West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Special, River City Hash Mondays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, longtime GOP strategist, Katon Dawson admits, there are no circumstances this GOP House will ever impeach Trump.

On the rest of the menu, billionaire Tom Golisano is refusing to pay his $90,000 school tax bill until officials of South Bristol, New York find a way to stop migrating Canadian geese from pooping on his lawn; tiny Osceola Township, Michigan, is in the water fight of its life with Nestle; and, the City of Austin cuts business ties with border wall contractors.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table where we’ve determined Trump’s Jobs-for-Medicaid scheme is based on warped logic, that’s why a Jobs Guarantee Program might actually work instead.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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"I was never a spy. I was with the OSS organization. We had a number of women, but we were all office help." -- Julia Child

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West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials; Blue Moon Spirits Fridays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, the only ones benefitting from the Nunes Memo are Trump and Putin.

Then, on the rest of the menu, the Trump Administration is kicking off a Gold Rush-style grab of public lands; Minnesota Republicans lose their minds when Muslim voters train for participation in the caucuses; and, a federal judge used Citizen’s United to rule Florida’s lifetime ban on voting by felons is unconstitutional.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table to investigate why Chevron stands accused of a $2 million witness bribery plot in that Ecuadoran pollution case; and, how spies learned to stop worrying and love the Fitbit.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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“Structural linguistics is a bitterly divided and unhappy profession, and a large number of its practitioners spend many nights drowning their sorrows in Ouisghian Zodahs.”

― Douglas Adams
"The Restaurant at the End of the Universe"

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/2/1738101/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Blue-Moon-Spirits-Fridays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Metro Shrimp & Grits Thursdays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, Russia’s top spy is on the U.S. sanctions list, he isn’t allowed to be in the United States without special permission and he’s listed on the Department of the Treasury’s blocked persons list. So, why was he in DC last week meeting with Trump officials?

Then, on the rest of the menu, the congressional staffer who drafted the controversial Nunes Memo was once benchslapped by a federal judge for “ineptitude;” US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin urged Congress to raise the debt ceiling as another shutdown looms; and, the Pennsylvania Senate President pro tempore told the state supreme court he will ignore its anti-gerrymandering order.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table to investigate why Trump seeks to gut energy programs with the highest potential for job creation; and, Trump's State of the Union was even more fascist than you realize.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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“Everyone in this good city enjoys the full right to pursue his own inclinations in all reasonable and, unreasonable ways.”

-- The Daily Picayune, New Orleans, March 5, 1851

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/2/1/1737774/-West-Coast-Cookbook-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Metro-Shrimp-Grits-Thursdays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Smothered Benedict Wednesdays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, Ari Melber and his panel describe Trump’s Slow Motion Saturday Night Massacre.

Then, on the rest of the menu, the Republican hoping to unseat Paul Ryan, posted a list of “Jews” in the media who are out to get him; a Trump public health official bought and sold tobacco stocks on the job as the CDC director to reduce tobacco use; and, Russia’s attempt to broker a Syria peace deal ends in disaster.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table where one year after Thomas Countryman delivered Farewell Remarks to his colleagues, after he and five other top State Department officials had been suddenly discharged by the Trump White House, Countryman provides yet again, deep insights into the world of public servants and into the true state of our union.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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"To those of us who believe that all of life is sacred every crumb of bread and sip of wine is a Eucharist, a remembrance, a call to awareness of holiness right where we are. I want all of the holiness of the Eucharist to spill out beyond church walls, out of the hands of priests and into the regular streets and sidewalks, into the hands of regular, grubby people like you and me, onto our tables, in our kitchens and dining rooms and backyards.”

-- Shauna Niequist
"Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes"

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/31/1737442/-West-Coast-Cookbook-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Smothered-Benedict-Wednesdays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials; Tarrytown Chowder Tuesdays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, even Trump’s friends say he is a jerk.

Then, on the rest of the menu, Jackpotting hackers steal over $1 million from ATMs across the US; a federal judge halts the deportation of prominent immigrant rights activist, Ravi Ragbir; and, Fusion GPS accused U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, of endangering its employees by ignoring “multiple” requests not to publicly disclose their names.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table where Trump’s pick for Chile ambassador has deep financial ties to the Kushner family that the White House did not announce earlier this month; and, Andrew McCabe’s replacement, David Bowditch, is now next to face the Trump firing squad.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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“As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their cold liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.” ― Ernest Hemingway "A Moveable Feast"

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/30/1737088/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Tarrytown-Chowder-Tuesdays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Special, River City Hash Mondays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, German Television finds that not all of Davos gave Trump the "rock star" welcome that the US Media reported.

On the rest of the menu, House Intelligence Committee member Rep. Eric Swalwell, says Trump’s delay on Russia sanctions shows “he owes them something;” Chef José Andrés stands by his account that he was removed from the Cafe Milano at Ivanka Trump’s insistence; and, Angela Merkel warns that antisemitism is on the rise again in Germany.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table to investigate how US farmers could lose it all if Donald Trump’s so-called ‘NAFTA deal’ collapses.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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Give me a church
made entirely of salt.
Let the walls hiss
and smoke when
I return to shore.
I ask for the grace
of a new freckle
on my cheek, the lift
of blue and my mother’s
soapy skin to greet me.
Hide me in a room
with no windows.
Never let me see
the dolphins leaping
into commas
for this water-prayer
rising like a host
of sky lanterns into
the inky evening.
Let them hang
in the sky until
they vanish at the edge
of the constellations —
the heroes and animals
too busy and bright to notice.


— Aimee Nezhukumatathil
“Sea Church”

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/29/1736738/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-River-City-Hash-Mondays

Blue Moon Spirits Fridays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, Trump surrogate, Michael Caputo, is just a shameless flack who will say anything for shock value.

Then, on the rest of the menu, Trump thinks it’s a demotion to reassign the director of the National Park Service, who was responsible for the photos of the sparsely attended Inaugural, to now head Yosemite National Park; fifteen Kentuckians sue Trump for cruelly blocking them from seeing their doctor; and, there was only one woman at Trump’s Davos dinner, and the White House misspelled her name.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table to consider how the UK has received more money from an EU migration fund than any other EU state, and then used most of that money to kick people out of the country; and, the first year of the Trump White House is eerily reminiscent of the first year of the Red Scare of 1917-1920.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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“Only Irish coffee provides in a single glass all four essential food groups: alcohol, caffeine, sugar and fat.” ― Alex Levine

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/26/1736075/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Blue-Moon-Spirits-Fridays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Metro Shrimp & Grits Thursdays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, while Republicans and the White House try to dismantle trust in law enforcement, GOP Pennsylvania Representative Charlie Dent says, enough already.

Then, on the rest of the menu, Betsy DeVos bans journalists from her speech to the U.S. Conference of Mayors; scientists accuse EPA Secretary Scott Pruitt of ‘stacking the deck’ against scientific integrity; and, the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richards, plans to step down from the reproductive rights group after more than a decade on the job.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table to marvel at how French President Emmanuel Macron used his Davos speech to roast Trump’s climate denial; and, American democracy is failing, but the courts are finally starting to notice.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine, Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Everyone in this good city enjoys the full right to pursue his own inclinations in all reasonable and, unreasonable ways.”

-- The Daily Picayune,
New Orleans, March 5, 1851

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/25/1735814/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Metro-Shrimp-amp-Grits-Thursdays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials, Smothered Benedict Wednesdays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, rapidly-breaking news reveals the Mueller investigation is at an “inflection point.”

Then, on the rest of the menu, Mick Mulvaney’s consumer protection bureau dropped a probe into a payday lender that donated to his campaigns; multi-billion dollar US corporation, Kimberly-Clark, used Trump’s tax scam to kill over 5,000 jobs; and, Trump's embrace of hatred and bigotry has tourists shunning America, and costing the country billions.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table to analyze why nothing is more fashionable these days on the Republican right than to trash America's law enforcement and intelligence services.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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"To those of us who believe that all of life is sacred every crumb of bread and sip of wine is a Eucharist, a remembrance, a call to awareness of holiness right where we are. I want all of the holiness of the Eucharist to spill out beyond church walls, out of the hands of priests and into the regular streets and sidewalks, into the hands of regular, grubby people like you and me, onto our tables, in our kitchens and dining rooms and backyards.”

-- Shauna Niequist
"Bread and Wine: A Love Letter to Life Around the Table with Recipes"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/24/1735543/-West-Coast-Cookbook-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Smothered-Benedict-Wednesdays

West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy is Now Open! 8am-9am PT/ 11am-Noon ET for our especially special Daily Specials; Tarrytown Chowder Tuesdays!

Starting off in the Bistro Cafe, the FBI says that House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes won't share the memo alleging FBI abuses of surveillance laws, despite sharing it with members of Congress.

Then, on the rest of the menu, the man Trump chose to lead the FBI was willing to risk his job to defend FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe from a Trump-led effort to fire him; Trump’s paralyzing tariffs on solar imports will kill clean energy jobs in the near and long term; and, Oregon voters will decide whether to tax insurers and hospitals to keep low-income people covered.

After the break, we move to the Chef’s Table for an analysis of what happens when you trust Mitch McConnell, because history shows, trusting Mitch McConnell can be a fool’s errand.

All that and more, on West Coast Cookbook & Speakeasy with Chef de Cuisine Justice Putnam.

Bon Appetit!

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Show Notes & Links: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2018/1/23/1735187/-West-Coast-Cookbook-amp-Speakeasy-Daily-Special-Tarrytown-Chowder-Tuesdays