EDITORIAL
Obama’s Organization Wants Another Ukraine Coup Now, in America
Feb. 19 (EIRNS)—Members of both Houses of Congress spoke out this week against Obama-appointed U.S. diplomats and George Soros’s foundations acting together to overthrow the elected government of Macedonia. But a few of them are starting to suspect that Obama and Soros also intend to overthrow the elected government of the United States. As EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche characterized it today, Obama and the Soros-funded groups “are actually committing a kind of suicide, threatening to kill this nation.”
While Obama himself, incredibly, is bombarding Americans with robocalls attacking President Trump even now, and encouraging protests and demonstrations against the President; Obama’s “Organizing for Action” national network is organizing those demonstrations and shows of force at Congressional town hall meetings this week. This is Obama’s personal support and funds network; even many Democratic state chairmen around the country say they have nothing to do with it.
The nation-killer George Soros, with a few fellow Democracy Alliance billionaires, is funding every street protest and large demonstration.
Holdovers from Obama’s Administration in security positions, from the former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates to the NSA, are feeding entire cycles of wild stories and leaking highly secret documents to a complicit press, trying to set in motion the impeachment of President Trump, or worse.
The failing powers of the European Union bureaucracy and elite—who loved Obama—are hysterical in demanding President Trump be either neutralized, removed or even killed, as leading “senior journalists” in both the U.K. and Germany have openly discussed.
EIR will document this completely in a dossier appearing this week, showing that Obama’s and Soros’s intention is to repeat the 2014 anti-Russian “Maidan” overthrow of Ukraine’s government, by the overthrow of Trump. And for the same objective: war confrontation with Putin’s Russia.
As the President himself said on Friday in Florida, this attack is for the global elite, centered in London and on Wall Street, which became dominant over the planet in the era of “globalization” and “deindustrialization.” That elite absolutely refuses to accept that a succession of nations are voting it out. Trump believes “the nation-state remains the best model for human happiness”; and wants cooperation between the United States and Russia, and China, as leading nations.
Obama’s organization has to be destroyed, because it could put the world again into his “perpetual wars,” and on the edge again of world war. As LaRouche observes, Trump’s intentions are stronger than his actions so far, but he is a potentially constructive President, and his role is crucial.
The intent of EIR’s dossier is to destroy Obama’s organization, buttressed by an intensified mobilization for Glass-Steagall and bipartisan actions for productive employment and productivity.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
LaRouche PAC’s and EIR’s Glass-Steagall Mobilization Picks Up Steam
Feb. 19 (EIRNS)—With a target of President Donald Trump’s first speech to Congress on Feb. 28, LaRouche PAC and Democratic activists have collected nearly 4,000 signatures calling on the President to propose re-enacting Glass-Steagall—petitions Glass-Steagall sponsors in Congress hope to present to the President by that date. Some 1,500 of the “Trump” petitions from Ohio alone have been conveyed to sponsor Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). Glass-Steagall legislation, the “Return To Prudent Banking Act,” was introduced in the House of Representatives Feb. 1 and now has 32 sponsors, gaining five new Democratic sponsors last week.
LaRouche PAC activists and EIR representatives have gotten the legislatures of 11 states in just over one month to file resolutions calling on Congress to restore the Glass-Steagall Act and/or to end the “American Recovery Program.” The latter starts with Glass-Steagall and consists of actions based on Lyndon LaRouche’s “Four Laws to Save the Nation.” In four of those states—Minnesota, Illinois, Washington and Delaware—these resolutions have filed in both houses of the legislature.
These actions are concentrated in the industrial or “Rust Belt” states of the Midwest and South, and resolutions by legislators in more states are anticipated soon.
After more than two years of many discussions and meetings on the “American Recovery Program” or “LaRouche’s Four Laws” with state officials, a new optimism about economic change, following the extraordinary Presidential election, is one factor in these rapid actions. Alabama State Rep. Thomas Jackson, for example, advanced such a resolution without obtaining any cosponsors in 2016, but has nine cosponsors this year.
The full involvement of LaRouche PAC activists and petitioners has also played an important role in states like Illinois, Ohio and Iowa. In Kansas, the Cattlemen’s Association posted phone numbers of the entire legislature and Congressional delegation, along with an article on the “Four Laws” by LaRouche PAC’s Bob Baker. A few of the legislators themselves have become “activists” in the cause.
Though no resolutions have been voted through state bodies yet, most of the legislatures involved will remain in session for some time after the President’s speech to Congress. This gives the opportunity for more activists to get involved petitioning and recruiting more sponsors in their state legislatures.
During this Congressional recess of Feb. 18-26, many Members will hold large and highly controversial town hall meetings. LaRouche PAC activists in the New York metropolitan area plan to be at six of the town halls. In their first intervention on Feb. 18, they “were swarmed by people to sign the Glass-Steagall petition.”
Trump in Florida: A Wave of ‘Optimism Is Sweeping the Country … and the Globe’
Feb. 19 (EIRNS)—Speaking to a large and supportive crowd in Melbourne, Florida yesterday, President Donald Trump gave an upbeat appraisal of where the country is headed under his administration, underscoring “the mess we inherited” from his predecessor Barack Obama. He reveled in the fact that his audience could listen to him without “the filter of fake news.” The media have “become a big part of the problem. They are part of the corrupt system…. They have their own agenda, and that agenda is not your agenda,” he emphasized.
Referencing the global paradigm shift, Trump pointed to the “wave of optimism [that] is sweeping … all across the country,” adding that the political movement that elected him is one “that is just sweeping … across our country … sweeping, frankly, across the globe.” The Brexit vote, although not numerically huge, reflected this tendency, he said. “The nation-state remains the best model for human happiness.”
As for the “so-called global elite, [they] have done well for themselves, but left working families with shrinking wages.” Eighteen years ago, he remarked, “people in this room made more money working one job than you’re making right now, working two and three jobs…”
In defense and military matters, Trump pointedly referenced the endless wars that have characterized the last several years, under the Bush and Obama administrations. “Instead of peace, we’ve seen wars that never end and conflicts that never seem to go away. We don’t fight to win…. We have the chance now, working together, to deliver change for the ages…. To pursue real peace, real stability, and real prosperity.” He reported that Defense Secretary James Mattis is working with the defense community to develop a plan to “totally destroy ISIS.”
Bipartisan cooperation, Trump said, is crucial. He appealed to Democrats to work with him to effect real change. “It’s time to move past the party differences and find a new loyalty rooted deeply in our country. We are all brothers and sisters…. We have to tell the Democrats, because they’re doing the wrong thing for the American people, to stop their tactics of delay and obstruction and destruction. They’ve got to get on with it.”
After discussing the example of replacing Obamacare, Trump said, “We need members of both parties to join hands and work with us to pass a $1 trillion infrastructure plan” to begin building vital projects “all across our great nation.”
Reflecting the streak of independence that has so rattled the Anglo-American establishment, Trump told his listeners that “no longer are we chained down by the discredited approaches of the past…. New circumstances demand new solutions…. Our citizens have raised their children together, fought for justice together and shared common hopes and dreams from one generation to the next, stretching back to the first day of our American Independence. That is our legacy.”
Most Americans Want To See Democrats Work with Trump, Poll Shows
Feb. 19 (EIRNS)—According to the just-released Harvard-Harris poll, 73% of voters want to see Democrats cooperate with President Trump, The Hill reported Feb. 18.
Only 27% of those surveyed said Democrats should refuse to cooperate with the new administration.
Of Democrats polled, 52% said they should work with President Trump in those areas on which they agree. Mark Penn, co-director of the Harvard-Harris poll, remarked that “this shows that voters want Trump and Democrats to compromise and if they don’t, they both may pay a heavy price with the electorate.”
Notable in this context is the “Daily Beast” report from Feb. 16 that many state Democratic Party chairs are refusing to work with Barack Obama’s Organizing for Action (OFA) nonprofit, which just “relaunched” itself to defend the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), and train mobs of activists to be part of the anti-Trump battering ram.
State leaders were already angry that OFA had siphoned off money and manpower, causing the loss of 1,000 Congressional seats over the past eight years.
Learning of OFA’s post-election “retooling” in a message sent to all state Democratic chairs, Louisiana Democratic Party executive director Stephen Handwerk responded in a Democratic listserv email, obtained by the Daily Beast, “this is some GRADE-A Bullshit right here…. It also to me seems TONE DEAF—we have lost 1,000 seats in the past 8 years … all because of this crap.” Katie Mae Simpson, executive director of the Maine Democratic Party, agreed with Handwerk, while Nebraska Democratic Party Chair Jane Kleeb charged that OFA “was created as a shadow party, because Obama operatives had no faith in state parties,” Politico reported.
U.S. Congressmen Targeting George Soros’s Subversion in Macedonia
Feb. 19 (EIRNS)—Over the past month, legislators led by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, have acted to determine the extent of British agent George Soros’s subversion of the republic of Macedonia, abetted by U.S. Ambassador and Obama appointee Jess Baily.
Lee and Smith wrote letters to Baily, demanding he explain the embassy’s role in intervening in Macedonia’s internal party politics, and in “shaping the media environment and civil society … favoring groups of one political persuasion over another” in the Dec. 11, 2016 elections. Lee’s Jan. 17 letter specifically asked whether “the U.S. Mission to Macedonia selected the Open Society Foundation”—founded by George Soros—“as the major implementer of USAID projects in Macedonia?” The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is part of the State Department.
Similarly, the Jan. 17 letter by Representative Smith and several other House Republicans stated: “We need to have a detailed oversight into what the [Obama] administration has been doing over the past eight years, because we have been taking sides politically, and there have been other similar incidents … it is against the law and is unheard of.”
Representative Smith has launched an investigation into Soros’s Macedonian operation, where anti-Soros organizers inside Macedonia report that since 2012, USAID allocated most of its assistance to the Open Society Institute as well as to NGOs controlled by Soros.
To date, Ambassador Baily hasn’t responded to the Senate or House letters, but the Congressmen are reported to be considering holding hearings.
ENDING THE STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Trump Forcefully Defends His Policy of Building Positive Relations with Russia, China, Japan
Feb. 17 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump, in his press conference on Feb. 16, forcefully restated his policy towards Russia, China, Japan and other nations, that has the British Empire and their lackeys in the media apoplectic: “If we could get along with Russia—and by the way, China and Japan and everyone—if we could get along, it would be a positive thing, not a negative thing.”
Trump charged that the media etc. were trying to whip up the U.S. population to support a military confrontation with Russia, which he denounced as extremely dangerous: “Nuclear holocaust would be like no other. They [Russia] are a very powerful nuclear country and so are we. If we have a good relationship with Russia, believe me, that’s a good thing, not a bad thing.”
He insisted that the whole “Russia thing” being whipped up by the media is “a ruse,” and noted that “it would be great if we could get along with Russia, just so you understand that.
“Now tomorrow, you’ll say ‘Donald Trump wants to get along with Russia, this is terrible.’ It’s not terrible. It’s good. … If we could get along with Russia, that’s a positive thing. We have a very talented man, [Secretary of State] Rex Tillerson, who’s going to be meeting with them shortly and I told him. I said: ‘I know politically it’s probably not good for me.’ The greatest thing I could do is shoot that [Russian] ship that’s 30 miles offshore right out of the water. Everyone in this country’s going to say ‘oh, it’s so great.’ That’s not great. That’s not great.
“I would love to be able to get along with Russia. Now, you’ve had a lot of Presidents that haven’t taken that tack. Look where we are now….
“But I want to just tell you, the false reporting by the media, by you people, the false, horrible, fake reporting makes it much harder to make a deal with Russia. And probably Putin said ‘you know.’ He’s sitting behind his desk and he’s saying ‘you know, I see what’s going on in the United States, I follow it closely. It’s going to be impossible for President Trump to ever get along with Russia because of all the pressure he’s got with this fake story.’ OK?
“And that’s a shame, because if we could get along with Russia—and by the way, China and Japan and everyone. If we could get along, it would be a positive thing, not a negative thing.”
Trump was then asked by a journalist: “Is Putin testing you, do you believe, sir?”
Trump responded: “No, I don’t think so. I think Putin probably assumes that he can’t make a deal with me anymore because politically it would be unpopular for a politician to make a deal. … Because, look, it would be much easier for me to be tough on Russia, but then we’re not going to make a deal. Now, I don’t know that we’re going to make a deal. I don’t know. We might. We might not. But it would be much easier for me to be so tough—the tougher I am on Russia, the better. But you know what? I want to do the right thing for the American people. And to be honest, secondarily, I want to do the right thing for the world.”
Lavrov Points to Signs at Munich that the Cold War Is Still On
Feb. 18 (EIRNS)—For Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, remarks like those of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and others at the Munich Security Conference are indications that, for some people, the Cold War is still on. “Military cooperation should be resumed, (however) NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg surrounded by his deputies yesterday could not say NATO is ready for it,” Lavrov said. “This is regretful.”
Lavrov went on to argue that the unipolar world system cannot last much longer, and contains the seeds of its own demise. Therefore world leaders should make decisions towards a more fair world. “We do not agree categorically with those, who accuse Russia and new centers of global influence of attempts to undermine the so-called liberal world order,” he said. “Crisis of this model of the world was programmed even when the concept of economic and political globalization was invented mostly as an instrument to provide growth of the elite club of countries and its dominating all the others.”
Citing a message from one of the most influential 19th-century Russian diplomats to U.S. Ambassador Cassius Clay in 1861, which said that any conflicting interests could be harmonized through “justice and modesty,” Lavrov said that the same approach could strengthen the modern world. “If everyone adopts that approach, we could overcome the period of post-truth fast and resist information wars imposed on the international community,” he said. Of course, 1861 was the beginning of the U.S. Civil War, in which the Russian fleet played a crucial role in defending the U.S. from the British Armada.
Lavrov lamented the fact that NATO has still not decided on proposals that Russia brought to the NATO-Russia Council, last summer, to improve military transparency over the Baltic Sea. “We expected those detailed suggestions would receive a feedback immediately—experts would sit and agree on maps to raise the security,” he said. “This did not happen, and till now we cannot begin this work.” Lavrov reported that Stoltenberg told him that hopefully, the relevant experts will meet in March.
Bulgarian President Calls for Ending Russia Sanctions
Feb. 17 (EIRNS)—In an interview with Euronews online channel, Bulgaria’s new President Rumen Radev said, “I am convinced that the sanctions bring no benefit, they rather cause damage to the economies of Russia and of the European Union.” Asked about the Crimea issue as being the main trigger of the sanctions, Radev said: “Naturally, the annexation of Crimea was a violation of international law. And Bulgaria decisively supports all principles of international law. But the big question is, how long Europe intends to be split by sanctions that undermine the confidence—five years, ten years, fifty years?”
The sanctions are in place until July, and Radev doesn’t want to say yet whether Bulgaria will vote against the extension the sanctions when the EU reviews them. “It is a lot of time until July. The situation is changing virtually every day. Just imagine an interesting situation: the governments of President Trump and President Putin agree on an improved dialogue, more confidence and less confrontation though sanctions. How will Europe react then?”
Euronews asked Radev whether, having been an air force pilot before becoming President, he considers himself is handicapped by his lack of political experience? Radev replied, “lacking experience in politics is a problem, but it can also be a big advantage, as today non-partisanship is required in politics, an objective view, people who are not interested in politics as such, who do not prioritize the interests of their party but the interests of the nation—and there, I do have an advantage.”
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
South Africa’s Zuma Government Charges International Banks with Foreign Exchange Conspiracy
Feb. 18 (EIRNS)—A South African government body has charged 17 banks—almost all of them big, international banks—with conducting a foreign exchange conspiracy, manipulating the price of the South African currency, the rand. The banks are charged with operating the conspiracy for a decade—an understatement. The 17 include Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase & Co., HSBC Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays Bank, Barclays Capital, BNP Paribas, Credit Suisse Group, and Commerzbank.
The Competition Commission found that traders used Reuters currency trading platform, Bloomberg instant messaging system (chatroom), and telephone conversations, and had meetings, to coordinate “their collusive trading activities,” according to the Commission’s Feb. 15 press release. They named one of their chatrooms “ZAR Domination.” (ZAR is the international symbol for the rand, as USD is for the dollar.)
The Commission has referred the case to the Competition Tribunal for prosecution, and is asking for the guilty parties to be fined an amount equal to 10% of their annual in-country turnover.
South Africans are angry, according to EIR’s on-the-ground report. Even the British-run mainstream media thinks it best not to deny the charges. Ray Hartley, a grandee of the financial press, for example, wrote Feb. 16, “there is no reason to doubt the bona fides of the Competition Commission. It is hated by business, but that is because it does its job too well.”
Only five days before the Competition Commission issued its charges, President Jacob Zuma said on state radio that four major banks were controlling South Africa’s economy (SABC’s “Morning Live,” Feb. 10). “They don’t want you to do anything,” he said, in a clear reference to proposed projects in the spirit and framework of the BRICS and China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Zuma has a package of measures in mind to cut down the banks’ power. The action of the Competition Commission is a first step, and it educates the public.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Vision for the Future of Space Exploration Versus Being Practical
Feb. 19 (EIRNS)—On Feb. 16, the full House Science, Technology & Space Committee conducted a hearing to discuss, “NASA: Past, Present, and Future.” The purpose was to brief new Committee members on NASA programs and options for the future, and, as Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX) stated: “Presidential transitions offer the opportunities to reinvigorate national goals. They bring fresh perspectives and new ideas that energize our efforts. Now is the time to reaffirm our support for the bold visions and commitments that will shape America’s future in space.” The importance of space policy in the Congress was indicated by the fact that more than two dozen members of the Committee, about evenly divided between Republicans and Democrats, participated in the hearing.
A major debate has been whether, as the long-term goal, there should be a return to the Moon before a manned mission to Mars. The most forward-looking witness on the panel to address this question was Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt, who titled his testimony: “The Moon Is on the Path To Get to Mars and Beyond.” Schmitt presented a timeline for major milestones:
- return to the Moon’s surface—2025
- lunar settlement (public/private capital funding)—2030
- lunar resource production (private capital funding and management)
- Fusion-powered interplanetary booster—2035 (public/private capital funding)
- Mars landing by 2040
- Mars settlement by 2045
Schmitt described the hurdles to the exploration of Mars, and proposed that the mining of helium-3 on the Moon would provide the fuel for the fusion propulsion to get us there. And he stressed that there must be an influx of young people into the program; that during Apollo, the average age of the people in Mission Control was 26 years. He said that the U.S. needs to first have cislunar development, “for a generation or two that has not experienced [deep space exploration or] what we had during Apollo.”
Lt. Gen. Tom Stafford, (USAF, ret.), who has had close working and personal relationships with the Russians for decades, commanding the Apollo capsule in the 1975 Apollo/Soyuz mission, and functioning as the technical partner with his Russian counterpart in the Shuttle/Mir program, and the ISS, stressed the importance of the relationship with Russia in space. Stafford said a key issue confronting Congress and the administration is “restoring American preeminence in space after what have been, frankly, eight years of lost opportunities…. We must return to the Moon,” Stafford said, and saw hopeful signs of a re-focusing on the Moon in the Trump Administration. He said the Moon is the goal that will put the U.S., once again, “in first place on the world stage.”
Tom Young, former NASA executive, and former CEO of Martin Marietta, described his “disappointment” that there have been no “boots on the ground” of human exploration, since Apollo 17.
The shortcoming of both the witnesses and many of the members, was the inability to see an alternative to the untenable situation faced by NASA, where five-year budget projection are for a flat level of funding. Each member, in his or her own way, tried to get the witnesses to say what NASA programs could be “triaged” so the exploration programs could be funded.
OTHER
Wonderful Dialogue of Cultures Musical Concert in Copenhagen
Feb. 18 (EIRNS)—They came from around the world. They came bearing gifts. Not gifts you could touch with your hands. But gifts that touched your soul. Gifts of beautiful music, and beautiful dance.
And the people came to hear them. And they kept coming, and they kept coming till none of the 120 seats were left. And after there was no more room for extra chairs, they stood in the aisles, and they stood in the lobby, and they sat behind the curtains. They were Danes, and they were diplomats, and other people, from many nations, maybe 200 in total.
The dialogue of cultures between the sponsors of the concert, itself, led to the great success: the Schiller Institute, the Russian-Danish Dialogue organization, the Russian House in Copenhagen, and the China Culture Center of the Chinese Embassy (about to open). And the concert was held in the Russian Center for Science and Culture of the Russian Embassy.
Firstly, the people were told by Schiller Institute chairman Tom Gillesberg that we have a unique moment in world history, where the potential is there for the U.S. to join the new paradigm of economic development sweeping the world. Secondly, they were told by the spokeswoman for the Russian-Danish Dialogue, that a dialogue of culture can lead to peace in the world. They were also the interchanging hosts for the evening.
Then the procession of gift-givers began.
From Russia came children playing Russian folk songs on balalaikas, and a baritone who has sung on 200 stages, performed Mozart and Gounod, together with his pianist. From China came a very musical young science student who played many flutes, and sang a Chinese love song, a duet, with a member of the Danish Schiller Institute. From Indonesia came a traditional dancer, who filled the room with her grace. From Ghana came two young men who sang and played a religious song, and a song about when we work together, we are stronger than when we stand alone.
And from Denmark and Sweden came three outstanding female opera singers, whose tones, and dramatic intensity moved the audience profoundly. Their offerings were songs and arias from Schubert, Verdi, Dvorák and Sibelius. An international bright star of a soprano who recently retired from the Royal Danish Opera; a fantastic mezzosoprano with roots in Hungary and Turkey, who is also a member of the Middle East Peace Orchestra; and a soprano who has blossomed into a truly magnificent artist. The first two were accompanied by a talented young Danish woman pianist, and the last by the Schiller Institute’s Benjamin Lylloff. Lylloff was then joined by his mother, violinist Anika Telmanyi Lylloff, for a poignant performance of Beethoven’s Romance for Violin and Piano, continuing the legacy bequeathed by their ancestor from Hungary.
For the finale, the musicians sang Verdi’s song of freedom “Va, pensiero,” (the Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves from Nabucco) with the addition of members of the Schiller Institute’s future chorus. The concert program is available on the Schiller Institute in Denmark website.
The people were uplifted, with each presentation by itself, and with the succession of one piece of music, or dance, after the other, one country after another, traditional music in dialogue with Classical music, weaving a tapestry of sound, sight and delight. A musical testament to the paradox of the unity and diversity mankind, expressed by human creativity, and a powerful statement of the dialogue of cultures was declaimed.
