Tag Archive for corruption

The Singing Rat

The big news the past week was the explosive testimony given by Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer and ‘fixer’ for American CEO/Dictator and petulant man child, Donald Trump.  In a hearing before the House Oversight committee, the rat Michael Cohen sang like a canary much to the chagrin of the House Republicans like Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows and Paul Gosar, who made absolute asses of themselves during the ‘interrogation’. They never questioned him but chose, in typical Republican fashion, only to assassinate his character, which we’ve all already surmised is abysmal. Even Cohen admitted he was a fool. The GOP logic: “You can’t trust a liar”.  The Republicans are also considerably irony impaired considering Cohen was the RNC’s deputy finance chairman up until eight months ago. Oh yeah…and then there’s the fact that Trump’s lie count is over 9,000.

One colossal buffoon was GOP Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who said Cohen was testifying against Trump only because he had ‘sour grapes’ for not getting a White House job. Then Jordan pulled another typical Republican prank of trying to twist Cohen’s words, which caused Cohen to reply, “Shame on you, Mr. Jordan.” This is the same Jim Jordan, who kept quiet about alleged sexual abuse at Ohio State. So, Jordan is certainly not someone who should throw stones.

Another mammoth idiot was Arizona’s own Paul Gosar, who embarrassingly resorted to playground taunts of “Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire” and even had a poster with the same next to him at the hearing to which Cohen responded to Gosar, “Are you referring to me or the President?” Gosar  is famous for having six of his siblings take out an ad to vote against their brother in Arizona’s 4th district election in 2018. The fact that Gosar still won speaks more to the conservative loons in the 4th district who put this nutbag back into office. Maybe Gosar and Trump can retire and hang out at a grade school playground where they can ply their bullying tactics and be undisputed ‘kings’.

So what’s next for Michael Cohen besides much deserved jail time? How about a thrilling crime drama about an everyday goombah for a national criminal organization who turns state evidence against his crooked boss called ‘The Singing Rat’, rated T for Trumptastic.

The Singing Rat: Michael Cohen is just your everyday goombah who also happens to be the fixer for Republican crime boss Donald Trump. When G-Man Robert Mueller catches Cohen covering up an illicit affair with a hooker for Trump, the rat sings like a canary. Rated T for Trumptastic.

The Singing Rat: Michael Cohen is just your everyday goombah who also happens to be the fixer for Republican crime boss Donald Trump. When G-Man Robert Mueller catches Cohen covering up an illicit affair with a hooker for Trump, the rat sings like a canary. Rated T for Trumptastic.

The Untouchables: 2018

Paul Manafort is the latest former associate of Donald Trump to flip and it has many speculating as to whether this is the beginning of the end for the orange haired man child who is America’s CEO/Dictator. Most people agree that things aren’t looking good for Trump, but then again things have never looked good for the Donald during his entire disastrous presidency and yet he is still — unfrickingbelievably — president.

This whole clusterf*cked trauma brings to mind for us old farts here at the Bucket, the early 1960s crime drama The Untouchables starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness, which has been constantly played in syndication on TV for the last fifty years. In the episodes, Ness and his band of incorruptible G-men pursued noted criminal gangsters like Dutch Schultz, Frank Nitti and the kingpin, Al Capone.  The lead-in and ending graphic for the show was very stylistic and combined with the iconic theme music, set the mood perfectly for the drama. We can just imagine a possible reality reboot of the show with Robert Mueller leading his intrepid team of FBI agents as they descend on Trump Tower to bring to justice members of the Republican crime syndicate like Manafort, Michael Cohen and of course, the dear leader, the real Alphonse Capone of the 21st century, Donald Trump.

A reality reboot of the fantastic early 1960s crime drama. The Untouchables, is in the works with Robert Mueller leading his intrepid squad of FBI agents as they descend upon Trump Tower trying to bring to justice members of the current Republican crime syndicate like Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and dear leader, Donald Trump.

A reality reboot of the fantastic early 1960s crime drama. The Untouchables, is in the works with Robert Mueller leading his intrepid squad of FBI agents as they descend upon Trump Tower trying to bring to justice members of the current Republican crime syndicate like Paul Manafort, Michael Cohen and dear leader, Donald Trump.

The Republican Crime Syndicate

Things are heating up in the Robert Mueller investigation as more and more of Donald Trump’s cronies are being indicted or flipping on the orange haired man child. The list keeps growing of people close to Trump who are being exposed for corruption. The list includes: Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman; Michael Flynn, Trump’s former National Security Advisor; Rick Gates, former business partner of Manafort; and Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and ‘fixer’. One of Trump’s former campaign advisors, George Papadopoulos, just received a puny 14 day sentence for lying to the FBI. In addition to these crooks, there is also one of the first GOP congressmen to support Trump, New York’s Chris Collins, who’s been indicted on insider trading and California’s Duncan Hunter, who is accused along with his wife (who he promptly blamed completely) of misusing campaign funds.  Throw in corrupt former EPA chief Scott Pruitt, former HHS Secretary Tom Price, Donald Trump Jr., who may be implicated because of his Trump Tower meeting and of course, Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s current lawyer who looks like he came straight out of a mafia movie and has done nothing but constantly lie and embarrass himself since he was hired by Trump. It’s a rogue’s gallery of con artists who could have easily rubbed elbows with the likes of Capone against the FBI G-men in the 1920s and 30s. Hey, whaddya’ know…Trump is fighting against the FBI just like those hoodlums.

The indictments are now prompting America’s CEO/Dictator to become unglued. He has accused Attorney Confederate General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III of hurting Republican chances in the midterms.  He continues his assault on the free press stating that it is the ‘enemy of the people’.  Bob Woodward’s new book release paints a pretty dismal picture of the Trump White House and has Trump champing at the bit. Now the orange megalomaniac is blowing his top with his own staff because of a recent op-ed piece in the New York Times which pretty much states that Trump is an addle-brained lunatic incapable of making sound decisions.

So, logically with all this mounting evidence of a completely incompetent and dangerous administration, why aren’t the supposedly ‘morally superior’ Republicans removing the orange haired man child from office? Like we’ve said in previous posts, the Trump administration is doing exactly what the Republican’s corporate overlords want him to do; provide daily distractions in the media while the Republican corporate lackeys in the Senate, House and the courts systematically dismantle laws and regulations therefore enabling the corporate oligarchy to reap enormous wealth in the process. If that means breaking the law, then so be it. The Republican party is no longer a party; their actions indicate they are now a crime syndicate worthy of praise from the Godfather himself.

With so many indictments of Donald Trump associates, twenty-first century Republicans can no longer call themselves a party; they're a crime syndicate.

With so many indictments of Donald Trump’s associates, twenty-first century Republicans can no longer call themselves a party; they’re a crime syndicate.

 

If You’ve Got The Money, Mulvaney Has The Time

One of Donald Trump’s promises upon coming into office was draining the swamp. As we’ve commented many times before, America’s CEO/Dictator has not only not drained the swamp, he’s restocked it, mostly with corporate friendly hacks like Scott Pruitt who have no qualms on dismantling our government protections while spending millions of taxpayer’s dollars doing it. Which brings us to Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Mick Mulvaney.

As CNN reported, Mulvaney said the swampiest thing you could possibly say. Mulvaney proclaimed proudly that “What you do here matters. We had a hierarchy in my office in Congress. If you were a lobbyist who never gave us money, I didn’t talk to you. If you were a lobbyist who gave us money, I might talk to you. If you came from back home and sat in my lobby, I talked to you without exception regardless of the financial contributions.” Or in other words, if you’ve got the money, I’ve got the time. Hardly the words you want to hear from a supposedly ‘honest’ government official who also claims to be catholic. But then again, the Trump administration hypocritically spews forth lies and deception every second of every day.

In addition, Mulvaney wants to eliminate public access to the consumer complaints database at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Therefore, they can give financial shysters even more power to wield over unsuspecting consumers because in America, profit is more important than people. You’ve got to screw the other guy before he screws you and if you don’t have money, you are shit out of luck, buddy. Still think capitalism is a christian economic system?

OMB director, carnival barker and corporate lackey, Mick Mulvaney, hustles plutocrats for funds and special privileges in the completely honest and not swampy at all Trump administration with his mantra of "If you've got the money, I've got the time".

OMB director, carnival barker and corporate lackey, Mick Mulvaney, hustles plutocrats for funds and special privileges in the completely honest and not swampy at all Trump administration.

Rich, Good: Poor, Bad

If you’ve had doubt about where the Republican priorities stand, Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz has clarified the GOP’s position quite clearly within the last couple weeks. Chaffetz, the smuggest congressman alive and the head of the House Oversight committee, recently conjectured that Donald Trump is rich already, therefore he cannot possibly be corrupt and looking into Trump’s conflicts of interest in connection with Russia is just a waste of time. And don’t even mention all the fraud with the Trump foundation. Chaffetz thinks nothing is wrong there despite Trump admitted to self-dealing. All Chaffetz wants to do is investigate Hillary Clinton.

So the rich aren’t corrupt, eh? Just let that sink in for a minute or so. There’s a whole laundry list of rich people who’ve committed white collar crimes. Just go back to the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 and the Great Recession and the sub prime mortgage fiasco. Or how about the Enron scandal. Tons of greedy CEOs and corporate plutocrats who got off scot free with all the loot. Basically Chaffetz seems to be saying that only people who don’t have money could possibly be corrupt and that people who are rich are above silly laws and regulations. Plutocrats —> good; working poor —> bad.

Remember when Pussygate erupted, Chaffetz said he couldn’t possibly support Donald Trump. But Trump is president now, so Chaffetz is just going to look the other way as are all the other ‘ethical and moral’ Republicans. Chaffetz has shown such partisanship and lack of integrity as a congressman that he cannot be trusted to do his job and police his own party. Like The Atlantic said in their article, you might as well call his committee the House Overlook Committee. There are a lot of people angry at Chaffetz as evidence by his town hall meeting back in February. Maybe, just maybe, he and a ton of other Republicans will be ousted in 2018.

Smuggest congressman alive, Jason Chaffetz displays his faultless logic as head of the House Oversight Committee that plutocrats are saintly angels and poor people are corrupt vermin.

Smuggest congressman alive, Jason Chaffetz displays his faultless logic as head of the House Oversight Committee, that plutocrats are saintly angels and couldn’t possibly be corrupt.

 

CEO Dan Price Gets It

It’s only April but we here at the Bucket already have a nominee for Person of the Year. CEO Dan Price of Seattle’s Gravity Payments, a credit card processing company, lowered his pay by a million dollars and raised the pay of his workers so that the minimum wage at his company is $70k a year. Finally, a CEO that gets it! Since the ’80s, when Reaganomics brought upon massive deregulation, CEO salaries have skyrocketed so that now the average difference between CEO and worker salary in America, is around 257:1. For comparison purposes, in other countries, gaps range from between 28 in Poland to 148 in Switzerland (this report also reports the American gap at 354:1). This move by Dan Price is a breath of fresh air. Now if only more CEOs would follow his lead, workers would finally be able to have a living wage. They would have more money to not only afford the basics but also buy other items, which will in turn help boost the economy. Kudos to Dan Price!!! We salute you!!!

Billionaire President and CEO of Juggermart, Lawrence T. Juggers, says Dan Price is wrong and that CEOs need to treat employees like the scum they are.

Billionaire President and CEO of Juggermart, Lawrence T. Juggers, demonstrates why most Americans view today's CEOs as being greedy assholes.

Shows Tonight on CSPAN

What’s this? Why its a new What’s on Tonight TV Listing. Since the OWS movement has taken off, we’re wondering what’s on the channel which covers the antics of America’s corporate lackeys.

Shows Tonight on CSPAN

7:00pm Bribery 101
7:30pm Conning Your Constituents That You Give a Rat’s Ass About Them
8:00pm Getting The Most From Your Lobbyist
8:30pm Great Moments in Corruption: Tom Delay’s Moolah Laundromat
9:00pm Kickbacks and Relax: The Best Caribbean Tax Havens
9:30pm Congress After Dark: Interns Gone Wild