Articles by The Grapevine

Uninformed and malicious voters: Thanks for NOTHING

In the grand theater of nations, nothing matters now but the ruin we have invited upon ourselves. Neither the evident decay of reason nor the depths of ignorance; not the tempest of unbridled emotions nor the campaign built upon venom and folly; not even the absurdity of schemes so unworkable that only malice could defend them. None of it mattered. Behold the man: the candidate…


Three-Dot Lounge goes cakes, planes and secession

Cute Cakes Bakery leaves them wanting more and that’s not a good thing True story courtesy of r/DoWeKnowThemPodcaston Reddit: “My cousin put a deposit for about $700 on a wedding cake through Cute Cake Bakery in Escondido – they had good reviews and cute cakes. Their TikTok is here. Turns out, they declared bankruptcy about a week later and have been basically ghosting weddings that…


San Marcos sued for blocking community gatherings

Fear of insurrection? Had enough of that whole free speech thing? Don’t like people getting together for social interaction, fun or education? A controversial San Marcos conditional use permit requirement barring community group gatherings came under legal challenge this week at San Diego federal court. Shera Sandwell, owner of non-profit Bheau View Ranch, which she founded in 2000, represented by litigation attorney Jeremiah D. Graham,…


Sheriff Kelly Martinez, protector of who exactly?

San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez is a politician dressed in a badge, pretending to uphold the law while peddling fear and dodging accountability. On Tuesday, in a move as predictable as the sunrise, she declared herself above the will of the people she supposedly serves, all in the name of bending the knee to ICE—Trump’s personal deportation squad. San Diego County supervisors made their…


Stephen Miller’s fear factory targets California leaders

Stephen Miller, our self-appointed prophet of jurisprudence, has descended once more from his ivory tower, pen in hand, to dispatch 249 missives of divine judgment to the unwashed, lawless hordes of California and beyond. These epistles, dripping with righteous indignation and the ink of a bureaucracy in heat, are not merely letters—they are commandments, etched in the stone of Miller’s towering ego. Each one a…


Sanctuary: Defending faith and humanity against fear

The sun had barely risen, casting a pale, hesitant light over a land that seemed unsure of itself, when the news came down like a hammer on an old anvil. The announcement wasn’t made with fanfare, nor with the solemnity one might expect from something so grave. No, it was delivered with the cold efficiency of machinery, as if humanity were an afterthought in the…


Sheeeee’s baaaaack. San Diego GOP recycles old chair removed in April for DeMaio ethical vile-lations

The fetid stink of political theater hung thick in the air at the Legacy Hotel in Mission Valley on the night of December 9, as the San Diego County Republican Party Central Committee — much like the Soviet Politburo — convened to re-coronate Paula S. Whitsell as their glorious figurehead. Whitsell, a Chula Vista relic who first wormed her way into this backwater power circle…


Monarchs in flight: Saving our fluttering treasures

On a quiet Tuesday, U.S. wildlife officials, with an air of both resolve and regret, unveiled their intent to extend federal protections to the delicate monarch butterfly—a creature whose presence evokes a profound sense of wonder yet whose existence teeters precariously. For years, environmentalists have sounded the alarm, warning that the monarch’s numbers dwindle ominously, their shimmering wings an emblem of a vanishing world threatened…


La Niña looms. Will San Diego’s luck hold this winter?

San Diego County, as far as weather is concerned, often carries the smug air of a guest at the Thanksgiving table who neither brings nor takes too much—just clear skies and dry streets to boast about, while its neighbors to the north dabble in calamity. This week has been no exception. While Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and San Luis Obispo have been slapped about by…


Dance of the orcas: Awe and etiquette on the open seas

In the surging foam of the Pacific swells, where the boundless blue mirrors heaven’s depths, there came again to Southern California’s shores a band of oceanic hunters, their presence rare as an albatross amid the doldrums. These orcas, sovereigns of the sea, whose brief sojourns here once stirred both awe and marvel, now returned, their black-and-white heraldry glistening like banners of some ancient, aquatic knightly…