Dear patient readers,
You’ll have a light snack when you depart, and then come back at 7:45 AM EDT for a full meal.
Tennessee family says 6-week-old baby boy dies after being attacked in crib by family dog 7ABC. Paul R: “That’s terrible. I wonder if dogs can get coronavirus and become aggressive.”
An Analysis of Centaurs, Nymphs and Gods: Carl Jung and Friedrich Kreutzer Antigone
As “bird flu” in cows raises concerns about the safety of milk in the United States, scientists have confirmed that pasteurization effectively inactivates the influenza virus. University of Glasgow (Paul R)
#COVID-19 (Novel Coronavirus Disease)
“In San Francisco, California, a large wastewater treatment plant is on the verge of reaching its highest sewage levels of the entire pandemic. This is a huge red flag and something we need to pay attention to. If I were the CDC, I would be doing additional variant sequencing there immediately.” pic.twitter.com/VrIHXu899d
— Data Report (@CovidDataReport) June 3, 2024
Excess mortality in Western countries since the COVID-19 pandemic BMJ (Paul R)
COVID-19 vaccines may have contributed to the increase in excess deaths Telegraph
China?
US risks ‘forever’ trade war with China Bloomberg
China to retaliate if Europe raises EV tariffs Asia Times (Kevin W)
China ready to ‘forcefully’ block Taiwan independence: defence minister Al Jazeera
No more inhalers? Chinese clinical trial shows asthma can be cured in one go Interesting engineering. Chuck L: “First insulin, now asthma: China is upending Big Pharma’s profit trajectory.”
South of the Border
Claudia Scheinbaum Wins Mexican Presidential Election by a Majority, Peso Falls Financial Times
Mexico’s next president must raise taxes to cover social security costs Reuters (Robin K)
European Separation
ECB rate cut would be rare bright spot for troubled eurozone Bloomberg
France’s far-right has a big lead over Macron in European elections, opinion poll showsw Local
Selling the bodies for profit German Foreign Policy (Michael T)
Old Brittany
Keir Starmer declares Labour a ‘national security party’ The Guardian (Kevin W.)
“Politics, like business, can select for psychopathic traits.” https://t.co/J7qSuCpAzG https://t.co/LljcE6ifwE
— Chris Dillow (@CJFDillow) June 4, 2024
Gaza
To save time, Biden plans to drop the next $320 million in cash directly into the ocean Babylon Bee (Chuck L)
* * * Tzipi Nabon, a former aide to Prime Minister Netanyahu’s wife, fantasized about avenging a non-existent decapitated baby by skinning, declawing and cutting off the genitals of a Palestinian militant, then cooking and feeding it to his captors.
“Save your tongue for last, so we can enjoy it…” https://t.co/QgE7LsDUEj pic.twitter.com/gdXaIrZlqH
— Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) June 1, 2024
‘The new McCarthyism’: New York hospital fires nurse who sympathizes with Gaza mother Antiwar.com
* * * Day 241 of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood: Israel at odds with President Biden over ceasefire proposal Mondoweiss: I think the Israeli government is looking for ways to derail the deal, while placing the blame on Hamas. It won’t be easy. The far right have no such qualms, although I’m not sure they have the numbers.
Gaza ceasefire plan becomes a desperate fight for survival BBC (Kevin W)
Alastair Crook: How the West Must Change Judge Napolitano, YouTube. An important argument that Saudi Arabia’s policy towards Palestine, as set by the King, cannot be changed until a new King is installed, and that current policy does not allow for a deal with Israel as the US keeps saying.
Attacks, arrests, threats, censorship: reporting on the Israel-Gaza war is high risk CPJ (BC)
Lebanon’s Hezbollah announces attack on Israeli base as clashes escalate New Arab
Gaza protests
What I saw and learned from the New York City student strike for Palestine Corey Robin (UserFriendly)
The president of Queens College had police stationed at the gates for the graduation ceremony. Lucy Komisar
Survivors of the October 7 attacks are suing pro-Palestinian groups, but to what end? Al Jazeera (Kevin W)
A new cold war
Scholz demands explanation for change in arms policy against Russia TASS
US nearing ‘fatal’ miscalculation – Moscow RT
The new theory of Ukraine’s victory is the same as the old one American Conservative (Kevin W.)
First-strike capability: Why Russia doesn’t care about damaging ground-based radar facilities Gilbert Doctorow
Posted by PJH:
Today I read a BlueSky Tweet from Ate Harjanne, the leader of the Green Party in the Finnish parliament, who published a blog about aiding Ukraine in which he said:https://atteharjanne.fi/2024/06/03/tukea-ukrainalle-on-ryhdistettava/(Finnish original text below):
Third, we need to be prepared to send Western troops to support Ukraine on the ground. Supporting Ukraine in this way is also fully in line with the UN Charter. Western troops, as I already wrote in January, can operate in Ukraine to provide training, technical and maintenance support, support the air defense of civilian targets to combat Russian missiles and drones, and defend the borders towards Belarus and Transnistria. This will strengthen Ukraine’s self-defense capabilities and allow it to freely send Ukrainian troops to the front lines without Western and Russian troops meeting on the battlefield.
Such a force should be deployed with the broadest possible Western cooperation and, if Finland were to participate, it would be organised in a similar way to crisis management operations.
EU deceives, France benefits from new grain sanctions against Russia John Helmer
The last story about Zelensky being bribed turned out to be a lie, and if this was another fabrication, it would suggest that there was a concerted effort to smear him.
President Zelensky buys one of Europe’s largest casinos
Turkish media have reported that Film Heritage, a Belize-registered company owned by Vladimir Zelenskiy, has acquired the Vuni Palace Hotel Casino in Kyrenia, a city on Cyprus’ north coast. pic.twitter.com/nXxafU2RCI
— Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) June 3, 2024
Shiraksta
Israeli airstrikes hit Syria’s Aleppo, killing several TRT World
Empire Collapse Watch
The US withdrawal from the Middle East was too late Daniel Larrison
Ukraine war upends US arms advantage Responsible Governance (Bill B)
Military plans to fly fewer F-35s, whose price tag exceeds $2 trillion GAO Blog (Bill B)
Hearing and vision impairment: the pathology of American diplomats ScheerPost (Michael T)
Trump
Spoil the story: Trump’s conviction provides ample opportunity for appeals Jonathan Turley
Rand Paul warns Trump ruling will lead to ‘street war’ Modernity
Which movie is it? James Howard Kunstler (Chuck L.)
Biden
Biden avoids DNC fight with Zoom nomination The Washington Times
FirstEnergy, the company at the center of the bribery scheme, could be formally exonerated this summer. Cleveland (Carla R.)
The press is no longer free
Oil alliance OPEC+ extends joint crude production cuts until 2025 CNBC (Kevin W)
Extreme weather and Red Sea crisis send commodity prices soaring Oil prices
Basil
Toyota apologizes for vehicle testing fraud, halts production of three models Associated Press (Kevin W.)
The commercial real estate crisis is hiding in plain sight The Hill
Today’s antidote: Carrie Cat: “An occasional visitor in my backyard”:
See yesterday’s link and the Antidote du Jour here.
