Maintain Focus To Stop War and Economic Ruin
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Whether Joe Biden’s silly spectacle in Philadelphia was intended to win votes in November or to provoke (or serve as a claimed provocation for) violent activity by (or attributed to) “ultra-MAGA” forces, it has certainly served to draw attention away from the absolutely crucial issues of war and peace, and of economic ruin or revival, that demand our present attention and focus.
Yes, Biden’s speech was absurd. How can a President funnelling billions of dollars to a government whose security forces have a major Nazi component, then complain about the “semi-fascism” of his political opponents? Biden’s political backers denied the results of the 2016 election, through endless Russiagate plots, and used the FBI to censor information about his son Hunter Biden’s laptop in the period leading up to the 2020 election. Yet he complains about others rejecting the outcome of an election? The absurdity of the spectacle has drawn enormous, warranted criticism.
But the issue confronting the world now, today, is that of soaring hyperinflation and growing threat of war—nuclear war, that could eliminate human civilization on this planet.
While the Anglo-Americans fan the flames of conflict with China, regarding Taiwan, the most immediately dangerous threat of an explosion of nuclear war is centered in the Anglo-American NATO war against Russia, currently being fought on Ukrainian territory. Despite ridiculous stunts by Ukrainian commandos in speedboats attempting to wrest control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, or at least to provoke a major altercation there, the IAEA mission has begun its work.
A powerful lever for shifting the situation in Ukraine, to act on the information war that NATO and Ukraine are attempting to win (since they cannot win the physical war), is to tell the truth, loudly and everywhere, about the thuggish, undemocratic, fascist nature of that nation’s government, and of the international kill lists it is publishing in an attempt to prevent incursions by its enemies onto its preferred battleground of the media.
On Wednesday at 11 a.m. EDT, Executive Intelligence Review will host a press availability featuring Scott Ritter, Ray McGovern, Col. Richard Black (ret.), Diane Sare, candidate for U.S. Senate, and others targeted by Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation (CCD). As EIR reports, “Rapid, decisive international action is required to force the closure of the Centre for Countering Disinformation (CCD), which operates under and answers to Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council. A blacklist issued by the CCD July 14, 2022, naming more than 70 leading journalists, academics, politicians, military, and other professionals from 22 countries, as ‘Kremlin propagandists,’ is a hitlist, posing a grave threat to the personal security of those named therein.”
Meanwhile, in NATO-land and the extended trans-Atlantic economic sphere, inflation mounts, energy is increasingly out of reach, industry is threatened. Our future is being eliminated, under the twin justifications of “suffer to help Ukraine” and “suffer to support Mother Earth.”
But there is enormous and growing revolt against the priests demanding we sacrifice our destinies on the anti-scientific, anti-human Green altar. Pro-farmer demonstrations. Anti-NATO/anti-Green protests. Strikes. Energy bill protests. Strikes.
The world needs the clear direction, and the human mental space for deliberation, offered by the Schiller Institute’s conference this weekend, commemorating the 100th birthday of Lyndon LaRouche, whose ideas are today alive and influential in many countries of the world.
The purpose of that conference, “Inspiring Humanity To Survive the Greatest Crisis in World History,” is “to deliberate upon and propose solutions, based upon LaRouche’s principles of physical economy, which might still, even at this late date, rescue mankind from what might appear to be, but need not be, the road to self-destruction, even self-extinction.”
We must keep our eyes on the prize. We must work towards a future, and not be led astray by the plentiful opportunities for angry, indignant responses to provocations. Overcoming evil requires a sense of what is good!
• Watch Harley’s Updates with Harley Schlanger on Monday September 5, 2022: Every weekday morning on The LaRouche Organization, Schlanger will give you the strategic briefing you need to start your day.
COLLAPSING WESTERN SYSTEM
Russia Tells EU, Blame Yourself for the Stoppage of Gas from Nord Stream 1
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—After five days of no natural gas delivered to the EU bloc from Nord Stream 1, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak emphasized that the West had no one to blame but themselves. Today on Rossiya 1 TV channel, he told them “not to lay the bloc’s leaders’ fault at Russia’s door.... Right now, the entire problem lies precisely on that side, because all the conditions of the repair contract have been completely violated, along with the terms of shipping of the equipment.”
The pipeline was completely shut down on Aug. 31 for a scheduled three-day maintenance. After an engine oil leak was reported in a turbine, Gazprom announced on Sept. 2 that shipments would not be resuming on schedule, and no details were provided as to when or whether they would resume. Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller has been warning repeatedly that the sanctions are preventing Germany’s Siemens Energy from performing their normal maintenance of the pipeline’s equipment—but evidently to deaf ears.
Western politicians have been hoisted on their own petard. First, they sanctimoniously refused deliveries from the newly constructed Nord Stream 2. Then, Canada’s sanctions against Russia interrupted the normal scheduled maintenance of gas turbines from being returned to Germany for Nord Stream 1. Consequently, the pipeline in June was down to 40% of its capacity. Then in July, the remaining Nord Stream 1 turbines required overhaul, dropping the supply of natural gas down to 20% of capacity.
There are real consequences to stupidity.
Natural Gas Cut-off to Europe May Lead to Reality Intruding
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, possibly showing some buyer’s remorse, stated that Germany, despite being hard hit by an energy crisis, will just have to gut it out; for it is more important to continue to support Kiev against Moscow. While he didn’t say that Russia made him employ the sanctions against Moscow that are savaging Germany, he did propose a softened way to blame Russia. In the past, said Scholz at a news conference, Moscow was a reliable energy partner “even during the Cold War.” However, now, that no longer applies.
Whether a direct response to Scholz or not, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained today on Rossiya 1 TV, that Gazprom, the Russian state’s energy behemoth “spent decades” earning its reputation of a reliable natural gas supplier—and even now, as RT reported his words—has so far done nothing to tarnish it: “This is not Gazprom’s fault, this is fault of those politicians, who have taken the decision on sanctions.” European leaders’ decisions, in particular, refusing to service the equipment that Gazprom purchased from Western firms, have simply been “absurd.”
It turns out that the West needed a productive Russia all along. So, in its own way, a curious dialogue has been opened between Russia and the West.
When the Natural Gas Runs Out: The Dismal Economics of ‘Punishing’ Russia
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Western think tanks and politicians have been trying to calculate how hard to squeeze their own populations, so as to maintain the party line against Russia. Aurora Energy Research (AER) cracked the numbers and reported that the EU bloc, unless it continues to receive Russian gas, must cut consumption of natural gas by 15% every month in order to save enough gas to make it to March 2023. AER used the data intelligence firm ICIS, with calculations based upon having fully stocked storage facilities going into the winter. “To cope with this crisis situation, demand reduction will be even more important than storage,” explained Simone Tagliapietra, an AER senior. Since several months (presumably 5-6 months) of the 15% cut each month would allow the bloc’s storage facilities to come in at an historically low 25% level each month that the population fails to go without throughout the winter, pushes up the date that all stored natural gas is gone.
STRATEGIC WAR DANGER
Report Boris Johnson Spiked a Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal in April
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—According to a new article for the September/October 2022 issue of Foreign Affairs, Russia and Ukraine may have been near to reaching a peace deal back in April.
“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” write Fiona Hill and Angela Stent in the Council on Foreign Relations journal. “Russia would withdraw to its position on Feb. 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited Kiev in April and reportedly told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to end negotiations with Russia. Russia could not be trusted to negotiate, said Johnson, and the West was not ready for an end to the conflict. Achieving peace with Russia would normalize its behaviour, in Johnson’s stated view.
This news underscores the international nature of the conflict and the use of Ukraine as a tool for proxy conflict with Russia.
Kiev Threatens 12 Years of Prison for Voting in Referendums in Areas They Don’t Control
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk warned on yesterday’s national broadcast: “There are not and will not be any referendums on our Ukrainian land.” (Presently, such referendums are mooted in three oblasts that Kiev doesn’t control: Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Kharkiv.) She continued: “It’s all a farce and a circus. But, for our citizens who will take part in this, there is actually an article of the Criminal Code. If collaboration is proven, or, for example, participation in the referendum or incitement to participate in the referendum, then people can receive up to 12 years, with confiscation (of assets).”
So, one need not even vote, but only encourage someone else to vote, to violate the Criminal Code. While this may seem harsh, it is in line with the Kiev regime’s previous announcement, that any Ukrainian who applies for Russian citizenship risks 15 years of prison.
The Deputy Prime Minister has not yet announced any prison terms for people who vote for the “information-terrorist” Diane Sare, running for U.S. Senate in another area that Kiev doesn’t control.
Large Anti-NATO Protest in Prague
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—NATO partisans are fond of talking about how “unified” the alliance is against Russia, but a protest in the Czech Republic yesterday seems to belie that. At least 70,000 people—organizers say up to 100,000—filled Wenceslas Square in Prague yesterday protesting against the government’s militantly pro-NATO policies. According to Reuters, they called on the ruling coalition to do more to control soaring energy prices and voicing opposition to the European Union and NATO. Organizers of the demonstration said the central European nation should be neutral militarily and ensure direct contracts with gas suppliers, including Russia. (The Czech Republic holds this semester’s presidency of the European Union Council.)
“The aim of our demonstration is to demand change, mainly in solving the issue of energy prices, especially electricity and gas, which will destroy our economy this autumn,” event co-organizer Jiri Havel told iDNES.cz news website. Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who leads the centre-right, five-party coalition, told CTK news service on Sept. 3 that the protesters did not have the country’s best interests at heart. “The protest on Wenceslas Square was called by forces that are pro-Russian, are close to extreme positions and are against the interests of the Czech Republic,” he said (apparently if you’re worried about having enough gas and electricity, you’re pro-Russian).
AP adds that the protesters condemned the government for its support of the sanctions against Russia over its war in Ukraine and accused it of not being able to tackle soaring energy prices. The demonstrators also criticized NATO, and the European Union and the 27-nation bloc’s plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions.
IAEA at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—The IAEA issued a new statement yesterday which stresses the importance of the agency having an on-the-ground presence at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP). The statement reported that the plant lost its only remaining 750 kV connection to the grid yesterday but continued to supply electricity through a reserve line. “In addition, plant management informed the IAEA team that one of the ZNPP’s two operating units was disconnected in the afternoon today due to grid restrictions,” it said. “One reactor is still operating and producing electricity both for cooling and other essential safety functions at the site and for households, factories and others through the grid,” it added.
“Our team on the ground received direct, fast and reliable information about the latest significant development affecting the plant’s external power situation, as well as the operational status of the reactors. We already have a better understanding of the functionality of the reserve power line in connecting the facility to the grid. This is crucial information in assessing the overall situation there,” Director General Rafael Grossi said.
“The great value of finally having the IAEA permanently present at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is already abundantly clear. It is a game changer,” he said, adding that the IAEA remained in close contact with its Ukrainian counterparts and continued to receive valuable updates about the situation from them.
The disconnection of the last 750 kV line followed renewed shelling of the plant, Ukrainian authorities told the IAEA team.
Former U.S. General Makes the Case for Ukraine To Negotiate
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—For Ukraine, “as there is little chance of climbing out of the current morass, it may be better to negotiate now than later,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Mark T. Kimmitt (ret.) in a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “Logistic Peril for NATO Weapons to Ukraine.”
He writes that the latest military aid package from the U.S. included “older and less advanced” systems, which “may indicate that battlefield consumption rates have outpaced production to a point where excess inventories provided to Ukraine are nearly exhausted. Dealing with “dwindling stocks of leading-edge weapon systems” in NATO countries would likely mean a prolonged conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Such a scenario could result in “more pressure from supporting nations, sustained inflation, less heating gas, and falling popular support” in the West.
Kimmitt suggested four ways to speed up the resolution of the conflict, which has now been underway for six months. The first option is to “dig deeper” into NATO stockpiles and send arms to Kiev that have so far been withheld by members due to their own national defence requirements. That’s something EU countries may be willing to do, as Kimmitt offered, it may be “better to use these weapons in Kherson than Krakow,” he added. At least, this option keeps the war inside Ukraine.
Second, the ramping up of production of the systems that are required by Kiev—though Kimmitt, who served as assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs in 2008-09, admits that it would be at least a year before this would have any serious effect. (Hence, this option cannot keep Kiev in the game.)
The third option is “to step up the conflict” by providing Ukraine with longer-range systems, such as ATACM missiles, F-16 jets, and Patriots, and “broaden the rules of engagement to attack targets in Crimea and possibly Russia,” he wrote. However, the retired general warned that such escalation would definitely face a “response from Moscow” and create the risk of conflict spilling into Europe.
Hence, the final available solution, according to Kimmitt, is for Ukraine to “push for an interim diplomatic resolution without (or with) territorial concessions.... There is little incentive to negotiate” at the moment, but Zelenskyy “must recognize that diminishing resupplies would have a disastrous effect on his army, not merely for battlefield operations but for the message of declining outside support it would send to the people of Ukraine. Beginning the diplomatic resolution would be distasteful, and perhaps seen as defeatist, but as there is little chance of climbing out of the current morass, it may be better to negotiate now than later.”
Military Operations and Zaporizhzhia
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Alexander Volga, the head of the Enerhodar military-civilian administration, told TASS this morning that on Sept. 1 when they were at the plant, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi and his team were shown shell fragments of American-made shells that had been fired at the plant. Volga said Grossi was provided with the proof of fired rockets and a map of locations hit by them, including nuclear fuel storages. “It included an area of the spent nuclear fuel storage, which was shelled repeatedly,” Volga stated. “He [Grossi] certainly took notice of everything, clearly understanding that there were also strikes delivered by combat drones targeting the NPP substation.”
The Russian Defence Ministry also provided an account of the second attempted assault in the plant by Ukrainian forces Friday night. “On [Friday] Sept. 2, at about 11.00 p.m. (Moscow time), two groups of a total of 42 cutters and motor boats with over 250 servicemen from special operation forces and foreign mercenaries on board made an attempt to disembark at the shore of Kakhovka reservoir near Enerhodar and Dniprorudne,” said Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov. Russian forces responded with strikes by four Su-30 fighter jets and two Ka-52 attack helicopters, which “resulted in the elimination of 20 cutters and boats,” forcing the rest to turn back.
UNITED STATES
Is Biden’s Silly Speech Designed To Create Violence?
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—While the primary focus must be on the existential strategic situation in the world, one might ask what the point of Biden’s speech is.
Is it to drum up support for the midterms on November 8? If the Mar-a-Lago raid is any indication, Biden’s hypocritical and over-the-top remarks may have precisely the opposite effect.
Was it designed to draw a violent response, to be labelled domestic terrorism and used for the purpose of stifling discussion and shaping the upcoming elections?
If so, one might ask how many pliable suspects the FBI is already grooming to be presented as having been “leaders” of such violent outbursts.
In any event, it has certainly drawn a great deal of attention, which may cause people to forget that the solution to end the present crisis does not lie in the 2024 election!
Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Targets Green Party
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Despite efforts by the Democratic Party to deny North Carolina voters an opportunity to vote for him, Matthew Hoh will appear on the ballot in North Carolina this November as the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senator.
Following the Green Party’s submission of thousands of signatures to put their candidate on the ballot, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) reached out to people who had signed and requested that they remove their signatures!
Hoh himself received a DSCC text message, telling him that “the Green Party takes votes away from Democrats, which helps Republicans win” and requesting that he remove his signature.
The automated text messages asked people to confirm that they had signed and then provided a simple prompt: “Would you be willing to have your name removed? 1 Yes, 2 No.”
The state Board of Elections voted in June not to certify the Green Party, based on allegations of fraudulent signatures, but a federal judge overturned that decision, restoring Hoh’s placement on the ballot.
The DSCC’s law firm is headed by Marc Elias, who led a DNC effort in 2004 to file 24 suits in 18 states to remove Ralph Nader from the ballot for President, according to “Democrats Are the Real Threat to Democracy—Just Ask the Green Party” in The Federalist. Petitioners and petition signers were harassed by phone calls and even home visits.
In 2020, minor technical errors were used to prevent the Green Party from being on the presidential ballot in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
On Elections and Biden’s Despicable Speech
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Let’s address one of Biden’s claims from his Sept. 1 Philadelphia speech:
“This is a nation that respects free and fair elections,” he stated. But the entire Russiagate myth was predicated on the fanciful idea that Russia put Trump into office, that the 2016 election was not free and fair. Many Members of Congress boycotted Trump’s inauguration, and for years Hillary Clinton has complained to any audience willing to endure her presence that she was cheated of the presidential office that she had a divine right to hold.
Nearly the entirety of Trump’s presidency (and therefore nearly the entirety of the time he was implicitly campaigning for a second term) was filled of spurious claims that Russian agent Trump was not a legitimate President, that the will of the people, expressed through his election, should not be honoured.
Recall that FBI Agent Peter Strzok’s explicitly stated predication for opening the Crossfire Hurricane operation against Trump in 2016 was information “related to the hacking of the Democratic National Committee’s website/server.” Where did that information come from? Its source was Alexander Downer, then High Commissioner (i.e., ambassador) to the United Kingdom from Australia (whose head of state is Queen Elizabeth II, and part of the British Commonwealth), who supposedly heard from George Papadopoulos in London that Russians would release information prejudicial to Hillary Clinton. That supposed information from Papadopoulos said nothing about the source of the information, no indication of hacking. The FBI did not question Papadopoulos (or his supposed source Joseph Mifsud) for six months, preferring to rely on hearsay from a British Commonwealth agent.
During the period leading into the 2020 election, the FBI asked Meta to tamp down coverage of Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell.” What effect did falsely labelling the unfortunate escapades of Biden’s son have on the electoral outcome?
Is this how “democracy” is supported?
NEW ECONOMIC SYSTEM
Patriarch Kirill’s Sermon: The Rich Must Share or Travel the Road to Hell
Sept. 4 (EIRNS)—Russia’s Patriarch Kirill, at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, delivered a timely sermon today on theologically appropriate economics. He explained that wealth is only justified when the person who owns it “is ready to give a significant part of his funds to those who are in need, who suffer.” With such a person, “God will be helping him to increase his material possessions,” while the people won’t envy those riches and won’t see their owner as “an enemy.... May God grant that our rich people [in Russia], who were born in an Orthodox country and many of whom have links with the Church, always understand this.”
However, lacking such an understanding, Kirill made clear, “is the way to Hell and there’s nothing else to say here.” He proceeded to cite Jesus’ words that “it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven,” and added: “If a rich person is unable to see the suffering of a fellow human being and doesn’t help, it’s clearly a path away from God, away from Christ and His kingdom. The more money one has, the more responsibility rests on his shoulders for his Earthly existence.”
Before one dismisses Patriarch as a clever Russian communist, consider the 1783 remark of American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin: “All the Property that is necessary to a Man, for the Conservation of the Individual and the Propagation of the Species, is his natural Right, which none can justly deprive him of: But all Property superfluous to such purposes is the Property of the Publick, who, by their Laws, have created it, and who may therefore by other Laws dispose of it, whenever the Welfare of the Publick shall demand such Disposition. He that does not like civil Society on these Terms, let him retire and live among Savages. He can have no right to the benefits of Society, who will not pay his Club towards the Support of it.”
Reach them at www.larouchepub.com
—0—
postscript by Fran:
As UK has its own oil and gas resources PLUS it only imports 1% of its gas needs from Russian pipelines to Europe, I want to know WHY Brits are shouldering a recent 50% rise in domestic energy costs?
and
WHY will there be another price hike in October of more than 80%?
UK energy drilling corporations like BP have untapped reserves in the Artic and Antarctic regions, drilled and capped off as hedges against future shortages.
WHEN WILL THOSE BE EVEN MENTIONED LET ALONE EXPLOITED TO SUPPORT OUR CITIZENS THROUGH THE COMING WINTER?
If you are smelling a Big Oil & Gas dirty secret, you are not wrong!
factories will close when they cant afford their electric and gas bills, this will increase unemployment and help to finish off our economy
Your substack is excellent because you see the bigger picture. I still follow some "virus" substacks but it's depressing how many people are still clueless about what's going down. The COVID hoax is just one piece of the NWO juggernaut.