Tag: corporations

The Normalization Of Dubya

The Trump presidency has been frightening enough, but another disturbing trend is becoming more frequent since Trump’s election: the normalization of right wing conservatism. For some reason, only Republicans like Bob Corker and super-hypocrite Jeff Flake are heralded for ‘standing up’ to Donald Trump, even though they’ve voted for everything he’s pushed forward.

Now for some reason, some people, including Democrats are willing to forget the horrendous presidency of George W. Bush or at least say he wasn’t all that bad. Are you freaking kidding???!!!! Bush and his cadre royally fucked this country up and now people are embracing him just because Donald Trump is so awful?  Bush even recently gave a resounding well received speech about the evils of Trumpism. That’s right, DUBYA!!!! This is how screwed up this country is! We commented before about how Megyn Kelly has been hired to try and normalize right wing conservatism. We’re seeing it all over the place in the main stream corporate media. Chris Wallace has been presented as a somewhat sane veteran ‘journalist’ now instead of the partisan hack he truly is. If you ask us, you should never trust Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network and you should never praise Dubya as being a font of wisdom. In case you’ve forgotten, he was the worst president since Nixon. He should never be forgiven for the clusterf*ck that was Iraq, the Great Recession, which his policies help create or for his almost completely running this country into the ground with his massive tax cuts for the rich, not to mention gutting environmental regulations and denying climate change like Trump is doing. From 2003-2009, we mocked and ridiculed Dubya and his fellow Republicans for the lies and deception they spewed on the American public and now the Republicans are doing it again, with a different moron in charge.

We came across one of our old photo-toons from 2006, when Dubya got counseling from James Baker through the Iraq Study Group that staying in Iraq was a bad idea. Hell getting into Iraq was an even worse idea. But typical of all conservative Republicans, they will never admit that they made a mistake. To this day, Bush won’t admit that his decision to unilaterally invade Iraq was a mistake, despite the fact that it has brought turmoil to the Middle East likely for the next half century. His trillion dollar debacle destabilized the whole region and gave rise to not only Al-Qaeda infiltrating Iraq, but the rise of ISIS later on during Obama’s presidency. His stubbornness to listen to any other voice other than Republican Neo-cons like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, put this country in the dumper. It was only the political ‘thumping’ the Republicans took in the 2006 election, which brought Democrats back into power that he considered other options about Iraq. And now were seeing another conservative Republican named Donald Trump pulling the same ‘I’m the Decider’ crap that Dubya pulled. The only evolution that is occurring in the Republican party is from having a President who is a moron to one that is a f*cking moron.

The Republican President has evolved from being a childish moron to being a childish f*cking moron.
The Republican President has evolved from being a childish moron to being a childish f*cking moron.

Trump and Pruitt’s EPA: Nothing To See Here Folks

Trump’s EPA, with Scott Pruitt at the helm is the planet’s worst nightmare. We’ve commented before about this climate change denier and complete jackass here and here. This corporate lackey has been single-handedly destroying all the mechanisms in place to keep the coal, gas, oil, mining, logging and polluting industries from running amok and destroying what’s left of our environment. We claim to be a nation of laws. Regulations are laws that corporations have to abide by, just like citizens have to obey civil law. Regulations are an essential check and balance to guarantee that corporations don’t go too far like they did in the twentieth century before the creation of the EPA.

Among the things Pruitt has done recently:

Pruitt and his EPA attacked an AP reporter for reporting about flooded Superfund sites in the Houston area. But apparently journalists are supposed to turn a blind eye, like Republicans do, if there’s any environmental problems. Nothing to see here folks!

Pruitt has gutted water regulations that will allow fracking waste dumping in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf is still recovering from the 2010 Deepwater Horizon spill and is now dealing with a new 600,000+ gallon oil spill that the national press doesn’t seem interested in covering because…you know…stock prices might go down. Nothing to see here folks!

Pruitt has issued a directive to curb settlements with outside groups, otherwise known as sue and settle. Showing that he’s a true corporate lackey, this is another attempt by corporations to limit the harm the public can do. On the finance front, look at this week’s vote by Republicans to make it harder for class actions suits against banks and credit card companies. This is because the Republicans care only about their corporate benefactors. They could give a rat’s ass about the consumer protection. Nothing to see here folks!

Pruitt pulls climate change scientists out of a climate change conference because…you know…they might actually show that Pruitt is full of shit. Nothing to see here folks!

Pruitt announces that the EPA will repeal the Clean Power Plan enacted by President Obama. Like other conservative Republicans, they just can’t accept the fact coal is a dying industry and like oil and gas,a thing of the past. It would be much better to invest in clean, renewable energy solutions like wind, solar, hydrogen and biofuels. But again, nothing to see here folks!

Let’s get one thing straight: Scott Pruitt is a lawyer. He knows squat about science. How is it that a lawyer is telling scientists what science is good and what science is bad? He’s got about as much business being head of the EPA as a wolf should be in charge of the hen house. Maybe that’s why he’s increased the security detail around him. He knows he’s being an asshole and he thinks some environmentalist may actually get sick of his shit enough to do something drastic about it. We’ve got a solution Mr. Pruitt: quit being a goddamn dick!!!

Trump administration EPA chief, non-scientist and friend to polluters everywhere, Scott Pruitt is now attacking the press for reporting potentially dangerous leaks and spills to the general public because the precious energy companies may lose their stock value, which in this country is more important than human lives.
Trump administration EPA chief, non-scientist and friend to polluters everywhere, Scott Pruitt is now attacking the press for reporting potentially dangerous leaks and spills to the general public because the precious energy companies may lose their stock value, which in this country is more important than human lives.

Take A Knee America

We’re back from our longer than expected respite from TFS(Trump Fatigue Syndrome)…for how long, we don’t know. Under normal circumstances, with a normal President, not that much would have happened in a month. But America’s CEO/Dictator Donald Trump does more stupid things in a month than most people do in a lifetime. Add to that the incompetence, cowardice, corruption and greed of the Republicans in congress, the invisibility of the Democrats, and the normalization of the right wing by the corporate media and we just don’t have much hope left for this country. We just may fold up our tent and move to a remote island somewhere in the South Pacific, far away from the selfish, egotistical, greedy, ultra-materialistic, ultra-competitive assholes who now seem to proliferate and run this country.

We’ve got some posts readied for the hurricane responses, but first we’ll take a look at the ‘feud’ between Trump and the NFL over players taking a knee during the national anthem, which culminated with Vice President and modern day Puritan Mike Pence leaving the stadium during the Colts-49ers game because some of San Francisco’s players kneeled during the national anthem in protest of racial discrimination in America. Trump admitted that this was a planned stunt. Not only that, but the cheap political stunt was at the taxpayers’ expense. We don’t care much for the NFL or any professional sports for that matter. Both the owners and players make WAY too much money and have WAY too much influence on modern culture. But that being said, players have the right to kneel in protest because…THIS IS AMERICA. We have a thing here which separates us from other countries called freedom of speech. The players were kneeling as a way to draw awareness to racial discrimination which still plagues this country. Their protest in no way was to disrespect the flag or those who fought for it. But the poor ‘widdle’ rich guys in the NFL executive front offices and the poor ‘widdle’ rich guys in the Republican party see it as an affront to their authority, which in their puny, narrow minded, conservative mind set is absolute. I mean how dare any one with less money criticize the actions of the people in charge. Of course, they had quite a different opinion during the Obama era.

Well if Trump and Pence are so sensitive to people taking a knee, we wonder what would happen if all of America took a knee during the national anthem. Would they leave the country? Hey, it’s worth a try, folks. We have no doubt, Trump and Pence could crash with their pal Vlad in Russia.

Maybe if all Americans took a knee during the national anthem, easily offended American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump and his Puritan Vice President Mike Pence would leave the country and stay with their old buddy Vlad Putin in Russia.
Maybe if all Americans took a knee during the national anthem, easily offended American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump and his Puritan Vice President Mike Pence would leave the country and stay with their old buddy Vlad Putin in Russia.

Phony Feckless Flake

We’ve commented many times before about Arizona’s junior Senator Jeff Flake. Why? Well, we live in Arizona for one thing and it’s our duty and right to comment about our government representatives. We also happen to think he has Mitt Romney-esque used car salesman abilities. He was for and against gun control. He claims to be a champion of the people, and yet continually votes in favor of corporate interests. He claims to be Mr. Bipartisan, but continually votes with along party lines with his Republican colleagues. If you’re looking for a hypocrite of the first order, look no further than Flake.

Flake made a big deal about not endorsing Donald Trump for President. Even now he’s come forward stating that Republicans need to stand up to him. Of course, in true salesman fashion, he’s also plugging his new book, which we will not provide a link to because we have no doubt it’s loaded with self serving bullshit. While stating how against Trump he is, he’s voted for most of Trump’s agenda 95% of the time, including his horrendous health care bill, which didn’t pass because Arizona’s senior Senator (in more ways than one) voted against it. Flake’s behavior is pretty much the actions of a feckless enabler.

To show you how much he’s in step with Trump, here’s a statement by orange haired rage monster’s about rolling back ‘job killing’ regulations for the polluting oil, gas and coal industries:

…We’re going to get real results when it comes to removing job-killing regulations and unleashing economic opportunity

Compare them to a blurb from Flake‘s own newsletter that he mails out to Arizona constituents touting his great actions:

Arizona ratepayers and businesses shouldn’t be forced to shoulder the burden of EPA’s costly, convoluted regulations. By holding EPA accountable for its actions, we can keep our air clean without creating job-killing regulatory uncertainty.

Yes those nasty ‘job-killing regulations’, what an annoyance they are. Why not just get rid of all of them, then industry can dump their waste where ever they want and pollute the air just like China. But the point is made; Trump and Flake are on the same page, just like all the other Republicans. The GOP’s so called opposition to Trump is nothing but bullshit!

It’s no secret that Flake supports corporate America over average Americans. But he is also a big time corporate lackey, like most Republicans are, of the big polluting industries in this country. As a matter of fact, Flake has a career 9% lifetime score on the League of Conservation Voters Environmental Scorecard. So we ask Mr. Flake, what’s the point of repealing ‘job killing’ regulations if those said jobs end up killing people with the resultant pollution and poisonous wastes and by products?

Finally, Trump has launched attacks on Flake because of what he’s said about Trump in his book. Trump has announced support for nutty Teabagger patriot Kelli Ward (known by her moniker ‘Chemtrail Kelli’) in the upcoming 2018 senate race. But again, this is just political theater because Flake has sided with Trump 95% of the time like this article at FactCheck.org states. So now, not only is Flake being attacked by the Democrats, but the radical right wingers in his own party are attacking him as well.

So we implore Arizonans to send Mr. Flake back to his hometown of Snowflake, AZ, which is a truly appropriate place for this Republican to live. We certainly hope the Democrats in Arizona get their act together and put forth a decent candidate to run against this hypocritical used car salesman in 2018.

Dressed in his finest used car salesman ensemble, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake tries to sell people that he's against America's CEO/Dictator Donald Trump, when actually he has supported nearly everything he's done, to which Arizona voters call him on his hypocrisy and suggest he move back to his hometown of Snowflake, AZ.
Dressed in his finest used car salesman ensemble, Arizona Senator Jeff Flake tries to sell people that he’s against America’s CEO/Dictator Donald Trump, when actually he has supported nearly everything he’s done.

One Fine Nazi

America’s CEO/Dictator Donald Trump gave a ‘rally’ speech Tuesday night here in Phoenix, Arizona which drew thousands of protesters despite the 107 degree heat. Inside the rally, an unhinged Trump ranted about how victimized he was by the press while conveniently forgetting his claim of there being ‘fine Nazis’ and both sides being at fault at Charlottesville. He again blamed everything again on the media because that’s what conservatives do: they never take responsibility for their actions and always blame somebody else because in the conservative mindset, they never make mistakes.

Once again, Trump exaggerated the crowd size just like he did in July 2015 and certainly the local media, which has a strong Republican bias, did their part to build up the crowd size, which thinned out as the night wore on. Trump supporters even posted false photos of the crowd size as real photos and videos showed the room half empty.

We have no doubt in Trump’s media addled mind that when he’s speaking of ‘fine Nazis’, he’s thinking of Sgt. Schultz from the 60s sitcom Hogan’s Heroes. Who knows, Trump may even name Schultz to be the new press secretary.

One fine Nazi, Sergeant Schultz, who 'knows nothing' will make a perfect press secretary for American CEO/Dictator and Nazi sympathizer Donald Trump.
Rumor has it that American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump, will name ‘one fine Nazi’, Sergeant Schultz, as his new press secretary.

Salve, Arrivederci Mooch!

Back in 2006, when the Bush administration took a thumping in the November elections, we were of the opinion that there would never be a White House as screwed up as Bush’s. We were wrong. To say the Trump White House is chaotic is as obvious as saying the sun is hot. Every damn day, something new is being mucked up.

Last week, in an effort to dispose of leaks in the Trump White House, America’s CEO/Dictator hired Antony Scaramucci, an up and coming financier and entrepreneur who promised to rid the White House of spies and leakers.  Scaramucci, or the Mooch as he likes to be called, promptly gave a profanity laden tirade against the leakers saying Reince Priebus was a “f*cking paranoid schizophrenic” and Steve Bannon likes to “suck his own c*ck”. He and Trump then promptly fired everyone’s favorite whipping boy, chief of staff, Reince Priebus.  Then Priebus showed what a sycophantic putz he was by saying “I’m always going to be a Trump fan. I’m on Team Trump, and I look forward to helping him achieve his goals and his agenda for the American people.” Geez! What an idiot!

Well, it turns out that the new chief of staff, John Kelly, doesn’t really like the Mooch, so guess what? Ol’ Moocher is gone. Wow! And we thought Michael Flynn’s tenure was short. Apparently, John Kelly, who is a former Marine general, is a bit of an authoritarian. So he’ll fit in just fine with Trump’s authoritarian regime. Will Kelly be an effective ringleader of this multi-ring clusterf*ck circus that is the Trump administration? Now we think Kelly is by far, a better choice than Priebus, but based on the six months of stunning ineptitude displayed so far, we’re kind of skeptical.

World class profanity artist, Anthony Scaramucci, a.k.a. the Mooch, lasted just ten days as communications director before America's CEO/Dictator fired him in true Trumpian fashion.
World class profanity artist, Anthony Scaramucci, a.k.a. the Mooch, lasted just ten days as communications director before America’s CEO/Dictator gave him the ol’ heave ho in true Trumpian fashion.

Trumpf Youth

A strange thing happened recently on the campaign trail with Donald Trump. Normally, the previous sentence would have people scratching their heads in befuddlement. Campaign trail? It’s mid 2017; the election is over. But this is the Trump administration, where absurdity is the new normal. Trump is already campaigning for 2020 and this is a prime opportunity to try and strengthen the Trump authoritarian, fascist brand.

So anyway, Trump made an appearance at the annual Boy Scout Jamboree, an event where all the Boy Scouts get together and celebrate scouting. But when America’s CEO/Dictator showed up, he made  it all about…(drumroll please)…himself. Big surprise, right. Well, the orange rage monster decided to smear his political rivals as well…to a bunch of pre-teens and teens. They were there to talk about camping, scouting and community service and they got a rambling rant about the ‘evils’ of Obamacare, Hillary Clinton and ‘fake news’. Obama and Hillary even got booed at the mention of their names.

Trump even noted how big the crowd was and how wonderful it was that 40,000 people showed up. But they showed up for the jamboree, not Donald Trump. It’s an annual event. Like Stephen Colbert pointed out, it’s like Trump showing up for the Super Bowl and commenting how many people were there to see him. They would be there to see the football game, not some orange haired megalomaniac dictator bloviate and self aggrandize. The Boy Scouts of America officially issued an apology for Trump’s remarks.

What’s so unnerving about this is that Donald Trump seems to be following the strategy of another cultish, right wing conservative buffoon named Adolf Hitler. Yeah, yeah we know all about Godwin’s Law. And if you follow the above link and take a look at our handy dandy fascist checklist, you’ll see the modern day Republicans have a frightening similarity to the NSDAP party from 1930’s Germany. Trump is staging campaign rallies around the United States in non-election years to push conservative propaganda and build up support for his brand. Now he is trying to lure the youth of America into following his party’s narrow minded ideology. The best time to brainwash a mind is when it is young, innocent and impressionable as all religions, cults and authoritarian regimes know. We wouldn’t be surprised at all if Trump starts a Trump Youth or a Trump Scouts organization because it’s right in line with the GOP’s brand of right wing authoritarianism.

P.S. We make fun of our own Senator John McCain here…a lot. But we have to give him props for voting against the ‘skinny’ Obamacare repeal last night along with GOP moderates Susan Collins(ME) and Linda Murkowski(AK), thus putting an end to the Republicans horrible healthcare repeal bill. Jeff Flake, however… well Mr. Flake will get his comeuppance in the November 2018 election.

America's CEO/Dictator Donald Trump is now recruiting impressionable kids to join the Trumpf Youth, where children will learn valuable skills like lying about your taxes, colluding with hostile foreign governments and grabbing women by the pussy.
America’s CEO/Dictator Donald Trump is now recruiting impressionable children to join the Trumpf Youth, where kids will learn valuable skills like lying about your taxes, colluding with hostile foreign governments and grabbing women by the pussy.

Trump Fatigue Syndrome

The dog days of summer are here in America and people are sweating their arsenals off in every corner of the U.S. The monsoon season is upon us here in Arizona which means the normally dry air with <10% humidity, is now a swamp like 30-50%. Our energy levels are zilch. While we’re feeling the draining effects of the heat and humidity, we’re also suffering from something more insidious: Trump Fatigue Syndrome. Yes, we are so god damn sick and tired of this stupid President and his daily scandals, lies, deception and bullshit, that even hilarious commentary from comedians like Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Samantha Bee isn’t helping. Even the news that Sean Spicer is resigning brings us no joy.

One reason is that we keep hearing that the shit is going to hit the fan real soon. But we’ve been hearing that for five months now. Nothing is happening, which gives us a nauseous feeling that justice will not be served. We just hope the scenario depicted in this photo-toon Meme-rie eventually plays out. It was originally a photo-toon featuring disgraced Bush administration member Scooter Libby from our March 11th issue in 2007. But we like to recycle here at the Bucket, so voila…here’s the Donald getting a special welcoming from his new bunkmate. In short: LOCK HIM UP!!!!  

P.S. If you’re thinking of visiting Arizona, do not come in July and August. See our old Cactus Corners Forecast category posts for clarification.

Donald Trump's new cellmate and friendly, loyal assistant asks if he likes spooning.
The only cure for Trump Fatigue Syndrome is placing the Donald in a new luxury residence complete with a friendly, loyal assistant.

Pepe Trump’s War On Truth

American CEO/Dictator Donald ‘Pepe’ Trump started a war on the press when he was a candidate. He proclaimed that he was the only one America could trust and that the media was biased against him. The sheeple who voted for him bought his bullshit hook, line and sinker. What’s amazing is that it’s been two years since Trump officially started campaigning for President and some people are still buying his bullshit; that’s he’s the bastion for truth, justice and the American way. He’s claiming that the press, especially CNN, is out to get him and that the real enemy of the people is the media.

This is just rinsing and repeating for the GOP. They did the same thing during the Bush administration led by the ‘truth warriors’ at Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican propaganda network (at least Fox has dropped their ridiculous slogan ‘fair and balanced’.) Rush Limbaugh has made a career of railing against the ‘liberal media’ conveniently overlooking the blatant lies that he and other right wing ‘journalists’ promote as the truth.

Trump’s war on the media is insidious and incredibly dangerous for a free society. Freedom of the press is one of the cornerstones of our democracy. Everything Trump has said and done so far in his presidency has brought nothing but doubt and derision upon him from sane people, which explains why his approval ratings are so low. We have no doubt that Pepe will continue croaking his ‘fake news’ diatribe and we have no doubt that his acolytes will continue to bask in it and enable him like the sheeple they are.

When you want fake news and a never ending supply of bullshit, who you gonna call? PEPE TRUMP!!!
When you want fake news and a never ending supply of bullshit, who you gonna call? PEPE TRUMP!!!

Making Fascism Palatable

Since Donald Trump has ascended as America’s CEO/Dictator, we’ve noticed several things happening in the main stream media. One of the most obvious moves is the hiring of former Fox News personnel by main stream corporate media outlets. MSNBC has hired not only former Fox ‘journalist’ Greta Van Sustern but also Megyn Kelly. For those of you with the gnat like memory of Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, we’ll briefly recap Megyn Kelly’s rise to fame as the most palatable conservative ‘journalist’.

She made a name for herself during the 2016 Presidential campaign by drawing the ire of Donald Trump. This was of course political theater; the Republicans doing a typical good cop-bad cop routine trying to show that Republicans are capable of harshly questioning other Republicans. Megyn played her part very well and for that she was rewarded with a job at MSNBC, where she now has been given a primo spot during NBC’s prime time where she gets to interview top news makers of the the day – and by news makers we mean top conservative news makers of the day. She recently did a much ballyhooed interview with Russian president Vladimir Putin. Last week she did an interview with right wing wack job and Donald Trump chum, Alex Jones. Why is Megyn doing these interviews? One simple, obvious, transparent reason; to make conservative, right wing, authoritarian fascism more palatable to the American public.

In an encouraging piece of news, her ratings have been abysmal. But we don’t doubt that she will soon have President Trump on to boost her ratings. Together they will make America embrace fascism whether they like it or not.

Megyn Kelly's new task as most palatable conservative propagandist is to make right wing wackos like Alex Jones acceptable to the American public.
Conservative ‘journalist’ Megyn Kelly, is using her new post in the main stream media to make right wing wackos like Alex Jones more palatable to the American public.