2023 marks the 20th anniversary of the BilgeBucket Gazette. Our first issue was on May 19, 2003 and we’ve been shoveling it to the public, just like the corporate media, ever since. We changed our format to a WordPress blog in 2011 so all of our earlier material was archived. We’ve been reposting many of those archived articles, headlines, photo-toons, BilgeBucket Lists and other content over the past twelve years. In honor of our 20th, and because we’re sick of the current state of affairs in the world, we’ll be reposting more items from 2003 through 2009 throughout this year.
It’s time to get back to our final review of Arizona GOP whack-a-doodle candidates. We’ve already mentioned fluff-brained gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and plutocrat butt kisser senatorial candidate Blake Masters. We focus in this post on perhaps the most insidious and dangerous of the Trumphumpers, Mark Finchem, who is running for Secretary of State. In Arizona, the Secretary of State is second in command since there is no Lieutenant Governor. The Secretary of State is also in charge of certifying election results and keeping records of campaign finances. This is why Finchem is dangerous – he is an election denier and has openly stated that he would have overturned the 2020 election in favor of TFG despite there being absolutely no evidence of voter fraud. He’s also stated that if he loses the upcoming election he will not concede, just like Trump.
But first, who is Mark Finchem? The way he dresses and acts, you’d think he’s a native Arizonan. But he was born and Michigan and moved to AZ and adopted the garb and persona of a rough and ready, independent Arizonan. Basically, he’s a poser. But the conservative rubes eat it up which is why he was elected as a state representative for Legislative District 11 which represents about 225,000 Arizonans in Pinal and Pima counties which covers the northwestern parts of the Tucson metropolitan area up to Casa Grande and Maricopa. Finchem’s been married four times, so he’s got TFG beat there. Other Arizona Republicans have called Finchem a “political gadfly” and “one of the dumbest” members of the state legislature.
The bottom line is this, folks: Mark Finchem is a bat shit insane, QAnon, Oath Keeper, fascist nutcase and is an absolute danger to Democracy. If he is elected Secretary of State, he will guarantee that only Republicans will win key offices in upcoming elections which is not only undemocratic but out and out fascism. We Arizonans need to make sure to vote him out this November 8th or we will never have fair elections in this state again and it might start an unfortunate trend that goes nationwide.
Update 9/26/22: Here are a couple more links to stories about Finchem.
A few posts ago we commented on the newsreader who wants to be guvnah in Arizona, the woefully unqualified Trump acolyte Kari Lake. In this post, we’ll discuss the AZ GOP’s candidate for Senator, another Trump Humper named Blake Masters.
We’ve mentioned before about America becoming a corporate theocracy; a Holy Corporate Empire, if you will – and Blake Masters is one hundred percent on board with this kind of transformation. Corporations are authoritarian environments. Corporations are like little dictatorships. The corporation has a CEO and small board of advisers who make all the decisions for the company. If you don’t like the decision, you’re fired. Churches are authoritarian environments. The church has its leader who claims infallibility because he or she talks to God. If you don’t like what the leader has proclaimed, you are evil and one with the devil. Both institutions have very fascist tendencies – do what the leaders say or else. It’s no surprise that the Republican party is filled with these corporatist and religious zealots. They’ve been pushing since the Reagan administration to try and make the government like a corporation. The evangelicals have pretty much taken over the Republican party with their embrace of TFG and planting right wing zealots on the Supreme Court to overturn abortion. We have no doubt if given the chance, Masters would do everything possible to join church and state and corporate America together into a modern day feudal society because . . . you know . . . the Middle Ages were so enlightening and full of freedom for everyone. That’s right, you work during the day, go to church on Sunday and don’t ask questions like good little sheeple until the day you drop dead. Maybe, just maybe, our autocrat overlords will throw a pittance your way as a reward for allowing them to buy yet another car, boat or luxury property. Ahhhh! Unregulated capitalism!
Fortunately, at least for Arizona, he’s running against centrist Democrat Mark Kelly who’s about as likable as they come. Independents love him and moderate Republicans do, too. And what’s not to like; he’s an ex-Navy pilot, an engineer and he’s an ex-astronaut. Not only that, he’s done an impressive job in his two years as Senator helping get many legislative packages through Congress. And he’s voted with Republicans enough so that he’s not viewed as completely partisan.
Masters is behind in the polls and he’s desperately trying to backtrack on his abortion , election fraud and social security comments. With the DOJ’s case against TFG becoming more evident, it looks like his attraction to the crooked and traitorous Trump could sink him like a stone. Of course, there are a lot of MAGA morons here in Arizona which could make the race closer than it should be. Hopefully, there are enough competent election officials with ethics and morals who will make sure that radical right wing Republicans don’t try some kind of Trumpf*ckery to get MAGA candidates elected.
That’s because the Republican party has clearly become the party for white nationalists and lovers of authoritarianism and fascism, . . . you know . . . Putin-style ‘democracy’. We remember a photo back when Obama was President and he was giving Putin the evil eye, like he was saying, “Cut the bullshit, Vlad!” Pretty badass, right? Of course, the Republicans were rooting for the white guy in the photo because:
They’re the ones who are un-American
They’re racist as hell
They’re THE PROBLEM
Solve the problem on November 3rd and vote out every Republican sycophant from federal level all the way down to state level. When you let a foreign power like Russia have influence over our country, that’s unacceptable, untenable and un-American.
We’ve commented before about how poor people view themselves as temporarily embarrasses millionaires and are cajoled into voting against their own self-interests by right wing propagandists, like Fox News, blaming everyone else but the real culprits (plutocratic capitalists) for their conditions. The scapegoats are always the same: minorities, people of color and people of different religions other than christianity – you know, people who are ‘different’. So these right wing, racist, conservative christians, although they are in the same boat financially as blacks, hispanics, other non-whites, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and atheists, will support politicians who create laws and policies that decimate the middle class and make their own lives even tougher. For example, the Trump administration has destroyed consumer protection regulations which make it harder for Americans to stand up for their rights and easier for corporations to do whatever the hell they want with no repercussions. With higher insurance premiums and no voice to change them, we’re all getting screwed. But it doesn’t matter to the racist Trump supporters, because at least non-whites are not becoming better off than them. So much winning. . . for corporations and plutocrats!
Tucker Carlson, ‘journalist’ at Fox News, a.k.a. The Republican Propaganda Network and man with a perpetual brain fart. recently got himself in a lot of hot water. It seems that…brace yourselves…the Tuckwad is a bit of a white nationalist. Media Matters uncovered audio of Tucktard’s appearance on the Bubba the Love Sponge show (you can’t make this stuff up) and ol’ Tucknuts let loose with a torrent of misogynistic and racist gems. What’s more, in true Trumpian fashion, he has refused to apologize for them. Of course, this isn’t shocking to anybody who’s been paying attention since 2004. We’ve made note of his ‘journalistic integrity’ before (here and here).
We’re old-timers here at the Bucket and we remember another thinking impaired person from Mel Brooks’ classic comedy Blazing Saddles, the town simpleton Mongo. Yes, Tucker Carlson could easily be mistaken for him with the befuddled, eternally constipated look on his face. Mongo’s famous mantra could even be updated for the former bow-tie wearing douchebag: “Tucker only pawn in game of white nationalism and conservative Republican propaganda.”
Fox News ‘journalist’ and man with a perpetual brain fart, Tucker Carlson, bears a striking resemblance to another thinking impaired simpleton, Mongo from the 1970s Mel Brooks classic movie, Blazing Saddles and has even updated his famous mantra: “Tucker only pawn in game of white nationalism and conservative Republican propaganda.”
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.
Rumor has it that American CEO/Dictator Donald Trump, will name ‘one fine Nazi’, Sergeant Schultz, as his new press secretary.
We’ve commented before how the Republicans have swung radically to the right in the last thirty years. These growing ‘Pro-Trump’ militia style rallies are frightening to those of us who read our history and know of the vileness and insidiousness of Nazi ideology. We now have in control of our government, people who have been willing to bend an ear and sympathize with these racist fascists who want to eliminate permanently those who are different. We KNOW the evil Nazism is capable of unleashing on the world. That is why every Republican needs to strongly come out and condemn these Neo-Nazis and other groups like the KKK, who want to tear apart America. There were hundreds of thousands of Americans who were killed or injured fighting the Nazis in World War II. For Republicans to embrace and enable Nazi sympathizers just for votes in not only a slap in the face to the ‘greatest generation’, but a direct violation of our core democratic principles of freedom and justice for all Americans. In short: AMERICA DOES NOT DO NAZISM!!!!
Confederate Attorney General and good ol’ boy, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, assures all the poor, frightened, straight, white, christian males that the good ol’ days of the Confederacy are a coming back real soon, much to the delight of a white-sheeted onlooker.