THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2019 Volume 6, Number 27 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• President Calls for ‘Greatness’ and ‘Common Good’; American People Mudt Answer, With LaRouche
• Trump Urges Congress, “Embrace Cooperation and Compromise, not as Two Parties But as One Nation
• U.S. Delegation Goes Back to China for More Trade Talks
• Green New Deal Loonies Propose Going International, Let the Whole World DIE
• India Opens Manned Space Flight Center for 2021 Mission
• Trump Urges Congress,’Embrace Cooperation and Compromise, Not as Two Parties But as ONE NATION’
• Green New Deal Fiasco: Wind & Solar Worthless During Polar Vortex Freeze; Nuclear Needed!
• President Trump Announces Second Summit With Kim, Seeks Peace in SW Asia Too
• CNN Discovers U.S. Weapons Flooding Both Sides in Yemen War

EDITORIAL

President Calls for ‘Greatness’ and ‘Common Good’; American People Must Answer, with LaRouche

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—Liberal newspapers and media from the Washington Post to London and Berlin reacted with anger and feigned contempt to President Donald Trump’s second State of the Union address. One furious German elite publication raged that those Members of Congress who stood and applauded the President made themselves despicable “lickspittles” by doing so.

That establishes that Trump’s speech, to Congress and 47 million or so Americans watching, was effective.

And that by sticking to his insistence that “Great nations don’t fight endless wars,” and the actions that go with it, the speech was more than sufficient, again, to infuriate the failed British Empire elite and their fellow geopolitical warriors, who want him impeached or otherwise gotten rid of. While stating his policy fights with Russia and China, the President declined to call either an adversary, let alone an enemy, and again praised China’s President Xi Jinping as a friend and fellow leader.

But the President called for more. He pronounced himself ready to work with Congress “not as two parties, but as one nation.” And he asked, “Embrace cooperation, compromise, and the common good.” His closing words were moving: “Generations of Americans before you won their freedom, ended slavery, defeated fascism, made breakthroughs at the frontiers of science. What will we do with this moment? How will we be remembered? I ask the men and women of this Congress to take this moment…. This is the time to reignite the American imagination. I am asking you to choose greatness.”

The plans President Trump had proposed in the speech to that point, while worthwhile, fell short of his high aim.

It is the American people who can do this, fighting for the “Four Laws To Save The Nation” of Lyndon LaRouche. Trans-Atlantic nations are falling back into recession and central bankers are openly fearing another crash. The “common good” requires protection from Wall Street’s megabanks—by breaking them up; then sweeping them aside with Federal credit to build the high-technology infrastructure that we need, and that developing nations in Africa and elsewhere need.

Breakthroughs at the frontiers of science: A crash program to control the limitless and endlessly flexible power of fusion energy, fusion space propulsion, plasma metalworking and processing. Meanwhile nations all over the world need nuclear fission power—to electrify, and to develop.

“Our footsteps again on other worlds” was the “return to greatness” President Trump spoke of in his first Address to Congress, and in the White House video on returning to space of March 2017. That means joint missions to work on the Moon and explore the Solar System with the advancing space powers China, India, and Russia, and far more funding to NASA to plan and carry the missions out.

We can build a new international system entirely. “Embrace cooperation and compromise” between America and the other great powers, as Presidential candidate Trump called for, and again as President.

That he pointed out no such missions of greatness last night, shows the furious, three-years-long attacks he has suffered under, run by British intelligence. The American people have to take the next steps, and Lyndon and Helga LaRouche have worked for decades to make them possible now.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Urges Congress, ‘Embrace Cooperation and Compromise, not as Two Parties but as One Nation’

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—President Trump’s second annual State of the Union speech began by asking all Members of Congress of both parties to “Embrace cooperation, compromise and the common good…. I am ready to work with you to achieve historic breakthroughs for our people…. We must act not as two parties, but as one nation.” He asked them to “choose greatness, not [partisan] gridlock,” a theme he returned to in closing.

Beginning an 80-minute speech entirely without attacks or even strong criticisms of Democrats or the Democratic Party, the President summarized the priority areas for “compromise and the common good,” as:

• rebuild and revitalize our nation’s failing infrastructure

• reduce the prices of prescription drugs to our citizens

• create a safe, lawful and secure immigration policy

• carry out a “foreign policy that puts America first.”

An aspect of Trump’s speech which is much more controversial and important than the time he gave to it, was his restatement of determination to end the United States’ involvement in wars in Syria and Afghanistan, very soon. He remained firm in his defiance of British geopolitical war policies; called neither Russia nor China adversaries, despite criticizing the former for violating the INF Treaty and the latter for “taking advantage” of bad U.S. economic policies in the past. In fact, he said “I have great respect for President Xi, and we are now working on a new trade deal with China. But it must include real, structural change to end unfair trade practices, reduce our chronic trade deficit, and protect American jobs.”

British leaders, his generals—including one testifying yesterday that the President had not consulted him about ending a war in his command area—neo-conservatives and neo-liberals of every kind in and around his administration, some members of both parties in Congress have been furiously opposing him on this. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who put through a Senate resolution against the President’s peace decisions, looked glum every time the camera fell on him, declining to stand or even to applaud. The President held firm: “Great nations do not fight endless wars.”

President Trump’s other areas of focus were the progress in job creation, manufacturing and economic growth on his watch; and security on the U.S.-Mexico border. “In the past,” he said, “most of the people in this room voted for a wall. But the proper wall never got built. I’ll get it built. It will be a smart, strategic, see-through steel barrier—not just a simple concrete wall. It will be deployed in the areas identified by border agents as having the greatest need.”

Touching on “the common good,” the President said that “Both parties should be able to unite for a great rebuilding of America’s crumbling infrastructure. I know that Congress is eager to pass an infrastructure bill—and I am eager to work with you on legislation to delivery new and important infrastructure investment, including investments in the cutting-edge industries of the future. This is not an option. This is a necessity.”

When Trump spoke about the fact that 58% of the 5 million new jobs since his election were filled by women, even the white-clad Democratic Congress women “resisters” stood and applauded. But his most sustained applause came for committing $500 million for critical research on child cancers, “many of which have not seen new therapies in decades.”

Indications of the audience for the State of the Union among the American population, as of this evening, ranged from 47 to 49 million, a very high “turnout.” His first speech last February drew over 45 million watchers, already nearly 5 million more than for any of the 16 during Barack Obama or George Bush’s terms.

U.S. Delegation Goes Back to China for More Trade Talks

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—An American trade negotiation delegation headed by Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will head to Beijing again Feb. 11 for further discussions with senior Chinese officials. Mnuchin told CNBC in an interview this morning, “We are committed to continue these talks. We’re putting in an enormous amount of effort to hit this deadline and get a deal. That’s our objective.” He also said, according to CNBC, “We are trying to reach a comprehensive agreement on a long range of issues. The good news is we have been talking about these issues over the past year.”

Coincidentally the Commerce Department reported the U.S. trade deficit fell sharply from October to November, down to $49.3 billion. Imports fell by almost 3%, exports fell slightly. The major cause may have been a substantial drop in the prices of oil; and in any case, merely lowering the trade deficit is not the main solution to the resulting U.S. employment and productivity problem. Rather, the nation with by far the bulk of the surplus with the United States, China, is not only being encouraged to make major U.S. productive investments and joint third-country investments; it is being more and more effectively barred from doing so.

Green New Deal Loonies Propose Going International, Let the Whole World Die

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—Promoters of the Malthusian Green New Deal are now proposing it shouldn’t be limited to just the United States, but should also be encouraged abroad, according to the Huffington Posttoday. Doing so, the argument goes, would be a way to set the stage for shaping the Democratic Party’s foreign policy, in which climate change, and America’s role as a leader in this area, would be a major component.

It seems that some Democratic Party leaders are willing to commit political suicide by pushing this fascist insanity, aided by the likes of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who, according to Huffington Post, has been “quietly remaking the Democrats’ foreign policy” working with former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, with whom he has formed the Progressive International, but for a new Dark Age.

This week Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) will release a resolution on the Green New Deal, which calls on the U.S. to promote the international exchange of technology, expertise, products, funding and services, to help the U.S. reclaim its leadership on climate change, and assist other countries to achieve their own Green New Deal. According to this plan, the Green New Deal, will become “a pillar of American foreign policy.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

India Opens Manned Space Flight Center for 2021 Mission

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—The India Space Research Organization has inaugurated a Human Space Flight Center, to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of a manned space flight by 2022. The mission would make India the fourth nation able to launch a crew into low Earth orbit, after Russia, the U.S., and China. The center, which will be responsible for planning the mission, developing the systems for life support, and selecting and training the crew, is in Bangalore. It was launched on Jan. 31, reported India Times.

The plan is to carry two unmanned tests of the spacecraft in December 2020 and July 2021, and then the first crewed mission in December 2021, just days short of Modi’s 2022 goal, to have a crew in space when India celebrates 75 years of independence.

Green New Deal Fiasco: Wind and Solar Worthless During Polar Vortex Freeze, Nuclear Needed!

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—The record from last month’s deep-freeze temperatures in the U.S. Upper Midwest is that wind and solar “renewables” are spectacularly worthless in these latitudes. Andy Olson, LaRouche PAC farm leader in Minnesota, described the dysfunctional solar panels under the overcast skies, and motionless wind turbines, and said that people are talking of moving out.

On the bitterly cold day of Jan. 30, when morning temperatures in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota were ˗24°F, the profile of wind energy electricity in use in the region was 4% (utilizing just 24% of its installed capacity), plus 45% from coal-fired power plants, plus 13% from Minnesota’s Prairie Island and Monticello nuclear reactors, which added up to 62%; the remaining 38% had to come from Canada and states outside the Midwest. The regional supplies are monitored by Midcontinent Independent Systems Operator.

The wind farms were knocked out, by fierce high winds from the cold front, because the bearings give out in the turbines. The solar panels were knocked out because of clouds.

Isaac Orr, a nuclear power advocate, gave the details on this in theMinneapolis Star Tribune Feb. 4, in which he urged keeping open Minnesota’s nuclear plants, and for the state legislature to give up a plan under consideration to double Minnesota’s mandate for renewable energy to 50% by 2030.  In “Bitter Cold Shows Reliable Energy Sources Are Crucial,” he wrote that “The intermittency of wind and solar is a feature, not a bug, which is why Minnesota lawmakers should reconsider the wisdom” of relying on renewables.

Additional aspects to this winter’s big freeze under the polar vortex, there was not enough natural gas to meet the increased need for home heating, to the point that supplier Xcel Energy resorted to calling on households in a number of designated communities to turn thermostats down below 63°. The lack of fuel supply and energy redundancy is already bad enough, but if more solar and wind systems are added, which means more back-up gas plants have to be added, at a time when the existing U.S. pipeline grid is already drastically inadequate and unable to supply the gas. An estimated 66% of Minnesota households were depending on natural gas.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

President Trump Announces Second Summit with Kim, Seeks Peace in Southwest Asia, Too

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump announced in his State of the Union that he will visit Vietnam where he will hold a second summit with North Korean Chairman Kim Jong Un, on Feb. 27-28. Making the announcement, Trump stated, “If I had not been elected President of the United States, we would right now, in my opinion, be in a major war with North Korea. But we have embarked on bold new diplomacy” aiming at “a historic push for peace on the Korean Peninsula.” He also stressed his good relationship with Kim.

Presidential envoy to the D.P.R.K. Stephen Biegun is going to North Korea today for discussions with his counterpart Kim Hyok Chol, continuing preparations for the second summit. This meeting was announced to be in Pyongyang, an upgrade from Biegun’s last trip, when he met with Kim Hyok Chol in the border village of Panmunjom. Biegun gave a speech Jan. 31 at Stanford University, in which he said that President Trump is “deeply and personally committed to once and for all bringing an end to 70 years of war and hostility”; and further, that the United States is “prepared to pursue—simultaneously and in parallel” with D.P.R.K. in implementing denuclearization, new relations and peace on the Peninsula.

Trump in his message strongly advocated seeking to end other U.S. war involvements. Regarding the Syria civil war, he said, “Now, as we work with our allies to destroy the remnants of ISIS, it is time to give our brave warriors in Syria a warm welcome home.” He followed that up on Afghanistan: “My administration is holding constructive talks with a number of Afghan groups, including the Taliban. As we make progress in these negotiations, we will be able to reduce our troop presence…. We do not know whether we will achieve an agreement—but we do know that after two decades of war, the hour has come to at least try for peace.”

Overall, “As a candidate for President, I loudly pledged a new approach,” the President said. “Great nations do not fight endless wars.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

CNN Discovers U.S. Weapons Flooding Both Sides in Yemen War

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—Is America supplying weapons to al-Qaeda and other jihadi groups in Yemen? Not directly of course but a CNN investigation, published on Feb. 4, found evidence that Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. are transferring large quantities of U.S.-supplied weapons, everything from rifles to anti-tank weapons to armored vehicles, to jihadi groups in Yemen to buy their loyalty, and many of these weapons are have fallen into the hands the Houthi militias. The Department of Defense acknowledged that this is happening, and told CNN that by handing off this military equipment to third parties, the Saudi-led coalition is breaking the terms of its arms sales with the United States. The revelations raise fresh questions about whether the U.S. has lost control over a key ally presiding over one of the most horrific wars of the past decade, and whether Saudi Arabia is responsible enough to be allowed to continue buying the sophisticated arms and fighting hardware, CNN says. The flood of American-made military hardware into the war in Yemen has resulted in arms bazaars flourishing all over Yemen—including in the Houthi-controlled areas—and these bazaars are technically illegal, but they operate anyway. Heavily armored mine-resistant ambushed-protected, or MRAP vehicles have even ended up in the hands of the Houthis, allowing Iranian agents to study their construction.

On the other side, the Saudis have supplied weapons to jihadi groups aligned with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) in return for manpower to help fight the Houthis. The CNN report includes images of manufacturers’ name plates on a number of the armored vehicles, complete with serial numbers. CNN found that these vehicles had originally been delivered to the U.A.E. in 2014, but were now in the hands of one of these AQAP-aligned groups.

The Senate Armed Services Committee pummeled Gen. Joseph Votel, commander of U.S. Central Command, with questions on the report yesterday. Votel claimed, in response to these questions, that withdrawing U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen would remove the “leverage we have to continue to influence them” and could further endanger Americans in the region. Votel said the military was “looking more closely at the allegations” in CNN’s report. Responding to a question from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Votel said: “We have not authorized Saudi Arabia or the Emirates to retransfer any of this equipment to other parties on the ground in Yemen.”

To the anti-war faction, the CNN report is further proof that the U.S. ought to stop selling weapons to the Saudis. Sen. Chris Murphy (D-NJ) called it a “bombshell” and said it was additional evidence of the need to “get us out of the war in Yemen that has gone horribly wrong,” he said. “When the United States indiscriminately sends weapons into war zones, they inevitably get into the wrong hands,” Murphy said. “This investigation needs to be a wake-up call.”

CATO Analyst Doug Bandow Argues, ‘It Is Time To Just Leave’ Afghanistan

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—CATO Institute analyst Doug Bandow, who was also a former Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan, forcefully argues that President Donald Trump is absolutely correct in withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

In an article published Feb. 4 in the American Spectator, “The President Understands Afghanistan: It Is Time To Just Leave,” Bandow points to the absurdity of the 17-year U.S. presence in Afghanistan, pointing out that after two years of being thwarted by “conventional thinkers,” the President is now pushing for troop cuts. It couldn’t come soon enough, he emphasizes.

After the initial goal of punishing the Taliban for hosting al-Qaeda was accomplished, Bandow argues, everything that followed was nation-building—an unsuccessful attempt to impose a liberal, Western-oriented democracy, which he calls “a fool’s errand.” Detailing the current chaotic situation in the country, in which the central government has no control over large swaths of the national territory, instability is increasing, etc., Bandow asserts that, “victory, whatever that means, is well beyond reach.” Yet “patriotic young Americans are dying” to maintain this untenable situation.

Bandow argues that if efforts to forge some agreement with the Taliban doesn’t hold, it doesn’t matter. The troops should come home anyway, “quickly and permanently.” Afghanistan is the longest war in U.S. history—why are we there? he asks, adding, sarcastically, “after 17 years of war, how about another 17, or 17 after that? With every metric seemingly moving in the wrong direction, an increased effort seems necessary merely to sustain today’s unsatisfactory status quo.” In this situation, nothing, Bandow insists, “justifies the continuing commitment of lives and resources.”

He suggests that since Russia, China, India and Pakistan are all very concerned about Afghanistan’s future, Washington should invite them “to begin planning for a post-U.S. future.” Afghanistan, he concludes, offers a powerful reminder: “Do not make commitments out of proportion to the interests involved. Better to learn the lesson and not make the same mistake next time, than to expect Americans to keep dying in an attempt to hide the obvious today.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

German Factory Orders Nosedive, as Economy Plunges into Recession

Feb. 6 (EIRNS)—German factory orders have nosedived indicating that the German economy is going into recession. Factory orders from outside the Eurozone plunged by 5.5% month-on-month in December, while domestic orders dipped by 0.6%. This included a 1.6% decrease in December, and compares with the 0.3% rise the Federal Statistical Office had expected, following a 0.2% decline in November. On an annual basis, orders were 7% lower than in December 2017, the biggest drop since 2012. Moreover, reports are that German GDP shrank by 0.2% in July to September.

“The decline in orders in December indicates that the drought in the industry is continuing for the time being,” the Economy Ministry said, reported German news agency DPA. “The latest sentiment indicators also point to a subdued industrial economy at the beginning of the year.”

Orders for intermediate goods fell 1.2% and those for capital goods decreased 2.5%.

Reach us at eirdailyalert@larouchepub.com or call 1-571-293-0935