lummi island wine tasting July 25-26 ’25
Hours this weekend:
4-6 pm Friday (more crowded) & Saturday (less crowded)
This week’s wine tasting
Chapoutier Belleruche Blanc ’23 France $14
Delicious blend of grenache blanc and roussanne; fragrant and perfumed with a light, grilled-lemon note over ripe melon, and a lingering palate of rich white peach.
Lancyre Pic St Loup Vielles Vignes ’20 France $18
100 % malbec; unfolds with dark, enchanting notes of blackberry, grilled plum, and jammy raspberry with accents of orange peel, vanilla, and tobacco spice, finishing with balanced structure, plush texture, and a lengthy finish
Alto Moncayo Veraton ’21 Spain $32
Deep red with scarlet rim; balsamic aromas with notes of chocolate and black fruits; warming in the mouth, expressive nuances of flavor, and an immensely pleasing finish.
Economics of the Heart: The Road to Oligarchy
Even after six chaotic months of Project 2025’s wanton destruction of our 250-year old democratic Constitutional government, we are still groping to understand exactly what we are dealing with and how to resist it effectively. So it was interesting to run across a cogent, detailed set of arguments by economist/political scientist C.J. Polychroniou that bring the reality of our present situation into focus.
While many of us have been aware and outraged for decades by the ever-increasing belligerence of Republicans in Congress, we were blind to the magnitude of the long-term plan for what is happening now, even though we all saw many of the pieces:
- Three decades of stacking Courts at all levels with ultra-conservative judges by ultra-wealthy members of the Federalist Society;
- Active encouragement of Russian misinformation on social media;
- 24/7 media misinformation from Fox, right-wing radio hosts, and always-angry Congressional Republicans (and lots more)
- Senate failure to convict the Tweetster on either the Ukaine bribe impeachment or the Jan 6 impeachment.
These remarkable outcomes defied logic at the time, but it is clear from current events that each of those steps was deliberate, well organized, funded with $billions, and methodically developed over several decades.
Collaborations likely included interests of Heritage Foundation, Federalist Society, Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, and other oligarchies (Israel..?). Beginning with getting Reagan elected, then Bushes 1 and 2, and then the Tweetster, they have left tracks that lead directly to this current ongoing coup.
In his article Prof. Polychroniou observes that Trump and his team of loyalist co-conspirators and ultra-wealthy backers are fervent believers in the “natural right of the rich and powerful to shape society as they please and make government function as they see fit,” and that the grandiose goals of their breathtaking egos also include
- “Oligarchic state capture”
- White Christian nationalism as the “hegemonic project“;
- The rise of a new U.S. autocratic empire run by and for a handful of trillionaires.
The nonstop purposeful chaos has effectively distracted and deflected criticism as regulatory institutions are gutted or shut down altogether and power concentrated among a small cadre of admiring loyalists. Never mind that they are breathtakingly unqualified to run the agencies they now head…after all, their missions are to destroy them completely, not make them work.
The article also notes that though the Tweetster has always been anti-labor, the very anti-labor agenda of Project 2025 aiming to roll back all labor reforms under the Biden administration, outlaw public sector unions, and rewrite a hundred years of labor law, could be the most damaging administration the U.S. labor movement has ever faced. Ironically, its laissez-faire product and market regulations could crush the Fox-addicted white working-class which helped the Tweetster return to power.
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2072 Granger Way