WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2020

Volume 7, Number 25

EIR Daily Alert Service

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

• The Democrat Party Is Imploding-Is It Intentional?
• Mouselini Bloomberg’s Dumpster Fire in Iowa
• Pompeo Continues on His Global China-Bashing Jaunt
• Pentagon Confirms Deployment of Low-Yield Nuclear Warhead
• EU’s Josep Borrell Affirms Brussels Will Not Take Iran to UNSC Over Nuclear Deal
• Libya Talks Begin in Geneva, While U.S. Security Delegation Is in Tripoli
• ‘CO2 Transition’ Targetting Rosneft and PetroChina
• Bank Credit Squeeze To Enterprises
• Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province Averts Default, as Major National Talks With IMF Loom
• What Future for France-and a Frexit-After Brexit?
• Macron Says Relaunching Dialogue With Russia Proved It Effectiveness
• MAVEN Finds That Mars’ Atmosphere Has Similarities to Earth’s

EDITORIAL

The Democrat Party Is Imploding—Is It Intentional?

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—Over $50 million were spent in the state of Iowa by the Democrat hopefuls in the historic first-primary of the 2020 presidential campaign. The result was a total fiasco, in which the reporting process fell apart, with no official results announced until 5:00 p.m. the following day. On top of that, it is reported to have been a very low turnout for the Democrat side, although the Republicans had a record turnout, with over 97% supporting President Donald Trump.

But many people are asking—was it only an accident? It is known across the nation, by Republicans and Democrats alike, that all the Democrat candidates were not only uninspiring, but have capitulated to the psychotic anti-growth, anti-science, green fascist agenda. On top of that, the population has been thoroughly disgusted by the three years, without pause, of total media/establishment focus on removing the President from office, first with the Russia hoax, then with the impeachment hoax. The polls for the Iowa primary showed that Bernie Sanders was in the lead, while the last great hope for the Hillary Clinton clan and Wall Street, Sleepy Joe Biden (as Trump affectionately calls him), was forecast to come in a distant fourth.

Just before the primary day, the most important final poll of the Iowa primary season—the Des Moines Register-CNN poll—was cancelled. Sources say the poll was about to announce the same “Bernie on top, Biden in fourth” result. Then the election itself fell apart. Incompetence? Perhaps. But Mike Bloomberg, the Wall Street billionaire, was not in the primary at all. Mussolini Mike, as he is known, joined the race too late to be in the early primaries, although the Democratic National Committee has now changed their own rules to be certain he can join the larger primaries, while he spends his own billions running ads attacking Trump. As the New York Daily News headlined today: “Michael Bloomberg May Be Big Winner from Iowa Debacle.”

This should be a warning sign for the world, not just for the U.S. Bloomberg and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney are the international leaders of the Green Finance movement, which is now quite openly declaring their primary task to be imposing discipline on the world financial system—commercial banks, central banks, shadow banks—to cut off credit to any industry which has a “carbon footprint.” As Prince Charles said at the Davos Forum: “It is time for businesses, industries and countries alike to design and implement how they will de-carbonize and transition to net zero…. In the financial sector, many central banks and financial institutions have committed to integrating climate risk into stress-testing, supervision and disclosure. With this progress there are now growing calls from financial institutions and companies alike to make disclosure mandatory.” Such a program is the intended means to achieve the primary goal of the House of Windsor: to reduce the world’s population to the Earth’s “carrying capacity,” which they consider to be less than 1 billion.

President Donald Trump has rejected and ridiculed the insanity of shutting down the world economy based on the “fake science” claim of carbon’s relationship to climate change. This is a central cause of the frantic British and U.S. intelligence services’ three-year effort to drive him from office, or at least prevent a second term. For the past fifty years, Lyndon LaRouche was the leading voice for sanity: for restoring American industry and agriculture; rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure; reviving the Hamiltonian credit system to replace the British monetarists; building the “third world” through infrastructure and industrialization; implementing science drivers through space exploration and fusion power development; and end the British Empire once and for all by bringing together the Four Powers of Russia, China, India and the U.S., to build a new world financial system.

Tomorrow, Wednesday Feb. 5, the three-year nightmare of containment of the President will end, as the U.S. Senate votes down the impeachment fraud. This does not mean that the Democrats will give up their subversive efforts, but it frees up the President and his Attorney General William Barr to expose the real criminals—those who launched the attempted coup against this nation—and to break free of the neo-conservative advisers who have prevented him from carrying out his stated goals: to end the regime change wars, to replace globalization with true national sovereignty for all nations, and to establish friendly relations with Russia and China. It is a pregnant moment in history—enjoy it, by acting on behalf of the future of mankind.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Mouselini Bloomberg’s Dumpster Fire in Iowa

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—As of 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 4th, the Iowa Democratic Party is only able to announce 62% of the results of the nation’s first presidential vote of 2020. The competency jokes abound. Disaster, catastrophe, national crime, Democratic Party implosion, debacle, were only some of the terms being hurled around the media all day. The National Security Agency’s former Technical Director William Binney compared it to the rollout of the computer program which was supposed to register people for Obamacare, but crashed. Wags on the internet are asking, was the app that didn’t work, which is allegedly responsible for this, programmed by an angry former coal miner from West Virginia who was told by all these Democrats to give it up and learn to code?

It seems clear that very weird things are happening around two people —Pete Buttigieg and, the person who will emerge shortly out of this—Michael Bloomberg.  In the count the Iowa Democratic Party released at 5 p.m., Buttigieg had a small lead over Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren was in third place, and Joe Biden, well, he just crashed and was in fourth place. There was a huge and very suspect gap between the first five, which included Amy Klobuchar, the most colorless candidate ever, and the people placing at less than 1%, who included Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang. Gabbard, Yang, and Sanders were all wildly popular with Iowa’s young people. Iowa’s Democrats could not state when the rest of the purported results would be available.

The final and definitive Des Moines Register poll, which usually plays a huge and significant role in pulling out votes for the caucuses, was pulled from release based on a complaint from Buttigieg. It, like a reliable vote count on the day of the caucuses, simply did not happen. That poll showed, according to reliable leaks, a Sanders romp. That is why John Kerry was overheard in an expletive-laced rant in Iowa on Feb. 2, stating that Sanders was about to destroy the Democratic Party, and he was actively thinking about declaring himself a candidate.

Equally embarrassing, according to Politico, was the total turnout. According to the fantasies of the swamp in Washington, turnout was supposed to be extraordinary because of the fired-up base which hates the President. It was not, although those figures also are MIA. Politico says it was on a par with 2016, the turnout for the Hillary Clinton/Bernie Sanders squeaker which had the depressed turnout often associated with Hillary Clinton.

Over at Max Blumenthal’s Grayzone is an article thoroughly documenting the province of the deranged app, which it is claimed screwed everything up. It comes from a dark money-funded group which calls itself—wait for this—Shadow, Inc. Shadow is funded by Buttigieg-backer Seth Klarman, a hedge fund guy tied to the right in Israel, owner of the Times of Israel, and funder of other pro-Israel groups. The Wall Street Journal had signaled that therewere security concerns about the app well before the election.

The app, according to Blumenthal, was tested by a group called Defending Digital Democracy out of Harvard. Blumenthal cites the New York Times as his source for saying that Digital Democracy was founded by Hillary Clinton’s former campaign manager Robby Monk, and by Eric Rosenbach from the Pentagon. Shadow is run by former Obama and Clinton staffers, and was a vendor to Buttigieg, who announced he had won last night, prior to any returns being available. Buttigieg, whose campaign is staffed and supported by spooks, has waged a campaign attempting to smear Sanders as an anti-Semite in both Iowa and New Hampshire. Klarman also is a major supporter, with George Tenet, of the CIA Officers Memorial Foundation. As Blumenthal says, the conspiracy theories just write themselves here.

So, Sanders’ supporters are going to be ripped and they will turn out accordingly in New Hampshire. Biden and Warren trail there, as does Buttigieg. Biden may make something of a comeback in South Carolina, but Michael Bloomberg is madly buying up the black vote there and nationally. The media have been clear today, the party is self-immolating, tearing itself apart, and one man stands ready to ride to the rescue. Bloomberg has already bought every single ad space available in the national media through the end of the primary season; there is nothing available for purchase by anyone else.

Some might compare the Iowa fiasco to Germany’s famous Reichstag Fire which put Hitler into office. That is because Bloomberg, like Hitler, is a Synarchist, the bankers’ candidate, a fascist. But let’s not magnify the significance, although last night’s fix was certainly shocking. Given that he is “Mini Mike,” as the President calls him, and the demonstrated incompetence of the Democratic Party to date, it is only a dumpster fire at this point, but a dangerous one which must be drowned.

Pompeo Continues on His Global China-Bashing Jaunt

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has been traveling hither and thither in his attempt to discredit China’s Belt and Road Initiative and bring countries back into the “fold” of Anglo-American liberal model. In Kiev, he warned the Ukrainians that cooperating with China would not bring them any benefits, but that, under appropriate conditions, U.S. companies could come and invest in Ukraine, a subtle form of blackmail. He also spent time in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan in order to attend a meeting of the C5+1 between the U.S. and the five Central Asian countries in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which he will chair. In all of his meetings, he urged the need for them to cooperate with the U.S. to counter the overwhelming influence of Russia and China. In Kazakhstan, he thanked President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev for accepting refugees from Xinjiang and used the opportunity to condemn the educations centers (which are now closed) as “detention camps.” He also indicated that the Trump Administration would soon be issuing its new Central Asian Strategy, which will no doubt have the same orientation.

Given the close relations that these Central Asian countries have with their immediate neighbors, Russia and China, and given the fact that any U.S. initiative will be rich in words but poor in concrete projects, these countries will politely accept whatever the U.S. can provide, but without burning their bridges to the collaboration that has really brought benefits. Kazakhstan’s former President Nursultan Nazarbayev, still alive and kicking, was himself a co-sponsor of the Belt and Road with Xi Jinping, who first announced the project at a speechat Nazarbayev University in Astana (now, Nur-Sultan) on Sept. 7, 2013.

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Pentagon Confirms Deployment of Low-Yield Nuclear Warhead

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—The Defense Department issued a statement, under the name of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy John rood confirming reports circulated last week that a U.S. Navy ballistic missile submarine had deployed with a low-yield version of the 90 kiloton W76 warhead, called the W76-2. “In the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review, the department identified the requirement to ‘modify a small number of submarine-launched ballistic missile warheads’ to address the conclusion that potential adversaries, like Russia, believe that employment of low-yield nuclear weapons will give them an advantage over the United States and its allies and partners,” Rood said. “This supplemental capability strengthens deterrence and provides the United States a prompt, more survivable low-yield strategic weapon; supports our commitment to extended deterrence; and demonstrates to potential adversaries that there is no advantage to limited nuclear employment because the United States can credibly and decisively respond to any threat scenario.”

Arms control experts and anti-nuclear activists have warned that the deployment of the W76-2, thought to have a yield of about 5 kilotons, instead of being a “deterrent” actually increases the risk of nuclear war because it is considered to be “more usable” than the high-yield warheads. “Any use of this sea-based weapon—either first or second—will risk stoking the flames of conflict and escalating to all-out nuclear war,” Bruce Blair, the co-founder of the anti-nuclear group Global Zero told the AP. “A wiser response to an enemy’s use of one or two low-yield nukes would be to refrain from nuclear escalation while unleashing America’s ferocious and decisive conventional juggernaut.”

EU’s Josep Borrell Affirms Brussels Will Not Take Iran to UNSC over Nuclear Deal

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell was in Tehran, yesterday, to discuss with Iranian officials the way forward on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 deal by which Iran accepted restrictions on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of UN economic sanctions. After meetings with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, Borrell indicated that the Europeans will not be going to the UN Security Council despite triggering the dispute resolution mechanism of the JCPOA. “We are in agreement not to go directly to a strict time limit that would oblige to go to the (UN) security council,” he told reporters in Tehran, reported the Associated Press. “I asked to the Iranian authorities and I think they agree we have to continue with the survey of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he said. “We expect some positive steps on the nuclear side, and Iranians expect some positive steps in the economic side,” he said, and stating that those issues would be addressed in the coming weeks. Borrell said the EU is not interested in trying to end the 2015 nuclear deal, but to start a process that would “keep it alive.”

Libya Talks Begin in Geneva, While U.S. Security Delegation Is in Tripoli

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—The Joint Military Commission (5+5), which is part of the ceasefire and settlement process arranged at the Jan. 19 Berlin Conference on Libya, held its first session in Geneva on Feb. 3-4. The commission was able to meet after Libyan National Army commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar announced that the LNA would participate in the talks. Haftar had met in Rajma on Feb. 1 with United Nations envoy to Libya Ghassan Salame on political and economic issues reported by the UN Mission in Libya in a tweet. Five representatives from the LNA negotiated with five representatives of the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord, moderated by UN Envoy Salame, although they were in separate rooms.

Salame said the talks were aimed at transforming the truce into a real agreement for a sustainable ceasefire.

On Feb. 4, during an early break in the sessions, Salame had a press “stakeout,” in which he told media there was a “genuine will to start negotiating” to turn the truce into a lasting ceasefire, although he lamented the fact that the arms embargo was being violated by both sides and that new mercenaries and arms were still arriving “by air and by sea” in Libya.  He did stress, however, this was the first time “in a long time,” that high ranking officers of the two sides had met, if not “the very, very first time ever.”

Salame said the military talks were the first of three tracks. The second track will be economic and will take place in Cairo on February 9, and the third is the political track which hopefully will follow later in Geneva.

ECONOMY

‘CO2 Transition’ Targetting Rosneft and PetroChina

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—According to the Financial Times Lex column, “around $900 billion—or one-third of the current value of big oil and gas companies—would evaporate if governments more aggressively attempted to restrict the rise in temperatures to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels for the rest of this century.”

Disinvestment from CO2 assets would hit mostly national oil companies quoted on the stock market, whose asset prices would collapse, the FT writes. “The oil and gas producers exposed to the biggest potential hits are those that will need the longest time to use up their reserves. This is known as reserve life. If you focus on those groups with high carbon intensity and long reserve lives—those with the most to lose—the names that appear are Rosneft, ExxonMobil, PetroChina and BP….”

Bank Credit Squeeze To Enterprises

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—As the European Central Bank was pumping money in the stock market and other bubbles, bank credit to the real economy has been shrinking. At the EU level, the ECB reports an 8% contraction of loan demands to enterprises in the fourth quarter, and an increase of demands for housing and consumer loans.

Figures for Italy show a contraction of €47 billion in 2019, about 8%. From a 2015-2019 chart, a cumulative loss of €350 billion in five years can be presumed.

The situation in the U.S. is similar. Although commercial and industrial loans outstanding in the U.S. banking system grew by 2.2%, that growth took place from December 2018 to August 2019, a rise of about 3%. But since August, there has been a decline by 1%. (Household or consumer loans outstanding grew by 6% in the same period.)

Also in the U.S., New York Fed repo loan operations for Monday, Feb. 3 and Tuesday, Feb. 4 have jumped up into the $120-125 billion/day range, from $70-90 billion/day in the recent weeks. Also the repo rate rose from 1.55% which has been steady since the last rate cut, to 1.60% for overnight and two-week liquidity. The Fed last week quietly extended the program at least through April.

Argentina’s Buenos Aires Province Averts Default, as Major National Talks with IMF Loom

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—The government of Buenos Aires province, Argentina’s wealthiest and most populous, averted a default on its BP21 bond today, when it agreed to pay the $250 million that came due on Jan. 26. Earlier, on Jan. 14, Governor Axel Kicillof had proposed that bondholders accept a deferred payment until May 1, as otherwise the province would have to default. It was stipulated that holders of 75% of the bond’s principal had to agree to his proposal for it to go through.

Upwards of 50% of bondholders did agree, but according to Bloomberg, Ambito Financiero and other Argentine media, Fidelity Investments, which holds 25% of the bond’s principal, played hardball and rejected the deferment proposal. Thus at noon today, Kicillof announced he would dip into the province’s coffers and make the payment, explaining that a default would have grave consequences for the province as well as for the national government, which is about to begin renegotiating its debt with the IMF and with private creditors.

Denouncing Fidelity’s “intransigence,” Kicillof announced he would immediately begin the process of restructuring all provincial foreign currency debt, as it is “unsustainable and unpayable.” Late this afternoon, Bloomberg chortled that the mighty Fidelity had called Kicillof’s bluff and “won big,” and that this was a good sign for “investors” in future negotiations. With its “outsized stake” in the BP21 bond, Fidelity was able to “block the proposal,” Bloomberg boasted, quoting a Eurasia Group analyst predicting that since neither President Alberto Fernández nor his Finance Minister Martin Guzman want a default, they might be willing to “sacrifice debt relief” to avoid it.

President Fernández has been touring France, Spain and Germany this week, seeking support from those governments for his negotiating stance with the IMF. He has stated repeatedly that Argentina needs a four-year respite during which it won’t pay either principal or interest on its debt, in order to revive the economy and eventually be able to pay. Ambito Financiero reported today that German Chancellor Angela Merkel told Fernández in their Feb. 3 meeting that she agrees with his approach and intends to support it at the IMF.

THE NEW GLOBAL ECONOMIC ORDER

What Future for France—and a Frexit—after Brexit?

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—What impact will the Brexit have on France? Will it add the drop of water that could bring France, and other members of the EU, to finally opt out? That was the question on the minds of the 500 people in Paris attending a Brexit celebration on Jan. 31, only hours before the official midnight British exit, organized by François Asselineau, leader of a movement for the French exit, or Frexit, and president of the Popular Republican Union party.

Ten of the smaller but very active sovereignty movements, left and right, responded positively to Asselineau’s invitation, a big first for these currents, which until now had been trying to build on their differences to gain hegemony. Among them a handful of political figures have risen to national prominence. Three former presidential candidates from 2017: Jacques Cheminade, a close friend of the late Lyndon LaRouche; Nicolas Dupont-Aignan; and Asselineau, himself; as well as two figures who had played important roles in parties among the three frontrunners in those elections: Florian Philippot, former number two in Le Pen’s National Rally (Rassemblement National), and Djordje Kuzmanovic, formerly international affairs head  for Le France Insoumise of Jean-Luc Mélenchon; they have both have founded their own patriotic parties since then. And Philippe Pascot, an important figure from the Yellow Vests movement also attended.

While all used their allocated four minutes to congratulate the British people and pledge to lead France to follow suit, only Jacques Cheminade set out the main challenges for all after Brexit. Cheminade expressed his concern that “a great moment in history might lead only to a change for the City of London, the British Commonwealth and for their tax havens.” After Brexit, or even Frexit, we will still have to fight our main enemy, declared Cheminade, concerned that Brexiters such as Nigel Farage and others in France would remain die-hard supporters of the City of London’s financial power.

“To put it crudely, for ourselves, said Cheminade, when one is occupied, one fights the occupation, when one is colonized, one fights the colonialist. And today France is colonized, and occupied by the world of money, the financial oligarchy of the City and of Wall Street. That is our main enemy. The European Union, the euro and NATO are its conveyors, all aimed against our republican nations, against the very idea of a nation. We must therefore leave, as you all well know, in order to fight against the system of colonialism and occupation, to the very end.”

While all leaders were greeted warmly by the crowds who sincerely desire that they all join their efforts to ensure victory, Cheminade’s remarks, aimed at mapping the road to the future were very well received. What impact could these groups have on the 2022 presidential elections in France? At this point, two-thirds of the French electorate refuse to be made hostage again to a rigged choice between the incumbent Emmanuel Macron, the Europeanist, and the far-right scarecrow, Marine Le Pen. So the field is open for a truly patriotic candidate.

Macron Says Relaunching Dialogue with Russia Proved Its Effectiveness

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—Speaking at a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw, French President Emmanuel Macron said relaunching of the dialogue with Russia has proved its effectiveness for Ukrainian reconciliation.

“In the past weeks, the idea to give a new start to the dialogue with Russia demonstrated its efficiency for those who are concerned about the situation and want it to be resolved,” Macron said while on an official visit to Poland on Feb. 3, reported TASS.

“During the past years, there have been no summits [of the Normandy Quartet of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France] and no progress on ministerial agreements,” Macron said. “But after the relations with Russia had been restarted, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and I managed to achieve a previously unseen progress.”  The Normandy Quartet was able to have its first meeting in Paris in three years on Dec. 9, 2019.

Earlier in joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda Macron urged the necessity for holding arms control talks with Russia and the United States.  “France … wants to once again assume responsibility within the framework of a concrete dialogue on issues of arms control, especially on [weapons] that can strike Europe,” TASS quoted the French President as saying. “We should reverse the current situation, due to which we find ourselves in the state of international anomie. We need to reinstate reliable rules and procedures, and, being of the parties at the negotiating table, to protect [European Union] countries.”

He accused Moscow of having “failed to observe the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in past years,” and Washington of simply terminated it without consulting European partners.  “Why should we accept a situation when a treaty on weapons that can strike us is handled by two powers, who either fail to observe it or withdraw from it without consulting us?” Macron demanded to know.

Macron said that his country’s policy was “neither pro-Russian, nor anti-Russian,” but “pro-European.”  “I can see very well that Russia is Europe, although it’s not part of the European Union. But they are our neighbors. We absolutely don’t want a situation in which conflicts or misunderstandings accumulate in our relations with Russia,” he said. “France views security and stability of Europe and European partners as its absolute priority.”

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

MAVEN Finds That Mars’ Atmosphere Has Similarities to Earth’s

Feb. 4 (EIRNS)—Studying Mars’ atmosphere may explain a phenomenon on Earth. NASA’s MAVEN spacecraft orbiting Mars has found layers in the planet’s atmosphere very similar to layers about 60 miles above the Earth that interfere with radio transmissions, causing unpredictable disruptions. They can’t be easily studied on Earth, but can be on Mars. It is the plasma ionosphere in Earth’s atmosphere that carries the radio waves and can be disrupted by radio signals far from Earth.

Scientists have known about these transient electrically charged layers that form in Earth’s atmosphere for 80 years but have never been able to explain them. The findings by MAVEN were “unexpected.”

(Krafft Ehricke proposed development of “satelloids” to operate in precisely this lower region of Earth’s atmosphere. Though they wouldn’t last long due to the thickness of the atmosphere, they would produce unique data.)

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