EDITORIAL
LaRouche: Mankind Must Change the Behavior of the Universe As Such
Nov. 20 (EIRNS)—Taking stock of the significant strategic advances achieved planet-wide in the recent period, and of the crucial conceptual strides that still remain unrealized, EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche today told associates that “what’s happening now is, to a large degree, progress, but it’s not conclusive…. We are making progress, but this kind of progress does not satisfy the requirements of mankind…. The question is, what mankind can do to change the behavior of the universe as such.”
The week ended with another devastating defeat of Obama, this time of his British free trade policies at the APEC summit in Lima, Peru, as the global center of gravity shifts to the successful initiatives undertaken by China and Russia. Where we now stand, Helga Zepp-LaRouche told associates, is that “I think we are witnessing a continuation of the very rapid dynamic which has been dominant for the last two and a half months, or a little bit more, starting with the Vladivostok meeting; the integration of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and the One Belt, One Road; the continuation of that in the G20 Hangzhou meeting; then the ASEAN meeting in Laos; followed by the BRICS conference in Goa, India in October; and now the APEC meeting in Lima, Peru.
“What is very clear is that the center of gravity and power has fully shifted to this dynamic, especially the integration of the policies of China and Russia. And what goes along with that, is a continuous explosion of infrastructure and other development projects which, if you take them as a totality, are really a breathtaking dynamic which unfolded with an increasing speed in the last three years.”
But the immediate challenge—of using the political tidal wave sweeping the United States, as expressed in the Presidential election, to finally bring the U.S. on board to the World Land-Bridge New Paradigm—requires recognizing and addressing a much more profound question. In his discussion with associates, LaRouche stated in part:
“I know that what we’re doing now, while it looks brilliant, in many cases, is not really that good…. Because if we don’t see these higher considerations which people try to overlook—saying ‘we’ll reach that later, we’ll come to that, don’t push yourself too much’—that’s what I’m concerned about.
“It’s the Einstein principle, which is a good measure, a good standard, to see what this problem is….
“The question is the intrinsic nature of mankind, which Einstein did grasp in certain of his scientific operations. He did! And that is what we’ve lost….
“What you’re looking at is, what is the nature of creation. The question is, what is the fundamental purpose of the human being? What is the nature of mankind as a universal thing? The universe is organized and therefore you have to think about a universe which is intrinsically organized. Not practically organized, but intrinsically organized….
“We are making progress, but this kind of progress does not satisfy the requirements of mankind. There is something in the universe that is controlling and defining what the universe means as a mission.
“What makes the universe do what it does for the function of mankind as such? The question is, what mankind can do to change the behavior of the universe as such.”
NEW WORLD ECONOMIC ORDER
APEC Summit: Global Center of Gravity Has Truly Shifted to China and Russia.
Nov. 20 (EIRNS)—The 21-nation APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit, held in Lima, Peru on Nov. 19-20, has turned into the official international burial of Obama’s hated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which was also handed a death sentence inside the U.S. with the election of Donald Trump. In its stead, China’s Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP), which China first proposed at the 2014 APEC Summit in Beijing, is likely to be approved at this APEC summit, as a new institution to help bring about a global change in economic paradigm.
Both Chinese and Russian officials have made it quite clear that the FTAAP is not meant to exclude the United States, or anyone else. Obama’s TPP, on the other hand, emphatically excluded China, which Xi Jinping blasted in a speech he delivered Nov. 18 to APEC business leaders: “We need a framework of regional cooperation of equality, joint participation and shared benefits. Arrangements that are closed and exclusive are not the correct option.”
In his keynote address to the APEC CEO Summit on Nov. 19, Xi stated that the FTAAP “is a strategic initiative critical for the long-term prosperity of the Asia-Pacific.” He emphasized that it was directly associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative:
“Three years ago, I put forward the Belt and Road initiative. It aims to strengthen connectivity to facilitate free flow of factors of production and create a platform of win-win cooperation and shared benefits for all. Over 100 countries and international organizations have joined or expressed support for the initiative, forming a strong circle of friends brought together by the common vision, mutual trust and friendship. The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is up and running. The Silk Road Fund is in place. A number of major projects have been launched, generating huge economic and social benefit.”
Xi also stressed the crucial role of science and innovation in solving the global economic crisis, as he had done at the G20 summit earlier this year:
“Second, we will promote innovation-driven development and replace old growth drivers with new ones. We will continue to pursue the strategy of innovation-driven development and deepen R&D structural reform to change outdated mindset and remove institutional obstacles, fully leverage the role of science and technology in economic and social development, and tap into all sources of innovation. We will further pool the efforts of businesses, universities and research institutes to energize business organizations, people, the market and capital to drive innovation-based development. We will encourage new technologies, new industries and new businesses so that progress in innovation will be applied in economic operations and turned into new forces driving growth. Third, we will promote high-standard, two-way opening-up to deliver win-win outcomes.”
It is noteworthy that, over recent years, Xi has used the annual APEC summits to launch major global initiatives. In 2014 in Beijing, where he first proposed the FTAAP, he also announced the New Silk Road initiative and urged the U.S. and other nations to join in. He did so at a joint press conference with a hapless U.S. President Barack Obama at his side; Xi’s offer of course fell on deaf ears. In 2015 in Manila, Xi announced the formation of the AIIB, again announcing that it was open to the entire world. And now in 2016, he is doing the same with the FTAAP.
LaRouche’s Ideas Help Shape Mass Movement in Peru for China’s Bioceanic Rail Project
Nov. 18 (EIRNS)—On the second day of the 23rd National Conference of the Peruvian Economists Association, whose opening session was addressed Nov. 17 by Schiller Institute founder Helga Zepp-LaRouche, a very large parallel meeting was held to pressure for the immediate adoption of China’s proposed Bioceanic Rail Corridor, to build a South American trans-continental rail line from Brazil to Peru. The gathering of more than 400 people in Pucallpa, Peru, was organized as a public session of the Transportation Committee of Peru’s national Congress, eight of whose members traveled from Lima to Pucallpa for the occasion. Numerous regional governors, including of the host region Ucayali, and mayors were also present, along with a number of popular organizations and business groups, as well as a strong delegation from the Economists Association (whose national conference continued nearby). Hundreds of copies of a DVD of Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation the day before, were handed out to those present by the head of the Ucayali Economists Association. Peru’s major national print and TV media were also present.
All of the congressmen present came out strongly in favor of the rail project, with a number of them denouncing the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (PPK) for blocking the project and stonewalling on the detailed feasibility study that was already prepared and handed over to the Peruvian government by the China Railway Eryuan Engineering Company (CREEC).
The Ucayali Development Front, a regional popular organization, joined in the mass mobilization, by threatening a regional strike if the rail project is not begun immediately. The Governor of Ucayali also spoke forcefully for the project. The 400-person gathering also heard a detailed report on the technical details and feasibility of the project, from Justo Vargas, an adviser to the Governor of Ucayali and a leading organizer of the Economists Association conference, who had also traveled to China earlier this year for meetings with CREEC and others.
After Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s presentation yesterday, numerous conference participants came up to LaRouche representatives to ask for copies of her speech, expressed strong interest in the issues she had raised, asked for follow-up meetings, etc. A major presentation also delivered yesterday by Luis Vasquez, EIR’s chief representative in Peru and longtime leader of the LaRouche movement, focused on the programmatic details of the various rail and integration projects to link the entire continent with the World Land-Bridge, as well as the historic roots of this Hamiltonian approach going back to 19th-century networks in the United States and Peru that collaborated on just such projects. A third presentation by a LaRouche representative was scheduled for the evening of Nov. 18, by EIR’s David Ramonet, on the subject of Vladimir Vernadsky, Infrastructure, and the Biosphere.
Xi Jinping Visit Bolsters South American Development, Independence
Nov. 19 (EIRNS)—Wall Street crowed too soon that with its coup against Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff last August, all South America would fall inexorably back under its yoke. That was made clear in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Nov. 17-18 state visit to Ecuador, the first in a week-long trip which also includes state visits to Peru and Chile after the APEC summit in Lima on the Nov. 19-20 weekend.
Ecuador is one of the smaller nations of South America, battling to develop despite having been stripped of any national currency since 2000 when it was forced to dollarize by the IMF and U.S. State Department. Both Xi and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa held up Sino-Ecuadorean relations as a model for the relationships which China seeks with all of Ibero-America and the Caribbean.
During Xi’s visit, President Correa repeatedly thanked China for having provided the financing and technology transfer Ecuador needs to accomplish its dream of moving from being a raw materials producer to become a knowledge-based society. The two Presidents held a stirring ceremony for the start-up of two key projects which China made possible. From Quito, connected by interactive video, the Correa and Xi presided over the groundbreaking ceremony for a new hospital in the city of Chone, to replace one destroyed in the April 2016 earthquake. China’s CAMAC Engineering pledges to build the 120-bed hospital in 18 months, with state-of-the-art seismic design. The two leaders then jointly pushed buttons starting up the last turbines of the giant Coco Coda Sinclair hydroelectric dam, built with Chinese engineering and financing by a workforce of 1,500 Chinese and 6,000 Ecuadoreans, which gives Ecuador the power to build new industries, and export to its neighbors, as well.
Relations are now to be raised to a “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership,” in which the two nations will have continuous, “all-round” communication on all issues of state. The emphasis on scientific development is notable. On the eve of the visit, Ecuador’s daily El Telegrafo published an opinion piece by President Xi, in which he underscored that high technology is a key focus of Sino-Ecuadorean cooperation. In welcoming Xi, Correa expressed Ecuador’s gratitude for China’s help in “transforming” Ecuador, not just in such great projects as the Coco Coda hydroelectric project, “but in financing what I consider the most important public work in our history, not in its [dollar] amount, but in its transcendence: the Yachay City of Knowledge, which includes a world-class university dedicated to promoting innovation and development of the hard sciences.”
U.S. ECONOMIC & POLITICAL
Lyndon LaRouche Radio Interview with GOP Strategist Roger Stone
Nov. 20 (EIRNS)—Lyndon LaRouche was interviewed on Nov. 19 by Republican Party strategist Roger Stone on his “Stone Cold Truth” radio show. Stone began the interview with a long introduction of Mr. LaRouche, noting his presidential campaigns from 1976-2004, and his close relationship with President Ronald Reagan. Stone was the Northeast Coordinator for Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign, and he explained to his listeners that he knew personally that Reagan and LaRouche developed a friendship during that campaign. He quoted Reagan in a personal conversation that, while he did not agree with everything that LaRouche said, he did agree with much of LaRouche’s policies, and considered him to be a friend.
During the back and forth, LaRouche made clear that the election of Donald Trump was a defeat for those, like President Obama, who were seeking to provoke a world war against Russia. In one exchange about the Bill Clinton presidency, LaRouche made clear that Clinton was targeted by the British Queen and was under major attack when he capitulated to the repeal of the Glass-Steagall law, and that Hillary Clinton contributed to the demise of the Clinton presidency. Stone agreed with that assessment.
Stone showed tremendous respect for Mr. LaRouche throughout the interview, and delighted in the fact that some people on Wall Street will go berserk over the fact that LaRouche appeared on Stone’s radio show. He asked, towards the end of the interview, for Mr. LaRouche to say something about the political frameup to silence him, and LaRouche pinned his railroad prosecutions on President George H.W. Bush, to which Stone, the author of a recent book on the Bush “crime family,” fully agreed.
LaRouche repeated that the Trump victory represented a global defeat for those provoking war against Russia, and that, while it is not yet known what Trump will accomplish in office, the halt of the war drive is a major contribution in itself. Stone made clear that one of the issues that he is certain that Trump will pursue is the reinstatement of Glass-Steagall, a policy that Stone noted has been promoted by Lyndon LaRouche for a long time.
Professor Stephen Cohen: Trump Can Alter U.S.-Russia Relations
Nov. 20 (EIRNS)—Analyst and Russia expert Stephen Cohen, who has repeatedly warned that the Obama administration’s foreign policy was threatening the world with a potential U.S. nuclear confrontation with Russia, analyzed the significance of the Trump election in a sober Nov. 11 interview on “SophieCo,” the RT broadcast hosted by Sophie Shevardnadze.
Asked about the U.S. presidential election, Cohen responded, “Well, all the analysts were wrong about Trump winning, so I think we should forget all the other analysts. I mean, this was one of the great mis-analyses, miscalculations, mis-prognoses in American political history. It was kind of like Brexit—everybody said it wasn’t possible…. I come from Kentucky and Indiana, what you would call the provinces, and I knew from my friends and family down there that a lot of them were going to vote for Donald Trump.”
Respecting U.S.-Russian relations, Cohen declared, “we are in a Cold War much more dangerous than the 40-year-long Cold War that we fought and ended…. Trump has said that he wants to do something about it to improve it. What he said is very fragmentary, but very different from what other people have said. He says he wants to work with President Putin, he said he thinks it would be great if Russia and the U.S. united to fight terrorism in Syria…. If Trump were to move … towards a détente, as we used to call it, a reduction of conflict in a relationship with Russia and to open cooperation … he will find himself opposed by a fierce and powerful pro-Cold War coalition, Democratic and Republican, and including the media, here in the U.S. He will have to fight very hard…. The question is, is Trump really going to do it, and you might ask, if President Putin is ready for this—I think he is! Whether Trump will now move—we’ll see.”
Trump Names Former DIA Director General Flynn To Be National Security Advisor
Nov. 18 (EIRNS)—The transition team of President-elect Donald Trump announced today that, among other nominations, Trump has picked retired Army Lt. Gen. Mike Flynn to be his National Security Advisor. General Flynn previously served as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), before he was forced out by Barack Obama.
“I am pleased that Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn will be by my side as we work to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, navigate geopolitical challenges and keep Americans safe at home and abroad,” said President-elect Trump, according to a statement posted on the transition team’s website. “General Flynn is one of the country’s foremost experts on military and intelligence matters and he will be an invaluable asset to me and my administration.” Flynn is “the best intelligence officer of his generation,” retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey told NBC News, yesterday, when the possibility of Flynn’s appointment was first reported. “He’s a good guy. He’s objective. He’s tough.”
Flynn was an early, vocal supporter of Trump, and the news media are clearly unhappy about this. Perhaps what they’re really angry about, however, is that Flynn helped expose President Obama’s role in spreading jihadism throughout the Middle East in order to use it as a regime-change tool. Flynn spoke out after a 2012 Defense Intelligence Report forecasting the spread of ISIS-style jihadism as a consequence of U.S. policy was released in 2015 through the Freedom of Information Act. “There is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria, and this is exactly what the supporting powers to the opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime,” the DIA report said. In a July 29, 2015 television interview with Al Jazeera, Flynn said that he believed that the Obama administration willfully ignored the DIA report. “It was a willful decision to do what they’re doing,” he said.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
The Revolt of the Lame Ducks in Berlin: The Music of History Is Playing Somewhere Else
Nov. 19 (EIRNS)—In her weekly column for Neue Solidarität Nov. 19, Helga Zepp-LaRouche, chairwoman of the Civil Rights Solidarity political party in Germany, excoriated the self-proclaimed leaders of the trans-Atlantic world, representing Germany, France, the U.K., Italy and Spain, who, one day earlier met in Berlin with lame-duck U.S. President Barack Obama to extend sanctions on Russia for another year. This is the Obama whose “legacy” had just gone down in flames in the Nov. 8 general elections.
“It is truly remarkable,” Zepp-LaRouche wrote, “After the repudiated President Obama was able to find three days to stay at the Hotel Adlon in Berlin, and to dine and discuss with his friend Angela Merkel, and then to hold a mini-summit of the self-proclaimed ‘Six’—both of them decided, together with the four other leaders whose political fate is very much up in the air—France’s François Hollande with a 7% approval rate, Matteo Renzi who will likely lose the Dec. 4 referendum in Italy, Spain’s Mariano Rajoy, who is stopgap head of a minority government, and the hapless Theresa May—to extend the sanctions against Russia for one more year. …
“The selected ‘Six’ have obviously not yet understood that their variant of neoliberal policy directed against Russia and China was rejected both in the Brexit referendum of June and in the recent presidential election in the United States. They have not understood that a situation has developed in the trans-Atlantic world which is evoked in the American Declaration of Independence: whenever ‘a form of government becomes destructive of the ends’ of its mandate, which is to guarantee the inalienable rights to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, then it is the right of the people and indeed ‘their duty’ to alter or to abolish such government. The ‘long train of abuses and usurpations’ mentioned in the Declaration of Independence corresponds exactly to the experience which those whom Hillary Clinton called the ‘basket of deplorables’ have endured under Obama’s policy, and which they did not want Clinton to continue.
“The self-proclaimed ‘Six,’ ” Zepp-LaRouche concluded, “and even more so those representatives in the media who deliver threats to Trump disguised as humor, are so convinced of their own ideology that they are unable to grasp the dimensions of the sea-change underway.”
President Putin Wraps Up Defense Meetings In Sochi
Nov. 19 (EIRNS)—Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putinpresided over the last of a series of meetings in Sochi this week, on development of the Russian military. Yesterday’s meeting was convened to discuss the development of advanced weaponry. “Close attention is being paid to the development of so-called weapons based on new physical principles, weapons that have selective, pinpoint impact on critical elements of armaments, equipment and infrastructure of the potential enemy,” he said. Putin stressed while designing these new weapons, Russia has consistently and strictly complied with its international obligations, but “certain countries have actually nullified previous agreements, such as those on missile defense,” an obvious reference to the U.S. abrogation of the ABM Treaty in 2002. “Therefore, I would like to say again: we will continue to do all we need to ensure the strategic balance of forces. We view any attempts to change or dismantle it, as extremely dangerous.”
“Our task is to effectively neutralize any military threats to Russia’s security, including those posed by the newly-deployed strategic missile defense systems, the implementation of the Global Strike Concept, and information warfare,” Putin concluded.
Putin did not explain what he was referring to with the term “new physical principles,” though it usually refers to systems based on directed energy technologies in place of the usual “kinetic” systems that lob bullets or bombs at the target. Last August, TASS cited a defense industry source as saying that the main weapons based on new physical principles included laser, acoustic, holographic and kinetic weapons. This explanation is vague enough, however, that it allows Russia to let the world know that it is working on weapons using advanced new technologies without giving away the game.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Britain’s Telegraph Worries Trump Could Adopt Glass-Steagall
Nov. 20 (EIRNS)—In an article yesterday, entitled “Will Trump Back Reform on Finance— or Keep the Status Quo?” Telegraph U.S. Correspondent David Millward worries that the incoming Trump administration is already committed to overturning Dodd-Frank. The question is: Will Trump go further and realize his campaign pledge to adopt Glass-Steagall?
Lyndon LaRouche noted that the Telegraph “should be worried. They have pushed really dumb policies, and Glass-Steagall is what is needed.”
The Telegraph asserts:
“Donald Trump himself was … at one point saying he would scrap Dodd-Frank, but then saying he would reintroduce Glass-Steagall, which was repealed during Bill Clinton’s presidency…. [Trump] may consider it politically unwise to allow the [banking] industry to return to the casino-like excesses which led to the crash.
“Reintroducing Glass-Steagall, banning commercial banks from making high-risk investments, could set the tone for a rather more populist streak than the Republican establishment would like… [which] could see the big banks being broken up.”
Aaron Klein, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told the Telegraph, “It’s as if two Donald Trumps went into the woods and diverged…. [What] he could do is embrace ideas which have support at both ends of the political spectrum, such as bringing back Glass-Steagall.”
Royal Bank of Scotland Downgrade Foreshadows Potential U.S. Banks’ Derivatives Meltdown
Nov. 16 (EIRNS)—The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) lurched this week toward bankruptcy—with the stumbling Deutsche Bank right behind… or perhaps right ahead. Wall Street’s giant banks, freighted with a mountain of derivatives positions, are positioned to be wiped out by a single Western European bank or similar failure.
On Nov. 18, Exane BNP Paribas downgraded RBS from “neutral” to “underperform.” Deutsche Bank, AG; Citigroup; and Barclays Bank all issued comparable negative ratings. This is a case of one bankrupt bank passing judgment on another. RBS’s stock price is now under $5 per share, but the ominous trend is that RBS is disappearing as a bank. In December 2007, in the first phase of the financial crash, RBS had $3.7 trillion in assets; today it has $1.1 trillion—70% of the bank has been wiped out. Whatever lending to real economic activity RBS once had, is gone.
Yet, it is the Wall Street megabanks which constitute the dangerous nuclear pile set to go off. According to the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, as of the second quarter of 2016, the U.S. bank holding companies held $252.5 trillion in derivatives outstanding; they expanded this cancerous mass by 30% since the comparable period of 2008. What do the U.S. banks have as “protection” against this quarter of a quadrillion dollars in derivatives? They hold $14 trillion in assets; a failure of but 5% of their derivatives leaves them without a cent.
SCIENCE & INFRASTRUCTURE
China’s Shenzou-11 Crew Is Back; Next Step Is the Space Station
Nov. 18 (EIRNS)—The Shenzou-11 crew members landed safely today after their 33-day mission in orbit. Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli watched the landing in Beijing and congratulated the staff at the command center, on behalf of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, and the Central Military Commission.
Next on the agenda in China’s manned space program will be the launch and automated docking of the Tianzhou unmanned cargo vehicle, in or around April. After that, in 2018, the first module of the full-sized space station will be launched, and it is very likely that the next manned mission will be to link up with the station core module.
In a post-flight press briefing, deputy chief designer with the Astronaut Center of China Huang Weifen said that the selection of what will be the third round of astronauts will take place next year, to be the crews for the space station project. She said that the new astronauts will be selected from broader backgrounds, including in technical and engineering fields. Until now, the corps had been selected from the PLA Air Force.
