Because the editor broke her current glasses, and Kaiser will take a week and a half to replace them, posting of new articles using her older glasses will take longer than usual. I'm sorry--please be patient and keep checking. -more-

In some ways, things feel a little more sane now that the country is not going into default, but the book bans continue as do anti-trans laws, abortion bans, and mass shootings. There are the warnings that global temperature rise will hit 1.5°C at least one year by 2027, the jet stream is loopy, crazy weather is threatening the world food supply and the ocean conveyer has slowed by 30%, according to David Wallace-Wells author of The Uninhabitable Earth.

There is another wake-up call from the scientists that we are in the middle of the 6th mass extinction and the cause is us.

In the book A Wing and A Prayer: The Race to Save Our Vanishing Birds by Anders and Beverly Gyllenhaal, they introduce us to the crisis this way, “Birds are the most visible branch of wildlife found in every corner of the globe and all too easy to take for granted…But a series of advances in the science and technology of bird research leads to a startling discovery. In the past fifty years nearly a third of the population in North America has withered away up against the loss of habitat, shifting climate, and growing hazards of an urban world…” [emphasis added] -more-

Enjoy the "Super Bloom"—It Could Be the Last

The media has been celebrating a "super bloom" of poppies that has cloaked California's slopes and valleys in mile-long robes of orange blossoms. But it's not just poppies that are popping. The overabundance of rain (after a half-decade of crushing drought) has nourished an explosive "super boom" of boughs and blossoms in the state's forests and woodlands. At the same time, all over the city and well into the hills, neighborhood bushes and trees are bursting with foliage—leaves, flowers, and fruit are bigger and more plentiful.

But it won't last.

Statewide drought is certain to return. It is the "New Abnormal." When this year's vegetation feels the heat of a planet that recently passed the critical tipping-point temp of 1.5 degrees Celsius, the abundance of greenery will begin to bake and brown, forming a feedstock for wildfires. And when the next cycle of drought returns, the firestorms will only rage hotter and higher.

So let's enjoy the sights of this what-may-be-a-special year. Photograph the foliage. Run barefoot through the ankle-high grass. Plant vegetable gardens. Take a good look, because this may be the last season that flaunts the supercharged beauty of Mother Nature at her best. This could be a fitting time to recall a haunting dirge that was written long before humanity woke up to the calamity of climate change: -more-

In 1988 and 89, I made a meagre living working for a pizza shop. After my first month, the owner confronted me that I appeared "on drugs", and his manner was harsh and accusatory. At that point I had to "come out" and explain that I am schizophrenic and must take psych meds. If I remember right, he may have demanded a doctor's note to prove this. He did not believe a mentally ill person was a bad person, but he felt strongly about not employing someone addicted to street drugs. -more-

Former British Labor leader Jeremy Corbyn, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and famed linguist and dissident Noam Chomsky joined others earlier this year calling on President Biden to drop charges against Julian Assange. The WikiLeaks founder has been languishing for over four years in the harsh Belmarsh prison in London while appealing extradition to the United States. -more-

On May 23, 2023, the Illinois Attorney General issued a report that 1,997 children in Illinois were sexually abused by 451 Catholic priests as well as religious brothers, a pattern of the church failing to support survivors, ignoring or covering up reports of abuse and the church revictimizing survivors who came forward. This troubling report follows similar reports of sexual abuse by clergy of the Archdiocese of Baltimore; and a grand jury report of child sexual abuse and church coverup in six of the eight parishes in Pennsylvania. -more-

Under the reign of Matthew Shilvock as General Director of San Francisco Opera, our local company has shown a disturbing tendency to present off-putting, highly meddlesome productions of opera’s classic repertory. A notable case in point was SF Opera’s multi-year project of mounting all three Mozart and Da Ponte operas in new, woefully misbegotten stagings by Canadian director Michael Cavanaugh. Setting these three great operas in a single American house over a period ranging from just after the American Revolution for his 2019 Le Nozze di Figaro, then setting in the 1930s his 2021 Così fan tutte, and setting In a vague future of American decline and decay his 2022 Don Giovanni, Michael Cavanaugh displayed many misguided, indeed, woefully wrong-headed measures in staging these Mozart and Da Ponte classics. Now San Francisco Opera presents a drastically meddlesome staging by Amon Miyamoto of Giacomo Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, the opening night performance of which I attended on Saturday, June 3. -more-

Worth Noting:

The vote by City Council on the Bird Safe Ordinance is Tuesday, June 6 at the 6 pm regular City Council meeting. Register your opinion in Berkeley Considers and send an email by Monday. The Toolkit by Erin Diehm contains information and links. -more-