MONDAY, AUGUST 12, 2019

Volume 6, Number 158

EIR Daily Alert Service

P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• Join Us!
• Co-Founder of Extinction Rebellion Brags That She Is a Psychedelic Drug Freak
• Extinction Rebellion Is Part of a British Nest of Druggies Promoting Use of Menticidal Psychoactives
• Pope Francis for Green Fascist Agenda, Calls Special Green Synod, Compares ‘Sovereignists’ to Hitler

• Harvard Proposal for Green Belt and Road Proves How Massive Environmentalist Looting Is
• British Foreign and Colonial Office, State Department Champion Hong Kong ‘Color Revolution’
• China Involved in Diplomacy With Pakistan and India Over Situation in Jammu and Kashmir
• Trump Slams Hollywood Racism, Violence, as White House Meeting Addresses Domestic Terror Struggle
• Colombian President Proposes 40-Year Perspective for Relationsh With China
• The Lega Launched the Government Crisis in Italy over the Issue of Strategic Infrastructure

EDITORIAL

Join Us!

Aug. 11 (EIRNS)—The scientists and heroes assembled for Apollo 11’s liftoff and Moon-landing in July 1969, with the others who should have been there, can be viewed like the figures in Raphael’s paintingThe School of Athens in the Vatican. That is, as a team of original thinkers in the simultaneity of eternity, whose combined cognitive efforts allowed mankind for the first time to step onto another heavenly body, inaugurating an entirely new epoch of human history, which will dwarf everything which preceded.

One of them there at Cape Kennedy was the great German scientist Hermann Oberth, born 1894, who had first laid out the basic problems and parameters of manned spaceflight, experimentally and theoretically, in his 100-page book of 1923, The Rocket into Interplanetary Space. All the German-American space pioneers, like Krafft Ehricke and the Wernher von Braun who had invited Oberth to that launch, considered him the father of space travel.

Chronologically, the Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935) had published much the same discoveries earlier in his 1903 bookExploration of Outer Space by Means of Rocket Devices, but Tsiolkovsky had long been little-known outside Russia. Yet he had provided powerful inspiration to the Soviet space program.

There may have been no Soviets present at the Apollo launch. The greatest leader of their space program—of Sputnik, the orbiting dog Laika, and cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin—the great space scientist Sergei Korolyov, had died in an operating-room screwup in 1966. His name had been a state secret, and was only released publicly after his death. No one can really know what the Soviets might have achieved had he lived.  The name of Korolyov’s long-time collaborator, the rocket-engine designer Valentin Glushkov, was likewise a state secret.

But if not for Sputnik 1 in October 1957, there would have been no Moon-landing in 1969, or perhaps ever.

Hermann Oberth had been decisively inspired by Jules Verne’sVoyage from the Earth to the Moon, which he said he “read at least five or six times and, finally, knew by heart.” Many of later generations were inspired in the same way by the great space-science writer Willy Ley, born in 1906, who was one of the original German rocket pioneers with von Braun and others before Peenemünde.  The first of his dozens of popular and readable, but scientifically truthful books, was his 68-page Journey to the Cosmos, written before he was 20, which appeared in 1926. There he proposed the use of the Moon as a base from which to launch missions to other planets, and the use of Mars’ moons Phobos and Deimos, as space stations for Mars exploration.  He concluded, “Prophetically, however, we could say, on the day the first manned rocket leaves the Earth’s atmosphere, mankind, which physically and spiritually dominates the Earth, has taken the first step into a new age—the age of dominion over space.”

Of course, Willy Ley was invited—how could he not have been! Imagine what he would have written! But he died on June 24, 1969.

Von Braun invited the courageous engineer John Houbolt into the Houston control room.  Houbolt had fought a lonely fight over years, against massive and sneering opposition, for the “Lunar Orbit Rendezvous” (LOR) design of the Moon mission that was finally adopted. That the Command and Service Module (CSM) would orbit the Moon, and dispatch a lunar lander with crew to the surface. Its mission over, the lander would lift off the Moon and rendezvous with the CSM in lunar orbit, which would then return the crew to Earth. Among all the other objections to Houbolt’s scheme, this sensitive, do-or-die rendezvous would be conducted behind the Moon, where Mission Control could not only be of no help, but couldn’t even see whether it had been successful until the CSM reappeared from behind the Moon.

Yet in hindsight, the Moon landing could have been done in no other way.

After the Eagle landed on the Moon, von Braun said to Houbolt, “Thank you, John. It is a good idea.”

Others present at the liftoff included the retired NASA Administrator James Webb, without whom we could never have made it.

Another was Charles Lindbergh, a hero especially to all the astronauts, who were test pilots.  Lindbergh had also met with the astronauts before they flew around the Moon on Apollo 8.

Lindbergh also stood in for the deceased Wright Brothers, whose unparallelled genius, and undying courage in face of universal scorn from the so-called scientific community, had launched the age of flight. (Most quotations are from Marsha Freeman, How We Got to the Moon, 21st Century Science Associates, 1993.)

*     *     *

Fifty years ago, we abandoned the mission under the stress of needless wars, a financial system gone crazy, and induced cultural despair.  Not this time.  There is a new spirit in the United States, in China and much of Asia, and in Russia.  It is being felt in Africa and in Central and South America.  Now an American President has called for a return to the Moon as part of a mission to Mars, in the spirit of the late Lyndon LaRouche and space pioneer Krafft Ehricke.  We need a fully international partnership. Join us!

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Co-Founder of Extinction Rebellion Brags that She Is a Psychedelic Drug Freak

Aug. 9 (EIRNS)—Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, the militant “civil disobedience” campaign against industrial civilization, issued a manifesto, undated, titled “How Psychedelics Helped To Shape the Extinction Rebellion.” The kicker says that Bradbrook “explains how her psychedelic experiences helped to shape the genesis of the movement.”

Bradbrook attained a PhD in molecular biophysics at the University of Manchester, doing post-doctoral work in India and France, according to Wikipedia.

Some quotes from her manifesto posted to the Emerge platform (on March 26, 2019, according to the Emerge Facebook page).

“Around 2016 I started to get the feeling that there was something at my core that needed addressing. Psychedelic science tells us that as medicines, psychedelics can bring about deep healing. Studies have found that they have the ability to cure people of previously incurable illnesses like depression. A big part of this is through experiencing what researchers define as a ‘mystical experience’—people on psychedelics report a deeply felt sense of peace, oneness and unity with the planet which has been shown to have a profound and enduring effect on the way they live their lives.

“Although most psychedelics are illegal in the West, it’s in the tradition of many indigenous cultures to have a relationship and dialogue with the natural world that is partly mediated through plants like Ayahuasca (a psychedelic tea made using an Amazonian vine) and Peyote (a psychedelic cactus). I don’t make decisions to fly readily these days, but I decided to travel to Costa Rica where in the space of two weeks I ingested a flood dose of Iboga (a type of tree bark), worked with Kambo (the frog medicine) and had three experiences with Ayahuasca. I was terrified, but the reason why I pushed my consciousness to such extreme wasn’t just to do the inner work on myself—I wanted answers to how I could bring about social change. What was I missing? What am I not doing? It was a specific prayer for what I called the ‘codes for social change.’

“There was a moment during my Iboga experience where I lay down and a voice that felt very external to me said ‘Gail, you create your own reality.’ It spoke three times. It sounds so simple but right there and then I thought ‘OK then, I’ll be happy.’ That was the essence of my entire experience, after which I could literally feel my brain being rewired. When I got home I ended a marriage and separated my family. It was a huge decision, but it was the right thing to do and I am a stronger and happier person now.

“When I arrived back to the U.K. I was introduced to Roger Hallam and together we began to create the movement that would become Extinction Rebellion. Roger is an academic who specializes in radical campaign design and at the end of our first meeting, which involved the sharing of lots of ideas, information and data, he joked that he had just given me the ‘codes for social changes.’ The hairs on the back of my neck stood up.”

She explains that she knows nothing about the science of climate, but she knows “Life on Earth is struggling to live in a physical reality that it was not designed for. Entire species are going extinct. Earlier this month the Guardian reported that plummeting insect levels threaten the collapse of nature. In previous mass extinctions created by huge releases of C02 [sic] (though less than we are releasing today) 97% of all life died.”

Note: no mass extinctions were caused by CO2—or C02, for that matter.

She denies human creativity: “There is widespread denial of the fact that we as humans are not at the top of a pyramid where we get to dictate the terms, we are part of a web of life.”

Her state of “happiness” comes from drugs and grief: “Supported by my experience on psychedelics, what’s made a difference for me with Extinction Rebellion is the ability and willingness to face the grief and the trauma of these times. This means bursting into tears at odd times of the day….

“For many of us, this means being willing to undertake civil disobedience and risk arrest, or even imprisonment.”

Extinction Rebellion Is Part of a British Nest of Druggies Promoting Use of Menticidal Psychoactives

Aug. 10 (EIRNS)—Gail Bradbrook, the psychedelic drug freak who co-founded Extinction Rebellion, will be speaking at a conference in London, sponsored by “Breaking Convention” on Aug. 16-18, titled the 5th International Conference on Psychedelic Consciousness. This convention demonstrates the total interface of the fascist green networks and the British drug war against the human race; not just the bankers from Dope, Inc., but the on-the-ground operatives as well.

In addition to Bradbrook, the other speakers include Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss and March, the founder and director of the Beckley Foundation who convened numerous “pivotal” seminars promoting the legalization of all drugs at the House of Lords. Feilding, who used LSD in the 1960s as “a psychovitamin,” and known for drilling a hole in her own head, calling it “trepanning,” to expose the dura mater in order to reach a “higher state of consciousness.”

Others include David Nutt, the Edmond J. Safra chair in Neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London. Nutt, together with Feilding and the Beckley Foundation, carried out experiments in the effects of LSD on the brain in 2015, which was expanded to research on “LSD and creativity and problem solving.” Nutt argues that horseback riding is more dangerous than consuming “ecstasy,” or MDMA, a highly dangerous methamphetamine.

Also involved in this nest of creatures is “The Psychedelic Society,” which sponsored a conference in London in January titled “Psychedelics, Extinction and Social Change,” bringing it all together. This conference featured Gail Bradbrook, who argued: “The Earth is in the grip of a sixth mass extinction event, with 60% of mammals, birds, fish and reptiles wiped out since 1970.”

Pope Francis for Green Fascist Agenda, Calls Special Green Synod, Compares ‘Sovereignists’ to Hitler

Aug. 10 (EIRNS)—In a long interview with the Turin daily La Stampa(owned by the De Benedetti group), Pope Francis confirmed Lyndon LaRouche’s allegations that his adoption of Malthusian environmentalism proves that Satan has snatched his body. The Pope said that the number-one danger to humanity is “the loss of biodiversity,” called for saving the EU through the radically anti-industrial European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and compared “sovereignists” (e.g., Lega head, Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini) to Hitler.

Announcing an extraordinary Bishops Synod in October, dedicated to saving the Amazon forest, the Pope said it will follow the guidelines of the Laudato Si’ encyclical, which “is a social encyclical, based on a ‘green’ reality.”

He continues: “A few months ago, seven fishermen told me: ‘In recent months we collected 6 tons of plastic.’ The other day I read about a huge glacier in Iceland that has almost completely melted: they built a memorial to it. With the Siberia’s wildfires, some glaciers in Greenland melted. The people from a country in the Pacific are moving away because in 20 years the island where they live will no longer be there. But the fact that has shocked me the most is yet another.”

Which one?

“The Overshoot Day: On July 29th, we used up all the regenerative resources of 2019. As of July 30 we started to consume more resources than the planet can regenerate in a year. It’s very serious. It’s a global emergency. Ours will be an urgent Synod. But beware: A Synod is not a meeting of scientists or politicians. It is not a parliament: it is something else. It was convened by the Church and will have an evangelizing mission and dimension. It will be a work of communion guided by the Holy Spirit.”

Policymakers should “take on concrete responsibilities,” including on “the issue of fertilizers.” Asked what he mostly fears for the planet, he answers: “The disappearance of biodiversity. New deadly diseases. A drift and devastation of nature that can lead to the death of humanity.”

But there are signs of hope, he said, “especially in the movements of young ecologists, such as the one led by Greta Thunberg, ‘FridaysForFuture.’ I saw a sign from them that struck me: ‘We are the future!’ ”

The enemy is sovereignism: “Sovereignism reveals an attitude toward isolation. I am concerned because we hear speeches that resemble those of Hitler in 1934.”

To defeat sovereignism, he asserted, we must “save Europe” (i.e., the European Union). “After the [European] elections, I hope that a process to relaunch it will begin and continue without interruption.”

Harvard Proposal for Green Belt and Road Proves How Massive Environmentalist Looting Is

Aug. 9 (EIRNS)—A team of American and Chinese engineers at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Applied Sciences has unintentionally, in a new study, shown that an economic environmentalist “green revolution” would be a looting mechanism far beyond the capacity of “normal” taxation of populations to support. Significantly, they did thisby studying China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and producing a report “The Potential of Photovoltaics to Power the Belt and Road Initiative,” which was published June 27, 2019 in Joule magazine, an online sister publication of Cell, which calls itself “a home for outstanding and insightful research, analysis and ideas addressing a key global challenge: the need for more sustainable energy.”

This extraordinarily detailed study, using satellite sensing data and weather histories of 66 geographically continuous countries collaborating with the BRI, proposes to put aside the oil, coal and nuclear power projects in which China is leading the investment, and instead provide exclusively solar power infrastructure for them. Their estimate of the cost of doing this—over $13 trillion—is more than 10 times the greatest amount China projects to invest in all forms of basic infrastructure along the Belt and Road.

The highest estimate of the infrastructure investments which China and Chinese companies envisage in Belt and Road infrastructure, is roughly $1.2-1.3 trillion—this estimate made by PwC which produces annual reports on the BRI. But, according to a report on the study in Science Daily, “Solar Energy Could the Belt and Road Initiative Green” study instead calls for spending $11.2 trillion to install solar power infrastructure (and covering 34,000 square miles with solar panels), plus $2 trillion for cross-border new electric grids since there is a mismatch between the countries’ electricity needs and their solar infrastructure capacities.

And this is not all the BRI countries.

It would require the equivalent of a 3% surcharge on all national and local tax revenue of all nations in the world for 10 years to do this, were it possible! It could not even be attempted this without hard-core looting of the poor and middle class in all countries of the BRI.

For another comparison, this would be about 250 times the annual U.S. total investment in electricity capacity and distribution.

Just make this immense investment “and then the power is free!” say the authors in a meaningless exultation.

The John A. Paulson School of Applied Sciences is named for the hedge fund magnate who made a killing on the 2008 crash of mortgage backed securities and derivatives, and gave $400 million to the school, which had been established in 2007.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

British Foreign and Colonial Office, State Department Champion Hong Kong ‘Color Revolution’

Aug. 9 (EIRNS)—With violent demonstrations continuing in Hong Kong, the new British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam on Aug. 9 to press for “meaningful political dialogue” and a “fully independent investigation” into the causes of the violence, according to British new agency Reuters. A Foreign Office statement said that Raab “condemned violent acts by all sides but emphasized the right to peaceful protest, noting that hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong people had chosen this route to express their views.”

To which China’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying responded, in a statement “the U.K. has no sovereignty, jurisdiction or right of supervision over Hong Kong…. It is simply wrong for the British government to directly call Hong Kong’s Chief Executive to exert pressure. The Chinese side seriously urges the U.K. to stop its interference in China’s internal affairs and stop making random and inflammatory accusations on Hong Kong.”

The U.S. State Department is also up to its ears in what is increasingly recognized as a “color revolution” operation. Ta Kung Pao newspaper in Hong Kong on Aug. 8 published a photo of Julie Eadeh, the head of the political office at the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, meeting in a hotel lobby with leaders of the demonstrations, including Joshua Wong, one of the leaders of the 2014 mass occupation of Hong Kong (when he was 16 years old). Wong was convicted and served short sentences for two different crimes during the 2014 action. Eadeh served initially in 2002 as a Presidential Management Fellow in the State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor. She later served as a political officer in the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia, monitoring human rights and the first attempt at elections in Saudi Arabia.

According to Ta Kung Pao, one of the persons in the meeting with Eadeh, who was interrogated by the police, said that one topic they discussed with Eadeh and other officials included whether U.S. sanctions might be imposed under the “Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act,” now working its way through the U.S. Congress, and an appeal from the demonstrators for the United States not to sell equipment to the Hong Kong police which could be used in riot control. Hong Kong is one of the few police forces in the world that does not use lethal force.

China Involved in Diplomacy with Pakistan and India over Situation in Jammu and Kashmir

Aug. 10 (EIRNS)—The situation in Jammu and Kashmir following India’s announcement that it will change J&K’s status from an autonomous state to three federally administered territories, continues to be tense. Today in Beijing, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Qureshi arrived Aug. 9, immediately following the trip’s announcement, right after the Pakistan National Defense Committee met on Aug. 7, during which Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan “directed that all diplomatic channels be activated to expose the brutal Indian racist regime.”

Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar will start a three-day visit to China on Aug. 11-13, that was announced Aug. 5, at the invitation of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. The two will address the fourth India-China Media Summit Aug. 12, and co-chair the second China-India High Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges. In October, China’s President Xi Jinping and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi have a scheduled, informal meeting.

Today, after the Pakistani and Chinese foreign ministers met, Wang expressed serious concern about escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, and said the dispute should be resolved peacefully based on the UN Charter, relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the bilateral accord—an apparent reference to the Shimla Agreement, which calls for the issue to be solved bilaterally.

According to Press Trust of India (PTI), Wang said, “We call on the two sides to bear in mind their national development and peace in South Asia, properly resolve historical grievances, get rid of the zero-sum mindset, avoid unilateral action and seek a new path to peaceful coexistence.”

There are many commentaries of concern over the situation of Kashmir and Jammu. Sputnik interviewed Associate Prof. Long Xingchun, the director of the Center for Indian Studies at China West Normal University, who warned, “If we talk about the impact on theregional situation, then I believe that Muslims in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, including some armed groups, will definitely take retaliatory measures. They may even choose an armed struggle as a form of protest. Since Pakistan may have something to do with their actions, it is very likely that a military conflict could erupt between India and Pakistan. In this case, it will indirectly affect the regions neighboring China and Sino-Indian relations.”

Long told Sputnik that he believes India made this move for nationalist reasons and intends to dilute the Muslim population in the region by resettling Hindus in the region which up until now was forbidden. But Long also attributed the history of the tensions to the British Empire, saying, “This is the result of the partition of British India into the separate states of India and Pakistan.”

On the question of India changing Ladakh’s status regarding China, Long stated that China has always opposed India’s inclusion of this territory, but “in my opinion, the direct impact on India-China relations will not be grave. China traditionally adheres to the position that Ladakh is part of Chinese territory, but there is no official demarcation yet, the parties are still negotiating…. From the point of view of diplomatic etiquette, this is disrespect for China.”

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Trump Slams Hollywood Racism, Violence, as White House Meeting Addresses Domestic Terror Struggle

Aug. 10 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump has slammed Hollywood as racists and responsible for promoting violent films. Trump tweeted yesterday, regarding the upcoming release of the film, “The Hunt”: “Liberal Hollywood is Racist at the highest level, and with great Anger and Hate! They like to call themselves ‘Elite,’ but they are not Elite. In fact, it is often the people that they so strongly oppose that are actually the Elite. The movie coming out is made in order to inflame and cause chaos. They create their own violence, and then try to blame others. They are the true Racists, and are very bad for our Country!”

“The Hunt” movie reportedly shows Trump supporters being hunted by liberals who refer to their captives as “deplorables,” the label 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton slapped on Trump supporters. While promos for the film do not directly show liberals hunting conservatives, the film does appear to be about a group of rich people hunting human beings.

At the same time members of the Trump Administration held a meeting with social media and technology leaders to discuss ways to detect violent behavior that may potentially be a threat to the public. “Today, White House officials hosted a productive meeting with social media and technology leaders,” White House spokesperson Judd Deere said in a press statement Aug. 9. “The conversation focused on how technology can be leveraged to identify potential threats, to provide help to individuals exhibiting potentially violent behavior, and to combat domestic terror.”

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

Colombian President Proposes 40-Year Perspective for Relations with China

Aug. 9 (EIRNS)—Colombian President Ivan Duque’s July 29-31 visit to China put joining the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) solidly on the agenda of another of the “big four” Ibero-American nations still outside this great global project. Until this trip, Colombia, historically British-influenced and the darling of neocon geopoliticians of Washington,had been the most aloof, more than the other three still absent from the BRI—Argentina, Brazil and Mexico.

Addressing more than 200 Chinese businessmen at a Colombia-China Economic and Trade Council Forum in Beijing on the last day of his visit, President Duque outlined a perspective for transforming Colombia into a “food basket for the world” over coming decades, and invited China to actively participate in the project, and help develop needed infrastructure, education and science in the country.

Duque said that he had thoroughly studied President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative, which could become “the conceptual umbrella for this to materialize.” Colombia is interested in beginning that discussion, he said, but he suggested that the “optimal” umbrella right now would be to create “a Colombia-China Initiative for the next 40 years.”

Duque’s proposal is big news. Colombia is the third most populous nation in Ibero-America, after Brazil and Mexico. Its geographic location at the juncture of Central and South America, with coasts on both the Pacific and the Caribbean, means that it must be involved for the continents of North and South America to be connected to Eurasia by rail, in particular by finally opening up the Darién Gap.

That rail connection is not yet on the agenda; in fact, Duque did not mention rail, which has been dismissed for decades by World Bank-advised Colombian leaders as “too expensive,” given the three mountain ranges which run through the country.

But to realize the perspective Duque outlined, such monetarist pessimism will have to be shrugged off. Duque explained that Colombia has more than 23 million hectares of potentially rich agricultural land, only 8 million of which are being used. Growing food on Colombia’s enormous, undeveloped plains in its eastern part requires investment, as does freeing up the huge tracts of land now wasted on extensive cattle grazing, through the introduction of more intensive methods, he said. He spoke of “uniting the productive corridor” of the country by building infrastructure to connect the eastern high plains with Colombia’s large Pacific port, Buenaventura, to realize the idea of Colombia as a “food basket for the world.”

Such plans require high-speed rail, not highways, as the LaRouche movement in Colombia detailed decades ago.

President Duque clearly learned a lot on his trip. He told Xinhua news agency that in 205 he had visited China as a tourist, but “the changes that I saw this time are even more fascinating,” citing among other things China’s application of technology to transportation.

OTHER

The Lega Launched the Government Crisis in Italy over the Issue of Strategic Infrastructure

Aug. 9 (EIRNS)— The Lega party has officially called for a no-confidence vote, through a motion in the Italian Senate today. The motion puts the issue of strategic infrastructure at the center of the crisis, by naming the vote on the Turin-Lyon section of Trans-European Transport Network (TEN-T) strategic Corridor 3 on Aug. 7 in the Senate, when the Lega voted in favor and its erstwhile government coalition partner, the Five Stars (M5S) party, voted against. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is also implicated, as he did not show up during the debate and the vote.

The no-confidence vote cannot take place before next week, because both houses of Parliament are on summer recess; a conference of all Senate factionleaders on Monday, Aug. 12 will set the date for a confidence vote and will recall all Senate members per telegram. This means that at the earliest, on the eve of the Aug. 15 (Ferragosto, for insiders), the Italian government crisis will be formalized. At that point, the ball is in the court of State President Sergio Mattarella, and anything can happen, including the attempt to form a technocratic government for regular affairs until the date of elections, which cannot occur before Oct. 27. But such a government could last longer, even one year.

A name has already been invented for such a government: an “Ursula government,” to indicate its dedication to EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen!

If the Oct. 27 deadline for elections is missed, time becomes short for a post-election government to approve a budget in time. This threatens the automatic introduction of the increase in the Value-Added Tax the former Renzi government had committed to.

There is formally a slim chance that in the next days, before Conte goes before Parliament to face the no-confidence vote, that he and Salvini could reach an agreement on a government reshuffling.

In an interview to appear in a forthcoming issue, economist Nino Galloni told EIR that he thinks “that Salvini realized that he cannot have a tax reform without cutting expenditures, which would be damaging. Therefore, he prefers to capitalize now on the consensus he has, rather than risking to lose by not delivering on promises. To save the current coalition, it would be necessary for Salvini to get insurances of collaboration by the moderate and technocratic component of the government [Finance Minister Giovanni Tria—ed.], which I think will be difficult.”

According to a secret poll by Lega experts and reported in the gossip site Dagospia, with almost 40% of the votes, the Lega would have alone an overwhelming majority in both Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, due to the first-past-the-post component of the electoral law.

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