lummi island wine tasting may 30-31 ’25
Summer Hours: Fridays and Saturdays, 4-6 pm
Simon’s farm subscriptions starting soon…!
Friday Bread This Week
Pain Meunier –also known as miller’s bread and was developed to honor the miller who mills the wheat. Made with pre-fermented dough it contains all portions of the wheat berry: flour, fresh milled whole wheat, cracked wheat and wheat germ. Always a favorite and a great all around bread. It makes the best toast! – $5/loaf
Sonnenblumenbrot – aka Sunflower Seed Bread; made with a pre-ferment that ferments a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast overnight before mixing the final dough. with freshly milled rye, then loaded up with toasted sunflower seeds and some barley malt syrup for sweetness.. a typical German seed bread- $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Gibassiers – A traditional french pastry recipe from southern France. Made with a delicious sweet dough full of milk, butter, eggs and olive oil, with orange flower water, candied orange peel and anise seed. After baking they are brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with more sugar. – 2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.
This week’s wine tasting
Hecht & Bannier Organic Piquepoul-Chardonnay ’23 France $14
These guys are restaurant guys who are making wines from many different French regions that they use in their restaurants. It’s an interesting story.
Cala Civetta Sangiovese di Toscana ’21 Italy $13
Earthy nose of red plum accompanies a vibrant yet mildly tannic palate of tart cherry with a hint of smoke and ocean brine – a true expression of Scansano, nestled halfway between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Mt. Amiata.
Decoy Red ’21 California $18
60% Cab, 40% Merlot, Zinfandel, Syrah, and Cab; aromas of blackberry, plum, spice and savory herbs; fresh, rich, and savory on the palate with rich, silky tannins and a long, lush finish.
Economics of the Heart: The Dilemma of Unlawful Orders
US ICE agent snatches Haitian immigrant seeking asylum (courtesy bbc.com)
Pretty much everyone who works for the Federal government must take an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. This applies alike to all who serve in the armed forces or in civil positions at all levels. All of these oath-takers must obey all lawful orders and disobey all illegal orders.
The Manual for Court-Martial puts it this way: “Though an order requiring the performance of a military duty or act may be inferred to be lawful and disobeyed at the peril of the subordinate, this inference does not apply to a patently illegal order, such as one that directs the commission of a crime.”
Obviously this puts every service member in a serious dilemma if given a questionable order: how can one know if an order that seems unlawful is unlawful? Since you can be court-martialed and punished severely for disobeying a lawful order, you can also potentially face court-martial for obeying a clearly unlawful order or for issuing such an order. Sounds like Catch-22, huh…?
As Project 2025 continues to wreak havoc with the functioning of the Federal government, including replacement of top military commanders with deeply unqualified Tweetster loyalists, the spectre of an illegal declaration of martial law and its use against civilians and political opponents seems increasingly likely. We are now five months into the Maga Coup, and have seen scores of legal decisions against its increasing brutality and boastful disregard for Constitutional Law along with substantial Supreme Court deference to whatever the Tweetster wants.
We all recall Project 2025’s affably-addressed comment nearly a year ago that as long as no one resisted their plan, no one would be hurt. It was obviously a threat to “stand back, shut up, and stay out of our way or we will hurt you.” This message has been continually reinforced by seizure, confinement, and deportation of innocent immigrants by masked ICE agents, looking and acting for all the world like Hitler’s Gestapo.
We have seen scores of judicial decisions decided against this rogue Administration which has deliberately ignored, delayed, and continued to violate our laws. Meanwhile, the increasingly incoherent Tweetster fills the airwaves with mindless blathering while his Cabinet of mean-spirited, grossly unqualified appointees have been trashing our recently envied economy and our global leadership. As one old friend puts it, “things are getting Worse faster than I’m getting Older!”
So, back to Military Law: in the not too distant future Maga will expand their authoritarian reach into our communities, our schools, our workplaces. Our service members could be assigned to maintain martial law in various communities. Service members may find themselves being given illegal orders they know are wrong. They need to be ready for that. Are they willing to kill or injure innocent people because the Maga Cabinet orders it?
While there is little clarity about whether, when, or how the States or the Feds can declare martial law, it has happened several times in our history in response to particular unusual circumstances, and then only temporarily. For example, General Andrew Jackson declared it after the Battle of New Orleans in 1814; it was implemented in Rhode Island in 1842 in response to the political unrest of the “Dorr War;” and at numerous places during the Civil War. It has generally been precipitated by unusual and threatening local or regional events, and limited in scope, location, and purpose.
At the federal level, the Brennan Center has argued that “Congress has legislated so extensively with respect to the domestic use of the military — through, for example, the Posse Comitatus Act, the Insurrection Act, the Stafford Act, the Non Detention Act, and various other provisions within Title 10 of the U.S. Code — that it has created such a dense and comprehensive network of rules that anything the president does in this area that is not affirmatively authorized by statute is almost necessarily against Congress’s will.
The Brennan Center paper quoted above delves quite deeply into these questions and provides interesting reading. Generally the takeaway is that martial law has been useful in a few states for short times in response to specific unusual situations.
Purposeful publicity from Project 2025 began over a year ago with the deliberate threat that their Maga takeover is inevitable, and we should just sit back and let them destroy our country and our way of life…or as Timothy Snyder would put it, “obey in advance.” Instead, crowds of people across the country have been resisting with increasing dedication. Our Constitutional Commitment leaves no room for compromise: we must fight till we win.
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