lummi island wine tasting june 27-28 ’25
Hours This Weekend: Friday & Saturday, 4-6 pm
strange moonlight
This week’s wine tasting
celler capcanes
-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.
Mas Donis Capcanes Old Vines Red ‘18 Spain $17
Garnacha/Cariñena; Velvety mouthfeel and texture; wild red and black berry flavors, with cherry, spices and herbs; medium to full-bodied with soft and velvet tannins and nicely refreshing finish.
Alto Moncayo Zisnero Garnacha Spain $16
Ruby red; aromas of cherries and currants; pleasant freshness with notes of laurel and toast, balanced acidity, lingering palate.
Economics of the Heart: Half the World is Authoritarian
cc trump on Mars
An interesting article in Newsweek in January begins with the fact that about half the world’s countries are authoritarian dictatorships of several kinds, from family-run kleptocracies (Azerbaijan), outright police states (Russia), Communist dictatorships (China, North Korea), theocracies (Afghanistan, Iran), or kleptocracies like Syria, Turkey, and Hungary.
Each system is some combination of media manipulation, periodic displays of violence including murder, kangaroo courts, lengthy prison terms for made-up crimes, and some semblance of order for those who keep their heads down and their mouths shut.
One of the first acts of Project 2025 was to eliminate federal oversight of the new Administration by firing the Inspector General of every Federal Agency. Since the 1970’s the dozen or so IG offices primary function has been to identify and eliminate “waste, fraud, and abuse” from Federal Agencies.
In its place came Elon Musk’s tragically misnamed “DOGE” with its cadres of 20-year old student hackers to infiltrate and compromise years of classified Federal files across the government and order the illegal firings of tens of thousands of career civil servants. Kinda sounds like the Tweetster’s version of Dubya’s “shock and awe” murder of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis in our 2002 invasion and occupation of that country.
The article goes on to make interesting distinctions among these authoritarian regimes:
“Communist leader Xi Jinping stays at the top of Beijing’s byzantine power structure through a network of fear, personal alliances and more fear, along with fervent nationalism and a sense of national grievance. North Korea’s Kim Jong Un maintains an iron grip through the threat and reality of labor camps and murder along with a fanatical propaganda personality cult. Belarus’s Alexander Lukashenko prefers a diet of torture for his foes. Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, Cuba’s Miguel Diaz-Canel, and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega offer milder versions of the same, and there are fears that India’s Narendra Modi might go down this path.”
One interesting takeaway of this article is that many humans have a sort of bipolar attitude between “the simultaneous craving for freedom” and “the comfort of authority.” That helps to explain the strange tendency of Maggites to accept without question the Tweetster’s constant lies echoed 24/7 by Fox and its ilk.
On a somewhat related note is this fairly dense historical legal treatise on the slippery differences between “freedom of religion” and freedom from religion” as embodied in our 250-yr-old Constitution. The Establishment Clause of the First Amendment guarantees on the one hand that the the State cannot adopt an official religion or impose religion on anyone; and on the other hand the Free Exercise clause guarantees the State must interfere as little as possible with religious practice and belief.
The big takeaway here are Constitutional rights to follow any religion or no religion. The ongoing militancy of Red State Republicans to deny women’s rights to manage their own reproductive capabilities is a prima facie violation of the Establishment clause. The article explores consistent reinforcement of this principle over many decades against an ongoing parade of religious challenges.
Just another Giant Reason to eschew Republican Authoritarianism…!
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2072 Granger Way