lummi island wine tasting Sept 12-13 ’25
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday & Saturday
Two old watches I posted on the Blizard Trail charm pole some while back…
now they’re gone!! Is that legal???
This week’s wine tasting
Cloudlift chardonnay ’22 Washington $28
Scents of honeysuckle, sweet lemon curd, and pear drift out of the glass, with mouth watering acidity carrying flavors of crisp green apple and pear with a burst of lemon zest on the finish.
Wolftrap Red ’24 South Africa $14
Consistently appealing aromas and flavors of ripe plum, red currant, violets, Italian herbs and exotic spices; vibrant flavors of dark berries and spicy plum with hints of orange peel that linger on a juicy finish. Terrific value!
Alain de la Treille Chinon Cab Franc ’22 France $21
From Loire valley’s alluvial gravel & yellow limestone terraces cultivated along the Vienne for five generations; offers complex minerality and juicy, spicy flavors that dance from plum to cassis, game, earth, and tobacco, all with a delicacy that speaks of the village’s cool conditions.
Economics of the Heart: Maggits Go Full “Reichstag Fire”
Yesterday’s very public murder of 31-yr old Republican activist Charlie Kirk has focused global attention on the growing violence in American politics. Kirk was fatally shot while speaking at a well-attended event on the campus of Utah Valley University near Salt Lake City. Kirk had been a Republican activist for about two years, and had been quite effective at building Maggit support among college students.
Almost immediately the usual Republican pundits starting accusing Democrats for the escalation of violence and calling for Maga-retaliation. Remember, these are the same guys who cheered the Jan 6 attack on the Capitol, the warrantless arrests and “disappearing” of tens of thousands of asylum-seeking immigrants, the deployment of the National Guard to LA, and the Tweetster’s threat to do the same in Chicago and other “Blue” cities in direct violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.
All of this closely mimics the actions of Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in February 1933. Just four weeks after Hitler managed to make himself Chancellor of Germany, an arsonist attack on the Reichstag building, which housed the German Parliament, was burned to the ground. Hitler blamed the fire on the Communists (the opposition party to the Nazis), suspended civil liberties, and pursued a “ruthless confrontation” that “removed” enough of the Communists from government to give Hitler complete control of the entire government and set the stage for WWII.
Fast forward to today: Project 2025 is the Maggit Reichstag fire. The Tweetster is the Maggit wannabe Hitler. A bunch of white male “high-functioning” autistic billionaires are putting up the money and giving the orders. And the United States is being ripped apart a nickel at a time by a Cabinet and a Republican-controlled Congress of gutless sycophants.
The Rise of Political Violence in the US.
As we have seen over and over since January, Congressional Republicans have quietly capitulated to the Tweetster’s authority over them and Project 2025’s detailed plan for turning the United States into an Authoritarian dictatorship. They are drastically changing economic rules to make the richest men in the world even richer, the poorest even poorer, the environment more toxic faster, and putting a “Closed” sign on our influence on the international economy. And all of this has been unfolding right before our eyes since 2015, as described in considerable detail in Rachel Kleinfeld’s very detailed 2021 and 2024 studies of the subject. She is a widely published and highly respected researcher with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; the two articles listed here provide a detailed analysis of the rise of political violence in wealthy democracies. The abstract of the 2021 paper begins with this:
“Recent alterations to violent groups in the United States and to the composition of the two main political parties have created a latent force for violence that can be 1) triggered by a variety of social events that touch on a number of interrelated identities; or 2) purposefully ignited for partisan political purposes. This essay describes the history of such forces in the U.S., shares the risk factors for election violence globally and how they are trending in the U.S., and concludes with some potential paths to mitigate the problem.”
She identifies two subgroups most prone to far-right political violence. The first consists of white Christian evangelical Republicans, who portray Democrats and cultural elites as Satanic forces arrayed against Christianity and seeking to harm Christian children. “They often hold jobs, are married, and have children. Those who attend church or belong to community groups are more likely to hold violent, conspiratorial beliefs.4 These are not isolated “lone wolves”; they are part of a broad community that echoes their conspiratorial beliefs in a Q-Anon conspiracy.
The second subgroup consists of those who feel threatened by either women or minorities, and are particularly concerned that the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast” that they “may have to use force to save it.” The article describes in detail what is essentially a broad sort of existential paranoia that their “traditional values” are being taken away and a resultant willingness or even compulsion to use any means to stop them including murder.
We have seen over the past eight years how the Maggit false narrative media machine speaks directly to this kind of socio-religious paranoia. It has been deliberate and well-planned, beginning with the elimination of broadcast requirements to present all sides of every story, taking religious control of Congress and the Supreme Court, and turning our country from a democracy to some dystopian Christian nightmare.
lummi island wine tasting Sep 5-6 ’25
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday & Saturday
mountain ash in summer bloom
This week’s wine tasting
Decoy Sauv Blanc ’23 California $16
Fresh, with aromas of citrus, white nectarine, yellow apple and orange blossom; flavors of tangerine, apple, white peach, grapefruit and white pepper with a crisp finish.
Paul Buisse Cab Franc ’23 France $16
Alluring nose of red cherry, black plum, raspberry and pomegranate; notes of pear and lilac on the palate, crisp, stony finish.
Torbreck Woodcutters Shiraz ’21 Australia $26
Succulent, rich aromas of dark berries and black plum with notes of sandalwood, rosemary and thyme;
soft tannins and structured, voluptuous mouthfeel adds the poise and piquancy expected from this winery.
see more on Torbreck:
Economics of the Heart: Vets Mobilize Against Unlawful Orders
Vets serving the People and the Constitution
Last week we argued that it was illegal for the Tweetster to call up National Guard units or other active duty military personnel in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878. It was enacted to prohibit Federal military forces from being misused as domestic police forces to enforce Jim Crow laws in former and proposed “slave states.” Written specifically to maintain local civilian control over the military and protect personal liberties, it reflects the Constitutional commitment to maintain civilian control over the military at all times.
So it was with a great sense of hope and possibility that last night we stumbled upon this broadcast, in which “About Face: Veterans Against the War,” a national group of dedicated v
offers considerable support to both currently active military and vets, including this:
“If you are a National Guardsperson or active duty member of the military looking for a way to report concerning incidents and conditions or for peer/legal support regarding your options in response to moral, ethical, and legal implications of your situation, fill out the encrypted form below.”
And this:
“Veterans won’t stand idly by while Trump slashes our benefits and uses the National Guard and Active Duty military to act out his dictator fantasies at our expense by violently crushing protests and kidnapping our neighbors. From DC, to LA, to the Southern Border and Gaza – vets are coming together to condemn the militarization of our communities that is killing us at home and abroad!”
lummi island wine tasting Aug 29-30 ’25
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday & Saturday
This week’s wine tasting
Decoy Chardonnay ’23 California $16
Blended from several CA central coast vineyards; aromas of sweet mandarin orange and white peach; juicy and vibrant palate of tropical fruit flavors with a hint of oak from its time in barrel.
Tenuta Sant’Antonio Monti Garbi Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore ’21 Italy $21
Spicy and intense, with hints of crushed ash and smoky black cherries; silky texture and pure, with notes of sour wild berries and salty minerality; long, energetic, spicy finish of blackcurrant & mocha,
Idilico Tempranillo ’21 Washington $19
Aromas of leather, forest floor, and balsamic notes wrapped around a core of red fruit, notes of fresh dried herbs, sweet spice and red currant; medium bodied with juicy mouthfeel, soft tannin, and a lingering finish.
Ripasso Explained
Valpolicella, the dominant red table wine of the Veneto region, is a blend of Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara grapes. The thick-skinned corvina varietal is also central to the apassamiento process by which the elegant table/dessert wine amarone is made, beginning with 100 days of drying (raisining!) the best grapes before pressing them. After pressing, the dried grape skins remain in contact with the juice-that-becomes-amarone through fermentation.
However, because the sugars are so concentrated in the raisined grapes, the skins still contain plenty of sugar and flavor, and can be used several more times. The amarone is left to age in barrels for several years before bottling, and the residual must is used several more times to make ripasso (“passed through again”), a delicious wine somewhere between valpolicella and amarone in its weight, complexity, and nuance. Under the rules of the region, wineries may only make up to twice as much ripasso as they do amarone in a given harvest.
Economics of the Heart: The Looming Question of Lawful Orders
Everyone serving in a branch of the United States military is legally subject to the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice), which defines legal rights and responsibilities of service members under various circumstances. While most of it is quite straightforward, the current political circumstances of our country is creating a growing and possibly existential dilemma.
A central tenet of the UCMJ is that everyone must follow all “lawful orders,” and must NOT follow (or give) “unlawful orders.” The first priority in such a rule is that commanders take that responsibility seriously.
In recent weeks the Tweetster’s so-called “administration,” under the direction of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 war plan, tested a declaration of martial law and moving in National Guard troops first to LA, and now to DC, going so far as to push DC authorities aside completely under transparently illegal circumstances and creating chaos.
There are more violations of the UCMJ in these behaviors than can be counted. So logically that means that: 1) few if any of the people getting those orders are too threatened to refuse them; 2) a lot of people who know the orders are illegal are giving them anyway; and 3) the new Civil War has officially begun and we “have to fight like hell or we won’t have a country any more.”
So we fight!
lummi island wine tasting Aug 22-23 ’25
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday & Saturday
…Saturday afternoon ladies catching up…
This week’s wine tasting
Robert Hall Sauv Blanc ’22 CA $15
Refreshingly dry and light-bodied with aromas of green apple, citrus, and lemongrass, with bright,crisp, lively acidity.
Chiarlo Barbera d’Asti ’21 Italy $18
Ruby red with violet hue; elegant nose of rich plum and berry with notes of flowers and bark; palate of red cherry and red currants with a savory finish.
Rocks of Bawn Cab Sauv ’20 WA $20
Blend from several WA vineyards delivers bright fruit flavors, silky tannins, nice balance and intensity.
Economics of the Heart: The Republican Party: A Narrative of Good and Evil
Looking for inspiration for this week’s post, I first found that Texas Republicans have gone ahead with their plan to gerrymander Texas House districts yet again to take five more seats away from Democrats. If California voters authorize the highly publicized counter-gerrymander put on the upcoming special election proposed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, it would certainly help to level the patently unfair playing field. If you click through the different red and blue states in this graphic, it looks as if there are very few other States that are both large enough and “gerrymandable” enough to make any difference.
More browsing suggested that the reason we are in this pickle in the first place is a Supreme Court decision six years ago (RUCHO ET AL . v. COMMON CAUSE) in which the Republican wing of the Roberts court “declared that federal judges could not review extreme partisan gerrymanders to determine if they violated constitutional rights.” Everybody who has been paying attention has known for many years now that the Roberts Court is the best Court that Big Money has been able to buy through the efforts of Leonard Leo’s billionaire-funded Federalist Society and their buddies at Heritage Foundation.
As we mentioned last week, these highly visible recent efforts by California Gov. Newsom have been evoking participation of voters across the country to fight for truth, fairness, and adherence to our laws and our country’s heritage. We can all feel it and get behind it.
More significantly and unexpectedly, today’s browsing came across a particularly interesting and somewhat obscure piece of scholarship on the history of the Republican Party. Published in 2020. and titled “The Republican Party: A Narrative of Good and Evil” it is a Master’s thesis by a student named Lawrence Cranor that explored the history of the Republican Party from Lincoln to the present. It serves as a great road map for how we got here.
Mr. Cranor explores in detail the party’s transformation since 1980 to a politics of self-righteous anger incessantly casting “blamable others” as the enemies of “ordinary” (white, Christian, male, working-class) people. Sound familiar? This has been The Schtick of right-wing radio and TV hosts since the 80’s, constantly stoking fear, anger, and violence, and now bringing us to the brink of full-on destruction of our democracy. The changes he noted just a few years ago detail the deliberate steps taken to bring us to our current existential crisis from the more traditional Republican policies of the Cold War before abandoning centrism in the 70’s and 80’s.
We have all lived through that transition, beginning with constant angry screeds from Gingrich in the early 90’s, putting the Republican Party on full-time attack mode for the first steal of the White House in 2000, and it has been getting worse ever since. Right here in Whatcom County one particularly inept Republican state representative took the State House floor in the late 90’s to rail against a proposal to teach some classes in Spanish in schools with heavy Hispanic enrollment, saying (I am not making this up!) “If English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!”
Seriously, spend some time with the above article.
So…we keep fighting!
2072 Granger Way