Just How Long Will Europe and the U.S. Keep Drinking London’s Kool Aid?

EIRN DAILY REPORT - 16th Oct 2022

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—Over the last decade, a combination of British geopolitics and wetworks succeeded in shutting down four out of six existing or planned Russian gas pipelines, which could today be exporting over 260 billion cubic meters per year of natural gas to Europe. Instead, less than 55 bcm are now flowing, and that largely through the TurkStream pipeline. The Presidents of Russia and Turkey met last week, and they announced their intention to build a second TurkStream pipeline, capable of pumping over 60 bcm per year, doubling the current capacity of exports to Europe. But will Europe cooperate with this policy?

Europe is currently facing a winter of cold and hunger, as prices for scarce energy double and triple before people’s eyes, all as a result of London-led policies of financial speculation, sanctions, and green medievalism. People in country after country are now taking to the streets in protest against this insanity. Will Europe, finally, stop drinking the Kool Aid of London’s deindustrialization and war policies?

And likewise, will Americans finally put an end to the psychotic nuclear chicken game that a London-led Washington and NATO insist on provoking with Russia and with China? Will we answer the call for a new international security architecture voiced today by Sun Yeli, Chinese spokesperson for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) now underway, who said: “We have never believed in the so-called ‘Thucydides trap,’ and oppose the logic that a strong country is bound to seek hegemony.... We believe that the people of China and the U.S. have the wisdom, opportunity and capability to find such a way to get along.”

At the Oct. 15 Schiller Institute conference “Build the New Paradigm, Defeat Green Fascism,” Helga Zepp-LaRouche put the task in focus for the largely youth participants in the following way:

“We are now at the point forecast by [Lyndon] LaRouche in 1971. The continuation on the monetarist road would necessarily lead to a new depression, a new fascism, and a new world war, unless one would establish a completely different economic world order. The majority of the world’s population is doing exactly that.”

She emphasized that we are up against “an international oligarchy which has driven this civilization to the edge of nuclear extinction,” but that “we are in the early phase of a world revolution, where the largest part of the world population is already in the process of building a completely new economic system. Larger and larger segments of the population in Europe and the United States are revolting against the politics of an establishment which are destroying the material basis of existence for most people.”

Zepp-LaRouche stressed: “I think one thing is obvious: If we can pull humanity back from the brink of the abyss of thermonuclear war, it will be the courageous activities of the international LaRouche youth movement that we are building which will play a major role.... So, let us create an international movement of world citizens, where you, the young people from all over the world, are taking the lead to be the ambassadors of this vision of a world which will be truly human.”

• Watch Harley’s Updates with Harley Schlanger on Monday October 17, 2022: Every weekday morning on The LaRouche Organization, Schlanger will give you the strategic briefing you need to start your day.

NEW WORLD PARADIGM

China’s Development Must Remain in Its Own Hands, Xi Tells CPC Congress

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—This was the overall takeaway of President Xi Jinping’s speech delivered on the opening day of the 20th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China. He gave what was billed as a report from the Party Presidium of the work of the party over the last five years. In his report, Xi outlined the important achievements the party had made during the last decade: poverty alleviation, overcoming COVID, and entering a new era of socialism. But more than a “summing up” of past achievements, the speech gave a clear indication of the path the party would follow forward in a situation in which the Anglo-American elites have adopted a program of slowing down or even stopping China’s development.

“China’s development must remain in its own hands,” he said, and in the face of the new attempts to deprive China of access to technology in the West, Xi extensively stressed the key role that developing its own capabilities in science and technology would play in overcoming these obstacles. The shadow of the West’s campaign against China was also reflected in the his comments about modernizing the Chinese military and taking measures for maintaining security at all levels. “We will build the PLA into a modern force and strengthen it through reform and technology. We will enhance the capability of the military to fulfill their task in rejuvenation of the nation.”

On Taiwan, he laid stress on developing policies that benefitted their compatriots on Taiwan, as opposed to the independence forces on the island and those from the outside that are interfering in Taiwan, but at the same time he reiterated that China would never rule out the use of force. “The world is changing in ways never seen before,” Xi said. “We are at a crossroads of history and the result will be decided by the whole world.” “We oppose a new Cold War, double standard, and interference from abroad, but we will never strive for hegemony.” China will continue on the path laid out over the last decade and will adhere to that path regardless of meeting “choppy waters and even storms on the road ahead.”

Xi underlined the CPC’s role in shaping the development of China as a major economic force in the world, and the fact that it can only play that role if it remains dedicated to the people’s welfare. He expressed the importance of eliminating all forms of corruption in the party over the years, and urged a continued party members to be vigilant. The party has maintained its leading role over the last 70 years only by continual reform in accordance with the changing situation, he stated.

The country is moving to become a modern socialist society in all respects by 2050, he said, and the next five years will be crucial in reaching that goal. Requirements include high-quality development, continued development of whole-process people’s democracy, and securing prosperity for all. He emphasized that there would be obstacles on the road ahead, “but we can’t be swayed or cowed by pressures from the outside. Development is key for building socialism,” and “the country will continue on its path toward a high-standard opening-up.”

China Rejects the So-Called ‘Thucydides Trap’

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—Despite a deluge last week of U.K. and U.S. policy statements labeling China the greatest threat to the “post-war liberal world order,” Sun Yeli, Chinese spokesperson for the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) now underway, refused to accept the premise that conflict between the U.S. and China is inevitable. The United States and China can, and must get along, he insisted, when questioned in a Saturday night press conference in Beijing about growing China-U.S. tensions:

“We have never believed in the so-called ‘Thucydides trap,’ and oppose the logic that a strong country is bound to seek hegemony. We don’t bully others, but we won’t allow others to bully us. The general trend cannot be reversed. No one and no force can stop the historic process of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation....

“We believe that the people of China and the U.S. have the wisdom, opportunity and capability to find such a way to get along.”

The United States and China have more interests in common than differences, he remarked, among them economic and trade relations. Bilateral relations should be stabilized, and the two nations should work together on resolving the world’s problems, which is what the international community expects from them, he stressed.

The “Thucydides trap” is the “theory” popularized by American geopolitician Graham Allison, that the war between Athens and Sparta in ancient Greece is proof that if one rising power becomes stronger than a pre-existing power, then conflict is the likely result.

Gazprom Official Reiterates Potential of Proposed Second Russia-Turkey Gas Pipeline

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—Russian Gazprom CEO Alexey Miller stated in an interview on Russian TV on Sunday: “You know, nothing’s impossible.” He was responding to a question about whether the natural gas that Russia had been sending to Europe via Nord Stream prior to the sanctions and then the September terrorist sabotage of that pipeline, could actually be fully replaced by constructing a second pipeline connecting Russia with Turkey, via the Black Sea.

Just such a project was agreed in principle in a summit meeting between Russian President Putin and Turkish President Erdogan Oct. 13 in Astana. Putin said the construction of a second pipeline network across the Black Sea using a hub in Turkey could help bring down “exorbitant” gas prices and return stability to the market.

Miller did the math, for anyone in Europe who was listening. “I’d like to remind you that we have the experience of preparing for the implementation of the South Stream project, which was originally planned to have a capacity of 63 billion cubic meters [per year]. Therefore, if we’re talking even about the technical documentation for the development of the route, for South Stream—all this was already done at one time,” Miller said.

South Stream began construction in 2012, but was stopped in 2014 due to EU sanctions. It was replaced by TurkStream, which can carry about 32 billion cubic meters per year (bcm)—about half of what was planned for South Stream.

The current status of the major Russian gas pipelines is as follows:

Nord Stream 1: 55 bcm (sabotaged).

Nord Stream 2: 55 bcm (built but never opened due to EU sanctions).

South Stream: 63 bcm (started but not completed due to EU sanctions).

Yamal-Europe: 33 bcm (shut down this summer by Poland).

TurkStream: 32 bcm (in operation).

Soyuz: 23 bcm (in reduced operation, through Ukraine).

STRATEGIC SHOWDOWN

Musk and Kim Dotcom Exchange Tweets on the Danger of Nuclear War

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—On Oct. 15, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced a U-turn in his earlier statement that he could not keep providing Ukraine with free battlefield access to his Starlink system. “The hell with it ... even though Starlink is still losing money and other companies are getting billions of taxpayer [dollars], we’ll just keep funding Ukraine govt for free,” Musk tweeted on Saturday.

Tech entrepreneur Kim Dotcom replied: “In other words you will continue your support for the US proxy war in Ukraine despite your better knowledge that this is a US proxy war and the risk of a nuclear war because of the US proxy war?”

Musk then wrote: “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t, so ... guess I’m just damned.” Kim pressed the issue: “I believe in you. We are facing nuclear war because of reckless US foreign policy in Ukraine. You know that. This is a big one. We have to put our personal interests aside for the sake of humanity,” he argued.

To which Musk replied: “I’m trying my hardest to de-escalate this situation and obviously failing.”

There is probably more to this story still to be reported, likely including the Defense Department’s reply to his correspondence, last week, in which he said SpaceX could not continue to provide the service to Ukraine for no charge, and the factor of the widespread social media report—never confirmed—that Musk had been placed on the Myrotvorets kill list, even if only for a short time.

France’s Public TV Channel To File Official Complaint on Myrotvorets with Ukraine Government

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—On Oct. 14, answering a question from a reader who asked the French daily Libération, “What is the Myrotvorets platform, presented as the Ukrainian authorities’ ‘hit list’?” the French daily’s “Check News” wrote a long answer.

Perhaps most important is their report that two journalists from French public TV channel TF-1 are on the Myrotvorets list, and that TF-1 is filing an official complaint with the Ukrainian government and is threatening to sue over this. The Ukrainian embassy in Paris freaked out and told Libération they have no comment “because Myrotvorets has nothing to do with the Ukrainian authorities, and even less with the embassy.” They stated that there are “legal proceedings in progress in Ukraine, notably because of the presence of files concerning minors” and that “in no case do the Ukrainian authorities rely on this site for anything” (which is, of course, a lie since its database is exploited and recognized by the Ukrainian courts, and since it exchanges names with the government’s own kill list, the Center for Countering Disinformation).

Libération further reports that Myrotvorets “claims to list the enemies of the Ukrainian nation. The site offers free access to files on tens of thousands of Ukrainian personalities, and also, especially on foreigners. We find more or less complete notices classified in different categories such as “traitor to the motherland,” “Russian mercenaries,” “Russian war criminals,” or “accomplices” of the latter.”

Most of the info comes from open data, says Libération. And in some cases, “they are also the result of hacking. Because, behind Myrotvorets, there are among others, hackers. Among their feats of arms, they had, for example, managed in 2016 to recover the database of the Ministry of the Interior of the ‘Donetsk People’s Republic.’ ”

Calling them a “kill list” may “seem abusive, since the site does not call for the murder of people on file. But it does not condemn the deadly attacks that target them [people on the list]. Thus, the site bars the photos with a large red reference indicating ‘liquidated,’ for all the people on the list who have been killed, thus appearing to congratulate themselves. This is the case, for example, of Italian journalist Andrea Rocchelli, killed by Ukrainian army fire while covering the war in Donbass in 2014, and added posthumously to Myrotvorets.” They delicately mention the murders of Ukrainian MP Oleg Kalashnikov, shot and killed on April 15, 2015 in Kiev and on April 16, 2015 Ukrainian editor Oles Buzina was murdered in Kiev, when his car was blown up. They were both on the Myrotvorets list, but Myrotvorets denies having anything to do with their killings. They don’t mention journalist Serhiy Sukhobok, who was killed in Kiev on April 13, 2015. Nor, perhaps the most important person on the kill list: Russian journalist Daria Dugina, died who died on Aug. 20, 2022, when her car blew up in Moscow. Her father was driving behind her, and witnessed his daughter’s murder. He is also on the Myrotvorets list.

Libération then tries to find out if the site has any links with Ukrainian authorities and goes into detail in the history of its creation without indicating “outside” backing (say, the U.S. State Department).

The fact that two reporters from TF1 are presented as guilty of “propaganda for Russian fascism,” or a France Télévisions journalist “whose passport number appears,” is “a sensitive subject for the French media.”

“On TF1 side, they prefer “not to make comments.” On its side, the group of public television announces to CheckNews that France Televisions is going officially “to complain about it with the embassy of Ukraine in Paris, and to make a report with the Quai d’Orsay.” And it reserves “the right to take legal action” to protect its teams.

Contacted by CheckNews, the French Foreign Ministry said it had “no comment to make on this subject.”

Brussels’ Borrell Demands EU Take Up the White Man’s Burden, Annihilate the Russian Army

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—In 1899, poet of the British Empire Rudyard Kipling wrote in “The White Man’s Burden”:

“Take up the White Man’s burden—/
Send forth the best ye breed—/
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.”
 

What universe European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell lives in is an open question, but it certainly is not the same one as most of humanity, including most Europeans, who, country after country, are taking to the streets by the tens of thousands to demand policies which allow them to live. Take Borrell’s instructions on Oct. 13 to the first class attending the pilot project in Bruges, France, for an “European Diplomatic Academy”:

“Europe is a garden. We have built a garden. Everything works [sic]. It is the best combination of political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion that humankind has been able to build.... Most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden.... Because the jungle has a strong growth capacity, and the wall will never be high enough in order to protect the garden. The gardeners have to go to the jungle.”

Kipling-style, Borrell told the would-be “European diplomats” they must prepare to go tame “the jungle.” Borrell was disgruntled that the day before, despite all of NATO/EU/U.K./U.S. efforts, only three more countries had voted to condemn Russia at the UN General Assembly than voted for the anti-Russia resolution last March. “There were too many abstentions. When more or less 20% of the world community decided not to support or not to reject the Russian annexation—for me, it is too many,” he complained.

Putting on his self-assumed hat as a would-be European Defense Minister (“foreign policy and defense policy go hand in hand”), Borrell threatened Vladimir Putin that should he use a nuclear weapon against Ukraine, “the people supporting Ukraine,” the EU and its member states, the U.S. and NATO, will deliver “not a nuclear answer, but such a powerful answer from the military side that the Russian Army will be annihilated.”

Borrell shed some crocodile tears over the war in Ukraine, but welcomed how it has provided the basis to strengthen supranational European Union “institutions.” “This war has been an occasion for the European Union to be more assertive and to push for the creation of a European stand” in foreign policy, military and defense, he said.

The man has delusions of grandeur. In its story reporting Borrell’s “annihilation” threat against Russia, Euronews television network added that three days before, on Oct. 10 Borrell had shocked EU diplomats gathered for the annual conference of EU ambassadors, when he berated them for not reporting to him fast enough about what is going on in their countries. “Having all of you around the world, I should be the best-informed person in the world.... I am ‘Foreign Affairs Minister of Europe.’ Behave as you would behave if you were an embassy.”

COLLAPSING WESTERN ECONOMIC SYSTEM

Following in Britain’s Goosesteps, U.S. Treasury Considers Buying Back Its Own Debt To Bail Out Speculators

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—Since QE didn’t work, and only created an even bigger hyperinflationary speculative bubble; since QT isn’t working either, destroying employment and production while worsening hyperinflation; the Biden Treasury Department has now come up with an even worse idea: buy back its own older debt, in order to urgently inject liquid funds into the financial speculators, at the same time the Fed steps on the brake with rising interest rates.

This is exactly what the new Liz Truss government in the United Kingdom just did a couple of weeks ago, which led to a near blow-out of the British financial system, and market chaos that is threatening to spread to continental Europe.

MarketWatch website admitted as much in an Oct. 15 article: “The proposal comes after the Bank of England was forced to step in with an emergency program to temporarily buy its government debt and to give U.K. pension funds more time to unwind soured bets. The volatility erupted as global central banks have worked to fight soaring inflation by ending easy-monetary policies that prevailed for much of the past decade.” The U.S. Treasury, they confessed, is talking about “buying back some of its older debt to help stave off market dysfunction.”

MarketWatch felt compelled to ask: “Is a U.K.-style debt crisis brewing in the U.S.?”

Even the IMF Is ‘Horrified’ at the Starvation Underway in Africa

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—The IMF’s twice-yearly Regional Economic Outlook was published on Oct. 14, which included a report on the “horrifying” spread of starvation in Africa. The situation should come as no surprise to the IMF, of all institutions, since their policies have played a central role in producing those results.

Some 123 million people, representing 12% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s population, face acute food insecurity by the end of 2022, the IMF report stated. This is a 50% jump from the 82 million people affected before the pandemic. The IMF blames the pandemic, spillover effects from the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and worsening unrest and drought in some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa for the sharp increase.

Abebe Aemro Selassie is the Director of the African Department at the International Monetary Fund, told journalists: “I was in Chad and really the conditions that you saw there in terms of food security really are very, very horrifying.” He added that Ethiopia, Somalia, and parts of Kenya were heading towards their fifth failed rainy season. He reported that the hyperinflation unleashed worldwide has been particularly devastating in Africa. “Inflation is this insidious, insidious tax on the poorest.”

Demonstrations in Italy Against the War and Against High Bills

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—People in Italy are finally taking to the streets to protest against the danger of a nuclear war, against sanctions, and against sky-high bills. A demonstration was held in Rome on Oct. 15, organized by Italia Sovrana e Popolare, under the headline “Stop the War, Stop the Sanctions.” Italia Sovrana e Popolare ran in the national elections, but did not get enough votes to enter the Parliament. On Oct. 22 they will have a similar demonstration in Milan, in Piazza La Scala.

The biggest demonstration will be on Oct. 28 in Naples, organized by the governor of Campania Vincenzo De Luca, who declared that “Italy has become an appendage of NATO” and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg “who demonstrated in the last months his total inability to face the situation.”

“We are on the verge of a nuclear war, and it is urgent to create a mass movement against it,” he insisted. He also demanded that the government respond to the question of whether “we are at war with Russia?” Vincenzo De Luca was elected with the Partito Democratico, but, as have many other leaders of the Partito Democratico, he distanced himself from it, because it fully supported Draghi’s war policy, and he is acting only as governor of Campania, not in the name of the party.

UNITED STATES POLITICAL & ECONOMIC

‘Good’ vs. ‘Bad’ Fentanyl?

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—The drive is on to legalize more than marijuana and cocaine. New Jersey’s Sen. Cory Booker and the George Soros team stepped up their campaign to legalize fentanyl this week. Yes, fentanyl.

An Oct. 14 email from the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), the #1 drug legalization lobby in the United States, set up and funded by George Soros, proposed that since “fentanyl-related substances” might just turn out to be the magic cure for the “overdose crisis,” everyone get out and support the Temporary Emergency Scheduling and Testing of Fentanyl Analogues Act (TEST Act), prepared by the DPA and introduced into the Senate by Booker. Not all fentanyl- related substances are bad, you see. “The bill would require the federal government to test fentanyl-related substances (FRS) that are currently classified as Schedule I (controlled narcotics) and delist those that are not harmful.”

In 2018, a regulation was issued placing all synthetic opioids, such as FSR, on the Schedule I list. It was an emergency action to block the drug cartels’ practice of getting around law enforcement by tweaking the chemical makeup of one or another existing synthetic opioid already classed as Schedule I, and declaring that to be a “new” product and therefore not banned under the law. At the end of this year, that regulation is scheduled to be made permanent—so the DPA and its Senator from New Jersey are rushing to get their TEST Act passed, which would require testing each and every FRS before they could be banned unless used medically.

Official statistics show fentanyl killed over 100,000 Americans between April 2020 and April 2021, but the DPA is on a big campaign to get local, state and federal governments to give up on trying to end addiction, and instead facilitate people’s access to fentanyl. They propose such things as setting up opium dens (“supervised consumption centers”) where addicts can get their fentanyl fix legally, or providing “fentanyl checking strips” for addicts to check their heroin for the presence of fentanyl before shooting up!

The DPA is open that it “supports decriminalizing all drugs,” but it also has a campaign called “Rethinking the Drug Dealer,” which seeks to legalize the sale and distribution of menticidal drugs.

SCIENCE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

Chinese ‘Tweet’ from Cosmos Reaffirms Universal Nature of Space Exploration

Oct. 16 (EIRNS)—A post by Italian ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on her social media account from the International Space Station was a quote from Chinese calligrapher Wang Xizhi in his Preface to Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion, written nearly 1,700 years ago: “Looking up, I see the immensity of the cosmos, bowing my head, I look at the multitude of the world. The gaze flies, the heart expands, the joy of the senses can reach its peak, and indeed, this is true happiness.”

While Cristoforetti was flying on the International Space Station, which under present U.S. Administration policies restricts Chinese taikonauts from participating, this Chinese missive from space has caused a flurry in the present environment of “geopolitical jockeying” in space. Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Mao Ning said at her briefing on Oct. 13:

“I have read about it, too, and the Italian astronaut certainly has my liking. Exploring the universe has been mankind’s dream since ancient times. Thanks to scientific and technological progress, reaching beyond the Moon has become a reality. Humanity will continue to benefit from the noble endeavor of exploration and peaceful use of space.

“Just a few days ago we also saw a video clip shared online showing the magnificence of our blue planet Earth seen from China’s space station. Countries around the world can and need to work together to look after the planet we all call home and make the world a better place for all.”

ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher likewise used the occasion to depict space exploration as a common effort of all mankind. Within the space community, there is little support for the more restrictive policies in space cooperation that have arisen in the last few years of “geopolitical competition.” “There is no way to put a boundary in space,” Aschbacher stressed.

Native Italian Cristoforetti is fluent in Chinese (as well as in English, German, French and Russian) and had trained on an ESA joint training mission with the China National Space Administration. She said that the quote had been recommended by a friend of hers who had spent 30 years in China. She liked it and put it on her social media account, being surprised by the attention it had received. As a result of the publicity, Cristoforetti may well be chosen as one of the first foreign astronauts to work on the Chinese Space Station, which will be open to all nations, unlike the more restrictive Artemis program launched by the U.S.

Reach us at www.larouchepub.com

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Fran says:

Wait until we hear the dastardly plans coming straight from the Crown Corporation in the City of London via Jeremy (C)Hunt’s eager mouth, later today. He is bound to be enthusiastically outlining the next phase of the destruction of the global economy and smiling all the way to his next Bank of England celebratory dinner party.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/10/17/politics-latest-news-jeremy-hunt-budget-liz-truss/