EIR Daily Alert Service
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TUESDAY, AUGUST 22, 2017 Volume 4, Number 166 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390
EDITORIALThe ‘Economic Solution’ Can Unite Americans: LaRouche’s ‘Four Laws’; China’s New Silk RoadAug. 21 (EIRNS)—The President of the United States, yesterday a tool of Putin’s Russia, is today a racist and white supremacist supporter of neo-Nazis, not to mention mentally ill. This crazed propaganda flows in torrents: from the Obama/Podesta-run “Resist” which has taken over much of the Democratic Party; from the British and American intelligence agencies which have collaborated to eliminate President Trump since he first announced for President; and from all the Wall Street media operations. The President is being publicly threatened—by members of Congress!—if he dares to speak publicly in Phoenix Tuesday night, and his supporters there threatened if they dare come out to hear him. The nation is being manipulated toward chaos and possibly its own destruction. The ferocity of the propaganda barrage originates in London’s and Wall Street’s fear of another impending financial collapse. They remain afraid that President Trump—never under their policy control—might go against Wall Street and cooperate with China’s global infrastructure initiative for a real “shovels in the ground” U.S. recovery. Not like Barack Obama, who entered office arm-twisting Members of Congress to vote for the massive Wall Street bailouts by TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) and the Federal Reserve, and who followed London’s lead in making the G7 into a vast bank bailout machine. His and “W” Bush’s wars, bailouts, mass unemployment and manufacturing collapses have led since to mass addiction, rising American death rates—a true national emergency. Going against Wall Street and the City of London is exactly what President Trump must now do, and on an emergency basis. He has just made one step: “Millions of jobs is the way to unite Americans,” he said on Aug. 18. Andrew Young—former UN Ambassador and veteran Civil Rights leader—said the same in an NBC interview Sunday. “Most of the issues that we’re dealing with now are related to poverty. But we still want to put everything in a racial context…. Our job was to lift everybody up together, so that we would learn to live together as brothers and sisters rather than perish together as fools.” The measures to “lift everybody up” are there, in the “Four Economic Laws to save the nation” of statesman and physical economist Lyndon LaRouche, the pre-eminent economist of the “American System of economy”—which Trump has spoken about, but not grasped. Starting immediately by pushing a reinstatement of Glass-Steagall through Congress to break up Wall Street, and beginning to issue Federal credit through a Hamiltonian infrastructure bank, the United States can join with China’s “New Silk Road” infrastructure boom, to generate trillions in investments in renewing America’s economic infrastructure. As with China’s investments, science—space science and fusion power—must be the drivers. LaRouche, who said the current phony racial warfare being thrown against Trump threatens chaos and national destruction, today emphasized, “The economic solution is what must be pushed forward.” China Daily on Aug. 18 featured Helga Zepp-LaRouche and Lyndon LaRouche in a long profile, which described how the current global “Belt and Road Initiative” of China developed over decades. Now it is at full steam across Eurasia, Africa, and potentially even in the war-devastated Mideast. EIR has published The United States Joins the New Silk Road in pamphlet form. With LaRouche’s “Four Laws,” this is the economic solution. Trump has spoken often of the “American System of Alexander Hamilton, Henry Clay, Abraham Lincoln.” The first American organization dedicated to ending slavery and to equal opportunity without respect to race or ethnicity, was founded in 1788, and run until his death, by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton also launched the economic development of the United States into the world’s greatest industrial nation, ultimately creating literally millions of jobs, of increasing productivity, by inventing national banking credit for infrastructure, and promotion of manufacturing. His two objectives were really one: Create a united nation by developing all its human capacities and creativity, and productively employing all who lived in it or came to it. That must be revived now, by an emergency intervention into this political crisis with LaRouche’s proposed economic laws, and by a link-up with China’s New Silk Road. Let Trump be forced out, and an immediate war confrontation with Russia and China will ensue, fueled by the anti-Russia, anti-China hysteria which has overtaken Congress and the Democratic Party. U.S. POLITICAL & ECONOMICProtesters Converge on Phoenix in Advance of Trump VisitAug. 21 (EIRNS)—As you read this, thousands of “protesters” are converging on the city of Phoenix, Arizona, with intent to foil, in whatever way they can, President Trump’s planned event in the city. According to the British Daily Mail, over 5,000 Facebookers have responded as “confirmed,” with an additional 10,000 as “interested” to attend any one of the ten or more outdoor rallies, in response to postings by a combination of “anti white supremacy” (including the Antifa) and immigrants rights movements. The entire city is likely to be turned upside down as protesters rally throughout the day at various places, all eventually converging on the Phoenix Convention Center in time to “greet” pro-Trump attendees of the evening event. In the continuing media hysteria over last week’s Charlottesville violence, emotions have been further heightened by Trump’s own statements (to Fox News) that he is “seriously considering” a very premature pardon for despised former sheriff Joe Arpaio, convicted last month of contempt of court connected with his anti-immigrant crackdown. In April, over 400 people demonstrated in Phoenix demanding Trump release his tax returns. Tensions now are orders of magnitude higher. Six days ago, leading Progressive Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) posted a video announcing that he would lead a “counter protest” outside the Convention Center when Trump visited the city; on Friday he was on local radio endorsing Trump’s impeachment via the 25th amendment. Like many American cities, Phoenix saw several hundred people assemble over the weekend, to protest the “hatred” in Charlottesville. Secret Service Chief Counters Media Operation Against Trump Family ProtectionAug. 21 (EIRNS)—In the midst of open calls for the assassination of President Donald Trump, U.S.A Today put out an exclusive story today—immediately picked up and amplified by CNN and the rest of the media hyenas—that protecting the President and his family is bankrupting the Secret Service. Not Congressional budget-cutting insanity; not Wall Street’s destruction of the federal tax base by killing the productive economy, but “the Secret Service is going broke… because of Trump’s frequent travel, large family.” U.S.A Today was careful not to call explicitly for stripping protection for the President and his family, but that was the threat implicit in its deliberate spinning of the story. U.S.A Today had interviewed Secret Service Director Randolph “Tex” Alles on the Secret Service’s budget crisis. Alles reported that more than 1,000 agents have already hit the salary and overtime cap allowed by law per agent for the entire year, around a third of its employees. He spoke of the need for legislative action to fund the Secret Service’s requirements so it can fulfill its protective obligations, and of the White House’s cooperative relationship with his service. In the face of the dangerous media spin, Alles issued a statement today countering that the budgetary difficulty faced by the service “is not one that can be attributed to the current Administration’s protection requirements alone, but rather has been an ongoing issue for nearly a decade due to an overall increase in operational tempo.” The Secret Service “has the funding to meet all current mission requirements for the remainder of the fiscal year,” Alles wrote. But as occurred in 2016, he pointed out, legislation action is required to allow it to pay agents who must work more overtime hours than allowed by the annual statutory pay cap, and the agency has been working with the Administration, Department of Homeland Security and Congress to do so. Democrats Launch Impeachment Efforts; Obama and Clintonite Podesta at the HelmAug. 21 (EIRNS)—Almost overnight, there has been an opening of the spigots from Congressional Democrats seeking President Trump’s removal from office, focused on using the 25th Amendment. These efforts have come primarily from the “Progressive” wing of the Party, otherwise known as the “Obama, Pelosi, Podesta” faction—Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) being the House Minority Whip and Clintonite John Podesta, a leading figure in the “resist Trump” offensive. On Tuesday August 15, California Rep. Jackie Speier (D-CA) led off the efforts, tweeting that Trump was “showing signs of erratic behavior and mental instability that place the country in grave danger,” adding that it was now “Time to invoke the 25th Amendment.” The next day, it was Bay area’s Eric Swalwell (D-CA) who “reworked” a scheduled speech to reflect the new reality. “It’s time for Democrats and Republicans to recognize that [Trump] can’t lead us,” Swalwell told an audience of Rotary club members. He called the President unfocused and unstable, adding that “some Republicans have shirked their responsibility to keep [Trump] in check.” By Friday, August 18, Silicon Valley’s Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) introduced a resolution to the House “urging the Vice President and the Cabinet to fulfill their duties pursuant to Section 4 of the 25th Amendment,” [involving removal of the President from office] because “President Donald J. Trump has exhibited an alarming pattern of behavior and speech causing concern that a mental disorder may have rendered him unfit and unable to fulfill his Constitutional duties.” The resolution “urges the Cabinet to quickly secure the services of medical and psychiatric professionals to examine the President to determine whether the President suffers from mental disorder or other injury that impairs his abilities and prevents him from discharging his constitutional duties.” By the end of the day, Arizona Democrat and leading Progressive, Rep. Raúl Grijalva had been on local KVOI radio calling for Trump’s impeachment. Grijalva said he agreed with Rep Jackie Speier, telling the audience that “there’s an accumulation of issues that bring into question this man’s ability to lead.” Grijalva will likely make this a focus of his “counter-rally” speech when Trump visits Phoenix Tuesday afternoon. ‘Charlottesville and Its Aftermath: What if It Was a Set-Up?’Aug. 21 (EIRNS)—Under the above headline, Patricia McCarthy of the conservative newsboard American Thinker shows some genuine independent journalistic insight. Although the article is short on specifics, it is nonetheless based on valid assumptions. “We know that Obama and his inner circle have set up a war room in his D.C. home to plan and execute resistance to the Trump administration and his legislative agenda,” McCarthy says up front. “What if [Charlottesville mayor Michael] Signer and [former Obama acolyte, now Virginia Governor Terry] McAuliffe, in conjunction with Antifa and other Soros-funded groups like Black Lives Matter, planned and orchestrated what happened in Charlottesville and meant for events to unfold roughly as they did?” McCarthy zeroes in on the FBI operative and “founder” of Unite The Right, Jason Kessler, noting that he was previously an activist with Occupy Wall Street and an Obama supporter, who considers himself a “professional provocateur….What if he was a ringer, a phony who revels in riling up some crazy people for some political purpose? We know the left is skilled in all manner of dirty tricks.” Correctly noting that the miniscule number of “white supremacists” throughout the country could hardly amount to a “base” for Trump’s 2016 election victory, and that these extremists are “most likely mentally ill to one degree or another,” she additionally emphasizes that “Trump has disavowed them all, over and over and over again.” In fact, the “Trump is a racist” meme essentially started after he announced his campaign. “It is as fake a narrative as the ‘Russia collusion’ meme.” STRATEGIC WAR DANGERU.S.-Russia Reach Another Deconfliction Agreement In SyriaAug. 21 (EIRNS)—According to a report in Turkey’s official Anadolu press agency, the U.S. and Russian militaries have agreed on a new deconfliction line running down the Euphrates almost to Deir Ezzor. “The purpose of the line is to deconflict and enable counter-Da’esh operations by all parties,” Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told Anadolu. In Ankara, before he departed for a trip to Singapore, Turkish Prime Minister Benali Yildirim said that Turkey, Russia and Iran are cooperating to establish a lasting truce in Syria. “We have a goal to make a lasting truce out of the temporary ceasefire,” he said, commenting on the recent and forthcoming visits by the high-ranking Russian and Iranian military to Ankara. Tass doesn’t indicate when Russian Chief of the General Staff Valeri Gerasimov will be in Ankara, but U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis will be there on Aug. 24. “Talks are expected to center round de-escalation zones in Syria, threats coming from the extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra, and the situation around the Syrian Kurds’ party Democratic Union,” says Tass. Meanwhile, Al Qaeda in Syria, in its current guise as Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), appears to be acting to defend ISIS’s flank in central Syria. HTS brought the government-controlled highway from Salamiyah to Ethriyrah under mortar attack, during this past weekend. The highway is not only the line of communications for Syrian army units operating south of Raqqa, it’s also the northern side of the pocket in central Homs where a large number of ISIS fighters have been trapped by the Syrian army. These attacks by HTS started around the same time pro-government forces isolated ISIS militants in eastern Hama via a massive encirclement maneuver that saw army units in Ehtiryah (east Hama) and al-Sha’er (central Homs) attack south and north (respectively) towards each other, reports Al Masdar. Yesterday, Al Masdar reported that the army began a “daring” operation to shrink the pocket by assaulting ISIS-controlled villages inside of it. The Syrian army is getting a lot of help from Russian airpower. The Russian Defense Ministry reported this morning that Russian military aviation eliminated a large ISIS convoy heading towards Deir Ezzor, destroying more than 20 heavy vehicles, including artillery and armored vehicles, killing an estimated 200 militants. The Kiev Regime Is Escalating Tensions with RussiaAug. 21 (EIRNS)—Germany’s second-largest national news daily, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, leaks today that according to information from Berlin, which is based on, among other things, reports by the OSCE mission in eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian military is currently trying to move the front line to its advantage. It is apparent that the Kiev forces are also risking an increase of tensions, Berlin government circles say. The German government, the news daily adds, very clearly, and with growing concern, is also taking note that the (Kiev) Ukrainian side of the conflict is increasingly to blame. The government’s concern is that in any possible scenario, Kiev’s calculation would cause counterproductive consequences. Sueddeutsche writes: “Trump could ease the sanctions independently based on the situation at the line of contact. And then Kiev would suffer double damage: an improvement of the situation for Russia, and an escalation of the conflict in eastern Ukraine at the same time. Opium Production Funds Terrorism in Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Ministry Reminds Trump, NATOAug. 21 (EIRNS)—The Russian Foreign Ministry’s Information and Press Department called attention in an August 18 “Comment on the Drug Situation in Afghanistan,” to the recent recommendation by the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, that the U.S. develop an anti-drug strategy for Afghanistan. Sopko’s recommendation is relevant, the Foreign Ministry noted, given that “drug production in Afghanistan is breaking records.” President Trump is announcing a “new” strategy for Afghanistan in a televised address this evening. The statement elaborated this worsening reality: “According to expert estimates, a sharp increase in drug production is expected in 2017. The areas under drug crops in Afghanistan have already exceeded last year’s figures, and about a third of the country’s population is involved in the cultivation of opium poppy. “The volume of Afghan drug trafficking is not decreasing, while its geography has expanded, in particular, to African countries. The so-called Balkan route (Pakistan-Iran-Turkey-Europe) has been intensified. A growing number of narcotic substances from Afghanistan are supplied to Europe via Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and Ukraine. “At the same time, tons of precursors for the manufacture of narcotic substances are illegally imported to Afghanistan each year. Moreover, according to information from Afghan sources, such countries as Italy, France and the Netherlands are among the main suppliers. “In this context, the U.S. and NATO forces’ unwillingness or inability, despite their many years of presence in Afghanistan, to provide effective assistance to the Afghan Government in curbing drug production, which is known to be a key source of terrorism financing, causes bewilderment. According to UN estimates, the drug economy accounts for about half of the revenues of illegal armed groups in Afghanistan, estimated at $400 million,” the statement notes. COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEMU.S. Economists, Bankers Warn of New Financial CrisisAug. 21 (EIRNS)—Die Welt today carries an article based on interviews with three U.S.-based economists warning of a new trans-Atlantic financial crisis. The three, Daniel McFadden of the University of Minnesota, Eric Maskin at Harvard, and Edward Prescott of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, were interviewed by the daily while participating in a conference in Lindnau, Germany, which it characterized as a kind of “Nobel Prize summit meeting.” In “Nobel Prizewinners Warn of New Financial Crisis,” they are reported warning that there is a high near-term risk of a new financial crash; and that it is being obscured by media discussions of the risk of nuclear confrontation, terror attacks and battle over the American Presidency. “The smartest minds in economics,” Die Welt says, “clearly disagree with the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank chair Janet Yellen,” who in June made the Neville Chamberlain-like declaration that there “would not be another financial crash in our lifetime.” Stated Prescott, “It is a greater certainty that a financial crisis will occur in the not-distant future.” Two of the three economists saw the euro as contributing to the high risk of blowout. But all three were very far from pointing to the solution to prevent this. Bloomberg reported today that researchers from several major U.S.-based banks warned on Aug. 2, through the Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee (TBAC, a group of bank economists which advises the Treasury), of a looming “financial engineering shock.” This points the finger directly at a potential bubble meltdown in U.S. corporate debt. “Financial engineering” is the term used to describe corporations accumulating large amounts of debt from banks and through the bond market, and using the borrowing to buy back their own stocks, pay big dividends, or take over other companies. It has been the main driver of the extraordinary doubling of U.S. non-financial corporate debt from $7 trillion in 2010 to $14 trillion in 2017, with interest rates unsustainably near zero. The TBAC was warned that corporations had piggybacked on the Federal Reserve’s huge “quantitative easing” emissions to borrow these huge sums virtually without interest. If quantitative easing now is slowly reversing, as the Fed plans, “even very small declines in Treasury prices could … lead to a big drop in corporate bond prices and stocks,” said TBAC chair Jason Cummins. Bloomberg adds, “investors are underestimating the trouble that the Fed’s plans could bring to corporate debt markets.” China Cracks Down on Non-Productive Overseas Investments, to Favor of the Real EconomyAug. 21 (EIRNS)—Three days ago, China’s State Council released a further guidance on the direction of overseas investment. Prepared by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), it would please Alexander Hamilton no end. According to Bloomberg’s August 18 wire on the guidance, three categories—banned, restricted and encouraged—have been established for overseas investments by Chinese companies, summarized by Bloomberg as follows: “Banned: Core military technology, gambling, sex industry, investments contrary to national security; “Restricted: Real estate, hotels, film, entertainment, sports, obsolete equipment, investments that contravene environmental standards;” and “Encouraged: Investments that further Belt and Road framework, enhance China’s technical standards, research and development, oil and mining exploration, agriculture and fishing.” The guidance is the latest in a series of dirigist measures taken by the government to crack down on speculative activity, dry up “shadow banking,” and shore up foreign exchange reserves, so as to concentrate on development. Chatter in Western media about China moving to restrict thereby its foreign investment generally, is hogwash. Bloomberg quoted from the NDRC statement on the guidance: “Some companies focused on property rather than the real economy, which, instead of boosting the domestic economy, triggered capital outflows and shook financial security.” Likewise, “some companies disregarded the environment, energy and safety regulations in target countries, which resulted in disputes and impaired China’s image,” according to Bloomberg. Even an inherently-incompetent machine translation of the guidance makes clear that the measure aims to promote those overseas investments along the Belt and Road which serve to expand international production capacity, build infrastructure and connectivity, strengthen cooperation with overseas high-tech and advanced manufacturing enterprises, encourage establishment of R&D centers abroad, expand agricultural cooperation with foreign countries, etc., all aimed at achieving “win-win” investment cooperation. NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDERIsraeli Peace Activist Enthusiastic on China’s ‘Creative Thinking’ for PeaceAugust 21 (EIRNS)—Avi Buskila, head of Israel’s Peace Now movement, told Xinhua that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s four-point proposal for achieving peace between Israel and Palestine, presented to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in July, “is very exciting.” China’s involvement is “really a new change in the game,” he said, adding that “we expect one of the leaders of the world to be part of that solution because we know what it means to our economy, security, diplomatic and international relationship.” Buskila specifically called China’s offer to launch a China-Palestine-Israel dialogue mechanism to coordinate major projects to aid the Palestinians within China’s Belt and Road Initiative, “a very creative way” to help the Palestinians. “It can bring them hope, technology and knowledge.” For his part, Buskila is eager to participate in the symposium China has proposed be held in China later this year, between peace activists from both countries. People-to-people exchanges are crucial, he emphasized. Many Israelis (70%) have never been to the West Bank, and don’t know that “the Palestinians are exactly like the Israelis,” he said; likewise, many Palestinian youth have “nothing to do except hate the big demon called Israel. Growing up in an environment without proper education and opportunities but full of hatred is very bad for the future generation.”
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