The Republicans’ Toxic Masculinity Problem

The Republicans’ stupid has been coming fast and furious lately…it’s been hard for us to keep up. But we’ve got to comment on Jeb Bush’s statements following the school shootings in Oregon last week. In an interview following the tragedy, ‘compassionate conservative’ Jeb stated that you know ‘Stuff happens’. Can’t you just feel the sympathy oozing from his pores? Just the latest in our corporate lackey politicians licking the gun barrels of the NRA, the weapons industry and the military industrial complex. Because you know you can’t possibly be a man unless you have a gun and of course, as in all things manly, you’ve got to have either a big gun or a lot of them.

There’s a new buzzword that’s been making the rounds lately called ‘toxic masculinity’ and this catch phrase fits today’s gun culture perfectly.  Since December 2012, we’ve had 990 mass shootings. When you care more about a gun than living beings, that’s a sign of a sick society. Our spineless politicians should stand up to the gun lobbyists and say enough is enough. It’s incredible that Republicans are so myopic that they’re still focusing on the 4 lives lost at Benghazi and not the 1249 people lost to gun violence in the past three years. It’s time for Americans to vote these incompetents out of office. If our elected officials won’t take the necessary steps to make this country safer, then maybe it’s time for new elected officials.

GOP Presidential candidate Jeb Bush, compassionately explains that 'stuff happens' while NRA executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, gives him a big vote of approval.
GOP Presidential candidate Jeb Bush, compassionately explains that ‘stuff happens’ while NRA executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, gives him a big vote of approval.

Not So Golden Graham

We’ve commented before about the hypocrisy of right wing congressmen and senators, especially when it comes to federal aid for victims of natural disasters, so it should come as no surprise that South Carolina senator and GOP presidential hopeful, Lindsey Graham, has pleaded for federal aid for his home state after torrential rain and horrific flooding, despite voting against aid for residents of New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy in 2013. Graham’s response: “I’m all for helping the people in New Jersey. I don’t really remember me voting that way.  Anyway, I don’t really recall that, but I’d be glad to look and tell you why I did vote no, if I did.” Typical compassionate conservative Republican: deny, deny deny. The beat goes on.

Lindsey Graham explains why he supports federal aid for South Carolina and not New Jersey before finally calling attention to Benghazi.
GOP Presidential candidate, Senator and compassionate conservative hypocrite, Lindsey Graham, explains why he supports federal aid for South Carolina and not New Jersey.

The Ice Queen Fibbeth

Carly Fiorina has ‘surged’ into second place in the sham that is Con-a-thon 2016. But she has caught a lot of flak recently and deservedly so for out and out lying about Planned Parenthood. This failed CEO and stone cold Ice Queen cooked up a video to support her lies. (Imagine that: a Republican making shit up!) But that’s par for the course for today’s compassionate, ‘pro-life’, conservative Republican. Tea Party Republicans in Congress right now are trying to defund Planned Parenthood stating that it would save taxpayers money on providing abortion services even though according to facts (something Republicans hate and ignore), only 3% of the money afforded to Planned Parenthood goes to abortion services. Here’s another article that points out the Republicans incoherence. Most of Planned Parenthood services go to STD prevention, cancer screening and providing contraception consultation. Make no mistake, the right wing, evangelical christians will do anything including the distinctly unchristian lying, cheating and deceiving to make sure a woman has no choice but to have her baby even if it might possibly mean the woman’s life ends. ‘Pro-life’ indeed!

In Carly Fiorina's mind, Planned Parenthood armies will force abortions on pregnant women and sell the body parts for drugs and liquor.
GOP Presidential candidate and stone cold Ice Queen, Carly Fiorina, creates a new fib of gigantic proportions in hopes of eliminating Planned Parenthood and winning the votes of the right wing wackos in charge of the Republican party.

 

Walker Walks

And another one bites the dust…

That Republican clown car is getting roomier and roomier. Scott Walker has exited the farce that is Con-a-thon 2016. This one is a bit of a shocker for us here at the Bucket. Walker was one of the darlings of the deep pocketed (or is it derp pocketed) Koch brothers. We figured he would be in it until the Republican convention. But his poll numbers dropped to less than 1%, so he decided to walk. We’ll sum up his departure simply; a simple photo-toon for a simple man.

Scott Walker sums up his 2016 presidential campaign with a big derp.
Scott Walker sums up his 2016 presidential campaign in true Walkeresque fashion.

Perry’s Outta There!

One down, umpty-nine to go…

Well there’s a little more elbow room in the Republican clown car tonight, as former Texas governor Rick Perry has dropped out of the farce that is Con-a-thon 2016. Of course, the writing was on the wall, since it was reported recently that his staff wasn’t getting paid. We here at the Bucket have concluded that despite his makeover with smarter looking glasses, they just weren’t smart looking enough. Better luck in 2020, Poindexter.

Former Texas governor Rick Perry vows to run for President again in 2020 with smarter looking glasses and a much pointier clown hat.
Former Texas governor Rick Perry vows to run for President again in 2020 with smarter looking glasses and a much pointier clown hat.

Trump? Chump!

The Donald Trump charade continues as the neocon media circus focuses gigantic amounts of attention on the inanity spoken by the megalomaniac billionaire. This past week, ‘the Donald’ made headlines by not only gaining in the polls, but by throwing well respected Hispanic journalist Jorge Ramos from his news conference. Hmmm….not the best way to ensure the Latino vote. But that doesn’t matter to the darling of the Tea Party. No sir. Accordingly to the script planned by the corporate owned neocon media and their lackeys in congress, everything is going exactly as planned. Donald Trump is looking outrageous right now to everybody by design. The crazier he sounds now the better for the corporate backed candidates Scott Walker and especially Jeb Bush next year when it counts. This latest row with Ramos is a prime example. Jeb Bush is fluent in Spanish and supposedly ‘well versed’ in Latino affairs. When presented with a choice of the xenophobic Trump or Bush, the choice for a conservative Latino is naturally going to be Bush. Remember, the neocon media like Fox News are masters at propaganda and we’ve got 14 months to go before the election. They can manipulate the minds and decision making of scores of sheeple in that time. It’s also helping the GOP cause that Trump is agreeing with many things Democrats are saying (the Iraq War was a mistake, Dubya was horrible). This makes it easier for Fox to spin that Trump is really a closet Democrat and shouldn’t be trusted.

Yes, Trump is the perfect sacrificial lamb for the GOP because, it doesn’t matter if his campaign fails or not. He’ll still be a big shot even if he loses the nomination. This is because he is a master at media manipulation, self-promotion and self-aggrandizement. In Donald Trump’s mind he will always be the best human being ever, even if the rest of us decide he is a chump.

Megalomaniac clown, Donald Trump the Chump, wants to make America white again.
For many sane Americans, the decision on Donald Trump is already clear.

Rewind: Extreme Trump Makeovers

In honor of ‘the Donald’ leading the other Republican clowns in the early months of Con-a-thon 2016 and Dubya writing a fundraising letter for his brother Jeb, we’d thought we would rewind back to a photo-toon we did in our April 25, 2004 issue; back when Trump was king of reality television with his new hit ‘The Apprentice’ and Dubya was using scare tactics on the American sheeple so he could have four more years of ‘presidentin’. Ahhhh! Fun times!

George W. Bush, 'Dubya', uses scare tactics on the American public on the first episode of the of the new reality show, 'Extreme Trump Makeovers'.
Members of the Bush Administration are the first contestants of the new reality show, 'Extreme Trump Makeovers'. From left:Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, President Bush, Donald Rumsfeld.

 

The Republican Con Is On!

So Donald Trump, fresh from his comments on breastfeeding women, is the front runner of the Republican party with a meager 15 months left before the elections? Wow! What are we going to do? We guess that everyone should buy a tarp to protect themselves from all the bullshit that’s being propelled by the media, who are actually giving credibility to this con job. But then again this is Con-a-thon 2016. What else should we expect?

The Republicans are masters of propaganda and the art of the con. They’ve learned their lessons from 2012 and 2008. That’s why they’ve got the clown car filled with sixteen candidates; just enough flavor-of-the-months to get through to November 2016. In case you haven’t figured it out, the GOP establishment, mainly the Koch Brothers, have decided that Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are the best candidates. So to protect these guys from actual scrutiny, they’ve got fourteen other candidates to sacrifice themselves for the Republican cause by saying outrageous statements that make the other guys in the clown car appear to be sane. Donald Trump is just the first. Do you honestly think ‘the Donald’ will be selected to be the standard bearer for the Republican party?  It looks like Mike Huckabee could be the second with his statements about Obama putting the Jews in the oven with the Iran deal. We know from 2012 that Rick ‘the Dick’ Santorum is good for several months worth of spewing forth crap and Chris Christie is chock full of hot air. Just look at him for Pete’s sake! And then there’s Rick Perry, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul…it’s a cornucopia of blithering insanity. But in the end, the Republicans will put another Bush on the ticket and America will be stuck with another media anointed Bush-Clinton election. Freedom of choice in America? The Con is On!

Donald Trump's outrageous statements about immigrants, John McCain and breastfeeding women make the other candidates in the Republican clown car appear sane.
Donald Trump's outrageous statements about immigrants, John McCain and breastfeeding women make the other candidates in the Republican clown car appear sane.

 

The Media Con Is On!

An amazing thing happened here in Arizona recently. Self proclaimed democratic socialist and Democratic candidate for president, Bernie Sanders, drew 11,000+ people to his rally in Phoenix, Arizona. Let us repeat that. Liberal Bernie Sanders drew 11,000+ people to his rally in red state Arizona. That’s more than the 4,200 than conservative, billionaire blowhard Donald Trump drew when he was in Phoenix. (Of course, Donald Trump, being the egotistical, bombastic salesman that he is, claimed that 15,000 people attended, even though the Phoenix Fire department said it was 4,200). You’d think the so called ‘liberal’ media would be all over the Sanders rally, exclaiming 24/7 that a liberal drew record crowds in a red state. That night the local, mostly conservative media outlets gave it only a passing mention, but instead devoted several minutes to the Donald’s comments about Arizona Senator John McCain not being a war hero. We checked CNN the next day and nary a mention of Sanders amazing rally. But they sure had coverage of Donald Trump’s mouth.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the neocon media con is on! We’ll be posting more on this elaborate and concerted effort by monied interest to bamboozle the American public into voting for the Republican candidate of choice of the corporate oligarchy that runs this country. Right now Donald Trump is doing his crazy billionaire schtick to make the other Republican candidates look sane by comparison. Our corporate overlords’ hope is that by next summer, Jeb Bush or Scott Walker will be looking like the only reasonable choice, especially if the media gives little coverage to sane, responsible people like Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton.

Liberal Bernie Sanders recently drew a crowd of 11,000 people in red state Arizona, but the big news is the inane blathering of megalomaniac, billionaire blowhard, Donald Trump.
Liberal Bernie Sanders recently drew a crowd of 11,000 people in red state Arizona, but the big news is the inane blathering of megalomaniac, billionaire blowhard, Donald Trump.

Republican Clown Car 2016

Guess what everyone? It’s time for another presidential election.  Didn’t we just finish this crap?  Well, with a scant 16 months left before the 2016 presidential election, it’s time for CON-A-THON 2016… and we’ve already got 16 Republican presidential candidates. That’s right! 16!!!! You’d think that all this choice would be a good thing. But we’re talking about the modern Republican party. We’re not sure who coined the term, but the most accurate description of this collection of colossal egos has to be the Republican Clown Car (They’re also available for birthday parties and bar mitzvahs). Early polls are indicating that Jeb “Don’t Call Me Bush” Bush and perennial blowhard and teabagger favorite Donald Trump, are leading the polls. But if you peruse our archives for Con-a-thon 2012, you’ll see that there was a new flavor-of-the-week back then, too. One week it was Newt Gingrich; the next it was Herman Cain; and the next it was Rick Santorum, who apparently hasn’t learned his lesson that he’s not appealing to a wide swath of Americans. Oh well…this circus and extraordinary waste of money is sure to be amusing for the next 16 months. Really???!!! Another 16 months of this shit???!!!!

The Republican Clown Car for the 2016 Presidential election, also known as Con-a-thon 2016.
Ladies and Gentlemen: Introducing the Republican Clown Car for Con-a-thon 2016.