EDITORIAL
Whom Should American Voters Trust?
July 17 (EIRNS)—It was claimed everywhere today that President Donald Trump “does not trust” those heads of the surveillance state, the “intelligence chiefs”—presumably meaning John Brennan and James Comey whom the President has removed from their spy jobs, and James Clapper who lied so glibly to Congress about mass warrantless surveillance of Americans, and Robert Mueller who covered up the Saudis running the 9/11 attacks when he was FBI director. All these “uncrowned heads” say their surveillance methods proved that Russian President Putin interfered in the U.S. election. Mueller brazenly interfered in the Helsinki summit, shouting, “I have in my hands a list, of 12 Russians…”
President Trump has put himself in the position of President John Kennedy, who mistrusted and despised J. Edgar Hoover and CIA Director Allen Dulles, and bypassed his military intelligence chiefs as well to solve the Cuban Missiles Crisis by a back channel and negotiated deal with the Soviet Union. Or President Franklin Roosevelt, whose 1945 Yalta Summit was being attacked by all neo-cons, in the days before the Helsinki summit, as “the second Munich.”
For that matter, President Abraham Lincoln did not trust his top general, George B. McClellan, who was scheming against him to break up the Union.
Three very good and courageous U.S. Presidents.
President Trump may be on his way to being one of America’s great Presidents, by standing up to the combined fury of intelligence chieftains, geopoliticians, and warmongers, and by replacing wars and war confrontation with great power collaboration for peace and economic development.
He referred with Putin to their “mutual friend, President Xi Jinping of China,” and all have established cooperation with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi. These four powers, supported by Japan and other important nations, can bring in a new paradigm of mutual and rapid economic progress, scientific breakthroughs, and peace.
American voters can now throw those elected officials who are now ranting and shouting against economic growth, progress, and peace, out of office.
There are serious economic policy changes to be made. What the voters need in office, are candidates who will break up Wall Street banks with a Glass-Steagall Act, before they trigger another crash; and make sure that trillions in credit go into high-technology, new infrastructure and scientific breakthroughs in energy and space. These are better ways than tariffs to finally make wages and productivity rise.
But the new paradigm of cooperation of the major powers, to the benefit of themselves and third countries, is essential. Like President Trump, we will have to fight for that.
The next game-changing summit is already appearing on the horizon—the traditional one between President Trump and President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico. There they can plan new rail, power, and water infrastructure building from the Rio Grande down, giving Central Americans and Mexicans great reason to stay in their home countries.
Finally: Ethiopia and Eritrea, two countries benefitting from the China-initiated “New Silk Road” reaching into Africa, reestablished full relations with celebrations July 16 after 20 years of ruinous war—no one accused either leader of treason.
THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER
Zepp-LaRouche July 19 Webcast: Trump-Putin Summit Brings World Closer to New Paradigm
July 17 (EIRNS)—Though there has been a tremendous backlash against the results of the Trump-Putin summit, those who are denouncing it are running out of time to stop the consolidation of a New Paradigm. The diplomatic offensive, in which U.S. President Trump is playing a key role, is bringing together most nations of the world, representing the majority of the world’s population, into agreement around a new strategic architecture, which rejects that of the post-Cold War order. The old order is collapsing, under the weight of unsustainable debt, war weariness of subject populations, and the lack of ideas from its leaders.
It was the much-maligned Lyndon LaRouche who presented the principles which offer a safe escape from that collapsing system: the emergence of a Four-Power alliance, of the U.S., Russia, China and India, introducing a New Bretton Woods economic policy. Using the ideas of Franklin D. Roosevelt as a starting point, and incorporating the approach of the best thinkers among scientists, philosophers, musicians, poets, and artists in history, LaRouche’s method has helped shape the New Paradigm, which is explicit in the advances of China’s New Silk Road policy, which is today becoming the World Land-Bridge.
Keep in mind, those who maligned LaRouche are the same people today—including Robert Mueller—who are rejecting President Trump’s efforts to break the U.S. out of the stranglehold of the British Empire’s geopoliticians, who dictated the policies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.
During her Thursday, July 19 strategic webcast [http://newparadigm.schillerinstitute.com/], Lyndon LaRouche’s wife, Helga Zepp-LaRouche will present an update on this historic battle, and what is necessary for the New Paradigm to succeed.
China Welcomes the Improvement in Russia-U.S. Relations, States Foreign Ministry
July 17 (EIRNS)— Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said today at her regular press conference that China welcomes the improvement in Russia-U.S. relations, shown by the first official one-on-one meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki yesterday. Responding to a question on the results of the meeting, and how it would influence China’s relationship with Russia and with the United States, Ms. Hua responded:
“We have noted relevant reports. China welcomes the meeting between the leaders of Russia and the U.S. in Helsinki. As permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and major countries commanding global influence, Russia and the U.S. shoulder important responsibilities for global peace and security. China welcomes the improvement of Russia-U.S. relations. We hope that the two sides will step up communication and expand cooperation. This is conducive to the cause of world peace and development and the joint efforts of the international community to address common challenges.
“We are fully confident in the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination, and the China-Russia relations will not be affected by any external factors. Our stance on the development of the China-U.S. relations is also consistent and clear-cut.”
Putin Identifies Changes with U.S., Both Security Councils Will Have Ongoing Dialogue
July 17 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin, interviewed on Fox News by Chris Wallace, identified some changes in the U.S.-Russian relationship. Counterterrorism coordination is the most important thing which will be improved, he said. And regarding peace in Korea, Putin reiterated his assessment that President Trump had already improved the situation a great deal: “This will now need to go forward with international guarantees, and Russia is ready to provide them to whatever extent necessary.”
Meantime, the White House is already moving on one of three proposed areas of cooperation that came out of yesterday’s summit, which is for the two nations’ Security Councils to engage in a working-level cooperation. When TASS asked for a comment on President Trump’s statements on relations between the Russian and U.S. Security Councils, NSC spokesperson Garrett Marquis replied: “This has been previously discussed. We expect there will be ongoing working-level dialogue between the two security council staffs on national security issues.”
TASS cites U.S. National Security Advisor John Bolton’s late-June visit to Moscow and his meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials, at which they discussed a wide range of issues, including regional problems focusing on Syria.
Citing unnamed official U.S. sources, TASS writes that Bolton “de facto” leads the Trump administration’s policies toward Russia, while U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo deals North Korean denuclearization.
Speculation Curbed: China Shadow Credit Plunges, Bank Loans Grow
July 17 (EIRNS)—China released second-quarter 2018 economic data showing a huge 24% quarter-to-quarter drop in “shadow bank” lending, the speculative credit the government has been acting to control. Year to year the drop was even greater, 27%. It was so large that it actually made the figure for “total credit available” decline, bank lending by commercial banks having grown strongly.
China’s crackdown on speculative lending and bond market activity is clearly very serious.
Against this backdrop, China’s second quarter GDP rose 6.7% from the same quarter a year earlier; retail sales rose 9.0%; industrial production grew 6.0%, and fixed asset investment rose 6.0%.
COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM
Speculation Unleashed: U.S. Crop Prices Plunge Again
July 17 (EIRNS)—Because of speculation by hedge funds and private equity funds betting on the possible effects of a trade war, U.S. farm prices have been falling even further and faster since in response to tariffs and threats of tariffs.
There have been further large drops in U.S. farm prices in June/July. Soybean future prices, wheat prices, and corn prices all dropped by about 15% during the last month or so; this despite stocks of the main crops tending to be lower than last year, worldwide.
American farmers’ farm income had already dropped by more than half from 2013 to 2017, from $123 billion to $60 billion. Now speculative capital is driving it down further on the possibility of “trade war.” Farm income is disappearing, with echoes of the 1920s farm depression during a so-called “roaring” economy.
U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC
Congressional Cowards’ Russophobia Today Earns Them Ousting in November
July 17 (EIRNS)—Frightened by Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s move to “indict the Helsinki summit,” and by a raving national media, most Members of Congress today either hid out or declared themselves dedicated enemies of Russia and any dealings with it other than by more economic and financial sanctions. Whereas President Donald Trump has stood up to the attacks by British and U.S. intelligence and their legal assassin Mueller, and has opened the potential to employ great-power collaboration for peace and economic development, most in Congress are standing opposed to both.
That should earn them early removal by American voters.
Setting the most extreme example on the Democratic side, Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennessee asked “Where are the military men?” to stage a coup against Trump. Democratic Minority Leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi spoke jointly and insisted that President Trump was being blackmailed by Russia’s President Putin, and consequently was unfit for his office. It was Schumer, of course, who threatened the President in January 2017 that the intelligence agencies would “come after you” and “get you six ways from Sunday”; now, ironically, he ranted against Trump for criticizing the intelligence chiefs. Steny Hoyer of Maryland accused Trump of treason, copying his lesson from the arrogant former CIA Director John Brennan.
House Majority Leader Paul Ryan (WI), at the Republican press conference today, denounced Russia as “a menacing country, opposed to our interests and values, trying to undermine democracy around the world.” Ryan completely supported Mueller’s indictments of Russians, and said Republican leaders were ready to pass new sanctions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) stressed that he completely believed and supported the “intelligence community assessment” about Russian interference, and supported all sanctions. More personal denunciations of the President were made by the liberal imperialist Senators John McCain (R-AZ), Ben Sasse (R-NE), Jeff Flake (R-FL), and Mark Warner (D-VA).
Even some Republican Senators in the Congressional delegation in St. Petersburg and Moscow over June 30-July 5, who met with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and with Russian fellow lawmakers, were stampeded into denunciations and demands for more sanctions: Jerry Moran (KS); John Hoeven (ND); John Thune (SD); Ron Johnson (WI); Steve Daines (MT).
By jumping to volunteer to pass more sanctions against Russia, Members of Congress are explicitly opposing the President’s right to conduct foreign policy, much as they did when he brought about the “game-changing” summit with Kim Jong-Un. The entire game of geopolitics has indeed been changed, to one of mutual peaceful development of nations. The supporters of geopolitics in Congress may be on the sidelines soon.
Sen. Rand Paul Praises President, Says ‘Trump Is Right To Meet Putin’
July 17 (EIRNS)—Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) heartily endorsed President Donald Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his pre-meetings with U.S. NATO allies in Europe, in an opinion article on July 16 in Politico Magazine, under the headline “Trump Is Right To Meet Putin: America Needs Fewer Enemies. What’s wrong with reducing tensions?”
Paul wrote that “a vital part of keeping America safe and secure is avoiding war through strong and consistent diplomacy,” but “politicizing international affairs is a dangerous game,” and one way this is played is “to insist we not meet with or speak openly to our adversaries on the world stage.” He rejected that: “I disagree. Dialogue is especially important when hundreds of millions of lives are at stake, as is the case in relations between the United States and nuclear-armed Russia. So I applaud Trump for both chiding our NATO allies and greeting its expansion with skepticism, and I applaud him for sitting down with Putin. We should be doing more of such self-examination and dialogue.”
Paul reminds that at the height of the Cold War, even during the Cuban Missile crisis, the U.S. had diplomatic relations and communications with Russia. But “over the past two years, some have fueled a hysteria that has created such a paralysis regarding Russia that regular meetings and communications have ceased, and one can be accused of ‘collusion’ merely for agreeing to a routine meeting with elected Russian officials who might be visiting Capitol Hill.” This has resulted in a vacuum of cultural, educational, and even legislative exchanges, while officials from Russia and Washington are on so-called ban lists.
Paul said, “We must find a way to keep our historic allies, while realizing that threatening Russia through NATO expansion is not the answer.” He cited Georgetown Prof. Charles Kupchan that, “ ‘From Moscow’s perspective NATO has ignored [Russia’s] vociferous objections and expanded … bringing the world’s most formidable military alliance up to Russia’s borders…. Moscow perceives a threat … helping fuel the confrontational turn in the Kremlin’s foreign policy.’…
“Russia doesn’t need to be considered our friend. But we should at least recognize the impact of our actions before we take them…. But we have certain overlapping interests—Syria, Islamic terrorism, and energy—that require us to have an open dialogue and relationship.”
Paul called himself “thankful that Trump is once again willing to go against the Washington elite and keep the lines of communication to Moscow open.” In a few weeks Paul will take his own trip to Russia “in an attempt to discuss common ground with their leaders and help prevent further, unnecessary escalation of tensions,” and “discuss trade, cultural exchanges, and how to better work for peace and prosperity in the world.” He will consult with Trump before he goes and work with diplomats from both countries to have better relationships. “Millions of lives could be at stake,” he concluded.
Detailed Coverage of LaRouche Candidate Wieczorek in South Dakota
July 17 (EIRNS)—The Yankton, South Dakota Daily Press & Dakotanran a detailed article on LaRouche movement candidate Ron Wieczorek today by Reilly Biel, introduced by a large photo of the farmer candidate. “Above all else,” it began, “Ron Wieczorek says he wants his grandchildren to have the best future possible available to them.” Biel identified Ron as “a Lyndon LaRouche Democrat running on the independent ticket.” Wieczorek explains that he is in the Democratic tradition of FDR and JFK, and the Republican tradition of Abraham Lincoln. “He is also an admirer of one-time South Dakota governor and three-term senator Peter Norbeck, who is known for his work investigating Wall Street after the crash of 1929.”
“We need more of that mentality again,” Wieczorek is quoted. Pointing to massive debt bubbles, he said: “I don’t care whether you talk about student loan debt, car debt, or home mortgages; the corporate debt is totally out of control. We’ve got corporations borrowing money to buy their own stock to drive the market up. That’s a lunacy that shouldn’t be permitted to happen.”
The author writes that he “isn’t critical of President Trump’s recent tariffs.” Wieczorek describes the British free trade practices, and asks rhetorically, “How do you build a trade system based on looting your customer?” Then he zeros in on the American System: “This country was built on tariffs and duties. We didn’t have a Federal Reserve or income tax until the early 1900s. That’s when we did away with the parity system, except for that period under Roosevelt and Kennedy.”
The Daily Press reported that “Instead of alienating people, Wieczorek seeks to establish friendly relations with other nations in an effort to prevent potential conflicts down the road. He practiced this in the early 1990s when he organized shipments of milk powder to Baghdad. … ‘I didn’t want those young kids to be the enemies of my grandchildren.’ ”
The author says, “For years, he has been passionate about reinstating the Glass-Steagall Act, a piece of legislation that prevented the undue diversion of funds into speculative operations. Its repeal in 1999 has had disastrous consequences that led to the Great Recession of 2008-2009, he said.” Then Wieczorek is directly quoted: “Today, we have international bankers telling our government what to do…. They’re not representatives of the people. The representatives are supposed to be guys like me who are going to Washington. That has to happen, or we will lose our country, and my grandchildren deserve a future.”
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
U.S.-Backed Syrian Kurdish Leaders Preparing for Talks with Damascus Government
July 17 (EIRNS)—The breaking news out of Syria is that the political arm of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), called the Syrian Democratic Council, has stated that it is ready for negotiations with the government in Damascus, but only under certain conditions, following a congress it held in Taqba. The SDC is working to create a negotiating team for possible talks with the Assad government, key SDC figure Hekmat Habib told AFP. “One of the meeting’s aims is to create a platform to negotiate with the Syrian regime,” Habib said. “This platform will represent all areas in the autonomous administration and all areas held by the SDF.”
The Kurdish leadership had downplayed earlier reports by the Arabic Saudi-based daily Al Watan of discussions between the government and the Kurds in the border town of Qamishli as not accurate.
The SDC also is working to create a unified administration for the entirety of areas it controls, including the Arab-populated areas of Raqqa, Deir Ezzor and the eastern Jazeera region. “This is an administration to coordinate among the areas because there are gaps … to secure needs in all areas,” Ilham Ahmed, SDC co-chair and a top Syrian Kurdish politician, told Reuters. Ahmed said the initiative was still in the early phases and the goal was to include all SDF territory. “It will have a benefit when it comes to ensuring security and stability,” she said. The new, “organized entity (will) practice a form of governance, … draw up practical policies for people’s lives, and provide services,” said Riad Darar, the second SDC co-chair.
SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE
Undersecretary Griffin: DOD Should Move Hypersonics into Testing and Deployment
July 17 (EIRNS)—Speaking with reporters on July 12, reported Defense News yesterday, Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Mike Griffin discussed a range of issues in military R&D, including three major points about hypersonic weapons. In his position, which was created for the former NASA Administrator, Griffin will oversee the development of new technologies, including hypersonics.
1. Russia already has nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missiles, so the real application of hypersonic weapons is their “tactical capability” in theater or regional conflicts. They are, he said, “very quick response, high-speed, highly maneuverable, and hard to find and track and kill” unlike ballistic missiles.
2. They will not be vulnerable to space-based defense. “Even if you had space-based interceptors, it would be technically the wrong way to do it,” he said, because of the speed of hypersonics and the fact that they fly fairly close to the ground. But space-based assets will play an important role in missile warning and launch detection, surveillance, and tracking, which he described as “the whole arena of persistent global timely awareness.”
3. Griffin asserts that the U.S. is ahead in research, and moving into next-step testing is about to increase. “You’re going to see our testing pace stepping up,” along with a speed-up in research and prototyping, with a deployable capability from the early 2020s. He said the U.S. could have developed concrete hypersonic systems in the past, “had it wished.” The situation has changed, now that “our adversaries” are doing so.
