It isn’t every day you can meet with fellow liberals on the eve of a presidential impeachment. Join us tonight as we debate, contemplate, cheer and jeer about the impending impeachment of 45. For the regulars it’s just another weekly meeting of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally….
We meet every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. Look for us in the back room of the pub beginning about 8pm.
Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the 266 chapters of Living Liberally, including 22 in Washington state, seven in Oregon and three in Idaho. Find a chapter near you. Or start a new chapter for your community!
Mayor Pete certainly seems to be an intelligent young man. Still, there are some things about optics that he needs to learn.
Teddy Schleifer
Verified account
@teddyschleifer
19h19 hours ago
Here are some photos of the Buttigieg fundraiser in Napa — with the famous wine cave and the chandelier with 1,500 Swarovski crystals — that @BrianSlodysko wrote about.
The link to the Instagram photos is kaput, natch. But there are photos in the tweet
https://twitter.com/teddyschleifer/status/1206670862356819968
that do plenty of damage.
Mayor Pete for the people! Just not the little people.
Watch and learn, Mayor Pete.
Teddy Schleifer
Verified account
@teddyschleifer
13h13 hours ago
MoreTeddy Schleifer Retweeted Adam Kelsey
Bernie fundraising email: “Can you help Bernie match Pete’s wine cave fundraiser?”
“We do need your help to fight back against the wine cave money flooding into this race to stop us.”
Big Wine Cave.
Hey, y’all, remember Lloyd Bentsen’s “Breakfast Club”?
Maybe Teddy is just pissed ’cause he’s gonna get axed by Vox when the new anti-Uber law in California takes effect.
Pete Buttigieg is raising money from Silicon Valley’s billionaires — even as Elizabeth Warren attacks him for it
The families of Eric Schmidt, Reed Hastings, and Sergey Brin are hosting a fundraiser for Buttigieg on Monday.
By Theodore Schleifer@teddyschleifer Dec 13, 2019, 7:05pm EST
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/13/21021008/pete-buttigieg-reed-hastings-laurene-powell-jobs-sergey-brin-eric-schmidt-fundraiser-palo-alto
Or maybe, as gman is about to allege, Teddy’s just a homophobe.
Man, Barack really has the long knives out for Grandpa Joe.
When asked if he would ever consider going back into political leadership, he said he believed in leaders stepping aside when the time came.
“If you look at the world and look at the problems it’s usually old people, usually old men, not getting out of the way,” he said.
“It is important for political leaders to try and remind themselves that you are there to do a job, but you are not there for life, you are not there in order to prop up your own sense of self importance or your own power.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-50805822
gman, how many months of PrEP would you have to forego in order to drop $2,800 on a Mayor Pete fundraiser?
Hunter Biden will take down Grandpa Joe.
Latvian government says it flagged ‘suspicious’ Hunter Biden payments in 2016
As the U.S. presidential race began roaring to life in 2016, authorities in the former Soviet republic of Latvia flagged a series of “ suspicious” financial transactions to Hunter Biden and other colleagues at a Ukrainian natural gas company and sought Kiev’s help investigating, according to documents and interviews.
The Feb. 18, 2016 alert to Ukraine came from the Latvian prosecutorial agency responsible for investigating money laundering, and it specifically questioned whether Vice President Joe Biden’s younger son and three other officials at Burisma Holdings were the potential beneficiaries of suspect funds.
“The Office for Prevention of Laundering of Proceeds Derived from Criminal Activity … is currently investigating suspicious activity of Burisma Holdings Limited,” the Latvian agency also known as the FIU wrote Ukraine’s financial authorities.
https://johnsolomonreports.com/latvian-government-says-it-flagged-suspicious-hunter-biden-payments-in-2016/
Axios is a rising media star.
Most investors don’t want to touch media anymore. But Axios is going to raise another $20 million.
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/12/16/21019605/axios-funding-glade-brook-mike-allen-publishing-funding-politics-vandehei
Here’s what Axios has to say today:
Focus group: These Obama/Trump voters are just Trump voters now
These voters hate the fact that House Democrats are moving toward impeaching the president. They call it a distraction from the issues that would actually improve their lives, like preserving Social Security, cracking down on illegal immigration, and keeping jobs in the U.S.
…
They have virtually zero trust in the media’s coverage of him.
Their support for Trump will grow, they said, even if the country enters a recession or a full-blown trade war with China.
And they credit Trump with making health care more affordable, thanks to — they said — his GOP tax law, which some said has saved them more in taxes so they can now reallocate that money to pay for prescription drugs.
https://www.axios.com/focus-group-michigan-swing-voters-trump-impeachment-183e4fc7-5ecc-41bd-add1-537ed8a2fd8f.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=twsocialshare&utm_campaign=organic
Kinda like the “choice” unions give workers about about paying dues, no doubt.
In a rhetorical shift, Elizabeth Warren emphasizes ‘choice’ on health care
KEOKUK, IOWA (CNN)Sen. Elizabeth Warren has been using new, notable language at her town halls to describe the transition into “Medicare for All” — saying, under her plan, it would be a voter’s “choice” to opt in.
While the language is already a part of her transition proposal, it’s a notable rhetorical shift on Warren’s part after her moderate Democratic rivals — namely South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg — have criticized her plan that would eventually eliminate private health insurance.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/16/politics/elizabeth-warren-choice-medicare-for-all-transition-iowa/
It’s currently Roger Dumbfuck Rabbit’s preferred “choice” to dumpster dive at Merrill Gardens for old catheters to use for his needs. Under Warren he’ll continue to have this “choice” because none others will be available.
We Are Republicans, and We Want Trump Defeated
The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/opinion/lincoln-project.html
I hope they are successful. I would welcome an actual conservative party again to keep democrats in check. Conservatives had some viable ideas and policies. Trumpers do not.
Wealth Taxes Don’t Reduce Inequality.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-12-17/wealth-taxes-like-warren-s-and-sanders-don-t-reduce-inequality
Shorter article “Lol, “wealth taxes are too hard to collect, so fuck it”.”
Brought to you by Bloomberg 2020. He’s scared that Warren or Saunders will win.
I found this interesting.
I’m fine with highly progressive income taxes as well.
Um, Doctor, try quality instead of quantity. You might not come off as being such a dumbfuck.
But I reckon this is what has you so dumbfucky this morning.
“Russia’s State TV Calls Trump Their ‘Agent’”
They called that segment, “Puppet Master and ‘Agent’—How to Understand Lavrov’s Meeting With Trump.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/russias-state-tv-calls-trump-151254712.html?ncid=facebook_yahoonewsf_akfmevaatca
Fucking traitor.
Looks like Bob is scared of Mayor Pete. Pussy.
Go Mayor Pete.
@6 0 months.
I get it free….yes FREE…no copay either. Thanks for playing – if you had a fucking brain it might help. And I’ve already dropped maybe $1600.00 on Mayor Pete. Not a dime to Bernie, not a dime to Warren. Not a dime to Biden. Do I believe Pete needs more money? They all can use more money. But I donate just to know I show his support and he can count on my vote….as the others can to, but they take it for granted.
I wouldn’t say for that reason, but I’m sure if you research him enough, like you, there is a chance he might be.
Go ahead and stand with Putin and your treasonous orange moron, Doctor. I choose to stand with these patriotic Republicans whose loyalty is to our constitution and our country.
“The president and his enablers have replaced conservatism with an empty faith led by a bogus prophet.”
“Patriotism and the survival of our nation in the face of the crimes, corruption and corrosive nature of Donald Trump are a higher calling than mere politics. As Americans, we must stem the damage he and his followers are doing to the rule of law, the Constitution and the American character.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/17/opinion/lincoln-project.html?smtyp=cur&smid=tw-nytopinion
@10 & 16. Great minds think alike.
12,
Giraffe hoarding spew. And it isn’t even a Democratic politician doing the alleged giraffe hoarding.
Presumably the entire field of Democratic primary candidates is doomed because somewhere in Heartlandia™ a Latvian deli owner rigged his meat scale.
Remember kids, all of this was foreseeable and foreseen.
Trump voters WILL discover a reason to reject all other options and vote once again for:
a) a man they acknowledge to be a dangerous violent sexual predator, or
b) a man they acknowledge to be so emotionally fragile, and sexually inadequate that he must fabricate tales of his own violent sexual conquests in order to impress minor B-listers.
This has all been baked in from the beginning. It is destiny as far as Republicans are concerned. And for that reason it is and will henceforth and forever be utterly fruitless to make any attempt to reach out to them. They are a lost generation. They are no longer Americans.
Every Republican You Know
@12. When the commies call the miserable failure in the white house their puppet, that’s telling. What I’m amazed by is the lack of reaction among republicans. I remember the old days, when conservatives hated commies and said things like better “Dead than Red.” I wonder if that generation died off or were they just lying?
@1 “But there are photos in the tweet that do plenty of damage.”
You’re right, a casual observer could easily assume that’s a GOP gathering, and take him for a Republican.
@12 The poor water buffalo had a sore back by 8 a.m. today.
@19 They decided dictatorship is good if they get to be the Reds.
@16 “he and his followers”
It’s refreshing to see NYT assign the blame to where it belongs. After all, Hitler would have been nothing without his followers, and Trump would be nothing if there was no indigenous proto-Nazi movement right here in the United States.
Roger Rabbit is buying more Unilever stock today.
In an interview this morning Collins said she would be announcing her decision by the end of this week.
So before she is forced to take a vote on impeachment.
Donald calls for quantitative easing.
GOP is on board.
But saying it’s like QE during the Great Recession is comparing oranges to blacks.
Junior McCain sends tweet about conservative ‘girls’ not staying quiet with a GIF of Daenerys of the House Targaryen, the First of Her Name, The Unburnt, Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Queen of Meereen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Protector of the Realm, Lady Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, Breaker of Chains and Mother of Dragons
With Drogon.
Kind of tone deaf to compare yourself to a growing tyrant who used that dragon to slaughter a capital city’s worth of civilians (spoiler alert but it’s been a year so that’s on you.)
And I thought using your genetic background for fame and money…you didn’t get the memo? Maybe Hunter around in your email to see if you can find it.
Poor sad Megs on The View:
“Pretending half the country doesn’t exist won’t make them disappear. The culture war is real… “
True dat. They exist. They are real. Not exactly quite half. But very real.
And very, very deplorable.
Just over three years ago they listened as they heard their candidate bragging on a hot mic about his mighty exploits in violently sexually assaulting his frightened employees. And these very real voters concluded either that it was okay to elect a violent sexual predator, or that it was okay to elect an emotionally disturbed man who makes up fake stories about sexually assaulting his frightened employees to impress Billy Bush. Billy Bush.
That’s it. There is no third option here folks. That’s who these voters are.
And that in a nutshell is your motherfucking culture war.
Everything else that these media vampires offer up as points of inflection in their “battle to preserve Western Tradition” is pure distilled weapons-grade bullshit.
Megs does not speak for the common man or woman. She’s a multi-millionaire heiress to a manufacturing fortune who spends more on makeup to conceal her third chin than you spent on your house. She exploits the common man or woman for all she can. And when she tries to hide behind “The Culture War” to escape accountability for treason, it pays to keep in mind just exactly what that phrase is referring to:
https://youtu.be/NcZcTnykYbw?t=73
Every Republican You Know
@ 28
Just over three years ago they listened as they heard their candidate bragging on a hot mic about his mighty exploits in violently sexually assaulting his frightened employees. And these very real voters concluded either that it was okay to elect a violent sexual predator, or that it was okay to elect an emotionally disturbed man who makes up fake stories about sexually assaulting his frightened employees to impress Billy Bush. Billy Bush.
Let’s not forget the other side.
Just three years ago they were prevented from listening as several members of Hillary’s team took the Fifth or were granted immunity before they would speak with the FBI about what Hillary did to hide her behavior while serving as SoS. They listened to James Comey refuse to indict her not because she had not committed a felony, but because Comey claimed he believed her crime was not prosecutable. They then watched as classified communications so extremely carelessly handled by Hillary ended up on the laptop of a proven pedophile.
And yet 65 million of these very real voters on the other side concluded that it was OK to elect an enabling spouse of a violent sexual predator, or that it was OK to elect a felonious criminal who would treat the nation’s secrets with the same extreme carelessness with which she treated them while serving as SoS.
Think on your sins, you whiny motherfuckers.
2016: The POS chosen by your side lost to the POS chosen by my side. Each side knew, deep down, it was nominating a POS.
Everything else is ideology.
@30 nah, that’s no way to correctly denounce The Hump. He’s yours and you truly love him. Go back to the bottle, you sound drunk.
And he’s not the problem the fucking GOP is the fucking problem. Without them he’d be nothing.
Yeah Megs can blow it out her you know what.
“Think on your sins, you whiny motherfuckers.”
Fuck you, treasonous Russian stooge.
@30 But they weren’t equally shitty. One was much, much shittier than the other. Guess which you choose to defend? Because you’re a dumbfuck.
“The POS chosen by your side lost to the POS chosen by my side. Each side knew, deep down, it was nominating a POS.”
Your side nominated a Putin stooge and the other didn’t. Big difference, dumbfuck.
Calling your guy a POS doesn’t absolve you of your sins. Perhaps if you were to post 4,000+ times that your orange moron is a POS and a traitor beholden to Putin, someone here would believe you. But it won’t be me, Doctor.
Dumbfuck isn’t the only traitor this is starting to bother.
It’s pure cognitive dissonance, driven home with each new criminal violation, with each rage tweet, and with each article of impeachment.
Nobody who voted for Hillary Clinton, myself included, was forced to make the sort of binary judgment that Every Republican You Know had to make.
Had to.
They acknowledged that those were his true words. Eventually the candidate himself acknowledged that those were his true words. And so they had to make a clear, albeit largely unacknowledged, binary choice about what it meant that those were his true words.
Either the Republican nominee is a violent sexual predator who was caught bragging about his past rapes and other sexual assaults.
Or the Republican nominee is an emotionally disturbed, deeply insecure man fascinated by sexual violence who fabricates stories about it in order to impress people.
Either. Or. One or the other.
At most anyone who voted for Hillary Clinton had to acknowledge that she was a politically paranoid climber who refused to cooperate with House partisans and sought to avoid their oversight by concealing some of her personal and professional communications. In other words, more or less bog-standard Trump appointee.
The fact that Every Republican You Know had to make that stark and truly monstrous binary decision about their nominee with less than a month to go before they voted is why his support among partisans remains unaffected by his incredibly poor performance and all his subsequent offenses in office. The commitment required by that choice is not something most weak personalities can set aside without suffering a significant loss of self-regard. They have no choice. Bot-farm troll has no choice. They all lack the strength to confront what it meant and what it says about them as a human beings.
But many less strident, less partisan Republican voters are sure to give themselves the relief they so desperately need by choosing a third option: indifference. By settling into casual indifference they can relieve themselves of the conflict they would certainly have to face if they made that monstrous choice a second time. They can tell themselves that they “don’t care”. And by saying they don’t care about the next election they can obtain some of the relief they need for the choice they made in the last election.
@36 Are you suggesting there might be an actual Republican voter out there somewhere who did some actual soul-searching before voting for Trump?
37,
Absolutely not. And that is entirely the point.
With the nominee having acknowledged that the words spoken on the tape were his own true words, those are the only two options available.
Either the Republican nominee is a violent sexual predator who was caught bragging about his past rapes and other sexual assaults.
Or the Republican nominee is an emotionally disturbed, deeply insecure man fascinated by sexual violence who fabricates stories about it in order to impress people.
The last thing in the world that such a voter would do is carefully think that over. Having already made a decision to support the nominee they would have no other option but to make that choice about the words spoken by the nominee on that tape and then quickly and assertively move on. Not thinking is the whole point. “Soul searching” is absolutely out of the question.
That’s where they were in mid-October of 2016.
And that’s where they are today.
That’s why Bot-farm troll is so preternaturally obsessed with a retired old lady in the Hudson Valley. That’s what drives them all to believe idiotic nonsense about cannibalism in pizza shops. Sadly, that’s what drives some of them to charge into nightclubs and slaughter people. Some cliches about mental illness are also true.
One of the most important jobs we have is to force them at every turn to confront that choice and to think about it.
The more they think about it, the less dangerous they become. This is an important public safety issue. And I’m not kidding.
It’s precious that they have to talk about chandeliers. They elected a man with gold toilets, but they want to talk about chandeliers. Okiee Dokiee.
Go Pete!!!!
https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/11/21/20976733/barack-obama-dnc-fundraiser-silicon-valley
Buttigieg/Booker – BB, ehh Bob. Or maybe a little Wang. Or Klobuchar.
As much as I like what Bernie and Warren have to say, I don’t think what will be perceived as too far to the left, and Socialism will win in 2020. And Biden – I like him too, but just not a fresh face, and is kind of just like ok.
Bloomberg fucks it all up.
@38 Seems to me they’re simply in denial about everything.
@41 I can’t see Democrats lining up to vote for a billionaire who’s basically another version of Trump without the toxic personality, whose motive for running is to save himself and his fellow billionaires from Warren’s proposed wealth tax.
42,
Sure. Everybody is in denial about something. But in the case of Trump voters, it’s what they are in denial about that is so crucial.
This shit is fundamental to human character. That specific denial may not be a problem for a narcissistic sociopath like Trump, most of his immediate family, and probably a disturbing percentage of people in the media or serving in Congress. But for these voters that denial is corrosive to their humanity. It will destroy them. It will drive them to destroy themselves.
Which is as it may be. I’m not cheering that on. But preventing their suicides, addictions, and other acts of self-annihilation is less important to me than preventing all the harm they will continue to do as they march down that path. A Pulitzer prize winning publishing heir doesn’t get shitty drunk and drag his 12 year old daughter sobbing into the news room of one of his newspapers to threaten violence against his employees if “everything is just fine”. This “Falling Down” shit is happening with these people routinely now all over the place every day. Too many innocent people are getting caught in the cross fire. We all have a civic duty to do what we must to make it stop. Confronting them with the moral depravity of their choice is the way to do that.
The sci fi writer David Brin described that “letter” from the miserable failure in the white house to Speaker Pelosi as “the 6 page tantrum of jibbering, capering screeches sent by a frustrated and terrified Jr. High School bully who desperately fears accountability.”
One of your tribe, Doc:
“A California man has pleaded guilty to setting fire to the same D.C. pizza place targeted by a man investigating a conspiracy theory that falsely connected 2016 presidential candidate Hillary Clinton to an alleged child sex trafficking ring under the restaurant. … Ryan Jaselskis … admitted to setting a January fire at Comet Ping Pong, which was occupied by children and adults at the time. … ”
https://tinyurl.com/ubdry6u
All your friends are crazy. You could use a better tribe.
The House debate is underway, but I can’t listen to the Republican speakers. They’re too nauseating. They’re too full of crap.
47,
Going “Full Kavanaugh”.
What’s the over/under on Collins crying?
45,
Wait.
That wasn’t the White House annual Christmas letter?