THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2020 Volume 7, Number 31 EIR Daily Alert Service P.O. Box 17390, Washington, DC 20041-0390

• When Fate Hangs on a Forecast
• Putin May Address 75th Session of UN General Assembly, Urge Summit of Five Founding Nations
• Russia Warns United States Not To Quit Open Skies Treaty
• Democrats Look for New ‘Bombshell’ in Roger Stone Sentence Fight, but Trump Is Loaded for Bear
• India’s Prime Minister Modi Plans Big Welcome for Trump
• Pompeo Tries To Box Trump Into ‘All of Society’ War Against China
• Peace Corps Pulls Out of China, Under Pressure From Florida’s Republican Senators
• Legal Pot Is for Wimps, But Real Money Is in Start-Ups in Legalized LSD and Magic Mushrooms
• Brexit and the Blowout: British Empire Is Still Trying To Figure Out How To Survive It All
• German Farmers and Consumers Join To Replace Middlemen in Cartelized Food Chain
• Xi Jinping Has Personally Led Fight Against Novel Coronavirus Epidemic From Beginning

EDITORIAL

When Fate Hangs on a Forecast

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—It is proper that, as we commemorate the first anniversary of the Feb. 12, 2019 passing of Lyndon LaRouche, we turn to his concepts and method to evaluate the current strategic situation, and chart our course into the future. In the Sept. 7, 2007 issue of Executive Intelligence Review magazine, LaRouche published an article headlined “When Fate Hangs on a Forecast,” which began as follows:

“The actual, strategic purpose and function of competent economic forecasting, is not to attempt to predict what will happen, but to cause it to happen.

“Today’s subject is a field of combat in which I have developed certain unique skills, skills in that branch of strategic intelligence called long-range forecasting. This is not merely foreseeing, passively, what might be likely to happen; it is about crafting policies of the type which I am presenting, with the intention to bring about an urgently needed action which might rescue us from a currently onrushing, global financial disaster, an oncoming disaster which has now entered its terminal phase.

“It is not through bare perception that we might calculate what willful power lies, hidden from perception, between those mere dots upon the screen of our senses. It is by our acting upon the universe, to force its secrets to manifest themselves, not merely as perception, but manifest themselves as the higher authority of the mind which must test the unseen presence and suspected intentions of whatever willful power lies behind that action which might be otherwise only perceived.

“These unseen powers must be forced, thus, to reveal themselves. They must be forced to reveal not only the efficient presence hidden behind the footprints we call perceptions. We must test the suspected willful intentions of those powers, tested intentions which true science knows as universal principles, as such principles were known as dynamis to the Pythagoreans, or modern dynamics of Nicholas of Cusa, Johannes Kepler, Gottfried Leibniz, and Bernhard Riemann. From the knowledge which can be gained by us only in this way, we obtain the means by which man and woman made in the likeness of the Creator, are enabled to act more or less efficiently according to the manner which fulfils our mortal destiny, in a manner uniquely assigned to us by Him.

“On this account, the fact is, that, since the time, during 1953, I settled upon Bernhard Riemann’s method of physical geometry, no economic forecast I have ever delivered, has failed; and, only by exception has that forecast assumed the form of what might have appeared, mistakenly, by some, to have been what is usually regarded as merely a prediction.”

Today, more than 13 years later, the dominant reality shaping the planet is much as LaRouche forecast: the bankruptcy blowout of the trans-Atlantic financial system, and the 50-year descent into hell of the physical economies of its host nations and victims. The locust plagues devastating much of Africa and Southwest and South Asia; the hunger threatening large parts of Africa in particular; the emergence of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) which, had it not been for the heroic measures adopted by the Chinese government, might well have already swept every continent and most nations with uncounted casualties—these are all deadly problems that can be contained and defeated with the measures proposed decades ago by LaRouche. Crash scientific programs to develop fusion power, space colonization, and optical biophysics remain the urgent need of the day, in order to raise the overall technological platform of the noosphere, man’s physical economy, to cope with such crises.

Helga Zepp-LaRouche took up the issue of the various indications of the collapsing physical economy, in remarks on Feb. 11, where she urged “international cooperation with China to defeat the virus. The idea that this is a ‘Chinese virus’ is most despicable racism. I’m amazed that anybody could not see that, because there is no nationality to diseases. The West should rather help, and send medical teams, offer cooperation, and otherwise get together to defeat such new problems as the locust danger in Africa. Right now it would be possible to stop it, but if you don’t catch it early now, it will develop into a huge problem that will be much more difficult to get rid of after one year. Many people will die as a result of food shortages, because these locusts tend to just eat up every crop and leave devastation.”

Zepp-LaRouche continued: “There is a collapse of the West…. What we need is a new model of cooperation, a new paradigm where you stop this kind of geopolitical confrontation which can only lead to a disaster. And for that we need the Four Laws of Lyndon LaRouche. We absolutely need to think of the human species from the standpoint of the future.”

She concluded by urging people to take advantage of the fact that this is the Year of Beethoven, and that many people are listening to Beethoven’s music as a result. The deep cultural crisis we are facing is part of the overall decay throughout the trans-Atlantic sector, Zepp-LaRouche said, and listening to Classical music, most especially Beethoven, “is the best way to get people to elevate their mind. We need a cultural renaissance in the West.”

STRATEGIC WAR DANGER

Putin May Address 75th Session of UN General Assembly, Urge Summit of Five Founding Nations

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to address the September United Nations General Assembly, according to Russian government sources who spoke to Kommersant daily, where he will repeat his call for a summit of the leaders of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council: China, Russia, the U.S., France, and the U.K. Citing “informed sources in Russia’s government institutions, the issue [of Putin speaking] is being explored … [and] there is no doubt that the decision would be positive.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov would only state officially that no decision has been made yet.

“If the Russian leader flies to New York again this year, he is likely to focus not only on the significance of the UN but also on the special role and responsibility of the UN Security Council’s permanent members,” Kommersant reported, according to the TASS press review today. “Speaking at the World Holocaust Forum in late January, Putin suggested holding a meeting of the UN Security Council’s permanent members, stressing that they shoulder special responsibility for the preservation of civilization.”

Putin’s call is working in the same general direction as Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s Jan. 6 proposal for the leaders of Russia, China and the U.S. to meet to start a dialogue on the need for a new international security and economic architecture.

The Kommersant article further cites Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia saying that it would be “difficult to arrange such an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly because of the busy schedules of the participants.” Another possible occasion is the Victory Day celebrations in Moscow in May, that all five have been invited to, “but Kommersant’s interlocutors do not expect that it will be possible to bring all of them together on that occasion. Moscow is ready to consider other options, given the consent from its partners. So far, the initiative has been backed by China and France, while the U.S. and the U.K. have kept mum on the issue.”

Russia Warns United States Not To Quit Open Skies Treaty

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—The Director of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Department for Nonproliferation and Arms Control, Vladimir Ermakov, warned in an interview with Sputnik today that Russia will be forced to take countermeasures if the United States withdraws from the Open Skies Treaty, on the pretext that Russia is violating it.

“The U.S. has not made any official statement on its plans to leave the Open Skies Treaty. However, we regret its possible intention to do so over Russia’s alleged violations. If Washington decides to abandon the deal, we will be forced to provide an adequate response. We believe it is too early to discuss publicly what measures we could implement,” Ermakov said, reaffirming Russia’s intent to save the treaty as “one of the few remaining pillars of European security architecture.”

“We have communicated our stance to our U.S. colleagues. Unfortunately, the U.S. keeps repeating their traditional and absolutely groundless claims of Russia’s alleged non-compliance with the treaty, instead of thoroughly analyzing the situation and ways to preserve the agreement,” the official argued.

In response to media questions on Jan. 17, the Foreign Ministry had raised Russia’s commitment to maintaining the Open Skies Treaty, stating, “We deem it necessary to settle existing differences on the treaty’s implementation at talks with due consideration for the concerns of all sides. We are ready for joint practical work with all participants in the treaty.

“At the same time, U.S. withdrawal from the treaty will deal a serious blow at the entire system of European security and will compel us to take appropriate steps.”

The Treaty on Open Skies, signed on March 24, 1992, and which went into effect in 2012; it currently has 35 participants. The treaty gives its parties an opportunity to fly over other countries’ territories, in scheduled flights with unmanned aerial craft, to check on compliance with disarmament agreements.

U.S. POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC

Democrats Look for New ‘Bombshell’ in Roger Stone Sentence Fight, but Trump Is Loaded for Bear

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—Chuck Schumer is demanding that the DOJ Inspector General investigate “improper political interference in a criminal prosecution” over the Roger Stone sentence-correction memo from the Department of Justice. Jerrold Nadler is promising his House Judiciary Committee will “get to the bottom of this.” Adam “Shifty” Schiff hopes he might invent another “abuse of power” impeachment count against President Donald Trump. Nancy Pelosi, as usual, just ripped up the decision.

President Trump is not backing down from his attack on the entire judicial atrocity against Roger Stone.

The President tweeted this morning: “Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought. Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted. Even Bob Mueller lied to Congress!” He followed up shortly afterward: “Two months in jail for a Swamp Creature, yet 9 years recommended for Roger Stone (who was not even working for the Trump Campaign). Gee, that sounds very fair! Rogue prosecutors maybe? The Swamp!”

The President is also pressing on the case of former NSC staffer Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman as a coup participant, suggesting the colonel could face disciplinary action for lying about President Trump’s July 25, 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Trump responded to a reporter asking whether Vindman would face disciplinary action, saying, “That’s going to be up to the military.  We’ll have to see.  But if you look at what happened, I mean, they’re going to certainly, I would imagine, take a look at that.”

India’s Prime Minister Modi Plans Big Welcome for Trump

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is planning quite a welcome for President Donald Trump when he goes to India on Feb. 24-25, Trump indicated to reporters on Tuesday. In fact, Modi told him that there will be “millions and millions of people” out on the streets to greet him. “Maybe 5-7 million people just from the airport to the new stadium and you know, it’s the largest stadium in the world. He’s building it now. It’s almost complete,” Trump reported. The President then joked that after that, he’s not going to feel so good when he gets only 40-50,000 people out for a rally, as he did in New Hampshire on Feb. 10. He’s clearly looking forward to this trip, calling Modi “a friend of mine, he’s a great gentleman and I look forward to going to India.”

The President and First Lady will be going to New Delhi and also to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, the Prime Minister’s home state.

Pompeo Tries To Box Trump into ‘All of Society’ War against China

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—Fox TV host Lou Dobbs and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo teamed up last night for mutual Dr. Strangelove rants against “a highly sophisticated China that is expansionary and is insinuating itself into the very fabric of our society and our nation.” Pompeo threatened that Americans had better stay away from Chinese diplomats stationed in the United States, because they are “engaged in this activity—presumably of insinuating into [sic] our very fabric—and we just want everyone to be aware of the risks that are associated with activities that they may be undertaking.”

The clear purpose of the interview, however, was a fraudulent attempt to drag in President Donald Trump as sharing their rabid hostility to relations with China.

Not once did Pompeo mention Trump’s repeated statements in recognition of, and support for, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s efforts to make China great again, too. Instead:

Dobbs said: “The scale of what you are putting in front of us as a threat from the People’s Republic of China is massive. It is sophisticated. It’s complex.” Pompeo replied: “The President has talked about this…. We, for the first time, said, hey, here are the things that we want to do to protect the American people from this challenge that the Chinese Communist Party threatens.”

Dobbs asked about the case of China’s Thousand Talents Program at Texas A&M University, to which Pompeo replied: “People were unwilling to take on the challenge. President Trump is not willing to take”—he then corrected himself—“not afraid to take on that challenge. Our FBI, our Justice Department, are now working hard on these things.”

Dobbs continued: “It looks like a wholesale attempted buyout of our universities and our academics.” Pompeo replied: “The President has talked about this a lot. The theft of American intellectual property by the Chinese Communist Party is something that has been central. The President talked about this even in his campaign, even before he was elected….”

Peace Corps Pulls Out of China, under Pressure from Florida’s Republican Senators

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—The Peace Corps informed the U.S. Congress on Jan. 16 that it is ending its program in China, under which American volunteers have been teaching English to university students in poorer provinces of China since the early 1990s. The Corps planned a gradual closure, but, due to the novel coronavirus, all Peace Corps volunteers were pulled out this month.

Sen. Marco Rubio was the first to announce the decision, which he celebrated. It is Sen. Rick Scott, however, who is being credited with provoking the pullout, through his proposed “Peace Corps Mission Accountability Act.” Scott’s bill would place the Peace Corps, currently an independent agency operating under the White House, under the direction of the State Department, and require its programs be in line with U.S. foreign policy. It specifically mandates that no Peace Corps volunteers could operate in “hostile nations” such as China.

Scott recounted how he had been hounding the Peace Corps director to pull the agency out of China, in a frenzied anti-China letter to editor of the Wall Street Journal on Jan. 30.

This senator, a former venture-capitalist and the co-founder of the largest for-profit hospital chain in the U.S., Columbia HCA, wrote the Director-General of the World Health Organization Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Feb. 11, demanding that Dr. Tedros refuse to trust anything that “Communist China” reports about the novel coronavirus. This senator, parading as a defender of truth and capitalism, was the CEO of Columbia HCA when it was caught in major Medicare fraud.

Former Peace Corps China volunteer Steve Hess, now a professor at Transylvania University, suspects that the Peace Corps sacrificed the China program to save its independence. Hess is mobilizing support to reverse the cancellation, and telling The Hill that such a decision, when “our reputation with China is so fraught right now,” harms the U.S.-China partnership. “To solve world problems, we need to work with China. And Peace Corps was a part of maintaining that relationship.”

Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA), who served in the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, also calls the decision mistaken.

“The United States should maintain a Peace Corps presence in China…. The presence of the Peace Corps provides an important opportunity for Americans to gain an understanding of modern-day Chinese culture and society, that would be of significant value for American diplomacy,” he told The Hill.

Legal Pot Is for Wimps, but Real Money Is in Start-Ups in Legalized LSD and Magic Mushrooms

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—Bloomberg reported Feb. 11 that “The first companies developing medical treatments from psychedelic drugs like LSD, ketamine and psilocybin, the hallucinogen in “magic mushrooms” are gearing up to list on stock exchanges in Her Majesty’s colony of Canada. Mind Medicine Inc., which is undertaking clinical trials of psychedelic-based drugs, intends to list on Toronto’s NEO Exchange by the first week of March, said J.R. Rahn, the company’s co-founder and co-chief executive officer.”

Said Rahn in a phone interview: “Our ambition is to be one of the first publicly listed neuro-pharmaceutical companies developing psychedelic medicines.” This is the “treatment” advocated by Extinction Rebellion co-founder Gail Bradbrook, who frequents Latin America to spend days hallucinating under the care of shamans.

Bloomberg explained that “a growing number of companies are conducting clinical trials of psychedelic treatments for everything from depression to post-traumatic stress disorder, and some have recently received the blessing of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This has created a legal way for these companies to conduct research on otherwise illegal drugs, opening the door to public listings. In late 2018, the FDA gave ‘breakthrough therapy’ status to a psilocybin treatment developed by London-based Compass Pathways Ltd. for clinical depression, expediting the development process.”

The article described that “The Canadian Securities Exchange, which has become the go-to bourse for U.S. cannabis companies that can’t list in their home country, is also expecting listings from psychedelic drug companies in 2020…. There’s growing investor interest in psychedelics, said Ronan Levy, executive chairman of Field Trip Psychedelics Inc. Field Trip is building a network of clinics focused on ketamine-enhanced psychotherapy, with the first one opening in Toronto next month and others planned for New York City and Los Angeles. It’s also conducting research into psilocybin at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.”

An effusive Rahn concluded: “I think that the psychedelics industry [sic] could be much bigger than the cannabis industry because it’s going to attract institutional capital and already is starting to.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN FINANCIAL SYSTEM

Brexit and the Blowout: British Empire Is Still Trying To Figure Out How To Survive It All

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—Brexit, like the collapse of the political parties in the U.S., is proceeding inexorably in the fashion—and for the reasons—forecast years ago by Lyndon LaRouche, putting a rather desperate British financial oligarchy in uncharted waters. The big question for the City of London is whether, under Brexit, they can negotiate a “permanent equivalence” regime with the EU for their financial services. As a Feb. 12 Guardian article explains, “at the end of the transition period, the British financial services sector will no longer have the right to operate in the EU as it does today. The City will instead rely on Brussels judging that the U.K.’s regulations and supervisory systems are sufficiently robust—a so-called equivalence decision that can be overturned with as little as 30 days’ notice.” The reason the British instead want an “equivalence deal” is that it would allow “investment firms and clearing houses to serve European customers largely from their home base and avoid having to set up a subsidiary in the EU”—in other words, they could maintain control of the world derivatives trade and the trans-Atlantic financial system more broadly.

Former French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, the EU Brexit negotiator, yesterday created a splash when he told the Boris Johnson government in a speech: “I’d like to take this opportunity to make it clear to certain people in the United Kingdom authority that they should not kid themselves about this. There will not be general open-ended ongoing equivalence in financial services, nor other management or financial agreements with the United Kingdom. We will keep control of these tools, and we will retain the free-hand to take our own decisions.”

The issue arose because, supposedly “a briefing paper, snapped by a long-lens camera as it was taken into Downing Street on Monday, suggested the U.K. would seek in the coming negotiations a ‘permanent equivalence’ regime for financial services that would last for ‘decades to come,’ ” the Guardian reported. A photo with a long-lens camera—seriously?

The Guardian commented dolefully: “While all the focus on Brexit talks has been on goods, the financial services chapter in any trade deal is critical for the U.K. It employs more than 1 million people and contributes £127 billion to the economy,” according to a Feb. 11 article by Britain’s treasury minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid, writing in City AM.

German Farmers and Consumers Join To Replace Middlemen in Cartelized Food Chain

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—German farmers and their allies have begun to counter the ruthlessness of the middleman agencies that refuse to pay farmers parity prices for milk and agricultural products, while conspiring with the cartelized supermarket chains to make major gains from the price they charge the consumer, in their protest actions throughout the country. Retailers and stores have responded with their usual armtwisting efforts, threatening not to buy from the farmers if the latter insist on being paid enough to break even in their costs of production.

Therefore, farmers in several regions have launched initiatives in cooperation with consumer associations to create an independent network of retailers that cooperate with smaller supermarket chains and individual retailers to replace the middlemen with a direct marketing approach.

The effort may not necessarily offer consumers considerably lower prices, but it will give farmers more income and give preferences to regional farm products over the kind of cheap imports from outside Germany and outside Europe which the cartel supermarkets carry.

OTHER

Xi Jinping Has Personally Led Fight against Novel Coronavirus Epidemic from Beginning

Feb. 12 (EIRNS)—China’s English-language media is full of pictures of Chinese President Xi Jinping, wearing a blue medical mask, visiting a residential community, a hospital and a district center for disease control and prevention in Beijing. Xinhua reported on Feb. 10 that Xi maintained “the situation at the moment remains very serious, but expressed confidence that China can certainly obtain a full victory in the fight against the epidemic.”

The Xinhua article made the political point about Xi Jinping’s personal role. “Xi is the commander of the people’s war against the epidemic. Over the past few weeks, he has called multiple meetings, heard reports, made important instructions on the prevention and control work and discussed the topic with foreign leaders. One message is consistent and crystal clear: People always come first. Xi has stressed putting people’s lives and health as the top priority.”

A second Xinhua article discussed the impact of the virus and the containment measures on the economy, as well as the steps the government is taking in that regard. “Supportive measures have been taken. The central bank has added a total of 1.7 trillion yuan into the banking system to boost liquidity and stabilize financial markets. The central authority rolled out a favorable policy for small and micro-sized businesses, with supplies of power and raw materials, logistic services, and financial assistance put into place to help them resume production soon. Small and micro-sized companies are significant contributors to the Chinese economy, providing around 80% of employment, over 60% of GDP, and more than half of the tax revenue. Swift and targeted supportive policies should help avert widespread bankruptcies and large-scale layoffs, which are detrimental to Chinese society.”

Monday, Feb. 10, was the first working day for the majority of Chinese businesses after the extended Spring Festival holiday. As for when the crisis will peak, China’s top epidemiologist Zhong Nanshan stated Feb. 12 that the turning point cannot be predicted. He said mathematical models indicated that the turning point could arrive in mid- or late February, but no one knows for sure.

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