Were having our first serious heat wave in California. Temps today in the inland suburbs will be well into the 100s; even here in Oakland, it will be close to 90, or higher. People unfamiliar with the Bay Area are always amazed how the temperatures vary within a short distance. Lets say it will be […]

Its exhausting, isnt it? I mean keeping up with all the Trump scandals. Thats why I didnt blog last Thursday or Friday. Im just tired of him, tired of them, of Republicans. Everyday theres a new crime revealed, a new attempt to subvert our Republic, another nail into the limbs of America. One runs out […]

Trumps modus operandi, of course, is to portray his many and repeated failures as lies from Democrats and the fake media. Anytime Trump gets caught with his tiny, fat hand in the cookie jarwhether its hiding hush-money payments to porn stars, bribing Ukraine, or lying about the size of his inaugural crowdhe has a fallback […]

I saw Joe Biden and Stacey Abrams together on one of the news stations yesterday, and as I watched with increasing horror, I thought, Were going to lose the election. Biden and Abrams have been appearing so frequently in joint appearances lately that its hard to escape the conclusion that shes Bidens choice for vice-president. […]

This feels like the real thing, doesnt it? I mean, the end of Trump. What with impeachment rolling on full steam as UkraineGate grows more scandalous by the minuteand with Trumps incredibly horrific blunder concerning abandoning the Kurdsthe fool in the White House has sealed his own doom. Let us hope so, at any rate. […]

Tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake, the 6.9 magnitude temblor that wrecked large parts of Northern California. I remember it well. I was living in Oakland and working as a stringer, or freelance reporter, for the Oakland Tribune newspaper; Id been assigned a little story for the regional section of the […]

I have absolutely nothing in principle against wine in cans, especially white wines and ross that need to be refrigerated. Theres no reason not to put such wines in cans. Aluminum cans are recyclable; they reduce your carbon footprint; they help, in a small way, to heal our planet. Only snobs would object to a […]

Lets understand a few things about William Barr, who currently is Trumps Attorney-General. Well start with his religion, because he says hes here to bring Gods law to America, and since Barr is Americas chief legal officer, we need to understand just what he means. Barr was born Catholic but became an evangelical Christian at […]

Okay, kids, heres your final multiple choice quiz of the week. How will Trump and his regime be remembered by History? Worst in American history A depraved hiccup, after which normalcy was restored The cause of Civil War II The demise of evangelicalism in America Part of a wave of nationalist-white supremacist governments around the […]

We all know Trump wants to make himself Leader For Life, like his friends Putin, Kim Jong Un, Erdogan of Turkey and Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. Weve read how his spawn, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, are negotiating who succeeds him as Supreme Leader; or maybe it will be Jared. The important thing is […]

You wanna know who the goddamn Deep State is? Ill tell you. First, a definition. The Deep State is a seditious cadre of right wing religious fascists, rapacious billionaires, and the slime bags on the consultative/media rear end of the Republican Party. Together, they have made common cause against America: they wish to do away […]

Trump and the Republican Party do not believe that gay people deserve any protection under the countrys landmark 1964 Civil Rights bill. I think the general perception is that Trump, himself, is probably not homophobic. He may not be a supporter of gay rights, and may personally be made uncomfortable by gay people, but in […]

I dont know if Cameron Hughes invented his California business model, which is to buy wine from other wineries who, for one reason or another, need to get rid of it for immediate income. Then Cameron slaps his own label on it, gives it a Lot number, does some publicity, and sells it, at a […]

Michael Pompeo, our Secretary of State, reminds me of Hermann Goering. Theyre both big, fat men, saturated with the grease of steak and pork, and infatuated with their own power. Self-confident, smirking, and morally adrift, they revel in their power; both are propped up by sinister bosses: Hitler for Goering, Trump for Pompeo. We all […]

"You know what else they say about my people? The polls, they say I have the most loyal people. Did you ever see that? Where I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldnt lose any voters, okay? Its like incredible. That was a bragging Trump, campaigning in Iowa […]

Watching the Acting DNI, Maguire, testify this morning was painful. It turns out that the man who runs the entire intelligence apparatus of the United States of America is just another squirming, mealy-mouthed bureaucrat. Afraid of saying anything that could get him in trouble with his bosses, he dodged and weaved, hiding behind words, trying [R...

Trump and his Republicans want to make this a fight. Good. Lets fight. Were going to win. There are a few salient facts to keep in mind. What is the essence of UkraineGate? The President of the United States enticed a foreign government to illegally meddle in a U.S. election. This is the second time […]

The Brits and we Americans have many things in common: a shared language and democratic institutions. And we now have something else: both countries were hoodwinked by ridiculous, incompetent leaders, and both peoples are now seeing just how badly they were tricked. In Britains case, of course, this refers to the disastrous Prime Ministry of [̷...

Fox News got a little blindsided after they ran this headline: Pastors praise Trump for skipping UN panel on ‘imaginary' climate crisis for ‘real' problem of religious persecution Turns out Trump did make it to the climate change panel. He looked bored beyond belief, but it was the price he had to pay after being […]

Inherit the Wind is the 1960 film, starring Spencer Tracy and Fredric March, that recreated the infamous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial. The movie vividly depicts the stupidity, savagery and dangers of Christian evangelicals in America; Tracy (who was nominated for an Academy Award) gives a powerful performance as an eminently sane man disgusted with thi...

Ive always liked the wines of En Garde, which I believe are nearly as good as anyone elses in Napa Valley, although En Gardes name isnt as well known. If I have a quibbleand its not just with En Garde, its with Napa Cabernet in generalits that theres a sameness across the board. At these […]

As you know, Trump is in the Bay Area today, on a fundraiser, and his people are keeping the itinerary strictly mum. They know that hes loathed in Northern California, and they dont want thousands of protesters blocking his motorcade and flying Baby Trump balloons. The local news outlets, however, are going crazy with speculation, […]

I dont usually agree with Trump but I did when he suggested that the federal government might demolish rat and rodent-infested homeless camps and commit obviously crazy people, even against their will, into forced incarceration and treatment. I am an unabashed liberal. I make no apologies for my lifelong support of Democrats. Im proud of […]

I first came across Perfusions wines a couple years ago through a friend, and was fascinated by where the grapes were grown. The official appellation is San Francisco Bay, a huge appellation (1.5 million acres), about seven times bigger than Napa Valley. So big is this growing region, which extends from Santa Cruz County in […]

Theres been a lot of news here in California about the gig economy and whether or not the people who work for companies like Uber and Lyft should be independent contractors or actual employees. The difference is huge, to the bottom lines of the companies involved. If the workers are just independent contractors, they make […]

Had lunch the other day with a friend, Roy (not his real name), whos in his late twenties. The topic turned, naturally enough, to politics. One thing led to another, and my friend mentioned that he had negative feelings about the Clintons, especially Hillary. Why? He couldnt articulate anything precisely, but stammered something about untrustworthi...

Back in the day I used to taste a lot of Quady. It's been a few years now, and its good to see theyre right on course. Quady got their start in the late 1970s when they began specializing in the fairly arcane area of sweet dessert wines. Theyre still at it. Ive always had […]

Well, hes done it again: embarrassed America abroad. His performance at the G7 was, in a word, horrible. Its obvious the European leaders loathe him and all he stands for. The reports have suggested that the leaders didnt want to directly bash him (even though personally they want to), so they put discretion before valor […]

I saw a spokesman from the Log Cabin Republicans on T.V. yesterday explaining why his group of gay Republicans continues to support trumps re-election. His words (I paraphrase) were, Well, the president promised us he would tone down the rhetoric on the right against the LGBTQ community, and hes done that, so we support him. […]

Here are two new reviews. Both wines are from the Marlborough, New Zealand winery, Duck Hunter, thats been getting good reviews in the American wine press. The prices listed are the official ones from the importer, but Ive seen both wines online for sale at considerably lower cost. Both the Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot […]

Mine is an anti-trump blog but in all fairness there are things the Left needs to work on. Both The LEFT and the RIGHT have their faults. Here are six issues both sides need to own up to and correct. THE RIGHT      CLIMATE CHANGE: Conservatives really have to move beyond their blind resistance to the […]

The dumbest remark Ive heard all weekand Ive heard a lot of dumb stuff from Republicanswas on Breitbart or, as I like to call it, BiteFart. It was from a woman (obviously not well-educated), who wrote, concerning the Epstein death, Trump is no murder. She meant murderer, of course, but many if not most of […]

As a California wine critic I came across very little Pinotage wine. Over the decades I drank maybe a few dozen, always from South Africa. I formed a generic impression of it, through both my own tastings and from reading other writers, as a dark red wine, dry and high in alcohol, that could be […]

Mondays report, in the San Francisco Chronicle, that the city of Oakland has surpassed San Francisco in new apartment construction came as no surprise to those of us who, like me, live at the epicenter of the new development, in the so-called Broadway-Valdez Corridor. In the last two years or so, Oakland, with less than […]

Ive said and written for years that Lindsay GrahamAuntie Lindsay–is gay but is afraid to come out of the closet because he represents one of the most Christian and conservative states in the countrySouth Carolinawhere people hate homosexuals. (Note: in this post, I refer to Graham both as he and she.) My thesis has long […]

Im sleeping better going into this weekend. Im now convinced that Trump will soon be goneeither through Impeachment, or the 2020 election, or by his own hand. However it happens, well soon be done with the most disastrous horror that has struck America since the bombing of Pearl Harbor. What brings about this peace of […]

Joe Biden is conducting a really smart campaign. He was the last major candidate in; his timing was perfect; he did not want to peak too early. Hes been sparing in his public appearances and press availability, a good thing given his tendency for gaffes, and the fact that he needed to find his footing […]

Did you feel it? That political tremor of the last few days? Its the beginning of the end of the trump regime. Dont be dubious! Think about it. The entire republican edifice is crumbling: the NRA is melting down, financially and morally; members are leaving in droves. The republican party itself is in a shambles; […]

No, he didnt pull the trigger. He just gave permission to the guy who did. Look: For decades its been the lie of NRA-obsessed republicans that guns dont kill people, people do. Because no gun ever pulled its own trigger, republicans thought they could fool people into being against gun-control laws. And you know what? […]

Amy Klobuchar, the Democratic Senator from Minnesota whos running for president, was asked on Saturday if she blames Trump for the El Paso Massacre. She responded no, she blames his rhetoric, not him. What the hell does that mean? Its like saying you dont blame Hitler for the Holocaust, but you blame Mein Kampf. You […]

Poor Jeff Williams. He has to drive 140 miles to buy ammunition for his Glock 45 9mm pistolthe same type of gun Omar Mateen used when he slaughtered 49 people in the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting. Williams lives in Needles, California, a small city on the California-Arizona border, in the Mohave Desert. Due to Californias […]

I like to think that if Id had lunch last Tuesday at Yuni Caf, I would have marveled at the food anyway. But this wasnt Yuni Caf, it was Zuni Cafe. Now in its fortieth year in the mid-Market section of San Francisco, Zuni is internationally famous; somehow Chez Panisse overcame it in renown, but […]

Oliver Stone, the filmmaker, said something pretty stupid the other day, when he told Russian President Vladimir Putin, with whom he was meeting, that Russias anti-gay laws are sensible. In their conversation, the two men wandered into what seems like a weird area for the leader of a nuclear-armed country and a Hollywood movie director: […]

Thats been this raging debate in the Democratic Party lately. The pro-impeachment sidewhich definitely includes meargues that trump (I will no longer capitalize his name) is morally and legally unfit to be president. The other sidewhich apparently still includes a majority of House Democrats who follow Speaker Pelosiargues that impeaching him now w...

There are two groups in America whom I loathe and fear more than any others: evangelicals, and white nationalist neo-nazis. Both are diehard Republicans. Both represent dire threats to the country I grew up in and love, and to me, personally, as well. And both are the staunchest parts of Trumps base. Let me explain […]

He looked terrible, didnt he? I mean Mueller. Not tanned and relaxed the way a retired guy ought to be, but tired, dragged out and mentally confused. Yesterday was not a good day for Robert Mueller. Since I never thought the Special Counsel would be the White Knight who would save America by indicting Donald […]

Does social media engage in systematic and discriminatory censorship of our conservative videos? Of course not. Twitter famously allows Trump to lie, slander his enemies and stir up resentment among his unstable followers. Facebook permits Breitbartone the most infamous examples of extremism in Americato publish, including comments from readers tha...

Dear Dairy, They say Im a Racist. Well thats just a dirty lie from the failing New York Times. Im not a Racist, I just dont like most Black people. Some are okay. Herman Cane is great. Sos Ben Carson. Did you know hes a doctor? And that Clarince Thomas, what a guy! He was […]

Sometimes, things that Trump and his white nationalists say and do are so disgusting that even neo-fascist Republicans have to criticize themor pretend to. Trumps Go back hate speech to The Squad was truly epic when it comes to overt racism: an historic, shameful new low for a U.S. president. Marco RubioLittle Marco as Trump […]