WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 28, 2019

Volume 6, Number 170

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• The Bottomless Jackson Hole
• Is Italy Moving Towards a Green Fascist Government?
• Brazil Reiterates, We Are Not a Colony, and Rejects G7 ‘Offer’
• Some Basic Realities Versus Popular Lies in the Amazon Battle
• Argentina Wracked by Total Crisis, as IMF Laments ‘Vacuum of Power’
• China Foreign Ministry Again Slams U.S. Trade Threats, G7 ‘Impertinent Meddling’ in Hong Kong
• CGTN Posts Video Targetting NED as ‘Second CIA’ in Hong Kong ‘Democracy’ Violence
• EIR’s Bill Jones Briefs CCTV on British, NED Stringpullers in Hong Kong Riots
• Rouhani Rejects Talks With U.S. Until Sanctions Are Lifted
• Netanyahu Panicked Over Trump’s Openness to Iran
• Oklahome Judge Orders Johnson & Johnson To Pay $572 Million Fine for Pushing Opioids

EDITORIAL

The Bottomless Jackson Hole

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—The G7 nations just put on a dazzling display of their institutional policy bankruptcy at their Aug. 24-26 summit in Biarritz, France, by sidestepping discussion of any of the serious issues facing the planet, and studiously avoiding the single, defining matter before mankind: The irreversible bankruptcy of the entire London-run trans-Atlantic financial system, and the Aug. 22-24 Jackson Hole meeting of central bankers and other financial bigwigs, which called for a “regime change in monetary policy” to try to keep their empire intact.

As Helga Zepp-LaRouche told European associates on Aug. 26: “The real story is that the Jackson Hole meeting declared a regime change in monetary policy and the perspective of ‘helicopter money,’ of basically eliminating the last aspects of sovereignty of governments by giving the authority to the central banks to so-called ‘go direct,’ meaning pumping money both into official state, but also private channels—and naturally, this is also supposed to all finance the Green Deal. This is exactly what Hitler’s central banker Hjalmar Schacht did.”

Zepp-LaRouche went on to remind listeners that Lyndon LaRouche, in a famous December 1971 public debate with the prominent liberal economist Abba Lerner at Queens College in New York City, made mincemeat of Lerner by getting him to admit that he thought Schacht’s policy of opening the floodgates for the financing of the Nazi war machine, was the correct policy—and that if other politicians had only done what Schacht said, Hitler would not have been “necessary.”

What Jackson Hole’s central bankers are proposing, led by the Bank of England’s Mark Carney, is nothing but a new-fangled version of the same Schachtian hyperinflationary bailout of their bankrupt financial system—which has the same political attributes today as it did then: fascism.

The old world order is rapidly going under, to the point where even London outlets such as the Guardian are forced to ruefully admit that the G7 “meeting left little trace it had ever happened … but there was a distinct sense of the established order being given its last rites.” However, the architects and advocates of that old order are constitutionally incapable of creating a new one that works for the human race, Zepp-LaRouche emphasized. Instead, they are dragging the world down into the maelstrom of fascist Green policies—into a bottomless Jackson Hole.

This is seen in the latest developments in Italy, where the British and their allies are attempting to consolidate a Green coup d’état, installing a government which is committed to “a paradigm change on environment, a 100% renewable country.” It is also seen half-way around the planet in the Amazon region, where French President Macron is spearheading a lying, Green international media and social networks campaign to trample on Brazilian sovereignty in order to “help” them deal with Amazon fires.

In light of this overriding strategic reality, Zepp-LaRouche again criticized those in the U.S. and Europe who propose to continue on the course of confrontation with China and Russia. “This is really wrong,” she stated. “There is absolutely no problem in the field of strategic questions which can be solved without Russia; and there is not one economic problem which can be solved, especially with this looming financial crash and hyperinflation, without China”—which is, after all, the only engine of actual physical economic growth in the world today.

Zepp-LaRouche strongly endorsed the approach taken earlier this week by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, who called for the next G7 or G8 meeting, which will be held in the United States, to include not only Russia, but also China and India. This proposal closely resembles Lyndon LaRouche’s call for a Four Powers approach among the U.S., Russia, China and India to solving the planet’s central problems, especially the breakdown crisis of the international financial system.

To bring about the necessary policy discussion on the collapsing British system, their fascist proposals on display at Jackson Hole, and most importantly the policy measures needed to bring about a classical New Paradigm, the international LaRouche Movement will hold Days of Action on university campuses in the first part of September, both across the United States and in close to a dozen countries internationally. This initiating deployment will be, in the words of Zepp-LaRouche, “an appeal to the youth of the world to transform the human species, by making sure that the human species becomes a space-faring species, and that there are principles which mean that this Green fascist stuff is completely wrong.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Is Italy Moving towards a Green Fascist Government?

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—According to the financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore, if a Five Star Movement-Democratic Party, yellow-red government comes into being in Italy, it will have a green fascist platform.

“Among the ten points presented by the Five Stars [M5S] in the first round of consultations is a ‘paradigm change on environment, a 100% renewable country,’ ” Il Sole writes. And Democratic (PD) Secretary General Nicola Zingaretti stressed in a press conference that Italy “needs a green program,” with “a new type of investments.”

“Circular economy” is “a model that both parties like.” The PD has called for rewarding companies that have implemented or want to implement a “eco-sustainable reconversion.” The PD is also for a €50 billion “Green Fund,” to finance green investments over 2020-2035. Another proposal is to cut subsidies to environmentally-hostile companies. The newspaper recalls that Zingaretti had dedicated his victory in the party primaries to Greta Thunberg.

The M5S had already put the green economy in the government contract with the Lega, and they want to keep current Environment Minister Costa, who signed a partnership deal with London for the COP26, the 2020 UN climate change summit, in the yellow-red government.

Il Sole also makes note that “The Green shift is also a key passage in the last speech by EU Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen.”

Brazil Reiterates, We Are Not a Colony, and Rejects G7 ‘Offer’

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—The Brazilian government was not amused by the $20 million fund “for Amazon reforestation” which French President Emmanuel Macron got from the G7. In announcing the fund, Macron reiterated the fraudulent premise that “the Amazon forest is a subject for the whole planet” because it is “the lung of the planet,” and we cannot allow you to “destroy everything.”

“We refuse [the aid] because we see interference…. The G7 help was decided without Brazil,” the country’s Ambassador to France Fernando Serra told French television network BFM TV this morning. President Jair Bolsonaro’s chief of staff Onyx Lorenzoni told Globo news, “maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe…. Macron cannot even avoid a predictable fire in a church that is part of the world’s heritage, and he wants to give us lessons for our country?”

The Brazilian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the “supposed” new initiative related to the Amazon, listing the various already-existing such multilateral climate funds announced in recent years under the Paris Accords and UN, very little of which have ever gone beyond commitments on paper.

President Bolsonaro tweeted last night again that Brazil rejects such plans “to save the Amazon, as though we were a colony or no-man’s-land.” He reported that he had spoken with Colombian President Ivan Duque, about “the necessity of a joint plan, between the majority of the countries which make up the Amazon, to guarantee our sovereignty and natural wealth”—the right approach, but sabotaged by the Bolsonaro government’s ideological commitment to regime change in Venezuela, as made clear with his reference to the “majority.”

Under pressure from governors of some of the Amazon states to provide more assistance, Bolsonaro then said this morning that the G7 aid could be discussed, but only if Macron retracted statements questioning Brazil’s sovereignty over the Amazon and his statement that Bolsonaro is a “liar.”

Amazon forest “expert” and leading climate-change believer Daniel Nepstad complained to Forbes contributor Michael Shellenberger who wrote yesterday, that “Macron’s tweet [on the Amazon] had the same impact on Bolsonaro’s base as Hillary calling Trump’s base deplorable,” threatening efforts to sell “sustainability.”

Some Basic Realities versus Popular Lies in the Amazon Battle

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—It is oft-repeated that the Amazon forest produces 20% of our world’s oxygen, and thereby serves as “the lungs of the planet.” That assertion is false: The net contribution to the world’s oxygen from the Amazon is effectively zero. In fact, EIR published material on this decades ago. Today, even some leading environmentalists are publicizing this scientific reality, out of overt fear that the backlash against the “lungs” lie could sink the bigger lie about “man-made climate change” they propagate.

Case in point: Yadvinder Malh, founding director of Oxford University’s Centre for Tropical Forests, who on Aug. 24 posted an entry on his blog debunking the “lungs” story, as follows:

The Amazon rainforest accounts for about 16% of the oxygen produced by land-based photosynthesis globally, he details. But when you add in the photosynthesis by phytoplankton in the oceans, which produces almost five times as much oxygen as the Amazon, the Amazon’s share of global oxygen drops to 9%.

Furthermore, at night, plants consume over half of the oxygen they produce during the day, through respiration. The remaining oxygen is consumed mainly by microbes breaking down dead leaves and wood (“heterotrophic respiration”). Thus, Malh explains, “the net contribution of the Amazon ecosystem (not just the plants alone) to the world’s oxygen is effectively zero. The same is pretty much true of any ecosystem on Earth, at least on the timescales that are relevant to humans (less than millions of years)” [emphasis in original].

Likewise, it is said that there are catastrophically more fires in Brazil’s Amazon this year. But NASA’s Earth Observatory reported on Aug. 22:

“As of Aug. 16, 2019, an analysis of NASA satellite data indicated that total fire activity across the Amazon basin this year has been close to the average in comparison to the past 15 years…. Though activity appears to be above average in the [Brazilian] states of Amazonas and Rondonia, it has so far appeared below average in Mato Grosso and Para.”

Neither is the Amazon forest burning down, IPCC environmentalist Daniel Nepstad told Forbes energy contributor Michael Shellenberger. Most of the fires that are burning in the Amazon region are in the dry scrub and tree areas that border the forest. Amazon forest fires are not detected by satellite because they are hidden by the tree canopy, Nepstad explains. “We don’t know if there are any more forest fires this year than in past years, which tells me there probably isn’t. I’ve been working on studying those fires for 25 years and our [on-the-ground] networks are tracking this.”

Argentina Wracked by Total Crisis, as IMF Laments ‘Vacuum of Power’

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—In the past 36 hours, the Argentine financial crisis has imploded: The peso devaluation accelerated today, despite seven Central Bank dollar auctions to stabilize the exchange markets; the stock market crashed by 4% today; reserves are hemorrhaging. Over the past month, they have dropped by $10.8 billion, $8.5 billion of which just since the Aug. 11 primary elections in which the opposition Fernández-Fernández ticket defeated President Mauricio Macri by 15%. Should reserves continue to decline at this rate, there will be nothing left in five months. The country risk rate is now close to 2,000—a record high.

The situation is so fragile that the high-level International Monetary Fund mission that arrived over Aug. 24-25 weekend tried desperately to secure a commitment from primary victor Alberto Fernández, that he will continue with the IMF’s vicious standby austerity agreement should he win October’s election outright. Otherwise, the Fund said it will be hard pressed to justify releasing the next $5.6 billion tranche of the standby program, which is urgently needed to bolster reserves—standard IMF blackmail.

Both dailies Clarín and Página 12 reported that the head of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere Division, Alejandro Werner, who wouldn’t normally make a country visit, told Alberto Fernández and his economic advisers yesterday that he was worried about the “vacuum of power” in the country—it’s assumed Macri will lose in October—hinting that some form of “co-government” arrangement would work best. After it was leaked to the media that Werner’s team even suggested moving up the elections, the Fund had to immediately issue a press release “categorically denying” it had said any such thing.

Fernández’s response to the Fund proposal left no room for doubt: “No.” Macri and the IMF are responsible for the economic and social debacle in the country, he said. Macri is the President, he should govern. “We are not in power.” Argentina will meet its commitments, he further stated, but on terms he, and not the IMF, will determine.

Any continuation of the IMF program is a political and economic impossibility in any case. The degree of societal breakdown is horrific. Eyewitnesses report that in the beautiful capital of Buenos Aires, it is common to see entire homeless families living on the streets in the downtown area, some inhabiting large, unsafe containers that can be hit by cars or garbage trucks. These scenes would have been unthinkable just a few years ago. One longtime EIR subscriber reports that in his middle-class neighborhood, there is a homeless person living on nearly every corner. People on the streets are angry and agitated at having been deprived of basic necessities, jobs, homes, etc.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

China Foreign Ministry Again Slams U.S. Trade Threats, G7 ‘Impertinent Meddling’ in Hong Kong

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—In his daily press briefing yesterday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang stated: “We strongly urge the United States not to miscalculate the situation and immediately cease its wrong actions. If the United States implements its plan of raising tariffs, China will definitely continue to take measures and safeguard its own legitimate rights. I hereby warn the United States once again that China does not accept any threats or intimidation.”

Geng then emphasized that the continuing tariff attacks violate the agreement reached between Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping in their last discussions in Osaka—a point made repeatedly over recent days by Chinese authorities and media. “The United States’ moves severely violated the consensus reached by the heads of state of China and the United States in Osaka, Japan, trampled on the multilateral trading rules, undermined the interests of both countries, threatened the security of the global value and supply chains and impeded world trade and economic growth, Geng said,” according to a Xinhua account.

In today’s briefing, Geng responded sharply to the G7 Leaders’ Declaration, dated Aug. 26, which “reaffirms the existence and the importance of the 1984 Sino-British agreement on Hong Kong and calls for avoiding violence.”

The spokesman responded: “We deplore and firmly oppose the wanton criticism in the G7 joint statement. As we’ve emphasized time and again, Hong Kong affairs are China’s internal affairs. No foreign governments, organizations or individuals have any right to interfere…. We will manage our own affairs properly. I would like to say to the G7 members, stop your impertinent meddling in pursuit of a hidden agenda.

“With respect to the Sino-British Joint Declaration, I would like to reiterate that its ultimate purpose and core content is to affirm China’s recovering of Hong Kong and resumption of exercise of sovereignty over it. With the return of Hong Kong to the motherland, the Chinese government exercises jurisdiction over it in accordance with the Constitution and the Basic Law. Under international law and basic norms governing international relations, no country or organization has any right to use the declaration as a pretext to meddle in Hong Kong affairs.”

CGTN Posts Video Targetting NED as ‘Second CIA’ in Hong Kong ‘Democracy’ Violence

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—In a hard-hitting video posted Aug. 22 on the CGTN website, entitled “Who’s Behind the Hong Kong Protests?” the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is targeted as a part of what is popularly characterized as “the Asian Division of the CIA.” The 9-minute video (available on CGTN’s YouTube channel) details Hong Kong’s proposed extradition law which became the pretext for the protests. It then exposes that there are literally thousands of British and U.S. intelligence agents freely operating in Hong Kong, which CGTN says has earned the city “the nickname of the ‘Asian Division of the CIA.’ ” These agents operate with impunity, because China has no authority over them under the terms of “One Country, Two Systems.” “The Chinese authorities are not able to bring these agents to justice if they commit offenses as long as they remain in Hong Kong even though it’s part of China,” the narrator says.

The proposed law was withdrawn, but, says CGTN, “If the law changed, Hong Kong would no longer be a haven for criminals. You might say this is pure speculation, but let’s take a look at this NGO, National Endowment for Democracy. The NED is a self-proclaimed organization for supporting freedom around the world. But the truth couldn’t be further from that. In fact, it’s a ‘second CIA,’ according to one of its founders, Allen Weinstein.” The broadcast then quotes Weinstein telling the Washington Post to that effect, that the NED does now what “ ‘was done covertly 25 years ago by the CIA.’ ”

CGTN develops some of the concrete connections of the NED, its meetings with the various figures of the Hong Kong “democracy movement,” Martin Lee, Nathan Law, Lee Cheuk-yan, et al., followed shortly thereafter by meetings between Lee and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington. It also details the U.S. Consulate’s Julie Eadeh rendezvous with leading figures in the movement. The video exposes the connection between Apple Daily’s Jimmy Lai, who met with Vice President Mike Pence, and Mark Simon, a close collaborator of Lai who is called a “man of mystery with ties to the CIA.” While Simon denies being CIA, Hong Kong daily South China Morning Postwrote that Simon’s father had worked for the CIA for 35 years, and that Simon himself had interned with CIA and “U.S. intelligence.” CGTN also demonstrates that leading figures had already met with NED and U.S. officials during the “2014 Occupy Movement,” when they came to Washington to discuss the establishment of a “democracy movement” in Hong Kong. The video exposé also quotes former Pentagon analyst and China-basher Michael Pillsbury, who says that the NED has funded millions of dollars of programs, and admits that this partially justifies Chinese claims of “Western involvement.”

EIR’s Bill Jones Briefs CCTV on British, NED Stringpullers in Hong Kong Riots

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—In an interview conducted last week in Washington, CCTV asked Bill Jones, EIR Washington Bureau Chief, about the situation in Hong Kong. While Jones dealt with many issues, including the need to transform the largely British-oriented matrix of the educational system to one oriented toward China and Chinese history (many young Hong Kongers don’t even know when the People’s Republic of China was founded), the main problem, Jones highlighted, was dealing with the outside subversive elements behind the riots, largely also of British make.

Jones targeted the role of the National Endowment for Democracy, saying that Hong Kong authorities must absolutely investigate its role in the ongoing riots—and, if implicated, take remedial action against it. “While these demonstrations are said to be a ‘leaderless group,’ that only means that the ‘leaders’ are not out in the streets, but rather lurking somewhere else pulling the strings and they must be ferreted out.” The NED comments caught the most attention, being tweeted out by China Daily on Aug. 25.

Rouhani Rejects Talks with U.S. until Sanctions Are Lifted

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani declared today that only after the U.S. lifts sanctions will he meet President Donald Trump. Rouhani said Iran has always been ready to hold talks. “But first the U.S. should act by lifting all illegal, unjust and unfair sanctions imposed on Iran,” he stated.

“If they wish for more security in the region and want to have better relations with regional countries; if they claim that they want nothing from Iran, then they have to step back from sanctions,” the President declared.

“We will continue to scale back our commitments under the 2015 deal if our interests are not guaranteed,” said Rouhani in a speech broadcast live. “Tehran has never wanted nuclear weapons.”

Sputnik reports that after making a stop in Biarritz, France to meet French President Emmanuel Macron, and speak with senior British and German diplomats and advisers, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif flew to Beijing. This was his third visit to China this year. Sputnik reports that Zarif wanted to win China’s support for his proposal to coordinate the exports of at least 700,000 barrels of oil, ideally up to 1.5 million barrels per day, in exchange for an agreement to maintain the 2015 nuclear deal. At the same time, China and India are among the recipients of Iranian oil that can be excluded from the American sanctions.

From China, Zarif will go to Japan where he will discuss oil exports, and then to Malaysia.

Although Japanese Prime Minister Abe Shinzo did not meet with Zarif in Biarritz, he did go to Tehran on the eve of the G20 summit in Osaka, which was coordinated with Trump.

Netanyahu Panicked Over Trump’s Openness to Iran

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump’s openness to a possible summit with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani appears to be causing some panic in Israel.  According to an Aug. 26 report in the Times of Israel, Israel’s Channel 13 news reported that the fear among senior ministers in the Netanyahu government is that Trump will open a dialogue with Iran similar to the ongoing one he has with North Korea, taking pressure off Tehran. To say that Benjamin Netanyahu is uncomfortable with the U.S. President’s newly open- minded stance on Iran “is the understatement of the millennium,” Channel 13 reported, quoting three senior cabinet ministers expressing profound concern that just as Trump has “gotten nowhere” with North Korea, while relieving the economic pressure on Pyongyang, the same would now happen with Iran.

“We have no interest in negotiations between the United States and Iran,” the TV report quoted one minister saying, “but our capacity to influence and confront Trump is extremely limited.” This, the report went on, was because Trump has “bear-hugged” Netanyahu so tightly that going out against him is deemed impossible.

The report went on that the Israeli cabinet has had several discussions about the prospect of U.S.-Iran negotiations, which has ministers immensely concerned. It quoted an unnamed Israeli official saying that, “Our great fortune was that, until now, the Iranians refused to speak to Trump.” French President Emmanuel Macron’s invitation to Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to the G7 summit, and Trump’s readiness to meet with Rouhani, marks “the very moment Israel has worried about,” it said.

According to the report, Netanyahu and his ministers are pinning their hopes on National Security Adviser John Bolton who is “trying to prevent” the new Trump openness to Iran, “and he’s losing.” In fact, rumors are circulating around Washington that President Trump is considering Stephen Biegun, his envoy for North Korea, for deputy secretary of state, U.S. ambassador to Moscow, or even as a replacement for John Bolton.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Oklahoma Judge Orders Johnson & Johnson To Pay $572 Million Fine for Pushing Opioids

Aug. 27 (EIRNS)—Oklahoma District Judge Thad Balkman found yesterday that the big pharma company Johnson & Johnson had “caused an opioid crisis that’s evidenced by increased rates of addiction, overdose deaths and neonatal abstinence syndrome,” by engaging in “misleading marketing and promotion of opioids,” and fined them $572 million, in a suit brought by the state, which was seeking $17.5 billion in fines. Johnson & Johnson announced they would appeal the decision.

The news has received extensive coverage in the liberal media, always anxious to blame the entire drug problem on a handful of predatory pharmaceutical companies, China, and nothing more—certainly not the British Dope, Inc. banking apparatus that actually runs the $1 trillion per year drug trade from the top.

Johnson & Johnson, Purdue, Teva and other companies are guilty enough. But yesterday’s fine amounts to little more than a slap on the wrist. In fact, it was far less than what was expected—J&J’s stocks actually rose after the decision. And where are the lawsuits against HSBC bank? Why hasn’t Citibank been fined billions of dollars and had their license revoked? Why is the Queen of England still walking free?

A commentary in China Daily by Chen Fengying, a senior researcher of world economy in the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, got closer to the truth: “The U.S.’s accusation [against China] is baseless, not least because it is blaming China for its inability to control the misuse of fentanyl, which according to U.S. media reports accounted for 28,400 overdose deaths in 2017 alone. That the U.S. has reported the first decline in average life expectancy in 2015 since the end of World War II and a sustained decline for three years since has sounded the alarm for the U.S. administration.”

Chen then emphasized: “The drug overdose problem is an after-effect of the 2008 global financial crisis, which led to massive layoffs and drug overdose, and further widened the wealth gap. Compared with the days when the U.S. economy was booming, there are fewer opportunities today for people to realize their American Dream. And since there are no signs of another scientific revolution, there is little hope that the U.S. economy would boom in the near future and the country would be free of the drug problem.”

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