "Aliens of London"/"World War Three", Slitheens get into Downing Square 10, and chase (the Ninth) Doctor, Rose and Harriet Jones. The Doctor activates a defence mechanism that means there is 5cm of thick metal between them and the Slitheens - or any way of escape. "There's no way they can get through." "And how are ''we'' going to get ''out''?" ... "Oh."
* In ''[[The Walking Dead (TV series)|The Walking Dead]]'' Season 5 Episode 14 "Spend", Glenn, Noah, and Nick are being chased by a horde of zombies. Unfortunately for them, Nicholas enters the revolving door FROM a different side than Noah and Glenn, so they can't push their way to safety without making him zombie food. Fortunately for Glenn, he gets the bright idea of breaking the glass so that they can crawl to safety that way. Unfortunately for Noah, Nicholas decides to be a [[Dirty Coward]] and this gets the poor black boy killed.
* [[Geraldo Rivera]]'s infamous - and iconic - 1988 broadcast, the one that resulted in an on-set brawl with Geraldo himself suffering a broken nose. Exactly why anyone thought it was a good idea to put white supremacists, anti-racist skinheads, black activists, and Jewish activists in the same room - let alone thinking they could have a civilized discussion - was anyone's guess. Indeed, if a comedian does a routine where he or she mocks "Trash TV", this episode [[Obligatory Joke| is almost certain to be referenced]], at least.
** Although, for Geraldo's credit, he may have inadvertently started a trend, as shows like ''[[The Jerry Springer Show]]'', ''[[Inside Edition]]'', ''[[Jenny Jones]]'', and ''[[Ricki Lake]]'' quickly followed suit. Whether this is a good or bad thing depends on your view of such programs.
== Music ==
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* [http://www.dilbert.com/2011-10-22/ This] ''[[Dilbert]]'' strip.
* In the ''[[Garfield]]'' strip [https://www.gocomics.com/garfield-classics/2020/02/22 seen here], Jon decides that it would be easier to let Garfield serve himself than make his breakfast every day. Garfield proceeds to eat the whole bag of cat food and becomes twice as fat as usual. "Maybe that wasn't such a good idea," says Jon.
** Most fans would have responded, "Oh, gee, Jon, YA THINK?"
* ''[[Peanuts]]''
** In one strip, Charlie Brown gets ''so'' mad when the Kite-Eating Tree grabs his kite that he shouts, "If you don't let go of that kite, I'll kick you in the stomach!" Then he ''does'', and quickly finds out, [[Agony of the Feet|"These Kite-Eating trees have hard stomachs..."]]
** In another, Lucy is wondering if she'd be more popular if she had a different name, and is wondering what a better name might be. Linus cheekily suggests "Supermouth". Lucy naturally slugs him, and Linus moans to himself, "I've got to stop this business of talking without thinking..."
** Something similar happens in a week-long arc where Lucy falls while rollerskating and hurts her knees badly, putting her in a foul mood:
{{quote|'''Linus:''' Knees still hurt, huh? What I don't understand is why girls go rollerskating on cement sidewalks with bare knees.
''(Beat panel as Lucy slugs him a good one.)''
'''Linus:''' Another thing I don't understand is why I ask things like that...}}
* In a ''[[Zits]]'' strip, Jeremy's parents buy a "teen tracker" app, forgetting, apparently, that they don't know jack about how to use apps, and have to ask Jeremy to activate it.
* In ''[[FoxTrot]]'', most of Jason's attempts to prank, troll, or annoy Paige turn out like this, starting with [https://www.gocomics.com/foxtrot/1988/04/19 a strip in the second week of the comic], no less. Jason never seems to figure out that his older sister [[Bullying a Dragon|is much stronger than he is]] and has a rotten temper.
== Video Games ==
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== Web Comics ==
* An early strip of ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' starts off with Riff and Torg talking about how Zoe has a date with this guy she has a huge crush on. Riff then mentions that he is going to visit his ex-girlfriend Gwynn at her apartment, which she shares with Zoe. Torg is surprised that Riff going to see her alone like that. Riff insists that they're not alone, that Zoe will be there...at which point he realizes that even though he was aware of both of these pieces of information he only just now realized that they were related.
* ''[[El Goonish Shive]]'',
** Referenced
{{quote|'''Female Immortal:''' I hate being invisible and intangible; it feels like cheating.
'''Male Immortal:''' We can't exactly claim to be "everyday students" and expect to pass unnoticed in Elliot's house.
'''Female Immortal:''' We could pretend to be burglars! That would make sense, right?
'''Male Immortal:''' ... I don't think you've thought this through... }}
{{quote|'''{{spoiler|Raven}}''': ''Every'' properly trained wizard [[Never Live It Down|has heard of]] Abraham, the ''[[Sorcerer's Apprentice Plot|idiot apprentice]]'' who ''recklessly enchanted'' a massive ''diamond'' instead of ''selling it'' to pay someone more ''skilled'' to fix his cursed noble friend.}}
* Webcomic/webgame ''[[Wicked Awesome Adventure]]'' points out how often this befalls adventurers in the course of escape and exploration.
** J.E.T. enlists the help of a wounded and unwilling Candimp to disarm a trap.
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'''Zuko:''' Maybe not everything, but this is kind of important. }}
* The [[Bugs Bunny]] cartoon ''Jack Wabbit And The Beanstalk'' has Bugs challenging the giant to a duel. "Take twenty paces, toin, and fire. Got that, shorty?" As the giant takes his paces, he disappears into the horizon and Bugs thinks he's outsmarted the giant. But then the giant reappears over the other horizon—the twenty paces were enough to circumnavigate all the way back.
* From the "Dog Of Death" episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
{{quote|'''Homer:''' I've figured out an alternative to giving up my beer. Basically, we become a family of traveling acrobats!
'''Marge:''' ... I don't think you thought this through. }}
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* In an episode of ''[[Rugrats]]'' the babies imagine shrinking down and traveling into Chuckie's stomach to take out a watermelon seed he accidentally swallowed. Angelica however reveals her intention to actually water the seed so it grows and causes Chuckie to explode. She succeeds and gloats evilly, until Tommy points out it's going to explode ''[[Oh Crap|with her inside it]]''.
* In the ''[[Thundercats 2011|ThunderCats (2011)]]'' episode "The Forest of Magi Oar," the young hero Lion-O begins to recognize and [[Lampshade Hanging]] his own lack of forethought. When he uses his gauntlet's [[Grappling Hook Pistol]] to latch onto a retreating [[Giant Flyer]] Viragor, Lion-O has just enough time to realize "[[Oh Crap|maybe this is a bad idea]]" before he gets violently dragged along for the ride. Shortly thereafter, he faces down the charging [[Big Badass Bird of Prey]] after [[Sheathe Your Sword|tossing his weapons aside]]. Again, he muses, "[[This Is Gonna Suck|probably another bad idea]]," seconds before it grabs him in its talons. The latter gamble does manage to [[Subverted Trope|pay off]], since, on a hunch {{spoiler|Lion-O is betting Viragor proves [[Dark Is Not Evil]]}}.
* In an episode of ''[[Filmation's Ghostbusters]]'', the heroes confront the werewolf Fangster and a mob of other werewolves created from stray dogs. Tracy's solution to dealing with him involves a collapsible cage pulled from his ghost-pack, but Fangster isn't impressed, sarcastically asking how they intend to get him in there. Indeed, this idea fails to work and they have to fall back and think of something else.
* In ''[[G.I. Joe|G.I. Joe: a Real American Hero]]'', a lot of Cobra's plans fit this Trope, but the creation of Serpentor was the worst. None of them (except, ironically, Cobra Commander, the [[Only Sane Man]] among the villains in that arc) stopped to think that maybe splicing the genetic material of [[Attila the Hun|barbarians]], [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler despots], [[Rasputin|madmen]], and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takshaka literal monsters] might not create the military genius they had hoped for. Serpentor ended being a [[Royal Brat]], and fandom breathed a sigh of relief when the DIC series had Cobra Commander dealt him a humiliating defeat and reassumed leadership of the organization.
== Real Life ==
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* And yet another: Despite already knowing that Australia is the driest continent in the world (seriously, check out the sheer amount of ''desert'' there is), no government there had a sufficient water-saving plan aside from the restrictions. This came back to bite them in the arse when the country was engulfed in an extreme drought, the likes of which had not been seen for the past several centuries. Of course, now they have the exact ''opposite'' problem...
* The [[wikipedia:Lake Peigneur#Disaster|Lake Peigneur disaster]] was caused by someone drilling for oil through a lake into a salt mine. Admittedly, they knew not to drill through the salt mine and just messed up when they were figuring out where to drill, but still.
* A lot of video games have been banned for controversy, but few will actually get you ''arrested'' for owning, and ''The Guy Game'' is this due to lack of foresight by the developers. Here's how it was made: the developers, Topheavy Studios (obviously a proxy) went to the South Padre Isle Spring Break Festival, and pretending to be a TV game show, interviewed a bunch of buxom, fun-loving - and possibly drunk - young women, asking trivia questions; if said girl got it wrong, she'd have to take her top off. They figured this could use this footage to produce an M-rated version of ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]'' and market it to horny male teenagers. Problem was, they never bothered to ask the age of the "contestants", and one was under 18, making the game technically child porn (this is why pornographic film studios have gone through lengths to make sure that the actors they hired are of legal age and have consented to being in a porn production following the Traci Lords scandal of the 80s). The game was recalled, and a lawsuit later put Topheavy Studios out of business. Ironically, IGN reviewed it, and based on gameplay alone, gave it a 7.5 rating, describing it as "solid, simple, and fun", if lacking in replay value.
* During [[WW 2]], the Russians [[Action Bomb|strapped explosives to dogs]] trained to run at tanks. Once the tank ran over the dog, the pressure-activated explosives would total the tank. The only problem? They trained the dogs using Russian tanks made to look like German ones. But Russian tanks used diesel engines; German tank engines used petrol. When in doubt, they went with what ''smelled'' familiar. [[Hoist by His Own Petard|Hoist by their own petard]] indeed.
** [[The Dog Bites Back]]. Though this is RUSSIA in [[WW 2]], the only reason they weren't using human suicide bombers was because dogs are quicker and smaller.
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** Biggest example: The Chernobyl Disaster. It was one of many things that lead to [[The Great Politics Mess-Up]].
** The resultant policy of Glasnost the Soviet Union enacted after the disaster is another example, but in the reverse. Turns out, when you can't even feed your own people, enacting a policy of total transparency with the press is not such a good idea after all.
* [
* [[w:Operation Gideon (2020)|Operation Gideon]] was an attempted coup of Venezuela that got a little further, but ended in a disaster; none of them considered that 60 "mercenaries" didn't stand much chance against the 180,000 soldiers in the Venezuelan army; more than likely, they were tempted by the $212 million bounty placed on the heads of Nicolás Maduro and other Venezuelan government officials head by opposition leader Jordan Goudreau, who was likely at least [[The Man Behind The Man| partially orchestrating the attack]]. It would almost be funny had eight of the conspirators not been killed in the attempt.
* The Mongol Invasion of Japan. Kublai Khan was in such a rush that he ordered the Chinese boat builders to make a huge fleet (a fleet second only to the invasion fleet that launched the Invasion of Normandy) within a single year. The Chinese laborers had to supplement the sea-worthy boats with river boats that had no keel, and thus were unworthy for sea travel. Bad enough when you are crossing an ocean, even worse when that ocean is prone to violent storms and typhoons. The now-famous ''kamikaze'' lead to the single greatest loss of life in a disaster at sea in recorded history, with many of the over 3,000 ships sinking with most of their crew.
* [[Guy Fawkes]] (or rather, the mask modeled after him) is often regarded as a symbol of those who would fight “the system” and defy [[The Man]], which is odd, because the [[Gunpowder Plot]], the act of terrorism he is associated with, is one of the most incompetent in history. The year was 1605, and Britain had been ruled by Protestants for nearly a century, making life increasingly difficult for the English Catholic holdouts, and because the Catholic-dominated Spain was considered an enemy, and the Vatican excommunicating the British royalty, [[Guilt By Association| English Catholics were considered enemies of the state]]. So Guy Fawkes and his eleven (known) accomplices figured they’d use the newest (at the time) weapon of mass destruction, gunpowder, to get rid of Parliament in one swift, dramatic stroke. Their plan was as follows: They’d rent an apartment next to the Parliament building, stock it with ''lots'' of gunpowder (36 barrels, precisely), and use it to destroy said Parliament building - with Parliament inside it - on their State Opening of November 5th. This would be a prelude to starting a full civilian revolution in the countryside, where they’d capture the King’s Catholic daughter, use her as a puppet queen, and finally, get the Pope to support their new Catholic government. All this, of course, depended on everyone accepting a group of mass-murderers and terrorists as legitimate rulers, something that was, in hindsight, a weak part of their plan. Still, it never got that far. First of all, Fawkes rented the apartment [[Mr. Smith| under the name “John Johnson”]], and even in 1605, using such a pseudonym was one of [[The Oldest Ones in the Book]]. Another problem was that at least a few of the conspirators had friends in Parliament, and despite strict orders from Fawkes not to tell anyone, one of them (it was never revealed who) sent an anonymous letter to warn one of their friends. End result, someone gave the letter to the Chamberlain, who forwarded it to the King, who quickly ordered an emergency search of the whole area. Fawkes was caught red-handed guarding 36 barrels of gunpowder and a pile of firewood in an otherwise-empty apartment, and the constabulary quickly discerned his pseudonym was a fake one. He was tortured into revealing the names of his accomplices (who weren’t having much luck at all convincing people to join their revolt) they were captured and hanged. Worst of all, for the next century, treatment of Catholics in Britain became even worse. They weren’t even allowed to vote until 1829. Seriously, [[Nice Job Fixing It, Villain| Nice Job Breaking it, Fawkes!]]
* Many of [[Donald Trump]]'s detractors have stated that simply thinking a few minutes before hitting the "Send" button on Twitter might have solved a lot of his problems.
** The most notable example was the [[w:2021 storming of the United States Capitol|January 6, 2021 Capitol Building riot]], which he at least partially encouraged. Breaking and entering the seat of the United States government (something that did not happen even during the [[American Civil War]]) and assaulting police is ''not'' the right way to convince everyone that the opposing candidate "stole" the election. The blatant act of terrorism caused Trump to lose much of his already waning support, and also caused the press to refer to him with words like "fascist", "traitor", and "Nazi", which they had, up to then, tried hard to avoid doing. Whatever the case, it was obvious to everyone [[Captain Obvious| it did not improve his political career or reputation]], likely ruining it and that of many others.
*** The actual participants take this trope into the [[Stupid Crooks]] territory, taking selfies of themselves while trespassing, and posting them online, where they were easily identified as hate group leaders; one such member actually sobbed in an online post because doing so had put him on the No Fly list after being labeled a terrorist. One of them actually took a selfie of himself [https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/man-pictured-carrying-pelosi-s-lectern-during-capitol-riot-arrested-n1253628 stealing the House Speaker's podium] and later tried to auction it on eBay. None of them ever considered that they were not only revealing their identities to the FBI, but giving ample evidence to federal prosecutors.
*** Fox News host (now former host) Tucker Carlson faired even worse. Upon being given full access to security footage, he attempted to portray the rioters as misunderstood protestors in what most observers saw as a biased manipulation of the footage. It in fact led to more arrests being made, as the newly-broadcast footage aided the FBI in identifying several participants who they were previously unable to.
** The storm of pardons he issued in his final weeks in office. Accepting a pardon by American law is an admission of guilt by the pardoned party, but worse, doing so removes the recipient's protection against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment (because they can't be prosecuted they can't incriminate themselves); consequently they can be compelled to testify -- in this case, against Trump. It took several weeks for this to occur to anyone in Trump's White House (at which point it was too late); Federal investigators, of course, were aware of this and are more than happy to trade the convictions of a few underlings for testimony against Trump himself.
** His border wall - likely the keystone of his original campaign - was an ill-conceived and unrealistic goal right from the start, for many reasons:
*** '''It would have gone way over budget.''' Trump had originally estimated a $4 billion to $12 billion price tag, but the numbers kept changing. Assuming his original claim of a 35 foot high 2,000 mile long wall, engineers estimated they’d need $10 billion for the concrete panels, $5 billion for steel columns to hold the panels (including labor), and another $1 billion for concrete footings and foundation. This is, of course, not taking into account transportation costs. New roads would have to be built to haul the aforementioned concrete and steel to remote desert areas; let’s say that would cost another $2 billion, give or take. Add 30 percent for management costs, engineering, and design, and that makes $23.4 billion, assuming it all went according to budget. Which it wouldn’t. When has a major government project ''ever'' stayed within its budget? And ''that’s'' just the wall itself, it would also need to be maintained. The Congressional budget office estimated maintenance costs would exceed the building costs after seven years. And you have to staff it too! Assuming you had only one border patrol worker per mile, that would require 2,000 officers per shift, all of whom would need salaries, pensions, insurance and everything like that.
*** '''It would only stop half of illegal immigration, at most.''' Or rather, would only be an obstacle to about half. About half of illegal immigrants in the United States came via an airport or a legit border crossing, and became illegal residents because they stayed when their visas ran out. To the other half, it might be a hindrance, but not a very good one, as history has shown that border walls just don’t work. The Great Wall of China was never intended to be a physical barrier, being more a tool of intimidation. The Berlin Wall was breached so often (despite “optional extras” like razor wire and soldiers with shoot to kill orders) that there’s now a museum in Berlin dedicated to all the attempts to breach it. Israel - another nation fond of walls - have discovered or detected 30 tunnels under walls in the Gaza Strip, some of which are miles long, 60 feet underground, and wide enough to drive a motorcycle through. The southern border of the United States is just too big to thoroughly patrol, and if a wall were there, there’d be little stopping anyone from climbing over it, tunneling under it, or simply using a boat to circumvent it
*** '''It would cause a lot of environmental damage:''' The Rio Grande River forms the border between Mexico and Texas, while the rest of the border runs over mountains and through New Mexico and Arizona, and even through a city in California. You certainly can’t build a wall in a river, and even building it next to one would cause erosion and shifting soil. Thus, you’d have to build it away from the actual border, much like many of the border fences are now. Replacing those fences with a more solid wall would prevent water from flowing into the river when it rained, and start drying up the river. Animals like pronghorns and jaguars who rely on the river would have to come up with different migration patterns. And that’s just one example. When President George W. Bush put up fencing patterns along much of the border, Homeland Security had to override over 30 environmental protection statues just to get that done, including the Endangered Species Act and the Safe Water Drinking Act. The legal nightmare that would have ensued for a Border Wall would have been much, much worse.
*** '''It would make smugglers rich.''' Just like draconian rules on drug trafficking is used by The Cartel as an excuse to raise prices, a wall would have the same price on Coyotes, as they’re called, criminals in Mexico who are paid to guide people across the desert and across the border. In fact, it’s already made a lot of them rich, as they’re using this as incentive to gain more clients (as in, “Go now, before the wall is built.”) and to charge stiffer fees. They’d be even richer if the wall actually went up.
*** '''Mexico would never pay for it.''' A big part of Trump’s proposed plan was to force Mexico to pay for the wall. Despite having no legal authority to do so. Supposedly, he would demand payment, threatening to put a tax on money that Mexican workers send from the U.S. back to their families in Mexico (which would require mail tampering, a serious crime). Or he’d raise tariffs on goods coming from Mexico (which would, in fact, take money from corporations and consumers in both countries, but not the Mexican government). Not to mention, the President simply does not have the authority to raise taxes, he’d have to ask Congress to do so, and given how much it would raise food prices, which would enrage their constituents and many Mexican agriculture companies are partially owned by American businesses, many of whom have lobbyists on their speed dial. Very few members of Congress would go on the record for it. The option of confiscating money sent through mail to Mexico likely wouldn’t work even if Trump did find a way to legalize it, as Bitcoin and other digital currencies are slowly replacing Western Union as the go-to means to send money across borders. This method is faster, safer, and virtually impossible to block. Of course, Trump's assumption may have been he was giving them [[An Offer You Can't Refuse]], and that they'd fold and simply give him the money to avoid all that trouble. Which was never likely. Here’s a short summary of how the Mexican government works; they have elected officials (much like the United States does), they hold elections (much like the United States does), they have political parties with Liberals and Conservatives (much like the United States does), they campaign on issues (much like the United States does), and these parties [[Not So Different| hate each other as much as the ones in the United States do!]] But one thing they all agree on is that siding with Trump on the Border Wall is political suicide in their country, making it unlikely they’d even consider it.
*** '''But Mexico would likely profit from it.''' CEMEX S.A.B. de C.V. (usually just called [[w:Cemex|Cemex]]) is a Mexican concrete company, the largest in North ''and'' South America, and are usually involved in any large construction project on either continent. They'd be first in line on the list of potential suppliers for the Border Wall, hands down, none of their competitors being large enough or convenient enough for such a job. Their stock went up 2.6% in one day after Trump’s plan was announced, and was up 18% a year later. And that is only one example of how Trump's border wall would help Mexico far more than it would hinder them.
*** It could never be finished. This is the biggest area where [[Reality Ensues]]. Even if the project were feasible, it would take a lot of planning for it to even get started. Contracts would have to be made, blueprints drawn up, workers hired, and so much more, and it would take decades to actually finish. It took 30 years to complete 1-80, the first interstate coast to coast highway, it is unlikely that it could have been finished during Trump’s term of office, even if he had won reelection. It would be even more unlikely that his successor would have continued such a controversial project; even Vice President Pence had enough sense to abort his much-reviled and much criticized [[w:Religious Freedom Restoration Act (Indiana)|Religious Freedoms Act]] after he realized the disaster it would cause Indianapolis’ economy.
* The [[w:Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping plot|failed plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer]] in October 2020 was another example of a group thinking [[Easy Logistics]] was reality. What exactly would they have done had they succeeded? The absurdity of this plan was emphasized when testimony revealed they were also "considering" Virginia Governor Ralph Northam as a ''second'' target.
* Conservative lawyers fought all the way to the Supreme Court to win the right to let businesses refuse to serve anyone they care to -- a right that they only imagined being used by Christian bakeries to refuse to make cakes for gay weddings. Two years after the Supreme Court decision, social media outlets, online merchant sites, large banks, the PGA, and other private companies quickly and publicly stopped doing business with [[Donald Trump]] -- who was President when the Supreme Court decision was handed down.
* In 2010, Todd Davis, the CEO of [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LifeLock LifeLock], had the "brilliant" idea to ''reveal his actual Social Security Number'' in a commercial, claiming his product would prevent ''any'' hacker from using it to steal his identity. Unfortunately, thirteen hackers proved him wrong. Adding insult to injury, such an [[Epic Fail]] undermined their customers' confidence in the product, and LifeLine was fined millions for deceptive advertising.
* [[Elon Musk]]'s acquisition of [[Twitter]] has been this for a large variety of reasons. A detailed analysis of his mistakes [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gb2m2ihZVq0&list=RDCMUCrr7y8rEXb7_RiVniwvzk9w&start_radio=1&rv=Gb2m2ihZVq0&t=150 can be viewed here.]
* Australian billionaire [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive_Palmer#Titanic_II Clive Palmer] has a history of ill-conceived ideas that exploit older ideas; he thought of bringing back commercial airships (like The Hindenburg), and built the world’s largest dinosaur-themed animatronic amusement park, which lasted five years before faulty design caused it to burn down. His worst idea, however, was ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_II Titanic II]''. Inspired by the success of the movie ''[[Titanic |Titanic]]'', he got the idea of building a near-exact replica of the famous ship, thinking movie fans would pay through the nose for a chance to cross the Atlantic on such a vessel - note where it says “near-exact” replica, he did think it through enough to plan to correct the mistake that caused it to sink, meaning he’d add a few meters width for additional “stability”, but it would otherwise be exactly the same, including the same three passengers classes, same restaurant facilities, same decor, and would stop at the same ports in the offered tour. Now, Palmer was not the first to propose such a plan (nor the first to ultimately cancel it, which should have told him something) but Palmer’s idea was especially a bad idea for several reasons. One, the problem that all similar plans have, [[What Did You Expect When You Named It?|the notoriety of the ship and the disaster it caused didn’t attract many investors and likely wouldn’t be much of a draw to tourists]]. Two, the near-exact replica he planned would not pass modern safety regulations for ocean liners. The interior would need redesign for safety (like updated design for stairways, doors, cabin arrangements, etc) and would need to use modern shipping technology to make the grade - obviously, a coal-powered engine would disqualify the design quickly. Even if all these upgrades were made, it would not be the same, which ruins the whole idea. And third, the idea of a trans-Atlantic voyage just isn’t a popular vacation idea anymore, modern tourists would find it boring.
* Conservative group [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_for_Liberty Moms for Liberty] (recognized as an "extremist group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is their term for a nonviolent hate group) has done this quite a lot:
** Quoting [[Adolf Hitler]] is never a wise move for a group who claims to value "traditional family values" or democracy; a member of not only [https://www.indystar.com/story/news/2023/06/21/moms-for-liberty-hamilton-county-indiana-quotes-hitler-in-newsletter/70344659007/ did this in their newsletter], they ''credited'' him as the source!
** Promoting a charity toy drive during the holidays is always a good idea, except when you promote one being held by the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Right_Stuff_(blog)#National_Justice_Party National Justice Party] (which is an actual neo-Nazi hate group that was involved in the [w:2021 storming of the United States Capitol|January 6, 2021 Capitol Building riot], and you [[The Grinch| publicly organize it as a white-only event]].
** Also, having (consensual) threesome sex with your husband and another woman is not - in the opinion of most - a bad thing. However, [[Straw Hypocrite| doing so while publicly preaching about the need for "traditional family values" while pushing to criminalize LGBT activities and reject the very concept of acceptance of such]], it doesn't help your cause. Bridget Ziegler, (one of the three ''founding members'' the organization not only admitted to doing so) she did so amid accusations of rape and sexual assault by that woman towards her husband. Even the other two founders claimed they were "shaken" by the accusations and supported further investigation, while publicly stating that Ziegler was no longer a member of the group.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Stupidity Tropes]]
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