Goat Rodeo

A situation that is hopelessly fucked up. The worst of three stages of goat-ness. First is the Goat Rope, defined else where.

Then there is the utilitraian Goat Fuck. This normally requires a serious amount of work to unfuck.

Lastly, there is the Goat Rodeo. The worst of the three, it is beyond even profanity. It describes a situation that involves many individuals screw ups, and implies that the fuck up is already well underway, meaning that there is no hope in stopping the mess. Usually said with a defeated tone:

A chaotic situation, often one that involves several people, each with a different agenda/vision/perception of what's going on; a situation that is very difficult, despite energy and efforts, to instill any sense or order into

A situation during which a pre-planned event goes horribly wrong and demonstrates a total lack of communication, coordination, and forethought. Generally, this requires either of two parties, one being in a management or planning role that performs inadequate preparation and the other a participant that is utterly incompetent. The result is absolute chaos and failure. In a military context, this is any activity involving A) Iraqis, B) Afghanis, or C) the US Department of State. The involvement of two or more of these participants can result in an increase in fuckery several magnitudes greater than one alone.

A Goat Rodeo AKA Goat Rope, is about the most polite term used by aviation people (and others in higher risk situations) to describe a scenario that requires about 100 things to go right at once if you intend to walk away from it.

A situation that order cannot be brought to any time.

A situation that has all the risks and none of the rewards. In a real rodeo, cowboys risk their necks, but they get to look cool. If the cowboys rode goats, they'd have just as much risk of injury, and wouldn't look cool. Such a situation has two possible outcomes: really bad or slightly less bad. Having forseen such a situation, you're best bet is to not enter the Rodeo.

A sales or bidding process where the natural tendency for multiple people to "pile on," express their opinions, and interject creates inherent instability and increases the probability of overreaction and/or loss.