lummi island wine tasting nov 7-8 ’25
Hours this weekend: 4-6 pm Friday & Saturday
Ferry view of Mt Baker
This Week’s Wine Tasting
L’Amauve Le Rose d’Yvonne ’24 France $14
Pale salmon-pink; nose of red berry fruits and balsamic menthol notes and fresh, thirst-quenching, fruity attack flowing into zippy aromatics.
Pandemonium Cab ’21 California $24
From French Camp Vineyard high above Paso Robles; hot days and cold nights produce layers of jammy black fruit, spicy aromas of leather and licorice, chalky tannins, and a well-rounded finish.
Pollard Cab Franc ’20 Washington $40
Big wine with expressive nose of hibiscus and gooseberry; palate of dried strawberry and garrigue, well balanced tannic structure, and and long smooth finish.
Economics of the Heart: Alien Nation*
Alien Nation movie poster 1988*
The Big News this week is that finally the Maggit Movement is getting some serious – and growing- pushback from American voters. This week’s election has provided several concrete signs that lots of voters are fed up with the cruelty against immigrants, the looting by billionaires, the silent capitulation of Congressional Republicans, and the deployment of armed soldiers to the streets of Blue cities.
Zohran Mamdani, New York City’s bright, outspoken, and charismatic 34-yr old Mayor-elect, mobilized a huge (50 yr high) turnout of voters under the age of 45 and swept in with a landslide. Similarly, Democratic women handily won governorships in New Jersey and Virginia, three State Supreme Court seats remained with Democrats in Pennsylvania.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s referendum for California to turn five Republican districts Blue passed with a large majority after Texas Governor Greg Abbott illegally gerrymandered Texas voting districts yet again to give Republicans five more House seats in that state in the 2026 election.
Newsom’s plan was largely motivated by the White House deployment of National Guard troops to DC, Los Angeles, and Chicago, and has ignited a growing resistance to the over-reach of this Administration as other states are also taking creative approaches to defending their sovereignty.
The timing of the election also coincided perfectly with the growing economic downturn across our country. There seems to be no one in the Administration with even the most basic economic concepts as Maga has alienated us from our allies across the world, shamed us all with tens of thousands of armed, masked ICE agents breaking into homes, dragging people away and disappearing them with neither due process nor accountability of any kind.
Also, as recently pointed out by Paul Krugman, Hispanic voters who had shifted toward Maga during the Covid economic slowdown– and blaming Biden for it– are increasingly unhappy about the brutality of ICE agents against Hispanics seeking asylum in our country. That, he argues, together with the silence of Congressional Republicans and the horrific cruelty and complete lack of accountability of anything ICE does, has turned them forever against MAGA, and they won’t be coming back any time soon.
So, we begin to see signs of hope. The nationwide No Kings Rally drew millions of Americans to the streets in cities large and small. At the same time the increasingly unhinged Maggot cruelty against immigrants continues, apparently at the ongoing sadistic pleasure of Chief Blue Meanie Steven Miller, who Wikipedia describes as “far-right, anti-immigration, and white nationalist. Btw, Miller is on the Southern Poverty Law Center‘s list of extremists.
* not a great movie, and a long time ago, but an interesting perspective on the politics of ethnic prejudice…
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
2072 Granger Way