Author: Spencer

Brazil was the only member of the BRICS group not represented at the highest level at Moscow’s May 9 commemoration of the defeat of fascism. President Dilma Rousseff had intended to participate, and clearly wanted to go personally, but cancelled at the last minute, sending her Defense Minister, Jaques Wagner, in her stead. Wagner told Sputnik that she “really wanted to come, to be here to honor the 70th anniversary of the Victory Day.” Sputnik reported that Wagner “explained that she had to attend the wedding of a very close person to her, her physician, that had been scheduled a long time ago.”

Look outside Brazil for the actual reason. After Rousseff was reelected last October, on a campaign plank that included her commitment to Brazil’s participation on the BRICS, London’s financial oligarchy moved in to seize the reins of government. Under Finance Minister Joaquin Levy, interest rates have been jacked up to their highest rates since 2008, to a monstrous 13.25% for overnight bank borrowing! Brazilian Congressmen pummeled Levy in recent hearings about why he was implementing the very austerity policies which have destroyed Europe.

Simultaneously, a corruption scandal was launched against the state oil company, Petrobras (with vulture fund killer Paul Singer in the lead), which is being used to threaten President Dilma with impeachment, while paralyzing Brazil’s top engineering and construction companies, as well as Petrobras. Her Transport Minister exploded at a recent congressional hearing, that between the budget cuts and the Petrobras scandal, he didn’t even have the money to repair one highway, never mind build the rail, ports, etc. the country needs.

And then there is the White House. President Dilma has scheduled a visit to Washington to meet Barack Obama for June 30, her first since she cancelled a scheduled state visit in October 2013, after Snowden revealed that Brazil’s top businesses and the President herself were being spied on by the NSA.

For a year and a half, President Dilma had refused to reschedule until Obama gave written guarantees that the spying had stopped and would not resume—which he continues to refuse to do. Obama didn’t change, but President Dilma’s circumstances have. The visit was sealed when Dilma and Barack met on the sidelines of the Summit of the Americas in Panama on April 11.

The dam has broken. Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was left to sputter this Tuesday afternoon that “the Democratic Senate has just shut down the opportunity to debate the top economic priority of the Democratic President…[because]…every Senator but one of the President’s own party voted against the President’s 1 domestic priority.”

That, after President Obama and his Republican allies fell eight votes short of the 60 votes needed to open debate on handing Obama “Fast Track” authority to impose the British Empire’s would-be final stage in globalized looting, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its matching European accord.

Passage in the House of Representatives was known to be dubious; until not long ago, the Senate was considered “on board.” The rising tide of hatred against Wall Street and its Obama stooge has now overturned this consensus, too.

People around the world are chuckling over scenes such as a perturbed Republican McConnell expressing his agreement with Obama’s recent nasty attacks on his Democratic party free trade opponents; or, of members of the White House press corps grinning as an ABC News correspondent dismissed White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest’s protestations that the vote was only a “procedural SNAFU,” with such questions as: “Can you remind us again of what ‘SNAFU’ stands for?”

The blow to Obama’s already-shredded aura of power should make for a much more contentious TPP ministerial meeting come May 26—if that meeting proceeds as planned, at all. By contrast, no such problems have emerged around the preparations for the July BRICS summit in Ufa, Russia, where a very different program of trade and development cooperation is on the agenda.

Democratic opposition against this Wall Street trap escalated up to the moment of voting. Going into the day, California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer joined fellow Senators and labor leaders livid against Obama’s lies that Congressmen were free to read the treaty, recounting her adventures in trying to do just that.

Probable Presidential candidate Gov. Martin O’Malley sent out a mass e-mail, calling on his supporters to “Tell Congress to stop TPP,” when they voted today. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Rosa DeLauro came out slamming the President, in a joint op-ed in the Boston Globe on Monday, “Who Is Writing the TPP?”

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) International President Tom Buffenbarger yesterday issued the following statement after the Senate failed to advance Fast Track legislation: “Today, working Americans sent a thunderous message to supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: The days of sitting on the sidelines as disastrous free-trade deals are railroaded through Congress are over.” The IAM is lobbying on Capitol Hill both to reject the TPP and to restore Glass-Steagall—the decisive step now required of Congress.

The dam has broken. Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was left to sputter this Tuesday afternoon that “the Democratic Senate has just shut down the opportunity to debate the top economic priority of the Democratic President…[because]…every Senator but one of the President’s own party voted against the President’s 1 domestic priority.”

That, after President Obama and his Republican allies fell eight votes short of the 60 votes needed to open debate on handing Obama “Fast Track” authority to impose the British Empire’s would-be final stage in globalized looting, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and its matching European accord.

Passage in the House of Representatives was known to be dubious; until not long ago, the Senate was considered “on board.” The rising tide of hatred against Wall Street and its Obama stooge has now overturned this consensus, too.

People around the world are chuckling over scenes such as a perturbed Republican McConnell expressing his agreement with Obama’s recent nasty attacks on his Democratic party free trade opponents; or, of members of the White House press corps grinning as an ABC News correspondent dismissed White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest’s protestations that the vote was only a “procedural SNAFU,” with such questions as: “Can you remind us again of what ‘SNAFU’ stands for?”

The blow to Obama’s already-shredded aura of power should make for a much more contentious TPP ministerial meeting come May 26—if that meeting proceeds as planned, at all. By contrast, no such problems have emerged around the preparations for the July BRICS summit in Ufa, Russia, where a very different program of trade and development cooperation is on the agenda.

Democratic opposition against this Wall Street trap escalated up to the moment of voting. Going into the day, California’s Sen. Barbara Boxer joined fellow Senators and labor leaders livid against Obama’s lies that Congressmen were free to read the treaty, recounting her adventures in trying to do just that.

Probable Presidential candidate Gov. Martin O’Malley sent out a mass e-mail, calling on his supporters to “Tell Congress to stop TPP,” when they voted today. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Rosa DeLauro came out slamming the President, in a joint op-ed in the Boston Globe on Monday, “Who Is Writing the TPP?”

International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) International President Tom Buffenbarger yesterday issued the following statement after the Senate failed to advance Fast Track legislation: “Today, working Americans sent a thunderous message to supporters of the Trans-Pacific Partnership: The days of sitting on the sidelines as disastrous free-trade deals are railroaded through Congress are over.” The IAM is lobbying on Capitol Hill both to reject the TPP and to restore Glass-Steagall—the decisive step now required of Congress.

The setback to Obama’s TPP free trade policy today in the U.S. Senate—at the hands principally of his “own” Democratic Party—is a bad bloody nose for him. It could be a real break in the dam, Lyndon LaRouche commented today, given how utterly contemptible Obama has become. He is now rolling down hill, and there is no way he can win—he can only screw things up.

On the other hand, the leadership of the BRICS nations are thinking strategically, LaRouche emphasized, as they rapidly move forward to put a new international financial architecture in place. China’s decision to double its planned investment in its joint project with Russia to build a 770-km high speed rail line between Moscow and Kazan, is indicative of such thinking. Similarly, Moscow’s invitation to Greece to join the BRICS New Development Bank and receive credit for development projects, which was personally transmitted to Prime Minister Tsipras by Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, including an invitation to meet with the BRICS representatives on the sidelines of the upcoming mid-June St. Petersburg International Economic Forum—which itself will be significantly shaped around spreading the BRICS process globally.

It’s not just that these BRICS policies have been placed on a fast track, LaRouche emphasized; they are strategic in design. They are designed to supplant the bankrupt trans-Atlantic financial system, and its attendant drive for thermonuclear war.

But don’t expect the British Empire to go quietly. For example, the Brazilian government of Dilma Rousseff is in their cross-hairs, as what they hope is a weak link in the BRICS chain. Rousseff was the only BRICS head of state who did not travel to Moscow for the May 9 Victory Day celebration, despite her desire and stated intention to do so, because she was massively pressured and threatened by the British and their apparatus inside Brazil. Rousseff has limited power and she was subjected to more pressure than she was able to buck, LaRouche commented today, coming from the oligarchic faction in Brazil that we know well. They have a highly regulated system, and their treatment of their own poor is criminal.

But this is not a Brazilian thing. It is just like what we saw recently in Baltimore, LaRouche emphasized; it is the same policy as the Confederacy, a policy dictated by the British Empire. It’s what you are also seeing in California, coming from Gov. Jerry Brown: a policy of intentional population reduction. This is not just some misguided bad idea; it is rabid, savage, and intentional. It is genocide, and it must be stopped.

The roots of America’s present decline, that we would today tolerate such immoral policies, trace to the very beginning of the 20th century. It was then that Bertrand Russell and his followers, destroyed competent science and classical culture throughout the trans-Atlantic region, including the United States. That destruction of science, and its replacement by mere mathematics—and its axiomatic insistence that economics is a bestial zero-sum game—has led to the demise of our physical economy, with implicitly genocidal consequences. We lost science, despite the defense of it waged by the one competent real scientist and public advocate of the 20th century, Albert Einstein, LaRouche stated.

That is the long-wave policy which now must be reversed, LaRouche concluded.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini introduced a bill to the UN Security Council yesterday, drafted by the U.K., calling for authority to use military force in Libya, supposedly to stop the trafficking in refugees through the Mediterranean. Sounding very much like the original authorization for a “no-fly zone to protect civilians” in Libya in 2011, which was then used to justify an all-out bombing campaign and the overthrow and murder of Qaddafi, the bill is being drafted under Chapter 7 of the UN charter which allows the use of force and would give an EU maritime force the right to act in Libyan territorial waters.

Britain’s Guardian reported yesterday that the operation would come under Italian command, with 10 EU countries engaged, including Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, “and could also drag in NATO although there are no plans for initial alliance involvement.”

The Guardian also reports that the British draft

for destruction. Since neither of the competing Libyan governments have approved, and since the Libyan army has anti-aircraft and other military equipment to protect its borders, such an operation would almost certainly become another full-scale war on Libya.

The Guardian claims that Mogherini, following a visit to Beijing last week, “believes the Chinese will not block the mission at the Security Council,” adding that her staff are “confident that Russia can be persuaded against wielding its Security Council veto” to stop the new war.

However, unlike Obama’s 2011 war, when China and Russia abstained under the false promises from Obama that it was only “humanitarian protection” and not be regime change, Russia appears unwilling to be suckered again. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin last week said the plan to destroy the vessels was “going too far.” 

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini introduced a bill to the UN Security Council yesterday, drafted by the U.K., calling for authority to use military force in Libya, supposedly to stop the trafficking in refugees through the Mediterranean. Sounding very much like the original authorization for a “no-fly zone to protect civilians” in Libya in 2011, which was then used to justify an all-out bombing campaign and the overthrow and murder of Qaddafi, the bill is being drafted under Chapter 7 of the UN charter which allows the use of force and would give an EU maritime force the right to act in Libyan territorial waters.

Britain’s Guardian reported yesterday that the operation would come under Italian command, with 10 EU countries engaged, including Britain, France, Spain, and Italy, “and could also drag in NATO although there are no plans for initial alliance involvement.”

The Guardian also reports that the British draft

for destruction. Since neither of the competing Libyan governments have approved, and since the Libyan army has anti-aircraft and other military equipment to protect its borders, such an operation would almost certainly become another full-scale war on Libya.

The Guardian claims that Mogherini, following a visit to Beijing last week, “believes the Chinese will not block the mission at the Security Council,” adding that her staff are “confident that Russia can be persuaded against wielding its Security Council veto” to stop the new war.

However, unlike Obama’s 2011 war, when China and Russia abstained under the false promises from Obama that it was only “humanitarian protection” and not be regime change, Russia appears unwilling to be suckered again. Russian Ambassador to the UN Vitaly Churkin last week said the plan to destroy the vessels was “going too far.” 

While Greece’s European “partners” have cut all credit to Greece, Russia has invited Greece to participate in the BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB). Russia Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, who is Russia’s representative of the NDB, told Athens-Macedonia News Agency (ANA-MPA). According to the Greek press agency, its memberships would allow for the funding of a series of development projects, especially if Greece is forced out of the Eurozone or is forced to default.

Storchak proposed, with respect to Greek-Russian relations and how they can further develop,

  Most importantly, though, he stressed that the “BRICS bank” as the NDB is often nicknamed, is the second such global institution that not only concerns development projects in Brazil, India, Russia, South. Africa and China, but more widely in most countries of the world.

He detailed how the governing of the bank works, including how Greece would be able to join and have full access to funding possibilities. He said he would not be surprised if Greece will be the first state to submit a funding request as a full member.