Tag Archive for Fox News

These Boots Were Made For Kicking Ass

We’ve decided to kick off the new year with a positive, non-Trump (or at least a minimal-Trump) post. Since the Democrats are now in charge of the House and Nancy Pelosi is set to become the Speaker of the House, we’re feeling a lot better about perhaps some justice coming to American CEO/Dictator and ill-tempered man child, Donald Trump, after two years of lies and corruption from his administration.

But in the mean time, let’s devote a little time to one of our favorite people here at the Bucket, Michelle Obama. The former First Lady has been making the rounds promoting her best selling book, Becoming. But she caused quite a sensation recently when she showed up to an event wearing a pair of $4000 designer boots. Now we adhere to the Henry David Thoreau mantra of “Simplify, Simplify” so we all think that’s a bit much to be paying for a pair of shoes. Staff member and living fossil Chester Einstein grumbles about paying $20 for a pair of loafers at Payless. But we’re also aware that conservative Republicans, who preach austerity to their sheeple, regularly go out and spend gobs of money on extravagant, expensive material possessions (see Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney, The Bushes, etc…). For instance, take current First Lady Melania Trump…please. She regularly wears glitzy, lavish, ostentatious clothing: remember her ‘fashionable’ “I don’t really care, do u” jacket. But then Republicans bitch anytime Democrats spend even a little bit of money. Sean Hannity and the faux journalists at Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network, threw a memorable hissy fit when Barack Obama ordered spicy mustard for his burger back in 2009. Oh the humanity!!!

So although we pinch pennies better than Jack Benny, we think Michelle Obama looked fantastic and we say “Go get ’em!”  Who can forget her classy speech from the 2016 election when she said, “When they go low, we go high.” For normal, sane humans who believe in civilized society, these words are inspirational and right in line with the golden rule. But right wing, conservative, ‘christian’ Republicans only mocked and derided her. So, we’d like to suggest an minor update to our favorite First Lady for dealing with today’s Trumpian Republicans: “When they go low…put on some shiny pointy toe boots and kick their f***ing asses.”

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has updated her mantra from the 2016 election to now say when they go low just put on some shiny pointy toe boots and kick their f***king asses

Former First Lady Michelle Obama has updated her mantra from the 2016 election to include some ass kicking of modern day Trumpian Republicans.

Rewind: The 2006 Blue Wave

Results are still trickling in from the 2018 midterms and the blue wave is a lot bigger than the corporate main stream media proclaimed it to be. Why is it that corporate news outlets, especially conservative ones like Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network, can never admit that the Republican candidates lost and their world view is not popular with average Americans? CNN, MSNBC and other corporate media outlets all declared early on that the blue wave was more of a blue trickle. They did this during the last big ‘blue wave’ election in 2006 as well.

We dug up from our archives, an old article from that “thumpin'” in 2006 that pretty much describes the same toxic climate we have for this year’s midterm elections. We guess it’s like that old corporate media saying, “if it’s broken, don’t fix it…as long as we’re making money”.

This article is from our November 13, 2006 issue.

Holy Cow! Dems Win! Republicans Trampled, Crushed, Whupped, Clobbered, Drubbed, Thumped…They Got Beat BIG TIME!

In a thunderous rejection of President Bush’s foreign policy in Iraq and the scandal ridden Republican controlled Congress, the American public voted Democrats into power across the board in elections held last Tuesday, November 7th. Not only did the Democrats take control of the House and the Senate for the first time since 1994, they also seized control of many state legislatures and have an edge in governorships as well. The Democratic victory has also prompted many resignations and dismissals, like Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and RNC Chairman Ken Mehlmann. Among the many high profile Republicans defeated were: Senator Rick Santorum, Senator George Allen, Katherine Harris, Representative Richard Pombo and Representative J.D. Hayworth..

The new Speaker of the House, California representative Nancy Pelosi, said, “This is a stinging rebuke for the misguided policies of the Bush Administration. The American people have spoken and they are angry. President Bush has to work with us now and in particular me. They say ‘paybacks a bitch’. Well that bitch’s name is Nancy Pelosi.”

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry said, “Well a few weeks ago I said we were like the Chicago Cubs; always snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Boy I thought I blew the election with my botched joke about being dumb and getting stuck in Iraq. But even though the media beat it into the ground and flogged me with it on a daily basis, the American people decided they were fed up with Republican shenanigans and not my loquacious, meandering, sleep inducing manner of speaking. What I’m trying to say is: Cubs win! Cubs win!”

Even though President Bush acknowledged that is was ‘a thumping’, many Republicans and neocon pundits were in denial about the loss. Arizona Representative J.D. Hayworth, who was beaten by Democrat Harry Mitchell, still hasn’t conceded even though major wire services have called the race for Mitchell and there is a four percentage point difference in the vote count. “Nuh-uh!” whined Hayworth in typical Hayworth fashion. “There is no way I lost to Mitchell. That is just pure fantasy. I’m J.D. Hayworth. I wrote a book about immigration reform. People like me. I’m J.D. Hayworth. We’re just going to count and recount those votes until I’m victorious. So there! I’m J.D. Hayworth and I approve this tantrum.”

Host of Fox News Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity, said, “Please! I would hardly call this a ‘Blue Wave’ like everybody in the liberal media is calling it. Sure some Democrats won some races and they took back the House and Senate, barely. It’s nothing like the glorious revolution of 1994 when the Republicans swept into power ushering in a glorious age of ass-clenched conservativism. Those days are gone my friends. The next thing you know, Osama will be invited to address Congress by that terrorist loving Nancy Pelosi. She’s probably having a sex party in her office right now with her unholy sex slaves from San Francisco. God I hate her!”

Chris Matthews, host of Hardball, said, “You know who I’m going to miss? All those guys like Tom Delay, Bob Ney and Randall Cunningham. Sure they were corrupt, but they made it exciting didn’t they? Now we’ve got Hillary and Nancy nagging at us all like mother hens. Things will probably get done now. We won’t have any fun. God I hate them!”

Many Americans felt good about the election results. Karyn Green of Teller, Virginia said, “For the first time in six years I have a feeling of hope. Maybe now Congress will check Bush and his agenda which has gotten us into nothing but hot water.”

Natalie Harrison of Chesterville, Wisconsin said, “I don’t expect miracles from this new Congress, but maybe someone can come up with a plan for exiting Iraq. The current administration certainly doesn’t have a clue.”

However, Bush supporter Derrick Armstrong of Hubley, Colorado said, “Great! Now that Pelosi woman is going make me speak Spanish, hug a tree, get an abortion, do drugs and have sex with a guy. Thank goodness, my old pastor, Ted Haggard, showed me how to do the last two.”

Living skeleton Ann Coulter proclaims the 2006 blue wave to be nothing more than a blue trickle.

Neo-conservative pundits, like living skeleton Ann Coulter, were downplaying the November 7th election results saying “Only for half-brights with absolutely no concept of yesterday is this a ‘tsunami’ — as MSNBC calls it — rather than the death throes of a dying party.”

Ratcheting Up The Fear Machine To Eleven

It’s almost election day and America’s CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, is ratcheting up the fear machine to – in Spinal Tap language – eleven. With the unstoppable force that is the migrant caravan still ambling ever so slowly eight hundred miles away from the nearest American border, America’s orange haired, megalomaniac rage monster has sent 5,000 troops to the border with promises of 15,000 to defend us against a group of mostly unarmed, poor men, women and children seeking asylum from brutal governments in Central America.

We discussed previously the lunacy of the right wing coverage of the caravan on Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network, and the more that is revealed about this caravan, the more it just doesn’t make sense. Why would weary, dejected people filled with despair purposely walk several more hundred miles than necessary to a border where they know they’ll be harassed and treated badly when Mexico is offering everything they are looking for? Not only that, they wouldn’t have to learn a new language; they could just keep on speaking Spanish. Talk about your false flag operation. If the Republicans can duplicitously collude with Russians to sway the 2016 election, they’re capable of this piece of deception as well. Plus, Trump is a pathological liar.

We just wonder what kind of confrontation will occur between the armed to the teeth American military machine against those ‘dangerous’ migrant families.

Just in time for the midterm elections, American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, has ordered a gazillion troops to the border to welcome the poor, unarmed, asylum seeking migrants to America, christian style.

Just in time for the midterm elections, American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, has ordered a gazillion troops to the border to welcome the poor, unarmed, asylum seeking migrants to America, christian style.

Douchey Border Fearmongering

If there’s one thing Republicans know, it’s that when election time comes around, they can always ratchet up the fearmongering propaganda that there’s a border crisis that only the good ol’ GOP can resolve. They’ve been doing it during every election since 9/11. Remember in 2014, it was Ebola, Benghazi, ISIS, Obama and the border. How about 2006, ol’ Dubya and the GOP, trying to distract everyone on the clusterf*ck in Iraq, warned of an unsecured border and sent troops to secure it. They know that their core base of white christian conservatives react strongly to fear and there’s no better fear provoker than a bunch of illegal, brown skinned immigrants approaching the border. Gee, what a coincidence that a caravan of immigrants just happens to be approaching America and will make it to our border right around election time. Hmmm…let’s think like Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network… maybe the immigrants are nothing more than crisis actors being paid under the table by GOP operatives? Could this be fake news? A great big nothing burger?

This whole spiel is playing more like a Monty Python sketch. I mean the caravan is just inside the Mexico-Guatemala border, still at least 800 miles away from the nearest border in Texas, and almost twice as far to the Arizona border, but the media is covering it like this group was right at the U.S. border. Plus, they’re being portrayed by American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, like they’re a band of thugs and criminals and the media is buying into it. He’s even admitted there’s no proof of terrorists being in the throng. So here we are watching the slow motion advance of a band of unarmed, poor, desperate immigrants who are escaping violence in their home countries and meanwhile, our Republican leaders are lining up tanks at the border to mow down these ‘menaces’. There have been more people protesting Trump on any given weekend than there are people in the caravan and yet this band of walking immigrants is getting more coverage (especially Fox News) than any group of protesters. But the media keeps brainlessly repeating Trump’s narrative that there doesn’t seem to be a way to stop these marauding foreigners from making a run on our borders.

Which brings us to the racist fearmongering ads being run across the board by Republicans in Arizona. They are attacking all Democratic candidates as being weak on immigration and insinuating that candidates like gubernatorial candidate David Garcia, who are against building a wall, (like most Americans), would welcome with open arms illegal gun toting, drug taking immigrants. We’ve posted here before that illegal immigration has been dropping in recent years and since Trump has taken office, it’s down even more. A border wall is completely unnecessary. Not only that, it wouldn’t stop drugs from getting over the border. The cartels would just build more tunnels and find new routes for their drones and planes. A border wall would be a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money. Candidates like Garcia and Kyrsten Sinema want a common sense approach to securing the border and eliminating drug dealers. But leave it to the Republicans like Governor Doug Ducey (pronounced douchey), to push fearmongering border politics to try and win an election.

In a stunning display of political fearmongering, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (pronounced douchey), proclaims that his opponent, whose last name is suspiciously Garcia, will probably open up the border to all sorts of caravans carrying gun toting, drug dealing illegal immigrants.

In a stunning display of political fearmongering, Arizona Governor Doug Ducey (pronounced douchey), proclaims that his opponent, whose last name is suspiciously Garcia, will probably open up the border to all sorts of caravans carrying gun toting, drug dealing illegal immigrants.

Full On Fascism

America’s CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, has been busy this past week doing more outrageous, inane acts and his Republican cohorts in Congress keep shaking their heads, castigating him about the acts and then sitting on their ass doing nothing like the feckless cowards they are. This kind of complicit behavior is indicative that the GOP not only doesn’t have a problem with Trump, they approve strongly of his actions. Republicans have been wanting to establish permanent dominance over this nation for some time and now they’ve got their authoritarian bully in the White House to make it happen.

Trump and his sycophants at Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network, have blabbered that a coup is coming by the Democrats using any means possible, like immigration protests. But as usual, Trump lies and deceives. No, the real coup arrived with the 2016 election when the Russians helped Trump and the radical, conservative christian Republicans win so they could stack the courts and jam their narrow minded agenda down not just this nation’s throat but the world’s throat. The Republicans are actively touting the truth as ‘fake news’ and vilifying the press or anyone for pointing out the GOP’s lies and deceptions. Take Trump’s recent Orwellian VFW speech where he told the attendees that “what you’re seeing is not what’s happening”. So, don’t trust your eyes and ears or your even your own thoughts. Believe only what Donald Trump tells you. Wow!!! A free press is vital to a functioning democratic society. But the Republicans are so hell bent on maintaining their power forever that they’re not even faking a tolerance for democracy. The GOP is going full on fascist!

We’ve commented before about Sinclair Lewis’s warning about fascism coming to America: “When fascism comes to America, it will wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.” Well, it’s here staring us right in the face. We’re basically a corporate oligarchy, a.k.a. the Holy Corporate Empire, where religion, money and big business converge and run our country with no dissent allowed. The only thing sane, educated, intelligent people are trying to do is prevent the United States from becoming an authoritarian, fascist dictatorship with an orange haired madman at the helm. We think that Republicans should review history to see what people did to fascist dictators in the past, i.e. Benito Mussolini during World War II. Our question to the GOP is this: do you really want to follow that disastrous path?

The modern day Republican party has apparently forgotten history and inexplicably wants to pursue the same disastrous path as Mussolini and his fascists did during World War II.

The modern day Republican party has apparently forgotten history and inexplicably wants to pursue the same disastrous path as Mussolini and his fascists did during World War II.

The Lying Liar’s Pity Party

The Trump administration’s lackeys continue to annoy the American populace on a daily basis. Take Sarah Huckabee Sanders…please. She keeps complaining about how the press is unfairly spreading ‘fake news’. We’ve already commented about how this bible thumper has been repeatedly bearing false witness in front of the nation despite her religion teaching its followers that lying will lead to eternal damnation.

Now Ms. Sanders is whining about how the press calling her a liar is making her feel bad. Oh really???!!! Poor baby!!! And Ms. Sanders’ daily lies don’t make us feel miserable???!!! It’s truly astonishing that the gaslighting Republicans think that many Americans, including the press, can’t discern the truth that Trump and his entire administration are nothing but pathological liars. We’ve already mentioned the database of Trump’s lies being kept by the Washington Post’s Fact Checker. There’s also overwhelming video evidence of him lying!!! Just check Youtube! Of course, Trump and the Republicans have some help spreading their deceptions with their very own propaganda network, a.k.a. Fox News, which many of the christian sheeple follow without question, like the good little authoritarian automatons they are.

But as for Sarah Huckabee Sanders: we have no sympathy whatsoever for this women. She is nothing but a gargantuan hypocrite. Want to stop feeling bad, Ms. Sanders? Stop lying!!!

Trump administration Press Secretary and pathological prevaricator, Sarah Huckabee Sanders whines about being called a liar, to which a friendly doctor advises her to stop lying.

A kindly doctor provides some friendly advice for whiny Trump administration Press Secretary and pathological prevaricator, Sarah Huckabee Sanders: STOP LYING!!!

Trump Gets Respect…From Clowns

At a recent rally in a packed middle school gymnasium (you know those things seat tens of thousands of people) in Elkhart, Indiana, American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, and Vice President and modern day Puritan, Mike Pence, cajoled the crowd with how they’ve made America ‘respectable’ again. Oh Really???!!! According to Newsweek, global respect for America has dropped to an all-time low under Trump. The willingness of other countries to trust the U.S. is also on the wane because of Trump. Only three countries, Greece, Hungary and Nigeria, saw a positive uptick for America. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has pretty much stated that Europe can no longer depend on America because of Trump. And Trump’s disastrous plan to pull out of the Iran deal has been met with almost universal condemnation. Top E.U. official Donald Tusk, has even said that “with friends like that, who needs enemies?” in reference to Trump.

So we don’t know what Trump and Mike Pence have been smoking but they are seriously delusional. About the only group (other than Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network) that Trump has won the respect of are professional clowns. That is because the daily actions of the orange haired man-child in the White House are making them look like rank amateurs.

Clowns have nothing but respect for the Grand Poobah of buffoons, American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, whose daily actions make them look like rank amateurs.

Clowns have nothing but respect for the Grand Poobah of buffoons, American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, whose daily actions make them look like rank amateurs.

Trump’s Newspeak Lackeys

America’s CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump, continued his assault on democracy and the freedom of the press with his whining about all the ‘fake news’ media outlets who have the utter nerve to broadcast his ludicrous, insipid, asinine, daily statements. And then our mendacious, duplicitous liar-in-chief has the audacity to say the media makes him look bad.

But what is really Orwellian is the fact that Sinclair Broadcasting Group has recently sent out to its news affiliates scripted news that news anchors must read; if they don’t…they’re fired. Sinclair Broadcasting Group is a extremely conservative and extremely aggressive in pushing its agenda on America. John Oliver did an outstanding piece on them last July. It’s no surprise that they’re taking the Fox News (a.k.a. Republican Propaganda Network) route and blatantly calling any news which is critical of our orange haired man-child, as being fake news.

This latest stunt by Sinclair is frightening because it shows the right wing media outlets are moving us more and more in the direction of Nazi Germany’s propaganda machine (also very right wing) which so effectively and brutally killed any kind of free speech and free press, which are cornerstones of our democracy and separates us from authoritarian regimes like Russia and China. We find it ironic that for eight years, conservative Republican outlets like Fox News vilified, mocked and derided President Obama at every turn and yet Obama let them exercise their right to free speech. He didn’t threaten them or call them names. Now that Trump’s in charge, nobody can criticize him. Of course, Fox did the same thing when ol’ Dubya was the decider (if you’re not for Bush, you’re for the terrorists). The Republicans who allow this disgrace of a presidency to continue will hopefully be bitch slapped this fall by the voters. Then, maybe, just maybe, Trumpty-Dumpty will finally have his great fall.

A local Sinclair Action McNews team warns viewers of fake news while touting the totally not fake news awesomeness of American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump

A local Sinclair Action McNews team warns viewers of fake news while touting the totally not fake news awesomeness of American CEO/Dictator, Donald Trump.

Spaceship Earth

The Trump administration’s assault on the environment continues to go unabated. We’ve commented several times on the Republican’s War on Science, so much so that we’ve created a category for it. But Scott Pruitt continues to dismantle our environmental protections, all to benefit the greed of oil, gas, coal, lumber, mining and other companies which have bought the loyalty of Republican ‘lawmakers’. Why this past week, Pruitt’s EPA announced it wants to lower gas efficiency standards for automobiles not only because that extra care and concern about the environment is cutting into the corporate executives profit too much but also because President Obama put them into place. And they’re auctioning off federal land for oil and gas development. Our capitalistic overlords are using up resources, killing species and fouling our environment like we’ve got a Planet B ready to travel to when we’ve completely trashed our own precious Earth. But guess what…there is no planet B!

One of the 20th century’s greatest scientific minds, Stephen Hawking recently passed away. We here at the Bucket liked Hawking, but editor Dex Rexter, who used to be a huge supporter of human space colonization (with memberships in the Planetary Society and the L5 society), after years of research on the subject, profoundly disagrees with many scientists, including Hawking and Bill Nye, who are calling for immediate human colonization of Mars and outer space. Yes, it would be fun to play Star Trek or Star Wars and zip around the universe in a spaceship. But to seriously consider extended space travel or colonization, we have to develop artificial gravity spaceships first. The best way to do this is the way the space station in 2001: A Space Odyssey did it: using a rotating wheel. The astronauts would experience centripetal acceleration, which would mimic the gravitational force humans need for normal activity. But we’re not even close to developing anything of that sort, which would be a colossal endeavor financially, not to mention logistically. And let’s say we actually get humans to Mars. We would have to completely terraform the surface and atmosphere to make it inhabitable: another gargantuan undertaking.

Like Buckminster Fuller stated a half century ago, we need to look at the big picture and see the Earth as what is it: a spaceship with all living things on the planet as inhabitants of the spaceship. Instead of continuing to befoul and pollute our planet like there’s no tomorrow, it is paramount that every human on Earth, to take action and conserve our planet. It’s necessary for people in the industrial, capitalistic countries to start eschewing materialism and living more simply, like the people in lesser industrialized countries, if we are to save our planet…and ourselves.

The bottom line is this: We will never find a better spaceship than planet Earth. It has everything we need to survive and live happy, peaceful, wonderful lives. The best, most efficient solution is not to put humanity out into the hostile environs of space or on a desolate planet like Mars, but for everyone to change our lifestyles and preserve the already spectacular life on our home planet: Earth.

Dear denizens of planet Earth: There is no Planet B. Let's start taking care of our own wonderful planet. The best spaceship possible is planet Earth.

Dear denizens of planet Earth: There is no Planet B. Let’s start taking care of our own spectacular planet.

Fox News: GOP Propaganda Machine

It’s hard to keep up with the flak generator that is the Trump administration, but this piece of news is straight from the DUH file.

In a bombshell, retired Army lieutenant colonel and news analyst, Ralph Peters, quit Fox News, a.k.a. the Republican Propaganda Network. In a scathing statement, Peters said “In my view, Fox has degenerated from providing a legitimate and much-needed outlet for conservative voices to a mere propaganda machine for a destructive and ethically ruinous administration.” Peters went on to lament on how the Fox anchors now shamelessly “dismiss facts and empirical reality to launch profoundly dishonest assaults on the F.B.I., the Justice Department, the courts, the intelligence community (in which I served) and, not least, a model public servant and genuine war hero such as Robert Mueller.” Wow! And this is from an ultra conservative hawk who thought the clusterf*ck Iraq War was a good idea, and called Obama a pussy. Of course, Fox News has obviously been spewing Republican Party propaganda since it’s inception over twenty years ago. This is crystal clear to anyone with half a brain. Hence, the DUH.

We’re not saying we like Peters now…far from it. It’s just that Trump and his propaganda channel are now officially so pathetic that staunchly conservative Republicans are abandoning ship or as Peters put it, he could not “in good conscience” remain with a network that “is now wittingly harming our system of government for profit.”

Conservative pundit, Ralph Peters, a.k.a. Captain Obvious, shocks the world by declaring Fox News to be nothing more than a propaganda machine for American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump and his gang of Republican party lackeys hellbent on destroying the government for fun and profit.

Conservative pundit, Ralph Peters, a.k.a. Captain Obvious, shocks the world by declaring Fox News to be nothing more than a propaganda machine for American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump and his gang of Republican party lackeys.