February 2019

Finance, insurance, real estate special interests near total victory over 3-inch fish

The immanent extinction of the Delta smelt is exciting a flurry of studies, commentaries, and government evasion. . As we approach another development surge in California, it is apparent that lawyers, lobbyists, academics  and flakpersons for the Finance, Insurance and Real Estate conglomerate that rules the state have invented new layers of obfuscation between the conglomerate's work and the damage it does.

The World Wonderful: A bird hospital in Old Delhi and the ancient religion behind it

The bird hospital is one of several built by devotees of Jainism, an ancient religion whose highest commandment forbids violence not only against humans, but also against animals. A series of paintings in the hospital’s lobby illustrates the extremes to which some Jains take this prohibition. In them, a medieval king in blue robes gazes through a palace window at an approaching pigeon, its wing bloodied by the talons of a brown hawk still in pursuit. The king pulls the smaller bird into the palace, infuriating the hawk, which demands replacement for its lost meal, so he slices off his own arm and foot to feed it.

San Francisco wins; Delta smelt to be extinct

 

For the first time ever, a fish survey that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) conducts every autumn turned up zero Delta smelt throughout the monitoring sites in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta in September, October, November and December 2018. -- Bacher, Counterpunch.org, Feb. 5, 2019