lummi island wine tasting Aug 2-3 ’25
Hours this weekend:
4-6 pm Friday (more crowded!) & Saturday (less crowded!)
This week’s wine tasting
Harken Chardonnay ’23 California $15
Billed as the “return of oaky chardonnay,” these guys select fruit from scattered unnamed California vineyards. But the bad rep of “oaky chard” was from over-oaking crappy fruit, and this one is nicely balanced.
Wolftrap Red ’22 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!
Pandemonium Cab ’21 California $24
From French Camp Vineyard high above Paso Robles, where hot days and cold nights produce flavorful layers of jammy black fruit, spicy aromas of leather and licorice, chalky tannins, and a well-rounded finish.
Economics of the Heart: Fascism Comes to America
In May of 2016, the Brookings Institute published a warning about the Tweetster’s candidacy. With surgical precision it identified him as a Fascist threat to our nation and laid out a remarkably prescient road map of what to expect, outlining in detail how similar figures (Hitler, Mussolini, Putin) have been able to transcend conventional politics by directly mobilizing a substantial population of followers with their outspoken disdain for the authority of the status quo.
In such circumstances, it suggests, the human race breaks down into groups of those who jump on the bandwagon, those who mumble and try not to make waves, and those who pretend it’s all just politics as usual. And of course, all of us who at some point in our lives took oaths to defend the Constitution and are still looking for ways to do so.
As regular watchers of Democracy Docket, we get daily updates on developments in many of the court cases brought against Project 2025’s ongoing assaults on our Constitutional rights. It is reassuring when such cases are either decided in favor of democracy or even delayed significantly in lower courts, as is the case for a huge majority of them. In the link above you will also find numerous ways to support its comprehensive efforts and add your effort to this vital cause.
The Carnegie Endowment, another source of democratic inspiration, noted in 2022 that “since the end of the Cold War, most democratic failure globally has been caused by elected governments using legal methods, such as gerrymandering and other technical rule changes” to achieve policies that willingly cripple democracy to ensure their side prevails by whatever means.
Indeed, it adds, “a paper classifying over 1,000 political parties, across 163 countries, by ideology and tactics, finds the current Republican Party far closer to authoritarian populist parties in Hungary and Turkey than to mainstream conservative parties in Germany or Canada.“
If we put these views together with the rising Maga Turmoil re the “Epstein Files,” we seem to be nearing a turning point as some Maggits are getting disillusioned, the Tweetster is getting more incoherent, the economy is faltering, and the discomforts of uncertainty and confusion are getting wearysome.
Signs of progress…
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2072 Granger Way