Returning profits? Yeah, right. Dave Meinert is a fucking phony, who's finally being exposed for the bully he's been for years, hidden behind a progressive facade coated in a nostalgic hipster veneer. Good riddance to him.

3: It's "You're Screwed" and you are, if you don't yet know the difference between you're (you are) and your.

Will they add "no rapists" to that long, tiresome, PC sign outside The Comet?

Is The Stranger going to refuse any and all further ad monies Meinert has and is continuing to pay them for his many and varied venues and events that have long been advertised therein?

I can't help but find it ironic that there is not even a mention of this anywhere inside an article in which several people who took money from him or did business with him are grilled about if and when they plan to distance themselves and return the funds.

@8 I was wondering the same thing...

He's never been anything but a bully. Frankly the fact that the Stranger was comfortable working with him says a lot about where their values are at...

@8: Mienert's business associates are not guilty, or even blemished, by his alleged offenses and crimes - why would they be?

If you want to complete your argument however, you should include any car repair shops that worked on his cars or dry cleaners that pressed any of his suits.

@10 but if they continue to accept his money aren't they condoning his behavior?

@12 So if he swings by Top Pot and they serve him a donut, do we need to boycott Top Pot? Just spray some outrage around and see what you hit?

i don't know where to start with this...i just have to throw my few cents in here and say i knew meinert peripherally for a while and i never really cared for him. long before these accusations surfaced, meinert's reputation preceded him in a big way. i now realize that i never met a woman involved in the local music scene who didn't respond to his name with anything less than an eye roll. but he couldn't be avoided. if you wanted to be involved in the local scene, you had to know dave and, for better or worse, interact with him. more often than not, I found him fairly pleasant to deal with and, i hate to say it, very sharp...i hate saying this, but yes, he was/is a smart motherfucker, which has probably allowed him to get away with this shit.
but sadly, a lot of "men" in the local music/club/bar scene are scum, meinert is just taking the heat for a lot of shitty behavior.
here's a great example...I know of a very talented woman who was representing a then-rising local band who many of us now know and love. she reached out to a local club booker about getting the band a gig at the club and the club booker's response was "show me your tits and we'll talk. ha!"
hoo-boy. sure it was meant as a "joke". but fuck that guy. i know the fucker who said it. many folks reading the stranger likely frequent one of the clubs he has a stake in.
my point is, men are horrible to women all the time in ways we never hear about. And sadly, it's really rampant in the music/club/bar scene...a scene where men purchase bars and post signs at the door that say "no rapists" even though they've grabbed women by the throat when they didn't ask for it.
so...meinert, do us a favor and go away. this city was fine without you meddling in its affairs and a lot of women would be happier if you never existed.
and how dare you use the fact that you're a "husband" and a "father" to hide behind the fact that you raped women? you talk about what you've learned because of the #metoo movement? sorry, but raping women is something you should just know NOT to do.
you grabbed them by the throat? you ripped out their tampons?
you're such an idiot dave. such a fucking idiot.

Oh, look: someone who knows how to say, “I don’t know, and am therefore withholding judgment,” in real adult words and everything:

‘“I had no prior knowledge of the allegations against David before the article was published last Thursday,” Lajeunesse said in an e-mail. “As I said before, while I can’t speak to the veracity or substance of the allegations in the article (I will let David speak for himself ) I take all allegations of this nature very seriously and am working to address these allegations within our companies.”’

Obviously, the torches-and-pitchforks club here will have to demand Lajeunesse get out of all businesses in Seattle.

Thank God for the me-too movement (well, maybe not the God of Patriarchy [he's what got us here in the 1st place] but thank God). It's been WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY tooooo long in arriving. Let's hope (and fucking vote) the PussyGrabberInChief and his co-complicit sycophants, minions, TheBase et al don't take US (and the known World) back to the Good Ole Days. Like they fucking Plan to.

@16 - notice how @15 conveniently skipped over this:

“Meinert’s business partners on Capitol Hill were the first to distance themselves from the 52-year-old.”

Also, this:

“Burgess said he believes the women’s claims.

‘Yes I am going to believe these women’s stories, there’s no waffling on that.’”

tensor has a massive case of selective comprehension and is also ignoring Meinert’s own inculpatory public statements. He is just here to tell us that none of us is allowed to make any judgment unless/until Meinert is convicted, in court, of a crime. Heck, he’s still arguing the Ed Murray allegations in other threads. Call it Mens Rights Lite, and I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt when I append “Lite.”

@15 - Funny you of all people - Mr. Cite the Homeless If They Don’t Accept Shelter and Run Them Out of Town if They Don’t Pay - have a problem with torches and pitchforks.

@11: Profiting from the very thing you claim to despise isn’t courage, it’s craven, greedy hypocrisy. (It’s also an indication you really, really don’t actually care about it.)

@16: “...I can’t speak to the veracity or substance of the allegations in the article ....”

Do let us know if that phrase continues to confuse you.

@20 - Honey, please - I hate to see you starting to work yourself up like this again. You’re only disquieting your own soul. These assholes aren’t listening. Shhh, shhh - calm yourself, save your strength for the things that are important to you, like making up imaginary strategies for punishing the homeless or fighting in the Hep A wars that are coming like you know they are.

I'd like to know what businesses are NOT associated with DM. He seems to be involved with every business and organization and to have his hands on everyone (that was intentional).

Does he have anything to do with Sub Pop records?

I'd like to make informed consent decisions about whether or not a penny of my limited income that I spend on music related items and experiences or eating out goes into Dave Meinert's pockets. Via Tribunali's my favorite restaurant on the hill since it opened. I wanted to have a milestone birthday party there coming up and spend the rest of the time I'll be in Seattle celebrating (and staying in a hotel on) Capitol Hill. Anyone have a list of people/businesses/etc. that this douchebag does NOT have any involvement? How many people in Seattle are in bed with this guy?

I recognize certain parties are doing serious damage control so they don't feel any of the fallout from this shit show, but I'd really like to know.

@16: “...by donating meinert’s profits to sexual assault charities...”

Well, no, as already noted above, he merely said he’d do it. And even if he actually does it, his business will take a tax deduction for it. Any way it goes, it’s called a “PR move,” and he knows it’s a very effective shiny object to distract you torch-lit pitchfork-bearers. Your attention span isn’t long enough for you to check up on his action, or lack thereof, and he knows it.

You got played. Congratulations for acknowledging it so readily.

All I can say is if the Democrat party is going to become a party that constantly turns on straight men without using the legal system, (including its political stars and fundraisers like Franken, and in this case, Meinert, who was a solid fundraiser), then I'm done voting Democrat, and this party will crash and burn this fall, despite the hatred Trump engenders. Same goes for the people who want to blithely remove government agencies instead of reforming. This isn't romper room. Grow the F up.

Constantly braying on about one gender as if one is evil and the other is somehow not victim to the same human frailties is both laughable and factually impossible.

@24 Rape and sexual assault and not wanting to be associated with rapists isn't a Democrat vs. Republican thing. There are rapists and men (and even some women) who commit sexual assault of all political affiliations. Politicians of all stripes have been found guilty (since you're really bent on only the ones having been through the judicial system) of heinous crimes against women and children.

That being said, people being outraged, wanting to distance themselves from a serial rapist, and voicing their opinions about it and taking actions they believe support those opinions is all it takes to make you state "you're done voting Democrat?" Seriously? Do you have a head injury?

You act as if the Republican party is not the party that is constantly, consistently, relentlessly, and violently taking action against women, ALL WOMEN. Please. The illegitimate, treasonous squatter in in the White House raped his wife (it's in court records, does that satisfy your need for due process?), has been accused of a raping two girls (ages 12 and 13), brags about wanting to fuck his own daughter, brags (on tape no less, for the entire world to hear) that he grabs women by the pussy and he can do that because of who he is, and has been quoted, in writing, saying "women, you've got to treat them like shit." Every single day he does something heinous and another revolting thing is revealed about his sexual abuses and lies about those sexual abuses. He uses and abuses his power and wealth to use women's bodies, shut women up, debase, degrade, and denigrate women he had chosen to pay money to in exchange for the sexual things he has done with (or to) them, and every day the Republicans roll right on, like it's all business as usual. Nothing to see here.

The Republicans backed the pedophile Roy Moore! More than 60,000 people voted for him!

And let's see, what have Republicans come out and and said and done about rape...
--Created laws where if a woman has a child as a result of her rape, the rapist gets parental rights.
--Created laws that make rape a pre-existing condition, making women unable to receive needed health care for problems they may experience after the fact.
--Created (with the recent tax scam) laws that require victims who receive a financial settlement to pay taxes AND for their lawyers to pay taxes (so the victims are forced, in effect, to pay taxes, twice, on monies received solely because they were the victim of sexual assault).

Republican politicians (IN OFFICE, not candidates) have said outrageously outlandish and untrue things about rape like "rape is kinda like the weather, it's inevitable, relax and enjoy it" (Clayton Williams R-TX); "if it's a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to shut the whole thing down" (Todd Akin R-MO); "rape victims should make the best of a bad situation" (Rick Santorum R-PA);

Republicans want women to have zero access to birth control, zero access to abortion (even in case of danger to their lives, pregnancies resulting from rape and incest -- unless of course they accidentally get their mistress or prostitute pregnant), zero protection from domestic violence (and they're certainly not taking murder weapons like guns away from their men who commit domestic violence), no equal pay, no equality under the law (especially if the women are gay or bi or trans), and the list goes on and on. BUT A DEMOCRAT WHO WANTS TO DISTANCE HIMSELF FROM AN ACCUSED RAPIST BY RETURNING FUNDS DONATED BY SAID ACCUSED RAPIST OR DONATING THEM TO AN ORGANIZATION THAT HELPS WOMEN (AND ALSO HELPS MEN, BTW) IS JUST TOO DAMN MUCH FOR YOU?

Got it.

Lastly, your "constantly braying" comment is what is factually impossible. Cold hard facts prove that men commit sexual assault and rape against women, children (and yes men, too) far more often and extensively than women. The only time/place these statistics are skewed is in prison populations, especially men raping other men (including guards raping inmates). There is a huge difference between your opinion and actual hard cold FACTS. You writing that and believing it to be true is not laughable, its WRONG. PERIOD.

Nice portrait by Jaya Nicely at the top of the article.

This is what happens when one person owns all the toys.

Hm interesting how my prior comment to 24 isn't here.

@24 Republicans have a long and documented history of supporting and electing rapists and pedophiles (including the longest serving GOP speaker of the house, convicted pedophile, Denny Hastert). Trump is one of the most vile sexual predators, offenders, and rapists and he is (illegitimately, via treason) squatting in the White House as president.

Republicans also have a long and documented history of being anti-woman in every way possible. No to birth control. No to abortion. Vile comments about rape and what is "legitimate rape" and what is not. Designating rape as a pre-existing condition, preventing women from being able to get health care needed as a result of their rapes after the fact. Making rape victims pay for their rape kits. Laws giving rapists access to their children conceived via rape. No do protection from domestic violence. No to taking guns away from people who commit domestic violence. No equal pay. No equal protection, especially for those women who are not white and not heterosexual. The list could go on and on and on and on....

So some people choosing to turn against a straight man accused of rape (your words) or rather some people wanting to distance themselves from the toxic waste of an accused rapist (their prerogative) is all it takes for you to leave the Democratic party? BS!!!

Your comment is not laughable and your presentation of your opinion as truth is what is factually impossible.

NOW my prior comment appears. Sorry for the double post people.

@28: I wasn’t referring to your belief in a story resting entirely upon the word of the sole reporter. I was referring to your belief that Meinert’s business partner cares about the allegations that sole reporter made. Yes, both of your beliefs are foolish, but Meinert’s business partner is offering to spend Meinert’s money to get a tax deduction for his business, and you’re mistaking that as his statement of belief in Meinert’s guilt. It’s not; he played you.

‘Wouldn't I have to suffer some grave indignity to get "played"?‘

At your demonstrated level of gullibility? No.

24: If you'd ever been a supporter of the party you are describing, you would NEVER call it "the Democrat Party". The term "Democrat Party" is a Republican-created slur going back at least to the days of the Sen. Joe McCarthy, who used it to imply that the party he was slurring had no right to use the word "Democratic" as its name, for some reason. By contrast, the term "republican", which means nothing at all but a system of government which does not have a monarch as head of state, has somehow started meaning "a system of government in which the wealthy, the white, the male and the ideologically right-wing must always have more of a say in politics and life than everybody else, even when the combined numbers of everybody else are greater than those in the first four largely overlapping groups".

I made a mistake in naming it, sorry. I guess I've heard Democrat party so many times, I thought it was grammatically correct over Democratic. I'm not a Republican, but if it makes you feel like a genius investigator, then by all means, run with your wisdom.

Labels are meaningless, case in point, Republicans now claiming the Nazis were socialists, just because of their name. Stick to my points, instead of playing the childish game of going over someone's minor errors.

35: If it had just been the slur, that would've been one thing-it was also that you followed that with a list of standard right-wing talking points.

@33: You do understand there’s nothing in this article to suggest Lajeunesse actually cares whether Meinert is guilty of anything or not, right? He’s just a businessman, trying to keep his businesses from getting smashed by an ignorant, belligerent mob. If passing along Meinert’s promise causes that mob to target someone else, he’ll do that.

I mean, you’re such a great expert in reading between the lines, you certainly understood the implications of the following, right?

“I can also tell you that it is my understanding (from Joey [Burgess]) that David [Meinert] will be donating his share of profits ...”

“...neither Burgess or Lajeunesse could clarify any details about the donations.”

38: So much paranoia and insecurity to unpack there. Where did you get the idea that I, or anybody else, thinks anything remotely similar to "women and gays are automatically better than straight men"? or that "men are all monsters"? How does thinking that women and gays should get the same level of basic respect in life that straight men get within a light year of equating to that? And why are you thinking I'd want you sent to a re-education camp? I AM a "straight man", buddy, and there's nothing I've said that a straight man couldn't say. And I'm in my late fifties, so I seriously doubt you've voted in more elections than I have.

What part of "nobody is out to get you" do you NOT understand?