Author: Alicia

In his July 18 dialogue with the Manhattan Project and subsequently, Lyndon LaRouche has spoken with a new level of frankness on both the depth and the immediacy of the danger facing the world today, and also on the shocking refusal of even most people who consider themselves the most dedicated and the best-informed, to really understand what time it is. We’re on the verge of the collapse of the trans-Atlantic system, which can come in various ways. Most of those ways are very, very bad ways: they involve the extermination of most Americans for one thing. But they’re not aware of it, and they want to deny that such a thing could exist,— but that’s exactly what does exist.

They talk among each other, and they come up with consoling ideas which should not be adopted. We have to take a harder fight on this, because we’re in dangerous waters in the short term. These summer months, this very month itself, is a deadly month. People who are trying to get a long-term view of what the future is, are worse than wasting time. We need certain actions immediately.

Too many do not understand the issue, because they have too many facts that clutter up their attention. The situation is presently deadly. We’re approaching a terminal state of international affairs very rapidly right now. “I know what has to be done,” LaRouche said, but he has great difficulty in getting it understood. “We sunk Hillary: one of our members sunk Hillary, by inducing her, in fact, to make a fool of herself. This has gotten things disrupted. But our situation is not such that you could get a deductive insight into the course of history right now. This thing is ready to blow, fully. I’m thinking in terms of days and weeks, at most, before the whole thing comes to a decision. I think right now, the threat is potentially, hopefully, that the British Queen would be thrown out by the British themselves. We’re waiting for the effect within a week or so: is the British Monarchy going to collapse globally?”

Of course, we can’t say, “What do we bet on?” We have to act to influence the event such that it’ll be determined, partly, by our influence. But the idea that you can deduce effects in practical ways: forget it, that’s gone. What my associates and I do to fight in our organization is indispensable. But the question is getting a clear view of what this about. Not diminishing things on the horizon; you’ve got to see the horizon. It may be a big storm coming on. Well, this is not an ordinary storm. It turns out to be something much more forceful.

What we’re doing, is often what I’m able to do. That’s the problem. On this, the great majority is hopeless. They have no realization of what the reality of things is, right now. They just don’t have it. They have specific issues, and they miss the big ones, the ones that are most important. You think you’re getting a thundershower; you find out you’re getting a tornado. And the good thing is that the British monarchy is on the verge of collapse. That’s the good news. They may escape it, but I doubt it. And it’s probable that in two weeks or so, we will get the end of the British Monarchy. But people don’t see it. It’s coming like a thunderstorm, or like a tornado on the horizon of immediate experience. And the British Monarchy is doing everything to prevent that collapse. But now, the collapse has control of them. It could be two weeks. We don’t know, but we know those are the kinds of things we’re facing in the next week or so.

We’ve come to the point: people have been fooling around, “Yes, but; my experience; our experience; this is going to happen; that’s not going to happen…” It’s nonsense. Because they all believe in statistical methods. And statistical methods are the mark of the idiot. Because the future of mankind lies in the future, not in experience of the past. And the idea of being practical, using statistics, things like that, is what makes people impotent. Makes fools of them. I gave a lesson over the weekend (July 18), which should be a lesson for them to study. That kind of exposition should be the method; when you try to interpret a couple of facts, as your method of policy-shaping, you’re really incompetent; you’re pitiful. You have to look at the future; don’t rely on statistics; never believe in statistics ever, especially now. People don’t realize that what they’ve been educated to believe in, is actually poisonous and foolish. When I hear the words, “Let’s be practical,” I say, “Mankind is committing suicide.”

Put a cheerful point on it: say, “what we’ve believed in was all crap; now let’s get serious.” People speak of the merits of experience. I try to warn them about experience.

People believe, first of all, in statistics. These are forces of demoralization and degeneration which have come in since 1890. The beliefs which have been established under the aegis of that conception, have deluded people to where they have no intelligence of the future. They think of statistics, and people who believe in statistical evidence are just fools. They’ll be caught up by the first storm which catches them. They don’t see the future. At best, they see what they have experienced in the immediate past, or what they think might be the immediate future. It’s just gibberish. Just think of everything printed in newspapers. It’s absolutely incompetent; it’s a fraud.

They say, “We need more information.” What they need is to get rid of some of the information which is fraudulent information. It’s much easier to pick up fraudulent information supplied to you, than it is to discover the truth, which always lies in the future. And you know that the US population today has almost no conception of the future, of an actual future of mankind, none. Their future is what they hope or expect for themselves, in the immediate period, their ambitions and their fears. But they don’t have a scientific outlook, because they’re all practical people. And practical people are stupid people, because they’re all going from deduction, deduction from experience. And that’s the greatest threat to the human race, of foolishness, which is sort of a global disease.

We tend to have delusions, we believe in things, we try to console ourselves. I have a different life. I worry about different things. I see the things which preoccupy most others, but they’re not the major things. Something immediate, something unsettling is seen, but the sight of the process is lost. We just have to improve our diagnoses of things. Be less tempted to draw conclusions from recent or side experiences. We’re on the edge of the self-extermination of the human species; in the larger sense, that’s the problem. But people are so much concerned about other matters, which to them are a priority, that they overlook the most important things concerning the existence of the human species. And there are some people who get onto these ideas, but then the overwhelming popular opinion goes against them. If you eliminated all the Wall Street people from the equation, you could probably get a good insight into the matter.

I have to fight another day, because I know, most of us so far, are still swallowed by follies. We’ve made too many mistakes, in effect. To many false values. And a lot of bad misinformation.

We’re on the edge, and if we continue the way we’re going, we’re going to go over the edge. Because, the belief in the statistical outlook on life is the most poisonous and destructive thing imaginable. When someone says, “Be practical,” you should shoot them, as the most merciful act for them.

People tend to learn from experience, but they don’t see what they have not yet experienced. They believe too much in experience to date. Our society is not organized,— take the US,— in the way which is necessary for the well-being of our people; they have delusions. You can pick up what the delusions are from almost any street-corner. They’re running around with delusions. The economy is disintegrating at a rapid rate. The condition of life of our citizens is plummeting. The prospects of our survival are plummeting. And society does not respond to attacking those threats. They want to solidify their existing opinions, their existing prospects as they see them. They’re ignorant of the truth of the situation. They’re totally disarmed. A thunderstorm could come along, and sweep them all off the map of the earth. Their eyes or their opinions are gazing in the wrong direction. They’re not paying attention to reality. They’re paying attention to their wishful fantasies, or their meaningless fears.

With the establishment of the BRICS New Development and Contingency Reserve Agreement as a centerpiece, other institutions required to have a functioning alternative to the disintegrating trans-Atlantic system are also being put in place. Russia and China continue to work on establishing a BRICS version of the SWIFT bank clearing system. And China has now taken steps to set up a new credit-rating agency and other facilities to help with the financing of projects along the New Silk Road.

That new credit-rating agency has just given the highest ranking to China, Russia, Malaysia, Singapore, and the UAE—not exactly what one might expect from S&P and Moodys!

Xinhua Finance describes its new service as follows:

“The Internet-based package is currently available in both Chinese and English, including four major products and services — the Silk Road Database, Xinhua Credit Reports, Consulting and Thinktank Services and a `business match-making’ instant messaging system. The database includes information on laws and regulations, latest policies, macroeconomic development, project information and investment risk assessment in countries along the Belt and Road.

“The credit information service offers credit and risk assessment reports on countries, companies and investment projects as references for investment decisions. The consulting and thinktank service provides clients with customized consultations from Xinhua’s global information networks and professional economic analysts.

“Another innovative feature is a deal-making platform designed to facilitate online business negotiations and promote business connections for investment projects. Xinhua also released an index on the technology, infrastructure and investment environment of Belt and Road countries on Thursday.

“With 41 sub-indices, the index analyzes the technology levels, economic development, as well as political, social, communication and transportation conditions of countries along the Belt and Road routes. Singapore, China, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates and Russia are the top-performing countries among those surveyed, the index showed.” 

On Tuesday, at the opening ceremony of the BRICS’ New Development Bank (NDB) in Shanghai, Chinese Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said that the bank’s role in the coming years will be to help strengthen the economies of developing nations.

“The NDB is a new member and partner to the global development system. NDB’s support for infrastructure construction will effectively ease the bottleneck that has constrained emerging and developing nations for a long time, and will offer support for their economies’ upgrade and growth,” said Lou, according to the BRICS Post independent online daily.

The inauguration of the NDB was attended by Mayor Yang Xiong of Shanghai, where it will be based, and NDB President K.V. Kamath, among others. Kamath said, “The Bank would look at tapping financial and capital markets in BRICS nations” to “raise local-currency funds, so that in a way we break the challenge and the cost of dealing in hard currencies,” the Indian edition of Business Insider, a major business website, reported.

Lou Jiwei said the BRICS Bank will work closely with the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). Kamath made clear that, after a meeting with the AIIB in Beijing, the NDB had decided to set up a “hotline” with the AIIB to discuss issues, and to forge closer ties between “new institutions coming together with a completely different approach,” Livemint portal reported today. At the conclusion of the July 8-9 BRICS Summit in Ufa, Russia, close cooperation between the NDB and the AIIB was announced in the joint communiqué.

In addition, NDB Vice President Vladimir Kazbekov of Russia told TASS today that the NDB will start screening investment projects before this year is over. “Certainly, each country has its portfolio of projects. I think serious screening will start already by the end of the year,” Kazbekov said, Tass reported.

Solidarité et Progrès reported the reaction of Nicolas Hulot, the person in charge of organizing the COP21 Summit on Climate Change to be held in France in December, to a question posed today at the Summit of Conscience here, by Christine Bierre, editor-in-chief of Nouvelle Solidarité.

The response of Hulot, sheds light on the goals of the organizers of the Summit of Conscience and COP21.

Christine Bierre: Does Prince Philip of Edinburgh support this summit, and does this summit go in the direction of his campaign to reduce world population ?

Nicolas Hulot: I don’t know if he’s supporting the summit, but indirectly the presence of Martin Palmer at this Summit [Palmer, a close adviser to the Prince, had just chaired the morning session] seems to confirm that, and I think all this is going in the same direction as the thoughts, hopes, and aspirations of Prince Philip of Edinburgh.

Bierre: Including his desire, stated several times, to become reincarnated as a deadly virus in order to eliminate excess population?

Hulot: I haven’t read that; I cannot answer your question.

Hulot’s admission must be understood in the same light as the British daily The Sun‘s publication of videos of the future Queen of England making the Nazi salute, along with other members of her family, in 1933. Britain’s Channel 4 Television is preparing a program on its own historical research on the links between the British Royal Family and the Nazi regime, which will air July 30.

Prince Philip declared in August 1988, according to Deutsche Presse Agentur: “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation.”

Martin Palmer, Secretary General of the Alliance for Religions and Conservation (ARC), founded by Prince Philip of Edinburgh in 1995, is the advisor to Prince Philip on climate questions. In statements attacking the “anthropocentric gospel,” he attacks the difficulties that religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have in accepting that “human beings are simply not important, and that it is important to have a discussion among officials of different religions in order to eliminate the idea there is something unique about human beings.”

Nelson Mandela’s birthday is a day of celebration in South Africa. Ramasimong Phillip Tsokolibane, leader of LaRouche South Africa, released the following statement on this occasion. Mandela’s clan name, “Madiba”—mentioned at the end of this statement—is a widely used term of endearment.

“Our father, Nelson Mandela, had a rich and full life, accomplishing much, not only for our nation, but for all of mankind. His was an exceptional life, one full of struggle and hardship, but whose reward was the creation of this nation, not for black people, or for any race, but for all of us, whose common destiny he sought to define.

“But Mandela’s hope for our better future was not confined to his beloved country. His heart was universal, as was his concern for all of mankind. He realised, like the great American President Abraham Lincoln, that no man or woman can be free if any among us are enslaved. And, while nations could be declared free, neither that nation nor its people could be truly free and human if they are forced lived in poverty and the enforced backwardness of modern economic slavery. Our father sought to free not only our people from this ‘slavery without chains’, but all of Africa as well. But here he needed partners, and it was in this that he was betrayed, including by the governments of Europe and the United States, who honoured him as a great man, but who refused to launch the economic projects and provide the needed assistance to lift our people and Africa out of backwardness and poverty. This was not Mandela’s failure, but a failure of global leadership, especially of the United States, whose very birth came in the fight against the British imperial system that still enslaves most of the world through economic imperialism.

“Today, we must find inspiration from our father’s vision of a new and just economic order founded on human progress, and re-dedicate ourselves to its realisation. We should do this knowing that a dying, British-dominated system of imperialism, slavishly followed by a corrupted government of the United States, finds itself challenged by a new emerging system that places the progress sought by Mandela ahead of financial and monetary profits for a class of super-rich oligarchs. Mandela has finally, and at long last, found his allies in the nations of the BRICS alliance, in which South Africa plays a major role along with Brazil, India, and the great global powers, Russia and China. Their power lies not in force of arms but in the marshaling and deployment of credit on behalf of development, especially for nuclear power. As Pope Paul VI famously said, “the new name of peace is development.”

“So, on this anniversary our leader’s birth, let us honour his memory by dedicating ourselves to his mission. We must end, once and for all, the British imperial system of economic slavery, whose savage fury has recently been unleashed against the brave Greek people who dared to challenge its authority. This we will do with the help of our BRICS allies, steering this troubled world safely onto a new course of history.

“This is not a partisan issue, but a human one, that speaks of our love for mankind and its possibilities for the future on this planet and beyond. We aim high. Madiba would have it no other way.”

Sign & Circulate the Petition for the West to work with the BRICS!

London’s Financial Times displayed its nervousness on Monday over Glass-Steagall seizing the cutting edge in the U.S. presidential elections, by dredging-up discredited sleazeball Barney Frank to deliver “a message for Elizabeth Warren and her band of progressive Democrats: building a wall between traditional lenders and riskier investment banks is not the way to make the financial system safer.”

The London paper worries that the Democratic Party is splitting between those who back Glass-Steagall (“long-shot challengers” Martin O’Malley and Bernie Sanders, among them), and those standing with Wall Street. Hillary Clinton, it writes, is “trying to straddle that divide.” Anti-Glass-Steagall campaigner Barney Frank (of “Dodd-Frank” notoriety) tells the Financial Times that he has “given advice” to Hillary Clinton on financial reform “in two conversations, and more with an assistant.”

But even Fortune magazine weighed in for Glass-Steagall, publishing an article by regular contributor Eleanor Bloxham welcoming the Senate Glass-Steagall bill as “a long overdue stride toward reining Wall Street back in.”

Bloxham describes how Glass-Steagall has become a defining issue in the Democratic presidential primaries, and warns Hillary Clinton that her failure to join Sanders and O’Malley in backing Glass-Steagall could be her downfall:

“If you are seeking election as a Democratic Party candidate, a failure to endorse Glass-Stegall could be a risky bet of its own—a gamble, perhaps, that money will trump voters in the upcoming Democratic primaries.” Bloxham, a corporate governance expert who began her career in Wall Street before founding the Corporate Governance Alliance, then lays out what she calls the “many practical, boots-on-the-ground reasons Congress should pass it now.”

The conservative Washington Examiner, for its part, trotted out two would-be “experts” to purvey stupidities about how Glass-Steagall cannot, will not, and should not work. The Examiner had to admit, however, that Glass-Steagall, while being revived by progressive activists and Democratic Presidential hopefuls, “is an idea that has support across the political spectrum. John McCain, R-Ariz, co-sponsored Warren’s bill. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., has expressed support for it in the past, as has former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the chairman of the powerful Senate Banking Committee, voted against repealing Glass-Steagall in 1999.”

What worries the Glass-Steagall opponents, is that it is the fighters of the LaRouche movement who are leading the drive for its reinstatement. Washington Examiner‘s Joseph Lawler frets that “the most fanatical supporters of the law, however, are followers of Lyndon LaRouche, the fringe perennial political candidate whose views are difficult to categorize. It was an organizer with LaRouche PAC who interrupted Clinton during a speech on the economy last week to challenge her on Glass-Steagall.” 

Want to hear what your fellow Americans—of all political stripes—are thinking about the strategic situation? Tune in this Thursday at 9PM Eastern for our weekly Q&A dialogue with Mr. LaRouche. Have a question yourself? Call our national center at 800-929-7566 to get on the call live, or write your question in the YouTube comments section and we’ll get them to our host, John Ascher. 

The backlash against the genocidal deal shoved down the throat of the Greek government by the EU, continues to escalate.  Over the past days, two Daily Telegraph leading economic writers, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Liam Halligan, warned of the doom of the eurozone and lambasted the European Commission in Brussels for what one EU official, cited by Pritchard, called the “psychological ‘water boarding’ of Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.”  Pritchard noted that, “There is not the slightest chance that Greece will be able to stabilize its debt and return to viability under the Carthaginian settlement imposed on Alexis Tsipras… The latest paper by the International Monetary Fund has torn away the fig-leaf.  The country needs a 30-year moratorium on debt payments and probably outright subsidies to recover from the devastation of the past six years… Some are already comparing the terms to the Versailles Treaty, but this does not quite capture the depravity of it.”

Pritchard went on to say that the only viable option for Greece was the proposal for a departure from the Euro—a proposal, ironically, that was put forward by German Finance Minister Schaeuble as early as 2012.  Pritchard said, however, that German Chancellor Merkel used the threat of Greek expulsion to terrorize Tsipras into capitulation.  “So we now have the worst of all worlds.  The deal is an atrocity.  The crisis has not been resolved. The integrity of the EMU has been breached. Greece has been publicly crushed and humiliated, yet for no purpose.  The country cannot possibly meet the demands.  There is no debt relief (other than a vague and worthless promise for the future).”  Pritchard concluded that Greece’s exit from the Euro is inevitable.

Liam Halligan wrote that the recent statements by U.S. Fed Chairwoman Janet Yellen and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney about looming interest rate hikes will not happen, because the crisis in Europe has not been in the least resolved, the EMU is in shambles, and the U.S. economy is not actually growing. “Western Europe, with its powder-keg currency union, and moribund banking sector, sporting over a trillion euros of non-performing loans, remains in grave danger of the systemic lurch. Policymakers everywhere know it.”

Stephen Lendman picked up, in a weekend column, on the latest interview given by former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, who told BBC that the deal had “failed already.” Varoufakis explained, “We were given a choice between being executed (or) capitulation.”  Lendman added, “Tsipras chose the latter option instead of the obvious alternative one: voluntary Grexit, leaving a sinking ship, defaulting on odious debt, regaining monetary and fiscal control along with regaining full national sovereignty beholden to no foreign powers.”

Lendman ended by observing that “The Eurozone was doomed from inception.  Unworkable ideas can’t stand the test of time. Greece is the first crack in the system.  Expect others to follow.  It’s just a matter of time before dissolution becomes reality.”

Wolfgang Munchau, writing in the Financial Times, concluded, as well, that the Grexit is now inevitable as the consequence of the wretched deal that was imposed.

Where’s the new bailout money going? Not to the Greek people. This is clear. Friday, the European Economic and Financial Affairs Council (Ecofin) of the 28 EU economic and finance ministers, officially approved the “bridge loan” of EU7.16 billion to cover debt payments while the new bailout is negotiated. Of that, EU4.5 billion is going directly to the European Central Bank on July 20 to pay interest on Greek bonds held by the ECB; the rest is going to the IMF to cover the payments Greece failed to make at the end of June, which only covers payments up to Aug. 20. Later in August another payment is due to the ECB, which Greece, without a bailout, will not be able to make. If Greece does not make these payments, and Greece does not have the money to pay them, then Greece’s entire unsustainable debt pile would be declared in default, a move whose consequences would go way beyond Greece.

The bridge-loan funds came from the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), according to European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis, who said that Great Britain expressed its strong opposition regarding funding via the ESM, of which it is a financial backer although it is not in the Eurozone. Reportedly, Britain has made an arrangement that it would not suffer losses if the ESM loan to Greece were defaulted on.

The negotiations for a new bailout are currently being approved by parliaments throughout Europe (in nations requiring votes). Germany, Austria, and Latvia voted up approval for the talks. The negotiations could result in a new bailout of between EU82 billion to more than EU90 billion. Where will the money go?

The popular Greek website DefenceNet published a preliminary rundown of where it claims the debt will be going. It includes:

—EU29.7 billion for loan repayments within the Eurozone

—EU9.9 billion to the IMF

—EU5.5 billion to private debt holders.

—EU25 billion for the recapitalization of the banking system (which was destroyed when ECB cut off liquidity)

—EU17.2 billion in interest payments on debt.

—EU7 billion for domestic debt.

—EU7.7 billion for the liquidity of the banking system.

As for France’s backing for debt relief, French Finance Minister Michel Sapin told Europe 1 radio, that debt relief could involve measures such as an extension of maturities, lengthening of the grace period on repayment, or easing of interest rates. However, Sapin ruled out any write-off of Greek loans, saying that as a creditor, France wanted to ensure it gets its money back, according to Reuters.

On Thursday, Bernie Sanders (Ind.-VT) became the fifth Senator to sponsor the Glass-Steagall bill, S. 1709, introduced last week by Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), John McCain (R-AZ), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Angus King (Ind.-ME). Sanders’ office put out an official announcement on Friday, the day that he was appearing in Iowa with all four other Democratic presidential pre-candidates, including Martin O’Malley, who made Glass-Steagall the main issue of his campaign back in March, and one day before Sanders is scheduled to speak on the podium with O’Malley at the Netroots progressives’ conference in Arizona.

In covering Sanders’ announcement, Politico reported, “Sanders backs big bank breakups, in contrast with Hillary Clinton,” and referenced the Monday intervention by a LaRouche PAC activist, saying that “a heckler … challenged her [clinton] to revive the depression-era policy [glass-steagall].”

Sanders’ statement says:

The White House is feeling the heat of the growing support for the Glass-Steagall bill in the Senate—and so is Wall Street, as shown in a series of articles and statements.

Late Friday, The Hill published an article titled, “White House distances itself from Glass-Steagall push,” quoting White House spokesman Josh Earnest praising Wall Street and the fraudulent piece of garbage called Dodd-Frank. When asked whether Obama supports the Glass-Steagall bill, Earnest replied that the administration is “still focused on implementing the 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform law,” reported The Hill.

“’Wall Street reform has been incredibly effective at reforming our financial system in a way that looks out for the interests of the middle-class families and taxpayers,’ he said.”

The media is piling on stories about Glass-Steagall, showing both support and the Wall Street freakout.

The infamous PIMCO investment company ran a mini-manifesto on July 16 called, “Reinstating Glass-Steagall Is a Really, Really Bad Idea,” saying that Glass-Steagall “would not have prevented the last financial crisis. But reinstating it might make the next one even worse.” The first legislator the PIMCO attacks in the article is Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) for his statements and interviews explaining how Glass-Steagall would protect bank depositors and the U.S. economy. Next, PIMCO goes after Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other Glass-Steagall co-sponsors.

The liberal Huffington Post—taking off on former President Bill Clinton’s apology about mandatory sentencing, has an article today called, “Bill Clinton Is Sorry for a Lot of Things,” announcing, “As president, Bill Clinton was wrong about Wall Street deregulation…” and plays up that he “turned a blind eye to big banks when he repealed FDR’s Glass-Steagall Act” and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act; it also highlights his 2010 apology for that “mistake.”

“In 2010, Clinton said his decision to exempt derivatives from regulation was shortsighted and … he should not have listened to his economic advisers who urged him to do it.”

“’I was wrong to take [their advice],’” Huff Post quotes Clinton saying.

In the Boston Herald, July 17, financial specialist Rick Shaffer says that even though he totally agrees that “a large part of the reason for the Great Depression was the fact that commercial banks were in essence allowed to gamble with their depositor’s money,” the chances are “slim” that Glass-Steagall will be revived because of the massive power of the mega-banks’ lobbying. Reinstating Glass-Steagall has only “a snowball’s chance,” but that could change when “consumers realize they are the most powerful” force in the country, Shaffer says.