EDITORIAL

The Walls Are Closing In On the British Empire

July 8 (EIRNS)—One week from today, on July 16, 2018, President Trump and President Putin will sit down for their long-awaited summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland. Just days before that, on July 11-12, Trump will attend the NATO summit in Brussels, after which he will travel to the U.K. for a three-day visit.

The British Empire’s outlets are acting like the walls are closing in on them—which they are. “The stakes are high for the six days between Trump’s arrival in Brussels Tuesday night and his departure from Helsinki,” the Daily Mail wrote yesterday. “He could, in that short time, remake some of the U.S.’s most significant relationships with the rest of the world”—by which they mean the so-called “special relationship” with Great Britain, which was designed to keep the U.S. “like a cock-boat in the wake of a British man-o’-war.”

The London Guardian likewise reported urgently that “senior U.K. politicians and diplomats believe the next 10 days of international diplomacy will be vital in determining the future strength of the Western alliance as a bulwark against Russian aggression”—by which they mean that their game of using wars and subterfuge to prevent a Four Powers alliance of the sort specified by Lyndon LaRouche, is up.

Furthermore, the British plot to overthrow the Trump government is not only sputtering, but its principals are themselves now looking at possible jail time, as Rep. Devin Nunes calls for “deposition-style hearings” before Congressional committees, where the 42 individuals he has cited will have to explain, under oath, their roles in the get-Trump operation.

Worst of all, from where the British sit, is that China continues to systematically—and successfully—build the basic structure, the infrastructure, around which a New Paradigm of a “community with a shared future for mankind” is coming into being.

Lyndon LaRouche’s role in bringing about this global sea- change is increasingly recognized—albeit often begrudgingly—by informed circles internationally. But few, far too few, have yet understood LaRouche’s method by which he is shaping history with ideas. That most fundamental of issues was in fact the central matter addressed at last weekend’s Schiller Institute conference in Bad Soden, Germany, as it is also the focus of the ongoing LaRouche Economics class series in New York City.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche stressed this point during her July 5 weekly webcast, in response to a question about what had been achieved at the Schiller Institute conference:

“I think the participants all expressed a profound optimism that with the ideas which were presented, a solution can be found. And everybody noted that what distinguishes the Schiller Institute from other organizations—other organizations have conferences on maybe specific subjects and then have many experts who have their power point discussion, but they don’t really elevate the audience to the level of thinking required to find solutions. But that was really why I called my presentation also ‘The Coincidence of Opposites,’ coincidentia oppositorum which is an idea of Nicholas of Cusa. It’s a specific way of thinking, how to overcome the contradictions in political life on the daily level, or if you just look at the status quo, you never find a solution….

“We have to give ourselves as a human species, an order which is more in correspondence with the lawfulness of the physical universe. And that only the idea of continuous change and an anti-entropic universe can give a guideline; and the only people who are capable of thinking in this way are the scientists, the natural scientists, and artists of Classical culture. Because only they are used to thinking in terms of universal principles which are repeatable and therefore valid, and therefore are beyond the realm of opinion, but related to a deeper, underlying truth of the lawfulness of our universe: And that must guide and inform our political life.

“Obviously, this is a very deep philosophical discussion. It requires that many nations of the world, preferably all of them, be involved in this discussion…. And how can we make sure that we do not plunge into dark ages again? By simply elevating our populations to think in terms of a New Paradigm of the coincidence of opposites, of the one humanity first, or what Xi Jinping always calls ‘a community for a shared humanity,’ or ‘shared future of mankind.’ ”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

China’s Premier Praises 16+1 Mechanism in Sofia as ‘New Model of Multilateral Cooperation’

July 8 (EIRNS)—Chinese Premier Li Keqiang yesterday told the leaders’ meeting between China and the 16 Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC), held in Sofia, Bulgaria, that the 16+1 mechanism “has created a new model of multilateral open cooperation” which has been very successful in promoting mutual trust and mutual benefit. “Looking into the future, China will continue to adhere to the path of peaceful development, unswervingly pursue an open strategy of mutual benefit and win-win results, and work with other countries to build a new type of international relations and a community with a shared future for mankind,” according to Xinhua. “Countries are welcome to board China’s economic express to share opportunities of China’s development.” Li specifically suggested that CEE countries could participate in the construction of industrial parks, enhance financial cooperation, and “foster fresh force for innovation cooperation,” Xinhua reported.

Li went out of his way to emphasize that the 16+1 platform was by no means meant to undermine the European Union, but would actually help strengthen China-EU ties. “There are some voices questioning whether the 16+1 cooperation is a geopolitical tool, or whether it will divide Europe. The doubts are misunderstanding…. We firmly support European integration…. A united, stable and prosperous EU and a strong euro conform to the fundamental interests of China.” He further said: “As long as we insist on pursuing open cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results, while staying down-to-earth with firm confidence, the 16+1 cooperation will surely be promoted steadily and it will add greater contributions to the development of China-EU ties and the world’s openness and prosperity.” Eleven of the 16 countries are EU members, a several more are candidates for membership.

Xinhua reported that all parties agreed that the 16+1 cooperation is not a geopolitical tool, but a pragmatic cooperation platform, and they issued guidelines for such cooperation and signed more than 20 specific cooperation documents. Li stated that the results achieved over six years “have exceeded expectations…. Infrastructure interconnectivity has been promoted in an orderly manner and there have been nearly 9,000 China-Europe freight train services.” The Chinese Premier concluded that “cooperation between China and the CEEC has achieved mutual benefit and win-win outcomes, promoted common development and improved peoples’ livelihood,” Xinhua reported.

Germany and China Should Intensify Technical Cooperation, Urges Li Keqiang Ahead of Visit

July 7 (EIRNS)—Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang will be in Berlin on July 9 to meet Chancellor Angela Merkel. They will sign agreement for co-financing projects in sectors such as automobile and finances.

As a prelude to the visit, Li wrote an article published today in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, which focuses on two issues: a) cooperation in innovation, b) defense of WTO rules. The FAZ, of course, focuses on the second issue because it fits in the neo-liberal narrative.

However, what he says on cooperation is more important. “We want to strengthen cooperation in innovation. Some German companies are concerned that Chinese companies, once they adapt to advanced technology, they become competitors overnight. In reality, Chinese manufacturing has still a long way to go before reaching the medium- to high-end production, and complementarity in industry and technology will remain for a long time between both countries. With the transformation of the Chinese economy and the improvement of the structure of consumptions, our demand for high-quality products and technology from Germany will not decrease but rather increase.

“If we intensify our technical cooperation, this is no zero-sum game where gains and losses compensate each other, but instead an effective way for a common use of knowledge and accelerated innovation.”

Eighth Forum of Arab Countries and China Will Focus on Belt and Road Initiative

July 8 (EIRNS)—A call for stronger Arab participation in China’s Belt and Road Initiative is expected to be the central result of the July 10 meeting in Beijing of the eighth ministerial conference of the Chinese-Arab States Cooperation Forum (CASCF), according to a feature by China’s Foreign Minister and State Councillor Wang Yi posted to Gulf News.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will address the opening ceremony at the Great Hall of the People. The CASCF will be attended by Kuwait Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah, by host Wang Yi’s fellow foreign ministers and other ministers among the 22 Arab states, and by Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit, the foreign minister said.

“At the meeting, China and Arab states are expected to have in-depth discussions on how to jointly advance the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and strengthen overall cooperation with a view to drawing up a blueprint for China-Arab relations in the new era,” wrote Wang.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Pompeo Takes Sharp North Korean Comments on Negotiations in Stride

July 8 (EIRNS)—To hear the trans-Atlantic media tell it, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s two days of negotiations with North Korea’s lead negotiator Kim Yong Chol, ended in utter failure, proving that President Trump’s Singapore summit with Kim Jong Un was a pipedream, and that the hard, geopolitical reality has now reasserted itself. But that’s not what happened, nor is it Pompeo’s view of where things stand.

After the two days of meetings, which Pompeo characterized positively, the North Korean Foreign Ministry issued a sharp statement reported by the official Korean Central News Agency: “We had expected that the U.S. side would offer constructive measures that would help build trust based on the spirit of the leaders’ summit. But the U.S. side came up only with its unilateral and gangster-like demand for denuclearization, just calling for CVID [complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization]…. We were also thinking about providing reciprocal measures. However, the attitude and stance the U.S. showed in the first high-level meeting was no doubt regrettable. Our expectations and hopes were so naïve it could be called foolish.” The statement further stated that the talks were “very concerning,” and had led to a “dangerous phase that might rattle our willingness for denuclearization that had been firm.” The North Koreans said that they had raised the issue of formally ending the Korean War, but that the U.S. came up with “conditions and excuses” to delay such a declaration.

The Foreign Ministry statement was careful to affirm that “we wholly maintain our trust toward President Trump,” stressing that he must not allow “headwinds” against the “wills of the leaders”—a clear reference to those who would sabotage the Singapore summit process. Pompeo also received a personal letter to Trump from Chairman Kim Jong Un, whose contents have not been made public.

Pompeo, in Tokyo today to meet with the Japanese and South Korean foreign ministers, took the North Korean statement in stride, telling the press: “People are going to make stray comments after meetings. If I paid attention to the press, I’d go nuts…. If those requests [the U.S. presented] were gangster-like, the world is a gangster.” He emphasized that “the road ahead will be difficult and challenging and we know that critics will try to minimize the work that we’ve achieved.” Pompeo then added pressure back from the American side: “While we are encouraged by the progress of these talks, progress alone does not justify the easing of the sanctions regime. Sanctions will remain in place until final fully verified denuclearization as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong Un has occurred.”

López Obrador Team Preparing Big Drug Legalization Push in Mexico

July 7 (EIRNS)—Mexican President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) announced on July 5 that he had invited U.S. President Donald Trump to attend his Dec. 1 inauguration. Three days earlier, AMLO had reported that in their 30-minute phone conversation on July 2, he had proposed to Trump that they cooperate on joint development projects in Mexico to help stem the flow of desperate migrants to the U.S.

Trump and his team would do well to make sure that that is indeed the central agenda item between the U.S. and Mexico—and that they include China and its Belt and Road Initiative in those economic plans—and not a British-run operation to introduce Obama-style drug legalization, and worse, into North America through the back door. A powerful grouping around AMLO, centered on the person he has announced will be his all-important Interior Minister, Olga Sánchez, has presented a plan calling for marijuana decriminalization, state-run poppy production for “medical opioids,” amnesty negotiations with drug-runners, and an overall Colombia-style “peace plan”—i.e. a de facto capitulation to London’s Dope, Inc.

The operation is being run under the rubric of calling for “Transitional Justice,” a piece of supranational sophistry concocted by the International Center for Transitional Justice, a Soros-linked outfit which claims responsibility for the Blair-Santos Colombian “peace plan” with the FARC, among other achievements. They are trying to sell this to the violence-weary Mexican population as the only way to bring “peace” to the country, and stop the violence which has led to 200,000 drug-related assassinations since 2006.

Sánchez, who was a Supreme Court justice in Mexico from 1995-2015, told Reuters in a July 6, 2018 interview (i.e., after AMLO’s election) that the new government’s approach would be to apply “transitional justice”: “Not only will it be amnesty, it will be a law to reduce jail time. We will propose decriminalization, create truth commissions, we will attack the causes of poverty, we will give scholarships to the youth and we will work in the field to get them out of the drug situation.”

Reuters then wrote: “To consider the possibility of a negotiated peace, Sánchez’s team has studied Colombia’s peace process with its biggest guerrilla group [the FARC], which allowed rebel leaders to avoid prison. After the Mexican plan is reviewed by López Obrador, Sánchez said the amnesty idea would be presented as a public referendum [as was done in Colombia]. If it receives public support, the administration would then put it before Congress.”

In a June 13, 2018 interview with El Economista, Sánchez was asked about her proposal for amnesty and how that would apply to “areas such as the Guerrero mountains where people cultivate poppy.” Sánchez replied: “We have to start thinking about decriminalizing drugs. That’s the way it’s going: to a policy of decriminalizing drugs. Obviously marijuana.” Asked if she was talking only about marijuana, she stated: “Marijuana for recreational use, and the whole chain; I’m going to propose this to Andrés Manuel. The decriminalization of marijuana planting, harvesting, trafficking and recreational use. Regarding poppy, it’s advisable to do what Afghanistan has done. It’s highly valued for pharmaceuticals and for medical use.”

In a July 3 Milenio op-ed, Sánchez argued the straight Soros line: “The world war on drugs has failed…. It is known that the U.S. is the main consumer of drugs in the world; and 23 or its 50 states have [legal] cannabis markets for recreational and medicinal use. Uruguay, Switzerland and New Zealand have successfully taken the first step in opting for legalization through a responsible regulatory context, based on medical, sociological, economic and political evidence.”

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Nunes Wants Televised Depositions of 42 Targets of Investigation into ‘Russiagate’ Frameup

July 8 (EIRNS)—House Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes told Judge Jeanine Pirro in the opening segment of her widely-watched “Justice with Judge Jeanine” on Fox News July 7, that he wants the joint task force of the House Judiciary and Oversight and Government Reform Committees to interview all 42 targets of investigation named in his three successive letters last week. Not in your typical “circus” hearing format, but in a deposition format, he specified. Have the five Republican members of the task force interview the targets for one hour each, and then the five Democratic members do the same, also for an hour each, he proposed, and televise that so the American people can judge for themselves.

This is hot. Depositions are sworn, out-of-court statements taken preparatory to a trial. As Judge Pirro observed, not only would a deposition make it possible to get more deeply into information than any hearing ever would, but it could lay “the basis for a criminal predicate prosecution, in the event that they lie.”

The 42 people Nunes has referred to the Judiciary/Oversight task force are the key figures at the FBI, Justice Department, State Department, and Fusion GPS and its networks in the operation to set up President Trump: the Andy McCabes, Peter Strzoks, Victoria Nulands, and Glenn Simpsons, et al. involved in the British-run coup drive against the President. Nunes told Pirro that these are the people who can help answer the question: “Was President Trump really colluding with Russia, or was this an orchestrated effort by the left, working with the FBI and DOJ, to frame the President?” Deploying paid informants into a U.S. Presidential campaign under counterintelligence cover already crossed a red line, Nunes said, but it would be even worse if those operations began before Operation “Crossfire Hurricane” officially started on July 31, 2016. Were these 42 digging up dirt in order to start that counterintelligence operation?

Beijing Is Angry About the Trade Conflict with Washington

July 7 (EIRNS)—Chinese Premier Li Keqiang told the press in Sofia, Bulgaria, where he is attending the 16+1 meeting with Central and East European countries, that “China will never take the initiative to incite trade disputes and start trade wars”; but when other countries do so, “countermeasures will be taken to safeguard China’s interests for development.” He continued that, “if insistently pursued, a trade war will harm other countries and those who started it,” China Dailyreported Li saying.

Both Global Times and China Daily published very angry editorials on the matter on July 6. Global Times wrote that a trade war “will damage the global economy beyond Washington’s wildest imagination…. Washington believes it will win. However, nobody wins a trade war. Now that the U.S. has turned a deaf ear to reason, only a rout on the ‘battlefield’ will return it to sanity…. Washington has trampled two red lines: multilateralism and China’s right to develop.” The editorial stated further: “U.S. repression has sparked fierce indignation in Chinese society, and disillusioned and uplifted the Chinese people. This antagonism involves national interests and dignity.”

China Daily’s editorial has a similar tone. “In effect, the Trump administration is behaving like a gang of hoodlums with its shakedown of other countries, particularly China…. China, which is in the crosshairs of the Trump administration’s racketeering gun sights, has no choice but to fight back…. It will not give in to blackmail…. [This] pursuit of economic hegemony is unlikely to prove good for the U.S.”

U.S. Productive Employment Up Nearly 700,000 in Year, but Wages Stagnate

July 6 (EIRNS)—The U.S. Labor Department’s June employment report shows that goods-producing employment has increased fairly solidly under President Donald Trump’s policies. But Americans’ wages remain low and the labor force remains fundamentally distorted by decades of deindustrialization, addiction, lack of investment in new economic infrastructure and lack of job creation in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM areas.

Year-to-year employment growth through June was approximately 2.3 million. In 2015 and 2016 employment growth was 2.6-2.7 million annually; but at best, only 5-10% of that employment growth was in the “goods-producing” sectors of manufacturing, construction, mining and utilities, and real wages were falling, with absolute growth in average weekly wages at around 2.1%/year. Now because of Trump’s jawboning and deregulation of business, the very large GOP corporate tax cut, rising oil price, and recently his steel tariffs, goods-producing employment has been 30% of the past year’s employment growth, at 655,000 jobs: 285,000 in manufacturing; 280,000 in construction; and 90,000 in mining or oil. Capital investment is still low, growing at about a 4% annual rate, although this is dramatically better than the nadir reached during Obama’s second term, when business capital investment actually declined.

The other effect of the tax cuts has been a dramatic increase in the racing growth of the corporate debt bubble, while reducing corporate equity capital, through massive stock buybacks—thereby worsening the looming crash of that bubble when it comes.

There is still no growth in real wages. Average weekly wages rose from June 2017 to June 2018 by 2.9%, but solely because supervisory employees worked longer workweeks on average. For non-supervisory employees, the weekly wage increase over a year was just 2.5%. The Consumer Price Index for urban consumers (CPI-U) is up 2.8% officially during that year, and everyone now knows (EIR knew in 1984) it is very significantly “deflated” and has been for decades. Inflation, moreover, is definitely rising.

An OECD report on wages and employment which happened to come out July 4 finds (for the United States inclusively) that wage growth rates in developed countries at the end of 2017 remained far below those from before the crash of 2007-08; specifically for the U.S., just half the pre-crash rate of gains. And within that, median earners’ wages were growing much more slowly than those of top earners. The report’s reasons: 1) low productivity growth; 2) rising inequality.

In June, according to the U.S. Labor Department, labor force participation rose significantly from 62.7% to 62.9%—some 600,000 Americans entered the labor force). But there continues to be a large and increasing portion of the labor force between 55 and 90 years of age; even 10% of those 80-84 years old are in the labor force. Senior workers have a much larger than normal share of jobs in agriculture, retail, custodial work, teaching, and incredibly, as truck drivers. The participation picture is the opposite for people in their twenties and teens. Obviously this distribution shift is associated with a lot of part-time employment, lower wages, and lack of employment benefits.

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

IMF Genocide Blows Up Haiti Again

July 8 (EIRNS)—Haiti is once again blowing up over IMF conditionalities. Prime Minister Jack Guy Lafontant was forced to suspend IMF-demanded fuel price hikes “until further notice” yesterday, after two days of serious protest, which included attacks on luxury hotels for rich tourists in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

The IMF evidently believes blood can be squeezed from corpses. The Miami Herald reported yesterday that the IMF has given the government until the end of September to increase fuel prices and “reform” the state electricity company, EDH, or it will not get $96 million in pending loans from the World Bank, Interamerican Development Bank (IADB), and the European Union, which function as a creditors cartel under IMF direction. The Herald points out that since 2010, Haiti has lost more than $770 million in revenues by its refusal to abide by a 1995 decree calling for fuel prices to be adjusted with every shipment of fuel into the country! As a result, fuel has been considerably cheaper in the impoverished country than in the neighboring Dominican Republic, which adjusts its prices, the Heraldwrites.

The IMF creditors cartel is determined to keep Haiti from turning to the People’s Republic of China, in order to escape IMF genocide. In August 2017, Port-au-Prince Mayor Yuri Chevry signed a framework agreement with the Southwest Municipal Engineering Design and Research Institute of China to rebuild the capital, still destroyed from the 2010 earthquake, from top-to-bottom as a modern city: a $4.7 billion project involving installing the first-ever water and drainage system, roads, a modern communications system, environmental remediation works, a commercial zone and new market in the “old city” area, etc.

That project was shut down by the IMF cartel, France’s Solidarité et Progrès party reported on Jan. 28, 2018. The policy was declared by IADB representative Koldo Echebarria, who said that if the Haitian government accepted a commercial loan from China, it would be in violation of “its commitments to the international community,” and therefore would have to renegotiate its agreements with “its institutional financial partners.” That is, if it proceeded to build a modern capital with the aid of China, Haiti would be cut off from every other source of financing.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Curiosity Rover Has Found Organic Molecules on Mars

July 7 (EIRNS)—For over a hundred years, the scientific community has debated whether there is, or was, life on Mars. The mid-1970s Viking landers were supposed to provide an answer, but the results were ambiguous. Since water, as far as we know, is a primary prerequisite for life, the rovers Spirit and Opportunity had the task of looking for signs of past water on the now largely dry planet. That mission was accomplished when, in addition to regions seen from orbit that appear unmistakably to have dried river beds and lakes, the rovers found minerals which on Earth, only form in water. But life on Earth is organic (containing carbon, with other constituent elements), and no spacecraft had found organics on Mars. Until now.

Since landing on Mars in August 2012, NASA’s Curiosity rover has been drilling into rocks, revealing their mineral content. After three years of analyzing data from instruments on the rover, geologists and chemists announced on June 7 that they had found the mother lode—a diverse collection of organic molecules. “From a habitability perspective, we regard those molecules as being potentially from ancient life, or they could be food for life, or maybe future life,” said Jennifer Eigenbrode from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “We have been stumped for 40 years, ever since Viking, on where are the missing organic molecules on Mars?” Now, she says, “we’ve got it.”