EIR Daily Alert Service, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

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WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 2019

Volume 6, Number 180

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

  • Days of Thoughtful Action
  • Bolton Fired! Celebrations Across the United States and Around the World
  • President Trump Addresses Historically Black Colleges Conference
  • The LAtest From London’s Anti-Trump Cookbook: A Very Fishy Spy Tale
  • China Bases Its Growth on ‘Innovation-Driven Productivity,’ While U.S. is ‘Forging Bubbles’
  • Chatham House Lays Out Scenario for Massive Capital Flight Against China
  • Hong Kong’s Continuing Role s a Center of Capital Flight and Other Financial Crimes
  • Positive Comments on French Russian 2+2 Meeting Between Defense and Foreign Ministers
  • Queen’s Minions Threaten France for Macron’s Russia Initiatives
  • Hong Kong’s Color Revolution Darling Joshua Wong Embraces White Helmets in Berlin
  • NASA Reports Advances in Artemis, James Webb Telescope Programs
EDITORIALDays of Thoughtful ActionSept. 10 (EIRNS)—The Schiller Institute’s international Days of Action around Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s “International Call to Youth: The Age of Reason Is in the Stars!” got underway Sept. 10, on all seven continents on Planet Earth: from Dresden to Detroit, from Mexico City to Yemen, from Melbourne to Manila—and by email to scientists working on an Argentine research base in Antarctica! With a single voice, humanity’s future is demanding a return to a concept of Man premised on the dignity of being a creative being, who sees and makes his own future in the stars.Coinciding with the first Day of Action, President Donald Trump yesterday announced that he had summarily fired National Security Adviser John Bolton, announcing pointedly: “I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration.” The departure of the hated Bolton means, as Virginia State Sen. Richard Black put it, that “a dark cloud has been lifted from the Trump presidency. The world is a safer place with John Bolton gone.” Sen. Rand Paul drew a similar conclusion: “The chances of war worldwide go greatly down” with Bolton’s firing.The LaRouche movement can take both justified pride and partial credit for this happy development—for swimming against the tide whenever needed, to counterpose Lyndon LaRouche’s scientific policy alternatives to those of the collapsing British Empire, and its acolytes inside and outside the Trump administration. That approach is also the key to getting mankind back to the Moon and on to Mars.Bolton’s overdue departure is being celebrated across the United States and around the world, adding to the optimism required to defeat the evil outlook being actively promoted by the British Empire’s “green” offensive. Nowhere is this better summarized than the cover of Finland’s Tieteen Kuvalehti popular science magazine, which displayed a picture of a baby with an X over it. This overt Malthusianism is shocking and sick—but it should not be surprising. One is reminded of the 14th-century New Dark Age which, besides the mass deaths directly due to the Black Death, produced such a wave of pessimism that, according to accounts of that time, almost no marriages occurred for years, and even decades, in major portions of Europe, and the birth rate plummeted. It was only the intentional organization of the Golden Renaissance by a small minority of committed men and women, that got Mankind to gaze up at the stars to find the moral and scientific law within themselves, and thereby drag humanity out of the mud.In 2006, the great American thinker and statesman Lyndon LaRouche addressed the earlier origins of today’s cultural and economic decadence. The opening section of his “The Lost Art of the Capital Budget,” states:“Since that notorious uproar of 1968, which erupted in Europe as in the Americas, the mayfly passions of the upper twenty percentile of today’s reigning white collar (‘Baby Boomer’) generation, are frequently expressed as a loss of the desire for the practice of long-term marriages, a loss of caring for the prospects for younger generations, and a loss of any interest in investment in the future of the physical economy of other nations, or even their own.”LaRouche drew the required conclusion: “This must now be changed.”U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMICBolton Fired! Celebrations Across the United States and Around the WorldSept. 10 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump’s two-part tweet midmorning today announcing that National Security Adviser John Bolton was out on his ear, effective immediately, provoked a wave of relief and optimism by sane people everywhere.While the media churn out stories that he was fired for opposing this or that specific peace initiative, with the Afghanistan peace talks in the lead, President Trump referenced his “many” policy differences with Bolton. “I informed John Bolton last night that his services are no longer needed at the White House. I disagreed strongly with many of his suggestions, as did others in the Administration, and therefore I asked John for his resignation, which was given to me this morning. I thank John very much for his service. I will be naming a new National Security Advisor next week.”A furious Bolton, who had been busily tweeting against Iran and other violent “regimes” earlier in the morning, could not restrain himself from issuing a sniveling parting shot on his National Security Adviser Twitter account, insisting he had submitted his resignation first.White House spokesman Hogan Gidley emphasized the President’s big differences with this loud-mouthed warhawk: “John Bolton’s priorities and policies just don’t line up with the President’s. Any sitting President has the right to put someone in that position to carry out an agenda. It became no longer tenable, and the President made a change.”Sen. Rand Paul, who had earlier urged Bolton’s removal, quickly tweeted: “I commend @realDonaldTrump for this necessary action. The President has great instincts on foreign policy and ending our endless wars. He should be served by those who share those views.” He told reporters that now “the chances of a war worldwide go greatly down.”Virginia State Senator Richard Black, who wrote an open letter to President Trump last May urging him to fire Bolton, for usurping Trump’s authority as Commander-in-Chief to push his regime changes wars, was among those celebrating. In a brief statement issued today, Sen. Black wrote:“No one posed a greater threat to world peace than John Bolton.  He worked tirelessly to attach his name to a war—any war—whether in Syria, Iran or Venezuela. A dark cloud has been lifted from the Trump presidency. The world is a safer place with John Bolton gone.”LaRouche PAC organizers received similar calls and messages from Americans and supporters around the world alike, celebrating the news.Establishment British boot-lickers, Democrat and Republican alike, went into their usual “how dare the President” mode. Sen. Mitt Romney mourned that Bolton’s departure was an “extraordinary loss for our nation,” and he is “very unhappy” that Bolton is leaving. Not to be outdone, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer tweeted that Trump’s firing of Bolton is just “the latest example of his government-by-chaos approach and his rudderless national security policy.”President Trump Addresses Historically Black Colleges ConferenceSept. 10 (EIRNS)—President Donald Trump proclaimed Sept. 8-14, 2019 as “National Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Week,” on Sept. 6, on the eve of the 2019 conference of the White House Initiative for National HBCUs being held in Washington, D.C., from Sept. 9-11. Today he addressed the conference.“For more than 180 years, HBCUs have strengthened our country and called America to greatness.  Your institutions have been pillars of excellence in higher education and the engines of advancement for African American citizens…. You have shaped American leaders, trained American legends, pioneered American innovations, empowered American workers, built American communities, and you’ve made all of America very proud of you and the job you’ve done,” Trump told the conference. “This nation owes a profound and enduring debt of gratitude to its HBCUs.”There are more than 100 HBCUs across the United States, known as such because they were established after the Civil War when no black-skinned person was allowed entrance in “white” universities.“In the face of immense hardship and painful injustice, your schools rose to the very pinnacle of academia, becoming many of America’s finest and most acclaimed institutions of higher learning,” President Trump recalled. He named some of the graduates of these schools who became historic leaders, among them Booker T. Washington, Rosa Parks, Ida B. Wells, Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, Rev. Martin Luther King, and NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, as well as “the legendary Tuskegee Airmen.” Far from the least, though not mentioned, were Tuskegee’s S.W. Boynton and Amelia Boynton Robinson.Trump reported that under his administration, federal funding for HBCUs has been increased by 13%. Particularly interesting is the targetting of federal funds for science, technology, engineering and math. Trump said that NASA is expanding outreach to HBCU students—including those who want to become astronauts. The Department of Energy’s Office of Nuclear Energy included #HBCUWeek in its tweets today about its upcoming “Millennial Nuclear Caucus” and facts about its $44 million in scholarships to 72 schools in 31 states over the last 10 years.The Latest from London’s Anti-Trump Cookbook: A Very Fishy Spy TaleSept. 10 (EIRNS)—The New York Times, CNN, and the Washington Post all published contradictory stories over the past 24 hours about the Russian double agent who, it is suggested, is a major source in the Trump Russia fake news narrative.  All accounts agree that the spy defected in 2017 after being urged to do so by Obama’s CIA in 2016, but at first refusing. CNN says the “extrication” —a fancy spy world term for going on vacation and not returning—occurred because of fears Donald Trump would tell Vladimir Putin who the spy was.The Times and others state CNN’s claims are not true, but claim that the spy is a major source in the fake Russiagate narrative and that enterprising news reporters knew a lot about who it was, requiring the “extrication” for his safety.  The latter version, of course, suggests that Christopher Steele’s big mouth, along with the desperation and specifics provided in the ICA Assessment of January 2017, and leaks of Obama spy officials, resulted in identification of their claimed double agent. But, the entire story itself in either version must be viewed with extreme skepticism because of its context.  Coup involved intelligence officials are desperate to invent something, anything, which can provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to their three-year witch hunt against the sitting President, ahead of the Inspector General’s Report and Attorney General Barr’s investigation.Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the tale was so much “pulp fiction” and everyone on the Russia side denied that the alleged spy, tentatively identified as Oleg Smolenkov, had any real access to Putin. Peskov said that Smolenkov had worked in the Presidential administration, but had been fired in 2016. Adding to the very fishy and smelly nature of this narrative, it is being widely reported that Oleg Smolenkov is living under his own, published name in Stafford, Virginia. This is hardly the status anyone with counterintelligence experience would expect about an individual who, it is claimed, was the only close-in CIA source in the Kremlin. In fact, as Peskov suggests, it is laughable.COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEMChina Bases Its Growth on ‘Innovation-Driven Productivity,’ While U.S. Is ‘Forging Bubbles’Sept. 10 (EIRNS)—A Sept. 9 Global Times editorial headlined “China’s Economy Continues To Grow,” emphasizes that, in the current trade warfare between the U.S. and China, China’s strength is that its economy is based on “innovation-driven productivity growth,” and that the U.S.’s weakness is that “innovation is stagnant” and that “the stock market is at the core” and that its “bubbles could burst at any time.”While reiterating the familiar Chinese arguments about how they will not allow trade pressures to affect their core interests, and that their national strength is based on the population’s support for the government’s policies, the editorial is particularly insightful on the underlying economic policy issue of innovation vs. speculation.“As the global economy and trade face a downturn and China is in the frontline of a trade war, it’s not surprising for China to have unsteady foreign trade. But this doesn’t reflect the fundamentals of the Chinese economy. China’s economy is undergoing great structural adjustments, transiting from being investment-driven to innovation-driven and from being foreign trade-led to consumption-led. Although the trade war has led to short-term chaos in the Chinese and world market chains, China’s foreign trade has increased in many ways, particularly in countries along the routes of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. Besides, the trade war has further stimulated China’s structural adjustment. China is continuing infrastructure development and accelerating innovations.”The editorial then turns to the U.S. economy. “When innovation is stagnant, the U.S. economy comes to a halt and grows only by forging bubbles. Finance is the U.S. economy’s pillar, with the stock market at the core. Americans are sensitive to slight changes in data, because the bubbles could burst at any time.”Under these conditions, the editorial summarizes the policy that China is following: “Having the world’s fastest-developing productivity, China also focuses on high-quality economy with a reliable timetable and road map supported by the Chinese people’s demand for a better life rather than the U.S. market.”Chatham House Lays Out Scenario for Massive Capital Flight against ChinaSept. 10 (EIRNS)—In an Aug. 28 article first published in the Financial Times, David Lubin, Chatham House/Royal Institute of International Affairs Associate Fellow, Global Economy and Finance, presents a lengthy discussion purportedly about “Why China Should Be Wary of Devaluing the Renminbi.” After reporting that China has allowed the renminbi to weaken by 4% since the beginning of August, in response to U.S. trade warfare measures, Lubin discusses a string of “reasons” why devaluations could backfire against China, and then cuts to the chase:“The fourth, and possibly most self-destructive, risk that China has to consider is that a weaker renminbi might destabilize China’s capital account, fueling capital outflows that would leave China’s policymakers feeling very uncomfortable. Indeed, there is already evidence that Chinese residents feel less confident that the renminbi is a reliable store of value, now that there is no longer a sense that the currency is destined to appreciate against the dollar. The best illustration of this comes from the ‘errors and omissions,’ or unaccounted-for outflows, in China’s balance of payments. The past few years have seen these outflows rise a lot, averaging some $200 billion per year during the past four calendar years, or almost 2% GDP; and around $90 billion in the first three months of 2019 alone. These are scarily large numbers.”Lubin then ties this in directly to the ongoing attempted color revolution in Hong Kong:“No one really knows precisely by what mechanism capital outflows from China have accelerated in recent years, but a very good candidate is tourism. The expenditure of outbound Chinese tourists abroad has risen a lot in recent years, and that increase very closely mirrors the rise in errors and omissions. So the suspicion must be that the increasing flow of Chinese tourists—nearly one-half of whom last year simply travelled to capital controls-free Hong Kong and Macao—is just creating opportunities for unrecorded capital flight. This raises a disturbing possibility: that the most effective way for China to devalue the renminbi without the backfire of capital outflows would be simultaneously to stem the outflow of Chinese tourists.”Hong Kong’s Continuing Role as a Center of Capital Flight and Other Financial CrimesSept. 10 (EIRNS)—Ever wonder what’s really behind the protests against the proposed new extradition law in Hong Kong, which was the trigger of the ongoing violent attempted color revolution in the former British Crown Colony?It turns out that way before the so-called “peaceful youth protests” began in Hong Kong, the financial community was up in arms over the proposed extradition law, since it threatened to pull the plug on their ongoing criminal activities in Hong Kong. An Aug. 19 article by Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers in Consortium News (first published Aug. 18 in their PopularResistance.org website) has useful background on this matter.“Hong Kong is a center for big finance and also a center of financial crimes. Between 2013 and 2017, the number of suspicious transactions reported to law enforcement agencies rocketed from 32,907 to 92,115. There has been a small number of prosecutions, which dropped from a high of 167 in 2014 to 103 in 2017. Convictions dropped to only one person sentenced to more than six years behind bars in 2017…. The proposed [extradition] law covered 46 types of crimes that are recognized as serious offenses across the globe. These include murder, rape, and sexual offenses, assaults, kidnapping, immigration violations, and drug offenses as well as property offenses like robbery, burglary and arson and other traditional criminal offenses. It also included business and financial crimes.”Zeese and Flowers continue: “Months before the street protests, the business community expressed opposition to the law. Hong Kong’s two pro-business parties urged the government to exempt white-collar crimes from the list of offenses covered by any future extradition agreement. There was escalating pressure from the city’s business heavyweights. The American Chamber of Commerce, AmCham, a 50-year-old organization that represents over 1,200 U.S. companies doing business in Hong Kong, opposed the proposal. AmCham said it would damage the city’s reputation: ‘Any change in extradition arrangements that substantially expands the possibility of arrest and rendition … of international business executives residing in or transiting through Hong Kong as a result of allegations of economic crime made by the mainland government … would undermine perceptions of Hong Kong as a safe and secure haven for international business operations.’…“Indeed, the Center for International Private Enterprise, an arm of the National Endowment for Democracy, said the proposed law would undermine economic freedom, cause capital flight and threaten Hong Kong’s status as a hub for global commerce.”  But, despite NED’s threat that Hong Kong’s economy would suffer from the law, it already has suffered gravely without it: Its GDP collapsed from a high of 27% in 1993 to less than 3% in 2017. What has grown is poverty, now standing at 20%, while the World Bank registered the mainland’s poverty rate at 0.7% in 2015.STRATEGIC WAR DANGERPositive Comments on French-Russian 2+2 Meeting between Defense and Foreign MinistersSept. 10 (EIRNS)—More positive comments are coming out of the Russia-French 2+2 meeting of Foreign and Defense Ministers. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told a joint news conference following the meeting that both countries are committed to preserving the Iran nuclear deal. “We agreed to go ahead with cooperation for the purpose of preserving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on the Iranian nuclear program,” he said. “It is our common conviction this plan has no sound alternative.” He also welcomed the “initiatives put forward by France and its President for the sake of achieving agreements that would make it possible to preserve the JCPOA to the full extent and safeguard all of Iran’s legitimate commercial interests this plan incorporates.”The four also discussed the withdrawal of the U.S. from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.  “We discussed in detail the situation in the sphere of strategic stability following the United States’ withdrawal from the INF Treaty,” Lavrov said. “Our position on that matter is well-known. It has regularly been reiterated by Russian President Vladimir Putin. We will not deploy such systems in those regions where such systems of U.S. manufacture are not deployed.”He also said that while Russia has invited NATO to negotiate on that matter, saying, “NATO is refraining from any concrete reaction.”Warning of a possible arms race in outer space, Lavrov said, “The United States has actually provided for such a possibility in its doctrinal documents and today we asked our French partners to clarify their own military space doctrine that was adopted on July 25 In this context, we called on our colleagues to be responsible in their approaches to the discussions within the United Nations and at the Conference on Disarmament in Geneva around the initiative suggested by Russia, China and a number of other nations to adopt a legally binding document on preventing weapons deployment in outer space.”Pointing to the fact that the possibilities of cooperation between the French and Russian armed forces, Russian Defense Minister Army Gen. Sergei Shoigu addressed French Defense Minister Florence Parly: “We carefully studied the assessments and proposal put forward by you on Sept. 3. Our positions are close on basically every issue. Of course, there can never be a full concurrence of opinions. However, I suppose, the basis for a respectable talk and willingness to hold dialogue on settling differences is evident. I think that we could agree on tasks for experts which would fill our cooperation with new contents as a result of our meeting.” Parly agreed, saying “I believe that we should go down the dialogue path.”Queen’s Minions Threaten France for Macron’s Russia InitiativesSept. 10 (EIRNS)—The British Monarchy is not amused by French President Emmanuel Macron’s recent fruitful diplomatic dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin. James Nixey, head of the Russia and Eurasia Program for Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA/Chatham House), issued an imperial warning to France to stop its dealings with Putin on Sept. 5. The warning took the form of an RIIA “Expert Opinion,” co-signed by Nixey and one of his research fellows, Mathieu Boulègue.“Dialogue for the sake of dialogue—without principles or concrete objectives—is a slippery slope to accommodating Russia’s interests,” the RIIA duo protested. British policy is regime change in Russia, not dialogue. “Should a future Kremlin leadership offer any meaningful concession,” dialogue might be acceptable—but not with Vladimir Putin.The authors recognize that Macron’s current policy reflects a broader tradition in French foreign policy. “It has long been commonplace for France to acknowledge Russia’s role in European security architecture from ‘Lisbon to Vladivostok,’ and to respect its ‘great power’ status (even if self-proclaimed),” they sniffed; “Macron himself is emblematic of a wider tendency in French politics and business—looking to build bridges with the Kremlin, regardless of how wide the chasm between them is.”However, because Macron has “fallen into the role of first among European equals”—with Angela Merkel on her way out, and recent U.K. Prime Ministers “distracted by Brexit”—Macron’s dialogue with Putin cannot be ignored. The RIIA duo worry that if the dialogue proceeds, conflicts which the British have stoked in Europe—Ukraine and Georgia, in particular—might be resolved.“France pushing for dialogue with Moscow without self-discipline or preconditions” is unacceptable; Macron should “realize that in a world where great powers carve up spheres of influence once more, France stands to lose,” he is warned.Hong Kong’s Color Revolution Darling Joshua Wong Embraces White Helmets in BerlinSept. 10 (EIRNS)—Joshua Wong, the 22-year-old public face of the color revolution attempt ongoing in Hong Kong, attended an event in Berlin last night sponsored by the Alex Springer media conglomerate to honor terrorists, regime change operatives, and their sponsors. Included among the guests at this “Bild100” party, openly embracing both Wong and the White Helmet chief Raed Al Saleh, were German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas and U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell. Another honored guest: Vitaly Klitschko, the Mayor of Kyiv—a leading light in the now-disgraced Petro Poroshenko Bloc backed by the neo-Nazi 2014 coup.The White Helmets have been thoroughly exposed as an integral part of the al-Qaeda-linked terrorist apparatus in Syria, run and funded directly by the British and the U.S. governments, although President Donald Trump cut them off at one point. Multiple fake videos were made by the White Helmets claiming to show chemical weapon attacks against civilians by the Assad government, and were used to induce President Trump to launch bombing raids on Syrian government sites (although these were limited, and Trump never fully swallowed the bait by launching all-out war on the Syrian government).U.S. Ambassador Grenell issued a tweet yesterday: “There are people in this world who don’t just talk — but who act. The Chairman of the White Helmets @RaedAlSaleh3 is one of them.” The tweet included a picture of Grenell with his arm around Al Saleh.Joshua Wong also had his picture taken with Al Saleh, as well as with Heiko Maas, and perhaps more.This visit came one day after the rioters in Hong Kong whom Wong represents conducted a march to the U.S. Consulate in Hong Kong, replete with American flags, calling on the U.S. to “liberate” Hong Kong. Along the way the rioters, clad in black with masks and clubs, trashed a subway station, setting fires, forcing the station to close, and battled the police trying to clear the station.Wong’s next stop in New York, where he can be expected to fully support the Malthusian “Climate Strike” activities there by the eco-fascists who want to shut down industrial production and reduce the world’s population—this is indeed what this crew means by “liberation.”SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURENASA Reports Advances in Artemis, James Webb Telescope ProgramsSept. 10 (EIRNS)—NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center posted a short video yesterday, “The Hardware for NASA’s Artemis I Mission Comes Together,” which updates the status of the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft on which the United States intends to send human beings back to the Moon.“Over the course of their development, the rocket and spacecraft have moved from design and manufacturing to testing and assembly and integration. Some of the hardware has even been delivered to the launch pad at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Along with the Gateway in lunar orbit and a new human landing system, SLS and Orion create the backbone for the agency’s Artemis missions to the Moon that will land astronauts on the lunar surface by 2024,” NASA reported.As for astronomical investigations, NASA reported at the end of August that engineers had successfully connected the two halves of the James Webb Space Telescope: the telescope itself (which includes the mirrors and science instruments) and the already-combined sunshield and spacecraft. The next steps will be to electrically connect the halves, test the electrical connections, and test the functioning of the unit as a whole.Bill Ochs, Webb project manager for NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, said “this milestone symbolizes the efforts of thousands of dedicated individuals for over more than 20 years across NASA, the European Space Agency, the Canadian Space Agency, Northrop Grumman, and the rest of our industrial and academic partners.” Gregory Robinson, the Webb program director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., celebrated that “soon we will be able to see incredible new views of our amazing universe.” The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in 2021.When deployed, “this powerful and complex space telescope will explore the cosmos using infrared light, from planets and moons within our Solar System to the most ancient and distant galaxies,” NASA reported. 
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