Archives for February 2019

On an ideal world, the blue slip rule in the Senate might not exist (in my ideal world, the Senate wouldn’t exist). So perhaps it would be better if there were fewer choke points in nominating judges. Still, there is a value in the unwritten rules. And to get rid of them like this is not good. If you want to end these things, be explicit and change the rules.

Please join us Tuesday evening as the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally colludes for an evening of politics, drinks, and sentencing hearings.

We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the back room of the pub. We start at about 8pm.

Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 264 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, eight in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!

Still on vacation. Talk among yourselves.

Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.

Trevor: Conservatives slam Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s green new deal.

Jimmy Dore: Chris Christie “names names!” in new book.

Full Frontal: Black History Month—Rosa Parks.

Roy Zimmerman: Rise Up with the Girls’ Choir of Wilmington.

Vox: Why safe playgrounds aren’t great for kids.

Kurzgesagt: Loneliness.

The New Yorker: How gender politics play out on the red carpet.

The Dotard Трамп and Other National Emergencies:

• Stephen: The national emergency we “didn’t need”
• Jimmy Fallon: Talk like Трамп
• WaPo: The Dotard will take credit for almost everything!
• Ari Melber: Judge rebukes Roger Stone and sides with Mueller
• Stephen: Putin’s new missile threat against America
• Rachel Maddow: Grand Jury investigating former Dotard Трамп Interior Secretary Zinke
• Roy Zimmerman: Secret agent Manafort:

• The Late Show: William Barr’s plan for the Mueller report
• Bill Maher: Congressman Adam Schiff investigates
• Stephen: Трамп asked a favor of Matthew Whitaker
• Seth Meyers: Трамп prepares for Mueller’s final report
• WaPo: How QAnon, the bizarre pro-Трамп conspiracy theory, took hold in right-wing circles online
• Stephen: Roger Stone threatened the law and the law won
• Lauren Mayer: The National Emergency Song:

• Ari Melber: Former FBI Chief Andrew McCabe previews Mueller report.
• Stephen: The Mueller probe enters the home stretch
• WaPo: New wall or not? Трамп’s misleading claims on border wall progress.
• Trevor: Трамп admits there’s no emergency while declaring a national emergency
• Stephen with Andrew McCabe: There was no “coup” to remove Трамп
• The Late Show: Трамп’s National Emergency Broadcasting System
• Ari Melber: Busy Friday, and then Robert Mueller report news breaks
• Stephen: The Трамп quote that stood out to McCabe
• Mark Fiore: It’s a wall emergency
• SNL Weekend Update: Nancy and Chuck on the wall funding:

• Lawrence O’Donnell: Andrew McCabe’s credibility
• Stephen with Jake Tapper: Republicans don’t want to vote on a wall
• Bill Maher: If you see salsa, say something
• WaPo Opinion: Money laundering may help explain Donald Трамп’s curious relationship with Russia
• Stephen: Трамп could give a lot to Kim for a small victory
• Rachel Maddow: DOJ policy on indicting a President has weak basis in 1973 memo
• Seth Meyers: Трамп undercuts his national emergency declaration
• Stephen: Andrew McCabe had Robert Mueller as a boss

Wendover: How Hong Kong changed countries.

Trevor: The opioid crisis—Трамп blames Mexico & big pharma blames addicts

John Oliver: Brexit III.

The Atlantic: Band-aids over bullet wounds.

Real Engineering: Designer babies—The problem with China’s CRISPR experiment.

Bill Maher: Geospatial inequality

Stephen: Obama takes in a basketball game.

WaPo: The modern anti-vaxxer movement explained.

Jim Jefferies: The fight for the right to be naked in Hawaii.

Daily Show: Jaboukie Young-White makes the case for climate change “preparations”

Campaign Venti-Venti

• Stephen: The most “Bernie” way to kick off a campaign
• James Fallon: Bernie Sanders announces his 2020 presidential run
• Trevor: Bernie’s back, Kamala gets questioned, Gillibrand eats chicken & Booker doesn’t
• Robert Reich: Who will be the next President?
• James Corden: Elizabeth Warren reacts to fellow Democratic presidential candidates
• Seth Meyers: John Oliver thinks it’s too early to talk about the 2020 elections
• Trevor: Kamala Harris on her 2020 presidential campaign and Трамп’s vanity wall
• The Late Show: Invasion of the presidential candidates

Mental Floss: 100 year-old words.

Roy Wood, Jr. Black contributions to music.

The Atlantic: America’s dopamine-fueled shopping addiction.

Vox: American segregation, mapped at day and night.

Jimmy Dore: Congressman Peter King elated over Ilhan Omar controversy.

Late Show: It’s not easy being the green new deal.

Vox: What the #$@!% are these?

Seth Meyers: The real national emergency is climate change

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

I am on vacation! While you suckers are toiling away at your bullshit job, I will be, um, on a train. Seriously Amtrak is great, but I am a bit nervous about going crazy being on a train for 22 hours. The most I have taken before is 13 hours. My itinerary is pretty full, but if there’s something I have to do in the Bay Area, let me know.

I don’t understand what makes me mad on public transportation. I was in the bus tunnel* and there was a metal grate loose. Some teenager was standing on and off it and making noise. It should have annoyed me but I didn’t notice it until someone started yelling at him. And I was much more upset with yelling guy than clanging guy. I would have thought that I would be equally, or nearly equally, upset with both. I had to stifle a laugh when clanging guy started clanging again with yelling guy walking away.

[Read more…]

misdemeanor theft:

🎼 You can’t hide your Eyman Lies 🎵
🎶 And your cries are no disguise 🎼
🎵 Just wheeled a chair right outside 🎶
🎼 Gurl, ain’t no way to hide your Eyman lies 🎵

The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight for an evening of politics over a drink. Please stop by.

We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the back room of the pub. We start at about 8pm.

Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 264 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, eight in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!

Are you doing OK in the national emergency? Did the fact that Congress only appropriated some wall money stop you from living your life? In some ways it feels like it was before the emergency, but that can’t be right.

WaPo: Brexit explained for confused Americans.

Trevor: A year after the Parkland shooting, the fight for sensible gun control continues

Samantha Bee: Thicc, not sick.

Late Show: NYC returns its Amazon purchase.

SNL: Meet The Press

Minute Earth: Why earthquakes are so hard to predict

Roll Call: The week in Congressional hits and misses.

Trevor: 21 Savage gets arrested for overstaying his visa.

Vox: The 70% top tax rate, explained with potatoes.

The Dotard Трамп and Other National Emergencies:

• Stephen: Averting shutdowns is the bare minimum
• Rachel Maddow: Emergency declaration could backfire and force Republican opposition
• WaPo: Fact-checking Трамп’s national emergency declaration
• Seth Meyers: Трамп attacks the 2020 democrats
• Late Show: Трамп 2020, stolen slogans
• Trevor: Трамп’s call to finish the wall that hasn’t been started
• Chris Hayes: How The Dotard administration is bucking the legal process
• Jimmy Fallon: Трамп rallies El Paso and gets a $1.4B border wall offer
• Stephen: Трамп’s friends at FAUX don’t like the bipartisan deal
• WaPo: How The Dotard blames Obama
• Trevor: Трамп’s dog rant
• Bad Lip Reading: SOTU:

• Jimmy Dore: Right wing freaks out over Трамп’s emergency declaration
• Ari Melber: How Big Government would seize American homes if Трамп’s wall is built.
• Bill Maher: National Emergency!
• WaPo Opinion: Congress must stop this “national emergency”
• Rachel Maddow: Paul Manafort hid Russian intel-tied contacts and now faces decades of prison
• Jimmy Kimmel: Трамп tax cut only benefits Трамп
• The Daily Show: Worst scandals in Presidential history—Obama’s latte salute
• Stephen: Here’s how Трамп spends 60% of his day
• Seth Meyers: Did Manafort lie to Mueller to protect Трамп?
• Trevor: Bricky the border wall rallies Трамп supporters in El Paso
• Stephen: All the President’s 2020 challengers
• The Late Show: (Трамп’s rally in) El Paso’ by Marty Robbins
• Conan: Трамп’s worst nightmare
• Stephen and Trevor: Stealing executive time from Трамп
• Seth Meyers: Трамп says he’s not happy with deal to avoid shutdown
• Jimmy Kimmel: “No President ever worked harder” than The Dotard
• Rachel Maddow: Developments in three Robert Mueller-related cases advance Трамп scandal
• WaPo: What happens now that The Dotard has declared an emergency?
• Stephen: Pelosi warns of the consequences of a national emergency
• Vox: FAUX News keeps forcing Трамп into shutdowns
• RepresentUS: Everyone charged in the Mueller investigation… so far
• Trevor: New York Times op-ed columnist Frank Bruni on The Dotard’s SOTU address
• Jimmy Dore: Rick Perry reacts to being the “designated survivor”:

• Seth Meyers with Stacey Abrams: What to do if The Dotard declares a national emergency
• Bill Maher: Melania’s Rules
• Ari Melber: Mueller wins Roger Stone gag order & moves to sentence Manafort
• WaPo: Inside Paul Manafort’s 2016 meeting with a Russian operative
• Rachel Maddow: The Dotard Трамп asks Americans to abandon truth with daily, petty lies
• Stephen: Трамп 2020: Murders, murders, murders, killings, murders!
• Jimmy Kimmel: Трамп is all of us watching animal vids

The Daily Show: The Green New Deal

Stephen with John Oliver: Brexit and whatnot.

WaPo: What’s the deal with the Green New Deal?.

Bill Maher chats with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Stephen: Jeff Bezos invents a new euphemism for penis

Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.

BuzzFeed: I want you to stop being oily.

Seth Meyers with Stacey Abrams: Voter fraud is a myth.

Stephen: Russia is attempting to hack our brains.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Racism:

• Trevor: Virginia Governor bumbles through his blackface apology tour
• Stephen interviews Gayle King’s interview of Ralph Northam
• Trevor: Another blackface controversy in Virginia and Gucci’s racist sweater

Robert Reich: Inequality of place.

Stephen: Bill & Melinda Gates talk taxing the wealthy.

Full Frontal: Valentines for billionaires

SNL: Black history month presentation.

Bill Maher: New Rule—You can’t always get what you want:

Samantha Bee: Green new deal

Trevor: Kamala Harris wants to legalize weed and Amy Klobuchar’s temper is questioned.

WaPo: A play-by-play of Kamala Harris admitting she smoked weed.

Roy Wood, Jr.: CP Time—The history of civil rights marches

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Tim “Biggest lie of my life” Eyman has been accused of shoplifting. It appears he stole a chair, valued at $70, from an Office Depot in Lacey. Have a look for yourself:

Via KOMO News:

When [officers] responded, one of the employees told officers he had noticed an office chair near the entrance was missing, checked surveillance video and saw a man wearing a shirt with the words “Let the voter decide” emblazoned across the front, the police report said.

Surveillance video from the store showed Eyman walking from a service desk where one employee said he was helping him sort out an issue with his printer, the police report said. Eyman then can be seen walking into the foyer, sitting on a displayed office chair, spinning in it and wheeling it out the front door.
The employee said he did not pay for the chair.

Eyman then walked back into the store to exchange a printer for two other ones. An employee helped him out to his vehicle but was stopped just short of it and told by Eyman, “I’ve got it from here,” the report said.

The officers investigating the theft have “forwarded a recommended charge of third-degree theft to the City Attorney.”

Of course, Eyman owes the State a boatload of money after being held in contempt of court following his refusal to turn over court-ordered documents. He is also being sued by WA AG Bob Ferguson for pilfering and misusing initiative campaign funds.

The lawsuit and fines have, apparently, led to a divorce, and to Eyman declaring bankruptcy late last year.

So…I suppose he was just trying to furnish his new bachelor pad?

The list of shading behaviors that Tim Eyman has been accused of and, in some cases, has confessed to is long: lying and stealing donor’s money for his own personal gain, campaign finance violations, misappropriating campaign money, and contempt of court.

Alas, it appears we can add shoplifter to the list.

It’s like the guy is building his resume for a 2024 GOP Presidential nomination.

It’s pretty awful that we’re going to have a declaration of a national emergency over nothing. And it’s so obviously an impeachable act, but add it to the list of things that he won’t be impeached for.

You would think that if I was snowed in that I would at least be able to stay on top of Open Threads. But since I often write them on my commute, I guess not. Anyway, Seattle passed its levies, so yay.

The Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally will meet tonight, despite the snow, the sleet, the cold. We will not be denied our weekly forum for engaging in civic discourse, debating political philosophy and examining the democratic ideals bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers. Some of us just need a drink.

We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. You’ll find us in the back room of the pub. We usually start at about 8pm.

Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 264 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, eight in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!

Jimmy Kimmel: The week in unnecessary censorship.

Roll Call: The evolution of the SOTU.

Minute Physics: Shells of cosmic time.

Amazon Pecker Pix:

• Ari Melber: Explosive Bezos allegation could jeopardize Трамп ally immunity
• WaPo: What you need to know about AMI, the company Jeff Bezos says tried to blackmail him.
• Ari Melber: Jeff Bezos’ extortion claim and the “Saudi angle”
• Rachel Maddow: Saudi media blitz could explain devotion of National Enquirer/AMI.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Jeff Bezos accuses National Enquirer owner of blackmail

Bill Maher: New Rule—The Republicans are the problem:

Jonathan Mann: Billionaires are bad.

Trevor: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5)—Getting down to business with the congressional freshman class.

The Dotard Трамп And Other Co-conspirators:

• Rachel Maddow: The Dotard Трамп campaign & GOP donations being put to dubious use
• Stephen: The Dotard Трамп’s SOTU didn’t impress Joshua Trump
• Jimmy Kimmel: The Dotard Трамп on football, impeachment and golf with Tiger Woods
• WaPo: SOTU—Трамп versus Nixon
• Joy Reid: Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA-07) wants “reparations” for separated families:

• Stephen: Will Трамп be “239 pounds” at this year’s physical?
• Seth Meyers: Jake Tapper thinks there’s a chance for another government shutdown
• Ari Melber: Ex-DOJ official—Whitaker testimony “an embarrassment to the DOJ”
• Stephen: We’re finally going to get Трамп’s tax returns
• The Late Show: The real State of the Union
• Jimmy Kimmel: The Dotard rants about “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”
• WaPo: The Dotard Трамп gets The Clap
• Mother Jones: How Трамп’s new Interior pick David Bernhardt became “the guy doing the dirty work.”
• Trevor: Трамп’s leaked private schedule causes a stir
• Jimmy Fallon recaps the State of the Union address
• Stephen: CBS This Morning hosts stay up late for the SOTU
• Stephen: CBS This Morning hosts on what Трамп left out
• Jimmy Kimmel: The Dotard Трамп’s “willful ignorance” poses national security threat
• The Late Show: Vladimir Putin’s State of The Union response
• Robert Reich: How Трамп plays the press
• Jimmy Fallon: Reactions to Трамп’s State of the Union address
• Stephen interviews Трамп’s Super Bowl interview
• Samantha Bee: Elliott Abrams’ bitchin’ plan for Venezuela.
• Roll Call: Members describe the SOTU speech in 3 words
• WaPo: Fact-checking the SOTU
• Jimmy Kimmel responds to the State of the Union address
• Seth Meyers: Trump and Phil Robertson freak out about “socialism”
• Stephen: Трамп’s inauguration is now under investigation
• Trevor: State of the Union 2019—Uncancelled
• Rachel Maddow: Amid dodges, Matt Whitaker denies discussing Mueller probe with The Dotard.
• Jonathan Mann: Joshua Trump:

• Conan had a researcher fact-check Трамп’s SOTU address
• Seth Meyers: Трамп’s 2019 State of the Union address
• Mark Fiore: Executive Time!
• Jimmy Fallon: Трамп gives post-show press conference after SOTU
• Lawrence O’Donnell: The Dotard Трамп and God
• Samantha Bee: The State of the Union is long
• Stephen: The Restate of the Union
• Jimmy Kimmel: People don’t know who Mike Pence is

Real Engineering: Why SpaceX built a stainless steel starship.

Roy Wood, Jr.: The State of Black Shit

Bill Maher: The state of our union

Mental Floss: 19 common things science hasn’t figured out.

Trevor: About Liam Neeson’s racist confession.

Election Vente-Vente

• Stephen: Cory Booker’s 2020 announcement, dissected
• Seth Meyers: “Senator” David Jimenez (D-NM) et al. announces bids for President
• Roll Call: Cory Booker is running for president—Here are some congressional basics

Vox: America’s cocaine habit fueled its migrant crisis.

Samantha Bee: Real Black history (abridged)

Amber Ruffin’s drunk history: The Little Rock nine take on segregation in schools.

Kurzgesagt: Building a Marsbase is a horrible idea—Let’s do it!

The Atlantic: How should Americans tackle anti-Semitism?

Troubles in Old Dominion:

• Seth Meyers: Democrats call on Ralph Northam to resign after racist photo surfaces
• Conan: The scandals continue in Virginia
• Stephen: Ralph Northam can’t moonwalk his way out of this
• WaPo: Cascading scandals make future uncertain for top Virginia Democrats
• Trevor: Ralph Northam’s 1984 blackface explanation is a racism dumpster fire
• The Late Show: Another confession from a Virginia politician
• Seth Meyers: Jake Tapper thinks Virginia Governor Ralph Northam has done everything wrong
• Jimmy Kimmel: Presidential candidate Julián Castro on The Dotard’s State of the Union, health care & immigration
• Trevor: SOTU 2019 may be over, but the 2020 Democrats are just getting started
• Stephen: Who wants to be Virginia’s Governor?

Daily Show: Worst scandals in Presidential history—Obama’s Jacketgate.

Wendover: Living underwater—How submarines work.

Jonathan Mann: Ban billionaires.

Roll Call: The week in Congressional hits and misses.

Jim Jefferies has some words for the NFL.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.