Financial Independence Day
Assessing Our Situation,
Michael Hudson, who did international balance of payments analysis for Chase Bank in the 1960s, which showed to be US to be bleeding gold out through Vietnam, as it had through Korea, wrote "Super Imperialism" right around the time Nixon had to default on the gold standard. In that book he observed that the US Treasuries had become the central bank reserve currency of choice, and that as long as oil had to be traded in $US, that could be sustained without drawing down any US reserves, and while funding the expenses of maintaining Imperial military outposts and wars-of-choice globally.
$US debts grew exponentially from that point, and the US manufacturing economy became increasingly hollowed out, due to the maintenance of $US "value" by paying of interest, by the federal government, and by corporations, instead of investing in US industrial production and exports to support the $US value.
That hollowing out is now far advanced, and the $US remains global reseerve currency, though the writing is on the wall for its replacement, as it cannot repay debts with value, since manufacturing is so much reduced.
The $US is being maintained as global reserve currency somewhat through inertia, and established trade frameworks, through short term investment returns (high interest rates), and through harsh threats and punishment for any nation seeking to trade outside the $US framework (Libya, iraq, Iran, etc).
Since Russia was robbed of $300 billion US, the search for alternatives, still discreet, has become more urgent, but any alternative is attacked by the US/UK/"west", unless it is controlled. There is talk of a Yuan stablecoin, but the alternative currency which remains viable is gold.
Other alternatives might arise after the fall of the dollar, but it would require trust, which will take a long time to develop.
The rest of the world is paying to support western financial imperialism, which keeps poor countries poor, selling resources cheaply to service debts, without developing autonomous industries and agriculture. The west has factory farming, the extractive trade currency, and pushes big IMF and bank loans on countries to keep them in debt bondage in foreign currency. The BRICS+ coalition aims to lessen and weaken this arrangement, which is a threat to $US hegemony, and threats are to be killed in the cradle, to maintain the financial/military arrangement.
This is the most efficient empoire in that regard, but empires degrade their centers, as has long happened here, and they become weak, and dependent upon the tribute from the colonized lands, and those channels fluctuate, sometimes shutting down. People don't want to be squeezed unfairly, just as Americans resented the actions of the East India Company corporation in 1776.
It will be a difficult road to return the US to a primarily productive economy, instead of extracting what still remains. The path to do so remains unclear. Trump is bringing on a crisis in some ways, though the "Biden" admin really threw down the gauntlet to the world by "freezing" $300 billion in Russian assets.
There will be some crisis in finance. Faith in the system will evaporate. An alternative trade and central banking system, based on gold, will be the default backstop, until something else can be broadly agreed upon, which will take a long time.
Michael Hudson, The Collapse of America’s Economic Empire The fight of de-dollarization is really involves getting rid of the rentier class that these countries have, and also they cannot afford to pay the foreign debt that they’ve run up. Trump’s tariffs prevent other countries from earning enough export returns to earn the dollars to pay the bondholders and banks that have debts owed in U.S. dollars. So they’re going to be huge defaults that turn into a very conscious and deliberate debt repudiation of what are odious debts, because all these debts that have been run up since 1945 as a result of a U.S.-sponsored philosophy of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank on essentially predatory pro-U.S. lines have ended up not helping other countries pay, but preventing them from paying. And if a creditor country will not let a debtor country pay by exporting enough in competition with its own industry, then there’s no economic or moral claim that this foreign debt is a viable debt. It’s unviable.
So not only is the American empire unviable, but the whole superstructure of debt, the superstructure of monopolies, the superstructure of privatization and financial Thatcherizing and Reaganizing the world economy are unviable. So we’re dealing with a real clash of economic systems. Some people call this a clash of civilizations, but it’s really a clash of economic systems. And you could say it’s between the promise of industrial capitalism as it was developing in the beginning in the 19th century and the disastrous reality of finance capitalism with a single geopolitical center in the United States run increasingly in its own interest in exploitative, predatory fashion. https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/07/michael-hudson-the-collapse-of-americas-economic-empire.html
Croatian, Alex Krainer has also lived and studied in the US: Happy U.S. Independence Day... But, independence from whom? Britain's colonial ambitions are still a thing! On June 20, 2019, Iran's Air Defense Forces shot down a US Global Hawk surveillance drone over the Strait of Hormuz. A segment of the American leadership exerted pressure on President Trump to launch a retaliatory strike against Iran, but to their frustration, he declined to do so... Britain’s Ambassador to Washington, Sir (now lord) Kim Darroch... wrote that“we have spent years building the relationships [with certain individuals]; they are the gatekeepers… the individuals we rely upon to ensure the U.K. voice is heard in the West Wing.”Some of these voices included Trump’s National Security AdvisorJohn Bolton who was a frequent visitor to the British embassy along with the former Chief of Staff John Kelly... ..The leaked memos also revealed that Sir Kim was calling for “flooding the zone” with Trump whisperers who can influence Trump and nudge him toward opening hostilities against Iran. However, when Trump decided to cancel an attack on Iran on June 21, Darroch fired off a memo venting hist frustration and criticizing Trump in crude language. For example, Sir Kim said:
"We don't really believe this administration is going to become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less faction-riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept." ..“Anonymous” leaked Darroch’s communications with the Foreign Office in London to show who is maneuvering the US into yet another Middle Eastern war.
There’s no doubt that Donald Trump was fully aware of what went on and who was the main force behind the Iran war drive... On July 10, Sir KimDarroch had to resign from his position in disgraceand London had to nominate a different Ambassador... ..Russiagate... too, was orchestrated by the agents of the British foreign policy establishment, including Sir Kim Darroch who had a role in selecting Cristopher Steele as the key protagonist in the affair. Others included former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove, Stefan Halper, Joseph Mifsud and Fiona Hill - all of them British intelligence assets... ..Two years after the failed attempt to push the US into a war against Iran, in August of 2021, when the US withdrew from Afghanistan, the British political class went utterly hysterical, piling contempt on the US as though American action directly wronged Britain... ..Defence Secretary Dominic Raab accused the United States of signalling “to the world that they are not that keen on playing a global role.” For good measure, he added the insult that “The US had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the First World War. They turned up late for the Second World War and now they are cutting and running in Afghanistan.” In all, it seems thatBritain regards the United States chiefly as the enforcement department for their ambition to restore their former imperial glory. This is why theAmerican independence continues to irritate themas they’ve never given up on dominating their former colony, by hook or by crook. Well, on this 4th of July, theAmerican People should remind themselves of the hard choices and the bravery of their Founding Fathers to claim freedom for their nation.
MI6 fueled Ukraine proxy war and fabricated intel on Iran – Grayzone investigative journalist
The British spy agency is notorious for acting with little to no oversight to escalate global conflicts, Kit Klarenberg has told RT https://swentr.site/news/620953-mi6-escalating-ukraine-iran/
Russia Sends Independence Day Greetings To Trump White House Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday issued a formal Independence Day message to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the American people on the occasion of the American nation's founding... .."I expect that together we can put the relations between our nations on a creative vector, make them stable and predictable based on mutual respect for national interests determined by history, geography, and ‘realities on the ground,’' https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-sends-independence-day-greetings-trump-white-house
(The Economist is a Rothschild-owned publication.) Simplicius, Narrative Shift: Israeli-US Strikes Strengthen Iran's Resolve One under-appreciated aspect of the Israeli-Iranian conflict was how it has galvanized the hardliners in Iran, with some believing that it effectively centralized power around the military hawk faction, rather than fomenting discord and disarray as the West had hoped.
The Economist most recently delved into this... ..As the IRGC gains control its elite is being transformed at speed by Israel’s assassinations. Gone are the veteran commanders who for years pursued “strategic patience”, limiting their fire when their totemic leader, Qassem Soleimani, was assassinated in 2020, and holding it when Israel battered their proxies, Hamas and Hizbullah, in 2024. Now a new generation, impatient and more dogmatic, has taken their place and is bent on redeeming national pride. “The maximalist position has been strengthened,” says an academic close to the reformist camp. He claims the decision-makers in place before the war were debating whether to ditch their anti-Israel stance. But “everyone is now a hardliner”... ..Most eye-opening was the Economist’s admission thatIsrael’s strikes on civilian targets had actually served to unite Iranian society. This alone flies in the face of daily narratives we’ve been fed about Iran being in tatters... “It’s backfired on Bibi,”says a former official turned dissident... ..The U.S. was seriously concerned about a potential blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reports, citing sources. Following Israel’s first missile strike on June 13, Iran reportedly loaded naval mines onto vessels in the Persian Gulf... ..Israel has outlined its desire for a status quo where it gets to merely bombard Iran at will, any time it chooses, in order to “enforce” the made up regulations it pretends to impose on Iran; i.e.the same status quo now accepted as normal with regard to Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and Palestine—where Israel can bomb at its whim... ..During Israel’s 12-day war against Iran, Israeli Air Force pilots returning from intercept missions still carrying unused munitions asked to drop them on Gaza instead of landing fully loaded.
This began as a ‘local initiative’ but quickly became a routine. Pilots dropped leftover bombs in Gaza to ‘support ground forces in Khan Younis and northern Gaza’. Air Force Commander Tomer Bar approved expanding the practice to all squadrons. As a result, Gaza was hit with intensified airstrikes daily, with dozens of jets dropping hundreds of munitions on Palestinians without needing extra deployments. A military official said this strategy boosted the Air Force’s efficiency... ..The US appears to be acting out of a greater sense of desperation to restart talks than Iran, which is in no hurry... ..The next generation of Americans will no longer support Israel’s domination of the US Congress. Israel will have no choice but to come up with inventive new methods or false flags to keep Americans in line.
US-Iran Nuclear Talks To Restart In Oslo Next Week - Trump Willing To Talk Directly https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-iran-nuclear-talks-restart-oslo-next-week-trump-willing-talk-directly
'Like a kidnapping': How UK police are hunting pro-Palestine activists
Homes raided, people approached on the street, called from unknown numbers, arrested without warning: how British police are cracking down on activists https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uk-palestine-police-kidnapping-hunting-activists
What guarantee could they trust? Hamas says ready for ‘complete end to the war’ – AP The Palestinian militant group has reportedly expressed readiness for a deal but stopped short of endorsing a temporary ceasefire https://swentr.site/news/620908-hamas-israel-gaza-deal-us/
Trump Expects Hamas Answer In 24 Hours On 'Final' Peace Proposal However, no details have been given on this particular ceasefire plan. Israel has not confirmed it agreed to any specific conditions as of yet.
"I hope... that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better - IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE," Trump wrote. But what will the consequences be if Hamas refuses - more bombing of the Gaza Strip?
Some details revealed in Israeli media have been presented as follows:
According to an unsourced Channel 12 report Thursday, Trump has offered a direct guarantee to Hamas that if it agrees to the so-called Witkoff framework — which includes the release of 10 living hostages in two phases and 18 bodies in three phases over the course of a 60-day ceasefire — the US will ensure efforts continue to reach a lasting end to the conflict.
Israel is also believed to be under heavy US pressure to clinch a ceasefire deal ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s trip to Washington for talks with Trump next week. The prime minister is set to visit the White House on Monday.
Trump also said Friday that Gazans have "been through hell" and that "I want the people of Gaza to be safe." But he didn't directly answer when a reporter asked if the US is still considering taking any security responsibility over the Gaza Strip as part of the proposed truce plan. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-expects-hamas-answer-24-hours-final-peace-proposal
US still ‘giving weapons’ to Kiev – Trump
Washington is “trying to help” Ukraine but prioritizing American interests, the US president has said Kremlin officials have also accused Western countries of encouraging their proxies in Kiev to fight to the last Ukrainian in the hope of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia.
“The fewer the missiles that arrive in Ukraine from abroad, the closer the end of the special military operation,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday. He added, however, that the freeze could be temporary, and could be the result of weapons being redirected to support Israel in the stand-off with Iran.
President Vladimir Putin reiterated that Russia remains open to peace talks, in a phone call with Trump on Thursday. He added that Russia will not back down until the “well-known root causes” of the Ukraine conflict are eliminated, according to presidential aide Yury Ushakov. https://swentr.site/news/620967-us-weapons-freeze-ukraine-trump/
Kremlin discloses content of Putin-Trump conversation: The two leaders held a candid, nearly hour-long discussion Vladimir Putin wished Donald Trump success in implementing the changes he envisioned and, naturally, offered greetings for Independence Day, the national day of the United States, which will be celebrated tomorrow.
At the same time, it was noted by our side that Russia had played a significant part in the establishment of the United States as a nation, including during the War of Independence, fought 250 years ago, and later during the Civil War, which ended 160 years ago. It was stated that our countries are bound not only by their alliance during World Wars One and Two, but also by deeper historical ties. https://swentr.site/russia/620963-putin-trump-call-kremlin-statement/
Ukraine can negotiate and hold elections: Russian Drones & Missiles "Rained Down" On Kiev In One Of The War's Most Devastating Attacks Yet TheRussian drone and missile attack comes just hours after President Trump and President Putin held a callthat yielded little to no progress toward ending the years-long war.
Trump told reporters on Thursday before boarding Air Force One on his way to Iowa that he was"not happy"with the conflict raging on, adding,"I didn't make any progress with him at all."
Earlier in the week,U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a pause in sending a shipment of missiles and ammunition to Ukraineover concerns about rapidlydepleting U.S. stockpiles.
Axios noted that President VolodymyrZelensky is set to speak with Trumplater today to discuss the pause of the weapons shipments. https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russian-drones-missiles-rained-down-kyiv-one-wars-most-devastating-attacks-yet
Dima at Military Summary says massive Russian drone strikes on Kiev were retaliation for massive Ukrainian strikes on Donetsk City yesterday:
Nothing new: Zelensky, Trump discuss air defense, joint drone production amid Russian strikes https://kyivindependent.com/zelensky-trump-hold-phone-call-after-putins-pledge-to-continue-war-in-ukraine/
The war over what America First means will soon move to a new theater: a battle over the fate of the Office of Director of National Intelligence. Two MAGA heavyweights will shape the outcome. Tulsi Gabbard, a skeptic of foreign intervention and President Trump’s current director of national intelligence, has already cut the ODNI workforce by 25% and finalized plans for additional reforms. Sources familiar with that effort tell RealClearPolitics that Gabbard is moving quickly but methodically not only to change the agency but to “set the example for all IC elements to emulate.”
Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, the hawkish chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, introduced legislation last week to shrink the size of the agency... ..“They don't want to reform the ODNI the way that Tulsi Gabbard and President Trump want to reform it,” said one senior intelligence official who complained that the Cotton bill would “just give the CIA more power.”
“This long predates Tulsi Gabbard being DNI. [Cotton] has been on the committee for 10 years now. It is a long time coming,” countered a Senate aide... ..“Prior DNIs were the head of the IC only on paper and were routinely accustomed to yielding IC actions and decisions to the preferences of the CIA and other agencies,” John Ratcliffe said ... ..The responsibility of reforming the ODNI now falls to Gabbard. When Elon Musk was marching through the administration in search of waste, fraud, and abuse, she was cutting staff and eliminating entire departments at the ODNI, such as the Intelligence Community Human Capital office which she dismissed as a “slush fund” for diversity, equity, and inclusion. “Find another agency who has reduced 25% of their workforce in less than 5 months,” the intel official bristled.
Gabbard will soon release her plan to overhaul the office further... ..The administration has dismissed the idea that there are any rifts among the president’s national security team. Steven Cheung, White House communications director, told RCP last month that assertions otherwise were simply “efforts by the legacy media to sow internal division.”
And when the headlines implied that Gabbard seemed like she was in the barrel, Vice President JD Vance told RCP, unprompted, that that the opposite was true. “She’s an essential member of our national security team,” Vance said of Gabbard, who shares his skepticism of foreign wars, “and we’re grateful for her tireless work to keep America safe from foreign threats.”
Gabbard, a former Democrat who represented Hawaii in Congress for four terms, would normally have been an unorthodox pick to be the top intelligence official in a Republican administration. But she shares Trump’s rejection of “forever wars” and skepticism of intel agencies. Those characteristics seemed to make her straight out of central casting for a non-interventionist president eager to realign the right on foreign policy. They have also invited controversy.
Citing “the sheer volume of unrelenting attacks against her,” a senior administration official told RCP that “You can tell Tulsi touched the third rail.” This was not unexpected, they said, adding, “Of course, the deep state was going to fight back against being reduced and their power being decentralized.” https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-maga-turf-war-over-national-intelligence
Bombshell CIA Report Exposes How Obama’s Team Framed Trump Former CIA Director John Brennan, former DNI James Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey took “unusual” and direct control over the infamous Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that became the cornerstone of the Russia collusion hoax... ..These men didn’t just oversee the process—they commandeered it, sidelining career intelligence professionals and shutting out 13 of the 17 intelligence agencies from the assessment. Brennan handpicked the analysts, ensuring only the most compliant voices had a say. The National Intelligence Council, the body normally responsible for such crucial reports, was shoved aside. Why? Because the outcome was predetermined: manufacture a narrative that Trump was a Russian asset, no matter how flimsy the evidence... ..“The rushed timeline to publish both classified and unclassified versions before the presidential transition raised questions about a potential political motive behind the White House tasking and timeline.”
The review found that Brennan directed the compilation of the ICA, and that his, Comey’s and Clapper’s “direct engagement in the ICA’s development was highly unusual in both scope and intensity” and ”risked stifling analytic debate.” ... ..John Ratcliffe, the former Director of National Intelligence, put it bluntly: “This was Obama, Comey, Clapper and Brennan deciding ‘We’re going to screw Trump.’” They manufactured the collusion narrative, stamped it with the authority of the intelligence community, and then classified the details to keep the public in the dark. It was, in essence, a soft coup—a direct assault on the will of the American people. https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/07/02/bombshell-cia-report-exposes-how-obamas-team-framed-trump-n4941393
A huge business operation ;-( The Biden Administration Basically Trafficked Migrant Children Under Joe Biden, the federal government didn’t just lose track of unaccompanied minors; it actively handed them over to criminals, abusers, and traffickers, putting these kids directly in harm’s way. https://pjmedia.com/matt-margolis/2025/07/02/the-biden-administration-basically-trafficked-migrant-children-n4941383
Trump should ‘knock the f**k out’ of EU disinfo law – ex-State Dept official
The US president should use “every tool in the hardball diplomacy toolkit” against Brussels, Mike Benz has said The formerly voluntary Code of Conduct on Disinformation, which was integrated into the Digital Services Act (DSA) by Brussels earlier this year, became mandatory as of July 1. Under the law, major online platforms and search engines, mostly owned by US tech firms, are obliged to follow EU content rules or face penalties.
Benz, who worked on cybersecurity and internet policy at the State Department during Trump’s first term, took to X on Wednesday to warn that the likes of YouTube, X, Facebook, and Google would “now get whipped by huge EU fines.”
The Code of Conduct on Disinformation, which he described as a “Global Censorship Law,” had been the “secret weapon” of Brussels for a long time, but is now “fully unleashed,” the head of the self-described pro-free speech website Foundation For Freedom Online said. https://swentr.site/news/620925-eu-disinformation-code-trump/
Loyal Brown-Shirts Needed, Apply Within: Professor Warns UK Government Is Preparing For Civil War, Using Russian Invasion Threat As Cover “The fact of the matter is there is a great distance between us and Russia… we are not militarily threatened in a direct way on the ground by any obvious external enemy, even Russia,” Betz outlined.
“Which isn’t to say there aren’t things which Russia could do to attack the UK should they wish to, but one of those is not occupying the village green with Russian soldiers, that simply, frankly, is a rather bizarre assertion,” he contended.
“What they’re concerned about is domestic conflict, and they perfectly understand this, but that’s completely politically toxic for them to say so publicly, hence the convenience of saying ‘we need to develop… a citizen’s militia for the protection of critical infrastructure’,” Betz further noted. https://modernity.news/2025/07/02/professor-warns-uk-government-is-preparing-for-civil-war-using-russian-invasion-threat-as-cover/
British PM Starmer could be on way out – Sky News Labour lost ground to Reform UK in local elections in May, after the ruling party experienced a plunge in public support.
The prime minister could lose his position if Labour performs badly in the next vote across Wales, Scotland and London... ..“I am hearing from ministers in government that Starmer might have to go in months,” the outlet’s deputy political editor Sam Coates said, describing “unhappiness and despair” in the Labour Party.
A day earlier, a controversial welfare bill proposed by the government passed in a watered-down form, after a number of Labour MPs rebelled against proposed cuts to social benefits.
This latest U-turn undermined the prime minister’s authority after a series of similar flip-flops in June, the BBC wrote on Wednesday.
Last month, Starmer bowed to pressure and ordered a national inquiry into the police handling of the massive Pakistani grooming gangs sex abuse scandal. Just months before, his administration had insisted the prior seven-year investigation into decades of systematic rape of young, vulnerable girls in the UK had been sufficient. https://swentr.site/news/620962-british-pm-could-quit/
Andrew Korybko, Why’d Erdogan Decide To Expand Turkiye’s Sphere Of Influence Eastwards? Assad’s downfall set into motion a fast-moving sequence of events that now threatens Russian influence in the South Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and Central Asia; i.e. its entire southern periphery.
The latest developments in the South Caucasus are connected to the expansion of Turkiye’s sphere of influence eastwards towards the Caspian Sea and thenceforth Central Asia.
He signed it with great flair and no bomb went off: Watch Live: Trump Signs 'Big, Beautiful Bill' Into Law During Independence Day Event https://www.zerohedge.com/political/watch-live-trump-signs-big-beautiful-bill-law-during-independence-day-event
Vinegar's not working. Try honey: Trump Sends Tariff Letters Threatening Up To 70% Levies, Sparking Fears Of Delayed Trade Deals https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-sends-tariff-letters-threatening-70-levies-sparking-fears-delayed-trade-deals
mRNA MANIA: Bio-Pharmaceutical Complex Convenes to Advance Global Genetic Manipulation Agenda
Inside the 2025 Global Vaccine Forum, where microneedle patch “vaccines,” replicons, and AI-engineered injections took center stage—and plans to accelerate mRNA worldwide were unveiled.
A Midwestern Doctor: The Secret Campaign To Stop RFK Jr. A leaked document exposes the vast public relations operation we've fought for the last four years and shows why they've worked so hard to divide us
Sasha Latypova thinks the opposition is all captured: MAHA-FDA are working their tushes off to make market$ for pharma!: It's not the Epstein files
Meryl Nass MD: "We've Become Serfs On Our Own Land": The USDA Trap, Foreign Land Sales, And The Collapse Of American Farming 77 family farms vanish every day in the U.S. But what’s really killing them? A CHD.TV interview with rancher and Beef Initiative policy fellow Breeauna Sagdal reveals the trap: USDA regulations, monopolized meatpacking, foreign land grabs, and debt-servicing farmers who aren’t allowed to feed their neighbors. In a wide-ranging Children’s Health Defense interview with Dr. Meryl Nass - a physician, biowarfare expert, and outspoken critic of pandemic-era overreach - Breeauna Sagdal of The Beef Initiative lays out how America's farmers are being regulated, indebted, and squeezed off the land. From USDA slaughter restrictions to foreign land sales and monopolized meatpacking, the system isn’t broken—it’s rigged. And Sagdal says the only way out starts with shaking your rancher’s hand. Negative Income and the Two-Job Farmer ... "I can't even legally sell what I grow on my farm to any of my friends, family, or neighbors," Sagdal says. Why? Because of USDA slaughter rules. With few exceptions, unless meat is processed at a USDA-inspected facility, and labeled with a USDA stamp, it's illegal to sell. An issue compounded by the fact that just four companies have monopolized the few meatpacking plants that still exist. https://www.zerohedge.com/food/weve-become-serfs-our-own-land-usda-trap-foreign-land-sales-and-collapse-american-farming
Big Maybe, about half of what's eaten, and how might one facilitate this? Gut microbes could protect us from toxic ‘forever chemicals’ Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified a family of bacterial species, found naturally in the human gut, that absorb various PFAS molecules from their surroundings. When nine of these bacterial species were introduced into the guts of mice to ‘humanise’ the mouse microbiome, the bacteria rapidly accumulated PFAS eaten by the mice - which were then excreted in faeces.
The researchers also found that as the mice were exposed to increasing levels of PFAS, the microbes worked harder, consistently removing the same percentage of the toxic chemicals. Within minutes of exposure, the bacterial species tested soaked up between 25% and 74% of the PFAS. https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/gut-microbes-could-protect-us-from-toxic-forever-chemicals
Feeding Gut Microbes (pictured with bright shirt after rains)
Happy 4th of July! I read Alex Krainer's info about Americans not even knowing about the Declaration of Independence and the history of the 56 men who signed it. They pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor...so that America would be free from the English Crown and King George...and from 'taxation without representation,' and other things England was imposing on the colonies. They Signed for Us is. wonderful short book written by Meryl Sinclair and Annabel Douglas-McArthur. It covers a brief history of many of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence, It is a book every American should read. It should be a required reading for every American school child in our educational system.
as far as the EU's internet censorship laws go, that's an area where boycott would likely raise citizen and even corporate pressure on the governments enough to get them rescinded.
but it would have to be the affected companies performing the boycott.
oh, golly gee whiz Eurogov, your impending fines make the cost of doing business in your countries economically unviable... so we are now blocking access to our services from all EU IP addresses rather than kowtow to your censorship rules.
never gonna happen but in a better managed world that tactic could work.